The psychosis of Rush Limbaugh

Murky

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I found this amusing article about Rush Limbaugh.
http://www.slate.com/id/2152347/nav/tap1/

Brain Disease
The psychosis of Rush Limbaugh
.
By William Saletan
Posted Friday, Oct. 27, 2006, at 7:49 PM ET
I once had a friend who listened to Rush Limbaugh three hours a day. He was a Republican operative. He sat in my apartment, wearing headphones, while I worked. He swore that if I put on the headphones for 10 minutes, I'd be hooked. So I put them on.

Inside the headphones was another world. Everyone in this world thought the same way, except liberals, and they were only cartoon characters, to be defeated as though in a video game. In the real world, my friend was unemployed and had been staying with me, rent-free, for two months. But inside the headphones, he could laugh about welfare bums instead of pounding the pavement.

I thought about that this week when Limbaugh went after his latest target: Michael J. Fox. Fox, who has Parkinson's disease, has been appearing in ads for candidates who support government-funded embryonic stem-cell research. The ads promote this research as a potential cure for Parkinson's and other ailments.

On Monday, Limbaugh played one of the ads for his audience. "In this commercial, he is exaggerating the effects of the disease," Limbaugh said of Fox. "He is moving all around and shaking. And it's purely an act. This is the only time I have ever seen Michael J. Fox portray any of the symptoms of the disease he has. ... This is really shameless of Michael J. Fox. Either he didn't take his medication or he's acting, one of the two."

Where had Limbaugh seen Fox? "I've seen him on Boston Legal, I've seen him on a number of stand-up appearances," said Limbaugh. He pointed to Fox's autobiography. Fox "admits in the book that before a Senate subcommittee … he did not take his medication, for the purposes of having the ravages and the horrors of Parkinson's disease illustrated, which was what he has done in the commercials," Limbaugh charged.

In the book, Fox tells the story of his life in the real world—the world his body inhabited, as opposed to the make-believe world Limbaugh saw on television. Fox describes how, during "the years I spent promoting the fiction that none of this was actually happening to me," he learned "to titrate medication so that it kicked in before an appearance or performance … I did everything I could to make sure the audience didn't know I was sick. This, as much as anything, had, by 1998, become my 'acting.' " When he came out of the Parkinson's closet, Fox recalls, he chose "to appear before the subcommittee without medication. It seemed to me that this occasion demanded that my testimony about the effects of the disease … be seen as well as heard."

Here we have two completely different notions of reality. Fox's job was to portray characters in movies and on television. For him, Parkinson's was an invasion of the fake world by the real one. The medication, designed to hide this from the audience, became part of the fiction. In going off his meds, he was dropping the act.

Limbaugh's life story has gone the other way. His job was to explain politics, a branch of nonfiction. But for him, the fake world has overtaken the real one. He thinks reality is what's on Boston Legal. Anything that doesn't match this must be "acting." If you go off your meds on purpose, you're not revealing your symptoms. You're "portraying" them.

Radio, television, and the Internet greased Limbaugh's descent into fantasy. Years ago, a profile described him "holed up in his New York apartment with Chinese take-out and a stack of rented movies." In another profile, he "complained that he has virtually no social life." Click the video links on his Web site, and you can peer into his world. He sits in a soundproof studio. He never has to go outside.

In Limbaugh's world, "there never was a surplus" under President Clinton. AIDS "hasn't made that jump to the heterosexual community," and cutting food stamps is harmless because recipients "aren't using them." Two years ago, Limbaugh said the minimum wage was $6 or $7 an hour. Last year, he said gas was $1.29 a gallon.

Limbaugh has particular trouble distinguishing reality from entertainment. The abuse at Abu Ghraib "looks just like anything you'd see Madonna or Britney Spears do on stage," he told his listeners. Last month, he defended ABC's 9/11 movie against the document on which it purported to rely: "The 9-11 Commission report, for example, says, well, some of these things didn't happen the way they were portrayed in the movie. How do they know that?"

Last year, Limbaugh, who used a tailbone defect to get out of the Vietnam draft, accused a Democratic candidate of having served in Iraq "to pad the resume." He charged several veterans—including former Sen. Max Cleland, who lost both legs and an arm in Vietnam—with trying "to hide their liberalism behind a military uniform … pretending to be something that they are not." When war is just another television show, a uniform is just another costume. Liberalism is real; losing your limbs is a pretense.

Which brings us back to stem cells. Limbaugh says Fox's ads dangle a prospect of imminent cures "that is not reality." He's right. But the ads convey another reality: a man dying of a disease that might be cured more quickly if the government dropped its restrictions on research funding. Limbaugh dismisses this as a "script" being followed by Fox's "PR people" and "the entertainment media." Script? Entertainment? This is life and death.

I have another friend. He has Parkinson's. I've seen him on good days and bad days. That's how I know Fox isn't faking it. My friend doesn't see the destruction of embryos as a dangerous price to pay for stem-cell research. I do. But if you worry about the embryos, you had bloody well better look into the eyes of the people dying of these diseases. You had better ask yourself whether slowing research that might save them is an acceptable price for your principles.

If you can't—if all you can see is "acting"—then you need more help than they do. Fox's disease can only take your body. Limbaugh's can take your soul.

A version of this article also appears in the Outlook section of the Sunday Washington Post.
 
Rush Limbaugh is an asshat.

I thought that was universal knowledge?
 
Rush Limbaugh is an asshat.

I thought that was universal knowledge?

I thought that since the whole "phony soldiers" thing was just a misunderstanding that we should examine this right-wing "Hero" more thoroughly. :lol:
 
Rush Limbaugh actually believes the Left is responsible for America's obesity. What a quality radio program he delivers.
 
Rush Limbaugh is an asshat.

I thought that was universal knowledge?

Basically. Entertaining sometimes, annoying as hell at others. This article from last year doesn't bring anything new, actually. It is what it is.
 
Basically. Entertaining sometimes, annoying as hell at others. This article from last year doesn't bring anything new, actually. It is what it is.

Sometimes you need to re-examine the past to understand the present.
 
Basically. Entertaining sometimes, annoying as hell at others. This article from last year doesn't bring anything new, actually. It is what it is.

My boss listens to him everyday. I find him to be more annoying then funny. His voice is rather grating.
 
My boss listens to him everyday. I find him to be more annoying then funny.
I know the feeling... a supervisor whose office is near my cubicle used to listen to Air America (podcasts, I guess?) a lot, leaving his door open and audible to everyone.

Of course, I thought that it was annoying enough to be back to funny. :)
 
Limbaugh has particular trouble distinguishing reality from entertainment. The abuse at Abu Ghraib "looks just like anything you'd see Madonna or Britney Spears do on stage,"

Please go to the local goal and form naked human pyramids with male strangers ! :lol:
 
All you bill hicks fans, listen to what he had to say about the man, Im sure its on youtube.

I'd post a link but then I'd be moderatered into space dust.
 
Murky...

Wow.

The irony here of course, is that Limbaugh was right. Fox admitted that he hadn't taken his medications in an effort to exagerate his normal symptoms. And I'm sorry, but that's pretty shameless.

Fox was just another example of Graham Frost. An example of Democrats throwing out victims into the media spotlight, because somehow, these people are untouchable and beyond criticism, as this author states, MICHAEL J FOX IS DYING! YOU CAN'T CRITICIZE DYING PEOPLE!

It was a huge charade. This was about a Missouri politician that wasn't against Stem Cell research, but CLONING. Stem cell research was legal in Missouri and Jim Talent supported it. Michael J Fox even admitted that he hadn't even read the bill in question on ABC. The only reason he was used in these smear campaign ads, was because he was a dying, popular victim, that in the Democrats eyes, the media's eyes, was completely untouchable. Michael J Fox could have said anything and nobody would have criticized, nor should have been able to criticize his comments...because he's dying.

Inside the headphones was another world. Everyone in this world thought the same way, except liberals, and they were only cartoon characters, to be defeated as though in a video game. - Article

The irony of course, is that the reality is that this is the way Democrats view the world. And they will do anything to defeat conservatives like Rush Limbaugh in a video game. To include the expectation that they can pretty much lie, misrespresent facts, and shamelessly play into peoples emotions by throwing out victims without impunity. Democrats don't think people like Michael J Fox should be criticized in misleading POLITICAL ADS in which he doesn't take his meds. The Frost family should never be criticized because they have disabled kids. Cindy Sheehan should never be criticized because she lost a son in Iraq.

But Rudy Guliani cannot speak of 9-11.

There's no sense addressing the rest of it. Because the basis of the authors thesis surrounding Michael J Fox, is just as big of a sham as those ads were.
 
Murky...
Wow.

The irony here of course, is that Limbaugh was right. Fox admitted that he hadn't taken his medications in an effort to exagerate his normal symptoms. And I'm sorry, but that's pretty shameless.
Wow, just wow.

No, you ......., the normal symptoms are what you get when you don't suppress them with medication.

Not taking it, reveals the true symptoms.

What a looking glass world you inhabit.

And the irony here, is that right wingers are with Alanis Morrisette when it comes to understanding irony.


Fox was just another example of Graham Frost. An example of Democrats throwing out victims into the media spotlight, because somehow, these people are untouchable and beyond criticism, as this author states, MICHAEL J FOX IS DYING! YOU CAN'T CRITICIZE DYING PEOPLE!

It was a huge charade. This was about a Missouri politician that wasn't against Stem Cell research, but CLONING. Stem cell research was legal in Missouri and Jim Talent supported it. Michael J Fox even admitted that he hadn't even read the bill in question on ABC. The only reason he was used in these smear campaign ads, was because he was a dying, popular victim, that in the Democrats eyes, the media's eyes, was completely untouchable. Michael J Fox could have said anything and nobody would have criticized, nor should have been able to criticize his comments...because he's dying.



The irony of course, is that the reality is that this is the way Democrats view the world. And they will do anything to defeat conservatives like Rush Limbaugh in a video game. To include the expectation that they can pretty much lie, misrespresent facts, and shamelessly play into peoples emotions by throwing out victims without impunity. Democrats don't think people like Michael J Fox should be criticized in misleading POLITICAL ADS in which he doesn't take his meds. The Frost family should never be criticized because they have disabled kids. Cindy Sheehan should never be criticized because she lost a son in Iraq.
Content is a bit too detailed American for me, but it sounds exactly like a right wing rant.

Right wingers demand the freedom to not be confronted with the consequences of their inaction, and so dismiss it as misleading.

But Rudy Guliani cannot speak of 9-11.
Is that because he is as inarticulate as Bush?

Or because it's hard to see why an event like that should be owned by one political party?

There's no sense addressing the rest of it. Because the basis of the authors thesis surrounding Michael J Fox, is just as big of a sham as those ads were.
One naturally doesn't wish anyone to die of a horrible disease...but at least it might enlighten you a small amount.....
 
That's why you don't listen to any talk radio. Whether they're right or wrong on any particular issue, they're still annoying.
 
Wow, just wow.

No, you ......., the normal symptoms are what you get when you don't suppress them with medication. - Beth

Read this.

http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/....html?id=9eeae5c9-c9ff-4eab-8ef1-907ae94b1326

What do you think?

What a looking glass world you inhabit.

And the irony here, is that right wingers are with Alanis Morrissete when it comes to understanding irony. - Beth

A glass world in which Democrats throw out a victim who doesn't take his meds to play into the emotions of people while purporting lies? That world?

Oh, and by the way, that song simply had a bunch of coincidences. There was no irony in that song.

Content is a bit too detailed American for me, but it sounds exactly like a right wing rant.

Right wingers demand the freedom to not be confronted with the consequences of their inaction, and so dismiss it as misleading. - Bath

Huh?

Is that because he is as inarticulate as Bush?

Or because it's hard to see why an event like that should be owned by one political party? -

A little tooooooo ironic. And I really do think...

One naturally doesn't wish anyone to die of a horrible disease...but at least it might enlighten you a small amount... - Beth

Look: The Democrats ran downright UNTRUTHFUL ADS in two states, using a popular Parkinson's victim to forward UNTRUTHFULNESS. Read the article by a Parkinson's specialist about what Fox did. Then get back to me.
 
A glass world in which Democrats throw out a victim who doesn't take his meds to play into the emotions of people while purporting lies? That world?

now you can achieve enlightenment in 3 easy steps!

1. Go here.

2. Read this:

Two years earlier, Fox had appeared in a television commercial for Republican Arlen Specter's 2004 Senate campaign.

3. Think about it.

also, point out some lies while you're at it.
 
2. Read this:

Quote:
Two years earlier, Fox had appeared in a television commercial for Republican Arlen Specter's 2004 Senate campaign.

3. Think about it. - Mr Dictator

I'm a little curious what Michael J Fox doing an ad for Arlen Specter has to do with Rush being right about Michael J Fox being off of his meds or acting, and the mistruths that Fox was forwarding while promoting two Democratic candadites when he had never even read the bills in question or had full awareness of his opponents positions.
 
I'm a little curious what Michael J Fox doing an ad for Arlen Specter has to do with Rush being right about Michael J Fox being off of his meds or acting, and the mistruths that Fox was forwarding while promoting two Democratic candadites when he had never even read the bills in question or had full awareness of his opponents positions.

it has everything to do with you lambasting the democrats when the republicans did the same thing.
 
That's why you don't listen to any talk radio. Whether they're right or wrong on any particular issue, they're still annoying.

They're more than likely wrong.

They're being paid to pretty well talk all day. By talking all day, they lose the opportunity to research and think about events - every day they have to say something outrageous and 'common sense-ish'. They cannot form a reasoned or informed opinion on a topic by spending most of their time not deeply thinking.

But that doesn't stop them from talking, or giving their opinions. People need to know that those opinions are NOT informed. The best they're doing is drawing upon education and research they worked on before they became performers.
 
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