Holy fucking shit.

Uh. Wow.

On the other hand, I have had hotel maids that were complete lunatics, stealing airline tickets from me, stealing money from me, throwing away important papers, stealing medications from me.

What. The. Fuck. Stein is just fucking lying at this point.

Well done, but Ben Stein, or indeed anyone at the American Spectator, counts as fruit hanging very low indeed.

Thank you Lindy.

Brain asplode! Thank god it's almost quittin time. Thanks, Lindy!

Spot on, Lindy!

this dude is insane.

So, any woman who is capable of reporting a rape can't possibly have been raped? Is that what I'm reading?

No one should be shocked by this. Stein has always been an old fool shooting his mouth off.
There's no fool like an old fool.

Points 1) and 2) are surely the stupidest arguments ever put forward in the history of mankind.

I only have one point in my argument.

1) Fuck you, Ben Stein, and your "Bueller, Bueller" repeating, intelligent design-believing ass. You are a misogynistic asshole, who deserves to have dry, itchy eyes forever.

Why is Ben Stein defending a Socialist?

As far as maids stealing goes, that's the most low-rent accusation in the book, and one of the oldest. If I had a dime for every time some hack tried to say that when I was a desk clerk, I'd be a millionaire, and anyone who has worked in a hotel will tell you the same. Most of the time, it's some ridiculous amount of jewelry or cash that they never had in the first place or, if they did have it, they would have put it in a safety deposit box.

Assaults against maids are not uncommon, and probably happen more frequently than they are reported to management, because a lot of the women who clean rooms come from bad situations: Refugees, or victims of domestic abuse, who may be hesitant to report stuff like this.

Stein is an odious person.

I'm never watching Ferris Bueller's Day Off again. fuck that movie for launching this guy into popular culture. he should have just faded into irrelevancy after the Nixon administration exploded.

So is he running for president also?

A close friend of mine was married to an economist (Ph.D.) who is now a registered sex offender. Stein. What a shithead.

Ben Stein is a morally-bankrupt, senile, sad old man. It's like when my grandparents-in-law would go off on semi-coherent racist tirades about the Mexicans in Wenatchee. You give them a pat on the head, refill their bowl of Wheateena, and slowly back out of the room.

Though maybe Stein's pat on the head should be delivered with a baseball bat.

I still want to win Ben Stein's money.

Thanks, Lindy.

I know this is a hateful, horrible thing to say, but what if the maid IS lying? Has there never been a false accusation of rape before? Other than Tawana Brawley and the woman who accused those Duke students, which are just two who pop into mind. Stein is indeed an asshole, but he's indisputably right about one thing: this man has not been convicted of any crime, and we do assume innocence until someone is proven guilty. So why don't you all just relax and see how this plays out?

Well, of course the guy's innocent. That's why he was in such a hurry to get out of there he left his cell phone behind.

Hello, I'm not Ben Stein.

What a small, small man.

Well, I'm not saying he's right that the maid steals stuff from his room, but to be fair, he DOES appear to be missing his medication.

"No Intelligence Allowed" sure describes his way of thinking.

"A man pays $3,000 a night for a hotel room? He's got to be guilty of something. Bring out the guillotine."

I completely agree.

I can't believe that monotonous old twat is claiming that Strauss-Kahn is "one of the most recognizable people on the planet". He's been all over the news for the last three days & francophile, politically aware, good-with-faces me couldn't pick him out of a line up of rich white old men with good tailors. So to the US border patrol he'd be like Where's Wally at blending in.

@14 - Ben Stein isn't defending a socialist. He's defending the head of the IMF. That's the institution that forces privatisation on destitute countries. The PS, the French "Socialist Party", does not stand on a socialist platform.

Stein must be seriously off his meds. Just yesterday, he dumped an op-ed into the paper about how the Arab Spring is a Bad Thing because the US is losing all its favorite despots in the region. Nice people, if occasionally brutal.

And by the way, Lindy, the vic in the hotel incident is African, not Mexican.

@27 FTW.

Ben Stein is an asshole.

Stein forgot this classic rape apoligist point
a la slog commenter aardvark---
9.) the hotel maid totally deserved it ' cause she was like a laptop or expensive car stereo left in plain view in your car under the viaduct....

What's great is that now that two other people have come forward with specific documented complaints about previous sexual assault/harassment, Ben Stein now has to concede that the IMF bastard is guilty.

I am in love with Lindy West.

You're a maid in NYC.

You get offered 1 million francs to shut up.

What do you do?

Thank you Lindy. You have saved so much of this science geek fag's furniture. I would fucking pay to have someone 3D comp Jerry Orbach into a scene where he and Jesse L. Martin walk into a meeting and arrest stein. And I would love you to cameo as the secretary who gets to yell 'You Can't Go In There!' (It's capitalized because it's that line now.)

Adi, you realize that the next episode of "Law & Order SVU" is already writing itself, with Det. Munch grilling the Strauss-Kahn stand-in about the IMF and its links to the Illuminati.

We need Jack McCoy.

@37 If someone offered me 1 million francs I'd party like it's 1999. Mainly because you can't spend them in the present day.

@22, Reading between the lines from stories generated by various news sources, including CNN & Abc News, I think it's all but certain that there's enough medical evidence to definitely say that SOMEONE traumatically throat-pumped this poor maid. Sure, she could be lying, or much more likely, honestly mistaken about who did the throat-pumping. The real NYPD's SVU would be taking this so seriously without ample evidence that a vicious criminal assault had been perpetrated against her.

I thought the American Spectator quotes were made up by Lindy. Until I went to the American Spectator site and remembered that THINGS ARE SO MUCH WORSE THAN I COULD EVER IMAGINE. Lindy, thank you for helping to keep my brain inside my skull, because after reading the AS article and comments it was in danger of leaking.

And just when I thought the suck of Ben Stein's anti-intellectual baggage could drag him down no further. What a fuckslave for pure evil.

31, I was being facetious about the whole Socialist thing. I know there's no way on God's green Earth a real Socialist would be allowed within 1000 meters of the IMF. But wasn't it just yesterday that the Slog was reporting that the right-wing was trying to blame this on the guy's Socialist nature?

And, for the record, hardly anyone pays $3000 a night for ANY hotel room, especially at a Swissotel (yes, that was catty of me. What's more, I don't retract it). When they actually do charge the "rack rate", you can be sure an expense account is picking it up.

Mostly, those suites go for free, either because the reservation is affiliated with a company or group that has booked a lot of business, or the cache of the "VIP" booking it makes it somehow worthwhile to the house.

@37 If they're Swiss Francs, I'd take 'em. They're worth double what they were just a few years ago, well over a buck each now. French francs are gone. They joined the Euro.

Oh, and Ben Stein has been an asshole for a long time now.

I believe Mr. Stein, if his arguments are sound, has just exonerated the Unabomber.

I love Lindy and loathe Ben Stein.

"Wow."

@41

No, you'd party like it was next year.

Euro exchange

Coins were freely exchangeable until 17 February 2005 at Banque de France only (some commercial banks could still perform it but were not required to offer this service for free after the transition period in 2001), by converting their total value in francs to euros (rounded to the nearest eurocent) at the official fixed rate of 6.55957 francs for 1 euro. Banknotes are officially convertible up to 17 February 2012.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_fran…

Plus since he's head of the IMF, he's probably got the plates for old European currency stashed in his basement.

Awesome piece Lindy! (I take back whatever I said about you last week)

Stein definitely appears to be protesting a little TOO vigorously here...

Stein is a disgusting asshole, pitting rich-n-white goodness vs dark-n-evil housekeeper. Something still stinks about this whole event, though.

Why did dear DSK contact the Sofitel from the airport "Hey, I'm on the 4:45 Air France flight, can you courier my forgotten mobile phone to me?" Not the behavior of a desperate fleeing perp. Is he that stupid?

@52: Because, like most rapists, he didn't think he had done anything wrong.

I (heart) Lindy West!

well.. a hotel maid stole my vintage yellow flannel eeyore pajama bottoms. the ones with the raised blue glitter stars. i couldn't replace em. i've worn nothing to bed since.
*weeps*

....*lifts head*...however..that prickstein needs to have his pie hole permanently sewn tight.

Reposted from the Slut Walk (aka handing aardvark his ass) thread:
Attention Seattle Sloggers:
I have been enlisted to organize a group of us to march in Seattle Slut Walk in June. Cienna Madrid will be putting up a post to that effect closer to the date, and we can coordinate in the comment section. I'll also put in a facebook event like we did for the unofficial Slog Happy.
Cienna and Kelly O will be marching and would like to meet up with us as well! Squee!

I want to punch Ben Stein in the throat and give Lindy West a platinum medal. Burn the rich, canonize the feminists. WHAT.

I'm with Ben on this one. The man is innocent in my eyes until they PROVE he was guilty. Srsly!

@43 Beat me to it. The quotes in the boxes sounded like classic West over the top satire. SPIT TAKE WHEN I REALIZED THOSE WERE ACTUAL QUOTES!!!

@22, If she's lying and he's not guilty that will (hopefully) come out in the trial and he will be released. Yes, we are innocent until proven guilty (unless you're the president in which case we need no proof at all that you're not American) but when any one of us is accused of a crime we are arrested and go to jail. If you're in New York it's likely you're going to Rikers. If it's a particularly nasty crime (rape) or if you're a person who would have a particularly easy time skipping the country (rich international businessman) then they make the bail super high, or non-existent so you don't disappear before the trial. Unfortunately, if you (or your victim) are famous for any reason the media makes a spectacle of it and presumes guilt or innocence in their reporting.

Maybe he's guilty and maybe he's not but so far I see nothing that makes me think law enforcement has handled this an an inappropriate way. He'll get a trial, he'll bring in an expensive team of lawyers and he will almost certainly get a fair trial in a court of law.

In the court of public opinion he will be judged by every idiot in the world who has strong and loosely connected personal opinions. There's nothing that can be done about this and bitching about it is as stupid as pissing into the wind.

Saying economists don't commit sex crimes is pretty dumb when a little googling by a guy who draws stick figures for a living can prove you wrong: http://blog.xkcd.com/2011/05/18/answerin…

Ben Stein stopped being entertaining the minute he stopped flirting with Jimmy Kimmel.

Of course, I wasn't in the hotel room and don't REALLY know if Dominique is guilty or not. But some of the arguments I've seen from those who'd say he can't be guilty make me heave:
1. He could afford an expensive prostitute, so why would he rape a maid? Excuse me, maybe you aren't aware that rape is about humiliation and power, not sexual attraction. Duh! We know that there are rich people who shoplift, just because someone can afford one thing doesn't mean they won't take another from another motivation.
2. She wasn't attractive, so why would he rape her? Hopefully, the person who made this comment to a yahoo article was being sarcastic, because it otherwise, it is just too idiotic to respond to.
3. Maids never enter hotel rooms when they are occupied, so it's suspicious that she entered. Huh? Haven't you ever had one of those embarrassing "having sex in the room and not yelling out when the maid knocks and she opens the door" moments? Even if it was the hotel's policy not to have maids enter the rooms on the morning a guest is checking out, I can think of several reasons she might have been there. (A mistake. He was unclear about the checkout date. She was under pressure to clean a certain number of rooms before finishing her shift, and she had knocked and there was no response.)
4. She was younger than he was, and could have gotten away. This excuse reminds me of the case in Our Bodies Ourselves where a defense attorney argued that rape was impossible by trying to insert a pencil into a spinning bottle. Just because it might have been physically possible to escape a rape doesn't mean that a terrified woman attacked by a naked man is going to have the presence of mind to assess the situation in a calm, detached manner. Besides, this woman was from Guinea. I have lived in that country and seriously doubt that she would instinctively kick the bastard in the balls like I would. Idiots are judging her behavior based on what an American man would/could do, not a West African woman afraid of losing her job/life in the US.

And to add to the idea that economists "aren't violent":
Ivory Coast's new president, Alassane Ouattara, former IMF employee, has been torturing and murdering members of his predecessor's cabinet. If you want to see photos in evidence, email me at bobunderhouse at gmail dot com. Meanwhile, Obama had made a fool of himself in this video saying that Mr. Ouattara was following the path of peace (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xp5AV5ugW… was mislead by his US ambassador (who "coincidentally" was also an IMF employee!)

Still love you.

does anyone else miss those halcyon days when Ben Stein was nothing but a cool geeky game-show host who was a hero to geeks and nerds everywhere because he was SMART?

what the HELL happened to his BRAIN?! i don't even understand it - it's like he's a totally different person.

and he's ignoring FACTS - like the fact that the NYPD had *evidence* that the crime was committed, and "reasonable suspicion" that this asshole was the one who committed it - without BOTH of those [and it takes MORE than just a woman saying "that person raped me" - have you ever TRIED to report a rape? it's REALLY REALLY REALLY hard to be taken seriously unless there is VISIBLE physical evidence that it happened...] there would have been no arrest.

this doesn't automatically mean he's guilty - it just means that he MIGHT be, the current evidence suggests it, so we're going to see. the presumption of innocence is still there, and it will STILL be the job of the DA to PROVE, beyond a reasonable doubt, that he was indeed the perpetrator of the crime.

and i have seen NOTHING that makes me think that things are "fishy" - everything, so far as the case has gone thus far, is "clean"/

sigh. i miss the cool Ben Stein who was funny and didn't talk about religion or politics...

PS: i'm here from "Alas, a Blog", just so you know :)

Denelian