…and this is a 
I'm hearing lots about this CHE story that documents an omitted category in a list of subjects eligible for a class of grants…and the omission conveniently knocks out evolutionary biology. I'm suspicious, and everyone is suspicious, and for good reason—this is an administration that elevates incompetent ideologues to positions of unwarranted power in the halls of science, so seeing that kind of selective deletion isn't too surprising.
However, Matt Brauer at the Panda's Thumb finds two other deletions: exercise physiology, and…Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning Technology? Unless there's a passage in the Bible that says Jesus hates ducts, this sounds like a case of incompetence being a bigger factor than ideology.
Comments
Posted by: Alex | August 22, 2006 6:26 PM
This is easy. It's so when us atheist, evolutionist evil doers find our place in hell after we die, we won't be able to build air conditioners to help keep us cool. Geesh.
Posted by: Kristine | August 22, 2006 6:41 PM
Oh, dammit Alex! You beat me to it.
If it looks like a duct, sounds like a duct, and acts like a duct, Michael Behe calls it forced induction and you know we're heading for that big internal combustion engine Down There.
Posted by: George | August 22, 2006 6:54 PM
It may be hard to figure which are the purposeful deletions and which are not. Or in the spirit of conspiracy perhaps a couple additional entries were left off to create a cover explanation....
Posted by: natural cynic | August 22, 2006 7:16 PM
It's kind of surprising that exercise physiology is on the deleted list since the big boss chimpy is such a fanatic when it comes to pumping pedals and pumping iron. Or is this just more evidence that Dick is the real man in charge?
Posted by: JakeB | August 22, 2006 7:19 PM
Apropos of nothing except the stargazing fools, modern Baal-worshippers, who refuse to acknowledge our noodly overlord, Astronomy Picture of the Day (http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/) has characterized His Manifestation as a sort of "gigantic owl monster". "Gigantic Owl Monster". Absurd! I ask you! They know not what they see.
Posted by: Mechanophile | August 22, 2006 7:35 PM
Apologies to Martin Niemoller, but I felt inspired: :)
First, they came for evolution, and I did not speak out, for I was not a biologist.
Then, they came for global warming, and still I did not speak out, for I was not an earth scientist.
Then they came for the HVAC systems, and there was no one left to speak out for me.
In all seriousness, though, it's always difficult to tell the difference between incompetence and malice with these people.
Posted by: RBH | August 22, 2006 7:52 PM
Mechanophile wrote
With these folks, on the malice-stupidity scale I now default to malice.Posted by: Reed A. Cartwright | August 22, 2006 7:54 PM
The omission of HVAC is different than the other two. There is no blank space where it should be.
Posted by: NelC | August 22, 2006 8:31 PM
I think the kind of wilful ignorance required for some forms of incompentency leads directly to malice. When you know you're right and you're being proven wrong, the only ways to shut people up are obfuscation, and when that doesn't work, acts of malice.
Posted by: jeonjutarheel | August 22, 2006 8:34 PM
Odd about ex phys, how do they think we learned how to best train our soliders?
Posted by: Jon H | August 22, 2006 9:07 PM
exercise physiology: could lead to dancing.
Posted by: Matt T. | August 22, 2006 9:08 PM
Any form of sufficiently advanced stupidity is almost indistinguishable from evil. Don't remember where I read that, but it's definately struck a chord with modern times.
Posted by: Carlie | August 22, 2006 9:29 PM
Jon H: You owe me a new keyboard for that one.
Posted by: William Gulvin | August 22, 2006 10:13 PM
I say Occam's Razor suggests that it's stupidity. But to quote Margaret Atwood, " . . . stupidity is the same as evil if you judge by the results."
Posted by: JS | August 22, 2006 11:11 PM
When it comes to newsies and politicos I usually go by the principle: Do not attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity and incompetence.
With the Shrub administration, however, I tend to bend that rule. They've proven extremely good at doing malicious things and making them look like simple stupidity and incompetence.
Surely, they can't all be idiots. Can they?
- JS
Posted by: Simon C | August 23, 2006 4:57 AM
Maybe somebody told them about Maxwell's Demon and they didn't want to take any chances?
Posted by: Doozer | August 23, 2006 8:39 AM
Any form of sufficiently advanced stupidity is almost indistinguishable from evil. Don't remember where I read that, but it's definately struck a chord with modern times.
Posted by: Matt T
I stold it from Clarke, sorta...
Posted by: Keith Douglas | August 23, 2006 10:47 AM
Regardless of what turns out, this does need an investigation. Keep us posted, those who can find out ...
Posted by: David Harmon | August 23, 2006 2:35 PM
"Any sufficiently advanced stupidity is indistinguishable from malice."
I've been tossing around this version of the phrase for a couple of months now. It's a composite of Clarke's Third Law and, IIRC, a "Klingon proverb": "Do not attribute to malice what can adequately be explained by stupidity". But as NelC roughs out, "adequately" only goes so far, and the neocons are well beyond that point. Of course, "malice" isn't quite the same as "evil", but from the receiving end it can look much the same.
William Gulvin: What book is the Atwood quote from?
Posted by: William Gulvin | August 23, 2006 6:57 PM
" . . . stupidity is the same as evil if you judge by the results." From "Surfacing" by Margaret Atwood; ISBN 0385491050. Actually, in this instance, I believe that "evil is the same as stupidity" might well be just as applicable.