In that case, let me be the first to say that I, for one, welcome our new galactic overlord.

I suppose it isn't the Defense Department's business. But it would be great to really discover interstellar travel. We can finally get off this unheroic old planet!

In any case when I finally become Galactic Emperor you can safely bet that I will give my Imperial favor to whoever helped me. Even the Defense Department.

Actually, the article says the funding was for a workshop on interstellar space travel. Once that's the topic of conversation, I can sort of understand a session on the theological implications of meeting extraterrestrials. But the relevant question is: Why is the Defense Department sponsoring a workshop on interstellar travel? What conceivable national security interest is there in this topic?

Compared to that, research on archaeopteryx seems almost reasonable--I know there has been interest in seeing if machines could be made to fly like birds, which could indeed be useful militarily.

And I agree that if the Senator wanted to get answers rather than grandstand, he should ask either the researchers or the grants approvers why the projects were selected. Quoting a non-answer offered in defense of the indefensible can be even more powerful in making your point, and other times you'll find that the rest of the story makes sense, so you don't end up with egg on your face (like the guy who selectively quoted a bureaucrat who at first was going to discriminate against poor whites, but realized that she was wrong and corrected herself).

Every decade or two, some politician makes a name for himself by exposing what he says is ridiculous wasteful spending. He finds the most outrageous sounding examples, which are sure to make taxpayers shake their heads. When you do a little digging, however, some of those projects actually turn out to make sense.

William Proxmire, a senator from Wisconsin, used to get a lot of laughs on the Tonight Show and elsewhere with his Golden Fleece Awards. Unfortunately, he was off the mark on more than one occasion. He ended up apologizing for making fun of research on the screwworm when it turned out that said research saved billions of dollars in the cattle industry. He also thought it was outrageous to study the tsetse fly, without giving a moment's consideration to the horrendous, widespread misery caused by that insect.

I'm afraid Senator Coburn might be heading down the same irresponsible road. A survey was sent out to researchers whose work has been attacked by Coburn. All 40 respondents said that neither Coburn nor anyone from his office had contacted them for their side before he went about his showboating.

Actually that is probably taken out of context. What it sounds like is an allotment to a given space research project where people discussed that during a slow day.

But yes Jesus died for Klingons. Unless they go to Sto-vo-kor.