Penn and Teller: Bulls***! Season Three (1 Viewer)

[Francois Caron]

It WAS interesting. Even more so that supporters from both sides of the issue could argue that the show demonstrates why their viewpoint is valid. For example, how can you not sympathize with the father of the slain twelve year old girl? Even with Penn's arguments that executions do involve "killing another human being", can these scumbags even be considered human to begin with?

I can't say if I'm for or against the death penalty because the arguments presented by both sides of the issue are equally valid. But being from Canada, it's a subject that's pretty much out of my hands since we no longer have the death penalty, not since 1976 (the last execution was in 1962, and the military's own death penalty laws were removed from the National Defense Act in 1998).

 

[Tom McA]

Death Penalty: Interesting, and agreed with P&T wholeheartedly.

Secondhand Smoke: This was an episode (possibly from a previous season - I forget) where I couldn't disagree with them more. They tried to compare someone smoking next to your table in a restaurant to someone singing or talking loudly at the next table. Um, no. If someone is verbally annoying me, I don't have to wash every stitch of clothing afterwards like I do after being in a pervasively smoky environment (e.g. Vegas)

Boy Scouts: Why do people (Mary) equivocate homosexuality with pedophelia? Sick gay Scoutmasters are NOT any more likely to like 'em young than sick straight ones. (Unless you believe gay is sick in general, which is a whole 'nother conversation...)

Apologies if I went off the approved level of discussion, but it's hard to discuss an issues show without discussing the issues.

 

[Steve Berger]

Boy Scouts: It's not enough to be straight, you have to be married also (at least in some places). When I was 28, a couple of us tried to volunteer (my friend was a former assistant Scoutmaster). Despite our numerous qualifications, personal, professional, religious, and political (we were responding to specific needs the local group had been requesting, not a random situation), we were told "No Thanks" that they were only interested in married people.

 

[Mary M S]

Why do people (Mary) equivocate homosexuality with pedophelia?

Stop using the national equivalent of taser-shot-to-the-chest terminology which get any side riled to a point that neither can see through the flames to the basepoints of an issue.

So be it “Marley” appears dead-as-a-doornail in corporate/judicial and private America, I continue to be haunted by regular visitations of the ghost of common sense past.

Historically societies have not sent; coming into/ in the middle of/just past – puberty and/or sexually mature children of the sex which happens to be the same sex the adults personally perfer to have sex with...off alone. BECAUSE it is begging for trouble.
.

Since my comment about choosing to enroll daughters 12 to 18 (picture a percental - wearing JonBenet-isk makeup) off with a club of heterosexual MEN for overnight campouts is not making sense to you....lets swap our demographics.

Notice the modern surge in Cougar moms?
Would it be wise to send .....12 to 18 year old boys off on campouts building picturesque fires sleeping under the stars with a club of heterosexual WOMEN who are in various stages of their life ranging from (I don’t get enough) to (never had a real relationship) to (hate my spouse and have no sex life) or (on the prowl till I’m to old to do it). They say opportunity only knocks once but temptation leans on the bell.

Now, most of these women would (of course) be turned off by 12 year olds, but I have personally seen WOMEN looking (not very motherly) at strapping 16 to 18 yr. old males whose size 13’s and 6’ frames dwarf their fathers virility levels.

Put these women with these ‘boys’ and send them out by the hundreds, and by the years, on countless overnight and week -long campouts and you will have....... incident upon incident ...accrue.


Take a zoo...it is an organization.....and it has to be (unfortunately) ....organized.
You cannot have a zoo without fences or obstructions and no matter the necessity these boundaries; we hate having our experience spoiled while getting our dose of nature. But it just would not do to have a zoo with a main gate and all- parties involved roaming around undivided.
In fact I believe it would resemble Tarantino’s “Kill Bill.”

Necessity is the mother of invention and there were some who felt this segregation ruined the naturalistic effect.
They strove for the ‘spirit’ of the wild where you could see your animals roaming free (within a certain hector range) and (within reason) having semblance to multi-species interaction. Panda’s were out – they just didn’t adapt well to the African velt recreations.
Yet still they had to find a way to keep the residents from eating their visitors...
This is called a car.

 

[Jed M]

My scoutmaster was a woman in the early 1980's and unbelievably, she didn't bag any of us on our camping outings. I guess my mom must have been insane to let me join that troop... Good thing there are less tolerant mothers with more "common sense" out there.

 

[Mary M S]

duplicate...the forum is hanging on edit Which I always end up needed at least 3 times for major spelling misses and tense issues no matter how much I proofread in advance.

 

[Mary M S]

every time I edit!

 

[Mary M S]

she didn't bag any of us on our camping outings

so was I, and I did not ‘collect’ any myself.

In our troop we had an elderly statesman of scouting....very old world...he was not Scoutsmaster but mentor and liaison between the church and the troop. He was loved and respected by everyone in our district even though he was smack in the middle of very old fart territory for boys.

I admired him greatly. When I joined up it was because our troop was in desperate need of adult support, I had firmly intended to leave boyscouting to boys as I had already given my all to PTA and baseball and was burned out.
I thought “finally” something I can just ‘drop’ them off at and I don’t have to be involved.

My assignment was to take over all paperwork. During my first year the ‘elder’ scout kindly but firmly let me know his views on women on campouts. I thought he was wonderfully sweet and old-fashioned and full of it, he was not backed by a ‘rule’ it was his own ”sort of a guide-line” opinion.

As time went by my Scoutmaster and Asst S. keep asking why I didn’t volunteer for weekender’s I would explain I thought it was bunk but out of my vast respect for “Charlie” I would not. This started to bug the hell of me since I was born a tomboy and loved camping. I was impatient having the work but none of the fun involved in scouting. A summer camp came along and all but the ScoutM. had business commitments and could not make it till the last two days of camp.
There was a ‘rule’ two adult leaders per troop, ours could not go unless I bucked Charlie and filled the second slot.

I thought finally ...a excuse Charlie can’t argue with, and I get to have some 'fun'. I went (my SM begged me to ignore Charlie or the boys had no 'camp') and loved every second. I was scheduled to come back two days before end of camp when a male adult from our troop would arrive to fill my slot.

This caused me to miss my steak cookout FOR leaders only...the last night of camp...which I had earned by hiking countless miles every day all over camp!!!
(still regret missing that ).

I learned lots...for a girl....by law faculties for both sexes have to be onsite. But for me this entailed hiking a mile from my campsite, to the pool area, every morning UP a hill in the dark just to take my shower, and be on time to start the day as the sun came up. The rest of the guys took 50 steps from tents for this chore. By the second day I had learned if I didn’t have a fast fork swinging away at the platter amongst all the other flying elbows when it was delivered to table, I would get very hungry.
I hit the bullseye every time in archery to no small mortification of all the boys and adult males beside me.

They make this Girl “boyscout” skirt that was designed about 50 yrs ago for female leaders, the shorts are fairly short shorts. Since the skirts were built on the What-A-Buger-A-frame-roof design, and my ideas of hiking do not include a 'dress', I only purchased shorts for camp.
I looked pretty good in them if I do say so myself.

My son’s baseball coach who happened to be sitting at another table with his troop still laughs to this day about the first morning when I walked into mess hall to breakfast, a hush and ripple of comment followed across the vast room, Whispers of “look” and “that’s a girl”...the baseball coach states his own table was involved in the comments. He looked up and laughed and told his guys “that’s no girl that’s Mary S”.

I had a blast....who wouldn’t. But no matter how much I would like to take advantage of the incredible acreage BS's have access to around country, the fact remains I was a distraction. With leaders all over wanting to chat me up when our troop got to the next activity. Some even coordanating scheduals to be at an activity when my troop was! The week after I left, the female nurse in camp for the summer was fired amidst a rather large amount of hushed up scandalous goings on that involved improprieties (of a sexual connotation) with a Staff member, and two different Scouts while she was also stealing BS property, (she was busy that summer).

I got begged to go on future summer camps and weekends, I fit in well, I didn’t complain, I was better than many of the ‘boys’ and leaders at general camping skills. But no matter how much I lament it fact is that Scoutleaders had a propensity to have longer conversations around the campfire with me, instead of watching out the younger boys did not fry themselves on cook duty who needed help with these new skills. I cut many a conversation short to check on something going on which looked dangerous. I also had a certain percentage of older scouts who gazed soulfully at me (sort of like puppies) whenever I was in their neck of the woods. This left more leeway for things to go unnoticed when boys were plotting and planning things like sneaking out to release the “Eagle Scout Only” transportation barge after dark. A mode of transportation which cut a hike around the water to breakfast in half, leaving it to be found floating serenely in the middle of the lake when the sun came up. Some “Eagle” grade Scouts took huge affront at this prank demanding the perpetrators expulsion from camp. Cooler heads won out and the boys got to stay.

I bitterly regret that the ‘real world’ is this way...(see threads like ...can women and men ever really be “just” friends) but the fact remains...it is an issue. It is why all ‘old’ Scoutleaders do NOT like the current lack of warm bodies to fill leadership roles bringing a higher percent of female leadership into scouting.

Why should gay scouts be excepted as regards a policy which buffers and adds to safety margins discouraging a setup which could be rampant with temptations when there are two sides (mutually attracted to each other) thrown together on campouts? There were - as old as the earth - ‘valid’ reasons for Charles concerns about me. It does not make the situation any less of a issue just because the people in question are ‘gay’. This does not exempt them simply because you attempt not to appear prejudicial from the same problems that I encountered or created simply by my mere presence.

..get where I’m coming from?

 

[Paul McElligott]

Okay, enough about the Boy Scouts, already.

We've moved on.

This week's episode was pretty predictable. The Loch Ness Monster and Bigfoot are bullshit?! Who knew? :rolleyes

Next week, they are tackling Ground Zero. That could be touchy depending on what their take is.

 

[mattCR]

I'll admit I disagreed with their general take on the death penalty. Yes, I think it is used too much. No, I don't think it's a detterent for public crime. Yes, I think in some cases it is necessary.

While they kept repeating "You are killing a human" I don't know about that. I think at some point, serial killers and rapists give up their humanity, and that's what the death penalty says.

And it isn't just about maintaining low societal crime rates, it's about trying to give other prisoners a chance at rehabilitation. Do I really want other prisoners hanging around with Ted Bundy? Green River Killer? BTK Killer?

Also, their murder rate numbers were terribly screwed. While they point out the difference in public murder rates between states with and those without it's a ridiculous comparison. Since New York, Texas, California and Florida all have the death penalty.. and the most population, they have the most likelihood for any and all crime. Saying the murder rate is higher in New York as compared to Alaska is as much a matter of population density and opportunity as anything else.

Is the death penalty over used? Yes. But just like putting a sickly dog to sleep, there are cases where I feel it is inhumane and torturous to prison guards to make them be around and subjected to certain psychopaths.

Teller's other assertion, that they feel pain as they die.. hmm. I just don't feel that bad about that. If someone told me they were going to draw and quarter Polly Klass's killer, I'd be OK with that. Then it might be a detterent

The bigfoot/loch ness episode was too obvious. Blah.

 

[Paul McElligott]

Wow, their episode on Ground Zero was probably their strongest this year, which isn't surprising because their best episodes are usually when they are actually pissed about something.

I was a little shocked to see that the WTC site looks almost the same as it did four years ago when I visited NYC in '02. I also remember the pizza joint they featured. What a shame people like that are suffering because the rebuilding committee can't get their shit together.

 

[Paul McElligott]

Okay, this week was just a chance for them to make fun of crazy cat ladies and fake dog balls, but at least they had the honesty to admit that they were basically calling the kettle black in the end.

 

[LewB]

Anyone see the latest installment on 'Manners' ?

A major yawn-fest IMHO.

 

[Jed M]

Maybe they are just running out of ideas, but this has been a pretty lackluster season IMO.

 

[mattCR]

The manners one didn't really get me so much. I agreed with them, but it was also "so what?"

 

[Patrick Sun]

On the next episode of Penn & Tell: Counting Sheep!

 

[Francois Caron]

Maybe the whole concept has run its course. All the great subjects appear to have been presented by now, and there doesn't seem to be much left.

 

[Paul McElligott]

I thought the Reparations episode was pretty good, even if their position on the subject was predictable.

I think maybe P&T should switch BS! to specials rather than a series. Spend 90 minutes on two or three good topics a couple times a year.

And when's season 3 coming out on DVD?!

 

[LewB]

With all due respect, how do you run out of subjects that can be considered Bull Shit in less than 3 seasons ?
Maybe they can do a segment on how Bull Shit became Bull Shit. Man, I love typing Bull Shit !
Think I'll post a comment in the thread about the likely demise of Deadwood. I should be able to key in Cocksucker a few times there

 

[Francois Caron]

How did you know the episode would be about numbers?

Now this one I really liked! I've always believed that polling firms were run by scam artists trying to manipulate the questions to their client's benefit. The show's guest pollster demonstrated exactly how this is accomplished.

F@%k you Frank!