Now, with pictures!

So, I like studies. I find numbers very reassuring. (1. I blame my awesome geekdom & science-heavy background. & 2. Yes, I know numbers can be manipulated to mean whatever you want.)

Anyway, I can across some super neat numbers today & I want to share them with you.

Let's start cheerful. The first studies are about dying.
Drugs are bad, m'kay.
This study is put out by a group who are advocating the legalization, so consider that. It does, however, come in an easy to digest table form. And, it compares the number of deaths that're directly attributable to pot to those that are attributable to several other drugs including Vioxx, Adderall, and... Viagra.
(On a side note & from a personal agenda, 7 women have died from use of RU-486 [the abortion pill/Mifepristone], you can check it out on CNN; they did a story on it within the last week or so. This study attributes over 2000 deaths to the use of Viagra, & I've heard estimates that place the number above 5000. So, where are the CNN stories to get that outlawed?)

The second look at the most common anti-abortion measures that are sought. Again, this bit has an agenda. It examines the claim that abortion is murder & says... well, she says it pretty succinctly...
"[T]he leaders of the abortion criminalization movement have consistently put their political weight behind policies which make little or no sense if they genuinely think that abortion is identical to child murder. And those same leaders routinely endorse policies that make a lot of sense if their goal is to penalize women who have sex."
Read the whole (short) story here.

Or, you can just cheat & check out the fun table/graphic.


And, finally, on a happy note, Cecelia Fire Thunder, first female president of the Oglala Sioux tribe of South Dakota, has said she is bringing an abortion-providing Planned Parenthood to her reservation.
She said, "I will personally establish a Planned Parenthood clinic on my own land which is within the boundaries of the Pine Ridge Reservation where the State of South Dakota has absolutely no jurisdiction."
The Salon story I pulled this from here.