I've given some thought over the years — it's one of my long-time thought experiments — to the idea of an afterlife that consisted only of being able to watch the TV news, showing what was going on back in the world of the living.
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And here's an article about Glenn Beck's "Man in the Moon" show:
Part Tea Party rally, part Cirque du Soleil (my characterization, which Beck objected to), the show is a window into Beck’s mind — which he admits is riddled with attention-deficit disorder and a busy, buzzing energy — that is possibly more revealing than his famous chalkboard rants.Strange!
Conservatives usually like to present themselves as appealing to the rational mind. This is not that.
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Beck is sui generis. Utterly unique on the public stage. And likely insane.
Of course, many of our leaders are literally insane and need to be institutionalized and under medical supervision. The most obvious are John McCain, Al Gore and Nancy Pelosi. Biden is merely brain-damaged from his two strokes (passed off as aneurisms).
God only knows what ails Obama. Is he a Muslim, a Communist, a homosexual?
On the bright side, anything that weakens Leviathan is good.
Conservatives usually like to present themselves as appealing to the rational mind. This is not that.
Beck is very passionate, very emotional. He's known for sobbing and he has bad hair. He is excitable and theatrical and very opinionated. Hates Newt Gingrich. Really, really, really hates Newt Gingrich. I remember this because I was thinking about voting for Newt Gingrich and just the subject of Newt Gingrich would send him off on a rant. And a good chunk of his audience had to be Newt voters, and he did not care. They even joked about it on the show. "You got to shut up about Newt Gingrich!" And he would laugh and say he has to warn people about Newt Gingrich.
He's very funny, and that can make his show entertaining. But he can veer off into apocalyptic warnings, too, and conspiracy-theories. I used to flip between him and NPR. And they would both annoy me, and I would flip back.
Rush is amazing because he's a solo act. Hannity is the guy who gets the interviews. You want to know what the base thinks? Hannity. Rush Limbaugh can actually move the base, or get the base talking about something else. Rush and Hannity are serious conservatives.
Beck is more on the fringe, crazier, funnier, over-the-top and excitable, with conspiracy theories and interesting ideas and insights. He has co-hosts and they spend a lot of their time laughing.
Beck is also religious, and talks about his religion sometimes. He's a Mormon, but was a big supporter of Santorum in the primaries. Romney was his #2 pick, and he hated Newt Gingrich. Hannity and Rush played it safe and spoke ill of no Republicans. Beck speaks his mind, always.
Beck tithes, which means he gives 10% of his income to charity. And you're not supposed to brag about your charitable works. You get no credit if you brag! But I remember Beck arguing that everybody has to tithe. "That's 10% is God's money, we don't have a choice, we have to give it away."
Here are the talk radio guys. In my market all these guys disappear in the off-season, with the exception of Rush.
I actually think Dennis Miller's show is my favorite. He does a lot of non-political stuff and has a very laid back personality. Weird how his show hasn't caught on. I think he appeals to non-political libertarians, and most of that audience is not the talk radio audience.
Mark Steyn sometimes subs for Rush. He's amazing. Why doesn't he have a show?
Michael Savage is crazy interesting. Banned in Britain, that's Michael Savage. Mark Levin has a horrible, horrible voice. Voice made for books. I can't stand Laura Ingraham's voice, either.
I can't imagine Blaze replacing regular news. Blaze is OK but Drudge was there first and does a good job. Beck should wait until he actually dominates the news business before he gloats.
Althouse said:
"Conservatives usually like to present themselves as appealing to the rational mind. This is not that."
I thought it was the Marxists/leftists who always present themselves as the smartest people in the World. According to them conservatives are either stupid (Sara Palin) or evil (Mit Romney)--both emotional attacks. The irony is that leftists talk as if they were rational but if you examine their statements you find that they arrive at conclusions by a mimetic process, similar to the cool kids in high school, not through rational thought.
Everyone except perhaps people with autism are driven by emotions. Emotions are what give people depth and creativity. The difference between conservatives and leftists is that most conservatives still direct their emotions through the traditional logical and moral channels which provide a rational basis for their arguments. Leftists/Marxists have rejected traditional mores so have nothing solid for reason to work on. For leftists, even science has become an exercise in the mimetic process in which scientific truth is based on majority opinion or consensus.
"Mark Steyn sometimes subs for Rush. He's amazing. Why doesn't he have a show?"
Steyn is actually better than Rush, to my ear, but maybe you'd get tired of him if he was on all the time and maybe he'd get tire. He comes on with a lot of jokes and keeps up a high pitch of outrage the whole time, as if everything is going to hell and all you can do is laugh.
Rush is more reassuring, more helpful and optimistic, and it's clear that he's trying to be. Trying to be very nice to everyone too, and very concerned about whether women are put off.
Did anyone notice the Rush caller this week who began by saying "Hi, Glenn"?
I once contracted at Microsoft. Apparently, I was working in the building with MSNBC. There were TV's in the lobby, and assembly areas.
The TV's replayed old news clips like a golden oldies radio station, and it was mixed with current news. There was no way to assess the difference without being fully focused.
Steyn is actually better than Rush, to my ear, but maybe you'd get tired of him if he was on all the time and maybe he'd get tired. He comes on with a lot of jokes and keeps up a high pitch of outrage the whole time, as if everything is going to hell and all you can do is laugh.
Yeah, Steyn is apocalyptic, but in a good way. His apocalypse is funny.
I heard a bit of Rush this week, he was going on and on about football and how the left is going to take football away from us.
He's also written a book for kids, apparently. Rush Revere and the Brave Pilgrims.
I kinda want to read that!
Beck does that, too, revisionist history. Although no revisionist historian in my experience admits to being a revisionist historian.
One of the things Beck liked to do was find patriotic black heroes from American history.
Beck would also expose some of the uglier stuff from progressive history.
You'd expect Beck to be a big pro-lifer. It fits his worldview, it fits his apocalyptic tone, it's certainly a big story and it's journalism that's been censored by the mainstream media. But he doesn't do abortion photographs or Carhart or Gosnell. Hasn't really educated himself, or his viewers, about abortion. As far as the media is concerned, the pro-life movement is still fringe. Even talk radio doesn't really talk about it. Weird.
I've always thought of Glenn Beck as a performance artist.
I don't watch network news. Or cable news. Or Glenn Beck. I don't trust any NYT stories on him.
Top Radio Talkers: Many I don't know or haven't heard of; but the last I heard, Kim Kommando was all about computers.
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