Poor math reporting

Yesterday, the Obama Administration announced that Cabinet level officials would identify $100 million in savings over the next 90 days. The lousy reporting job by the media reminded me of this xkcd comic which called for a little honesty in how numbers are reported.

According to the IRS, for fiscal year 2008, the government ended with a deficit of $454.8 billion dollars. Obama's proposed budget for 2010 has an estimated $1.2 trillion dollar deficit, which is an increase of $745.2 billion dollars. So putting this into perspective, Obama has increased the deficit by $745,200 million dollars, and wants to save $100 million dollars. It hardly even registers.

The media is calling the $100 million dollar savings, "a million dollars a day". However, the increased level of spending of Obama's budget is $2041.6 million dollars a day. This just highlights the level of political theater that is going on here.

Random Saturday Musings

Last night, I went to the movies at Union Station with my friend Margaret, and we watched the new release "State of Play". Afterwards, as we were walking back to the Metro, we came upon a little shop called "My Obama Shop". I just had to take a picture - who would have ever thought that there would be a whole store dedicated to Obama paraphernalia? So now, if you happen to be looking for that special something for your household Obama shrine, you now know where to go.



I went for a long bike ride today around DC, looping up through Bethesda via the Capitol Crescent Trail, over to Silver Spring, down through Rock Creek Park, and back to Arlington. The weather was absolutely beautiful, and a welcome change from the cold rainy weather that we have had for the past week. Tomorrow is supposed to be cloudy and rainy, but if the forecast improves, hopefully I can fit in another ride this weekend.

Happy Easter!

At last night's Easter Vigil service, one of the readings was from Genesis 22, where God asks Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac, and then steps in to prevent him from doing so. As I listened to the reading, I started pondering what Isaac must have thought about the ordeal. Did he think that Abraham was suffering from dementia? Did he willingly let his father tie him up? Did Abraham eventually tell his son what the plan was, as some commentators believe? And what was the relationship between Abraham and Isaac like afterwards?

Most Christians look at the story of Abraham and Isaac almost purely from the perspective that it foreshadowed the sacrifice that Jesus made on the cross. But the foreshadowing only makes sense if Isaac was a willing participant in the event, in the same way that Jesus willing sacrificed his life to fufill his Father's will.

What the Bible really needs is the ancient version of Paul Harvey, who can tell us the rest of the story.