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The War on Government Funded Science (updated)

I love science. I hate the entitlement mentality of scientists. Below is a comment I left on an article about exactly that at The Intersection:

Why is it that this post only discusses the federal budget? Aside from the issues you raise about the DOD and the "War on Terror", I think you might address the question of where scientists can get money other than from the federal government, whose moral and legal role in supporting scientific research is always political - in other words, inherently nonobjective. Rather than wade through the murky waters of what research deserves to be funded at the expense of taxpayers who may or may not support it (or the researcher), shouldn't scientists be looking for ways to further separate ourselves from politics, e.g. by cutting the purse strings?

Well? Shouldn't we be? Bonus points to the first person to ask me whether or not I am teaching at a public (i.e. taxpayer funded) high school.

Update: (10/12 at 09:20) The best commentary I've seen on the issue comes from Scott Ott:

Criticized by Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-NY, for waging a “war on science” by limiting taxpayer funding of embryonic stem cell research and refusing to sign the Kyoto protocol on climate change, President George Bush today vowed to “win that war too.”

...He also said he’s committed to protecting the American taxpayer from “zealous academics whose research is so important to society that no one but government would voluntarily fund it, and Congress only does so because they’re spending someone else’s money.”

Hey, that's a great point. And they call Scrappleface a comedy site. Well, it's funny because it's true, my friends.