Rush Limbaugh: "Funny" Man or Libelous?

Yep, I know, shock jocks and schlock jokes are supposed to be, well, shocking and schlocky, so you have to expect them to say outrageous things. It pays their bills, it keeps them employed. It makes them happy, even if a lot of other people don't end up happy.

So it was this week with Rush Limbaugh, who really outdid himself.  His comments seem to be making a much bigger stir than usual, as he's all over the blogosphere with this, and the outrage is hot enough to make the snow melt all the way to Minsk.

Rush Limbaugh does not seem to like
Sandra Fluke

Rush was talking about Sandra Fluke, that young woman who wanted  to testify before a Congressional committee run by Republicans on who should cover contraception through insurance plans and who need not.  She was not allowed to, outraging some Democrats and pleasing some Republicans.

Fine, or not fine, that's politics. I won't get into that contraception debate. It's too much work, frankly. But Limbaugh had this charming thing to say about the young woman in question:


"What does it say about the college co-ed Susan Fluke [sic] who goes before a congressional committee and essentially says that she must be paid to have sex -- what does that make her? It makes her a slut, right? It makes her a prostitute. She wants to be paid to have sex. She's having so much sex she can't afford the contraception. She wants you and me and the taxpayers to pay her to have sex. ... Ok, so she's not a slut. She's round-heeled."

What a comedian. Maybe Rush was just trying to mimic that old Saturday Night Live sketch fron the 1970s, You know, the one that goes "Jane, you ignorant slut."

Anyway, readers, when does one cross the line from being shocky and schlocky and being libelous?  Yes, Fluke did put herself in the spotlight, which makes it harder to pursue a libel charge, but whaddaya think, was Fluke libeled anyway?  I imagine if confronted, Rush would say he was joking, but there's also obviously no evidence that Fluke is a prostitute. Rush technically accused Fluke of doing something illegal. 

So what should Fluke do? Sue or let it go? Of course, I'd better be careful talking about this.  If Rush finds out I'm questioning his judgement, maybe he'll accuse me of having sex with a honey badger, or something.

In any event, feel free to offer your opinion. Just don't call anybody a slut if you do.  

The Monthly Fail Review

As I do every month, I bring you a compilation of fails from the month just passing. This time, we look at February.

Not surprisingly, given we're talking about February, this month's review has a bit of a winter theme, as several bad sledding, skiing and icy road mishaps appear, as do a couple weirder winter whoopsies.

In this video, my favorite is the old guy at the car wash and what happened to the guy who copped a feel of a woman's butt.

Here's the video, so you can feel better about yourself for not being quite this stupid:

Cooking With Poo, and Lots of Sand Dredging

Being in a silly mood recently, I was looking at Buzzfeed and found a small item on the strangest book titles.

The winner was called "Cooking With Poo" which honestly doesn't sound that appetizing. I had to wonder if restaurants did this, the health authorities would certainly disapprove.

I thought maybe the book was a takeoff on the Food Network show "Chopped" in which chefs must make delicious meals out of strange ingredients, but I doubt even TV would go as far as Poo.

On the other hand, my dog Jackson goes out in the yard and tries to eat the poo left by the flock of wild turkeys that keep wandering by. But that's another story.

Luckily,  if you read the fine print, "Cooking With Poo" is a Thai cookbook, and the word "poo" means "crab"

So, we're really cooking with crab, which is another, much better thing altogether. We can all take a big sigh or relief now. And I do feel sorry for the author, who is probably a very good cook and is getting picked on for her book she innocently titled, and we all have a middle school mentality.

It turns out that the "Poo" cookbook and many other bizarre titles are the subject of a contest. The Diagram Contest has for years honored, if you can call it that, strange book titles, according to an article in the Telegraph of London. 

I was especially taken by one of the runners up in the list of silly titles. It's called "A Century of Sand Dredging in the Bristol Channel, Volume II."

Volume II!?!?!?   There's that much to say about digging sand out of a channel? The book, running all of 128 pages, is probably for those people who have insomnia and are loathe to take sleeping pills. I'd read the book to see if there's anything to say, other than people dig sand out of channels.

Maybe there's hilarious stories of people, um, spilling sand on themselves? Accidentally getting sand grains in their sandwiches during lunch? Building elaborate sand castles? Do they use little plastic shovels and buckets to do their work, like a toddler at a beach? Maybe this is interesting after all. Or not.

Past winners of the Diagram awards have been intriguing to say the least. The first year of the awards, in 1978, the big winner was "Proceedings of the Second International Workshop on Nude Mice." I wonder if this international workshop goes on to this day.  And are nude mice a problem or something to be celebrated.

Other winners include:

1986: "Oral Sadism and The Vegetarian Personality." I never realized vegetarians have so much fun, so to speak.

1990: "Lesbian Sadomasochism Safety Manual." This sadomasochism seems to be a recurring theme in the Diagram Awards. I'm glad there's a safety manual, though. I support anything that keeps health care costs down.

1994: "Highlights in the History of Concrete": Hey, concrete is partly made from sand. I bet a new book, a collaboration of the guy who wrote the sand dredging book would be interesting.

2002: "Living With Crazy Buttocks" I'd commit suicide inside if I had crazy buttocks, whatever that is.

2004: "Bombproof Your Horse" Because there's nothing worse than an exploding equine.

2006: "The Stray Shopping Carts of Eastern North America: A Guide to Field Identification": Oooh! Look, a rare Target cart in that ditch near the Interstate interchange. Get a photo before it disappears!

2007: "If You Want Closure In Your Relationship, Start With Your Legs."  Good advice!

Dogging It In the Snow

When you're a little dog in Vermont, sometimes the snow is just too much.

Jackson, the cocker spaniel that lives with Jeff and me, discovered this in our yard Sunday. The snow was pretty deep for his little legs. He gamely played as he always does, but the fatigue eventually set in, as this picture series shows: (click on the photos to embiggen them, and get a better view)

Phew! That icy hill was a tough climb!

I think I'll just rest here for a moment

Better yet, it's time to retreat to the warm, sunny  couch
in the living room.

Amazing Snow Circle Art Not The Work of Space Aliens

We finally had a decent snow storm in Vermont the other day, and it is nice to see that clean, fresh blanket of white, instead of the brown grass, dirty patches of ice and muddy hillsides we'd gotten used to this time of year.

It's hard to improve on such a white landscape, but out in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, an artist named Sonja Hinrichsen has done it.

The artist, along with some assistants, paintakingly, carefully carved beautiful circles and spirals into a snowy landscape by walking in snowshoes in precise patterns. Of course, this being snow, the art didn't last, but luckily, the work was photographed.

The patterns in the snow make the field the work was done on resemble an intricately woven fabric. More pictures are at this Flickr Page.

And here's a great video, taken from the air, as the project was nearing completion. So cool!

LOTS of Beer For Angela Merkel

If you feel boneheaded for screwing something up, tripping over someone, or just briefly being an idiot, watch the video below from a German news broadcast. You're sure to feel better about yourself afterward, because you surely didn't screw up that badly.

Seems German Chancellor Angela Merkel, hard working woman that she is, finally got a chance to sit down for a nice beer. She runs the right country to do that, after all.

Along comes her server, who, well, watch. The newscast is in German, but you don't need a translation. At least Merkel appeared to take the incident in good humor.

Vermont Flurries In One Town, Buried in the Next

You've watched me marvel at the weird, warm winter we've had in Vermont this year, and that trend got weirder over the weekend.

Most of us in the state got a small snowstorm, two to six inches of snow. Run of the mill February weather.

Here in St. Albans, Vermont, where I live, we got five inches of snow. Ho-hum. But the storm focused on the mountain range just to my east, where up to three feet of snow fell. You go from practically nothing to completely buried in just a few miles.

This morning I drove the short 13 miles from my five inches of snow to that nearly three feet in Bakersfield.

Within ten minutes of leaving my house, I was in the middle of the old fashioned winter Vermont has lacked this year. I'm sure glad I didn't have to unbury these cars, or shovel the 30 inches of snow out of my driveway.

For once, as much as I like to play in deep snow, I'm glad the storm missed my place. Scroll down for a couple more photos.