Unhinged indeed
Tuesday, December 06, 2005
John McKay at archy directs us to a recent piece of lunacy -- eliminationist lunacy, of course -- from the ol' OxyCon artist himself, Rush Limbaugh:
- (Quoting from an AP report) "Aljazeera has broadcasted an insurgent video today, shows four peace activists taken hostage in Iraq, with a previously unknown group claiming responsibility for the kidnappings. The unknown group is the Swords of Righteousness Brigade, and they said the four were spies working undercover as Christian peace activists, according to Aljazeera. Aljazeera said that it could not verify any of the information on the tape. The aid group Christian Peacemaker Teams has confirmed that four of its members were taken hostage on Saturday...."
[P]art of me that likes this. And some of you might say, "Rush, that's horrible. Peace activists taken hostage." Well, here's why I like it. I like any time a bunch of leftist feel-good hand-wringers are shown reality. So here we have these peace activists over there. I don't care if they're Christian or not.
[...]
Yeah, as warped as these people are, you know they're going to blame Bush for this... They wouldn't have been kidnapped because they wouldn't have been there in the first place if Bush hadn't gone and caused the war and created all these terrorists. I mean, these people are liberals, they're warped. Well, I mean, that's why there's -- I'm telling you, folks, there's a part of me that likes this. Probably, even with this, though, you know, they're not going to see the light of day. They're not going to -- I know, let them take me out of context. I don't care anymore.
Once upon a time, the remaining few shreds of basic decency on the right -- you know, those folks who actually think it's wrong to openly wish for the deaths of your fellow Americans just because they think differently than you -- would have risen up to denounce this kind of talk.
And, as John points out, only recenly we've had assurances from none other than Michelle Malkin that conservatives do stand up and denounce such instances of genuine extremism with great regularity:
 - "[T]he truth is that it's conservatives themselves who blow the whistle on their bad boys and go after the real extremism on their side of the aisle."
"... And while conservatives zealously police their own ranks to exclude extremists and conspiracy theories, extremism and conspiracy theories have become the driving force of the Democrat Party.
"It is in fact conservatives who are very outspoken in condemning fringe people, and people who are extremists on the right side of the aisle."
Sure. That would explain why we likewise have heard so much condemnation from conservatives rgarding the recent outbreak of extraordinary lunacy from so many of its most prominent figures, especially Bill O'Reilly:
- Hey, you know, if you want to ban military recruiting, fine, but I'm not going to give you another nickel of federal money. You know, if I'm the president of the United States, I walk right into Union Square, I set up my little presidential podium, and I say, "Listen, citizens of San Francisco, if you vote against military recruiting, you're not going to get another nickel in federal funds. Fine. You want to be your own country? Go right ahead."
And if Al Qaeda comes in here and blows you up, we're not going to do anything about it. We're going to say, look, every other place in America is off limits to you, except San Francisco. You want to blow up the Coit Tower? Go ahead.
And then there was this:
- These pin-heads running around going, "Get out of Iraq now" don't know what they are talking about. These are the same people before Hitler invaded in WWII that were saying, "He's not such a bad guy.' They don't get it.
And conspiracy theories? O'Reilly's been peddling those, too.
- There's a very secret plan. And it's a plan that nobody's going to tell you, "Well, we want to diminish Christian philosophy in the U.S.A. because we want X, Y, and Z." They'll never ever say that. But I'm kind of surprised they went after Christmas because it's such an emotional issue.
Of course, O'Reilly hasn't been alone. Among the other prominent right-wingers going completely off the deep end, Ann Coulter has a category all her own:
- "The Democrats are giving aid and comfort to the enemy for no purpose other than giving aid and comfort to the enemy. There is no plausible explanation for the Democrats' behavior other than that they long to see U.S. troops shot, humiliated, and driven from the field of battle.
"They fill the airwaves with treason, but when called to vote on withdrawing troops, disavow their own public statements. These people are not only traitors, they are gutless traitors."
"This is no different from the prosecutor going after Rush Limbaugh and every ruling that comes out goes against the prosecutor. This is just going -- they want it to be against the law to be a Republican, and they would like us in Guantánamo."
Hoo boy! Such wackery! And of course, those sane, cooler heads -- the voices of decency and anti-extremism among the ranks of conservatives -- are rising up against this kind of talk en masse.
Right?
Right?
[Crickets chirp interminably.]
Well, that's OK. We can wait.
1:14 PM
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