The American Spectator : Leaving Sandpoint

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Leaving Sandpoint

By Ben Stein on 7.30.10 @ 6:08AM

So long, small town America.

Tuesday
Here I am at the Seattle airport. After ten days in Sandpoint, Idaho, it is a mighty big shock. Sandpoint is so up, so cheerful, so friendly, so calm, it’s like being in a very happy high school. The people at SEA-TAC all look extremely guarded and defensive. They look like they would punch you if you said, “Hello” to them. They look as if they were late for their Valium. In Sandpoint every single person greets me by name. No one ever seems angry.

But it’s more than that. Men and women just look terrified at this airport. Is it the recession? The Iranians? The endless wars? I naturally called my brilliant pal, Barron Thomas, to ask his opinion.

“In times of trouble, people look for a daddy to lead them. They want a strong father figure and that’s not Barack Obama. He is many things but not that. So people are scared and there’s no father to take care of them. “

Brilliant, as expected. In 1975 I was at a conference at the Aspen Institute. A high ranking shrink from the Harvard Medical School said that people had turned on Nixon because he was a weak but dominant father figure, as opposed to Ike, who was strong and accommodating. Great insight. What is Obama? Maybe a would be-pal. What is he, psychologically? Requires more thought.

Wednesday
Larry King Live today. I was on with two women and a man talking about the Arizona Federal District Court decision enjoining some parts of that state’s controversial law about illegal immigration. I was staggered at the sharp edge of the conversation. I was just jolted. At the break, I tried to think why it was such a shock. After all, I have been on hundreds of talk shows — but not after spending most of the summer in small town Idaho.

I realized that it was because people in Sandpoint do not pick fights. Conversations are about boats and weather and fishing. No one wants to argue and no one does. That is small town America. I think it’s the way America still is in many places. But it’s not that way on TV except maybe on CBS Sunday Morning, which is an extremely polite show, sort of like a conversation on the perfect, beautiful lake next to Sandpoint. I am probably more suited to life in Hollywood. But Sandpoint is a nice way to go, too.

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.

Letter to the Editor View all comments (90) | Leave a comment Leave a comment

Appleby| 7.30.10 @ 6:53AM

I lived briefly in Caldwell, Idaho, a town so small that I quickly discovered there was absolutley nobody to talk to in any meaningful sense of the word. I also discovered that my personal library was eons ahead of the town library when it came to reading material on any subject more advanced than pulling weeds.

I soon went back to California where if the people were a mixed bag, at least most of them soon moved away.

Tomas| 7.30.10 @ 1:48PM

I've lived in towns, and cities, of all sizes, in many states. Much of the civility comes from location, as well as size. Small towns in Massachusetts can be just as hoity-toity as the cities... the cities just project it better.

Small town mid-America is the Jewel in the crown of this great land. The further south you go, the more likely a stranger will speak to you with a smile and a "..., hun."

Living in Indianapolis is a bit like living in a border town. Just to the north you have the suspicious northern psyche, always looking over the shoulder, afraid to talk to a stranger on the off-chance that stranger might get the upper hand.

Just to the south is where the smiles start. That heart-warming southern drawl, those welcoming smiles, quick-witted friendliness. When you say "Hi" to one of these people you get the feeling that they instantly understand everything you've been through. You sense it in their "Hello." As if they are saying, with that one simple word, "Hey, hun. Sit down a bit. Want some sweet tea? This is a nice spot, don't you think? Now, tell me all about it."

After spending much of my life in the Northeast, living here is such a refreshing and welcoming change, I don't think I'll ever plant my household flag any further north than this.

I've told my wife many times, "This is stage one of moving to the small-town south." After catching a glimpse of that warmth, I'm always more eager than ever to make the move.

Thanks, Ben.

Jonathan M.| 7.30.10 @ 5:20PM

Even small towns in the South aren't what they used to be. Ever since the 1960s the federal government has encroached on us more and more, so that now many of these towns aren't even recognizable. The government has told us who our kids have to go to school with (look at the kinds of people pouring out of buses), who we have to accept into our businesses and restaurants, and now we've got illegals joining the other minorities down here.

Maybe Idaho is still a place where individual liberty and states' rights rule. I'm not so optimistic about the South anymore.

Occam's Tool| 7.31.10 @ 5:59PM

Small towns in the North West of The Mississippi and East of the Coast are just as friendly as Southern Towns. I've lived for years in both. It's Liberalism run amok that's the problem.

Joe Mudd| 8.3.10 @ 12:16AM

And the people of Caldwell were most likely glad to see you go and take California with you. Here, just east of Sandpoint, over the mountains in Montana,
our little towns are brimming over with the talk of the UNconstitutionality of this policy and That decision being forced down our collective throats.
Welcome to the new small town engaged and online and bitching like hell. It's Liberal VS Conservative being played out right hear in little town USA. I think we all know whats at stake here. We do still say "hello" though.

Sandpoint| 8.5.10 @ 12:58PM

Nothing like a smug Californian. Here we call it getting Californicated, smug self-important, whack-jobs like Appleby have wrecked cultural and financial havoc in places like DuBois, Victor and Driggs- Idaho, Jackson WY, Livingston, Bozeman and Billings MT, Sun Valley ID. I cannot tell you how happy we were, Appleby, when you took your "personal library" back to CA. (I guess you didn't know about the Idaho Librarians and libraries were considered among the best in the country by the ALA...hmmmmm?) Idiot.

Barbara| 8.5.10 @ 1:31PM

I grew up and still live within an hour drive of Caldwell. Glad to see your back side return to California. We local born would like to see more of the same.
No we are not unfriendly. We are just sick and tired of you transplants coming here and putting us down.
You come here wanting to leave behind what you don't like but you bring what you don't like with you. And you are still miserable.
You criticize how we do things, insisting the way you did it back home is better than how we do it here.
You call us ignorant because we have chosen not to live somewhere else. This is our home. I have traveled to Europe and have been in numerous states. I choose to live here. You don't like it here you are free to leave -- and the sooner the better we locals like it!

Janet Labarile| 8.10.10 @ 11:47AM

Sandpoint is indeed a lovely little town in which I have spent several family vacations. However, it is not the perfectly friendly little hamlet about which Ben Ateon waxes poetic. A particularly memorable trip was when we were greeting at the entrance to downtown with a man at the side of the road holding a sign that read "Diversity equals crime". Everyone is entitled to their opinion, for site, but had we been a minorty family on vacation we certainly would have come away with a less than rosey picture of the welcoming spirit of Sandpoint. I lived a good part of my life in San Franciso. Or was a mixes bag, just like Sandpoint. However, in my own little neighborhood I was greeted by name, people smiled and said hello and I knew my neighbors. Just because one is in a city or small town does not mean they are morally superior as Stein implies. Also, his characterization of stressed out travelers at the airport propably has more to do with deregulation and consequently a steep decline in air travel service and convenience than some daddy fantasy. Ben Stein should stick to games shows and whack a mole commercials.

Another Sandpointian...| 8.11.10 @ 11:49PM

I agree it isn't the "perfectly friendly little hamlet" either. That place exists only in utopian dreams. Obviously Ben hasn't met some of our more "interesting" citizens. But I've been a lot of places and I still like it here the best.
I never saw the guy with the sign you are referring to, but I did see one who had a sign proclaiming the prosecuting attorney and police were corrupt. We may not have agreed with him, but we all waved just the same. And recently I saw a bunch of people who were protesting the abuse of a kid lining the sidewalk in pretty dang cold weather.

Kathleen| 10.9.10 @ 9:17PM

The perfect hamlet it is not - it is a mixed bag of peoples from other locales who invariably stay short periods of time and loose their preverbial shirts due to unstable job economy in Northern Idaho. Other "perfect hamlets" in Northern Idaho are much more welcoming and friendlier as well as afford more opportunities. High cost of living and property do not bode well for this area. Views are awe inspiring but beyond that a tough place to survive in.

Lisa| 8.11.10 @ 6:33AM

I am sure Caldwell threw a huge party when your pretentious hindquarters left the area. Good riddance.

ggoblue| 7.30.10 @ 7:47AM

thank god, i thought you had left idaho for good....we all love you ben!

Marc Robinson| 7.30.10 @ 8:13AM

I was born and raised in North Idaho....about 50 miles south of Sandpoint. There is nothing like going home for me. No place on earth can compare to its' simplicity. I am living in China now. I long for somewhere else.....

owyheewine| 7.30.10 @ 9:58AM

Sometimes Ben is maddeningly wrong, like his support for tax increases and some other big government issues, but he is right about Idaho. I spent a career away from the state in the south, where people are also mostly friendly, but not like here.
That said, we're friendly because we have elbow room here. No high rises with people packed together like rats in a cage, no New Black Panthers, unions tamed by right to work laws, I could go on for a long time. And yes, we can read and, discuss issues rationally. Oh, we also have a balanced state budget.
We just don't like immigrants that want to import California or east coast mentality.

Jerry C| 7.30.10 @ 10:01AM

Sandpoint, Idaho is right up the road from the home of the Arain Nations. Those jerks tried to blow up the local Catholic priest's home when he preached against racism. Idaho hates the Federal Gov. even though it provides the majority of the states income and is the only reason there are any non-polluted streams and any trees left on the mountain sides. Nice place for radical conservatives.

sestamibi| 7.30.10 @ 2:31PM

That is true, but those people were outsiders who just chose the area to set up camp. Those who lived there were not exactly enthralled by their presence.

Jerry C| 8.2.10 @ 10:05AM

Those outsiders were welcomed with open arms. I worked there with the locals for many years. My associates and I had to check out of a hotel one evening when we discovered that the hotel restaurant would not serve the dark skinned engineer that was one of the senior guys in the group.

Bob| 8.3.10 @ 1:52AM

I am not sure what you were smoking that night, but I have been in North Idaho for many years and never once have heard a story like yours. I agree with sestamibi, the Aryans were not welcome in North Idaho. They were outsiders. Not to say that some of them could have owned a hotel in town, Your failure was to not report it, it would have been promptly dealt with. Don't judge all of us because of one experience. By the way the people of North Idaho were the ones responsible for finally bringing down Richard Butler and bankrupting his Aryan Nation and we are proud of it. And help others communities around the US in dealing with White Supremacy and how to rid their towns of these parasites.

Lorraine Fournier| 8.10.10 @ 11:50AM

I agree, I lived in Sandpoint for 30 years. Richard Butler and his crew were far!! outnumbered by wonderful caring open people. It was sad that a handful of illiterate pigs made such a black mark on a wonerful community. There's nothing like the beautiful community feeling that abounds in Sandpoint. I miss it dearly.

PolishKnight| 7.30.10 @ 3:15PM

I love how liberals like to argue that it's the "government" that "provides" clean water and non-polluted streams. They don't. They regulate businesses into not polluting them. That is a proper function of government, but it's hardly something it "provides" anymore than the government "provides" you with not speeding in a school zone or blasting your radio and disturbing your neighbors.

On the other hand, the real "providers" are businesses and eeevil corporations that do silly things like build cars (at least the non-American companies), TV's, etc. Oh, wait, they're being offshored due to overly strict environmental regulations and diversity laws. Good going there government!

Oh, there are high paying jobs in government if you're in the right special interest group of course. If not, then the left sneers that you deserve to be unemployed and starving and hey, you're privileged so you had it coming.

Leftism is such a smug, selfish, hypocritical philosophy that it's hilarious at times. Oh, wait, they always like to proclaim how smart they are too. Except that they can't solve the sky falling down because of global warming. It's falling! Run for your lives! Pray to Imhotep!

Jorge| 7.31.10 @ 6:05PM

Jerry C.... so you think the Feds keep the water clean and the money flowing. I'm from Idaho and we hate the Feds and people like you who think that "I'm from the government and I'm here to help you". You would do well enough to stay home with your baby blanket.

Rick V.| 8.1.10 @ 6:57AM

Jerry,
Thank you so much for elightening the rest of us ignorant schmucks about the "radical conservatives" and the "Arain (?) Nations." You're so right, our federal masters are the only ones who can save our Mother Earth. That's why we entrust the public school system to their wisdom and guidance, the same school system of which you are obviously a happy by-product. Frankly, I'd trade the inherent wisdom of the citizens of Sandpoint for Pelosi, Reid, Frank & Obama in a heartbeat.

PACoug| 8.1.10 @ 6:41PM

Jerry, Richard Butler, founder of the "Aryan Nations Church," IS NOT FROM IDAHO, not from Hayden Lake, not from Coeur d'Alene, not from Spokane.

His followers followed him to that wonderful location and brought their poison with them.

So why don't you do everybody a favor and keep your ignorant judgements about friendly, live-and-let-live Idaho and its fantastic people to yourself.

You've already made it plain you know nothing about it--so for your own sake you should keep your trap shut about it.

I grew up in NE Washington and North Idaho (family summer cabin on Priest Lake) and the people there are NOT any more racist than you are. When Butler and his Nazis moved in, we did everything we could within the bounds of decency and lawfulness to get them OUT.

If we'd been the intolerant hicks you seem to think we are, we'd have simply gotten the boys together, ridden to Butler's place during a "meeting," and strung up the lot of them then and there.

Lord knows, I wanted to do just that. But I also am fond of life OUTSIDE a jail cell. So we did what we could. We protested every move they made--every parade, every function. We hounded the skinheads from place to place, determined to never let them have a moment's peace.

Our kids threw eggs at their houses and beat their kids up, making sure the parents knew they would never be accepted in our community.

We told our kids to leave them alone, but the bullying continued as the skinheads' kids took the beatings deserved by their parents. Our kids heard what Butler and Co. were up to at school and around the dinner table, and they resented the hell out of those freaks for hurting our beautiful community. Before Butler came, things were so peaceful.

Here's Ben Stein, one of the nation's most prominent Jews, telling you to your face what we're like. He's lived up on Pend Oreille every summer for decades, and has always loved it--and has never had to put up with any crap from the locals--because we honestly never cared of somebody was Jewish, or Catholic, or Mormon, or whatever the heck.

Until you've lived among us and gotten the flavor for what we're like, don't you dare presume to judge us on the basis of an interloper like Butler and his skinhead jokers.

AuntJ| 8.1.10 @ 7:13PM

Thank you for that PACOUG, I always thought Idaho looked very beautiful (in films) , and likely a place you'd find truly good values, people not having to put up with overcrowding and overregulation and gridlock and the like. Your sincere tribute is touching and reassuring . The publicity re the mean and scary nutjobs of the Aryan Nation Church has always kept me from considering a visit. That and a fear of bears. May the sun shine brightly on your state, and good people flourish, always. Hoody

"gunner"| 8.5.10 @ 9:43PM

from up in new england... i've been to idaho, hauling freight, i found the folks i met there friendly and helpful, even to a stranger just passing through. and i enjoyed the hours i spent there, as for the bears, we've got them here where i live too. given any chance they will avoid contact with people unless they feel directly threatened or think you're messing with their cubs.

Jack| 8.5.10 @ 1:25PM

That is what America truly is about. The rural areas are the last to get absorbed into the insanity caused by PC and Citidiots. I spent the first 30 years of my life in rural Oregon and it was the best! People always waving and not afraid to speak to you or help you. People from the cities don't know what they are missing.

Silver Streake| 8.2.10 @ 6:58AM

The Feds provide the majority of Idaho's income? Please cite your reference to back that up.

Heidi| 8.3.10 @ 8:02PM

ok calm the hell down buddy. Dont dare call me a radical conservative. I live right next to Sandpoint. Its the closest town to my parents little place in the woods. Sandpoint is a beautiful town. Only recently has it become slightly cluttered with tourists and the newcoming yuppies, much like Boulder. I moved here from Denver to be closer to family, and they all live in Sandpoint. I feel like Sandpoint is parallel to Boulder, Colorado. Started out a small town, but has become a more bustling city in the last five years. Property prices went up just as quickly as traffic lights were put up. More and more yuppies moved in, pushing the real sandpoint dwellers slightly more north, much like the unknown town of Nederland, Colorado.. I gotta say, ive yet to meet a single skin head or openly racist person up here. Im talking since the time i lived up here at three years old. never met an "arian brother". I've met a lot of potheads. gossiping old women. lumberjacks. young people who jump off the bridge into the river. the most conservative mind ive met is my own aunt, whos only concern is how great itll be when the big highway goes through and the cow-toting semis can avoid coming through the small town roads. i mean seriously dude. dont knock sandpoint. half my cousins are black, id know if i lived in a super racist "radical conservative" town. shame on you.

Wil R| 8.12.10 @ 5:29PM

Wow..how off are you?..The Arien's were not Idaho native's , but transplant who took advantage of Idaho's tolerence for diversity. The Arien's are gone..they were not welcomed by the community and they were driven out.

Tesla| 8.13.10 @ 11:03PM

Actually, the Aryan Nations are no longer here and Sandpoint and Coeur d' Alene are the most liberal parts of the state. Get your facts straight.

Petronius| 7.30.10 @ 10:03AM

I've only flown once since '01, but it's futile to compare small town tranquility to major airports where everybody there is in everybody else's way.

Tish | 7.30.10 @ 11:07AM

With due respect to the admittedly brilliant Barron Thomas, most of the people I know are not looking for a daddy, but for a responsible person who treats them like competent adults, then makes sure the government gets the hell out of their way.

Stuart Koehl| 8.1.10 @ 7:27AM

I think in Seattle, it's more likely their looking for Daddy.

Clinton nee Publius | 7.30.10 @ 11:10AM

Fluff: it's what pretenders print when the job of thinking is just too hard and the challenge of real solutions is well beyond the reach of their intellect.

Thanks for nothing, Mr. Stein.

Jeff Perren | 7.30.10 @ 11:13AM

Sandpoint and Stein

I've lived in Sandpoint for eight years and it is as great as Mr. Stein says.

Going to the DMV takes only minutes (not hours, as in Los Angeles where I'm from) and the clerks are competent and pleasant.

As for the library, while I have a terrific personal collection, I find that the super friendly and competent staff get anything I want through Inter-Library loan programs within a couple of weeks, almost as fast as ordering something through Amazon. In dozens of cases, what I've requested that way, the librarian has purchased for the library's permanent collection.

The smear that Mr. C attempts to place on the area - referencing white supremacists - is a very old, and very much out-of-date concern. They were on the outskirts of Hayden - a full 50 miles south (close to Coeur d'Alene) - and were driven out of the area years ago when Morris Dees' Souther Poverty Law Center (a liberal activist group focusing on such things) successfully sued the group.

And, by the way, white supremacists are not conservatives in any sense. Neo-Nazis, like the original they emulate, are socialists or anarchists, i.e. leftists. They are collectivists and racists, like the Left. They are not advocates of individual rights protected by government under the Constitution.

Just about everyone is glad to see them gone.

Sandpoint, and even Hayden, is overwhelmingly populated by friendly, reasonable people. True, they are mostly conservative, in the colloquial sense of that term, but there are plenty of ex-hippies, environmentalists, and scattered liberals. Shockingly, we all manage to get along well.

Look me up next time you're in town, Mr. Stein! I'll buy you a sandwich at Spuds.

Jeff Perren | 7.30.10 @ 11:22AM

P.S. By the way, there is virtually no pollution here because there are no polluters. As a small town with no industry, there's no large scale production of pollutants.

That has nothing whatever to do with any efforts (or money) on the part of the Federal govt, so your Hegelian state worship is really out of place here.

In any case, even this highly conservative area is populated by people very concerned to keep the habitat for both humans and animals very livable. Fortunately, we don't have a large Federal government presence (apart from the superb Naval facility that tests nuclear subs in the lake south of here) to create pollution, as they so often do.

Curtis| 7.31.10 @ 9:49AM

Beautifully said, Jeff. Thank you. The DMV, the library, the Aryans -- precisely true (but I hope I misunderstood you that American progressives are somehow neo-Nazis).

I was aware that the Navy tested sonar equipment at the south end of the lake, but was unaware of the pollution issue. Could you clarify?

Curtis, Sunnyside

Curtis| 7.31.10 @ 9:52AM

Sorry, Jeff. I misread your Navy issue. You didn't say that at all. More coffee ...

Jeff Perren | 7.31.10 @ 12:58PM

Hi Curtis,

Just to be as clear as possible, no I do NOT believe that American progressives are neo-Nazis.

Stuart Koehl| 8.1.10 @ 7:29AM

However, they are crypto-fascists, as their economic and social policies reveal. Jonah Goldberg was spot-on.

Curtis| 8.1.10 @ 10:39AM

Uh, no. Jonah Goldberg is more twisted than his mother, and that's saying a lot. It's the right that wants to legislate our religion, sexuality, and privacy, not the left. It's a simple contrast. The left seeks a common, public good. The right wants to change YOU.

terrie| 8.1.10 @ 12:17PM

Curtis, you don't get it! The conservatives do NOT want the gov't to regulate religion, sexuality or privacy. We want the Govt to leave us the hell alone. Passing a law that says marriage is between one man and one unrelated woman is not regulating sexuality. You wanna be with a goat, whatever... but it ain't marriage and don't ask me to pay for your goats health care. Geez

Jeff Perren | 8.1.10 @ 12:59PM

"The left seeks a common, public good."

To the extent there is such a thing, it can only be individual liberty in all its forms. That is most decidedly NOT what the Left favors.

All the rest - welfare, control of private property, interference with voluntary trade, etc. etc - are not common goods but collectivist wet dreams, i.e. statist nightmares in reality.

Nelson H.| 8.5.10 @ 6:37PM

You obviously are unfamiliar with basic socialist theory. Have you never heard of the New Socialist Man? You never heard the Gulag, forced collectivization, Stakhanovite brigades, and the whole deadly apparatus of Stalinist totalitarianism? The Right mostly consists of people who want to be left the hell alone. Most of us want limited government, not interventionist, all-powerful, oppressive government. It is hard to generalize because there are schisms with the economic, cultural and foreign policy spheres, but as a whole what ticks us off is other people picking our pockets and telling us what to do.

"gunner"| 8.5.10 @ 10:11PM

frankly, no, we don't care what your religion is, or if you even have one. what you do, and with what, to whom, is also your own business as long as you're doing it with a consenting adult, or even alone. just for the record, i'm a "pagan" conservative, neither christian, jewish nor muslim.

Another Sandpointian...| 8.11.10 @ 11:39PM

I know it isn't on the scale of Microsoft or Boeing, but I bet Quest Aircraft, Diedrichs, Lighthouse, and a couple of other people might disagree with you on the "no industry" part. But I agree they Sandpoint does keep the pollutants down since the grass growers south of here quit burning their fields...

bert| 7.30.10 @ 11:35AM

Sadly the Obama trolls like kool aid drinking MR Chave an endless poll of hatred and lies for all those do not drink the Obama Marxist Kool aid . And these self loathing Obama zombies spit out the same old tired race card /evil White people rubbish even though they are white and constantly trying to apologize for it. Yes. leftists are mentally ill /sick/ hateful creatures and MR C is an excellent of example one.

Curtis| 7.31.10 @ 10:03AM

projection - "a psychological defense mechanism whereby one "projects" one's own undesirable thoughts, motivations, desires, and feelings onto someone else"

and MR bert is an excellent example.

Berl Goetz| 7.30.10 @ 11:36AM

Who wouldn't be nice to the highly recognizable Ben Stein? I went to college in small-town Idaho. My impression was that the locals were just as rude and hostile as locals I find when I visit Utah. In the South, I also found hostility towards outsiders, but they were good natured about it.

PACoug| 8.2.10 @ 10:48PM

Geez, Berl, ya think the locals were rude and hostile in (where? Pocatello? Moscow? Rexburg? which Idaho small town hosted you as a college kid?)?

I'd guess Rexburg, since you also seem to visit Utah. You must be one of those frustrated ex-Mormons who find his former co-religionists hostile wherever they may be.

I went to school at Wazzu, exactly six miles from Moscow. There are some differences between Pullmanites and Muscovites, Cougs and Vandals, I'll grant you. But here in York, PA, I find the locals to be far more distant and suspicious than I ever did in Pullman!

Despite being in the middle of a giant wheat field, we absolutely adored the years we spent in Pullman. Got to know the locals, who by the way are worlds nicer than the university community on the hill. I'd move back to Pullman at the drop of a hat.

My neighbor 3 houses down is a black and gold Idaho Vandal, who says the same about the Palouse region as I do. We thoroughly enjoyed the times we had there, and felt fully accepted by the community. I still feel that Pullman is "mine," even though I live 3,000 miles away now.

Did you ever stop to think that maybe the "hostile" locals you encounter in all these small towns you seem to visit, are merely responding to your own hostility?

Just asking.

Jacko| 7.30.10 @ 11:57AM

Berl, no matter where you go, townies always hate punk college kids. When I was in college, I couldn't understand why these moronic yokels were such jerks to us... and then, when I went back for a graduate degree in my 30s, I was constantly annoyed by these idiot rich kids walking around like they knew what the world was about. I've never been to Idaho, but it's probably a bad idea to judge based on town-versus-gown experiences.

fantum| 7.30.10 @ 12:17PM

@Appleby Ah yes, you are obviously FAR superior to the Caldwell hicks. So sad you had to return to California to be appreciated... PLEASE STAY THERE!

California... The land of fruits and nuts harvested by illegal aliens.

THEN: Californians elected and supported liberal politicians who squandered their tax dollars for years. The politicians entitled unions, welfare recipients, government drones, illegal aliens, those still mooching off mom and dad, and other worthless freeloaders, giving them taxpayer dollars. They said it could all be paid for by taxing the rich, taxing big business, taxing their children's future, credit, and other fiscal nonsense. Californians were happy, they were getting a free lunch.

NOW: Business is moving out, the rich are moving out, California has maxed out their credit, more freeloaders are moving in, taxes are going up, inflation is going up and the State is issuing IOUs. So what do the California politicians do? Boycott Arizona! WHAT A BUNCH OF INCOMPETENT MORONS.

Jeff| 7.30.10 @ 12:35PM

I just returned to San Diego after a week spent in my home town in New Hampshire. Every time I go back there it gets harder to leave.

Immediately upon retunring to the city there is a crush of negativity and a lot of phony hurrying to get nowhere in particular.

Occam's Tool| 7.31.10 @ 6:08PM

When I was graduating from Residency at UCLA, I had to decide where I was going to get my first job: stay in LA, or go elsewhere. I chose small town Alabama (very nice, but too busy professionally) and live today in small town upper Great Plains.

Unless you utilize the resources of a big city constantly (museums, plays, etc.) or are a foodie, there's no reason to live in a big city. Everything you want from a big city you can buy, and everything I would want to see in, say, Chicago culturally you can do in a visit of 2 weeks, say. (I grew up in Chi)

But living in a big city is exhausting, because you live, as John Brunner once put it, "in a cage the bars of which are your fellow humans." I VISIT big cities. I LIVE in a small town.

Alvin H. Belt| 7.30.10 @ 12:45PM

I live in Greenleaf, around five miles out of Caldwell. I think of Caldwell as a large city.

GreyLion| 8.2.10 @ 12:10PM

Absolutely Al, anything over 500 people is a big city. In fact if it has more than a grocery store, bar and a gas station it is too big for me.

Ken (Old Texican)| 7.30.10 @ 12:56PM

Ben Stein,

please tell me you wrote this pro-bono...

I would pay you five cents for this.

George True| 7.30.10 @ 7:03PM

Warning: Totally off topic.

Hey Ken,

I did not realize you were a patriot AND a pilot. Me too, I fly a 172 out of DVT (Phoenix Deer Valley). It is a shame what the TSA has done to general aviation airports. They are now completely walled off/fenced off from the general public. No longer can kids & teenagers sit next to the ramp, watching planes taking off and landing, and dreaming of the places they will fly to someday.

Ken (Old Texican)| 7.30.10 @ 7:35PM

Hi George.
I never owned a 172... I learned to fly in a $1,200 Taylorcraft...($40 dollar a month bank payment, heh).
Then I moved up to a Cessna 170 then a 180. (taildraggers, y'all).

Then I discovered what happened when one tucked away the wheels...boom! 60 MPH extra...no charge.
A college friend had a Bellanca Viking several years after graduation...and I was on my third Beech Bonanza. (S-model)

I flew with him one time in horribly rough air...up in Idaho as it happens.
The Bellanca rode like a sweet dream. Turns out, those wooden wings FLEX like modern jets' do...wonderful shock absorbers.

I have flown nothing else since 1975. (and it flies like a mini-P-51 heh heh heh)

D. Eric Williams | 7.30.10 @ 2:29PM

Years ago, I enjoyed Ben Steins work but lately he comes across as a goofy school girl.

BTW: Most Idahoans would prefer that Ben Stein (and other “foreigners”) stay out of Idaho altogether.

Jeff Perren | 7.30.10 @ 5:04PM

I can't speak for Idahoans in general, but he's welcome in my home just north of Sandpoint anytime.

Curtis| 8.1.10 @ 10:44AM

Ditto, Jeff. Someday maybe we'll have a meal together at Trinity at the Beach rather than just passing each other in the lobby.

Forrest | 8.5.10 @ 2:01PM

Jeff, Curtis, let's make it a party. I live south of Pine around 4th (townie, yup...) and I think we should remember 41 South while it's still going - no better place for an evening snack except for, possibly, Beyond Hope...I've got a boat...

BigDan| 8.10.10 @ 6:51PM

Ben is welcome at our house anytime, just off Sunnyside road right next to the lake. Most Idahoans are welcoming, it the folks who moved here from somewhere else that start the "why don't those (insert the state or region of your choice) go back where they came from. If you ever hear this, typically the speaker came from somewhere else or has been living way up Pack River too long.

Sandpoint is full of great folks and Ben is right on!

Alvin H. Belt| 7.30.10 @ 3:11PM

Re:2:29 PM;
No, Mr. Stein's OK, we just don't like these 'Californicators' who tell us to be like everyone else.

D. Eric Williams | 7.30.10 @ 4:03PM

Alvin,

The problem is, those "Californicators" might be encouraged to move here due to Mr. stein's saccharine essays.

Occam's Tool| 7.31.10 @ 6:10PM

The Californians who would move due to Ben are the Conservative ones. Not a problem. I always vote Republican.

Brian W| 7.30.10 @ 5:41PM

Brilliant! thank you Ben for your wise insight. My opinion is the Father that we need to solve our problems is our heavenly Father no not the one who is blamed for mess this world is in but the one that will soon intercede to bring to ruin those ruining the earth Rev 11:18

Bob Garvey| 7.30.10 @ 5:53PM

I just returned from a week in my lold town on the ocean in Mass. It was sheer heaven and pained me terribly to leave. Ben, I know exactly how you feel bro.

alex parkhurst| 7.30.10 @ 8:03PM

I love Sandpoint. I live over the border in Montana. It is always a pleasant place to visit. For all you folks who live there or near there, you know how special a place it is. Made some good friends there as well. Mr. Stein is correct.

C. M. McConnell| 7.30.10 @ 8:20PM

Ben, thanks for the warm words about Sandpoint, ID, so true, so true. We live in the "right" or Eastern side of Washington 75 miles from Sandpoint. Culturally and politically, we're similar to North Idaho. SEATAC is on the "left" side of WA state, near very liberal King County.
At Seattle's airport, you may have encountered dejected Senator Patty Murray(D) supporters, so no wonder! Next time in Sandpoint, check out the fabulous Quest Kodiak airplane manufactured there. http://www.questaircraft.com/ Great story of American can-do!

c olleen | 7.30.10 @ 9:33PM

It seemed much the same a couple of weekends traveling along the coast from hwy 154 to Pismo Beach--there are great, happy people everywhere (especially if you travel with an incredibly cute pekingese :) ). Gave up cable, it's just not worth it anymore, but I can still catch Ben Stein in the Spectator, hurrah!

Marc Robinson| 7.31.10 @ 6:40AM

I cannot let Jerry C's boneheaded and uninformed comments slide by, although sestamibi was correct in their comback to him. In fact, Richard Butler and the Aryan Nations where not from Idaho...not anywhere in the Northwest US for that matter. Butler was born in Colorado and spent his early life in Southern California before moving his already formed organization to Idaho. The other famous Northwest terror-racist group was the Order, located in nearby Metaline Falls, Washington across the Washington/Idaho border. Robert Matthews, the leader of the Order was born in Texas and grew up in Phoenix. Almost all the sub-members of both groups were, in fact, from other states. Very few were native Idahoans. And as to the smear that most all Idahoans harbor these kinds of beliefs...every year, the population of Coeur d' Alene mass marched through the town and out to Hayden Lake area to Mr. Butler's compound protesting his hate group and its prescense, righ up to the day in 2000 when it finally closed.
I have been married to Filipina for the past 25 years with 3 wonderful mixed raced kids. We would travel back to Idaho for vacations together and never had my wife ever felt or experienced such warmth from the Idaho native people than when she was there. She felt more stigma in her "home" state of California than she ever felt visiting in Idaho. From Bonners Ferry to Sandpoint....from Moscow down to Horseshoe Bend....people were friendly and welcoming to both her and our kids....even going out of their way to help and respond to them all.
Like I said earlier....I am in China now, but cannot wait to get back home to do some trout stalking.

Ned the Red| 7.31.10 @ 8:58AM

What is Obama? Maybe a would be-pal. What is he, psychologically? Requires more thought.

He's the kid on the playground who runs and tells the teacher what everyone else is doing.

Margie| 7.31.10 @ 4:06PM

Worse. He's the kid in the classroom who declares war on the teacher and tries to take over the classroom. He lies about the teacher telling the other kids that Teach is no good and evil, That he knows better and has learned that everything she has been teaching them is all wrong.
It's Mutinty on the Bounty!
The Caine Mutiny!
Makes me want to go watch an old flick and forget for awhile.

BigDan| 8.10.10 @ 6:57PM

Obama is one of those folks that is good at getting the job, only to realize he is not qualified to do the job.

The blatant union support, the refusal to listen to the American people and now, realizing his "plan for America" will not work does he put his ego in the back seat and do what is right? Nope, just stay in campaign mode and blame everything on someone else.

I can't wait for his reign to be over!

Laine| 8.1.10 @ 1:32PM

"What is Obama? Maybe a would be-pal".

A would-be pal? Only to other corrupt leftist (but then I repeat myself) poseurs wowed by an affirmative action degree from an Ivy League school that should be ashamed of itself and a sonorous James Earl Jones actor's delivery of utter BS read off a teleprompter.

"What is he, psychologically? Requires more thought".

How about a black bigot like his mentor and close family friend not-so-reverend Wright who hates whitey including his own relatives and honors his deadbeat alcoholic Muslim polygamous father who got himself killed in a drunk-driving accident. But hey, Pa's skin was black and that's all that counts to a racist.

reed| 8.1.10 @ 5:10PM

My criterion is to live in the smallest town I can find where I can still buy the New York Times at the gas station. Currently live in Rochester, MN

Joe| 8.1.10 @ 10:09PM

You can live in a small town, have high-speed internet and never leave your house to keep up with the news. Because I left the stench and crime of the city, I now time to actually read and think.

I did; however, have to give up my career and retrain to do a job that I once thought was beneath me. It's a trade-off. If you want to experience small town and are not independently wealthy, then you need to get a marketable skill for the small town area. Those are not easy to find - but the quality of life is unmatched by any city living.

Ralph Novy| 8.5.10 @ 1:47PM

Joe:

My experience is much like yours.
So is my attitude toward it.
And your advice is spot-on.

Fare thee well.

BigDan| 8.10.10 @ 7:01PM

Joe and Ralph,

You are both to be commended because this is the answer to a good number of America's employment issues. I too took a pay cut to live in Sandpoint and continue to do so every year. It's well worth it.

If more folks had your attitude then we wouldn't hear the entitlement attitudes of Auto workers who won't leave Detroit even though the work has dried up. We all need to be will to do something different and look for the value in the quality of life and not the money or prestige.

JoeSwiss| 8.2.10 @ 7:20AM

@Joe, So, what was the small town marketable skill that you retrained for? And, what were any other STMS's that you also considered because they might be good ideas?

Big Leo| 8.2.10 @ 1:29PM

I have lived in the country or in a small town all of my life except for a few months in a foreign city and a year in New London. While I was in New London, I was robbed three times, had to hold a burglar at gunpoint for the cops (and was lambasted for doing so) and produced my gun to drive off a mugger.

Gotta love city sophistication. I've met more interesting and well educated people in small towns. My goal, which I have usually achieved, is to live in a place so small that if someone steals your bicycle, everybody knows who did it within twenty four hours.

karl anglin| 8.5.10 @ 12:38PM

God Bless Mr. Ben Stein.
God bless America!

Ralph Novy| 8.5.10 @ 1:34PM

Mr. Stein:

Extolling the virtues of small-town America (if ignoring its vices) is hunky-dory. Deriding Obama for being not enough of a "father figure" (fuehrer-vater) is not. Don't see why you sought to juxtapose these two ideas.

delta6| 11.7.10 @ 3:33PM

Dittos to the person who spoke of hurriedness of San Diego and the negativity. He forgot to talk about how people think nothing of flipping you off on the freeways or the general rudness of the people who can't talk to you in a civil way due to their ignorance. I am retiring to Sand Point - I can't take California anymore.