I know, I know. He's an escaped mental patient who somehow weaseled his way into having a television show and I probably shouldn't be letting his psychopathic rants get to me. But this one hit close to home:
BECK: He chose to use his name, Barack, for a reason. To identify, not with America -- you don't take the name Barack to identify with America. You take the name Barack to identify with what? Your heritage? The heritage, maybe, of your father in Kenya, who is a radical? Really? Searching for something to give him any kind of meaning, just as he was searching later in life for religion.
In other words, the name "Barack" isn't really an American name. Never mind that "America" isn't an American name either. It's Italian.
Which leads me to the close to home part. I really admire the president for dropping "Barry" and going with his given Barack name. It's something I'm not quite brave enough to do at this point -- my given first name being "Roberto." But I probably won't ever use that name since I've identified myself with Bob since the fifth grade (before that, it was Bobby).
Actually, come to think of it, I mispronounce my last name. The proper pronunciation is "CHESS-kuh." I use "SESS-kuh," as did my Italian grandparents who came through Ellis Island. Nevertheless, the correct Italian pronunciation is CHESS-kuh.
When I was in radio, a Top 40 station once insisted that I use a fake radio name. Because my name was too "ethnic." Suffice to say, I endured that insult for far too long. About six months, then I quit.
Anyway, if I were to choose to use my full given name, I'd like to think it would be regarded as being equally as American as the millions upon millions of other immigrant names in the phone book. Speaking of the phone book, there are at least 100 "Glenn Beck" listings at the White Pages website. Probably hundreds more. Does that make his name more American than, say, Eisenhower? Or Petraeus?
But here we are again. Glenn Beck besmirching a noble name. During the campaign, he referred to the president as "Osama," then corrected himself with the excuse, "Unfortunate name." No. You know what? It's a unique and dignified name. Glenn Beck, on the other hand, has an unfortunate face -- because whenever I see it, I want to punch it.
End rant.