"Why is there gas and oil under the Arctic?"

[Ramo]

After the incident, he was so self-satisfied, that he tweeted his gloating:



Republicans+Contempt for empiricism+Twitter

[Lonestar]

yeah, I saw that(before I tracked down this video). Jeebus.

[Provost Harrison]

Ignorance is bliss as they say. He must be f**king blissful beyond belief!

[Lonestar]

Unicorns are Gay?

I love Unicorns

Ignorance is bliss as they say. He must be f**king blissful beyond belief!

Going from his degrees and the work he did in the private sector, he almost has to be just doing this as some kind of political Hack job.

Which, of course, isn't much better.

[Provost Harrison]

As I mentioned, I suspect he could well be doing it from a creationist perspective. Stupid and arrogant

[Ramo]

Barton isn't particularly hard to explain. The viability of the TX Republican Party is based on stoking culture wars, financed by the oil industry. This is about cap and trade, not evolution. But they're selling creationism in schools and opposition to taxing carbon exactly the same way (a factually impaired indictment of some conspiracy by the cultural elite); and one becomes the other.

[Thue]

After the incident, he was so self-satisfied, that he tweeted his gloating:



Republicans+Contempt for empiricism+Twitter

Is that real? [ yes it is...http://twitter.com/RepJoeBarton ]

Well, if you only value form and not content I agree with him. Joe Barton's presentation was smoother.

However, if he had paid any attention to content, he would have noticed that his question was idiotic. I am both fascinated and repelled by this kind of person, who obviously lack basic social and intellectual skills, but make up for it in bull****ting, and actually ends up in a position of power. And not least, believes in his own bull****!

(Nobel laureate!) Steven Chu was probably stymied by trying and failing to dumb his answer all the way down to Joe Barton's level. Not something I would be proud of if I was Joe Barton.

[ZEE]

In the universal perspective, the human race is pretty much chalked up as a failure, and we will still be using dead plants to power our huge bulky machines in a million years.

[Berzerker]

He answered the question without going into a 15 minute geology lesson - the plates we're on move Rep Barton. Schoolchildren looking at maps of the S Hemisphere knew this before it became accepted theory. My mother was one, she saw the connection between Africa and the Americas in grade school and was duly corrected for her ignorance by the teacher

[chequita guevara]

Also, a long time ago, the Earth was much warmer.

[Bosh]

Staying stupid **** is one thing, everyone does that. But saying stupid **** and then posting it for everyone to see while thinking that you're clever is something else entirely...

[a.kitman]

i didnt know where the arctic oil came from

[Ben Kenobi]

Dead liberals from arctic explorations obviously. DUH!

[Theben]

My mother was one, she saw the connection between Africa and the Americas in grade school and was duly corrected for her ignorance by the teacher

I recall that moment of revelation. After mentioning it to the teacher, he told me that if I looked at the continental shelves they fit even better! Yaay!

[Theben]

If those primitives didn't want to suffer the sound and the fury of my nuclear arsenal, they shouldn't have settled on my bombing range.

From the Civ IV comments. Good call, Timmy!