firewall - I completely agree. But that's not the point.
The statements were that "They are serve no scientific purpose at all" and "Not a single piece of scientific research from a Shuttle mission has ever appeared in a decent peer-reviewed scientific journal". That's just wrong. The shuttle has flown some very high quality experiments that have produced very high quality data. Could it have been done cheaper? Yes, in almost every case it could have been - but only a fool, NASA-basher or troll would claim it has done nothing of scientific value.
But that's enough from me. Not the time or place for the old manned/unmanned argument.