Intellectual Prevarication

Bret Stephens, the affirmative action conservative hire at the New York Times, has a column out today about hurricanes and how they affect poor countries much worse than rich ones. He's right as far as that goes.

However, he drops this nice little piece of bullsh*t in our laps:

Between 1940 and 2016, a total of 3,348 people died in the United States on account of hurricanes, according to government data, for an average of 43 victims a year. 

I suppose that's fine as far as it goes. It gets difficult for me to take him credibly, however, when he fails to note that, based on the very link he provides, there were 1,016 hurricane-related deaths in 2005. Anyone remember what happened, hurricane-wise, in 2005? 

(Hint . . . the Big Easy, anyone?)

I wonder why Brett Stephens, the affirmative action voice of conservatism in the New York Times, would elide the fact that fully 30% of the hurricane deaths suffered in the past 56 years in this country happened in 2005, during one particular hurricane. Huh.