Has anyone checked to see if Rush Limbaugh ever promised Saddleback Pastor Rick Warren “a little something, just as a memorial” in his will?
Remember — “Is it irresponsible to speculate?… It would be irresponsible not to.”
*****
On a happier note, I think it would be blog-appropriate to have a “Hail and Farewell” post sometime over the weekend where people could brag about the animal companions we’ve gained and memorialize the ones we lost during 2009. But if I’m the one responsible, you’ll probably have link your own photos. Just sayin’…. Mr. Cole?
Thoughtcrime
One thing’s for sure: underage Dominican boys are resting easier tonight: http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/38192/
NobodySpecial
[email protected]Thoughtcrime:
Unless, of course, he’s paying shipping charges.
Hans Meyer
Limbaugh’s in Hawaii? Hawaii to many Americans seems like a foreign place.
Thoughtcrime
Rick Warren can go saddleback himself.
I suggest you send your donations here instead: http://www.glide.org/Home.aspx
And drop a line to Rick Warren telling him about where your donation went to and why.
r€nato
I knew I should have picked Rush for my 2010 celeb death pool, but ultimately I decided it was just wishful thinking.
r€nato
(happy new year’s to all of you)
Mari
What’s unhappy about contemplating the remote prospect of the fat pig improving the state of humanity by leaving it?
Joey Maloney
My responsible speculation: the chest pains are a cover story. It’s actually tertiary syphilis picked up from one of his Dominican rentboys.
…and now you can say you saw it on the internet, so it must be true.
r€nato
Limbaugh’s in Hawaii at the same time as Obama… cue the birther nuts. I am sure they can make something out of this. After all, Obama offed his elderly grandmother just before the election to keep her quiet about his real place of birth.
Scott H
but, but, the story’s dateline is Honolulu? what’s Rush doing in such an exotic locale?
r€nato
If Rush thinks it is OK for him to hope that Obama fails, surely it’s OK for me to hope that Rush’s doctors fail.
r€nato
@Scott H:
I know, and one that isn’t even known for child prostitution and sex tourism.
harlana peppper
Hail and farewell to one of my brother’s cats, Toby, who was just recently put down due to cancer. He was 13. The second cat, who is both deaf and blind, is on his way out as well. My brother is a deeply compassionate person, but none of this has been easy. Also, my gf in Chicago’s cat who also had to be put to sleep a couple of months ago. She had swallowed a string and had two surgeries which proved unsuccessful. My three ladies, however, continue to thrive despite being “seniors” On a happy note, my Chicago friend already went out and got herself a new boy cat.
A Mom Anon
Any church that’s also a corporation deserves to die in a spectacular flame out. Ran out of money huh? Where did it go? I’d love to see how much really got spent on the unemployed in the congregation over the last few years. Sell one of your cars or have a yard sale Rick.
Limbaugh probably had his first angioplasty,it’s a common proceedure for men of a certain age who haven’t taken the best care of themselves. If it’s a big blockage,he’ll be out and about by Sunday. If it’s a minor thing,they’ll release him today or tommorrow. Modern cardiology with all the bells and whistles is an amazing thing to behold.
harlana peppper
Okay, I am laughing my a$$ off about Rick Warren. What a way to start the new year, that is just choice. Damn, if those envangelicals know how to do one thing, it’s beg for money with big crocodile tears, I hope he sinks and takes the rest of them right down with him. hee heeee
harlana peppper
@A Mom Anon: Have you ever seen a pic of his gf? She’s extremely cute. How she can crawl in bed with that vile, vomitous slab of porkfat, I will never understand what some women will do for money. If at gunpoint, I’d rather fuck Fat Bastard. Maybe he just pays her to be on his arm for appearance sake, while he flies back and forth to the DR. Yeah, that’s it, cuz the mental image is just too gross. Whatever her role, hope she’s in the will, she’s earned it.
r€nato
I lived and worked in OC in 2005 and I would regularly drive past Warren’s Saddleback Church on El Toro Road. I’m certain that – unlike Rush – Warren is NOT hoping for Obama to fail. It was all that fake Bush-era prosperity that kept his church afloat in donations.
Maybe Rick should take a cue from the recently-deceased Oral Roberts and tell his marks… er, congregation that Jesus spoke to him and told him He is going to call Rev. Warren home unless he gets $900 large.
r€nato
@harlana peppper:
Daryn Kagan dated Rush. Apparently an abundant supply of money is enough to suppress the gag reflex for some women.
r€nato
@A Mom Anon:
sadly, if they can keep Cheney alive with his bum ticker, they can probably do the same for Rush.
DAMN YOU OBAMA! Where’s your death panels when we really need them???
A Mom Anon
@harlana peppper: You think Limbaugh doesn’t have 11 layers of legal protection for all that money? No mere woman is going to get more than a pittance in his will, if that. He’s probably going to leave his fortune to a think tank named after himself. The man is an Ego with feet.
r€nato
ain’t it funny how none of Rush’s ex’s ever talk about it?
There must be some heavy-duty non-disclosure paperwork involved in dating that fat fuck.
calipygian
1) I’d love to know if Rush follows the advice he gave to his white trash audience and went without insurance, paying for his angioplasty out of his own pocket, and,
2) This Jeebus’ way of telling Rush to STFU.
kth
What I’d like to see when Limbaugh passes is for Olbermann, Maddow, Stewart, Maher to play, without comment, an hour’s anthology of Rush clips that capture the essence of what he was.
Same for the blogs: nothing but Rush excerpts, posted without comment. Far more devastating than anything anyone else could say about him. (Someone on the JournoList, pass the word).
r€nato
Top 10 People I Don’t Want To Hear About In 2010:
1) Anybody whose last name is Gosselin
2) Sarah Palin (wishful thinking, I know)
3) Anybody currently or formerly related by blood or marriage to anybody named Palin or Gosselin, including baby daddies
4) Carrie Prejean
5) Oily Taint
6) Dick Cheney
7) Octomom
8) The Kardashians
9) Joe Jackson
10) Joe the Plumber
Bonus #11 pick: Any celebrity carrying on an affair with subordinates young enough to be their child or grandchild (eeeeeewwwwwww)
calipygian
Rush just has to hang on a few more hours so he can die in 2010 and pass on all that Clear Channel money tax free to Warren because of the weird loopholes in the estate tax laws.
I’d laugh my ass off if he’s pronounced dead at 11 something tonight, missing the estate tax holiday by mere minutes. It would be appropriate that the so called “best” medical system in the world couldn’t save him AND the gubmint takes his money.
harlana peppper
@r€nato: Either that or traumatic memories are literally, unspeakable
A Mom Anon
@r€nato: Honest to god,I think I know more about Kate Gosselin’s uterus than I do my own. Yuck. I’m pissed I even have to know who any of these people are.
calipygian
@kth:
The thing is that the dumb asses at the Corner and his moronic, cultish following a) keep on insisting that people take the saintly man’s words out of context, and b) they wholeheartedly agree with the disgusting things that asshole has said over the years.
r€nato
New Rule For 2010:
If you stage an event involving police, fire or other public safety personnel for the sole purpose of getting publicity or a reality show, you get a “Jesus Loves Me” t-shirt sewn onto your body along with a one-way trip to the Afghanistan/Pakistan border.
harlana peppper
you guys are on a roll
Xenos
@calipygian: Better to keep him in a vegetative state for a year and a day, so the proper 2011 estate tax rates get him. This is not a suggestion, just a hypothetical, in case one or more sociopathic medical professionals in Honolulu are reading this.
BR
I predict that the MSM will find Wanda Sykes responsible for any of Rush Limbaugh’s current or future health problems.
Lesley
As someone said earlier last night, “Rush: may your hospital nurses be unattractive, syringe-wielding feminists” telling him he’s faking it and putting on an act.
If the disgusting fuck kicks the bucket, it will be a fitting and symbolic end to one of the worst decades ever.
donovong
Well, all you folks hoping for Rushbo’s fast demise should be ashamed of yourselves.
A heart attack is much too quick and humane a process for that fat bastard. Better a slow, debilitating, lingering disease that involves a great deal of suffering and corresponding amounts of personal funding, resulting in personal financial destruction.
Like ass rabies.
Lesley
Btw, the Balloon Juice Lexicon is a practical guide to understanding the last ten years in American politics. If anyone designs a new time capsule, it should be included.
harlana peppper
@Lesley: Paging Nurse Ratchett!
r€nato
Top 10 Techie Things I Wish I Didn’t Have To Hear About In 2010 But Probably Will Anyway:
1) iPhone killer
2) Twitter
3) Web App Guru
4) “Windows 7 Was My Idea”
5) Netbooks
6) Cellular Carrier Wars (as if ANY of them are that much better than the rest; there is only “sucks” and “epic suck”)
7) Platform Wars
8) Cloud Computing
9) Sarah Palin*
10) Dick Cheney*
*I couldn’t think of anything else for 9 and 10, plus they are really THAT annoying.
dbcooper
KITV, the local ABC affiliate, reported Limbaugh told paramedics that he was on medication for a back problem.
calipygian
@donovong: I’m thinking about $500M dollars worth of life support so his heirs get nothing.
calipygian
TMZ’s epitaph – “Shoulda laid off the prescription drugs, pork chops and 64oz of Haterade a day”.
Lesley
@harlana peppper:
Even better would be Nurse Jackie.
donovong
@calipygian: Works for me!
Karen
I simply hope that the same things Rush wishes upon the Obama family happen to him. I think that’s fair, don’t you?
Chat Noir
The world would be a better place without Orly Taitz Limbaugh polluting the air waves.
Stroszek
Ah hell nah,
Rush has got to live long enough to see Obama reelected.
bob h
I don’t know much about human physiology, but I doubt that spending your days spewing bile and malice is good for your cardiac health.
asiangrrlMN
So, what exactly is the deal with Limbaugh? I mean, I know there were chest problems and that he’s ‘resting comfortably’ now, but…was there an operation? Did he soil himself crying for his mama? What? I DO NOT want to look him up, so anything you can tell me would be greatly appreciated.
And, here are the photos from Day Two in Taiwan (yes, I’m linking again. So sue me). We went to the night market last night and stuffed ourselves silly.
Socialist Health Care
Reagan actually said, “[I]f you don’t [stop Medicare] and I don’t do it, one of these days you and I are going to spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it once was like in America when men were free.”
Rational individuals support a public option, unfortunately too many people FEAR having something resembling Canadian or even worse a European system.
http://www.newyorker.com/talk/financial/2010/01/04/100104ta_talk_surowiecki#ixzz0bBoeg8Tn
Lesley
@asiangrrlMN:
He’s probably videotaping himself crying and snivelling like Big Baby Glenn Beck did after his hemorrhoid surgery.
TR
@kth:
Absolutely.
Any criticism of the man is going to result in a backlash because we’re speaking ill of a fellow human being who’s just passed away. So just remind people that Rush renounced his humanity a long time ago.
Personally, I’d play the clip of him mocking Michael J. Fox’s Parkinson’s disease on an endless loop.
demkat620
Morning all. Crappy weather here.
Wish I was in a foreign place. Like Hawaii.
Brick Oven Bill
My primary beef with Limbaugh is that his sources of funding are undisclosed. You cannot make $50 million/year selling sleep number beds and Internet backup software.
Figure a sleep number bed costs $800 and Limbaugh gets a 10% cut. This equals $80, or approximately 1712 bed-sales a day. I don’t believe it. Perhaps there are twenty. I think Limbaugh is funded through the oil industry. In any case, thoughts with him in his time of uncertainty.
I also do not know who funds Balloon Juice, and I also like this place. I have my suspicions.
BlogPAC.
In a completely unrelated note, if you ever have wanted to hear a grown man bitch, read Matt Stoller. This man went to Harvard, you can feel the shelter in his words.
Who punched Matt Stoller? What did Matt say to provoke the blow?
It would be unwise for a person or organization to become beholden to BlogPAC, or Matt Stoller. I would recommend becoming a Teabagger instead.
JD Rhoades
We wish Mr. Limbaugh a full recovery and a lengthy period of well-deserved rest and recuperation away from the microphones and cameras.
soonergrunt
@Stroszek:
That’s why I want him to stroke out but live. Between him sitting for hours at a time in his own feces and urine, feeling the drool rolling down his chin, and knowing that Obama got re-elected and there’s nothing he can say about that…pretty epic carmic justice.
The only way this would be better would be if he were found in a Dominican boy-brothel with his pants around his ankles and little blue pills scattered on the floor the day after Obama takes the oath the second time.
Redshirt
I’m pretty much a DFH, a vegetarian, Buddhist, etc, etc. I really do believe in the sanctity of life, even though I’m pro-choice. I strive every day to better appreciate my life, all life, and our reality, and how we can live in better harmony with that reality.
All that said, while I would never wish for the death of anyone, and actually do try and feel compassion for all, I cannot honestly say I am not rooting for Rush to…. slip. It seems obvious that there are negative and positive forces in this world, and we could do with less negative forces. Rush is a destructive, negative force in America, and the country would be better off if he were to leave.
The same effect could be had if he retired and stopped spewing vile lies, but that seems less likely than him simply dying.
Chyron HR
Limbaugh, a popular but controversial voice in American politics, was vacationing in Hawaii…
That good patriot’s heart couldn’t withstand the un-American vibes of that so-called “state”. Which of you traitors tricked him into thinking he was vacationing in the Real American fatherland of Texas?
DZ
@Renato:
I liked your lists except for the listing of Netbooks. It’s still 2009 and I promise never to mention them in 2010, but what’s your issue with Netbooks? I have three (for different functions) and they work great with a total cost for all three of less than $1000.
geg6
Ha! Both Limbaugh and Warren having a bad end to 2009. Nothing could be more appropriate. I hope they both suffer greatly. I have been in a holiday funk, but this has put me in a sunny mood to celebrate tonight. Even all the shitty weather here can’t damper the happy this news gives me.
kay
@r€nato:
I think he just wants donations before the tax year ends, hence the urgency. Putting a number on it gives the flock a numerical goal to meet or exceed. Same idea as a sales goal.
It’s impossible to tell the difference between religious marketing and any other marketing now.
They’re now indistinguishable from any business entity, on everything from revenue goals to lobbying to lining up for federal subsidies to protecting upper management from legal sanction or accountability.
cat48
The article I read stated that he told the medical crews he was taking medication for a back problem…………..Oh really?????? Again with the drugs??
Also, Pelosi is vacationing there too, per article. Wonder what is going on over there.
demkat620
Chucky T is on twitter going nuts over some shit Porter Goss said. Seriously.
I forgot about that guy and his firing. How much shit went on in the Bush years that I could forget about the Director of the CIA and his scandal. Dusty Foggo anyone?
Wow.
asiangrrlMN
@Lesley: Ew, just…ew.
Oh, and WTF is up with Rick Warren? Another person I don’t want to Google.
Brick Oven Bill
Media Matters: FOX News can’t take a punch.
Matt Stoller, from the above link:
“Unprovoked violence is evil. I’ve had headaches, my neck hurts, I’m spitting a bit of blood, and I think I’m going to have to get checked out by an ear, nose, and throat person. My family is freaked out and upset. More than that, I’ve been jumpy, looking over my shoulder and generally just worried about sudden movements. Violence messes your head up and dehumanizes everyone involved. And this wasn’t very bad, it’s just one sucker punch to the face.”
My opinion is that Matt’s punch was not likely unprovoked. You will note that whenever somebody takes a swing a Glenn Beck, they usually end up leaving the Administration to spend more time with their family, and Glenn gets more Congressmen to sign up with his ‘Re-Founders’ project.
Thus, Teabaggers are superior to BlogPACers. I have learned to box through my Teabagging activities. Through Matt’s teachable moment, we can observe the value of boxing skills.
elmo
Oh, you had to go there, with the “Hail and Farewell.” This year has been special, and I can’t wait to be shut of it.
Hail and farewell to Merlin, my beloved German Shepherd. Friendly to all, but devoted to me. Sire to Titan, Tango, Dash, Donner, Winston, Breezy, Zephyr, Stalker, and Panic. April 23, 1997 – January 8, 2009.
Hail and farewell to Naga, the foundling Great Pyrenees puppy who stole my heart. Found in a dumpster at six weeks of age along with her littermates, on December 12, 2008. Died after a devastating two weeks in and out of ICU, February 21, 2009.
Hail and farewell to Calvin, my rescue Moluccan Cockatoo. Came to us at age 11, after years of abuse. Vocabulary consisted of “bad bird” and “stop it stop it STOP IT.” Took nearly a year to trust enough to step up. Eventually learned to be safe on my shoulder, dancing while I sang to him, and learned to say “Good boy” and “I love you.” Died of long-term zinc poisoning, May 27, 2009.
2009 has sucked.
r€nato
@DZ:
it’s not so much netbooks per se but the hype around them.
Dell and HP have found out what happens with the race to the bottom. Pretty soon, you hit the bottom.
r€nato
@kay:
indistinguishable except for that little matter of being tax-exempt.
kay
@geg6:
I looked at the comments under the NYTimes piece on Limbaugh. It’s all vitriol from conservatives on “Obamacare” and the birth certificate.
Some of the rants end with “I’m praying for you, Rush!” I think writing that magically voids all the nastiness that goes before it. The all purpose get out of jail free card phrase.
They’re really miserable people. It’s not like his fans are taking a moment to reflect prayerfully on the sanctity of life, or anything. I don’t know why anyone else has to.
Brick Oven Bill
Matt Stoller, per Wikipedia, is a 2000 Harvard University graduate, and spends his time in London, Boston, and New Hampshire. Here Matt describes being punched:
“The psychological impact of violence was pretty unexpected. It makes me less trusting, more prone to withdraw, full of rage, and more suspicious.”
Perhaps if Matt gets punched again, he will begin attending Tea Parties.
r€nato
@kay:
Their god is an angry, jealous, genocidal stalker god. It’s not surprising to me at all.
Here’s a guy who successfully made his bid for a 2009 Darwin Award, just under the wire:
Demo Woman
This morning I watched Good Morning America, Newt was on for 15 minutes spouting we are all going to die or something, but my sound was off so I’m just assuming that’s what he was spouting. Anyway, I watched GMA just so I could see the ring Bianna was wearing.
kay
@r€nato:
Right. Exactly.
I’m sure his revenues are down, I don’t have any reason to doubt him, and I don’t give him money, so I don’t care if he doesn’t disclose, but I don’t think he’s broke.
He just wants them to fill out the form this tax year.
I find him incredibly smarmy. While everyone else was watching Obama and McCain during that horrible phony “debate” he held, all I was doing was marveling that millions of people follow Warren. I was told he was this inspiring speaker, so I listened to his thing at the inaugeration and just thought it was conventional boilerplate “religious” and dull as hell. He doesn’t even look like he’s trying, other than closing his eyes and swaying a little at seemingly random intervals.
Ick. I don’t get it. He’s definitely a “brand” though. No doubt.
kay
@r€nato:
I won’t laugh at him, because that could happen to me. I’m terminally clumsy. I have fallen off shoes. I can trip on a flat surface.
I wouldn’t roast anything in a pit, because it would be bound to end in bloodshed, and trip to the emergency room.
Pig roasts are popular here, I have attended more than ten, I would say, and the cook is always drunk. I think it’s required.
1. get really drunk
2. roast pig
Brick Oven Bill
Here, ‘Kung Fu Quip’, speculates on the Matt Stoller incident:
”It Was Only a Matter of Time Before Someone Punched Matt Stoller”.
Matt responds in the comments, directing ‘Turk’:
“You stay classy.”
Where have we heard this phrase before? First we have observed it here many times, leading one to believe that there may be some financial ties. I wish that Rush Limbaugh would be honest about his funding sources.
In my opinion, the term ‘you stay classy’ has its origins with Cloward and Pivens, where they taught their disciples to:
“Make the enemy live up to their own book of rules.”
Consider the classiness of the modern Left, as observed on this very blog:
“I hope he doesn’t die right away. I’d rather see him do a Schiavo. Imagine the fun.”
I would very much recommend aligning yourselves with the Teabaggers.
r€nato
@kay:
actually it does sound like a pretty horrible death. I am thinking he did a head plant.
(on the other hand, I’m sure the pig’s ghost found it quite amusing)
WereBear
@elmo: Your story about Calvin made me tear up. Bless you. Birds are a tough breed to find homes for.
harlana peppper
The fact that this thread is cracking me up so bad is direct evidence I am headed straight to Hell.
harlana peppper
oops, I mean except for the departed animalses! Bless them! An 11-year old cockatoo’s life is worth a gabillion Limbaugh souls, I mean, thingies, or whatever that is that makes his mouth move
asiangrrlMN
@harlana peppper: My sympathies to your brother for the loss of his cat (and, sadly, probably, the loss of a second one).
@elmo: My deepest condolences to you on the loss of many friends this year. Like WereBear above me, I am touched by the story of your Calvin.
Chinn Romney
Peter J
The only reason Limbaugh traveled abroad (Hawaii), was to help uncover Obama’s fake birth certificate. When arriving Limbaugh was then drugged with Oxycontin by Kenyan assassins and then taken to the hospital where Obama’s fake certificate was created. The s**ialist doctors there will then kill him since the death panel decides that they will rather treat some poor minorities. Then the hospital will issue a fake death certificate stating that Limbaugh died before Christmas in his studio so that Obama can get the money he’s not entitled to because there wont be a death tax 2010.
keestadoll
Good golly gosh there’s a LOT of vitriol and bad tidings wishing going on in here towards Mr. Limbaugh! I listened to him for many years before realizing WHAT it was I was listening to and screaming and running away, but I’m not about to hop in and hope for someone’s death (complete with alliterrating expletives) because (A) that would paint me as a very insecure asshole, and (B) with him alive and well, it makes sane discourse that much more visible (by contrast) to the naked ear. So, get well Mr. Limbaugh.
Peter J
The only reason Limbaugh traveled abroad (Hawaii), was to help uncover Obama’s fake birth certificate. When arriving Limbaugh was then drugged with Oxycontin by Kenyan assassins and then taken to the hospital where Obama’s fake certificate was created. The s-0-c-i-a-l-i-s-t doctors there will then kill him since the death panel decides that they will rather treat some poor minorities. Then the hospital will issue a fake death certificate stating that Limbaugh died before Christmas in his studio so that Obama can get the money he’s not entitled to because there wont be a death tax 2010.
amk
May God show the same “goodness” and “regard” toward rush that rush has shown toward his fellow human beings.
r€nato
@Peter J:
almost perfect but you left out Al Gore.
r€nato
@keestadoll:
You make a good point.
if it’s wrong for me to hope (explicitly or implicitly) for Rush to die, would it be ethical for me to hope that he be struck mute?
I might even believe in God if that were to happen.
asiangrrlMN
@amk: See, now, this is great. May god do unto Rush what he has done unto others. I like it!
amk
@asiangrrlMN: Amen. There. Now I said my ‘prayer’ to that fat asshole who took amurika to the dark ages. I hope never to hear his voice again.
Lisa K.
@r€nato:
I do not think wishing for either is unethical, the problem with assholes dying is that it doesn’t solve anything. There are always other assholes waiting to take their place
r€nato
I think Rush faked the heart attack so he can get a legal prescription for the hillbilly heroin.
r€nato
@Lisa K.:
a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
kay
@r€nato:
Little pigs are really cute. Male hogs are scary monsters, like something out of a horror movie, and they’re really aggressive and noisy.
I can’t think of any other animal we eat that has huge fangs.
Something weird happened there. I’m not sure they’re for eating. We generally don’t eat predators, we eat prey. I’m pretty sure, looking at the modern hog, they were not prey in the original version. It’s like eating a tiger.
r€nato
@TR:
That’s a good one. I’d add in all his rants about locking up drug offenders and throwing away the key, and his nasty crack about Chelsea Clinton, and all the foul things he said about the Clintons.
That’s just a start. When you sit down and try to list all the bile and lies this man has spewed and profited from over the years… let’s just say I find it difficult to muster much sympathy for anything that happens to him.
r€nato
@kay:
so what you’re saying is Rush Limbaugh is a male hog.
Works for me. I wouldn’t mind roasting him over an open pit, but I sure as hell wouldn’t eat him.
Rey
F#$k Rush- I was so hoping that when checking my iphone Google news this morning that the headline would read “Rush Limbaugh- Dead” It would have been sweet justice for this bastard to croak on the last day of this gawd awful decade.
The fact that he is being treated in an Hawaii hospital makes me smile. I’m sure all of his nurses are Obots…
Lisa K.
I thought we learned yesterday that Hawaii is a strange, exotic, foreign land. Won’t the images of Rush in Hawaii be very damaging?
calipygian
I hear Limbaugh is being treated in the same hospital that Barack Obama was born in.
What was Limbaugh doing in Mombasa anyway?
liberty60
@Hans Meyer:
Damn, you beat me to it, about what the heck Rush is doing in so strange and exotic a place as Hawaii; The optics on that can’t be good!
But the link to Rick Warren only made me think of George Calin’s line about religion- “One thing about God- He always needs money! Just can’t seem to hold onto His money!”
keestadoll
@r€nato: “…struck mute.”
Why? Are his words stronger than yours? To wish one’s enemy mute, you are acknowledging that your words cannot silence his. Solution: be better, be clearer, be stronger, and win.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@Lesley:
I would love to see the BJ Lexicon printed on a series of T-shirts. Basic black with white lettering in teeny-tiny print to pack in as much as possible on each shirt would be ideal. Of course you would need a whole series of them to fit the entire lexicon, but hey, with a whole closet full of them I would never have to think about what to wear again. Now that would be a fashion statement for 2010.
keestadoll
@calipygian: lol
It's a Blunderful Life
I’m thinking that if you gave Rush the old “It’s a Wonderful Life” treatment he’d be more like Mr. Potter than George Bailey. Don’t get me started about Darth Cheney’s contributions to making the world a more wonderul place.
Tax Analyst
Rush in the hospital? Heart “issues? The heart is an interesting muscle…if it is not healthy and functioning properly you just cannot bully, browbeat or bluster it into doing so. In that respect it has the ultimate STFU power over all of us and it gives not a single shit about what other things you want to do or say in the future. Sitting in a hospital bed with ticker trouble gives one a lot of empty moments to wonder. A blowhard like Limpaw might be thinking about what type of legacy he will leave behind. His “ditto-heads” will surely find another demagogue to throw them their daily slab of bloody red meat…there’s always going to be some asshat in the wings ready, willing, and able to stoke their fears and feed their prejudices. And that will be his legacy…Rushbo will forever be the blowhard jerk between the one before him and the one after him.
I don’t wish him dead because I decided a while ago to try and give that shit up. It’s not up to me, nor should it be. In the end Time owns us all…our time on earth is just a loan. You can invest yourself in making it a better place, passively sit around bitching, moaning & complaining or actively try to fuck things up. Sometimes I do too much of the middle item, but I’m pretty good about avoiding the latter.
r€nato
@keestadoll:
If there’s one thing I have learned in life, it’s that there’s no point arguing with certain people. Rush is almost never advancing a legitimate argument or philosophical position with which one can have a debate.
It’s just pure propaganda, much of it centered around hating The Other. With a big dollop of hypocrisy on top.
r€nato
@Tax Analyst:
I don’t actively wish death upon Rush. I doubt that few people would go that far.
However, if it were to ‘just happen’… I’d have a hard time mustering much sympathy. I sure wouldn’t miss him at all.
kay
@r€nato:
I read his first book. I know everything about his early years.
Hippies were mean to him and he has trouble sustaining gratifying and enduring personal relationships. I don’t know if the first caused the second.
He’s really odd. He comes off as alienated and cold as hell in the book, and ill at ease in the world.
r€nato
@keestadoll:
It’s not that I doubt my ability to ‘beat’ Rush with my ideas.
It’s that he pours poison into the minds of gullible people, who turn around and act out that malice in the world around him.
A world with fewer Rush Limbaughs stirring up hatred and resentment for profit, would be a better place.
Grace Nearing
@donovong: And may Rush be forced to put his boys in the Limbaugh-trademarked Hillary Clinton Testicle Lockbox from this point onward.
Jennifer
Just 5 minutes ago, I wrote a friend that American culture has a deep, gut-churning fear of death.
You bastards are proving me wrong.
Add me to the masses who have no fear of death, especially if it involves that vile excuse for a human being…because he’s had no issues with either wishing it on others, or striving to make life miserable for others. May karma hit his drug-addled soul so hard he comes back in his next life as a dung beetle.
r€nato
@kay:
that accords entirely with first-hand accounts of Rush being a socially awkward guy in person. “Painfully shy” is how I’ve heard him described.
Really, it’s striking how many folks like Rush there are among the bloodthirsty neocon set. Flabby, socially awkward dweebs filled with undying resentment over schoolyard slights, lack of popularity with women, and severe overcompensation issues with regards to their masculinity.
You see it everywhere from Rush to the editorial board of National Review to pathetic, angry bloggers like Adam Yoshida and Protein Wisdom.
Tax Analyst
@ #13 harlana pepper:
That’s rough stuff, harlana. It’s always tough to lose a long-time friend – worse still with a second one with a couple paws already on the banana peel. Glad your Chi-town gf is bouncing back. Best wishes to your Golden Girls…may they keep you running to the store for cat food for many more days & nights.
Grace Nearing
@Tax Analyst:
Interesting. As individuals, we’re not suppose to wish a person dead. To do so seems evil. However, as citizens, we’re actively encouraged to wish — or more — a lot of people dead. Not to do so seems highly suspect.
DZ
@Renato:
I can’t read Yoshida or Protein Wisdom. My anti-nausea drugs just aren’t good enough
Ash Can
Regarding Rush Limblow, I wish only that he stop inflicting damage upon this nation and, by extension, the world. I leave it up to the Almighty/fate/the FSM to determine how that comes about.
arguingwithsignposts
@ThatLeftTurnInABQ:
I actually have advocated for John Cole to sell a BJ t-shirt on the site. Here’s a mockup of what I think it would look like, with “Consistently wrong since 2002” on the back of the shirt.
I think it would be a winner.
kay
@r€nato:
It’s essentially a sad book. He loves to watch sports but he doesn’t play sports. He loves the idea of the esprit de corps of the military but didn’t join. He comments on “women” as a generic idea, in this 1960’s sitcom way (those zany gals! go figgur!”) but he has trouble with them as individuals.
I’m biased, of course, but he just seems like someone who was the outsider, and wasn’t having much success in making his mark in Missouri (although his family is accomplished and locally quite powerful, in that local big shots way I’m familiar with, so he had every advantage there) so found a national group and unifying idea he could hook into.
elmo
I can’t bring myself to wish Rush dead, or even gone. Mostly because I can’t bear to be in alliance with Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck, both of whom, I guarantee you, are sticking little pins in fat little voodoo dolls with receding hairlines. So. Confusion to all of my enemies, and may Rush find peace and comfort in the New Year.
(Peace and comfort don’t lend themselves well to right-wing diatribes.)
rachel
@r€nato: I once fell into conversation with a mentally ill and ranting old woman at a bus stop. Clearly, she had a grievance, but I couldn’t understand what it was and there was nothing I could do to help her.
Rush makes me feel like that.
Citizen_X
I kind of envision Rush to be like Oogie Boogie from Nightmare Before Christmas, who was filled with nothing but thousands of loathsome little bugs.
As for Limbaugh’s fate in the near future, I’ll try to limit myself to a simple wish:
May Karma work.
Tax Analyst
@ #64 elmo –
Sorry about all your pet passings. It sounds like your particular Mild-Life Sanctuary hit some serious bumps in the road in ’09.
gnomedad
If and when Rushbo returns to the air, it will be interesting to see whether he continues to claim that the libruls are lying about exercise being good for you and steak and cigars being bad.
Also, if Obama really wants to snuff him, he should have Kathleen Sibelius strongly advocate exactly the treatment Rush needs.
Tax Analyst
@ #69 renato –
OK, so that was kinda sick. It just kind of blurted out of my fingers before I could stop myself.
r€nato
@kay:
so basically, it’s a 300 page long (or however long it is) public admission of the multiple inadequacies and insecurities which fuel his id.
Pretty sad. Most people choose to whitewash their autobiography… perhaps Rush should have done the same, though I commend him for this single instance of honesty in his pathetic life.
r€nato
@Tax Analyst:
Brining does wonders, doesn’t it?
JB
Farewell to my cat Smudge – lost to a tumor this year. I had her for 12 years and miss her alot. She was a calico with a light brown ‘smudge’ down the middle of her face. A friend captured her stray mother and siblings and talked me into giving her a home. She was loud and aggressive and purred like a truck engine. She liked being brushed, scratches under the chin, laundry baskets, and fake mice.
I never had a cat before her – I’m a dog person. She was good cat for a newbie.
Bah! Now I’m all teary-eyed.
Down periscope, returning to lurk mode.
JB
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
A little over a half century ago Father Coughlin ruled the airwaves. Today nobody except politics junkies knows who he is. My grandkids will have no idea who Rush was. They will say “Rush who?” if anybody older than them has the bad taste to bring him up as a subject of conversation. That is all the revenge I need.
r€nato
@ThatLeftTurnInABQ:
this is true, but Coughlin left behind a blueprint for others to follow, just as Lee Atwater did.
Their foul works live on long after they have passed.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@r€nato:
True, but I can’t do much to change that. What I’m saying is that in terms of Rush personally, I’m sure his immense ego would be terribly wounded by the obscurity which is his inevitable fate, which is about all the revenge I will ever get on him. Sick gloria transit man-dick, so to speak.
Zach
I don’t think much “wise management” is involved when you overestimate your income by 100%.
r€nato
@Zach:
a congregant and his money are soon parted.
Tax Analyst
@ #124 JB –
That’s fairly similar to how I ended up with my first cat. My older brother had her but had to move suddenly when he found out his former roommate hadn’t been paying the landlord – the asswipe pocketed my bro’s rent payment, stiffed the landlord for several months and apparently took off to live on a kibbutz in Israel when the first eviction notice arrived. Anyway, bro’ Dave found some friends to move in with, but his cat wasn’t fond of sharing territory and tried to kill one of their kittens. So I got a late night call asking if I could take Loki in – I said, “Well, OK…when’s a good time?” Bro Dave said, “Uh…an hour ago would have been just about right, but if you come right now I don’t think Gypsy will bash her head in with the shovel she’s brandishing in her hand right now.” That “temporary” arrangement lasted the last 6 years of her 11+ year life. She was very willful and stubborn, but also she was a clever and fun companion who could dole out gobs of warmth and affection when the mood suited her. That generally worked for me.
Tax Analyst
@ #116 Elmo said (in part):
or as my late brother used to say, “Champagne for my real friends and real pain for my sham friends.”
tesslibrarian
I lost my 2 kitty girls this year, the ones I got in college at 21, the ones my bf-now-husband had to win over because we came as a set. I realized this year that I have no memory of being an adult that doesn’t include them in some way.
I knew I would lose Lughnasa this year, because her fibrosarcoma came back and she wasn’t tempermentally up to radiation treatment, even if the Vet School (2 blocks away) hadn’t been renovating their facilities. I found the tiny returned tumor around midnight of last New Year’s Eve, as I removed her from the bed I was making. And it was the start of a terrible year.
Gildenstern was had injured herself the previous summer, and was on thyroid and pain meds that made her digestive system just start to go out. She didn’t have the life she’d had before, and I knew she was sad and on rainy days, so uncomfortable. But she’d been improving in April before taking a sudden turn downward. We didn’t expect, I was not ready to let her go, but G couldn’t eat, and she loved to eat. Her death was as peaceful as I could have hoped, more so, really. She was so ready to go, and she seemed so grateful I would, as I always did, do what she wanted. That was May 5th; she was nearly 17.
We were told Lu probably wouldn’t make it to fall, maybe October at the latest, and that she would probably go in her sleep. No. My vet says she entirely skewed the stats on this type of cancer. Her tumor grew and grew–it was a large, horrible, scabby, bulbous thing bigger than her head, but she was not giving up. I kept looking in her eyes for the look G had, but it was never there. Then last week, she had lost her strength to walk, and though she did not want to go, she responded to the initial sedative the vet gave her much more quickly than G had–she was exhausted from fighting. That was Dec. 21st; she was just over 17.
I’m still in a sense of relief for Lu’s suffering having ended, but now that they both are gone, I cannot get over how quiet everything seems, how empty. The ache to touch both of them is stronger. Jack is more my husband’s cat than mine, and he’s sort of freaked out by being allowed in the front of the house a bit even though we showed him Lu’s body before the vet took her away. (He’s also filthy so we aren’t sure about letting him on the furniture yet.) But then, it’s not like either of my girls could be replaced, so yes, I’m glad this year is over and wish I’d never seen it at all.
tesslibrarian
(sorry for such a long post above)
elmo
@tesslibrarian:
Don’t be sorry for the long post. Thank you for sharing them with us, and letting us join you in sorrow for them. They sound like wonderful companions. (And just as an aside, what terrific names!)
elmo
@JB:
JB, I’m sorry for your loss; I know full well how writing the post will make you all teary. It’s the screen glare! Honest!
And thanks to everyone above for the kind thoughts. In happier news, we were so enamored of Naga that we’ve launched full-bore into Great Pyrenees rescue, taking in five new ones (two we found tied to a gas station dumpster in the middle of the night) and finding new forever homes for three of them (so far).
CaseyL
@elmo: You do a lot of animal rescuing; bless you forever for that. Birds, even; and cockatoos are a LOT o’ bird. You are a true mensch.
@tesslibrarian:
It’s like that a little here since Ariel’s death. Though Jeannie and Oscar are young and hale and hearty, they’re nowhere near as talkative, and they also don’t demand breakfast at the crack of dawn. I’ve been able to sleep late for the first time in nearly 20 years… but I can’t really enjoy it because I’d take Ariel back in a heartbeat if I could (her younger, healthier, self).
I’d love to be able to send a link to photos of my kitties. I never sent them in during John’s “Claim Your Pet” series because I hadn’t downloaded J&O photos from my camera, but now that I have, there are LOTS of photos I can send of Ariel, Jeannie, and Oscar!
WereBear
@kay: That’s… so… pathetic.
And exactly what I would have imagined from the way he presents himself in public.
I’m pretty pissed off at the 400 million contract he signed not too long ago, but he is a miserable man in every sense of the word. I believe that we make our own hells, and Rush is in one.
Lisa K.
@tesslibrarian:
As somebody who has lost a number of well-loved pets over the years-and currently lives with four cats and a dog, all of whom I am likely to outlive-I sympathize greatly and appreciate your deep feelings on the loss of little ones.
Barry
calipygian
“Rush just has to hang on a few more hours so he can die in 2010 and pass on all that Clear Channel money tax free to Warren because of the weird loopholes in the estate tax laws.”
IIRC (IANAL) anything left to a tax-exempt ‘charitable’ organization is, well, tax-exempt.
JenJen
Thread-appropriate, this is Sailor the Mutt. He was adopted by my sweet mom in the summer of 2009, and has been a most wonderful addition to our family.
To all Sailors, everywhere. More shelter adoptions in 2010 is my New Year’s Wish.
Mike G
You mean all that power-of-positive-Jesus, porpoise-driven life stuff didn’t enable them to ‘visualize’ the job they wanted and immediately get it? I’m so disillusioned with Prosperity Gospel.
If any significant fraction of that ego megachurch’s money went to unemployed congregants, I’d be very surprised. Check Warren’s mansion for air-conditioned doghouses and bulk purchases of mascara.
keestadoll
@r€nato: Understood, but still, I don’t get why gullible masses can’t be swayed by rational thought. If their heads are empty, be the stronger voice and fill them with logic. Ta-da!
Anne Laurie
@kay:
We don’t eat pigs because they’re convenient, we eat them because they’re competition.
Also, it’s considered bad form to roast & devour our fellow humans — even the rich, well-marbled, otherwise-useless specimens — so domesticating pigs was a compromise.
asiangrrlMN
@r€nato: Um, that could be me right there. I wonder why I didn’t turn out to be a batshitcrazy rightwingnutter? Hmmmmm…..
@keestadoll: Because fear is much easier to channel than is logic or reason. it’s easier to say, “Goddamn black sockulist fascist commie pinko Islamic jihadist Obama” and believe that he is the root of all evil (especially since he’s black) than it is to point out all the complex and interwoven reasons why our country sucks right now. Most people will go for easy every time, especially if the easy definition plays right into their prejudices.
And, my deepest condolences to everyone who has lost a furry friend this year.
P.S. New Year, I haz it!
Steeplejack
@asiangrrlMN:
Does it look like a good one? Inquiring minds want to know.