I apologize in advance if Rush is your guy

I accidentally got the radio on Rush Limbaugh yesterday while I was out running errands. Why I didn't just change the station I don't know, but I sat there listening for a while before screaming the word "bullshit" to the nobody in the car with me.

Everyone who knows me knows I'm a bleeding heart liberal, pretty much exactly who Rush thinks is an idiot and one of the individuals sending our country into the abyss of a nazi welfare state.

On paper, I look good to Rush and Sarah Palin and other Tea Party/uber-conservatives, I'm a stay-at-home mom, I've been married to the same person for a long time, I hold my family dear and wish for a better place for my children.

Then there are the pesky details, like my opinion that a little socialism can be a good thing or my support of a flat tax rate and the right for same-sex couples to marry. My point is that I'm not a big fan of Rush Limbaugh.

I don't think for one second that he or Ann Coulter really believe everything they say, but it makes for good ratings so they go way over the top.

Yesterday afternoon, Rush was complaining that one person was allowed to disrupt the crib industry by making it illegal to manufacture drop-side cribs. There have been scores of recalls on drop-side cribs over the years. When Scott and I were expecting, the women who lead the pre-natal classes we attended actively discouraged their use, citing the recalls and stories they'd heard from people in their classes.

But, Rush thought it was outrageous that one person was allowed this much power to send an entire industry back to the drawing board, costing them money and future sales because cribs with solid sides will be so much more expensive.

He then went on to do the math and stated it was based on only then deaths a year. He hammered that point several times, only ten deaths a year.

Only ten babies died so what's the big deal? Why should this woman get to say that these can't be used anymore and open the companies to lawsuits? It's just ten babies.

He went on to make some point about abortion and how many of those are performed but I was so pissed at him I didn't hear what he said.

Then, after I got done screaming obscenities about how I find him to be insensitive I got my senses back and tuned into some holiday music.

After singing along with Rod Stewart and Dolly Parton about how chilly it is outdoors, I felt better.

Why do I feel the need to make myself mad by listening to someone I know will say something that makes me mad? I say it's because I like to hear the opinion of someone who differs from me, but there is a difference between an exchange of ideas and opinions in a conversational/non-debate type of thing and listening to a person trying to keep a career as a highly visible political commentator in the mass-media.

If I want to ask a conservative person about their thoughts on a particular subject, I have several friends online I can go to. I would say "I'm not looking to debate, I just want to know what you think and why you think that would be good."

I will say that some people have surprised me by making a sane, rational, logical statement that I was frothing at the mouth opposed to before they showed me the positive side of things. And we've agreed to disagree and gone on with life.

I'm now going to avoid making myself crazy during this fine week of holiday celebration and will keep my radio dial away from that end of the spectrum.

Tonight, Scott and I are going to go out and finish up shopping for the kids. Pray for us!

Amanda's beauty tip of the day: If you apply a teeny bit of Vaseline in a very thin layer to the inside of your wrist before spritzing on perfume, the scent will last longer. And remember! if you can smell yourself after you leave your bathroom, you've applied too much.