ON HEARING BECK

On the way back to Maine today we listened to a couple of hours of Glenn Beck on the radio spewing his lies and deception. Beck was complaining about several groups (Jewish, Christian, and unions) who are calling for boycotts of his show and its sponsors. As usual he was name-calling anyone who disagrees with him - Marxists and Communists and the like.

He denied ever having said that people should go to their church web site and if they saw the words "social justice" they should run away fast from that church. MB and I had a good laugh over that one because we had both heard him on TV make that very statement on several occasions. It is obvious that when people stand up to Mr. Beck he squirms like a worm.

Last night we met peace walkers who had just arrived in North Andover, Massachusetts. We joined them for a pot luck supper and then afterward I spoke to the folks who had gathered. It was really a great chance for me to link with activists in that community. The weapons corporation Raytheon has a production facility nearby where the Patriot (PAC-3) "missile defense" system is built. I told them about the peace movement efforts in Japan and South Korea to protest against the PAC-3 deployments there that are being aimed at China.

Obama has recently approved a deal where Raytheon will sell Taiwan these same PAC-3 missile defense systems. It's a Cuban Missile Crisis in reverse as the U.S. continues to arm Taiwan and to essentially use that country as our own military base right off the Chinese mainland. If Obama was truly serious about reducing nuclear stockpiles he would not be selling Taiwan weapon systems that are integral to the U.S. first-strike attack program. China has only one possible response to the U.S.-Taiwan deployments of PAC-3 in their backyard - build more nuclear weapons as the real job of PAC-3 is to take out China's nuclear retaliatory capability after a U.S. first-strike attack.