The Duck of Minerva

Bill Petti

Petti is Associate Director of Insights and Analytics at Alexion . Previously, he served as Lead Data Scientist in the Decision Sciences group at Maritz Motivation and a Global Data Strategist and Subject Matter Expert for Gallup.

Recent Posts

A Mild Plea for Assistance

by Bill Petti | 29 December, 2007 |

As many readers of The Duck may know I am currently on hiatus working full time and writing my dissertation--a handful to say the least.To that end, can anyone recommend any books or articles that do a good job of summarizing the literature on presidential rhetoric and its influence on public opinion? I am looking for literature on this topic generally, on presidential influence on foreign policy as well as presidential approval ratings.Many thanks in advance!

read more

A new duckling…

by Bill Petti | 21 May, 2007 |

Addison Mary Petti was born on Sunday, May 20th at 3:43am after what amounted to 19 hours of labor. My wife Kate was remarkable to say the least--she is my hero. Addison is 7lbs 10oz and comes in at a lanky 21 inches. Daddy is already thinking of buying her a pony.

read more

Blame America Last

by Bill Petti | 17 November, 2006 |

We have all heard the charge before that some in the public sphere always “Blame America First” whenever there is a negative outcome in world politics. Critics charge that these folks are quick to find some connection, however remote or irrational, between American action (or inaction) and the ills of the world. To be fair this characterization is obviously a stereotype, however it isn’t entirely inaccurate. There are certainly some voices that consistently (though not always) go to great lengths to assign blame to American policies.However, we rarely see the flip-side of the “Blame America...

read more

Kevin Tillman’s Letter

by Bill Petti | 21 October, 2006 |

Pat Tillman’s brother Kevin has published a stirring letter in which he makes his case for a change of leadership on November 7th. A portion is presented below:Somehow the more soldiers that die, the more legitimate the illegal invasion becomes.Somehow American leadership, whose only credit is lying to its people and illegally invading a nation, has been allowed to steal the courage, virtue and honor of its soldiers on the ground.Somehow those afraid to fight an illegal invasion decades ago are allowed to send soldiers to die for an illegal invasion they started.Somehow faking character,...

read more

Ya Gotta Believe

by Bill Petti | 19 October, 2006 |

John Maine got the job done last night and "the igniter" finally got going, hitting a leadoff homerun against Chris Carpenter. It's down to 27 outs. I'll give you three guesses what I'll be doing at 8:19 tonight.LET'S GO METS!That's all.

read more

Didn’t Huntington say this in 1968?

by Bill Petti | 17 October, 2006 |

On Monday, Slate ran a three-part book review by Bill Emmott and Fareed Zakaria in which they discuss Ian Bremmer's new book The J-Curve, which purports to explain the difficulties of political transitions. Now I have not read the book, but this discription of Bremmer's thesis struck me:Bremmer's argument is that history shows that the most stable countries are often also the most closed: North Korea, Cuba, China under Mao, Soviet Russia. But as countries become more open, they generally become more unstable in the first instance, as existing institutions are challenged and undermined, and...

read more

One down, three to go

by Bill Petti | 13 October, 2006 |

If I am the Cardinals I stop pitching to Carlos Beltran in the playoffs: Over the last 8 postseason games in which he has faced the Cardinals, Beltran is batting .357 with 5 HRs, 7 RBI, and 12 RS in 8 games--that's just sick. LET'S GO METS!

read more

More from the Cognitive Dissonance Files

by Bill Petti | 21 September, 2006 |

This week: Michelle Malkin and her distaste for those who violate the due process rights of accused terrorists. No, I'm not kidding.It is remarkable that some simply can't see the parallel between the case that has Malkin up in arms and the debate over detainees in Cuba. For Malkin, the former is an example of a principled human rights case while the latter an example of anti-American-liberals who want to free terrorists. Guess the identity of the accused is the elephant in the room.Via Crooks and Liars.Filed as: Due Process

read more