Friday, November 07, 2003

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The Fall 2003 edition of Staying in Touch, the newsletter of Washington County, MN, where I live, contains this statement in an article by the county's "Children's Mental Health Collaborative": "Did you know that nearly 35 percent of Washington Country 9th graders report that they have had thoughts of killing themselves, while 10 percent have actually tried to kill themselves?" Sorry, but that doesn't even come close to passing the sniff test. I don't know how they fabricated this number, but it is right up there with other ludicrous statistics that have been foisted on the public at different times, such as: there are 3 million homeless; wife-beating spikes on Super Bowl Sunday; 25% of college women will be raped. 9:49:06 PM    comment []