Crazy Smart says:

Ben Stein is crazy. He always has been. Kind funny in Ferris Beuller, but just nutty. He’s one of those magical creationist crusaders.

I don’t consider ANY of the gods of the middle east religions to be real, so I have no sides in this crazy fight over who owns that land. To me it’s just land and a political fight. Each side tries to claim some moral superiority because their “god” is on their side. But to me it’s just angry people with guns and bombs, all of whom want to control a tiny chunk of land. Hey Israel, give back the West Bank, that isn’t your land, you “took it” like China took Tibet and Iraq tried to take Kuwait, both claiming it was their historical land. Whatever. You’re still stealing it. And hey Palestinians, killing civilians to show your anger over this fight ain’t helping your cause either. Both sides seem like petulant children and none of them deserve the land. I wish an asteroid would just hit and take out that whole region.

Reverse Engineer says:

#3

That pretty much sums it up – I would only add that Ben Stein is a Grade-A douchebag.

rectagon says:

Creationist crusader? Did any of you actually watch the movie? While it’s an ID crusade, sure (by a Jew) it definitely not creationist fodder.

David says:

Rep. Paul is right that we should offer private contractors a chance to compete with government agencies. Security contractors could be audited to ensure standards are met and dismissed otherwise. Current security provided by the expensive, ineffective US government bureaucracy is simply incapable of keeping us safe.

Glenn E. says:

Frankly Ben Stein impresses me as a very intelligent person. Maybe not as much as Einstein. And very likely maligned by the political elite. So don’t judge him by a few Tv and movie appearances. And that movie that you’re all crowing about, is not about Creationism. It’s an argument for giving equal time to the Intelligent Design model of origins. As the Evolutionary model gets in education systems. And he’s not alone in this, as the movie “Expelled” demonstrates. But it seems that mostly everyone who dares to support any alternatives to Darwin, faces immediate loss of their position. Even tenure does save them. When it saves all other lone academics, whose theories or politics, casts doubt on their sanity. Which seems to suggest that the Darwinist crowd functions as a kind of academic cabal. Concerned more with weeding out the “unbelievers”, than patching some rather huge cracks in their revered origins model. Security by obscurity.

BTW, Darwin’s “Origin of the Species” is not a “theory”. Elevating a model or hypothesis to the level of a theory, without providing any experimental method to prove it. Is simple PR propaganda. It’s like saying “My hypothesis is that the moon is made of cheese. And I’ve gotten a number of folks to agree, to the point where it’s commonly accepted. And since nobody can get there to test this. I declare it a theory, in the absence of any practical provability.”

Especially if there are a number of anti-cheese moon fanatics, coming up with their own plausible explanation. It’s always a power struggle. Whether it’s the Church vs Galileo. Or Evolutionists vs Creationists. Who ever managed to get the high ground first, backing whatever world view horse they chose. They don’t want to lose the slightest bit of power to any comers. Even if they could be right. Or at least, equally valid.

The current battle of the “we got here first” crowd. Are the Global Warming environmentalist fanatics. Who see this as more of a Prohibition movement, to clean up everything bad. Even if it’s based on shabby science and falsified data. It’s a cause, that they’re championing, and possibly making a profitable career from. And once they got the numbers in their favor. It became a propaganda war, with them against all doubters or “deniers”. As if skepticism was a crime now. Every time a GW advocate speaks, they invariably use the phrase “we believe” or “it’s believed”, to replace the solid climate data they don’t have, to support their cause. And it’s not the only time I’ve heard “believe” used by scientists, to fill in for solid evidence.

jccalhoun says:

intelligent design is creationism. End of story.
What is the hypothesis of intelligent design? That “god” did it. What is the evidence for intelligent design? That evolution is wrong.

Guess what, first, nearly all their “evidence” that evolution is wrong is wrong and secondly, evidence against evolution is not automatically evidence for intelligent design.

TThor says:

Rep. Paul is only one to address the root cause of the problem here; US has pissed off so many people so long due to occupation and historical political trickery that they hate you. Being one at the receiving end I highly appreciate what you did at my part of the world, but I don’t understand how you can afford nations building and policing all over the globe. And when you see that gratitude is not evident and the politicians in place is only puppets and even corrupt ones… why on earth do you maintain the same costly – resources and people – policy?

Ben Stein’s ranting is not worth commenting… even his abhorrent antisemitic statement.

Wretched Gnu says:

What’s astonishing is how Stein’s remark so clearly proves the fact that a certain segment of the right wing’s foreign policy really is oriented around the presumption that any non-Jewish people in the middle east are, for that reason alone, the enemy.

deowll says:

We are running out of money and bodies. The dollar has fallen 19% recently. The national debt is growing like a California wild-fire during a drought and a wind storm. I don’t see things going more than 5 to 10 years before the system crashes.

I’m starting to think we just need to pull our people home. So for as I can see we have lost the war with Islamic extremists. Park the careers, disband most of the military and tell the Chinese and Indians they can run things.

We were a super power but we blew our budget and now we aren’t.

After that the only thing left is learning how to live in a Muslim/Chinese/Indian world. Most of us aren’t going to want to convert to Islam but if you don’t you can expect to die and bad things happen to your families so I think most of you will.

All the atheists and gays will be killed but there’s nothing I can do for them. They don’t have all that much use for Christians either. Of course I’m 59 and overweight so I may not live long enough to have to deal with that.

If you are in your 40s and younger I think you are in for some very rough sledding.

Happy new year.

Lou says:

Ben Stein is an annoying person. I’m not sure why he is on TV. He goes on Fox News and tells everyone that he thinks the banking sector is a good area to invest in. That was in the spring of 2008.

Uncle Patso says:

# 10 Glenn E.:
“And that movie that you’re all crowing about, is not about Creationism. It’s an argument for giving equal time to the Intelligent Design model of origins.”

Dude. ID=Creationism. I think so. The courts think so. # 12 jccalhoun thinks so. Most people think so. Give it up already.

= = = = =

# 18 deowll:
“Park the careers, disband most of the military and tell the Chinese and Indians they can run things.”

Dude! Why are so many people lately content to live in a weak country? Even if the BRIC countries overtake the U.S. economically (possible but not inescapable), that doesn’t make us weak! We don’t have to lie down and die just because we’re not Top Dog of the World any more. Maybe, like Avis, we’ll work harder if we become second…

(*BRIC=Brazil, Russia, India, China.)

= = = = =

Ben Stein is an amusing actor and game show host, but politically I think he hangs around ‘way too many Birchers.

amodedoma says:

Ah yes, that old myth that Isreal can’t defend itself, without help from the US. I’m sure most Isrealis would tell you, Ben Stein doesn’t speak for them, and they’re well prepared to defend themselves. This a-hole is famous and he’s jewish so his masters use him to help misinform.
Just in case some of you haven’t learned this already – You can’t pacify a region by filling it with troops anymore than you can teach a culture to live like you do just by imposing your values and political system.

Rich says:

This fellow puts forth the idea that most modern Jews and even Israelis are not true Jews in the ethnic and historic sense. Further he says that the Palestinians are closer than the wannabees from Eastern Europe and other places. Not that I’m enamored of “God’s chosen people” as he is but we should at least know what we’re talking about. Honesty is good.

Kahless says:

It wasn’t the focus of this post, but did anyone else notice how the government official in the middle made sure to make the point that all of this is Bush’s fault and not Obama’s? Is there ever going to be a day when Obama and his administration start taking some responsibility, rather than blaming Bush? Frankly, I’m getting sick of it. It’s been a year Obama. Step up, be a man, and take some responsibility.

± says:

adding to what #27 said, odds are high that the person responsible for posting that “would of” is under 35; a product of our increasingly enlightened education system