Jurassic Park was a documentary, right?

Enrico Pullazzo passes on an article from Salon, bashing a recent Palin talking point, that it is idiotic to spend money on research. Now, anyone who remembers even high school biology would be able to tell you that fruit fly research has been a cornerstone of research for a century now -- then again, finishing high school does not appear to be a major emphasis of life in the Palin household.

No surprise that a GOP candidate would find some budget item such as fruit fly research and mock it, but that we're not surprised by this really points to a main cause of the Republican party's collapse: a total commitment to anti-intellectualism, anti-elitism, anti-knowing-what-the-flark-you're-talking-about. All that seems to matter is how an idea sounds when yelled from a podium or bantered back and forth on a split screen with some operative from the other side. Whether the idea is factual or wise does not seem to be part of the equation.

The anti-science and technology wing of the GOP is truly dangerous for this country. From the Manhattan Project to the Apollo Program to Silicon Valley, the success of America for the past half century has largely been a product of technological superiority. That we're got a VP nominee who thinks that dinosaurs co-existed with humans is jaw-dropping.