Paying Respects to Bruce Lee — The Original Mixed Martial Artist

This is sickening.
Fermilab, The United States’ main particle physics lab, is being hamstrung by
congress’s latest
omnibus bill. This is
the same bill
that approves billions for the war in Iraq but will result in hundreds at
the lab being laid off permanently and countless others having to take
extended time without work.

The bill reduces Fermilab’s budget by $62 million dollars in 2008, which is
roughly 17% of the $372 million they expected.
Oh, and that $372M, which is what their total yearly budget was *going*
to be, is less than what it costs to stay in Iraq for a single day.

The cuts are going to halt research and development for the new
International Linear Collider
— a proposed multibillion-dollar facility that Fermilab hoped would secure
the lab’s future and allow it, i.e. the United States, to compete with
Europe’s CERN project.

But no. Instead we’re going to pull money from crucial scientific R&D
programs, causing us to become an absolute non-force in the particle physics
world. All for the war in Iraq. If this bothers you as much it does me,
please make your voice heard
by writing your congressional representative.

[
Write Your Representative
]

Here’s what I’m sending: