The SoapBoxers

It is that time of year again. National Novel Writing Month is almost upon us. It is time to sharpen you pencil or warm up you keyboard. The goal is 50,000 words captured during the month of November. The rewards are tremendous; bragging rights, nifty icons, and your novel captured.

I have participated in NaNoWriMo each of the last three years. The first two saw success. My first effort was finally complete and available for the public early this year. It is a romance, and nothing like what I had originally planned. I am planning a freebee week during November, and will advertise it on The Soap Boxers. My second effort was also a success in that I reached 50,000 words. It is still incomplete, a science fiction effort that I have really enjoyed writing. My third effort fell well short of the 50,000 words and will likely never be finished. It is a teenage adventure fantasy involving fire breathing ninja squirrels from outer space. I thought it would be the easiest of my attempts, but I was wrong.

This year I am planning a fantasy word epic that I think can actually spread across several books. Of course you have to finish one before you can have a second.

Some of you may not have heard of NaNoWriMo before. It is an event sponsored by the office of letters and lights at NaNoWriMo.org. The site provides plenty of encouragement, examples of success, and the opportunity to support writing at all levels, from kids to professionals. There are writing communities that can be joined either electronically or locally. They schedule write ins and web casts. The official word counter is provided so that you can gauge your progress and claim your prizes.

I hope that each and every one of you participates. It is not really about winning the day, it is about writing. It is about capturing your ideas in written words, and if you choose, to share them with others. It is not a contest to see who is the best, strongest, or most long winded. It is not an election or a game. This is an opportunity to have fun, write, and be with others trying to do the same thing. It all begins on November 1. If you want to participate in the actual event, log on to NaNoWriMo.org and set up your profile.

Let the writing begin!!!!!

My My….crow is tasty and best served when cold….

In lasts week’s article I went on the record about Notre Dame with the following statement:

I am going on record that Boomer Sooner will roll one up on this over-rated team. Of course I could be completely wrong as frankly Oklahoma can be pretty average as well (see loss to Kansas State). Coach Stoops has a way of losing the big one, but I predict this will look more like the game against Texas than the turnover plagued loss to the Wildcats.

I even went as far to proclaim in the office that you can’t spell “BLOWOUT” without “OU”

After a Sunday to prepare for the onslaught of grief in the office on Monday, I supplied some cookies from a local establishment – Eileen’s.  While I am not a paid endorser, I am giving Eileen’s some free publicity today as their cookies are the GREATS!. Of course everyone in the office already likes them and how can you not like chocolate cookies with green mint frosting to celebrate a Fighting Irish victory over Oklahoma.

Of course my cookie offerings could not stop the onslaught of emails of Manti Te’o’ and various signs popping up on my cubicle throughout the day when I would be away at lunch or at the printer.

Gotta love those Irish fans.

The Big 10?

Could Nate Sudfeld lead the Hoosiers to the Big 10 title game?

Another crazy week in the conference. Denard Robinson gets injured and Nebraska wins rather easily against Michigan. Neither team looked very good on the field, matter of fact you could argue the play of both offenses rivaled the condition on Sunday morning of most of the people that were at our football tailgate party all day on Saturday at Memorial Stadium…..sluggish….

The Huskers have the lead in their division but head into what is sure to be a dog-fight this weekend in East Lansing. This side of the equation for the Conference Title game in Indianapolis is still wide open in what has been a very average year in comparison to the national stage.

On the other side of the league, Wisconsin loses to Michigan State last week at home (the first home loss in 21 games for Bielema’s boys was the 2nd longest streak in the nation) but since both Penn State and Ohio State are ineligible for the Title game, they are still clearly in command to make that game. Unfortunately they have lost their starting QB Joel Stave to a broken collarbone so they will have to go to the back-up plan and basically just hold off pesky Indiana to play for (gulp) the automatic BCS berth. But as Kosmo alluded to in his article yesterday, the Big 10 is still full of scenarios that could have them sending no one to BCS Bowl this year.

The many possibilities as they say are very …well….possible. I am guessing conference athletic directors might be secretly rooting for Nebraska to run the table just so everyone can get a slice of the BCS payday pie.

Optimus Klein

Collin Klein has pretty much distanced himself from the rest of the pack and barring a major crash and burn by his team or injury he looks to be the guy to hoist the trophy at the Downtown Athletic Club. On the year he has 1630 passing yards 634 yards rushing and a combined 28 Td’s. The Mildcats have Oklahoma State, TCU, Baylor and Texas on the schedule…What that spells to me is more huge stats by the lead Cat.

Fighting Frankies!

Once a Husker always a Husker, and I was disappointed to see that former Husker Coach Frank Solich and the Ohio Bobcats lost their first game of the year this past week to Miami of Ohio. The MAC is tough and this drops them from the rankings and even outside mention at a possible BCS bid if they ran the table, to now being in third place in their own conference.

Know a Good Real Estate Agent?

Really? This was 2011? Seems a lot longer.

I have a hard time believing that Auburn will keep Gene Chizik after the abysmal year of the Tigers. They got wood-shedded again this past week losing by 42 points. The good news for Auburn is they have New Mexico State this week and still have to play powerhouse Alabama A&M in another examples of two cases of an SEC school playing weird home games late in the year against poor opponents or downright patsies.

The bad news is that they also have to face Georgia (who I still think really isn’t that good) and Alabama (which I think IS really that good)

I am sure for War Eagle fans it seems so very long ago that they had paid Cam Newton and won their BCS Title. Wonder where Gene will end up?

Until next time, stay classy Tarpon Springs, Florida

Hurricane Sandy

Many in the northeast don’t have to go to work or school today.  But that’s not a good thing.  it’s because Hurricane Sandy is about to come ashore and could hammer the region for several days.  Early estimates of damage are in the neighborhood of $50 billion – and those estimates may end up being conservative, based on the path of the storm.  Sandy is a slow-moving storm, which is a horrible thing for a hurricane, and it means that the storm will dump rain on the region for a long period of time.

New Jersey governor Chris Christie put it best when he gave this succinct advice:

Don’t be stupid. Get out!

The Election

The timing of the storm also comes just a week before election day.  President Obama’s performance in some battleground states – notably Virginia and North Carolina – could depend on how he handles reaction to the storm.  There’s really not much Romney can do in this case, other than volunteer to fill sandbags somewhere.  At this stage, he’s a private citizen and has no authority over emergency response.

For reasons that elude me, people continue to report on the national polling numbers.  Maybe there’s more national interest in these numbers, but they are completely irrelevant.  Large majorities in some states will make a candidate look good in the national polls, but doesn’t help them in the electoral college.  The game is all about winning the battleground states.  What the candidates do in Texas and California does absolutely nothing to move the needle. 

World Series

Late Sunday night, the Giants finished off the Tigers in extra innings.  This capped an incredible post-season run by the Giants.  They are a hated rival of mine, but I applaud their ability to overcome a myriad of obstacles and win their second World Series in three years.  Marco Scutaro drove in an ecstatically sliding Ryan Theriot with the winning run.

College Football

A notable story in college football this year is the poor performance by the Big 10 conference.  In the latest BCS rankings, just a single Big 10 team made the rankings.  (To avoid kicking my Big 10 friends while they are down, I won’t point out how many Big 12 teams are in the rankings.  But it’s easy to find out.)

One wrinkle in the BCS is that a team from a non-automatic qualifier conference earns an automatic berth is they finish in the top 16 and also finish above the champion of any of the automatic qualifier conferences.  (I think only one team can take advantage of this per year).  Here are where some teams currently fit in the BCS standings:

• 19) Boise State
• 20) Nebraska (highest ranked Big 10 team)
• 25) Louisiana Tech

I like Boise State well enough, but I’m pulling for Louisiana Tech to crash the BCS party this year.

I’m also hoping for Notre Dame and Alabama to lose in the coming weeks.  Maybe have a nice batch of losses for the SEC and end up with an LSU-Louisiana Tech BCS game …

The big injury news on Saturday was standout South Carolina running back Marcus Lattimore, who dislocated his knee and suffered ligament damage in the game against Tennessee.  On the positive side, Lattimore did not break any bones.  He could possibly sit out 2013 as a redshirt year and then return to the field for the Gamecocks in 2014.

NBA

Reigning sixth man of year James Harden was traded from the Thunder to the Rockets.  Several picks and a few players were involved, but I’m not enough of an NBA fan to break down all the details.  However, I find it interesting that Harden left Oklahoma City because of money.  He’ll get a “max deal” of $60 million over four years from the Rockets.  Harden was offered $55.5 million over 4 years from the Thunder?

Wouldn’t you take a few less dollar for the opportunity to chase some titles with Kevin Durant.  (I guess I shouldn’t tell them that I like Durant – Durant!”)

This story originally ran on October 29, 2010.  This story is part of a trio of holiday stories  – you may also like Friends for Thanksgiving and Mrs. Claus and the Christmas Mistress.  All of them are “a bit” disturbing.

I threw another log into the bonfire and watched as the flames engulfed it.  The fire was off to a roaring start – just where it needed to be at this time of night.  The trick-or-treating was winding down, and the neighborhood kids would soon be gathering in my yard for the annual Halloween party.

The party was a neighborhood tradition, dating back nearly twenty years.  I was widowed at a young age, and from that point forward, made my work the focal point of my life.  I was a sixth grade teacher, and had won many awards for my work with the kids.  The Halloween party was a fun extension of my job.

I looked around the back yard to make sure everything was set up.  The lighting was at just the right level – sufficient to allow some visibility, but low enough to add spookiness to the occasion.

Pitchers of hot chocolate sat on the wooden picnic tables, as well as the main attraction for the evening – my world-famous chili.  My chili had a very distinctive taste that always made people clamor for more.

A few minutes later, Jeremy Dempsey led the first group of kids into the backyard.

“Hey, Mr. Raven.  Is the chili ready?”

“Yep, Jeremy, grab a bowl.”

“What’s in it, anyway?  My dad says it’s deer meat.”

I laughed.  “Oh, I couldn’t possible tell you my secret.  Isn’t it good enough to know that it’s delicious?”

The boy thought about pursuing the topic further, but then raced off to join his friends.

As the crowd was eating their chili, we began the tradition of telling scary tales.  I had the younger kids start out with the predictably tame stories and gradually built up to the older kids – some of whom did a pretty good job of scaring some of the youngsters.

When Steven Harper finished, it was my turn.

“Tonight I shall tell you a scary story … but a story that is very true.  Just two houses down,” I pointed toward the allegedly haunted house for effect “is the house where Old Man Harris once lived.”

“Harris was a grumpy old man of the worst kind.  If your baseball went into his yard, you wouldn’t get it back – and the cranky old man would pop out of the house and scream at you.”  Some of the older kids nodded their heads in agreement – they had experienced this firsthand.

“During the past decade, eight children have disappeared from this neighborhood – all on Halloween.  The cops always suspected Old Man Harris, but they could never find any evidence, so the elderly killing machine walked free.”  At this, the kids began to murmur amongst themselves – they knew of the abductions and knew that Harris was the Maple Street Marauder.

“Last year, twelve year old Sarah Miller disappeared on Halloween and hasn’t been heard from since.  Her friends told the police that Sarah was going to walk by the haunted Harris house on her way home – in spite of their protests.  Once again, the police could find no evidence that Harris committed any crime, and he walked free.  But this time, he would not escape justice.  Sarah’s father demanded revenge and shot Harris in the head as he walked to his mailbox.”

The kids all knew this story, so it didn’t scare them – although it made them a bit uncomfortable – setting them up for the finish.

“What you don’t know, though, is that Harris isn’t finished.  He made a deal with the devil to deliver a dozen souls.  Even though Harris is dead, the deal is not done.  His ghost must still kill four children as sacrifices to Satan.  This is the first Halloween since his death … and the next installment is due tonight.  I urge you to take every precaution and avoid the Harris house on this haunted night.”

I knew that my warning would only serve to embolden some of the older kids, who were now sure to pass by the Harris house after they left the party.  Unlike past years, I wouldn’t be able to stalk and kill them.  With Harris rotting under ground, I no longer had my scapegoat.

Perhaps the worst crime of all was that my famous chili would surely lose its special kick next year.  Tonight’s batch contained the last few morsels of Sarah Miller.

It seems that Republicans can’t keep putting their foot in their mouth about rape and abortion these days. The latest on their greatest hits album when it comes to this topic is from Indiana Senate candidate Richard Mourdock. Yesterday during a debate with his Democratic opponent Rep. Joe Donnelly when the topic of abortion in the case of rape or incest Mourdock had this to say. “I struggled with it myself for a long time, but I came to realize that life is a gift from God. And I think, even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, that it is something that God intended to happen.”

Now, unlike Akin, who said his now infamous discussion on legitimate rape and magical lady parts on a local TV show, Mourdock said these comments during a senate race debate. Candidates actually prepare for debates, you knew this topic was bound to come up. So the excuse of not being prepared for the topic to come up and misspeaking is clearly not valid here. So what is the next line of action? Oh but of course, the my comments were taken out of context. No sir, your comments are being quoted fully and accurately and their meaning is quite clear. You said that you have struggled with this for a long time, you said that rape is horrible, but you said that the baby created out of that is God’s intent. So if you want to take what you said about this that even though it was horrible the rape itself must have been God’s intent. That’s just wrong – a fine argument for you to make is that every life is God’s gift, but that is not what you said. You said that your view was it was God’s intent. Just like Akin you got caught speaking your actual beliefs in public. Just fess up to it, you are entitled to your opinion, no matter how moronically wrong it may be, but at least stand by what you really meant to say after you said it.

Now after the Akin comments were made you had conservative politicians trying to force him out of the race and the party even withdrew its financial backing. However conservative voters stuck with him after that, and that is why I feel that the Republican politicians are going to tread lightly on this, this is especially true for Romney. He is not going to want to outrage the hard conservative base that actually believes this crap on the eve of the election. In such a close race you need your base to turn out in mass effect, and as such it would be devastating if some of them decided to say cast their vote the way of say a Gary Johnson instead. Although I feel their hatred of President Obama would trump just about anything, but that is besides the point.

As I was saying, Romney is not going to want to upset the base at this late stage in the game, but it is a fine line to walk. He also needs to make sure he does not upset independent voters. So here we have Mittens walking on eggs. His campaign has released a statement saying the candidate does not share the views of Mourdock on this issue. Then again how are we to really know what Mitt Romney believes in, it changes so much, it is kind of like Kansas weather, but once again I am getting off topic. On the other hand though you have the campaign standing by the lone campaign ad for a Senate candidate featuring Mitt Romney himself in it that was debuted the day before the comments. Saying that Mourdock and his principles are still the best for the job. So as with everything else in this campaign, Romney is all over the place on what he actually stands for and believes in. Then again all he really cares about is being President and in the end that means that Obama will not have the job anymore and for them that is all that matters, even if their candidate actually believes in what they do after getting the job or not.

Well that is all from me this month. Not much need to do a Bad Nut of the Month as Mourdock clearly takes the prize, but if there was a second place it would be for Ann Coulter and her multiple tweets referring to the President as a retard and her mocking and ridicule of the deaths of Arlen Specter and George McGovern. We now stand just a mere dozen days until election day, so how do you think it is going to go? It is time to play some Fantasy Politics predictions. Now I think Obama will win the popular vote by a slim margin and will win the Electoral College 288-252. I also think that the Democrats will continue to control the Senate.

In some of the high profile races McCaskill will hold on to defeat Akin in Missouri, Mourdock who was in a tight race to begin with is going to lose to Donnelly in Indiana, Murphy will beat McMahon in Connecticut, Nelson is going to defeat Mack in Florida and I also think that Elizabeth Warren will take out Scott Brown in Massachusetts. On the house side things will be likely to look much the same I hate to say, as I see the Democrats getting probably just a net gain of a seat or two, three tops. One race involving one of my favorite people to rant about is going to be mighty close. In Minnesota’s 6th district former Presidential Candidate and three term Congresswoman Michele Bachman is in her tightest race yet and in a district that was fine tuned to her chances this time around to boot. Now while I am not going to come out and say that Bachman is going to lose to Jim Graves there, I am willing to bet that the margin of victory for either candidate will be from one to two percent. Well there you have some of my predictions laid out before you and you can play along to. I don’t have much to give out in the way of prizes, but feel free to post in the comments and we can have a little fantasy political prediction game going into election day

Tim Lincecum has been freaskishly bad in 2012.

Before the season began, the Giants knew they would be without Brian Wilson, their effective – and more importantly, quirky – closer.

Then the calendar flipped to April.  Tim Lincecum, a two time Cy Young award winner who should be in the heart of his peak years, began pitching like utter crap, and finished the season with an ERA above 5.00.

Outfielder Melky Cabrera provided a spark early in the year, racing toward a batting title.  Then Melky got popped for performance enhancing drugs and was banned 50 games.  He’d be eligible to return in the middle of the playoffs, but the Giants opted not to add him to the roster.  This decision was probably partially due to not wanting the stench of PEDs to waft over the team’s post-season success, but also because it would mean Cabrera would be having to re-acclimate himself to Major League pitching during the playoffs – not a good thing.

Then the playoffs began, and the Giants quickly lost two games to the Reds.  Then they had to go on the road and try to win the next three games.  Which they did.

Then they faced off against the Cardinals.  They got down three games to one, and once again faced elimination three games in a row – and won all three games to win the series four games to three.  Italian-bred and Venezuelan-born infield Marco “Polo” Scutaro arose from the ashes of a hard Matt Holliday slide in game two to be named the NLCS MVP, recording a record-tying 14 hits in the series.

Now the Giants, after just one day off, face the well-rested Detroit Tigers in the World Series.  The Tigers have Justin Verlander on the mound, and the Giants match him with … Barry Zito.  The much-maligned and overpaid Zito is forced into the role because the Giants had to use Matt Cain in the NLCS game 7 on Monday.

On paper, this is a huge advantage for the Tigers.  They can start Verlander in games 1 and 5 and should have a great shot at winning both those games.  Win just one of the other three games and they’d have a 3-2 lead after five games.  Get some well place rain that causes extra off days and it’s possible Verlander could pitch games 1, 4, and 7.  Or manager Jim Leyland might just pitch Verlander on short rest and run him out in games 4 and 7 anyway.  On paper, that’s a huge advantage for the Tigers.

But baseball isn’t played on paper, and the Giants seem to be a team of destiny.  My prediction: Giants win, with Barry Zito the World Series MVP.  Zito will pick up wins in games 1 and 5, and pitch the 14th inning of game 7 for the save.  Zito’s stats for the World Series: 5 and 1 run in 16 innings, for a 0.56 ERA.

Where did Geno’s Heisman Go?

A few weeks ago, I like many of the other sports aficionado’s had declared the Heisman Trophy all but won by West Virginia’s Geno Smith.

Boy was I wrong…..

It never ceases to amaze me how in the world of college football, things can change so quickly.

Who saw these things happening?

At the start of the season, Michigan State looked like the favorite to win the Big 10 Conference after knocking off the Boise State Broncos in the opener, and Le’Veon Bell carry the ball 225 times for like 565 yards. Update – Sparty then loses 4 of the next 7 games and is basically out of it and waiting for Izzo to take the floor to get renewed hope.

Kansas State looked like a “nice” team in the B ig 12 Conference. Bill Snyder, aka Methuselah had resurrected the Cats of the bowels of despair (also known as the Ron Prince experiment) and was set for a decent year. Update – A decent year is being undefeated, having the current Heisman front runner – Colin Klein – leading your team, and being undefeated and currently #3 in the BCS rankings.

Gene Chizik (left) in happier days.

The Auburn Tigers – Just a short time ago Cam Newton was taking his expensive brand of college football quarterbacking and leading the club to a National Title. Now, Auburn shows up as #100 in the USA Today ranking of teams from 1-124 in Division 1. Auburn went 8-5 last year and coach Gene Chizik was expecting a better year in 2012 with 16 returning starters. Update – Auburn fans are figuring out what Iowa State already knew…..it is fine if this guy leaves. Chizik left town for greener pastures when he left Iowa State overall Clones fans would say they are better off with Paul Rhoads.  Auburn meanwhile is 1-6 this year and 0-5 in conference play.

I had to give a shout out to Auburn fans here – as they seem to like my article on recruiting which has been getting some play on message boards in War Eagle country.

Notre Dame is undefeated.  Man did I miss this one, of course Coach Kelly hangs his hat on a slew of wins over ranked teams. Let me re-cap – Michigan State – Top 10 at the time but now has a losing record. The hot and cold Michigan team that had 28 turnovers in the red zone to lose to the Golden Domers. The ol leprechaun’s got the Luck of the Irish – AGAIN – against Stanford – whose running back Stepfan Taylor still hasn’t hit the ground. This week they looked un-inspired in a narrow win over BYU. Update –I am going on record that Boomer Sooner will roll one up on this over-rated team. Of course I could be completely wrong as frankly Oklahoma can be pretty average as well (see loss to Kansas State). Coach Stoops has a way of losing the big one, but I predict this will look more like the game against Texas than the turnover plagued loss to the Wildcats.

It was the Dukes it was the Dukes….

Hold onto your hats….the Blue Devils are BOWL ELIGIBLE. That is right. We are talking about Duke. They have David Cutcliffe at the helm and he has led Duke to a place they have not been both literally and figuratively in forever. Duke went uninspiring 19-117 in the dozen years before the arrival of their head honcho. This will make their first chance to head to a bowl game since 1994 and only the third time since 1961. The last time they were in this position they were coached by the Old Ball coach himself, Steve Spurrier.

A lot of tough games for them the rest of the way, as they have to still play the Seminoles, but this is the first time in a long time the Cameron Crazies maybe are not ready to sleep in tents to see Coach K’s boys just yet.

The more things change, the more they stay the same….

I have to offer a written “Shout Out” to an old friend who I tailgated and attended the Northwestern vs. Nebraska game with this past weekend in Evanston. I have had the pleasure of seeing two of the more exciting college games in person while travelling with my buddy Terry. (We also went to the Missouri vs. Nebraska infamous “kickeroooskie” game in 1997 together) As always we had a great time and we picked up right where we last left off, the last time we went to a game together some 4 years ago. One thing is true about Nebraska Fans, they travel like no others. The stadium at Ryan Field (PS Northwestern Athletic Department – you have plenty of money at your University…how about some facility upgrades. Port-a-potties at the stadium….really???) was at least 50% Nebraska fans.

There really is no place like Nebraska…or any fans like their fans. Now go bring home a win against Michigan.

If they do, I just might cease to be amazed.

Until Next Time – Stay Classy Union Grove, Wisconsin

We are hitting the movies again, so here is another movie review. This week we saw Hope Springs. The movie stars Meryl Streep, Tommy Lee Jones and Steve Carell. You will recognize a lot of other actors and actresses throughout the movie in bit parts. The most intriguing aspect in this movie is the reversal of roles. Steve Carell is the serious character with Meryl and Tommy being the comics. Tommy has had experience being the straight man in comic movies throughout the Men In Black series, but in this movie, he is the comedian. His delivery, facial expressions, responses to dialog and situations is supurb. Meryl continues to be the best older lady actress, playing her age. I would rate this as a third success following The Iron Lady and July & Julia.

The trailer sets up the action as an older couple in the doldrums of a boring marriage. The wife decides to spice things up. After reading a self help book, she pays for a marriage counseling session. The couple live in Omaha (and from the scenery, it looks like they actually filmed in Omaha) and the counselor is in Maine (again it looks like if was filmed on location). The wife drives the husband into attending and the action moves on from there.

The advertisements and even the movie suggest that the problems are all because of Tommy Lee’s character. As the story unwinds, there are plenty of problems for each to solve. The attempts at physical reconciliation are well played, along with the deeper character development. This is a good movie, especially for the over 40 crowd. Teenagers may be disturbed to find out that their parents and even their grandparents might still be sexually active.

I would recommend full price theatre, but if you missed it, pick it up on video or at the discount theatres.

Next week I hope to have seen Hotel Transylvania.

Shortly after the last debate, I starting seeing “Binders full of women” meme’s popping up all over my Facebook news feed. I didn’t understand where that phrase was coming from, and I had even watched the debate. And then, on the news, I saw the phrase that Mitt spoke. Again, I thought ‘So what’? He had a binder full of women who had worked for him.

After thinking about it, I realized, the liberals have got to have something to point and laugh at….distract everyone with. Because we all know Obama (and his supporters) don’t want to talk about his record. Who would? High unemployment, lower credit rating, soaring spending and the gigantic National debt. This is just another distraction from the left.

Honestly, I’d rather be in Mitt’s binder of women who work for/with him than in Obama’s binder of those on welfare list.

Women aren’t stupid, we get it. We make less than men (including in Obama’s administration). We’ve seen Obama’s idea/insult to women with his “Life of Julia” where a woman is dependent on the Government for everything and every stage in her life.

Thanks, Obama, but no thanks. I can take care of myself. I’m not distracted by the free birth control, the slamming the Conservatives claiming they’re the ones waging the “War on Woman” …I could go on and on.

To me it seems the only actual “War on Women” are those who are not yet born. What about those binders full of babies who were never given the chance to live?

Think about it. Don’t buy into their distractions. Let’s talk about the issues instead of birth control pills or binders.

BPA is bad for you, we’ve been told.  It was banned from baby bottles in the US and Canada.  Then came an even bigger scare – a study that showed that a mother eating food packaged in BPA could cause lower thyroid levels in boys!

The something funny happened.  Concerned parent Sarah points out that the government of Canada released a study that says that consuming products packaged in BPA does not cause a health risk.

Sarah asks whom we would trust – the researcher who is dependent on grant money or the government of Canada.

I’ll take this even a step further and point out the existence of what is known as “publication bias”.  The studies that appear in journals – and thus are far more likely to end up in the mainstream media or be noticed by legislators – are more likely to be the results that are shocking or unexpected.

For example, let’s say that we’re studying whether or not drinking a quart of orange juice every day can prevent the growth of tumors.  Ninety nine studies do not show any link, but one study appears to show that drinking the orange juice does indeed prevent the tumors from growing.  Guess which one is going to end up in a scientific journal?  Certainly not one of the boring ones – the one with the surprising result is going to be published.

A basic concept with science is that an experiment must be repeatable by other scientists before the results can be considered valid.  This is to prevent unrelated factors (such as human error) from creating the result. 

The same concept applies to scientific studies.  When one study appears to shop a certain result, it’s very difficult to know of this is causation or merely correlation.  It’s possible that the result could be attributed to other factors, or even to selection bias.  In our hypothetical orange juice – cancer study, perhaps the control group and experimental group were located in different geographical areas.  The OJ drinkers received treatment at one hospital whereas the non-drinkers received treatment at another.  It’s possible that the OJ doctors were simply more effective in treating cancer, and that the orange juice really had no effect.

In a nutshell, exercise caution when you read about scientific studies.  Check to see if there have been other studies on the topic, and check to see what the results of those studies were.  Look at the entire body of work on the topic, in other words, and not just one study.  We’re in an age where we research topics with just a click of the mouse.  Put that power to work for you and become more educated on the topics you care about!