1780 Statoids

I always get a kick out of reading statistical factoids. Or statoids as I call them. America by the numbers is so mathalicious.
Like this factoid, picked up in The Week magazine, who got it from Mother Jones, which I assume is a publication of some sort and not actually the publisher of The Week's relative.
The factoid: The average member of the House of Representatives has to raise $367 for every hour they are supposedly serving their constituents to pay for their re-election campaigns. The average Senator needs to come up with $819 an hour.
If we're generous and say they work 40 hours a week, that's $14,680 a week for reps or $763,360 a year---$1,526,720 for a 2-year term.
And that's not what they actually make. That's what they need to raise to keep making it. A house member's salary is about $174,000 a year. So they need to spend $763,000 thousand to make $174,000.
Wow. That's a worse funding model than Facebook.
No wonder we need Super-Pacs contributing to campaigns. They're the only people who can afford democracy.
The other statistical factoid I saw was a poll that said that 67% of Americans support the use of unmanned drones to track down criminals but that 67% would oppose the use of drones to issue tickets for speeding. Apparently the American people would love to catch someone else with technology, but not themselves.
Because, um, we all speed.
Whenever I hear of autonomous thinking unmanned drones hunting down criminals I have this flashback to 1984. The year not the book. Because that year a movie came out that showed a future where drones hunted down anyone who didn't follow the established order.
It was called The Terminator.
Apparently, 67% of Americans never saw it.
America, ya gotta love it.