state of the union address
January 31st, 2006 by Lawrence David
as usual, watching a bush state of the union address was an exercise in disbelief and frustration.
nevertheless, i really can’t be displeased with the prez’s remarks that science + innovation will sustain american economic dominance … and that he’s upping research funding (hopefully this year, they’ll increase funding faster than the inflation rate). and, it was nice to see that he at least acknowledged that math and science need to be emphasized in schools – sadly, it seems that many americans (and europeans!) could stand a little more scientific training.
and, of course, i got pretty excited when the prez talked about ending “america’s addiction to oil.” christina and i both had to lift our jaws off of our couch when we heard the texan oil baron say that. the guy sounded like an environmentalist for chrissakes. in any case, hearing that he wants to up the DoE research budget by something like 20% makes me giddy; my current lab just submitted a grant proposal to the DoE for work on improving ethanol production from cellulose.
nonetheless, the prez did speak for 40 minutes on “terror” and only about 5 on energy. which shouldn’t be confusing at all, given that none of the regimes producing terrorists derive revenue from oil. heh, this editorialist really didn’t mind either.
i also wanted to mention that i thought the prez omitted discussing a big national threat in his speech tonight: obesity. (nick kristof got me thinking of it yesterday) seriously – think about about how many americans have been killed in the past 10 years by “the terrorists.” then, consider how many americans have been killed by obesity and its effects (i.e. diabetes and heart disease) over the past decade. not even close.
