Newsgroup: it.politica.internazionale
Titolo: Laggiù qualcuno è impazzito

Looks like Tom DeLay is taking another of his regular vacations to
Cloud Cuckoo Land.
Last week Tom defended the situation in Iraq by comparing it to, um,
Houston.
Speaking to reporters, he said:
"You know, if Houston, Texas, was held to the same standard as Iraq is
held to, nobody'd go to Houston, because all this reporting coming out
of the local press in Houston is violence, murders, robberies, deaths
on the highways. And if you took that as the image of what is a great
city that has an incredible quality of life and an incredible economy,
it's amazing to me. Go to Iraq. And see what's actually happening
there." 
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/front/3235606
Tell you what Tom - you go to Iraq.
And while you're there watch out for the two-a-day suicide bombings,
the innumerable roadside IEDs, and the rocket propelled grenades which
have so far succeeded in killing more than 1700 of our young men and
women, not to mention thousands upon thousands of innocent civilians.
And if that sounds like Houston to you, then your problem is even
worse than I originally thought.
From The Democratic Underground
http://www.democraticunderground.com/

women,
E quanti sono i morti a Houston nello stesso periodo? :)
Di piu' o di meno?
-Stefano

 wrote in message
news:42C06F2F...@people.it...

#_...e a Capracotta ?

(Nel 2001 267 morti. In una citta' di 1.9 milioni di abitanti)
A quick check of the math shows that in 2001 (the last year for which
statistics are available), the Houston Police Department report 267
incidents of murder and non-negligent manslaughter (read: "hostile
deaths"). This works out with a population of 1.9 million to an
incident rate of 13.3 hostile deaths per hundred thousand.
For the Richmond Strip itself, we can assume the area population is
about 8,000 (since the area immediately surrounding Richmond
encompasses about one square mile and the population density of the
Montrose area is roughly 8100 people/sq. mile), yielding an annualized
incident rate of 162.5 per hundred thousand.
Meanwhile, back in Iraq, there have been 192 U.S. combat casualties
since March. At maximum there were about 230,000 Americans stationed in
Iraq (currently, there are 146,000 deployed).
Figured conservatively, using the smallest numerator and the biggest
denominator, the death rate in Americans in Iraq is 83.5 per hundred
thousand between March and August; the annual rate would be 200 per
hundred thousand .
(Of course if one assumes that all U.S. deaths in Iraq were needless,
then the death count is 269 and the annualized rate is 281 per hundred
thousand).
It isn't clear how many Americans are in Baghdad itself; although it is
known that the city is occupied by elements of the 4th Infantry
Division. It is probably reasonable to assume that between 10 and 20
percent of U.S. forces are in the city of Baghdad, where 20 percent of
Iraqis live (and 12 percent of US casualties occurred).
Since the number of deaths in Baghdad are not out-of-sync with the
casualty rate in the rest of Iraq (Baghdad has about 22% of Iraq's
population and presumably no more than half of Americans are stationed
there; , one can safely assume that the murder rate in Houston is not
higher than in it is in Baghdad; indeed, the Bayou City is 15 times
safer. And even figured very conservatively - note that most of the
people who traffic the area clubs do not live in Montrose - a Richmond
Strip visitor is clearly less likely to be killed than an American
soldier in Iraq.
At this point, one may ask why some misleading back-of-the-envelope
math by the Houston Press is even of relevance; after all, isn't the
point of the "Hair Balls" blurb to make a whimsical observation about
crime in the Richmond Strip?
First, area residents should not become hysterical about living or
shopping or clubbing along the Richmond Strip. You are not in imminent
danger.
Second, one could only imagine what would happen if an unscrupulous
politician took hold of the Houston Press's clip and insisted
(inaccurately) that Houston is literally becoming a war zone. It is
true that crime is a major problem in Houston, with crime rates well
above the national average. But it is clearly nowhere near anarchic
proportions.
Thirdly, conversely, and more probable, is that the folks who got us
into this misbegotten Iraqi war will make bold pronouncements like "our
boys are safer in Baghdad than they are in America!" And use that line
as both an apology for hawk blunders as well as a siren call for
even-tougher measures in the War on Crime at home.
So go have some fun (visit beautiful Houston), but watch your back.


 incident rate of 13.3 hostile deaths per hundred thousand.
Aggiungere
======
deaths on the highways.
======
E i conti li si fa *dal 2003 ad oggi*, non nel 2001.
-Stefano

 Secondo te, in guerra, si interrogano i nemici o li si bombarda?
Si...ma no na sangue freddo..  [IL GECKO su IPI] 

 Quelli per razzi e assalti kamikaze, intendi?
No. Quelli per "violence, murders, robberies, deaths on the highways"
-Stefano