From "Rush Limbaugh’s Complicated Legacy/He was a gifted entertainer and advocate, but in his later years certain flaws became more evident" by Peggy Noonan in the Wall Street Journal:
To create a community of tens of millions of people in fractured, incoherent America was an astounding feat. To pretty much sustain it over 30 years was equally astounding.
It is perhaps ironic but probably inevitable that that community was created by a man whom one of his closest friends this week called “an isolate.” Knowing him slightly over a few decades, I believe the most important thing to him was his profession, his show—three hours a day, five days a week, unscripted, with sound elements and callers....
He wasn't just isolated, he was an isolate. Isolation wasn't just a characteristic of his, in this formulation, it was what he himself was.
I've never noticed "isolate" — the noun — used to mean a type of person. Of course, people are often referred to as "isolated," but "isolate"? It seems like "introvert" or "incel." It's all the way deep into your being.
Yet somehow you have close friends, close enough that one of them can be referred to as "one of his closest friends." Do you have enough close friends that there's someone who'd refer to himself as "one of" your "closest friends"?! Maybe your "closest friends" are fairly distant. A person with no truly close friends still has his "closest friends." These people might not even know him well at all, just well enough to observe that he is isolated, and coldly enough to call him "an isolate."
The noun "isolate" is a term in social psychology: "A person who, either from choice or through separation or rejection, is isolated from normal social interaction; also occasionally an animal separated from its kind" (OED).
People say we've got it made/Don't they know we're so afraid?
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192 comments:
Heh. Peggy Noonan.
Rush was married.
Peggy Noonan isn’t.
Noonan’s observational and analytical skills suck.
The DC political class hates the country and the people in it.
It is interesting to see how far these people will go to attack someone who just died and try to destroy their memory and the people that listened to Rush.
She is just creeping along that line with care and malice.
Peggy shows every week that we are not just being patronized by our inferiors, we are being actively insulted by them.
Peggy holding forth in the WSJ and some Al Franken lover in National Review--telling illustrations of establishment "conservatism."
Somehow his friends, associates and employees say he was a warm and generous human being.
Noonan! She's really should be over at the NYT.
Maybe Noonan should quit confining herself to the cocktail party crowd.
Doesn't that make her a "confine"?
Payback by Peggy against a dead man who can't respond. Peggy is just pissed off that her influence - never that great - has really waned. The GOP has passed her bye/by/buy.
We lawyers know that to put on a 3 hour show, you have to spend AT LEAST 6 hours in prep. And you haven't to read, comprehend and compose.
Hells bells. I could write a better column for the WSJ than Peggy in less than 4 hours.
Peggy Noonan was good at writing speeches, three decades ago.
I heard it in a line recited by an Irish character in a movie. Maybe someone else recalls the name of the movie. I think it applies to Peggy as she's Irish.
"She needs a mercy fuck."
No one will speak of noonan not even her cats,
It does seem odd that "an isolate" would have enough friends that it's possible to describe a person as not just one of those friends, not even as the closest friend, but as one of the closest friends. What's the minimum number of friends a person could have while still making that distinction necessary? What the largest number of friends "an isolate" could have? How do those two numbers match up? Which one is bigger?
Noonan is a female cuckservative...not sure what would be the correct term.
Peggy used to be more human. Nevertrumping did something dark to these peoples’ souls. Nobody did more to stand up for America and Americans than Rush, being relentlessly optimistic. The qualities we used to find in Peggy’s writing, before her brain turned sour and she started cranking out grumpy drivel. WTF Peggy!
You should watch the clip of Bo Snerdley almost breaking down when speaking to Hannity.
Every person who actually knew Rush seemed to love him...
His bombast was schtick...and it was effective.
https://thefederalist.com/2021/02/19/how-listening-to-rush-limbaugh-as-a-democrat-taught-me-to-be-a-better-person/
From those who knew him very well...he was known to be a 'private' man. Isolate? Peggy and her words. He lived privately, walled off from most of the public because he had to. He was not loved by some on the Left. And in case you may not have noticed, those people tend to attack those who say things they do not like- at their homes, at restaurants, clubs, wherever.
Rush had millions of adoring fans and millions who hated him (though never actually listened to him). That many people with high emotions about you would make any sane person become more private.
As an 'isolate' he gave more of himself to the country than most anyone we'll ever know of in our lifetime. He was known to be extremely generous, kind, helpful, and a mentor to many many people. And as such, he is loved. Let's compare that to how people feel about...oh...let's say Nancy Pelosi.
Noonan's a flake. The noun.
re: You should watch the clip of Bo Snerdley almost breaking down when speaking to Hannity.
Now wait just a cotton-picking minute there, buster. I have it on the best authority that Bo Snerdley doesn't even exist!
*drum roll*
wow. Rush was battling stage 4 lung cnacer during covid.
and Nancy Noonan has the inside scoop that Rush was Isolated.
Impressive.
I wonder if Nancy Noonan knows who Alan Berg is?
Celebrities like their privacy - some like it a lot.
Bid news from the Bush supporting Nancy Noonan.
tip toe thru the typos.
I can't wait for Maggie Haberman to publish her "The secret life of Rush Limbaugh" column.
Anonymous sources familiar with Limbaugh's thinking confirm..."
Being an isolate is a flaw? Who knew? Peggy Noonan?
Noonan has demonstrated in recent years that her critical thinking skills have become impaired. Time for the WSJ to put nostalgia aside and replace her. Of course that might necessitate finding a real conservative columnist and pissing off the younger journolistas on the news side.
Noonan has long suffered from delusions of adequacy.
Certain elitist ass kissing betrayal flaws are becoming more apparent in Peggy Noonan’s later years.
Do you think they’ll bury Peggy Noonan with her collar up?
"Noonan has long suffered from delusions of adequacy."
A modest woman with much to be modest about.
But God bless her, she's been milking one speech for 35 years...that's a lot of DC cocktail parties.
What Noonan means is that Rush was apparently isolated from her wisdom.
I gave up on Peggy long before I gave up on National Review in 2015.
Isolate is a highly refined chemical compound. Like making toluene isolate from crude oil. Most of your cannabis eatables are THC isolate. I read it that she thinks Rush is pure, the genuine article.
I accept that.
Some of the prickly remarks here seem to assume Noonan--who I do not care for--applied the term "isolate" to Limbaugh as an insult, or to indicate something lacking in him.
Why? There is nothing intrinsically pejorative about the characterization of "isolate." Some people just prefer solitude and their own company to being constantly surrounded by others. Is that so wrong?
"She needs a mercy fuck."
--------------------
As the old saying goes:"Not with mine. Not even with yours."
So a faded media hack latches on to a word, imbues this work with false meaning. Then publishes a column about a man she never held a single conversation with and what? That her tens of readers should be in awe of her false and pretentious insight? Frankly, Noonan, the Bushes, the Bulkwark and the Lincoln Project have damaged the social contract of America more than Totalitarian Leftist, Inc. ever could.
Cookie, I agree and I, myself, prefer isolation to company, for the most part. But Noonan seemed to be presenting it as a character disorder.
Does that mean if Rush were a character in a Greek tragedy would his name be Isosceles?
Robert Cook said...Some of the prickly remarks here seem to assume Noonan--who I do not care for--applied the term "isolate" to Limbaugh as an insult, or to indicate something lacking in him.
No. We’re ripping her for the “certain flaws became more evident” b.s.
If Limbaugh wanted to isolate his personal life that was his business, not hers. He BUILT his own platform and didn’t have to beg or kiss ass like Peggy does to get invited to participate in one of Chuck Todd’s Sunday morning bukake sessions.
I read the whole column - she had talked with him several times over the years, apparently. The column comes across as bitter - she and Rush diverged in thinking 15 years ago... He thought she was an elite, not in touch. She resents this, apparently, and called him a follower, not a leader.
Ya - she's exhibiting her flaw as a bitter old elite woman, without grace.
Limbaugh basically made a business decision to finally get on the Trump train once he saw the writing on the wall and knew which side the bread was buttered. He's a businessman, so I can understand that.
I only imagine how you people would have reacted to his death of he didn't bow down and kiss Trump's ring.
Mike Sylwester said...Peggy Noonan was good at writing speeches, three decades ago.
I was about to write something on that order, but it was four decades ago and the speeches were good because Ronnie delivered them.
Yes, Rush's flaws became evident "5 years ago" when he supported Trump and wanted to defeat Hillary and the Democrats. And fake conservative Peggy Noonan did NOT. The difference between Rush and Noonan is that despite being on the air for 32 years, Limbaugh just as popular and fresh as when he started. Of course, we all slow down, and even before he got cancer Rush wasn't the comic genius he had been.
But...his show with Trump got 35 million people in November. Meanwhile, who cares about Peggy Noonan? She's been writing the same lofty, out-of-touch, isn't the Establishment great, Oh, for the days of Reagan, crap for 20 years. Personally, I stopped reading her in 2008, when she was more interested in sneering and jeering at Palin, then in criticizing Obama.
I read isolate as merely a synonym for workaholic.
Peggy Noonan always supported Dan Rather, and absurdly talked about he was an "American Patriot" a "Former Marine", which is absurd. Dan Rather lied about Bush's NG service to help Kerry, and then lied and covered-up. Then got forced into retirement. But Noonan still praises him. That's because she's just an Establishment hack.
mockturtle said...
Noonan has long suffered from delusions of adequacy.
I was just going to say the same thing. Spengler has a new post over at PJMedia about mediocrity's hatred of genius. I'm getting the same vibe from Noonan.
Robert Cook: Trump inspires groupthink and encourages them to feel victimized by the "elite". These people can't help themselves to be offended and nasty at the slightest provocation.
Althouse is Pavlov.
Noonan strikes me as the type that enters a room with ordinary people inside sniffs (delicately) and presses a linen hanky to her nose before she wheels around and beats a hasty retreat.
I used to admire some of her prose for the writing style if not always the content. That faded with the new century.
Funny how all of Conservative Inc. just couldn't wait to tell us - on the day of his death - how much they disliked Rush Limbaugh, or thought he was "flawed". Again, their natural inclination is to ALWAYS stand with their media left-wing establishment buddies against everyone else. Has Peggy ever talked about Chuck Todd's "flaws"? Of course not, she loves being on Meet the Press and agreeing with Chuck about how horrible all those "Right-wingers" are.
Meanwhile, Jonah Goldberg, Charlie 3-wives Sykes, Rev. David french, and some Irish Clown at NRO are doing a little "happy dance" because Limbaugh is dead. They started by Hating Trump and they've ending by hating everyone to right of Joe Biden.
Noonan has a good prose style, and she good - in small doses on TV - but its all style. She has nothing of interest to say. She's the Proust of the political analysts.
After Noonan called for congress to censure President Trump for "obstructing justice" from the crap Mueller Report, Trump ripped her good on Twitter.
@realDonaldTrump (June 2, 2019). "Peggy Noonan, the simplistic writer for Trump Haters all, is stuck in the past glory of Reagan and has no idea what is happening with the Radical Left Democrats, or how vicious and desperate they are. Mueller had to correct his ridiculous statement, Peggy never understood it!"
Trump was right. She’s a witch that was rooted for the witch hunt. That makes her a fool. Simple.
What a waste of air.
"I only imagine how you people would have reacted to his death of he didn't bow down and kiss Trump's ring."
How is that traditional, Olde Tyme, country club conservatism doing these days?
Guys like Graham and Sasse and the late McCain...setting the world on fire?
Discuss...
Judge rheinhold, thats the name some at jom have dubbed sasse, i call him the mouth of the platte.
Rush, in his later years, was fine. It is Peggy Noonan's who flaws became more apparent as she aged.
Howard, you misread the tea leaves on your plate once again. Before there was Trump, there were millions of Americans who sensed or knew that this country was on a very bad path. Peggy Noonan is an elitist. She is, as Angelo Cordevilla called them, a member of the Ruling Class that has corrupted America.
Limbaugh didn't make a 'business decision' to split from the Party elite. He just couldn't take the stink any longer, like many of us. You state it as if Limbaugh just put his wet finger in the air to see which way the wind was blowing. That's what a politician does. The difference with Limbaugh is that he built the 'bandwagon' you claim he jumped on. You will be looking for a seat on that wagon at some point. There will be room for all when you finally get it. If you finally get it. There are doubters here.
Howard the Lockstep member of the collectivist Hive complaining about Groupthink: priceless.
It's interesting that Ms. Noonan talks about flaws developing later in life for Rush Limbaugh. At one point in time I looked forward to reading what Ms. Noonan had to say---that changed about 15 years ago. She became less and less readable--and in the last 5 years I haven't bothered to waste my time reading her. In fact I've contemplated writing a letter to the Wall Street Journal editor asking why they give her space.
PFFFT! Who cares what Ol' Peg has to say. She a darling of the TV left who is clueless about anything outside of DC and NYC.
Francisco D at 9:40 AM
it was four decades ago, and the speeches were good because Ronnie delivered them.
Thank you for that correction.
You keep using that word, close, but I don't think you know what it means in the context of a relationship.
I am a sociable person, have good and close friends, including mrs. stevew, but am quite content to regularly spend time by myself. Golfing, cycling, woodworking. When I was still traveling overnight for work I would often take morning and evening meals alone. If you were to call me an isolate, using it as it seems to be defined here, I would likely agree and consider it a simple descriptor, not an insult. I don't see that Noonan meant it negatively.
I can't read the rest of the article so I wonder what the "certain flaws" are? Surely being a little bit of a loner (an isolate?) isn't a flaw worth speaking about. In fact it's arguably an advantage for a person like Rush. A well known, outspoken figure keeping most people outside of his inner circle at a distance seems fairly wise to me.
It's pretty obvious that he really loved his job and really appreciated his audience. Beyond his show, it seemed like his interests were fairly narrow. In the years of listening to him it semed obvious that he loved playing golf. He enjoyed watching and talking about football. He loved his wife and cat. He loved the popular music of his era, especially Elton John. And he really loved Apple products. Often when there was a new iPhone or a big iOS update he'd spend show time blathering about it. But that was it as far as I can tell.
What Is Protein Isolate?
As the name implies, protein isolate is a purer form of supplement in which the natural protein is further processed to isolate the protein itself.
In Rush's case, the first ingredient was distilled wisdom with added fun and great music.
Rush understood that his enemies were the DC swamp critters and being a Bushite , Noonan was one. She has been the isolated one. Rush did 100,000 hours of live radio talking to his friends, making him the complete extrovert.
Come to think of it Peggy, as I stay at home in lockdown in the Newsom ruled state of California, we are all "isolates" now.
Howard said @9:40am: I only imagine how you people would have reacted to his death of[sic] he didn't bow down and kiss Trump's ring.
Howard obviously doesn't know Rush or his listeners (i.e., "you people"). Rush was Rush way before Trump, and he didn't change once Trump came along. Trump leveraged his populism from Rush and not the other way around.
Peggy is the prima facie case for term limits on pundits
"Rush Limbaugh’s Complicated Legacy/He was a gifted entertainer and advocate, but in his later years certain flaws became more evident"
Peggy Noonan once had a reputation for decency, but in her later years certain flaws have become more evident, such as an obnoxious and crass lack of class or decency.
Doesn't that make her a "confine"?
Well, there are some confine people on both sides.
As one of the few--perhaps the only?--commenter here publicly compared to La Noonan, let me just say I've never cared for her or her opinions.
Narr
Less, in fact, than I cared about Limbaugh and his, which was little enough
Chalk this one up to the perils of writing a weekly column. Deadlines approach, something newsworthy happened, I really having nothing to say but let's vomit words on the keyboard and ship it to the editor.
I think part of Rush's (and Trump's) appeal is that people like Peggy Noonan don't get him. My opinion of Rush would have been considerably diminished if Noonan had written a gushy eulogy....Rush's deficits were the source of his strength. If I were given a few months to live and had a mansion on the beach, I would not spend my final days critiquing Biden's domestic and foreign policies. I'd just sit there and watch the tide go out and the sun set and ponder what an insubstantial pageant it all is. When I listened to his show in the past few weeks, he seemed upbeat and cheerful and fully engaged with the politics of the moment. I'm not sure what to make of it? Flagrant denial or doing what you love?......In the end, his most enduring and faithful relationship was with his audience.
I believe in life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. I believe in American exceptionalism. I am for deregulation. I am for low marginal tax rates. I believe that people should be judged by the content of their character rather than by the color of their skin.
Peggy is on some other wavelength. I am amused by her criticism of Rush as an "isolate" when her hero, Ronald Reagan, was famous for being difficult to know. He had no close friends other than his wife.
She is well past her sell-by date.
Enjoy some Warren Zevon: "Splendid Isolation"
Whenever I falter in my mistrust of the mainstream media, I youtube a compilation of its reactions to Hillary losing and Trump winning in 2016. It recharges me. Rush had the same effect.
David B,
I've been writing monthly columns (@500 words) newsletters (@1000 words) and white papers (@1500 words) on deadline for money for over 20 years.
Also books, articles and videos.
My rule of thumb is 1000 words per hour.
Then an hour or so editing.
If Peggy n is spending more than an hour or two writing a 500 word column, she's doing it wrong.
The REALLY hard part for me is coming up with topics to write about. Also keeping straight what I've written about before and who for.
If I was doing politics, that would not be a problem at all.
John Henry
There's a great line about this in Death of Stalin" someone mentions heaven and kruschev (Buscemi) says something about he hopes is doesn't exist because "it will just be one endless conversation after another"
I suspect that after talking for 3 hours a day (more like 2 allowing for commercials) rush was just talked out.
John Henry
Of course Rush Limbaugh was an isolate. Talking with intelligence and humor three hours a day for thirty years to people you don’t know is an astounding, exhaustive achievement. How could he possibly have had emotional energy to spare after giving all that?
Noonan unmarried? Owing to her mindless description of Rush, I am thinking it would be fair to label her a "desolate".
Maybe she means the kind of person who sees close friends and family but does not generally go to parties or events.
Listening to Rush's show right now at my desk.
Repeat of Chrissy Hynde's permission for Rush to use her song as his intro. even tho she is a liberal herself.
She likes freedom of speech. so - she is not a progressive fascist.
You know who else didn't like 'social outsiders'?
"this is America. we have the right to disagree"
Not according to the modern progressive neo-fascist.
I'm not sure why it's such a gotcha to point out that Rush and others weren't immediately on the Trump Train. The reason they weren't was because they didn't believe he was a conservative. I didn't either. Trump proved it though.
Mark Steyn is good hosting Rush now.
Reminds me a bit of the characterisation of Lord Salisbury in a profile written of him towards the end of his career:
Lord Salisbury is unto the other Ministers as the Matterhorn to the smaller mountains that rise around it -- he is in the House of Lords and among these colleagues, but not of them. And so, with all his wonderful position, his tremendous prominence, his towering personality, he seems in the life of England and among his countrymen, detached, lonely, sombre.
I wasn't till the spring of 2016, fwiw, I was a cruz supporter, only the huntress could drive the nooner to heights of apoplexy,
If you voted for Joe Biden, you ain't no Republican.
I also was a Cruz supporter in 2016. I wasn't one of those, though, who thought Trump was a phony. I saw him for exactly what he was- a strongly pro-American businessman, and I had no problems supporting him after he won the nomination- I even predicted he would win it before the very first primary if the field continued to support amnesty and liberal immigration policies. It was no accident that the field narrowed down to just Trump, Cruz, and some imbecile from Ohio.
Apropos of pretty much nothing, the term isolate is used in linguistics to describe a language that has no known kinship to other surviving languages. For example, probably the best known example of an isolate is Basque, which is a non-Indo-European language surrounded by Indo-European languages.
Here's the Wikipedia article.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I've gotta get back to writing up the minutes for the last meeting of the L.O.P.D. (The Loyal Order of Pompous Dicks). I'm on the board of the suburban MD chapter.
Peggy Who? didn't she pass away, a LONG TIME AGO?
As for the word isolate- I have used it myself as a chemist to describe any substance isolated from a mixture of any kind- solid or liquid.
Love when I read a post, get a reaction and click in so I can comment, but the very first comment already says it all...
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"Repeat of Chrissy Hynde's permission for Rush to use her song as his intro. even tho she is a liberal herself.
She likes freedom of speech. so - she is not a progressive fascist."
And the royalty checks probably didn't hurt either...
Mongrels nip at the heels of those bigger than them.
It is what they do. It is also all they can do.
Perhaps he was just a very focused person, and his show was his priority, far above all other claims on his energy and time.
Always liked Peggy Noonan as a speechwriter. Probably would if she still wrote them. As a columnist, I thought she was and is so-so.
Really it's kind of a lazy way to start a paragraph with, "It is perhaps ironic . . . ".
I jumped on the Trump train Sept/Oct 2015.
I liked Cruz, and got why a lot of people supported him, but I didn't think a legal/Constitutional debate with liberals/commies for 4 years was going to cut it.
The Cruz/Trump divide destroyed several good "conservative" blogs. Even AOSHQ was teetering on the brink.
Peggy Noonan supported Barack Obama in 2008. She's a NeverTrumper. Her opinion is worth nothing and so are all the opinion writers of the wsj.
Hey, Arturo: I see you nipping.
Balfegor: Yes, Salisbury let [Joseph] Chamberlain, his energetic and gregarious Colonial Secretary, handle most of the negotiations for that reason.
He's baaaack.
"Howard, you misread the tea leaves on your plate once again. Before there was Trump, there were millions of Americans who sensed or knew that this country was on a very bad path."
It still is on a very bad path. Trump did nothing to change that, especially for those Americans who are being most fucked by the rule of the Military/Corporate/Financial complex.
"The essential American character . . . hard, isolate, stoic, and a killer."
Arturo Ui writes: "I'm glad Rush is isolated from the rest of us now. He was a horrible human being who did incalculable damage to our nation's social fabric. Good riddance." Yeah, people who value liberty are real monsters, aren't they?
In the summer of 2015, I believed Trump was an agent of Hillary and was shocked to hear a few minutes of Rush several times that seemed pro-Trump.
'from a certain point of view' he's right, ayers said 25 million would have to be liquidated when the revolution came, that was back when there were 100 million people in the population,
Peggy Noonan was a gifted entertainer and advocate, but in her later years certain flaws became evident.
Did hearing problems contribute to being an isolate?
Arturo Ui, 11:56:
"He was a horrible human being who did incalculable damage to our nation's social fabric. Good riddance."
You're good with Bertold Brecht, Stalin Peace Prize winner and supporter of lethal quashing of labor demonstrations, though, aren't you?
I wasn't a regular listener. From everything I've heard and read, Limbaugh was a fundamentally kind man, capable of great decency and generosity. And he went to some lengths to hide his generosity, I'd guess because he didn't want people to think he was trying to buy praise.
Pick out the worst things he ever said, the ones people on your side want to bring up when anyone praises him now, I'd agree they were pretty bad. They are also a tiny, tiny fraction of his roughly 20,000 hours on the air. I suspect it's not Rush at his exceptional worst that convicts him in your eyes of being a horrible person, it's Rush at his usual best.
"Peggy Noonan" what a shelf appointed pompous human being. Imagine publishing this article about a pioneer in his industry and all she could come up with is a language exposition. The "Elites" in our country have nothing to contribute anymore but MSM 'baubles'.
Mr. Cook- I don't disagree with you. I'll actually go further and say that our path just got even worse on Jan. 20. Where there was previously one person pushing back on the entrenched Rulers, there are now none.
Mark Steyn is currently doing a Rush Limbaugh Tribute show. He's hitting all the right notes. Worth listening to if you're a fan of Rush.
An isolate. In other words, an obscure religious scholar.
I don't know about "flaws becoming more apparent." Rush did get old and deaf and sick, and his show wasn't cutting edge anymore, but the stuff he did earlier would have led to constant cancellation campaigns, so it's more likely that the flaws some would see in him became less apparent as he aged and mellowed.
It's also a generalization that could be applied to many conservatives from the Reagan-Bush-Bush-McCain era. Whether or not they were right in their day, they don't have as much to say now. That goes for Noonan, Will, Kristol, and plenty of others.
Just see how he treated a gay feminist like Tammy Bruce was. Even gave her career advice. She determined that what her friends were telling her about Rush was completely wrong and started questioning her movement and her politics.
https://www.helleniscope.com/2021/02/19/how-rush-limbaugh-helped-me-rethink-being-a-leftist/
Arthur Godfrey and Walter Winchell had their moment. In their moment, they were probably bigger stars than Rush, but they flamed out. Rush went out on top. Maybe the comparable figure would be Johnny Carson.....Like Carson, Rush made the passing news amusing and, unlike Carson, he made the news seem significant and comprehensible...Whatever flaw Rush had as a human being, were not audible in his on air persona.
now he's a medici grifter, that would be jeb shorthand, but he represents the thinking so called of many,
https://dailycaller.com/2021/02/17/tim-miller-nicolle-wallace-donald-trump-blow-up-buildings-erase-memory-casino/
add to that the psychosis of BUDS twit malcolm nance, that wants to consider republicans like al queda, yes he went through training but I don't consider him a seal,
If you are great or famous, after you're gone people will talk about how they met you or knew you.
If you are really great or famous, after you're gone people will talk about how they never really knew you.
Great or famous people are often seen as isolated, lonely: nobody really knows you.
Fame makes people think that there is something more in you that they never got to know and never understood.
Peggy needs to lose her prime real estate on the WSJ editorial page.
The sighing voice of the upper middle aged, upper middle class female "Republican" needs to move to her natural habitat, the editorial page of the NYTimes.
Ironically, in his most cutting edge prime, Rush helped create and promote the globalists sellout GOPe Lincolon Logger Lumberjacks and probably helped Peggy Noonan's career.
Howard: "Ironically, in his most cutting edge prime, Rush helped create and promote the globalists sellout GOPe Lincolon Logger Lumberjacks and probably helped Peggy Noonan's career."
Utterly weird and bizarrely inaccurate assessment without the remotest tinge of a viable supporting fact.
Basically, par for the course.
He put a three hour radio show together five days a week for 30 years. You've got to spend time alone to do that. And, he had friends. He didn't get to see them as much in later years but still, he had more friends that most of us. Right? I used to read Peggy Noonan. Not anymore. Kind of like Bill Kristol.
Peggy Noonan is our Gail Collins.
"It was four decades ago, and the speeches were good because Ronnie delivered them.
Thank you for that correction."
IRC, she helped write the bush "No new taxes" 1988 Convention speech.
Which, of course, was a LIE.
what do you mean our, more like katherine parker,
https://amgreatness.com/2021/02/18/retired-general-honore-chosen-by-pelosi-to-head-independent-review-of-capitol-hill-riots-under-fire-for-bigoted-partisan-and-profane-remarks/
"Peggy Noonan is our Gail Collins."
I prefer to think of her as the political Margaret Dumont.
The sighing voice of the upper middle aged, upper middle class female "Republican" needs to move to her natural habitat, the editorial page of the NYTimes.
The WSJ gets more like the NY Times every year. I quit several years ago. Even Kim Strassel could not keep me writing checks.
Florida governor Ron DeSantis has ordered the State of Florida to lower its flags to half-staff to honor Rush Limbaugh’s memory.The Florida governor’s honoring of the great American patriot Rush was met with a flood of outrage by the perpetually aggrieved left.
Until Trump moved here, he was the greatest living Floridian.
All the spirit of Rush clips today were from the early Rush; appropriate because it was what people were tuning in for, even if Rush was no longer providing it in later years. He might do it again.
Imus had listeners long after he had any talent because once he would do funny stuff and people kept hoping.
"Mr. Cook- I don't disagree with you. I'll actually go further and say that our path just got even worse on Jan. 20. Where there was previously one person pushing back on the entrenched Rulers, there are now none."
That's the thing. Trump wasn't really doing much or any push back against the entrenched interests. His rhetoric to the contrary was propaganda. (Trump is really a part of the entrenched interests, but he is canny enough to know how to appeal to the rabble).
Biden is certainly no improvement, and he could, in fact, be worse. It's too soon to know how bad he will be, but bad he will be.
I can understand the friend calling him that. He made some public appearances but he was generally uncomfortable outside of his home and radio studio. He used to say so...
When I first listened to Rush he articulated things that I felt but could not articulate. Like a I’m not crazy aha moment. I was hooked.
Blogger Drago said...
Howard: "Ironically, in his most cutting edge prime, Rush helped create and promote the globalists sellout GOPe Lincolon Logger Lumberjacks and probably helped Peggy Noonan's career."
Utterly weird and bizarrely inaccurate assessment without the remotest tinge of a viable supporting fact.
Basically, par for the course.
I understand your denial for being an in the tank Newt Bush Cheney Republican back in the day. You want you're peers to believe you were always a Trumper.
Peggy Noonan observed: "When Limbaugh came on the scene, conservatives had gotten good at electing presidents, but were largely left out of the national conversation on the airwaves."
David French at The Dispatch got it right:
It’s almost impossible to conceive of the pre-Rush Limbaugh media environment. It was as if we lived on a different planet. You read your morning paper, you watched the evening news, and if you were really a political hobbyist (I was!), you subscribed to Time, Newsweek, or both. The smallest micro-slice of Americans was exposed to intellectual journals like National Review or The New Republic.
My exposure to conservative commentary was the library’s copy of NR, combined with a few syndicated conservative columnists. In those days, George Will was a lifeline.
Rush blew up this world. He nuked it from orbit. It wasn’t just that his show was popular (and it was phenomenally popular): He created an industry, and that industry created a lifestyle. . . .
But many of the obituaries and analyses of Rush’s undeniable impact miss that he didn’t just lead and shape a generation of political commentary — he also in many ways reflected and followed his own audience. Rush’s trajectory both shaped and mirrored the trajectory of tens of millions of Americans. It’s the path from [a happy Rush sponsoring] Dan’s Bake Sale in 1993 to [an unhappy man talking about] conspiracy [supporting Trump the Racketeer beginning in 2015 to] deep paranoia, and musings about secession in 2020 [as he fought pain and suffering from lung cancer and its treatments while awaiting the inevitable end to his life].
Sadly, Rush's ego was as large as that of The Donald, so I reckon that he didn't know that as a broadcaster he was no longer an entertainer.
That's the thing. Trump wasn't really doing much or any push back against the entrenched interests. His rhetoric to the contrary was propaganda. (Trump is really a part of the entrenched interests, but he is canny enough to know how to appeal to the rabble).
Jesus, I don't even know how to address this.
Did you even follow what was happening the past 4 years? Every single scandal that turned out to be nothing? Every thing he said that got a reaction (in other words, everything he said)? Two impeachments, attempts to make it so he can never run again. An attempt to keep him from being buried in Arlington.
This is NOT how you treat someone that's part of the entrenched interests, unless you have a different definition of that. In your mind, what the hell would constitute "push back?"
Meanwhile
https://libertyunyielding.com/2021/02/15/capitol-riot-prying-out-the-narrative-bringing-in-nuggets-of-reality/
I agree with R. Cook,
Being insular isn't a character 'flaw'. With the exception of my immediate family - and that list can and has been reduced - I am very reserved and insular. Other than a chat when snow shoveling and being 'neighborly' and helping to help clear drives is proper, just leave me the hell alone after, unless you're bringing a bottle as a present.
Althouse probably fits the definition of an isolate.
Robert Cook thinks Trump appeals only to the "rabble".
That's us, folks.
loner is the conventional term. Isolate would be some PhD candidates way to make their academic bones when they lack enough creativity to use the convention subtly.
Rush's ego was as large as that of The Donald, so I reckon ...
I am guessing that Leftists are selflessly and completely concerned with helping others and have no egos. Joe Biden is the ultimate example. How wonderful! It must make you proud.
Consider Ayn Rand's central theme in "The Fountainhead" : Man's ego is the fountainhead of human progress.
Discuss among yourselves.
Trump is really a part of the entrenched interests, but he is canny enough to know how to appeal to the rabble.
"Rabble"? There's a quaint archaism! I'm guessing you don't think you're part of it. Perhaps because you belong to (if you'll permit me the use of another quaint archaism) the "intelligentsia"?
Are (is?) the "rabble" the same thing as the "deplorables"?
Dear "conservative" talking heads:
Do you have something nice to say about Rush? Share it.
Do you have something not nice to say about Rush?
Shut up. Save it for later.
Because spouting something anti-Rush, in any way shape or form, at this point in time is aligning yourself with they Left.
Or just showing that you have no class..
I'm not a huge Rush fan. But I'm a sworn enemy of anyone who aligns themselves with the Left.
So, bye Peggy. Bye MBD. Bye, all the rest of you ghouls and losers.
If you inhabit such a bubble of evil that you can't figure out how inappropriate this is, you're not worth reading
Trump was such a friend of “entrenched interests” that they all banded together to “fortify” the election against him.
Trump was such a friend of “entrenched interests” that they all banded together to “fortify” the election against him.
Exactly.
This is why I wonder some times if Robert Cook lives on some other planet.
When I hear "isolate" and think of bacteria.
Just a very odd word choice unless you are trying to provoke.
"Isolate" as in did not join in the usual social circuit. The more I think about it, the more I think she meant it this way. It's not the same as loner because that word implies no friends.
'Rabble'? There's a quaint archaism! I'm guessing you don't think you're part of it. Perhaps because you belong to (if you'll permit me the use of another quaint archaism) the 'intelligentsia'?"
Absolutely I'm a part of the rabble. Anyone not in the highest economic strata of this country are rabble...to them. I am certainly not a part of the intelligentsia, if that even exists anymore.
"Did you even follow what was happening the past 4 years? Every single scandal that turned out to be nothing? Every thing he said that got a reaction (in other words, everything he said)? Two impeachments, attempts to make it so he can never run again. An attempt to keep him from being buried in Arlington."
That is the work of the Democratic Party, deranged that a clown like Trump could have taken the Presidency away from Hillary. They remain deranged today.
"isolate"! Because Rush didn't hang out at the same bars and cocktail parties Peggy does.
When I read the quote, I thought Noonan was using the noun isolate in a biology sense — a breed or species with no close peers. Like a panda or platypus. I didn’t immediately think she meant he chose to be a loner.
Robert Cook said... That is the work of the Democratic Party, deranged that a clown like Trump could have taken the Presidency away from Hillary. They remain deranged today.
I appreciate your honesty Cookie.
I really wish we could get back to the days when reasonable people had strong disagreements but did not resort to villainizing, suing and cancelling the other side.
What? Those days never existed? It's gotta be those fucking Commies that are responsible! Someone should sue them.
"Ronald Reagan, was famous for being difficult to know. He had no close friends other than his wife."
WFB and his wife were Regan's best friends. Just because we weren't privy to their dinner parties does mean they were isolates. Your best friends don't name drop.
Peggy hasn't aged well.
@Greg the Class Traitor:
Or just showing that you have no class.
How long does he have to be dead before telling the truth about him stops being unclassy?
But I'm a sworn enemy of anyone who aligns themselves with the Left.
You realize you’re using Google right?
"The WSJ gets more like the NY Times every year."
The WSJ weekend sections have been turning into 'Ebony Magazine.'
I guess there are no more interesting white people to profile or interview anymore...
There is an old B/W sify movie about the mole people. The scientists therein call them "mutates" instead of "mutants." This was a source of amusement to the me and theys that were college freshmen at that particular space time coordinate. So is Trump an Isolate or an Isolant? Is the author smart enough to know the difference?
Ah lOL
https://www.nationalreview.com/2021/02/advantage-trump-in-the-gop-civil-war-for-now/
There's rabble, and deplorable, and now-- Deplorabble!
Narr
Althouse's Deplorabbles!
Was Limbaugh's ego really that big or was it part of the act? It can be hard to tell. Surely the act reflected something already in him, but clearly it was also a performance and an exaggeration.
And did Rush really break up or blow up the earlier media world? All by himself? Like Buckley, he gave conservatives a rallying point in the media at a time when liberals already had their own rallying points, and he did change the opinion landscape, but more likely it was 24 hour cable news and opinion and the internet that really "blew up" that older world where media were much more limited.
Everybody in the news gets an obituary sooner or later. I'm not sure those of David French and the other NeverTrumpers will be particularly kind either, though they will be shorter and fewer people will read them.
well thats true, but he was the pioneer that held out the longest, the left response was stewart and camelbert, who repeated all their old truisms,
Perhaps Peggy's definition of an "isolate" is someone who's not so desperate to be invited to the in-crowd's dinner parties that they change their political viewpoints almost daily in order to conform to whatever is in style at the moment.
J. Farmer said...
@Greg the Class Traitor:
>> Or just showing that you have no class.
How long does he have to be dead before telling the truth about him stops being unclassy?
1: She's wrong, and / or lying
2: Months
>> But I'm a sworn enemy of anyone who aligns themselves with the Left.
You realize you’re using Google right?
I do all my searches with Duck Duck Go.
Althouse is using Google to get her words out. I'm using Google to read them.
I do my best to, while I use Google, to give them little to no benefit from it
"Was Limbaugh's ego really that big or was it part of the act? It can be hard to tell."
Rush was a native of South East Missouri, Cape Girardeau. He went to college at South East Mo State but was not awarded a regular degree. Kind of like Bill Gates and the other guys that left Harvard before getting a BA. He went into radio fast and made a lot of money. No one from South East Missouri has a big ego. They just don't. Biggest guys are cotton farmers.
But I'm a sworn enemy of anyone who aligns themselves with the Left.
LOL. Were a sworn enemy of DJT when he aligned himself with Bernie Sanders in December on the topic of free government money (don't call it socialism)?
Don't pretend to be some sort of principled conservative. Your just a psychotic fanboy.
"Isolate" is just a happy-face euphemism for loner, which has been forever poisoned by its association with serial killers and mass murderers. I'm an introvert myself who borders on being a hermit, so euphemisms for "loner" are familiar, although I usually use solitary rather than "isolate." In conversations I might even joke "I'm the dreaded loner you're always reading about in newspaper headlines."
"Your just a psychotic fanboy."
A fanboy of what, in particular? It would hep to let us know.
Robert F'n Cook- "Why? There is nothing intrinsically pejorative about the characterization of "isolate." Some people just prefer solitude and their own company to being constantly surrounded by others. Is that so wrong?"
Cook boils it down.
Howard- "Althouse is Pavlov."
Heh. This girl, Althouse, is that.
rhhardin- "early Rush; appropriate because it was what people were tuning in for, even if Rush was no longer providing it in later years."
Yeah, in the last years, I only tuned in to find out if Mark Steyn was subbing. The first 20 years of MahaRushie was entertaining, and mind-blowing. Wait... can lesbian feminists be criticized?...Yes, but it was only Entertainment. So many listeners thought that when the disease was exposed, someone would...y'now...do something about it.
Some think that when the disease of our Federal Government is exposed, that someone is fixing it. Nobody's fixing it.
Sen. William Proxmire to '89 had his 'Golden Fleece' awards, screaming about the sickness of our Federal Government. Sen. Tom Coburn's 'Wastebook'. 2012.
Oh, good...somebody's doing something about this. Right?
No. Nobody's doing anything about it. The closest we have come to fix this is the mostly peaceful protest on Jan 6th, at the Heart of Darkness that is our cesspool of a Capitol City.
Americans thought they could gather at the Nation's Capitol to use their voices to Protest the massive fraud in our 2020 election, that installed an Occupant into the White House.
Women on the gossip site, Facebook, bragged about how they were bringing GrandMa to be 'part of history'. That's not how it works,
History is recorded after the event, not before.
Women and the elderly. Wonderful intentions. No match for what we face.
Razor wire surrounds our Capitol City now. Here we are.
Hmmm...I'm thinking this situation calls for men. Sacrificial men. It will be Glorious.
The current left-wing party line on Rush Limbaugh is that he "laughed at Gays dying of AIDS". Then when you try to find any actual Limbaugh Words or audio to support this, its not there.
So, what is the support? well, someone wrote a book back in the mid-90's that said Limbaugh did this, and then the NYT's quoted it. So, therefore its "True".
So, we have Limbaugh saying NOTHING hateful about Gays for at least 25 years. But it doesn't matter. He said something once, 27-32 years ago, and that's it. It remninds me of Willliam Buckley. WFB never supported segregation, but he understood the South's position, and was OK with them imposing a FEDERAL enforced Desegregation. By about 1966, Buckley gave this up, and completely agreed with the liberal view on race. AND apologized for his past position.
Fast forward to 2006. Buckley dies, and what do the liberal/left write? Oh, WFB was a racist/bigot who supported segregation, who deserved to die! Once again, his apology meant ZERO. His changed behavior meant ZERO.
The Left is very good at DISGUISING their ideological hatred as "hating hate". They don't hate Rush Limbaugh because he's a conservative. No, it was because it was "hateful to Gays". Sometimes its the Gays. Sometimes its the blacks. Sometimes its woman. But its always fake.
The motto of Conservatives should be: Never explain, never apologize and never back down from anything you say. Ever. They're going to call you a racist, sexist homophobe regardless of what you do.
@Greg the Class Traitor:
1: She's wrong, and / or lying
2: Months
Sounds like a good rule for you to follow.
At the risk of being déclassé, Rush was a disaster for conservatism. He may have worn the banner of conservatism, but it was the Republican Party that he supported and defended, which means that what Rush actually promoted was not conservatism but neoliberalism.
I do my best to, while I use Google, to give them little to no benefit from it
Using Google is what gives them the benefit.
@rcocean:
The Left is very good at DISGUISING their ideological hatred as "hating hate". They don't hate Rush Limbaugh because he's a conservative. No, it was because it was "hateful to Gays". Sometimes its the Gays. Sometimes its the blacks. Sometimes its woman. But its always fake.
Well, "the Left" can't complain about Rush's economic neoliberalism, since it's made them so much wealthier and more powerful than they've ever been.
"At the risk of being déclassé, Rush was a disaster for conservatism. He may have worn the banner of conservatism, but it was the Republican Party that he supported and defended, which means that what Rush actually promoted was not conservatism but neoliberalism."
Why don't you just say that Rush was "neoliberal" and not "conservative" according to your personal definitions. Why make it into an argument?
I remember when Rush started to hit the big time. He wanted to be in with the cool kids, and would talk on the air about socializing with the in crowd and tell his audience about it. I remember thinking “Another one bites the dust.” (I was wrong). He did the big makeover to make himself look like Kelsey Grammer rather than the fat kid.
The cool kids cast him out. The Donovan McNabb thing. The hearing loss, the oxy addiction and the vindictive prosecution. The constant casual branding as “racist.”
And yet he engaged. He talked all the time, very perceptively, about what both liberals and RINO’s saw things and why they took the positions they did. He was able to do that because he had lots of friends who he talked about things with, many of whom were liberals and RINOs.
What crap. He may have been “isolate” when he was dying of cancer, but he loved, and loved engaging with, people of all stripes.
It’s true. Rush was never a big John C. Calhoun guy.
Not many of you folks around these days, Farmer.
By the way, “Liberals” used to be people like Hayek and Locke. Times change.
This thing...this Althouse blog has to be tasted over time. It is not a one day thing.
It's a Crock pot. The voices, strident...melt together. Turns out...we want the same thing.
D.D. Driver said...
Me: But I'm a sworn enemy of anyone who aligns themselves with the Left.
LOL. Were a sworn enemy of DJT when he aligned himself with Bernie Sanders in December on the topic of free government money (don't call it socialism)?
DD, who celebrates Democrat vote theft, believe's he's qualified to tell the rest of us what counts as "opposing the Left."
because, apparently being a big supporter of the Left makes you the best judge of that,
Apparently, to DD the 5th Amendment is "socialism".
"Nor shall private property be take for public use without just compensation."
Lockdowns, quarantines, business closures. Those were and are all government "takings" of private property. Providing "just compensation" for that taking is only "socialism" if you're a moron.
Now, McConnell feeding out all the corrupt pork? THAT was most certainly worthy of condemnation.
Funny how DD doesn't bring that up.
300 million people. $2,000 each would be $0.6 trillion
The Covid porkfest was $2.4 trillion
Trump wasn't the problem there
"Well, "the Left" can't complain about Rush's economic neoliberalism, since it's made them so much wealthier and more powerful than they've ever been. "
America has a royal class. If you don't know who the royals are, you are not a part of the class, they are not us, dear.
The rich blacks have the same thing, with the brown paper bag test and the Jack and Jill clubs.
I understand Rush's pesky anal warts problem has cleared up.
This reminded me of the old quip from Britain:
Fog in the Channel, the continent is cut off.
He wasn't isolated. Noonan a long standing denizen of what she and others consider the center of politics and culture, would think someone outside as isolated.
Peggy Noonan doesn't have much of a rep anymore with conservatives or conservatism. She's an inside-the-Beltway elitist, eager for the next social gathering in Georgetown or on K Street, with a pretty full sense of her own rightness. She turned against the grubby little folks of Flyover Country when O became a viable if not plausible candidate, so much more when Trump won in 2016. She seems pretty well comfortable with being around Mitch McConnell rather than with Mitch at the bowling alley.
Rush Limbaugh said what most if not all of his listeners thought. He WAS a bit one-note-ish, but it was a note people tuned-in to hear every day he was on the air. I'm not sure his listeners really concerned themselves with who he was outside of his show. That was his time to chill and isolate.
The man played golf several times a week and seemed remarkably lackey-free. He was reportedly good friends with a lot of the people the GOPe have shunned in recent years: that’s a good and admirable crowd to belong to, but they avoid conservative media too, conservative media being bought up by either Iran/Lincoln Party spooks or those morally repulsive, wannabe astroturfer, contemptuous-of-the-little-guy Kochs. Every person with whom he has ever worked has commented on two things: his erudition and his loyalty to employees.
That alone is a life well lived. My mother had lung-to-brain cancer and lasted three months at diagnosis. What amazed me was the how she could be quite confused, but then come out with these swaths of her perfect, brilliant wit right up to the end. Cancer had to work overtime to shut her personality down. The same was true of Rush and some other brilliant people I’ve known. Talkers to the end. Screw you, cancer. Also, Peggy Noonan.
Bob said...
"Isolate" is just a happy-face euphemism for loner, which has been forever poisoned by its association with serial killers and mass murderers. I'm an introvert myself who borders on being a hermit, so euphemisms for "loner" are familiar, although I usually use solitary rather than "isolate." In conversations I might even joke "I'm the dreaded loner you're always reading about in newspaper headlines."
Excellent. I was posting Melville's quote on "Isolatos" on the other thread, but this DH Lawrence quote is more relevant:
“The essential American soul is hard, isolate, stoic, and a killer. It has never yet melted.”
― D.H. Lawrence, Studies in Classic American Literature
Mutaman said...
"I understand Rush's pesky anal warts problem has cleared up."
You know he can't hear you, right? He isn't here anymore. So the only thing your words serve up is that you like to masturbate in public. Your parents must be so proud.
Tina.
He was also enormously generous. He would have a charity drive every year and match whatever the listeners gave.
Meanwhile. The usual suspects think welfare is charity.
I get the dead tree edition of the WSJ--and this morning Ms. Noonan's screed arrived on my breakfast table. It's worse than our host thought. Within the first paragraph Ms. Noonan has called conservative people "essentially cold and faking warmth" in their eulogies to Limbaugh.
I've come to the conclusion that Ms. Noonan (unreadable for quite a while now) makes Maureen Dowd look like Mother Theresa.
Limbaugh the impudent, the deplorable, the anti-diversitist: Pro-Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. At least he wasn't an incel. #Judgment #TooManyLabels #Pro-Choice
Peggy Noonan has reached an age where her pen also serves as her dildo.
Eric the Fruit Bat says it exactly right, "I read isolate as merely a synonym for workaholic”. Warren Zevon had a pretty decent take on isolation as well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xea77QbAqxo
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