Forgive my absence gentle readers, I was on a well deserved R & R after the preceding, and life changing, two months (I had some evergreen content timed to go, I thought. But, well, for whatever reason Microsoft won again …). After which I was deemed healthy enough to return to work full time. So, last week the House was supposed to hold an important hearing on the danger posed by Near Earth Objects, a hearing so important it was at first postponed indefinitely and, I’m now told by trustworthy sources, rescheduled for next week on March 19. It’s interesting to hear what planetary scientists think of the people who are actually on that committee and by extension the party that controls it:
NYT — Here’s the real problem, as he sees it: “You have people who are not scientifically literate who have risen to positions of power and control,” whether on local school boards or in Congress. He mentioned Representative Paul C. Broun, a Georgia Republican (and doctor) who sits on the House Science Committee and who says the world is 9,000 years old and was literally created in six days.
Voters, Dr. Tyson said, need to grasp the consequences of their electoral choices, especially if they produce officials who “undermine the source of creativity for tomorrow’s economy.” Meddle with the citizenry’s understanding of science and technology, he said, and people “will emerge on the other side incapable of making the discoveries and innovations that the nation requires in order to stay economically competitive.”
When it comes to the Creation, “if you use the Bible as your science textbook, you will go astray — there’s no question about it,” he said, adding: “Galileo understood this. He can be credited with drawing a line in the sand with his famous quote that the Bible tells you how to go to heaven, not how the heavens go.”
That’s a nice way of saying it. The House Scicom is manned by some of the worst, willfully ignorant dumbasses to hold office in my lifetime. Mostly because there are 22 republicans and 17 dmeocrats sitting on it, including Lamar Smith from Texas. I’m not saying we deserve to be wiped out simply because a few clowns got elected by a bunch of other clowns, but it doesn’t improve our chances or fill me with hope.
Oh Lamar Smi
Oh Lamar Smith… That shitstain or a representative is now my representative after the Texas House gerrymandered me out of Lloyd Doggett’s district. Fucking travesty, and I have a hard time not calling up his staff to give them a piece of mind about his “newsletters” that I get in the mail every so often.
The good news is that Paul Broun is seeking to move up to the United States Senate. He may actually be such a clown that the voters of Georgia will say no, just the way the voters in Missouri treated Todd Akins. A consummation devoutly to be desired.
As all the Repubs are good Christians they already know their bible cosmology and realize that no meteor could ever impact Earth unless Yahweh allowed it to pass through the upper firmament on which heaven sits. Unless some angel is stupid enough to leave open one of the windows through which the rain/snow is stored in heaven then it could happen but it wouldn’t be Yahweh’s fault because good help is hard to create.
@busterggi – Into the 1900’s, it was common for Christian scientists to deny the possibility of meteor impacts because, after all, that would mean Heaven was crumbling.
How long will it take for them to blame potential asteroid impacts on Obama?
The good news is, impacts are pretty easy to understand.
You stand here. Stuff falls on your head. It’s heavy. It blows up. This could fairly be considered to have ruined your day.
They may have to use a synonym for “considered”. It’s a long word.
Well not all states need protection from impactors…. of course red states – being good, wholesome God-fearing Real Americans – do need protection, as any incoming objects would surely be either a mistake, or the work of the devil. But the blue states, filled with heathen Govt teat-sucklers, should be left to face the consequences of their decision to worship at the altar of moral relativism.
comfychair @ 8 Unfortunately you are not taking into account God’s notoriously bad aim. Take Kansas for example, they are just as likely to be taken out in a surgical strike by the Debil or by God’s intention to reduce San Francisco to rubble. Apparently God couldn’t find his omnipotent ass with both hands.