Debunking the statistics...

This quotation is sometimes wrongly attributed to Winston Churchill or Disraeli, for instance on http://www.gurteen.com/.... See also the comments at the bottom of that page. Shakiness seems to be a common trait of the attribution of quotes and of statistics. It's best to attribute a quote to the author who first pronounced it in print, in her/his book, without adding that he/she is just quoting the speech of someone else. Or we would have to consider each one repeating it an author worth mentioning... Winston Churchill is more often quoted though for apparently having said that one should not believe a statistic that one has not falsified oneself. That's more like him. :-)

Anyway, be it as it may, truth in modern times is often buried under an avalanche of statistics, as wrongful as the Inquisition's numbering of witches... (though correct honest ones can be of great help!). So we need honest experts capable of looking through that mess and explain us, the more lucky than smart ones: we have Wendy McElroy who this week again on the Op-Ed page brilliantly opposes the panic mongering of those statistics manipulators:

No Panic Over School Child Abuse