Glenn Beck thinks 'political correctness' is driving people to shooting rampages
By David Neiwert Friday Mar 13, 2009 10:03am
In conversation with Bill O'Reilly yesterday on his Fox News show, Glenn Beck speculated that the cause of that murderous shooting rampage in Alabama might have been the shooter's frustration with "political correctness":
BECK: But as I’m listening to him. I’m thinking about the American people that feel disenfranchised right now. That feel like nobody’s hearing their voice. The government isn’t hearing their voice. Even if you call, they don’t listen to you on both sides. If you’re a conservative, you’re called a racist. You want to starve children.
O’REILLY: Sure.
BECK: Yada yada yada. And every time they do speak out, they’re shut down by political correctness. How do you not have those people turn into that guy?
O’REILLY: Well, look, nobody, even if they’re frustrated, is going to hurt another human being unless they’re mentally ill. I think.
BECK: I think pushed to the wall, you don’t think people get pushed to the wall?
O’REILLY: Nah, I don’t believe in this snap thing. I think that that kind of violence is inside you and it’s a personality disorder.
As Melissa McEwan puts it over at Shakesville:
So, according to Glenn Beck, murderous rampages are the inevitable consequence of conservatives not getting what they want. Never mind that we've no idea whether the man in question was a conservative; it's easy enough to presume a white man from Alabama is a conservative just to make the point that his killing spree is all liberals' fault.
Steve Benen notes that there's a history to this kind of logical leap:
One of the right's more disgusting habits is exploiting violent tragedies for ideological gain. After the shootings at Virginia Tech, Newt Gingrich blamed liberals' "situation ethics" for the tragedy. After the shootings in Arvada, Colo., the Family Research Council blamed the "secular media" for the rampage. After Columbine, then-House Majority Leader Tom DeLay took to the floor to blame public school science classes for teaching young people that "they are nothing but glorified apes who are evolutionized [sic] out of some primordial soup." Just 48 hours after 9/11, Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell blamed liberals for "helping this happen."
Matt Yglesias notes:
Thankfully Bill O’Reilly (!) was around to act as the voice of reason (!) and observe that spree killing seem more related to mental illness than to political disagreement.
Actually, the dynamic is more complicated than such simplistic formulas. Spree killings often do have a political motive, even when they clearly involve mental illness (and there's no immediate evidence of that here, though it likely will emerge; the Alabama shooter does not appear ever to have been treated for mental illness).
Moreover, as I discussed in some detail recently, there is often an element of pre-event scapegoating, often in the form of overtly eliminationist rhetoric:
Part of the problem is that we actually have seen this happen time after time after time: A mentally unstable person is inspired by hateful right-wing rhetoric to act out violently -- and yet because of that mental state, the matter is dismissed as idiosyncratic, just another "isolated incident." And over the months and years, these "isolated incidents" mount one after another.
But simply ascribing these acts to mental illness is a cop-out. It fails to account for the gross irresponsibility of the people who employed rhetoric that inspired the violent action in the first place, and their resulting moral culpability.
The most notable recent case of this was the church shooter in Knoxville, who wrote out a detailed manifesto explaining why he went on his rampage:
This was a symbolic killing. Who I wanted to kill was every Democrat in the Senate & House, the 100 people in Bernard Goldberg's book. I'd like to kill everyone in the mainstream media. But I know those people were inaccessible to me. I couldn't get to the generals & high ranking officers of the Marxist movement so I went after the foot soldiers, the chickenshit liberals that vote in these traitorous people. Someone had to get the ball rolling. I volunteered. I hope others do the same. It's the only way we can rid America of this cancerous pestilence.
The same is true of people like Tim McVeigh and Eric Rudolph: They may indeed be mentally unstable, but the trigger that makes them kill is always scapegoating, eliminationist rhetoric that inflames their hatred of other people.
This doesn't appear to have been the case in Alabama; the man mostly killed family members and people he thought had "wronged" him. There's no evidence whatsoever of a political motive. Indeed, there isn't a scintilla of evidence for Glenn Beck's thesis except his idle speculation.
But what we can say is that rhetoric like Beck's -- the overt fearmongering, the scapegoating, the paranoid conspiracy theories, the overheated demonization of his opponents -- helps contribute mightily to people's irrational fears of being oppressed, of being under siege, and of feeling the need to lash out.
In other words, if a killing rampage is indeed motivated by "PC backlash," then the far more serious problem is the nonstop rhetoric from the right that tells people that "liberal political correctness", or that various kinds liberal perfidy -- their "treasonous" approach to the war, or the "socialism" or "communism" they are bringing to our economic system -- is the root cause of ordinary people's problems and is destroying the American fabric. In other words, people like Glenn Beck and Bill O'Reilly.
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Losing an election = being "pushed to the wall"?
What is this guy - four years old?
No, Three and a half!
My boy is 3.5 and lightyears ahead of Beck in intellect and maturity.
My African Grey parrot is light-years ahead of Beck.
These are two very dangerous assholes. I can't even stomach listening to them speak. Beck is trying to CONDONE violence. He is totally fucking nuts. Pretty scary when Bill O is the voice of reason in an interview.
Right now, Bill O'Reilly takes second to last place over last place Glenn Beck. Bill just made Glenn Beck look like the crazy, paranoid guy theat we all know he is. Man.
like an earthbound misfit.
"Clearly he's a psycho."
I'm spinning, oh, I'm spinning
How quick the sun can, drop away
And now my bitter hands cradle broken glass
Of what was everything
All the pictures have all been washed in black, tattooed everything...
O’REILLY: Well, look, nobody, even if they’re frustrated, is going to hurt another human being unless they’re mentally ill. I think.
Making Bill O'Reilly seem like the rational one in a conversation compared to you is quite an achievement. Glenn Beck should get some sort of unhinged nutjob award for that accomplishment alone.
It's like they've set O'Reilly up to rationalize Beck's view to help deflect criticism as to WHY their followers might become violent -- just in case. Beck will continue to be rabid, foaming at the mouth and out of control - but Billo will come along and say - "Hey - if they go nuts - it's not our fault."
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The manifesto written by Jim Adkisson down here in Knoxville before he took a gun into the Unitarian church cited Mr. Beck's book specifically and the search of his home found copies of books by O'Reilly, Coulter, Malkin and Savage.
You, sir, are doing the inciting.
And ... not one of us here doesn't realize that it's completely with nefarious and seditious intent.
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"The government isn’t hearing their voice. Even if you call, they don’t listen to you on both sides. If you’re a conservative, you’re called a racist. You want to starve children." Would somebody please wire this asshole's mouth shut, lock it down and throw away the key? It' like having a pipeline from Bizarro world inserted into one's cerebral cortex and the on/off switch doesn't work.
when nobody was hearing my voice and if I criticized the administration I was called unAmerican? I wonder why I wasn't killing somebody?
O’REILLY: I don’t feel sorry for them (Gitmo detainees). In fact, I probably would have ordered their execution if I had the power.
O'REILLY: Nobody...is going to hurt another human being unless they’re mentally ill.
There we have it -- Bill O'Reilly declares himself to be mentally ill.
Beck makes Billy boy seem like a rational person by comparison. You have to have a bag full of crazy for that to happen.
Fox puts people like Beck on the air.
give legitimacy to this crap? Stop feeding them!
If we ignore them, we'd be disenfranchising them!
while their talk radio monopoly determined what is and what isn't acceptable in the rest of the media- the flavor of america.
So murderous rampages are the result of conservatives not getting what they want?
Isn't that what happens in the process of them getting what they want as well?
It'll work in a lot of places...
well said.
me?
i thought it pithy...
Glenn Beck is most assuredly actively using mind altering drugs including alcohol.
Just admit it...you psycho's are scared and angry because a handsome, intelligent, cool and confident black man is running the Nation. Obama as President destroys generations of stereotypes and racist lies that you sorry assholes have been fed. It's hard to feed your kids your poisonous racism while a n****r is the most powerful man in the world, isn't it?
The truth is like a kick in the crotch everyday to these worthless bigots.
But someone told me that KKK recruitment has shot up since Obama became president. My reaction, rather than horror, was to laugh. I mean, really! NOW they join up? I thought hating minorities was enough to join the KKK, not to mention the fact that Obama declared his candidacy...fucking ages ago, I don't remember; doesn't matter. So they finally get off their asses now that a black man is already in the Oval Office. What made me laugh? Not only are the KKK a bunch of backward-assed, ignorant, hateful, pathetic dipshits, but they are a LAZY, slow-to-react bunch of little bitches on top it!
KKK:
I LOL at you. I LOL heartily at your half-assed, half-baked recruitment drive.
Its not the fault of a conservative ideology that specifically drives an us-vs-them dynamic of exclusion where the 'us' position can NEVER be argued because its mandated by an invisible person in the sky.
No, its the fault of libs for wanting to treat at the very least their own citizenry with dignity, respect and equal treatment before the law.
Ow. I hurt my brain.
I trust the authorities have been alerted.
There is a pattern that seems to be developing. In post colonial India, the Brits used a variety of excuses to pretend they didn't lose. They glorified their losses, as they did in WW1. Colonel Fubber would always act as though the old regiment had merely departed India and would be going back to deal those wag's a serious slapping about, just as soon as the new PM could get the PC on the AM with the PCM invited to attend, don't you know.
The American and British film industries whitewashed the loss of territory, the insurrection, the fight for independence, in quite a different light than history sees it. It is jingo, and that is what pays the bills in a panic. I still wonder why we don't support any further revolutions in this world, except by dictators against a downtrodden populace?
go to some of these right wing web sites some time, thats what you'll read. there are some real sick-os out there and most of them are repeating things they heard on talk radio. right wing radio encourages stupid people to do stupid things. oh sure, they are not actually telling them to do it, but someone that has so much anger built up inside will SNAP and throw their life away. five minutes of fame is all they want. I know a lot of "right wingers" that would never do anything to anyone, but there is a few out there that would if they are encouraged enough.
Drove the genocide in Rawanda.
These are the same people with the same rhetoric.
..suicide bombers?
you are only called a racist, if you ARE A RACIST. it does'nt have have anything to do with being conservative or liberal.
Plenty of people on all sides of the political spectrum willing to hurl unjustified accusations of racism to make a point.
... if someone were to say, "You know, Shadowgm, you're a frickin' racist!"
My first response would not be, "You're just saying that because you're a p.c. liberal!"
It would be something like, "What makes you say that?"
Lib thought: What argument can I use to make my point?
Conservative thought: What caliber ammo can I use to make my point?
but true. If intelligence doesn't work, use lies, ignorance, insults and violence.
In my opinion what the frothingly insane Christofascist is probably "not saying" is that __HE__ experiences urges and ideologies motivated by his delusional Christian extremist perceptions where __HE__ would probably like to go on a shooting spree to "do something about it." Usually when extremist lunatics express their bizarre notions about what motivates others, they're expressing their own ideals.
Beck is really giving a tacit nod to these actions with his lack of censure.
I wonder what his initial impression of the infamous Post cartoon of the dead chimp was.
On second thought, maybe I don't want to know.
Beck proves that sick Reslugs are behind most terrible hate crimes because that's the sick, perverted way Reslugs think and live their hatefilled lives.
He's pissed that he can only call a spade a "spade" and he's only allowed to say "Spic and Span" as a household cleaner-- the DOUCHE!!!;-)Wish he'd just go to a Chicago bridge with the rest of his ilk so that Jake and Elwood can run them over!!! ;-)
In order to gain the political power they've enjoyed over the last ten years, Republican moderates and Reagan conservatives made a pact with the devil (faux Christians and Limbaugh's radical and pliable right wing bigots and misanthropes) to achieve the numbers they needed to defeat Democrats. They made a strategic decision to manipulate and exploit the ignorance, fears and dysfunctional emotions of gullible voters in order to win elections rather than lose them by being intellectually and morally honest.
Today, those Republican moderates and Reagan conservatives are caught between wanting to disassociate themselves with and or casting out the devils they empowered and the karmic reality that they don’t have the numbers to hold on to or regain power without accepting and even falsely "advocating" values, hypocrisies and corrupt policies that are dividing and destroying their party. The survival of today's shrinking Republican Party has become so dependent on extremism, that they have no significant political power left WITH or WITHOUT the support of America's most self-interested, prejudiced and tyrannical lunatic fringe.
The idiom about choosing between the devil and the deep blue sea is certainly appropriate as Republicans are facing the dilemma of choosing between two equally undesirable alternatives that both result in Republican impotence in mainstream American politics. They are reaping the deserved consequences of their treacherous and sinful ways. Their irresponsible fealty to George W. Bush cost them their credibility, and their disgraceful and shameless licking of Rush Limbaugh’s storm trooper boots is costing them their viability.
Nailed it.
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I love listening to 'em wail as their nads (such as they are) get crushed tighter and tighter between a rock and another, equally hard place...
Scream, you goddam fucking shitwhistles...
I kinda liked that one too.
..praying at the Church of St. Ronald the Tax & Spender!
but your talking way above their heads.
They are reaping what they've sown. They used these people every 4 years, getting them all stirred up on abortion and gay marriage and prayer in the classroom. They urged them to take over the school boards, then the city councils, the state legislatures and so forth. They gave them nothing but lip service between elections. Most Washington Republicans don't give a damn about those issues. In fact, I'm sure that a lot of them would be in deep doodoo if abortion was truly outlawed. I mean, what would their daughters do? What would they do with the office staff they have "work" late hours?
But the evangelical core finally figured out that they were getting nothing and put their support behind their kind of folk....Palin, Huckabee, etc. Now the party is so far to the right it may never get back. You summed it up well.
And Glenn is the voice of a lot of these same folks...creepy.
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You have written the best explaination of rethugs. Well Done.
Also, on another posting, when and who said that these shitheads have brains? They have shit in brain cavities.
You are welcome.
The more likely candidate is prescribed psychotropic drugs.
Will someone please put that toady out of our collective misery!
It bothers me he's given a mainstream primetime platform.
I expect individuals like him to be that stupid. It bothers me more he can be given a national platform.
is that Beck is justifying mass murder and some people are actually taking him seriously.
Watch Fox flail for an explanation, any explanation, other than the fact that they've been pumping people full of fear and invective, that they've been declaring that Obama's going to make us all socialists and that America Herself Is In Dire Peril--and that there are some mentally unstable people who see that as a personal message for action and decide to go out and do something about it and be a real hero, just like Travis Bickle.
But numbers are irrelevant in this sort of cat-and-squid game.
Beck could be the modern version of Hitler.
So could almost any of them.
I think he's their reincarnation of Joe McCarthy. I think he's been assigned with the job of ratcheting up the fear like McCarthy did against Communism.
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The propaganda marvel...
An obvious WWGBD moment for him.
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When, o When did Glenn's Brain Die? ;D
More proof that Beck is insane and stupid. This is just the daily dose.
Awesome. A crazy person telling crazy people what they should be afraid of. Whether Beck realizes it or not, since after all he’s crazy, he’s advising these paranoid schizophrenics to go out and buy lots of guns and plenty of ammo. The psychos that Beck refer to could be right outside your door maybe even under your bed.
Have you seen Glenn Beck's (((G))) logo? Like he's radioactive Gonorrhea, and he's daring anybody to come too close.
Can't touch dis!
By Beck's reasoning every oppressed minority has the right to go on a shooting spree.
the spree club is almost exclusively white males.
It is a mistake to dismiss Beck as merely stupid or insane. While there is good chance he IS both -- what he is actively practicing here is SEDITION.
He is fomenting violence against the government and citizens of this country in an attempt to overthrow the government. That is Sedition.
He should be arrested, charged and tried for crimes against his country. If his directions come from Ailes - then he should also be arrested, charged and tried.
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did have Chuck Norris on his show recently. Norris wants to be "president" of Texas.
He's also called Obama a communist.
It really sounds to me as if he wants people to rise up and do something about this.
..a motive that drove this man to go on a shooting rampage.
Hmmm, he had a gun, he had issues! OK, next question.
..stop posting things like this. I can't take Beck's stupidity any more. Is there a dopier bastard on TV than him? Can't we please just get along without Glenn Beck to toss around any more?
O'Reilly + Beck = NO Brain trust.
Your honor, I'd like to make a statement for the record.
Glenn Beck is a fool.
Thank you.
LDIN
People with guns kill people...
people with moustaches kill people...
:={<
To many westerns.
Those people who are genuinely insane are the one's who say and do insane things while sincerely believing they are normal. The only other possible explanation for what people like Limbaugh, Beck, Hannity, O'Reilly, Ingraham, Coulter and Savage say is that they are consciously fomenting fear, hatred and violence for wholly sinister purposes. Either they're crazy or criminal. Anyone who incites fear, hatred and violence on publicly owned airways should be prosecuted for the consequences of their words. If I encourage you to murder your brother or sister, am I not complicit if you murder them?
I'm not a psychiatrist, nor do I play one on TV, but I've got to say that this sounds a whole lot like old Glen not being able to shoot everyone who disagrees with him, commit mayhem on every minority he's not allowed to insult on his program, not slap every woman (i.e., Hillary Clinton) who has an important place in the world. Okay, if HE can pull theories out of his poor pile-plagued ass, so can I.
Beck owns a gun?
He's becoming increasingly delusional and paranoid. He's the king of political incorrectness (at least he thinks he is). He is insane beyond belief.
Every few days, I send BillO an email telling him that he needs to do something about Beck.
If Beck doesn't do something radical or criminal, one of his viewers is going to.
political correctness, as annoyingly pushed to absurd extremes at times as it may be, has never rendered the first amendment invalid.
bigots, racists, and haters, are just as free to spew their vitroil as they ever were.
beck, suggesting that rampages are caused by such individuals succumbing to a "hatred addiction withdrawl" by being denied their "fix" of expressed antisocial behavior will suddenly snap into a berserk state is absurd.
so to beck, expressions of discriminatory, behavior towards, minoriities, secularists, liberals, gays, athiests, etc. is a form of therapy for these people??
what an enormous ass hat.
you don't want to miss his "Special" today on his Faux Show - 5 EDT.
I have no idea what it's supposed to be about - but I heard an ad for it while I was listening to the local talk radio station in my car last evening.
I'm guessing, whatever requires a "Special" will have to be WAY over the top - even for Beck. I think I'll watch a bit - it is during cocktail hour here....
he's announcing this is his last show!
I just saw about 2 minutes of his "special." He's fake crying. What the hell is wrong with that guy? What the hell is wrong with those people who like him?
I wish I was with Amitola...I have no alcohol in my house right now!
I wish Beck would shut up!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
AAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
a talking head on a major cable news network has become an apologist for right-wing terrorists. Can you imagine the ferocious uproar if anyone in a comparable position started making such sympathetic statements rationalizing and stating an implicit justification for Al Quaeda's various acts of terror? He is barely avoiding outright treason with this logic.
thrives on 'moral relativism'. Beck's spiel is the same type of logic I've heard some of them use to excuse Sarah 'Caribou Barbie' Palin's support of secession. Their 'logic' states that if they 'feel' a certain way strongly enough, it must be a sign that they're viewpoint is 'right'.
The Repug party is nothing more than the party of reactionary thinkers. People who are incapable of rational thought once their reptilian brain takes over.
Frankly, I think they're just an underdeveloped sub-species of Homo Sapiens. I'm not suggesting we should harm them, but rather that we should constantly be on guard to prevent them from harming the rest of us.
Their 'logic' states that if they 'feel' a certain way strongly enough, it must be a sign that they're viewpoint is 'right'.
this is the same logic which permits them to equate wealth with virtue.
The Repug party is nothing more than the party of reactionary thinkers.
ding! ding! ding!
We have a winner.
Civilization is the rule of law
over emotion.
They hate that.
So women have been right about us all these years.
W showed us how well gut feelings work out, that's when he wasn't gazing soulfully into Putins eyes.
That feeling 'down there' might just be gas, a fart to be, not a divine insight in the ways of the world.
Perhaps Colbert described it better with the word 'truthiness'.
Actually, I think he was just being kind.
I think the word he wanted to use that encompasses these believers in their rumbly tumblys was 'toothiless'.
It really pisses me off the way Repugs bitch about 'PC' infringing on their rights to be assholes. Really? You're pissed because you can't say or do whatever the fuck your pea brain tells you?
Well try this experiment you right-wing assholes; stop by your local redneck watering-hole down in rural Texas, and start talking about what a great man President Obama is, and how grateful you are that he's here to stop the unlawful war in Iraq and raise taxes on the filthy rich thieves who've ruined our country. And later, once you regain consciousness in the parking lot, you can collect your teeth and go back inside and explain that you were really just testing the limits of free speech among the 'non-politically-correct' residents of 'real America'.
Horseshit. These right-wing fascists just think that they're right, and won't tolerate being told that they're wrong without whining, bitching, or flipping-out about it. These are very dangerous peope with a tenuous grasp on reality.
....was like riding in a convertible doing 60mph. Gotta smooth my hair back down and forward after that stellar tirade!
"Political correctness is a straw man that blowhard reactionaries attack in lieu of reasonable refutations of sensible arguments for progress."
the biggest political correctness cops and censors-by-threat in this country are the talk radio blowhards like beck and hannity and limbaugh. like a lot of the bushit we've been pulled into the last 20 years these guys with their coordinated uncontested repetition are largely responsible for creating the whole concept.
I can picture this headline had Beck lived a hundred years ago:
"Glenn Beck blames anti-slavery movement for lynching of blacks."
Rednecks routinely blame affirmative action for their racism...
Will someone please tell Glen Beck to shut the hell up. My 6yo is more logical than these buffoons.
is the rhetorical accusation leveled by bigots against those who would dare to deny them the privileges of their 'superiority.'
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Haven't Beck and O'Liely figured out that it is THEM that drive people crazy?
There is nothing political or correct about either of them!
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Mentally ill lone gunmen exist, but have you ever seen the movie Arlington Road? Maybe not all of them, especially in light of the recent news about Cheney's secret assasination squad.
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...that's rich.
Does the Biggest Clown on the Planet have anything worthwhile to say about anything?
Phuck it... We'll Do it Live!!
the man responsible for the shooting is said by people who knew him to have been depressed about something. First thing that had come to my mind when I learned he'd killed himself at his workplace was that he'd either been laid off or his job was in jeopardy.
And contrary to the idiots replying to the initial AOHell news article, this man was white, not a minority and not an illegal immigrant (the reason his name wasn't disclosed was prolly so the police could tell his surviving next of kin).
As for Glenn's idiotic comments, by his logic there theoretically would have been a lot of liberal killing sprees over the last 8 years, a lot of us felt very disenfranchized during the Bush years and a lot of us were so literally. And boohoo, the peanut gallery feels disenfranchized because they aren't given a cookie and handshake everytime they open their traps and are racist, sexist, etc? Cry me a river!
"How do you not have those people turn into that guy?"
I have a question for you Beck! How did people not go fucking nuts within the eight years of Bush and went on a fucking rampage?
Here's the answer! Because not everyone is as fucking nuts, mental, loopy, bat shit insane as you! Go preach for your crap arse revolution of the right! You'll be in heaven, or just bloody dead! You are a mental case!
STFU and take your Zoloft ya fucking nutter!
If it were true that he is or was a Zoloft user, then maybe he just needs to be committed, period... Zoloft side effects have been used as a defense in more than one murder case, including one guy who beat a little old lady to death with a gun, I think... :S
It's bad when Bill'O comes off sane and rational which he did compared to Beck . Glenn should just go ahead and have the sex change operation and get it over with , he could marry Chuck Norris .
I am taking donations , need to ship to Fox "news" one dozen each : white smocks and butter fly nets .
What, no straight jackets? :P
This Beck sounds very unstable and should be placed on the no-fly list. I would not want this nut on my plane.
So why do all these neo-cons hate it so much?
Most Americans think that you and Bick and extreme pieces of shit.
I feel better now.
Some time ago, when there was open talk about Cheney's need to invade Iran, I was flipping through the dial and came upon beck having a discussion with a 'nuclear expert' who was saying that all we ever hear about nuclear war is about the terrible destruction when, in fact, he can prove it's not really that bad after all. Beck was literally drooling with excitement and was emphatic that the guest should return and finish explaining how nuclear war ain't so bad after all.
Whether insane/clinically retarded/still a coke-head, it was obvious to me that beck was doing the bidding of the neocons in trying to prep us for the nuking of Iran. Although this scenario did not come to pass, beck is still the canary in the mine; watch out for him...he's telling us exactly what the cons are thinking.
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