Here’s my two cents on what relevant note will be struck tonite as President Obama strives to meld his Doomsday routine with the traditional claim that “the State of our Union is strong” (a reconciliation surely demanding of him the biggest “but” ever).

Obama will cite climate change as our greatest threat or challenge, etc, with a shot of John McCain applauding in a sea of otherwise largely uncomfortable Republican faces.

Then – and here’s the rub, rather confusing the actual reason for what would be the largest revenue-raising measure in history, vastly bigger than the tax to fight WWII even in present dollars — he will also note that the $300 billion per year he’s said he plans on raising from the energy tax (cap-and-trade rationing scheme) is to help pay down the deficits he’s piling up. His budget director has already said so.

Got that? It’s to, uh, avert the end of the world. Not impressed? OK, it’s, uh, to pay down the debt. Oh what the heck: It’s the greatest threat and btw I need your cash so let’s do this thing.

This takes to a whole new galaxy the old conundrum of “sin taxes” — that which is demonized immediately turns into a virtuous, or at least indispensible, contributor to the public purse. The (faltering) theory of catastrophic Man-made global warming now a necessary catastrophe to claim he’s averting: the Obama administration needs the threat in order to offset, at the bookkeeping level, much of his social engineering.

So much for science being allowed to work as intended. As I’ve said, science’s “rightful place” to these folks will prove to mean ”nowhere it can get in the way.”