Crooked Timber Mooney Seminar

Crooked Timber is having another of their excellent seminars, where several of the contributors gang up and discuss the work of someone else, who they often persuade to contribute. In this case they are discussing The Republican War on Science by Chris Mooney -- well worth checking out. (Although PZ does yelp, with justification, about the inclusion of Steve Fuller. I'm sure that there are respectable pro-science Republicans who could have been brought in to critique the book.) I never did a proper review of TRWoS myself, as I've been reading it piecemeal rather than properly from start to finish. Frankly, it's too depressing to read too much at once. Like Ted Barlow, I approached the book gingerly, because it certainly is polemical and tells liberals like me what they want to hear. But ultimately I don't really want to hear it -- even if I would prefer Democrats in power rather than Republicans, I still don't want to think that the current administration is so craven and dishonest as to blatantly distort the scientific process for political ends. But they are, and it's important to keep our eyes open about it and resist politicization wherever it pops up. Chris's book is an invaluable contribution to that project.