People think the fuel-air bomb is a horrible device. The fuel-air bomb is the best device!
-Glenn Beck
Kill 'em.
That’s right.
That should be our motto: Kill ‘em all and trust in God to sort it out. Booyah, Baby, America!
But, hey, "pro-life," right?
Jesus, right?
Abortion, that’s immoral, but vaporizing us some brown people, well, that’s a whole different thing. Sure, God loves that. The moral high road, that’s us, we’re the good guys. Sure we are.
Kill ‘em, kill ‘em all, that’s what Glenn Beck says.
What?
Oh, you’re shocked, are you? Surprised? Boggled that yet another cowardly conservative warmongering chickenhawk who never served not a single day in his life declares himself an expert on military strategy?
Yeah, me too. This is my surprised face, right here.
Last night on his show, Glenn Beck outlined his brilliant idea for defeating the Islamic State in Syria. It’s simple really, instead of showering them with “flowers and cupcakes,” like Obama, we BOMB 'EM, see? Bomb 'em all!
General Beck says America should just "go in there and you blitzkrieg, you wipe it out."
Blitzkrieg.
Just wipe 'em out.
Exterminate 'em. Genocide. Kill ‘em all. And God bless Der Vaterland America!
You know as long as we're using Nazi terminology anyway, maybe we could just form them all into a line in front of a mass grave and machinegun them. What? I’m just saying, for efficiency’s sake.
Oooooh, I know, how about gas chambers? Huh? Huh? That’s the ticket!
Glenn Beck, he wants to drop fuel-air bombs on Islam.
Fuel-air bombs are a type of incredibly powerful thermobaric explosive. Basically the way this works is first a large volume of vaporized liquid explosive is dispersed (usually by a propelling charge) over a large area and mixes with atmospheric oxygen. That explosive cloud settles into and around structures, armor, equipment, crowds, cities, tunnels, and so on and when it reaches the correct density and saturation point an ignition charge provides the spark for detonation.
The resulting explosion is massive.
In some cases a fuel air explosive (FAE) can compare directly to the yield of a tactical nuclear device in the fractional kiloton range.
What kills is the high order, high speed blast (pressure) wave followed immediately by rarefaction – a high grade vacuum and oxygen depletion which ruptures the lungs – over a very large area. The more enclosed the space, the more confined the blast, the worse the effects. Those closest to the blast are literally vaporized. Those further away are first burned and then pulverized by the blast wave and then suffocated. If you survive, you can expect blindness via corneal damage and blast detached retinas, ruptured ear drums, massive internal injuries to include ruptured lungs and internal organs (or pulmonary edema from breathing in the toxic explosive mixture, which is a lot like like sucking gasoline into your lungs), and, of course, our old friend, the Traumatic Brain Injury.
Glenn Beck wants to start dropping these things on ISIS.
Because Beck, you see, he’s an expert. Oh yes, his extensive military training, his twenty years of experience in counter-insurgency tactics, his decades in uniform, his many years on battlefields from Cambodia to Iran, and his shiny Master's Degree in Strategic Planning from the War College make him an expert.
What?
What’s that?
Oh.
Well, maybe he read about fuel-air bombs in a Tom Clancy novel which is basically the same thing as actual experience and education.
No, really. You want brain surgery? You see a brain surgeon. You want to fly an airliner? You call a pilot. You want to go to the moon? You’re gonna need a rocket scientist. But war? Fuck, anybody can do that. There’s nothing complicated about it. You don’t need no training, no experience, no specialized education. Anybody can be a general, sure. Sure. It worked for Saddam, didn’t it?
Blitzkrieg, baby, kill ‘em all.
Beck wants to drop these things on ISIS, see? And then Flash! Bang! Whamo! All the bad guys are vaporized. Easy peasy.
You again? What is it now?
Oh, collateral damage? Women and children and old people and non-combatants? What about them? We’re dropping weapons that are equivalent to small nukes, what about the people we’re supposedly trying to save?
Well, you know what? Fuck 'em! That’s right, fuck ‘em. Burn 'em all. Blitzkrieg. Just wipe 'em out! Because yeah, that’ll teach ‘em. That’ll win those hearts and minds. You bet. Kill women and children and old people and kill their pets and burn their goddamned shitty country to the ground! Because, yeah, that won’t create hate and resentment and a burning desire to strike back. No, no. That won’t spawn terrorists whole cloth from the rubble. Nooooo. Of course not. Why they’ll be so cowed they’ll never come after us. On our own turf. No. Revenge? Whaaaat? C’mon.
Beside. If they do? Well, we’ll bomb ‘em some more!
"That's what has to happen to win a war. You suck the air out the room, you make your opponent gasp. We're not prepared to do that, so you cannot fight this war until you're prepared to be brutal in killing people. Period."
That's what happens in war, says Glenn Beck.
You gotta suck the air out of the room.
You gotta be brutal, Folks. That's what the good guys do. Brutal, see? Suck the air out of the room, kill 'em all. And, Boy, I guess old Glenn would know, wouldn't he? What with all his medals and years of service in uniform and all.
Right.
Right.
This simplistic horseshit is just so typical of these people. Bomb 'em, bomb 'em all. That'll teach 'em. That'll make 'em roll over. Bomb 'em, see? Scorched earth. Reduce their land to burning rubble, glass ashtrays, and just walk away, fuck 'em. Fuck. Them. Might makes right. That'll get rid of the insurgents. That'll get rid of the terrorists. That'll teach 'em not to mess with the US, Buddy Boy. Brutality, man, that's the key.
Didn't work for us in Korea.
Damned if it didn't work for us in Vietnam.
Didn't work in Somalia.
Didn't work in Iraq.
Sure didn't work for the brutal Soviets in Afghanistan where the Russians actually did use massive Fuel-Air Explosives – didn't work for us either.
Remind me, how did being "brutal in killing people" work out for Saddam? For Gaddafi? For Asad? For Hitler?
But, Glenn Beck, right? Let's listen to him.
Pro-life my ass.
Party of morality, my ass.
Party of Christ, my ass.
Excellent
ReplyDeleteDitto!!
DeleteSurprised face, indeed.
ReplyDeleteFuck 'em, they ARE dangerous. They've risen from nowhere on the back of violence, forcing their fundamental religion on people, persecuting minorities, women, gays. they've ignored history that doesn't agree with their violent take on a religeon of peace, they've quoted their prophets words selectively. They've unbalanced the world, and forced people to do what they say at the barrel of a gun. They are violent psychopaths.
ReplyDeleteThere may be 'collateral damage', but to get at a cancer you have to cut at healthy skin.
Kill them. Kill them all. Their God will sort them out.
Wipe out US....
Oh.... umm....
Sorta like the Christians have done, throughout history? Gotcha! Selective history is so prevalent with you knuckledraggin' slack jawed mouth breathers.
DeleteThe Glen Beck types?
DeleteIndescriminate killing worked for them, too, right? After 9/11 sucked all the air out of the room, the U.S. just knelt down and apologized, right? Followed Glenn Beck's policy to the letter. Indescriminate killing. Worked great.
DeleteDidn't lead to 14 years of rabid warmongering, no.
Christians have done a lot of horrible thing over the centuries, But just for grins lets stick to the last 50 years just because thats where we are now. Right now when train's blows up, when building's fall down when heads are cut off of innocent people its Islam thats behind it, Now if blaming Christians because hey back in the 1500 we did it too, if that makes you feel better, more power to ya! But your head is stuck firmly in the ground.
DeleteHmmm. Bad grammar, apostrophe failure, "let's forget about all the bad stuff that happened back then because nothing like that is happening now"...
DeleteI smell a Republican.
Yeah? How about we go back a little further, like, say to Hitler and his "final solution"? Hang on real tight to your dogma, there, otherwise it might get away from you.
DeleteStop & actually listen to the messages from the Far Right Fundamentalist Christian leaders, "forcing their fundamental religion on people, persecuting minorities, women, gays. they've ignored history that doesn't agree with their violent take on a religeon of peace, they've quoted their prophets words selectively." That's directly copied from Last hussar'so comment, where is the difference between that and the behavior of our own extremists? They shout that womenight don't have the capacity to make their own health decisions, Gays are ruining our moral center...gay marriage will bring on the end of day, undocumented immigrants are the reason for economic issues...they are stealing our money. Biblical quotes are cherry picked with glee to support their narrow views & anyone who doesn't agree with them does not love God & are not good Americans.
DeleteReally....where is the difference other than levels of melanin & location?
Last hussar, I don't think folks are getting the satirical nature of your post. (And maybe I'm misinterpreting based on its construction and your penultimate sentence. If so, disregard this!) You might wanna clarify that you're describing American militarism using American right wing terminology.
DeleteLast line folks.
DeleteRead Last Hussar's comment again. Focus on the last line. It's sarcasm - and he's not talking about ISIS.
Nice try, but a lot of people seem to be missing sarcasm and not reading properly these days.
DeleteThat's why, when we write satirically, we need to make it easy to decipher. ;-) or [evil grin] in my case ... or however you prefer.
DeleteSorry, I'm English, and my sarcasm doesn't always cross cultural boundaries to the US.
DeleteFor the record. ISIS are wankers, but no matter how evil they are, they are localised threat. Where the GOP goes to many powerful people in this country seem to willing to follow.
Thanks for the backup Jim
People like Glenn Beck are the worst sort. They bloviate, and the middle-brain followers all get excited, waving their guns and flags and their love for Jesus. Maybe he's really an Isis troll? Then again, considering the mentality of the folks that follow him, I hope he establishes a Becktown somewhere and they all go drink Kool-aid together.
ReplyDeleteThank you for that one, Jim. Right On.
ReplyDeleteStuff like this has made me realize that the right wing in the US has gone full blown authoritarian fascist. They have completely forgotten all of the horrific things done by madmen and dictators in the past and have no problem whatsoever becoming just like them. Part of me thinks it's due to many of them having absolutely no idea what the horrors inflicted upon people in the past were like (as most of the people who suffered through seeing it and/or surviving it have since passed on).
ReplyDeleteThey seem to live by the belief that to defeat ones enemy, you must become like your enemy. Which is total and complete insanity to anyone with the slightest bit of intelligence.
Way too many of them got very bad schooling. When history books don't tell it like it really was -- when the victor writes the book and excuses his own appalling conduct but magnifies his enemy's -- when the South fictionalizes their history -- when entertainment-narratives are mistaken for REAL LIFE, you end up with these delusional ignoramuses (ignorami?)
DeleteThese know-nothing warmongers make me sick! Just a quick correction "Das Vaterland". I know, my mother tongue has many quirks, but then so does English/American. Thanks again for this excellent rant. Inge
ReplyDeleteIf you know your opponent and know yourself you shall win every battle. If you know yourself but not your opponent you shall lose a battle for every battle you win. If you know neither yourself nor your opponent you shall never be victorious. - Sun Tzu.
ReplyDeleteChickenhawks like Beck are a perfect demonstration of that aphorism. I'm betting all Beck knows about war is from repeated viewings of 'The Green Berets' and 'Patton'. Halfway accurate ones like 'Saving Private Ryan' (or at least the first few minutes of it), 'A Bridge Too Far' or 'Stalingrad' would either piss him off or make him puke his guts out.
As Bill Mauldin noted, "The surest way to become a pacifist is to join the infantry." Almost no one I've known who has been at the sharp end is eager to have it happen again to anybody, not even the people on the other side.
McCain? Graham? Webb?
DeleteGlenn-effing-Beck: another never-been-in-service warhawk. Of course he wants to use thermobarics--he really has no clue what they do on the receiving end, and besides, *he'll* never have to do the job himself, 'cos, y'know, tha's wha' we got sojers for. Bog save us from yahoos like this!
ReplyDeleteSimple solutions for simpleton.
ReplyDeletePerhaps even scarier than Glenn Beck is that there are so many people who believe he is right, that he has the answer. He would probably endorse this to be done to every country and people who don't stand and cheer Murca! Murica Murica! A country that did this is a country that I would do everything I could to leave as fast as possible. And I'm sure not forgetting this clown claims to be a righteous, Christ worshipping Mormon. You know, the gentle folks.
ReplyDeleteI am always disturbed when people like Glenn Beck are talking to a captive audience like in the excerpt. I don't even think they realize they are silently nodding in agreement when he is covering the worst of the description of the fuel-air bomb.
DeleteWell said. Nothing to add.
ReplyDeleteBut my editor's eye wonders if in paragraph 19 (starts "Fuel-air bombs are a type...") you meant the last word to be as written or if it should be "detonation".
The more things change, the more they remain the same. Kill them all and god will sort them out. What the fuck is wrong with people? I am turning 50 next week and am dreading what will happen to this world in the next 30-50 years. It doesn't look good.
ReplyDeleteTo quote Cory Booker:"Before you speak to me about your religion, first show it to me in how you treat other people; before you tell me how much you love your God, show me in how much you love all His children; before you preach to me of your passion for your faith, teach me about it through your compassion for your neighbors. In the end, I'm not as interested in what you have to tell or sell as in how you choose to live and give."
ReplyDeleteThax Jim -- 'nother goodun
Excellent comment by Cory Booker! Thanks for sharing.
DeleteA very righteous rant Jim. I truly appreciate your essays.
There's a simple solution for these uber-patriots who so badly want to kick off WWIII so Jeee-zuss! can come sooner. They wanna be "warriors" for Gaawwwwd? Okeedokeee - draft their asses. Draft them, give then an 11B MOS, and air drop them over Syria - or whatever Hellhole seems appropriate that day - and make 'em walk point. Just to be nice, give them an alternative choice - they can be 15T's and we'll put e'm in the old Huey's so they can be door gunners.
ReplyDeleteSign 'em up.
DeleteThen watch them shit their pants and freeze solid, unable to move. Not a single one of them has the courage of their so called convictions.
Deletewhitelilly
There is no end to their repetitive Bull shit. - "I keep waiting for something to happen, for a week or a month or a year. with the blood in the ink of the headlines and the sound of the crowd in my ear" JBrowne.
ReplyDeleteWar mongers like every war.
ReplyDeleteCaedite eos. Novit enim Dominus qui sunt eius.
ReplyDeleteFor those without Latin:
Delete"Kill them. For the Lord knows who are his"
quid opus divum sancta cum fallaciis mortalium
DeleteThat's quite an insult to your ass.
ReplyDeleteDid anyone tell the people of the US that they seem to be the most war mongering country in history?
ReplyDeleteI hope my 90 yr old Mama didn't hear him say that. She'll be cleaning her AK47 on the kitchen table again. Makes a mess of it.
ReplyDeleteThank you!
ReplyDeleteAnd rising from the manure pile, now that chickenhawk Trump has crowed, not only do we have Glenn Beck, but vampire Ann Coulter, calling for blood. It's gonna be a loooong few months 'til election day.
ReplyDeleteOver a year, Cthulhu help us...
DeleteFew months? It is over a year until the main elections, yes the primary process is getting ridiculous, but I am pretty sure that the general elections will be worse. Many congressional seats are up for grabs as well the Presidency.
DeleteAside from the horror of what he's proposing, he's saying we should have more boots on the ground, more tanks, more APC's, more planes, and all the staff required to make it all function. Soldiers already weary after more than a decade of conflict. How about we wait until he and all of the rest of the chickenhawks clamoring for war sign up to be the first ones in the field.
ReplyDeleteI had a friend who'd done bombing runs. He called himself a murderer. I protested, but he pointed out that it was pretty certain that not everyone caught in the blast were soldiers.
ReplyDeleteThere's no comfort for that kind of reality. Orders and strategy may come from higher up, but he is haunted by the part he played. All I can do is do what I can politically to make as few people as possible carry that on their conscience in future.
My best friend served 42 months in Nam, he said to me once," I'm not proud of everything I've done, but I'm not ashamed of any of it." He's the kind of man who would have turned in William Calley.
DeletePS he has 2 DFC's and a Bronze star with V and a ruptured duck (Air medal) also with V, and the Purple Heart that most Huey pilots seem to wear.
whitelilly
My brother was a draft dodger. He had no quarrel with Ho Chi Minh and he never left anything in Southeast Asia. He didn't like the thought of putting on a uniform and going halfway around the world to kill people who weren't threatening either his country or his life. The "Domino Theory" was, in his clear view, sheer crap. We'd already lost two guys from the neighborhood and the only result it had in this world was to make their families cry.
DeleteOur father went over to Europe to fight Hitler. His son didn't see any point in getting involved in an intermural fight in Vietnam. And he surely didn't see how destroying a village was going to save it.
Different guys made different choices. Some were easier than others.
Detonation. Not denotation. I'm really sorry Jim! Awesome as always in every other regard.
ReplyDeleteWhen I first saw "thermobaric explosive" my mind read "thermobarbaric explosive." Says it all.
ReplyDeleteYeah, that's exactly what I saw as well.
DeleteBarbara
A customer stood around in my department one day talking politics with his buddy. At one point I overheard him saying "Well I say, let 'em have nukes, an' then they can all nuke 'emselves."
ReplyDeleteThat's not how it works - That's not how any of this works, sir
[Insert obligatory praise for another excellent Jim Wright post HERE]
ReplyDeleteWhile Glenn Beck's idiocies can easily be waved away as just another puerile armchair Khan, ranting on about "military solutions" he doesn't comprehend to international problems he doesn't understand, the bigger problem is that we occasionally run into militaristic bomb-em-all-to-hell types in public life who can't be so easily dismissed.
Like Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR). Now THERE'S a scary dude.....
Excellent insight on Tom Cotton. He is scarier than we can imagine. He had the experiences of a junior officer and now thinks he has all the answers around the world. I have been told bu others much wiser than myself that there is a reason junior officers are kept on a short leash by their senior officers. He proves the point, if you ask me.
DeleteLet's not forget the man Jim calls johnny wing nuts, also a junior officer and all round f#ckup.
DeleteThe most dangerous man in any army? A Junior Officer with a map and a plan!
DeleteWarhawks like Beck are not only totally lacking in empathy and mercy, the also have absolutely no imagination to envision the human cost, on either side, of their policies.
ReplyDeleteIf people like Glenn Beck don't scare the shit out of you you aren't paying attention. And don't get me started on the GOP. You know what? I want MY country back from these assholes.
ReplyDeleteHe's shilling his moronic book and his unhinged minions are eating it up. Capitalism at it's "finest".
ReplyDeleteI was at a brunch after a memorial service for a friend who died. This was after 9/11 and the Iraq war had started
ReplyDeleteA former friend stated" we have to kill all of them before the kill us".
The line around the food table parted leaving her and her husband.
I looked at my friend (so called) and said, " that is genocide".
They were so uncomfortable by the reaction of all the other people, that they left early.
We have never gotten together again.
Agreed; remote thermobarics are not a good idea. Still, ISIS is barbaric committing genocide, destroying cultural treasures, etc . . . I would really like to hear Jim's thoughts on some real solutions so that I can go pound on my legislator's doors with them.
ReplyDeleteThere is no solution that exists that involves the USA in it. WE caused ISIS/ISIL. If the US were to get back in it and -- through some unknown methodology -- remove ISIS/ISIL, another (probably even more extreme) group would spring up to fill the vacuum.
DeleteUnless the rest of the Middle East powers get together and do something themselves, there isn't any solution that doesn't involve either 1) genocide or 2) waiting until ISIS/ISIL shakes itself down into something resembling a real government in 20 - 30 years.
Chickens come home to roost.
Why, Doug Stephens, do you suppose there ARE any "solutions"? I mean other than further variations of misery and cruelty and mass violence and destruction. Plenty of big brains, in the West, in the Middle East, in the whole damn world have studied and studied and studied the problem, which is a thousand-headed hydra at best, and no one, anywhere, has come up with anything resembling anything even approaching a 'solution' that is not about delivering a completely lopsided advantage to one side or another.
DeleteThere once was an Iraq with Saddam Hussein. Someone thought that was a problem that could be solved by the military.
DeleteThen came Al Qaeda in Iraq. Someone thought that was a problem that could be solved with a military "surge".
Now we have ISIS, and I have to wonder what will result should we try another "military solution".
We should have listened to Dwight Eisenhower. He tried to warn us about our Military Industrial Complex.
And of course, let us not forget that there can't be anything called collateral damage anyhow - nothing wrong with killing all the women and children - because.....well, they're just not WHITE. So they don't have enough value as living beings to be worth the work it would take to differentiate between combatants and noncombatants.
ReplyDeletePeople who goes outside of the borders of the US are being asked if we've gone off the rails. (Maybe that should be "further off the rails", after the Bush years.) They see coverage of our political races and other acts of violence against civilized society, and wonder who dropped the crazy stuff in the drinking water. Trump is the whole GOP in one package - that is why the other candidates can't get traction against him - he has covered all the base's bases. Commentators like Beck and Rush get coverage for their comments, and the picture the rest of the world gets from the combined media and political commentary is that the United States will launch WWIII against anything remotely 'other' the minute after a Republican President is put into office.
ReplyDeleteGlen Beck would be just as wrong if he HAD years of military experience and education. Two things stood out for me.
ReplyDeleteOne, he refers to "this war." Did I miss the fact that the US formally declared war? Seems only fair that we declare war before we bomb a country into oblivion. Is he proposing that we're at war with Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Libya, Somalia and north-east Nigeria, and that wiping them all off the face of the earth is necessary and will really eradicate ISIS?
Two, he talks about waiting, waiting and waiting some more until you have no other options, and then you "hit them hard," yet he refers to any options short of mass bombing as flowers and cupcakes. So really, just start with the bombing.
I'm wondering why I even try to make sense of his babbling.
I could be mistaken but I think Beck was talking (only?) about the war against Da'esh (IS-IL/S) in Syria and Iraq in which case its certainly being waged now although I'm not sure there was (or could be?) a declaration given its a fight against a non-state (quasi-state?) actor.
DeleteBut yeah, I'm pretty fucking sure Obama isn't dropping cupcakes and flowers on them currently.
***
How to bring democracy to Iran : "Instead of bringing democracy with cluster bombs, we should support women fighting for democracy."
- Shirin Ebadi, Iranian human rights activist who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003. (Source: Associated Press via Sojourners website)
" ..the United States is neither omnipotent nor omniscient. We [the USA] are only 6% of the World's population - we cannot impose our will upon the other 94% of mankind."
- John F. Kennedy. (Quoted by Phillip Adams, Page 11, 'Weekend Australian' magazine. Dec. 13-14, 2003.)
Is Armageddon the last word in warfare?
- Anonymous (referring to nuclear armageddon esp.)
Glenn Beck is frightening. I have never heard of a religion with his attitude. I believe what we were taught...Judge not lest ye also be judged. DO UNTO OTHERS AS YOU WOULD HAVE THEM DO UNTO YOU!. Forgive, Love, show mercy.
ReplyDelete"Live by the sword, die by the sword." Now who supposedly said that in some ancient holy book I wonder?
DeleteWho kept speaking of forgiveness and mercy and healed the severed ear of a soldier who came to arrest him and when wrongly executed in agonising, lingering cruel and barbaric circumstances with almost his last dying words pleaded "Forgive them Father (God - & everyone else?) for they know not what they do?"
Oh yeah, some ole Jewish rabbi (teacher) whose followers went on to found a religion or fifty. Including the one that Beck claims to follow.
That holy book of Beck's - has he really even read it? Sure doesn't seem to adopted its founder's message does he? (Or did the Mormons edit that out at the same time they took out the words about slavery being oh so fine and dandy and white supremacy forever?)
"2:33 And the LORD our God delivered him before us; and we smote him, and his sons, and all his people.
Delete2:34 And we took all his cities at that time, and utterly destroyed the men, and the women, and the little ones, of every city, we left none to remain:
2:35 Only the cattle we took for a prey unto ourselves, and the spoil of the cities which we took."
"10:34 Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.
10:35 For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law.
10:36 And a man's foes shall be they of his own household."
Yep, those are the exact verses that some people cherry-pick to show that Jesus didn't really mean any of that stuff about love and unity. No matter that He said loving one's neighbor was the second of the two commandments upon which all others depended, or repeated this same idea in different ways just in case His audience missed it the first time.
DeleteAnd with regard to the passages from the Old Testament, it's best not to acknowledge the verses in which prophets like Ezekiel excoriated the Hebrews for associating their behavior with their God's will.
You can't have both, Maya. Both cherry-picked data sets, Christ the Redeemer and Christ the Destroyer, are equally valid. It's the same with Muhammad the Peacenik and Muhammed the Warlord in the Qu'ran, depending on whether he was writing before or after the Hegira.
DeleteThe best that can be said is that the recorded Jesus was just about as confused as anyone else on the planet, but at least he was a moderately kinder soul than the mad blood god of the desert he is theoretically descended from.
~Scolopendra
Check out Beck's interview in Forbes Mag. about three years ago. He stated, and this may not be exactly verbatim but it's damned close, " I don't give a flying crap about politics. This is about making money. Controversy is its' own coinage." Jim
ReplyDeleteGlenn Beck is like a piece of dog crap that you can't scrape off your shoe.
ReplyDeleteHey, be fair. He isn't a general, he hasn't gone to War College, he hasn't served, but he does know a thing or two about sucking up oxygen.
ReplyDelete......... and, to quote an authentic American war hero: "I'm fed up to the ears with old men dreaming up wars for young men to die in." - George McGovern
ReplyDeleteHow ironic or Orwellian is it that the presentation there had the word "Love" lit up in large letters on the arch thing above Beck and co? (Inset clip - 1 minute 53 secs mark.) Along with the word "now" on the hand and 'TV' on the opposite ~ish wall.
ReplyDeleteNeed to check but have these thermobarbaric fuel-air bombs ever won and ended *any* war? Pretty sure they have not.
Wonder if Beck and his fellow chickenhawks have thought about the kind of precedent their insane genocidal policy would set and how much of an excuse it would give other countries for treating the USA the same way?
Guess 'do unto others' for them means before they do unto you first?
Also guess they never read Kurt Vonneguts 'Slaughterhouse Five' with its scenes of Dresden's firebombing nor any accounts of what happened in Hiroshima and Nagasaki 1945. Or saw 'Apocalypse Now' for that matter.
Guess you can't blame them for that necessarily but it is really surprising and hypocritical that they seem to have missed the main message of that ancient rabbi they claim to worship, who, Douglas Adams suggested, was nailed to two bits of wood for saying how nice it'd be if we could all get along.
***
Quote from President Eisenhower (quoted in ’The Guardian Weekly’, 2005 Jan 28th – Feb. 3rd .) : “We cannot consider that the armed invasion and occupation of another country are peaceful or proper means to achieve justice and conformity with international law.”
… We forget the point of the parable is entirely vitiated by the common phrase “good” Samaritan for that has cast a false light on who the Samaritans were. . . To the Jews [of Jesus’ time – ed.] the Samaritans were not good. They were hated, despised, contemptible heretics with whom no good Jew would have anything to do. Again, the whole point is lost through non-translation. …The Parable of the Good Samaritan clearly teaches that there is nothing parochial in the concept “neighbour,” that you cannot confine your decency to your own group and your own kind. All mankind, right down to those you most despise are your neighbours.”
- Pages 266-270 Isaac Asimov, “Lost in Non-translation” in ‘Magic’ anthology Harper-Collins, 1996.
“The more you tighten your grip, Tarkin, the more star systems will slip through your fingers!”
- Princess Leia, ‘Star Wars V: A New Hope.’
If I might let my inner sci-fi geek off the leash for a moment :-), "A New Hope" was Episode IV. Episode V was "The Empire Strikes Back."
DeleteOops! Yes, you are quite right there. I stand corrected.
DeleteI went to a CofE Primary School. Whatever else our headmaster was, he certainly told us about the Jewish/Samaritan schism. As I remember a bit like the instant 3 way schism in "Life of Brian"over the shoe!
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ka9mfZbTFbk
The religious right in this country has a lot in common with radical Islam when it comes to gays and women, but its attitude can be best summed up by a quote from Animal House: "They can't do that to our pledges. Only we can do that to our pledges."
ReplyDeletethanks again Master Chief...It seems tho, that Beck is easy to refute, and to ignore, more so than the Right Wing Radio Network around the Nation...You know a lot more about communications and the power of suggestion than most of us...ALL of your posts have been quite informative, while being funny and succinct...
ReplyDeleteExcellent as always Jim. It never ceases to amaze me how in love with killing the "pro-life" and "pro-Jesus" crowd can get. Just a couple of minor editorial nit-picks...
ReplyDeleteIt's "Der Vaterland," not "das vatherland."
And in the next paragraph, I think you mean "efficiency's sake."
If you look upstream, you'll see that I originally had "Der Vaterland" but somebody else told me it should be "Das Vatherland." You guys are killing me, man, killing me.
DeleteIt's fixed. Thanks!
Not quite. It should be "das Vaterland" (das Land takes precedence over der Vater).
DeleteS. Schumacher
I've changed it three times. I'm not changing it again
DeleteWhy wouldnt you correct it if you knew it was wrong?
DeleteThe FatherLand works, too...... :)
Deletebd
When HRC dared to compare the GOP with terrorists for their attitudes and platforms they protested with all the outrage of a 16-year old being accused of skipping curfew. That's not nice Hillary, we can call you and the President any name we want including Hitler, that's acceptable but now you're being mean and that's not fair.
ReplyDeleteI also am waiting (in vain) for any MSM or news person on the level of a Cronkite or (dating myself) Brinkley or Murrow. When I hear all about the "marvelous" wall that Mexico is going to build for us I wait for the question about gun placement and will we have a wall similar to the Berlin wall built to keep out those wanting to escape and risking certain death? When they talk about deportation will they build camps to hold all of these families until they can be shipped out or will it be easier to use them as obvious slave labor until they die and if they can't work isn't it just more 'Christian' to kill them humanely? It scares me when the candidates cheerfully suggest these things and their followers gleefully clap omitting only the salute. How come the GOP never get pressed for what they mean, how do they expect to do this stuff but HRC, Bernie and Martin need to put out papers and policies explaining what they want to do, why and how. Now tRump is whining about his hair...he can call others the "worst", suggest they can't walk and talk at the same time but if someone he has insulted insults him back he goes into attack mode. Could we just re-elect POTUS one more time and avoid all this? We'll do a write-in, that way the GOP won't know what hit them. It's unfair to the President but that would work for me. Marlene
I really don't know who scares me more these days: Us or Them. I read a conversation in the comments of an article about ISIS the other day and they were advocating that before we nuke them, we have every right to go in and loot the oil and natural resources first. Because it's only right we are repaid for our costs and risks to go into their country and, yes, nuke them.
ReplyDeleteSame people that are blessing Trump and thanking their God for sending him to them.
Thank you, Mr Wright, excellent as usual.
bd
Wow!!!! And we thought ISIS was evil. ISIS does not hold a candle to this mentality. I have a feeling that most of Trump's followers are of this same mentality. Actually maybe the majority of republicans.
ReplyDeleteAmen.
ReplyDeleteWhat you described above makes think of the Great Halifax Explosion that occurred near the end of WWI when a ship full of explosives caught fire in the harbor after colliding with another ship.
ReplyDeleteYou're kidding, right? You don't really expect a guy who strafes his own audience with worthless gold coins to care about collateral damage in Syria. Beck is amoral.
ReplyDeleteI am forcibly reminded of this famous exchange on M*A*S*H , between Hawkeye Pierce and Father Mulcahy:
ReplyDeleteHawkeye: War isn't Hell. War is war, and Hell is Hell. And of the two, war is a lot worse.
Father Mulcahy: How do you figure, Hawkeye?
Hawkeye: Easy, Father. Tell me, who goes to Hell?
Father Mulcahy: Sinners, I believe.
Hawkeye: Exactly. There are no innocent bystanders in Hell. War is chock full of them - little kids, cripples, old ladies. In fact, except for some of the brass, almost everybody involved is an innocent bystander.
Party of bug-eyed, spittle-flecked, hate-spewing psychopaths. Party of Asses. Party of ASS, pure and simple.
Exactly
ReplyDeleteFinally! FINALLY!! Someone actually steps up and speaks truth to power! Mr Beck (the compassionate and merciful) has waited too long to provide his awesome intellectual and experience based guidance to the DoD and POTUS as to how to END the threat and substance of Islamic extremism. Every day Obama has meekly asked his domineering wife "Has Glen called yet? I just can't do anything right without Glen's help."
ReplyDeleteFinally the Buddha/Yoda/Delphic Oracle that is Glen Beck has finally emerged from his long deliberation to offer his sage advice on how to rid the world of the Islamic hoard (coming to your neighborhood SOON). FAE's. The largest of which is the 7 ton Massive Ordinance Air Blast (MOAB) or rather the "Mother of all Bombs". That'll put the ding in the raghead's bell!
But, where do we deposit said FAE's or MOAB's? Another military genius from the distant and ill-defined past said that he knew exactly where to find Saddam's WMD's. Using his precise targeting formula to find and drop said bombs on the ISIS/ISIL/Daesh demon Muslims: "They are in the area around Raqqa, Mosul, Ramadi, Palmyra, Benghazi, Miami and east, west, south and north somewhat..."
With this level of targeting precision applied to Mr Beck's OP Plan it would only be a matter of a few hours to completely eliminate every bad man in ISIL, leaving only the innocent and rapturous former-ISIS subject peoples to throw flowers and tongue bathe our brave US combat troops as they occupy Syria and Iraq (v2) in their mop up operations. Led of course by reserve JAG LtCol Lindsey Graham and newly installed Pro Consul, the Honorable Mr Frank Gaffney. And this time we are there to STAY! (After invading and overthrowing Iran of course, and placing Mr John Bolton in charge of that cesspool.)
Thank GOD that Mr Glen Beck has come down from his mountain with the tablets of knowledge and righteous warfare to bless our Great Nation with the final solution for the Islamic horde. Is it too late to get that other Bush guy back to take over from the black man in the White House? Or just replace our loser POTUS with The Donald. What could possibly go wrong? - Tommy D
People like Glen Beck and his ilk don't live in the United States of America, they are infiltrated aliens from the United Insane Asylums of Hellonya... We should send them back to where they came from...
ReplyDeleteIf all of the chicken hawks really want to go down this path, then this is what I want to happen -
ReplyDelete1. Bring back the draft.
2. No deferments. Not for religious convictions (no going to Paris to proselytize your faith). Not for college. Not for questionable medical issues (like bone spurs on your foot). Not for anything. Everyone can do something to support the effort.
3. All individuals are eligible. Male, female, whatever.
Then when objections are raised, we can ask - but you wanted this. Too bad your sons and daughters are returning home with horrible injuries or in a body bag. You wanted this. Quit going down this path unless you have some skin in the game. Did you think that you would be unscathed? DID YOU?
I am sick and tired of an apocalyptic cult trying to hijack the US military for it's "holy" wars. They've got enough money. Let these Soldiers of God sponsor a Christian Foreign Legion if they want to fight the Mooslims so badly. Carry your sorry asses and those of your sons and daughters off to fight for your Lord. Get all those televangelists with big private airplanes to organize Operation Meggido. I promise to wave as you fly off to bring salvation to the infidels. What's stopping you? Aren't you big on personal initiative? Why do you rely do heavily on the government?
ReplyDeleteThe Crusades ended sooooo well! Plus ca change, plus ce meme choses! For Non- Francophones, The more things change, the more things stay the same!
DeleteReally Jim? Another 3000 word screed against the warmongering chicken hawks. Come on, I know its summer in Alaska, nice weather, fish to kill, giant pumkins to nurture but you haven't wrote anything interesting since about June. Do we have to wait till the termination dust is settling on the Chugach Range before you buckle down and come up with some deeper material? I'm really disappointed, I may have to ask for a return of my subscription price.
ReplyDeleteOh my name it is nothin’
ReplyDeleteMy age it means less.
The country I come from
Is called the Midwest
I’s taught and brought up there
The laws to abide
And that the land that I live in
Has God on its side
Oh the history books tell it
They tell it so well
The cavalries charged
The Indians fell
The cavalries charged
The Indians died
Oh the country was young
With God on its side
Oh the Spanish-American
War had its day
And the Civil War too
Was soon laid away
And the names of the heroes
l’s made to memorize
With guns in their hands
And God on their side
Oh the First World War, boys
It closed out its fate
The reason for fighting
I never got straight
But I learned to accept it
Accept it with pride
For you don’t count the dead
When God’s on your side
When the Second World War
Came to an end
We forgave the Germans
And we were friends
Though they murdered six million
In the ovens they fried
The Germans now too
Have God on their side
I’ve learned to hate Russians
All through my whole life
If another war starts
It’s them we must fight
To hate them and fear them
To run and to hide
And accept it all bravely
With God on my side
But now we got weapons
Of the chemical dust
If fire them we’re forced to
Then fire them we must
One push of the button
And a shot the world wide
And you never ask questions
When God’s on your side
Through many dark hour
I’ve been thinkin’ about this
That Jesus Christ
Was betrayed by a kiss
But I can’t think for you
You’ll have to decide
Whether Judas Iscariot
Had God on his side
So now as I’m leavin’
I’m weary as Hell
The confusion I’m feelin’
Ain’t no tongue can tell
The words fill my head
And fall to the floor
If God’s on our side
He’ll stop the next war
Very nice but you should do the honorable thing and cite where you appropriated the material.
DeleteDon't you know Dylan when you hear him?
DeleteOr more fully, The Masters of War by Mr. Robert "Bob Dylan" Alan Zimmerman
DeleteNot Master's of War. That's a great song, too, but it goes like this (and is just as appropriate. (Last lines are the best):
Delete[Verse 1]
Come you masters of war
You that build all the guns
You that build the death planes
You that build all the bombs
You that hide behind walls
You that hide behind desks
I just want you to know
I can see through your masks
[Verse 2]
You that never done nothing
But build to destroy
You play with my world
Like it’s your little toy
You put a gun in my hand
And you hide from my eyes
And you turn and run farther
When the fast bullets fly
[Verse 3]
Like Judas of old
You lie and deceive
A world war can be won
You want me to believe
But I see through your eyes
And I see through your brain
Like I see through the water
That runs down my drain
[Verse 4]
You fasten the triggers
For the others to fire
Then you set back and watch
When the death count gets higher
You hide in your mansion
As young people’s blood
Flows out of their bodies
And is buried in the mud
[Verse 5]
You’ve thrown the worst fear
That can ever be hurled
Fear to bring children
Into the world
For threatening my baby
Unborn and unnamed
You are not worth the blood
That runs in your veins
[Verse 5]
How much do I know
To talk out of turn
You might say that I’m young
You might say I’m unlearned
But there’s one thing I know
Though I’m younger than you
Even Jesus would never
Forgive what you do
[Verse 7]
Let me ask you one question
Is your money that good
Will it buy you forgiveness
Do you think that it could
I think you will find
When your death takes its toll
All the money you made
Will never buy back your soul
[Verse 8]
And I hope that you die
And your death will come soon
I will follow your casket
In the pale afternoon
And I’ll watch while you’re lowered
Down to your deathbed
And I’ll stand on your grave
Til I’m sure that you’re dead.
"who never served not a single day in his life"
ReplyDeleteThere's one too many negative in this sentence, I believe.
Oh, and though my formal training in German ended over 4 decades ago, I think it's "Das Vaterland" or "Die Heimat".
Thanks for this thoughtful piece. Just like John Kerry, I'd like to here it from someone who has actual experience with war ...
OozeBeck takes his stand. His usual squawk and strut act. I bet that blackboard has titanium reinforcement.
ReplyDeleteTalk about "Fear and Loathing on The Campaign Trail". I get the feeling that the good Hunter S. Thompson is rolling around on a floor somewhere, laughing his arse off.
ReplyDeleteI've followed Mr. Beck's career closely as I can from this side of the pond. Every time I show one of my friends over here YouTube clips and entire shows, they sit there with their mouths open. This happens with many of the other Dramatis Personae of The GOP and The Right, Michelle Bachmann and her wonderfully camp husband. An aside, the town I was brought up in and live in, is at times referred to as "The San Francisco of The UK/Europe". We're a kind of weird and contrary place. Sorry I'm getting side tracked.
Back to Beck and the rest of the sociopathic crew. These people scare the living crap out of the rest of The World. Like you Jim I've served, worked and traveled The World over. I've talked to people, lived with them and cured their hurts. It was a good and fulfilling life. In my experience all people seem to want the same things, enough food, a healthy life and a chance to have a family. The last one I've never got, but have enough empathy to see that it is a pursuit that makes people very happy. Mr Beck and his cohort have no empathy whatsoever. All they see are the differences, all they emphasise is difference, In so doing they have become the people that they profess to hate.
I have no ideas on what to do with them and the followers, they like Isis/Isil/Da-esh are becoming intractable. I'm reaching the sixth decade of my life and about all I can hope to do is keep their hands off the buttons and levers of political power and hope that there are enough of the younger generations as committed as myself to keeping these sociopaths as far from them as possible. Damn I'm tired of the fight though.
These people are making me dizzy. What the hell has happened to critical thinking in my country?
ReplyDeletePeople listen to this lunatic. Honey where's Tylenol?
Happily, not as many people listen to him as used to, but it's still way to many. Unfortunately, he's coming right out and saying what I suspect the "more moderate" wing of the GOP actually want in their hearts but are too polite to voice. I'm not all that sure about many Democrats either.
Delete