Limbaugh on Divorce

As you may have heard, Rush Limbaugh is getting a divorce. This is interesting because Rush Limbaugh continually moralizes on the radio about the decline of American values - with divorce rates being one of his regular targets. Curious, isn’t it?

Atrios provides a lot of interesting quotes:

September 24, 1993: So, the basic disagreement, and the--one of the primary reasons for divorce or unhappiness in a relationship, is that a woman who's deriving--she--she wants the husband to think of her first, think of the kids first, think of the house first. Foremost; first, second, third; he's thinking of his career. That's where he gets his self-esteem and if he doesn't think of the career and doing well and climbing the ladder, she's not going to be happy with that either.

July 16, 1996: [from the childless Limbaugh] Marriage is simply the way humanity has discovered that it is the best way to build a building block of an orderly society and sustain it. That's all it is. It is also the means by which you produce legitimate offspring. And I--and I've--whatever else Barney and his mate do, they cannot do that. And that's the soul purpose--now look, we're devaluing marriage--a lot of divorce. Got to fix that. There is way, way too much illegitimacy in this country, and it's leading to the crime rate. This business of the gay marriage is nothing more than a money grab, in my opinion, so people can get on the welfare rolls or the benefit rolls, in state offices and other--and other places.

I--I really do not even think marriage is a right. Marriage is a responsibility. It's not a gift that somebody says, Hey, now it's time for you to get married. It's our bestowal to you.' It's--it's a--it's a commitment that you make and it is a responsibility that you accept. And it's--to--to be--to be tossed around in this manner is to devalue it, which is to devalue the fundamental building block of our society. And I think that's what's wrong with this whole process of same-sex marriage. It just simply denies the definition of what the institution is.

August 8, 1996: [Limbaugh began his correspondence with his soon to be ex wife on Compuserve. She was married at the time.]: Well, you wonder--you know, when you see the story and you say, Well, this is crazy. Couch potatoes.' But it--they may have a point. Because look at--look at this headline. This is from the New York Post last Friday: My wife's a cyberslut! New Jersey man seeks divorce for computer adultery.' These two people are so lazy, they're having an affair on a computer. So maybe the surgeon general's office has a point here. I mean, i--if people are sitting around--and they are so lazy, ladies and gentlemen, they can't even get off their duffs to go look at each other. They're just typing words. I mean, the most exercise they're getting is finger exercise on a keyboard. So I don't know. Maybe--maybe you should put those warnings on computer screens as well.

What a wonderful human being. He feels comfortable lambasting others for doing the very things he himself has no problem doing. The problems all lie with others, never with him or his words.

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