I hope you’re right, ivylass; but if he’s indeed gone through two previous rehabs, and come out just as much of a self-righteous jerk as he was before, I won’t be holding my breath that he’ll be “kinder and gentler.” Leopards and spots, ya know.
You know he most likely caused his own deafness and knew that he did. He lied about that on many occasions.
As for illegal activities. I can’t see how you can have an addiction that lasts for years to pills without obtaining some of those pills illegally. He almost certainly had others obtain pills for him or had more than one doctor perscribe pills to him without the other’s knowledge or something. It’s not that much of a stretch.
I actually do feel compassion for him. It’s much, much more compassion than he’s ever shown (on the air) for other’s with addictions. That’s the point here.
Haj
I wish him well in his recovery, and hope he learns some lessons about compassion from his trials.
The only reason he is coming clean right now is DAMAGE CONTROL. He will now play on the sympathy of his listeners. I think he is a self righteous jerk and I hope he gets what is coming to him. Let there be no special treatment!
I’m sorry to be so childish but this had me giggling like a schoolkid. I don’t know that much about Rush except that Bill Hicks described him as being ‘like one of those guys that likes to lay in a bath and get peed on by other guys’ so i’d imagine that he is probabley not on a similar wave length to him. Saying that I wish him luck (as I would anyone) kicking a prescription painkiller habit as they are often even harder and more painful to kick than a full blown smack addiction.
There’s a thread in General Questions (FACTUAL QUESTION about Rush Limbaugh) with a whole passel of cites for Rush’s harsh statements about illegal drug use. I think you’ll find he never showed any compassion for drug abusers. Nonetheless, I hope he can kick his addiction. Some people’s lives get changed when they get loose from drug addiction, but I wouldn’t bet a grape on the possibility that Rush will stop being a pompous clanger.
ivylass, Limbaugh has personally caused enormous damage to our culture of politics and is more or less directly responsible for the decline in the level and quality of national dialogue.
He’s the host who spawned a hundred copycats, choking the airwaves with distortion, spite, and vindictiveness in an attempt to share a part of his audience. He was a major, major factor in the rise of the Gingrich gang in 1994, and beat the drum for all of their aggressions. Chelsea’s a dog. Bill’s a commie and a hippie. Reno’s a man. Hillary’s into women. Call your congressman. The list goes on and on.
While he might not belong in the same fraternity as some isolated figures of the extreme right like Phelps or Chick, the extreme right among the populace as a whole holds him on a much higher platform than those weirdos on the isolated fringe.
Let him emerge from rehab blaming a liberal conspiracy, and share the fate of Daryl Strawberry!
To be fair, he did say, “I am not a victim” in his speech to his listeners.
Haj
As someone whose father is currently going through a similar process after back surgery (about which a few of you may remember my very long OP), I have little but sympathy for the man. Let his comeuppance come later. Detox is bad enough.
And I say this, for anyone who didn’t know, as anything but a Rush fan. Let him learn from it, yes, and come out better. But wishing him more pain? Sorry, I’d like to think I have a touch more humanity in me than that.
I disagree with 99%+ of what Limbaugh stands for. However, I feel compassion for him as a human and hope that he has a successful recovery. I also hope that when he comes out of this, that he becomes a better person and has more compassion for his fellow man. As far as possible prosecution goes, I hope that his celebrity status has no effect on the disposition of his case. Generally, I would expect that users of his category would be given immunity in exchange for information leading to the prosecution of the bigger fish, those that supply the product.
He’s the host who spawned a hundred copycats, choking the airwaves with distortion, spite, and vindictiveness in an attempt to share a part of his audience. He was a major, major factor in the rise of the Gingrich gang in 1994, and beat the drum for all of their aggressions. Chelsea’s a dog. Bill’s a commie and a hippie. Reno’s a man. Hillary’s into women. Call your congressman. The list goes on and on.
Yeah. That whole free speech thing is really bad when it’s a conservative that exercises it. Only liberals should be allowed on the airwaves, dammit! We can’t have both liberal and conservative radio talk show hosts on the air! People might start thinking for themselves or … God forbid, change their minds on issues … if more than one viewpoint is shown! The sky is falling!! The conservatives have taken over!!!
And telling people to CALL THEIR CONGRESSMAN!!! That’s worthy a federal case!!! We can’t have people communicating with their elected representatives!!! That’s just downright DANGEROUS!!!
Take a pill, dude.
Better than being one…
:rolleyes:
::gasp wheeze pant pant::
Okay, I’ve stopped guffawing long enough to get back into my chair.
Fact is, talk radio is overwhelmingly dominated by conservatives. The more rabid, the more popular. Callers trying to argue liberal views get shouted down and ridiculed. The airwaves are indeed one-sided, but I’ll give you a hint which side – it ain’t southpaw.
I’ll disagree with that. Here in Houston, we have a wide range of talk radio. Most of it is conservative. They have to get on the air and beg liberals to call in, and when the occasional liberal does, the hosts are invariably polite to them and invite them to express their views. The callers, however, almost always wind up yelling: at the hosts whenever the host disagrees with them, at GWB or any other conservation politician, etc., etc.
Example - Last Wednesday morning, I turned on the radio and listened for 10 minutes straight to someone screaming - yes, screaming - on the air about how the host hated Democrats, how all Republicans are liars and warmongers, and how wrong it is to eat meat among other things. The host simply sat back and let the guy run out of breath. Every time the caller ran down, the host would ask politely, “Are you done?” and the guy would take a deep breath and start yelling again. The host finally had to cut him off because the show was up for a hard news break and the caller wouldn’t shut up.
This was a typical liberal caller. I guess this must be the radio talk show protocol laid out in The Liberal’s Handbook or something…
Would it be to a conservative talk show’s benefit to let an intelligent liberal caller discuss an issue, or is there more entertainment in making sure someone is totally ballistic before allowing them precious airtime?
I think it was a little bird that told me this thread would degenerate into yet another liberal vs. conservative neener fest.
I’ve listened to talk radio for years and heard both camps behave in ways that are entertainingly bad. Rush is a prick, so what? So are any number of liberal radio blowhards. The reasonable, entertaining, and informative ones must be carefully sought out.
Rush is currently suffering. Much of the pain is self inflicted. Poor baby. He’s also, IMO, a bigot and self-worshipping hypocrite. If he’s a victim of anything, he’s a victim of his own hubris. Like I said before, he’s got some hard lessons to learn.
His two previous trips for detox were just that-detox. No counseling, just a quick “spin dry” to get the crap out of his system.
Anyway, I hope he comes through this a little humbler and wiser. But I doubt it.
btw, Rush is a BAND!
Listen carefully to Rush when a liberal calls in. If they’re an idiot liberal he mocks and ridicules them. If the screener screws up and lets an intelligent liberal on the air, Rush lets them speak their piece and sluffs them off. He never engages them. Compare that to Liddy who used to give up to an hour of airtime to a smart liberal and have quite an interesting discussion.
Haj
Who wants to put a little bet on whether Rush learns anything from this experience? People like Rush never admit they’re wrong; that would be more painful for him than not taking his OxyContin. I expect that he’ll either duck the issue entirely in the future, or come up with some reason why prescription drug abuse isn’t really that bad, but street drugs are still evil; or come up with some as-yet-unforeseen way to distinguish his current situation from the drug problems of those who aren’t as well-connected as he.
I could be wrong, but it’s not the way to bet.
Since Rush says he’s “always tried to be honest with you and open about my life,” I wonder if he’d be willing to open up his medical history so we can see if he was telling the truth or not about the hearing loss.
Sure. In what alternate universe?