Access Research Network's top ten media-related intelligent design stories for 2009 #9

9. Ben Stein Expelled from the University of Vermont.

Actor, TV host, and economist Ben Stein, who hosted the 2008 film Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, learned firsthand in February 2009 what it feels like to be “expelled.” Apologizing for inviting gifted actor and writer Ben Stein to be commencement speaker at the University of Vermont, President Daniel Fogel has highlighted what he called Stein’s “highly controversial views” about “evolutionary theory, intelligent design, and the role of science in the Holocaust.” Fogel attempted to make penance for inviting Stein by claiming that “Commencement should be a time when our community gathers inclusively, not divisively.”

Some critics have noted that inclusivity must have a special meaning because in 2007 Fogel chose as commencement speaker Democratic congressman John Lewis, who in 1995 compared Republicans to Nazis. For Lewis, this was not an incidental lapse in taste. Last year Lewis compared John McCain and Sarah Palin to segregationist George Wallace and racist church bombers. Fogel’s 2006 commencement speaker was Gustavo Esteva, a far-left activist and advisor to the radical Zapatista National Liberation Army in Mexico. Says Dr. John West, Senior Fellow at Discovery Institute, “In today’s academic double-speak, invitations to far-left revolutionaries and race-baiting Congressmen are apparently “inclusive,” while inviting a speaker who favors free speech on the issue of evolution is beyond the pale.” According to reports, Stein withdrew “voluntarily,” after he received a phone call from Dr. Fogel, which many believe, made clear he was no longer welcome.

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[Okay, another one from Arrogance Central. Lots more people probably wanted to hear Ben Stein than hear the leftists helping people stay poor in the United States or Mexico. In general, I am not very political, but I must say that far leftists have a poor record for helping poor people solve their key problem: Stop being poor. Look, I am a Canadian: Picture North America as a jug with two handles. The US is in the middle. Canada is one handle; Mexico the other. We're not poor; they are. We could argue all day about the causes. But, so far as I can see, far leftism has never contributed anything to helping people stop being poor. It tends to focus on grievances, which produce nothing but resentment, instead of goods and services, which is what poor people need.]

Here's #10.

Here are the previous three years' top ten stories:

2008 Darwin and design

2007 Darwin and design

2006 Darwin and design

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