Comments on: Morning Linkfest

By: Dave Krueger

Dave Krueger — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 03:35:02 +0000

Ochressandro, I haven’t the vaguest clue how your comment even relates to anything I said.

By: Ochressandro

Ochressandro — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 16:33:27 +0000

Dave Krueger: Would you snub people who are members of an organization known for hiring informants to make up evidence so they can go crashing through doors wearing body armor and wielding machine guns?

By: Alien

Alien — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 00:39:08 +0000

Matthew,
Specifically regarding your comment on the “Christian” category, this likely refers to the specific denomination Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) - website http://www.disciples.org . They have a theological seminary in Lexington, Kentucky, near some of the county hot spots for that labeling. This denomination often gets confused with Christians as a generic label. Methodist churches have Methodists, Baptist churches have Baptists, and Christian churches have Christians. Further confusing is that churches may be Smallsville Christian Church, for example, and be a member of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), or such a name may be used by a non-denominational church.

As to the study, it appears to be based on churches self-reporting their own membership numbers to this research organization, who then sums them up by county and compares it to the county population.

By: sysiphus

sysiphus — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 22:52:02 +0000

“How can there be a separate category for “Christian” when so many of the other categories clearly fall under that subject?”

Easy; there are a number of churches out there with names like “First Christian Church of Podunkville” and the like. A Google result for that looks like a glitch in the matrix. I know some of them come from the Restoration Heritage tradition, which is quasi-denominational.

Not that I think a map made of statistics from self-reported numbers by various churches, who are pretty bad at telling who their adherents are anyway…

By: Persona non grata

Persona non grata — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 18:02:41 +0000

Here is a quarter for the aggrieved DEA criminals, call someone who cares.

By: Edmund Dantes

Edmund Dantes — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 16:53:36 +0000

There’s a reason the saying is “Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics”. People really need to take that to heart.

By: Matthew

Matthew — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 16:29:27 +0000

While the county-by-county predominant religion map is interesting, the break-down of sects is laughable in its ambiguity. How are any of those categories defined, and by whom? If it is an assessment of how people freely identify themselves, can two identical answers really be expected to mean the same thing (eg “reformed”)? How can there be a separate category for “Christian” when so many of the other categories clearly fall under that subject?

Statistics just might be the most misunderstood (and intentionally manipulated) discipline in the modern world.

By: David

David — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 16:23:06 +0000

Yeah, I can’t find a news report that actually says whether any real-life drug agents were convicted of anything after Lucas’ arrest. Lots of “the lawsuit alleges” and “producers claim” but no “we looked at court records and they show that.” Fuckin’ lazy reporters.

By: Dave Krueger

Dave Krueger — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 15:43:37 +0000

As for the Hoboken SWAT-Hooters scandal, I’m not all that surprised by the behavior of the SWAT team, but I would have expected the Hooters girls to be far more discriminating in who they hang out with. The whole story has devastated my sense of respect for Hooters as an American institution.

By: Dave Krueger

Dave Krueger — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 15:09:39 +0000

I’ll reserve judgement on the Amercian Gangster story. I don’t have any sympathy for the DEA and it’s kind of funny they would be concerned about damage to their reputation from a movie considering what they do in real life. In any case, it doesn’t sound like they’re really an injured party.

On the other hand, if the movie is claiming to be “based on a true story” and the text at the end talks about a bunch of convictions of NYPD officers, then those convictions should have really happened. The report doesn’t make it clear whether the convictions really happened or not.

By: Balloon Maker

Balloon Maker — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 15:02:50 +0000

Re: Wilmington Man….

Is SERT a friendlier name for SWAT or something different?

What do you mean “what happened that led to the shooting?” This man was inside a suspected gambling operation, so he probably got what he deserved. Sorry, Radley, you’ve made us all expect
the worst when these things happen. I think I’m willing to go with the old rule of thumb: if the police didn’t immediately announce that the guy they shot was armed, then he probably wasn’t.

Perhaps they will circle the wagons and announce that he was holding a gun to a babies head while snorting coke off of a corpse with a rolled up million dollar bill he stole from ‘unwitting’ gamblers in his establishment.