"Were" dropped and original text updated. Thanks, that sentence was fairly worrisome to me because I'm still not that familar with talking about statistical methodology.

Out of curiosity, what's your objection to political economy overall? Isn't surprising that a lot of those involved are throwing around Marxist ideology given that Marx focuses on political economy in a lot of his analyses. So it's probably not just a Comm. theory thing. I personally tend to find a lot of Marx weak on theory, not just practice; so, don't feel you need to explain your comment on the ridiculousness of some of Marxist ideology.