Rush Limbaugh has cancer

[Rhyta]

I used to listen to him back in the early 90s. I can't recall the last time I did. Frankly, I preferred some of the guest hosts to his program.

 

That said, I suspect everyone knows someone who has battled cancer. It might win quickly, it might win slowly, and some (but not many) people do beat it. In all but the smallest number of cases, it nonetheless puts a person through hell. I like 99.99% of the people who post regularly on this site. I simply won't believe that there is ANYONE in that majority who truly thinks that ANYONE who isn't a murderer or the like deserves to be diagnosed with cancer.

 

In 2008 I was in Chicago visiting my sister for July 4th. We had a small party planned; when we learned that Sen. Jesse Helms had kicked the bucket that day, we incorporated his departure into the party theme. We even had a "Jesse Helms Deathday Cake" with his name, birth and death dates, and "Good Riddance" hastily scribbled in icing on top.

 

Petty, yes, but I still don't feel guilty about that. Helms was a hateful, odious carbon-based life form. Nothing Limbaugh has ever said or done even approaches the viciousness Helms espoused.

 

That said, I can't think offhand of anyone I'd wish death or even cancer on, even my boyfriend's ex-wife. She's irksome and certainly expended a lot of effort trying to make his life hell, but then again she's pathological and a junkie to boot, so nothing she did was entirely unexpected.

 

Your point about Helms makes mine though, I think. Subjectively, you distinguish between them. I'm sure others with a different political bent might think they're equally bad or good. That's why, for me, someone would have to actually do something truly horrifying to warrant saying something to the effect of, "I'm glad they got a disease that caused them to waste away." Not trying to be over-dramatic, but cancer's different for me than saying you're glad someone who pissed you off and took your parking spot tripped over a curb..

 

Helms had a meanness to him that I haven't ever noticed in Limbaugh. Sure, lots of people get butthurt over things he says, but that's on them because he isn't deliberately cruel.

 

Case in point: Helms was on an elevator one day with a black Congresswoman (name escapes me). He told her he was "going to sing Dixie until I make you cry". He was deliberately cruel and loved to cloak himself in flag and Bible. Obviously North Carolinians found him somewhat tolerable, due probably in no small part to his loyalty to the state's tobacco industry.

 

Carol Moseley-Braun.

 

Robert Byrd was a Klansman, and used the "n word" in an interview given sometime within the last 20 years. Neither man would have been welcome in my home. But I guess my point is not liking a person or their politics is different in kind, not degree, from saying their being diagnosed with cancer is a good thing.

 

Byrd is a (thankfully) distant relative of mine. When I found that out I said something to the effect of, "oh great, like it's not embarrassing enough to live in Georgia!"

I have relatives in Georgia on my mother's side and I love them but I don't agree with them on most things so I can relate to your comment.

[Mara]

I used to listen to him back in the early 90s. I can't recall the last time I did. Frankly, I preferred some of the guest hosts to his program.

 

That said, I suspect everyone knows someone who has battled cancer. It might win quickly, it might win slowly, and some (but not many) people do beat it. In all but the smallest number of cases, it nonetheless puts a person through hell. I like 99.99% of the people who post regularly on this site. I simply won't believe that there is ANYONE in that majority who truly thinks that ANYONE who isn't a murderer or the like deserves to be diagnosed with cancer.

 

In 2008 I was in Chicago visiting my sister for July 4th. We had a small party planned; when we learned that Sen. Jesse Helms had kicked the bucket that day, we incorporated his departure into the party theme. We even had a "Jesse Helms Deathday Cake" with his name, birth and death dates, and "Good Riddance" hastily scribbled in icing on top.

 

Petty, yes, but I still don't feel guilty about that. Helms was a hateful, odious carbon-based life form. Nothing Limbaugh has ever said or done even approaches the viciousness Helms espoused.

 

That said, I can't think offhand of anyone I'd wish death or even cancer on, even my boyfriend's ex-wife. She's irksome and certainly expended a lot of effort trying to make his life hell, but then again she's pathological and a junkie to boot, so nothing she did was entirely unexpected.

 

Your point about Helms makes mine though, I think. Subjectively, you distinguish between them. I'm sure others with a different political bent might think they're equally bad or good. That's why, for me, someone would have to actually do something truly horrifying to warrant saying something to the effect of, "I'm glad they got a disease that caused them to waste away." Not trying to be over-dramatic, but cancer's different for me than saying you're glad someone who pissed you off and took your parking spot tripped over a curb..

 

Helms had a meanness to him that I haven't ever noticed in Limbaugh. Sure, lots of people get butthurt over things he says, but that's on them because he isn't deliberately cruel.

 

Case in point: Helms was on an elevator one day with a black Congresswoman (name escapes me). He told her he was "going to sing Dixie until I make you cry". He was deliberately cruel and loved to cloak himself in flag and Bible. Obviously North Carolinians found him somewhat tolerable, due probably in no small part to his loyalty to the state's tobacco industry.

 

Carol Moseley-Braun.

 

Robert Byrd was a Klansman, and used the "n word" in an interview given sometime within the last 20 years. Neither man would have been welcome in my home. But I guess my point is not liking a person or their politics is different in kind, not degree, from saying their being diagnosed with cancer is a good thing.

 

Byrd is a (thankfully) distant relative of mine. When I found that out I said something to the effect of, "oh great, like it's not embarrassing enough to live in Georgia!"

I have relatives in Georgia on my mother's side and I love them but I don't agree with them on most things so I can relate to your comment.

 

Alabama, South Carolina, and Mississippi are the only states keeping Georgia from being the absolute cultural and educational nadir of the US.

[apetersvt]

I guess he can have all the opioids he wants now!

 

Never really listened to him, but he turned me sour on his drug stance. What a f'ing hypocrite. Wanted pot smokers in jail. But I guess his opioid addiction is no big deal. Which of the two substances ruin lives (I know criminal records ruin lives, referring to the substances themselves) ??? Dumbass.

[JohnRogers]

WTF is this doing outside of SOCN?

[Fordgalaxy]

I'd guess either it was in error or the originator thinks of him as a journalist, which technically he is.