Take a look at this man. Look closely. What do you see?
Here are the facts. Rush Limbaugh has a radio audience estimated to be 20 million. He reportedly makes upward of $35,000,000 a year. He lives in Palm Beach with his fourth wife. He is the mouthpiece of the Republican party, but has never been elected to office. He has made his millions as a hate monger and his most recent hate speeches have been directed toward women.
Recently, Georgetown University law student, Sandra Fluke, was turned away from a Congressional committee (of five men) when she sought to offer her testimony about a fried who lost an ovary because she was denied birth control pills by her insurance company. As a result of her being turned away from testifying to the committee, the media picked up on the story and she is now something of a spoke person about a heinous movement- the banning of contraception.
Limbaugh called her a “slut” and a “prostitute” for publicly advocating that employers cover contraception in their health plans. He’s employing the oldest trick in the book – ridiculing the representative of a group –in this instance, a rather large group, women – in an attempt to silence them.
Back in 1692, in Salem Massachusetts, 19 men and women who had been convicted of witchcraft were taken to Gallows Hills, a denuded slope near Salem, to be hung. Another man of 80 plus years was crushed to death beneath heavy rocks and stones for refusing to submit to a trial on witchcraft charges. Hundreds of others faced witchcraft charges, and 88 percent of them were women. Women judged by men.
In retrospect, the Salem trials are often referred to as a case “mass hysteria.” In the 21st century, the kind of incendiary rhetoric against women that has been part of the Republican primary might be compared to a kind of mass hysteria propagated by individuals – mostly men – who are apparently threatened by the foothold women have gained since the 1960s and 70s. It seems to be part of an emerging paradigm – confront these old, profoundly outdated attitudes, deal with them, and move on.
But Limbaugh personifies how the old paradigm clings to what has worked in the past – hate mongering, trying to instill fear and more fear – and was referred to by one news moderator as “too big to fail.” Heard that one before, right? About the banks.
Limbaugh has an employer – Clear Channel – and they should fire this bovine blowhard. But guess what, one of the primary owners of Clear Channel is Bain Capitol, the company that Mitt Romney, Repub candidate and the paragon of flip-floppers – ran for so many years. Romney, though now retired from Bain, supposedly still owns a financial stake in the company.
Clear Channel owns more radio shows in the U.S. – 850 – than any other entity. They not only host bovine Rush, but all the other hate mongers as well, like Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck – who are/were employees of Fox News.
So, if Rush’s radio audience of 20 million is any indication of the numbers that still cling to the old paradigm of racism, intolerance, inequality, and white male, heterosexual dominance (yeah, no surprise, they also denounce gays), then we’ve got a ways to go as a nation.
Fox News owner Rupert Murdock seems on a downward spin with the dishonesty and amoral practices of his British rags. But how do you counteract someone like Limbaugh? Well, first of all, you laugh, you laugh hysterically at everything he says. A mindset as dark as his can’t endure laughter or ridicule. Then you look within and ask how you can be an agent of change in the world. You might write to Clear Channel and demand that Rush be fired. Or you might instruct your cable channel to remove Fox News from your package. Or you might just ignore the issue completely. After all, when our attention is removed from something, it becomes less powerful.
I’m well past the years of childbearing and would probably opt for ignoring all this rhetoric if I didn’t have a 22-year-old daughter whose health may be impacted by the extreme ideas being put forth by Republicans in many states. Once you grant an insurance company or an employer, pharmacist or physician the right to deny treatment because they are “morally against” that treatment, you are entering dangerous territory. Democracy goes south, the right to make your own choices about your body is delegated to politics, you are living smack in the middle of The Handmaid’s Tale. No, thanks.
It appears that the Obama administration has responded to Limbaugh. The president also called the young woman.
My husband was just saying tonight that the bill that is at issue has very dangerous verbage in that it says that an employer can deny health insurance to their employees at their will. The absolute best way to go after Rush is to not buy any of the advertiser’s products – and make sure you let them know why. Several have already pulled ads. Get him where it hurts this blowhard – in the wallet.
And I think the world needs to know who owns the radio station he is on – this will certainly impact women’s votes for Mitt.
Let’s hope so. These people are simply too extreme for the 21st century.
great post, trish – thanks for doing and thanks so those whose comments are so relevant and well-taken – from my own personal experiences i would respond more in-depth but am loathe to visit the negative energy that my own words would summon should i do so – thanks again for addressing this issue so well for women everywhere –
It sounds like fiction when you write ‘ … because she was denied birth control pills by her insurance company.’ It’s just beyond my comprehension that such things can happen. I mean, why? Never heard of Limbaugh before but to call a woman ‘a slut and a prostitute’ for wanting birth control is like turning the clock back several hundred years. I presume Limbaugh never has sex … or are there two (or more) sets of rules.
A few years ago, the news reported that Rush buys Viagra, so he definitely has sex with someone. He’s been married four times but has no children.
I heard his rant and was stunned by the level of hate he has towards women. His apology, though, seems aimed at keeping his corporate sponsors rather than expressing true remorse for the things he said about Sandra Fluke.
The Republicans keep digging a deeper and deeper hole. It’s surprising that there could still be any woman who would vote for this political party. Even Republican Senator Olympia Snowe had enough of her party that she’s retiring from politics. I hope people vote in droves for the Democrats in the fall. Not that its a great party, but the GOP deserves to be punished. The only way they will ever change is by losing election after election and being forced to examine why voters aren’t supporting that party anymore.
The more extreme Republicans get, the fewer votes they’re going to win.
Great comment, Adelita.
Here’s a petition you can sign that’s being sent to the sponsors of his radio show if anyone would like to sign:
https://act.credoaction.com/campaign/limbaugh_appalling/?rc=fb_share1
thanks very much for attaching the petition which i have now signed and submitted –
Please excuse my typos, guys. Tiffini, sorry about that! My mind often moves faster than my fingers!
Nothing to say about the pathetic excuse for a “man”, limbaugh. (No, I intentionally don’t capitalize his disgustin name.) But Tiffi, I do want to just mention some things to you about your number 305. Each individual has what is termed an “operative number”. A few folks have more than one. This operative number is present at birth when the person receives a name, which combines with his or her birthdate, and that number “follows” the person throughout life, appearing in virtually aspect of the life. You won’t find this material in any of the thousands of texts available yet in bookstores, but hopefully before I leave this old world, it will be available in mine. Your primary operative root number is 8, and you will find it everywhere around you: important appointments, your essential papers such as SS card, drivers license, credit cards, phone numbers, address, on and on and on, and always, always, it will appear among your very closest associates. In your case, I suspect the 35 (as you said, 305), is likely the most recurring combination that forms 8. (I don’t know your age, but can assure you that at age 34/35 and 35/36 you certainly experienced or will experience extremely important and probably life-altering situations and/or circumstances of some nature.) Besides that 305, you’ll see other combinations, such as 17, 71, 26, 44, 53, etc, and other multiple combinations of numbers that when reduced become 8. Without knowing anything about you, I can look at this and discern that you are great at business matters, are a leader and not a follower, (such as an administrator, supervisor, director); that in health issues you have most likely experienced some form of a malignancy during your life which wasn’t left-threatening but which had to be taken care of…or, one of your closest loved ones was in that situation. Cancer is common to all, yes, but to number 8s, it rears its head consistently, and not necessarily in a deadly manner. (Oncologists and oncology nurses have #8 operative numbers.) Anything physically having to do with the “brain” is especially relevant to you and your life. This isn’t something to fear and can manifest in positive as well as negative ways. When you travel, your hotel room numbers will likely always reduce to 8. I also can tell you that you are good with money management and with efficient organizing, your own as well as other folks’. Don’t be concerned about that 305. Look at it, examine it, and embrace it. It’s your life’s “guiding frequency” and it’s a really good one!!
Thank you!!
Significant life changes DID happen to me at age 34 and 36. And, a woman in my neighborhood whom I’d never talked to, a few years ago randomly told me, out of the blue, that 8 was a significant number for me.
Also, my SSN reduces to 8!
Fascinating!
I’m grateful to bovine Rush for stepping into this mega meadow muffin and waking a sleeping giant; at least I’m hoping the giant constituency of thoughtful women and fair minded men in this country woke up to the absurdity and the dangers of voting theocrats into office. As always, you’ve given us valuable information and concrete avenues to pursue. Let’s get together and Flush Rush.
OR ANYONE!!!!!!!
That’s it. How ANYONE can be a republican now is beyond me.
thank you for saying this………it needs to be said over and over and over. The subjugation of the feminine is so deeply embedded in our culture and “religion” that people can’t even see beyond the surface, whether you are dealing with a hate monger like this man, or far more sophisticated men. I’ve noted before that black men were considered human beings, and thus able to vote, 50 years before women had to fight for that right in this country. Our Biblical “moral” notion of chastity is a patriarchal social control mechanism with roots that go very far back indeed – when women became property, and power and lineage came from the father instead of the mother, then “virginity” became a financial transaction in essence.
It’s amazing to me that this hipocritical man can, after cheating on his wives, call anyone a “slut” and “whore”. But that word itself demonstrates the shift in paradigm – few know that the word “whore” derives from a semitic word, “hora” or “hara” which once meant “priestess” and “fertility”. To this day the Hora is a circle dance still performed at Jewish weddings.
To take away the biological rights of a woman is to basically say that she has no rights to her own body, that her body belongs to the men who “own” her. From this one can extrapolate that women’s minds, work, property, and lives also belong to the men who “own” them. I fear so much these days that younger women take for granted the rights that have only so very recently been gained. And I fear, so very much, for a world on the verge of environmental collapse because of overpopulation and unsustainable technology, a terrible future for children yet unborn to face……that a man like Gingrich might even be considered for leadership in this time is truly terrifying.
Gingrich, Santorum, Romney, Bachman, they’re all cut from the same cloth. I honestly do NOT understand how any woman can vote Republican. Or any gay person. Or anyone of color. Or any minority.
Sounds like a majority.
I am one who does not pay attention to hate mongers and will calmly dilute any that come to my attention, being good with words helps. When I do hear stories like these now, it usually includes the follow-up dissolution, as with Obama’s call, where the support is already beginning around the victim. I feel that’s a positive sign of our progression toward a majority shift that is dedicated to the well being of humanity and mother earth.
Rush may have 2 mill listeners so to balance him I hope at least 2 mill will be pleased, thankful, and supportive that Obama did the polite thing. When the duality on an issue is promoted then there is no reason for being blind sheep because only one side is making noise. It’s also nice to know that Rush may have 2 mill listeners but I think Abraham-Hicks have more. 😀
Rush: 20 million.
Abraham/Hicks: 50 million and growing!
Good points, Terri.
Hello from a fellow Floridian … just came across your blog today from a friend on Facebook and love it. I also have a blog about coincidences, and found your post about certain numbers “stalking” people interesting because I feel stalked by the number 305. Here is my blog post about that: https://coincidences.posterous.com/coindidences-sxsw-edition
Hi Tiffini – thanks for dropping by! Stalked by 305??? Hmmm. I’ll pop over to your blog and then link to you.
– Trish
Thanks!