My fiscal conservatism, preference for small government, and moderate social views put me in the “Republican” pigeon hole. I must admit that fits more comfortably than “Democrat” although I think that I rather be thought of as a “Libertarian.” Being a Libertarian is just so much cooler than having to admit that a Perry or Romney is the best we got to offer. Then again, I suppose that being a Libertarian would put me in Ron Paul’s camp and beyond our last name, we share little else. Iran is not a threat? Really? I know Ron Paul wants to decriminalize all drugs; not just weed but all drugs. If he thinks Ahmadinejad is not a threat, maybe Ron has taken a head start on the legal partying thing.
Ok. So I am a Republican. Even registered that way. So why does Rush Limbaugh regularly embarrass me? He is constantly referred to as the mouth piece of the conservative movement and yet, on any given day, I need to turn him off to keep my head from exploding. Today is a good example:
Driving to a doctor appointment from Edison to Summit, NJ, a ride that would normally take 20 minutes, turned into a 75 minute odyssey. Tree after fallen tree conspired to block every road. The detours had detours! Seriously, if I did not have a GPS with me, I would have given up. Even then I doubt I would have been able to find my way home! The mess created by Irene was obvious and with entire towns cut off and shut down, it was clearly more than inconvenience. Of course, the devastation is visible to anyone that just turns on their TV but seeing it first hand, downed power lines and pumps furiously working to clear standing water, is especially disturbing.
However, according to Rush, it is all just some overblown media hype. Apparently, by making the storm seem much worse than it was, and then, presuming a quick and efficient recovery, President Obama can swoop in and take credit for the restoration of normalcy. So, there I was, seeing this devastation with my own eyes while Rush Limbaugh was trying to convince me it was all some Left Wing Conspiracy – just like Global Warming. I must have been hallucinating the deserted and dark town of Westfield. When Rush leapt from one diatribe – claiming that this had all been a purposeful effort to overstate the severity of the storm - to another rant on Carbon Emissions, his ongoing never ending attack on even the remotest possibility that the greenhouse effect could be plausible, I needed to switch off the radio.
I do not blindly accept Global Warming Theories just because Al Gore tells me I should. The science that has gone into the study of Greenhouse gasses and their effect on our planet has been corrupted by private and political interests not to mention ethically challenged scientists who were proven to fudge results to better support their hypothesis. That does not mean that Global Warming is not a real threat! It only means we need real unbiased science to prove out the theories one way or another. Rush Limbaugh is not an expert on the subject any more than he understands meteorology or the real and present danger Irene posed to the North East.
Driving down the street, listening to this guy describe Hurricane Irene as a non-event… he should have been in my car so he could see what I was seeing. Then again, I probably would have thrown him out.
