The Opinionated Bastard

Bad News:

My previous post relied on the Brookings Iraq Index, which itself relied on the body count numbers from Iraq Body Count. Turns out though that IBC hasn't included any civilian deaths since Feb 22, the date of the shrine bombing. So the numbers I have for civilians are way off. They probably won't be updated for awhile, the Iraqis can't actually agree how many people died either, some say 300, some say 1300. (Note that Iraq Body Count already reports a high-low number.)

Usually these sorts of numbers are way off. 10,000,7,000, 5,000, 3,000, 2,823 people died on 9/11.

100,000, 50,000, 10,000, 5,000, 1,104 died as a result of Hurricane Katrina

So who knows what the truth will be. For that matter, Saddam couldn't be bothered to have a census, so even the past numbers on IBC which tries to be fairly conservative could be off since they're relying on press reports.

Good News:

Another blogger caught it: Liberalism without Cynicism

I said it before, but I started blogging because I subscribed to the State Department's daily briefing post 9/11 and I was shocked. The media can't even transcribe what the administration says accurately...we might be better off with stenographers then “journalists”. Someone better warn Linda that if she starts fact checking the media, she may become a Bush supporter. That's what happened to me...

Technorati Tags: Iraq, Terrorism