Eugene David
...The One-Minute Pundit

Friday, March 14, 2003


More Kinsleyesque cuteness from Slate: Timothy Noah says "most Iraqi households own at least one gun." How does he know? The New York Times said so ("in passing"). How does The New York Times know? Well, it has a reporter in Iraq. How can we trust a reporter in Iraq when Iraq controls the flow of information?

The Michael Bellesiles fiasco shows how easy it is to make up facts to prove your points. I'm no friend of the NRA -- they're generally no friend of police officers -- but Timmy sure has whetted my appetite, and I sure would like to find out how many people own guns in Iraq -- right now. A Google search turned up the usual pro-gun tirades and an article from the crackpot Lew Rockwell site, and nothing else. Perhaps Timmy ran this piece knowing he couldn't be refuted because a good statistic would be so hard to track down. If so, he ought to rename himself Michael Kinsley.

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