Breaking News: Glenn Beck did NOT Rape and murder a girl in 1990.

Now that that's out of the way, let's get to the heart of this matter. Fox News' Glenn Beck had filed suit to shut down a satire website with the URL Glennbeckrapedandmurderedayounggirlin1990. And I think anyone with any semblance of common sense could understand WHY he was angry at the site.

I can't stand Glenn Beck, and think he's extremely dangerous with his violent and unhinged rhetoric. That said, I can't imagine that I would have reacted differently in his shoes when it came to this. I mean, I get the whole 1st Amendment thing, and I realize it's satire, and I realize it's poking fun at Beck's tendency to act stupid in asking people to prove they're NOT something.

However, I think the website crossed the line when you begin to defame someone. Especially when it comes to something so vicious as involving rape. Whether you believe Beck defames people on a daily basis (and he does), two wrongs don't necessarily make a right. And I have long been irritated by those on hte left (of which I reside) taking that tack. To reciprocate behavior that we ourselves find abhorrent.

We tend to retaliate by the Republicans nitpicking at every minor thing that a Democrat does, by doing the exact same thing to them. It comes off as petty. And yet when you call them on it, they bring out the "we're just poking fun at what they're doing. Giving them a taste of their own medicine".

And that's all well and good, but it doesn't further the debate. It doesn't help the national discourse, it only keeps us mired into the depths of inanity.

I don't pretend to know the solution, but there has to be a better way to combat the ridiculousness that we see on the right, than to mirror the very things we find reprehensible. There HAS to be.

And that's the problem I had with the Glenn Beck satire site. Beck realized he didn't REALLY have a leg to stand on due to the already legal precedents on mocking public figures, so he went the "trademark" route in that they used his name, and that they were allegedly making money off the site.

Well, Beck was ruled against, and the defendant turned over the site ANYWAY to Beck.

So the saga is over (for now) and I have zero belief that this will force Beck to change his ways. He'll still throw out unsubstantiated gossip, asking people to prove it's not true, but that doesn't mean we have to get down into the gutter with him.

For clarification for those of you who don't know what this is originally from:

1. Glenn Beck asking Congressman Keith Ellison, the first openly Muslim man in Congress to "prove that you're not working with the Enemy".




And that was the basis of the website. Essentially turning that back on Glenn Beck and asking him to prove that he DIDN'T do something that is really completely ridiculous to even address.

And the joke that born the site out is originally from comedian Gilbert Gottfried, who while roasting Bob Saget, let loose the now famous insult.