I joke around a bit on this website. It's fun for me to laugh at all the silly absurdities that people often just gloss over in the busy busy happenings of modern living or else mistakingly take seriously.

But I've been joking for 21 busy years now and I know something of its dangers. I know that there's a point when it's you that becomes the silly absurdity and people will not take you seriously from the start. Not that I'm in danger of that happening in this wonderfully thoughtful community (not sarcasm), only that this post is not a joke. It's about one.

yeah, yeah, yeah, when you have to explain a joke it's not at all funny. But since for once I'm not going at it for the laughs might as well give it a go:

Glenn Beck started his Restoring Honor Speech at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial 47 years to the day after Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his I have a Dream Speech with the following:

"This day is a day we can start the heart of America again. And it has nothing to do with politics! It has everything to do with God!"

Actually, that is pretty funny.  Especially when he brings it back to politics later in the 40 minute speech.

 40 Minutes. That's 25 more than King needed to carve out his vision of America's future.

And for 40 minutes there was remarkable little content. I'm still not exactly sure what the point of it all was. To his aid he aligned himself with every tradition America has to muster. First and foremost a very particular mode of American divinity. A divinity that has rewritten the American heartland as the promised land and the constitution as the gospel. In the end it was a very political speech. It was a speech about the abolishment of the separation between church and state. But Beck of course isn't promoting this as his own idea. He's too humble. And besides, he implies, America has always been first and foremost a religious ideal. In fact our history is apparently filled with disciples and harbingers of God. George Washington, Lincoln, and Reverend King to name a few.

"I think I can relate to Martin Luther King probably the most because we haven't carved him in marble yet. He's still a man."

I can already see Beck in the history books. As deserving of his populist place in history class rooms everywhere as William Jennings Bryan. And he must see himself there too no matter how often he assaults us with gripping tales of his humility.

But what exactly will the books write about Mr. Beck? That of course remains to be seen.

I told my parents I wanted to attend the rally. They scoffed and raised eyebrows and wondered what the devil had done to their child that he should want to commiserate about the failings of America with those red, white, and blue curmudgeons.

But I just find it curious. I find it mesmerizing. And even more so I find my parent's reactions and opinions amazing. I find every news hour program delivered by every media outlet agonizingly interesting.

And I feel entirely and undeniably alienated from it all. No more akin do I feel to the Democrats than I do towards Beck and the Tea Party. Not in the least do I feel any connection at all with Washington. The only real sentiment aside from curiosity that I feel on the matter at all is sympathy for Obama. He's dealing with an uncontrollable playground. And Beck's trying to be recess coordinator. Hall monitor.  He's out there trying to convince us there are bullies at every swingset. In fact, he's telling us directly it's them teachers that are the real bullies. Pushing us around for no reason.

America has been hijacked Beck wants us to believe.  And now, as I'm taking these first feeble steps into the adult I'm to become I can't help but to agree with the man, America has been hijacked. By whom? I'm not exactly sure. Partially by Beck himself, but also by my parents, by Congress, by Obama, and by republicans and democrats alike. 

Maybe in the end what's actually hijacked America is politics itself. And to me that's pretty fucking funny.

Only for some reason I'm not laughing.