Friday, March 14, 2008
Tuesday, on his first day in office, Bill Foster (D-IL) cast the deciding
vote to prevent tabling a Congressional ethics bill that would create an
outside panel to investigate ethics complaints against House members. He
will have to run again in November, but Foster's victory in a special
election on Saturday to fill the seat vacated by the resignation of Dennis
Hastert looked pretty convincing. Hastert had represented the vermilion
14th District for 20 scandal-filled years. Foster's PhD in physics is
from Harvard (1984) and he had been at Fermilab for 22 years. Prominent
scientists contributed both time and money to Foster's campaign, and he
becomes the third PhD physicist serving in the House. He campaigned
against the Iraq War and called for research on alternative energy.
Prize was awarded yesterday to Polish cosmologist Michael Heller, 72 a
Roman Catholic priest. The monetary value of the award is adjusted to be
larger than the Nobel Prize. Initially, the prize was given to more
saintly types, beginning with Mother Teresa in 1973, but of the last ten
winners, seven have been physicists or cosmologists. After all, what's
the point in becoming rich and powerful if you can't buy that which is
important to you? For the governor of New York, what was important was
submission of beautiful women. For Sir John Templeton the important thing
is scientists declairing that they see the hand of God in the laws of
nature. In 1998 he tried to buy the AAAS Dialog in Science and Religion.
He came close, but settled for buying one scientist at a time. Heller
believes God's existence can be found in the mathematical nature of the
world. At the Pontifical Academy of Theology in Krakow, Poland, where he
is a faculty member, Heller says he will use his prize to create a center
for the study of science and theology, and will introduce his concept
of "the theology of science."
On Tuesday, the President delivered a 42-minute speech to the National
Religious Broadcasters 2008 Convention in Nashville defending the Iraq war
policy. It was a friendly audience. Mr. Bush promised to veto any
legislation that seeks to reinstitute the hated "fairness doctrine" which
required broadcasters to give air time to opposing views: "This
organization has had many important missions, but none more important than
ensuring our airways - America's airways - stay open to those who preach
the 'Good News.'" (Applause, and shouts of "Amen".)
McCain, Obama and Clinton voted for the bill to ban earmarking, but only
26 other senators joined them. The plague of earmarking is out of
control, and is at least partly responsible for the budget disaster that
struck science this year. It's always been there, but 30 years it was
largely confined to public-works projects such as sewers. It expanded
into academic pork in the eighties. Many influential scientists cheered
because it meant more money for science; What's New took a lot of flak for
opposing the practice.
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