Robert O'Brien Trophy Winner: Joe Barton : Dispatches from the Culture Wars

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Ed Brayton is a journalist, commentator and speaker. He is the co-founder and president of Michigan Citizens for Science and co-founder of The Panda's Thumb. He has written for such publications as The Bard, Skeptic and Reports of the National Center for Science Education, spoken in front of many organizations and conferences, and appeared on nationally syndicated radio shows and on C-SPAN. Ed is also a Fellow with the Center for Independent Media and the host of Declaring Independence, a one hour weekly political talk show on WPRR in Grand Rapids, Michigan.(static)

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Robert O'Brien Trophy Winner: Joe Barton

Posted on: April 30, 2009 9:16 AM, by Ed Brayton

This week's Idiot of the Month is Rep. Joe Barton of Texas. This world class dumbass got to question energy secretary Steven Chu, a Nobel prize winner, and he decided to ask him something that's always stumped him. He asked him how the oil got under Alaska. Chu gives a very simple but accurate explanation, which Barton greets with a bit of sarcasm - "oh, it just drifted there, did it?" And then the clueless dolt posted the video to his Youtube account claiming that he had asked a question that "puzzled" Chu. The rest of us learned the answer to this by the time we got to high school. Seriously, you have to watch this:

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You'd figure that someone who likely rode into office on oil money might know something about it, just in case, y'know?

This has "Series of Tubes" written all over it.

Posted by: Ranson | April 30, 2009 9:20 AM

Puzzled is an accurate description. Puzzled at how such a stupid question could exist, but still puzzled.

Posted by: JakeS | April 30, 2009 9:40 AM

Erm, this week's Idiot of the Month?

Posted by: Ramel | April 30, 2009 9:42 AM

I'd be puzzled, too, if someone over the age of 12 asked me this question.

Posted by: Personal Failure | April 30, 2009 9:59 AM

Puzzled at how such a stupid question could exist, but still puzzled.

Indeed. One is reminded of Babbage's lament: "I am unable rightly to apprehend the confusion of idea that could prompt such a question".

Posted by: Eamon Knight | April 30, 2009 9:59 AM

@Ramel,

You read that right. There are so many idiots on the web these days, we could have 'today's idiot of the week' seven days a week. Or maybe even 365 'idiots of the year' and still not run out.

Posted by: Roadtripper | April 30, 2009 10:01 AM

We learned about plate tectonics in the 8th grade by cutting out paper maps of the continents and seeing how they fit together. Maybe Joe Barton should try that sometime.

Posted by: Imrryr | April 30, 2009 10:16 AM

Good grief.

When Barton says "isn't it obvious that it was much warmer there...", a better response would have been:

"No you stupid shit, it's not obvious. That's why we use science to understand the world. Natural processes are complicated and unintuitive. That's why I fucking said it was complicated in the first place."

Posted by: JRQ | April 30, 2009 10:34 AM

Erm, this week's Idiot of the Month?

Yea, ever since legalized gay marriage destroyed God's foundation for the universe, everything is topsy turvey. The Christians warned us this would happen. But we didn't believe them. Now the very fabric of reality is twisting like Pat Robertson's panties. Republicans are becoming 2M4M, teabagging, toe-tapping perverts or more unbelievably, Democrats. Torture is essential to liberty. Carlos Mencia gets his own television show and Pushing Daisies gets canceled. In a world this crazy is it really so hard to believe that a week equals a month?

Posted by: Abby Normal | April 30, 2009 10:43 AM

Nothing puzzling about the question at all. The question was asked with the express purpose of eliciting a response that could be used to support (or at least excuse) further inaction on climate change. Barton asked it because he wanted to get Chu to admit "Alaska was once warmer", which the right can use as a talking point to imply global warming is either a natural occurrence, not a problem, or both. And thus, no pressing need for energy reform. Whether Barton was actually "stumped" by how oil got under alaska is irrelevant -- that wasn't why he asked the question.

Posted by: JRQ | April 30, 2009 11:12 AM

Wait Pushing Daisies got cancelled because of Gay Marriage? I want to be married someday, but is the cost worth it??? Sigh

Posted by: Todd | April 30, 2009 12:36 PM

Weren't areas with the latitudinal position of Alaska once warmer? In the Triassic for example, when the poles were temperate? The truthful answer would be yes, Alaska was once warmer, because it wasn't where it was, and yes, where it is now was once warmer, regardless of the mendacious response that man has nothing to do with climate change.

Posted by: Robert Faber | April 30, 2009 4:02 PM

Ah, the smugness of stupidity. Well deserving of a Robert O'Brien award.

Posted by: pough | April 30, 2009 6:13 PM

The rest of us learned the answer to this by the time we got to high school.

Not necessarily. I can easily imagine high school graduates who would be stumped by a question like, "Where did Alaska's oil come from?" They would take a stab with "Uh, dinosaurs?" and follow Barton's logic that Alaska must have been warmer. While aware of plate tectonics, they might see the relevance to the question. ("You're not thinking fourth dimensionally," Doc Brown would say.)

That's one kind of ignorance. Barton's ignorance is of another type, mocking knowledge instead of embracing it.

Posted by: Grumpy | May 1, 2009 1:15 AM

Er, "...they might NOT see the relevance to the question."

Posted by: Grumpy | May 1, 2009 1:18 AM

"Adding comments has been disabled for this video."

Damn!

Posted by: Equisetum | May 1, 2009 1:54 AM

Very disappointed in all of you. Yes, the earth was warmer than it is today. Science tell us this in no uncertain terms. Should we lie simply because idiots might use the correct answer for political purposes?

Posted by: Robert Faber | May 1, 2009 3:18 AM

Robert:

Who is suggesting anything like that? We're merely pointing out that Rep. Barton is an idiot for asking the question, and an enormous idiot for posting the video online as if he had "stumped" the Energy Secretary. The possible motivation is that Barton was hoping Chu would say something about Alaska's former climate that could be used, out of context, to suggest that global warming can't exist, and then Barton can say "gotcha! the energy secretary doesn't believe in global warming!!". Nobody is saying we shouldn't tell the truth because it could be taken out of context, just that was why Barton thinks he is so clever.

Posted by: Sean Michael | May 1, 2009 4:44 AM

Maybe Rep Barton's area of expertise does not include science. Maybe he is perfectly reasonable when discussing other issues.

Then again, maybe not.

http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball/story/11699846

WASHINGTON -- A congressman who wants to see college football adopt a playoff system is comparing the Bowl Championship Series to communism.

Republican Rep. Joe Barton of Texas said Friday that efforts to tinker with the BCS are bound to fail. He told a House hearing that the BCS is like communism and can't be fixed.

Barton has introduced legislation that would prevent the NCAA from labeling a game a national championship unless it's the outcome of a playoff system.

Posted by: j a higginbotham | May 1, 2009 12:44 PM

He has my full support on a college football playoff. Every other sport in the NCAA, and each of the other football divisions, holds a playoff or tournament to determine a champion. NCAA D1 football is the only college sport in which a team can go undefeated and not win the national championship.

Posted by: Robert Faber | May 1, 2009 2:33 PM

A playoff is one thing; comparing the BCS to communism and trying to legislate a playoff is something else.

[But I do agree with you on the playoff.]

Posted by: j a higginbotham | May 1, 2009 5:05 PM

A playoff system in college football would be as stupid as Barton's question here was. A team in D1 college football can indeed go undefeated ... provided they are cowardly enough to deliberately avoiding a trip to L.A. or Gainesville or Columbus or Austin. Yes, Utah: I'm looking at you.

Posted by: jws | May 3, 2009 12:24 AM