No, really, those statistics don't say what you claim.

[kyrielle]

So, one of two radio stations I listen to for traffic reports in the morning/evening (the more reliable as far as when they are) is a talk show station. The morning and afternoon shows are moderate, but some of the other shows and soundbites are – well, Dr. Laura, Rush Limbaugh, etc. I avoid them during those hours, as I do not like the style of delivery those people use. During the morning, they do run a short couple-minute spot segment each day called the Huckabee Report, by you guessed it, Mike Huckabee. Sometimes it is interesting or informative. Sometimes it’s infuriating.
 
Sometimes it’s stupid. This morning it was stupid. Specifically, he stated that if you don’t want to catch salmonella, you should avoid salsa, because one in twenty-five salmonella outbreaks in the last (some period of years, I forget how long) were caused by salsa, and salmonella has been found in tomatoes, peppers, etc. And because it may not have been refrigerated properly. He then said that the Texans would probably keep eating their salsa despite the one in twenty-five risk of salmonella.
 
Why the dig at Texans? And ignoring that, 1/25 of outbreaks being caused by salsa does not remotely translate to a 1/25 chance that any given serving of salsa will give you salmonella.
 
Augh. Fear-mongering is bad. This fear-mongering is also incompetent.

Comments

[retsuko.livejournal.com]

I refuse to listen to Huckabee on principle because of his comments about gay people and parenting. But you're right, this is a special brand of stupid... and why the Texan thing? Why not Californians, Arizonians, or New Mexicans? Or just about anyone who consumes salsa for that matter?! ARGH.

... Oh, wait, I'm applying earth logic. :p

[kyrielle]

Yeah, I dislike Huckabee for that and in general, on average, disagree with him more than not. On the other hand, if I want to find out the freeway is a parking lot before I'm stuck in it, this station has traffic reports every ten minutes like clockwork, as opposed to the one (that plays music I like, and has a fun morning crew) that averages about every 15 minutes but you can't be completely sure just what minute it will start. I really like knowing if any given stretch of my route is a parking lot before I'm on it.

This was unusually, blatantly wrong, factually-silly levels of dumb, for him, though.

[geordie.livejournal.com]

Ha! Some people just don't understand.

[phoenixscribe.livejournal.com]

Because New Mexicans aren't US citizens, you know, Californians are, well, Californians, and Arizonians are just as fear-mongery as Huckabee on occasion.

[kyrielle]

Which is okay, because hi, statistics and stupidity.

I mean, if 1/25 of every time you ate salsa you might end up with salmonella, and for every salsa-induced salmonella outbreak there would be 24 non-salsa-induced salmonella outbreaks....

...we'd live in a world where salmonella was so common that it wasn't worth commenting on. Which would suck, except then maybe Huckabee wouldn't comment on it, which would be a tiny silver lining.