Today I came across an interesting factoid. The United States military (army, navy, national guard, etc.) employs THREE MILLION people, and another two million are receiving benefits. The military is by far the largest employer in the nation.
Source: Department of Defense web page at: http://www.defense.gov/pubs/dod101/index.html
As I've pointed out before, the US military spends $500-$700 billion/year, roughly matching the combined expenditures of the rest of the world and ten times more than any other country.
Less you think I just hate the military, let me point to some other expenditures.
Social Security - $730 billion
Medicare & Medicaid - $790 billion
Is anybody else troubled by this? These numbers make my eyes bleed. Do you know how many happy meals I could buy with all this money? We've got these three major expenses that eat up 3/4 of our budget, but nobody can touch them because they are all entitlements. That is, somebody is benefiting and they will throw a fit if you take them, and then you won't get re-elected.
So, we just keep spending, to the tune of $3.5 trillion/year. We spend $185 billion just on interest for our debt.
Sometimes I wish we could follow the ancient Greek's system of electing a temporary dictator to clean up theses sorts of problems and then return order to the elected assemblies (obviously I don't really want a dictator to govern us, but I do envy that they had some solution).
What solution can we have to correct our over-spending? How do we get our elected officials to stop supporting the projects/expenditures that get them elected? Do we need to revert to some sort of libertarian utopia for a few years and then rebuild from scratch? I don't think so, but I'm at a loss for a better idea.
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Religion & Politics
Who thinks you should avoid religion and politics in civil discussions? Well, for those who enjoy these topics, and their confluence, you might get a kick out of this interactive Religious Landscape study from last year, conducted by the Pew Center:
http://religions.pewforum.org/
It profiles different religious denominations and compares them to each other in terms of political attitudes as well as worship and spirituality. In politics, the Mormons jump out from the data. They are, simply put, FAR more conservative than any other religious group. In terms of worship, the Jehovah Witnesses lead out in most categories as the extremists--the meet together the most often, prey the most, believe in God, etc., but Mormons are not far behind, followed closely by evangelicals and historical black churches. Mainstream christian churches do not appear to have nearly the intensity of worship or personal internalization of faith.
While we're on this subject, let me share with you the result I found in another study at the University of North Carolina. They polled youth on about thier church attendance, worship frequency, prayer, etc. and found that Mormons again stand out as extremists. Generally speaking, Mormon youth are twice as likely to participate in scripture study, read a spiritual book outside of the scriptures, practice a day of rest, share thier faith, and pray alone. They are also far less likely to express doubts in thier faith, and are more likely to share the faith of thier parents. Mormon youth are the most likely to participate in conferences, service projects, attend Sunday School more than once a week, and cite the most adult supporters from church who they feel they can trust and rely upon. Source: Christian Smith, Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 20005), ch. 2, passim. In fairness to the Jehovah Witnesses, they were not isolated in this study so they may even be more extreme (as the Pew survey suggests).
http://religions.pewforum.org/
It profiles different religious denominations and compares them to each other in terms of political attitudes as well as worship and spirituality. In politics, the Mormons jump out from the data. They are, simply put, FAR more conservative than any other religious group. In terms of worship, the Jehovah Witnesses lead out in most categories as the extremists--the meet together the most often, prey the most, believe in God, etc., but Mormons are not far behind, followed closely by evangelicals and historical black churches. Mainstream christian churches do not appear to have nearly the intensity of worship or personal internalization of faith.
While we're on this subject, let me share with you the result I found in another study at the University of North Carolina. They polled youth on about thier church attendance, worship frequency, prayer, etc. and found that Mormons again stand out as extremists. Generally speaking, Mormon youth are twice as likely to participate in scripture study, read a spiritual book outside of the scriptures, practice a day of rest, share thier faith, and pray alone. They are also far less likely to express doubts in thier faith, and are more likely to share the faith of thier parents. Mormon youth are the most likely to participate in conferences, service projects, attend Sunday School more than once a week, and cite the most adult supporters from church who they feel they can trust and rely upon. Source: Christian Smith, Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 20005), ch. 2, passim. In fairness to the Jehovah Witnesses, they were not isolated in this study so they may even be more extreme (as the Pew survey suggests).
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Another Doctor
By the way, Jen also passed her defense and is now appropriately addressed as "doctor."
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
CONGRATULATIONS!
Well, you can all call him "Doctor" now (although he might get annoyed!). Yes, I just walked in the door from Matt's defense of his dissertation and the professors came out with a grin, a hand shake, and a "Congratulations doctor." I was so proud! Matt felt really sick last night and didn't sleep at all, so I was praying he would be okay and he was awesome. He answered all of their questions, presented himself very professionally and they really encouraged him to keep working on the paper and get it published! I just thought you would all want to know!
I defend on Tuesday, so if you have a few extra prayers to give out I could use them. I still am finishing all of the edits from the professors and have to resubmit to the wonderful format people. I need to wrap that all up in the next two days. As long as all goes well for me we both graduate May 12th! Amazing!
We had an amazing trip to Mazatlan with my family which we had planned so long ago! It's hard to believe it is over. I do not have time to put up the pictures until my edits are done, so you might have to wait a day or two!
I defend on Tuesday, so if you have a few extra prayers to give out I could use them. I still am finishing all of the edits from the professors and have to resubmit to the wonderful format people. I need to wrap that all up in the next two days. As long as all goes well for me we both graduate May 12th! Amazing!
We had an amazing trip to Mazatlan with my family which we had planned so long ago! It's hard to believe it is over. I do not have time to put up the pictures until my edits are done, so you might have to wait a day or two!
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Abby in the Grass
Here are a few shots of Abby and Jen in our backyard from last Sunday. Yes, I know I need to cut the lawn. I have since chopped it down.
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