Comrade PhysioProf, Mike the Mad Biologist and PZ have already hit the highlights on Palin’s remarks on the workhorse of the biomedical enterprise, the fruitfly, so not much more comment from me is needed; however, I cannot help myself.
Ice Queen, go back to your cave! Well, now that that’s off my chest…
So, she gives a policy speech, says something nice things about better funding for special needs children and then drops the fruitfly bomb heard around the world. Seriously Ice Queen, stupider words have been said but maybe never with such direct implications for special needs kids, most of whom have developmental disorders. The neurexin story from UNC researchers and autism has come up several times but the list doesn’t even come close to ending there. What about fragile X syndrome? You know, that whole mGluR theory. Ooopss, that came largely from flies too? How about HOX genes? Wait, what, that Nobel Prize was for research in flies? The list could, quite literally, go on and on and on.
What you have done, Ms. Palin, is make yourself look like a know nothing fool in front of the entire world. An entire world which is almost universally in agreement that we need to continue research into the causes and cures for developmental disorders that affect childhood health. Research that is driven, in no small part, by work in fruit flies!
So here is where it must end. The reckless experiment that is your Vice Presidential candidacy has been little better than a sad joke from the start but now you’ve gone over the edge (maybe this actually happened sometime ago but my ears weren’t perked). For the sake of humanity, return to your illegally built, contractor favor home and don’t bother us again. Just make sure you return the clothes.
JUNIORPROF 
Thanks for the link, motherfucker!!!
No problem douchecommie! drop in the bucket for you, hoping to pick up some traffic with the cross posting.
[sarcasm] I had no idea you could get federal funding via earmarks! Why bother with R01s? [/sarcasm]
Obviously her comment belies her gross ignorance in the scientific arena, but that’s not exactly news to anyone. This particular case appears to be funds for a USDA facility in France researching a olive parasitic fruit fly, recently attacking California crops but well known in France & Italy. Not exactly molecular biology, but her point hits just as hard as her non-characterization of abortion clinic bombers as “terrorists”.
DGT, she may have been referencing some USDA facility with her comment but we all know what she meant… Evolution isn’t real and we piss money away with these stupid models that scientists create to waste our hard earned money. She was purposefully ambiguous and the second she said fruit fly research the crowd started laughing. Their assertion seeks to destroy a foundation of biomedical research, plain and simple.
Don’t get me wrong, juniorprof -I totally agree with you. She’s a fucking wackjob – I wonder how she consolidates Alaska’s oil wealth with the nature oil itself… does she think it comes from some magic oil munchkins at the center of the earth, or the moldering remains of dinosaurs? Hmmm.
maybe i’m just bitter and jaded and bitchy about this entire subject- but the american public in general is so vastly undereducated about what’s real in science and what isn’t that it kinda hurts sometimes. infuriatingly, she probably came off as a bad-science-earmark-funding champion fighter to a whole lot of people.
they hear crap from these public figures (widely recognized idiots or not, they’re public figures nonetheless) and they start to think maybe this person know what they’re talking about. so maybe fruit flies are bad research and maybe high doses of vitamins will cure cancer. they need to hear from real science, NOT political-spin bullshit that undermines relevant research.
yay! magic oil munchkins!
I hate hearing this kind of shit as much as the rest of you guys. But all these politicians are just vote whores. Some of them have discovered they can get a lot of votes and win elections by appealing to the anti-elitist. If there’s a real problem here, it’s that a hell of a lot of North Americans can’t identify with politicians who believe in the importance of things like Drosophila research and foreign policy. As long as that’s the case, you’re always going to have politicians spouting this kind of shit.
Bayman, I’m truly sorry about your country’s most recent election. I feel your pain. Hopefully one of these days the entire nation will finally see fit to elect the Bloq Quebecois to their deserving role as the majority ruling party.
Hey, but it least most of the rest of us North Americans don’t have to deal with what is going on with our Southern Partners right now. Crappy politicians are one thing, an all out war between the federal govt and drug lords is quite another.
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