Who are the most anti-science (or scientifically illiterate) politicians?

[kay1864]

A couple come to mind:

- Imhofe (global warming denial)
- Bachmann (too many inane statements to mention)

Who are the others who are clueless about science?

(I'm putting together a talk...please help me think of names! )

[el_bryanto]

1. Is it specifically about scientific illiteracy or is it about global warming?

Because while Global Warming is the most commonly cited example of scientific illiteracy its far from the only area where this problem occurs - look at, for example, concerns over voter fraud. Statistically voter fraud (individual voter fraud as opposed to institutional) case are very low - but Republicans have decided to act as if they were constant.

Bryant

[kay1864]

3. Good question!

Any scientific illiteracy--I just used Imhofe as an example.

To clarify, I'm hoping for actual politicians (especially those who've made statements showing their ignorance of science), not general GOP examples (like concern over voter fraud).

Thanks!

[JaneyVee]

2. Everyone on the GOP House Science Committee, like Paul Broun who thinks Earth is 5000 yrs old.

Todd Akin was on that committee and thought women have natural bio-defense shields against being impregnated during rape.

Google: Anti science Republicans.

LONG list.

[kay1864]

6. The talk is in Georgia, so Paul Broun is an excellent example

Thanks!

Google: Anti science Republicans.

You mean I can use the Internets to search for stuff? Cool!

(seriously, dunno why it didn't occur to me there'd already be such lists. Duh.)

[JaneyVee]

8. He specifically said: Big Bang Theory is 'Lies Straight From The Pit Of Hell'

[1KansasDem]

4. Hank Johnson

When I heard his committee comments about Guam tipping over I nearly cried.... with laughter.

[DinahMoeHum]

5. Louie Gohmert (R-TX)

As dumb a fuck as you'll ever encounter.

[DanTex]

11. Yeah, I think he wins any stupidity contest.

[hobbit709]

7. Just about any politician with an R after their name.

[warrior1]

9. anyone with a r after their names

[Tanuki]

10. Some food for thought...

http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/congress-s-science-committee-doesn-t-get-science

[Loup Garou]

12. Sarah Palin's War on Science

With Palin, however, the contempt for science may be something a little more sinister than the bluff, empty-headed plain-man's philistinism of McCain. We never get a chance to ask her in detail about these things, but she is known to favor the teaching of creationism in schools (smuggling this crazy idea through customs in the innocent disguise of "teaching the argument," as if there was an argument), and so it is at least probable that she believes all creatures from humans to fruit flies were created just as they are now. This would make DNA or any other kind of research pointless, whether conducted in Paris or not. Projects such as sequencing the DNA of the flu virus, the better to inoculate against it, would not need to be funded. We could all expire happily in the name of God. Gov. Palin also says that she doesn't think humans are responsible for global warming; again, one would like to ask her whether, like some of her co-religionists, she is a "premillenial dispensationalist"—in other words, someone who believes that there is no point in protecting and preserving the natural world, since the end of days will soon be upon us.

Videos taken in the Assembly of God church in Wasilla, Alaska, which she used to attend, show her nodding as a preacher says that Alaska will be "one of the refuge states in the Last Days." For the uninitiated, this is a reference to a crackpot belief, widely held among those who brood on the "End Times," that some parts of the world will end at different times from others, and Alaska will be a big draw as the heavens darken on account of its wide open spaces. An article by Laurie Goodstein in the New York Timesgives further gruesome details of the extreme Pentecostalism with which Palin has been associated in the past (perhaps moderating herself, at least in public, as a political career became more attractive). High points, also available on YouTube, show her being "anointed" by an African bishop who claims to cast out witches. The term used in the trade for this hysterical superstitious nonsense is "spiritual warfare," in which true Christian soldiers are trained to fight demons. Palin has spoken at "spiritual warfare" events as recently as June. And only last week the chiller from Wasilla spoke of "prayer warriors" in a radio interview with James Dobson of Focus on the Family, who said that he and his lovely wife, Shirley, had convened a prayer meeting to beseech that "God's perfect will be done on Nov. 4."

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/fighting_words/2008/10/sarah_palins_war_on_science.html

[kestrel91316]

13. Pretty much anybody with an R behind their name.

[ellenfl]

14. alarmingly, most of the repub doctors!

Tom Coburn (R, Republican), Oklahoma, family physician and ob-gyn
John Barasso (R, Wyoming), orthopedic surgeon New Senator
Rand Paul, (R, Kentucky), ophthalmologist

House Incumbents

John Boustany ( R, Louisiana), cardiovascular surgeon
John Fleming (R, Louisiana), family physician
Bill Cassidy (R, Louisiana), gastroenterologist
Tom Price, (R, Georgia), orthopedic surgeon
Paul Brown (R, Georgia), family physician
Phil Gingrey(R,Georgia), Ob-Gyn
Ron Paul (R, Texas), Ob-Gyn
Michael Burgess(R, Texas), Ob-Gyn
David “Phil” Roe (R, Tennessee), Ob-Gyn