BrothersJudd Blog: IF YOU WANT POLITICS OUT OF SCIENCE, TAKE SCIENCE OUT OF THE BUDGET:

Amazon.com Widgets

November 3, 2003

IF YOU WANT POLITICS OUT OF SCIENCE, TAKE SCIENCE OUT OF THE BUDGET:

The Big Chill at the Lab (BOB HERBERT, 11/03/03, NY Times)

A list of nearly 200 scientific researchers has been compiled and given to federal officials by the Traditional Values Coalition, a conservative group that goes wild over gay issues and federal funding of research related to human sexuality.

The list, which has sent a chill through some researchers, is being used by the coalition and its government allies in attempts to discredit the researchers and challenge or revoke their federal grants. It's a sloppy, dangerous and wildly inaccurate list, put together by people who are freaked out by the content of the studies, and unconcerned about their value. [...]

Science has to suffer when the know-nothings come traipsing through the laboratories, infecting the research with their religious beliefs and political ideologies.

So what? That's how a democracy works. We don't have to fund things that violate our values.

Posted by Orrin Judd at November 3, 2003 12:53 PM

Comments

True, although if one disagrees with the assumptions of those sophisticates on the left in such things as the proper use of the peoples confiscated incomes, one should be, I suppose, a candidate for sensitivity training at the very least. The nerve of taxpayers to oppose some government research grants which will only confirm what, I suspect, Bob Herbert already knows to be true! "Know Nothings", indeed!

Posted by: Tom C., Stamford,Ct. at November 3, 2003 1:18 PM

oj-

Not to quibble, but "democracy" works exactly that way. Limited, constitutional government is the only protection, as implied in your headline.

Posted by: Tom C., Stamford,Ct. at November 3, 2003 1:23 PM

Maybe we'll get lucky and the Left will retaliate and soon the federal government won't be able to provide grants that make even a single citizen unhappy.

Posted by: Annoying Old Guy at November 3, 2003 2:18 PM

Other people's money is the life blood of the Left.

Federal grants won't disappear anytime soon.

Posted by: John J. Coupal at November 3, 2003 3:39 PM

What a bunch of bloody arrogant twits. "Know-nothings" indeed.

Posted by: jd watson at November 3, 2003 5:48 PM

You mean like tendentious monuments?

Posted by: Harry Eagar at November 3, 2003 6:16 PM

I'll bet there are plenty of people who would be surprised at your tag line.

Blinkered though they may be, I've heard there are one or two folks who think our war in Iraq violates their values.

But fund it they must.

Posted by: Jeff Guinn at November 3, 2003 9:30 PM

Harry-

Yup, I agree. There should be no limit on federal expenditures of taxpayer money. Such should be limited only by the whims of those in power or populating the bureacracy... But seriously, if the state of Alabama wishes to fund a study on the habits of homosexual grasshoppers (or a monument of some kind) I would have no objection and neither should you. I'm sure we can agree regarding the difference between a silly federal and state expenditure?

Posted by: Tom C., Stamford,Ct. at November 3, 2003 9:36 PM

Harry/Jeff:

Exactly. Those are questions to be settled through the legislative process. If the antiwar folks had more votes or the anti-commandment folks they'd win.

Posted by: oj at November 3, 2003 9:51 PM

Another question is, if schools like Harvard which has a $19 billion endowment, IIRC, why should the government fund as much? If Harvard wants a sex study on grasshoppers, Harvard should pay for it.

Posted by: Sandy P. at November 3, 2003 11:05 PM

OJ:

That isn't what your tag line said.

I heard Jim Crow laws were settled through the legislative process.

Posted by: Jeff Guinn at November 4, 2003 7:21 AM

Jeff:

Yes? They were.

Posted by: oj at November 4, 2003 7:30 AM

OJ:

Aren't you for restricting the franchise somewhat?

Posted by: Judd at November 4, 2003 10:13 AM

You are right, OJ, the Supreme Court had nothing to do with it.