[+/-] How the fundies trample science

Here are a few tidbits from the new book With God On Their Side: How Christian Fundamentalists Trampled Science, Policy, and Democracy in George W. Bush's White House, by Esther Kaplan. Kaplan details how the Christian fundamentalist lobby's influence has created a shadow government with almost no oversight:

Due to interference by administration officials, the Grand Canyon's bookstore now sells a book called A Different View, which claims that the canyon was created by the flood that launched Noah's ark.

The National Institutes of Health, under pressure from groups such as the Traditional Values Coalition, has called up researchers to warn them they may lose funding for projects that have anything to do with AIDS, addiction, contraception, or sexuality.

Weekly Bible study sessions at the White House are attended by more than half the staff.

Bush's top advisor has held meetings with so-called Christian Zionists to explain why administration policy toward Israel won't impinge upon their end-times scenarios.

The administration has collaborated with states it considers sponsors of terror, such as Libya and Iran, to forward an anti-abortion agenda at the UN. Meanwhile, doctors sent to restore social services in Iraq were vetted to make sure they were anti-abortion.

Scary stuff, and just in time for Halloween!