“The new Hollywood blacklist“ (2012-01-14). Oh the inhumanity! Kyocera hired Ben Stein to play an uptight dullard in a TV commercial and then changed their mind. Therefore, McCarthyism. Now Mr. Stein is suing for attention breech of contract. (Tip for Anthony: McCarthyism refers to right-wing politicians making false claims about secret political motives of people they consider politically unpalatable and then coercing businesses into shunning them. Some present examples might be Lord Monckton, Andrew Bolt, James Delingpole, Andrew Montford, Ken Cuccinelli, Marc Morano. Minus the influence in the arts.)
I think Kyocera discovered that Stein wasn’t just an accidentally funny cameo as a monotonous economics teacher in that Ferris Bueller movie back in the Eighties, or the host of a dimwitted game show a few years back. He’s also a controversial misinformer on a number of scientific issues, namely creationism (he narrated the film Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed) and climate change denial (it’s an Obama conspiracy). Not quite the association an advanced technology company wants to encourage.
So they used a real glass-wearing economics teacher instead.
Anthony Watt’s nuanced response, aside from overblown self-pitying political posturing is this:
I’ll never buy another Kyocera product ever again.
I thought it was “the greenies” that wanted to go back to living in caves in the dark, but perhaps resentful denialists renouncing society will get there first!
Wott's Up With That? 
Oh no, not more “Tilting at windmills”.
Anthony Watts explanation about this so called evil conspiracy, is about as clear as mud.
Or, an extremely bad case of “Quixotism” to say the least.
Quixotism is usually related to “over-idealism”, meaning an idealism that doesn’t take consequence or absurdity into account.
[Gordon Lightfoot’s version of Don Quixote is much more philosophical than Anthony’s sullen complaining! – Ben]
I understood he was suing under employment protection legislation, which begs the point it was only an advertising campaign not a proper job.
[“Employment” takes many forms, but promotional material is very image-sensitive. Given Stein’s position I’m surprised he didn’t leap to Michael Vicks’ defense with charges of racism after Vicks’ association with dog-fighting became known in 2007. – Ben]
Actually, Ben Stein wasn’t even under contract yet, they were just in negotiations. So really nothing to see here but a cry-baby. PZ Myers has a decent take-down:
Ben Stein is Such a Goon
Although I knew of Stein in Buellers day off, I had never seen “Expelled” until one of my conservative mates ( who is apparently an atheist) said “Oh you have got to see it, Uni’s & schools are trying to prevent other scientific views!!!”. After watching it, I sighed & told him I believed they were just rebadging creationism under a science sounding name & were attempting to insert it into Biology classes & that it was more about religious business profits & politics than anything else. He denied this. What is it about conservatives tendencies to side with religious groups……even when they themselves are not religious & don’t believe in it themselves?
Good on Kyocera for making this stand. My favourite statement out of that story was:
Gold, just gold. Anthony Watts should put that on his website banner. “God not man controls the weather.” He has enough religious nutters on his site already that would quickly support this statement.