Ben Stein Loves A Merry Christmas

He's more than just the teacher calling "Bueller.... Bueller... Bueller...?" or the game show host offering a chance to win his money. Ben Stein was a lawyer for years, and was a speechwriter for Richard Nixon. He's also an occasional commentator on CBS Sunday Morning. Last year, a week before Christmas, he offered this commentary, which is just as compelling this year. And yeah, I verified that it's actually true, he really did say it, and I even went to the trouble of correcting the emailed version I originally received to make it match what he actually said. The link to the proof is after the commentary. Merry Chrimstas!

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Here 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. I often ask the checkers at the grocery stores who they are. 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 darned important?
I don't know who Lindsay Lohan is either, and I do not care at all about Tom Cruise's baby.

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. Is this what it means to be no longer young? Hmm, 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're slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto. In fact, I kind of like it. It shows that we're all brothers and sisters celebrating this happy time of year. It doesn't bother me at all that there's a manger scene on display at a key intersection near my beach house in Malibu. If people want a creche, fine. The Menorah a few hundred yards away is fine, too.

I do not 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 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.

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Well said, Ben. Very well said. Again, Merry Christmas to all!

If you're still doubtin the authenticity of this, click here.