Young me, met the old me.
I used to wonder if the young me met me now if the young me would like me, and I always thought “Yes. Yes, he would.”
Then I listened to an hour of Rush Limbaugh last night, and he made a lot of sense.
That would have appalled the young me.
March 1st, 2009 at 12:29 pm
Dad listens to Rush Limbaugh’s radio program, and I’ll admit the man has good points. That would appall… almost everyone I know. So I don’t talk about it.
March 1st, 2009 at 5:46 pm
“If you’re not a liberal at 20, you have no heart. If you’re not a conservative at 40, you have no head.” – attributed to Sir Winston Churchill
March 2nd, 2009 at 7:30 am
You’re frightening me, Michael.
March 2nd, 2009 at 7:37 am
Good. lol…..
Conservatism is the new punk rock. It’s the only way left to piss people off. (Which is not why I’m doing it, but a happy side effect.)
Remember when we were 20, we pissed off people in their 40s just by being us? Now I piss off people I know who in their 40s by doing the same.
I don’t know everything Rush believes, but his rap at the PAC was nice.
MWD
March 2nd, 2009 at 8:34 am
I used to cohost a local talkshow on a radio station here in town and was the station’s token liberal. I used to HATE Limbaugh. I would also run a nightly rerun of that day’s show. Then I actually listened and realized his commentary and analysis are astute and he’s pretty damn funny too. Unlike television and most print media, Rush inspires. He’s an overweight cigar-smoking dropout from Cape Girardeau, Missouri with an addiction to painkillers and STILL kicked Howard Stern’s ass. Glenn Beck is the Method Man to Rush’s Old Dirty Bastard.
March 2nd, 2009 at 11:20 am
I generally avoid discussing politics because it’s hard to persuade people. But I like the work you’ve done and found it inspirational. And while I think Rush is a great showman and knows how to make great radio, his command of facts — not opinion — but facts is shaky at best. He distorted Obama’s postion on the Fairness Doctrine, even after Obama said he had now intention of reinstating it.
In his CPAC speech, he mixed up the Constitution and the Declaration of Independance. He said liberals welcomed Joseph Stalin, which is demonstrably false; even in the 1920s and 1930s liberals opposed Stalin. He also wondered how American became the world’s largest power — just after knocking the New Deal policies and Great Society polices that you could argue helped us make the — maybe lousy — leap into superpowerdom. I’d say it was the GI bill, more than anything, that contributed. Yep, government funded education for the deserving masses.
I don’t have the time or inclination to FACT check the blowhard, but I think it’s dishonest to base your showmanship on fiction, without saying that’s what you’re doing.
Maybe it’s one thing to argue that conservatism is the new punk rock, in terms of being able to piss off liberals. (Oh. Wow. Like that’s so hard and so worthy.)
But the conservatism with which I am familiar is more based on justifying robbing the middle classes and poor with the government’s help so defence contractors can buy swimming pools in McClean, VA., or so Wall Street mofos can commit fraud at will. Or putting in evangelical principles to rule over us. Judge by the actions. Follow the money. Then draw your own conclusions.
You can argue that they’re not true conservatives, and I’d agree, but those are the guys running the show for the most part and using guns & ammo rhetoric to cover up their agenda.
Anyway, I respect your right to check Limbaugh out and even buy into what he’s saying — like I said, he’s a great communicator, right up there with Dr. Laura, and I mean that as a sincere compliment.
But since when was living in a mansion, growing a lard ass and smoking cigars an act of rebellion?
March 2nd, 2009 at 2:54 pm
>(chip)Glenn Beck is the Method Man to Rush’s Old Dirty Bastard.
That’s hilarious!
==-
>(Mr Primitive) Maybe it’s one thing to argue that conservatism is the new punk rock, in terms of being able to piss off liberals. (Oh. Wow. Like that’s so hard and so worthy.)
I’m just razzing Mr. HCI. We were roommates when we were 20. Besides, he likes Bob Barr, who I voted for. I’m libertarian now (small l), not Republican. Republicans are way too far left for me. (including Barr, who is a LINO, “Libertarian in name only”).
I found Rush’s speech refreshing, but only because I was OD’ed on a month of Obama’s rhetoric (and poor understanding of math and economics). What I really wanted to say to Rush was “endorse Ron Paul and Barry Goldwater Jr., then git off the stage, ya unkempt hippie dope fiend!”
>But since when was living in a mansion, growing a lard ass and smoking cigars an act of rebellion?
Don’t know that it is. But there’s nothing wrong with it, if it’s what you want to do and you earned it. Obama wants to steal most of Rush’s money and give it to “professional victims” who don’t feel like working, and justify it with their “difficult upbringing” (or with “the contract I signed with the mortgage company when I lied about my income was confusing! It’s the contract’s fault!”)
MWD
March 2nd, 2009 at 8:18 pm
- Misdirected there — didn’t mean to intrude on the conversation.
Ron Paul was attractive, until I found out that he’s scored a fair amount of government earmarks for his own district.
“Paul played a role in obtaining 22 earmarks worth $96.1 million, which led the Houston congressional delegation, according to a Houston Chronicle analysis of more than 8,500 congressionally mandated projects inserted into the bill. His earmarks included repair projects to the Galveston Seawall damaged by Hurricane Ike and the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway.”
via Andrew Sulivan, here: http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2009/03/ron-pauls-earma.html
Not so bad as far as earmarks go, but . . . where do you draw the line with libertarianism? Dollars for Blackwater = okay, dollars for schools = bad? Waht exactly should be the role of government? I just haven’t seen a lot of coherent thought about that.
And, seriously, if you’re a libertarian, then bless ya and we’re pretty close in a lot of ways — but what I don’t get about libertarians I’ve met is they get hacked off about food stamps for the poor more than welfare for corporations or agribusiness or the military industrial complex. The morons who took out more mortgages that they could afford totally hack me off, and I can’t get behind shelling out tax dollars for them. But I am more incensed by the welfare queens in Wells Fargo taking my money and partying in Vegas. or the Trust dudes paying to have Sheryl Crow play their private party while we’re bailing them out.
Fro the past few years, there’s been a fundamental breakdown in the way those “conservative” principles get applied at the Federal level, even by a generally stand up guy like Ron Paul, and I’d like to see that changed.
But I don’t see Rush helping make that change. Buffonery’s fine as you’re talking about blow jobs in the 90s given to another cartoon character like Clinton. But for reasons good and bad, the system’s tanking and as much as I’d like to hunker down in the sticks with my canned food and my shotguns and my fresh water sprign out back and finally learn to farm, I don’t have that luxury yet.
Thanks for the dialog.
March 2nd, 2009 at 11:35 pm
>Ron Paul was attractive….
yup.
I’d do him.
>what I don’t get about libertarians I’ve met is they get hacked off about food stamps for the poor more than welfare for corporations or agribusiness or the military industrial complex.
Well, general tenant of libertarianism, as I understand it, is usually “everyone has a job or starves, and government is much smaller and doesn’t exist to to do much except protect our borders.” Which means having an army, navy, air force, marines. Most other things currently done by gov would be done by private industry. And people could be openly armed, and you’d need a lot fewer cops. Legalize drugs and get rid of DEA, that would save a fortune. And lower crime. No black market, no need to commit crime for drugs, and no over inflated black market. No drug lords and the violence they bring.
I am not anti-military, in fact very pro military, but not the way it is now. I think now it’s often used offensivly, I’d like to see it only defensive. And I hate that Haliburton and other really wasteful pork is still going on. The 600 dollar screwdriver of the 80s is not a thing of the past. Now it’s more things like driving empty trucks for the army back and forth, delivering nothing, and billing us for it. Or losing a few billion dollars in cash and nothing coming of it.
this comic has a pretty good picture of where I’d like to see the world:
http://www.bigheadpress.com/tpbtgn
MWD
p.s. keep posting around here any time you like. It’s most welcome, Mr Primitive.
How’d you find us?
March 3rd, 2009 at 4:41 am
Rush Limbaugh is a big fat idiot.
;-}
March 3rd, 2009 at 4:47 am
Al Franken is funnier when he’s not a senator.
March 3rd, 2009 at 6:04 pm
Michael, from what I’ve read of your writing, I really don’t think you’d like Limbaugh one you got to know him.
Limbaugh has the big-voiced preacher effect. Being from the south and a very conservative family, I got inoculated against it from a pretty early age, though they did have me for a little while. Just spend some time listening to evangelical radio and you’ll get a good idea of how Limbaugh works. The trick is to be deliberately, aggressively offensive, histrionically angry, and to speak in a bold, authoritative, furiously certain voice. People like Limbaugh prey on people’s intellectual blind spots and knee-jerk emotional responses to sell books and radio ads. And they do this by fanning prejudicial hatred against entire categories of humans. All you have to do is make one “Good point,” and people dutifully “overlook” the more decidedly evil and manipulative memes you float.
People whose opinions are worth considering have these basic characteristics–
They begin their commentaries without an obvious pre-determined opinion. In other words, they wrote the commentary because they realized, “I don’t know what my opinion on____ is.” Realizing that they did not know enough about this subject, they went to the library, did research with books, interviewed people who knew better than they, etc. Now they present their conclusions to you, tell you what they think the evidence points to, and leave you to make up your own decision.
The purpose of shrill pontificating pundits is to obscure the mind of the citizen, make the issue seem more simple or more complicated than it really is, in other words keep the citizen from becoming curious or self-educating at any cost. The corporate and political elite want us as far away from meaningful policy discussion as they can possibly get us.
That went on for bloody ever. I must be putting off writing again.
March 3rd, 2009 at 6:11 pm
>The trick is to be deliberately, aggressively offensive, histrionically angry, and to speak in a bold, authoritative, furiously certain voice….. All you have to do is make one “Good point,” and people dutifully “overlook” the more decidedly evil and manipulative memes you float.
Yup, and I can even be taken in by a sappy movie and cry and be embarrassed because I am giving in to the “tricks” of three-act format.
Very good point. Thank you.
I’d still rather listen to Rush than Obama. I feel that Obama is pillaging the country, and fast.
MWD
March 3rd, 2009 at 6:42 pm
As a disclaimer, I would like to mention that I am usually much funnier than this. I’m only talking politics because my coffee tastes funny and it pisses me off.
As for the pillaging thing…that was the number one prerogative of Bush, too, remember? The economy’s failing? Quick, hand over billions of dollars with no strings to people we know will waste it. That was an obvious dick-move designed to hurt the incoming administration, which was really starting to look like it would be Democratic. Also worth mentioning, the Bushes so severely gutted essential government programs like the FDA WHILE they were running up a massive deficit, that even the basic spending needed to get the government halfway functioning again would be pretty painful. The Obama Administration has to completely reboot the system on borrowed money. There’s no good way to do that, but what other option do you have? Turn government agencies over to corporate control? Look how THOSE guys have been running things lately. I think the only choices are solutions that work, but work badly, or solutions that don’t work at all.
March 3rd, 2009 at 7:09 pm
>The Obama Administration has to completely reboot the system on borrowed money. There’s no good way to do that, but what other option do you have?
Strip US gov down to almost nothing, back like it was, and like it was meant to be, at the inception. Let people take care of themselves. Those who can’t will starve to death. Those who are criminal would be shot by honest, armed citizens.
MWD
p/s
I’m amazed how active this tread from this little post has become.
March 7th, 2009 at 10:49 pm
I don’t give 3 S’s about Rush anymore or that Obama could possibly live up to all his “fan’s” hype……but THIS I will remember:”I’m only talking politics because my coffee tastes funny and it pisses me off.” HAHAHAHA-I’m using that soon!
March 25th, 2009 at 11:06 am
Well, my issue with Limbaugh is not so much his ideas as it is the presentation of his ideas. Basically I don’t like him because he’s a fat, obnoxious, intolerant, hypocritical, loudmouth jerk. He rants about how drug offenders should do serious time and all the while he’s a junkie. There’s nothing wrong with being a junkie, but be honest about it. Fucking hypocrite.
I like Churchill’s quote. And seeing as Limbaugh has never been a liberal, that would mean he doesn’t have a heart. Yea, that sounds about right.
However, I dig your site Michael and appreciate your point of view.
March 25th, 2009 at 11:11 am
Thanks man!
Yeah, I don’t like a loud ANYBODY.
I think I’ll run for the post of “true new leader of the Republican Party.” They need fresh blood.
My new book will be a bid in that direction. it’s not loud, but it’s solid:
“A User’s Manual for the Human Experience”
New book coming April 15, 2009 from
Michael W. Dean
http://www.lifeamp.org/