Sorry for the punch-me face this early on a Saturday, but watch:
I mentioned on Elvis Doggiecream's radio show the other night a possible explanation for Glenn Beck's ratings. If there were a raving street loon shouting prophetic nonsense in the middle of your block, everyone would open their front doors and look.
Granted, the police would eventually be called, but for a decent chunk of time, everyone would be staring -- amazed, "Look at that crazy street loon! He's shouting nonsense!" That said, there's also a chance that a few people would say to themselves, "That raving street loon made some sense when he said squirrels are eating our pants. By 'squirrels' he means the government! Oooh! Damn you, government!"
Ultimately, the people who buy these wild conspiracy theories coming from Beck's bulbous melon are probably into that sort of thing anyway and there's not much that can be done. And that's probably a good thing. My hope is that Beck becomes a bug-zapper of sorts for Republican politicians. The more popular Beck becomes, the greater the odds of Republicans being hypnotically drawn to him. And then -- ZAP! Politically incinerated by the crazy.