Are the Republicans as good as a cooling corpse? Not necessarily. (1) Senator John McCain, on the blame Hillary Clinton has heaped on the Bush administration for North Korea’s nuclear test: “Every single time the Clinton administration warned the Koreans not to do something — not to kick out the International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors, not to remove the fuel rods from their reactor — they did it. And they were rewarded every single time by the Clinton administration with further talks.”
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And (2), Connecticut Congressman Christopher Shays, responding to the demand by his Democratic challenger (who has brought Senator Ted Kennedy into the state to campaign) that House Speaker Dennis Hastert resign: At least “the speaker didn’t go over a bridge and leave a young person in the water and then hold a press conference the next day” — referring to what Kennedy did in 1969.
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Not only does America now boast 300 million people, such things as life-expectancy, median ages, and the effects of immigration have greatly changed. In 1915 — 139 years after the Declaration of Independence — the U.S. population reached 100 million. Babies born that year could expect to live until they were 55; individuals born abroad comprised 15 percent of the total.
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It took just 52 years (until 1967) to reach 200 million; life-expectancy was 71, and foreign-borns represented only 5 percent of the overall population. This month (just 39 years since 1967), with the nation’s population reaching 300 million, life-expectancy is 78 and 12 percent are foreign-born. Projecting from current birth and immigration rates, the U.S. will reach the 400-million mark 37 years up the road — in about 2043.
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And speaking of big numbers, this from the Internet may help with comprehension of 1 billion: (a) 1 billion seconds ago it was 1959; (b) 1 billion minutes ago Jesus was alive; (c) 1 billion hours ago our ancestors dwelled in the Stone Age; (d) 1 billion days ago Earth boasted no bipeds (or humans). And (e) the federal government is spending your taxpayer dollars at the rate of 1 billion every eight hours and 20 minutes.