Elsewhere, I slugged out to the Ben Stein talk last night. It was crazy to see a world famous man up on the stage, especially one so underwhelming as Stein. He had a bit of a hunch back and was really short.
The stuff he said was quite interesting, and he sounded very left save for a few rather obvious exceptions. He openly blamed Republicans for the economic collapse and said Democrats were doing exactly what they needed to be doing. Where he got off was right at the end when he blurted out that he just freaking loved the military! Out of nowhere. And the crowd went freaking wild! Democrats need to learn this stuff.
A Q&A session followed which involved some nutty characters. Even I won't blame Fresno for this as unfortunately the people that speak up at public events are almost universally the people least qualified to do so. Some woman came up and said she predicted the exact extent of the economic collapse and wondered why the experts couldn't do it. He said, in so many words, that she was an idiot. Another kid claimed he had made thousands off of short selling stocks. He called this kid, again, an idiot in the most polite way I have ever seen.
Gay marriage came up. Stein said, very loudly, "WELL SOME PEOPLE THINK THE VOTERS SHOULD DECIDE AND THAT'S WHAT CALIFORNIA DID." and then, almost a whisper, "but one of my best friends is gay and he thinks the courts should decide, so I go with him."
The legalization of marijuana came up. Stein loudly said that he loved smoking weed in the 60s, and then backed off with the ridiculous argument that today's marijuana is too strong to be legal.
He even said at one point that the people of cities like Fresno were wonderfully helpful to others, but that Ivy-Leaguers (He even named schools! Despite being an Ivy-Leaguer himself) were greedy for money and thus couldn't be trusted.
And then, as the Q&A session ended, he AGAIN went on a rant about how much he looooooooved the military, and the crowd went wild again!!
In other words, he told half-truths and even some outright lies to pander to an audience that he knew was politically conservative and generally not that smart. No problem, he's a celebrity trying to win over a crowd. What scares me is, do actual Republicans do this?
Okay, not to get too far off-subject, a Fresno nursing home was fined $80,000 because a resident died of choking.
Don't forget to cheer on the Women's basketball team tomorrow night on ESPN2. Or, even better, go down to LA to see 'em. You can leave Fresno!!!! Go 'Dogs!
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You call these grapes?