WOW! Rush Limbaugh can become more annoying?
Drug rehab did something to Rush Limbaugh I never would have thought possible:
It made him even more annoying.
Five weeks after Limbaugh entered an Arizona treatment program to break his addiction to painkillers, he returned to the airwaves Monday morning with a new arsenal of self-help and recovery platitudes that he quickly began firing at his political foes.
At first, though, it sounded as though a humbler, new-age Limbaugh had emerged from marathon therapy.
"I can no longer anticipate what I think people want and try to give that to them," he told listeners near the top of the show. "I can no longer try to live my life by trying to make other people happy.
"I can no longer turn over the power of my feelings to anybody else, which is what I have done a lot of in my life. I had thought that I had to be this way or that way in order to be liked, appreciated or understood," he said.
"I can't depend on other people to make me happy. I have to do that myself. I'm the only one who has control over that.
"I have to admit that I'm powerless over this addiction that I have," Limbaugh said. "I used to think I could beat it with force of will. I used to think that I would be different, but I'm not."
Sounds about right. I'm a big believer in the power of slogans, mantras, aphorisms, catchphrases and all other verbal formulations that help keep a person focused on his priorities. In fact, I maintain a Web page featuring some 400 quotations related to the achievement of personal goals.
And I respect the cloying enthusiasm of the convert that Limbaugh exhibited early in his program: "I'm really eager to share these last five weeks with you because I think that [the things I have learned] are things that could benefit people. I think they are things that can benefit you or anybody, whether you have an addiction problem or not.
"It's wonderful. It actually is an amazing thing. I wish everybody could do this. I don't know why this kind of thing is reserved for certain kinds of situations, when it's so beneficial to one and all."
Limbaugh sounded very much In Touch With His Feelings in that earnest way people are after discovering a new approach to the challenges of life.
"You cannot assume the responsibility for somebody else's life," he counseled his first caller, a woman from Montgomery, Ala., who wanted advice on how to deal with a friend in recovery. "You've got enough of a load living your own life and doing the things that you like, want to do, have to do." But Limbaugh didn't become the most popular talk-show host in America by channeling Stuart Smalley. And about halfway through the first hour, he began focusing his new talent for popular psychology on his old enemies.
"There's nobody who can change Sen. [Edward] Kennedy's behavior but Sen. Kennedy," he said. "The attempt to manipulate liberals into changing who they are and becoming nice guys, and liking us is always going to fail because it's not our job to make them like us. It's their job to like themselves. And the problem with liberals is, they don't like themselves."
So, he said, "If they don't like themselves, they're not going to like us."
He added, "All this reaching out [by conservatives], all this `please like [us], please, we're not that bad, please we don't want to hurt you, please get along with us.' It's not possible my friends, because [liberals] don't like themselves ... they're denying who they really are."
Oh good lord. Now we on the left are not just wrong on the issues, per Limbaugh, we have low self-esteem and we're in denial. It's no longer enough for him to try to put us on the canvas, now he has to lay us on the couch as well.
After an hour, I found the inner strength to unplug that negative energy and switch him off, cold turkey. Talk about empowerment! I'm feeling better about myself already
It made him even more annoying.
Five weeks after Limbaugh entered an Arizona treatment program to break his addiction to painkillers, he returned to the airwaves Monday morning with a new arsenal of self-help and recovery platitudes that he quickly began firing at his political foes.
At first, though, it sounded as though a humbler, new-age Limbaugh had emerged from marathon therapy.
"I can no longer anticipate what I think people want and try to give that to them," he told listeners near the top of the show. "I can no longer try to live my life by trying to make other people happy.
"I can no longer turn over the power of my feelings to anybody else, which is what I have done a lot of in my life. I had thought that I had to be this way or that way in order to be liked, appreciated or understood," he said.
"I can't depend on other people to make me happy. I have to do that myself. I'm the only one who has control over that.
"I have to admit that I'm powerless over this addiction that I have," Limbaugh said. "I used to think I could beat it with force of will. I used to think that I would be different, but I'm not."
Sounds about right. I'm a big believer in the power of slogans, mantras, aphorisms, catchphrases and all other verbal formulations that help keep a person focused on his priorities. In fact, I maintain a Web page featuring some 400 quotations related to the achievement of personal goals.
And I respect the cloying enthusiasm of the convert that Limbaugh exhibited early in his program: "I'm really eager to share these last five weeks with you because I think that [the things I have learned] are things that could benefit people. I think they are things that can benefit you or anybody, whether you have an addiction problem or not.
"It's wonderful. It actually is an amazing thing. I wish everybody could do this. I don't know why this kind of thing is reserved for certain kinds of situations, when it's so beneficial to one and all."
Limbaugh sounded very much In Touch With His Feelings in that earnest way people are after discovering a new approach to the challenges of life.
"You cannot assume the responsibility for somebody else's life," he counseled his first caller, a woman from Montgomery, Ala., who wanted advice on how to deal with a friend in recovery. "You've got enough of a load living your own life and doing the things that you like, want to do, have to do." But Limbaugh didn't become the most popular talk-show host in America by channeling Stuart Smalley. And about halfway through the first hour, he began focusing his new talent for popular psychology on his old enemies.
"There's nobody who can change Sen. [Edward] Kennedy's behavior but Sen. Kennedy," he said. "The attempt to manipulate liberals into changing who they are and becoming nice guys, and liking us is always going to fail because it's not our job to make them like us. It's their job to like themselves. And the problem with liberals is, they don't like themselves."
So, he said, "If they don't like themselves, they're not going to like us."
He added, "All this reaching out [by conservatives], all this `please like [us], please, we're not that bad, please we don't want to hurt you, please get along with us.' It's not possible my friends, because [liberals] don't like themselves ... they're denying who they really are."
Oh good lord. Now we on the left are not just wrong on the issues, per Limbaugh, we have low self-esteem and we're in denial. It's no longer enough for him to try to put us on the canvas, now he has to lay us on the couch as well.
After an hour, I found the inner strength to unplug that negative energy and switch him off, cold turkey. Talk about empowerment! I'm feeling better about myself already