Federal Government Leaves Evolution Off Grant List. Oops.
Now. Real simple, folks. Think about it for half a moment. It's the government. If they have power to give you money for something, then they have the power to not give you money for something as well. Whoever's in power then has the ability to move funds around at will, depending on what they, the majority party, believe.
People forget this. Because people have short attention spans. They don't understand that if your party's in charge and you give government the power to do things that you agree with–well, surprise, surprise–nobody's in charge forever. The opposition moves in and then they can fuck with things using the power you originally gave government for what you see as a Good Thing.
The only solution–the only solution–is not to give government that power in the first place. If they don't have the power, they can't abuse it. If they do have the power, they will abuse it. Basically if you see government abuse the power that you, assuming you're old enough to vote, helped them get and/or retain for any motive, good or ill, and you act surprised and/or shocked when something like this happens…then you're a fucking moron. And I wish you would never, ever vote again. Sorry. End of story.
If you really want to donate to a grant program, make it a private one or set up your own. Or, you know, burn the money. I'd rather see your money in ashes than used as an incentive for people to not go into the study of evolution. We've got enough stupidity in the world without the feds funding more of it.
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You're right: there's absolutely no reason that evolutionary biology should be off the list of acceptable majors. Setting up your own grant or scholarship can be done pretty easily and you can then set forth your own stipulations. I recommend that approach as well.
You're right that the governement has the right within the law to do with tax money what it wants. It's just disappointing that ideology is motivating those decisions instead of logic and reason.
My only concern with removing federal funding of a lot of programs is will anyone step up to keep them going.