August 21, 2025 | Andy Arthur.org

Anything that Trump does not agree with must be a conspiracy to lie with statistics, says Trump. But I’m incredulous about such claims.

Police officers have very little reason to say crime is lower than it really is. Usually when crime is high, politicians allocate more not less resources to police departments. Rarely are police departments blamed for high crime – usually that blame is ascribed to politicians – and the solutions called for to reduce crime usually make police officers jobs easier.

It’s not to say it’s easy to compare one city’s crime level to another accurately. Each community has different laws, policies and moral standards that define crime. Even if you only look at crime universally agreed as bad like pre-mediated murder, you have issues like abortion. Different communities have different levels of marginalization of minorities and different levels of desperation by citizens who lack jobs and mental health care. Indeed, I suspect much of the south’s high murder rates is not due to guns but racial strife.

Ideally the federal government would require consistent reporting of crime beyond what is currently reported but there are tens of thousands of different law enforcement agencies in America. But better tracking of crime would be good not just for interested citizens and sociologists but also policymakers. Still every community is different and it’s hard to argue that a top down approach would be effective at reducing crime when it’s certain to require a much more diverse and local community level solutions to crime.

As I was heading back after sunset got a flat tire on my bike. Knew as soon as I heard the air roaring out. But I was prepared, I had a hand pump and a spare tube. Didn’t want to have to change tubes though as it was getting dark. Plus the tires were completely covered in cow manure as I was having fun riding through the cow patties, splashing them like mud puddles. I’m a stoned dirty hick. Fortunately I run my tires with fix a flat so after pumping the tire up a second time I was able to ride the five miles back to camp with no issues although I’ll want to pump it up good and hard come morning. Fix a flat can make the ride quality a bit poor at times on asphalt but it usually repairs most leaks either instantly or after a re-inflation or two.

Of course if I didn’t run bald tires on my bike….

Day: August 21, 2025💾

Is Massachusetts a Gerrymandered State? – The New York Times

Bernie Sanders Plan A

Building Our Dream Homestead! How Long Did It Take?

NPR

Lying about crime statistics 🤥

Blueberry Hill Sunset

Darn a flat! 🚲