Ben Stein: An Open Letter For All Americans

[Annie]

http://www.spectator.org/dsp_article.asp?art_id=9633

The Nation's Pulse
Greetings From Rancho Mirage
By Ben Stein
Published 4/5/2006 2:29:42 AM

Tuesday
Dear Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines, National Guard, Reservists, in Iraq, in the Middle East theater, in Afghanistan, in the area near Afghanistan, in any base anywhere in the world, and your families:

Let me tell you about why you guys own about 90 percent of the cojones in the whole world right now and should be damned happy with yourselves and damned proud of who you are. It was a dazzlingly hot day here in Rancho Mirage today. I did small errands like going to the bank to pay my mortgage, finding a new bed at a price I can afford, practicing driving with my new 5 wood, paying bills for about two hours.

I spoke for a long time to a woman who is going through a nasty child custody fight. I got e-mails from a woman who was fired today from her job for not paying attention. I read about multi-billion-dollar mergers in Europe, Asia, and the Mideast. I noticed how overweight I am, for the millionth time.

In other words, I did a lot of nothing. Like every other American who is not in the armed forces family, I basically just rearranged the deck chairs on the Titanic in my trivial, self-important, meaningless way.

Above all, I talked to a friend of more than forty-three years who told me he thought his life had no meaning because all he did was count his money.

And, friends in the armed forces, this is the story of all of America today. We are doing nothing but treading water while you guys carry on the life or death struggle against worldwide militant Islamic terrorism. Our lives are about nothing: paying bills, going to humdrum jobs, waiting until we can go to sleep and then do it all again. Our most vivid issues are trivia compared with what you do every day, every minute, every second.

Oprah Winfrey talks a lot about "meaning" in life. For her, "meaning" is dieting and then having her photo on the cover of her magazine every single month (surely a new world record for egomania ).This is not "meaning."

Meaning is doing for others. Meaning is risking your life for others. Meaning is putting your bodies and families' peace of mind on the line to defeat some of the most evil, sick killers the world has ever known. Meaning is leaving the comfort of home to fight to make sure that there still will be a home for your family and for your nation and for free men and women everywhere.

Look, soldiers and Marines and sailors and airmen and Coast Guardsmen, there are eight billion people in this world. The whole fate of this world turns on what you people, 1.4 million, more or less, do every day. The fate of mankind depends on what about 2/100 of one percent of the people in this world do every day -- and you are those people. And joining you is every policeman, fireman, and EMT in the country, also holding back the tide of chaos.

Do you know how important you are? Do you know how indispensable you are? Do you know how humbly grateful any of us who has a head on his shoulders is to you?

Do you know that if you never do another thing in your lives, you will always still be heroes? That we could live without Hollywood or Wall Street or the NFL, but we cannot live for a week without you?

We are on our knees to you and we bless and pray for you every moment.

And Oprah Winfrey, if she were a size two, would not have one millionth of your importance, and all of the Wall Street billionaires will never mean what the least of you do, and if Barry Bonds hit ninety home runs it would not mean as much as you going on one patrol or driving one truck to the Baghdad airport.

You are everything to us, as we go through our little days, and you are in the prayers of the nation and of every decent man and woman on the planet.

That's who you are and what you mean. I hope you know that.

Love, Ben Stein


Ben Stein is a writer, actor, economist, and lawyer living in Beverly Hills and Malibu.

 

[Dr Grump]

Don't you hate it when celebs speak out?

 

[Annie]

Don't you hate it when celebs speak out?

Depend on their credibili†y. Why?

 

[Dr Grump]

Depend on their credibili†y. Why?

Who decides who is credible? On the political thread regarding celebs speaking out, conservatives never mentioned the credibility factor, just that actors and musicians should shut up and act and sing respectively. Now credibility is an "out" of sorts. Interesting how the rules change....

 

[Annie]

Who decides who is credible? On the political thread regarding celebs speaking out, conservatives never mentioned the credibility factor, just that actors and musicians should shut up and act and sing respectively. Now credibility is an "out" of sorts. Interesting how the rules change....

Gee for me, it seems to make common sense. When a politico or a celeb asserts that they hate so and so because they were part of a conspiracy, I tend to negate them.

Also too, when 'they' claim credance because they are box office draw, just not the same thing.

You feel different, obviously. Tom Cruise and Alec Baldwin hug you!

 

[MtnBiker]

Don't you hate it when celebs speak out?

I'm not going to speak for Kathianne, but I doubt that she hates when anybody speaks.

 

[Dr Grump]

Gee for me, it seems to make common sense. When a politico or a celeb asserts that they hate so and so because they were part of a conspiracy, I tend to negate them.

Also too, when 'they' claim credance because they are box office draw, just not the same thing.

You feel different, obviously. Tom Cruise and Alec Baldwin hug you!

Never liked Alec Baldwin. Don't really think of Cruise as politically active. I think you would be more honest if you would say any "left leaning" celebrity has no credibility.

Time to go.

Nice jawing with you...

 

[Dr Grump]

I'm not going to speak for Kathianne, but I doubt that she hates when anybody speaks.

Was being sarcastic Mtnbiker....

 

[MtnBiker]

I think you would be more honest if you would say any "left leaning" celebrity has no credibility.

Why?? That may not be an honest statement.

 

[Annie]

I'll agree with Mtnbkr, but still, nice jawin with ya too.

 

[MtnBiker]

Despite the sidebar debate I do applaud the volunteer Amercian Military for serving our country!

 

[Dr Grump]

Why?? That may not be an honest statement.

True! In that case I'll ask Kathianne directly. Kathianne, is there any left-leaning celeb whose political position you find credible?

 

[Gunny]

True! In that case I'll ask Kathianne directly. Kathianne, is there any left-leaning celeb whose political position you find credible?

I'm sure she'll answer for herself. Where I am concerned, the answer is a resounding "NO!"

 

[CrimsonWhite]

True! In that case I'll ask Kathianne directly. Kathianne, is there any left-leaning celeb whose political position you find credible?

I realize that the question wasn't for me, but Ben Affleck is pretty sharp. I don't agree with the majority of what he says, but he makes valid arguments on the panels that I have seen him participate in.

 

[The ClayTaurus]

I realize that the question wasn't for me, but Ben Affleck is pretty sharp. I don't agree with the majority of what he says, but he makes valid arguments on the panels that I have seen him participate in.

Affleck gets riled up and whiney waaaaaaaaay too quickly. You can hear his voice gradually go up in pitch.

 

[GotZoom]

Affleck is an idiot.

-----

Reminiscent of Al Franken on the Late Show last October, on Friday's Real Time with Bill Maher on HBO, actor Ben Affleck charged that President Bush “probably also leaked” Valerie Plame's name and so “if he did, you can be hung for that! That's treason!” In full rant, an apoplectic Affleck asserted: “You could be killed. That's not a joking around Tom DeLay 'I'll do a year, I bribed the state officials with corporate money.' That's like they shoot you in the battlefield for doing that.”

Affleck appeared on Maher's panel with Senator Joe Biden and Bill Sammon of the Washington Examiner. A couple of minutes later, after Sammon suggested Tom DeLay's resignation means the loss of a “poster boy for the left” so they can't use him anymore to raise funds, Affleck besmirched DeLay as a “criminal” while simultaneously demonstrating his political naivete. Though the Texas redistricting orchestrated by DeLay made his district less Republican, Affleck contended: "Tom DeLay personally gerrymandered that district so severely that it looks like a map of Italy....There won't be a Democrat elected in that seat for a thousand years. You can't say he's the poster boy for the left. He happens to be an incredibly powerful Republican who is a criminal and now you blame Democrats for pointing it out!"

http://newsbusters.org/node/4815

 

[The ClayTaurus]

Affleck is an idiot.

-----

Reminiscent of Al Franken on the Late Show last October, on Friday's Real Time with Bill Maher on HBO, actor Ben Affleck charged that President Bush “probably also leaked” Valerie Plame's name and so “if he did, you can be hung for that! That's treason!” In full rant, an apoplectic Affleck asserted: “You could be killed. That's not a joking around Tom DeLay 'I'll do a year, I bribed the state officials with corporate money.' That's like they shoot you in the battlefield for doing that.”

Affleck appeared on Maher's panel with Senator Joe Biden and Bill Sammon of the Washington Examiner. A couple of minutes later, after Sammon suggested Tom DeLay's resignation means the loss of a “poster boy for the left” so they can't use him anymore to raise funds, Affleck besmirched DeLay as a “criminal” while simultaneously demonstrating his political naivete. Though the Texas redistricting orchestrated by DeLay made his district less Republican, Affleck contended: "Tom DeLay personally gerrymandered that district so severely that it looks like a map of Italy....There won't be a Democrat elected in that seat for a thousand years. You can't say he's the poster boy for the left. He happens to be an incredibly powerful Republican who is a criminal and now you blame Democrats for pointing it out!"

http://newsbusters.org/node/4815

It's Drudge Report regurgitation day for you, eh?

 

[GotZoom]

It's Drudge Report regurgitation day for you, eh?

LMAO!!

I actually knew about this one from another website then saw it on Drudge this morning.

 

[The ClayTaurus]

LMAO!!

I actually knew about this one from another website then saw it on Drudge this morning.

The funny thing is, I watched that show and it's why I felt compelled to post about his whineyness. That Sammon guy or whoever the conservative was that was on was a pretty big tool as well, at least as far as that show was concerned.

 

[jillian]

The funny thing is, I watched that show and it's why I felt compelled to post about his whineyness. That Sammon guy or whoever the conservative was that was on was a pretty big tool as well, at least as far as that show was concerned.

Afleck isn't stupid. He just talks faster than any human being I know.

Sammon was a whiney ole thing. But Biden sounded good.