Just from that title you might be tempted to leap to the conclusion that you’ve “been there, done that, bought the T-shirt”, and therefore convince yourself that you can skip this one. I would urge you to reconsider and watch it.

Chatting with “Science Friday” host Ira Flatow will be Science Debate co-founder Shawn Otto and former Congressman Vern Ehlers, R-Mich., who is a physicist and a co-chairman of Science Debate’s advisory board.

I wanted to explore the idea of having State-level Science Debates within Minnesota among candidates running here for federal office, but also, and especially, for state office.

The stigma against science in modern politics threatens the American democratic process.

This book is a good primer on science in American society, and I think provides people with a view that ought to be considered.

Shawn Lawrence Otto wrote the responsible piece on the story of the NASA 49 propaganda stunt.

Fool Me Twice: Fighting the Assault on Science in America by Shawn Otto has won the prestigious Minnesota Book Award. The award is very well deserved.

In addition to undercutting the teaching of evolution, the proposals would require public school science classes to teach that global warming is doubtful, unproven. What's next? No science of any sort allowed in public schools?

I encourage you to pop over to Shawn Otto's blog below and read “A Message from a Republican Meteorologist on Climate Change,” a guest post in which Paul Douglas, an experienced meteorologist, energy entrepreneur and founder of the Web site Weather Nation, explains that acknowledging evidence of a growing human influence on climate “doesn’t make you a liberal.”

When Shawn Lawrence Otto wrote his book “Fool Me Twice,” I featured him in this MinnPost space. I have never been able to shake the central premise of his book: all knowledge is anti-authoritarian.

How could the trend toward antiscience be rolled back? How do we get more Americans to respect scientific knowledge and findings, as they did in the past?

This is sometimes justified as “the marketplace of ideas,” but that’s a myth put out there by those on the political right who are anti-regulation and have seen great benefits from the politicization of the media.

Evangelical religion has become big business, and through the gospel of prosperity preached at many suburban megachurches it’s becoming increasingly indistinguishable from so-called free market anti-tax, anti-regulation Friedrich Hayek radical economics.

Those pushing a political ideology over the evidence are seeking to reduce your freedom and increase their own. They are authoritarians, and that is why they attack science.

Several MU undergraduates hosted a symposium Wednesday hoping to bridge the gap between science and policymaking, featuring former U.S. Sen. Christopher "Kit" Bond, R-Missouri, political strategist and science advocate Shawn Lawrence Otto and current U.S. Rep. Rush Holt, D-New Jersey, the only physicist in U.S. Congress.

To cite just two recently published examples, read Merchants of Doubt, by Naomi Oreskes and Eric Conway, or Fool Me Twice: Fighting the Assault on Science in America, by Shawn Lawrence Otto, for an excellent analysis and description of this problem.

I have a friend who likes to argue for the sake of argument. I once had an argument with him about Newton's laws of physics. Although he had never taken college physics, he had very passionate arguments. It should come as no surprise that he became a lawyer. After all, lawyers are not trained to argue the truth, but to convince a jury that they are right.

Some might argue that GOP hopeful Newt Gingrich blew his political chances by emphasizing big scientific ideas like the establishment of a moon colony — but what's really needed is more science, not less.

Science is under attack in this country these days; I hate to admit it, but it is being reduced to the status of a religion. It’s about belief: You believe it or you don’t.

Familiar names abound on list of four finalists in each of eight categories. The winners will be announced in April.

One way to enter into a conversation about science-based policy (including climate change) with your representative is to ask them if they've signed The American Science Pledge.

Some might argue that GOP hopeful Newt Gingrich blew his political chances by emphasizing big scientific ideas like the establishment of a moon colony — but what's really needed is more science, not less.

In the US, science has increasingly taken a backstage to politics in policy decisions. But as the country enters the presidential primary season this month, one of the most counterintuitive but effective ways for researchers to make a difference may be to join the GOP.

Four years ago, a group of science writers tried to organized a debate in which Barack Obama and John McCain would debate science issues. Neither campaign was interested. Author Shawn Lawrence Otto says the group will try again in 2012.

AMERICANS have trouble dealing with science, and it's especially obvious in presidential campaigns, says author Shawn Lawrence Otto.

Shawn Lawrence Otto thinks "apolitical science" is a myth.

Just three Republican candidates have declared that they believe in the scientific basis for evolution

The UK Guardian reports today that the deniers are serving 2-year-old leftovers for Thanksgiving

Shawn Lawrence Otto today released a new downloadable readers guide as a resource for book clubs.

The public battle over man-made global warming is fought out in the media where, as Otto points out, many journalists have been trained in journalism schools deeply influenced by postmodernism. Postmodernist philosophy promotes relativism and frowns on the notion of objective truth, believing that we each can construct our own reality and that different and even contradictory constructed realities can be equally valid. In this view, science is just another constructed reality.

"Whenever the people are well informed" an optimistic Thomas Jefferson wrote, "they can be trusted with their own government." Sure – but what if the people have no clue?

NCSE is pleased to offer a free preview (PDF) of Shawn Lawrence Otto's Fool Me Twice: Fighting the Assault on Science in America (Rodale, 2011). The preview consists of part of chapter 9, "Teaching Evolution: The Values Battle," in which Otto starts to lay the foundation for his discussion of the controversies over the place of evolution in the public schools.

“Five hundred million dollars has been spent since the last race to discredit climate change,” said Shawn Lawrence Otto, author of “Fool Me Twice: Fighting the assault on science in America.” The GOP candidates’ views, Otto said, represent “the triumph of ideology over knowledge.”

About.com discusses the only pro-science Republican presidential candidate, Jon Huntsman, and Shawn Otto's new book Fool Me Twice: Fighting the Assault on Science in America

In the words of Shawn Lawrence Otto, we at Scientific American understand that “Science is never partisan, but science is always political.” Stating that evidence shows that something is true independent of what others—no matter their wealth or rank—think of it can be very subversive.

The US was founded on enlightenment values and is the most powerful scientific nation on Earth. And yet the status of science in public life has never appeared to be so low. As campaigning for the 2012 presidential election gets into full swing, US politics, especially on the right, appears to have entered a parallel universe where ignorance, denial and unreason trump facts, evidence and rationality. How did it come to this? Over the next 8 pages we examine America’s retreat from reason. First, Shawn Lawrence Otto explores its deep and sometimes surprising roots. Then, on page 42, Peter Aldhous argues for some perspective, and calls on scientists to do what ought to come naturally: look at the evidence and act on it.

Shawn Lawrence Otto, author of the book "Fool Me Twice" that criticizes science skeptics, said Muller should expect to be harshly treated by global warming deniers. "Now he's considered a traitor. For the skeptic community, this isn't about data or fact. It's about team sports. He's been traded to the Indians. He's playing for the wrong team now."

Perhaps the most important point of Shawn Lawrence Otto’s Fool Me Twice: Fighting the Assault on Science in America is that the voting public can, in fact, take up arms against politicians who would sway their constituents with sheerly rhetorical claims about public policy decisions that should be based instead on the relevant science.

The late Gov. Elmer Andersen often expressed confidence that, over time, people in this democracy will choose to do the right thing, provided they know the facts. I wish I could put to him the question posed by a new book with Minnesota roots: What happens in a democracy when the findings of scientific inquiry are perceived not as facts, but as partisan propaganda?

One problem with arguing about evolution, climate change or the point at which human life begins, Shawn Lawrence Otto writes, is that our public institutions approach such issues from very different perspectives.

Fool Me Twice is an important tool for the professional or avocational activist to use over the next few years to force real change. If you want climate change to matter in policy and science more broadly to regain its seat at the table of policymakers, you have to do something and not just wish it. And number one on your list of things to do is to read Fool Me Twice.

In his new book, Fool Me Twice, writer Shawn Otto tells why he thinks science is under assault in America. Otto, CEO and co-founder of Science Debate 2008, also explains why his "American Science Pledge" for candidates might bring more science into political decision making.

Free event - book signing and reading

Next month, a new book will go on sale, and every voter in the country should read it. It is called "Fool Me Twice: Fighting the Assault on Science in America." It is written by a Minnesotan of national reputation.