“C” is for cookie…

So, Ben Cohen, co-founder of Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream, did a little blurb for a site called TrueMajority.org. It seems to be mostly a liberal-leaning website, but I think they’re trying to bring a more moderate message to issues relevant to our time.

In the Flash animation (linked to above, if you click on the image…), you get him talking for a few minutes about what the site is, but mostly about his “Oreo Analogy”…which is why you should spend a minute and watch it. He breaks it down by saying one Oreo equals $10 billion, and the Dept. of Defense gets 40 Oreos. Then he describes how much our social programs get (Head Start, Education, etc.) and how much is going to the defenses of other nations that could hurt us (i.e. Russia, China, etc.).

Anyway, it’s amusing and enlightening. Working in science, I’m very aware of the NIH budget, where most science dollars in health research comes from. The NIH budget is $35 billion and hasn’t increased with inflation in years (meaning that we’ve effectively got decreases in funding progressively).

One Oreo cookie shaved off the top of that defense budget could help cure a lot of people. And help education. And feed the hungry.

And no, shaving a few cookies off the top of that stack won’t “let the terrorists win”…