LET'S PRETEND PUNDITS

• “A bigger  bunch of bullies you’ve  NEVER  seen in your life…They are a united black-listing front who will go against anyone that they think is politically undesirable. They are not for freedom of speech ! They are not for freedom of expression. They are exactly the opposite of that !!!....” 

Is this Pope Francis, discussing Planned Parenthood ?

AFL-CIO  labor chief kicking the Chamber of Commerce ?

Or maybe, Sen. Chuck Schumer putting a badmouth on Trumpites ?

Or, maybe CNN and Fox News channel slamming each other simultaneously....

Nope. This is Ben Stein, talking to Neil Cavuto about all of Hollywood, where he has been known to pick up a few bucks playacting the part of a school principal--- work he really didn't need because he has enough money to burn up a herd of wet Wooly Mammoths in a swamp.  He is--as was his Dad-- a keen economist and investor first of all.

I am as bewildered as Stein about the wool gathering cortices of the wildlife that  haunts the fetid thoroughfares of Hollywood and Lala land. 

To be sure, there was a fellow who stopped by the studios to make a flick or two, but he (Ronald Reagan) had  a university degree in economics, and was a very successful labor leader until he uncovered anti-American communist agents in his union and exposed them.  This ended his play-pretend days and put him on a long path of speaking and thinking on policy which put him in the White House.

But with the exception of James Woods, who has an IQ of 180+, there is not anybody who makes their living pretending  to be somebody else, who necessarily has the secret of perfect  Democratic /  Republican governance.

The actor or director not heavily burdened with egotism, hubris and arrogance  is more rare than a victory by Wile E. Coyote and Acme over the RoadRunner.

Those people are almost magical in what they do, but it's not subatomic physics and the walls of their Cloister are high enough to stem any effort to violate the sanctity of their echo chamber.

Come to think of it, Ben Stein using his considerable cerebral power to collect shekels rather than plaudits of movie critics, has blue-chip non-cinema credentials of his own and he is a proven winner.

But then, so is the RoadRunner....