Terry Blanton wrote:
I don't trust our government.
I trust the government most of the time, in most situations. It is no worse than General Motors or Toyota, and much better than most Wall Street investment firms.
It depends a great deal on the circumstances, which department of government you are dealing with, and the issue at hand. With regard to cold fusion, I trust most branches of the military, such as DARPA, the Navy, and the Defense Intelligence Agency. I do not think the DoE is fully honest about cold fusion, and I believe the Patent Office still has in place the blanket rejection policy they implemented on June 5, 1989, that vectors all cold fusion patents to the trash can.
Regarding cold fusion, some corporations, MIT, the APS, Scientific American and other organizations have been much more dishonest and irresponsible than the Federal government. With regard to other subjects, in some cases the government has been worse. It depends upon many complex factors and history. Overall, the US government has probably done more for cold fusion than other institutions except SRI and the ENEA.
A blanket declaration "I don't trust our government" seems excessive to me. Trust how for? For what purpose? I'll bet everyone trusts nearly everything published by NIST or the CDC. You darn well should! A construction contractor once told me that anyone who does not follow OSHA procedures is an idiot, since these procedures are long-standing, industry-standard common sense codified into regulations. Just about every regulation issued by the government is written and approved by industry experts.
- Jed
