Nebraska Man Realizes Rush Limbaugh Is a Fucking Idiot

Insurance claims adjuster Franklin Tinsley, 37, of Arapahoe, Nebraska, on Wednesday became the final person in the United States to discover that Rush Limbaugh is a fucking idiot.

"I have to admit, I'm a little embarrassed," Tinsley said in a telephone interview from his office.  "I've always considered myself a pretty well-informed guy.  I read the papers, watch the news. . . . Of course I'd heard people talk about Rush Limbaugh.  Call him an idiot and so forth.  I guess it just never sank in."

Tinsley, a self-described conservative Republican, explained that, in principle, he agrees with most of Limbaugh's policy proposals.  "Yeah, I've listened to his show.  And I admit there were times that I had a problem with the way he was expressing himself.  Didn't seem particularly Christian, if you know what I mean?  I thought maybe he was just trying to stir things up.  It seriously never occurred to me that he was just a complete and utter fucking idiot."

Tinsley's realization did not come, as you might expect, from any of Limbaugh's more notorious outbursts--his recent moronic diatribe against Georgetown Law student Sandra Fluke, for example, or his insanely ill-informed accusation that President Obama wanted to kill Christians because he had sent US troops to assist in the hunt for African warlord Joseph Kony.  Rather, Tinsley says he was just performing some simple household chores when it hit him:

"I don't really know what it was.  I was just washing the dishes, looking out the window, not really thinking about anything in particular, when all of a sudden I was like, 'Good lord!  Rush Limbaugh is just a king-size, no-doubt-about-it, grade-A fucking idiot!'"

Asked if he had heard of Al Franken's book Rush Limbaugh Is a Big, Fat Idiot, Tinsley said he had not.  "The title makes sense, though, because that man--Rush Limbaugh--is a fucking idiot.  I must say, though, I really can't approve of Senator Franken making fun of the man's weight."

Despite his revelation, Tinsley says he continues to support the broader Republican agenda.  Still, this experience has made him wary about other celebrated members of the party establishment.  "I mean, if Rush Limbaugh is a fucking idiot--and now that I think about it, kind a douche bag--who else might be a little weak in the thinking department?  Romney?  Boehner?  Who knows?"

"I guess you really just can't be too sure about anybody these days," Tinsley said.  "Hey--have you guys heard anything bad about Sarah Palin?"

BLOG MA--LANGUAGE

Yesterday, a student asked if I knew who Bill Maher was.  I explained that, despite my advanced age old and the fact that I live under a rock at the bottom of San Francisco Bay, I was, in fact, aware of the Maher's existence.  (Sarcasm is wasted on some people.)  Anyway, this student asked what I thought about the fact that Bill Maher had made all kinds of vulgar comments about Sarah Palin and not caught the same kind of heat that Rush Limbaugh has attracted since attacking Georgetown law student Sandra Fluke.  I hadn't actually heard about Maher's comments--I later saw Jon Stewart's piece about the Fox News fueled contretemps--and I asked what he (Maher) had said.  The student said that the news mentioned Maher calling Palin "the 'C' word."  Then he asked me what "the 'C' word" was, which led to one of the more awkward moments in my teaching career. . . but that's not the point.  I said that I still felt that what Rush did was worse, but our conversation got me thinking about the relative acceptability of different epithets.

First, is there a double standard at work here?  That is, is it OK for Bill Maher to call Sarah Palin a cunt but not for Rush Limbaugh to call Sandra Fluke a slut?  Partially this depends on your own sensibilities.  Some would say both men are being offensive, some would just shrug.  I'm all for free speech, so I certainly wouldn't censor either of them, but I would also not censor those who would condemn either man's choice of words.  And, personally, I think Bill Maher could do better.

At the same time, Maher's choice of words doesn't especially bother me.  This might have something to do with the fact that I generally dislike Sarah Palin, but that's not all there is to it.  Substitute Sarah Palin for, say, Nancy Pelosi or Hillary Clinton (not that Bill Maher would be likely to use such language in describing either of those women), and I still wouldn't be overly incensed.

Part of my relative comfort with Maher's language comes from the fact that Sarah Palin is a public figure who is more than capable of defending herself.  She can command any media platform she likes, and she has cadres of lawyers, publicists, and political cronies who can come down hard on Bill Maher or anyone else who attacks her.  Sandra Fluke has also made herself a public figure, and thus opened herself up to certain criticisms.  But she has nothing like Palin's resources, and this adds to the perception that she is being bullied by someone much more powerful than she.

Overall, though, what makes Limbaugh's actions worse than Maher's in this instance is his choice of words.  As offensive as words like "cunt" or "bitch" are, they have limited significance.  Think about what message Maher conveyed by calling Palin a "cunt": Essentially, the translation of that statement is, "I think Sarah Palin is a bad person and I dislike her."  "Bad person," of course, is a matter of personal opinion.  Maher can point to things Palin has done or said that make her, in his estimation, "bad," but those same things might make her "good" to other people--other hopelessly benighted people, but what are you going to do?

When people call a woman "slut" or a "whore," though, they are not, literally, expressing their feelings towards another person; they are making assertions about that person's behavior: Specifically, they are saying that this woman has "inappropriate" amounts of sex (which, by the way, if you're having sex with Rush Limbaugh is ANY amount of sex) and/or has sex for money.  In our society, these actions generally brand a woman as "bad."  Now, we can argue whether this is a wrong-headed assumption, but the fact is that this is the standard societal attitude.

In other words, "bitch" or "cunt" (or "asshole" or "scumbag") can be "excused" as one person's opinion; "whore" and "prostitute" are words associated with behavior--and are frankly slanderous unless they can be backed up.  Bill Maher is a raunchy comedian who says things that people often find offensive.  Rush Limbaugh is a sleazy asshole.  That, of course, is just my opinion.