The Ignorant Investor

Tonight there's a documentary on the History Channel called "Exodus Decoded" that argues that the Exodus really happened. I haven't seen it- probably won't see it- but Virginia Heffernen at the NY Times gives it a pretty positive review (calling it "mezmerizing") while also noting that it's maker, Simcha Jacobovici, "does not entertain competing arguments."

Decoding this last phrase, it's pretty clear what you're in for when you watch this documentary. Lots of little factoids, arranged in a way that makes the director's conclusion inescapable, with none of that dreary counterpoint provided by those untelegenic "experts" who disagree with the director and keep blabbering on about stuff like "evidence" and "competing theories."

I'm a sucker for documentaries about ancient history, and they can be separated into two types. The dull historical ones that offer alternatives and discuss current thinking based on spotty artifacts. And the fun, exciting ones with "shattering conclusions" that basically use the appearance of science or history to reinforce one's own view of the world, religious or otherwise.

Also from today's Times, and appropos of the whole religion thang, comes poll results showing that "sixty-nine percent [of the respondents] agreed that liberals had “gone too far in trying to keep religion out of schools and government.”

What schools and government need apparently, is more religion. And so I ask, how about Islam? We take a plane over to Pakistan, land at one of those thousands of religious schools they got over there, and load up a few Imams. Bring 'em back and install them in our schools and city halls to bring a little more God into our civic life. It's a cheap solution that will bring the word of God (aka Allah) to millions of our impressionable schoolchildren. Yes, there may be some squabbling over which religion gets taught in the public school, and exactly which deity actually runs the American government through our religiously-sanctioned elected officials, but nothing brings out the best in people more than arguing over whose religion is the right one.