Of course, Beck doesn't clarify whether the "individual" he talked to was a Vatican official or a tourist from Omaha, but the impression he wants to give his listeners is clear: the Vatican itself has identified Beck as "wildly important" in the coming "dark, dark period of man."

Since it would be irresponsible not to speculate, I'm guessing it was one of his traveling companions.

Apparently is ratings have been going down steadily this year.

Why would a Mormon visit the Catholic holy city? What a weird vacation.

Didn't Europe bar him from entering, anyway, or was it just England? I can't remember.

He didn't specify the Vatican that's in Rome. What if it's the name of a bar he was in during his latest book tour? Seems more likely, no?

Actually it was his local insane asylum that he thought was the Vatican. This is where he got his 'message' about being very important, and that there were great dark days ahead' .. FOR HIM ...

obviously he was talking to himself

Holy fuck this guy makes lsd abusers look sane. Oh let's throw in any other substance abusers as looking more sane. He's one step below glue sniffers.

Beck doesn't depress me half as much as his followers do.

Are we the stupidest country on earth, or what.

Uh..just to clarify? Glenn Beck is an entertainer. Not a journalist. He is doing a SHOW. When you do a show, you do whatever you have to do to get an audience. Beck knows his audience pretty well by now, and he's doing exactly what he thinks will get them excited, and will get them to listen even more.

That's what you do when you have a SHOW. Beck is no different--and I mean this sincerely--than the guy who played bozo the clown for years on local LA TV. He's no different than Soupy Sales--just not as smart. He's no different than Lucy and Ricky.

You gotta keep in mind what Beck is doing when he does his thing. He's making 34-million bucks a year being a clown. It's working for him. And I'm quite sure he doesn't mean any of this latest foolishness. I'm imagining the cruel laughter in the production meetings when Beck and his crew talked about this latest gambit "let's tell 'em God's been talking to me! That'll get 'em interested."

That's it. It's a show. A dangerous show, but, still just a show. Beck is just doing what got him here.

The Vatican itself has identified Beck as "wildly important" in the coming "dark, dark period of men raping children."

It's like Howard Beale's final hours.

Glenn Beck is getting crazier by the day, and his drama and histrionics are getting daily more overdone. It's hard to say where he'll cross the line into being an object of amusement, but hopefully his followers will hang on until he picks a red state he likes and proclaims himself king. His delusions regarding his personal importance in the great scheme of things will suggest to him that it's not only what he deserves, it's what the American people (not to mention God) want.

I dont recall Soupy Sales or Bozo the Clown telling people to rise up or get armed or the President a racist.

It's hard to say where he'll cross the line into being an object of amusement

Passed that marker a good while back, bro.

Does WM ever clean up the crap at 2:25 thats been showing up lately?

He also fails to identify whether he was in the Vatican for some meeting or just taking the tour. I've been on the tour. A Vatican official (specifically, a docent), told me that the third tapestry on the left was very significant.

As for Beck, I suspect the Vatican has little use for nut jobs who belong to a religion that they more or less consider a cult. (In fairness, I think that Vatican considers all other religions to be cults.)

I actually admire Beck. The guy has about as much brains as a turd blossum, and he is incredibly rich blathering on about nothing. I would be compeletely will to spout GOP talking points on Fox for a few years in exhcange for a mid 8 figure income.

"When you talk to God, it's prayer; when God talks to you, it's schizophrenia"?

Good one, Steve!

I was going to comment, but LL beat me to it.

As much as I despise Beck and his idiotic, dangerous comments, he has given NUMEROUS PRINT INTEVIEWS where he has said this is just entertainment, and its not to be taken seriously.

How this info never makes it into the heads of his viewers (I guess nothing can get through granite), I don't know.

But at a certain point, you can't blame Beck anymore--he's found a way to make himself fabulously wealthy, and even after he tells his viewers they're idiots if they take him seriously, they respond with "Tell us more!"

I find O'Reilly much more scary, but he actually BELIEVES he's a serious, unbiased journalist.

'What you're doing is wildly important. We're entering a period of great darkness, and if good people don't stand up, we could enter a period unlike we have seen in a very long time.'

Translated: Glenn, you're performing a valuable service by calling sane people's attention to the know-nothing insanity brewing right under their noses. Perhaps if enough good people rise up to fight the new Dark Age that you so obviously represent, catastrophe may still be averted.

I think, for Beck and his listeners,
dark times = black man as president

In a 1954 movie "The Silver Chalice" (based on Thomas B. Costain's novel of the same name), the "Glenn Beck" of Rome circa 60 A.D. was a character called Simon the Magician (Jack Palance). Popular with the emperor Nero as well as with the rabble, Simon envisioned a wondrous stunt. He asked the emperor to build a tower from which he (Simon) would fly in circles. Behind the scene, he would be supported by a thin cable, undetectable from the ground, while his lovely companion (Virginia Mayo) cranked a cable rotor inside the tower. But at the fateful hour, Simon said hell with manmade device. He would fly on his own. So mighty -- so divine ! -- had he become. You can guess the rest.

Glenn Beck won't literally plunge a la fictional Simon, but he seems equally delusional. Look for him to crash.

I am very deeply offended that Glen Beck has the nerve to say that God speaks to him. It is an outright lie. Beck should rot in hell for such blasphemy.

Last week, when God was talking to me, he told me that the only persons he is currently talking to are me and Pat Robertson.

It used to be that when someone said this they were either committed or about to be committed.

People like Oral Roberts and Pat Robertson have talked like that all the time, and it's worked out fairly well for them.

Since it would be irresponsible not to speculate, I'm guessing it was one of his traveling companions. (to whom he was speaking)

I'm guessing it was one of his hand puppets.

Many conservatives have found a way to become wealthy off of speaking to the fears, delusions, and prejudices or millions of Americans. I can't fault anyone for profiting off that. Heck, if they paid me 34 million a year to say crazy things, I would, and any moral reflexion I had would be washed away on the premise that if people want to pay me to listen to my idiotic blather that's their problem. And that's pretty much what Glenn Beck has said!!! Hating Glen Beck is like hating the player instead of the game

Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, Michelle Bachmann . . . .

The modern Republican party is led by people who are clinically insane. Are the media refusing to acknowledge this fact because they don't realize it, or because they think it would be tacky to call attention to it?

Regarding Beck and his followers:

The group will have an ELITIST view of itself in relation to others, and a UNIQUE CAUSE. e.i. THEY ARE THE ONLY ONES RIGHT - everyone else is wrong. THEY ARE THE ONLY ONES DOING GOD'S WILL - everyone else is in apostasy.

This is from http://www.ex-cult.org/General/identifying-a-cult

Archon no doubt your right but there is such a thing as selling your soul to the devil.

I think Glen is drinking his own cool aid. The fact that he, of all people, has been chosen to speak to the masses, to enlighten them, and they hang on his every word.......well, it becomes obvious to Glen that god has big plans for him, it just isn't quite clear yet what those plans are.

Remember, there are no coincidences.......

I think Glen is going to crack up in a big way. Who's going to tell him he's wrong and god is not talking to him?

Jim Jones. Be very wary if Glenn offers you a glass of Kool Aid.

Obviously he granted an audience to the Pope and during this meeting as Benedict flattered him he gave the Holy See his cut.

It was fairly amusing earlier this week when Glenn Beck told his radio audience that God is communicating with him directly and giving him "a plan ... that is not really a plan."

My god. Is it just me, or is Beck finally bottoming out into Criswell ("My friend, we cannot keep this a secret any longer. Let us punish the guilty. Let us reward the innocent. My friend, can your heart stand the shocking facts of grave robbers from outer space?") territory?*

*For the record, Criswell was hilariously awesome. Beck, not even close.

"As a rule, when strange men with a history of substance abuse start claiming that they're passing along messages from above, it's a strong hint that the audience might want to change the channel." Hey, wait a minute, George Bush answered to that description, and he did that too. Could any conservative ask for a finer and nobler precedent?

I do believe that Beck is entering a dark, dark period... a deep descent into madness

Kool aid, Kool aid Tastes great , Kool aid , Kool aid Can't wait
Tune in for more of your favorite Kool aid every day ! Tune in Today !

You don't understand Mormon's. God speaks to them regularly.

He is losing audience. And if he's not drinking his own kool-aid, he'll see the falling numbers and adjust his 'entertainment' show.

But if he's really moving into his own head, the slow crack-up is going to be quite something to watch.

"When you talk to God, it's prayer; when God talks to you, it's schizophrenia"?

God once talked to me while I was on acid back in 1977. He said, "I do not exist."

I've been an atheist ever since.

SB:And second, I know the phrase "delusions of grandeur" gets thrown around casually sometimes, but when someone who claims to receive messages from God, and characterizes himself as "wildly important" in some kind of global scenario to prevent a dark period for humanity, doesn't the phrase take on a more literal, clinical meaning?

only if he actually believes it, and isn't just lying for profit.

but assuming he means it, and is desperately trying to educate his audience so they can avoid or cope with this "dark period," then he may be delusional.
but he doesn't have schizophrenia, he's got WAAY too much affect. if there is a real Axis I diagnosis (and this isn't a personality disorder and he isn't just a charlatan) then it's Bipolar disorder, and he's pretty fuckin' manic.

the thing is though, you can be crazy, and i mean really really crazy and still live your life without anyone stepping in to medicate or hospitalize you. so we're stuck with him. unless he gets hospitalized for "exhaustion" or whatever euphemism his pr flack wants to use.

the Vatican itself has identified Beck as "wildly important" in the coming "dark, dark period of man."

Of course they do. Glenn Beck is the Antichrist.

Remember Bono goosestepping around the jumble of tv's in his SS outfit during the Zoo TV Tour..."We're doing a show. We're doing business. This isn't showbusiness, it's show business."

Ladies and gentlemen, Glen Beck is show business. He's like Pee Wee Herman. He's created a character and he he's keeping his audience satisfied, nothing more. My guess is that his own personal views might be totally different than the nonsense he he engages in on radio and tv. I'm surprised that he's so transparent about it. He's so outrageous he's actual farce or even camp. He doesn't even try to appear real. If people want to believe him and line his pockets...don't blame him. He's doing show business.

How To Rid The World Of Glenn Beck:

STEP 1. When someone posts about/mentions Glenn Beck, ask "Who?"

STEP 2. There is no step 2. Ignore the troll.

But at a certain point, you can't blame Beck anymore

Um, yes you can. Because if he doesn't believe the stuff he says, he should be observant enough to see how it's affecting people, and he should be responsible enough to use his position of "leadership" to avoid being a catalyst for turmoil and violence.

As for the incentive to make money - well, he's no better than the Wall Street bankers and hedge-fund operators who deliberately caused defaults because they were betting on default. They deliberately sent the economy into a tailspin because they could profit on it.

Beck's doing the same thing, and he's just as despicable.

Both parties already had plenty of personal wealth to live comfortable lives, and don't need to sow chaos, turmoil and suffering to get more.

A question for Mr. Beck: what did the mushrooms look like?

To slightly paraphrase Robin Williams: How much does God have to put up with? First we kill his son, now he has to spend all kinds of time talking to Glen Beck?

"When you talk to God, it's prayer; when God talks to you, it's schizophrenia?"

I think a better description comes in this exchange from the 1972 Peter O'Toole film THE RULING CLASS (O'Toole's character, Jack Gurney, thinks he's Christ):

Lady Claire Gurney: How do you know you're God?

Jack: Simple. When I pray to Him, I find I am talking to myself.

Please, someone, Steve B for instance, check to see if there is any record of Beck having been in Italy in the last ten years. I'm betting he hasn't been within spitting distance of the Vatican.

g wrote: "... if he doesn't believe the stuff he says, he should be observant enough to see how it's affecting people ..."

Glenn Beck doesn't give a crap how he is 'affecting people' as long as enough of them watch his show so that he keeps getting paid a lot of money.

Check the link I just attached. It's a wonderful and accurate description of why Glenn Beck is the way he is and why his followers eat him up.

Over the years, a lot of people have thought they were Napoleon. On the other hand, one of them was Napoleon.

Update: the loons at Liberty "University" here in VA invited Beck to give their commencement address!

You guys are being far too generous. There's absolutely no reason to think that Beck wasn't simply talking to himself at the time.