Legal and Illegal

The Times settles an argument no one is making:

The Myth of the Criminal Immigrant

The Trump administration’s first year of immigration policy has relied on claims that immigrants bring crime into America. President Trump’s latest target is sanctuary cities.

“Every day, sanctuary cities release illegal immigrants, drug dealers, traffickers, gang members back into our communities,” he said last week. “They’re safe havens for just some terrible people.”

They quote Trump mentioning "illegal" immigrants, and one might wonder just what sort of sanctuary legal immigrants are granted in a sanctuary city, but the rest of the article is about all immigrants, legal or otherwise. That certainly pins down the question of whether tech engineers on H1-B visas are a crime risk. As to why Trump might need a border wall to keep out legsal immigrants, don't ask.

They do provide a fun chart:

I know they will like this chart too:

1993 was a peak year for crime, so baseline games are being played here. Still, case closed, right?

Comments

[David, Deplorable Russian Internet Dreamer Bot]

About Prime Minister Abe from last night:

First, the site is called "The Rising Wasabi," which doesn't give me a great deal of faith in its content, particularly given the date. Second, the bit about Abe suddenly resigning as Prime Minister is a news article from 2007. This isn't his first go-round as PM. I couldn't find any articles that weren't 11 years old talking about his resignation, so I think this is a joke post.

David

[anonamom]

Just got a text from Jr.

Perils of being "on call" and little seniority means he can't make dinner this evening.

Too bad, guess I will have to eat his share of the pineapple upside down cake:)

Don't tell anonamom, but I am cheatin' on my diet today.

Don't count on that seniority thing making any difference---
We've been doing this for nigh on forty years, and my husband is at the hospital l today from noon til nine, as he was Friday and yesterday. Get used to it Buckeye.
Some things happen 24/7/365.
Wouldn't surprise me if gentlejim is working today too.
If he's not--some of his colleagues are.

As I've posted before--just regard those processed carbs as recreational drugs, and consume accordingly. ;-)

(I'm happy Lent is over, and red wine is once again on my intake list.
But boy, have I slept well since Ash Wednesday. Just sayin'.)

[henry]

New thread

[Jack is Back!]

Clarice,

That Politico piece was exactly as I would envision it to turn out. Very well written without demonizing the left, only demonstrating their tortured logic.

We truly are two countries. The Coastal elites and the central country pragmatists and producers. Unless you think intelluctuals, politicians, academics, food coops and artistic types actually produce anything.

[David, Deplorable Russian Internet Dreamer Bot]

And since I am opining about a number of things today, allow me to talk about the whole "households have fewer guns" stuff.

The whole business of tracking guns in this country is completely whacked. The number that the media uses consistently is 300 million to 380 million guns. The big problem with this number is, that as far as I can tell, it dates to the assault weapons ban under the Clinton Administration, so from about twenty years ago. Thus, it completely misses out on any guns bought during the tail end of the Clinton years, the Bush years, and the Obama years. Just from the Obama years, if I remember the numbers correctly, they averaged about 20,000,000 background checks a year for eight years. Of course, not all background checks result in a firearm being purchased, and sometimes multiple purchases are made with a single check, but it is still a useful number to use. If we assume that there is approximately a 1-1 correlation between checks and gun purchases, then there were about 160,000,000 new guns bought during the Obama years. That doesn't count Bush/Clinton numbers, which are not that much lower. So, as best I can tell, this 300,000,000 number is likely only half of the actual guns among households, and it is quite possible that the number is much higher, possibly three times that number. Another thing that they completely miss out on is the "80% lower receiver" phenomenon. This is where someone buys a hunk of metal in the shape of an AR-15 or .45 ACP lower reciever (that is the part of the gun that is a "gun" according to the BATFE. Once you have a lower receiver, you can order all the other parts of the gun through the mail freely and not have anyone do any checking on you), and you finish it yourself into a usable firearm. These pieces of metal are designed so that they can be finished using simple hand tools like a drill press. The point of this is that it is LEGAL to buy one of these "80% lowers" and finish them yourself, if it is legal for you to own a gun, and there is no record of the firearm anyplace. Someone I know has about a dozen of the things in his garage, and could finish them up in a couple of days if the situation came about. They are completely untraceable, unless the NSA notices you buying gun parts over the internet. Of course, you can always go to the local gun store and buy the parts and pay cash, build your gun, and then you a completely legal firearm with no records whatsoever.

These things have been selling like hotcakes for about eight or ten years. No one has any idea how many have been sold or how many people bought them and finished them into AR-15s or whatever, but it is highly likely that there are millions of undocumented, fully functional firearms out there and no one has a clue to their existence.

As far as households reporting guns, all the people I know who own guns deny having them to anyone who asks. Some people I know have gone so far as to report their weapons stolen to the police and then hide them somewhere around the house.

Contrary to the "only gunners are buying more guns" narrative, anecdotal data (ha! I made a computer science funny!) indicates that the people who teach gun handling have spoken for years about increasing numbers of women and minorities showing up at their classes to learn about guns. It is obviously impossible to know without actual surveys and such, but the general agreement among the 2A activists I know is that gun ownership is increasing rapidly.

Basically, you can't trust anything you read in the newspaper or see on the television, but especially can't trust a word they say about guns. I can say all this because I have no stake in this argument. I used to have some guns, but I lost them all many years ago in a boating accident in a very deep lake in Idaho.

David

[Foo Bar]

Some info on homicides.

Of the homicides for which the FBI received weapons data, most (67.5 percent) involved the use of firearms. Handguns comprised 68.5 percent of the firearms used in murders and nonnegligent manslaughters in 2010. (Based on Expanded Homicide Data Table 8.) In 2010, in incidents of murder for which the relationships of murder victims and offenders were known, 53.0 percent were killed by someone they knew (acquaintance, neighbor, friend, boyfriend, etc.); 24.8 percent of victims were slain by family members. The relationship of murder victims and offenders was unknown in 44.0 percent of murder and non-negligent manslaughter incidents in 2010. (Based on Expanded Homicide Data Table 10.) Of the female murder victims for whom the relationships to their offenders were known, 37.5 percent were murdered by their husbands or boyfriends. (Based on Expanded Homicide Data Table 2 and 10.) Of the murders for which the circumstance surrounding the murder was known, 41.8 percent of victims were murdered during arguments (including romantic triangles) in 2010. Felony circumstances (rape, robbery, burglary, etc.) accounted for 23.1 percent of murders.

[narcisocenfl]

You do realize that makes 44.%, what about the other 56% percent.

[Buckeye]

Foobar, sounds like it is a bad idea to date a thug.

[Ed]

sbw,congratulations and best wishes for your wife's continued recovery.

Regarding taking a pass on fish oils, I too have tried, and don't like 'em. You might find flax seed oil capsules a good substitute for Omega 3. I usually take two 1000mg caps daily. They're huge, so a smaller product might be desirable for you.