democratic war on science

#rsrh Unfair to creationists, really.

Calling anti-vaccination hysteria “Left-wing creationism,” that is. *I have yet to have it explained to me why I should worry more about my kid being around another kid whose parents believe that the universe was created six thousand years ago than I should be worried about my kid being around another kid whose parents believe that the MMR is the tool of Satan. Creationism doesn’t cause encephalitis, meningitis, and/or deafness; mumps can.

Anyway, The Panic Virus: A True Story of Medicine, Science, and Fear is not the Book of the Week. While I will pick books that I have not yet read, I try to pick ones that I’m pretty sure that I will read, once they come out; and this particular book is probably superfluous to my needs. I’m already quite aware that there’s an unscientific fringe group out there pushing a false link between autism and vaccinations; and that said group is putting my kids at risk with their nonsense; and that the typical believer is, ah, generally not on my side of the political spectrum. You may still want to check out the book anyway.

Al Gore might as well be walking on the sun*.

Another entry in the Democratic party’s War on Science:

Mr. Gore apparently thinks that we live on the surface of Sol; as Ed Morrissey notes, this temperature range is more accurate for stellar cores than for terrestrial ones. Ed also notes that this is unlikely to destroy Gore’s credibility, which is a conclusion that I reluctantly share. If his acolytes have swallowed everything else that the man says, they’ll swallow this, too…

Moe Lane

*Surprisingly apropos.

Crossposted to RedState.

Let me explain the difference for you, Mr. Westrope.

So that you can explain it to the next reporter asking you why you didn’t gut biomedicine, but did gut physics, in the Obama-Reid-Pelosi debt bill:

Clay Westrope, Sen. Nelson’s spokesman, said the senator was not anti-science, but that he felt the stimulus bill was the wrong place to add financing for long-term research. “If they were in a spending bill, he would probably support them,” Mr. Westrope said.

Mr. Westrope said he could not explain why biomedical research was regarded as a stimulus, but physics research would not.

(Via Instapundit) You see, “biomedical” means “stem cell research” to the Democratic base, and they’ve been told that they’re in favor of that. However, “physics” means “nuclear energy” to those same base, and they’ve been told that they’re against that. It is politically safe, then, to cut physics research, but not safe to cut biomedical funding. At least from the Democrats’ point of view.

I’m glad that we cleared that up; aren’t you?

Moe Lane

PS: I’m also glad that we’ve established just how much pull Energy Secretary Chu has in this administration. Science advocates, take note: if you have a funding issue, you’re better off talking to Ben Nelson’s chief of staff. Or anybody else that Senator Nelson would actually listen to.

Crossposted at RedState.