Culture

Limbaugh: Surely You Didn’t Expect Honesty

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Via Steven Taylor we learn that Rush’s weblog is consistent with the rest of his act.
Apparently his researchers and web builders steal material from others and use it without attribution. The most recent example and an earlier one is noted at Jessica’s Well. Taylor also is a victem.
Kevin Alyward has some action items to which I’d like to add: 1) write a letter to your local paper and 2) call/email other talk shows to discuss Rush’s dishonesty.
I suspect some of his listeners might finally realize that he’s not such a good roll model and quit listening.
Update: See Steven Taylor’s comment below. He point’s out that nothing was taken from his site so my classification of him as a victem is not correct.

Ending the Addiction

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Nope, not drug or alcohol addiction though I suspect Bill Masters, sheriff of San Miguel County, Colorado would support individuals working to end their addiction.
Instead Masters argues that it is time to end the drug war addiction:

“The only reason why drugs and crime have expanded to reach every Mayberry village in the country is our blind obedience to misguided laws and police tactics that just do not work,” Masters writes in his essay introducing the collection. “It is time to admit our own folly and stop our addiction to the drug war.”

What does the drug war addiction cost:

According to research cited in Master’s book The New Prohibition, state and federal authorities spend more than $9 billion a year to imprison close to half a million drug offenders. More people are sent to prison for drug offenses than for violent crimes, a trend that’s been consistent since 1989. The overall cost to the justice system of arresting, convicting, punishing and supervising drug offenders stands at about $70 billion a year.

$70 billion??? I suspect that we could find much better things to do with that money. Including, of course, rehabilitation and retraining for the ex drug war addicts.
The Masters article via Avedon Carol.

Why Listen to Talk Radio?

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Mindles H. Dreck has been listening to Air America and ponders just why it is he listens:

In other news, Garofalo and Seder compared various members of the administration to Nazis, etc. They remain interesting, like the Osbournes are interesting, but unfunny. I do keep listening, for reasons difficult to explain. I guess I get a kick out of hyper-partisan rhetoric. As anti-Howard Stern listeners famously told a pollster – ‘to see what he’ll do next’.

I usually listen to the talk shows only while driving and haven’t been able to spend much time with Air America since they don’t air where I live.
From Mindles’ description, though, it sounds like the Air America jocks may be pretty much the same style as the other jocks, e.g., Limbaugh, Hannity, O’reilly, Medved, Savage, etc. I sometimes get tired of their hyper-partisan rhetoric, misinformation, and perpetual ad hominem arguments but ‘see what he’ll do next’ does seem to bring me back the next day.
Oh, and it can be entertaining on the days that they all seem to be reading from the same script.