Sarah Palin has been roundly ridiculed for complaining about 'money spent studying fruit flies in Paris France' , apparently unaware about how much science pertinent to her speeches topic about special needs children is done with fruit flies.
People have tracked down the probable 'fruit flies in Paris' earmark <http://tinyurl.com/5t9f5e > Note this money is to fund new methods of controlling a newly introduced agricultural pest in California, the olive fruit fly. Part of that money (some $211K of the total $800) is going to the USDA's lab in France (one of numerous overseas labs that the USDA runs, based on the sensible idea that it is better to study agricultural pests where they're already established than bring them here to study.) Note in a rationally-run USDA, research on controlling emergent pests like this would be funded as a matter of course rather than as an earmark, because, you know, that would be PART OF THE JOB, because agricultural pests don't really respect border fences, and you would think that agriculture would be a matter of national importance. Also, if the McCain/Palin campaign can't fact-check now, how bad will they be if they get into office? -- Bruce Johnson U of Az College of Pharmacy Information Technology Group Institutions don't have opinions, merely customs --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "StrataList-OT" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/StrataList-OT?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
