Text 3206, 287 rader
Skriven 2006-12-01 12:43:00 av Bob Klahn (1:275/311)
Kommentar till en text av Ross Cassell
Ärende: Good Ole Ben
====================
RC> The following was written by Ben Stein and recited by him
RC> on CBS Sunday Morning Commentary:
It appears you got the internet version, and did not note it. I
found the transcript of the original commentary.
Seems about half the supposed commentary wasn't said by Ben
Stein at all. It was, as so often happens on the internet, added
by someone to push his own agenda.
I didn't know this until I got suspicious of the claimed suicide
of Dr Spock's son. Too much like the claims that BF Skinner's
daughter committed suicide. For the record, neither claim is
true. All of them are still alive. Spocks' two sons, and
Skinner's two daughters.
RC> Herewith at this happy time of year, a few confessions from
RC> my beating heart: I have no freaking clue who Nick and
RC> Jessica are. I see them on the cover of People and Us
...
RC> they have broken up? Why are they so important?
Nick is some strange person who appears in the news because of
his connection to Jessica. Jessica is a wannabe, who does look
kinda nice, and apparently can sing. However, Hollywood is
filled with such people. Oh, and I suspect her "nice" look is
artificially enhanced.
RC> I don't know who Lindsay Lohan is either, and I do not care
Who?
RC> at all about Tom Cruise's wife.
I do, but I'm from Toledo and it's practically mandatory here.
She needs to be rescued and deprogrammed.
----------------------------------------------------------------
This is one of the altered parts. In the transcript it's
Cruise's baby he doesn't care about. Guess the alternative
agenda forwarder thought not caring about a baby would count
against the message.
----------------------------------------------------------------
...
RC> If this is what it means to be no longer young. It's not so
RC> bad.
True.
RC> Next confession:
RC> I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was
RC> Jewish.
Which is bull. No one can count all his ancestors back even 1000
years. Most certainly not 2000. And even the biblical
literalists give us 10,000 years, which is how many ancestors?
Let's see, at a conservative 30 years per generation, that 2 to
the 333rd power. More than my desk calculator will handle. Go
back to Lucy and you go back over 3 million years. Two to the
100,000th power?
RC> And it does not bother me even a little bit when
RC> people call those beautiful lit up, bejeweled trees
RC> Christmas trees. I don't feel threatened. I don' t feel
RC> discriminated against. That's what they are: Christmas
RC> trees.
I know Christian Fundamentalist types who call them "Pagan
Trees".
RC> It doesn't bother me a bit when people say, "Merry
RC> Christmas" to me. I don't think they are slighting me or
RC> getting ready to put me in a ghetto. In fact, I kind of
Well, some of them probably are... but we'll let that go for
now.
...
Oh-oh... somebody locate a source of tin foil. It's time for the
tin foil hats. Does Aluminum foil work as well?
RC> I don't like getting pushed around for being a Jew, and I
RC> don't think Christians like getting pushed around for being
RC> Christians.
Good thing that doesn't happen in this country. Thank George
Bush that it is happening more and more in Iraq.
RC> I think people who believe in God are sick and
RC> tired of getting pushed around, period. I have no idea
Good thing that doesn't happen here.
RC> where the concept came from that America is an explicitly
RC> atheist country. I can't find it in the Constitution, and I
RC> don't like it being shoved down my throat.
Good thing that doesn't happen here.
RC> Or maybe I can put it another way: where did the idea come
RC> from that we should worship Nick and Jessica and we aren't
RC> allowed to worship God as we understand Him?
Oh my, he is off the deep end.
RC> I guess that's a sign that I'm getting old, too.
More likely senile.
RC> But there are a lot of us who are wondering where Nick and
RC> Jessica came from and where the America we knew went to.
It was torn apart by those like Ben Stein who used fraud and
falsehood to further their agendas. Which, BTW, tend to be more
economic than anything else, just with a religious front to
break down the doors.
The first rule of internet email chain letters is, they are all
false. Ok, there are a very few that are true, but so few it's
not a bad idea to just assume they are all false.
It wasn't until I went online to check the fake claim of Spock's
son committing suicide that I found out the rest of this is
fake. I responded to it as if it was by Stein. Just read whoever
was the real author as the person being addressed.
**************************************************************************
...
RC> Billy Graham's daughter was interviewed on the Early Show
RC> and Jane Clayson asked her "How could God let something
RC> like this Happen?" (regarding Katrina)
Stupid question. Old bit about why bad things happen to good
people, and Jane Clayson was too ignorant to have ever thought
it through. How old is she? Anyone who really cares had thought
that one through decades ago.
RC> Anne Graham gave an extremely profound and insightful
RC> response.
Actually dumb, and insulting to God.
RC> She said, "I believe God is deeply saddened by
RC> this, just as we are, but for years we've been telling God
RC> to get out of our schools, to get out of our government and
RC> to get out of our lives.
Anne Graham seems to be painting God as a thug. Stupid fool. My
God doesn't work that way, sorry bout yours.
RC> And being the gentleman He is, I believe He has calmly
RC> backed out. How can we expect God to give us His blessing
RC> and His protection if we demand He leave us alone?"
Anyone who thinks we are all God's children, then thinks God
backs off and lets some of us die because he is peeved, knows
little about Fathers and God. And anyone who thinks God had
anything to do with Katrina, either causing or not preventing,
because we have not been 'Christian' enough, is guilty of a far
worse offense against God than any who do not believe in God.
RC> In light of recent events...terrorists attack, school
RC> shootings, etc. I think it started when Madeleine Murray
RC> O'Hare (she was murdered, her body found recently)
RC> complained she didn't want prayer in our schools, and we
RC> said OK.
No decision ever said we could not have prayer in our schools.
What they did say is the state cannot sanction prayer in
schools. That is morally and legally right. IMNSHO.
Prayers don't belong in our schools. If Ben Stein had gone to
elementary school with me he would have had the same protestant
prayers inflicted on him, the same protestant bible readings.
And he would have been as offended as a Jew as I was offended as
a Catholic. Unless being a Jew is like being a member of a club
to him, with no real meaning.
Which is why I will not accept prayer in school. It's either
sectarian, and an offense to anyone whose religion is left out,
or it's so watered down as to be an offense against any
religious persuasion I am familiar with. Ok, maybe Hindus would
accept it. The are extremely accepting.
RC> Then someone said you better not read the Bible in school.
RC> The Bible says thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal,
RC> and love your neighbor as yourself. And we said OK.
The law says thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not kill. That is
legitimate for the govt to say. It is not the business of the
government to tell us to love our neighbors.
RC> Then Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn't spank our
RC> children when they misbehave because their little
RC> personalities would be warped and we might damage their
RC> self-esteem (Dr. Spock's son committed suicide). We said an
RC> expert should know what he's talking about and we said OK.
Maybe Mr Spock of Star Trek said that, Dr Benjamin Spock did
not. And bringing in the suicide of his son was a truly low
cheap shot, showing just what a low person Stein really is.
----------------------------------------------------------------
Checked this on urban legend site. Spock had two sons. Both
still alive. One is a museum manager, the other an architect and
owner of a construction firm.
----------------------------------------------------------------
RC> Now we're asking ourselves why our children have no
RC> conscience, why they don't know right from wrong, and why
RC> it doesn't bother them to kill strangers, their classmates,
RC> and themselves.
Maybe because they see an example of lies and deception by
people like Ben Stein. It's as connected as anything he has to
say.
RC> Probably, if we think about it long and hard enough, we can
RC> figure it out. I think it has a great deal to do with "WE
RC> REAP WHAT WE SOW."
Yes, Stein sows deception, he reaps his own fraud.
RC> Funny how simple it is for people to trash God and then
RC> wonder why the world's going to hell.
God doesn't work that way. My unrepentant belief.
RC> Funny how we believe what the newspapers say, but question
RC> what the Bible says.
Not the bible, the bible pounders. Like Stein... contradiction
noted.
RC> Funny how you can send 'jokes' through e-mail and they
RC> spread like wildfire but when you start sending messages
RC> regarding the Lord, people think twice about sharing.
Equine manure.
OTOH, when does Stein see an overwhelming flow of generic
religious messages? All I see are sectarian religious messages,
and all too many of them.
RC> Funny how lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene articles pass
RC> freely through cyberspace, but public discussion of God is
RC> suppressed in the school and workplace.
I don't know about your workplace, but we discuss God in my
workplace whenever we feel like it, which is quite often. OTOH,
in the school it's far more the religious right who suppress
discussion of religion, as they refuse to do what the law does
allow, teach about religion, not teach religion. See, being open
minded in teaching religion is anathema to the religious right.
RC> Are you laughing?
No, just tired of that old BS.
RC> Funny how when you forward this message, you will not send
RC> it to many on your address list because you're not sure
RC> what they believe, or what they will think of you for
RC> sending it.
IOW, you are to frightened of someone actually responding with
reason.
RC> Funny how we can be more worried about what other people
RC> think of us than what God thinks of us.
I doubt God finds Ben Stein's commentary acceptable. My God
doesn't work withlies, nor accept them from those who claim to
be acting on His behalf.
**************************************************************************
BOB KLAHN bob.klahn@sev.org http://home.toltbbs.com/bobklahn
... I want to live forever!.......so far so good.
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