[Physltest] [Phys-L] Re: Are the Forces of Darkness on the March?

[John Denker <jsd@AV8N.COM>]

Mark Shapiro asked, Are the Forces of Darkness on the March?

What kind of softball question is that?  The forces of
darkness have been on the rampage for quite some time.

Some aspects of this are IMHO well within the charter of
this group.

1) For starters, the topic of "science policy and policymaking"
ought to be in-bounds.  As I mentioned a few months ago, there
is some pretty good documentation available from the Union of
Concerned Scientists:

> Since the release of the [first] UCS report in February, the
> administration has continued to undermine the integrity of science in
> policy making, seemingly unchecked. Many scientists have spoken out
> about their frustration with an administration that has undermined
> the quality of the science that informs policy making by suppressing,
> distorting, or manipulating the work done by scientists at federal
> agencies and on scientific advisory panels.

The announcement / executive summary is at:
http://www.ucsusa.org/global_environment/rsi/page.cfm?pageID=1449

You can download the whole report (34 pages) from:
http://www.ucsusa.org/documents/Scientific_Integrity_in_Policy_Making_July_2004.pdf


2) Secondly, if science teachers had been successful in teaching
critical thinking skills, this never would have happened.

I am reminded of a quote from Patrick Moynihan:
        "Everyone is titled to their own opinion,
        but not their own facts."

But now it seems the facts are up for grabs.  Apparently more
than half of the people who voted for Dubya think that Saddam
Hussein was somehow responsible for the 9/11 attacks.
   http://www.google.com/search?q=republicans+saddam+9%2F11


3) The politics is not that hard to understand:  There is an
unholy alliance between the cynical and the gullible.  That is,
an alliance (or, rather, a predator/prey relationship) between
a few very-well-funded, very-well-informed corporate lobbyists,
plus tens of millions of people who are not very well off and
not very well informed ... and who can be persuaded to vote
against their economic interests.
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2003_09/002155.php


*) There are many other lines of evidence, all pointing to the
same thing:

What we are seeing is the triumph of dogma over reality.


BTW: As for the pre-election polls, I don't think the data was
particularly messed up ... although many of the TV commentators
who tried to *interpret* the data made a hash of it.  Any
halfway sensible analysis of the data indicated that the election
was too close to call.  It could have gone either way.  The
outcome was well within the margin of error of the pre-election
polling.
   http://www.av8n.com/politics/ec-prob.htm

Also BTW:  You should never trust electronic voting machines.
I haven't looked into it personally, but I know and trust some
very smart people who have looked into it ... and the situation
is dismal.  The opportunity is there for vote-stealing on a
grand scale, enough to make the stolen 2000 election look like
amateur hour.



It's the triumph of dogma over reality.
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