Penguin Power

The Observer has a piece today on American conservatism's (metaphorical, I think) love-affair with emperor penguins. Or, more specifically, March of the Penguins, a National Geographic film ostensibly describing the breeding penguins' attachment to 'monogamy, sacrifice and child-rearing.' For some, the film even provides yet more evidence for Intelligent Design.

Never mind that the ID arguments lack any actual evidence. As David Hume in his 1854 Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion (if you're too lazy to read the whole thing, and who can blame you, there's a crib-sheet here), established, they're not even logically defensible. But why let the facts get in the way of essential truths, eh?

I wonder though, what the film's political propnents make of Central Park's gay penguins who have obviously made some henious and unnatural life-style choices (hat-tip Crooked Timber). Dammit, who will rid us of these meddlesome beaks???

Update: I should mention, I suppose, that I cogged the photos off the March of the Penguins site. Political toing-and-froing aside, I am a sucker for National Geographic/ David Attenborough style natural history stuff. An atheist aesthetic I suppose!