“It is not the fruits of scientific research that elevate man and enrich his nature, but the urge to understand, the intellectual work, creative or receptive”

President Bush has gone on record as having received what he laughingly referred to as “gentleman Cs” while in graduate school at Yale University. Throughout his administration he has proudly worn those grades as a badge of honor.

To most people, getting a C in a college course means you received an “average” grade. But in graduate school, a C in a course is pretty much the equivalent of failing the course. Graduate students are expected to get an A in most of their classes. If they cannot achieve that, they don’t belong in a graduate program.

For eight years we have suffered a President who not only received essentially failing grades in his graduate classes, but admits those grades were more generous than he deserved, hence, the use of the adjective “gentleman” to describe his grades.

Bush’s ignorance has manifested itself in his avowed disbelief in global warming, his repeated implementation of policies that fly in the face of reputable scientific evidence and his “Yeeeee Haaaa” cowboy approach to both foreign and economic policies. He admits he doesn’t read newspapers, and one can reasonably suspect he also shies from reading any book that isn’t composed primarily of pictures.

In short, GW has succeeded in “dumbing down” the Executive Branch of the government to the point at which the American people have pretty much given up hope our government can begin to tackle any really tough problems that require some measure of intellectual reasoning ability to solve.

Now, on the heels of King George, the GOP’s next act is a couple of “mavericks,” whose total intellectual capability consists of a presidential candidate with a fifth-from-the-bottom graduation ranking from the U.S. Naval Academy and vice-presidential candidate with a hip-hop journey of five colleges in six years to get a degree.

Is there something wrong with trying to get some intelligence and some ability to apply rational thinking and the scientific method into the Whitehouse?

The latest GOP intellectual starburst was Governor Palin’s policy speech this week in which she touted herself as the person who would lead the government’s efforts in attending to “special needs” children. In the same speech, as she is oft wont to do, Ms. Palin again decried those evil government earmarks and held up the scientific study of fruit flies as an example of government funding that should be abolished. In her view, such research is a joke and, needless to say, shouldn’t be funded. It’s all a big waste, government largesse at its worst.

What the vice-presidential wannabee apparently didn’t know is that through those fruit fly studies she is so ready to dismiss, scientists at the University of North Carolina’s Chapel Hill School of Medicine have shown that a protein called neurexin is required for certain nerve cell connections to form and function correctly. Recently, human neurexins have been identified as a genetic risk factor for autism, so the discovery made in studying Drosophila fruit flies may lead to advances in understanding autism spectrum disorders.

In short, Governor Palin wants to cut off funding for scientific studies that may benefit the very cause for which she has proffered herself as an “expert” and the person to lead the battle for the “special needs” children.

Now, I don’t expect Ms. Palin to understand the research, nor do I even expect her to be able to either spell or pronounce “neurexin.” But it is reasonable to expect that the person who wants to lead the battle is at least minimally aware of the weapons available for use in that battle. Instead, the GOP offers us, in the words of PZ Myers of the University of Minnesota, “an ignorant buffoon who believes in the End of Times and speaking in tongues while deriding some of the best and most successful strategies for scientific research.”

On November 4th, we have a choice between 21st century rationalism and Dark Age inanity.

Me, I’m voting for 21st century rationalism.