Speaking of elections

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2010/09/shouldnt_taxpayers_get_a_recei.html

I thought this was a really interesting idea-a receipt for the taxes you pay over the course of the year (this is of course making the assumption that federal government revenues are fungible, so that while a specific percentage of your salary officially goes to social security and medicare, that's not exactly put in a lockbox). You'll need to do some basic multiplication to get your actual figures, but this is good for comparison's sake.

Anyway, is there anything that strikes you as unexpected? Anything that is higher than you would have thought? Lower?

I was rather content to learn how much of my money is going to things that I at least don't think are actively evil.

Also, apparently, this is one of the things that people are often far off on (I certainly was repeatedly surprised) so before voting, education!

race map

 One of the things I wrestle with as a pastor in St. Louis is working with the segregated nature of our city. Its common knowledge that there is a racial divide in the city, but this map, based on 2000 census data was still quite striking.

Saint Louis Map, by race and density

As always, I wonder what it means for us to claim that racial reconciliation is part of what it means to be Mennonite, Christian, and generally good people, and to end up with such striking divides in where we live and who we interact with on a regular basis.