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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I see P.Z. Myers already has the video of Bill O'Reilly's interview with Ben Stein. But just in case you're at work and don't want to get caught watching such filth, I have taken the liberty of providing a transcript below. Read it and weep:
O'REILLY: In the unresolved problems segment tonight,…
When producers release a documentary about a public affairs topic, especially in the case of a propaganda film like Expelled, they create several natural advantages over the typical news coverage that follows a policy debate.
First, in the lead up to the release of the film, the documentary…
...as a piece of propaganda. I noticed that the local "art house" theater was screening Expelled, so I decided to check it out. There weren't many people there. It started off very heavy-handed, a montage of archetypical scenes from the Communist and Nazi regimes, but the production values…
I absolutely love this:
I've been accused of refusing to review Ben Stein's documentary "Expelled," a defense of Creationism, because of my belief in the theory of evolution. Here is my response.
Ben Stein, you hosted a TV show on which you gave away money. Imagine that I have created a special…
You best get healed. I ain't about to do no interview with Mr. Hat on the radio.
Just watched Numb3rs - great stuff, I thought. "How else would a God reveal himself but through his creation?" Heeh.
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.
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.
I... ugh... better watch...
Also, Ben Stein was runner-up "worst person in the world" on Keith Olbermann the other night.
Kurt: Right, I forgot to mention that!
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.
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.
"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"
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.