Things that can't possibly end well.

Nutsos are building their own communities, walled-off sanctuaries from the unpleasantries of modern life like facts, information, civilization, etc. Oh, and they're going to be heavily armed, in case you were wondering.

So, what would life be like in one of these communities? Let's have a look, shall we?

This is the Citadel.

Not to be confused with the military college in South Carolina, this Citadel is more like the town of Woodbury in the Walking Dead. For example, as of now, neither actually exists.

THE CITADEL

The Citadel is evolving as a planned community where residents are bound together by:

• Patriotism
• Pride in American Exceptionalism
• Our proud history of Liberty as defined by our Founding Fathers, and
• Physical preparedness to survive and prevail in the face of natural catastrophes — such as Hurricanes Sandy or Katrina — or man-made catastrophes such as a power grid failure or economic collapse.

So, basically, a big group of jerks?

 DESCRIPTION: The Citadel Community will house between 3,500 and 7,000 patriotic American families who agree that being prepared for the emergencies of life and being proficient with the American icon of Liberty — the Rifle — are prudent measures. 

So everyone's toting around rifles. What could possibly go wrong?

 LOCATION: We are in the process of selecting the ideal location among the beautiful mountains of Idaho in the American Redoubt.

Yeah, I didn't know what that meant either. Apparently "The American Redoubt" is how militia/survivalist types refer to the  Idaho/Montana/Wyoming area, because probably they think that Deadwood was a documentary about the  present-day Mountain West.

Kim Murphy, a reporter for The Los Angeles Times summed up one motivation for the movement: "For a growing number of people, it's the designated point of retreat when the American economy hits the fan. When banks fail, the government declares martial law, the power grid goes down."[5]
-Wikipedia

No credit check. No background check. Zero down payment. Zero interest. Zero property taxes. There will be no HOA. There will be no recycling police and no local ordinance enforcers from City Hall.

So, basically FREEDOMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!
No taxes, no HOAs, so no one's financing any kind of local government. Sounds like some kind of Utopian hippie commune, except with guns. Lots and lots of guns.

 HOUSING DETAILS: All homes will be built of poured concrete for exceptional strength and durability.

So, basically, bunkers.

 Oh, and there's a "Patriot Agreement" everyone has to sign. You can see the whole thing here, if you're interested.  Here are a couple of highlights:

Two: Every able-bodied Patriot aged 13 and older governed by this Agreement shall annually demonstrate proficiency with the rifle of his/her choice by hitting a man-sized steel target at 100 yards with open sights at the Citadel range. Each Resident shall have 10 shots and must hit the target at least 7 times.
Three: Every able-bodied Patriot aged 13 and older governed by this Agreement shall annually demonstrate proficiency with a handgun of choice by hitting a man-sized steel target at 25 yards with open sights at the Citadel range. Each Resident shall have 10 shots and must hit the target at least 7 times.

 That is weirdly specific, and with no way of financing local government, I don't know who's going to enforce these rules.

Four: Every able-bodied Patriot of age within the Citadel will maintain one AR15 variant in 5.56mm NATO, at least 5 magazines and 1,000 rounds of ammunition. The responsibility for maintaining functional arms and ammunition levels for every member of the household shall fall to the head of household. 

Hmm, huge ammounts of ammunition combined with patriarchy? Where do I sign up?

Five: Every household within the Citadel will remain stocked with sufficient food, water, and other preparedness essentials (to be detailed elsewhere) to sustain the needs for every member of the household for a duration of one year.

Because if we can stay hidden for a full year, eventually the black helicopters will give up and look elsewhere.

Eight: All Patriots, who are of age and are not legally restricted from bearing firearms, shall agree to remain armed with a loaded sidearm whenever visiting the Citadel Town Center. Firearm shall be on-the-person and under the control of the Resident, not merely stored in a vehicle. 

Oh, my God, it's Dodge City. Not the real Dodge City where visitors had to check their firearms at the Sheriff's Office and retrieve them when they left, but the constant shootout-riddled Dodge City of the movies.

 

With any luck, this could be us in a few years!

Nine: Each household will provide ONE able-bodied Patriot (aged 13 or older) who shall muster one Saturday per month for Martial/Support Training for neighborhood-level training & musters, as set forth by the Militia Commanders of the Community.


Anyway, it goes on and on like this, just textbook paranoia type nonsense. One would think that they would have trouble attracting applicants, but according to their website:

Even before unveiling our national advertising campaign, more than 200 families reserved space within our community!

Also, according to their website:

The Citadel is not profit-driven. The Citadel is Liberty-driven: specifically Thomas Jefferson's Rightful Liberty. 

But you know what definitely is profit-driven?

GlennBeckLand!

Or whatever he's calling it. (From Beck's stupid website)

Glenn unveils his most ambitious and visionary dream: Independence

Thursday, Jan 10, 2013

Yes, Independence USA, Glenn Beck's answer to Disneyland! No, seriously!

The ambitious project, projected to cost over two billion dollars, has been heavily influenced by Walt Disney.

Thank God Walt's not around to see what he has spawned!

As Glenn has been explaining throughout the week, Disneyland was originally intended to be a place where people would find happiness, inspiration, courage and hope. Over time, Walt Disney’s original vision has been lost. While hundreds of thousands still flock to the town, it’s become commercialized and the big dreams and the heart have been compromised. 

Right. Disneyland was never envisioned as a money-making venture! It was a labor of purest altruism! By the way, Glenn, since when do you Ayn Rand disciples object to things being "commercialized?" And since when do you admire people who selflessly try to inspire people and spread happiness?
  

 

 While Independence is very much a dream at this point, the proposed city-theme park hybrid would bring several of Glenn’s seemingly disconnected projects into one place. Media, live events, small business stores, educational projects, charity, entertainment, news, information, and technology R&D – all of these things would have a home in Independence. 

As would paranoia, stupidity, historical revisionism, and grifting, grifting, grifting!

 You want an Ann Taylor, go some place else… This is where people work and create their own businesses, quintessentially American businesses.

Yeah, fuck you, Ann Taylor, founded in New Haven, Connecticut by the son of a dressmaker! We want American businesses!

  Anyway, there's a bunch more at his awful website, or there's a good summary here, if you're interested, but suffice it to say, there's no way either of these little communities end well.

Short Memory

From Glenn Beck:

I have never seen anything like this. The storyline of blaming Sarah Palin/Rush Limbaugh/Glenn Beck/the tea party/the right continues even though there is NO EVIDENCE SUPPORTING IT. 

 

Really, Glenn? You've never seen anything like this? Really? You must have been asleep during the '80s, because I remember having seen  a few things like this.

I remember the movie Taxi Driver being blamed for John Hinckley's assassination attempt on Ronald Reagan.


I remember heavy metal music being blamed for teen suicides.



I remember "gangsta rap" being blamed for all kinds of violence. (see)



I remember Dungeons and Dragons being blamed for a whole bunch of murders and suicides.



I remember Beavis and Butthead being blamed for kids starting fires. (see)



I remember sex-ed classes being blamed for teen pregnancies.





I remember Bill Clinton being blamed for teen blowjobs.



More recently, I remember video games being blamed for the Virginia Tech massacre.
(see: Dr. Phil Suggests Video Games to Blame for Virginia Tech Shootings)

I remember South Park being blamed for a redheaded kid getting beat up at school. (see)

I remember the show Jackass being blamed for a kid setting himself on fire.

So if you want to make the point that it's not fair to blame Sarah Palin, yeah you probably have a point. As far as we know, the shooter was not motivated by her or by any other political figure (although we don't yet know much about him, he may well turn out to be a teabagger, who knows)? But don't pretend like this is some unprecedented phenomenon. Especially when we remember headlines like these:

Glenn Beck Blames UAH Killings on Far-left Political Extremism

Glenn Beck blames atheists for America's problems

Glenn Beck blames the Holocaust on Charles Darwin

Glenn Beck thinks 'political correctness' is driving people to shooting rampages

 

Glenn Beck Blames Health and Spiritual Problems On Walter Lippmann. Really.

Beck Blames California Wildfires On The ‘Damn Environmentalists’

 

Glenn Beck Blames George Soros for Low Ranking in Time Person of the Year Poll

Glenn Beck blames Weathermen for Homer Simpson

 Funny how it's only when you and/or one of your right-wing nutjob buddies is getting blamed that it becomes so important not to point fingers.

This is the Dumbest Beck Conspiracy Theory Yet.

I guess Beck is starting to run out of Soros-related material.



Putting aside the fact that the "Tower of Babel" probably never existed, putting aside the fact that if it did exist, there is certainly no record of what it might have looked like, what would be the point of replicating the Tower of Babel? How would this benefit the nefarious villains of the EU? If you're going to posit a wild conspiracy theory, you at least have to put in a little effort into coming up with a goal for the conspirators. How would building a replica of the Biblical tower of Babel help them take over the world or amass large sums of money, or whatever their ends are? Geezus, Beck, you're not even trying anymore!

On a side note, the Tower of Babel story is one of the stranger stories to make it into the Canon. A bunch of people start building a tower. I don't really know what the point was of building a tower, what purpose a huge tower would have served a primitive nomadic hunter-gatherer society, but for whatever reason they start building.

Now somehow God, the all-knowing, all-seeing deity, doesn't really know what they are up to, so he has to come down from his cloud to have a look-see.

Gen. 11:5 - But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building. 

And when he sees what they are building, he apparently feels a little intimidated.

Gen. 11:6 - The Lord said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. 7. Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.”

 Of course, if he really wanted to put a stop to all this tower-building activity, I could think of a simpler solution:

 

 

That'd be the last tower those punks ever built!

This is Not a Debate.

It's not a debate if one side is just making shit up.


(from Yahoo News)

Glenn Beck rally sparks debate over crowd size

Glenn Beck kicked off Monday's radio show by thanking the many attendees at Saturday's "Restoring Honor" rally in front of the Lincoln Memorial — at least 500,000 by his count.

Republican U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann told supporters shortly after the rally that "we're not going to let anyone get away with saying there were less than a million here today — because we were witnesses."

Okay, I'm no expert on crowd-size-estimating, but look at the photo.

I gotta say that that crowd looks like it could fit into a good-sized baseball stadium. There is no way in hell that there is anywhere near half a million people there. But like I said, I'm no expert. So what did the experts have to say?

(from CBS)

Glenn Beck Rally Attracts Estimated 87,000

An estimated 87,000 people attended a rally organized by talk-radio host and Fox News commentator Glenn Beck Saturday in Washington, according to a crowd estimate commissioned by CBS News.

The company AirPhotosLive.com based the attendance on aerial pictures it took over the rally, which stretched from in front of the Lincoln Memorial along the Reflecting Pool to the Washington Monument.

So, okay, that is a lot for a baseball stadium, but they could easily be contained in a college football stadium.

So, this seems like a pretty simple scam they're running. You toss out a number which you know good and well is ridiculously inflated, then when the press reports a legitimate estimate, you cry "liberal bias."

It's like if I said that the San Francisco Giants won the most recent World Series. You could look it up and you'd say "according to Sports Illustrated, ESPN and The Sporting News, the Giants did not win the World Series, due largely to their having failed to qualify for the playoffs. The World Series was won by the New York Yankees over the Philadelphia Phillies." And I would look you right in the eye and reply "Oh, the sports media has a well-known East Coast bias. West Coast teams never get any respect," and you'd know that there is just no reasoning with me. But if I had a show on FOX, you'd be forced to pretend to take me seriously, and the headlines would read "Debate Continues Over World Series Winner."

And speaking of World series winners, what the hell is this?

St. Louis Cardinals baseball player Albert Pujols, foreground, hugs his manager Tony La Russa as he wears his medal at the Glenn Beck 'Restoring Honor' rally in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington

God damn it, La Russa! It's not bad enough that you've turned the last three innings of major league baseball games into an assembly line of relief pitchers, none of whom may pitch any more or less than one inning, now you're a Becky? You're throwing your lot in with the Birthers, Deathers, Birchers and Truthers that populate the Tea Party "movement"?

And you're dragging Albert Pujols into this mess? At least I will give Pujols the benefit of the doubt and chalk it up to language barrier. Maybe he thought you had invited him to go see Beck.

and Oh, My God, you not only attended, you actually spoke at this "Hey, everybody, let's all take a huge dump on Dr. King's grave" festival? You really wanted to share the dais with Sarah Palin?

And here's the video of your cure-for-insomnia speech honoring Albert Pujols. It's nice to hear about honesty, integrity and truth from the man who turned a blind eye while Canseco, McGwire, Giambi, and Tejada shot steroids like junkies who just inherited money.



And here's your audience, by the way:

Nice to see that they are bringing the gravitas that this event deserves..

Glenn Beck and Ann Coulter Might as Well Just Go Ahead and Gay-Marry Each Other!

The AFA keeps sending me things. Things like this:

Ann Coulter, Glenn Beck go AWOL in the culture war

Which is weird, because if there's one thing those two enjoy, it's a culture war. Or an actual war, as long as someone else is doing the actual fighting.

Count Ann Coulter and Glenn Beck as the latest deserters in the culture war and in the battle for sexual normalcy. They have flinched at “precisely that little point which the world and the devil....are attacking,” and so have forfeited the right to consider themselves any longer culture warriors.

So now they're going to have to consider themselves what, normal people? Cuz that ain't gonna work!

Ann Coulter is the headliner at “Homocon 2010,” a September 25 gathering of so-called gay “conservatives.”

Really "Homocon?" Is that a thing?


Um, yeah. Apparently it is:

It's apparently put on by the group "GOProud" which is an organization of gay homosexuals dedicated to supporting the party that would deny basic rights to gay homosexuals. It's kind of like a "Chickens for Colonel Sanders" sort of an outfit.

So here is what GOProud believes:

What we believe

We are Republicans and conservatives who believe in limited government, individual liberty, free markets, a strong national defense and a confident foreign policy. We believe that every individual should be equal under the law.

You know, every individual except ourselves!

GOProud’s Conservative Agenda

The so-called “gay agenda” is defined by the left through a narrow prism of legislative goals. While hate crimes and employment protections may be worthy goals, there are many other important priorities that receive little attention from the gay community. GOProud’s agenda emphasizes conservative and libertarian principles that will improve the daily lives of all Americans, but especially gay and lesbian Americans.

Really. Some may think that protecting gay folks from being beaten up and fired is maybe a worthy goal, but those people are totally gay! What's really important to the gay people is a "confident foreign policy" and "free markets!"

1 – TAX REFORM - Death tax repeal; domestic partner tax equity, and other changes to the tax code that will provide equity for gays and lesbians;

Because right now, gays and lesbians are totally getting screwed on this whole "death tax" thing. This is so much more important than hate crimes and employment protection.

2 – HEALTHCARE REFORM – Free market healthcare reform.

Okay, the "free market" is what we have now for healthcare, so I'm not sure how that would be considered reform.

4 – DON’T ASK, DON’T TELL REPEAL – Repeal of the military’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy.

Oh, wait. That's part of the narrow prism of the left's "gay agenda." Scratch that last one!

6 – FIGHTING GLOBAL EXTREMISTS – Standing strong against radical regimes who seek to criminalize gays and lesbians

Also, supporting conservative Republican. . . wait, something's not adding up here. Oh, that's right, we're only opposed to discrimination in the name of Allah! As long as it's done in the name of traditional family values, it's just fine with us!

So anyway, these self-loathers invited Ann Coulter to come speak at their little circle jerk and I guess she accepted, and that has apparently touched off a firestorm of ridiculous pearl-clutching outrage on the right.

Ann Coulter Dropped By WND Over GOProud Homocon Appearance

Conservative speaker Ann Coulter has been asked to step down as a keynote speaker at WorldNetDaily’s “Taking America Back National Conference”.

The conference organizers said that it was Coulter’s involvement in “HOMOCON”, an event that is put on my GOProud and represents, “gay conservatives and their allies”, that let to her being booted from the program.

The CEO of WND, Joseph Farah, had a few comments to make about the situation.
“Ultimately as a matter of principle, it would not make sense for us to have Ann speak to a conference about ‘taking America back’ when she clearly does not recognize that the ideals to be espoused there simply do not include the radical and very ‘unconservative’ agenda represented by GOProud,” he said.

"Apparently," he continued," Ms. Coulter has forgotten that we hate fags!"

Although Coulter has defended her agreement with GOProud, she has announced that her speaking at the event does not interfere with her personal beliefs.
“They hired me to give a speech, so I’m giving a speech. I do it all the time,” Coulter said. “I speak to a lot of groups and do not endorse them. Giving a speech is not an endorsement of every position held by the people I’m speaking to.”

"I have no principles," she continued. "I'll take their money, make a stupid speech, then go back to calling them fags and homos as soon as the check clears.

So, anyway, that's the AFA's problem with Coulter.
What's their beef with Beck?

Glenn Beck has completely and shamelessly surrendered on the issue of gay marriage, and did so on Bill O’Reilly’s program, only the most watched cable news program in all TV land.

Beck said “we have bigger fish to fry” than protecting natural marriage, which, outside of being the bedrock and foundation of any healthy society and the cornerstone of Western civilization, is apparently not that important to Mr. Beck.

Oh, because Beck thinks that the bogeymen of his paranoid delusions are scarier than the thought of two dudes getting married. And you think that the two dudes are just the most scariest thing ever, way more than Beck's imaginary Nazis and Stalinists? Is that the problem?

Here’s hoping - and praying - that both of these two former stalwarts in the cause will come to their senses in time to return to their posts on the wall instead of giving aid and comfort to the enemy.

Um, I thought the enemy was Al Queda, not Big Gay Al.

You wanna know how upset the AFA is about these two going all soft on the gay thing? Check this out:

As far as Ronald Reagan’s dictum that "[t]he person who agrees with you 80 percent of the time is a friend and an ally - not a 20 percent traitor," let’s have the average husband try that out on his wife. “Honey, I’m faithful 80% of the time. There’s no reason for you to come after me with the frying pan.”

Yeah. They just dissed Reagan. Ronald Freakin Reagan! That's like a Catholic dissing the Pope, or a Buddhist dissing Buddha. Or a communist dissing Marx. How pissy do they have to be to throw Reagan under the bus just because his "dictum" supports their not jettisoning Beck and Coulter? And it's not like Beck and Coulter are going to stop being totally horrible people.

Huckabee Ups The Ante on Glenn Beck

Hey Beck, you think you sound nutty with your conspiracy theories about fascism and Black Panthers and the Weather Underground and Homer Simpson? (seriously, Homer Simpson)

Well Mike Huckabee will see your Obama-is-bringing-socialism, and raise you an Obama-is-bringing-on-the-end-of-the-world.

Lat Sunday, Huckabee had as a guest the super-creepy Apocalypse-porn author and Kirk Cameron sugar daddy Tim Lahaye to discuss, I don't know, something crazy no doubt.



Yes, Tim. I believe the signs of the impending apocalypse are plagues, earthquakes, false prophets, and a bailout of US automakers. Then the four horsemen, War, Famine, Death and Healthcare reform will ride in and do something not at all positive, and then the sun goes out, the stars fall from the sky, and Banking regulations will be proposed.

What the hell? Even if this whole "Raw Socialism" were actually happening, what does that have to do with doomsday? When is socialism ever mentioned in any part of the Bible ever?

And how did Jimmy Carter get dragged into this?

Oh, wait, I do seem to remember that apocalypse during the Carter Administration. . .

Oh, and by the way, Tim, you probably already know this, but for as long as there have been Christians, some of them have always thought that they were living in the "End Times" or the "Last days." Saint Paul thought that 2,000 years ago. And I'm pretty sure he was wrong. And every other person who has ever said that his times were the "end Times" was wrong. So it's a pretty good bet that you're wrong, too. Also, you're creepy and weird. Please go away.

Glenn Beck Loves Nazis!

From Media Matters:

Beck: No apologies for promoting an anti-Semite Nazi sympathizer

June 07, 2010 11:20 am ET by Simon Maloy

This morning on his radio program, Glenn Beck responded to the general outcry over his approving comments last week for the work of Elizabeth Dilling, a virulent anti-Semite who actively supported Hitler and the Nazis during World War II.

BECK: But I'm also getting some amazing mail from the left that now says I'm a Nazi anti-Semite because I quoted a book on Friday -- it was the Red Book, or something like that. It was a who's who, who's in the communist party in 1935. Apparently, I don't know, apparently written by a Nazi sympathizer here in America. Part of the, I'm sure -- I don't know because I didn't look it up -- but I'm sure part of the Father Coughlin, social justice crowd, because this is the choice that progressives give you -- you're either a Nazi or a communist. No, I'm neither. But now -- so now I'm kind of stuck between the place where the left says that I'm a Nazi sympathizer and a Jew lover. So I guess the left can have it all, that I'm a Jew-loving Nazi sympathizer. It's a really interesting place that I don't know if anybody's ever been.

I don't even know where to begin with a comment like that. It's just so insane and stupid and just nonsensical. Where does this "you're either a Nazi or a Communist" crap come from? I don't even get it. People are criticizing you for promoting a Nazi sympathizer's book (and I'm guessing those complaints are not coming only from the "Left") and you come up with "either a Nazi or a communist?"

you can read the text of the book Beck was pimping here, but here are a couple of excerpts from Media Matters:

...few years, under the opportunities of the American government and the inspiration of Christianity, the American Negroes have acquired professions, property, banks, homes, and produced a rising class of refined, home loving people. This is far more remarkable than that many Negroes are still backward. The Reds play upon the Negroes' love of their own people and represent them as persecuted in order to inflame them against the very white people who have in reality given the colored race far greater opportunities than their fellow negroes would give them in Africa today. [page 36]

It is interesting to note in Communist literature that criminal violence is always promoted and excused under a cloak of supposed martyrdom. Negroes are urged to fight their white "oppressors," who actually have freed them and given them better jobs and opportunities than exist in Africa. [page 55]

Speakers for the debasing and degrading Hindu, Mohammedan, Pagan, and Agnostic Cults are placed in "fellowship" and on an equal footing with speakers for Jesus Christ. The audiences chant a mixture of prayers and ritual from all of these. The savage Mohammedan call of the muezzin as heard in darkest Asia is mingled with the propaganda of the Hindu, Jew and agnostic. Negro choirs and performers give an interracial touch to the meetings. [page 152]

This is the book Beck was promoting on his show, nad he takes umbrage at the criticisms sent his way? Where the hell does he get the balls? It will be interesting to see what FOX's reaction will be. One would think that openly supporting a Nazi apologist would be beyond the pale even for FOX, but I wouldn't bet on it.

Glenn Beck's Delusions of Grandeur

Now Glenn Beck is saying he gets messages from God.

And he may even be serious.



Here's what he said on his radio insanity-fest:
(full transcript here)

God is giving a plan I think to me that is not really a plan. . . The problem is that I think the plan that the Lord would have us follow is hard for people to understand.

Because, you know if God had a plan he wanted people to follow, he would make it really confusing and hard to understand. So confusing that the recipient of the plan would not even be sure that it is a plan.

But I’m telling you, here’s what I feel with everything in me, and, if you’ve listened to this program for a long time, you know who I am. Um, and you know many of things I’ve done and said that have put me in, ya know, harm’s way one way or another, they always start at the same place, they always start at my gut or my heart, and then I figure it out as we go along.

Harm's way? When has Beck ever put himself in harm's way? Sounds like paranoid delusions to me.

All the stuff that I feel has been important on the show has been things that I felt
and didn’t understand.

Wow! A rare moment of honesty from Beck. He admits that even he doesn't understand his own ravings.

Because of my track record with you who have been here for a long time. Because of my track record with you, I beg of you to help me get this message out, and I beg of you to pray for clarity on my part. The plan that He would have me articulate, I think, to you is “Get behind me.” And I don’t mean me, I mean Him. “Get behind Me. Stand behind Me.”

That's it? God took the time to send a message to Crazy McCrybaby and it's "Get behind me?" That's it? Really? God wants people to stand behind him? Oh, thank goodness for Beck, because I totally thought that God wanted people to oppose and obstruct him! Now the Bible finally makes sense!

I truly believe I have done years now of reading the Founders, their diaries, their letters, the Pilgrims, their diaries, their letters.

That's not something you "truly believe." You either have spent years reading this stuff or you haven't. There's no believe.

I’ve held their letters in my hands. The exchanges between the Founders, I’ve held their actual letters in my hand. I have seen it with my own eyes — and I will tell you that God was instrumental and then [sic] knew it!

Of course, bear in mind that Glenn doesn't understand things. He must have missed this quote:

Of all the systems of religion that ever were invented, there is no more derogatory to the Almighty, more unedifiying to man, more repugnant to reason, and more contradictory to itself than this thing called Christianity.

-Thomas Paine (The Age of Reason)

Or this:

• 
  

• During almost fifteen centuries has the legal establishment of Christianity been on trial. What have been its fruits? More or less in all places, pride and indolence in the Clergy, ignorance and servility in the laity, in both, superstition, bigotry and persecution.

--James Madison

Or this:

Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blind-folded fear.

--Thomas Jefferson

Back to Beck:

But that’s what He’s asking us to do — is to stand peacefully, quietly, with anger, quiet with anger, loudly with truth.

If there's anything God loves more than anger, it's silence!

Faith — is the answer. Get on your knees, don’t take it like a September 11th, get on your knees, please, I don’t care what church you go to, no church at all, I don’t care. Turn to Him.

But, like a week ago, you were pretty specific about what kind of churches we could go to. Now any old church will do? Even no church?

Also, I don't get the Sept. 11th reference. But then, I'm not fluent in right-wing gibberish.

Ratchetting up the Crazy

Glenn, Glenn, Glenn. Shoulda seen this coming.

See, the problem with building a movement around paranoia, is that it's just a matter of time until the paranoids turn on you.

Case in point:
Pamela Geller's Latest Screed:

I swear, this is her picture from her website!

Glenn Beck, think before you preach

Something very disturbing happened today on FOX. Glenn Beck, who has, for the most part, steered clear of jihad, sharia and Islamic supremacism, put his toe in the water, and for the first time since I started fighting the long war, I got nervous.

Okay, Glenn, I don't know what you said, but something convinced Pam Geller that you are flirting with jihad, sharia, and Islamic Supremacism. What did you say? "Allahu Akbar?" "Death to America?"


Beck just called Wilders a fascist, and far-right.

Okay, I didn't know who that was, either, so I looked it up.

From the London Daily Telegraph:

Geert Wilders, the far-right Dutch politician, has used a visit to London to launch an attack on Islam.

And the Guardian refers to him as:
Geert Wilders, the Dutch far-right anti-immigrant maverick

According to his Wikipedia page, Wilder has proposed:

Replacement of the present Article 1 of the Dutch constitution, guaranteeing equality under the law, by a clause stating the cultural dominance of the Christian, Jewish and humanist traditions.

A five-year ban on the founding of mosques and Islamic schools; Foreign imams will not be allowed to preach.

So, referring to him as "far-right" or even "fascist" doesn't seem like a real radical departure from other mainstream views of Wilder.
So, what's the problem?

What is he doing?

Why would he stigmatize Wilders this way? Wilders is the embodiment of what our founding fathers extolled. Individual rights. Freedom of speech. Not sharia law.

Freedom of speech. Except for foreign-born Imams. Individual rights, except the right to build a house of worship of your choosing. Sounds just like John Adams!

Beck is out of his depth in this. You cannot get up to speed on Europe in one crash course. The Islamic/left-wing fringe is everywhere, but what right fringe is he talking about in Europe?

Really! I don't think there is any right-wing fringe in Europe!


Russian Skinheads / British Union of Fascists-flag


Polish neo-fascists, here with Rafal Trytek


Neo-fascists greet election of Gianni Alemanno as Mayor of Rome in 2008


Far-Right activists give Nazi salutes to speakers arriving at the meeting in Milan


Aaaanywayy. . .
You think it's just one crazy lady?
Here are some of the comments readers have left on her blog:

Haven't you heard Pam? Glenn has taken the blood money and changed sides on us. He now works for the Elites as their newest little bitch. He is spreading all types of lies these days.

He is paid by a muslim so he must make his masters happy. He also now believes in global warming. So defending islam is not even a stretch for him.

I regard both Beck and O' Rielly as sell outs along with Fox.

Glenn Beck is a fraud and a traitor. He scorns those who question Obo's eligibilty.

I'm completely disgusted with Beck. . . what good is he in fighting socialist infiltration of our government if only to pave the way for an islamic takeover?

Since Murdoch and Saudi strengthened their financial ties, Fox News has gone the way of CNN. It's over for Fox News being "fair and balanced." It's going to hell along with Murdoch, Beck, and O'Reilly, who've all sold their souls to the devil.

That's right, Glenn. The DEVIL! You made one criticism of some Dutch nutbag, and in their eyes, you've sold your soul to the devil.
Hell, even inflatable hate doll Michelle malkin has turned on you: http://www.politicususa.com/en/malkin-beck-eric-massa

So, maybe that's why you felt the need to ratchet up the crazy?

Glenn Beck Urges Listeners to Leave Churches That Preach Social Justice

On his daily radio and television shows last week, Fox News personality Glenn Beck set out to convince his audience that "social justice," the term many Christian churches use to describe their efforts to address poverty and human rights, is a "code word" for communism and Nazism. Beck urged Christians to discuss the term with their priests and to leave their churches if leaders would not reconsider their emphasis on social justice.

Damn! You know how to bring the freakin' insanity! I can't believe I underestimated you! That is just head-spinning, pea-soup-spitting, cut-your-ear-off-and-mail-it-to-a-hooker CUH-RAZEE!

Churches who try to, say, help the poor, feed the hungry, you know, all that Jesus-y stuff, are really Commu-Nazis? Well, bark at the moon, my friend, you have kicked it up another notch!

"I'm begging you, your right to religion and freedom to exercise religion and read all of the passages of the Bible as you want to read them and as your church wants to preach them . . . are going to come under the ropes in the next year. . . I beg you, look for the words 'social justice' or 'economic justice' on your church Web site. If you find it, run as fast as you can. Social justice and economic justice, they are code words. Now, am I advising people to leave their church? Yes!"

So, if you want the freedom to read the Bible as your church wants to preach it, LEAVE YOUR CHURCH!?!? How do you even manage to wrap your weird little Mormon head around an idea like that? Oh, Mormons. I get it. Leave your church and go to one that doesn't give a crap about social justice, like the Mormons! It's just a marketing ploy for the Mormon Church?

God damn it, Glenn! Now you've got me thinking like a conspiracy nut.
Anyway, attacking churches is probably not going to get you back into the good graces of the lunatic fringe of the far right, but I admire your chutzpah! I believe in football, that sort of play is known as a "Hail Mary." There's a pun in there somewhere, but I can't quite seem to grab hold of it.

Barbara Walters gets "Edgy!"

(From the AP)
NEW YORK – Barbara Walters thinks this year's roster of fascinating people is a little edgier, more current and less obvious than usual.

Oh, you just know this is going to be good. What does Grandma think is "edgy?"

Here's glam rocker Adam Lambert, speaking with Walters on the heels of his racy performance at ABC's American Music Awards . . . "We said, 'Should we have done Adam Lambert or should we have done Taylor Swift?' And then he did this huge thing (on the awards show) and we said, 'Ah! We got the fascinating one!'"

What more fascinating than Taylor Swift? The deuce you say!
Oh, wait. I get it. Lambert's gay! That's so edgy! No popular singer has ever been gay before!




































Comedian-writer-entertainment mogul Tyler Perry is yet another one of Walter's fascinating people. But while wildly successful among black audiences, "most white people have never heard of him," she says.

Never heard of Tyler Perry? Who the fuck hasn't heard of Tyler Perry? The man has a movie out about once every six weeks, has two prime-time TV shows currently airing (both of which are gawd-awful, by the way) Who could possibly not have heard of Tyler Perry?


Have you seriously not seen these?










Oh, but yeah he's clearly a fascinating person. and so edgy. He dresse like a woman in his movies! Ha! No one's ever done that before!













































Who else?

She talks with mother of eight Kate Gosselin, who recently ended her TLC network reality series and is about to end her marriage to former co-star Jon Gosselin.

"Nobody hit the scales harder this year than Kate Gosselin," says Walters. "And this career is not over."

Edgy! Because it's not like you can turn on the TV without seeing this talking birth canal.

And I don't know what "hit the scales" means, but yes, this career is over.

As a different way of noting Michael Jackson's impact this year, Walters' program will profile the late King of Pop's kids: Paris, Prince Michael and Prince Michael II (known as Blanket).

Fascinating! Usually it's members of Micheal's family looking to milk one last dollar out of his corpse. But Barbara puts her own twist on the ghoulish ritual. Let's involve the children! Children love an exploitative debacle!

She talks with South Carolina's first lady, Jenny Sanford, who this year suffered every married woman's nightmare: the scandalous disclosure that her husband, Gov. Mark Sanford, had cheated on her during a mysterious disappearance last summer to Argentina.

Jenny Sanford is fascinating? Because she got cheated on? No politician's wife has ever been cheated on!

So what is so different about Jenny sanford that makes her so fascinating? Glad you asked!

"Jenny Sanford has reacted with dignity and courage and integrity," says Walters, "and touched a chord in many women, with a little bit of a warning for men: 'Don't take me for granted.'"

Quite a warning. Don't take me for granted, or so help me, I will react with dignity and courage. Maybe even integrity. I'm serious!
And who equates taking your spouse for granted with sticking your wang in an Argentinean hoochy mama? There really seems to be a pretty big difference, like one's a misdemeanor and one's a felony.

Glenn Beck, the highly popular, often incendiary radio and TV host, discusses with Walters his past struggles with alcohol addiction.

Okay, I'll give you this round, Barbara. Glenn Beck sorta fascinates me too. Mainly because I can't tell how much of his schtick is a put-on and how much is he really just bug-eyed poo-throwing crazy? And yeah, the idea of putting a libel-prone conspiracy theorist on prime-time network television could definitely be seen as "edgy." So you win this round, Walters. But I'll be back! This is all far from over! Bwuhahahahahahah!!!

Oh, this just keeps getting better!

According to super-reliable wingnut site "NewsMax" there is a possibility of a Palin/Beck ticket in 2012.

Palin-Beck Ticket? Sarah Doesn't Rule it Out

Palin/Beck?







No, even sillier!



It's no secret that former GOP vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin and Fox News host Glenn Beck share great respect and admiration

Really?
So I guess you have to be as crazy as Glenn beck to admire Sarah Palin, or as dumb as Sarah Palin to respect Glenn Beck? Yeah, that adds up.

. . .so their fans can be forgiven for wondering: Is a "dream ticket" of Palin-Beck ticket completely out of the question?

No. No they can not be forgiven for wondering that. They can be pitied, they can be ridiculed, they can be shunned for considering Palin and Beck a "dream ticket," but not forgiven.

"I can envision a couple of different combinations, if ever I were to be in a position to really even seriously consider running for anything in the future, and I'm not there yet," Palin tells Newsmax. "But Glenn Beck I have great respect for. He's a hoot.

I'm sorry, a hoot? Did you really say he's a hoot? You have great respect for Glenn beck because he's a HOOT?
He's a hoot. He gets his message across in such a clever way.

I don't think you know what the word "clever" means.
Or the word "message."
Mouth-frothing, bug-eyed, baboon-ass crazy is really not a "clever" method of getting one's "message" across. And wild paranoid bouts of lunacy are not really "messages."

And he's so bold, I have to respect that.

maybe you have to, but the rest of us sure as hell don't.
He calls it like he sees it, and he's very, very, very effective."

I don't think you understand what the word "effective" means. Perhaps you meant to say Defective? Also, there's got to be a limit on how many "very's" you can string together in one sentence. I think the limit is probably one, I'd be willing to accept two, but three just means you couldn't come up with a better word.

So in summary, I guess I would just add: Please, God let this happen. A Palin/Beck ticket would be the political train-wreck of the century.

A Palin/Beck ticket would be the "Beyond the Valley of the Dolls." of Presidential politics.

Palin and Beck would be the Gary Busey and Nick Nolte of national campaigns.


















A Palin/Beck ticket would be the political equivalent of OJ Simpson and Phil Spector being tried together for killing Micheal Jackson. With Paris Hilton as the prosecuting attorney.

Seriously, Palin and Beck would be to politics what BritneySpears and Lindsay Lohan are to Hollywood.

Palin and Beck would be the Amy Winehouse and Pete Doherty of the campaign trail.

I got a million of 'em!