http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/09/as-president-jo.html

I do like universal health care though, so I’m still leaning Obama.

        vakibs said:

Libertarians.. wake up..

It will be a great day when liberal democrats face libertarians on elections – two groups of smart people who value science. But alas, republican party has become a dungeon of science-hating, religious fundamentalist, trigger happy morons who select a 70 year old fossil and a religious nutcase with 2 years of experience as their team. Compared to this selection, Obama-Biden is brilliant on the part of democrats (they could have done much worse).

It would have been a great day if Ron Paul was on the republican ticket. But this will never happen as long as the corrupt establishment at the republican party have their way. Restriction on civil liberties is just the tip of the iceberg.

This is the time to rebel against the GOP. The levels of corruption that are seething into the very backbone of this party, make it totally unsuitable to lead USA.

If you don’t actively question now, the GOP will fall forever to the nutcases.

Liberal Democrats love science? With respect to the real world effect of their policies Liberal Democrats are perhaps worse than the Republicans! You might dislike the Republicans because of their more overtly religious tone, but you need to try to divorce your religious views from your politics.

If you just look at their real world effects on science and industry then the democrats have done a lot more to stand in the way of applied science than the Republicans. They shut down nuclear power in our country (killing thousands as a result due to coal), they cut off GM food research with real world effects in developing countries (see below article), they force inefficient and wasteful environmental protections on people, they ban chemicals like mad, they force mandates on people to make them use “feel good” technologies and the list goes on.

Republicans have accomplished some worrying things like influencing what children are educated (at lower school levels), and restricting stem-cell research. There are some negative effects there, but stem cell research is also restricted in many other much more secular countries (e.g. German Green party is against it) so I don’t think that’s so clearly a religious issue.

Ron Paul, he sounds nice at a distance, but after looking at his positions I really can’t say I agree. I’m not going into what specifically, the list would be long!

The DLC types are generally more science friendly, but that’s a narrow part of the Democratic party (sadly).

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/18/business/worldbusiness/18focus.html?ex=1369195200&en=44ea2e01cc9664f5&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

It will be a great day when liberal democrats face libertarians on elections – two groups of smart people who value science. But alas, republican party has become a dungeon of science-hating, religious fundamentalist, trigger happy morons who select a 70 year old fossil and a religious nutcase with 2 years of experience as their team. Compared to this selection, Obama-Biden is brilliant on the part of democrats (they could have done much worse).

It would have been a great day if Ron Paul was on the republican ticket. But this will never happen as long as the corrupt establishment at the republican party have their way. Restriction on civil liberties is just the tip of the iceberg.

This is the time to rebel against the GOP. The levels of corruption that are seething into the very backbone of this party, make it totally unsuitable to lead USA.

If you don’t actively question now, the GOP will fall forever to the nutcases.

        Lorraine said:

Sarah Palin doesn’t support teaching of creationism.

Yes, she does, she explicitly said she supports teaching both evolution and creationism, which is completely unacceptable.

She just doesn’t want there to be a ban of discussion of it in the classroom.

She said creationism should not be part of the curriculum and school board members should not be chosen for their stance on creationism/evolution.

        drbuzz0 said:

This is not a political blog, at least not primarily. Generally I only go into political things that have some kind of direct relation to science or health or something. I just kinda felt like sharing this because it was important to me and I had sent it, but oh well.

Understood. But it would appear politics and science are more directly related every year. We might soon have a VP who believes dinosaurs existed 4,000 years ago and wants creationism taught in schools.

I am deeply cynical of our political system – more so than it would appears most of your readers – and think its needs to be examined as closely and thoroughly as bad science. Perhaps this blog is not the right place. But would be nice to extend the same level and type of critical thinking into the political arena.

One quibble on your letter to McCain:

“I know that the senator will not read it, but in general such letters do get read by campaign staff “

If it works like most political offices I’ve been in, some hired office worker will open it–look for a check–not seeing one, will toss in into the trashbag. (If they find a check, of course, they will take it out before they throw it into the trash)