I always jump right to the Index when I get my new Harpers...This one was in October's issue. Always some interesting and amusing facts they gather.
October 2003
Percentage points by which George Bush Sr.'s approval rating in August 1991 exceeded his son's last August : 11
Reelection campaign funds raised by Bush Sr. as of June 1991 and by his son as of last June, respectively : $0, $67,687,000
Percentage of Americans who believe that George W. Bush was legitimately elected president : 54
Percentage who believed this in March 2001 : 56
Rank of last year among those in which the largest number of federal records were officially classified : 1
Months before September 11, 2001, that Dick Cheney's Energy Task Force investigated Iraq's oil resources : 6
Years before Enron declared bankruptcy in 2001 that the IRS asked the SEC to investigate the firm : 2.5
Number of SEC investigations of Enron that resulted : 0
Amount in "disgorgement" that the SEC has ordered a former Xerox CEO to pay in connection with alleged fraud : $7,600,000
Percentage of this payment that Xerox will cover : 100
Percentage of Americans who will save less than $100 on their 2006 federal taxes as a result of this year's tax cut : 88
Average amount these Americans will save : $4
Estimated market value of the usable body parts of an adult human : $46,000,000
Age at which a Missouri basketball prodigy was welcomed into "the Reebok family" last May : 3
Amount, in inches, by which the average North Korean 7-year-old is shorter than the average South Korean 7-year-old : 2.9
Percentage of Botswanans requiring highly active anti-retroviral therapy for whom it is available on request : 100
Percentage that have requested it : 9
Percentage of U.S. doctors who say they have not told patients about a treatment because their insurance didn't cover it : 31
Chance that a Londoner believes that epilepsy is caused by "evil spirits" : 1 in 20
Chances that a person executed as a witch in Iceland between 1625 and 1685 was a man : 9 in 10
Percentage change in the number of Colombians killed or disappeared since the U.S. implemented Plan Colombia : +33
Number of U.S. troops who have died in Afghanistan and Iraq in the last two years : 354
Number who died in Vietnam in 1963 and 1964 : 324
Percentage of Iraqis who said in July that they would rather live under the Americans than under Saddam Hussein : 29
Percentage of Palestinians in refugee camps who say that given a choice they would live nowhere but Israel : 10
Percentage who say they would accept compensation and homes in a Palestinian state : 54
Percentage of Jewish settlers in the West Bank and Gaza who say they would relocate if compensated : 83
Number of the U.N.'s 15 ongoing peacekeeping missions that have been in operation for at least a decade : 8
Ratio of Liberia's GDP last year to the amount Americans spent on skis : 1:1
Rank of Sudan and Belgium, respectively, among 122 countries assessed for water quality : 118, 122
Chances that farmed salmon contains PCB levels that are 4 times higher than those found in beef : 7 in 10
Chance on any given day that the only "vegetables" served in a U.S. public school are potatoes : 1 in 2
Minimum number of states where tuition at one or more public universities will be raised by at least 20 percent this year : 7
Number of states that require energy companies to derive a percentage of their output from alternative sources : 13
Number of U.S. senators last year who voted against creating a similar federal requirement to take effect in 2020 : 70
Year in which House Republicans thrice rejected an amendment to upgrade the U.S. electrical grid : 2001
Number of Democratic legislators absent for this year's 213?210 vote restricting workers' overtime-pay eligibility : 7
Number of Virginia Republican Party officials fined this year for eavesdropping on Democratic Party conference calls : 3
Years after the Watergate break-in that deputy campaign director Jeb Magruder admitted hearing President Nixon order it : 30
Year in which Donald Rumsfeld gave Saddam Hussein a pair of golden spurs : 1983
SIncerely,
District Overbeer