Your Moment Of Glenn: If Ben Franklin Didn’t Want Gov. Health Care How Dare We

by Glynnis MacNicol | 3:38 pm, December 16th, 2009

» 19 comments

Two moments of Glenn today, both from yesterday’s show. One that makes reasonable sense. One that really just doesn’t. The latter first. In his ongoing campaign against health care reform Glenn Beck pulled a new rationale out of his hat last night: Ben Franklin did not demand health care during the writing of the Constitution — even though he was in great pain due to kidney stones, even though he had already founded a public hospital in Philadelphia. So if Benjamin Franklin did not write public health care in to the Constitution 230 years ago HOW DARE WE?

At the risk of sounding logical, perhaps this would be a good time to point out that among the other things the Constitution also did not manage to include at the get-go was the banning of slavery and voting rights for women. Because every time Beck goes on one of his ‘refounding America’ tears these are two major points he never gets around to addressing. So perhaps the conclusion we are eventually being encouraged to draw here is that we need a Constitutional health care amendment. (Video below.)

The second clip is a tad more sensible. Beck suggests that similar to the NFL, which has increased the safety of their helmets thus making players more willing to take risks and “lead with their heads”, which has subsequently lead to more injuries. Meanwhile, Australian rugby players who have no protective gear suffer less injuries, ostensibly because they are more careful. Getting the metaphor? Beck thinks the no helmet system is actually the “more compassionate” one: “The more protection large entities provide, the riskier you behavior becomes.” In terms of our economy, Beck says the country has been made to feel safe from economic disaster by too big to fail institutions (helmets) like Fanny and Freddy: “the closer the decision and the consequences are to you, the closer you’ll be to a system that actually works.” (Video below.)

Benjamin Franklin, fox news, Glenn Beck, Health Care Reform, NFL, The Economy, Your Moment of Glenn

rmbltmbl

On slavery and women voting in the late 1700s.. Can you hear how progressive and elitist you sound? Naturally you pay no attention to the consequences of your perfect, god-like moral ideals IN THE REAL WORLD. Instead of listening to that dogma you were indoctrinated with, why don’t you look at what really happened back then.
roxsteady

This from the same idiot who says that Progressives pushing separation of church and state is nonsense. Um. somebody tell this dumb ass that it’s in the other document he often mentions but, has no clue about – the good old Constitution! He has to be the stupidest person on the planet.!
Sage

Glyniss: Why do we always go to the same old “Constitution bad because of women and slavery” argument? What makes the document awesome is that it allows for changes to be made like those very important ones. When you rely on this tired argument, you sound like the Constitution is some horrible piece of paper that should just be ignored.

roxsteady: For someone calling someone a “dumb ass” and “the stupidest person on the planet” how bad do you look when your facts are wrong? “Separation of church and state” appears NOWHERE in the Constitution. Jefferson used a similar phrase in describing it later, but the Constitution simply says that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…”
germ

Roxsteady:

“This from the same idiot who says that Progressives pushing separation of church and state is nonsense. Um. somebody tell this dumb ass that it’s in the other document he often mentions but, has no clue about – the good old Constitution!”

Check your facts. While I agree there should be separation of church and state, it is not stated in the Constitution.
germ

Oops, Sage beat me to it.
TfT

Your moment of Chris Matthews:

Matthews Admits to ‘Power’ of Fox News in Rise of ‘Crazy’ Tea Partiers (h/t Newsbusters)
Fidoohki

Boy did YOU miss the mark. The first one was an example of someone who noone would have said ‘you’re wrong!’ if he had put healthcare in the constitution. Yet he rose above his personal ills to think of
the country as a whole. You also missed the other story where as a younger man under the crown ruled Philidelphia he helped build the first truly public hospital.

As for the second, yeah that was about it. Caught some of Ed ‘ I SEE NOTHINK!’ Schultz’s show and he
didn’t get it either. What a putz…
TinaFromTampa

My only takeaway from watching that second clip is that TfT must have played football.
*Wait for predictable reaction from TfT and ImNotBright*
TfT

Go away stalker. NotsoAnonymous (posing here as TinafromTampa) is an internet stalker, who takes on others identities because she has no life and has no original thinking ability.

The only thing predictable is that NotSoAnonymous chases people from site to site to stalk them.

Despite her absurdity, I hope she has a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year and that her News Years Resolution will be to get a life.
ImNotBlue

TinaFromTampa says:
December 16, 2009 at 9:31 pm

If I’m so “predictable,” why didn’t you predict what I’d say? Or is this just like yesterday, where you picked a fight, even though you agreed with what I was saying?

Poor little stalker… failing again.

______

And now, here’s your “Moment of Keith”

Olbermann’s Pledge: I’ll Go To Jail Before Buying ObamaCare Insurance

I am one of the self-insured, albeit by choice. And I hereby pledge that I will not buy this perversion of health-care reform. Pass this at your peril, senators. And sign it at yours, Mr. President. I will not buy this insurance. Brand me a law-breaker if you choose. Fine me if you will. Jail me if you must.

Oh, and another one… here’s your “Moment of Al”

Al Gore tries to cool ‘climate spin’ by correcting claims of North pole thaw

Al Gore’s office issued a formal correction yesterday to a speech the former US Vice-President had given earlier in the week that started the latest in a series of “climate spin” rows.

Mr Gore told the Copenhagen summit meeting that the latest research suggested that the North Pole would be ice-free within five to seven years. The Times revealed that this was not the information provided to Mr Gore’s office by the climatologist Wieslaw Maslowski, who works at the US Naval Postgraduate School in California.

Dr Maslowski said that his projections suggested that the North Pole would be near ice-free, but that some ice would remain beyond 2020. He also denied providing the 75 per cent figure used by Mr Gore. “It’s unclear to me how this figure was arrived at, based on the information I provided to Al Gore’s office,” he said.

WHOOPS! Caught making stuff up!

Oh and in case you wanted to hear more about Copenhagen… make sure to check these stories out… here’s your “Moment of Copenhagen”

Mugabe arrives for Copenhagen climate talks

Copenhagen – Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe arrived Tuesday in Copenhagen to take part in the final days of the UN climate talks to be attended by some 120 world leaders, Danish television footage showed.

The European Union has banned Mugabe from travelling to its member states, including Denmark, as part of sanctions designed to pressure him to implement political reforms and improve the country’s poor human rights record.

Putting our economy in the hands of Chavez fans
President Chavez brought the house down.

When he said the process in Copenhagen was “not democratic, it is not inclusive, but isn’t that the reality of our world, the world is really and imperial dictatorship…down with imperial dictatorships” he got a rousing round of applause.

When he said there was a “silent and terrible ghost in the room” and that ghost was called capitalism, the applause was deafening.

And there’s some news you may have missed… while instead reading phony stories about Glenn Beck.
TfT

And yet more climategate news that the media will refuse to report (except FNC):

Russia just threw a huge monkey wrench into Copenhagen by becoming the first nation to claim the Climate Research Unit (CRU) of the University of East Anglia manipulated the raw Russian measurement data to create a fictional view of climate in that huge and chilly country:

On Tuesday, the Moscow-based Institute of Economic Analysis (IEA) issued a report claiming that the Hadley Center for Climate Change based at the headquarters of the British Meteorological Office in Exeter (Devon, England) had probably tampered with Russian-climate data.

The IEA believes that Russian meteorological-station data did not substantiate the anthropogenic global-warming theory. Analysts say Russian meteorological stations cover most of the country’s territory, and that the Hadley Center had used data submitted by only 25% of such stations in its reports. Over 40% of Russian territory was not included in global-temperature calculations for some other reasons, rather than the lack of meteorological stations and observations.

The data of stations located in areas not listed in the Hadley Climate Research Unit Temperature UK (HadCRUT) survey often does not show any substantial warming in the late 20th century and the early 21st century.

(h/t stratasphere)
m

If Glenn Becks like the 18th century so much, why doesn’t he build a god damn time machine and go back? Typical conservative; just want to take the clock of society and screw it backwards – always thinking that the best times are behind.

Newsflash, Mr. Beck – our best times are ahead of us. If you want to live in a society without electricity, go live with the Amish.

>What makes the document awesome is that it allows for changes to be made like those very important ones.

Yes, but if the Constitution in its original form had been written today it wouldn’t have been considered democratic. The United States would, by our own opinion of what constitutes a modern democracy, not be a free country.

We’ve throughout the years constantly improved our democracy because, despite how good our Founding Fathers were at tinkering out the shape of a government, it wasn’t perfect. Not even close. So to say that the Founding Fathers wouldn’t have approved government healthcare is freaking nuts because they obviously lived in completely different times.

>While I agree there should be separation of church and state, it is not stated in the Constitution.

Well, then we can outlaw gun ownership while we’re at it too.
Fidoohki

M says:
Well, then we can outlaw gun ownership while we’re at it too.

Umm that IS in the constitution. You know that ‘Right to bare arms’ thing. :) Your problem is that
you want to ignore history not learn from it.
timzank

What some of you are forgetting is, history started when Obama got elected. It would appear anything prior to that is to be ignored.

Christ, it’s like we live in a James Cameron movie. Can it be true the whole country is in fantasy land or just the “progressive” commenters here?
ImNotBlue

m says:
December 17, 2009 at 6:26 am

If Glenn Becks like the 18th century so much, why doesn’t he build a god damn time machine and go back?

Because with new efficiency standards, his car can’t hit 88 MPH.
JimW

“the Constitution also did not manage to include at the get-go was the banning of slavery and voting rights for women.” Benjamin Franklin was, indeed, against slavery when the Constitution was written. As for woman’s rights in 1786… Glynnis is truly a very ignorant woman.
Fidoohki

Ignorant? I doubt it. She is just caught in the Liberal trap of ignoring history because it doesn’t fit with their
philosophy at all.
Nachi

And Glenn would know about such heady matters. However, he is best described by others of the times. To wit, John Adams. “”Most men are weak, and evil and vicious.” (sic)
Fidoohki

Nachi says:

Hmm too true.. I mean just look at the DNC…:P