i believe this is what the kids would call an "epic fail"

[rone]

Pharyngula's PZ Myers, noted gadfly of un-scientific endeavors such as "Creationism" and "Intelligent Design", was attending a screening of Expelled with his family and a guest, but was barred from the theater; however, his family and guest were allowed to enter.  The punchline is delicious (Kim and i laughed heartily).  Later, Myers and his guest talked about the situation, and the guest reviews the film (QuickTime).

Comments

[motis.livejournal.com]

Delicious irony re: Dawkins.

There is irony piled upon irony surrounding Expelled and Ben Stein, but most of it leaves a bad taste in the mouth. This is a man who, in the trailer for the film, tries to garner respect from the audience by both touting himself as a right-on '60s activist flying his freak flag, and as a speech writer for Nixon and Ford. He paints himself as a rebel and an oppressed underdog for his support of Creationism. WTF?

Why does anyone pay a fermisecond's attention to someone who wrote speeches for Nixon, and how the hell did Nixon become the object of nostalgia he is today? The man violated the Constitution, broke our laws and lied to us all, and his only saving grace was that he walked before we made him run.

I guess with Bush & Cheney around, Nixon seems tame and even reasonable... and Magic 8-Ball says Bush & Cheney won't be walking OR running, because allegedly cooler heads (a testament to the cooling efficiency of huge corporate donations) have prevailed in Congress who say that impeachment would be an overreaction and a recipe for a Constitutional crisis. We NEED a Constitutional crisis, and without it American Democracy is lost forever in the mists of mythos, swallowed up and rendered as relevant to the 21st Century as Athenian Democracy. Our bold experiment is every day dragged inexorably further down into the swamp of Fascism, struggling in vain to bear up against the weight of a millstone around its neck with "THE BANALITY OF EVIL" chiseled into it.

Thanks, Ben Stein, you prating jackasshole, you disarmingly avuncular fiend sucking at the jugular of progress, enlightenment, and all that is truly American. Thanks, self-congratulating Creationist fartsuckers... and most of all, thanks, dopey redneck jingoist rank-and-file dogmabags who listen to them. Thank you so much for keeping me angry. It is because of you and your efforts that when I snarl "I HATE LIFE" I am usually not referring to my own.

[ikkyu2.livejournal.com]

WTF? How is Ben Stein, a Jew, a proponent of "intelligent design?" Is there money to be made off it somehow?

[motis.livejournal.com]

Did you think that Christians had a monopoly on the belief that the universe was deliberately created, or on being obnoxiously stupid in general?

Religion is the enemy, not just Christianity. How I wish I could send every single person who fervently believes in an afterlife to go live it.

[motis.livejournal.com]

Oh, and also there's money to be made in it. Do the words SUPER-HYPED HOLLYWOOD MOVIE ring a bell?