He spoiled at least one episode of the new season (don't read further if you don't want to know) -- they're hitting the Boy Scouts early on in Season Three. Penn said that philosophically he has no problem with with Scouting, as a private organization, denying membership to gays and atheists -- that's their right -- but rather he's pissed that they deny that membership while taking federal funds. Millions and millions of dollars are spent by the United States in subsidy of the Boy Scouts -- a no-no in his mind. What surprised him, and pissed him off even more, was that in researching Scouting, he and his team discovered how heavily influenced the Boy Scouts of America are by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The Mormons give more money, sponsor more troops, and occupy more senior management positions in the BSA than any other group. The LDS have even made Scouting an essential part of youth ministry... something else I could see that burned at him. I can't wait for the video.

Speaking of videos, Penn gave a strong thumbs up to Dawkins "Root of All Evil" program. Dawkins sent him (and Randi) a copy of the program. As most of us have heard, it pulls no punches. He says its inevitable the program will air here Stateside. It's just too good.

Someone asked him to explain the "bullet" trick he and Teller are known for -- the one where a gun is fired and I believe Teller catches the slug in his teeth. Surprisingly, Penn was open to revealing the secret. As far as I could tell, in principle, he didn't have a problem telling everyone how the trick was done. He didn't though -- and he didn't tell by coming up with some humerous cop-out, but rather in saying that there's a beauty to viewing the trick and certain ugliness to describing how it's actually done. He was a little muddled here with his examples, but the idea of "beauty" in a magic trick was a common theme of many of the other magicians who were also in attendance. Jamy Ian Smith spoke of something similar the night before. Penn encouraged people who were interested in how tricks were done to use the Internet and search the U.S. Patent Office for patented magic tricks. Many famous tricks are there, and with a little leg work, you can find the tricks and copious, detailed minutiae of how the tricks were done -- step-by-step details that run into hundreds of pages. I'm still a little fuzzy on how this is the "ugly" side of magic... but he's Penn, so I guess you just have to accept his word on faith...

Oh yeah. "Moxie Crimefighter Jillete" actually wasn't his decision for his daughter's name. It was his wife's. She thinks middle names are bullshit, so she's the one who picked it out. Penn just gets roasted in the media for it. Anyone want to know the name of their soon to arrive son? Zoltan Teller Jillete. Now that's a sweet name.