You Stay Classy, Ben Stein
Here’s the tagline at the top of the blog for Ben Stein’s forthcoming film, ‘Expelled’:
“It’s (EXPELLED) going to appeal strongly to the religious, the paranoid, the conspiracy theorists, and the ignorant –– which means they’re going to draw in about 90% of the American market.”
-Atheist blogger and fabulist PZ Myers, on a film he has not yet seen.
What a jerk Myers is, right?
Only there’s one little thing that Stein & Co. leave out: Myers may not have seen the film … but he’s in the film. He was interviewed by director Mark Mathis, under false pretenses, for a documentary that Mathis told him was called ‘Crossroads: The Intersection of Science and Religion’.
‘Expelled’? How about ‘Chutzpah’?
Gavin adds: This must be an informative film, because the following claim can only be news to a great many people:
We’ll take Lincoln Day over Darwin Day…any day.
Until the late 1980’s when the generic “President’s Day” became the official holiday that subsumed them, America used to celebrate the birthdays of both George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.
As a result, “Darwin Day” has now supplanted Lincoln’s Birthday in the popular imagination; both men were born on February 12, 1809.
Whilst preparing for the annual Darwin Day white sales, we hasten to add that “Adolf Hitler Day” threatens to replace “Carmen Electra Day” in the popular imagination (both were born on April 20).
The title of Charles Darwin’s book is not “The Origin of The Species.” The full title seems shocking: “On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life.”[*] That last half of the title, often overlooked, sounds like it could come straight out of a Ku Klux Klan manual – which is precisely why Big Science rarely quotes the full title (even though Darwin was not referring specifically to “man” in his use of the words “favoured races.”). Big Science is uncomfortable with even the suggestion that evolutionary theory might favor politically incorrect thinking.
Additionally, the title of Charles Darwin’s book is not “The Descent of The Man,” but “The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex.” That shocking last half of the title, often overlooked, sounds like it could have come straight out of a spicy late-’60s comedy movie, perhaps featuring Elliott Gould and Julie Christie (even though Darwin was not referring specifically to “making whoopie” in his use of the word “sex”). This is why Big Science rarely quotes the full title, often referring to the book, cryptically, as “ibid.”
* Since 1872, when the book’s sixth edition was published, its title has in fact been The Origin of Species, with no colon or anything else appended to it.
Aw, c’mon–you can’t possibly expect anything Ben Stein is involved with to be honest.
Which, incidentally, may be the only way you’ll ever see the word “honest” in the same sentence as “Ben Stein.”
Well, yeah, but it’s as if Jonah Goldberg complained about some criticism from Mussolini because ‘he hasn’t read my book.’
As opposed to vice-versa, which is actually the case.
It’s (EXPELLED) going to appeal strongly to the religious, the paranoid, the conspiracy theorists, and the ignorant –– which means they’re going to draw in about 90% of the American market.
See, I was perfectly willing to believe that that was another quote from a sales pitch to prospective producers. Or Ben Stein overheard at a bar. Or something.
PS, can we call it even on the Michael Moore thing now? This is at least as unethical as that Charlton Heston interview. From now on the evidence stands on its own. So as soon as they can find any evidence…
It’s such a tagline that is meant to appeal to the Evangelical home-schooled “white Christians are being oppressed” crowd.
I can’t wait to see the movie. It’s likely to be as fun to skewer as that guy who heats his home with incandescent bulbs.
D, you realize that your analogy compares Myers to Mussolini, right?
You know, they probably think of this as a Borat-style gotcha film. And like all experiments in Republican humor, it will be anti-funny. Not unfunny, which just means you don’t laugh at the parts that you’re supposed to, but anti-funny, which actually sucks the humor out of you and makes you unable to laugh at anything for several hours afterwards.
Why do right-wing douchebags have such a complete inability to make humorous entertainment? It’s a curious phenomenon. Dennis Miller was smarmy, but occasionally funny, right up until his public conversion to douchebaggery. That thing you linked yesterday wouldn’t have been funny even if the delivery hadn’t been so awful.
I agree – I thought that was a booster quote.
Just what the world needs. Another Hollyweirdo in thrall to some ‘spiritual’ nonsense.
Fuck off Mr Cantwell.
Please read the following “creation story” and then ask yourself if we really want *all* theories of human origins, including intelligent design, to be taught in science classes.
THE STORY OF XENU
Once upon a time, 75 million years ago, there was an alien galactic ruler named Xenu. Xenu was in charge of all the planets in this part of the galaxy, including Earth, which in those days was called Teegeeack.
Xenu had a problem. All 76 planets of the Galactic Confederation he controlled were overpopulated. Each planet had on average 178 billion people. He wanted to get rid of this overpopulation, and he had a plan.
With the help of renegades, Xenu defeated his opponents, the good people and their Loyal Officers. Then with the help of psychiatrists and the media he persuaded billions of people to come in for income tax audits. They were instead injected in the lungs with alcohol and
glycol to paralyze them. Then they were put into spaceships that looked exactly like DC8 airplanes, except they had rocket engines instead of propellers.
These space planes then flew to planet Earth where the hundreds of billions of paralyzed people were stacked around the bases of volcanoes. H-bombs were lowered into the volcanoes, and Xenu detonated all the H-bombs at once, killing everyone.
The story doesn’t end there though. Since everyone has a soul, Xenu had to make sure the souls would not come back and seek vengeance. So while the hundreds of billions of souls were being blown around by the nuclear winds, he used special traps that caught them in electronic beams that were sticky like fly-paper. Force-fields then packaged the souls into “clusters.” This all took place in Hawaii and Las Palmas in the Canary Islands.
Xenu had these soul clusters packed into boxes and taken to some huge cinemas to brainwash, or hypnotically “implant” them. They were forced to spend 36 days watching 3D motion pictures of traumatic, horrific things like torture, dissection, and crucifixion. They were subject to sexual perversion, motion sickness, auto accidents, and other horrors. They were also shown false pictures and told they were God, Christ, and Satan, all as part of Xenu’s plan to render them helpless and prevent their return.
After the implanting, the soul clusters remained stuck together in groups of a few thousand, as the implanting had confused their sense of individual identity. There were only a few living bodies left on Earth, and the clusters inhabited these bodies like parasitic demons.
As for Xenu, the Loyal Officers finally overthrew him and imprisoned him in a mountaintop on Earth. He is kept there by a force-field powered by an eternal battery, and is still alive today.
And so today everyone on Earth is possessed by clusters of souls called “body thetans.” And if you are to become spiritually free, you must exorcise all the body thetans inhabiting you, and pay many thousands of dollars to do so. And the only reason people believe in God and Christ is because they were in the implant film their body thetans saw 75 million years ago.
*********************************
This is L. Ron Hubbard’s account of what Scientologists consider to be the most significant event in the history of the human race. You know that erupting volcano on the cover of Hubbard’s book, “Dianetics”? That is a visual reference of this “creation story”. What do you think? The evidence for this story is no worse than the evidence for creationism or intelligent design. Should we teach this in science classes?
http://icanhascheezburger.com/2008/02/07/funny-pictures-hudspa-i-has-it/
The main point of this movie is that people who disagree with ID are generally snarky about it.
I mean, that’s really it, right?
Just so you know- I’m also snarky about Nickleback, astrology and the belief in Pod People from Neptune.
The truth? You want the truth? You CAN handle the truth?
Well, then, OK, let Jeb Bush ‘splain it for you….
The truth is useless.
You have to understand this right now.
You can’t deposit the truth in a bank. You can’t buy groceries with the truth. You can’t pay rent with the truth.
The truth is a useless commodity that will hang around your neck like an albatross — all the way to the homeless shelter.
And if you think that the million or so people in this country that are really interested in the truth about their government can support people who would tell them the truth, you got another think coming.
Because the million or so people in this country that are truly interested in the truth don’t have any money.
-Jeb Bush, 1986 re: the Iran-Contra scandal
from “Bushwhacked: Inside Stories of True Conspiracy” by Uri Dowbenko
New Improved Media Corporation, September 2002
ISBN: 0971004218
““It’s (EXPELLED) going to appeal strongly to the religious, the paranoid, the conspiracy theorists, and the ignorant –– which means they’re going to draw in about 90% of the American market.”
-Atheist blogger and fabulist PZ Myers, on a film he has not yet seen.”
Alternatively, “most read science blogger on the internet”.
So, EnfantTerrible, your point is that Ben Stein has body thetans? That would explain a lot.
I still think that Hubbard just invented a transparently ridiculous new religion to make a point about the sillyness of religion in general. It is so depressing that people took it seriously.
In the intro to one of the later books in his Dune series, Frank Herbert expressed his bewilderment at the number of people who wrote to ask him if he was starting a new church and, if so, how they could join.
Note that Stein does not attempt to refute the quote. I suspect he secretly agrees with it, the charlatan.
I’m sort of the opinion that all religions were started to make a point about the silliness of religion in general.
EnfantTerrible illustrates why, when the love of my life expressed an interest in Dianetics, I became very, very irritated.
Fortunately, Old Elron Hubbardism is expensive and LomL is cheap.
I don’t have to see the film to know it’s stupid. It features Ben Stein and favors teaching ID in schools.
For similar reasons I don’t have to read Liberal Fascism to know it’s stupid. It was written by Jonah Goldberg for the express purpose of getting back at liberals who call conservatives fascists. It’s a stupid premise written by a stupid man.
The “methodologies” here are identical: begin with a conclusion, then search for evidence to support it, ignoring anything, however numerous, that may contradict it.
What type of garbage was Ben Stein was pushing?
Anyone? Anyone?
Something science.
Anyone?
Something-d-o science?
Anyone?
Psuedo science. Good.
I kind of thought Stein was part of the stuffy, boring and comparatively harmless Bob Dole / Gerald Ford wing of the GOP. I’m kind of surprised to see him aggressively promoting unhinged Dobsonism.
As a Jew, I guess he must support a sort of culturally sensitive ID theory. All life was created up by an invisible man in the sky, who MAY OR MAY NOT have had a kid at some point, and MAY OR MAY NOT care whether you snip off the end of your cock and eat bacon.
And Play-Doh.
Has Myers contacted the New York Law Firm?
And another right-wing water carrier snuffs out the spark of decency that made him likeable in spite of his odious belief system.
It’s down to you, P.J. O’Rourke. Lemme know if you’ve got any plans in the works to curb-stomp autistic kids so that I can toss your books out in advance.
Ben Stain?
It’s down to you, P.J. O’Rourke.
Was he ever likeable? I agree he was funny, but the two aren’t necessary by-products of one another.
What Davis said. There are some claims that are risible on their face, and don’t need to be investigated to be proven false. If someone claims that the sky is bright pink with regular round polka-dots, you don’t need to look out a window to tell that they’re lying.
Similarly, when a well-known bloviating liar publishes a book called “Liberal Fascism”, I don’t need to read it cover-to-cover to know that it’s BS. When a Nixon speechwriter produces a documentary claiming that evangelical Christians just can’t catch a break from those mean ol’ scientists, rational actors will conclude that it’s an hour and a half of distortions, half-truths, and the occasional outright lie.
Ben Stein: I’m famous and I’m mad because scientists won’t call my theology science.
Re: freedom of speech. Stein seems to think the rejection of ID is an affront to the constitutional rights of the ID authors. However, last I checked, there is no constitutional right to have your work published in science journals or given audience in university classrooms.
It’s always easier to feel like a victim than a moron.
As PZ Myers pointed out, ‘Expelled’ seems relatively lavishly funded. Who bankrolled this masterpiece?
PZ also pointed out that The Discovery Institute was pimping this film hard. My guess is they had something to do with funding it as well.
Rightwingers admitting and deploring the cognitive relativism of Western imperialists in order to make a case for I.D.?
It is not possible to overestimate the cynicism of the conservative mind.
“Re: freedom of speech. Stein seems to think the rejection of ID is an affront to the constitutional rights of the ID authors. However, last I checked, there is no constitutional right to have your work published in science journals or given audience in university classrooms.”
This is consistent with the wingers’ general notion of “free speech”: any criticism or rejection of their stupidity is immediately linked to the most egregious violations of the 1st amendment. And of course, because those who mock and reject said stupidity are librul fascists, they are correct, which is not central to my point, but 5 clicks to north of my point.
Oh noes! Smart people are being mean to stupid people! Let’s make a whiny movie!
Shorter Ben Stein: stop confusing my yokels.
.
Talk about identity politics. At Ben Stein’s store you can buy an Expelled dog tag.
Win Ben Stein’s Ignorance !!!
We’ll take Lincoln Day over Darwin Day…any day.
Any day? You mean not on Feb. 12th?
Ignorant fucking bone-in-the-nose creationists can’t even read a goddamned calendar.
.
Ahh yes, the old line that Darwin was somewhat of a racist (to only the extent, of course, as any other Euro-white male during this time period) and that his writings inspired people to be racist (to only the extent, of course, that Tim McVeigh confided in the Bible, Osama bin Laden confides in the Koran, or Ho Chi Minh confided in the Declaration of Independence).
The mental gymnastics required to make this seem like a valid argument are stunning. Also, the following is ignored: You know who else is all up in that “White Man’s Burden” nonsense, and who believes that conquering the unbelieving darker peoples is a solid endeavor? Fundamentalist Christians. You know who’s gonna love this here movie? Fundamentalist Christians. Thus, fundamentalist Christians support Darwin, and thus, no one actually supports ID, even its own supporters. And then a black hole of Goldbergian paradoxical jackassery opens up on Stein’s logic and sucks him into the void.
“Dignify Ben Stein’s whine.”
Ben Stein, second worst Yale graduate ever. All those wasted classroom hours
This is why the culture warriors saw our War On Christmas coming! They know we had already successfully demolished Lincoln Day in a vicious, bloody struggle, replacing it with the hedonistic Darwin Day (I know, this is the first time I’d ever heard of it too–evidently my “imagination” is not “popular”) which involves such activities as bobbing for aborted fetuses and surrendering to Al Qaeda.
Mr. Bubba, in regard to your query @ 19:30, I always thought so, yeah. But then, I’m a contentious prick, so that might throw the needle off a little.
Off-topic: There is, I bet, another ringer in Jonah’s little blog.
Also…”Big Science”?
My wife is currently an immunologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Her work centers around coming up with cures for infectious diseases in children (mainly gastrointestinal stuff).
So I’d say my wife is very much in the middle of “Big Science.” Her work…the work that will hopefully someday prevent hundreds of thousands of needless deaths in the poorest parts of the planet…cannot exist if evolutionary theory is not recognized. ID nonsense doesn’t help her job- the job that saves childrens’ lives- one iota.
Pro-life my patoot.
ID nonsense doesn’t help her job- the job that saves childrens’ lives- one iota.
But…but…Tom DeLay says Darwin caused Columbine! What to believe…
That last half of the title, often overlooked, sounds like it could come straight out of a Ku Klux Klan manual – which is precisely why Big Science rarely quotes the full title…
Or, it could be – and I know this is a stretch, but stay with me for minute – that “Big Science” rarely quotes the full title because it’s really fucking long. Just a theory of mine. Just like evolution.
Anybody else have big plans for Darwin Day?
Not that most people here won’t already know this, but I would like to add in a reference to the other meaning of 4/20.
Not that I would know anything about that.
That’s another things these idiots don’t realize. Without evolutionary theory, a lot of the advances of modern medicine would not exist. And while we’re on “it’s just a theory”, magnetism is still “just a theory”. But without it, anything that uses electronics would not exist either.
Also, Grolby,
The quoted is Article 1, Section 2, Paragraph 3 of the United States Constitution.
So why doesn’t Big America quote its entire Constitution when espousing its awesomeness? What does Big America have to hide, huh?
Anybody else have big plans for Darwin Day?
I was thinking I would bury some stuff and use my magic powers to screw with the carbon inside so that when people find and carbon-date it they’ll think it’s older than the actual age of the earth, which is 5,000 years. You know, typical Big Science activities, no big whoop.
In the other thread, I mentioned that I’m going to take advantage of the big Darwin Day sale and get a new dinette set.
And while we’re on “it’s just a theory”, magnetism is still “just a theory”.
Don’t forget gravity!
The bit that Gavin just added is the single stupidest shit I’ve ever read (the quote, not what Gavin wrote).
even though Darwin was not referring specifically to “man” in his use of the words “favoured races.”)
“I’ve just contradicted my own argument, but I believe this only strengthens my point.”
I dunno about 90%, but I’m pretty sure that this girl will be there.
.
Don’t forget gravity!
Come on, there’s a practical difference here. If I stop believing in gravity my milk pours out all over the ceiling.
Yep, which is why those on the cutting, important edge of modern medicine don’t give these freaks a second thought.
In that realm, ID is harmless. Where it isn’t harmless is among our nation’s youth…who may drop what could have been potential forays into modern medicine after having been fed this mystical pap. ID-ers have smartly mostly stopped engaging real, important scientists face-to-face (which makes the Dawkins stuff in this movie pretty baffling, honestly…but hey, at least you proved he’s kind of a jerk), instead opting to spread their stink in our nation’s school boards and classrooms.
For what it’s worth, I’m a Christian who considers the evolutionary process and the discovery and examination of such to be gifts from God. See…is it that hard?
Anybody else have big plans for Darwin Day?
I was going to go visit my mom, and together we were going to go graffitti some churches and then go force some small children to read “Heather Has Two Mommies.” It’s a holiday tradition with us.
Anybody else have big plans for Darwin Day?-
I’m going to survive over less fit humans.
The last few years I’ve been celebrating Howard Dean Day instead of my birthday since we’re both Nov 17 guys. It’s better than the alternatives, like Gordon Lightfoot Day or Daisy Fuentes Day or RuPaul Day.
Yeah, since I’m of mongrel Slavic ancestry, I should find a pure-blooded Anglo-Saxon to kiss the feet of. Then I will remain in thrall to the Gospel of Ben Stein forever and ever for making clear the evil agenda of Big Science. Which is probably made up entirely of teh homos.
Hey, you better take care and make sure you don’t find that guy creeping around your back stairs. 😉
Well, lessee. Washington and Lincoln weren’t Christians. Darwin, so far as I can tell, was.
…
Should we tell them?
.
Didn’t Stein write speeches for Nixon? Then shouldn’t these bozos know that it didn’t become Presidents’ Day in the 1980s, but when Nixon proclaimed it in 1971?
Geez.
I believe that my magnetism was overcome by my gravity years ago.
For my Darwin Day celebration, I’m going to a pro-erosion rally at the base of Minnehaha Falls.
It’s better than the alternatives, like Gordon Lightfoot Day or Daisy Fuentes Day or RuPaul Day.
Are you kidding? RuPaul Day would be FA-A-A-ABULOUS!
It’s better than the alternatives, like Gordon Lightfoot Day or Daisy Fuentes Day or RuPaul Day.
Oh no you didn’t bitch! Now I’m gonna have to see you work it.
I’m with g. I want RuPaul Day. Any day of the week.
There — fixed it for you.
Ed
It seems like knee-jerk fear of atheism to me. Before Darwins theories were popularised, theists always had a snappy answer to atheists. “oh, but if there’s no god, what created the world eh?”
Of course, the modern atheist will respond with “well what made your god?” But hundreds of years ago, the presumption of a deity was pretty strong, even amongst the well educated and scientifically inclined. What Darwin changed, was offer a MORE reasonable explanation for the existence of humanity.
It is easy enough to accept evolution and theism, but accepting evolution removes what used to be a big reason to accept theism in some form.
Humans seem set up to think “god did it” whenever they cant explain something. The more things we manage to find a better explanation for, the less we imagine that certain things must be done by some mysterious, unknowable force.
After all.. if we figured out the earth goes round the sun, worked out where our species came from, and have a theory of gravity which has been refined multiple times.. What CANT we figure out on our own?
High confidence in the ability of science to explain things, leads to lower confidence in the ability of religion to explain things. Even for Christians that accept evolution, the recognition that there are certain things in life which the bible does NOT explain, leads to a less fundamentalist form of faith, where it is accepted that answers can come from more than one source.
This is what they are really afraid of. Christians coming to accept that certain parts of the bible are not literal truth, and coming to realise the value of analytical skills over blind faith, and the understanding that not all knowledge of value comes from the bible.
All of the above makes for a congregation which is more questioning, and harder to assert authority over. Evolution accepting christians are less likely to form a single political group, and are more likely to disagree, and accept degrees of disagreement, on social issues.
Using religion as a tool of control is an old story. Science, especially evolution, makes religion more about personal faith and spirituality, and less about community values, authority, inflexible morality, and concepts of absolute truths. You can see why certain people dont like that…
Then shouldn’t these bozos know that it didn’t become Presidents’ Day in the 1980s, but when Nixon proclaimed it in 1971?
God, these guys are just the gift that keeps on giving…..
Also, if ID were required by the School Board (God forbid — irony noted), I would open my first class in this fashion:
This is our first class period in Biology 101. The School requires that I indicate that the world was created by God. I so state: ‘The world was created by God.’
The rest of the semester will be devoted to the scientific study of the methods He used.”
Ed
OT – check out this beautiful comment on Malkin’s site in a thread about Tom Lantos dying:
http://michellemalkin.com/2008/02/11/democrat-rep-tom-lantos-dies/#comment-241664
“For awhile I didn’t like this guy until I heard that he was a holocust survivor and that he said that thing to Europe about Gitmo.
One thing I can’t understand though is why does so many Jews support socialism. That’s the very thing that nearly brought them to extinction by Hilter.”
hehe!
Anybody else have big plans for Darwin Day?
In New Zealand we have the tradition of hanging up piñatas in the shape of cells and whacking them until the genome spills out. You have to be in early at the costume hire place if you want a Craig Venter costume.
Ben Stein smells like steamed penis.
Who could take this clown seriously?
Bueller?
-GSD
“Anybody else have big plans for Darwin Day?”
Fetes of strength, followed by the airing of grievances. At sundown the Mexican fascists who live down the street from me, and I plan on performing a couple gay abortions.
For Darwin Day I’ll do what Jake H. suggested, “bobbing for aborted fetuses and surrendering to Al Qaeda.”
I may throw in an orgy with farm animals.
My grandmother was born the same day and same year as Hitler. Pretty much ruined astrology for me when I was 12.
Talk about identity politics. At Ben Stein’s store you can buy an Expelled dog tag.
Hey, I know where they could get a real dog tag.
Anybody else have big plans for Darwin Day?
My plans are evolving. Naturally, I’ll select something when it appears to be the best fit for me.
Minnehaha Falls
Those falls are SO funny
EnfantTerrible–
Where did that text come from? I know the “substance” of it is what they believe, and it’s certainly terribly-enough written to have been by Hubbard himself, but is it?
BTW, for fans of Pastor Swank’s creative prose, L. Ron H’s The History of Man is a sterling example of the genre.
Anybody else have big plans for Darwin Day?
Well, as always, Darwin Day is when (in the Northern Hemisphere Temperate Zone) you prune your deciduous trees.
After we do that, we’ll go prune the human tree a little bit at the Mexlamofascist gay abortion emporium downtown.
Finally, we’ll do the ribbon dance round the annual Ghey Pole in the square and cap it all off with a family-style meal at Azteca.
Anybody else have big plans for Darwin Day?
Friends and family take the folding table to the corner of the nearest intersection. While we sit and the wine is poured the youngest among us takes the traditional tools and shorts the power to the traffic light. Assuming the survival of the vandal we all get delightfully tipsy as selection occurs while remaining ready to leap out of the way at a moment’s notice.
Legalize preemptively stole my joke.
Damn you, Legaliiiize!
Nice!
“Should we teach this in science classes?”
Oh, hell no! Then they’d expect the gubmint to pay to get all those bloody thetans exorcised. That’d cost a fortune!
Uh, yeah, they are, because they want to write clearly.
Ben Stein admits that Darwin wasn’t talking about how blacks are inferior, it just kind of sounds like he was. So what is he saying?
If you’re writing something that has a mention of On the Origin of Species, you should always quote the full title, and have a lengthy, distracting, off-topic footnote explaining that Darwin wasn’t talking about human races per se, and that modern science has a very different understanding of what race means then it did in Darwin’s time?
Or are you just supposed to let the title stand and leave what the producers themselves say is a misleading opinion?
Also, I’m getting real tired of hearing about how scientists should consider the theory of intelligent design and teach it in schools. Here’s the theory of intelligent design:
I can’t figure out how this could’ve evolved, so it must’ve gotten here by magic.
That’s not a summary in layman’s terms, it’s literally THE ENTIRE THEORY.
Once the ID guys come up with some testable predictions and a body of work explaining how exactly the design process works, then we can start considering it as a scientific theory.
Re: freedom of speech. Stein seems to think the rejection of ID is an affront to the constitutional rights of the ID authors. However, last I checked, there is no constitutional right to have your work published in science journals or given audience in university classrooms.
Look, I hate to have to point this out, but there is also nothing in the Constitution that specifically creates a “right to privacy” (with or without abortion), or mandates desegregation, or requires public accomodation.
The only reason that the federal government is even constitutionally allowed to pass something like the Civil Rights Act of 1964 is a rather circuitous loop of reasoning that finds that your typical Woolwoorth’s-type diner uses items such as ketchup, which probably came over state lines, therefore “who can be seated in a restaurant” is subsumed under “interstate commerce”.
If they get enought seats on the court, the Constitution will absolutely include a fundamental right to hear their Sunday school lessons in science class. “Freedom of religion” may have all sorts of untapped meanings just waiting to be discovered.
You know, I think the good people at The Darwin Awards should open up a new category for their tribute. Instead of the strengthening of our gene pool by dying a stupid death, maybe it could be The Hardy-Weinberg Bottle Neck Award. It could be for the stupidest living that are slowly getting phased out. Like if humanity could just squeeze out these last few obfuscatory idiots it would take the whole thing to a different level.
What I am saying is that I am giving all the ladies in the house one more out to having sex with Ben Stein.
Publish or perish, Ben, you fucking wanker …
I used to feel ripped-off by President’s Day, until I remembered that the holidays were consolidated to make room for Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Fair enough. That time of year was already overloaded with paid holidays.
UNDERLOADED!
For Darwin Day I’m going to ask that chick from Grand Moff Texan’s video out on a date. She seems, uh, responsive…
“Freedom of religion” may have all sorts of untapped meanings just waiting to be discovered.
That’s the thing that always gave me comfort about the never-ending flag-burning amendments that Congress pushes in election years — they’re incredibly easy to subvert because Republicans seem to write all their bills in a white-hot seething rage, leaving open dozens of obvious, exploitable loopholes.
Bueller Bueller
Ben Stein always came off as way too smart to actually believe that Intelligent Design crap. I know smart people can believe dumb things, but come on. I say that Ben Stein doing a movie in favor of ID is doublethink on a grand scale.
Evolution doesn’t apply to wingers because they haven’t. Evolved, that is.
BTW – saw an infomercial last night offering a cream for getting rid of unsightly body thetans. Only $14.95. Get two for the price of one if you call right now!
I’m still trying to address my Darwin cards and I haven’t even picked out my Darwin tree yet. Gad, busy, busy, busy.
Or, another possible theory could be that, with the sixth edition of the book, published in 1872, the title was changed (shortened) to be “The Origin of Species”, so referring to the shorter title would be more accurate, as most modern reprints are based on this later edition, and in fact, the first use of the word “evolution” occurs in this edition.
http://darwin-online.org.uk/EditorialIntroductions/Freeman_OntheOriginofSpecies.html
Followed Grand Moff Texan’s link.
Woo.
I don’t know about you guys, but this year I can’t wait to celebrate Adolph Hitler day. I shall be celebrating in the traditional way, with much goose-stepping and eating of Cheetos. I’m already grooming my silly little Hitler-stache. This year however is special. I will also be reading select quotes from Doughy Pantload’s Magnum opus, while simultaneously taking a dump on the Constitution.
It will be good times!
I don’t know about you guys, but this year I can’t wait to celebrate Adolph Hitler day.
That day will arrive on time, no sooner and no later.
Isn’t the appropriate action on Darwin Day to throw peeled bananas?
You know, reclaim the atheist’s nightmare?
what are you going to do for Darwin Day?
Well, since the real measure of Darwinian success is the production and survival of offspring, I guess I ought to let my husband know that I will be requiring his, um, help tomorrow night. Cause, you know, the holiday and all.
“[L]ike all experiments in Republican humor, it will be anti-funny. Not unfunny, which just means you don’t laugh at the parts that you’re supposed to, but anti-funny, which actually sucks the humor out of you. Why do right-wing douchebags have such a complete inability to make humorous entertainment?”
Because real comedy is based on truth and empathy, both of which are absent from modern conservatism. Jokes about the Bush Twins partying hard? Funny. Jokes about Chelsea Clinton being a dog or a ho? Anti-funny.
Any attermpt at humor involving the angry partisan phrase “Big Science”? Supremely anti-funny.
To celebrate Lincoln’s birthday, I’m gonna have a few shots.
Isn’t it terrible how commercial Darwin Day has become?
It’s all cards, and parties, and soirees at Minnehaha Falls.
Let’s remember the Reason for the Season, folks! evolve, already!!
Next thing you know it will be time to start the War on Darwin Day.
Isn’t it terrible how commercial Darwin Day has become?
I know. I told my wife that if I see the Darwin Day decorations up in a store before Martin Luther King Jr. Day, I’m turning right around and walking out.
.
To celebrate Lincoln’s birthday, I’m gonna have a few shots.
whoah. dude. too soon.
Mr. BS wrote that “though Darwin was not referring specifically to ‘man’ in his use of the words ‘favoured races'”
Like most things BS writes or says it isn’t even wrong correctly. Darwin didn’t mention humans AT ALL in the Origin. Not one time. So if by “not referring specifically” BS meant, “could not possibly in any manner be referring to humans since he does not discuss humans at all anywhere in the book and therefore my claim that Darwin’s work was inherently racist is complete and utter crap” then BS is correct.
That’s another things these idiots don’t realize. Without evolutionary theory, a lot of the advances of modern medicine would not exist.
Yes, but you’re talking about evolving bacteria and such. The creationist wingnut talking points have evolved (har!) to accomodate that–notice how they like to throw around the terms “microevolution” and “macroevolution” as though they know what those words mean? So the new pap is, “Oh, evolving bacteria in a lab doesn’t count. Unless one of you scientists can turn a whale into a monkey, evolution is bunk!”
Oh, and for Darwin Day, I think I’m just going to spend a nice quiet day with family and friends mocking the Bible. It’s what Darwin would’ve wanted, or so I’m told by people who don’t understand his theories but hate them anyway.
Ahhh Darwin Day! I remember how we as a family would go around the neighborhood, singing songs about DNA. Then we would all go home and compare the ways that we are more advanced then our grandparents. Good times, good times.
GMT,
I’m pretty sure that this girl will be there
Holy smoke. I don’t have a lot of patience for the “all religion is simply a mental illness” meme, but it seems on the money here. Seriously; so much so that I’m not sure we should be making fun of this girl. (But as long as we are: “lamb-shaped vibrator”? You scamp, you!)
It has come to my attention that an unusual number of people were referred to as “gay” prior to the 20th century. Big Humanities refuses to replicate this word usage (even though it was not meant to describe people who were specifically homosexual). The reason is that Big Humanities is uncomfortable with people knowing about the pervasive influence of the gay agenda.
Ben Stein admits that Darwin wasn’t talking about how blacks are inferior, it just kind of sounds like he was. So what is he saying?
he giving a pull quote for wingnut bloggers to use to bludgen the uninformed. much the same reason Jonah’s book was written. Not as laser guided missles of logic and research, but as bullets of attention grabbing phrases to be fired wildly into the air from AK-47s.
Anybody else have big plans for Darwin Day?
Honestly, this is the first I’d heard of it. Is this another one of those O’Reilly fictions?
Out of idle interest, does anyone have any idea upon what basis Stein is calling PZ Myers a fabulist? That’s not a term to be tossed about lightly. Hell, in the case of someone whose career is based upon their intellectual honesty and integrity, “fabulist” could easily qualify as libel.
Holy smoke. I don’t have a lot of patience for the “all religion is simply a mental illness” meme, but it seems on the money here
I love the way that the man to her left uncomfortable shuffles, looks through his binder, and then calmly requests an ambulance. This guy knows his job.
1) Don’t do anything that will spark a nationwide rightwing action alert about poor Christians being persecuted in our schools.
2) Don’t encourage her
3) Don’t panic.
4) Get the poor girl some help.
As Seymour Skinner once said, “Religion has no place in our schools, just as logic and reason have no place in organized religion.”
I hope that stupid godhumping clown died there under the podium.
We exchange little stuffed beagles and build ships in bottles with the kids, then go carolling outside all the churches, singing songs of joy and disbelief.
I’m pretty sure that this girl will be there…
Wow – according to the narrator guy in that vid, she was the school’s valedictorian. What must the rest of the student body be like?
All I know is, if I walk into a store tomorrow and the clerk says anything to me other than “Happy Darwin Day,” I’m calling Bill O’Reilly.
Is it me or does Darwin Day come earlier every year?
And Ben Stein is a shitmunching fucktard.
Goood un! Smearing Darwin as a racist (even though his book obviously had nothing to do with “race” as understood in the political arena) is probably the latest desperate stab of the Fundies at trying to bolster African-American support for their campaign against evolution (i.e. reality).
Isn’t it terrible how commercial Darwin Day has become?
Yes indeed. It’s like he’s completely forgotten how he started his career in John Waters movies…
Wait, who are we talking about?
I don’t have a lot of patience for the “all religion is simply a mental illness” meme
Fair enough. But if the ID crowd are adopting the phrase “Big Science”, with the goal of smearing some of that Big-Pharma opprobrium onto the scientific community, then I will have few qualms about referring to organised religion as “Big Stupid”.
Darwin Day, huh?
How do we celebrate? Throw out the first mitochrondrium?
LOUIS KESTENBAUM IS BEING ACCUSED IN A LAWSUIT. WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) – A teenage girl has filed a $50 million lawsuit against a New York billionaire, saying he sexually abused her when she was 14.
Louis Kestenbaum”s attorney says the allegations are false and motivated by money. Kestenbaum is also the CEO of Fortis properties and the ODA a goverment funded organisation in the williamsburg section of Brooklyn NY
The girl, now 17, claims Louis Kestenbaum invited her to his Florida mansion in 2005 to perform a massage for $300. The lawsuit, filed in federal court, claims he demanded she remove her clothes, then sexually assaulted her.
The girl, her father and stepmother are seeking more than $50 million.
JOEL KESTENBAUM a son of LOUIS KESTENBAUM stated that he has no comments.
EnfantTerrible–
Where did that text come from? I know the “substance” of it is what they believe, and it’s certainly terribly-enough written to have been by Hubbard himself, but is it?
It *is* terrible, but it’s not nearly as bad as Hubbard’s original narrative. The text is from the infamous “Xenu flyer”, guaranteed to cause enturbulation for any Scientologist, or hilarity for any non-Scientologist who reads it. My apologies – I should have cited my source:
http://www.xenu.net
Didn’t Bob Dylan honor Darwin Day by singing
“The alleles, they are a’changing”
?
Well, I wouldn’t go quite that far, but I did grit my teeth to the point of serious temple pain when she tearfully begged forgiveness for succumbing briefly to logic and reason.
Probably less insane, in general. In my experience, the top student in many schools is one of these hypertense, fragile, driven, delusional god-botherers. Their self-worth (ironically, in the circumstances) depends on winning the big awards, and they’ll do anything to finish first.
Whacking ’em until the genome spills out, huh? In America that’s more of a pastime than a tradition.
Thought I might go find myself a nice, comfortable ecological niche and then proceed to fully realize my biotic potential.
My father , too, was born on Hitler day; the significance of which was invariably pointed out by Mom at every family fight…
In my experience, the top student in many schools is one of these hypertense, fragile, driven, delusional god-botherers. Their self-worth (ironically, in the circumstances) depends on winning the big awards, and they’ll do anything to finish first.
Makes sense. My sister was her school’s valedictorian, and except for the delusional god-botherer part, this description suits her well enough. I love my sister, but she is very tightly wound.
Of course, if we were Jehovah’s Witnesses (bringing in another weird set of beliefs) we wouldn’t be celebrating any of this.
Big Science?
How dare he take in vain the name of Laurie Anderson!?
acranny-
Yeah, but the underwear chafes.
Wait — the JW’s have weird underwear too? I thought it was just the Mittsafarians . . .
And is it just me, or does Ben Stein look more like Henry Kissinger the older he gets?
pedestrian said,
February 11, 2008 at 18:29
I still think that Hubbard just invented a transparently ridiculous new religion to make a point about the sillyness of religion in general. …
Well, not quite. A.E. Van Vogt, who spent a lot of time thinking that Dianetics was the greatest thing since sliced bread, and then realized it was, er, crap, once told me that Hubbard had said, “There’s no money in writing. The big bucks are in religion, so I’m going to invent a religion and get rich.” (I may not have the exact words, but that was the gist.)
Witnesses don’t have underoo issues. My partner’s poor old dad is a witness, and I’ve removed his shorts from the dryer lots of times . . .
They just don’t believe in celebrating anything. Not even birthdays. A bummer for the children.
Y’know, I never really did care for ‘Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.’
I mean, I think Matthew Broderick’s OK (liked him best in ‘Glory’), and John Hughes films can have their moments.
But what’s with that nasally-voiced home room teacher taking attendance? What an asshole.
pedestrian said,
Well, not quite. A.E. Van Vogt, who spent a lot of time thinking that Dianetics was the greatest thing since sliced bread, and then realized it was, er, crap, once told me that Hubbard had said, “There’s no money in writing. The big bucks are in religion, so I’m going to invent a religion and get rich.” (I may not have the exact words, but that was the gist.)
I read once that several of the Sci-Fi writers of that era (Heinlein, Hubbard and others) made a bet about who could write the “best” religion. Heinlein wrote “Stranger in a Strange Land” and Hubbard came up with “Dianetics”. While Heinlein had lots of strangers show up at his home wanting to “Grok in fullness” it seems in the long term Hubbard won the bet.
I thought one of them was Asimov. If I recall the story correctly it was a bar bet.
Marsupial said,
February 12, 2008 at 10:06
I thought one of them was Asimov. If I recall the story correctly it was a bar bet.
I believe you are correct. I cannot remember what story Asimov was supposed to have contributed to the bet–mebby he developed good sense and begged off?
Anybody else have big plans for Darwin Day?
Me, I’m just gonna go down to Punnet Square and hang out with some geneticists.
As for Hubbard and Dianetics… My mother’s got this friend who got into Scientology because she essentially fell in love* with Tom Cruise after seeing him in The Last Samurai, and for a while she was trying to get my mom to join her in her madness.
Fortunately, my mother is pretty skeptical and had pretty much decided that Scientology wasn’t so great, actually… Then I read her the ‘humanity evolved from clams‘ bit and that was the end of even pretending to be interested.
* No, really, ‘we’re soulmates!’-type love, not just the usual celebrity crush. If the woman was a little more unhinged, she’d probably have become a stalker…
what, you guys have never heard of the “Church of All Worlds”? there always used to be at least a few of them at any major pagan gathering/festival (e.g. Starwood)- Heinlein didn’t want any part of them, he lacked the evil will-zur-macht that drove Hubbard: also Heinlein had enough talent to make a good living with his writing, while Hubbard was always a pitiful hack. There just is no story too stupid, too far removed from reality, but somebody will believe it (hi there GOP! and a lets give our friends in the Hubbard and the Joseph Smith sections of the bleachers a nice warm round of applause). nitwits
So this family … there is an agent, sitting at his desk, and this family walks in to his office …
/gilbert gottfried voice
No, I know the Witlesses don’t sport the magic underwear. I just like pointing out that all religions basically rely on magic at some point.
I had a friend in college who grew up Christian Scientist. We were aghast when we finally figured out she had never been inoculated for anything, and took her to the Campus clinic as soon as we could. Hilarious to see the look on the nurses face when she asked for her shots, and the nurse said “What shots” she answered “ummm….all of them, I guess…”
She also took the opportunity to learn all about birth control, so the story has a happy ending….
“which is precisely why Big Science rarely quotes the full title (even though Darwin was not referring specifically to “man” in his use of the words “favoured races.”). ”
So… Darwin’s theory bares responsibilty for the late 19th century holocaust of the Dodo? He’s worse than Hitler.
“Darwin Day”?
Is that where we stand on overpasses and drop pumpkin pies on people?
mmmmmm….pie…..
Sometimes I play a game when I’m stuck in traffic. It’s called “Conservative Radio Non-Sequitur of the Day”
I simply click on one of my am presets, listen for about 5 seconds and embrace whatever pearl of wisdom springs forth. My favorite one so far?
**click**
“…a judge ruled that evolution is a theory in Oklahoma….”
**click**
Sadly, yes.
Earth, which in those days was called Teegeeack.
Because the Kaiser had stolen our word for “earth”?
Anyway, for a bit I thought Xenu = GWB. See Scientology is liberal propaganda and Bush derangement is a cult … hey, it’s about as good as Jonah’s argument! When am I gonna see me some of that wingnut welfare? Like one of our hosts, I have wedding expenses with which to contend.
Anyway, what is a Jew doing supporting ID? ID sounds more like a theory to come out of “Athens” than “Jerusalem” … so to speak. Nu? What’s wrong with evolution?
OTOH, this whole cult of Darwin thing is problematic. C.f. olvlzl’s website … it’s the righty-tighties who want to make this about “Darwin” ’cause then they can discredit evolution by discrediting Darwin for being a racist prick, as was the custom at the time (see, I’m coming full circle with the Simpsons’ references here) …
I completely stopped believing in Newtonian physics once I discovered that Newton was a total jerk.
My sister, currently on holiday in Paris, reports that she celebrated Darwin Day by spending the day at the Grande Galerie de l’Evolution of the Musee de Histoire Naturelle. I can’t top that.
The theory of evolution is a lie. How can something come from nothing? The 16th century Archbishop of Canterbury, Usher established the most accute dating of the Biblical account of the Creation using the dates given in the Bible itself. According to the Archbishop Usher the Earth was created on approximately Saturday October 26 4004 B.C. at 6:00 P.M.
Happy birthday, Chet Lemon! I’m wearing a 1970s White Sox uniform/pajamas in your honor.
I calculated “nightfall preceding October 23” as the date of creation, though there are a lot of ignorant noddies out there think I was so arrogant as to specify an actual time of day, because they can’t be bothered spending 20 seconds looking up Google.
“According to the Archbishop Usher the Earth was created on approximately Saturday October 26 4004 B.C. at 6:00 P.M.”
That’s because G had 8:00 tickets for “Les Mis” and they said “we don’t care who you are – we’re NOT holding the curtain” so he had to rush it and when it came time to make souls for conservatives he said “hell, I’ll let the DNA handle it, I am NOT missing Kirk Cameron as Jean Valjean, it’s why I made the WHOLE DAMN UNIVERSE IN THE FIRST PLACE!!” and that’s why little Georgie can’t cry.
Ben Stein was the keynote speaker at a securities’ industry conference that I attended in Miami last month. I was expecting him to be a jerk, but he wasn’t.
He started with a bunch of stupid generic jokes. Babbled a bit about financial stuff (I left the room for a bit at this point). At the end, he was asked about the presidential race and was surprisingly gracious, said Obama and Hillary would make good presidents, saying he preferred McCain (this was when McCain was in the dumps).
His focus was on what a great country this is, which I suppose made sense for some one getting paid $50,000 or so to talk off the cuff for 45 minutes at a fancy hotel in South Beach.
According to the Archbishop Usher the Earth was created on approximately Saturday October 26 4004 B.C. at 6:00 P.M.
“That Eastern Standard Time? Or Rocky Mountain Time? It surely wasn’t Daylight Savings Time because Gawd didn’t create the Sun until the 4th day.”
That’s how I remember the line from the movie, anyway. I believe the very next question is, “That first day, was it a 24-hour day?”
Well?
How can something come from nothing?
I like astronomer John Dobson’s line, “Nothing does not exist.” Unless we’re talking about certain people, that is.
The 16th century Archbishop of Canterbury, Usher
Hmm.
(i) Wrong century: 17th, not 16th.
(ii) Wrong name: Ussher, not Usher.
(iii) Wrong church and wrong country: Ussher was Abp of Armagh, not Canterbury, and hence top bish of the C of Ireland, not England. Níor Shasanach é, a amadáin. There’s a difference, you know.
Other than that, your point was well taken.
Apologies if you’re not the idiot your comments suggest but a postmodernist ironic hipster comedian. If you are, though, I’m sorry to have to tell you that you are no Floyd Alvis Cooper, whose shoe’s latchet you are not worthy to unloose.
Darwin Day activities?
I will be up to my usual monkey business.
If those comments were written by Ben Stein, they show an emotionally immature response to the subject of sex. It might have helped had he actually read those books by Darwin. Our ancestors reproduce through sex since the age of the first cordate worms. Our ancestors struggled to survive and the fittest for live survived to pass on their genes. Our species survived the ice age due to the ability to learn and form abstract thought. Ben clearly only uses his mid brain thus the childishness. Bet this is the most unintentionally funny film of all time.
Ben Stein was on NPR today droning on about how great MLK was and how far we’ve come as a nation. As a progressive, I’ll say “Your Welcome !” but considering that the vast majority of people blocking that progress were Republicans like Ben Stein. He also said that greed is ruining this country…correct once again. However, greed and the “I only look out for me and mine” is EXACTLY what the Republican party is. Take a look in the mirror Ben. The monsters you see are you and your party. YOUR party- Ben! Remember them?…the ones who are actively subverting the rule of law and the Constitution.
Darwin was a very devout Christian when he took trip on the Beagle and found data which contradicted biblical creationism. He based his Theory of Evolution on evidence, nothing more, nothing less. Creationists and ID proponents, on the other hand, reject evolution not based on “evidence”, but soley because it doesn’t fit in with their belief system. I have yet to hear if a single person embracing creationism based only on evidence. Ben Stien and his ilk use smear tatics and misstatements because that’s all they have.
Evolution is embraced by ninety-nine percent of biologists(who have intimate knowledge of the process of life). And evidence for evolution has gotten stronger over the years, not weaker. So much for the supposed “scientific controversy” over evolution.
I just saw this post about Louis Kestenbaum.
Any fool can see that this post is a fake.
It takes about a minute to see that the real Associated Press article about the charges isn’t about Kestenbaum at all, but someone named Jeffrey Epstein. Here is a link to the real article:
http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2008/jan/24/new-york-billionaire-accused-2nd-lawsuit-sex-minor.
Who kind of animals would say these things? Everyone in the Jewish community knows it’s the Schlesingers, Victor and Gershy, and their computer guy Zilu Sofer, who are trying to slander Kestenbaum’s name. Both the Jewish community and non-Jews know that the Schlesingers are crooks and criminals, and can see how stupid they are to take an article about someone else and change the names around just for spite.
Louis Kestenbaum from williamsburg the ODA and fortis is an old diviant and crook, he was on trial just recently in ohio for similar diuretic acts, He is known as a vulgar person who behaves like an animal in the presence of good looking women, What about the story in Romania ? He was jailed briefly there when the old satmar rebbi died and he wasnt able to be at the levia.. or the story with girls in thailand asia? Bottom line Louis kestenbaum is bad news I would not let my kids and so would alot of people in williamsburg not allow their kids near him. he is just a doberman in disguise of a human