From Ben to me:
From: Benstein99@
Date: Mon, 13 Mar 2006 01:44:49 EST
Subject: Re: Your editorial on life as an aging baby boomer
FUCK YOU.
And he is apparently eliciting the support, advice, or help (with security?) of the editor of the American Spectator and his `conservative' writing partner Phil the Mouth, er, I mean Phil deMuth.
Okay, it was a slow news day on Sunday morning, and getting in yahoo mail, I was inundated with links to premier yahoo links to check out. One caught my eye by Ben Stein. Excerpt below.
It seems Bennie is concerned that us baby boomers are going to be plagued with really bad service in our elder years. By god, he almost had to sit in a bulkhead seat in first class on United Airlines and no one would help him get a better seat! Oh, and the lady at the Cadillac dealership didn't want to drive the newest model to him at his office to view - even when he told her he would pay for it in full right then and there. He didn't understand how anyone could turn him down when there was proof that he could afford the product. Wave money, people coming running seems to be Ben's perception of the world.
Is that why he writes all those books on saving for retirement? So that those who heed his wise advice will be ensured GREAT SERVICE?
Oh, what is the world coming to?
The most blatantly bigoted thing Ben says is we may all be subject to receiving services from people who don't speak English! Horrors!
http://finance.yahoo.com/...
Standards of Life in the Future: Think Grim
I've had a couple of bad experiences recently that sharpened my worry about what life will be like for retirees in the future -- I fear that a catastrophe of declining standards of life is heading our way.
I'm thinking about how bad it has gotten in terms of how customers are treated. A few days ago, I called the saleswoman at an auto dealer who sold me my last car a few years ago. I asked her to come over and show me the newest model of my car and told her if I liked it, I would buy it on the spot.
"Sorry," she said. "Too busy."
"Really? Are you selling that many Cadillacs?"
"Well, I'm not really selling any, but a lot of people are looking and wasting my time," she said.
"But you know I'm a qualified buyer who has bought from you before," I protested.
"Maybe I'll fax you some stats," she said helpfully. I never got them.
CLIP
My point is how terrible service is -- even at the higher end in 2006 -- and then to add this chilling thought: If this is how bad it is at the high end now, can you imagine how awful it'll be for everyone in 2020? When all vestiges of service are gone? When no one speaks English? When all customers are just ciphers?
Like I said, it was a slow news day, and this rightwing NLRC award-winning, Nixon-loving bigot just got my goat (see Wikipedia on Bennie: http://en.wikipedia.org/... ). So I shot off an email to him, as follows:
Dear Ben:
I loved your most recent column. But I suggest
removing a few blinders. Did it ever cross your
mind that maybe, just maybe, the public knows who
you are and that they just don't like you? No
matter how much money you flash before their averted
eyes?
Maybe a bigoted jerk who is worried about whether
those polishing his overpaid arse into his old age
speak English or not is just really the last straw.
Also notice that in your recent examples of being
treated like a bag lady it is women who are denying
your pomposity?
Did that every occur to you? Even for a
millisecond?
Thanks for listening.
Oh boy did he unleash a firestorm. Three successive emails to me, the last of which was cc'd to the editor of the American Spectator (my fav rag, I tell ya!) and to his co-author, Fun Phil DeMuth. Wonder what he expects them to do? Shudders.
THE FIRST EMAIL, at 1:44 a.m.
From: Benstein99@
Date: Mon, 13 Mar 2006 01:44:49 EST
Subject: Re: Your editorial on life as an aging baby boomer
FUCK YOU.
THE SECOND EMAIL, a few minutes later
From: Benstein99
Date: Mon, 13 Mar 2006 01:52:36 EST
Subject: Re: Your editorial on life as an aging baby boomer
Let me tell you something else, you sad sack. I spent a LOT of my life doing free legal work for the poor, often Hispanic, while my fellow lawyers were raking in the bucks. Right now I support three Hispanic families on a level they never dreamed would happen to them.
When you have actually done something for the poor and the outsiders instead of sending hate mail that shows zero intelligence, we can talk.
And speaking of bigoted, I was demonstrating for voting rights for African Americans and getting kicked and spit on when you were still puking in your crib, which is basically what you apparently do now.
THE THIRD EMAIL about an hour later
This one is my favorite. He previously just used my email title line in response above, but changed this one to let those he cc'd know that this was his response to `an angry letter-writer." Not that I think those he cc'd would admonish him for his angry retorts in the first two, but seems he didn't really want them to know about it.
Wplesz is the editor of the American Spectator, btw. So I now have the American Spectator on my arse. Great, just great.
Not to delay....
From: Benstein99@
Date: Mon, 13 Mar 2006 03:06:59 EST
Subject: Re: Response to an angry letter.
CC: WPlesz@aol.com, phil@phildemuth.com
You know, I am sorry I wrote "f--k you" to you.
You really exemplify a fairly common problem for famous people. You think you know me and what you think you know of me makes you envious and therefore hate me.
But you don't know me at all. I am actually very much loved by airline personnel in general because I have stood up for them and their unions many times in print. I am not especially rich. I don't wave money in front of people's noses ( I realize yours is an anti-Semitic association ). I don't ask people to kiss my ass. That's your imagination.
You just don';t know me at all, and you don't really achieve any purpose by attacking people you don't know except maybe for a moment's feeling of glee for attacking someone who you fantasy is powerful but he really cannot harm you ( or else you would be too afraid to write to me).
You would do a lot better getting to know yourself. I hope you do. But if you don't, if you just keep on the path of attack and envy, you have a lot of company. You might call it the Democratic Party of Howard Dean.
Finally. A famous person finally responds to one of the million letters I have written in the past five grim years. Well, Bob Herbert thanked me once. And the Marijuana Monologues guy wrote me a nice letter explaining why Tommy Chong really should keep his contract when I was horrified that they were suing Tommy for not keeping his contract (he is now doing the Monologues, as the nice Monologues creator gently educated me that Tommy should have done).
I don't know... I felt compelled to respond to Bennie one more time. He doesn't have connections to Fox Security does he? Shudders!
MY FINAL RESPONSE TO BENNIE
"You really exemplify a fairly common problem for famous people. You think you know me and what you
think you know of me makes you envious and therefore
hate me."
You don't get it. As a famous person, you have a
responsibility for what you put out there. Believe
me, there is no envy.
As for the 3 hispanic families you support? I would
assume that is your maid, gardner and chauffer?
And, I don't know what 'organization' you seem to
think I belong to....or why/how you would think I
belong to them (a little journalistic snooping for a
'good cause'?) but I assure you, I in no way voted for
Howard Dean.
Good lord, you put yourself out there with extremist
and narrow views and you can't take it that some little
waif of a gal out in the middle of no where tells you
that people don't like you?? That's what gets your
goat? You are a lot scarier than I had previously
thought.
Get a grip.
Should I be scared? Do you think that I can sue Ben for being mean to me? Or would that compromise the good life that those three Hispanic families could never have DREAMED o having save for the goodness of Bennie?
Seriously, does anyone think Ben has connections to Fox Security?
Dang, it's true. Cussing does diminish a person. That is the first letter I ever wrote to a winger that didn't have a cuss word.
Ben, if you're reading this: you're a d-ck!
Oh, please weigh in. And feel free to defend me by writing to Ben directly: Benstein99@aol.com