I watched all your clips, Carol. Again, fascinating stuff! Okay, now I know some more about Glenn Beck. I have now seen (or heard) him on 4 or 5 separate occasions. ;-D Does he seem to be mentally quite unstable? Definitely. Does he have some totally bizarre opinions. Yup.

He did conduct himself very well on the Katie Couric show, and it was interesting to watch. He conducted himself very badly on his own radio show and that's quite enlightening.

So I'm thinking you may be right, Carol, when you say of the people behind Glenn Beck that "They're using the same tools the fascists used in Italy. They create or co-opt a populist movement that looks like it's acting on behalf of the common person, with the goal of using those movements to shove policies down peoples' throats that are against their own best interests."

One problem, though. I think that most of the media people on both the Right AND the Left in the USA mainstream media are doing that. They play off one half of the public against the other half, and it works brilliantly. The country becomes more and more polarized, and the $ySStem becomes more and more empowered thereby.

I judge people not by their stated political preferences or their religious beliefs or anything else like that...I judge them by their actual behaviour toward others. Glenn Beck's behaviour toward that caller on his radio show is simply terrible.

You see, Ebbie, my naivete is subject to immediate review upon acquiring further information about the subject. ;-) You have to keep in mind that the first time I ever even saw Glenn Beck was in the Katie Couric clip, and it was all I had to go on about the man...I do not spend my life watching CNN and Fox and the other American networks. He did behave quite sensibly on that Katie Couric show, although he demonstrated his own ignorance about certain things, such as...

- the general standing of the USA's health system by world standards

- the gloriously public-spirited, altruistic, and helpful nature of large-scale capitalism

- and what motivates Michael Moore to do the things he does. (he seems to think that Michael Moore hates America...and that's just asinine)