Free Republic

CNN cited a study from Tulane University Wednesday and claimed “structural racism” may be behind mass shootings in large cities like Chicago and Milwaukee. CNN leaned on the study to point out “mass shootings in major metropolitan areas…disproportionately affect black people.” They quoted the Tulane researchers indicating, “Racial and ethnic minority populations are significantly more likely to be victims of (mass shootings).”

Our lives are inevitably bound by and shaped by the structures around us. We live in them, calling them homes; we go through them, calling them tunnels; we move on them or thanks to them, calling them roads, or bridges. Salginatobelbrücke designed by Robert Maillart, 1930The bridge has a particularly interesting function: it connects two places in a more complex way than a road does. The bridge helps to elevate the passenger, allowing them to move above a body of water, a valley, or a three-dimensional urban labyrinth of roads and crossings. But apart from being a beacon of utility,...

FRANCONIA, Grafton County, New Hampshire — Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) brought her message of “structural change” to New Hampshire on Wednesday, addressing a crowd of over 300 people on a scenic hillside overlooking the White Mountains. Warren began her speech by recounting her humble origins in Oklahoma, and the experience of watching her mother decide to save the family home by taking a minimum-wage job. That, she said, helped her understand the struggles of working people across America today. Warren re-traced her steps from college; to marriage; to a commuter college she could afford to attend while working as a...

As I noted in a previous post, economists define three types of unemployment: frictional, structural, and cyclical: Frictional unemployment is defined as the unemployment that occurs because of people moving or changing occupations. Demographic change can also play a role in this type of unemployment since young or first-time workers tend to have higher-than-normal turnover rates as they settle into a long-term occupation. An important distinguishing feature of this type of unemployment, unlike the two that follow it, is that it is voluntary on the part of the worker. Structural unemployment is defined as unemployment arising from technical change such...

One issue that needs much more play in the gubernatorial election is California's structural deficit. On Sept. 26 state Legislative Analyst Elizabeth Hill released her latest analysis of the state budget. She found that the state's structural deficit – its nagging inability to pay its bills – will be "in the range of $4.5 billion and $5 billion projected for" fiscal 2007-08, which begins next July 1, and fiscal 2008-09. That's up from about $3 billion in her budget estimates earlier this year. Democratic gubernatorial candidate Phil Angelides has said the state's budget problem stems from too little revenue, and...

Local authorities in our New Orleans levee project take the prize in the area of callous disregard and their bungling remains notorious to this day. From NRO: As a retired structural engineer who has done exhaustive work on bulk liquids retention structures, including dams, dykes and levees; also having audited engineering schematics on the New Orleans levees in the 1994-1996 era, rest assured that federal officials were properly concerned about that situation. The problem was that they were the only ones. We bucked and kicked local officials for years throughout the entire project. The municipality demanded the money, and received...

After a couple of lighthearted columns about my trip to Havana - the latest about Canadians participating in a political march and trying to dance - I came under some criticism from readers who felt that my perspective on the island "was unusually low-key and even somewhat clueless." I was trivializing the massive problems faced by Cuba and making a mockery of serious political processes. My column was "more of a postcard sent from a half-drunk co-ed to her sorority sisters." For the record, I was fully drunk. While I cannot entirely disagree with those assessments, I am unapologetic for...