from the define-pi==3-has-already-been-tried dept.
It's no secret that some of our federal legislators don't have a firm grip on scientific evidence; it only takes watching a session of the House Science Committee, where one member suggested the climate-driven rise of the oceans might instead be caused by rocks falling into the ocean.
What's often overlooked is that state legislators are even worse (though it's not clear how much this is a product of there simply being more of them). Each year, they oversee a variety of attempts to introduce pseudoscience into the public schools of a number of states.
[...] The legislator in question is Republican Joe Read, who represents an area north of Missoula, home of many fine scientists at the University of Montana. Read has eight bills under consideration in the current session of the legislature, and two of those focus on climate change.
As a result, the [first] bill would prohibit state agencies, officials, and employees from doing anything to cooperate with federal efforts to limit greenhouse gas emissions. If passed, the Montana government "may not implement or enforce in any way any federal regulation, rule, or policy implementing a federal greenhouse gas regulatory program."
But if you thought Read's grasp of constitutional law was shaky, you should check out his reason for objecting to doing anything about climate change. That's laid out in his second bill, which targets both science education and in-state programs designed to reduce carbon emissions. And it doesn't mince words, suggesting that pretty much all the scientists have it wrong: "the [US] National Climate Assessment makes the same errors as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and the National Academy of Sciences is also fundamentally wrong about climate change."
What are those errors? They are not reality based. Rep. Read claims "all Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change arguments to prove claims of increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide have failed," even though we've measured that increase in a number of ways. There are also things that are difficult to comprehend, like the statement that "the carbon-14 data shows that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change claim that human emissions have decreased the 'buffer capacity of the carbonate system' is an invalid claim."
More coverage at the Billings Gazette.
(Score: 5, Funny) by c0lo on Friday February 22 2019, @12:18PM (3 children)
I suggest he introduce a law to repeal the second. You know? The one that says that the heat never transfers from a lower temperature to a higher one without work.
The fucking second is an imperial invention anyway, I cannot but wonder how the Founding Fathers accepted it and never pondered on the consequences for the very nation they were fathering.
Now, imagine that John Read cuts the red tape and gets rid of the second. Just imagine, right? A plethora of perpetuum mobile types become legal and the utilities can supply as with all the energy we need at a very low price; and this without emitting even a single molecule of carbon dioxide.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday February 22 2019, @01:52PM
Well, of course, you're not going to get rid of them unless you practice birth control first. Duh.
(Score: 2) by captain normal on Friday February 22 2019, @04:36PM (1 child)
We could just sell Montana to Canada. Just saw this while having my morning coffee:
https://www.deseretnews.com/article/900056487/theres-a-new-petition-to-sell-montana-to-canada-national-debt-heres-why.html [deseretnews.com]
Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts"- --Daniel Patrick Moynihan--
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 23 2019, @01:36AM
Deseret News, eh? Well the Heavenly Father knows we could not sell Utah, so Montana makes sense. Maybe two-for-one sale, throw in Wyoming!
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 22 2019, @12:39PM (2 children)
"dear 'murikans. i am telling you that the moon is a much better place to live.
it has no low wages labour countries as neighbours so no wall needed. fact is that the
whole thing could be yours. for FREE even.
as is, there's not much of an athmosphere but you could bring your oil and you could make
your own.
you could measure the whole round thing in imperial units so no need for import and export tarifs to protect
your economy.
you could save a ton in spending by not having to baptise reluctant countries into your flavour
of duocracy.
furthermore there are no indigineuse life forms on the moon so you don't have to do much subdueing.
history tells us that you have done it before so with your experience i am confidant you can pull it off again.
i suggest to name the first ship to the moon the "mayflyer".
good luck and may god be with you.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 22 2019, @12:49PM (1 child)
"may god be with you".
no really, I hope you take the imaginary sky fairy with you and let us be.
(Score: -1, Spam) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 22 2019, @04:45PM
For this reason, God sends them a powerful delusion(operation of wandering)(planet) so that they will believe the lie.
Mystery Red of the Great American Eclipse [siderus.io]
It has blood on it! [siderus.io]
ABCNews: Eclipse makes pendulum wander [archive.org]
Sound of Silence [siderus.io]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by SpockLogic on Friday February 22 2019, @12:45PM (3 children)
I propose that Rep. Joe Read should change his name to King Canute.
To mock his stupidity, all the representatives voting against this promotion of ignorance should wear "Science Doesn't Care About Your Opinion" T-Shirts.
Overreacting is one thing, sticking your head up your ass hoping the problem goes away is another - edIII
(Score: 5, Informative) by danaris on Friday February 22 2019, @01:21PM
King Canute gets a bad rap, but he actually knew he couldn't command the ocean. He was doing it to prove this point to his advisors, who were the ones who'd gotten a bit too full of the idea of royal power.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 22 2019, @01:24PM (1 child)
All the other representatives should put forward a bill that makes Montana officially declare Joe Read to be an idiot.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 22 2019, @03:13PM
Good Idea. Name him the official "State Idiot".
(Score: 3, Insightful) by J_Darnley on Friday February 22 2019, @01:18PM (1 child)
So he's making a sanctuary state from some other federal regulations than the usual one?
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 22 2019, @02:13PM
Federal law does not require states to enforce immigration law. In fact, it's usually quite clear that immigration enforcement is under federal jurisdiction, and local cops that help out can get into a lot of trouble if they make the feds mad about how they are helping.
Environmental laws, however, typically allow the federal EPA to require states to take specific enforcement actions. Which may be unconstitutional if not implemented correctly ("you must" instead of "do it for federal money").
(Score: 3, Funny) by DannyB on Friday February 22 2019, @02:12PM
Dear Joe Read,
I saw your bill and would like to offer an amendment to your bill.
While you are changing science, could you please legislate the value of PI to be 3.0. That would make a lot of things much more convenient.
I also hear there is some interest in making the square root of 2 be equal to 1 to make carpeting square foot calculations easier.
Keep up the good work for your constituents!
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 1) by Tokolosh on Friday February 22 2019, @05:19PM
He should go back to raising his crop and waxing it down.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Phoenix666 on Friday February 22 2019, @05:22PM (4 children)
For context, Montana is a state full of iconoclasts. It's one of the qualities that endears it to me. Back when the states were raising their speed limits after several decades of post-oil shock 55mph, most people went with timid increases to 65mph or 70. Montana said, "Fuck it, why have a speed limit at all? We'll call our standard, 'travel at a reasonable and prudent speed'." It was great because the speed you travel really should vary with the road, traffic, and conditions.
After 9/11 when all the states scrambled to incorporate Big Brother technology in their driver's licenses, Montana opted out. It was the only one who told Bush and Cheney to take their surveillance state and shove it up their ass.
It was also Montana that elected the first woman, Jeanette Rankin, a Republican and women's rights advocate, to Congress in 1916. She was also a pacifist and non-interventionist who voted twice against war in 1917 and 1941. Personally I think those were two big, wrong calls, but god bless her for having the steel to make them.
So this dude in the state legislature who's proposing this legislation is in good company. I think he's wrong about climate change, but hey keep on truckin', man. Tilt at those windmills.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 22 2019, @09:26PM (3 children)
But, if you recall, the result was all sorts of young men in expensive cars their parents bought them coming to Montana from other states, and killing their selves and others, so ultimately "timid" speed limits of 75-80 mph were enacted.
Not to mention that Montana, like other states, caved in to the Reagan administration extortion when the passed the Double Nickel speed limit in the first place, under threat of losing all Federal highway funds.
Point being, Montana is not crazy, it just attracts crazies, like Californicators, Freemen, Maryland Matt, and Greg "Bodyslam" Gianforte, Richard Spencer, and Theodore John Kaczynski. But Joe, it seems, is actually a native-born Montanan, which is a big deal in the state, from Ronan, where there are some Riders. But this also ain't his first Rodeo, as he lost re-election to the Montana Leg in 2012, to Democrat Frosty Boss Ribs [wikipedia.org], after introducing a similarly climate-change denial blll in 2011 [matr.net]. And there is this about Read from Votesmart: "Education: No education information on file." [votesmart.org]
The Fine Summary neglects to mention that Read previously represented District 93, and the both it and District 15 are on parts of the Kootenai/Salish Flathead Reservation.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 22 2019, @10:12PM
Minor edit.
More importantly, District 15 spans from the southeastern part of the Flathead Res, across a major portion of the Bob Marshall Wilderness, to the southern quadrant of the Blackfeet Reservation, almost to Browning. These tribes are traditional enemies. Sounds like a gerrymandered district that only a white republican legislature could have come up with!
(Score: 2) by Joe Desertrat on Saturday February 23 2019, @12:20AM (1 child)
The 55 mph speed limit was passed under Nixon, not Reagan.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 23 2019, @01:34AM
This is incorrect. It was a "different" Republican. States Rights!
(Score: 3, Interesting) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Friday February 22 2019, @06:46PM
He introduces a bill. It dies in committee. He gets to say he "did something" refuting climate change which impresses his base. His opponents on the issue get to say they "did something" upholidng climate change which impresses their bases. Nothing changes.
And if anything did change from that, then they got the government they deserved.
This sig for rent.
(Score: 2) by pipedwho on Saturday February 23 2019, @12:01AM (1 child)
Q. If a ship floating in the ocean is sunk, does the average height of the ocean go up, down, or say the same?
A. It goes down.
So the logical conclusion is that if we sink enough ships we should be able to empty the ocean. The kind of guy we’re dealing with here is the kind of guy that sees that as perfectly good reasoning. And is just as likely to start drafting crazy laws based on this incomplete pseudo-logic.
(Score: 2) by pipedwho on Saturday February 23 2019, @12:15AM
Oops hit submit instead of preview.
And a corollary to the above. If you throw a rock off a ship into the ocean, the height of the ocean also goes down. So for every rock that falls in off the land, we can drop one off the side of a ship to compensate. Much less drastic than sinking ships. Maybe we can suggest that to this legislator. 🤫
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 23 2019, @09:20AM
Republican science