At dinner, Samer filled me in on the latest political nonsense. Thanks to the never-ending migraine I had no idea about Sarah Palin’s bizarro speech last week wherein she stumped for more autism research while railing against…um, autism research.

In one of those moments of sheer wackiness that comes about only at the end of a long and grueling presidential campaign, I type the words, “Christopher Hitchens speaks for me.” If you don’t wish to read his entire Slate essay, “Sarah Palin’s War on Science – The GOP ticket’s appalling contempt for knowledge and learning,” which you should, because it’s quite good, let me hit the highlight for you:

This is what the Republican Party has done to us this year: It has placed within reach of the Oval Office a woman who is a religious fanatic and a proud, boastful ignoramus. Those who despise science and learning are not anti-elitist. They are morally and intellectually slothful people who are secretly envious of the educated and the cultured. And those who prate of spiritual warfare and demons are not just “people of faith” but theocratic bullies. On Nov. 4, anyone who cares for the Constitution has a clear duty to repudiate this wickedness and stupidity.

I wanted to add, however, that The Loom, a science blog at Discover Magazine, is willing to cut Palin a sliver of slack as there is research into the Olive Fruit Fly in France that is, in fact, unrelated to Autism. I have no way of knowing what she meant, so I’ll link to UNC Health Care’s post, “In defense of fruit flies and basic medical research” and proceed on the assumption that no matter what the woman was trying to refer to, she’s still an idiot.