The United States needs to construct a fence around the entire nation to stop lunatics from spreading our crazy virus to the rest of the world. I think I know the root cause of the epidemic—deinstituionalization.

Forty years ago, I produced and reported a documentary about the East Louisiana State Hospital, a sprawling campus in the town of Jackson. Founded in 1847 as the Insane Asylum of Louisiana, the hospital mirrored the evolution of mental health treatment in the country—although vestiges of the past could be found in the basement of the main building where long abandoned dungeons were located.

Throughout history, confinement in mental institutions has been a guessing game. A psychiatrist I interviewed for the documentary said decisions were sometimes the result of geography. A person considered mentally ill in a rural community of north Louisiana might be viewed as slightly eccentric in New Orleans. Indeed, until the latter half of the 1900’s, bipolar depression was often diagnosed as a form of lunacy.

Nowadays, even the most severely impaired patients—mostly schizophrenics—can be treated with medications and released from institutions. So long as they continue to pop pills and maintain contact with outpatient clinics, they can usually function in a reasonably normal manner. But the big flaw in desinstituionalization is lack of follow-up. Most big cities and urban areas have sizeable populations of street people, who forgot or refused to take medications.

Worse, the nation’s airwaves and political chambers are overrun by insane characters in need of medication. Even shrinks forget their drugs. That was apparent last night on CNN’s Larry King show when Dr. Laura announced she was ending her long-running radio show in order to exercise her First Amendment rights. 

http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/17/dr-laura-schlessinger-to-end-radio-show/?hp 

Anyone reading my blog more than a couple of times knows I will “fight to the death” (ho, ho) in defense of the First Amendment. But nearly 100 years ago, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes noted that free speech does not cover “falsely shouting fire in a crowded theater.” Dr. Laura’s comment that the “N” word was commonly used by African Americans on cable shows and in other venues was not false. However, her repeated use of the word was designed to inflame, thus making it equivalent to shouting fire. Hopefully, Dr. Laura will locate her pill bottle.

So what happens to the radio audience that has now been infected with her insanity. They can find refuge by turning the dial to Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and an array of radio talk show hosts, who make listeners feel like they have entered the lockdown ward of a mental hospital. Or they can find a Tea Party demonstration where folks dress in costumes similar to outfits that once got people admitted to asylums. I’m guessing these are the same people who overdosed on Glenn Beck. Consider, for instance, this excerpt from Media Matters, which is staffed by people strong enough to monitor Beck.

Back in April, Glenn Beck informed his radio listeners that during his trip to the Vatican, an “individual” there told him that “what you’re doing is wildly important” in the upcoming struggle against forces of “great darkness.”

Earlier the same week, Beck explained that he was promoting “the plan that [God] would have me articulate, I think, to you,” against “darkness.” While notable on their own merits, Beck’s comments were especially striking because they marked what was (at the time) the culmination of Beck’s regular portrayal of himself as fighting on behalf of “good” against the forces of “evil” and “darkness.”

Since then, Beck has made it abundantly clear that he does not use this sort of language metaphorically — he quite literally believes he is fighting on the side of God against Satan. In the months since his trip to the Vatican, Beck has ramped up the frequency and intensity with which he frames the current political debate in our country in biblical, and sometimes apocalyptic, terms.

For example, in recent months, Beck has:

• Compared Barack Obama to Lucifer.

• Looked skyward on his TV show and said, “Lord, it’s your turn, we’ve done everything we can” while comparing the current situation in our country to Stephen King’s post-apocalyptic novel The Stand. In the same segment, Beck also told people they need to ask for forgiveness, and said that “we’re in a dark, dark place” and “dark dudes” are “coming our way.” He added, “Now, I’m hoping the guy with horns doesn’t actually show up, but he could.”

• Explained that we are fighting “the oldest battle that man has ever fought. It is the battle in the war in heaven. It is the battle that we fought in the Garden of Eden. Choice.” Beck also compared Obama and his administration to the snake in the Garden of Eden because he “will make the choices for you.”

• Hosted a panel of pastors and preachers that he billed as “people that need to start standing up.” During the show, Beck plugged the “excellent” book by Rev. John Hagee, Can America Survive? 10 Prophetic Signs That We Are the Terminal Generation, which he apparently had just started reading. Hagee’s book interprets biblical prophecy to argue that the world is fast approaching Armageddon and the second coming of Jesus Christ. Beck explicitly endorsed Hagee’s theory by stating as fact that “a lot of the pieces that have never been here for the prophecy are here now.”

• Repeatedly suggested that progressives and liberals are “enemies of God” and “enemies of Him,” and declared that they “don’t have [God] on their side.”

• Told his listeners to “make no mistake: You are fighting a power far greater, far greater than any elected official. This has been the works for a very long time.” He then warned that the “gates of Hell will open up.”

This brings us to Beck’s upcoming “Restoring Honor” rally, which is slated to take place in two weeks. Beck has repeatedly described the rally as historic and modestly declared that it “will be remembered in American history as the turning point.” As he has explained it, Beck originally wanted to schedule the rally for September 12, but didn’t want people to “work on the Sabbath,” so he rescheduled it for August 28. When he later discovered that this date marked the 47th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech, rather than chalking it up to coincidence, Beck claimed that it was “divine providence.”

Just think about that for a second — Beck is so convinced he is working on behalf of the forces of “good” that he believes God made sure the date of his self-aggrandizement festival coincided with the anniversary of a landmark speech by a civil rights icon.

Beck’s messianic religiosity took the next logical step this week, when he announced a new event scheduled on the eve of the 8-28 rally. Employing his characteristic humility, the event will be titled “Glenn Beck’s Divine Destiny” and will feature “nationally-known figures from all faiths.” Beck describes the evening as an “eye-opening” event “that will help heal your soul.”

While Beck regularly garners plenty of attention, his increasingly intense religiosity has flown mostly under the radar. If we’re to take him at his word, then he sincerely believes that he is fighting on behalf of God against the forces of Satan — or as Beck calls them, “progressives.” If that isn’t the case, then he’s cynically using biblical fearmongering in order to continue to grow his brand and score political points. I’m not sure which is worse. Either way, it’s deserving of more attention

A blog reader asked a few days ago why I continued to beat up on Beck, Sean Hannity, Limbaugh, Fox “News,” et al. The short answer is that deinstituionalization has gone too far. A nut virus has been spread by the aforementioned characters and the Republican Propaganda Network, which hides behind the ridiculous misnomer of “fair and balanced.”

Freedom of speech and/or opinions is not an issue when it comes to “falsely shouting fire in a crowded theater.” And the distortion and lies on Fox and talk radio fall into that category. As the abandonment of dungeons at East Louisiana State Hospital attests, raving lunatics can be treated with drugs. My guess is there are medications powerful enough to treat madmen (and women, or should I say madpersons to be politically correct) polluting the airwaves. Lighter doses are required for most of the loony politicians, although there are exceptions.

And speaking of Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich, I can’t decide if they are the cause or effect of the epidemic of nuttiness. Newt probably falls into the first category given his shennigans that go back more than two decades—even before Fox “News” was created by Satan himself, Rupert Murdoch. Although the Wasilla flash, Sarah Palin, was infected late, she has become the “Typhoid Mary” of the epidemic.

But as I have said many times before, I always try to see the glass as half full. The upside to all the nuttiness in our country is that we are providing comic relief to many other nations during a worldwide economic downslide that has no borders. Even so, anyone in foreign lands watching the antics that have now become pervasive in the United States must be wondering what happened to our country.

If we don’t build fences to keep the nuts inside our borders, other nations are sure to build them to keep us out.

My memoir, Odyssey of a Derelict Gunslinger, is available at amazon.com and independent bookstores. It offers much more than $19.99 worth of laughs. The book is an account of my illustrious (I choose the adjectives) career.

Get your life in order. I have horrible news for 99.9 percent of the nation’s population that failed to watch Mike Huckaby’s recent show on the Fox “News” network. The end is near! Not for Huckaby’s program or Fox, both of which would be good news in my opinion. But for the world. Old smiley face himself, Tim LaHaye, revealed that President Obama’s policies are bringing us closer to the Apocalypse. 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/28/tim-lahaye-evangelical-ch_n_662621.html

Fundamentalist preacher Tim LaHaye and co-author Jerry Jenkins have published several books about the Apocalpse—the most popular being the fictional novel, Left Behind. LaHaye’s doomsday prediction was prodded by former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckaby, a 2012 Presidential aspirant. 

The Fox talk show host was a Southern Baptist minister prior to entering politics. I guess Huckaby decided to mix with sinners in the same manner as Jesus taking His meassage to prostitutes, thieves and other malefactors two millenniums ago. Although Huckaby says he believes parts of the Bible are allegorical, he still accepts the Good Book as inerrant.

So why is he planning for 2012? He seemed to sort of nod in agreement when LaHaye predicted that we were in the last days. And Revelations is pretty explicit about the coming Apocalypse. So by 2012, Obama will have inflicted whatever damage Lahaye claims is a forerunner to the end of times. After all, the President has been successful in passing legislation he promised to support during the 2008 campaign. Could it be that Huckaby expects to be “left behind” when the Rapture raises Christian believers to the great beyond.

I don’t know if Presbyterians will qualify. Just in case, though, I’m keeping my hair trimmed, fingernails clipped and using under-arm deordorant. According to LaHaye’s novel, we will be stripped of clothing during the Ascension. I wish my body was in better shape. If I die beforehand, I want to be cremated. That way I will get a new body. When restored in Heaven, perhaps God will make me taller, more muscular and better looking. I would like whiter teeth, too. No amount of flossing whitens my toothies.  

I joke, of course. Or am I simply blasphemous? Actually, it is not difficult to believe that the end is near. Driving on I-20 through Alabama this weekend, I passed a billboard asking a stupid question in big print. WHERE IS THE BIRTH CERTIFICATE?  Barack Obama’s “Certificate of Live Birth” is displayed on the Internet at thousands of sites such as the Los Angeles Times, as well as copies of contemporaneous newspaper notices of his birth.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2008/06/obama-birth.html

At first, I was embarrassed to see the billboard in the state in which I grew up. Then it occured to me that the sign represents economic progress in Alabama—visible evidence that even morons in the state can afford to buy roadside billboards.

There is less encouraging news from Tennessee—the state where I was born. Republican U.S. Representative Zack Wamp has raised the issue of the nation’s states leaving the union in protest of President Obama’s policies.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/23/AR2010072305420.html?wpisrc=nl_headline

Texas Governor Rick Perry previously talked about secession. But damn it, he has yet to follow through. Promises, promises. Anyway, with a name like “Zack Wamp,” the Tennessee congressman must mean business. This causes me worries since I don’t have my original birth certificate—only a certified copy. Does this mean I will have to acquire a Green Card? I know there are there are worse things than being deported to Tennessee. Just think of the people who migrated from Texas to other states and will have to go back. In Tennessee, I will at least be close to the Grand Ole Opry. Even so, my closest friends are here in Louisiana and I prefer to stay. Besides, BP oil gives my oyster poboys a unique flavor.

Finally, I can’t begin this week’s blog posts without warning readers of a national health hazard. It is called “Glenn Beck Disorder.” Seems that one of his nutso fans hoped to quicken the pace of the revolution that ”Dr.” Beck advocates. I pass along this info from Media Matters.

On July 18, an apparently deranged ex-convict named Byron Williams packed his truck with guns and allegedly set out to kill employees at both the ACLU and the Tides Foundation in the hopes that his actions would “start a revolution.” Williams’ mother indicated that her son was angry because of his unemployment and “what’s happening to our country.” According to her, Williams watched television news and was upset by “the way Congress was railroading through all these left-wing agenda items.” Sound familiar?

While the ACLU has long been a bogeyman for conservatives, the Tides Foundation is far more obscure and hasn’t earned nearly as much attention from the right-wing media. There is, however, one media figure who has made the little-known Tides Foundation a focal point of his attacks: Fox News’ Glenn Beck.

As we detailed, Beck has repeatedly demonized the Tides Foundation on his Fox News program – referencing the organization at least thirty times by our count. Beck often includes Tides in his bizarre conspiracy theories, and has referred to them as a “shady organization” that is a “major source of revenue for some of the most extreme groups on the left” and wants to “warp your children’s brains.”

In the wake of the attempted attack, Beck has stood by his attacks on Tides, going so far as to brag about “turning the light of day” on Tides while also pointing to their inclusion on his blackboard as “the first time that I really realized its success.”

Beck’s denial of any responsibility for this incident is complicated by his almost-daily use of overtly violent rhetoric. Among many, many other examples, Beck has:

• Suggested Obama is pushing America toward civil war and deliberately “trying to destroy the country.”
• Capped two weeks of violent fear mongering about progressives by warning that when their attempts at a “soft revolution” fail, eventually progressives “just start shooting people.”
• Said the “people around the president” support “armed insurrection” and “bombing.”
• Repeatedly insinuated that the Obama administration will kill him.
• Used a quote from Jefferson to launch into a warning about coming “rivers of blood.”
• Compared himself to “Israeli Nazi hunters” and announced that “to the day I die, I am going to be a progressive hunter.”
• Included in his advice to Liberty University grads that they should ”shoot to kill,” and that graduates “have a responsibility” tospeak out, or “blood…will be on our hands.”
• Informed viewers that the “world is on edge” and said that “those who survive” will “stand in the truth” and “listen.”
• Said that some progressive groups don’t have ”a problem with blood in the streets.”

And just recently, Beck claimed the present day will seem like good times “when we’re behind barbed wire and just eating rock soup.” Despite the fact that he routinely suggests progressives are going to kill or imprison his viewers and listeners, Beck tries to thread the needle by urging his followers not to resort to violence. As Media Matters’ Matt McLaughlin asked this week, what does it say about Beck’s rhetoric and his audience that he feels it necessary to tell his followers not to kill people?

The fact that Glenn Beck even has a sizeable number of people believing him strongly suggests to me that the Apocalypse must be close. It is certainly better evidence than the Obama agenda.

My memoir, Odyssey of a Derelict Gunslinger, is available at amazon.com and independent bookstores. It offers much more than $19.99 worth of laughs. The book is an account of my illustrious (I choose the adjectives) career.

Against my better judgment many years ago, I signed off on hiring a relatively inexperienced wire service reporter to work with me in a television investigative reporting unit. It turned out to be a disaster, especially when I allowed her to conduct an important on-camera interview with a character vital to an ongoing exposé. She didn’t allow man a chance to complete a single sentence. Her constant confrontational interruptions rendered the interview useless. I don’t blame the reporter. It was my mistake in hiring her. She was simply trying to do a Mike Wallace imitation, not realizing that he allowed people to rattle on until their egos entrapped them. The Mike Wallace technique, by the way, won me a lot of journalism awards.

Anyway, watching the unbelieveable rudeness of Fox “News” anchor Megyn Kelly early this week reminded me of the long ago interview disaster that I facilitated. Kelly’s boorish interview of New York Post columnist and political commentator Kirsten Powers had all the class of a drunken honky-tonk brawl. Powers—a moderate voice regularly heard on the Republican propaganda network—was not allowed in this instance to express any opinion contradicting Kelly’s obvious racial prejudice.

http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/fnc/megyn_kelly_to_kirsten_powers_with_respect_you_dont_seem_to_know_what_youre_talking_about_167499.asp

Megyn Kelly’s screech on her program, America Live, may explain why she gave up the practice of law to enter broadcasting. Had she displayed similar demeanor in a courtroom, Kelly would be spending time in a jail cell for contempt of court. 

The context of the interview was obviously Kelly’s belief that the U.S. Department of Justice engaged in a form of reverse racism by failing to pursue default judgments in lawsuits accusing members of the Black Panthers of imtimidating voters outside a precinct in Philadelphia during the November, 2008 Presidential election. A malcontent, who formerly worked in the Justice Department’s Civil Right’s Division, claims that the Obama Administration and African American Attorney General Eric Holder are going easy on black activist groups like the Panthers. Media Matters covered the issue pretty thoroughly this week.

In short, conservative media outlets have been aggressively promoting the charge by GOP activist J. Christian Adams that President Obama’s Justice Department engaged in racially charged “corruption” when it partially dismissed a case against members of the New Black Panther Party for allegedly engaging in voter intimidation outside of a Philadelphia polling center on Election Day in 2008.

As we have documented extensively, Adams should not be trusted. He is a long-time right-wing activist with extensive ties to the Bush-era politicization of the Justice Department. Adams himself has admitted that he lacks first-hand knowledge to support his accusations. Additionally, Adams’ charge that the DOJ’s action in the New Black Panther case shows unprecedented, racially motivated corruption is undermined by the fact that the Obama DOJ obtained judgment against one of the defendants, and that the Bush DOJ declined to pursue similar allegations against a group of Minutemen — one of whom was carrying a gun — in 2006.

Even the Republican vice chairwoman of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights called the New Black Panthers case “very small potatoes” and said an investigation into the DOJ’s decision is full of “overheated rhetoric filled with insinuations and unsubstantiated charges.”

And yet again, the fact that this is a completely manufactured scandal didn’t stop conservative media figures from engaging in one of their time-honored traditions: attempting to obscure their own problems with race by accusing others of racism.

Radio host Jim Quinn — who once told “race-baiting” African-American “ingrates” to “get on your knees” and “kiss the American dirt” because slavery brought them to the U.S. — hyped the New Black Panther story by calling the civil rights community “race-baiting poverty pimps.”

Rush Limbaugh — who earlier this week announced that if Obama wasn’t black he’d be a “tour guide in Honolulu” and claimed Obama is using the office of the presidency to seek “payback” for the country’s history of racism — forwarded Adams’ charge that the case was dropped because of racially charged corruption.

Beck, who infamously called President Obama a “racist” with a “deep seated hatred for white people or the white culture,” declared that the Obama administration is “full” of “people that will excuse” the “hatred” of the New Black Panthers. He also relied on falsehoods to try to connect Obama to the New Black Panthers, and claimed today that the New Black Panthers are part of Obama’s “army of thugs.”

If the U.S. Justice Department has adopted a policy of not prosecuting black activists, word of the change has not reached Louisiana. On the west bank of the Mississippi River,African American mayors of Port Allen, New Roads and White Castle were indicted earlier this month, along with a black police chief. A fourth African American mayor is under investigation in the same case. Unless the Justice Department has changed its procedures, the Public Integrity Division in Washington reviews cases involving public officials prior to indictments. Regardless, the recent arrests tends to dispute claims of racial favortism.

Sadly, I sometimes get the feeling that our country is on the verge of returning to the bad old days of race divisions. The NAACP adopted a resolution this week condemning the tea party movement for providing aid and comfort to bigots. If some of the demonstrations are an indications, white hate groups have found a place to spew their hatred. Granted, they are a small minority. But their very presence undermines the legitimacy of the tea party.

I would hope the country had reached a point that resolutions such as the one adopted by the  NAACP were unnecessary. But the election of Barack Obama has triggered the worst in many people. And disgracefully, they are being cheered on by the Fox “News,” its pundits and anchors, and scores of right-wing characters polluting the nation’s airwaves.

Racism is still alive in America. If you don’t believe it, look up the definition of the word in your dictionary.

My memoir, Odyssey of a Derelict Gunslinger, is available at amazon.com and independent bookstores. It offers much more than $19.99 worth of laughs. The book is an account of my illustrious (I choose the adjectives) career.

As a Father’s Day gift, my wife—a child bride, some friends say—gave me Bill Press’s recently published book, Toxic Talk: How the Radical Right has Poisoned America’s Airwaves. I mentioned to her that wanted the book, even though it was like a choir member requesting a hymnal that he or she had memorized. But reading the book was the first time that I have seen the magnitude of the lies gathered in one place, which is a rather mind-boggling experience.

I don’t recommend the book as a great piece of literature. Press is a liberal Democrat and freely admits his political prejudices. But he did his homework in gathering examples of the lies, distortions and misinformation that dilutes the airwaves. One chapter each is devoted to liars Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity and Michael Savage. Two guys with an ounce of brains, presumably—Harvard graduates Bill O’Reilly and Lou Dobbs—share a chapter. That’s too bad because they are probably the worst of the bunch because they have enough sense (a quantam leap on my part) to know they are exploiting fans for personal gain. In a matter of a few paragraphs, the book also cites a few wannabe stars of the far right.

Toxic Talk isn’t particularly well written. However, it catalogues abuses under specific headings and uses direct quotes from radio and television shows hosted by the wild-eyed characters, most of whom seem devoid of consciences since they will say anything for a buck.

Actually, Glenn Beck falls in a different category altogether. From all appearances, he is simply mentally unbalanced. Take, for example, his most recent outbreak of lunacy.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/06/22/glenn-beck-vomits-over-na_n_621551.html

The Bill Press book fills in gaps for me. I have a hard time listening or watching the ranting of wing-nuts for more than a few minutes. Fortunately, I get to watch a lot of right-wing antics on television’s two most legitmate news shows—Jon Stewart’s The Daily Show and Stephen Colbert. For my reading pleasure, Media Matters keeps me abreast with the lunatic fringe. The liberal left-wing Internet site obviously monitors and transcribes AM radio craziness and political distortions of GOP propaganda outlet, Fox “News.”

Speaking of which.

Over the past ten years, I’ve regularly worked out at health clubs in two golf communities— first in Georgia following my retirement from CNN, and more recently in my adopted home of Louisiana. I’m guessing the majority of my neighbors in both places are die hard Republicans. Arriving for my 6:30 exercise time in the morning, the television has almost always been on Fox “News.” I find that a bit surprising because in both communities, a large percentage of the residents are well-educated college graduates. Sadly, though, most apparently don’t subscribe to newspapers or major news magazines. If so, I believe they would have doubts about what Fox represents as “fair and balanced” news. Instead, I hear intelligent folks—including some members of my family—parroting the propaganda, lies and distortions proselytized by Fox and its pundits. It would be interesting to hear their responses if they took time to read Toxic Talk. But that ain’t gonna happen. Facts only confuse these people.

And late word just in.

CNN announced today that it has hired a narcissistic, whore-hopping egomaniac to replace Campbell Brown as a prime time anchor. Former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer—a disgraced liberal Democrat—will host the show with Washington Post conservative columnist, Kathleen Parker. I really don’t care about Spitzer’s taste for hookers, his narcissism or outsized ego. What I care about is CNN’s decision to replace a news program with an updated version Crossfire, a program that aired many years ago when I worked for the network. 

Coincidentally, given the topic of this post, Toxic Talk author Bill Press was the liberal voice on Crossfire. Pat Buchanan occupied the chair on the right. The show was entertaining. But it didn’t qualify as news, nor occupy a prime time slot. In my opinion, the mummy show, Larry King, provides enough entertainment for CNN’s prime time. But what the hell do I know?

I predicted that Rich Sanchez would replace Campbell Brown. So the bad news that CNN is dumping a news show is tempered by the good news that I was wrong.

My memoir, Odyssey of a Derelict Gunslinger, is available at amazon.com and independent bookstores. It offers much more than $19.99 worth of laughs. The book is an account of my illustrious (I choose the adjectives) career.