From: Mitchell Day [Email him]

I don't know if I'm being politically correct or not but the news story that is shown with Steve's article conflates Irish Travellers (pictured right, circa 1954) with Gypsies. That's wrong. Not that it surprises me that the MSM can't be bothered to even look up Wikipedia to find that out.

From Wikipedia:

Irish travellers do not have links to Roma or Romani people Population genetics A genetic analysis of Irish Travellers found evidence to support the hypotheses of: (1) Irish ancestry; (2) several distinct subpopulations; and (3) the distinctiveness of the midland counties due to Viking influence. Genetic studies by Miriam Murphy, David Croke, and other researchers identified certain genetic diseases such as galactosemia that are more common in the Irish Traveller population, involving identifiable allelic mutations that are rarer among the rest of the community. Two main hypotheses have arisen, speculating whether: this resulted from marriages made largely within and among the Traveller community, or suggesting descent from an original Irish carrier long ago with ancestors unrelated to the rest of the Irish population. They concluded that: "The fact that Q188R is the sole mutant allele among the Travellers as compared to the non-Traveller group may be the result of a founder effect in the isolation of a small group of the Irish population from their peers as founders of the Traveller sub-population. This would favour the second, endogenous, hypothesis of Traveller origins." More specifically, they found that Q188R was found in 100% of Traveller samples, and in 89% of other Irish samples, indicating that the Traveller group was typical of the larger Irish indigenous population.

See previous letters from Mitchell Day.

James Fulford writes: I just want to say that as editor, I’m responsible for using the photo above to illustrate Steve’s post, and linking to The Big Fat Gypsy Truants | Young traveller girls are leaving school before they turn 16 to get ready for the kind of marriages seen on TV’s My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding, By Eugene Henderson, Express (UK), July 3, 2011.

I am furthermore Deplorably responsible for the photo caption: “If Gypsies actually wanted an education, you'd have to keep it locked up.” That, in fact, is Steve’s point, and I agree. It's a stereotype about Gypsies that they keep their children out of school, even in Los Angeles County, and regarding Gypsies, all stereotypes are true.