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July 10, 2009 - Rush Limbaugh Program
36:34
July 10, 2009, Friday, Hour #1
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Welcome to today's edition of the Rush 24-7 podcast.
A happy Friday to everybody.
It is a joy to be with you here.
Apparently, the memo is out.
It's all clear.
Five days of Rush being gone.
He's back on Monday.
Early celebration there.
Have a great weekend.
But clearly, either by accident or intent, in order to fill in on the Limbaugh Show, your name has to be Mark.
So for Mr. Belling, Mr. Stein, I just want to get together with those guys and say thank you, mom and dad, for making this possible in that regard.
Now, I enjoyed Mark Belling Monday Tuesday.
Always a joy to hear Mr. Stein.
And I am here for you today to get us into the weekend and get us ready for Rush's return on Monday.
Mark Davis out of WBAP Dallas, Fort Worth, just a few short miles from George W. Bush's house.
We had some interesting talk, in fact, this past week.
Locally, we have the George W. Bush Presidential Library is going to be built at Southern Methodist University at SMU in Dallas.
And it's funny, that might seem like a perfect, well, in fact, it is a perfect fit.
Especially Laura, as an alumna, has a long connection with Dallas and with SMU.
Very weirdly, there was a portion of the Methodist hierarchy at SMU that objected to the Bush 43 library.
And it's funny if they don't like the president or didn't like the war or whatever, then okay, that's fine.
But they sought to assert that something about the Bush presidency was antithetical to Methodist beliefs.
What?
It just got very, very weird.
That argument did not prevail.
But the Bush 43 library story, it made the national news, made USA Today, was, it was kind of an interesting parlor discussion.
Should Saddam's pistol be at the Bush 43 Presidential Library?
And I think a couple of Methodist hierarchy heads exploded.
What, we get the library and Saddam's pistol?
So, and the answer to that is, of course, it should.
Now, if you're thinking, now, wait a minute, a presidential library should be sort of a president's papers and his personal property and not so much just totems and remnants of stuff that he likes.
Well, sit tight on that because guess what?
Saddam's Glock is President Bush's property.
The Delta Force guys who dragged Saddam out of the spider hole, about four of those guys paid a visit to the Oval Office and presented that pistol to President Bush.
So yes, it should be at the library and it will be on display at the library, it appears, when that opens and when that does, come on down, come into the Metroplex.
You might not want to come in July.
Today's high around here, 105 degrees.
And listen, I know that's all over.
There are folks roasting all over.
Although, didn't New York just have the coolest June ever?
I mean, before we get Al Gore or anybody else up there barking about global warming, which we'll probably talk about some today if you want to.
There's some more of that nonsense coming out of the G8 as countries all gather together to figure out what they can do about climate change when the answer is probably nothing.
Let's keep the planet clean.
Let's keep the air clean.
I mean, let's have cleaner factories, cleaner cars.
Let's have cleaner everything through a marketplace that desires it.
The marketplace does desire it.
Let's not have it through economy-wrecking force-fed activism, The Kyoto style, Greenpeace-style nonsense.
Let's have a cleaner planet because we want one.
We've got a cleaner planet now than we had some decades ago.
We're kind of on this.
It's okay.
Coming up later on in the program, we might talk a little bit about CarbonGate, every controversy has a gate suffix to it, about an EPA gentleman who wrote a report in which he committed the sin of skepticism about man-made global warming.
And I believe Lisa Jackson, the head of the EPA, was accused of suppressing that report.
This oh-so open administration, and the whole word about the Obamas was they just cherish, they cherish debate.
They really want to get in and mix it up with opposing views.
Right.
So anyway, there'll be that.
Other things that are coming up at the beginning of our second hour today, we're going to have a chat with a real hero in the House of Representatives.
That is Congressman Mike Pence out of Indiana.
We'll talk about how things are going with the effort to try to chip away at one-party rule.
And we'll talk to him at the beginning of the segment that is the beginning of the next hour.
And the beginning of our final hour together, pollster Scott Rasmussen will be with us.
And if there's a pollster on the Limbaugh show, the news must be good for once.
And it is.
There's this thing called the Presidential Index.
I mean, usually you see a poll and you say, how do you feel about the president?
And it's love him, so-so on him, don't like him.
And you take those and you all mix and match and analyze as you will.
The presidential index is an intriguing device.
The notion is you take the number of people who say they strongly approve, the number of people who say they strongly disapprove, and you fashion from that either a positive or negative integer.
The news was not so good for the just spoken of President Bush 43 in the waning months, years of his presidency because the nation had sadly lost the spine for the war.
And listen, anytime at the end of a two-term presidency, you're going to get some fatigue and the desire to see what else is going on and the thirst for new faces and new voices, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
But at the beginning of the Obama administration, the news on the presidential index was incredibly good.
I mean, the number of people who strongly approved was way high, and the number of people who strongly disapproved was quite low, giving him a big, strong, double-digit positive number.
That has changed.
That has changed.
Number of people now strongly approving of President Obama, 32%.
Number of people now strongly disapproving, 37%.
Is this folks slowly coming to their senses?
Is this folks previously enthused or at least willing to, and I always love this, let's give him a chance.
And listen, that is the sporting thing to do.
That is the fair thing to do.
I did it.
In the period between the election and the inauguration, oh, man.
And I think we, didn't we spend some time together on this program at least once or twice in that period?
I don't know.
But either in the local show here in Texas or when graced with this privilege, between the election and the inauguration, folks would call and they would say we're going straight, straight into the flames of hell.
And I'd say, all right, look, tell you what let's do.
Let's wait for his hand to come off the Bible, presuming it was going to be the Bible.
I know, I know.
And wait and see what he actually does.
Not for a moment because I thought it was going to be great, but just to be fair, an oft-misused term.
Let's respond to what the guy actually does.
I shared everyone's inherent concern about someone this radical ascending to the presidency.
And I've never shied away from that observation between the election and the inauguration.
But I said, but rather than just wring our hands about that, why don't we wait for Inauguration Day and respond story by story, development by development, initiative by initiative to what he actually does.
That has been the gift that keeps on giving.
Because, oh my Lord, from the stimulus to health care to the environmental extremism, if you have made it your hobby, or in my case, if you've made it your job to be in the business of chronicling things that government does and making that list of things you like,
things you don't like, the mere compilation of things to recoil from from these people is enough to keep a team of researchers busy.
And so as we wait for Brother Pence here at the beginning of the next day, I want to ask him about how's it going with the idea of actually thwarting this agenda.
It is always a positive thing to stop bad ideas.
In fact, you know what?
Let me toss you this before we get to the break here and start to take a bunch of your calls, 1-800-282-2882, 1-800-282-2882.
Always go to rushlimbaugh.com, even when Rush isn't here.
The website is up and active, and the phone number is always 1-800-282-2882.
But there are people who, and plenty of Republicans have said this.
Well, we can't just be the party of no, which is true.
I mean, it's true.
The keyword there is just.
We can't just be the party of no.
We can't solely be perceived as opposing everything this man stands for, even though that is the definition of wisdom, it seems.
We have to, sometimes it's just semantics.
Sometimes it's just a matter of phraseology.
Rather than standing there and just beating the holy stuffing out of the latest Obama idea, why don't you just flip that and offer your own idea and the reasons why it is superior?
Sometimes it's a matter of packaging.
Isn't all politics a matter of packaging?
And the good ones are masters at that, from people I voted for to people I didn't.
Reagan was a master of packaging.
Bill Clinton, a master of packaging.
Barack Obama, maybe the master of packaging.
Because, I mean, Bill Clinton packaged what he actually had going for him and made it attractive and made it resistant to all manner of things that might have ruined people of lesser political skill.
Ronald Reagan packaged the appeal that he had and portrayed it as what it was.
Optimistic, unapologetic conservatism.
Barack Obama, wow, was available, was able to take an enormous box that contained virtually nothing and make it something people wanted with such desire.
We've got to have hope.
We've got to have change.
Without, in many cases, one molecule of knowing what those words meant, what he meant when he said them, and what the hope and the change would actually involve.
Well, you know now.
And part of the reason that presidential index isn't quite as sunny as it once was.
And I don't pretend there are a bunch of people who are die-hard Obama fans who are now saying, oh my God, what about that?
Might be a couple, but there's some who have been in the middle, the folks I mentioned a couple of minutes ago who said, let's give the guy a chance.
Well, they have given the guy a chance and they are done.
They are out.
They gave him a chance and he's running GM.
They gave him a chance and he has sold our kids' futures down the river for a stimulus plan that ain't working.
They have given him a chance and he threatens to wreck the economy with environmental extremism.
They have given him a chance and uncle, uncle, uncle, enough.
And I can't sit here today and say that that phenomenon exists to a degree that we win the House and the Senate back in 2010, please.
Some processes are slow.
I can't even sit here that this means that he's a one-term president.
I don't know, but I'm intrigued.
What do we do in life?
We take the snapshot of this as the stories unfold.
So part of what we'll do today is take that snapshot.
So help me in firing off those photographs with your opinions at 1-800-282-2882.
1-800-282-2882.
I'm Mark Davis, your third Mark of the Week.
And just glad to be with you here on what is in every way Open Line Friday.
You know that.
So join us with whatever you like.
I got some more suggestions and we'll put my ideas together with yours.
Agree, disagree.
I love all people.
Let's do it.
1-800-282-2882.
Mark Davis in for Rush on the EIB Network.
It is the Friday Rush Limbaugh Show.
I'm Mark Davis sitting in for Rush in Dallas, Fort Worth, Texas, from the comfortable studios of WBAP, a proud Limbaugh affiliate for many, many years.
Rush will be back on Monday as we go to some topics and maybe even some calls here before the bottom of the hour.
I invoked today's high here in the Metroplex of 105 degrees as counterpoint.
Let me just share something for you.
It's valuable info for all listeners and also a shout out to a proud, another proud Limbaugh affiliate.
My family and I enjoyed the past week on vacation in the listening area of San Diego's news and talk station, the mighty AM600 KOGO Kogo, as it is affectionately known.
And I just have to tell you, I've been to San Diego a few times.
Sunshine 75 every day.
It was insane.
And we did the SeaWorld thing, which is great.
I have a 17-year-old and a six-year-old.
Thank you very much.
Yes, every day is interesting.
And we hid a little fact from Ethan, my son, of something we were going to do, and we did it on day two.
And so not only was going to San Diego just a great idea, Hotel Del Coronado, oh my gosh, just great.
Fireworks over Glorieta Bay.
It was an aircraft carrier, I think it was the visiting John C. Stennis, was just off the coast of Coronado there.
I was like, oh, what a, and the night was, night was falling and it's 70 degrees.
It's actually starting to get a little nippy.
I mean, golly Moses, what a glorious trip.
So out there in Cogoland, San Diego just rocks.
But anyway, the thing, though, really, if I give anything to you today, if I say one word that sticks in your head, that word is Legoland.
Dude, unbelievable.
And you don't have to have a six-year-old.
Lego dinosaurs, Lego, the miniature Lego.
They have Lego San Francisco.
I know, insert your own Pelosi joke here.
And it's like the size of a backyard.
I mean, it's huge.
So do SeaWorld, do the zoo, but hop up I-5 about a half hour to Legoland.
It just rocks.
And even if you're not an attractions person, if where you live, it's 147 degrees today.
It's just insane.
I felt guilty because I knew all my friends and family were back just sweltering.
Well, no, family was with me, but other, it's just voof.
So out there, out there in Cogo and in the wildland of Rush, I mean, for them, it's just a little after nine and it's the end of morning rush hour for y'all.
Well, drop to your knees and be thankful where you live.
It's a great, great community.
All right, enough about that.
Let me just share one story before the bottom of the hour, and then we'll come back and just hop right in with everything you want to do, something I've brought up or something you want to bring up.
And this is the confluence of two enormous talk show areas, anything about the military, anything about smoking.
And I don't know if we've had a whole lot of time to talk about smoking, you and me, but if there's anything I'm known for over the years, I am an occasional cigar guy.
I have no desire whatsoever to fire up a Marlboro after a meal.
None ever.
And given the choice, in restaurants, I prefer to be in the no-smoking area.
But as God is my witness, the notion of government telling a restaurant what its smoking rules can be is patently insane.
So I've got this reputation as somehow some smoking rights advocate.
Not so much, I'm a rights advocate.
I'm a liberty advocate.
Leave people alone.
Leave a restaurant alone.
If it wants to be no smoking, good, wants to be half smoking, good, wants to be all smoking, good.
Now, the reason I mention this is what I'm all about is liberty here.
And as should we all be.
So let's roll into the ban on tobacco use in the military and play a little good idea, bad idea.
Greg Zoroya has the byline in today's USA Today.
Pentagon health experts are urging Defense Secretary Robert Gates to ban the use of tobacco by troops and end its sale on military property.
A change that could dramatically alter a culture intertwined with smoking.
Hmm.
How intertwined is the military with smoking?
Well, about one in five adults smoke.
I was surprised to hear that.
I thought it was less.
But about 20% of grown-ups smoke.
Half of all teenagers.
No, I'm teen.
About 20% of adults smoke.
In the military, though, 33.
One-third of the people in the military smoke.
Wow.
Okay.
Jack Smith, head of the Pentagon's Office of Clinical and Program Policy, says he will recommend that Defense Secretary Gates adopt proposals by a federal study that cites rising tobacco use and higher costs for the Pentagon and Department of Veterans Affairs as reasons for this ban.
All right, let's just pause because like the best talk show topics do, I think people can weigh in on both sides of this with worthy comments.
One is, for God's sake, it's the troops, let them smoke.
But the other one says, isn't it in our interest to have troops that are healthier?
Let's sort this out, shall we, in the coming segments.
One of many things we'll cover.
I'm Mark Davis, WBAP Dallas-Fort Worth, filling in for Rush.
Rush is back on Monday.
Have a great weekend.
But before you're done, let's stick around and talk about some stuff on the EIB network.
I'm sorry I'm chuckling.
We've been rick-rolled.
I never thought that would happen.
Oh, it's one of the hippest bumper music libraries in American radio history.
Rick Astley, guys, you are killing me.
Teasing.
Actually, no.
Okay, here we go.
I'm not kidding about the smoking ban in the military story.
And I'm about to go to a couple of calls on that.
And listen, anything else you want to do is fine.
Congressman Mike Pence is with us at the top of the next hour.
And coming out of the, into our third hour, upholster Scott Rasmussen.
So what you have is this study by the Institute of Medicine requested by the VA, calls for a phased-in ban on use of tobacco products in the military, a phased-in ban maybe over 20 years.
Yikes, whatever.
A tobacco ban would confront this from the USA Today story, again, Greg Zoroya.
A tobacco ban would confront a military culture, the report says, in which the image of the battle-weary soldier in fatigues and helmet fighting for his country has frequently included his lit cigarette.
Yes, it has.
Also, the report said, troops worn out by repeated deployments often rely on cigarettes as a stress reliever.
Oh, great.
Oh, yeah, having bullets whiz by your head, just the inherent service in the military, the courage required to, you know, to dance around IEDs all day.
No, that's not what rises to this report.
Oh, no, they're worn out by repeated deployments.
Good grief.
Anyway, Pentagon spokeswoman Cynthia Smith said the department supports a smoke-free military, believes it is achievable.
She declined to elaborate on any possible ban.
Tobacco use, or the report says tobacco, oh, whoa, tobacco use costs the Pentagon $846 million a year in medical care and, and this is funny, how do we always quantify this?
Lost productivity.
Hmm.
The Department of Veterans Affairs spends up to $6 billion in treatments for tobacco-related illnesses.
Along with a phased-in ban, the report recommends requiring new officers and enlisted personnel to be tobacco-free.
Oh, okay, okay, okay, okay.
I think I've just decided.
Here's what I want: I think there should be, as there is in all of life, a strong suggestion that you not smoke.
Smoking is dumb, not in your best interest.
Stop doing it.
If you're going to do it, you know, all right.
But if PSAs, little brochures, whatever, sit everybody down, watch a film, bring out that diseased lung in a jar they showed me when I was in ninth grade, whatever you want to do, whatever you want to do.
But when I think of telling someone who is fighting and putting his life at risk for me, when I think of telling that guy or gal, nope, you can't blaze up after a long day of fighting al-Qaeda.
That's, it just seems wrong to me.
And from that last paragraph, requiring, the report recommends requiring new officers and enlisted personnel to be tobacco-free.
Are we in a position where we can say no to really good soldiers and really good officers?
Are we in a position where we're going to have a room full of people, been in the military for a while, ready to be that next wave of fantastic officers?
I think terrorism's going to be around for a while.
I think there's always going to be evil in the world.
And we're going to wave off a whole bunch of people because they smoke?
Hmm.
I think I've arrived at my answer on this, and that is no to the smoke-free military.
But that's just me.
How about you?
1-800-282-2882.
1-800-282-2882.
Let us head to the Pacific Northwest.
Somewhere else you can go to escape the brutal heat of Middle America.
And let's go to Seattle.
Jerry, Mark Davis, you're on the Rush Limbaugh Show.
Very nice to have you.
Hello.
Yes, nice to be with you.
It's good to be with you.
Seattle's not all that cool today.
It's going to be up into the 80s.
But it's a beautiful sunny day here in Seattle.
It's going to be 85.
It's going to be 85 when I wake up tomorrow.
So don't tell me about smoking in Seattle.
We're not complaining.
No, I know I'm teasing you.
What you got?
But about the smoking, Ben, first of all, it would be very interesting if you had someone to actually look into the research design on that so-called study.
But I believe it would fall into the category of junk science.
It's just like we've seen in the past so many times when certain politicians pull numbers out of thin air and later sometimes even admit that the numbers were pulled out of thin air that they used to motivate the public to get behind some issue or some policy.
I always wonder about lost productivity.
And I'm as on alert for junk science as you are.
Lord knows it.
It rules the day for the moment on global warming.
There is almost criminal use of junk science in hyping the danger of secondhand smoke.
But let's stipulate, Jerry.
Let's stipulate that not smoking is healthier than smoking and that a smoke-free military would be, by definition, a healthier military.
So the premise is not flawed.
So even with that, are we sort of coming around to saying, look, let's recommend that these guys not smoke.
Let's have a lot of education on this.
But when push comes to shove, if they want to smoke, let them smoke.
What is the bottom line, though?
What will be the net effect?
Like you were saying before, if I were, I don't smoke, I've never smoked, but I've had a lot of friends that smoke, and they feel that smoking relieves them of stress.
So like you say, if you're out fighting Al-Qaeda outside all day long, you come in, why shouldn't you take a cigarette?
I mean, the bullets that they have is certainly more deadly.
But anyway, it's a matter of personal choice, I believe.
And I think we need to get away from this nanny-state thing where the government wants to tell us everything to do in our lives.
That is, that is, boy, well, and with that, we've arrived at one of the basics on which I certainly agree.
Jerry, thanks.
Now, I mean, all right.
So what do we get?
What is the trade-off?
He phrased it kind of interestingly, because if we would, by definition, get a healthier military, I mean, please, let's not deny this.
If they ban smoking in the military tomorrow, military is healthier pretty soon.
And a healthy military is a good thing.
And in fact, I'll tell you, has this come up with a police department anywhere around you?
I can't remember the last time I dealt with it.
But very seriously, I think I remember considering it a kind of a good idea.
First of all, at the very least, just for imagery issues, I don't ever want to see cops smoking.
That's just never good.
Now, what they do at home on their own time strikes me as none of my business.
And if you say, well, we want healthier cops too, yeah, but then, you know, what are we going to do?
Make sure that, you know, let's make sure they're not going to, make sure they're not going to sonic, you know, the whole donut imagery.
I don't even want to go there.
But is I think I remember there was some in some city I've worked where they said, let's, we're going to save to the cops.
Guess what?
You need to be non-smoking.
And I remember thinking, you know, maybe if you know that going in, you know, they say, look, if you were going to grandfather in your pack of Marlboros, but if you're coming in, we're going to say, you know what, all other things being equal, we'd like you not to be smoking.
I think the reason that passed muster with me, maybe I was younger and stupider, I don't know.
But I think there was no shortage of police applicants.
Folks were, because this was a while back.
It just seemed like an okay idea.
All other things being equal, though, you couldn't use the same argument.
The cops put on their uniform.
They risk their lives every day so that you can be safe in the city where you live.
Shouldn't they be able to smoke?
Not on the job.
That's where it's different.
I mean, with all due respect to all involved, being on the job as a cop is one thing.
The job, your shift ends and you go home.
In Iraq, your shift almost never ends.
At any given moment, you could be moments away from that next firefight.
Now, let's talk about the stress relief angle.
This is something I'll never understand firsthand.
I've never, you know, never been a cigarette smoker.
Again, I mean, the occasional cigar, just because I like them.
I like them.
I like them.
So soon me.
Shouldn't joke about that.
Someone may soon do so.
But from my mom and dad, and cigarettes absolutely contributed to their early departure.
I remember especially mom saying that it was at the, I don't know, the end of a day, it was a stress reliever.
And I remember asking her, mom, it's the end of the day.
Isn't just the arrival of the end of the day a significant stress reliever?
You know, you know what I think it comes down to?
I think people like them.
People like them.
If there is anything I've learned about smokers, they really like them.
And that's what it ultimately boils down to.
They like them.
They want to do it.
Is it healthy?
No.
Should they quit?
Yes.
Should the military make them quit?
Just one of our many topics today.
Grab a call or two on that and some other things as well as we work our way through the Friday Rush Limbaugh Show.
I'm Mark Davis.
Fill it in, and we will continue in just a moment.
It is the Friday Rush Limbaugh Show.
I'm Mark Davis filling in.
Let's achieve some topical variety more on the military smoking ban.
Let's ask Congressman Pence about that when he joins us out of Indiana.
One of many things we'll talk to him about at the beginning of our very next hour.
1-800-282-2882.
Let's mix it up with some folks on the line with various issues.
Always a pleasure to go to the first town where I ever hosted a talk show where after 82 to 85, I'm sure I've been long since forgotten, but a joy to go to Jacksonville, Florida.
Ralph, Mark Davis, you're on the Rush Limbaugh Show.
How are you?
Hey, I'm great.
Thanks for having me on.
Good.
I'd like to comment, first of all, I'd like to start with saying two things.
I don't smoke, but I am in the military.
And I know that we're grossly over budget.
But one of the comments that you said that was made was the fact that there's a cost associated with the health care of treating members in the military.
Now, they want you to believe that it's for a healthier military, but it's a budget issue and it's a cost factor.
Now, I'd like for the callers to imagine that fast forward with a government-run health care system, are we now going to have legislators saying to you as a civilian, well, because of all these associated costs with smoking or this particular type of cancer or this particular type of disease, we're going to write legislation.
We're going to write law that's going to prohibit you from doing this because there's a cost associated with it.
If we can tell the military what to do because their health care is such an obvious budget line item, then everyone's health care will be a budget line item could they use that to tell everyone to stop smoking?
That logic follows.
There's one thing that might interfere with it.
There's one reason why that might not be the case.
What happens the moment government bans smoking?
The loss of bazillions of dollars in cigarette taxes.
So I would think that might be a hedge against the rush to the smoking ban.
But your premise is sound, and thanks.
Let me scoot elsewhere in Florida because actually it was down in Marion County, down in Horse Country, that James was going to join us with a little other subject there on something stimulus related.
Hi, James.
How are you, sir?
Welcome to the Rush Limbaugh Show.
Thank you, and how are you?
Good.
Doing great.
Good.
Hey, I got a few ideas.
You know, one way to help fix this economy, you know, because I would go directly into the private sector.
You know, I'd get Lower all taxes down to 10% for one.
You know, and then, you know, of course, lift the capital gains.
But I would definitely start drilling and drilling here now.
That's going to put people back to work.
Start building refineries across this country.
That's going to put lots of people back to work because you still got to have steel and you've got to have contractors and so forth.
And then same way with nuclear power plants.
Well, that's going to put computer technicians back in the world.
Absolutely.
And I'm all for the creation of jobs in any type of alternative fuel that actually works.
Not anything forced down our throats by environmental extremists, but from wind farms to hydrogen to running cars on natural gas or whatever, or buses and whatever works, that'll create some jobs too.
But let's not seek to create those jobs based on the alter of just desiring this cleaner fuel at any cost, even if it's not effective.
So between that and nuclear and more drilling, I want it all.
We have a lot of energy needs and there's job creation down all of those roads.
You're right.
Exactly.
And, you know, I'm a 20-year over-the-road truck driver.
I've been to all 48 states in a truck.
And I tell you, I've seen, you know, I've seen over the last few years, though, I've seen freight drop off dramatically.
And now, you know, with the cost of fuel, everybody bursts out and wake up and realize when fuel cost goes up on diesel and the trucking industry itself, that impacts consumers dramatically because no matter what it is, it's been on a truck.
That's why cap and tax is the devil's work, because the articles that have come out indicating that it'll make energy costs go up for everyone on this threadbare altar of man-made global warming.
We all want to be cleaner, and that's lovely.
Let's go do that.
But cap and tax would make all of our energy choices more expensive, including the fuel that you use and whatever you're bringing me is going to cost more if the fuel you use is made artificially more expensive.
Now, 30 seconds, I got to go.
Go ahead.
Exactly.
You know what?
Okay, go ahead, 30 seconds.
Go ahead.
Okay.
You know, people burst out and realize, you know, we've got to have all these thunderstorms, too.
You know, there's something that scientists have disproved with thunderstorms and these, you know, they call this crazy climate.
Thunderstorms put off ozone.
We need these thunderstorms to put up layers of ozone.
Probably should have gone with my first instinct there.
I'm teasing.
Thank you very, very much.
Thunderstorm talk coming up on the Rush Limbaugh Show.
All right, Mark Davis in for rush.
Thank you, James.
Coming up.
More of you around the country.
Mike Pence, Congressman of Indiana, joined us at the beginning of the next hour.
I almost wish I had another minute or two to figure out where exactly that was going.
I know where we're going now into this break and back from it soon on the EIB network.
It is the Friday Rush Limbaugh Show.
I'm Mark Davis.
Got a couple of minutes here before we wrap up this first hour.
Come back with Congressman Mike Pence.
Let me give you just a couple of things rather than give a caller short shrift.
We mentioned alternative fuels.
And I am as friendly to alternative fuels as, you know, well, I don't know what is the spectrum of friendliness to alternative fuels as any free market person should be in the following way.
That if there are ways, if there are technologies that can be arrived at that enable us to drive cleaner cars, have cleaner factories, have cleaner everything, the cleaner consumption of electricity, I am absolutely all for it.
One of the reasons I'm very enthusiastic about the use of more nuclear power, which I guess is the one way in which I wish America were more like Europe.
It's the one way in which the Obama administration does not want to turn us into Europe because they are not nearly as enthusiastic about nuclear power as they should be.
You're familiar with T-Boon Pickens?
He's down in our neck of the woods here in Texas, and he's got the Pickens Plan.
You've seen the commercials, I'm sure.
There's a website, pickensplan.com.
But the story in the news is this past week was that T-Boone bought like a couple of billion dollars worth of wind farm equipment.
Then you'll see them.
If you're in Texas, you'll see trucks with beds that are a half a mile long with just individual blades of these wind farm things, and that may work out fine.
But what T-Boone found out was that transmitting the energy from the wind farm to actual people was really hard, so he scrapped it for the moment.
That's the thing about alternative fuels.
It's got to work.
It's got to work first, and then you evaluate it thereafter.
Back in a moment.
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