far-flung wars of course!

[dies of disgust]

I'd spend it on ensuring a supply of oil/energy to those Americans by enforcing some kind of beach-head in the Middle East.
Or Nintendo Wii's for everyone.
I can't decide which one.

(I'm kidding of course. Please don't question my liberal credentials.)

One word: Spam.

Someone at the Vegas meetup was relating a quip they heard:

"For what we've spent on the war, we could have just bought all the oil from them."

Food, shelter, and education for the masses, but $500 million won't go very far.

oops, billion, but that won't go very far either...

i'd give every american ten bucks (or whatever sum is actually worked out to) to get off their [our] sorry asses and spend twenty minutes *actually* doing something, anything, that makes a real live human being's life better. and i don't mean "random acts of kindness"--i'm not talking about holding open the door for the person behind you--but taking some actual personal responsibility for the people that happen to live in this world with you.

Oh, definitely on revamping the medical system as much as possible with that much money. Last I heard the U.S. is some ridiculously low number in world rankings for health care.

crush - it's actually around 1600 bucks per USAian (assuming 300million USAians).

I'd invest it in a giant "savings bond for the US", which matures on the US's 300th birthday. Perhaps by then they could buy a Porche for every citizen.

1600 bucks per USAian

Imagine how much it would be per CHILD. When I was in High School some years back, we were getting something like $4-5000 per kid in school funding. I think $1600+ per CHILD would make a HELL of a difference nationwide.

It's really a shame... this is fantasy talk in terms of education spending but it's real money we have already spent... That money was in our hands at one point. Now it's pissed away.

And for what?

My pet cause: Transport safety. Kills and maims more 'mericans each year than the Vietnam War ever did and kills more and more randomly than terrorists ever could dream. Not to mention that safe drivers (and non-drivers for that matter) use less gas.

Some dicklick tried to run me and my bike out of the lane while doing that (clever! every! time!) screaming to scare you thing two days ago, then tried to chew me out when I yelled out, "f u you f'in m'er f'er."

I wonder what would happen if I started carting an unloaded antique musket on my bike rack. Obscure enough that the PDX Po wouldn't go apeshit and shoot for no good reason, but hardcore enough to get people off my ass? (Alternately, and more realistically, camcorder, running or not)