Republicans' war on science and reason

[ErikJ]

By Katrina vanden Heuvel, Published: October 24 | Updated: Tuesday, October 25, 5:00 AM Washington Post

...The contempt with which the party views reason is staggering. Republicans have become proudly and unquestionably anti-science. (It is their litmus test, though they would probably reject the science behind litmus paper.) With the exception of Jon Huntsman, who polls about as well as Darwin would in a Republican primary, the Republican presidential candidates have either denied the existence of climate change, denied that it has been caused — and can be reversed — by man, or apologized for once holding a different view. They have come to this conclusion not because the science is inconclusive, but because they believe, as a matter of principle, that scientific evidence is no evidence at all.

..............This kind of guttural rejection of reason, evidence and science trickles into just about every aspect of Republican ideology. There’s Herman Cain’s much-discussed 9-9-9 plan, for example, which has been eviscerated by independents, conservative and progressive economists alike, but which Cain continues to champion. Why? Because, he argues, the skeptics haven’t read his analysis yet — as if he is entitled not just to his own facts but to his own math.

snip

[eppur_se_muova]

1. link?

Guttural: I do not think that word means what you think it means. Rachel did the same thing on a show recently.

[ErikJ]

2. missing link

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-republicans-war-on-science-and-reason/2011/10/24/gIQALl3BEM_story.html

[eppur_se_muova]

3. Thanks. I like her suggestion for a bumper sticker ...

"Repeal the 20th Century. Vote GOP."

[Electric Monk]

4. being or marked by utterance that is strange, unpleasant, or disagreeable

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/guttural

[ThomWV]

6. 2 things come to mind

If I'm not mistaken it refers to the sound of words that are formed - how to say this - sort of deep in the throat. Sort of like the sound is coming from the gut is how I think of it. There is another meaning too, but you don't see it used much. There is something that happens to foals, young horses, where their necks swell up badly. Its called a gutteral something (it sounds like they are saying purse or pouch or something like that, but imagine it in German) or another; I've heard old Amish farmers use the phrase a few times.

[opihimoimoi]

5. The GOPers Embarrass Themselves with their Emotional Simplicity rejecting Reason Logic Facts

[ErikJ]

7. test

[ErikJ]

8. When the Independents tell you that both sides "do it"

which also means lie, my favorite response is that the Republicans lie so much they are willing to DENY SCIENCE!