Expelled - The Movie

Norma and I went to see Expelled last night.

My reactions: It was pretty good, but it could have been great.

Ben Stein is an incredibly intelligent man, but he resorted to Michael Moore-like tactics in his film. He made himself look stupid on one occasion in particular, and made the people who didn't agree with him look stupid on a number of occasions.

In one particular case, he was talking to a scientist with a definite naturalistic worldview, and asking about how life began from some goo. The scientist said that one theory (among many) is that the molecules necessary for life were attached to crystals as they grew. In any case where crystals grow, there are "mistakes", and these "mistakes" could account for certain molecules getting together in particular ways. OK, I'll agree that this is patently stupid, but it doesn't bolster Mr. Stein's argument in any way when the film cuts from this interview to a clip of a fortune teller gazing into a crystal ball. It's a blatant attempt to make the scientist appear goofy, which he did quite well on his own.

The link between a naturalistic paradigm and the horrors of Nazi Germany was explored in great (if somewhat graphic) detail, and it's probably that part that earned the film a PG rating. Still, it was nothing adults shouldn't see. In fact, it is precisely the sort of thing adults need to see.

I'm still digesting what I saw. I won't recommend against seeing the film, I just feel that it could have been done with a bit more class. Mr. Stein has seen too many Michael Moore movies, I fear.

PS: I used my CB&G gift certificate yesterday to buy two books:
The Case for a Creator by Lee Strobel
Darwin's Black Box by Michael J. Behe
I'm already a third of the way through Strobel's book. Expect a review soon.

Mitt Romney's Top 10 list

Mitt Romney's Top 10 List of reasons for quitting the race for US President, as he gave them at yesterday's Radio and Television Correspondents Association annual awards dinner:

10. There weren't as many Osmonds as I had thought.

9. I got tired of the corkscrew landings under sniper fire.

8. As a life-long hunter, I didn't want to miss the start of varmint season.

7. There wasn't room in the campaign for two Christian leaders.

6. Word leaked out that nobody had bothered to search my passport files.

5. I'd rather get fat, grow a beard, and try for the Nobel Prize.

4. I wanted to finally take off the dark suit and tie and kick back, in a light-colored suit and tie.

3. Once my wife Ann realized I couldn't win, my fund-raising dried up.

2. I took a bad fall at a campaign rally and broke my hair.

1. There was a flaw in our campaign theory that as Utah goes, so goes the nation.



Source: Deseret News website, which cites youtube.com as their source.

Off the Bottle?

From Business Week magazine, April 14, 2008, page 47:

Many people drink bottled water because they deem it superior to the stuff that comes out of the faucet. Wrong, argues Food & Water Watch, a Washington (D. C.)-based non profit dedicated to consumer rights. In a report last year, the group blasted bottled water, declaring that Americans "think it is somehow safer or better than tap water ... but it is generally no cleaner, or safer, or healthier than tap water. In fact, the federal government requires far more rigorous and frequent safety testing and monitoring of municipal drinking water."
Americans drank 31.2 billion liters of bottled water last year. And the Pacific Institute, an Oakland (Calif.)-based sustainability thinktank, estimates that it takes approximately 17 million barrels of oil to produce the bottles all that water comes in. That, says the institute, is enough to fuel more than 1 million cars and light trucks for a year.