Glenn Beck - The Overton Window

See also: David Horowitz, “COINTELPRO’s Overdue Return: The New FBI Will Be Able to Investigate Americans Who Pose a Threat to National Security-and That’s a Good Thing,” Salon.com, June 4, 2002, http://dir.salon.com/story/news/col/horo/2002/06/04/cointelpro/index.html

More from Chapter 19:

Casus Belli: Daniel Schorr, “In Search of a Casus Belli,” Christian Science Monitor, August 9, 2002, http://www.csmonitor.com/2002/0809/p11s02-cods.html

The Overton Window: Nathan J. Russell, “An Introduction to the Overton Window of Different Possibilities,” The Mackinac Center, January 4, 2006, http://www.mackinac.org/7504

Airline security reacting to failed threats: Alan Gathright, “No Small Feat, Tightening Up Shoe Inspections,” San Francisco Chronicle, July 12, 2003, http://www.seattlepi.com/national/130541_shoes12.html

If you want to understand what programs like “cap and trade” are really all about (money) then start doing some homework on the intersection of corporations, politicians, and special interests. The links below on Enron, the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX) and Fannie Mae are a great place to start:

Carbon trading and Enron: Lawrence Solomon, “Enron’s Other Secret,” Financial Post, May 30, 2009, http://network.national post.com/np/blogs/fpcomment/archive/2009/05/29/lawrence-solomon-enron-s-other-secret.aspx

See also a video of Rep. Scalise (R-LA) questioning Al Gore along these lines: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpEcPFSEIwQ

U.N. Agenda 21: See the U.N. Department of Economic and Social Affairs publication: http://www.un.org/esa/dsd/agenda21/index.shtml

The Chicago Climate Exchange: “The $10 Trillion Climate Fraud,” Investor’s Business Daily, April 28, 2010, http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article.aspx?id=531731

See also: Ed Barnes, “Obama Years Ago Helped Fund Carbon Program He Is Now Pushing Through Congress,” FoxNews.com, March 25, 2009, http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/03/25/ obama-years-ago-helped-fund-carbon-program-pushing -congress/

See also: Barbara Hollingsworth, “Barbara Hollingsworth: Fannie Mae Owns Patent on Residential ‘Cap and Trade’ Exchange,” The Washington Examiner, April 20, 2010, http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columns/Fannie-Mae-owns -patent-on-residential-_cap-and-trade_-exchange-91532109.html

In Chapter 20 we get a chance to hear Molly begin to state her case, and she focuses on the economy. If you were still doubting that both political parties are driving us toward the same place at different speeds, the first statistic she cites is pretty eye-opening:

National debt has doubled since 2000: Mark Knoller, “National Debt Up $2 Trillion on Obama’s Watch,” CBSNews.com, March 16, 2010, http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20000576503544.html

Bailout money going overseas: Eamon Javers, “AIG Ships Billions in Bailout Abroad,” Politico, March 15, 2009, http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0309/20039.html

See also: Sharyl Attkisson, “Following Bailout Money to Tax Havens,” CBSNews.com, February 23, 2009, http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/02/23/eveningnews/main4822689.shtml

In Chapter 21: Ragnar Benson, whose books we hear about here, is the pen name of a survivalist author who has written some pretty edgy books over the years. (The story goes that the pseudonym Ragnar Benson was originally borrowed from the name of a construction company outside Chicago.) Benson’s book Mantrapping (which is actually available on Amazon.com) opens with the line: “Without question, man can be the most difficult animal on earth to trap…” But, as Molly tells Noah, “he’s mellowed out since then” and his more recent books deal with survival and self-sufficiency techniques.

Ragnar Benson: Mary Roach, “The Survivalist’s Guide to Do-it-Yourself Medicine,” December 17, 1999, http://www.salon.com/health/col/roac/1999/12/17/survivalists

See also: Paladin Press’s list of books by Benson: http://www.paladin-press.com/category/Ragnar_Benson

More from Chapter 21:

“Cherish, therefore, the spirit…”: Thomas Jefferson, Merrill D. Peterson, The Political Writings of Thomas Jefferson (Jefferson Foundation, 1996), http://books.google.com/books?id=MlhB2iCTq60C

Washington, wooden dentures and the cherry tree: “Facts and Falsehoods about George Washington,” http://www.mountvernon.org/visit/plan/index.cfm/pid/808/

“These are the times that try men’s souls.” Thomas Paine, The American Crisis, http://books.google.com/books?id=vDq6AAAAIAAJ

Many in Washington want us to start looking at regulation as a good thing, but here’s an example of what can happen when government gets to regulate existing law. Sure, the Second Amendment says that you are allowed to own a gun, but it doesn’t say that it has to be easy! In New York City they’ve taken that to the extreme by crafting an application process that can take well over six months and cost hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars.

Obtaining a gun permit in New York City: NYPD Handgun Licensing Information, http://www.nyc.gov/html/nypd/html/permits/handgun_licensing_information.shtml

See also: NYPD Licensing FAQ, http://www.nyc.gov/html/nypd/html/permits/gun_licensing_faq.shtml

See also: A first-person account of the licensing process: Glenn Beck, Arguing with Idiots (New York, NY: Simon & Schuster, 2009): 49.

See also: An internet account of the licensing process: http://angrynyer.com/?p=422

The militia was every citizen: Jonathan Elliott, The Debates in the Several State Conventions of the Adoption of the Federal Constitution 425 (2nd ed., J. B. Lippincott 1836).

See also: James Madison, “The Federalist Number 46,” in The Federalist Papers, eds. George W. Carey and James McClellan (Indianapolis, IN: Liberty Fund, 2001): 244.

“We have it in our power to begin the world over again”: Thomas Paine, Common Sense, http://books.google.com/books?id=e0oqAAAAYAAJ

Jonathan Mayhew “No taxation without representation”: Raja Mishra and LeMont Calloway, “Vandals Tear a Bible in Half, Ransack Old West Church,” Boston Globe, August 12, 2006, http:// www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2006/08/12/vandals_tear_a_bible_in_half_ransack_old_west_church/

In Chapter 22:

Nuclear materials flown from Minot to Barksdale Air Force Base: Michael Hoffman, “Commander Disciplined for Nuclear Mistake,” Military Times, September 5, 2007, http://www.usatoday.com/news/military/2007-09-05-b-52_N.htm

In Chapter 23:

For entertainment purposes only we present the Orange-box hacker tool: http://www.artofhacking.com/files/ob-faq.htm

In Chapter 27 we reference John O’Neill, the former FBI antiterrorism expert who had been sounding alarm bells on al Qaeda. O’Neill began his new job at the World Trade Center in New York City on August 23, 2001.

John O’Neill and al Qaeda: “The Man Who Knew,” Frontline, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/knew/

In Chapter 31:

“A Republic, if you can keep it”: Michael Richards, A Republic If You Can Keep It: The Foundation of the American Presidency (Westport, CT: Greenport Press, 1987), http://books.google.com/ books?id=ItOARcaN54sC

“Turkish girl, 16, buried alive for talking to boys”: Robert Tait, “Turkish Girl, 16, Buried Alive for ‘Talking to Boys,’” The Guardian, February 4, 2010, http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/feb/04/girl-buried-alive-turkey

“… the useless eaters on the savage side of the bell curve”: This quote is modeled after many of the real life arguments in favor of eugenics, in all of its many faces and forms.

George Bernard Shaw: “I think it would be a good thing to make everybody come before a properly appointed board just as he might come before the income tax commissioner… Just put them there and say ‘sir,’ or madam, ‘now will you be kind enough to justify your existence. If you can’t justify your existence, if you’re not pulling your weight in the social group, if you’re not producing what you consume, or perhaps a little more, then clearly we cannot use the big organization of our society for the purpose of keeping you alive, because your life does not benefit us and it can’t be of very much use to yourself.’”