A New Statistical Technique

According to Juan Cole (seen via Rhymes with Cars and Girls), the states with the highest teen birth rates tend to be “red” states, apparently meaning teen mothers are Republicans (or vice versa).

We find that giving birth absurdly early is correlated with living in some states and voting Republican is also correlated with living in those states. The technique is a matter of finding that A is correlated with B and B is correlated with C and deducing that there's a connection between A and C.

Let's apply this elsewhere:

• Living in New York City is correlated with working on Wall Street and also voting for far-left loonies. Obviously Wall Street is a hotbed of Marxism.
• Owning your own home is correlated living in Mississippi or West Virginia and also with being relatively wealthy. Obviously Mississippi and West Virginia must be very rich.
• Buying organic food is correlated with having graduated from college which in turn is correlated with supporting nuclear energy. Obviously, organic food stores are an ideal place to collect signatures for a pro-nuclear petition.
• Walking to work is correlated with shorter commute times which in turn are correlated with faster transportation. Cars only slow you down.
• I'm sure there are others.

Addendum: Derek Thompson did the same thing a couple of years ago.