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Kathleen Parker: Beck's gathering right out of AA playbook
The Dallas Morning News ^ | September 1, 2010 | Kathleen Parker

Posted on 09/01/2010 1:29:20 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet

Despite all the words spilled in evaluating Glenn Beck's tent-less revival last weekend, the real meaning may have been hiding in plain sight.

Beck's "Restoring Honor" gathering was right out of the Alcoholics Anonymous playbook. It was a 12-step program distilled to a few key words, all lifted from a prayer delivered from the Lincoln Memorial: healing, recovery and restoration.

Saturday's Beckapalooza was yet another step in Beck's own personal journey of recovery.

Beck's history of alcoholism and addiction is familiar to any who follow him. For Beck, it has been a defining part of his life, and recovery is a process inseparable from The Glenn Beck Show. His emotional, public breakdowns are replicated in AA meetings in towns and cities every day.

Taking others along for the ride, aka evangelism, is also part of the cure. Beck, who vaulted from radio host to political-televangelist, now has taken another step in his ascendancy–to national crusader for faith, hope and charity.

It's an easy sell. Meanwhile, Beck has built a movement framed by two ideas that are unassailable: God and country. Throw in some Mom and apple pie, and you've got a picnic of patriotism and worship.

Wait, did somebody say ... Mom?

Sister Sarah, come on down!

Yes, Mother Superior made an appearance. Sarah Palin, whom Beck sainted a few months ago during an interview in which he declared her one of the only people who can save America, came to the Mall not to praise politics, but to honor our troops.

Palin is the mother of a soldier, after all, and God bless her, and him, and all those who have served. Unassailable. As Palin said, whatever else you might say about her, she did raise a combat soldier. "You can't take that away from me."

(Excerpt) Read more at dallasnews.com ...


TOPICS: Health/Medicine; Military/Veterans; Politics; Religion
KEYWORDS: alcoholicsanonymous; beck; glennbeck; marchondc; military; msromney2; palin; parker; parker4romney; parkerantipalin; rally; restoringhonor; sarahpalin; talkradio
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Jealousy is such an ugly emotion.
1 posted on 09/01/2010 1:29:26 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Why would someone be jealous of Beck for being a recovering addict?


2 posted on 09/01/2010 1:31:32 PM PDT by BitterKlingon
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

I’m baffled by how stupid this article is.

What does AA have to do with anything?


3 posted on 09/01/2010 1:32:13 PM PDT by Retired Greyhound
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Wow! These a-holes have attacked this rally from every angle possible!


4 posted on 09/01/2010 1:32:13 PM PDT by albie
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

>>Jealousy is such an ugly emotion.<<

Isn’t that the truth. Could include fear in that as well.


5 posted on 09/01/2010 1:32:53 PM PDT by CynicalBear
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

I think we have here the new Molly Ivins...without the southern drawl.


6 posted on 09/01/2010 1:33:28 PM PDT by Slyfox
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

So what if it does sound like AA, Kathleen? What’s it to ya?


7 posted on 09/01/2010 1:34:01 PM PDT by Cyber Liberty (Build a man a fire; he'll be warm for a night. Set a man on fire; he'll be warm the rest of his life)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Ms Parker is desperate and jealous.


8 posted on 09/01/2010 1:35:03 PM PDT by divine_moment_of_facts (Give me Liberty.. or I'll get up and get it for myself!)
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To: Slyfox
Ouch! Post of the day!
9 posted on 09/01/2010 1:35:16 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet (I don't need a newspaper to know the world's been shaved by a drunken barber.)
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To: Retired Greyhound
What does AA have to do with anything?

Nothing, really. It's just Parker's childish attempt to draw attention to Beck's "checkered past."

10 posted on 09/01/2010 1:35:58 PM PDT by Cyber Liberty (Build a man a fire; he'll be warm for a night. Set a man on fire; he'll be warm the rest of his life)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

This article just plain sucks.

However, I will say America needs a 12-step program. We’ve become addicted to so many things: money, power, fame, fortune, victimhood, etc etc etc. Unfortunately, the people who went to Beck’s rally (including myself) aren’t the ones in need of help. The people attending Sharpton’s little dog-and-pony show are the real troubled ones.


11 posted on 09/01/2010 1:40:38 PM PDT by surroundedbyblue
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Frankly my dear Kathleen, I don’t give a damn. How may times must we hear this meme this week? You aren’t even original.

The best way to handle leftists is to ignore them into nonexistence.


12 posted on 09/01/2010 1:41:29 PM PDT by dforest
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Do they (and you know who they are, don’t you Kathleen) still try to sell this harpy as a token “conservative”?


13 posted on 09/01/2010 1:43:30 PM PDT by Eagles6 ( Typical White Guy: Christian, Constitutionalist, Heterosexual, Redneck.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Of course, recovering liberal addicts or alcoholics are DEIFIED by media hacks. Conservatives are derided. One nice thing about the writer...she hasn’t a jealous bone in her body! BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA


14 posted on 09/01/2010 1:43:55 PM PDT by Oldpuppymax
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

The left has nothing left but smears. They are patheltic.


15 posted on 09/01/2010 1:44:56 PM PDT by matt1234 (The only crisis 0bama can manage is one he intentionally created.)
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To: BitterKlingon

the jealousy is that of the caterwauling shrew, kathleen parker, directed towards sarah palin.


16 posted on 09/01/2010 1:46:28 PM PDT by xsmommy
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
". . . right out of AA playbook"

HUH????



Somebody's in denial . . .

17 posted on 09/01/2010 1:46:58 PM PDT by haywoodwebb (Islam is a violent political ideology masquerading as a religion . . . Black & Humble)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Kathy sounds like she knows alot about AA. Her hostility towards it suggests it didn’t work for her.


18 posted on 09/01/2010 1:47:51 PM PDT by Hacklehead (Liberalism is the art of taking what works, breaking it, and then blaming conservatives.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

What an obnoxious, catty b__tch. She ridicule’s Beck’s non-partisan spiritual rally as a big AA meeting. Even if her bizzare theory is true, I can think of a lot of things that are worse than a big AA meeting. And, of course, the aging hag can’t close out a column without a dig at Sarah Palin. Someone remind me of why anyone ever thought of her as conservative?


19 posted on 09/01/2010 1:47:54 PM PDT by Opinionated Blowhard
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Leftists have to come up with a way to rationalize the success of Glenn Beck in a negative way and make themselves feel beter that their idiotic ideas have not been successfully challenged. The one engaging in self-therapy here is Kathleen Parker, not Glenn Beck!


20 posted on 09/01/2010 1:50:43 PM PDT by WashingtonSource
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