Rush Limbaugh Is A Big Fat Idiot: Just As Accurate Today

I apologize for the absence the past few days.  What with preparing for spring break and doing a bit of moving it's been a hectic week.  But something has been happening that's been so crappy, and yet unsurprising, that I had to post about it.

We all know that Rush Limbaugh is a big fat idiot.  This isn't just about partisanship--Limbaugh has been intentionally cruel and shocking throughout his entire career to garner listeners.  He's invented the term "feminazi", mocked Michael J. Fox's Parkinson's tremors, and referred to Chelsea Clinton as the "White House dog".  But somehow, Limbaugh has managed to force himself back into public discourse--ad outrage--this week.

At this point, most of you are familiar with the controversy over the birth control pill that has been happening in Congress over the past few weeks.  There was a woman named Sandra Fluke, a Georgetown law student, who testified in front of Congress about the importance of birth control for medical reasons.  There are many medical conditions that utilize birth control as a treatment, and Fluke was there to testify about one of them.  The Blunt Act, which was the bill proposed in Congress that would allow insurance companies to refuse to provide birth control (or any service) if they objected to it morally, did not pass.  But Limbaugh didn't see fit to let things go--in fact, he decided to escalate things to a whole new level.

On Tuesday, Limbaugh called Fluke a "slut" and a "prostitute".   On Thursday, he said that, if she wanted insurance to cover her slutty sluttage (not a direct quote, of course) that she should video herself having sex and post it online for him and everyone else to watch.  It was really the latter comments that really got everyone in defense mode, understandably. 

What Limbaugh has said about this courageous woman is slander, and she could potentially sue.  many will say that he was simply exercising free speech, and that may be legitimate.  That also means that we can fight against it, be it through petitions to his radio station or advertisers or simply spreading the word about what he's done and boycotting his show.  I can honestly only go through so much of being torn down for using something (birth control) that was apparently non-controversial before a month ago before I snap.  And maybe this was the end. 

For the record, both President Obama and the president of Georgetown University have stood up in defense of Fluke.  And that's great.  On the other hand, one of the other women of Georgetown wrote an editorial to tell you that Sandra Fluke does not represent all Georgetown women/skanks.  Glad she solved that one for us, and it's such a productive piece, too!

There are plenty of petitions out there that you can sign.  Limbaugh has issued a weak-ass non-apology and many of his advertisers have pulled out, something I imagine Rush knows plenty about as he's been married four times, has no kids and is against birth control.  Unfortunately, I'm too cynical to think that this will have the desired effect. 

I am so proud, though, that a message has been sent.  We can't keep getting trampled on week after week after week, getting called sluts and whores for using perfectly legal medications and procedures, being pushed back generations in our rights and acceptable behaviors.  We need to push back, and I think that this debacle has been an indication that women (and feminist men) are willing to do that.  Thank God. 

Let's keep pushing, ladies and gentlemen.

Tomorrow I'll have the next installment in my Feminist Relationships series.  I'm sure I will be inundating you with posts this week what with being off.  I'm also working on kind of an epic pet project that will eventually turn itself into an epic post here.  Enjoy your Saturday night, and don't forget, Rush Limbaugh thinks you're a slut, so enjoy that thought.