Ben Stein's Funny Money

Ben Stein, former Nixon speech writer and all around rightwing nut, has got some strange ideas like myth is science or Obama is channeling Der Fuhrer. Recently though in typical CONservative logic, he's pushing a rather odd definition of rich. In a nutshell, Ben believes the term only applies to those who make hundreds of millions or billions. And Ben's definition clearly doesn't include himself. Really?



In his interview on CSPAN, Ben lets slip he pulls down between $35,000 and $50,000 for each speaking engagement. According to the US Census Bureau, the median income of a typical U.S. family is roughly $50,000. So in basically one engagement Ben makes as much as the typical family. A quick google search reveals Mr. Stein made several keynote speeches this year. What's more, this income doesn't include money from other sources such as royalties from his movies and books.

So in one night, Ben Stein can make as much money as the typical American family, but Ben doesn't consider himself rich. There are probably a lot of people who would switch places with him.

What a tool!

Last Throes or Just Getting Started?

Remember back in June of 2005 when Vice President Dick Cheney said this about the ongoing violence and death in Iraq:

"I think we may well have some kind of presence there over a period of time. The level of activity that we see today from a military standpoint, I think, will clearly decline. I think they're in the last throes, if you will, of the insurgency."

Well now the Department of Defense reports that 2007 is the deadliest year of the Iraq war. Even though there are roughly two months left in the year, more than 850 American GIs have been killed, surpassing the previous record set in 2004.

If this is the last throes, one hates to think what an active insurgency would do.

Rush to Rewrite

Breaking News! According to a report by Reuters, someone has been using Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee computers (say that three times fast) to alter Rush Limbaugh's Wikipedia page. Specifically, text was added describing him as "idiotic," a "racist" and a "bigot." Wonder where they got those ideas? Maybe when he made statements like those here, here and here. So, in other words someone at the DCCC has a low image of the old gas bag. Nooooo! Ya think? However, the real mystery here isn't who made the changes to Viagra boy's web page, but rather why they didn't make them sooner.