Find Your Valentine
Slog
News & ArtsTuesday, August 10, 2010
Arts / Media Glenn Beckwatch: A Blight at the Opera
Posted by Paul Constant on Tue, Aug 10, 2010 at 3:26 PM
Oh, man. Remember yesterday, when Glenn Beck compared Obama's America to The Planet of the Apes? It turns out he double-dipped his foot-in-mouth during the same rant, saying that Baltimore was putting police officers "on the chopping block" while putting $750,000 toward their opera house.
The Baltimore Sun's classical music critic, Tim Smith, takes Beck to task for a couple of things: First: the opera house was budgeted for one million dollars, not 750,000. Second, Baltimore is talking about increasing police coverage (by as many as 450 officers), not cutting it.
But this rant by Beck that Smith highlights...
The cops have to go, yet in Oakland [Calif.] they keep $7 million in costs for museums. You will lose the art in the riots anyway ... Newark has $39,608,662 set aside for Neighborhood and Recreational Services ... I think we can cut back on all the good times in Newark before slashing the cops. Philadelphia can save a couple cops right off the bat by cutting the $1 million set aside for mural arts — they already do that for free: It's called graffiti — or the $32 million for 'free libraries' — now, I love to read as much as the next guy, but you can't read when blood is pouring down your face.
...signifies Beck's toughest assault on public cultural and arts institutions yet. I'm wondering if he's gearing up for even more attacks on the arts and libraries. And where Beck goes, teabaggers are sure to follow. Could this be the newest front in their War Against Everything Sane?
1
it clearly illustrates the primal fear of other people that conservatives have. they'll go into debt to be 'secure', but even libraries are needless frippery.
why do you need cops when you're carrying an arsenal strapped to your body, again?
why do you need cops when you're carrying an arsenal strapped to your body, again?
2
Yeah, when the poor folks riot, they head right over to the art museum first thing. That's happened time and time again.
3
Yeah, I thought all teabaggers carried guns around so they wouldn't need the cops?
But really, Beck and the rest of them (Limbaugh, O'Reilly, etc.) just like to complain nonstop. Complain about anything and everything.
A few months ago I was stuck driving long distance through southern Louisiana and the only things on the radio were christian music stations and conservative right-wing talk shows. I decided to listen to Limbaugh for a while and all he did was complain. Just an unending string of complaints about everything under the sun. No solutions even, just complaints. I can't figure out why anyone would want to tune in to that downersville all day, every day.
But really, Beck and the rest of them (Limbaugh, O'Reilly, etc.) just like to complain nonstop. Complain about anything and everything.
A few months ago I was stuck driving long distance through southern Louisiana and the only things on the radio were christian music stations and conservative right-wing talk shows. I decided to listen to Limbaugh for a while and all he did was complain. Just an unending string of complaints about everything under the sun. No solutions even, just complaints. I can't figure out why anyone would want to tune in to that downersville all day, every day.
4
The local Fox News in Chicago has already declared a bizarre war on libraries.
The story went something like: "[spooky narrator voice] A lot of people are asking...do we REALLY need libraries? ... there are no easy answers." YES THERE ARE. It's alternately hilariously absurd and maddening. And here I thought that one thing everyone could agree on was that an educated populace was worth having.
The story went something like: "[spooky narrator voice] A lot of people are asking...do we REALLY need libraries? ... there are no easy answers." YES THERE ARE. It's alternately hilariously absurd and maddening. And here I thought that one thing everyone could agree on was that an educated populace was worth having.
7
Yet another reason why Beck's purported "outrage" at government spending is insincere: It is exclusively directed at the pennies governments spend on things like libraries and the arts while completely ignoring the dollars that make up the lion's share of government spending: military spending and corporate subsidies (in many cases these are one and the same.)
Beck and his followers are mad about murals but think funding billion-dollar performance art like the Blue Angels is fine. They're upset about libraries but fine with spending a billion dollars a day in an overseas engagement.
It's all about presenting varying versions of the same false choice: Security or public good.
Beck and his followers are mad about murals but think funding billion-dollar performance art like the Blue Angels is fine. They're upset about libraries but fine with spending a billion dollars a day in an overseas engagement.
It's all about presenting varying versions of the same false choice: Security or public good.
8
"...blood is pouring down your face."
WTF? Seriously? Crime rates across the country are the lowest they've been in decades. With few exceptions, blood is not flowing in the streets, you fear-mongering dumbass.
WTF? Seriously? Crime rates across the country are the lowest they've been in decades. With few exceptions, blood is not flowing in the streets, you fear-mongering dumbass.
9
It takes a special kind of dickless fuck to complain about libraries. For a guy that hates Nazis/Commies I can't help but get the feeling he would really love Moscow/Berlin in 1938.
10
Yeah, why should we have free libraries when Mr. Beck can rape my credit card for his real good ejumucation online?
11
Shit like this is cyclical. I lived in a conservative town that was practically devoid of arts and culture except for a few tiny pockets of liberalism and donated buildings from a few old rich dudes that are dying out.
By the time I left that shit hole, the city was sloooooooowly coming around and putting money into the arts, farmers markets, bike lanes, etc. Why? Because the city wanted to build an industry and nobody wanted to live there. The downtown was soulless and empty. People were forced to ask "WHY CAN'T WE RETAIN TALENT? WHY DO ALL THE YOUNG PEOPLE LEAVE?"
But eventually it will turn back around and that sad town will be spending "too much" on "useless" things like culture or businesses are "burdened" by historical preservation that kept the city decently beautiful. And it will fall back into a shit hole. Cyclical.
By the time I left that shit hole, the city was sloooooooowly coming around and putting money into the arts, farmers markets, bike lanes, etc. Why? Because the city wanted to build an industry and nobody wanted to live there. The downtown was soulless and empty. People were forced to ask "WHY CAN'T WE RETAIN TALENT? WHY DO ALL THE YOUNG PEOPLE LEAVE?"
But eventually it will turn back around and that sad town will be spending "too much" on "useless" things like culture or businesses are "burdened" by historical preservation that kept the city decently beautiful. And it will fall back into a shit hole. Cyclical.
12
I seem to recall Jon Stewart showing a clip of Beck a couple of months ago where he praised the fact that he could go to the libraries specifically because they were free and didn't cost him one red cent. Which is where Stewart went apoplectic about taxes etc.
But, really, who needs consistency?
But, really, who needs consistency?
13
Actually, Philadelphia's Mayor Nutter did try to close a bunch of libraries last year. There were a lot of essential services under threat in the Mayor's "Doomsday Budget," but the libraries and swimming pools emerged as particularly evocative symbols. Working-class people formed the Coalition to Save the Libraries (and the allied Coalition for Essential Services) and successfully kept all the libraries open. It was one of the most inspiring stories of 2009. Obviously extremely underreported outside Philly.
14
Gee, who else can I think of that despised the arts?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Degenerate_…
http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/Files/P…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Degenerate_…
http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/Files/P…
Advertisement
Most Commented on Slog
-
SL Letter of the Day: Daddy Loves Who? by Dan Savage
-
SL Letter of the Day: Life Sentence by Dan Savage
-
Crowdsourcing Uncut Police Video from the Dec. 12 Occupy Protest at the Port of Seattle by Eli Sanders
-
Slog Bible Study: Deuteronomy 21:10-14 by Goldy
-
The AP Is Reporting That Whitney Houston Is Dead by Paul Constant
-
The Onion Is on a Roll: "Iran Worried U.S. Might Be Building 8,500th Nuclear Weapon" by Charles Mudede
-
Announcing The Stranger's Tournament of Dunces! Who's the Dumbest Representative in the State House? by Christopher Frizzelle
-
Survey Says: Cyclists Would Rather Give Up Sex Than Their Bikes by Bethany Jean Clement
-
Stranger Tournament of Dunces, Match 3: Rep. Mark Hargrove vs. Rep. Norma Smith by Eli Sanders
-
Rachel Maddow Uncovered the Secret Ron Paul Strategy by Paul Constant
RSS
Facebook
Twitter
Comments (14) RSS