Ben Stein: Blowhard
Television non-personality Ben Stein (self-described "writer, actor, economist, and lawyer living in Beverly Hills and Malibu" - gee, Ben, did we REALLY need to know where you live) has published a grandiloquent defense of George W. Bush entitled "Get Off His Back" in the American Spectator. The gist of the piece, as you might imagine, is that it is fatuous to pin any blame whatsoever on the Bush administration or the war in Iraq for the failures of expedient response in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
In actuality, a lot of what Stein says is perfectly reasonable. Of course, he has to take a shot at both Hillary Clinton and Al Sharpton (easy targets), but we'll let that go. I mean who, in their right mind would argue with this:
"1) The hurricane that hit New Orleans and Mississippi and Alabama was an astonishing tragedy. The suffering and loss of life and peace of mind of the residents of those areas is acutely horrifying.
"2) George Bush did not cause the hurricane. Hurricanes have been happening for eons. George Bush did not create them or unleash this one.
"3) George Bush did not make this one worse than others. There have been far worse hurricanes than this before George Bush was born."
Stein then squarely places the blame for the human tragedy of New Orleans post Katrina on the "stupendous incompetence by the New Orleans city authorities and the malevolence of the criminals of the city." He provides absolutely no support for the first part of this statement.
And then the spin really gets going: "It is in no way at all George Bush's fault that about 20 percent of New Orleans neglected to follow the plan. It is not his fault that many persons in New Orleans were too confused to realize how dangerous the hurricane would be. They were certainly warned. It's not George Bush's fault that there were sick people and old people and people without cars in New Orleans. " Now, as we well might imagine, Mr. Stein no doubt subscribes to the concept of the "ownership" society of "personal responsibility." Clearly, all of those poor folks in the Superdome should have started walking north. I mean, they probably decided to stay just for the looting opportunities, right?
It gets better: "There is no overwhelming evidence that global warming exists as a man-made phenomenon. There is no clear-cut evidence that global warming even exists. There is no clear evidence that if it does exist it makes hurricanes more powerful..." I hope that Mr. Stein doesn't add "scientist" to his list of accomplishments, because the majority of scientists - even the 1 or 2 who live in "Beverly Hills and Malibu" would disagree.
Mr Stein finishes the update to his original piece with this statement: "Where did the idea come from that salvation comes from hatred and criticism and mockery instead of love and co-operation?"
Except, I guess, in Iraq.
Separated at birth?
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7 comments:
Ah, grif. I feel for ya man, I really do.
Firstly, Ben Stein is quite the well respected writer, and lawyer. As an economist, he's generally put up there in the top 5 to 10 percent of political economists. He also happens to be a VERY funny man to some people and has gotten quite a few good roles for a lawyer, writer and economist.
Ironically, this right of center personality has been a darling of the left until he came out against Hillary's Health care plan. He was quite instrumental in explaining in common words why her plan was a horrible idea.
You label him as a "non-personality", but I'm quite sure he has more face and name recognition than you're willing to admit. Not to mention, he's been a notable political figure for over 30 years.
But we digress.
If you need support for the "stupendous incompetence by the city of New Orleans", I suggest you take a look at the Hurrican Evacuation Plan for New Orleans. Specifically take a look at page 13 paragraph 5.
Then take a look at this picture.
http://www.jasoncoleman.com/Media/Images/Katrina/busses1.jpg
If that doesn't clarify it for you, I'm not sure what will.
What you refer to as "spin" is more a clarification of what continued failings Nagin is responsible for.
I'm curious, do you subscribe to the "ownership" society? Or are you a socialist? If so, we can go round and round on that one. As for "personal responsibility", are you suggestin that "personal responsibility" is a bad thing??? It just so happens that the Constitution of the United States is DEEPLY focused on both the "ownership" society and the concept of "personal responsibility". I'm sorry you don't agree with these two concepts, but they are quite frankly part of the basis of this nation.
I'm not sure where the Iraq comment fits in, but I'm guessing you don't agree with freeing 50 million women from bondage and their status as chattle.
I know you want to attack every defense of Bush, but really man, come on, you're stretching when you try to suggest any of Steins comments are anything but spot on.
As for Al Sharpton's race baiting, that's just another democratic plantation reinforcement, and if you ever spend any time in the vicinity of the democratic plantation that is the south, you'll see why african-americans are flocking to the republican party in droves.
You're starting to become my mission grif. I think you're quite intelligent, but have unfortunately been corrupted to not see what's plainly visible and instead merely seek to reinforce the belief of many americans that the Party of Jackson has become the party of Marx, Che and Mao.
Sorry man, but I'll take the Ownership Society and Personal Responsibility over collectivization and the governmental nanny-state anytime.
--Jason
PS, if you would please, turn on comments by "other" commenters, I know that myself and many others would appreciate not having to use a blogger id and would rather use our mains.
Jason,
Thank you for at least granting me the suspicion of intelligence in your wonderfully condescending way.
I didn't say that Ben Stein was wrong to make the statement about "the stupendous incompetence by the city of New Orleans," only that he provides no documentation. Whereas I could provide sheaves of scientific evidence that global warming is not only real, but is directly a consequence of the way we operate on this planet. Stein also opines that "the world's worst polluters [are] China, India, and Brazil," which is disingenuous because that is NOT the same thing as saying that they are biggest contributors of greenhouse gases (we are). And our own largest corporations LOVE the fact that they can operate in those three countries without those damned annoying EPA regulations (those that are still left intact, I mean).
I have no philosophical problem with concepts of ownership and personal responsibility; they have been bulwarks of my life (I am the son of laborer who was paid piecework all his life), except when they are used as euphemisms for disabling the responsible function of representative government to provide oversight and safety nets against the exigencies of capitalism run amok. I am not a socialist, but I do not believe that our species has the emotional or spiritual maturity to function unrestrained in the free market without greed and avarice coming to the fore. I believe that Paul Krugman has it very right in that regard, and recommend that you read him sometime if you never have.
I declared Sharpton and Clinton "easy targets" which should at least telegraph their standing in my pantheon.
You, my friend sound like a classic libertarian, a political philosophy that has never had the full, unbridled opportunity to prove just how wrong-headed it is. I wish government functioned better, too, but I believe it should function for everyone, not just 2% of the population.
Well, if you need documentation for Nagin being stupendously incompetant, I can easily provide that for you. I just don't think that Stein had the room in his column to ennumerate them all.
Here's a few easy ones for you though:
http://www.jasoncoleman.com/Media/Images/Katrina/superdomebuses.jpg
and this one
http://www.jasoncoleman.com/Media/Images/Katrina/busses.jpg
If you need a copy of the Hurricane Evacuation Plan which Nagin did NOT follow as he was supposed to (the feds and the state were depending on him to follow it), I can easily do so.
As for global warming and your emissions concerns. Perhaps you may want to check that because IN POINT OF FACT, the United States is a not only the largest producer, but we're also the largest consumer. We are a NET ABSORBER of greenhouse gasses. If you believe in global warming, go ahead and post about it, and we'll rumble, but you'll most probably lose. Global Warming is as much Junk Science as Intelligent Design is.
So in these "safety nets" that you describe, would you consider the NOPD, NO Emergency Mangement officials, the Evacuation Plan and the City School and Muni buses part of that SAFETY NET????
We can leave our personal political identities aside for now and we'll discuss my libertarian side versus your libertine side later.
--Jason
PS thanks for adjusting your comments.
"Global Warming is as much Junk Science as Intelligent Design is."
I am a scientist by profession. I don't know what you do for a living. If "losing" this battle means that you will assault me with with a plethora of non-scientific articles published in non-scientific publications that support your claim - perhaps you are right.
Generally, junk science doesn't occupy too much space in the leading scientific journal in the U.S. (Science, published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science). The search terms "global warming" and "climate change" elicit 182 relevant articles (from 2004-2005); "intelligent design:" 22.
Here are just a few:
Climate Modelers See Scorching Future as a Real Possibility.
Science 28 January 2005; 307: 497
Getting Warmer, However You Measure It. Science 7 May 2004; 304: 805-807.
Ocean Warming Model Again Points to a Human Touch. Science 25 February 2005; 307: 1190.
I am at least relieved to see that you categorize Intelligent Design as junk science.
So, tell me, are you ever wrong?
Quite often I'm proven wrong, or susceptible to faulty information. Everyone is and I do not claim, nor have I ever claimed to be perfect.
I would certainly expect to find more articles in Science about "global warming" than I would "intelligent design". That just makes sense. If we examine social science peer review journals we'll find more articles recently about ID than we will global warming.
I was a working scientist by trade until I decided that I wanted to work for myself, currently I focus on consulting for entities I'm involved in ranging from telecommunications in the U.S. to Flourine Chemistry in China.
There is NO hard evidence to support global warming, there is however a grand echo chamber that generally focuses on destruction of industrialized society however.
We could go back and forth all day with links to this and that, but I'm only going to offer one because this was originally about Kyoto (which is bogus, and ironically, Bush's plan does more real good than Kyoto ever would even if everyone followed it):
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/pr/96_99/19406.html
While that doesn't debunk global warming, which as I said we could go back and forth on forever, it does certainly take the wind out of your Kyoto sails.
But this is about Ben Stein right? I'm not sure how hurricanes and global warming got into it, but for your information, if there IS global warming, guess what, according to NOAA, global warming decreasing the frequency of hurricanes. Bet you didn't expect that one did ya.
http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/pastdec.shtml
Have a great night and an even better tomorrow.
--Jason
Most scientists know that we have just passed from out of a natural low energy cycle in regard to hurricanes, heavily influenced by the high frequency of El Nino events, which do suppress hurricane formation. There is nothing at NOAA that links global warming to lower incidence of cyclone formation, but there is plenty of evidence that as the ocean warms, cyclonic storms will increase in ferocity. Nice try. I am glad the air is clear and the view is grand from atop your mountain, Jason.
No Grig, NOAA isn't tying them together, NOR are they tying Global Warming to increased cyclone activity.
I pointed out the fact that cyclone activity is on the downswing when all the lefties are saying that it's on the upswing.
The truth doesn't matter to these people, cane frequency is low, they claim it's high, they claim that GW causes hurricanes, wholely unsubstantiated.
People playing fast and loose with facts is Pseudo-science, which is what Global Warming is. And hell, even if GW is real (which I don't believe based on the evidence) the United States, as a NET ABSORBER of greenhouse gasses actually works against global warming.
But again regardless of the facts, the lefties and eco-warriors don't care about reality.
--Jason
PS, you accused me earlier of being condescending, well, pot, meet kettle, and I'm referring back to your original comment spam. Not that I'm taking offense, just pointing out some hypocrisy.
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