NEW YORK -- America’s political right holds to some fairly flamboyant beliefs -- birth certificates, climate denial and Trump. Conspiracy theories abound, from notions that a US military exercise is cover for the annexation of Texas, to the belief that ISIS is planning to invade across the Mexican border.
Then there’s Rush Limbaugh, a permanently incredulous radio show host, who last hit international headlines in 2012 when he called a Georgetown University law student a “slut” and a “prostitute” because she asked her health insurer to cover contraception.
Koonyah mahlyass koong! Ees too rong tah oong jedi mind trick!
Limbaugh has spent the intervening years crammed into an ever-shrinking radio booth snarling at President Obama, illegal immigrants and, more recently, Hillary Clinton.
On Tuesday, Limbaugh’s paranoia went stellar when he argued (with a straight face) that NASA’s announcement of the discovery of water on the surface of Mars was part of a vast conspiracy by the Obama administration “to advance the leftist agenda.”
He admitted to not having the specifics of the conspiracy, but “would assume it would be something to do with global warming.” He then went on to suggest that NASA will “find a graveyard” from “an advanced civilization” that died out because of rising temperatures.
“Look at the temperature data that has been reported by NASA,” he squeaked. “It’s just “been made up. It’s fraudulent for however many years. There isn’t any warming. There hasn’t been for 18.5 years, and yet, they’re lying about it. They’re just making up the amount of ice in the North and South Poles. They’re making up the temperatures. They’re lying and making up false charts and so forth.”
“So what’s to stop them from making up something that happened on Mars that will help advance their left-wing agenda on this planet?” he concluded.