George Steinbrenner + Rush Limbaugh = Awesome!, by Mike Gold Brainiac on Banjo #179
I’m not much of a baseball fan: I root for the Cubs. Therefore, I wouldn’t lift my face out of my own puke to defend the now-late George Steinbrenner.
To the extent that I recognize the American League as a legitimate part of Major League Baseball (rarely and then only begrudgingly), I think George was a rich checkbook asshole who, like his Wall Street buddies, never got past the “greed is good” mantra. Steinbrenner could not appreciate that the essential Americanism of baseball, the reason why baseball is the Great American Metaphor, is the concept fair play. Anybody who grew up near a sandlot or an urban street where the Ford is first base, the pothole is second and the Toyota is third could play the game.
But then came Rush Limbaugh, the pompous cigar-chomping Republican party poster boy who couldn’t make it on ESPN. So now I find myself defending Boss George, even if I do so by omission.
Limbaugh called Steinbrenner a “cracker who made a lot of African-American millionaires.” He also complained Steinbrenner fired a bunch of white guys as managers “left and right.” I don’t think he was talking about their politics.
Given my comments about George, speaking ill of the dead is not my problem here. He made millionaires a lot of Americans and non-Americans, of African origin, Latino origin, and of Pequannock, New Jersey origin. Their heritage wasn’t the issue, their ability to perform was George’s only concern.
If Rush criticized George for being thrown out of baseball twice (the second time “permanently”) or for dumping on Yogi Berra, fine. But this is from the man who said:
• “Have you ever noticed how all composite pictures of wanted criminals resemble Jesse Jackson?”
• “The NFL all too often looks like a game between the Bloods and the Crips without any weapons.”
• “The NAACP should have riot rehearsal. They should get a liquor store and practice robberies.”
• To a black female caller: “Take that bone out of your nose and call me back.”
• “We need segregated buses… This is Obama’s America.”
• “Obama’s entire economic program is reparations.”
Don’t get me wrong: I am not calling for Limbaugh’s removal from the airwaves. The First Amendment applies to everybody, even fat addle-pated addicts. And, of course, Rush Limbaugh is great fodder. But I do wonder how he gets away with it on the air.
The fact is, Rush Limbaugh is such a complete racist he’s just one sheet away from a cross-burning.
Source for the quotes: NewsOne.com
Media metaphysician and www.ComicMix.com editor-in-Chief Mike Gold performs the weekly two-hour Weird Sounds Inside The Gold Mind ass-kicking bizarro music and blather radio show on The Point, www.getthepointradio.com, every Sunday at 7:00 PM Eastern, replayed three times during the week (check the website above for times). Likewise, his Weird Scenes Inside The Gold Mind political and cultural rants pop up each and every day at the same venue.
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July 19th, 2010 at 7:21 am
I’m bored with Rush Limbaugh. I read Al Franken’s book, “Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot: And Other Observations.” That has been enough for me. Now, Al is my United States Senator, and I’m increasing tired of Rush.
I did wonder who they buxom starlet is posing with Rush. I actually had to Google, “Rush Limbaugh Side Boob,” to find out.
July 19th, 2010 at 7:31 am
Another blowhard windbag with a microphone and financial backing. Limbaugh gets away with what he says because he elevates the rest of us by proxy. As long as guys like him, Glenn Beck, and Anne Coulter are given time on main stream media… the Republicans look like scared angry racist mysoginists.
Sure the democrats look like whiny, pbs educated, silly dandys who want to “talk everything out”… But it’s certainly the case for the “lesser of two evils.”
Steinbrenner did what everyone else has done to pro sports… made it abut the money, the championships, etc. I loathe baseball personally, but even I find it terrible that even that sport suffers from instant trade offs after a winning season. I mean, as a kid who grew up during the Bulls Dynasty… where EVERYONE stayed and played as a team (until Jordon thought it was time to “quit” har har)… And now, we have to have ESPN specials to determine where Lebron is played next year? Seriously. This is our America.
July 19th, 2010 at 10:27 am
The biggest issue I have with Limberger and his ilk is they are given so much airtime (and money) due to the simple and undeniable fact that the vile dreck they spew is lapped up by so many far too many fellow Americans. And they LIKE it.
Not to mention the corporate sponsors and media broadcasters, right?
July 19th, 2010 at 12:43 pm
Russ, I thought “Rush’s side boob” was Glenn Beck.
July 19th, 2010 at 12:50 pm
Marc, yes, the Democrats not only look like whiny, PBS educated, silly dandys who want to “talk everything out” but they ACT that way as well. Fucking liberals need to grow a pair and actually stand up for their beliefs.
I didn’t see Lebron’s ESPN summer spectacular. Was it sponsored? And, hell, I think Barack would have a better time of things if he were to take the place Lebron didn’t take on the Bulls. And right now, I’ll bet he feels the same way.
Reg, did you ever check out Rush’s sponsors? Cheesy “investment” hustles, often personally endorsed by Rush, that only absolute idiots would go for.
But that’s his demographic: absolute idiots. As Michael Cassius McDonald said so long ago, “Don’t worry about that, there’s a sucker born every minute.”
July 19th, 2010 at 4:42 pm
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July 19th, 2010 at 5:04 pm
Unlike some of you who have posted here, I love baseball for many reasons. It is, now more than ever, my favorite sport. And I used to handicap and make odds on all sports in LV for a living. That said, one of my least favorite parts of baseball was represented by the George.
He didn’t single-handedly ruin baseball. It isn’t any more ruined than anything else in American culture–music, art, or even, dare I mention it–comics. But he sure did put a whoooole new angle into play raising the bar and ante.
Rush: patewie!
George messed with my favorite sport (Disclosure: tried and true Red Sox fan). His employees broke my heart more than I care to recall before cosmic magic made it possible for me to meet my end knowing we did it once…
On the other hand, if given the opportunity, Rush would eat my heart, spit it out and go on commercial break.
July 19th, 2010 at 5:17 pm
Or as the song was titled,”Boobs a lot!”
July 19th, 2010 at 7:16 pm
Mike said…”But that’s his demographic: absolute idiots.”
You mean like THIS one?
http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2010/07/a-final-thought/59924/
July 19th, 2010 at 9:21 pm
Pennie, your comments about Steinbrenner are the nicest things I’ve EVER heard from a Red Sox fan!
Nice Fugs reference. I just finished taping my Weird Sounds show for this coming Sunday (getthepointradio.com; it’s also rerun three times) and it’s two hours of Tuli Kupferberg “and other insurrectionists.”
July 20th, 2010 at 4:36 am
Mike,
I dunno. Must be getting kinder in my old age. Did I despise George? You betcha. But placing his voracious appetites in perspective, he wanted to win as much as Spikes Cobb, Cy Young and Shoeless Joe (who did get a bum rap)along with all the others. Cobb never claimed purity and neither did George. GS just had deeper partners in Cleveland.
Was Free Agency a bad thing? Not so much and that as much as other factors helped elevate those salaries and alter the baseball landscape. Not much different in other sports as well, right?
Did the man’s team crush my heart year after year? Yeah. Did he pummel us (and every other team) with his big market hammer? Yeah. Is it easier to blame Bucky (Effin) Dent? Probably.
I’ll be all ears for the Tuli tribute. For these ears and eyes, NYC in the mid-60′s spawned a flowering down so many artistic avenues. Pick any one: cinema, music, literature, journalism, art, photography…The Beats and Tuli meet Warhol, Velvets, Arbus, Wolfe, Ginsberg, Kerouac, Sanders, Tuli, Dylan, and so much more. It was a a great time and place. Who needed school with all this education swirling? It gave edgy life a real charge.
So I was excused from attending early on. And as Dylan advised, I never looked back. Thank you Tuli.
Thank you Mike.
July 20th, 2010 at 3:45 pm
When Rush made the Steinbrenner statements, he was praising George as a great capitalist who made those around him rich. He was pointing out that Steinbrenner made more people who were ethnic minorities rich than Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, or the New Black Panthers ever will. He was not complaining at all that white managers were fired, he was pointing out that George fired people without regard to race, creed or religion in order to win and make money.
.
The reason he used the word “Cracker” was in the context of another news story, namely the leadership New Black Panthers calling for the killing of “Crackers” and “Cracker babies.”
.
Of course, if you buy into “the Narrative” then the context of what Rush said is probably irrelevant.
July 20th, 2010 at 7:18 pm
The fact that there is a context for Limbaugh referring to Steinbrenner as a “cracker” is largely irrelevant to the general theme, which is that Limbaugh is an unabashed racist.
July 21st, 2010 at 3:19 am
FUCK RUSH, FUCK HIS FAMILY and anyone who thinks this ASSHOLE has a point.
He has NO clue what the real world is about. I should be mad about this sort of shit but I’m not.
I’m sad.
I’m sad that this guy who hates anything which is not rich and white has such a following. I HATE being sad. I’ve had enough sadness to last me a lifetime. I come from a horrible place where it could have been REAL easy for my mother ( NO idea and don’t give a FUCK who my father was) to poison me against white people.
She did not.
I’d die for my ‘white’ friend Mike Gold. That’s the real problem with Rush-he does not get THAT.