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 Posted: Wed Sep 23, 2009 8:15 pm |
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From The St. Petersburg Times, 8/16/09:
http://www.tampabay.com/opinion/columns/article1027502.ece
Why scientists are seldom Republicans
By Robyn E. Blumner, Times Columnist
Have you ever wondered what the world would be like without
scientists?
Ask the Republican Party.
It lives in such a world.
Republicans have been so successful in driving out of their party
anyone who endeavors in scientific inquiry that pretty soon there
won't be anyone left who can distinguish a periodic table from a
kitchen table.
It is no wonder the Republican throngs showing up to disrupt town hall
meetings on health care reform are so gullible, willing to believe
absurd claims like the coming of "death panels."
Their party is nearly devoid of neuroscientists, astrophysicists,
marine biologists or any other scientific professional who would
insist on intellectual rigor, objective evidence and sound reasoning
as the basis for public policy development.
The people left don't have that kind of discipline and don't expect it
from their leaders.
They are willing to believe anything some right-wing demagogue with a
cable show or pulpit tells them, no matter how outlandish.
Since the Sonia Sotomayor nomination we've been hearing about the
GOP's Hispanic deficit.
Only 26 percent of Latino registered voters now say they identify with
or lean toward the Republican Party.
But that's a full house compared with scientists.
Only 12 percent of scientists in a poll issued last month by the Pew
Research Center say they are Republican or lean toward the GOP, while
fully 81 percent of scientists say they are Democrats or lean
Democratic.
We shouldn't be surprised that people who are open to evidence-based
thinking have abandoned the Republican Party.
The GOP has proudly adopted the mantle of the "Terri Schiavo, global
warming shwarming" party with the Bush administration helping cement
the image by persistently subverting science to serve a religious
agenda or corporate greed.
But what worries me is not the shrunken relevancy of the GOP, a party
in which 56 percent of its members oppose funding of embryonic stem
cell research, 39 percent believe humans have always existed on Earth
in their present form, and in which only 30 percent say human activity
is warming the planet.
It is that this nation's future depends upon people who don't think
that way and the Republican Party is closing the door to them.
Every hope we have to invent our way out of this economic malaise and
create enough Information Age jobs to maintain a stable and prosperous
middle class sits on the shoulders of people who understand and
practice the scientific method.
Every hope we have of advancing human understanding of the physical
universe and bettering our lives in it, is tied to professionals now
represented by only one of our nation's two major political parties ?
while the other party attempts to obstruct them.
Global warming is a prime example.
Earth is under siege by CO2 emissions to a point that the Pentagon is
warning that our national security is at risk if climate change is not
arrested.
All Americans and politicians should be united for collective action.
Yet George Bush spent essentially his entire presidency ignoring and
suppressing scientific concerns.
Even today, with the effects of global warming evident, Republicans in
Congress are trying to bury the cap-and-trade energy bill, the
nation's first attempt (albeit not strong enough) to limit greenhouse
gas emissions.
Their alternative is to offer nothing.
Why are they so blind to the looming crisis?
Because to embrace what scientists are saying about global warming
would give political liberals a win, something the GOP leadership is
not wont to do.
Republicans build their political careers disdaining "elitists" with a
good education, complex charts and empirical data.
They see it to their political advantage to rally people to distrust
science.
That means our nation is only likely to advance to meet the heady
scientific challenges of the future, on health and the environment ?
advancements that translate directly into economic progress and rising
living standards ? if the Democrats remain in power with substantial
majorities.
But if the nation's economic situation doesn't turn around soon, a GOP
resurgence could very well come.
Then scientists will once again be on the defensive against a
Republican Party that left them behind in favor of the Tea Party
crowd, the birthers, and the people who shout at town halls that
government better keep its hands off their Medicare.
Theirs is a world without scientists, and scary doesn't begin to
describe it. |
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| Jerry B. Altzman... |
| Posted: Wed Sep 23, 2009 8:54 pm |
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on 9/23/2009 10:15 PM hal said the following:
But notably it is *not* "Why scientists are seldom conservative" or "Why
scientists are often liberal".
Could it be that scientists profess to belong to the *party* that is
most likely going to send research funding their way? Or to the *party*
that does NOT strongly cater to fundamentalist religious or scientific
rejectionist beliefs?
//jbaltz
--
jerry b. altzman jbaltz at (no spam) altzman.com www.jbaltz.com
thank you for contributing to the heat death of the universe. |
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| Herbert Cannon... |
| Posted: Thu Sep 24, 2009 8:07 pm |
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Their point was to throw off the yolk
Quote: of the artistocracy controlling and owning everything,
You mean like medical care, education, where you will send your kids to
school, food supply etc?
which is
Quote: exactly what your kind is not only accepting but promoting.
Seems to me it is the other way around. |
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| ... |
| Posted: Tue Sep 29, 2009 7:06 pm |
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On Tue, 29 Sep 2009 15:36:20 -0700 (PDT), Sam the Bam
<samthebam1 at (no spam) gmail.com> wrote:
Quote: On Sep 26, hal wrote:
No, you're a racist pig you can't grasp the fact that a
black man is so much smarter than you.
There isn't a black man on earth smarter than I am.
BWWAAAHAAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA !!!
Probably at least 25% of the black population is smarter
than you, moron. =A0
oh this is choice.... so you're saying the average
white man is smarter than 75% of blacks?
um, no. Truth is our buddy Trav is a bit above the curve.
Obviously.
Quote:
Hal, if you didn't exist, we would have to invent you.
you can't find your ass with both hands let alone invent anything.
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| Sam the Bam... |
| Posted: Thu Oct 01, 2009 10:30 am |
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On Sep 30, 1TravIsGod <travis... at (no spam) aol.com> wrote:
Quote: A white person at average IQ is a std deviation to the right of black
mean.
Even a "smart" white person, at IQ in the 120s...that
places him 2+ sigmas to the right of black mean.
Do you understand a normal distribution and what
percentile a 2 sigma move to the right puts someone at
with respect to everyone else?
Have you ever seen the IQ distribution curve on Jooos?
It's way further shifted.
Looks like Uncle Adolf's master race program was
a success... through a drastic selection process.
Sam |
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| Sam the Bam... |
| Posted: Thu Oct 01, 2009 10:32 am |
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On Sep 29, hal wrote:
Quote: Hal, if you didn't exist, we would have to invent you.
you can't find your ass with both hands let alone invent anything.
ok Hal, you win this round... my wildest
imagination could never invent you.
Sam |
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| TravIsGod... |
| Posted: Thu Oct 01, 2009 4:35 pm |
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On Oct 1, 4:30 pm, Sam the Bam <samtheb... at (no spam) gmail.com> wrote:
Quote: On Sep 30, 1TravIsGod <travis... at (no spam) aol.com> wrote:
A white person at average IQ is a std deviation to the right of black
mean.
Even a "smart" white person, at IQ in the 120s...that
places him 2+ sigmas to the right of black mean.
Do you understand a normal distribution and what
percentile a 2 sigma move to the right puts someone at
with respect to everyone else?
Have you ever seen the IQ distribution curve on Jooos?
It's way further shifted.
Of course I have. The *average* ashkenazi is 2 and change sigmas to
the right of black mean. An average one is smarter than almost every
black on the planet. Nevermind an 85th percentile ashkenazi.
Quote: Looks like Uncle Adolf's master race program was
a success... through a drastic selection process.
Sam
I have argued the same thing with joos
Trav |
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