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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 way.    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

Herewith at this happy time of year, a few confessions from my  beating heart: I have no freaking 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 intersecti on  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 alone?"

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 peo ple 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