Posted on 07/03/2005 10:00:05 PM PDT by neverdem
well, I'm not sure what all those research centers do, how they are funded, or what purpose they serve, but I do know that it makes no sense to take money from companies doing research and give it to government doing research, which is what is currently occuring.
By definition, private companies will advance technology and living standards exponentially faster than if you steal their money to splurge on who knows what archiac government research program.
We spend billions and billions and billions on University grants which then raise the pay of their research professors who then donate to the democratic party, who then raise the research spending. It is pure theft.
thanks for the disclaimer, but as Dr. Thomas Sowell said:
It is amazing how many people think that they can answer an argument by attributing bad motives to those who disagree with them. Using this kind of reasoning, you can believe or not believe anything about anything, without having to bother to deal with facts or logic.
So it isn't all that relevant to me. :)
"By definition, private companies will advance technology and living standards exponentially faster than if you steal their money to splurge on who knows what archiac government research program."
Until a company that puts together enough cash to fund a monster R&D program on fusion research gets targeted for a leveraged buyout and gets sold off piecemeal to get the cash.
The long-term choice is between fusion and continuing to pay trillions to enemy-in-all-but-name terror states for their oil, without which our economy cannot function. Our nation has chosen the terror states; which would you have Freepers choose?
I don't attribute bad motives to you in any way shape or form. I just think that funding basic science and research is necessary for the defense and continuation of this nation. In fact, if it were up to me, I would dump most of our foreign "welfare", monies to the UN and put all of those billions into research, and exploration.
no no no! I was just saying I wasn't questioning YOUR motives!
And I agree, research is probably the last thing I'd cut if I was in government. But I'd still cut it. :)
Great notion. Invest money in industrial and military espionage instead and steal fusion secrets elsewhere when/if they're developed instead of vice-versa.
Of course this is politics 101. Domenici represents New Mexico, and what's located in N.M.? Sandia Labs, Los Alamos and a bunch of others, all of which have their hands out for federal research dollars. Pete's just protecting his state's interests.
If it were that important, one would think there would be a case made for a fusion power Manhattan project. As it is, fusion power is merely a speculation from the engineering perspective - it may never come into being as a practical energy source. There's another option with the enemy-in-all-but-name terror states, and that is to destroy them and simply take the oil, which is what they deserve.
Wow! I am honoured to be placed in the same league as Ronnies and Barry. Thanks!
And? What's your point?
Americans freely choose to spend over $30 billion per year on consumer and business magazine subscriptions.
If they want funds for these projects, why don't they just sell subscriptions instead of confiscating money from every American citizen at gunpoint? Surely if these projects are worthwhile there's no need to force people to pay for them whether they want to or not, right?
I would agree that fusion may be the energy future for us, if we can ever get it working.
However, an important point with this issue is that the NIF facility has NOTHING to do with fusion.
We have long known, since before the inception of NIF, that NIF could not address fusion. Prior to NIF we had already worked out the physics that laser-based fusion required very short wavelenght and very high power density lasers. The NIF lasers are in the IR. Not even close.
NIF was not sold as a fusion experiment.
The purpose of NIF was to do experimental work for nuclear weapons. It turns out that the NIF induced plasma has some features that are not too disimilar to the conditions of a nuclear weapon. So, you use it to study nuclear weapon physics. In an age where nuclear testing is prohibited, this made some sense.
However, fusion was not the issue.
We don't have the political will to fund experiments, let far alone a Manhattan Project-style effort. Our competitors will rise to the challenge, however.
it may never come into being as a practical energy source.
That's a self-fulfilling prophecy. For us, anyway.
There's another option with the enemy-in-all-but-name terror states, and that is to destroy them and simply take the oil
Call me when you think that'll fly politically in the U.S. The populace is ambivalent about the War on Terror, for crying out loud.
Of course not, Los Alamos is the issue, thats where Dominici lives, New Mexico.
It's not flying yet, but it is taxiing down the ramp toward the runway.
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