I really enjoyed Glenn Beck for about 4 days in 2008. He was all whipped up about a perfect storm that was threatening America: the coming together of Muslims, the media, and liberal academics. (Or was it Van Jones, labor unions, and monetary policy?) I actually looked forward to my morning commute, because I wanted to get an update on the situation.
Every single day since then, Glenn Beck has been on the brink of collapse about something. Nobody can authentically offer the gravest of warnings about 1000 different things. Impending doom is his shtick. Even if absolutely nothing is happening in the world, Glenn Beck will find a way to make it sound disastrous.
But he is not without redeeming value. He really gets under the skin of a certain kind of sanctimonious liberal. The kind who is as eager to be outraged as Glenn is.
Perhaps my biggest complaint with him is that he’s not very funny. Even if he is occasionally funny, he is not nearly as funny as he thinks he is.
He’s still better radio than NPR’s interview with a pioneering young Jazz musician.
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Friday, February 4, 2011
I’m really enjoying this conversation/prison sentence
I like to think of myself as having generally good interpersonal skills. I don’t talk too loud or too close. I maintain an appropriate degree of eye contact.I feign interest in what other people are saying in a believable way.
Yet there is one thing I CANNOT seem to get right, and that is ending a conversation. Once I am ready for a conversation to be over, I don’t know how to get out of it. I end up nodding my head and saying stuff like “I hear ya” and “I can’t say I disagree.”
Inside, I’m thinking “This is what it must be like to be taken hostage.”
Sometimes I think the conversation is over and I start to walk away—only to realize that the other person thinks we are in the middle of the conversation. I wonder if I have some kind of clinical disorder that blinds me to the social conventions around disengaging from conversations.
Don't get me wrong. I like talking to people. I just like short conversations.
Yet there is one thing I CANNOT seem to get right, and that is ending a conversation. Once I am ready for a conversation to be over, I don’t know how to get out of it. I end up nodding my head and saying stuff like “I hear ya” and “I can’t say I disagree.”
Inside, I’m thinking “This is what it must be like to be taken hostage.”
Sometimes I think the conversation is over and I start to walk away—only to realize that the other person thinks we are in the middle of the conversation. I wonder if I have some kind of clinical disorder that blinds me to the social conventions around disengaging from conversations.
Don't get me wrong. I like talking to people. I just like short conversations.
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