Limbaugh to NYTimes environment reporter Revkin: "Why don't you just go kill yourself"
Name That Quote
"Everyone can see today that humanity could destroy the foundation of its own existence, its earth, and therefore we can't simply do whatever we want with this earth that has been entrusted to us, what seems to us in a given moment useful or promising, but we have to respect the inner laws of creation, of this earth, we have to learn these laws and obey them if we want to survive. This obedience to the voice of the earth is more important for our future happiness than the voices of the moment, the desires of the moment. … Existence itself, our earth, speaks to us, and we have to learn to listen."
-- Pope Benedict XVI
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While Rush's statement is provocative, as usual, isn't it even more shocking for "serious" people to entertain, if not advocate, aggressive birth control (including, let's be honest, abortion) just to curb carbon emissions? That is, after all, what environmentalist "wackos" all over the world would shove down our throats if they could. I am quite certain that neither Pope Benedict nor any other Pope would accept the "need" to curb carbon emissions as justification for condoning aggressive contraception, let alone abortion.
ReplyDeleteI absolutely agree. When those on the fringe of the environmental movement advocate for population reduction (which we all know what that means) it is more than outrageous. However, the problem has become that many politically conservative Catholics just write off environmentalism as a liberal lie, a tool of the left, etc. When in reality, we are stewards of the earth and must, as Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI have consistently pointed out, do out part to protect and enhance the world we have been given stewardship over. And we certainly do consider it outrageous for Rush Limbaugh to suggest that an environmentalist should "just go kill yourself."
ReplyDelete- Nick Thomm
I thought that Rush was being facetious, with his statement of "go kill yourself." He always says that he illustrates absurdity by being absurd, and I think that's what he was doing here. He made an obviously absurd suggestion (namely that if humans are causing such damage to the environment, then why don't environmentalists kill themselves) in order to illustrate the absurdity of many environmentalists.
ReplyDeleteI once was proud to consider myself an environmentalist. I am in favor of things like laws to protect clean water and clean air, preserving national forests and national parks, finding clean and economical sources of energy, etc.
But in the past 20 years or so, much of the environmentalist movement has been taken over by radicals, many of whom really do think that the earth would be better off if the human population were drastically reduced. I think that Rush is merely pointing out the absurdity of this line of thought -- namely that these radical environmentalists want population reduction in order to protect the environment, but none of them are volunteering to be first in line to be "reduced" (and for obvious reasons of course). :-)
Rush limbaugh is an obscene vulgar buffoon.His recent sexual remaks about nancy pelosi,as well as his many in the past, should shame any catholic into never having anything to do with him.But,his love of the military war machine you as well as his hatred towards the bush owned obama,makes you turn a blind eye to his gutter humour...Elliot
ReplyDeleteWhat I find orders of magnitude more obscene than Rush's antics is how the Catholic Church in America can "turn a blind eye" to CINOs like Kennedy, Pelosi, Kerry, etc., who have exchanged the lives of untold millions of babies for money, political power, and all of the corrupt pleasures that come from that (see Kennedy's bio, for example). I guess as long these politicians keep the collection plate filled, it's ok to continue to "associate" with them, huh?
ReplyDeleteJudging by Elliot's comment above (as just one example), my own humble opinion is that Rush's detractors take his comments much more seriously than his regular listeners do.
ReplyDeleteAnd in a way, I can't blame them. If I heard some random radio host who I had never heard before inviting an environmentalist to go kill himself, I would say that the comment was way out of line too.
But when Rush says it, I hear that comment within the context of Rush's particular brand of dry humor, as well as everything he has said in the past about environmentalism. And thus I don't for a moment think he is serious, or that the typical Rush listener thinks he is serious.
Perhaps I'm wrong, but that's my take. :-)
I'm only glad my idol the late great john paul the 2nd is not alive to see the love affair american/protestant/republican catholics have with the republican war machine he pleaded to end.All innocent life is sacred,not only american babies,but the millions of innocents tthe war machibne has killed in iraq.
ReplyDeleteSorry, Elliot, but the body count is not in your favor, not by... oh, I'd say quite a few millions. The fact is that the left's "genocidal war machine", the abortion mill, has been deadlier and more effective than probably all the wars the US has been in combined!
ReplyDeleteI agree with Paul H. I do listen to Rush on a regular basis. I listened to the clip and noted that it was from Media Matters, the ultra liberal group sponsored by George Soros. That being said, it made sense that they would have just a snippet of what Rush said so that it could easily be taken out of context, just as people here have taken it out of context.
ReplyDeleteI bet Rush said, " Just to show you how absurd these people are (..these 'militant' environmentalists), Let me give you an absurd analogy.. (inset above audio snippet here)"
Rush does this all the time to make a point.
Furthermore, I do think we are called to be protectors of the earth but we cannot give personhood to the earth therefore even raising it above the unborn children that are being slaughtered by our own government.
Sorry annonymous.it shouldn't be about body count.Im a pro-lifer too.And certainly not a liberal.But the body count is far closer then you think.Since 1991,despite the pleadings of john paul,we have killed millions of innocents in Iraq.The controlled media distorts the figures.The pro-death catholic media monguls like the terribly deceived Raymond arroyo,and his friend al kresta play right along. They have even worse plans in store for the innocents in Iran.John bolton,poor raymonds new hero,can't wait too drop nuclear bombs on millions of innocent in Iran.Try to consider the sancity of all human life,not just american unborn.The obscene rush limbaugh,even though he is a great comedian,should be off limits to any serious catholic. elliot
ReplyDeleteElliott: your last post is more revealing and illuminating than anything else I could add. There is really no point in going further.
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ReplyDeleteElliot,
ReplyDeleteThe population of Iraq is estimated to be a little bit over 31 million. This would mean that for your statement to be accurate we would have to be killing 1.2 million a year so over 7 years that would be 8.4 million which is approximately 1/4 of the population, and this assumes that every single person killed is innocent.
Have you ever met or talked to a service-man or service woman who served a duty in Iraq? If you have you will certainly understand that they are people that would not stand for mass murder of innocents by their hands. My brother is one such person and he is an honest and caring person which is the common thread of people in the military. The only possible way for your proposed murder of innocents to be accurate is that each and every service men day in and day out would have to try to kill as many innocent people in Iraq as possible, but sorry this just does not line up with direct testimony of my friends and family that have served duties over there.
We all believe that the Catholic church is founded on truth....perhaps you should try to find some regarding the real story of what is going on in Iraq. Talk to someone who has actually been there.
You are not fighting for freedom.And you are certainly not doing anything catholic by being part of an invading war machine that blitz bombs,blockades and tortures.All of which is contrary to the sentiments of the late great john paul the second.He was the vicar of christ,and even though issues of war and torture are non-dogmatic,it would be a great act of charity to lay down your nationalistic pride and be a person of peace.Try to consider that saddam,osama,etc,where all once friends of the republicans.We at one time armed and trained them to fight after other created enemies.It,s a game they play.Whipping up phoney patriotic zeal,and keeping their companies which profit from war growing.When you get to heaven,tell john paul how screwed up he was for trying to convince the bush boys to stay out of iraq. elliot
ReplyDeleteThere does seem to be one group of people for whom it's OK to ask the question "Why don't you just go kill yourself?"
ReplyDeleteWay back on October 15, 2007, Al interviewed Dinesh D'souza, author of What's So Great About Christianity? During the top of the hour prologue, before the interview, Al considered playing the role of an atheist. Here's what he said:
"I'm trying to figure out if I'm gonna play -- if I'm going to do a little role playing. I'll play the atheist for the interview. I'm not sure if I can pull this off, but I'm inclined to give it a shot. It's just, you know, half way through the argument, you start to lose heart, and you realize that if atheism were true, it's certainly not worth arguing about. It's something worth just going off into a corner and dying over. So it's hard to maintain the enthusiasm about atheism."
More recently, on September 9, 2009, Al interviewed former (contented) atheist Jennifer Fulwiler. Here's what Jennifer had to say about her atheist days:
"One thing that I kind of eventually came to, per what you were saying earlier is, I would often ask atheist friends, and this sounds like a terrible question, but it was a very urgent question for me: 'Why shouldn't we all just kill ourselves right now?' I mean, if our whole lives are going to be multiplied by zero at the end anyway. You know, sure, it would upset our family members. But they're going to die too."
I also recently heard another Christian (I can't remember who) yearn for the dreary atheism of Existentialists like John Paul Sartre. He's upset with today's shallow new happy atheism. Atheists have no business living happy and fulfilled lives.
For goodness sake, trying to reason with the self-canonized Elliotts of the world is a tragic waste of time. Don't you see it?
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