Just heard on the news........

Do you air your dirty laundry to strangers?

I'm saying no such thing, and if you read Rush's statement, HE said no such thing either.

I never saw him on Monday Night Football, probably because he was on a Sunday ESPN program. I doubt he appeared to be a "druggie" because if he didn't seem off doing fifteen hours of live call-in radio a week, I doubt he would have problems holding it together for that show.

Have you known anyone addicted to painkillers who WASN'T an addict of other drugs? There's a big difference.

My bad.

In my enthusiasm to illustrate Rush's erratic behavior I confused ESPN with ABC.

One has to wonder why such an intelligent man would make such an obvious gaffe. Could it have been his self aggrandizing ego? I give him more credit than that. Was it the drugs then?

Then Mr. Limbaugh gave his explanation for exactly why he believed Donovan McNabb had been overrated to begin with. Basically, he felt that the media covering professional football conspired to praise McNabb and position him on a pedestal he had not earned. The reason for this conspiracy was that they wanted a black quarterback to succeed in the NFL, never mind that there already were several successful black quarterbacks. According to Limbaugh, the Eagles success (making it to two consecutive NFC championship games and counting) was due exclusively to the prowess of their defense.
I will not bother to counter the stupidity of this opinion, because an overwhelming amount of evidence to the contrary is already contained in statistics kept by the NFL, and plenty of others have already ripped into Rush, causing him to resign from his job at ESPN before the network would be forced to fire him.

imagine my exasperation when I realized I had to give you props on a football reference. LOL

I'll have to turn in my Hines Ward jersey

Props?

I know full well what you are referring to. I've never heard anyone but a fringe whacko (sorry) attribute that incident to his being a ''druggie''. Many sober commentators were in agreement with Rush. Is Bryant Gumbel a druggie? How else to explain his "stupid" comment about blacks in the Winter Olympics? C'mon!

on the news. I don't watch sports because they are mostly stoopid.

Rush gave his opinion and sa lot of politically correct idiots threw a big hissy fit. Talk about making a big deal about nothing. Maybe THEY were all on drugs (I'm sure some of them were).

How that's relevant to the topic at hand is beyond me. You are really stretching.

It is only an obvious gaffe to your liberal mind. It it had been a mistake, he would have said so.

drug offenders. In fact, that's a cornerstone of your posts. Please provide the links that show this to be true.

I'll be waiting with interest to read them.

Yet I feel a great deal of compassion for them, partly because I am one. Something I've rarely shared with anyone is that as a teenager I was deeply into cocaine. Being an addict doesn't end when you stop using. It's now 20 years since I used that drug and I still get cravings, particularly when I eat certain foods. This is followed by a bout of severe depression. I broke the law, no question of it. I make no excuses for my behavior, no one forced me to start, I did that to myself. I know how hard it is to stop and I feel certain that without treatment, and the prayers of many, and the vast support network of family and friends I might not have made it. Rush has a long hard fight ahead of him that won't end until his time on this earth is done. The same for your boy, the same for my neighbor's daughter, especially as her drug of choice was the same as mine. My prayers are with us all.

I even have some sympathy for those who push or do other crimes to support their habit. They too are suffering, even as they continue the suffering of others. But no matter how deeply addicted one is, the person always has a choice, to continue using or to try to stop and seek help. In my opinion neither I nor anyone else can be excused for the times help was available and refused, or for eachday that I did not try to stop.

I have no sympathy for the pushers who are not users themselves.

So then I see drug crime not in the black and white of either you did or did not do it, but in the graduated degree.

Then too their are addicts to currently legal substances like caffeine and nicotine. I am also an addict of these. One day without coffee is followed by 3 days of blinding migraines during withdrawl. And you should see how twitchy I get from just a few hours without nicotine. An yet, for all that I am not yet willing to try to beat those two.

So I'm still an addict.

If a person is "addicted" and gets the pills "legally" how/why does the police/court get involved?

That's what I'm talking about.

He may be taking responsibility for being addicted , but not for "doctor shopping" and as such he is not taking FULL responsibility.

needlessly.

He took responsibility for his addiction. That is sufficient. No reason to also require him to indict himself too.

being "addicted" is not a criminal offense.

What the person does, to feed the addiction, is the offense.

If a person finds a doctor that will provide a prescription to keep the addict happy. There's no problem with the justice system.

I didn't say he was stupid, I said he is not taking FULL responsibility for his addiction ( which brought him to the attention of the justice system).

you have achieved an inability to read. I know Rush doesn't spend any time on Canadian politics. Why do you insist on inserting your comments into what is an essentially American conversation?

Because I can/did?

Why did you ask?

Why do you care, if my response/opinion means nothing to you?

I'm asking, but I really don't care.

click on 'next unread message', and it's a subject which is not related in any way to Canada.

Just as you do not care what I think, I don't really care what you think either. That's why I'm objecting to the gratuitous posts. I thought that much would be obvious.

And you make many posts on religious subjects, I guess you came from church, and are making mulitple posts "spreading joy and happiness"

of drug abusers was largely a part of the classic denial that comes with addiction, abuse, criminal activity, etc. Rush or other ''celebs'' are no different than anyone else other than being in the public eye which gives them great visibility. It's quite easy to find well known who abuse their celebrity status and betray the public who pay their salaries.

... came from before he even had back pain, let alone addiction Steven.

Evie

seeming hypocracy. It's about his quite overt politcal bent. It's about toppling someone elses "king" by using shame rather than sword.

Unless I misunderstood what you said, you seemed to be adding to it (uncharacteristically) with armchair psychoanalysis of his attituded about addiction.

It's obviously true that only those that have ever been addicted can truly know what it is like. But it is also true that the addicted are the least able to objectively evaluate their situations and what is best for them.

Evie

first post in this sub you will see I mentioned a citing that 36 million people in the US have abused drugs at least once. This means Rush is not unique by any measure. He's just very visible and even more vocal. I suspect he was in a state of denial during his time of addiction...and denial does not failure to own up to a problem publicly so much as it does to actively supress it in your own mind. Of course this is still no excuse. He should be treated in the legal system like any other person regardless of his notoriety. But, on the street and in the press, the central issue will be related to his political bent rather than his crime. His political supporters will line up in support and political enemies will have no mercy. If this was Ted Kennedy or John Kerry, the mirror would do a reverse. Rush also comes off as too much of an egomaniac, IMO. I'm not sure how much of this is really him and how much is just his idea of showmanship.

He should have just marched himself off to jail. I think you should advocate the same for Bill and Hillary Clinton. However, I know you use a different standard for those you like and agree with.

is that you never heard Bill rant against infidelity repeatedly in the media.

My reference to Bill and Monica had nothing to do with Hillary. If your trying to throw Whitewater in here all I can say is that issue has seen its day in court and it's done with. But as I said, the conservative agenda will drag that on for years.

In 18 months Rush's legal problems will be done as well. Lets hope his drug problems will be over as well, Inshallah.

about how honest he was, and about how he was going to bring integrity back into government. He also did a lot of ranting, and still does to some extent, about how dishonest his political opponents, including the elder Bush, are.

You hide behind courts when it comes to Bill and Hillary, but castigate such tactics when its Rush. THAT, is hypocracy.

is far different from what one feels is right and wrong emotionally and morally. I made no attempt to make this differentiation when it comes to Rushes legal status.

If you want to start throwing around words like hypocrisy then I will say... Yes. Rush is a hypocrite when he advocates throwing the book at addicts considering he himself is an addict and probably has purchased drugs under illegal circumstances.

Rush will not be LEGALLY in the clear until he completes 18 months more of drug rehab.

"You hide behind courts when it comes to Bill and Hillary, but castigate such tactics when its Rush. THAT, is hypocracy."... Boy KP, you always have to take it to a personal level don't you? I've been really refraining from this sort of talk, why can't you?

morality. They were very illegal. You seem to want Rush to fess up and go to jail insisting that it's obvious that he's guilty. This in spite of a lack of evidence to say that he is. At the same time, you use the opposite line of reasoning to defend your buddies.

If the shoe fits, wear it. You brought the word into this discussion.

use the word in my original post that you responded to and I certainly did not call you a hypocrite as you did me.

As I said before KP... I have been making a real effort to be polite to you.

then tell me that you weren't calling Rush a hypocrit.

the thing that irks me re: Rush and his addiction to pain killers is his record of condemning drug addicts in the past along with advocating prosecution in lieu of treatment versus his making light of his own situation.

Where I come from, if it looks like a duck, and walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, folks call it a duck.

Also, we learn early that when you walk in the tar, some of it is going to stick to you.

"This isn't about the media"

How can this not be about the media. We are talking about a political pundit who has publicly claimed that he was being charged because his ideas couldn't be defeated in the public arena so he was being attacked through legal means instead.

As soon as Rush said that... he pulled the "Conservative Media" card. Your saying it's not about the media when Rush already claimed it was solely about that.