Back when I was a kid there was a radio show host who briefly had a TV career. He was the first confrontational style interviewer. His name was Joe Pyne. We couldn't wait for his show. He insulted people, said the most ridiculous things and was, in our opinion, a nasty guy with a nasty attitude. He was great.
And then, as quickly as he arrived, he was gone. Time to find something else from our three channels. He died at 45 from lung cancer. He slipped into oblivion. I remember him on occasion, for no other reason perhaps, than as an artifact of childhood.
I have no idea if Joe was really a nasty guy or not. With age comes the realization that people have to make money to survive. Some, like Joe, find a niche, make it while they are "big", then are ushered off the stage. There is a stage persona, and then there is the reality. Boris Karloff made a career out of playing monsters, but in real life was a gentle, erudite gentleman, much beloved.
A couple days ago came the news that radio personality Rush Limbaugh has advanced lung cancer. Traveling around I used to find talk radio. Music didn't do it for me but the exchange of ideas, even bad ones, would make the miles more palatable and entertaining. Rush was someone I'd listen to on one of the G-Burg stations that came in well on my lousy truck radio. He and Dr. Laura and WGN, if I could get it without too much static. Rush was politics, Laura human relationships and WGN was shallow vanilla stuff. Still beat having to listen to the worst song ever made that seemed to play on every channel every 15 minutes.
I found a list of Rushisms on Reddit and thought I'd share them with you today.
And then, as quickly as he arrived, he was gone. Time to find something else from our three channels. He died at 45 from lung cancer. He slipped into oblivion. I remember him on occasion, for no other reason perhaps, than as an artifact of childhood.
I have no idea if Joe was really a nasty guy or not. With age comes the realization that people have to make money to survive. Some, like Joe, find a niche, make it while they are "big", then are ushered off the stage. There is a stage persona, and then there is the reality. Boris Karloff made a career out of playing monsters, but in real life was a gentle, erudite gentleman, much beloved.
A couple days ago came the news that radio personality Rush Limbaugh has advanced lung cancer. Traveling around I used to find talk radio. Music didn't do it for me but the exchange of ideas, even bad ones, would make the miles more palatable and entertaining. Rush was someone I'd listen to on one of the G-Burg stations that came in well on my lousy truck radio. He and Dr. Laura and WGN, if I could get it without too much static. Rush was politics, Laura human relationships and WGN was shallow vanilla stuff. Still beat having to listen to the worst song ever made that seemed to play on every channel every 15 minutes.
I found a list of Rushisms on Reddit and thought I'd share them with you today.
Rush on nicotine:
“There is no conclusive proof that nicotine’s addictive... And the same thing with cigarettes causing emphysema, lung cancer, heart disease.”
Rush on the genocide of American Indians:
“Columbus saved the Indians from themselves.”
Rush on Michael J Fox having parkinsons disease:
"He is exaggerating the effects of the disease. He's moving all around and shaking and it's purely an act... This is really shameless of Michael J. Fox. Either he didn't take his medication or he's acting."
Rush on African Americans voting:
“[African Americans] are twelve percent of the population. Who the hell cares?”
Rush on the NFL:
“Look, let me put it to you this way: the NFL all too often looks like a game between the Bloods and the Crips without any weapons. There, I said it.”
Rush on global warming:
“If you believe in God, then intellectually you cannot believe in man-made global warming."
Rush on global warming 2:
"Global warming relies on the theory that we are destroying ecosystems. There is no evidence that we could destroy ecosystems."
Rush on global warming 3:
"For years I’ve pointed out that global warming is bogus."
Rush on feeding poor children in public school:
“If you feed them, if you feed the children, three square meals a day during the school year, how can you expect them to feed themselves in the summer? Wanton little waifs and serfs dependent on the State. Pure and simple.”
Rush on a 13 year old girl:
"Socks is the White House cat. But did you know there is also a White House dog?” (Rush Limbaugh, while holding up a photograph of 13-year-old Chelsea Clinton)
Rush on exercise:
“Exercise freaks … are the ones putting stress on the health care system.”
Rush on feminism:
"Feminism has led women astray. I love the women’s movement — especially when walking behind it.”
Rush on LGBT:
“When a gay person turns his back on you, it is anything but an insult; it’s an invitation.”
Rush on people in the military who didn't support the Iraq War:
"The phony soldiers."
Rush on women:
"Women still live longer than men because their lives are easier."
Rush on women protesting sexual harassment:
“They’re out there protesting what they actually wish would happen to them sometimes.”
Rush on the homeless population:
"Isn't that how the homeless became homeless? They used to be institutionalized and a bunch of liberals came along and said, "They have rights! You can't keep them there"?"
Rush on the heterosexuality:
"Heterosexuality may be 95, 98 percent of the population. [Heterosexuality is] under assault by the 2 to 5 percent that are homosexual.”
Rush on legalizing gay marriage:
I simply asked you to think what was your first reaction when you heard first about gay marriage? And I said you’re probably having the same reaction here. And gay marriage is now standard, normal operating procedure. [Pedophilia] could be, too.
Rush on what criminals look like:
"Have you ever noticed how all composite pictures of wanted criminals resemble Jesse Jackson?”.
Rush on Sandra Fluke who testified that women should have access to affordable contraceptives:
"It makes her a slut, right? It makes her a prostitute. She wants to be paid to have sex. She's having so much sex she can't afford the contraception. She wants you and me and the taxpayers to pay her to have sex. What does that make us? We're the pimps. (interruption) The johns? We would be the johns?
Also very pro-torture. Hard to pick just one torture quote from him.
But I don't mind him being off the air for a while. He is, if nothing else, the true Far-Right Man. He makes Archie Bunker look like a reasonable moderate. There isn't a subject or current cultural belief that Rush can't attack, ridicule, or minimalize if he deems it lacking a scintilla of far, far rightist sensibilities. Tolerance isn't in Rush's vocabulary. To see him getting the Medal of Freedom the other night I thought of all the great Americans who have received that award for their heroism, contribution to the arts, film, literature and all manner of things that have made us a great nation. Somehow, to see him wearing it, a guy who demeans, and divides, well, it's just another reminder that the America we used to have is morphing into something else.
I hope his voice isn't silenced. The more he spews the more he sounds like a relic of another time. A time when blacks were segregated, gays were closeted, women were quietly cooking in the kitchen. We need reminders that those days are gone. Keep up the fight Rush, we need you.
It's back to the future.
Oh and that song I hate? The worse collection of musical notes ever placed on paper is The Joker by Steve Miller. And I swear they play it alllllll the time. Now that's something that needs to be silenced.
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