…and this is a 
I always aim to misbehave
Category: Creationism
Posted on: March 28, 2008 5:45 PM, by PZ Myers
Some of you know that the producers of Expelled had a conference call this afternoon…a carefully controlled, closed environment in which they would spout their nonsense and only take questions by email. I listened to it for a while, and yeah, it was the usual run-around. However, I dialed in a few minutes early, and got to listen to a tiresome five minutes of Leslie and Paul chatting away, during which time they mentioned the secret code (DUNH DUNH DUNNNNH!) for the two way calls. I know. Sloppy, unprofessional, and stupid, but that's the way they work.
So … I redialed. (DUNH DUNH DUNNNNH!)
Then I listened along quietly until I could take no more.
They repeated the usual lies (the Minneapolis event was a private screening [which was publicly linked on the web, where any idiot could get to it]; their blog was #1 on blogpulse [near as I can tell, it wasn't—it was my exposure of their hypocrisy that was #1]; they didn't lie to get interviews [totally bogus], etc.). They made amusing contradictions. Walt Ruloff first claims that the genesis of the movie was in 2006, when he claims to have started investigating biotechnology and discovered that there are "questions that can't be asked" and that people were suppressing information that called Darwinism into doubt — note, though, that he never stated what those unnameable questions are. A moment later Mark Mathis comes on to say that the subject of the film was a work in progress, that they hadn't settled anything, and that the name wasn't even decided upon. Come on, they registered expelledthemovie.com in early 2007, well before they asked us to be interviewed.
They threw out a bunch of softball questions to Ben Stein: "How can you be so intelligent and question Darwinism?", I kid you not.
One good question got through on email: KMOX radio contested the claim that there was no distortion of the interviews of Dawkins and Myers because they surrounded the interviews with film clips of Nazis — I think it's obvious how they were trying to bias the discussion, and I was floored by Stein's reply. He wanted more goose-stepping Nazis all over the place.
This was all a great deal to stomach, but I restrained myself. Then Mathis really started to lie: he said that all anybody ever blogged about was distractions, and several times he claimed that we never addressed the content of the movie. Let's set aside the rank hypocrisy of expelling the people interviewed in the movie from screenings so we couldn't see it; it's simply not true. We have blogged extensively on the ridiculous premise at the heart of the movie, that the Holocaust was a consequence of evolutionary theory.
Here's one of my entries in this subject.
Here's Richard Dawkins' review, which discusses the bogus Nazi connection quite a bit. Josh Timonen, of the RDF, also saw the movie.
John Wilkins has an excellent post on Darwinism and racism.
The Panda's Thumb has discussed the false connection several times.
So I interrupted. I said, in essence, hang on -- you guys are spinning out a lot of lies here, you should be called on it. I gave a quick gloss on it, and said that, for instance, anti-semitism has a long history in Germany that preceded Darwin, and that they ought to look up the word "pogrom". There was some mad rustling and flustering about on the other side of the phone some complaints, etc., and then one of them asked me to do the honorable thing and hang up…so I said yes, I would do the honorable thing and hang up while they continued the dishonorable thing and continued to lie.
Then I announced that if any reporters were listening in, they could contact me at pzmyers@gmail.com and I'd be happy to talk to them.
So excuse me, I've got a few dozen emails in my inbox right now.
More accounts of the press conference:
Comments
What a wonderful way to start the weekend. I think my Laughing woke the cat.
Posted by: Graculus | March 28, 2008 5:53 PM
That was beautiful. Just beautiful.
I think the Expelled guys will be checking under their beds tonight, just in case you're planning to leap out and savage them with reasoned argument once they're drifting off to sleep.
Posted by: Anton Mates | March 28, 2008 5:54 PM
They are the gift that keeps on giving, aren't they?
Posted by: thalarctos | March 28, 2008 5:56 PM
Cue Mooney/Nisbet hissy fit in 5, 4, 3...
Posted by: Cain | March 28, 2008 5:57 PM
I think I'm going to get a pet squid and name it PZMyers.
Posted by: Frac | March 28, 2008 5:58 PM
Posted by: Stanton | March 28, 2008 5:58 PM
That was the best part. "Uh, we don't seem to be quite as good at Expelling people as the Darwinist atheist Nazist agenda, so could you please Expel yourself just to be nice?"
The headlines write themselves.
"Expelled Makers Repeatedly Attempt To Expel Opponents, Fail"
Posted by: Anton Mates | March 28, 2008 5:58 PM
PZ, I humbly bow before your brilliance.
Posted by: Bill | March 28, 2008 5:59 PM
sotto voce: We're here on the set of Expelled, and we've secretly swapped the entire cast's supply of multivitamins with these "Superasshattery Plus" multi-stupidity pills.
Let's watch and see if they can tell the difference...
Posted by: trog69 | March 28, 2008 6:00 PM
Cue Matt Nisbet clutching his pearls in 3..2...1....
Posted by: Graculus | March 28, 2008 6:00 PM
PZ, it must be asked - do you have a good podiatrist? For I imagine your foot must surely be starting to hurt pretty bad from the sheer volume of asses you're kicking.
Posted by: Rheinhard | March 28, 2008 6:01 PM
That will teach them to use their ultra-secret decoder rings next time!
Lovely, hilarious!
Posted by: DiEb | March 28, 2008 6:01 PM
Well, this strikes me as a bit different from the theater expulsion, but I can't see too much wrong with it. You're moving the discussion to the open.
Posted by: Bronze Dog | March 28, 2008 6:04 PM
That is so funny. I swear, if I weren't married, I'd marry you. Well, and if I were gay. ...and if gay marriage weren't illegal...
Posted by: jonathan | March 28, 2008 6:06 PM
Secret code? So that's how DNA works...
Posted by: danley | March 28, 2008 6:07 PM
They repeated the usual lies (the Minneapolis event was a private screening [which was publicly linked on the web, where any idiot could get to it];
Well, DaveScot, private eye, has figured out where Glen (and thus I) got that link - from a Christian blog on blogger. But that doesn't make the information public, no siree! To quote somebody at Uncommon Descent, look at the URL! Can't you see that the word "special" is in it? ;-)
J-Dog openly asked if I was going to invite you, PZ. I mean, maybe if Expelled writer Kevin Miller hadn't run away from our questions in that forum he would not have been taken so unawares.
Troy Britain was invited, and after shelling out 10 clams all he got was the pre-movie cartoon. So there you are. Damned if we do, damned if we don't.
Posted by: Kristine | March 28, 2008 6:11 PM
Here's another interview from Mathis:
Yeah, funny that. You'd think the public would be aware of a
materialist, atheistic agenda pushed by pastors and priests, people
from all religions, cultures, and perspectives--since that seems so
unlikely and unbelievable. But they're just not, they tend to think
that if religious and irreligious folk alike can agree on chemistry,
biology, and physics, that it's just chemistry, biology, and physics.
It takes a real dedicated religious moron to assume that the science
done in Catholic schools is part of the materialist, atheistic agenda,
and that heroic dedicated religious moron is Mark Mathis.
Let's see, dishonest Mark, Stein has already told us that this is a
free society, which he attributed to capitalism. And having this free
society will ultimately show us the truth? Looks like it already did,
which is why you want an unfree society to enforce your lies into the
curricula and into the science labs.
And gee, Mark, you're not going to persuade anyone who's well-
educated, including the many religious academics? Why not? Don't you
have any truth to tell us? I'd think that if you had any truth, you'd
be able to persuade some people. What's the point of merely
persuading those who don't know enough to judge? Money and
propaganda? 'Fraid so.
"...People who believe in God will have a strong interest in seeing
this film."
Ooh, you just contradicted yourself there, idiot boy. You said that
the academic elites wouldn't be interested, and a significant number
of those happen to be religious folk (like at the Catholic university
I attended for a couple of years). The intersection between religious
folk and "academic elites" just happens to make a contradictory claim
by you, hence you're lying once again.
Then again, do you ever cease to lie in your interviews, Mathis?
Glen Davidson
http://tinyurl.com/2kxyc7
Posted by: Glen Davidson | March 28, 2008 6:14 PM
You terribly discourteous hate-crasher you... er, phone and gate-crasher I mean.
I predict poor ole' DaveTard will be all up in arms over how impolite you were and how that conference call was oh-so-secret and private.
Posted by: Ric | March 28, 2008 6:14 PM
Hitler was an aryan jesus trying to cleanse the world of money lenders. Ben Stein is a frumpy idiot trying the cleanse the world of reason.
Posted by: danley | March 28, 2008 6:14 PM
Yeah, they're going to whine good about this one, but it was worth it. F those liars. The truth will out, for PZ is the ghost in the machine!
Posted by: H.H. | March 28, 2008 6:14 PM
Seems that they've been attacked by the intelligent, educated segment of the culture...
Posted by: bcpmoon | March 28, 2008 6:14 PM
PZ Myers, I love you.
Posted by: Adam | March 28, 2008 6:16 PM
Ben Stein? The Ben Stein of TV and advertising fame?
I do hope his reasoning is better about economics than about evolution.
What a cred shredder.
Posted by: jawbone | March 28, 2008 6:17 PM
I wrote a follow up to the above (mostly) cross post (Talkorigins):
Glen D
http://tinyurl.com/2kxyc7
Posted by: Glen Davidson | March 28, 2008 6:17 PM
Anton Mates wrote:
PZ,
You know, you could make some money now selling PZ masks to scare Ben Stein and cohorts with.
Posted by: Norman Doering | March 28, 2008 6:17 PM
Incredible!!! What will he do next? Will he catch Ben Stein beating off a poodle?
You are truly the greatest thorn (perhaps machete) in their sides.
Posted by: Steve Ulven | March 28, 2008 6:18 PM
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA (gasp)
Sorry, but the image of the expressions on their faces when your voice butted in on their wankfest--
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA (whoop!)
Sorry again, but the imagined sounds of them clustered around their tech guy, frantically trying to expel you from their phone lines --
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA (I really have to stop or I'll throw up!)
Seriously PZ, have you *ever* in your life met such a group of *magnificently incompetent* liars -- the kind who hold themselves up to public ridicule again and again and again and again . . . ?
Kudos for the weekend, at any rate. Rather than be worried about your foot being sore from kicking asses, I'm worried that your (metaphorical) hands are sore from ripping new ones (ripripripripripripHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!)
Posted by: Hairhead | March 28, 2008 6:19 PM
Awesome.
Posted by: Beth | March 28, 2008 6:20 PM
You go girl!
Posted by: Moses | March 28, 2008 6:21 PM
Norman wrote: "You know, you could make some money now selling PZ masks to scare Ben Stein and cohorts with."
I picture an Expelled screening being overwhelmed with a bunch of identically clad PZ-masked protesters; kind of like the end of "V for Vendetta" (the movie). Instead of wearing capes with the mask, though, everyone will be wearing those tentacle-arm thingys...
Posted by: gg | March 28, 2008 6:21 PM
PZ:
I think it's obvious how they were trying to bias the discussion, and I was floored by Stein's reply. He wanted more goose-stepping Nazis all over the place.
If anyone needed any more proof as to the quality of pompous asshat we're dealing with in both Stein and Mathis, it's this.
Is there any possibility that - in a rare moment of actual self-reflection - one of these two goofs is going to come to the conclusion that exceedingly crude agitprop like Expelled makes them look more like disciples of Goebbels and not the horrible, horrible "Darwinists" they're trying to cover in this offal of theirs?
Posted by: Chris Krolczyk | March 28, 2008 6:21 PM
Since I can't stomach the idea of going to their sites, any word yet from Mooney/Nisbet?
Oh, I forgot to say, way to go PZ.
Posted by: rmp | March 28, 2008 6:22 PM
If the producers of a pro-evolution anti-creationism movie were doing a radio interview, and they were told that someone like Ken Ham was on the phone, and wanted to talk -- the likelihood is that they'd be thrilled. Put him on!
Posted by: Sastra | March 28, 2008 6:22 PM
As a lurker, I had to come out from under my little rock and say, all a-tremble, "PZ, maaaaaaaay heeeeerooooo!." And to the rest of you posters, I can't adequately express how much joy you have given me over the last week or so.
(I think I want a PZ mask for when 'Expelled' hits Chicago)!
Keep up the good fight!
Posted by: mezzobuff | March 28, 2008 6:25 PM
mezzobuff, didn't you get the memo? We're supposed to keep low. Shhhhhhhhh.
Posted by: rmp | March 28, 2008 6:27 PM
I'm beginning to wonder if, pompous self-promoter that he is, Ben Stein isn't beginning to regret his involvement with this project. After all, he claims to be promoting academic dissent but he's working on behalf of people who are doing everything they can to suppress dissent. Surely the irony isn't lost on even a tool like Ben Stein.
Posted by: Christopher Waldrop | March 28, 2008 6:28 PM
PZ, thanks, that was fantastic. The squid's tentacles are EVERYWHERE!
Posted by: True Bob | March 28, 2008 6:30 PM
Priceless! I got a mental picture from the old 'Super Friends' series, with PZ popping up on their giant video screen to taunt them, ala Legion of Doom.
Of course, the analogy breaks down there, seeing as the Expellers are the incompetent bad guys and PZ is the benevolent hero, instead of there being two equally incompetent groups of supers.
But what a Super-Villain he would make in a world controlled by Creationist Superheroes.
Sign me up for one of your undoubtedly-squid-related-uniformed minions.
Posted by: longstreet63 | March 28, 2008 6:32 PM
I'm with Norman at #25. If you do decide to go for the mask idea, I want one. In fact I want a hundred. Then I can organize a parade. That'll give them nightmares.
Posted by: makita | March 28, 2008 6:33 PM
Does the title of this post identify you as a Firefly fan, PZ?
Posted by: James | March 28, 2008 6:34 PM
First you smuggled Richard Dawkins in disguised as a pillar of smoke... then you used your atheist magic to call in on a line you should have had no knowledge of (who told you, huh? huh?)...
Maybe they should start asking themselves whose side God is on, already. Heh.
Posted by: speedwell | March 28, 2008 6:34 PM
I think it is clear that they're really far too stupid to do anything but fuck up the PR efforts again and again.
Mathis probably actually thinks that ID is being suppressed. It is hard to tell, since he's so dishonest. Still, I think it's not a surface dishonesty, it's a dishonesty that goes to the "depth" of his soul, a dishonesty that is enhanced by his stupidity, and vice versa.
They'll just go on lying, wherever they are, because they seem to be truly wedded to their Big Lies, that poor little Xians are being persecuted by evil atheists like Ken Miller, and any ancillary and auxiliary lies that they have used to prop up the Big Lies are equally non-expendable.
All halfway competent movie and science reviewers will simply shred their nonsense in the mainstream media. Mainline Xians won't be able to stomach any of this junk, and probably some of the more sensible evangelicals will reluctantly distance themselves from their web of lies. The Ann Coulter fundies will applaud no matter what, of course, but so what? That will just alienate anybody to the left of Coulter herself, which so far is most of America (crossing fingers for the future).
I do wish Coulter would get on board with them. Is Mathis actually concerned about her endorsement, that we haven't gotten a review from her yet? Come on Mathis, I'd love to see Coulter "boosting" your film, indicating to everyone that this is a film for authoritarian bigots.
Glen D
http://tinyurl.com/2kxyc7
Posted by: Glen Davidson | March 28, 2008 6:34 PM
longstreet63: Perhaps PZ as a cephalopod version of The Monarch, complete with henchmen?
Posted by: James F | March 28, 2008 6:35 PM
mezzobuff wrote:
This could be the next "Plan 9 from Outer Space."
Posted by: Norman Doering | March 28, 2008 6:35 PM
Too funny!
What a great way to start my weekend.
Keep it up, PZ
Posted by: Scott Campbell | March 28, 2008 6:36 PM
Hate to be a downer about this but PZ should really REALLY talk to a lawyer immediately about this...
"...during which time they mentioned the secret code (DUNH DUNH DUNNNNH!) for the two way calls. I know. Sloppy, unprofessional, and stupid, but that's the way they work.
So ? I redialed. (DUNH DUNH DUNNNNH!)..."
You may have actually violated several federal telecom laws designed to stop "phone phreaking" etc. It would be best to be informed of your legal standing, prior to having the wingnut's lawyers chasing you around with a federal indictment.
Posted by: mystikphish | March 28, 2008 6:36 PM
P3WNED!
Truly classic. Keep up the good work.
Posted by: eyesoars | March 28, 2008 6:38 PM
I have been wrong all along, there is a god-tentacled and omnipresent. His name is PZed. All hail.
Posted by: Dale Austin | March 28, 2008 6:38 PM
So is it going to be better not to go to the film (because you are giving them money) or show up in a PZ mask?
Is there a link to suitable PZ mask photo?
Chris P
Posted by: Chris P | March 28, 2008 6:40 PM
JamesF:
Well, as long as he's a competent one.
I'm sure there's a doomsday device on PZ's desk, or at least the plans, probably off to the side under a bunch of ungraded papers.
If not, I guess he could order one from Acme.
And I feel certain he will carefull review the Evil Overlord list.
Posted by: longstreet63 | March 28, 2008 6:42 PM
You rock. Totally and completely.
@#30: Hell yeah! That would be awesome... I read it and just started giggling uncontrollably.
Posted by: Seamyst | March 28, 2008 6:42 PM
I am a huge Firefly fan.
Yeah, they could complain...but note that Mark Mathis tried to argue with me on the phone, and Paul Lauer told me to let the interview go on and that they'd call on me if necessary. Alas, I just hung up on them. I could see where they were going with it all.
Posted by: PZ Myers | March 28, 2008 6:43 PM
While this is amusing, I think calling in and using a presenter access code on a conference event bridge that they've incompetently exposed is not much different from logging in to an account where they've incompetently exposed their username and password. Depending on the applicable state computer crime laws, it could even be illegal, though I think they'd be fools to press charges.
Posted by: Jim Lippard | March 28, 2008 6:43 PM
Chris P wrote: "Is there a link to suitable PZ mask photo?"
Maybe we could all dress up like this. :)
Posted by: gg | March 28, 2008 6:43 PM
fantastic! This is turning into such an utter fiasco I wonder if any IDers will have enough integrity to try to dissassociate themselved from the project. Its too funny that to protect themselved from the elitists who are supressing free inquiry they have to so meticulously control any contrary opinions expressed in their venues.
Is the audio clip available anywhere?
Posted by: bwv | March 28, 2008 6:45 PM
Oh my. They're such bubble babies! They can't handle anything outside their comfort zone, yet they're perfectly content to throw stones at those who live to burst bubbles.
I bet they wet themselves when they heard you on the line.
Posted by: Contrarian | March 28, 2008 6:46 PM
Man, if you could do masks online that everyone at the next Expelled could be wearing, that would be hysterical! Take a picture of your face full on and post it so people can print it and wear it.
Posted by: K | March 28, 2008 6:49 PM
The thing that really set off my irony meter was Mathis' complaint that people were commenting on "distractions" instead of the content of the film, when they'd been making people at screenings sign non-disclosure agreements. Even aside from the fact that it was completely untrue, the way that they've been actively trying to prevent people from commenting on the content really takes it over the edge.
Posted by: Midnight Rambler | March 28, 2008 6:50 PM
Well, I think it is obvious that the current phone crash was not to be found on a public place, so I suspect that PZ was tipped of by one of the participants, if not indirectly by the producers themselves, in order to generate more publicity. What I hope is that PZ has taped the exchange, although I think it would not be wise to publish that, but it is good ammunition when they peddle lies about the conference call.
But my weekend started out VERY well!
Posted by: Kim | March 28, 2008 6:50 PM
The only thing that I can think of that describes how secretive and scared they are to face open criticism is...
"Oh what a tangled web we weave, When first we practice to deceive" Sir Walter Scott
Posted by: George | March 28, 2008 6:50 PM
"(I think I want a PZ mask for when 'Expelled' hits Chicago)!"
Me, too!
Posted by: Nerdette | March 28, 2008 6:51 PM
The hint of prosecution in some comments above is, I think, foolish. Mathis et al. have shot themselves in the foot (and head) so often they may be learning. It would be a PR fiasco of (ahem) biblical proportions to proceed. That said, I pledge $500 to the PZ defense fund-I'll give up my cable if I have to. This is comedy gold-better than anything I get from television.
Posted by: Dale Austin | March 28, 2008 6:52 PM
Terrible framing.
How do you like them apples, Mr Nisbet?
Posted by: Torbjörn Larsson, OM | March 28, 2008 6:52 PM
Awesome stuff... I can hardly wait to see this film. I may have to do the "wrong ticket" thing, but I'm definately seeing it. I do truly love the debate, and more importantly, I like being on the winning team.
Posted by: Jeffery Keown | March 28, 2008 6:53 PM
So, where's the mp3 of the call ?
Posted by: Gib | March 28, 2008 6:54 PM
to jonathan,
I don't think gay marriage is illegal in too many places it doesn't exist.
Posted by: George | March 28, 2008 6:55 PM
I think the burden of proof would be on them to show he knew the code was only for presenters.
On the other hand, I could definitely see these morons trying to slap him with some sort of stalking charge.
Posted by: xebecs | March 28, 2008 6:56 PM
Tilting at windmills, are we? PZ responded to the following:
I don't see the problem. PZ Myers is in the media, and he does get money for writing this blog, so he's even "professional." If I were doing his taxes, I'd classify him as I do my professional bloggers (yes, I have two, one writes for a national sports website and makes about $50K a year) -- independent writer.
OTOH, I love the "do the honorable thing." Let's see, they lie, they cheat, they're completely without honor. Yet they want other to act with "honor."
What a bunch of tools.
Posted by: Moses | March 28, 2008 6:56 PM
"Mathis: People who care about freedom. People who are sick and tired of elitists dictate to them what truth is,... Having a free society will ultimately show us the truth."
So here it is, we will know the truth if we let non elitist scientists teach us their non elitist theories. You know, the kind that gets its degrees from diploma-mills.
Freedom, what will be done in your name ?
Posted by: negentropyeater | March 28, 2008 6:56 PM
Is there any chance that we could turn a phone phreaking trial into the next monkey trial?
Not in court, obviously, but in the media
Posted by: Wazza | March 28, 2008 6:57 PM
"The only thing that I can think of that describes how secretive and scared they are to face open criticism is...
"Oh what a tangled web we weave, When first we practice to deceive" Sir Walter Scott" - George
Someone, I don't know who, capped this with:
"But when we've practised for a while, how greatly we improve our style!"
- But this clearly doesn't apply to the IDiots.
Posted by: Nick Gotts | March 28, 2008 6:59 PM
Lies is all you can expect from this people . I am angrily waiting for a pirate copy of this to show up down here just to have a proper basis for my judgments , because I'm not giving them 1 penny of my pocket.
Posted by: allkom | March 28, 2008 7:00 PM
I guess next time you are going to have to wear a Ken Ham disguise to get into their lair, or possibly walk in backwards whistling innocently, or possibly shout "Look! Over there!" and slip in while they are looking away...
Personally I think that they are annoyed that their ploy of linking alledgedly 'expelled' academics with the "Academic Freedom Act" is becoming derailled by their own incompetence in overcooking the Darwin/Hitler smear.
Keep up the good work!
Posted by: DiscoveredJoys | March 28, 2008 7:01 PM
I'm thinking Mathis et al are wishing they'd never interviewed one Professor P.Z. Myers right about now. Methinks they screwed with the wrong atheist academic.
Posted by: Steve Fisher | March 28, 2008 7:01 PM
I am envisioning a scene from Spartacus...
After the army of evolutionists, led by PZ is defeated in battle by legions of the ID army, an ID general stands before the captured surviving members of the evo-army and demands that they turn over PZ, or else all of the evolutonists will be executed. Upon hearing this and not wanting his friends to be executed, PZ stands up and says "I am PZ Meyers." However, the loyalty of his friends is so great that each of them stands forward in succession, shouting "I am PZ Meyers!" until the shouts dissolve into a cacophony of thousands of evolutionists each insisting "I am PZ!..."
Oh, wait, I think I have to change the ending to a more happy one... oh and I don't like the beginning either, really. Damn.
(And I still want a PZ mask)
Posted by: mezzobuff | March 28, 2008 7:03 PM
He's not, his timing is off.
Posted by: Moses | March 28, 2008 7:04 PM
@ #11
Nah! They're all big fat asses. They have the pain, not PZ.
Posted by: chezjake | March 28, 2008 7:05 PM
I'm late to the comment gallery, but...
PZ, you're my hero!!
Posted by: Jen | March 28, 2008 7:07 PM
The Call of PZ!
Two keyboards lost due to spewing hot cocoa while reading your blog. Priceless. Ditto, two consecutive Friday meltdowns.
I am glad you've decided to use your invisibility, time traveling, and omnipresence/telepathy powers only for good. If I ever write a sprawling, epic horror/fantasy novel about a giant, all-powerful cephalopod from outside our dimension and time, I will name it PZ.
Posted by: Ra-Ul | March 28, 2008 7:08 PM
I just got banned from the blog that reported the call:
http://www.thinkingchristian.net
I tried to log on again and got this:
I linked this:
http://normdoering.blogspot.com/2007/04/if-hitler-was-darwinist.html
Posted by: Norman Doering | March 28, 2008 7:08 PM
For those who asked about recording the press conference call, in some states recording of telephone calls without the consent of all parties is illegal. Laws very from state to state, so it is always prudent to check first.
Posted by: Brad Hudson | March 28, 2008 7:10 PM
Classic insurgency tactic. Infiltrate, then declare "all your base are belong to us"!
Posted by: Lee Brimmicombe-Wood | March 28, 2008 7:11 PM
"Incredible!!! What will he do next? Will he catch Ben Stein beating off a poodle?"
If he does, Portal of Evil will be right on it, with "OMG HE'S A DIRTY FURRY I KNEW IT" comments trailing fast behind. Speaking of which, Jon Best/Fore Sam's blog made the list.
http://friends.portalofevil.com/sfs.php?si=3&fi=000041699
Posted by: Laser Potato | March 28, 2008 7:13 PM
#52 PZ wrote:
Adam Baldwin, Jewel Staite, and Morena Baccarin are coming to Dragon*Con, PZ! Skeptics Track (James Randi, Michael Shermer, Phil Plait, and more) is ready for ya! :-D
Posted by: J | March 28, 2008 7:15 PM
Actually, what PZ did is what I'd expect from any good journalist calling in to this phone conference : question the validity of the claims.
"As one of our appreciated media partners, Motive Entertainment cordially invites you to join a special, nationwide "conference call"..."
Well, I guess this PZ, disqualifies you as an "appreciated media partner". Actually, what you did is what I'd expect from any good journalist calling in to this phone conference : question the validity of the claims. Ah but Ben Stein probably remembers well from Nixon, those journalists can be real pain in the ass...
Posted by: negentropyeater | March 28, 2008 7:18 PM
I don't know whose response it was (to something else), but when asked if someone was shooting themselves in the foot, they replied, "No, I think they're aiming a little higher up and closer to the centerline."
When these people keep talking, I keep laughing, but then I realize that lots of people think exactly like the producers of this atrocity and I grieve.
Posted by: Hap | March 28, 2008 7:18 PM
ROFL! Oh, PZ, that's too good. What buffoons!
Posted by: CrypticLife | March 28, 2008 7:19 PM
Well, logging in to the call might not be illegal, but recording it might be depending on the laws of MN.
In NY it would be ok, only one party has to know of the taping. But if in MN the law is that all parties must be aware, then taping would be a no-no. Not that I wouldnt have taped it myself.
Posted by: craig | March 28, 2008 7:21 PM