I can’t believe I’ve lived as long as I have without knowing this, but the United States has two primary ways of measuring the nation’s crime rate: the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) and the Bureau of Justice Statistics’ National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS). I’ve always thought that the FBI UCR was the definitive word on crime stats. If you’ve got the UCR data, that’s it. Game over. Not true! The data above are a year old, but you can see that 2022 UCR data shows a drop in the violent crime rate, while NCVS data shows that total violent crime rose in 2022. UCR Data vs. NCVS data The FBI’s UCR statistics reflect crimes reported by the public to police. But most crimes are not reported to the police. To help account for the omissions, the NCVS measures crime in a nationwide household survey of respondents ages 12 and… Read more →
Author Archive: Paul Epps
EppsNet at the Movies: Dumb Money
I laughed non-stop through Dumb Money, except during the parts that weren’t intended to be funny. I had to take off a star because (minor spoiler alert, since the movie’s based on a true story that everyone knows) it’s a David vs. Goliath movie, and the Goliaths get their comeuppance, but that’s conveyed principally through explanatory text on the screen after the movie is essentially over. The comeuppance should be on-screen! Show, don’t tell! Rating: Director: Cast: IMDb rating: ( votes) Read more →
Men’s and Women’s Brains Work Differently
Men and women's brains do work differently, scientists discover for first time https://t.co/UBU6miq2R2 — Paul Epps (@paulepps) March 7, 2024 In a breakthrough study from Stanford University, scientists have discovered — FOR THE FIRST TIME — that men’s and women’s brains work differently! I know what you’re thinking: What year am I in? Men’s and women’s brains work differently?! I feel like any adult who’s ever been in a straight relationship could write a Ph.D. thesis on this topic. I was explaining to a woman today that I lost a fairly small object that I’m sure I had in my car, but after searching the car top to bottom multiple times, I couldn’t find it. And she said: “Did you look under the seat?” I was gobsmacked. “No,” I said. “Why didn’t I think of that? That’s probably where it is.” Another woman nearby, who’d overheard the part about scouring… Read more →
Happiness is in Short Supply
Research by the Institute for Family Studies shows 35% of married dads report being “very happy,” while only 14% of unmarried and childless men can say the same. “The data tells us that no group of men are happier than married fathers.” Actually, it looks like the data are telling us that no men are happy, but married fathers are slightly less miserable than the norm. Read more →
White Rural Rage?
There’s a new book out called White Rural Rage: The Threat to American Democracy. I haven’t read it but it did give me an idea for a fun drinking game. Every time you hear the phrase “threat to democracy” or a variant thereof between now and the presidential election, you take a drink. The downside is you’ll be dead long before November and you’ll never find out who gets elected. The authors of the book were interviewed on MSNBC this past week. One of the authors, Tom Schaller, said this: “First of all, [white rural voters] are the most racist, xenophobic, anti-immigrant, anti-gay demographic in the country. Second, they’re the most conspiracist group: QAnon support and subscribers, election denialism, Covid denialism and scientific skepticism, Obama birtherism. Third: anti-democratic sentiments. They don’t believe in an independent press, free speech, they’re most likely to say the president should be able to act… Read more →
Robert Reich, Regurgitator
Thanks to loopholes in the Trump tax cuts, the biggest companies in the country have been able to avoid more than $276 billion in federal taxes. This is what I mean when I say the system is rigged. — Robert Reich (@RBReich) March 2, 2024 A lot of professors use the X platform to thoughtfully engage with the issues of the day. This guy uses it to regurgitate DNC talking points in ways that don’t even make sense. And yet I actually feel embarrassed for him. Read more →
“Ending” by Maria Popova
2024 Index of Economic Freedom
The recently released 2024 Index of Economic Freedom, published by the Heritage Foundation, reveals that, regrettably, the global average score for economic freedom has fallen from the previous year’s 59.3 and is now the lowest it has been since 2001, at only 58.6. Singapore maintained its status as the world’s freest economy, followed by Switzerland, Ireland and Taiwan. To our credit, the United States has an above-average score of 70.1. The bad news is that’s the lowest score ever for the U.S. in the 30-year history of the index. The U.S. is now the world’s 25th-freest economy. Apparently the Biden administration’s lack of commitment to the rule of law, limited government, regulatory efficiency and market openness is corroding our economic freedom. North Korea has a commanding grip on last place in the index, with a score of 2.9. No other country is even close. Cuba posted the second worst score… Read more →
Joy Reid
‘A Little Creepy’: Joy Reid Links Desire To Have Kids To ‘Slavery’, White Supremacist Conspiracy https://t.co/hLy6mTILXA via @dailycaller — Paul Epps (@paulepps) February 27, 2024 This may have lost something in the headline. I think she was trying to make a point about IVF in Alabama. It probably doesn’t matter because you can pick anything Joy Reid says and rely on it being hateful and stupid. Her brain just cannot get past the most primitive explanation for any event, which is that everybody is a racist. If it weren’t for the existence of Rachel Maddow, I’d say that Joy Reid is the most pathetic person in broadcast media, but as it stands, she’s no worse than a close second. Read more →
Human beings have a remarkable ability to accept the abnormal and make it normal. — Andy Weir, Project Hail Mary
Morality of Student Loan Debt
I saw a post on LinkedIn in which the poster shared that his son got a college acceptance letter, but the son felt guilty about how it might affect the family finances. The poster shared the following question: Parents and Students – how have you managed this experience, dealt with any guilt, and yet maintained your excitement for the incredible experience ahead of you? My answer: How did we manage the experience? We always emphasized education in the Epps household. My son worked very hard in high school, got admitted to his dream college. What would we say at that point? “Congratulations, son! As a reward for your efforts, we’re going to allow you to take on student loan debt that will haunt you for the rest of your life”? Maybe “immoral” is too strong a word for that but I have a deep negative feeling about parents letting kids… Read more →
Do You Believe in Karma?
From an interview of Harvard economist Roland Fryer by the journalist Bari Weiss: BW: You were suspended [from Harvard for two years in 2019] by a woman who I had never heard of until recently. Her name is Claudine Gay. And she said this in a letter to the economics department at the time: “Professor Fryer exhibited a pattern of behavior that failed to meet the expectations of conduct within our community and was harmful to the well-being of its members. The totality of these behaviors is a clear violation of institutional norms and a betrayal of trust of the Harvard community.” So I guess I want to ask, do you believe in karma? RF: I hear it’s a motherfucker. Read more →
Job vs. No Job
Mojo Nixon, 1957-2024
An underappreciated genius. I loved this guy. RIP Mojo Nixon Read more →
Kobe: The Statue vs. The Moment
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The Secret is Out
When it comes to the countries of the collective West, the large network media, TV channels, (and) large newspapers can in no way boast of even trying to at least look impartial in terms of coverage. These are all media outlets that take an exceptionally one-sided position. Of course, there is no desire to communicate with such media, and it hardly makes sense, and it is unlikely that it will be useful. — Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov Read more →
Severe Weather Alert
I saw a sign on the freeway today: SEVERE WEATHER ALERT AVOID TRAVEL THRU TUESDAY “Severe weather” in most of Southern California, including where I live, means you’re going to have to turn on the windshield wipers. And I mean turn them on and leave them on, not in intermittent mode. Read more →
Media Companies With Millions of X Followers?
pic.twitter.com/5W3ORwZTOh — Enguerrand VII de Coucy (@ingelramdecoucy) January 25, 2024 I’m posting the above tweet not for the content but because if you look at the @NBCNews profile on X, you’ll see that the account has (allegedly) 9.4 million followers, and the tweet, when I looked at it, had 65 likes. How can an account with 9.4 million followers be getting 65 likes on a tweet?! First of all, I’m not singling out NBC. There are many media accounts on X with (allegedly) millions of followers and almost no interaction. Second, I didn’t cherry-pick a tweet with just a few likes. The NBC account has some tweets with more likes, some tweets with fewer, but 65 is not abnormally low. I picked it because of the comment underneath the original tweet. It’s a drawing of the Frog of Shame, and reads “If the Frog of Shame gets more likes than… Read more →
2023: The Year in Books
These are the books I read in 2023, roughly in the order listed. The ratings are mine. They don’t represent a consensus of opinion. Books of the Year: The Life Before Us by Romain Gary (fiction), and Where Are the Customers’ Yachts by Fred Schwed (non-fiction). My Library at LibraryThing Read more →
The Three Keys to Success by Claudine Gay
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