DUH!

I need in on these studies. You know, the type of studies that conclude that water makes things wet. Take for instance this AP study that shows bankruptcies are higher in States that allow wages to be garnished. Is this really a surprise to anyone? Seriously. If a person cannot make their payments to you when they are bringing home the 60-75% or so that the State lets them bring home, how do you expect them to make it when you take 25-50% of the remaining? At that point you are simply asking them to go to extremes to avoid you. Worse for the company, in some States, including Colorado, if a person declares bankruptcy the Court will take the money that was garnished and divvy it up amongst all the creditors so they simply wasted money collecting it.

Drug Warriors Suppress Evidence

Seems that the Drug Warriors only want propagandainformation that supports their viewpoint. Anything else they suppress.

A study done by the WHO 14 years ago states that

health problems from "the use of legal substances, particularly alcohol and tobacco, are greater than health problems from cocaine use." If that weren't enough, it states that "few experts describe cocaine as invariably harmful to health," and that problems "are mainly limited to high-dosage users." Indeed, "occasional cocaine use does not typically lead to severe or even minor physical or social problems . . . a minority of people start using cocaine or related products, use casually for a short or long period, and suffer little or no negative consequences, even after years of use."

This study was done 14 years ago, but the US pushed to suppress the study as it didn't like the conclusions. As a result is was never published and only came to light because it was leaked out.

If your only response to contrary evidence is to ignore or bury it your position cannot be terribly strong.

Missed Opportunities

Sigh

Dark Side Recruits

Looks like the Dark Side has recruited giant chipmunks!

Watch Out!

Current Unemployment Rate

From an AP article we learn that another 467,000 jobs were cut last month. Whats more is it gives us the current unemployment rate of 9.5% and then gives us a concrete number:

All told, 14.7 million people were unemployed in June.

So what does that mean? It means there are 14.7 million people who are out of a job, but are still looking for a job. This brings up the obvious question... what of those who just give up looking for a job? The simple answer is that they aren't counted. The article continues and gives us the rate that most of us care about:

If laid-off workers who have given up looking for new jobs or have settled for part-time work are included, the unemployment rate would have been 16.5 percent in June, the highest on records dating to 1994.

16.5%?!?! So AP pegs those under or unemployed at 25,457,355. That gives a private sector unemployment rate of 22.27% (private sector being calculated from BLS numbers of all employed in 2008 of 154,287,000 minus approx 40,000,000 public sector employees)

Its good to know that we are in the good hands of a Kenyan after being in the good hands of a "compassionate conservative." Imagine how bad things would be if we had a more libertarian government with a Ron Paul or Chuck Baldwin in office.

The Importance Of Words

One Sunday after his sermon, the pastor asked if anyone in the congregation would like to express praise for answered prayers. A lady stood and walked to the podium.

She said, “I have a praise. Two months ago, my husband, Tom, had a terrible bicycle wreck, and his scrotum was completely crushed. The pain was excruciating, and the doctors didn’t know if they could help him.”

You could hear a muffled gasp from the men in the congregation as they imagined the pain that poor Tom must have experienced.

“Tom was unable to hold me or the children,” she went on, “and every move caused him terrible pain. We prayed as the doctors performed a delicate operation, and it turned out they were able to piece together the crushed remnants of Tom’s scrotum and wrap wire around it to hold it in place.”

Again, the men in the congregation were unnerved and squirmed uncomfortably as they imagined the horrible surgery performed on Tom.

“Now,” she announced in a quavering voice, “thank the Lord, Tom is out of the hospital, and the doctors say that with time, his scrotum should recover completely.”

All the men sighed with relief. The pastor rose and tentatively asked if anyone else had something to say.

A man stood up, walked slowly to the podium, and said, “Hi, I’m Tom.”

The entire congregation held its breath.

“I just want to tell my wife that the word is ‘sternum’.”