A left-leaning look at the stories and people that build, shape, manipulate, encourage, and/or contribute to the downfall of the United States.

Friday, October 27, 2006

Shame

One of the most fundamental characteristics of the human psyche is the conscience. The conscience is what causes us to feel regret, remorse, or shame, when we do or say wrong. It causes us to reexamine our behavior, perhaps reverse our wrongdoing, and helps us maintain our moral compass. Michael J. Fox, an actor who rose to fame in the 80's with his roles films such as Teen Wolf and the Back to the Future series, recently made a campaign commercial in support of Democratic Senate hopeful Claire McCaskill. His reason for doing so was McCaskill's support of stem-cell research. Fox, who is afflicted with Parkinson's Disease, has supported numerous politicians who he believes will help in the fight for stem-cell research. In his most recent outing, however, he found himself under accusations of fraud from Rush Limbaugh, a radio personality famous for his virulent denial of most tenants of science and rationality, including the capability of smoking to cause cancer, the existence of global warming, and the idea that new species evolve from existing ones through a process of natural selection (and he's also known for his love of Oxycontin, another story for another day).

In order to understand the debate, however, it's important to understand the issues in question, a seemingly obvious strategy which Rush naturally overlooked.
Stem-cells are, in essence, generic cells which can, through cell division, differentiate into specific cell types which can then form organs. Their interest in the science world lies in their ability to adopt a cell specialization and replenish specialized cells.
The controversy arises in the form of embryonic stem-cell research. The right wing has been so effective in injecting its Christian followers with a reflexive, sheeplike condemnation of any scientific procedure involving the words "embryo" or "fetus," that this entirely rational proposal is met with actual resistance.
Research of this type does require the destruction of an embryo, however, what those who seek to gain politically from this issue fail to tell their supporters is that most of the embryos used in stem-cell research are donated and, if not used for research, will be destroyed or maintained indefinitely. In other words, they ain't going anywhere.
These embryos could be used to save countless thousands of lives, or they can go to waste. Very few issues in life are this simple.

If you'd like to better understand Limbaugh's mindset, however, I advise you ignore all of that, and shed any sense of decency which may have kept you up to this point from openly taunting the handicapped. Recently, Rush had this to say about Fox's commercial:

This is really shameless of Michael J. Fox. Either he didn't take his medication, or he's acting, one of the two.

I recommend watching this footage of Rush's broadcast that day. Hearing Rush make fun of another person's disability is one thing, but actually seeing him imitate Fox's involuntary muscular actions is truly appalling. I would say the obvious, but predicting that Rush has finally hit rock bottom is sorta like predicting that Keith Richards is going to die "this year." People have been doing it for as long as I've been alive and they'll just never learn.
Later in the show, Limbaugh, apparently realizing he might have overstepped his boundaries with his earlier comments, gave a very reluctant and very cheap apology, saying, ""I will bigly, hugely admit that I was wrong, and I will apologize to Michael J. Fox if I am wrong in characterizing his behavior on this commercial as an act, especially since people are telling me they have seen him this way on other interviews and in other television appearances," before returning to several reiterations of the new Michael J. Fox talking-point, saying that the Democrats are exploiting Fox's illness, etc etc.

Characteristically, Limbaugh omitted a few interesting bits of information. One of these is, as the Washington Post points out, Fox's movements are not caused by going off his medication, rather, they are a result of taking it.
It's also very curious that, 2 years ago, Fox made a very similar commercial for Republican senator Arlen Specter, with the very same message, and yet Rush was strangely silent. I swear, If I didn't know that all partisan rancor in American politics was the vile machination of Democrats, something like that might make me sit down and think.

But this is Rush. Rush lies, from time to time. Rush makes mistakes (though rarely corrects them), Rush has problems, Rush has feelings (primarily feelings of prejudice, but, I mean... Those are feelings).
Yes, he fits nearly every single one of the requirements; one could say that Rush is almost human.
The only thing that's missing is the thing that makes us apologize when we lie about other people's illnesses. It's one of the main things that separates us from the apes from which Rush does not believe we evolved.
Shame. posted by SwiftyLeZar at 2:04 PM