Sunday, October 30, 2005

Go figure

I've just come across an article in the Sydney Morning Herald saying that the US Congress is in the process of cutting $574 million from the food stamp budget, potentially depriving 300,000 people from this basic level of support. I also learned that 12% of households (almost 1 in 8) in the States are currently on the food stamps program - many of them the "working poor" that we'll soon be emulating here in this supposed land of milk and honey.

So I looked up the financial costs of the war on Iraq. $204.37 billion and counting. More than 350 times the amount they're cutting from the food stamps budget. Or, conversely, enough to add almost 106 million more people to the food stamps program. And if it's true that the rich have been given more than their fair share of tax breaks in recent years, then whose money are they using anyway?

I'd really prefer to blog about stupid things that people do. Or the meaninglessness of life. Or even the goosebumpy sacredness of the universe. Hell, I don't care - it's all just material to weave into some kind of shape that might amuse. But like a moth I just cannot seem to turn my face away from the blinding heat of the obvious, the shameful, the elephant in the room. So I'm going to start writing more about these sorts of things. I hope you do too.

Photo courtesy thedak

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