JustOneMinute

More Bad News Another school

More Bad News

Another school shooting, this time in Bosnia. Copy-cat, common causation, or coincidence? And would this story have made it around the world if not for the school shooting in Germany last week?

Back to Basics Perhaps in

Back to Basics

Perhaps in response to the pounding administered in the blogosphere last week by Mickey Kaus, Andrew Sullivan, Jane Galt, and the folks at Best of the Web, Paul Krugman has retreated to the safety of the Economics 101 classroom. Professor Krugman presents a clear column on a subject of general interest that is within his area of expertise - how refreshing. And "Stick to what you know" is good advice for all of us, although I'm damned if I'm going to limit this blog to "Winning Tactics for Hearts - Windows 98"

School Shooting Epidemic or Reporting

School Shooting Epidemic or Reporting Epidemic?

Prof. Volokh, in his always-fascinating blog, muses on the epidemic of school shooting thusly:

“What are the possible causes for the advent of the mass school shootings that we've had over roughly the past 5 years in the U.S. -- and now outside the U.S. as well?…

I know of only one conjecture that is even slightly plausibly, and I stress that it is only a conjecture: What changed since the time of the first school shooting is that there's been a lot of media coverage of school shootings. Teenagers keenly resent their own insignificance; when they see someone being in the news -- even for committing an atrocity -- some of them begin to envy this person's fame. And some tiny fraction of those may even decide, against all reason, self-preservation, and decency to take the same path. The first mass school shooting was an essentially random event, but the media coverage that it triggered dramatically increased the probability of subsequent events of the same variety.”

But is it really an epidemic? Sometimes, we see a pattern because we are looking for a pattern; sometimes the media reports a story because it fits a topical story line.

From The Daily Camera, Littleton, CO, we get this timeline of school shootings: one in the 70’s, one in the 80’s, and nine between 1996 and 1999. A statistically significant cluster? Well, from the Justice Policy Institute, we get this 1998 report, revealingly titled "School House Hype:
School shootings and the real risks kids face in America." It should be noted that this report came out before the Columbine shootings. I cannot substantiate rumors that the authors went on to become equity analysts promoting Enron stock.

Interesting factoid:

“Between 1990 and 1995, for example, homicides in America dropped by 13 percent according to the FBI, but coverage of homicides on the ABC, CBS and NBC evening news programs increased by 240 percent. If evening news stories were used as a means of counting homicides in America during that time, a miscount of colossal proportions would have occurred…”

The authors go on to conclude that the number of school related violent deaths fell during the 90’s – sort of like the national trend. But other stories I pick up refer to school shootings starting in 1996, so what was the manner of violent death prior to 1996, or where was the news coverage?

If this group, or this study, has been de-bunked I would love to know. Meanwhile, epidemic of shooting, or epidemic of reporting?

I report, you deride.

UPDATE

This just in - the 90's are over. In fact, the year is 2002, so an updated timeline might be appropriate, although we lose comparability with our study through 1998.

No Wonder These Gun Clubs Are So Popular

This in from South Dakota:

"After that individual knew that he was HIV positive . . . he was discovered having unprotected sex with a partner who did not know," Gov. William Janklow said Friday at a news conference. "That, my friends, is no different from pointing a gun at someone and pulling the trigger."

Neither the Governor nor Eugene Volokh could be reached for a comment on the level of satisfaction provided by mere target shooting.

The Milkman Delivers From

The Milkman Delivers

From today’s NY Times:

Congress Is Close to Final Accord on Farm Bill

Senators convinced the House to accept a new dairy subsidy that would cost more than $1 billion.
Go, Jeffords. In fact, just keep on going.

Steven Green Stuns the

Steven Green Stuns the Blogosphere!

The VodkaPundit slams the Saudis, and their supporters. But that’s not what I’m talking about. Check this from his 4/25 post on the Saudis:

"The next day, an amateur pundit sitting in his basement, with power over no one but a cat,..."

He controls his cat! Let the Arab world be warned.

Anyway, we now have Jonah Goldberg as a “dog person” and Steve Green as a “cat person”. My predictions:

1. The proportion of “cat people” in the blogosphere exceeds the proportion of "cat people" in the general population. Demographic adjustments permitted if data allows.

2. Within the blogosphere, the higher your Sullivan Number the more likely you are to be a “cat person”.

And I say all this as a cat person with a “Sky’s the limit” Sullivan number.

Anecdotal evidence welcomed.

Condoleeza Rice – The Dream

Condoleeza Rice – The Dream Has Died

The Condoleeza Rice for VP boomlet collapsed this week with the announcement that Ms. Rice supports one of the last authoritarian, centrally planned, socialist relics of the Cold War. Supporters were stunned by the news that she is a fan of the NFL.

“When does the other shoe drop?” moaned one supporter. “I can hear her now – sometimes an embargo is just an embargo, but a Cuban cigar is a smoke”.

Andrew Sullivan could not be reached for comment.