Mad rantings about politics, evolution, and microbiology. Comment policy: say what you want, but back it up with an email address. I don't like anonymous trolls.
Richard Cohen recently wrote that he would like to see an "Institute for the Study of Sarah Palin" receive funding. It's a pretty good piece (which just goes to show that even the dumbest squirrel can occasionally find a nut). But I do have one quibble. Cohen writes (italics mine):
On the other hand, someone else will point out that the very week Palin is promoting her book, the current president is abroad attending meetings in Asia, including a visit with our Chinese bankers. Could those who fault Barack Obama for being callow and inexperienced imagine Palin meeting with the Chinese or, for that matter, conducting a protracted policy review about Afghanistan?
To which the Mad Biologist answers:
Yes! They could imagine that!
Sarah Palin is a creationist. Many Palinists are creationists. Creationists spend their time telling non-ignorant people, including biologists who have forgotten more biology than a herd of creationists ever knew, that biologists don't know what they're talking about. This doesn't phase them in the slightest. They are impervious to reality.
Of course they can imagine Sarah Palin talking about economics with the Chinese government. They imagine that they actually understand biology, so why not imagine other things too?
Politics
Comments
Sarah Palin is a willfully ignorant fundagelical who is arrogantly proud of her anti-science, anti-intelligence lying.
Posted by: NewEnglandBob | November 21, 2009 10:24 AM
Palin is basically a female version of George W. Bush.
Posted by: Tyler DiPietro | November 21, 2009 12:25 PM
According to Max Blumenthal, "Palinists" may not care if Palin is utterly inexperienced and incompetent. What matters more to them is that her heart's in the right place, she's handled personal crises ethically, and she's been victimized by liberal elites such as Obama-- not to mention the media machine. (Of course, I'm not saying any of those claims are true.)
Posted by: Emily | November 21, 2009 12:49 PM
Noooo, Tyler. Next to Palin, Bush is Einstein.
I'll admit. She has an amazing ability to appeal to the lowest common denominator in the thinking of middle America. That is intelligence in itself. But it ends there. She really does have the intelligence and mentality of a highschool cheerleader. (I'm going to write a blog article on why people are attracted to her, I think, because so many people in cities just don't get why she's popular.)
Posted by: Scrabcake | November 21, 2009 12:53 PM
Sarah Palin believes evolution should be taught in schools. Fact. Don't call her a creationist.
Posted by: rarley | November 21, 2009 1:41 PM
Scrabcake; You are being unfair to high school cheerleaders.
Posted by: Eric Juve | November 21, 2009 2:02 PM
"Sarah Palin believes evolution should be taught in schools. Fact. Don't call her a creationist."
Bullshit - she's an ignorant, lying, creationist. From her (really, ghostwriter's book)
"I had just dared to mention the C-word: creationism. But I felt I was on solid factual ground."
Solid factual ground, with creationism? Not even in the land of the manifestly stupid (where she reigns) is that factually correct.
Posted by: dean | November 21, 2009 6:10 PM
When I learned about evolution in HS biology, I was taught we were descended from apes. In Palin's case that is an intellectual truism rather than a simplistic time based description.
Posted by: MikeMa | November 21, 2009 6:43 PM
I can picture it now:
How many yualls does this cost? You guys aren't gonna attack Pearl Harbor again, are ya? I didn't quit--I'm just gettin' loaded.
Posted by: mark | November 21, 2009 7:45 PM
The 20%ers who follow her will believe that she could do anything. They can only think in black and white... so if they take Palin as theirs, she could do no wrong and she is the right person for pretty much anything that you ask them about.
Posted by: mxh | November 21, 2009 10:52 PM
Sarah Palin is a creationist. She has finished her memoir just four months after the book deal was announced. Her publisher has announce the release date from the spring to Nov. 17. The former Alaska governor has invested herself deeply and passionately in her project. Her book contains fascinating detail.
Posted by: grossesse | November 23, 2009 11:45 PM