Letter: McCain wrong to criticize funds spent on grizzly bear research

[JonLP24]

As I listened to the first debate between Senators Barack Obama and John McCain, I heard Sen. McCain regurgitate his twice-told tale about the federal government's "pork-barrel spending" on the DNA of the grizzly bears of northwest Montana.

This project, which tracks and studies the grizzlies, has come under attack by McCain several times before. So I thought perhaps, this time, I needed to defend this project since I believe in science and the scientific method. And, from that perspective, my instincts as a microbiologist are the same as any wildlife biologist's.

Let me say at the outset that I'm not questioning McCain's rhetoric about "pork barrel spending" as a whole. I understand he wants to become our next president and this is his way of selling the American public his version of wasteful spending — which I largely understand.

So why don't I view federal spending on bear or seal DNA or, for that matter, "studying the mating habits of crabs" as pork-barrel spending? Because such requests are fundamental to basic scientific research; and without funding for such research, science in the U.S. as we know it cannot advance.

Requests such as these may sound dumb, trivial or unclear to non-scientists, but to biologists, what may be "trivial" or "unclear" is fundamental and incremental to basic scientific research. It adds to our collective pool of knowledge that benefits everyone in the long run.

http://www.salemnews.com/puopinion/local_story_276150217.html?keyword=secondarystory

[Taverner]

1. McCain, like the rest of the GOP, is running on an Anti-Science platform

Science and Evidence - BAD

Faith and shooting off your mouth - GOOD

[Stellabella]

2. Yes, most, if not all of these studies people would scoff at

have very important underlying search for scientific data and even medical breakthroughs. That, of course, is part of the 'dumbing down' of America, nearly accomplished now by the idiotic fundies, right wing fascists, and Repukes in general.