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12/19/2004: "Rush on an Environmental Tear"

For anyone that’s been following Rush lately, my sympathies. No, actually I meant that you must know he’s been on an anti-environment tear. (And you don’t really need to endure the pain of following Rush. Why not instead let SherWright.com do the heavy lifting for you?). Just look at some of the entries that have popped up on our “Rush Insight to Ponder” feature. I mean, the man has issues! If you don’t believe me, here are some recent quotes from the show: “More wacko environmental news today. It's just coming out of the woodwork” … “the thing that they don't factor in this story is the literally millions of birds that will get chopped up in windmills that liberals are going to build for power because they don't like electricity.” … “This is incredible! It is unbelievable! Do you notice how rooted this whole global warming razzmatazz is?” … “If there's global warming going on, how in the world here in south Florida -- it's not even Christmas yet which is when these first cold waves usually hit -- can they have opened shelters?” We already heard the one about what would happen if birds had shotguns, which presents a very unique perspective concerning the relationship between man and nature. And here are the clinchers: “you may wonder why do I spend so much time on this global warming stuff. Folks, you got to understand something. I don't go seek this stuff out. This is no different than if it were a story on Ted Kennedy or John Kerry or anything else during the campaign. I get up every day and I do show prep and I find things that are ultimately an attack on institutions and traditions I believe in, like America and like our Constitution, and I feel the need to defend it, and make no mistake what global warming is. Make no mistake what radical militant environmentalism is. It's the new home of communism…” and “It's my belief in God, and my profound awe, and I think this is really where you can separate the wheat from the chaff when it comes to environmentalist wackos -- and Communists too.” Boiling all of this down, he seems to be saying 1) exploitation of natural resources at the fastest possible rate is a moral imperative 2) there’s absolutely no chance that the global industrial complex is having any impact whatsoever on the biosphere since God wouldn’t permit that 3) anyone who believes otherwise is an atheist communist. I believe I just offered a dispassionate restatement of Rush’s statements. Next time let’s analyze them for validity and possible psychological sources.