Smears and skidmarks

It turns out what Rush Limbaugh did by calling Georgetown law student, Sandra Fluke, a nasty name may not only be misogynistic and in horrible taste, it may be illegal. That would make him a criminal and an asshole. According to the Huffington Post:

Gloria Allred, the famed celebrity lawyer, sent a letter to the Palm Beach County Attorney's Office on Thursday saying prosecutors should consider a charge under an 1883 law making it a misdemeanor to question a woman's chastity.

Yes, that Gloria Allred. It's not illegal to spew bullshit from a radio microphone, or a megaphone, as long as it doesn't sully someone's reputation. That would be slander, which is a civil matter. Satire is not slander. That's why comedian Bill Maher is allowed to call Sarah Palin a "dumb twat," because it does not imply any sort of specific behavior. He doesn't attempt to present any evidence of her dumbtwatness, doesn't implore us to see her and think, "Now, there goes one dumb twat." It's just his personal assessment of her demeanor. But calling a woman a slut implies a specific kind of behavior, one engaged in by women of loose morals and low character, a purposefully twisted conclusion based on her truthful and sincere testimony to a Congressional committee, and that is where Rush messed up. He went too far because he gorged himself on the lumps of fat that pass for brains among Right Wing extremists. When one feeds at the trough of ignorance, bigotry and intolerance, one extrudes excrement of hate, derision and superiority. It's what his audience wants. The problem is, he forgot that what he says doesn't stay in in his EIB bubble, that the public's airwaves are, by their nature, an open system. It may be intended for a limited, shit-for-brains audience, but people who actually understand the meaning of language and speech hear it too. It's no accident, then, that politicians who reach for the same audience as Rush have engaged in similar vitriol. It's why they can't bring themselves to declare that there's no doubt about President Obama's citizenship or religion (not that the latter should matter at all). It's also why Rick Santorum can assert that the president is "a snob" for encouraging a system that enables higher education. His wife called him on that, though. It's not Christian, you see, to call someone a snob. "The snob comment did not go over very well," Santorum said, relating his wife, Karen's, dissatisfaction in an interview with CNN's Piers Morgan, "And she reminded me, you know, it's snobbish. You can say it was a snobbish thing to say, but don't call him a snob." So Obama isn't a snob, see? He just engaged in snobbish behavior by saying a snobbish thing. I wonder if he took that into the confessional. "Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned. I called the President of the United States a snob, when I should have said he said a snobbish thing. I also said a beloved, assassinated, Catholic president gave a speech that made me want to throw up." "I can prescribe penitence, son," the priest might have replied. "I'll accept it, humbly," Santorum would say. "But I can't prescribe a prophylactic, Rick -" "I know," the candidate then interrupts, "I've taken a strong stand in that regard. "Let me finish, boy. I can't prescribe a prophylactic," the priest repeats, "which is too bad, because you need one for your mouth." Maybe Rush can spare that condom he's always slipping over his microphone. Not sure why he does that, though. Maybe it's protection for when he shoves it up his bung hole so we can hear him talking out of his ass. Now, that would be video worth putting online. -PBG