Glenn Beck's Festival of Fools
...The original Martin Luther King event was the opening act of a tragedy that hurtled America toward violence and King's murder five years later. This makes the Glenn Beck event exactly what Beck says it is: not King-significant, not partisan, not strident, not Tea Party--a lot of "not" about this or that. Beck admits to his ignorance of the day, "I had no idea August 28th was the day of the MLK speech when we booked it... I'm sorry, media, that I forgot the, oh, so important detail of the date." Beck also denies a partisan logic, "Well, it's not a political event because I haven't found a lot of honor when it's followed by an 'R' or a 'D.'"
It would be tidy just to leave the event be--a well-organized gathering of amiable, energetic, kindly citizens, and friends on a sunny, dry, lucky day in a space designed for hundreds of thousands of people to enter and leave swiftly.
• John Avlon: I Have a NightmareYet this is not the whole story, and the part of Glenn Beck that is a natural performer knows it, which is why he adds oddly discordant remarks to his explanation of the event. "I've been examining the problems of this country and I've been trying to come up with ways out," Beck observes. "We're entering our last exit, last exit. We need to get off this highway." Later he warns, "Make no mistake, the flame of freedom is dwindling. The shining city on the hill, the sun is setting. If you don't want it to go out on our watch, then you must stand in the blaze. The fire of truth that does not burn those who stand in it, but consumes everything that is not. Point others to the truth."
What is Beck talking about? What is it that the folk who watch his afternoon TV show hear when he starts prophesying about "ways out" and "the sun is setting" and "the fire of truth"? The answer may be disappointingly simple. Beck isn't talking about anything historical, that is, genuinely threatening, since he is not politically astute, intellectually curious, or even much of a kvetch. Beck is an entertainer, and he does his job with hambone energy and handfuls of self-mockery. There is no threat here. Beck is bootlessly earnest, as he says; Beck is pleasantly harmless, as he says. Beck is a fool in the manner of a court jester, a fool whom FNC properly features as foolish--a braniac with a pipe in-mouth, or a lecturer-in-chief with chalk in hand, or a handsome lad mugging to the camera as if he'd just dropped his own birthday cake in his lap. I think of him now and again as Quasimodo Lite, a deaf bell-ringer swinging from the Notre Dame of Fox, a man who is eager to confess his own unsightly warts--"I've screwed up most of my life"--and who is also heroically delighted to be our slightly stooped "Pope of Fools," because this accidental role, in this Festival of Fools called 2010, wins the cheers of the crowd.
Listen to Beck's monologues on the videos posted on the "Restoring Honor" site. Beck mutters random famous names like pop brands and offers a deal of extemporaneous sighing about loss, regret, children, monuments. It takes a strong man not to break down laughing at the tinkling piano soundtrack as Beck rambles, "People say, all the time, that trying to fix Washington, we need a George Washington, or, or, or we need a Thomas Jefferson or a Ben Franklin. Where are they? I haven't seen them. But then I realize, it's because, we haven't grown them in an awfully long time..."
That Glenn Beck continues to ape revolutionaries and pontificators is not a measure of Beck, who is a hard-working stunt artist, but a measure of the moment of this jobless, deflating "Great Stall," the virulence of want and doubt, when it is easier for us to debate an actor babbling nonsensical metaphors about a highway exit than it is to do the labor of robust conversation that leads to resolve and prosperity.
As for the August 28 event, it makes me smile that Quasimodo Lite will be on the stage with his Esmeralda again, this time played by Sarah Palin, and that the cheers of the crowd will convince both Beck and Palin that they are listened to. In the original tragedy, you will recall, the king ordered Esmeralda hanged as a witch, and it was many years later that they found the corpse of Quasimodo curled up next to her grave, starved to death rather than leave the one woman who ever showed him kindness. Victor Hugo understood our appetite for stern romance. Beck and Palin understand our desire for cushy sentimentality. Their fates are likely to be much sunnier than those of Quasimodo and Esmeralda, as we celebrate our fools until the commercial break.
John, it's easy enough to make sport of Glenn Beck. Intellectually, he's no John Batchelor. However, when November 2 rolls around and your "dead elephant" comes back to life with a roar, you'll be basking in the moment like the rest of us. And in that moment, will you stop to consider how much of the tsunami was due to people like Beck and Limbaugh, people you disparage?
I guess I'm not as picky as you when I look for political allies. When people pull the "conservative" levers in November, there will be many who neither you nor I would welcome to our homes as dinner guests, but for that moment they are pulling the lever, I call them my brothers and sisters.
More frustrating to me than your chiding of Glenn Beck is my complete inability to understand why you don't celebrate events like these as victories for our side. Does happiness make you uncomfortable? Or are you and I not on the same side?
Two media figures denounce Glenn Beck!
How novel!
The more things change .... the liberal sources quote the Beck rally as have "thousands", the more middle of the road ones say the rally had "tens of thousands", pictures show a couple hundred thousand.
The sources almost all label the rally as "controversial". Very sad. As I'm sure Peter would agree, until we start getting better press coverage, we can have millions of supporters and nobody will take us seriously. Well, at least we have JB taking it seriously .... oh wait, nevermind.
"The Christmas Sweater" was one of the most charming books I have read in a while. Mr. Beck is very talented, not your typical "my tribe is good, your tribe is evil" type of Conservative.
NYT:
By KATE ZERNIKE and CARL HULSE
Published: August 28, 2010
WASHINGTON — Tens of thousands of people rallied at the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on Saturday, summoned by Glenn Beck, a conservative broadcaster who called for a religious rebirth in America at the site where the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech 47 years ago to the day.
I don't think it's at all conflicting or contradictory for me to be a huge fan of both John Batchelor and Glenn Beck. John speaks to my brain and Glenn mostly to my heart. The beauty of the talk radio phenomenon, 20+ years since Limbaugh kick started it, remains its diversity... Limbaugh, Beck, Hannity, Batchelor, Savage, Ingraham, and the hundreds more on a local scale. For the most part each has his own style and his own space. Things sometimes overlap, and that's OK. Things sometimes differ, and that's OK too. And the talkers for the most part give each other room to breathe, and that's good too. It's all good. Be grateful.
I like the Christmas Sweater enough last year (two years ago I guess) to buy a copy for every member of my team at work.
And then I got laid off.
Wow, John, I'm a huge fan, of yours. I never miss your show, and you just dissed me. You lumped me into a group of "amiable, energetic, kindly citizens" guess the only words you left out was gullible and stupid. You see John, we are a group of annoyed, stunned citizens, who can't believe what our politicians are doing to us. We are not just the "Attack of the Zombie Republicans", or Zombie Christians, or Zombie white folks. I was there with my best friend, who just happens to be Jewish, and neither of us are Republican. We're not Dems either I might add, but you are buying into the media lies...at least I hope that's how your opinion formed. I guess I'm sorry that you don't get it. You don't have to idolize Mr. Beck, I don't believe he wants that, but at least don't allow your bias (as another successful political commentator) to blind you.
To all the commentators. JB has softened over the years, in my ears, is part of the old liberal right. My old man is much the same, seeking complex solutions to simple problems. The Becks of the world are the opposite - I think it is an oil and water thing. I enjoy JB's broadcast, some of it makes my ass itch, like anything in life, it a a volunteer sport.
First time you've been through one of JB's Daily Beast posts? Take two aspirin and try not to think about it, it stops hurting after a couple of days. Each successive time it gets easier.
"some of it makes my ass itch" ... funny, I always thought that was from my sitting on the cat's usual sofa to listen to the show .... Hmm...
Joe- it's worse than JB just being complex. I'm convinced he's actually two distinct souls in the same body. Anyone who can buddy up to Tunku V. and in the next segment be joined at the hip with Larry Johnson, has got a couple of different interfaces loaded into the compiler.
You brought up Tunku V. with some of the jokes he cracks he may need to throw some ice into that cold shower next time. JB is trying to be "fair and balanced with his I report you decide:)" When the music strikes up at the end of the show and the last thought stirs my cerebrum and I picture some of my old friends standing watch I know we are going to make it threw the night . . . now have you seen the f-ing asteroid that thing is huge! Like Orca of the space rocks, with that guy Peter O'Toole as the Earth - minus the sexpot girlfriend (I threw that in for Tunku, the sexiest broads were back in the 70's now they are all silicone, get to work Tunku, Google the broad build a time machine and go live in the 70's hit the clubs and have a ball)
I thought it was just me, ("some of it makes my ass itch" ) I learn more from JB, than any other commentator. John is cerebral, but he really annoys me with the condescending attitude toward Glenn Beck fans and Tea Party supporters. Something in this country has to change. "We The People" are really Pi$$ed, we may not be the most articulate group, but we care, and we are the ones who just went along to get along, had to work after all. But, we are awake now. I'll take two aspirin, and wait for it to go away.
Reporters for the usual suspect media have made careers out of going to Tea Party events, town halls, and 9/12 events to ridicule and mock the attendees and to find the odd fringe "Obama=Communist" tee-shirt, which they interview extensively while the camera focuses on the tee-shirt.
I dealt with this phenomenon on my website last year. All the libs on the site think Beck et al. are a resurgence of the paranoid fascist streak in American politics, the KKK. They diligently follow every hysterical screed issued by the Southern Poverty Law Center, aka aging 60s ACLU radicals on steroids. They completely gloss over all the evidence from the 2004 media blitzes against Bush, directed by editors like Mark Halperin, that editors tell the reporters what to report on from these events.
And let's face it, if you want to stir up traffic, outrageous and outrage is the way to go. Controversy sells. Let's face too that the Daily Beast is about as interested in Republican/Conservative ideas as Jon Stewart is. It's all about audience share.
LRC - Please allow me to try this one more time - JB and I live in the North East, New York to be exact -I was raised to be an individual, stand alone, go it alone, eat a squirrel on a stick if you've got to. John and his ilk were not - they were sold what is load of crap and I think they are not ready mentally to deal - they think that the heros that were there fathers, my grandfather and my father, are going to save them from the worst of it all - I think that bleeds into JB's thoughts about people like us who find a Beck and a Limbaugh the voices we gravitate to be from his perspective distasteful.
Think of this way - if you grew up in NYC and had no experience with the raw components of life, your whole life, you've got children now, you've seen what happens when societies loose there moorings, after all JB knows his history, yet you can't survive on your own and your kids certainly can't, would that make you a little obnoxious to those who are more then ready to handle it? If you are hyper intelligent could you just make that leap and start taking the steps to survive a social earthquake? I don't think so. I think it takes precious time to get there.
I’m tempted to give JB a pass on this one. I was as outraged, as most of you were, when I read JB‘s take. I too wondered why it's always us that get attacked; smeared; called names; ridiculed; disparaged; condemned; etc? Why are Obama and his hoard of media lackeys, dreamers, and incompetents never referred to as ‘fools’ - even by us? Why do we never accuse them by name of the sins they continually flaunt. They’re like the crazy aunt who lives with us whose presence we always tip-toe around lest she fly into a rage and starts smashing the flatware.
John’s room is perhaps closer to the crazy aunt’s than our’s is by virtue of his being in the viper’s nest media. He must tread a fine line. The media in general has been under assault by this administration in particular. This will likely increase as time goes by. Independent media could even be choked-off altogether by King Obama’s stroke of pen. John just wants to make sure he survives.
I can’t accept that JB’s a wanker. He strikes me as being far too brilliant for that. He knows more than he can say. Some of what he can’t say, he says through us. He fully expected our reaction to his obvious pose; and react we did, all of it proudly articulate and to the point.
JBS blog is read worldwide. John is the vehicle for our views to get out. We are being heard and will continue being heard even as Glenn Beck gets canceled.
http://peterkoelliker.blogspot.com/
http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/
If the entire "take back America movement" is ever going to get off the ground, it will need someone to focus the energy of the people, and move it foward. Maybe Glenn Beck isn't the best person, but at least its a start. Revolutions don't happen overnight. It may take years or decades to get our country back. Some of us may never see the fruits of our labors, but hopefully our children will be able to live a better life than us.
@Joe Doakes, I think you're right in your assessment of John's micro worldview... I was born in suburban NJ and grew up on the NJ shore, drenched in the NYC media market and that way of thinking. Most Republicans there are like my father... they seem conservative when viewed next to the bleeding heart ninnies who inhabit most of the area, but they are in fact as liberal as the Dems in most of the rest of the country in that they believe that the residents of flyover country (not to mention the "poor" people two towns over) are too stupid to [feed themselves, earn more than minimum wage, really understand the rest of the world, use toilet paper, understand why the 2nd amendment should be struck from the constitution, etc etc].
And then I moved to rural Michigan, where I lived for 10 years. It's a place where the sheriff will drive by, smile, and wave at you while you're sitting at your picnic table beside the house drinking a beer and bbq'ing with friends while occasionally shooting a target hanging from a tree with the 12 gauge shotgun. In NJ they'd call the SWAT team and throw you in jail for 20 years. In Michigan (outside of the hellhole of Detroit) most residents could survive a societal collapse quite nicely, thank you.
Now I live on the Eastern Shore of MD, 90 minutes and a million miles away from both Baltimore and Philadelphia. It's nothing like rural MI, but the silliness of the world is far enough away that I can ignore it most of the time. The only time to be afeared is the 90 days a year when the idiots go to Annapolis to figure out my tax rate for the next year.
All that said, I still value John and listen to every minute he produces. I put it through my personal filter and think for myself. It's all good.
Q.: What on Earth did Mr. Batchelor write "Attack of the Zombie Republicans" for?
A.: For fifty cents a word.
Glad I could clear that little mystery up for y'all.
Let's count the words in "Zombie Republicans", divide by two to convert to dollars, pass the hat amongst us, and send John a check for the full amount if he promises to skip the next one.
Each of us has our own explanation for why John writes the Daily Beast articles. The theories vary widely, but one thing is certain: The John Batchelor that writes those articles is not the same JB we hear every night. It's a wildly different point of view. It's different enough that we all sit up and take notice. It doesn't really matter why he does it. What matters is that he's capable of doing it.
Mr. Batchelor likes the Republican Party "a deal," but not, it seems, Republicans.
But he dislikes Democrats even more.
I just tried my luck on the parallel thread over on NoQuarter, and sure enough you have people resorting to ad hominems when they disagree with you. Reminds me of why this is my blog of choice (don't you all feel fortunate, now? (grin))
Excuse me, I meant to say, "Reminds me of why this is my blog of choice, you idiots!"
Well, there's another hour and a half out of my life spent blogging that I'll never have back.
Batchelor's been telling the party for the last 5 years that it has lost its moorings and the leadership is a bunch of cliche-burping nitwits.
It's hard to disagree with his assessment when you recall Hastert and Frist, when you look at Boehner and McConnell, when you digest Batchelor's oft-repeated and never answered rhetorical question to McCain during the 2008 campaign, "Why do you want to be president?" The Dems were the angry default choice of 2008; Republicans are the angry default choice of 2010. That doesn't speak well for either party. That the electorate lets both get away with empty cliches and ideologically-driven cock-ups doesn't speak well for the electorate.
BTW, have a look at how many comments his contrarian post has garnered. More than any other topic. If comments were the Abitron ratings of the internet, he's scored big among this little band!
Ah yes, well you see, that is the problem, and maybe John and a few others here are, at least philosophically, agreeing with the "zombie Republicans" who showed up at Becks rally. We are sick and tired of politics as usual...not just the corrupt Democrats, but the corrupt Republicans. I lived in Nancy Pelosi's district for 30 years; I never once voted for her. Someone did. The reason I went to the Rally, and the reason I write, call and email my "ideologically-driven cock-ups in congress and the senate, is to get a message across, were sick of business as usual. I don't think that makes me a "zombie Republican." I just don't know what more I, as a royally pissed off citizen can do to get their attention.
The answer to your question of what to do next is what scares me. When enough people feel the same way, our only option may be, some form of cival unrest, possibly with some violence thrown in for extra effect. While I am not saying lets go do it, in the long run I don't see any way out of our situation without it getting to the point of revolution or cival war. Our country is so divided on so many issues, it seems impossible that anyone could come along to unite us again as a country.
LRC this may give yo a small smile - Don't give up the fight, you can bet the pinko-commies won't.
Dear Mr. Obama,
Welfare was not practiced in the Doake’s household.
Upon coming home from Junior High school I walked into my fathers office, and began to demand an allowance. As you can imagine I was very persuasive, I explained at length that I could not fit in unless I wore the right clothes, and therefore I would need money to purchase them. I thought this completely reasonable. I, his son, must look good he, my father, must pay. An entitlement mentality only a child could possess.
The old man leaned back in his chair, leaned forward, turned over the sheet of paper he was working on, cleared his Texas Instruments calculator, that cost hundreds of dollars and was 5,000 years old, and said “Well Joe let’s see here . . “ and began to list out all of the costs he was providing for me. At the end he came up with a figure of my share of the family homestead. Then he declared “Joe, how do you want to handle your bill?” At this point not only did I not have an allowance, I was in debt! Growing by the second! Then he explained that I could wash and wax the car to pay him back, and if I wanted money I could go do the same thing for someone else, and he and I would call it even. That gave birth to an entrepreneur. All I needed was a bucket, my dirt bike, some soap, and wax. Pretty soon I had figured out a way to get a car from the local train station to my driveway without the benefit of a drivers license.
Forgetting my breeching the vehicle and traffic law what did I learn through this exercise. For one, the value of money. You see when someone actually does work for something they tend not to act wastefully with what they earn. All that stuff I told my father I wanted to be cool, I still wanted to be accepted by the crowd, but no longer that crowd, I wanted to be part of the smart and athletic crowd. I also opened up a savings account, back then our monetary policy awarded savers, and didn’t punish them like it does today. In addition I wasn’t idle as a young boy, and the idea of earning money caught fire, pretty soon I was mowing lawns, baby sitting, cleaning houses even got a job taking pictures at the local paper. At one point I was making more money then some people double my then age.
Then there is you. You don’t know the value of money, you have no capacity to lead, and you firmly believe that the Federal Government can be made benevolent, that a mosk should be placed less then five hundred feet from the site of the largest attack on the continental United States, instead of putting the gifts Allah, I mean God gave you to work for some positive end. You filled your head with every pinko commie piece of dreck that could fit, and then you sought public office, so you could spread the word of Allah, I mean communism, no wait, dependency, no I’m sorry I forgot the narrative “Hope” and “Change.” I have wondered what it would be like to truly be governed by ones own intellectual and moral inferior, and I must say I feel terrible, but somehow empowered to fight against you.
Actually, the pilot of Air Force one put it best. Do you remember your first step on Air Force One? I do. Unbeknownst to you there was a National Geographic film crew on the aircraft concluding the show describing the 747 that allows you to take all those vacations on our dime. Anyway, the camera is trained on the pilot, and the pilot is concluding his comments, and he sees your limo pull up and he says with a look of loss on his face, his head darting between you and the camera, “ . . . no matter who is President we take them where they need to . . . uh . . . go . . .” He could barely contain his surprise that a commie was elected to be the President of the United States.
Nor can the American people, and on November 2, 2010 we are going to do something about that.
Respectfully,
Joe Doakes
August 25, 2010
Dear President Obama:
It seems like a lifetime ago, considering the economy is being shoved off a cliff by your backward, not a snowballs-chance-in-hell-of-working economic policy; while you simultaneously grab the parachutes off of Americas collective back. The grinding free-fall is becoming a reality for most in a world of depleted savings, and little reward for work other then survival. Soon after your assuming the throne you called on the Queen of England, then you presented her majesty with an ipod full of your speeches. Being a little bit of an audiophile, I’ve still got a reel to reel player and a record player, in my vast collection I have speeches from the most pivotal moments in recorded history, Churchill, FDR, the bombing of Pearl Harbor and much more. Of course I have an ipod too, and on it I have a bunch of speeches on that like the ones that Reagan delivered after his 49 state landslide, and the one he gave so presciently, and with great vigor in 1964. There is a vast chasm between you, and President Reagan. To understand this all one needs to hear is the response of the crowd to his nomination acceptance speech in Detroit, Michigan, to absorb the wisdom, humility, and love of country that Mr. Reagan held.
You see, Mr. Obama, men like President Reagan believed in what they were saying with their heart, soul, and mind. Men like Mr. Reagan understood that the American people had been suckered in the past, and they deserved the service of an American that would serve genuinely without pretense, or false witness. Mr. Obama, do you know what it means when a person has to speak in low tones, or can’t say one speech to every audience whether it is New York City, or Houston, Texas or, Minot Air force Base. It means they are practicing the art of obfuscation, because in their heart, in your heart Mr. Obama, you know that if you told the whole truth, and nothing but the truth your entire world would come crashing down. President Reagan earned the respect of the American people by holding himself, and frankly us, to a standard, and a hope, that we would once again see America as a shining beacon of liberty to all who seek her shores.
Mr. Obama I hope that one day you grow enough to earn our respect. I do not believe that there is a soul on this Earth who can’t decide that tomorrow is the day they do the right thing, including you. Yet, the evidence for this opportunity is diminishing by the week with every opportunity you have had to promote, and celebrate what makes America so special you blew, and as I think, Sinatra once said, not in a small way. If President Reagan were alive today he would be ashamed of what you have done thus far, he would be doing everything in his power to rally Americans to defeat you, and your ilk at the ballot box.
Since he is not here, it will be my honor, our honor, to try to do it for him.
Respectfully,
Joe Doakes
If inspiring controversy on this topic is his goal, how do you explain his asking one person at the roundtable last night (John Avlon) what he thought about Beck's rally, when he already knew exactly what Avlon thought (full agreement with JB), then running to the break without asking any of the more conservative people at the roundtable what they thought about it? Not exactly a way to stimulate discussion. And, a question that, in my mind, is much more interesting than belaboring the point about what a bonehead POTUS is for going to make the Katrina speech. So stipulated, POTUS is a bonehead. Now, what did Larry Johnson think about the rally? If you're curious, it's all on No Quarter, and those particular zombies all loved the rally, even the atheists.
There's a lot of waffling going on on this post and a lot of excusing John for the article. So let me point out that I love JB, I love the JBS, and I think there's no excuse whatsoever for John's snubbing of the Beck rally. I think he's doing himself a disservice by snubbing it in this fashion.
I delivered newspapers on a route in my neighborhood in Chicago -Sun-Times, Tribunes and two WSJ's (my parents were one of the two).
I had to do it 7 days a week, up at 5 AM in the dark before school, frequently sub-zero (sometimes as low as minus 20F). When I'd finish at about 6:15 I'd come in and get ready for school, but I'd bring the papers upstairs and put them on the breakfast table for my Dad when he would get up for work.
Come Christmastime the news agency (Mearns) would give us all calendars and we'd go around and hand out the calendars and get tips. One year I decided to give my Mom and Dad each a calendar and get two tips that way. It worked like a charm - they each gave me the standard $1 tip - until sure enough they compared notes, found out they'd been flimflammed (Yeah - Hornswaggled!) and made me pay one of the dollars back.
This trying to get a measly $2 and having to give one of them back is what the private sector is all about. It's what makes America great. Obama should try it sometime.
From WSJ Political Diary 30 Aug:
Obama Builds a Big Tent . . . for Conservatives
It will drive liberals crazy, but Glenn Beck's "Restoring Honor" Rally probably outdrew Rev. Martin Luther King Jr's original "I Have a Dream" rally, on which it was patterned. Mr. Beck's rally also lived up to its promise to be non-political. Weaving through the crowd on Saturday, the most partisan sign I saw read "I Can See November From My House."
On a BBC panel discussion afterward, one of my fellow participants insisted the rally was political nonetheless because so many who attended share what he called a "quasi-religious" view that the U.S. Constitution should be interpreted as it was written. Leaving aside the confused exercise in pop psychology, he was right in one sense: The rally was yet another demonstration of how the Obama administration's excesses have brought different strands of the conservative movement together.
Mr. Beck's operation could never have pulled off such a large event on its own. But the Tea Party Patriots were able to come up with 350 volunteers within 24 hours of being contacted by Mr. Beck. FreedomWorks, a group headed by former Rep. Dick Armey, provided logistical help and held a get-out-the-vote training session the night before (at which Mr. Beck appeared). Americans for Prosperity, another Tea Party group, arranged for buses to converge on Washington from all over the country.
In the past, more secular Tea Party types might not have showed up at a religiously-themed event like "Restoring Honor." Similarly, many of the devoutly religious people I met at Saturday's rally probably would in the past have shunned an explicitly political event such as Friday night's Freedom Works meeting. But I kept bumping into the same people at both gatherings.
"I happen to be opposed to gay marriage, but our peril is so great that goes on the back burner," Debbie Johnson of Georgia told me on Saturday. Bruce Majors, a gay real-estate agent from Washington D.C., had a different take. He told me earlier this year that he felt perfectly comfortable working with the Tea Party on bringing the size of government under control. "We're both about freedom and we have a common short-term goal," he said. Indeed, in Washington this past weekend the more libertarian and the more socially conservative elements of the Tea Party seemed to get along just fine.
The conservative movement is maturing and learning to incorporate a wider cross-section of people under its banner. That may well be one of the more enduring accomplishments -- albeit inadvertent -- of Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid these past two years.
-- John Fund
Too bad, so sad. I thought JB was better than this.
Yes, Glenn Beck is a goober, and so are his followers. But I'd rather have goobers spending my money and deciding which way the guns should point than the current hipster sophists.
This is exactly why I supported Obama over Hillary Clinton in 2008. I accurately foresaw that Clinton would not push the conservative elements in our society sufficiently to the brink to form the critical mass which is now forming. The risk of course was that we'd end up with a couple of floaters like ObamaCare in the punchbowl as collateral damage, but that can be remedied after we regain some sense in this country.
To John Fund - everybody's under the banner now except John Batchelor. C'mon, John, pull up a chair, we're all about ready to take one of our famous zombie snoozes. Make yourself a plate of chicken, mash potatoes and corn on the cob and make yourself at home. It's a real big tent that's forming.
I've got it!! I've got it. No, not St. Vitus' Dance..... I mean, I've figured out what the deal is with JB. He's like Moses. He's leading us all to the promised land but he himself can't cross the river for some reason. Destiny, perhaps.
Oh dear, an old liberal friend has just e-mailed me a Glenn Beck political cartoon that accuses Glenn of being a Fox media star. (Egad! Isn't that what JB is saying?) In fact, Glenn Beck is a Fox media star. He calls his fare 'edutainment', or something like that. Glenn is much too emotional for my delicate nerves. JB is just right. (Got that, JB?)
John,that harangue was beneath a gentleman of your caliber,where is your noblisse oblige?.Glenn is well meaning,he is fostering inquisitiveness in ordinary people.Iam sure you and your listeners smirk and cackle at his ham handed presentation but we need you both to stop this boobacracy! so bite your lip and join the party and look amused we need you
I must have been one of John Batchelor's, greatest fans, having listened to him since 9/12/01, followed him thru The Paul Alexander days, waited for his return for 18 months when dropped by WABC , and continued on when his best interview nightly, when I could only find him on his friends website radio program.....John Loftus...
( btw where did HE go? )
I don't know where in Haites ( as you'd put it) you're coming from John, but your portrayal of Mr. Beck ~ really turned my head~ , and I am asking myself. " who the heck have I been listening to for the last 9 years?" I mean... I'm just stunned by this article!
I usually respect anything, or " most of" what JB says, but on this one?..... I'm bailing out.
If there's ~anyone~ I think JB should respect >>>>it ~is~ Glenn Beck!
Very Disappointed Big John!~
( I'm the guy who made the Regime Change Magazine Covers for you....remember?)
Most Sadly and Sincerely,
Dave Chmela
If those people are boobs, then I say "Bury me with the Boobs!" (Hey, that has kind of ring to it....)
Wow Dave, I've written your very comment about 5 times, then delete them all, because I just couldn't get the message right...you did get it exactly right. I too have been listening to John since 9/12, and I too just don't understand where John is coming from with respect to Glenn Beck. John, Glenn Beck isn't a "Rah Rah Republicans at all costs," he isn't even a republican. Neither am I, but actually, I am a proud Beck Zombie.
I've listened to Mr. Batchelor, to get a large world view, but this portrayal of Mr. Beck, and us Zombies who were at the Rally, well, as Dave said, I'm stunned.
I too am very sad, I thought I'd always listening to JB...
"Hey .... did you see that John Batchelor fans are revolting?"
"So... what else is new?"
Seriously, I would never stop listening to him over this. Even if he has in fact gone over to the other side, which I doubt, they do say you're supposed to keep your friends close and your enemies closer.
Feels like an intellectualoid smack-down, with just a tinge of Princeton look-down-your nose kinda thing...say it anin't so!!
It's easier to identify elitism in others than it is in one's self.
"Hey .... did you see that John Batchelor fans are revolting?"
LOLOL
Well now. That depends on how well one knows themselves now, doesn't it? I don't see JB as pretentious in any way. However, I do from time to time disagree with him, as I do you, Lou. (please bear the obvious rhythmic alliteration. I couldn't resist it.) Once again we are being bombarded with weapons of mass distraction, when the focus would be better served trying to figure a way to build a better mouse trap...the better to catch more "crats; as in demos'. I would be disappointed if we were to loose this forum because we were unable to from time to time lay things between the lines without being or sounding judgmental. Anyway, it's good practice; that is couching those between the lines stuff. There may come a day when the prudent way to communicate among like-minded, will be in huffs and puffs, unless we remain diligent. This bunch of left-wing loonies has me a bit spooked. I enjoy comments from regular contributors on this blog. Some of the stuff is down right inspiring, Lou. Besides, Corlyss, a little revolution now and then is a good thing. Seems I read that somewhere once. Ha! LOL
"lose this forum because we were unable to from time to time lay things between the lines without being or sounding judgmental". If we have to modify what we put here a certain way in order to avoid losing it, then we haven't really lost much.
I also think you do JB a bit of a disservice by perhaps implying that he would yank us for criticising him. This entire thread, if nothing else, is a tribute to John's patience and open mindedness. Speaking for myself, if I had that many of my readers critiquing my writing in a negative way, I'd 'ave blasted them all out about 5 miles of swiss cheese where their arses once were.
Lou, I was not implying that JB would yank us for criticizing him. After 5 years of listening to his show, and years of following his blog I do not think that JB would be that kind of person. Besides, I usually just read and listen. Very seldom do I respond. My friends call me oldfox because by the time I was 50 my hair had turned a silvery gray; not because I have some brilliant insight into life and smart like an old fox. I am a big fan of Glenn Beck(although sometimes he seems a little too emotional), so maybe my feelings were hurt a little , and that's because I am a big fan of JB, and maybe my feelings were hurt a little. I am hoping that whoever "they" are, leave this blog alone if "they" ever get enough power to regulate the net as "they" see fit. It was not my intention to hurt anyone's feelings on this blog site. I feel JB is one of the most intuitive writers around, and look forward to coming here to learn.
I had to look up the word kvetch. Let's see if I have this right. Kvetching would be something like walking across the barnyard and seeing The Barn Door open and the cows out; then, complaining about it to the point of being a whiner instead of just shooing the cows back in the barn and closing the door.