Perry: Government you can TRUST.

[Cain]

BBC had a fluff piece tonight on Perry and the "Texas exception" to the US economic downturn.

They only mentioned five minutes into the report that Texas is only fairing slightly better than the national average when it comes to unemployment.

Also, Ross Perot Jr turned up to talk about how wonderful Perry's economic policies are.

[Phox]

If only that was all that was wrong with his administration, though, Phox...

Oh, of course not. But if it's a choice between Reagan and Perry, say, why not go for the supercrazy?

we need that japanese guy!

I thought we had him as an emote but cannot find right now

Yes, yes we do. I'm going to vote for him, of course.

[Luna]

There is nothing unusual about Governor Rick Perry. Uneducated fools can be found in every country and every period of history, and they are not unknown in high office. What is unusual about today's Republican party (I disavow the ridiculous 'GOP' nickname, because the party of Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt has lately forfeited all claim to be considered 'grand') is this: In any other party and in any other country, an individual may occasionally rise to the top in spite of being an uneducated ignoramus. In today's Republican Party 'in spite of' is not the phrase we need. Ignorance and lack of education are positive qualifications, bordering on obligatory. Intellect, knowledge and linguistic mastery are mistrusted by Republican voters, who, when choosing a president, would apparently prefer someone like themselves over someone actually qualified for the job.

Richard Dawkins takes Perry out back of the woodshed...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/on-faith/post/attention-governor-perry-evolution-is-a-fact/2011/08/23/gIQAuIFUYJ_blog.html

A politician's attitude to evolution is perhaps not directly important in itself. It can have unfortunate consequences on education and science policy but, compared to Perry's and the Tea Party's pronouncements on other topics such as economics, taxation, history and sexual politics, their ignorance of evolutionary science might be overlooked. Except that a politician's attitude to evolution, however peripheral it might seem, is a surprisingly apposite litmus test of more general inadequacy. This is because unlike, say, string theory where scientific opinion is genuinely divided, there is about the fact of evolution no doubt at all. Evolution is a fact, as securely established as any in science, and he who denies it betrays woeful ignorance and lack of education, which likely extends to other fields as well. Evolution is not some recondite backwater of science, ignorance of which would be pardonable. It is the stunningly simple but elegant explanation of our very existence and the existence of every living creature on the planet. Thanks to Darwin, we now understand why we are here and why we are the way we are. You cannot be ignorant of evolution and be a cultivated and adequate citizen of today.

[Anna Mae Bollocks]

to Dawkins.

Of course, he's an ev0l athiest and people who vote for clowns like Perry aren't allowed to read him. Or Darwin. Or anything other than Left Behind and the King James Bible, from what I can tell.

[Cain]

The really funny thing about that is Dawkins is right about evolution, of course, but most of his political pronoucements are utterly retarded.  Who can forget the "unmitigated evil" of Islam, after all, and Dawkins proposed tacit alliance with Christianity in Africa against this onslaught?

Just throwing that out there.  Dawkins knows his evolutionary biology, but he's just as politically retarded as Perry, so he's not in much of a position to judge.

[LMNO]

My dad used to say, "The entire field of biology, with all it's advancements, discoveries, and innovations, is ultimately based on evolution.  There is no meaningful argument against evolutionary theory."

I dunno if that's precisely true (paging Kai), but it makes a lot of sense.  Science is connected.  If you deny evolution, you have to re-explain everything that's been built off of it.

[Doktor Howl]

My dad used to say, "The entire field of biology, with all it's advancements, discoveries, and innovations, is ultimately based on evolution.  There is no meaningful argument against evolutionary theory."

I dunno if that's precisely true (paging Kai), but it makes a lot of sense.  Science is connected.  If you deny evolution, you have to re-explain everything that's been built off of it.

Not to mention a big pile of fossil evidence, etc.

I have stopped arguing with creationists, as I feel that I might get brain damaged from associating with them.  I simply tune them out; no opinion they have on any subject appears on my radar.

[Cain]

That sounds exactly right to me.  Obviously, I'm not as well read in this regard as Kai, but I did take on biology after it was a required school subject, and so I dealt with some of the more advanced material.  It'd be very hard to make sense of modern biology at all if evolution were somehow disproven or shown to be wrong.

Which is, of course, the point.  "Disprove" evolution, biological science goes out the window, "A Deity Did It" then becomes the default, acceptable answer for most questions.

[Doktor Howl]

That sounds exactly right to me.  Obviously, I'm not as well read in this regard as Kai, but I did take on biology after it was a required school subject, and so I dealt with some of the more advanced material.  It'd be very hard to make sense of modern biology at all if evolution were somehow disproven or shown to be wrong.

Which is, of course, the point.  "Disprove" evolution, biological science goes out the window, "A Deity Did It" then becomes the default, acceptable answer for most questions.

This retreat into superstition is perfectly understandable.  500 years ago, Western culture invigorated itself, and spent 400+ years building on the work done by each preceding generation.  Then the effort of continuing didn't look appealing to an entitled, lazy culture, and people started listening to priests and shamans again.

So you have the Christian Reconstructionists, etc, and the equally dense "neo-Pagans", where before you had Copernicus and Feynmann.

[Cain]

I'm actually about to write something big on this.  Once I finish this personal statement.  Hopefully part one will go up this evening.

I think it's sympomatic of something larger, but what you say is definitely part of it.

[Doktor Howl]

I'm actually about to write something big on this.  Once I finish this personal statement.  Hopefully part one will go up this evening.

I think it's sympomatic of something larger, but what you say is definitely part of it.

When I was younger, I read about the decline of civilizations.

Now I get to watch it in real time.

[BabylonHoruv]

I'm fairly sure the default fundie position now isn't creationism but intelligent design.  basically evolution but God's hand is involved, guiding it.

[Doktor Howl]

I'm fairly sure the default fundie position now isn't creationism but intelligent design.  basically evolution but God's hand is involved, guiding it.

It's the same fucking thing.

[Luna]

I'm actually about to write something big on this.  Once I finish this personal statement.  Hopefully part one will go up this evening.

I think it's sympomatic of something larger, but what you say is definitely part of it.

When I was younger, I read about the decline of civilizations.

Now I get to watch it in real time.

I am both horrified and excited by this.  I'll get to tell the grandkids about shit we USED to have, like electricity, before sending them out to pull weeds in the garden.

[Adios]

I'm actually about to write something big on this.  Once I finish this personal statement.  Hopefully part one will go up this evening.

I think it's sympomatic of something larger, but what you say is definitely part of it.

When I was younger, I read about the decline of civilizations.

Now I get to watch it in real time.

Fascinating, isn't it?