An apology

Once upon a time
one of my peers at another office
called me up
and asked me to
send her all of the dates of birth
and social security numbers
for every employee at my site.

To which I said
"why do you need it?"

she said,
"I just need it"

I joked and said,
"I can't just send you confidential information
without a reason"
and
um
I may have made a joke about identity theft.

she didn't give me a reason
I didn't send the information

what she did do
was hang up
and burst into tears
she called the boss-of-us
and told him I was mean.

He called me
and although he agreed with my protection of the data
told me I needed to apologize.

So I called her
and said,

"I'm so sorry that what I said made you cry, but....."
and repeated my original case

I've referred to this as a "Gina-apology" ever since
(and she actually was happy with the apology -- and somehow failed to notice that I never sent the information she requested)

This Mr. Limbaugh
is a bullshit apology

apologies do not include the word "but"
they do not defend our actions
those are called excuses
or defenses

or in your case
"complete crap"

but they are NOT apologies

you did not mean your apology
any more than I meant mine all those years ago

you do not intend to change your ways

because it would be the death knell for your career

you have made a career out of being
shocking
horrifying
and
misogynistic

so I'm so sorry to not accept your apology
but...