Our fearless leader has apparently nominated someone (James Holsinger) to the post of Surgeon General who is sadly confused about basic issues of science, logic, and argument from evidence. Not good for the nation’s chief doctor, although hardly surprising from Our Friends at the White House. From ABC News:
“You have to wonder given the quality of some of the nominations that have gone forward recently, whether the selection group in the White House has gone on vacation,” Gergen [former adviser to Presidents Nixon, Ford, Reagan and Clinton] said. “There has been a growing criticism the administration favoring ideology over competence, and this nomination smacks of that.”
Greg Laden nicely takes apart the “naturalist fallacy” in Holsinger’s argument, and I definitely recommend heading over to read that. The short version is that Holsinger’s fallen into something like “the parts don’t fit, ergo homosexuality is unnatural and wrong“. What’s “natural” and what’s “right”, though, have little or nothing to do with each other. My eyeglasses are clearly unnatural, as was my life-saving appendectomy, but I’m hardly returning either of those. Similarly, it’s “natural” (at least we’re genetically predisposed) for men to be physically larger and stronger than women (on average), but that clearly doesn’t provide any justification for physical abuse and intimidation of women by men, or adults beating children just ’cause they’re bigger.
I’m off to write my Senators and express my unhappiness with yet another Shrub appointee…
