Glenn Beck
Wisconsin As Egypt
The labor fight in Wisconsin may appear divisive, but fortunately, both sides can agree on the metaphor and who represents which side: Representative Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, the Republican chairman of the budget committee in the House, said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that “It’s like Cairo has moved to Madison these days.” ... Former Representative David Obey of Wisconsin on Thursday accused Mr.
Come Back, Zinc! Come Back!
I am a zinc fan. Glenn Beck is into gold, and I am into zinc. (Perhaps there's something about being a political pundit that naturally lends itself to a fascination with one of the inert metals.) I used to pop zinc lozenges obsessively at the first sign of a cold. Later I discovered zinc nasal swabs -- a colleague and I used to study the chart on the Zicam box showing the supposed dramatic severity and duration of cold symptoms experienced by users of its product. I evangelized for the use of zinc and became a bit of a zinc bore.
Conservatives Choose Between Kristol And Beck
Media Matters asks various right-wingers what they think of the Bill Kristol/Glenn Beck contretemps over whether President Obama has been fomenting revolt in Egypt because he is a closet Islamist. (Beck says yes, Kristol says no.) My favorite interviews are former SNL star turned Tea party fixture Victoria Jackson: ...and Wall Street Journal editorial writer Stephen Moore:
In the Belly of the Beast
While the speeches by various conservative bigwigs at the annual CPAC conference in Washington, D.C., are always fun—who doesn’t love listening to Ron Paul rail against foreign aid or Mitt Romney explain that, unlike Barack Obama, he wouldn’t need to ask his Treasury Secretary for economic advice?—that’s not all that's on offer. Down in the basement of the Marriott Wardman Park is a convention hall lined with various groups hawking pamphlets and piles of swag.
Fox’s Egypt Problem
When the protests in Egypt began last week, it did not take long for conservative pundits to sound the alarmist warning bell. Fox digital politics editor Chris Stirewalt cautioned on Special Report with Bret Baier, “If this is directed toward retrenchment of the Islamic forces, it could be difficult period for [the] Middle East.” Glenn Beck declared himself “no fan of Mubarak,” but warned, “God help [the police] if Egypt falls. God help them.” This reaction wasn’t completely predictable.
Angry Fox Geezer Syndrome
A Frum Forum writer notes an interesting trend: People who find their parents are watching Fox News and losing their minds. To wit: Over the past couple of years, I’ve been keeping track of a trend among friends around my age (late thirties to mid-forties). Eight of us (so far) share something in common besides our conservatism: a deep frustration over how our parents have become impossible to take on the subject of politics.
Frances Fox Piven, Jim Sleeper, and Me
A point of order. I have written, often, that Columbia social work professors Frances Fox Piven and Richard Cloward (who were married) wreaked havoc on poor black communities in the sixties by openly calling on poor blacks to seek welfare payments rather than work. The story is simple and sad. Early last year I told it thusly in these pages, and see no reason not to simply present exactly what I wrote then. To wit, Piven and Cloward hoped that this would bankrupt the government and force a complete overhaul of our distribution of income.
The Legacy of Larry King and Oprah
The end of Larry King Live, after 50 years and a steep drop in ratings, was inevitable in a cable news climate that values mindless partisanship over mindless nonpartisanship. In contrast to the likes of MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann and Fox’s Glenn Beck, CNN’s middle-of-the-road tack was flailing. King’s farewell aptly coincided with the end of another institution in softball interviewing: The Oprah Winfrey Show, that stronghold of cheery neutrality and generic goodwill.
What If Barbara Jordan Had Said 'Don't Retreat, Reload'?
Does anybody truly believe, even in the wake of something as hideous as what happened in Tucson last weekend, that we can do something as quixotic and indefinable as policing incendiary language on the web? I get it if calling for this is about politics. But is anybody really thinking that this debate is about something real? The object of discussion is real enough: the coarser brand of language we hear along the lines of Ms. Palin’s “Don’t retreat, reload” line, which is a symptom of a larger ill, the escalation of political polarization.
The Silence of Godly Liberals
It would be a fine thing if Democrats took the advice of TNR’s Tiffany Stanley and spent more energy trying to win religious voters away from the GOP. But she misunderstands why their recent efforts to do so have mostly failed. One of the glories of religion in the United States is that, since the early nineteenth century, it has been a ferociously democratic enterprise: Pious Americans are free to join any of the dozens of faiths on offer, none of which is beholden to secular authorities for either financing or legitimacy.
