‘My tax money is getting spent on….what? Guns!’ The Friar

Want to know what happens to all your hard earned cash that you kindly give to the government, well the good fellas at GOOD Magazine, put together this great video ‘How The Government Spends Our Tax Money : An Oversimplification’.

The breakdown is as follows:
0.3% Job Training
1.7% Natural Resources
2.1% Housing
2.6% Nutrition
3.4% Veteran’s Benefits
3.6% Education
6.5% Income Security
18.5% Interest on Debt
20% Health
30% Military and Defense
10% Other?

The Music is by Javelin “Oh! Centra!”, if you need to know!

‘They misunderestimated him!’ - The Friar

George W Bush has left a trail of destruction behind him as he leaves the White House, economic crisises, two wars and a demoralised America and world. In one last binge, bitter at the Obama’s Democrat victory and his failed legacy, W. thrashes the White House leaving it upside down, creating a door in the roof, it’s also been reported that in a fit of anger, he knocked the Oval Office into a hexagon.

In a press conference, on the White House lawn, George W. Bush commented, ‘It wasn’t me… the Taliban did it!’, adding a ‘group of Taliban terrorist extremeists had escaped from Guantanamo’ when confronted with a survillence tape where he was driving one of the diggers, he responded, ‘Damn Cheney dared me to do it, just like the Iraq thing!’

On seeing what W. had done to his future home, Obama said, ‘That bastard Bush, when I asked him about the diggers, he said he was putting in a basketball court for me!’.

Ray Campbell from Chicago Lighthouse is on the Board of Directors for the American Council of the Blind. The Council of the Blind has filed suit against the Treasury over the dollar currency denominations not being identifiable to blind and visually impaired people.

The suit was won by the Council of the Blind at the US Court of Appeals in Washington DC in May. The panel of judges found that the United States had discriminated against blind people. The government have the right to appeal at this point and the future steps are not clear on this issue.

The United States is unusual in the fact that it prints all denomination bills in the same size and color, this does not happen with any other currency in the world, and could be one remedies to the solution. Many other currencies have tactile features that help blind people to identify the notes.

The government argued the case that introducing such features would be an undue financial burden on the government costing $178 million for new presses and $50 million for new plates, however, this argument was rejected.

The logistical impact of such a big initiative is as yet unquantified, but there would definitely impact for vending machines as they would have to be redesigned again from scratch.

‘Getting what you want isn’t always everything’ - The Friar

Barack Obama has just got the job that he has always dreamed about, but timing and circumstance could have been a tiny bit kinder to him. The job that he wanted looks like a very, very tough one, with so many problems, the economy, foreign relations, two wars, oil prices, the dollar, foreclosures, national debt….etc,etc.

However, the one thing in his favour is that I can’t see how it would be much worse, the only way is up!