Two Comments on Limbaugh and his deafness

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
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  1. The picture of Rush Limbaugh accompanying the story about him in People Magazine two weeks ago just might be the perfect picture of the guy. Casual clothes, out on the golf course, surrounded by a plume of cigar smoke. The photog absolutely captured the essense of Rush. Limbaugh should put a couple of bucks into the economy buy buying that phot prom People and hanging it on his wall.

  2. I saw an ad on TV today for the new Manheim Steamroller X-mas album and I just felt bad for Rush. He really loved Steamroller and he won’t get to hear the album. Think about that: your fave group releases new stuff and you can’t give it a go. I just cannot imagine going deaf. I haven’t listened to Rush’s show for years, ever since my politics took a hard swing to the left for some reason, but that’s a tough break.

-Myron

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Hear that, Rush? No? That’s karma biting you in the ass, Rush. If you don’t listen to anyone but yourself, maybe you don’t need to hear.

The only thing that could have made it more appropriate was if he went mute, but not deaf.

(My sincere apologies if I have offended anyone with a hearing problem, but I consider Rush to be lower than pond scum. And yes, I have listened to his show before. He makes G. Gordon Liddy sound like a Libertarian.)

3

Oh, I see we have to go through this again.

Hey - it’s OK to gloat over someone else’s pain. Because he deserved it, right? Because he’s an asshole, right?

Well, who isn’t an asshole? We all deserve crap, because we all are flawed. Including you, Baron.

So - what do you really “deserve”, Baron? I’m sure there’s something. Perhaps a couple of big doozies. Maybe you wouldn’t think you have been that bad, but I am sure we could find someone who believes you might deserve a nice karmic kick in the butt. Maybe enough to make you deserve to go deaf, blind, or whatever. But it would be OK, because it would just be “karma biting you in the ass”. So - har-har-har. It’d be such a laugh. To see you go deaf, or blind. Or whatever. Just good ol’ karma.

4

Rush’s situation simply fits my definition of irony almost perfectly.

Of course everyone is flawed. You’re defending someone who goes to great lengths to exploit the flaws of others for his personal gain?

And as far as your personal attack on my ‘karma’ goes, that’s the whole idea of karma. And, yes, I’m sure some of my mistakes will come back and bite me in the ass. That’s how life goes. I can live with that. I never went on the radio or TV and preached hate to people I never met, or for that matter, anyone. And if I DO go deaf, I will know that it’s not because I went on the radio and told everyone how to think. Life in this country is supposed to be based on the concept of “Live and let live”, not “Live and attack those who are different from you”. And before you say that I’m attacking poor, defenseless Rush, if he knew how to get his point across without doing it at the expense of everyone else, I’d be very sympathetic for him.

[whine] This again? [/whine]

Sorry, but not everyone reads every post on the board. Repetition is one of the unfortunate downfalls of any media that can’t be read by everyone all the time, especially bulletin boards.

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I’m kinda reminded of “The Unforgiven” where Eastwood says, at various times, “deserve has nothing to do with it” and “we’ve all got it coming”.

I don’t care for RL’s politics and think his methods are low, but I don’t wish deafness on him. But I also don’t think that people bearing RL ill-will or not feeling sorry for him affects him at all. RL laughs all the way to the bank at everyone who pays for his stuff.

More awful that RL not being able to hear a new album coming out, how about Beethoven, who didn’t hear all of his own later works, which were so incredibly beautiful. Now that is awful tragedy.

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Please copy and paste where I “defended someone who goes to great lengths to exploit the flaws of others for his personal gain”. Please. Show me where I did that.

:rolleyes: “Well, at least I am not as bad as him”. Yeah, right. You’re so much better. But here you are, in a public message board, gloating (in a hateful manner) about someone else’s grave misfortune. Oh yeah. You’re SO much better.

No, maybe it’ll be because you gleefully reveled in someone else’s misfortune. Hey - I don’t know what you’re like. Why should I believe you’re any better than Rush Limbaugh? Perhaps he’s a saint compared to you. Oh High-and-Mighty “At least I don’t do this…” Please. Spare me.

It would’ve just killed you to type “Rush Limbaugh” in the search box, huh?

Exactly.

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I have to agree with the OP. I certainly don’t agree with Limbaugh’s politics, and I rarely watched or listened to his show, but I wouldn’t wish deafness on anyone. That’s probably one of my greatest fears, is losing my hearing. I think I could handle going blind, I read alot, but there’s braille and audio books, but to never hear music again. That’s hard. Music is such a big part of my life, I don’t know how I’d cope without it. Hell, I guess I’d get by, after all what’s the alternative? Not too appealing there, either.

In other words, a little compassion for a fellow human being, not matter what his politics, is a good thing, I think. I’m glad my first reaction on hearing about it was, “Damn, that’s a tough break, poor guy.” As opposed to “Yeah! Serves that bloated gasbag right!”

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For me it is the opposite. If I went deaf, the one positive would be that people would believe me when I say that I don’t give a damn about music.

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Ok, before someone else makes me out to be cold-hearted and insensitive in the light of someone losing their hearing, let me state these points:

First, I apologize to the general population if my first post was in poor taste. I’d been mulling over some of his more offensive comments in my head, and I couldn’t resist the urge to strike the bait. I also realize that this should probably not have gone in this particular forum.

That being said:

I’ve heard Rush use people with disabilities as the butt of jokes and show a distinct lack of sympathy towards the disabled in general–now he gets to experience what it’s like to be part of the group he disparaged.

Living your life in a manner such that you do your best to try not to insult, injure, or generally screw over anyone else means that you might be able to have the peace of mind to not wonder if the bad things you did came back to haunt you. Of course, the flip side is that bad things do happen to good people, and those people have to wonder why life handed them a shitty hand. Rush will always have to wonder if the nasty things he said and his inability to truly listen to different opinions somehow had something to do with it. Although I’m sure he doesn’t believe in karma, (not sure I do either, BTW)it will always be a nagging doubt.
Yosemitebabe:

You may not have directly defended Rush, but your post reeks of someone defending him on a personal level. He uses others misfortunes as evidence of their wrongdoing, even if none is done. He uses these examples as misguided attempts to prove himself right. It can’t be pasted, because it was implied.

Examples? It’s difficult to quote radio or TV on a board. But here goes. He condems single mothers, and at the same time, women who have abortions. He condemns immigrants, Democrats, Independents, minorities and generally anyone who disagrees with him as evil and deserving of what they get. Did I do that? Maybe. Did I ever say I was any beter than him? NO. But, as an apparent fan, you seem to have some sort of affinity for misguided, factless drivel, and repeated confirmation that “You are right”, over and over, so this should have been right up your alley, except that it was someone YOU respect who was disrespected.

I don’t generalize people. I consider every occurence I’m faced with on a case-by-case basis. If it had been someone who didn’t make a living from attacking people with problems, I’d be much less likely to pick on him. Yes, I do consider it more appropriate to pick on someone who picks on people.

Genseric: My first reaction was “That sucks to lose your hearing”, not “Serves him right.” Everyone knows it sucks to lose your hearing, or any other function.

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I haven’t. Got a cite? I’m curious.

He ain’t the only one who ain’t listenin’, old boy.

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If you had bothered to type “Rush Limbaugh” in Search, you would have found some threads on this subject. And you would have read my posts, and discovered that I am not a rabid Rush fan. I rarely listen to him (usually only long road trips, when I listen to a lot of talk radio). Occasionally he amuses me, but he also says things that offend me. But you’d know this already, had you actually searched.

It wasn’t implied. You were mistaken. You were WRONG.

But it was implied. Your post reeks of it. :rolleyes:

I don’t think it’s good karma to revel in other people’s misfortune. I dislike Larry Flynt and all he stands for, but it never has ever occurred to me to think that his paralysis was something he deserved. I think it is reprehensible to think that way. We all are flawed, we all are jerks. So where do any of us get off gloating when someone else has something this dire happen to them, and saying that they “deserve” it?

(However, I said it in previous threads - I won’t wring my hands so much over “karma” when someone is a murderer or terrorist. They relinquish such considerations when they cross that line.)

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From what I’ve heard of his show, and learned of his philosophy, Rush does not just make tasteless jokes at the expense of people with disabilities. This would put him in the same category as Howard Stern, and in fairness, you can’t lump in there. Rush picks and chooses behavior to spotlight what he percieves as a flawed philosophy extant in our country, namely, that people use disabilities as excuses for underachieving and/or special treatment.

Thus, while he has made his deafness known to the public at large, he has remained true to his own philosophy of self-sufficiency by refusing to knuckle under to it. He is determined to still do a radio call-in show.

Whether or not you agree with his politics or his social philosophy, I think it’s important to at least understand his motivations. To listen to him since he’s revealed his deafness is to gain a better understanding of someone who has not changed his philosophy since learning that karma has “bitten him in the ass.” Like it or not, he’s not just full of hot air in this instance. He’s walking the walk. He’s extremely candid about it, and has even used self-deprecating humor, rather than go all defensive because now it’s happening to him. How many of us would do the same were we in his shoes?

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It is interesting that you consider the people mentioned in your list to be people with disabilities.

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When you one day find yourself to be the victim of tragic circumstance, I hope you’ll be consoled by those who are delighted by the irony. Baron, was it? [sub]Notes: Baron…tragedy…irony[/sub]

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Thanks, yosemite. I’m with you, now that I’ve slowed down to take a hard look at myself. It really is easy for us (ok, me anyway) to think [Nelson Munce voice] “HAH ha” [/Nelson Munce voice] when something tragic happens to someone we don’t really like. But know what? It’s not really an upstanding thing to do.

As for Rush’s character in general, I don’t think he’s an evil person; he likes to challenge people and pick on Democrats, but I’m not terribly threatened by his philosophies, even the extreme ones. And I’m highly skeptical of the claim that he’s joked about people with disabilities in an offensive manner.

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First, I concede. It was in poor taste, and not at all appropriate for this board. You are right, I should learn not to let my disgust control my emotions. I apologize for my original post.

You either misread the post, or you chose to make an assumption that I’m some sort of racist. I didn’t say minorities are disabled, I was trying to say that issues concerning both minorities AND the disabled were misused for his personal benefit.

Can we let this thread die now?

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You apology is accepted.

I agree with you that he should be mute. He’s annoying as living with a bunch of howler monkeys.

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Whether you like or dislike the guy, wish him well or ill, revel in his misfortune or feel sympathy, consider this:

He doesn’t complain about this misfortune or whine about the injustice of life and he still does his freakin’ talk show. Deaf.

The people who express joy about his condition actually reveal far more about themselves than about their target.