Rush, Racism, Care Bears

"I think what we've had here is a little social concern in the NFL. The media has been very desirous that a black quarterback do well,'' Limbaugh said. "There is a little hope invested in McNabb, and he got a lot of credit for the performance of this team that he didn't deserve. The defense carried this team." - Rush Limbaugh 2003

The funny thing about Rush Limbaugh is that his more recent rhetoric re: Obama make his controversial McNabb comments seem perfectly innocent, right? For one, it being about sports DOES mean that it's shrouded somewhat in a blanket of make-believe. But more importantly, you can at least argue any of his points - for instance, IS McNabb overrated? Isn't this something sports fans and commentators talk about all the time? And IS the media "desirous that a black quarterback do well"? The NBA rarely  reacts with  outrage whenever a white player is dubbed "The Great White Hope," is THAT racist?

The answer to these questions is that I have no idea, but at least they're things that can be argued. And just raising questions about race, even if you turn out to be wrong in your original supposition, isn't the same as actually BEING racist. And even if after arguing the answers you decide that what he said was in fact racist, those comments still have more quasi-legitimacy than any of the crazy, hate-driven fear-mongering racism he spews every day on the radio nowadays; comments upon which hearing the only question you can ask is "how'd they know it was him through the white hood?" I mean, things like

You know who deserves a posthumous Medal of Honor? James Earl Ray. We miss you, James. Godspeed.

"It's Obama's America, is it not?  Obama's America, white kids getting beat up on school buses now," he said. "You put your kids on a school bus, you expect safety but in Obama's America the white kids now get beat up with the black kids cheering, 'Yay, right on, right on, right on, right on,' and, of course, everybody says the white kid deserved it." 

make the McNabb stuff seem like it was written by Care Bears, right?

Alright, enough racism stuff for this weekend; I feel I am creeping out of my intellectual depth.