Caution in the light of factual uncertainty is almost always a laudable stance for journalists and public officials. But from the beginning of yesterday’s attack on the Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs there’s been an odd reluctance to state what appears to be obvious: that the attacker, now identified as 57-year-old Robert Lewis Dear, was motivated by extremist anti-abortion politics. The Denver Post headline states “Planned Parenthood shootings increasingly seem politically motivated” – and this after numerous accounts state that Dear was ranting about “no more baby parts” after his arrest, almost certainly a reference to the incitement earlier this fall over a doctored anti-Planned Parenthood sting video. Let’s remember, false claims and incitement about selling “body parts” were a staple of Fox News segments and tirades from Republican presidential candidates all through the fall.
Everything I mentioned yesterday in this post (“Malign Hesitation“) seems only more relevant today. Colorado Springs police continue to refuse any comment on the possible motives behind the Planned Parenthood massacre over the weekend. For probative evidence, we know that he attacked a Planned Parenthood clinic, an organization which is a potent and pervasive symbol of the abortion rights debate across the country. We also have police sources telling journalists that Dear ranted about “no more baby parts” after being taken into custody. Absent some dramatic, game-changing new details, it’s very difficult to imagine this wasn’t what it looks like: a domestic terror attack targeting abortion rights – both a specific facility and to terrorize people trying to exercise these rights.
Here is a fascinating and disturbing look at the effort to weave together various different narratives about different people to hate and be afraid of. This morning former Rep. Michele Bachmann tweeted that 70% of refugees are “gang-age males.” At least in terms of the 10,000 Syrian refugees that are currently roiling the national political debate, my understanding is that this clearly wrong – quite apart from defining what is presumably 15 to 25 year old men as “gang-age”.
But what is really amazing is the article Bachmann links to.
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The State of Alabama started off trying to “defund” Planned Parenthood. Now they’re going to pay Planned Parenthood’s legal bills.
I don’t say this lightly or often. But this is one of the most important studies in years in terms of understanding the current state of American politics and society. The study is the work of two Princeton University scholars, Ann Case and Angus Deaton, who analyzed vast quantities of federal government data about mortality rates across age cohorts, racial and ethnic groups and genders. They made a startling discovery. As you would expect, every age and ethnic/racial grouping has continued to see a steady reduction of morbidity (disease) and increase in lifespans for decades. But there’s one major exception: middle aged (45-54) white people. Since roughly 1998, disease and death rates for middle aged white men and women has begun to rise.
Small town mayor sorry he said black people have “declared war on” white people.
I wanted to follow up on my post from yesterday about that study on middle aged white mortality rates. The study generated a great deal of attention when it was first released earlier this fall. And it also generated a small methodological controversy. Andrew Gelman, a Professor of Statistics at Columbia University, was one of the principal critics and published a set of revised numbers that control for the size of population groups passing through the 45-54 year age bracket over the course the years between 1998 and 2014. Before digging into the numbers, I think the overall gist is that Gelman’s findings/revisions do not challenge the overall findings of the study – a conclusion Gelman himself seems to agree with. But they change the details significantly.
House GOP keeps hope alive for possible Syrian refugee government shutdown.