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Bill Maher Comments on the Rush Limbaugh Drug Addiction Story
Bill Maher ^ | 10-13-03 | Bill Maher

Posted on 10/14/2003 4:04:21 PM PDT by ambrose

October 13, 2003

Rush Limbaugh

A fair number of Independents could be lured in, or back to, the Democratic Party. For me, a litmus test for that would have to be confronting the Drug War, and as I see the media and the Democratic presidential contenders both taking a huge whiff on the opportunity the Rush Limbaugh story provides, I am not encouraged.

For many years, I've been asked 'why do you read the Enquirer?' and have always said, "because I want to know what's going to be in the New York Times next week."

So, a week after I read the Limbaugh story in the Enquirer I read the rehash of it today in the Times, and again: Media, Pols, hello! If any time was the perfect time to make the case about the massive double standard that is the Drug War, this is it. Rush tearfully talks about his addition to a "medication." Yeah, well everybody likes their "medication" in different forms, pally. It would be funny, but substantially the same thing, if on the 6:30 news they sold bourbon and had the voice intone, "Ask your doctor if Jack Daniels is right for you."

Or pot or whatever it is that mixes better with your body chemistry. Because that's all the Drug War is, persecuting people with a different body chemistry than Plan A. Why does one person like scotch, and another loathes it and likes vodka? Or one like cocaine, and another Metabolife?

Who gives a f**k, that's why. The bottom line is, we all pick our poison and shouldn't arbitrarily punish and shame some, and accept and coddle others. There's nothing about preferring the high from oxycontin or liquor or speed (caffeine, ephedra, etc - speed, the drug America really loves) that makes you morally superior to people who like pot or mushrooms or even heroin for that matter, because that's what Oxycontin is, heroin in a pill. Gee, no wonder it's popular.

When it comes to Rush and pills, an analagous situation would be Reagan and guns. After Reagan got shot, what an opportunity to change that debate on guns! Who could argue about at least debating it while he lay in the hospital from a gunshot wound - like how JFK's program got passed so easily after his assassination, or even Bush's after 911.

But Reagan whiffed. Rush has the chance to change America for the better here. But it must involve his admitting the fundamental truths about drugs:
A: Almost all Americans do them, legal or otherwise; B: It's wrong to inconsistently treat fact A.

And Rush, if you don't see it that way yet, let me put it like this: When you're furtively meeting people in parking lots and exchanging ANYTHING in cigar boxes through car windows - OK, that's a drug addict. Issues of personal responsibility is where I often walked with Rush, and this is a classic. A true test of the man. If he comes out of rehab and says, 'I was wrong about our approach to drugs,' he could single handedly change the way America looks at this problem. If he admits that what separates him and Noelle Bush from crackheads is nothing. Nothing except money, race and lawyers. OK, well that is actually quite a lot. But nothing in the way that makes one of them a stronger or better human being. And that's what Rush has to say:

"I am no better or stronger than a crackhead. I lived for the drug, just like he did; obsessed about getting it all the time, like he did; corrputed and lied about everything else in my life - career, health (the hearing problem is related to this, no doubt - check the amount he was taking daily - Elvis is going "whoa, dude, slow down with that s**t"), relationships, like he did. And we both deserve the same treatment: compassion!"

Because Rush wants, and is already getting, a lot of compassion for this. Let me add my full hearted endorsement of that, and hope for a successful rehab, and a happy life for him whatever he wants to do thereafter. Rush Limbaugh was the first one to say "Bill Maher was right" when I was in the hot seat after 911, and I will always appreciate and remember that. He also has a good sense of humor, and enjoys jokes I've done about him. I want to be able to back him.

But he's gotta keep it real when he gets out. If he starts living the morally indefensible double standard he has been defending his whole career, game over. He learned nothing, or is too weak to admit it. That would be a shame, because I think he has it in him to do this, and the power and accomplishment from turning this battleship around would be, well - a rush.

Posted by safesearching at October 13, 2003 01:14 PM


TOPICS: Front Page News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: rush; wodlist
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To: uncbob
"Our WOD has been almost entirely restricted to dealers

Go to any AA meeting and see if the members blame the BARTENDERS (dealers)

Dealers mostly sell to kids -- bartenders mostly don't.

141 posted on 10/14/2003 8:12:33 PM PDT by FreeReign
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To: wirestripper
Vicodin is hydro-codone.

This is not the same class of drug that Rush used.

Vicodin is a cocktail of hydrocodone and an OTC analgesic. It is the drug suspected of causing sudden hearing loss, so it seems likely Rush was taking it.

How do you know what Rush was or wasn't taking? He didn't identify the "pain medication". The housekeeper claims she supplied him with hydrocodone, oxycodone, and Vicodin.

142 posted on 10/14/2003 8:16:12 PM PDT by space cadet
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To: Beelzebubba
"There is a difference between getting addicted to something you start for recreational purposes, ans getting adicted to something you start for medical purposes."

Yes, but there is no "constitutional" difference.

Amendment IX

"The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others (rights) retained by the people."

The people have the retained right to ingest the chemical of their choice for whatever reason.

If you do not have this right, then it is only a matter of time before you won't be able to get a cheeseburger without FDA approval.

Also, if it took a constitutional amendment to prohibit alcohol during the 1920's, what has constitutionally changed since then that a constitutional amendment is not needed to prohibit the use of any other drug?

What has changed is the Democrats and Republicans working hand in hand denying and disparaging our rights over time and having those actions validated by the communist/socialist judges they have confirmed over the years.

143 posted on 10/14/2003 8:18:03 PM PDT by tahiti
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To: space cadet
People who use OxyCodone would not likely bother taking hydrocodone. It would be like taking an aspirin.
144 posted on 10/14/2003 8:18:58 PM PDT by Cold Heat ("It is easier for an ass to succeed in that trade than any other." [Samuel Clemens, on lawyers])
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To: space cadet
The cause of his hearing loss is not at issue and is well documented. It is a auto immune disorder.
145 posted on 10/14/2003 8:21:19 PM PDT by Cold Heat ("It is easier for an ass to succeed in that trade than any other." [Samuel Clemens, on lawyers])
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To: wirestripper
I totally agree regarding Rush. And I think he truly was using it to control the pain. He also appeared to be fully functional ( I think it would be very difficult to hide it for three hours a day, five days a week if he was abusing to the point of disfunction).

What I don't understand about Rush, is why is a guy with major back problems playing all that golf? Talk about something that is bad for your back, gawd.

Re: the Dr/patient relationship. I suspect Rush is in the same boat as a lot of people with chronic pain. The Dr didn't want to keep writing scripts, because the feds actively track every schedule II script. So the Dr felt he was risking his license every time he renewed the script.

146 posted on 10/14/2003 8:25:42 PM PDT by RatSlayer
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To: RatSlayer
You are probably right about the fed intervention.

As to the golf, If he were taking enough Oxycodone, which apparently he was), golf would be possible as would other things like sex. And perhaps his desire not to give those things up or curtail the enjoyment of these things is what led him to do what he allegedly did.

147 posted on 10/14/2003 8:30:38 PM PDT by Cold Heat ("It is easier for an ass to succeed in that trade than any other." [Samuel Clemens, on lawyers])
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To: IGOTMINE
The fact is that Rush twice tried to kick the habit via rehab. That is the fact you cannot dispute.

I do dispute that an addict who just does a detox or rehab, with no out-patient follow-up program, is serious about kicking the habit.

A typical rehab patient will be put on some kind of "medication", such as an anti-depressant. This serves the function of most institutional "medication", which is to keep the inmates relatively untroublesome. Addicts go into rehab to take a break from scrounging drugs on the street, taking a less-preferred drug as a trade-off.

148 posted on 10/14/2003 8:34:52 PM PDT by space cadet
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To: wirestripper
"He is in for a real struggle with this."

Yeah, and you didn't even mention the more obvious physical symptoms that are suffered during an opioid detox, for example the constipation.
149 posted on 10/14/2003 8:36:37 PM PDT by RatSlayer
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To: wirestripper
Yeah, unfortunately, every round of golf he played could have been making his back problem worst and yet it would have been very easy to hide the damage with this drug.
150 posted on 10/14/2003 8:41:31 PM PDT by RatSlayer
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To: ambrose
That is probably the most intelligent thing I have ever heard out ofBill Mahr.
151 posted on 10/14/2003 8:46:20 PM PDT by sweetliberty ("Having the right to do a thing is not at all the same thing as being right in doing it.")
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To: VRWC_minion
"Rush wouldn't be in rehab were it not for our "approach to drugs".

Sure he would. Our "approach to drugs" has nothing to do with his admitted addiction to prescription drugs.

Perhaps you'd care to explain? Am I missing something here?

152 posted on 10/14/2003 8:48:54 PM PDT by robertpaulsen
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To: ambrose
Mind you, it is not that I am saying it is intelligent or even that I agree with him, just that considering the source, at least part of it makes sense, and at least he isn't joining into the liberal hypocrisy.
153 posted on 10/14/2003 8:50:22 PM PDT by sweetliberty ("Having the right to do a thing is not at all the same thing as being right in doing it.")
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To: wirestripper
The cause of his hearing loss is not at issue and is well documented. It is a auto immune disorder.

According to ABC, one of Rush's doctors has said it may have been caused by the pain pills.

There is no definitive diagnostic for the auto-immune disorder. The best indication would be the condition responding to steroid treatment. It did not.

154 posted on 10/14/2003 8:52:14 PM PDT by space cadet
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To: wirestripper
The cause of his hearing loss is not at issue and is well documented. It is a auto immune disorder.

According to ABC, one of Rush's doctors has said it may have been caused by the pain pills.

There is no definitive diagnostic for the auto-immune disorder. The best indication would be the condition responding to steroid treatment. It did not.

155 posted on 10/14/2003 8:52:56 PM PDT by space cadet
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To: freekitty
these people must be hearing a different Rush than me. I never have heard Rush act superior to anyone.

Well, he has used the term "human debris" on a fairly regular basis. Unless he lists himself in that category (and who knows what he thinks of himself right now) that is a pretty disparaging remark.

156 posted on 10/14/2003 8:57:05 PM PDT by Denver Ditdat
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To: wirestripper
"Oxycontin lasts for twelve hours"

When used properly, OxyContin contains a time-release mechanism that spreads the release of the drug over a 12-hour period. The time-release mechanism can be circumvented by crushing the tablet and the drug can be used in one of the following ways:

The tablets can be chewed
The tablets can be crushed, then snorted like cocaine
The tablets can be crushed, dissolved in water, then injected like heroin

Any of these three ways leads to a rapid release of oxycodone.

157 posted on 10/14/2003 9:00:07 PM PDT by robertpaulsen
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To: wirestripper
People who use OxyCodone would not likely bother taking hydrocodone. It would be like taking an aspirin.

An addict will take what he can get.

158 posted on 10/14/2003 9:03:54 PM PDT by space cadet
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To: wirestripper
I have no idea where this cheerleader on WOD comes from.

Page 1

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159 posted on 10/14/2003 9:11:29 PM PDT by space cadet
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To: tahiti
"Also, if it took a constitutional amendment to prohibit alcohol during the 1920's"

It didn't, though one was eventually used.

160 posted on 10/14/2003 9:11:38 PM PDT by robertpaulsen
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