England to right wing US - we have a Cambridge too, you know.

More depressing news from the US, where the increasingly shrill and insane wing of the Republican Party continues to be increasingly shrill and insane.

Threatened with the possibility that US consumers will be given the opportunity of top level healthcare without having to pay for it, they have been opposing it by... well, lying.

Apart from their insane screams that the term "end-of-life care" refers to a panel persuading you to die, rather than the care that you get at the end of your life (i.e. hospice), they are also listing those who "Would be Dead if they were in the UK"

Among them were firstly Teddy Kennedy (not true, the NHS would provide).

Now comes the new one. What better example than a brilliant scientist. With a disability. Declare how the evil British NHS would have abandoned him. Yes, what a great idea that is. Hold up Prof Stephen Hawking as an example...

Too much slime, even for a pitbull?

The Rovian slime machine has already proven far too much for Colin Powell, who has thrown his weight behind Obama, and John McCain himself has shown his discomfort at some of the negative emotions stirred up by the Republican Party campaign.

So who's the latest to express disquiet at Republican tactics... Sarah Palin.

Um. When the "pitbull in lipstick" starts second guessing the smears, it appears that even the Republicans have realised that Republican tactics are rather unpalatable to the US public...

The power of FUD

There are plenty of people out there who like the status quo - largely because their current power relies on it - and who will view those who would change the status quo as their enemies, even if a change is necessary and indeed inevitable.

So it's a shame to see that one group of these people - those who wish to give the impression that scientists are divided over anthropegenic climate change, or that scientists are somehow much less trustworthy than the market and big business *coughsubprimecough* - seem to still be having rather a lot of success.

This is a bad thing because, of course, reality isn't democratic. You can't change the laws of physics, or their complex interplay, just because you don't like them or understand them. And a lack of action now will make things worse later.