In a Wall Street Journal op-ed this morning, Rush Limbaugh tries to pretend that accusing him of having made racist comments constitutes grossly gratuitous vilification:

The sports media elicited comments from a handful of players, none of whom I can recall ever meeting. Among other things, at least one said he would never play for a team I was involved in given my racial views. My racial views? You mean, my belief in a colorblind society where every individual is treated as a precious human being without regard to his race? Where football players should earn as much as they can and keep as much as they can, regardless of race? Those controversial racial views?

Nice act, fat boy, but it’s actually some of these prior teachings that people are exercised about:

Have you ever noticed how all composite pictures of wanted criminals resemble Jesse Jackson?

The NAACP should have riot rehearsal. They should get a liquor store and practice robberies.

Look, let me put it to you this way: the NFL all too often looks like a game between the Bloods and the Crips without any weapons. There, I said it.

They’re 12 percent of the population. Who the hell cares?

Or maybe this one from Limbaugh’s December 8, 2004 show?

You just gotta be who you are, and I think it’s time to get rid of this whole National Basketball Association. Call it the TBA, the Thug Basketball Association, and stop calling them teams. Call ‘em gangs. You have the Laker Gang, you have the Heat Gang, you have a Timberwolf Gang [distortions of official team names], and let ‘em strap up out there, and let ‘em market their CDs. Instead of selling concessions, sell CDs out there at the concession stand.

All the players get involved in this, and if a fight breaks out, hey, it’s what happens! It’s what happens with gangs, and if a cop gets bloodied, you know, that’s a bonus for the gang member that pulls that off, and let the fans, you know, go in knowingly. They’re going in to watch the Crips and the Bloods out there wherever the neighborhood is where the arena happens to be, and be who you are.