Quite a handful
Here's an odd one out of Salem: Peter Courtney, the Oregon state senate's eternal flame, recently stated that one in eight children, and one in 18 adults, in Oregon suffers from mental illness. The goofy fact-checker gal at the O ran out and checked, and based on some pretty abstract statistics, Courtney's numbers appear to be in the ballpark.
But that got us thinking: There are 30 state senators, and 60 state representatives, for 90 people all together. Assuming that they're all adults, by Courtney's count, five of them are nuts.
That number seems low.
| Posted at 8:48 AM | Permalink |
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Comments (7)
You'd need to do a regression analysis for politics.
Posted by Allan L. | February 17, 2013 9:17 AM
Birds of a feather.
Posted by tankfixer | February 17, 2013 10:27 AM
And, on average, 1 in 25 Americans are "conscienceless" (psychopaths). In Europe, 1 in 30. CAT scans show their brains missing a key formation where empathy and conscience reside. Too many of them end up in positions of power and authority, btw. You know them. They mess with you, constantly. Especially if they realize (or even just suspect) that you see through their deceptions and schemes. A lot of them end up as CEOs, Wall Streeters, and politicians.
http://www.interviewmagazine.com/culture/conscience-lack-of
http://www.urbanscout.org/monsters-are-real/
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0767915828
Posted by Mojo | February 17, 2013 10:46 AM
They cause a lot of social damage and personal destruction. Even in little ponds, like classrooms, volunteer social organizations, city & county councils, planning departments, water districts....
Posted by Mojo | February 17, 2013 10:54 AM
I used to say that only 1 percent of the public ever writes to the newspaper, and 5 percent of the public is nuts. Thus it is safe to ignore written complaints
Posted by niceoldguy | February 17, 2013 6:18 PM
I think we also need to factor in the number of people who are the "go alongs"
who support those missing empathy and a conscience.
Posted by clinamen | February 17, 2013 7:05 PM
Good point, clinamen. l'll go along with that.
Posted by Mojo | February 17, 2013 7:32 PM