Harper's Index: Statistics

The Harper's Index chronicles a number of interesting statistics, information packaged for rhetorical vollies flavored to your liking. These are a few that catch my attention:

· Estimated amount spent lobbying Congress last year: $3,000,000,000 [The Center for Public Integrity (Washington)]

· Number of former members of Congress or federal-agency heads who are now lobbyists: 240 [The Center for Public Integrity (Washington)]

· Total value of earmarks to appropriations bills last year: $32,700,000,000congressional

· Factor by which this exceeded the amount in 1998: 3

o Percentage of U.S. that occurs on two-lane roads: 28auto travel [The Road Information Program (Washington)]

o Percentage of that do: 52traffic fatalities

· districts that have adopted a class in which the is the primary textbook: 301 Number of U.S. public-schoolBible [National Council on Bible Curriculum in Public Schools (Greensboro, N.C.)]

·, of the first : 16 Rank, in the current line of succession to the U.S. Presidencynon-Christian[Harper's research]

·” who denied the divinity of : 7 Number of America’s nine “Founding FathersJesus [Frank Lambert, Purdue University (West Lafayette, Ind.)]

· Minimum number of illegitimate children had by the nine: 9

o Percentage of the 651 fatal or wounding attacks worldwide last year that took place in : 32 terroristIraq[National Counterterrorism Center (Washington)]

o Percentage that took place in India: 44

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