Showing posts with label Fake News. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fake News. Show all posts

Tuesday, January 02, 2018

A gun in your home increases your risk of death

A 2014 study by the American College of Physicians has "determined" that having a gun in your home increases your risk of violent death.

Well, we're all going to die ... that's a 100% data factum which has not been addressed by this study.

Drum roll, please:

The Accessibility of Firearms and Risk for Suicide and Homicide Victimization Among Household MembersA Systematic Review and Meta-analysis | Annals of Internal Medicine | American College of Physicians:
 Background: Research suggests that access to firearms in the home increases the risk for violent death.
 Purpose: To understand current estimates of the association between firearm availability and suicide or homicide.
Firearm accessibility was determined by survey interviews in most studies;
misclassification of accessibility may have occurred. Heterogeneous populations of varying risks were synthesized to estimate pooled odds of death.
 Conclusion: Access to firearms is associated with risk for completed suicide and being the victim of homicide.
Keep an eye on that balderdash-ish statement about "misclassification", because here's the punch line, where the authors list their data sources:

The "Kellerman Studies" of 1992 and 1993 are listed among their primary sources.

The Atlantic ("The False Promise of Gun Control": March, 1994) provided a long-winded (and generally incomprehensible) explanation of why Kellerman's conclusions ("a gun in your home creates a 43% chance that you will die a violent death", or words to that effect). don't prove the point that he .... and this later study ... were trying to make.

Invester's Hub provides a much more to-the-point explanation of why Kellerman has been debunked.

(There are other sources, but this one hasn't been referred to before here, and it seems to be a more legitimate source than the gun-websites I've linked to previously.)


It has been said that "The Best Way To Tell A Lie Is To Tell The Truth Unconvincingly".

The corollary is equally valid; the best way to tell the truth is to tell the lie unconvincingly.

Any study which cites Kellerman as a reference source is readily identifiable as a lie.

The mere fact that you have a firearm in your home is not a sound basis for the conclusion that you will die a violent death ... unless you are a criminal and have a gun in your home to defend yourself against your rivals in crime, which typifies Kellerman's study subjects.

If you are a law-abiding citizen, the presence of a gun in your home only provided you with a valid means of defense against home-invasion. 

If you use that gun to attack family members, it only proves that you are already the victim of your own flawed personality.

Nothing more.

Oh, and the quote about "Pooled odds of Death"?  That's just bullshit.

Tuesday, June 27, 2017

The 200 round arsenal

Scalise upgraded as gunman James Hodgkinson had 200 rounds of ammo in storage unit, FBI investigators say | Fox News:

Meanwhile, FBI officials said leftist gunman James Hodgkinson had more than 200 rounds of ammunition at a local storage unit when he attacked Republican lawmakers as they practiced for the annual Congressional baseball game.
Three things:  Along with most Americans, I'm pleased to hear that Representative Steve Scalise is no longer on the Critical List.   "Fair Condition" sounds very encouraging.

Second, what's the big deal with JimmyThe Arseman having 200 rounds of ammunition in a STORAGE locker?  What has that to do with anything?

And third, if that  was intended as the "Shocker Line" ... I've got over 200 rounds of ammunition on my kitchen counter at this moment;   that's the leftover .45 caliber ammunition * I didn't shoot up when I went to the range this morning.

I've also got 3500 bullets in .45 and 10mm calibers sitting by my reloading bench;  every one of them will be used to poke holes in cardboard targets.
Let's see you make a headline of THAT, Hoplophobia America!  

* (Thanks again, Ammoman; those .45 samples you sent functioned flawlessly in my 1911!)

Thursday, June 15, 2017

"We didn't do NUTTIN' to him!"

Naw, honest, officer.  We didn't do NUTTIN to him!
We wuz just out here playing a little B-Ball, and this white dude just started to AK us.   We never seen him before, we don't even know why he even be here.
Me and my bro's just wanted to catch a few rays and get in a little practice.  We got a big game coming up wit' other guys in da hood, you know?  Alla sudden this honky asshole dude starts blazing away ...  we dint know who or why, we jest hunkered down and tried to get small behind the fence.  One of my homies got shot in the ASS, y'know?
We in the PARK, y'know?  Ever'body knows you don't mess wit' folks in da PARK!
Lucky t'ing, one a the guys had his homies wit him?  And they started blazing back at the honky wit' the AK.  Y'know?  Dat honky gots what he deserved, y'know?  We got RULZ in dis hood, the park is whatcha call it ... off limits, y'know? 
Yeah, I glad they nined his ass.   He got no RIGHT   Y'know?

Could of been worse.  The assailant might have attacked U.S. Congressmen.

Imagine how fraught with political implications that would have been.

Why ... something might even have been done!

Sunday, June 11, 2017

Fake News of Tom Cruise; Despicable!

Tom Cruise snapped in Queenstown while in New Zealand for Mission: Impossible 6 - NZ Herald:
Tom Cruise has been photographed at Queenstown Airport while in New Zealand filming part of Mission: Impossible 6. The movie star was snapped earlier today when the helicopter he was travelling in landed at the airport to refuel, said the photographer, who didn't want to be named.

Fake News!

The headline says "Tom Cruise Snapped", but it didn't mean the movie star "Freaked Out".
It just means someone photographed him.  "Snapped", as in photo, rather than "Snapped", made irrationally angry.

Thus was 'non-news' ... a boring means-nothing publicity article ... elevated to the Fake News implication that there was an angry altercation involved.

Just one more example of why, when you read news articles, you need to bore down to read the details before you make a value judgement.

I wouldn't have mentioned it, but lately we have experienced far too many instances where Flaks (political publicists) have used misdirection to draw attention to their paymasters, for no better reason than to get their name in front of the public attention.

Despicable.

(By the way, I've added a new category of posts: "Fake News".  It categorizes news reports which distort the "news" for selfish purposes which are NOT intended to further your understanding of otherwise-not-newsworthy events.)