Glenn Beck rewrites civil rights history (and regular history, too--but it's his effect that is the most scary)

Does this freak anyone else out as much as it does me?

They see studying U.S. history as a powerful reconnection with their youth. Waiting for Beck’s “American Revival” show in Orlando, Florida, in March, 70-year-old fan Joseph Cerniglia told me he was way too busy for civics lessons when he was raising kids and working as a stockbroker and then cider-maker. “I have learned more from Glenn Beck — learned more about American history and government, from Glenn Beck — than in the previous 40 years of my life,” the retiree told me.

via cnn.com

That last bit is NOTHING TO BRAG ABOUT, SIR.   Don’t get your information from a single person: ESPECIALLY GLENN BACK. The moron doesn’t know how to spell “oligarchy” for crying out loud!!

The “they” mentioned in the above quote from the Will Bunch opinion piece at CNN.com refers to followers of Glenn Beck—mostly retired, mostly with loads of time on their hands to “re-learn history”. Of course, as Bunch points out, they’re getting it entirely wrong.

And that’s what is more scary than everyone listening to this wind-bag (and the very first EFFYOU recipient from my site effyou.org). See, they’re not only listening to his every word but learning from them, too—it’s amazing what you can do with the power of fear. And it’s the incorrect information that they are learning that is the scariest part of all of this.

When you’re inaccurate, the sky is the limit for how bad you can screw things up. And these fools think Beck is 100% trustworthy.

Let me tell you—history books aren’t 100% trustworthy.

I hope, at Beck’s little MLK rip-off event this weekend, Beck comes out of the closet and admits he’s just been playing everyone all this time.

I would breathe a sigh of relief if that happened…

And don’t forget, when Beck quotes Thomas Paine, he’s quoting a guy who thinks all religions are a crock.

All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions, set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit.
— Thomas Paine, (1737-1809), The Age of Reason

Good stuff…

Read more Thomas Paine quotes and see how much Beck ignores so that Paine can fit Beck’s narrative.

Guy who pissed off the USG wanted for rape for all of 30 seconds, but we'll never hear the end of it

coalspeaker:

“WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange “no longer wanted” and not a rape suspect, Swedish prosecutor says on website”

— Huh?? .. CNN headline .. Confusing day..

Confusing day? Confusing MORNING. That’s how fast this story broke and unbroke—for me, anyway.

I woke up to this story this morning and since I woke up early, I took a nap and when I woke up, the arrest warrant had been dropped.

This is one of those ridiculous stories that pops up, distracts the crap out of us for days or weeks and then goes away forever. Sure, it’s already obvious the charges had no connection to reality, but will that stop TV’s idiot-pundits and repulsive Republicans from casting aspersions on Assange for the next week or two just to give their True Believers something to be hateful of?

I always wonder about these sorts of “Flash in the Pan” “news” stories.  They always seem so incredibly concocted and contrived that I imagine they were completely planned in order to distract from some other story that someone doesn’t want getting out.  Sure, it’s just my imagination, but these stupid stories come up and even though they’re obviously useless, the Mainstream Media makes sure that they’ll distract us for several days.  What are we missing in the meantime?  Even if this Assange/rape story wasn’t cointelpro by the USG, the time lost to this story will cost other stories face time.  What if one of those other stories was really important?

Thanks to our wonderful newsmedia of shitheads, we may never know.

It’s not like this is the first time a story like this has come along, either.  Remember that time that creepy dude claimed to be the murderer of JonBennet Ramsey?  It was fodder for all the headlines for about a week.  If you believe the MSM, everyone wanted to hear about this transgendered guy in Asia who had suddenly decided to admit his guilt. Then, as quickly as he had appeared on the national scene, he was gone.

While I don’t imagine Assange will disappear as that creepy dude has, I believe these accusations will hang around for a week or two and then disappear—just long enough to serve as another useless distraction.

it’s like a pop-up on my computer asking me some irrelevant question I don’t really care about.

Um, I think someone's a little fuzzy on the definition of "failure"....

poptech:

“There is no failure for the man who realizes his power, who never knows when he is beaten; there is no failure for the determined endeavor; the unconquerable will. There is no failure for the man who gets up every time he falls, who rebounds like a rubber ball, who persists when everyone else gives up, who pushes on when everyone else turns back.”

—

Orison Swett Marden

That’s great for a greeting card (though a little long), but for the real world, failure is always an option.  And, really, in most cases you can’t have success without failure.  Pretending “The Indominable Human Spirit™” is somehow all-powerful is to live in a fool’s paradise.

And YES, it still counts as a failure if you fail once and succeed the next time you try.

Why? Because when you fail, you learn.  If you get it right the first time you don’t need to learn more. Therefore, you’re not as prepared for future problems.

Failure is also an important part of humility and confidence.  If you never fail, you think you can do anything.  Which is great until you run into something you truly can’t handle. Which is no big deal, unless you’re risking other people’s time, effort, money, livelihood or their lives.

This kind of “never say die” attitude also forgets the sacrifices that are often required along the path to success.  It speaks nothing of the friends lost along the way, or the loves lost.  It ignores a basic human need—to *be* human.  You know what I mean—when you’re so busy working your ass off that you realize it’s been months since you’ve just sat and read a book or watched a TV show, or had quiet time with a loved one.  You find yourself working so hard that you discover you’ve forgotten a good chunk of what makes life worth living: pleasure, joy, learning.  One time I had a very quick deadline—I worked my ass off and had a medical issue come up in the middle of the project.  It suddenly became an issue of taking care of myself or finishing my play. So, I finished the play and risked my health.  Luckily, I got better on my own (I didn’t have insurance, so there’s not much I could have done about it, anyway).

Speaking of health, there’s also the reality of fate.

What do you do when you work your ass off your entire life on something only to see it wiped away by an earthquake, a hurricane or some other natural disaster? What if you get cancer?  How do you “get back up” after you die of cancer?

Suddenly, the advice “NEVER GIVE UP!” means exactly nothing.

Backing away from that, what if someone just wants to be a dick to you?

We all want to feel so powerful—like we can do anything we set our minds to.  For some of us, it’s downright debilitating.  We sacrifice so much because we are raised to think anything was possible.  We shun friends, family, loves, and just focus on our goals and dreams, thus sacrificing much of what our lives seem to be meant for.  And for what?

Well, look around you, kids!  We can fail at plenty.

Hell, we can’t even get along with our neighbors these days because we’re too busy sticking our nose in their business—worried about what sexual/political/religious orientation they are, rather then just trying to learn from them and help them learn from you.

No, the only true path to success is failure, preparation and luck.  You need the first to get to the second and that is only worth it if you trip over the third and only then are you good to go.

The vast majority of people are not “successful” the way most of society seems to define it.

Of course, every one’s life is littered with failures and successes depending on how you define both words.  So… ignore everything I just said! ;)

“The global warming people essentially are atheists. You cannot believe in the God of Creation and believe manmade global warming.  You just can’t.  You might run around and say, ‘I don’t want to destroy God’s creation.’  God’s laughing at you.”

(via teapartyjesus)

That quote comes from Rush Limbaugh’s show.

Did Rush Limbaugh just use the word “atheist” as an insult?

WTF, so now you can be bigoted toward people who don’t believe anything?  WTF, Rush? You white guys are getting pretty effin’ big for your britches!

If you click through to read the full transcript of Rush’s show, you’ll see that it’s basically a giant tirade against atheists.  Funny how when we atheists bag on Christians they are oppressed.  Meanwhile, it’s OK to accuse us of trying to destroy all religion.  How can a group of people, in the minority, wipe out all of religion?

So, what are ya whining about, Rush? Ya big baby!  Try pushing yourself a little and earn that money you’re getting paid—lazy bastard!  Atheists are easy targets and we’re universally loathed by most of the religious types your knee-jerky commentary appeals to.  Find a real threat to your way of life—go after the TRUTH.

No, I’m serious—it’s facts that want to take you down, Rush.  Better discredit the very concept of truth because anyone who uses it against you wins every time.