The Glenn Beck Report

Not just about fresh-faced boys and a great choir

I think the first exposure  or awareness I had to the Mormons was just past the midpoint of the last century.  My grandfather, retired from his job as county assessor, had taken a part-time job doing accounting work at a gas station in our little town.  Our family didn’t have much money in those days so Gramps picked up a Christmas LP with a variety of artists singing Christmas carols.  I think it was from Firestone tires and I think I may even still have it somewhere among my 1500 albums. If my memory serves me correctly, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir sang “Adestes Fedeles” (O Come All Ye Faithful). We listened to that record hundreds of times over the years.

So, growing up, the only thing I knew about the Mormons was that they had a great choir.  We didn’t have a Mormon church in our city, and we were near the end of the line, so to speak, so perhaps the Mormons hadn’t gotten around to mapping out our community yet.  If they ever showed up at our door, they never got through it. During this period of my life, I was very much interested in religion and was even considering a career as a pastor at one point, which amuses me now given my agnostic/atheist beliefs. During my second year of college, there was a Mormon in our dorm who happily gave me a copy of the Book of Mormon, which I prized and kept near my Bible and Satanic Bible. Back in those days, people used to sit around and have “bull sessions” about various topics, and religion was a favorite as it always included plenty of semi-informed speculation about what this or that might mean.

Flash forward to a new century, in a quiet town in a quiet state.  Our doorbell rang about every 6 months and my wife would coldly yet politely shag the two young “elder” Mormon lads who rang it down the road. This happened several times before I decided to let them in, sit them down and give them hell, and THEN shag them down the road once and for all. They sat down and we chatted about normal stuff for a while and during that conversation I realized that I really liked these fresh-faced kids.  They reminded me of me when I was about their age, earnestly and eagerly wanting to talk about their religious beliefs and proselytize if the opportunity presented itself. (Of course, in my day, I was all about LSD, not LDS).  We began to talk about religion, and I gave them fair warning that we both have religious beliefs (my wife is Catholic) and on we went.  There was slight pressure in the conversation towards the Mormon beliefs but it was subtle and respectful. After a while they said they had to go but they wanted to pray for me first. I thought that was sweet.  I invited them to come back any time, adding that they were welcome to come in out of the rain or cold, to warm up, have some water, use the bathroom, or whatever.

I think we saw that pair of young men two more times. One of them was from Portland, Oregon, and his mission was almost over.  A second pair came in once, and after that we haven’t seen any more Mormon missionaries. From what I know now, I expect that records of each contact were carefully noted and reported. I think we have used all of our allotted opportunities to become Mormons.

I wouldn’t have ever even thought of Mormons again, possibly, if it wasn’t for Glenn Beck. That would have been unfortunate, because despite being a political junkie I may have never bothered to notice them because they operate in such secrecy.  If you’re not actually looking for Mormon political actions and history you won’t see it because they rarely allow themselves to be seen.  That is, unless you’re one of the people who they screw, as they did in to LGBTs in California and Maine by pumping millions of dollars into a hate-filled smear campaign against the civil right of marriage for all.  This one I find to be rather interesting given the role of the government in ending polygamy in 1890 and the struggle that the Mormons fought for 50 years to hold to it.

A quick side note. I got an email just yesterday from Fred Karger of Californians Against Hate.  The Mormons have come out publicly supporting Salt Lake City’s proposed ordinance which prohibits discrimination against LGBTs regarding employment and housing. The ordinance also protects those with disabilities.  Fred is hopeful that this is an opening step in a LDS church that is more open to granting civil rights to LGBTs. I take a more cynical view.  In the last days before the November 3^rd election in which Maine overturned their LGBT marriage law, there was a dispute between gay LGBT advocates and NOM (National Organization for Marriage) which pumped $1.6 million into overturning the marriage law in Maine. A federal court ruled that NOM must disclose its donors under Maine law; they still haven’t complied with the ruling and I believe that this latest news from the Mormons “supporting” LGBT civil rights in Utah is pure PR. They know that they are about to be cold-busted in Maine as the primary donor to NOM’s campaign.

Mormon History: steeped in blood, fraud, racism, sexism and lawlessness

This section is not intended to be comprehensive nor is it a mini-course in comparative religion.  The history of all religions could be written in the blood spilled by their adherents. In any religion there is an “in” group and an “out” group defined by a dogmatic set of rules and codes that the in group follows and the out group doesn’t.  The history of early Christianity has been filtered through the ages, but Mormon history is relatively recent so we have modern accounts dating back to its very beginnings.

Fraud

The Mormon faith is founded on documents supposedly found by Joseph Smith, a self-proclaimed “Glass looker” (also known as “money digger”) who said he could see things that other people couldn’t see by looking into a glass or special stone.  One of the things he looked for was buried treasure, which explains why he never had any money.  In the 1820s phonies like Smith were commonplace. In 1826 Smith was hired by Josiah Stowell in New York to find what he thought was a Spanish treasure buried on his farm.  Smith spent a month on the farm living off of his host’s hospitality, and came up empty handed. After that small fiasco Smith was brought up on charges by those close to Stowell; Arad Stowell, Josiah’s son, was one who testified at the trial that he had observed Smith’s operations and that he was a fraud.  Smith was convicted of Disturbing the Peace.  (An odd charge, I think).

There has been a lot of controversy about the Book of Mormon’s origins, authenticity, and even plagiarism.  The story is that Joseph Smith was out money digging and was guided to a buried box of golden plates which were there under the protection of the angel named “Moroni”.  This find supposedly took place September 22, 1823, near Manchester, New York.  This Moroni was a “rules person”, and Smith was not allowed to have the plates until he followed a bunch of rules, including coming back to them every year for 4 years.  Smith finally got the plates but was not allowed to show them to anyone (of course).  The plates were written in a language Smith referred to as “reformed Egyptian”, which is a language that no linguist has ever seen.  It has no trace of existence on this planet.  Smith began translating the plates by looking at his seer stone in the bottom of his inverted stovepipe hat, dictating the English to several people who took turns writing it down.

Since there are but a few eyewitness accounts of the plates, and since the accounts of what they actually looked like don’t match, there is not even any usable circumstantial evidence that proves they existed.  Therefore the Mormons accept their existence and the authenticity of their translation as an article of faith.  Those of us who don’t believe in magic tricks would be more easily convinced if there was any tangible evidence besides a book that is full of contradictions, inaccuracies, and even some suspected plagiarism. Passages from the Book of Mormon are almost identical to passages in the KJV of the Bible, which is odd because the plates were alleged to be 1100 years old and therefore predate the King James Bible, which was written in 1611, creating a compelling point for calling the golden plates story nothing more than hokum and charlatanism.

There is another book of rules called the “Doctrines and Covenants”, originally published in 1833 as the “Book of Commandments”.  In 1834 the book was pared down to what were considered the most significant ‘revelations’.  There was another version printed in 1876 contains disputed material attributed by some as revelations of Joseph Smith.  There are about 100 revelations and lectures in it.  So here’s another opportunity for FRAUD.

If a church claims that one of its bedrock doctrines is the word of God through revelation, and that God speaks directly through the Apostles, then it’s fraudulent when the church changes its dogma as a matter of convenience.  It provides a stark example of how the so-called God-given code is nothing more than a phony rule somebody made up that worked out for them at the time but became uncomfortable or inconvenient so it gets changed.  This is not a “revelation” of God’s will, it’s a cynical game of opportunism played by the church Leadership.

About Face on Polygamy

Note: the information regarding Mormon polygamy below is largely sourced from  what is considered to be an authoritative paper titled “LDS Church Authority and new Plural Marriages, 1890-1904 written by D. Michael Quinn.  Quinn actually ran this by Mormon President Gordon Hinckley before publishing it.  It’s available at http://www.lds-mormon.com/quinn_polygamy.shtml but I get spooky popups from the site, I will just warn you in advance.

The Mormons have taken a dogmatic U-turn at least twice.  The first example occurred in 1890 when they suddenly renounced polygamy at the same time that Utah was being held up from statehood over the polygamy issue.  The church leadership had been fighting a losing battle with various state and local governments over this issue since the church formed in 1830.  They were hounded out of New York, Ohio, Missouri, and Illinois where Joe Smith was killed while in protective custody in Carthage. (Accounts say he killed two of his assailants with a pistol before they killed him).  Brigham Young move the church to Utah starting in 1847 to avoid persecution for polygamy and other heresies.

It wasn’t until 1852 that the Mormons made official what was already known by every community within they had lived, namely that they practiced plural marriages. In February 1851, Mormon President Brigham Young announced to a meeting of the Utah territorial legislature that he had more than one wife.  Then in  August 1852, Young announced that “celestial marriage” was a doctrine of the church.

The Mormon church and its leadership were willing to break local laws, lie to authorities, and even develop the posture that truth was relative, not absolute in order to hold on to polygamy. In 1890, a document called the “1890 Manifesto” (Czary, eh, Glenn?) surfaced which declared an end to polygamy but muddied the waters with a whole big lot of controversy as to its origins, its meaning, its scope of authority, and place in the church’s hierarchy of dogma.  Was it a revelation? Was it part of the D&C?

The short answer is that there is no short answer. The US Supreme Court had just upheld anti-bigamy laws in 1879. The Mormon leadership was on the run in Mexico. Anti-Mormon forces in Utah were gaining more control; Mormons were denied voting rights and barred from public office. Church property was being seized. The church was in turmoil and confusion for decades over this issue. So… zing! Just declare the sacrament that is central to the faith, the practice that is the life of practicing Mormons, to be null and void! Afterwards, persecution tapers off, Mormons regain control of Utah, which becomes a state, and the rest is history.

Another U-Turn of Convenience: Wassup, bro?

For 150 years, the Mormons taught that all blacks are cursed by God.  This is just a plain, ugly fact.  It is documented in the D&C. It is reflected in church policies, and their official’s public statements.  This is well-documented at the following link http://www.christiandefense.org/mor_black.htm where specific quotations from the Book of Mormon, the D&C, and church leadership spanning those 150 years can be found.  The racial prejudice was founded on their interpretation of the Bible, no less, saying that all black people were descended from Cain and therefore were not only inferior beings but were also cursed by God to live lives of suffering and servitude.

But… wait! In case of emergency, break dogma. For 150 years the Mormons refused to allow black men into “the Priesthood”.  But in 1978 the pressure mounted on the church to a point where the Apostles had another convenient “revelation”. It might have had something to do with Stanford University’s declaration that they were banning football games with BYU because of racism.  Maybe it was the pending NAACP lawsuit filed on behalf of Byron Marchant, a black man denied the position of Scoutmaster because the church required all Scoutmasters to be members of “the Priesthood”.  For whatever reason, there was another “revelation” that blacks could now be received into “the Priesthood”. Strangely, the text of the “revelation” has never actually been revealed.  It’s only been included as an “Official Declaration” in the D&C, which states that the “revelation” occurred.  However, although the policy has changed, the idea that black people are inferior and cursed has NOT changed.  This dichotomy of practice vs dogma is a perfect example of the church adapting itself to the environment.

Please note carefully: although the church institutionalized racism, this is NOT a universally-accepted doctrine of all Mormons nor has it been over the last 150 years.  Many Mormons have been outspoken challengers of this policy and have championed black civil rights.

Blood on the sand, blood on their hands

In 1857, the Mormons in Utah were in a state of rebellion against the US government over the polygamy issue and others as well.  The Mormons had formed a militia named the Nauvoo Legion and loudly claimed that they would defend Utah from any invading force.  President Buchanan was incensed by this and ordered a force of 2,500 regular army to Utah to restore order.

Against this backdrop, a wagon train originating from Arkansas called the Fancher-Baker party passed into Utah territory on its way to Oregon.  Church leaders wanted to off the interlopers, but they didn’t want to have to take responsibility for killing them.  Their Big Plan? They dressed up like Indians. WTF? The initial attack became a siege as the wagon train put up a fight. After some period of time, the Mormons persuaded the wagon train to surrender.  What happened next was horrible.

On September 11, 1857, at Mountain Meadows, the members of the wagon train surrendered to the Mormons.  Every man, woman, and child that was deemed old enough to recount what happened was executed in cold blood. The men were shot by the Mormons.  The women and children were killed by Piaute Indians who were assisting in the siege.  Approximately 18 children were spared execution but lost their families and were assimilated into the Mormon whack factory.  All the possessions of the wagon train were stolen, including 800 head of cattle.

Brigham Young’s role in the slaughter of humans like animals is controversial.  But we know a few things.  First, he stated “If any miserable scoundrels come here, cut their throats” during a sermon he delivered under the subject “Red hot blood atonement”.   Second, he orchestrated a coverup to blame the murder on the Indians.  There is a theory that Young ordered the massacre personally, sending a message to the militia, “Brethren, do your duty.”

A woman is a wondrous thing to own

The Mormon church is designed by men to serve men and keep women subordinate.  Women are excluded from holding positions of authority but all women are subservient to that authority.  Women are not only subordinate in this life, but in the Mormon afterlife as well where they will fulfill their “equal power” by spitting out babies like a Tommy gun.

The male chauvinism of the Mormon church is codified by statements of Leadership and teaching documents such as “The Latter-day Saint Woman – Basic Manual for Women”. In these writings, women are not only ordered to embrace their inferiority to men by affirmation, they are to embrace it spiritually as well.  Further, women have no control or say over the vast Mormon fortune; this is the provenance of men alone. Women are required to serve the church when called without pay.

The pervasive integration of Mormon church membership into family life guarantees that women will get no better treatment at home than they do within the church.  Women are expected to obey their husbands, serve them, support them, and make babies for them, lots and lots of babies.

Is the Mormon Church a Cult?

I have tried to give a brief overview of events and people who have shaped the Mormons into what they are today.  I have not yet addressed some of the dogma that separates them from Christians.  The church uses the words “Jesus Christ” in their official name; however, they hold beliefs that the Christian world consider to be heretical, non-Christian, and fraudulent. To make this concise I’m going to just list some of them, as I’m already up to 3000 words for this part of my article and I don’t want you to have to take a whole day to read it.  The next 10 points are written from a Christian point of view, which I am not, but know quite a bit about.

Heretical views of the Mormon Church:

1. Mormons believe in polytheism, or multiple Gods. They believe that men can become God in their own universe.
2. Mormons believe that God is flesh and bones, just like humans.
3. Mormons believe that God is married and that all spirits of all people on earth were conceived through sex.
4. Mormons believe in polygamy, even though they have a “revelation” to stop practicing it.
5. Mormons believe that God has evolved.
6. Mormons believe that Jesus is the “spirit brother” of Satan and was not born of the Holy Spirit and Mary, but instead through physical incest.
7. Since 1830 the Book of Mormon, supposedly the scripture, has been changed 4000 times.
8. You will never see a cross, the symbol of Christianity, in a Mormon temple as they do not accept grace from God
9. There is no corroboration with the Book of Mormon in history, archaeology, geography, linguistics, or anthropology.
10. The Bible has little use in the Mormon worship service and usually only appears in the temple for Easter and Christmas.

I thought it might be useful to take a quick trip through to the characteristics of cults.  Here’s a “checklist” I found that covers a lot of what I have been thinking about since I got interested in this topic.

Characteristics Associated with Cultic Groups – Revised

Janja Lalich, Ph.D. & Michael D. Langone, Ph.D.

http://www.csj.org/infoserv_cult101/checklis.htm

Concerted efforts at influence and control lie at the core of cultic groups, programs, and relationships. Many members, former members, and supporters of cults are not fully aware of the extent to which members may have been manipulated, exploited, even abused. The following list of social-structural, social-psychological, and interpersonal behavioral patterns commonly found in cultic environments may be helpful in assessing a particular group or relationship.

Compare these patterns to the situation you were in (or in which you, a family member, or friend is currently involved). This list may help you determine if there is cause for concern. Bear in mind that this list is not meant to be a “cult scale” or a definitive checklist to determine if a specific group is a cult. This is not so much a diagnostic instrument as it is an analytical tool.

‪ * The group displays excessively zealous and unquestioning commitment to its leader and (whether he is alive or dead) regards his belief system, ideology, and practices as the Truth, as law.

‪* Questioning, doubt, and dissent are discouraged or even punished.

‪* Mind-altering practices (such as meditation, chanting, speaking in tongues, denunciation sessions, and debilitating work routines) are used in excess and serve to suppress doubts about the group and its leader(s).

‪

Now we know. Briefs, sort of. What you have to wear to temple, under what you have to wear to temple.

* The leadership dictates, sometimes in great detail, how members should think, act, and feel (for example, members must get permission to date, change jobs, marry—or leaders prescribe what types of clothes to wear, where to live, whether or not to have children, how to discipline children, and so forth).

‪* The group is elitist, claiming a special, exalted status for itself, its leader(s) and members (for example, the leader is considered the Messiah, a special being, an avatar—or the group and/or the leader is on a special mission to save humanity).

‪* The group has a polarized us-versus-them mentality, which may cause conflict with the wider society.

‪* The leader is not accountable to any authorities (unlike, for example, teachers, military commanders or ministers, priests, monks, and rabbis of mainstream religious denominations).

‪* The group teaches or implies that its supposedly exalted ends justify whatever means it deems necessary. This may result in members’ participating in behaviors or activities they would have considered reprehensible or unethical before joining the group (for example, lying to family or friends, or collecting money for bogus charities).

‪* The leadership induces feelings of shame and/or guilt iin order to influence and/or control members. Often, this is done through peer pressure and subtle forms of persuasion.

‪* Subservience to the leader or group requires members to cut ties with family and friends, and radically alter the personal goals and activities they had before joining the group.

‪* The group is preoccupied with bringing in new members.

‪* The group is preoccupied with making money.

‪* Members are expected to devote inordinate amounts of time to the group and group-related activities.

‪* Members are encouraged or required to live and/or socialize only with other group members.

‪* The most loyal members (the “true believers”) feel there can be no life outside the context of the group. They believe there is no other way to be, and often fear reprisals to themselves or others if they leave (or even consider leaving) the group.

What it all boils down to is control. If you belong to an organization that controls a large part of your life, including the way you behave and the way you think, you may be a member of a cult.  Personally, the Mormons fit the definition above matching all but a couple of characteristics but a few of them.  They control you, and if you try to get away from them they will make your life miserable.

NEXT: Glenn Beck, Mormon convert and de facto Teaparty Minister of Propaganda

Prologue

The Teaparty movement is composed of a diverse collection of groups that focus some of their energy in the same direction.  If you ask teabaggers what defines the group you will get a variety of responses mostly centered around a primitive view of the Constitution, a few Libertarian ideas regarding taxes and specific policy issues  (such as the stimulus package, 2nd Amendment,  health insurance reform, GM bailout, AIDS research,  unemployment benefits, etc., etc.), strong nationalism and anti-immigrant loathing, anti-abortion, homophobia, white-is-right on any issue regarding race, anti-liberalism, anti-communism/socialism, and a Christian theocratic view of governance that is heavily weighted towards so-called “Bible churches” which have no qualms about claiming control over their congregations’ lives based on their literal and bizarre interpretations of the Bible.

Anger is a major center of gravity that pulls teabaggers together. Anger against the “liberal media” and Democratic Party runs deep and wild. Anger against Muslims and other foreigners in places such as “Old Europe” has been stoked for years by the Bush Administration and still thrives today.  Right wing anger, racial and social prejudice, jingoism and American Exceptionalism, populism, and greed are the red meat of radio gasbags like Rush Limbaugh, who spew sarcastic hate speech, conspiracy theories, and outright lies by the hour.

Until Glenn Beck came along, media shock jocks took very few excursions past the boundaries of the GOP talking points. However, since the 2008 election in which Americans elected Barack Hussein Obama as President, the 24 hour right wing political babble has caught up with the GOP. (Is this possibly the verbal equivalent of “How many monkeys with how many typewriters…? I will have to explore that in a future post).  Glenn Beck has determined that Democrats and liberalism do not comprise the entire problem; the GOP is also part of it.  His redux is that the GOP has become too liberal, and that’s why America now has a Black Nationalist President who is busily hatching a steady stream of socialist-fascist plots to get reparations for slavery, among other things.  Barack Obama didn’t win the election, the GOP lost it.  Beck,  along with a few disgraced and rejected GOPERs including Sarah Palin, Rick Santorum, and Dick Armey, are trying to build a 3rd party movement out of the teabaggers and New York’s 23rd Congressional district became the test tube for their experiment.  In a confused and hurried attempt to thrust a lame, unknown, and unqualified candidate into the race, they botched it and now a seat that should have been a GOP gimme is occupied by a Democrat. I wrote about that righty fiasco at length last week.

How PC is too PC?

Religion is a delicate topic among liberals but it’s newsworthy due to its powerful influence over the politics of the groups that are involved.  But before I dig into the topic, I would like to say a few words to liberals.

Modern liberalism has embraced many ideas and trends from pop culture over the last 3 decades. This has been a mixed blessing, as there have been numerous adoptions of over-simplified notions derived from larger initiatives such as ending institutionalized prejudice.  As is normal in human nature, we overreact when making corrections and then have to come back the other way.  One group of behaviors where we’ve overreacted is collectively named “Political Correctness”, or “PC” for short, a name that has itself become a focus for derision from all 180 degrees of the political scale.  This brings me back to the topic at hand, which is Mormonism, Glenn Beck’s religion.

To clarify my vantage point,  my own religious beliefs waffle between atheism and agnosticism, so any criticism of religion you hear from me is definitely not prejudicial because I regard all religions to be equal. Equally wrong, that is, in the fundamental claim they all make which is to know the unknowable. However, the “PC” nature of liberals has allowed the Mormons to sneak under the radar, as criticism of a religious group is considered to be intolerance.

I don’t wish to discuss the Mormon belief system except as to how it relates to politics.  The plain fact is that the LDS church contains a political activist group that has an agenda and is successfully pushing it through the political system.  Two blatant examples of this are the special ballot initiatives in California and Maine, where millions of dollars came from the Mormon front group NOM (National Organization for Marriage) which overturned equal marriage rights for LGBTs, and also the previously mentioned election in NY 23rd, where NOM was a major force against Dede Scozzafava.

Mormons are quick to deny that their church has any political affiliation, but the facts say otherwise. I have tried and failed to get a statement about Glenn Beck from the Church headquarters in Salt Lake City. I did get through 3 layers of the organization to a phone that is apparently never answered, at least not when I’m calling it. The best I could get was someone who refused to be quoted by name who told me that each LDS member has free will to do whatever they want as long as they attempt to follow church doctrines. I pointed out that Glenn Beck has called the President a racist, fantasized about killing Michael Moore and Nancy Pelosi, and lies on a continuing basis about matters that are important to the nation.  The response was dogmatic:  Any statement regarding Glenn Beck would have to come from “the Leadership” (which means The President and The Apostles, who speak to and for God on earth). Apparently God must think Beck is OK, as they haven’t made any attempt to distance themselves from his antics.  This doesn’t mean that Mormons universally support Beck.  On one chat board, a courageous Mormon fellow wrote an article under the subject line “Glenn Beck An Embarrassment To Mormons–Perpetuates Harmful, Untrue Stereotypes”. Wow, that is speaking to power, can I get an “Amen!?”

My point here is that we should not regard the Mormon church as ONLY a religious organization. They are more than that, the church is functionally a political activist group.  The Mormons would be of little interest to me other than their cult-ish beliefs and secrecy were it not for the fact that they are an international organization with a political agenda and $billions if not $trillions in assets to push it.

NEXT: Not just about fresh-faced boys and a great choir

In an amazing but not surprising turn of events, Fox News owner Rupert Murdoch has been caught on videotape PURPOSELY saying that Obama is a racist. And then he’s not a racist, OK?

If this seems familiar to you, it should. Glenn Beck started the controversy that has led to 84 advertisers boycotting his radio and television shows by calling Obama a “racist” and then immediately saying “I didn’t say he was a racist” when it’s obvious that 1) Glenn DID say it, and 2) Glenn IS a racist.

Here’s Rupert Murdoch doing the same racist dance.  This ought to ignite another round of outrage that spreads the boycott from just Beck’s absurd daily hate speech to the entire hate-filled Fox network.

Here’s a FYI: this clip from MediaMatters does not include the backstep dance that each of them made after the “racist” charge was leveled. Also, to be clear, Murdoch never did identify what specific remark he was claiming that Obama made which he considered to be racist.

Many of my readers will be saddened to know that Glenn Beck was stricken with appendicitis last week and thereby missed out on taking an active role in Michele Bachmann’s Teaparty Extravaganza/FAIL on Thursday.

One of my Twitter followers pointed out that I neglected to cover Glenn in a tweet that I made regarding his illness.
The Tweet was something along the line of

Each year 390 Americans die from appendicitis. Why couldn’t one of them have been Glenn?

In an effort to set the record straight, I wanted to post it here because I know the little man-baby egomaniac stops by here on a regular basis. (He does all his own research, you know, PLUS he’s a paranoid little ‘tard who thinks everyone is out to get him. GLENN, take your meds, dude, NOBODY really gives a shit.) I wanted to make sure that he gets the message even if his manservant won’t read insulting, bad tweets to him.

In related news, ThinkProgress had a story that postulates that Glenn is likely in the care of SEIU nurses. Oooh, SCARY! I wonder if Glenn has thought that through, and if so, did he double his around-the-clock no-neck staff plus his team of personal physicians? LOL!

Glenn is probably still sore about what happened to his ass last time he was in the hospital. He made the famous video clip where he’s obviously feeling very sorry for himself and wonders how all the people with no insurance who aren’t millionaire media stars make it. Obviously that hasn’t changed his position on health insurance reform, though, because THAT’S an Obama socialist fascist Nazi plot! LOL here we go….

Glenn says that his care was incredibly bad and he has stories that will “melt your brain”. For some reason he brings up the “president of GE” as being a patient there (is that public information? I don’t think so…) and if “they don’t care about the president of GE, you really think they care about schlubs that are just average working stiffs?” WTF are you talking about, Glenn? Are you comparing yourself to the president of GE? Are you calling yourself a “working stiff” with your estimated $18 million annual income?

I truly believe that whatever happened to Glenn Beck while he was in the hospital was a visit from Instant Karma and I don’t think he “got” it. Glenn, you’re not a schlub, you’re a schmuck. And Mormons don’t use words like that, it’s against your cult orders. BTW, are you even circumcised? If not, don’t worry about it, they can have you in and out of there before you can say “Bony Moroni”.

Glenn Beck is a lot of things to a lot of people. To most, he’s an opportunistic, money-grubbing, phony clown of a Mormon millenialist meat puppet. Beck uses his own ignorance as a foil while he poses simple hypotheses about complex questions and then allows “expert” crackpot guests on his show to conjure up facts out of thin air or their rectums to support Beck’s crackpot conspiracy theories while he fawningly agrees with him, nodding like a bobblehead with wide-eyed amazement about how Obama has done/is doing the most dreadful things.

To one man, however, Glenn Beck was something much more. Glenn Beck could reach through his empty head and grab hold of his shallow heart. That man would be Doug Hoffman, “staunch conservative” from out of nowhere, who got talked into running against Dede Scozzafava, who fell out of favor with Fox News and other conservative media. Michelle Malkin called Dede “an ACORN-friendly, union-pandering, tax-and-spend radical Republican.” Rush Limbaugh accused her of “bestiality”, proclaiming that she had “screwed every RINO in the country”. (This was so unbelievable that I had to include it in this post. I realize that including comments from other right wingnuts besides Glenn Beck is a bit off-topic, but sometimes it’s good to have them for a complete context. Think of it like an artist’s palette of stupidity from which you can savor the meaning created by the meaninglessness, greed, stupidity, and grabbasticism of the morally bankrupt and politically corrupt right wing nut movement of Beck and the Becktards, Rush and the Dittobots, Michelle Malkin and the perverts, Michael Savage and the Wieners, and so on and so on.) But, as usual, I digress. Here’s the Rush Limbaugh quote where he says Dede practices bestiality:

Glenn Beck took a few swings at Dede Scozzafava himself. He bashed her in the video below for being “pro-choice, pro-stimulus”, ACORN-endorsed (and also “for the working families party”), and “the Democrat is basically the same as the Republican”. Glenn also managed to flail away at Arnold Schwarzenegger, the GOP, and Newt Gingrich.

Glenn’s cure? Stop the insanity! (He can’t resist citing Einstein’s “definition” of insanity. Note to Glenn Beck: you’re no Einstein.) He says the GOP should have chosen Doug Hoffman, who collected the endorsements of Sarah Palin, Steve Forbes, former US Senators Rick Santorum and Fred Thompson, and “The former House Majority Leader Dick Armey are [sic] also behind him”. Hmm, there’s something kicking around in the back of my mind… what do all of those endorsers have in common? Well, I guess it’s that none of them are from New York? Oh, WAIT A MINUTE… What Glenn Beck probably didn’t notice is that each of these endorsements comes from a failed and/or disgraced former GOPER who have fallen from power by running almost as right as Glenn is.

Watch:

So what’s the ONLY problem Glenn sees? The GOP continues to back the “Obama lite Republican.” Oh, that nasty Newt Gingrich! He’s one of the (great big finger quotes) “Republicans” supporting the Obama Lite candidate although Glenn has “nothing bad to say about him.” LOL! Glenn disagrees with Newt because Newt says that the local party has the right to choose their own candidate. Oh NO YOU DIDN’T! Glenn Beck says you’re WRONG on that, Newt, you vote for the person you agree with MOST! So in Glenn Beck’s world, the local party should vote for who, exactly? The candidate HE SUPPORTS. After all, how can you sleep “night after NIGHT” knowing you voted for the “ACORN-supported candidate”?

Well, before I forget, I want to go ON THE PUBLIC RECORD as supporting Glenn Beck in his effort to keep doing what he did last night, over and over, in 2010, in 2012, as long as he still can. PLEASE keep trying to pull the GOP to the brink of the lunatic fringe where you are and then push them over! PLEASE!

I couldn’t find much of anything about Doug Hoffman on the 9/12 website except a link to a story where he gets Fred Thompson’s endorsement. Only the link to the story and the story itself, from October 28, says Fred is endorsing Doug THOMPSON. This was so unbelievable I had to take a couple of screenshots for you. Talk about having some powerful NAME RECOGNITION, eh, Glenn? LOL.

So who is Doug Hoffman/Thompson? Turned down by the GOP Congressional Committee. Endorsed by lunatics. He’s an accountant from Saranac Lake, not even in the 23rd District. He claims to have been fighting for the heart and soul of the GOP which is waaaay too liberal. He says he’s going to “take America back” by “revolution”, which is just white nationalist code words. He doesn’t know anything about local issues in the 23rd District, but he says that “I think that this district is so wide and vast that ALL THREE CANDIDATES aren’t familiar with local issues in each different sector”. Really? So what are were voters supposed to do? Just TRUST you because you say you’re honest? You say you know about taxes, spending, and liberals so people should just vote for you because of that and because a pack of GOP has-beens says your OK?

Here’s the deal. I am sympathetic to the idea of 3rd party candidates, in fact I was a Nader supporter and even put a Ron Paul sign in my yard last fall along with the others. I even agree with Beck’s thesis that major party candidates should not have a lock on the process. There is no reason why people shouldn’t be able to file and run for any office and I favor making that easier rather than harder. The more the merrier.

But I would never support any candidate who has no specific policy positions, local or otherwise, except that he can spew the specific political/religious dogma such as “Obama-lite”, “tax and spend”, “RINO”, “take our country back”, “revolution”, and other meaningless gibberish. Doug Hoffman was the 9/12 Project candidate, in fact he was even listed on http://912candidates.org/gold-list/, the “unofficial” 9/12 website that has since taken his name down because even they realized that being associated with Glenn Beck was killing Hoffman’s chances. (Or maybe they took it down because they were trying to avoid the humiliation of backing a candidate who got his ass handed to him last night.) Doug Hoffman never looks very bright in any of the video clips I’ve seen, and the audio clip of him on the Glenn Beck radio show sucking up to Glenn and even calling him his “mentor” makes him sound like a driveling stooge.

Listen:

So congratulations, Glenn, and to the 9/12 Project, and to all the “take our country back” race-baiting “Patriots” from all over America who poured money and support into a non-resident candidate to defeat the “liberal” Republican. Glenn, you can put Dede Scozzafava’s scalp on your wall.

And you can also chalk up another GREAT BIG FAIL, Glenn, because what you’ve accomplished is to further divide the conservatives along the faultline of crazy. I think it’s wonderful, heckuva job, Glennie.

I have been trying to do my due diligence to keep current with Glenn Beck’s smears, lies, antics, simplistic lunatic fringe gobbledy-gook like the “9 principles”. I could be busier with this, admittedly, but I’ve got another two websites to maintain not to mention trying to maintain my own sanity while wading through the Bizarro-World of Glenn Beck and his copious mouth. He churns out material faster than a pasture full of horses with diarrhea shoots out a substance with similar properties.

But I have waded into the 9/12 Project website armed with a posting account that seems like I need to get a new password every time I try to post there, and also the sense that there may be a few dozen folks lingering in the weeds who could use some mental health help. A lot of the people that go there are like me, more or less in the same category as rubberneckers who can’t rip back control of their eyeballs from the train wreck that’s happening before them. Judging by the posters, quite a few visitors are living the parodies of liberals’ mocking imagination; hate-blind, redneck, racist American Exceptionalism true believers who don’t quite get it yet that the power structure they’re working for is working against them. But some are genuine conservative thinkers, whose opinions are thoughtfully constructed even though their frame of reference is from another dimension.

The 9/12 Project website suffers from a lack of focus. First, it’s the home of the “9 Principles and and 12 Values”. If only Glenn had included “Truth” and “Reason” as values (or should those have been together in the First Principle?) We, The People”, its banner menacingly challenges, “Demand Answers.” Being Glenn Beck’s trans-Bectarded apologist site for the nationwide movement of teabaggers who showed up in Washington by the hundreds waving their guns and hate signs about our black President (or showed up by the millions in Michelle Malkin’s photoshopped mind) it has to include a certain amount of empty threats. Ho hum. Like the teabaggers are going to get into a shootout with the US government on our own soil. Maybe they ought to Google “Ruby Ridge” or “Waco” for some background info on how that works out.

But the 9/12 website is also a perfect demonstration of what happened when Americans and the media that disservice us got it through their heads that there was “liberal media bias” which needed to be corrected by “fair and balanced” news. The way this fallacious notion altered news reporting is both interesting and tragic. The interesting part is how so-called “hard news” journalists try to include opposing facts or opinions masquerading as facts in every news story. The rationale is that if the writer does this, they are giving themselves more authority by proving that they do not have an axe to grind. The problem with this is that most news does not have counterbalancing facts, it only has facts. When you are reporting on opinions, there are plenty of those on both sides, but facts are facts and they don’t have a liberal or conservative value. That’s the tragic part; Americans have now accepted reporting on opinion in an adversarial fashion to be “news”. Some people call this “infotainment”. There are better names for it. The best one is propaganda.

A quick survey down the index page of the912project.com will illustrate exactly what I mean. In the news… a link to a Wall Street Journal op-ed by lobbyist Joel Jankowski defending lobbyists against Obama’s policy controlling lobbyist access to the White House. Poor lobbyists, can’t get a break. Another link to a WSJ story about how “Organized labor appears to be gaining the upper hand in the skies and on rails, as labor and business battle for influence under the Obama administration.” A link to a web-published American Thinker article by Randy Fardal (who is clearly out of his ever-loving mind) who suggests that smart power meters could be used by “the bribable (sic) government” to turn off power to those who those who don’t support them. Next, a link to a Washington Examiner opinion piece apparently mistakenly put in the “news” column. This is the second piece (at least) that 9/12 has put up about the NEA funding “Obama’s agenda” and making a load of nefarious and meaningless connections between minor players in “ACORN-style groups” and the “President’s agenda”. I guess that rules out any paintings of black people, poor people, unions, or the words “Change”, “Hope”, and any combination of the above.

Continuing down the “News” column I founds something that truly shocked me. A link to an article on HuffPo by “Freddy Krueger” (played in several Nightmare on Elm Street movies by actor/activist Robert Englund). Englund’s article on HuffPo listed his “5 worst fears” and the top one was the lack of reality-based discussion on health care reform. This, he says, is because of fearmongering by teabaggers and other righties with their “pull the plug on grannie” lies. This story was linked in order to steer teabaggers to HuffPo to trash the comments section. Good luck. They’re moderating comments.

Next up, a link to a chunk of The Master himself, from the Glenn Beck Show where he crows about driving the Republican candidate for New York Congressional District 23 out of the race. Glenn says that this is proof that what he’s doing is working, and I hope he’s right. The more moderates they drive away from the GOP the sooner it will collapse. The very next incongruous link is to a GOP list of “new bureaucracies” that the “House Republican Conference claims are created in House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s health care reform bill”. Of course, the Speaker doesn’t really have a bill, but that doesn’t stop them from listing 111 imaginary offices that they claim are part of some bill, with references to the bill. But a quick survey shows that they are double dipping to try to make something out of nothing. An example of this is listing an office and then listing each of its functions as a separate office. GOP dishonesty doesn’t seem to bother Glenn Beck except when he’s trying to bash them out of office.

Next we have a report entitled “First Coast Tea Party Hosts ‘D.C. Dirty Tricks’ Town Hall”. This reads like something a 5th grader would have written if the 5th grader knew nothing about American government. There are shocking revelations to be had within the aura of Glenn Beck. That’s because whack job Mormon millenialists see all kinds of things that regular people can’t see, kind of like cats. Here we have photos of the meeting. One of them shows a woman wearing a t-shirt proclaiming that just because she disagrees with Obama that she’s not a racist. Another shows the hall with approximately 400 white people in it and… how many black people? See if you can count them.

Running quickly down the column, we have a piece accusing Biden of “featherbedding” stimulus job numbers. Another piece about Van Jones accusing him of being tied to anti-Beck-Limbaugh-Fox group (so?) A scare piece by Robert J. Samuelson “Could America Go Broke?” in the WaPo. Another link to an opinion column by Norma White, who wants to sound like Andy Rooney espousing her opinion that the “change” that America voted for last November is a laundry list of righty populist ideas heavily loaded with anti-immigrant phraseology. Then another fear piece about swine flu and frightened patients, this included to stoke the fires for the necessity for everyone to pack heat, even in the doctors office. Last (thankfully) in the column, another article from American Thinker, this one by Clarice Feldman who claims that the American paradigm has been changed and the one that is being forced on us is collectivist. This is nothing but red-scare-baiting BS straight from the trickle-down economic sector of the GOP top 1%.

That’s just the “news” column. In the “video” column, a boatload of Faux News propaganda. While I was writing this, they put up the clip from the lying snake of a GOP Congresswoman from North Carolina Virginia Fox, who says that health care reform is a bigger threat to America than terrorists. (They updated the “news” column, too, but I can’t keep up with these lying SOBs, they can lie faster than I can type.) Next: 10,000 attend Tea Party in Houston. (yeah, right.) A propaganda piece by GOP Congressman Mike Pence invoking Reagan against health care reform as “government takeover” of health care. He says “Pelosi plan” half a dozen times and she has none. Pence is noted for gibberish. A piece by self-proclaimed grass roots organization named “Grassfire.net” which also lists Resistnet.com, two anti-Obama websites, details their attempts to crash the Senate Office Building with anti-health-care-reform petitions.

Next is the notorious Michelle Bachmann clip from her appearance on the Sean Hannity program where she states that she wants people to show up in Washington DC where they can “see the whites of their eyes”. Bachmann has previously suggested that teabaggers should show up for her “armed and dangerous”. Why do they have to see the whites of their congressperson’s eyes? So they can pull out their guns and blaze away, I suppose.

I expect that any website run by Glenn Beck or his minions would have a certain degree of insanity to it, and it doesn’t disappoint. As I am documenting on this site, the 9/12 Project itself is an attempt to manipulate people who are insane from fear into becoming tools for a particularly cruel and demented political/religious agenda. Feed their fears. Stoke them with conspiracy theories. Revive red-baiting, gay-baiting, race-baiting, the whole phantasmal convergence of right wing/Mormon nutjob perversion of human decency. Anything that doesn’t fit exactly into their weird, narrow worldview is labeled with some kind of a “communist” label. That includes people, especially black people.

There hasn’t been an external communist threat to America since the end of the Cold War and even back then it was the threat of accidental mutual annihilation. But that never kept Glenn Beck’s hero Cleon Skousen from seeing a red behind every tree and bush in America. And as Reagan would have said, “There you go again”. Reagan would have gotten a good chuckle out of the confusing interchangeability (to the 9/12vers) of the words “communist”, “socialist”, “black nationalist”, “fascist”, “Nazi”, and “progressive”. l find Beck’s harping on “progressives” to be completely amusing. Glenn, the opposite of “progressive” is “regressive”, which fits you to a TEE. The opposite of “social” is “anti-social”, which also fits Glenn nicely. I’ll bet when he was a kid he didn’t play well with others.

Enough of this already. I’m calling the 9/12 Project what it is. It’s dishonest and it’s full of disaffected GOP hacks masquerading as Libertarians. It is a flock of pathetic cowards trying to bully its way into power by showing up to public meetings waving guns and threatening signs. (Are you listening, “I Am The MOB” freaks?) It is infested with liars scheming to undermine the the earnest efforts of those of us who are frantically manning the pumps to keep us from sinking after 8 years of George W. Bush. And worst of all, the people I actually feel sorry for, are the whack jobs that have gotten sucked into the fear, spin, and lies machine fueled by Rupert Murdoch’s disdain for American culture even while he profits from destroying it. The whack jobs who believe that the only way to save America is to destroy it, the people who want to “take our country back” because there’s no way a black man could be President, the people who have lost their jobs, their homes, their children, all lost to the churning machine fueled by the top 1%’s greed and manipulation.

They seem kind of dangerous and sad, don’t they?

OK, I have had it called to my attention that Glenn Beck has repeatedly claimed that his wild-ass conspiracy theories and outright lies have never been disproved.

HOGWASH.

You may check back often to my page Glenn Beck Lies, where I will debunk his statements with the plain truth, an element that is completely lacking from his radio and TV shows, his books, his claims of being a religiously-changed person, and most of all, his character.

He is a liar, proven here and elsewhere. You are welcome to join me in this project by providing links to his phony statements, conspiracy theories, crackpot accusations, and lies. You can take credit or remain anonymous, all of your input is WELCOME.

Wexler

I’ve seen a lot of wakko stuff coming from the First Spokesbaby of the Mormon Waahbernacle. But this has got to be the lamest bad attempt at spin I’ve ever heard, even from Glenn Beck, which is saying a lot.

We need a bit of history on “net neutrality”. In a nutshell, what that means is when you request a packet of information or send a packet of information over the internet, it has an equal chance to pass through the system as every other packet sent or received. There are no preferences given to “paying customers” of the system because we ALL pay for it through our ISP charges, webhosting fees, and whatever other incidental costs to us as taxpayer/citizens.

The right wing business lobby has been licking their chops trying to change this “my packets are equal to your packets” system into a “pay for access” system where those who have money to spend (like corporations, for example) can pay off the internet services to give THEIR packets or packets of their choice PRIORITY over your packets. What this would result in is a multi-tiered system where popups, ads, and other commercial and business web traffic will go at high speed, your personal traffic will be down in the dumpster.

That’s the 10,000 foot overview. Into the discussion wades Glenn Beck, armed with an agenda but no real information, and RWNJ think-tank Americans for Prosperity toady Phil Kerpen, who is obviously no expert on anything except blowing smoke up the colon of America. Watch the clip:

OMG. Did I just hear Glenn say at 1:13 that net neutrality is analogous to “I don’t remember anybody saying in the 1930s that everybody had a right to radio and we gave away free radios through the government, and I don’t remember anybody saying in the 1950s that everybody had the right to free television but that’s where we’re headed now.” Oh, Glenn, you are such a FAIL. Your analogy is a total failure. It’s not even close to what net neutrality is about. First off, your straw man argument is phony because it’s based on the falsehood that there is a proposal to give away free televisions. Where did you hear that one, Glenn? LOL it must have been the voices that got through your tinfoil hat.

Further, your analogy FAILS because your dumbass attempt to confuse the medium with the hardware crumbles under the weight of its own stupidity. Broadcast media is one-way communications that is paid for by commercials or taxpayer funds. Internet traffic is two-way communication that allows people to send and receive content from their own hardware through the public internet system. What you’re proposing to do is to make it a PRIVATE system where members of the general public will have to pay $$ to private companies if they want to have equal access to the system. In other words, you are doing what you ALWAYS do, which is tout the AMERICAN CASTE SYSTEM.

What you ramble into at 2:50 is paranoid anti-government ranting (well, ALL of your ranting is paranoid and most of it is anti-government so this is stating the obvious) about how the FCC wants to take over television so it’s “all like the BBC”. FAIL. There is NOBODY in the FCC who has ever thought that, Glenn. You are a moron for saying it and your moron righty astroturfer Phil Kerpen is an asshat for agreeing with you. Laughable!

Glenn says you have to wait until tomorrow to find out whose behind the “conspiracy” to take over the internet. I don’t make you wait, you can see it all in the video and widget below. No waiting required.

Just in case you have any doubts about net neutrality, and why it’s really the only way to go, please watch the following video. It will take about 5 minutes.

Also, you might enjoy this widget, which interactively allows you to see the groups who are actively trying to make you pay extra for your bandwidth. You know the commercial where the brown-haired woman gets pissed off about a few cents tax on soda and then leaves the trunk open? If the people in this widget get their way, you’ll WISH it was just a few cents. Enjoy.

Michael Savage, whose real name is Michael Wiener (aka “da Weeenie”) and is a contemptible lump of meat in his own right, predicts that Glenn Beck will be GONE from the airwaves in 90 days… so we’re starting our own GLENN BECK AND THE TEMPLE OF DOOM Countdown Clock!

OK, Beckerheads and Weenerites, the clock is TICKING! 90 days or less, my pretty…!

UPDATE 10/27/09

Da Weiner calls Glenn “The hemorrhoid with eyes” (LMAO!)

The “Doctor” is in! LOL Michael Weiner “Savage” apparently has a doctorate from UC Berkeley in “nutritional ethnomedicine” which I believe from reading his bio may have included a concentration in natural hallucinogenics. But let this be a warning… if you do too much LSD you might turn CONSERVATIVE! This is what I postulate may have happened with “Doctor” “Savage”. After all, he once had a job as keeper of Timothy Leary’s stone gatehouse. Here’s the clip, where Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity are also “savaged” as Mikey goes on the rampage about everyone who makes more money than he does in the infotainment business:

BTW… I didn’t see this in the Wiki bio for Savage, but didn’t he have a gig with the Jerky Boys? He sounds just like one of them!

Update 10/30/09

I discovered today that the original video I had linked was taken down for a TOS violation at YouTube. So, I found ANOTHER one, this is a general trashing of Faux News so you get to hear about O’Reilly and Cavuto too! LOL, enjoy!

OnStarGate 7

Paranoid schizophrenics have a special knack for detecting conspiracies that normal people like you and me would never see. I have known two of them up close and personal. One was a brilliant gent who had been at the top of his class at the US Coast Guard Academy and had a nervous breakdown from the pressure. He was OK if he stayed on his meds, which he didn’t like to do because they “made his brain feel like it was frozen”. He worked on and off, and he was convinced that while he was out “they” were coming into his apartment and “doing things”. I tried to pin John down as to exactly what “they” were doing during a desperate phone conversation we had one night; he called because he feared he was going to get violent. Two of the things he mentioned were that “they” had gone into his closet and removed a button from one of his shirts, and “they” also had moved or somehow screwed up his ship-in-a-bottle project. “They” had also rigged his TV, radio, and phone so that “they” could secretly watch him and listen to him. These nights ended badly for John, usually with 5 cops on top of him trying to get him into handcuffs. By the time he called me it was always too late. He had stopped taking his meds, hadn’t slept for 3 or 4 days, and the only thing I could do was call his sister, who lived 300 miles away, so she could come and mop up the mess. Sad.

The other person was a guy named Don who was in his mid-20s. Don was a typical central Wisconsin teenage kid who liked to drink and drive every weekend with a car full of friends. Don woke up early one December morning in the middle of a snow-covered field next to Wisconsin Highway 29. In the field with Don were two wrecked cars, including the one he was DWI, and eight bodies. Three of them were passengers in his car, five had been passengers in the car Don hit when he ran the stop sign and drove onto 29 from the dirt drinkin’ road. Nobody showed up on the scene for quite a while so Don had plenty of time to be alone with the dead.

When I met him several years after the crash, Don was hearing voices that told him what to draw on his apartment wall. The drawing was bizarre, with lots of vines and insects. The voices spoke to him while I was visiting once, and he told me what they were saying. It was incomprehensible, but he was threatened by “them” and felt compelled to comply or something terrible would happen. The last time I saw Don, I drove him to the hospital and helped him check himself into the Psych Ward for another 30 day evaluation.

I forced myself to listen to the Glenn Beck radio program segment about OnStar and Obama because I wanted to see if I could find any connection between Glenn, John, and Don.

Yes, I did. The language and dialect of paranoia sounds the same when coming from a schizophrenic or coming from someone who is trying to stoke the boiler sitting under a giant stewpot of fear. Glenn uses the same phraseology of my friends John and Don. “How can you trust the government? The government is listening to my conversations. The government is tracking me. The government has ruined our future and they plan to make it worse. The government can stop your car and let the air out of your tires!”

It’s not as if Glenn Beck woke up on Thursday and discovered that OnStar exists. It’s not even that Glenn woke up to the fact that the government has been illegally spying on telephone conversations, email, and other communications of Americans (he says he’s OK with that). But letting the air out of your tires… that’s the last straw for Glenn. The government can let the air out of my tires. Whoa.

Glenn’s sudden, irrational fear of the US Government taking control of his car is based on the false premise that the bailout of GM was a government takeover of GM. I am going to assume that anyone who reads this will know on some level that the government does not control GM’s business activities, its management, its workers, its purchasing, or any part of GM that still survives. GM faced a situation where they would have failed and hundreds of thousands of people would have lost their jobs, creating a shock wave through the entire economy. So they took government assistance to avoid an outright failure. Does Glenn Beck really believe that GM is now acting as a spy agency for the Obama Administration?

To back this claim up, Glenn told us that he had visited the OnStar central office and seen all the operators and the maps, looking like a hi-tech war room. The person who was touring Glenn told him that OnStar has the capability of turning off a car remotely, which they didn’t do at the time but are now advertising on TV as an anti-theft measure.

And all of this would have been OK if only the Maoists hadn’t taken control of the government. Glenn does something dishonest, again, by taking a quote out of context. This time his misquoted person is Ron Bloom, the Administration’s Senior Counselor for Manufacturing Policy (or as Glenn would say, the Manufacturing Czar, ooooh, scary!) Bloom’s actual words follow, I have highlighted the excerpt that Glenn Beck used on his show:

BLOOM: The second thing about us is we’ve decided to get on the field. Some unions and our union, in fact, some years ago, largely played defense in these situations. We had what we had and we tried to protect it. What we realized through long and often painful experience is that management matters, business strategy matters, capital structure matters, ownership matters. We spent a long time trying to clean up the messes that others had left us. And so now we try to create our own messes. This is more dangerous politically, it’s more difficult. It has higher risk. We think it has higher reward. But in any event, in these cases where we can be on the field, you should expect to find us on the field.

Generally speaking, we get the joke. We know that the free market is nonsense. We know that the whole point is to game the system, to beat the market, or at least find someone who will pay you a lot of money because they’re convinced that there is a free lunch. We know this is largely about power, that it’s an adults-only, no-limit game. We kind of agree with Mao that political power comes largely from the barrel of a gun. And we get it that if you want a friend you should get a dog.

What Bloom is talking about is how labor has realized that the “free market system” is rigged against labor, and the statistics bear this out. Since Reagan began his union-busting with the air traffic controllers strike in the early 80s, the percentage of union jobs in America has decreased from about 55% to about 7%. The system is rigged, it is anti-labor, and it is about raw political power. He doesn’t state that he wants to murder 10s of millions of people, he simply states the political truth. If you want the political truth, about the last place you ought to be checking for it is Glenn Beck’s shows.

So, Glenn, you little paranoid weasel, here’s the scoop. OnStar isn’t listening to your conversations any more than I am. They are not tracking you, they are a private business that operates a service which people pay for. Most people think it’s a good idea to have OnStar anti-theft protection. The US Government doesn’t care where you go and if they did they could just look at your cell phone information. Ron Bloom is not a Maoist any more than you are. In fact, he may be less of a Maoist than you are because he cares about what happens to people in the workforce and you don’t, you care about the people in the ivory towers.

One last thing. I hate to be the one to let the air out of your gasbag paranoid frenzy, but if the government wants to let the air out of your tires they will probably use spike strips.

Pfffffffffffffft. Glenn Beck the punching clown deflates again.