Okay, Greg is always telling me NOT to get political on here but... it isn't really politics when it has to do with homeschool, right? I mean, I am simply telling all of you about what we are doing in school! :o) So, we are learning about standing up for what you believe in. Today we gave each of the boys 5 of the earmarks that were included in the Omnibus bill that was signed yesterday. They had to read them and then come up with a way to defend their reason for needing X amount of money for their important cause. I have listed the 10 they had to choose from.
#1. $1.7 million for pig odor research in Iowa
#2. $2 million "for the promotion of astronomy" in Hawaii
#3. $332,000 for the design and construction of a school sidewalk in Franklin, Texas
#4. $2.1 million for the Center for Grape Genetics in New York
#5. $650,000 for beaver management in North Carolina and Mississippi (how do you manage a beaver?)
#6. $1 million for mormon cricket control in Utah
#7. $300,000 for the Montana World Trade Center
#8. $200,000 "tattoo removal violence outreach program that could help gang members or others shed visible signs of their past"
#9. $475,000 to build a parking garage in Provo City, Utah
#10. $1.7M "for a honey bee factory" in Weslaco, TX
So Jerod picked #4, and #8. It was so funny to hear how he defended spending $2.1 million on a center for grape genetics. Then the tattoo one, just about made us wet our pants. They were supposed to imagine that they were on FOX news and had to tell why they were okay with this spending even when the economy was bad. He said, well, I guess I could give the homeless grapes to eat and I could use grape juice to stain over the tattoos that weren't able to be removed! What a politician! :o)
Alex picked #6 and #9. He had a very difficult time defending the $1 million dollars,on cricket control but thought it would help because he felt these crickets were such a bother that soon they would take over the whole world's crops! He thought that the parking garage would bring in a lot of business for the stores nearby. They laughed through the entire thing, saying, "How can people defend these reasons?" Then as you can see in the picture below this post, they said that was how politicians ended their sessions, they just fought it out! :o) Aren't we good teachers? Hope this gives you a laugh!
