Idiocy Overseas

I've been so steeped in US health care reform madness. Who would have thought we would end up with a mandate for individuals to purchase insurance, w. noncompliance punishable by a hefty fine, with no public option or any other mechanism for ensuring that at least some policies will be priced low enough for people to afford? It's an insurance exec's wet dream, IMHO, and I cannot believe our citizens aren't screaming for campaign finance reform NOW in the face of what I frankly consider to be corruption, putting lobbyist $$$ ahead of the 45,000 per year who are slain by our health insurance "system."

So I'd almost forgotten that other countries are out there, facing the Great Recession as well, and making really stupid decisions in the face of it. IMHO one example of blatant incompetence in an economic sense is being perpetrated by none other than the UK. We kind of look up to them, don't we? It's the accent or something. But they are busy tossing some of their world-renowned science, and much of their past investment in such, out the door rather than restructure some of their government funding. Talk about inertia. Their astronomy program appears to be particularly hard-hit. Interesting way to close 2009, the International Year of Astronomy.

It's almost as if, somehow, democracy has ceased to function. Perhaps having The People Rule when The People are too tired from being exploited by their multinational employers to learn anything about what their own government is really doing is something our revered forefathers did not foresee.

For more info on the UK happening:

A Pacific View

To The Left Of Centre

SarahAskew

The E-Astronomer

STFC Funding Crisis: Astronomy

In The Dark

Orbiting Frog

Canspice.org

Twitter: #stfc