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Michael considered fate at 17:34   |   Permalink   |   Post a Comment

I'm going straight to hell in a handbasket and then back, via hot-air ballon and special ruby slippers that go click-click-click when I say "There's no place like home. There's no place like home."

I never knew they had puffed cheetos. I had lived many moons on the simple belief that good 'ol crunchy cheetos were all a man could need; but no. They've proven me wrong once again.

Meanwhile, in the real world, the United States gave roughly $2.68 per U.S. citizen to Tsunami relief to rank 19th, far below the $30 and $23 contributions of #1 Norway and #2 Luxemborg ^[1], respectively, but also a far cry from #3 Australia, #4 Sweden, #5 Netherlands, #6 New Zealand, and #7 Finland - all in the $9 range. Alternately, the United States has the highest social confidence in the institution of church (sharing the #1 spot with Ireland at 72%) and can boast the second highest citizen participation in voluntary charitable organizations.

Curious.

The United States also Ranks in the top 15 most trigger happy nations, along side other first-world countries such as Colombia, Zimbabwe, Uruguay, and Estonia (based on total recorded intentional homicides committed with a firearm).

That was an attempt at luring you into a statistics-filled post with an unassuming lead-in. How'd it work? Did you make it all the way here, to the bottom?

Note: All statistics from NationMaster.com

[1] Luxemborg and Norway do rank #1 and #2, respectively, as the richest countries in the world per capita. That makes them roughly 168% and 137% richer than the U.S. on the same scale