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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
April 26, 2013 | 62 comments
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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
Treasure Your Local Police
This and more from rainy, beleagured L.A.
Los
Angeles
Thursday
A visit to my shrink, whom I will call Dr. P. We talked for about
forty minutes out of my allotted 50 minutes on the subject of a
young male relative. The young man, whom I have often written about
in this space, has a number of “issues.” He won’t work. He won’t do
any household chores except for watching his very adorable daughter
when his wife is at work for a few hours each week. He uses a
copious amount of medicines, legal and illegal, and vast quantities
of alcohol.
He also smokes heavily and usually is unshaven and unkempt, despite which he is very handsome.
This young man, whom I will call “T,” is moving to a small city in the Deep South. We don’t know what he’s going to do there. His wife doesn’t know what he’s going to do there. We all just hope he’s going to do something constructive there and maybe he will. We all love him like mad. He is extremely witty when he wants to be, and has astonishingly good manners among strangers. Just incredibly good. At social functions he is friendly, outgoing, helpful, genuinely caring. He could easily be a politician or a maître d’. Or maybe a cruise director.
Anyway, he could do those things if he cared to work, but he doesn’t.
So, off he goes to the Deep South, and I asked Dr. P. the following question. “Have you ever known anyone who has a history of certain kinds of behavior, usually self-defeating, who goes to a new location and whose behavior changes dramatically and who stops doing the self-destructive behavior?
“Yes,” said Dr. P. with a broad smile.
“Really?” I asked him. “May I ask where this person went that changed his behavior so much?”
“Prison,” said Dr. P.
We both laughed but it was a rueful laugh past the graveyard.
It is a weighty burden to have a troubled relative that I am responsible for, especially at my age.
The other main subject I often talk about with Dr. P. is my own profligacy with money. (Maybe profligacy is always with money.) You simply cannot imagine how wasteful I am with money.
Well, maybe you can since I talk about it so much. Much of it has to do with owning too much real estate which, alas, has corrected to the downside in a huge way in the recent crash. To be sure, it has recovered a bit in the Los Angeles area, but not in the desert (not in the slightest) and not in Sandpoint. So, if I sold there, I would take a series of losses.
I don’t want to do that. I have no reason at all to believe that real estate won’t recover everywhere, eventually. Frank Hathaway, the smartest man about real estate I have ever met, former CEO of LAACO (ticker LAACZ), the best managed real estate firm I have ever owned stock in, once told me the essence of real estate trading. “You sell when it’s high, not when it’s low.”
Nevertheless, Dr. P. endlessly advises me to sell real estate and tells me I am headed for trouble if I don’t. Dr. P. is, like all psychiatrists in L.A., Jewish. (Why is that? Is it because it’s a sort of wizardry?) This reminds me of an old Yiddish saying: “Every Jew has two businesses. His own and real estate.”
Anyway, as I told my Doctor, whom I love like crazy, “You always want me to sell real estate. You talked me into selling my house in Aspen in 1982 for pennies. That was the single worst financial mistake of my life. It would have made me a well-to-do man to have kept that house. It was a catastrophe. You wanted me to sell my condos in West Hollywood. They’ve doubled since then and that was just a few years ago. So, as long as I can afford to hold on to the real estate, I’ll keep it.”
About the Author
Ben Stein is a writer, actor, economist, and lawyer living in Beverly Hills and Malibu. He writes “Ben Stein’s Diary” for every issue of The American Spectator.
Jack in Wi| 2.11.13 @ 6:45AM
Ben: The police and military, like taxes are necessary evils which our founders knew had to be kept under strict control. All real conservaives know that. I know where there are a group of empty houses where Dorner can hide out. He just has to be a regular reader of your column. I think you should stay away from shrinks and try to fugure it out for yourself. Talk to ordinary people. Try a rabbi, minister or priest. There is shrink who comes here named Occam who is as mad as a hatter. All he thinks about is is genocide, mass murder and homosexuality.
Frank Drackman| 2.11.13 @ 6:57AM
Jack, how did I know you'd be first to comment on Ben's peace?
And shouldn't you save your carpal tunnel for giving your inflatable Vince Lombardi Job handjobs??
I've got 1 word for Lt. Dorner(and doesn't that photo of him in Camoflouge make you Nauseous, he's only about 50 lbs over the Navy weight standards, which is saying something)
"Body Bag" OK thats 2 words...
And speaking of Body Bags(literally) Ben, I think your miscreant needs to meet "Dexter"...
and its like my Great Great Great Grandfather Nathan Bedford Forest Robert E. Lee J.E.B. Stewart Baruch Goldstein Rosenberg said, before selling a house he didn't own (it's cool he got paid in Counterfeit Confederate money)
"Land, they're not makin any more of it"
which is so funny because its TRUE......
like Jack's Inflatable Lombardi...
Frank "Slow Hand" Drackman
Jack in Wi| 2.11.13 @ 7:51AM
Dreck: You spelled piece wrong. Shame on you. I had an uncle who was a local policeman. He didn't believe in arresting people or giving out tickets. He thought it was bad public relations for the police dept. He used to take off his gun, put it on the bench and play ball with the neighborhood kids. I don't think he could get away with that today. I could tell stories about him for hours, but am off to feed the hungry at the food pantry.
Frank Drackman| 2.11.13 @ 8:07AM
Hate to be the one to break it to you Jack..
But you're a Homo.
And your "Uncle" wasn't really a Cop, if you Knowm Sane?????
Cause I've got TWO Cousins who are Cops today, a Connecticut State Trooper, and a Georgia State Trooper, and they do nothing BUT arrest peoples and write tickets, I think thats in the job description...
I mean it would have been sort of embarassing if your "Uncle" did try and arrest somebody with that fake badge and Village People Cop Uniform...
Frank "Knuckles" Drackman
Maxwell| 2.11.13 @ 8:18AM
Way to start off Monday morning with a laugh. Thank you. I like starting off with Milano cookies & a smile.
TLP| 2.11.13 @ 1:04PM
Why do I think that Ben can't see out the back window of his Car, due to all of the Police Athletic League Stickers that he's got plastered all over it, for when a Squad Car pulls up behind him, in the Parking Lot at the Mall, where he sits and watches all of the Pretty Girls walk bye, with their Moms?
Maxwell| 2.11.13 @ 1:27PM
TLP, hope you had a good weekend sir. Now, as for Ben, I think he needs some help but there is nothing I can do for him. Issues should have been worked out long ago.
Trish Trotter.| 2.11.13 @ 4:53PM
Ben, Ben, Ben,
It looks to me like you are just dying to contract flesh-eating bacteria. I have warned you many times about sleeping with your dogs. It is not hygienic. Dogs are not hygienic.
No wonder you and your wife are sick so much of the time. You go out to restaurants and eat the legs off the tables, and then you come home and lie down with your dogs.
LIE DOWN WITH DOGS AND GET UP WITH FLESH-EATING BACTERIA.
Trish Trotter.| 2.11.13 @ 4:57PM
Sorry, Ben, but to the hard of hearing you have to shout. Now to make up for shouting, here's a puppy poem from me to you. It's my Valentine to you, Ben.
Poochie
sleepy weepy
puppy wuppy
peepee
sniff sniff sniff
dog biscuit
(I kissed it)
(the biscuit, not the dog)
rubber chew toy
squeak
Trish Trotter.| 2.11.13 @ 4:58PM
From one dog lover to another. Ben, since you love dogs so much, you can't be all that bad. And the readers of AmSpec are so mean to you.
It breaks my heart.
Trish Trotter.| 2.11.13 @ 5:03PM
I think it's high time for AmSpec to block TLP's IP address.
Block him! That's what I say.
He's lowclass trash.
TLP| 2.11.13 @ 5:16PM
Yeah.
We need to BAN me.
I guess I must be doing something right, since Trish Trots is back, demanding my head.
Apparently, her Her Free Vibrator has burned through its Batteries.
Occam's Tool| 2.11.13 @ 5:43PM
Bring Back TIM!
By the way, Trish, my cats and dog are occasionally found in my bed without problems.
Joellen| 2.11.13 @ 5:23PM
Hey Trish - NO ONE cares what you say!
Stop with the the threat of denying someone to be heard. This is still AMERICA!
Do you EVER hear of any of us demanding perp or vtmin or arwnie be blocked?
NO, cause we arent afraid of those who dont agree with us - and we have the sense and conviction to be able to defend our beliefs.
So please if you dont like TLP or me, or anyone else here, just dont respond - but allow the rest of us to determine who we like, dislike, wish to read, not read - in other words - allow us to CHOOSE our own options.
Now, have a nice evening with your dog(s).
Trish Trotter.| 2.11.13 @ 7:31PM
Some of you are treating poor Ben like a dog!
That's what hurts me so much.
Please be a little kinder to Ben. He's a sweet man--a real sweetie-- and his feelings are easily hurt.
That's why I sent him the sweet, little puppy poem. I wanted to show him that I love him in spite of his foolish habits (overeating, sleeing with dogs, etc.) I wanted to make him feel appreciated--the poor soul--he's not as rich as he used to be, and it looks to me like he's getting poorer everyday.
Anthony| 2.11.13 @ 9:45PM
Hey Trish are you Stein's shrink in drag? Little Benny loves Trishie's doggie poem.
Little Benny would love to be treated like a dog...... oh, oh, Benny's porn site has crashed. Stay tooned.
Has anybody seen Benny's leash and collar?
Occam's Tool| 2.11.13 @ 5:33PM
Yes, jack: your homosexuality which is evident in everything you write, your desire to murder Jews.
People "figure," not "fugure."
Ben: the power to tax is the power to destroy. It should be kept as minimal as possible, given what it destroys, and also given the simple fact that the economy does best when taxes are least.
I have met some decent police officers; but Minnesota cops are problematic.
Jack in Wi| 2.11.13 @ 5:43PM
Occam you are the one who always talks about homosexuality. You and your boyfriend Dreck. You guys seem to have filthy and perverted minds. Get Straight and become men, not little girly boys.
Occam's Tool| 2.12.13 @ 8:58PM
Jack: how do you spell" jihadist ass reaming invert?"
You're the expert.
Frank and I don't know each other. We've got some things in common: We've both spent a lot of time in 'Bama, we're both Jewish, we're both Conservatives, we're both docs, we both like a good steak, we both appreciate a good woman, and we both think Wisconsin is the Mississippi of the North.
That's about all we have in common. Oh, and we're both potty mouths, and we both think you're a Gay Homosexual.
Occam's Tool| 2.12.13 @ 10:20PM
The rogue cop has been shot and killed. CNN was broadcasting live, showing positions of police officers to anyone who had TV. Fortunately, the cabin Scumbag was in DID NOT HAVE cable, so only the two SWAT cops were shot (one in critical, one dead).
My prayers go out to the Police heroes who protected us.
SPQR| 2.11.13 @ 7:39AM
Ben- As for real estate, I'd suggest that you read about Robert Shiller, an economist from Yale, who warned everyone about the stock market bubble while it was in progress, and then later warned about the real estate bubble when it was also in progress. He now warns us to expect at least another 20% drop, if not more, and explaining that when bubbles deflate they always go to the opposite extreme. He expects no recovery in our lifetimes, so just sell already.
As for the "relative", I'm guessing it is your son who has moved to Greenville, SC. Check out what Wikipedia has to say about Bob Jones University there, and the history of the religious filth that they have taught. I wouldn't even fly over that part of the country. Think about it. There is a reason why you live in DC and LA.
TLP| 2.11.13 @ 1:08PM
Yeah. Who would wanna live in South Carolina, when you could, just as easily, put down Roots in the Gang Related Murder Capitols of the Country?
I guess SPQR stands for: Stupid Person Quite Retarded.
Occam's Tool| 2.11.13 @ 5:34PM
"The Senate and People of Rome" is SPQR, bossman.
Ben: your shrink should NOT be giving you business advice.
Occam's Tool| 2.11.13 @ 6:21PM
"I don't think Chicago is falling apart at all."
Ben. You are a retard. Nuff said. (I'm a native Chicagoan.)
Joellen| 2.11.13 @ 7:43AM
Ben, what you cant seem to grasp, is accountability.
You continue to spout taxes, more taxes and still more taxes, yet you never demand accountability for your money that has been taken and spent by a group of people who rely on people like you.
Well Ben, I want accountability. I want to know if my taxes are going to people like your male relative who refuses to grow up and be accountable for himself and his family.
I want representatives unlike Menedez, Reid, Peolosi, Rangle, the Clintons & the Obamas, who profit on the taxpayers back and then demand more from us, while they figure out ways not to contribute to they system.
Really Ben, I've asked this of you before - have you ever sat down and listened, really listened to Charles Payne or Stuart Varney.
Please do us a favor - have a chat with them and come back and write on what you've learned.
C. Vernon Crisler | 2.11.13 @ 10:36AM
Ben got a BA in economics and now thinks that qualifies him to be an "economist." In fact, he's a lawyer.
He trots out the old claim that high tax rates after WWII led to a booming economy. There is no evidence that tax rates had anything to do with it. The fact is, the economy was heavily restricted and controlled during WWII, and once Truman lifted many of these restrictions, the economy began to boom. That was in spite of high taxes on the rich.
Ben is never going to learn. He is a pre-Reaganite, Hooverish Republican, a Nixon-Ford retreat who believes raising taxes is the important thing, not controlling spending.
TLP| 2.11.13 @ 1:11PM
He got a BA in Economics?
Are you sure that it wasn't a BJ in Gym?
Joellen| 2.11.13 @ 2:45PM
Such a bad boy Tim, but I think you are talking of Bubba Clinton.
TLP| 2.11.13 @ 3:50PM
Now, Joellen.
You know that I mean well.
Occam's Tool| 2.11.13 @ 5:35PM
Joellen: adorable as always. :-)
Joellen| 2.11.13 @ 5:41PM
Thank you kind sir :)
Trish Trotter.| 2.11.13 @ 7:43PM
TLP
Joellen
Occam's Tool
Three of the most obnoxious, potty-mouth responders on any blog anywhere.
Mischief! Mischief! Mischief.
Mischief is all they're up to.
Block all of their IP addresses! And do it Now!
Occam's Tool| 2.12.13 @ 9:00PM
Yay! I made the Block List! I'm somebody, NOW!
(And I'm in the same company with two delightful people.)
Cobalt| 2.11.13 @ 7:58AM
Mr. Stein, a parent is not responsible for the bad choices an adult child makes, and this includes financial responsibility.
R Martin| 2.11.13 @ 8:14AM
Dagen McDowell!? Good grief. If you have a crush on her one must wonder what all those other “gorgeous” women you obsess about must really look like. Can you imagine what McDowell looks like when she wakes up in the morning—before the makeup artist and hairdresser arrive?
That you think your no account male relative would make a good politician says a lot about your politics and about why this country is on the skids.
TLP| 2.11.13 @ 1:16PM
Apparently, Ben has seen La Cage Aux Folles and The Birdcage, way too many times.
bustunloose| 2.11.13 @ 8:38AM
Hey Ben dump the LA real estate give it to La Raza they be takin it soon anyway. And, Ben this tax love-we will pay but why overpay ? We want value from our tax dollar is that so bad. Thus, in the sate of Cal and all the other bankrupt blue statebastions proper economic discipine would have secured those pensions-but the power that be thumbed nose at acturarial science and spent on lefty dreams and schemes and we have to take what we have-a mess. The unions all supported the pols who managed money even worse than you. Tough shit they get their colas trimmed. and Ben I worked in construction most of my life-check our dearth rates and injury rates to cops and fire.Nobody gives us a parade when somebody is killed from a fall or other mishap. I know guys who are banged up big time who in a hard day in all kinds of conditions-what they endure would put most cops and fireman out on full time disability in a split second. By the way, South Carolons has low taxes and guess what all the recquired public services and they do not fret about meeting their pension obligations, But in LA an New york, New york they are considered dumb ignorant red necks-you get VALUE for your tax dollar-in LA you just ge screwed and DEVALUED as an individual and become a beast of burden for the glorious state. It is your bed, lie in it.
Bill Hussein O'Stalin| 2.11.13 @ 8:43AM
If liberal cities and states are not dying due to high taxes, then what is causing their problem?
It's simple Ben. Higher taxes leads to higher delusions of grandeur by politicians who start buying public votes with your money. This leads to a form of financial cancer which is never ending and phony political promises get more expensive and taxes go ever higher with no end in sight.
Read the article at the link. It shows clearly that people are fleeing states with the highest taxes. It's indisputable.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/je.....g-in-2013/
In fact, most of the top-10 states people are leaving are located in the Northeast and Great Lakes regions, including Illinois (60%), New York (58%), Michigan (58%), Maine (56%), Connecticut (56%) and Wisconsin (55%). According to Stoll, this reflects a consistent trend of migration from the Frost Belt to the Sun Belt states based on a combination of causes.
Jacob McCandles| 2.11.13 @ 9:05AM
Mr. Stein needs a good dose of Austrian economics. What he refuses to acknowledge is the fact that tax rates affect behavior. If he really knew history, he would note that revenues, as a percentage of GNP, are pretty stable with widely varying upper bracket tax rates. Of course this suggests that at the lower rates, the GNP grows.
TLP| 2.11.13 @ 1:19PM
I'm thinking that he just doesn't understand English.
Maybe, if he could hear about Austrian Economics in their Native Austrian Language?
He might get it.
vtwin| 2.11.13 @ 9:18AM
The article offered "employment opportunities," "high costs of living," and "states that are warmer and less expensive" as factors of the exodus but nothing about taxes.
Bill Hussein O'Stalin| 2.11.13 @ 9:50AM
Some do not desire the facts. The facts are easy to find if you're really interested:
https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:catP5FRAmAQJ:www.taxpayersnetwork.org/_Rainbow/Documents/Taxation%20and%20Migration.pdf+relation+between+taxes+and+migration&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESiol9dM_vyWYiUlVSemxik8Ua6ndp9uPpmAvfFFZ7kZXOgzz6_F9vo-QBm1rHdYfRvDH-qE3KMt1gTdbuhCNq3rl_Omaby6y1PE-Q5Z7R9yKmb26ONev5m8FQUNeVfb8IksYDzW&sig=AHIEtbQJifJqtugDCtqiKS0Cq3FcjPn4Tw
The evidence is striking – large numbers of Americans fled high tax jurisdictions for
lower taxed ones. Indeed, the magnitude of the movement is probably greater than that
from East to West Germany in the decade before the building the Berlin Wall, or in the
decade since it came down. It is a movement on the scale with the Westward Movement
that is a central part of the American historical story – but it is seldom mentioned in the
newspapers or television, much less the history books.
Occam's Tool| 2.12.13 @ 9:01PM
vtwin: ND and SD are both booming. SD has no oil. Check out why it's booming.
Stormzeye| 2.11.13 @ 9:05AM
Ben, all you needed to know in your real estate buying binge is: "income producing real estate". You are real estate rich and cash poor. Sell everything and buy a nice ten unit building in a state with no income tax, hire a property manager and stay in hotels when you want to go to Sandpoint or Palm Springs. Give up the shrink and do charity work for wounded warriors just to bolster your feelings of gratitude. As for the self-medicating handsome bum in your life, cut him loose.....bad karma there.
Peppermint Tea | 2.11.13 @ 10:17AM
Good advice Storm.
Q: How long will the self-medicating handsome bum keep self-medicating?
A: As long as the check keeps coming.
and here's another,
Ben, you should have listened to Peter Schiff when he was telling you about the housing boom this back in 2006.
TLP| 2.11.13 @ 1:23PM
Have you ever noticed how big Ben's thighs are?
bustunloose| 2.11.13 @ 9:19AM
I know of Maine. The people leaving are the kind the GOP needs. They are great people but are trapped in a place with no economic growth. They are tired of it-no job constant goverment assistence or perish. They leave and leave Maine to the poor-the lefty political class-the greens of course. Snow and Collins do and did what they needed to give the GOP some senate seats and so many nasty righties spat on them-so now it will be Vermont 2 truly nut job senators forever, In all those years of big
gop majority in house and senate and having a predident as well we could not find a way to reach rhem and help them find the right economic path to success. 17 per cent of population and they could have been rock solide GOP-but we were involved with the anti Roe crusade and fawning over the rich. Never really pushed back against the job killing greens, never twisted the arms of big biz to expand in rural areas instead of China-create rural enterprise zones ? Nope. These people fought and fight in all are wars the revolution and even wars prior and in the civil-they gave us Joshua Chamberlain. Nobody gives a crap-to think Maine is gonna be another Vermaon. The left and th montercrats owning it. That is why I do think in the end conservatives are no more patriotic than OWS and code pink. Bunch of selfish, self loving existential aholes. Limbaugh is your poster child.
Louis Jenkins| 2.11.13 @ 9:22AM
People who write Manifestos are crazy? Jeeze, man, the Communist Manifesto is alive and well in DC. It rules our daily lives now. And the LAPD is most likely living in just deserves. To be a police officer you've got to bend the rules, particularly if you're on the take, afterall, times are tough, and I believe Dalmor said that in his manifesto.
Still tired of hearing about how rich and worthless you are Mr. Stein. You almost got on the band wagon, but I guess sleeping the day away in crass comfort has gotten the best of you. Let your relative out, don't worry about him. He makes his bed, let him sleep in it. But it's your diary, and I'm gulity of reading the worthless thing.
Bill8472| 2.11.13 @ 9:48AM
The Communist Manifest isn't crazy?
RCV| 2.11.13 @ 11:47AM
Louis, your anarchist nature is showing. The LAPD is not "living in just deserves". Innocent people -- civilians, along with good honest police officers just doing their jobs -- are dead at the hands of a lunatic, whose manifesto you admire.
You're a disgrace, and I my only wish is that you could live in the jungle that you anarchists dream of. You'd be in someone else's gunsights pretty quickly, I'd imagine.
Occam's Tool| 2.11.13 @ 5:36PM
LAPD has a brutal job; which, I might point out, they do better than the Minnesota Police forces I have dealt with when it comes to the Mentally Ill.
Anthony| 2.11.13 @ 9:24AM
Well Benny, you're never going to cure your profligate spending on porn if you and Dr P. don't concentrate on the problem!!
And if Dr. P was more a shrink than a real estate advisor, you would be saving on your shrink bills as well.
But if you must stay in the real estate game, go east, to Detroit, I hear praire grazing land is going cheap downtown.
Bring some cows too, maybe farming is really your thing. Farmer Stein, I like it, you and Dr. P can milk the cows by hand, that should cure your porn addiction.
TLP| 2.11.13 @ 1:31PM
Being that I am Dr. P, I would appreciate it if you would stop encouraging him to sever his ties to my Real Estate Advice, as I have already Sold him The Grand Canyon, the Brooklyn Bridge, and all of the Land on top of the San Andreas Fault.
Ixnay on the alktay.
Occam's Tool| 2.11.13 @ 5:39PM
Anthony: Unless someone is wanting to make decisions while obviously psychotic, I do not give advice on real estate issues. My legal advice tends to be limited to: "take careful notes, put it into a folder labeled "in anticipation of litigation," and call a lawyer."
I'm really good at saving lives and managing psychotropics. (And pissing Jack off) I have no clue as to real estate.
Bill8472| 2.11.13 @ 9:46AM
On the value of real estate: it's been pretty obvious for several decades that the baby boomers would purchase real estate as they reached adulthood and that real estate prices were going to rise. It was expected as far back as the 70s.
It was equally likely that the ZPG movement and baby boomer narcissism would result in a lower birthrate, with a concomitant lowering of real estate as the baby boomers' kids would not make up a large enough cohort to buy all those homes.
Also, it was predictable, though not quite as clear, that baby boomers, as their nests emptied out and they neared retirement age, would want to sell their big houses for little retirement ones.
You're an economist; you should have figured that stuff out long ago. You hung out with the experts.
Seek| 2.11.13 @ 12:59PM
"Baby boomer narcissism," my foot. There were 178 million people counted in the 1960 Census of Population (i.e., before the "selfishness" started). And there were about 310 people counted in the 2010 Census. That's an increase of about 130 million in just 50 years.
In any event, all local housing markets, even high-growth ones, have a certain percentage of vacant rental and for-sale dwelling units. We could double today's population overnight, and that still would be the case. Today's real estate situation has nothing to do with Zero Population Growth and a lot to do with near-zero mortgage interest rates.
TLP| 2.11.13 @ 1:32PM
All of the people on the Planet can fit in the State of Texas.
I'm just sayin.
Occam's Tool| 2.11.13 @ 5:39PM
Isn't it the island of Zanzibar?
BShep| 2.11.13 @ 10:04AM
Good straw man argument, Mr. Stein. When someone says that high taxes are bad your response is to suggest that the only alternative is no taxes at all, pure nonsense.
Ben thinks the evil rich are not paying enough taxes, he endorsed Al Franken in the 2008 Minnesota Senate race, he thought Dominique Strauss-Kahn was innocent due to his education, wealth and position (while hinting that the accuser was lying), he totally missed the subprime mortgage crisis and subsequent deep recession and states that because corrupt politicians made corrupt deals with the corrupt police and firefighter union bosses that all taxpayers should pay more and more taxes to pay for the corrupt pensions.
Can anyone please tell me why Am Spec considers him anything but a flaming liberal and gives him this forum to spout his nonsense?
Peppermint Tea | 2.11.13 @ 10:20AM
Why?
Because he lives the life of Riley, he ogles beautiful women, he naps, he go on TV, and he tells us about it. Basically, he lives vicariously through himself!
PageOneDaily | 2.11.13 @ 10:39AM
Ben,
Super column as ever. I always enjoy reading the stories of your life as they unfold. You may be interested to know that Lieutenant Colonel Tarleton was depicted in Mel Gibson's movie, The Patriot, as Colonel William Tavington. You're right: a very nasty man indeed.
PolishKnight| 2.11.13 @ 10:50AM
The right and left are a bundle of paradoxes. The left was "hippy" in the 50's and 60's because they weren't establishment (at least not out in the open) so there was a group of them that became bank robbers and terrorists. They now advise Obama. But deep down, they are stalinists who love big police to go along with big government. The days of the cool beatnik and fun, trashy women are long gone now that they are the biggest bunch of authoritarian prudes out there.
The LAPD case is especially troubling to the gun prohibition advocates who argued that society just can't trust private citizens with them and should rely upon armed, highly trained, and obedient policemen. Works great until something goes wrong.
Seek| 2.11.13 @ 1:02PM
Beatniks and hippies have thoroughly anti-bureaucratic personalities. They are certainly NOT the sort of people who give U.S. presidents authoritarian advice. Don't tell me about Bill Ayers either; he was no "hippie." Stupid, easy caricatures of the counterculture will get us nowhere.
PolishKnight| 2.11.13 @ 1:18PM
Point taken Seek. Perhaps I should say "former hippies?" But that said, the "hippy culture" has a lot of different branches to it and some of them are close to rural conservatives.
Goldwater Girl| 2.11.13 @ 2:39PM
Ben,
Maybe you should relax with a box of hotdogs from Five Guys, and watch your favorite movie Skyfall. That should ease your anxiety.
Bob Grant| 2.11.13 @ 2:56PM
Oy veh!
Why.oh.why do I torture myself with yet another Ben Stein Diary entry.
Can you say 'death by a thousand cuts'?
effinayright| 2.11.13 @ 3:18PM
Ben: how many policemen are killed every year?
Compare that number to the number of soldiers killed every year.
Who gets the bigger pensions, and why?
In Cali, some cops get more than $100 Large after 30 years "service", at 55, then get another job. Is that kind of "retirement" pay OK with you?
Also, that guy with a broken tail light: why can't cop cars be mounted with cameras that can snap a pic of a vehicle with that kind of issue, and send the owner a letter giving a warning, or even a fine?
Why risk your life for a trivial offense?
Finally: when a policeman dies here in New England, about a thousand cops take a few days off to attend the funeral. Does the military do that? Do the criminals honor the absence of law enforcement, by not committing crimes until the cops come back?
Claymores| 2.11.13 @ 3:48PM
Mr. Stein has forgotten more than a lot of folks will ever know.
cicero| 2.11.13 @ 3:49PM
Ben, save all that money you spend on the shrink. All you need to know as to why T is a useless individual can be learned by reading your old columns, written when he was just a llittle boy growing (or refusing to grow)up. It is all laid out there. It was perfectly predictable. You excused everything he did. He appeared to be developiong into the perfectly creepy, spoiled child. Then you sent him off to boarding school, where it was aonther round of the same, but in a different location. The sad thing is that he got some girl to have a child with him. If she has any brains, she will be gone as soon as she figures out what to do next.
As far as your take on taxes, perhaps you should go back and read some of your father's work. Or maybe read the works of some of his contempraries - Hayek, Freidman, etc. I can throw my own money down the rathole, I don't need to elect someone to do it for me.
Maybe you should take a few years off, and try to get your head together. Or, maybe you are at the end of your run. Reality, while maybe not as pleasant as fantasy, has the advantage of being managable for most adults. Good luck.
Lyneuss Fields | 2.11.13 @ 4:40PM
So here we go with Ben the cop lover. Oh my goodness, there’s a killer on the loose. How brave these cops are, what valor they have, and the integrity, it just "blows you away". How many times do Americans have to hear about some dumb, lame, pig killing an innocent person in crossfire? And what about the stink that, without a warrant, walks upon your property to confiscate belongings—like the camera you've used to film their abuse of your neighbor. The truth is, a significant portion of these lamebrain, slimy, cop-creatures have no character worthy for enforcing laws. Again it’s all about the money being paid for their services. Where else can a person with a high school diploma so quickly reach the middle class?
Instead of protecting consumers against fraudsters—like Ben’s friend in prison—or creating a robust job environment for us regular folk, instead of crashing Americas financial markets, now Ben’s pig friends want to take the same weapons away from us that they will use when they come for us. Good luck with your con Benny, on both counts!
http://lyneussfields.blogspot......ative.html
Occam's Tool| 2.11.13 @ 6:07PM
Ben: Jews go into Medicine in larger than normal quatities. LA has 500,000 Jews, and is one of the largest Jewish cities in the world. LA also has a large number of psychiatrists.
In my residency training class at UCLA, we had 1 Jewish guy (me), 1 mormon white guy, 2 Asians, 1 Canadian non-Jew, one Protestant White Guy, 1 Greek. I'm trying to remember the 8th, but that one was not Jewish.
In the class above of 8, there was 1 Jew and 1 Finn, and our Black Guy.
I shared an office with the Mormon, and we used to play a game called "who's the Goy." I introduced him to Jewish Delis in LA.
Bill8472| 2.11.13 @ 6:16PM
Did you investigate the (to me) interesting conundrum of when you're around a Mormon, you can be both a Jew and a gentile at the same time?
Occam's Tool| 2.12.13 @ 9:02PM
Yes. Hence the game of "who's the Goy." Dr. Grant Belnap is a very, very fine man. It was a privilege learning with him.