I was driving this morning and (like a good American) growing bored with the silence so I flipped on the radio and it happened to be Rush Limbaugh, who I haven’t heard much of in recent years. He was in the middle of criticizing Al Sharpton for saying that the Duke lacrosse players shouldn’t be praised because, after all, they were at a party and had hired a stripper (a “neked woman” as Sharpton put it) and such dehumanizing behavior is often a precursor to domestic violence even if it did not lead to violence in this case. Limbaugh went off on this saying that there was absolutely nothing illegal about hiring a stripper and then said that such economic exchanges were actually good because “single moms” can “earn $100,000 a year” as strippers.
Unbelievable. This episode strikes me as quite similar to the outrage in Britain (and America) that Ahmadinejad rebuked Britain for sending a woman and mother into a combat-type situation.
The “American way” especially as defended by alleged conservatives is now fully vested in pimping our most vulnerable as strippers and soldiers all for the glories of the GNP.
Of course this is nothing new, but it is very interesting and instructive that characters as repulsive and diverse as Sharpton and Ahmadinejad now understand the best way to undermine America is to pose as traditionalist conservatives. Sheesh.
UPDATE: A transcript of this portion of the Limbaugh show has been posted. Check it out for yourself, but it appears from my reading that Limbaugh was not endorsing stripping as a career move, but rather pointing out that strippers aren't always passive victims, but responsible moral agents who choose to exploit themselves for material gain. Ergo, they are not necessarily passive victims, but morally culpable participants (along with the men who hire their services) in their own degradation. Limbaugh could have been clearer here -- I can understand why Caleb was confused by hearing him on the radio -- but I think reading the transcript makes a judgment favorable to Limbaugh the correct reading.
UPDATE.2: Caleb's not buying it. He e-mails:
What Limbaugh was clearly doing was exonorating the Duke players from any wrongdoing by placing their actions in the context of economic activity which is entirely consensual. This is a classic liberal move. Of course the women remain culpable. Of course Sharpton/Jackson are hypocrites. That is not the point.
UPDATE.3: When Ann Coulter is right, she's right. From last year:
However the Duke lacrosse rape case turns out, one lesson that absolutely will not be learned is this: You can severely reduce your chances of having a false accusation of rape leveled against you if you don't hire strange women to come to your house and take their clothes off for money.
Also, you can severely reduce your chances of being raped if you do not go to strange men's houses and take your clothes off for money. (Does anyone else detect a common thread here?)
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It's sad to me to see how many people who have contributed in the thread have the opininion that one is leaving themselves wide open if you are present when a stripper is stripping, etc. Of course, on plain Jane read, that's a no-brainer.
Now, let's talk about an alternative 'real world' I and plenty of others can discuss first hand. And perhaps some of you will ultimately, sadly, experience. One: What if you are at an event and the stipper shows up. You can leave immediately, but you were there. Two: At least one of the three men accused (the math? That's 1/3rd of the accused lacrosse group) has been able to conclusively prove he was no where near the house when the accuser said that 'incident' took place. They have video of him at an ATM because he left immediately when the stripper appeared. Three: I was set up and later exonerated in a case of sexual accusation, and in court was grilled because I was told "if you did not want to be set up on a nature trail, why were you hiking alone". In other words, anyone doing pretty much anything can be made to look like their actions were 'suspicious' unless they stay at home and watch Oprah. Ann Coulter's piece is a good one and the points are valid. But you see, I go to the woods every day of my life to be ALONE.... Now how many people who never hike at all, who have never even seen a 'nature trail' (mine I located on the Sierra Club website), and think doing anything alone (let alone preferring it) is in and of itself 'weird', odd and/or suspicious.
I think it would be refreshing to not continue to add 'they got what they deserved' fuel to a fire that is really a not untypical event (for better or worse) that became, in the eyes of objective scrutiny including DNA scans...a baseless sexual charge that came very close to destroying three innocent people. The income level of their families, the frat rat profiles, the stud jock look...it means nothing. What should mean everything is that everyone involved should beg forgiveness for the over a year ordeal...... Unless you have walked in their shoes, you too should be contrite. Believe it of not, false incarceration and lying accusations of life-in-prison nature can happen to anyone.
One last example. I was in the hot tub earlier at a very upscale health club, the Landry Center, near Rod's home. While I was alone, in came two boys who were maybe 11 years old, who immediately took off their swimsuits and got in the tub with me, despite anyone under 16 (still underage) being allowed to be in said tub. Now I ask you, what if, for whatever reason, one of those boys said "he touched me!". I would be told that I asked for it. I got out immediately. But what if someone had walked in....I was in a hot tub with no witnesses or adult supervision with two preteen naked boys. And you think I (or you) would be acquited?
Rod is fond of correctly saying, "people are more complicated than their politics'. So are the circumstances behind many at-trial scenarios. Have an open mind and a fair heart cannot be far behind.
Let me try this again with a cooler head--if anyone s still reading this topic. This morning s New York Times held a brief article by Peter Applebome, After Duke Prosecution Began to Collapse . . . found here: http://select.nytimes.com/2007/04/15/nyregion/15towns.html Houston Baker, of the Duke English department, is quoted as having accused the mother of one of the accused of being a provocateur who was trying to get credit for a bunch of scummy white males. He said she was the mother of a farm animal. This was in response to her request for an apology after the charges were dropped. This is an outrage. It is outrageous that anyone should be subjected to this kind of invective, especially when the hateful rhetoric is applied after the public record showed that no crime had occurred, and that the targets of the hate were in fact the victims of a serious injustice. I repeat, I m grateful that the charges were dropped without trial, and I add, I feel sorry for these young men because I m sure they and their families have suffered a lot because someone lied about them. It was wrong, it was unfair, it was cruel. Public figures who used this affair for their own purposes should apologize. They should feel ashamed of themselves. As we all know, though, they won t. They ll just skip merrily off to the next thing. And so it goes. Okay, that s part one. Part two has no bearing on the verdict for this particular crime, but it seems to me it is equally important. It is why I cannot accept these young men as symbolic heroes of a conservative cause. They are not rapists. According to many witnesses, they are actually among the better representatives of the team and were considered nice young men of good character. And yet, they were part of a culture where it was considered normal to go to parties where nice young men routinely got drunk and watched women take off their clothes and act out sexually for money. Racial animosity lay so close to the surface that when team members got mad, ugly racial taunts came easily to their lips.
After the accusations were made, team member Ryan McFadyen wrote this e-mail to his fellow players ([sic] throughout): tommrow night, after tonights show, ive decided to have some strippers over to edens 2c. all are welcome.. however there will be no nudity. i plan on killing the bitches as soon as the walk in and proceding to cut their skin off while ****ing in my duke issue spandex.. all in besides arch and tack please respond The three accused players are not directly responsible for what a friend of theirs may say. That s not my point here. This is my point: when the accused return to their normal lives--as they should, as is their right--THIS is part of what their normal is. And to many in this world, that will seem perfectly okay. What nice, Christian young men do in their college years or their spare time, even if it involves attitudes and actions that degrade and reduce women and people of color, is considered trivial, incidental, harmless and excusable. Provided no actual crime is committed, no blame should be assigned. No harm, no foul. It is unquestionably a shame and a pity that young men who have committed no crime should be the targets of a hailstorm of insult and accusation. But is it not also a terrible shame and pity when people who call themselves conservatives can gloat and exult over a return to this kind of normal ? Blind privilege and callous exploitation does exist, and it has made a lot of people very angry--justly so. How can we claim we re offering our culture a better, more humane, more noble, more Christian way of life, and yet shrug off and wish away these deep injustices? That s why I require a better grade of hero.
A postscript for male behavior. And particularly, young male behavior. Before they become adults where they must many times pretend to have 'seen the light' and thus become an alterred state of consciousness based on responsible maturation: Men are not defective women. They are men.
Sigaliris, Well stated. Brava!
Brava from me too, sigaliris.
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