Ben Stein On How Funny Our World Has Become

The following is reputed to be written by Ben Stein and then recited by him on CBS Sunday Morning. 




My Confession: 

I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish.   And it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautiful lit up, bejeweled trees, “Christmas trees.”   I don’t feel threatened.   I don’t feel discriminated against.  That’s what they are:  Christmas trees. 



It doesn’t bother me a bit when people say, ‘Merry Christmas’ to me.   I don’t think they are slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto.   In fact, I kind of like it.   It shows that we are all brothers and sisters celebrating this happy time of year.  

It  doesn’t bother me at all that there is a manger  scene on display at a key intersection near my  beach house in Malibu.   If people want a preacher, it’s just as fine with me, as is the Menorah a few hundred yards away. 



I don’t like getting pushed around for being a Jew, and I don’t think Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians.  I think people who believe in God are sick and tired of getting pushed around, period. I have no idea where the concept came from that America is an explicitly atheist country.   I can’t find it in the Constitution and I don’t like it being shoved down my throat. 



Or maybe I can put it another way:  where did the idea come from that we should worship celebrities and we aren’t allowed  to worship God as we understand Him?   I guess that’s a sign that I’m getting old, too.    But there are a lot of us who are wondering where these celebrities came from and where the America we knew went to. 



In light of the many jokes we send to one another for a laugh, this is a little different.   This is not intended to be a joke.  It’s not funny.  It’s intended to get you thinking. 



Billy Graham’s daughter was interviewed on the Early Show and Jane Clayson asked her “How could God let something like this (regarding Katrina) happen?”  Anne Graham (Lotz) gave an extremely profound and insightful response.    She said, “I believe God is deeply saddened by this, just as we are, but for years we’ve been telling God to get out of our schools, to get out of our government and to get out of our lives.   And being the gentleman He is, I believe He has calmly backed out.   How can we expect God to give us His blessing and His protection if we demand He leave us alone?”

In light of recent events … terrorists attack, school shootings, etc., I think it started when Madeleine Murray O’Hare (she was murdered, her body found a few years ago) complained she didn’t want prayer in our schools, and we said, “OK.”  

Then someone said you better not read the Bible in school.   The Bible says thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, and love your neighbor as yourself.   And we said, “OK.”

Then Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn’t spank our children when they misbehave because their little personalities would be warped and we might damage their self-esteem.  (Dr Spock’s son committed suicide).   We said an expert should know what he’s talking about.   And we said, “OK.”  Now we’re asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they don’t know right from wrong, and why it doesn’t bother them to kill strangers, their  classmates, and themselves.



Probably, if we think about it long and hard enough, we can figure it out.   I think it has a great deal to do with “WE REAP WHAT WE SOW.” 

 Funny how simple it is for people to trash God and then wonder why the world’s going to hell.  Funny how we believe what the newspapers say, but question what the Bible says.   Funny how you can send “jokes” through e-mail and they spread like wildfire but when you start sending messages regarding the Lord, people think twice about sharing.   Funny how lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene articles pass freely through cyberspace, but public discussion of God is suppressed in the school and workplace. 



Are you laughing yet? 



Funny how … when you forward this message, you will not send it to many on your address list because you’re not sure what they believe, or what they will think of you for sending it. 

 Funny how we can be more worried about what other people think of us than what God thinks of us. 



At the end of the email I received was this simple message:  

Pass it on if you think it has merit.  If not then just discard it… no one will know you did.   But, if you discard this thought process, don’t sit back and complain about what bad shape the world is in.  



My Best Regards,  

Honestly and respectfully, 



Ben Stein 



“Enough” Bailouts

Take a look at this!  What a great perspective on “The Bailout.”

EDITORIAL FROM THE RICHMOND-TIMES DISPATCH (NEWSPAPER) Thursday, Nov 13, 2008 – 12:09 AM

“ENOUGH”

Congressional Democrats and flunkies for the Big Three automakers are beating the bushes for more bailout money.  The bailout of the financial sector was a regrettable necessity.  The bailout of the auto industry would be a giant mistake.  Chapter 11 is the better route.

First, in an important sense the car industry already has been bailed out.  The rescue of the financial sector was designed to thaw the frozen credit market, a major component of which is — you guessed it — car loans, which dried up this year when the banking sector tanked.  What’s more, Congress has approved a $25-billion low-interest loan for the Big Three to help them retool.

Second, Washington bears a significant share of the blame for the banking collapse.  With congressional Democrats pimping for Fannie and Freddie, and Clinton-era changes to the Community Reinvestment Act driving banks to make risky loans, the subprime-mortgage mess was as much a creature of Washington’s creation as it was of Wall Street’s.

But the problems confronting America’s carmakers are largely of their own making — with a big assist from unions that have mau-maued the companies into ever-more-costly benefits and work rules.  The industry’s chief problem is that it makes inferior cars that buyers pass over on their way to a Japanese-car dealership.  (Management sometimes has been abysmal, too.)

 

The one major exception?  SUVs.  Until recently SUVs benefited from looser treatment under corporate average fuel-economy standards and became the replacements for station wagons that families used to buy.  SUVs generated huge profit margins and helped offset anemic revenue from small-car sales.  Then gasoline prices shot up — and SUV sales nosedived.

 

Third, bailing out the auto industry opens the door even wider to more bailouts down the road.  Where does it end?  Should Washington bail out Circuit City?  How about The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, and other newspapers that have faced daunting financial problems of late?

 

Finally, as Ugandan journalist Andrew Mwenda recently remarked with regard to the financial upheaval, governments invited to intervene in the marketplace at a moment of crisis have a tendency to overstay their welcome.   The troubles facing Detroit’s automakers are disruptive and dismaying.   But the troubles that would arise if Washington steps in could be even more disruptive and dismaying, and last far longer.   The best way Washington can help businesses is to keep taxes low — and get out of the way.