[politics][geek] A return to the Middle Ages...

At least, in terms of our approach to science... From a piece in The American Journal of Bioethics titled "Well, it worked with Schiavo: The President Prepares the Nation for a Stem Cell Crisis":

Either way, buckle your seat belts for a week that will see the President of the United States make the strongest statement against science to be made by the leader of a superpower since the Popes of the 12th century.

Jesus. Wept. I've been trying to console myself now for a while with the convenient fiction that these bastards are really only interested in moving us back to the Gilded Age of robber barons and the untrammeled power of the wealthiest elites... No, these fuckers are going for the mother lode - they want complete and total devotion to our new feudal lords. Unquestioning obedience. Fealty. Not Capitalism: Feudalism. That's what these bastards want. That Enlightenment? Fuck it. What did it produce that was worthwhile? You know, apart from THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE AND THE BILL OF RIGHTS! Again, capital letters are a piss-poor substitute for the absolute outrage I feel. Don't mind the screams coming from the abbatoir - we're converting some heathens today... Just kiss the President's ring and leave your tribute at the door.