About that urban legend: Smart Politics' analysis of red and blue state crime rates

A new post at Smart Politics, Red State Have Higher Crime Rates Than Blue States, prompted my comment at the site:

Interesting anaylsis that flies in the face of a frequently emailed mostly false urban legend. The email based on it has been updated for the 2008 election and used as fodder for letters and blog posts.

Despite Hamline law professor Joseph Olson repeated objections to the emailed item falsely attributed to him, there doesn't seem to be any stopping this one. Nonetheless, thanks for adding another fact-based analysis for us legend watchers.

The earlier version of the tale was published as a LTE in a Jackson County, MN newspaper in 2008, as I noted on Bluestem Prairie at the time of publication.

Readers of the earlier version of Bluestem Prairie may remember that I have a deep appreciation of urban legends--and an even greater delight in debunking them. Not that it helps persuade those who are uncritically unwilling to consider conflicting evidence that disputes an email confirming a deeply held worldview.

I'll be on the road to cover Margaret Anderson Kelliher's campaign kick-off on her brother's Blue Earth County farm later this morning. Look for a post on that and a second on recent town hall meetings in Minnesota later in the afternoon.