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Saturday, July 11, 2009

Pottersville by the Numbers

Posted by jurassicpork | 5:51 PM

Here are some sobering statistics and other numbers guaranteed to provide you with nightmare fuel:

This is the scariest graph you'll likely ever see in your life.

Since I last wrote about military suicides a month and a half ago, 24 more US soldiers have committed suicide. That's more than one every other day.

And, just to kill two birds with one stone:

"Also on the brighter side, the rise in unemployment didn’t boost suicide rates in countries where governments spent at least $190 per person on programs to help workers keep their jobs or train for a new one, according to Stuckler. The U.S. and the U.K. spend less than that.." - U.S. and European statistical researchers

266,610: The number of US troops and contractors still in Iraq a week and a half after the SOFA deadline that supposedly set the conditions for our withdrawal.

12,500: Number of gays and lesbians kicked out of the US military since DADT in 1994.

0: Number of people booted out of the US military in the same time for being racist, skinhead, white supremacist assholes (note with one exception they're all single) and whom recruiters are actively (and illegally) recruiting.

$26,300,000,000: California's deficit, which is larger than that of all but seven countries (not including, of course, the United States, the most heavily indebted nation on earth.)

2 comments

2 Comments:

Porchwhitler said...

Thanks for listing these facts and figures- they are the kind of things that get ignored by major media and get hidden from view as a result. I will be using them on Untangled Yarn at Blog Talk Radio tomorrow which starts at 2PM ET. It's a talk show, so give us a call.

7/12/09, 12:45 AM

Jayhawk said...

A couple of small problems with your numbers:

The unemployment of 9.7% is only those who are still actively looking for work. If you add those who have become so discourage that they are no longer looking for a job, and the number who are working at part time jobs because that cannot find full time work, the number is a much more scary number in the range of 15% or more.

The SOFA requiring departure from Iraq only required that we cease basing any troops in their major cities. Exit of troops from their country is not spelled out in the agreement until the end of 2011.

In some cases our base was considered essential so, rather than abandoning it, we agreed with Iraqi officials to redefine the city limits of Baghdad so the the bases would no longer be within the city. Same base, same location, but now outside the city.

7/13/09, 12:12 PM