I’m a bit sad I missed yesterday’s show from El Rushbo, which surely included the juiciest nuggets in response to Obama’s State of the Union address. Instead he kicks off today’s show by ingratiating himself to me, describing using his iPad to watch the movie “The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest.” Two points for Rush!
In the news: last week’s unemployment numbers rose sharply, continuing our slower-than-desired economic recovery. According to the AP, the crazy Snowpocalypse weather in the east contributed to the figure; according to Rush, there’s no evidence that this was the case, and the AP—liberal as ever, if you ask Rush—inserted that possible explanation to ingratiate itself to the Obama administration. I guess we’d need to check with the government analyst whom the story quotes, but Rush is simply wrong in saying that the story just made up the Snowpocalypse connection. “There’s no mention of snow anywhere in the report citing this week’s figures,” says Rush. He’s right, there isn’t; notice there’s no mention of anything. It’s just a bunch of numbers without analysis. That’s how these reports are.
Rush doesn’t let up, though. “Was there ever snow during the Bush years? Did we ever hear unemployment numbers blamed on snow during the Bush years?” Well, yeah, probably, but it’s much more compelling to blame it all on Obama. And it’s a clever rhetorical question that’s impossible to respond to without some serious news-scouring.
Then it’s poll-review time.
I’m not trying to harp on Rush, he just really does bring up polls this much.
Today’s polls are good news: USA Today/Gallup reports that more Americans view Republicans favorably than unfavorably for the first time since 2005, and Kaiser reports that “Obamacare” is at its lowest popularity since its passage. Rush clucks that Kaiser has always been an outlier in the “favorable to the regime” direction. So there.
No time to parse his numbers or double-check his work, though, because…
Surprise! Let’s talk abortion!
Coming back from commercial, Rush shifts gears quite suddenly: “Having an abortion does not increase the risk to mental health, whereas getting pregnant and having a baby does.” Apparently research by Danish scientists, in a 15-year study, debunks the notion that abortion can mentally hurt women who get them, and says that post-partum depression is a much greater problem. (Link, for details)
You’ll never guess what Rush does. Yep, he dismisses the study. And in such rapid fashion that he’s moved on to a totally different topic (the Rahm Emanuel voting controversy) before I can even type this sentence. I guess 15 years of hard Danish scientific work is no match for the dismissary powers of Mr. Limbaugh.
But I do want to mention one thing Rush said, which I’ve heard him say before: “Pregnancy is a disease, according to the NAGs.” (I had to look it up: it’s ‘National Association of Gals’, Rush’s dismissary name for the National Organization of Women, and feminists in general.) Rush has the notion that feminists hate pregnancy and child-rearing, and so are not simply pro-choice but fervently pro-abortion. I’m not really sure whether he thinks all pro-choice people believe this, or only the radical left; but then, from what I’ve seen so far, everybody who’s left of far-right is the radical left in Rush’s book.
At any rate, this carries the unspoken connotation that the Danish study was endorsed (funded? influenced? written?!) by pro-choice forces. That’s the charming thing about well-researched facts, though; they’re facts. They don’t have an agenda. They simply are.
I agree with Rush, I think
“I want you to turn up your radio: according to the Los Angeles Times—the Los Angeles Times—a last-minute decision to serve fried chicken and waffles, in honor of Martin Luther King, was a regrettable choice” at a cafeteria at UC-Irvine.
Apparently a student raised a stink at the last-minute decision by the cafeteria’s chef to serve the delicious African-American-themed dish in a celebration of MLK’s life. Rush oddly doesn’t offer a specific opinion here, but I believe he was getting at the ridiculousness of urging for political correctness rather than simply enjoying an awesomely delicious lunch.
In which case, yes, Rush. You’re right. I love you. Stupid chicken and waffles can turn me every time.
Today’s blatantly outlandish thing that Rush said just to piss you off: “There is one advantage to having an abortion: you won’t have any problems with the birth certificate.”