I’m sorry. I can’t let this one go, and this time I’m naming names.

Palin gave her one and only policy speech this Friday. The theme was about increasing aid for special needs kids and their families. This one is a no-brainer for political coverage. This is one of those issues like homelessness or hunger. I mean, have you ever met anyone actually in favor of homelessness? Anyone you’d invite over for dinner?

All she had to do was read her script, talk about how special needs kids need more help and therefore more funding — it should have been a home run. But no. She decided to riff on earmarks and pulled out this gem:

Sometimes these dollars, they go to projects having little or nothing to do with the public good. Things like fruit fly research in Paris, France. I kid you not!

She mocked scientific research that employed fruit flies, and managed to insult the international scientific community at the same time. She managed to take a supremely defensible position and snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

Before I jumped ship and went into writing, I was studying biology. Science is a part of my being. It’s a part of me, my family, and my world. It’s a part of my religion — you may not know this, but being LDS is wholly compatible with science. All the “hot button” topics: Evolution, quantum mechanics, the works.

Palin’s attitude revealed here in her speech does one of two things — neither particularly flattering. 1) she actually believes that science is unimportant in our world and is therefore woefully unqualified to stand ready to become president or 2) she’s just putting on an act to pander to a perception that the base of the US is ignorant and delighted to mock intellectual achievement and is therefore woefully unqualified to stand ready to become president.

Every time I hear more about her, I’m left with the distinct impression that the GOP is treating this like a beauty pageant. It’s time to get serious and leave the pageantry behind. McCain’s VP selection is a disaster.

Here’s a link to a Daily Kos daily blog from a molecular biologist who illuminates the depth of idiocy of this gaffe far better than I can.

Here’s the full speech from the McCain website. Should have been a home run. Could have been a home run. Until she got all partisan there. Remember, nobody is for homelessness.

But wait! You mean that research performed with fruit flies has actually extended our understanding of autism? (Thanks, Thinkprogress.org!)

If you can stand to watch it, the money shot is youtube embedded in the think progress link. When she gets to the mocking bit, she completely drops any veneer of professionalism, and starts the sideways headbob when she starts sticking it to those snooty french scientists.

I’m simply appalled.

And I have the Knight Rider theme running through my head.

Hey, any folks who tried to see the archives and were stymied when they hit 2006 and 2005, my apologies. I fiddled with the look of the URLs and accidentally introduced an error.

It’s fixed now — you can now see all the archives all the way back.

Regarding Heidi’s post below.

You know that joke when someone walks up to you and says, “How do you keep a person in suspense?” And you say, “I dunno.” And they say, “Tell you tomorrow,” and then walk away?

Yeah. I hate that joke.

So, if you’re prone to leaving comments, and keen to find out how the discussion goes after you leave a comment, you’ll be happy to find a new little checkbox right above to the submit button.

So, no missing replies now! I hope.

Oh, and Katie, if you read this, I’m keeping it a secret from Heidi, k?

Please spend six and a half minutes of your life to watch a short film about Alzheimer’s.

Heidi edit: Sorry, not wanting to detract from that film in any way, but if you double click it will launch another window taking you to You Tube and be warned, if you’ve not been there before, it has a lot of questionable content. So single click and watch the film from the safety of our blog window.