Strollerderby

Good thing she's going to be McCain's autism expert: http://tinyurl.com/4xockp

Am I allowed to ask everyone to vote for Obama?  Pretty please?  I don't think my stomach can take much more of this woman and I'd like her to go away now.

"To sneer at such research displays either extreme stupidity or a dangerous lack of concern for the opinions of the vast majority of her would-be constituents."

I think both have been well documented since she was selected to run with McCain. She is aggressively stupid, in a way that simply boggles my mind. When I think of all the people I've met at work, in school, or in social settings, I'm hard pressed to think of one of them that seemed less intelligent than Sarah Palin. Oh, and none of them are running for VP.

I can't believe I'm taking up for the woman - who I find scary - but your headline is utterly misleading.

She was making fun of science in general. Not autism specifically. And frankly, nuts as I find her, I don't think she'd make fun of autism research. Not with her Downs kid. That just doesn't wash.

ohslowburn beat me to it. I really, really do not like Sarah Palin, but your headline was so misleading. I always think of these kinds of tactics to be coming from the Republicans. There are enough significant reasons to dislike her, why manipulate the issue. I didn't even know fruit flies were being used for autism research, and I am a scientist. How would someone like Sarah Palin know this?

I agree...very misleading, and not fair. Just like the "N" word blog, we still don't even know if the word was said and if she heard it and she gets crapped on. Layoff and stick to the important facts.

please read this for the sake of all American's;

www.associatedcontent.com/.../barrack_obama_where_did_the_money_come.html

oh please...yes, sarah palin obviously doesn't know much about science, but the specific project she was referring to had to do with olive trees, not autism...your headline is intentionally misleading (or you didn't take time out to get the facts straight)

I didn't hear the speech, but I think the headline is misleading based on the excerpt in the post.  And in your defense, you say, "If she didn't know about the autism research...that's just embarrassing for her."  But I think you're holding her to an impossibly high standard here.  Yes, she's an advocate for special needs kids because she has one, but I think it's really unrealistic to expect her to know everything about every bit of research that is out there (note that gpgirl above is a scientist, and wasn't aware of it either).  I hardly think it's "embarrassing" to not know about one specific kind of research, especially when "special needs kids research" must encompass a huge variety of projects.

Plus, based on your excerpt, she was making a point about funding for frivolous research, and while it obviously wasn't a great example to use fruit flies because of the autism research, she pretty clearly wasn't referring specifically to that.  I'm pretty sure she would agree that autism research isn't frivolous, but that doesn't rule out the idea that there ARE frivolous studies out there, and better ones that end up going unfunded.

But hey, any opportunity to make her look bad, right?

Reading over her comment, it sure looks to me as though she is specifically mocking research that uses fruit flies to learn about autism. But why would we expect any less of this awful woman? She doesn't believe in the principles of the scientific method, but who needs investigation when their wacko extremist church obviously has all the answers? I can't wait til next wednesday when she takes her fancy wardrobe and leaves the spotlight for good.

In response to moviegirl:

www.snopes.com/politics/obama/money.asp

Please do some research before you spew rubbish all over the place.

And research is exactly what Palin should have done before she decided to make comments.  No, she is not a scientist...but if she wants to discuss scientific experiments, why not research the reasons behind it and then make a decision.  

Most likely she was just trying to find something inflammatory to get people going and assumes that the majority of people who are going to vote for her won't do any research either (otherwise they probably wouldn't vote for her!).

I agree with Mamallama. If she is going to run around calling herself "Our special needs advocate" than she needs to have her facts straight and her research fully vetted! The fact remains, if she is doesn't know about something, she needs to turn off the bullshit ('cause she's not good at it) and keep her mouth shut about it!