There’s a character on “The Big Bang Theory” named Zack. He’s a big, lovable, not-very-bright oaf whom Penny dated during one of the off-again periods of her on-again/off-again romance with main character (and mega-nerd) Leonard. One time, Leonard and his fellow scientists were up on the roof of their apartment building, attempting to bounce a laser beam off a reflector that had been left on the moon by some Apollo astronauts. Zack and Penny were invited to join in the festivities (such as they were) and, at one point during the evening, Zack said, “That’s what I love about science; there’s no one right answer.”

Zack represents the core constituency of the Mike Huckabee for President campaign, although I’m certain that the Zack faction would also be coveted by Ted Cruz, Scott Walker and several others in the race for the GOP nod.

You might remember, when Huckabee ran before, Bill Maher asked the former Arkansas governor if he truly believed that the Earth is only 6,000 years old. Recognizing a trap question, Huckabee hemmed and hawed and finally said, “No one knows for sure how old the Earth is.”

Actually, governor (and Zack), there is just one right answer to that question and it damn sure isn’t 6,000 years.

Here’s a really scary thing: According to a recent Gallup poll, more than 40 percent of all Americans surveyed believe that the Earth is between 6,000 and 10,000 years old. Now, at first, one might think that that’s just one of those fake things that goes around the Internet so many times that it becomes accepted as fact. But it’s on the Gallup website.

Then, you think that maybe the Gallup people got lazy and only polled people in an area that stretched from southeast Mississippi to southwest Mississippi. But that turns out not to be the case, either. And these respondents didn’t attend Jihadi Middle School in some remote village outside of Islamabad. They’re Americans who grew up with freedom and Netflix and textbooks and Bill Nye, The Science Guy.

The stuff about the age of the Earth often can be traced to religion, so it’s sorta forgivable. What isn’t forgivable is the mindset that pervades the right wing in America today. Noted writer Isaac Asimov said it best with: “Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that ‘my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.'”

I was once working at a summer camp with one of the better-known local basketball coaches (no, it’s not Sean Miller). I told the guy that I had read an alarming statistic that stated that 50 percent of all American adults would never read a book after their formal education came to an end. The guy chuckled and said, “Ha! Make that 51 percent.”

So, not only would he not read a book, he also had no real concept of math, either.

That’s an example of lazy ignorance. What’s really troubling is the willful ignorance that Republican politicians are employing to connect with (and sometimes lead) their core constituencies. Preaching to the choir is a political tradition that dates back centuries. But what many in the Republican Party are doing these days goes well beyond all that. They believe that it’s better to live in the dark rather than to face the harsh realities of the light. Seriously, why would anybody want to be a part of the Anti-Science Party?

Ted Cruz (which is Spanish for Joe McCarthy) is probably the worst because he doesn’t even try to fall back on religion. His backers are always talking about how smart he is and his party made him chairman of the Senate Subcommittee of Space, Science, and Competitiveness. This, despite his claim that he looked at satellite data and concluded that there has been “no warming whatsoever” for the past 17 years. Real scientists looked at the same data and reported that nine of the 10 hottest years on record have occurred since 2000.

In response, Cruz said, “Today, the global-warming alarmists are the equivalent of the flat-Earthers. It used to be accepted scientific wisdom the Earth is flat, and this heretic named Galileo was branded a denier.”

This is a double knee-slapper. First of all, Cruz is only a lawyer. Comparing himself to one of the great minds of all time is laughable. Also, there have probably been fewer than 100,000 physicists in the entire history of the world while there are 1.2 million lawyers in the United States today!

More importantly, Galileo had nothing to do with flat-Earthers. His beef was with people who thought that the Sun revolved around the Earth. Galileo argued the (correct) heliocentric model while the Catholic Church (and others) clung to the ridiculous Ptolemaic geocentric model. He wasn’t called a denier; he was called a heretic, which is different and much worse.

Cruz draws raves from the anti-science crows when he attempts to paint himself as taking a heroic stand by defending the truth against a powerful and sinister enemy. Those of us with triple-digit IQs know better.

Benjamin Franklin said, “We are all born ignorant, but we must work hard to remain stupid.” On that point, at least, Democrats are being seriously outworked by their Republican counterparts.

This article appears in May 14-20, 2015.

27 replies on “Danehy”

  1. So “those of us with triple digit IQ ‘s believe that a mindset is unforgivable?”

    Great to know. Expect that to cut both ways.

  3. Does the percentage of adults that won’t read a book include everyone in prisons? at least there is one section of society that will finally see the value of the written word.

  5. “nine of the 10 hottest years on record have occurred since 2000.” That kind of phrase is very unscientific. Please, tell us how long we actually have the ‘record’ you cite? This whole diatribe from the premier Tucson diatribist is probably referring to those of us who claim (1) that climate change today is not scientifically proven to be human-caused and (2) that nonetheless many of the actions advocated to slow human-caused climate change are easily propounded as good for humanity without throwing in that speculative argument. We do NOT deny climate change, we acknowledge instead that climate change is a natural occurence with which we must cope to the best of our abilities, by conserving and developing new sources of water, by working on all forms of energy sources, by working to reduce air pollution and so forth. Why clutter up the need for these tasks by asserting we have to believe we are somehow affecting the natural climate change of this planet?

  6. I find the people that are the most intelligent #1 do not know their IQ, or care to mention it to others, and #2 they wait for peer review on serious matters do wait out the hysteria.

    “All of the researchers who spoke to Quartz about the two studies agreed that the warming pause was just that.

    “Eventually we expect temperatures to ‘catch up,’ but it may take longer than five years for that to happen,” Roberts told Quartz.

    So Al Gore was just a little bit early? Is that the new “smart thinking?”

    http://qz.com/351797/scientists-now-know-why-global-warming-has-slowed-down-and-its-not-good-news-for-us/

  7. Wow,
    I can’t believe the triple digit IQ remark.
    “Pride” can be an ugly thing.
    What is a “real” scientist by the way?
    A scientist who’s grant money depends on toeing the party line I suppose.
    They must buy into the U.N. propaganda or risk more ridicule.
    Ted Cruz has a Harvard degree by the way. That doesn’t impress me, but you always liked to point
    that out when praising Barry O and citing his resume.

  8. A triple digit IQ could be 100 or anything above 100. An IQ score of 100 means at the median. The median in statistics is the number that separates the lower half of the population from the upper half. Mr. Danehy’s remark about IQ was simply referring to the half of the population with IQ’s of 100 or greater..

  9. Mr. Danehy ? The man with the cajones to say Ted Cruz is Spanish for Joe McCarthy? ( A little racsim there ? ) How about Tom Danehy, English for dead from the neck up stooge who’s only shot at a paycheck is writing some useless column for a bunch of Lefties in a paper that sucks so bad they can’t even charge for it?

  10. The stupid people don’t really understand how dumb they are, and they don’t care. To them, life is just something to be endured, until they die and Jeebus welcomes them into his heavenly realm (or as most intelligent folks would describe it — an unendurably dull eternity.) The challenge for the rest of us is to tolerate them kindly, while working diligently to prevent them from taking over our government. To a great extent, we have already failed. (Being intelligent evidently doesn’t guarantee a sense of responsibility.) Meanwhile, the addle-brained among us manage to swarm to the polls en masse. Hence the conundrum. Smart people need to get it together, lest our democracy be doomed.

  11. Why would anyone want to be a member of a party with REAL foundations in racism, slavery, the klan, all of which are products of the left, democrats and liberalism. That isn’t wild hyperbole like the title of the article – it’s FACT.

  14. C dub, your IQ may be so low that you can’t accept the fact that under this new enlightened regime it actually snows as it gets hotter. You and I are deniers of the third degree. nanu nanu

  15. Everything from this bunch is ass-backwards. Notice how I got a dislike for that. Because once again I proved them wrong.

  16. cw—just keep spending your days playing dress up with your doggie.
    That seems to be about all you got.

  17. And you keep going on and on and on about the same thing. Seems to be all you’ve got. At least I annoy your kind with an assortment of digs.You must be very sick to be so possessed with a dog in a hockey jersey. I’ll bet even a few of your liberal pals that hate my guts find it a little strange that you can’t stop harping on something so innocent. A few weeks back you ragged on N.Y.C. I’ve got a fifty dollar bill says you’ve never even been there. Any takers ? Anyway, I’m done paying attention to the rants of a gorilla . Make fun of me, my dog, the Right, etc. Call me dumb, clueless and all the crap that comes out of your gorrilla mask. I’m not going to reply to the rants of a person who has no life and most likely never will. Hockey seson ends in a few weeks and I was going to change my picture.
    Seeing as how it drives you up a wall, I never will.
    The End

  18. Same old, same old from CW – The more he types, the more he proves Danehy’s points.

  19. Where ya’ been Static? I figured they locked your sorry ass in the attic and threw away the key. Good to have you back. Another member of Tommy’s L.L.L. ( Legion of Liberal Losers) who’s nuts I love to break.

  20. cw….geeeez, just how frustrated are you.? Get annoyed much. ?

    LOL

    And ! I used to work and live in NYC for a short time. Loved it. Now gimme that 50.

  21. Really ? Geez, we might have somethng in common after all. Where’d you work? If there’s a way you can get the Geekly or Tommy to act as middle man it’s yours. I may be a right wing asshole, but I’m a man of my word.

  23. Last November, my kids were going to spend a week in New York City. (They were going to go see a Cornell hockey game at Madison Square Garden and then take in some shows). Mr. CW13 graciously gave me some tips as to where they could get a great Italian meal and said that they should absolutely go to the Carnegie Deli. He and I still disagree on almost everything (I’m right; he’s wrong). However, there is always the chance to find common ground. For example, he and I agree that Jack Lambert was the baddest NFL player of all time. Maybe you guys should get together, just so long as you don’t start agreeing with each other. That would be yucky. I’m hoping that one of you is a Yankee fan, while the other likes the Mets. Or one likes the Giants, the other the Jets. I’m assuming that one of you liked Giuliani…

  24. YANKEES !!!!!!!!! You were doing O.K. (Even the part about you right, me wrong) but the Yankees. I’d rather have a sister in a Nevada brothel than a brother who’s a Yankee fan !!

  26. The more the nitwits and morons write, the more they prove that Danahey is, once again, correct. Willful ignorance is damned near incurable.

  27. CW13, once again, I must ask why you waste your time reading something that is “so bad they can’t charge for it”? Do you know what a troll is?

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