Circumcision as told by Penn and Teller

Cate Nelson — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 13:00:55 +0000

Warning! Don’t watch this video at work. Or near your chil’ens. Or if you get queasy at the thought of gratuitous phallic imagery, nudity, or “colorful” (i.e. “sounds like Cate”) language.

That disclaimer aside, I’ve come to understand what a heady topic circumcision can be! (No, I couldn’t resist the pun! And yes, I have been reading too much Cake Wrecks.)

After I wrote my initial blog exploring reasons to leave boys intact, there was a lot of “discussion” on the topic. People sure are passionate about foreskins!

1 million times a year, 3,000 times a day, every 26 seconds, an American boy has the tip of his penis cut off.

Sometimes, it’s better to just let the professionals do the talking. No, I don’t mean all of those doctors I consulted before I decided to leave my sons intact.

I’m talking, of course, about Penn and Teller, who explored circumcision on one of their “BS!” series episodes.

How about finishing up this serious topic with some humor?

Recycling is B.S.? B.S.!

Shirley Siluk Gregory — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 19:50:53 +0000

Magicians Penn and Teller are whizzes when it comes to performing offbeat, weird, funny and gross sleights of hand and other tricks. But they’re neither scientists nor fair and objective journalists (not that many of today’s so-called “mainstream” journalists are either). So it pays to view their scam- and myth-debunking efforts with a healthy dose of critical thinking.

Case in point: their Showtime channel program, “Bullshit!” I’ve watched most of the early episodes, and they’re highly entertaining, because that’s what Penn and Teller are: entertainers. But their fact-checking and analyses can leave much to be desired, as when — for example — they “debunk” global warming with the help of libertarian think tanks like the Cato Institute ,.. without turning to real scientific sources like say, oh, NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies or the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Their 2004 episode slamming recycling has been garnering big Internet traffic and lots of social networking hits … presumably because a lot of people take glee in seeing enviro-minded hippies put in their place. There are a few problems with the episode, though:

Green Options » Penn and Teller

Circumcision as told by Penn and Teller

Recycling is B.S.? B.S.!