BLOGMay 31, 2017

Can Cold Medication Cause a Secret Service Interrogation? (Yes, Yes It Can)

Unexpected reactions to medication happen all the time. Just ask Tiger Woods --- and radio host Doc Thompson, who filled in for Glenn Wednesday on radio. In Doc's case, his reaction took place behind a microphone, not the wheel of a car.

Years ago, Doc was doing an afternoon show in Virginia. He was new on the job and hadn't racked up a lot of vacation time. So when a really bad cold hit, he loaded up on antibiotics and OTC sinus meds.

"I'm just struggling, struggling. I have no energy," Doc explained. "So I drink a cup of coffee. And I'm like, okay, just focus, man, focus."

What really perked him up was President George W. Bush.

"I was really ticked off at something that George W. Bush had done. Imagine that," Doc said.

Once off the air, he realized he might have said something untoward --- although he couldn't remember at the time. He did remember the next day, however, when the Secret Service showed up to interrogate him. It seems Doc may have off-handedly said something about shooting the president.

Thank goodness he survived the interrogation. Someone as spongy and soft as Doc would have never survived cell block two. Even Kathy Griffin knows that.

Enjoy this complimentary clip or read the transcript for details.

DOC: I was visited once by the Secret Service as well. I think Glenn has told his story about them showing up here. I recognize that they have to at this point investigate all threats. But what is a threat? Would you see this Kathy Griffin one as a threat?

KRIS: Oh, no. I wouldn't. I would be a really bad Secret Service agent. I'd be like, come on, guys, it's an attempt at art. Not funny. Inappropriate.

KRIS: It's an attempt at comedy. I see it more as comedy. She calls herself a comedian. I see it as an attempt at comedy, then art.

DOC: Okay.

BRAD: It's just a bad decision all the way around.

DOC: There's that as well. So years ago I was working in Richmond, Virginia, doing afternoons at WRVA. And love Richmond, loved being there. It was awesome. But I had only been working there about three or four months doing the afternoon program. And that would have been at the end of the George W. Bush administration. So this would have been the fall of 2017. We were -- or, excuse me. 2007. Yeah, fall of 2007. 2008 was, of course, the election in November.

So just started there a couple months or so on the air. And I got a really bad cold. And I didn't have any vacation time. I didn't have any days I could use at this point. So I go to the doctor. And I'm loaded up on medication. It's a real struggle. I can barely speak. My head -- just can't put the words together. Kind of like now.

And I'm just struggling, struggling. I have no energy. So I'm on antibiotics and a couple of different -- like looseners and sinuses. And things to get it -- it was horrible. So I'm just trying to get energy. So I drink a cup of coffee. And I'm like, okay. Just focus, man. Focus. And I'm just starting to get a little steam going. What got me going, I was really ticked off at something that George W. Bush had done. Imagine that.

KRIS: Which is normal for you.

DOC: Which is normal, because he grew government almost as much as Obama did. And I'm really getting heated. And it's finally clicking. And my thoughts are clearer. I'm concentrating. And then I go into my commercial break. And then it was like, did I kind of say something wrong there? This is how foggy my head was. Was there something inappropriate? I said to my producer. Clifford. I said, hey, did I say something edgy or wrong? He said no. He listens about as much as Kal. Our producer on the morning Blaze. And I said, okay. Well, great. Either he didn't hear it or he didn't think it was wrong. The next day, about an hour before I go on the air, the boss comes walking by, he goes, hey, got a minute? I said, yeah. He said, good. Walk up front. Secret Service is here.

(laughter)

I was like, what? Secret Service? They're like, yeah, we got reports. You said something on the air. Or whatever. And I'm like, what the heck did I say? So I'm like, was that yesterday? We go back and get the tape. In my fogginess, being really ticked off, I said the guy ought to be shot. But, you know, how you're like, somebody ought to slap that --

KRIS: Why couldn't you say that?

DOC: Why do you mean why did I say it? It was a mistake. I screwed up. And also I'm an idiot.

No, I know you can't say it. But it's like one of those things you just say off the cuff. And, again, I wouldn't have said, knowing you're on the air and talking about the president or whatever. But it was this fogginess.

So the Secret Service agent goes, all right. Well, we have to investigate it. And I'm like, all right. I'm watching the clock. And it's like, okay. Forty-five minutes I'm on the hour. Half-hour I'm on the hair. We're waiting. Listen to the tape. He's like, all right. Well, it doesn't seem -- it doesn't seem all that egregious. We think we know where you're coming from on there. I was like, okay. Twenty minutes before I go on the air. He's like, all right -- normally, there's -- and I don't know if he was joking or threw out a random number. He goes, normally, there's 53 questions we have to ask you. Or -- it was like --

BRAD: Not 51. Not 54.

DOC: Right. It was around 50. But it was not an even number. It was like 47, 53, 61. It was something like this. And I was like, okay. I've got 15 minutes left. He goes, but it doesn't seem that bad. So we'll just make this quick and do the short version. Two questions.

Okay. I hope there's not a slide rule. I was told there would be no math.

He goes, number one, first of all, let me just -- first of all, hang on a second. This is Jeffy on the show. First of all, see, I find it difficult to bite my tongue quite often.

KRIS: Yeah, you're a jerk.

DOC: I'm a jerk. It's like, who framed Roger rabbit? Shave and a hair cut. I cannot go to the punch line if you're setting me up. So he goes, what would you do if George W. Bush walked into the room right now? Oh. So many answers about the TSA. So many responses about creating a whole new department of government and supporting illegal immigration and overspending like crazy. So many failed -- and I was like, "Shave and a hair cut -- I'd probably ask to interview him." He's like. All right. Good answer. Second question: Do you harbor any ill will against the president? Oh.

Do you mean about the way he screwed up -- just started going off in my head. And I'm going, don't go to prison today, Doc. Don't go to prison. This is a bad career move. Even Kathy Griffin knows this. Bad career move. You're soft and spongy. You won't do well in cell block two. Not good.

So I go, no, I don't. Secretly, I really did harbor professional ill will toward him, just not personal ill will. But I don't think they would have gotten that nuanced answer.

BRAD: So you lied to the Secret Service?

DOC: Basically, yeah. I didn't clarify, yes. No professional or personal ill, just professional. I didn't want him to be president anymore because he did a poor job. He wasn't conservative or Libertarian. So he goes, all right. Fine.

And then on the way out, the other guy -- agent was like, really sorry we had to do this or whatever. By the way, we got to keep this tape. I was like, okay.

KRIS: So you have a file?

DOC: Right. But for threatening Bush, not Obama.

KRIS: So that's good. You have a cover.

DOC: Can you imagine if I had been the one in Obama --

KRIS: I don't think we'd be talking to you right now.

DOC: And that's my plausibility about hating for Obama for eight years. It wasn't him that I threatened to kill.

KRIS: Right. Oh, so you get a pass?

DOC: It was Bush, according to some people.

BRAD: You didn't even threaten to kill him. You said somebody else should shoot him.

DOC: Right. But here's the thing about it, somebody heard that in the audience and said, I've got to call this one in. You know that's a rant and an off-the-cuff remark. Did that person really think I was advocating this?

BRAD: Was your ex-wife in the listening audience?

DOC: No, I don't think she was. Yeah, I got him now. I got him right now. I got him right here on tape.

I think it was more likely -- remember, conservative radio station. Right? With probably primarily Republican listeners and me being honest about George W. Bush. They probably didn't take kindly to that.

KRIS: You ticked them off?

DOC: I think that's probably what happened. How dare you say something like that. Because I like this guy, not holding him accountable for all of his failures. Remember, it wasn't until way late in his second term that people started wising up and speaking the truth. I mean, Glenn had for most of the run. He was -- he gave him his due back and forth. I did and always felt kind of, you know, off from a lot of the conservative talk show hosts. Because they just carried water for him. A lot of them, just, oh, defend. Defend. Defend. And we're not willing to say what he did wrong. So it was like that last year and half where people started -- wait a minute. Yeah, where were you? I was a year and a half in saying, wait a minute. We're spending what? We're doing what? This is a problem. I mean, I knew by his reelection that there was something really, really wrong with this scenario. But most people couldn't do it. And that's what brought about the Tea Party. It was the TARP program. Remember, when they came out and said, we got to spend a trillion dollars. And we can't tell you why. We just hope it works.

What are you going to spend? We don't know. It's just got to be a really big number. So it could have been 800 billion? It's got to be a big number. What?

KRIS: The bigger, the better? Oh, yeah.

DOC: And what's going to happen? Global meltdown. How do you know? We don't. We just know if we spend this money if it won't melt down. What are you talking about? Right. And that's when the Tea Party stepped up and certain people saying, we've got to get some Tea Party group in response to this, even though they primarily said it was anti-Obama. He just got more and more people involved in it. But that was the George W. Bush saying I'm a free market guy. I love free market. But we have to do this.

That was basically his quote.

BRAD: The last four years, it was basically a victory lap.

DOC: Right. Exactly. So, yeah, that was not an easy day for me with that one. So then, by the way, I have to go on and do a show. I mean --

KRIS: How did that go?

DOC: It was rough. Here's the thing, when you're on the air, you got to bring it. You've got to have a certain swagger and be bigger than life with this stuff. Well, I just almost got arrested by the Secret Service minutes before. I had no swagger. The swagger, completely gone.

KRIS: They took it away? So they took your manhood?

DOC: They did. I had nothing.

BRAD: It was deflated.

DOC: There was no hubris. No mojo. It was gone.

KRIS: They took your covfefe.

DOC: They did. I was Covfefe less. I was covfefeless that day.

So I get to the first break. And the producers said to me -- and I wear this as a little badge of honor. He goes, I got to tell you, your two predecessors in this time slot, they would have gone home. They would have been home drinking. And I said, I don't know how it went. I said, you know, some day I'll laugh about this. Today is that day.

KRIS: Yes. Today is the day.

DOC: Today is that day. By the way, Brad can you look up statute of limitations?

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Unveiling the secret to transforming angry boys into real men

The world has a plentiful, seemingly endless supply of angry boys. What it's lacking is real MEN. Glenn Beck shares the secret that our young men must learn if they truly want to protect and perfect our country.

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: There's a difference between a revival and an awakening. We are in a revival right now, but that doesn't necessarily lead to anything. Except, oh, I have to re-learn those principles. But that doesn't mean you apply them in your life. Okay?

That's an awakening. There's been two great awakenings in American history. One brought us the American Revolution. The second one brought us the Civil War and the freedom of slaves.

We have the possibility of going into a third great awakening. That's the only thing that will save us. If you don't know the difference between a revival and an awakening. Let me give you the negative print of a godly awakening. Our kids right now, they don't have any purpose. They don't have any meaning.

They look at everything, and it doesn't -- it's not real. None of it is real. It's money. It's fame.

It's -- you know, it's ever changing truths and definitions. And they have no purpose in their life. Okay?

So they're looking for that. Because man has to have purpose in his life. Man has to search for meaning.

So they're searching for meaning. And they found a group of people that actually mean something. And they're willing to die for it. And it's ISIS.

And so they're like, at least these people believe in something. They believe it. And they're willing to die for it. I'm going to stand with them. And they put that twisted understanding into action. That's the -- that is -- that's an awakening. It's just an awakening to the dark side. And that one is already happening. It has to happen on the good side. And let me speak directly to young men: Look, you are inheriting a very loud, angry, cynical and worst of all spiritually starving and malnourished society. And you are being sold a future of cheap pleasures and hollow heroes and screens with blue light that just rob you of your strength, one distracted second after another.

And in the middle of all that noise, may I just give you one piece of instruction. If there is anything virtuous, lovely, of good report or praise-worthy, seek those things.

Don't admire them. Don't nod at them. Seek them!

Hunt them. Chase them. Build your life around those things. A man who will do that. A boy. A young man who will do that, will become different. Noticeably different.

He will stop letting the culture feed him garbage. He stops applauding the trivial. He stops laughing at the obscene or cheering for the cruel.

He will become a curator of -- of real, lasting beauty in an age that has forgotten what beauty even looks like.

When other men are chasing down or holding up cynicism, this man holds up hope!

When everyone around him is chasing dopamine, he chooses discipline. When others will blame their circumstance, he'll take responsibility for his own action. When the world worships the shallow, he goes and searches for the deep!

You want to know what the secret of becoming strong is, or becoming trusted, or becoming the kind of man that your future wife, your future children, your future nation can depend on?

Here it is!

You become what you seek. If you seek trash, you become trash. If you seek virtue, you become a man of virtue. You seek excellence, and your life will begin to shine, not loudly, but steadily. Like the steel glow of a blade being forged.

That's who you'll be.

The world has a plentiful, seemingly never-ending supply of angry boys. We don't need any more addicted boys.

We don't need any more distracted boys. The world needs men. Whole men. Clear-eyed men.

Men whose souls are anchored to something higher than the algorithms, trying to own them!

Build a life worthy of admiration. Forget about the applause. Fill your mind with words that make you wiser. Fill your days with work, hard work, that makes you stronger. Fill your home with beauty that lifts every soul who walks into it.

Have your home a place where people walk in and go, man, I say so great here. I just love it here. I don't know what it is about your house. I just love it. It's the spirit that's there! Because you built it! You protect it.

Protect your integrity like a watchman on the wall. Don't lie. Don't cheat. Don't steal. And when you fail, and you will, stand back up again.

Because a man who seeks the virtuous, is not a man who never fails. He just -- he just becomes a man who refuses to stay on the ground.

If you seek things that are lovely and pure, trustworthy, praiseworthy, you'll become a kind of man this age almost never produces. A man whose very existence is a rebuke to the darkness.

That's your calling. That's why you were born.

Not to be lost. Not to play video games. Not to give up. Not to say, there's no hope. Not to end up in the trash bin of human history because you've -- you've taken so many drugs, you can't stand up straight anymore.

You're not destined to be alone.

You were destined for great things. You are destined to find an amazing woman!

Believe me. I didn't think I would ever find an amazing woman. Because I didn't think I was worth it. I didn't think I was worth it.

And until I started understanding how God works. That, yeah. I'm not worth any of the stuff that I have.

When you realize, it's all a gift. It's all a gift. And even if you work your brains out, you may not ever get all the things that you want. But you're going to have everything you need. Once you realize, carefully selecting friends makes a difference. My mother used to always say, show me your friends. I will show you your future.

It's true. Be careful who you select as friends. Watch your language. Watch what you're putting into your brain and what's coming out of your mouth. Because the brain is so amazing. It's being turned to mush. Did you know that there is a new study that just came out. I have to tell you about it next week, maybe.

New study going out. It is -- it's AI. And it has access to social media, and they have found that the AI -- the AI that is scrolling through social media all day, just to keep updated on everything that's going on in social media. It's getting brain mush. It's actually becoming dumber. It's become less effective!

It's a machine. What do you think this, flesh and blood, this thing is going to do?

We say life is meaningless. And life is the only thing that has any value. And yet, we spend all of our time, on things like social media. And that has absolutely no value.

But we think that's life.

I'm not that smart. I've just lived a long time. And I've made so many mistakes.

And I decided at one point, I'm going to stop saying, it's somebody else's fault. I'm going to start saying. Maybe -- what did I do to create that?

What did I do to attract that?

Why does this thing keep happening to me?

Why is it that I always find myself involved with these same kind of people?

Because, Glenn, dummy, it's you!

What you think, it's like -- it's like think of yourself as a -- as a beacon. It's just -- you're a beacon. Your GPS pin, that is constantly saying, here I am. Here I am. Here I am.

Except, it's transmitting more than just your location. It's -- it's transmitting what you're looking for, who you are. And it's attracting other dropped pins to you. It's saying, "I like this. I think this way. I believe these things. I am afraid of these things."

Whatever it is, you're thinking. It's constantly putting that out.

And saying, here I am. Is there anything else like that?

Anything else that can reinforce that? Anything else that can live like this?

Because that's me. Here I am. Here I am. Here I am.

That's why you keep finding yourself in exactly the same situations. Nothing will change, if nothing changes!

And the only thing that you can change, is you!

Seek the things, that have virtue.

Seek the things, that have beauty in music, in -- in art, in life, in architecture, in clothing! Whatever it is. Look for real, lasting beauty and value.

Find the things that are true! Truly true.

Universally true. Find the things that uplift. Seek those things!

And you will change your life and your world!

Glenn's Show Prep

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Transcript