Article

2008-01-13 Fifth Column

NYT: Combat Veterans Are Homicidal Maniacs

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Posted by Anonymoose 2008-01-13 10:41|| || Front Page|| [11135 views ] Top
File under: Iraqi Insurgency

#1 Well, they can't write about the success happening in Iraq.

What else are they supposed to do?

Posted by danking70 2008-01-13 10:59|| 2008-01-13 10:59|| Front Page Top

#2 OK, now they are recycling the "babykiller" crap from Vietnam.

Posted by OldSpook 2008-01-13 11:01|| 2008-01-13 11:01|| Front Page Top

Posted by doc 2008-01-13 11:01|| 2008-01-13 11:01|| Front Page Top

#4 Scurrilous.

Posted by Grumenk Philalzabod0723 2008-01-13 11:20|| 2008-01-13 11:20|| Front Page Top

#5 Note to the NYT staff and writers. Are you still breathing? If so, then they can't be that homicidal.

Posted by Procopius2k 2008-01-13 11:23|| 2008-01-13 11:23|| Front Page Top

Redacted by moderator. Comments may be redacted for trolling, violation of standards of good manners, or plain stupidity. Please correct the condition that applies and try again. Contents may be viewed in the sinktrap. Further violations may result in banning.

Posted by sinse 2008-01-13 11:39|| 2008-01-13 11:39|| Front Page Top

#7 Armed Liberal fisks the Slimes.

But as usual, I keep asking the simple question - well, what does it mean? How do these 121 murderers compare with the base rate of murderers in the population?

And the answer appears to be damn well.

Read the whole thing.

Posted by doc 2008-01-13 11:56|| 2008-01-13 11:56|| Front Page Top

#8 A long time ago I read a thread about radiation and death for astronauts that leave the protection of the Van Allen Belt. This is one of the 'we didn't walk on the moon it was all fake' kind of things. Then I learned two or four moonwalkers died of cancer, this seemed really high to me. Then it was pointed out that statistically this is exactly the same as the cancer average in the general population.

Not saying that space travel to the moon doesn't risk radiation and cancer here, I'm just saying that one set of data without comparison is useless. I think Doc is making the same point for this one. Thanks Doc.

Posted by rjschwarz 2008-01-13 13:39|| 2008-01-13 13:39|| Front Page Top

#9 OK, NYT, now run the numbers on products of single-parent households.

Posted by Rob Crawford">Rob Crawford 2008-01-13 14:24|| 2008-01-13 14:24|| Front Page Top

#10 COmpared to D.C.? Detroit? L.A.?

I can't believe they make this stuff up.

Posted by Bobby 2008-01-13 14:36|| 2008-01-13 14:36|| Front Page Top

#11 I can't believe they make this stuff up.

sure you can... I just can't believe they get paid to do it

Posted by Frank G">Frank G 2008-01-13 14:38|| 2008-01-13 14:38|| Front Page Top

#12 I know a female veteran of Iraq convicted of vehicular homicide while driving drunk, but she is the daughter of an alcoholic single parent and why she joined the Army! Everyone criticized her for throwing away the opportunities she was given by the military and her outstanding performance as a soldier in the Green Zone while there touted in her defense at the trial.

Posted by Danielle 2008-01-13 14:53|| 2008-01-13 14:53|| Front Page Top

#13 ok my comment gets sinktrapped while there was one on here the other day using the "N" word repeatedly and it never got tossed

Posted by sinse 2008-01-13 15:17|| 2008-01-13 15:17|| Front Page Top

#14 hell they should burn the new york times down

Posted by sinse 2008-01-13 15:17|| 2008-01-13 15:17|| Front Page Top

#15 Dennis Kucinich and Sean Penn asked for some new material. Their stats were getting stale.

Posted by Super Hose 2008-01-13 15:30|| 2008-01-13 15:30|| Front Page Top

#16 Sinse, that would lower air quality for all of us. The facility could be used to produce blank newsprint that coudl be used by moving companies and cat lovers.

Posted by Super Hose 2008-01-13 15:50|| 2008-01-13 15:50|| Front Page Top

#17 So, how much did Soros pay them for this one?

Posted by Gromomble Oppressor of the Iowans8916 2008-01-13 15:53|| 2008-01-13 15:53|| Front Page Top

#18 Did you know that half the people in the World have below average intelligence?

Posted by g(r)omgoru 2008-01-13 18:15|| 2008-01-13 18:15|| Front Page Top

#19 super hose, i thought that was about all the New York Times was used for anyway

Posted by sinse 2008-01-13 18:43|| 2008-01-13 18:43|| Front Page Top

#20 I'm a lean manufacturing professional. Elimiate the ink. It represents the muda of needless processing.

Posted by Super Hose 2008-01-13 18:52|| 2008-01-13 18:52|| Front Page Top

#21 As of 2005, the homicide rate for Americans aged 18-24, the cohort into which most soldiers fall, was around 27 per 100,000. (The rate for men in that age range would be much higher, of course, since men commit around 88% of homicides. But since most soldiers are also men, I gave civilians the benefit of the doubt and considered gender a wash.)

Next we need to know how many servicemen have returned from Iraq or Afghanistan. A definitive number is no doubt available, but the only hard figure I've seen is that as of last October, moe than 500,000 U.S. Army personnel had served in either Iraq or Afghanistan. Other sources peg the total number of personnel from all branches of the military who have served in the two theaters much higher, e.g. 750,000, 650,000 as of February 2007, or 1,280,000. For the sake of argument, let's say that 700,000 soldiers, Marines, airmen and sailors have returned to the U.S. from service in Iraq or Afghanistan.

Do the math: the 121 alleged instances of homicide identified by the Times, out of a population of 700,000, works out to a rate of 17 per 100,000--quite a bit lower than the overall national rate of around 27.

But wait! The national rate of 27 homicides per 100,000 is an annual rate, whereas the Times' 121 alleged crimes were committed over a period of six years. Which means that, as far as the Times' research shows, the rate of homicides committed by military personnel who have returned from Iraq or Afghanistan is only a fraction of the homicide rate for other Americans aged 18 to 24. Somehow, the Times managed to publish nine pages of anecdotes about the violence wreaked by returning servicemen without ever mentioning this salient fact.

(c/o powerline)

Posted by OldSpook 2008-01-13 20:06|| 2008-01-13 20:06|| Front Page Top

#22 And that, my friends, is a smackdown. The NYT is my bitch.

Posted by OldSpook 2008-01-13 20:07|| 2008-01-13 20:07|| Front Page Top

#23 Jeez, what an 'effing numerical travesty.

So, to summarise recent newspaper themes, we have a military population of homicidal maniacs who commit murders at less than the rate of their civilian cohort; who are suicidal, but at less than the rate of their civilian cohort; and are stupid but have high school graduation rates and higher ed degrees at a greater rate than you know who. Damn the numbers! It's all about The Narrative.

I wonder what the average SAT math score of journalism majors is.

Posted by SteveS 2008-01-13 20:37|| 2008-01-13 20:37|| Front Page Top

#24 #16: Sinse, that would lower air quality for all of us. The facility could be used to produce blank newsprint that could be used by moving companies and cat lovers.

Let them print Zimbob "Dollars", worth about the same page for page. Both worthless.

Posted by Redneck Jim 2008-01-13 21:14|| 2008-01-13 21:14|| Front Page Top

#25 Super Hose and Old Spook both win, with doc coming in close behind. :-)

Posted by trailing wife">trailing wife 2008-01-13 23:36|| 2008-01-13 23:36|| Front Page Top

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