Deadly Sins Around Us

What could be a better topic of discussion for the happy, upbeat Christmas season than The Seven Deadly Sins?

You may recall that I have written about the Seven Deadly Sins several times, notably here (in conjunction with seven somewhat more nontraditional deadly sins), here (in combination with the updated Deadly Sins announced by the Catholic Church), and here (as paired with the Seven Cardinal Virtues). Yesterday I saw a new take on the topic in a Yahoo News item that steered me to this post on Memolition: Maps of Seven Deadly Sins in America.

This interesting post used various types of statistics to develop a set of maps which purport to show how widespread the Seven Deadly Sins are in various parts of America. For instance, the distribution of Greed, calculated by comparing average incomes with the number of people living below the poverty line, looks like this. Oddly enough, greed seems to be prevalent on the eastern seaboard (including New York and the Nation's Capital, go figure), Southern Florida and California  ...

Another example is the distribution map for Wrath, calculated by comparing the total number of violent crimes (murder, assault and rape) reported to the FBI per capita in each state. Red indicates higher rates of violent crimes per capita, while blue indicates lower rates ... in general, the most violent states tend to be in the deep South, and the most mellow in the Midwest and North ...

Finally, this map shows the distribution of Gluttony, calculated on the basis of number of fast-food restaurants per capita. Tidewater Virginia looks like a heart attack waiting to happen ...

I know you're waiting for Lust, but you can check it out on your own, Mike.

My conclusion: go North. It's colder, but less traditionally sinful. Maybe.

Have a good day. Go, and sin no more. More thoughts tomorrow.

Bilbo

Ass Clown of the Year Update

With one day of voting complete, here are the current results in our Ass Clown of the Year competition:

The Democratic Party and the GOP are tied for first place with 25 votes each.

Edward Snowdon is in second place with 16 votes.

Casey James Fury, The Tea Party, and Congress as a Whole are tied in third place with one vote each.

Don't forget to cast your votes ... remember, Chicago Rules apply, and the balloting closes at 11:59 PM on December 31^st! Stand up and be counted!