Monday, July 20, 2009

If Franken ...

... is going to keep doing things like this, I have no beef with him.
Franken wrote in an opinion published Monday in the Star Tribune that his proposed pilot program will train "a statistically significant number of dogs" to measure the benefits to veterans living with devastating injuries sustained on the battlefield.

The dogs' companionship, Franken said, provides invaluable health benefits -- both physical and emotional -- to veterans suffering from debilitating injuries and psychological disorders. The service dogs will help "reduce the suicide rate among veterans, decrease the number of hospitalizations, and lower the cost of medications and human care," he said.

3 comments:

Genomic Repairman said...

The funny man did good today.

Thomas Joseph said...

Yah, it's a worthy program IMO, and I'd be happy to see it implemented.

Of course I have to wonder ... exactly what is a "statistically significant number of dogs"? Statistically significant compared to what? The amount of dogs already out there in this area? That's surely much more than a pilot project could handle.

It's a minor quibble, and maybe he was quoted out of context (or he really used the phrase improperly) ... it's just that I just noticed that and wondered "what is that all about"?

Then again, maybe I have too much stats on the brain right now (I hate multivariate analysis).

Genomic Repairman said...

I agree maybe Franken is holding a p value up his sleave. Anyway this is a noble government program, that seems to have very good intentions and would actually benefit society, which means they will cut it.