I’m too cynical about my own luck to revel in schadenfreude very often, but I don’t mind basking in this a little bit.
Ben Stein’s documentary Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, which not only tries to level the debate playing field for creationism but also force it into public schools while suggesting Darwin’s discoveries/theories led to the holocaust, is now looking for a buyer. The production company behind it, Premise Media Holdings LP, filed for bankruptcy over a year ago and is now in the liquidation part of the court-supervised proceedings. This includes selling off their most major asset, which is the film itself and everything that goes with it, “without liens or encumbrances.”
You get it all folks (if you want to read this big block of legalese)…
…”Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed” and all collateral, allied, ancillary, subsidiary and merchandising rights therein and thereto, and all properties and things of value pertaining thereto…
All rights of every kind and nature (including, without limitation, copyrights) in and to any literary, musical, dramatic or other literary material of any kind or nature upon which, in whole or in part, the Picture is or may be based,or from which it is or may be adapted or inspired or which may be or has been used or included in the Picture, including, without limitation, the Screenplay, the characters and all other scripts, scenarios, screenplays, bibles, stories,treatments, novels, outlines, books, titles, concepts, manuscripts or other properties or materials of any kind or nature, in whatever state of completion and all drafts, versions and variations thereof (all of the foregoing herein collectively referred to as the “Literary Property”);(ii) All physical properties of every kind or nature of or relating to the Picture and all versions thereof, to the extent now or hereafter in existence, including, without limitation, exposed film, developed film, positives, negatives, prints, answerprints, special effects, pre-print materials (including interpositives, negatives, duplicate negatives, internegatives, color reversals, intermediates, lavenders, finegrain master prints and matrices, and all other forms of pre-print elements which may be necessary or useful to produce prints or other copies or additional preprint elements, whether now known or hereafter devised), soundtracks, recordings, audio and video tapes and discs of all types and gauges, cutouts, trims and any and all other physical properties of every kind and nature relating tothe Picture in whatever state of completion, and all duplicates, drafts, versions,variations and copies of each thereof (all of the foregoing herein collectively referred to as the “Physical Property”).
…and you can nab it through a convenient online auction! I don’t have a URL, but the auction will begin on “June 23, 2010 and end on June 28, 2010 at 10:00 a.m., at 2323 Langford, Dallas, TX 75208.” It’s your chance to bid on and own a failed piece of propaganda!
If you’re having trouble remembering the film, this piece of shit movie was Stein’s attempt to win Intelligent Design a fair shake in the media, which spectacularly backfired and managed only to marginalize him further. The poster didn’t help. It did inspire a wonderfully put condemnation from Ebert:
“This film is cheerfully ignorant, manipulative, slanted, cherry-picks quotations, draws unwarranted conclusions, makes outrageous juxtapositions (Soviet marching troops representing opponents of ID), pussy-foots around religion (not a single identified believer among the ID people), segues between quotes that are not about the same thing, tells bald-faced lies, and makes a completely baseless association between freedom of speech and freedom to teach religion in a university class that is not about religion.
And there is worse, much worse. Toward the end of the film, we find that Stein actually did want to title it “From Darwin to Hitler.'”
Taken seriously by no one, the documentary floated out of sight while Ben Stein has continued to be spectacularly wrong about the economy in his print columns, and just generally be an asshole pundit.
None of this will phase Stein a bit as he, like our favorite failed VP candidate, narcissistically sees every attack, roadblock, or outright sign from God that they’re wrong, as just more evidence of a sweeping conspiracy to silence their rebelliously (circa-Dark-Ages) message that the public just isn’t being allowed to hear.
That’s the kind of shit “lol” was invented for.
Source | Forbes (via Awards Daily)
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5 comments
Creationism is bullshit. Intelligent design is bullshit. Spend a few years studying science, and a few more studying history. At one point I liked Ben Stein, before he started spouting all this crap. Now I wish I could erase everything except him as a teacher saying, “Bueller. Bueller. Bueller.”
“Taken seriously by no one, the documentary floated out of sight…”
I wish there were true, but I happen to know there are people who still think Expelled is strong evidence of the conspiracy against ID and proof that it’s a legitimate scientific theory (which it obviously isn’t). Like Palin and Stein, there are people out there that want to believe their delusions are the one truth that some vast movement is attempting to suppress.
Yeah, I know of too many school districts that want evolution to get only as much (or less) time in classrooms as creationism/intelligent design. My parents believe in a Christian god and also the Big Bang and evolution. My dad was a minister for a bit, and many of my other family members are ministers. None have ever told me I am wrong for believing in evolution. It makes sense. Basically, their view is that if God created a universe with laws that we can define, he did so with a purpose. And if that means we can show the age of the universe and the change of organisms over time, that was what He wanted. So if He wanted us to have evidence of His existence, he would do so. I have less of a problem with a god who sits quietly back and doesn’t do anything than one who made the world a few thousand years ago and makes it look far older.
fuck ALL that shit. One of the happiest moments in my recent life was when we received a flier from my daughters school and it was talking about how the Government curriculum suggested Bible studies and ID. I was about to go into full on rant when I read on and it continued “the board in consultation with parents have decided we will not be introducing this into our curriculum” and then cheered instead.
I have such huge pity for students who are forced to listen to this shit because some dumb fucks can’t move into the 21st century.
In closing, a quote from the Onion:
When pressed, however, he sighed heavily, and explained that thousands of years ago, tribes of nomadic desert peoples made up God because, being incapable of scientific reasoning due to caveman-like existences, they had no other way of making sense of things like sunshine, rocks and pork-transmitted trichinosis.
“They made it all up, and they were ignorant, unwashed, half-naked pre-historic barbarians,” Leobald said. “So who are you gonna believe: Carl Sagan, and the pantheon of the world’s greatest scientific and intellectual minds, or some guy who measured wealth by how many goats he had?”
I liked him on “Win Ben Stein’s Money.”
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