Today's Pix and Some Toons

A Blast From The Past

From NBC News way back in 2006:

NEW YORK — In the largest study of its kind, researchers found that having people pray for heart bypass surgery patients had no effect on their recovery. In fact, patients who knew they were being prayed for had a slightly higher rate of complications.

Researchers emphasized that their work can't address whether God exists or answers prayers made on another's behalf. The study can only look for an effect from prayers offered as part of the research, they said.

They also said they had no explanation for the higher complication rate in patients who knew they were being prayed for, in comparison to patients who only knew it was possible prayers were being said for them.

Critics said the question of God's reaction to prayers simply can't be explored by scientific study.

That was only a little over 8 years ago - can you imagine the reaction of The Right Radicals if somebody tried it again now?

Take a look for yourself sometime. Just google this phrase: prayer study fails.

You're welcome. Enjoy.

hat tip = Atheist Experience

Today's Quote

Religion, n.  a daughter of Hope and Fear, explaining to the ignorant the nature of the unknowable.  --Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary

Something's Wrong With Kansas

...and it seems to have everything to do with a "philosophy of governance" based on a deep and abiding hatred for government.

From the OP/ED page of The Wichita Eagle:

It seemed like a good idea at the time – a two-year budget cycle enabling lawmakers to “budget the first year, do oversight the second year,” as Gov. Sam Brownback put it a year ago. But a lot of unfinished fiscal business will greet Brownback and the 2014 Legislature next week.

In some cases, the state has no choice but to act.

For example, Brownback vetoed the entire 2015 budget for the Kansas Department of Corrections last summer rather than see it take a $10 million cut. In his veto message he said he looked “forward to working with the 2014 Legislature in finding the department sufficient resources to ensure public safety is not imperiled.”

Because statewide property-tax revenue has been lower than expected but K-12 enrollment is up, state funding for public schools is estimated to be $17.8 million less than the 2013 Legislature intended for the current fiscal year and $19.9 million short for 2015, the Lawrence Journal-World reported last month. The Legislature needs to offset the shortfall.

So your state's kinda flat-on-its-ass broke and Moody's downgraded your credit rating, but you guys just go right on believing Oz is out there waiting for you, and all you need is a few more tax cuts to get you up over that rainbow.

It's bullshit, guys - your premise is bullshit.  St Ayn says very clearly that when your premise is false, your conclusion cannot be true.

Less Tax Revenue ≠ More Tax Revenue.

And just as a BTW, this little problem was not unforeseen.  Here's a piece in Christian Science Monitor from more than a year ago:

Kansas Governor Sam Brownback (R) and the GOP-controlled legislature are struggling to accomplish two goals: They want to repeal the state income tax but need to balance a budget that, despite substantial spending cuts, faces a $700 million shortfall.

It is no easy trick. Their solution: new net short-term revenue increases accompanied by a promise to phase out the state’s income tax. This year’s final budget agreement includes both spending cuts and about $300 billion in new sales and income tax revenue that promise to balance the fiscal year 2014 books. But over the next five years, those new revenues will be overwhelmed by a proposed 20 percent cut in individual income tax rates, setting the stage for annual budget crises.

But y'know, it's the teacher's unions and all those other free-loadin' public employees.  That's the real problem.  Those rotten career bureaucrats - it's their fault cuz they don't really do anything (except make it all run as well as can be expected when they're perpetually short-handed, underfunded and generally treated like a squad of scullery maids).  But hey, they just don't understand Supply Side Economics; and that's because they don't wanna understand.  They insist on believing there's something noble and dutiful about serving the public - they're totally in conflict with the New Paradigm so fuck 'em; who needs 'em anyway?

"Conservatives" have been sellin' us this junk for a very long time.

China Hack

Via HuffPo:

WASHINGTON (AP) — Chinese hackers broke into the computer networks of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management earlier this year with the intention of accessing the files of tens of thousands of federal employees who had applied for top-secret security clearances, according to The New York Times.

Senior U.S. officials say the hackers gained access to some of the agency's databases in March before the threat was detected and blocked, the Times reported in an article posted on its website Wednesday night. How far the hackers penetrated the agency's systems was not yet clear, the newspaper said.

Accusations of hacking by China and counterclaims of such activity by the U.S. government have strained U.S.-Chinese relations. Chinese hacking has been a major theme of U.S.-China discussions this week in Beijing, though both sides have publicly steered clear of the controversy.

First off, who didn't think this kinda thing was going on - or wasn't going to happen eventually?

And then, let's consider how the Press Poodles are shocked - shocked I tells ya - about revelations of dirty dealing.

High School Fuck-Around Drama du jour.

I Figured It Out

OK, so I've got it now - maybe.

Republicans are pretty much all about an authoritarian top-down central control business-model power structure where you're all welcome to voice your opinions, but we're gonna need ya to get in line here pretty soon and just do what we're tellin' ya'll to do.  Kinda like religion.

Democrats are more of a make up your own mind; we're all in charge cuz nobody's better than anybody else in this community; do your own thing and we'll try to meet - later - somewhere in the middle and see if we can't get to something that resembles a consensus so we can make some decisions about what's best for the most.  Kinda like atheism.

Why did it take me so long to figure this out?

At about the 3-minute mark, this guys nails it for me.

Dear HBO

...I'm kind of intrigued by your new series - The Leftovers.  It's an interesting premise, and it seems to have some real potential.

But there's one little problem.  The flag patch on Garvey's right shoulder is backwards.  Protocol requires the field of stars always to be on the forward edge - ie: never "in retreat".

Just a nit I felt needed pickin'.

Today's Monster Of The Id

The Former 1/2-Term Governor is a real star in the DumFux firmament.  Her skill at taking random sentence fragments (generally composed of buzzwords and coded phrases), and cobbling them into TV-friendly 30-second sound bites that can then be repackaged as common sense political reality is practically unrivaled.  And the simple fact that her "commentary" is unfailingly incendiary - to the point that she should come with her own HazMat label - puts her in a class where calling the roll is a very much abbreviated exercise.

That's Odd

From Yahoo News via Democratic Underground:

Beginning in January of this year, 13 states individually increased their own minimum wages, creating a sort of natural experiment in which the remaining states could serve as a control group. All that was left was for someone to do the math, and the Center for Economic and Policy Research, building on research conducted earlier in the year by Goldman Sachs, delivered that in a report last week.

Of the 13 states that raised their minimum wages, all but one saw job growth in the first five months of 2014. To be sure, that’s a small achievement in an environment where the national economy is adding something on the order of 250,000 jobs per month.

The really interesting finding is that the states that raised the minimum wage saw job growth that was, on average, higher than states that did not. The 37 states that did not raise the minimum wage at the beginning of this year saw employment increase by .68 percent. Those that did raise the wage saw employment increase by .99 percent.

So those hippie-dippie mush-brained libruls were right - again?  And what about all the death and destruction foretold by all those "grownups" on the other side? - the ones who were so absolutely certain that raising the Minimum Wage even a tiny bit threatened the natural order of the universe, and would surely call down the wrath of a vengeful Mammon to lay waste the land and curse all humankind forever, and blah blah fucking blah.

Is it at all weird that none of this has popped up on MSNBC's Morning Blow or on DumFux Business Channel?  Or is it just that I've missed too many of their riveting, insightful and mission-critical segments lately?

Today's Pix