OT: Kevorkian who?

[Richard Brekne]

Hi Sarah

While politics is strictly forbidden on this list, (at least since about 
3 and a half years ago when the cigar theme disapeared) I have to agree 
with the basic sentiment and take issue with the moon bit. Yes... the 
cigarless have mangage to take a balanced budget and turned it into the 
most phenomenal deficit thinkable... hard time figureing republicans 
sometime... what was that robot for a governor in California said.... 
Dont spend money you dont have ??... oh well... BUT... we havent spent a 
dime on the moon for a long time. Heck the last pizza joint closed down 
up there 25 years ago. No... we have other "moon - like activities" they 
are spending money on.
 
Just think of the piano research we could do if we got 1 promile of 1 
percent of THAT money !!

grin...

Now... Back to non Kvakorkial thematic type materials... at least for my 
part :)

Cheers
RicB

Sarah Fox wrote:

>Hi Horace,
>
>  
>
>>Actually, it's:
>>
>>Kevorkian
>>    
>>
>
>Noted!  :-)
>
>It's funny the importance of a name.  If his name were John Smith, nobody
>would remember him or his cause.  But "Kevorkian" is a name people remember.
>
>  
>
>>And, in addition to being structured around earning money and avoiding
>>lawsuits, it is doing a simply appalling job of dealing with two epidemics
>>which are engulfing the health care "system": AIDS and Addiction.
>>
>>Wait 'til folks figure out that AIDS has entered the general population.
>>Last year 49% of all persons newly-diagnosed with HIV/AIDS were
>>heterosexual.
>>    
>>
>
>More alarming still:  Around 1990, as I recall, when I was doing my graduate
>work at the University of Texas, the university health service randomly and
>anonymously tested blood samples from the student population.  For instance,
>if some kid were having his blood drawn to measure liver enzymes, they would
>tap a bit of blood, anonymously code it, and test for HIV, along with a
>bizillion other anonymously coded samples.  The result:  About 20% of the
>student population (in 1990) was HIV+.  Kinda makes ya' think!
>
>Now more than a decade later, we're bound and determined to throw lots of
>the taxpayers' spare money (not much of it left, in the wake of Cheney's
>Enron and the market collapse) towards fighting HIV in Africa (old news) -- 
>but not here in the US, of course, where it might benefit a few of our own.
>Why?  I guess it's because we'd be helping some gay folks here in the US,
>while the folks we are helping in Africa are straight (of course!) and
>therefore have more right to live HIV-free.  But this is all hot air anyway,
>since what Bush really meant was that we would launch a campaign to tell
>those Africans to "just say no" to sex.  I guess we won't be handing out any
>balloons.
>
>Optimistically, maybe there's a cure to HIV somewhere on the moon.  :-)
>That giant rock must be useful for *something*.
>
>Even more alarming still:  The Bush Administration now proposes that the
>Office of Management and Budget (OMB) will disqualify the lion's share of
>independent scientists in the academic sector (those receiving or having
>received federal research grant money) from reviewing the research grant
>proposals of their peers.  What this means is that politicians and hired-gun
>corporate scientists will be deciding which research gets funding.  That's a
>bit like having saxophonists and politicians decide which piano you are
>going to buy, based on their abundant knowledge of the instrument.  Now,
>care to guess how much attention HIV will get?  Mind you, Congress has
>already tried (and failed) to micromanage NIH's budget to exclude funding
>for specific research projects having to do with HIV.  Perhaps this time
>they will be more successful.
>
>... and the United States of America, once the shining star of progress in
>the sciences -- and our financially and politically crippled community of
>keen minds, produced from what I *do* humbly regard as the best system of
>higher education in the world -- will look to other countries to lead the
>way towards further scientific progress.
>
>... while we impress the world by playing a few more rounds of golf on the
>moon and maybe opening a pro shop there...
>
><sigh>
>
>Peace,
>Sarah,
>who's amazed at just how fast those Republicans can spend away our borrowed
>money
>
>_______________________________________________
>pianotech list info: https://www.moypiano.com/resources/#archives
>
>  
>