Category: Glenn Beck

Glenn Beck Criticizing George Soros? Beck’s a Jew-Hater, Says Media Matters

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Sammy Benoit at Yid With Lid disassembles the latest product from the Smear Factory.

Somebody needs to research whether Media Matters rang the anti-Semitism bell when the Left was routinely accusing the Bush administration of being controlled by a sinister cabal of Zionist neo-cons.

Better yet: Why wasn’t it Jew-hating when Media Matters was going after Pamela Geller? (Twenty-one hit pieces in September alone.)

Remember that it is wrong to accuse liberals of not having standards. They have exactly two standards: One for them, and one for everybody else.

UPDATE: Commenter Joe in the previous post links to Jeff Goldstein’s mocking link to a post by Professor Bainbridge telling us that the problem with the conservative movement is . . . Sarah Palin, Jim DeMint, Mark Levin and Dan Riehl?

Somehow, I’m thinking that the ghost of Russell Kirk might object to being invoked in support of that argument. And, relevantly, is Professor Bainbridge ignoring the charge of anti-Semitism against Kirk?

“And not seldom it has seemed as if some eminent Neoconservatives mistook Tel Aviv for the capital of the United States — a position they will have difficulty in maintaining, as matters drift in the Levant.”

Just kidding. I’m not going to do the full-on Media Matters guilt-by-association smear on Professor Bainbridge. Rather, I’m trying to point out that this argumentum ad verecundiam trick of invoking Famous Dead Conservatives to condemn Famous (or Semi-Famous) Living Conservatives is generally invalid — mainly because the Famous Dead Conservatives you cite were, in their time, denounced by their enemies as hateful Know-Nothings.

Trying to use Mark Levin as Exhibit A in an indictment of anti-intellectual populism is likely to prove a difficult project: He’s Phi Beta Kappa and a magna cum laude graduate of Temple University.

UPDATE II: Mess with the bull, you get the horns:

I cite to several intellectuals in Liberty and Tyranny. [Professor Bainbridge] quotes Russell Kirk. I am a big fan of Kirk’s. I even cite him in my book, which the professor clearly has not read. I also cite Tocqueville, Locke, Montesquieu, Smith, Lewis, Friedman, and many others. Somehow I missed the professor. Does that sound like an anti-intellectual? And I routinely do the same on the air.
I don’t cite Bainbridge in anything I do because he is sadly inconsequential. . . . His influence, intellectual or otherwise, appears minimal in academia or elsewhere. I’m sure he’s a smart guy. He might even be likeable. But who knows? Who even cares?

Levin links to Bryan Preston’s fisking of David Frum:

When the Democrats all but locked Republicans out of the health care bill negotiations, Frum denounced . . . the Republicans, for not “compromising.” When the Democrats passed that bill over the objections of the majority of the people, Frum denounced. . . the Republicans. Now that the Republicans have won big over the Democrats, here comes Frum to denounce . . . the Republicans. Seeing a pattern in any of this?

You Should’ve Listened to Glenn Beck

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Back in May, Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) made himself political point-man for a left-wing attack on Goldline — which just coincidentally happens to be one of Glenn Beck’s few remaining advertisers. (Beck’s show is the No. 1 cable news program in its time slot, but has lost advertising revenue because of the Left’s vitriolic boycott campaign.)

Weiner said that Goldline “takes advantage of fears about President Barack Obama’s stewardship of the economy — which are stoked by its stable of paid conservative endorsers including Beck, Mark Levin, Laura Ingraham and Fred Thompson — ‘to cheat consumers.'”

What Weiner and his allies on the Left were saying is that, because Goldline advertised on Beck, it was wrong for Beck to tell his viewers that gold is a wise investment in a time of economic instability. But I advised:

Everybody Should Buy Gold, Even If
Glenn Beck Gets Paid to Tell You So

Gold was then selling at $1,192 an ounce. And now? How does $1,399 an ounce sound to you?

So if you had listened to Glenn Beck and bought gold in May — when Anthony Weiner was telling you that Beck was part of a scheme “to cheat consumers” — your investment would have made you a profit of 17.4% in six months. And check out the news today:

Gold gained in New York as European debt concerns spurred demand for a protection of wealth and as faster inflation in China boosted demand for commodities.
Gold futures climbed to a record $1,424.30 an ounce on Nov. 9 on concern that some European governments may struggle to raise funds. Portuguese and Spanish government bonds declined on mounting concern that nations on Europe’s periphery will be forced to restructure their debt. All six main industrial metals on the London Metal Exchange gained after China’s inflation reached a two-year high.
“The re-emergence of sovereign risk should ultimately help the yellow metal,” Edel Tully, an analyst at UBS AG in London, said in a report. “Rising inflation is one of the single biggest factors driving China’s appetite for gold.”

Did you catch that? Now the Chinese are buying gold.

Maybe they’re watching Glenn Beck in Beijing.

UPDATE: Malice or incompetence? “It’s almost as if the Feds are purposely trying to destroy our currency. That, or they have no clue what they’re doing.”

UPDATE II: Five weeks ago, I suggested that rising stock market indexes were actually a reflection of inflation: Stocks were going up in dollar amounts, because the dollar was losing value. Now, via Instapundit:

“By pushing the dollar down 15%, the Fed managed to goose the S&P 500 by 19% since June 1. Stated that way, the leap in stocks can be seen as mostly the result of the Fed’s eradication of the dollar’s purchasing power. Priced in wheat, which has soared 71% since June, then the U.S. stock market has woefully underperformed.”

In the long run, markets cannot be deceived.

UPDATE: Welcome, Ace of Spades HQ Morons. And I mean “moron” as a compliment, having done quite a bit of commenting there over the years, occasionally under such pseudonyms as “Chuck Norris’ Left Testicle.”

This Is Exactly The Kind Of Sophomoric Stuff We Don’t Need

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by Smitty (h/t Tabitha on Twitter)

Just because conservatives did well Tuesday, there is no need for foolish triumphalism. We shouldn’t just go on an on about the trophies.
And, really, isn’t all the taunting laughter beneath the dignity of our political process? How are we going to find common ground; moderate; achieve consensus; restore dignity; feel classically liberal; carry on proud traditions, and engage in mellifluous pettifoggery amidst these antics, I ask. Click to view:

This blog officially decrys these three hooligans and their immature acts, issues a stern ‘tut tut’ and a three second wave of the extended index finger in their general direction.

Gay Tea Party Activist Bruce Majors: ‘It’s a Full-Time Job Being a Celebrity Racist’

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Last week, a D.C. guide for out-of-towners attending the Restoring Honor rally was seized upon by the Left as evidence of Tea Party bigotry because it advised visitors to stick to the touristy parts of town, et cetera. Rachel Maddow got all snarky about it:

Here’s your first ironic denouement: The guy who wrote the Tea Party Guide to D.C. is a gay guy who has donated thousands of dollars to Democrats:

Eugene Robinson, a columnist for The Washington Post, accused Majors of “scaring white people.” DC Representative Eleanor Holmes Norton called the post “worrisome” and said she feared it would inflame racial tensions.
Majors, who says he aspires to be “the gay, slightly more libertarian Ann Coulter,” clearly relishes the attention. Upbeat and talkative, he sports a mischievous grin that refuses to fade.
“It’s a full-time job being a celebrity racist,” he says as he walks through the crowd at the National Mall. “I need a personal assistant.”

OK, so that’s your first ironic denouement. And the second?

Yeah, Bruce Majors is a friend of mine. I’m sure he’ll put that character reference on his résumé.

UPDATE: Noel Sheppard at Newsbusters has a transcript of Maddow’s segment, as well as for another segment by Chris Matthews on the same topic. And apparently none of MSNBC’s journalistic geniuses ever thought to do a simple online search of the FEC records for Bruce Majors.

“Too good to check,” et cetera.

After A Brief ‘Reagan Tribute’ On
The Couch, Thoughts Return To
‘Restoring Honor’

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by Smitty

First, one should offer some shouts to fellow bloggers:

  • Sorry to the TD of the Washington Rebel that my phone battery ran out, and we couldn’t get back together. The informal gathering at the Army and Navy Club with Wombat Rampant, which transitioned to the ever-tasty Shelly’s Backroom, and a conversation that we should have recorded for a podcast. Truly great Americans, those two.
  • Thanks to Dave C for the lift. He ignored every bit of my advice, with great results. Possibly, arriving an hour earlier would have been better, but we didn’t dare hope the event would be that well attended. His ‘future-swimmer’ daughter (he’ll have to explain), however, needs to be kept a safe distance from Stacy’s youngest, as that much cute in a small area could lead to a cuteness singularity. Safety, people.
  • After the event we wound up across the street from Shelly’s at the National Press Food Court, where we met Adam Brickley of Draft Sarah Palin fame. Yet another podcast-worthy gumflap ensued. Until we get our techno act together, your attention is drawn to The Delivery. Back to lunch, Adam pointed out that the Special Operations Warrior Fund raised North of $5 million, and that the amount raised via texting could help estimate crowd size, at least for establishing a lower bound.

Around the blogosphere, Continue reading After A Brief ‘Reagan Tribute’ On
The Couch, Thoughts Return To
‘Restoring Honor’ →

Sarah Palin at Restoring Honor Rally

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The world’s biggest Facebook page provides full text of her speech at Glenn Beck’s event in Washington, D.C.:

In cities and towns across our country, you’ll find monuments to brave Americans wearing the uniforms of wars from long ago, and look down at their inscriptions, you’ll see that they were so often dedicated by mothers. In distant lands across the globe, you’ll find silent fields of white markers with the names of Americans who never came home, but who showed their dedication to their country by where they died.
We honor those who served something greater than self and made the ultimate sacrifice, as well as those who served and did come home forever changed by the battlefield. Though this rally is about “restoring honor,” for these men and women honor was never lost! If you look for the virtues that have sustained our country, you will find them in those who wear the uniform, who take the oath, who pay the price for our freedom. . . .

Read the whole thing — a welcome antidote to that SEIU thug who said the thousands of peaceful citizens who turned out for Beck’s rally “represent hate-mongering and angry white people.”

UPDATE: Sissy Willis has some relevant thoughts on Obama’s “Hellenistic hubris” and links Melissa Clouthier:

Lots of people, hundreds of thousands of them showed up for the Restoring Honor rally at the Lincoln Memorial. The bitter clingers keep showing up.

“Bitter clingers of America, unite!”

UPDATE II: Smitty was in attendance at the rally, and I’m sure he’ll have more to report if he ever makes it back home. Meanwhile, Instapundit rounds up the crowd estimates — it seems that 300,000 is the, er, conservative estimate — and quotes a reader’s e-mail:

In other words, Glenn Beck’s rally drew more people than Keith Olbermann has viewers.

Wonder how many would turn out for a Keith Olberman rally? He could call it “Restoring Unpopularity.”

UPDATE III: Looks like Dave C. from Point of a Gun car-pooled with Admiral Smith:

Smitty and I arrived right when the rally started and couldn’t crowd our way up more than halfway up along the Reflecting Pool. Those press credentials I printed out myself could only get so far.

Doggone it, guys, if I could have been there — $678! — we would have been chilling backstage with Glenn and Sarah.

Obviously, I need to start teaching seminars on how to b.s. your way past security: First, always wear a sports coat and a shirt with a collar.

Forget about comfort. If you’ve got an official full-access credential, you can dress like a fat tourist on vacation, but otherwise, it’s important to look like a legitimate member of the working press. And nothing says “legit” like a sports coat and button-down oxford.

Remember: There is no law against impersonating a journalist.

UPDATE IV: “Bummer about that turnout, Al.”

UPDATE V: Jimmie Bise Jr. links reports from Smitty and many other bloggers who attended:

I prefer to get my news from people who were at the rally, instead of those who carp and snark from the sidelines.

Word.

Restoring Honor: Thank You, Warriors

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by Smitty

REFLECTING POOL, WASHINGTON, DC–It’s an hour into the Restoring Honor event. What a great undertaking. This is a great exercise in American Exceptionalism. Beck’s religiosity is right out front, but mostly ecumenical. While no mention is made of anyone in office, one wonders if the monitors carry the word ‘Faith’ to nearby residences, whether or not their occupants are on holiday.
The focus is on the troops. Sarah Palin offered introductions and anecdotes about several Veteran attendees including one Hanoi Hilton alumnus. If I may use the ‘P’ word, she sounded quite. . .poised, for all the stories were heart-rending.
Beck had started the ceremony by noting that the Media had called and estimated the attendance at 1,000. Here is a quick crowd pan, so that you can judge for your self what an exaggerating fibber that notorious Beck is:

Here was a shot walking toward the event:
Guessing that George Washington would have approved.
Even though the event is deliberately apolitical, let us not be coy: it was apolitical in that parties and names younger than Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. were left out, but the timing/location/choice of material Speak Volumes.
The event rolled along somewhat awkwardly, going from the military focus to Dr. King’s niece, who gave great speech, in my opinion.
I was shuffling out as Beck came back on to attempt a synthesis of the two strains of thought, using the Gettysburg address as a vehicle. I thought it a fine effort; Beck put MLK’s peaceful legacy alongside the warrior legacy of the monuments all stood among, and both were shown to point to the founding ideas of the country.
Then he made it personal, by refusing to admit a distance between the individuals in the crowd and the names crowding the history books. We must each step up to the plate in our own way to keep those founding ideas alive.
Thank you, Glenn.