A new low . . . Rush must be so proud

Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, but usually not in the mad, mad world of right-wing radio blatherer Rush Limbaugh.

In fact, in Rush's world of daily three-hour doses of paranoia and misanthropy, an earthquake isn't even just an earthquake. . . . Whoops! That's another never-ending acid trip altogether -- Pat Robertson's.

Actually, in Rush's never-ending acid trip (although I concede that he could be juicing his cigars with PCP instead), earthquake relief isn't just earthquake relief. No, in the sad existence of this self-made man with his own self-made broadcasting dystopia, the United States sending desperately needed earthquake relief to Haiti -- the poor man of the Western Hemisphere -- isn't just about being a decent neighbor.

NOR IS IT about America's sputtering efforts, randomly undertaken, at living up to its defining myth.

Instead, it's about President Obama trying to suck up to his fellow black folk.


YOU CAN'T make up that kind of crazy. From The Raw Story this morning:

"In the Haiti earthquake, ladies and gentleman, in the words of Rahm Emanuel, 'we have another crisis simply too good to waste,'" the conservative talk show host remarked. "This will play right into Obama's hands, humanitarian, compassionate."

"They'll use this to burnish their, shall we say, credibility with the black community, in the light-skinned and black-skinned community in this country," Limbaugh added. "It's made to order for them. That's why he could not wait to get out there. Could not wait to get out there."

This isn't the first time Limbaugh has found himself in troubled waters over racial comments.

Last September, Limbaugh made brash comments following an incident in which a white student was beaten by black students on a bus (an incident police later said wasn't racial motivated).

“I think not only it was racism, it was justifiable racism," he remarked. "I mean, that’s the lesson we’re being taught here today. Kid shouldn’t have been on the bus anyway. We need segregated buses — it was invading space and stuff. This is Obama’s America.”

A LONG TIME AGO, I concluded that listening to Rush Limbaugh not only was as intellectually and morally damaging as listening to 50-Cent for three hours a day, but indeed was a near occasion of sin. For everybody.

It's nice of Mr. Limbaugh to keep offering up assurances that I was correct in my judgment.