Why did the House authorize spending $104 million to kill snakes in Guam? I’m sure the brown tree snake is quite destructive, but $104 million for snakes in Guam? It’s not even a state. To put the $104 million in better context, that’s twice the budget of the National Endowment for Democracy, whose mandate is a bit broader than killing snakes. OK, doing a little more reading, I understand people fear the snake will find its way to Hawaii, and then I guess, perhaps, California? Now that I think about it, this is an allegory about the dangers of isolationism. Kill that snake.