Palin on basic research

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This was part of the pork-barrel post yesterday, but I figured it merits a place of its own. Clothing and makeup costs are one thing, the demonstration of stunning ignorance while making scientific policy-related remarks is another altogether.
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Gee, this is a shock. Catchphrase Barbie is freaking clueless.....

Whether she can relate to the average person or not, it is clear that Sarah Palin can relate to joe-sixpack and jill stepford in the area of ignorance. Check out this piece on Think Progress where she is caught saying that fruit-fly research has nothing to do with the public good. This is the inevitable result of the republican war on science---that a candidate on the GOP ticket has no fucking idea what a colossal contribution fruit fly research has made to our understanding of various aspects of human biology, development, aging, and disease. I'll go a step further and wager that she has no clue about the value and indispensable nature of basic research itself in the context of the 'public good'. (Of course, an appreciation the importance of basic research in the abstract would be wayyyyy too much to expect from a fundie like her).

I thought I was upset on reading that--- till I read this post by Mike the Mad Biologist, which cites a poll showing that 28% of Americans did not know that the earth revolves around the sun!

I'll just go and fucking cry for a while now.

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