Somebody on the editorial page staff at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram discovered The Chief's Corner. Editorial columnist J.R. Lubbe called me on Friday. I was a little leery of a Dallas area newspaper editor named J.R., at first. She had apparently Googled "Crawl for Cancer" and hit one of my posts from back in September: Philanthropic Binge Drinking.
She seemed to have the same general reaction to the concept that I did. Good. For a while there, I was thinking maybe I was just getting grumpy, but apparently I'm not the only one who recognized this scam for exactly what it is.
I must admit, though, I'm a little bit surprised that this was so patently absurd to a major metropolitan newspaper in Texas that it merited a 1,200 word editorial in the Sunday edition.
J.R. referred to "smoky bars"... she obviously is not familiar with Lincoln's fantastic smoking ban. Not that the smoke-free environment makes the event any safer, but I thought it was an interesting observation regardless.
ReplyDeleteA somewhat-related comparison of serious crime rates in Lincoln and Fort Worth can be seen here.
ReplyDeleteMaybe it's just me, but if their murder and auto theft rates are 3 or 4 times greater than ours, then my hunch says that they also have proportionally higher rates of rape and assault, regardless of what the chart says. I'm betting that they just have a lower reporting rate for rape and assault, and that rate isn't on any of these charts.
Here's another thing to think about: How many rapes and assaults in any town or city are related to binge drinking, at least in part?
Anonymous 11:46-
ReplyDeleteShe's probably referring to my observation that in some of the photos from "crawl for cancer" events posted on the web, you could cut the air with a knife. I had an especially good one in my original post, everyone at the table was smoking, but the link is dead now.
Anonymous 12:31-
Your statistical analyses continue to impress. My hunch is the same. And the answer to your last question is: a lot!
TASERS: Are officers too quick to fire?
ReplyDeleteHow about the above for a topic?
TASERS: Are officers too quick to fire?
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/localnews/content/news/video/tasers.html
Anonymous 4:06-
ReplyDeleteToo late. Already tackled that topic.
Instead of Tasers, how about illumination. As a long-time law enforcement professional, what is your prediction on crime rates after they do this?
ReplyDeleteStreet lights to be switched off at midnight
Rates up, or rates down? If the crew that came up with the idea were any dumber, they'd be bricks.