Can 2010 Please be a Year of Science?

Watching Republican senators and representatives publicly praying for divine intervention on legislation over the past couple of weeks has raised my hackles again. Their cupboard is truly that empty, and they are that bankrupt in the marketplace of ideas, that they are publicly asking for the invisible force that they worship to use magic to intervene in the health care legislative process. To quote the great fictional American, Kelly Bundy: "the mind wobbles."

And yet, these people are still taken seriously by CNN, MSNBC and the broadcast news networks. Again, it wobbles.

I'm done screaming at Republicans because I can't take them seriously anymore. I don't really believe that they take themselves all that seriously. But they are taken, by the media, as a serious side of the political spectrum in America. And, they have resorted to using magic spells (prayers to achieve a particular purpose) in the public arena that shapes our legislative outcomes. I worry that we will get a lot more of this in 2010, and that it will be framed by CNN as being just as useful as actual participation in governance. We can't have that.

Full disclosure: I am agnostic. I used to call myself an athiest, but then I realized that I cannot prove the non-existence of God. And I also don't want to get in people's faces who believe in things spiritual. I consider what Thomas Jefferson called "freedom of conscience" to be one of the great traits of Americans, and one of the sacred parts of the First Amendment. I really believe that it is okay for Michelle Bachman to believe any crazy shit she wants to.

I just need CNN to make it clear how crazy it is if applied to legislation. The magic brought to bear by sky wizards or earth demons or whatever, CANNOT continue to be part of law that rules every American.

You don't think it is? How's about the health care debate in the House, when the Conference of Catholic Bishops lobbied the Speaker of the House on the abortion amendment. From the news coverage their supplications on behalf of Jesus carried more weight than the lobbying by doctors, nurses and family planning agencies. You know, the people who engage in the actual science of health care!

C'mon, just a little science in the 21st century. That's all I ask. Remember in 2008, during the Republican primary when during a debate several candidates said they did not believe in evolution. Huckabee was asked later about this response and he smoothly said "hey, there's a lot we don't know and I don't want to be arrogant" or something like that. He was then politely let of the hook by the interviewer.

I think I was screaming at the TV after that. "It is not fucking arrogant to observe nature and draw a conclusion from those observations!" Look, we all know that evolution is a theory - it is not 1000% proven. But guess what, neither are the electromagnetic theories that make cars start, that make computers function, oh, and make the TV work! Can someone please ask a follow-up question, like: "Do you believe the equipment in this studio, built based only on theories, is actually working by magic?"

This new decade will require governance with heavy science council. Please, CNN et al, hold our representatives accountable to at least a minimum of scientific consultation. Don't take belief in magic as an equal argument from any politician, left or right. Let people express their faith, but don't let them use it as an excuse for ignorance, or a cudgel to beat down things they don't like.

Shall we pray on it?