Afraid of the Dark

This weekend has been the weekend of errands.  Nothing too exciting to report, other than a nice day at Madison Beach enjoying the sunshine and a few Blue Moons.  We saw some drunk, rich girls get off of some boat that they had just jumped on when some men invited them, and they were all crying and apparently had gotten in a fight which involved throwing corn husks (certainly a crime in Nebraska)!

Here's a photograph of a Madison Beach sunrise, found on Flickr by Asa Bass. [Goodness, how I wish I had a camera!]

My friend Jordan Hill, posted a video (which can be seen below) from the Sagan Series about space travel.  The video is worth watching not only if you're interested in the possibility of "another world", but is worth watching just for the images.  Make sure to turn the resolution up (on youtube) to HD and watch it in fullscreen mode.  Seriously, it's pretty awesome.

Also, lately a concept that I haven't heard covered in the classroom at school has really piqued my interest - the relationship between government entitlements and rural lifestyles.  In Washington state, it is not uncommon to hear people from Eastern Washington get mad about tax money that they feel only gets spent on Seattleites (Safeco Field, the Viaduct, etc.).  Interestingly enough, when you examine the way that the tax money is divided up it is obvious that Eastern Washington receives way more money from Western Washington than the other way around.  The people who live in Eastern Washington are much more likely to vote Republican, which in my head seems to go directly against their interests in government.  On top of all of this, it seems that this might be a nationwide trend.  Unfortunately, I have not found a source which argues the other side of the argument, from a Conservative perspective (if any of the three people that read this blog find one, let me know).

Here are some links talking about this:
Mother Jones: "The Price of Rural Life" by Kevin Drum (an Op-Ed)
Los Angeles Times: "A Lot At Stake for Small-Town America," An Editorial
The Stranger: "Welfare State" by Goldy (an ex-Huff Post writer)
Federal Spending by State Per Dollar of Federal Taxes (2004), A Graph from The Tax Foundation

Tomorrow I am going to the art museum with "camp," a bunch of kids that I used to watch when they were much younger.  I can't wait!
xo.