Did Glenn Beck rape and murder a girl in 1990?

[Evil_Maniac From Mars]

Ummm ... birthers are proclaiming that our President is an illegitimate traitor who intends to destroy America. Rapists get prison terms; traitors get the death penalty.

Truthers and birthers are similar in accusations of treason, and yet you'll notice I don't find them as despicable as rapists. And why would that be?

And let's not go too deeply into the racial context of declaring that a black man doesn't have his papers; the birther take on Obama has a deep, sympathetic resonance with Jim Crow.

I don't think it's because he's black. I think that a lot of people jump on the bandwagon for that reason, but I don't think that's why it started. Regardless, the birther movement is silly. Which, incidentally...

If you think Anonymous has crossed the line of good taste, that's well and good, but to then say that the falsehoods and hysteria whipped up about President 44 are "inane" cuts the legs out from under your argument.

in⋅ane [i-neyn] Show IPA

–adjective 1. lacking sense, significance, or ideas; silly: inane questions.
2. empty; void.

I don't know how you can say that birther and truther positions aren't inane. They fit the definition quite well...

[Lemur]

I don't think it's because he's black. I think that a lot of people jump on the bandwagon for that reason, but I don't think that's why it started.

I don't think you really understand American politics. Now, there are a multitude of reasons why one might oppose President 44, and most of them are legit. There are ideological reasons, practical reasons, legal reasons, constitutional reasons, etc., and I'm not disputing any of them.

But when people start inventing stuff out of whole cloth, and a (almost entirely) white group of (mostly) Southern people buy into it, I'm put in mind of Lee Atwater's quote:

You start out in 1954 by saying, “*****, *****, *****.” By 1968 you can't say “*****”—that hurts you. Backfires. So you say stuff like forced busing, states' rights and all that stuff.”

And even that is watered down compared to the birther insanity.

When Beck panders to the birthers, he is explicitly endorsing a racist perspective. When he "asks questions" about the president's legitimacy, he is throwing gasoline on a long-smoldering fire.

As for "inane," as a non-native speaker you are probably unaware of its finer implications, that the subject is "silly and pointless." There's nothing silly about a movement that motivates a small but vocal part of the electorate to declare that a democratic election should be overturned because the black man doesn't have his papers. It's nasty and hateful, actually, qualities that you would never describe as inane. Seinfeld was inane, because it's a show about nothing. Inanity implies a certain fluffy meaninglessness, not malignant delusion.

If we want to take this much further we should probably spin it off into its own thread ...

[Xiahou]

I don't think it's because he's black. I think that a lot of people jump on the bandwagon for that reason, but I don't think that's why it started. Regardless, the birther movement is silly. Which, incidentally...

Lemur's convinced himself that anyone who is angry at Obama must have racial motivations. I don't think you're going to change his mind.

It's worth pointing out that natural born citizen challenges are not unique to Obama. People speculated about whether McCain was a natural born citizen and, yes, there were even lawsuits filed by fringe leftists to challenge his eligibility. Of course, McCain lost, so that kind of put an end to the craziness on his account. We'll never know whether or not we'd still have small bands of kooks running around complaining about his citizenship had he won.

"Birthers" aren't even new to this election cycle. People like George Romney, Barry Goldwater, and (iirc) even Chester A. Arthur had questions raised about their eligibility for office. If someone thinks that this time it's different and they can see into the "birthers" hearts and pronounce them all racists.... well, what can you say? Some even think that all the people who are angrily protesting health care reform are really doing so because they don't like blacks.

Is Glen Beck even a birther? Seriously- I don't know. A search on Youtube for "glen beck birther" yields, among other things, this clip from his radio show where he's speaking rather dismissively of them and even seems to suggest that birthers are counter productive.

Regardless, I don't think that claiming he's ineligible for the presidency based on a technicality adds up to treason.

As to the rest of the topic, I think Beck sets himself up for ridicule and deserves it. But I also think frivolously claiming he raped and murdered a girl is in pretty poor taste. I don't know that the best way to paint Beck as an ass is for people to make asses of themselves as well.

[CountArach]

Surely I'm not the only left-winger who would laugh if they did this to Michael Moore as well?

[miotas]

If a joke is funny I will laugh, no matter what it's about or who it's aimed at, myself included.

[Beskar]

Surely I'm not the only left-winger who would laugh if they did this to Michael Moore as well?

No, I would be terribly upset!!! because he is left-side and I am only looking through my evil right-wing goggles!!!

If I am honest, it is only funny because it is a parody of Beck's style, however, making a parody of Michael Moore's style would be amusing as well, if done correctly.

[naut]

Surely I'm not the only left-winger who would laugh if they did this to Michael Moore as well?

It'd be twice as funny to parody Moore! The man's an easy target though.

[seireikhaan]

The intended humor would be a bit more effective, in my opinion, if they had not decided upon such an allegation. Perhaps something a bit more bizarre, such as consuming a whole infant for breakfast each day, or something along those lines. Rape and murder are not impossible to believe. They happen. Perhaps more than most here at the .org realize. As such, I find the whole thing rather distasteful.

[Evil_Maniac From Mars]

The intended humor would be a bit more effective, in my opinion, if they had not decided upon such an allegation. Perhaps something a bit more bizarre, such as consuming a whole infant for breakfast each day, or something along those lines. Rape and murder are not impossible to believe. They happen. Perhaps more than most here at the .org realize. As such, I find the whole thing rather distasteful.

Exactly.

[Ironside]

The intended humor would be a bit more effective, in my opinion, if they had not decided upon such an allegation. Perhaps something a bit more bizarre, such as consuming a whole infant for breakfast each day, or something along those lines. Rape and murder are not impossible to believe. They happen. Perhaps more than most here at the .org realize. As such, I find the whole thing rather distasteful.

I suspect that part of this satire is about the more dangerous part of the stuff Glenn Beck pulls. That people might actually believe him. For that effect you cannot really have a bizzare case.

[Husar]

I suspect that part of this satire is about the more dangerous part of the stuff Glenn Beck pulls. That people might actually believe him. For that effect you cannot really have a bizzare case.

There ARE people who actually believe him...

[lars573]

The intended humor would be a bit more effective, in my opinion, if they had not decided upon such an allegation. Perhaps something a bit more bizarre, such as consuming a whole infant for breakfast each day, or something along those lines. Rape and murder are not impossible to believe. They happen. Perhaps more than most here at the .org realize. As such, I find the whole thing rather distasteful.

They stole it from Gilbert Gottfried's segement of the Roast of Bob Saget. Through out his whole piece he kept repeating "Bob Saget DID NOT rape and murder a 14 yearold girl in 1990." Which was shockingly not the most offensive thing he said. That I doubt I could repeat. But the whole thing was overflowing with lulz.

[KukriKhan]

Kinneson, Goldwaith, Gottfried... now we know who's running political campaigns: all their evil spawn!.

[Evil_Maniac From Mars]

Lemur's convinced himself that anyone who is angry at Obama must have racial motivations. I don't think you're going to change his mind.

It's worth pointing out that natural born citizen challenges are not unique to Obama. People speculated about whether McCain was a natural born citizen and, yes, there were even lawsuits filed by fringe leftists to challenge his eligibility. Of course, McCain lost, so that kind of put an end to the craziness on his account. We'll never know whether or not we'd still have small bands of kooks running around complaining about his citizenship had he won.

"Birthers" aren't even new to this election cycle. People like George Romney, Barry Goldwater, and (iirc) even Chester A. Arthur had questions raised about their eligibility for office. If someone thinks that this time it's different and they can see into the "birthers" hearts and pronounce them all racists.... well, what can you say? Some even think that all the people who are angrily protesting health care reform are really doing so because they don't like blacks.

Is Glen Beck even a birther? Seriously- I don't know. A search on Youtube for "glen beck birther" yields, among other things, this clip from his radio show where he's speaking rather dismissively of them and even seems to suggest that birthers are counter productive.

Regardless, I don't think that claiming he's ineligible for the presidency based on a technicality adds up to treason.

As to the rest of the topic, I think Beck sets himself up for ridicule and deserves it. But I also think frivolously claiming he raped and murdered a girl is in pretty poor taste. I don't know that the best way to paint Beck as an ass is for people to make asses of themselves as well.

Lemur, I don't think I can write a better response to you than this. All I can add is that I defend my use of inane, because the birther movement fits every definition of it. It's silly. It lacks sense. And honestly, in the grand course of things, it appears to lack significance as well.

[Lemur]

Lemur, I don't think I can write a better response to you than this.

Oh, I think you could do much, much better. Xiahou's response is typical of his posture when defending the well-defended and championing the enfranchised. If he were unable to ignore what I actually wrote and re-phrase it into broad, meaningless generalities, he'd have to work much harder, and actual communication might occur. Note how he is completely incapable of correctly reading the way I used the word "treason," twisting it to apply to people whom I never referenced. But what's a the difference between subject and object when you're batting for your team, eh?

Note how he re-phrases my argument to suit his purposes, rather than making even the slightest attempt to understand what I am writing. His reading comprehension drops precipitously when parsing an argument with which he disagrees. Convenient.

On the other hand, I'm more than happy to debate people who are capable of arguing in good faith.

[Sasaki Kojiro]

The dastardly deeds of Xiahou exposed.

[Louis VI the Fat]

I heard Xiahou murdered this girl in 1990...

[Beskar]

I heard Loius was a Socialist...

[Megas Methuselah]

I heard Xiahou murdered this girl in 1990...