The Funniest Scream Since Howard Dean

"I'm gonna lose my mind today."
--Glenn Beck, July 15

Let it be known that Glenn Beck can keep a promise.

A couple of days ago, Kathy and I were at the Briggs Farm Blues Festival, and weather was coming in. Bad weather. We were just heading off on a hayride tour of the farm when they announced from the stage that there was a tornado warning.

For some reason, the farm tour continued (maybe the warning was for a half-hour from then -- the tour only took a few minutes), and then were told to go to our cars and wait. So we did, sitting in Kathy's car in the middle of a field, shunting from AM station to AM station searching for weather reports. (We found a few, none of which said squat about tornadoes.) Eventually we settled on some crazy, Art-Bell style conspiracy theorist who we eventually figured out was Glen Beck.

Beck was just beginning a weird, insinuous rant about how there was a book by a French group called The Invisible Committee that was a blueprint for revolution, not by the crazy right-wing groups (which are perfectly harmless, despite the recent fatal shooting at the Holocaust Museum and the assassination of George Tiller in church), but by crazy left-wing groups (which will destroy our way of life if we're not careful, despite spending most of their time making giant puppets). We didn't wait around for an explanation about how a blueprint for revolution could only be used for one side and not the other; we just enjoyed the crazy until the rain stopped and, when it seemed safe, got out of the car and rejoined our friends. But man, Beck was clearly headed for Crazytown like it's his regular commute.

So imagine my delight when I followed this link. Just listen to Glenn Beck get unhinged at a caller on today's show who challenged him on universal healthcare. You should listen from the beginning to get the full effect, but from 3 minutes to 3:45 is where the really money-clip is.

He completely--completely!--loses his marbles. And really, even if you agree with him (I don't, no surprise), you've gotta admit that it sounds like there's so much pressure in his brain that steam is blasting from his ears and his eyeballs are splashing all over the mic.

Rob