Jon Meacham has come down with a particularly virulent strain of Limbaugh Derangement Syndrome that is bringing him to the brink of insanity. How else could one explain the Time magazine writer hailing an anti-Limbaugh speech as "timeless" just like Jesus's Sermon on the Mount or Lincoln's Gettysburg Address?
Yes, I kid you not, he really went there, and in a Time.com "Ideas" blog post nonetheless (emphasis mine):
There is a new piece of must-reading for Americans, and the good news is it’s clear and concise enough to be that rarest of compositions: an accessible document about big things. (The Gettysburg Address had concision on its side, too; so does the Sermon on the Mount.) The letter is dated March 2, 2012; its contents, though, are timeless.
The epistle is from John DeGioia, the president of Georgetown University, who felt the need to weigh in after Rush Limbaugh verbally assaulted Sandra Fluke, a Georgetown law student who testified in Congress in support of the Obama administration’s proposed requirement that religiously affiliated institutions cover contraception for their employees. Limbaugh called Fluke a “slut” and “a prostitute.” He later apologized to Fluke for “the insulting word choices,” and President Obama telephoned Fluke to offer his support.
What struck me most in reading about the episode, though, came from neither the president nor Limbaugh but from the academy. DeGioia, a layman, is a philosopher by training, a child of Georgetown whose undergraduate and doctorate degrees came from the university. As president of a Catholic school, he stands at the intersection of inquiry, politics, and religion, and his words in the wake of Limbaugh’s smearing of Fluke repay attention.
Meacham went on to quote DeGioia at length and to praise how he cited St. Augustine, to "seal the point." The irony, of course, is that Fluke stands dead set against the right of Georgetown and other Catholic institutions to stand on conscience and not offer contraception as part of their health insurance plans. Fluke opposes the very Church and the very religious convictions that St. Augustine, a Doctor of the Church, stood for in his writings.
On a more amusing note, below is a screen capture of the article from this morning. You'll notice the advertiser, Skyn Condoms, is quote apropos given the subject matter.
"Love sex. Hate condoms. Love Skyn." reads the caption. Classy, Time "Ideas" blog.
