That dreadful propaganda movie is opening in Canada next week, not that I expect it will be a box office smash there after flopping here. However, there’s a weird comment on the blog of Canada’s greatest quote-stringer and maker of delusional word hash (Forgive me for linking to Uncommon Descent in the last post and Denyse O’Leary in this one). She’s babbling as if she expects picketers waving big signs and chanting on the sidewalk. Did anyone, anywhere picket this movie? I haven’t heard anything about it — my regional atheist group even organized a field trip to go watch it.
Oh, well. I hope no car backfires as she goes up to buy her ticket, or we’ll hear all about the atheist snipers who were trying to prevent her from seeing the silly thing.
I think I heard about some picketing somewhere. Assuming that some did occur, clearly it was little, and O’Leary just has to imagine some “persecution” to be able to go on with her delusions.
But hey, I’m all for Expelled opening in Canada, even if it helps Premise reduce its losses on the film. There’s not a chance that it can be convincing in Canada, except to the bozos who have long been lost to intelligent thought, after the drubbing it took in the States.
The upshot there will be that Canada will be even less open to ID bullshit. I’m less sure of that here, but I suspect that Expelled was a negative for ID, save in leeching a few more dollars out of their stupid sheep.
Glen Davidson
http://tinyurl.com/2kxyc7
Well, she’s equating “picketing” with “crashing,” trying to imply that both are similar means seeking the same end–disruption of the film. Here’s her full quote:
1) I love how “raving atheist” is supposedly a quote, but offered without a source. Sort of like how O’Leary is a “lying sack of shit.”
2) If someone who is vocally opposed to the message of the movie attends a screening of the film, that isn’t the same as “picketing.” O’Leary seems to think if she even recognizes someone on the premises or walking on the sidewalk, then that constitutes a protest. Wow, talking about desperately searching for a cross to nail yourself up on. These people simply need to feel persecuted. It’s their entire shtick. Considering the movie is one big persecution complex, it shouldn’t be all that surprising.
Don’t pay much heed to anything Denyse says at the moment. She’s still smarting over her recent excommunication.
http://sneerreview.blogspot.com/2008/05/denyse-oleary-excommunicated.html
By the way, whats the story regarding ‘Imagine’ being used in the movie in Canada – I presume the recent partial legal victory for the creationists only applies to the US.
“I hope no car backfires as she goes up to buy her ticket…”
Nah, no worries if a backfire happens. You can get a ticket for discharging a firearm! No-one is going to take THAT big a chance!
Is “raving atheist” above or below “ignorant slut” on the list of boxes to check off?
“She’s babbling as if she expects picketers waving big signs and chanting on the sidewalk. Did anyone, anywhere picket this movie?”
What an inflated opinion she has of herself and the movie! I’m reminded of this classic dialogue from Casablanca:
Ugarte: You despise me, don’t you?
Rick: If I gave you any thought I probably would.
If I lived anywhere near there, I think I would protest by organising a tea party. I’m not sure why, but such quint civility seems appropriate.
Idiot. Doesn’t Denyse know that the people most likely to be waving their guns around are the same southern Albertans who’ll be the only ones to want to see that piece of shit film?
BTW, why can’t she spell her name the Christian way? And by Christian way, I mean spelling it ‘Mary’ or some other variant that doesn’t refer to a devotee of Dionysus. Fucking uppity pagan.
When did Dense O’Crazy stop taking comments on her blog? I mean, she always censored them, but now she’s not even allowing fawning over her brilliance?
Hey, we’re roughly 1/10th the size of you guys population wise, which means we have roughly 1/10th the nutjobs you have, but after reading that tripe, ours are definitely funnier.
Off topic, via Ben Goldacre:
Homosexuality More Dangerous Than Smoking
Proving that among whatever other fields fundies fail in statistics is included. (Of course, as Mark Liberman never tires of reminding us that goes for the population at large too). Even I, who suck at that sorta thing, can spot the selction bias with even a perfunctory glance at the text.
They’re even so kind as to tell us that Denmark (go us!) didn’t actually legalise homophile unions (no marriage, yet) until 1990. Interestingly the first couple to get joined was Axel and Eigil Axgil, who were on in years. Eigil, the younger, sadly died already in ’95 at the modest age of 73. Hmmm – I guess they have a point. If only the poor fools had continued to live in sin as G-d willed it they’d still be alive.
O’Leary keeps mentioning a “surprise or two in store” for Americans.
I’ve come across a few things vaguely suggesting that the producers are trying to mini-relaunch the film here in the states now that the injunction has been lifted, and I’m beginning to wonder if this is the sort of thing she’s implying.
Note that her boosterism of how well the film did in comparison to other documentaries doesn’t mention the huge number of screens it opened on compared to most docs, or the huge promotional budget, which again is well outside what most docs can afford to spend on advertising.
Well, I guess the good news is that if it’s being released in Canada now, it won’t be long before the pirated versions start showing up on the internet.
Hey wait a sec, I’m an atheist and was a sniper in the Army….
O’leary is a delusional prat with a persecution complex. It’s no surprise she’d suddenly dream up an Atheist protest.
Sorry Denyse, we have actual jobs and lives.
Nothing on the radar in our big redneck cities out west up here. I’ll keep my eyes peeled.
A little hard to say where they would open here, surprisingly enough. Despite our redneck reputation out here, when it comes to movies, you either have the fairly big chains, or you have the independents, and pretty much all of the independents in town here are slightly left-and-cultish-leaning (on our small screens here, they are playing Where in the World is Osama bin Laden, War, Inc., Rape of Europa, Zombie Strippers!, etc.)
I’d still be a little surprised if they didn’t come gunning for Harper’s old hunting grounds.
I knew there was reason I left Scotia Bank for TD.
Did anyone, anywhere picket this movie?
I didn’t see or hear of anyone in my locality picket this movie. Since some of the stars in the production were atheists who talked up a storm in what they believed in, it appears atheists in the US didn’t feel the need to picket the movie. Perhaps they didn’t want to look as though they were trying to censor the movie either…It is possible in Canada, considering they are more liberal there for a few atheists to picket.
Maybe if the movie was about the creation science museum you would see people from atheists groups picketing…
Isn’t trying to find a group of atheists to picket something like herding cats? Just not worth effort.
I am sorry to see that we’re not immune to the insane bullshit up here. Now that’s something to tighten border security for.
I’m just dreading day it showns up in one of my classes. **sigh***
Here at Iowa State (the home of Dr. Gonzalez and Dr. Avalos) or atheist/agnostic group handed out fliers after the movie in order to promote Dr. Avalos’ talk later that week. Not really picketing since some went in to watch it before handing out the fliers.
I’m just glad that there are three (count ’em, three) links to buy her book at the bottom of the post. I would have been disappointed with only one.
She seems preoccupied by “chance”, is that some strange euphemism for natural processes these days or something?
Is it chance that i get pulled back towards the earth when i jump?
No, the transponder in Starbuck’s viper causes that.
As the kids on Fark are fond of saying: I LOL’d.
Translation of Denyse’s post:
“Will you guys please picket this movie? Please? Pretty please with sugar and an Intelligently Designed cherry on top? Persecute me! Persecute me!”
I wonder if she’d be in favor of teaching the controversy about Wizardry too?
Hexpelled! No Wizardry Allowed, Part I
Part II
:)
I think she’s also seriously overestimating the number of people who would recognize her as she walks into the theater.
She’s a Catholic and nowadays supporting any form of creationism is a dissent from Catholic orthodoxy which is theistic evolution.
Brownian wrote:
That’s one theory. But we won’t be finding out for sure till 2009, if even then.
Well, “Science leads you to killing people,” is something that’s just a hair short of what the criminal code calls hate speech, which would be grounds for banning the movie. But that would probably be counter productive. On the other hand, if some nut ball christians start lynching atheists or scientist or something, on either side of the border, I hope Canada bans this movie fast enough to make your head spin.
It sounds like censorship, but frankly I think my right to walk down the street without fear of being assaulted trumps Stein’s right to spew his hate. He can offend me all he likes, but if a reasonable person would have grounds to be afraid, a line has been crossed.
@9 “When did Dense O’Crazy stop taking comments on her blog? I mean, she always censored them, but now she’s not even allowing fawning over her brilliance?”
She got tired of writing them.
Best part is that they had people calling up new age bookstores in Toronto to ask about promoting the film.
I hoped the people I knew who got those calls could have snagged a preview copy to put on the net (we would have been INTERNET GODS, heh delicious irony), but no luck.
Still, asking occultists to promote their movie makes about as much sense as the movie itself. I can’t wait for it to open so I can not pay to see it.
“Toronto-based
journalist; grandmother; Roman Catholic Christian, idiot”Fixed that for her.
Yes, it is: specifically, the working-out of natural processes without the intervention of a Designer. If you read UhDuh with any regularity (caution: may be hazardous to your health), you’ll see people who accept evolution repeatedly characterized as “chance worshipers” — a revealing bit of projection, since it implies that the UD folk themselves are “Designer worshipers”. This is of course true, but it’s not really the impression they wish to convey.
kcrady, 25#
Nicely done.
doubt that this “movie” will get much notice up here in the Great White North. I taught biology for 35 years in and around Toronto, and the theists just don’t have the same grip/profile up here as they do in the States. Unlike the States, our politicians are less likely to invoke god in their speeches etc. In fact, there was a former party leader (Stockwell Day of the Reform Party) who was ridiculed for his creationist beliefs and was not leader for long once people realized this. Americans would do well to take some pointers from their northern cousins.
I wonder who will picket or try to crash? (There was a big hoo-haw over the screening at the Mall of the Americas when “raving atheist” biologist PZ Myers got ejected by line producer Mark Mathis.) Perhaps I will recognize some prominent local figures strutting importantly on the sidewalk.
Uh-huh.
Before I jumped in the fight against this latest version of creationism, I and a large group of neighborhood residents formed a rival neighborhood group and gained official status, taking away power and money from the entrenched group who was harassing city officials with their ongoing conspiracy theories. When I became the editor of the new neighborhood group’s newsletter, a ten-page complaint was sent by the old group to my employer (then the Planning Department), and the heads of the MCDA and the NRP offices, complaining about what I might say and do in the first issue of the newsletter, which had not yet come out. Ah, such fond memories.
Denyse O’Leary and her post reminds me of that ten-page “complaint.” (“What if she says this, that, and the other thing about us? What if she does this, or that? What is City Hall going to do about preventing that? Huh? Huh?”) Some of them came, as VMartin would say, to bad ends. (It’s not nice to extort sex from your renters.) So, so much for the “damage” my little newsletter could cause. I only wish I could have broken the story.
Sorry to rain on your parade, Denyse, but I don’t think Expelled is going to make even that much of a splash. A collective yawn is the best you can shoot for. Of course, you could keep on opening your mouth, Denyse – it’s always worked so well for you before. Then my analogy would be even more apt.
Denyse wrote a book purporting to be a balenced look at ID and creationism. I looked it up on amazon and found a much smarter Canadian had given it an appropriate review:
“By Gail Turner “gluadys” (Toronto, Ontario Canada) – See all my reviews
Ms. O’Leary’s book is a rehash of Intelligent Design (ID) propaganda which promotes shoddy science, shallow theology and incompetent journalistic research.”
O’Leary is not interested in our words (comments disabled) but is happy to take our money. See the PayPal link.
Let’s not be too hard on her though. She is having a wonderful wet dream at the moment. Intelligent Designer! Oh! Oh!
Raving Atheist: One who ingests MDMA and dances for hours to loud repetitious techno music while not believing in God.
#32, just another reason not to like Toronto.
You are missing the truly entertaining part of the whole thing. Go to the bottom of the page and follow the link to her book on Amazon. Okay, there yet? Now go to the “Citations” section, where it lists her sources. You see, she cited something called “Natural Selection (Phoenix 60p Paperbacks) by Charles Darwin.” What the heck is that, you might ask? It is a 60 page ‘condensed’ version of Darwin’s work. Yup, this idiot wrote an entire book about evolution and not only never read Darwin’s actual writings, but was stupid enough to cite what was basically a Cliff’s Notes version in her footnotes.
I just can’t stop laughing.
‘maker of delusional word hash’
Just lovely.
P.S. –
I wonder who will picket or try to crash? (There was a big hoo-haw over the screening at the Mall of the Americas when “raving atheist” biologist PZ Myers got ejected by line producer Mark Mathis.)
There was “a big hoo-haw” at that screening? Well, I guess there were as many “hoo-haws” as there were women attending, no? ;-)
Nice malapropism, Denyse. (You know, I think “Nanny Monster” is a good name for Denyse.)
#32, just another reason not to like Toronto.
As 2.5 million Torontonians continue not to care what you think.
36 out of 36 Louisiana senators just voted for a bill to attack science education. There are exactly zero pro-science senators in the Louisiana state senate. The creationist governor is expected to sign it. I look forward to watching a repeat of the Dover trial.
@#44 (and off topic but irresistable) Well of course Torontonians don’t care! That’s why everyone hates TO!
But did you know Blockbuster actually has a movie called Let’s All Hate Toronto, which shows that hating Toronto is a national sport. You know, once the playoffs are done.
Another derail for progressive Wisconsin. Homosexual Wisconsin couples who go out of state to marry and return can be fined up to $10,000 and imprisoned for up to 9 months. I’m glad I live somewhere liberal, like Alabama, where gay couples are just hated and scorned. Jesus H. Christ on a popsicle stick! What’s the world coming to?
http://en.allexperts.com/q/Misc-Legal-2134/Marriage-Wisconsin.htm
Fixed.
I hate to find myself defending Denyse, but:
This is so weird. It lets me watch the quite funny Part II but not Part I. (And also not “The Heavens Declare”, the third video by LordPrivySeal001.)
#44, almost rented it the other night but rented highlander: the source, regret the choice.
I have known some very arrogant people from Toronto and some arrogant people that I have known have moved there from othe places.
I know there are wonderful people there but I just have to give the city a jab once and while.
Also from the Just for Laughs festival a comedian compared
Toronto and Montreal, one is a smoking hard drinking womanizer and the other is an accountant (take a guess which is which).
There’s nothing quite like the subtle reference to persecution to bring the religious masses streaming in. Sometimes Ito wonder if these delusional lunatics are simply doing it out of an understanding of behavioural patterns, that their inane ramblings are a product of trial and error where they have found that appealing to the sense of persecution the most effective way to communicate their message. Or it could be that they are just delusional lunatics and it’s just coincidence that they can drum up melodrama.
Please don’t think she’s representative of all Canadians. Although I do recall way way back I saw The Life of Brian at a theatre in Hamilton and it was being picketed by a bunch of Catholics. I knew I was in for a great movie viewing.
Dang. Just when I was enjoying my summer. Now I hafta go see the blasted thing just to be able to say I’ve seen it.
Can’t wait for the local newspaper reviews, though; those should deliver a good dose of icy Canadian politeness, along the lines of:
“Yes. Well. Err. Don’t come back. Merci beaucoup.“
Ja, Denyse O’Leary is an odd duck. I suppose it oughtn’t to be surprising that these creationists see themselves as God’s gift to the world; it runs in religion, doesn’t it? It’s the inescapable Bronze Age myopia about the world, systematised and turned into a central point of doctrine. “Yes, reality does indeed revolve around you, your preoccupations really are critical to the future of everything.”
At least rationalists have the good sense to recognise that even if bad gets worse and Western civil society is mind-raped back to the middle ages by extremist ignoramuses, the world will keep on turning and in the cosmic sense it won’t count for all that much (however much we may dislike it).
O’Leary and her compatriots are one step ahead of the existential fatalism of the apocalypticists like Jack Chick, where the world (or at least the important parts thereof) is in the death-grip of malign forces; however the battle isn’t quite lost for them yet, which plays into the unsubtle delusions of auto-messianism which plague the “culture wars” on the side of the shining elysian knights of morality and common sense who struggle so valiantly to overturn the ascended powers of atheistic darkness and despair. I just love that bit by Dembski criticising theistic evolutionists –
“They are happy to jump in bed with Richard Dawkins if it means defeating ID. They are on the wrong side of the culture war. And they need to be defeated.”
“Well, you want this fight, you’ve got it.”
Them’s a’ fightin’ words, pard’ner.
“Ooh, sceeery!” He wishes. If only, to save us all some time, they’d just admit that they’re flogging (and perhaps doing some other things to) a dead horse so we can get back to educating the public and they can get back to their Bibletime Revival Jamboree. I wish.
Maybe I’ll go picket, just for Denyse. I don’t quite know what I’d be picketing or chanting. (Maybe I’ll go get one of those “SPEED HUMP” signs from the border crossing – they always make me laugh.) I really haven’t the foggiest idea what I would be angry about, apart from snack prices.
Slightly OT but needed to share mwahahahahaha
ERV’s answer to the question of Intelligent Design had me laugh for an hour,here’s the link :
http://scienceblogs.com/erv/2008/06/atheist_qa.php
Of course, when nobody shows up to picket, she will know that her little internet tirade scared the bad guys so much that they all went away. See, she get’s to be the martyr; except for when it turns out she’s the vanquishing hero. With grandstanding like that, she just can’t lose.
From #50:
Hmmm, that is weird. Here is the link to my channel, you can try it from there: http://youtube.com/user/LordPrivySeal001
The link is also used for my website. If that doesn’t work, here are separate links for each movie:
Hexpelled! Part I
Hexpelled! Part II
The Heavens Declare:
Hopefully that’ll get you past the weirdness. :) Thanks for watching!