Awkward Facts

By lex

Posted on January 2, 2006

The next time someone tells you how awful and violent American society has become, and how very much we have to learn from our more sophisticated betters, just send them my way.

And I’ll send them here:

Crime and punishment

A list of countries and their latest total of recorded crimes, including attempted crimes, per 100,000 population:

Iceland 21,211
Sweden 13,837
United Kingdom 11,014
Finland 10,005
Belgium 9,422
Denmark 9,137
Netherlands 8,813
Canada 8,025
Germany 7,888
Austria 6.464
South Africa 5,915
Luxembourg 5,866
Malta 4,288
Switzerland 4,220
Slovenia 4,160
Hungary 4,142
United States 4,119

18. Uruguay 3,987
Italy 3,868
Chile 3,810

SOURCE: THE ECONOMIST’S POCKET WORLD IN FIGURES

Credo

"Sign on, young man, and sail with me. The stature of our homeland is no more than the measure of ourselves. Our job is to keep her free. Our will is to keep the torch of freedom burning for all. To this solemn purpose we call on the young, the brave, the strong, and the free. Heed my call, Come to the sea. Come Sail with me."

— John Paul Jones

"Pardon him, Theodotus; he is a barbarian, and thinks that the customs of his tribe and island are the laws of nature"

— George Bernard Shaw, Caesar and Cleopatra

"And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music."

— Friedrich Nietzsche

"A kind Providence has placed in our breasts a hatred of the unjust and cruel, in order that we may preserve ourselves from cruelty and injustice. They who bear cruelty, are accomplices in it. The pretended gentleness which excludes that charitable rancour, produces an indifference which is half an approbation. They never will love where they ought to love, who do not hate where they ought to hate."

— Edmund Burke

"Μολὼν λαβέ"

— Leonidas

"Blogito Ergo Sum"

— Neptunus Lex