Since the OT cease-fire has pretty much evaporated...

Bruce wrote:
> I guess what I don't understand is that if these scientists do have a
> political agenda, then why would it be a Democratic political agenda.
>
> Can't Bush find any scientists that believe in his scientific
> theories to appoint to these grant approving positions.

Going back to Denys original post, I have to reply: Is this the way we want
to run science?  Do we really want scientific labs to change personnel with
every election?!!!  By nature, do scientists have some inhuman ability to
resist power, ego and influence or does money corrupt only those outside of
scientific circles?

Let's get away from science for a moment and look at the bigger picture so
we can view the real core issue.  Is federal government funding the best way
to fund science?  (Healthcare?  Education?  Retirement?  Anything?)
Whenever people pool their money and lose control on how it's spent, there
are issues.  This is just as true in government as it is in an investment
club, a non-profit organization, an insurance company, a school, church,
club, or even two people entering into marriage.  Pooling money changes the
local dynamics and the greater the money, the stronger the influences.  As a
rule, people enjoy freedom.  In science, people want, no, REQUIRE freedom.
A scientist needs the freedom to question and the freedom to think.  Denys
post indicates that the current funding system may not promote this kind of
freedom.  I agree with Wirt that it is not the top-down control we usually
associate with lack of freedom, but being around scientists, I've noticed
that they tend to control with cliques rather than chains.  Imagine the
power of a document that brags signatures from seventeen Nobel Laureates!
It would be professional suicide to disagree with them - although that's
exactly what a good scientist would and should do.

This is an age old argument and not related directly to science.  In fact
after President Reagan died, I came across one of his speeches from the
early 1960s that talks about this very subject.  Here's a snippet:

----------------------------------------------
October 27, 1964
It's time we asked ourselves if we still know the freedoms intended for us
by the Founding Fathers. James Madison said, "We base all our experiments on
the capacity of mankind for self-government." This idea that government was
beholden to the people, that it had no other source of power, is still the
newest, most unique idea in all the long history of man's relation to man.
This is the issue of this election: Whether we believe in our capacity for
self-government or whether we abandon the American Revolution and confess
that a little intellectual elite in a far-distant capital can plan our lives
for us better than we can plan them ourselves.
...
The Founding Fathers knew a government can't control the economy without
controlling people. And they knew when a government sets out to do that, it
must use force and coercion to achieve its purpose. So we have come to a
time for choosing.
...
You and I are told we must choose between a left or right, but I suggest
there is no such thing as a left or right. There is only an up or down. Up
to man's age-old dream -- the maximum of individual freedom consistent with
order -- or down to the ant heap of totalitarianism. Regardless of their
sincerity, their humanitarian motives, those who would sacrifice freedom for
security have embarked on this downward path. Plutarch warned, "The real
destroyer of the liberties of the people is he who spreads among them
bounties, donations and benefits."
----------------------------------------------

So back to Bruce's question.  Does it really matter who's in charge of it?
I'm sure the people who currently get funded don't mind the system (maybe
even Wirt himself) but do we really want to further muck up scientific
discovery with this poisonous funding scheme?

Mark 'Feeling like he better be getting back to work!' W.

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