Baltimore Residents to Hold Ceasefire Weekend, ‘Nobody Kill Anybody for 72 Hours’

[Smokin Joe]

Let's just say that the bell curves and graphics above are accurate; a person with an IQ in the range of 70 and above is quite able to learn right and wrong.  They have to be taught it though.

There you go, back to the essential argument about Nature vs Nurture.

I think both are still in play, but I think nurture is dominant. No matter what a person's capacity for intelligence, in the right cultural environment they can maximize their use of those resources. In a different cultural environment they will not.

[Smokin Joe]

You haven't read The Bell Curve, nor seen non-standard methods of testing, have you?  For example, reaction times correlating with IQ.  And blacks generally having slower reaction times to move off a button (but being faster at actually moving from one button to another). 

This doesn't mean that all blacks are lower IQ than whites (nor that all Asians are higher IQ than whites), but it's also not racist to point out the fact that there might be differences based on genetics...and that could include genetic pools.  The evidence isn't conclusive, as there are some confounding data, but there is enough evidence to suspect possibilities.

It's not racist to point out that there may be differences, but anyone who thinks blacks are slower to hit a button hasn't watched Family Feud.  How many people develop the skill to move off a button, anyway? We are taught from our earliest to push them.

[catfish1957]

It's not racist to point out that there may be differences, but anyone who thinks blacks are slower to hit a button hasn't watched Family Feud.  How many people develop the skill to move off a button, anyway? We are taught from our earliest to push them.

Speaking of racist....   Don't you find it a bit odd that a demographic making up 12.3% of the population of the country makes up 50% of the contestants on that show?

[Applewood]

I go to a number of news websites in certain American cities every day.  That includes Milwaukee in my home state of Wisconsin.  Milwaukee is about the same size as Baltimore population-wise.  Virtually every time I go there, I read stories of shootings, stabbings, robberies, car-jackings in the black section of the city.
It's not just confined to Baltimore or Chicago, it's nation-wide. It's time leaders quit dancing around the issue and address it honestly.  That includes Trump.

Correct.  Major and  number of minor cities all have these problems to some degree.  The closest "big city" to me is Pittsburgh. Not a day goes by without some news story of shootings, carjacking, rape, or whatever.  The mayor, an uber-liberal, kumbaya type invariably shows up on the news after a particularly heinous murder to promise more police, more jobs or some other kind of government "solution."  But these "solutions" will never work.  The root of the problem lies in the community itself -- in its sense of morality and decency.  Too many of these crime-ridden communities have broken families -- absent fathers, one or both parents in jail or on drugs or involved in some crime themselves.  Their religious leaders are often charlatans like Sharpton or Jackson -- too busy marching or something and not preaching moral values.  No wonder the cycle of violent crime continues. Kids grow up without God, without any sense of compassion for others  and for human life. It's all about what they can get and who cares how they get it or whether the some innocent person dies in the process. 

The communities themselves and the individuals and families within those communities must work to solve this problem themselves. Government can't solve the problem itself. 

[Wingnut]

If they were really serious about this, they would make it illegal to kill people.

That's racist. 

[Smokin Joe]

Speaking of racist....   Don't you find it a bit odd that a demographic making up 12.3% of the population of the country makes up 50% of the contestants on that show?

LOL! No, they don't. They get the occasional Mexican or oriental family in over there. No more than 45%.
I have also noticed a difference in interaction between the host and the different families. Although I think the host is very good at what he does, his demeanor changes in subtle ways. It's like some people have the 'secret handshake' and others don't. We don't know what interaction behind the scenes occurs which may lead to that, either.

Without knowing what the demographics are for those who apply to be contestants, I can't speak to the fairness of the contestant selection process one way or the other. It could be that significantly higher percentages of that particular demographic apply to be contestants than are present in the general population. That alone would be a factor which could affect the breakdown of contestants along those lines, independent of any bias on the part of producers or hosts.

I find greater bias in the writing and casting of children's and other shows which have demographic formulas which give the impression that the dominant demographic is grossly under represented, and that some 'lifestyles' are present in far greater numbers than the actual population would reflect. Those factors aren't controlled by the independent actions of others, and are strictly the product of writers, producers, and those who make the decisions about the shows and their presentation.
I anticipate 'trans' characters in children's shows before long, especially those crafted for middle school and high school audiences.

[InHeavenThereIsNoBeer]

I anticipate 'trans' characters in children's shows before long, especially those crafted for middle school and high school audiences.

[Smokin Joe]

I go to a number of news websites in certain American cities every day.  That includes Milwaukee in my home state of Wisconsin.  Milwaukee is about the same size as Baltimore population-wise.  Virtually every time I go there, I read stories of shootings, stabbings, robberies, car-jackings in the black section of the city.
It's not just confined to Baltimore or Chicago, it's nation-wide. It's time leaders quit dancing around the issue and address it honestly.  That includes Trump.

I look at the demographics in the nearest large town (it's under 100K, so few out there count it as a 'city', although it's the closest thing we  have) which got a huge influx of people from all over during the oil boom. As crime goes, there has always been some. A homicide every few years, once in a rare while a shooting, maybe an armed robbery every year or two.
Needless to say, (and partly by virtue of TV specials on the area which portrayed it as a hotspot for criminals where anything goes because LEOs were overwhelmed) a significant criminal element came chasing the relative wealth of prosperity. Crime went up, but the color of the perpetrators changed. Most--not all--of the shooters, murderers, and rapists were now black, a demographic which is still a small one in that town. Prior to that influx, though, there were black people living there, but almost never in the news for criminal activity. The change is because of relatively new arrivals.
Despite MSNBC re-airing that series of bullshit shows (especially BS because the boom is over, LEOs have caught up, and are ferreting out the drug dealers and thieves daily), crime is going back down there overall, but that media bomb dropped on a small town having enough problems with more than doubling in size due to the boom is something I will never forgive the assh*les in mass media for, and every time they re-run that tripe my enmity for them grows. They created a crime problem in an area that really didn't have one, one that would not have happened on the scale which it did without them. Most of the people who came here came here to work, and when the jobs dried up, went elsewhere looking for more work. The criminal element is not so quick to leave.

[Hondo69]

That includes Milwaukee in my home state of Wisconsin.

As I remember it, decades ago Wisconsin decided to go into the welfare business big time.  Accordingly they bumped up the welfare benefits to attract new customers.  And attract customers they did as I remember reading about hoards of people leaving Chicago for Milwaukee to cash in.

Now I'm not very smart but even I know that plan had disaster written all over it.