{"id":1244,"date":"2020-06-17T18:04:31","date_gmt":"2020-06-18T01:04:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/?p=1244"},"modified":"2020-06-17T18:04:31","modified_gmt":"2020-06-18T01:04:31","slug":"false-positives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/?p=1244","title":{"rendered":"False Positives"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"\/
Prototype<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The lab in the basement of the Idaho Freedom Foundation was abuzz. The tests were looking good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen can we roll this out?\u201d the Lab Director Ben wanted to know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s ready for beta testing.\u201d Lab Tech Jerry beamed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cExplain it to me again, like I\u2019m a five-year-old this time. No more of that technical jargon.\u201d The Lab Director knew he\u2019d need to explain this to the Board.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jerry paused. \u201cWell you see sir, this Covid 19 hoax has gotten everybody aware of the validity of testing, you know, false positives and false negatives.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSimpler\u201d Ben interrupted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jerry frowned and tapped his lower lip. \u201cOk sir, how about this? Imagine if we could have a way to know if someone was really a conservative of not. We finally have a test that can prove it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGo on.\u201d Ben smiled a little.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had our Freedom Index for years, and it has worked, sort of.\u201d Jerry continued. \u201cWe have taken the votes legislators make, multiplied that by the Freedom value of the bill and then scored each legislator.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDon\u2019t get too technical about the formula. We just focus on the score, right?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYes, but the scoring has given us some false positives.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSo, this test is better you say.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jerry beamed. \u201cVery much. In the past, legislators would look at the bill score and vote to pad their scores. We were getting a lot of false conservatives mixed in with our true conservatives. This test is much more accurate.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ben nodded. He didn\u2019t quite smile. He was thinking of the Power Point he\u2019d have to create to sell this to the board. \u201cOK, Jerry. Now explain how we do this test. Again, keep it simple.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYes sir!\u201d He walked over to the desk top, strewn with screwdrivers and pliers, pieces of wire and rolls of tape, and pulled the sheet off his pride and joy. \u201cHere we have the Con37 analyzer.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It looked like a modified microwave oven with pair of old rabbit ear antenna sticking on the top. It had wires running to other modules and machines around it on the floor and adjacent tables.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jerry smiled with pride and patted his creation. \u201cThe Con37 analyzes a sample and determines the conservative value with a 98% accuracy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ben frowned again. \u201cSample?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jerry nodded. \u201cIt can analyze audio signals, digital, even tissue. Here let me show you.\u201d He flipped a switch and lights came on. There was an irritating buzz that went away when he slapped the side. \u201cFirst we\u2019ll try the audio spectal analyzer.\u201d He twisted the rabbit ears so they were perpendicular to the Director. \u201cGo ahead, say something. We\u2019ll take a reading.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ben looked at the glowing dial on the face of the old microwave. He thought long and hard for something conservative, maybe liberal to test this new-fangled device. Jerry nodded at him with excitement. Ben cleared his throat. \u201cWe the people, in order to form a more perfect union, insure domestic tranquility\u2026\u201d He watched the dial barely register as he finished the Preamble.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He frowned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jerry said, \u201cBoy, that\u2019s a low score. Try something simpler. Just say \u2018Freedom\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFreedom\u201d Ben echoed. The meter pegged. He tried \u201cLiberty\u201d; another high score. \u201cSo, it likes simple phrases.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Jerry nodded with excitement. \u201cYes, it knows conservatism in its programming. Let me show you how it analyzes digital content.\u201d He showed how the dials climbed when Rush Limbaugh came through the speakers and dipped when he tuned to NPR. Ben nodded, knowing how this would go with the board.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHow will we analyze candidates for endorsement?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jerry got excited. \u201cI would recommend a full spectrum evaluation. We could enter recordings of their speeches, take digital content from their websites, but for the best accuracy we should use the tissue analyzer.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTissue?\u201d Ben asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYes, we have found conservatives have special tissue markers. We just need a biopsy, just a small piece, then we put it in here.\u201d Jerry swung the oven door open. \u201cWe\u2019ve found the accuracy goes way up when the biopsy is more painful.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The lab in the basement of the Idaho Freedom Foundation was abuzz. The tests were looking good. \u201cWhen can we roll this out?\u201d the Lab Director Ben wanted to know. \u201cIt\u2019s ready for beta testing.\u201d Lab Tech Jerry beamed. \u201cExplain … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1244"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1244"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1244\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1245,"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1244\/revisions\/1245"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}