[originally posted 25 April 2007]
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I
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am out of sorts today.
Who knows why? Things continue to deteriorate here in my ex-house, I can’t get
hold of people, and the electric company—who has been paid in full—continues to
leave pointless messages in my voice mail. And to top it all off, I am greeted
when I wake up by something called “Barack the Magic Negro.”
Okay, let me be clear about this. I don’t listen to Rush
Limbaugh. I have only listened to him when forced to by my fellow human beings,
who for some reason think this guy is—what? Funny? Clever? Something, anyway. I
remember once when I was stuck on jury duty and my fellow potential-jurors had
the Rush on the big TV screen in the front of the room. He was babbling about
something which he described as voodoo economics—Bush Sr.’s term for Reagan’s
version of Friedmanism—and then said the only funny thing I’ve ever heard from
him. Of course, he said (I’m paraphrasing from memory), now I’ll probably get
in trouble for that for defaming one of the world’s great religions. He waited
for a laugh. None came, at least not from his audience. I laughed, or rather
chuckled, earning a nasty glance from one of the Rush-heads present. Oh well.
Over the years he’s only come to my attention otherwise when
he’s doing something horrific. Like cruelly making fun of Michael J. Fox for
being ill. That kind of junior high crap may go over well with his audience—I
don’t know. They probably laugh at Beavis
and Butthead too. But puerility sinks to scurrility with his latest
offering. This is, believe it or not, a burlesque of “Puff the Magic Dragon”
with some clown doing a bad imitation of Al Sharpton apparently criticizing
Obama for not being black enough. It’s a nasty flashback to the days of Rastus,
Tambo, and Bones, when watching a white man in blackface do a farcical
imitation of a crippled ex-slave was considered the height of humor, right up
there with setting fire to a stray dog. I like to think we’ve progressed a
little since then.
[daveawayfromhome responded to the original post: “I think Rush’s
moon has been waning since Clinton left office. His great foe was gone, and new
stars were taking his place. He’s not the only one, heard much from George Will
lately? I hope, with a fervent hope that burns my very soul, that when (if)
Bush finally leaves office, we will see the back of O’Reiley, Coulter, Malkin -
the whole pack of ’em, as they slide off the popular map. Already, FOX is
showing signs of weakness.”]
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