September 5, 2011 -- “The truth is imperishable, eternal and immortal … We feel we stand with progress. We feel we stand with science. We feel we stand with intelligence.”
No, those words were not spoken on the Republican campaign trail, not spoken in Congress, not spoken in the White House, they were spoken when I was still in a crib. They were spoken at the infamous Scopes Trial in Tennessee, or Monkey Trial as it was popularly known. To refresh your memory John Thomas Scopes was a high school biology teacher who had the temerity to teach evolution in his class, against the law in his state, and was put on trial. The quote is from the defense who were trying to put scientists on the stand as expert witnesses.
The trial and the quote come to mind today when science is under assault, it seems more so than usual, and not only in the case of evolution, although with Rick Perry and Michelle Bachmann constantly in the news we hear more of that than usual, but there seems to be a general effort to denigrate science. And if one word jumps out at me from that quote above it is the word “intelligence.” Have we moved no father than this in my lifetime? Some 79 percent of Republican voters in Iowa still reject evolution? The climate change deniers? Those who reject any kind of governmental or economic theory out of hand to go with gut feeling? It looks to me the view these people have of science is they see scientists as Dr. Frankenstein, conducting experiments outside of mainstream thinking, drawing useless conclusions for their own aggrandizement.
If you can stand a little levity in the middle of a grim subject, click on this link to see a clip of Young Frankenstein “Putting on the Ritz,” a Mel Brooks concoction (too bad Brooks doesn’t speak out on politics … no matter where he stands his take would expose the ludicrous).
If only Rick Perry were wearing a top hat and tails while doing his public dance, but no, he’s got to do the boots, the pistol, the swagger, the macho cowboy thing. He might give the illusion of having an intellect if he wore a top hat and tails, because ignorance is bliss in Tea Party town. Who “stands with intelligence?”
The Republican Party is aggressively anti-science. The most blatant attacks come from current Republican front runner Rick Perry who is happy making statements calling evolution “just a theory,” one that has “got some gaps in it.” As for global warming and climate change, he says: “I think there are a substantial number of scientists who have manipulated data so that they will have dollars rolling into their projects. And I think we are seeing almost weekly, or even daily, scientists are coming forward and questioning the original idea that man-made global warming is what is causing the climate to change.” The problem with that is it goes against the growing number, now some 97 percent to 98 percent of researchers in the field whose findings are that man is a big part of the problem.
Economist Paul Krugman writes of the “deepening anti-intellectualism of the political right.” The editorial pages of the Wall Street Journal on economics advises to pay no attention to “fancy theories” that conflict with “common sense.” Well, even “common sense” ought to have some basis in fact. I don’t vote to elect politicians to govern by sticking a forefinger in the mouth to wet it then wave it in the air in order to make decisions.
Aren’t the attacks on the EPA at heart a disdain for the findings of science? “Breathing ozone can trigger a variety of health problems including chest pain, coughing, throat irritation, and congestion,” says the agency’s Web site. “It can worsen bronchitis, emphysema, and asthma. Ground-level ozone also can reduce lung function and inflame the linings of the lungs. Repeated exposure may permanently scar lung tissue.” But Republicans in a locked-arm, high-kick routine dancing across the political stage cry the EPA is killing jobs. That’s really not true, but even so: don’t kill a job, kill a person?
Rick Perry has an actual record as an EPA-basher, having taken the agency to court in an effort to block rules on greenhouse gas emissions (he calls Al Gore “a false prophet of a secular carbon cult.” What do they do, meet every other Thursday evening at a belching smoke stack, don gas masks, make circle, and do a ritual dance to ward off CO2?).
Ron Paul says most environmental questions should be resolved through the courts. Herman Cain and Jon Huntsman take the orthodox position: that any new environmental regulations should be put on hold. In Iowa last month Bachmann proclaimed that if she is elected president, “I guarantee you the EPA will have doors locked and lights turned off, and they will only be about conservation. It will be a new day and a new sheriff in Washington.” Well, at the very least, Michelle, could you institute a program on the order of food stamps that issues credits good for cough drops?
Oh for the good old days in 1970 before that famous environmentalist Richard Nixon created the EPA and we enjoyed the benefits of acid rain, Los Angeles with more than 100 days of smog alert, a Great Lake went devoid of life, and the citizens of Cleveland could bask in the light of the Cuyahoga River so polluted it caught on fire. The job killing EPA ended all of that.
This week the President, apparently bowing to the wisdom of the frivolous opposition, put a hold on the EPA’s plan to return to recommend regulations before the George Bush Administration weakened them. Environmentalists, like the old Native American in a public service TV spot of years go, wept.
While the focus is on Perry at the moment, by no means is anti-science, anti-intellectualism his alone. With only a minor exception or two, Republican candidates, Republican politicians at every level either hold these beliefs or stand mute without protest such positions being a necessity to win over the Republican base where to “know nothing” is a good ting. Take prominent Republican senators like Tom Coburn, an M.D., trained in science, from Oklahoma. He calls anthropogenic climate change “malarkey.” He also once explained why Jesus would be opposed to the public option feature of the Health Reform Bill, but it was a reply to a question at a town hall meeting. Why doesn’t anyone ever ask what Moses would think?
Coburn also said in that meeting that there is no compassion in government, which was clearly demonstrated this week by House Majority Leader Eric Cantor. Hurricane Irene left about a billion dollars worth of damage to the East Coast with widespread flooding, roads and bridges out, homes and businesses destroyed, power outages, farming produce ruined, particularly in Vermont and upstate New York. FEMA to the rescue in a much better job than Katrina (attributed to having a professional in charge rather than a political appointee) but funding is running out and the States need a lot of help. And Cantor’s response? In a follow up to the comment he made about the earthquake on the order of no one merits assistance if they didn’t insure themselves in advance, he said no money for relief until an equal amount is cut from the federal budget. That’s compassion for you. What would Jesus say?
Columnist Joe Conason reports on how Republican candidate Ron Paul sees things. “Paul said he believes that we cannot afford to assist anyone injured or ruined by natural disasters, and that the nation would be better off without any federal relief efforts (and without environmental protections of any kind, or any regulation of the safety of food, pharmaceuticals, consumer products or transportation). ‘We should be like 1900,’ Paul said, without mentioning how brutish, dangerous and short life tended to be for most Americans back then. To insist that we must revert to a more primitive and predatory way of life may well be Republican dogma these days.”
Conason asks whatever happened to “traditional standards of community and decency?” I’ll tell you, Joe. Cantor, Paul, Bachmann, Perry and the like happened.
You would think Perry has a big bulls eye painted on his chest since he is such a target for amazed ridicule. Or maybe it isn’t ridicule when you just report what the guy wrote or said. Based on some reporting by Dana Milbank in the Washington Post you wonder if his fellow candidates will ask him the hard questions next Wednesday night in his first appearance in the Republican debates.
Tell me, Governor Perry are you still against universities as harmful because students have been taught that corporations are evil, religion is the opiate of the masses, and morality is relative.? Is that what you got out of Texas A&M?
Do you still hold, Sir, that the human rights commissions is “often nothing more than a front for attacking institutions that teach traditional values?” And human rights are not a traditional value?
You’ve written that “the weight of evidence” supports intelligent design. Was it wishful thinking then when you said the other day that it was being taught in Texas schools, when in actual fact it isn’t? Or is it that you just don’t pay any attention to what is being taught since you are cutting thousands of teacher’s jobs in your state?
For his part, Perry will find a way, Milbank believes, to “cast his rival for the nomination, Mitt Romney as a defender of gay scoutmasters.”
But jobs, killing them or creating them, is the hot topic and most pressing problem of the moment as Congress comes back in session on Wednesday, in the face of zero jobs created in August. We had to watch the spectacle of President Obama giving in to House Speaker John Boehner as he moved the speech he wants to give on a plan to create jobs to a joint session of both houses of Congress on Wednesday night, as the members get to work again, to Thursday night. Was John Boehner disrespectful of the Chief Executive in the way he handled it as one side claimed? Or was the Administration arrogant to try to book it on the same night of a Republican debate as the other side contends? In the eyes of most observers the President does not look good on this one. Either way, members of Congress will report for duty Wednesday, Wednesday night the Republican candidates, including Perry making his premier appearance, will debate and Thursday night President Obama will lay out his plan for job creation before a joint session of Congress and the American people. High drama, and all that is at stake is our way of life.
As demonic congressional austerity hawks pick up their scythe to have at the budget I wish they would pause and review a couple of historical events. What happened in Argentina, for example. Author Ian Mount gave an account of it in the New York Times.
The country got in economic trouble and gave in to international pressure to take up extreme cost cutting when they had a stagnant economy. The results? Between 1998 and 2002, Argentina’s economy shrank by almost 20 percent. Over half of its 35 million people went into poverty. But then it bit the bullet. Made a U-turn.
By such measures as government spending to promote local industry, pro-job infrastructure programs, and unemployment benefits the economy has grown by over 6 percent a year for seven of the last eight years, unemployment has been cut to under 8 percent today from over 20 percent in 2002, and the poverty level has fallen by almost half over the last decade.
What does this mean to the people of Argentina? The author says “the streets of Buenos Aires are choked with cars as Argentines are on track to buy some 800,000 new vehicles this year; the wine mecca of Mendoza is full of high-end tasting rooms, hotels and restaurants offering regional haute cuisine; and plasma TVs and BlackBerrys have become household staples among the urban middle class.”
In our history, F.D.R. came into power and instituted stimulus programs that took the economy out of its deep hole and got it going up the recovery ladder until 1937 when, bowing to conservative pressure, F.D.R. backed off the programs and what do you know, the economy took another tumble only to recover with the stimulus of the war effort. It seems that when you try to cut your way out of a hole it only gets deeper.
But what about ideology? As Mount writes, this: “does not turn a country into a kind of Soviet parody … puts money in the pockets of average citizens.” And there’s the rub. Our power intoxicated Tea Partiers do not seem to be thinking about the empty pockets of average citizens, just “small government.”
So what will Thursday bring, and what will be the aftermath of the speech on creating jobs? Will Obama make a strong, forceful pitch? Will Congress take it as put up or shut up? Or will they just take it as another opportunity to trash Obama as usual blaming him for lack of job growth in order to win the next election?
LAGNIAPPE
New report reveals eating certain potatoes, namely purple ones, can improve your blood pressure with little or no gain in weight. On average, diastolic blood pressure (the bottom number) in a blood pressure reading dropped by a statistically significant 4.3 percent and systolic blood pressure (the top number in a blood pressure reading) dropped by 3.5 percent. Well now, fry me to the moon and let me snack on chips in bars. No, frying won’t do since too much heat destroys the good healthy stuff in them. Bake or sauté instead. So it will have to be:
I’ve seldom seen a purple spud
But soon I hope I’ll see one.
To drop the diastolic blood
On diets there should be one.
It is said that the 5.8 earthquake that shook up Washington D.C. did some damage to the Washington monument but my theory is that it was more likely caused by the release of advanced copies of Dick Cheney’s new memoir. The structure was not built to withstand that much oppressive overload.
Dana Milbank, in the Washington Post wrote “Think of Perry as Bush without the charm.” Okay, we‘ll admit to the Bush charm, but it is like the line from the play “The Man Who Came To Dinner” I treasure when the character Sheridan Whiteside says to the seductive actress character “You have the charm of a sex-starved Cobra.”
Paramedics must have had a very busy time of it rushing to rusticate Karl Rove, Eric Cantor, John Boehner, and other Republican leaders this week after one of their own, former Senator Chuck Hagel (R-NE) told the Financial Times he’s “disgusted” by the “irresponsible actions” of Republicans during the debt-ceiling debate. “I think the Republican Party is captive to political movements that are very ideological, that are very narrow. I've never seen so much intolerance as I see today in American politics,” he said. Oh, how sharper than a serpent’s tongue is the thankless Republican who does not follow in lock step the party line.
“Is this the Mother-May-I presidency? With John Boehner in the role of paddle-wielding matriarch?” Frank Bruni posed tat question in an essay in The New York Times contrasting Obama, in whom “erudition and eloquence join hands,” and the “Smarts” of Rick Perry, who has the political instincts of a man in a knife fight. Perry flunked advanced organic chemistry in A&M, made a C in animal breeding, a D in “principles of economics” while Obama headed up the Harvard Law Review. But none of that counts in a knife fight. I still go with the Scopes trail words, “We feel we stand with intelligence.”
From polls taken in Iowa and Texas we can see that a vast number of Americans do not subscribe to the common beliefs of modern day science. As we noted before, only 28 percent of Republicans in Iowa believe in evolution; in Texas more than 50 percent of the population believes that Adam and Eve shared a Garden of Eden with a vegetarian T-Rex. And we know that some Texans believe that light from the Moon comes not from a reflection of light from the Sun, but that it has an inner glow all its own like the Bile says. So why do they think the astronauts made that tri to the moon? To change the bulb?
Monday is Labor Day. While you are enjoying the holiday please keep in mind the purpose of it is to honor the American worker, who has job to do that feeds he economy … and in today’s economic environment just as soon as we find that person we will be so thankful on them we will heap much praise.
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