Limbaugh

Ha' Penny Millionaire · Thu Oct 02, 2003 11:26 am

While I disagree with virtually everything this overpaid windbag spews, I hope for his sake that the allegations concerning Oxycontin/painkiller addiction are untrue. In my law practice, I have seen many, many people end up addicted to these products. Vicious stuff.

HungupStrungup · Post by **HungupStrungup** » Thu Oct 02, 2003 12:20 pm

I hate to see anyone fall under the thrall of addictive drugs, but since so many do, better this evil blowhard than someone who isn't an opinion-maker loudly espousing standards of personal conduct he can't live up to himself. I don't know that it's true, of course, but let's assume for a moment that it is. Maybe if this hypocrite admits to his problem, a few of those who admire him for whatever ungodly reason will begin to realise that better education, widespread and easy access to treatment and a rational decriminalisation policy are the ways to combat drug addictions, not building more prisons.

SoLikeCandy · Post by **SoLikeCandy** » Thu Oct 02, 2003 12:35 pm

Although it's sometimes hard to believe, he's human. People sometimes fall victim to addiction. His assholistic views have nothing at all to do with whether he has a drug problem.

Still I agree--better him than a nice person...

Post by **BlueChair** » Thu Oct 02, 2003 12:37 pm

I think what HungUp is implying is not that Rush deserves drug addiction, but at the same time, it teaches him and his colleagues a lesson: that rather than just throw drug addicts into prison, there should be better education and treatment.

Misha · Post by **Misha** » Thu Oct 02, 2003 12:45 pm

I love great thinking men!!

Hungup and Blue!!

My Grandpa is going to be crushed, loves Rush.....we constantly tease one another over it...maybe it will get my Grandpa to open his eyes.

I don't care if Rush has a problem. I don't like the man's views, but don't wish drug addiction on anyone. I tend to have a chocolate addiction myself.

Maybe now he'll shut the f*** up? At least for a little while?

Misha · Post by **Misha** » Thu Oct 02, 2003 12:47 pm

Oh, but if he does have a drug problem, let's treat him equally....arrest him, take away all of his belongings, put him to trial, throw him in prison and then release him to the street to be homeless, so that he can go back to his drug addiction, cause that's all he has....

I do too much work with the homeless.....sorry!! It's that damn soapbox again....

noiseradio · Post by **noiseradio** » Thu Oct 02, 2003 12:50 pm

I'm sorry for anyone to be addicted to drugs. But the controversy couldn't have happened to a nicer person. What a bad week for Rush. he makes borderline racist remarks about a pro football player (really about the media and white guilt, but still), and he's possibly up on drug charges.

The death of sanctimony should always be celebrated.

Boy With A Problem · Post by **Boy With A Problem** » Thu Oct 02, 2003 1:26 pm

He should at least do Tommy Chong time.

Only after a fair and honest trial of course.

noiseradio · Post by **noiseradio** » Thu Oct 02, 2003 2:08 pm

Exactly.

miss buenos aires · Post by **miss buenos aires** » Thu Oct 02, 2003 2:11 pm

Do we know if he took it in pill form, or if he crushed it and snorted it?

bobster · Post by **bobster** » Thu Oct 02, 2003 2:37 pm

I didn't know about the drug thing until now....

Was that the real reason he resigned? Though my politics are pretty much the opposite of Rush's, I was actually slightly disturbed that he lost the job just over that one comment.

(I'm not sure I would even call it 'borderline' racist, just typical rightwing liberal-baiting, accusing everyone to his left of reverse racism. However, I'm not a sports fan, so I might be missing some important undertones.)

HungupStrungup · Post by **HungupStrungup** » Thu Oct 02, 2003 2:57 pm

bobster wrote:I was actually slightly disturbed that he lost the job just over that one comment.

(I'm not sure I would even call it 'borderline' racist, just typical rightwing liberal-baiting, accusing everyone to his left of reverse racism. However, I'm not a sports fan, so I might be missing some important undertones.)

The borderline racism comes in perceiving Donovan McNab as having insufficient skills to have succeeded on the field to the extent he has. You don't get to Rush's crticism of the so called liberal media without first believing that the player's fame and his press are out of proportion to his achievements, and further deciding that the reason for that disparity has to be his race.

There are so many other factors that can and often are at work in the relationships among athletes, fans and media that perceiving this matter racially betrays a tendency to give skin colour an importance it doesn't deserve. Rush doesn't see himself as a racist and probably isn't one, but if he looks at McNab and sees "BLACK quarterback for the Philadelphia Eagles" rather than "quarterback for the Philadelphia Eagles," he's certainly not being part of the solution.

Speaking of important undertones, has anyone heard the new album by the Undertones?

noiseradio · Post by **noiseradio** » Thu Oct 02, 2003 3:47 pm

I think what makes the comments inappropriate is the fact that by almost anyone's definition, Donovan McNabb is one of the best quarterbacks in the game right now. He's not Michael Vick, but he's head and shoulderpads above Drew Bledsoe or Brett Favre. When he plays well, the Eagles are kind of unstoppable. He sometimes plays poorly, and sometimes plays brilliantly. And the sports media says so. He's neither over nor underrated. That's one problem with Rush's comments.

Another is his motivation for picking McNabb as an underrated player is suspect. His agenda in the comment seems to have mostly been to make the claim that the "media" (which I guess he's not a part of, being that he's on the radio and TV) regularly takes it easy on black people even when they deserve criticism. What Rush would have us believe is that if McNabb played just as well as he does but was white, he would not be considered that great. Utter crap for two reasons. One, he is being judged by his stats. If he didn't win games and make plays, he wouldn't get credit. He scores a lot of points. The Philly defense is great, too. But they don't have much to do with the scoring of points. If Rush's comments were true, then Philly would be like Tampa Bay--rarely allowing the other team to score, but also rarely scoring. Two, the same media Rush thinks is too eager to laud black players regularly criticizes other black players, like Culpepper and Keshawn Johnson. So if his comments were true, it should stand to reason that only black QBs would be praised and only white QBs would be criticized. Clearly, this is not the case.

That leaves us with something much more troubling: Rush believes that the culture today is practicing reverse racism against whites, and he feels the need to spout off about it at every turn. If his comments about McNabb's abilities were even close to true, it would be hard to make a case for borderline racism. but since race issues seem to be the whole substance and reason for the comments in the first place, his attitudes deserve the scrutiny they're getting.

One last point. If he had apologized and said he didn't mean it the way it sounded and left it at that, this would have blown over. But just like Trent Lott, he attempted to justify his remarks. And he made it much worse for himself. He said that the only reason anyone was upset was that he was right. "If I wasn't right, you wouldn't have had the cacaphony that you have now..." or something like that. No, Rush, it's not because youi were right. It's because you made a remark that shows both how little you understand about football and how much you have to learn about race relations.

LessThanZero · Post by **LessThanZero** » Thu Oct 02, 2003 4:04 pm

Noise, at first I thought: That's why they hired him on.

He'll make outrages statements, and then everyone will have to "Tune in Next Week to See what he says!"

I guess it didn't work.

Who Shot Sam? · Post by **Who Shot Sam?** » Thu Oct 02, 2003 4:25 pm

I personally don't think Limbaugh should have been fired for his comments on McNabb. He's allowed to think and say whatever he pleases. I do, however, wonder what ESPN were thinking when they hired him. I hate it when people mix sports and politics.

Still, I hope these drug allegations are true. Couldn't happen to a nicer guy.

taz · Post by **taz** » Thu Oct 02, 2003 4:38 pm

I think his comments on McNabb were accurate, just about fifteen years too late...the media at one time was thrusting every black quarterback into the spotlight as the 'greatest'...see Kordell Stewart, Rodney Peete, Andre Ware, et al. to try and 'break down a barrier' that really didn't exist. It took time for the game to evolve to the point where a Michael Vick isn't automatically put at receiver because of his speed.

And now I have officially 'outed' myself as a football junkie...damn!!!

noiseradio · Post by **noiseradio** » Thu Oct 02, 2003 5:20 pm

Limbaugh wasn't fired, and that's important here. He resigned. ESPN gladly accepted, but they said that they wouldn't have fired him. Again, if he had apologized for the first round of comments and had let it go, he would not have had so much of a problem. But he dug in his heels and I feel no sympathy for him.

Pov · Post by **Pov** » Thu Oct 02, 2003 5:55 pm

Noise, I agree with your very coherent, thoughtful and intelligent remarks.

However, let's not get distracted from the core truth of the matter:

RUSH LIMBAUGH IS BIG FAT IDIOT!

And other observations: Frankly, I have little sympathy for Rush and his drug addiction. In fact, I think the situation borders on the comical. Not because I think addiction is funny or that would wish addiction on anyone, but because the situation demonstrates just what a hypocrite he is. Here is a guy who advocated making kids who are arrested for minor drug offenses ineligible for federal student aid, and who advocates draconian penalties for drug users. I hope he ends up in jail - then I would really start laughing.

Boy With A Problem · Post by **Boy With A Problem** » Thu Oct 02, 2003 6:37 pm

What media has overated McNabb? Specifically, name the sportswriters or tv commentators who have a vested interest in seeing a black quarterback succeed. Making generalizations renders the argument hollow.
You can probably tell I'm not a big believer in conspiracy theories.

Certainly the Philadelphia media overrates McNabb when he's going good. The same as the sports media in Boston overrates Tom Brady.

Limbaugh didn't get canned, he resigned

Bad move on ESPN's part for hiring him in the first place.

double dutchess · Post by **double dutchess** » Thu Oct 02, 2003 8:56 pm

I don't know about the rest of the country, but in VA Oxycontin abusers tend to be.....(how do I put this nicely? ah, what the hell!) white trash.

thank you, Rush.

heh heh.

El Vez · Post by **El Vez** » Thu Oct 02, 2003 10:44 pm

My enduring image of Rush Limbaugh is from his early morning talk show during the 1990's. This particular incident was in early '93 when he doing a mock introduction of the Clinton White House to his audience. He'd show a picture of Hilary Rodham Clinton and say, "This is his wife, the First Lady" and then one of Al Gore and say, "Now this is his vice-president." Stuff like that. Finally, he asked the audience if they wanted to see the Clinton family dog and when they enthusiastically whooped, he showed a picture of Chelsea Clinton. Chelsea might have been 12 or 13 at that time. What kind of man does that?

Without even getting into what he "really" meant by his ESPN comment, the simple fact is that to say something like that on the air is so incredibly stupid it baffles comprehension. How can anyone in this day and age not know that if you make statements like that you're going to be shown the door or be compelled to resign to save yourself further humiliation. Howard Cossell found that out. Trent Lott did too.

As for the drug thing. I really don't wish any harm on another person, but the years of bile he has spewed towards so many makes it difficult to have much compassion. Can you imagine the field day Limbaugh himself would have had over a James Carville or Michael Moore getting busted for the same thing?

Alpal · Post by **Alpal** » Fri Oct 03, 2003 1:49 am

I think it would be awfully ironic if anyone here were to take too much pleasure out of this guy's misfortune. Outspoken, judgmental, addiction problems, potentially racist comments. That all sounds pretty familiar. I guess he hasn't written any cool songs though.

Copenhagen Fan · Post by **Copenhagen Fan** » Fri Oct 03, 2003 4:48 am

Rush is a big fat overblow fuck who tries to limit all of our freedom. He's a hypocrite......he's a fucking drug adict just like the people who smoke crack in the gutter.

AND he knows nothing about football. Donovan McNabb looks like he's not really effective, but he wins....2 NFC Championship games with an average team, and he's got good stats. Been in the Pro Bowl 3 times. But no, he's NOT better than Brett Favre! Are you kidding?????

A quarterback always get the credit when the team wins, and the blame when the team loses....The Eagles suck right now....that's all.

noiseradio · Post by **noiseradio** » Fri Oct 03, 2003 8:38 am

McNabb is not better than Brett Favre if you look at his career as a whole. But he's been playing better than Favre for the last couple of years.

The difference between the comments Rush Limbaugh made and the comments Elvis Costello made are many. First, Elvis made his comment (and it was just one comment) while completely drunk. They were not thought out, planned comments. And he is utterly ashamed, even to this day that he made them because they don't reflect his true feelings at all. He does not have a history of making similar comments.

Rush Limbaugh has been making racist and sexist remarks on the air for over a decade. A few examples:

1. When speaking about Presidential candidate Carol Mosely-Braun, Rush plays the theme song from the Jeffersons on his radio show "Well, we're movin' on up..."

2. In response to a black caller who disagreed with Rush on some point, Rush instructed the man to "go take the bone out of your nose and call me back."

3. Rush has repeatedly made the comment that police composite sketches of wanted criminals all look like Jesse Jackson. He also does an extremely stereotypical impression of Jesse that sounds like Stepinfetchit and not Jackson.

4. On his TV show, Rush once asked a female audience member who was wearing a shirt with the cover of his book on it to stand. He thanked her for wearing the shirt and then said that she should rent her chest as a billboard and that she would make a great spokesperson for milk.

He's a pig. And his not-so-subtle racism has peppered his public comments for over 10 years. He can claim, I suppose that it was the drugs talking, but he didn't start abusing drugs until the last couple of years.

Now let's talk about the drugs. I don't think anyone should be commended for being addicted to anything. I don't condone EC's drug use. But Elvis hasn't set himself up as the mouthpiece for morality in this or any other country. He hasn't stood on his soapbox and preached against the dangers of drugs and demanded the deportation of drug users. He hasn't ridiculed presidents for their admissions of past drug use.

Rush has done all of these things. He has set himself up as a moral authority and has harshly criticized drug users. Most recently, he skewered Tommy Chong and said he had no sympathy for him. He has been quoted as saying that anyone who abuses drugs ought to be deported to Switzerland. I take no glee in his addiction. But I take a lot of pleasure in watching a hypocrite have to eat a decade's worth of crow.

Pov · Post by **Pov** » Fri Oct 03, 2003 9:01 am

Boy With A Problem wrote: Limbaugh didn't get canned, he resigned Bad move on ESPN's part for hiring him in the first place.

He resigned because it was a choice between that and being fired. Frankly, I'm disappointed that ESPN allowed him to save face like that.