Feh, amateur. A real conspiracy theory needs to incorporate the Knights Templar or the Rosicrucians. Preferably both.

Oh, if Keith Olberman said it, it must be true. He is certainly an expert on conspiracy theories. He and Van Jones.

This site is becoming comedy central.

Yes, Dan Brown, Glenn Beck is not.

Little did I know when just a little 8 year-old tyke, and stared in amazement at those grocery store tabloids (with liz taylor having alien babies and the like) i was watching the future of american journalism unfold.

whatta country!

I give up. Snark is no match for reality.

Mike K, Oh, cmon. Get yer troll on! you can do better than that.

this makes sense?

so...beck is reduced to doing an impersonation of richard dreyfuss in close encounters of the 3rd kind?

LOL...

all that's missing is a mountain of mashed potatoes..

So the building exudes an evil energy that's doomed to destroy us all? Isn't this the plot of Ghostbusters?

This site is becoming comedy central. -Mike K

Since viewers of The Daily Show are better informed on average, we'll all take that as a compliment.

Mike K is right. Glenn Beck is a sophisticated journalist doing the incredibly hard leg work of delving deep into the annals of history to uncover Obama's true origins and devious machinations. However, like Olbermann, this site has turned into just cheap comedy entertainment.

Mike K,

Do you need someone to tell you what Beck said was ... fiction?

Methinks Mike K (Myke K. does a better job) gets some of his information from Fox "News."

Actually, Comedy Central (by way of Jon Stewart) is more accurate than Rupert's butt-boy channel.

Try harder, Mike.

Just because Glenn Beck is on video saying those things doesn't mean he believes them. It also doesn't mean that those things necessarily mean what you interpret them as meaning. The meanings of words are a matter of opinion.

Also, Keith Olberman or another lefty out to discredit Beck could have doctored the tape.

Nelson was the Rockefeller responsible for the art at R-Center. John, John Jr. that is, continued the family business while extending it massively into philanthropy, his real passion. The idea that John Sr. was an art lover is sidesplitting.

The Rockefellers controlled a large part of the energy and financial sector of America for generations, and were staunch Republicans, although not Beck's brand, all the way. Only one thing to say: wotta buncha commies!

My wife did her undergraduate thesis on WPA art; and she claims that Rockefeller himself insisted on covering up on the sections that could have been interpreted as "socialist." (If it doesn't involve bringing guns to townhalls or threatening the lives of Presidents and their children, then it ain't free speech.) So Beck doesn't know the facts here,

Paddy Cheyefsky was an optimist.

Well, now I'm confused: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_at_the_Crossroads

Beck is the Vince McMahon of cable news.

What, no Bilderburgs? No Trilateral Commission? Where are the thumbprints of the Illuminati? It's like Glenn Beck only recently discovered he could use his paranoia to invent stuff...no imagination, this guy...he hasn't even discovered the clues that Ben Franklin left behind that Tommy Jefferson was a Commie stooge and the Declaration of Independence is a secret code intended for British anarchists...

So Beck doesn't know the facts here,

Glenn Beck does know this fact: that he can easily (to point of tragic comedy) influence dittoheads by the droves. So much so, that he makes a cool $18 million a year. Where else but FOX could a on-air personality with B-list acting skills make as much as an A-list Hollywood star?

Glenn Beck is a pitiful, helpless giant.

Beck has C-list acting skills, at best. Unless, of course, he is merely acting like an insane moron, in which case his acting skills move up to Oscar-worthy.

You gotta marvel at Beck's schtick... Mike K's..not so much.

Mike K - we hardly have to take Olberman's word for Beck being loony tunes on acid. The proof is right in front of, well, everyone.

Well, everyone who doesn't have The Stupid cranked to 11, anyway. It's possible you can't see it.

To Quaker in a Basement:

Despite the damage that Beck does to America, I hope that we have a different ending this time.

Given the hatred being built, we are sure to see more killings (R.I.P. Dr. Tiller, Holocaust Museum Security Guard, Pittsburg policemen, Unitarian churchgoers, etc.)

Steve, why do you keep promoting this shit?

Any posts on Hagel's prescient op ed from the other day?

"Just because Glenn Beck is on video saying those things doesn't mean he believes them. It also doesn't mean that those things necessarily mean what you interpret them as meaning. The meanings of words are a matter of opinion.

Also, Keith Olberman or another lefty out to discredit Beck could have doctored the tape."

Is there not a more perfect example of Right Wing Authoritarian babble that this statement. Wow

Of course if the wingnut followers can't tell that Colbert is satire, why wouldn't their Fascist controllers exploit that fact and use Beck as their nonsensical propaganda tool??

RWA's will believe anything their leaders tell them, that has been proven! (read R. Altemeyer)

This site is becoming comedy central.
Posted by: Mike K>/I>

We'd have a long way to go to catch up to Glenn Beck. Or you, for that matter.

What's the matter, Mike? You used to at least attempt to engage in substantiative discussion. Now you're just a hack. Has Red Stain fallen that far?

Mike K: Just because Glenn Beck is on video saying those things doesn't mean he believes them.

Yes, I don't think anyone here is worried about Glen Beck himself going out and murdering people in a right-wing jihad. Just the people that Beck tries to distance himself from after the fact.

Mike K:

Thanks again for proving that The Real Republicans of Orangatang County can indeed use computers, despite their lack of frontal lobes and opposable thumbs.

I evaluate this display the way I look at the Bush administration: The ideas are so bizarre, the motivations so twisted and self-contradictory, I must conclude that it's either (a) performance art or (b) part of a secret and convoluted conspiracy to ensure that high school English teachers continue to assign Orwell.

Red China

Red State

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Coincidence? We don't need to say it isn't, we just need to say it!

Say Red China, Red State and you have to say what do they eat at State dinners in the Obama White House --served --on --China!

You see, it all comes together.

BTW, Tim Robbins' 1999 film Cradle Will Rock (which primarily focuses on the legendary Orson Welles production of the titular play) has a major subplot dealing with Nelson Rockefeller (played by John Cusack) and the creation of the Diego Rivera (Ruben Blades) mural in Rockefeller Center. I'm not expert enough to pass on the film's historical accuarcy, but it is obviously a pinko/commie/fascist/Kenyan work which only proves Becks' fever dreams.

Glenn Beck is a sort of college drop-out--he took one course in a special low-admission-standards program at Yale, a theology course, and dropped it. The brevity of his educational career can be explained by a combination of excessive drinking and a short attention span.

He now draws two and a half million viewers. A great many of them must be college graduates who can spell "oligarchy" and needn't resort to dubious iconography to find parallels between progressives then and now, and don't regard Rockefellers as enemies of the capitalist system.

I doubt if conservatives at large are on average dumber than liberals. But one of three media men they listen to the most is demonstrably dumber than most of them (since he's all foam and no beer).

A remarkable phenomenon of our times.

Actually, mulling this over, it's maybe worthwhile comparing the academic credentials of the leading media figures on the left the and the right.
Right
Bill O'Reilly--BA in HIstory with Honors from Marist Colege
Sean Hannity--dropped out from NYU and Adelphi
Glenn Beck--dropped out of the one college course he took

Left
Jon Stewart--William and Mary BA
Keith Oldermann--Cornell degree in communications, entered at age 16
Rachel Maddow--Rhodes Scholar, DPhil Oxford

Also, Keith Olberman or another lefty out to discredit Beck could have doctored the tape.
Posted by: Mlke K

Umm, Mike? You can watch it on the Fox website. I guess Olberman doctored that one, too. But I do agre with you that Beck probably doesn't believe what he's saying, but it is Fox News after all.

The stupid, it burns!!!!!!

Do I laugh? Do I cry? Do I crylaugh?

As Steve noted yesterday, the crazies have an active base, a network and a political party

People actually believe this crap

The dangerous thing that Beck is exceptionally gifted at is establishing themes via repetition.

He says 'progressives' (used to be 'liberals') a bunch of times, then goes off on tangents about communism, Mussolini, Marx, and others, and then returns to the word 'progressives.'

Those people who only watch him and who don't think too much inculcate that connection in their minds.

Given that it is largely these same people who are screaming at town halls, shouting out civil discourse, and carrying weapons around, this is quite dangerous indeed. While we laugh him off, he is actually on point for those who would see violence as the end result. And he's amping them up, day after day.

What to do about it? I don't know. But it's scary how they're using association psychology to fire up people who don't know better.

Beck needs to read a little history, or maybe a lot of history (a little learning is a dangerous thing, drink deep or taste not the Pierian Spring).

Diego Rivera's Man at the Crossroads
1934

By 1930, Mexican muralist Diego Rivera has gained international favor for his lush and passionate murals. Inspired by Communist ideals and an intense devotion to his cultural heritage, Rivera creates boldly hued masterpieces of public art that adorn the municipal buildings of Mexico City. His outgoing personality puts him at the center of a circle of left-wing painters and poets, and his talent attracts wealthy patrons, including Abby Aldrich Rockefeller. In 1932, she convinces her husband, John D. Rockefeller, Jr., to commission a Rivera mural for the lobby of the soon-to-be-completed Rockefeller Center in New York City.

Flush from successes in San Francisco and Detroit, Rivera proposes a 63-foot-long portrait of workers facing symbolic crossroads of industry, science, socialism, and capitalism. The painter believes that his friendship with the Rockefeller family will allow him to insert an unapproved representation of Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin into a section portraying a May Day parade. The real decision-making power lies with the Center's building managers, who abhor Rivera's propagandistic approach. Horrified by newspaper articles attacking the mural's anti-capitalist ideology, they order Rivera to remove the offending image. When Rivera refuses, offering to balance the work with a portrait of Abraham Lincoln on the opposing side, the managers pay his full fee, bar him from the site, and hide the mural behind a massive drape. Despite negotiations to transfer the work to the Museum of Modern Art and demonstrations by Rivera supporters, near midnight, on February 10th, 1934, Rockefeller Center workmen, carrying axes, demolish the mural. Later, Rivera recreates the frescoes in the Palace of Fine Arts in Mexico City, adding a portrait of John D. Rockefeller, Jr., in a nightclub. Rivera never works in the United States again, but continues to be active, both politically and artistically, until his death in 1957.

John D. Rockefeller Jr. Communist? Hardly

John D. Rockefeller Jr. Facist? More likely.

Beck is a Mormon.

His brother and mother both committed suicide and another sibling died of heart failure.

Chronic genetic hysteria.

Beck is a Mormon.

One too many "m"s.

Obvious, had to be said. :)

Oh, I'll be impressed when he starts ranting about lizard people from the Crab Nebula running the fed..........

Glenn Beck isn't paranoid. He's perfectly sane. An insane person wouldn't have the wherewithal to make millions of dollars conning gullible sheeple into believing the nonsensical horseshit he spews. He doesn't believe any of it. He's a performance artist, only his audience doesn't realize it's all just an act.

He's a Republican. Like all Republicans, it's all about the Benjamins.

-Pity that Beck won't be reading any of the above.

But those inhabitants of his realm-Right and Left, Movers and Shakers- seldom touch base with "Reality". . .

Glenn Beck isn't paranoid. He's perfectly sane. -Screamin' Demon

I actually think Beck breaks the mold. He is an actual paranoid soapbox shouter. It's his agent who is a Republican.

It's a sad commentary on society when people like Beck will be financially sound for their entire lives, yet will never get the medical treatment they so obviously need.

Just for sheer entertainment value, I'd love to see what he'd make of the Diego Rivera Detroit Industry Frescoes in the Detroit Institute of Arts. They're one of the most significant artistic treasures of this (obviously Commie-fascist-anarchist-authoritarian) town. I'd especially like to show him the picture of the worker wearing a heavy work glove with a red star on the cuff, to see if he falls into the same trap that a colleague and I both did when we identified this to our students as a Communist symbol, reflecting Rivera's passionate political convictions -- only to have an 18 year old correct us and explain that Red Star work gloves were a brand that had been around for years, and that her father wears at the auto plant.

Wow, it's a whole other conspiracy Mike K!

Haldol 2mg/3x daily, please..

Jon Stewart could save a lot of writer's salaries by merely rebroadcasting any of Beck's buffoonish performances, even without any commentary. They are parodies of themselves, and anyone who takes Beck seriously is probably in need of electroshock treatments.

Mencken had it right when he predicted that our political discourse would ultimately become comic opera as the "fraud of democracy" became more and more apparent.

The question is whether to allow Beck to sink ever lower and ultimately reveal himself even to his worshipful followers as a raving lunatic, or to seek his removal from cable news, thus admitting that the debasement of our public discourse has no bottom if he is allowed to continue.

The campaign to persuade sponsors not to advertise during his program is insufficient. Sponsors must be persuaded to withdraw all advertising from Fox Faux News. That's the only way to curtail Beck's pernicious poison.

What is this soon you speak of kemo sabe?

Oh, if Keith Olberman said it, it must be true. He is certainly an expert on conspiracy theories. He and Van Jones.

This site is becoming comedy central.

Mike, if you read very, very carefully, you'll see that Steve wrote "Keith Olbermann did a nice job last night", not "The job Keith Olbermann did last night is nice because Olbermann did it." You see, it's possible to like what someone says or writes not because of who said or wrote it, but because of the content of what's been said or written. This explains, among other things, why liberals can praise something Joe Klein writes one day, and jump down his throat about what he writes the next day. For some reason this kind of reaction makes some right-wingers' heads explode.

If you're a parody troll, please excuse me. It's so hard to tell these days.

From what little I know about Joe McCarthy and friends, this all sounds very similar.

I wish someone would do a major ad buy during his show and just run the segment on Healthcare he did for CNN in January of 2008. Run it over and over in the middle of his show.

Well all I can say that it is a good think Beck is a millionaire and probably hasn't had to handle a $1 bill in years. Lest he turn it over and start asking questions about a glowing eye on a pyramid and mysterious words. In Latin.

Can we all just chip in and buy him a copy of the Illuminati Trilogy, let his head explode and just be done with it? Heck I'd kick in an extra buck just to get him the Talking Book version. (Since actual reading doesn't seem to be his strong point).

Not since Joe McCarthy shuffled off this mortal coil in 1957 has anyone made a career by accusing people of being communists. Glenn Beck has resurrected the practice. Not only has he found a cabal of secret communists, he has uncovered an entire communist corporation chock full of commies. The name of this company, you may ask?

THE NATIONAL BROADCASTING COMPANY!

You heard me right, boys and girls. The network that gave us Uncle Miltie and Ma Perkins has apparently been secretly sending subliminal messages endorsing Marxist doctrine since it was formed in 1926. This would make perfect sense to me. Every time I watched the Rockford Files I had an unexplainable desire to read Das Kapital. But seriously, folks. Twenty years after the fall of the Soviet Union, red baiting not only seems silly, it's also kind of nuts. It's not-at-all surprising that an organization would give this idiot a forum (after all, he's on FOX Noise). What's really stunning is the fact that his ratings are relatively high and that so many Americans take his word as gospel.

All kidding aside, half-witted ideologues are a dime a dozen. What separates Glenn Beck from his peers is the fact that he is doing some serious damage to the country he professes to love so much. For all of the comparisons to the Nazis he likes to make with respect to Liberals, Beck's program has much in common with Adolf Hitler's 1923 screed, Mein Kampf. Eighty-six years ago, Hitler attempted to arouse the anger of his fellow Germans by spouting half truths and utter nonsense - exactly what Glenn Beck is doing in 2009. So much of the insane dialogue that has been spewed forth at these Town Hall meetings across the country in recent weeks might have been lifted straight from a transcript of Beck's program.

Beck and his twisted ilk have done the impossible. They have deflected the blame for America's current economic distress (from where it should be aimed) toward a man who is trying to clean up the mess that was created - in large part - by people like Glenn Beck. They have also let loose with a vengeance the very worst angels of the American nature. Opening this Pandora's box was relatively easy. Closing it might prove to be a bit of a problem.

Deep in their hearts
They do believe
That they shall undermine someday....

http://www.tomdegan.blogspot.com

Tom Degan
Goshen, NY

Mike K is a very obvious parody troll. The "Just because Glenn Beck is on video saying those things doesn't mean he believes them" line is an absolute dead giveaway. I almost fell out of my chair laughing.

Mike K is a very obvious parody troll.

Well, I think he's obvious, but an awful lot of people seem to think he sounds just like the real thing. That's not too complimentary to the real thing's powers of argument.