Talk radio hosts - are predominantly Conservative. This, because the majority of listeners are fat white guys who are still fighting the U.S. Civil War. Literally. OK, they're not all fat, some of those rednecks have the skinny gene.
The way talk radio works is, they cycle through hot button topics meant to generate phone calls. Abortion, religion, guns, porn, Lindsay Lohan. You know the list. It's the equivalent of yelling fire in a crowded theater. The intent is to create rabid response, get ratings and have erectile dysfunction pills sponsor it all. All you really need to know about their motivation is, a big time Liberal monologist, Dennis Miller went over to the Dark Side, or the political Right wing a few years ago, to get a gig. I'm not doubting a person can change political views as they age and have stock portfolios instead of backpacks. Or when they realize Liberals make it in the arts, not in a radio talk format. Just ask the entire defunct Air America staff.
In the last twenty-five years, Rush Limbaugh was the undisputed leader of the fat pack. He became a multi-millionaire off white fear and loathing. He also abused drugs and got married a few times. Following in the foot steps of the Grand daddy of talk radio(he did overnights, you could look it up) - Larry King. King of zero show prep. A guy who made it onto cable TV. Out of sheer good looks I suppose. It sure wasn't his interviewing skills.
Limbaugh's success spawned, well, a lot of spawn. One who has crawled out of the oxygenated ooze is a certain Glenn Beck. His background is so filled with dysfunction mixed with Christian dogma, it would make Torquemada green with envy. Beck was weaned on whiskey, the Jesuits and the Book of Mormon. If he's a mad man, he comes by it direct from God. Well, somebody's view of a god. There is nothing like a reformed wacko gone straight to whip John Q. Public into foaming at the mouthpiece.
I tried to listen to Beck in the early part of the first decade here in the 21st Century. This happened when I was driving the 40 minutes to my girl friend's (at the time) house. The last five miles were unpaved rut filled back roads, so I needed to go slowly, if I didn't want to buy a new car every week. Hoping to fill time, I cruised the dial and found Beck. After about 10 minutes, I was screaming at the dashboard. There's something to be said for those desolate areas - nobody hears you. Over the gun fire. They like to deer jack out there. White makes right.
I can't recall what Beck was spewing back in Fall 2003. I do know what he's been up to these days. Most recently he labeled Charles Darwin - "The Father of Modern Racism." Now that's entertainment. When it comes to Creationism v. Intelligent Design; God or Evolution, it all looks the same if one has any ability to see when you do look. If you don't think the universe we live in creates, you're an idiot. If you think it was one dude who created the universe or one big bang, that's apples and apples to me. Why on Earth(!) does it matter? See what I did there? probably not. Keep reading. You will.
Unless it's news Danica Patrick clocked another driver; or even better, is in a new Playboy pictorial, I don't want to hear this race bullshit. People need an excuse to hate. Skin color is a red herring. End of story. The human race in toto, is the true problem. We are mostly genetically altered apes, whether we evolved or were made that way. In a lab or a cloud, or the febrile imagination of an eons ago 12 year old doing a science project on a Sunday night. Darwin thought he found evidence of change in the origin(s) of species. He was opposed by church zealots, competing with another anthropologist with a similar theory (though not publishing the massive depth of Darwin's research), conflict with his wife over his work, and the loss of a beloved child. Under those conditions, I respect Charles Darwin for getting it done at all. Right or wrong - or maybe just part of the story.
Will Glenn Beck make the point that while he objects to being considered descended from apes, some others so obviously are? Not being a Darwinian scholar, I can't state with 100% accuracy Darwin wasn't racist. As far as I'm aware, it was Natural Selection, not Natural Selectivism. I do agree Beck is not related to an ape. A gape more like it. I would enjoy knowing if he even comes close to saying "...but, some of my best friends are monkeys. . .."
I won't invest time in what Mr. Beck really means with his appellation. Sincere or not, he's in it for the money and attention. Maybe his own past and drug use is flashing back, causing him to push boundaries at the height of his celebrity. Being the first to do or say something in this era, is really saying something. Wouldn't faze me to learn he ran scenarios through a computer program "Shock Topics," maybe. He's still yelling fire to me. A good hosing might help. Rinse and repeat. I'm gonna go have me a banana. Yeah, a banana split!
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