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As gun control is the abstract topic of the week
Megan McArdle (in the Atlantic) has some interesting thoughts and graphs on the subject.
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A curious ommission
From this article in the NYT on attitudes on the Iraq war by age group, specifically
Forty-eight percent of Americans 18 to 29 years old said the United States did the right thing in taking military action against Iraq, while 45 percent said the United States should have stayed out. That is in sharp contrast to the opinions of those 65 and older, who have lived through many other wars. Twenty eight percent of that age group said the United States did the right thing, while 67 percent said the United States should have stayed out.
…
“We’ve experienced more than the younger people. Older people are wiser. We’ve seen war and we know.”Anyway, it goes on like that. One thing that was not mentioned was the fact that the time horizons are quite different. Someone 65 is looking at an outer range of 30 years more of life, whereas someone age 25 is looking at 60 more years of life. It’s quite plausible that younger people might be more favorable to risky experiments with possible longer term benefits, the same way they like investing in risky stocks and mutual funds – to wit, they have more time to play with, so they can take more risks.
I’m not saying this is the reason for the disparity, but it’s odd it wasn’t addressed.
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The old round up
- Digital Camera crop factors
- 20 things not to do when starting a business – I stayed away from most of them
- More solar power
- via Marginal Revolution –
The public’s opinion of past wars improves as a new war approaches. Thus, after Vietnam most people thought the war was a mistake and this held true for decades until the beginning of the Iraq war when the opinion of war in Vietnam suddenly improved! Even more dramatically, a majority of people thought that World War I was a mistake until World War II approached when the percentage thinking it was a good war doubled.
- The worst school murders actually happened in 1927, though it did not involve shootings. It’s a horrifying story.
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Virginia Tech shootings
This is horrible. I just checked the news for the first time all day. 31 people dead?
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Taxes done
Surprisingly they were within a few hundred dollars of what I thought they would be, which is not to say what I’m happy with, but at least they’re filed.
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A paper worth reading
On the rise of privateers. We’ve let this option go as our country has become wealthier, but it’s worth looking at.
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Best headline of the year so far
From the Grand Rapids Press: Snow won’t dampen global-warming rallies
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What I got wrong about the Iraq war
I was going to write this a while back, but here it is. I was on the fence about it at the time, but history did not to wait for me to reach a position.
What I was wrong about with regard to Iraq (2003 assumptions)
- I thought we would have over 10,000 military deaths by this point.
- I thought the war would take about a year of heavy fighting.
- I thought it would be over after that year
- I thought the Sunni-Shia split would not play out as it has, rather that it would stay at or around the 2004 level
- I thought we would have much more negative blowback – for all of the shouting and protests, not much has really happened on that front
- I thought we would have found at least chemical weapons (in large quantities)
- I did not think that Kurdistan would turn out as well as it has
- I thought Turkey would have intervened in some form by now
- I thought al Qaida would have benefited more, it seems that they have been hurt (in terms of their ideological appeal) by the Iraq war (more on that later)
- I did not think that we would still have this many troops (fighting) at this point.
- I thought that there would be much more conventional combat, and much less of this gang warfare
- I thought that the Iraqis would have scored at least three major wins (surprise attacks in some fashion) in the scores of battles that have happened since the war began. They don’t seem to have won any against American troops.
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Friday round up
- Crime Crews
- Where the Fortune 50 CEOs went to college – appearances by Georgia State and Georgia Tech, surprisingly little Ivy League.
- Government menstrual forms, really, to quote
Women officers must write down their “detailed menstrual history and history of LMP [last menstrual period] including date of last confinement [maternity leave],” the form says.
I like the use of the term “confinement” for maternity leave.
- Solar Power – I was wondering why companies like this didn’t already exist. Essentially they install (and own) solar panels on top of your house, and you buy it from them them at the rate you’re paying the power company. I met them yesterday at the Home Show at the World Congress Center. A good idea.
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Chinese people cannot know my wisdom
I’m being blocked by the Great Firewall of China. How cruel.
Oddly enough, Jargondatabase.com is freely available.