Cause I'm Leavin' on a Jet Plane

March 25, 2010 7:48 PM

On his March 8th show Rush Limbaugh declared that if health care reform passed he would be getting his future heath care in Costa Rica. Mike and Patrick would like to buy him a ticket (as long as he doesn't come back). Enough money has already been raised, but if Rush refuses to go all monies will be donated to Planned Parenthood. (via and via)
posted by cjorgensen (109 comments total)

Beautiful. Perfect.
posted by nevercalm at 7:51 PM on March 25, 2010

I bet he'll be so glad to escape our new socialized healthcare.
posted by contessa at 7:51 PM on March 25, 2010 [4 favorites]

I dunno. Is Costa Rica interested in taking in drug addicts?
posted by Sticherbeast at 7:53 PM on March 25, 2010 [20 favorites]

Niiiice!
posted by five fresh fish at 7:54 PM on March 25, 2010

"1,400 bucks won't even buy a bottle of wine on my plane."

Truly a man of the people.
posted by The Hamms Bear at 7:55 PM on March 25, 2010 [19 favorites]

Ah, totally figured why he'd want to go to Costa Rica.
posted by contessa at 7:57 PM on March 25, 2010 [9 favorites]

Heh.
posted by The Esteemed Doctor Bunsen Honeydew at 7:57 PM on March 25, 2010

has anybody said "fuck Rush" yet in this thread? no? let me be the first. Fuck Rush!
posted by HuronBob at 7:58 PM on March 25, 2010

Meh. A fiery answer to a jerk isn't impressive.

I will go further, and assert that nature without culture can often do more to deserve praise than culture without nature. - Cicero
posted by Mblue at 7:59 PM on March 25, 2010

I hate Rush Limbaugh. I wish he'd die in a fire. But he did say he'd go to Costa Rica for his health care, not that he was going to move there. His idiotic logic was with Obamacare all the doctors and insurance companies would operate out of Costa Rica rather than deal with the system in the US.

I love how he said he loved the treatment he got in Hawaii over Christmas, until he found out that Hawaii has evil socialized healthcare.

Turns out Costa Rica has universal healthcare. It also has legal prostitution which probably caught El-Rushbo's attention.

But this stunt is stupid. Rush doesn't need money for a trip. He's a multimillionaire many times over. This is just giving more press to this idiot that given his unhealthy lifestyle will probably die before the health care kicks in.
posted by birdherder at 8:02 PM on March 25, 2010 [9 favorites]

He's a loud-mouthed idiot. When will you usa guys realize that the loud-mouthed idiots have you running?

Being clever? Give me a break.
posted by sporb at 8:02 PM on March 25, 2010 [1 favorite]

"1,400 bucks won't even buy a bottle of wine on my plane."

Christ, what an asshole.
posted by shii at 8:05 PM on March 25, 2010 [1 favorite]

But he did say he'd go to Costa Rica for his health care, not that he was going to move there.

I listened to the clip in the show. It was ambiguous, but yeah, he never said he'd move (which is why I phrased it the way I did).
posted by cjorgensen at 8:06 PM on March 25, 2010

I write about Costa Rica, and every time I read this I just feel bad for them.

Unless we can just drop him off on Isla del Coco and let the hammerheads have at him.
posted by changeling at 8:07 PM on March 25, 2010 [1 favorite]

Enough money has already been raised, but if Rush refuses to go all monies will be donated to Planned Parenthood.

Let me hazard a guess: Limbaugh is against Planned Parenthood, but he didn't plan on having any children himself.
posted by Brian B. at 8:07 PM on March 25, 2010 [1 favorite]

You think Rush and his listeners are sitting around biting their nails, thinking "Oh no, they're going to catch us in a lie"? They don't give a shit. They just like seeing us get all riled up. It's their consolation prize for losing the health care bill fight.

That being said, I would carry him to Costa Rica on my back if it meant never hearing from him again.
posted by sallybrown at 8:07 PM on March 25, 2010 [12 favorites]

"1,400 bucks won't even buy a bottle of wine on my plane."

Eh, to be fair - goat's blood wine is typically produced in limited vintages.
posted by contessa at 8:07 PM on March 25, 2010 [5 favorites]

I don't really get this. If I were Rush, I'd book a vacation in Costa Rica and thank all the donors for generously flying me down there.
posted by EarBucket at 8:08 PM on March 25, 2010 [1 favorite]

Wow, this is wonderful! Nice work Mike and Patrick. Good-bye asshole.
posted by fiestapais at 8:10 PM on March 25, 2010

I wouldn't mind seeing the back of this guy, but like the former governor of Alaska, the more attention we pay to him, the more powerful he becomes. Better to just ignore the hateful little turd.
posted by crunchland at 8:10 PM on March 25, 2010 [4 favorites]

I don't really get this. If I were Rush, I'd book a vacation in Costa Rica and thank all the donors for generously flying me down there.

This is a good point. I would then go in for some normal medical exam or procedure and then turn that experience into a hatchet job on the socialized Costa Rican health system. I would then interview poor Costa Ricans and edit together their comments so that it sounds like the system is not helping them down there.

I would then return, tanned and rested, saying on my show, "thanks to my liberal "friends" who flew me down, I've rested a bit on the beautiful beaches of Costa Rica, but to be honest, I learned some disturbing truths when I was down there..."
posted by Sticherbeast at 8:12 PM on March 25, 2010 [2 favorites]

Fuck Rush!
Not for 1,400 bucks, even in Costa Rica.
posted by Saydur at 8:15 PM on March 25, 2010 [3 favorites]

If I were Rush, I'd book a vacation in Costa Rica and thank all the donors for generously flying me down there.

If I were Rush, I would tour playing mostly songs from the early albums, especially 2112.
posted by Joey Michaels at 8:17 PM on March 25, 2010 [59 favorites]

Oh! Oops! Let me try that again!

i>If I were Rush, I'd book a vacation in Costa Rica and thank all the donors for generously flying me down there.

If I were Rush, I would take all money, eat it in front of poor and terminally ill people, and then throw myself in a vat of acid just out of spite.
posted by Joey Michaels at 8:19 PM on March 25, 2010 [5 favorites]

Imagine that with italics. It would be a beautiful thing.
posted by Joey Michaels at 8:19 PM on March 25, 2010

I hate Rush Limbaugh. I wish he'd die in a fire.

This.
posted by The Ladies and Gentlemen of Walter Mondale at 8:20 PM on March 25, 2010

If I were Rush, I would take all money, eat it in front of poor and terminally ill people, and then throw myself in a vat of acid just out of spite.

If I were Rush, I would build myself a plane out of wax and feathers and then fly too close to the sun.
posted by sallybrown at 8:21 PM on March 25, 2010 [2 favorites]

What did your parents tell you about feeding the trolls?
posted by oddman at 8:21 PM on March 25, 2010

There's a car at my school that has a "Rush is right" bumpersticker, and the first thing that comes to mind is the song YYZ. I keep wanting to leave a note saying "Hell yeah, I loved Moving Pictures" but I don't think he'd get it.

I'm mostly happy that my association with the word "Rush" goes first to the prog-rock band and not the "entertainer" Mr. Limbaugh. Really a more pleasant experience to ignore most of these people, were it not for the MeFi post I would have forgotten about Ann Coulter's existence as well.

Basically, being angry at Mr. Limbaugh won't make him go away, so my other option is to stop caring. Plus, I don't think he was serious about moving anyway, how many people do you know moved to Canada in 2004 after Bush's re-election? Granted, they do have Tim Hourtons up there, which I am dying to try.
posted by hellojed at 8:21 PM on March 25, 2010 [1 favorite]

I wouldn't mind seeing the back of this guy, but like the former governor of Alaska, the more attention we pay to him, the more powerful he becomes. Better to just ignore the hateful little turd.

It doesn't really work that way. What is needed is to (a) never just go "uhuh" when someone mentions that douche, but instead react with a "WTF? You listen to that ignorant shitstain?!!; (b) contact advertisers and make your displeasure with Rush Limbaugh known.

The revolting Beck is down to next-to-no advertisers: indeed, they're all advertisements for scams and pyramids and other dishonest crap. He's costing the network a lot of money: those aren't high-paying clientele.

Ignoring the Teabaggers and other loons does not help your country. That's how you got into this mess in the first place.
posted by five fresh fish at 8:25 PM on March 25, 2010 [19 favorites]

If I were Rush, I would tour playing mostly songs from the early albums, especially 2112.

"Rivendell," Fly By Night album. End of discussion.
posted by drjimmy11 at 8:29 PM on March 25, 2010 [2 favorites]

Also, as soon as I heard about this, my brain started trying to work out a joke based around the band Rush being Canadian, and Limbaugh wanting to move there but he can't cause they have even more socialized medicine than the US.

It never really worked out. But the important thing is, I spent a good 10 minutes thinking about it.
posted by drjimmy11 at 8:30 PM on March 25, 2010 [13 favorites]

What did your parents tell you about feeding the trolls?

The same thing they said about non sequiturs.

Minotaur!
posted by cjorgensen at 8:34 PM on March 25, 2010 [5 favorites]

"Rivendell," Fly By Night album. End of discussion.

I have a fondness for "Tears" from the flip side of 2112.
posted by ovvl at 8:44 PM on March 25, 2010 [2 favorites]

Very viscous, a path of circle, meeting the serious Kincaid.
posted by Mblue at 8:46 PM on March 25, 2010

Not for 1,400 bucks, even in Costa Rica.

Would you, could you, in a boat?
posted by inigo2 at 8:47 PM on March 25, 2010

When will you usa guys realize that the loud-mouthed idiots have you running?

That's because they have us outnumbered, like, 1,000:1. Us non-loudmouthed idiots are like the proverbial one-legged man in the ass-kicking contest.
posted by Amanojaku at 8:51 PM on March 25, 2010 [1 favorite]

People have to stop pandering to blowhards like Limbaugh and focus on things like the fact that people are getting insane.
posted by Splunge at 8:51 PM on March 25, 2010 [1 favorite]

There's a car at my school that has a "Rush is right" bumpersticker

Around the Spokane area, there are bumperstickers which say "Rush is a band". It took me a while to realize that it was in response to those other stickers.

If I were Rush, I would tour playing mostly songs from the early albums, especially 2112.

For their 2004 R30 (Thirtieth Anniversary) tour, they seemed to use a lot of their old material.

On their most recent tour, they played most of their Snakes & Arrows album, but also had a lot of other songs they pulled up to play. (Witch Hunt! Train To Bangkok!)
posted by hippybear at 8:53 PM on March 25, 2010 [1 favorite]

If only we had loudmouthed non-idiots :(
posted by Saxon Kane at 8:53 PM on March 25, 2010 [2 favorites]

Grrr. "A Passage To Bangkok"
posted by hippybear at 8:54 PM on March 25, 2010

Meh. A fiery answer to a jerk isn't impressive.

Any money donated to Planned Parenthood and the like offsets his evil and makes the world a better place.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 8:55 PM on March 25, 2010 [1 favorite]

These guys are up to $2,625 so far. I think that covers a $1,400 bottle of wine and a plane ticket.

During the interview Mike and Patrick mentioned they are going to try to present Rush with the check and film it.

I think the whole thing is super silly. But I like that they picked a charity they knew he'd hate and are using him to raise funds.

I also want to draw some attention to the projects link for the health care bill.

Who has time to read it all? But I can say I read most of the changes, since I bought into the spin on the bait & switch of bills, but that site reassured me quite a bit. It's surprising to me how little was changed from one bill to the next.

And I thought it super cool of Jeff_Larson to answer my question about why biofuel definitions made it into this bill.

He linked to an article that contained this quote:

In 2008, one paper company received nearly $30 million from the U.S. Treasury for just one month’s worth of black liquor use in just one of its four plants, according to an SEC filing turned up by The Washington Post. In this press release, International Paper trumpets the fact that it received $71 million for just one month’s worth of black liquor use in 2008.

That's a lot of health care. Oh, and black liquor is a byproduct in the paper making process that is used as a fuel to make more paper, but you add a little diesel...you're now burning biofuel and qualify for subsidies or tax credits (I forget which).

Now if the Tea Party people were outrage about this kind of abuse I'd probably be with them. I was a bit outraged at the whole banking scandal, but to me this is even more egregious.
posted by cjorgensen at 9:09 PM on March 25, 2010 [2 favorites]

"1,400 bucks won't even buy a bottle of wine on my plane."

In fairness, the wine is full of Viagra, painkillers, cocaine, and blue-eyed Asian hookers, so that does get pretty spendy.
posted by Astro Zombie at 9:19 PM on March 25, 2010 [6 favorites]

Who are "Mike and Patrick?"
posted by Slap Factory at 9:19 PM on March 25, 2010

I despise Limbaugh as much as the next guy with half a brain, but I still don't really see how this is any different from all the folks on my side who didn't move to Canada or New Zealand when Bush was re-elected.
posted by Nothing... and like it at 9:20 PM on March 25, 2010

What did your parents tell you about feeding the trolls?

Red meat and pork pair with arsenic. Chicken and seafood go better with hemlock.
posted by Ufez Jones at 9:31 PM on March 25, 2010

Ignore him? That's silly. If I were a Republican, I'd ignore him. He's a hideous monster, and he's the de facto leader of the Republican party! What an embarrassment! But I'm not a Republican, I'm a Democrat, and so I am all for the embarrassingly monstrous de facto leader of the Republican party getting as much press as possible. The more mainstream America (read: everyone outside of the deranged and thankfully aging 20% of the population who listens to crap like his show), the more mainstream America looks at the little turd, the less they want to have anything to do with him or anyone aligned with him. Christ, ignore him? That's the worst thing we could do.

It's sort of like the old maxim about how when your enemy is drowning, throw him an anchor, it's just that the anchor in this case is an overweight drug addict with anal cysts.
posted by You Can't Tip a Buick at 9:32 PM on March 25, 2010 [2 favorites]

"Rivendell," Fly By Night album. End of discussion.

HELL FUCKING YEAH!
posted by Joey Michaels at 9:40 PM on March 25, 2010

Basically, being angry at Mr. Limbaugh won't make him go away

You're exactly right. Fortunately the M1 Garand and Woody Guthrie's guitar both have a track record for dealing with the likes of Rush.
posted by Kid Charlemagne at 9:40 PM on March 25, 2010

When will you usa guys realize that the loud-mouthed idiots have you running?

That's because they have us outnumbered, like, 1,000:1. Us non-loudmouthed idiots are like the proverbial one-legged man in the ass-kicking contest.

But we got a pretty powerful ally, I think.
posted by Ironmouth at 9:56 PM on March 25, 2010

Ignore him? That's silly. If I were a Republican, I'd ignore him. He's a hideous monster, and he's the de facto leader of the Republican party! What an embarrassment! But I'm not a Republican, I'm a Democrat, and so I am all for the embarrassingly monstrous de facto leader of the Republican party getting as much press as possible. The more mainstream America (read: everyone outside of the deranged and thankfully aging 20% of the population who listens to crap like his show), the more mainstream America looks at the little turd, the less they want to have anything to do with him or anyone aligned with him. Christ, ignore him? That's the worst thing we could do.

It's sort of like the old maxim about how when your enemy is drowning, throw him an anchor, it's just that the anchor in this case is an overweight drug addict with anal cysts.

That's a lot of political wisdom. Plus anal cysts.
posted by Ironmouth at 9:58 PM on March 25, 2010

For the briefest of moments I thought the FPP said he was going to Isla Nublar, not Costa Rica.

Alas. Alas.
posted by bicyclefish at 10:09 PM on March 25, 2010 [5 favorites]

Sadly, if Rush Limbaugh were the de facto head of the GOP, they'd be a lot easier to deal with. Instead, we're left with Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck, and a legion of other gooney birds charging at us like deranged chimpanzees on angel dust. They're the de facto heads, and there's an even more mindless body behind them chucking rocks and broken glass at everybody they can hit.
posted by crataegus at 10:32 PM on March 25, 2010

has anybody said "fuck Rush" yet in this thread? no? let me be the first. Fuck Rush!

For shame!

Geddy, Alex, and Neil are all married men!
posted by spinifex23 at 10:43 PM on March 25, 2010

LOUD EMPTY RHETORIC TURNS OUT TO BE LOUD, EMPTY
posted by Afroblanco at 10:46 PM on March 25, 2010

I liked this: Alice in Wackoland. But I think he should do them as Cerberus next, since I think it's clear the de facto leader of the GOP has three heads.
posted by cjorgensen at 10:50 PM on March 25, 2010 [1 favorite]

*Clears throat* "Costa Rica provides universal health care to its citizens and permanent residents"
posted by l33tpolicywonk at 10:59 PM on March 25, 2010

You wouldn't want these cute little guys to have to deal with him, would you?
posted by rivenwanderer at 11:00 PM on March 25, 2010 [1 favorite]

FYI, Costa Rica actually has a two-tier system. There's the public universal system, which is has notoriously long waits but is generally adequate for routine stuff. But most people who can afford it prefer to use the private system, which is pretty good (hence the growing medical tourism to Costa Rica) but is paid for out-of-pocket. Pretty sure the latter is what Rush was talking about.

(Not a fan of Rush, but I lived in Costa Rica and thus know a bit about its health care system and it's not being characterized very accurately.)
posted by Jacqueline at 11:25 PM on March 25, 2010

If I was a praying man, a religious man. I'd pray that Sarah Palin ran for president in 2012. I'd pray that she had Glen Beck or Rush as her vice president on that ticket.

But I am not a praying type. I do not believe in a god.

So I can only count on the concentrated ignorance of the combined conservatives and republicans in the USA to do what a god can not.

And that is to do the equivalent of driving a a pickup truck onto a half-frozen lake. Get it stuck. Drink a lot of cheap beer. Pack the whole combined bunch of them into the back of the of the truck... Then decide to wake the American people by tossing a stick of dynamite out on the lake. To break the silence. And then Palin (or Rush) run out to the stick of dynamite and return it to the truck to prove how faithful they are.

Or something.

Nevermind.
posted by Splunge at 12:09 AM on March 26, 2010 [2 favorites]

I say we put him on probation first. If he doesn't kill any more of his trainers after one year, SeaWorld can let him swim to Costa Rica provided he promises to stay there, forever.

Yes, that SeaWorld joke has been out there for a while.
posted by trondant at 12:16 AM on March 26, 2010

"Ignore them and they'll go away" wasn't true in middle school and it's not true in adulthood either.
posted by Pope Guilty at 12:22 AM on March 26, 2010 [12 favorites]

Rush (the band) has been doing the "Evening With" 3 hour format for a while now and playing old songs. They're also recording a new album and setting tour dates now for a summer tour. Here's a good way to stay on top of news.
posted by Trapped Vector at 12:32 AM on March 26, 2010

(also, fuck Rush the Limbaugh.)
posted by Trapped Vector at 12:32 AM on March 26, 2010

Bill Hicks said all that ever needs to be said about Rush Limbaugh.
posted by Mister Moofoo at 12:52 AM on March 26, 2010 [1 favorite]

Gah. I can't believe I read that. Just reading text of Limbaugh speaking has endumbened/enraged me...
posted by Ghidorah at 12:52 AM on March 26, 2010

That's easily the worst Bill Hicks routine.
posted by Pope Guilty at 1:13 AM on March 26, 2010 [2 favorites]

Rush Limbaugh: a pilonidal cyst on the sphincter of society.

I'm amazed that when he was operated on, doctors managed to work out which end was his ass and which end was his head.
posted by MuffinMan at 2:32 AM on March 26, 2010 [1 favorite]

Off-topic, but how did that Sean Hannity waterboarding turn out?
posted by Kirth Gerson at 3:40 AM on March 26, 2010

Mr. Limbaugh's great talent is making people stop thinking and start hating.

How incredibly sad that must be.
posted by Pragmatica at 3:47 AM on March 26, 2010 [1 favorite]

For the briefest of moments I thought the FPP said he was going to Isla Nublar, not Costa Rica.

Rush doesn't want to be fed. He wants to hunt.
posted by stevis23 at 3:49 AM on March 26, 2010 [6 favorites]

I wouldn't mind seeing the back of this guy, but like the former governor of Alaska, the more attention we pay to him, the more powerful he becomes. Better to just ignore the hateful little turd.

Their influence has nothing to do with how much time liberals spend discussing them.
posted by delmoi at 3:58 AM on March 26, 2010 [3 favorites]

"Rivendell," Fly By Night album. End of discussion.
posted by drjimmy11 at 11:29 PM on March 25

I have a fondness for "Tears" from the flip side of 2112.
posted by ovvl at 11:44 PM on March 25

Grrr. "A Passage To Bangkok"
posted by hippybear at 11:54 PM


Better yet, how about 'Something For Nothing" from side two of 2112? I think it's quite relevant to everyone involved in the discussion:

"You don't get something for nothing
You can't have freedom for free
You won't get wise with the sleep still in your eyes
No matter what your dreams might be"


/late to the party, as usual. Oh well.
posted by spoobnooble at 4:06 AM on March 26, 2010

That's easily the worst Bill Hicks routine.
posted by Pope Guilty at 4:13 AM on March 26 [+] [!]

I suppose you're right. It was funnier when I heard it the first time, like ten years ago.
posted by Mister Moofoo at 4:36 AM on March 26, 2010

I really wish celebrities would stop threatening to "move to __________ if __________ happens." Rush saying this has about as much credibility as Alec Baldwin, Barbra Streisand and Sean Penn threatening to leave if Bush pulled together a complete sentence.

Idiots always line up to buy their fellow idiots plane tickets. Political discourse in this country (on both sides of th aisle) makes me sad.
posted by LakesideOrion at 5:34 AM on March 26, 2010 [2 favorites]

I volunteer to go to Costa Rican and ask the fine people there if they would like him to come visit. Just PayPal me the airfare.
posted by blue_beetle at 6:02 AM on March 26, 2010

Ditto.
posted by Sailormom at 6:38 AM on March 26, 2010 [1 favorite]

> If only we had loudmouthed non-idiots :(

We would have more, except that for some reason liberals always feel they have to dislike loud liberal voices to "be fair". How many times have you heard a "reasonable liberal" explain that they don't like Michael Moore or Keith Olbermann either, in some attempt to find a "common ground" with whatever dipshit they're talking to? I've already started to hear people complain about how Rachel Maddow is "too smug".

The left doesn't need an opposition because we are just fine at opposing ourselves. We're terrified of offending someone by being loud and right, so we quiet ourselves down and let the loud and wrong people take the spotlight.
posted by Legomancer at 6:38 AM on March 26, 2010 [11 favorites]

The normal arguments you would use: logic, facts, reasoning, simply don't work with the Far Right pundits. They and their adoring fans work on a totally different plane-- one in which the pundit says something awful in a hateful way about THE OTHERS (women, minorities, liberals, intellectuals) and the faithful laugh, clap, and feel superior.

Rush, Sarah, Glen, Anne....what do they all have in common? They make millions from spewing hateful rhetoric. It's amazing how well the gig pays. It is also frustrating how little intelligence it requires to pander to The Right. I think about the razor-sharp writing of Molly Ivins who not only wrote with panache and verve, that gal was incredibly well informed. Yet I imagine her earnings were a mere pittance compared to that putrescent, malodorous gasbag who merely has to sit around in his easy chair and spout-off his cretinous, sexist, racist vomit which gets lapped up like cream by his listeners. And when he is criticized, his audience goes into Ecstasy and becomes filled with glee at the idea that we have taken him seriously and are wounded.

My advice is never take anything he says seriously but continue to treat him (and the others) as pitiful fools who are amusing in their childishness.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 7:20 AM on March 26, 2010 [1 favorite]

They just like seeing us get all riled up. It's their consolation prize for losing the health care bill fight.

Well, they did lose so they deserve something nice.
posted by octobersurprise at 7:21 AM on March 26, 2010

"Don't feed the trolls," works because trolls' motivation is attention. Rush's motivations are money and power, which, incidentally, are a lot easier to accumulate when your enemies and watchdogs are ignoring you.

When you want to correct bigotted behavior in an individual, the first thing you do is to try to understand where they're coming from and educate them, because, hey, maybe they don't know they're being a dick. When they keep being a dick and know it, the only recourse is consequences. We've well passed the mark where you should be talking about a friend and saying, "oh, he's a Republican, but otherwise he's a nice guy so we just don't talk politics." Iraq, Katrina, corporatism, anti-women, anti-sex, anti-gay, anti-science, anti-middleclass, racism etc... The Republican Political Party chose their culture war and fight as a united front in lockstep. This was oh-so-clear when they held a press conference just to defend the Tea Party protesters saying racial slurs. Sure, liberal protests have their outlier provacatuers, too, but the powers that be would run through fire to distance themselves from them. It's goody-two-shoe-ism. You can maintain your moral superiority, still be a good person and still call people out, even when those people are your friends in day-to-day life. Sometimes it means educating. Sometimes it means forcing somebody to spell out their beliefs by acting dumb, and still saying, "that still doesn't make sense... Did you consider X?" Sometimes it means saying, "I like you a lot, but I feel like a hypocrite spending so much time with someone who supports racism." Choose your battles, but for God's sake, fight.
posted by Skwirl at 7:27 AM on March 26, 2010 [1 favorite]

This was oh-so-clear when they held a press conference just to defend the Tea Party protesters saying racial slurs.

Let's not forget Glenn Beck saying, in essence "Why are you hitting yourself? why are you hitting yourself?" (as he holds you down and slaps you with your own hands). He said on his radio show the other day that the Democrats were TRYING to get the protesters to hurt them...

(Why are you hitting yourself?)

These guys are like the world's worst older brother bullies. I just wish the Democrats would take up weightlifting, bulk up and proceed to HAMMER THE LIVING SHIT OUT OF THEM one day.

Pope Guilty: "Ignore them and they'll go away" wasn't true in middle school and it's not true in adulthood either.
posted by bitter-girl.com at 8:10 AM on March 26, 2010 [1 favorite]

So, it seems it was all a word game and he has no actual plans on leaving voluntarily, is exile an option yet?
posted by quin at 8:10 AM on March 26, 2010

Rush, Sarah, Glen, Anne....what do they all have in common? They make millions from spewing hateful rhetoric. It's amazing how well the gig pays.

Does this pay in other countries? Are there any other nations where haters rake in huge money for spewing venom over the air? Or is this a uniquely American quality?
posted by five fresh fish at 8:19 AM on March 26, 2010

"Rivendell," Fly By Night album. End of discussion.

I have a fondness for "Tears" from the flip side of 2112.


♪Just between us, I think it's time for us to realize the spaces in between leave room for you and I to grow.♪

Also what the hell conservatives, a two party system doesn't work if one of the parties spends all its time trying to out-crazy the silly outlier parties.
posted by sandswipe at 8:23 AM on March 26, 2010

legomancer: We would have more, except that for some reason liberals always feel they have to dislike loud liberal voices to "be fair".

This - a thousand times this. I've never understood this behavior among the left. I remember when I was coming into my own as a progressive teenager I was completely psyched to go see Michael Moore speak at a local unitarian church. And it was a completely transcendent, life-changing experience. He was so inspired and honest and he was the first person to tell me that I wasn't in a minority - that most Americans are good natured people but we're being shut out of a system controlled by sycophants and multi-national corporations - it was amazing. And then a few years later, in college, I couldn't believe it when I'd hear my lefty friends qualifying their statements with, "Well, Michael Moore is an asshole and I don't agree with most of what he says, but..."
You would never hear that from the right. Ever. That's like saying, "Well, I'm a spineless weasel willing to throw my side's political leaders under the bus so you'll like me just a little bit and let me sit at your lunchtable" and oh my god I think I just figured out why we can't have good healthcare in America.
posted by Baby_Balrog at 8:30 AM on March 26, 2010 [6 favorites]

I couldn't believe it when I'd hear my lefty friends qualifying their statements with, "Well, Michael Moore is an asshole and I don't agree with most of what he says, but..."

I think this is more along the lines of liberals being able to question the loud voices versus following blindly like Rush's followers, but the end result is the same - we have no decisive voice, only a throng of murmers.
posted by Big_B at 8:58 AM on March 26, 2010 [1 favorite]

Fuck Rush!

Not even with your dick.
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 9:07 AM on March 26, 2010

The normal arguments you would use: logic, facts, reasoning, simply don't work with the Far Right pundits. They and their adoring fans work on a totally different plane-- one in which the pundit says something awful in a hateful way about THE OTHERS (women, minorities, liberals, intellectuals) and the faithful laugh, clap, and feel superior.

...

My advice is never take anything he says seriously but continue to treat him (and the others) as pitiful fools who are amusing in their childishness.

The irony of this is amusing and disheartening at the same time.
posted by lohmannn at 9:27 AM on March 26, 2010

Molly Ivins who not only wrote with panache and verve, that gal was incredibly well informed. Yet I imagine her earnings were a mere pittance compared to that putrescent, malodorous gasbag...

I recall at one of her public speaking gigs, talking about writing for The Nation, Molly remarked "They've always paid me in the high two figures."

Also, I recall RL being lampooned on The Daily Show for saying that if something happened he was leaving New York. I've been trying to remember all day what that was about.
posted by lordrunningclam at 9:29 AM on March 26, 2010

FYI, Costa Rica actually has a two-tier system. There's the public universal system, which is has notoriously long waits but is generally adequate for routine stuff. But most people who can afford it prefer to use the private system, which is pretty good (hence the growing medical tourism to Costa Rica) but is paid for out-of-pocket. Pretty sure the latter is what Rush was talking about.

So, what you're saying is that Rush prefers a system where everyone is required to participate in health care and is given some sort of public option in competition with the private system?

That's a really interesting idea. We should maybe think about adopting that next time around.
posted by l33tpolicywonk at 9:33 AM on March 26, 2010 [2 favorites]

Ah, totally figured why he'd want to go to Costa Rica.
posted by contessa at 9:57 PM on March 25

I detest Rush Limbaugh but I know of no reason to insinuate he is a sex tourist who sexually abuses minors. Please cite evidence to the contrary if I am mistaken. There are plenty of reasons to criticize him, but even he deserves to be criticized fairly.
posted by Daddy-O at 9:42 AM on March 26, 2010

Aha-haha...ha. Whoooo boy. I am so happy right now.

Thanks for this brilliant, awesome post.
posted by six-or-six-thirty at 9:55 AM on March 26, 2010

It's easy for us liberals to threaten defection. We have the rest of the first world to choose from. Rush the douche should take a page from Rush the band and read some Ayn Rand.

Then he can create a compound in the Rockies and recruit wealthy industrialists to defect, after running their companies into the ground. Plenty of them are halfway there already. Then they can wait, incommunicado, until our society of "takers" collapses, no matter how long it takes.

That would show us.
posted by condour75 at 9:56 AM on March 26, 2010

Rush Limbaugh went to the Dominican Republic, epicenter of the nearby child sex trade, with a big bottle of get-er-up pills and a massive addiction to drugs. The insinuation was entirely of his own creation.
posted by five fresh fish at 9:58 AM on March 26, 2010 [3 favorites]

I detest Rush Limbaugh but I know of no reason to insinuate he is a sex tourist who sexually abuses minors. Please cite evidence to the contrary if I am mistaken.

These
posted by lordrunningclam at 10:04 AM on March 26, 2010 [5 favorites]

Well lordrunningclam, I read all 3 of your links and none of them claim he is a pedophile. Being a sex tourist is not OK with me, but the comment I had issue with insinuated he was sexually abusing children. If there is evidence of it please present it, if not keep the discussion and criticism honest. This is the same we ask of people who say Obama is an illegal immigrant Muslim.
posted by Daddy-O at 10:53 AM on March 26, 2010

Favorite Rush-oriented quip, repeated ad nauseum by Al Franken:
"If you took a copy of the New Testament and cut out all of the passages where Jesus talked about helping poor people, you'd have a perfect vessel for smuggling Rush Limbaugh's oxycontin."
posted by coolguymichael at 11:56 AM on March 26, 2010 [6 favorites]

... how many people do you know moved to Canada in 2004 after Bush's re-election?

... all the folks on my side who didn't move to Canada or New Zealand when Bush was re-elected.

Oh, I tried. Canada didn't want me.
posted by lekvar at 1:36 PM on March 26, 2010

Here I've been trying to think of the perfect charity to donate my un-sold "will kill rush limbaugh for food" shirts to, and metafilter saves me an askme. Well for the rush shirts, I still have 3 other designs that would just get trashed if I gave them to goodwill. If only I had known 15 years ago, the shirt would read "will kill rush limbaugh for pre-existing condition coverage".
posted by nomisxid at 2:26 PM on March 26, 2010

Hey, I can summarize everything here for you: drugs (7), fuck (4), dick (3), slurs, hate, shitstain, die, fire, asshole, turd (16), prostitution (1), death threats by hammerhead, aresenic, hemlock, t-shirts.
posted by wallstreet1929 at 3:27 PM on March 26, 2010

Hey, I can summarize everything here for you: drugs (7), fuck (4), dick (3), slurs, hate, shitstain, die, fire, asshole, turd (16), prostitution (1), death threats by hammerhead, aresenic, hemlock, t-shirts.

Excellent, that means we're about halfway done.
posted by contessa at 4:31 PM on March 26, 2010 [2 favorites]

Holy shit, he's right. A hundred comments into a Limbaugh thread and we've only said "fuck" four times. And that's just because one guy said it twice! Metafilter, don't lose your fucking edge! You need that edge for fucking!
posted by Doublewhiskeycokenoice at 4:45 PM on March 26, 2010 [1 favorite]

If those are the best swears we have for Rush Limbaugh, we're made of Fail.
posted by five fresh fish at 4:46 PM on March 26, 2010

Cocksucking, motherfucking, jackass son-of-a-bitch, cuntface* dildo loser. You're welcome.

* Can you spot the Deadwood lover?
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 5:32 AM on March 27, 2010

You forgot hooplehead and squarehead.
posted by cjorgensen at 1:01 PM on March 27, 2010

I'm amazed that when he was operated on, doctors managed to work out which end was his ass and which end was his head.

This was a simple thing. They did a CAT scan of both ends.

Then they operated on the end that wasn't showing a huge empty space.
posted by Splunge at 7:19 PM on March 27, 2010 [1 favorite]

Asshat.
posted by nathanlindstrom at 12:51 PM on March 28, 2010