Libertarians may rejoice over the release of Penn & Teller: Bullsh*t – Season 4, another collection of Showtime’s provocative series debunking popular theories and so-called conventional wisdom.Hosted with an infectious sneer by skeptic-magicians Penn & Teller, Bullsh*t takes on issues of varying levels of seriousness and controversy, puncturing both liberal and conservative arguments whenever they seem, to the sarcastic hosts, specious. The Complete Fourth Season kicks things off with a swift kick to the Boy Scouts, who are shown no mercy for enforcing discriminatory policies against gays and atheists while thriving on government funding at all levels: federal, state, and local.
Bullsh*t visits with paragons of Scout virtue who were nevertheless kicked out for being homosexual, but the episode does something more: It deflates the very notion that the Scouts are even important to the teaching of survival skills as well as wholesome values.
Following that is a rather eye-opening show about prostitution, and why sex-trade workers can’t always be described as slaves. An obligatory, though fun, visit to a brothel in Nevada (where prostitution is regulated by the state) is complemented by a day spent with a 25-year-old student paying her tuition through sex sessions with upscale clients. But there’s pretty serious stuff, too, in the form of activist arguments on all sides of the debate about prostitution’s alleged threat to humankind.
1. The Boy Scouts
Protests the Boy Scouts of America not allowing homosexuals or atheists to join as a government-funded organization. Claims the control of the Boy Scouts by the Mormon church as the source of the discrimination.