I recently read a delightful article in The Wall Street Journal written by Andy Kessler, entitled Follow Michael Crichton’s Rule, which imparted the wisdom of the late author and physician who wrote such classics as The Andromeda Strain and Jurassic Park.  In a 2003 lecture he gave at Caltech, entitled Aliens Cause Global Warming, Crichton discussed what he called, “the uneasy relationship between hard science and public policy.”  What Crichton was lampooning was the increasing use of unproven scientific theories to advance desired governmental policies.  In his lecture, Crichton gave examples such as the fear of “nuclear winter” that were spread by the likes of astronomer Carl Sagan.  The story was that, in the event of a major nuclear exchange, dust rising into the atmosphere would block out the sun, stop photosynthesis, and effectively end life on Earth.  As Crichton noted, there was no empirical scientific evidence for that proposition, but it couldn’t be challenged without the doubter being accused of being in favor of nuclear war.  Concerns over second-hand smoke causing cancer spawned laws banning smoking in restaurants and offices.  Later studies have disproven the second-hand smoke link to cancer, but it didn’t matter.  “What, are you in favor of cancer?”  Anyhow, smoke kind of stinks, and many people don’t like it, so the cancer scare continues to be used to ban smoking, even in outdoor settings, such as on the beach, and some cities (run by liberal fascists) seek to ban smoking even in one’s own home.  It’s the same old National Socialist song, the government is just protecting you for your own good.  Michael Bloomberg knows all about that.  According to Michael Crichton, “Once you abandon strict adherence to what science tells us, once you start arranging the truth in a press conference, then anything is possible.” Andy Kessler posits what he calls “the Crichton Conundrum” which permits the zealots to adopt any untested theory which proves them right.  It’s akin to the Frank on Friday notion of liberal delusions of rectitude.  To paraphrase Rene Descartes’ quote, Credo Ergo Verum, “I believe it, therefore it’s true.”  Andy Kessler treats us to a number of examples of progressive policies, launched with good intentions, and bearing positive sounding names, that have gone awry.  The $15 minimum wage, or so-called “living wage.”  You would begrudge the poor a living wage?  Meanwhile hundreds of restaurants have closed or automated, putting thousands out of work.  But it’s the thought that counts, right?  Besides, creating more unemployment would permit the government to indulge another progressive pipe-dream, “guaranteed minimum income.”  As Harry Truman once said, “the minimumer the better.”  But I’m sure we’d succeed where the Soviet Union failed, prompting Soviet citizens to say, “We pretend to work, and they pretend to pay us.”  We are beset by programs with innocuous sounding names, which are really designed to permit a socialist takeover of all aspects of our lives.  “Net neutrality” sounds fair, but would put the government (think Adam Schiff) in charge of what can and can’t be said on the internet.  I’ll pass on that.  “Natural Forest Management” was sold as a way to keep pesky humans from interfering with the natural processes of the forest by clearing trees and controlled burns.  How progressive!  It’s resulted in raging wildfires consuming large areas of California, and causing the State to shut off electric power to the pesky humans who pay the highest taxes and energy rates in the country for the privilege of living in a socialist worker’s paradise.  Good job!  Andy Kessler hits other aspects of liberal hypocrisy, “Free college, day care and medical care?  Didn’t Cuba try that?”  “Free or price-controlled goods always end up like subsidized bread in the Soviet Union.  You get less of it and empty shelves.”  The problem with the progressive imbeciles who keep claiming they “feel our pain,” is that it never occurred to them they’re also the ones who caused our pain.  Kessler pushed on, “And then there’s social justice.  No one is for injustice, but now campus mobs are threatening free speech.”  They’re not only threatening free speech, they’ve effectively cancelled the First Amendment on college campuses, because in the progressive mind (such as it is) they must destroy the constitutional system of government set up by the evil slave-owning Founders, in order to save the country.  The Founders had a simple name for this, treason.  And anyhow, save the country from what?  Full employment?  Prosperity?  Public safety?  National security?  They’re clearly nuts, and getting nuttier by the minute.  The point of Michael Crichton’s speech 16 years ago was that the mindless acceptance of hair-brained progressive schemes keeps us from hearing, or even acknowledging, that there is another side to the argument.  Since his speech in 2003, things have only gotten worse.