July 2, 2010

Courses at Glenn Beck’s New U.

Photo courtesy of <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/gageskidmore/4393514042/">Gage Skidmore</a> / Flickr

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Have you heard the exciting news? Apparently appalled at the paucity of solid learnin’ in America (excepting, of course, Texas), media maestro and renowned art historian Glenn Beck has announced the opening of his own great patriotic hall of academe. The forthcoming institution o’learnin’, appropriately titled Beck University, will “explore the concepts of Faith, Hope and Charity and show you how they influence America’s past, her present and most importantly her future.” Its faculty features such luminaries as a free-market economist whose degree is in psychology and a Texas Republican Party bigwig who hates, hates, HATES church-state separation. It even has an Ivy-style crest—featuring a feather, a buffalo, and the disembodied head of George Washington—and a Latin motto, “Tyrannis Seditio, Obsequium Deo” (roughly translated: “Revolution against tyrants, submission to God”).

No word yet on whether RNC Chairman Michael Steele, apparently in need of some good historical and civics education of late, has enrolled. But just in time for the Independence Day weekend, the MoJo staff has produced a list of course offerings we hope to see at Beck U. next fall. If you have suggestions, too, post ’em to the comments or post them to Twitter with the hashtag #BeckUCourses! Let’s do some educatin’! Yee haw!

  • Theories of Self and Other in the Autobiography of Ronald Reagan
  • Semiotics of Tricornered Hats
  • Mythology 101: Fossils
  • Presidential History From Harding to Coolidge
  • Oath Keeping
  • Semester Abroad in Kenya with Visiting Professor Dr. Jerome Corsi
  • Physics of AM Radio Waves
  • Fundamentals of Spelling and Grammar CANCELED
  • Great Military Heroes: John Wayne
  • Intro to Theology: Ayn Rand
  • Advanced Marketing Seminar: Rare Gold Coins
  • Drama 101: Intro to Alternative Lifestyles
  • Psych 301: Paranoia as Therapeutic Alternative
  • Wilde, Proust, and Other Homosexual Europeans
  • Middle Eastern and Arab Cultures: What’s Up With That?
  • Literary Masters Colloquium: Cleon Skousen
  • Motherhood, Hockey, Hunting: Cultural Convergences
  • Studies in Moral Courage: Joe McCarthy
  • Counterinsurgency Techniques in Morning Radio
  • Phenomenological Epistemology and the Speeches of Barry Goldwater
  • Hermeneutics and Homosociality in The Overton Window
  • Political Science 300: Reverse Racism and the Modern Presidency
  • Colloquium on Great Filmmakers: Mel Gibson
  • Gym Crow
  • Underwater Conspiracy Weaving

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WE'LL BE BLUNT

It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

The short of it: Last year, we had to cut $1 million from our budget so we could have any chance of breaking even by the time our fiscal year ended in June. And despite a huge rally from so many of you leading up to the deadline, we still came up a bit short on the whole. We can’t let that happen again. We have no wiggle room to begin with, and now we have a hole to dig out of.

Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

The upshot: Being able to rally $253,000 in donations over these next few weeks is vitally important simply because it is the number that keeps us right on track, helping make sure we don't end up with a bigger gap than can be filled again, helping us avoid any significant (and knowable) cash-flow crunches for now. We used to be more nonchalant about coming up short this time of year, thinking we can make it by the time June rolls around. Not anymore.

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Getting just 10 percent of the people who care enough about our work to be reading this blurb to part with a few bucks would be utterly transformative for us, and that's very much what we need to keep charging hard in this financially uncertain, high-stakes year.

If you can right now, please support the journalism you get from Mother Jones with a donation at whatever amount works for you. And please do it now, before you move on to whatever you're about to do next and think maybe you'll get to it later, because every gift matters and we really need to see a strong response if we're going to raise the $253,000 we need in less than three weeks.

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