Say Anything Blog

Meet the latest anti-Rush Limbaugh meme from the left.

SEEKONK, Mass.—Shane Murphy, the second-in-command aboard the American merchant ship seized by pirates, lashed out at Rush Limbaugh for the talk show host’s racial characterization in discussing the rescue of the ship’s captain by the Navy.

Murphy, who returned to his Seekonk, Mass., home Friday, called Limbaugh a purveyor of “hate speech.”

In commenting on the rescue of Capt. Richard Phillips by the Navy Seals who shot and killed the three Somali pirates who were holding him captive, Limbaugh generated controversy when he called the pirates “black teenagers.”

“There you have it, three teenagers shot on the high seas at the order of President Obama,” said Limbaugh according to a transcript of an April 14 broadcast on his Web site.

“Just imagine the hue and cry had a Republican president ordered the shooting of black teenagers on the high seas,” Limbaugh said.

Murphy said Limbaugh’s remarks were unacceptable.

“It feels great to be home,” Murphy said. “With the exception of Rush Limbaugh who is trying to make this into a race issue. It’s disgusting.”

“The president did the right thing. It’s a war. It’s about good versus evil. And what you (Limbaugh) said is evil, that is hate speech. I won’t tolerate it,” Murphy said.

I agree that the President did the right thing.  If liberals would bather to listen to what Rush says, instead of just cherry-pick quotes out of his daily monologues to make his opinions appear to be something they’re not, they’d know that he thinks Obama did the right thing too.

What Rush was skewering, rightfully, was the left’s double standard on national security.  How Bush was held to one standard by the left while Obama is held to another.

But Rush’s point, taken out of context here, was that for all the hue and cry about Bush ordering the water boarding of committed jihadis (something that resulted in actionable intelligence which saved American lives), nobody seems to be saying a word about Obama ordering the Somali pirates shot in the head.

Or, at least, giving our military the vague order to do something about the hostage situation thus leaving himself plenty of room for plausible deniability had the operation ended with a something less than optimal outcome.  But I digress.  I’m guessing those pirates would rather have been water boarded.

The funny thing about this situation is that Murphy accuses Rush of a “hate crime” that he’s not going to “tolerate.”  Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but my guess is that Rush is going to tolerate Mr. Murphy’s opinions.  Would that people like Murphy were capable of extending the same courtesy to people who disagree with them.

On a related note, Murphy talks of the effort against Somali pirates being “a war” that represents “good versus evil.”  That sounds suspisciously like what a conservative might say about the war on terror.  Are we saying that it’s ok to shoot Somali pirates to save American lives, but it’s not ok to water board jihadis to save American lives?