AND THE DECLINE CONTINUES ... "REAL DUMB AND EVEN DUMBER" TAKING OVER SCIENCE COMMITTEES IN 2015

America's slow descent continues ...

Most of you know that Europe did the hard work of preparing years for and then landing a spacecraft on a comet. Let that one sink in for a minute. They landed on a comet.

Meanwhile, the U.S. now ranks 33rd out of 34 OECD countries when it comes to accepting the tenets of evolution. How bad is it? Among OECD nations, only very religious Turkey (almost 99 percent Muslim) has more people as a percentage of their population who think Darwin is wrong on evolution. 

One more tidbit. When it come to science, U.S. students are ranked 20th among OECD nations. 

One reason why we're ranked 20th ...

One might think that these realities would encourage our political leadership to get serious about science in America. Think again.

After years of listening to religious nut jobs and Fox News - and their never ending cast of junk scientists - the United States Republican-led Senate is now prepared to take another scientific step backwards. They are poised to place congressional committees key to sustaining the scientific community in the hands of a group of scientific illiterates, like Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX). 

Sen. Inhofe believes he knows better than acknowledged research experts, and regularly dismisses scientific consensus as a "hoax." Yet, he along with Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) are going to be placed in positions of authority over U.S. science programs ... 

Getting a jump on things, our Republican-led House of Representatives has already passed a bill that would limit the type of scientific research the EPA can use when deciding how to protect the environment and our health. Worse, they're also leading the charge in the effort to privatize NASA, which paid off spectacularly when the private sectors space cargo ship blew up on launch while attempting to do what NASA once did in its sleep.

With congressional Republicans preparing to take over the U.S. Senate we can expect them to fill science and technology committees with minds more in tune with feudal-like opinions than with facts built around the scientific method.

As a warning, we need to prepare ourselves for the return of this kind of thinking in some corners of the U.S. Senate ...

If we're being honest with ourselves, we shouldn't be surprised to see this kind of logic embraced in some corners of the U.S. Senate ...

- Mark