An excerpt from the Daily News, 10/7/07 brings home the horrors that anti gun groups and their supporters make possible when they succeed in disarming honest citizens.
A shirtless madman wielding stolen knives went on a bloody midtown rampage yesterday - stabbing a restaurant worker and a psychologist walking her dog before being shot by an off-duty cop, authorities said.
Deranged Lee Coleman stood wild-eyed over the dog-walker, methodically plunging a knife into her body and face over and over - even pausing to change knives as the woman lay in a pool of blood, screaming for help.
"He was chopping down on her," said Andrew Fink, 29, who was getting into a cab when the attack took place. "I saw him hit her at least 10 times. She was screaming and crawling along the street and people were running away.
Not everyone would have been running away if something like this occurred in one of the majority of States that allow their citizens to carry concealed weapons. This was an easy crime for an armed citizen to stop almost immediately after it began. However, no one without a weapon is going to stop a criminal wielding a weapon.
Police cannot be everywhere at once. Your fellow citizens pretty much are.
Monday, October 08, 2007
Sunday, October 07, 2007
A few choice quotes about the airline industry
A retired TWA airline pilot sent me the following quotes about the airline industry. I don’t know where he got them or whether they are true quotes. However, they are priceless, so I am posting them.
Sort of what you would expect in a competitive industry.
These days no one can make money on the goddamn airline business. The economics represent sheer hell.- C. R. Smith, President of American Airlines.
A recession is when you have to tighten your belt; depression is when you have no belt to tighten. When you've lost your trousers - you're in the airline business- Sir Adam Thomson.
As of 1992, in fact-though the picture would have improved since then-the money that had been made since the dawn of aviation by all of this country's airline companies was zero. Absolutely zero.- Warren Buffett, billionaire investor, interview 1999.
I think it's dumb as hell, for Christ's sake all right, to sit here and pound the shit out of each other and neither one of us making a fucking dime. Well - I mean, goddamn! What the fuck is the point of it? Nobody asked American to serve Harlingen. Nobody asked American to serve Kansas City. . . . If you're going to overlay every route of American's on top of every route that Braniff has, I can't just sit here and allow you to bury us without giving you our best effort. Oh sure, but Eastern and Delta do the same thing in Atlanta and have for years. Do you have a suggestion for me? Yes, I have a suggestion for you. Raise your goddamn fares twenty percent. I'll raise mine the next morning. You'll make more money and I will too. Robert, we can't talk about pricing. Oh, bullshit, Howard. We can talk about any goddamn thing we want to talk about.- Robert L. Crandall and Howard Putnam, from United States v. American Airlines Inc. and Robert L. Crandall, U.S. District Court, CA383-0325
You fucking academic eggheads! You don't know shit. You can't deregulate >> this industry. You're going to wreck it. You don't know a goddamn thing!-Robert L. Crandall, CEO American Airlines, addressing a Senate lawyer prior to airline deregulation, 1977.
If we went into the funeral business, people would stop dying.-Martin R. Shugrue, Vice-chairman Pan Am.
I've said many times that I'd be thrilled to sell the airline to the employees and our guys said no, we'll take all the money, anyway.- Robert L. Crandall, 1997.
I mean, they get paid an awful lot of money. The only good thing about them is they can't work after they're 60.- Judge Prudence Carter Beatty, New York Southern District Bankruptcy Court, regards Delta Air Lines pilots. Reported in The Wall Street Journal, 18 November 2005.
Sort of what you would expect in a competitive industry.
These days no one can make money on the goddamn airline business. The economics represent sheer hell.- C. R. Smith, President of American Airlines.
A recession is when you have to tighten your belt; depression is when you have no belt to tighten. When you've lost your trousers - you're in the airline business- Sir Adam Thomson.
As of 1992, in fact-though the picture would have improved since then-the money that had been made since the dawn of aviation by all of this country's airline companies was zero. Absolutely zero.- Warren Buffett, billionaire investor, interview 1999.
I think it's dumb as hell, for Christ's sake all right, to sit here and pound the shit out of each other and neither one of us making a fucking dime. Well - I mean, goddamn! What the fuck is the point of it? Nobody asked American to serve Harlingen. Nobody asked American to serve Kansas City. . . . If you're going to overlay every route of American's on top of every route that Braniff has, I can't just sit here and allow you to bury us without giving you our best effort. Oh sure, but Eastern and Delta do the same thing in Atlanta and have for years. Do you have a suggestion for me? Yes, I have a suggestion for you. Raise your goddamn fares twenty percent. I'll raise mine the next morning. You'll make more money and I will too. Robert, we can't talk about pricing. Oh, bullshit, Howard. We can talk about any goddamn thing we want to talk about.- Robert L. Crandall and Howard Putnam, from United States v. American Airlines Inc. and Robert L. Crandall, U.S. District Court, CA383-0325
You fucking academic eggheads! You don't know shit. You can't deregulate >> this industry. You're going to wreck it. You don't know a goddamn thing!-Robert L. Crandall, CEO American Airlines, addressing a Senate lawyer prior to airline deregulation, 1977.
If we went into the funeral business, people would stop dying.-Martin R. Shugrue, Vice-chairman Pan Am.
I've said many times that I'd be thrilled to sell the airline to the employees and our guys said no, we'll take all the money, anyway.- Robert L. Crandall, 1997.
I mean, they get paid an awful lot of money. The only good thing about them is they can't work after they're 60.- Judge Prudence Carter Beatty, New York Southern District Bankruptcy Court, regards Delta Air Lines pilots. Reported in The Wall Street Journal, 18 November 2005.
Saturday, October 06, 2007
Freakonomists and incentives: Missing the point
Steven Levitt’s 10/5/07 Freakonomics column in the New York Times, “Looking to Live in a Community with Low Murder Rates? Try Committing a Crime” points out that the murder rate in prisons is lower than in many big cities.
“Ironically, however, some of the lowest murder rates are found in places where one might suspect just the opposite to be true: U.S. prisons.”
"In 2005, 56 prisoners were murdered. There are roughly 2 million inmates held in state prisons, meaning that the homicide rate per 100,000 prisoners last year was only 2.8. That number is less than half the rate of New York City (6.6 per 100,000) and an order of magnitude lower than Baltimore (42 per 100,000). Indeed, of the 66 largest cities in the United States, only El Paso, Tex. and Honolulu, Hawaii have lower homicide rates than the state prisons.”
Levitt attributes the low murder rate to prisons being a highly controlled environment.
“These low homicide and suicide rates are both testimony to the fact that prisons are incredibly highly controlled environments. Whenever I have visited prisons, I have been amazed at how safe I felt.”
How typical of Levitt to miss the point.
Anyone who has watched movies about prison knows that, for all practical purposes, nothing prevents one inmate from murdering another (sorry, couldn’t resist).
The safety of visitors to a prison does not imply the same safety for the inmates. Furthermore, Levitt’s feelings of safety are irrelevant; a prison visit does not make one a prison safety expert.
Could it be that the low murder rate in prisons reflects the fact that inmates contemplating violence against other inmates recognize that they may end up being the loser? Could it be that John Lott is right that felons are capable of assessing risks and act accordingly? Could it be that one way of lowering violent crime rates is to convince potential perpetrators that attempting a violent crime is dangerous?
In Florida, it is easy to obtain a license to carry a concealed weapon. Potential perpetrators have to wonder whether the weak little old guy (me) could blow their brains out.
“Ironically, however, some of the lowest murder rates are found in places where one might suspect just the opposite to be true: U.S. prisons.”
"In 2005, 56 prisoners were murdered. There are roughly 2 million inmates held in state prisons, meaning that the homicide rate per 100,000 prisoners last year was only 2.8. That number is less than half the rate of New York City (6.6 per 100,000) and an order of magnitude lower than Baltimore (42 per 100,000). Indeed, of the 66 largest cities in the United States, only El Paso, Tex. and Honolulu, Hawaii have lower homicide rates than the state prisons.”
Levitt attributes the low murder rate to prisons being a highly controlled environment.
“These low homicide and suicide rates are both testimony to the fact that prisons are incredibly highly controlled environments. Whenever I have visited prisons, I have been amazed at how safe I felt.”
How typical of Levitt to miss the point.
Anyone who has watched movies about prison knows that, for all practical purposes, nothing prevents one inmate from murdering another (sorry, couldn’t resist).
The safety of visitors to a prison does not imply the same safety for the inmates. Furthermore, Levitt’s feelings of safety are irrelevant; a prison visit does not make one a prison safety expert.
Could it be that the low murder rate in prisons reflects the fact that inmates contemplating violence against other inmates recognize that they may end up being the loser? Could it be that John Lott is right that felons are capable of assessing risks and act accordingly? Could it be that one way of lowering violent crime rates is to convince potential perpetrators that attempting a violent crime is dangerous?
In Florida, it is easy to obtain a license to carry a concealed weapon. Potential perpetrators have to wonder whether the weak little old guy (me) could blow their brains out.
Wednesday, October 03, 2007
Competition and Government
The potential benefit of having states within the United States is the competition it fosters. States with unproductive laws and policies tend to lose out to those with less unproductive laws and policies (note that I avoided any reference to states with productive laws and policies – there are none :-)).
The real purpose of the states’ attorneys’ general is to eliminate as much of the potential benefit from competition as possible.
The following is from the Wall Street Journal’s “Best of the Web Today - September 28, 2007” by James Taranto.
Life Imitates 'Seinfeld
"Newman learns that bottles and cans can be refunded for 10 cents in Michigan (as opposed to 5 cents in many other states). Kramer tells him it's impossible to gain a profit from depositing the bottles in Michigan due to the total gas, tollbooth and truck rental fees that would compile during the trip, but Newman tries to find a way."--Wikipedia description of "The Bottle Deposit, Part 1," aired May 2, 1996.
"Authorities said they arrested 10 people and seized more than $500,000 in cash after breaking up a smuggling ring that collected millions of beverage containers in other states and cashed them in for 10 cents apiece in Michigan."--WDIV-TV Web site (Detroit), Sept. 26, 2007.
The real purpose of the states’ attorneys’ general is to eliminate as much of the potential benefit from competition as possible.
The following is from the Wall Street Journal’s “Best of the Web Today - September 28, 2007” by James Taranto.
Life Imitates 'Seinfeld
"Newman learns that bottles and cans can be refunded for 10 cents in Michigan (as opposed to 5 cents in many other states). Kramer tells him it's impossible to gain a profit from depositing the bottles in Michigan due to the total gas, tollbooth and truck rental fees that would compile during the trip, but Newman tries to find a way."--Wikipedia description of "The Bottle Deposit, Part 1," aired May 2, 1996.
"Authorities said they arrested 10 people and seized more than $500,000 in cash after breaking up a smuggling ring that collected millions of beverage containers in other states and cashed them in for 10 cents apiece in Michigan."--WDIV-TV Web site (Detroit), Sept. 26, 2007.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)