The makers of Expelled have just issued an “online media alert” in response to a critical review of their movie, as some readers have forwarded to me. It’s hysterical.
We already had our first security breech [sic] and are asking YOU now for your support to stand up for EXPELLED: No Intelligence Allowed. Hosted by Ben Stein, EXPELLED contains a critical message at a critical time. As an underdog in Hollywood right now, we need your support.
Recently Robert Moore, a film critic from The Orlando Sentinel pretending to be a minister, snuck into a private screening, did not sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement, and criticized the film the next day in his article.
Moore compared Stein, who is Jewish, to Holocaust Deniers and charge that Stein’s linking of Darwinism to the Holocaust was “despicable.” Stein states, “The only thing I find despicable is when reporters sneak into screenings by pretending to be ministers. This is a new low even for liberal reporters.”
That someone who saw their movie and panned it is now a “security breach”? That’s funny. That they set up a private screening for the religiously devout in expectation that they would receive their seal of approval is just plain pathetic. At least they aren’t pretending that their movie is anything but a desperate pander to the religious right.
If you read the review, you’ll see that Moore received an email invitation that was sent to the Orlando Sentinel, and took advantage of it. If they allowed someone to see their movie without signing an NDA, that’s their problem. They don’t get to complain and call it a security breach, especially when they built their movie around interviews obtained from me, Eugenie Scott, and Richard Dawkins, and others under entirely false pretenses. After all, if they can disguise themselves as serious documentarians to land an interview, what’s wrong with a critic attending a screening tailored for conservative ministers?
I do note Stein’s hypocrisy and lack of proportion. Joining a group of ministers to watch a movie: very despicable. Implying that Darwin and the scientists who recognize the value of his theory are responsible for the murder of millions of people and the instigation of a war that shook the whole world: not despicable. I’m probably going to go see their dreadful bit of dreck when it comes out, but now I’m tempted to commit a crime against humanity by putting on a fake clerical collar when I do so.
It contains “a critical message at a critical time,” and it’s “despicable” to go and watch it and write about it. Nice.
OH NOES!! Movie reviews for a …. movie. What will they think of next. Hilarious that they are so secretive of a movie. Movies are made for people to see, at least that seems to be the trend since movie have been made. I mean it’s not like this is Cloverfield, the “plot” is out there for everyone already.
Sheesh.
The Expelled people sent out an e-mail to educators last week to encourage us to take student groups to pack early showings of the movie, thereby goosing the first-week attendance. The message, written by a PR hireling, is supposed to impress teachers by (a) including a bogus Lincoln quote (good research, guys!) and (b) appending a list of celebrity endorsers of the movie. The endorsers include James Dobson and Michael Medved, but not a single scientist. Somehow, I’m not impressed.
Sort of like Dick Cheney’s “Treated as Secret” stamp for press releases. http://blog.washingtonpost.com/cheney/chapters/chapter_1/
If it weren’t for the particularly gross level of hypocrisy, I’d be able to find that extra-extra funny. OH NOES! Someone used false pretenses to spread the unvarnished truth while we were busy carefully trying to control the media to prevent this sort of thing from getting out!
Since I didn’t see PZ post a video of his interview, I’m guessing the Expelled crew is still wussing out on the offer to have it displayed in its entirety.
Hang on…they’re reacting to a Feb. 1 “security breech” by someone who “snuck” into a private screening now?
I strongly recomend pirating the movie, its probably already available somewhere online. normally I don’t condone that sorta crime, but these guys shouldn’t make money off of this mess…
An orgy of propaganda and academic dishonesty shouldn’t be a profitable idea…
I get the feeling its never actually going to be released to the public, they don’t seem to want anyone who isn’t a religious nut to see it, they’ll just keep doing these private screenings untill the whole country has seen it…except us.
I’m curious, did Robert Moore don a dog collar, or did he just present his invitation with a straight face and not jump up and down and shout “I’m a Reporter” “I’m a reporter.”
Also, note this litle bit: “Moore compared Stein, who is Jewish, to Holocaust Deniers…”. As though Stein’s jewishness insulates him from the charge; well, I’m jewish (yes, I’m an atheist, but I’m still jewish) and nothing about being jewish prevents one from being an idiot, I’ll tell you. As though that isn’t readily apparent in Stein’s case.
And yes, his comparison is despicable, and yes, he (and Denise O’Leary et al.) ARE Holocaust deniers of a most subtle sort; they may not deny it happened but in attempting to apostrophize its many causes into a simpleton’s argument (all for the sake of scoring a PR point against Darwin) is perhaps even worse, and should their simpleton’s thesis take root, very dangerous. “See, I can’t be an antisemite, I’m Jewish!” is just as illogically insidious a non sequitur as, “See, we’re not Nazis, we’re good bible-folk! We’re not evil Darwinists! Everything we do is sweetness and light! Only atheists can be evil! They are the source of evil!”.
It’s as much to pardon their own sins as to impute to us our own they equivocate so. It’s an old religious formula.
putting on a fake clerical collar
The full archbishop rig, surely!
Pet peeve….”sneaked” not “snuck.”
A security “breech”?! What’s that, a diaper with locks on the pins? Sounds like a perfect garment for that whiny-ass titty-baby Stein… (Usually one has security breaches, unless one is particularly kinky…)
Liberal.
No, ‘snuck’ is a perfectly acceptable past participle form of ‘sneak’. Although less excepted in formal writing.
Presumably this film is so bad that it will generate a ‘cult’ following?
Or have I confused cause and effect?
And then, they are caught quote-raping again :
this is what Moore wrote :
“Most despicably, Stein, a Jew, invokes the Holocaust, making the Hitler-was-a-Darwinist argument, this AFTER he’s used the Holocaust denier’s favorite trick, probabilities, “math,” to show how remote the chances are that life was created by natural, not supernatural processes. There were plenty of reasons eugenics caught on as an idea among certain nationalist-conservative and even scientific circles in the early 20th century, and most of them have nothing to do with Darwin.”
please note how this gets qutote-raped into :
“Moore compared Stein, who is Jewish, to Holocaust Deniers and charge that Stein’s linking of Darwinism to the Holocaust was “despicable.”
Now, an appropriate translation could have been
“Moore noted that Stein is a Jew and uses similar despicable tricks as holocaust deniers in order to link Hitler to Darwinism”
But no, that’s not ok for them, so they have to change the meaning.
What dishonest liars !
Accepted, not excepted. :)
This whole “issue” is being blown up beyond proportion by the Expelled people. It’s like they think they are in Stalinist Russia, screening anti-establishment propaganda that was sneaked into their theaters, only to be found out (horror of horrors) by “the establishment”! Oh, NO! What are these underground patriots going to do?!? They’re going to be dragged before the thought police and brain-washed! Their families will be taken to gulags in the bitter tundra of Alaska to work in oil excavation until they die! Oh, wait… No.
Yes, they are truly “Expelled” – from rational thought. (Well, duh.)
Grammar Police: http://www.askoxford.com/asktheexperts/faq/usage/snuck
I really liked how the author of this entry made his little pun about how ‘snuck’ “crept” into usage.
I’m with #7. Is this movie ever going to come out in theatres for the general public? If it does I am fully planning on sneaking in.
What exactly does Stein want his army of loyal followers to do? Barricade the doors? Against who? He even invited the Orlando Sentinel to the screening of his movie. Does he want mobs to toss onto the street anyone who won’t sign the confidentiality agreement?
I know this has been noted before, but if you speak in a public forum, your ideas are going to get criticized. I suppose that it’s only ok to criticize evidence-based beliefs, but if you say one bad thing about my logical fallacies, it’s A BREECH!! A BREECH I TELL YOU!!
Geez.
Damn my stupid formatting. Oh well. You all know what I meant. ;)
They require a non-disclosure agreement for a movie screening? Isn’t this slightly… odd?
PZ is right: They are not trying to make a mainstream movie. Instead, they are covering it with a mainstream veneer, in order to avoid the stale-air and mothball scent of the Christian bookshops in which it would otherwise be sold.
From what I understand ‘snuck’ is the proper form used in Canada, ‘sneaked’ sounds ridiculous to me. just like spelling colour without the ‘u’.
Well I will have to go check out the paper this morning to see if Moore wrote anything about this. I’m sure it will be interesting to see if there is a libel suit against the producers of expelled after this false accusation.
Oh and You know why you keep talking bad about this movie? (from the expelled blog)
“Paul is one of the stars in the film EXPELLED: No Intelligence Allowed. He’s probably remembering all of the things that he said on camera, when we interviewed him and faithfully recorded it all. That couldn’t be making him feel very good
When the film comes out in April – we think that he’s going to have some explaining to do – and his handlers at Big Science aren’t going to be very happy with what they see and hear him say. The same goes for fellow-traveler professor Richard Dawkins, the atheist author of “The God Delusion.” He’s definitely going to be in trouble with Big Science too, once the film comes out. The truth sometimes hurts.
Big Science doesn’t like it when they can’t control the message: it’s why we made EXPELLED”
Wouldn’t it be great if we could somehow splice the opening
of “Looney Tunes” in at the beginning, and then somehow sneak
frames of Bugs, Yosemite Sam, Foghorn Cleghorn and all the
other animation characters voicing the most outrageous
comments and snide remarks! Bugs could let out “Boy what
a Maroon!” when Stein appears on screen! What fun we could have with this comic film with comics of our own. Nothing
would be too harsh and depictive to make jackasses out of
Stein and his cronies!
This Expelled debacle gets funnier ever week. Are we sure that the producers of the film are not on ‘our side’?
Was this an email sent out to people? I can’t seem to find it online, and was wanting to send it to roger moore if noone else had done so.
Um, PZ, as one of your handlers from Big Science, we need to speak, asap. Use public key Tangled Bank, standard protocols.
(there may be a serious breech)
NVM he knows. from his blog
“Right now I couldn’t care less about the ID/evolution debate. What I think is appauling is that Robert Moore would use unethical tacticts to pose as a pastor, sneak into a private screening and purposely not sign an NDA just to air his own personal opinions. This isn’t a movie review, it’s another example of a jerk journalist who just wants attention. No matter what the content, a movie review is well balanced and objective. This is anything but. All Robert Moore has done is show his sheer ignorance as a journalist. What a waste of HTML! He’s a loser in my book.
Posted by: TRAT Media | February 26, 2008 at 09:57 PM
TRAT Media? Might this be the incompetent boob who “invited” me to the screening? Yes, I was invited. They tried to uninvite me. I didn’t POSE as anything. Showed up, walked in, notebook in hand, and watched. Didn’t sign the secret convenant, either. And the name is ROGER Moore.
Posted by: roger | February 27, 2008 at 09:37 AM”
I’m starting to doubt it. What are they going to do, require NDAs from everyone who sees it in the theatre?
More likely they’ll release it direct to video and claim that the evil darwinists suppressed it.
The only thing? Wow. So theres nothing else Mr. Stein finds despicable?
How ironic that the intent of making the movie was to change minds, yet they expect to preach to their flock at every turn. It’s also worth mentioning the rather stark victimhood-driven “criminalization” of reviewing a f***ing movie. Oh no! Someone broke in just to give us a bad review! Have such things ever happened, let alone someone complain about it as if vandals came along and heckled them?
And as usual, there’s a trail of proof that tells a story entirely different than the one they’re selling. At this point it simply looks as if they invited the guy expecting to get a good review, and when they didn’t they had a Plan B story to fall back on to shift attention. Oh the tangled web they weave…
Alexandra @17
Argh! What a complete fool I’ve made of myself. I knew it didn’t look right. But couldn’t quite work out what was wrong. I’m blaming Microsoft Excel for frying my brain.
That is the last time I mock someone for misusing except vs accept…
Back to snuck vs sneak. The American Heritage Dictionary tells me ‘snuck’ snuck into American English in the early 20th century and is now widely ACCEPTED as the informal past participle form of ‘sneak’. Though literary snobs do still tend to look down upon it.
And back on topic, we still haven’t heard a peep about EXPELLED over here in Blighty.
PZ can wear his collar, as he is already a pope, according to Malaclypse the Younger.
Perhaps Expelled will singlehandedly bring back Mystery Science Theatre 3000. It’s the only justifiable treatment.
I agree… I would say I can’t understand why they aren’t more self-conscious about the whiny, nerdy, asking-to-get-an-ass-beating persona they’re giving to their entire operation, but then I realize — their higher ups know that that could just bring in more money. Fortunately I know a lot of people will either pirate the film or sneak in to see it.
I just wish they’d man up and quit bellyachin’ so damn much. It’s grating.
I’m shocked…shocked, that a movie reviewer should be allowed to print movie reviews.
This just reinforced how intolerant religious folks can be. I wonder why, if their faith is so strong, they feel so threatened. I mean, has anyone told them to close their churches? Has anyone told the ministers to turn in their Lexuses (Lexi?)?
Roger Moore wrote this recently on his blog, in response to the TRAT Media boob:
So it appears that they’re lying even in their whine that someone other than those predisposed to favor lies managed to see their dreck.
Glen D
http://tinyurl.com/2kxyc7
Somebody ought to give Stein and Co. a swift kick in the BREECHES.
Dammit, Ray S., you beat me to it.
I do like the use of “breech” in context of “expel.” This film was having a difficult birth, and now seems abortive. It would seem that the preview version was “untimely ripp’d” by Moore. :-P
“From what I understand ‘snuck’ is the proper form used in Canada, ‘sneaked’ sounds ridiculous to me. just like spelling colour without the ‘u’.”
Yeah but you guys eat ketchup flavored potato chips. Who the hell knows what you’ll do next?
Right, like journalists have never pretended to be someone else to get at a story.
/yawnsville
I understand that one can achieve markedly better results by donning the real thing.
Stein & Co. are fascists. Who’s inhibiting the free flow of information? Who’s inhibiting open, unscripted discussion? Who’s afraid of intellectual openess?
File under: “Irony, Oh The”.
Whine of Expelled:
“Why doesn’t the evil atheist conspiracy listen to what we say, and give us a fair hearing?”
Whine of Expelled when they accidentally allow someone honest to see the movie:
“Why does the evil atheist conspiracy use devious (which is disputed by Moore) methods to see our movie, and actually critique the movie?”
Yes, running dogs, you can try to keep any honest evaluations from appearing. That’s your right, and nobody is taking away your rights, no matter how many times you say that they are.
But you can’t reasonably claim that you’re not being allowed to present your lies to the evil atheist conspiracy while you’re doing your utmost to prevent the media from viewing your BS.
And by the way, it’s pretty clear why you don’t want movie critics seeing your horrible propaganda. They know how to fisk your lies, and you want only the stupid, the naive, and the dishonest to see what a load of manure your movie is, before you’ve suckered as many of those people as you can to give you their money.
Glen D
http://tinyurl.com/2kxyc7
Wouldn’t it be great if we could somehow splice the opening of “Looney Tunes” in at the beginning, and then somehow sneak frames of Bugs, Yosemite Sam, Foghorn Cleghorn and all the other animation characters voicing the most outrageous comments and snide remarks!
That’s a great idea – but it’s Foghorn Leghorn! That’s a joke, son! ‘Cause he’s, I say, he’s a Leghorn! [/Foghorn Leghorn voice] I imagine this happened to a lot of people: I grew up on Looney Tunes, and then much later I learned that a) there was this loud-voiced radio guy “Senator Claghorn”, and b) a Leghorn was a kind of chicken, and I finally got it. What a maroon!
I think that we all should go in the finest frocks and fake priest collars we can find at the local costume shop. (Homemade ones are fine as well).
Ketchup flavoured crisps are amazing! Ideally one should mix one bag of ketchup flavour and one bag of prawn cocktail flavour in a bowl for the best afternoon snack.
Security Breech! Isn’t that some kind of chastity belt?
This steaming puddle of celluloid vomit is rapidly becoming the biggest non-event in the history of cinema. It’s obvious from the tenor of the producers’ screeds that they already know they have a howler on their hands, and are trying to identify and edit out its more egregious flaws.
The problem is that they only want to screen this drivel before sympathetic audiences who have already bought into the message, and therefore are poorly-equipped in the critical evaluation department. You can’t lobotomize a target group and then expect them to perform brain surgery.
Someone with a nice covert streak and an excellent memory needs to infiltrate several of these screenings, look for their versions of cdesign proponentsists, and report back before “opening night,” if there ever is one.
Right now, they may be pulling in the friendliest audiences they’ll ever see, by sending the message out to select groups that their movie is an example of their message. To achieve this, they’re trying to prevent access to any and all whose opinions they can not manage.
I see this movie as a successor to The Rocky Horror Picture Show in that, as #15 suggested, it becomes a cult movie with midnight showings on Fridays where people come dressed up as their favorite characters and proceed stand in front of the screen and recite the dialog along with the movie. I sure hope they have some memorable songs we can sing.
In any case, I’m going to start working on my Ben Stein outfit.
Stay tuned for the Expelled blog post screeching about PZ Myers crowing in triumph over his double agent infiltrating Expelled HQ! Stay tuned for the losers who click through to Pharyngula to piss and moan about how mean we are and throw out creationist falsehoods. And around and around it goes…
Gobdammit PZ! There goes yet another irony-meter.
*sigh*
Well, I think it’s obvious why the tagline is “no intelligence allowed”. No one of any intelligence is allowed to review the movie!
Aside from Moore’s denial that he even did this, Ben’s moral compass is about as defective as is his understanding of science.
His “movie” is a deliberate slander against millions of people, most of whom are better than he. And it, plus the promotional materials, have been dishonest through and through since we first heard about the film.
The only thing Stein finds despicable, however, is someone sneaking in to expose their lies (the “sneaking in” seems not to be the truth, anyhow).
That’s the height of amorality.
I guess the next film will have to be about how “Darwinism” creates nihilism and amorality–no, not in the “Darwinists,” rather in the anti-evolutionists. They’ve had their moral bearing reft from them by animal-to-man ideas existing in society, thus they can’t help their indifference to truth and to gross violations of decency, and so, you guessed it, evolution has to be destroyed.
Glen D
http://tinyurl.com/2kxyc7
At some point, this mockumentary will be released to the public and the public will have a chance to review it. I am sure this will be rated at the low end at Rotten Tomatoes. So an early review comes out two months early. So the question is this, is there time sensitive material in this work? How is one bad review going to hurt them when they know that bad reviews are going to shower upon them.
Oh. Wait! This is their way of posing as the persecuted truth carriers. Right! Carry on.
When people make this infuriating, bogus Darwin-Hitler comparison, I’m tempted to vomit up a load of Hitler’s Christian rhetoric. As with evolution by random mutation and natural selection, we have piles of evidence against their loopy assertions and none in favor. But I refuse to wrestle in the mud with them, so I won’t blame Hitler on the Christians.
Boy,what a maroon I am! Also an imBIcel, for getting
Foghorn’s last name wrong!. Anyway, we could also get
Yosemite Sam to proclaim that freaking ben stein “An
ornery varmint” and then start blasting him! Heck, I would
prefer watching Looney Tunes than that freaking insane
bunch of “critters”!
Wouldn’t it be great if the information leakage forces them to delay in order to do damage control?
Trained lawyer/framer, peeyar whore, & Bollywood celebrity; Ben Stein, is creating “BUZZ.”
Nisbet & Mooney told us all about buzz.
Frame the debate!
Moore is worse than an “unethical lurking journalista
Moore is a pervert/prevert who “likes to watch.”
Man, someone calling themselves Almost Expelled Student is waging a blistering attack on Big Science over at the Expelled blog. He/she has even revealed a devastating new scientific theory that Big Science Dogma has been keeping bottled up, Intelligent Messaging (IM) – says that “electromagnetic theory” is a hoax.
I sure am glad I’m not defending Big Science today.
Expelled is bribing schools to send students to this fundiefest. I guess that’s one way to call the faithful.
I liked the endorsements, they set the tone nicely and unequivocally identify the real message of the movie:
http://www.getexpelled.com/quotes.php
So it’s all about the science is it? ID has “nothing to do with religion”?
This is usually MAJeff’s job but he has not said this yet. So I will say it for him. Gerry, you fucking twit.
I love the idea of the makers of a movie supposedly about the suppression of debate making viewers sign a non-disclosure agreement.
I’ll add that review as a link on my new blog post:
Ben Stein: Crouching theocon, hidden nit-wit
This is usually MAJeff’s job but he has not said this yet. So I will say it for him. Gerry, you fucking twit.
I started a meme!
#64: I love the idea of the makers of a movie supposedly about the suppression of debate making viewers sign a non-disclosure agreement.
But it does go a long way to demonstrate that “teach the controversy” really means “teach only my side of the controversy that I imagine is there (so I can sell my stuff to gullible rabbits).”
For yet another example, consult the Peoples’ Republic of Texas Department of Education, Gulag of Science Education Suppression Department.
“After all, if they can disguise themselves as serious documentarians to land an interview, what’s wrong with a critic attending a screening tailored for conservative ministers?”
Its clear what happened, Robert Moore was originally a Minister and wanted to see the movie, but then his title was changed during the production of his review to something else.
It’s not his fault and no deception was intended.
Sound familiar?
Glen D (#55):
I don’t think Ben Stein ever had a moral compass – he did write speeches for Nixon, after all. I think Stein’s moral direction-finding is akin to the direction-finding capacity of a child after six hours on a Sit-n-Spin and at least two hits of LSD.
I think they’ve probably heard the “those who don’t remember history are doomed to repeat it” quote – the problem with them is that they very much would like to repeat it, particularly the Inquisition, with the ID flock and their enablers holding the garrotes in their bloodied hands. They seem to think that the sleep of reason will bring angels rather than monsters (or at least they hope that those who listen to them will believe it), and that no one looks too closely at them while they speak.
Just in case Stein & Co. decide, or have already decided, not to release the movie, and scream persecution by BIG SCIENCE as the reason, we should get a petition drive together to beg them to pretty pretty please, with sugar on top, please release this movie as soon as possible. The release of this movie is likely to prove quite useful in the battle against fundie stupidity, hypocrisy, dishonesty, and ignorance.
I have no clue how likely it might be that they NOT release the movie, but it would be nice to take that card away from them so that they have no chance to play it, or if they try anyway, are more clearly exposed as dishonest fools.
Off topic but here is a message for Norman Doering. When I hit your link, I got this message.
You naughty, naughty boy. You made some people upset. I hit the link that said that I felt I was mature enough to deal with potentially objectionable content.
Also off topic, MAJeff, you mean that is how a meme works?
I’ve heard that everyone who buys a ticket to the movie will be asked to sign a non-disclosure statement, to prevent ornery folk frm running home and panning the movie on the interweb.
(OK, OK, I really didn’t hear this. But it’s a great rumor to start, no?)
Does Stein et al. have any evidence that Moore pretended to be a minister? I’m having a lot of trouble believing a claim on their say so…
Was it really made to change minds, or merely to reinforce the bunker mentality among their existing followers?
“- Peter Furler, Lead singer, The Newsboys”
They’re mobilizing the stars of Christian Rock! Oh NO! They’ll LAME us to death!
Ah, I knew I’d get over my funk and be able to laugh at these people again. His mention of “eternal consequences” just reminds me of the Calvin & Hobbes “What if God is a big chicken?” comic.
(Note: That’s chicken in the literal sense of a domestic gallinacious bird raised for food.)
You forget, these guys aren’t in the “evidence” business.
That just proves you’re part of the “reality-based community”, and therefore their mortal enemy.
Remember kids, it’s not really lying if you’re Lying for Jesus™!
Leave it to the amoral creationists who balance extermination and gas chambers as being on the same level as not getting published in a scientific journal.
“Perhaps Expelled will singlehandedly bring back Mystery Science Theatre 3000. It’s the only justifiable treatment.”
Have you heard of Rifftrax? Mike Nelson, et al, releasing MST-style audio tracks to listen to along with current movies! That might be the only way I could watch it, b/c I do feel the need to arm myself against such crap. Either that or with the whole Integrated Bio dept and LOTS of alcohol.
The important question would be what body part would you be planning to wear that collar on? They can range anywhere from something to make a statement with, like on your middle finger, to the very rude. Wanna clarify? ;^)
I think it would be really fun to get a large group together and dress up as bishops, nuns, priests, the pope, monks, etc. Then go and sit way up at the back of the theater and laugh at the insanity.
This could be bigger than Rocky Horror!
I hate to give undue intelligence to these guys, but what if not showing the movie is part of their plan B.
1) They show the movie to the loyal at pre-screenings
2) The movie gets cancelled by the theatres early or before launch because it won’t make any money.
3) All our snide comments (fully justified) are used as an excuse for why the movie is pulled.
4) Everyone knows about the controversy, no-one has seen the film, they hype up the censorship. They aren’t doing this film for the money are they…
Honestly…I think they will try to pull the film before mass release…blaming censorship. Whereas it’s in our best interests if the film does come out and everyone can see what they are really up to.
NOW I read the other posts and realize my big idea was already proposed.
I second the motion…
Are the explanatory memes commensurable or incommensurable, as in post modern sociology?
Only a prevert would deny his preversion when he clearly likes to watch and then type terrible falsehoods in falsetto.
Moore has exposed both his homosexuality, misogyny, and revealed his penchant for abusing children just like aged Islamo-preverts who marry nubile young girls.
I’ll bet that Moore is a crypto anti-creationist, homophobic, child abuser, suicide bomber, & lurker who denies that he hates the Lawhd Gawd.
The Lawhd God created the world, including perceptive sociologists who can find the explanatory memes and “incommensurables.”
Moore is clearly an anti- Semite too because he typed negative words about peeyar person Stein, who is Jewish & only means to help us understand how that prevert Darwin poisoned Hitler’s brain, but not Ariel Sharon’s brain, with Social Darwinist hooplah.
Darwin is also the source and cause of the demented Armenian peeyar framers misusing the broad framing device – Holocaust.
You can read in just about anything, if you are well versed in post modern sociology – Moore is so preverted that he even hates post modern sociology.
Only a trained feminist/sociologist who perceives, measures, and disseminates the incommensurables knows for sure.
I suspect that “Expelled” will be pulled by its producers instead (But it already “pulls!”), under the guise of having been expelled.
Good afternoon. You’ve reached the corporate headquarters for the National Martyr Complex. How may I route your call?
I see I goofed up the link to the e-mail that the Expelled PR guy sent to educators last week. Here it is: [Link]
Gerald, please open the window and allow the crack fumes to disperse before posting again.
More Expelled news, and PZ (“Paul Zachary”) mentioned again:
I couldn’t have hoped for better comments from Popular Science than those.
Expelled is increasingly becoming known, but the stench of that shitpile is the introduction that most seem to get from the media.
Glen D
http://tinyurl.com/2kxyc7
Stein the moron has a problem with the Darwin killed the Jews claim.
Evolutionary biology and research in evolution is taught and done at Israeli universities. I checked The Hebrew University of Jerusalem and found 11 evolutionary biologists. They have a whole freaking department called…Evolution, Systematics, and Ecology.
Who would think a bunch of antisemitic murders would be found at a place like Hebrew U. Jerusalem? Or maybe Stein is just a lying moron.
I think by now the Jews know who killed them and why. It wasn’t Darwin or Darwinists, it was Germans influenced in large part by their version of Xianity. This is what most mainstream historians and the Jews themselves say.
Stein is a disgrace to the human race. The notoriety and a few bucks can’t be worth your humanity.
#61 – You do know that electromagnetic theory is only a theory, right? It’s something Big Science would like us to conveniently forget, but electromagnetic theory after all this time remains just a theory. I feel that in our textbooks it should be taught as such.
And, oh my God, scientists aren’t opposed to “design,” which supposedly is all that ID is about, they’re simply opposed to “hypotheses” in science regarding magic beings who do something (we can’t know what), at some time (we can’t know when), for some purpose (which is undetectable), make life (we don’t know why):
And no, liar, we don’t say that design by the hand of God is impossible, we say that it is impossible to come up with any evidence that this supposed God exists, or that any magical beings have interfered with the laws of physics.
IOW, your only complaint, Farah, is that scientists want to keep science operating by honest standards and methods.
Glen D
http://tinyurl.com/2kxyc7
P.S. Bill Buckley has died. Whatever one thinks of him, it’s sad that one of the last acts he’ll be remembered as making is his laudatory praise for Berlinski’s most recent dumb book.
Janine wrote:
Well, I do have some full frontal nudity here:
http://normdoering.blogspot.com/2008/01/ive-recently-had-short-story-published.html
Janine wrote:
Well, I do have some full frontal nudity here.
Well, I will remember Buckley for being on the wrong side of the civil rights movement in that late fifties, early sixties. That colors my thinking of him quite a bit. Also, as far as I am concerned, his praise of Berlinski is typical.
Oops, I missed his latest post.
Gerry, you fucking twit.
Well, not that I’d praise Buckley or his positions, but he was reasonably intelligent, and he ought to have at least guarded his reputation for being smart.
Giving praise to Berlinski’s uncomprehending twaddle seems to knock hard at the one positive thing most people would concede to Buckley, his intelligence. As ignorant as Buckley was about science (I recall his claim that the sun operates using nuclear fission), he shouldn’t have been stupid enough to praise the philosophical rot of Berlinski, even if he was in his dotage (unless he had Alzheimer’s and no longer had any worthwhile judgment).
Anyway, Buckley’s not my main concern, it’s that praising worthless tripe will take away whatever residual respect people might have for one’s intelligence. IOW, I don’t really think it’s sad in the particular (only in the universal sense) that Buckley might be remembered for praising Berlinski’s shinola.
Glen D
http://tinyurl.com/2kxyc7
Hey Bruce — “(there may be a serious breech)” —
I don’t know, I saw PZ’s breeches, and they didn’t look very serious to me. Coulda sworn I saw a SpongeBob logo there somewhere.
Moore’s comparison of Stein to Michael Moore is an apt one as I think much of this criticism misses the point. I suspect that Stein knows exactly what he’s doing and is hoping to laugh all the way to the bank. I don’t think he’s interested in a cause. It’s not a matter of whether he’s lying or being deceptive as his primary goal is to sell tickets. He’s interested in controversy as a means to shill a movie and make a buck. So you’re playing right into his hands….
Can we unleash the Grammar Police on this sentence? “As an underdog in Hollywood right now, we need your support.”
I don’t know the correct term for this phrase: “As an underdog in Hollywood right now” but who (or what) is the underdog? We? Then it would be “As underdogs …”. Or is the film the underdog? Then for one thing, it’d be “it needs,” not “we need”. And anyway, if that phrase modifies “film” instead of “we,” it’s not used correctly.
Oops, maybe I should be on a grammar blog instead?
Can you please find a way of checking on your sources for this. It is silly. The cdesign proponentsists are increasingly hard to parody, but perhaps some brave soul is trying with these ludicrous statements. Does the comedy reveal the hand of a designer, or is it really unintentional?
#96
It’s clunky, certainly; but – damn, I hate giving Stein & co. credit for anything – I don’t think there’s anything grammatically wrong with it. Taking “we” to mean “the production team”, it’s quite valid for a team to be an underdog, as any sports fan will tell you.
But what the hell, we’re evil atheists. We kick underdogs, right?
I think I’ll either rent it or bootleg it – I’m not sending Stein or the producers of Expelled a single dime.
Accepting that Ben Stein is a very sophisticated, superlatively connected, very experienced, and very expensive peeyar flak-for-sale, we must ask; Who could Stein be working for and to what ends?
Stein is a trained lawyer/advocate with a long track record for framing and advocacy.
Any advocate who openly professes that Tricky Dick Nixon lied in order to achieve peace and justice in Vietnam is a study in both framing flapdoodle & the banality of propaganda.
Stein’s clear contempt for the public’s intelligence shines through all his celebrity, as does his elitist stance.
Who could possibly gain from Stein’s specific unscientific anti-Darwin thrust?
Surely not the scientific, most educated, or non-religious communities.
Stein & Expelled are very expensive projects, and we can be sure that Stein’s audience has been scrupulously researched.
Going after Darwin for putting the kibosh on any creator’s grand design is bad enough, but framing Darwin as the nefarious cause of the Nazi Holocaust is more than a reach.
The Holocaust frame is emblazoned in Neon lights.
Even reporter Moore couldn’t avoid responding to the Holocaust frame.
Stein has successfully framed this “engineered debate” on Darwin’s role in causing the Holocaust.
Murder, madness, genocide, the Christian Crusades, the Vikings, Pizarro, Ghengis Khan, massacres, etc. didn’t occur anywhere in the world prior to “Origin” in 1859?
Our President is a born again Christian so there is no way that some anti-war propagandist can accuse our President of using Darwin and evolution as a cause or an excuse for murdering more than 500 thousand innocent Iraqis.
Many of the highest profile neo-cons & designers of Iraq’s complete destruction and all the bloodthirsty murdering are Ivy League grads with all kinds of advanced degrees.
Maybe the Ivy League done it.
Bloodthirsty?
You’re thinking of the I.V. League.
Gerald, less crack.
Gerry, you fucking twit.
Do you see anything Ismael
Only the stars Mr Stout, the sea is calm. No, no wait. call the captain [Ahab strides on deck]
Do ya see ’em lads?
Captain, there, two points to starboard.
Aye!! Tharrr in the waters, he rises, Tharr HE BREACHES!!
[We break away from nano-Theater (TM) productions Moby Dick to note a salient fact about whales. Whales release their breath just prior to their nostal(s) breaking the surface, such that when the hot air is EXPELLED it forms a characteristic plume of warm air and atomized water droplets distinctive for many species. Be it also noted that white whales are even larger than white elephants].
Gerald (post #103) – yer a TWIT.
This is ALL down to Yale – the rest of the Ivy League (especially Princeton, where I grew up), is innocent.
Bill Bradley – a Princeton grad, would have been a much better president than ‘that-idiot from-Yale’.
(signed) marc
I won’t give these theocratic clowns any money either. Rest assured, Expelled will soon hit the churches, Xian schools, YouTube, and Xian TV stations in infinite reruns.
See it for free.
I even resent having to give some of my attention or time to these people. If they weren’t trying to destroy the USA and set up a new Dark Ages, they could sit in their trailer parks and wave their snakes around and wait for the rapture and no one would give one rat’s ass. To paraphrase The Teacher, the morons we will always have with us.
I would love to see this film in order that I might be able to slam it authoritatively. Hopefully there will be a way to see it for free (not that I advocate piracy). BTW, when I try to pull up the Darwin Day critique, all I get is a blank page – did some zealous IDer hack ya?
Gerald, less crack.
Hellz No! He’s shown himself to be a homophobe (I am a “shit-eating fag” after all). I wanna see how much crack it’ll take until that pig-fucker will suck dick.
What’s a “fake” clerical collar?
Well now. That should certainly convince everyone that this isn’t just religious propaganda.
Were you supposed to reply with a non-disclosure agreement before reading the e-mail?
Doubtless a small concern for someone who already sold out 40 years ago.
What the hell is a “prevert”?
Really, I am continually surprised over the way these moronic crackheadpots invent exceptionally lame neologisms, and are surprised by the way no one takes them seriously as a result.
It’s like watching a trainwreck over and over again.
Ben Stein does not sell his humanity/soul: he rents it out to the highest bidder to ride about like a pedigree party pony.
@115. Hazzarding a guess: ‘prevert’ is what Sgt. Bat Guano accused Col. Lionell Mandrake of being and thought the colonel would be performing ‘preversions’ when he entered a phone booth to call the president of the United States in the movie ‘Dr. Strangelove.’
What the hell is a “prevert”?
An outrageously bitchy and fabulously flaming queen!
Ya know, I now wish that were my description in the Molly section, “outrageously bitchy and fabulously flaming queen.” Too bad I said it.
A Prevert was first mentioned in the Talking Candy Bar Blues, if memory serves.
Oh, sweet Savior dipped in chocolate and rolled in sprinkles.
…
This Gerald Spezio twat has just earned extra negative points for using a synonym of “metrosexual.”
He worked for Nixon. I’m sure he learned to accept quite a bit, in that time.
I know the line between irony and reality is often blurred. But Gerald, were you serious in #60 & #83? I just can’t help but read that with irony in mind because it’s just so damn crazy. It has to be irony. Right?
Just to be sure, tell us if you think Obama is a theocrat, in search of a christian nation. I think that might clear things up.
“Prevert” is what Keenan Wynn called Peter Sellers in the
movie “Dr Strangelove” “None of your preversions’ said
Bat Guano! Ha!
I emailed this link to myself for future reading, with the following note that sums up the idiocy on display:
“Oh, noes, teh film critics iz criticizing teh film!111”
In my first comment here, I said these people were “dumb as a fucking post.” I would like to apologize for this vicious and slanderous insult to posts.
As children we are taught fairy tales, but folks frogs really don’t change to princes. Let’s look at some Scientific facts…NO MUTATION has ever been observed to produce a more complex living organism, i.e., add new DNA; even with observation using current technology. Fruit flys simply had their Existing DNA destorted, nothing beneficial to the flys occurred in those experiments. Again- and this is THE BIGGIE- No New DNA Has Ever Been Observed (NN-DNA-HEBO) to develope from mutations happening naturally or in labs. Think about that, NO NEW DNA has Ever been observed to develope from mutations happening naturally or in labs.
Macro evolution is a totally baseless exercise of faith, since this single issue has never been resolved!
Doctors of science teach throughout textbooks, of a mysterious ‘Mother Nature’ who resembles Santa Claus. She works the scenes bestowing imaginative anatomies and behaviors freely upon all living things (yet NN-DNA-HEBO). Earth’s life forms were cleverly supplied, each according as it had need. Yet all change was said to be completely accidental- although in duplicate, as each male and female of all species co-evolved with no disruption in their procreative abilities. Though Mom Nature is promoted as somehow marvelously ‘innovative’, only ‘ranking’ scientists can understand and interpret how her modifying activities occurred; but Nowhere Do They Explain Process Details (BECAUSE NN-DNA-HEBO). So we are simply to accept that the boundless and stunning variety of life on this planet appeared solely from time and happenstance; in short folks “LIFE HAPPENS!” No one can point out positively a single transitional fossil. Neither is there an example of any mutation producing a beneficial change.
The following information is taken from an ICR Impact publication (April 2002 article #346) normally devoted to scientific creation evidence. This article reveals the competence and influence of some of today’s CREATIONIST scientists. To show the reader the esteemed prominence of the creation worldview, a few of these Genesis believing scientists are listed: Kenneth B. Cumming (Dean and Professor of Biology) has a Ph.D. from Harvard where he studied under Ernst Mayr, “often considered the dean of living evolutionists”. Dr. Carl B. Fliermans (Microbiology) is a microbial ecologist with Dupont with over 60 technical publications. He is well known as the scientist who first identified the “Legionnaire’s Disease” bacterium. Dr. Kelly Hollowell (Molecular Biology) has a Ph.D. in Molecular and Cellular Pharmacology from the University of Miami. She is also an attorney (J.D.). Dr. Hollowell’s work includes a number of publications in the fields of DNA technology, cloning, and neurobiology. Dr. Raymond V. Damadian, M.D. is an inventor, most notably of the M.R.I. machine. Dr. Kurt Wise (Paleontology) has the M.A. and Ph.D. from Harvard University, having studied under the dedicated evolutionist, Stephen J. Gould. “Dr. Wise is currently in charge of the science division at Bryan College.” Dr. Duane T. Gish (Senior Vice President and Professor of Biochemistry) has earned a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of California at Berkeley. Beyond his career as a research chemist, and 24 articles in peer-reviewed scientific journals, Dr. Gish “is also known worldwide for winning over 300 scientific debates with evolutionists”. As you can see, many fully credentialed scientists deeply intimate with the varied aspects of evolution, have wholly rejected the ideas. There are many more scientists today actually numbering in the thousands, who have also turned away from the monkey-man conjecture, and who now likewise embrace the literal Genesis record of human origin.
The effects of ‘Scopes’ had it’s heyday. The pendulum of public opinion will now swing back with the release of Expelled. Solid Scientific evidence will be the catalyst, while the archaic ideas of Darwin are made a laughingstock. The current crop of evolutionary scientists will cluster and squall among their counterparts at the loss of all public respect. It is happening now, look at this blog. Tell me there’s no God, YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEHHHHHAAAAAAAAAA!
Michael X, 1. a dose of fuzzy logic trying to grasp the “incommencurables” and essences in the phenomena, but still crazy – as in life.
2. The wham-bama-lawyer-man will shadow box for status and real job security, as in moot court & legal training.
I think Bama already found the right Christian Nation for exploitation thru due process.
Holbach, those Commie preverts were (maybe still even?) so preverted that Gen. Jack D. Ripper gave them what for – “take that you Commie preverts.”
Now we have our chance to give it to the Islamo terrorist preverts who have to be the worsest preverts ever – just look at the preverted behavior of those Islamo fascist preverts readily available at the Pharyngula archives.
The goddamn Commies were Godless and therein was their unforgiveable sin a-gin the Lord God and compound interest.
The Islamo terrorists have so much God and continual praying preversions that they must be exterminated for exactly the opposite reason that the Commies (not enough God) damn near went to Hellfire in a nuclear basket of non-commodities.
“More things are wrought by prayer than this world thinks of,” but too much (excessive?) prayer leads to mental illness, suicide bombing, anti-Semitism, outright stupidity, & one’s own murder at the hands of more enlightened folk .
Marc from Princeton; Only one question for a devoted Tiger without a JD.
Did Dick Kazmier, only 160 lbs wet, absorb Darwinian theory in order to elude tacklers who wished to smite him big time and strike a blow against homosexuality?
Paul Robeson absorbed Darwin at Princeton, but Darwin (who else?) caused him to become a Commie symp prevert without God – yet he still eluded tacklers too.
Even quantum theory can’t answer this one.
Michael X: As has been demonstrated just now, you will never get a straight answer out of Mr. Spezio. Although I’m actually starting to enjoy his presence here, he’s at least a slightly novel crank, unlike the broken-record creationists that we usually get.
I wonder how many times gerry’s “prose” gets run through babelfish to make it quite so incomprehensible–and which languages it switches through.
So gerry’s gone from vaguely anti-semitic rants to utter incoherence. Not that it was a long trip.
MAJeff(111): I don’t think you want GS on that much crack near the privates of anyone you even vaguely care about. Even if someone finds mental instability attractive, there are neither enough condoms nor enough steel belting in the universe to protect them against crazy in that concentration.
I don’t think you want GS on that much crack near the privates of anyone you even vaguely care about.
We’ll make it Dick Cheney.
You know how I said reading Gerald Spezio is like watching a trainwreck?
I take that back, trudging through his homophobic gibbering is like watching a dog chew off all its legs and its tail.
Somehow it seems ooohhhh ssoooo right that Michael Woelfel’s cut and paste repeeat on mutlible threads musings are followed by a triple shot of Gerry. That said; Gerry, you fucking twit.
#126
“the literal Genesis record of human origin.”
Reeeeeeeeeally now? Who was there to record god creating the world, huh?
Oh, that’s right. The Bible is the inerrant word of God. All the contradictory, inerrant translations and variations of it.
Thank you for coming, please try again!
Well, Gerald….
You didn’t exactly state whether you think Obama is a theocrat, but you have done us all a big favor by clearing up the “are you actually crazy” part.
And Woelfel, that was the funniest thing I’ve read in a while. It’s true what they say, satire and reality are getting to be nearly identical these days. Maybe you should hang out with Gerald?
“No New DNA Has Ever Been Observed (NN-DNA-HEBO) to develope from mutations happening naturally or in labs.”
And No New Steak Has Ever Been Cooked (NN-S-HEBC) on barbeques or in restaurants!
mothra, I am certain that Bat Guano was an officer (more than a mere grunt man). I think his rank was, colonel.
[QUOTE=Peter Furler]Something we all need to ask ourselves in life is ‘What am I here for?’ You know, if we are just ‘lucky mud’ then these questions don’t mean much at all. But there is a God and he did create us. So if the Ben Stein movie is asking these questions and if somebody is keeping us from finding out the great answers to the great questions – then maybe they are more than just questions. Maybe they are questions with eternal consequences.” [/QUOTE]
Somebody is keeping us from finding out the great answers to the great questions? So since when is Big Science trying to close the churches?
And the irony is that all of those ministers believe that Ben Stein is headed to hell unless he converts from Judaism to Christianity.
I can hear Ben Stein say, “Wow.”
PZ, were you interviewed by Ben Stein? Were Eugenie Scott and Richard Dawkins interviewed by Ben Stein? Or somebody else?
No, Dawkins got the ‘privilege’ of an actual interview with Ben Stein; the rest of us had to settle for his travelin’ crew of dishonest dolts.
It is quite telling that the sponsors of the movie would allow Mr. Moore in while masquerading as a minister (even though he quite clearly didn’t). If ID has no affiliation with religion then why on earth would a reporter be “banned” from the screening but a minister is granted access? Even in their call to arms they’re not smart enough to notice their mistake of stating who their target audience is. Then again it takes a little logic to read the statement and connect the dots. I doubt that their appeal will trigger this connection in the minds of those they want to influence. And their targets are very narrow in scope. I don’t think that they would let the High Cardinal of the FSM of Later Sauce Starches screen the movie either.