Daily Archives: 6 March 2007
Statistics for the Completely Confused
It’s things like this that make the IDS my favorite newspaper. Today’s staff editorial argues (sensibly) that proposed legislation to fine vendors who sell objectionable video games to children will be ineffective for the two simple reasons that (a) these policies don’t generally work anyway (look at alcohol and minors) and (b) the problem of violence is just a teeeeeeny bit more complex than what video games a kid plays. Right – so what does this rational article have to do with the IDS, you ask? Weeeeelll, it was followed by a dissent. In brief: A 2000 study published in
Oops, we did it Again!
Yet another politician is forced by PC thought police to apologize for saying the right thing. This one is Mario Dumont, the ADQ candidate for premier in Quebec’s current election. The scandalous quote? “We keep hearing this song every year about violence against women,” Plante said in one excerpt. “What about violence against men?” Indeed. What about it? Dumont’s comments were in reference to an annual day of remembrance for a 1989 massacre at the Ecole Polytechnique in Montreal in which 14 women were shot to death by a man who claimed to be “fighting feminism.” Of course, he also
