Quietly, one of the stalwarts of the criminal blawgosphere has returned.  Norm Pattis of the now defunct Crime & Federalism has opened a solo shop down the road called, imaginatively, Norm Pattis.  

I started out writing this to address Norm’s post from yesterday, Mandatory Three Strikes A Bad Idea, as if this hasn’t been tried, debated and proven a failure elsewhere years ago, and has suddenly struck the lawmakers of CT as a novel idea.  To understand this, you need to realize that while CT sits just above the cultural Mecca of New York, it has only two sources of information.  The first is the Hartford Courant, which is limited to its one real city, maintained solely to prove that not everyone in Connecticut is white and wealthy.  And the second is the Wall Street Journal, widely distributed to everyone outside of Hartford because, well, everyone in Connecticut (except Hartford) is white and wealthy.  Are you surprised that they think 3 strike laws are a new invention?

But, as I was writing, Norm Pattis went and turned my whole morning upside down with his new post, today’s post, about one of my favorite subjects in the world, Robert Malthus.  For anyone unfamiliar, this is an excerpt from Norm’s post explaining Malthusian theory:

“The power of population is so superior to the power of the earth to produce subsistence for man, that premature death must in some shape or other visit the human race. The vices of mankind are active and able ministers of depopulation. They are the precursors in the great army of destruction, and often finish the dreadful work themselves. But should they fail in this war of extermination, sickly seasons, epidemics, pestilence, and plague advance in terrific array, and sweep off their thousands and tens of thousands. Should success be still incomplete, gigantic inevitable famine stalks in the rear, and with one mighty blow levels the population with the food of the world.”

Fascinating, isn’t it?  But Malthus, writing during the Irish potato famine, was not without his detractors, including Jonathon Swift, who penned his satirical “A Modest Proposal” (the 1729 version of Soylent Green) in response.

While my appreciation of Malthus’ point is substantially less literal than Norm’s, and I’ve long believed that while some of the details may change, his point remains valid, Norm’s connection of Malthusian theory to Global Warming today should make everyone pause and think long and hard.

Man, it’s great to have Norm back and posting.  This is great stuff.