should've kissed him for mr. IR(ving)
Jesus, Drugs, and Debt
$7,000,000,000,000+ is an impossible numerical concept for most Americans to grasp. Since I spent my undergraduate years at the University of Alabama, I adopted former football coach Bear Bryant’s skeptical view of numbers. “It’s kinda hard to rally a campus around some math class,” the Bear opined. I agreed and avoided math like the plague in college, relying instead on the goodness and pity of others when it came time to comprehend basic mathematical concepts. Fortunately, back when I was in Congress, Michigan representative Nick Smith was kind enough to draw diagrams in crayons to help me understand just how hard it would be to pay off America’s multitrillion-dollar debt.
Nick told me back then, as I tucked my abacus safely into my office drawer, that if I had earned $1 million every single day from the moment Jesus Christ was born until the year 2000, I would still not have earned enough money to pay off America’s debt. And that ominous calculation was drawn up four years before Congress went on one of the wildest spending sprees in U.S. history.
Even with the federal deficit and national debt spiraling out of control in recent years, Democrats and Republicans both began pushing for the passage of a national drug benefit for America’s ever-expanding senior population. Politicians on both sides of the aisle spent most of the Medicare drug debate acting like burnt-out ‘70s rock stars. Armed with an endless supply of your cash, these public prima donnas continued paying for their drug fix even after the accountants and lawyers gave them the grim news that their budget surplus had disappeared into a sea of red ink. But in Washington, the band always plays on. There are no Willie Nelsons, no Mick Fleetwoods, no MC Hammers, no repossessed hot tubs. That’s because when Washington politicians run out of money, they just print more! Do I hear someone shouting, “Can’t touch this”?
-Joe Scarborough
so, while he was talking at barnes & noble i did some college research - and i unwittingly picked a bunch of schools (wesleyan, oberlin, northwestern, swarthmore) that all have something funny/telling in commmon...
and, i got to see a middle-aged woman get thrown out of a book signing.
and,
alex and i are the coolest kids in town.
margaret too.
$7,000,000,000,000+ is an impossible numerical concept for most Americans to grasp. Since I spent my undergraduate years at the University of Alabama, I adopted former football coach Bear Bryant’s skeptical view of numbers. “It’s kinda hard to rally a campus around some math class,” the Bear opined. I agreed and avoided math like the plague in college, relying instead on the goodness and pity of others when it came time to comprehend basic mathematical concepts. Fortunately, back when I was in Congress, Michigan representative Nick Smith was kind enough to draw diagrams in crayons to help me understand just how hard it would be to pay off America’s multitrillion-dollar debt.
Nick told me back then, as I tucked my abacus safely into my office drawer, that if I had earned $1 million every single day from the moment Jesus Christ was born until the year 2000, I would still not have earned enough money to pay off America’s debt. And that ominous calculation was drawn up four years before Congress went on one of the wildest spending sprees in U.S. history.
Even with the federal deficit and national debt spiraling out of control in recent years, Democrats and Republicans both began pushing for the passage of a national drug benefit for America’s ever-expanding senior population. Politicians on both sides of the aisle spent most of the Medicare drug debate acting like burnt-out ‘70s rock stars. Armed with an endless supply of your cash, these public prima donnas continued paying for their drug fix even after the accountants and lawyers gave them the grim news that their budget surplus had disappeared into a sea of red ink. But in Washington, the band always plays on. There are no Willie Nelsons, no Mick Fleetwoods, no MC Hammers, no repossessed hot tubs. That’s because when Washington politicians run out of money, they just print more! Do I hear someone shouting, “Can’t touch this”?
-Joe Scarborough
so, while he was talking at barnes & noble i did some college research - and i unwittingly picked a bunch of schools (wesleyan, oberlin, northwestern, swarthmore) that all have something funny/telling in commmon...
and, i got to see a middle-aged woman get thrown out of a book signing.
and,
alex and i are the coolest kids in town.
margaret too.