Saturday, June 19, 2010

"Don't Tease The Panther!"

In honor of Glenn Beck's new book, The Overton Window, The Midnight Review had designed a couple shirts for the occasion:


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The quote "Don't tease the panther" comes from a part in the book where the main character Noah (Glenn Beck) finds himself in bed with the character Molly.  Being the good Christian that Beck is, them sharing a bed was nothing sexual - Molly was too scared to sleep alone and insisted nothing sexual go on.  Noah agreed on the condition that she "not do anything sexy" but when Molly's feet touched his leg, Noah said this:
"Suit yourself, lady. I'm telling you right now, you made the rules, but you're playing with fire here. I've got some rules, too, and rule number one is, don't tease the panther."
That sounds a bit strange.  It is reminiscent of the defense held by rapists that they were not at fault because their victim wore a provocative dress.  I am somewhat reminded of the website that parodied Glenn Beck, claiming he had raped and murdered a girl in 1990.  This view is not uncommon among Fox News celebrity personalities.  Just consider comments made in the past by Beck friend Bill O'Reilly.

Bill O'Reilly has a history of blaming the victim.  On his radio show almost four yers ago on Aug. 2, 2006, O'Reilly said this about Jennifer Moore, an 18-year-old woman who was raped and murdered:
Now Moore, Jennifer Moore, 18, on her way to college. She was 5-foot-2, 105 pounds, wearing a miniskirt and a halter top with a bare midriff. Now, again, there you go. So every predator in the world is gonna pick that up at two in the morning. She’s walking by herself on the West Side Highway, and she gets picked up by a thug. All right. Now she’s out of her mind, drunk.
He also called the victim and her friends "moronic girls."

How about the other time O'Reilly made a statement that a 15-year-old kidnapping victim "liked his circumstances" with a man charged with forcible sodomy?

Also, what about the conservative obsession with gang rape or the sexualization of Sarah Palin's young daughters by Sarah Palin herself?

I know some would probably attack me for my comments about Glenn Beck, claiming that the book was ghost written, but if you consider that the book states that Beck wrote the book with "contributions from" Kevin Balfe, Emily Bestler, and Jack Henderson, then you would see that the book is still Glenn Beck.  Sure they may have written some of the content, but they had to get it somewhere, and claiming the ghost writers vindicate Beck of everything would be irresponsible - he put his name on the cover. 

Using that logic, one could claim Hitler didn't really believe in killing the Jews because his speeches were written by someone else - I am just using Hitler's name as an example to illustrate a point and don't know who wrote his speeches and the same would probably go for Beck's fans - they probably don't know who wrote what in The Overton Window.

Interestingly enough, Chris Kelly from The Huffington Post wrote an article comparing Beck's book to another written by one of his "contributors." Circumference of Darkness, by Jack Henderson, is eerily similar to Beck's book - both books consist of a plot involving a regular office Joe meeting a government-employed bombshell to thwart the evil plans of a failed 1976 presidential candidate - seems like Jimmy Carter was the man to beat that year, causing not one, but two terrorists to spawn from the election.

Already, the right-wing are laughing because people like Kelly pointed out the similarities between Beck's trash and Henderson's trash, but they fail to see the bigger picture - The Overton Window is far from being a literary masterpiece.  Beck hired a bunch of hack authors to help him cobble a book from some leftover plot points and his wild conspiracy theories, but got stiffed with a poorly written thriller one should expect to see in the clearance bin real soon.

Either way, buy one of my shirts.  You can wear it to show support for Beck and his ghost writing team or you can wear it to mock the right-wing idiot.  I don't care how you use the shirts, just as long as you purchase one - I am trying to be a good little capitalist and all you little tea baggers should love that.

3 comments:

  1. Absurd! I have to admit, living in a downtown area I often see women dressed to make my eyeballs follow a rhythm beyond my control, and they do! :-)

    I see no problem with that. I believe that women who dress provocatively want to be seen as attractive. But that's all it means.

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  2. When I read that line, it sounded as if the character Noah Gardner had the kind of mentality that he would force himself upon a woman if provoked by his own definition of provocation...

    It sounds like the old perpetrator defense: "She was asking for it."

    Now I am sure people like Beck would discount that view, claiming his book was fiction, and he would probably point to the ghost writers, but considering the belief held by so many on the right, I think Beck has this twisted conservative morality rooted in his politics and faith that places himself above the rest - why else would he claim to be doing God's work while launching countless baseless attacks against his enemies?

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  3. Kevin, you have to understand that people with Beck's theocratic beliefs consider women nothing more than chattel, so of course he would blame the victim, until held to account for his statements.

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