The American Spectator

SGT Baker (Native Coloradean)| 10.7.11 @ 6:17AM

Amen!

Alan Brooks| 10.7.11 @ 11:48AM

An' if de Herman Cain who is veri able
were to occupy de white house he wou'
stop dat complainin by dees malcorntents
who is ungreatfull for all dey gots...
'n' most of all
all de Herman Cains haff dun for dem with all dat yummy Godfodders piza-- alots better 'n' haggis intestimes, you gots to admits.
Vote fo Herman Cain who will stop all dis libral complainin an put de bros 'n' de 'Hood bak to werk at Godfodders piza flippin de pies in de air
wiff plenty of coke a coler to drink!
Who cou' ask fo' MO!
Get off yer bootys and shake off dem
cooties you lazy youngin peoples.
Ah gots mah VA benefitz, but you don deserff nothin but whut you gots all-readi-like. Tough chitlins, chumps.
Ah Gots Mahn.

SHO NUFF!

Cpm| 10.7.11 @ 12:20PM

How long did it take to clean off the blackface minstrel makeup?

Alan Brooks| 10.7.11 @ 12:41PM

Ah leaves it on all de live long day, so'ws ah can talks de brainwashing of America like Herman Cain duz.. look at de clip of de day to yo right. It's dem librals who have brainwashed America an if you send contribeushuns to mah elekshun champaign I will smile instead of smirkin like dat.

I wan's to be de presigent of de united snakes of America even dough I ams a CONSERVATIVE negro, an' not like dat mulatto metrosekshel cumumity organgrinder from Chi-town..

Cpm| 10.7.11 @ 12:42PM

Your pillowcases must be filthy.

Alan Brooks| 10.7.11 @ 3:20PM

but preferable to being PC, right?

Stormzeye| 10.7.11 @ 3:32PM

You, sir, are beneath contempt. But thank you for showing what liberal racism is all about.

Skippy| 10.7.11 @ 4:39PM

Is this guy a riot, or what?
A wannabe thug, in whiteface.
Too funny, fool.

Quartermaster| 10.7.11 @ 6:58PM

Wannabe thug? He *is* a thug.

ElPuma25| 10.8.11 @ 1:48PM

You filthy coward mother f*cker racist hiding away in the internet. How about saying that in public, you scum? How long do you think you will last?

mzk1| 10.8.11 @ 1:20PM

OK, so Alan Brooks is a racist. What else is new?

Fredrick Ward| 10.10.11 @ 6:54AM

He is a liberal, and liberals always turn to name calling and bashing instead of actually relying on the integrity of their argument. Nothing has changed and he has just kept the status quo.

Wheat3000| 10.10.11 @ 8:01PM

I see nothing either liberal or conservative in his comment - so the idea of attaching an ideology (other than racism) to it smacks of the very name-calling you decry.

Fredrick Ward| 10.11.11 @ 12:30PM

Wheat3000, if you have been here and know anything about this guy then you would know your comment holds less than a drop of water.

Buck Ofama| 10.13.11 @ 11:02PM

>OK, so Alan Brooks is a racist. What else is new?

So is Cain, at least, according to MessNBC guests, and by extension, the commentators. Yah dat Cain he be agenz d black man! he a oreo!! WARE MY GUMINT CHEK?

frjm| 10.10.11 @ 12:03PM

You are apparently a liberal/progressive/ communist and a "wasted load" your parents are surely ashamed of . Additionally, your comment reflects you are a racist and probably a bigot.

Franco| 10.11.11 @ 1:14PM

"Ah Gots Mahn."

Vat is dat, Yiddish? Oy!

Buck Ofama| 10.13.11 @ 11:00PM

"coke a coler"

FOOL! AINT U NO DAT AINT IT...

U SPOSA B SAYIN KO KOLUH .,. NO MUH SAYN?

WARE MY GUMINT CHEK?

Jerzy Sobon| 10.7.11 @ 6:32AM

Bravo, Mr. Stein! Bravo!!

Southern_Comment| 10.7.11 @ 1:30PM

My applause exactly!

moey| 10.7.11 @ 1:36PM

Right on Mr. Stein, right on! What horrible comments about Mr. Cain on this blog. Stop and think about the genius, Steve Jobs! He started out as a college drop out making his product in his garage!! Did he get a handout from the government in the millions of dollars?? I don't think so. Wake up American young people, pull up yourselves by your bootstraps and get some common sense education in your brain nad get a job and work up the ladder. No one owes you anything, period. You work for what you get.

Dr. Susan Smith| 10.7.11 @ 9:22PM

Moey, you sound like the fringe on blogs very uneducated and naive about what is really transpiring accross America. Many of those protesters out there are more educated than you, doctors, MBA's, Ph.D's that see firsthand smart top notch kids out of college with perhaps a MILLION in debt from medical school etc, not able to GET JOBS due to budget cuts in healthcare profession....when the cuts should be where our Founding Fathers and two Generals-turned President...suggested, in our overbloated military industrial complex which is antithetical to repbulican liberties, as George Washington stated. You have got to get a grip on reality. This is not about kids being lazy and "not wanting to work". Wake up call!

barbara| 10.7.11 @ 11:38PM

Dr. Smith:

Balls.

Those with medical degrees (doctors) can easily find work. Those with PhDs in Women's Studies and the like (PC-type studies) should have thought ahead about where they would get a job - even in a good economy (other than teaching those PC subjects to naive students). MBAs who majored in business in undergraduate school are limited as well because they have nothing really to apply those graduate degrees to. If they had majored in engineering, science, etc., and then gotten an MBA they have many choices even today.

Miguel| 10.9.11 @ 1:20PM

comment analysis: as a trained researcher with over 20 years experience in system analysis, I see an overwhelming desire to simplify events in order to form (predetermined?) conclusions. I wish it were as simple as most here pretend. However, it is not just about "jobs", but quantitative measurements of quality of life issues. I have no "dog in this fight" so to speak, but focus on the quality of the data and the soundness of conclusionary statements. What I have found is disturbing. No question about it, the U.S. has devolved into a finance capital economy. Manufacturing is biased towards the military-industrial-security state. Those large manufacturers that are left do so strictly due to government subsidy. Consumer manufacturing is more or less dead or in last thrones of life. The quantitative data is remarkable. What matters most is the standard of living, in the aggregate. For financial capital folks, it has been excellent. For service employees, disastrous. What disturbs me and my cohorts the most is the double-whammy about to unfold. Inflation and high unemployment. During the "Great Depression", the U.S. dollar had a much higher relative value and stability than today. Now? The dollar is being devalued globally which will cause domestic inflation while at the same time real wages are declining. At least during the Great Depression, there was elastic currency and prices dropped. In the global economy, if you're stuck on imports and your currency devalues, prices go up. So you have a disastrous setting of declining domestic wages, declining home values, and rising commodity prices.

There are jobs but look closely. They are more or less government-related, and, incorporated into areas that destroy liberty such as security guards, spying software, or in the consumer sector, toys and games (facebook, zynga, entertainment). If you want to find new and better ways to spy on your neighbors, to find new and better ways to incarcerate your friends and acquaintances, new and better ways to conduct wars of aggression, then by all means, go for it. But what this says about the character of a country is troublesome. History shows us that this is a destructive, no constructive path. The absolute measurement of capital wealth says nothing about the means of obtaining it. Looting is not really earning, but those who loot wish to reconstruct the events to say as much. Watch out for the spin.

miguel| 10.9.11 @ 2:38PM

This is an example of just a tiny fraction of the articles we monitor. But I think the name suffices. This is an illustration of how finance capital is destructive to all but those playing the game.

"Blast Profits in the Eye of the Storm: 5 Ways to Trade the Coming EU Collapse - And Make a Killing."

Buck Ofama| 10.13.11 @ 11:04PM

Since you're so mathematically inclined: DIVIDE BY 100!

JoInDaHills| 10.11.11 @ 11:18AM

Really, Ms Barbara? Hmmm...talk about lazy, you obviously haven't done your homework before shooting your "mouth" off here. There are plenty of PhDs with a focus on relevant sciences and research who can't get jobs because the US increasingly doesn't value science (only what Jesus would do counts). And the US actually paid millions to med schools in the late 90's to reduce the glut of med docs, so now there is a shortage. Yes, an artificial shortage, which cost the taxpayer millions. That's the only reason there are jobs for them! What about the nurses who are out of work, laid off so they could pile even more on those who kept their jobs, creating an even more dangerous situation in hospitals across the country (look up the term "Speedup" and educate yourself a little). You need to pull your head out of your tush to see the reality!

Occam's Tool| 10.8.11 @ 6:33PM

I'm sorry, "Dr" Smith---any MD who falls out of bed in the morning has 100 job offers. If I quit my job today I would have another one as soon as I got a state license in the state that the job I wanted was in.

There's a shortage of MDs. Of course, I'm a rural medicine specialist...

frjm| 10.10.11 @ 12:23PM

Dr. Susan Smith
I find it interesting that many So Called EDUCATED PEOPLE find it necessary to put a DR, or PHD in front of their names in an attempt to impress others with their imagined intelligence. I would rather stand with a Moey any day of the week then some DR. or PHD who believes they have the answers simply because they have the degree.

I too, hold a degree and certificates of all kinds, but the degree which holds the most prominence in my list of qualifications is the CSD (Common Sense Degree) I aquired through my life experiences. You madam, remind me of some college professors who looks down their noses at the people who really make things work. AND THAT WOULD BE PEOPLE LIKE MOEY AND ME.

CSD frjm

Kevin| 10.10.11 @ 7:21AM

Gee. Another right-wing elitist admonishing us to pull ourselves up by our non-existent bootstraps. Again. Just like the guy that gave us the lie about the black welfare queen breeding to get more money for her Cadillac. Which was another load like Mr. Stein's.

Government handout in the millions of dollars? Those only go to those who don't need it.

Common sense education? Went into the trash heap of history with President Ronnie's tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy, but it's ok. Once he realized the damage that would do to the economy he broke his "No new taxes" promise by raising taxes. Thirteen times. On the middle-class. On the poor. On unemployment benefits (for the first time ever). Gotta pay for unwise tax cuts somehow.

Work up the ladder? That ladder is gone along with the 18 MILLION jobs those who practice Greed Over Principle shipped to other countries.

No one owes us anything? How about an explanation of how shipping those jobs out and thereby decreasing the tax base was supposed to make things better? About how that helped America? How about being owed the truth? Anathema to Republicons to be sure but the debt is still there.

When one is honestly mistaken and hears the truth one either ceases being mistaken or ceases being honest. Those busily creating a Greedy Oligarchic Plutonomy consistently choose the latter. America needs better. America deserves better.

Herb| 10.7.11 @ 7:14AM

Events in New York have shaken Ben out of his reverie. Better late than never.

Appleby| 10.7.11 @ 7:31AM

Or go picket Ben Stein -- he has your money!

This march of the daycare babies, grown larger and still whining and tugging at our collective skirt, *I got nothing to dooooooooo.* Mama always had an answer to that one: throw out your arms in an eloquent guesture and you would find a mop in one hand and a bucket in the other. Mama knew the sure cure for boredom. New York could use a good cleaning. Put the brats to work.

oldfart| 10.7.11 @ 8:04AM

It used to be, in most states, that if you were receiving public assistance, you had to do something for that check. Pickup trash, work at a shelter - something. The progressives said that was demeaning to a person's psyche. Talk about a lost generation(s) – there are a whole passel of people who have come to expect something for nothing. They want the latest IPAD, the latest style of sneakers, to shop at the highest class stores, go clubbing every night and do NOTHING to earn anything. Look at Greece, Spain, Britian and Portugal. We are not too far behind. What will be these people do when Mommy and Daddy are no longer around to throw money at these spoiled brats to shut up and go away.

Solo| 10.7.11 @ 8:25AM

Boy...you can forget about putting the unemployed to work picking up trash or working at shelters and other support centers.

Those are all Public Union jobs now paying $80,000.00 per year with full benefits.

Just another indication as to how 'out of control' the government beast has become.

Dr. Susan Smith| 10.7.11 @ 9:52PM

Solo and Old Fart....there are penty of us M.D's and other professionals volunteering to pick up trash out there with environmental services divisions...and I see plenty of college kids and recent grads volunteering to help. What have YOU done to help keep trash out of our oceans? And if we do in fact "pay public union jobs" $80k year to pick up trash, that's not much of a salary for doing something so positive to society. Trasch (plastics mostly) cause cancer and other disease. Seeing that we pay people in gbig oil, coal and other cancer and asthma causing industry a hell of alot more than a mere $89k year, I think you need to reealuate your priority...and stop blaming our youth on what is going on on Wall Street! They have nothing to do with it.

barbara| 10.7.11 @ 11:53PM

Dr. Smith:

You're right. The kids didn't have anything to do with the mess we're in. But they can certainly do something about it. They can educate themselves on what the free market is really about, understand how lucky we are to live in a constitutional republic, and come to the realization that these two things have been the engines of individual freedom that have allowed each and every one of us to live our dreams, whatever they may be.

bill fish| 10.8.11 @ 10:51AM

As far as MD's are concerned, many, many rural
areas are BEGGING for physicians and nurses. Maybe you just wanted to stay in liberal urban areas.
Go where you are needed. Medical jobs will not travel to you.

mzk1| 10.8.11 @ 1:22PM

I take it you've never taken an economics course?

Occam's Tool| 10.8.11 @ 6:39PM

BULLSHIT on the MDs picking up trash. Susan, tell me your specialty and I will direct you to 100s of jobs in your field.

I have a few recruiters I subscribe to just to compare and contrast my income (I'm in the top 1% of my field, and THEN you realize that I live in a very low cost area). I get dozens of job offers a month. I always have: I always will. I'm superb in my field and treat brutally difficult cases.

Susan: might I suggest you start your job search in Alaska? No State taxes and the men outnumber the women considerably.

The reason I don't pick up trash or do other volunteering is because my major job is telling people "no." I am thinking of volunteering to do crisis intervention for the local police---I have talked people out of jumping off bridges and buildings in Alabama with the local police force, and liked it.

Spinward| 10.8.11 @ 11:03PM

When I heard of jobs moving to Asia, I moved to Asia. Now, I have a good job and live in Asia.
No problem.

Buck Ofama| 10.13.11 @ 11:07PM

Why did the local police want to jump off the building in Alabama?

Bob From District 9| 10.7.11 @ 10:33AM

"It used to be, in most states, that if you were receiving public assistance, you had to do something for that check. Pickup trash, work at a shelter - something. The progressives said that was demeaning to a person's psyche. "

You need a history course. The idea of putting the unemployed to work instead of welfare was part of LBJ's "Great Society". That was called the "Employer of Last Resort." Your side killed that.

You live in a fantasy land where welfare is a good deal, and everyone gets to live the high life. Welfare is a disaster for those stuck on it. The right in America has corrupted the business sector so much they brought the entire world down into an approaching depression, and all the right can do is whine about people who are losing everything and want those responsible called to account.

Get real!

James Boatwright| 10.7.11 @ 10:52AM

Don't knock the Welfare-Paid-Not-To-Work class too loudly; all of our ROYALS are part of that.

Drunken Sailor| 10.7.11 @ 11:31AM

"You live in a fantasy land where welfare is a good deal, and everyone gets to live the high life."

Well maybe not the high life but a not bad one. Let's see, subsidized (if not outright free)housing, Food Stamps, subsidized cell phone plans, electricity, education etc. Add to that the "under the table, work for cash" jobs I see many of them doing (both the legal kind and illegal kind) plus the check they get from the IRS every year as part of the tax return on taxes they never paid. Yea, the don't have it so bad after all.

It wasn't the right that corrupted America. It was the left that dumbed it down enough that they wouldn't see how they are being lead into servitude by their Democrat masters.

Stammon| 10.7.11 @ 3:19PM

You need a history course.
In 1974 my Uncle toured me through Oakland and San Jose's worse neighborhoods. Dirty falling down houses with chain link fenced yards. And in every driveway a brand new Cadillac Coupe deVille. Seems that Sacramento decided that if you were poor in California, you had to have a car to find a job. So every family on welfare got $407 a month for transportation, so the Caddi dealers started selling a stripped Coupe deVille for $407 a month.
Must've been nice.

Skippy| 10.7.11 @ 4:42PM

At the risk of offending the young, that used to be called "nigger rich".
It was a condition in which a fellow would make the down pmt. on a new Cadillac, then show it off till the bank came to repo it.

Bob From District 9| 10.7.11 @ 12:11PM

"Look at Greece, Spain, Britian and Portugal."

Yes, look at Greece. The problem in Greece is not that the people won't work, but they won't pay taxes. It's the Tea Bagger Paradise.

Spain is the perfect example of the danger of the strong dollar. Before the collapse Spain was running budget surpluses, and had a debt burden half that of Germany. Spain's economic growth was tremendous and was private investment based. Yet when the collapse came it sucked Spain under. The great weakness Spain had was the Euro. With the Euro Spain could not devalue it's currency, which means it's debt became unsupportable as the economy fell. All that private sector investment was still a burden on the government as people lost the ability to pay their debts, and their incomes fell as did their taxes. Now Spain has shifted from an example of fiscal responsibility to a threat to the stability of the entire European Union.

Britain is having a tough time of it, but isn't in near the danger Spain is, because England never adopted the Euro. So, England is not stuck in the same mire as the rest of the European Union. Britain's debt is actually as bad as Spain's, but Britain is not seen as a likely defaulter.

Just before the recession began Portugal was fairly high in debt burden, but not much more than Germany, and lower than France, Belgium and Japan, none of whom are seen as default candidates.

Deal with reality, the unregulated derivatives brought them all down, and the "strong Euro" policy makes recovery nearly impossible for many. That is the same sort of policy the republicans want this country to follow.

Fred C. Dobbs| 10.8.11 @ 9:02AM

I dont know where District 9 is, BUT, if you ever call ME a teabagger o my face, your teeth will be in a different district than your mouth.

mzk1| 10.8.11 @ 1:23PM

Amen.

Occam's Tool| 10.8.11 @ 6:41PM

Gotta disagree, Fred. Kick HIS teabags to a different district from his dick. Much better.

beebop2| 10.9.11 @ 10:41AM

If he is an 0bama supporter he has already demonstrated that he is a dick with no balls.

Dan Mathewson| 10.9.11 @ 6:00PM

I think he's an a**hole who s**ts over everything.

Buck Ofama| 10.13.11 @ 11:09PM

Oh, Bob was a Wall St squatter too?

frjm| 10.10.11 @ 12:34PM

oldfart

Absolutely Correct

CSD frjm

Bob From District 9| 10.7.11 @ 10:26AM

"Put the brats to work."

And you ain't bright enough to figure out, that's all they are asking. Education has been a government responsibility in this country since before this country was founded. Yet now those unemployed college grads are tens of thousands in debt because the government has failed to meet it's responsibility.

They are right to occupy Wall Street, since this oncoming depression is the result of dishonesty and corruption in the investment sector.

And who among you are bright enough to see this?

Ms. Jones| 10.7.11 @ 10:34AM

I am bright enough, without a college degree, to find the grammatical and factual errors in your post. You are obviously a product of "free" government sponsored education.

Bob From District 9| 10.7.11 @ 12:13PM

Actually I went to both government and Catholic schools. You may find grammatical errors, as I don't claim secretarial skills, but your finding of factual errors is more fantasy than reality.

BTW, I am also a product of the education system of 50+ years ago which was the best in the world at that time.

Occam's Tool| 10.8.11 @ 6:41PM

Yes, but at the lower end of the curve. One can only do so much with a sow's ear, Bob.

Buck Ofama| 10.13.11 @ 11:11PM

Someone must graduate at the bottom.

Roy N.| 10.7.11 @ 10:38AM

Bob from D. 9: You write "since this oncoming depression is the result of dishonesty and corruption in the investment sector." Seems to me this started with the federal government forcing banks to make loans to unworthy borrowers, endless regulations imposed by an all seeing & all knowing federal government and taxes out the wazoo. Nice try but no cigar.

Bob From District 9| 10.7.11 @ 12:21PM

Well the first thing you have to explain is, why is this a world wide collapse, if it's all due to US govt regulation and taxation.

Then you have to figure in the fact that the US was tied for the *LOWEST* taxed industrialized country in the world before GW Bush took office. Tied with Japan.

Now, please explain how govt forced *unregulated* lenders, such as Countrywide, to make sub-prime loans. Answer, they didn't.

Now, please explain how you reconcile your claims with the fact that Texas did not suffer near as much damage in the recession as most of the rest of the country, even though Texas has *STRICTER* bank regulations than the national regs.

The reality is, weak regulation was the cause of the derivative bubble/collapse, which was the cause of the economic collapse. After all, a derivative market of $540 trillion was more than any US sub prime market by far. Probably more then all the US real estate combined is worth.

Oh, and explain the commercial real estate troubles since neither Fannie Mae nor Freddie Mac do commercial loans, and commercial real estate was never touched by the sub prime market.

You have bought the Wall Street excuses, and blame shifting. When you understand the above you will realize, it was weak regulation, not over regulation, that brought on this crises.

Wally| 10.7.11 @ 3:01PM

BFD 9: Wrong again Watson. Regulators did not 'force' sub prime loans- but don't ask to buy or merge with another bank if you are not doing them. The derivatives collapse was in fact triggered by the worthless mortgages that no one wanted to hold unhedged. And Commercial real estate WAS hit by the subprime melt (as was every other asset class) because the C note buyers for the CRE conduit deals were the same people who buy the subprime deals. You are a great example of the danger of a little knowledge.

CESC| 10.7.11 @ 10:45AM

It is not and has never been the government's job to find you a job. It is not and has never been the government's job to provide you with a college education. It is a personal choice to take out loans to further your education, and a personal motivation to seek gainful employment. To occupy a street in the name of...oh wait, the children protesting have no clearly defined reasons to occupy, they are simply doing what they are told by the anti-american forces of Soros, Soerto, Pelosi and company. You are such an insighful person Bob from District 9.

Bob From District 9| 10.7.11 @ 12:33PM

"It is not and has never been the government's job to find you a job."

Nor is it a government function to keep people unemployed, but they have been doing it for a generation, only they called it "Fighting inflation".

"It is not and has never been the government's job to provide you with a college education."

It has been the government's job to provide education since long before the constitution was signed. How much education has never been specified, but there is no way you can claim it is unreasonable to say the level of education must meet the needs of the time. When my father entered the workforce it was not necessary to be a high school graduate to get a good job. When I entered the work force high school graduation was the minimum to get a decent job. Today post high school education is the minimum to hold a decent job.

I was fortunate that I got ahead of the curve through the military training and VA benefits. My wife and siblings did it largely through govt programs. Today the private sector us eating up the value of education by sucking the economic life out of the borrowers.

You have the right to your opinion, but history doesn't agree with you.

Occam's Tool| 10.8.11 @ 6:43PM

Bob, you served your country before your country served you.

My scholarships were private. My education loans were paid back in total during my first 18 months of private practice.

beebop2| 10.9.11 @ 10:54AM

You clearly have an ax to grind. What folks like you think the government is for astounds me. Maybe they should come to your door and get you up in the morning? I have no patience for people who don't help themselves. None.

Ammo Guy| 10.7.11 @ 10:53AM

"Education has been a government responsibility in this country since before this country was founded." I am dumbfounded and speechless - words fail me and I'm an Irishman who's kissed the Blarney Stone more than once.

Bob From District 9| 10.7.11 @ 12:26PM

""Education has been a government responsibility in this country since before this country was founded." I am dumbfounded and speechless - words fail me and I'm an Irishman who's kissed the Blarney Stone more than once."

Then maybe you need to study some US History. The oldest public school in this country was founded in 1635, which was 150 years before this country was founded. Looking at the records you find, shortly after governments were founded public schools followed. Try looking it up, you find it over and over. The American people valued education so much they were willing to pay for it from the beginning.

Charie| 10.7.11 @ 2:31PM

You must be kidding. Education began and was developed by the churches in this country. Check out the names of most of the colleges, they all are either derived from or were run by religious orders. Ditto U.S. hospitals.

tfgray| 10.8.11 @ 5:16PM

"Check out the names of most of the colleges," let's see, First college: Harvard, then Yale, the U VA (founder T Jefferson) and U Penn (founder B Franklin) Wm & Mary (named for the current king and queen ) falls in there somewhere. Religious orders?
And the hospitals, yes religious orders were prominent, but look at today. How many non-profit hospitals are left? Nope, into the maw of the free market they go.

Occam's Tool| 10.8.11 @ 6:44PM

The Mayo Clinic. Non Profit. Sorry, TF, but I can go farther if you want. I just thought I'd start with the most obvious.

Ammo Guy| 10.7.11 @ 2:49PM

So, I suppose if the government abandoned its "responsibility" to educate us, then none of us would know nuthin' because no one else would pick up the slack...somehow I must have missed the section of the Constitution that ordains and establishes that responsibility, but I guess I need to study some US history

frjm| 10.10.11 @ 12:37PM

BUT NOT THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENTS JOB!!!!!!

frjm

LRW| 10.7.11 @ 12:32PM

Bob--
Come on, you've got to be a plant!
Education is the responsibility of the individual; the family. Review history: family--parents, and then by like believing families, by extension RELIGIOUS ORGANIZATIONS created schools--up to and including college.

moey| 10.7.11 @ 1:41PM

Right on LRW!

Charie| 10.7.11 @ 2:27PM

I have it on good authority tht Mr. Brooks always talks to President Obama like this. The prez even provides a towel so he can wipe behind his ears, which seem to be uncommonly wet.

JP| 10.7.11 @ 4:56PM

They are tens of thousands in debt because they chose to be. My self and my wife have zero school debt because we went to cheaper schools at first. Now we both make a nice income and can get jobs if need be.

How is it that people don't see the obvious that took many people are getting college degrees? The country has lied, the schools have lied, and the teachers and guidance councilors have lied. College is not a guarantee for anything except being college educated. Unfortunately, many kids aren't told that not all degrees and career choices are created equal. I wish everyone had a job and I am empathetic for those who are now a debt and can't find good jobs, but no one forced them to take out loans for something that doesn't guarantee their success.

Dr. Susan Smith| 10.7.11 @ 11:59PM

Actually, they are tens of thousands in debt because the USA is not a free nation that provides its citizens free college tuition like Scandinavian countries, due mainly to spending more than half the world on "defense" and military, that very same deep origins of militarism and imperialism that are tearing the U.S. apart, and leading it toward mediocrity and bankruptcy. Its scary how nobody on this site has hit the REAL reason why the USA is in such a deep hole financially. You seem not very well read or traveled....It took me going to every other continent in the world (albeit Antartica) and seeing the USA through the eyes of other nations, as well as reading alot about American imperialism. But it does all boil down to big banks, ivestment advisors and Wall Street, making people believe they must invest in dirty energy and war mongering stocks, bringing our country down with it. The only other countries spending more than the USA of useless wars and weapons are the likes of Iran, Pakistan, UAE. Think like 3rd world, become one. This is WHY we rank 37th in healthcare system, slightly above cuba, WHY we rank #82 in Global Peace while all those countries you guys point fingers too rank higher (Japan, Germany, Greece, Spain, Portugal, France and others), this is WHY our education system is slipping failing our great students (the students are not failing the system), this is WHY we are in this recession. Trillions spent on war. do we have the fringe group here that are stuck in redneck-like low class thinking that war "serves our nation"? Why is noboday brave enough or wise enough to stand up and say this? Wake up call! It is not "Patritotic" or pro-American to sustain belief in our historic way of war, or that we are a "free nation" fighting for such.

Occam's Tool| 10.8.11 @ 6:49PM

Well, Susan, as I have experience as a SENIOR medical consultant in a country with a higher ranked medical system than the US---New Zealand--- and I have extensive experience practicing all over the US---trained in Texas and California, practiced in Alabama, Kentucky, New Mexico and Minnesota---I can tell you that my cat gets better medical care when needed than Kiwis do, and I get much better medical care than my cat. I don't know how they do their rankings, but they are bullshit, as I know from direct observation with Lakes DHB versus Mayo. I don't have time to correct your idiocies, or your lack of grammatical and logical coherence.

Huh?| 10.11.11 @ 4:50AM

I appreciated your info on the good samaritan law. But in reading many of your posts on this thread, I was wondering what compelled you to become a medical doctor? Love of people, money, status...?

frjm| 10.10.11 @ 12:59PM

DR.susan

You and your little leeches who want me to pay their college bills can go to those Scandinavian Countries. I assure you I won't miss you at all.

CSD frjm

Dr. Susan Smith| 10.7.11 @ 10:30PM

Thank you "Bob from District 9", there IS someone with brains and insight in this group! These people are either totally stupid or too stubborn to see the real issue here. They probably don't even know the TRUE history of how the great depression in 1920's was ALSO plotted within secret society like today's recession..back then it was the infamous "Liberty Bonds" corrupting the financial investment institution. Today, we have corrupt corporations like Halliburton sneaked onto peoples investment portfolios by "Financial Advisors" unless we make all our own stock choices And big oil lands on those poftfolios as well....meanwhile we wonder why we can't get out from this perpetual war cycle bringing down faith of U.S. bonds with any other nations including China, who is ready to find an alternative to the dollar-centered global monetary system. And the fringe assholes out there having the gall to blame our youth, saying they are "lazy". As someone who volunteers in schools often, I see firsthand how todays 3rd graders are doing what we M.D.'s, MBA's, Ph.D's did in 4th and 5th grade, kids are tested to the gill by standardized test corp profits by 2nd grade, pushed to the brink with homework. Those are not just those innocent kids out there graducating at top of their medical school classes and otherwise protesting Wall Street, folks, those are their grad level educated parents rooting for them, rooting for our country. Wake up!

Fred C. Dobbs| 10.8.11 @ 9:08AM

Hey Susie
What are you a doctor of?
Female studies or somethin useful?

AhiaGuy| 10.9.11 @ 10:58AM

"They probably don't even know the TRUE history of how the great depression in 1920's was ALSO plotted within secret society like today's recession..."

Oops! A little too much info Suz. Now we have an idea of the basis for your posts.

Help us out here and fill us all in on the TRUE facts you discovered during your world travels. Which secret society is it that's controlling our economy? Is it the Bilderburgers? The Elders of Zion? The Masons? The Rosecrucians? The Skull & Bones Society? No---wait---it couldn't be that one. John Kerry's a member and he's a true-hearted Liberal Democrat.

beebop2| 10.9.11 @ 10:58AM

It is the height of HUBRIS to equate intelligence with someone who agrees with you. This is your biggest problem there Suze ... never challenging your preconceived notions. Give it a try. You might be amazed at what you will learn.

Fredrick Ward| 10.10.11 @ 11:43AM

beebop2, that is called being a liberal. Never question, never expect to do for yourself, always believe the fantasy that the world is fair and just - if not for the conservatives who screw up that natrual fairness law... that about sums it up.

Fredrick Ward| 10.10.11 @ 11:28AM

"Education has been a government responsibility in this country since before this country was founded"

You're a complete moron. The government is not responsible for providing jobs, or job creation. That is the pervue of the market based on demands of the market. Government also was not responsible for providing education before the founding of this country. Read your history jackass, lol.

Jesus, and we wonder why the liberals get away with so much. It is because they have fostered generations of complete idiots on purpose.

Soljerblue| 10.7.11 @ 9:41PM

Oh, they're being put to work alright -- by the organizers for Obama's thugocracy -- like the useful idiots they are.

miguel| 10.9.11 @ 11:48PM

Actually, there is merit in what you say. I have recently concluded a year-long study in Mexico of "marginal labor practices". One conclusion noted for "unskilled workers" is the realization that survival requires immediate measures. In other words, there is lots of manual work being done....people directing traffic....lots of mopping going on....a service available at a negotiable price for just about anything, anytime. Absent are throngs of visible homeless (exceptions noted here). But it would be a big misconception for me to compare this with the U.S....at this time. Mexico has a long history of poverty. And, to its credit, has not criminalized poverty to the extent the U.S. has made it a crime to be "poor".

In the U.S., you need a permit or license now to run a lemonade stand. Want to shine shoes? Well, you have to do so in the properly zoned location. I am not saying the U.S. model is necessarily a bad one, because there are valid reasons behind getting licenses and restricting services to certain venues. What I am saying is that the foundation in the U.S. does little to encourage self reliance. What you get for this is uniformity, order and control. When this control degenerates, it becomes more apparent to society and stands out. I seriously doubt Americans would tolerate people walking between cars stopped at a light selling things or persons performing for donations in intersections. The police would have them removed immediately.

So, the "daycare babies" label isn't a fair one. I bet you will find people at these OWS events selling things from T-shirts to cookies....which contradicts Mr. Stein and Appleby. The media...parents...schools...society in general has defined the parameters of expectation. If you promise your children that going to college is the ticket to a better life, then, upon graduation, there are no jobs, what do you expect them to do? And moreover, why would you expect their attitudes to be anything less than disillusioned? You set them up for this failure.

Finally, I do not think you really wish for social Darwinism. This is primitive, feudalistic, and genocidal in its extreme. Society is civil which means collective order. Every man or woman for him or herself will not lead to a more advance, enlightened society. Just the opposite. I challenge Mr. Stein to show us one societal model where this has occurred. Yes competition leads to certain efficiencies. Granted. But not without rules by which all have a chance to win. Once you remove the opportunity to win, only suckers will voluntarily enter the game.

Hank| 10.7.11 @ 7:39AM

Me and all my friends are also unemployed and we're dang tired of the the same establishment these kids are whining about. Think I'll head on down there and join 'em....

JBB| 10.7.11 @ 10:23AM

And accomplish what? Can you read? Did you read this?

1blumutt| 10.7.11 @ 11:30AM

OOps there JBB, Hank left......see him out there on the sidewalk, the one crawling on all fours?

Cpm| 10.7.11 @ 12:27PM

HANK, and "all his rowdy friends", get it?

Drunken Sailor| 10.7.11 @ 11:33AM

Good Job Hank. Rail against the establishment that provided the computer you used to post this garbage. By the way, your degree is in what again?

Bob From District 9| 10.7.11 @ 12:35PM

Get sober before posting.

Drunken Sailor| 10.7.11 @ 12:55PM

Ah yes, Bob, but I'll can sober up while you will always be a liberal fool. Please explain how I was wrong? Did not the establishment and capitalism provide for the computer and internet Hank uses? Would he not be better off filling out job applications instead of wasteing his time on the street party called protest?

Fool

Richard Davis| 10.7.11 @ 1:09PM

The government invented the internet. Private companies now provide the services, but the internet was invented and developed by the Defense Department.

Drunken Sailor| 10.7.11 @ 1:49PM

Private companies now provide the services.

Thank you for proving my point. Private companies are providing the services. Private companies also built the machine Hank is using. That my friend is capitalism. The very same system Hank wants to protest against. His hero must be Michael Moore.

bill fish| 10.8.11 @ 11:03AM

not quite correct. DARPA just funds proposals from private contractor such as Boeing and General Dynamics. DARPA does not have its own lab like the US Navy (NRL). So private enterprise just piggy-backed on telephony technology (private) to produce multiple-redundant communication systems to survive nuclear attack.

Given the inefficiency of government, the Internet as we know it would have occurred earlier if government was not already intrusive in the telecommunications area. The amount DARPA spent on ARPANET is much smaller than the private investment on the pre-existing telecommunication network.

Fredrick Ward| 10.10.11 @ 11:46AM

Well, if sobriety is a litmus test for posting then should we check to see if you have a brain before we allow you to post? I think that is a grand idea.

Dr. Susan Smith| 10.7.11 @ 10:39PM

Good for you Hank! You are obvously more educated than many of the unaware folks on this post. It not by education, by sheer insight and knowledge of what is transpiring in the world, and the USA's pivotal (and messy) role in it. Our Federal Governmnet is as corrupt as any 3rd world regime or govt, too many ignorant and anti-american types still believing we are "fighting for our liberty, freedom, and national security" and thinking they are "Patriotic". WRONG! Trillions spent on war is WHY we are here today.

bill fish| 10.8.11 @ 11:19AM

"Our Federal Governmnet is as corrupt as any 3rd world regime"

correct and the reason to shrink Federal Government of the USA.

Timothy L. Pennell| 10.7.11 @ 8:00AM

What happened to the other Ben Stein? The one who seems to sit in his Rocking Chair all day, opining about his childhood, in Mayberry. Or, Boo Berry. Or, wherever the Hell he comes from.
Somebody give him his Meds, or something?

Jason Brutus Kane | 10.7.11 @ 8:17AM

Methinks thou hast no grasp of economics. Ben Stein does.

Timothy L. Pennell| 10.7.11 @ 9:19AM

Really? Cause, what I've heard from him, on FOX Business, brings to mind his "taking Attendance, looking for Ferris Bueller.
I don't think he knows ANYTHING about Economics.
As for you? Thou seemeth to be, quite the fool.

JBB| 10.7.11 @ 10:22AM

Thou art the fool

Teaghan| 10.7.11 @ 10:54AM

You know what it was Tim? His wife fell and the parasites that were within eyeshot didn't give a damn to come to her aid. Then he got in his car and heard about the other parasites demanding other people's money and the two incidents set him off. Give the man a break.
And I love it when they show him in the classroom saying< :Beuller Beuller Beurller

Good job Ben!

Bob From District 9| 10.7.11 @ 12:42PM

"His wife fell and the parasites that were within eyeshot didn't give a damn to come to her aid. "

So, you think society should do nothing to keep people in this country from becoming homeless or starving. You think society should do nothing to provide medical care that will keep the sick from dying. Yet you think private individuals have a duty to help someone who falls down.

Your own reasoning justifies Obamacare and stimulus.

Skippy| 10.7.11 @ 5:02PM

So it's an all or nothing choice, eh?
Either I go along with unending Big Govt. expansion to soothe my guilt, or I want everyone to starve in the dark and cold, correct?
Junior High debaters do better than that, BFD.

JP| 10.7.11 @ 5:03PM

Question for you Bob....What if society can't afford to take care of everyone's wants and needs?

bill fish| 10.8.11 @ 11:24AM

"You think society should do nothing to provide medical care"

you confuse society with government.

There has been many benevolent societies who offer medical services to recruit members to their respective groups. The American Medical Association, starting in the 1900's, proceed to demonize the medical services of these benevolent societies. All one has left are the Catholic Hospitals and the Shriner's Hospitals, for example. Progressives had all only pursued to eliminate private benevolence and herd the masses to servitude to federal government.

Fredrick Ward| 10.10.11 @ 11:57AM

Actually, you are correct. I do not believe that healthcare is a right, and I do not believe that we should support the ineptitude of those who do not wish to work for what they have. However, I do believe that human decency and being a gentleman, or a lady, is a requirement. Conservatives believe and follow these ideals while Liberals tromp around whining about fairness, cause anarchy, and seek to deliver us into a state of slavery.

Buck Ofama| 10.13.11 @ 11:17PM

>Yet you think private individuals have a duty to help someone who falls down.

In your blundering haste, you have mistaken duty for common courtesy.

moey| 10.7.11 @ 1:43PM

Yes, good job Ben!!

Dr. Susan Smith| 10.7.11 @ 10:40PM

Fox news is all fiction

Fred C. Dobbs| 10.8.11 @ 9:10AM

Straight from demRAT HQ!

Herb| 10.8.11 @ 9:12AM

"Fox News is all fiction."

Whew! Rather breathtaking assertion, that. Are you Elizabeth Warren, writing under a pseudonym? By the way, what are your views on private owenership of fireearms?

Fredrick Ward| 10.10.11 @ 11:59AM

Susan, that's ok if you want to believe that and keep your head in the sand because after all you did get your degree from Doctor Sues. You do so love that government provided green eggs and ham.

Buck Ofama| 10.13.11 @ 11:18PM

Oh, then that includes the part where O'Reilly interviewed Ovomit.

Bob From District 9| 10.7.11 @ 12:37PM

"Methinks thou hast no grasp of economics. Ben Stein does."

Is this the same Ben Stein I have in a video from Dec 2007 telling us how strong the fundamentals of the economy are? The same Dec 2007 when the recession began?

Is this the same Ben Stein who said American wages have to fall to $2/hr to be competitive?

Do you realize, when your wages fall your debts are not adjusted? Do you realize such a fall would make almost every mortgage and every credit card and every student loan impossible to collect on?

That Ben Stein?

Dr. Susan Smith| 10.7.11 @ 10:50PM

This Ben Stein is about as educated as a frog. His legs and brain are as mutated as the frogs out there getting mutated from our nuclear power plants, oil refinerys, coal plants and increasing trash in the oceans. Jobs in the wrong direction. Meanwhile, I heard about one kid out of college that graducated with high honors in some Robotics enginnering curriculm. She could not get a job for longest time, finally landed one as a Bomb Technician. Isn't that grand? Now she is being sent off to Afghanistan to make sure those bombs the USA shipped off now set underground don't go off and kill people. Wonderful, lets put our new college grads in grave danger. while no more sad for one's daughter to be put in that scenario than son (ditto with any war), is this what we want for our next generation? We have a military dictatorship and diminishing civilian led democracy, not enough jobs in right direction as investment banks so corrupt have people investing in dirty energy and war mongering giants rather than clean tech. USA has hightest rates of cancer (I know, I'm a medical doctor), highest healthcare cost associcate with that, 80-90% cancer caused by environmental factors. Yet, you don't think our financial institutions and political system (closely intertwined) are corrupt? Just keep blaming the kids, you idiots!

J.C.Eaton| 10.7.11 @ 11:42PM

Take a downer and don't call me in the morning.

bill fish| 10.8.11 @ 11:36AM

USA has hightest rates of cancer (I know, I'm a medical doctor)

Incorrect.
As of Jan 2011, the cancer rates per 100,000 are:

1- Denmark 326.1
2- Ireland 317
3- Australia 314
4- New Zealand 309
5- Belgium 306
6- France 300.4
7- USA 300.2

What is the cancer rate in a country like, say, Mali, which has non-existent reliable medical records?

You are indeed stupid if you state that you know something because you are an MD.

Occam's Tool| 10.8.11 @ 6:51PM

Again, Susan, bullshit.

I'm a medical doctor, as well. THE HIGHEST RATE OF LUNG CANCER IN THE WORLD IS TO BE FOUND IN THE NEW ZEALAND MAORIS, for example.

Occam's Tool| 10.8.11 @ 6:54PM

The reference for that is the New Zealand Medical Journal, which once upon a time I looked through regularly. I also have treated many more Maoris and Native Americans than you, Sue. I practice in a rural area with 3 Native reservations feeding into my hospital. Before that, I practiced in Rotorua, NZ.

Please be more coherent, as well. You embarrass me.

beebop2| 10.9.11 @ 11:03AM

Ben's undergrad degree is from the same Alma Mater as zerobama. So perhaps you are on to something. Do you think their grades were the same? Of course, zerobama isn't going to let you see his. "Completes" were his student version of voting present.

Jason Brutus Kane | 10.7.11 @ 8:14AM

Mr. Stein's eloquence is always pithy and understandable, even by the ignoranti who comprise the lunatic left. Thank you, Sir.

1blumutt| 10.7.11 @ 11:39AM

Hey, there. There are those of us who recall when our Ben shided us for going all nuts on him....kept telling us in so many words, "Just give the new fellow a chance." That Marxist fellow and his play pals from their various anti-American cells have done and are doing all they can to destroy this Republic! Maybe our Ben is having an awakening. That's a good thing!

Cpm| 10.7.11 @ 12:29PM

Chided.

OLDRAY| 10.7.11 @ 8:32AM

Right on Mr Stein and BRAVO Herman Cain.

gearjammer| 10.7.11 @ 8:43AM

I go to the market, the coffee shop, whatever. I see young kids working-white, of color, whatever. I talk to them get to know them. Many work and go to school-usually community colllege. They shouild be republicans. But, not so. Movies, music, pop culture keep them under democrat sway. Also, the gay issue can hurt. Although, many of these kids I know go to church. It is all hard to figure. No quick answers.

Bob From District 9| 10.7.11 @ 12:43PM

The see the Republican future, and it doesn't work.

Skippy| 10.7.11 @ 5:03PM

The Democrat present isn't looking too healthy either.

Dr. Susan Smith| 10.7.11 @ 10:59PM

gearjammer, what the heck are you blabbering about? You make it sound like republicans are more the "churchgoers" than democrats, or that somehow anyone on the right more christian or less sin-like. Going to church every sunday does not make a stronger Christian, its what one bleives in his/her heart. do you believe in any virute of war? If so, you could not possibly be a true Christian. Do you think the Bible is the "word of the Lord"? If so, how ignorant. The poblem is, those kids at the coffee shops are likely more educated and better behaved than you. If not in education, at very least in common sense intelligence

Fredrick Ward| 10.10.11 @ 12:08PM

Matthew 10:34

Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.

Maybe you should become familiar with your bible, Susan. It is rife with wars decreed by G-d. In fact, the revelation of the new heaven and earth starts with a war. Therefore, your ideal of Christianity is quite blind. It is not surprising, though, because that is the way of the liberals; ignore anything that is inconvenient to the bile you spread around.

Bill| 10.7.11 @ 9:59AM

"Mister Fish and Mister Chow,
I wonder where they all are now...

Where have all the Angry Young Men gone?
Where have all the Angry Young Men gone?
Rostow and Osborne, Waterhouse and Sillitoe,
Beatniks with long pull0vers on?
And where are all the protest songs?
Yeah, where have all the Angry Young Men gone?"

-The Kinks

Ammo Guy| 10.7.11 @ 11:06AM

Ah, Ray Davies, well played Mr. Bill - perhaps another lyric will provide hope for all these poor, misled youth, to wit:

"Here's hoping all the days ahead
Won't be as bitter as the ones behind you.
Be an optimist instead,
And somehow happiness will find you.
Forget what happened yesterday,
I know that better things are on the way. "

Occam's Tool| 10.8.11 @ 6:56PM

Dear Sue:

"I know you're working for the See-I-Ay,
They wouldn't Have You in the Maff-I-Ay!"

Jane McNair| 10.7.11 @ 10:11AM

Ben Stein is the greatest !

Reagans Ghost| 10.7.11 @ 10:13AM

All I can say is what follows as well that these Commies ain't so much "Arab Spring" as they are in need of some "Irish Spring":

http://spectator.org/archives/.....s-too-much

Has Been Stein| 10.7.11 @ 10:14AM

Go work for what isn't there! Go! Go now!

Red Bubba| 10.7.11 @ 10:24AM

You don't get it. For fools who majored in hobbies, of course the jobs aren't there. For every aromatherapy, art history, anthropology, gender studies etc. graduate, there is a computer programming job opening. It's tough to grow up and realize not veryone gets a trophy for trying.

Fallgold| 10.7.11 @ 10:45AM

Right on! They spend four years getting a degree in art apprciation or transgender studies, and then wonder why no one wants to hire them.

CESC| 10.7.11 @ 10:49AM

Red Bubba, you hit the nail on the head. My "idealistic" son just switched his major from music to engineering when he finally realized that maybe dad was right that he needed to be marketable in a profession.

Dr. Susan Smith| 10.7.11 @ 11:10PM

Hate to clue you in CESC, but there are TONS of kis out there that graducated with degrees in Computer Science, Civil Engineering, Robotics Eningeering, and several other Engineering programs at top colleges and are NOT geting jobs, not due to anything of their own accord, but simply the jobs are not there. Once again, you naive newbies need to get a grip on the real deal here. Oh, and kids with medical degrees, and what should be looked at as higher earning jobs like teaching if we were to follow advice of Singapore and other nations with stronger ed system (does more for society than all the overproliferated technology out there causing zoned out kids and obesity, are also having problems getting jobs. Part of problem is the de-humanizing of the job search (all online, no such thing as recrutiers, human element lost). thanks to all the unecessary robotics and automation technologies making humans obsolete. You have no clue

bill fish| 10.8.11 @ 11:43AM

"...programs at top colleges and are NOT geting jobs, not due to anything of their own accord, but simply the jobs are not there."

You have a mindset of a slave and not of a master.

The late Steve Jobs spent only 1 semester at a second-tier college. What did he do? Made himself a job!
Bill Gates did not graduate from Harvard. What did he do? Made himself a job!

A Black Man a millionaire in the 1880's and owning a RailRoad company on the East Coast (what is his name? that is homework for you!)
said that it is better to say "I is rich!" than "I am poor!".

Occam's Tool| 10.8.11 @ 6:56PM

Singapore is dying out. Too few kids. Hmmm...

Bob From District 9| 10.7.11 @ 12:47PM

Do you really believe there are that many computer programming jobs? You must live in Disney Land, to be specific, Fantasy Land. Read up on the grads from the private tech schools, and notice how many are not finding jobs and are defaulting on their loans.

Computer programming is one of the most easily outsourced to India jobs there is.

Oh, and you include Anthropology and Art History with Aromatherapy? How many colleges even give a degree in Aromatherapy? I've never heard of any.

Skippy| 10.7.11 @ 5:08PM

In the 80's I knew lots of Ornamental Horticulture and Landscape Architecture grads from Cal Poly SLO.
How did I know them?
I worked for a successful private landscape firm, and they were all min. wage clerks at the local nurseries.
There are about 7 jobs in those fields worldwide, and they are already filled.
Oops.
Learn something that increases your employers wealth, and you'll get paid.

Occam's Tool| 10.8.11 @ 7:03PM

I did my undergrad at TCU, and I'm making more than 300K per year. How is that? Hmmm....

I majored in Biology, graduated Magna Cum Laude, kicked the TOP off of the MCAT (higher than Harvard's average), got accepted to two Medical Schools, and work in a rural area. I finish my three years of CME requirements in 3 months, and then study things I find interesting. When I reboarded, I had one of the highest scores in the US in my specialty. Crunch, crunch, crunch.

Why am I making out like bandit? Hmmmm.... (Does this bore you, Quartermaster?)

John3| 10.9.11 @ 12:53PM

So you make lots of money prescribing meds for mentally ill people. And you want to start a general war by nuclear bombing Iran so Israel is safe. That about a summary of your comments here.

Occam's Tool| 10.10.11 @ 3:50AM

The problem with nuking Iran is?

The problem with treating the mentally ill is?

John3| 10.10.11 @ 8:01AM

Nuking several million people? Explain how this is not a "problem."
No problem with treating mentally ill.

Occam's Tool| 10.10.11 @ 4:32PM

Nuking Iranians, who wish to destroy many millions of their fellow Muslims and have the Saudis scared shitless enough that they've given the ISRAELIS the green light for flyover?

They broke international law in 1979. We should have nuked them then. For what they have done since then, they deserve more. Further, if they ARE nuked, it will stop jihadist extremism in its tracks, hard.

Small price to pay for the lives saved. Just as nuking Hiro and Naga was small price to pay for Japanese lives saved. I'm talking about saving Islamic lives here, believe it or not.

John3| 10.10.11 @ 6:11PM

World War II was a declared war after Japan attacked us.
There is no comparison between Iran and Japan.
But you can ask your Senator to have Congress to declare war on Iran so we can nuke them. You can present all your evidence and arguments. If it's as clear as you say then let's declare war.
Carter should have done something in 1979--you are correct there. But nuke them now? You are a loon.

John3| 10.10.11 @ 6:13PM

P.S
Why should the USA nuke Iran. Why not Israel?

Red Bubba| 10.8.11 @ 11:47AM

I am aware of a RR industry company in DFW that is looking for 20 programmers right now. Has there ever in the history of the world been anyone looking for 20 anthropologists or art historians at the same time? Aromatherpay, I kid you not, you can major in that at several colleges.

Fredrick Ward| 10.10.11 @ 12:15PM

Funny, because I have not even completed my degree yet, and I have a position as a technical analyst at child corporation of an international conglomerate. Yet, all these people who already have their degrees cannot find work? Well, get up and go somewhere else where there is work if there is no work in the area that you are in. Probem is they are too damn lazy to do that. Instead they go sit on a stree corner or in a park and hold a sign because shit became difficult. Pooorr them! Gee, I just might shed a tear for these spoiled morons....

Occam's Tool| 10.10.11 @ 4:34PM

Well Fred, it's goddamm unfair that you have a BRAIN----these Lesbian Studies majors weren't issued with ONE! Obviously, the Zombies are coming for your BRAIIIINSSSS!

Good on 'ya, Fred. Much happiness, luck and money in your life.

JoInDaHills| 10.11.11 @ 11:00AM

Well, Freddy-- lucky you! Not everyone wants to be a technical analyst or has that training, and thanks for that! A world full of tech analyst Philistines sounds pretty grim and dangerous-- can you save a life in the ER? And just wait 'til your wonderful, beneficent employer downsizes/reorgs in the future (it's inevitable)-- and you will be regarded as just another piece of disposable meat like all American workers. There are trained, experienced, dedicated people demonstrating, like nurses, teachers, and other valuable, productive people who lost their jobs and WANT TO WORK! And what about all those who worked hard for decades, did a good job, and were let go because they are north of 45 (w/ the excuse of the "economic downturn")? Are they lazy too? You're a callous, anti-American asshole, who embodies the nasty GOP/teabagger culture of "I got mine, so F you!" People like YOU are hastening the downfall of America!

Fredrick Ward| 10.11.11 @ 12:37PM

You, sir, are a complete idiot who has no measure of comprehensive skills. I never desparaged those who want to work, or are actively seeking. I said those who are sitting on street corners acting like a bunch of idiots and wasting their time and talents, expecting the rest of us to give to them what they are obviously unwilling to work for deserve their fate and have no business complaining.

Secondly, I have been downsized in the past, and guess what? I went out and found another job. Gee imagine the novelty of that idea! Jackass.

Soljerblue| 10.7.11 @ 9:54PM

So right! These are the kids who never had to compete. Never had to figure out what works and what doesn't. Never were told 'no', or 'work for it.' Never had Economics 101. Ask any of them why they're there, and they can't give a coherent answer. All of a sudden -- there's a real world out there, and they can't handle it. Presto! Along come the community organizers, socialist liars, union thugs, see all these skulls full of mush, and -- voila! -- an occupying force.

Doodle| 10.8.11 @ 12:51PM

Nope, never had to compete for anything in the most competitive higher education market the country's ever seen.

Most people on here should read http://wearethe99percent.tumblr.com/ and find out what real people are going through.

BE| 10.8.11 @ 2:32PM

No jobs? Why is it that illegals, who are uneducated and can't speak English, cross the border into this country and find jobs and eventually end up with a small successful business and own homes and raise families?

Mike in Tokyo Rogers| 10.7.11 @ 10:14AM

Ben Stein writes: "No one in the garage made a move to help her. I, of course, picked her up and said to the parking attendant, “You’re pretty stupid. That woman who fell is the only woman in Beverly Hills who wouldn’t sue you for that slip. You might at least thank her and help her.”

What an idiot Ben Stein is. The attendant is "pretty stupid. That woman who fell is the only woman in Beverly Hills who wouldn’t sue you for that slip." Riiiiiight! This rich won from Beverly Hills is going to sue some Hispanic parking lot attendant? Sue him for what? The $80 a week he makes?

Ben Stein? Planet earth is calling you. Time to get back to reality. This is so utterly absurd that it makes Ben Stein look an even bigger fool than his idiotic bio does.

JBB| 10.7.11 @ 10:25AM

Proof of the loss of the ability to read, comprehend, and think. Jaded. So sorry.

CESC| 10.7.11 @ 10:52AM

Earth to Mike
The garage owner would be sued, resulting in the loss of the non-english speaking attendant's job. And your $80 a week comment is asinine also. Your class warfare "rich won" comment displays your ignorance.

Bob From District 9| 10.7.11 @ 12:52PM

No matter what happens to the garage owner, someone is going to needed people to run the garage.

So, how is talking about a rich woman suing a poor Hispanic worker class warfare. Good chance he's illegal, so Ben Stein's lot gets the blame even for that.

Southern_Comment| 10.7.11 @ 1:41PM

If the owner were sued his liability insurance would go up or be cancelled and he may decide that it wasn't worth it to keep the business open.

Occam's Tool| 10.8.11 @ 7:08PM

Whatever, Ben. Depends upon the good samaritan law in California.

And here it is:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Published: 2009-09-30
California's Good Samaritans LawArticle provided by Los Angeles Personal Injury Attorney - Heller Law Firm
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed two bills this August that help clarify the state's Good Samaritans statute following a December 2008 court decision that put the scope of the law's protections into question.

At common law, there is no duty to rescue another person, even if it is clear that the person will die without help. The duty may arise, however, if the two people have a special relationship with one another, like parent and child or husband and wife. If a person without one of these special relationships decides to help another, he or she must exercise reasonable care in rendering the aid. If the injured person is further harmed because the person providing help did not exercise reasonable care, then the injured person can sue for civil damages.

Since the common law rule provides little incentive to people to help one another in emergency situations, the majority of states have passed laws — known as Good Samaritans statutes — to make exceptions to this rule. Under California's Good Samaritan statute (Health & Safety Code §1799.102), those who act in good faith to provide emergency care at the scene of an emergency are immune from civil liability.

However, the extent of this immunity and to whom it applies came into question late last year, following a decision issued by the California Supreme Court.

Van Horn v Watson: Medical Care and Nonmedical Care

In a December 2008 case, the California Supreme Court narrowed the application of the Good Samaritans statute. In Van Horn v. Watson, the court held that the legislature only intended for the statute to provide immunity to those who rendered emergency medical care at the scene of a medical emergency and not those who provided nonmedical care or assistance."

Appears to me that thanks to SCUMBAG VERMINOUS WORTHLESS ATTORNEYS LIKE YOURSELF, Ben, that the attendant could be liable if he injured her on pickup. Not lifethreatening situation aid.

He made the right call, you ambulance chasing shitbag.

Teaghan| 10.7.11 @ 10:57AM

Mike, you are mean and you suck.

Bob From District 9| 10.7.11 @ 12:52PM

Teaghan, you are mean and you suck.

Dr. Susan Smith| 10.7.11 @ 11:32PM

Mike in Tokyo Rogers, I could not have said it better myself! What a whining baby Ben Stein is, like as if his wife deserves special privelges over these college kids simply trying to get jobs in a downed economy, a downed economy BECAUSE of corruption and greed? What a disrespectful do nohting type looser he is! He sounds like he thinks he is "above" this parking attendant, who could have been a kid in college paying his way through school him/herself. Pathetic people like this belong swept under a rug. He has no class, no social skills, no intelligence. Political and economic decisions should not be made on the backs of our kids....they are our next generation of do-gooders. His wife's prima donna attitude leaves little to be desired

Dr. Susan Smith| 10.7.11 @ 11:33PM

Mike in Tokyo Rogers, I could not have said it better myself! What a whining baby Ben Stein is, like as if his wife deserves special privelges over these college kids simply trying to get jobs in a downed economy, a downed economy BECAUSE of corruption and greed? What a disrespectful do nohting type looser he is! He sounds like he thinks he is "above" this parking attendant, who could have been a kid in college paying his way through school him/herself. Pathetic people like this belong swept under a rug. He has no class, no social skills, no intelligence. Political and economic decisions should not be made on the backs of our kids....they are our next generation of do-gooders. His wife's prima donna attitude leaves little to be desired

Bill H| 10.7.11 @ 10:17AM

Thank you, Mr. Stein, for those words of wisdom.
Years ago when the so-called Camp Casey was set up by Cindy Sheehan, et al, at the Bush ranch in Texas, Anderson Cooper was there with CNN. The line producer arranged the dozens of protesters in a way that made it look like a crowd of hundreds on site. I can hardly wait to see how the scene on Wall Street will look after it gets the C.B. DeMille treatment from the leftist press. They'll make it look like the rail yard scene in "Gone With The Wind" before its done. It will appear the last line of protesters is standing on the banks of the Chicago River.

keyboard jockey| 10.7.11 @ 10:20AM

Mr Stein,

I am sorry your wife fell, I hope she is alright.

You are succinct, and to the point, and somehow your account is sad too.

When America is fat and flush, we can take care of these directionless kids. When the hard times come they are the first to feel the pain - the expendables (Liberal Arts Majors or majored in scented candle making). If people are paying close attention, they can see the damage the economic downturn has done to the country. These kids are just a "sign" of the shape of our economy. Kind of like how the specialty boutiques were the first to shut their doors. We have tightened our belts, our self indulgent excesses are not being fed. Much like the Occupy Wall Street Kid's whine, indulge me, indulge me.

Sorry kids, those days are in our rear view mirror. You need a job. Pull the metal out of your faces, cover up your tats, comb your hair, pull your pants up, start using deodorant, Suck it up.

Bob From District 9| 10.7.11 @ 12:54PM

Keyboard Jockey, if those jobs existed there would be no protests.

Wall Street caused this collapse, and Wall Street has sucked up trillions and is not creating jobs.

Skippy| 10.7.11 @ 5:10PM

If those self-centered children followed his advise, they would already have jobs.

beebop2| 10.9.11 @ 11:12AM

Seniors who saw the loss of their nest eggs are pushing the entitled kids out of the lower wage jobs. Take a look in retail stores. More gray hair. And? If you are going to tattoo yourself like a moving billboard and put quarter sized holes in your ear lobes, you may want to ask yourself where that look will be attractive!

Stefan Stackhouse| 10.7.11 @ 2:14PM

If they were to actually get busy and start making some of those scented candles to resell instead of just sitting around making a nuisance of themselves, that would be a good start. Maybe some of them would even be surprised to discover that one thing leads to another, and pretty soon they have a nice little business going.

Gramma| 10.7.11 @ 10:21AM

I totally agree with Herman Cain's remark, also.
But, I guess the protestors did get a job--the union people are paying them to be there, and they don't even know why they are there!

Bob From District 9| 10.7.11 @ 12:55PM

Gramma, that's gotta be number one on the dumb list of responses.

beebop2| 10.9.11 @ 11:13AM

You are too modest -- each one of your missives is a qualifer for the top ten dumb statements.

Amanda| 10.7.11 @ 10:26AM

What a condescending moron Stein is. These "kids" are not asking for a hand out, Stein's confusing them with Wall Street. Sit pretty in your Beverly Hills home Stein while over one million foreclosed upon families and an (admitted) 9+% of our people are unemployed. "Let them eat cake" isn't really the response I'd expect from someone who claims the credentials Stein does. Oh by the way, If you've got a grievance with the parking attendant what difference doe his race make?

Roy| 10.7.11 @ 10:32AM

They aren't? You sure could have fooled me.

The response to 9.1% unemployment is "think about that before you elect the most far left president we've ever had, and 60 Democrats to the Senate, so they can pass unread trillion dollar 2000 page government takeovers of everything in sight."

Bob From District 9| 10.7.11 @ 12:57PM

Compared to the over 10% unemployment under Reagan?

Obama's great failing is in not telling the republicans to stuff it. Instead he tried to play nice.

The only problem with not voting for Obama is, all the others are worse.

Wally| 10.7.11 @ 3:05PM

What a maroon.

karl-marx-sucks| 10.7.11 @ 4:46PM

District Bob. I worked on both side of the grate divide - as a parking lot attendant and on the wall street (not at the same time). You have better odds surviving Wall Street then making it with the Guatemalan or Salvadorian crews. You wanna see the greed? Try to squeeze your share of the tips from those guys. Bottom line - humans are greedy and selfish by design. Bankers are no greedier than anybody else. And for god sake - bankers are not in business to create jobs nor should they be. Bankers are in business to make profit for the shareholders. Most of them did not ask for a bailout, some were forced to take it by Paulson and his henchmen.
When I came to this country from the workers paradise (I think you belong there) the last think on my mind was asking Gov for job or money or education or anything. I attended cars, stoked supermarket shelf, 16 hrs a day 6 days a week. I paid my tuition of my own pocket and never complained. My kids did not attend American high school (thanks god for that). Both were accepted to private colleges and I paid their tuition in full. I paid for my wife college and my step-daughter college. All of them have successful professional lives. Now, you are telling me I have to pay for the bums born into leisure, learning nothing of value and too important to work for a minimum wage?
And no, I' m not a banker, just a tech guy. My taxes pay for much of what those bums are getting, including their "education" and helthcare. And I bet you would not tell a "teabugger" from a crack in your head, which I suspect met 4x4 at some unfortunate time.
In this country you can be anything you want, at least it was this way the last time I checked. Do you think bankers were less greedy 100 or 50 or 20 years ago? What a moron.

Bill| 10.7.11 @ 10:46AM

Elections have consequences. The jobless should think twice about electing the annointed one again.

Bob From District 9| 10.7.11 @ 12:57PM

Obama is not the best possible candidate, he's only the best we got.

Dave Williams| 10.7.11 @ 2:04PM

The sad thing is....you're right! This pompous, egomaniacal, unqualified jug-eared anti-American POS really IS the best candidate you Demon-rats have. Come November 2012, your whole crowd is gonna get your clocks cleaned like you haven't since 1980...I can't wait, myself...

beebop2| 10.9.11 @ 11:15AM

He will have done more to put the cause of liberalism back two generations. This is fabulous as far as I am concerned.

Teaghan| 10.7.11 @ 10:59AM

Amanda, slither back over to the HufPo.

Cpm| 10.7.11 @ 12:37PM

These 'kids' are afraid of cutting the apron strings, whether it is their parent's or the government's. They've been coddled and carried their entire lives, and the thought of having to depend on their own wits for the first time terrifies them. They are fighting a last ditch effort to crawl back in the womb.

Bob From District 9| 10.7.11 @ 12:58PM

When there are jobs available you might have a point. Until then, you are just BSing.

Skippy| 10.7.11 @ 5:15PM

Plenty of jobs available.
Pick crops; dig ditches; clean motels; sling hash; mow lawns; shovel snow; wash cars; etc.
Simply deport the 20,000,000 illegal invaders sucking the life out of our economy and mailing it back to Mexico, and everyone will be employed.
I'll bet you really don't want to get your hands dirty, though.

Occam's Tool| 10.10.11 @ 4:47PM

Sorry, Bob---everyday I wake up with more job offers. I like my job, my little town, my lawn, my house, my job. So I don't leave.

If you have skills, you can make or get a job. People like you want to shut that down.

Charles Bivona| 10.7.11 @ 10:27AM

Ben Stein lives in Beverly Hills AND Malibu. He's an Every Man. He's me. He's you. And it seems we're all a bunch of arrogant assholes. How sad for us.

CESC| 10.7.11 @ 10:53AM

Barry Soerto is proud of your class envy.

Bob From District 9| 10.7.11 @ 12:59PM

You bought into the Republican/Tea Party BS.

When there are not jobs expect the unemployed to take to the streets. Or don't you learn from history?

CESC| 10.7.11 @ 2:46PM

Yes, I learn from history that communism/marxism/socialism destroys productive elements, the producers. That "taking to the streets" does not produce or achieve a single job. That this entire farce is a show of a few hundred unwashed children who have no clue why they are there, other than the fact that they cannnot be there to protest the mulitple wars overseen by Barry Soerto (anti-war protests are only allowed if a Republican is President). They are following the marching orders of their college professors, the President, Pelosi, Soros, et al. They are a useful tool of the extreme anti-american left, the hate mongers, the ant-success crowd. I read you for what you are Bob. A dyed in the wool marxist revolutionary, jealous of success, covetous of others property and wealth. I would pity you if I was not fully aware of your sinister desires. Post all you want, this is a free site, but don't expect those of us who are informed and rational, logical thinkers to see you for anything else than your transparent mental illness that is liberalism.

Skippy| 10.7.11 @ 5:16PM

Let them take to the streets.
It's as good a place to die as any.

Occam's Tool| 10.10.11 @ 4:50PM

Read an interesting article from Alabama. Says that Landscaping companies can't replace their Mexican illegals with American Citizens...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44793726/

There are jobs.

Occam's Tool| 10.10.11 @ 4:50PM

Read an interesting article from Alabama. Says that Landscaping companies can't replace their Mexican illegals with American Citizens...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44793726/

There are jobs.

JBB| 10.7.11 @ 10:27AM

Ben Stein hit it out of the park once again! Heed the voice of wisdom, experience, and common sense. Stein makes sense when all others have even given up trying.

Charles Bivona| 10.7.11 @ 10:35AM

Ben Stein worked for Nixon, and he was not a crook.

CESC| 10.7.11 @ 10:55AM

Nixon was a piker compared to fast-and-furious/solyndra/classwarfare Barry Soerto.

Bob From District 9| 10.7.11 @ 1:02PM

Solyndra was accepted into the program by the Bush administration. The law they got their subsidy under was passed by the 2005 Republican congress and signed by GW Bush. The GW Bush administration passed it on to the Obama administration with a recommendation it be granted.

"Barry Soerto."

Your appeal to bigotry is noted.

CESC| 10.7.11 @ 2:51PM

Barry Soerto is a name he himself used and identified with. He called himself Barry until he decided that Barack would be more useful for the "cause". Barry pushed through solyndra, spoke out about his open support, even when advised to do the opposite. His adminstration forced through the loans by way of his failed "stimulus plan". He is fully responsible for his decisions. He is an inexperienced idealogue, with marxist training. Don't blame this on your favorite punchingbag Bush, Bob. He is and was also aware of fast and furious, which has resulted in the deaths of American law officers. He has blood on his hands. He invaded Libya without cause. You support a demon, therefore you are also a demon. Your support of this demon reveals your bigotry. Bigotry is not just one way, you know.

Skippy| 10.7.11 @ 5:18PM

I hate his white half even worse than the black half.

Petronius| 10.8.11 @ 10:18AM

Neither of those two matter. It's his Red philosophy of governing that causes all this misery. And the more miserable and needy people are, the happier these wellfare statists get.

Charles Bivona| 10.7.11 @ 10:37AM

"The credit card companies hate people like me, who pay off our bills every month." -Ben Stein

Petronius| 10.8.11 @ 10:19AM

That's why they keep sending letters increasing credit limits.

Yeeeeech| 10.7.11 @ 10:38AM

NYC, the most expensive city in America after Jackson Hole or DC....where are these kids getting money for food,Starbucks, pay for their cellular Android and IPOD/ITune bills, texting and email accounts? I watched some interviews and their purposes and aims seem, well aimless. Are they out to destroy McDonald's, Starbucks, Ford, Searle, JC Penney, Proctor and Gamble, Nestle, Burger King, KFC, and other companies traded on Wall St?

Darren| 10.7.11 @ 10:45AM

Of course, the lefties offer the wrong "solution". That doesn't mean that their gripes are wrong. The corporate system we live under stinks, & anyone that has 1/2 a brain can see that. No, Mr. Stein, these protestors are on to something. They need to be educated about liberty (you too) not ridiculed.

CESC| 10.7.11 @ 10:56AM

So you admit you have 1/2 a brain.

MarkR| 10.7.11 @ 11:16AM

Just like the tea party eh?

MarkR| 10.7.11 @ 11:17AM

My comment refers to Darren and not CESC. The tea party NEVER caught such a break from the LSM.

CESC| 10.7.11 @ 11:38AM

I knew you were referring to Darren. The left-stream media would never report accurately on the Tea Party, but give them a chance to push a few hundred filthy student's non-existant agenda and.........

Bob From District 9| 10.7.11 @ 1:05PM

Those protests have been going on for a long while before the MSM discovered them. The Corporate Owned Media, a more accurate term, only reported when it got too big to ignore.

The Tea Party gets kid glove treatment. You never see reports in the COM about the big money backers of the Tea Party.

CESC| 10.7.11 @ 2:54PM

A couple hundred smelly kids is hardly a movement. The Tea Party has endured slander, false reporting, condemnation and ridicule from the left stream media as well as the anti-american marxist party "leaders" like Pelosi and Reid.
I have attended Tea Party rallies, and have never, never received a penny from anyone to attend. You are either misinformed or a liar. I suspect the latter.

Skippy| 10.7.11 @ 5:19PM

I'd like to give the world a Koch.

anita| 10.7.11 @ 2:42PM

Darren,
these protestors aren't on to something....they are ON something......they are whiney kids that have had everything handed to them....they need to put on their big girl and big boy panties and GET A JOB to get a head and make a life for themselves. They need to take what they can get instead of expecting to get a top job and earn immediately what most of us have worked years to make.

fsilber| 10.7.11 @ 10:46AM

It's not their fault, necessarily, that they haven't found jobs. I know lots of very bright people who have been doing high-level technical work for decades who were laid off and cannot find jobs. Wall Street's irresponsible behavior in buying and selling unrealistic mortgages was indeed a big contributor to the problem. But this depression is far more than that; they had nothing to do with the irresponsible Greek socialist Greek government, nor with the comparatively less irresponsible governments of other European countries, nor is Wall Street responsible for China and India sucking so many jobs out of this country. Demonstrating against Wall Street is as silly as demonstrating against the Appalachian Trail.

Bill| 10.7.11 @ 10:59AM

"Wall Street's irresponsible behavior in buying and selling unrealistic mortgages..."

Actually, it is called the Community Reinvestment Act and has been used by the Democrats to intimidate the financial institutions into giving high risk loans to unqualified low-income applicants because "every one should be a home owner". A majority of the progressive brain trust have never run a business and have no notion of economics. Thier primary constituency are the ignorant masses who blame thier destitude on the sucessful. They are reaping what they sow. During the next election cycle, they should consider the ramifications of thier vote for a historic moment.

tfgray| 10.8.11 @ 5:43PM

Sorry, not correct. The law was passed to end discrimination against qualified buyers who were denied mortgages or offered higher rates due to their color, zip code, or nationality. The abuse started with non-bank lenders who were not subject to the same regulations as banks. It was pressure from them (yes, good ol' free market competition) that eroded lending standards. And then there's the other side of the equation that no one seems to talk about. The supply of concentrated wealth looking for return exceeded the supply of safe investments. Bond traders obliges by selling bets on the viability of bundled mortgages, and profited again by selling bets against those bets. By the time the bubble was fully inflated, the value of those investments exceeded the value of every house, barn, stick of furniture or bar of gold on the entire planet. ($14 quadrillion). Oddly, at least according to your logic, the community banks that loaned to predominantly low-income homeowners and stayed out of the casino, are doing well. Read The Big Short.

MarkR| 10.7.11 @ 11:15AM

Dodd Frank, CRA, Carter Clinton, Redlining-- ring a bell?

Bob From District 9| 10.7.11 @ 1:09PM

Yeah, Wall Street does bear a lot of the responsibility. The unregulated derivatives were the cause of the downfall, and it was Wall Street that lobbied to keep them unregulated.

Bill| 10.7.11 @ 2:15PM

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac; quasi governmental agencies backed by taxpayer money packaged the "products" for sale to Wall Street. Blame Wall Street all you want, but it is the clowns (a.k.a. Dems) in congress that caused this mess.

Skippy| 10.7.11 @ 5:20PM

"Demonstrating against Wall Street is as silly as demonstrating against the Appalachian Trail."

Best line of the day!

Petronius| 10.8.11 @ 10:45AM

This demonstration is eternal. It is a demonstration against the necessity of having to compete in order to live as we want. Liberalism has always been about what people do Not want: personal Obligations. The traditional social contract of establishing and maintaining one's self in society is anathema to any and all who lack the ambition to sustain their own lives. These rootless, gormless weenies want the baby life. Everybody who has a Dollar in a purse or pocket should read what is on the back of it. It says, "in God We Trust," not, "I want my mommy."
And this to economically illiterate Bob from 9 and Dr. Do-goody-goody Smith. This country is and always has been about One Thing: Empire building at the Personal level. You do not have to attempt this activity given your individual states of despair. But get Out of MY Way and stay out!!

fsilber| 10.7.11 @ 10:46AM

It's not their fault, necessarily, that they haven't found jobs. I know lots of very bright people who have been doing high-level technical work for decades who were laid off and cannot find jobs. Wall Street's irresponsible behavior in buying and selling unrealistic mortgages was indeed a big contributor to the problem. But this depression is far more than that; they had nothing to do with the irresponsible Greek socialist Greek government, nor with the comparatively less irresponsible governments of other European countries, nor is Wall Street responsible for China and India sucking so many jobs out of this country. Demonstrating against Wall Street is as silly as demonstrating against the Appalachian Trail.

Teaghan| 10.7.11 @ 11:03AM

Yep. They need to march their asses down to DC and park their dirty selves at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave and do their sqwakin' there. There is where our problems lie.

Herman Cain 2012

Bob From District 9| 10.7.11 @ 1:10PM

This economic debacle happened under George W Bush, and Obama is being blocked from dealing with it by Republicans at every turn.

Obama was the best candidate in 2008, unfortunately, cause we needed an LBJ, or even a Bill Clinton, who would tell the Republicans where to shove it.

Drunken Sailor| 10.7.11 @ 2:00PM

The economic debacle began when Congress (who controls the purse stings) was taken over in 2006 by the Democrat party. Obama took office and for almost 2 years the Dems controlled all the strings in Washington, yet somehow you claim the republicans (who as of now only control slightly over half of 1/3 of our goverment) are responsible?

Then my friend it is not the Rebuplicans you should be pissed at but the Democrats for not being able to turn things around while controlling the majority of our goverment.

Skippy| 10.7.11 @ 5:21PM

Waaahhh!
Bush ate my resurrection and second-coming!

Leon in Redding CA| 10.7.11 @ 10:49AM

It’s time for the “Net Worth Tax”. Income and payroll taxes attack the production of wealth, stifling growth and restricting the accumulation of wealth (“the rich get richer”), while the wealthy, such as Mr. Buffet, accumulate more.

Why not tax all wealth, instead of wealth production? It seems a very simple task to require each citizen to report an annual Net Worth statement to the IRS, detailing assets & liabilities (real-estate, stocks, bonds, mutual funds, collectibles, savings, etc. . . . including offshore bank accounts) and a simple flat tax be paid monthly to the IRS, eliminating the withholding of income, social security, and medicare payroll taxes.

This Net Worth Tax, would answer both political sides by truly “taxing the rich,” and unfettering societies’ wealth producers, creating growth like never seen before. Nay sayers will say it would be impossible to enforce accurate reporting. However, I don’t see where enforcement would be more difficult than current complicated system of reporting income and deductions. Failure to report accurately would result with similar punishments

Bill H| 10.7.11 @ 10:59AM

This country has a spending problem, not a tax problem.

I am genuinely concerned the Cloward-Piven strategy to break the system may actually work here. And I, for one, am NOT going to cheer the government stepping in to "save me" from Wall Street and the other imaginary boogeymen.

Bob From District 9| 10.7.11 @ 1:29PM

"This country has a spending problem, not a tax problem."

Funny, the only president since 1969 to balance a budget was Bill Clinton. The only president since 1981 to leave his successor with a smaller federal workforce than when he entered was Bill Clinton. The only president since 1981 to leave his successor federal spending less than 20% of GDP was Bill Clinton. The only president since 1981 to leave his successor with a lower debt to GDP ration than his predecessor was Bill Clinton.

"I am genuinely concerned the Cloward-Piven strategy to break the system may actually work here."

The Cloward/Piven strategy was to make the problems obvious, not to create the problems. The only ones I see talking Cloward/Pivens are the Republicans. The Republicans have turned the CP strategy into the CPoS strategy. That's the Cloward/Pivens on steroids strategy.

Nine countries in the world had debt to GDP ratios worse than the US in 2007, among them Germany and Belgium and France, but none of those three are considered default threats. Yet the US is considered a default threat, despite the lower debt to GDP ratio, because the Republican Tea Party faction made default a matter of policy.

Our problem is unemployment, and the right is making unemployment their policy.

So, apparently the spending problem is a Republican problem.

CESC| 10.7.11 @ 2:58PM

The Republican majority of both houses, that was achieved in 1994, is responsible for holding Clinton's feet to the fire and THEY produced the balanced budget and surplus. When they were returned to minority status and the Democrats took control, all Hell broke loose financially. This entire mess is at the feet of the Dems. Perioid.

Ruby| 10.7.11 @ 10:55AM

I find a certain irony in Stein opening this article recounting his wife taking a spill and then griping about no one "making a move" to help her.

Why didn't you just tell her to get HERSELF up off the ground and stop being such a drain on everyone's attention and concern, since you're so fond of people hoisting themselves up on their own steam?

Teaghan| 10.7.11 @ 11:05AM

STFU Ruby, you hateful progressive.

Bob From District 9| 10.7.11 @ 1:30PM

STFU Teaghan, you hateful reactionary.

Skippy| 10.7.11 @ 5:23PM

STFU Skippy, you evil reactionary...wait...that's me.
Sorry.
Carry on.

Occam's Tool| 10.10.11 @ 4:53PM

Please note that California's Good samaritan law would NOT have covered the Parking Lot Attendant, since it was not a life threatening situation.

I love watching lawyers get screwed over by the law. Can watch it all friggin' day long, and twice on Sundays.

Lee from NC| 10.7.11 @ 10:55AM

Failed liberalism? Seriously? There are not a lot of liberals running the big banks and investment houses in the U.S. That's a diehard conservative crowd if ever there was one and they all failed miserably. Their houses of cards would have collapsed without massive bailouts from all us losers who work every day to pay our taxes so that money can be shoveled into the maws of Ben Stein's friends.

Teaghan| 10.7.11 @ 11:06AM

Really Lee? Does the name Tim Geitner ring a bell with you?

Lee from NC| 10.7.11 @ 11:23AM

No. Does Tim Geithner ring a bell with you?

CESC| 10.7.11 @ 11:43AM

Losers like you do not pay taxes. You suck off of the teat provided by the hard working taxpayers. And for your information, keeping the money you earned is NOT having money "shoveled" at you by the govt. Your assumption is that everything earned is the property of the government, and they decide how much to give back to you. Marxism in action. Move to China, fool.

Bob From District 9| 10.7.11 @ 1:35PM

You must have slept through the Bush Recession. Bush shoveled billions to his buddies on Wall Street to keep if from collapsing. Obama put 40% of his stimulus into tax cuts, just about the worst way to stimulate the economy you can think of.

Those of us who work for a living do pay the taxes that get shoveled into the maws of Ben Stein's friends. I am old enough for Social Security, yet I have to keep working because the economic collapse Ben Stein's buddies brought on makes retirement out of the question. If I could retire that would open up a very well paid job for someone who needs one, but until your kind realizes the economic disaster your side has caused that's out of the question.

CESC| 10.7.11 @ 2:59PM

Read my post before you respond Bob. The money was not "shoveled" to Wall Street. Investors simply keep what is theirs, not give it to the politicians to spend as they see fit. Marxist.

Smirking Weasel| 10.7.11 @ 12:01PM

Pay attention, Lee-top corporocrats, especially in NYC finance, are liberals-they loved TARP, which bailed out their firms' greed and incompetence at the publics' expense. And look at the cultural and social causes those firms and their managements support-globalism and multiculturalism generally, featuring deformative action, open borders, homo matrimony,and-usually rather quietly, infanticide. That crowd is not conservative in any true sense-but neither are most of the writers here.

Bob From District 9| 10.7.11 @ 1:37PM

"That crowd is not conservative in any true sense-but neither are most of the writers here."

You are right, they are not conservatives in the true sense, but the right hasn't been truly conservative in a very long time.

Every economic point you cited is republican supported.

Petronius| 10.8.11 @ 10:54AM

Oh so true. Tell anyone in Gotham that you are a Republican and you will never again be allowed to reserve a table for lunch.

Occam's Tool| 10.10.11 @ 4:55PM

Yes, and Goldman Sachs did contribute more to the Repulicans than to the Dhimmicrats, of course.

Wait...got that reversed:

http://www.opensecrets.org/org.....D000000085

Rick| 10.7.11 @ 11:11AM

Well, you COULD honestly protest the hand - in -hand relationship between wall street banks and the government that allowed billions of tax payer money to be given to banks (instead of say, offer to buy the failed bank for a dollar, shift most bad assets to a separate entity and sell the good stuff back to the market at market value to recoop some of the loss). It probably not what the kids ask for but I myself could have protested the wall st - government trust.

Bob From District 9| 10.7.11 @ 1:38PM

Rick,

Your suggestion is too logical. Therefore impossible.

MarkR| 10.7.11 @ 11:11AM

Ben Stein: Schizophrenia anyone?

Deborah| 10.7.11 @ 11:14AM

My son's first job was throwing newspapers. I understand the newspapers still need people to throw a route.

Bob From District 9| 10.7.11 @ 1:38PM

They do it from a car now. It's the only way to throw enough to make enough money to make it practical.

Skippy| 10.7.11 @ 5:31PM

The world has changed!
I'm lost!
I can't wipe my butt!

Paul| 10.7.11 @ 11:14AM

Start a new company! Be your own boss! When your young and fresh out of college is a perfect time to take such risks.

crshamm| 10.7.11 @ 11:57AM

Sure, with $40K in debt, what's another $100K? Or maybe it's the kids who's parents work on Wall Street who can borrow the cash from mommy and daddy to take a risk while the majority of college grads wait tables to pay for the college education they were told was so necessary to succeed.

Bob From District 9| 10.7.11 @ 1:42PM

"Start a new company! Be your own boss! When your young and fresh out of college is a perfect time to take such risks."

Starting your own business is the surest way to bankruptcy short of drugs or gambling.

For someone with no real world experience, it's even more so.

The Financial Times reported, a couple years ago, there is more entrepreneurism in Europe today than the US, because failure is not the disaster in Europe that it is in America. England has more social mobility than the US, for much the same reason.

America's greatness was built on the option to start over. That has been taken away by conservative changes to make starting over harder, and failure more of a disaster.

Petronius| 10.8.11 @ 11:03AM

Liberal Government killed the economic growth and upward social mobility in this country because We Conservatives want more of it; the ultimate goal being the accumulation of enough wealth to escape the constant interference and social engineering of Liberal Dr. Do-Gooding Smith and the pond life all Liberals pretend to champion.

Don| 10.7.11 @ 11:34AM

I'm 46 (not a kid), and I work 2 jobs in a highly skilled profession with an advanced degree. So does my husband. Despite 12-hour days 6 days a week, we're drowning in debt, and the bank refuses to refinance our mortgage at a lower rate because even though we're (barely) managing to make our current payments, they somehow decided that we wouldn't be able to afford a cheaper mortgage than the one they gave us 5 years ago. Every time we pay down on our credit cards (run up during a long period of unemployment) the banks lower the limits so that we're still maxed out and our credit rating takes another hit. We have no investments (had to sell them all off; see above re: long unemployment), and nothing saved for retirement. We're solidly white-collar, upper-middle-class, and yet Wall Street is completely out of reach for us. To characterize the protestors on Wall Street as nothing more than a bunch of spoiled brats shows how woefully and willfully ignorant, smug, and obnoxious Ben Stein really is. Of course, it's about the level of ignorance I would expect from a guy who compares evolution science to Nazism.

Tim the Enchanter| 10.7.11 @ 12:06PM

"Evolution Science" = Oxymoron

Bob From District 9| 10.7.11 @ 1:44PM

Creation science = oxymoron

Dan| 10.8.11 @ 8:56AM

Bob from District 9= desk jockey Union wannabeeee

Steve A| 10.7.11 @ 12:19PM

Let me get this straight. You both work 12 hr days, 6 days a week & are unable to pay off debt. What in the hell do you do on your off day, fly to Vegas & play roulette? Oh, also, just who made you go get your loan 5 years ago? Did the bank come in & force you to sign for your mortgage? Save it for another site.

Drunken Sailor| 10.7.11 @ 1:03PM

Notice how Don doesn't say how large of a house they bought, what the ration of income to debt they decided to take on or if they got a fixed mortgage VS a variable APR? Guess they couldn't flip that house fast enough to get out of their debt.

Bob From District 9| 10.7.11 @ 1:45PM

Five years ago a mortgage could be sustainable that isn't today.

Drunken Sailor| 10.7.11 @ 2:04PM

Funny. 5 years ago I bought my house with a fixed APR. Somehow I have managed to keep my job and keep making my payments right on time. Then again I made sure my house payments didn't exceed 30% of my income. It's called living within your means.

Don| 10.7.11 @ 2:42PM

It's a small (~750 sq ft) 2 bedroom condo in Manhattan. Any other questions?

Drunken Sailor| 10.7.11 @ 3:15PM

Nope, Manhattan says it all. I chose a place with a lower cost of living. Buyer Beware. Good Luck!

Don| 10.7.11 @ 3:27PM

It's mind-boggling how many conservatives seem to enjoy nothing more than sitting smugly by and gloating over other people's problems while congratulating themselves on their own superiority. Too bad for me I guess that my job and family happened to be in New York and my work hours are such that I can't spend three hours a day commuting.

Drunken Sailor| 10.7.11 @ 3:46PM

Nice try again Don. What % of your income went to your monthly house payments? And before you feel sorry for yourself, You started this poor pitiful me story. Personally I drive 100 miles a day to and from work so not much pity from me about commuting.

Purple Lips| 10.7.11 @ 4:12PM

Your projecting your own problems on conservatives. BTW, I have a brother who works in Lower Manhatten, but lives in the Catskills. He shares a tiny apartment with 3 other people and goes home on week-ends. He's about your age.

Skippy| 10.7.11 @ 5:33PM

Move to Jersey.

Occam's Tool| 10.10.11 @ 3:58AM

3300 sq foot house with 2 and 1/2 acres of land in Northwestern Minnesota. Bought for $280 K. Thinking of buying the 2 and 1/2 acre property next to mine that's vacant because that will push my property's boundaries out to the stop sign at the end of the block. I don't like neighbors. I also want more room for the kids and dog to run. It would also be nice to set up a snowmobile track for the winter on my property since the land is flat, and that way the kids could ride safely within the boundaries of the land.

I dislike big cities. Lived in 'em (grew up in Chi's near north burbs, spent 5 years in LA, 4 in Fort Worth, 1 in ABQ), don't like 'em. Order in the Omaha steaks for USDA Prime. I own all my Kurosawa films for foreign movie watching. Never did like Truffaut, and it's not worth living in a Big City for the amenities---one can travel to them on vacations, check out the shows, and then leave.

Don| 10.7.11 @ 2:48PM

You're missing the point (intentionally, I'm sure). There are a lot more people in this country being screwed by the banking system and wall st. than just Ben Stein's stereotyped spoiled brats. Obviously nobody made us sign our mortgage. What's unfair (and frankly ridiculous) is that the bank refuses to let us refinance to current market rates and make our payments more affordable. We're playing by the rules, but the rules keep changing.

Drunken Sailor| 10.7.11 @ 3:19PM

Getting credit now is even more difficult after the crash. Thank your buddis in DC for that. Namely the authors of the Dodd-Frank Wall street Reform and Consumer protection act. Basically it means you need to have a larger % of disposable income now to qualify for the same loan you had then. By the way that would be the same Frank who said the housing market was healthy, right before it crashed.

Don| 10.7.11 @ 3:23PM

I believe the point of the protests is precisely that: to point to the problems with the current system and demand reform. Thank you for agreeing with me.

Drunken Sailor| 10.7.11 @ 3:48PM

Not quite agreeing, and you still don't admit it was the Democrat CRA program that started this ball rolling. Then your Democrat buddies Frank and Dodd, made your situation worse. Do you still vote Democrat?

Skippy| 10.7.11 @ 5:35PM

Is there another party?
Nobody I know votes for them, if there is.

Purple Lips| 10.7.11 @ 3:55PM

Learn how mortgage finance works from the inside out, and then get back to us. Believe it or not, someone or some institution must create the "credit" in some form before it can be applied to a transaction. If there is an outstanding contract (a legal, binding contract) for a 30 year mortgage on a $250,000 home at 5% (total outstanding olbigation is somewhere near $550,000), and the lendee wants to refinance the remainder of his mortgage (say 20 years or $450,000) for another 30 years at 4%, but the value of the home has fallen to $150,000) someone will have to eat the losses. Few if any lenders will lend out such large sums of money over such long periods of time for an asset that is losing value. The lendee will either have to come up with very large sums of cash, or hand over some other kind of collateral. Very unlikely.

Occam's Tool| 10.10.11 @ 3:59AM

Well, your condo may be underwater to some degree, Don.

Look, the first rule is to live where you can be paid well and have a low cost of living.

Don| 10.7.11 @ 2:54PM

We also are putting two kids through college.

Stammon| 10.7.11 @ 3:42PM

Well now I know somethings is wrong with your story. I work, my wife doesn't. I have a very well paid very high skill blue collar job that you and your husband wouldn't want and couldn't do. I have stopped working overtime because FAFSA will take 105% of my paycheck above a certain amount. I have 4 kids, two in college with full scholarships. If you have kids in college and you two are working that much you're either making less than$60 K a year combined or you're idiots. Explain.

Occam's Tool| 10.10.11 @ 4:00AM

And my son has a congenital ear condition followed by Mayo. So?

Purple Lips| 10.7.11 @ 4:09PM

Baloney. There is more to this story than you are letting on. For instance, you never mentioned what your home was worth at the point of sale, and what it is worth now. Mortgage companies do not give out mortgages to assets that are depreciating (check out the definition for collateral). In a time when homes are appreciating, the banks can add that appreciation to thier books until the mortgage is paid off.

You should also learn about banks and finance. You may then realize how shaky most all banks are. Take your depreciating asset (your home) and multiply it by 15 or 20 million, and you get an idea how close the banks are to a liquidity crisis. Banks are hoarding cash because they are sitting on a huge pile of depreciating assets (namely mortgages like yours). And add in the new federal cash rules, for every dollar one of thier homes lose in value, they must come up with at least 15 cents of new cash to cover it. Last time I checked, our banks are sitting on some $3 trillion in cash, but could lose nearly $4 trillion in depreciation costs (ie underwater mortgages). Simply put, they do not have the cash and credit to lend out.

Karl-Marx-Sucks| 10.7.11 @ 10:41PM

Poor, poor Don. Really. Buying a house in 2006, at the peak of the real estate bubble was really a bad luck. I myself bought one in 2007, underwater now, but bank contacted me and asked me to refinance at the lower rate. True. It was Wells Fargo home mortgage. And I hold one job (50 hrs a week) and my wife has been unemployed for 3 years now. Buying a house beyond your means is greed, don't you know that? Maybe rent is a better option for you?

crshamm| 10.7.11 @ 11:53AM

Unfortunately, the baby boomer generation in its infinite stupidity (playing live at a GOP-controlled congress near you), made decisions that make it much, much harder for the younger generation to enjoy the same opportunities it had to make it to the middle class.

This 'up-from-your-bootstraps' bullshit wasn't relevant before, and it's certainly not now. Not every college graduate wants to be an artist and movie director, they simply want the opportunities afforded to other generations who could, with some effort, make a living on one job and support a family.

Sorry, Ben, 'shut up and get to work' doesn't cut it when the work is minimum wage jobs that keep sending us down the path toward a service-based economy. Then again, judging from your misplaced anger toward a parking attendant, perhaps a service class who goes the extra mile not for passion but for fear of being punished (sue their immigrant asses!, right?) if your idea of a thriving nation.

Purple Lips| 10.7.11 @ 3:59PM

I hate to tell you this but the Boomers are by-and-large Democrats. Always have been; always will be. And only a fool would invest six figures into his future (that is, leverage it to the hilt) with the expectations that there is a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. In the past, only doctors and lawyers did this. It makes no sense for an engineer or businessma to borrow $150,000 for a 4 year degree (that is a low ball figure for a private school).

Smirking Weasel| 10.7.11 @ 11:55AM

For the majority of those folks, if they could 'get to work', they would. Perhaps the author should turn his arrogant bloviations against the top bureaucrats, aka, 'top management'(who have minimal personal stake in these organizations beyond their salaries and fraudulent incentives like stock 'options') at the transnational corporations who've abandoned the nation of their origin. As for herman Cain, yes, he did succeed in the 'private sector', as opposed to the Obozo(and Mutt Romney, who merely leeched)
but Herm succeeded only at more efficiently purveying America's nasty crap food(take a Godfather's pizza to Napoli-or anywhere in Italy-and watch the natives recoil in disgust). Thanks a lot for the explosion in diabetes, morbid obesity and aterosclerosis. Marse Cain-perhaps the country would be better off if you'd been on the dole instead of 'at work'.

Eddy County| 10.7.11 @ 12:26PM

How do we stem the tide of dubious actions by those motivated by greed and stupidity. We protest.

lj| 10.7.11 @ 12:39PM

Blowing hot air out of your mouth is not work Ben Stein. I suggest you grow up. You are well past passing yourself off as a kid. Stop acting like one throwing a tantrum

ONTIME| 10.7.11 @ 1:08PM

It was a great epiphany for those parasites who have now spent many sleepless nights hugging a piece of cardboard that lay on the ground to find out they may be blaming all the wrong folks for their plight, super rich dilettantes such as Moore, Sarandon, Pelosi come to cheer their aimless quest, ask God to bless them and go home each night to sleep, eat and luxuriate in their dwellings and make sure their bank accounts are far more than plentiful, not once did any of these santimonious morons enrich any of these parasitical souls or offer them any thing other than cheap talk...sucker punched by the filthy rich again.
You jerks in the street might want to reconsider having Van Jones as a mentor.

Bob From District 9| 10.7.11 @ 1:51PM

"super rich dilettantes such as Moore, Sarandon, Pelosi "

Super rich? Man you have no sense of reality.

RodneyRodz| 10.7.11 @ 1:49PM

Yeah Herman don't blame the banks that won't give loans to company to re-invest or start a company to hire people. The banks did nothing wrong and I love the idiot who says Banks are pressured by the gov't to give loans to people who can't afford it, right and Santa Clause is real. The GOP could really care less about the young vote, a speech given in NH says we are all idiots and should not be allowed to vote and now Herman just bashing them for not getting jobs. You all shout where are the jobs and then say they are out there. Which is it? FYI: 2010 grad with a job. Paying my loans and living the dream. That is if the dream is living in a country where two parties act like children who don't do anything but fight. Maybe I will walk across the bridge to Rossyln to ask the Spectator how they survive on a hobby based industry. We all know everyone should be engineers and work with computers.

vanya| 10.7.11 @ 1:56PM

Ben Stein is a pompous idiot... Wall Street truly represents the Oligarchy which has been running Washington politics through our Lobby/Bribery scam in the Beltway.

Yes, there are companies in the market which don't yield lobby power, but the average person who puts their faith in the stock market may as well go to 7-11 and buy a handful of lottery tickets every Friday.

Wall Street represents all those corporate entities which view human beings as "work units". The Federal government which accepts Wall Street lobby bribes sees human beings as "taxable units."

It has become a grand scam which has dirtied the water for true Free Markets and capitalism. Now that the Obama Marxists and Leftists have zeroed in on Capitalism as the enemy of the people, the Oligarchy has dodged a public bullet. As any intelligent person knows, Oligarchy is not capitalism, it is Fascism.

Ben Stein's just trying to preserve his wealth; if Wall Street loses the faith of the PEOPLE, he could be driving a Ford again...

RON PAUL... RON PAUL...RON PAUL 2012!!!

The 99%| 10.7.11 @ 2:49PM

Some of you people are so stupid. Why don't you learn about a movement before you start going off on it. This movement is beyond partisanship, it has nothing to do with left or right but you can't see that because you stay glued to your 24-news media and take what they say at face value. We're also not asking for huge government handouts because we're umemployed college grads. We want large corporations and interest groups taken out of government so they'll stop buying our politicians and our representatives will start listening to the American people again instead of someone elses checkbook.
Ben Stein, spray yourself down with some Clear Eyes and hand some out to your little friends on here and try to see what's really going on.

CESC| 10.7.11 @ 3:11PM

It is pure and simple leftist marxist led. The demands listed in the last few days is entirely new-world-order communism. These children are useful tools of the marxist left. They are uninformed kids, participating in a "cool event". We know what is going on, and when the people pulling the puppet strings (Soros/Obamao/Pelosi/Reid) escalate this to open violence and attempt to install martial law and suspension of elections, you better decide real quick just which side you are on.

Drunken Sailor| 10.7.11 @ 3:34PM

"We're also not asking for huge government handouts because we're umemployed college grads."

Really?
1. You want the minimum wage increased to $20/hr.
2. You demand guarenteed living wage regardless of income.
3. You want a universal single payer health plan.
4. You demand free college education
5 1 Trillion $ in infrastructure spending (no word on where you want that $ to come from.
6.Another 1 Trillion $ in something called Ecological restoration.
7. Outlaw all credit reporting agencies.
8. This is my personal favorite: Immediate across the board debt forgiveness for all. Debt forgiveness of sovereign debt, commercial loans, home mortgages, home equity loans, credit card debt, student loans and personal loans now!

I haven't even listed the other 4-5 things you guys are asking for in your "Manifesto". Nowhere did I read how this was to be paid for but you do claim it will create so many jobs it will be impossible to fill them all.

Yet you don't call these goverment handouts? If you went to college your parents deserve a refund.

Purple Lips| 10.7.11 @ 3:46PM

I suggest that the people in the "movement" learn what they are all about. Just this morning, the "movement" spokesman announced he will have thier platform published by Sunday. In other words, they really haven't a clue what thier doing. And that doesn't surprise me in the least; just consider where the protests are being co-ordinated from - the Oval Office.

LL| 10.7.11 @ 3:37PM

Ben Stein lmao. Mr. Win Ben Stein's Money himself. Bias much oldtimer? Maybe they do have the balls to take what they want and the rest of us just are so inconvenienced as to cause any tussle. We've given the wealthy a free ride for decades and asked more and more of the people living paycheck to paycheck. Greed? lol newsflash oldtimer. We're not all greedy. Retract that incompetent response that your trying to apply universally.

Purple Lips| 10.7.11 @ 3:44PM

Oh pleeze... Ben Stein did more in his first 25 years than you will do in your entire lifetime. And he didn't do it on his daddy's dime.

BTW, how many of the "poor" hire workers? Do you go to a middle class person and ask for a job? The wealthiest 1% pay over 20% of all taxes. The wealthiest 10% pay almost 35%. The lower 40% pay next to nothing.

Junius| 10.7.11 @ 4:19PM

At long last the Zeus of American economics, Ben Stein, has descended from his pampered, previleged Mount Olympias in Hollywood, to hurl thunderbolts of scorn and indignation at the reeking, brain dead rabble who are louding calling for the downfall our capitalist system and Republic. It is of course unfortunate that it took a fall by the lovely Mrs. Stein for Ben to awaken from his slumber, but it is neverless heartening to see him once again discover his true conservative roots which have taken him so far in life. Keep it up Ben, America needs you and us to seize back our country and our lives.

Dmac| 10.7.11 @ 5:55PM

Dear Mr. Stein,
While some of these young people protesting are nothing more than malcontents, some of these young college graduates have a legitimate gripe about the current state that America and coprporate America are in. For over 30 years corporate America has been exporting jobs overseas, and the jobs they can't export they import cheap labor into America. Thsi has been more than a double whammy though. But lets step back and take it one thing at a time.
Lets look at 1950's America. In the fifties if a public company had a lay-off they're stock went down because it was thought they are having problems. It was also bad for the economy if Americans lost their job as they would not being paying itno the system or contributing to the economy by spending their wages. In fact thse people acutally become a burdern on society.
Today when a comapany announces a lay-off their stock goes through the roof, why? Becuase they just cut cost and raised the bottom line. Problem is they raised at the expnse of every American. Now we have less people paying taxes and more collecting un-employment check, food stamps and whatever help they need. This causes taxes to go up...on every one.
Used to be when you bought stock you were required to hold it for three quarters, thats nine months. Now big wigs with large stock portfolios manipulate the system daily and rob our 401K's by the billions.
Used to be when a company hithard times they were bough by their competitor or allowed to just die and go out of business. The void would be filled by their competitors. Not today, we bail out companies, a clear violation of the comstitution. We do it so much now that the government has to actually print money so we can bailout these companies. Whats really going on is the theives has stolen all the cash and they now expect the taxpayers to print money for them to steal and leave us wit more debt.
But here's what really chaps my ass Mr. Stein, why is when some bright middle class American kid does what he's been advsied his whole life to do, go to college, does it cost 100K dollars and why does he have to pay an interest rate higher on the money he borrows for it than banks pay on the trillions they've been given at 0% interest.
Sorry Mr. Stein, these kids know they are getting screwed and they're calling "bullshit" on it. They are right to be mad and right to be angry. We have let our capitalism get out of control and it is bringing us back to the days of sefrdom. We can no longer trust the greedy un-American CEO's and corrupt politicians to look out for the average American. If the kids bring down our economic house of cards then so be it. You should be ashamed of yourself Mr. Stein for painting all of the protestors with one brush. Some of them just want a fair shake at the American Dream, the same one you and I had, but our generation is stealing their birthright and their right to the pursuit of happiness. Shame on you Ben Stein.

CalMark| 10.7.11 @ 8:42PM

Shame on you, troll. Your post is ungrammatical, rambling, and incoherent.

Go back and defile some Leftist site with your hate.

IceColdTroll| 10.8.11 @ 5:25PM

Get stuffed, those worthless layabouts are doing nothing but p1ssing and moaning because they borrowed a hundred grand for a college degree in "Interpretive Folk Dance of the Bimini Atolls" and are surprised they can't get a better job than flipping burgers. Go drag a net through the pack of them and see how many architecture, engineering, and accounting degrees you can turn up that are begging for work.

Occam's Tool| 10.10.11 @ 4:58PM

Mr. Stein is a College Lecturer, as well.

CalMark| 10.7.11 @ 5:56PM

Bob From District 9 seems to be the Obama/Leftist Internet Folks "fake person" troll today.

Tell me, Mr. Bob--how many people are you, really? And how many of you have actually had a job in real life?

Studs Dupa| 10.7.11 @ 5:57PM

Hi Ben,

I see that you are providing these kids a little tough love. Since it is these young people’s fault that they cannot find a job, I think it is best that all Republicans stop blaming Obama for the unemployment rate and vote for him.

Love,

Studs

CalMark| 10.7.11 @ 8:37PM

"Dupa" is the impolite Slavic word for "your rear end." Highly appropriate, considering the stupidity of your comments.

Studs Dupa| 10.8.11 @ 7:57PM

Hi CalMark,

First, I am happy that you do not appreciate my nom de internet. You have no sense of humor.

Second, you are correct that it was stupid of me of consider Herman Cain’s advice (and Ben Steins’s endorsement) to the protestors as “tough love.” Herman Cain has given the dummycrats an excellent sound bite. He has shown complete hatred to the people who are with or without college degrees and unemployed. Cain and Stein are not tough and are unloving. People who have lost their jobs in this economy or in the past are not going to listen to his, nor to any other Republican’s message of self-responsibility. Some factors in life are beyond a person’s control.

Third, I am correct in stating that any Republican who supports Cain and Stein on this issue should not complain about Obama’s economic policies, since it is the individual’s fault not Obama’s.

Fourth, you are an extreme idiot who has no valuable input on the internet.

Love,

Studs

RON PAUL 2012!!

IceColdTroll| 10.8.11 @ 5:31PM

It is these little pantswetters' fault they took useless degrees and spent a hundred grand getting them.

And if Sock Puppet understood anything about the way a real-life economy works, he would realize that the best thing he could do would be to cut taxes, cut regulations, and let businesses get on with doing business. Businesses are the ones that hire people to do constructive,productive work and actually contribute to an economy. And most of that is small business -- the kind that gets hit hardest from high taxes and over-regulation. This is like Day One of Economics 101. Sh1t-For-Brains Prime just doesn't get that, and neither do the pantswetters on Wall Street.

Carl Peter Klapper| 10.7.11 @ 6:29PM

Mr. Stein says it is stupid for the parking lot attendant not to treat Mrs. Stein well because she might have given the attendant's boss a break.

Mr. Stein then says it is smart for candidate Cain to not treat the protestors well even though they might have given the candidate a break and voted for him, if not in the primary (though there's still time for them to register Republican), at least in a general election against President Obama.

There's more than a little inconsistency there, but I won't dwell on that. I would only say that, if I were running for President, I would have ended with saying:
"You only have Obama to blame for not having a job. For whatever screw-ups and thefts there were coming in, Obama only made it worse. Obama has shown that he can't solve the problem of high unemployment in three years. I will tell you how I will solve it in less than one. Then I would describe my plan and show how there is already legal authorization for me to do it as President. I might even add my reasons for believing that no candidate from the political parties will adopt my plan and save me the grief of a Presidential campaign.

Dr. Susan Smith| 10.7.11 @ 6:51PM

My lord, this Ben Stein is a baby! Expecting someone to come to the aid of his wife when he is standing right there? Is he so disrespectful of kids out of college that he thinks his wife deserves special treatment over them? Does he realize kids like my daughter who just graduated with a Nursing degree in top of her class is having hard time getting job due to nurses getting the ax these days? That budget cuts accorss our schoold and healthcare are not warrented in a recession CAUSED by our over spending on wars? Ben Stein needs to get in touch with reality, and stop pointing fingers to a parking attendant who whould not come to aid of his whining wife. Amen.

CalMark| 10.7.11 @ 8:40PM

You, madam---excuuuuse ME--DOCTOR--give women's lib a bad name. And your badly-spelled, semi-incoherent rant proves that education (if such you have) is no guarantee of intellectual attainment.

If a woman falls, every able-bodied man within hailing distance should be running to help. It's called chivalry, which you leftist feminista drones discarded as "irrelevant," along with sexual morality, values, and--yes--respect for women.

Scott Basinger| 10.8.11 @ 12:11PM

CalMark,

The intellectual rigor of your ad hominem reply is only exceeded by your perfect grammar and excellent writing style.

Occam's Tool| 10.10.11 @ 4:03AM

CalMark---of course they should. It's just that Ben has been ever in favor of more and more litigation, and it is amusing when he is hoist by his own petard.

California "Good Samaritan" law would not have covered the garage attendant's owner if his employee hurt Ms. Stein in helping her up. Ben supports lawsuits against the helping professions. Sorry.

IceColdTroll| 10.8.11 @ 5:21PM

At the risk of sounding misogynistic,you madam, are one stupid (unt.

Mother Groom Dresses| 10.7.11 @ 6:55PM

Is chivalry dead? There is never any reason not to help a lady up, even if her husband is standing right there.

Mother Bride Outfits| 10.7.11 @ 7:04PM

Is this dilemma not evidence of the fact that our society is brainwashed into believing a 'job' is the only option for survival? I say teach more entrepenuerialism in our schools instead of leaving our children in debt from student loans and at the mercy of employers.

Russ Winter| 10.7.11 @ 8:16PM

Occupy Wall Street has now gotten the attention of the people who control this country. Accordingly they are rolling out the Ministry of Truth to try and interpret what it is all about. Immediately the discourse turns to trivial two-party partisanship matters. The remarks are just ridiculous and sickening, including that this is a movement to reinvigorate Presidente Hopium, what nonsense. Herman Cain had the audacity to twist this into a criticism of people who don't work, and who seek handouts. No Herman, you have it ass backward, this Movement is about your cronies free riding at the trough and seeking handouts.

What "they" just don't get is that Occupy Wall Street is primarily a pro-democracy, anti-kleptocrat and anti-bankster Movement. Occupy Wall Street is not anti-wealth, it is not about class warfare, it is and I repeat, anti-kleptocratic. . Occupy Wall Street is pro-American in the traditional sense. It is about removing the anti-democratic influence of money from politics. Kleptocracies using government and the corrupt two party system are dangerously anti-American. The Movement can't let them take the high ground. The high ground belongs to the Movement.

The corrupt media uses all this protest to pull out their standard dividers. The Movement will naturally attract true conservatives and true progressives, and true moderates. The machine arrives on the scene with false "conservatives", and the false "progressives" pushing their corrupt status quo anti-democracy agendas. I am proud that the Movement sees through this. Stay the course. That is the Movement's strength and gives us the ability to not only see through the lies and misrepresentation, but to actually turn it against the corruptos.

CalMark| 10.7.11 @ 8:41PM

You are a nut.

CalMark| 10.7.11 @ 8:50PM

This piece MUST be both true, and immensely effective in getting its point across: the Obama Leftist Internet Spammer Brigade trolls--ungrammatical, incoherent, vicious--are out in full, ugly force.

Tom Murphy| 10.8.11 @ 1:21AM

Socrates willing drank from the cup, will you?

Gary Williams| 10.7.11 @ 9:08PM

Ben Stein can eat shit, die and got hell. He is neither smart nor funny. He's just evil.

CalMark| 10.7.11 @ 9:10PM

Nice. You stay classy, Obamoid!

This piece MUST be both true, and immensely effective in getting its point across: the Obama Leftist Internet Spammer Brigade trolls--ungrammatical, incoherent, vicious--are out in full, ugly force.

IceColdTroll| 10.8.11 @ 5:20PM

Ah, liberal intellectualism at its finest!

Davis| 10.7.11 @ 9:38PM

Isn't it kind of ironic that Steve Jobs died during the Wall Street sit in? Jobs went to work in his garage, borrowed some money, and worked like crazy to bring his dreams to fruition. He didn't go sit down in front of IBM and tell them to hire him because he deserved a job. Who is teaching these kids this ridiculous entitlement nonsense? These lame kids sit their tweeting and texting on the technology brought to them (I'm sure they felt entitled to those too) by Steve Jobs' company. But they fail to understand how that technology came about. Companies are not built to create jobs; they are built to make profits by creating products with value. Do you think these "Occupy Wall Street" kids understand that?

Petronius| 10.8.11 @ 11:34AM

FYI
The erstwhile Chairman of IBM was a long time golfing partner with Bill Gate's father. Yeah. We do Windows after the deal got closed on the back nine. Like it or not, that's how it's done: good old American Know Who. Nor will this ever change. And the misunderstanding of the nature of business by the young doesn't matter. They're incredulous to be told that they should or must.

miguel| 10.10.11 @ 12:12AM

Had IBM decided to run their own in-house OS (probably UNIX-based) instead of subcontracting it out, Gates would be known for tires still and not Windows. And, I may add, computers running IBM PC OS would not crash like Windows does.

miguel| 10.10.11 @ 12:01AM

There is a lot more to the Steve Jobs story than you submit. Not to take anything away from his brilliance and success, but Jobs did receive much help from HP in the beginning. Moreover, at this point in time the S.F. Bay Area (where I was a student) was much more receptive to youth and new ideas. While Jobs and others were tinkering with computers, the rest of the nation was criticizing California, especially the Bay Area, as the land of "fruits and nuts". Well, it is this "think different" culture that allowed Apple Computer to even start. I am very doubtful that in other parts of the U.S. at that time, any respectable business person would give 2 minutes of his or her time to twenty-something inventor with no credentials. Electronics were actually made in the U.S.A. at that time. Not in China.

Your comment seems safe to make because you now have the benefit of hindsight. That is easy and quite honestly, cowardly. You take the whole matter of Apple out of context.

As for "companies are not built to create jobs..." Well, ok....duh. But let me ask you this. If there are no jobs, who do you say is going to buy the products and services your hypothetical company, which is solely to make a profit? You see, part of the problem with the current economic collapse is that there is no economy to recover to anymore. No manufacturing except in defense. No services outside of medical. I guess we can all be farmers except the rules favor giant Ag business. Well, taking a page from Stein's play book...we can all run our own hedge funds and have the government bail us out when we lose $1Q in collateralized debt obligations and derivatives. How does that sound?

Ken Burrows| 10.8.11 @ 12:08AM

Your commentary is a joy to read, Mr. Stein. God hold you close.

miguel| 10.10.11 @ 12:03AM

If you like Stein, try Webster Griffin Tarpley. He is not a comic masquerading as an economist. A real Ph.D. with the experience to backup his statements.

www.tarpley.net

Anders Hopkins| 10.8.11 @ 12:39AM

It seems to me that the modern day American discourse is, "You're wrong, I'm right, and anyone else who thinks otherwise is an idiot."

Seriously people, you've been duped into thinking that the world is composed of black and white hues, when in fact it is a stupendous scale of grey.

Some of these protesters are absolutely dignified in their rage, just like some of the Tea Party members have valid, introspective ideas. Some of them are also there simply for the ride, and for the chance at feeling like they belong to something.

Every group of people has freeloaders, you cannot limit it to "welfare" recipients or "corporate money-mongers."

Has it really become the internet's place to prove how shallow and absurd our way of thinking has become?

Some of the people at this protest are angry because they spent a hefty sum of money for a college education, and are understandably angry that because of the actions of a very small percentage of people, the private sector has retarded hiring. That should piss you off! The action of a small few has ruined your prospects at earning the American dream. This is in the hands of both the private sector and the "Government."

Start thinking with both sides of your brain, instead of taking the easy way out and deciding what you know, or what others have told you, is "Truth."

Think about it.

Bill O'neil| 10.8.11 @ 12:44AM

And take a shower, too. Then pay your father for the hot water and towel service. And don't get any terminal illnesses until you're 27.

Tom Murphy| 10.8.11 @ 1:13AM

You sure are funny ! Whatever happened to the compassion you pretend to posess?

dadfly| 10.8.11 @ 2:12AM

right on. this is what i tell *my* kids when they begin to wallow in our human nature. mr. stein, thank you for the honest love and compassion for our children you've distilled so pithily here. it does take courage, doesn't it? just look at the responses from the malcontents and misanthropes. i hope some read and "hear" what you have said.

les nesman| 10.8.11 @ 11:52AM

I thought these protests were mostly about the corporate bailouts. Even if that is the case they are inappropriate. Like W said back in 08, we had to do it or this sucker is going down. That's why we'll have to bail out europe too.

Scott Basinger| 10.8.11 @ 11:55AM

Sir,

We can only hope that the leaders of the banking industry and automakers take the same 'blame yourselves' advice that you seem to profess in your article. There's a certain obscene contradiction when the members of the upper class ruling elite smugly call on the working class to suck it up and stop asking for handouts - when $trillions have been given to bail out the obscenely rich owners of these 'too big to fail' organizations. It's a further obscenity when these are coupled with a taxation system that ultimately will place much of the paying the bill for this mismanagement and greed on those who can least afford it and who were least responsible for it.

Those that feel that they should be smug about this type of injustice really should take some comfort in the fact that at this moment the "Occupy" movement appears to have no direction other than to distill and vent this clear injustice. Revolutions, turmoil and violence have historically started from this same spark. It only takes a wind, a viral comment of 'let them eat cake' to turn that spark into a wildfire.

It would be far more prudent for America's wealthy to accept the responsibility for the damage they've done in the name of boundless greed and corruption and wet the ground somewhat by accepting paying for their mistake in the form of additional taxes. Further, there should be governmental reforms to ensure that the revolving door of corruption between government and industry stops. A revision of the 14th amendment to change 'person' (corporation included) to a 'natural person' (corporations excluded) would be a good start.

Tim| 10.8.11 @ 12:20PM

Gee Mr. Stein..you talk about the college kids (I by the way have graduated and have a very good job) wanting mommy and daddy to support them..did we say that to the banks when they were being bailed out? "oh big banks...you need to put on your big boy pants and figure out hot to get out of this mess on your own...after all...you are college graduates" NO..the government bailed them out, and all in all I feel these protesters feel they should of been bailed out too. What's good for the goose is good for the gander.....

IceColdTroll| 10.8.11 @ 5:18PM

Ouch. Truth hurts dont it?

Charles Bivona | 10.8.11 @ 6:27PM

I would like very much to: "Shut up and get to work." And I just was wondering .. is Ben Stein hiring?

Kris Bunda| 10.8.11 @ 6:44PM

As usual, someone so book smart is so practically idiotic. It's not about people wanting your precious tax dollars (be sure and get buried in the piano crate so you can take it all with you). This is about corporations having more of a say to our elected representatives (via lobbyists) than Real Live Biological Humans With Pulses. See, corporations can't fill out ballots (yet.) But humans can, and 99% of us are not being listened too.

Emma| 10.8.11 @ 7:15PM

BEN, HOW COULD YOU! I have loved you so dearly for so many years and I feel so betrayed. You are ignoring some important facts, for instance, the fact that those one percenters are living off enormous government bailouts paid by my (AND YOUR) tax dollars, and that refusing to hire folks who are not currently employed is becoming common practice, and you even seem to forget that you are writing from beautiful Malibu California, a place of outrageous privilege. Oh, Ben. You're so much smarter than this. Are you trolling? We're still friends but I think you need to buy me flowers or something.

miguel| 10.9.11 @ 5:16PM

You assume Ben pays taxes. Also, Ben is a spokesperson....he gets paid to play a certain role. Getting liked is one of them. That is commonly called "the hook". Dennis Miller is another who employ this device. Best to write off good ole Ben because his role is getting a whole lot harder to perform. He was demolished by Jesse Ventura on YouTube and you get a rare glance of the role Ben has been picked to play for his celebrity. Google it. Larry King show

Sandra Lee Smith| 10.8.11 @ 8:03PM

Way to go, Ben! It's long past time the children grow up and start being responsible for themselves; some of them are 40 or so!

Dimitri Aleksandrovich| 10.9.11 @ 7:09AM

As I've stated before the problem with these Occupy Wall Street Protesters is that they're led by the likes of Roseanne Barr and they include nutjobs dressed up like animals and white kids with dreadlocks doing their best Bob Marley impersonation. What ever happened to the American Labor Movement. We need a real Labor Leader like James Hoffa to take the wheel of these protests. I have no love for Wall Street and I have no love for Washington DC. We have thirty plus years of global free trade that has absolutely destroyed American manufacturing taking with it millions of decent paying American jobs and sending them to the formerly Red Maoist China and Ho Chi Minhs Vietnam of all places. Meanwhile the Fed prints the dollar like Charmin prints squares of toilet paper and DC cuts all regulations on Wall Street. Then end result is the American worker loses his job, the small business owner goes out of business and both of them lose their homes and they slip form the ranks of the American Middle Class to the ranks of the working or unemployed poor while the top 1% sees considerable growth in their portfolios.

miguel| 10.9.11 @ 4:42PM

hint: see Webster Griffin Tarpley, www.tarpley.net

P.S. btw, you're correct

John| 10.9.11 @ 9:08AM

What do these young people expect once they get out of college especially when Mommy and Daddy have given them everything they wanted while growing up. I work in a high end car dealership and see it almost every day. Half the college professors today have never held a private sector job after they graduated. They fill the young people with a delusional vision that there are jobs waiting for them after the graduate, making big mnoey and find that it just is not true these days. They want to blame someone and they start pointing finger at everyone but themselves. This is what happens when parents don't prepare them for disappointment in the real world. I saw some clips of the protests and half looked as if they spent more time partying in college than actually trying to learn something. One in particular had so much metal piercings I could have her for satellite dish. You graduated during a recession, of course in which according some news media does not exist, and you all expect to big money when you got out and that just doesn't happen these days. So suck it up and deal with it.

miguel| 10.10.11 @ 12:10AM

Thank you John for your post. YES! Like so many things nowadays, education, especially higher education is a racket. There is no accountability. As for your assessment about the appearance of many of the OWS'ers...well, I would tend to agree with you. However, I strongly feel we should resist the temptation to judge solely by appearance. Think back to when you were this age. What did your parents say about your generation's appearance? Mine said just about the same thing...and that was because we wanted to wear jeans (new jeans, with no holes). Blame the media for the appearance phenomena. All of the politics aside, there is some redeeming merit to struggle. The key is to find it.

Doodle| 10.9.11 @ 12:02PM

Hi Ben, I'd just like to know if you approve of your own Assistant Editor being an agent provocateur. I suppose you would – ratfucking was a common aspect of the Nixon Administration.

http://boingboing.net/2011/10/.....chaos.html

Doodle| 10.9.11 @ 12:06PM

Hey Ben, at least your agent provocateur is an *honest* agent provocateur. But doesn't this discredit your discrediting? Just sayin', the "American Spectator" and you have to grab some new tricks because this Nixonian crap doesn't work any more.

http://spectator.org/archives/.....doff-in-dc

miguel| 10.9.11 @ 4:44PM

Cain's new campaign slogan: Rebuilding America...One Topping at a Time!

Mike| 10.9.11 @ 10:15PM

While there are many worthy contenders in the comment section, the "santorum cup" goes to Ben Stein, author of the article that generated so much froth.

John| 10.10.11 @ 2:31AM

Nice try in your attempt to say that everyone there is just a smarmy college student wondering what's in it for themselves.

It's pretty clear that what everyone is angry about is the fact that the Middle Class has not just stagnated, but is in a downward trend. Likewise, the numbers of those living below the poverty line has increase. All while the wealthiest 1% have seen their personal fortunes increase dramatically, even notwithstanding the past few years where their fortunes have shrunk somewhat.

Furthermore, when banks needed bailouts, the taxpayer forked over the cash to save them for the collective public good, NOT to preserve the wages and bonus bankers gave themselves for their troubles. (And yes, fully aware that they paid it back... big effen deal. Why did they get their bottoms saved when the average American was left to blow in the wind?

This isn't about left or right. It's about a very small group of people attempting to set up a situation to preserve for all time, their personal privilege in a kind of neofeudalism, while killing opportunity for the vast majority of the population by trapping them in lives without much hope of upward mobility. Most people who are stuck with low paying jobs will struggle to keep their families healthy and fed, let alone get them educated.

But hey... I don't blame you for trying to paint them as just a bunch of whiny college kids asking for a handout. If this msg ever got into the heads of your average American, there would be hell to pay.

Osamas Pajamas| 10.10.11 @ 2:34AM

OHBUMMER'S "WALL STREET OCCUPIERS" AND OTHER OHBUMMER STREET GANGS

Oh, the corporations! Oh, the banks! Oh, BOO HOO! Most of these demonstraters and rioters have a wind-up key sticking out of the middle of their backs with OhBummer's fingerprints all over it. He shat upon their brains and they LOVED it, crying, "Oh! Oh! More poo, please! More poo!"

These are the ideological blackshirts, brownshirts, redshirts and no-shirts thugs tasked and directed in their riots by OhBummer allies Michael Moore, David Astroturf Axelrod, and Van Jones, by MoveOn.org, the SEIU, the Huffington Post, and OhBummer's former employer, ACORN --- and, naturally --- by Barak Hussein Hushpuppy Hoover OhBummer, himself. Oh, and with a cameo appearnce by Roseanne Barr-The-Beheader, that scabrous dopehead rugmuncher.

This so-called "spontaneous, leaderless civil unrest" is a White House operation, conceived in the bowels of Barak Hushpuppy OhBummer's fetid little mind, in the bowels of the White House, and enacted by OhBummer's chosen proxies, surrogates, cronies, and confederates.

OhBummer and the OhBummer Wrecking Crew have been promoting envy [mental illness] and trying to shift blame to "Greedy Wall Street" and away from themselves --- they who are what novelist Ayn Rand called "greedy for the unearned."

I advocate that the police shoot and kill every one of OhBummer's rioting troops who obstructs traffic or trespasses on private property or in any way threatens or attempts to intimidate any of their critics or victims.

These are the lying, arrogant, greedy-for-the-unearned, bloodsxcking, tax-eating Democrat hoods, thugs, and gangsters. I advocate and I seek their destruction.

$ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $

Oh. By the way. In 2008, the top 1% of earners paid more than 38% of all Federal income taxes.

http://ntu.org/tax-basics/who-.....taxes.html

And so to the President of the United States of America and to the so -called "99-percenters" in OhBummer's street gangs who claim victimhood --- go blow smoke up your own ass.

Scott Basinger| 10.10.11 @ 3:52PM

That was probably the most incoherent, moronic rant that I've read in quite a while. I hope that this isn't representative of the top 1%. I would figure that they would be able to afford a better education than this.

J. Parris| 10.10.11 @ 5:51PM

"Ben Stein is a writer, actor, economist, and lawyer living in Beverly Hills and Malibu." HEY! Maybe we could all get jobs as actors and writers... DOH! That's who he's complaining about!

Hey Ben, the view from your ivory tower must be nice.

natural selection| 10.11.11 @ 2:21AM

Dr.Susie is probably not a doctor. A medical doctor, referring to herself , would identify as Susan Smith, M. D. Your dentist, properly, refers to him/herself as Dr. Smith.

What the hell does your "albeit Antarctica" mean? "I have been on every continent, albeit Antarctica Listen, Airhead, it means "although" - - "I have been on every continent, (although Antarctica)"

If you have been down every aisle in the grocery store, it would surprise me. If your daughter got a nursing degree and can't find a job - she must be a poor interview. Or in the wrong state. Nurses in CA went on a 4 day strike recently - subs were called in for 5 days - one of the subs killed a patient by running a nutrient that should have gone into NG tube - pumped it into bloodstream via I.V. They said she was a very good nurse but accidents will happen.

The nurses, who only went out for 4 days on a "solidarity" strike for another union, wanted to return on the 5th day and were not allowed as hospitals had contracted with subs for 5 days -This gave nurses something else to whine about.

Meanwhile the old lady in ICU died with Ensure or something like it, coursing through her veins.

Traveled the whole world, did you? Been on every continent - albeit Antarctica !! And came back to this miserable excuse for a country that has not one redeeming quality, according to your assessment. You must have a screw loose.

natural selection| 10.11.11 @ 2:53AM

HOW TO AVOID STUDENT LOANS:

This is how my son did it. Back in 1987 when their son was born, he knew he wanted him to go to college. He and his wife started saving toward that goal. In 1993, they had a second son and they did not want him to be deprived of the same education his older brother got, so they started saving more.

And then they stopped having children. Having children you cannot provide for is probably not the best plan - - and can lead to whining in later years.

What were all these parents thinking of years ago when they brought these children into the world? Who did they think was going to pay for college? We haven't been in dire economic straits for the past 25 years or my son could not have saved enough.

The first graduated 2 years ago - paid for without a student loan. The second just enrolled in college in August. Paid for without a student loan.

My son and daughter-in-law are not wealthy. They are disciplined. Every vacation for the past fifteen years has been at a Boy Scout Camp as both grandsons worked diligently earning merit badges toward their Eagle, which they both are, as well as Order of the Arrow.

Hopelessly hokey, huh? Pay their own bills and participate in Scouting. And their sons are not protesting on the street in SF. What kind of parents are they?

JoInDaHills| 10.11.11 @ 11:24AM

If there was ever a person who needs to be downsized, it's Ben Stein. Mr., you come off as an old, out-of-touch, callous fart. I live in Bev Hills and know that many of those smug, affluent, self-important neighbors of ours wouldn't have picked up your wife either. Your comment is irrelevant and racist. If the attendant had "helped" your wife, you (or she) would have accused him of inappropriate touching or trying to steal her purse!

CHris| 10.11.11 @ 12:32PM

Hello Mr Stein,

I do not want Mommy and Daddy's money. I do not want rich people's money and problems. I only want fair and equal taxation for every American citizen. A set percentage equal for every person in this country. Is that wrong?

Vanzetti| 10.11.11 @ 5:06PM

Glad to see that the "winning streak" the corporate bastards have been on since Reagan took over is finally coming to an end.

The lesson the oligarchy should've learned from the New Deal (i.e., that capitalism must be regulated in order to be preserved) has been completely ignored, setting the stage for a new American experiment: democratic socialism.

We are the working class. We are the 99%. We are the future.

FirstHandExperience| 10.14.11 @ 12:44PM

"Let them eat cake"
There is such an extreme disconnect between the real experience of your fellow Americans and those who simply believe it is all a result of laziness or poor choices. There are lazy people - I am not one of them.
I am fortunate. I work hard (full time and part time job), pay my taxes and budget well. I was not always as lucky - even with playing by the rules, I have struggled. In the past I did have to choose between food and heat. I did go full days without food in order to afford gas while waiting for my next paycheck. In 2008, I witnessed dedicated employees in my company get laid off even when I knew they worked just as hard as I did. I am grateful to have been kept. Some are still struggling to find permanent employment as companies are choosing to hire temporary staff to avoid paying benefits. Some of those laid-off endured massive pay cuts. Most are college educated. Those that are not have been in their fields of study for over a decade. Jobs are scarce. I worry every day that I will be let go in a new round of RIFs. I am not alone in this constant fear. My father had his pay cut by 12% in 2008 and has not received a raise since then even with every living expense increasing annually. He is 67 and his modest lifestyle is still almost out of the bounds of what he can currently afford. My mother is experiencing chest pains and is waiting to see a doctor because the co-pay may throw their budget off. I had to appeal to her to allow me to pay for it or she would not go. My father works over-time to contribute to savings. I saw my father's retirement drastically diminished forcing him to continue working even as he nears his 70th birthday. He is a Vietnam War veteran and has worked all of his life, paid taxes and loves this country as much as I do. My brother served two tours in Iraq - his permanent war wounds are his testament to his loyalty to America. The only job available in our town is working in a warehouse for a fraction over minimum wage. He never takes a day off and never complains. He does odd jobs around my house in exchange for room and board. He joined the army to afford college. Now he works so many hours that there is no time for classes. At this rate, both of them will work until they die...there is no other choice when your income barely covers the basic necessities.
It is hard for someone who has never lived that way to understand. I know it is difficult to imagine that maybe this lifestyle was not a result of poor choices if your own life experiences are limited to those who are either born in financial comfort or you are unaware of the liberties being taken by companies against American workers all over the country. Maybe it is lack of exposure to a more diverse group of citizens or a reliance on media to color ones prejudice on what the working poor are really like. If you step down from this perspective for just a moment and really see the current climate, you may notice there are families like mine who do not want any hand-outs. We are only asking to be able to live. We are asking that our hard work produce a level of security that will allow us to get by. I see no fault in desiring wealth, luxury or beautiful possessions. That is completely fine by me and just as I have friends who are worse off than my family, I have friends who are able to enjoy a life of comfort as well. They have magnificent homes and travel to exotic places and I am proud of their success. I only ask that those of us who are slowly sinking into poverty have our voices heard. This does not make me or my family anti-American or anti-capitalist. This does not make vast members of society beggars or welfare cases. I find beggars easily identifiable and not to be confused with the working poor, under-employed and unemployed. It is easy for me to differentiate since I personally know enough of the working poor to see their true message. In fact, most of us want to work or already do work - we just want to be paid a fair wage for our time and effort. We just want the "Bob Cratchit's" of the world to finally wake everyone up to the real experience of the American worker. Those of us helping to build the successful business cannot sacrifice any further. Sacrifice to me will mean giving up the necessities (my home, heat, food, good health). Sacrifice to others I know may mean giving up their lives. There is a better way than by writing off a differing opinion as lazy, un-American, anti-capitalist or ill-informed. I feel as if I am on the front lines of this movement even while I am not physically there because every year my income remains the same as my expenses continue to grow (gas prices, food, property taxes, heating, health insurance) and yet the executives of my company still receive their same six-figure bonuses - either the company is doing well or it isn’t...bonuses should be a result of work that produces company success, right? If the bulk of the work force is asked to endure permanent cut backs and work longer hours for less money in an effort to stabilize the company...shouldn't bonuses be suspended as well until the financial health of the company is secured? These are my questions but I know I am not alone in asking them. Now I know this will leave me open for criticism and personal attack. It seems a common practice to ignore the actual sentiment of what someone is saying and instead discredit the person saying it by mud-slinging or giving them a label. It is what our political process has become. But it won’t make the working class stop voicing their concerns.

Susan| 10.15.11 @ 2:04PM

Arrogant Ben's smug, condescending attitude is excatly why there should be an Occupy Beverly Hills.

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Brant Williams| 11.4.11 @ 3:39AM

Ben does not get it at all. It should be no surprise, as his fantasy view of the economy is far removed from reality. Recall his insistence in 2006-2007 that there was nothing wrong with the financial system. He wants you all to forget how clueless he was and is.

The OWSers are not protesting their misfortune, or lack of success in a 'free market' system. Free markets mean freedom to succeed...and freedom to fail. The unholy alliance between the US Federal Reserve and the financial sector / Wall Street is the greatest affront to free markets the US economy has ever seen. Alan Greenspan (who Ben probably still worships) never understood that if you are going to let the market be free in good times, you had to let it be free in bad times. The Ayn Rand disciple was the biggest hypocrite of our time. From 1987 onward, every time the markets sneezed, AG pumped credit into the system. It came to be known as the "Greenspan Put". Basically, it meant that the FED had the financial sectors back. That is where it all started, and the subsidization and support of the financial sector over the real economy has only gotten worse, culminating in the outright legalized theft of trillions during the 2008 crisis.

It is not free markets, but markets that are rigged in favor of the few that infuriates people today. THAT is what OWS is primarily about.

Ben, and the rest of the establishment had better wake up. This movement has the momentum to get nasty and serious very quickly.

The primary tools that the FED will use to try and sustain our credit saturated and fragile finance based economy are precisely the same policies that are driving the huge increase in inequality. In other words...this is going to get much much worse.

jane| 11.28.11 @ 10:14AM

It would seem that even wealth and fame cannot contribute to an objective attitude. Perhaps the ivory tower has left Mr. Stein unscathed by the realities of today's world, where education and hard work are not always a key to success.