From Wired’s Why We Should Learn the Language of Data:

Statistics is hard. But that’s not just an issue of individual understanding; it’s also becoming one of the nation’s biggest political problems. We live in a world where the thorniest policy issues increasingly boil down to arguments over what the data mean. If you don’t understand statistics, you don’t know what’s going on — and you can’t tell when you’re being lied to. Statistics should now be a core part of general education. You shouldn’t finish high school without understanding it reasonably well — as well, say, as you can compose an essay.

It goes on to explain a whole number of policy issues that are being argued with badly understood data.

On a related note: It’s dark out, that is proof the Sun has been destroyed.