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Alan Abelson, RIP
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South Carolina on My Mind
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Dream Sequences
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Missing So Many
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Ben Stein's Diary
Orange Juice Unlimited
Who could have dreamed of it a century ago?
(Page 2 of 3)
Really, the whole world could benefit from a study of Bob Dylan’s early works. My late pal Garth Wood used to say Dylan was the greatest poet of the 20th century, and how right Garth was.
And how I miss Garth, dead at his own hand, lo, these 10 or more years. The pain is acute still. I loved Garth. Hey, that reminds me of another song, this one by Neil Young:
I sing this song because I loved a man,
I know that some of you don’t understand….
Gone, gone, the damage done….
I would like to see a department of 20th-century song analysis at UCLA.
Home to my beloved wifey, the light of my life, the angel of my whole lifetime, the goddess who walks on water. She has a smile that lights up the whole world. Plus she has my dogs, Brigid and Cleo, and they mean everything to me also. You cannot imagine how I love those dogs. German Short-haired Pointers. I love every hair on their bodies. They wiggle and waggle their whole bodies when I get home.
I got in bed and read my beloved Wall Street Journal.
Wow, bad news. Mr. Obama now hates Israel because the Israelis want to build 1,600 apartments in their own capital city, Jerusalem. Russia hates Israel, too. So do the Europeans. So does Ban Ki-moon, a Korean who is secretary-general of the UN. They cannot agree to do anything about a murderous dictatorship in Iran that is racing toward getting nuclear weapons, but they can agree to hate Israel for building apartments in its own capital city.
I just love every aspect of this: Israel being condemned by Russia, which just invaded and despoiled its neighbor Georgia just for the heck of it. Israel being condemned by Russia, with a human rights record that would give Genghis Khan pause.
Israel being condemned by the EU, which 66 years ago watched with glee as its Jews were being mass murdered. That is pretty rich.
The really astounding part of this is that in the Bush years, we could expect that the U.S. would veto any resolution condemning or sanctioning Israel. But now, with the avowedly pro-Palestinian president of the United States, Barack Hussein Obama, in office, there is literally no one to stand up for Israel.
And the even more beautiful part of this is that the Jewish vote in the U.S. went for Obama by about 80 percent versus 20 percent for McCain. And McCain was a diehard Israel supporter. So, I just love this. Israel is about to get really badly humiliated in the UN very largely because American Jews elected a pro-Palestinian president when we could have had a pro-Israel president.
This is so painfully cruel I cannot believe it. When are American Jews going to realize that the Republican Party is far better for Israel than the Democrats? Think of Richard Nixon, who saved Israel in the Yom Kippur War even as the hounds of the left — many of them Jewish — were tearing his flesh. Think of Nixon, who risked war with Russia to save Israel. And what thanks did he get? A kick in the teeth. Think of the much missed George W. Bush, who stood up for Israel in its wars in Gaza and Lebanon when no one else did. And the Jews of the left hated him.
Well, now we have Barack Obama and Israel is friendless.
TUESDAY
A spectacular day in Rancho Mirage. Just perfect. Blue skies. Warm.
Dry. Light breeze. I got up, swam for a long time, had a modest
breakfast of yummy yogurt and toast and orange juice and got
dressed. Then I got into my car and headed off for my 12-step
meeting.
Every part of this is amazing to me. I get to wake up in a free country. My great-grandparents, in Russia, could not have imagined such a thing. I get to swim in a heated pool under palm trees. In their wildest dreams, my ancestors in the shtetl could not have conceived of such a thing. Then a step into a hot shower just gushing clean, steamy water. How many millennia has man been on the planet and for how brief a span have we had hot water for the masses on demand? Not for a heartbeat. But I get it.
About the Author
Ben Stein is a writer, actor, economist, and lawyer living in Beverly Hills and Malibu. He writes “Ben Stein’s Diary” for every issue of The American Spectator.
Tim| 5.24.10 @ 9:49AM
"Then a step into a hot shower just gushing clean, steamy water. How many millennia has man been on the planet and for how brief a span have we had hot water for the masses on demand? Not for a heartbeat. But I get it. "
Amen.
Tomas| 5.24.10 @ 2:18PM
When I got up this morning I was determined to have a really, really bad day.
Thank you for helping me chose another path.
I made a new friend today. We shared a latte. Talked of childhood.
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Matt Morehouse| 5.24.10 @ 10:02AM
I dunno, maybe sweet Ben could use a few semesters in the School of Hard Knocks to temper his criticisms of just about everything Conservative.
Wouldn't surprise me if his next column favors gun confiscation and cap and tax.
David Yarbrough| 5.26.10 @ 3:32PM
HUH??? What criticisms? Unethical business practices are not conservatism!
stuart rose| 5.27.10 @ 9:55PM
Thank you, David.
Rapacious, corrupt business practices are most definitely not in the playbook of conservatism.
The fact that the recession has sparked mindless capitalism bashing by many does not mean conservatives such as Ben Stein- and wee, byline-less conservatives like us- from supporting restraints on thieves.
Vance P. Frickey| 5.26.10 @ 6:11PM
The bastards who bundled up bad debts and sold them as grade A securities are NOT conservatives. They, almost without exception, bundled up their egg money and paid it into Barack Obama's campaign coffers so Mr. Obama could continue to protect Wall Street from its immorality, as he did while a US Senator who took some class action suits out of the state and local courts so that women and minorities would have to wend their ways through the already overcrowded Federal court system to break the glass ceiling in securities trading and banking.
This, by the way, is neither conservatism nor liberalism, but corruption of the same sort that led the Obama administration in the little under year and a half of its existence to give British Petroleum eight safety awards - before they coated the coast of Louisiana in crude oil through an amalgam of carelessness and penny-pinching. And BP has given Obama just over $990,000 over his political career.
This would be playing out much differently in the press of the President's name were Bush. Not because of conservatism, not because of liberalism, but because of corruption.
Ben Stein was right. Wall Street has moved on past any connection with conservatism - they are now simply power and money-mad crooks, no principles or personal convictions required.
Paul | 5.24.10 @ 10:20AM
I enjoy reading your columns Ben, but you are such a sissy. It seems you always have the sniffles or a tummy ache. It's time to "man up".
Alan Brooks| 5.24.10 @ 12:39PM
Well, he is no teenager anymore... tummy aches and sniffles are part of entering the golden years-- what in less PC times was called old age.
You don't get old, you get 'mature'.
"Nurse, I feel very mature today, you'd better fetch the doctor."
"Gramps has reached full maturity, we'd better call the mortuary."
PCC| 5.24.10 @ 10:36AM
I think this diary entry shows that Mr. Stein reads the comments section. He has definitely toned down the emphasis on his lavish lifestyle after the pasting he took on his previous column.
Ken (Old Texican)| 5.24.10 @ 10:41AM
Wallstreet is a whore-house, true. Heh, the third longest lived profession.
Out of all the scoundrels in his life, the only ones Jesus felt a need to take a whip to were "the money-changers in the temple". (Their Wallstreet)
The thing that Ben missed though, are the equally prostituted "elected officials" that have been the enablers, Republican and Democrat alike.
The primaries are crucial, folks. Let's do our best to nominate clean courageous Republicans, elect them, and start the roll-back of all this crap that has injured our country.
WW Rutland | 5.26.10 @ 12:21PM
The bad translation of the bible has caused many problems. The money changers had to change money due to the fact that the common money (Roman, Israeli, Greek) was not used in the temples so someone had to change it to temple money so you could buy a prayer. When you go from Aramic to Greek to Latin to 16th century English it does not work. Go back to Aramic to modern English and see the difference.
Same thing about young 15 year old pregnate girl changed to 15 year old pregnate maiden.
David Yarbrough| 5.26.10 @ 3:39PM
The point of the moneychanger exercise was that those who made the temple money exchange exacted a disproportionate share for themselves - no different from selling overpriced doves and cattle for sacrifice to travelers who couldn't bring them from home. The behavior of the moneychangers and merchants was reprehensible, which is why Jesus took them on.
Alan Brooks| 5.24.10 @ 12:31PM
"There are people who are not feeling quite well who really want to hurt me and it's scaring me plenty."
It is called politics. But first, History 101:
once upon a time, religions sacrificed animals and humans in ceremonies; today they haff uzer vays of deelink vis you.
Dictatorship destroys people politically (i.e. annihilates them);
Democracy destroys people economically.
To find peace you'll have to wait for Heaven. Tough shit.
Rick| 5.24.10 @ 1:04PM
Well said......Ben Stein's column is the primary reason (although everything else is great too) that I buy the Spectator......Please keep up the great work.
Ken (Old Texican)| 5.24.10 @ 1:08PM
Alan, heh,
Down here in Texas we have a nasty worthless insect called a "stink-bug". If one lands on you and you slap it...it flits away with a really yucky smell on your hand.
You sir are nothing more than a stink-bug, signifying nothing...but a bad smell...as you flit away.
Tim| 5.24.10 @ 3:02PM
Ken, interesting how a man who simply praises God and ruminates on his life can evoke such nasty anger in so many people. I'm going to have to look for it, but I bet there's a Biblical passage on this...
Ken (Old Texican)| 5.24.10 @ 3:48PM
Tim,
Huh?
Heh, I'm not sure I understand that one. Please elucidate.
Tim| 5.25.10 @ 2:56PM
yeah, I'm good at being hard to understand. people not only hate Ben Stein, they seem to go out of their way to hate him. Makes no sense.
Bobnormal| 5.24.10 @ 1:24PM
Ah yes Rancho Mirage, where the rich live in California, as opposed to Ontario where we have industry and Trucks, that make potholes, oh the humanity!
Ken (Old Texican)| 5.24.10 @ 3:53PM
Hey guys,
Quit griping about Ben having a little comfort at the end of his life. He has worked hard for many years.
We olde fartes just can't hammer nails like we once could...and like you young bucks can. Give us just a little grace before you sit us adrift on an ice floe.
Thanks
Syd Chaden| 5.24.10 @ 4:51PM
Ben:
If you figure out why Jews voted overwhelmingly for Obama, please let me know. I have heard "self-hatred", "guilt", and "globalism" theories, but none of those would explain the move toward the destruction of Israel. Surely, one Holocaust is enough.
George| 5.24.10 @ 10:09PM
Ben you are great! I live on Kauai and own two GSP named Apollo and Huck. The names suit each dog but unlike you I hunt these dogs. They are super smart and have courage beyond belief. They have saved my bacon on several occasions. Keep speaking and writing. I think that you are one of the last of a breed! Love ya Ben!
Chuck| 5.26.10 @ 12:03PM
I too love german shorthairs. My good buddy breeds them and gave me a puppy about twenty years ago. He lost a leg (hit by a tractor) but never lost a step. I wonder about the breed living in Malibu, though. What you train them to point on instead of quail?
C. Adams| 5.26.10 @ 12:54PM
Don't worry Mr. Stein, Israel still has a friend and He is the Lord Almighty. He has always been and still is their protector. Indeed it would be nice if the people with whom He chose to reveal Himself to the world acknowledged His mighty works, however, there has always been a remnant of believers in the Great I am. There are also a great many Lovers of Israel here in the U.S.A. such as myself and I will defend her given the opportunity. I may not be Jewish but I certainly whish I was. I believe I have been adopted into that family; a wild vine grafted on. Thanks for your upbeat writings. I was beginning to worry about you since we hadn't heard much from you until lately. When I need something uplifting to read I always go to the Bible and the writings of Ben Stein. Thanks for keeping us appreciative of how good we have it. God loves a thankful heart.
Leon Stephens| 5.26.10 @ 2:41PM
"C. Adams"...AMEN and DITTO... I've been a long time reader of Ben Stein.Recently I dug out old issues of the Spectator just to read Ben's column. If anyone envies what Ben has, that is their problem. Envy will be a cancer in your life and destroy you from within. Ben Stein is a treasure in my book. I appreciate his work and his uplifting words.GO GOD...GO ISRAEL !!!
Big___Al| 5.26.10 @ 5:32PM
A one-legged German shorthair? Didn't Paul McCartney just get rid of one of those?
gunner| 5.26.10 @ 5:48PM
ben,
i doubt you'll remember me up here in vermont, but i enjoyed your remarks in this column. its true that we, even our "poor" enjoy a life of plenty compared even to our ancestors as recently as the early years of the century just past. "fresh orange juice every day" is a good metaphor. these days i'm a pensioner, in most places that's a synonym for "very poor" but i have my own house, with a paid off mortgage, whatever i want of the gadgets that make life easier, meat on my table when i want it, (steak was a luxury when i was a child, now its common fare) unlike some posting here i do not envy you for your good life, i have my share of it too. good food, a good wife and good dogs, its enough.
Rich Rostrom| 5.26.10 @ 9:50PM
How many millennia has man been on the planet and for how brief a span have we had hot water for the masses on demand? Not for a heartbeat."
Well, the Romans had hot baths that were open to the public (except slaves). Admission to the thermae was a luxury, but not an exorbitant one. And political figures often provided free bath days to win support.