Archive for February, 2013

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40% followup.

Tuesday, February 5th, 2013

Previously on WCD, we talked a little about the “40% of all gun sales are done without background checks” figure.

Ted Cruz has pointed out some of the same holes we discussed in those figures, and “Politifact Texas” decided they’d fact check him.

What did they find?

The 40 percent figure originated in a 1997 National Institute of Justice study by researchers Philip Cook of Duke University and Jens Ludwig of the University of Chicago, who examined data from a 1994 telephone survey about gun ownership taken months after the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act of 1993 took effect, mandating background checks of individuals buying guns at gun shops.

The law doesn’t apply to private sellers at gun shows, flea markets or people who post firearms for sale on the Internet.

What Politifact means by “people who post firearms for sale on the Internet” is unclear. If they mean people who sell to other people locally, that’s quasi-true. If a firearm – any firearm, rifle, pistol, or shotgun – is being shipped rather than sold face to face, the gun has to be shipped from a licensed dealer to a licensed dealer, and the receiving dealer has to do a background check before turning over the firearm.

Of the 2,568 households surveyed, only 251 people answered the question about the origin of their gun.
In those answers, Cook and Ludwig found that 35.7 percent of respondents reported obtaining their gun from somewhere other than a licensed dealer. (That has been rounded up to 40 percent.)

Rounding does not work that way!

When the Washington Post’s fact-checking project, the Fact Checker, asked Ludwig to revisit the data, the newspaper said, results suggested that purchases without background checks amounted to 14 to 22 percent, not 40 percent.

By the way, Politifact also quotes the Post as pointing out the small sample size means there’s a large margin of error: “plus or minus six percentage points”. So it could be anywhere from 8% to 28%. And by the way…

“…the survey was taken in late 1994, eight months after the Brady law went into effect, and the questions were asked about gun purchases in the previous two years. So some of the answers concerned gun purchases that took place in a pre-Brady environment.”

And more:

For his part, Cook, the other study author, told us he has no idea whether the 40 percent figure remains reliable. “This survey was done almost 20 years ago. … It’s clear there are a lot of transactions that are not through dealers,” Cook said. “How many, we’re not really clear on it. … We would say it’s a very old number.”
Other scholars had similar views.
“I don’t see how anyone could know that number,” said James Jacobs, Center for Research in Crime and Justice at New York University School of Law.

More:

The surveys took place after the law took effect, Cook said, but it’s correct that the vast majority of gun acquisitions identified by respondents took place before then, given that respondents were asked to focus on guns acquired within two years, meaning 1992 and 1993.

And there were 18 states that required background checks prior to Brady. But:

Even so, Cook told us, he and Ludwig did not use information on individual states in doing their analysis. He emailed that “the survey provides an accurate representation of the nation as a whole but not of individual states.” Also, he stressed, the survey had no questions about whether there had been a background check and respondents also weren’t asked the states where they had acquired their guns. He agreed there is “no way to reach any conclusions about background checks for any of the transactions that are reported in the survey.”

So, summing up: the figure was never 40%, but 36% (see, that’s how rounding works), and is probably closer to 20% before the margin of error kicks in, which could make the actual figure anywhere from 8% to 22%. And the survey was conducted in a pre-Brady environment. And the researchers themselves say (again I quote) there is “no way to reach any conclusions about background checks for any of the transactions that are reported in the survey”.

PolitiFact’s rating: “Half True”. I see nothing in their summary that refutes anything Ted Cruz said, or that justifies the “half true” rating.

Posted in Clippings, Guns, Media | 1 Comment »

2^57,885,161 – 1

Tuesday, February 5th, 2013

I think everyone knows I geek out over pi, and the calculation thereof.

I’m not sure that folks know that I also geek out over prime numbers, primality testing, and the calculation of large prime numbers.

But I do. And we have a new largest known prime.

Posted in Clippings, Geek | Comments Closed

Random notes: February 5, 2013.

Tuesday, February 5th, 2013

In Idaho’s graceful, striated-marble Capitol, home to one of the more ardent and adamant state legislatures in the nation in standing up for the Second Amendment, lawmakers from both parties say that a torrent of public passion, even panic, about new proposed federal gun rules is pushing in only one direction: toward more guns, not fewer.

Hurrah Idaho!

First, they came for the owners of modern sporting rifles, and I didn’t speak out because I hate guns and want everyone to live in peace and harmony. Then they came to shut down the raves…

A concert company featured in a Times report Sunday detailing the drug-related deaths of 14 people who attended raves denounced the story in an online statement and took to social media to urge fans to speak out.

More:

Many of the concerts were staged with the blessing of local governments hungry for the revenue they brought in.
James Penman, the San Bernardino city attorney, said economics should never be a justification for raves. He long has urged officials to disallow the events at the National Orange Show Events Center there. Coroners’ reports show that two people have fatally overdosed at National Orange Show raves.
“The city should have zero tolerance for any activity where drugs are an integral part,” Penman said. “A rave without drugs is like a rodeo without horses. They don’t happen.”

Yesterday’s update from the Bell trial: Craig Rhudy of the “L.A. County district attorney’s office’s public integrity division” is on the stand now. So far, he’s testified that “former council members drew most of their nearly $100,000 salaries from panels that seldom met.”

Rhudy has charts.

The chart for 2006, for instance, showed that out of 20 City Council meetings, the Solid Waste and Recycling Authority met just once; the Community Housing and Public Finance Authorities each met five times, and the Surplus Property Authority had four meetings.
All of the defendants, except [Luis] Artiga, who was appointed in 2008, were paid $12,857 for each authority served in 2006.

In 2007, the Finance Authority met once, while the Housing Authority met twice. “By 2009, in spite of the fact that the panels continued to meet only sporadically, the pay for serving on each had jumped to $18,368, according to Rhudy’s chart.” In 2010, the Housing Authority was the only one that had a meeting.

And why does this matter? “In total, the defendants drew more than $1.3 million of their salaries from the authorities in question, Rhudy confirmed.”

I missed noting this over the weekend, but the LAT also ran a story on the “mountain of lawsuits” Bell is dealing with.

Former city leaders are suing the city. Bell is suing the former leaders. The city is suing its former lawyers. A European bank is suing Bell.

And the SEC and IRS are both investigating Bell’s bond sales. Here’s a great story:

Bell’s biggest concern is a lawsuit filed by Dexia Credit Local, part of a European banking group, over the city’s default on $35 million in bonds. The case involves 25 acres of undeveloped land near the 710 Freeway that Bell bought from the federal government with plans to lease it to a railroad.
Dexia bought all the lease revenue bonds the city issued to pay for the deal, which came to more than twice the city’s annual budget.
The deal went bad when an environmental group sued, arguing the city had failed to conduct the required environmental review. The judge agreed. Unable to lease the property — now worth far less than the bonds — Bell had no income to pay back Dexia.

The Richard III story has been reported everywhere, but I want to throw in a link to the Richard III Society, another group that deserves your support. And if you haven’t read it, I commend to your attention Josephine Tey’s The Daughter of Time.

Posted in Books, Clippings, Guns, History, Law, Sarcasm | Comments Closed

Today’s Austin quasi-gun show update.

Tuesday, February 5th, 2013

I have written previously about the activities of the Austin Public Safety Commission, an appointed “advisory body to the city council on all budgetary and policy matters concerning public safety, including matters related to the Austin Police Department, the Austin Fire Department, and the Austin/Travis County Emergency Medical Services Department.”

The Public Safety Commission, it should be noted, is different from the Greater Austin Crime Commission, which has engaged in gun buybacks in the past.

I call that point out because the Public Safety Commission issued a series of “recommendations” to the city council yesterday. As reported in the Statesman, APSC recommends:

  1. “banning the leasing of government-owned facilities to gun shows”.
  2. “vendors at such shows to conduct background screenings”. This doesn’t make a lot of sense: we’re going to ban gun shows on public property, but we’re going to require vendors to conduct background screenings at the gun shows we’ve banned? I don’t believe the city can require vendors to conduct background checks at gun shows on private property; I think this is superseded by state preemption law.
  3. “…enforcing a state law prohibiting the carrying of firearms — except by those with concealed hand gun permits — in public parks, public meetings of government bodies, non-firearm related events at schools, colleges or professional events and political rallies, parades and meetings.” Wow, that’s a daring recommendation, guys. Enforce existing law.
  4. Instruct the “Austin City Council, Travis County Commissioner’s Court and Austin Community College and Austin Independent School District boards of trustees” to “divest ownership in any companies that manufacture and sell assault weapons or high capacity magazines to the public”.
  5. “Direct the Austin Police Department and Travis County Sheriff’s Office to study gun buy-back programs and come back with recommendations.” Oh, boy, I hope they do. As you may have noted at the link above, the last gun buy-back turned into a gun show. If they have another buy-back, I’d love to take a shot at picking up some more nice older Smiths.
  6. “Collect data on guns used in crimes”. I’m not sure from the context of the Statesman article what this means. I was listening to KLBJ-AM briefly last night, and caught part of a story on the commission recommendations; apparently, what they’re looking for is information about where crime guns come from. Are they stolen, legally purchased, bought at gun shows, etc.?

It is perhaps also worth noting that former mayor Will Wynn and current mayor Lee Leffingwell are members of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, and that Wynn is one of the members of that group who has been convicted of a criminal offense.

The more I hear out of these people, the better a recall election sounds.

Posted in Austin, Clippings, Guns, Law, Politics, Travis County | Comments Closed

Bread blogging: Sourdough Chèvre Bread

Monday, February 4th, 2013

This recipe is from Brody and Apter, pages 149-152.

I followed the recipe without deviations or alterations, carefully measuring out exactly 5 ounces of goat cheese (interesting that Brody and Apter call for 5 ounces, when goat cheese is usually sold in 4 ounce packages in my neck of the woods), using my on-going sourdough starter, and yes, even using the powdered goats milk.

How did it turn out?

(more…)

Posted in Bread, Food | Comments Closed

Somebody has to pay for all those Dagwood sandwiches.

Sunday, February 3rd, 2013

The Duluth News Tribune is replacing “Blondie” with “Pearls Before Swine” starting February 6th.

I’ve pretty much given up newspaper comics, but I did kind of like “Pearls Before Swine”. As for “Blondie”, it was always one of those strips that took less effort to read than it did to skip; kind of banal, but not as offensive as “The Amazing Glacial Spider-Man”. (“This week: Spider-Man crosses the street! And we flash back to his origin yet again!”)

What makes this story noteworthy to me, though, is the paper’s reasoning for dropping “Blondie”:

…the DNT is charged roughly twice as much for “Blondie” as for any other strip, and more than five times higher than some. The Sunday “Blondie” is billed at $62.01 per week. By contrast, “Hi and Lois” costs $32.22, and “Beetle Bailey” only $11.67. Both of those are also distributed by King.

(“King” is King Features Syndicate. They also syndicate “Spider-Man”, and a small number of actually decent comics.)

(Wow. “Mandrake the Magician” is still being syndicated?)

It appears that the News-Tribune has a paid circulation of just under 30,000, based on the most current information I can find. Let’s be generous and call it 30,000 even: if I did the math right, that means they’re being charged about 0.2 cents per subscriber per week, or about 10.75 cents per subscriber per year. This is kind of an interesting insight into the business. King Features certainly does not make this information available online (they want you to call their sales weasels), and I can’t turn up current information for other syndicates either.

(Hattip: Jimbo.)

Posted in Clippings, Media | Comments Closed

More on the Patricia Cook case.

Saturday, February 2nd, 2013

The verdict stands.

Former Culpeper Police Department officer Daniel Harmon-Wright will serve three years in prison. (Edited to add: Well, technically, jail. “…in Virginia, sentences measured in months, like in his client’s case, the person convicted serves their imprisonment in a county jail.” This doesn’t make a lot of sense to me, though: if I’m sentenced to 99 years, I go to prison, but if I’m sentenced to 1,188 months, I go to jail? I’d always thought the dividing line was: a year or less, jail. More than a year, prison.)

Harmon-Wright said he heard about the opening at the Culpeper PD in 2006 through his mother, administrative secretary to the police chief at the time. Friday, he described his colleagues at the police department as dedicated and professional saying it was “a thrill” to serve the community as part of the force. He added that after the events of Feb. 9, 2012 that he would never consider a job in law enforcement again — as a convicted felon Harmon-Wright would be ineligible to work in law enforcement or own a firearm. His lawyer said he would consider appealing the conviction.

Ah, yes, his mother. That would be the woman charged with “uttering” for allegedly aaltering her son’s police department personnel records.

(Previously. Previously.)

Posted in Clippings, Cops, Law | Comments Closed

Banana republicans on trial: February 2, 2013.

Saturday, February 2nd, 2013

Yesterday’s development from the Bell trial: patented Rizzo confuse-o-vision!

Bell’s former top administrator went to great lengths to confuse City Council members, purposely making resolutions ambiguous and complex so they’d have trouble understanding the documents, a prosecution witness in the city’s corruption trial testified Friday.

Lourdes Garcia, the $422,000 a year “former director of administrative services” went on to testify that “former City Manager Robert Rizzo regarded council members as unsophisticated and easily manipulated”. And the things “Ratso” Rizzo did were “all justifiable because ‘it was for the greater good of the organization.'”

It gets even better.

In one instance, Rizzo complained after hearing that an employee was taking an ethics class.
“Mr. Rizzo was always giving me directions that gave me the perspective that he did not want ethics in the organization,” she said.

Posted in California Über Alles, Clippings, Law | Comments Closed

Captain Renault, call your office, please.

Saturday, February 2nd, 2013

The NYT would like for you to know that there’s illegal gambling going on in New Orleans.

Michael said he first saw one at church, when he was 11 or 12. He was sitting next to his grandfather in one of the pews. Just before the sermon began, his grandfather pulled him close. “I know church is going to bore you for the next 45 minutes,” his grandfather said as he slipped him a card, “so take a look at this, make your three plays, and we’ll talk about it on the way home.” Within a few years, Michael and his brother were making bets through their own bookie.

Posted in Clippings, Law | Comments Closed

A theater critic once bit my sister.

Saturday, February 2nd, 2013

I am absolutely mind croggled. Utterly speechless.

The “Beautiful Soup Theater Collective” did a revival of “Moose Murders” by Arthur Bicknell.

Why does this leave me stunned? Because “Moose Murders” is a legendary fiasco, one that opened and closed on the same night. Here’s the original Frank Rich review from the NYT.

And here’s Charles Isherwood’s review of the revival:

…the odium surrounding “Moose Murders” was not founded on myth. Although Mr. Bicknell has apparently done some rewriting — a reference to Martha Stewart would have been obscure three decades ago — the play is every bit as inane and inept as history has recorded. And, sad to say, there’s no joy to be had in attending its exhumation. It’s like attending a wake for someone who died 30 years ago, then being served Champagne that’s been sitting open during the interim.

(By the way, the producers of “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” say they’ve “re-shuffled” funds and are going ahead. Previously.)

Posted in Clippings, Theatre | Comments Closed

When are we going to get to the fireworks factory?

Saturday, February 2nd, 2013

How about “never”? Is “never” good enough for you?

A truck laden with fireworks exploded on an elevated expressway in central China on Friday, unleashing a blast that threw vehicles 30 yards to the ground below and killing at least nine people, state news reports said.

Posted in Bridges, Clippings, Explosives, Roads | Comments Closed

Banana republicans on trial: February 1, 2013.

Friday, February 1st, 2013

Lourdes Garcia, Bell’s former “director of administrative services”, who was paid $422,000 a year in that job, is on the stand now.

Remember former councilman Victor Bello? The guy who was paid a six-figure salary in his job as “assistant to the food bank coordinator”?

Garcia

…testified Thursday that she was ordered to draw up a contract for a departing council member that paid him nearly $100,000 a year, even though the job he was taking could have been handled by a volunteer.

Garcia also testified that Robert “Ratso” Rizzo

…told her in 2008 to prepare a document understating his salary and the pay of council members.
“What’s not true on the document?” Deputy Dist. Atty. Edward Miller asked.
“The salary of the council,” Garcia said. “It doesn’t represent the full amount they were getting at the time.”
“What about the city administrator officer?”
“No, it’s not the right amount, ” Garcia said. “It’s only partial.”

I’m worried about the way things are going. So far, it seems to be “all Rizzo, all the time”, and there’s been very little discussion of what the indicted council members actually did (or did not) do. Of course, we’ve only heard from two witnesses so far. But if this keeps up, I’m concerned that the council members are going to get off by throwing Rizzo and Spaccia under the bus. And then I can see Rizzo and Spaccia getting off by, in turn, stating that they were following the directions given to them by the city council members, who would be free to testify for Rizzo and Spaccia.

Posted in California Über Alles, Clippings, Law | Comments Closed

Random notes: February 1, 2013.

Friday, February 1st, 2013

Nobody needs a high-capacity assault snowmobile. Actually, I’m not even sure the general public should be allowed snowmobiles; perhaps we need to limit those to the police and military, people who have had special snowmobile training.

This is intended to enrage you:

At the 11th hour of its deadline to do so, Mayor Mitch Landrieu’s administration on Thursday asked a judge to allow it to withdraw from a federal consent decree aimed at implementing sweeping reforms in the New Orleans Police Department.

The request is based on three factors:

  1. The consent decree “failed to disclose costs to fix Orleans Parish Prison until after the NOPD consent decree was executed”.
  2. Former prosecutor Sal Perricone and the NOLA.com comments scandal.
  3. There are questions about whether the consent decree’s provisions regulating secondary employment for police officers are compliant with federal labor law.

Previously. I am still unable to find an execution date for Antoinette Frank.

Over the past several weeks, dozens of other sheriffs from across the country have reacted with similar public opposition to Mr. Obama’s call for stiffer gun laws, releasing a deluge of letters, position papers and statements laying out their arguments in stark terms. Their jurisdictions largely include rural areas, and stand in sharp contrast to those of urban police chiefs, who have historically supported tougher gun regulations.

“C’est un Nagra. C’est suisse, et tres, tres precis.” (I’m surprised that quote, or the English translation, isn’t on the IMDB page for “Diva”.)

Heh. Heh. Heh.

Nine current and former Philadelphia Traffic Court judges were charged with conspiracy and fraud Thursday, capping a three-year FBI probe into what authorities said was rampant ticket-fixing and pervasive corruption on the bench.

The judges are being accused of pretty much what you’d expect: taking bribes to fix tickets.

According to the indictment, [Fortunato] Perri [one of the indicted judges – DB] got free landscaping and a patio for assisting one unnamed contractor with “dozens of Traffic Court citations.” He also is accused of accepting free auto services, towing, and a load of shrimp and crab cakes from Alfano, whose company, Century Motors, ran a towing service.

You know, I like shrimp. I like crab cakes. I wouldn’t go to prison for them, though.

Posted in Clippings, Cops, Guns, Law, Obits, Rage, Sarcasm, Schadenfreude, Sports | Comments Closed

God to Koch: Drop Dead.

Friday, February 1st, 2013

Obit watch: former mayor of New York City, and former judge on “The People’s Court”, Edward Koch.

For those who don’t understand the reference: as a member of Congress, Koch lobbied for increased aid to New York City during the 1970s, when the city was broke. President Ford turned down the city, leading to a famous NY Daily News headline:

Posted in Clippings, Media, Obits, Politics, TV | Comments Closed

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