Ben and Me

Ben Stein spoke recently at a local University here in Northern Louisiana.

Here he is with somebody, I'm not sure who:

Here are some of the things he talked about including his response to my question during the Question and Answer session.

He spoke a great deal about how we should all hit the floor every morning and thank God for the country we live in and the freedoms we take for granted every day. Gratefulness was a strong theme of his message: to our brilliant fore fathers, the men and women in the armed forces and their families who keep the candle burning for them.

He also went into depth on media bias and reporting on the war. One of his examples was how everyone knows Lyndie England's name and what she did, but how many people know the names of the 10 marines recently killed or the name of the Seal's dying on the hunt for Osama, or the names of firefighters who rescued people from the WTC or the names of the folks who prevented a plane from crashing into the Capital or White House.

There are brave, brave true heroes working hard everyday that gets no press. I agree with him that this is perverted.

He also told great stories of his father and his father-in-law. His father, who had been discriminated against back in the day because he was Jewish, never felt any ill will towards the people he ran up against. Ben said he had asked his father about holding a job at a fraternity house (that he was not allowed to join - at a University he was not allowed to attend) and how that made him feel. His father simply replied that he never had bad feelings toward those people, just thanked God with all of his heart that he was in a country where he could work and make money to support his family and pay his way through school.

His father-in-law, who was a brave, decorated soldier in WWII and Vietnam, was once asked by Ben why he went and fought in very dangerous positions. His father-in-law simply replied so that his children maybe would not have to fight. You could tell that these great men had a tremendous influence over Ben Stein and contributed a greatly to who he is today.

Now to my question to him during the speech:

KelliPundit: Recently the Israeli military has declared that Iran is getting too close to having a nuclear bomb and that time is running out. They've stated that if diplomacy doesn't work very soon, they'll be forced to use military force to stop this from occurring. What are your thoughts on what may happen between Israel and Iran?

Ben immediately replied that he does not believe that Bush will let them get the A-bomb. Then he interestingly started saying that his conversations with people who deal closely with the American intelligence of this situation have told him that they believe that Iran is bluffing and they are no where near having a nuclear weapon.

I certainly don't know who his contacts are but pray they are correct. Nonetheless, I thought his reply was extremely interesting and possibly revealing. Who knows? One thing for certain, time will tell.

Be sure and read his column Monday Night at Morton's as it displays his passion well. One of his funniest antidotes during the talk was when he stated that when he runs into Alec Baldwin or Barbara Streisand he alway asks, "Why are you still here? Is it the deposit on the U-Haul trailor that is preventing you from leaving? Because I'd happily take care of that for you!"

We're in a great country folks--Best in the World--Even the America Haters won't leave it. Deep down, buried under all their cynicism and empty sound-bites, they too know the truth.

UPDATE: The Jerusalem Post has a disturbing post on Iran and their path toward a nuclear weapon:

IAEA chairman Muhammad ElBaradei on Monday confirmed Israel's assessment that Iran is only a few months away from creating an atomic bomb.

If Teheran indeed resumed its uranium enrichment in other plants, as threatened, it will take it only "a few months" to produce a nuclear bomb, El-Baradei told The Independent.

On the other hand, he warned, any attempt to resolve the crisis by non-diplomatic means would "open a Pandora's box. There would be efforts to isolate Iran; Iran would retaliate; and at the end of the day you have to go back to the negotiating table to find the solution."

Not looking so good.