Lies, D Lies, and Statistics

The Title of this post is a phrase that my Statistics professor often uses. I am a History Major, and I see how history is important to the present and the future through the lessons it can teach us beyond mere facts of past events. I however never saw how most of the other subjects could claim such a thing. Professor McCaa has tought me otherwise. He taught me that often times the truth is not always the truth. People can distort statistics to make the out come appear to be what they want it to be. People can also do this with spoken facts. Rewording and synonyms and many other things can cause the truth to appear as something else. Saddam Hussain was executed for crimes against humanity. People in Iraq seem to be happy about this fact. Professor McCaa says to always question what to are told, because it could be meant to mislead you. So Iraq is in turmoil, things in that nation are very bad. Are the people of Iraq happy about the execution of Hussain? Now the innocent hide where? Not in false loyal obedience to their aggressor, because now their enemy exsist on the fringe of society, and are more than one group. Everyone is a possible victim. Bombs explode in everyday places. they are safe nowhere. On the otherhand, before the smallest thing could be seen as trechery, and could be punished by death. They had to be careful with their actions living nervously on the edge. So when were the Iraqis better off? I am not giving my opinion on which situation was best. Just saying that before we make our opinions on any subject we should look at the situation beyond the manner in which the facts are given, and looks at the facts only. So that our opinions are truely our own and not the regurgitated opinions of other people.