Bad Deeds for 4-17-2008

Anti-Evolution Movie Attempts to Link Belief in Evolution to Nazi Genocide – Comedian and former Nixon speechwriter Ben Stein’s new documentary movie, Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, will not open until this Friday, but it has already been widely blasted for its alleged dishonesty and looseness with the facts. The National Center for Science Education has performed an extensive investigation of the “martyrs” profiled in Stein’s file and has found a consistent pattern of misrepresentation. The makers of the movie were stole some of their cell animations from XVIVO, and other segments were ripped off from PBS.

Expelled has also come under fire for its attempt to link a belief in evolution to Nazi genocide. When its producers offered a private screening to Scientific American, hoping for some sort of positive — or at least newsworthy — reaction, editor-in-chief John Rennie was withering in his criticism. “We could simply ignore the movie,” Rennie wrote. “Unfortunately, Expelled is a movie not quite harmless enough to be ignored. Shrugging off most of the film’s attacks — all recycled from previous pro-ID works — would be easy, but its heavy-handed linkage of modern biology to the Holocaust demands a response for the sake of simple human decency.”

At Debate, ABC Ignores Real Issues – During Wednesday night’s Democratic debate, ABC completely ignored the issues that concern Americans and instead focused on minutia that is hurting the race and the American electoral process.

The ABC Debate: A Shameful Night for the U.S. Media

Bush Budget Chief Says US Needs More War Funds by June – Kind of sounds like a drug addict: “I could buy food or get health care with this money. These drugs are killing me… Na, I need more drugs!” Maybe it’s time to get rehabbed or just go cold turkey.

As Others Suffer Economically, Healthcare CEO’s Compensation Is Booming – Pay for almost all of the top 10 execs at the Blues’ Chicago-based parent, Health Care Service Corp., at least doubled in 2007 thanks to hefty bonuses, a recent state filing shows. Longtime CEO Raymond McCaskey’s $8.7-million bonus pushed his total pay to $10.3 million, up 78% from the previous year. The top 10 execs made a combined $35.8 million last year, up 131% from 2006. Executive pay at Health Care Service, which had $14.35 billion in revenue last year, dwarfs that of most other companies that own Blue Cross subsidiaries. Two large Blues plans in Pennsylvania, for example — each of which also ranks among the top 10 health insurers nationally, with about $9.5 billion in 2006 revenue apiece — paid their CEOs $3.7 million and $2.6 million last year. Cigna’s CEO received $22.7 million in 2007, up from $15.2 million in 2006.

Regards,

Jim