Pop quiz: In terms of your risk of being murdered goes, which is safer, Chicago or any city in Iraq that isn’t Bagdhad?
OK, it’s a trick question.
Turns out it’s about a wash.
Update:
Thanks to those who left comments pointing out the arithmetical error at Powerline. John forgot to multiply by 12 to get the rate for Bagdhad. So it is about an order of magnitude worse there than in Washington, D.C. in a bad year.
But that still leaves the main point I was trying to make: If you don’t count Bagdhad, the rest of Iraq averages out about the same as Chicago. So it’s still important to have perspective.
Stop and think about these numbers: 100+ murders a day in Baghdad, a city about the size of Chicago. Not a chance. Powerline is comparing annual murders in US cities with monthly murders in Baghdad.
He has done this before, so it’s unlikely to be an honest mistake. In other words, he is trying to fool you.
Comment by Laney — 23 November, 2006 @ 7:22
Note that I said “any city in Iraq that isn’t Bagdhad”. Follow the link, and you’ll see that he pegs Bagdhad’s admittedly high murder rate as just about double that of Washington D.C.
The parts of Iraq that are NOT Baghdad are those which compare roughly to many major U.S. cities.
Comment by buttle — 23 November, 2006 @ 23:32
“Follow the link, and you’ll see that he pegs Bagdhad’s admittedly high murder rate as just about double that of Washington D.C.”
That’s because he’s bad with math. These same numbers (which are probably about 25% of the _actual_ numbers) make Baghdad 10 times deadlier than Washington D.C. in its deadliest year.
Comment by Nikolay — 24 November, 2006 @ 14:22