"Only dull people are brilliant at breakfast"
-Oscar Wilde
Brilliant at Breakfast title banner "The liberal soul shall be made fat, and he that watereth, shall be watered also himself."
-- Proverbs 11:25
"...you have a choice: be a fighting liberal or sit quietly. I know what I am, what are you?" -- Steve Gilliard, 1964 - 2007

"For straight up monster-stomping goodness, nothing makes smoke shoot out my ears like Brilliant@Breakfast" -- Tata

"...the best bleacher bum since Pete Axthelm" -- Randy K.

"I came here to chew bubblegum and kick ass. And I'm all out of bubblegum." -- "Rowdy" Roddy Piper (1954-2015), They Live
Saturday, February 26, 2011

We're #1? In what, assholes per square mile? Willful ignorance?
Posted by Jill | 4:48 PM
26 troubling stats about the United States, from The Opinionated Liberal:

1. Has the seventh largest debt (as a percentage of GDP).

2. USA Ranking on Adult Literacy Scale: #9
(#1 Sweden and #2 Norway)- OECD

3. USA Ranking on Healthcare Quality Index: #37
(#1 France and #2 Italy)- World Health Organization 2003

4. USA Ranking of Student Reading Ability: #12
(#1 Finland and #2 South Korea)- OECD PISA 2003

5. USA Ranking of Student Problem Solving Ability: #26
(#1 South Korea and #2 Finland)- OECD PISA 2003

6. USA Ranking on Student Mathematics Ability: # 24
(#1 Hong Kong and #2 Finland)- OECD PISA 2003

7.USA Ranking of Student Science Ability: #19
(#1 Finland and #2 Japan)- OECD PISA 2003

8. USA Ranking on Women's Rights Scale: #17
(#1 Sweden and #2 Norway)- World Economic Forum Report

9. USA Position on Timeline of Gay Rights Progress: # 6 (1997)
(#1 Sweden 1987 and #2 Norway 1993)- Vexen

10. USA Ranking on Life Expectancy: #29
(#1 Japan and #2 Hong Kong)- UN Human Development Report 2005

11. USA Ranking on Journalistic Press Freedom Index: #32
(#1 Finland, Iceland, Norway and the Netherlands tied)- Reporters Without Borders
2005

12. USA Ranking on Political Corruption Index: #17
(#1 Iceland and #2 Finland)- Transparency International 2005

13. USA Ranking on Quality of Life Survey: #13
(#1 Ireland and #2 Switzerland)- The Economist Magazine ...Wikipedia "Celtic
Tiger" if you still have your doubts.

14. USA Ranking on Environmental Sustainability Index: #45
(#1 Finland and #2 Norway)- Yale University ESI 2005

15. USA Ranking on Overall Currency Strength: #3 (US Dollar)
(#1 UK pound sterling and #2 European Union euro)- FTSE 2006....the dollar is now
a liability, so many banks worldwide have planned to switch to euro

16. USA Ranking on Infant Mortality Rate: #32
(#1 Sweden and #2 Finland)- Save the Children Report 2006

17. USA Ranking on Human Development Index (GDP, education, etc.): #10
(#1 Norway and #2 Iceland)- UN Human Development Report 2005

(Source for numbers 2-17 here)

18. A national unemployment level of 9.6% (Google)

19. 10th largest per-capita GDP (CIA)

20. 110th in unemployment (CIA)

21. 34th overall in literacy (CIA, 2009)

22. 12% poverty rate (CIA)

23. #1 in oil consumption by almost 3-to-1 over #2 but only 3rd in oil production (CIA)

24. Largest external debt (CIA)

25. More military spending than the rest of the world combined (Source here)

26. Highest obesity rate in the world : 30.6% (source here)

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3 Comments:
Blogger jurassicpork said...
If we don't start hanging Republicans en masse now, in ten year's time we'll be envious of Upper Volta and Moldova.

Blogger Unknown said...
The US is #1 in AWESOMENESS!

Anonymous Anonymous said...
Memo to wingnuts: JP's comment is not eliminationost rhetoric because... well it's just not!