Some folks are much better writers than I am. Most folks are better drivers. And nearly everyone is a better singer. Naturally, all those folks are elitist bastards — so far as I’m concerned. I recommend you don’t trust them.

I might sound crazy, but I’m actually just going with the flow. Isn’t it popular to revile elites? When, recently, Clinton proposed a gas tax holiday, nearly every economist who spoke up condemned her plan. She dismissed them all as “elites”. A whole lot of voters applauded her for that.

An “elite” is one of the worse names you can call an American these days. It’s a word that, like communist or fascist, conjures up a visceral reaction. Yet, not all elites are loathed.

The elite entertainer, the elite football player, the elite preacher, the elite talk show host, and even the elite politician still have their worshipers. Those folks have somehow managed to escape the loathing that is largely reserved for certain kinds of elites. Most notably, scientists and intellectuals.

Scientists and intellectuals are increasingly becoming marginalized in American society. It is that elite that is besieged. That elite that is loathed, distrusted, ridiculed and scorned.

For instance, the overwhelming consensus among people working in the evolutionary sciences is that evolution is a fact, and that evolutionary theory is the best explanation we currently have for the origin and diversity of life forms. Yet, fully half of the American public rejects evolution. If 50,000 out of 50,200 plumbers asserted that water flows downhill, the public would listen. But not if 50,000 out of 50,200 evolutionary scientists say evolution is a fact.

Again, when George Bush, Dick Cheney, and Donald Rumsfeld took this country to war in Iraq, neither Bush nor Cheney nor Rumsfeld showed even the least respect for the government experts and advisers who attempted to tell them their plans were flawed and unworkable.

Worse, after we won the first round, they filled the American positions in Iraq with party hacks — many in their twenties — who had neither expertise in nation building, nor in Middle Eastern affairs, nor in the judiciary, nor in law enforcement — nor expertise in any role that mattered. It was as if the senior leadership of America actually believed the juvenile fantasy that knowledge, experience and wisdom count for less than fervent hopes and raw enthusiasm in bringing about a desired outcome.

Everywhere you turn in America these days you can find alarming examples of the people’s rejection of expertise. Some days, I suspect the only knowledge that’s still respected in America is the knowledge of how to make bombs and money.

Well then, maybe Dana Hunter is onto something. She’s the snarky blogger of En Tequila Es Verdad, and she’s launching a carnival to combat the growing movement to distort, reject and belittle the hard-won knowledge of society’s scientists and intellectuals. The Carnival of Elitist Bastards.

Her battle cry seems to be, “it’s time we stopped celebrating willful ignorance and start promoting genius instead.” Which is a painfully long battle cry to scream at the top of your lungs. But whatever. She’s come up with a great idea, and I think you and the rest of us should consider participating in it. The fact is, we are all in this society together, and no society that marginalizes it’s intellectual and scientific elites can hope to long retain its quality of life.

Adlai Stevenson was once called an “egghead” by a supporter of Dwight Eisenhower. Stevenson replied, “Eggheads unite! You have nothing to loose but your yolks!” Hunter has taken that line, shortened it, and slapped it on a badge for her carnival. I don’t know of anyone these days who considers themselves an egghead, but maybe those of us who don’t want to see willful ignorance plunge us into yet another war, who don’t want to see creationism taught as a science in the public schools, who don’t want to see our quality of life diminished — maybe we should unite.

Please give serious thought to writing an article or two for Dana Hunter’s carnival. And, if you’re inclined, please help get the word out by mentioning the upcoming carnival on your blogs. Thanks!

For those who prefer Christopher Hitchens, there’s this:

In my mind’s eye, Chanson’s blog, Letters From A Broad, is like a ring that mounts a precious jewel — the jewel being Chanson herself, of course. She appears to have everything in the way of class, intelligence, and decency, and she seems to have created in her blog the perfect platform for showing those traits to their best advantage.

Chanson is an ex-Mormon and atheist who managed to gracefully exit religion without incurring bitterness or cynicism, and without forming a disrespect for people of faith. That’s class. She also has a commanding intellect — her insights into Mormonism, for instance, often strike me as approaching the veracity of science. And she habitually treats visitors to her blog with respect and decency. Indeed, it’s hard not to like the broad.

Besides being a blogger, Chanson is a novelist who serializes her work on her blog. Her prose is simple and straightforward, yet rich enough to express subtle nuances of character and emotion. In Saturday’s Warrior, which is part three of her novel, Exmormon, Chanson writes about a 15 year old girl’s coming of age through the trials of love, lust, and religion. The work seems to me at once accessible to teens and very likely fascinating for adults.

Perhaps because she is such a talented and skilled writer, her personality seems to come through her blog more so than it does for most of us bloggers. At times while reading her, you feel as if she’s in the next room to you, rather than half a world away. For that and all the various reasons I’ve mentioned, I am insufferably happy to shamelessly inflict upon her the Sun Mountain Award.

Thank you for your outstanding blog, Chanson!

Ed Yong is a man to watch. In 2004, 2005, and again in 2006, Ed was a runner up for The Daily Telegraph’s Science Writer Awards. In 2007 he won first place.

In August of 2006, Ed began blogging on WordPress.com. Within sixteen months, ScienceBlogs invited him to blog for the world’s “largest online community dedicated to science.”

People have said wonderful things about Ed. Over and again, folks ranging from laymen to professional scientists have praised both the clarity and the accuracy of his science writing. In an extraordinary vote of confidence, the editor of the journal Nature went so far as to personally recommend Ed’s blog to Sir David Attenborough. Yet, in by far the most important comment ever to be made about his blog, I myself described it as, “So well written it could pass for literature.”

Ed is a man to read. If he were a novelist, his style would compete with Ernest Hemingway’s for clarity and precision. He describes himself as on a mission to beat “jargon, confusion and elitism with the stick of good writing”, and it’s a mission at which he succeeds.

Given a little luck, Ed will be a famous science writer someday. So, I am extraordinarily proud of my good sense and foresight in offering him the uncoveted Sun Mountain Award. Please do drop by his blog, Not Exactly Rocket Science, and treat yourself to the best science writing I’ve yet to find on the net.

Thank you for an outstanding blog, Ed!

For more about Ed, see:

I Hereby Tag Ed Yong!

Robin’s photoblog, Bountiful Healing, is among the most beautiful blogs I’ve come across on the net. It is not just the photos that are beautiful — though they are quite often strikingly beautiful — it’s also the spirit of her blog that’s beautiful.

Her skill and talent at photography is exceptional. She seems to me to have an eye for composition and color that is magical. That eye of hers can turn the mundane into the memorable. For instance, at this link she has a photo from Mt. Soledad in Southern California that actually makes a suburban housing development look both natural and inviting. Again, here she has captured water and sun so well that what might easily have been a boring photo was turned into a dance. Last, in this photo, she’s created a faerie realm out of an Eastern stream and woodland. None of these examples, good as they are, approach her best work. That is, I have not taken the liberty of spoiling her site for you.

Yet, besides the quality of her photos, her blog is outstanding for the peace it brings to you. Now, I’ve noticed there are blogs on the net that leave you with a bad aftertaste. Sometimes, you even want to take a shower after reading one of them. Well, Robin’s blog is the remedy for those. When you come across a blog that leaves you wanting to take a shower — go to hers next. It will leave you refreshed.

Robin typically captions her photos with quotations. And she often displays a gentle wit in her selection of which quote to caption a photo with. For those and other reasons, I am very proud to inflict the excruciating Sun Mountain Award on her.

Thank you for an outstanding blog, Robin!

While creating the Sun Mountain badge earlier today, I couldn’t get my mind off George over at Decrepit Old Fool. I knew just as soon as I conjured up the idea of inflicting Sun Mountain Awards on innocent folks, that I was going to inflict one on George. George is a natural for the Award.

In the first place, George is a beautiful spirit. He’s gone out of his way to help me out on a number of occasions, and I have reason to suspect it’s not just me he’s been supportive of. I think any blogger who makes the net a happier and more welcoming place for the rest of us deserves recognition on those grounds alone — yet I think George deserves this Award for more reasons than one.

He is far from being the fool he likes to bill himself as. His posts are typically short, but spot on. He has a remarkable ability to see all sides of an issue and to dispassionately weigh them. But when he’s decided that something is right, he can be downright passionate in promoting it. To me, all that bespeaks a man who puts extraordinary care into forming his opinions and then backs them up with his heart and his integrity. There are bloggers who are just as honest as George, but I have yet to run across any who are more honest.

He writes on a variety of topics, from science through technology to politics and beyond. And it seems that regardless of the topic, George is able to come up with a sensible opinion about it.

In fact, I have come to believe his only insensible moments come when he gets to speed rocking. That’s the worry I have about foisting this award on him. You know how it is when decrepit old folks get annoyed, they tend to get to speed rocking — and then mishaps can occur. That’s why I think you should take a moment to drop by George’s blog and caution him against letting himself get too annoyed by this Award. It would be a humane thing to do.

Thank you for an outstanding blog, George!

See also:

Rebelling Against Tragedy

Chanson has put together a beautiful carnival here.

I’ve been feeling a need to express my appreciation and gratitude to the many people whose blogs strike me as outstanding. The thought crossed my mind I could do that by lavishing expensive gifts and large sums of money on those dear folks.

Fortunately for my wallet, the thought not only crossed my mind, but quickly left it.

So, then I decided to create an award for outstanding blogging, complete with a spiffy little sidebar button. But what to call it?

Well, about 10 miles (16 Kilometers) from where I live is a mountain the Native Ute People called, Tavakiev, which translates as “Sun Mountain”.

Sun Mountain, which peaks at over 14,000 feet, was so named because it is the first mountain along the Front Range of the Rockies to catch the sun each morning. So, as an outstanding mountain, I decided it fitting to name after it an award for outstanding blogging.

Each award will be numbered in the order it was issued. Moreover, the specific reasons it was issued will be posted in an article on this blog. Recipients are authorized to display the spiffy Sun Mountain Award badge on their blogs — provided they display the one that’s been customized just for them.

Now, here comes the tricky part.

I recently awarded three “E for Excellence Awards”. One each to Nita, Rambodoc and Usha. For the very same reasons I brazenly slapped an “E for Excellence” on their blogs, I would now beg them to be the first three people to receive a Sun Mountain Award. And, of course, I would appreciate it if they would be so kind as to display the customized Sun Mountain Award badge on their blogs, although they don’t have to. So here are the badges for each of them, should they want one:

For Nita:

See this post for the reasons the award is issued to Nita.

For Rambodoc:

See this post for the reasons the award is issued to Rambodoc.

For Usha:

See this post for the reasons the award is issued to Usha.

Yes, I know it’s tacky of me to foist on them a badge instead of large sums of cash. But hey! Who has large sums of cash these days? We’re not Haliburton here.

I intend to issue a number of these awards in the future. I hope by doing so to show my appreciation and gratitude for the great jobs people are doing.

Winner 1st Place International Color Awards — Portrait by Erwin Olaf — Netherlands

“We should…be talking about using all our political, moral and military genius to support a vast democratic revolution to liberate all the peoples of the Middle East from tyranny.”

“Despite all the talk about growing anti-Americanism in the Middle East, we inspire their people.”

“If we come to Baghdad, Damascus and Tehran as liberators, we can expect overwhelming popular support.”

“Of the four terrorist tyrannies, Iran seems the easiest to liberate.”

– Michael A. Ledeen

Ledeen is a “neocon scholar”, which means he’s as lovably dumb as they come, but still employable by a neocon think-tank, The American Enterprise Institute.

The above quotes are taken from an article written by him and published in the Wall Street Journal, September 4, 2002, during the lead up to the Iraq war. Readers will no doubt note that some of his scholarly and insightful predictions appear not to have come true.

Oh well. His “impressive” track record has fortunately left Michael undaunted and unrepentant — and it certainly hasn’t quashed his wonderful sense of humor, for just last Tuesday Michael enthusiastically opined in the National Review Online that it was time for America to attack both Iran and Syria.

Those funny neocons. How can you not love them?

Imogen Cunningham’s “Her and Her Shadow”  1936