Happy 3rd Birthday, KFAQ

Mikki and I had a great time last night at KFAQ's third birthday party at the Mabee Center. It was an honor to have seats in the VIP section, and it was a pleasant surprise to be recognized by Michael DelGiorno as he introduced the dignitaries. (I've always considered myself more of an indignantary.)

Nationally-syndicated talk show host Glenn Beck delivered a wide-ranging hour-long monologue. The first half was like a political stand-up comedy act that had everyone cackling. He began with a salute to the Oklahoma state senator who came up with the idea of putting boxing gloves on roosters, but he said that what really makes America great is that some manufacturer in California said he could make those rooster boxing gloves. He went on to talk about parental responsibility, with a riff on the skanky clothes young girls are allowed to wear. Beck calls them "prostitots."

I was surprised that there were a number of younger kids in the audience. We left ours with a sitter, partly so we could enjoy an evening out on our own, partly because of the kind of subject matter talk show hosts deal with. When Beck started talking about the rising number of junior high school students engaging in oral sex or began using the vulgar past participle for micturition as a synonym for "angry," the presence of a seven-year-old girl in the front row didn't seem to deter him. (Mel Brooks fans will understand why I half-expected him to shift his vocabulary and start talking about "number one" and "pe-pe envy.")

Things turned serious as he talked about the Terri Schiavo case, which he's been covering for more than five years, and he was honored to be invited to sit with the Schindler family at Terri's funeral. Beck read from a chilling article, which he said was in a New York paper a couple of days ago, concerned with the cost to Medicaid programs of long-term care for the severely disabled. The unspoken question in the story -- which I haven't been able to find -- was, "Wouldn't it be better for everyone to put these disabled people out of their misery, so we can spend the money on others?"

Thanks again to the folks at KFAQ for the chance to be a part of the event and for the opportunity to talk over their airwaves every Monday morning. By the way, DelGiorno should be airing excerpts from Beck's speech on Friday morning's show.