What Rush Meant

Anyone who lives at any spot on the political spectrum from middle right all the way over to hard left should pay heed.  This is important. 

Back in 2009, when Limbaugh said he hoped Obama failed, many wrote his comment off as crazy rhetoric from the far Right.  They shouldn't have.  Here's what he meant.  This is so key to understanding where the GOP is just a few months outside of an election.  Liberals, independents, mods, and even right leaning centrists take the following approach to problem identification and solving.  They look at the underlying premises, take into account all various scenarios, and choose the best available solution. 

This is the kind of reasoning that leads men like George H.W. Bush and Ronald Reagan to raise taxes and men such as Obama to cut them.  It's the rationale that causes a dove like Obama to start two wars and assassinate several rogues.  It's what makes Bill Clinton repeal Glass-Steagall, and George W. Bush commence nation building.  I don't think any of these men made it the objective of his presidency to pursue these ends.  They did what they thought needed to be done.  They solved the problems in front of them- sometimes that's the best you can do, even if it creates another problem later.  Limbaugh and his ilk are cut from a different mold. 

They have a core set of bedrock values that they think embody America.  Things like low(er) taxes, extreme social conservatism, and limited government.  They wax nostalgic of the bygone mid 20th Centrury, and how, if we could just return to the way we were, all would be right in our great Union.  Facts, of course, be damned.  Taxes were extremely higher in the era for which they yearn, government much bigger (not to mention the whole segregated drinking fountains, bathrooms, and schools thing).  And, you know, abortion was legal in many states.  These inconvenient pieces of America's past are being stricken from our history books, at least in the minds of the radical right. 

This is where people like Michele Bachman get to making comments about our founding fathers being anti slavery, and Glenn Beck stating that all of them were deeply Christian, and of one accord.  The only way that their narrative about America's "better days" makes any kind of sense is if the lesser aspects of those days ceased to exist.  It's almost as if they want to "take America back" to a better time and place, while bringing along all of the advances we've made since. 

Want to go back in time to when cable was $15 a month- premium included, and you could wire (read: pirate) it to any TV in your house?  Great, but that requires you to also return to a time when not all TVs were color, most households only had one or two of them, and any cable subscription would've had only 35 or so channels.  And the TV you would've watched it on probably cost about $1,000 (in yesterday's money, which is about $2,500 in modern dollars) and was no more than about 20", and you likely needed two people to move it.  That's the thing, though.  You can't return to $15 a month cable and bring the plasma flat screens and DVRs and satellite options and Netflix with you.  You can't do that any more than you can return to a "simpler time and place" without returning to the endless threats of nuclear war, Jim Crow, and all the other inconvenient aspects of the time and place you wish to return to.

This is the problem with "believing" too much in "values".  It can often lead to "forgetting" and "misremembering" (by the way, the last guy who misremembered something is currently being indicted, but, whatever).  The point is that Rush doesn't care if he's wrong.  His people don't care.  When he said he hoped Obama failed, what he really meant was that he hoped Obama's America failed. 

Why would a self proclaimed patriot like Limbaugh say this?  Surely, he's cutting off his nose to spite his face.  The problem with thinking that he's cutting off his nose to spite his face is that it's more in line with the left and center right.  The far right doesn't think this way (neither does the far left, but Rush Limbaugh doesn't belong to them).  These bedrock "values" of theirs, however misplaced or factually bogus, are controlling.  An America that succeeds absent these values is not a "real America".  An America where gays are left alone isn't really America.  An America where money is invested both publicly and privately to accomplish both individual and collective goals isn't "their" America.  These people don't take premises, and based on the premises, select the best solution available.  They start with a solution and a conclusion, and work backwards, trying to make everything fit, in much the same way that one would attempt to jam a square peg into a round hole.

They start with prayer in school, and no abortions ever- even if it means the mother must die, and low taxes.  An America that succeeds in spite of these things is a bad America.  Get that?  These people don't care if they're wrong.  They don't care if they get their way, and everything goes to hell.  (Part of it, is that they believe that if they do all of this stuff that they believe appeases their God, that God will take care of them, because he chose America as the one nation (it's in the Bible, I promise)).  This isn't the point.  Their thought is that, if America must fail, it'll fail this way, and only this way- what they perceive to be the American way- because an America that succeeds some other way also fails because it isn't really America.

Adventures in Donating Bone Marrow, Part III

It's been well over a month since my last post on this.  Since then, not a whole lot has gone on.  They gave me an additional physical, as well as more blood work, and determined that my health is fine.  For those of you who know me, you may find it comical that they found my blood pressure and heart rate to be perfectly normal for an easy going, Type B personality- at least I found it funny, being about as Type A as they come.  They took my blood pressure during yesterday's Chiefs game, right about the time they were down 17-0 and I was throwing things at the screen, only to find that it was 102/72. 

My donation is Wednesday morning, in Denver.  I'll fly out tomorrow evening, and return Thursday evening.  They pay for hotel, transportation, and even things like food and room service- and I'm taking my Dad with me...they pay for him too.

Five days prior to the donation, they start injecting a drug called Filgastrim.  It raises your erythrocyte (red blood cell) count.  It's given subcutaneously (underneathneath your skin, as opposed to in your vein, like an IV, or in your muscle, like a tetanus shot).  I had the choice of taking it in the arm, the stomach, or the leg.  The injection is 2.6 cc, and since you cannot take more than 2 mL (using those interchangably for those who didn't like chem class) in one site.  Thus, I have to take one shot on each side of the body.  I just can't get into taking something in my stomach or leg- it makes me feel like a diabetic or something.  It does give me new respect for people who get tattoos, though.  Anyway, the drug knocks you out.  You're off the wall hyper for like a half hour, and then you need a long nap.  I have one more day of shots before I give. 

I've been told that I'll get to watch the DVD of my choice while giving.  It'll probably be either The Godfather, Part II, or one of the Sex and the City seasons- probably the former.  More updates to follow.