February 12, 2006
December 02, 2003
Unbef*ckingleivable!
John Lott appears to have written an anonymous review of the Phil Cook/Jens Ludwig book on the cost of gun violence, in which he pretends to be a gun control supporter disappointed by the quality of the research. I had heard a rumor that if you looked up "sneak" in the Pictionary you'd find a picture of Lott. I guess...
October 13, 2003
Drawing Lott
Chris Mooney's story in the on-line version of Mother Jones [*] combines a clear account of the various Lott brouhahas with some original reporting of the constantly changing stories Lott told Mooney about the now-famous Stanford Law Review article. (Interview transcripts here) Mooney draws the natural comparison with Bellesiles, and notes that, while Bellesisles got fired, Lott still has his...
October 02, 2003
Glenn Reynolds on John Lott
Having been critical of Glenn Reynolds recently, I note with pleasure that he's taking a fairly hard line on John Lott, calling for what is clearly called for: a serious investigation by someone -- better, a panel -- competent to investigate. The American Enterprise Institute could, and should, convene such a panel, since they've been lending credibility to Lott...
September 24, 2003
Michael Maltz on John Lott
Michael Maltz of the University of Illinois is a statistician with an impressive record as a student of crime and crime control. In an email to me, reprinted in full below with his permission, he offers some reflections on the John Lott affair. Right now, Lott seems to have few defenders left, which isn't surprising. But he does still...
September 19, 2003
Eugene Volokh on John Lott
Eugene Volokh [*] seems to think that John Lott's responses to his critics are worth reading. I can't imagine why, except for those interested in abnormal psychology. He has been detected in so many different lies [*], some of them utterly pointless [*], that his words have approximately the net information content of the sound coming from your window fan....
August 04, 2003
Some thoughts from Michael Walzer
From Imprints, via a link from Crooked Timber: the one, the only, Michael Walzer. (To those of you who never took Walzer's seminar on Hobbes, all I can say is that you bear your almost intolerable deprivation with more cheerfulness than I could muster, were I in your shoes.) Here are my favorite bits from the current interview. But read...
May 07, 2003
Do Concealed-carry laws matter at all?
As promised earlier, I asked John Donohue for his thoughts on the question of what mechanism might explain his finding that looser restrictions on carrying concealed weapons ("shall-issue" laws) tended to increase crime. (Kieran Healy handily captures the Month’s-Worst-Pun award by suggesting as the answer to this question “the trigger mechanism.”) It turns out that Donohue will be publishing...
John Donohue on Lott and the Stanford Law Review
The following (quoted with permission) is from an email to me from John Donohue. Donohue and his co-author had suggested -- it turns out incorrectly -- that Lott's withdrawal of his name from the Stanford Law Review paper might represent a confession of error. Since that assertion has traveled around the blogosphere, Donohue thought it appropriate to acknowledge that...
May 06, 2003
Bill Bennet teaches by example
There's not much hope that Bill Bennett will find the intense delight he has given to his many loyal enemies adequate recompense for the $8 million he appears to have blown on his gambling addiction. But I suppose we ought to take delight where we can find it. "It shouldn't," as my grandmother used to say, "be a total loss."...
May 02, 2003
Lott, Donohue, and Levitt
If blogging is a form of journalism -- which, it seems to me, it more or less is -- then I'm clearly a "columnist" rather than a "reporter." But the latest episode of the soap opera called "John Lott" has roused me from my usual opinionated torpor to actually make some telephone calls and read some documents. The latest...
February 01, 2003
Lott's wife (and son)
[Earlier posts here and here. Tim Lambert's running account here. Tim Noah in Slate has a very good review of the bidding.] John Lott tells the Washington Post that most of the "Mary Rosh" postings were his, but that the review for Amazon.com signed "maryrosh" was actually written by his thirteen-year-old son, with some help from his wife. Lott denied...
January 27, 2003
Un-retraction in the John Lott affair: along comes Mary
If you've been following the John Lott fracas, most of what follows will be old hat. The rest of you, gather round and listen closely. It's a complicated story, and it's also a character test. If you find it sad, you have a fine tragic sense and a good heart. If you find it funny, you should be ashamed of...
January 14, 2003
An oblique thought on the Trent Lott affair
Glenn Loury makes an observation on the Trent Lott affair I haven't heard anyone else make. While Lott was thrashing about madly in an attempt to keep his head above water, he more or less offered to make concessions on various race-related policy issues in return for support from African-Americans and those who identify with their aspirations. That offer was...
January 13, 2003
The John Lott Affair
The toughest thing to deal with in any sort of argument is apparent misconduct by people on your side. It's no surprise that the gun-control folks have been giving John Lott a hard time about his apparent fabrication, not just of survey results, but of an entire survey, in an attempt to cover up a mis-citation of someone else's work...
December 20, 2002
How it works
Did you ever wonder how it comes to be that anyone, after the 2000 and 2002 campaigns, still believes in the fairytale about liberal bias in the mass media? Well, here's a tiny example. Glenn Reynolds links to a post on a deservedly obscure blog called Fraters Libertas. He writes (I quote in full): FRATERS LIBERTAS DOES A BIAS TEST...
December 02, 2002
Doug Besharov on welfare reform
Here's a piece that won't make pleasant reading for either liberals or conservatives. Besharov -- who more or less counts as a welfare "hawk" but who always gets his facts and arguments straight and who actually knows and cares about the plight of poor people -- demonstrates that the "welfare reform" movement culminating in the replacement of AFDC by TANF...
November 30, 2002
MARIJUANA, HARD DRUGS, AND
MARIJUANA, HARD DRUGS, AND THE CULTURE WARS Bill Keller's column in today's New York Times displays impeccable taste in its choice of sources. Not a bad capsule summary of the politics of illicit drugs, either. I'm glad Keller uses alcohol as an example, but I wish he had said somethihg about policies to reduce the damage done by what...
