The loss of life and vast property destruction to a global economic power brings into focus with increased acuity the longstanding debate over nuclear power and the right's insistence that concerns about its inherent danger is a non-existent canard being promulgated by the lunacies of a panic stricken left.

Concerns about the potential danger of nuclear power are met with the same measure of ridicule as trepidations about climate change.  All too often points raised by scientific sources are trivialized by talk show noise and false bravado.  It is given traction by the ranks of listeners who derive comforting assurance by such verbal broadsides.

Rush Limbaugh has been a voluble and persistent source of comments to a sea of faithful listeners eager to devour such appetizing morsels.  In the cases of such disturbing instances of global tragedies occurring through climate and nuclear dangers, comfort via an "ignorance is bliss" scenario can be more understandable than other subjects in the Limbaugh lexicon.

A current case in point surrounds recent events in Egypt.  To lovers of democracy throughout the world the confluence of events, brought about through a coalescing of freedom lovers in Egypt seeking to bring an end to a three decade dictatorial regime noted for suppression of basic rights and rigged elections, was an example of grassroots democracy in action.

Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck immediately sounded sirens of discontent to their loyal patrons.  Limbaugh was alarmed that the demonstrators were leftists and included a number of feminists.  

What is a leftist to Limbaugh?  Based on his alarmist messages to a core audience that has made him a multimillionaire, anyone to the left of the Limbaugh-Beck-Fox News axis constitutes a dangerous leftist threat.  

On a recent broadcast Beck revealed the 30 million number and concluded that they constituted the wave of the future.  The Tea Party drumbeat should be one of future optimism.  Beck optimistically asserts that his viewing audience constitutes 10 percent of the American population.  

With such a strong building block, Beck sees these 30 million as a catalyst.  Such a large number of followers serve as a dynamic ripple effect that will ultimately make America a nation representing is viewpoint.  Beck believes it will be just a question of time before spokespersons such as Sarah Palin and Christine O'Donnell will be in the majority and directing national policies.

Rush Limbaugh has long subscribed to this view.  His regular audience figure has also been said to constitute 30 million listeners.  It should be remembered what happened when Republican Party Chairman Michael Steele recently referred to Limbaugh as "an entertainer."  

"Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress...but then, I repeat myself."~~Mark Twain

The appeal is all the more dramatic and meaningful in this year's edition of the international football classic in that the host nation is South Africa, for all too many years the home of the racially oppressive system called apartheid.

Pictures of Nelson Mandela, the towering beacon of unity and fervent opponent of racism, are seen in evidence at the stadiums where the games are held throughout the nation.

Before the games begin player representatives of the competing national teams deliver statements condemning racism.  

This is dangerous ground for Limbaugh since analysis of Nazi practices, particularly in the realms of propaganda and economics, reveal much more in the way of commonality with the loquacious talk show host than with Barack Obama.

On the subject of propaganda, look at what Limbaugh has been up to the last few days.  He has been referring to Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid as imams and mullahs.  

Now just what does that translate into?  Race hate against Arabs.  He is using a blanket charge of racism against the Arab community and then linking the House and Senate Democratic Party leaders to terrorism through trying to domineer the legislative process in a dictatorial manner.

The idea is you keep repeating the same basic points you want to cement into the minds of the controllable, in this case the Limbaugh-Palin-Tea Bag-Fox News solidly committed zealots.

Go back a few years ago and you saw the same argument being raised regarding nuclear power that has been shifted now to global warming.  Rush Limbaugh, who is screaming "Fraud!" repeatedly on global warming used the same vocal energy in the area of nuclear power.  

Talk of meltdowns and any harm that might be visited upon us involved nothing more than fraudulent propaganda.

Toss accountability out of the mix and you have a propagandist's dream.  Say anything you want and when demands are made to verify you either switch to another topic or just yell a little louder and make your accusations  more vehemently.

Limbaugh, with or without a fix of Oxycontin, generally uses the latter approach.  He persists with his fervent accusations and name calling, never bothering to respond to those challenging him.

Notice what happened when he dared attempt a studio audience approach.  One of the hottest You Tube selections was of Limbaugh being shouted down by Act Up members who ultimately called him a liar.

The Republicans indicated the direction where they were heading when Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele dared to speak of right wing talk show host Rush Limbaugh as an "entertainer," which was construed to mean that he was undermining his stature as a serious political analyst.

A furious Limbaugh demanded an apology.  The blustery talk show host had declared himself to be the titular head of the Republican Party.  Generally that title is conferred on the party's last presidential nominee, in this case Senator John McCain of Arizona.

It was soon learned how much clout Limbaugh wields on the Republican Party as a penitent Steele issued an apology.  This prompted Limbaugh to reiterate his claim as titular party head.  

The first thought that doubtlessly filled the minds of many of these players was the Donovan McNabb incident and the appalling and disgusting ignorance mixed with racist contempt that Rush Limbaugh displayed during the brief period when he served as an NFL television "analyst."  The incident prompted Limbaugh to be immediately dropped.

I received my first impression of Donovan McNabb during a foray he made with his Syracuse University teammates into South Florida to face a Miami team that was blessed with overall superior talent.  

I was astounded by McNabb's impressive ability to read blitzes and scramble for yards when virtually anyone else under those circumstances would face large losses, in football parlance being "sacked."

The name of the game was clearly numbers since the Miss America Pageant people quickly bandied around the 20 million number as embodying Limbaugh's regular radio audience.

The numbers game has clearly made him welcome.  The Pageant's CEO Art McMaster has said it is "thrilled" to have Limbaugh as a judge.  His 22 years as a radio talk show host clearly impressed McMaster and others on the Miss America Pageant team.

Limbaugh's selection is a boom to critics of beauty pageants who think the idea is tired, archaic, and chauvinistic.  McMaster and the Pageant officials have handed anti-beauty contest feminists a gold-plated rallying point.

Once more Republicans are engaging in blatant hypocrisy.  After all, Republicans invented the race card.

It was launched as a means of regaining power in the mid-sixties.  This occurred after President Lyndon B. Johnson, the first Southerner to become president since the Reconstruction, conceded to associates that his active leadership in the civil rights field, culminating with passage of the landmark 1964 Civil Rights Bill and the 1965 Voting Rights Act, meant loss of the South for Democrats for the next 50 years.

The Republicans under Richard Nixon devised a "law and order" and "Southern strategy" campaign.  Lee Atwater later admitted that his participation in this and subsequent Republican efforts to win the South involved using these code terms to signal voters regarding what they were really talking about -- civil rights.

It is a deep infamy that will greet Rush Limbaugh in any historical evaluation of the slime he has unleashed in what is euphemistically referred to as radio commentary.

Limbaugh's current siege of the hateful merging with the tasteless relates to the current thug activity occurring as political and civic leaders along with administrators coalesce in town meetings in which efforts are made to explain about President Obama's health care proposal.

Distortion muddied debate waters when, early in his first administration, President Bill Clinton sought to introduce a comprehensive national health care proposal.  

Last week Limbaugh, in addition to taking various swipes at President Obama, returned to what has been a favorite topic of his for years, the subject of global warming.  

Once more Limbaugh emphatically proclaimed that the issue involves charlatanism and not science, and is something being whipped up by zealots determined to instill panic in the world community and advance their own selfish agenda.

His steady revelations about global warning being a hoax is reminiscent of what occurred during the 1992 Rio conference.  While scientists and political leaders of the world community were meeting on a subject they deemed critical for survival of the planet another conference was being held in Nevada debunking what was occurring in Brazil.