Rush Limbaugh Defecates On the Dead, And Eats Them

Someone got bored, and the World TV channel heats up. Not in a good way. It's seems a bit odd to see an earthquake doing major devastation in this hemisphere to those who can bare it the least, and that is what we have. Haiti has a truly vivid history, a historical history even, what with their struggles against Napoleon and slavery and powers great and greater. It was even odder to see such a devastating quake hit the island of Hispaniola and leave the Dominican Republic largely unaffected. You just imagine that if something hits the one and devastates, the other two thirds of the island should take a hit as well.

We made an attempt in our classroom (on Wednesday or so) to focus some attention in that direction, asking the kids a hypothetical question about what they would do for Haiti if they were the president of the Dominican Republic. The answers ranged from immediate and broad assistance to some rather "let them pull themselves up from the rubble by their cold, bloody, bootstraps" tough talk (from an 11 year old). With important Haitian officials dead, the question of who does what, and who imposes some order, is important.

Its effects were greatly magnified, said the UN, because the earthquake hit a densely populated capital city rather than a remote rural area, devastating so many of the organisations and people who would normally lead a rescue effort. "It meant that the civil service, police, emergency services, all the organisations which would normally have key roles in responding to a major disaster were affected," said Stephanie Bunker, of the UN office for co-ordination of humanitarian affairs in New York.

(Guardian, UK)

It is often hard for people to find the right balance when it comes to the difficulties of others. When do you act, because if you don't, nobody will, or when is it a recurring problem and one that repeats due to the freewill choices made by the perceived victim. Often, when it's a natural disaster, we dispense with the moral judgments and are willing to pony up. Often. Not always.

Rush Limbaugh took his typical line, and lie, from his vulture perch atop Mt. Cynical Millionaire:

"This [the earthquake] will play right into Obama's hands," said Limbaugh. "He's humanitarian, compassionate. They'll use this to burnish their, shall we say, credibility with the black community – both light-skinned and dark-skinned black community in this country. This is made to order for them."

Limbaugh also warned Americans against donating money. "Besides, we've already donated to Haiti. It's called the US income tax," he said.

(Guardian, UK)

We remember a passing headline that said the witch doctors in Haiti were also throwing in their two cents, which, truth be told, has a negative value in the trillions, given the state of Haiti over the years before this current devastation. The lives and leaders that we choose are important, as well the culture that we foster, so that it can be argued that this natural disaster is made worse by freewill choices across history by those in Haiti. But that is not an argument against helping, nor is it seemly for one such as Limbaugh to accuse others of politicizing tragedy when others are directly aiding the suffering, while Rush lines his roost with money from advertisers during a more interesting news cycle. Leave it to him, to defecate on the dead, and eat their corpses to feed his own appetites.

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