In Washington, pork is often in the eye of the beholder. And retiring GOP Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma sees a lot of it. Coburns fifth annual and final Wastebook lists 100 silly, unnecessary and low priority projects that he says cost taxpayers a combined $25 billion. Here are five eyebrow-raising entries on Coburns list: 1. Swedish Massages for Rabbits: $387,000 Eighteen New Zealand white rabbits received 30-minute massages, four times a day in a taxpayer-funded study by the National Institutes of Health. The rub downs were performed by a specially-designed mechanical Swedish massage machine that simulates the long flowing strokes. 2. Army Video Game Training Terrorists?: $414,000 The U.S. Army spent $414,000 this year maintaining a free online video game that it first developed and launched as a recruitment tool back in 2009, the report says citing the Congressional Research Service. Why they do not like "Call of Duty" and "Battlefield"?) 3. Hungry Spouses & Voodoo Dolls: $331,000 What happens between couples when one is particularly hungry? 4. Mountain Lions on Treadmill: $856,000 Three mountain lions spent eight months learning to walk on a treadmill as part of study funded by taxpayers through National Science Foundation. 5. Unneeded Sheep Station: $1.98 million A 28,000-acre facility in Idaho to graze 3,000 sheep dubbed the U.S. Sheep Experiment Station has been deemed unsustainable and unnecessary by the Obama administration. Read more You can review the full list HERE Well, I believe that these studies are very necessary at the moment, rather than tackle the real and actual problems. Or what is the reason?
