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brendalaBen Stein (best known for delivering the famous "Beuller" line in Ferris Beuller's Day Off) is a smart man who also happened to be one of the few out and proud conservatives in Hollywood. I enjoyed listening to him speak when he appeared on news shows and I had a great amount of respect for him for having the balls to finance and release the documentary Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed.
However, he recently released an op-ed about the Dominique Strauss-Kahn rape case that was so mind-bendingly stupid and offensive that I honestly thought it was satire the first time I read it! The whole article is insane, but these two paragraphs are the most appalling parts:
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2.) In life, events tend to follow patterns. People who commit crimes tend to be criminals, for example. Can anyone tell me any economists who have been convicted of violent sex crimes? Can anyone tell me of any heads of nonprofit international economic entities who have ever been charged and convicted of violent sexual crimes? Is it likely that just by chance this hotel maid found the only one in this category? Maybe Mr. Strauss-Kahn is guilty but if so, he is one of a kind, and criminals are not usually one of a kind.
MY THOUGHTS:
"Can anyone tell me of any heads of nonprofit international economic entities who have ever been charged and convicted of violent sexual crimes!?"
I can name a couple off the top of my head! And I've never been paid by MAJOR NEWS OUTLETS to discuss politics!!
It just...boggles my mind that a guy who appears to be so smart can say things that are this stupid. I know he lives among crazy people who believe that Roman Polanski is a victim and Sarah Palin is worse than Hitler; but....good Lord!
The "how could he rape her if he's short, fat, and unarmed?" line literally made me yell at the screen! Even short, fat men can easily overpower the average woman (and, for all we know, his accuser could be a 90-pound waif). And the implication that rape can't happen unless a knife or a gun is involved is just...AARG!
Hey Ben! Y'know, if you insist on being one of the few public faces of conservatism in a town/industry where right-wingers are about as common as unicorns, do us a favor and don't run around reinforcing the stereotype that conservatives hate women. We've spent the past couple of years working to combat it and you've just set us back about a decade! Fuck you! And fuck your elitist fucking friends, too!!!
Oh, and FYI, the sexual predators who are rich and powerful are WORSE than the scruffy hobos who jump out of dark allies and chase women with knives. They're worse because they feel entitled to abuse women and they often choose powerless targets (like, say, immigrant hotel maids). And they usually get away with it because they have a cadre of elitist, enabler buddies (like YOU!) who will go on TV and major newspapers and slander any woman who has the audacity to call the cops after being assaulted. And the scruffy, knife-wielding hobos don't have millions of dollars they can use to flee to France when the cops come after them.
....*sigh* To be fair, Stein made a good point about how we shouldn't convict people in the media before they've had their day in court. Even if, like Strauss-Kahn, they have a reputation of being perverted assholes (even by the standards of a country where perverted assholes are usually tolerated!). But presumption of innocence for the accused shouldn't also mean that the alleged rape victim is presumed to be a lying whore.
I never idolized Ben Stein or anything like that. But I thought he was pretty cool before all this. And now I'm gonna cringe every time I hear his voice in a damn cartoon. >_<
[Hat-tip:Hot Air]
However, he recently released an op-ed about the Dominique Strauss-Kahn rape case that was so mind-bendingly stupid and offensive that I honestly thought it was satire the first time I read it! The whole article is insane, but these two paragraphs are the most appalling parts:
=======================
2.) In life, events tend to follow patterns. People who commit crimes tend to be criminals, for example. Can anyone tell me any economists who have been convicted of violent sex crimes? Can anyone tell me of any heads of nonprofit international economic entities who have ever been charged and convicted of violent sexual crimes? Is it likely that just by chance this hotel maid found the only one in this category? Maybe Mr. Strauss-Kahn is guilty but if so, he is one of a kind, and criminals are not usually one of a kind.
3.) The prosecutors say that Mr. Strauss-Kahn “forced” the complainant to have oral and other sex with him. How? Did he have a gun? Did he have a knife? He’s a short fat old man. They were in a hotel with people passing by the room constantly, if it’s anything like the many hotels I am in. How did he intimidate her in that situation? And if he was so intimidating, why did she immediately feel un-intimidated enough to alert the authorities as to her story?
=======================
MY THOUGHTS:
"Can anyone tell me of any heads of nonprofit international economic entities who have ever been charged and convicted of violent sexual crimes!?"
I can name a couple off the top of my head! And I've never been paid by MAJOR NEWS OUTLETS to discuss politics!!
It just...boggles my mind that a guy who appears to be so smart can say things that are this stupid. I know he lives among crazy people who believe that Roman Polanski is a victim and Sarah Palin is worse than Hitler; but....good Lord!
The "how could he rape her if he's short, fat, and unarmed?" line literally made me yell at the screen! Even short, fat men can easily overpower the average woman (and, for all we know, his accuser could be a 90-pound waif). And the implication that rape can't happen unless a knife or a gun is involved is just...AARG!
Hey Ben! Y'know, if you insist on being one of the few public faces of conservatism in a town/industry where right-wingers are about as common as unicorns, do us a favor and don't run around reinforcing the stereotype that conservatives hate women. We've spent the past couple of years working to combat it and you've just set us back about a decade! Fuck you! And fuck your elitist fucking friends, too!!!
Oh, and FYI, the sexual predators who are rich and powerful are WORSE than the scruffy hobos who jump out of dark allies and chase women with knives. They're worse because they feel entitled to abuse women and they often choose powerless targets (like, say, immigrant hotel maids). And they usually get away with it because they have a cadre of elitist, enabler buddies (like YOU!) who will go on TV and major newspapers and slander any woman who has the audacity to call the cops after being assaulted. And the scruffy, knife-wielding hobos don't have millions of dollars they can use to flee to France when the cops come after them.
....*sigh* To be fair, Stein made a good point about how we shouldn't convict people in the media before they've had their day in court. Even if, like Strauss-Kahn, they have a reputation of being perverted assholes (even by the standards of a country where perverted assholes are usually tolerated!). But presumption of innocence for the accused shouldn't also mean that the alleged rape victim is presumed to be a lying whore.
I never idolized Ben Stein or anything like that. But I thought he was pretty cool before all this. And now I'm gonna cringe every time I hear his voice in a damn cartoon. >_<
[Hat-tip:Hot Air]
