Ben Stein is an asshole.

I remember a time when the reigning view of Ben Stein was a smart, dry, and quite likable gent that happened to hold some conservative opinions on economics. Cut to a decade later and we have to put up with shit like Expelled! and its thesis that equates to, "You know who else believed in evolution? That's right..." When exactly did this metamorphasis from amicable uncle to embarrasingly beligerant grandfather take place.

It's not exactly like he was hiding it, being a speechwriter for Nixon and all. Still, in the time he was appearing in movies and television, his conservative views were barely noticable except for the occasional Laffer curve. Lately, however, he's been trying his hand at punditry and occasionally writing for Yahoo Finance, among others, penning articles like this: http://finance.yahoo.com/expert/article/yourlife/111202

"Remember a few months ago when oil was heading ever higher, gasoline reached unheard of prices, and Americans were essentially hysterical? Remember when Americans demanded, actually screamed in the politicians' ears that we wanted to drill in our offshore areas? ...Amazingly, the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives gave the American people a firm slap in the face while it planted a big wet sloppy kiss on the lips of Hollywood's glitterati."

"Hollywood's glitterati?" THAT'S YOU MOTHERFUCKER!

Sometime in the past few years, a Dennis Miller-like transformation occured, changing the once memorable comedic presence with a gimmick into the forgettable neo-con mouthpiece with a gimmick. After years of answering trivia and fending off gay jokes, Stein has established himself as a bit of a genius. But not like those west coast liberal elites. Ben is the working man's genius, here to take this big ol' situation and lay it all out for you. Just look at this article: http://finance.yahoo.com/expert/article/yourlife/115733

"First of all, obviously, I don't know what the future will bring. If I knew the future, I would be the richest man on the planet very soon and I assure you I am very far from that. But I now see what has happened and I can explain that, and it might give a tiny bit of insight into what will happen in the future."

Please, Ben, give it to me straight.

"Start around 1995. Groups involved with civil rights issues and activities for poor people began to complain that poor people and especially non-white poor people got mortgages much less often than white well to do people. Many economists, including me, explained that it was not at all surprising that poorer, less credit worthy people were often turned down for credit. That's how credit is supposed to work: you lend to people who will pay you back. But the advocates for poor and black people had immense political clout. Under President Bill Clinton, they passed legislation that called on banks to be required to lend to non credit worthy borrowers."

You asshole.

Which brings me to the main point of this post. Other pundits have made the claim that banks were forced to give loans to minorities as an attack against Obama and hiss work as a community organizer. It's ugly, pathetic, and evil, but hell, it's an election. Campaigns take any oportunity to strike at their opponent and everybody forgets about it after November. Hopefully, the right will stop thinking community organizers are terrorist operatives, I'll forget John McCain started the Forrestal fire, and the world will keep spinning. But this isn't about that.

Ben Stein isn't bringing up this argument as a campaign attack. That is undoubtedly where this talking point originated from, but unlike other examples, he fails to mention Obama. Instead, Stein presents this simply as an economic situation: market tampering to aid poor individuals ("especially minorites") resulted in instability. Forget for a moment that the idea banks were forced into this is total bullshit. Forget that the official policy of the free market is apparently "fuck poor people." Ben Stein is saying that the economy is collapsing because banks gave black people money. Way to go Ben, you fucking asshole.