I was listening to some classic anti-Canadian vitriol from Glenn Beck today, and I had to turn it off because it made me so frustrated with the way he seems to so perfectly manipulate his listeners/viewers, and how this tirade must have brought a few more folks into his canuck-hating flock. But after thinking about it for a bit, I think I am going to let this particular argument slide, and I will tell you why.
Beck was reacting to a recent discussion of Bill C-384, which proposes to make assisted suicide legal. From the summary of the bill itself:
“This enactment amends the Criminal Code to allow a medical practitioner, subject to certain conditions, to aid a person who is experiencing severe physical or mental pain without any prospect of relief or is suffering from a terminal illness to die with dignity once the person has expressed his or her free and informed consent to die.”
Of course, Glenn Beck immediately made the claim that Canada was trying to murder Sarah Palin’s baby. Of course.
But let’s pull back here a moment and try to figure him out. I’ve always been suspicious that he’s a schizophrenic, and thinking about that again reminded me of what’s probably the real reason why he reacted so strongly to the bill: on May 15, 1979, his mother drowned in Puget Sound, and while Tacoma police reported that she “appeared to be a classic drowning victim,” the report added that Coast Guard officials suspected she may have committed suicide. Glenn Beck has gone on record saying that he believes his mother did commit suicide. Shortly thereafter, his brother also committed suicide.
So while I’m probably one of the last people who would ever consider defending Glenn Beck on any other issue, I will defend him on this. You can’t expect someone to be reasonable about issues of suicide if he has lost two close family members under such terrible circumstances. So, Glenn, you get a pass from me today.
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