An interesting article about the often-dangerous intersection of Science and Politics, one of my pet causes/ things to complain about, linked from Sarah Hoyt’s According to Hoyt blog:

Here’s a clue. If it gets called a science and the most important parts don’t have any math? It’s not a science no matter what it calls itself. Ditto if there’s no observation or extrapolation and testing against predictions from observations.

Friends Don’t Let Friends Abuse Science

EDIT:  I’ll be putting up my own version of these arguments, thanks to some commentary by a friend of mine.