Tweet
Another Great Moment In Republican Analogies – and it has Shatner, so it’s even more awesome:
SHATNER: Here’s my premise and you agree with it or not. If you have money, you are going to get health care. If you don’t have money, it’s more difficult.
LIMBAUGH: If you have money you’re gonna get a house on the beach. If you don’t have money you’re gonna live in a bungalow somewhere.
SHATNER: Right, but we’re talking about health care.
LIMBAUGH: What’s the difference?
SHATNER: The difference is we’re talking about health care, not a house or a bungalow.
LIMBAUGH: No! no! You’re assuming there’s some morally superior aspect to health care than there is for a house.
I can accept the real estate analogy up to a point – after all, both houses and health care provide some measure of protection from man-made and natural harm. But beyond that, it’s of a piece with Dubya’s out-of-touch claim that the emergency room constitutes some kind of universal health care – a convenient conservative fantasy that everyone’s covered and there’s no crisis at all.
A bungalow? Really? What about the 45 million Americans who have the health care equivalent of a cardboard box on the sidewalk? Maybe they can get some band-aid care in an emergency room, but if they have a condition needing more elaborate or ongoing care, they’re fucked.
Or what about the people who can’t buy a bungalow because some red flag in their history, no matter how trivial? (This analogy only works after the housing bubble, of course.)
Or the ones who discover their cozy little bungalow is made of swiss cheese when the first storm hits?
The low end of the health care continuum is not “adequate” – the low end of the health care continuum is a wintry mix of “nonexistent,” “off-limits,” and “illusory.”
As for health care not having “some morally superior aspect,” perhaps Rush can explain that to the 45,000 people who suffer and die each year because they can’t get any, or to the people whose insurers yanked their coverage when they needed it most.
124 Comments
Support this site!
Subscribe to the newsletter
Advertise on Firedoglake
Send
us your tips
Make us your homepage
About Firedoglake
Damn, that is just way too long a title. I just wasn’t sure everyone would get “Internet:Truck::Health Care:Houses”.
i thought the internet was a series of tubes
Exactly my point!
Ass Limbo is saying if you’re rich…you can afford the best health care. If you’re poor, you get squat. This is not the way it should be, but of course, Ass Limbo is too much of an ass to care!
If the poor all got a healthcare “bungalow”, that wouldn’t be so bad at all. Unfortunately, that’s nowhere near the reality.
We all know that Ass Limbo abuses his health care.
I’m glad to see Shatner has his head and his heart both in the right place. I’d like to beam him up a nice pretty glass of wine for his expending his time on Limbaugh.
Short and quick OT-
Anyone into the alt grassy side of acoustic life, my Sacto buddy Matt Coleman is live and on the air on the toobz with his Acoustic Eclectic Jam at http://www.worldwidebluegrass.com
Some fine music to come until 9pm left coast time.
Eli, thanks, sorry, and back to you . . . keep on truckin, hoss ;-)
Rush is the 4th little pig who built his
fortunehouse out of bullshit.“What about the 45 million Americans who have the health care equivalent of a cardboard box on the sidewalk.”
So now it’s 45 million. Last month we heard 30 million, the month before 50 million.
And the 45 million number is total bullshit anyway. A sizable percentage of that number comes from people who choose not to spend money on health care because they don’t want to, not because they can’t afford it. Of course, under the Obama plan,they will be sent to jail if they don’t buy it.
We are told by this site that the Stupak Amendment is a terrible horrible infringement on our rights, but throwing people in jail because they choose (a word that liberals only seem to apply to one thing) not to have health insurance? That’s no big deal at all.
Good point Eli. I have a 3-bedroom ranch w/hardly any land health care. LOL
A sociopathic lack of empathy. Limbaugh in a nutshell. Well, that and he’s a big fat willfully ignorant idiot.
Only ten percent of the first ten comments are from trolls. Eli, you need to try a little harder.
Was it just me who thought this or did Ass Limbo forget to take off his teeth whitening strips? His teeth looked odd to say the least!
Sociopath is synonymous with conservative.
masanf, I guess if you had to choose between health care premiums and food or shelter, you might have a little compassion. Pull the head out and listen to Harvard Medical School.
People of good hearts and excellent minds always
s
c
r
o
l
l
.
Nice!
OT: For SD etal….another amazing Bill Moyers with an interview with Oliver Stone….about VietNam, Obama’s decision, etc. Powerful and lots of clips from Platoon, 4th of July…
We don’t believe the number “40 million aborted babies” either. We believe the number is more like 40,000.
I like the way shatner wouldn’t give limbaugh any play;
he’s making it clear, “your analogy doesn’t even merrit a discussion, I’m not one of your ditto heads”
you know I loved shater in everything up and including star trek, (think brothers caramazoo or whatever, think twighlight zone)
then I thought he became too much the clown but this raised my opinion
I considered rounding up to 50, but I generally prefer to be on the low side so I can’t be accused of exaggerating…
Yeah, me too. Exaggerating to make a point is never a good thing! Right Masanf? LOL
A 5-year old cannot buy a house, yet many 5 year olds need healthcare or they’ll die. I’d love to see the tough talker explain face-to-face his cute little analogy to some parents of gravely ill children.
What’s he gonna tell them? “Sorry folks, but you’re kid just needs to work harder and he can earn his healthcare.”
don’t know why but for some reason “40.000″ reminded me of “25000″
so of course, watch shatner lose to himself on the pyramid
funny stuff
A point I expected the formerly homeless William Shatner to make. But, sadly, he did not.
It’s not like anyone’s going to say “Well, if it were *50* million uninsured, *that* would be a big deal – but 45 million? That’s nothing!”
He seemed to get better late in his career as writers started playing to his strengths. He is actually a fairly talented comedic actor.
Yeah, the analogy’s *range* is much more problematic than Rush’s choice of object.
The problem here is that the assumption that if your poor you can still have a decent place to live, just not on the beach. Once that analogy blows up we are stuck recognizing that housing and health care really aren’t different. If your poor your at risk of having neither and they are both human rights.
America doesn’t have the resources to round up the bazillions of illegal immigrants in our nation, so how is it America would be able to round up and arrest the Americans who didn’t choose health care? Huh? How would we know which Americans aren’t insured?
Masanf, you have all the answers so I’m sure you know! I’ll await your highly educated well thought out reply. Thanks pal.
kay, I just clicked on your name, too funny;
“palinochio”
BRILLIANT!!!
Exactly!
He.Would.Not.Care.
Well my friend Perris….Sarah BAILIN is a known liar! Her nose is growing.
I thought my ears were burnin’. *g* I can do without the clips, however. They give me nightmares for some reason.
his real problem after star trek is he couldn’t be directed, he refused direction
I guess as you say, writers just figured they would write for his personality rather then have him play a part that’s not him
I loved that scene with him and angie dickenson…she be HAWT
Yeah I never realized people with no money got a free bungalow. What a country!
The wire’s invisible. So are the toobz. ;-)
Limbaugh can afford both.
The rest of us, not so much.
He was good as the Big Giant Head on 3rd Rock.
There’s also another problem: giving Limbaugh a forum. Can’t say I agree with Shatner’s decision there. Though I haven’t seen the entire program, I don’t think Shatner’s the right person to put Limbaugh in his place.
Who knew Rush was a socialist?
*G*
Sent ya an email about event tomorrow Sacto John posted to a thread below . .
And yeah, over the space of his 3 hours, my buddy Matt spins all kinds of grassy stuff.
He’s good, and it’s MY kind of grassy stuff! *G*
Perhaps one day our standard of living will catch up with Venezuela.
homeward bound I am
g’night dogs
The more we actually see the little bastard the more he will be exposed. No socks and all.
It’s kind of creepy watching him in action because he’s so far removed from reality being filthy rich. He’s disgusting actually.
If he was poor he would be filthy poor.
g’nite perris
One day on Ass Limbo’s radio program a few years ago, he told the “very sad story of a liberal” who was in the parking lot of a grocery store trying to pull two grocery carts apart to use one. When the women gave up and grabbed another cart, Ass Limbo told his listeners that her giving up was proof ALL liberals are lazy people!
Guess where Ass Limbo was sitting when he was watching this woman?
ANSWER: IN HIS LIMO IN THE PARKING LOT WHERE HE SAT HIS FAT ASS WHILE ONE OF HIS ASSISTANTS WAS INSIDE THE STORE DOING HIS GROCERY SHOPPING!
If I ever get the chance to see him in person, I will spit on his face.
War all for the corporations…The generals are the biggest hawks…Stone talking about his VietNam experience. He seems very different from what I have thought before…he seemed very candid….
Good night Perris!
Mary @ #49, if Limbo was poor he would still be an ass.
Rachel is explaining “teabagging” for all of us tonight! I love it. She’s right….it was the Teabaggers themselves who started calling themselves ‘teabaggers’ and it was us liberals who laughed out loud and ran with that football!
Preview…next week about the bailout & what’s happened to financial reform…I cannot let Moyers retire…;)
With the types of wars we fight today the corporations are the only ones who stand to gain anything. For everybody else it’s death and destruction. I’ll watch it and just avoid the movie clips. I made a big mistake sitting through “Platoon.”
I’ve been thinking about campaign finance reform quite a bit with Jane’s push to help real progressives get elected. I know you’re talking “finance” reform but my brain goes into overdrive when I get to thinking about campaigns.
oh I don’t know. This town has lots of million dollar bungalows on the beach. The Party Chairman doesn’t know what he’s talking about.
I hope to rid the country of DiFi. She prolly won’t run again.
Yeah, you can listen to the interview….I felt that way about “The Deer Hunter”; it made me sick, so I can only imagine for you. Stone really talks alot about himself; says he was in the same Yale class with W, then dropped out.
Cheney is on the street. Limbaugh has a national platform. Sarah Palin is now a millionaire and potential candidate for highest office in the land. Criminals run the fed. Corporations run our legislators. Wake me up from this nightmare, please.
It’s going to take overdrive…this year has really exposed the $$ and the players. And that big case will be coming out of the Supreme court. The last figleaf is expected to disappear.
I’ve got Bill Young, Bill Nelson and an empty seat when LeMieux’s appointed term is up. Talk about a long row to hoe, although we’ve got a good chance against Bill Young next year with Charlie Justice, now a Dem state senator. He’s announced that he’s going to run against Young.
are you speaking ill of my esteemed senior senator? ;-)
Agree, without Moyers PBS will be dead to me, except for my one favorite britcom (that I don’t have on DVD), which they always suspend when they’re fundraising, like they are now (grrr).
Party Chairman!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Exactly. Well, Mr. Chairman has never lived anywhere but along the beach, so in his mind life is good. He has no clue how the other people live, you know, those inland.
The difference in Limbaugh and a bucket of cowdung is: Both stink and draws flies, but the dung serves a useful purpose. Limbaugh just stinks.
Yeah, well, I’ve got some ideas that I think will resonate with the public. Not gonna happen in 1 or 2 congressional election cycles but in the long run could prove successful.
All the poor folks already have a bungalow, don’t know how you can top that…
I keep getting e-mails – very week from Pepe LeMieux. Got an e-mail from my congresslady in FL-24. I sent her one telling her she was “toast.” She replied:
Blah, Blah, blah…. The House bill does not do enough to slow the growth of health care costs or to rein in spending on care. That is why, after careful consideration I decided that I could not in good conscience support this bill. blah, blah blah.
Toast, I say.
I just realized the weird chair is a monument to Shatner’s ego, a big letter “S.”
That should be interesting and get alot of backing. Legal?
Hey, dude, methinks you wanted #66. *g*
hmm. He lives east of I-15 doesn’t he? Always wondered if there was life east of 15. /s
Just as war is too important to leave up to the generals, money is too important to leave up to the bankers, and health care is too important place into the hands of corporate CEOs and Wall Street. Greed feeds on ignorance. Time to get smart, folks.
Just so’s Bob ‘n’ me gets our bungalow…
You don’t suppose Rush actually said people without money have a “bung aglow?” Would make more sense.
No, it’s a chair designed so two people can talk to each other more easily. There’s a French name for it; it’s been around for a long time.
Can we hope that global warming will result in the beach moving inland without him?
Legal, hell yeah. I wasn’t campaign treasurer for 3 campaigns and not learn anything.
I just happened to be listening to Buffy Saint Marie’s Universal Soldier and after hearing these lines (for the umpteenth) time I got to thinking.
Short version. Don’t even think I’ve got this all thought out and organized. *g*
Just like anything else if we want something changed we’re gonna have to do it ourselves. We are going to have to be responsible for creating a campaign finance environment where the candidate doesn’t have to rely on corporate and special interest donations. We have to start by educating the public that if we want members of Congress to represent us we’re going to have to step up to the plate and provide the finances it takes to run a campaign. They’re going to work for whoever helps get them elected. It can be us or it can be the lobbyists.
According to Ass Limbo, there is no life behind him wherever he is. See?
Unfortunately, he has a hollow heart so he most likely would float to safety! LOL
Limbaugh likely thinks of all things in such a simplistic manner. If your rich you get the best, if your poor not so much. But as pointed out the contrast isn’t with getting a bungalow…it’s a cardboard box. Or if you get into a really serious situation…you get taken by an ambulance to jail (=the hospital emergency room) where you get shelter for the night and perhaps a bologna sandwich.
Then there’s the “pre-existing condition”…which in Limbaugh’s analogy must be something like…skin color…or being Jewish. Those folks don’t get access to the best neighborhoods like Limbaugh’s…they live in lower quality ghettos.
And comparing health care to real estate must be a little like living in a community with an insane Homeowner’s Association who can throw people out for suspicion of violating their arbitrary rules. “We’ve just discovered that your spouse was 54 years and 6 months when you moved into the neighborhood…she was supposed to be 55.” “But were both in our 70′s now!” “Sorry you lied on your application and we have a tenant whose willing to pay us a massive “finders fee”, you’ve got a month to move.”
Or some sort of system where the services you thought you contracted for gets eliminated. Sorry no kitchen, no bathroom, no lights…unless you now pay more for them. In Rush’s world there’s no basic, minimal health care coverage. You need to go to the bathroom…go use the public facilities in the park. You need to eat…well go to restaurant. Pay-as-you go health care…for those who can afford it.
Sure, also looks like the first letter in Shatner. Wasn’t chosen by accident.
When I was a youngster I always wondered why they used an out of focus photo for the album cover of Bob Dylan’s “Blonde on Blonde.” I can recall the day when I had my epiphany (duh) that it was used to make a statement.
Certainly I see your vision…funny, I guess we thought both Dean and Obama had brought some of that to the table…which at least suggests there is an impetus there. Good for you.
Or bung holed.
Cardboard box? You were lucky!
We lived for three months in a paper bag in a septic tank. We used to have to get up at six in the morning, clean the paper bag, eat a crust of stale bread, go to work down the mill for fourteen hours a day week in week out, for sixpence a week. When we got home, out Dad would thrash us to sleep with his belt!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xe1a1wHxTyo
Sorry, could NOT resist!
And along with that we desperately need to start getting progressives elected to local, county and state govt. Think of it like moving up in baseball, a farm system. City council is Class A, county commission is Class AA, state legislature is Class AAA. Congress is the big leagues! That’s not new but progressives have failed at making concerted organized efforts to get progressives elected. Holy moly, it’s rainin’ cats and dogs.
I think the real estate analogy would be rejecting someone’s home loan application because they once missed a credit card payment.
That’s what the Rs did, starting in the 1960s, n’est pas?
First step on the way to bung aglow.
dumb question. would it actually be possible to shoehorn the Party Chairman into a bungalow? I mean, perhaps the analogy is actually more apt than it might first appear, since a tight and compact bungalow might actually be a death sentence for a being of the Chairman’s, uh, dimensional generosity. Sorry.. couldn’t resist.
Yep. Combine that with the media mergers and think tanks and here we are.
Rush is but a shadow of his former self. I heard he lost weight on a diet of Dominican squash.
That, that . . . WRETCH is pushing for the commission to be added to Senate Bill, a commission that would be tasked with looking at how to eliminate waste . . . in entitlement programs!!!!!
Words fail me as to how much I loathe Sci Fi . . .
Let’s not forget the special contribution of Bill Clinton, who noticed that being a whore to corp interests could benefits Ds too.
Yeah, that’s what I was thinkin’. The look on Shatner’s face at the very end is priceless.
Yep, the neoliberals at DLC really fucked the Democratic Party up.
What’s the difference between Rush and a steaming pile of shit on a freeway?
Skid marks in front of the steaming pile of shit.
(MOD NOTE: lets be careful on that slippery slope of fantasy violence please)
That’s a keeper hoss . . . give yerself and Bob both another piece of apple. *G*
Bob says “thanks,” he writes the good ones. I’m just the typist ’cause I can get it done faster than his hunt and peck.
Mod, No violence..just “careless” driving…
SD: Do you know your Cat-day topic?
LOL
What I can’t understand is WHY Rush is still so popular. The vast majority of his audience is really REALLY hurting now — many without health insurance. I knew they were stupid, but THAT stupid? Are they so beaten down, that the only thing they have left is the ability to listen to Rush tell them they are still morally superior to most Americans?
I’m thinking of looking for interesting stories to pass on.
Looks like Maxie got himself into some hot water(H/T Emptywheel):
http://www.rollcall.com/news/41188-1.html
Obama ought to strong arm him now.
The RushBots need to stock up on batteries, so that while they are moving into their cardboard boxes, they can stay in-the-know…
I forgot to add that he’s no better than Tiger.
As if I would know, but I think it is the hate the government + whatever the appeal of snarky, putdown, rage….at least the latter is the quality I hear in those who clamor to Laura Ingram. A lack of tolerance or empathy.
Unlike Rush Hudson Limbaugh III, who was born to wealth and has never been without a sugar daddy to guide his steps, William Shatner knows what it’s like to be dirt-poor. He actually lived out of his pickup truck in the early ’70s, as the Star Trek residuals weren’t bringing in much dough for him and his typecasting as Kirk made it impossible to get Hollywood gigs.
They need *someone* to tell them that it’s all the libruls’ and black people’s fault.
Who can say…but can anyone really find that mean-spirited addict attractive? Really?
This was probably meant as snark, but I think it’s not far off the mark.
Rush Limphaug is an ass and that is what he gets paid to be. He’s wrong and he knows it. He’s feathering his nest like most of the others of his affiliation. Don’t be too hard on Rush, he was damaged in an encounter with a jackalope and a Ram – the Ram was wearing the boots. He couldn’t get a job doing anything else other than creating hot air and blowing.
Anyway, it is simply a matter of greed (something like this)- -
Leave what is mine alone and grub up your own if you can, otherwise too bad – go off somewhere and die – but leave me and mine alone.
That about sums up the Limphaug mindset – including the Publicans.
Jim Moss’ diary for Late Night!
Late Night: Aetna Really Wants You to Know
Good Night noises everywhere…we’re checking out. Due for a hard freeze tonight…Cheers.
I meant every word. His peeps are going to be in the breadlines first, and as a greater percentage overall. They have no idea what is coming.
Rushie-poo? Not me. Then again, if you go to DC you see attractive lobbyist women draped all over powerful but ugly-ass men.
I agree 100%. I have a childhood friend, still in Oklahoma, who I haven’t been around in over 30 years. She is shocked — SHOCKED! — that B of A just raised her mortgage payment 200% — and she can’t pay it. Now she is worried that her home will be foreclosed. I have to hold back from asking, “WHY are you surprised?” I am sure she never paid attention to all the signs that have been right there in front of her eyes. But she is like my mother in a way, “If politics make you mad, don’t listen to them!” Ah, such wise advice from a dunderhead.
Looking past the irony of his followers in dire straights, it really is very sad.
Good lord, the root of that are thousands of banjo jokes, which I presume EVERYONE knows exist.
Banjo jokes, that is.
Lord . . . thanks RevB . . . . violence? What’s happened to this site . . . ??????
If our economic system, bought and paid for by the Rich, continues to drive people’s jobs overseas and their savings into oblivion it will become a nation where all the houses are owned by banks & the Rich and 295M people will be living in cardboard boxes without healthcare.
Is that the future we want?
I say NO.
“Denny Crane!”
There’s supposed to be a big expose of how DiFi is in the pocket of some major contributor in Sunday’s SF Chronicle. One can only wish that it gets her brought up on ethics charges.
A much more coooo-gent SIMILE!………..is that RUSH – LIMBAUGH! is like a dork a whale penis, if you will.
the future you fear is the present most of us live in