Well, they say there is no use wrestling with a pig because you get covered in mud and the pig actually enjoys it but, when talking politics, you can’t really avoid it. Politics ain’t nothing but pig rasslin’.
Still, I don’t want to get in too close tonight, I don’t want to get into too much detail, because the whole issue is just too swinishly stupid to be believed and the details don’t matter much.
In broad terms, Congressperson Lamar Smith (R-TX, natch) wants the House Science Committee to have oversight (that is, more than they do already) over which scientific projects get funding.
From a philosophical point of view, I can actually see a certain logic in that. It could be the same argument right wingers use when they want to ban a particular piece of art in a particular museum, usually because it’s naked. They say that if public funds are going to support art, then the public (i.e. the government) has the right to decide what is good art and what is bad art.
My thing is that government should keep out of sports. No city should spend money on a baseball stadium when they have homeless people they could house, schools that need repaired, and potholes that need to be filled. Let the team owners pay for the stadium. They’re rich.
But, back to the subject at hand. Lamar Smith isn’t saying that government should have greater oversight about choosing which projects get funded because it is their right and civic obligation, he is saying this would improve the scientific process.
Lamar “Dumbass” Smith
The problem is that Mr. Smith, a global warming denier, and his buddies on the House Science Committee, including Paul “evolution is a lie from the pit of hell” Broun (R-GA), are dumber than dogshit. The only thing they know about science is that they’re against it. Throwing darts at a wall to choose which scientific projects get green lighted would be infinitely preferable to taking advice from people, like Smith and Broun, who couldn’t pass a 7th grade science test if it was open book, with the teacher out of the room.
Most scientists, on the other hand, are pretty smart. It’s one of the job requirements.
When you have a choice between taking advice from the smart guys and taking advice from the dumb guys, you should take advice from the smart guys. Even most dumb guys would agree with that. But not Lamar Smith. He is taking stupid to a whole ‘nother level.
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