World Ends; Women, Minorities Hardest Hit*

The media is indifferent to bias and tortured logic. For example, last November the New York Times reported that:

The number of inmates in state and federal prisons rose 2.1 percent last year, even as violent crime and property crime fell, according to a study by the Justice Department . . . The continuing increase in the prison population, despite a drop or leveling off in the crime rate in. . .

Monday's Houston Chronicle perpetuated the point:

While the U.S. crime rate has fallen over the past decade, the number of people in prison and jail is outpacing the number of inmates released, the government reports.

The "despite" is precious, as Jonah Goldberg observed years ago:

The most famous of the willfully obtuse is Fox Butterfield of The New York Times. Over the years, Butterfield has written a slew of articles in which he expresses genuine amazement that crime rates would go down as more people go to prison.

More recently, Patterico noted:

[T]he common liberal complaint that people are being incarcerated “despite” the fact that crime rates are going down. This is even described as “ironic” by liberals at times. The liberals never seem to give any credence to the possibility that crime rates are going down precisely because more people are being incarcerated.

One might expect the MSM would be embarrassed by silly syllogisms and edit out illogic. Think again.

(via The Corner)

More:

Congress catches "despite" disease:

Despite two wildly unsuccessful attempts to introduce a dollar coin, legislators are trying again.

On Wednesday, the House of Representatives passed a bill to create a new $1 coin, which would accompany the current Sacagawea piece. The measure enjoyed enormous bipartisan support, passing by a vote of 422 to 6.

(via NIF)

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* Comedian Mort Sahl's predicted New York Times front-page headline the day after nuclear armageddon.