Joel Stein

The main difference between me and the average blogger is that I get paid. How long I can continue to earn a living off of something people do just as well for free is a question I occasionally ask myself, and one I frequently am asked by people who send me hate mail. It's also the topic of the Carr-Benkler wager.

Re "Who runs Hollywood? C'mon," Opinion, Dec. 19 It is very disturbing to me when Joel Stein writes, "Jews totally run Hollywood." He goes on to say how proud he is of "our accomplishment," and, "Yes, we control Hollywood." While I understand his pride, I don't think he realizes the doors of anti-Semitism that he opens to those fringe groups looking for any excuse to hate us. Stein, to his credit, admits that maybe he's a little naive because he was raised in areas of the country that are heavily populated by Jews.

Who are these blockheads who don't like Joel??? Do they not understand humor if it's not Benny Hill??? I'm over 50 and adore his writing. -- hope, June 5, 2005, 08:05 AM * I enjoyed him in Time and now I can enjoy him in The Times. Smart, snarky observations are totally underrated by our society. Viva Stein! Stein for President! -- Caron, June 5, 2005, 09:12 AM * Do NOT give Joel Stein the axe!

Re "What's so bad about foreign oil?," Opinion, Aug. 8 Oil revenues were the basis of the wealth of Saudis such as the family of Osama bin Laden -- and thus helped finance the destruction of the World Trade Center. Oil revenues of countries such as Saudi Arabia and Venezuela are still financing terrorist activities. Does this mean nothing to Joel Stein? Marshall Giller Winnetka

"Wooing With Writing: A Story's Quick End," [Dec. 28] is one of the cleverest articles you've had in The Times in a long time. Get rid of Joel Stein and give Stephen Krcmar his space. ERIC COOPER Santa Monica

Re "Carrot Top could squish this columnist like a cheap prop," Current, Aug. 21 Seems to me that Joel Stein's wish came true a long time ago. He has long been the Carrot Top of columnists. JOE GALLIANI Redondo Beach

Re "Hasselhoff -- behind the breakdown," Opinion, Aug. 8 I would have thought it difficult to find a more self-absorbed human being than David Hasselhoff. But there it is, right there in the byline and pathological name-dropping: Joel Stein. JON HARRIS Malibu

Thanks! With the continued dumbing-down of the Sunday Opinion section, I can now skim through it in five minutes, rather than taking 30 to 60 minutes of my valuable time. Lots of cartoons, colored pictures and cute vanity pieces by Michael Lewis and Joel Stein mean so much less that actually needs to be read and digested. What have you done with the real Michael Kinsley -- you know, the intelligent, articulate journalist? Please bring him back and stop turning the Opinion into another piece of fluff.

Re "What's so bad about foreign oil?," Opinion, Aug. 8 Oil revenues were the basis of the wealth of Saudis such as the family of Osama bin Laden -- and thus helped finance the destruction of the World Trade Center. Oil revenues of countries such as Saudi Arabia and Venezuela are still financing terrorist activities. Does this mean nothing to Joel Stein? Marshall Giller Winnetka

I suppose your new Sunday Opinion columnist, Joel Stein, was hired for his youthful edginess, but all I'm seeing is someone juvenile and coarse. Why not bury him on the Sports pages or somewhere where his stories of porn star encounters won't take space away from the issues facing our troubled city and world? Better yet, fire him and the dope who thought he was a good idea. I have subscribed to The Times since the 1980s, but it's come to this: him or me. Dawna Kaufmann Los Angeles

Re "The Tour -- no doping, no drama," Opinion, July 25 You'd think that Joel Stein, who claims to have "been following cycling since 1994," would have learned something. The withdrawl of Ricardo Ricco's team following his banishment for doping was the equivalent of a baseball team quitting in the middle of the season, not "Major League Baseball just calling it quits in July." Stein can't be watching this year's Tour de France if he considers it to be "unwatchable." It's not all about superhuman efforts on every mountain, but team strategy, drafting and counterattacks.

Re "Make it a gay-old time," Opinion, May 30 Somebody should enlighten Joel Stein on the subject of "gay culture." He inadvertently suggests that California's non-senior population is wiser and more in tune with the facts of life than the writers of the Bible. He asks us old folks to vote against our collective "wisdom and experience" and embrace same-sex marriage. Does Stein seriously believe that same-sex "romance" is a relatively recent cultural phenomenon or overnight sensation?

The main difference between me and the average blogger is that I get paid. How long I can continue to earn a living off of something people do just as well for free is a question I occasionally ask myself, and one I frequently am asked by people who send me hate mail. It's also the topic of the Carr-Benkler wager.

Re "The shallow end of the think tank," Opinion, Feb. 13 Bravo to Joel Stein for his hilarious account of a week at the Hoover Institution. But he is too kind when he alleges that Hoover fellows "are kind of like professors who don't teach." They are also unlike professors in that their political position is bought and paid for, period. In truth, they are no more than propagandists for the organized right. If they want to call themselves "fellows," whatever that may mean, fine. But we should not tolerate them affecting the title of "scholar," as so many think tankers do. Nor should we equate them in any way with university professors, whose biases, at least, are their own. TONY ZITO Poughkeepsie, N.Y. Thank you, Joel Stein, for the first accurate piece on the Hoover Institution I've read in this paper in 40 years.

Re "Don't write me," Opinion, Jan. 2 In response to Joel Stein's angst-filled rant against the ruthless attempts by the public to connect with him, I hereby promise the following: I will not e-mail Stein. I will not call Stein. I will no longer read Stein. If enough people promise to follow the aforementioned measures, Stein will no longer have to worry about guarding his time from the voracious demands of his fans. RAMONA HALL Agua Dulce, Calif. Thanks, Joel, for standing up. E-mail, like cellphones and college degrees, is a great tool that in the hands of morons has become plaque in the arteries of civilization.

"Wooing With Writing: A Story's Quick End," [Dec. 28] is one of the cleverest articles you've had in The Times in a long time. Get rid of Joel Stein and give Stephen Krcmar his space. ERIC COOPER Santa Monica

Every Sunday I open the Opinion section, hoping that the editorial department will have returned to sanity. Week after week I am disappointed. Opinion has become as toothless as an octogenarian. I am caught in a time warp as vapid as the '50s and as vitriolic as the McCarthy era, when questioning authority begs my patriotism and fear is the most powerful four-letter word. I have hardened myself to Michael Ramirez's pontificating cartoons, but the ego-drivel of Joel Stein belongs in the entertainment section.

Re "Why I Gave Lots of Deodorant for Hanukkah," Opinion, Jan 16: Joel Stein writes, "Now I'm secretly hoping my show doesn't make it on the air" (that makes two of us!), "or that my parents develop severe forms of Alzheimer's before autumn." It's a sad day when a columnist in an esteemed newspaper utilizes someone else's tragedy in a tasteless attempt at humor. Ask any family who has lived the nightmare. There is no shortage of relevant topics of substance upon which to hold discourse, so why print this foolishness?

Re "When torture feels right," Opinion, Oct. 10 Joel Stein compares killing more than 50,000 Iraqis to torturing detainees for intelligence and concludes that the latter is less morally repulsive. Stein does not understand the first part of his comparison. A party at war tries to minimize the use of force to keep the number of civilian deaths low. You keep the force proportional to the goal of winning the war with the fewest casualties. As soon as you use more force than is absolutely necessary, you are morally irresponsible.

Re "Hasselhoff -- behind the breakdown," Opinion, Aug. 8 I would have thought it difficult to find a more self-absorbed human being than David Hasselhoff. But there it is, right there in the byline and pathological name-dropping: Joel Stein. JON HARRIS Malibu