Sunday’s post lambasting the Discovery Institute (and our political and media elite’s insistence on taking them seriously no matter how wacky their proposals) has generated a number of emails from folks offering more detailed information on Discovery and its operations. It’s not pretty.
They may have cleaned up their “official” budget by now, but I’ve been assured that in past years at least 40-percent of the Gates Foundation’s roughly $1 million/year grant to the Cascadia Project went directly to Discovery to cover “overhead”. This included a $60,000 line item to help pay the salary of Discovery Executive Director Steven Buri, who I’m told has absolutely no expertise nor interest in transportation planning. Of course, I expect Discovery would deny using Gates Foundation money to subsidize its Intelligent Design campaign, but if they want to refute my allegations I challenge them to release the original budget documents (not some bullshit, made up spreadsheet,) or better yet, sue me for libel, so that I might use the discovery period to shed some light on the shady accounting Bruce Chapman has used to sucker the world’s richest man.
My point is that through his foundation’s 10 year/$9.35 million grant to Cascadia, Bill Gates — who frequently bemoans the state of our nation’s science education — is directly funding the operations of an organization dedicated to undermining the scientific method, and teaching creationism in our public schools. I mean… what the fuck?
But worse than the money is the undeserved credibility Gates and others grant Discovery by perpetuating the fiction that there is actual thinking going on in its tank. A real think tank starts with a problem and then goes about creatively devising a solution; propaganda mills like Discovery start with a solution, and then go about marketing the problem. And what is Discovery’s solution to the many challenges facing our nation in the 21st century and beyond? Here are the institute’s goals as enunciated in its infamous Wedge Document:
Governing Goals
- To defeat scientific materialism and its destructive moral, cultural and political legacies.
- To replace materialistic explanations with the theistic understanding that nature and human beings are created by God.
Five Year Goals
- To see intelligent design theory as an accepted alternative in the sciences and scientific research being done from the perspective of design theory.
- To see the beginning of the influence of design theory in spheres other than natural science.
- To see major new debates in education, life issues, legal and personal responsibility pushed to the front of the national agenda.
Twenty Year Goals
- To see intelligent design theory as the dominant perspective in science.
- To see design theory application in specific fields, including molecular biology, biochemistry, paleontology, physics and cosmology in the natural sciences, psychology, ethics, politics, theology and philosophy in the humanities; to see its influence in the fine arts.
- To see design theory permeate our religious, cultural, moral and political life.
That is what Bill Gates’ fortune is helping to fund.
Of course, the nut doesn’t fall far from the tree, and so despite its charade of scholarly objectivity, Cascadia has its own ideologically predetermined solutions. That’s why, for example, anti-light rail zealot Ted Van Dyk was so eager to give Discovery’s Bruce Agnew a rhetorical blowjob in today’s Crosscut. Van Dyk, Agnew et al have their own transportation plan, and it resolves around “governance reform” that would create a four-county, regional transportation commission, largely designed to dilute the power of Seattle’s pro-rail voters, while forcing us to fund their priorities, rather than our own. To Van Dyk’s credit, at least he’s honest about his cabal’s ultimate goal:
It would stress immediate priorities such as addressing the urgent Alaskan Way Viaduct and Evergreen Point Bridge, which are aging and structurally vulnerable. It would not stop light rail construction in place, but it would limit construction to a line running from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport to either Convention Place, Husky Stadium, or Northgate. Future funding would be focused more greatly on express bus, bus rapid transit, and normal bus service; dedicated transit lanes; HOV lanes; tolling; and selective repair and expansion of long neglected local roads and lifeline highways. Citywide trolleys definitely would not be part of the scheme.
That too is what Bill Gates’ fortune is funding.
Of course, I suppose there are those civic leaders who agree with Discovery’s “Big Bore” pro-roads/anti-rail agenda, just as I suppose there are those who support its goal of imposing a world view “consonant with Christian and theistic convictions”; I just wish they’d be honest about it. But for the rest, it is time to wake up and recognize Discovery for what it is, and stop granting credibility and money it has not earned.
Gates obviously has too much money to know what to do with it all. I would not presume to tell him where to spend it, but holy batshit, could he just NOT spend it on right wing anti-science polarizing CRAP? Just say NO, Bill. Thank you.
The greatest problem facing our nation today is the class war being waged against workers by the rich-and-getting-richer.
Roger, I think corporatism is a greater threat, but sometimes it’s hard to distinguish from “the rich-and-getting-richer.”
Rightwingers are trying to pervert public school science education into the teaching of creationism in order to prepare our children for a lifetime of low-wage corporate servitude.
It won’t be long now before they’re shilling for legalizing corporal punishment in workplaces.
Big Corporations, essentially, have their finger on the nuclear trigger.
They own our government. They started this Iraq thing for profit.
Vote for Edwards.
Guys like Jack Welch should be in lunatic asylums for the criminally insane.
Every dime Gates spends has a purpose. In this case, it’s called “greasing the palms of the party in power to fast-track adoption of Microsoft’s products by government agencies”.
Maybe in their thinly-disguised use of Bible interpretation to support their wacko theories, the Discovery Institute will start referring to a natural disaster not as an “act of God” but instead as a “general protection fault”.
i had to share this post on my favorite science forum….The Skeptics Guide to the Universe
http://www.theskepticsguide.org/
great fun and the best podcast going….IMO.
ok…back to the topic.
i would like to that all the Religonists (not just Christianists) for the continued support to keep the people mis-informed…better than FOX News could ever hope for i must say.
but then again….Ruppert’s crew is just getting started
I am calling on all the bloggers on this site.. Goldy, Paul, Will, etc., in solidarity with the writers who are on strike, to stop posting on this blog until the strike is resolved.
Instead of bloviating about age-old theological questions that cannot be, and never will be, answered with scientific certainty Discovery Institute should make itself useful by tackling practical problems facing society — such as predatory lending.
For example, in poor Third World nations such as Mexico, private enterprise has taken a Nobel Prize-winning “good idea” and stood it on its head by turning micro-lending into a profit center. They charge interest rates that make payday loan lenders look benign. And U.S. corporations are getting into the act:
“Wal-Mart Stores (WMT), which obtained a Mexican banking license a year ago, began offering loans for purchases at 16 of its 997 Mexican outlets in November. In the U.S., the retailer markets itself as a friend to the budget-conscious. In Mexico, it charges interest rates that might set off popular and political revolts back home, although Wal-Mart describes its terms as appropriate to the Mexican market. At one store west of Mexico City, a 32-inch LG plasma TV with a price tag of $957 can ultimately cost as much as $1,474, thanks to a 52-week payment plan that carries an annual percentage rate (APR) of 86%.”
Quoted under fair use; for complete article and/or copyright info see http://www.businessweek.com/ma.....op+stories
Roger Rabbit Commentary: 86-fucking-percent!!! So much for Wal-Mart’s recent public relations offensive portraying itself as a warm-and-fuzzy company. Not! This is the same-old greedy and rapacious corporation it’s always been. But I digress. Why is Discovery Institute wasting its time attacking public-school science teaching when an American corporation is charging poor Mexican peasants 86% APR interest on a fucking TV? This is the sort of thing that gives America a bad reputation among the world’s poor and exploited peoples.
@11 Did you make the same request of Sharansky? No, didn’t think so. Fucking hypocrite.
re 12: Debt is slavery.
Sharansky isn’t pro-union. Goldy is. Now eat shit and die, RR.
BS,
What does Goldy’s blogging have to do with TV and movie writers? What does this blog have to do with the WGA? Nothing, that’s what. You are totally full of shit, you concern troll.
@11
“BS says:
I am calling on all the bloggers on this site.. Goldy, Paul, Will, etc., in solidarity with the writers who are on strike, to stop posting on this blog until the strike is resolved.”
(TROLL) BS, I have a perfect project for you. How ’bout if you “stop posting on this blog until the strike is resolved” and beyond…
Goldy, Paul, Will, etc., please continue posting.
@15 “eat shit and die, RR”
Not in your wildest dreams. Try dreaming about sex instead … maybe that’ll work better for ya.
BS, please “eat shit and die”.
RR, please continue posting.
That WingNut (TM) actually thinks he can wish away Roger Rabbit …
HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR
Hey, Sierra Club douchebags? How does it feel to be played for suckers on light rail be the freaking Discovery Institute, Slade Gorton, Kemper Freeman and the Washington State Republican Party?
Once again, the perfect is the enemy of the good in the liberal community- we pissed away rail transit under Forward Thrust, and we’re going to piss it away again outside of the existing Sound Transit light and heavy rail lines, because somebody thinks that compromising on pouring ANY asphalt means that polar bears will be extinct. Awesome.
I am pro Union but I think God has much to do with creating the world . In fact all of it .
Seems it would not make too much sense to be pro Union and stop blogging .
The biggest problem facing this nation is not the rich against the poor , its the people who divide us into those two groups .
We have the votes and we have the majority , ridiculing people who believe in God is as stupid as ridiculing people who want to be able to work and support their families .
Thats what Christmas is all about , the brotherhood of man . We all be the same , just so many don’t know it . I feel kind of sorry for them actually .
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year .
@16,
You asked, “What does writing for a blog have to do with writing for a TV show?” Well, they both are writers, for one. I’d say that’s one pretty big connection. I just thought Goldy might want to show support for his fellow writers by boycotting his own blog until the strike is resolved. I would have great respect for him if he did that.
BS
The rightwing agenda would be served if everyone quit writing. The dissemination of information and ideas is harmful to that agenda. The rightwing agenda thrives when people are too scared to leave their caves and too dumb to think for themselves. So, I can understand why you promote the silencing of those who are actually capable of critical thinking and writing.
Goldy,
What’s the problem? This is easy. George Gilder is a “senior fellow” at the (couldn’t make one if you paid them)Discovery
FrontInstitute. Ever since the 90’s he’s professed a fetish for ‘free’ markets, the market as god incarnate, and ubertechnology. He was a high priest of the high-tech stock bubble of the 90’s. He writes gibberish technobabble exhalting corporate power and a ‘greed is good’ philosophy. He’s also bought into the (non)intelligent design theory lock, stock, and barrel. He is a fucking wingnut hack.And you don’t understand how Bill Gates channels a bunch of dough to these cuckoos? When it comes to ‘free markets’ (i.e., eternal patent protection and monopoly), Bill Gates thinks along exactly the same lines. Ask anybody who works for him.
He just hasn’t bought into ID (surmise on my part), nor does he write many op-eds, but it’s all about the money.
@23: Show your support for the writers. Stop writing posts here. You have the same employee-employer relationship that Goldy has to this blog….which is to say none.
Stop posting now, bullshitter. Support the strike.
Twenty Year Goals
To see intelligent design theory as the dominant perspective in science.
To see design theory application in specific fields, including molecular biology, biochemistry, paleontology, physics and cosmology in the natural sciences…
Well, since they can’t even get to the testable hypothesis stage, this appears unlikely….
molecular biology: “Fuck! It’s a cell! Must be a miracle!
biochemistry: “RNA, DNA”, yadda, yadda, yadda. Let’s just say nay, nay, nay…that must explain it!”
paleontology: “No such thing. ‘Nuff said.”
physics: “particle physics be damnned…there is only one probability. The god dude did it.
cosmology: Nothing here folks. Move along. When you die, you’ll know the miracle.
To boldly go where all theocrats have so boldly gone before: Smug self satisfied certainty.
Mick, see how your friends ignored your post?
Typical, so typical.
“Hey, Sierra Club douchebags? How does it feel to be played for suckers on light rail be the freaking Discovery Institute, Slade Gorton, Kemper Freeman and the Washington State Republican Party?”
While I might disagree with your coarse language, keep in mind…the naïve Sierra Clubbers are intrigued by the Discovery Institute’s weird regional transportation governance “reform” ideas. Our local Cascade Chapter believes that by following the anti-transit goons down this path, somehow we will all be lead to transit utopia.
I can’t wait.
**Thats what Christmas is all about , the brotherhood of man . We all be the same , just so many don’t know it . I feel kind of sorry for them actually .**
Sorry, Mick. Just try reading puddybud’s disgusting, racist and hateful posts (going back a couple years) and discover for yourself how your particular brand of New Testament Christianity got crushed by vengeful & bitter right wingers a long time ago.
Best of luck to you in your quest to try and revive it.
PS – in the meanwhile, you may wish to read David Kuo’s book “Tempting Faith” to see just how far modern Christianity has fallen, with sicko warriors like puddybud leading the way…
As a Christian, myself, I often find that secular progressive Seattleites exhibit values more in line with those of Christ’s than the most ardent punishment-obsessed Old Testament conservative. In my view, that’s just plain sad. Come to think of it, these are the people you should feel sorry for, Mick.
Good post Goldy!
Glad to see you’ve still got the touch.
Members of the WGA can’t make money writing for television or the movies without crossing the picket lines, right? So what are they going to do to keep the mortgage paid and the pilot lamp lit? They’re going to do what they know how to do, of course — write. Novels, short stories, essays, magazine pieces . . . and blogs. So Goldy et al. posting at this blog is actually being done in solidarity with the WGA. Carry on.
(Yeah, I know. As if they could make money writing for blogs.)
“As a Christian, myself, I often find that secular progressive Seattleites exhibit values more in line with those of Christ’s than the most ardent punishment-obsessed Old Testament conservative.”
Mission Bill I don’t want to get on who is the better Christian you or the person your talking about . No offence here intended ,
I think your missing out on certain things , for one Christianity has not taken a nose dive , perhaps some of us followers are a bit luke warm in following the Sermon on the Mount . Which is impossible for me , I don’t know about you . But we should be trying harder that is for sure .
There are some great thingshappening , not only in this country , but others . Religion and politics don’t mix if you ask me .
But just from my own experience , I have met plenty of folks from all walks and beliefs , and we all have our sour ones and our sweet ones .
Politics is kind of a hard place anyway to judge another , it brings out the worse more then the better in many of us . Have you listened to Goldie on the radio , not exactly very flattering on the radio about the motives of the people he disagrees with , not to mention the personalities . When you start condemning a persons motives as racist , based in deceit etc , well the debate of ideas gets lost .
yikes conservative personalities do the same , but I really think your off the mark saying one group has an advantage over the other .
But you know like the good book says , big deal if your friends treat you with kindness , its how you treat the person you disagree with is what God looks at .
In any case . Its not Christianity that makes people intolerant . No more then secularism causes people to be like Stalin .