Why now?

Rush Limbaugh is a character I've chosen to ignore for many years for one reason alone, he's Rush Limbaugh. Well actually it was back in 1992, or somewhere around there, when he had a late night television show. He, for whatever reason, announced he had a pic of the future White House dog, President-elect Clinton still hadn't had one, and held up a pic of Bill's thirteen year old daughter Chelsea.

Low as that is, Rush repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and claimed it was a staff/technical error, on a pre-taped show recorded hours before it aired. What the original joke was is a mystery, as I don't see where he was going with it otherwise, and neither did anyone else. Still I don't see how the crew couldn't have just re shot the segment, but I don't work in television. Now there's controversy that this even happened, or it didn't happen as the way it's been described, but that's all horse shit. I saw the show, and his ensuing lame apology which was clear he wasn't sorry. If he really cared about the girl's feelings he could've redone the take, or eliminated it all together.

So I decided to pay him little mind, but every now and then he says things that gets him national attention, and his defenders go from their usual stance that "Rush is champion of American values" to "he's just an entertainer" whenever it's popular to hate on him. He's back in the spotlight for calling Sandra fluke a slut and deemed it appropriate to ask her to post sex videos of herself online should her insurance company cover her birth control. Yes, that's outrageous, but this is coming from a guy who claimed a man stricken with Parkinson's was faking his symptoms for political gain, called another President's daughter unattractive, called out the media for supposedly coddling black quarterbacks, told a black caller to pull a bone out of his nose, and we all should recall the Barack the Magic Negro bit.

But now that Sandra Fluke has been insulted, the nation finally decides to take action, or at least post about it a lot on Facebook. Advertisers are bailing, as they normally do when he says something stupid, which is a lot, but they come back after a while, because he garners huge ratings from easily amused folks. With all of this controversy going on, Missouri House Speaker, having solved all of the state's financial issues, has commissioned a statue erected of him in the hall of famous Missourians.

And yet, people say Rush adds a lot to the public discourse, but none of them can say exactly how. He offers nothing productive to any issue, ever. In fact, his constant bombardment of misinformation on the airwaves is damaging it. That's what his viewers love about him, he'll lie to them all the time to make them think they're right, and they'll spew his nosense in stupid email forwards and inappropriate political discussions at the dinner table. Nothing will change because of this advertising fall out. Rush will be back, and we all have to keep rolling our eyes at all this.

"You know, she may be the most unattractive presidential daughter in the history of the country," - Rush Limbaugh