I saw Ben Stein's movie, Expelled, yesterday. Ben Stein is the fellow with the monotone from the Visine commercials.

I was expecting a tiresome monotone lecture on how Charles Darwin was to blame for all of the evil in the world. I had read Richard Dawkins' review, in which he called it a "Lord Privy Seal" movie. The Lord Privy Seal is an officer of the UK Government, but the in-joke is that a poor documentarian once illustrated a reference to the Lord Privy Seal by showing cutaways of a Lord, an outdoor toilet, and a seal with a ball on its nose.

Ben Stein did use a lot of cutaways, but he did it for comic effect, in a deadpan style that alone was worth the price of admission. It was entertaining throughout, and Stein made his point with panache and style.

Surprisingly, the thesis was not an anti-Darwinian screed per se, but rather that, in America today, we suffer from a suppression of Academic Freedom, expressed and exemplied by the Darwin Mafia (my term). There exist, according to Stein, a group of bodies who have a vested interest in the suppression of any theory which calls Darwinism into question. Stein interview several well-qualified scientists, and also some Darwinians, including Professor of Philosophy Richard Dawkins.

Needless to say, the conversations are most intriguing. It is particularly noteworthy that none of the Darwinians interviewed was able to explain how inorganic material might become organic. Crystals and Panspermia were two of the suggested explanations, to my great surprise.

In my opinion, Stein made his case well, and in an extremely interesting film. I give it two thumbs, or five stars.

Watch the liberal media and the special interest groups such as moveon.org trash this movie... There is no higher power for these people that academia. They are just above the UN and the DNC on their list....

Oddly enough, Stein discusses how the media supports and colludes with Academic Thought-Police through the use of boilerplate mis-representations.

Wouldn't it be ironic if it were used against the very film that revealed the plot? Or would that merely be strange and predictable?

Watch this space for boilerplate, Folks!

Roger Ebert has issued an article on the movie expelled.

For those who remember that this film was actually made, and are interested in ... well ... somebody new to attack.

http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2008/12 ... _mind.html

Of course Michael wingnut would not approve.....anything not spoken or done right in front of him is hearsay!

I do not remember this film.