McCain once again whined about studying bear DNA, and it’s clear that the decrepit old man doesn’t have a clue about the value of biological research. But the other interesting revelation is that while denouncing earmarks for studying bear DNA, overhead projectors, or fruit fly research, the complaint is not about earmarks, but about funding science.

How can we tell? It turns out that Sarah Palin was happy to lobby for earmarks to study recreational halibut fishing, the mating habits of crabs, and harbor seal DNA. Those all sound like legitimate science projects to me, but I doubt that Palin recognized that — all she cares about is diverting money to her bailiwick. This is a different kind of abuse of science, where it’s seen only as a tool for local profit … and you just know that she would not support even local science that interfered with her plans.

The Anchorage Daily News has just endorsed…Barack Obama for president. Say, wasn’t there a favorite daughter of the fine state of Alaska on that ticket?

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Bora has several videos of some fruit fly researchers defending their work. Of course, if you really want to get into the details, here’s the progress report of the very same specific research project that Caribou Barbie dissed.

Walker A Jones
EUROPEAN BIOLOGICAL CONTROL RESEARCH
Director
CS90013 MONTFERRIER SUR LEZ
34988 ST. GELY DU FESC CEDEX
MONTPELLIER,

Research Project: DISCOVERY, BIOLOGY AND ECOLOGY OF NATURAL ENEMIES OF INSECT PESTS OF CROPS, URBAN AND NATURAL AREAS
2007 Annual Report

1a.Objectives (from AD-416)
Explore for natural enemies (pathogens, parasites and predators) in the native range of insect pests identified as high priority targets by the ARS National Program Staff. Identify, colonize and evaluate the most promising natural enemies and ship to U.S. cooperators. Results of laboratory and field studies will be used to improve the ability to predict key factors for application to future programs. Key target pests include the Asian longhorned beetle(Anoplophora glabripennis), emerald ash borer (Agrilus planipennis), wheat stem sawfly (Cephus cinctus), olive fly (Bactrocera oleae), Formosan subterranean termite (Coptotermes formosanus), and plant bugs (several species).

NP304, Component V: Pest Control Technologies. A key natural enemy of the olive fruit fly in Africa is discovered and shipped to California. The olive fruit fly threatens olive production in California. Long known in the Old World, it invaded California without its co-evolved natural enemies. Among several parasitic wasps discovered from Eurasia and Africa, one from Kenya, and southern Africa was showed to be specific to olive fruit fly. Extensive collections in Kenya, South Africa and Namibia yielded several thousand olive fruit flies which were shipped to the ARS laboratory in France for processing. Seventeen shipments containing over 13,000 parasitic wasps (Psyttalia lounsburyi) were subsequently shipped to California for evaluation and release. If successfully established, it is highly likely that pesticide use and associated costs will be substantially reduced. This activity was accomplished in cooperation with USDA-APHIS, the California Department of Food and Agriculture, and the University of California, Berkeley.

But of course the Republican party opposes that project. It’s one that actually worked.

I think we can all already see the defense the right wing is throwing up to rationalize Sarah Palin’s inane remarks about “fruit fly research in Paris, France”: she wasn’t disparaging all research into fruit flies, but only one specific earmark for studying agricultural pests.

Baloney.

The context of that comment was that she was claiming research had “little or nothing to do with the public good”, and she brought up these seemingly trivial little animals and a place the right wing despises as dogwhistles to her hoople-headed fans. Claiming now that she was making an informed criticism of a specific study is a feeble attempt to distract with a lie.

Remember, this is the crank governor of Alaska who denies evolution and global warming, the backup candidate to a man who mocks research into bear DNA and calls a multimillion dollar educational tool an “overhead projector”, from a party that ridicules people with Parkinson’s because they want more stem cell research, and idiots want to claim that she isn’t really anti-science because in this one case she was actually targeting an instance of applied research that directly benefits agricultural interests?

That’s insane. You have to be a purblind slavering zombie of the Rethuglican party to swallow that.

It goes deeper than just trying to belittle science, too — we are a technological society that is entirely dependent on the advancements science has brought to us, that is facing a new series of challenges that will require new science to overcome. The Assemblies of God churches are not going to come up with anything to help with global warming, alternative energy, new medicine, new reproductive technologies, new discoveries, new ideas. Science is our tool to help people, yet the Republican party only sees it as a kind of armament factory to help them kill strangers in foreign lands. As John Cole put it, “why is it that the people who claim to adhere to the culture of life are so filled with hate for…people?”

I just got this in the mail, and smug elitist that I am, I thought it was worth passing along.

Dear friends, In these times, with extremely serious, complicated crisises confronting us both economically and internationally, we need to have intelligent, educated people as president & vice president:

Educational Background:

Barack Obama:
Columbia University – B.A.
Political Science with a Specialization in
International Relations.
Harvard – Juris Doctor (J.D.) Magna Cum Laude

Joseph Biden:
University of Delaware – B.A. in History and B.A. in Political Science.
Syracuse University College of Law – Juris Doctor (J.D.)

vs.

John McCain:
United States Naval Academy – Class rank: 894 of 899

Sarah Palin:
Hawaii Pacific University – 1 semester
North Idaho College – 2 semesters – general study
University of Idaho – 2 semesters – journalism
Matanuska-Susitna College – 1 semester
University of Idaho – 3 semesters – B.A. in Journalism

California’s Proposition 8 is a ballot measure that aims to ban same-sex marriage — it is a regressive proposal that aims to strip equality from a minority population. It is revealing to see who is supporting each side of the contest.

The organizations trying to oppose Proposition 8 include Apple Computer, Sergey Brin of Google, the California Teachers Association, and the state Democratic party — anyone supportive of civil rights, progressive causes, or (to be honest) finding a profit in not discriminating against well-educated people in a technological workforce for irrelevant reasons, like what they do in the privacy of their bedrooms.

Who is supporting it? Yahoos and churches. Once again, on a basic civil rights issue, religion comes out fighting for the wrong side. For a great example of narrow-minded wretched biblical rationalizations, listen to Rick Warren of the Saddleback Church. He comes out strongly for Prop. 8, calling it a “moral issue” (which it is — too bad he’s fighting on the side of evil), and trying to argue why his sheep should vote for it…and the only reason he’s got is “because its always been this way”. Seriously — he repeats himself multiple times, and that’s the only reason he offers, again and again. Apparently, the “traditional, historical, universal” definition of marriage has always been “one man, one woman”. I don’t think he’s been reading his bible very carefully.

So, Californians, whose side are you on? 21^st century America, or the imaginary repressed Puritan America of the theocrats?

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 21^st century rationalism and Dark Age inanity. It ought to be an easy choice.

Oh, the pressure. This somewhat tardy edition of the Carnival of the Liberals happens to be the last one before election day, which makes it important to bring up the issues we ought to be considering as we make our decisions about who we’re going to vote for…although, if you’re liberal, this is a year when the decision is remarkably easy to make. So here we go with an issues-oriented carnival.

Foreign policy: What do you think of the Bush Doctrine, the idea that we should unilaterally and preemptively attack anyone we think might be a threat? Here’s a better plan: Let’s be the good guys.

Health care: Compare and contrast Obama vs McCain on Healthcare. There are important differences in how they would improve the management of the country’s health.

Abortion: To a liberal, abortion is also a health care issue — we care about the health and autonomy of women, something Republican candidates don’t seem to comprehend. Consider McCain’s Legal Errors at the Debate, and Why They Matter.

Poverty: It’s a related issue. How do women break out of the entrapment of pregnancy? It’s a question of Poverty & Choice.

Homosexuality: Conservatives want to strip a significant minority of their rights, and in every election cycle someone gets the bright idea of rousing the right-wing vote by throwing anti-gay legislation on the ballot. This year, California has Proposition 8, a proposed law that would once again make whipping boys of the homosexuals. Read a Brief Analysis of the Yes on 8 Side — they’re really bringing on the sleaze.

Race: Every American election is about race, deep down. When Republicans rail against crime, or welfare, or immigration, it’s all about suppressing minorities further. Greg Laden’s Review of the Science Museum of Minnesota’s Exhibit on Race and Racism has a lot to say about the cultural effects of racial differences.

The economy: With the economy in its current state of crisis, with lending companies receiving massive bailouts, you might be wondering Are you stupid for paying your mortgage? After all, if Wall Street can be forgiven for errors and mismanagement, why can’t you?

Religion: I’m often told that religion is an institution that provides support for the underprivileged — it is a private, charitable source for public assistance. How can that be if, in their ignorance and dogmatic biases, the faithful dismiss important issues in health? There’s nothing like the fallacious belief that mental illness is the work of devils to deprive people of good medical care.

Patriotism: To a liberal, patriotism is not an unquestioning faith in the perfection of one’s country, but a recognition that a country can always be bettered and its flaws corrected. We have a perfectly horrid example of illiberal, unthinking jingoism right here in my home state, with Michele Bachmann and her Anti-American Paranoia. Let’s hope we can get her out of office soon.

In a similar vein, none of our candidates are perfect; there’s a lot I personally dislike about Barack Obama, for instance. What we have to do on 4 November, though, is balance our concerns about the issues in the election, and perhaps follow a harm reduction model of politics — let’s try to get a candidate in office who at least moves the government in a better direction. I think we all know what that means, and the choice is clear: despite his flaws, we need to put Barack Obama in office. Let’s make the country better. Not perfect, but better.

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The next edition of the Carnival of the Liberals will be at The Lay Scientist on November 5th. Hey, that’s the day after the big election — that’s going to be an interesting one.

This is the top news story on Fox right now: a McCain volunteer says she was robbed at an ATM, by a black man of course, and then when the thief saw her McCain bumper sticker, he beat her up and carved a “B” for “Barack” in her face. It’s getting a bit…shrill.

It could have happened, but there are just a few odd details here. She claims the assailant used a knife — a very dull knife — to cut her cheek, but all there are are faint scratches, not real cuts. It’s also lettered quite nicely, not exactly like the work of an angry mugger on a struggling woman.

But the most glaringly obvious detail is that the letter is backwards. As if it were done in a mirror. Hmmmm.