One of Obama's picks to help solve Gulf spill is a self-declared militant homophobe!

[IndianaGreen]

One of the members of the science team picked by Obama to come up with solutions to the oil gusher in the Gulf is a militant homophobe!

The group convened at BP’s command center in Houston yesterday, where they met with BP leadership, including Chief Executive Officer Tony Hayward, the Energy Department said. BP is using more than 500 specialists from almost 100 organizations and welcomes additional help, Jon Pack, a BP spokesman, said by phone.

Their exact activities are cloaked in secrecy. “We saw some confidential and proprietary information,” said one scientist on the team, Jonathan I. Katz, a physics professor at Washington University in St. Louis.

Katz’s early work focused on astrophysics, but now he consults on a wide variety of physics puzzles, he said. He is a member of the JASON group, a think tank dedicated to researching complex problems for the U.S. Government, including the Defense Department.

http://preview.bloomberg.com/news/2010-05-14/obama-sends-bomb-inventor-mars-expert-to-fix-bp-oil-spill-in-mexican-gulf.html?xid=huffbloomberg

Here is Katz's opinion piece:

Diversity is the Last Refuge of a Scoundrel

Jonathan I. Katz

In America attitudes towards homosexuality changed in the 1970's. It went from a private, furtively practiced, vice to an open and accepted subculture. In many circles, ``sodomite'' ceased to be an insult. This acceptance led to the toleration, and wide practice, of gross homosexual promiscuity. HIV, falling onto that fertile soil, made the AIDS epidemic. Even before AIDS was recognized, practicing homosexuals were notorious for a high rate of venereal diseases.

The religious believer may see the hand of God, but both he and the rationalist must see a fact of Nature. The human body was not designed to share hypodermic needles, it was not designed to be promiscuous, and it was not designed to engage in homosexual acts. Engaging in such behavior is like riding a motorcycle on an icy road without a helmet. It may be possible to get away with it for a while, and a few misguided souls may get a thrill out of doing so, but sooner or later (probably sooner) the consequences will be catastrophic. Lethal diseases spread rapidly among people who do such things.

<snip>

What of those cursed with unnatural sexual desires? Must they forever suppress these desires? Yes, but this is hardly a unique fate. Almost everyone has desires which must be suppressed. Most men and women think adulterous thoughts fairly often, and find themselves attracted to members of the opposite sex to whom they are not married. Morality requires them to suppress these desires, and most do not commit adultery, though they feel lust in their hearts. Almost everyone, at one time or another, covets another's property. They do not steal. Many people feel great anger or intense hatred at some time in their lives. They do not kill.

I am a homophobe, and proud.

http://wuphys.wustl.edu/~katz/defense.html

[nevergiveup]

1. The guy is obviously a homophobic nutcase

but if one out of these 500 specialists fall into this category it isn't surprising nor is it earth shaking. Top priority now is to stop the God damn leak!

[Walk away]

He sounds like an asshole. But what does that have to do with his job?

I just don't get the connection.

[Hugin]

3. It's a sign of a closed mind... What if the person who has a solution also happens to be gay?

I hope these guys are getting paid by BP... Otherwise, this is SOCIALISM!

[Walk away]

5. What if the Nazi Pope has the solution?

What if Sarah Palin has the solution? What if Joe The Plumber...oh wait he might be in a union.

[amborin]

7. he's a climate change denier, who, as an astrophysicist, admits he

cannot help with the spill

[Walk away]

2. dupe

[msongs]

4. lol Obama could suspend DADT today but he won't cuz he's not that into gays nt

[HooptieWagon]

6. If he can fix the leak, I'll give him a pass.

Sometimes you have to deal with the devil to accomplish the big picture... don't forget FDR had to partner up with Stalin.

[amborin]

8. he says he can't

he admits this; says it's beyond his field or expertise

also, he's a climate change denier

[HooptieWagon]

10. Why is he on the team then? n/t

[proteus_lives]

9. This again?

Once a fail, always a fail.