File This Under “Good Public Policy : Duuuhh”

recent study confirms what medical marijuana advocates have long tried to argue: the cannabis plant can serve as a less addictive alternative to prescription painkillers.

The study, published in JAMA Internal Medicine this week, found that the states that enacted medical marijuana laws between 1999 and 2010 — more than a dozen at the time — reported 1,700 fewer prescription painkiller overdose deaths than projected. While researchers say the study has some limitations, including variations in how states classified overdose deaths, they say it makes a case for expanding options for chronic pain relief.

via Legalizing Medical Marijuana Can Help Prevent People From Overdosing On Painkillers | ThinkProgress.

Rick Perry Lies About ‘Historic record highs’ of people from terrorists states being apprehended at border

Year

Afghanistan

Pakistan

Syria

2003

61

4,083

369

2004

57

641

106

2005

55

792

113

2006

53

721

151

2007

28

654

101

2008*

74

654

101

2009

74

575

87

2010

88

592

95

2011

106

525

108

2012

95

458

56

via Rick Perry: ‘Historic record highs’ of people from terrorists states being apprehended at border | PolitiFact.

Note: he’s also stoking fears based on utter b.s. and a complete lack of a sense of proportion.

The numbers of apprehensions of individuals from these countries is also incredibly low compared to the primary sources of illegal immigrants. In 2012, DHS apprehended nearly 450,000 Mexicans, 55,000 Guatemalans and 50,000 Hondurans. In contrast, officials apprehended 95 Afghanis, 458 Pakistanis and 56 Syrians.

Intolerance of Bigotry in the name of Tolerance is not Hypocrisy, it is Progress

Perhaps seeking to blunt that criticism, Rubio acknowledged the United States has a history of discrimination against gays and lesbians. He added that his opponents pose what he called legitimate policy questions and urged a respectful discussion going forward: “Tolerance is also a two-way street.”

But he said he could not support such marriages despite a quick-moving shift in public opinion on allowing same-sex couples to marry.

“There is a growing intolerance on this issue,” Rubio said of those who back same-sex marriages. “This intolerance in the name of tolerance is hypocrisy.”

via Rubio: Same-sex marriage foes face ‘intolerance’ – Yahoo News.

Headline = point.

Also, it should be noted…no one is trying to deny the rights of folks like Rubio to marry, if one somehow feels inclined to cast him as the victim of the “folks who aren’t me”-marriage debate.

Russia Keeps the Crap, Ignores the Good

Funny news story combo today….


Moscow (AFP) – Fugitive US intelligence operative Edward Snowden has been granted a three-year residence permit in Russia, his lawyer said on Thursday, in the latest blow to Moscow’s deeply strained relations with Washington.
— [story]

…..and…..


MOSCOW — Russia announced on Thursday that it was banning the import of a wide range of food and agricultural products from Europe and the United States, among others, responding to Western-imposed sanctions and raising the level of confrontation between the West and Moscow over the future of Ukraine.

Dmitri A. Medvedev, the prime minister, announced that Russia would ban all beef, pork, fruit, vegetables and dairy products from the European Union, the United States, Canada, Australia and Norway for one year.
— [story]

European Spacecraft Pulls Alongside Comet

After 10 years and a journey of four billion miles, the European Space Agency’s Rosetta spacecraft arrived at its destination on Wednesday for the first extended, close examination of a comet.

A six-minute thruster firing at 5 a.m. Eastern time, the last in a series of 10 over the past few months, slowed Rosetta to the pace of a person walking, about two miles per hour relative to the speed of its target, Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.

“It is like driving a car or a bus on a motorway for 10 years,” said Andrea Accomazzo, the flight director, at a post-rendezvous news conference. “Now we’ve entered downtown. We’re downtown and we have to start orienting ourselves. We don’t know the town yet, so we have to discover it first.”

via European Spacecraft Pulls Alongside Comet – NYTimes.com.

More panspermia evidence, coming up soon.

What they are not likely to find?  Evidence that the Bible is correct.

 

What’s More Likely to Be Bullshit

I’m glad this is a thing…http://www.reddit.com/r/conspiratard

BTW, I noticed a great one the other day….

You know how kooky some people are who think the U.S. faked the moon landing? It would take nearly 1,000 people, scientists, politicians, lawyers, astronauts, etc, all in on it, faking the data, and telling the same “lie” for generations.

But the thing is…in order to think that global warming in a lie, one has to extend that number to 10,000 and instead of just the U.S., it has to become a massive *global conspiracy*.

So the idea that global warming is a conspiracy is, roughly, about 1,000 times * less likely than a faked moon landing…

…and yet is still quite popular.

‘Merica.

* the difficulty of successfully conspiring in inversely and logarithmicly related to the number of people it takes to pull it off.