I had always liked Crichton, and bought "State of Fear" expecting the usual quasi-scientific escapism that usually saw me through several sessions of bathroom or vacation reading. But when I began to discern a distinct bias--beyond mere musguided advocacy, but instead tilting towards portraying environmentalists as naive buffoons at best and Machiavellian uber-villains at worst, the ol' Cognitive-Dissonance machine kicked in. If he had been more evenhanded in his position, or at least less condescending and smarmy in his tone, I might have tipped toward reconsidering my own preconceptions in light of information coming from a source I'd always trusted. However, this time, I found myself losing all respect for his integrity as a scientifically-oriented science fiction writer, and I have lost my patience with him as a novelist in general. Finding out about his affiliation with Bush only confirms my decision to put him on my "ignore" list from now on.