Science: What's it up to?

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The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Weathering Fights - Science: What's It Up To?
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog The Daily Show on Facebook

I blogged about that global warming news the other day, but I thought it was well worth repeating. Besides, it's useful as an introduction to the second video clip.

Actually, it was worth it just for this: "Climategate was a huge news story. I'll bet debunking Climategate is going to be huuuger."  Then, after a whole lot of McRib: "I don't get this, man. Climategate was huge news! The debunking of Climategate got a total of 24 seconds of cable news coverage. Liberal media! Doh!"

OK, watch the video. It's better than my transcript of it, I assure you.

And it does provide a perfect lead-in to that second clip. What is science up to? Well, science wants to discover the truth. But the truth isn't very popular in the Republican Party. And that's putting it mildly!

How does Rick Perry know that "substantial numbers of scientists" have "manipulated data"? His gut tells him that. Evidence? Hey, he don't need no evidence! Evidence is for those evil brainiacs. No, real Americans don't use their brains, they use their guts.

And what makes this funny - as well as tragic - is that this Republican strategist doesn't have a clue how ridiculous she is. It seems perfectly reasonable to her to listen to her gut, rather than accept the scientific evidence:

"Scientists are scamming the American people right and left for their own finantshual gain." Does she have any evidence of this? "I think that every American, if they really thought about it, would have a gut feeling that some of these numbers that the scientists are putting out are not right."

But scientific results are peer-reviewed, checked and double-checked and triple-checked by independent researchers. Sure, they're all scientists. But the very best way to get ahead in science is to demonstrate that other scientists are wrong. There's no advantage to covering up the truth. You really have to know nothing about science to expect this kind of global conspiracy.

"Scientists are the only people qualified to comment on scientific theories. This is what raises doubt, with not only Republicans, but Americans."

Um,... what? So you just ignore scientists and believe whatever you want to believe? How does that make any sense at all? Are you going to ignore what doctors tell you, too, because only doctors are qualified to give medical advice?

This is today's Republican Party. Note that this isn't some random Republican in the street, some complete moron with no real knowledge about anything, much. This is a Republican Party strategist. These are Republican Party presidential candidates. These are the leaders of the party.

It's absolutely incredible, don't you think?