Did you know that Obama is anti-science?

The same man who answered science questions posed to him by Nature (while his opponent offered only silence) wants to end biological science research. It's true because I read it in the National Review.

Of all the observed variation in that characteristic, about half is caused by genetic differences. You may say that is only a half victory; but it is a complete shattering of the nurturist absolutism that ruled in the human sciences 40 years ago, and that is still the approved dogma in polite society, including polite political society, today.

While those sociobiology wars were going on ... while all that was happening, research results were steadily trickling in, building up the water pressure behind the nurturist dam.

That dam now has more cracks than the surface of Europa and water is spraying out all over. The only thing that could stop a complete collapse would be the power of government …

… Which might be forthcoming in the event of an Obama victory. The younger generation of human-sciences enthusiasts trend conservative/libertarian (1), and Obama has them worried.

What follows is a tirade about Obama's (alleged) Marxist ideals leading to a shut down of research into innate human differences, because being a good Marxist necessitates that you believe all humans are the equal (2). For evidence he begins citing The Bell Curve, a book that most people, even at the time, disregarded as a flawed exploration into pop-psychology (3).

This is an example of selective attention, grabbing the evidence you like to support the theory you have concluded a priori. It is not unique to conservatives, you see plenty of this across the political spectrum. But it needs to be called out.

Don't believe me that this piece shows some prejudice? See the quote that Mr. Derbyshire includes at the end of his opinion piece.

** When “Godless” was helping me get up to speed on this stuff, I asked him at one point: “What’s the difference between a geneticist and a genomicist?” He gave a very cute answer: “Geneticists are female, genomicists are male.” Asked to elaborate, he offered this: “Imagine you are walking down a corridor in a research institute, looking in through the glass panels in doors. In one lab you see a young woman of nontrivial attractiveness carefully adding drops to a Petri dish from a pipette. That’s a geneticist. A couple of doors along you look into another lab and there are two young guys arguing about some long string of numbers displayed on a computer screen. Those are genomicists …”

PZ sees this as bigots who judge people by superficial characteristics. However, to me it seems a sexist 'women should stay at home' mentality. "Godless" thinks women should be the lab techs and men should do the thinking. If they are going to work, then by God don't let them think.

(1) Cite?

(2) And being a signatory to the Declaration of Independence necessitates that too. I guess John Derbyshire hates our founding fathers and, by extension, America itself.

(3) Or pop-racism.