seRioUsLy?

im taking this class on social problems which is ever so depressing, but this is not the point of which i seek to convey. the other day i was reading a chapter entitled: war, terrorism, and the balance of power. the following is an exerpt relating to the monetarial costs of war:

"Each dollar bill is about 6 inches long. If you laid a million of them end to end, you would just about cover the distance from Los Angeles to San Diego. A billion dollar bills would take you around the equator four times. If you laid the dollar bills of today's defense budget end to end, they would circle the earth more than 1,800 times!" (Henslin, 2008)

upon further pondering of the above information my thoughts were not on the atrocities that this paragraph contains but were instead centered around the question of who in the world has the time to come up with facts like these? i mean textbooks are drenched with datum such as this that have to take so much time just to come up with a way to frame it. who does this? is there like a paid position, perhaps entitled "fact framer" or something in which the job description is merely to come up with crazy ideas with which to relay information? i mean, who gets the final word in the above mentioned paragraph on whether to stretch the dollar bills around the earth or to the moon and bacK? and why couldn't they have painted a word picture with quarters? furthermore, if there is a specific job such as this out there, what qualifies you to attain it? do you have to have a math background? or a creative background? perhaps physics? i don't know, it just seems like a complete waste of time to me, which would equate to a complete waste of money if they are actually paying somebody to come up with this stuff. i think that if the authors of this text had simply given the defense budget's total, id have been great with that. it needed no further explanation as far as im concerned and has only led me to an incredible waste of time thinking about these things. it is however, ironic that my opinion centers on what a huge waste of time this seems to be, and yet ive found the time to blog about it...hmmm

eiGhT beLLeS

last night i experienced my first, as well as my last, spectating of the kentucky derby. although it is "the kentucky derby", its one of those things i just have never had any interest in and im never anywhere where its on and thus, ive just never seen it. watching all of the pre-race hoopla, i struggled to understand what the heck was going on. all the women were in crazy hats and they sang this song that everyone sang as if it were the national anthem with all of this patriotism and what not. i dont know, its obviously an event steeped in tradition of which i am totally ignorant. at any rate, as the race began i was just as shocked to see how quickly it ended. for all of the press this race gets, it lasts all of like 2 minutes. its very unimpressive, if you ask me. but all of these reasons have nothing to bear on why ive boycotted the kentucky derby for the remainder of my life. that decision was made because of this: as soon as the race was over, eight belles, who was the horse who came in 2nd, looked as if she tripped or something and she went down. they showed her laying on the track. it was really sad, but not nearly as sad as what happened next....so i guess they brought in all the EMT's(actually, they called it the equine ambulance on tv) for horses and found that she had broken both of her ankles and the only option was to euthenize her. like right there, on the track, only minutes after she had finished 2nd in the kentucky derby. they didnt show it or anything but it was heartbreaking. im not even like a horse fan. they're pretty and look like they are fun to ride, but that's the extent in my affection towards these equestrian beauties. yet seeing this chain of events tore at my heart. thats wierd, i know, but it did. so much so, that ive decided to boycott these festivities for the rest of my years. the horsing community is not missing out on much without my participation as, like i said, this was the first race i'd ever seen, but still. you'd think they'd have been able to do something...i guess thats enough. R.I.P eight belles....