california has a new 'special interest' license plate. according to the dmv the plates are for...

September 11th California Memorial License Plates fund scholarships for the children of Californians who died in the terror attacks. Proceeds also go to the Antiterrorism Fund, which helps California's law enforcement fight threats of terrorism in the Golden State

the have a background image representing the american flag, and california is written in a font i hate, but that's beside the point. i've been seeing more and more of these plates around, and so far every one i've seen is personalized. today when i was out walking the dogs, i saw an interesting one. on a giant suv (some kind of range rover) there was a 'september 11th memorial license plate'. the personalization on the plate?

HOG GAL

now, when you think of that in terms of fossil fuels, it's quite an interesting statement to make. on a 9.11 plate at that.

on the morning edition today there were two stories that followed each other with curious messages. the first was about the cost of war: [i]NPR's David Molpus reports on the job of figuring the financial cost of a U.S. strike on Iraq. Estimates run from a billion a week -- even without any fighting -- to $25 billion a year for a post-war occupation of Iraq. The Congressional Budget Office's estimate ranges from $40 billion to $200 billion. [/i]

steve coaziak of the washington-based center for strategic and budgetary assessment says 'we have an ecomomy of 11 trillion dollars...so, paying costs in the range of 100 to 200 billion dollars is something this country can certainly afford...'

in the second story talks about the shortage of employees for homeland security, 'Some worry about the shortage of qualified first responders, as many local firefighters, EMTs, and police officers are also military reservists who could be called to active duty.' for all of these agencies, they are dealing with added duties without added money to support it. according the the federal government, they are dealing with a deficit and it is a mistake to look to them for money.

this logic seems confusing to me. how can we afford $100 to $200 billion dollars but not funding for these important angencies? on top of that, we have limited funding for schools and other crucial social services. i suppose bush isn't going to be showering us with $150 tax refunds this year. he's probably saving it for just before the next election.

in other 'news' - 'The super-sizing of the American waistline over the past 30 years has coincided with a sharp increase in food portion sizes inside and outside the home--most notably in fast food restaurants, according to a study released Tuesday.'

they needed a study to figure this out? how about going to a mcdonalds and looking at the menu? or a 7-11 and checking out the sizes of the big/super/monsterous gulps. if they'd only use that money to fund some nutrition programs...they're spending so much money telling americans that they are overweight - but they don't seem to be doing much else about it.

i guess it's the government - it's not supposed to make logical sense, anyway.