There was a recent dust-up caused by Rush Limbaugh, who suggested that a Georgetown University law student, Sandra Fluke, was condoning activities that made one a “slut” and “prostitute” after telling a congressional committee that they should pass a law requiring health insurance companies to pay for women’s contraceptives. She suggested that a student could be forced to pay $1,000 a year in contraceptives out of their own pocket, which frankly does suggest a rather busy “love” life—and a bit self-serving too. All in the service, of course, of that politicized concept of “women’s health.” Limbaugh’s admittedly poor use of terms caused several companies to pull their advertisements off his show, probably for their own self-serving reasons. It was “welcome” insofar as Limbaugh was forced to acknowledge the fact that his views have a cost that might hurt him personally, rather than those he slanders on a regular basis (publicity strumpet/lawyer Gloria Allred is already offering her "services" to any offended party to "assist" in that regard--although frankly, these two professional bigots turn my stomach in equal measure).
However, I can’t help but detect more than a little hypocrisy concerning this episode. For example, it is rarely spoken of where men acquire venereal diseases, and the vagina is infamous for being the repository of various unhealthy organisms, regardless of the level of sexual activity. So should condoms also be paid for by health insurance? If you think that is funny, then why should no one look askance at health insurance companies being made to pay for what is, after all, a voluntary activity? Frankly this all ties into the bizarre when it comes to the politicization of women’s health. Breast cancer receives more research funding than any other cancer, yet it is also one of the more treatable. The aftermath of the episode involving the breast cancer foundation Komen with Planned Parenthood, in which Komen was attacked for “politicizing” abortion after it temporarily withdrew donations for the abortion mill, is instructive (naturally, it doesn’t matter that it is a naïve person who does not suspect that Planned Parenthood is engaging in “creative” bookmaking to illegally divert funds to its principle operation). Since the defense of abortion requires a great deal of hot air, breast cancer advocates have been (temporarily) singed and gone into hiding to recover, allowing heart disease--which is in fact the leading killer of women--to be the next women’s health “crisis.” Of course it is also the leading killer of men, but hold on a second: The latest propaganda is that heart disease is even “worse” in women than in men, supposedly because its symptoms are more “insidious.” The women’s health propagandists ignore the fact that the reason for this is that women do not normally engage in strenuous work, activities and stresses that bring on effects of heart disease to more rapid result.
But it isn’t really the women’s health angle that disturbed me about the Limbaugh episode. The real hypocrisy is yet another example of the double-standards that the media and society engages in. The media and advertisers have expressed next to zero concern about zingers like these from Limbaugh:
“Have you ever noticed how all composite pictures of wanted criminals resemble Jesse Jackson?”
“Look, let me put it to you this way: the NFL all too often looks like a game between the Bloods and the Crips without any weapons. There, I said it.”
“The NAACP should have riot rehearsal. They should get a liquor store and practice robberies.”
“They’re 12 percent of the population. Who the hell cares?”
“Take that bone out of your nose and call me back.”
“You just gotta be who you are, and I think it's time to get rid of this whole National Basketball Association. Call it the TBA, the Thug Basketball Association, and stop calling them teams. Call 'em gangs.”
“Let's assume you're right. So, David Paterson (former NY governor) will become the massa who gets to appoint whoever gets to take Massa's place. So, for the first time in his life, Paterson's gonna be a massa. Interesting, interesting.”
“Seems that the NAALCP (sic), which is—which equals racism. Forget calling them the NAACP. They are now the R-A-C-I-S-M. NAACP equals racism. And they're all applauding her [Sherrod] when she's talking about racism.”
Limbaugh has repeatedly referred to Barack Obama as a “racist” while calling him a “Halfrican-American” and “Barack the Magic Negro.” And: “Obama is more African in his roots than he is American…behaving like an African colonial despot.”
Other Obamaisms:
“Obama's America, white kids getting beat up on school buses now. I mean, you put your kids on a school bus, you expect safety. But in Obama's America, the white kids now get beat up with the black kids cheering ‘Yay! Right on, right on, right on, right on.’"
Obama’s economic plan will cause “rioting in the streets now! And there's going to be more rioting in the streets because that's part of the program here. And next up there are going to be race riots, I guarantee it. Race riots are part of the plan that this regime has. That's next.”
And two "unsubstantiated" quotes that were strangely, vehemently, denied (because they are certainly no worse than the previous quotes) coming from the depraved mind of Limbaugh:
“I mean, let’s face it, we didn’t have slavery in this country for over 100 years because it was a bad thing. Quite the opposite: slavery built the South. I’m not saying we should bring it back; I’m just saying it had its merits. For one thing, the streets were safer after dark.”
“You know who deserves a posthumous Medal of Honor? James Earl Ray (killer of MLK Jr.). We miss you, James. Godspeed.”
Not unnaturally, Limbaugh has no love for “brown” people either:
“You’re a foreigner. You shut your mouth or you get out.”
Defending Newt Gingrich for calling Spanish a “ghetto” language: “In my mind, there's nothing wrong with it. I don't instinctively know what's wrong with it. There is a language of the ghetto. There is a language of the barrio. And it's not good.”
“Let the unskilled jobs that take absolutely no knowledge whatsoever to do — let stupid and unskilled Mexicans do that work.”
Actually, that latter is what passes for a back-handed “compliment” from Limbaugh.
The only time that Limbaugh was actually “punished” for a racially-insensitive comment was in 2003, when he suggested that Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb benefited from the desire by the media that he do well, to prove that blacks could play the position just as well as whites. Obviously he was suggesting that McNabb’s success with the Eagles was a media creation and not justified by the “facts.” Limbaugh’s fellow panelists on “Sunday Countdown” said nothing, probably unsure if he had actually said anything amiss or even if they disagreed with him. ESPN eventually convinced Limbaugh to “resign” in order to avoid the possibility of further such embarrassing episodes. Interestingly, Limbaugh recently “defended” McNabb from charges that he wasn’t “black” enough, odd considering that Limbaugh doesn’t consider McNabb “white” enough to avoid being called inferior. But what is really disturbing about all of this was actually rather minor compared to the other pronouncements noted here. Why are not people more offended by those blatantly racist verbal bombs? Why are advertisers not more so? Is it because they are only 12 percent of the population, and to quote Limbaugh, “Who the hell cares?” Or white people also believe them? The media, on the other hand, being full of righteous white women supplied their own soap boxes, make sure you all know all about their “problems.”
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