Tuesday

Stats

My local newspaper ran a story yesterday about our curfew law. The gist: Studies show that youth curfews reduce youth crime. The article didn't mention a related fact: House arrest of all able-bodied males would reduce crime.

Statistics get abused in so many ways, whether it's the bogus "the rich got richer" stat (which neglect to point out that the "rich" is a continuously-changing pool) or youth drinking stats that show traffic fatalities decrease when the drinking age is 21 instead of 18 (they neglect to mention that traffic fatalities would decrease even more if the drinking age were 30 or, better yet, Prohibition were re-introduced and, this time, effectively enforced with life sentences for every person found with alcohol on his breath).

So what should we do in response? Simple: Either parse through the screen of hokum presented by statistics or ignore them. Rely on your common sense and your gut instead of the opinion of experts, especially experts with statistics in tow. Marshall McLuhan likened the testimony of an expert to a flashlight aimed directly at one's eyes. Amen to that.

Lions

I love the Lions, but their antics have embarrassed me a bit this year. I enjoyed this video (caution: off-color, PG13):