Bad Astronomy Blog has got a great article today on the damage done to science over the past five years.  If you read anything online this week, read this.  An excerpt:

…While we were talking, he said something which made me pause. About those who would destroy science, he said, “They have no respect for the information.” This is an incredibly succinct statement of what’s going on. To a scientist, information is a means to understanding a problem; … But to a political operative, bent on power or forcing their point of view on the public with no regard to truth, information is only a means to achieving the desired result…

In this case, science and politics are at exact opposites: science wants information to uncover underlying truths, while political operatives use information as a tool — or, more accurately, a weapon — to further political gain despite the truth. Politicians may actively distort the truth if it disagrees with their pre-determined goals, whereas with scientists, truth is the goal.

The goal of science is truth. How has America forgotten this?