Friday, February 13, 2009

Where is the Stimulus Money Going?

Anyone interested in a high-level breakdown of exactly where the stimulus money is being spent, check it out here. Here are a few highlights (or low lights, I s'pose, depending on your position on all of this):

Aid to People Affected by Economic Downturn is $36 billion... Aid to State and Local Governments, most of which is targeted at people affected by the economic downturn, gets $58 billion.

Transportation and Infrastructure, one of the areas I think can do the most good in the long-term, gets $98 billion. Health Care comes in at $18 billion, Education is allotted $48 billion and Energy $41 billion.

Science & Technology receives $13 billion (nice, would've liked to see more here, but some of the Energy apportionment could rightly be lumped here, too).

And Business gets $870 million (a very small portion of the stimulus... about 1% actually).

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Praise Darwin? Say What?


The Freedom From Religion Foundation placed "Praise Darwin" billboards in Grand Junction, Colorado; Dayton, Tennessee; Dover, Pennsylvania; and Whitehall, Ohio.


Now, I'm normally an ardent supporter of FFRF, but I don't like this. Darwin was a scientist; yes, a scientist with revolutionary theory that changed the way we look at the world, but a scientist none-the-less. So I don't think the word "praise" in this context is useful, or helpful.

Conflating science and religion, no matter how useful and wonderful the message, harms more than helps. I like the sub-message of evolving beyond belief, but I think the whole "Praise Darwin" business doesn't help their agenda any. I could get 100% behind the same exact, billboard without the word praise (or perhaps substituting Happy Birthday instead of Praise, given that Charles Darwin was born on February 12, the same exact day and year as Abraham Lincoln, by the way).