Lawyers for Glenn Beck, who is a Mormon and a wingnut TV blatherer, are seeking to shut down the Web site glennbeckrapedandmurderedayounggirlin1990.com on grounds the site is defamatory and libelous. This from the guy who characterized President Obama as a racist.

Be that as it may, Ars Technica has an insightful article into the controversy over the site and the origins of the allegation that Glenn Beck raped and murdered a young girl in 1990. Not that we are making that allegation here, we’re just asking why Beck has had no comment on the allegation. Reporter Nate Anderson traced the origin of the allegation:

The controversy started a week ago in the Fark forums, where someone picked up on an old Gilbert Gottfried roast of the “comedian” (scare quotes fully intended) Bob Saget. During the roast, Gottfried repeatedly said (watch the video) that Saget had “not raped and killed a girl in 1990.” The Fark forums took the joke about the power of insinuation and applied it to right-wing talk show host Glenn “Obama is a racist” Beck.

One of the Fark readers then took the forum meme to the next level, registering a domain name and launching a web site in order to make a point about talking head TV demagoguery. “Why won’t Glenn Beck deny these allegations?” asks the site. “We’re not accusing Glenn Beck of raping and murdering a young girl in 1990—in fact, we think he didn’t! But we can’t help but wonder, since he has failed to deny these horrible allegations. Why won’t he deny that he raped and killed a young girl in 1990?” At the very bottom of the page was a small text disclaimer saying that the site was satirical.

I spoke to the anonymous owner of the site, who tells Ars that launching it “just felt right”—it flipped the “birther” non-falsifiable conspiracy theories about Obama’s birth and citizenship around and applied the same tactics to one of the biggest talking heads (no pun intended?) on cable news. It’s just “using Beck’s tactics against him” and is a small way of “directing all this frustration” with Beck and others into action.

Hey, I’m all for flipping the birther movement on its pea-brained head, but unfortunately for the anonymous owner of the site, Glenn Beck is a powerful, wealthy person who unfortunately probably has the law on his side in this instance.

Anderson notes in the article that Beck currently is seeking trademark protection for his name:

Beck’s name is in the process of being trademarked in the US. While most of the “goods and services” associated with the name are obvious ones like DVDs and books containing Beck’s special brand of commentary, the mark is also reserved for use on “cups, ice buckets, mugs, non-metal piggy banks, ceramic and porcelain holiday ornaments.” The thought of such an ornament hanging on a Christmas tree …

Happy Xmas!