Sign up to The Irish Times Archive (1859 - 2008)My Account »

WHO LITERALLY believes that Jonah made his home in a whale's abdomen? Nobody really, apart from the US president - and the woman who was recently added to the 2008 Republican ticket.

Sarah Palin is the latest politician to carry the torch of science misinformation tainted by religious dogma lit during the Reagan administration and nurtured by George Bush.