Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uunet!aplcen!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!psuvax1!psuvm!auvm!BROWNVM!PL436000
From: PL436000@BROWNVM.BITNET (Jamie)
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.politics
Subject: Look it up.
Message-ID: <90038.1442.PL436000@BROWNVM>
Date: 7 Feb 90 14:42:38 GMT
Sender: Forum for the Discussion of Politics <POLITICS@UCF1VM>
Reply-To: Forum for the Discussion of Politics <POLITICS@UCF1VM>
Lines: 24
Approved: NETNEWS@AUVM Gateway

Mr. McKee avers:

>  The government is not supposed
> to own 42% (yes Jamie it's 42%) of the land in this nation.

Give me a break. I don't know where you got this figure. It is,
simply, false. You can look this up in the US Statistical Abstract.
The most recent year with complete information necessary to
calculate the proportion is 1980, and you have to be able to
convert square miles to acres. But this is not so difficult.

It is astounding that you not only state a figure like this
without bothering to check, but that you have so much disdain
for empirical evidence that you pointedly reassert it in the
face of a dispute. Is it that you think, as in the death
penalty debate, that you could find figures on both sides,
so why bother?

It seems absurd, but I will be happy (not really happy, but
willing) to post the relevant figures and cite tables from
the US Stats Abstract if anyone asks. Or look it up yourself,
it's very easy to do, if you care about that sort of thing.

Jamie