While no one wants to deprive male fruit flies of a more meaningful sex life or rabbits of their daily Swedish massage, there comes a time when really hard choices need to be made. For example are we prepared to forgo the knowledge about monkeys and their poop throwing preferences for say, I don’t know, additional money for Ebola and cancer research. With Ebola headlines as the backdrop, Doctor and Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky) earlier this month held up the National Institutes of Health budget for some much needed scrutiny.

“We have people who go blithely on TV and say we don’t have enough money to study Ebola. Have you seen what the National Institutes of Health spends money on?” said Paul.

“Nine-hundred thirty-nine thousand dollars spent to discover whether or not male fruit flies would like to consort with younger female fruit flies,” the senator said to laughter. “One hundred seventeen thousand dollars spent to determine if most monkeys are right handed and like to throw poop with their right hands.”  (The Hill)

Meanwhile, the Obama administration officials were blaming Republican budget cuts for any shortfall in our effort to minimize Ebola exposure to the U.S. population.

Disclosures like these outraged maybe a half dozen news junkies who give a monkey poop about how our federal tax dollars are disgorged while the rest of the population was keeping up-to-date on who was leading in the latest reality show travails. And how would they know anyway with the mainstream media featuring the wisdom of celebrity types telling us how to live our lives.

Perhaps an NIH funded smartphone game, “Kiddio: Food Fight” or an examination of Buddhist meditation effects on sleep or discovering that mothers have the same emotional reaction to pictures of their dog as they do to pictures of their children is part of the fundamental transformation of America I haven’t caught up with yet.

I had dinner the other night with some friends, one of whom wouldn’t know the senate from a cesspool(well how many would actually) and has no intention of ever voting. I said she had no right to complain about government. Her answer was “I don’t”. Bliss comes in many narcotic forms.

When we have a couple of senators like Paul and Tom Coburn telling it like it is, I want to scream, “pay attention, listen up”. But then I’m stuck in the era of archaic “ility” notions that begin with frugal (as in frugality), account(ability), response(by now you get it) and so on. Possibly a reality show featuring “ility” will get the message out without MSM and celebrity cooperation or just maybe in spite of.

Oh yeah, we have one coming up November 4. Are you ready to play? Having exposed the National Institutes of Health budget to the sunlight, Dr. Sen. Paul is ready. Let’s hear your thoughts on Facebook and Twitter.

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