Will the U.S. slide into oblivion because so many politicians don’t know what science is? Let’s count off a few of them:
- Senator Tom Harkin helped establish the National Center on Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) some years ago. Now he’s complaining because the NCCAM is spending too much time “disproving things” instead of “approving things.” Kind of makes your head explode, doesn’t it? NCCAM is doing scientific studies into alternative treatments and finding that most of them don’t work. I guess Senator Tom doesn’t like the way this universe works, and needs to find a different one. Maybe there’s a place for him in Rainbow Dream Land!
- Bobby Jindal, Governor of Louisiana, criticized volcano monitoring as wasteful spending. I have a better idea–let’s cancel hurricane monitoring.
- Governor Sarah Palin criticized “fruit fly research.” Although fruit fly research is critical for the understanding of inherited diseases, she doesn’t know that because her head seems to be packed full of large curd cottage cheese.
- Senator John McCain criticized spending money for an “overhead projector” which was actually a projection system for a planetarium. Was that a mean campaign-tactic deception at the expense of science education? Or is he confused?
- Governor Mike Huckabee claimed that scientists don’t know how a bumblebee flies. Enough said about that.
These people should not have any responsibilities beyond appearing at official ceremonies and accepting honorary degrees from clown college.
Filed under: rants, skeptic Tagged: | ignorance, politics, science
