Lets try this again. Here is the original transcript from the interview with Ben Stein. Here is the full version as broadcast, taken from a CBS News transcript of the program: CHARLES OSGOOD: We all have our own thoughts about the holidays. Heres Ben Stein with his. BEN STEIN: Here at this happy time of year, a few confessions from my beating heart. I have no freaking clue who Nick and Jessica are. (Footage of People magazine; Us magazine) STEIN: I see them on the cover of People and Us constantly when Im buying my dog biscuits. I still dont know. I often ask the checkers at the grocery stores who they are. They dont know who Nick and Jessica are, either. Who are they? Will it change my life if I know who they are and why theyve broken up? Why are they so darned important? (Footage of People magazine) STEIN: I Ben Stein dont know who Lindsay Lohan is either, and I dont care at all about Tom Cruises baby. (Vintage footage of congressional hearing) STEIN: Am I going to be called before a Senate committee and asked if Im a subversive? Maybe. But I just have no clue who Nick and Jessica are. Is this what it means to be no longer young? Hm, 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 beautifully lit-up, bejeweled trees Christmas trees. (Footage of Christmas trees) STEIN: I dont feel threatened. I dont feel discriminated against. Thats what they are — Christmas trees. It doesnt bother me a bit when people say Merry Christmas to me. I dont think theyre slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto. In fact, I kind of like it. I shows that were all brothers and sisters celebrating this happy time of year. It doesnt bother me one bit that theres a manger scene on display at a key intersection at my beach house in Malibu. (Footage of manger scene; menorah) STEIN: 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 dont 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 cant find it in the Constitution and I dont 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 arent allowed to worship God as we understand him? I guess thats a sign that Im getting old, too. But there are a lot of us who are wondering where Nick and Jessica came from and where the America we used to know went to. Read more at snopes/politics/soapbox/confessions.asp#KQzMK0jujG7xAAC6.99
Posted on: Sun, 27 Oct 2013 22:05:59 +0000
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