Ben Stein calls Ron Paul anti-Semitic on the Larry King Live show
In a rare moment I was actually watching television last night, and caught a segment of the Larry King Live show with Ben Stein, Sheilia Jackson, and Ron Paul. Here’s the video:
During the exchange Paul explains that the reason Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab wanted to attack the United States is because we had bombed Yemen several weeks ago. He describes the United States as occupiers of Muslim lands, and elaborates on the idea that Osama bin Laden’s entire point in enacting the 9/11 attacks was to embroil us in a long, expensive, and ultimately counterproductive war in Muslim lands. This would eventually bankrupt the United States and strip us of our most dear civil liberties and freedoms. He points out that young men like Abdulmutallab become terrorists because we are in this destructive and ongoing war in the first place – a war which can very easily be perceived as a war against Islam – and which creates a never ending supply of fresh recruits.
Stein says this is nonsense, and when asked why he thinks these young men become terrorists he responds: “Because they’re psychopaths.”
I always thought Stein was a smart guy, but I’m really beginning to wonder. The whole Intelligent Design business was bad enough, but boiling down the motivation of all of our enemies to “because they’re psychopaths” is downright stupid, not to mention lazy.
In any case, when Paul attributes the motivation of these recruits to occupation – and I assume he’s referring to U.S. occupation, not Israeli – Stein immediately calls the assertion anti-Semitic. Which leads to several minutes of unintelligible arguing between the two with both King and Jackson attempting to referee, and several demands from Paul that Stein apologize.
Another interesting thing about this video is the three philosophies presented by Stein, Jackson, and Paul. Stein wants the government to contract out our security to firms like IBM (private industry can do it better). Jackson has complete faith that with enough internal reviews and procedural changes, the government itself can figure out what went wrong and how it can be fixed in the future (the state can do it better). And Paul wants us to get the hell out of Dodge (nobody can do it better so we’d better stop while we’re behind).
I have to say, I find Dr. Paul’s vision the most sensible. It’s time we left the Middle East to its own ends. We can protect our homeland better by not interfering with the rest of the world than either IBM or the federal government can through innovation or review.
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Well of course Ron Paul has the most sensible and logical answer of the three. I am a life-long Democrat but I have always liked Paul’s ability to cut through the fog and get to the causation of a particular issue. I think if Paul could divorce himself from the religious right, he would be a credible centrist candidate for President.
Stein is a tool – a shill for the military-industrial complex and Jackson is simply clueless.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Free URL, Retourkutsche. Retourkutsche said: http://bit.ly/8bmsGk Ben Stein calls Ron Paul anti-Semitic on the Larry King Live show [...]
I didn’t see the show, so whether or not Paul could have gone too far in excusing Muslims who attack I do not know. However, clearly the claim that it’s all about “psychopaths” is nothing more than Bulverism.
It’s about all that Expelled ever achieved as well, though. In talking about that rabid attack on science, Stein sometimes claimed that he was open to the evidence, and at other times he admitted that he was biased against “Darwinism” from the beginning, since he considered it to be behind Nazism (he clearly doesn’t know history).
Instead of ever bothering to back up any of its claims, other than “Gee, the cell is so complex it must have been created,” Expelled merely claimed an anti-religious conspiracy of the courts, educational system, and science establishment. Apparently, because that’s just what they do.
Stein may indeed be smart, but he’s ignorant of a huge number of matters, and merely attacks when his prejudices are threatened. The right must be reclaimed from that tendency, and from those who push it as a supposedly legitimate method of dealing with issues.
Glen Davidson
http://tinyurl.com/mxaa3p
Glen – when you get a chance watch the video above. I don’t think Paul went too far, but that’s my bias coming through.
In response to another comment. See in context »Mr. Davidson,
Congressman Paul did not excuse acts – or attempted acts – of terrorism in the video clip provided (nor has he made excuses anywhere else so far as I am aware). It is not clear to me how Dr. Stein may have concluded that the Congressman was trying to do so, and I am at a loss to explain this apparent misunderstanding.
For a thought-provoking consideration of similar misinterpretations of Congressman Paul’s views, I can recommend the article found through the use of this link: http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=3108
Like you, I believe that Dr. Stein is a very intelligent person, and I would expect him to be above the logical fallacies – and free of the agendas mentioned – in the article for which I’ve provided a link.
Perhaps tonight he will be given an opportunity to elaborate upon the reason(s) for the accusation he made if Mr. King invites his guests back as he said he would.
Best regards,
Charles
In response to another comment. See in context »Stein says he’s never heard anything like Paul’s argument before? Where has he been?
Right? That’s what I thought when I heard that…
In response to another comment. See in context »Rudy Giuliani used that same line against Paul during one of the Republican candidate debates during the 2008 election.
In response to another comment. See in context »Stein’s comments only echo the “party” line of the AIPAC lobby whose aim is to place Israeli interests ahead of American interests using American tax dollars and American military. The key part of this strategy is to portray all Muslims as psychos. This strategy is well received with the American Christian fundamentalists who see us in the “last days” before the coming of Christ.
I’ve voted Democrat over the past several elections but I have a lot of respect for Ron Paul. He’s one of the few Congressmen with the courage to speak the truth. If he runs again there’s a good chance I’ll support him with my vote and money.
Regards,
Mathew
The more you see Stein these days the more ignorant he seems to appear
What Ben Stein did was horrible, he needs to apologize. Please pass this on: http://tinyurl.com/BenSteinApologize
support HR 1207
There is no doubt that there’s bigotry everywhere, but it is very disturbing and distasteful to see those who have been discriminated against toss accusations of bigotry like molotov cocktails toward those who don’t deserve it. This is what Mr. Stein appears to have done to Rep. Paul.