The Chicago Tribune

1 in 12
Chance that a civilian federal worker is employed by the Department of Homeland Security.

721,000
Number of new government jobs created since 2000.

2,692,000
Number of private-sector jobs lost since 2000.

5/17/01
Date on which Arnold Schwarzenegger met with Enron CEO Kenneth Lay to discuss California’s energy policy.

2 in 5
Chances that a participant in California’s Sept. 24 gubernatorial debate grew up speaking English at home.

40
Percent of U.S. Muslims who said in 2000 that they would vote for George Bush.

2
Percentage of Muslims who say this today.

+46
Percent of change between 2001 and 2002 in G.I. Joe sales.

+36
Percent of change since 1999 in the number of desertions from the U.S. Army.

9.2
Average number of U.S. soldiers wounded in Iraq each day since the invasion began.

1.6
Average number killed.

1997
Year in which a terrorist threat against “S. Claus,” the “Prime Minister” of the North Pole, was declassified by the CIA.

2.6
Estimated number of artificial Christmas trees displayed in U.S. homes each year for every real one.

98
Percent of Baghdad’s citizens asked to participate in a Gallup poll last September who agreed to do so.

40
Average percent of Americans asked to participate in Gallup polls who do.

– 3
Percent of change since last year in the number of U.S. millionaires.

+6
Percent of change since 2001 in the number of families in poverty.

– 95

Percent of change in the price of a share of Edison Schools stock since February 2001.

0
Number of New York City 8th graders deemed “proficient” on last year’s end-of-summer-school reading exam.

78
Percent of those who took the test who were promoted to the 9th grade.

1
Number of candidates who ran for a school-board seat in the South Mississippi County School District last fall.

0
Number of votes he won.

$136,000
Spending Winston Churchill approved in 1943 to research making an aircraft carrier out of ice and wood pulp.
————
Index sources
These figures originally appeared in Harper’s Monthly:

1. Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse

2,3. U.S. Department of Labor

4. The Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights

5. Arianna Huffington; office of the Lt. Governor of California; Camejo for
Governor; office of Sen. Tom McClintock; Californians for Schwarzenegger

6,7. Council on American-Islamic Relations

8. Hasbro

9. U.S. Army

10,11. U.S. Department of Defense

12. National Security Archive

13. National Christmas Tree Association

14,15. The Gallup Organization

16. Cap Gemini Ernst & Young

17. U.S. Department of Commerce

18. Edison Schools (N.Y.C.)

19,20. New York City Dept. of Education

21,22. South Mississippi County School District

23. International Glaciological Society
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Edited by Lara Weber ([email protected]) and Drew Sottardi ([email protected])