Is Rush Limbaugh a total Idiot?

Question

this is just a short list........LIMBAUGH: "If you have any doubts about the status of American health care, just compare it with that in other industrialized nations." (Told You So, p. 153)

REALITY: The United States ranks 19th in life expectancy and 20th in infant mortality among 23 industrialized nations, according to the CIA's 1993 World Fact Book. The U.S. also has the lowest health care satisfaction rate (11 percent) of the 10 largest industrialized nations (Health Affairs, vol. 9, no. 2).

LIMBAUGH: Denouncing Jeremy Rifkin of the Beyond Beef campaign as an "ecopest": "Rifkin is bent out of shape because he says the cattle consume enough grain to feed hundreds of millions of people. The reason the cattle are eating the grain is so they can be fattened and slaughtered, after which they will feed people, who need a high protein diet." (Ought To Be, p. 110)

REALITY: Sixteen pounds of grain and soy is required to produce one pound of edible food from beef (USDA Economic Research Service). As for needing a "high-protein diet," the World Health Organization and U.S. Department of Agriculture recommend that from 4.5 percent to 6 percent of daily calories come from protein. The amount of calories from protein in rice is 8 percent; in wheat it's 17 percent (USDA Handbook No. 456).

LIMBAUGH: "Do you know we have more acreage of forest land in the United States today than we did at the time the constitution was written." (Radio show, 2/18/94)

REALITY: In what are now the 50 U.S. states, there were 850 million acres of forest land in the late 1700s vs. only 730 million today (The Bum's Rush, p. 136). Limbaugh's claim also ignores the fact that much of today's forests are single-species tree farms, as opposed to natural old-growth forests which support diverse ecosystems.

Brotherhood...and Sisterhood

LIMBAUGH: "The videotape of the Rodney King beating played absolutely no role in the conviction of two of the four officers. It was pure emotion that was responsible for the guilty verdict." (Radio show, quoted in FRQ, Summer/93)

REALITY: "Jury Foreman Says Video Was Crucial in Convictions", read an accurate Los Angeles Times headline the day after the federal court verdict (4/20/93).

LIMBAUGH: "Anytime the illegitimacy rate in black America is raised, Rev. Jackson and other black 'leaders' immediately change the subject." (Ought to Be, p. 225)

REALITY: Jesse Jackson has been talking about and against "children having children" in speeches and interviews for decades. So have many other black leaders, especially in the clergy.

LIMBAUGH: Praising Strom Thurmond for calling a gay soldier "not normal": "He's not encumbered by being politically correct.... If you want to know what America used to be--and a lot of people wish it still were--then you listen to Strom Thurmond." (TV show, 9/1/93)

REALITY: In the America that "used to be," Strom Thurmond was one of the country's strongest voices for racism, running for president in 1948 on the slogan, "Segregation Forever."

LIMBAUGH: "There are more American Indians alive today than there were when Columbus arrived or at any other time in history. Does this sound like a record of genocide?" (Told You So, p. 68)

REALITY: According to Carl Shaw of the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs, estimates of the pre-Columbus population of what later became the United States range from 5 million to 15 million. Native populations in the late 19th century fell to 250,000, due in part to genocidal policies. Today the U.S.'s Native American population is about 2 million.

Answer 1

well actually, he's more of a liar than an idiot. i don't think he believes half the nonsense he spews.

however, his listeners are surely idiots.

Answer 2

Abdul said.. ""America has the best health care in the world, I stopped reading there. sorry, but it's bollocks." Yes, we do have the best health care in the world, you need the proof? How about all these people moving here from countries such as your own with such wonderful socialized health care. Why do they come by the droves to receive such below standard health care? I have a friend who married and moved to Scotland, she developed Pneumonia and made three trips to the Emergency Room and every time she would ask them to do an X-ray they denied to give her one and sent her home. Finally, after the 4th trip they took an X-ray and low and behold she had pneumonia, and because of socialized health care ( You know, the kind that Americans are deprived of ) she also had developed lung scarring as a result of the socialized medicine trying to save a buck. After all, when the majority of the people live on welfare and you only have so much money to go around, you just have to make sacrifices. Granted, she could have gone to her regular health care provider.....that is if she wanted to wait 2 weeks to be able to see them, but she would have been dead by then, so she made a trip to the ER.

Answer 3

Well stated. In total agreement. As to steelhwyman, you can't call him and get in two words without him shouting you down and cutting you off. Rush isn't an idiot, he is a very sharp man who uses his skills to advance his party agenda and line his pockets at the same time. HE is the one who uses half truths and innuendo to confuse and obfuscate, as the questioner/poster so perfectly shows. Interesting to note that Rush bemoaned the 'disgraceful, and disgusting lack of respect for the President' that certain democrats had at poking fun at Dubyas' lack of intellect, yet he has insulting nicknames that he frequently uses to describe prominent democrats. And who can forget the "America held hostage' theme to his TV show during the Clinton years? Where was his respect for the office of the President then? I, for one will be happy to see the Bush gang gone back to their corporate world and another Clinton in Washington fixing the mess Bush leaves behind. That's right, I'm talking about the first female President of the United States; Hillary Rodham Clinton! As to Rush, the best way to shut him down is to start a large E-mail campaign to the sponsors of his show saying you'll never purchase their goods or services as long as they support his show. Hit him in the pocketbook.

Answer 4

Not only an idiot but most ill formed person on the planet.
Typical right wing mouth piece who uses half truths to spread his so called news. Of course if you seek to challenge him he will find way to destroy you. One evil man!

Answer 5

Completely!

LOLOLOL steelhwyman said that YOU were using half truth propaganda when talking about RUSH LIMBAUGH.. OMG LOLOLOLOLOL
I literally busted out loud laughing when I read that.

I honestly think all republicans need serious therapy for their level of denial. They are like alcoholics that are blind to truth. In all of your examples, except one, you gave sources. Now, if any SANE and RATIONAL person wants to call that half truths, I will gladly call them a cab to the mental health center.

Good job.

Answer 6

He is wrong most of the time but, he provides up to date figures, and is convincing, there is more treed land now then there was in the 1700's . 5-15 MIL is a large spread of Indians

Answer 7

If one wants to carry $millions to the bank,
BECOME CONTROVERSIAL!
On any side of a subject.

My question is why do people "select" who, or what, they do or do not believe.
Best example, POLITICS.
Can one imagine that process in science or medicine?

Answer 8

YES!
Ever heard of Newton's First Law of Bad Journalism. If you shout a lie long enough and loud enough it becomes the truth.

Answer 9

Didn't the mother of Jesse Jacksons kid, was under age when she could have conceived it? Yes Jesse Jackson is a pedophile.

Answer 10

Wow. He is an absolute idiot.