…and this is a 
Sarah Palin: Ignorant and anti-science
Category: Politics
Posted on: October 24, 2008 10:17 PM, by PZ Myers
This is too much. Sarah Palin gave a policy speech today in which she claimed that she wanted more support for children with disabilities, more tools to test for disorders, and while also decrying the expense of scientific research.
Where does a lot of that earmark money end up anyway? […] You've heard about some of these pet projects they really don't make a whole lot of sense and sometimes these dollars go to projects that have little or nothing to do with the public good. Things like fruit fly research in Paris, France. I kid you not.
I am appalled.
This idiot woman, this blind, shortsighted ignoramus, this pretentious clod, mocks basic research and the international research community. You damn well better believe that there is research going on in animal models — what does she expect, that scientists should mutagenize human mothers and chop up baby brains for this work? — and countries like France and Germany and England and Canada and China and India and others are all respected participants in these efforts.
Yes, scientists work on fruit flies. Some of the most powerful tools in genetics and molecular biology are available in fruit flies, and these are animals that are particularly amenable to experimentation. Molecular genetics has revealed that humans share key molecules, the basic developmental toolkit, with all other animals, thanks to our shared evolutionary heritage (something else the wackaloon from Wasilla denies), and that we can use these other organisms to probe the fundamental mechanisms that underlie core processes in the formation of the nervous system — precisely the phenomena Palin claims are so important.
This is where the Republican party has ended up: supporting an ignorant buffoon who believes in the End Times and speaking in tongues while deriding some of the best and most successful strategies for scientific research. In this next election, we've got to choose between the 21st century rationalism and Dark Age inanity. It ought to be an easy choice.
Comments
Posted by: ggab | October 24, 2008 10:22 PM
Is anyone really surprised?
Pretty much par for the course.
Posted by: The Ghost of Thomas Hunt Morgan | October 24, 2008 10:22 PM
*facepalm*
Posted by: Bachalon | October 24, 2008 10:23 PM
This sort of thing is no longer shocking to me.
Posted by: Brad D | October 24, 2008 10:27 PM
Listening to her makes MY BRAIN HURT!
Posted by: E.V. | October 24, 2008 10:28 PM
Umm, I think you're also describing Dubya.Posted by: benson bear | October 24, 2008 10:29 PM
What exactly was the research Palin was complaining about? You suggest it was research in molecular genetics using fruit fly models? But wasn't it actually about how to deal with fruit flies as pests to crops?
Posted by: Bob Vogel | October 24, 2008 10:30 PM
But, but, if humans are related to fruit flies, then why shouldn't we respect them somehow as our relatives - and stop cutting them up to find out things about ourselves?
Seriously, this is a question asked by PETA, and other organizations far above my head. In short, wow, this is a whole lot above all of our heads, if anyone chooses to really think about this. I mean, everything all of us who watch and read this site believe in - if we're all related -each one of us, then none is more important than the other?
Well, perhaps therein lies the problem.
Yeah, I know this is stupid. But is it? Damn, I need to stop thinking so much.
Posted by: rickflick | October 24, 2008 10:31 PM
Unfortunately, I have in-laws who believe this kind of Palen crap. The word 'Harvard' makes them scream 'socialist!'
This is an easy choice, but only for those of us who have left the dark ages behind.
Posted by: S.Scott | October 24, 2008 10:31 PM
She also doesn't think that people that bomb abortion clinics are terrorists either.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bK7ZkNCN4hc
I can't stand that woman.
Posted by: alex | October 24, 2008 10:31 PM
*after throwing up slightly*
what an evil person. i think perhaps a large portion of her evil is unintentional, and stems from her appalling ignorance.
Posted by: Randy | October 24, 2008 10:32 PM
Benson, Does it matter?
one leads to medical and other breakthroughs, the other leads to economic development by helping an important industry (agriculture) avoid collapse.
Posted by: Jimmy Groove | October 24, 2008 10:32 PM
If it was studies in dealing with fruit fly crop predation, isn't that also valuable? Heck, I would expect the average person to have an easier time seeing the value in that than in genetic studies.
Posted by: Luger Otter Robinson | October 24, 2008 10:33 PM
Well, of course she thinks that humans were created in God's image on the 22nd October 4004 BCE, so obviously doing research on fruit flies is not going to be of any practical use at all. She probably thinks that the research should have been done in Paris, Texas instead of Paris, France too.
Posted by: Lumifish | October 24, 2008 10:33 PM
Did she seriously just say that research on Drosophila has 'little or nothing to do with the public good'? As in, THE Drosophila melanogaster, the prime model organism for a vast chunk of genetics, responsible for elucidating some of the basic mechanisms of inheritance?
I don't know how you put up with living in that country, PZ..
Posted by: Patricia | October 24, 2008 10:36 PM
I love my country, but this woman is so thunder struck with the stoopid, that it's embarrassing to be an American. Other people can see this. Citizens of Norway and Holland have probably had to resort to wearing diapers during the world news reports, and wrapping their rib cages due to laughing so hard.
Idiot America - it's here. I don't know if I can last another 11 days. My poor old colander is beat all to hell from the *headdesk*ing.
Posted by: Bob Vogel | October 24, 2008 10:38 PM
The real problem here, PZ, is that there is not a single person in he U.S., including myself, (and I believe in what you are doing and saying here, hands down :) would ever understand what the term "mutagenize" means. Or even care.
Posted by: notthedroids | October 24, 2008 10:39 PM
Well, the good thing is that it appears that Rational America will be defeating Batshit Stupid America this time around.
Also, there was a bit of a Palin bump right after the convention, but it seems to have quickly transformed into Palin Fatigue.
Posted by: ERV | October 24, 2008 10:41 PM
Oh no! You all misunderstand! Fruit flies in research is fine! They were specially created by the lord Jesus Christ to help good Christian scientists cure autism (which was caused by The Fall).
The PROBLEM is that US scientists were collaborating with FRENCH people. PARIS FRANCE people!
Quality scientific research doesnt come from PARIS FRANCE!!
Posted by: Luger Otter Robinson | October 24, 2008 10:45 PM
No, I am corrected about the purpose of the grant. It was for olive fruit fly research, some of which went to Paris.
Posted by: Escuerd | October 24, 2008 10:46 PM
This hurts.
This woman is possibly the most worthless, disgusting turd that the Republican Party has ever shat into the limelight (at least this far into it).
Posted by: Jacksonville Web Design | October 24, 2008 10:47 PM
Obama touts himself as a Christian also. Is he also back woods? Unfortunately, it appears he is choosing to tell you what he thinks you want to hear, what he thinks is needed in order to get elected... instead of really standing up for what he (supposedly) believes in. I don't think he attends church for 20 years and really believes abortion is the right thing to support. You would be better off if Obama actually walked the walk. If he is elected, the Obama supporters I think will be disappointed in the long run as he relies on polls to guide him, instead of actually leading by principles.
-
Jim S.
Jacksonville, FL
http://tentonweb.com/
Posted by: Monado in Toronto | October 24, 2008 10:48 PM
Voltaire said, "I never made but one prayer to God, and that was to make my enemies ridiculous. And God granted it."
At her age and in her country, if she is that ignorant of the real world, it's only because she isn't interested in knowing better.
Posted by: Kraid | October 24, 2008 10:48 PM
Basic scientific research in model organisms is a waste of money? GRAAAAAAWWWWWRRRR!! HULK SMASH!
Without basic research in models like the fruit fly, our understanding of biology would be light years behind where it is now. How can she be so ignorant as to call such branches of science "irrelevant?" If the breakthroughs in clinically "relevant" science are a tower of human achievement, then basic research is the foundation on which that tower is built. Clinically "relevant" research doesn't magically appear out of a void....
And did anybody let her in on the fact that fruit flies are MUCH cheaper to study than more "relevant" species like mice and primates? They're also infinitely more tractable, but I'm guessing that concept is too far beyond her.
Posted by: BobC | October 24, 2008 10:48 PM
This is where the Republican party has ended up: supporting an ignorant buffoon who believes in the End Times and speaking in tongues while deriding some of the best and most successful strategies for scientific research.
Palin is an uneducated god-soaked wacko, but there is no evidence she ever did any speaking in tongues. Some members of a church she belonged to spoke in tongues, which is the most idiotic thing I can imagine, but as far as I know Palin isn't that crazy.
I agree that Palin is a wackaloon, and tomorrow I'm mailing in my Florida ballot for Obama.
Posted by: John | October 24, 2008 10:50 PM
@Jacksonville Web Design
He is just the lesser of two evils.
Posted by: Tyler DiPietro | October 24, 2008 10:50 PM
#21,
Giving you the benefit of the doubt and assuming that's not copypasta, this isn't about Christianity. It's about Palin being an anti-science fucktard.
Posted by: Naked Bunny with a Whip | October 24, 2008 10:50 PM
The word 'Harvard' makes them scream 'socialist!'
Uhhh...isn't Harvard pretty much the *opposite* of a socialist enclave? Seems like the local community college would be more "socialist" in the sense having fewer prerequisites to attend and costing far less money.
Posted by: Tyler DiPietro | October 24, 2008 10:53 PM
"Uhhh...isn't Harvard pretty much the *opposite* of a socialist enclave? Seems like the local community college would be more "socialist" in the sense having fewer prerequisites to attend and costing far less money."
It doesn't have to be logical, wingnuts often use "socialist" to mean "Jew".
Posted by: Cuttlefish, OM | October 24, 2008 10:53 PM
One wonders: will Palin prevail in detailin'
The follies of funding the fruit-flies in France?
Or will this disclosure expose her composure
Is stunningly stupid--a stultified stance?
Posted by: marc buhler (PhD,damn it!) | October 24, 2008 10:55 PM
The key thing to understand here is that Dr. Palin (I presume she will be getting one from some fundy degree-mill as an honorary award) is fulfilling one of the key roles in Big Science Itself here - as befits her, she is obviously "The Negative Control".
An the overall McCain/Palin effort is, of course "The Negative of Control".
Posted by: SC | October 24, 2008 10:58 PM
Sarah, Pain and Gall
Posted by: Azkyroth | October 24, 2008 10:59 PM
How is that?
Posted by: Patricia | October 24, 2008 11:00 PM
During the next Poseidon rally/mermaid orgy, I intend to offer some smoked clams in thanks for the Cuttlefish.
Posted by: Ericka | October 24, 2008 11:02 PM
Thomas Hunt Morgan was the shit.
Posted by: Janine ID AKA The Lone Drinker | October 24, 2008 11:04 PM
On tonight's Countdown, one of the stories was about this speech. Richard Wolffe was on to talk about it. "Keith, I am going to be as restrained and measured as I possibly can about this. But this is the most mindless, ignorant, uninformed comment that we have seen from Governor Palin so far. And there has been a lot of competition for that phrase."
This is nothing that PZ has already said. But this is a non scientist saying it. If you would like to see the whole interview, go the the five minute point of the first segment.
Posted by: Naked Bunny with a Whip | October 24, 2008 11:05 PM
wingnuts often use "socialist" to mean "Jew".
*facepaws* I'm having trouble wrapping my brain around the conflicting stereotypes there.
Posted by: Eamon Knight | October 24, 2008 11:05 PM
Haven't watched the video (Do I have to? I really have more enjoyable ways to murder a few neurons), but I'll assume there's a personal angle about her youngest kid to this.
So, you stupid shit-for-brains bitch: do you really have no idea that figuring out trisomy-21, and exactly why it has all those effects, and what we might -- just might -- one day be able to do about that in the way of therapy, probably involved a whole lot of basic research on genetics, and regulation, and development, and a lot of that research was basic, undirected, just figuring-it-out stuff, with no idea whether it would ever lead to something useful -- and a whole lot of that was probably done on FUCKING FRUIT FLIES!!!!
Argh, I despair for my species.
Posted by: Jordan Fett | October 24, 2008 11:09 PM
In an ideal world, Palin would have an "It's a Wonderful Life" tour with P.Z. Meyers as her guardian angel, showing her how horrible life would be without scientific advances. He would take her on a wondrous tour of a land filled with diseases we've immunized against, a hospital that serves more as hospice than a curative institution, a starving population without the benefit of the Green Revolution, all the way down to trivial things such as textiles. Without industrial chemistry, her thousand-dollar clothes wouldn't be possible.
She would wake up from this terrible dream, and perhaps drop out of the race.
*sigh* if only..
http://jdfettblog.blogspot.com/
Posted by: Aaron | October 24, 2008 11:11 PM
I think that an interesting note here is that I believe that the "pet" project she may be referring to was about 200k "earmarked" for Rep. Mike Thompson (D-Calif.) for olive fruit fly research.
Olive fruit flies are an invasive species in California, so it would actually make sense to do research in Europe, the natural habitat of the fly, to help understand how to work to reduce the damage caused by the fly in California. So does this really mean that Sarah hates California?
Posted by: SC | October 24, 2008 11:12 PM
That's it. If one more fucking comment thread includes the words "stupid/dumb...cunt/bitch," I'm going to stop reading anything having to do with women here. What the fuck? Knock it the fuck off.
Posted by: Zaius | October 24, 2008 11:13 PM
Palin doesn't want the government spending $200,000 to research the control of olive fruit flies, but she offered $150 for each dead wolf.
Posted by: Aaron | October 24, 2008 11:14 PM
I think that an interesting note here is that I believe that the "pet" project she may be referring to was about 200k "earmarked" for Rep. Mike Thompson (D-Calif.) for olive fruit fly research.
Olive fruit flies are an invasive species in California, so it would actually make sense to do research in Europe, the natural habitat of the fly, to help understand how to work to reduce the damage caused by the fly in California. So does this really mean that Sarah hates California?
Posted by: Naked Bunny with a Whip | October 24, 2008 11:15 PM
So does this really mean that Sarah hates California?
I'm sure she does, except for Proposition 8.
Posted by: Cathy Miller | October 24, 2008 11:15 PM
This has to be the best. You have managed to say everything I have been thinking. I do not claim to belong to Menza, but she is not even smart enough to be embarrassed. Thank you for this Mr.P.Z. Myers!
Posted by: Azkyroth | October 24, 2008 11:17 PM
Fine, we'll start calling her a prick, a dick, a son-of-a-bitch, and a motherfucker. Better?
Posted by: Lago | October 24, 2008 11:19 PM
You think that is crazy? I knew this weird wacko leftist elitist named "Fleming," (probably French too) that used to waste much of his time looking at bread mold! What a kook, huh?
Posted by: Pierce R. Butler | October 24, 2008 11:19 PM
Fruit flies. IOW, gay flies - queer faggosexual flies!
And in France of all ungodly places.
Yet so-called scientists defend this perverted use of Americans'! Taxpayer!! Dollars!!!
Won't somebody please think of the children?
Posted by: Mike Haubrich, FCD | October 24, 2008 11:19 PM
Is it any wonder that so many scientists are endorsing Obama? Between Palin on French Fruit Flies and McCain on Bear DNA (CSI or Paternity?) and projectors, this Republican ticket is clearly an anti-science pair.
Eamon, we aren't all that bad; it's just a political strategy from a party whose wheels are falling off.
Posted by: Nerd of Redhead | October 24, 2008 11:19 PM
The stooopid, it hurts. This lady is just nuts. Time to send her back to Alaska.
Posted by: Anon | October 24, 2008 11:20 PM
Rachel Maddow *just* pwned Palin... (paraphrase) "let's get rid of those earmarks to study fruitflies, and put that money toward studying autism. Like for instance, knowing about [mentions particular protein, I am ignorant, sorry], a causal aspect of autism, which we found out by studying... fruit flies."
I am beginning to see what people see in this Maddow person...
Posted by: Thoracantha | October 24, 2008 11:22 PM
It french fruit flies. Are they studying the genetics of surrender? Now if they were studying a good old real American insect like the American Roach, that would be science I could get behind.
Yes I know the american cockroach is originally from North Africa, but it does not matter. Consider that their real Americans originally come for Europe.
Posted by: Anon | October 24, 2008 11:23 PM
@#45--
Call her Sarah Palin. Doesn't get any worse than that.
Posted by: Sven DiMilo | October 24, 2008 11:23 PM
I think you're all being a bit unfair to Ms. Palin. I'm sure she merely meant to imply that public research dollars would be better spent on studies of Caenorhabditis elegans and Danio rerio. PZ, I'm surprised you'd object, particularly to the latter.
Posted by: SC | October 24, 2008 11:23 PM
Not really. Colorful, gender-neutral insults exist.
Posted by: george.wiman | October 24, 2008 11:23 PM
She is Mary Mallon - 'Typhoid Mary' - who spread disease everywhere she worked but never acknowledged her own culpability. Palin spreads contagious stupidity, rather than typhoid, but the former is far more dangerous than the latter.
Posted by: Eric | October 24, 2008 11:23 PM
PZ, why do you do these things to me? I've got to go bash my head against the wall until the stupid is gone.
Posted by: Ann | October 24, 2008 11:26 PM
This might sound harsh and barbaric, but I really believe that anti-science folks should be excluded from all the technological advances from science, a.k.a. modern life. They really don't deserve it.
Posted by: Dust | October 24, 2008 11:28 PM
She was for fruit flys to nowhere before she was against them.
Posted by: OctoberMermaid | October 24, 2008 11:30 PM
#23
"GRAAAAAAWWWWWRRRR!! HULK SMASH!"
Reading this from someone named Kraid was especially funny.
Posted by: paul fcd | October 24, 2008 11:36 PM
It's fun watching the Menza Pz suck-up crew spring into action.
Not that I would call anyone names or anything.
Posted by: Zeno | October 24, 2008 11:37 PM
Poor Sarah hasn't a clue. She would have voted to condemn Galileo, too.
On top of everything else, she's also an apostate and a heretic. At least Catholics have a reason to think so. I'm sure most of them will overlook it so that they can vote for a fellow exponent of the anti-choice position.
Posted by: RamblinDude | October 24, 2008 11:38 PM
I almost feel sorry for Palin. She puts her perky, best foot forward and tries her best, but she's so shallow and dumb it's just embarrassing to watch.
Posted by: scott | October 24, 2008 11:38 PM
This is a general phenomenon. The public does not understand the value of basic research (btw, this value far exceeds the benefits to human health and the economy). I can't imagine how to fix this problem. The public wants science to fix all of their problems, so they support research directed at those problems. Scientists want money to pursue their research, so they spin their basic research to sound applied (everything COULD have a practical application). Funding agencies know they are funding basic research with only peripheral relevance to health and societal ills, but when there is a breakthrough or advance from basic research (which is often), it looks to the public like the strategy of funding directed research works. I'd love to see a tally of medical advances that derive from directed medical research in industry compared to those derived from basic research in academia.
Posted by: Patrick L Mercer | October 24, 2008 11:40 PM
Sarah Palin is not just stupid, she's proud of her stupidity. She thinks its cool to be stupid.
"We don't need no science, we got a buttload of Jesus..."
Amazing.
Posted by: 386sx | October 24, 2008 11:45 PM
"Fruit fly research in Paris France. I kid you not!"
She makes it sound like it's outrageous or something? Without even being more specific? Like it's enough to just say "Fruit fly research in Paris France" and people should immediately be outraged? I don't get it...
Posted by: Shaden Freud | October 24, 2008 11:50 PM
Could have been worse, like research at a French planetarium.
Posted by: Epistaxis | October 24, 2008 11:50 PM
Bob Vogel, #7:
I can't tell if you were serious, but speaking as someone who supports animal welfare, I can answer: no. Nepotism, racism, speciesism, and segmentationism (?) are just different degrees of the same wrong idea. Our obligations toward another being should be determined by its capacity to experience suffering, not its relation to us. That's why some countries protect cephalopods, which are even more distant from us than flies.Posted by: Shadow | October 24, 2008 11:55 PM
Speaking as someone with a cunt, I thoroughly support referring to cunts as cunts, whether it's the orifice or a woman who's proved herself to be no better than an oozing hole that needs to be bitch-slapped and sent back to - well, no. I suppose I wouldn't want something like that in my kitchen. But there's probably somewhere we can stick her.
Posted by: OctoberMermaid | October 25, 2008 12:02 AM
#60
"Not that I would call anyone names or anything."
Well, I certainly hope not, considering the lack of creativity or thought you put into your comment. You'd bore us to tears.
Posted by: artemisia | October 25, 2008 12:04 AM
What do you get when you cross Sarah Palin with a fruit fly?
Posted by: Badger3k | October 25, 2008 12:04 AM
As seen on Kos: http://localtechwire.com/business/local_tech_wire/biotech/story/1809660/
"Now scientists at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine have shown that a protein called neurexin is required for these nerve cell connections to form and function correctly.
The discovery, made in Drosophila fruit flies may lead to advances in understanding autism spectrum disorders, as recently, human neurexins have been identified as a genetic risk factor for autism."
OOOOOPS!
Posted by: Longtime Lurker | October 25, 2008 12:05 AM
Unfortunately, the majority of 'Murkins are scientifically illiterate, so they'll never suss on to the fact that our Dipteran friends have helped us immeasurably. The appeal to Francophobia was just the cherry on top of the stupid sundae.
Alexis Gambis' "A Fruit Fly in New York" was featured in the Imagine Science Film Festival. It is short, but it does a great job at showing Drosophila researchers in a fun, sympathetic light and should be required viewing for high school students:
http://www.vimeo.com/1577547?pg=embed&sec=1577547
Wow, Cuttlefish... internal rhyme scheme, alliteration... your amp obviously goes OVER eleven. I imagine you'd be able to beat Egil Skallagrimsson in an extemporaneous poetry contest!
Posted by: raven | October 25, 2008 12:11 AM
Palin turns out to be a huge net negative for McBush.
1. She isn't qualified to be VP. And Cthulhu forbid probably president after the sick old 72 year old man falls down a flight of stairs.
McCain put his party and this country of 300 million people at serious risk of catastrophe with his stunt. The GOP leadership has been abandoning his campaign in droves, most citing Palin.
2. This called his judgement into question. The verdict is in, he doesn't have any.
Amazingly enough, some of the GOP can put the good of the country ahead of the gutter level politics of ignorance, stupidity, and death wishes. Good for them.
Posted by: raven | October 25, 2008 12:16 AM
That is OK. Tinfoil works better anyway.
Posted by: Anders | October 25, 2008 12:18 AM
"...our understanding of biology would be light years behind where it is now" Well.. Do I really need to spell it out?
@ 47 You emphazised the wrong word (Simpson ref.?) It should be "please"
Yes nerd....
Posted by: Espen | October 25, 2008 12:20 AM
To #15: I'm from Norway, and I'm not laughing. The concept that something like sarah palin can become a VP of the United States is probably the most depressing and troublesome thing I've every encountered. Thinking about them winning this election makes me sick. The prospective journey back to ingnorance that may result from this is something I don't want to live through, literally. So no, this doesn't make me laugh, it makes me consider my end.
Posted by: Kel | October 25, 2008 12:20 AM
What an ignoramus!
Posted by: Naked Bunny with a Whip | October 25, 2008 12:23 AM
Colorful, gender-neutral insults exist.
I'm sure being called a pig-ignorant dipshit is much better for a woman's self-esteem than being called a cunt. We wouldn't want to offend someone we're insulting.
Posted by: raven | October 25, 2008 12:24 AM
She's from Alaska which is about the same thing.
Posted by: Lightnin | October 25, 2008 12:24 AM
While every first year bio student should understand the importance of Drosophila melanogaster as a model organism (for instance, shedding light on non-mendellian modes of inheritance like sex-linked diseases), I wouldn't fault the general public for not realising the significance.
However, WTF is the deal with politicians not bothering to the most basic of research before opening their mouths? Seriously, how difficult is it to ring or send an email to someone, ANYONE with a science background to ask questions like, "why would an overhead projector cost 3 million?", "or why are biologists so obsessed with fruit flys?".
Next thing they'll be asking why the government is putting millions into research on mustard seedlings (see Arabidopsis thaliana).
Posted by: paul fcd | October 25, 2008 12:25 AM
"idiot... blind,shortsighted ignoramus... pretentious clod...
ignorant buffoon.
worthless,disgusting turd
anti-science fucktard.
as Pz might say, "Yep, these are my readers"
Posted by: Your Mighty Overload | October 25, 2008 12:27 AM
S.Scott at 9
Actually, by her own definition, she would class both herself and Bush as terrorists, since their goal certainly appears to be to destroy the government from within.
Posted by: Stephanie | October 25, 2008 12:27 AM
We should thank her....due to Palin's ignorance...America is getting smarter. Online dictionaries are getting a serious workout.
She makes dumb look stupid....(not even sure what that means)
I despise her. We just finished 8 years of a scientifically bankrupt brain. VOTE!
Posted by: SC | October 25, 2008 12:30 AM
You might think about not wanting to offend others of that person's gender. "Pig-ignorant dipshit" isn't misogynistic. And I really don't care what your gender is - women can make stupid misogynistic comments, too.
Posted by: Azkyroth | October 25, 2008 12:32 AM
Well, there's the Catholic clergy...
Posted by: rich (richmanwisco) | October 25, 2008 12:33 AM
There's another, equally dangerous, facet about her speech being missed here. And that's the assertion that government shouldn't determine how money is spent for children's education/care of special needs children. Leave it up to the parents.
Which has been, for many years, the codespeak for the evangelical right to wedge into the education system and deny science, as well as allow for wackjob alternatives to science based therapies whether or not they are effective. And of course alternative medicine has yet (and probably never will be) shown to be effective. That's the most disturbing part to me.
Posted by: Ericka | October 25, 2008 12:35 AM
Thomas Hunt Morgan was the shit.
Posted by: Azkyroth | October 25, 2008 12:35 AM
So who gets to be Ridley?
Posted by: Anders | October 25, 2008 12:42 AM
#81: You seem to have a hard time with the (deserved) language.. Christian?
Posted by: Jams | October 25, 2008 12:44 AM
"That's it. If one more fucking comment thread includes the words 'stupid/dumb...cunt/bitch,' I'm going to stop reading anything having to do with women here. What the fuck? Knock it the fuck off." - SC
I sympathize. I really do. But really - and you know I'm a cunt about these things - the lion's share of gendered slurs on this site are directed at males. Worse still, they're generally not so metaphorical. Granted, it isn't a contest.
I propose that we apply the Steven Pinker test (actually, it's my test, but inspired by him). A primer for the uninitiated. The test is this: if a word is used in a sense where it's literal meaning is relinquished in favour of a generalized pejorative, we shouldn't enforce its literal meaning onto the intentions of the speaker.
Maybe someone can articulate this better?
Posted by: raven | October 25, 2008 12:49 AM
Not really. We have run out of adjectives and synonyms for "stupid", "ignorant", and "crazy".
People have started substituting slang terms for human anatomy but it isn't really the same thing. Pointless debates are raging about whether Palin is a "dumb cunt" or a "stupid dickhead". Neither is very accurate in a literal sense.
Posted by: Dahan | October 25, 2008 12:52 AM
Those fruit flies were probably gay too... with their own gay agenda. I can just see them preying on poor salt-of-the-Earth, straight fruit flies from small towns. Disgusting. Makes me SICK!
Posted by: Shadow | October 25, 2008 12:53 AM
women can make stupid misogynistic comments, too.
Yes, yes we can. Apparently, we can do a lot of things now. Hurray for bitches' rights! So until a man shoves his cock down my throat to shut me up (and considering that I wouldn't even come near myself if I didn't have to..), I'm going to say whatever the hell I please. Particularly if gender is part of what's offendng me.
Posted by: Azkyroth | October 25, 2008 12:54 AM
Having never encountered a vulva capable of speech, nor obtained reliable secondhand reports of the same, I had already concluded all cunts were dumb.
Penile glanses also seem to be consistently incapable of thought or judgement, though many of their owners would doubtless prefer the synonym "thick."
Posted by: Falyne | October 25, 2008 12:55 AM
Yeah, the problem with using misogynistic slurs isn't the harm they cause the target, but with the harm they cause everyone else.
For example, I'll defend even Ann fucking Coulter against being called a cunt or a bitch, because, frankly, it's not in my inter