Ben Stein Visits Walter Reed Army Medical Center Again

From Ben Stein's Diary

Monday

Here I am in D.C. I spent the afternoon visiting wounded soldiers at WRAMC. Now, much of modern life is just plain pornography. Plain and simple porn. That's what it is. Just wicked and dirty.

But real clean beauty is at Walter Reed. The brave man with his beautiful girlfriend who lay calmly in bed discussing where he should go to business school. He had just had his leg amputated a few HOURS before! The man who had fallen from a disabled truck 50 feet into a creek bed and broken six spinal vertebrae and severed his spinal cord, and just kept saying, "I feel so lucky to be alive." The mothers and fathers. The wives. The girlfriends and fiancées. The astounding man from Arkansas, David, an amputee, cruising about in his wheelchair with a big smile. These people are the fresh water and soap that wipe this nation clean.

I left WRAMC with a huge headache. I just feel sick that these men are not surrounded by throngs of well-wishers praising them and praying for them night and day. (Frankly, I feel sick that we're in Afghanistan at all.) A bad day for us is bouncing a check. A bad day for them is severing their spinal cord. What the heck can we ever do to thank them enough? What?

...

When these men wake up in the middle of the night, drugged, confused about where they are, then suddenly remember they are lying there with no legs, where are we? If it's me, worrying about my son's education or about whether I should sell an asset or have a colonoscopy. What do these men think about?

And how can we do better by them? How can we tell them we worship them and love them?

We had better fall to our knees right now and figure it out.

Read Ben Stein's Diary entry here at American Spectator.

WRAMC

Ben Stein, Economics Teacher

Ben Stein's American Spectator piece this morning on the end of economic wishful thinking is worth a look.

1. People who bought guaranteed income in the form of annuities from insurance companies have been saved. As far as I am aware, no insurers have failed to make the guaranteed payments they were contracted to make. People who bought variable annuities with value floors and guaranteed incomes and inflation riders have been able to laugh at the economic tornadoes. There are many people who hate insurers, but for those who put their trust in insurance companies to guarantee their old age comfort, there has been security.

Read it all here.

Me? I own no insurance or variable annuities. 'Fraid I was reared as an economic illiterate or on oldish, otherworldly Biblical economics:

King James Bible
Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?

Bible in Basic English
See the birds of heaven; they do not put seeds in the earth, they do not get in grain, or put it in store-houses; and your Father in heaven gives them food. Are you not of much more value than they?

WordMonkey Bible
Mirad las aves del cielo: no siembran, ni siegan, ni recogen en graneros, y vuestro Padre celestial las alimenta. ¿No valéis vosotros mucho más que ellas?

Hope that works out for me.
Still, Stein, teaches:


And, always, any excuse to Bueller:

Clear Eyes

Ben Stein's Diary
I ate at an Italian restaurant near the hotel. It was so horrible I really cannot say. The food and my reaction to it kept me up all night. This goes back to something I have often said, namely that fast food is better than expensive slow restaurant food in about 90 percent of cases
...
[New city, new meal]:
I checked into my modest suite at the Canterbury Hotel and went out for food at P.F. Chang's. As usual, it was a barely edible meal, but a very comfortable seat.

Lesser celebrity food reviews here.