[extropy-chat] Re: blah snip: Gun control [Australia]

[Mike Lorrey]

--- Damien Broderick <thespike at satx.rr.com> wrote:
> At 09:52 AM 4/4/2004 -0700, Mike wrote:
> 
> >It appears that the ONLY categories where Australia's crime rates
> are
> >even as close as double New Hampshire's crime rates are larceny
> theft
> >and murder/manslaughter. The rest range from 3-7 times higher than
> NH's
> >crime rates.... the Murder/manslaughter rate for Australia is 1.8
> per 100,000,
> >which is double the rate here in NH.
> 
> 
> This is very silly, Mike. Why are you comparing one small rural state
> with an entire diverse country? 

Are you asserting that NH's perceived whiteness is the prime factor in
our low crime rates???

Australia is hardly a massive and diverse country, population wise. Its
population is only 19 million, which is less than an order of magnitude
larger than NH.

Lets look at relative rates of diversity, shall we?

According to:
http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/33000.html
NH is 95% non-hispanic white.

Trying to find out what minority populations there are in Australia
through the ABS is a truly labyrinthian task. The "Ancestry" report
sounds like it was written by a South African, in dividing white
populations into many different national origins and ethnicities, while
at the same time allowing anyone who was born in Austrialia to specify
their ancestry as "Australian". Shades of aparthied resound through
this report in a "Shucks, we's all minorities heah..." jive.


> Try comparing NH with... well, it's hard to find 
> a part of Australia small, compact and homogeneous enough to make any
> cf. 
> valid. Maybe the Australian Capital Territory:  (pop. 322,680) year
> 2001-2 homicides: 2 women, no men, 0.62 per 100,000.

NH is 1.23 million, not 300k. If you are complaining about the
population differential between Oz and NH, you are guilty of your own
sin here.

=====
Mike Lorrey
Chairman, Free Town Land Development
"Live Free or Die, Death is not the Worst of Evils."
                                       - Gen. John Stark
Sado-Mikeyism: http://mikeysoft.zblogger.com

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