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This is one smart guy.
Sometimes we all need a reality check! Worth a read...
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If they know of him at all, many folks think Ben Stein is just a quirky actor/comedian who talks in a monotone. He's also a very intelligent attorney who knows how to put ideas and words together in such a way as to sway juries and make people think clearly.

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The following was written by Ben Stein and recited by him on CBS Sunday Morning Commentary.

Here with a few confessions from my beating heart:

I have no clue who Nick and Jessica are. I see them on the cover of People and Us constantly when I am buying my dog biscuits and kitty litter.

I often ask the checkers at the grocery stores. They never know who Nick and Jessica are either. Who are they? Will it change my life if I know who they are and why they have broken up?
Why are they so important?

I don't know who Lindsay Lohan is either, and I do not care at all about Tom Cruise's wife.

Am I going to be called before a Senate committee and asked if I am a subversive? Maybe, but I just have no clue who Nick and Jessica are.

If this is what it means to be no longer young. It's not so bad.

Next confession:

I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish.

And it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautiful lit up, bejeweled trees Christmas trees. I don't feel threatened. I don't feel discriminated against. That's what they are: Christmas trees.

It doesn't bother me a bit when people say, "Merry Christmas" to me. I don't think they are slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto. In fact, I kind of like it. It shows that we are all brothers and sisters celebrating this happy time of year.

It doesn't bother me at all that there is a manger scene on display at a key intersection near my beach house in Malibu. If people want a creche, it's just as fine with me as is the Menorah a few hundred yards away.

I don't like getting pushed around for being a Jew, and I don't think Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians. I think people who believe in God are sick and tired of getting pushed around, period.

I have no idea where the concept came from that America is an explicitly atheist country. I can't find it in the Constitution, and I don't like it being shoved down my throat.

Or maybe I can put it another way: where did the idea come from that we should worship Nick and Jessica and we aren't allowed to worship God as we understand Him?

I guess that's a sign that I'm getting old, too. But there are a lot of us who are wondering where Nick and Jessica came from and where the America we knew went to.

In light of the many jokes we send to one another for a laugh, this is a little different: This is not intended to be a joke; it's not funny, it's intended to get you thinking.

Billy Graham's daughter was interviewed on the Early Show and Jane Clayson asked her "How could God let something like this Happen?" (regarding Katrina)

Anne Graham gave an extremely profound and insightful response. She said, "I believe God is deeply saddened by this, just as we are, but for years we've been telling God to get out of our schools, to get out of our government and to get out of our lives.

And being the gentleman He is, I believe He has calmly backed out. How can we expect God to give us His blessing and His protection if we demand He leave us a lone?" (She said the same thing when interviewed after 9-11)

In light of recent events...terrorists attack, school shootings, etc.

I think it started when Madeleine Murray O'Hare (she was murdered, her body found recently) complained she didn't want prayer in our schools, and we said OK.

Then someone said you better not read the Bible in school. The Bible says thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, and love your neighbor as yourself. And we said OK.

Then Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn't spank our children when they misbehave because their little personalities would be warped and we might damage their self-esteem (Dr. Spock's son committed suicide). We said an expert should know what he's talking about. And we said OK.

Now we're asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they don't know right from wrong, and why it doesn't bother them to kill strangers, their classmates, and themselves.

Probably, if we think about it long and hard enough, we can figure it out. I think it has a great deal to do with "WE REAP WHAT WE SOW."

Funny how simple it is for people to trash God and then wonder why the world's going to hell.

Funny how we believe what the newspapers say, but question what the Bible says.

Funny how you can send 'jokes' through e-mail and they spread like wildfire but when you start sending messages regarding the Lord, people think twice about sharing.

Funny how lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene articles pass freely through cyberspace, but public discussion of God is suppressed in the school and workplace.

Are you laughing?

Funny how when you forward this message, you will not send it to many on your address list because you're not sure what they believe, or what they will think of you for sending it.

Funny how we can be more worried about what other people think of us than what God thinks of us.

Pass it on if you think it has merit. If not then just discard it ... no one will know you did. But, if you discard this thought process, don't sit back and complain about what bad shape the world is in.

My Best Regards. honestly and respectfully,

Ben Stein

I know its not 16 ga. related, but I think its worth reading. But then again, Ben is not too tall, kinda a 16ga. guy.

Seriously, if anyone is offended, I do apologise.

K , I'm duely offended. as pentnce you need to click your heels together 3 time and say "theres no place like 16ga" then all will be ok with the world, and Al will not have invented the internet, nor will there be global warming.

PGG , diner is over, the chops were my best ever, the wine was good, as is all the single malt I'm hammering so as to not get borrish I'll sign off for now. skiing in the am , so perhaps by the pm I'll be able to creat a coherant responce

Joined: 06 Mar 2007 Posts: 57 Location: falls village, CT

Mmmmmm, I DO like the politics here. Send Al to Mars. Thats a really good idea. Damn near better than '81 when I suggested Reagan declare Marshall law, have Ted Kennedy arrested and put in stocks in Lafayette Park, then balance the buget by selling rotten vegetables for people to throw at him. Very Happy

Member Joined: 08 Nov 2005 Posts: 3438 Location: Illinois

I think the point is too many folks live in their own version of Disneyworld thru the media-which is very anti-freedom---and never touch base with reality and what will happen when we are stripped of the right to defend ourselves.

Member Joined: 26 Jun 2005 Posts: 376 Location: North ID.

PGG,
How can one be offended, when the truth is spoken (or written) so clearly!

......agreed, agreed, thanks for sharing this,

Duncan

Joined: 02 Apr 2007 Posts: 12 Location: St. Paul, MN

Who are Nick and Jessica? Am I missing something? I liked the Ben Stein piece, though. Speaking of single-malt Scotch (gave it up for Lent, but that ends after the Easter Vigil tonight), here's a toast, to another Nick, to Nick and Nora.

Actually, I've been lurking here for a couple of months. I'm a new shooter and hunter (about a year now). It took me one year of hunting with a 7 lb. 9.5 oz. 12 ga. Franchi o/u to switch to a 6 lb. 5 oz 16 ga. AyA 4/53. Boy! it's a beautiful gun!

I'm late in the game (regretting all the wasted years), but better late then never I guess.

BTW, for those single malt drinkings, I'd be interested in what you 16 gaugers drink.

P.S. This is the first time I've ever posted to a blog. I'm still trying to figure out how it works. I have luddite tendencies.

Joined: 02 Apr 2007 Posts: 12 Location: St. Paul, MN

I meant to say "drinker," but that's probably obvious. I'll read my postings more carefully from here out.

Joined: 02 Apr 2007 Posts: 12 Location: St. Paul, MN

Ah! Talisker! It's in my top three. I list them (in order of general preference, but it also depends on my mood, or whether I'm smoking a pipe or cigar) 1) Talisker 2) Glenmorangie - aged in port barrels and 3) The Belvanie. But I have many more to try.

And yes, the AyA is light and lively. I'm still getting used to it with trap.

Hey Manalive --- Are that Nick and Nora the same Nick and Nora Charles from the "Thin Man" movies from way back Question

BTW, I drink water, Polar orange and any beer cold, warm or hot. Welcome aboard Laughing