 Arguing with Idiots: How to Stop Small Minds and Big Government by Glenn Beck - Pre-order from Barnes & Noble |
GLENN: (Arguing with Idiots) officially launches next Tuesday. But it's, I think it's the best book that we have written, the funniest book that we have ever done, the one that has the best research done. It took us over a year to do this and it has 25 pages of fine print footnotes so you can do all your own research, see exactly where we got everything. And Stu, you were part of the research team that did everything, you and Joe and Kevin and we had a couple of other people. We threw out ‑‑ correct me if I'm wrong. We threw out anything that we found that was all sketchy. If you couldn't say, no, this is a rock solid fact.
STU: Yeah.
GLENN: We wouldn't put it in.
STU: Yeah, a lot of times you'll see things recorded on sources you don't necessarily trust and it's going through and finding where they got it from, then finding where they got it from and going through a chain of six or seven things and finally tracking it down to what's really accurate.
GLENN: The reason why we did it is because you are going to love it. There's stuff on there ‑‑ we went to the experts on 12 different arguments and we said, okay, help us with these arguments. Because this is what you're ‑‑ you know, for instance, you know, you talk about energy and your boneheaded friend says something like...
PAT: Yeah, you right‑wingers are always talking about supply and demand but yet you won't recognize that people are demanding hybrid cars.
GLENN: They are?
PAT: Yeah.
GLENN: Because if that's true, they should start telling somebody about it, you are right. The first place they should start talking ‑‑ you know, they should start calling the car companies. Last year when gas prices hit their all‑time highs at over $4 a gallon, of the top ten best selling cars of 2008, exactly none of them were hybrids. Not even the hero of the environmental universe, the Toyota Prius.
PAT: What about cars like the Honda Civic and the Toyota Camry? They have hybrid versions. I notice you didn't mention that conveniently.
GLENN: That's true. They do have those.
PAT: I know.
GLENN: And what makes that interesting is while they look exactly the same, when faced with a choice between the hybrid and the gas‑powered version, 90% choose the gas‑powered version.
PAT: Anyone could quote numbers and sales figures and factually‑based sentences.
GLENN: Yes.
PAT: All the other dirty tricks of the right.
GLENN: Sure.
PAT: But the only reason people aren't choosing the hybrid is because the government isn't giving them incentive to do so.
GLENN: Okay. Well, first of all, the government doesn't have to give people the incentive to buy a Big Mac or an iPod or a magazine with Carrie Underwood on the cover. They just do that because they want to do that. It's what separates a good product from a bad product in our society.
PAT: Yeah, but this is new technology.
GLENN: Like the iPod?
PAT: Mr. Beck, the government needs to help it along. IPod's old.
GLENN: So in other words ‑‑ the iPod's old?
PAT: Old, lots of years old.
GLENN: So by offering tax credits, that's what you're suggesting?
PAT: Exactly, exactly.
GLENN: All right. Like the $3,000 they offer for a purchase of a hybrid or maybe it's the latest $4500 for the Cash For Clunkers.
PAT: You know what? This is so typical of your hate mongering hate mongerness. You just don't want middle class, poor people to have any advantages at all.
GLENN: Thank you for stopping by, Jeremiah Wright.
PAT: With someone who isn't hanging out at your gold plated country club gets a tax credit, you just can't stand it.
GLENN: Okay. So the middle class and poor people? That's who I'm ‑‑
PAT: Right. Exactly right.
GLENN: Do you know that the average household income of a hybrid buyer is over $113,000? That's more than ‑‑ are you listening? That's more than double the ‑‑ see, this is what they do to you. That's more than double the average household, six times the poverty level. Why don't you read just Page 101 of arguing with the idiots. It's the purchase of a hybrid is a better indicator of household wealth ‑‑ are you listening?
PAT: Are you listening?
GLENN: See, this is childish.
PAT: This is childish.
GLENN: On Page 101, the purchase of a hybrid is a...
PAT: (Repeating)
GLENN: Is a better indicator of household wealth than a doctorate degree. I don't even know.
PAT: You're so predictable.
GLENN: Really? Have you read the book?
PAT: You're so predictable.
GLENN: Aren't the tax breaks for the wealthy the exact sort of thing that you're usually infuriated about?
PAT: No actually. I'm usually, I'm usually infuriated ‑‑ I don't even know what I'm going to say.
GLENN: Because you're so predictable!
PAT: I'm usually infuriated about your fat face and its ripples of lard that flap with every word that comes out of your disgusting revolting pie hole!