Sunday, September 21, 2008

Inference: Faulty Reasoning at the Best of Times

Having received the following forwarded message with no explanation to its contents, I had to ask myself what exactly was its significance...

I am 42 years old,
I love the outdoors,
I hunt,
I am a Republican reformer,
I have taken on the Republican Party establishment,
I have five children,
I have a spot on the national ticket as vice president with less than two years in the governor's office.
Did you guess?

space space space ...Tah dah!

I am Teddy Roosevelt in 1900

... Knowing that the sender always sends me fun things and puzzles, my inquiry dealt with trying to surmise the intent of the author of this missive in releasing such a string of meaningless words to the world at large, at this time, and in this place. Although the above facts could refer to Teddy Roosevelt, it is not a very complete list about him or of his accomplishments. In fact it is designed to mislead and to coral one into thinking of someone else whose life would sound exactly the same were we to de-contextualize it in this same fashion. So what is one to think...

I am 42 years old.
I love the outdoors; so much so, that I set aside huge swatches of it as national parks where nobody can drill for oil EVER.
I hunt.
I am a Republican reformer from the time before Reagan made a pact with the devil to include religious ideologues into the party.
I have taken on the Republican Party establishment.
I have five children, none of them pregnant out of wedlock.
I attended Harvard and graduated Magna cum Laude.
I wrote several books (one about an artist).
I have a spot on the national ticket as vice president with less than two years in the governor's office;
But before that I had several jobs, including being President of the Board of Police Commissioners in the biggest city in the nation, where I instituted meaningful reforms.
Oh, and I also was secretary of the navy; but whose counting.
Did you guess?

space space space Tah-dah:

I am not Sarah Palin in 2008!

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