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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