I understand your pain and frustration. I hope your sister is doing well.

Stem cell is the most promising research humans could have ever taken. I am not going into the hazards and possible ethical conflicts here.

The benefits are so immense that anybody with a common sense would not think twice on this.

But things are different…

Yvonne Perrys last blog post..Why is Stem Cell Research so Controversial?

I’m not surprised about the lost of cancer researchers. We’ve been losing nuclear and other scientist at alarming rates too… it’s becoming a very unfavorable environment for science research. I certainly hope my pessimism turns out to be unnecessary… the war certainly played some part. But considering the $450 Million of the bailout money earmarked to movie producers and a few billions to random special interest, it’s not like congress doesn’t have money for research… it’s just that researchers can’t give them millions in campaign contributions. It’s a sad testament to the state of the legislative system.

I refuse to have sympathy for Bush. After seeing the whole Valerie Plame thing go down and hearing Richard Clark’s account about how Bush and his chronies wanted to go to war with Iraq before 9/11, it just makes me very angry.

I have no doubt that this war will impede us from funding necessary research. I have no doubt that a Democrat Congress would have put more funding to science had we not been in this war. WE HAVE LOST NIH CANCER RESEARCHERS TO CHINA BECAUSE WE DON’T FUND AS MUCH AS THEY DO. That’s insane.

I do have hope that Congress and our President will change their attitudes about science funding. Why? Because for once, I funded their campaigns and I will be the first to make sure they are ousted so fast it will make their heads spin if they don’t buckle down and spend our tax dollars where it matters.

I appreciate Bush’s funding for AIDS (which, btw, was not as much as he promised initially), but the opportunity costs of the war have cost us all. The Iraqis don’t want us there. Our federal deficit is out of control. And for what? So my sister who’s paid taxes her whole life can lay in a hospital bed and not receive the care that she would have got had we spent money where it should have gone.

Over $1 trillion dollars wasted. Bush is the worst President ever and the Democrats were so busy trying to make him look bad, they forgot to focus on what matters. Sigh.

Funding has decreased not because of the war, but because Bush has been diverting a lot of health funding to combat AIDS. He has certainly done more than any other president in the US (or country in the world for that matter) to combat AIDS. So much so that some scientist are complaining it is too much:

http://is.gd/d17Q

We’ve all had to suffer in recent years in the scientific funding arena. It’s very unfortunate, but everything from NIH to the DOE did not have enough funding. And every year, all of us who depend on this funding, have to spend countless hours calling, writing and going to Washington to tell congress why fulfilling their obligations is the right thing to do. It is ridiculous.

This is largely because of the current congress. For 4 years straight they refused to pass Bush’s budgets as is, and the major things they cut were science funding. Everything from nuclear science to medical research.

So unfortunately Julie, I don’t hold out much hope… the congress will remain the same, and they were the ones making these budget cuts. Also, because of the economic situation, and with all the money they plan to spend, I fear things will become bleaker for science funding in this country in coming years.

Best wishes.

I’m optimistic, at least, that in just under a month we’ll have a President who values science and education, and who wants us out of the quagmire in the middle east.

Julie Gomolls last blog post..Software Development: Integral To Our Launch