...perhaps they need to go back to science class?

Measles. IVF. Solar panels. Wind farms. Guns-guns-guns. 

The list could go on, but what is the common factor? Sheer, willful ignorance. Those who apparently either slept through or skipped science class are making life really hard for those of us who would like to survive.

It is entirely disheartening when the so-called Surgeon General of Florida is deferring to parents' choice, even questioning the need to vaccinate their kids against one of the most contagious diseases known to mankind. 

It is also really confusing and disturbing when elected officials such as Tommy Tuberville (yeah, the guy who single-handedly held up all military appointments and promotions for months) decide that "we need more children" is the reason to rail on against IVF. 

Guns kill. The statistics are startling and very painful: the leading cause of death in children in the United States is gun violence. (Maybe that's why we need more children? Someone should ask the GOP.) But we can't declare it a public health threat, and federal funding has been cut to even study it as such.

You know what else is crazy? These people, and those who are even higher up the elected food chain, are threatening another stupid government shut-down. They won't reauthorize the farm bill, because they want to cut subsidies that help hungry Americans-- children and the elderly. The Speaker of the House refuses to take up the bill that includes national defense and security, that includes border funding, that would help Ukraine, the Middle East, and other parts of the world-- because the leading GOP Putin-puppet said to block it. Both sides of the aisle want to vote-- but can't, because he won't do his job. One man stands in the way of national and global interests, because he is taking orders from a candidate. A candidate--not a world leader, not the President. 

Dysfunction rules the day, eh? The Speaker also believes that Rome fell because they condoned "homosexual behavior." Not that it might have been the pissed off Visigoths or anything...yeah.

Again, refusal to even consider science. Since when has willful ignorance been such a valuable personality trait? It seems that too many people have traded in integrity and civility for stupidity. My first year of teaching was fraught with irritation: my students were enraptured with Bart Simpson and Beavis and Butthead, idolizing their glorification of abject brainlessness, laziness, and rude behavior. And here we are. They elected them.

Pray for saner days. This stuff gives me a headache. And yes, solar panels work. Even after dark-- the energy is stored in batteries, you collective doofuses. And wind farms do not cause cancer. 

C