Scientists and Engineers for America on Cobert Report

[beskeptical]

Just thought I'd share the email. Don't know how many people joined the group when the BA shared it on his blog. There was a lot of blog banter about this and that language in their mission statement.

Sometimes the wording and subtleties of the mission are clues that you don't want to join a group. There was a big fuss about the Brights on a similar note.

Personally, I looked at the overall goals rather than worrying about how these particular groups worded their messages. They have the right idea whether they wrote their statements with political correctness.

Anyway, here's the message.

Dear Friend,

You won’t want to miss two of SEA’s top scientists appearing on the influential programs The Colbert Report and Talk of the Nation. The diversity in these two programs proves there is something in SEA for everyone.

On-Air with the Colbert Report

Thursday, October 19th

Tonight Dr. Peter Agre, 2003’s Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry, will be talking about SEA with “Mega American” Steven Colbert on Comedy Central.

This is an amazing opportunity for SEA to reach The Colbert Report’s influential audience of progressive bloggers and online activists.

Talk on Talk of the Nation

Friday, October 20th

Tomorrow, Dr. Susan Wood is Talk of the Nation’s guest for the entire hour on NPR. Dr. Wood resigned from the Food and Drug Administration on principle over the continued delay of approval of Plan B by the FDA.

Please call Talk of the Nation tomorrow at (800) 989-8255 with questions and comments for Dr. Wood.

Reach Voters at the Ballot Box

Tuesday, November 7th

As someone who understands what is at risk when elected officials misuse science and technology, you know what is at stake this November.

Please take a moment today and make a contribution to SEA. Your support will help elect candidates with the qualifications necessary to lead America forward on issues ranging from climate change to stem cell research and to clean and affordable energy.

Please consider a donation of $1,000, $500 or $100. Your support will ensure our issues are at the forefront of the American debate in 2006 and beyond. You will also enable SEA to directly reach voters in districts with competitive elections, and influence election outcomes in favor of scientific, technological and medical progress for America.

Thank you for your support!
Sincerely,
Mike Brown
Executive Director

I debated about leaving in the solicitation. It is a standard message in emails like this so keep in mind the message is really the program alerts. I'll delete the solicitation if anyone cares.

[beskeptical]

Just watched the Cobert Report. The amazing thing is I was pondering this evening exactly what Dr Agre was saying about scientists needing to come out of the closet. Unbelievable!

I was listening to a liberal radio show and the host was going on and on about the horrible mercury we are poisoning kids with in vaccines yadda yadda yadda. It makes me ill to hear that nonsense on the public airwaves where it will convince yet another parent to withhold life saving vaccines from their children. And the host had no concept of who is or isn't an expert or even knowledgeable about the subject. The result is you have an ignorant individual blabbing the worst bad medicine and the host reinforcing everything as if it were valid and factual.

Since I have heard this misinformation over and over, I thought that calling in or posting on the show's web page wasn't going to have any more effect than the last time I tried to correct this information. So I started thinking about what the underlying issues really were here.

It was rather easy to figure out. Scientists are invisible. The anti-vaccine crowd just like many anti-science groups think the evil government or evil corporations control all the scientific information. These anti-science people either don't realize there are scientists that are not in government or big pharma or the anti-science people don't know the science people even exist.

And that was exactly the message Dr Agre was relaying!

Think my ESP experience qualifies for James Randi's million?

I am even more convinced the SEA is going to become an important group, and, if they can get their message out, it is indeed the right message. Scientists need to distinguish themselves as a reliable source. When the conspiracy people think government controls all scientific research results, we have to let the CTers know scientists control that information, not corporations and government. Every time some slanted or biased research is uncovered, we should be making it clear the reason it was uncovered is because science cannot be so easily manipulated. Single studies may have fabricated results, but science looks for the repeatable results before drawing real conclusions.

[ToSeek]

I've joined. They've invited me to some kind of event up in Baltimore, but I don't know if I'll be able to make it.