I QUESTION YOUR DATA IN THAT THIRD GRAPH.

Where's the graph on drone strikes?

The number of wildly optimistic Cheez Whiz eaters is sharply up since 1952, though. I'm not saying that you're part of that group, Alex, but if you notice I'm not saying that you're not.

What exactly do you call the (often Christianity-conversion exacerbated) witch persecutions in Africa, and how do you differentiate the use of prison labor (yes, in the United States, which has the largest prison population in the world, much of it for victimless crimes) from slavery?

Follow-up to xauen's questions: how do you laugh at jokes? Like, what is it about them that compels one to laugh? In all of my research so far, I haven't discovered a supposed joke that is funny enough to provoke my larynx to emit a laugh.

I forgot to mention "nearly unavoidable consumer products made by child and slave labor abroad."

Alex Falcone, you can be earnest or you can be flippant but trying to combine them doesn't add up to funny, and if this article was intended as satirical you didn't succeed in that either. You just come across as some sheltered guy who doesn't think real suffering in the world has anything to do with him.

Progress is a simplistic myth. I'll be happy about things that actually are positive in the world, not wear blinders.

@xauen: You may not have missed this, but I didn't say the world is perfect. Maybe your non-blinders kept you from seeing that. Please reread the post with that in mind.