Friday, November 12, 2010

RUSH LIMBAUGH: THE KING OF CRAP

Rush Limbaugh is the undisputed King of Unbearable Crap. 

Do you listen to Rush? I don't, usually, and here's why: Every time I tune in to Rush, he's lying and deceiving the American public with half truths and unsubstantiated rumors.

This qualifies as crap. His income qualifies him as the King of Crap.

Limbaugh makes more than $58 million a year and is the most influential media personality in the USA, according to Newsweek (Nov. 8, 2010).

This morning (Nov. 12, 2010) Rush said the federal government owns way too much land in the USA. He made it sound like some huge land grab. If we are serious about reducing the size of the government, he said, we should do something to reduce the percentage of land owned by the Feds.

Of course, he didn't bother giving us the facts.
Perhaps he thinks the facts would confuse the message.

If Rush or one of his minions had spent five minutes on the Web and done a Google search, he could have found an article entitled "How Much USA Land Does The Federal Government Own?"

Here are the facts: The feds own large parts of the western states, mostly for military bases, military testing, wildlife reserves, Indian reservations and land leased for mining and agriculture.
But the feds own very little of the eastern states. You can see why.
Huge areas of the west are deserts or mountain ranges and forests.
In the east, more of the land is farmed.

The federal agencies that manage government lands include the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, the National Park Service, the U.S. Forest Service, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the U.S. Department of Defense.
Does that sound like a big scary land grab to you?
It doesn't to me.
It sounds like government doing what it should do.

When my son was about nine years old, I took him on a trip across the southwest, and we camped out in National Forests, every night for three weeks.
I'd find a little two-track road and drive our VW bug off into the boonies until we found a place where people had camped before, with a flat place cleared for a tent and a circle of stones for a fire ring.
We'd set up the tent and get out the Coleman stove.
It was great: Stars over head, the sounds of coyotes in the distance, and the magnificent silence of the great outdoors.
In the morning, we'd have breakfast and pack up the tent and find a Forest Service campground and have a hot shower.
It was a wonderful trip.
We could not have done it without government land.
If that land had been owned by ranchers or oil companies or mining companies, we would have had to stay in motels, and that would have been a shame.
Did you know you can camp anywere in National Forest?
Well, you can.
No thanks to Rush.

The state with the most federal land is Nevada, at 84.5%, and the states with the least are Connecticut and Rhode Island, at .04%.
In total, federal land makes up about 30% of the USA.

On the radio today, Limbaugh made that sound horrible, like an outrage.
What do you think?
Is it horrible?
I don't think so.
Sounds pretty reasonable to me.

This is typical of Rush, who wants you to Rush to judgment without knowing the facts.
All hail the King of Crap.

Copyright 2010 by Roger R. Angle