Ryan McFarland

Not to be outdone by the Republican party’s presidential photos, the Democrats also sent me a “photo”…

As you can see - the envelope clearly stated that the contents shouldn’t be bent.

The glare shows the damage done to my photograph by the postal service. That’s alright. I mailed my peso anyway. There was no promise of a bumper sticker though.

In my mail the other day was a large envelope from the Bush/Cheney campaign. I am not registered in any political party and don’t think i ever will (again that is). But i was amused by the gimmick. They sent me a personalized “photo” that is “suitable for framing” (sure - if you frame low DPI cardstock - but most cereal boxes have better color and resolution than this “photo”) in appreciation of my anticipated contribution. They even requested that i inform them of the receipt of the (alleged) photo using their postage paid envelope. Naturally a contribution was also requested. I taped 1 peso (as of this moment that’s 0.0872372 USD - yes almost 9 cents - hey, i wanted to help out with the postage.) to the form and made sure to check off “please send me a Bush/Cheney ‘04 bumper sticker.” I hope the other major political party sends me some loot too. I have another peso kicking around.

[This post in my blog has surfaced at the top of some search engines for "presidential photos". I imagine that most people are not looking for my silliness but actual portraits of the presidents. Here is an excellent link if that's what you're looking for.]

I received the below email message today and it gave me feelings.

Subject: Humor: statistics
Number of physicians in the US: 700,000.
Accidental deaths caused by physicians per year: 120,000.
Accidental deaths per physician… 0.171 (U.S. Dept. of Health & Human Services)
Number of gun owners in the US: 80,000,000.
Number of accidental gun deaths per year (all age groups) 1,500.
Accidental deaths per gun owner: 0.0000188
Statistically, doctors are approximately 9,000 times more dangerous than gun owners.
“FACT: Not everyone has a gun, but everyone has at least one Doctor.”
Please alert your friends to this alarming threat. We must ban doctors before this gets out of hand.
As a Public Health Measure I have withheld the statistics on Lawyers for fear that the shock could cause people to seek medical aid.

Obviously this was an attempt at humor. But being a fan of statistics i decided to take a further look. Having heard this set before I thought I�d add some other statistics. I believe there is a fallacy in the �Statistically, doctors are approximately 9,000 times more dangerous than gun owners� statement since intentional deaths are not calculated. I know the intent was humor but this really is a serious issue. So let’s do a little research about intentional harm done to others to accurately view the “danger” of gun owners.

In 2002 there were 442,880 non-fatal victims of rape, assault, and robbery that involved a firearm. (US Department of Justice)

In 2002, about 67% of all murders, 42% of all robberies, and 19% of all aggravated assaults that were reported to the police were committed with a firearm. (US Department of Justice)

The FBI’s Crime in the United States estimated that 67% of the 16,204 murders in 2002 were committed with firearms. (That would be 10,856 victims.)

I suppose it would be nice to add in legal deaths committed by police or military with firearms but these numbers seem to be a little more difficult to come by.

Adding the accidental deaths to the intentional murders and violent crimes (and assuming that the �intentional� deaths caused by physicians are statistically insignificant) I get .0057 injured victims of violent crimes, murders, or accidental deaths per firearm owner.

Shall we make a few assumptions? Perhaps a percentage of those visiting physicians are chronically ill, suffering from a major injury, or otherwise unhealthy. I doubt many of the accidental deaths are caused by a visit to a physician for a sprained ankle, to get stitches, or for a sore throat. So let�s assume that these �accidents� are largely caused while performing open heart surgery, emergency room operations for an accident victim, or under some other condition where the �victim� would have most likely died if there wasn�t a physician available in the first place.

I would be willing to bet that a few out of every hundred of these “accidental deaths” caused by physicians are actual mistakes that caused a healthy person to die from something that would not have happened otherwise. How many of these “accidental” deaths are from mis-diagnosis? How many from clerical errors, coding mistakes, or lab errors? If we add all hospital staff that may have had something to do with the fatality I think the statistic would be further diluted.

By the way, I do own a firearm.

“I think if you’re gonna make an accusation in the course of a presidential campaign, you ought to back it up with facts,”
- President George Bush to John Kerry on March 16th 2004.

“…purpose today is to provide you with additional information, to share with you what the United States knows about Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction…

We know that Saddam Hussein is determined to keep his weapons of mass destruction, is determined to make more. Given Saddam Hussein’s history of aggression, given what we know of his grandiose plans, given what we know of his terrorist associations, and given his determination to exact revenge on those who oppose him, should we take the risk that he will not someday use these weapons at a time and a place and in a manner of his choosing, at a time when the world is in a much weaker position to respond?”
- Secretary Colin L. Powel to the United Nations Security Council on February 5, 2003.