Ron Johnson, science guy. For real.

Ron "Sunspots" Johnson just said public policy should be based on science.

Well, not every policy; he was talking about how to regulate e-cigarettes: 

"We want to keep these things out of kids’ hands and these companies with these flavors — they’re marketing to kids. That we need to end. Again, I just want to make sure we’re basing this on science.”

But before you say, 'Oh now he's for science,' remember that he's often blended a keen grasp of science with other disciplines to sharpen the public debate.

* You may remember that when Johnson attributed a changing climate to sunspots - - memorialized in this post with links to Johnson's comparison of environmental activists to followers of dictators and mass murders like Joseph Stalin - - he also  showed off a deep understanding of botany, chemistry mobility and world history:

"Excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere "gets sucked down by trees and helps the trees grow," said Johnson. Average Earth temperatures were relatively warm during the Middle Ages, Johnson said, and "it's not like there were tons of cars on the road."

In other words, take that, you phony 97% of scientists who believe humans are causing climate change and the stupid 175 world leaders who want to do something about it, because Dr. Johnson has been definitive:

'I absolutely do not believe in the science...it hasn't been proven by any stretch of the imagination.'

* And he's got proofs, which every good scientist knows seals the deal. Didja notice, Johnson has observed, that no one's moving to Antarctica:

“Mankind has actually flourished in warmer temperatures...Most people move down to Texas and Florida, where it’s a little bit warmer.”

* Oh, and about all that flooding and storming and things, which the La Crosse emergency government manager said were related to climate change, a multi-tasking Johnson found a better answer in a  classic synthesis of history and meteorology, not to mention sharp-eyed observation: 

"We’ve always had weather,” Johnson said Wednesday afternoon on WIZM. “We’ve always had flooding and tornados and hurricanes, that kind of thing."