Here's the thing: if I tell you "That guy just called me fat!  That's absurd!" and I spent like an hour telling you about how I was not fat, what would you believe of me?  Would you think that I was, in fact, fat?  I mean, you would almost have to, wouldn't you?

The appropriate response - if you don't want people to start thinking that you are fat - is simply to say "That guy just called me fat, which is pretty funny, because I weigh less than a hundred pounds."  And then to move on.

(I weigh more than a hundred pounds, by the way.  Just throwing that out as an example.)

Instead what we have is a very puzzling diatribe, a mishmash of defensive racism talk which does nothing to dispel the impression that Rush Limbaugh is a racist (which his past quotes provide ample evidence for, by the way) and give us much cause to wonder if he has gone back to the painkillers.  I had to read this article three times just to figure out what point he was trying to make.

This effort was hampered by the fact that it's kind of impossible, in a written transcript, to tell if Rush is being sarcastic or not.  When he says of Kanye West "we are in the midst of a charismatic brilliance here that is difficult to absorb in one setting," that has to be sarcastic, right?  

Part of the problem is that I sincerely doubt that Rush Limbaugh has the slightest idea who Kanye West is, or what he does, or anything about whether or not he is brilliant.  I'm sure that as far as Rush knows, Kanye West is just the guy who called George Bush a racist, back during the Katrina debacle.

So here is the line of reasoning which I am able to tease out of the "HURF DURF REVERSE RACISM" in this collection of transcripts: if I (Rush Limbaugh) criticize Obama's actions, you call me a racist.  But when everyone else criticizes Kanye West's actions, you do not call them a racist, and that is unfair.

Well, the day that Barack Obama stumbles drunk onstage, snatches the microphone from an adorable nineteen year old ingénue, and tells the world that she didn't deserve to win her award - and Rush Limbaugh criticizes this - and people call him a racist?  Sure.  I'm fine with that.

The problem is that Barack Obama hasn't done anything LIKE what Kanye did.  Not even close.  In fact in many cases Rush has criticized Obama for things that Rush THINKS Obama will do.  How is that fair?  And what Rush misses is that we (i.e. the rest of the world) hear this particular high pitched freaked out tone in his voice, and that's what makes us think "racism" more than anything else.  (Well, that and the part about how Rush is nostalgic for the days of slavery, because "at least the streets were safe at night.)

All I can say is, Rush, do yourself a favor and DROP IT.