pudge's Journal: Republicans Censor Science

Oops, I'm sorry, I meant Democrats.

This type of thing, of course, is precisely what many on the left have been complaining about by Republicans. But as usual, these things happen both ways, as they always have, and probably always will.

Short version: a state scientist in Oregon has been saying for years that global warming is bunk. The governor doesn't like that, so he is taking various actions to attack the scientist, including even trying to pass a law in Oregon that would allow the governor to appoint a climatologist, one he would pick, who obviously would agree with his views.

And what are his views? Interestingly, he believes the IPCC is wrong: the governor says the science is settled, and that the debate is over, which the IPCC itself denies, and which everyone by now knows isn't at all true. He has an essentially religious, not scientific, belief in global warming, and wants the authority to appoint a government scientist who would parrot his unscientific views in order to manufacture credibility.

A little bit north, in Washington, there's a similar battle, mentioned in the above article, but a bit more in-depth in a Times article. There, a state scientist made similar claims (and indeed, his main claim was absolutely correct). And in response to his main claim being absolutely correct, he was told by the state climatologist (he was, himself, assistant climatologist) that his e-mails would have to be run by him in the future, if tied to his state position. He refused and was stripped of his (honorary) title.

Of course, if Albright had made false claims instead, such as saying that the debate is over and the science is settled, he'd still have the (honorary) title.

I don't actually have a big problem with this, really. I don't think government should be doing very much science, and so it makes me happy to see it exposed as a political fraud, rather than science. It's kinda like that whole ice skating thing in the Olympics a few years back: that made me absolutely giddy, as I hate figure skating because it is inherently a fraud of a competition, and seeing it exposed as such so clearly was just wonderful.

Same thing here. Politics and science simply do not mix. They can't. One or the other will suffer, and it won't always be politics.

Meh

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Politics, or rather, policy, is supposed to be informed by science. There will always be problems with that. Of the three classic dodges of the politician, all three will be at odds with science at one point or another. With the republicans in office, this has frequently been the "faith" dodge. With the democrats, it's generally the "children" dodge. And both will hide behind the flag if either of those fail.

I'm a self-declared lefty, and silencing anyone, no matter how wrong they might be, is *always