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(Wall Street Journal)   If Sarah Palin said the sun was the center of the universe, people would make fun of her. Copernicus, they call a great scientist. Where's the justice?   (online.wsj.com) divider line
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4535 clicks; posted to Politics » on 25 Nov 2008 at 6:47 PM (14 years ago)   |   Favorite    |   share:  Share on Twitter share via Email Share on Facebook



120 Comments     (+0 »)


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2008-11-25 5:25:58 PM  
My guess is that Palin still believes that the universe is geocentric.
 
2008-11-25 5:30:31 PM  
If Sarah Palin said the sun was the center of the universe, she'd be the same moron she is right now.

Solar system != universe
 
2008-11-25 5:30:55 PM  
Well you see subby, the Sun is the center of the Solar System, NOT the universe.
 
2008-11-25 5:37:36 PM  
One moved science forward. The other one wants to ban it, dumbass.
 
2008-11-25 5:41:25 PM  
Nice Troll subby. Get back to me when something that she says is both intelligent and true.
 
2008-11-25 5:42:41 PM  
The difference is, even if she HAD said the sun was the center of the solar system she wouldn't say it in less than 87 words, without the inclusion of at least one "you betcha."
 
2008-11-25 5:46:04 PM  
cameroncrazy1984: The difference is, even if she HAD said the sun was the center of the solar system she wouldn't say it in less than 87 words, without the inclusion of at least one "you betcha."

And a shoutout to some third graders, a wink, and a reference to Joe the Plumber.
 
2008-11-25 5:55:13 PM  
Knight without armor: Nice Troll subby. Get back to me when something that she says is both intelligent and true. I wouldn't recognize a joke if it dressed up like Ru Paul, gave me a lap dance and farted in my face.

FTFY
 
2008-11-25 5:59:51 PM  

MrKraclenutz: Well you see subby, the Sun is the center of the Solar System, NOT the universe.


"The astronomer Copernicus first developed the heliocentric model of the universe. Before that, it was widely believed the Earth was the center of the universe."

farm4.static.flickr.comView Full Size
 
2008-11-25 6:05:33 PM  

MrKraclenutz: Well you see subby, the Sun is the center of the Solar System, NOT the universe.


Well, the sun is near the center of the solar system, anyway, depending on how you define the solar system. Certainly, it's the primary gravitator.
 
2008-11-25 6:05:55 PM  
someone needs to tell the wsj they have accidentally employed a person who writes things that are interesting to read.
 
2008-11-25 6:07:24 PM  
This is funny. Subby and Palin must have gone to science school together.
 
2008-11-25 6:11:05 PM  
from what i understand

the sun is a mass
of incandescent gas
a gigantic nuclear furnace
where hydrogen is built
into helium
at a temperature of millions of degrees

the sun is hot
the sun is not
a place where we can live
but here on earth
there'd be no life
without the light it gives

we need its light
we need its heat
we need it's energy
without the sun
without a doubt
there'd be no you and me
 
2008-11-25 6:11:40 PM  
*swats away that errant apostraphe*
 
2008-11-25 6:20:36 PM  
The Universe has a center the same way a balloon has an edge.

And they both look like Sarah Palin's navel.
 
2008-11-25 6:21:28 PM  

burndtdan: from what i understand


Just remember that you're standing on a planet that's evolving
And revolving at nine hundred miles an hour,
That's orbiting at nineteen miles a second, so it's reckoned,
A sun that is the source of all our power.
The sun and you and me and all the stars that we can see
Are moving at a million miles a day
In an outer spiral arm, at forty thousand miles an hour,
Of the galaxy we call the "Milky Way".

Our galaxy itself contains a hundred billion stars.
It's a hundred thousand light years side to side.
It bulges in the middle, sixteen thousand light years thick,
But out by us, it's just three thousand light years wide.
We're thirty thousand light years from galactic central point.
We go 'round every two hundred million years,
And our galaxy is only one of millions of billions
In this amazing and expanding universe.

The universe itself keeps on expanding and expanding
In all of the directions it can whizz
As fast as it can go, at the speed of light, you know,
Twelve million miles a minute, and that's the fastest speed there is.
So remember, when you're feeling very small and insecure,
How amazingly unlikely is your birth,
And pray that there's intelligent life somewhere up in space,
'Cause there's bugger all down here on Earth.
 
2008-11-25 6:22:45 PM  
ZOMG COPERNICUZ HELIOCENTRIC MAVRIK!

That said, if she had said that the sun was the center of the universe, it would further prove that what goes on in her head is 500 years behind her current time.
 
2008-11-25 6:30:43 PM  
Who the hell is Sarah Palin? Is that some new pop tart singer for the tweens on the Disney Channel?
 
2008-11-25 6:39:13 PM  
FTFA:An additional rumor, not repeated by Forbes.com's Serchuk, is that the "response" that Obama is "required" to file next week consists of proof that he is a natural-born citizen. Those who make this claim seem to believe that cert. is two, two, two writs in one.

I laughed and then I felt old.
 
2008-11-25 6:39:18 PM  
I had to dig pretty deep into TFA to find the bit on Palin. And subby pretty much quoted the whole thing.

That first bit on Philip Berg's continued asshattery was pretty interesting...
 
2008-11-25 6:42:28 PM  

You Can't Fix Stupid: burndtdan: from what i understand

Just remember that you're standing on a planet that's evolving


Everybody lives on a street in a city
Or a village or a town for what it's worth.
And they're all inside a country which is part of a continent
That sits upon a planet known as Earth.
And the Earth is a ball full of oceans and some mountains
Which is out there spinning silently in space.
And living on that Earth are the plants and the animals
And also the entire human race.

It's a great big universe
And we're all really puny
We're just tiny little specks
About the size of Mickey Rooney.
It's big and black and inky
And we are small and dinky
It's a big universe and we're not.

And we're part of a vast interplanetary system
Stretching seven hundred billion miles long.
With nine planets and a sun; we think the Earth's the only one
That has life on it, although we could be wrong.
Across the interstellar voids are a billion asteroids
Including meteors and Halley's Comet too.
And there's over fifty moons floating out there like balloons
In a panoramic trillion-mile view.

And still it's all a speck amid a hundred billion stars
In a galaxy we call the Milky Way.
It's sixty thousand trillion miles from one end to the other
And still that's just a fraction of the way.
'Cause there's a hundred billion galaxies that stretch across the sky
Filled with constellations, planets, moons and stars.
And still the universe extends to a place that never ends
Which is maybe just inside a little jar!

It's a great big universe
And we're all really puny
We're just tiny little specks
About the size of Mickey Rooney.
Though we don't know how it got here
We're an important part here
It's a big universe and it's ours!
 
2008-11-25 6:46:02 PM  

DamnYankees: If Sarah Palin said the sun was the center of the universe, she'd be the same moron she is right now.

Solar system != universe


yea ... came in to reiterate this.

I suppose, depending on your model of the universe the sun could be the center. But then again that model could put any given point in the universe as the center since there is no edge. Much like any given point on the surface of a ball can be called the center if that's where you want to start mapping.

/Somehow I think TFA meant solar system though.
 
2008-11-25 6:49:25 PM  
Copernicus was a great scientist for saying it FIRST, not just for saying it.

Is every high school science teacher a "great scientist" for stating this?

(note: "this" meaning center of the solar system, not universe. Subby FAILS)
 
2008-11-25 6:52:02 PM  
HAHAHAHAhahahaha that columnist is a retard.
 
2008-11-25 6:55:35 PM  
Obviously Palin is the center of the media universe.
 
2008-11-25 6:56:25 PM  
James Taranto is weapons-grade stupid. No surprise he works for the WSJ editorial page.
 
2008-11-25 6:56:36 PM  
fixedearth.comView Full Size
 
2008-11-25 6:56:47 PM  
Actually Aristarchus, through careful measurements of the Sun and Moon, determined that the Sun was at least six times the diameter of the Earth, and that probably the Earth orbited the Sun and not vice versa. His theories were rejected for the Ptolemaic system.
 
2008-11-25 6:57:39 PM  
Is this guy Mickey Kaus' long lost retarded sibling?
 
2008-11-25 6:59:46 PM  
She probably thinks the sun is in the extreme right of the solar system... and that it is 6,000 years old.
 
2008-11-25 7:03:12 PM  
She has experience in astronomy. She can see the sun from her back yard.
 
2008-11-25 7:03:18 PM  
Reporter: Sarah, what color is the sun?

Palin: chicken!

Reporter: the sun isnt chicken, it's yellow!

Palin: Bias libral' media POW Maverick!

sry.
 
2008-11-25 7:04:14 PM  
Actually, the columnist was originally making fun of some other columnist for supposedly thinking that the sun was the center of the universe. In the bit subby is quoting from, he was acknowledging that in fact the claim had been that Copernicus thought the sun was the center of the universe.

If Palin, meanwhile, said that the Sun was the center of the universe I'd be pleasantly surprised. I would expect her to in a geocentric universe.

I am also pretty confident that if you asked "do you agree with the Copernican cosmology" her answer would be "in what respect?" Or, alternatively, "Those people from Copernica are entitled to their beliefs, but I was born and raised a Christian."
 
2008-11-25 7:05:28 PM  
Grrr..."I would expect her to believe in a geocentric..."
 
2008-11-25 7:06:49 PM  

Snot Monster from Outer Space: Or, alternatively, "Those people from Copernica are entitled to their beliefs, but I was born and raised a Christian."


Hilari-OUS.
 
2008-11-25 7:07:28 PM  

Snot Monster from Outer Space: I am also pretty confident that if you asked "do you agree with the Copernican cosmology" her answer would be "in what respect, Charlie?" Or, alternatively, "Those people from Copernica are entitled to their beliefs, but I was born and raised a Christian."


Sorry, pet Peabody.
 
2008-11-25 7:08:03 PM  
Of course we'd make fun of her! Everybody knows the center of the universe is where all of our nougat and caramel is stored. Stupid Palin!
 
2008-11-25 7:08:10 PM  
Look, she reads every newspaper out there. No doubt she knows the Sun's position within the Milky Way Galaxy, and the position of said galaxy in relation to all the others.
 
2008-11-25 7:09:47 PM  
Copernicus posited his thesis in the 15th century, and it was scientifically based.

Palin's own thesis appears to be that questions that she finds difficult to answer are "mean".

It's like comparing apples to, uh, farking morons.
 
2008-11-25 7:12:28 PM  
Step One: Ascribe a scientific position to the person you wish to defend. Doesn't matter if she believes it. Doesn't even matter if you know what you're talking about yourself. Just say it.
Step Two: Assume that people you don't like would attack her for this most reasonable position. Even though it's factually incorrect. And even though she's never even discussed the topic at all.
Step Three: Profit?

Look, people, Palin is a champion of science. Anyone who would gainsay her is a lunatic. The guy from WSJ proved it.
 
2008-11-25 7:12:47 PM  
What a reach for Palin-bait. She's mentioned in passing at the very bottom of an article in jest.


In other words, as many of us suggested long ago - she's been relegated to a punchline.
 
2008-11-25 7:13:37 PM  
Even if we forgave her not knowing that the solar system and the universe were two different things, we'd still make fun of her because she'd probably say while standing in front of Pit bull ass raping a Pomeranian.
 
2008-11-25 7:14:59 PM  
Gangway Fathead: In other words, as many of us suggested long ago - she's been relegated to a punchline

If by that you mean that most people would happily line up to punch her, I think you may be onto something.
 
2008-11-25 7:17:30 PM  

whatshisname: She has experience in astronomy. She can see the sun from her back yard.


Sometimes.
 
2008-11-25 7:19:34 PM  
Elmo Jones: And only when Putin's rearing head isn't blocking it out.
 
2008-11-25 7:20:14 PM  

MyrnaMinkoff: HAHAHAHAhahahaha that columnist is a retard.


People get astronomical terms mixed up all the time.

I remember a test in my high school physics class.
"How long does it take the earth to make one complete rotation?"
The most common answer was 1 year.

The correct answer is of course, 23 hours, 56 minutes and 4 seconds.
 
2008-11-25 7:20:49 PM  
Wow, you can really tell who owns the WSJ nowadays.

Is it true? Are the conservatives really this stupid?
Are they really this blind? Can they not see the gaping holes in their unthink?

I'm impressed by their incredible litany of asinine notions. I'd argue they were born yesterday, if only they weren't incontrol for nearly the past ten year.

Good thing they are not in control anymore. Time for the padded cell and your meds, conservtards.
 
2008-11-25 7:21:01 PM  

Howie Spankowitz: Even if we forgave her not knowing that the solar system and the universe were two different things, we'd still make fun of her because she'd probably say while standing in front of Pit BullPtolemean ass raping a PomeranianCopernican.


Keepin' it relevant.
 
2008-11-25 7:22:07 PM  
Still whining about people calling Palin a dummy? Really?

i35.tinypic.comView Full Size


She was already enough of an embarrassment to the Republican cause. These baseless tears just give it more life.

By all means, continue...
 
2008-11-25 7:25:17 PM  
Homer nods: Several readers thought we were unfair in our item yesterday in which we ascribed to the Associated Press's Monika Scislowska the belief that the sun is the center of the universe. A more charitable reading of Scislowska's article is that she merely attributed that belief to Copernicus.

Of course, if Sarah Palin said the sun was the center of the universe, people would make fun of her. Copernicus, they call a great scientist. Where's the justice?



So basically, Scislowska said that Copernicus believed that the Sun is the center of the Universe, and the WSJ incorrectly said something wrong. Therefore, the press is unfair to Palin. Nice logic.

Anyway, Copernicus made a great discovery, and was among the leading minds of his time. Palin? Not so much.
 
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