For the price of the Iraq War, we could feed Sheriff Joe Arpaio moldy bologna for the next billion years.
As Jill at Feministe describes, Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County, AZ has engaged in a variety of unusual practices, from having a civilian 'posse' hunt down illegal immigrants to feeding prisoners moldy bologna. He has lost several lawsuits for wrongfully killing or injuring inmates.
At 90 calories a slice, Joe would need to eat 2.78 8-slice packages of Oscar Mayer bologna a day to make up a 2000-calorie diet. Regular bologna sells for $2.69 at the Casa Grande, AZ Safeway. At that price, keeping Sheriff Joe alive on nothing but bologna for a billion years would cost $2.73 trillion, which is $270 billion less than Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes' estimate of $3 trillion for the total cost of the Iraq War.
Thanks to reader Stentor Danielson for sending in this suggestion with calculations.
