A Ron Paul Moment By Ben Stein
Submitted by sharpsteve on Wed, 12/30/2009 - 06:36
A few days ago, I was on Larry King Live on CNN. the topic was terrorism and specifically the Christmas Day aerial bombing effort by a self-described Al Qaeda agent of an airliner near Detroit.
One of the other guests was Rep. Ron Paul of Texas. He said, at least as I understood it -- and I could be mistaken -- that the real fault for this terror attack lies with the United States for provoking al Qaeda by "occupying their land" --this is a paraphrase. I expressed shock at this line of approach. Rep. Paul -- as I recall -- said again that the U.S. was causing these attacks by our being "occupiers."
Read More
http://spectator.org/archives/2009/12/30/a-ron-paul-moment
B.S. paraphase.. Send all America's children to die for Isreal.
Send American solders and contractors to every muslim country and occupy them perpetually.
And America you pay for it and give us foreign aid.
For every 3 dollars America sends to the middle east nations the US needs to make sure they send 1 dollar to Isreal so to maintain the status quo of funding both sides in a conflict and to serve to perpetuate the violence indefinately.
Support your military industrial complex.
...Your truly Ben Stein aka B.S.
Ron Paul / Rand Paul ...The Taxpayers' Best Friends!
RESTORE AMERICA NOW
AN APPEAL TO HEAVEN - Washington's Cruisers
http://www3.villanova.edu/centennial/js1g.htm
Leave Us Alone and Bring the Troops Home
Ben Stein, AIPAC operative?
Nice attempt at revising history. However, I saw the Larry King episode twice: once when it first aired live on CNN, and once again youtube. Ben Stein's recollection of what happened does not remotely reflect the reality in what actually transpired.
Ron Paul merely suggested that we Americans consider the motivations behind the "underwear bomber" and other terrorists' actions. Why do they do what they do? Is there something about our foreign policy that we can change to make the American people safer? Maybe it is easier to make America safer by modifying our own behavior rather than trying to achieve the same goal through brute force and war.
Personally, I think Ben's baseless attack was premeditated. Ron Paul's ideas are beginning to resonate with so many people that defenders of the FED, and the Israel Lobby, are looking to smear and discredit Congressman Paul with baseless accusations of racism and other slander.
The Israel Lobby does not want the American people to get the notion that the US Government's unconditional support for Israel, and the occupation of Arab lands, may be fueling extremist sentiment in the Middle East and around the world.
You have to remember, people
You have to remember, people like Ben Stein are uber racists. That's just how they think all the time.
I feel dirty just for
I feel dirty just for clicking on the link and giving that non-apology a bump in traffic. What trash! "Criticizing occuptation = criticizing Jews"?!? What kind of logic is that?
Let me clarify this for you.
Let me clarify this for you. It was not the United States that was responsible for the terror attacks. It was our politicians. Do you understand the difference?
All public servants, whether elected or appointed or hired, take an oath to support and defend the Constitution. When they break that oath, they are operating outside the parameters of government. They do in fact hold legitimate positions, but their actions are their own.
If several police officers moonlight as burglars, it is not the police department who breaks into your house. While the perpetrators are in fact, sworn law enforcement officers, their illegal actions are NOT the actions of the police department.
Our politicians have continued to wage undeclared wars around the globe for the benefit of special interests. It certainly is NOT in the interest of the American people to have US troops in Iraq, Afghanistan, or any of the other 130 or so nations around the world. It would be in our benefit to have our own borders protected, but this our politicians refuse to do.
Never let politicians hide behind "the government". They need to be held accountable for their own actions which violate the law, and are therefore NOT the actions of the US government.
FLASH !! ...Ron Paul Was Right And Ben Stein Was Wrong !!
I Just Read This From Infowars.com/
FLASH !!
Detroit terror attack: Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab ‘defended 9/11′
Aislinn Laing
London Telegraph
Tuesday, Dec 29th, 2009
Detroit bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab defended the 9/11 terror attacks on New York, saying they were justified by American military activity.
The 23-year-old suspect in the attempted Christmas Day bombing of Northwest Flight 253 is reported to have shocked friends with his hardline views as far back as 2001.
He is said to have justified the plane attacks by saying that US troops stationed in Saudi Arabia since the 1991 Gulf War had “humiliated” Muslims.
Ben Stein
Dear Mr. Stein,
I watched the Larry King segment and your unfounded criticism of Congressman Ron Paul and I think you are very misinformed about his views on foreign interventionism. Your knee jerk reaction to anyone who thinks we should mind our own business as General George Washington suggested in his farewell address and is never considered wisely these days is to employ name calling- in this case, anti-semitism.
Would you or would you not agree that there are consequences to every action taken, be they good or bad? Now consider just the good actions or the ones, we as a country- America makes for I am sure you would agree that the actions we do make internationally are motivated for the most part- by and large- as intended to be morally correct. Do you agree with that?
If you do, then you might also agree that even good intentions can generate "unintended consequences" Just as when we feel a close friend should not smoke as it might be bad for his health, we might harangue him to stop- for his own good, but some people don't like being told what to do. They react by redoubling their actions or avoiding us or hiding the behavior to humor us- all being unintended consequences.
Now Ron Paul has said on a number of occasions that the radical Moslem's and the people in the middle east in general are very different from us- there are some very unsavory people over there, but they do share a certain 'territoriality" with us and just as we would be offended if Saudi Arabia or China or anyone with less than our best interests in mind would bomb us, build forts next door or do anything viewed as threatening, we would probably develop a hatred and animosity towards them. Some of our more emotionally driven people might even attack them without explicit government ( or even possibly with it) collusion.
So, this concept, expressed by our own CIA specialist Michael Schere is called "blow back" or the results of actions taken by us that oftentimes is unintended when we originally initiated it. For it is rather naive to believe that one can bomb another's country and have them continually think well of us, when you add an irrational religion and continued occupation, this results in "terrorism" or an asymmetrical attempt at revenge as a weaker country cannot attack back in kind.
You should know the concept of the Christian principle of the "golden rule" as we share at least 2/3 of the same Bible.
So when Ron Paul says, we should look at the motivations of the people who attack us- it is not sympathy for them that he is exhibiting but an effort to understand and change our foreign engagements to ones that are more effective.
You bring up the Palestinian and Israeli problem which Dr. Paul did not, but let's look at that. It is academic as to who started the conflict, but when a Palestinian "terrorist" kills a dozen Israelis (which is a human tragedy) what does Israel do but kill 120 Palestinians (I believe I have heard that figure bandied about 10 times as many) The Palestinians are outraged and strike back and try to up the ante. Let me ask you this, has it worked? Has it taught Palestinians to live peacefully and stop their "terrorism"? Not one bit, it seems to me that there is more rather than less.
While I am not pretending to have answers to the Israeli/Palestinian problem. It cannot be said that the Israeli "solution" is much of a solution at all.
I think, what Ron Paul is saying JUST ABOUT AMERICA is that we don't have any business helping either side out. They have been killing each other for years, it is not going to stop anytime soon and we only make it worse by alternately giving aid and comfort to both sides. We should simply- as Washington said, trade with all nations (that have things we need or want) and be friends, let us not be nation builders or get into other's quarrels .
Ron Paul is not anti-semitic. He doesn't believe in aiding either faction. That is called minding one's own business. As foreign policy, you may not agree. You may favor interventionist foreign policy that chooses sides, makes one mad and entitles the other. You may believe that we should be the policeman of the world, the one who calls the shots, and many of us would disagree with you because we are a republic- not an empire and we cannot afford to be an empire. We need to have a smaller less intrusive government who defends itself and does not go about the world spoiling for a fight. It has nothing to do with race or anti-semitism. Wayne Herrod
Wayne 4Liberty
Nicely written
Wayne!
Obama = O.ne B.ig A.ss M.istake A.merica
Why it is impossible for Ron Paul to be Anti-Semitic
Jewish Friends and Mentors,
Peter Schiff (Jewish) - Ron Paul's Economic Adviser for the 2008 Republican Presidential Nomination.
Murray N. Rothbard (Jewish) - Ron Paul's Late Economic Mentor from the Ludwig von Mises Institute.
Ludwig von Mises (Jewish) - Ron Paul's favorite Austrian Economist.
reply
If Dr. Paul had been the one calling his highness Ben Stein (Jewish American Fairy Princess) an anti-semite it would be all over national news with the mainstream media attack poodles beating Ron to death with politically correct baseball bats. But our man is still considered lesser than so the Fairy Princess thinks he can not only disrespect Ron on national tv but follow it up with a smartass belligerent sidebar that is nothing more than wagging his feces smeared middle finger to Dr. Paul, his supporters and all defenders of the Constitution around the country ... he just flatout thinks he can get away with it.
CIA behind this ill conceived underwear bomber
I just listened to an attorney from Michigan on the Alex Jones Show who was at the ticket counter when a "Very well dressed man of some means" literally took this man on board this flight without, passport, plane ticket or any ID what so ever ? Go figure. The attorney asked the FBI for an audience with them to look over the closed circuit recording of this event and the FBI balked.
Remembrances of Mohamed Atta and the flying circus and the CCTV malfunctioning where they supposedly boarded their ill fated flights ? Please tell all of ourt brainwashed friends and relatives that the lie machine in the mainstream media is lying overtime on this one....
Send them over to infowars.com..Might be dramatic but I'm kind of like Alex Jones in considering the murder of 3,000 in NYC on 9/11 and no investigation kind of a big deal. First responders are dying like flies..Our responsibility. If we are a Republic lets act like it and not depend on the govt to fix these things.
Just one last kick in the nuts, then a final deathblow
Okay! I checked the website.
Where are the rebate funds (not to mention huge commissions) coming from ... monthly fees? It's certainly not the oil producers, distributors or retailers who are rebating funds here. It seems to me that this scheme is going to rip through our greed-infested and morality-challenged society and, at some point in the future, leave the last suckers on board holding the bag.
If I'm wrong, please explain, but it sounds like another get-rich-quick-while-producing-nothing-of-value gimmick.
This is what I thought from the beginning
Sounds to me like a typically transparent attempt to boost sales of whole body scan x-ray machines to airports, and pass a few more laws a la the "Patriot Act." My flying days are coming to an end!
What drives me crazy is that people who should know better, still fall for the lying bait. Very frustrating, indeed.
I will check out your website ... immediately!
Was that an apology...
or the finger?
Ben Stein
You sir, have a tremendous ego and you are a neo-con. Go away!
Dig yourself in a little deeper, Ben....
Another 'Ben' we seem to have difficulty with. Bernanke...Stien... It seems Franklin may have been the last decent Ben!
I may not know the truth, but I know when I'm being lied to...
Wow
I could read the comments all day. Thanks for the post
Stein really put his foot further in to his mouth.
That is the *mother* of all comment threads.
Federal Reserve article comment threads also get pretty huge these days.
Gotta love the cheapshot headline
on the front page of spectator.org:
A Ron Paul Moment
Blaming America -- and who else? -- on Larry King Live.
So basically the whole point of the article was a lame attempt at an apology yet they can't even resist using the non-apology to take a cheapshot in the headline on the front page. Thanks Ben (or whoever put that headline there).
I
truly beleive that, although it may seem otherwise, this is the argument we want to get back to. "why do they attack us". This exposes more neo-cons than anything else. It actually peels phony conservative neo-cons right off.
If you closely listen to Sheila Jackson Lee, she gets it, but can't deviate from supporting her messiah(Obama). There re many other Democrats that know what Ron Paul is talking about. This argument is the one we win on. I've been saying it all along, notice when this question is brought up, neo-cons want to head for the doors, sort of like mentioning skull and bones.
SJ Lee's problem in the whole thing
was that she truly believes the government was the appropriate entity to prevent the bombing attempt and that means she has to do what she was hired to do and hold them accountable for it and figure out how they won't screw up next time. It's a very big D Democrat mindset.
The paradigms Stein has locked himself into on the foreign interference issue don't cause any intellectual blockages for her because they don't relate the the specific paradigms Democrats are beholden to. She's free to see the issue clearly (until Obama worship demands otherwise).
Defend Liberty!
something good is coming out of this
Love the passion the energy level the feelings all this created.
hugs*))
Website:
http://www.libertypoet.com/
Twitter:
http://twitter.com/LibertyPoet
"How can we justify to the unemployed and underemployed in the United States the incredible cost of maintaining a global empire?" - Dr. Ron Paul
For a neocon,
the response wasn't that bad. This is more than I'd expect from a neocon.
The rant into the imagined chain of points that leads to disparaging comments against Jews is just part of his conditioning that allows him to dismiss disagreement with his political views. He may have actually heard this chain of points for real before and his conditioning tells him that it's okay to overlay the emotional reaction from when that actually happens onto anyone who uses the term "occupy". He would have to completely wake up from that conditioning to do any better than this.
Look at the discussions on spectator.org. There are actually constructive debates about US foreign policy that could lead to people considering actual facts instead of emotionally reacting to any questioning of foreign policy. It's like someone called foul on the use of knee-jerk shut-down rhetoric and now people are free to allow their intellects into the debate.
Read between the lines. There are cracks in their conditioning today.
This is a win.
Defend Liberty!
Good points; and the original video
was posted in the comments, so people can compare Stein's attempt to re-state his recorded statements with the actual event.
The question is not, "Is Ron Paul an Anti-Semite?"
The question, is Doctor Paul right?
Is he right to question and ask, 'what is the motivation?' of these guys who attack us? And that answer is easy, since they tell us. As Dr Paul points out, they attack us over here because we are busy attacking them over there, supporting dictatorships such as the Saudi Royal Family, attacking Yemen and occupying Muslim lands and giving our full support to Israeli occupation.
Now that we know this, because we listen to the terrorists themselves, what do we do about it? Do we Americans keep on occupying, attacking, and supporting occupation?
If your answer is YES, then at least you know you should EXPECT more BLOWBACK from this foreign policy. I
However, if you take the Ron Paul approach, trade & peace and no occupation or (welfare to oil industry via military protections/occupations), then we would be a principled nation again.
The question for Ben Stein is: Is his foreign policy position and opinion Anti-American? Is this the kind of America that we wish to live in? A country that supports dictators, occupies foreign lands for the benefit of the few, a county that invades and occupies and supports occupation? Is that what you advocate Mr. Stein?
That's not my kind of America that I want.
Now is my opinion Anti-Semitic or is that opinion PRO AMERICAN?
In peace & liberty,
Treg
Everyone should rewatch the
Everyone should rewatch the Peter Schiff Was Right video. In one of the segments with Ben Stein, Ben states in 2007 that Merill Lynch is an "astonishingly" well run company. Shows how seriously all of us should take this guy.
http://theconstitutionalists1.blogspot.com
Concerning Ben's racial attack
Ben sort of back-peddled, "So let me say right now that if Rep. Paul says he is not taking that line, and is not an anti-Semite, I believe him, good for him and I am happy to know him."
So that's it, you can call someone a racist and not apologize for it...just say, "If you deny it, whatever."
You have to admit that Ben stopped the occupation discussion with the racial attack. WE MUST NOT LET THIS TACTIC WORK!
When someone puts a racial chip on their shoulder, we must knock it off.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2DB4WTgFQU
Ben (the economist) also ridiculed Peter Schiff on air...
more evidence Ben is a buffoon.
Ben has nothing to say I ever want to read.
When a couyntry is a rotten, mean and even vicious neighbor, it will turn on itself when it neighbors are subdued.
Free includes debt-free!
Wow, Stein is even more of douche than I thought.
Here's the conclusion of his apology:
"I was about to add that I was sure that Rep. Paul was not going that far. But Rep. Paul became so upset that I could not get in a word.
So let me say right now that if Rep. Paul says he is not taking that line, and is not an anti-Semite, I believe him, good for him and I am happy to know him.
That is what I would have said if I had been allowed to talk. Happy New Year."
Bite me Mr Stein.