Comments on: Ben Stein Watch, lawsuit edition

By: Pragmatist58

Pragmatist58 — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 20:12:24 +0000

Peter Morici is, in those commercials, clearly supposed to look like the late Paul Samuelson. To judge the resemblance for yourself, his photo is easy enough to find on the web, for instance at this URL:

http://austrianeconomists.typepad.com/we blog/2009/12/paul-samuelson.html

Generations learned economics from the many editions of Samuelson’s textbook, so a visage like that must still have seemed natural for the role. Maybe Stein was originally in the running because with just a little make-up work he could be made to look like Samuelson too.

By: jbernar

jbernar — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 21:14:57 +0000

The only possible response from Kyocera is to declare itself a church. Then it can discriminate all it wants.

By: Bagehot

Bagehot — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 19:00:19 +0000

The guy works for Nixon and then says everyone is picking on him for being a devout Jew, from a Führer-like Obama on down. The man is a cartoon character.

By: RynoM

RynoM — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 17:56:48 +0000

I was raised southern Baptist and Kyocera never even contacted me about doing a commercial for them, so he may be on to something.

By: IntoTheTardis

IntoTheTardis — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 14:55:28 +0000

I got a real sense of the man after hearing him sniff “$70,ooo is real money for many people.” It was said in the context of college tuition. The implication being that it was a trivial amount for a man like himself. And then he went on to pitch a dodgy credit score monitoring scheme for the rest of masses.

By: JaggedGently

JaggedGently — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 09:36:27 +0000

“… he believed that God, and not man, controlled the weather.”
Under normal circumstances, of course, that would be true. However, we must consider the new theory that global warming in causing hell to freeze over. The latest research is reported at http://www.theneogeotheothermaltheorysoc iety.com

By: AlkalineState

AlkalineState — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 00:02:51 +0000

You can’t fire me! I’m Ben Stein! This is the only gig I got!

By: strawman

strawman — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 21:02:48 +0000

I like the preaching of brother theamblerx. That’s spirituality we can all get behind.

But really, in the crazy world in which Stein’s complaint is upheld, is there actually any reason you couldn’t claim a work dismissal is unfair based on your religious preferences? For example, I belief that internal combustion is the result of hardworking leprechauns, and therefore Ford was wrong to push me out of their engineering department. Bloody atheists.

By: theamblerx

theamblerx — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 20:54:47 +0000

In my religion, I believe that Aslan, Lion King of all Narnia, commands us to come into work completely drunk. It is on such grounds that I am protesting against my employer for dismissing me from their employment.

By: rajpe

rajpe — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 19:56:17 +0000

My goodness. A 4-bedroom, 3821 sq.ft. “mansion”

Is Ben Stein’s problem that he is middle-class?

And we all know that you can’t trust the middle class.

By: MRLAMF

MRLAMF — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 19:49:41 +0000

Having tour busses stop at Stein’s house is wishful thinking, Felix… He is batshit crazy, but there are are far crazier and far prettier people’s homes for those busses to stop at. Hopefully, some wonky rich kids will just egg the thing.

By: Kohoutek

Kohoutek — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 18:38:31 +0000

The resurrection of “Ben Stein Watch” is a welcome counterpoint to Stein’s slack jawed question, “How can life come from nonlife?” Apparently, creationists are akin to viruses – that exist somewhere between being alive and not – in striving for and yet not having a productive career. Oh, and Peter is not wearing tennis shoes nor speaking in a monotone, so Stein’s complaint there is also, ahem, dead in the water. How can a living lawsuit come from (like the universe) nothing? Anyone? Anyone? Ben?

By: dcunning11235

dcunning11235 — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 17:57:27 +0000

His hilarious film ‘Expelled’ uses much the same type of reasoning. It is disturbing to see so clearly that this is simply his mode of thinking; it seems borderline(?) disturbed and paranoid.

By: Curmudgeon

Curmudgeon — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 17:41:35 +0000

Thanks for this, Felix. I’ve missed the Ben Stein Watch since you dropped it.