Badlands Blue notes with due mockery and disgust the fact that South Dakota's legislators are willing to pass a resolution that declares "astrological dynamics" can affect the climate.
But wait! Gubernatorial candidates Dave Knudson and Gordon Howie aren't quite as dumb as U.S. House candidates Dr. R. Blake Curd and Kristi Noem. Last week the House voted 36–30 for HCR 1009 to teach our kids astrology. (My neighbor Gerry Lange voted for this meathead resolution as well: he and I need to have a chat.)
But before the Senate vote yesterday, Senate sponsor Corey Brown moved to amend. The Senate hoghoused the resolution, stripping out the hogwash about astrology and the gas of life and all the other hot-button argumentation the science deniers wanted and replacing it with more mealy-mouthed language about how "the debate on global warming has subsumed political and philosophical viewpoints, which has complicated and prejudiced the scientific investigation of global climatic change phenomena."
Knudson and Howie and 16 other senators thus voted for a resolution that says everything and nothing. A majority of the House at least had the moxie to spell out the idiocy they wanted preached in the schools.
Alas, our Senator Russell Olson agreed with Gerry Lange that the legislators know more about science than science teachers... a position Russ's high school science teacher could probably take issue with.
I do believe the reference to astrology was a straight up mistake. In many years of working with and listening to people, it is not uncommon for that term to be conflated with astronomy.
ReplyDeleteAgreed that the wording which was settled upon is hardly worth the pixels it takes to display it. Of course, my basis for that decision is probably a bit different from your own.
Ah, yes, the old "science deniers" slander. Meatheads make mindless assertions that a skeptical view of a hypothesis makes one equal with a holocaust denier.
ReplyDeleteThat is particularly disgusting to Richard Lindzen, who has served on the IPCC and is the professor of atmospheric science at MIT [That's 'Massachusetts Institute of Technology,' one of the better known universities.]
Try reading him and learn something about the AGW scam.
http://www.heartland.org/events/newyork09/pdfs/lindzen.pdf
Had Rep. Lange voted no the resolution would have had only 35 votes, ie not a majority of the members elect and would have failed. Assuming one of the GOP members wouldn't have changed their vote.
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