Jonathan Katz: Wash U Prof Tapped By Obama to Solve Gulf Oil Crisis is "Homophobe, Climate Change Denialist"

Update 5/19: Katz has been removed from the five-man team of experts. Full story here.
Washington University physics professor Jonathan Katz is part of a five-man team of the nation's "best scientific minds" assembled by the Obama administration to help BP stem the flow of oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico.

He's also been outed as "a virulent homophobe and a climate change denialist."

One site is even spearheading a letter-writing campaign to the president, attempting to get Katz removed from the special assignment.

AMERICAblog is leading the charge. They quote an article Katz wrote titled "In Defense of Homophobia" in which he blames the spread of AIDS on homosexuality and adds the following remarks:

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.

Yikes. How about his views on global warming? Here they are, in a paper he penned entitled "Cold Thoughts on Climate Change."

Who is stoking the alarm about global warming? There is Al Gore, an over-the-hill politician who wants to remain in the public eye. His house uses 20 times as much electricity as the average American house and he flies private jets. Obviously, he does not believe what he preaches; it must be an act. Conservation is for the little people. I'll think about reducing my emissions after he reduces his by 95%. Then there is Jim Hansen, would-be dictator who wants to throw in jail anyone who disagrees with him or burns coal. He may wish himself another Mussolini (or worse), but people just laugh at him. And finally John Holdren, who in his younger days was prophesying disaster from the ice age then just beginning (so he said). Fictitious crises are a demogogue's route to power.

Fortunately, global warming is probably good for humanity. Sit back, relax, and watch it happen.

Katz's writings are collected on his personal website. Other highlights include "Diversity is the Last Refuge of a Scoundrel," and "What is Political Correctness?"

Perhaps the Obama administration official who selected Katz for the Gulf-rescue project ought to read that last one and take notes.

(Hat tip to the incomparable Kristen Hinman for the heads-up)