One must be a bit careful in judging what we call "earmarks." A lot of them are pure pork, but at the same time, there are ones that may look like pork, but they can mean a lot to the target area. Louisiana governor "Bobby" Jindal's mocking of money spent on volcano monitoring would possibly have him laughing on the other side of his face if one were to cut funds for weather forecasting and hurricane monitoring.

Years ago, Senator Proxmire gave out his annual "Golden Fleece" awards to what he considered government funds spent on stupid projects. One year his "Golden Fleece" award went to the massive sum of $150,000 earmarked for setting up a program to study the dangers of earth orbit crossing asteroids. He thought it was the stupidest waste of money he'd ever heard of.

We have since learned that this is a real danger. There are earth orbit crossing asteroids that wiped out most life on this planet in the past–several times, in fact–and those rocks are still out there. As more than one astronomer has said, "It's not a matter of 'if,' it's a matter of 'when.' And how big. With enough advanced warning, and if the technology is on line, it's possible to divert a planet killer. But we have to know about it far enough in advance.

$150,000 isn't much to invest in a project like that.

Like I say above, before you start honking about what appears to be a stupid or pork-barrel "earmark," put your brain in gear and take another look.

Don Firth