Extraordinary For All the Wrong Reasons

Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin is slated to deliver a "testimony of faith" at a religious conference in Lynchburg, Va. this fall, which will be broadcast in more than 1,000 churches nationwide.

The Extraordinary Women Conference will take place at Liberty University on Oct. 7-8, dates that Politico notes fall on the same week Republican presidential candidates are expected to meet in Minnesota for the Midwest Leadership Conference, an event put on by the state's GOP...

...Liberty University chancellor Jerry Falwell Jr. wrote in an email to the Lynchburg News & Advance that the institution was "honored to host (the conference) and to welcome Governor Sarah Palin to our campus."

Continued Falwell: "Governor Palin is greatly admired by our Liberty University faculty, staff and students for her patriotism and her determination to stand up for what is right despite vicious and unrelenting attacks against her and her family."

Oh, she's extraordinary alright. Extraordinarily divisive, extraordinarily moronic, extraordinarily petty...

Events like these and the people who run them, the people who are invited to them, and the people who speak at them are one of the main reasons I question organized religion in general. But there's always a silver lining because it looks like Sister Sarah isn't going to be running for President after all - just lobbing bombs from the sidelines as usual.

I wonder if she's going to receive her $100,000 speaking fee for her "testimony of faith"? Or maybe she'll just get a witch doctor to shake his rattle. And heaven help them if they forget her bendy straws!

Fruit Flies. I Kid You Not.

See Sarah speak.
See Sarah give her very first policy speech.
See Sarah speak about special needs.
See Sarah speak about autism.
See Sarah belittle earmarks for "projects that have little or nothing to do with the public good. "

"Things like fruit fly research in Paris, France. I kid you not."



See Sarah scoff at science.
See Sarah look like the complete fucking idiot she is in not realizing that research in fruit flies led to discoveries that boosted autism research.

Pharyngula: This idiot woman, this blind, shortsighted ignoramus, this pretentious clod, mocks basic research and the international research community. You damn well better believe that there is research going on in animal models — what does she expect, that scientists should mutagenize human mothers and chop up baby brains for this work? — and countries like France and Germany and England and Canada and China and India and others are all respected participants in these efforts.

Yes, scientists work on fruit flies. Some of the most powerful tools in genetics and molecular biology are available in fruit flies, and these are animals that are particularly amenable to experimentation. Molecular genetics has revealed that humans share key molecules, the basic developmental toolkit, with all other animals, thanks to our shared evolutionary heritage (something else the wackaloon from Wasilla denies), and that we can use these other organisms to probe the fundamental mechanisms that underlie core processes in the formation of the nervous system — precisely the phenomena Palin claims are so important.

This is what happens in an unorganized, dying campaign and political party that doesn't vet its candidates or even have the sense to have scientific minds peruse the speech to verify that the contents are accurate.

But perhaps Rev. Muthee got a copy of her speech and although he was upset that sacrificing a goat wasn't in the plan to advance discoveries for early indication of autism, blessed it with chicken's blood, shook a bone over it and exorcised the witches out so that Palin would have a successful speech.

BZZZT!!!! Oh, I'm sorry. Wrong again, Miss Wasilla and such as.

(H/T Crooks & Liars)