From: Wired: An Epidemic of Fear: How Panicked Parents Skipping Shots Endangers Us All

For starters, the human brain has a natural tendency to pattern-match — to ignore the old dictum “correlation does not imply causation” and stubbornly persist in associating proximate phenomena. If two things coexist, the brain often tells us, they must be related. Some parents of autistic children noticed that their child’s condition began to appear shortly after a vaccination. The conclusion: “The vaccine must have caused the autism.” Sounds reasonable, even though, as many scientists have noted, it has long been known that autism and other neurological impairments often become evident at or around the age of 18 to 24 months, which just happens to be the same time children receive multiple vaccinations. Correlation, perhaps. But not causation, as studies have shown.

I don’t know how many times I have caught myself connecting things that should not be connected. This is great article and, for me, a great reminder that: correlation does not imply causation

Obama and habeas corpus — then and now by: Glenn Greenwald

To recap: Obama files a brief saying he agrees in full with the Bush/Cheney position. He’s arguing that the President has the power to abduct, transport and imprison people in Bagram indefinitely with no charges of any kind. He’s telling courts that they have no authority to “second-guess” his decisions when it comes to war powers. But this is all totally different than what Bush did, and anyone who says otherwise is a reckless, ill-motivated hysteric who just wants to sell books and get on TV.

This is one of the most disturbing things to come out of DC in while. I expected it from Bush, but not from Obama. (My fault) Complete and total bullshit!!!!

-Jeremy Rossi