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Ben Stein's Diary
Bad On You, Mr. Obama
A few mixed days in Chicago, amid some good thoughts about RN.
Wednesday
Here we are in Chicago. It has been an eventful day. Both
Alex and I felt dazed when we got up. I could barely drag my fat
old fleshy carcass downstairs and into my pool. But once I did, I
felt a lot better. Swimming is like flying, as my smart nephew,
Paul Landau, pointed out.
Then breakfast, shower, get dressed, rush to bank. “Qui dit ‘banco’?” as the croupiers used to say at the Nassau casino when it was right out of a James Bond movie and I went there in 1966 with Alex in black tie. At the bank, I was notified of a breathtaking overdraft caused by some mischief scam from the Bank of America. Luckily, I could cover it but to think that B of A stoops to cheating good customers like us is really depressing.
Then off to LAX with our trusty driver, Mr. Yakubov, from Uzbekistan. Then through security with all of my pals from TSA. They are the nicest guys and gals on the planet. Then, rush, rush, rush over to the gate and onto the plane.
It was all going fine except that I had idiotically bought Alex a huge iced tea at Starbucks. She opened the top to put in Sweet-n-lo exactly as I opened my briefcase. She took off her coat with a huge swish and knocked the whole iced tea into my briefcase. Twenty ounces of iced tea and ice cubes on my speech, my anti-colitis meds, my Bose headphones, my passport.
I went into shock. The attendants helped but it took a long time to get the water and ice cubes out and I was hysterical.
“I guess it would have been worse if I had had a heart attack and died,” Alex said helpfully.
My gift from Pop — I just closed my eyes and soon I was asleep just as he used to do when stressed. Next thing I knew, I was having a fabulous cheese enchilada and rice and beans. Then more sleep.
Then, I read an article about President Obama blaming the lingering unemployment and problems for the middle class on rich people. That sneaking politician. There is just no necessary causal link between some people being rich and other people being poor in our society. It’s just Marxist nonsense to say there is such a link. People getting rich make other people employed and better off in general. (There are exceptions.) However, attacking the rich as causes of poverty just shows extreme ignorance and a malicious wish to make trouble. It’s the kind of nonsense we expect from dopey college kids — not from the President.
Plus, what a HYPOCRITE!!! Mr. O gets a ton of money from rich Wall Street tycoons and always has done so. How dare he pretend that he’s fighting them (and why would he want to?).
Plus, if you’re passing out blame for the recession, how about Tim Geithner, who was President of the NY Fed and agreed with every wrong move by Treasury Secretary Paulson that caused the crash? Why is he your Treasury Secretary when he had a huge hand in killing Lehman Brothers, which really started the downhill slide? (And how about the U.S. giving the Europeans advice on how to cut their deficits? That’s actually funny.)
Well, bad on you, Mr. Obama, for taking money from the rich as fast as you can and also stirring up the crazies with your class warfare nonsense rhetoric. I really, truly thought Mr. Obama was better than that. Shows how stupid I am. Stupid and insanely trusting. That’s me.
In Chicago, we checked into our hotel and went rushing out for dinner at Coco Pazzo. The chicken livers were amazingly good.
Then on the way back to the hotel, my wife’s shoe lost its high heel. I took it to the concierge to get it fixed. As I talked to him, an astonishingly beautiful standard poodle, black with a large white collar, came in with a woman wearing a similar outfit. Like an old New Yorker cartoon.
Then a malicious e-mail from some psycho about my wife and me. I wrote back, “We have been together for 45 years and we’ll still be together when you are rotting in hell all alone.”
Toast and herbal tea, and now it’s time to sleep.
About the Author
Ben Stein is a writer, actor, economist, and lawyer living in Beverly Hills and Malibu. He writes “Ben Stein’s Diary” for every issue of The American Spectator.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (70) | Leave a comment
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beebop2| 12.9.11 @ 6:29AM
I wonder if Zagat is looking for a new contributor? If so? Stein would be a good choice.
Alan Brooks| 12.9.11 @ 11:39AM
"Well, bad on you, Mr. Obama, for taking money from the rich as fast as you can and also stirring up the crazies with your class warfare nonsense rhetoric. I really, truly thought Mr. Obama was better than that. Shows how stupid I am. Stupid and insanely trusting. That’s me."
No, you are not stupid at all; you are a bad writer who COULD stick to the business deals you do so well if you weren't Regnery's teacher's pet-- or whatever the reason they keep you on as a writer rather than a financial consultant.
As for Obama, he is far preferable to the guy whose claim to fame was being tortured in 'Nam, and for being Sarah Palin's running mate. But go ahead, keep making the same stupid mistake in doing the same thing every four years hoping for a different outcome.
ONTIME| 12.9.11 @ 3:47PM
How much better is the Mysery Man compared to R2FK? My guess is R2FK has verifiable credentials.
blake99| 12.9.11 @ 4:09PM
Alan Brooks, you are just slinging it, hoping some will stick. "bad writer" ... "teacher's pet" ... gee you've got Stein all figured out, don't you. You wasted your five seconds of fame to say nothing. btw, what was Obama's "claim to fame"? I'm guessing you'll be happy to vote for him again, so "go ahead, keep making the same stupid mistake in doing the same thing every four years hoping for a different outcome."
R Martin| 12.9.11 @ 7:02AM
Wow, a mix of total rubbish and a little good sense. One doubts B of A's business plan includes mischief and scamming. To be fair, Mr. Stein should specify what caused the overdraft. However, he is right about Lee Atwater, a bare knuckled Republican tactician who is sorely needed in a party now bulging with wimps.
As to thinking Obama was better...better!...than the typical leftist hypocrite, well...I'm not sure "thinking" belongs in that statement.
mzk1| 12.10.11 @ 11:06AM
I don't know, but American banks can be really nasty if you make a mistake. Fee after fee after fee, and before you know it a huge bill for an original debt of a few bucks.
Don| 12.9.11 @ 7:35AM
Sometimes when we age, we become cranky and defeatist in nature.
The US can, and will, come back from this malaise. Our best days are ahead once we right the ship.
There was a time not long ago when Japan was going to eat our lunch.
That was a very brief title they held.
We have, when unfettered, the greatest republic in world history.
We can, and will, come to our senses and do what we need to do to recover. We always have.
We survived a Civil War, World Wars, "conflicts" in Korea, the Cold War, The Great Depression...Hurricanes,Earthquakes,Floods, Fires and inept politicians over the ages.
We shall do so again, of that I am sure.
Lighten up, Ben. You have seen this movie before.
Don't judge the future thru aging eyes, sir.
Be an optimist. For that is what we Americans are made of.
Frank Drackman| 12.9.11 @ 7:35AM
Nixon was the first President I remember, even saw Air Force 1 fly over when he visited Offutt Air Force Base in 70' or 71'.
December 72' my 6th grade teacher made us write letters to the President asking him to stop the bombing. This was Bellevue Nebraska, where probably 1/2 the kids were military brats.
I wasn't the only kid who wrote that we hoped President Nixon would keep bombing the Viet Congs back to the Stone Age, maybe even throw in a couple of H-bombs for good measure.
To give the teacher credit(can't remember her name, she got married 1/2 way through the year, probably to some long haired smelly hippy) she put all the letters in a big envelope and mailed them to the White House.
And since Mil-House didn't throw anything away, somewhere at the Nixon Library, probably shrunken into a microfilm dot, is my letter...
Frank
mzk1| 12.10.11 @ 11:13AM
Thank you. I was in grade school, and supported the war I expected to be drafted into, as my father was during Korea and my grandfather during WWI.
In '72, I was in Hebrew school in Brooklyn, and, to his credit, our left-wing teacher encouraged us to get involved, even though he must have known that most fo us would campaign for Nixon. I volunteered for Democrates for Nixon at the time.
As the left-wing "Partners in Power "put it, Hilary worked to impeach Nixon because of VietNam, not Watergate. Abandoning those people was a horrible thing, and it was Watergate, a rather minor scandal in actuality, that enabled it and Cambodia to be destroyed, in spite of all the revisionist history.
The Paratrooper| 12.9.11 @ 8:01AM
Mr. Stein only touches on the massive problem that will end this country. That is politicians who seek office to create their own wealth and for self aggrandizement. They care nothing for America, but wish only for themselves. Were I king for a day I would do just a few things to right the ship.
1. No person holding federal office today could ever run again.
2. In future federal office seekers would have one four year term and then never hold office again. ( This ends the huge pensions and other perks the present group of egos on steroids voted themselves)
3. All laws passed by Congress apply to Congress to the same detriment with which they apply to citizens. (today many laws do not apply at all to congress, such as Obamacare, wage & hour laws,, anti-discrimination laws, and many more)
4. Corruption by Congress people would be investigated by the party out of power and conviction would result in a life sentence w/o parole.
5. Tax rates would fall to four levels: 5% up to $30,000; 15% over $30,000 up to $200, between $200,000 and $1,00000 the rate would be 30%, over $1,000,000 the rate would be 35%. Corporate taxes would be set at 15%. Those rates could only be raised by a vote of the people in a Presidential election year.
6. Congress would submit a budget that was balanced every July and report quarterly how they were KEEPING it balanced. Failure to do so results in dismissal of all members charged with the job of doing that. The runner up in the last election would immediately serve the remainder of the dismissed person's term and would be barred from serving again.
7. No welfare to adults of sound mind and body.
Timothy L. Pennell| 12.9.11 @ 8:43AM
Yeah. #6. How about: Congress should Submit a Budget EVERY YEAR, like the Constitution says they're REQUIRED TO BY LAW.
It has been almost 1,000 Days.
Nothing is ever gonna change, until there is Blood on the ground. It took JOHN BROWN, to get the War on Slavery started. It's gonna take another John Brown to fix this.
I'm just saying.
Rosalee| 12.9.11 @ 2:40PM
While they are at it, how about including themselves in whatever they pass as mandatory for the rest of the country??
They continually exempt themselves
We are essentially no better off now than we were in the 18th Century under 'George' and parliament.
The Bruce| 12.9.11 @ 5:13PM
Tim,
To be fair, the Constitution only requires that Congress fund the government. The Budget Act of 1974 puts in the requirement for an annual budget.
Bsg| 12.9.11 @ 4:15PM
Para, I'm writing you in for Prez.
mzk1| 12.10.11 @ 11:19AM
2. In CA, this led to power being concentrated into the hand of unelected beareucrats.
3. Newt passed such a law as part of the contract. However, it had to have exceptions, or republicans would be forced by quotas to hire left-wing staffers.
4. Since the press determines scandals, and the DC juries are left-wing this will end in criminalizing conservatism and a premanent left-wing dictatorship.
6. With a split Congress, this could easily end in blackmail.
bill| 12.9.11 @ 8:45AM
Obama is a socialist.
I don't care about his actions and words.
It's always about protecting his loyal constituents, SEIU, ACORN, NAACP, La Reza, Dream Act, AFT, NEA, and so on....................
He only cares about his liberal constituents.
We need Jesus in the WH, not a Satan.
Rosalee| 12.9.11 @ 2:42PM
Anybody with any gray matter should be able to see it, but sadly they do not.
The drones just march in line behind him and his
faithful in congress.
solidground| 12.9.11 @ 9:14AM
Good grief, Ben. Why did it take until nearly three years into this nightmare called "hope and change" for you to feel betrayed by the class warfare monger in the White House? Obama wages class warfare because he has no vision, no platform and no plan. He is morally and intellectually bankrupt. Just as were the high Commissars in Soviet Russia. And I also have to add that when you use phrases such as, "bad on you," that you do the English language no service. It, like independent, free-enterprise-minded Americans, is under assault from all sides.
Purpleguy| 12.9.11 @ 9:42AM
Actually, the American people, ya know, the 99% are behind him. At least Frank Luntz is scared to death they are ... the rich, whether intentional or not, have benefited from Republicant policies, while the 99% have not. It's that simple.
bill| 12.9.11 @ 9:56AM
Oh Lord! She' s back again.
We have seen the horror of socialism in USSR.
Do not try to import/impose socialism on us.
We already have witnessed the Tea Party revolt.
If you liberals do not stop, things will get worse.
You and your boy friend, Obama, can go straight to hell.
Liberals are morons and pathetic.
carnot| 12.9.11 @ 10:22AM
Purple traitor posting fast & furiously!
solidground| 12.9.11 @ 3:40PM
No, it would be more like 43 percent of Americans are kinda, sorta behind him (although a good share of those confused people will flick him like a booger on the sidewalk by next November) and more than 50 percent can't stand the schmuck. Most of the polls are agreeing on the round numbers.
bill| 12.9.11 @ 5:18PM
Obama is a dead man walking..........................
The Bruce| 12.9.11 @ 5:24PM
Purpleguy, you must not be paying too much attention too well. It's become very apparent to the vast majority of people Obama is very much a Wall Street whore (I prefer K-Street prostitute).
Just look at all the ex-FEDs, AIG, and Goldman Sachs folks that he put in his administration.
mzk1| 12.10.11 @ 11:21AM
You honestly believe this? Maybe you work at the NYT?
I live in a country that used to be socialist. Then, is desperation, we tried supply side economics. The result - a strong economy that wheathers the recssion better than practically any other.
Louis Jenkins| 12.9.11 @ 9:17AM
Oh, I got up feeling flabby, took a swim, felt better, Alex dumped ice tea in my briefcase, horror, went back to sleep, woke up eating a cheese and bean enchilada, went back to sleep...
Come on! This is rubbish.
Minuteman78| 12.9.11 @ 9:21AM
Absolutely pointless article. Well, maybe not pointless, but it's the equivalent of watching the last 90 seconds of a 56-0 football blowout and finally saying to yourself, "gee, maybe this thing's over."
The Bishop| 12.9.11 @ 9:40AM
Ha, ha. Good one, Minuteman78. I reluctantly agree.
The Bruce| 12.9.11 @ 5:27PM
Notice the praise that Ben shows for Nixon's idea for "Universal" health-care.
That one was a little surprising to me (both his opinion of it and the idea that Nixon wanted it -- I didn't know that).
Denver Todd| 12.9.11 @ 9:37AM
The crazy thing about ranting about BofA is that Mr. Stein probably has a rep assigned just for him, as do most banks for their high-wealth customers. Mr. Stein could have cleared it up with a simple phone call.
Hank| 12.9.11 @ 9:54AM
Obviously he does't or he would have. Cut the guy some slack, he is wise and rich and funny. He is enjoying the fruits of his labor and we need to be glad he can travel and do the things he does. We Americans need to emulate not denigrate those that are successful!
Purpleguy| 12.9.11 @ 9:40AM
"There is just no necessary causal link between some people being rich and other people being poor in our society." - of course there is. whatever one takes, someone else loses ... that's just common sense. No one makes something out of nothing although financial instruments come close.
bill| 12.9.11 @ 9:59AM
What's the definition of being a rich or a poor?
You socialists always play the class warfare rhetoric, in vein.
Socialism means recession and despair.
Government never be the solution, the free enterprise is the best way to go.
WE THE PEOPLE, NOT the government.
Rosalee| 12.9.11 @ 2:44PM
Concur........
DGinGA| 12.9.11 @ 10:23AM
Purpleguy, you assume wealth is a zero sum game, and it is not. Apparently you are one of the guys who is either not smart enough, or willing to work hard enough to EARN yourself some wealth. Politicians always talk about wealth as though it's a pie, and it is not. Just because you are not wealthy, it's not because someone else took it away from you. If I think the CEO of B of A makes too much money, I can choose not to do business with B of A. Or I can become a shareholder and make noise with the Board. Otherwise it's none of my business what he earns. Same with every other company in this country. Want to be one of the 1%? Quit your whining and take some risks, start your own business and work 80 hours a week for 10 years or so. But most of all, QUIT WHINING!!!!!
bill| 12.9.11 @ 1:02PM
No, those bureaucrats and those SEIU thugs are making too much $.
carnot| 12.9.11 @ 10:24AM
you can't be this helplessly stupid...can you? yes, a rhetorical question.
and therein, folks, lies the Liberal zero sum mindset...in all its pre-pubescent wisdom!
Anthony| 12.9.11 @ 11:43AM
Purpleguy, you are a colossal moron who refuses to listen and learn, even when things are explained to you, as they were yesterday about the rising tide analogy, that you still don't comprehend.
There is no finite pie to our economy, our money supply is fluid, as the GDP grows. A house bought in 1950 for $20,000 is now bought for $150,000. The money supply grew to accommodate this ecomomic growth. That's the beauty of capitalism.
If I make $1,000 today, that does not mean there is not $1,000 that is available for another person to make as well. Your zero sum reasoning is Marxist crap that assumes what I make today is depriving someone else of that same money.
In other words, if I make $1,000 today, you believe someone else is $1,000 poorer because of me.
Not so. The $1,000 that I may make today is still there to be had, even though somebody in Texas just made $20,000 and somebody in NY made $50,000. Do you get it???
As to your last innane thought, people become rich through the fruits of their intellectual abilities and labor. An artist can sell a painting for $100,000 today because the market sets that value. Not everyone can paint and produce a work of art that demands such prices. This does not mean capitalism is bad because we are not all capable of doing the same.
Capitalism and our form of government allows for equal opportunity, not equal outcome, as you Marxists insist. (And spare me the downtrodden unequal playing field bullshit)
As far as making something out of nothing, you make no sense, but you obviously do not understand what the financial markets do in order to insure capital is created to allow for productivity.
Financial instruments do not make money out of thin air. Investments are tied to the commodities bought and their value. Those who trade on those commodities, as millions of us are doing right now with our investments, and those doing it for us are performing a service, something you anti-Wall St. idiots don't comprehend.
Grow the hell up and pick up a book. Preferably not one written by Paul Krugman or Howard Zinn.
Rosalee| 12.9.11 @ 2:46PM
"....refuses to listen and learn, even when things are explained to you..."
((((NODS))))) so arrogant in believing that THEY alone have the answer if we would just listen.........................its nauseating
Anthony| 12.9.11 @ 4:38PM
Oh Oh, Mrs. Purpleguy's mommy, Rosalee, is monitoring this site and has caught Purpleguy talking to the adults, and mommy doesn't like it one bit!!
Mommy Rosalee doesn't get it either, looks like the acorn didn't fall far from this nut tree either.
Richard H. Davis| 12.9.11 @ 3:26PM
You are correct that many parts of the market are not zero sum - but some are. And the money supply is independent of GDP - the Fed has tripled the money supply in the last 3 years - to no effect.
SUBVET| 12.9.11 @ 5:24PM
@ ANTHONY...AND THE REST
Week after week & day after day the PURP posts his garbage and you all respond. I am just trying to figure out who is smarter. May I just say "why respond" maybe he will go away......oh I see your trying to prove your point......I think "HE" does everytime he posts.
Stan Redmond| 12.9.11 @ 5:30PM
I shudder at the complete lack of education displyed in this statement. That is total complete hogwash. Stop reading the miserably failed Keynes economic theories and start reading Friedman, Von Mises, and Sowell. My customer's do not get poorer buying my products. In another sense my boss does not get poorer when he sign[ed] my paycheck when I had a boss.
John| 12.9.11 @ 6:34PM
Purpleguy:
SO when gov't takes, someone loses and it costs a fortune for handling.
Laine | 12.9.11 @ 11:59PM
This zero sum view of economics is really really primitive and stupid and as such, the communist mantra to match the rest of their stupidities. Every country that allows free markets gets the same good result, more people better off from a constantly growing economy (or pie to dumb it down for purple guy). Every socialist/communist/statist country without subsidies from a free market area crashes and burns. Compare West and East Germany, South and North Korea, workaholic northern Europe vs layabout Mediterranean Europe etc.
mzk1| 12.10.11 @ 11:26AM
I recall telling my wife that we couldn't afford an iPad. Then these spoiled rich kids with iPads want to destory the US economy entirely.
Purpleguy, YOU are the 1% in my eyes. You caused the recession. We are the 99%, and we are sick of your socialism.
Peppermint Tea| 12.9.11 @ 10:17AM
Rich people don't take from the poor, the consumers give it voluntarily (unless there is government collusion). It is the government who takes from the poor, middle class, and rich.
Paul McGrath| 12.9.11 @ 11:51AM
"I guess it would have been worse if I had had a heart attack and died," Alex said helpfully.
Ben, you are a delight. Great, funny article. Yours is the first article I read whenever I see your byline.
Kingofthenet| 12.9.11 @ 11:51AM
In a Nutshell:
Ben Stein: Get off my lawn and I said I want my Matzah ball soup HOT!
William L. Gensert| 12.9.11 @ 1:08PM
Mr. Stein, I love your articles. You are a wonderful writer, and I love the way you mention people you have met, along with your sentimentality and reflections on life's travails and beauties.
"The food was so-so, but the service was just a cruel mockery. That place is beautiful but needs a manager who will get it running right."
When you write something like that, it surprises me. I can't see you as the kind of man who would want to get someone fired. Especially since you really don't know the reasons why the service was bad. Not all bad experiences can be traced to management incompetence. Sometimes there are other things going on. Now, if you had been there on many occasions, or had given the manager an opportunity to make things right, I could see it. If the manager is terrible, he should be fired, but can you state with confidence, that that is the case?
Grzmlyk| 12.9.11 @ 1:10PM
Yawn.
My doctor forbids me to read Ben Stein. I can't process the sugar.
I don't understand why he doesn't send me some of the money he wants so badly to part with in the form of taxes. I'm here, Ben, and I'm broke. Please put your money where your mouth is, send me a hefty check and, for the love of god, STOP WRITING THIS DRIVEL.
johan berger| 12.9.11 @ 1:42PM
Thanks to Ben for reminding TAS readers that RN was a President way ahead of his time!!
Now if RN had used his good sense NOT to try to use the FBI to go after his 'enemies'..
Oh, well---
mzk1| 12.10.11 @ 11:29AM
Wait a minute. He called the guy, and the guy said no, right? Compare this to Clinton. Watergate was, in retrospect, purely political, and everybody convicted ought to be considered a political prisioner.
Nixon had conservative instincts, but he was living in his time and felt he had to compromise. This idea of pure conservatism was only made possible by Obama.
bill| 12.9.11 @ 1:50PM
Chicago is the land of organized crime, and Obama is the kingmaker.
It's just the old school tactics, "pay as you", or "pay liberals as you make money."
See the Blago trial, "you can run but you cannot hide."
After the 2012 election, it's gonna be Obama's show.......................
Rosalee| 12.9.11 @ 2:39PM
What I find sad is that apparently NOBODY looked at his track record:
neighborhood organizer
and
'present' in congress.
That is the sad thing about all of this.
bill| 12.9.11 @ 4:27PM
And associated with Jeremiah Wright, the agent of hate and intolerance, and became a surrogate of "socialism and anti-Semitic."
Laine | 12.10.11 @ 12:07AM
Obama was also a red diaper baby from both sides of the family, educated as a Muslim in the formative years of his life. Any white man with his history of red flags and non-achievement would have been laughed out of contention but libs were determined to have a black looking (only half black) president to prove their own non-racist credentials so the left wing media refused to report the truth while making up a phantom "brilliant" candidate out of an affirmative action slouch. Obama's the Press-ident, a complete media creation.
mzk1| 12.10.11 @ 11:29AM
Lots of people did. No one listened. The MSM is still very powerful.
Stan Redmond| 12.9.11 @ 5:32PM
I disagree with Obama being the kind maker. There are shome shadowy figures that made Obama the king. From his birth he's been put in places of prestige through no actions of his own.
fred c. dobbs| 12.9.11 @ 2:19PM
Dear Ben Stein: You speak truth: Obama is a "dopey college kid."
Richard H. Davis| 12.9.11 @ 2:20PM
"Then, I read an article about President Obama blaming the lingering unemployment and problems for the middle class on rich people."
Mr. Stein didn't provide a link, so it's impossible to determine whether Mr. Stein is lying or the writer of the article lied, but I defy anyone to produce a link to an article which says "President Obama today blamed the high unemployment rate on rich people" or any variation on that.
Richard H. Davis| 12.9.11 @ 2:21PM
"Challenge" would have been a better word...
John| 12.9.11 @ 6:37PM
Richerd H Davis:
It would help you if you heard the Obama speeches, so you needn't wonder.
Barb| 12.9.11 @ 2:24PM
The middle class isn't to blame but have to take the biggest sacrafice whils GE among other corporations pay nothing. Thses rich people per say are not creating jobs for if they where our unemolyment would not be. Nice try.
Rosalee| 12.9.11 @ 2:37PM
The blame game seems to be popular now in Washington. The sad thing is we are left holding the bag out here in America.
If the Dems took every dime of the rich, it would still not solve the problem, but I guess it would make them feel better eh?
Wait, but what would happen to all of them?
I mean surely there have to be some 'rich' among those who are wailing the loudest about how awful it is.
shipley130| 12.9.11 @ 4:53PM
Well, Ben, I would say some rich people ARE making middle class poor. The rich Obama friends, that is.
Bux da Huda| 12.9.11 @ 5:40PM
Mr. Stein's charming detail is not offering rubbish, as some of you have opined, but rather has shown a persona engaged in elegant overdrive in which we should all aspire: a gear that at a certain speed automatically reduces its engine's power output without reducing its driving speed, used to lessen fuel consumption and engine wear .
Pat| 12.9.11 @ 5:46PM
Ya gotta love these batty seniors, like Ben Stein, ragging on the younger generation. What’s wrong with these kids they constantly whine while their generational contemporaries in Washington D. C. are the most irresponsible, lackadaisical, immature delinquents we’ve seen since Sunny View Daycare Center held its graduation party. Two cases drive this point home. “Fast and Furious” - fatuously named after a young male action movie by love handle sporting, middle aged ATF Bureau clowns - is now entering ACT II, featuring Congressional hearings where every government official in charge of operations denies knowing they actually knew anything about what they were supposed to be in charge of.
The Attorney General and his droopy pants water boy assistant AG claimed “they didn’t know”. We buy guns with taxpayer funds, sell them to Mexican drug dealers, 100 Mexicans and at least 2 Americans are subsequently used for target practice but these middle aged clowns in charge didn’t know we were sponsoring an imbecilic operation no sane 22 year old would have authorized? Deja-vu the Waco and Ruby Ridge operations all over again.
And then there’s the Soylandra investigation, an encore of Fast and Furious, except this time the Head Fat Cat at DOE has to pretend he didn’t know anything about it. Congress is helpless by their own admission to find the truth of the matter, they can’t put AG Eric Holder under oath as a hostile witness, we’re not told why they can’t, they “just can’t”. So, what exactly are we paying these aging windbags to do?
What should bother Americans, including supposedly mature guys like Stein, is there is nothing that we, the taxpayers, can do about this ongoing series of screw-ups. Holder should currently be out on bail awaiting his day in criminal court on a charge of depraved indifference homicide; instead he enjoys the sleep of the innocent secure in the knowledge he can’t be touched by his own justice system.
Quite a government of mature men and women we have: Corrupt, devious and untrustworthy – and completely beyond punishment. So, Ben, what were you saying again about the younger generation?
GregA| 12.9.11 @ 6:11PM
RMN is the President both left and right love to hate. He had his demons, of course, but there is something to be said for pragmatic leadership. Nixon was an effective President. Ben, I've always been impressed with your affection for him, and your integrity to express it.
Diane| 12.13.11 @ 11:14PM
The problem isn't a few rich people. It's the continuing erosion of the middle class, of concern to both liberals and conservatives, normally, and the president wants to address that, as he should. Congress should too, by some means.
If politians are beholden to wealthy donors, it's not any more Obama's fault than any of the rest of them. It's the system in which politicians depend on these donors for election funds, worsened by the Supreme Court decision on Citizens United.
I don't think that's really the problem, though. I think it's years of extreme free market ideology. The natural result is ever growing inequality, erosion of the middle class and decreasing equality of opportunity. Note the objective shouldn't be creating equal outcomes for everybody, but equality of opportunity is at the heart of the American system. It's what the American dream was about. There can be no equality of opportunity without equal access to the type of education needed to get a job. The idea that people would be expected to take on huge debt just to get that education is absurd. How many jobs today are available to high school graduates. How much of a living can a person earn to support a family with that education? Not much I think.
People should forget about ideology and partisan politics and think about what makes sense