Many of you have undoubtedly seen this clip from the Daily Show, in which Jon Stewart eviscerates members of the Committee on Science, Space and Technology. If you haven’t, you need to watch it; if you have seen it, you may want to watch it again, just to confirm that, yes, these really are people making policy for the world’s most powerful nation.
Either way, once you have watched members of our nation’s national legislature make complete and total fools of themselves–once you have cringed at the level of intelligence (not) displayed, and the pride and self-satisfaction with which they trumpet their embarrassing ignorance of even the most basic science–perhaps you can answer two questions that continue to confound me:
How do people like this get elected?
Why in the world are they on the Science, Space and Technology Committee?
For that matter, what is this appalling excuse for a patriot doing on the Armed Services Committee?
We really are doomed.
Rev. Barber: they are elected because they only talk about abortion, prayer in schools and homosexuality. Their real agenda is written by ALEC and Americans for Progress, which they then enact.
We’ve reached a point where a lack of basic understanding, general ignorance, and mistrust of science is celebrated by a mass segment of the population. Intellectual prowess is now seen as “liberal” and thus illegitimate.
Sadly those who’ve fallen into this trap may be beyond our reach because they fear and mistrust the very things that might convince them of the existence of the problem!
This is the result of unlimited campaign contributions, gerrymandering, and a failure of our educational system. G Silver
This is the result of unlimited campaign contributions, gerrymandered districts and ignorance.
Greg Silver
And, apparently, Hoosier Rep Larry Bucshon is a HEART SURGEON!
Not anywhere near MY heart, thank you very much.
We can now trace out breaks of disease back to a geographic origin point. Willful and proudly proclaimed public ignorance in Congress has been tracked back at least as far as Indiana Congressman Earl Landgrebe – R, said during the Watergate Hearings “Don’t confuse me with the facts. I’ve got a closed mind.” Landgrebe was not re-elected in 1974.
At least during my Baby-Boomer Lifetime the Environmental Movement has been portrayed by the Reactionary Right as Hippies, Tree Huggers, Nanny State, etc. The Right has been very successful in demonizing Environmental Protections as Governmental Over Reach.
As far as Generals disobeying orders I only wish the Generals would tell Obama and Congress we are not going to obey orders to bomb the Middle East anymore. I wish the Generals would have told GWB we are not going to obey your orders to invade Iraq.
Clearly the concept many people live under is that they have a right to be educated despite never having been exposed to learning. And the people who have invested in learning should stop acting like experts. They have no right to know more than uneducated people.
It’s sad that science has become so politicized that questioning a questionable theory has somehow been twisted into being against science. It used to be that questioning a theory, insisting on proof pursuant to the scientific method, was what science was about.. With anthropogenic global warming theory, it’s become a political cause that can’t be questioned and if it is, those doing the questioned are ridiculed as they are here. The theory should be questioned. It’s based on computer simulations that are arrived at by feeding select, not all, data into the computer.
Science should never be politicized as it has with anthropogenic global warming. That’s the tragedy. I applaud Rep. Buschon for having the guts to question the theory. The lack of knowledge on anthropogenic global warming comes mostly from the alarmists, people who simply are claiming the theory is beyond question not because it’s scientifically sound, but because it fits their political agenda. A study awhile back found that those question anthropogenic global warming have more scientific education than those who simply accept it as true. I can’t say that I’m surprised.
Paul: You applaud Rep. Buschon for questioning a theory that has near universal acceptance by scientists who study in the field when he, by his own admission, refuses to read academic papers on the issue and instead just reads what other climate deniers and skeptics say? Seriously?
Really Paul. I thought more of you until that comment.
Hi Paul,
Me again, asking for a source for your claims, again (btw, you never responded to my last inquiry so I’ll assume the statement you made was unsubstantiated as I had suspected). You assert that, “a study awhile back found that those question anthropogenic global warming have more scientific education than those who simply accept it as true.” While even if there is such a legitimate peer-reviewed study, it wouldn’t serve as evidence in support of or contrary to climate change theory, I would like to see it (if it does indeed exist). Furthermore, I hope you understand that you are misusing the word “theory” in you comment. In the context of the hard sciences, the word you are looking for is “hypothesis.” However, that complicates your argument as climate change is no longer considered a hypothesis given the firm scientific consensus and the mountains of empiricle data accumulated surrounding the issue.