Weekend Open Thread — “He Blinded __ ____ Science”

The art of the Weekend Open Thread in part involves picking up ideas that would have made good posts had one decided to put the effort into them — and then not putting the effort into them and using them in a Weekend Open Thread instead.  This is one of the stories I really regret not writing about — but then again, what can one really say?  It’s not that I want to scream from the rooftops that Republicans are buffoons — we have many that aren’t right here — but, well, some things demand to be noted with goggle-eyes followed by ridicule.

The prospect of appointing Dana Rohrabacher as the head of the House Science Committee is among them.

Dana Rohrabacher kisses wife Rhonda while they hold triplets

Dana Rohrabacher slips his wife (and campaign manager) Rhonda some tongue as they lovingly celebrate the triple technological triumph of producing their progeny.

And the worst thing about it is that, among the three generally presumed candidate for the position, he may actually be the least anti-science — although more likely that’s a three-way tie between people intent on scoring last.

Rohrabacher’s advantage in the competition with Jim Senenbrenner and Lamar Smith — now that former Rep. Todd Akin is out of the picture (and no I am not making that up), is his personal experience with the way that technology can improve people’s lives.  Check out, for existence, this 2005 New York Times story on stem cell research:

Among them is Representative Dana Rohrabacher, Republican of California, whose wife gave birth last year to triplets conceived through in vitro fertilization. Mr. Rohrabacher said in an interview that while he had a “very strict pro-life voting record,” his experience convinced him it would not be immoral to conduct experiments on leftover embryos.

“Those leftover eggs will have no potential ever of becoming a human being unless they are implanted in a woman’s body, so I don’t believe that experimenting on those fertilized eggs is the equivalent of an abortion at all,” he said. “I think that is wrong thinking.”

Good for Dana, I say, along with the dope and the surfing and the no longer supporting the Taliban (I think).  Then again, there’s this on climate change: “We don’t know what those other cycles were caused by in the past. Could be dinosaur flatulence, you know, or who knows?”  But, again, the other guys are no better!

As you contemplate dinosaur flatulence and Dana Rohrabacher and turkey trimmings and whatever else grabs you this holiday week, we hope that you’ll start things off with a very happy Weekend Open Thread.  Talk about what you will.


About Greg Diamond

Somewhat verbose attorney, semi-disabled and semi-retired, residing in northwest Brea. Occasionally ran for office against jerks who otherwise would have gonr unopposed. Got 45% of the vote against Bob Huff for State Senate in 2012; Josh Newman then won the seat in 2016. In 2014 became the first attorney to challenge OCDA Tony Rackauckas since 2002; Todd Spitzer then won that seat in 2018. Every time he's run against some rotten incumbent, the *next* person to challenge them wins! He's OK with that. Corrupt party hacks hate him. He's OK with that too. He does advise some local campaigns informally and (so far) without compensation. (If that last bit changes, he will declare the interest.) His daughter is a professional campaign treasurer. He doesn't usually know whom she and her firm represent. Whether they do so never influences his endorsements or coverage. (He does have his own strong opinions.) But when he does check campaign finance forms, he is often happily surprised to learn that good candidates he respects often DO hire her firm. (Maybe bad ones are scared off by his relationship with her, but they needn't be.)