Double Standards in Evaluating Violence by Self-Identified Christians and Muslims

There are no large differences between Republicans (10 percent), Democrats (17 percent) and independents (14 percent) in views of whether a self-identified Christian who commits acts of violence in the name of Christianity is really Christian. However, there are significant partisan differences in views about whether a self-identified Muslim who commits acts of violence in the name of Islam is really Muslim. A majority (55 percent) of Republicans say that such a person is Muslim, compared about 4-in-10 Democrats (40 percent) and independents (39 percent). Majorities of Democrats (51 percent) and independents (53 percent) disagree that a self-identified Muslim who commits acts of violence is really Muslim.

White evangelical Protestants stand out strongly from other major religious groups in evaluating the religiosity of a self-identified Muslim who commits violence. Only roughly 4-in-10 white mainline Protestants (41 percent), Catholics (39 percent), black Protestants (36 percent), and non-Christian religiously affiliated Americans (35 percent) say a self-proclaimed Muslims who commits acts of violence in the name of Islam is really Muslim. In contrast, nearly 6-in-10 (57 percent) white evangelical Protestants believe that self-identified Muslims who commit acts of violence in the name of Islam are really Muslim.

Via What It Means to Be an American: Attitudes in an Increasingly Diverse America Ten Years after 9/11 | Brookings Institution.

The racial demographics of police arrest rates in the USA

Crowdsourcing air hijacking prevention in 1968

Airline hijackings were so common in the late 60s that every passenger aircraft included in its standard kit the landing instructions for the Havana airport. Many of hijackings were simply to get to Havana with not much more of a political agenda. Many hijackers were common criminals fleeing justice.

Rand Paul on marijuana decriminalisation by target audience

Are the baby boomers a bunch of druggies?

Image: http://acidcow.com/

Marijuana arrests by Presidential administration

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England riots culprits jailed for 1,800 years, which deterred crime

The level of lawlessness was shocking and wholly inexcusable. The imposition of severe sentences, intended to provide both punishment and deterrence, must follow…

The context hugely aggravates the seriousness of each individual offence … the sheer numbers involved may have led some of the offenders to believe that they were untouchable and would escape detection…

When there is wanton and vicious violence of gross degree the court is not concerned with whether it originates from gang rivalry or from political motives. It is the degree of mob violence that matters and the extent to which the public peace is broken.”

The Lord Chief Justice Judge

The response of the criminal fraternity in London  to the sentences handed out  during the London riots was very business like. Offending for those particular sentences dropped. Criminals substituted to other forms of crime to pursue their chosen occupation as a criminal in light of the changed incentives:

a significant drop in riot crimes across London in the six months after the riots, consistent with a deterrence effect from the tougher sentencing. More evidence of general deterrence comes from the observation that crime also fell in the post‐riot aftermath in areas where rioting did not take place.

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An honest question for the Anti-science Left

Indian parents are scaling walls to help their kids cheat because economics

I ask what is the point of passing an exam where there is widespread cheating, and in consequence the exam has little credibility. What is the point of holding an exam when there is widespread cheating?

If you seek to learn skills, cheating would be totally counter-productive. But if the exam simply produces a credential that people accept, students look for ways to get the credential as painlessly as possible.

Cheating works best if the signalling model of education is true. Students should cheat more in those courses that offer the least productivity gains.

Serious cheaters have been found to be more likely to be younger and have a lower grade point average. But as  argues

“I sometimes find evidence of cheating on exams but I rarely take action, I don’t have to.  Almost invariably the cheaters get abysmally low grades even without penalty.

Some people I know get annoyed when students without evident handicap ask for and receive special treatment such as extra time on exams.  I comply without rancor as the extra time never seems to help.  Over the years I have had a number of students ask for incompletes.  None have ever become completes.

I call this the law of below averages.”

 

On marijuana, Obama is content to evolve rather than to lead the way – The Washington Post

For a lame duck president doing a lot to cultivate his legacy, Obama is really dragging his feet here if he is in any way a social liberal

via On marijuana, Obama is content to evolve rather than to lead the way – The Washington Post.

Yet another gender gap that dare not speak its name

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Marijuana consumption by education level in the USA

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Lifetime likelihood of imprisonment in the USA

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Deirdre McCloskey on corruption and economic development

Deirdre McCloskey on corruption and economic growth

via Book Review: ‘Thieves of State’ by Sarah Chayes & ‘A Republic No More’ by Jay Cost – WSJ.

Police car chase just went by my sleepy street

I don’t fancy his chances of getting away as he was when chased by a motorbike. No other cars were in pursuit. The street past our house is particularly narrow and winding.

A police motorbike will have no trouble keeping up with the fleeing car safely for as long as it takes. The real risk is if the fleeing driver crashes into another car or runs over a pedestrian.

The car that was attempting to escape was a pretty dumpy old car, so I have no idea what he was trying to escape from. Who steals a dumpy old car either of itself or as a getaway car?

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