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Ben Stein's Diary
Uncle Bob
Dinner with my American hero family in Little Rock.
(Page 2 of 2)
There was a moment of silence and Uncle Bob leaned forward towards me. He had tears in his eyes the way he always does when he talks about his family, especially, his late wife, Mary Evelyn, whom we all loved so much, and who died about four years ago. He will never be the same. They were together since they were teenagers.
“Every night when I go to sleep,” he said, “I say my prayers and I ask God, ‘Why have you been so good to me? I have my sons and their families and you and Alex and my fine place to live and my friends, and why have you been so good to me?’
“And God answers back, ‘Because I love you.’ And that’s the way I feel about you. I love you. I love all of you,” he said, motioning with his head to everyone at the table. “And if only Mary Evelyn and Dale were here, it would all be perfect.”
My head is still swimming. The Denmans. The salt of the earth. “But if the salt shall lose its savor, wherewith shall it be salted?” The Denmans. The salt of the earth.
I watched Skyfall for the 17th time tonight when we got back to our fabulous rooms at the Capital in Little Rock and somehow my heart was not in it, but back with Bob Denman and all of the Denmans. I love you, too. And if your family is still living, be thankful. Be very, very thankful. And for every breath you take as free men and women, because men and women just as good as the Denmans died and suffered so you could breathe free air.
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 (47) | Leave a comment
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grndady| 3.7.13 @ 7:30AM
I'm pleased to be first here.
All you who grouse on about Ben and his money and his "diary" entries, and don't get it, should pay attention here.
Ben is thankful. He is thankful to his God. He's always showing his thankfulness. Maybe it's because he loves and trusts his God that his God has blessed him so much.
Keep going Ben. You're an inspiration.
anna k from emory u| 3.7.13 @ 8:45AM
In the hours ahead, a throng of posters, or a single poster using a throng of phony names will descend on this thread and attempt to incite HATE and controversy. It looks like it has already started. Much of it will have nothing to do with anything Ben Stein has written today or at any time in the past.
I recognize the role that I and my fellow progressives from Emory and elsewhere have played in fostering and promoting this division. I have sowed the wind, and we as a nation are reaping the whirlwind.
I denounce my former actions, and all of the phonies who would continue to try to engage in these HATEFUL provocations.
TLP| 3.7.13 @ 8:55AM
This is one Sick in the Head Bittch.
Maybe it's all of the Syphilus that's eating away at her from the inside?
That sounds about right.
anna k from emory u| 3.7.13 @ 9:15AM
To be clear, Mr. TLP, I wasn't referring to you, but some of the others, or perhaps one other, here.
Albert Constantine Jr.| 3.7.13 @ 9:44AM
You misspelled syphilis.
TLP| 3.7.13 @ 2:44PM
You spelled "Phyllis Diller" wrong.
Albert Constantine Jr.| 3.7.13 @ 5:03PM
I sometimes think that if they blocked all of those posting with @emory.edu addresses, the volume of comments here would drop to less than half of what we currently see.
Goldwater Girl| 3.7.13 @ 9:55AM
While you accuse others of inciting hate and controversy, you admit that you do it yourself? How's does this give you a position of moral superiority? I'm so glad I graduated from the Kelley school of business, where we were not subjected to this moral scold.
Occam's Tool| 3.20.13 @ 3:09PM
I would like to thank my Grandfather (may he rest in peace), my father in law, and my brothers in law for their service to their country.
Ben, you thank G-d for men like your father in law and his brother, but you wish to destroy the sustenance of their lives.
TLP| 3.7.13 @ 8:52AM
I was gonna be my usual Wonderful Self, but after reading what Uncle Bob had to say about his nightly Prayers, I had to regroup my thoughts, as His Prayer is almost exactly the same as the one I say, everyday.
"God, I thank You for everything I have, cause I wouldn't have anything, if it wasn't for You. I wouldn't even still be alive. Thank You for my Family. Thank You for my Wife and Kids. Thank You for the House we live in, and the good health that we enjoy. I don't know why You like me. I just know that you do."
God Bless your Uncle Joe, and whoever wrote this for ya.
deehra| 3.7.13 @ 9:00AM
We have been a family of soldiers since the War of 1812. Thanks, Ben for reminding me how much we all owe those brave souls, and how proud I am of my ancestors.
Jacob McCandles| 3.7.13 @ 9:51AM
I really enjoyed reading this. Family, God, Country-great stuff.
Anthony| 3.7.13 @ 10:04AM
Hey Stein you cheapskate, I bet you didn't offer to pick up the tab for dinner did ya?
PEM| 3.7.13 @ 10:20AM
Wonderful story. Given the changes that have taken place in America over the past thirty years, the fine people you describe are reperesntatives of another America--so different than today's. We are soon to become a nation of "society owes me" led by elites who think America's past is that of an evil nation. These new elites believe that we are not citizens but merely wards of the state. We are seen as babies who need their self-proclaimed intelligence and guidance.
Woodrow| 3.7.13 @ 11:28AM
Anthony - Did something bad happen to you that rendered you incapable of enjoying columns like this?
Anthony| 3.7.13 @ 12:08PM
Actually Woodrow, I did enjoy the column, it's Stein that I object to.
Hmm, perhaps I have a terrible case of Stein Derangment Syndrome.
I need to consult my shrink.
I suppose I should consult my shrink.
Stan| 3.7.13 @ 2:34PM
Same old miserable people responding to your piece, Ben.
I'm glad that you're happy and successful and thankful and patriotic. Your message is lost on many of these readers. They're too miserable to appreciate anything other than their angry remarks.
Occam's Tool| 3.20.13 @ 3:22PM
Naw, Anthony, Stein drives me crazy, too. :-)
Increasing taxes on job creators makes no sense to me as an economic policy. It is idiotic.
This is a good column, but Ben is a feeb. In a future article published in this month's TAS (which I subscribe too), Ben was arguing that "if men and women are not aggressive in this world, they rarely get to be millionaires." He was primarily discussing Beverly Hills assholes.
The man is an idiot.
TLP| 3.7.13 @ 2:45PM
Anthony lives in a DRY TOWN.
Anthony| 3.7.13 @ 5:12PM
Hell no, I would never live in a dry town. Single malts and Italian Brunellos are standard fare.
But methinks ole Stan could use a stiff one. The boy is so besotted by Stein, why I bet he'd even loan Stein the money to fend off Stein's money grubbing friends.
jdondet| 3.7.13 @ 11:41AM
Mr. Stein:
I have read your columns before; though, I have never felt the need to comment before, this time I feel I must. This is a touching article and I thank you for writing it.
Stan| 3.7.13 @ 2:34PM
Ditto, jdondet.
Hardcard| 3.7.13 @ 12:01PM
apparently ben has his his fan club, and others coming to his rescue, and defending his drivel, maybe E.Bob is cracking the whip and demanding mr. stein produce something of value for TAS, although he did watch Skyfall more than a dozen times,I must agree it is a good flick, thanks benny for the movie review. Now what ? It takes a village or what difference does it make at this point. Take a nap.
Lyneuss Fields | 3.7.13 @ 1:13PM
Today's military is a great place for any gay-boy sailor or lesbian she-man grunt to "hone" themselves into all that they can be.
http://lyneussfields.blogspot......ammer.html
Ralph Novy| 3.9.13 @ 7:59PM
You're obviously not a veteran. Merely an narrow-minded little cowardly twerp.
Thank you for your worthless contribution.
WaffenSS| 3.10.13 @ 6:54AM
gives the term "boning up" a "hole" new meaning?
pie-eyed piper| 3.7.13 @ 1:31PM
I don't think Stein quoted his hero correctly. If artillery and mortars were exploding all around him, then their equipment was faulty.
And I finally saw Skyfall. Ugh. What a dark, bloody, dirty, humorless film, just a series of remorseless murders, explosions, computer special effects, and ever more realistic and innovative ways of killing people.
Bond films used to be fun, with lots of lovely ladies in bikinis, a Bond with a sense of humor, almost cartoonish villains, etc.
This James Bond is just a brutal, cold-blooded killing machine, and the movie is too politically correct for my taste as well, with women in charge of everything, Bond's sex interest a black woman, and the only other halfway beautiful woman in the whole movie gets shot in the face and left as a twisted corpse in an ugly target-shooting scene.
Ben Stein has sick taste in films.
Ralph Novy| 3.9.13 @ 8:01PM
I agree. "Skyfall" was extremely disappointing.
Not that I expected too much from the the "Bond" franchise.
.... but "Damn! You couldn't do any better than THAT?"
Cheers.
Bill8472| 3.7.13 @ 2:11PM
Lyle Bouck joined the Army at the age of 14, during the Great Depression. He turned 21 the day he was captured by Joachim Peiper's advancing Waffen SS armored infantry. He held them up for half a day east of Ambleve. He was a 2d Lt. by then, leading an Intelligence and Reconnaissance platoon. They had a .50 caliber machine which they fired until its barrel warped from the heat, then they surrendered to Peiper's troops. Peiper's men had just come from slaughtering over 100 American troops at Malmedy. Bouck and his men were lucky to survive. They were kept as POWs in a Wehrmacht barracks until Task Force Baum on a mission to free Gen. Patton's son-in-law from the Germans broke into their camp. Task Force Baum was wiped out and Bouck spent a couple more months in captivity before the war ended. Alex Kershaw's book The Coldest Winter sets out the story of Lt. Bouck.
Bill8472| 3.7.13 @ 10:27PM
Bouck's platoon received a Distinguished Unit Citation for its actions at Lanzerath Ridge. Four of the platoon received the Distinguished Service Cross. The Bouck I&R platoon was the most decorated platoon in U.S. history.
Ralph Novy| 3.9.13 @ 6:41PM
Thanks for that extra info, Bill.
I've been aware of "The Battle of the Bulge" since about 1962, but ....
Bill8472| 3.7.13 @ 2:18PM
I would be tempted to ask where we get people like the Denmans and Bouck from, but I have to rearrange my perspective when I consider the Marines at Betio whose Higgins boats ran aground on the reef, and who then had to leave the landing craft and wade for 700-1000 yards in 4-foot water through the lagoon, into Japanese 8-inch gunfire, and mortar and machine gun fire. There were thousands of those guys.
TLP| 3.7.13 @ 2:47PM
Indeed.
Albert Constantine Jr.| 3.7.13 @ 3:53PM
"There were thousands of those guys..."
The Japanese commander is reputed to have said it would take a million men a hundred years to take the atoll. Those Marines did it in 72 hours.
TLP| 3.7.13 @ 4:00PM
SEMPER FI!
SIC SEMPER TYRANNUS!
Albert Constantine Jr.| 3.7.13 @ 9:11PM
Ooooh-Rahhh!
Bill8472| 3.7.13 @ 10:25PM
David M. Shoup, commander of the ground forces on Betio (whose actions there resulted in the award of the Medal of Honor): "Casualties many. Percentage dead not known. Combat efficiency — we are winning."
Bill8472| 3.7.13 @ 10:30PM
About 5,000 Marines against a slightly larger number of Japanese. About 2,000 Marine casualties. Almost every Japanese on Betio was killed or committed suicide. There were fewer than 20 Japanese who survived the battle, most of whom were civilian engineer detachments and not combatant troops.
Ralph Novy| 3.9.13 @ 8:03PM
Thank you, sir, for the calm, dispassionate appraisal, grim as it is.
Bow.
cicero| 3.7.13 @ 4:13PM
Bill - "The Coldest Winter" that I have is by David Halberstam, and is about the Korean War. Is the one you refer to a different book, or is your reference wrong?
Halberstam's book is a pretty good read, but he talks throughout the book about the Chicom soldiers fighting for ideology, and love of country, but ends with 600,0000 of them refusing to go back to China after the war. They were forced back into China by the United States at the insistence of the Chinese communists. I'll bet they got heroes welcomes. What the citizens achieve, the government surrenders.
Where do we get soldiers like these? They are called Americans. Look at any rifle company, and you will as diverse a group of young men as you will find anywhere. Only in America. "Madame, you have a Republic, if you can keep it". B. Frandklin
Bill8472| 3.7.13 @ 10:21PM
It's "The LONGEST Winter" Alex Kershaw. Sorry about the error. Is the Halberstam book any good? I've avoided it because Halberstam is a bit too politically liberal for my taste.
hrgfue | 3.7.13 @ 7:52PM
Thank you for your New post on that site.which is the best blog for us.we are enjoy it and will show them to everyone.
Dimitry_Aleksandrovich| 3.7.13 @ 11:52PM
In the last three years I have lost two relatives who fought in Korea (on the American side) Uncle Billy and Uncle Merlin. My Uncle Archie is still with us and he was at Normandy as a private in the Army and my maternal Grandfather Alex (God rest his soul) was part of a US Navy UDT team that cleared mines to make way for the landing craft to hit Omaha Beach. My wife's grandfather (God rest his soul) also served in WWII (albeit in the Soviet Navy) fighting the Japanese in the Pacific. My Godfather served and saw action in Vietnam as did my Uncle Johnny and his father was in the USMC at Iwo Jima. My family and extended family all have a long military tradition in this country my father tried to join the military for Vietnam after his cousin back East was killed when the Huey he was in was shot down. God bless each and every one of them. I have watched as my relatives from the WWII generation have passed one after another and now am watching as my relatives who served in Korea are passing as well.
Now my father's generation those who served in Vietnam (my father did not but many of his friends and relatives did) are taking the place of the Old Timers I knew as a child. God bless them. Every nation needs their warriors and God knows we have had and have ours.
Big Java| 3.8.13 @ 9:24AM
Thank you, Mom and Dad. Thank you so much.
Ralph Novy| 3.9.13 @ 6:37PM
“I was scared to death but I just kept firing,” he said, “and then we got hit by napalm from our own planes. These shiny aluminum canisters would just drift down and then they exploded and there was fire everywhere. I never got any on me, but I got white phosphorous from the Chinese and that burned.”
So somehow "friendly fire" got transformed into "Chinese aggression" right quick.
Bad news for you, Ben. Your father-in-law is a liar and an asshole. Just as much as those false Confederates after the Civil War trying to claim pensions and glory.
When are you going to wake up to the fact that so many people lie about so many things?
Yeah, it's terribly discouraging. But -- at your age -- you know it's true.
Just do it.
Sigh.
OK.
As "The Mentalist" says: "You'll feel better."
Methinks there's profound truth there.
Ralph Novy| 3.9.13 @ 10:28PM
Take a gander, Ben:
http://www.salon.com/2013/03/0.....n_partner/
Occam's Tool| 3.20.13 @ 3:04PM
Yes, they did, Ben.
I just read your March article.
People CAN get to be millionaires without becoming swine---work hard, make more than you spend, live simply. I should be there in about 5 or 6 years, myself.
Los Angeles is a hell-hole, Ben. If that's what I thought all rich people were like, I'd want to raise their taxes, too. But most places aren't the scumbag paradise where you live, Ben. Most millionaires in America are hard working people who live relatively simply.
When I hit the million, NOTHING will change. 15 years after that, when I hit the 4 million, I will retire an live simply at age 70.