When last we heard from Southlake resident, event planner and patriotic pants designer Glenn Beck, he had just announced his plans for a $2 billion libertarian community, which he's dubbed Independence, USA. Will Independence be located in Texas? Can a theme park designed by Beck and David Barton possibly be any fun? Is this what happens when you persistently roll up and smoke pages torn from Atlas Shrugged? We don't know the answers to any of those questions just yet. Except the last one, which: yes.
As Right Wing Watch points out this morning, Beck made one other announcement while outlining his plans for Independence, an announcement which we really didn't give the rapt attention it deserved at the time. Namely, Beck plans to produce a live Fourth of July show, told from the perspective of the man in the moon. The man in the moon, as you may have guessed, loves America.
"The Man in the Moon: An American Story" will be produced this summer, Beck announced on January 10, adding, "I figure, you know, we've had our feet on his face and left some of our junk up there. He might have a few things to say to us."
Beck said that the show is "the story of man, and I'm defending man to the moon. And he's been around for a while, and he has been waiting for somebody to step up and do it right, and to do the right thing, and to be more. And he's been watching man question where his light comes from. And he's been watching man create light over and over again and destroy himself."
No, I don't know what any of that means either, really. I'm just transcribing from the video here.
Beck also said that the moon his crew is building is so enormous "it will not fit in the studio." He goes on for a bit about the inventor Nikola Tesla, for reasons that are unclear, and promises "a wild ride." Then he gets reflective.
"What I've shown you this week is a lot," he says. "And we have to keep tethered to reality. Sometimes I look at this stuff and I say, 'Are you kidding me?' They are about to take guns and our world is burning down, what the hell are you doing? I don't know. I just feel compelled to do it. And I rely on God as my compass."
This might sound like one of many insane ideas Beck throws out every day on his program, like sparks from an increasingly wobbly wheel. But he appears to be serious about this man in the moon spectacular, which he promises will soon come to cities all over the United States. And on this past Friday's program, Beck got a lot more specific about why he feels the Fourth of July needs saving.
"My goal is to change the way we celebrate Fourth of July," he explains. "I think we all sit around. We have hot dogs. We have beer. We really rarely even talk about what the country even means. And then we'll watch fireworks listening to Bruce Springsteen and a song that hates America. Happy birthday, America."
There you go. Glenn Beck is saving America, and the moon, from Bruce Springsteen.
