William Nichols posted a comment that deserves promotion to a higher level. Bill answered a post about Statistics and Misrepresentation.
We, as a profession, need to get a lot better and can start by calling out those who abuse the numbers. Everyone else should get a more polite and constructive critique. We need better theory, critical analysis, and above all, empirical validation that challenges our models.
It would be nice to see the thought leaders examine their own work more critically. "how do you know?", "what are the assumptions?" "what exactly are the propositions?", "what are the threats to validity?", "what are plausible alternative explanations?", "how could you test the alternatives?" It's a lot of work, and if someone can't do at least some of it for me, I won't be bothered.
There are some that do provide answers to the questions. There are others who don't. Those who don't, when asked those questions, seem to protest the loudest.
