Pork of the Year

Reader O Bloody Hell recently quipped that Congress would never permit any "shortage of pork." OBH plainly was right, based on Senator Tom Coburn's (R-Ok) compilation of "the Most Wasteful Government Spending of 2010," including:

• The city of Las Vegas has received a $5.2 million federal grant to build the Neon Boneyard Park and Museum, including $1.8 million in 2010. For over the last decade, Museum supporters have gathered and displayed over 150 old Las Vegas neon signs, such as the Golden Nugget and Silver Slipper casinos.

• The National Science Foundation provided more than to $200,000 to study of why political candidates make vague statements.

• The National Science Foundation directed nearly a quarter million dollars to a Stanford University professor’s study of how Americans use the Internet to find love.

• $137,530 to a Dartmouth professor Mary Flanagan to make a "video game called 'Layoff,' a puzzle-style game in which players fire as many people as they can as quickly as possible."

• The National Institutes of Health (NIH) spent nearly $442,340 million to study the number of male prostitutes in Vietnam and their social setting.

• This year, taxpayers forked over $60,000 for the "first-of-its kind" promotion of the Vidalia onion in conjunction with the movie, "Shrek Forever After."

• The National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded over $600,000 to the Minnesota Zoo to create a wolf "avatar" video game called "WolfQuest."

Full report here. My favorite, however, remains this.

(via The Corner)