My favorite part is when Limbaugh attacks the "Hollywood elite"..........Let's see now. Limbaugh lives near the beach in a mansion. He's chalked up multiple divorces. He's had drug problems and rehab. And he's into promotion and the spotlight for himself. What's the damn difference between him and Hollywood?

If there is anyone whose deafness has no effect on what he does for a living, it's Rush Limbaugh. Listening to others, much less actually hearing them, is not something he does well, to say the least.

If ever there comes a time when embryonic stem cell research could benefit Rush Limbaugh's health, he will jump on board faster than Nancy Reagan did. Typical short-sightedness.

And speaking of his implant, I can assure you that if embryonic stem cells could make Rush cocklier, he would be all for it. I doubt he goes anywhere without his viagra or his cocklier implant...especially Capitol Hill.

Maybe if Rush speaks and can't hear what he is saying he'd understand what most clear thinkers do when they inadvertently tune in to his rants...

Rush is attacking Fox still? And, if he is forced to reply when some interviewer asks him if it bothers him, I'd guess that Fox will react with the same dignity and grace that he did last time. He didn't debase himself by insulting Rush, which Rush so greatly deserved. He just explained the simple facts of living his life: that the jerky motions that many associate with Parkinson's are due to the medication, that not taking the medication causes stiffness or paralysis, that it is uncomfortable, and that it is unlikely that anyone would deliberately choose to be more uncomfortable than they had to be. If human beings are, as Terry Pratchett wrote, the place where the falling angel meets the rising ape, then Fox has showed how high we could rise, and Rush continues to show how base we can choose to be.

Sad for them, Sad for their families, Sad for (in this case) their audiences; but that's the way it is. I used to get angry at such hypocrisy, injustice and arrogance and now, for folks like this, I just think "What a dick!" and move on to things I can change.

"My favorite part is when Limbaugh attacks the 'Hollywood elite'"

This really gets me too. Where the hell do these people think their hero Ronald Reagan was from? I don't recall any Deomocratic presidents being from Hollywood! But the president who conservatives--without hesitation--describe as their all-time favorite, was of course from Hollywood. It's just one of the millions of contradictions that the Republicans seem blissfully and conveniently unaware of.

a clear swipe at Fox, who appeared in Congress without taking his medication in order to better demonstrate Parkinson's symptoms.

There is no evidence that this is true, in fact the shaking that Fox displayed is a side effect of the medication. If he was off his meds, he would have been stiff, and very likely not able to move (the real symptoms of Parkinsons). This is the argument Rush was making on his show, repeating it like it is a fact is a disservice to Fox.

I'm a cochlear implant user, and I was appalled by the way Limbaugh speaks, apparently sincerely, of wishing to hear normally again while in the same breath sneering at the stem cell research that could do it. In my blog today I wrote,

So what is his position on stem cell research really? It’s very hard to tell. It seems to me that this is what happens when an ideological zealot tries to assimilate a fact that is at odds with his worldview. You get this weirdly half-sincere, half-sneering kind of discourse. It’s sheer incoherence, is what it is; it’s like watching two trains collide at high speed and spew wreckage in various directions.

Not only is Rush Limbaugh ignorant and callous, he is irreconcilably conflicted with himself. He is the beneficiary of decades of scientific research, yet he sneers at science; he looks ahead to benefits to come, yet he attacks their scientific basis in the very same breath. There is something desperately wrong with this guy.

You can see the whole entry on my website, http://www.michaelchorost.com (scroll down the main page.)

Instead of testifying before Congress without his cochlear implant, perhaps he could testify with his mouth taped shut!

I find it amusing that the big criticism from the right about stem cell research is that there's no proof it will lead to any cures and that research is only producing "false hope". Meanwhile, I haven't seen any proof that our endeavors in Iraq will produce anything positive. Bush goes on to say that we only lose the war in Iraq if we quit. Could we not apply the same sound logic to stem cell research? We only fail to find cures if we quit trying.

By the way, I'm not in support of Bush's "logic" on Iraq by any means, just pointing out the hypocrisy.

It would be a lot better if Limbaugh would have lost his voice instead of his hearing. We would not have to live with idiotic comments and hypocricy. That would go for his idol too even though HE still can hear.

a consequence of vicodin abuse is deafness.

Limbaugh (and maybe you?) are off-base about Michael Fox's tremors. The fact is that the effect of unmedicated Parkinson's is to cause paralysis. The medications allow movement but, over time, cause involuntary movement -- they over-shoot the mark. Fox's tremors are CAUSED by the medication.

The irony of the only real treatment for Parkinson's is that initially, L-dopa stops the tremors, but over time, it worsens them. Not taking one's medication would therefore not bring about the tremors and dyskinesias. Patients and their physicians get caught in a chinese handcuff-type of situation in which higher doses of L-dopa help temporarily, but eventually worsen the movements. Please don't propagate Rush's misguided view that somehow not taking his medication led to Fox's movements during the political ad.