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Ben Stein has had an interesting career so far: law professor, economics writer, Nixon speechwriter, Nixon apologist, television show host and movie actor (you might recall his famous scene from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off in which he talks about “voodoo economics” and the Laffer curve, boring his class to sleep), and it’s going to remain interesting — if dead wrong — for some time, thanks to the upcoming release of the “documentary” in which he appears: Expelled, a film that claims that “Big Science” is squelching the theory that he feels is correct: that of Intelligent Design. The movie goes to some incredible lengths to discredit “Darwinism” (the code word that ID proponents use for the theory of evolution), right up to blaming evolution for things like the Holocaust and Planned Parenthood. Its release date is April 18th, the date on which Charles Darwin (the central figure in the movie’s demonology) died.

Here’s the extended trailer (7 minutes and 36 seconds) for Expelled:

And here’s the short version:

There’s an article in Scientific American on Expelled that’s worth reading: Ben Stein’s Expelled: No Integrity Displayed. It does a pretty good job of explaining the bunk in the film, most notably the bit about the theory of evolution leading to the Holocaust:

The most deplorable dishonesty of Expelled, however, is that it says evolution was one influence on the Holocaust without acknowledging any of the other major ones for context. Rankings of races and ethnic groups into a hierarchy long preceded Darwin and the theory of evolution, and were usually tied to the Christian philosophical notion of a “great chain of being.” The economic ruin of the Weimar Republic left many Germans itching to find someone to blame for their misfortune, and the Jews and other ethnic groups were convenient scapegoats. The roots of European anti-Semitism go back to the end of the Roman Empire. Organized attacks and local exterminations of the Jews were perpetrated during the Crusades and the Black Plague. The Russian empire committed many attacks on the Jews in the 19th and early 20th century, giving rise to the word “pogrom.” Profound anti-Semitism even pollutes the works of the father of the Protestant Reformation, Martin Luther, who reviled them in On the Jews and Their Lies and wrote, “We are at fault in not slaying them.” I don’t think Protestantism is accountable for the Holocaust, either, but whose ideas were most Lutheran Germans of the 1930s more familiar with: Darwin’s or Luther’s?

I’ll watch the film once it’s leaked onto BitTorrent; I’d rather not encourage Stein and company by giving them any money.

On that note, I’ll leave you with this still from Family Guy:

I’ve been asked a number of questions in response to the previous post, CPAP (or: Snorkeling While I Sleep), both via the comments and email. I’ll answer them over a few posts.

Mike asked this question:

I sleep on my side, and usually turn to the other side at least once during the night.

I may need a similar device, and one thing that concerns me is will I still be able to do that? That is, is the hose long and flexible enough to sleep on your side, facing the inside of the bed?

I thought I’d help mike out by taking a photograph of how I’ve got the CPAP machine set up in my room, with the hose reaching over the pillow to show its reach. Keep in mind that the pillow in the photo is a king-size pillow (in accordance with my rock and roll lifestyle, we have a king-size bed):

If you sleep on your side (I prefer to sleep on my right side, and I sleep on the right side of the bed), you need to find a mask that will accommodate that position. The one I have flexes a little; it also allows the hose to be positioned at any angle.

Apparently it’s Poetry Month. I like annoying poetry fans with my follow-up to Audre Lorde’s oft over-quoted line, “Poetry is not a luxury”: “Yeah, luxuries are things people want and are willing to pay big bucks for.”

But seriously, folks…the reason I like the tiger warning sign below is that it has more poetry than a sign that simply says “Danger: Tiger”.

Photo courtesy of Miss Fipi Lele.

Over at VidKing, the celebrity blog where I’m acting as interim manager, there’s a whole whack of new celebrity videos every day. Give it a peek over your lunch or coffee break!

If you’d like updates on choice videos on VidKing, you can follow Vidking on Twitter.

(And yes, we’ve got that scene from the upcoming film War Inc. where Hilary Duff drops a scorpion down her pants and a teenage Vin Diesel showing off his fresh moves in an old breakdancing video. You can’t say I never did nuthin’ for ya.)

Tay Zonday gives Chris Crocker some chocolate pain.

… you can catch up on celebrity videos including this scene — from the latest South Park — where internet celebrities duke it out.

You might know him as Andrew McCallum of Tucows tech support (and he was recently promoted to a technical communications position) or as “Mental Floss”, DJ and composer of electronica. He’s a great guy, and when I joined Tucows back in 2003, he was one of the first people I got to know there.

His family reports that he was in a serious accident on the morning of Saturday, April 5th. He was rushed to the hospital with severe trauma and underwent extensive surgery. He is in critical condition and is now being stabilized. The doctors have said that the critical period for him runs from the time he was admitted to the hospital to around Tuesday evening.

Andrew’s brother reported this morning:

The staff at the ICU are regularly testing Andrew’s awareness. Andrew is apparently reacting to some stimulus, although I’m told that at this point it’s all involuntary. Nonetheless, this is a good sign, as I understand it. Keep the prayers coming.

Hang in there, Andrew, we’re all rooting for you.

(If you’d like to keep up with news about Andrew, the best place to do so in on the Facebook page titled “Andrew McCallum is in the Hospital”.