What with all the talk about trimming spending at both the federal and state levels, I thought this chart from Ezra Klein’s blog frames the discussion nicely. It shows how the federal government spends its money:

As Klein puts it, America is an insurance conglomerate with a standing army. Together, entitlements and defense spending make up two-thirds of federal spending. We could zero out the budgets for Americorps, Title X family planning funds, public radio and television, Pell grants, the National Institutes for Health, and a hundred other programs without making a significant dent in our total debt load. The real money is found in the health care programs that serve me, my parents, and millions of other people, not to mention a military force that is still postured to defeat an enemy that no longer exists. Everything else is chump change.

Unfortunately, our political leadership still refuses to even acknowledge the crux of our spending problem out of fear that voters will punish anyone who raises the possibility of cutting popular entitlements. That may be true. But as someone who benefits from one of those entitlements (Medicaid), I’d rather have the discussion now rather than wait until a panicked Congress is forced to slash spending in the midst of a financial crisis.

Governor Dayton vetoed a budget-cutting bill sent to him by the Republican-led Legislature. In his veto letter, he rightfully called out legislators for requiring $100 million in cuts but directing state agencies to make decisions on which programs to cut. Apparently, the Republicans aren’t interested in the details of budget balancing as long as they can boast about their anti-tax philosophy. Dayton’s veto will force them to be more specific about their ideas for cutting spending. And voters might not like what they hear.

Gareth is a gamer with a disability who just wanted to play Dead Space 2. Unfortunately, he discovered after purchasing the game that it lacked customization options that would allow him to play. So he did what any seasoned gamer would do: he posted a complaint on the game publisher’s website. Gareth’s request gained the support of thousands of other gamers, reaching a critical mass that persuaded the publisher to issue a patch that will make the game more accessible.

Most game developers don’t give much thought to accessible design and Visceral Games (the developer of Dead Space 2) deserves kudos for addressing the needs of a gamer with disability. Perhaps such a move will help other developers realize that the inclusion of a few additional options can make a game accessible to a wider audience. Meanwhile, let’s hope Gareth can soon begin slaying hordes of mutant aliens.

Air travel for people with disabilities continues to be a pain in the ass. Carrie Salberg, a Minnesota woman with muscular dystrophy who uses a ventilator, was kicked off a flight for reasons that aren’t entirely clear. The pilot claimed that her vent wasn’t approved for in-flight use, but then she was placed on another flight that required her to catch a connecting flight home. Delta Airlines refunded Salberg’s tickets and those of her companions, but only after the local paper started asking questions.

Nothing like this has ever happened to me. I always expect complications when I fly, but airline staff haven’t questioned my equipment. Instead, they simply proceed to misplace it. I long for the day when airplanes are truly accessible and people like Salberg and me can easily board without being treated like suspicious cargo. Unfortunately, the narrow profit margins of airlines make it unlikely that flying will become any more disability-friendly in the near future.

The Kepler space telescope continues to provide evidence that the universe could be teeming with planets that may not be so different from Earth. According to the latest data released from NASA, Kepler has found as many as 1,235 candidates that could be planets orbiting stars and 54 of them appear to be orbiting in the habitable zone that would allow for the presence of water and possibly life. That’s a small percentage, but Kepler has not even completed its survey of a small portion of the sky. If we extrapolate those results to the rest of the unsurveyed sky, there could be thousands of Earth-like planets out there in the depths of space. We’ll probably never get to actually see any of them, but it’s comforting to know that our blue world may not be the only one that drew the lottery card for life.