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Showing posts with label acceptable statistics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label acceptable statistics. Show all posts

Sunday, May 19, 2013

Thumbs Up?

Gun dudes and gun dudettes! A juxtaposition of events from bizarro world? Or an everyday occurence? You be the judge.

CNN
http://www.cnn.com/2013/05/16/justice/louisiana-shooting/index.html
New Orleans (CNN) -- New Orleans police arrested a second suspect in the Mother's Day shooting that wounded 19 people this week, including three still in critical condition, authorities said Thursday.
The two suspects are believed to be involved in gangs, police said. No further details were immediately available, authorities said.
Now the question is: in a properly constituted weaponized society, is this an acceptable statistic... one that is very much regrettable, but in the larger view is all part of the being-in-the-hot-kitchen and breaking-eggs-to-make-omelets?













I think this is a big thumbs up!

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Thursday, May 02, 2013

What Is An "Acceptable Statistic"?




When I write of gun incidents and say that such things may be "acceptable statistics", I do not mean that they are "acceptable events".

We have accepted guns like we have accepted automobiles.
Every year, people are killed by cars. Many deaths could have been avoided by reducing speed limits, or by building safer cars. However, such actions would impinge on our sense of god-given rights or would increase the cost of driving.

Therefore, we do not make things as good as we could, and we settle for a level of acceptable deaths.
These deaths are the "acceptable statistics"; they are acceptable because we do not intend to change things any time soon.

So it is with guns.
I realized this a few months ago, and it surprised me: there will not be meaningful gun control laws because we have accepted the notion of a Weaponized Society. Even the defeated gun law lacked any depth of purpose: it was a charade for a nation of dopes to give themselves the illusion they could do something of value... and even we could not accomplish it.


We fear a government that would take our guns. We must protect ourselves against our own democratically elected Government.

We fear terrorists and people who are violently affected by our foreign policies, so we must curtail our civil rights and give more power to the Government and its police and military agencies.

By giving Government more power, we increase our fear of a government that would take our guns.....

and so on, and so on, in this vicious circle.

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Wednesday, May 01, 2013

Thumbs Up Or Down?

No rest for the wicked, Gun Dudes and Gun Dudettes ! We have another "situation" that needs our attention and understanding and judgement.
5-year-old Kentucky boy fatally shoots 2-year-old sister
From Leigh Remizowski, CNN
updated 10:55 AM EDT, Wed May 1, 2013

(CNN) -- A Kentucky mother stepped outside of her home just for a few minutes, but it was long enough for her 5-year-old son to accidentally shoot his 2-year-old sister with the .22-caliber rifle he got for his birthday, state officials said.

Little Caroline Starks died Tuesday in Burkesville, in southern Kentucky, according to Cumberland County Coroner Gary White.

"The little Crickett rifle is a single-shot rifle and it has a child safety," White said of the weapon. "It's just a tragic situation."



After due deliberation, we have decided this is an acceptable statistic, and will be lumped in with the many other "Kid Shoots Kid" stories for 2013 in the cold case storage area.





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Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Acceptable Statistics... Thumbs Up, Gun Dudes !

A student at LaSalle High School in Cincinnati, Ohio, shot himself with a semi-automatic gun in school yesterday. He is in critical condition.

This is an acceptable statistic.

Thumbs Up, Gun Dudes and Dudettes !





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