Recent Readings

New York City is on track to have fewer than 500 homicides this year, by far the lowest number in a 12-month period since reliable Police Department statistics became available in 1963. But within the city’s official crime statistics is a figure that may be even more striking: so far, with roughly half the killings analyzed, only 35 were found to be committed by strangers, a microscopic statistic in a city of more than 8.2 million. If that trend holds up, fewer than 100 homicide victims in New York City this year will have been strangers to their assailants.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/23/nyregion/23murder.html?ei=5065&en=e317f6d8d8c57dde&ex=1196485200&partner=MYWAY&pagewanted=print

vs.

The Impact of Legal Abortions on Crime:
"Evidence that legalized abortion has contributed significantly to recent crime reductions... appears to account for as much as 50 percent of the recent drop in crime"... as opposed to higher incarceration rates, stricter gun control laws, and increased number of police.
http://pricetheory.uchicago.edu/levitt/Papers/DonohueLevittTheImpactOfLegalized2001.pdf

Journeys...

On the train headed back from the Hamptons, I watch the landscape slide by... allowing glimpses into minor moments... empty parking lots, deserted cars, industrial wastelands, seas of yellow school buses... slices that touch the railroad tracks. And backyards... with bright blue pools and century old houses with collapsing rooftops... the train slows to its next stop. in slow motion I see a family standing around in their yard - their slice - organizing the rules of family football, getting ready for the huddle. For a moment it is my field of grass where my childhood is flourishing amongst debatable touchdowns and imaginary yardlines. It is my family rolling, throwing, tackling as the train pulls away from the station... My time slips behind. I want it back. I want that moment back. I want the laughter and the stained knees. The leaves that crunch under a run to the goal-line. My mind grasps at the memories of a family now scattered but not shattered that will most likely never be in the same slice of autumn again. The train moves me forward... Life moves me forward... And a new slice of life begins... here it is spring... and there is much to do before autumn arrives for this new family.