God, guns, and e-cigarettes

The left, at the moment, is fairly agog at Senator Buttfroth's comment that science should get out of politics.

My response to this is nuanced--I actually do think we'd be better off with a hell of a lot less science-based policy for complicated reasons, but Santorum is still clearly wrong here. He doesn't want less science-based policy; he wants to replace it with religious policy, which is far wronger. Government force should never, ever be used to enforce taboos.

Just don't dislocate your shoulders patting yourselves on the back, leftward blogoshpere. Banning e-cigarettes because they look like real ones, or filling an international news article with hysterical comments because a nation is considering a very slight decrease in the burdens of buying hunting rifles by subjects who already own shotguns is just as much an exercise in taboo enforcement as shutting down bars on Sundays.

Peoples is peoples, and people are tribal. Think your tribe has transcended magical thinking and signalling? You're almost certainly wrong.