Crime is down because of less lead?

[Lawdog88]

Originally Posted by oragator1

By the way, one other point on violent crime, it's been generally dropping for 450 years:

So . . . I guess there is an upside to increased CO2 in the air ?

Finally. A correlation.

[wargunfan]

Originally Posted by Lawdog88

So . . . I guess there is an upside to increased CO2 in the air ?

Finally. A correlation.

Apparently the high levels of CO2 in the atmosphere have a calming effect. That's nice.

[MichaelJoeWilliamson]

Originally Posted by mdgator05

So the point wasn't:



Blaming the liberals ("the people of science") for not spreading this theory while we read an article on it from Mother Jones and declaring that the reason it hasn't spread is because liberals don't want to talk about "Brain-damaged urban blacks" is complete garbage and race baiting.

I think he also took conservatives to task for their point of view on the matter? So, nice convenient editing on your part.

Keep it up and you might land a job with CNN or the NYT.

[MichaelJoeWilliamson]

Originally Posted by oragator1

By the way, one other point on violent crime, it's been generally dropping for 450 years:

There is a theory that the rise of capitalism is the single most important impact on human to human violence. The theory is that as commerce has increased violence has decreased.

"Make money, not war."

http://reason.com/blog/2009/08/24/th...th-of-violence

http://greatergood.berkeley.edu/arti...is_there_peace

[mdgator05]

Originally Posted by MichaelJoeWilliamson

I think he also took conservatives to task for their point of view on the matter? So, nice convenient editing on your part.

Keep it up and you might land a job with CNN or the NYT.

Yah he blamed them in a way that he could still blame liberals indirectly ("It sounds racist.") It is just more of the victimhood complex on the right. "I can't say Black people are brain damaged without being called a racist. I would totally help those brain damaged black people if those dirty liberals would stop calling us racists."

As I said, more of the same from the right. Inability to take any actual blame. Race baiting. Ridiculous attempts to blame everything on liberals. Unfortunately, at this point, in many on the right, this has become so ingrained in their sense of identity that they don't seem to even realize how ridiculous it sounds. You just posted an article in response to a thread started with a Mother Jones article on this science blaming liberals for this science not becoming more known. And for some reason, you fail to see why that is completely ridiculous.

[MichaelJoeWilliamson]

Originally Posted by mdgator05

Yah he blamed them in a way that he could still blame liberals indirectly ("It sounds racist.") It is just more of the victimhood complex on the right. "I can't say Black people are brain damaged without being called a racist. I would totally help those brain damaged black people if those dirty liberals would stop calling us racists."

That was one of his points about conservatives. In fairness, he said the same thing about liberals avoiding the issue for the same reason. And it was only one of at least two points he made about conservatives

Whatever floats your boat.

[MichaelJoeWilliamson]

From Reason Magazine

In addition, even as exposure to tetra-ethyl lead rose, average American IQ scores have been increasing at the rate of about 3 points per decade for nearly a century, up about 22 points since 1932 [PDF]. This increase is the well-known Flynn Effect, named after the New Zealand researcher, James Flynn, who first identified the steady rise in average IQ scores. Note that average IQ scores have been increasing ever since tetra-ethyl lead was first added to gasoline in the mid-1920s.

The good news is that the percentage of kids diagnosed with learning disabilities has fallen by 19 percent since 2001, although the absolute number of learning disabled students remains about the same. Part of the happy decline can be attributed, as the National Center for Learning Disabilities notes to the...

...Change in federal funding formula (beginning in 2000) no longer rewards high rates of special education identification in local districts combined with stagnant federal funding levels.

Interestingly, in a 2012 working paper Nevin argues that the increase in IQs in the early part of the 20th century resulted from lessened exposure to lead paint and that increases in the average IQ scores slowed down as tetra-ethyl lead exposure from gasoline rose. Perhaps Nevin would argue that the increase in the U.S murder rate from 1.2 per 100,000 in 1900 to 9.7 per 100,000 in 1933 can be attributed to rising lead paint exposure?

Drum is right that exposure to lead increases the chances that a person will suffer the sorts of neurological damage that lowers their intelligence and lower intelligence is well-known to correlate with increased criminality. Reducing such exposures has no doubt contributed to our happily falling crime rates. But it is likely that other factors including more policing, more incarceration, less crack, increased concealed carry, and other such efforts to control crime have contributed as well.