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Alan Abelson, RIP
May 10, 2013 | 20 comments
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South Carolina on My Mind
April 30, 2013 | 31 comments
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Dream Sequences
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Just Like a Woman
April 25, 2013 | 35 comments
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Missing So Many
April 19, 2013 | 41 comments
Ben Stein's Diary
Sandpoint Out of Reach
Summer is over for us — as thoughts turn to Randy Weaver and Todd Akin.
(Page 2 of 2)
Life just seems right in Sandpoint. People don’t seem hard and mean the way they do in big cities. The pace seems sensible. When I got to Sandpoint in June, I was frantic, out of my mind with fear and worry. Now, I feel calm. I hate to leave a place that makes me calm.
On the other hand, my Julie Good Girl is waiting for me in Beverly Hills, so off we go, over the Long Bridge and back to Gomorrah.
I am so happy that we found North Idaho. I thank God for that. And for my wifey, my constant companion, and for the lake and Mr. Buffett’s trains.
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.
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OP4| 8.24.12 @ 8:29AM
The Randy Weaver incident is when we realized that police in this country resembled an occupying army and wouldn't hesitate to use lethal force on civilians.
Soldiers in Afghanistan who botched a raid this badly, violated rules of engagement, and killed women and children, would be charged with murder. Still don't understand why 30-year-old cops are held to standards so much lower than 20-year-old Marines.
TLP| 8.24.12 @ 8:52AM
Randy Weaver?
How about the Guy that President Hitler just had his FBI Gestapo drag from his home - WITHOUT A WARRANT - and Forcibly put in to an Insane Asylum (Incommunicado) ala Karl Marx's Communist Manifesto, and its Instructional Guideline of Government Control over all of the Mental Health Apparatus?
And, where are the Leftist Pukes, on this one?
The same Leftist bags a Vomit who were SCREAMING that The Patriot Act was gonna let the Cops look at their Library Cards?
Let's go A-Holes, and you know who you are.
Is this what we do in The Muslim's Amerika, now?
And, when will you speak out?
Never?
Or, just when he pulls YOU outta your Home, and you hear the Cell Door slam shut behind you?
Why won't you Wake Up to what this Man is?
Jade12| 8.24.12 @ 9:41AM
Could not agree more TLP.
MK48| 8.24.12 @ 10:34AM
Good morning Brother........TLP out resident Paul Harvey.....
Tim, we need you in a MOVIE telling the real truth about this POS.......who gives a sh*t about WHY he does what he does..........he's doing it right in front of us pissing all over the Constitution.
Now they want to loose the senate by turning their back on Akin for a few miss spoken words GMAFB. It has been said by better men than I. You can tell a mans character when in the face of a great battle "will he cut and run or stand and fight".
If we loose the Senate it's because of the spinless rat polititions........I used to like Palin.
Take one of your cool-aid drinking friends to the movie 2016 than maybe he might decide to get a job.................but why would he.
He just conned you into buying his ticket and pop corn.
TLP| 8.24.12 @ 6:34PM
That is a Great Line.
Will he Cut and Run? Or will he Stand and Fight?
We saw that after the Democrats DEMANDED a Second Vote, on the Authorization To Use Force, against Saddam Hussein's Iraq. (Because it was Televised)
But, when the Shit Hit The Fan, they immediately Planted their Flag on CUT and RUN.
I'll say it, again.
It's a Goddamn Shame that the people on Flight 93 Died for Nothing.
Giving their Lives, that these Cowardice Pieces of Shit, could live.
A Goddamn Shame, indeed.
chuck| 8.24.12 @ 8:44PM
I can not agree more about United 93, and the brave passengers who took that flight down. All the politicians in Washington are not worth the sweat off of balls of just one of those men.
The wrong ones died on that horrible day.
I hate like hell saying that, but it's true.
nathan| 8.24.12 @ 11:23AM
Ho Hum. The unconstitutional Patriot Act was passed during the Bush years. It was the Bush administration that violated Padilla's Fifth, Sixth, and Eigth Amendment rights, not the current president. (An American on American soil folks. Did you rant and rave then sir?) The Fifth Amendment destroying NDAA language was proposed in the senate. When Rand Paul rose on the floor to oppose it, McCain more or less called him a traitor. We note that the REPUBLICAN HOUSE allowed the language to remain in the bill that was sent to the president. Granted he didn't veto it but Beohner bears more responsibility than he does.
MR in an interview says he supports the NDAA language so there is a possibility he will in fact detain Americans without access to judges or lawyers. I take him at his word and you should too.
So your vitriol aside, the republicans don't seem to be REALLY strong defenders of individual rights here do they?
And for the record, I have never voted for a democrat, supported Goldwater before I was a teenager, am a card carrying libertarian. I quote liberally from the Founders. I was reading National Review before most of you knew who WFB was. Now how does all that make me a liberal?
Frank Drackman| 8.24.12 @ 11:33AM
Well THATS your problem.
The "Supported Goldwater" thang, damn Homo lover, I don't care if it was a relative...
and do you really have a "Libertarian Card"?
I used to have some actual "Race" cards, I'd dish out whenever someone tried to make something a Racial issue...
OK, they were just random NBA player cards I had left over from the 70's when every point guard worth his salt had a Fro' that would come inches from the roof of the Atlanta Omni...
You don't like my "You wear Your X, I'll wear mine" T-shirt?? Wham! Slapped up side the Haid' with a 75' George McGinnis.(Quite possibly the biggest waste of money since Medicare Part D)
Frank "Who WAS WFB" Drackman
nathan| 8.24.12 @ 12:05PM
I actually learned a lot of languages over the course of my life. But not what you're speaking. Care to translate?
My point perhaps poorly made so let me try again although the old saying is so very true, when you're in a hole, quit digging is this:
Think of it this way, today when you quote Dr. King, content of character, not color of skin, because you don't support race based preferences this, rather bizaarely makes you racist.
In the same vein, quoting the Founders as I so often do, insisting that REPUBLICANS as well as democrats abide strictly by the Constitution, saying that no, we don't get to torture people, abuse people that the unalienable rights doctrine is universal and that we treat people as individuals not as part of some group, well on this site for too many people here, that gets me called a "liberal" when in fact I'm anything but that.
WFB is William F. Buckeley Jr, the founder of National Review. NR was the "bible" for the modern conservative movement and people like Reagan and others cite it as highly influential for them. The focus was foreign policy and they really didn't care about domestic all that much. Supposedly WFB was quoted as saying he was prepared to accept a dictatorship here if that's what it took to defeat the Soviets abroad. If true that should have caused everyone to ignore him but that attitude as we see with NDAA is not all that uncommon. That help?
Frank Drackman| 8.24.12 @ 12:47PM
My Language??
"ENGLISH, MOTHER F****! DO YOU SPEAK IT??"
Ahh, never let an opportunity to throw down a Jules Winfield reference...
and who are these "Soviets" you're talking about?
Frank
Occam's Tool| 8.24.12 @ 10:05PM
Non US citizen ILLEGAL combatants have no rights, Nathan. They may be shot, offhand. This, coupled with the fact that our enemies wage war against our civilian populations, renders the chair and grate approach perfectly applicable. Wire up the jihadi genitalia, folks---it's time to play "Come in, Teheran!"
CJW| 8.24.12 @ 5:48PM
Pompous windbag. You have more concern for Padilla, the shoe bomber, who wanted to kill Americans, than you do for 3,000 Americans killed by Paidlla's buddies.
Padilla should have have been hung within a week as were the Germans caught on Long Island in WWII getting off the submarine. FDR them arrested and executed within a week.
TLP| 8.24.12 @ 6:36PM
Exactly.
Alan Obama Fan Brooks | 8.24.12 @ 12:04PM
"Simple food made at home is the best thing for your health."
With grain alcohol and un-fluoridated water, while reading the Turner Diaries..
Pelleas| 8.26.12 @ 3:51PM
TLP:
YOU have finally outdid , even yourself, in your bat-shit crazy filthy-mouthed, crack-pot insanity- by referring to the President as "President Hitler"--not to say the incredible insult you have shown to all of those who suffered and died under Hitler's reign
YIU ARE BENEATH CONTEMPT, AND I CAN NOT WAIT UNTIL YOU ROT IN HELL...
Joellen| 8.27.12 @ 5:54AM
Oh Please Pelleas - your FAKE outrage is beyond contempt. Here we have a president who is destroying America and Tim calls him Hitler and you find Tim beneath contempt - I call Tim a PATRIOT and you a traitor - so I guess the sides have been drawn. I choose to side with Tim and the American Patriots who wish to save this country.
Pelleas| 8.27.12 @ 1:12PM
"FAKE OUTRAGE"?...
IF TLP is a "Patriot" (in the truest sense of the word), Then I am Marie of Romania
As someone who lost Grandparents/Aunts/Uncles/Cousins / under Hitler's reign of terror, I find ANYONE invoking his name toward someone he .
/she disagrees with-THE SCUM OF THE EARTH...
Aristocat| 8.26.12 @ 6:01PM
Who is this? I want to read up on it...
TLP| 8.26.12 @ 8:21PM
Look it up.
He was just ordered FREED by a Federal Judge.
I first saw it on Drudge.
He was Held for 30 DAYS.
No Warrant.
No Phone Call.
No Lawyer.
SIEG HEIL!
Louis Jenkins| 8.24.12 @ 9:25AM
A diary should be kept secret. "I spent needless time in bed cause I was sick, and when I wasn't I rode around in my boat, and I ate great meals, and a uber-rich man flew me in to the airport..." Come on Ben, when are you going to write something worth reading. TLP wrote a better column than yours. At least he had some facts.
Frank Drackman| 8.24.12 @ 12:50PM
Seriously, Tommy Chong's Summer Vacation Essay was more interesting
Day 1, I woke up, I went downtown to look for a job, I hung out in front of the drugstore.
Day 2, I woke up, I went downtown to look for a job, I hung out in front of the drugstore.
Day 3, I woke up, I went downtown to look for a job, I hung out in front of the drugstore.
Day 4 I
Frank
TLP| 8.24.12 @ 6:36PM
I miss Post American.
Occam's Tool| 8.24.12 @ 9:56PM
Day 5: I got a job---keeping kids from hanging around the drugstore.
C. Vernon Crisler | 8.24.12 @ 9:33AM
I guess not being gassed is a good starting point in listing the reasons why one appreciates life in America. We don't have "scientific" racialists in this country -- at least none with any significance or power -- but we still have the same attitudes that led to the once widespread belief that man was not the imago dei, but was expendable.
Pecos Pete| 8.24.12 @ 9:46AM
CVC: Maybe not gassed but certainly there have been millions of people aborted ... that means people killed before they have the opportunity to enjoy the USA and freedom.
C. Vernon Crisler | 8.24.12 @ 11:34AM
Yes, that's what I was referring to. The same mentality that one finds in the "scientific racialists" and eugenicists is now found in the abortion industry.
Frank Drackman| 8.24.12 @ 9:41AM
Was this really Ben Stein??
No "Astoudingly Attractive" Nordic Blonde Denny's waitresses, late night Kroger runs, lamentations on the lack of fresh Lox in Boise??
Oh yeah, missed the "Amazingly good looking kids & parents"...
What a life, all I get are my "Amazingly ugly and annoying Brother in Law and kids"
Frank
TLP| 8.24.12 @ 6:37PM
I miss Clint.
chuck| 8.24.12 @ 8:48PM
I'm calling BS on that one TLP! Missing Clint would be like missing Jackass on the day he gets to join his hero "Der Fuhrer" in Hell.
chuck| 8.24.12 @ 8:53PM
I'm calling BS on that one TLP! Missing Clint would be like missing Jackass on the day he gets to join his hero "Der Fuhrer" in Hell.
Occam's Tool| 8.24.12 @ 9:58PM
Yup. Clint's no fun. London and King are jerks, but at least they talk about issues and you can debate something. All Clint did was gutter insults without data. Like Jack.
TLP| 8.25.12 @ 9:17AM
You're missing the Joke, people.
It's Sarcasm.
These are backhanded Compliments, given as a means of Clandestinely saying that F.D. Sucks.
If I have to keep explains these things, I'm gonna have to stop treating all of you as Adults.
Now, you've made me bring all of this in to the light, and so I will now have to suffer the Drunk Tank Wit and Wisdom, and 5th Grade Level Attacks, of you know.
Then again, you probably don't know who.
Jade12| 8.24.12 @ 9:42AM
And in my opinion he is also right about Aiken.
Frank Drackman| 8.24.12 @ 10:16AM
Its "Akin",
Aiken is a "City" in South Carolina, and if Atlanta's "The City too busy to Hate"(We'll hate you when we have time) Aiken is "The City even that creepy Hill-Billy from "Deliverance" would steer clear of, if he knows whats good for him"...
Frank
TLP| 8.24.12 @ 6:38PM
I miss Alan Brooks.
TLP| 8.25.12 @ 9:18AM
Get it?
It's a Joke.
Jack in Wi| 8.24.12 @ 10:18AM
Ben: Quit eating in all those resturants. You and your wife are killing yourselves. Simple food made at home is the best thing for your health. I agree with you on abortion. Thanks for the comments.
Alan Obama Fan Brooks | 8.24.12 @ 12:07PM
With grain alcohol and un-fluoridated water, otherwise we lose our Purity of Essence.
Occam's Tool| 8.24.12 @ 10:00PM
Don't listen to Jack, Ben. Grain fed beef cooked in garlic butter followed by Laphroig. Every night. One less attorney in the Universe.
Actually, Ben, Jack is completely right on the food. The only time I will agree with him, I believe, except that Obama is an asshole.
R Martin| 8.24.12 @ 10:44AM
“Somehow, in this brouhaha about Mr. Akin, the fundamentals of the issue have been lost.”
Not all have been lost. Most readers here agree with your comments on abortion, but the sad fact is our government has deemed it to be an acceptable practice. Those of us fortunate enough not to have been aborted have to live with that and probably accept that the reality of changing the law is not in sight.
But what we don’t have to live with is electing stupid people to government. That fundamental is alive in the Akin case. Whatever Akin’s intent or honest moral beliefs, his comments were appalling, suggesting serious intellectual deficiencies, confirmed by his decision even to be interviewed on the subject by someone from the media. This country is in serious peril, and it’s in that condition because of the weak, inadequate people we elect to government. Removing Todd Akin from that pool is a step in the right direction.
Anthony| 8.24.12 @ 10:44AM
Should we start a "Cessna for Stein" charity? The very idea of Stein being groped by TAS agents brings a tear to my eye.
Thank goodness I got that stuff Stein hawks on t.v. so you'll never see me red-eyed again.
Gee, a little more cash in that fat o' wallet of yours, and you too can join the mile high club, along with Slick's Willie.
A rising tide lifts all boats, Ben. And hot air makes for a wonderful balloon ride. So you should be investing in a dirigible. You can have your mug on it as well.
Ben's bloated balloon, powered by Stein. It's green and it's clean!!!
Cobalt| 8.24.12 @ 11:21AM
"Sandpoint Out of Reach"
Mr. Stein,
Speaking of sand,
http://righttruth.typepad.com/.....970b-320wi
It's none of my damn business, but given your age, your health, the economy, etc., you might be a bit top-heavy in real estate.
You might want to consider the advantages of living simply on one piece of property. This property should have room for your dogs, be on one level (no stairs to climb), be near a major airport, etc. You can always rent a condo somewhere, for a week or two, or for the summer.
Deal with the stress in your life, and you will feel much better, and your family and friends will be able to enjoy your company for a long, long time to come.
Prester John| 8.24.12 @ 12:21PM
Every time the Dems or the MSM bring up Todd Akin they need to be asked about one Mark Clayton, the Democrat candidate for the US Senate in Tennessee, who for some reason has been totally disowned by his party.
Paul A'Barge | 8.24.12 @ 1:12PM
Todd Akin said that during a forcible rape a woman's body can shut down her reproductive system so she doesn't get pregnant.
Now, that's what I call a moron. Not a brave person and not a person of any quality of caliber nor a hero.
A moron.
Mr Stein, you know a lot of politicians. Are you not tired of the morons among them?
Frank Drackman| 8.24.12 @ 2:30PM
You know what bothers me about Todd Akin??
He looks like a Perv, and y'all know I'm right.
Cause if his remarks prove anything, its that he saw the movie "Teeth"(2007), a charming little flick about a teen who has Teeth(Duh) in her Va-J-J...
Hey, it grossed $2.3 million, somebody watched it...
Frank
Bubba Shawn| 8.24.12 @ 5:57PM
Thank you Ben,
I share your love of Lake Pend Orielle and used to fished the South end daily out of Eagle landing in Farragut Park. Your writings make me very homesick.
Trinacria| 8.24.12 @ 7:29PM
Stein has naked photos of Tyrrell, right?
Gary B| 8.24.12 @ 8:10PM
LOL
JerryMc| 8.25.12 @ 9:43AM
Your comment about the Randy Weaver situation drags up many thoughts I had about that event. When I went through FBI special agent training at Quantico, given the situation that existed at Weaver's place, we thought that any more than ten agents involved in the apprehension was too many. I read reports of 400 law enforcement being on scene at Weaver's. I always thought what a horrendous mismanagement that was - and the result criminal.
Ditto for the infamous raid at Waco.
Minuteman78| 8.28.12 @ 8:45AM
Make it stop, somebody please, make it stop...STOP giving webpage space to this pointless, purposeless, meaningless drivel!