Friday, April 11, 2014

I Didn't Say It ....

Ben Stein, on how to end poverty in America:

"My humble observation is that most long-term poverty is caused by self-sabotage by individuals. Drug use. Drunkenness. Having children without a family structure. Gambling. Poor work habits. Disastrously unfortunate appearance. Above all, and counted in the preceding list, psychological problems (very much including basic laziness) cause people to be unemployed, have poor or no work habits, and enter and stay in poverty. Is there any public policy that can help them? We just don’t know so far. But whipping up hate against the successful simply cannot do it. There is no connecting mechanism between envy and greater productivity. Quite the opposite. Envy legitimizes class hatred and idleness and produces nothing. What will make the genuinely poor stop sabotaging themselves? Maybe, just maybe, if we let God back into the public forum it would help. I have seen spiritual solutions work miracles." 

Seriously, Ben? You thinbk there are no drug-addled, alcohol-addicted, lazy ugly Christians?
You think if God could solve poverty just by eliminating the Separation of Church and State in this country she wouldn't have snapped ehr fingers and done it already.
Seriously, Ben, you're stupid.
Vance McAllister, the Republican Congressman from Louisiana, who campaigned on the defense of “natural marriage", after being busted on video making out with a female aide:

"There’s no doubt I’ve fallen short and I’m asking for forgiveness. I’m asking for forgiveness from God, my wife, my kids, my staff and my constituents who elected me to serve. Trust is something I know has to be earned whether you’re a husband, a father or a congressman. I promise to do everything I can to earn back the trust of everyone I’ve disappointed. From day one, I’ve always tried to be an honest man. I ran for Congress to make a difference and not just be another politician."

No thanks. You preached and campaigned about traditional marriage and how much better it is and how anything less than that hurts society and this country, all the while taking a sh*t on your own marriage.
Heath Peacock, the husband of the woman caught on video making out with Vance McAllister:

"I know his beliefs. When he ran one of his commercials, he said 'I need your prayers,' and I asked, 'When did you get religious?' He said, 'When I needed votes.' He broke out the religious card and he's about the most non-religious person I know. He's apologized to everyone in the world except me. I’m just freaking devastated by the whole deal, man. I loved my wife so much. I cannot believe this. I cannot freaking believe it. I feel like I’m going to wake up here in a minute and this is all going to be a bad nightmare. It was just a kiss, that was all it was, but it embarrassed me and my family."

A kiss is more than a kiss, and your wife is just as much to blame.
But Vance has proven himself to be your typical lying politician who will say anything and do anything to get elected, and then do anyone afterwards.
Kevin Spacey, on the persistent rumors about his sexuality:

"I don't live a lie. You have to understand that people who choose not to discuss their personal lives are not living a lie. That is a presumption that people jump to...I am different than some people would like me to be. I just don't buy into that the personal can be political. I just think that's horseshit. No one's personal life is in the public interest. It's gossip, bottom line. End of story. Now some people feed that. They'll go to the trendy restaurants where all the photographers are and then bitch about being famous. But if you don't want to feed that and you want your life to be based around what your work is then it ends there."

Methinks Kevin doth protest too much. A lie isn’t simply being untruthful; a lie is also in omitting the truth.
Is he gay? I couldn’t care less. But if he is, just by saying those two little words might help a lot of people deal with their own orientation and that wouldn’t be a bad thing at all, now would it Kevin?
Frank Bruni, on the Mozilla business and Brendan Eich:

"A leading supporter of gay marriage, [Andrew] Sullivan warned other supporters not to practice 'a fanaticism more like the religious right than anyone else.' I can’t get quite as worked up as he did. For one thing, prominent gay rights groups weren’t part of the Mozilla fray. For another, Mozilla isn’t the first company to make leadership decisions (or reconsiderations) with an eye toward the boss’s cultural mind-meld with the people below him or her. And if you believe that to deny a class of people the right to marry is to deem them less worthy, it’s indeed difficult to chalk up opposition to marriage equality as just another difference of opinion. But it’s vital to remember how very recently so many of equality’s promoters, like Obama and Clinton, have come around and how relatively new this conversation remains.  [snip] Sullivan is right to raise concerns about the public flogging of someone like Eich. Such vilification won’t accelerate the timetable of victory, which is certain. And it doesn’t reflect well on the victors."

Bruni hits it out of the park again.
Rob Lowe, on how hard it is being pretty:

“There’s this unbelievable bias and prejudice against quote-unquote good-looking people, that they can’t be in pain or they can’t have rough lives or be deep or interesting. They can’t be any of the things that you long to play as an actor. I’m getting to play those parts now and loving it. When I was a teen idol, I was so goddamn pretty I wouldn’t have taken myself seriously.”

It wasn’t the pretty, it was the shallow, Rob.
Paul Newman never had a problem, so maybe it's just you?
Hillary Clinton, on running for President:

"I am thinking about it. ... The hard questions aren't do you want to be president, or can you win. The hard question is why. Why would you want to do this and what would you offer that could make a difference."

Do it.
Alan Simpson, the former Republican Senator from Wyoming, in an ad from Freedom to Marry:

“I’m a Republican. The party’s basic core is, government out of your life and the right to be left alone. Whether you’re gay or lesbian or straight, if you love someone and you want to marry them, marry them. I've had a wonderful married life. Why shouldn't someone else have the joy of marriage? Live and let live."

Sad that he's a 'former' Repblican because the GOP needs more like him.

6 comments:

  1. Anonymous10:36 AM

    Typical - Ben is blaming results rather than the causes.

    Kevin's kids went to my high school - He is but like his quote he was just a parent and his life was his own. People talked but they didn't care or judge in this very republican part of NY.

    Paul was handsome never pretty but he was much more talented.

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  2. We'll just remember Sam Seabourn of West Wing instead....

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  3. Anonymous10:40 AM

    Kevin's kids went to the same HS I did but not at the same time - they graduated years ago.

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  4. I used to respect Ben Stein's opinions even if I didn't agree with them, but this hard-liner Republican diatribe shows him to be just another
    money-grubbing elitist. Shame on him!

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  5. Of course there are policies that can help the poor, but they cost money and take time. But not everyone responds, which makes the programmes a target for the bigoted right.

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  6. First of all, the people Ben is describing are called LOSERS. The poor WE ARE TALKING ABOUT are the hundred million people who were laid off from 2008 on and haven’t been able to (a) get another job; and (b) recover. And a gazillion others who’ve worked all their lives and have not had a raise in 15 years. As I’ve said a gazillion times, I was one of those people who lost my job through no fault of my own. NO ONE would believe how freaking hard it is to get a job unless they’ve been there. And I’m in California – the worst state in the U.S. as far as jobs go. But these people will NEVER understand because as we all know, our misfortune is OUR OWN FAULT BECAUSE WE AREN’T TRYING HARD ENOUGH/WE’RE LAZY/WON’T START A BUSINESS/THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX. It’s all B.S. GAG ME.

    Vance McAllister ... "There’s no doubt I’ve fallen short … blah blah blah" ... they all say the same effing thing and then they want forgiveness. NO! You’re an asshole. I won’t forgive you. EVER. You fucking hypocritical loser. (damn I sound hostile).

    Heath Peacock … you need to throw your wife to the curb.

    Rob Lowe – I once saw him in person and I could not believe how pretty he was. Seriously … LIKE A GIRL pretty. Long black eyelashes, rosy cheeks. Truthfully, he WAS too pretty. Paul Newman was HANDSOME, GORGEOUS. Rob Lowe – PRETTY. Very different.

    Hillary – yes. Do it. PLEASE.

    Alan Simpson … who knew?!

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Say anything, but keep it civil .......