Monday, April 21, 2008

Glenn Beck and my Leg

Maybe I'll start with my leg... You may recall that 2 weeks ago, I screwed up my knee and went in to see the doctor about it. It turned out to be IBS, which just needed a little rest. I've taken it easy for 2 weeks, and done 90% of what they've told me too - I missed a little stretching here and there, and some of the Ibuprofen doses as well.

He told me to take 1 week off. I almost did 2, just to be sure. Saturday I went down to St. George for a triathlon. I had a phenomenal swim, and excellent bike section, but as I ran my bike in, and started my run, things went awry. At first it was just that I forgot to remove my bike helmet - DOH!!, but then it became apparent that my leg is truly messed up. I got my worst 5k time of the last year, mostly because I walked half of it.

When I was done, I did get my best Sprint Triathlon time ever, but it was a lot slower than I had hoped. My moping only served to annoy the missus too.

Saturday was OK, Sunday was a little stiff, and today I'm back to where I was when I saw the doctor. I'm going to give it a week, and if that doesn't work, I'm going to see if I can talk the doc into a cortizone shot. 4 weeks till the half marathon, and I can't even jog for more than a couple of seconds. This is not looking good.

Now onto Mr. Beck. I used to listen to him, he's conservative, but I then I used to be as well. I really like his honest and often humorous approach to current events, so much so that last year I subscribed to his magazine and even bought a T-shirt promoting his radio station - The Frog 109.9. (If you want to send me a comment explaining how that last thing mist be wrong, because you miss the fact that it's a joke, you should probably be reading a different blog....)

He used to share how some years back his show got very political and his ratings actually dropped, once he got back to humorous stuff however, then his ratings went up again.

I haven't listened to him for almost a year now, and here's why... You'd think he'd have learned from the past.

* With election 2008 approaching, he has decided that Barrack Obama is the anti-Christ.

* He criticizes the Democratic party for vilifying republicans (Apparently anti-Christ is actually a term of endearment?)

Edited to add: It would appear that Glenn may not have referred to Barrack Obama as the Anti-Christ. I deleted the email where I got the impression that he had, so I cannot prove it one way or the other. The fact that it did not surprize me that he may have referred to him in that way, does say something for the way in which he portrays candidates who do not agree with him.

* He didn't like Jon McCain because he wasn't conservative enough, but when given the opportunity to even speak to Ron Paul, he attacked the man about as badly as he's attacking Obama. Ron Paul is probably 90% inline with what I thought Glenn believed - apparently not though.

* He now appears to love Jon McCain. He did this same switch-a-roo with Romney. Glenn is a mormon, Romney is a mormon. I didn't like Romney in spite of his being a mormon. Glenn said he wouldn't back him just for that reason, but yet, after being invited to Romney's big, I'm a mormon speech, Glenn fell in love with him...

I could go on for hours, but I'll spare you that. I think Glenn has lost touch with his audience, at least with me. I liked funny honest Glenn, not grouchy, tow the party line Glenn.

Edited to add as well: I took some flak for the comment above. Apparently some bloggers feel that I need to source any claims made in my blog - Hey, my opinion, my blog and you are free to disagree!! While Mr. Beck does not claim to be a Republican, or back up the President in everything, I do feel that he feels beholden to some of the ideologies of the Republican Party. This is my opinion. I formed it while listening to Glenn for many years, and then listening to him discuss Ron Paul, a man who I felt was 90% in line with Glenn, and not give him any support at all. Again this is my opinion of Mr. Beck based on my impressions over time.

Glenn doesn't like Jesse Ventura either. Jesse Ventura who is not a career politician, who get borders security and who was a Navy Seal, but suspects that all may not be right with the current war mongering administration. I think I trust his judgement more than I would most other people. Here's a man who life depending on his instincts and doesn't spew fear everywhere. He and Glenn probably agree on 90% of policies too, but rather than back him, Glenn gets upset, and so now America gets to choose between war mongering Jon "the Flip flopping geriatric" McCain, Barrack "I like him, but he's a little too Marxist for me" Obama, and Hillary "Whiny and ineffective" Clinton.

Is it really a choice when you can only pick amongst the bad?

Oh - and if anyone would like to be a guest blogger and write up a piece on why any of these guys or girls would be a good choice, I'd be happy to have you! The only rules being, honesty and a little humor.

2 comments:

  1. Beck didn't call Obama the anti-Christ.

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  2. It would appear that he did not, but did he bring the topic up on his show? Yes. For the comedic aspect apparently, but he still brought it up.

    Did some listeners get the impression that he may have said this? Yes, they were obviously mistaken, but they still got that impression. I'm no longer a frequent listener or reader, but I got the impression that he had said this from listening to Glenn himself, not the liberal media. Perhaps I turned the radio over to the music station before he got to the punch line.

    Did it surprize me when I thought he had made this claim? No, not really.

    Were the media right in twisting his words to make it appear that he had made this claim. Definitely Not.

    Does Glenn take peoples words out of context and use them against them in a similar fashion. It is my opinion that at times he has. Perhaps not to this extent, but he does use peoples words against them. Sadly little mistakes are no longer acceptable when you're in the public eye.

    I don't think Glenn is a bad guy, but I don't think Barrack Obama is bad either. I may not agree with them on everything, but I think they both have the best of intentions, they just differ in how they plan on making the world a better place.

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