—Bush administration officials are planning an election-year initiative to promote marriage, especially among low-income couples, the New York Times reported on Wednesday.

More poor people with kids. Yeah, that's exactly what we need.

Moreover:

—President Bush unveiled a plan Wednesday to send astronauts to the moon. Bush said the moon could be the launching pad for "human missions to Mars and to worlds beyond." He said his goal was to "extend a human presence across our solar system."

Just like on Star Trek!

In the face of budget deficits of about $500 billion and crippled education and health care programs across the country, the President wants to promote marriage and send people to the moon.

Four more years…

initiative to promote marriage

—The plan would provide at least $1.5 billion for training to help couples develop interpersonal skills (i.e. heterosexual behavior) that sustain "healthy marriages."

—According to the Times, the officials said they believed the measure was timely because they were facing pressure from conservatives eager to see the federal government defend traditional marriage, after the highest court in Massachusetts ruled in November that gay couples had a right to marry.

Are we supposed to fret that gay couples marrying will ruin the sanctity of marriage? The divorce rate in this country is somewhere around 50 percent. We didn't need gay people to fuck that up.

If anything, Bush should promote not rushing into marriage.

man on the moon

—The administration outlined a piecemeal program that had no overall price, although a chart released by NASA suggested it could add up to as much as $170 billion.

I think people tend to confuse Hollywood outer space with real outer space. Mars…isn't that exciting. Even if we do manage to send astronauts deep into space, by the time they return to Earth (if they return at all), everyone from our time will be dead already.

the most ridiculous item of the day
$62.6 billion for Operation Iraqi Freedom
$87.5 billion for military operations and aid in Iraq and Afghanistan
$1.5 billion to promote marriage
$170 billion to return to the moon

Meanwhile, after rising 40 percent last year, my tuition is set to increase another 10 percent.