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Occupy Wall Street Is “Not Doing Anything Right”: Ben Stein
Yahoo.com ^ | 11-4-11 | Driftwood1

Posted on 11/04/2011 8:39:52 PM PDT by Driftwood1

"They're not doing anything right," Stein says in a way that somehow combines flat affect and high impact. "They don't accomplish anything specifically useful."

So what would Ben Stein do?

He'd do what he's done in the past. Stein used to write 7,000 word in-depth exposes on corporate fraud. "They were a lot of work but they eventually got some people prosecuted," Stein says. "They got some money recovered for stockholders." Stein offers that if the OWS crowd wants to do something helpful they should do the research necessary to direct and inform their discontent.

Beyond method and means, Stein is unimpressed with the very notion of "crusading against greed." Especially when the protesters themselves are demonstrably guilty of something he thinks far worse.

"You know what the worst deadly sin is? Spiritual pride or thinking that you're morally better than other people," Stein says. "That's what the Occupy Wall Street people are all about; thinking they're better than other people and that's a sin, too."

Not that he doesn't have grievances himself. "It's breathtaking how much tax I pay, but I think I should probably pay more," says the former speechwriter for Nixon. He outright believes the U.S. will default on our credit, either outright or via inflation, so his self-imposed tax hike is a last but necessary resort.

(Excerpt) Read more at finance.yahoo.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: benstein; occupywallstreet; ows; protests
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1 posted on 11/04/2011 8:39:55 PM PDT by Driftwood1
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To: Driftwood1

“You know what the worst deadly sin is? Spiritual pride or thinking that you’re morally better than other people,” Stein says.


Moral relativism? What a weird thing for Stein to say. Of course some people are way more moral than others.

Is this Jewish guilt talking?


2 posted on 11/04/2011 8:47:01 PM PDT by txhurl (Did you want to talk or fish? Or feed the fish?)
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To: Driftwood1

I thought Ben was economically “educated.” If he wants to pay MORE taxes....he always can, but....WHY give more money to an entity that does NOT spend it wisely????


3 posted on 11/04/2011 8:47:09 PM PDT by goodnesswins (My Kid/Grandkids are NOT your ATM, liberals! (Sarah Palin))
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To: Driftwood1

Why not, we already have one in the White House.


4 posted on 11/04/2011 8:54:04 PM PDT by MtnClimber (The left wants our power generated by unicorns running on treadmills. What dopes!)
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To: Driftwood1

I used to like to read Ben’s neurotic whining, but when he went full leftie, I gave up on him.


5 posted on 11/04/2011 8:54:10 PM PDT by ozzymandus
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To: Driftwood1

Stein has jumped back on the Republican side just because Obama is calling for raising his taxes.

In late 2008 he supported TARP, and in early 2009 he pleaded for the stimulus, his exact words were “People are dying out there and we must do something”

HE is a liberal.


6 posted on 11/04/2011 9:04:25 PM PDT by sickoflibs (Cain :"My parents didn't raise me to beg the government for other peoples money")
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To: ozzymandus

Ben should go down there and lead them into the promised land. He’s angry about the economy but last I head him talk he never mentioned Clinton’s shake down of the banks with threats of race lawsuits if they did not drop professional loan qualification standards.

That is a pretty basic fact when evaluating what happened to the real estate market implosion.


7 posted on 11/04/2011 9:14:17 PM PDT by SaraJohnson
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To: Driftwood1

They are accomplishing something very important. They are showing thbe American People the face of the Future Left:
.. More Animal than Human, and proufluy qallowuing in their worthless, useless, destruction of everything they touch..


8 posted on 11/04/2011 9:31:10 PM PDT by DGHoodini (Iran Azadi)
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To: Driftwood1
"Stein says. "They got some money recovered for stockholders." Stein offers that if the OWS crowd wants to do something helpful they should do the research necessary to direct and inform their discontent." but but that would mean we'd have to go WORK!!!
9 posted on 11/04/2011 9:36:11 PM PDT by Beowulf9
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To: txhurl
What a weird thing for Stein to say.

The worst deadly sin is envy. All of the others represent good things taken to excess: One should have a healthy desire to mate (lust), eat (gluttony), or relax (sloth), and one should have a healthy level of material aspiration (greed), and when appropriate suitable sense of accomplishment (pride). One should also retaliate in measured fashion when one is wronged (wrath). Envy, however, is absolutely and completely useless. Those who encourage it in any measure should be unwelcome in polite society.

Of course some people are way more moral than others.

I think what Mr. Stein is describing is a bit different from what most people would think of as pride. He's describing the sense of superiority some people get when they find fault in others or are wronged by them. I would consider this in many ways more a variety of envy than pride, since the focus is on denigrating someone else.

10 posted on 11/04/2011 9:42:19 PM PDT by supercat (Barry Soetoro == Bravo Sierra)
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To: Driftwood1

I think Stein has it exactly right on the ‘better than you’ thing.

His point seems to be that the OWSers are out there saying “We are the 99% and we know what’s right.” Well, no one asked if they represent me, and I see no evidence that they are in any way morally superior, they’re just SAYING they are the voice of the majority.

I suspect those who believe some are moral than others here would never agree that they’re in the ‘lesser morality’—”I” am always the moral one. I don’t know about you, but I’ve never, ever done anything told to me by someone who starts off by saying, “I’m better than you, now do this.”


11 posted on 11/04/2011 9:51:56 PM PDT by Darkwolf377 (Obama: The stupid person`s idea of a smart person.)
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To: ozzymandus

I wish people would stop featuring Stein on radio talk shows or tv show, especially Fox....he is NOT conservative nor republican AFAIK and he’s a monkey’s behind IMO....for donating to Al Freakin in Minn if nothing else....


12 posted on 11/04/2011 9:56:30 PM PDT by cherry
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To: Driftwood1

Those folks can’t write a coherent thought. A fellow engineer friend decided to go back to school and showed me reports being filed in by “classmates” on Andrew Jackson. Before it was over the Indians were being desalinized. This is a major school with 45,000 students. Good Grief.


13 posted on 11/04/2011 9:58:22 PM PDT by eyedigress ((Old storm chaser from the west)?)
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To: ozzymandus

I wish people would stop featuring Stein on radio talk shows or tv show, especially Fox....he is NOT conservative nor republican AFAIK and he’s a monkey’s behind IMO....for donating to Al Freakin in Minn if nothing else....


14 posted on 11/04/2011 9:58:48 PM PDT by cherry
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To: supercat

Great post!


15 posted on 11/04/2011 10:07:13 PM PDT by scott7278 ("...I have not changed Congress and how it operates the way I would have liked..." - BHO)
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To: eyedigress

We were desalinizing the Indians? Like how?


16 posted on 11/04/2011 10:07:29 PM PDT by txhurl (Did you want to talk or fish? Or feed the fish?)
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To: txhurl

What was the sin of Satan?


17 posted on 11/04/2011 10:09:53 PM PDT by MrEdd (Heck? Geewhiz Cripes, thats the place where people who don't believe in Gosh think they aint going.)
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To: MrEdd

Of Lucifer, Pride.


18 posted on 11/04/2011 10:11:53 PM PDT by txhurl (Did you want to talk or fish? Or feed the fish?)
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To: txhurl

That’s what he wrote to the professor. It’s all online now.


19 posted on 11/04/2011 10:40:23 PM PDT by eyedigress ((Old storm chaser from the west)?)
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To: txhurl

These kids going after a 4 year degree cannot spell or understand what they are sending in. It is ludicrous.


20 posted on 11/04/2011 10:42:49 PM PDT by eyedigress ((Old storm chaser from the west)?)
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