BEN STEIN'S DIARY: America Bipolarized
Stein, Benjamin J.
BEN STEIN'S DIARY America Bipolarized by Benjamin J. Stein THURSDAY ~-AM ON AN AMERICAN AIRLINES FLIGHT from Miami to LAX. Wow, this is a long, long flight. I read the New York Times, then the...
...I basically hate the New Yorker because a few weeks ago it published a "satire" of anti-Semitic cartoons that might have come from Iran...
...How can you b e a r it as a man of faith...
...I have my dogs...
...How can this be...
...They were straight out of Der Stiirmer or Volkiseher Beobachter...
...T HEN I TURNED TO A TRULY TERRIFYING piece in the New Yorker about Iran and nuclear weapons by Seymour Hersh...
...Without them, I would have my head sawn off or blown off b y t h e terrorists...
...That is, he, a Jew, was standing up (in a limited way) for Communism, basically the same as Nazism, as against the United States, which has been the best to the Jews of any nation there has ever been...
...It so happens that I am seeing GWB at a fund-raiser in Indian Wells in a few days, and if I get the chance, this is what I will say to introduce him...
...Hersh says over and over that the rulers of Iran are crazy and very well might use atom bombs if they get them-and also that Bush is crazy for thinking about bombing them to keep them from getting the A-bomb...
...I am free...
...The dog's head is silhouetted by the flickering fire...
...That is, the lesson Stalin learned from Hitler was that you could kill all of your Jews and get away with it...
...In the news hole, there is a story of grief and woe...
...The Democrats offer no help, no support, no new ideas, just anger and mockery...
...Thank you, glorious men and women in uniform...
...Then, after a tong nap, I read the New Yorker...
...They just jump on his back nonstop...
...He was a fascinating case...
...Its fiction is uneven, but its reviews in particular are works of genius...
...And yet his critics don't help him...
...And if memory serves, he was defending Stalin even as Stalin was readying a massive If l am reading this right, there is simultaneously some kind of global collapse going on, and also some kind of wild, out of control prosperity...
...But the cruel fact is that its articles tend to be amazingly well written and compelling...
...There was a light, cool breeze...
...He was articulate, charming, self-confident, thoughtful...
...The breeze is sweeter, the fire warmer, the stars b r i g h t e r - a l l because of you...
...The most rabid Klan magazine would not be so rabid...
...I LOVE THEM...
...Now I am about to go to sleep in front of the fire at my house in Rancho...
...No one else on earth bears that burden...
...What a weight...
...I did not get to introduce him because the jerks at the front gate of the venue would not let me in u n t i l Bush a r r i v e d - - i n fact n o t until about half an hour after he a r r i v e d - a n d this was despite my arriving half an hour BEFORE Bush arrived...
...Only the President must decide what to do to prevent even the possibility of civilization's enemies attacking with the most lethal weapons imaginable...
...Only in the ads do we get a hint of happiness, and only in real life...
...Like many American Jews, he defended Communism and Stalin...
...Well, maybe this is the gist of what I would say: Ladies and Gentlemen, now more than ever, I am awed by the burdens Mr...
...If something is not done quickly to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, we will leave a ruined world for our children and grandchildren...
...It is up to us here tonight to let the President know he stands tall in our eyes, that we have confidence that he will not let us down, and that in a world of shifting allegiances that melt away day by day, we will never let him down...
...Well, I did get to hear the last few minutes of his speech, and t h e n I got to ask Bush how he could bear the r e l e n t l e s s attacks of his political enemies when all he was t r y - ing to do was p r o t e c t the nation...
...This was bad enough...
...lames Gustave Speth, Yale University JUNE 2006 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR 59...
...Except in the arts pages, where there are stories about great artistic triumphs--but many of these supposedly are evoked by the collapse of liberty and decency in Bush America...
...And yet I see it has happened over and over again...
...I don't get it...
...I read the New York Times, then the Wall Street Journal...
...I t is almost too good to be true...
...This picture is compounded by what I see in the advertisements-which are often just as revealing as the news stories...
...All thanks to the men and women in the uniforms...
...I sleep in a cocoon of peace thanks to men whose names I will never know...
...I f I am reading this right, there is simultaneously some kind of global collapse going on, and also some kind of wild, out of control prosperity...
...Bush, just as you are there for us, for as long as the struggle takes or as long as we live...
...Not long ago, some poor soul wrote a play called Angels in America in which Mrs...
...He has to decide whether to go to war a g a i n - i n the midst of a difficult campaign in I r a q - a g a i n s t Iran and risk a quagmire to keep Iran from getting nuclear weapons...
...We will be there for you, Mr...
...But in the ads and in the odd, tiny little corner of existence called "real life" there is happiness, prosperity, enthusi58 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR JUNE 2006 BENJAMIN J . STEIN asm...
...That is our pledge to you tonight in this beautiful place: to share with you the burden of protecting the nation and the world with the means the Almighty has put into our hands and into your hands...
...Ethel Rosenberg, the atom spy for Stalin, was a heroine, a saintly, angelic figure...
...C 0 L U M B I A, Refer to u s Read book excerpts at www.columbia.edu/cu/cup Kicking the Carbon Habit Global Warming and the Case for Renewable and Nuclear Energy William Sweet A prominent science journalist examines the impact of coal on the environment and presents innovative solutions for "kicking the carbon habit...
...He is, I think, the child of Holocmast Survivors...
...Bush, and welcome not to a desert on the map, but a garden of unwavering affection and respect and support for you in a world of compromises...
...It is as ffthe Times were two newspapers...
...To my dying day, I will never understand the appeal of left-wing politics-which at their extreme have been so terrible for the Jews--to Jews, and the fear of conservative, free-market principles by Jews, when those principles have been so good to the Jews...
...He seems to be saying that Iran is getting nukes soon and will use them soon to destroy all life in Israel and then attack the USA-and somehowwe still should not be doing anything about it...
...There are many worlds out there, I guess...
...I guess I have...
...The venue was on a hill overlooking a golf course, a lake, and glorious p u r p l i s h mountains...
...Odets was defending Communism even as Stalin was readying nuclear war against the United States...
...There is so incredibly much bad news out there in the media it just sucks your life out of your head...
...Lahr's review was a perfect gem of concision and meaning, the kind of thing a journalism student should read every day...
...In the Times, aside from my column, there is one ,_story after another of gloom and doom and catastrophe...
...Ben Stein is a writer, actor, economist, and lawyer in Beverly Hills and Malibu...
...Bush carries so gracefully-the burden especially of preserving humane civilization itself from its most vicious enemies...
...I know he is said to be a highly talented man and I suppose he is in some ways...
...They guard the gates of Eden with t h e i r lives...
...Really vicious, sick stuff, penned by someone named Art Spiegelman...
...I asked him...
...What a gift they are from God...
...But these cartoons are just horrifying...
...Its movie reviewers are by far the best in the business and so are its book reviewers...
...genocide (maybe all genocides are massive) against Russia's Jews after World War II...
...The problem is that the cartoons were really horrifyingly anti-Semitic...
...What a burden this man carries...
...But he defended Stalin even as Stalin was perpetrating the worst mass murders in history...
...continued on poge 58 56 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR JUNE 2006 BEN STEIN'S DIARY Back to Clifford Odets, spectacularly famous playwright of-among many other items-Waiting for Lefty and the screenplay The Sweet Smell of Success...
...I am safe...
...Then I thought about what I see around me and I marvel...
...You are welcome here in our hearts any time...
...It made me feel terribly bad for George W. Bush...
...It should really be called the "Self-Hating Jewish New Yorker Magazine" perhaps...
...There is a long piece this week by John Lahr (I think he's Bert Lahr's son) about the life of Clifford Odets, the left-wing (I guess Communist once upon a time) playwright and what a sad life he led...
...The session was o f f t h e record, but I t h i n k I can say he answered t h a t he could do it because he had faith in what he was doing...
...The great Edith Efron called it "news from nowhere," and t h a t ' s what it is...
...Paradise...
...The ads are for ever more expensive homes, furs, jewelry, travel, and autos...
...I am well fed...
...They guarded me from Hitler and from Stalin and now from Zarqawi...
...SATURDAY T HE BUSH EVENT WENT WELL...
...As he carries that backbreaking load, too many people jump on his back and try to weigh him down with partisan political attacks...
...There must be some psychological curse at work here that I just fail to understand...
...This is especially true in the Times...
...I n the newspapers, gar nich...
...The contrast between the depressing drumbeat of negativism in the news and the glory of real life in America is enough to make you insane...
...Oh, well, maybe I have missed something...
...I can hear the wind in the palms...
...Anyway, back to my original point...
...Paradise...
...And of course, the New Yorker totally loathes George W. Bush, the best friend of Israel in the world...
...Plus, the magazine is relentlessly antiIsrael, sometimes viciously so...
...God bless you, Mr...
...Here I am with t h e President, diffident, folksy, charming, brave, and t h e stars are gleaming in t h e gloaming, and I am here, not at a gorge in the Ukraine about to be murdered by the SS...
...How can this be...
...In the ad space, there is a story of unheard of riches...
...William Sweet's admirable new book provides both an excellent overview of the most serious issue societies face today - - climate change - - and a compelling argument for focusing hard on the principal threat - - coal...
...The playwright, of course, was Jewish...
...It is not terribly different from making a spy for Hitler a saintly figure...
...He reallywas the most impressive I have ever seen him...
...Then in the Wall Street Journal, there is one story after another about how bad things are--and then on the inside pages, one story after another about how much money businesses are making...
...And yet these cartoons appeared in the New Yorker, emblem of a largely Jewish city, a magazine read mostly by Jews, I should think...
Vol. 39 • June 2006 • No. 5
