Glenn Beck By Numbers: The True Story (We Think)

Glenn Beck once described himself as a "rodeo clown." Unfortunately, I don't think he's one tenth as courageous. Foolhardy, yes, courageous, no. He once described his radio show as "The Fusion of Entertainment and Enlightenment." Entertainment is usually a diversion from reality. That's why we've made a religion out of entertainment (and an entertainment out of religion, but that's a whole different rant). Beck's shows may be entertaining to some, but "enlightening"? Many of the people who tune in to Beck do not want to be enlightened. Do they want to hear something fresh and new, an idea that has a small spark of creativity?

Of course not. They want to hear Glenn Beck put his spin on the things they've heard from Ann Coulter, Laura Ingraham, Rush Limbaugh and the like. But because Glenn Beck is not physically Coulter, Ingraham, Limbaugh, O'Reilly, Hannity, etc. they'd like to think that he's "enlightening."

Beck's latest statement about Barack Obama being a racist has firestormed as much controversey as Obama's handling of the Prof. Gates case. When you see the video below (on, of course, FOX and Friends), notice that Beck makes his statement quite matter-of-factly and bases his entire premise on one incident. That is not "enlightenment" as much as it is, in itself, racism. His program has since then, lost three large sponsors. As one commentor to a Matthew Iglesias post said:

It’s almost as if the public’s appetite for right-wing sociopaths has limits: ...

Even so, Beck has resolved NEVER to recant. This resolve would be admirable if it were not for the fact that many of his listeners have taken it to be a kind of "unltra rightwing manifesto."

From The Daily Kos:

I went on the Huffington Post this morning and I was shocked with what I saw on FOX News Glenn Beck's show. He has the speaker of the house Nancy Pelosi. He jokes about putting poison in her drink. Ok, now he's gone too far. He's inciting violence towards a public official. His ilk are getting people hurt in townhalls across the country, and where is the local media in all of this? Not doing a damn thing of course?

O.K., so Glen Beck likes to think of himself in terms of an "enlightening clown." An agent provocateur. A common man with an eccentric bent. A man who feels free to show all his emotions simply because he has a right to that freedom. He thinks he talks to the American heartland (whatever that may be) from the American heart.

Glenn Beck thinks he's so many things, so let's spotlight some moments in his life and see what we can come up with, shall we?

• Born February 10, 1964, Mount Vernon, Washington
• Raised a Roman Catholic.
• Both mother and one brother committed suicide.
• Another sibling had a fatal heart attack.
• Publisher of Fusion Magazine, a 16-page monthly magazine based on Beck's radio program, from whence it gets its name, the Beck program motto being: The Fusion of Entertainment and Enlightenment.
• Beck took several college courses, but never chose a major and never graduated college.
• In 1999, Beck acknowledged a long disenchantment with Catholicism and converted to Mormonism (LDS - or The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints)
• Beck is an admitted recovering alcoholic.
• Before his television career, Beck hosted Christian radio, rock radio and country radio - all at the same station.
• The Glenn Beck Program first aired on WFLA in Tampa, Fla.
• In 2006, CNN picked Beck to host a news-commentary show called Headline Prime.
• In 2008, Beck won the Marconi Radio Award for Network Syndicated Personality of the Year.
• On October 16, 2008 it was announced that Glenn Beck would join the Fox News Channel
• Beck is a fervent opponent of gun control
• He opposes stem cell research
• He opposes euthanasia
• He favors pro-life
  

Same-sex marriage?

From News Hounds

Lowering his head with dramatic intensity, he said, “I believe this case [Iowa Supreme Court Decision on same-sex marriage] is actually about going into churches and going in and attacking churches and saying you can't teach anything else. When you say marriage – civil unions is different – when you say marriage must be defined as this, well then you also have to go into the schools.”

There is no doubt that Beck incites anger and hatred because, if he didn't we would not be reading the next screed, by someone who actually believed that Beck had gone "soft" on right wing issues. These people are poised to wreak havoc and violence at the August Townhall meetings:

Glenn Beck Loses Edge, Becomes Raging Hippy-Homosexual

July 07th, 2008 | Category: Communism, Liberal Democ-Rats, Terrorism, Truth

CNN’s Glenn Beck has once again shown why CNN, aka the Communist News Network, is dropping like a stone in the ratings war against the defenders of information freedom, FOX News. As you probably know, a recent court ruling by the pinkos in the Supreme Court opened the doorway for terrorists and thugs incarcerated fair-and-square in Guantanamo to have access to the court system, just as if they were on US soil. Does anything in Cuba look like it’s a part of the US? No it doesn’t. Mr. Beck shot the standard CNN sniveling salvo at Christian Republican America by making the loony-left wingnut statement about terrorists in Guatanamo that:

Glenn Beck:“We’re going to shoot them all in the head. If we think that they are against us, we’re going to shoot them and kill them, period. Because that’s the only thing we’ve got going for us is we can put them away and get information. If we can’t put them away and they’re going to use our court system, kill them.”

Glenn Beck has as a pet project something called the 9/12 Project. It has nine principles and twelve values which, he feels, embody the spirit of America the day after 9/11.

His twelve values: honesty, reverence, hope, thrift, humility, charity, sincerity, moderation, hard work, courage, personal responsibility, and gratitude.

His nine principles are:

1. America Is Good
2. I believe in God and He is the Center of my Life
3. I must always try to be a more honest person than I was yesterday
4. The family is sacred
5. If you break the law you pay the penalty
6. I have a right to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness, but there is no guarantee of equal results
7. I work hard for what I have and I will share it with whom I want to
8. It is not un-American for me to disagree with authority or to share my personal opinion
9. The government works for me — I do not answer to them, they answer to me

#1 Is fine.
#2 Is the basis of religious intolerance.
#3 What if you not at all an honest person yesterday?
#4 If Tony Perkins wore a tattoo this would be emblazoned across his private parts.
#5 How harsh the penalty is why we have judges.
#6 A bit of social Darwinism here.
#7 The second part sounds scary.
#8 That's called covering your ass.
#9 But what if "me" is a selfish, egotistical a**hole?

So Glenn Beck is a little more complex than he lets on. That's why through the inanity, the show of emotions, the mask of patriotism and righteousness, he is not to be trusted.

He's a rodeo clown who won't admit how dangerous he is to the bull.

• On the May 17, 2005, broadcast of The Glenn Beck Program, Beck said he was "thinking about killing [filmmaker] Michael Moore" and pondered whether "I could kill him myself, or if I would need to hire somebody to do it," before concluding: "No, I think I could. I think he could be looking me in the eye, you know, and I could just be choking the life out -- is this wrong?" (wikipedia)