Science, schmience

John Quiggin, writing at Crooked Timber, notes a trend:

Australia’s new conservative ministry has just been sworn in, and while it includes Ministers for Border Protection (that is, stopping refugees) and Sport, and even a minister for the centenary of the Anzac landings on Gallipoli in 1915, there are no longer ministers for science or higher education.This is part of a fairly consistent pattern. The US Republican Party recently vetoed the creation of an unpaid position of National Science Laureate. In Canada, the Harper government eliminated the position of National Science Advisor, among many other anti-science moves. All of this reflects the fact that scientific research on topics like climate change and evolution regularly reaches conclusions that conflict with the policy preferences or religious beliefs of right wingers.

Almost as priceless is this footnote:

2. Even more embarrassing is this Town Hall list of “the top 25 most influential conservatives” in which the top 3 places are filled by Rush Limbaugh, Matt Drudge and Sarah Palin. According to this list, the right’s leading “intellectual” is Mark Levin, a marginally more literate version of Limbaugh. You have to go to the “also-rans”, to find Thomas Sowell, the only person on the list who could reasonably count as a serious intellectual.