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Nov. 28, 2008 - Rush Limbaugh Program
35:19
November 28, 2008, Friday, Hour #3
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Greetings, Rush Limbaugh, the Open Line Friday edition of our program is now.
Live from the Southern Command in sunny South Florida.
It's open line Friday.
And we're gonna get to your phone calls El Pico in this hour.
800-282-2882.
If you want to be on the program, remember when we go to the phones on Friday, you own the program.
You can pretty much talk about whatever you wish.
The number 800-282-2882.
The email address is L Rushbow at EIBNet.com.
I want to continue this discussion about oil and alternative fuel sources and so forth and the whole notion of a free market, entrepreneurism, zero sum games.
Way too many of you, because the the effort to demonize oil, uh not just because the mistaken notion that uh our purchases of oil are funding terrorism, but you know that that's that is ridiculous.
That the terrorists are not using oil revenues to be funded.
That's um but but e even even that aside, uh, oil has been successfully demonized uh in this country to the point that otherwise intelligent educated people think we can just get rid of it tomorrow.
And and they they they're operating under the assumption that there is an alternative energy already out there.
We just refuse to use it.
Because big oil and big lobbyists and big Republicans are keeping us from this alternative energy.
Let me tell you I want uh look at me, folks.
Look at me.
The only alternative energy that we have right now, or for the next twenty or thirty years, is the energy we refuse to drill for in an war.
Oil.
The only alternative energy we have for the next twenty or thirty years is oil in the Gulf of Mexico that we refuse to drill for, but the Shicoms and the Cubans are drilling for it in the Gulf, and the Mexicans are.
We did lay claim to a huge field up in the Arctic Circle recently.
But the Liberal Democrats will not let our country pursue this alternative energy.
They will not let us drill for it, they will not let us refine it.
They will not allow it to happen.
Above and beyond that, the zero sum game aspect, the idea that we can just get rid of oil tomorrow or next year or five years from now, and replace it with something that's just as productive, efficient, and economical is absurd.
It is just intellectually absurd.
So is the notion that oil is evil.
So is the notion that it has been so demonized.
Oil is not evil.
Oil is our friend.
It is one of our best friends.
It is one of our most valuable friends.
But above and beyond that, can I ask you a question or two?
As Americans.
What today are you proud of in your country?
Are you proud of our insurance industry?
I bet not demonized people hate insurance agents, hate insurance companies, a bunch of crooks.
How about our financial institutions?
Wall Street, your bank, your savings and loan, your credit union.
Are you proud of that?
No.
That's been demonized too.
Just a bunch crooks.
Don't care about you.
How about our automobile industry?
You proud of the automobile industry?
No, you're not proud of it.
They're getting skunked by the Japanese.
Besides, they make products that use oil.
And they make products that are destroying the world.
Hell no, we hate the auto industry.
Are you proud of your pharmaceutical industry?
Hell no.
You're not proud of the people that rape you at the drug stores with these exorbitant drug prices when you think you can get them cheaper from Canada.
You know they're running ads on TV for all these different drugs and just trying to get you to go to the doctor and get some.
They don't care about curing you.
They don't care about making you well.
They just want to soak you.
Let's see.
Are you proud of the U.S. military?
No, you're not proud of the U.S. military.
The military kills babies and innocent civilians.
The U.S. military tortures people at Abu Grab and Guantanamo Bay.
I know because John McCain tells us so, along with the Liberal Democrats.
let's see.
Are you um are you proud of anything?
Are you proud of the home building industry?
No.
You hate the home because they build cheap stuff and they overcharge you for it.
And they and it it doesn't, it doesn't work, and you can't end up paying for it.
No.
You're not proud of it.
Are you proud of the airline?
Hell no, you're not proud of the airline.
Hell you hate flying.
No peanuts anymore.
Seats are sitting in there, you're sardine and their planes are always late.
They're never on time.
You can't get where you're going comfortably when you want to get there.
Well, see.
Do you like government?
Oh yes.
Oh, yes, government cares for me.
Government loves me.
Government wants me to have health care that I don't have to pay for.
And government wants me to be safe from storms.
And government wants me to not have to pay taxes.
Government only wants the rich to pay taxes.
Oh, we love government.
We are really proud of our government in America.
America, are you um let's see?
Are you proud of the retailing industry?
No, we hate Walmart.
Walmart, why, they're mean to unions.
We love unions.
We are really proud of our unions in America.
But we hate Walmart.
And we hate Kmart.
And we hate Jacques Pinet.
And we hate the malls.
See, are you proud of our schools?
Well, we're proud of the public education system.
Are you proud that your kids aren't learning anything?
Well, we're trying.
But we need more money for our public schools.
So that's if we just had more money, then we could be proud of our public school system.
Let's see.
Are you um?
Are you proud of the shipping industry?
FedEx UPS, ocean going vessels.
No.
They pollute, they don't get my packages here on time, and they're just out to shaft me.
They're just a bunch of crooks just like the people on Wall Street, just like the people at the banks.
But we love our government.
Now this is an illustration.
I just asked you, what in this country are you proud of?
Versus 30, 40 years ago, what were we proud of?
We were proud of all of this.
We were puffed up with pride about all of this.
We were proud of our achievements, we're proud of our accomplishments, we were appreciative of our freedom.
But now look at what they've made us hate.
Look at what they've made us detest.
Look at the absolute BS that they have more and more educated people believing that oil is just a conspiracy, that there is a replacement.
There's alternative fuels out there.
But they don't want to release them because big oil and big Republicans.
And Halliburton, Cheney, Bush.
They're all conspiracy to keep it from threatening their own investments in oil.
Is it not shocking, ladies and gentlemen, to realize just how few educated Americans understand how the world works?
More than that, isn't it scary to understand how few educated Americans understand how their own country works.
Forget the world.
Oh, but we love our government and we love our politicians.
And we love a small portion of the media, the drive-bys.
Um, you know, do we like our churches?
Nope.
Those damn priests, look what they're doing with those little boys.
We hate the Pope.
The Pope!
Why?
The Pope is restrictive.
The Pope is unbending, he's not tolerant.
Yet we are supposed to understand the Reverend Jeremiah Wright.
And people like him.
Oh, I think we are proud of the porn industry.
We wait for the porn industry to decide whether the Blu-ray or HD DVD format war is going to be won.
We love the porn industry, and we really, really, really want to do everything we can to protect people's freedom to engage in these kinds of private things in their homes.
We love the porn industry, we love government.
We like most of our politicians, because they care about us, Mr. Limbaugh, unlike you.
They care about us, they want a health care, Mr. Limbaugh.
Um what are you proud of about your country anymore?
Really think you ought to take some time to think about it because I maintain to you, if you have any agreement with things that I have exaggerated here.
If you do hate the automobile industry, if you hate Wall Street, if you hate the banks, if you hate the financial industry, if you hate the airline industry, if you hate the pharmaceutical industry, if you hate retail, if you have resentments for all these industries, and think that your only protection is government.
You really, really need to ask yourself, you need to grab yourself by the wrist as hard as you can say what the hell happened to you and who made you feel this way.
The one area of the media that people respect and like in conjunction with American liberals and socialists have made you feel this way.
You hate oil?
Is it rational?
What the hell, folks?
That's right, Mr. Lumbaugh, $5 in California, $4 elsewhere, $3.
It's not right.
Somebody's gouting us.
Wait a minute.
I thought you guys were all hoping for high prices down the road so it would lead to conservation.
You can't make liberals happy no matter what they get, even if it's what they want, it's never enough.
There's a political party and its allies who feed off of your paranoia, feed off of your hatred for all things great in America.
They feed off of your rage that they have made you believe things like you are getting shafted by everybody else, and only government can protect you and make these wrongs right.
You need to get hold of yourselves, take a look around your great country and ask yourself why you're no longer proud of it when you used to be.
Because there's no reason for anybody not to be proud of this country.
You all live here.
You all are seeking your best performance opportunity because you know your country provides it.
Yet some of you, not you, you but you know, people I know you people are not of this mindset, but so many Americans seem to be.
And so they're trying to do something positive while feeling absolutely enraged all the time.
Hatred for America is real.
You've seen it, you've heard it, you've read it, it's out there and it's in larger numbers than you know.
And the people who hate this country are the genuine mind-numbed robots.
They have been talked into it years and years and years of propaganda.
Just ask yourself, when you have a free moment, maybe bring it up at dinner if you have a family still eats together now and then ask them.
What are you proud of in America?
Don't lead them anywhere.
Just say, what are you proud of when you think about America?
What are you proud of?
And then deal with what you get.
It will be interesting.
Back in a second.
It's open line Friday, hosted by me.
Rush Limbaugh, America's real anchor man.
Nation's leading radio talk show, the most eagerly anticipated program in America, program which meets and surpasses all audience expectations on a daily basis.
May I have your attention, please, folks, on the business of alternative fuels.
Look at me.
Look at me.
The United States is not a zero-sum game.
Meaning, when somebody gets hired, it does not mean somebody gets fired.
Meaning when somebody earns an additional $5, Somebody has lost an additional five dollars.
It doesn't mean that it's either oil or else.
The whole concept of the United States, the capitalist system is the free market.
And the free market is fueled by freedom.
And freedom leads to ingenuity, invention, entrepreneurism.
And what is the pursuit?
The pursuit is profit.
The profit derives from success.
Now there's some charlatans in our free market.
The people in carbon offset businesses are sharks.
They are pure frauds.
They are convincing people to pay them X amount of dollars for whatever to plant trees to soak up the additional carbon footprint of what is allowed.
Allowed by who?
Who says that there is a maximum carbon footprint?
There is no such law.
There is no such standard, because we have freedom.
If you want to have a $30,000 house and a big ass swimming pool and a bunch of outdoor lights, and you can afford it, and you pay for it, and there are people to provide it, end of story.
You are not guilty.
You are not guilty.
No, you are not.
Just because somebody else doesn't have a 30,000 square foot house, had none have a big ass swimming pool and have outdoor lights, doesn't mean they're innocent and that you're guilty.
As this relates to alternative fuels, oil is the most plentiful energy source we have.
It's the most efficient.
But while oil is being used, and while it is being exploited, the United States taxpayer, ladies and gentlemen, already spends billions of dollars on alternative energy research.
And you can bet that the private sector is investing in it too.
And you know why?
Because we are a growing country and everybody needs energy.
We're not going to stay the United States if we start reducing energy usage.
Conservation is not the answer.
And so because this free market's percolating and gurgling and burbling out there, somewhere in this mix will come the magical alternative fuel source.
It may not be for a hundred years, it may not be for fifty, but it will happen, and it will happen all by itself.
If we stay free.
Julie in Oklahoma City, it's great to have you back.
I remember you.
How are you?
Oh, I'm wonderful.
How are you?
Never better.
Really?
Well, I Why you want me to say, okay, I could be better?
What do you want me to say?
No, I I want you to say what you feel.
That's why I like you.
Great.
I'm never better.
Well, I was just calling to tell you.
Um, I will be graduating from my police science cops program in two months, and I've sent two applications out to two police departments, and they have both accepted my applications.
Now that that is fabulous.
I I I I want to uh I want to review your story for people.
I've got about a minute and fifteen seconds here, but you called two years ago.
You want you you wanted to go back to school to become a police officer.
Your family told you that uh you'd never be able to do it, had a lot of people say don't work.
What do you want to do?
That it's stupid, but that was your passion.
You went ahead and did it anyway.
You were fighting against a whole bunch of obstacles, and now you're what?
How far from graduation?
Uh about eight weeks.
Eight weeks of graduation, and you've got two applications already out.
Excepted.
Accepted.
Yes.
So you had your dream.
This is great.
This is a great follow-up story.
You had your dream, you stuck to it.
You remain dedicated to your desires, and now you're gonna get to do what you always want.
And how old are you?
31.
31.
That was part of the story, too.
And all so how's the family now?
How do they feel now?
Um that's a whole another story, but my children are proud, so that's what counts.
Yeah, and you know, it has nothing to do with hope.
It has to do with hard work, right?
Nothing to do with hope.
It has to do with yeah, hope, you know, hope's an excuse for not doing anything.
It's all hard work.
Well, congratulations.
Every bit of it, so and I just wanted to tell you thank you again because you are such a big part of it, even though you didn't even know it.
So you just keep doing what you're doing.
Thank you.
I will, but remember, you did the work.
Thank you, Julie, very much.
We've got a brief time, and I love these stories because they happen all over the country.
You just don't hear about it.
We'll be back after this.
Music Maestro Barry White.
Love Unlimited Orchestra.
Name of the Remember the name of this tune, snurdly.
My sweet.
Some are sweet.
I love Barry White.
His wife's name was Glode.
One of 'em anyway.
There's a uh picture, a funny picture here from a blog called the Say Anything blog, and it's from the from their June 10th issue of the Say Anything blog.
And I guess there's a there were somewhere they were asking people the question uh should Congress continue to fund National Public Radio.
It was a newspaper, because what they've done is link here to pictures of local residents who answer the question.
Now there's a guy here, his name is Richard Guess from Charlestown.
I don't know Charlestown where, does it say?
But this guy looks exactly like what you think liberals think Southerners look like.
And here is Richard Guess's answer to the question should Congress continue to fund National Public Radio.
Congress should continue paying for it, because if they don't, the taxpayers will end up paying for it.
Now, what do you bet this guy votes Democrat?
All right, back to the phones on open line Friday.
This is Bill in uh in Mount Wolf, Pennsylvania.
Hi, Bill, great to have you here.
Oh, Megadiddos, Rush.
Thank you.
How are you today?
Good, thanks, sir.
Great show.
Hey, uh, I have a couple questions about cigars for you.
Yes, sir.
Um I started buying some of the Florida Dominicana double Liguero chisels.
Good man.
I I guess last year.
Uh and I actually I I talked to the uh to the salespeople at the shop where I buy my adult beverages and my cigars.
Yes.
And uh they gave me some hints on how to cut these things properly.
You don't cut them.
Yo, double you use a plug cutter about a quarter inch up.
Oh no, no, no.
You don't cut the La Flor Dominicana double Liguero chisel.
Good.
This is what I was looking for.
You don't cut that thing.
Why get rid of the chisel?
The purpose of the chisel is to focus and concentrate the smoke as you draw it from the cigar.
If you put a hole in that thing, you're defeating the purpose.
Well, all you do, here's what you do with the La Flor Dominicana double liguerro chisel.
You just take the end of the chisel and you pinch it.
Okay.
And it'll the the wrapper leaf will split at the end, and there you go.
You never cut a La Flor Dominicana double lighter with chisel.
Okay, well, let me explain myself a little further.
Brian, go grab me one out of the humador.
They were using uh uh a plug cutter, and they would go about a quarter inch up the flat.
Yeah.
And cut into the side of the chisel.
Yeah.
The tip of the chisel would stay intact.
Yeah.
And you would have a plug cut removed from the top or to bottom of that chisel.
Yeah, but how far up?
I mean, you don't want to have to swallow the damn thing too.
Oh no, you don't.
It's it it you don't have to go very far.
And it seems like uh you can direct the smoke to the top of your mouth or the bottom of your mouth.
But you're telling me all you do is just pinch the animal.
I've got one in my formerly nicotine-stained fingers right here.
Okay, so if you're watching.
Let me ask you a question.
Are you a member of my website?
Absolutely.
Are you watching right now the ditto cam?
No.
Well, you will be able to see this later on the ditto cam if you go to my website, right?
No, okay.
Well, my uh my computer right now is a little slow and a little down.
Um it's not working.
Uh, it's working a little bit, but what you're saying is you can't watch video.
No, I can't.
Okay, well I'm this is easy.
Okay.
What I'm gonna do is uh I'm gonna have the webmaster grab a still shot of what I'm gonna do here.
Okay.
We'll put the still shot on the website this afternoon when we update it, and you will see exactly what I'm talking about.
Great.
Okay.
Now I'm gonna have to beg your indulgence because I've got to zoom in the ditto cam here to the double lighter chisel.
And there it is.
Okay, there it is, the band.
What he's talking about here, folks, is getting a circular cutter to put right in the top there, about there, and and just go about in an eighth of an inch in and pull that plug out, and then with that you've put your cigar in your mouth.
And that way you have the uh smoke coming out of the top of the cigar.
Absolutely correct.
But this is not the way to do it.
I'm gonna point the show show the chisel here.
Get it up against my black shirt.
You can see why they call it a chisel.
You just take your finger, pinch it.
It now draws like great.
Let me back out here.
I'm a light it.
I have not cut it.
There's not one hole in the wrapper, top or bottom.
There is a barely detectable slit at the very end of the chisel.
In this way, when I draw the tobacco and the smoke from the cigar, it concentrates through that chisel for one of the finest tastes a cigar smoker will ever experience the La Florida Dominicana double lighter chisel is the strongest cigar I have ever smoked from anywhere.
Is that well, you know, down at the the uh the shop that I buy mine from, I also buy other double ligueros that are not chisels.
And uh they're kind of astounded because I've I've smoked up to five of them on a Saturday afternoon.
Well and uh this was the question because my regular everyday cigar is a punch elite.
Or some of the much much milder might go with a punch Rothschild.
Yeah, those are much, much milder.
I could you are you one of these people that start out with a mild cigar at the beginning of the day and then you get stronger as the day goes on?
I'll tell you how it happened.
I was handed fifty-five Tiamos back in nineteen ninety by a friend of mine, and I was on third shift and I used to listen to you religiously every day because I couldn't sleep during the daytime.
Yeah, yeah.
And uh somewhere along that line, I heard you talking about the La Flores.
Um I was a little reluctant to buy them at the time because I didn't have the cash flow I do now, and they're a little pricey.
Uh but uh what do they cost you?
Uh a double ligero chisel is about seven bucks a pop.
Oh, you're getting a deal.
Well, I don't know.
There's a couple of places that I found them a little cheaper if I buy them by the box load.
Well, the point is this.
Let me w when you you talk about your punches, your Rothschild and uh yeah, I uh the elite.
No, no, no.
Do you start your day with a mild cigar and then build up to a strong one after dinner, is that what you do?
Uh my day start my cigar smoking starts when I come home from work, and that could be anywhere from six to six thirty in the middle.
Oh, okay.
Well then it's a because most people make a mistake of starting mild during the day and then get stronger as the day goes on.
Uh no.
You smoke the first cigar you smoke of the day.
I don't care when it is you smoke your favorite.
Because that's when your palate is the most receptive to the flavor.
Saturday and Sundays are when I usually burn my La Flores.
And I I have sitting here in my uh my humidor is a ziploc bag with uh one of those Bovita things in it or whatever they are.
Well, everybody has to start somewhere up in there.
But uh I have these I have three.
Uh there they look like about a a Churchill size or maybe a little longer.
It's called the factory press.
They were not cellophane wrapped.
No, of course that that's that's a special edition cigar.
I've got I've got a box of those.
Look, we'll go to the website tonight, you'll see what I'm talking about on how to pinch this.
You never cut one.
Stephen Miami, you're next on the EIB network.
Hi, Rush, how are you?
Hi, good.
Good.
Uh a few days ago you talked about a baseball study that showed um bias, and you said there was a flaw in the study.
Yeah.
Um there really is it doesn't isn't necessarily a flaw.
You can tell just by looking at a large number of pitches like they were about two million pitches.
Um all you have to do is see what the average of balls and strikes are.
Let's say it's fifty-fifty, and then if you've got a black ump with a white batter or vice versa, if you see that it differs statistically from the norm, you can see a bias.
Okay, let's let's set the table here so that people know what we're talking about because this I this is last week, uh, I think.
Some researchers was this University of Texas.
Oh, I don't I don't remember.
I think it was, but I'm not sure.
But they did they they they studied over two million pitches in Major League Baseball.
They concluded that there is racial bias, not maybe not intentional, but racial bias uh when a pitcher and umpire are of differing races.
A white ump will favor a white pitcher with more strike calls, uh and a black ump will favor a black or Hispanic pitcher with more strike calls.
And what I said was you it seems to me that you would have to be able to know what every pitch actually was.
But you don't, because all you have to do is know what the average is.
Okay, so you average you know the average is let's say fifty fifty, but when the black pitcher gets up there at sixty percent strike, hold on.
I'm I'm like a woman when you get the numbers.
I don't follow them too easily.
What fifty fifty what?
Let's say let's say fifty percent strikes and fifty percent black.
Okay, okay.
Overall average for all pitchers batters umps.
Gotcha, gotcha.
I'm with you so far.
And then you get, let's say, a black pitcher up there and a white ump, and there's a greater percentage called a balls, statistically significant greater percentage, you can see a bias.
Aha.
So it's it's a statistical bias.
They're not they're not making some actual claim here.
Right.
I mean it would be almost impossible to do that.
Well, that was my point.
Right.
Well, you can see statistically if there is a difference.
All right.
Well, I stand corrected.
Until somebody else calls and tells me you were wrong.
And gauche happens to be French for left, so you you've been waiting for a whole week.
I have.
I you know what, I don't listen to you so often.
I'm driving in my car sometimes on the way to or from appointments.
That's when I get a chance to listen to you.
I it's hard to catch hard to get in, so I just thought I'd be able to do that.
I appreciate it.
I appreciate you made it in.
Thank things much.
Okay, thanks.
Bye bye now.
What brought that that we had a call, so I was asking some guy what what uh some words mean.
I was using some words one day that were a little bit esoteric and off the beaten path.
And I asked the guy what gauche meant and uh he got it half right.
But I didn't correct him.
I was not trying to uh laud my vocabulary skills over anybody, but this guy remembers the call gauche, which is really inappropriate, this goofy ill mannered behavior is rooted.
It's a French word, and it means left because in the in the old days in France, left handers were thought to be goofy, odd, outcasts, this kind of thing.
Well, outcast is the wrong word, but it was improper.
Something that was improper.
It indicated poor poppy training in the formative years, maybe.
Emotional rescue, the stones.
That's exactly what happens on this program every day.
We rescue your emotions from the assaults of the drive-by media.
Get this from the New York Times today.
Faced with a surge in the number of proposed solar power plants, the federal government has placed a moratorium on new solar projects on public land until it studies their environmental impact, which is expected to take about two years.
You environmentalist nutcases, you've shot yourself to the foot out here.
You've got we got these solar plants out there, and they didn't do an economic impact study, so we're gonna shut them down.
I guess there won't be solar power tomorrow.
I guess we're not gonna get any solar power for homes tomorrow.
Or next week, a two-year moratorium while we study the how do you get one of these things built without an environmental impact for crying out loud, I couldn't put an outhouse in my backyard without getting one.
Back to the phones.
Nina in Dallas.
Nice to have you, Nina.
The last Nina was sort of off the charts.
I hope you're better.
Well, it's Nina.
It's not Nina, I'm Nina.
Okay, it's been a it's a pleasure waiting on you.
And I have uh I want to talk about George Carlin.
And uh my son and I think that uh well, whatever it was that um um what was it, a skit?
Was it a skit?
Well, it was from one of his comedy acts.
There were three sound bites here from one of his uh I think it was probably from an HBO special that he did.
It might have been a stage show, but uh it might have but it doesn't matter.
It was it was it was actually George Carlin on stage in performance.
Yeah.
Well, we just well, you we think that you probably need to uh put that on every day.
Really?
Why, I'm not good enough?
No.
But you need the liberals to hear that crap.
You know?
You need they they need to hear it.
This isn't crap.
What what I know, I know.
Carlin said it's not oh, you think because Carlin's a liberal uh that other liberals if they hear Carlin, they might be more inclined to be persuaded than if they heard it from me.
That's right.
Well, I see, I get it.
And uh uh Well that means I should be a liberal for half the show.
Oh no, no, you're fine the way you are.
But I was gonna tell you that uh Tyler Cox uh from Dallas uh and I and a bunch of people came up to see you, and oh I don't remember what year.
But we really enjoyed it and you came up to see the T V show.
Yeah.
Yeah, so that would have been uh ninety-three or ninety-four.
Yeah, not probably ninety four.
Yeah.
Oh, the that was the year that Republicans took over the the house representative.
Well, that's that's exactly what it was.
It was nineteen ninety four.
They were uh they were crowned uh and began their reign uh on uh January of nineteen ninety-five.
I I ran up and down the hall.
Every time they come on, you know, someone uh uh Republican beat a uh Democrat, you know, and I'd run down the hall to tell my son, which is in bed with a stroke, and I'd run back to listen to the radio and all that stuff, and it was just wonderful.
I just loved every second, and then they just messed around and went back liberal.
Um Yeah, they got a little, they got a little, they got a little um got a little arrogant.
They stopped teaching conservatism.
They thought the whole country had gone conservative, and so they thought they stopped teaching it.
Fatal error there.
Let's listen to some of these.
This is the George Carlin bites that she's talking about.
We played them earlier in the week.
Heart attack, uh, heart failure, age 71.
We have three, I think is it three sound bites?
George Carlin on the environment.
Here's number one.
Let me tell you about endangered species, all right.
Saving endangered species is just one more arrogant attempt by humans to control nature.
It's arrogant meddling.
It's what got us in trouble in the first place.
Doesn't anybody understand that?
Interfering with nature.
Over 90%, over, way over 90% of all the species that have ever lived on this planet, ever lived, are gone.
They're extinct.
We didn't kill them all.
They just disappeared.
That's what nature does.
We're so self-important, so self-important.
Everybody's gonna save something now.
Save the trees, save the bees, save the whales, save those snails.
And the greatest arrogance of all, save the planet.
What?
Exactly right.
This next riff could have come right from behind this microphone.
I'm tired of these self-righteous environmentalists, these white bourgeois liberals who think the only thing wrong with this country is there aren't enough bicycle paths.
People trying to make the world safe for their Volvos.
There is nothing wrong with the planet.
Nothing wrong with the planet.
The planet is fine.
The people are the planet is fine.
Compared to the people, the planet is doing great.
It's been here four and a half billion years.
Do you ever think about the arithmetic?
Planet has been here four and a half billion years.
We've only been engaged in heavy industry for a little over 200 years.
George Carlin on the environment and another riff that could have come right from this program.
Two hundred years versus four and a half billion.
And we have the conceit to think that somehow we're a threat, that somehow we're going to put in jeopardy this beautiful little blue-green ball that's just a floating around the sun.
The planet has been through a lot worse than us.
Been through all kinds of things worse than us.
Been through earthquakes, volcanoes, plate tectonics, continental drift, solar flares, sunspots, magnetic storms, the magnetic reversal of the poles, hundreds of thousands of years of bombardment by comets and asteroids and meteors, worldwide floods, tidal waves, worldwide fires, erosion, cosmic rays, recurring ice ages, and we think some plastic bags and some aluminum cans are going to make a difference.
The planet isn't going anywhere.
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