My Television Is Attacking Ben Stein!!!! : Greg Laden's Blog

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My Television Is Attacking Ben Stein!!!!

Posted on: May 2, 2008 10:27 PM, by Greg Laden

I've been laid up with a nasty disease the last few days, so I've not been doing much productive. But I have gotten some TV watching in.

Just in time, too. Has anyone else noticed that House (last night) and Numbers (tonight, in fact, airing this very moment) contain thinly veiled attacks on Intelligent Design, Expelled, and/or Ben Stein?

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Comments

You best get healed. I ain't about to do no interview with Mr. Hat on the radio.

Posted by: Mike Haubrich, FCD | May 2, 2008 11:34 PM

Just watched Numb3rs - great stuff, I thought. "How else would a God reveal himself but through his creation?" Heeh.

Posted by: Steve | May 3, 2008 12:28 AM

I saw that on Numb3rs tonight. I loved when Larry was told to choose between "Hitler's science" and a cult. But I missed House. What was the attack?

Good on them.

Posted by: Hermagoras | May 3, 2008 12:41 AM

They're new? They're pointed? [whimper] I have to wait until the rest of the household can also watch. I love having a DVR, but sometimes delaying gratification just isn't that...gratifying.

Posted by: Stephanie Z | May 3, 2008 12:50 AM

I... ugh... better watch...

Posted by: Aerik | May 3, 2008 2:25 AM

Also, Ben Stein was runner-up "worst person in the world" on Keith Olbermann the other night.

Posted by: Kurt | May 3, 2008 10:41 AM

Kurt: Right, I forgot to mention that!

Posted by: Greg Laden | May 3, 2008 11:07 AM

The attack on Stein was thinly veiled? I thought it couldn't have been clearer if they'd turned toward the camera and said; "Yeah, we're talkin' to you, Ben Stein!"

Which is to say, I loved it. Numb3rs is a schmaltzy show but it's a voice in favor of reason and rationality. As is House.

Posted by: decrepitoldfool | May 3, 2008 11:25 AM

Caught House the other day and was pleasantly surprised by the slight comment in passing. I was kind of hoping it would be the main theme of the episode but no such luck. Would be interesting to see how Sherlock Holmes would have addressed the (ill)logical position of ID.

Posted by: gbusch | May 3, 2008 6:06 PM

"Would be interesting to see how Sherlock Holmes would have addressed the (ill)logical position of ID." I suspect that it would be funny, but not quite what you expect. My evidence follows.

"His ignorance was as remarkable as his knowledge. Of contemporary literature, philosophy and politics he appeared to know next to nothing. Upon my quoting Thomas Carlyle, he inquired in the naivest way who he might be and what he had done. My surprise reached a climax, however, when I found incidentally that he was ignorant of the Copernican Theory and of the composition of the Solar System. That any civilized human being in this nineteenth century should not be aware that the earth travelled round the sun appeared to be to me such an extraordinary fact that I could hardly realize it."

Watson, describing Holmes in "A Study in Scarlet"

Posted by: Jonathan Vos Post | May 3, 2008 8:32 PM

Would be interesting to see how Sherlock Holmes would have addressed the (ill)logical position of ID.

Hm. Given that Doyle was one of the die-hard believers in the Cottingley fairies hoax, I'm not so confident that Doyle would write Holmes as dismissing ID.

Posted by: Skemono | May 3, 2008 11:30 PM