Every time something less than tropical heat hits the news, you can guarantee that Rush will be gloating over it.  And so he has, in the wake of the freakish pair of snowstorms that hit the Eastern Seaboard over the last week.  "Where's Al Gore?"  Rush demands, as if Gore has somehow gone to ground in shame.

Here's the funny thing: everyone else, even people who don't believe in climate change, know that this is a stupid thing to say.  Aside from the known idiots, those who pride themselves on their idiocy, know that "global warming" doesn't necessarily mean "everything gets hotter all the time."  

In fact, I have found myself in several conversations recently which follow an identical path:

Dork: Where's that global warming now?  HA HA.

Me: Well, that's why they call it "climate change" now.  The warming refers to the temperatures of the oceans, and the global temperature overall.  It can definitely cause weather oddities - like crazy-ass amounts of snow.

Dork: Well yeah, I know, but it's funny to say.  [shuffles feet]

Even the people making the joke confess that they know it's a dumb thing to say!  So why do they keep saying it?  For the same reason, I suspect, that people keep making the "Got Milk" reference, some 20 years after the original campaign.  It's stupid and un-funny, but it's an easy joke to make.  Got Dumb?  Yes, yes you do.

The problem is that Rush is pretty much obliged to make the same stupid joke every time.  But unlike most people who scoff and then admit that they aren't idiots, and they know it's just a stupid joke, Rush keeps pushing the point.  His aggressive idiocy in failing to understand what climate change means is, quite frankly, a little bit frightening.

In a weird way, it reminds me of that one old uncle you have who refuses to wear a seatbelt.  Because you can get trapped by a seatbelt if your car flips upside down into a lake!  IT CAN TRAP YOU.  So he drives merrily about town unrestrained.  And is eventually ejected from his car during an otherwise minor collision.

You have to be pretty stubborn and boneheaded not to wear a seatbelt.  Or at least to give a bizarre answer like, "In this one weird and specific circumstance, seatbelts can make it worse."  I don't understand why people can't just say "I don't like to wear it" and leave it at that.  Instead people make up long complicated weirdo answers that just make them look dumb.

The same force is at work with Rush's climate change denial and stupid snow jokes.  He doesn't like climate change because A) it comes from a scientific perspective, and that's his least favorite kind, and B) it's a cause that's being championed by the liberals (who actually care about the planet).  They could be railing against the fact that Rush Limbaugh's feet were on fire, and he'd still feel obliged to pretend that he liked his feet on fire, thankyouverymuch, and who are you to demand that my feet not be on fire?

Creative Commons-licensed photo courtesy of Flickr user johnivara