House of Eratosthenes

Not that it’s any of my business — or maybe what’s becoming a vexing concern to me, is that it is being made my business — but it’s a challenge for me to piece together how Rock Star Bono spent Thursday of this week.

Appearances being any indication, he kicked it off schmoozing it up with President Bush, religious leaders, and members of Congress with a plea for “an extra once percent” of the federal budget to be spent on poverty in Africa, at a time when we just wiped out one-and-a-half percent of that budget that had been spent on programs for the poor in our own nation.

Bono used the “tithing” argument. Now there is something I wish would get a little bit more of an intensive debate. Is it just, proper, or even fitting with a consistent mission, when taxes are used for tithes? What does the word “tithe” mean in relation to the federal treasury? Does it even have a place? Does it make us better people when we are involuntarily taxed in order to salve Bono’s “messianic complex”?

U2’s Bono, citing the Koran, the Bible and rock band Dire Straits, urged President George W. Bush on Thursday to boost US aid to the world’s poor by about $25bn (about R150bn).

“This is not about charity, it’s about justice,” the singer and activist told an annual US national prayer breakfast, peering through orange-tinted glasses at Bush, US lawmakers, and Muslim, Christian, and Jewish leaders.
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“Mr President, Congress, people of faith, people of America, I want to suggest to you today that you see the flow of effective foreign assistance as tithing, which, to be truly meaningful, will need an additional 1% of the federal budget tithed to the poor,” said Bono.

Bush’s Office of Management and Budget estimated that the US government spent about $2.473 trillion in 2005, making the singer’s request roughly $25bn.
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“If you’re wondering what I’m doing here at a prayer breakfast, well, so am I. I’m certainly not here as a man of the cloth, unless that cloth is leather. I’m certainly not here because I’m a rock star. Which leaves only one possible explanation: I’ve got a messianic complex,” he quipped.

Well, before Thursday was out, Bono seems to have forgotten to dance with who brung him. He warmed up the crowd at a Democratic party event, in which famous presidential loser Al Gore got to get a few “extra” jabs in about domestic spying and global warming.

The annual retreat of the U.S. House Democratic caucus in Kingsmill featured the rock group U2’s singer Bono on Thursday, and former Vice President Al Gore was expected to speak today.

The retreat’s events were closed to both the media and public.

Bono’s speech Thursday night touched on themes of fighting AIDS and promoting debt relief in Africa, said a congressman’s press secretary, who was at the retreat but spoke on condition of anonymity.

Gore was expected to address global warming and the Bush administration’s domestic spying program – two issues he has recently criticized.

Interesting thing about that word “extra”: It pertains to Gore’s complaining about domestic spying and global warming, since Gore has complained about this before, and it also pertains to our proposed “tithe” since our federal coffers have already put out some cash to help the world’s poor, especially in Africa. “Extra” is used when something has already gone ahead of what’s proposed. I’d like to know: Does Bono even know how much has gone ahead of the events this last Thursday? Does he know how much sore-loser bellyaching Al Gore has been doing? Does he even know how much the United States has done in Africa?

Off the top of my head, I don’t know the answer to that last one, but I don’t have a messianic complex about Africa. You need to know that fact before you start making moral pronouncements on whether our “tithe” is adequate or not.

I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on the objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents. — James Madison

Federal aid in such cases [federal aid to drought-stricken Texas farmers] encourages the expectation of paternal care on the part of the government and weakens the sturdiness of our national character, while it prevents the indulgence among our people of that kindly sentiment and conduct which strengthen the bond of a common brotherhood. — Grover Cleveland

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Messianic ComplexSaturday, February 4th, 2006

Messianic Complex
Saturday, February 4th, 2006