Incredulous at mask-less photo
I was incredulous and very disheartened to see the picture of the softball tourney which accompanied the front page article in the Monday, Feb. 22 edition of The Times Record (“Topsham winter softball tournament raises money for homeless veterans“). Viewing all those people standing together shoulder to shoulder with hardly a mask in sight, I wondered, Do they care about the local community and the economy or erroneously believe life will get back to normal by just behaving as if it were? Do they think they are immune to COVID 19 for some reason — younger age, outside venue? Statistics certainly don’t support that. Do they believe that should they test negative at some point they won’t still infect their parents, grandparents, or those with weakened immune systems? What were they thinking? Or were they thinking at all?
Bill McCullough,
Brunswick
Limbaugh’s bigoted views filled with inaccuracies
In Jonathan Crimmins’ column “Thanking Rush Limbaugh” (Feb. 19), he praised the shock jock for showing that it’s OK to have an opinion, and inspiring self-confidence. Yes, these could be considered good lessons. But I dispute Mr. Crimmins’ assertion that Rush Limbaugh could fairly be characterized as having a “positive nature.”
As has been widely publicized, Limbaugh held unabashedly misogynistic, racist, homophobic and otherwise bigoted views that were frequently riddled with inaccuracies. Though these statements and many more are easily found, I’ll share a few quotes from the self-described “insult-radio” DJ:
“If any race of people should not have guilt about slavery, it’s Caucasians. The white race has probably had fewer slaves and for a briefer period of time than any other in the history of the world.”
“There is a movement on to normalize pedophilia, and I guarantee you your reaction to that is probably much the same as your reaction when you first heard about gay marriage.”
“How many of you guys in your own experience with women have learned that ‘no’ means ‘yes’ if you know how to spot it?”
“[The Abu Ghraib prisoner torture and abuse scandal] is no different than what happens at the Skull and Bones initiation … And we’re going to ruin people’s lives over it and we’re going to hamper our military effort, and then we are going to really hammer them because they had a good time.”
Mr. Crimmins’ characterization of Limbaugh as “not everyone’s cup of tea” is far too mild to be accepted.
Ariel Linet,
Portland
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