they actually both shared a first friend who vote wrote the introduction for the last book that came out. these two pieces of art, the first on the occasion of kurt vonnegut s birthday in 2003, and the second was created when he found out he had died. that was in 2007. we are in the front of the kurt vonnegut library. we have kurt vonnegut s typewriter that was used and was donated to us by his daughter. he wrote many of his more familiar books in the 1970s. we are happy to have this typewriter. he was not a fan of high-technology and he did not use a computer. he learned to use the typewriter to his dying day. he liked to work in his home. an office chair and a coffee table. he was slumped over his typewriter. kurt vonnegut would go out into the world every day. he talks about how he learned you can buy postage stamps over the internet and he thought that was horrible because if he chose that route he would not have the everyday experience of going to the post office and t
and go to his blog and you can see exactly what he sent us as far as the e-mail, we ask all of our authors what their favorite books are influences, et cetera. cheetah in dalton, texas, you re on with r. emmett tyrrell. please go ahead with your question on booktv. caller: ben stein one of your contributors to the american spectators suggested that the gop recruit president obama into its ranks. mr. stein said it would be a good fit. can you personally strange this strange introduction other conservatives who are so opposed to obama s liberal views, especially obamacare, his economic and his immigration policy? i think i explained once ben stein was being ironic. and irony will get you no place in public today, ben so cut out the jokes. darcy, mount clemens, michigan. good afternoon. caller: i want to you further elaborate how when it comes to the conservatives or if you would like to say the liberals who are now become the progressives, hasn t it always been the cons
once again turned their back on the clintons, and they were in high dungeon over the misbehavior of the clintons. in a very short period of time, the new york observer and new york times were calling for hillary to stay in office and run for president, as a matter of fact. so the fortunes change repeatedly. as for eric holder, he s moved on and become attorney general. who knows what waits him next. but it could be investigated and perhaps it should be. host: an e-mail, i have enjoyed ben stein s diary in the american spectator for decades, could you tell us how ben stein came to be a writer for your magazine? is. guest: yes. he was a speech writer for richard nixon, and i admired him immensely. i admired him for representing the values and the views of the middle class. and by that i meant that as high regard. and he wrote thoughtful but also down home pieces, pieces that were in touch with the american people. and i invited him into our pages. eventually, he joined in o
movement afoot to create a new political culture. and i mention that in my last an three books they think news, of talk radio with sean hannity and rush limbaugh and mark levin, and it s made up of the internet. recently the new york sun came on the internet, that s a good thing. it s made up of the wall street journal which has created an antidote to the new york times. so there is a culture in our country, and, by the way, national review and commentary. we are creating a culture that is vanquishing the culture smog. but for now the culture smog is out there, and we have to deal with it. it s the one pollutant that the liberals never say anything against. but i as an environmentalist of sorts have spoke out against the culture smog and done my best to vanquish it, and the people that i ve just mentioned are vanquishing it right there with me. host: what s an example of the culture smog? guest: well, we re on the 100th anniversary of ronald reagan today. and the cultur
in to you: ronald reagan has been called the great communicator, but is bill clinton more deserving of that moniker, and would it be more accurate to refer to reagan as the great american? guest: the what? host: the great american rather than the great communicator. guest: well, i like the great american. [laughter] i guess you want let me talk a little about bill clinton. somewhere in my books, in my last two books i talk about the chronic campaigner, and that would be bill clinton. that would be hillary clinton. that would be john francois kerry, that would be newt gingrich. it s the 1960s generation that developed this, was the most political of generations. and as i say, it s been a disaster for the country. luckily, in the 1990s there was no reason to we didn t have to be on guard all the time, and we could put up with a amiable huckster like the clintons. but the chronic campaigner campaigns all the time, is campaigning in office and here he is out of office,