Global warming -- I've got this later in the program -- global warming has now found its way onto nutritional labels of food. The Democrats, under the guidance of Moochelle Obama are going to now incorporate global warming facts, characteristics, what have you, in warning labels and nutritional labels on food. And the reason for this is total control over every aspect of people's lives. It's just hideous, what these people are doing.
Here's the big problem I have with Rush. He can inundate his site with sources and facts and then somehow merge from facts to conjecture to pure indefensible ridiculosity and the people who listen to and read him somehow can't see the lines. It's in everything he says and types, including vast amounts of what you just posted, but this happened to be my favorite example.
We start with a fact (sort of) - Michelle Obama is spearheading an initiative to put information about various food products' carbon footprints and potentially other ecological information onto food labels. That is true, an undeniable fact. And I'm sure Rush has at least one source for this. Then the next sentence. "And the reason for this is total control over every aspect of people's lives." Somehow, the people reading this don't see that the logic train just ran way off the tracks. How do you get "control every aspect of my life" from "provide information about the environmental impact of my food?" They're not trying to ban food that has a large carbon footprint. They aren't going to force you to read that label, any more than they force you to look at the fat content of their Big Macs that many states now require McDonald's to post prominently. Trust me, McDonald's is still doing fine. And they certainly aren't going to force you to change your consumption habits as a result of what you may or may not read on a label.
One of the great hallmarks of a totalitarian government is that, almost without fail, they quickly suppress the access of the populace to information. You yourself have referenced this repeatedly over years (Doug). Now Rush, the same guy constantly accusing Obama and the Democratic party of trying to expand government and control our lives, is somehow criticizing them for attempting to provide more information to the people. That's not the way governments attempt to "control every aspect of people's lives." It is, in fact, the complete and polar opposite. It's the antithesis of the first tool totalitarian states turn to in the campaign to minimize personal freedom and initiative and increase government influence in people's daily decision making.
And now, the final sentence. "It's just hideous, what these people are doing." Obviously that's not a defensible fact, but again, in this case it's not even remotely supported by the factual information. Providing information cannot be hideous. It can be from the perspective of big business. Don't kid yourself - the #1 reason the Republican Party feels obligated to prove that global warming is a "myth" is because of the potential ramifications of adapting behaviors on the oil industry as well as other big businesses in this country. Businesses that spend a lot of money supporting Republican candidates. That's just a fact of political life in our country at this point. And as much as they point fingers at this fact, Democrats are not even close to immune - there are plenty of special interests getting them elected as well. But as a private citizen, you have to use that knowledge to at least try to draw some lines as to when your government is really trying to help the people and when the party is only trying to help itself.
As I've said many times in the past, the scientific community is deeply divided on the climate change issue, but almost nobody can look at the data and confidently say "there is no human impact on the global climate." In fact, nearly anyone who has seen much of the global climate trend data and possesses the tools to interpret that information would deny that it is overwhelmingly likely that we are warming the earth. The degree of human impact is certainly uncertain. But it almost definitely exists. The evidence for that is overwhelming. Republican leaders know that, at least the guys high up in the party coming up with evidence that it doesn't exist. They know they're lying. But party support relies on their ability to continuously insist that global warming is a myth. Don't buy that bullshit. What, if anything, we need to do to combat climate change would be a far more relevant discussion. How much of a hit to the economy can we afford to take, and how do we weigh that against the long-term environmental well-being of our planet? These are meaningful and important questions that for the most part we aren't even discussing because ignorant people like Rush have been brainwashed into believing ridiculous things like "Giving me information about how my food was produced is a way of controlling my life." Anybody with any discernment can see that it is a way of providing you with information to make the decisions you feel are best on a personal level. But unfortunately millions of people will blindly listen to whatever Rush tells them, and somehow the total logical disconnect goes right over your heads.
Seriously, if you have to listen to an angry conservative talking head, listen to Bill O'Reilly. He at least talks about things intelligently. Sure, he presents half the information and leaves a lot out when it doesn't support his position. Everybody does that. But at least when he makes a statement, you can see where it's coming from, even if you don't agree with it.