Glenn Beck seems to be angling for a columnist position at the Weekly World News. Here he talks with Rabbi Daneil Lapin about the headquarters of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France. He suggests that the headquarters is intended to look like the Tower of Babel:
I think the image he’s using for the tower is The Tower of Babel by Pieter Bruegel, painted in the 16th century. Quite obviously not what a tower in Babylon would have looked like. For the record, I think most historians agree that the authors of Genesis were thinking of a ziggurat, or stepped pyramid.
It helps to be a little dim if you want to take this guy seriously.
A little dim? I think you’d have to be in possession of weapons-grade stupid in order to take Beck seriously.
I suppose in the mind of Glenn Beck it makes perfect sense for a bunch af atheist EU politicians to model their parliament building on a mythical tower that was was allegedly built to reach God in the sky. I guess they really must believe in God after all.
Yeah, probably the european parliament is going to reach the sky so we can go to see god there. I’m glad I can’t understand Beck’s tought’s processes.
I bet they loved that at the Rapture Ready forums.
The Parliament looks to me like a stack of old movie canisters, so it’s probably a plot by Turner Classic Movies.
What a dick cheese.
Unlike fix noise, the weekly world news has some journalistic standards so they won’t have someone like Glenn Beck on.
Actually I find Beck can be fairly entertaining if he tries to be, but he tends to be obnoxious instead. He could probably make it as a WWN journalist if it still were around.
Though I’m not convinced he knows how to write, so maybe not.
I don’t even bother watching these anymore – Beck is just too much of a retard.
idiot
Wow! I didn’t know they had photography back in the olden days!
See, everyone’s ragging on Beck here, but he honestly wasn’t that bad in this video. He even played the incredulous roll at the rabbi’s claims. It’s the rabbi that’s especially dumb in this clip.
Funny. I thought about Bruegel’s “Tower” when I first saw this image.
http://www.prisonplanet.com/images/october2010/141010top2.jpg
Beck (after pointing out the similarities): “Coincidence?”
Me: “Yes.”
“It steps down, all the unfinished work, in both pictures… strange…”
Since when can we build against gravity?
If I didn’t see this I’d never believe an adult human could be so blatantly and wantonly ignorant.. surely he can’t believe all of the stupid shit he says. It’s almost as if his brain has diarrhea.
I think Beck just takes advantage of morons to make himself money and sell gold. That said, he has been doing it for so long he is probably starting to believe some of the stuff he says.
And if you don’t watch The Daily Show regularly like me, enjoy.
http://www.thecomedynetwork.ca/Displayblog.aspx?bpid=5881bcee-b4c6-4932-b0ac-a11152672677
It is a statistical fact that 50% of the population are below average intelligence, so perhaps he is playing for that demographic.
Mean, not average. Nice moment of irony there ;-)
Median, not mean. Mean is a synonym for average.
Now who looks dumb?
Oh snap! Now we just need to do a comment using the word average in the sense of ‘mode’, as in, “The average Christian is suspicious of evolutionary theory.”
Bam! Trifecta.
FWIW, way back in the day when I was learning the distinctions between mean, median, and mode, the text (and teacher) did stress that all three were acceptable synonyms in English for ‘average’, which is why it is crucial to understand from context which sense is meant.
They are all measures of central tendency, but in common parlance “average” means “mean.”
I don’t know if that is a technical specification, but it is definitely the most common usage.
“Median, not mean. Mean is a synonym for average?”
I was wondering just how close to 50% the mean would actually be. After all wouldn’t intelligence be uniform enough in its distribution that the thickies balance out the egg heads so giving an answer that is as close to 50% to be 50%?
p.s. What do the vast majority of people have that is above average?
Ha! I thought that comment might cause some controversy. I just thought that the gag worked better using the word “average”.
When the word average is used it generally does mean the mean (no pun intended) but there are places where it isn’t used. The average wage in the UK is (IIRC) the median as otherwise it’s skewed badly by the “super” rich.
Number of limbs.
Obviously there are many answers to this question.
Heart rate. The average for all humans ever is very close to zero. Mine is currently a very relaxed 55 beats per minute.
One good sized lunch later, up to 70 beats per minute as my sympathetic nervous system recognises that my digestive tract needs more blood and to up the flow to my hepatic system…. Ah, biology! Wonderful subject :-)
So…most humans have 0 beats per minute -yes, they are dead- and only a little proportion are above average. I go with limbs, number of eyes… for alive people, of course.
I haven’t seen the distribution, but I agree with Jabster, the median and the mean of intelligence should be pretty close
If it is a normal distribution, then the mean would be near 50%.
I don’t think people are normal at all.
Damn!
Beck seems to think they are both photographs.
Yes, yes, funny and all, but millions of people in the US take this fuckwit seriously. It’s lovely to write blog posts about it, and have a little chuckle, but what are you going to do exactly?
What are YOU going to do?
This is the USA, where fuckwit rantings are legally protected speech. All you can really do is point out how stupid it is.
Perhaps this “Fraser” would like for Daniel or vorjack to issue a fatwa?
I don’t understand the point he is trying to make…………..?
Who knows. Probably something about the evils of Big Government or something about sinful pride.
Oh, crap, I think I get what he’s probably attempting to get at. You see, his viewers are Real Americans who believe the Bible with all their “heart.” And, because they probably subscribe to a strand of Christianity and nationalism that views the rest of the world as…well, evil, it might be that this piece plays upon fears of the European Union as a step towards a “One World Order.” Presenting the headquarters of this European Parliament (ZOMG, One World Government!!) as “looking” like the “Tower of Babel” could be read as shorthand for something wicked (God, for some reason, wasn’t happy about this tower and decided to frak it all up–some Christians think that this was the beginning of the different races/language groups).
That is actually my guess as well. To a mindless fundie the evil EU is part of the New World Order, so of course they would emulate the Tower of Babel. This explanation makes the fundies feel smart when they can point out the heavyhanded biblical symbolism. Never mind that if the EU politicians really were agents of the antichrist it would be pretty stupid of them to go about their agenda in such an obvious way. And anyway, why would they repeat a story that ended in their demise the first time? But of course such minor details shouldn’t get in the way of an explanation that fits so deliciously perfect with what the fundies already know to be true.
I forgot to add that the shorthand for all of this is: BEWARE the European Union, for it will probably kinda sorta bring about the Apocalypse/Rapture/whatever Christian millennial dispensationalism you subscribe to.
I like Beck – but then I’m a conservative/libertarian. I just turn him off when he starts preaching.
How can you tell the difference?