Glenn Beck

Glenn Beck’s “Honor America “event has come and gone now and what did we learn from it?  First, I would like to congratulate Mr. Beck for a job very well done.  He had said that he would not be another Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and he did an absolutely stunning job of carrying that off.

It was a great confluence of the all-white high school dropouts and their mentors, the great robber baron corporate executives who teach those partially educated masses what they should know, especially that their great enemy is - The Government.  Or maybe I should say “govermint”.

We also learned that Beck is a rich and prestigious personality.  Also that he counts two main groups of people as his compatriots, some very rich people like David Koch and Dick Armey. In addition we learned that he has a substantial number of followers who appear to be reasonably well undereducated and fearful of government. In dealing with the latter group, Beck appears to appeal to their fear by invoking unnamed events and he appeals to their lack of education by teaching them some things that they all agree they should, and agree they really do know, largely based on innuendo concerning the Bible, hallowed words from our Founding Fathers, and that Capitalism is really only just free enterprise.

Obviously Beck has no serious political ambitions.  That is clear.  We must remember though that was also clear with Adolph Hitler - and that’s why he rose so easily at first.  Personally I don’t see Beck as being a serious candidate but that is an opinion - for right now.  The people who make the American President are now carefully accumulating and evaluating their list of “Possible Lords”.  I would think that he must rate very low.  

Beck’s role is to attract and appeal to the bottom rung of excitable and fearful people in the United States.  He does that well, and  for that he is paid more than a million dollars each month.  One of his sponsors claims to make your penis larger (Extenz), another is a gold stock company (Goldline).   Wow.  Where is Shakespeare?  He could have a ball with all this.  You can almost see it now - the under educated, the under achievers, the under-sized underdogs.  But.  Gold stocks rise when times are  uncertain and when the world looks  to be in great trouble, especially when there is imminent threat of war or when the stock and bond markets look uncertain and particularily when panic begins to seep out.  Could there be a connection?  If people tune into Beck and hear that the world is floating into uncertain times, are more people are concerned about putting their money into gold?  You bet - this has been going on for thousands of years.

The penis thing?  You got me there.  But if you think you have been deprived of your share of the worlds natural wealth, or if you think God has let you down and cut you off short, then Glenn Beck will make up for those mistakes.  I think you can see that he really does feel for  you.  He may even cry for you.

So.  I don't watch Beck.  Have never seen one of his programs.  Never will.  But he doesn't care.  He is rolling.  A rich man he is and widely respected by a large group of people.  

The Quran, Terry Jones, Rights, Responsibilities and Fire

The First Amendment Right that is granted and guaranteed by the U. S.  Constitution is an absolute right.  That much is certain. Ask Mayor Bloomberg who defended the right of the Florida pastor who plans to burn about two hundred Qurans.  Bloomberg should know.  Well, he “should” know.    Except that one is not supposed to shout “Fire!”  in a crowded theater, and there are nine or so words that no one is "legally" allowed to say in public or to be broadcast to the public.  Also, one cannot “incite to riot” , whatever that might mean - I guess it would depend on the circumstances, right?  One is supposed to say only the “truth” when under oath - does that mean you have been deprived of one of your God-given rights when you swear to God to tell the truth,  the absolute truth and nothing but the truth?  All of the constructs of education and medicine would probably be weakened if teachers and doctors were to tell only the truth instead of promoting learning and healing through cagey encouragement, and of course, it would totally devastate both religion and politics if ONLY the truth COULD be spoken. 

Let's face it.  Rights imply Responsibilities.  The "rights" we speak of were not given to us by some beneficent sovereign being,  they were won through endless encounters on both fields of battle and halls of debate. Americans are not the only people to enjoy these rights but the use of them does imply responsibility for their effect. The American Way - and perhaps the Bloomberg way - to handle all this is to just ignore it and it will go away.  The isolated incidents of course do “go away”, eventually.  The problem is that the pattern of reoccurrence becomes strengthened .  Most of the rest of the world ignores these American idiosyncrasies  because those oddities don’t affect them.  But now comes Terry Jones and his Quran burning.  

Terry Jones, an alleged preacher from Gainesville, Florida who wants to burn Qurans, says he doesn’t want Americans to forget 9-11.  Apparently he doesn’t want us to learn from 9-11 either.  In programs broadcast on the air, Mr. Jones has said that the U. S. government has given up on keeping God “in the country”.  He indicated that he feels God has been taken out of the schools, out of governmental activities and out of all aspects of life.  Apparently Mr. Jones has attributed a lot of this perceived decline in Christianity to Islam.  The Quran burning seems to be his attempt to awaken America to his understanding that Islam is evil, of the devil, the cause for all of our current problems, and bring us all back to our Christian senses.

Jones has a Doctor’s degree from The California Graduate School of Theology, an unaccredited institution in Los Angeles County, which - even though they did give him his honorary doctorate in 1993 - has now said that he never attended class there even for a day, and they are not happy with his planned Quran burning or teaching.  He is a former manager of a hotel someplace in Tennessee and makes money today from renting property he owns in Pinelles County, Florida, and selling furniture through an on-line store which is located in his church.  He has been in trouble with the State of Florida for several years over questions of “tax evasion” and was apparently forced out of  a position as pastor of a church in Germany over the same problem.  Mr. Jones is reported to have been seen recently wearing a pistol while on the church property.  Seems a strange stance for a man of peace - carrying guns, evading sales taxes, burning somebody else's book they hold to be holy.