Twitter roundup

From my Twitter feed:
-Great questions for journalists covering 2010 Congressional races from John Sides and Jonathan Bernstein
-Even by the sad standards of Sunday talk, Bill Maher and Al Sharpton together on ABC's This Week might be a new low
-Rush Limbaugh is promoting the conspiracy theory that the leaking oil rig was sunk intentionally
-A Slate applet to measure epistemic closure in your web browsing habits
-Yogurt company in Argentina uses viral campaign to fight online rumors/misperceptions
-New British Medical Journal editorial on studies of bias in voter decision-making (discusses my misperceptions research with Jason Reifler)

Comments

[David]

I have a bit of past experience with drilling rig safety. It's ridiculous of Rush to speculate about conspiracies. Rig accidents like this do happen. When they happen, big oil spills, big fires and rig collapse are the common result.

It's too bad the President gave Rush a handle for his nonsense by using the term "SWAT Teams." No doubt, Obama was using the term figuratively, but Rush took it literally.

I frankly doubt that the "SWAT Teams" will serve any purpose except to allow the President look like he's doing something. I don't think the Federal Government has people with the specialized expertise to improve the safety of the rigs in the Gulf.

[Rob]

I'm waiting eagerly to see Brendan dissect the "myth" that the Arizona illegal immigration law will result in profiling. To be clear, I would not regard the belief that the law will result in profiling as a misperception or myth, because I think a reasonable person could conclude that will be a predictable effect of the way in which the law will be applied. (A reasonable person could also conclude it won't.) But Brendan seems to apply a different standard, at least when it comes to death panels: if the health care law doesn't provide for death panels, then anyone who believes they will result from the application of the law is guilty of a misperception.

So either Brendan will be consistent and call concern about profiling a myth or he'll do some very fancy footwork to arrive at a different result. Or he'll choose never to consider that particular misperception. As hack reporters often say to end their stand-up, only time will tell.