THE GREAT MAN WAS RIGHT - AT 10:18 A.M. ET:  In his farewell address upon leaving the presidency - the famous "industrial-military complex" speech - Dwight E. Eisenhower demonstrated the wisdom that has caused his stock to rise substantially among historians.  The industrial-military complex part has had the starring role because the political left has twisted it out of shape, and misrepresented it for its own ends.  (Eisenhower was actually talking about the need for an industrial-military complex, but was simply warning of potential dangers.)

But in that speech Eisenhower also warned against the corrupting effects of federal grants to science, where the grant, not the science, controls the direction of the research.  The New York Times has begun a promising series that examines precisely that point.  I wonder if Ike will even be mentioned:

Among the recent research grants awarded by the National Cancer Institute is one for a study asking whether people who are especially responsive to good-tasting food have the most difficulty staying on a diet. Another study will assess a Web-based program that encourages families to choose more healthful foods.

Many other grants involve biological research unlikely to break new ground. For example, one project asks whether a laboratory discovery involving colon cancer also applies to breast cancer. But even if it does apply, there is no treatment yet that exploits it.

The cancer institute has spent $105 billion since President Richard M. Nixon declared war on the disease in 1971. The American Cancer Society, the largest private financer of cancer research, has spent about $3.4 billion on research grants since 1946.

Yet the fight against cancer is going slower than most had hoped, with only small changes in the death rate in the almost 40 years since it began.

COMMENT:  Well worth reading.  Maybe we'll learn that, when money talks, it doesn't always tell the truth.

June 28, 2009