A link to an interesting story out of DC, where a bill  to fund basic research was scuppered by a shady  (and breathtakingly cynical) move by a GOP  congressman from Texas.  

 Ralph Hall decided that since the majority party  didn’t completely kow-tow to the minority in  shaving money from the bill in question, that he  would make it politically unpalatable by adding  ridiculous nonsense to it.

  To make matters worse, large numbers of the      majority party allowed the ornery Mr. Hall to get  his way, thereby demonstrating why I am no longer  associated with said majority party.

Apparently, the funding of basic research is now a political issue. 

And we wonder why we slip ever-backwards as a nation.