Thanks, everybody in the Limbaugh audience for hanging with me today.
I know as he graciously uh expressed similar wishes that Mark Stein feels exactly the same, and so does Walter Williams, who will be with you tomorrow.
Uh best of on Friday for New Year's Day, and then Rush is back on Monday.
So here is our last hour together of our uh our fill-in, really, our fill-in-host relationship, which has meant an enormous amount to me.
I guess I strapped into the uh the substitute chair for the first time March 08, uh, roughly, and I've had a number of opportunities since, and it's it's just an unparalleled joy.
And my my gratitude to Rush for letting me be part of that uh that bench strength and uh and be in the company of uh good people like Mark Stein, Walter Williams, and Mark Belling, and so many other folks who have done uh just such a great job.
It's it's funny, this is the one show.
I mean, I when the nature of talk show listenership, let's be honest with each other.
The nature of talk show listenership is you want the real guy there.
Let's be frank.
You want the real guy there.
The great thing about the Rush Limbaugh fill-in stable, of which I'm proudly a part, is that I believe that when there's a fill-in host for Rush, that the life force is yanked out of you less than when other shows offer up fill-in hosts.
Have I phrased that skillfully?
Is that you're just like, uh, but at least it's somebody who's uh who's gonna keep you uh informed and entertained with some level of uh of competence and style.
Okay, here's the deal.
Uh so my plan here in living up to that is to get back to your calls on various things, the various topics that have been given to us in the holiday gift from Umar Farouk Abdul Mutalab, giving us a holiday season filled with bristling talk show topics.
Uh also I I do want to take a look at the uh at the year gone by and the decade gone by in uh in some uh wistful and concrete ways.
But as we get ready to do that and get ready to examine some more of your calls, there is one thing that we've got to address.
It's one of those little things that's making me crazy.
And maybe you have email some of the various local hosts at the proud Rush Limbaugh radio stations who are affiliates on the EIB network, because maybe you've heard them talk as I have about the end of the decade.
There is I don't want to say there's debate because there's not, but there is doubt being expressed as to whether this is the end of the decade.
Please ride with me here.
Keep your hands inside the vehicle.
If you recall a decade ago, it was all the Y2K geeks going crazy, that it was going to be like an asteroid hurtling toward the earth, because the big odometer was about to turn.
The big year odometer was about to go 1999 to 2000.
And that was, and that was the huge deal.
The big odometer is what was the big deal, because it was the year 2000.
For the first time in a millennium, the numeral at the beginning of the year was going to change.
That was the big deal.
All right, I never had any problem with that.
What I had to do, and I had a lot of help, and this this was a job that had to be done, is we had to tell people why, even though the big odometer was turning, that it was not the change of the century.
And it made people's brains turn to jelly, and I understand that, and it all goes to the way we count centuries.
The entire year 2000 was the last year of the 20th century.
And I know you get that now.
But believe you me, we had to pound that into people ten years ago this week.
That the big odometer was turning, but it wasn't the change of the century until New Year's Eve of 2000 in January 1st, 2001, was in fact the first day of the 21st century.
Got it so far so good, right?
Well.
Apparently people fused to that concept a little too well.
And I'm now getting the occasional email telling me that the decade is not in fact ending.
That the entire year 2010 is in fact the last year of the current decade.
Guys, just trust me on this, okay?
Well, it's not about trusting me.
Just please understand the following.
And here's why it's different.
Of course the decade ends tomorrow night at midnight.
Of course it does.
Here's why.
We count decades differently.
We count centuries ordinally.
15th century, 16th century, 17th century, 18th century, counting all the way back to the first century.
Centuries contain a hundred years, bada boom, bada bow, there was no year zero.
It's January 1st of the year one, boom through January 1st, 101, January 1st, 201, etc., etc., etc.
So the first year of this century, of course, was 2001 and the first day of the 21st century, January 1st, 2001.
Decades don't work that way.
We don't count decades ordinally.
We don't talk about uh, you know, Columbus back in the 149th decade.
We don't talk about the revolutionary war and the hundred and seventy-eighth and hundred and seventy-seventh, or would it be the hundred and seventy eighth decade?
You know what I mean.
We don't do that.
How do we count decades?
By the tens place.
The sixties, the seventies, the forties, the twenties, the thirties.
Now we have no idea what to call this decade just ending, and we don't even know what to call the next one, do we?
You know, the aughts for the for the one gone by.
The aughts?
How contrived and and tortured is that?
I don't know what to call this decade or the next.
But you know what the one after that's gonna be?
It'll be the twenties.
It'll be the 30s, it'll be the forties, it'll be the 50s, it'll be the sixties.
That's how we identify decades.
Look back at the uh century we've just gone through.
What was the first day of the nineteen sixties?
Uh that would be January 1st, 1960.
What was the last day of the 1960s?
That would be December 31st, 1969.
While the entire year 2000 was indeed the last year of the 20th century, you gotta realize how goofy it is to suggest that the entire year 1970 was the last year of the 60s.
You follow me here?
Are you feeling me?
Do you get it?
So we count decades differently.
And for that reason, since we don't count them ordinally, keeping track of every decade since the year one.
If we did, then you'd have a point about that.
But we don't, so you don't.
Decades are identified by the tens place.
The sixties went from one one sixty to twelve thirty-one sixty nine.
The eighties went from one one eighty to one one eighty-nine.
Then this decade, whatever we decide to call it, started on the big New Year's Eve back on one one two thousand, and it ends tomorrow night at midnight.
Okay.
And don't even get me started on twelve a.m. and P.M. No such thing.
Twelve noon, twelve midnight, twelve a.m. and P.M. More on that on some other show.
All righty, it is the Rush Limbaugh Show.
Thank you very much.
I feel so much better now.
1-800-282-2882.
And in fact, before I begin to wax semi-eloquent uh about stuff from this year and yes, this decade gone by, let's take care of some folks that have been hanging on during the uh top of the hour news and in some cases even longer.
Let's go to San Luis Obispo, California.
Angela, Mark Davis in for us, and happy new year to you.
How are you doing?
Good.
How are you?
Good.
Uh actually I'm calling you from Tweed, Ohio.
I apologize.
Okay.
Um the reason that I called in was because I had gotten uh I and I I had followed uh a couple of the previous callers with regard to the uh the the terrorist uh on the uh on on the Delta flight coming in uh uh with uh with his uh with his onties being uh being a little uh uh flammable.
You know, one of the things that everybody doesn't seem to doesn't recognize that if you take into consideration that traffic pattern that goes around Detroit Metropolitan Airport, had he had the chance to get that thing off and had that blown that airliner up and had that airliner been in a in a certain pattern, that could have hit Windsor, Ontario, which now all of a sudden sparks a foreign incident, which I'm sure President Pantlode doesn't even bother taking into consideration when he dismisses it as as Bush's problem.
Well, all right, that's interesting.
What if indeed the flight path uh which does uh again, th this event took place over Canada?
If it was twenty minutes out of a Detroit flight, unless they'd been circling uh Detroit for twenty minutes, uh that's that's over Ontario.
You're correct about that.
What if and and I hate to play ghoulish what ifs, but you've brought it up, so let's do it.
What if that thing goes down uh on on top of Windsor?
Would it uh well i i there's still plenty of Americans on the plane, it's still an American airline.
Don't you think that it would carry a sufficient American flavor?
Absolutely.
But the but the problem is that is that the the the problem with this with this in most liberals and and and most notably with this president is they always they they're never at fault with anything.
They never make a mistake.
It's always somebody else's problem.
It's, you know, had had uh had had this been reviewed by the previous administration, we wouldn't have had this problem.
Had we done this, this wouldn't be our this can't be our fault.
They don't take into consideration the fact that there are so such uh such incredible ramifications with yeah, you'd never want to just sit back and dismiss and say, well, God, what if it would have done this, that, or the other thing?
They just don't i it's it's almost as if they just don't care.
Well, uh they care, but about the wrong things.
Uh they need to care more about protecting Americans and care a little less about playing CYA.
They also need uh as an entire war strategy to care at least as much about protecting Americans as they do about protecting the dignity of those who might be offended by uh by profiling.
It's uh it's how the it's how their care slice how their care pie is sliced.
And thank you very, very much, sir.
Appreciate it a lot.
Let's go smack dab is uh having invoked the state of Kentucky, let's go right into the middle of Hart County to Horse Cave, Kentucky.
Cynthia, hey, Mark Davis filling in for Rush.
How are you?
I'm doing great, Mark.
Thanks for taking the call.
My pleasure.
I wanted to tell you that um Obama has not had a chance to update the no-fly list and all those other neat lists because he's too busy watching the veterans and us conservatives that he likes to call right wing extremists.
So there isn't there hasn't been time to look at the actual terrorists.
Yes, we go back to those pernicious lists designed to make people look as scant at tea party gatherings or town halls.
They certainly have no trouble focusing attention on who might pose a danger at a tea party or a town hall, a little more attention to who might pose uh a danger at airports would be uh would be timely indeed.
Cynthia, thank you.
Uh it's uh Go ahead, I'm sorry.
You mentioned the the uh war.
The other problem is that Obama won't acknowledge that we are at war.
He won't allow war on terror to be used because he doesn't want to have what you get in war, which is enemy combatants.
He would rather put somebody on trial in civilian courts as if they had tried to knock over the 7 Eleven.
Well, that's how we treated the first World Trade Center bombing, and you can see what that got us.
And um and let me thank you and hit this break and come back.
I I I mentioned something I might do, and I'm gonna do it.
It'll just take a moment.
It is the words of Charles Crowdhammer on the occasion of his 911 column, uh, just days after, and uh Mr. Crowdhann Dr. Crowdhammer observes twenty-five years of column writing this very year, and I just want to give him every good wish because we are a a richer and better country for for this magnificent man and his punditry.
And um well, I'll give you some evidence of that in just a moment.
1-800-282-2882, Mark Davis on the Rush Limbaugh Show, and we'll be right back.
It is the December 30th Rush Limbaugh Show, and I'm Mark Davis, gladly filling in.
Appreciate your uh tolerance of me.
We'll all enjoy Walter Williams tomorrow as he fills in on the last live Rush Limbaugh Show of the Year.
Some golden highlights from the Golden EIB microphone will be with uh we'll be with you on January 1st, New Year's Day, which is Friday.
And then the big weekend, and then everybody's back at work on January 4th, including Rush himself, who I hope is enjoying some well-deserved year-end time off.
So with a lot of invocation by callers and by me uh uh and by a ton of people who've talked about this ever since the uh Northwest Flight uh Christmas Day uh attempted explosion of that plane, uh is this administration really on a war footing?
Are they really involved in what they consider to be a war on terror?
Or is is it all uh is it nothing more than a continuing crime wave best dealt with in federal court?
The infuriating decision to bring the 9-11 masterminds into New York federal court is if you really compile a list of Obama administration outrages, reasons why this is the worst presidency of my lifetime and probably yours, uh that's really close to the top of the list.
I mean, there's a ton of economic things, there's a ton of things involving personal liberty, but the uh the failure to grasp the obscenity of of uh of bringing these monsters into federal court in New York, as if this is something that has to be localized like a wave of bank robberies.
Uh that's that's one of the toppers to me.
And Charles Cradha Crowdhammer addressed this in his column of September 14th of 2001.
In the days after 9-11, there was some people were using the terminology that we should bring those responsible to justice.
On the occasion of that week in 2001, Charles Krautheimer wrote, This is exactly wrong.
Franklin Roosevelt did not respond to Pearl Harbor by pledging to bring the commander of Japanese naval aviation to justice.
He pledged to bring Japan to its knees.
You bring criminals to justice.
You reign destruction on combatants.
Was it one call back or two calls back?
The superb point was made.
Enemy combatants, that concept is kryptonite to these people running the country right now.
And until our nation rediscovers that distinction, we're not serious about protecting our citizens.
We're not serious.
All we can do is pray that the next terrorist is as unsuccessful as this one was.
All right, I'm confident in our ability to dial in San Luis Obispo, California, and Angela, Mark Davis, in for Rush.
Welcome and Happy New Year.
How are you doing?
Happy New Year, Professor Davis.
Thank you.
So well, how undeserved is that.
Thanks.
I am I am a sophomore at the EIB Institute, and but all you guys have educated me so much and glad I had this opportunity to thank you so much.
Thanks.
My comment was, was it two years ago, three years ago?
Everybody was up in arms over tapping into a few select phone calls when needed and when felt necessary, but all of a sudden it's okay, and everybody's jumping on the wheel we're gonna scan your bodies.
You know the first difference that occurs to me, Angela, uh in why uh why you you you won't get the kind of uh uh of leftist recoil at the full body scan is that is that the full body scan is done with your consent.
You know it's happening.
What freaked the left out uh about uh warrantless wiretaps is the notion of phone calls being um being listened to without the participants' knowledge.
You know, and and the and that and that is it that is a difference.
Uh they both strike me as useful tools on terror.
I uh as long as it is a uh an NSA that I can trust, which we had under President Bush, and I hope we still have, I have my doubt sometimes.
Uh I don't mind uh people talented at finding tidbits of information that might lead to catching terrorists, listening to occasional phone calls that have a uh have a smattering of uh uh of it of a of a flavor to them in terms of the content of the conversation, where it originates, what its destination is.
I I've I've never minded warrantless wiretaps, they have saved American lives.
Exactly, exactly.
But now it's okay everybody's jumping on the full body scan.
I I just I I understand what you're saying, but still Oh, so still it doesn't mean you don't have a point.
Indeed so.
Well, listen, you you identified yourself as a as as a sophomore at the Institute for Advanced Conservative Studies, uh which I which may be an indicative of how much time you've spent along the trail, but th you that would suggest that you are then a junior and that you are then a senior and that then you graduate.
No one ever graduates.
It is a lifetime education, and uh that's good news that you don't graduate because that would imply that the experience is over.
And if Russia has anything to do with it, it'll never be over.
He'll keep teaching and we'll all and we'll all keep learning.
Thank you very, very much, Angela.
Thank you.
Great, great deal.
Um coming up in our in our next segment.
We got some calls who are gonna look at where where the heat ought to be applied, how much in Amsterdam, how much in America, how much with regard to the airlines, etc., etc., etc.
And plenty more as we look back at the year, back at the decade and look forward to 2010.
Mark Davis, in for rush on the EIB network.
Well, it is the home stretch now, isn't it?
Final half hour of our day together today.
We got Walter Williams in tomorrow.
Some taped golden highlights from Rush on Friday, and then back to normal, see what's going on.
On Monday, January 4th.
Some I I've it's hard to predict anything, and probably dangerous to predict most things, but I have a feeling that Rush is paying attention to those uh the fate of those Pittsburgh Steelers.
Man.
They they just refuse to die, don't they?
And it's gonna be a big uh big NFL weekend.
We are stunned and disoriented down here in Dallas Cowboy Country.
Uh the the Cowboys are in the playoffs and don't even need to win the last game against Philadelphia, which will be out at Jerry World at the Cowboys Stadium.
Uh it's been moved to a late game on Sunday.
And uh but the Cowboys win the division if they beat the Eagles.
That might be a big if.
Eagles don't really need the game, uh, but everybody's trying to get better playoff, b you know, more advantageous playoff position.
Now here's here's the strangeness that needs to happen.
And I know we're gonna I'm going to excite and annoy at the exact same time various limbaugh affiliates.
But from the cowboy perspective, I guess what we need here, if I I think I have this right, is we need the Giants to beat the Vikings, which appears to be growing easier with each passing week.
Phew.
Sorry, Brett, but what's going on, man?
Uh and we also need what, the Packers to beat Arizona.
And, you know, we'll see how that works out.
And if that happens, then the Cowboys get a first round bye.
I don't know what we'll do around here if the Cowboys actually get a first round bye.
Our our it has become sport.
It has become habit around here to bemoan uh the Cowboys December swoon, which I guess we're through talking about with the wins over uh New Orleans and uh of course beating New Orleans apparently not that hard anymore either.
Ask the Bucks uh in a 17-nothing uh shutout of the Redskins.
So I don't know.
It's uh that's it's been a weird NFL season.
I've thoroughly enjoyed it, and um and who knows, maybe we'll enjoy it a little more around here.
And from uh cities like Green Bay and all of Wisconsin and and and the folks in Arizona where they're gonna be ahead and back there with those surprising Cardinals last year.
Can they get back to to the the level they achieved last year?
And they're thrilled in Minnesota, and they know that Brad will wake up in the playoffs, I know that.
And over in the AFC with teams just hanging by by a thread, the the the seasons they've had in in Pittsburgh and in Jacksonville and in Miami and you know, with playoff fates lasting this long sometimes before being dashed against the rocks, and but with uh with the usual the usual suspects in New England and and Indianapolis and but boy, I gotta tell you, I've just got to tell you.
Are the San Diego Chargers the best team in the NFL?
They might be, man.
I mean, with I know Peyton Manning.
I know, I know, I know, I know, I know.
I know, I know.
And I think Peyton Manning's probably better than Philip Rivers.
But doggone it, those Chargers.
That's they're they're not human.
And I mean that as a compliment.
That's just crazy the the way these guys are uh are playing.
And then I guess they'll beat up on the Redskins uh for week 17 like everybody else has, and they're changing things in Washington and over in WMAL country, just give Jim Zorn a nice thank you on the way out.
He's a class guy, but boy, you know, get Shanahan in there as soon as possible.
A new GM and Bruce Allen, hopefully that'll turn things around.
We'll see.
But the NFL's a lot of fun.
Some winter Olympics action getting ready to crank up in Vancouver.
And that's uh that's always fun with uh with best wishes for all the Americans that are gonna be participating there, carrying our flag into those opening ceremonies.
I'm I'm a sucker for the Olympics.
I I it it strikes me, it always strikes me as an opportunity for America to get in and and just sort of show the world what we've got.
And um and I'm s uh I just bleed red, white, and blue at those times as I do every other time, and and I just really am proud in advance of um of especially since I've uh I'm gonna drop a na a set of names here.
Uh Debbie McCormick and the women's curling team are actual friends of ours here.
In a story that I will not badger you with, but we actually started a curling organization in Dallas Fort Worth after the O two Olympics in Salt Lake City.
Just I know.
I know.
Why, I don't know.
But the reason was we loved it and we love it still.
And so when Debbie McCormick and the women's curling team, and take nothing away from the men, but I don't know them personally.
Uh they were, by the way, the women's curling team, the American women's curling team, were the first American Olympians identified because the uh uh the the competition to identify who the Olympians would be has been taking place for months, of course, and they were the first athletes to punch their ticket to Vancouver.
So it took on a kind of a cult following in 02 and 06, and that probably will it's probably beyond cult following now.
So as you watch people hurl off the side of a mountain in the ski jump and go careening down the side of a mountain at uh eighty miles an hour or or go crotch first down a hill at uh you know at a hundred miles an hour on something else and various uh various other things I'll never do.
There's an there's a winter Olympic sport you can do.
You can curl.
It's not as easy as it looks, but you can do it even if you look like me.
So plug into some of that during the uh during the winter Olympics to come in Vancouver.
All right, let's see what's going on in these phone lines.
1-800-282-2882.
It is the Rush Limbaugh Show.
I'm Mark Davis filling in in Texas.
Let's go to Collinsville, Texas.
And Steve, that is you, uh Mark Davis in for Rush.
Happy New Year and welcome.
How are you doing?
Happy New Year to you too, Mark.
Hey, I got a question.
Uh you know, I'm not a big fan of the administration by any means, but why aren't they jumping all over the Dutch government about letting this guy in into their country without a passport?
And then why also aren't they jumping on the airlines for not checking his his uh uh identification if he didn't have a passport?
I know I can't go to the airport and go uh on an international flight without showing my my passport to the uh to the ticket agent.
Correct.
And here's the Dutch answer to your question as of today.
Uh the Holland's counterterrorism agency has said today that he did have a passport.
Let me just share, and in fact, let me just take this and run with it and thank you for asking.
Because you're your questions are absolutely right.
Uh where does blame belong?
I mean Amer the American infrastructure of Homeland Security all the way to the State Department?
Absolutely.
But what about the airport?
And what about the airline?
Those are absolutely questions that deserve to be answered.
Let me go right to the CBS and AP story.
The suspected terrorist who tried to blow up Northwest Flight 253 Christmas Day did present a passport to authorities in Amsterdam before boarding the Detroit-bound plane, Holland's counter-terrorism agency said Wednesday.
Uh Abdul Mutalab arrived in Amsterdam on Friday from Lagos, Nigeria.
After a layover of less than three hours, he passed through a security check at the gate in Amsterdam, including a hand baggage scan and a metal detector, officials said.
Abdul Mutallab was carrying a valid Nigerian passport and had a valid U.S. visa, the Dutch said.
His name did not appear on any Dutch list or of terror suspects.
Okay.
So that's what they say.
The next question is, are they lying?
I'd like to think that countries uh the counterterrorism agencies don't lie.
Uh so maybe we're the couple of passengers who told a story of a well-dressed Indian man sort of uh greasing the wheels and helping this guy get on the plane.
Uh the gentleman's name was Kurt Haskell, uh, a guy from Michigan, returning home from a safari in Uganda with his wife.
There's a trip we need to make sometime, told the Detroit Free Press that he noticed Abdul Mutallab because of who he was traveling with, a wealthy-looking Indian man in his fifties.
Mr. Haskell, who was playing cards near the ticket counter at the airport in Amsterdam, said the Indian man told ticket agents that Abdul Mutallab, quote, needs to board the plane, but he doesn't have a passport.
He's from Sudan.
We do this all the time.
But the Dutch counterterrorism unit's investigation into Abdul Mutalab's passport pokes holes in the theory that the alleged bomber had help evading security.
Okay.
May I?
May I suggest I'd like to see the passport, please.
Can Can the Dutch present this passport?
Show me the passport.
Silly thing about me.
Passports, birth certificates.
No, I'm not starting that right now.
But I'll still apply the the standard.
I like to see the real thing before I totally invest in a story.
You know, you can say what you want and there can be evidence of this and corroborating this and testimony on that, but there's just no substitute for real documentation.
So if this guy has a passport, surely someone will be able to present it.
The failure to present it may speak some volumes here as this story continues to unfold.
All righty.
What are we going to remember 09 for?
What are we going to remember this decade for?
Some of the answers are easy.
Others, not so much.
Delve into that and take some more of your calls next.
It is 1800 282 2882 on the Rush Limbaugh Show.
Mark Davis filling in on the EIB network.
It is the New Year's Eve Eve Rush Limbaugh Show.
I'm Mark Davis filling in for actual New Year's Eve.
You get Walter Williams tomorrow.
That'll be great.
Look forward to listening to that.
And look forward to the return of Rush on Monday.
All right, to the phones to the phones at 1 800 282 2882.
Let's head to Milwaukee.
Tom, Mark Davis in for Rush Limbaugh.
Welcome and happy new year to you.
Uh happy new year to you, and thank you for taking my call.
Sure.
From Snowway Milwaukee.
I just want to tell you I would personally like to see the TSA allow to be unionized, and I have a couple good reasons for that.
Tell me.
The one thing, 9 11.
Who are the heroes of 9 11?
Policemen and firemen.
They ran toward those buildings.
Those were union workers.
Indeed.
Uh as far as somebody saying you can't have a union because you would strike or you would not you'd have a lot of dead wood.
There's dead wood in a government, there's dead wood in every company.
Uh you you need uh you actually need uh to have the right to assemble a union, protect yourself.
If a policeman had let that bomber through, that bomber would have been that policeman would have been fired.
They have very strict rules and guidelines for police and firemen.
You cannot be a fluff off.
Can we can we pause here for a sum?
Oh okay, but I mean uh all right.
Because so far the logic is sound uh up to a point.
You're completely right that the people whom we have lofted to near sainthood as a result of their uh 911 heroism and and rightfully so, that they were a unionized group of people.
But that does th the logic does not extend that to that must mean that unionization is conversely, the way to bring out the best in people.
Because it's not.
It is often the exact opposite.
We can't have the notion of of of the of even the specter of strikes, which does sometimes happen in the police and fire community.
You have to be you have to well, some sometimes they do anyway.
Sometimes they do any yeah, neither could the air traffic controllers.
But they did, didn't they?
And they paid they paid a price, they lost the right went back.
That was foolish.
They should not have walked out.
Exactly.
No, no, they don't.
No, no, they do not there is there is no right to unionize.
None.
It is something that you might want and that many people might get.
But there is no right to unionize.
I feel they should have a right to unionize.
What you're saying is that we don't want them in there.
We're not gonna let them in.
We're not gonna let the person be uh allowed from Obama's side to be confirmed if he wants unions.
I think that's right.
That's correct.
That why why is that wrong?
Why is it wrong for Senator Dement to take a look at how unionization can sometimes bog down the uh spryness and the nimbleness with which an organization sometimes has to operate, especially in terms of the fast changing world of of international security.
That's that that that can go, I'm sorry.
Go back to back to please.
No, it's okay, I I understand that.
They have work rules.
It works out good for both sides.
See, I'm with I really like your show.
I like you, I like rush.
There's a lot of good things there, but the idea of continually badgering unions is ridiculous.
Well, but but it but that's that's why I don't do it.
Well, well, you that then I'm with you and not having a lot of time, and this is probably where where we part company, and I love you, and and I and there's a lot of of good that unions do.
But it but in terms of streamlining something and making it smoother and faster and more responsive to changing conditions, that is not something that unions do well.
And the heroism of the 911 police and firefighters are not evidence that it does.
There's another company out there you're forgetting about.
And that is United Parcel Service is probably the best working company in the entire country.
They are unionized.
Everybody works their butt off.
You betcha.
I I I will accept they work so well together.
It's a perfect example of union and company working together.
You cannot have one side with all the power and without any right to unionize.
Well, f FedEx, FedEx isn't.
For the longest time, FedEx wasn't, may still not be, and they're golden.
So I mean I can we can we can make lists.
We can make lists all day.
But go ahead.
I'm sorry.
Go ahead, I'll give you the last word.
Go ahead.
I just feel that they should have the right to say you cannot have the right to me as undemocratic.
It's un-American.
Oh, one thing and I'll go.
Do you realize that in in Iraq?
Did you know the only thing that we left in uh that was left to Saddam Hussein's government, the only thing we left in there was the right not to have unions.
That I read in Fortune magazine.
I saw that in the article.
I like little articles.
That sits to me.
So as a G.I. Joe soldier going to war, you just promoted the fact that you cannot have a union in Iraq.
That's all that's uh it's it's it's it's not your wish.
And I and I respect your wish.
It's not undemocratic.
There is no right to unionize.
It's something that you can want.
Well, but but nobody but here's where it all settles out.
If if someone if you or I crave a union environment, get a job that provides one.
And that's the thing.
I've I think I've just told you.
Because it it could endanger the level of the no more than a police and fireman in the United States.
No, the bad examples may bad.
Of course.
I appreciate you, man.
Thank you very, very much, and happy new year to you.
Thanks.
Alrighty, let us take our final pause, come back and put a final person or two on the air for this Wednesday edition of the Rush Limbaugh Show.
Mark Davis filling in, be right back.
Well, the clock is a cruel mistress, and she says what she says, and she says, out of here in about a minute and a half.
So rather than give uh a caller short shrift, let me just direct you to tomorrow's Rush Limbaugh show where Walter Williams will fill in and delight you with the enormous brain and magnificent character of that man.
Uh highlights from uh recent rush on New Year's Day and then rush back with you on Monday.
And if they keep asking, I'll keep showing up, so uh I hope to join you here on the program uh various times during 2010.
And my wish for this new year.
Obviously, I have a ton of political wishes.
Oh, please let us win back some Republicans in the House and Senate.
Dare I dream of majorities in November of 2010.
And of course, talk show life is so much about politics and and uh and properly, properly, properly so.
But but some things transcend.
What I wish for the coming year and the coming decade is health and success and uh prosperity for you and yours, for the wonderful man who hosts this show, Rush Limbaugh, God bless him and great success and health for him in the future.
Heaven knows he'll have plenty of material, as will we all who do this for a living.
And God bless you and our country and the troops who fight every day to give us the freedom to host and listen to shows like this.
God bless all of them as this year comes to an end, and in 2010 and the year and decade to come.
Thanks to Bo Snardley and Ed Robinson for piloting me through this, and God bless all of you.