It felt so real! Rejoice, fellow Americans, for Ben Carson is awake and alive and still running for president, apparently! And he has heard the tragic news of the untimely demise ( OR WAS IT MURDER?! ) of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. Does he have thoughts? Sort of, yes!
Sure, life expectancy at birth for the whole population is always totally representative of that of the elite.
That's why there's such a close relationship between Carson's 47 and the age at which the first Chief Justice, John Jay, died (83). Of course, Jay only sat on the bench for 6 years before resigning to run for Governor of New York, but that has nothing to do with life expectancy.
Clearly all the Founding Fathers were dead and buried long before John Marshall served 34 years as Chief Justice and it's only for that reason they didn't do anything about the possibility that a life appointment could mean a long time. Oh, wait, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams were alive the first 25 years of his term. Huh! Obviously John Adams wasn't paying attention, I mean it's not like he appointed the guy or anything... OR IS IT? (Yes, it is).
I don't know whether Carson's cited life expectancy of 47 is accurate, but if it is that was average for everybody, certainly not average for Supreme Court Justices. The average life span of Washington's original 5 Justices was almost 69 years old. John Jay lived to 83, and William Cushing served for over 20 years. And the issue of lifetime appointments isn't that big of a deal considering in the last 60 years, only Scalia and Rehnquist have died in office while 17 other Justices have retired or resigned.
The rate of infant and child mortality was much higher back then, so if you count children under the age of 16, then yeah, it brings down the average quite a bit. In the 18th and 19th centuries, if you survived childhood (when your immune system is immature) and reached adulthood (when it was much stronger) then you could look forward to a life that was nearly as long as the average today. Carson (a doctor!) is so Totally A Idiot for not recognizing this.
Right; and childbirth deaths, very common throughout history, have to be factored in too. In every era life expectancy is heavily influenced by social class. In late 1800s and early 1900s; before all those evil librl plots that hamstrung the Job Creators, the average life expectancy for a lower-class factory worker was somewhere in the early 40s. I had a lot of great-aunts growing up but few great-uncles: two generations before a lot of family members were miners and because the Gubber Mint didn't interfere with the profits of the owners, few of my great-uncles lived past 40.
So your secret is to offload your garbage on us. I approve of that. Please give me a green card, i live in the rocky mountains and love cold weather...
Sure, life expectancy at birth for the whole population is always totally representative of that of the elite.
That's why there's such a close relationship between Carson's 47 and the age at which the first Chief Justice, John Jay, died (83). Of course, Jay only sat on the bench for 6 years before resigning to run for Governor of New York, but that has nothing to do with life expectancy.
Clearly all the Founding Fathers were dead and buried long before John Marshall served 34 years as Chief Justice and it's only for that reason they didn't do anything about the possibility that a life appointment could mean a long time. Oh, wait, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams were alive the first 25 years of his term. Huh! Obviously John Adams wasn't paying attention, I mean it's not like he appointed the guy or anything... OR IS IT? (Yes, it is).
I don't know whether Carson's cited life expectancy of 47 is accurate, but if it is that was average for everybody, certainly not average for Supreme Court Justices. The average life span of Washington's original 5 Justices was almost 69 years old. John Jay lived to 83, and William Cushing served for over 20 years. And the issue of lifetime appointments isn't that big of a deal considering in the last 60 years, only Scalia and Rehnquist have died in office while 17 other Justices have retired or resigned.
If your head is in the oven and your feet are in the freezer....
Which, as I recall, means he lived until well after the Great Flood.
CT: A+. I come to the not-allowed comments for my daily dose of smart people, and you have certainly filled today's quota.
Now you've not only embarrassed me, but made me feel I'll never live up to my past - I'll be the Pierre Salinger of (non-existent) commenters! :-)
Actually, that would be rebecca at wonkette etc.
Thank you, thank you very much. And Shy fixed the thing, which I knew he would once he knew about it.
The rate of infant and child mortality was much higher back then, so if you count children under the age of 16, then yeah, it brings down the average quite a bit. In the 18th and 19th centuries, if you survived childhood (when your immune system is immature) and reached adulthood (when it was much stronger) then you could look forward to a life that was nearly as long as the average today. Carson (a doctor!) is so Totally A Idiot for not recognizing this.
The Assassination of Antonin Scalia, by Rachel Maddow, and her girlfriend from Planned Parenthood.
Thanks for the tip!
Right; and childbirth deaths, very common throughout history, have to be factored in too. In every era life expectancy is heavily influenced by social class. In late 1800s and early 1900s; before all those evil librl plots that hamstrung the Job Creators, the average life expectancy for a lower-class factory worker was somewhere in the early 40s. I had a lot of great-aunts growing up but few great-uncles: two generations before a lot of family members were miners and because the Gubber Mint didn't interfere with the profits of the owners, few of my great-uncles lived past 40.
And at that, he had to have attended math class before schools started scorching childrens' brains by allowing them to use calculators in said class.
I'm not sure a campaign to force the Notorious RBG to step down would exactly catch fire here.
Excellent point about the social class factor.
So your secret is to offload your garbage on us. I approve of that. Please give me a green card, i live in the rocky mountains and love cold weather...