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Did you every wonder what life would be like if people just broke into song like in all those musicals, but did it in real life?

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This should scare the hell out of you. If you have the courage, read the full report outlining the Bush Administration’s pattern of distorting and suppressing science to further their political agenda. I suppose it shouldn’t be too surprising that fundamentalist Christians are trying to invalidate science. And I had read about many of these things in microcosm before. But putting it all together like this makes it seem more than sad. It seems criminal. Further, you should note that this report is signed by 20 Nobel laureates and a number of Republican scientists, several of who have held science posts with previous Republican administrations.

But don’t reach a conclusion just yet. The water gets muddier. This is the government’s response to the accusations. Now to be fair, I haven’t done the research, nor have I read about anyone else who has independently investigated the point and counterpoint arguments of each side. It is interesting that the OSTP took the time to go through the UCS’s accusations point by point, and it is disconcerting that each rebuttal starts with a flat out assertion that the UCS position is false. It seems inconceivable that the UCS would publish a completely fictional document, and they make many references to publications, research, and speeches which are easily verifiable. For scientists, the barrier to publish is high. I can’t accept that this many scientists with international reputations would be duped into signing or would willfully publish a patently false document.

It is likely that there are lots of shades of grey in here. Undoubtedly everyone stresses the facts and data supporting their points. But this should have led to the OSTP producing a document which had much more of a flavor of concession and clarification. Saying more often that while “this” happened it was taken out of context or exaggerated, or citing additional data which takes the wind out of the argument. However, it doesn’t read that way. It sounds very defensive. Of course, Bush’s habit of attacking his detractors also makes this rebuttal suspicious.

This debate is clearly not over. It will be interesting to see how it plays out.

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The March jobs numbers are in and it is encouraging news. It’s a little too early to declare victory, but it’s nice to see a little uptick. It’s done good things for the stock market, and perhaps there will be some Tinkerbell Effect which carries over to some other economy sectors. Carry over is important because most of the growth came in retail, restaurant, and construction. No offense intended, but those jobs don’t tend to garner the same wages as manufacturing and technology jobs which is where much of the erosion has occurred. This results in a general decline in living standards, which in turn curbs consumer spending, which is about all that’s buoying our economy right now. The upturn in healthcare and financial sectors are the lone bright spots in terms of growth in types of jobs. Yet certainly the picture is better than the last time we added jobs only to find out they were all government positions and either beats unemployment.

The double whammy of disgust award goes to both political parties who can’t seem to see past their own self interests. Bush is running about crying nana-nana-boo-boo and declaring his economic incentive plans successful and legislating that all is right with the world. Kerry is trying desperately to make this look like it’s not good news and going about sucking the joy out of it. Although in fairness, his dour expression would appear to be some sort of black hole of joy which sucks the fun out of anything within his event horizon. He’s the only person I’ve ever seen who can look bored while snowboarding. On the flip, George appears to get a huge giggle out of finding matching socks in his drawer. Lighten up John. We can’t afford to have you blow this.