First, there was Cuccinelli and his anti-gay dickery. Then he jumped on to the healthcare reform lawsuit band wagon. Then he let us all in on his nipple phobia. Oh Ken Cuccinelli, is there no nuttery you will not force me to look at an say, “…seriously?”
And now he’s after a climate change scientist. Oh my stars and garters. Cuccinelli has come across pretty steadily as a climate change denier, so investigating Michael Mann for “defrauding taxpayers” over grants for global warming research carries a nasty whiff of intimidation. Don’t like the science? Attack the scientist’s reputation. Anyway, I think Phil lays it all out quite nicely.
I do have to say one thing I’ve found interesting on Phil’s post is the comments. Because as you would expect, the minute the Bad Astronomer tippy-tapped out:
To be clear: the climate is changing. There is zero doubt about that. None. Anyone telling you differently has an agenda to ram, and it’s one that is decidedly not realistic.
…the trolls and deniers came scooting out of their dark corners of the internet. What’s fascinating me is how disjointed some of the comments seem from the actual post.
My dramatic reenactment:
Phil: Cuccinelli is a jerk! Inhofe is a jerk! Politicians that abuse their power to try to intimidate scientists who come to conclusions they don’t like are jerks! RAR!
Commenter: But what about MY feelings????? How dare you call ME a denier!!! OMG I feel so attacked!!!
I don’t know. Maybe the people writing those comments are actually Cuccinelli and Inhofe under assumed names? Otherwise… goodness, we are getting a little defensive, aren’t we.