# I pit Rush Limbaugh for being an idiot about birth control **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [March 2, 2012, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-rush-limbaugh-for-being-an-idiot-about-birth-control/614593 "2012-03-02T22:29:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 22
**Author:** ![LavenderBlue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e95f7d/32.png) [@LavenderBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LavenderBlue)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2012, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-rush-limbaugh-for-being-an-idiot-about-birth-control/614593/421 "2012-03-07T01:12:19Z")
> [@madmonk28](#): > > The result is the same: shut up slut. Yeah that sentence nails it. According to the Republicans a woman has no right to discuss woman’s health issues especially when it comes to the health of anything related to her reproductive system. Discussion of her reproductive health needs should only be allowed by men. Preferably celibate religious men or men with four marriages. But most definitely men. If a woman dares to discuss her reproductive organs publically she should be prepared to be insulted in the nastiest possible manner. It’s that quote from Simone DeBouvior yet again. “There are two kinds of people in this world. Human beings and women. When women act like human beings they are accused of trying to be men.” So it’s okay for men for to control their own reproductive organs but hell on any woman who dares do the same. ---
**Author:** ![RaftPeople](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6f9a4e/32.png) [@RaftPeople](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RaftPeople)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2012, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-rush-limbaugh-for-being-an-idiot-about-birth-control/614593/422 "2012-03-07T01:59:02Z")
> [@andros](#): > > Except that in the original line the clause “[as] they want” modifies “they want to have sex any time.” > > So it ends up being “…they want to have sex any time…they want.” Unfortunately, I read your post and actually felt compelled to respond…and now there is no way I can get that 90 seconds back, oh well. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2012, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-rush-limbaugh-for-being-an-idiot-about-birth-control/614593/423 "2012-03-07T02:38:44Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > It’s not just for negroes anymore? Oh, please, honey. I saw “Uppity Women Unite!” bumper stickers and T-shirts back in the Seventies, and I doubt it was new even then. But, if you’re still bothered, “Overeducated” means “Not content to be barefoot, pregnant, and in the kitchen”, of course. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2012, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-rush-limbaugh-for-being-an-idiot-about-birth-control/614593/424 "2012-03-07T04:41:34Z")
How is that this guy’s been married four times? How could any woman stand to marry this buffoon? > [@RTFirefly](#): > > [And he doesn’t like that](http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/nationnow/2011/11/rush-limbaugh-michelle-obama-uppity-ism.html). _Rush_ criticized Michelle Obama on her weight? OH GOOD GOD! 😛 I’m dying here. ---
**Author:** ![LavenderBlue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e95f7d/32.png) [@LavenderBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LavenderBlue)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2012, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-rush-limbaugh-for-being-an-idiot-about-birth-control/614593/425 "2012-03-07T05:03:40Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > How is that this guy’s been married four times? How could any woman stand to marry this buffoon? > > _Rush_ criticized Michelle Obama on her weight? OH GOOD GOD! 😛 I’m dying here. We now know the names of the four dumbest women in America: anyone who married Rush. I suppose for his next act Limbaugh will find out Ms. Obama had epidurals when she gave birth and start calling her a druggy. ---
**Author:** ![Baal\_Houtham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baal_houtham/32/13604_2.png) [@Baal\_Houtham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baal_Houtham)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2012, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-rush-limbaugh-for-being-an-idiot-about-birth-control/614593/426 "2012-03-07T15:40:36Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > but I’ve never quite understood the adjective ‘overeducated’. To offer an honest opinion, “overeducated” is similar to “a little knowledge is a dangerous thing” but not an exact match. In both cases the person has some facts or training, but uses them in a counter-productive way. It differs from “a little knowledge” because it implies the person is incapable of achieving a higher level of understanding. Further education would just make the person’s thoughts less precise. ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2012, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-rush-limbaugh-for-being-an-idiot-about-birth-control/614593/427 "2012-03-07T16:02:55Z")
Yeah, I suppose Fluke shouldn’t have earned that coveted BA because it obviously made her thoughts less precise. I guess Rush has a point. What’s wrong with just keeping her damned mouth shut and making her man a sandwich every once in while, am I right? ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2012, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-rush-limbaugh-for-being-an-idiot-about-birth-control/614593/428 "2012-03-07T16:10:04Z")
> [@Baal\_Houtham](#): > > To offer an honest opinion, “overeducated” is similar to “a little knowledge is a dangerous thing” but not an exact match. In both cases the person has some facts or training, but uses them in a counter-productive way. > > It differs from “a little knowledge” because it implies the person is incapable of achieving a higher level of understanding. Further education would just make the person’s thoughts less precise. I think a legitimate use of the term is more akin to “overthinking” something – applying some deep analysis to a simple problem. Like researching nutrition data before you decide to eat a hot dog or a brat at a picnic. I imagine this would be the way Rush uses it, because he doesn’t seem to believe that any issues need much in the way of study or analysis. He has a simple answer for everything. ---
**Author:** ![saje](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saje/32/3631_2.png) [@saje](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saje)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2012, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-rush-limbaugh-for-being-an-idiot-about-birth-control/614593/429 "2012-03-07T16:11:41Z")
Small picking of nits: It’s “[A little learning](http://www.poetsgraves.co.uk/Classic%20Poems/Pope/a_little_learning.htm)”, not knowledge… ---
**Author:** ![justrob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a9adbd/32.png) [@justrob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/justrob)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2012, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-rush-limbaugh-for-being-an-idiot-about-birth-control/614593/430 "2012-03-07T16:29:46Z")
> [@Jack\_Batty](#): > > Yeah, I suppose Fluke shouldn’t have earned that coveted BA because it obviously made her thoughts less precise. I guess Rush has a point. What’s wrong with just keeping her damned mouth shut and making her man a sandwich every once in while, am I right? Rush is picking on an entirely new young woman this time (Tracie McMillan). Fluke is a Georgetown Law Student. ---
**Author:** ![MacCat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maccat/32/216_2.png) [@MacCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacCat)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2012, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-rush-limbaugh-for-being-an-idiot-about-birth-control/614593/431 "2012-03-07T16:35:16Z")
> [@saje](#): > > Small picking of nits: > > It’s “[A little learning](http://www.poetsgraves.co.uk/Classic%20Poems/Pope/a_little_learning.htm)”, not knowledge… Great poem. Thanks ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2012, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-rush-limbaugh-for-being-an-idiot-about-birth-control/614593/432 "2012-03-07T21:10:17Z")
Rush v RUSH!! [http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/03/07/limbaugh-threatened-with-lawsuit-by-supergroup-rush/#.T1epOJ0dQWU.email](http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/03/07/limbaugh-threatened-with-lawsuit-by-supergroup-rush/#.T1epOJ0dQWU.email) ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2012, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-rush-limbaugh-for-being-an-idiot-about-birth-control/614593/433 "2012-03-07T23:21:50Z")
Gah, I can’t catch up with this thread. Just got to the bottom of page 7. Every page I click, another appears in the list. ☹ Rush is a loud-mouthed misogynistic douchebag. You expect anything less from him? This topic gave him simultaneously the ability to attack liberals, taxes (through some weird twist of [del]logic[/del] reasoning), and women. Especially women having sex, out of wedlock and not with him. Yeah, he’s all over that shit. He doesn’t care what she actually testified to, he just does what any good pundit and comedian does, shift the story to fit his agenda. In this case, slut-shaming sells ratings, so slut-shaming is the name of the game. Make the story about Fluke and her sex life and her obvious promiscuity. Obvious, because who else would need to spend $1000/year on contraceptives? > [@Paranoid\_Randroid](#): > > I suppose, if you were of a mind to contort yourself out of fairness to Rush Limbaugh of all people, you _could_ interpret that as “every month she has sex she has to buy birth control pills, and every time she has sex she has ensure condom use (possibly at her own expense), ergo the more she has sex the more she has to pay. If she can’t afford it then she’s having so much sex she can’t afford the contraception!” The thing is, if it were condoms he might at least have a point, because condoms are “use one only upon need”, i.e. at the time of the incident. Or two or three, if you’re a slut. 😉 But oral contraceptives don’t work that way. You take one a day on a regular schedule, regardless of how much sex you are or are not getting. You don’t double down if you’re taking on the whole football team “just to be sure”. So it’s a ridiculous argument. But ridiculous arguments are Rush’s stock and trade. He’s a loudmouthed bully catering to the worst conservative ideas by stating them as obnoxiously and hatefully as he can manage, and hiding behind the premise that he is a comedian, so anything is fair game. But the reason he has such high ratings is because the ideas he expresses are only very minor exaggerations or colorations of what his audience feels. He’s just said it out loud in public, where they can all snigger at it together. (I said “snigger”.) It’s very telling that most of the Republican luminaries won’t publicly denounce him. They’re too afraid of his pull with the Republican base. And that is because too large a slice of that base agrees with the ideas that Rush exemplifies with his “humor”. I want to say the proper response is to dismiss him as a [del]blowhard jackass[/del] unfunny “comedian”, but his political clout is substantial, and his popularity shows his attitudes are far more common than I’m comfortable with. So it is appropriate to address his statements and the attitudes behind them straight on. And I, for one, am grateful for this opportunity to confront my own fucked up attitudes regarding sexual equality and double standards. I am becoming cognizant of my own “slut-shaming” tendencies and the backwards attitudes underlying them. And I’m making an effort to change those thoughts. > [@Hyperelastic](#): > > Their [website](http://www.plannedparenthood.org/health-topics/birth-control/birth-control-pill-4228.htm) says “about $15-$50 a month”. At $15/month that would be $540 (18% of $3000) and at $50/month it would be $1800 (60% of $3000). I stand corrected, but my figure was closer to the truth than Ms. Fluke’s. I realize this was pages and days ago, but look more closely. At $50/month, that is $1800 a year. The actual statement in Fluke’s testimony was that it was $3000 for **3 years** , or $1000 a year. As you can see, your calculated number of $1800/year is _more_ than her number of $1000/ year. 80% more. Her numbers are clearly in the range you just calculated. So you’ve just proven her accurate. > [@Hyperelastic](#): > > I have to drive 50 miles to get this one Italian ice I really like. Must the government sponsor another franchise that is more conveniently located for me? I guess I could give up the ices, but you could give up the sex, or just buy rubbers. As has already been discussed, what are termed “oral contraceptives” are really “hormone stabilizers”. They have more uses than just contraception, and Fluke described cases where the other uses that were (improperly) denied. And even if it were just about contraception, this issue is not about access to Planned Parenthood clinics or government subsidized reproductive choice. The topic is employer sponsored insurance plans not offering reproductive choice options under coverage because it somehow offends the employer’s moral sensibilities. The employee doesn’t have the option of picking a carrier that provides this, because the employer only offers plans that limit that coverage. Now a fair rebuttal _might_ be to tell people to not work for someone that won’t provide coverage you think is necessary. But likening contraception coverage to Italian ices is absurd. > [@Jenaroph](#): > > And now Bill O’Reilly [weighs in!](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/03/bill-oreilly-sandra-fluke-limbaugh_n_1318249.html)Yet another asshole who didn’t read the testimony and doesn’t have the faintest idea what he’s railing against, but by golly he’s busting at the seams to call some young woman a slut and here’s his big chance! Slut slut slut slut slut! Ahhh, now he feels better about himself. > [@](#): > > HEADLINE: > Bill O’Reilly Attacks Sandra Fluke: ‘You Want Me To Give You My Hard-Earned Money So You Can Have Sex?’ No, I want you to give _me_ your hard-earned money so _I_ can have sex. No, not sex with you, you pervert, I’m straight. What? > [@Enlightening\_Meditation](#): > > I have a somewhat related question for Dopers though: What is the mechanism of ‘aspirin between the knees’ method that Foster Friess mentioned about gals back in his days? Were the gals holding their knees together while the men stimulated themselves between her thighs without penetration? If so, why aspirin? If no, then what the hell was he talking about? This may have been sufficiently answered. There’s no real mechanism other than “if she has to hold her knees together, you can’t get between her legs”. It’s an old joke that doesn’t address more creative positions, or oral, or anal, or hand jobs. > [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > What exactly does Rush (and his listeners) think the word “humorous” means? It’s a bone in the leg. > [@Truman\_Burbank](#): > > From Wonkette: liberals have a “willingness to say or do anything to advance their agenda. But this is the mistake I made,” admitted Mr. Limbaugh, humbly. “In fighting them on this issue last week, I became like them. Against my own instincts, against my own knowledge, against everything I know to be right and wrong, I descended to their level, when I used those two words to describe Sandra Fluke, I became like them, and I feel very badly about that.” He continued, “I have always tried to maintain a very high degree of integrity and independence on this program.” Rush, you crack me up. Yeah, you descended to the level of the liberals. This is a man who makes a living saying the most hateful, obnoxious, vile, disrespectful, ugly, mean-spirited things he can think of about liberals, and somehow it’s _their_ fault. So, Mr. Pot, what’s that you’re saying about Ms. Kettle? ---
**Author:** ![Enginerd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/bcef8e/32.png) [@Enginerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enginerd)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2012, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-rush-limbaugh-for-being-an-idiot-about-birth-control/614593/434 "2012-03-08T00:00:51Z")
**Snowboarder Bo:** What exactly does Rush (and his listeners) think the word “humorous” means? > [@Irishman](#): > > It’s a bone in the leg. Geez, they’re as bad at [anatomy](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humerus) as they are at logic! 😛 ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2012, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-rush-limbaugh-for-being-an-idiot-about-birth-control/614593/435 "2012-03-08T00:14:56Z")
Isn’t that the tiberius? ---
**Author:** ![Mighty\_Girl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7bcc69/32.png) [@Mighty\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Girl)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2012, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-rush-limbaugh-for-being-an-idiot-about-birth-control/614593/436 "2012-03-08T00:44:40Z")
There is another use that hasn’t been mentioned for pills (specifically), and the reason why at 41 I find myself on the pill for the first time in my reproductive life: Hyperplasia. The bus stop to cancertown. Nevermind the serious anemia due to excessive bleeding that was already giving me tachychardia. I am a recovering Catholic and, ironically, I managed to get here with just one kid by following the Catholic approved method (I have used condoms for STD prevention, but very rarely since I was not as promiscuous as I wish I had been before I got married). So yeah… women like me should just bleed to death, or wait for cancer to arrive. Because even us non-sluts sometimes need the pill. Just saying. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2012, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-rush-limbaugh-for-being-an-idiot-about-birth-control/614593/437 "2012-03-08T01:19:19Z")
I have told several people on other message boards the truth regarding the “Bill Maher didn’t apologize either” meme the truth: I have called Bill Maher a narcissist, a dick, a douche, and said he was rude many times. I doubt I’ve pitted him for not apologizing to Palin, but I never demanded Rush apologize; I always assumed any apology he gave would be worthless as the man is a total sociopath. I just called him a total dick and took great pleasure in how many sponsors it cost him. But I am curious: if the answer is, demonstrably and truly, “Yes I DID demand Maher apologize to Palin”, I wonder- do they just turn around and go home like the similarly mono-purpose programmed droids in STAR TREK IV, or is there another step in their flowchart (“If YES, they did ask Maher to apologize to Palin, then…”.) I swear to Og I did not realize before this just how much of a genuine bonafide cultleader Limbaugh is. His followers are as rabid as Jim Jones’s and truly incapable of admitting that a thrice divorced provably-often-wrong and provably-hypocritical drug addict is capable of error. They are as genuinely enraptured by him as the followers of Ramtha or a swami. Has there ever been a more powerful radio personality? ---
**Author:** ![Docta\_G](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/2bfe46/32.png) [@Docta\_G](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Docta_G)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2012, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-rush-limbaugh-for-being-an-idiot-about-birth-control/614593/438 "2012-03-08T01:19:42Z")
> [@bup](#): > > So there, **Bricker**. Hope you learned your lesson. Hope tends to intensify misery, especially in this case. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2012, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-rush-limbaugh-for-being-an-idiot-about-birth-control/614593/439 "2012-03-08T01:42:20Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > Has there ever been a more powerful radio personality? Well, there was this [one guy](http://www.transdiffusion.org/radio/features/hitlers_radio)… ---
**Author:** ![C3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/c3/32/3108_2.png) [@C3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C3)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2012, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-rush-limbaugh-for-being-an-idiot-about-birth-control/614593/440 "2012-03-08T02:49:53Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > Has there ever been a more powerful radio personality? [Father Coughlin](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Coughlin) is probably a contender. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-rush-limbaugh-for-being-an-idiot-about-birth-control/614593.md?page=21) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-rush-limbaugh-for-being-an-idiot-about-birth-control/614593.md?page=23)