the crying apocalyptic gold swindler

Thanks to progressive Democrat Anthony Weiner, we can add "crook" to the other colorful terms we've been using to describe apocalyptic Skousenite crybaby Glenn Beck.

Here's how the scam works: Beck and others devote entire segments of their shows to arguing that the U.S. money supply is destined for hyperinflation, incl. promoting gold as the only safe investment alternative for consumers. Then a commercial from Goldline comes on. And Goldline sells at 90% above melt value, meaning the price of gold would have to double to pay off.

Beck has also featured Goldline's CEO on as an "expert" guest without disclosing the sponsorship.

Fox News ostensibly prohibits on-air personalities from making paid product endorsements.

Beck's response, and I'm serious: "So I shouldn't make money?" Others have made some pretty shallow, uncontextual and argumentatively weak defenses--that there's nothing wrong with someone endorsing something they buy themselves, and so what if they spin elaborate scenarios on air time that embellish this product--which sounds like apologia from someone who spent half an hour in an Ethics class and then smoked weed in their apartment for the rest of the semester.

Further evidence, in this blogger's opinion, that fearmongering, us-vs-them conservative politics, apocalyptic rhetoric, and clash-of-civilizations arguments are, among other things, an elaborate and shady racket.