So why does Bobby Jindal hate scientific research?

[the_archfiend]

This piece on Chris Rowan's Highly Allocthonous is a fairly good starting point for wondering why in the hell an aspiring Presidential candidate would go out of his way to look so damn ignorant on national TV. My take on it is that he's looking to pick up the ignorant vote, which is hardly surprising since pols have been doing that sort of thing since time immemorial, but that's just me.

(Free clue: it's one thing to harangue a political rival over perceived spending and waste, but claiming that the funding of scientific research amounts to that is just stupid.)

Comments

[deusinnomen.livejournal.com]

It's been pointed out by more than a few places that there is a certain degree of irony that a man who's state got raped by a natural disaster would consider spending money on studying geology and other techniques used to predict and either prevent or mitigate another natural disaster.

It's almost popcorn-worthy ignorance, except that it's actually just plain sad.

[the-archfiend.livejournal.com]

Look at it this way: if Jindal is so desperate for a shot at a Prez nomination in 2012 that he's willing to commit the equivalent of using a white-hot wire to burn out the rational parts of his brain on national TV, that doesn't say a helluva lot for his ability to make future decisions concerning scientific research funding on the Federal level.

I have a nightmare image of Jindal and Mike Huckabee having a p*ssing contest to see who the more *unscientific* of the two is. The winner, sadly, just might walk away with a GOP nomination.