Things I've Said

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  • Why are People So Willing to Deceive Themselves?

    This is going around.  If you hate Ted Cruz, this is great fodder.  If you love Ted Cruz, you might want to suppose that the quote is somehow taken out of context.  But if you are even a little bit of a skeptic, you’ll ask yourself “Is it plausible that Ted Cruz said this?”.

    And the answer is going to be “NO!!!”  It’s not even a little bit plausible.  Even if you hate Ted Cruz, you are fooling yourself if you don’t recognize that the guy is a brilliant speaker, a brilliant debater, and a brilliant public figure.  But if you hate Ted Cruz, you probably also hate everything that smells even a little bit like conservatism.  As a result, you will fool yourself into believing that the majority of the people to whom Ted Cruz wishes to appeal would be enthusiastic about that statement.  And if you have fooled yourself into believing that most of the likely Cruz supporters would think such a statement is positive, you do not understand the people of the United States of America.

    How do I know this?  Because Ted Cruz never said this. And he never would say such a thing, because it is detestable to the staggering majority of those who affiliate themselves with either of the two major political parties in the United States.  Ted Cruz knows his constituents. Even if he did hold such ridiculous views, he wants to be president badly enough that he would never say something that would be so detestable to the voters.

    http://www.politifact.com/texas/statements/2015/apr/08/facebook-posts/meme-facebook-says-ted-cruz-declared-no-place-gays/

    http://www.snopes.com/cruz-no-gays-america/

  • Texas Coffee Grinder

    Shoot until you get the grind you like
    Shoot until you get the grind you like

  • Gun Laws and Gun Violence

    You’ve probably seen the 2014 map of the US from the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence (LCPGV) claiming that the highest gun death rates are in the states with the loosest gun laws, and vice versa.

    I’ve taken it upon myself to transfer their grades to the chart below, along with the reported gun murder and gun death rates as listed in Wikipedia.

    Of the ten states with the lowest gun murder rate, 6 are rated “F” for gun laws by the LCPGV (A = strict guns laws, F = loose gun laws). Of the ten states with the highest gun murder rate, 6 are rated “F”. Maryland has the third highest gun murder rate in the country, and is one of five states with an “A-” (no states are rated “A” or “A+”).

    Gun murder rate and gun death rate are different.  So sorting the data by Gun Deaths per 100,000, we see that Washington, South Dakota, and Maryland are are ranked 12, 13, and 14.  Similar gun death rates, yet the grades from the Law center are C, F, and A- respectively.  Yes, Maryland, with the highest gun death rate of the three, gets scored as A-.

    Now it is true that the states with the highest gun death rates are all given Fs.  Well, except for Alabama, which pulled off a D-, despite being the third highest in the country for gun deaths.  Meanwhile New Hampshire, with the 7th lowest rate of gun deaths, is also graded D-.  As previously mentioned, South Dakota gets an F at postion 13, while 11 states  with higher gun death rates are graded higher by the Law Center.

    And it’s hard not to notice California.  California is rated A-, yet it has a higher gun death rate than 32 states, and a higher gun murder rate than 37 sates.

    Here’s the wikipedia article

    Here’s a link to the data in a spreadsheet, so you can sort it however you like

    Here’s the WCPGV graphic