Gun Deaths and Syphilis

About a month ago, another, more conservative, lawyer and I were discussing regional differences in attitudes about guns with a group of northern, urban law students. You may not like guns, my friend told the students, but many of your jurors, especially in rural areas, will feel very differently. Good advice, I thought.

And then my friend added something to the effect that the good people of rural America (he had the grace not to refer to them as “real Americans”, although I suspect he might have had that phrase in the back of his mind) know how to use guns, and never use them improperly, unlike the people who are turning the poor neighborhoods of large cities like Chicago into horror zones. I suggested that while that might be the common belief of gun ownership advocates, gun crime in rural areas is actually more prevalent than he apparently believed. Who was right?

Well I didn’t find statistics on gun crime, per se, but I did find a great website, run by the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, that has assembled a large number of public health statistics on a state-by-state basis, including firearm deaths. This includes not just murder, but suicide, accidental deaths, justifiable police shootings — everything. Here’s the link.

I thought that the results were very interesting, although I’m not sure exactly what to make of them. DC has the highest rate, 20.6 deaths per 100,000 residents in 2006, more than twice the national average of 10.2 — no surprise, it’s a single, violent big city. Louisiana is second — how much of that is from New Orleans, and how much from rural areas? The rest of the top ten are Alaska (17.1 deaths per 100,000), Alabama, Mississippi, Nevada, Arizona, Tennessee, Arkansas, and Wyoming (15.0 deaths per 100,000). Toward the bottom of the list, rural states Maine (7.3) and New Hampshire (6.1) have rates that are half or less than the rural states in the top ten. Also, among urban states, New York (5.1) and New Jersey (5.7) are significantly lower than Illinois (8.0) and California (9.1).

I haven’t looked at all of the statistics on the website yet, but I did notice that in addition to being 1 and 2 for highest rates of gun deaths, DC and Louisiana are 1 and 2 for highest rates of syphilis infection. So you might just want to stay home on Saturday night.

Conforming to stereotypes, West Virginia and Tennessee are at the top of the list for percentage of adults over age 65 who have had all their natural teeth extracted. There are also statistics for a catagory labeled “Attempts to Quit Smoking by Sex,” but it’s not what it sounds like.

Please Buy a Copy of The New York Times Every Day

I’m very late to the party moaning about the imminent demise of the Times, and what it means for informed democracy in our country. But c’mon, folks. Read this article, and then decide whether saving investigative journalism on a national level is worth two bucks a day. Plus, you get the crossword puzzle!

Health Care and the Best Part of My Job

I love it when I get a pile of new data and the job is to look at it and figure out what it means. So, I love it when the New York Times provides me with such a puzzle on a Sunday morning when my children are sleeping over at Grandma’s and I can stare and stare and try to figure it out.

The link is to an analysis of the House Democrats who voted against the health care bill. (I think I watched 6 hours of CSpan yesterday). So, the Democrats at the top of the table are understandable. They are largely freshmen and Obama lost or won by just a little.

But let’s think about the bottom of the table, Mr. Davis – Obama won by a ton and 20% of his district is uninsured. Mr. Kucinich (I am guessing) voted no because the abortion amendment passed. And Mr. Baird? Can you make sense of that? Not a Blue Dog Democrat, Obama won by a lot, high uninsured. Anyone have analysis? And please spare me the “they really believed” argument.

Best books on race you’ve never heard of, from Slate.com

I’ve heard of one (and own it), but the rest?  Nope.

Alexander Hamilton Is Ice Cold

It kinda stinks to be getting your popular culture tips from the President. But check out Lin-Manual Miranda’s rap about the guy on the ten dollar bill.

 

Admitted wrongful execution in the US

Well it is official.  While I think there are others, a South Carolina pardon and parole board voted unanimously that the state wrongfully executed four INNOCENT African-American men in South Carolina in 1915.  And, (shock!) race was a factor.  In South Carolina in 1915, HUNDREDS of white community members tried to secure a pardon because they did not believe the men did it.  That’s pretty extraordinary for South Carolina in 1915, dontchya think?  But, they were executed anyway.  I really don’t think there is anything else to say.  The death penalty has really got to go.  This isn’t even an interesting post because it is so obvious.

Follow Up to LB’s Whoopi Goldberg Post

From one of my favorite writers, Calvin Trillin, in The Nation:

What Whoopi Goldberg (‘Not a Rape-Rape’), Harvey Weinstein (‘So-Called Crime’) et al. Are Saying in Their Outrage Over the Arrest of Roman Polanski

A youthful error? Yes, perhaps.
But he’s been punished for this lapse–
For decades exiled from LA
He knows, as he wakes up each day,
He’ll miss the movers and the shakers.
He’ll never get to see the Lakers.
For just one old and small mischance,
He has to live in Paris, France.
He’s suffered slurs and other stuff.
Has he not suffered quite enough?
How can these people get so riled?
He only raped a single child.

.

Why make him into some Darth Vader
For sodomizing one eighth grader?
This man is brilliant, that’s for sure–
Authentically, a film auteur.
He gets awards that are his due.
He knows important people, too–
Important people just like us.
And we know how to make a fuss.
Celebrities would just be fools
To play by little people’s rules.
So Roman’s banner we unfurl.
He only raped one little girl.

I should add for the benefits of any completely tone deaf readers that Mr. Trillin is a noted satirist (as opposed to a noted satyr), and that this is meant as sarcasm.

It seems to be OK to refuse business saying, “No Shirt, No Shoes.” Can we say the same about Pig Headed Values?

Would it be legal for the Rams’ owner(s) to refuse Rush Limbaugh’s offer to buy the team?  And, if they did refuse, could they sell it to someone else for even for less money?   Is it necessary to state a reason for refusing to do business with someone?

Does cash trump conscience in the NFL today as this writer says?

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/columnist/sharp/2009-10-11-rush-limbaugh-rams_N.htm

In Defense of Jennifer Valdividia

12 year-old Jennifer is attending a Florida Marlins game. Ryan Howard, of the visiting Philadelphia Phillies, hits his 200th career home run. Jennifer catches the ball. Jennifer is hustled by stadium security to the Phillies locker room, and gives up the historic (and valuable) ball for a less valuable ball autographed by Mr. Howard. Parents sue. Mr. Howard returns original ball you young Jennifer. Jennifer and parents are excoriated as thieves, lawsuits condemned.

This is one of those areas where lawyers view the world differently than other people. Jennifer is a minor — and a pretty young one at that. The ball exchange was a contract. Minors are legally incapable of consent, and therefore cannot enter into binding contracts. Jennifer gets the ball back.

One of the most important functions of the law is protecting the rights of the weak from the desires of the strong. Mr. Howard and the Phillies are the strong. Jennifer was the weak. If Mr. Howard wants to make a deal for it as a keepsake, let him negotiate the price with her parents, who have the legal right to enter into a contract on behalf of their child. If they want more than an autographed ball, if they are obnoxious and mercenary, too bad. That’s the price for living in a world where adults aren’t allowed to take advantage of children in commerce.

Annals of Zero Tolerance

I realize that this is like shooting fish in a barrel (has anyone ever shot a fish in a barrel? Isn’t it likely that the bullet would pierce the barrel and make it spring a leak?), but here’s another one of those insane overreaction stories, from this morning’s Times – about a six year-old in Delaware.

Zachary’s offense? Taking a camping utensil that can serve as a knife, fork and spoon to school. He was so excited about recently joining the Cub Scouts that he wanted to use it at lunch. School officials concluded that he had violated their zero-tolerance policy on weapons, and Zachary now faces 45 days in the district’s reform school.

For Delaware, Zachary’s case is especially frustrating because last year state lawmakers tried to make disciplinary rules more flexible by giving local boards authority to, “on a case-by-case basis, modify the terms of the expulsion.”

The law was introduced after a third-grade girl was expelled for a year because her grandmother had sent a birthday cake to school, along with a knife to cut it. The teacher called the principal — but not before using the knife to cut and serve the cake.

We can all pretty much agree that this is batshit insane, right? Well, everyone but this guy:

Charles P. Ewing, a professor of law and psychology at the University at Buffalo Law School who has written about school safety issues, said he favored a strict zero-tolerance approach.

“There are still serious threats every day in schools,” Dr. Ewing said, adding that giving school officials discretion holds the potential for discrimination and requires the kind of threat assessments that only law enforcement is equipped to make.

Right.  Only law enforcement officials (a/k/a to cops) are qualified to decide whether a Cub Scout camping utensil is a serious threat to classroom safety.  I am generally a good liberal and all of that, but this is the kind of stuff that makes me want to pull my kids out of the public schools and move to a cabin without electricity  in Montana.