"...something called volcano monitoring."

Apparently, Louisiana's Gov. Jindal made some barb about the money spent by the USGS for volcano observation. That's right up there with McCain bringing up the multimillion dollar "overhead projector" at Adler Planetarium during the debates.

Perhaps if Jindal lived near the Cascade Range, or in Hawai'i or Alaska, he'd understand what volcano monitoring is about and why it matters (see the volcanica links in the sidebar). Or would he argue that evidence of an imminent eruption near a populated area is just bad science?

What is it with these Republican guys making negative examples of science spending? Oh, that's right, intellectualism and inquiry are easy targets for controversy and derision. How better to appeal to Joe Six Pack and Joe the Plumber than by pointing to the supposed excesses of eggheads? Let's just cut everyone's taxes, cut infrastructure, education, health care and science spending, give what's left to the military... and, heck, send every man, woman and child in America a voucher to buy a gun and a Toby Keith CD.

That'll make everything perfect.