The New Republic

The strangest Congressional earmarks of all time:

* study to determine which state has the most left handed bowlers

* funds for a project to establish whether bumble bees masterbate

* money set aside for a theme park devoted to Congressional sex scandals

* project to study ant colonies at the North Pole

* reasearch to establish why Republicans have four less molars than Democrats

* program to help Red Dog conservatives mate with Blue Dog Democrats

* a fact finding venture aimed at establishing whether talk radio is a genetic disorder

* money set aside to investigate the Palin Effect at The Weekly Standard

* funding for an investigation into the investigation of funding

* an examination of racism on the dark side of the moon

* a probe of Dick Cheney's probe of himself

gw

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- iambiguous

July 30, 2009 at 12:07pm

I don't know anything about Congressman Sessions, but I do know that "dirigible research" isn't about doing research on dirigibles: it's about using dirigibles to do research.  Dirigibles are an inexpensive way to  collect data for a long period of time above a particular spot.  For example, dirigibles are equipped with radar to measure sea surface dynamics in the open ocean.

- schdnfrd

July 30, 2009 at 12:38pm

One man's earmark is another man's vital research. That is why the fiscal hawkks are so often shown up for their small mindedness. They invariable choose the wrong earmark to pick on. Like studying why the damn bees are vanishing. That's vital stuff!

- henson1d

July 30, 2009 at 5:07pm