scientists "should fund their own research"?
how would that work?
what seems at work in the proposition that scientists should "fund their own research" is a kind of naive understanding of the state--you know, the limbaugh position that the state, being a bureaucracy, is irrational, while corporations, being bureaucracies, are rational, so that whenever the state acts its introduces irrationality--the kind of position that really is not about anything at all, except maybe some quaint faith in the pyramid of capitalism
conservativeland has politicised scientific information for many years. here it is again. it is repellent, but it is also part of the modus operandus of the right, so should be no surprise. cowboy george's administration has opposed funding to oraganizations engaged with AIDS in africa that distribute condoms on the grounds that condoms encourage sexual activity. the entire logic behind the filtering of infotainment from the surgeon general lay behind that.