Who needs science...

Quoted from Arizona Daily Star (8/25/06, p. A11): U.S. District Judge John C. Coughenour on Thursday rejected a Bush administration decision to weaken rules governing pesticide use, saying the change reflected a "total lack" of scientific justification and there were "disturbing indications" that the administration deliberately muted dissent from government scientists.

This follows on the heels of the administration's pressuring NASA to drop from its mission statement the phrase "To understand and protect our home planet." The reason for this change was to stifle NASA climate scientist James Hansen, who had been speaking out repeatedly on the dangers of rising greenhouse gas emissions and global warming.

These two events constitute but a small sample of what has proven to be an ongoing pattern of denying scientific evidence. For the Bush administration, science as a practice that insists on the application of reason and rigorous proofs or testing to determine truth, has value only insofar as it promotes a pre-determined agenda.

There is an odd correlate in the conservative recipe for improving the education of our youth. By stressing reading, writing and arithmetic -- over and above science and history -- we can count on a population who no longer applies analytic thinking to problem-solving.