On Sun, 3 Apr 2005, Jordan Hayes wrote:
> Miles Jackson, trying logic, says:
>
>> Okay, let's go at it the other way around: assume it's just
>> expression of human nature for people to go batshit sometimes
>> and kill lots of people.
>
> Stop right there, fella. How about we narrow down these two terms of
> yours: "sometimes" and "lots" ... in a country of 250M people and at
> least 80M and perhaps as many as 200M guns, we have between 5-7 cases
> per decade? This is what your "statistical analysis" is based on?
If this small number of cases is larger than in other industrialized nations, then yes, it's reasonable to say it's not a chance event. Granted, that's an empirical question--is in fact the incidence of school shootings more common in the U. S. than other nations?-- but we should be able to easily resolve this. The fact that school shootings occur rarely is irrelevant.
> Hey, the US has a LOT of "deviant" behavior, not all of it (I would
> wager) objectionable to everyone on this list. Why start by looking at
> what is perhaps the smallest sample group imaginable? Why not just look
> at the "social relations and social structures in society" involved with
> a kooky former pop star who can't stop spending money on crazy things
> and can't keep himself out the news with accusations of child
> molestations? I'm sure we can draw a few charts about that. Or maybe
> the tendencies for black ex-football players to murder their white
> ex-wives.
Couldn't these all be different indicators of the same underlying social factors?
>> (--Or it could be any combination of the thousands of
>> other ways the U. S. varies from other industrialized nations!)
>
> I'm glad you finally got around to that.
>
Glad we agree.
Miles