As a 501(c)3 organization, the JREF is limited in what it may properly say in regard to political matters. However, the just-announced decision by President-Elect Obama that he will have fire-breathing “pastor” Rick Warren – of the huge evangelical Saddleback Church in Orange County – deliver his inaugural invocation, is alarming. Warren is most famously known as a trenchant opponent of gay marriage, but he also opposes “Plan B” – which aims to override the law that requires hospitals to provide emergency contraception to rape victims, he fights in-vitro fertilization, he opposes women’s abortion rights, and stem-cell research.  As our friend Bob Park says, all clear-headed humans should be offended by that last item.  I’m offended, since I’m very science-oriented, though I’m elated at Obama’s appointment of Harvard physicist John Holdren to be presidential science advisor, of Oregon State marine biologist Jane Lubchenco to head the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, and of Steve Chu to serve as Secretary of Energy.  These are all ranking scientists, and just may neutralize the science-bashing that took place from the White House over the last eight years.