Recent Comments

1. almost 14 years ago on Doonesbury

   Doughfoot, if you’re going to make up numbers, you should pick a subject that isn’t as easily researched. The total murders in the US in 2009 (2010 data hasn’t been released yet) was 15,241. That’s about 293 per week. Of those 293, about 45% were killed with knives, clubs, fists or poisons.

   Now it’s estimated that about 2,000,000 crimes are prevented every year by a citizen with a firearm. In almost all cases, there were no shots fired. You see, criminals are cowards and will run if they think their intended victim is armed. Makes me wonder how many of those 15,241 murders would have been prevented if the victims, or someone nearby, had been armed and willing to defend them.

   You also suggest that private citizens (you call them amateurs) are more likely to be shot. I’d have to disagree. As a bystander to a crime, you’re twice as likely to be accidentally shot by a cop than by a private citizen (the police hit their target about 37 out of every 100 shots fired, citizens 72 out of 100). In the case of an innocent person mistakenly identified as a criminal, the police error rate is 11%, citizens 2%. That means you’re more than 5 times as likely to be shot by a cop.

   Did you know that the homicide rate went down in Florida and Oregon after those states passed laws allowing citizens to carry weapons? Yet you think if you disarm the law abiding population the criminals will stop killing?

2. about 15 years ago on Sylvia

   White chocolate: 200 ounces per pound of body weight. It takes 250 pounds of white chocolate to cause signs of poisoning in a 20-pound dog, 125 pounds for a 10-pound dog.

   Milk chocolate: 1 ounce per pound of body weight. Approximately one pound of milk chocolate is poisonous to a 20-pound dog; one-half pound for a 10-pound dog. The average chocolate bar contains 2 to 3 ounces of milk chocolate. It would take 2-3 candy bars to poison a 10 pound dog. Semi-sweet chocolate has a similar toxic level.

   Sweet cocoa: 0.3 ounces per pound of body weight. One-third of a pound of sweet cocoa is toxic to a 20-pound dog; 1/6 pound for a 10-pound dog.

   Baking chocolate: 0.1 ounce per pound body weight. Two one-ounce squares of bakers’ chocolate is toxic to a 20-pound dog; one ounce for a 10-pound dog.