Rush Limbaugh Says Goodbye New York

New York City has lost one of its most illustrious residents as Rush Limbaugh recently announced the sale of his 10-room 5^th Avenue apartment. For the 11 plus million dollars, the overseas buyer gets a wonderful view of Central Park, and ownership of Rush's ornate furniture which may be described as Great Gatsby Rococo.

According to the New York Post, the brokers handling the sale of Rush Limbaugh's apartment worried that the gilded woodwork and ceilings of the 4,661 square foot crib might put off potential buyers. Not so. With a listing price of $13,950,000, the foreign purchasers were thrilled with Rush's taste in home furnishings which were included in the purchase price.

Even occasional listeners to the bombastic, satirical, and often humorous Limbaugh would have heard him complain about high taxation, and New York state taxation in particular.

The issue that sent Limbaugh "over the top" was when New York Governor David Patterson proposed tax increases for New York residents with annual incomes of more than $500,000. Limbaugh makes about a hundred times that much, but he's only one of many New Yorkers living in the prestigious upper east and west side who exceed Patterson's proposed income limit.

Perhaps realizing that too many of New York's big players would follow Limbaugh out the door, Patterson gave up on the idea of additional taxation. Along with that came the recognition that a mere $500,000 annual salary in Manhattan's tonier neighborhoods almost put you in line for surplus food handouts.

Rush Limbaugh had threatened to quit New York many times over the past year, and made good on his word. According to the New York Post Limbaugh accepted an offer of $11.75 million for the apartment. Limbaugh bought the apartment in 1994 for $5 million.

Some liberal New Yorkers are inclined to say "good riddance," while others are not so happy with America's most successful radio talk show leaving New York. A man of Limbaugh's talents is sure to ignite powerful passions and equally powerful approval ratings. The diversity of opinion (one of Limbaugh's favorite words is "diversity") can be seen even on the venerable Associated Content website where Associated Content writer Mark Whittington articulates what many listeners think of Limbaugh and Saul Relative expresses the opposite view in several articles devoted to Limbaugh.

Rush Limbaugh is not the only radio host who sometimes crosses the lines of civil discourse; he is merely the best known. Consequently, Limbaugh's every utterance passes through an echo chamber where his meanings are often repurposed by his enemies.

While I often disagree with Limbaugh, I admire and respect his great personal courage and his deep level of engagement on important issues. It's not as if he were hand picked to be America's Best Known Radio Celebrity Czar; Limbaugh struggled through many years of failure and ostracism, an experience which seems to have colored his political views.

If liberty's enemy is socialism, Marxism, liberal media, demagoguery, pacifism, appeasement, collectivism, groupthink, or any of their multifarious cousins, then why lower your voice to please the Corrections Officers of the Nanny State? In spite of calling attention to their kindness and compassion for all and sundry, many of those most infuriated with Limbaugh, with deferential nods to all that is good and holy in the world, are yet not shy about wishing Rush Limbaugh would die.

Hopes of Limbaugh's demise were raised when he was hospitalized for chest pains during a Hawaii vacation. Few Limbaugh critics can resist mentioning Rush Limbaugh's struggle with pain-killers like oxycontin-always as a political point, mind you. Conservative pain doesn't bother Limbaugh critics, nor does Limbaugh's deafness earn the liberal left's sympathy reserved for snail darters and the heart's-tongue fern. At the same time, there can be venomous onslaughts by cosseted liberal and left media "personalities" like Rick Sanchez, Rachel Maddow, or Keith Olbermann and people hardly notice or, if they do notice, they yawn. Limbaugh would agree that's fair enough, as such people are, by comparison, non-entities, hardly worthy of notice (and their ratings proving that) compared to himself. With a heap of "talent on loan from God," Rush Limbaugh daily marches to the radio stage with a theme promo tune which sounds like a Tyrannosaurus Rex walking the earth, while liberals fret, wring their hands, and tremble