A Couple of Links

I just wanted to make a few brief follow up comments on the topic that Some Dude broached below regarding Sandra Fluke. It is so bizarre to me that the media, with a little help from Rush Limbaugh, has succeeded in turning Sandra Fluke into a sympathetic victim. Remember, this woman is a 30-year-old activist who chose to put herself in the spotlight and has been trying publicly for years to force a Catholic university to pay for her birth control, against the Catholic Church's beliefs. Why should the university (and the public in the form of higher premiums) be forced to foot her and her friends' >$3,000/year contraceptive bill for a purely elective activity? I have posted recently on the widespread availability of cheap -- or even free -- contraceptive devices. In what twisted alternative universe does this woman qualify for hero status? Or merit attention and lavish praise from the President of the United States? (Does he really have no other priorities?)

And don't even get me started on the media double standard on crude speech toward women. Rush's comment doesn't even come close to the vile things said about prominent conservative women like Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann by the Left. Bill Maher and Keith Olbermann make Rush Limbaugh sound like Mr. Rogers, but the feminists and the media have never conspired to try to remove them from the air. And unlike Maher and Olbermann, Rush apologized. He should have known better. No apology from Rush will ever be enough to satisfy this crowd. He might as well have saved his breath, because they will never rest until he is silenced for good. The Left's outrage about civility and the treatment of women and racism is always highly selective. It is a tool to promote their political agenda, nothing more. I was going to include a link to a Daily Caller article that collected some of the unbelievably nastiness from the Left (including some very well-known writers from Slate and Rolling Stone) in response to the death of conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart, who died at 43 and left behind a widow and four young children, but the article apparently included so much foul language that my home computer's filter would not allow me to access it. (I will add a link to it later.) Brent Bozell III from the Media Research Center gives some specific examples of this incredible double standard from the media here. At some point in the future, I hope to do a post giving more specific examples of the prevalence of this kind of hate-filled rhetoric on the Left.

I want to include a couple other links as well. One is an interesting take on Rick Santorum's candidacy from a fantastic Christian blogger named Albert Mohler. The other is an anonymous article from the American Thinker that I found to be extremely provocative called "The New Scar on My Soul."

UPDATE: I stand by my initial comments about Sandra Fluke. Her claims were preposterous and I believe she is very far from a hero. I also stand by my comments about the ridiculous double standard of the Left and the media, which is crucifying Rush but ignoring similar comments from leftists. But having read a little more about what Rush actually said about her, including demanding that she post videos of her sex online, it does sound like he crossed a line of basic respect and decency. I think the personal insults went too far, and his attacks have not only hurt him but also undermined the cause he was trying to champion. Here's a pretty good article from a conservative, Jeff Jacoby, who says that Rush needs to make a real apology.

Rush Limbaugh & Racism

I was discussing the news story about Rush Limbaugh participating in a bid to purchase the St. Louis Rams franchise with a co-worker yesterday. (Rush has since abandoned the bid.) The thing that struck me about the conversation was my co-worker's casual assertion, "Rush Limbaugh is a racist."

Now there are a number of bogus racist quotations being attributed to Rush Limbaugh, including particularly outrageous ones where Limbaugh supposedly defends slavery and uses racially charged language about the NAACP. There is not a shred of documentation or evidence that Limbaugh ever made these comments. They were supposedly made years ago to a radio audience that numbers 20 million per week, which begs the question why they are only coming out now. Limbaugh has flatly denied ever making them. Yet CNN & MSNBC continue to report these and other unsourced quotes about Limbaugh as fact. It is not Rush Limbaugh's responsibility to prove he didn't say something. It is the media's responsibility to prove he did say it -- and to prove that it is being presented fairly in context. And they can't.

The only "racist" quote about Limbaugh that can be proved was his statement as a sports commentator for ESPN six years ago, in which Limbaugh accused the media of overlooking Donovan McNabb's incompetence as a quarterback because they wanted a black quarterback to succeed. Now I will readily concede that this statement was stupid and insensitive, but racist? This, by itself, seems very shaky evidence to build a case against Rush Limbaugh of being racist, considering that his daily radio show sidekick (Mr. Snerdley) and one of his guest-hosts (Walter Williams) are both black. The truth is, for someone as outspoken as Rush Limbaugh who has been on the radio 3 hours per day every day for decades, it is pretty easy to dig up a few old quotes, take them out of context, and magically produce evidence of racism.

I think this issue goes far beyond Rush Limbaugh. "Racism" has become a cheap word that is thrown around with little thought or evidence behind it. The New York Times accused Joe Wilson of being a racist simply for (correctly) saying the words "You lie!" to a president who happens to be black. Several famous people, including Jimmy Carter and Bill Cosby, have accused opponents of President Obama's health care plan of being primarily motivated by racism. Singer Dave Matthews has gone on record saying that large swaths of the American people are racist. Where is the evidence for any of these accusations? Is it now racist simply to oppose the policies of the president? Has "racism" now become a synonym for "Republican" or "conservative"?

There are two really bad results of this misuse of the word "racist." One is that the reputations of many good people are being destroyed. Once you are branded a "racist," it is often very hard to shake that label -- even if the accusations are completely unfair. All you have to do is make a politically incorrect joke that is misinterpreted by someone or a controversial statement that is taken out of context -- and suddenly you are a hateful bigot to be shunned by polite society.

The other sad result of this misuse of the word "racist" is that real racism is minimized and cheapened. Racism is a particularly ugly form of prejudice that is still very much present in our society. Unfortunately, when everyone is crying "racism" at the drop of a hat, it is hard to recognize and confront racism for what it really is. People are afraid to discuss racial issues honestly and openly because they think they will be accused of bigotry themselves. And so racial prejudice simmers under the surface and becomes even more deadly.