Cold neurons: Mitt confused boosterism for science

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Thursday September 06, 2012 · 1:33 PM PDT

2012/09/06 · 13:33

In an interview with the Washington Examiner in December 2011 that is remarkable for the level of confusion he demonstrated, Mitt Romney took time from explaining his passion for science to give a shout-out to the University of Utah for its embarrassing excursion into the realms of pathological science, where essentially all researchers have relegated this topic.

The rest of the interview is worth looking over for other examples of Mr. Romney's fuzzy thinking - for example on his tax plan ("You want to know precisely what the plan looks like and I have not laid out that plan..."), justification of the Massachusetts health program as a tax dodge ("they actually got to pay in pre-tax dollars. So the exchange one, made it tax advantageous, and number two, it gave people access to insurance") and other characteristic Romney features that are so easy to recognize ("Oh, and my favorite thing, I can fire them if I don't like them"). But the thing that jumps out to any scientist is the astonishing lack of understanding he has of the things he says he is trying to advocate.

I'll demonstrate with this unvarnished quote -- and I'll warn you, if you have any training in or understanding of or even sympathy for how science works, you'd better be sitting down:

I do believe in basic science. I believe in participating in space. I believe in analysis of new sources of energy. I believe in laboratories, looking at ways to conduct electricity with -- with cold fusion, if we can come up with it. It was the University of Utah that solved that. We somehow can’t figure out how to duplicate it.

How anyone could vote for a person who would express such thoughts as those above as a candidate for ANY high office absolutely escapes me.

Poll

38 votes Show Results

I think that Mitt's reference to cold fusion:

38 votes Vote Now!

I think that Mitt's reference to cold fusion:

is typical for politicians, who don't understand science anyway

10 votes

demonstrates that he's a blithering fool on the topic

21 votes

illustrates the direction that our country's energy policy should go

0 votes

got under-reported as an example of his fuzzy thinking

6 votes

is insightful and witty

1 vote

Randy Neugebauer making trouble in YOUR district

ScienceMan

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Tuesday April 06, 2010 · 10:30 AM PDT

2010/04/06 · 10:30

As documented by the blogger @lubbockleft, Randy the "baby killer yeller" Neugebauer is back fulfilling his promise to export his particular brand of craziness and make trouble in YOUR district by raising money to send to other candidates.

Randy Neugebauer's fatcat luncheon http://blogs.lubbockonline.com/...

ScienceMan

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Sunday March 28, 2010 · 10:39 AM PDT

2010/03/28 · 10:39

As mentioned earlier in several diaries, the race for the Texas 19th district is attracting national attention in the wake of controversial and ill-timed remarks on the House floor and a later insincere retraction by Congressman Randy Neugebauer.

Now it seems that the local public reaction in this conservative district, which hosts a very electable Democratic candidate, is running strongly against Mr. Neugebauer, as can be seen from a sampling of the letters from Saturday and Sunday's issues of the Lubbock newspaper, the Avalanche-Journal. Among the responses was a letter from a local rural conservative physician, who although he says he was "disappointed" by the passage of health care reform, condemns Neugebauer for his rude outburst.

ScienceMan

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Friday March 26, 2010 · 3:15 PM PDT

2010/03/26 · 15:15

As mentioned before my myself and other diarists, Andy Wilson is the Democratic candidate for Congress in West Texas, the 19th congressional district currently inhabited by Randy Neugebauer, the birther/deather/yacht owner of health reform "baby killer" yelling fame who has voted against almost every sensible progressive bill ever introduced since he took office.

Wilson's campaign has just released a new video included below. By comparison to Mr. Neugebauer, he appears to be a model of sanity:

I would like to see to see Randy "Baby Killer heckler" "Birther Bill" Neugebauer retire

29 votes Vote Now!

I would like to see to see Randy "Baby Killer heckler" "Birther Bill" Neugebauer retire

Right Away

10 votes

After personally apologizing to Bart Stupak in the well of the House

11 votes

As soon as Andy Wilson or some other sensible Democrat can defeat him

7 votes

Never, I really like people who interfere with the process of saving lives through health care for millions more Americans with totally unrelated issues that were not part of the bill

1 vote

Deficit commission is how to save health care

ScienceMan

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Thursday January 21, 2010 · 11:02 AM PST

2010/01/21 · 11:02

Pay attention, folks: think; don't blow this. Contrary to knee-jerk automatic reaction against it and the predictable and automatic "you're going to cut my Social Security and Medicare" argument already in place, running on autopilot, creating a deficit-reduction commission is exactly what we need in place ASAP to achieve a win in health care reform. That's why the President and his staff are calling for it.

Poll

24 votes Show Results

I support (or do not support) health care reform because:

24 votes Vote Now!

I support (or do not support) health care reform because:

I don't really care about reform at all; I just like posting here

0 votes

I truly believe in health care and insurance reform and believe it will reduce the deficit.

19 votes

I don't care about deficits; I just want to go to the doctor any time for free.

2 votes

I don't support health care or insurance reform at all.

3 votes

The real winner in the Reid controversy is Steele

ScienceMan

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Tuesday January 12, 2010 · 6:18 PM PST

2010/01/12 · 18:18

Everyone in the media and blogosphere following the piece of red meat that Michael Steele grabbed and flung ahead of the pack of wolves that was pursuing him has fallen for the trick that Steele used to distract attention from his own problems.

Give it up already and return to the hunt. Steele may be clumsy, prone to overstatement and to tripping over his own statements, and flippant in the extreme, but he has outmastered all of you who thought you were paying attention by cleverly deflecting the conversation within a single news cycle from his own problems to a two-year-old comment by Reid.

This was politics at its worst. Don't let him get away with it! One moment he is calling on critics within his own party to fire him, and they are about to do it, and the next he has flicked the bait somewhere else. Call Michael Steele on this tactic, and return the attention to his serious misadventures within his own highly fractured party.

Poll

32 votes Show Results

I think Michael Steele is

32 votes Vote Now!

I think Michael Steele is

certifiably in the wrong party

2 votes

smart

2 votes

lucky

2 votes

warm, gentle and humorous

1 vote

about to get fired anyway

25 votes

RSS

Cold neurons: Mitt confused boosterism for science

Randy Neugebauer making trouble in YOUR district

Randy Neugebauer getting pasted in local newspaper letters for "baby killer" comments

Andy Wilson, Randy Neugebauer's Democratic Opponent In His Own Words

Democrat Andy Wilson Needs Help To Fight Randy Neugebauer, the Baby Killer Heckler

Deficit commission is how to save health care

The real winner in the Reid controversy is Steele