PRIORITIES

There is something wrong in my country when our President proposes a trillion dollar budget slashing social programs, while we spend billions to fight a war over WMD, no wait, I meant over a democratic Iraq. Evidence appears weekly that our soldiers and our allies' soldiers have engaged in torture and Nazi-like behavior that is so systematic it was clearly an idea that came down the chain of command. Domestically I was just reading that half of bankruptcies in the U.S. are caused by medical problems - a sudden illness, an injury requiring surgery. In a rational nation, such personal crises would be helped by universal health coverage. But who could propose such an expensive project when we have a war in Iran to plan?

Now this is what I'm thinking about, but this is not what I hear about in the news. Instead, I wake up to the urgent report that some Virginia legislator wants to outlaw the practice of low-hanging pants and jeans. The weekend was full of news and analysis about the family oriented half-time show and commercial advertisements at this year's Superbowl. The Patriots won, but thankfully millions of viewers were not exposed to a female breast. Instead viewers were forced to look at big, painted man-boobies. I actually didn't watch the Superbowl, but I know large men often attend NFL games with their bodies painted.

The bottom line is that our priorities, or at least the priorities of our legislators and our media, are all backwards. We should all be less concerned about the exposed human body, and more concerned about the body bags piling up in Iraq.