I have previously written about Rush Limbaugh's vicious defamation against Sandra Fluke.
But, apart from the slander, there is an underlying (false) premise in the Limbaugh attack that should not be ignored because it insinuates itself into the public consciousness.
I am going to "sanitize" Limbaugh's comments so we do not focus on its cowardly and scandalous attacks on Ms. Fluke, but rather its basic (false) premise.
Limbaugh attacked the idea of "paying" for the consequences of someone else's pleasures.
Although Limbaugh stated it was taxpayers doing the paying, and seemed to believe that the more sex the more contraceptive pills or devices are used, we will let him off the hook on those for these purposes, and just correct him without comment, that it is private insurers that would be doing the paying, not taxpayers, and that contraceptive use is unrelated to frequency of sex.
Let us even indulge the fiction that premiums are higher when birth control is included -- actually, birth control saves the insurer money because it reduces unwanted pregnancies -- but, to make the point, let us say they are higher, and thus I, as a premium payer, am "forced" to pay for your pleasures. As Limbaugh said, there are alternatives to contraception such as celibacy.
Or (sanitized), why, says Limbaugh, should other insurance premium payers pay for women's pleasures?
But, what about skiing? That is a pleasure. (Indeed, I am told there are actually a few people who enjoy both skiing AND sex, hard as that may be to believe.) Suppose you go skiing and fracture your ankle, requiring surgery, casting, and rehabilitation. Any insurance company will know statistically that there will be a fraction of their enrollees who will need that treatment, and thus take account of that possibility in their premium calculations.
So, here I am again, as a premium payer, paying for your pleasure, this time skiing. You had alternatives. You could not have gone skiing at all. You could have been less aggressive on the slopes. You could have confined yourself to the nursery slopes. But, for your own pleasure, you came hurtling down the black diamond slopes and destroyed your ankle, and I am paying for it.
Is there a difference between skiing and sex?
Of course there is. Skiing = good. Sex = bad.
And that, really, is what this is all about, isn't it?
It has nothing to do with others in the insurance pool paying for someone's pleasure.