May 9, 2006
Our Great Country
Time magazine reports in their current print edition the following statistics:
63% - The portion of Americans ages 18-24 who could not locate Iraq on a world map, according to a survey.
50% - The portion of Americans ages 18-24 who could not find New York State.
And one wonders why we have the problems we do in this country.
Posted by Chip Spear at 3:14 PM | Comments (2)
May 5, 2006
A Clever Graphic on Iraq War Dead
Follow the link for a very powerful graphic depicting Iraq war dead. (Link)
Posted by Chip Spear at 7:11 PM | Comments (3)
March 6, 2006
Cheney at 18%
Recent analysis of Cheney's polling numbers by Richard Morin (WashPo). This is really funny.
The latest CBS News poll found that only 18 percent of the public has a favorable view of Cheney. How bad is a rating of 18 percent? According to a quick review of polling archives, it arguably makes Cheney:
- Less popular than singer Michael Jackson , bedmate of little boys and world-class screwball. One in four Americans -- 25 percent -- told Gallup polltakers last June they were still Jackson fans after the onetime King of Pop was found not guilty of child molesting.
- Less popular than former football star O.J. Simpson was after his arrest and trial for murdering his estranged wife and her companion. Three in 10 -- 29 percent -- of all Americans had a favorable view of Simpson in an October, 1995 Gallup poll.
- Less popular with Americans than Joseph Stalin is with Russians. In 2003, fully 20 percent said Stalin, blamed for millions of deaths in the former Soviet Union during the 1930s and 1940s, was a "wise and humane" leader. Thirty-one percent also said they wouldn't object if Uncle Joe came back to rule again, according to surveys conducted by Russian pollsters.
- Much less popular than former Vice President Spiro Agnew in his final days in office. Forty-five percent approved of the job that Agnew was doing as President Richard Nixon's veep in a Gallup Poll conducted in August 1973, little more than a month before Agnew resigned and pleaded no contest to a criminal tax evasion charge arising from a bribery investigation.
- Far less popular than former New Jersey Gov. James McGreevey days after he announced in August 2004 that he had engaged in an extramarital affair with a man and would resign. His job approval rating bumped from 43 to 45 percent.
But take heart, Dick. About 35 percent of those interviewed by the CBS poll didn't offer an opinion of you. Perhaps some of your supporters were shy. And other polls released later in the week pegged your popularity considerably higher.
Besides, even at 18 percent you're not the least popular public figure in America. You're slightly better liked than that fabulously blond and brainless party girl Paris Hilton. She was viewed favorably last June by
15 percent of the public, according to Gallup.
Posted by Chip Spear at 4:40 PM | Comments (1)
October 1, 2005
Retired General Says Iraq War Biggest U.S. Mistake
A retired U.S. general, Retired Army Lt. Gen. William Odom, stated that he feels the U.S. war in Iraq was a huge strategic blunder along biblical proportions (the biblical part is from me, but he did say huge). Of course that is just one opinion, granted, of a general who should know about these sorts of things, but it is not a fact. You can read the article here.
The invasion of Iraq was the "greatest strategic disaster in United States history," a retired Army general said yesterday, strengthening an effort in Congress to force an American withdrawal beginning next year.
Retired Army Lt. Gen. William Odom, a Vietnam veteran, said the invasion of Iraq alienated America's Middle East allies, making it harder to prosecute a war against terrorists.
The U.S. should withdraw from Iraq, he said, and reposition its military forces along the Afghan-Pakistani border to capture Osama bin Laden and crush al Qaeda cells.
If we go back to George Friedman's book, America's Secret War, for a moment to review his ideas: (1) The U.S. went into Iraq partly to show the militant extremists that we didn't have to rely on coalitions to win - we lose on that ground. (2) The big, bad, tough Americans have no guts, they cut and run when the going gets tough - wow, big loser there.(3) Al Qaeda can beat us - we lose on that ground. (4) Iran would have huge influence in the south - we lose on that too. (5) We can force the Saudis to crack down on their militants because we have major forces on their border and developed a democracy as an example for their people right next door - we lose there. (6) We make sure that Iraq doesn't become a long term training ground for Muslim extremists - big loss there. (7) Iran would assume that we would never attack them for their nuke development if we leave Iraq - another whooping loss there too.
This is war, not some video game. A dirty, horrible, nasty, ugly war that has huge consequences, many of them we are either not aware of or don't think about. The Bush administration has made a mess of executing this, but it doesn't change the problems involved, or the stakes. Death is terrible and it is an extremely sad thing when even one person dies. That said, Americans are exceedingly crazy about death, due in large part to the media, our expectations, and the way we built our country. We don't want anyone to die, which is a good thing. Approximately 1900 Americans have died in the Iraq War. I bring back some statistics that I posted previously.
U.S. Civil War Battles:
Chancellorsville, May 1-4, 1863
Union - 17,000 killed, wounded and missing
Confederate - 13,000 killed, wounded and missing
Fredericksburg, Dec. 13. 1862
Union - 12,653 killed, wounded and missing
Confederate - 5,309 killed, wounded and missing
Gettysburg, July 1-3, 1863
Union - 23,000 killed, wounded and missing
Confederate - 28,000 killed, wounded and missing
Day 3 - Pickett's Charge - 10,000 casualties in 50 minutes
I feel we should all take a few minutes and think about the endgame here. War is not nice, or easy. What do we want and how are we really going to achieve it?
Posted by Chip Spear at 10:27 AM | Comments (0)
June 22, 2005
A Little Religious Rant
I am a bit sick of star athletes and people in general thanking Jesus or God or Mohammed or whomever for giving them victory or scoring the touchdown, or making the sale, or winning the race, or even finding the child in the woods. Let's get a little context here. The earth is a small planet revolving around a small star, one of approximately 300 billion stars in a relatively small galaxy, which in turn is one of 80-120 billion galaxies that we estimate exist. This number is probably quite low. Add another metaphor to the mix. If you stretch your arms out to your sides, that represents the history of the earth. Take a small nail file and run it across one nail, once. You have just eliminated all of human history (From Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything).
How arrogant we are to think that God would care about one of us winning the conference championship, or Super Bowl one year, or even finding one child lost in the woods given the way that millions have died.
Posted by Chip Spear at 7:51 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
June 16, 2005
Deaths of War and Battles
Iraq casualties: March 2003-Present:
1714 killed, 12,855 wounded
World Trade Center: September 11, 2001
2,726 killed
U.S. Civil War Battles:
Chancellorsville, May 1-4, 1863
Union - 17,000 killed, wounded and missing
Confederate - 13,000 killed, wounded and missing
Fredericksburg, Dec. 13. 1862
Union - 12,653 killed, wounded and missing
Confederate - 5,309 killed, wounded and missing
Gettysburg, July 1-3, 1863
Union - 23,000 killed, wounded and missing
Confederate - 28,000 killed, wounded and missing
Day 3 - Pickett's Charge - 10,000 casualties in 50 minutes
Posted by Chip Spear at 8:38 AM | Comments (1)
May 25, 2005
World Statistics
I received this in a e-mail from a friend. I am not sure of the source so take it with a grain of salt. However the numbers seem fairly reasonable. If you happen to know otherwise, let me know and I will post them.
If we could shrink the earth's population to a village of precisely 100 people, with all the existing human ratios remaining the same, it would look something like the following: There would be:
57 Asians
21 Europeans
14 from the Western Hemisphere, both north and south
8 Africans
52 would be female
48 would be male
70 would be nonwhite
30 would be white
70 would be non-Christian
30 would be Christian
89 would be heterosexual
11 would be homosexual
6 people would possess 59% of the entire world's wealth and all 6 would be from the United States.
80 would live in substandard housing
70 would be unable to read
50 would suffer from malnutrition
1 would be near death; 1 would be near birth
1 (yes, only 1) would have a college education
1 would own a computer
Is there anything you are doing today that is addressing some of those statistics in any meaningful way? And if it is not relevant, why not? Ever curious.
Posted by Chip Spear at 2:59 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
May 24, 2005
Whose winning (Iraq statistics)?
Elizabeth Sullivan, from The Cleveland Plain Dealer, dug up these statistics
3.2 million: Number of Iraqis without reliable electricity
1.4 million: Number of Iraqis without jobs.
24,000: Estimated Iraqi deaths since U.S. troops arrived in 2003
39: Percentage of Iraqi families without reliable drinking water
37: Percentage of families living in neighborhoods with daily shootings
23: Percentage of Iraqi preschoolers who are chronically malnourished
13: Percentage of families with children whose father is deceased
2.5: Percentage of families whose homes have been looted
Source: U.N. Development Program's Iraq Living Conditions Survey 2004, conducted among 21,668 Iraqi households in April and May 2004 and in August 2004.
Posted by Chip Spear at 2:20 PM | Comments (5) | TrackBack