Threats from within...

...Prescient words of wisdom from the late President Dwight D. Eisenhower's farewell address in February 1961...
...Today, the solitary inventor, tinkering in his shop, has been overshadowed by task forces of scientists in laboratories and testing fields. In the same fashion, the free university, historically the fountainhead of free ideas and scientific discovery, has experienced a revolution in the conduct of research. Partly because of the huge costs involved, a government contract becomes virtually a substitute for intellectual curiosity. The prospect of domination of the nation's scholars by Federal employment, project allocations, and the power of money is ever present -- and is gravely to be regarded.... in holding scientific research and discovery in respect, as we should, we must also be alert to the equal and opposite danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific-technological elite...the full address here...
H/T to commenter and blogger P202...

Quote for the day...

...Scientific authoritarianism, weak or strong, has no role in climate politics.

Roger Pielke Jnr, (Prometheus) criticising megalomaniac doomster James Hansen, more here...

...Pielke Jnr and Senior have differing views on AGW, although both condemn the bastardisation of science for political ends. Hence the quote above, and the comment...
...Climate politics is collapsing because of political realities, and not real or perceived changes in how people see the science. As I have often argued, in the ongoing battle between climate scientists and skeptics there will be disproportionate carnage, because the climate scientists have so much more to lose, and not just as individuals, but also for the broader field, which includes many people simply on the sidelines....More from Prometheus here...