That sentence was poorly written. What they mean, of course, is that you can't just blindly accept data, especially in a highly contentious debate. The way th

That sentence was poorly written. What they mean, of course, is that you can't just blindly accept data, especially in a highly contentious debate. The way they wrote it, yeah, it almost sounds like they think it's "bad" to rely on data in a policy issue. Kind of funny, but based on the rest of the paragraph, clearly not what they mean. Kind of an aside here, but it drives me nuts when people quote "lies, damn lies, and statistics" or talk about "lying with statistics" as a way of dismissing data out of hand. Yes, anything that can be used to communicate can be used to lie. You can lie with words, that doesn't mean you should disregard any argument made with words! It just means you have to be careful - or, as this article put it, skeptical. It is important to take a very careful look at data in a contentious argument. So I agree with them... sheesh, though, very badly phrased.