Limbaugh and Scarborough insult women--what else is new?

People on radio and television utter disgusting sexist remarks every day (consider Chris Matthews, Keith Olbermann, Brian Williams, and Bill Maher), but sometimes someone goes so over the top--in this case, both Rush Limbaugh and Joe Scarborough--that I have to whack myself on the head in the hope of ridding myself of the delusion that this is 21st Century America.

Sexist remarks--both the blatant kind and the kind that just come natural to "liberal" people like Maher and Matthews--do not surprise me, but I remember a time, not that many decades ago, when making them would have gotten you into a lot of trouble. Sure, the feminist blogosphere was quick to call Olbermann on his double-standard nastiness, but it wasn't news. Liberal women, as a group, seem to adore Maher.

What if Scarborough or Matthews or any of them had said demeaning things about African Americans? There would have been an uproar. Sure, a lot of people would have winked and nudged and said "political correctness is the problem," but at least the problem woud have been recognized and publicized. But making insulting and unkind remarks about women and girls is acceptable. The California gubernatorial election showed us, in fact, that even assaulting women and girls is acceptable.

One of the myths of contemporary America is that since women like Nancy Pelosi, Hillary Rodham Clinton and Condoleezza Rice have powerful positions in government, women have "made it." The reality is, our sexist culture now has bigger targets.