The official logo of the House Science Committee
We talked yesterday about Rep. Paul Broun (R-Ga.), who believes that cosmology, biology, and geology are, quite literally, "lies straight from the pit of Hell." The kicker, of course, is that Broun is a member of the House Science Committee. As several commenters reminded me, he's joined on the panel by Rep. Todd Akin (R-Mo.), who has his own unique insights on biology.
But this led Jillian Rayfield to ask a good question: who else is on the House Science Committee?
Let's start with the chairman himself, Ralph Hall of Texas. Though he was once a Democrat, Hall was behind a 2010 effort by Republicans to cut off billions in funding for scientific research and math and science education. He did this by rather cannily tacking onto a bill a provision that would have forced Democrats to vote in favor of letting federal employees view pornography while on the job. Hall also once said of climate change: “I’m really more fearful of freezing. And I don’t have any science to prove that. But we have a lot of science that tells us they’re not basing it on real scientific facts.”
It's quite a panel. Rep. Randy Neugebauer (R-Texas), who drafted a resolution for Americans to "join together in prayer to humbly seek fair weather conditions" after a series of destructive tornados and droughts, is also on the House Science Committee, as is Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.), who suggested "dinosaur flatulence" may have caused climate change 55 million years ago.
They're joined by Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.), who has characterized climate science as an "international conspiracy," as well as Rep. Sandy Adams (R-Fla.), who supports having public-school science teachers offer lessons on "theories that contradict the theory of evolution."
Remember, the House Republican leadership makes committee assignments, and felt these lawmakers are the best qualified members to serve on the committee related to science.
When we talk about a "Republican War on Science," there's no reason to consider that hyperbole.
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An educated citizenry might reject the slide backwards to a dollar a day wages and 16 hour work days. They might resent being used and abused. They might even use their education to form a better society free from religion and corporate greed. Heck fire they might even vote these idiots out of office!
"Heck fire", I will definitely try to vote them out of my state... and they are the ones who keep saying we are behind other countries in education of our young people! Didn't the people who helped elect these idiots even look into what they believe and want to force on the populace? An informed society is better now than they were in the 40's, 50's and even the 60's. Lets get the lawyers, religious zealots and corporate whores out of office and put some engineers, teachers, mathmaticians and science laureates in. Maybe we will make more progress that way.
Paul I could not agree with you more!
I have said this over and over again. We need to elect people that represent us and people like this do not represent us, not even the average of us.
If it were up to them our kids would be the next labor force for the low wage jobs to compete with China and India
Time to elect "REAL" science minded people into power.
I wanted to run as an independent in Illinois until I found out that it is nearly impossible to get an independents name on the ballot and it cost $10000 to get in with the democratic party of Illinois for the senate or house.
The big problem is, people that are good in science do not want to be in politics because politics is BS and not a science as they call it political science. There is no science in politics. We have a bunch of people in politics that have failed in the real world and probably could not add, subtract, multiply or divide without one of their aids helping them. Once in a while we get a science minded politician in power, but they are usually drowned out by illogical, religious or idiotic thinking, ie; the above people and Boehner.
"Lets get the lawyers, religious zealots and corporate whores out of office and put some engineers, teachers, mathematicians and science laureates in. Maybe we will make more progress that way."........YES....YES....YES, finally I see people thinking right!!!!!!
Then you people out there giving money should look for these kinds of people to support, because scientists like myself simply do not have the $$$$ to do it without help. We also need more people talking this way for it to change.
Come on Rachel, keep up the momentum on this and maybe people like myself would decide to take a break from our research for 1 or 2 terms to do what we can. But only 1 or 2 terms and I still would want to have my home lab where I can run my experiments as I do now away from my "day" job.
I'm convinced that Republicans cannot exist without a "war on...."(your label there), I realize that these people are afraid of LIFE itself and quite literally see the "boogieman" everywhere. These people need to be removed from office period as they are not doing themselves or the American people anything except damage! They don't want to learn and they feel no one else should either, so what is the difference between the Taliban and the GOTP, absolutely nothing!!
Vote in November because our education, nation and our very lives depend on whether or not these ignoramuses are in office and how much power they will wield once in office!
What did they do put the biggest Republican idiots on this board? Do these Republicans have any intelligence at all? Or do they just sell out to the highest bidder to line their pockets?
Exactly like Michelle Bachmann being on the Intelligence Committee. The most inept on the least appropriate boards possible to "help" our nation.
Here is an easy list of Congressional committees and the pretty faces serving on them.
Yea looks like a big sell out to just line Republicans pockets with greed and for the rich. This is about as disgusting as it gets. And people don't trust our government, because of all this Republican corrupt trash. You watch down South now, you'll have Companies telling people to vote Republican in threat of their jobs. They pull that too all the time in suttle ways.
Republican qualification for the Science board is IGNORANCE, even better possibly failed every science course they ever had in school!
stop asking why. The answer is simple. An uneducated populace is easy to control. It is all prestidigitation. I have to say I am dubious as to whether these senators actually believe what they are saying and are not simply pandering to an ill educated base and presenting themselves as authority figures who know the "truth" and empathize with all the victimized Christians who are just trying to get their particular brand of hate acknowledged (sorry for that run on sentence).
Republicans play on fear. They always have and always will. Ignorance works for them.
At the end of the day, and I won't make the sweeping generalization, but it is pretty apparent that MOST Republican politicians are in the pockets of big business. Create a populace that is ignorant, scared, and willing to work at ANY job to keep food on their table because there is no safety net, and you have a herd of sheep for the corporations to cull from.
This election is so much more important than people realize. You have to get out there and you have to vote. Mitt Romney and a republican legislature will destroy America as we know it. As much as anyone wants to accuse me of hyperbole, or being a conspiracy theorist, please, inform yourself. Look at the patterns and then tell me I'm wrong.
Obama 2012/Clinton 2016!
Excellent Tracypaints!!!
Rebecca Stott's book, "Darwin's Ghosts" examines his evolutionary predecessors, from Aristotle to his own British contemporaries.
There are interesting parallels today!
In both 19th C. France and London the established church cast a wary eye on the new "theories" that were being published.
And the church did more than look: it acted- sometimes with imprisonment and even death to those who questioned God's Dominion over Everything.
If we keep electing these asshats, can we be far away from another Inquisition?
While I agree with most of the posting about the sad nonsense believed by members of the House Science Committee, the bit about dinosaur flatulence isn't that far fetched. Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas, and ruminants produce a lot of it -- I believe the increase in world beef production is considered to be a contributing factor in global warming. So when you have a planet covered by ruminant dinosaurs, well, it might just get warmer.
Let's not mistake silly-sounding science for genuinely silly pseudo-science.
The problem is dinosaurs were long gone 55 mya. The event they might be referring to is the Eocene thermal maximum. It may have been caused by a catastrophic methane release (indicated by isotopically light carbon in the sediment record), but it certainly wasn't coming from dinosaurs.
Point taken. I'd missed the mention of 55 million years. Still, not knowing the exact age of the K/T boundary is better than not knowing the age of the Earth.
Methane is contributing to global warming, it is being releases in artic ice melting and may be accelerating it.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-18120093
Also I see where the California representative got her information.
http://articles.latimes.com/2012/may/07/science/la-sci-dinosaur-methane-20120508
I swear. Sometimes I just sit and ponder the state of things and what this country has evolved into, and I can NOT believe it.
If I ever get the chance, I am going to spit on Ronald Reagan's grave.
I had the great joy of going down to the Nixon Library a few years ago and, finding an appropriate moment, I was definitely able to be sure the flowers on his grave had adequate moisture. When I consider what I went through under his six years of misrule, it was the least I could do.
And BTW - Nixon is far more responsible, as the architect of the "Southern Stragegy" for the current state of the GOP than is Reagan, who merely took advantage of the boulder rolling downhill. But it was pried from its position atop the hill and given the starting push by Tricky Dick, whose imps of satan are still around to torment us (Rove, etc.).
I think we have another problem, Houston. Ground control to GOP, your circuits' dead there's something wrong. Can you hear me Major Tom?
This is GOP to Major Tom....the vo-oh-ters are idiots. And we're not about to let them know the truth....
IT is easier to find a score of men wise enough to discover the truth than to find one intrepid enough, in the face of opposition, to stand up for it.. a.a. hodge, 1823-1866, president of princeton seminary.
With all these lies the right are discrbing, all of use have to be inteprid souls how stand up to them.
Nice quote.
How about, how many Republicans does it take to screw in a lightbulb?
@Angel#77: How about, how many Republicans does it take to actually figure out what a lightbulb is?
We better watch out, or their bound to go on another "Save the lightbulb" escapade.
Funny about the Save the Lightbulb thing,
It was a Republican Bill signed into Law by a Republican President, IIRC.
So of course the Republican will be against it.
What? ... How to address Insanity? I'm not very good at it, I keep pulling myself back into reality, and the reality is they're insane.
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Did they deliberately pick idiots for this committee? Or are all Republicans this stupid? Or, maybe that's a redundant question.
Blame the people who voted them in again....and again...and again.
Sadly, they reflect their constituencies - that is what is really frightening.
"who else is on the House Science Committee?" is one of those questions that you fear to ask suspecting the answer was something you didn't want to hear.
Our fears have been confirmed.
Let me guess -- that logo was designed by the House Committee on Graphic Design?
Most 5 year olds can make better logos now. We can be thankful that it's not sparkling.
Ladies and Gentlemen, with all due respect... we are officially fudged.
Watch out Bill Nye. These folks issue from the same gene pool that forced Galileo to recant.
If the GOP right wing could figure how to return women to personal property status, then they could get rid of all them damned sex laws. With attacks on science and education already in play, this would remove the trifecta of inconvenient truths.
And don't forget the 3/5ths law for slaves......ah, the good ole days....not.
If "a rising tide raises all ships", then you know what happens when the tide recedes.
Yeah, a violation of the laws of physics.
When the tide rises we all go up, but when the tide recedes only the tiny boats go down. The yachts stay high.
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The colleges these individuals attended should publicly revoke their diplomas.
Sadly enough, these guys aren't new in history. Go Google "Hypatia" and "Library of Alexandria." Clement of Alexandria, who whipped up the mob to burn the library and destroy its "pagan knowledge", thereby starting The Dark Ages, was elevated to become Pope Clement I as a result.
Actually, I just did my own research the details above are wrong, but the events did happen, and they do play out with the modern Xtian war on science.
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Don't count on education helping much. Google "Colbert Study: Conservatives Don't Know He's Joking"
First time I heard of the Colbert Study it was mentioned how a professor polled his university class and discovered those self describing as 'conservative' didn't get the joke of Colbert.
Education doesn't mean there is an ability to think and reason instilled on the student.
I'm afraid what I heard years ago has become more true today: Universities have become high priced Tech Schools where people go to learn a job and nothing else (I believe it was the Dean of Brown who said this). This has been my observation over the years. I am a Professional Student (300 hours more or less), my tuition is paid for by wife working at the local U. Students want to learn only what they HAVE TO learn and nothing else. It's a lost opportunity.
Thats why, if I hit the Big $Jing$, I would create a scholarship for out of core studies. As an example, there would be a list of classes an engineering student could take out of core that I would pay for including books and supplies, and also pay tuition for matching hours in core. 4 hours of Psych 101 paid for in total and get 4 hours of tuition in engineering, maybe even pick up the tab for the engineering texts.
Because for education to be the enemy of ignorance the education must be more than a tech school.
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That is a great idea. I would have jumped at that.
At Purdue, where I went to engineering school, we were required to take at least two consecutive Humanities courses (meaning two that built on each other, i.e. a 200-level history course followed by a 300-level history course) and the same with social sciences. I would not be as happy with my education as I am were it not for these requirements. I am a better human being for having the broader knowledge base.
Omigod, people watch the Report and think it's serious??? We're effed....
It's outrageous that these people were even elected to office let alone assigned to lead in committees. There should be an effort to recall/impeach these people from office!! I'm tired of hearing or reading comments about how we are screwed and have to live with it. If we continue to let these people govern then we are just as much to fault for their statements/actions in office.
Re: "Why would any woman believe in anything Mitt Romney says?" What has made women change their minds about Mitt Romney?
Don't ask me, I'm a woman and I would, in NO WAY, vote for Mitt Romney and his VP lyin' Ryan! I totally do not understand why ANY woman would vote for ANY member of the GOP! If there is a way to stop it, no one is going to take away my rights, my daughters or my granddaughters rights either! My Grandmothers and Great-Grandmothers worked to hard to get them for us.
Do you actually believe they have? Go to 538 blog at NYT where Nate Silver explains poles and how Romney got a bounce based on his debate but already the bounce is fading. Obama still has a 70% chance of winning and that will increase after the next debates. Be at peace, Obama will win but the task is to get rid of the crazy Senators and House members who really control what happens
Putting a politician on a science committee does not make him a scientist, any more than putting a dummy in a suit makes him a good presidential candidate.
In my comment a couple down from yours, I noted that Congressman Broun is a physician.
A lesson in non separation of church and state. What is the purpose of the Science Committee?
Cutting back to the opening paragraph, the reader should enjoy the further kicker, that being that Congressman Broun is Congressman Broun, M.D.
10 to 1 he bleeds his patients with leeches.....
I get more frightened by the day of these people. Eventually... wont it get to a point where their constituents rise up and say "ENOUGH!!!! You base your governing on the bible, and because of that, you are fired."
This way of viewing the world is the reason I've said for a long time: these are the most dangerous people on earth. Their thought's are destroying our way of life. Whether it be the food we eat, dirty water that exists everywhere, wars that are created out of thin air (like when your neighbor punches you in the face and you walk to the end of the block and punch the other person you didn't like anyway); it's never ending with these people. Truly, they hate everything that is "promotive of freedom, creativity, imagination, progress of humanity (unless they can figure a way out of stealing all the money), and the most important of all- they have no empathy and love in their heart. It has all been blinded by deceit, greed, anger, fear, and hate... STAND up and BEAT the HATE with truth. It's gonna be hard, but it must happen...
Doug. Yes, Yes, and YES! Much of what I consider to be Religious dogma is fine with me.. but when it starts to affect policy? Not so much.
Eventually facts will win... I hope.