"Too Hot for Facebook"

This was going to be a status update that turned into a note that turned into something that would freak out half my friends on facebook. I used to write a lot of angry or cynical blogs and status updates but I'm trying to keep my facebook statuses (stati?) from getting too pessimistic.

I just read an article that talked about how one conservative religious organization vastly outspent another conservative religious organization that was, until this story broke, thought to have been the biggest spender in their Prop 8 campaigns against gay rights. Neither organization was based in California, where Prop 8 was on the ballot. Resulting from the massive spending, one organization had to eliminate their staff by approximately 20%. Total spending for Prop 8 was approximately $40 million.

On an unrelated note, this weekend I learned that every month 86,000 children in Oregon eat from emergency food boxes. The suggested donation for one admission to the blues festival in Portland this weekend was enough to purchase approximately 50 pounds of food for the Oregon Food Bank.

So, if these numbers are correct, the amount spent against gay rights in the State of California in 2008 would have purchased 200,000,000 pounds of food for people who are going hungry. Of course, things are usually less expensive when purchased in larger quantities.

These are just facts. I haven't really been able to form an opinion based on this information because every time I try to reconcile those two different pieces of information, my mind sputters, stalls and for a second I forget what day it is or who I am.