Good Old Rush

RUSH LIMBAUGH was just getting into a riff about the stupidity of Sen. Barack Obama’s plan to take money out of oil company profits and give it to people to help pay the cost of energy. It was the 20th anniversary, on August 1, 2008, of the Rush Limbaugh program on radio.

And guess who the first caller was on Open Line Friday? It was the three Bushes, President Bush 41, President Bush 43, and former Governor Jeb Bush of Florida. They called from Maine to wish Rush well on the 20th anniversary of the Excellence in Broadcasting Network.

And well they might. Rush Limbaugh and his “jaunty optimism” add up to a force of nature, and a considerable talent who talks “fun, frolic, and a serious discussion of the issues” 15 hours a week. It is Rush Limbaugh that keeps conservatism in the game even when it’s on defense.

Jaunty optimism is a powerful combination. FDR had it. Ronald Reagan had it. And, with the end of the Reagan-Bush era, conservatives need the morale-raising optimism of Limbaugh more than ever.

The mark of a true talent is to make it seem effortless. If you want to find out how difficult it is to sing like an opera singer, don’t listen to Luciano Pavarotti. He makes it sound easy. Listen to a grad student in voice, and hear the effort behind the performance. Rush is like Pavarotti. His easy blend of entertainment and political analysis is a tour de force. Nobody does it better. If you want to know how hard it is to do a radio show don’t listen to Rush. Listen to some beginner trying out his wings in the dark watches of the radio night.

A few months ago, the TV script writers went on strike and we found out, in case we didn’t realize, that the late night TV talk-show hosts are all scripted. Rush Limbaugh is not. He really does write his own stuff. Only he doesn’t write his own stuff. He just makes it up as he goes along.

It is said that God looks after children, drunks, and the United States of America. He certainly seems to have a special care for American conservatives too.

Best of luck Rush, you harmless little fuzzball, you. We appreciate your success and your influence more than you can ever know.

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Christopher Chantrill blogs at www.roadtothemiddleclass.com. His Road to the Middle Class is forthcoming.

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Faith & Purpose

“When we began first to preach these things, the people appeared as awakened from the sleep of ages—they seemed to see for the first time that they were responsible beings...”
Finke, Stark, The Churching of America, 1776-1990

Mutual Aid

In 1911... at least nine million of the 12 million covered by national insurance were already members of voluntary sick pay schemes. A similar proportion were also eligible for medical care.
Green, Reinventing Civil Society

Education

“We have met with families in which for weeks together, not an article of sustenance but potatoes had been used; yet for every child the hard-earned sum was provided to send them to school.”
E. G. West, Education and the State

Living Under Law

Law being too tenuous to rely upon in [Ulster and the Scottish borderlands], people developed patterns of settling differences by personal fighting and family feuds.
Thomas Sowell, Conquests and Cultures

German Philosophy

The primary thing to keep in mind about German and Russian thought since 1800 is that it takes for granted that the Cartesian, Lockean or Humean scientific and philosophical conception of man and nature... has been shown by indisputable evidence to be inadequate.
F.S.C. Northrop, The Meeting of East and West

Knowledge

Inquiry does not start unless there is a problem... It is the problem and its characteristics revealed by analysis which guides one first to the relevant facts and then, once the relevant facts are known, to the relevant hypotheses.
F.S.C. Northrop, The Logic of the Sciences and the Humanities

Chappies

“But I saw a man yesterday who knows a fellow who had it from a chappie that said that Urquhart had been dipping himself a bit recklessly off the deep end.” —Freddy Arbuthnot
Dorothy L. Sayers, Strong Poison

Democratic Capitalism

I mean three systems in one: a predominantly market economy; a polity respectful of the rights of the individual to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; and a system of cultural institutions moved by ideals of liberty and justice for all. In short, three dynamic and converging systems functioning as one: a democratic polity, an economy based on markets and incentives, and a moral-cultural system which is plural and, in the largest sense, liberal.
Michael Novak, The Spirit of Democratic Capitalism

Action

The incentive that impels a man to act is always some uneasiness... But to make a man act [he must have] the expectation that purposeful behavior has the power to remove or at least to alleviate the felt uneasiness.
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action

Churches

[In the] higher Christian churches� they saunter through the liturgy like Mohawks along a string of scaffolding who have long since forgotten their danger. If God were to blast such a service to bits, the congregation would be, I believe, genuinely shocked. But in the low churches you expect it every minute.
Annie Dillard, Holy the Firm

Conversion

“When we received Christ,” Phil added, “all of a sudden we now had a rule book to go by, and when we had problems the preacher was right there to give us the answers.”
James M. Ault, Jr., Spirit and Flesh

Living Law

The recognition and integration of extralegal property rights [in the Homestead Act] was a key element in the United States becoming the most important market economy and producer of capital in the world.
Hernando de Soto, The Mystery of Capital

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