whoops, pro sports budget URL got truncated:

http://www.sportingnews.com/blog/aajoe7/135024

Some numbers to use against the doubters:
- stop watching pro sports and we pay for most of NASA.
- space exploration costs about the same as the player payroll of the NHL + NBA.
- the Yankees, Mets and Tigers payroll at $481m is more than the $420m Mars Phoenix Budget...

Here are some numbers:

$6.7 billion: NFL Total Revenue
$6.1 billion: MLB Total Revenue
$4.7 billion: NASA Science Budget
$3.9 billion: NFL Player Payroll
$3.4 billion: NBA Total Revenue
$3.3 billion: NASA Space Shuttle Budget
$3.1 billion: NASA Space Exploration Budget
$2.7 billion: MLB Player Payroll
$2.3 billion: NHL Total Revenue
$1.9 billion: NBA Player Payroll
$1.8 billion: Int'l Space Station Budget
$1.2 billion: NHL Player Payroll

2008 NASA Budget: http://www.nasa.gov/news/budget/index.html
MLB Team Payroll: http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/teams/salaries?team=nyy
Pro Sports Budgets: http://www.sportingnews.com/blog/aajoe7/1350

It's not just books -- it's suspicious symbols! The Canadian band The Russian Futurists were detained by the US Customs /Border Patrol a couple of years ago because the agents took offence to all their hammer and sickle logos on their buttons and shirt shwag. They missed their show that day.

http://pitchforkmedia.com/article/news/34736-the-russian-futurists-detained-at-border

The initial issue was visa confusion,

"...But that didn't stop the FBI and Border Patrol from detaining them for almost all of Sunday. As Jones said, "Apparently the FBI are not big fans of the hammer and sickle logo on all of the Russian Futurists' t-shirts, buttons, and stickers."

Forget Al Qaida -- Putin and his Russian friends are clearly America's greatest threat once more. No, wait -- it's the Canadian dollar at par. (Women *and* French-speakers on your currrency? Zut alors!)