A sad day for botany

Whoaaa! I always figured Michael Savage (nee Michael Weiner*) for a A+++ certified whack-job, but I didn't know quite how much until I read this revealing piece on him by Ron Russell at the East Bay Express. But the most depressing bit of news was to learn that this far right wing sociopath has a M.S. degree in botany from the University of Hawaii and a Ph.D in ethnobotany from UC Berkeley. And of course he once-upon-a-time was a bonafide celebrant of the counter-culture, much like another landsman turned rightie, David Horowitz. Not too many botanists of my acquaintance become super-fascistic hate mongers. How did a guy who once wanted to explore Allen Ginsberg's rectum become a veritable caricature of over-the-top vitriol?

*It's ok, Mike, we're all self-hating Jews here.

















I would love to know what turns certain lefties into over-the-top right-wingers as they age. It is brain-shrinkage? Or is there some more fundamental heart of darkness that was always there to begin with, like a nascent bud, and suddenly comes to flower?