Palin

I have this instinct that I believe only an Alaskan can truly understand to duck my head whenever Sarah Palin's mug hits the boob tube. I understand exactly the way she speaks, the way she thinks. She plays the archetypal Alaskan independent, conservative, self righteous role perfectly. You see, a lot Alaskans believe they are pretty special and unique folks; and I get it, I really do. Alaska is a special place. We have more square miles of uninhabitable permafrost laden tundra than just about anywhere; which is in itself something to be exceptionally proud of. We also have a shit-load of moose and drunk natives which taste kind of like bland, mediocre beef (the moose, probably not the natives).

But the reason I duck is because of this weird lizard brain response I have that her words will somehow paint me within her camp. The cheapest trick available to a politician is the populist appeal; speaking in meaningless generalities, "we freedom loving Americans, unique independent minded Alaskans". I don't have a desire to be caught within that driftnet, not because I hate freedom but because I am embarrassed by her strident anti-intellectual stance on so many issues.

I don't think Sarah Palin is stupid; saying so would really be a dumb thing to claim. Clearly she is very talented, a great speaker, and has a way with people that most of us never will have. She knows how to play politics and achieve her goals. She is not stupid at all.

However... I fault her for her anti-intellectualism and reliance on blind faith to guide her opinions. Anti-intellectualism exhibits itself as a bias against learned opinions; a distrust of someone or some idea that has resulted from study and learning. It is an inherently reactionary position to take; a defensive mindset. Anti-intellectuals believe answers to political and philosophical questions are actually very simple and usually found in things like bibles or 'real world experience'. Anyone who has grown up in Alaska has encountered this mindset; it is what I like to think of as uninformed skepticism. They got the spirit of distrust right, but they missed out on the part where reason and logic help determine where the skepticism should be applied.

But... Palin is done now, she quit her day job. Maybe she'll go back to doing Mom stuff. She has a lot of kids I heard.

Can't help myself

Sarah Palin is a like a scab that exists just within the range of my peripheral vision; no matter how I try to ignore it, short of closing my eyes, I can't.

Today she said something so stupid that it actually took a matter of minutes for me to process it.  I can deal with sophistry and illusion, but inanity?  Brothers and Sisters that is a different beast altogether.

"If [the media] convince enough voters that that is negative campaigning, for me to call Barack Obama out on his associations," Palin told host Chris Plante, "then I don't know what the future of our country would be in terms of First Amendment rights and our ability to ask questions without fear of attacks by the mainstream media."

Stop.  Read that quote again.  Let it fester, poor grammar, syntax and all... let it seep in.  This is no sophistry my friends, this is no willful dissension from the facts, this quote is the very sad reality of a person who has no fucking idea what she is talking about.  Absolutely NO idea.  

Sarah Palin actually thinks that a media who has been skeptical of her political bullshit represents an attack on her first amendment rights.  Sarah Palin believes that questioning a political leader is a violation of said leader's right of free speech.  

WHAT?  This ass-backwards idiocy would not pass the bar in a 9th grade government class.  The first amendment was establish to protect three general principals: the expression of religion, free speech, and freedom of the press.  But, according to Sarah 'pitbull' Palin the media are endangering the first amendment by using the first amendment!  Like I said before, Palin isn't using sophistry, she simply has no idea what the hell is going on, and no CLUE about our constitutional rights.  What else can we expect from someone who needed to attend 6 different colleges to gain a bachelors degree in sports broadcasting.  

I feel so embarrassed that this woman is the governor of Alaska, but even worse than that I feel deeply insulted that the Republican party actually thinks the American people will accept her. Who the hell do they take us for?  This is a woman who is blatantly incurious, anti-science, anti women's rights, and who wields a supremely juvenile understanding of this country's founding principals.  This woman, if her ticket wins the election, will be a heartbeat away from running the country.  

How did this happen, and why aren't more people mad.  

Our future depends on it

In the wake of Sarah Palins nomination to the GOP ticket I’ve been thinking a lot about the state of our country’s mindset. Let me explain, hopefully it’ll all connect together in the end.

Over the past decade America has seen a steady decline in the number of science PhDs we are graduating. This shift in our educational priorities is mirrored by a sharp rise in science PhDs graduating in Asia, especially in China. I see the results of this every day at my office desk; Americans are producing less and less scientific research while the rest of the world is producing more. The effects of this are both immediate and long-standing. In the immediate future America loses its position of scientific prowess; the best research occurs elsewhere, university prowess shifts to the east (and west) and thus the world’s best and brightest seek better places. The economic impact from losing the industrial innovation this research produces is clear, but continues into other spheres as well.

A 2006 NSF study found that just 23% of Americans could explain what it means to engage in a scientific study. John Miller of Michigan State University has been tracking science literacy in America for the past 20 years and recently published a study which states that a basic level of science literacy in this country is at 28% and falling each year. Most Americans are completely confused about the very basic principals of empirical evidence, composing a hypothesis, and proposing a theory. This bothers me greatly because this process of thinking is essential to the process of composing coherent beliefs about the world we live in. If you don’t understand what constitutes evidence, and why, then you are not equipped to engage a world that is increasingly dependent upon scientific progress.

In philosophy we call this type of thinking ‘reason’. Reason, it appears, is fighting a losing battle against the forces of credulity, fear, and superstition. This is where Sarah Palin ties in.

Sarah Palin, the woman whom the republicans believe is fit to rule the most powerful country on earth believes the earth is 6,000 years old. To be clear, this is no minor mistake. Current scientific estimates, corroborated by mutually agreeing standards of measurement peg the earth’s age at 4-5 billion years old. The magnitude of Palin’s disconnect reality is comparable to stating the distance between New York and San Francisco is 200 feet. This is no minor mistake.

As a country, as a world, we can no longer afford to elect officials with minds that belong in the Dark Ages; we simply cannot afford it. Religious belief, if it must exist, has to be a private affair. Our world is one of nuclear weapons, fanatical religion, and environmental disasters. We cannot damn our tumultuous future even further by placing it into the hands of someone who believes that hurricanes are an angry god’s punishment. We need leaders who are able to engage the world as it really is, not as they wish it to be. Faith, in a world of very real crisis, is an anchor that will pull our collective future to the depths of misery. History bears the scars of leaders who governed their people from a position of wanting reality to be a certain way rather than looking at the evidence and making prudent decisions. I dearly hope the citizens of this country will question our leaders with skeptical rigor. We can’t afford not to.