Early morning shotgun blogging
Bruce's blog (the one without a clever name) has quite a few interesting articles and links this morning. I enjoyed his reference to Gulker's comparison of weblogs to the great intellectual revolution of 16th century made possible by a reliable postal network. Not to be overstated, but well worth a look.
If you've ever been involved in a discussion of arms control, you will quickly encounter the claim that law abiding citizens carrying concealed weapons makes crime decrease, as armed people serves as a deterrent. The argument is old, but was bolstered by John Lott Jr who wrote the book More Guns, Less Crime in 1998.
Not surprisngly, Lott received serious criticism from scholars who didn't see the same trends in the statistics that he claimed to see. Most interesting, though, Bruce points us to the disclosure (originally by fellow blogger Julian Sanchez) that Lott's most active online supporter. Mary Rosh, was indeed Lott himself. The emberrassing self-praise put into the mouth of a mythical "former student" now backfires, and Amazon has removed "her" glowing review of Lott's book.
1:57:04 PM 
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