There was a popular series of commercials from Staples some time ago featuring the "Easy Button." In one such ad, a person is missing his Easy Button, and a woman suggests that he can use hers. "Use your easy button to find my easy button?" the first man asks. "Wouldn't that like, tear a hole in the universe?" asks a second.
"What's the worst that could happen?" the woman responds. "That's the worst that can happen," says the first man, referring to what the second man said. And that is kind of like what happened on Hardball today on MSNBC, as Chris Matthews explored the mystery of crazy, fringe, anti-science right-wingers like Rush Limbaugh.
NASA announced this week their discovery of flowing water on the surface of Mars. Rush Limbaugh, to the consternation and disapproving amusement of Matthews and his first guest, crazily suggested that the clearly Obama-smitten agency would use this to push administration priorities. Priorities such as, for example, "climate change." Matthews found this highly amusing, as did the guest who (not in the clip above) put on a little ranting, mocking display about how, yes, scientists have long planned to use water on Mars to end straight marriage. Ha ha ha. You see, it's funny because Science!
After playing the clip of Rush Limbaugh's insane theory that NASA would use this to push administrative objectives, however, Matthews proceeds to do exactly that.
"One reason to study the planet is because it could provide insight into what's happening here on Earth," says Matthews. He then lists various scientific endeavors like "studying bones" and then concludes that Limbaugh is "against discovery." That remains the theme for the remainder of the segment.
What's the worst that can happen from NASA's announcement? This. This exact thing you just did, Chris. Using it to push a global warming agenda, or some other administration "end the economy forever" objective. That's the worst that can happen. And it does happen. Every. Single. Time.
And before you get all "facts are facts," do take a minute to recall, won't you, that there is zero evidence that the absence of vast seas of water on Mars has anything at all to teach us about the fate of our own oceans, or anything about global warming. That's an actual fact.
Perhaps some day we'll know if the absence of large amounts of water on Mars can tell us something about our own oceans. Hopefully we'll find that out through diligent and legitimate research. Until then, using it as a bludgeon for climate change is exactly what Limbaugh suggests. Politics. Not science.
