Laurel's Dirty Secret

Laurel Sweet's Herald article attempts to draw equivalence between snobby (oh no!) Beverly's teen pregnancy rate and Gloucester's, but as one commenter points out, all she really proves is that girls can't do math:

Beverly-- 93 teen births out of about 39,000; that's a rate of about .0023 Gloucester- 118 teen births out of a population around 30,000; a rate of about .0039, more than one and-a-half times that of Gloucester Tell me again why Beverly should be construed to be as much of a breeding factory as Gloucester High, please.

And in case you're wondering, I did a quick check of the Census website and saw that the proportion of people under 18 was roughly equal across the two towns. Not to mention that the median incomes (circa 2000) of the towns were not that far apart: 47k in Glostah, versus 53k in Beverly. Not chump change, but $6000 doesn't go as far at the polo club as it used to, either.

Lotto's For Losers Only

I got a real kick out of this story about how many states will continue to sell scratch tickets for games whose top prizes have already been awarded. Personally, I'd like to see lotteries banned completely, because as much as I dislike stupidity, taxing it seems cruel, not to mention ineffective. That said, we will see Tom Brady wearing an 18-1 T-shirt before the General Court of the Commonwealth gives up the game and the easy money it brings.

Since I can't beat them, I figured I might as well join them. My scratch game is called "For The Children" and tickets can be bought in $1, $5, $10, or $1000 denominations. There are no prizes, but the state gets the money just the same, so it's 99.99% like the regular scratch tickets. Instead, when you scratch off a panel, it shows you where the money you gave the state actually went, based on last year's budget. Just wait until you buy a $1000 ticket and scratch, hoping to find a "new math books for a third-grade class in Roxbury" and instead get "one day of Billy Bulger's pension" instead! Now that's a way to get people engaged in the process!

Best of all, the next time somebody comes around telling you that taxes ought to be higher, all you have to do is tell them to quit campaigning and go buy some For the Children and prove how much they really care. For once, everybody wins!