Quote Originally Posted by noddin0ff View Post
I....
When we let an anti-science agenda creep into our politics and policy making we impede decades of future advances and innovation. We cripple the fundamentals of a science education that creates tomorrows work force, tomorrows patents, tomorrows drugs. If we become anti-science, we lose our competitive edge against other nations who are aggressively funding science.

How can anyone take the anti-science propaganda that the fundamentalist right is pushing seriously. Can someone explain this to me?

How did we let faith-based ignorance become electable qualities?
When people are fearful or hurting they tend to go with their guts rather than their brains. And I hate to say it, (but will), that the US has a particularly strong strain of anti-intellectualism; a reflex to reject anything academic or that smacks of learning or that challenges the red-blooded American way.

There have always been politicians willing to appeal folk's ignorance, fear and bigotry, so when times get tough, you seem them crawling out of the woodwork. When I hear the rubbish spouted by Palin, Bachmann, and it seems, Perry, I can't help wondering whether they are really that ignorant, or whether they are just playing to the crowd. Appallingly, even (relatively) sane candidates like Romney and Huntsman have to play the "me too" game.

I get genuinely depressed when I see denial of evolution, global warming, or -- for that matter -- Keynesian economics. And when I think of what the problem is, I see little reason for optimism ...