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It looks like this: 1,000,000,000,000
Baseball pitcher Roger Clemens has gone before Congress to say he has never used steroids or human growth hormones. Some of the guys in Congress, Republicans mostly, said they don't believe him.
For our purposes, however, let's say Roger Clemens used steroids.
So he's juicing. He's on the mound, facing Barry Bonds. Bonds is juicing. Full count. Nobody on base. No score. Bottom of the ninth.
Clemens rears back and burns one toward the outside corner.
Bonds isn't fooled. He connects and knocks that ball way the heck out there where the deer and the antelope roam.
Does that home run get an asterik, a star, or do we leave it alone, considering all things were equal?
Maybe we should use notes similar to track and field. Put a little mark by all of the home runs that are juice aided.
That brings me to my next question.
Somebody -- are you listening George? -- told a whole bunch of lies about the late Saddam Hussein having a stockpile of weapons of mass destruction and some chemical bombs. A long time after we invaded Iraq and helped send Saddam to meet his maker we were told oops, our mistake. No WMD. No chemical bombs.
People fussed, but they didn't take the lies too personally.
So why all the uproar about baseball players juicing?
Some people are doing more than taking that seriously. They are claiming a bunch of athletes who have so little self-regard they have shortened their own life spans changed the way we live, the way we think, and the way we view pop flies.
But for Congress to look into it? I thought Congress was where our tax money went to get spent.
Brings up another question.
Exactly how is my tax dollar spent?
There's a little question for which there is no straight answer. Some say 40 cents goes to Social Security and Medicare. Others say more than 40 cents goes to defense and veterans' pensions. Some say 13 cents goes to education. Others say three cents goes to education.
And I say hold on a minute.
The last time it was explained to me Social Security and Medicare were funded by money deducted from our paychecks and matched by our employers. They are separate from income tax. So don't go telling me almost half of my tax dollar goes to fund them.
While poking around on this I was told rich people get tax breaks so they have the capital to start new businesses and develop new products. I guess it's a foregone conclusion that we common folk don't have the smarts to start a new business or invent something. If we are given tax breaks we'd just do something stupid with the money -- buy the stuff we've always needed but couldn't afford. Up to and including college educations for the kids.
Time for another question.
George's proposed budget for fiscal year 2009 is $3.1 trillion.
One trillion looks like this: 1,000,000,000,000.
George's budget, $3.1 trillion, is enough to give every person in Culpeper County $65.5 million. It's enough to give every person in the United States more than $10,000.
It is a lot of money. A whole lot of money.
So why does George want to cut education spending by $4 billion? In the overall budget $4 billion is little more than a speck on the windshield. But to education $4 billion is the difference between having an adequate, well-qualified teaching force and having a freeze on teaching positions.
It's our job to give our kids all of the tools and resources they need to make a better world.
Isn't it?
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