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I’ve known this for a long time, but haven’t felt moved to comment on it before today. However, he made a particularly moronic comment today (h/t to Media Matters) that I feel deserves extra attention:
“I think there is a handful of people who hate America. Unfortunately for them, a lot of them are losing their homes in a forest fire today.”
I have a number of problems with this statement.
First, there many people these days who hate America, partly due to our current administration’s policies, partly due to past policies, partly due to dislike of our culture, and partly just to be peevish (mostly the French in that last group). We’ll let that slide, though, because the context makes it clear that what Beck means is that he thinks there are a handful of Americans who hate America. That assertion is what I take issue with.
Second, he implies that liberals hate America. Well, okay, not exactly. Actually, he implies that Southern Californians hate America, since Southern California is the only place experiencing a lot of major fires at the moment, at least that I’m aware of. But everyone knows that Southern California is the home of flaming liberals — that, at least, is what I think he is trying to suggest — right?
Wrong. South of Los Angeles — behind the Orange Curtain, as we used to call it — most of those cities skew pretty Republican. San Diego, where eight or nine of those fires Beck mentioned are burning, has a rather strong Republican bent, between the conservative upper class and all the military folks who live there. And I imagine a lot of those folks would be upset to hear both that Glenn Beck thinks they’re liberal and that he thinks they hate America.
Third, of course, is the fact that he thinks liberals hate America. We don’t. We love this country. We are just scared by or angry about what certain people in power are doing to this country, or in the name of this country.
Fourth, is the smug implicit subtext to his glib little comment, that people in Southern California somehow deserve to lose their homes in a fire because they are liberal, or because they hate America, or maybe just because they live in Southern California. It is beyond inappropriate to make snide little comments like this when more than a quarter of a million people have been evacuated from their homes in the face of these fires.
Ergo, Glenn Beck is an idiot.
I am filing this post under the Faux News category, because I think that Glenn Beck really ought to be on that network, instead of one run by the allegedly neutral CNN. Because really, he should be — every time I happen to run across his show, I have to check the station icon in the corner of my TV screen, just to make sure I haven’t accidentally switched over to Fox. He’s just that blatant a right-wing mouthpiece. And that big an idiot.
Ah, well. It’s all just further evidence of the impending collapse of civilization as we know it.
And furthermore, I think that Bush and Cheney ought to be impeached.
-jane doe
P.S. My thoughts and prayers go out to all those who are affected by the fires in Southern California. A close friend who lives in the San Diego area called me this morning at about 5:30 a.m. west coast time to let me know that they were evacuating and heading up the coast away from the fires. They threw their pets, their important documents, a few changes of clothes, and their laptop computers into the car and took off when the electricity in her neighborhood became unreliable. She said that embers were blowing everywhere, and the fire had jumped across a stretch of freeway that was eight lanes wide because the winds were so strong. At this time, they do not know whether they will have a house to go back to. You can find out how to help people affected by the fires here.
Okay, this should have gone up on Friday, but I was laughing too hard to type when I saw it. Apparently, the Bush apologists over at Faux News dislike the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to Al Gore (along with a some other people at the UN) for their work to raise awareness about global warming. And really, did we expect anything else from the Faux News people? Of course not. But that’s not why I’ve been laughing so hard I won’t have to do ab exercises for a week.
No, the funny part is who the Faux Brain Trust people proposed as a more appropriate recipient…Gen. David Petraeus!
Strictly speaking, it was apparently NY Sun editor Seth Lipsky who made that suggestion to Faux’s Neil Cavuto, but still…the Nobel Peace Prize? To a general who is leading U.S. troops in a war that has gained nearly universal condemnation, both here at home and among our erstwhile allies? What are they putting in the water cooler over at the Faux Newsroom?
Of course, this is really more a reflection of Faux’s knee-jerk response to anything favorable reported about Al Gore, the man who should have been sworn in as our President back in 2001.
And for those keeping track, Gore has now won an Oscar, an Emmy, and a Nobel Peace Prize, in addition to the 2000 presidential election. Makes you wonder where we would be right now as a nation if he had been allowed to take office by the Supremes, doesn’t it?
And yes, for the record, I still think Bush and Cheney really ought to be impeached.
-jane doe
Apparently, Faux News Channel is considering airing a right-slanting version of The Daily Show, with at least a couple of episodes slated for “Saturday nights in late January” according to a story cited by the Huffington Post. As if Faux’s regular fake news coverage weren’t enough of a joke. Seriously, how will their viewers be able to tell when the network’s regular fake news ends and the allegedly satirical fake news begins?
Personally, I can’t wait to see what Jon Stewart has to say about this. Unfortunately, TDS is in reruns this week, so we’ll have to wait for a while on that.
-jane doe
