Wingnuts Want To Protect Us From the Ultimate Enemy

A quick addendum to the Michael J. Fox / Rush Limbaugh "controversy": The right-wing spin on Fox's pro-stem-cell-research ad seems to be that the ad "exploits" Fox's disease for political purposes. (Try Googling "Michael J. Fox exploitation"--there are over 820,000 websites that link the terms.) Now, like most people, I am certainly opposed to the idea of someone with a terrible illness being "exploited." But since Fox himself opted to appear in the ad in order to express his personal commitment to supporting research into the causes of Parkinson's disease, who exactly is supposed to be exploiting him? Is Fox supposedly exploiting himself? How does one do that? What does it even mean?

I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that a "conservative" movement that considers it appropriate for the government to try to control adult sexual behavior wouldn't balk at trying to dictate the proper ground rules for individual relationships. But I must say I'm surprised that this includes, apparently, one's relationship with oneself. I guess you've got to be eternally vigilant; you never know when you might find yourself being taken advantage of . . . by yourself.

Tags: Michael J. Fox, Rush Limbaugh