I actually do know a little about the F-35 Fair point: I only know what I read in the paper. airplane safety? Food safety? Public health? That's the funny t

I actually do know a little about the F-35 Fair point: I only know what I read in the paper. airplane safety? Food safety? Public health? That's the funny thing about transition- sometimes you don't see it coming. And it's hard to argue with the fallacy of the consequent: we are here, therefore it's the right answer. But I'll try to articulate it from something small and (hopefully) that we can relate to and leave aside public health questions like climate change and so on. Again, this isn't the world-beater issue, but it's just an illustration of why I think that we should try to have more scientifically literate people in our government. When I go to a gas station, there is a sign that says things like "don't smoke, discharge static electricity, fill portable tanks on the ground" and such with is all good advice. But they also have one that says "turn off your cell phone." Now, one of the stations I use that has this sign actually has a television atop the pump. But the kicker is, the whole gas-station-blowing-up thing was an urban legend. The original story was in the '90s, circulated via email, and was about a BP station in Britain blowing up because of someone using a cell phone. I have a tendency to check up on these things (IIRC "snopes" wasn't "snopes" back then; I think they changed their name or else the site I relied upon went out and snopes came in) and found that yes, the story was bullshit and there was no truth to it. Nevertheless, it became a regulation to turn off your cell phone. Even though they don't cause sparks. And there's a TV set atop the pump. more numeracy and technical literacy would be great Agreed. but the idea that our government can't function has little foundation Maybe that's why nobody said it. it's just someone yelling loudly. Um, yeah, ok.