Can anyone offer a logical criticism of Glenn Beck?

[Luissa]

The best reason to not like him, is he lived in Western Washington, and therefore probably a UW fan. I said it in the beginning, and I think it stands as the best reason. IMO!

 

[B. Kidd]

Well I just read all 23 pages of this thread (I deserve some sort of medal) and I didn't see one person offer any logical criticisms of Beck. I saw a lot of elementary school-like attacks on him but nothing that could be tossed in the "logical" arena.

Glen Beck is awesome. When I lived in Clearwater he was a local DJ in Tampa. This was before his radio show was syndicated. Been a fan ever since. He's one of the most genuine and honest personalities you'll find. He is extremely educational and a true American.

Does this qualify as a logical criticism?
Beck is one side of the same coin that Keith Olbermann resides on.
Divisive partisan rants contributing to furthur inhibit compromise towards finding effective solutions to pressing problems.
Also, there was a time when congressmen, when in session, would not fly home every weekend when congress was in session, but would hang out socially on weekends, mixing with those across the aisle. And, they didn't have to be on the phone everyday to raise campaign funds in their freshman year, prepping already for their next election. These two facts of modern political life, inhibit compromise; therefore inhibiting effective solutions.
Until this changes, which partially means campaign finance reform, some in the media will continue to partisan rant, emulating congress, while compromise based solutions will not occur.

For e.g. If congress was in touch, and had the best interest of our country as a whole (instead of partisan power) at heart, an unemployment extension, in these harsh economic times, would NOT have been related to a bill that had other funding interests.
It would have only taken two congressman, one from each side of the aisle, to present a solitary unemployment extension bill, and it would have flown through congress already.
Congress has reached the dismal point where you, I, and our neighbors, don't really count too much anymore.
BTW, fortunately I am not collecting unemployment. But living in Vegas, with a 14.1 per cent unemployment rate, a friend and some acquaintances, collected their last check on 6/2. Responsible people, who can't find a job.

 

[ABikerSailor]

Well I just read all 23 pages of this thread (I deserve some sort of medal) and I didn't see one person offer any logical criticisms of Beck. I saw a lot of elementary school-like attacks on him but nothing that could be tossed in the "logical" arena.

Glen Beck is awesome. When I lived in Clearwater he was a local DJ in Tampa. This was before his radio show was syndicated. Been a fan ever since. He's one of the most genuine and honest personalities you'll find. He is extremely educational and a true American.

Genuine and honest? Educational? Really?

Does Glenn Beck support the slave trade or is he just an "idiot"?
September 23, 2009 8:16 pm ET — 226 Comments

In a chapter in his new book purporting to explain to "idiots" what "our Founding Fathers really intended," Glenn Beck praises an obsolete provision of the U.S. Constitution that prohibited Congress from outlawing the slave trade before 1808 and capped taxes on the slave trade at $10 per slave. In his explanation of the provision, Beck does not mention slavery, saying instead that the provision means that the Founders apparently "felt like there was a value to being able to live here" and lamenting: "Not anymore. These days we can't ask anything of immigrants -- including that they abide by our laws."
Beck claims to provide authoritative explanation of Constitution's meaning

Beck explains to "idiots" what "our Founding Fathers really intended" in the Constitution. In the introduction to a chapter titled, "The U.S. Constitution: Lost in Translation," Beck mocks "idiots" who don't share his interpretation of the Constitution:

How many times have you argued with your idiot friends about what's constitutional and what isn't? You may even show them the Constitution, but the disagreement continues. That made me think that maybe the problem is that the entire Constitution is written in English -- a language that is very difficult for the average idiot to comprehend. In addition, there are several words in the document longer than three letters, making it a tougher read than the "Dick and Jane" books they normally struggle through.

What follows is a translation (from English to Idiot) of several important parts of the U.S. Constitution, leaving no doubt as to what our Founding Fathers really intended. [Beck, et. al, Arguing With Idiots, Page 267]

Beck praises constitutional provision protecting slave trade

Beck praises "Migration or Importation" tax provision in taking cheap shot at "immigrants." In the chapter, Beck reprints and then praises Article I, Section 9, Clause 1 of the Constitution. Beck specifically highlights in yellow the phrase "ten dollars for each person":

Section 9. The Migration or Importation of such Persons as any of the States now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by the Congress prior to the Year one thousand eight hundred and eight, but a Tax or duty may be imposed on such Importation, not exceeding ten dollars for each Person.

That's right, the Founders actually put a price tag on coming to this country: $10 per person. Apparently they felt like there was a value to being able to live here. Not anymore. These days we can't ask anything of immigrants -- including that they abide by our laws. [Arguing with Idiots, Page 278]

Provision Beck praised actually "barred Congress from ending the international slave trade before 1808." As noted by Yale Law School professor Akhil Reed Amar: "To make matters worse, despite the new Congress's general Article I, section 8 power over international commerce, section 9 barred Congress from ending the international slave trade before 1808. By that time, the Deep South hoped to have enough extra muscle in Congress, based on white migration and slave importation, to thwart any possible antislavery constitutional amendments and perhaps even to weaken any proposed ban on further slave importation. ... [T]he 1808 date itself was exempt from constitutional amendment under Article V." [Amar, America's Constitution: A Biography, Page 91]

"$10 per person" provision Beck praised incentivized slave trade. According to Amar: "The big money would likely flow [to the federal government] -- and after 1789 did in fact flow -- from federal levies on imports, yet these levies fell outside the ambit of the three-fifths clause. Indeed, by capping pre-1808 federal taxes at ten dollars per imported slave, Article I gave slave importers a special twenty-year exemption from the plenary taxation power that Congress would enjoy over all other imports." [Amar, America's Constitution: A Biography, Page 94]

Constitutional Convention delegate recognized that "$10 per person" provision protected slave trade. According to James Madison's notes from the 1787 Constitutional Convention, Connecticut delegate Roger Sherman -- who supported the 1808 clause and other efforts by the South to protect slavery in the Constitution -- recognized that the $10 tax limit that Beck highlighted prevented Congress from taxing the slave trade out of existence. According to Madison, Sherman "observed that the smallness of the duty shewed revenue to be the object, not the discouragement of the importation."

Later in book, Beck acknowledges the provision he praised protected the slave trade. Later in Arguing with Idiots, Beck writes: "Article 1, Section 9 had allowed twenty years of further slave trade, a length of time that many Founders hoped would be sufficient for the South to wean itself from the horrendous practice. But even after the importation of new slaves stopped in 1808, the South was so dependent upon slavery that it was unwilling to let it go." [Arguing with Idiots, Page 294]

Does Glenn Beck support the slave trade or is he just an "idiot"? | Media Matters for America

Wanna re-think your statement on how smart Beck is?

By the way 420, never thought I'd say this to another herbologist, but dude.........lay off the pipe, it's making you stupid!

Especially if you think Beck is smart.

 

[Mr.Fitnah]

Does Glenn Beck support the slave trade or is he just an "idiot"? | Media Matters for America

Wanna re-think your statement on how smart Beck is?

By the way 420, never thought I'd say this to another herbologist, but dude.........lay off the pipe, it's making you stupid!

Especially if you think Beck is smart.

The book media matters reports on is 325 pages.
Beck makes an imperfect argument on a paragraph that takes up less then a fifth of a page, and that is the extent of your argument an imperfect argument at one time .
Now Im going to negg you , so lets see some real crazy Ok?

 

[ABikerSailor]

Does Glenn Beck support the slave trade or is he just an "idiot"? | Media Matters for America

Wanna re-think your statement on how smart Beck is?

By the way 420, never thought I'd say this to another herbologist, but dude.........lay off the pipe, it's making you stupid!

Especially if you think Beck is smart.

The book media matters reports on is 325 pages.
Beck makes an imperfect argument on a paragraph that takes up less then a fifth of a page, and that is the extent of your argument an imperfect argument at one time .
Now Im going to negg you , so lets see some real crazy Ok?

............not really worth the effort.............

 

[Liberty]

Does Glenn Beck support the slave trade or is he just an "idiot"? | Media Matters for America

Wanna re-think your statement on how smart Beck is?

By the way 420, never thought I'd say this to another herbologist, but dude.........lay off the pipe, it's making you stupid!

Especially if you think Beck is smart.

The book media matters reports on is 325 pages.
Beck makes an imperfect argument on a paragraph that takes up less then a fifth of a page, and that is the extent of your argument an imperfect argument at one time .
Now Im going to negg you , so lets see some real crazy Ok?

............not really worth the effort.............

why dont YOU read the book yourself and develop your OWN opinion on it? Better yet, read some founding documents/diaries/federalist papers/etc. and realize you are on the wrong side of history.

 

[Rinata]

He's dangerous. This is one of the best articles I've seen:

Glenn Beck is engaged in a carefully orchestrated performance that, if taken to its logical end, can only end up in tragedy -- a tragedy, not in the name of some great political or social or religious cause, as too many of his viewers might believe, but rather in the name of pure careerism and greed. A tragedy in the name of Glenn Beck's personal drive for fame and fortune, not to mention the similar motivations of Roger Ailes and Rupert Murdoch.

Right. I get it. I should probably ignore him. Why should I waste time writing about Glenn Beck again? As hard as it is to believe, most days I intentionally ignore Glenn Beck posts and videos on the blogs. My recurring reaction is generally twofold. One: he's exhausting to watch because just as I'm wrapping my head around one line of googly-eyed horseshit, he belts out another ridiculous, melodramatic or dangerous line, and before I know it, I'm faced with a log-jam of crazy, forcing me to scramble for either an oxygen mask or a stiff drink. And, two: why pay attention to the television equivalent of an escaped mental patient screaming gibberish on the median strip at a busy intersection?

What his regular viewers haven't grasped yet is that he's putting on a show. He's playing a role. He's tricking his audience. Unlike a left-leaning audience, Beck's audience is mostly composed of white conservative Christians who pride themselves on taking certain things on faith, and who often act against their own financial interests for the sake of patriotic cheerleading. It's an audience that embraces gun ownership and tends to be more reactionary and militaristic. (Incidentally, there's no equivalent to this on the "other side" simply because it's not in the nature of liberals to be, you know, conservative.)

Glenn Beck is playing a character with a personality and a style that is laser focused at the souls of an intended audience. It doesn't take many minutes of viewing his television show to see that he's mashing up the most effective and successful aspects of Rush Limbaugh, Alex Jones and '60s Bircher author Cleon Skousen, and filtering it all through the performance techniques of a televangelist. Listen to any random monologue by Glenn Beck and then watch some clips of televangelist Jack Van Impe. Both are master manipulators and (crazy aside) riveting speakers. They each nail their audiences with rapid-fire barrages of nonsense presented as dramatic fact -- so twisted and obscured that it begins to seem real and anything that might not seem entirely plausible, just have faith. After all, there are complicated drawings on a blackboard! Oh, and he cries. So he must be serious. (We learned last year that the crying is fake.)

Bob Cesca: Exposing Glenn Beck as a Dangerous Fraud

 

[topspin]

his show is very dumbed down for the next to illiterate tea party old folks.

 

[PatekPhilippe]

He's dangerous. This is one of the best articles I've seen:

Glenn Beck is engaged in a carefully orchestrated performance that, if taken to its logical end, can only end up in tragedy -- a tragedy, not in the name of some great political or social or religious cause, as too many of his viewers might believe, but rather in the name of pure careerism and greed. A tragedy in the name of Glenn Beck's personal drive for fame and fortune, not to mention the similar motivations of Roger Ailes and Rupert Murdoch.

Right. I get it. I should probably ignore him. Why should I waste time writing about Glenn Beck again? As hard as it is to believe, most days I intentionally ignore Glenn Beck posts and videos on the blogs. My recurring reaction is generally twofold. One: he's exhausting to watch because just as I'm wrapping my head around one line of googly-eyed horseshit, he belts out another ridiculous, melodramatic or dangerous line, and before I know it, I'm faced with a log-jam of crazy, forcing me to scramble for either an oxygen mask or a stiff drink. And, two: why pay attention to the television equivalent of an escaped mental patient screaming gibberish on the median strip at a busy intersection?

What his regular viewers haven't grasped yet is that he's putting on a show. He's playing a role. He's tricking his audience. Unlike a left-leaning audience, Beck's audience is mostly composed of white conservative Christians who pride themselves on taking certain things on faith, and who often act against their own financial interests for the sake of patriotic cheerleading. It's an audience that embraces gun ownership and tends to be more reactionary and militaristic. (Incidentally, there's no equivalent to this on the "other side" simply because it's not in the nature of liberals to be, you know, conservative.)

Glenn Beck is playing a character with a personality and a style that is laser focused at the souls of an intended audience. It doesn't take many minutes of viewing his television show to see that he's mashing up the most effective and successful aspects of Rush Limbaugh, Alex Jones and '60s Bircher author Cleon Skousen, and filtering it all through the performance techniques of a televangelist. Listen to any random monologue by Glenn Beck and then watch some clips of televangelist Jack Van Impe. Both are master manipulators and (crazy aside) riveting speakers. They each nail their audiences with rapid-fire barrages of nonsense presented as dramatic fact -- so twisted and obscured that it begins to seem real and anything that might not seem entirely plausible, just have faith. After all, there are complicated drawings on a blackboard! Oh, and he cries. So he must be serious. (We learned last year that the crying is fake.)

Bob Cesca: Exposing Glenn Beck as a Dangerous Fraud

LMAO....yeah...we know HuffPo is so in touch with America and what this country stands for...and they are your new church...right?

 

[PatekPhilippe]

his show is very dumbed down for the next to illiterate tea party old folks.

Well...since you represent what a dumbed down illiterate old folk is I guess your post must be truthful....

 

[ABikerSailor]

Beck is a recovering alcoholic on a dry drunk with an axe to grind.

He's not very intelligent either. But.......as a conspiracy theorist, he's pretty good at stringing random bad things together to show how bad progressives are.

Incidentally, he's also a theological moron.

 

[PatekPhilippe]

Beck is a recovering alcoholic on a dry drunk with an axe to grind.

He's not very intelligent either. But.......as a conspiracy theorist, he's pretty good at stringing random bad things together to show how bad progressives are.

Incidentally, he's also a theological moron.

Apparently he's a lot smarter than you are...he's got his own show, is a published author and a multi-millionaire...whereas you are just a pathetic moron surfing porn sites, eating pot pies and hot dogs for dinner wondering why you can't get laid.

 

[ABikerSailor]

Actually, I race bicycles and eat healthy.

And, you may wish to ease up on the self disclosure Packed Tight Freak.

 

[topspin]

Beck is a recovering alcoholic on a dry drunk with an axe to grind.

He's not very intelligent either. But.......as a conspiracy theorist, he's pretty good at stringing random bad things together to show how bad progressives are.

Incidentally, he's also a theological moron.

I think you give Glenn the cry baby too much credit.

 

[PatekPhilippe]

Actually, I race bicycles and eat healthy.

And, you may wish to ease up on the self disclosure Packed Tight Freak.

Oh yeah...sure you do there Lance....your a pathetic fucktard asshole who can't find his ass with both hands.
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhNr7LPOaGo]YouTube - Tricycle crash[/ame]

 

[HUGGY]

Actually, I race bicycles and eat healthy.

And, you may wish to ease up on the self disclosure Packed Tight Freak.

Oh yeah...sure you do there Lance....your a pathetic fucktard asshole who can't find his ass with both hands.
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhNr7LPOaGo]YouTube - Tricycle crash[/ame]

Why all the sour grapes? Your KiddiePorn sites just not getting it for you today..or tommorrow..I can't remember what time zone you are in...

 

[PatekPhilippe]

Actually, I race bicycles and eat healthy.

And, you may wish to ease up on the self disclosure Packed Tight Freak.

Oh yeah...sure you do there Lance....your a pathetic fucktard asshole who can't find his ass with both hands.
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhNr7LPOaGo]YouTube - Tricycle crash[/ame]

Why all the sour grapes? Your KiddiePorn sites just not getting it for you today..or tommorrow..I can't remember what time zone you are in...

Didn't quite catch that Huggy the pedophile panty sniffer....care to try again?

 

[PatekPhilippe]

PM from Biker Sailor to Huggy

Hey dude...help me out Patek's pickin on me again. I'm in the Beck thread
BooHoo

 

[ABikerSailor]

Actually, I race bicycles and eat healthy.

And, you may wish to ease up on the self disclosure Packed Tight Freak.

Oh yeah...sure you do there Lance....your a pathetic fucktard asshole who can't find his ass with both hands.
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhNr7LPOaGo]YouTube - Tricycle crash[/ame]

Yo.......Packed Tight Freak........I was ranked number 20 in the city of Memphis TN for amateurs in the late 80's.

I've probably got more miles on a bicycle than you do on your car. But.......not my fault that you are a lazy assed pedophile prick whose greatest achievement is getting a van without windows so that they could cruise for dates around the schoolyard.

Unlike you, I actually do something with my life.

 

[PatekPhilippe]

Actually, I race bicycles and eat healthy.

And, you may wish to ease up on the self disclosure Packed Tight Freak.

Oh yeah...sure you do there Lance....your a pathetic fucktard asshole who can't find his ass with both hands.
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhNr7LPOaGo]YouTube - Tricycle crash[/ame]

Yo.......Packed Tight Freak........I was ranked number 20 in the city of Memphis TN for amateurs in the late 80's.

I've probably got more miles on a bicycle than you do on your car. But.......not my fault that you are a lazy assed pedophile prick whose greatest achievement is getting a van without windows so that they could cruise for dates around the schoolyard.

Unlike you, I actually do something with my life.

LMFAO!!!!!!!!!! That was 20 years ago you fat triple bypass having fuck.