"Anyone? Anyone?"

(Yes, me.)

I used to enjoy watching Win Ben Stein's Money. It's a shame that these days, he's a shill for the deluded 'Intelligent Design" folks at the Discovery Institute, starring in a new creationist friendly documentary. (It sounds as though the main thesis of the film is "Darwinism leads inevitably to Nazism.") But, that deserves a thread all its own.

Also, I believe the profit per gallon of gas sold is 8-9 cents. The government takes anywhere between 3 to 5 times that in taxes.

The whole "has to maintain a certain image" thing may be accurate, but if that's the case, then he's lied about why his charitable donations had been so small. But of course, he can't say "I had to keep my money so I'd look good"....that wouldn't go over very well, would it?

I hadn't heard of that film. What a joke! So much for Stein's credibility.

In general, why is it that disagreement in one area can lead to the complete discounting of everything else? Is Stein really without credibility now in everything?

I am guilty of doing the same on occasion, but I wonder why this is.....

It makes up for the assumption that because someone is well informed in one area (let's say economics) that one is therefore an expert in another (let's say evolution).

It's a natural tendency, especially if one is already inclined to disagree with the person in question. If you already don't like a certain candidate or public figure, then the first questionable thing they do or say becomes instant justification for your initial hunch. Sometimes, that's all anyone wants or needs.

In principal, you are right, though. This isn't fair. Someone can be absolutely blinkered and deluded about one topic, and rational, lucid or even brilliant in another. Ben Stein has always been a staunch conservative, of course. (He was a speechwriter for Richard Nixon.) Some might, for that reason alone, want to find reason to dismiss him. To me, he's always come off as a smart, likable guy. But, since I accept that evolutionary theory really does explain a great deal of the natural world, (I'm one of those materialist atheistic types), Stein's alliance with the ID'ers does seem tantamount to his joining the Flat Earth Society. (And the fact that the ID movement is primarily driven by fundamentalist Christians, the very Jewish Stein makes a somewhat strange bedfellow. I presume he is a devout Jew who favors a more literal reading of the Torah?)

But to get back on topic, this really shows Barack Obama for what he really is!!! :)

I wasn't really addressing blame for the situation. I was addressing the article's theory that people should be happy to pay high gas prices because the money all comes back to them in the end.

I wasn't discussing the effectiveness of Dignity Promotion so much as asking you what it has to do with Obama's charitable donations.