Imagine, if you will, a service cleverly calculated to be just unofficial and short-form enough to lure its users into saying whatever they want, whenever they want, without feeling the need to run these thoughts through our now carefully-developed notions of e-mail protocol. Yes, that’s right: you’ve got Twitter.

And now, imagine a television host whose entire popularity is premised on predicting the apocalypse, lighting people on fire, and crying. Of course, you’ve got Glenn Beck.

Now fuse the two, and duck.

Turns out, when Glenn Beck’s not telling us that “we’re all going to die. soon,” he’s asking the American people to learn from the Iranians’ example, and… what, exactly?

What part of this Iranian situation can we learn from? What part of US can we see there but blind to here? NOT THE GOV, but We the People?

Draw your own conclusion about what that means; and demanding, IN ALL CAPS, that Obama follow Reagan’s example when dealing with Iran -

VOICE OF REAGAN WOULD HAVE BEEN RAISED AS IT WAS IN POLAND. THEY R OUR FRIENDS. WE HAVE NEVER STOOD WITH LEADERS. STAND NOW WITH PEOPLE.

- which, I presume, means he wants Obama to give an overhyped speech, pretend to build an ineffectual but scary-sounding weapon system, and, despite all indications to the contrary, meet with the Ayatollah without preconditions anyways.

Or maybe he wants Obama to follow the example of the mythologized Reagan, the one that stared down Gorbachev and single-handedly ended the Cold War. Incidentally, that’s exactly what the Ayatollah wants us to do, so complying would just be “common sense.” Right?

Update: welcome Digg people! Be sure to read our review of Beck’s “book,” too.