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You are here: Home / The very serious Glenn Beck

The very serious Glenn Beck

by DougJ|  February 20, 201210:40 am| 79 Comments

This post is in: Our Awesome Meritocracy, Our Failed Media Experiment, Our Failed Political Establishment

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I’ve come around to thinking that the Global War On Birth Control is a bad issue for the right. It’s amazing how much establishment media is flogging the winger perspective on it, though. Kaplan today:

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Reader Interactions

79Comments

  1. 1.

    feebog

    February 20, 2012 at 10:44 am

    Does anyone take Glen Beck seriously anymore? Really? The guy is a one car clown show that not even Faux Noose could tolereate.

  2. 2.

    maya

    February 20, 2012 at 10:46 am

    Yeah, the Founding Fathas were often seen thumbing rosary beads meandering around the streets of Philadelphia prior to putting their John Hankochs to the Constitution. Or maybe they were benwa balls.

  3. 3.

    Ken

    February 20, 2012 at 10:47 am

    Shouldn’t that read “If you can’t serve my God, you aren’t free”? Because that’s the bishops’ argument.

  4. 4.

    c u n d gulag

    February 20, 2012 at 10:49 am

    Yes, Glenn – and most REAL Catholics, are LAPSED Catholics – largely because they’re tired of the paternalistic Luddite world view and policies of supposedly celibate men in the Church hierarchy, but who are, in reality, child-schtupping old male geezers who hate and fear women.

  5. 5.

    Guster

    February 20, 2012 at 10:49 am

    They’ve done a genius job pushing the idea that all religious liberty inheres in the employer, and none in the employee.

    I can’t tell if that’s the whole point for them. Corporations are people and the ‘right to work’ is the ‘right to pay workers less’ and ‘religious liberty’ is being forced to adhere to your boss’s religious code.

  6. 6.

    Suffern ACE

    February 20, 2012 at 10:52 am

    Egad. It’s an odd sentiment, but no, we are not all catholics. In fact, many are purposefully not catholic to varying degree.

  7. 7.

    Tom65

    February 20, 2012 at 10:52 am

    @c u n d gulag:

    Ayup. There are more lapsed Catholics than observant Catholics, and most of us lapsed Catholics grew up in the church or received a Catholic education.

  8. 8.

    DanielX

    February 20, 2012 at 10:53 am

    Maybe you are a Catholic now, Glenn – but not me. You can keep all the guilt for yourself. I know that your lack of freedom to oppress others amounts to oppression for you. Sucks, doesn’t it?

  9. 9.

    FlipYrWhig

    February 20, 2012 at 10:53 am

    @Guster: Yup. They’re all about the “religious liberty” of “job creators.” It’s total fucking bullshit on a stick, and has never been even slightly close to the way we think and act with regard to religion in America.

  10. 10.

    Ralph Wiggum

    February 20, 2012 at 10:55 am

    Funny…I though Beck was an ex-Catholic and now a Mormon. Is he switching again?

  11. 11.

    SiubhanDuinne

    February 20, 2012 at 10:58 am

    “We are all Catholics” seems an especially wacky line coming from someone who is famously a Mormon.

  12. 12.

    chopper

    February 20, 2012 at 10:58 am

    We Are All Catholics Now

    as a bonus, a bunch of repressed altar boy memories come with the deal!

  13. 13.

    Athena2

    February 20, 2012 at 10:58 am

    I thought Beck was a Mormon? Aren’t they supposed to missionize for their own church?

  14. 14.

    Bex

    February 20, 2012 at 11:00 am

    @DanielX: The LDS church that Glenn joined would be interested to hear that he is a Catholic now. Or is it, whatever, we’ll just baptize him when he shuffles off this mortal coil?

  15. 15.

    THE

    February 20, 2012 at 11:01 am

    If you can’t serve your God you are not free.

    He’s not my God you fucking moron.
    I escaped — Now I am free.

  16. 16.

    Anya

    February 20, 2012 at 11:01 am

    Wasn’t Glenn Beck raised as a Roman Catholic and then converted to mormonism. If Catholicism is so hot why did he abandon it for Joseph Smith?

  17. 17.

    James King

    February 20, 2012 at 11:02 am

    Norman Vincent Peale is rotating in his grave.

  18. 18.

    geg6

    February 20, 2012 at 11:05 am

    I fucking left that goddamned church and Glenn Beck can go fuck himself with the triregnum. I am proudly, loudly, and insistently NOT fucking Catholic and I want nothing to do with them or their fucking backward ass ways and fear and hatred of women.

    Fuck, but this kind of shit just pisses me off royally.

  19. 19.

    Bruce S

    February 20, 2012 at 11:05 am

    Wait a minute – this is from an op-ed in today’s WaPo and not just a tweet from this lunatic’s smartphone?

  20. 20.

    harlana

    February 20, 2012 at 11:07 am

    i’m loving it, too, DougJ – i say, keep it up guys! the “rolling pin” of justice awaits you in the GE!

  21. 21.

    fasteddie9318

    February 20, 2012 at 11:07 am

    I feel for some of the people working there, but for the good of the country that paper seriously can’t go out of business fast enough.

  22. 22.

    Baud

    February 20, 2012 at 11:08 am

    It’s funny cause Catholics the Catholic Church hates Mormons.

  23. 23.

    harlana

    February 20, 2012 at 11:08 am

    @feebog: i heard he is doing a comedy tour. seriously.

  24. 24.

    Poopyman

    February 20, 2012 at 11:09 am

    @Bruce S:

    First graph:

    I am a proud member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but today, I call myself a Catholic. Why? Because the state is telling the Catholic Church to violate its principles and teachings. So if you are a person of faith, you must call yourself a Catholic.

    It’s on the WaPo site, if you want to read it. I’m not reading any further than that.

  25. 25.

    harlana

    February 20, 2012 at 11:09 am

    @Baud: and Baptists hate Catholics, go figure

  26. 26.

    Spaghetti Lee

    February 20, 2012 at 11:10 am

    It’s amazing how much establishment media is flogging the winger perspective on it, though.

    Four words: They. Got. Nuthin’. Else. This is political kamikaze, whether they know it or not.

  27. 27.

    Baud

    February 20, 2012 at 11:13 am

    For those of us who aren’t all Catholic now, are we all women now?

  28. 28.

    Spaghetti Lee

    February 20, 2012 at 11:13 am

    @harlana:

    Yeah, I just kind of laughed at Santorum telling mainline Protestants that they aren’t ‘real Christians’ any more, and now we’ve got this. For a long time it was the Catholics who weren’t ‘real Christians.’ The idea of Southern Baptist Republicans marching arm in arm with them was laughable, what, 20 years ago? 10? And now you’ve got scum like Gingrich actually converting to Catholicism to get in with the lunatics who run the church. Speaking as an ex-Catholic, it’s embarrassing.

  29. 29.

    General Stuck (Bravo Nope Zero)

    February 20, 2012 at 11:17 am

    Unmarried female personnel are mustering into cadres donning full battle dress for the coming election. Don’t get in their way to the voting booth. You might get trampled.

  30. 30.

    beltane

    February 20, 2012 at 11:17 am

    Maybe Glenn Beck is feeling very Catholic-y these days but Catholic voters in Michigan sure aren’t. According to the crosstabs in PPP’s latest poll of Michigan, Mitt Romney is enjoying quite a wide lead over Rick Santorum among Catholic voters. In fact, it looks like Catholics support him more than any other group http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/02/19/1066538/-Breaking-PPP-Michigan-Romney-gains-11

    This should not be a surprise to anyone familiar with actual Catholics as opposed to the mythical Catholics of the Beltway media’s imagination.

  31. 31.

    Baud

    February 20, 2012 at 11:17 am

    BTW: Beck is a plagiarist.

    Huck at CPAC: ‘We’re all Catholics now’

  32. 32.

    someofparts

    February 20, 2012 at 11:18 am

    We should rename their brand of religion Church of the Insecure Boy-Men.

  33. 33.

    Suffern ACE

    February 20, 2012 at 11:23 am

    You know, if we just started a rumor that this birth control was just a way for us Catholics to take over the assembly halls, we might produce a rather beneficial split.

  34. 34.

    Mark B

    February 20, 2012 at 11:23 am

    I kind of expected a right wing jihad to eventually hit America, but about birth control? You think they’d pick an issue which wouldn’t automatically piss off more than half of the population.

  35. 35.

    Smiling Mortician

    February 20, 2012 at 11:29 am

    @James King: This caused me briefly to fantasize that the whole Catholic kerfuffle is a six-dimensional chess move by the Romney people to make the country fear a Catholic presidential nominee (Gingrich or Santorum) as Peale feared JFK in 1960. But then I remembered who Romney and his people are, so . . . I’m back at “They’re all just fucking insane.”

  36. 36.

    Betsy

    February 20, 2012 at 11:30 am

    I still can’t grasp how corporations (spun off by churches to operate as employers) can have religious freedoms, sin, get pregnant, have abortions, or go to hell.

    Or did Citizens United grant some rights and capacities that I missed?

  37. 37.

    Baud

    February 20, 2012 at 11:30 am

    @General Stuck (Bravo Nope Zero): That sounds way hotter than it should.

  38. 38.

    grass

    February 20, 2012 at 11:31 am

    I look forward to the GOP adopting the option to follow Sharia law – instead of, you know, regular law – to their manifesto. It’s almost like these idiots don’t think through their ‘solutions’ further than the first step.

  39. 39.

    harlana

    February 20, 2012 at 11:32 am

    @Baud: yeh, i remember that! idiotic then, idiotic now – it’s pretty bad when you have to start borrowing from Huckabee for an “original” thought.

  40. 40.

    General Stuck (Bravo Nope Zero)

    February 20, 2012 at 11:35 am

    @Baud:

    Wear a Rosie the Riviter tea shirt and you might git lucky.

  41. 41.

    MTiffany

    February 20, 2012 at 11:40 am

    @Guster: “laborare est orare”

  42. 42.

    J R in WVa

    February 20, 2012 at 11:41 am

    I am speechless, no one tell my wife about this!

    I’m with the “We are all women now” set of folks, and I hope no matter who the R-Pugs nominate we manage to somehow take back enough of congress to get things done.

    ‘Cause if the R’s have enough of congress it’s gonna be all impeachment, all the time, if they lose the White House.

    Guess I wasn’t as speechless as I thought. Pretty good for speechless, actually, don’t you think?

  43. 43.

    gnomedad

    February 20, 2012 at 11:45 am

    Meanwhile, Ratz fantasizes about pruning the ranks to an orthodox core. Go figure.

  44. 44.

    bemused

    February 20, 2012 at 11:45 am

    My democratic, over 90 FIL just asked me “what happened to that guy they fired from Fox”. I told him Beck is still on the radio but no one in the media bothers to mention him anymore. FIL is having more and more trouble remembering names but he doesn’t forget a fathead. We usually guess who FIL is talking about by his hilarious descriptions. He can put a name to Rick Santorum, he calls him Santorium, without trying to be funny.

  45. 45.

    CaptainFwiffo

    February 20, 2012 at 11:46 am

    Servitude and freedom are antonyms. This is basic fucking English.

  46. 46.

    gnomedad

    February 20, 2012 at 11:46 am

    @J R in WVa:

    I’m with the “We are all women now” set of folks

    Excellent. Perfect counter-meme.

  47. 47.

    Comrade Dread

    February 20, 2012 at 11:46 am

    @Athena2: Maybe Glenn wants to be a fundamentalist Mormon and is pushing to get the ban on polygamy declared unconstitutional.

  48. 48.

    Betsy

    February 20, 2012 at 11:48 am

    @Baud: Nicely put; here’s to ya.

  49. 49.

    OzoneR

    February 20, 2012 at 11:52 am

    “Serve” and “Free” are words that are not analogous. The word “serve” does not give any indication of “free” and the word “free” implies you’re doing the opposite of “serve”

  50. 50.

    Bago

    February 20, 2012 at 11:56 am

    This makes flogging the bishop that much easier.

  51. 51.

    Smiling Mortician

    February 20, 2012 at 11:57 am

    Started re-reading The Handmaid’s Tale the other day. It does not feel so fiction-y this time around.

  52. 52.

    Nemesis

    February 20, 2012 at 12:04 pm

    I thought BeKKK had recently died in a fire ? Well, I stand corrected.

  53. 53.

    Betsy

    February 20, 2012 at 12:06 pm

    Is this the same Glenn Beck that wanted to outlaw a particular house of worship within a certain distance of the 9/11 site?

  54. 54.

    Nemesis

    February 20, 2012 at 12:09 pm

    @Smiling Mortician: I briefly saw said kerfuffle as possibly brilliant 11th demoensional chess from the WH by giving Frothy McMixMaster some much needed wind in his theocratic sails.

  55. 55.

    Rick Taylor

    February 20, 2012 at 12:12 pm

    The right wing is still having more success than I’d like keeping the matter framed as an issue of religious liberty, and whether Catholics ought to be required to fund icky things they don’t like. Birth control is part of this, but it’s really an attempt by Republicans to end Obama’s health care reform entirely. Once insurance companies are free not to supply any service they’re willing to say is morally objectionable, and once people are free not to buy any insurance they don’t care for, we’re back to the system we had before healthcare reform, with uninsured kids and people with pre-existing conditions unable to get coverage.

  56. 56.

    trollhattan

    February 20, 2012 at 12:20 pm

    Martin Luther wept.

  57. 57.

    Betsy

    February 20, 2012 at 12:20 pm

    @Rick Taylor: That’s right — this is all about kneecapping Obamacare.

    Since they can’t repeal it (and aren’t serious about replacing it), they’ll settle for a tactic that will (1) functionally eviscerate the ACA’s central mechanisms while (2) also supplying a handy rallying cry to get the culture warriors stirred up.

    Extra features: (3) it distracts from the economy, (4)favors corporate interests over those of workers, and (5) gets all up in between women’s legs at the same time!

    Sort of a quintifecta.

    It has the hallmarks of a Rovian origin, if you ask me.

  58. 58.

    RSA

    February 20, 2012 at 12:20 pm

    @CaptainFwiffo:

    Servitude and freedom are antonyms. This is basic fucking English.

    I’d also add that war is peace, ignorance is strength, and Glenn Beck is no George Orwell.

  59. 59.

    pseudonymous in nc

    February 20, 2012 at 12:26 pm

    As I said in the thread late last night, I can’t think of a better way to alienate rank-and-file Catholics than having non-Catholic nutjobs like Beck throw on a red beanie and declare solidarity with the hierarchy.

  60. 60.

    FlipYrWhig

    February 20, 2012 at 12:32 pm

    @Betsy: But, here’s the thing. We just don’t, as a nation, presume that _employers_ have “religious liberty” like this. We never have. It takes all of two seconds to think of infinitely many things you’d like to do in your life out of the grasp of your _employer’s_ religious and ethical views. Anyone on whom “religious liberty” framing works hasn’t thought it through for even those two seconds. Gaaaaahh.

  61. 61.

    Crenshaw

    February 20, 2012 at 12:33 pm

    It’s Sally’s Korner (of the post).

  62. 62.

    Nina

    February 20, 2012 at 12:33 pm

    The obvious solution would be to expand Title X birth control coverage to the whole country, then nobody’s churches would be paying for it.

    Problem solved.

  63. 63.

    Smiling Mortician

    February 20, 2012 at 12:35 pm

    @Nemesis: Yes, this scans better. Anything from the Romney camp would rather be XXth-dementia-nal chess.

  64. 64.

    WereBear

    February 20, 2012 at 1:00 pm

    I know they think the rallying cry will be “Religious Freedom!” which has enough resonance for a thousand blue-bottomed Mel Gibson clones.

    But once it gets sound-byted, it’s going to be “What’s all that about?” and the answer is “Birth control.”

    And please, people are so in favor of birth control…

  65. 65.

    Judas Escargot, Your Postmodern Neighbor

    February 20, 2012 at 1:15 pm

    If you can’t serve your God, you are not free

    Which implies that to be free, you must be a slave to God.

    So… freedom really is slavery!

  66. 66.

    jibeaux

    February 20, 2012 at 1:37 pm

    Do watch the “Really?! with Seth & Amy” bit from SNL. As someone else said upthread, the Huckster used it first.

  67. 67.

    Splitting Image

    February 20, 2012 at 1:42 pm

    Because the state is telling the Catholic Church to violate its principles and teachings. So if you are a person of faith, you must call yourself a Catholic.

    Strong words coming from a guy who once said that people should run away from a church that teaches social justice.

  68. 68.

    mdblanche

    February 20, 2012 at 1:49 pm

    @Ralph Wiggum:
    He has to keep up with changes in conservative fashion. Mormonism is out this month, Catholicism is in.

    @harlana:
    …and everybody hates the Jews.

  69. 69.

    Bruce S

    February 20, 2012 at 2:17 pm

    Via “Brilliant at Breakfast” we get a taste of Santorum in bed with the church to rip off the taxpayers and use his political leverage to acquire public assets at below-market-rates for the Bishops…

    http://motherjones.com/politics/2012/01/how-rick-santorum-ripped-off-american-military-veterans

  70. 70.

    Paul in KY

    February 20, 2012 at 2:20 pm

    @grass: They will call it ‘Curia Law’. Same thing, more or less.

  71. 71.

    gnomedad

    February 20, 2012 at 2:25 pm

    @Paul in KY:

    They will call it ‘Curia Law’. Same thing, more or less.

    Actually the RC Church calls it “Canon Law”, which is a shame, because “Curia Law” would rhyme.

  72. 72.

    Paul in KY

    February 20, 2012 at 2:58 pm

    @gnomedad: Maybe we should copyright it?

  73. 73.

    jimmiraybob

    February 20, 2012 at 3:14 pm

    This is why the Auto-da-fé followed by a good roasting was not just fun and good family entertainment, it also offered clarification and education. This kind of confusion would not have been tolerated in a properly ordered Medieval Catholic community. Damned secularists ruined everything. Damned Muslim Atheist Deist Obama bin Kenyan, also too. And Protestant heretics. And witches.

  74. 74.

    Mnemosyne

    February 20, 2012 at 3:43 pm

    By the way, if any evangelicals solemnly tell you that being anti-abortion is an ancient and Biblical belief, they’re full of shit:

    The ‘biblical view’ that’s younger than the Happy Meal

    It’s pretty funny how fundie Protestants still talk about Catholics not being “real” Christians and yet they have wholeheartedly adopted the non-Biblical position of the Catholic Church that abortion is bad. Go figure.

  75. 75.

    Linda

    February 20, 2012 at 4:05 pm

    Um, if by that he means “most of us will use artificial birth control and quietly flip off bossy church leaders,” then he is on the money. We ARE all Catholics.

  76. 76.

    Ron

    February 20, 2012 at 4:08 pm

    Every time I hear this now I hear Seth Meyers saying “You know who aren’t all Catholics now? All Catholics!”

  77. 77.

    Nutella

    February 20, 2012 at 4:17 pm

    @trollhattan:

    Martin Luther wept.

    This made me laugh out loud. Thanks, trollhattan.

  78. 78.

    Nutella

    February 20, 2012 at 4:58 pm

    An excellent Monday: I laughed out loud again when I saw this. It’s the picture that does it.

  79. 79.

    SBJules

    February 20, 2012 at 10:09 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: So Glen isn’t going to vote for the Mormon candidate?

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