Glenn Beck must be planning to go out in a blaze of glory. He apparently called Mike Huckabee a ‘progressive’ because of his support of First Lady Michelle Obama over her childhood obesity initiatives. Anyone who knows anything about Mike Huckabee knows he has continually fought his own personal weight demons and has written a book on the subject. He also has done some of his own crusading while governor of Arkansas towards childhood obesity.
According to Huffington Post:
Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee shot back on Thursday at recent claims made by Glenn Beck that he is a “progressive,” a word that the conservative radio host often uses to describe some of his most prominent enemies.
Beck declaredearlier this week that Huckabee was “John McCain” and a “progressive” because of his choice to defend First Lady Michelle Obama’s anti-obesity initiative while other conservatives were getting in on the fray.
Huckabee retaliated with a poston his PAC’s website Thursday, standing by his support of the First Lady’s program and even taking a few shots of his own at Beck.
“This week Glenn Beck has taken to his radio show to attack me as a Progressive, which he has said is the same as a ‘cancer’ and a ‘Nazi,'” Huckabee wrote. “What did I do that apparently caused him to link me to a fatal disease and a form of government that murdered millions of innocent Jews? I had the audacity–not of hope–but the audacity to give respect to the efforts of First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move campaign to address childhood obesity.”
Huckabee continued: “He seems to fancy himself a prophet of sorts for his linking so many people and events together to describe a massive global conspiracy for pretty much everything. Sadly, he seems equally inept at recognizing the obvious fact that children are increasingly obese and that we now see clinical evidence of diseases in children that as recent as 20 years ago were found only in adults, such as Type 2 diabetes. The costs to our nation are staggering in increase health care expenses, but it even effects national security with now 75% of young men between the ages of 17 and 24 are unfit for military service primarily due to obesity!”
Then Huckabee went after Beck’s controversial history of delving into conspiracy theories.
“Beck needs to stick to conspiracies that can’t be so easily de-bunked by facts,” wrote Huckabee. “Why Beck has decided to aim his overloaded guns on me is beyond me. But he ought to clean his gun and point it more carefully lest it blow up in his face like it did this time.”
Geez, he even called him ‘John McCain.’ Mike Huckabee comes across like the nicest guy in the world. He is an ordained minister in addition to being a musician, a Fox News show host, a former governor, and a possible presidential candidate in 2012. However, this time Mike Huckabee fought back and took Bad Boy Beck to the proverbial wood shed.
I like Mike Huckabee. He and I are light-years apart on policy and political philosophy. He lost my vote 4 years ago when I saw him raise his hand saying he believed in creationism over science, However, that doesn’t make him a bad person. Beck apparently wants to go out in a blaze of glory, making sure that all of America questions his sanity. You can only go with so many conspiracy theories before people start thinking you are nuts. And Beck does wear his tin foil hat with pride.
Finally, since when is being a progressive or a liberal a bad word? When progressives are compared to cancer and Nazism, something is wrong somewhere.
I’ve never had much patience for Glen Beck. I’ve watched him from time-to-time and he does often say things I agree with; especially when he’s talking about the need to reduce spending, keep taxes low, etc. But then he goes berserk and starts blaming everything on conspiracies and mysterious figures lurking behind the scenes.
Also, I am not a liberal or progressive (as Beck would define it) but you don’t win arguments by labeling people a “cancer” or a “Nazi.” I am so sick of hearing the word “Nazi” flung around. Anyone who has studied history (I studied history extensively in college and graduate school, and taught college-level history some years ago) or has visited Holocaust memorials (I’ve been to Auschwitz in Poland and other Holocaust sites) realizes that nothing and no one in US politics comes even remotely close to the horrors of the Nazi regime. Blithely calling decent people like Mike Huckabee such names says more about Beck than it does about Huckabee.
I’m not sad to see Glen Beck go. We need solid conservatives arguing our case. That case is diminished, however, when those purportedly advocating it resort to paranoid conspiracy theories and ugly name calling, rather than facts and evidence.
CNN ran a story on persistent political myths and conspiracy theories that MH readers might enjoy:
http://www.cnn.com/2011/POLITICS/04/20/political.myths/index.html?hpt=Sbin
Thanks for your comments and the link, NTK. And I think all politicians talk about reducing spending nowadays. It is political suicide to not do so.
And you are very right. Mike Huckabee is a decent person. Michelle Obama is to be commended for her war on childhood obesity and Huckabee is to be commended for overcoming politics to support her iniatives.
Oh, brother, did you land in the wrong place. Should have been around for the “rule of law” issue. The term “Nazi” got used by the pro-illegal immigration camp to the point that it became a generic term.
Yeah, Nazi…everyone is offended until Tea-Partyists characterize Obama as a Nazi. Then it’s okay.
Who is pro-illegal immigration, Slow? I don’t know anyone. I see plenty of people in favor of forced emigration and bigotry, however. I guess that’s okay so long as some of us keep our mouths shut.
I’m not huge on Huckabee, but I do like his response.
@Rick, I am not huge on him as a politician but I respect his decency. He isn’t someone I would paint as an enemy. I just wouldn’t vote for him.
@Slowpoke, you owe me an apology. I haven’t allowed anyone to be called a Nazi on moonhowlings.net. In fact, I had it as a trigger word to slam anyone using the word in moderation.
And what is forced emigration? A tactic the Nazis used, MH. It was also a tactic used by Stalin and Mao and other evil people. Want me to document those, too, so we can all feel better about ourselves? While we’re at it, we can decide to play nice and call Neo-Nazis something else. Let’s include softer terms for white supremicists as well. They deserve better descriptors, after, don’t they?
Americans forced emigration. The Trail of Tears is surely not a highlight in American history. We drove the Nez Perce into Canada. Remember Chief Joseoph?
Please note the timing and almost compulsive need to jump up and defend. Hmmm, did I hit a nerve?
Hold your breath and wait for it! If you read my comment, I’m CLEARLY talking about the time period that predates moonhowlings.net. But again, VERY quick to defend!
BTW, the “faux” news thing is still very clever!
You just covered it. Thank you. Clarification works better than apology.
At one time, in another galaxy, a blog owner thought that people should have first amendment rights. That blog owner was not me. That blog owner was nice.
I don’t believe in blog first amendment rights as several folks can attest to.
The difference in me and the dark screen is, I at least let it be known right up front.
@Posting as Pinko
We have deranged people in our society such as self-proclaimed neo-Nazis and klansmen. However, they are few and far between, law enforcement is on top of their activities, and they have virtually no influence in our political system. On a rare occaision, one of them does manage to committ a crime, just as do deranged people with no political or social agenda. McVeigh is a good example of that. He thought that what he did would make him a hero. Instead, he became a child murderer and one of the most reviled people in US history. These people are mental health rather than political problems.
If you want to bring in Stalin, Mao, bin Laden, etc. we are rising to the same level of evil as Hitler. However, my point was that nothing or no one in U.S. politics is remotely close to the Nazis. Obama, Bush, no one deserves such a label. And the Tea Party leadership opposes using such terms. They can’t prevent someone who calls him or herself a Tea Party member from saying such things, any more than organizations such as moveon.org or the SEIU can stop their members from calling Bush a Nazi, but they don’t condone it.
@Slow, and I know…YOU get it! Are your little ones all excited over the Easter bunny hopping in to town?
I had a wonderfully gross card from several favorite rabbits to put up and Elena told me NO. It was sent from Bear. Sigh…so many of you gun rights folks would have loved it.
@NTK, However, groups can take the credit for mass-producing signs with Obama sporting a Hitler-like mustache. We aren’t speaking of one sign here. And various groups have sported equally offensive signs about Bush.
I am not ready to say any one group like the tea party which has no head has or has not ever mass produced signs showing the president as Hitler.
Moveon.org at least is one group. Now, those that tag along for the ride are another thing. But at least you know where to direct your displeasure. (and I did)
Why are we having this discussion?
————————————————————–
@all
The bottom line is, Hitler and Nazi aren’t going to be used on this blog unless we are speaking of the real McCoys. They aren’t going to be permitted as derisive names for our political enemies. It just gets old.
Now if you want to talk about the Dandelion Nazis in your neighborhood, have at it.
Ha, ha, ha –
Yes the dandelion invaders, Nazis or Maoists or…. , have taken over my lawn
and my teenage mower is in Mexico for spring break.
How about Nazi Nazis?
How about dandelion al-Quaeda who hide out in their caves (basements) until the opportunity arises in the spring to start attacking and annoying their neighbors over a few yellow flowers that haven’t been clipped?
I am all for fighting obesity, regardless of whether is afflicts children or adults, through education. Where I draw the line is when governments mandate things. If a school system wants to pull the soda and snack machines out of the hallways, fine. That is their perogative. If the schools want to get rid of transfats (the latest scientific boogieman), salt, etc. in what is served in school cafeteria’s, based on the best science available, fine again. Where I draw the line is when a school system mandates that children must eat only the food offerred in the cafeteria, when at school, forbidding kids from bringing lunches packed for them by their parents. There are several school systems out west trying to do this. I also draw the line when local governments start banning ingredients that can be in the food served at restaurants. If the FDA hasn’t banned such-and-such ingredient as being harmful to human health, where do these local governments get off mandating that salt shakers must be removed from the table, or banning all transfats?
We had fat kids when I was in school, just fewer of them. Yes, Amercia has gotten heavier over the last 30 years. When I was in elementary school, we had an hour recess everyday except Wednesday, which was a half-day so the Catholic kids could attended CCD. We also had 1 hour of gym class twice a week. After school, we played in the neighborhood. We played kickball and whiffleball or touch football in the street, boys and girls. We’d call a “car freeze” if a car came, got up on the sidewalk, and after it passed, were honor-bound to go to the exact same spot we were in when the freeze was called, and game play continued. We road our bikes or walked everywhere. During the winter, the Parks & Rec would staff the school gyms, and there were supervised intermural sports like basketball, floor hockey, etc. In the summer, the kids got together at the school yard and had 63-inning baseball games. In Junior High & Highschool, recess went away, but we still had PE, and there was a plethora of JV, Varsity and intermural sports kids could elect to participate in. A lot of us had jobs. I had a paper route that I delivered via bike, or walked in the winter. Later, I became a meat-cutter at a local supermarket, and spent the afternoons and weekends throwing around boxes of frozen meat, or hanging quartered cows.
During these years, most of the kids I knew had little trouble maintaining a healthy weight. On the contrary, my mom usually cooked a box of pasta every day, just for me to supplement whatever we were having for dinner. If we were having porkchops, mashed potatos and peas, I ate that plus a box of pasta. Mom said that was the only way she could afford to feed me. We ate cereal loaded with sugar (I would kill a box of Capn Crunch) every saturday morning. At school, we ate salisbury steak, frenchbread pizza, french fires, hamburgers, and these gigantic chocolate chip cookies.
We were active kids. Our society wasn’t challenged to get or keep us active. Today, afterschool jobs for teens are rare. My paper is delivered by some guy in a station wagon. PE and recess time has been slashed or is non-existent. School sports is one of the first things cut when money is tight. If our kids do participate in sports or other activities outside of school, parents have to transport them to practice. They come home and surf the web, and play their x-boxes. Half the games we played as kids are “banned” in schools because they violate some “sensitivity policy” and might be scarred for life because they got picked last or where hit first in dodgeball.
Like I said, I’m all about Americans getting healthy. I just don’t want the government telling me what I can and cannot eat. Same thing goes for my kids. If the government “reccomends” 5 servings of fruits and vegetables each day, great. The first time someone in a “position of authority” says “Mr. Thomas, you can’t eat that, and you can’t feed it to your child either” they are going to have a fight on their hands.
Steve, I agree with you, and share the same growing up experience. What about eating out – when growing up, eating out was a treat that was seldom enjoyed – what about Soda Pop – for me, holidays only.
I see many parents allow their children to drink Soda Pop like it was water (parents included), and they eat out several times a week. I do not know what the answer is, but the diabetic and obesity rates are increasing faster than ever, and that only means more healthcare dollars to be spent to help people survive. Many parents are not parenting.
http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/trends.html
http://apps.nccd.cdc.gov/DDT_STRS2/NationalDiabetesPrevalenceEstimates.aspx?mode=DBT
Pat,
While I didn’t drink much Soda growing up, it was available in my home. Drank a fair amount of Kool Aid…the kind with lot’s of REAL sugar. We didn’t eat out much either, birthdays it was Chinese food, and maybe once or twice a month to McDonalds. Nana and Gramps, who had raised their kids during the depression, my mother included, thought it a waste of money, to be reserved for special occasions.
But we ate bacon and eggs for breakfast, toast with peanutbutter and home-made jam loaded with fat and sugar. Chicken fried in bacon grease (everything was fried in bacon grease). We ate lots of fruits and vegetables, but it was only what was “in season”. A strawberry in February came out of a mason jar, not from Mexico. I ate tons of food. We didn’t worry about “Fat Free” or “Sugar Free”. I burned it off faster than I could shovel it into my face. There was no shortage of physical activity for any of us, boys or girls. 90% of what we did to entertain ourselves didn’t involve our parents, or require parental supervision. We stayed out in all but the worst weather, and didn’t come home till the streetlights snapped on. We didn’t have AC, so you didn’t want to be in the house during the day in summer. When it snowed, as it frequently did in Boston, we shoveled snow, cut grass in the summer, and raked leaves in the fall. Now, the only people I see doing these things are the parents. The only kids showing up at my door are selling some thing I don’t need to fund a school activity.
Yes, maybe we’ve become an over-indulgent, self-centered society driven by consumerism. I also think we’ve “wussified” our kids to some degree. I played a lot of sandlot baseball, lawn football, and pond hockey, because I wanted to hold my own in the leagues. I didn’t want to be picked last when teams were chosen. I worked because that was the only way I was going to get anything beyond the basics my mother provided (good for you Ma!).
But the last thing we need is the government mandating what we can and cannot eat. They can mandate that kids will have X hours of time of organized PE in schools. They can decide what the cafeteria will serve, and if your kid eats the school lunch, that’s your decision. Telling me I can’t pack x, y, or z, in my kid’s lunch, or worse, mandating that my child MUST eat what the school system provides is stepping over the line. The government doesn’t know whether or not my kid is getting sufficient physical activity or even if my kid is so active that what the school provides is insufficent to meet my kid’s caloric needs. Calories are calories, whether they come from fats, protein, or carbs. It’s about productive activity, structured or unstructured.
I will say the portions at retaurants are out of control. Who the heck needs a burger with four 1/4 patties on it? But that’s what the market wants.
@Need to Know
I meant the people in the neighborhood who go knocking on their neighbor’s door because a dandelion has sprung up. The Dandelion Nazi raises a stink because the seed will blow in his yard.
Some airlines have ‘sky nazis’ for flight attendants.
I am speaking of trivial use of the word.
@Moon-howler
I know – that’s what I meant too. They hide indoors until they see a dandelion in someone else’s yard, then strike. I’m suggesting that “Nazi” is overused and we need to find something new. “Dandelion al-Quaeda” “Sky al-Quaeda”
Beings who lurk in the shadows and in the caves and then strike.
@Steve
Some very valid points made.
I have some questions–are country kids as out of shape as urban kids? My parents used to live in the country and I no longer see them.
Is it video games or is it because parents are afraid to let their kids outside unsupervised because of all the perverts?
I don’t know a real cause and effect to the changes in behavior.
I don’t care if schools take sodas out of the cafeteria or if they limit salt, alert you to ham in the mystery meat, or those types of things. I have mixed feelings on all the hype over peanuts or nuts in general. I don’t think that should mean that I can’t send my kid with a peanut butter sandwich though.
Forbidding cupcakes on birthdays should really be about not wasting instructional time with continual partying. Have these same schools also abandoned rewarding kids 5 times a week with pizza parties? Is pizza still served every day in cafeterias across the nation?
Probably and its because kids like it. The schools can serve all the brussel sprouts it wants…and I bet 95% of them end up in the garbage.
The govt telling private restaurants what they can and cannot serve is out. A responsible establishment shouldn’t mind posting ingredients that might cause severe allergic reaction. If the spring rolls have shrimp, then say so.
The “holiday bunny” (rolling my eyes) is making an appearance at their day care today, so maybe I’ll get a nice picture of my three year old crying about the “scary bunny” that’s holding him against his will. I get the biggest kick out of that. We see Santa Claus, and the three-year old boy sees an executioner with black leather mask and huge double-edged axe. We got our Easter baskets ready, though!
Moon,
While there may be differences in the stats between country and city folk, I wouldn’t point to the environment and say “that’s it”. Several years ago, my Niece and Nephew were visiting from Bluefield WVA. Them’s mountain folk. They had brought their Wii and hooked it up to “my” TV in the living room, and were doing something on “Wii Fit”. I wanted to watch a movie, and I guess my exasperation showed on my face. Their Mom apologized and explained it was “for school”. Videogames as a homework assignment? I was intrigued. She explained that their region of WVA had incredible child obesity rates. The region is also extremely depressed economically (coal country), so the schools had to eliminate PE to cut costs. The Fed gave the school system a grant which they used to purchase Wii units and the Wii Fit game to issue to each family with children enrolled in the public schools. They were required to play the Wii for so much time each day. I kept thinking, “why didn’t they just use the money to bring back PE?”
I grew up in the City. We knew everyone in the neighborhood. Kids were safe on our streets. Not sure if there are any more pervs out and about these days, I just think we are more aware of them. I do know I wouldn’t let my daughter run around out in the front without an adult outside, but she’s 4, and too young to be unsupervised for very long anyway.
I agree, they should not be able to tell a parent what they can or cannot pack in a lunch – but things have changed – Kool Aid with sugar has been replaced with Soda Pop with high fructose corn syrup and artificial sweetners, causing the body to react differently (ie, HFCS is metabolized into fats quicker). The bacon fat (I still use bacon fat) is replaced with trans-fat (hydrogenated vegetable oil) – which is much more unhealthy for you. And, of course the Happy Meal that has not gone bad or moldy in 180 days – http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/39656461/ns/today-food/ – is the amount of salt used?
We have allowed our food industry to create so many food cravings, that we have allowed ourselves to become sick from it – do I want the government to intercede – no, not really, do I get a Big Mac once in a while- yes, but we, as a society need to get ourselves in better shape, and continuing to consume things like calcium propionate, Azodicarbonamide, and Diacetyl Tartaric Acid Esters of Monoglycerides is not going to be good for the population health. Everything in moderation is a good thing.
@SlowpokeRodriguez
I can relate to your son. I was terrified of Santa Claus when I was a kid. My mother never did the Easter Bunny myth though. I also still fear clowns. I hate them.
@Steve, well that blows the myth about location. It must be video games. Is technology killing us?
Kids used to the house in the morning and not come back until supper time. They don’t do that now most places.
Pat,
I eat a Paleo diet for the most part (www.thepaleodiet.org) . No Beans (contain alkiloids that are mildly toxic) Nothing derrived from grains to include wheat and corn, no potatos. No sugar. No Dairy. I allow myself a cheat-meal once or twice a week where I might eat a whopper or a few slices of pizza, but 98% of the time it’s meat, fish, eggs, vegetables, nuts and fruits. Gotta say, since giving up all the other stuff, (to include “healthy” stuff like whole grains), I feel better than I have in years, plus I’ve dropped about 35 lbs and am still losing. Yes I work out, but my total caloric intake is higher than ever.
The idea behind the Paelo diet is to eat only food groups that would have been available prior to the age of agriculture. Since we were “hunter gatherers” of a couple hundred thousand years, but only farmers for about 12 thousand, our bodies are genetically better suited for the paleo diet.
Sugar is sugar. Doesn’t matter if it’s High Fructose Corn Syrup, Cane sugar, or clover honey. It’s all processed sugar, but honey is processed naturally. Your body processes it the same way. The only sugar in the paleo diet is in the fruits and vegetables I eat. I don’t worry about “good and bad fats” as I only really get the good kind in what I eat.
Another benefit is I now eat very little “processed foods” so I don’t have to worry about all those ingredients with names I can’t pronounce.
The problem with Happy Meals is that was what McDonalds used to serve as a regular meal. BurgerKing is worse. Seen the “Quadrupel Stacker”? They are getting worse than the razor blade companies. Their razor has “4 blades” ours has five! Won’t be long till my razor has sixteen blades and will shave me to my jaw bone in one swipe. Burger King’s meals have gotten ridiculous, but I see people ordering them. Hey, if people want to buy them, I say let them. I saw zombieland. When the zombie apocalypse begins, they’ll go for the slower fatter people first:-)
Don’t get me wrong. If a person chooses to eat too much and not exercise, that is their choice. I have nothing against overweight people. They are people and deserving of the same respect as anyone else. In as much as I don’t want the government telling me I what I can or can’t eat, I don’t want them telling me I must be a certain size or weight either. That may work for the military, and is out of neccessity, but I think the nanny state is getting way out of control. Remember the Alar Scare on apples in the late 80’s? How about the link to immunizations and autism? Eggs have been “good” and “bad” (not sure how they are classified now) too many times to count.
One time I was having a discussion with a well-meaning but easily mislead friend. She was going on and on about this or that chemical in the foods. I said we need to be concerned with “Hydrogen-dioxide”. She asked me what it was. I told her it was a powerful solvent. She asked where she might be exposed to it. I said “every time you take a shower or it rains”. She said “It’s in our water????!!!!” I said “Yes…Hydrogen-Dioxide IS water!!!” Then she said something I can’t type here.
Cooking fresh food with no preservatives doesn’t take much more time than eating that processed rubbish. I do most of the cooking at home. Last night I broiled some wild-caught Alaskan salmon with tarragon, olive oil and lemon (told the kids Sara Palin had shot the fish for them but they didn’t get the joke) and then we watched our Blu-Ray of “The King’s Speech” that came yesterday (sending the little ones to the pantry to get some candy during the two bad language scenes). All of that would have cost at least $200 eating out and going to the theater, but I did it all for less than $50 and we own the movie.
Tonight, I’m cooking home-made mu shu pork, and putting a fresh chicken in brine to roast Saturday. Easter Sunday will be roast rack of lamb with rosemary/pinenut crust. All done from scratch at home. Much more healthy for the family, and we save a fortune as opposed to eating out.
Buy wine at Costco or Total Wine and you can have bottles that would cost around $50 in the restuarant for about $10 at home, but you need to know what you are looking for.
I actually prefer watching movies at home on my flat-screen plasma to going to the theater because we can pause whenever we want, we don’t have to put up with rude, noisy people, and we own the Blu-Ray for much cheaper than taking the family to the theater. Also, Mrs. NTK and I can drink a second bottle of that wine during the movie and not worry about driving home.
But NTK, do you do catering? I HATE to cook.
How did you enjoy the King’s Speech? I wouldn’t think little kids would sit still through it.
Going to the movies has just gotten ridiculously expensive. I always smuggle my own drink it. That works in winter. A little tough when its 97 degrees out.