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Another Point of View on Pew Poll on Religious Knowledge Among Americans

You may remember a few months back Pew published the results of a poll that showed Agnostics and Atheists knew more about religion than people of faith.   Quiz is gone on their site.

And here is the link to the Pew article on the results of their poll: U.S. Religious Knowledge Survey

Writing in the Scientific American Charles Seife disputes their methodology and analysis of the results.  The article is  The Science of “Disestimation”: The Shortcomings of Opinion Polls with a subtitle of Why we shouldn’t put our faith in opinion polls.

Mr. Seife is probably correct in his assessment.   Statistical analysis is way beyond my realm of knowledge.  I would assume, though, that an organization like Pew would have some statisticians on board…or maybe they should.

Anecdotally from my experience I would tend to agree with Pew.  Most of the Atheists that I personally know have gotten there after much study and thought.  It is not an easy thing to discard the powerful meme that is religion.  Continue reading “Another Point of View on Pew Poll on Religious Knowledge Among Americans”

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Most welfare fraud by doctors, hospitals, pharmacies…

I’ve been looking for a statistic on the percentage of welfare/Medicare fraud by recipients.  I kept seeing this quote all over the Internet.  While I did not find the original study,  I am going to trust the Boston Herald.

“A study in Massachusetts showed that more than 93 percent of the money recovered from welfare fraud came from vendors.”

Read the full story at the Boston Herald at this link:     The real cheaters

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Virgin Births, Dime a Dozen

“’Now the birth of Jesus Christ was in this wise.  When his mother, Mary, was espoused to Joseph, before they came together she was found with child of the Holy Ghost.’  Yes, and the Greek demigod Perseus was born when the god Jupiter visited the virgin Danaë as a shower of gold and got her with child. The god Buddha was born through an opening in his mother’s flank. Catlicus the serpent-skirted caught a little ball of feathers from the sky and hid it in her bosom, and the Aztec god Huitzilopochtli was thus conceived. The virgin Nana took a pomegranate from the tree watered by the blood of the slain Agdestris, and laid it in her bosom, and gave birth to the god Attis.  The virgin daughter of a Mongol king awoke one night and found herself bathed in a great light, which caused her to give birth to Genghis Khan.  Krishna was born of the virgin Devaka.  Horus was born of the virgin Iris.  Mercury was born of the virgin Maia. Romulus was born of the virgin Rhea Sylvia.”

The above is from Christopher Hitchens book, god is not Great, How Religion Poisons Everything.

Given his status as journalist and author, I did not feel the need to vet the above information.  I am sure it has been done many times before.

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Welfare Mama, My A$$

One of the reoccurring themes when I talk to my fellow citizens on the right of the political spectrum is freeloaders.  They seem utterly outraged and maybe terrified that someone might be getting something with their tax money.  I keep hearing stories about the welfare mama driving a Cadillac.  Another favorite story is the teenage bimbo driving a hot car, living with her boyfriend, and paying for cigarettes with food stamps.  Then we have malingers collecting workers comp for a fake injury.  The stories go on and on.

I have no doubt that there are cases like the above.  I spent an afternoon a while back Googling for statistics on this type of fraud or abuse of the system.  I did not have a lot of luck finding any numbers.   My gut feeling is that the dollars pale in comparison to the real welfare cheats, doctors, lawyers, hospitals, and corporations.

A while back I worked for a large corporation involved in the care of the elderly.  Their standard business practice was to bill Medicare for every possible thing.  Apparently they were a little too zealous about it.  The government pushed back at them and they had to pay back a rather large sum of money (in the millions).  If memory serves there was also a fine involved, but I am not entirely sure on that part.

A news story just broke, 91 charged in Medicare fraud crackdown.  They have just arrested 91 individuals, including doctors and other medical professionals.  They are claiming $295 million in false billings.  Continue reading “Welfare Mama, My A$$”

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Controversial Photo Spread Glamorizes Domestic Abuse?

I probably have a different view than most as my ex was director of a battered woman’s shelter for several years.  After that she worked troubled teens who often were the target of domestic violence.  That is when I first realized that men can be and frequently are pigs when it comes to relating to women.  That is in good measure why I do not find these things even vaguely humorous.   We all need to be treating each other with love and respect.  Can you imagine what sort of world that would be… to paraphrase Lennon.

Controversial Photo Spread Glamorizes Domestic Abuse?  Link removed