Things

Look, I realize that talking about the shenanigans of people like Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, Michelle Bachmann, et. al., is generally not all that poignant or useful, which is why I try not to do it very often on here. If bloggers and/or journalists who write about US politics re-allocated the time and brain power that they spend on the cult of personalities in our political culture to considerations of things like the many struggles for and denials of civil liberties; our exorbitant, indefensible, unprecedentedly high annual military budget and the endless war it requires to sustain and justify itself; the largely unspoken, seemingly taboo, but very real class warfare the ultra-wealthy and political class are waging on the poor in this country; the unwinnable, highly damaging, often racist War On Drugs; or dozens of other substantive issues, we'd be much better off as a society. Adjectives! However, I couldn't let this video pass without comment:

Alright, this video doesn't seem to be working. Find it here, with transcript.

This is absolutely revolting, even for Glenn Beck. When he set out his "vision" last week for the apocalyptic world we are fast approaching (one where there is a Muslim caliphate that controls the Middle East and parts of Europe, Russia reclaims the entirety of the former Soviet bloc, plus "maybe the Netherlands" (?), and China takes the rest of the world), one could easily shrug it off with a casual "Hahahaa, you crazy for this one Glenn." It was pure fiction, and easily recognized as such by humans with functioning brains. This, however, is a level of disingenuousness I cannot stomach. Pinpointing NGO's like Invisible Children and the Save Darfur Coalition and saying:

"...who are these groups? Who are they? Are they right? Are they left? Are they clean? Are they dirty? Are they front groups? I don't know."

while asking "Is anyone willing to do their own homework?" [on these groups] requires unbelievable gall. IF YOU'RE GOING TO CALL THEIR INTEGRITY INTO QUESTION, GLENN, THEN DO YOUR OWN FUCKING HOMEWORK! Just Journalism 101. (FYI, Glenn, Invisible Children, at least, is run by Evangelical Christians) And then claiming that Google MIGHT be a "shill now for the US government" because one Google employee took part in the uprising in Egypt also displays a shocking disassociation from reality. As has been well documented just about everywhere, including here, the uprising in Egypt was absolutely not in the US government's interest, and they had absolutely no hand in the events in Egypt, nor did any other country's government.

This is the way Glenn Beck gets away with consistently spewing knowingly false poison: by couching all of his nonsense in the "I'm just asking questions!" guise (Edit: For another example of this on Fox News recently, see this post regarding their coverage of the story of Lara Logan's horrific sexual abuse in Egypt. It really doesn't get worse than some members of the media trying to "spin" the group rape of a reporter courageously working in a hostile environment.). This is, of course, an old favorite of bigots, fear-mongerers, and conspiracy theorists (and Glenn is all of these), and is as intellectually dishonest as it gets. One peer who springs to mind off of the top of my head is Senator Joseph McCarthy, whose crusade was similarly based in "if you have nothing to hide, why would you mind this insane interrogation?" logic.

And then, to top it all off, he equates community organizing with propaganda. Fuck you very much, Glen Beck. I'm officially convinced that viewers of Beck's program must have the lowest IQ amongst all TV viewing demographics in the US (Sorry, fans of Two and a Half Men. You had a good run, but you've officially been out-stupided.). This is me watching Glenn Beck talk:

Other things:

Hawaii approved civil unions for same-sex couples. Marriage it ain't, progress it is.

It can be difficult for even the most vigilant news junkies among us to keep track of all these revolutions in the Middle East, these days. Luckily, the Guardian has our backs.

Lastly, I don't know if anyone who reads this blog is a basketball fan, but I am, and this pass from last night's Miami Heat game is the best I've ever seen, I'm pretty sure:

Edit: While we're on the subject of deception on Fox News, here's the latest in a long list of outright lies via doctored videos they were just busted on:

It's obvious why they did this, right? Cast doubt on the (admittedly pointless) result of the poll, just because they didn't like that result, for one. Secondly, and just as importantly to Fox News, they got to squeeze the name Sarah Palin in there, thus making it seem like people still buy into her bullshit. Well, people other than Fox News and their merry band of idiots. And, uniting the Sarah Palin and Glenn beck threads of this post, does anyone remember this? So creepy! I'm worried for Sarah Palin, you guys.