Here is the Senator from Iowa showing what Dick Gephardt will look like after the eyebrow transplant.
Posted on 10/10/2003 4:42:38 PM PDT by B-Chan
Popular radio show host Rush Limbaugh revealed today that he is addicted to illegally-obtained prescription painkillers and is entering a rehabilitation program for substance abusers.
His supporters have “rushed” to defend their idol, running around clucking about how this is really all no big deal. Well, I’m sorry to say, it is a big deal, and the legions of Rush Limbaugh devotees are just going to have to deal with the pain. It’s always devastating to find out your idol has feet of clay. “Say it ain’t so, Joe!”
I, however, am not among the breast-beaters and sackcloth-wearers who are crying in the streets over their toppled god. Frankly, I never understood what was so great about the Rush Limbaugh program. The man was a self-admitted entertainer, not a real political thinker; his brand of rubber-chicken, Chamber-Of-Commerce conservatism has as much to do with historic and traditional conservative thought as Coors Light has to do with real beer - they contain the same basic ingedients, true, but one is watered down for easy-drinkin’ smoothness, with no bitter intellectual aftertaste.
(Speaking of Coors Light, why was it that so many of the good ol’ boys that called in to Mr. Limbaugh’s show with their “cawmints” seemed to be drywall contractors cellphoning from their pickup trucks while driving home to Lewisville? Limbaugh’s listeners were good people, mind you, but not the deepest thinkers in the world.
Not that there‘s anything wrong with that. My point is that Mr. Limbaugh’s show was meant as mass entertainment, not serious politics.)
I guess one reason I never got hooked on Rush (to make a bad pun) was that his fan base kind of freaked me out. Cults-of-personality just make me feel weird. The frenzied worship many of Limbaugh’s fans showed towards him in public was positively embarrassing at times: behavior on the level of the kids who wear Star Trek uniforms to school or spend hours writing elegies in Elvish for fallen Glorfindel of Rivendell. In sci-fi terms, Rush Limbaugh was the Gene Roddenberry of American conservatism, with his own brand of Trekkies; it must be a bummer to realize that the Great Bird of the Galaxy is just another Hollywood sleazebag like everyone else in showbiz
The problem is that people have a natural tendency to make their heroes into larger-than-life supermen, and in so doing they set themselves up for inevitable disappointment. Limbaugh is not the political genius his followers see him to be — he is a showman. I agreed with a good bit of what Mr. Limbaugh had to say on the few occasions when I tuned in to his show over the years, but it was obvious to me from the beginning that most of it was pure schtick, complete with sound effects, zingers, and catchphrases. (The latter were the most cringeworthy; I always found talk of “el Rushbo”, the ”Maharushi”, and the “Golden Microphone” to be intensely stupid, and his constant talk of “excellence” conjured up images of the kind of profound Mission Statements one sees plastered on the walls of companies run by sleazy go-getters. “SlimeCorp — Maximizing Excellence!” Give me a break!)
Anyone who took Limbaugh seriously has got to be hurting right now; finding out that anti-drug Rush is a closet pill-popper has gotta be like finding out that Art Bell doesn’t really believe in the Chupacabra. I feel for his fans — but I hope they’ve learned the lesson in all this: all men are flawed; never get too excited about any one man.
My prayers go out to Mr. Limbaugh’s loved ones. May God grant him a speedy recovery, and may those who looked upon him as more than human finally get the message.
Harkin back to the first several years of his radio show. He was absolutely the furthest right wing broadcaster to affect the nation in a very long time. He moved this country rightward.
Nowadays he may seem tame, but he was the pioneer taking arrows for the entire movement. Do not disparage his impact.
I fear that without Rush the spineless Republicans in DC will become even more spineless.
Hope for his speedy return, and don't fool yourself into believing that you are now somehow inciteful or cool by kicking him while he is down.
Also, his addiction started post-surgery - he didn't set out to deliberately become a "pill popper". He claims responsibility for his actions and was quite clear about that in his radio show today. I wish him the best.
I didn‘t realize that criticism of Rush Limbaugh was forbidden.
Glorfindel was NOT of Rivendell; he was from Gondolin, founded by Turgon. He died while fighting and killing a Balrog.
The Glorfindel from Rivendell was still living at the end of the Lord of the Rings series.
He merely said he was addicted. He said nothing about the charges of them being illegally-obtained. You'd think your fact-checkers could at least get your first sentence correct.
We need to know what is being said.
I disagree with you!
I disagree, and I think the men you listed would agree with me.
To Rush In Rio.
The Glorfindel from Rivendell was still living at the end of the Lord of the Rings series.
I'll take your word for it and stand corrected. I like Lord of the Rings, but I’m certainly no expert!
I may be wrong, but I thought that the article posted was informative. If B Chan agrees, he can defend it.
But, I like the hot rhetoric, and if you Rushbots get this post killed - I am out of here for good - with my small monthly
Here is the Senator from Iowa showing what Dick Gephardt will look like after the eyebrow transplant.
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