Those know-nothing pols are proud of knowing nothing

Have you come across any of those mice with human brains? In 2007, when Christine O’Donnell of Delaware ran in the primary for the Republican Senate seat, she warned the public that such creatures had already been developed by godless American scientists recklessly playing Frankenstein.

At the time, her shocking ignorance and her willingness to flaunt it provided days and weeks of chatter and video clips and eventually led to her defeat.

Now we are subjected to the remarks of Senate candidate Todd Akin of Missouri, who tried to distinguish between legitimate and illegitimate rape, suggesting 1) that there was a difference and 2) that some women used bogus claims of rape to get abortions. In a spectacular display of stupidity, Akin said that a woman’s body had “ways” of shutting down following “legitimate” rape so that no pregnancy ensued. He publicly aired this drivel despite well-documented evidence to the contrary.

Yes, in the months and years that followed O’Donnell’s flood of dumb-ass comments, more and more Republican candidates have fallen down the rabbit hole to a place where scientific facts are challenged if they conflict with political or religious ideology. This is a disturbing evolution.

And speaking of evolution, hello, Gov. Rick Perry of Texas. Just a few months ago, when he was running for president of the United States, the guv referred to evolution as “just a theory” with “some gaps in it.” He went on to reveal his doubts about global warming, claiming that scientists are manipulating the data to get funding for their studies. According to Paul Krugman in The New York Times, “the scientific consensus about man-made global warming — which includes 97 to 98 percent of researchers in the field, according to the National Academy of Sciences — is getting stronger, not weaker, as the evidence for climate change just keeps mounting.”

Am I the only person who has seen the satellite pictures of our shrinking ice caps? Haven’t we all seen photos of glaciers that have melted and receded dramatically in the last decade?