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You are here: Home / Politics / Republican Stupidity / Department Of Empty Gestures

Department Of Empty Gestures

by Tim F|  June 6, 20074:08 pm| 21 Comments

This post is in: Republican Stupidity, Science & Technology

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NASA administrator Michael Griffin regrets the dumb remarks on climate that spurred me to write this earlier post. MSNBC:

NASA administrator Michael Griffin said in the closed-door meeting Monday at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena that “unfortunately, this is an issue which has become far more political than technical, and it would have been well for me to have stayed out of it.”

“All I can really do is apologize to all you guys…. I feel badly that I caused this amount of controversy over something like this,” he said.

Two problems should jump out about Griffin’s “apology.” First, the NASA administrator isn not at all sorry about his harebrained idea that warming could be a good thing, he just regrets that he made the mistake of telling anyone about it. Griffin’s gaffe, as they usually do, came in the form of inadvertently telling the truth. Second, if Griffin really cared about the climate he would stop defunding climate research and he would not have changed NASA’s mission statement to remove any reference to monitoring and safeguarding the Earth.

Griffin is still a moron about climate and he still means to cut off research that might help us understand it better. Worse, he thinks his critics will settle for soothing words and a non-denial denial.

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21Comments

  1. 1.

    ThymeZone

    June 6, 2007 at 4:20 pm

    Griffin is still a moron about climate

    Hm. Well, we might suppose that one or two people at JPL understand the topic …………

    “Increases in snowmelt, such as this in 2005, definitely could have an impact on larger-scale melting of Antarctica’s ice sheets if they were severe or sustained over time.”

    Or have we lost them now, too? Just wondering.

  2. 2.

    Jake

    June 6, 2007 at 4:27 pm

    “unfortunately, this is an issue which has become far more political than technical, and it would have been well for me to have stayed out of it.”

    WTF does politics have to do with the price of feet? Politics break things into simple and simplistic terms that can’t begin to cover technical issues. (And that’s assuming the people flapping their lips have the least idea what they’re talking about).

    Second, he seems to suggest there is some sort of inverse correlation whereby as the amount of political noise-making an issue generates increases; the established facts behind a scientific or technical issue decreases.

    Wow. We can turn off the gravity, reverse the flow of time and undo the first principle of whateverdafuck just by arguing about it!

    WE. HAVE. THE. POWER!

  3. 3.

    Joe1347

    June 6, 2007 at 5:08 pm

    Griffin is likely just saying what he’s been told to say. Otherwise, he’d be out of a job.

    What did the NASA scientists expect from the Bush Administration when they were raising the alarm about Global Warming and indicating that we need to cut back on burning that stuff from Texas? Of course, Bush was going to kill off most if not all Climate research at NASA. Again, what did the scientists expect – praise? If anything, the NASA scientists that didn’t tout the party line (i.e, Global Warming is not real) should consider themselves lucky that they still have a job.

  4. 4.

    Rome Again

    June 6, 2007 at 5:40 pm

    Two problems should jump out about Griffin’s “apology.” First, the NASA administrator isn not at all sorry about his harebrained idea that warming could be a good thing, he just regrets that he made the mistake of telling anyone about it. Griffin’s gaffe, as they usually do, came in the form of inadvertently telling the truth. Second, if Griffin really cared about the climate he would stop defunding climate research and he would not have changed NASA’s mission statement to remove any reference to monitoring and safeguarding the Earth.

    God, Inc. owns NASA now. So much of what we have discussed today is because of the long-armed reach of God, Inc. Has anyone noticed?

  5. 5.

    Andrew

    June 6, 2007 at 7:32 pm

    Of course God is in NASA now. What else where they going to find when they flew into heaven?

  6. 6.

    Katie

    June 6, 2007 at 8:14 pm

    It’s not just climate that has been defunded, it’s pretty much anything that can be labeled as “basic science”. It runs the gamut from earth science to space physics to aeronautics. They haven’t eliminated whole programs, since that would be very obvious, but it’s equally obvious that programs can’t do much when funded to such low levels that they can’t even cover one FTE.

    But hey! We’re going back to the moon and then we’re going to Mars! If you find more than one person doing basic research that is overly enthused by that, I’d be shocked.

    This isn’t just a NASA problem, it’s a NOAA problem, a DOE problem and a problem for just about any other agency that does and/or funds research.

  7. 7.

    jano

    June 7, 2007 at 2:10 am

    Griffin is still a moron about climate and he still means to cut off research that might help us understand it better.

    Funny stuff. I love it.

  8. 8.

    Zifnab

    June 7, 2007 at 3:00 am

    It’s not just climate that has been defunded, it’s pretty much anything that can be labeled as “basic science”. It runs the gamut from earth science to space physics to aeronautics. They haven’t eliminated whole programs, since that would be very obvious, but it’s equally obvious that programs can’t do much when funded to such low levels that they can’t even cover one FTE.

    But hey! We’re going back to the moon and then we’re going to Mars! If you find more than one person doing basic research that is overly enthused by that, I’d be shocked.

    I’m always tickled pink at the idea that Bush can talk about building a moonbase and traveling to Mars while he relentlessly attacks alternative energy initatives, bio-science, and education. Because, I guess, our intrepid explorers are supposed to bring up a few extra cans of gasoline, subsist on a few years’ supply of nutragrain bars, and get their mission control advice from graduates of the Regeant School of Space and Physics.

    I imagine that if Bush had another ten or fifteen years in office (shudder to think), we really would be looking at a completely fabricated moon landing, followed by a completely fabricated Mars landing, because that’s the only way he’s going to even get pictures of astronaughts completing his insane goals.

    I think it was Greenwald who said we need to have the brightest minds at NASA learn to sit down with our most clueless politicians and learn to JUST SAY NO to billion-dollar endevours that aren’t practical with today’s technology. Keep going with these ill-founded goals, and you’re basically begging to defund NASA in the next generation.

  9. 9.

    robuzo

    June 7, 2007 at 7:14 am

    I’m happy that NASA is still devoting some effort to “monitoring and safeguarding the Earth” and sharing what they find with us through their Earth Observatory site: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/

    Their Global Warming page (http://tinyurl.com/2vboz6) seems to me a very good introduction to the issue, and the NASA position made clear at the very beginning of their report:”600 scientists from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change . . .distilled the world’s accumulated knowledge into this conclusion: ‘Warming of the climate system is unequivocal'”.

  10. 10.

    robuzo

    June 7, 2007 at 7:14 am

    I’m happy that NASA is still devoting some effort to “monitoring and safeguarding the Earth” and sharing what they find with us through their Earth Observatory site: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/

    Their Global Warming page (http://tinyurl.com/2vboz6) seems to me a very good introduction to the issue, and the NASA position is made clear at the very beginning of their report:”600 scientists from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change . . .distilled the world’s accumulated knowledge into this conclusion: ‘Warming of the climate system is unequivocal'”.

  11. 11.

    jenniebee

    June 7, 2007 at 8:22 am

    Is it just me, or is he trying to make it sound like his technical expertise just got shot down and shut up by the powers of political correctness?

    (Political Correctness in this case meaning “expert opinion” and technical expertise meaning “straw-grasping spin.”)

  12. 12.

    kchiker

    June 7, 2007 at 9:06 am

    Come on guys, Global Warming is just the warmth of God’s own love.

    MER-CA!!!!

  13. 13.

    Mr. Heat Miser

    June 7, 2007 at 9:32 am

    I say who cares? Go check out the latest record from the band, The National – entitled, Boxer. It’s SICK! Let go of this political mumbo-jumbo…it just doesn’t really matter in the scheme of things.

  14. 14.

    Punchy

    June 7, 2007 at 9:58 am

    Is the inevitable rise in sea levels and the complete flooding of New York City really such a bad thing?

    Anyone who’s seen how dirty that town is knows it could use a good salt water scrubbing….

  15. 15.

    srv

    June 7, 2007 at 10:17 am

    Anyone who’s seen how dirty that town is knows it could use a good salt water scrubbing….

    New Orleans hasn’t been cleaner…

  16. 16.

    Canoe Salesman

    June 7, 2007 at 10:32 am

    Is the inevitable rise in sea levels and the complete flooding of New York City really such a bad thing?

    Who the fuck cares about sea levels rising?

  17. 17.

    Cyrus

    June 7, 2007 at 10:58 am

    Andrew Says:
    Of course God is in NASA now. What else where they going to find when they flew into heaven?

    Transformers?

  18. 18.

    Rome Again

    June 7, 2007 at 11:28 am

    Anyone who’s seen how dirty that town is knows it could use a good salt water scrubbing….

    “Please ignore the mess, I am about to bring you a better world” – GOD (??)

  19. 19.

    BIRDZILLA

    June 7, 2007 at 2:01 pm

    And AL GORE makes all those idiotic remarks about this GLOBAL WARMING fruad while still getting around in a private jet and in his gas guzzling 4 mpg limo what a bunch of liars

  20. 20.

    Jake

    June 7, 2007 at 4:03 pm

    Oh no!
    There goes Tokyo,
    Go go BIRDZILLA!

    Sorry. Been needing to get that off my chest for a while.

  21. 21.

    Librarian

    June 8, 2007 at 9:37 am

    Michael Griffin- Peter Griffin’s dumber brother.

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