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An Open Letter to President Obama Regarding the Appointment of Science Advisor John Holdren
Evolution News & Views ^ | July 30, 2009 | Michael Egnor, M.D.

Posted on 07/30/2009 3:19:55 PM PDT by GodGunsGuts

An Open Letter to President Obama Regarding the Appointment of Science Advisor John Holdren

Dear President Obama,

I note with dismay your appointment of Dr. John Holdren as Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, Assistant to the President for Science and Technology, and Co-Chair of the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. Although Dr. Holdren’s experience in academia and administration may be adequate, his publicly expressed views regarding population control disqualify him from holding office.

I will set aside objections to Dr. Holdren’s scientific competence. Despite his strong scientific credentials, he advanced theories in the 1970’s and 1980’s that have become the paradigm of ideologically motivated junk science. He and his collaborators (such as co-author Paul Ehrlich) predicted world-wide famine as a consequence of over-population by the late 20th century, and they advocated radical coercive public policies to avert catastrophe. These predictions were explicit, public, and were published under professional imprimatur. Obviously, the predictions were wrong. Dr.Holdren’s predictions are an exemplar of scientific incompetence.

But it is the spectre of Dr. Holdren’s competence, not his incompetence, that concerns me. In 1977 Dr. Holdren and his colleagues Paul and Anne Ehrlich published the book Ecoscience. In it, Holdren and his co-authors endorse the serious consideration of radical measures to reduce the human population, particularly third world populations, such as India, China and Africa. The measures include:

• People who “contribute to social deterioration” (i.e. undesirables) “can be required by law to exercise reproductive responsibility” — in other words, be compelled to have abortions or be sterilized.

• Women — particularly women of insufficient means due to poverty, nationality, marital status, or youth — could be forced to abort their children and undergo sterilization.

• Implementation of a system of "involuntary birth control," in which girls at puberty would be implanted with an infertility device and only could have it removed temporarily if they received permission from the government to have a baby.

• Undesirable populations could be sterilized by infertility drugs intentionally put into drinking water or in food.

• Single mothers and teen mothers who managed to have their children despite measures to prevent fertility should have their babies seized from them and given away to others to raise.

• A transnational “Planetary Regime” and a transnational police force should be assembled to enforce population control.

Although Dr. Holdren recently has asserted that he does not support coercive measures to reduce population, he has continued to champion population control ‘science’ and he includes his book “Ecoscience” prominently on his CV, without disclaimer.

In other words, Dr. Holdren dissembles. He insists, despite the record, that he no longer believes what he 'didn’t believe' then. Evidently you accept his denial. As you are, Mr. President, a man of good will, inclined to see the best in people, you may have misunderstood Dr. Holdren’s ideology. It has a history that runs from early 20th century eugenics to the German T4 program to the modern population control movement and eco-fundamentalism. It is a view of man as pestilence. No one who holds that view, or has held that view, or who has publicly endorsed serious consideration of that view, should be in a position of influence in our government.

There is a deep and disturbing irony in your appointment of Dr. Holdren as Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. The irony, sir, is this: Dr. Holdren endorsed the serious consideration of radical measures — including involuntary sterilization and abortion — to cull mankind. And he was not an equal-opportunity culler. He betrayed a particular animus to children conceived of third world parentage to young mothers of limited means. He asserted that they were a burden that we dare not bear — for the sake of humanity and for the sake of the Earth. He implored us to ensure that these children were never given life.

He meant you.

Sincerely,

Michael Egnor, M.D.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: abortion; barackobama; bho44; bhohealthcare; bhoscience; catholic; christian; corruption; creation; democrats; environmentalism; eugenics; evolution; ggg; globalwarming; healthcare; holdren; infanticide; intelligentdesign; judaism; moralabsolutes; obama; obamacare; obamatruthfile; populationcontrol; prolife; science; socialisedmedicine; socialism
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To: tpanther
Wow in typical liberal fashion you blame the messenger. whattajoke...how aptly named.

?? True. That's your problem. The Discovery Institute is an org hellbent on destroying education, promoting lies and ignorance and I'll say it again LYING across the board. So yeah, I do take DI messengers with a grain of salt.

Please note, however, I did NOT dismiss the claims at all. I merely said it sucks that they were written by one who is associated with creationism.

Oh, and thanks for being as creative as your boyfriend GGG re: my 7-yr-old screename.
21 posted on 07/30/2009 8:51:44 PM PDT by whattajoke (.)
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To: GodGunsGuts

PS And don’t think I’m counting that diatribe of an creo-site as a source for anything other than the pushing of your anti-evo-religion, because that is all it is.


22 posted on 07/30/2009 9:25:44 PM PDT by ColdWater
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To: tpanther; whattajoke

Whattajoke’s reply to you is exactly one reply after he told me to grow up in order to be taken more seriously...LOL!!!


23 posted on 07/30/2009 9:37:21 PM PDT by GodGunsGuts
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To: whattajoke

If you want to be taken seriously, why not do your research on the author’s background first and then post. Course, you would also be taken more seriously if your posts were not full on insults.


24 posted on 07/31/2009 4:37:38 AM PDT by BrandtMichaels
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To: BrandtMichaels
If you want to be taken seriously, why not do your research on the author’s background first and then post. Course, you would also be taken more seriously if your posts were not full on insults.

Upon closer reading, the point of my first post was to point out that the author's background, while certainly impressive on the face of it, is unfortunately intimately tied to the Discovery Institute of Seattle. The DI has perjured and likes to meddle in other state's affairs, which I find abhorrent. They have an abysmal track record full of lies and distortions. And their entire purpose is to convince people that everything we know about biology, geology, chemistry, physics, etc is wrong. Sorry, even with strong credentials, if you agree with the DI you have an embarrassing case of cognitive dissonance, misguided religious faith, or you're just plain stupid.

Yes, I did insult GGG and tpanther. If you have a few hours to kill some brain cells, you could read their 2 yr's worth of insults.

Actually, "pouring milk on my Darwin idol" and "Temple of Darwin" would be insulting to me if they didn't use those nonsensical phrases 1800x a day.
25 posted on 07/31/2009 5:05:46 AM PDT by whattajoke (.)
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To: whattajoke

This latest response is full of hyperbole and still no research on the author which I doubt you ever intended to complete.


26 posted on 07/31/2009 5:18:58 AM PDT by BrandtMichaels
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To: MrDem

Oh, come on. Not every one of our political opponents is a Nazi, or Dracula.

Some of the comments said he was creepy or disgusting. What I merely meant is that if he was your next-door neighbor he would be a fine person to share a fence with. He wouldn’t be leering at your wife or doing strange things in the garage at 2 AM. Your children would not be in jeopardy.

I think it’s important that we not demonize our political opponents, otherwise we descend to the level of the committed leftists, who follow the rules of Saul Alinsky. I think we corrupt our souls when we lie about character for the sake of political gain.

Guess I’m sensitive to the demonization because as a young man I was a Democrat, although never a leftist. I was a faithful reader of the NY Times and the Wash Post, and recall believing that Senator Jesse Helms of North Carolina was an eeeevil man, basically a devil, with perverse ideas about women and sex and modern culture. About the time I got married, at age 30, I started going back to church again and became a dedicated Christian. Also was a confirmed conservative Republican. This was in the late 1980s. And with unblinkered eyes, I saw Jesse Helms truthfully. The left had made gross mis-characterizations about him (1) because he was deeply opposed to abortion, and (2) he was an old-fashioned, patriotic American.

Then I watched the media do the same thing to Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah — why? Because he was a candidate for the Supreme Court.

Both men were made to look like monsters. And it was all bullsh-t.

Lying for political gain corrupts one’s soul. I do not especially care for the souls of NYT editors, but I care about mine and those on FR.

Hence, my post clarifying things about John Holdren.


27 posted on 07/31/2009 6:13:57 AM PDT by tom h
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To: tom h

Save it Tom. The positions espoused by the guy are evil. I really don’t care if he pats dogs on the head or “seems” like a nice guy.


28 posted on 07/31/2009 6:39:31 AM PDT by MrDem (From Morning in America to Mourning in America...)
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To: GodGunsGuts

Liberals like to make rules for everyone else. This one’s proud to be a joke for 7 years! LOL


29 posted on 07/31/2009 6:50:06 AM PDT by tpanther (The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for g!ood men to do nothing---Edmund Burke)
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To: tpanther
Liberals like to make rules for everyone else. This one’s proud to be a joke for 7 years! LOL

No wonder that dreadful "Everybody Loves Raymond" was tops for years. People like you think lame recycled jokes like the above are "LOL" worthy.

But thanks for calling me a liberal again. I forgot to mention that when I was counting up insults hurled my way. Happy weekend!
30 posted on 07/31/2009 10:59:12 AM PDT by whattajoke (.)
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To: BrandtMichaels
This latest response is full of hyperbole and still no research on the author which I doubt you ever intended to complete.

I agree. I did quote some of the OP's hyperbole and I apologize. Drivel like "Temple of Darwin" and "pouring milk over my Darwin Idols" smacks of hyperbolic nonsense. I'll refrain. As for "researching the author," I'm unclear what you mean. Ironically, I probably did 10x the "research" on him than GGG or anyone else on this thread, save the guy who knows him.

Since GGG posted the article, I immediately Googled the guy and aside from his Stony Brook page, most of the first hits are either A) his creationist wackery (ie, "I don't use biology in my neuroscience") or B) well researched pieces discussing the good Dr's ties to the Discovery Institute and clear irrefutable accounts of his creationist credentials.

What more do you need?

Lost in this was my original point: The auther CERTAINLY has valid points re: Holdren. I was merely saying it sucks that his creationist ideas drop him immediately to zero on my trust scale.
31 posted on 07/31/2009 11:05:56 AM PDT by whattajoke (.)
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To: whattajoke; tpanther
But thanks for calling me a liberal again.

I think tpanther thinks liberalism began with noticing that the world is not flat.

32 posted on 07/31/2009 5:19:55 PM PDT by ColdWater
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To: whattajoke

What in the world is an “everybody loves raymond” ?????


33 posted on 08/01/2009 10:28:51 AM PDT by tpanther (The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for g!ood men to do nothing---Edmund Burke)
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To: ColdWater

Thinking has obviously always been a sore spot for you.


34 posted on 08/01/2009 10:30:17 AM PDT by tpanther (The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for g!ood men to do nothing---Edmund Burke)
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To: tpanther
Thinking has obviously always been a sore spot for you.

You should try it sometime.

35 posted on 08/01/2009 11:35:24 AM PDT by ColdWater
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To: ColdWater

No thanks...I prefer sanity and normality as opposed to your sore version and definition of it.


36 posted on 08/01/2009 5:12:50 PM PDT by tpanther (The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for g!ood men to do nothing---Edmund Burke)
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To: tpanther
Thinking has obviously always been a sore spot for you.

You should try it sometime.

No thanks...

I thought so.

37 posted on 08/01/2009 6:11:54 PM PDT by ColdWater
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To: ColdWater

That’s just it, you don’t think.

No thanks...I prefer sanity and normality as opposed to your sore version and definition of it.

Unsurprisingly, with your defects, your reading comprehension falls short too.

Not that you needed to drive that point home too, but suit yourself!


38 posted on 08/01/2009 6:24:42 PM PDT by tpanther (The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for g!ood men to do nothing---Edmund Burke)
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To: GodGunsGuts
This guy is straight out of the Third Reich...errr...the Obama Regime!

That would make it The Fourth Reich wouldn't it?

39 posted on 08/01/2009 6:27:45 PM PDT by Texas Eagle (If it wasn't for double-standards, Liberals would have no standards at all. -- Texas Eagle)
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To: whattajoke
Unfortunately this stuff about Holdren is true. I don't know anything about the guy who wrote this open letter but go to zombietime and do your own research.

Zombie pulled the ISBN of the textbook Holdren co-authored and has some hi quality scans up. Pretty damning stuff. The parts about "undesirables" and subjugation of women is particularly disgusting.
40 posted on 08/01/2009 6:56:05 PM PDT by Minus_The_Bear
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