I am privileged to receive a variety of awe-inspiring and often shocking video clips from my good friends that are intended to spark up a dialog. This morning, my good friend sent through what should be a thoroughly entertaining clip of Glenn Beck ranting and raving in his normal nonsensical fashion. At one point, he completely loses control of himself, screaming like a banshee at the top of his lungs. Please feel free to listen and smile at how strange the conservative right can be: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YA7-BvVDV10
Normally, I find sarcastic hyperbole to be a fun way to deal with issues that are nonsensical. It is a handy tool to use against an irrational persons whining - for instance, when someone insists that the apocalypse is upon us. It can be entertaining to reason with the dispensational viewpoint using hyperbolic concern and empathy!
BUT, now that the moderate republicans have disappeared into the woodwork and the perennial nut jobs have resurfaced (I love how Paul Krugman recently quoted Rick Perlstein in the Times: “crazy is a pre-existing condition”), logical discussions about health care, and reform in general, are being turned into doomsday-like discussions. Democrats now face their biggest challenge: irrational right-wing zealots that convince the general public that socialism is at large.
I stumbled upon Glenn Beck's project called the "9/12 Project" which is nebulous in its intentions, other than overtly professing those values we (supposedly) embraced post-9/11. Those include: the believe in the right to carry missile launchers to Starbucks, believing in God above logic/knowledge, and being a tight wad with no regard for those in need. Again, it is unclear what Glenn Beck is smoking but he is mounting a large and unfortunately popular movement of mindless drones that are confused about current events. He is galvanizing the uneducated classes to fear our democratic system. One of his loyal 912'ers is quoted as reminding Congressman Brian Baird that "the Nazi's were the national socialist party...they took over the finance, they took over the car companies, they took over health care in that country." I'm sorry, are we now implying that Obama plans to euthanize Jews across the great plains?
Enough, Glenn Beck is the scum of our country and it is sad, but predictable, that Fox News employees such a monkey.
On a lighter note, I recently ran across a fascinating book by Christopher McDougall entitled "Born To Run" which delves into the lives and history of the indigenous Tarahumara tribe living in Northen Mexico. They have a longstanding tradition of running long-distances from village to village which has resulted in their ability to run longer distances than most humans can imagine. Their secret? No shoes.
Christopher McDougall himself was not a huge runner prior to reporting on the Tarahumara tribe but has reportedly been converted to the no-shoe running philosophy. The basic theorem is that running shoes have impeded our natural ability as runners, effectively giving birth to running related illnesses. After a little help from my girlfriend, I discovered a blog dedicated to running barefoot, in which it describes in detail how to begin to running barefoot. I imagine that this will be a tedious and painstaking task, but I am determined to see if I can embrace it.
