The Enlightened Despot

So I guess it’s pick on Bobby Jindal day here at the Despot. I apologize. Sort of. In any case, while the demon fighting is old news, Jindal talk these days is largely focused on his mocking “$140 million for something called ‘volcano monitoring’,” as an example of wasteful spending. The something that is called ‘volcano monitoring’ turns out to be the monitoring of volcanoes.  Volcanoes have a nasty habit of spewing ash and hot lava, which can be fairly unpleasant for anyone in the neighborhood. There is therefore widespread confusion as to why, exactly, Bobby Jindal thinks monitoring these things is such a ridiculous scheme.

Mudflats (I’m linking to a blog about Alaskan politics twice in one day without mentioning Sarah Palin… odd) has the best reaction I’ve seen so far:

Remember when Sarah Palin simultaneously proclaimed herself to be an advocate for children with autism, and mocked fruitfly research at the same time?  A quick Google search will reveal that fruit fly research has been, and continues to be important in trying to understand….autism.  So why did Palin attack that science?

a) She didn’t bother to do any research on it.

b) It sounds funny.

c) Both a and b.

If you picked “c”, you are correct.

Now let’s play again with the NEXT next golden child of the Republican Party - Louisiana Governor, Bobby Jindal.

In his grand debut last night, in front of the nation, as the governor of a state that has suffered mightily from lack of preparedness in the face of natural disaster, and while several hundred thousand Americans (of which I am one) are currently living within sight of a volcano that is “code orange” and has at its base, a Chevron tank farm sitting at its base, right next to Cook Inlet, what does he do?

He mocks government spending on volcano monitoring.  Excuse me…he mocks government spending on ”something called ‘volcano monitoring’”.  Once again, a quick Google search will reveal what this strange and mysterious ritual that some call “volcano monitoring” is all about.  I’m sure the folks at the Alaska Volcano Observatory will be happy to enlighten Governor Jindal.  So, why did Jindal attack this science?

a) He didn’t bother to do any research on it.

b) It sounds funny.

c) Both a and b.

Once again, if you answered “c”, you are correct.

My only objection to this is that unlike fruitfly research, volcano monitoring doesn’t really sound funny, and doesn’t even require much research. They’re volcanoes! Lava is really fucking hot! Why wouldn’t we monitor them?

Tags: crazy people, fake photogaffes, Jindal

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 26th, 2009 at 7:18 pm and is filed under posts by Akhbar. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.