Anthropology chair reacts to FL Gov Rick Scott's 'We don't need more anthropology majors' criticism

[seafan]

It's very hard to point to just one example why this guy inspires such vehement disdain, but this is a good example.


Florida Governor Rick Scott
AP (via St. Petersburg Times)


Anthropology chair reacts to governor’s criticism

By Nathan Crabbe
October 11th, 2011

University of Florida anthropology department chairwoman Susan deFrance said she was “shocked” by Gov. Rick Scott’s comments that the state doesn’t need more anthropology majors.
Scott told a Daytona Beach radio host and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune that he hopes to shift more funding to science, technology, engineering and math departments instead of liberal arts majors such as anthropology. DeFrance said the comments fail to recognize anthropology’s relevance in addressing modern problems.

.....

DeFrance, an associate professor and the UF anthropology department’s interim chairwoman, said anthropology benefits Florida tourism through archaeology done in St. Augustine and other historic sites. Crime prosecution in the state benefits from forensic anthropology, she said, while medical anthropologists have researched race and health disparities in Tallahassee.

She said UF’s anthropology program is one of the biggest in the country and most popular majors in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. There are about 650 undergraduate majors and 158 active graduate students at UF in the program. Undergraduates are often dual majors and use the degree to apply for professional programs in areas such as law and medicine, deFrance said.

.....

Anthropology benefits the hard sciences, she said, by helping to develop policies in line with cultural practices and beliefs. She said the field is addressing major problems of the day such as globalization and immigration, rather than just studying primitive cultures as the governor seemed to be suggesting.

.....

What is happening to Florida under this criminal fraudster and his accomplices driving the Legislature is dreadful.


It is the reign of ideological ignorance, steeped in the arrogant stench of excess money and power.


And it must be stopped.

[polichick]

1. Two words come to mind whenever I see his face: CORRUPT CREEP.

[Ship of Fools]

2. I'd say that the comments fail to recognize the PEOPLE who

select majors in the liberal arts, as well as the disciplines themselves! In my early adult years playing in symphony orchestras, the Prick Scotts of the world would almost ALWAYS fall asleep during the second movements, snoring away like the assholes they are.

[Scurrilous]

3. Good comment on Gawker:

RobNYC Wed 12 Oct 2011 1:00 PM

It's a little hard to justify spending more on math and science when you routinely deny the results they come up with.

http://gawker.com/5849076/floridas-governor-declares-war-on-useless-degrees

[Ship of Fools]

6. I KNEW something was bothering about his comments !!!! There ya go.

[nykym]

4. DeFrance said the comments fail to recognize

anthropology’s relevance in addressing modern problems.
Like identifying traits common to Neanderthals and modern day GOPers

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

5. Scott's worried that anthropologists will find that his nearest antecedent was a bald potato bug. .

[RaleighNCDUer]

7. Is it just me, or does anyone else think he's going for that 'Voldemort' look? nt

[Ian David]

8. The Anthropology Song: A little bit Anthropologist

The Anthropology Song: A little bit Anthropologist
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHv6rw6wxJY

[Uncle Joe]

9. I do believe there is an ongoing War Against Education being waged by the Republicans;

they want a dumbed down nation, all the easier for them to rule the people.

Apparently Scott has been listening to Rick Perry for education advice.

Scott said that Rick Perry — the Texas governor and Republican presidential candidate — planted higher education reform in the Florida governor's mind when the two met shortly after Scott's election.

“He said, ‘I've got this plan in Texas, you ought to look at it,'” Scott recalled.

This would be the same Rick Perry; that believes the American Revolution took place two hundred years before it did.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x631794

The gaffe occurred when Perry was asked about states' rights during a question-and-answer session at Dartmouth's Beta Theta Pi fraternity.

"Our Founding Fathers never meant for Washington, D.C. to be the fount of all wisdom," Perry said, per ABC's Arlette Saenz. "As a matter of fact they were very much afraid if that because they'd just had this experience with this far-away government that had centralized thought process and planning and what have you, and then it was actually the reason that we fought the revolution in the 16th century was to get away from that kind of onerous crown if you will."

But the Revolutionary War was fought in the 18th century...."

Thanks for the thread, seafan.

[seafan]

11. Scott has been getting "advice" from Jeb Bush. Right regularly, too.

Discovered in transition e-mails, advice from Jeb Bush to Gov. Rick Scott, August 24, 2011


Just reported yesterday: Third batch of Rick Scott's emails are now "gone" from his BlackBerry., October 6, 2011


Sure is convenient (for hiding emails) that widespread BlackBerry "outages" are in the news today. But, I digress...



'Gov. Rick Scott's Take on Education Reform is Textbook Jeb' (scroll down slightly)

The Murdochs and Bushes lust for control of public education money. It's the final frontier.


Rick Scott, because he currently squats in the Florida governor's mansion, is merely the puppet of the Jeb Bush *Bold Education Reform Agenda*.

Jeb Bush salivates over privatizing public education money. He is just offstage, pulling Rick Scott's mouth strings.



Thanks for your informative post, Uncle Joe.

"Our Founding Fathers never meant for Washington, D.C. to be the fount of all wisdom," (Rick) Perry said, .... Link

Funny, that sentiment was also mouthed by Jeb Bush apprentice Marco Rubio last year.

“The republic works and isn’t designed to elect a bunch of experts,” Rubio responded.

Well, he is certainly living down to those expectations.



There is a load of toxic Texas influence in Florida. And it doesn't bode well.

[Uncle Joe]

12. That's what blows me away, these dumb-asses subliminally trash the idea that the virtues of wisdom

and competence should be a part of the federal government!?

Why shouldn't the people; want to send the wisest and most competent to D.C. to represent them and the nation as a whole?:shrug:

The Republicans don't want a "smaller or less powerful government" they're more than happy to have the Feds interfere in the daily lives of the American People when it furthers the Republican agenda.

There can only be one logical reason for it, the Republicans want the American People to be subservient, non-critical thinking sheep and their government has to be the same so as to allow the mega-corporations and uber-wealthy to rule the land without question.

[starroute]

10. Since when is anthropology one of the liberal arts?

I suspect it's more a matter of conservatives being afraid of any science that suggests the customs and problems of non-Westerners and non-whites are worthy of serious attention.

[hyphenate]

18. Um, anthropology IS science

as are most groups of study with the -ology suffix. It's the same root as the word "logic" which is what Rick Scott doesn't seem to have a lot of, anyway.

[applegrove]

13. And when I read books on future thinking.. the type of thinking that

will make humans soar in the corporate world and around the world they always say you need at least two areas of expertese to enable simultaneous creativity and innovate.

[yardwork]

14. A banker in Charlotte, NC told me in 2009 that the universities should cut all the humanities.

To solve the state budget crisis, all we have to do is stop teaching English, History, Art, and a bunch of other topics that one of the people who caused the 2008 crash thinks are useless.

I met him under circumstances that made it impossible for me to observe that if Wall Street and the Bankers (sounds like a band) had been better students of History and English they might not have gotten themselves and the rest of us into this mess in the first place.

Anyway, that's what he said. That's how these people think. If you can't eat it, f*** it, or use it to make money, it's useless in their eyes.

[pinboy3niner]

15. Scott says he doesn't believe in that 'When the moon is in the 7th house' Aquarius crap

:evilgrin:

[tallahasseedem]

16. I'm so glad I'm out of Tallahassee...

of course, now I'm in Christie territory!

[firehorse]

17. Heaven forbid any field that challenges right wing belief systems.

Better to keep the masses ignorant, easier to control.

[HopeHoops]

19. Maybe anthropologists can determine what form of slime mold Rick Scott evolved from.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

24. Eat More Myxomycetes!!!!

Yes, I was a biology major and I took a course in Slime Molds.

I dare anyone to come up with a more useless course. The prof had a Ph.D. from the University of Texas, since the big cheese in the world of slime molds taught there and wrote the book.
The prof was tall and sorta blond and studious looking.

The prof's wife, Mrs. Doctor, taught the labs. She looked like Virginia Woolf. She had a Ph.D. in Fungus and was the chief fungus person at NASA Mission Control in Clear Lake City.

Must have been a cute couple. You never know what kind of weird stuff a biologist will specialize in.

My faculty advisor had a Ph.D. in Malacology. Snails.

[seafan]

20. As it turns out, Gov. Rick Scott's daughter has a degree in anthropology.

You just cannot make this stuff up.



(Photo credit: Steve Cannon / AP)


What an absolute fool.


Honestly, Florida, after nearly two miserable decades, have we had enough of this right wing disease plaguing our state government?

[Octafish]

21. Perhaps she can't find a job in her field and has had to move back in with the crook.

Being the shameless fraudster and hypocrite he is, the guy be inconvenienced to have a relation around who can document his criminal and amoral behavior.

The poor girl may need to get a name change if she wants to work, were there any jobs.

I'm not an anthropologist, but I do know something about photography. Going by that image of the govner: If she does live at home, she should lock her door when sleeping and hide her valuables when she is not in her room.

[seafan]

22. USF anthropology students to Scott: We matter

Kim Wilmath at the St. Petersburg Times reports:

October 14, 2011

.....

"It just shows a lack of understanding," Shiver (USF anthropology student and former combat medic in Iraq) said. Anthropology is a science. The study of people and the way they interact among cultures is important to a number of professions, he said.

That sentiment was loudly echoed throughout the anthropology community in the days after Scott's comments, with national organizations sending letters in defense and online forums lighting up in protest.

And it was the talk of the hallways at the University of South Florida's anthropology department Thursday. One professor read Scott's quote aloud at the start of her class. It prompted eye rolls and chuckles and hands raised to give examples of why Scott is wrong.

What about the anthropologists who work in health care? the students offered. Or in engineering? Or as consultants for businesses? Or for the government? Does Scott know that anthropologists help law enforcement solve crimes by identifying human remains? Does he know they help doctors understand epidemics?

.....

But, but, but, anthropologists believe in evolution! They might --*GASP*-- work for the government instead of the private sector! They work toward common ground among the many different people of the world, instead of dropping bombs on them! They might use SCIENCE to find criminals who eviscerate workers' unions, steal from teachers, commit financial terrorism or defraud Medicare!

Such as YOU, Mr. Scott.


It's time to remove this charlatan from the levers of power.

[Tsiyu]

23. Modern Day Inquisition

Primitive-brained types are always terrified of academia.

"Book larnin'" means freedom. They want slaves.