"I intend to be a chairman who exemplifies the Republican philosophy that science, technology and innovation offer a pathway to a better, more prosperous future, and solve problems that bureaucracy and rampant government spending cannot,"

This is the whizzz for brains kid that asked

"Is there some thought being given to subsidizing the clearing of rainforests in order for some countries to eliminate that production of greenhouse gases? Or would people be supportive of cutting down older trees in order to plant younger trees as a means to prevent this disaster from happening?"

Another bright light of the committee

Rep. Paul Broun telling supporters that evolution and the big bang theory "are lies straight from the pit of hell." Broun is a member of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology.

That sounds like something the Onion would think up.

I can't believe Dana has avoided jail and keeps being re-elected.

He's an actual scientist! Just imagine that. A real scientist.

You can fool some of people all the time.

Foster's win doubles the number of physicists in Congress

And something for all politicians to heed: political campaigns are now national events, no matter how local the seat:

Although he may not have needed the help, Foster's standing as a scientist served him well during the campaign. Records from the Federal Election Commission show that hundreds of scientists from all over the country donated nearly $400,000 to his campaign.

Oh, you wound me! There are good schools in the South ....

Don't you remember Gov. Perry being panned nationally for making that comment? Well, it is a commonplace understanding in Texas because they are taught it from grade school on up. I know--my daughter went to school there for 3 years. Took me a number of years afterwards to convince her that was incorrect information.

Perhaps some should heed elly's advice.

By the way, it is true that the northeast has some of the highest school ratings in the nation.

Kate

"This is seen to be one of the core issues, frankly, facing humanity, and for the United States to take itself out of the game and sit on the sidelines would be very detrimental to our overall standing and leverage and credibility in the world," he said. "We're obviously not doing that. We're doing just the opposite."

I don't know if I ever wrote about it here on HT, but last year there was a flap in the German press about the Frankfurt airport (one of the top busiest in the world) levying an environmental fee on all airlines using the facilities there.

The fee wasn't the flap: it was the American airline companies who refused to pay it, citing "insufficient evidence of global warning". The tone of the German reports was amusing but painful: the Americans were written up using the same tone that we might use for aborigines who insist on amulets instead of medicine. I'll have to see whatever became of that.