Response to yet another excellent ThinkProgress.com article found here
The people ultimately behind sequestration are guilty of hypocrisy, greed, and treason. A republic's economy is wholly unlike a family's budget. A family can cut their way out of debt, but a nation can not. When an economy is depressed and the government cuts its budget, money stops flowing. The problem isn't a lack of money, it's the lack of movement of money. Government should monitor but generally stay out of the way of a healthy economy, but just like a doctor giving you an annual physical then getting out of your way when you're healthy, he must step in and do something when you're sick, and cutting the medications that have kept you healthy isn't the way to do it.
When an economy is sick, it takes the government to make money available at no or low interest in order to get the blood - money in this case - flowing again. Failing to do so would be like a doctor stepping back away from a patient when the patient goes into cardiac arrest and saying, "Hmmm. Maybe it will fix itself". Or likely not.
Sequestration is a failure of our government to take the shock paddles of money flow and zapping the heart of our republic back into health. Like a sick patient, the worse the recession, the longer it takes to get back to healthy, but pulling the plug will kill the patient, just like sequestration will kill our republic.
The BRICs - Brazil, Russia, India, and China - are breathing down our necks as it is. Now Congress has essentially said, "Come on, guys! You can overtake us! And we're here to help!" Cutting scientific funding is analogous to failure to fuel your car before a long trip. Yep, you'll have more money in your pocket...when you're on the side of the road out of gas watching others who planned ahead go flying past you.
Showing posts with label greed. Show all posts
Showing posts with label greed. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 7, 2013
Sequestration, Greed, Hypocrisy, and Treason
This is a response to an excellent article found on ThinkProgress.com about the effects that are already happening under sequestration. The article can be found at the link here.
Don't think for a second that this result of sequestration is accidental or "collateral damage". The religiots and their fellow ignoratti in Congress knew that this would happen, and they desired it. Cutting research funding, that is to say funding for pure science, plays right into their hands in their push for religious dominance and in the ability to show their voters that they hold the upper hand in the battle against science. But it's the very voters who put these traitors in office that stand the most to lose.
Remember, there's a cycle that must occur before new technologies come to market: Pure science > applied science > engineering.
Before a product can be engineered and manufactured, scientists whose job it is to find applications for newly discovered materials or processes must take the results of pure science and study them, then create and test ways to use them. BUT before that can happen, researchers - pure scientists - must study new fields of science or push the bounds on existing fields in order to discover new materials and new processes never before encountered. That means that the raw, bleeding edge must always be out front expanding our base of knowledge. Sometimes, that research yields nothing, just like going into a jungle or rain forest somewhere to look for new sources of drugs might yield a treasure trove, or it might come up dry, but either way, you won't know until you go there. Exploration is essential not only to expand the knowledge base of science, but it is the fuel that powers the engines of our economy.
The US has lead the way in many or most fields of scientific exploration due to programs like NASA and ARPA, but since the Large Hadron Collider at CERN came online, we've taken a back seat to others in the field of physics who will now lead because some people think that research funding is wasted. They don't understand that studying monkeys for something seemingly arcane might result in a breakthrough in medicine or psychology, or something else that they would consider unrelated. They're told, and they believe, that the LHC and it's smaller cousin in Chicago, the Tevatron at Fermilab, have no value and are black holes for funding dollars. They will believe people who say we didn't go to the moon, but they line up for chemotherapy, MRIs, and use velcro, microwave ovens, cellular phones, and thousands of other technologies that have come from research into pure science.
But here's how you know that it's greed and ignorance playing out, and not reason: When they get hurt, do they call for a priest, or do they call for someone who will use medical science to rescue them?
The ultimate forms of treason and hypocrisy are failing to support funding for the science that will move humanity forward in the times of our children and grandchildren, and the use of the technologies whose research was paid for by our parents and grandparents when they simultaneously deny the funding that will benefit future generations.
The ultrawealthy will be able to afford new medicines, and take advantage of technologies that they themselves fund, and which will be denied to those not themselves wealthy. The rest of us will go without because some among us refuse to pay their part of funding for the future.
Greed. Hypocrisy. Treason.
The BRIC nations, Brazil, Russia, India, and China, are breathing down our necks and each wants to be the world's next superpower. If we stop funding, we stop leading. If we stop leading, we kill our economic engine, and that's just stupid.
Don't think for a second that this result of sequestration is accidental or "collateral damage". The religiots and their fellow ignoratti in Congress knew that this would happen, and they desired it. Cutting research funding, that is to say funding for pure science, plays right into their hands in their push for religious dominance and in the ability to show their voters that they hold the upper hand in the battle against science. But it's the very voters who put these traitors in office that stand the most to lose.
Remember, there's a cycle that must occur before new technologies come to market: Pure science > applied science > engineering.
Before a product can be engineered and manufactured, scientists whose job it is to find applications for newly discovered materials or processes must take the results of pure science and study them, then create and test ways to use them. BUT before that can happen, researchers - pure scientists - must study new fields of science or push the bounds on existing fields in order to discover new materials and new processes never before encountered. That means that the raw, bleeding edge must always be out front expanding our base of knowledge. Sometimes, that research yields nothing, just like going into a jungle or rain forest somewhere to look for new sources of drugs might yield a treasure trove, or it might come up dry, but either way, you won't know until you go there. Exploration is essential not only to expand the knowledge base of science, but it is the fuel that powers the engines of our economy.
The US has lead the way in many or most fields of scientific exploration due to programs like NASA and ARPA, but since the Large Hadron Collider at CERN came online, we've taken a back seat to others in the field of physics who will now lead because some people think that research funding is wasted. They don't understand that studying monkeys for something seemingly arcane might result in a breakthrough in medicine or psychology, or something else that they would consider unrelated. They're told, and they believe, that the LHC and it's smaller cousin in Chicago, the Tevatron at Fermilab, have no value and are black holes for funding dollars. They will believe people who say we didn't go to the moon, but they line up for chemotherapy, MRIs, and use velcro, microwave ovens, cellular phones, and thousands of other technologies that have come from research into pure science.
But here's how you know that it's greed and ignorance playing out, and not reason: When they get hurt, do they call for a priest, or do they call for someone who will use medical science to rescue them?
The ultimate forms of treason and hypocrisy are failing to support funding for the science that will move humanity forward in the times of our children and grandchildren, and the use of the technologies whose research was paid for by our parents and grandparents when they simultaneously deny the funding that will benefit future generations.
The ultrawealthy will be able to afford new medicines, and take advantage of technologies that they themselves fund, and which will be denied to those not themselves wealthy. The rest of us will go without because some among us refuse to pay their part of funding for the future.
Greed. Hypocrisy. Treason.
The BRIC nations, Brazil, Russia, India, and China, are breathing down our necks and each wants to be the world's next superpower. If we stop funding, we stop leading. If we stop leading, we kill our economic engine, and that's just stupid.
Saturday, August 18, 2012
Response to a Gulf Oil spill article online
Response to National Geographic video concerning the Gulf Oil spill and the health of the Gulf of Mexico. The video is found at the link at the end of this article on TopDocumentaryFilms.com:
I think the bigger question is, will the Earth survive US? We're throwing common sense to the wind and pursuing a course of "prosperity" over a course of ecology. The same people who are most vociferous about protecting their children are the worst polluters and resource users. Drive through virtually any American suburb and look at the houses you see; 3000-4000 square foot monstrosities that are far above what's necessary for comfortable living and individual space. Look at the trains of trash that line up at landfills to be disposed, so much of which could be recycled, a program that goes completely lacking in many rural areas that have curbside waste removal. I live in such an area and have tried for years to have the program add a simple recycling bin to the pickup, but to no avail. The woman who coordinates the plan for the county has a sinecure. She not only won't consider a recycling plan, she refuses to initiate an online payment program, meaning that there's no option for a paper-free billing process.
Like the majority of issues accelerating the destruction of our planet, greed plays the overarching role. This woman doesn't want to see her job eliminated by automation, but she's also a staunch conservative and favors the Tea Party (she had Tea Party banners and signs in her office and on the lawn). Total double standard: Cut or deny logical, resource-saving measures while insuring that she has a job forever. The same is true for the oil and coal industries, and many more.
They would rather see the Gulf saturated with crude oil than face the loss of even a single perk. I cite as reference BP's former CEO, Tony Hayward, who was disturbed by the Gulf spill only because "I want my life back", he said. Right, a privileged life free from pollution, trash, recycling bins, or those pesky people who understand that if we continue down the road we're headed, we're going to end up knee-deep in garbage, pollution, and dirty water - if any fresh water is to be had at all. But you can be certain that Tony Hayward and those who share his opinions, regardless whether they share his wealth or not, will ride this pony until it falls over dead. Dead like much of our oceans now, including the formerly-beautiful Gulf of Mexico.
National Geographic video on TopDocumentaryFilms.com found here.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)