A long-delayed scalp for ’em; Sen. Dick Bryan of Nevada (following in the dubious footsteps of fellow-Democrat Sen. William Proxmire) came close to killing off the Allen Telescope Array back in ’94, but private contributions saved it. That can happen, when the government’s not sucking up too much of the wealth… which is, alas, not an accurate way of describing either the Federal or California state government, these days.
But, hey! Don’t worry: that 2.5 million dollars a year is going to be spent right here on Earth! Admittedly, it’ll be spent on government subsidies to reliably Democratic donors, but that’s what happens when you try to pretend that basic scientific research is more important than important things, like keeping public sector unions sweet.
Moe Lane
PS: Hey, I’m not the one who gutted the funding. Blame the NSF and blame the state of California. Which is to say, blame the Democratic party. When we were running the country the budget could stretch to sums of money like this…
Wait, is this the “Allen Telescope” as in Paul Allen, as in one of the country’s most wealthy billionaires who is known to fund SETI as one of his many plaything projects he funds with his too-much money?
And what exactly is your problem with this 2.5 million dollars (of pocket change for him) no longer being paid by the government for no apparent reason?
If SETI’s been working on a way to ask aliens for a loan then by all means the government may have an interest in funding it. Otherwise, what’s the argument for doing so?
“[the money saved] will be spent on government subsidies to reliably Democratic donors”
or to Muslim outreach.