Re: Some "Hoagland and Bara strike out" followups
Alex,
I think you're being a tad naive about politics and human nature. You can be sure that Hoagland would characterize the lack of a serious rebuttal as vindication. A quick pass highlighting a couple of blatant errors might be worse--Hoagland, sly debater that he is, could spin that into some "that's all they could come up with!" line.
But nevertheless, it takes a rare combination of qualities to champion science in the public arena, and unfortunately there are no Carl Sagans around to do that dirty job any more. Given your strong feelings on the matter, I think it'd be a bad idea if you tried to shoulder that burden. I'm afraid we'll have to keep looking for a Champion of Science.
--Robert