Rush Limbaugh botches history at CPAC

Since I was busy all weekend installing a new (tankless) water heater --the old one rusted out-- I paid no attention to the conclusion of the Conservative Political Action Conference, and its last speaker, Rush Limbaugh. 

But thanks to my brother, who did pay attention, I'm now aware of how Limbaugh managed to not only confuse the Declaration of Independence with the Constitution, he also misquoted the former to suit his conservative ideology. 

Here's what he said:

"We want every American to be the best he or she chooses to be. We recognize that we are all individuals. We love and revere our founding documents, the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. We believe that the preamble of the Constitution contains an inarguable truth, that we are all endowed by our creator with certain inalienable rights, among them life, liberty, freedom -- and the pursuit of happiness."

Note the addition of the word "freedom", which appears nowhere in the Declaration, let alone in the "quoted" passage. 

As my brother concludes, "Democrats can rest easy" when conservatives trust their fate to a man who can't "get his historic references right."

Speaking of Limbaugh and other dittohead global warming deniers, my new tankless water heater not only runs on natural gas, which is far less damaging to the environment than other fossil fuels like petroleum and coal, it also runs efficiently, meaning that it uses much less gas than the old one.  It therefore qualifies me for a $300 federal tax credit.

WooHoo!

Comments

[Steve R.]

We looked into a tankless water heater when our old electric one crapped out several years ago... At that point, we were looking at about $1K for a Takagi, and no tax credit. We ended up getting a 50 gal. tank model for a couple hundred. I penciled out the savings with the tankless, and even with its superior efficiency it would have taken many, many years to pay for the price difference, maybe not even within the life of the unit. And that's without figuring for any maintenance issues that may have arisen with the more complex technology in the tankless model.

I still like the idea, and wish it had made economic sense for us at the time. With our family of four, the idea of never running out of hot water was especially nice (though that feature would probably negate the environmental benefits, since the length of showers would not be self-limiting).

Would you care to share the details of your heater? Make/model/installation details/cost analysis? Of course, by the time our tank blows out in 15 years, tankless will probably be standard.

[anne t.]

Thanks for posting this. My twelve year old is studying the Constitution. I plan on showing this to her.