SirLance

If you consider that there have been an average of 160,000 troops in Iraq during the last 22 months, that gives a firearm death rate of 60 per 100,000.

The firearm death rate in Washington, D.C., is 80.6 per 100,000. That means that you are more likely to be shot and killed in our Nation's Capitol, which has some of the strictest gun control laws in the nation, than you are in Iraq.

Conclusion: We should immediately pull out of Washington, D.C.

__________________
DEMOCRACY is where your vote counts, FEUDALISM is where your count votes.

AngelicVampire

ROTFLMAO... nice one.

^ Teh Winn3r

Sion

"Should the US pull out of Iraq?"


depends. has she come yet?

__________________
He's the best, of course, of all the worst.
Some wrong been done, he done it first. -fz

I jus' want ta thank you...falettinme...be mice elf...agin...

t3m3st

I LOVE it!

__________________
I do it for the rare drops

martinguerre

not to be a snark...but where does that 80.6 number come from? The national rate is about 15. That seems quite high, even for a metro area.

__________________
For God so loved creation, that God sent God's only Son that whosoever believed should not perish, but have everlasting life.

-John 3:16

Furry

*Snigger* Excellent.

__________________
Furry is the leader of his own cult, the "Furballs of Doom". They sit about chanting "Doom, Doom, Doom".
(From a random shot in the dark by SirLance)

martinguerre

upon further research. levels have not been that high for some time. 120,000 is a safer estimate, but i'll split the difference with you. let's say 140k.

Now, lets say that we compare apples to applelikeobjects (I assume this is the manipulation used to produce the 80 number, but i have no way of knowing this, since you did not show how that number is produced). Total homocides to total KIAs. Firearm deaths are deceieving because tons of our troops are getting blown up by IEDs. Doesn't happen much in DC, no matter how hoody you think the town is.

Okay.

1644 (current deaths) / 140,000 (# of troops) is set equal to x over 100,000

Solve for x, and you get 1174. That's not 60. It's not even close. And that calculation is the deaths per 100,000 ratio. That's for two years, so divide by two if you want the annual rate. The first year will be a bit under 500 per 100,000, and the second year will be over 500.

Making light of the danger our troops face is not supporting them.

__________________
For God so loved creation, that God sent God's only Son that whosoever believed should not perish, but have everlasting life.

-John 3:16

martinguerre

now i'm starting to get really ticked off.

more research at http://icasualties.org/ which is usually cited as the source for the data behind that joke.

applying the filter for deaths caused only by Hostile Fire or sniper attacks, and exluding IEDs, car bombs, suicide bombs, all friendly fire incidents, suicides by gun, gunfire deaths that may be included with ambush deaths, and all that.... you still get about 500 deaths. Do the math, and that's an absolute mininum 170 gunfire deaths IN COMBAT per year. That number is a complete lowball by the way that i calculated it (leaving out other causes of death, and only including certain categories of death)...and somehow this 60 number is getting tossed around. Incredible.

Go to icasualties.org and search around. It's a sobering experience, and one that does not leave me feeling like telling jokes.

__________________
For God so loved creation, that God sent God's only Son that whosoever believed should not perish, but have everlasting life.

-John 3:16

raveneye

Martinguerre, thanks for taking the time to do this. I was all set to post pretty much exactly what you posted, but you beat me to it.

When I read the joke my first reaction was WTF? ? ? ? the numbers are completely wrong, isn't it obvious? Are the numbers being purposely skewed in order to make a cheap political shot? And that seems to be exactly the case.

As you say, incredible.

LoganSnake

This thread has been officially robbed of whatever humor value it held.

Good job.

__________________
Maturity is knowing you were an idiot in the past. Wisdom is knowing that you'll be an idiot in the future. Common sense is knowing that you should try not to be an idiot now. - J. Jacques

SirLance

Have you ever been in combat? I have. I hold 2 bronze stars and a purple heart with oak leaf cluster. I was a special operations engineer with the 5th U.S. Army Special Operations Forces. I served in several theatres of operation from 1979 to 1984. Do not presume to tell me how to support our troops.

You need to recognize that humor is a coping mechanism, and that it helps us get through those hard times. Prayer is good also, I prayed a lot, but not everybody does.

This is a joke, that's why it is posted in tilted humor and not in some other board. Lighten up.

__________________
DEMOCRACY is where your vote counts, FEUDALISM is where your count votes.

martinguerre

Sorry to kill the joy, but deceits about American losses just don't strike me as funny. They strike me as downright disrespectful.

__________________
For God so loved creation, that God sent God's only Son that whosoever believed should not perish, but have everlasting life.

-John 3:16

martinguerre

No, i have not. But i won't acknowledge that I am not entitled to an opinion as to the moral implications of a joke like this. Especially because it is an oft repeated trope about the war that deceives the home front about the realities of what is happening over there. I've heard this one from a lot of chicken hawks, and it bugs me to no end to hear them spout off about how safe it is. Some of my friends have gone over there, and none of them laughed about this one.

To be honest, i did not notice that this was posted in humor until after i had responded...i saw the thread title only in the new posts search. I think i would have responded slightly differently had i noticed, but not much.

__________________
For God so loved creation, that God sent God's only Son that whosoever believed should not perish, but have everlasting life.

-John 3:16

SirLance

I didn't say you weren't. What you are not entitled to do is tell me how to be supportive. You have no idea what it means to be in combat, and you have no idea what the guys in the field are going through.

If you're that concerned about being supportive, then you should do something supportive, like write a letter to "any serviceman", or send a care package to "any serviceman." Since you are clearly religious, you could pray for our servicemen. I do.

Unfounded bitching about a stupid joke is not supporting our troops.

That is your interpretation, it is not everyone's. The joke is that you are safer in a combat zone than in some parts of our nation's capitol. I've spent considerable time in both places, and it is, unfortunately, the true state of affairs. Probably also for other major cities, but funnier with DC.

Like I said, lighten up.

__________________
DEMOCRACY is where your vote counts, FEUDALISM is where your count votes.

LoganSnake

Isn't one of the rules here to just click the Back button if you don't like something? Like SirLance said, it is a joke. Lighten up.

__________________
Maturity is knowing you were an idiot in the past. Wisdom is knowing that you'll be an idiot in the future. Common sense is knowing that you should try not to be an idiot now. - J. Jacques

BigBen

Hahahaha!

Man, these posts sure did hit MY FUNNY BONE...

I think I'll wander over to Tilted Politics and see what kind of humour they are printing over there...

/returns from Tilted Politics
Oh shit. That wasn't much different.

To make this thread funny again:

A patient is lying in bed with an oxygen mask on and mumbles to the nurse:
"Are my testicles black?"
The nurse replies, "What!?!"
The patient repeats "Are my testicles black?"
The nurse then lifts up the blanket and picks up his testicles to have a good look and replies "No, there're not black, they are normal in colour..."
The patient then takes off the oxygen mask and says "That was very nice, but are my test results back?"

__________________
3.141592654
Hey, if you are impressed with my memorizing pi to 10 digits, you should see the size of my penis.

frogza

Thank you! This gave me a good laugh.

Carno

martinguerre - lighten up dude, you are way too uptight. This is not the first thread I have seen you ruin with your negativity.

As for the joke, I thought it was pretty funny.

biznatch

I have been told to lighten up in another thread recently closed. However...look, not to kill the joy or anything. But I just think people should know. So you tell this joke with kinda way off statistics to make it seem funny. OK, ok, fine no problem. But what if the people end up "mis-informed" and start believing the wrong stuff?
I wouldn't mind these kinda jokes if after that, maybe you explained that these numbers were wrongly used..and whats the real deal.
I mean I almost freaked out when I read that (being not very smart or savvy with national statistics and all).
So yeah. thats just my humble opinion.

SirLance

Oh, God, I can't stop laughing.

For some reason that reminded me of the old Bill Cosby routine about the trip to the dentist where he's trying to tell the dentist that his lip is in his lap...

"My-be lip-be.... my-be lip-be..."

"What?"

"MY-BE LIP-BE! MY-BE LIP-BE IS IN MY LAP-BE"

"What?"

Hysterical. Ah, well, at random do the fire synapses...

__________________
DEMOCRACY is where your vote counts, FEUDALISM is where your count votes.

SirLance

I don't agree. Does everything these days need a damn disclaimer? "This is a joke, and these statistics may have been made up for humorous purposes?" C'mon, we're taking this WAY too seriously.

This is TILTED HUMOR. You can't take this stuff as factual.

Well, if it's disclaimers you want, here are a few amusing one's I've stumbled accross:

Warning: Spelling errors in this message are the product of a poor school system. Pay teachures more than athletes.

IMPORTANT: This email is intended for the use of the individual addressee(s) named above and may contain information that is confidential privileged or unsuitable for overly sensitive persons with low self-esteem, no sense of humor or irrational religious beliefs. If you are not the intended recipient, any dissemination, distribution or copying of this email is not authorized (either explicitly or implicitly) and constitutes an irritating social fauxpas. No animals were harmed in the transmission of this email, although the mutt next door is living on borrowed time, let me tell you.

(If all email was written by Microsoft) Legal Notice: Receipt of this message constitutes your unconditional acceptance of agreement with all terms, conditions, conclusions and opinions, either expressed or implied, as interpreted by the author without further clarification. Use of any information contained herein [inclusive of any and all attachments] or omitted in part or in whole from the actual message is strictly prohibited and will be subject to collection of significant financial damages.

Disclaimer: the above is the author's personal opinion and is not the opinion or policy of his employer or of the little green men that have been following him all day.

Disclaimer: The views of my employer do not conform to my views, or to any accepted standard of logic that the Greeks thought up anyway...

Government Warning: We are corrupt and have sold out to corporate interest. Do not listen to our advice.

My opinion is neither copyrighted nor trademarked, and it's price competitive. If you like, I'll trade for one of yours.

None of the ideas expressed above are actually mine. They are told to me by Luthor and Ferdinand, the five inch tall space aliens who live under my desk. In return for these ideas, I have given them permission to eat any dust bunnies they may find under there.

Spotted on a button: 'Ambivalent? Well, yes and no....'

The facts expressed here belong to everybody, the opinions to me. The distinction is yours to draw...

The opinions above are solely those of a 12 year old hacker who has broken into my account, and not those of my employer or any other organization.

The opinions expressed above are yours. They are not necessarily those of my employer or myself.

The opinions expressed here are not those of my employer, my wife, my church, or myself... But they are the opinions of Elvis as revealed to me through the medium of my pet hamster, Lee Harvey Oswald...

The opinions expressed herein are not necessarily those of my employer, not necessarily mine, and probably not necessary.

The opinions expressed herein are those of absolutely everyone at National Instruments: the management, staff, stockholders, their spouses, children, dogs, and cats. In fact, everyone in Austin also agrees. No, make that Texas.

U.C.S.B. doesn't even know that I exist, let alone my opinions!

WARNING: I cannot be help responsible for the above, as apparently my cats have learned how to type.

Your eyes are weary from staring at the CRT. You feel sleepy. Notice how restful it is to watch the cursor blink. Close your eyes. The opinions stated above are yours. You cannot imagine why you ever felt otherwise. The opinions expressed in this letter do, in fact, represent the opinions of UCSD, its employees, faculty, and students, as well as the entire University of California system and its precious Regents, because, let's face it, I have that kind of power at my disposal.

__________________
DEMOCRACY is where your vote counts, FEUDALISM is where your count votes.