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Jan. 18, 2011 - Rush Limbaugh Program
35:35
January 18, 2011, Tuesday, Hour #2
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Time Text
The views expressed by the host on this program, documented to be almost always right, 99.6% of the time, because this is a program devoted to the relentless, unstoppable pursuit of the truth.
That is our agenda.
Our telephone number is 800-282-2882, the email address lrushbeau at eibnet.com.
Great to have you here.
Yet, you heard right, ladies and gentlemen, from Gallup.
Unemployment, as measured by Gallup without seasonal adjustment, remained at 9.6% in mid-January, the same as at the end of December.
This marks a one-percentage point improvement from 10.6% in mid-January.
Now, this is Gallup's unemployment number.
This is not Obama's.
So even Gallup has decided to join the Sunshine Boys on this unemployment steady.
9.6%.
Gallup's finding that the U.S. unemployment rate was unchanged in mid-January is good news.
Good news for those looking for work and for the U.S. economy as a whole, because Gallup's unemployment measure is not seasonally adjusted.
It would normally tend to increase at this time of the year as hiring declines and weather affects the ability to do some outdoor jobs.
Therefore, the absence of an increase suggests that jobs aren't getting even harder to find right now, as happened early last winter.
Okay, Gallup, anything you say.
There you have it.
I had this story in the stack yesterday.
I didn't get to it.
Prime Minister David Cameron.
I teased it.
But I didn't get to it.
Prime Minister David Cameron, UK, yesterday waded into terrain where past British governments have foundered, promising fundamental changes to the country's expensive and overstressed public health care system.
Cameron said that the reforms would cut red tape and improve treatment, but critics claim they will cause chaos and could lead to backdoor privatization.
Backdoor privatization of the much criticized but widely popular National Health Care Service.
This is not a UK news story.
This is our own beloved and treasured Associated Press, the author, Jill Lawless.
We don't call them reporters here.
We call them authors.
The writer, the stenographer, what have you.
The British leader, whose Conservative Party heads the country's coalition government, said he would save money and cut red tape by giving control over management to family practitioners rather than bureaucrats and allow private companies, charities, and social enterprises to bid for contracts within the public health service.
Making health care more efficient has proved an elusive goal for successive British governments.
Why?
Because it's not possible when government bureaucracies are in charge of everything.
The exact direction that we are headed.
By the way, the House repeal vote is tomorrow on Obamacare.
They are debating it today.
Exactly one week after my birthday.
It was the original date.
The original repeal bill offered on my birthday, but they cancel it because of the Tucson shooting.
In a speech outlining the government's plans to overhaul public services, Prime Minister Cameron promised to get rid of top-down command and control bureaucracy and target.
Well, no wonder the AP is distressed here.
He said that with an aging population and growing demand for new medical treatments, pretending that there's some easy option of sticking with the status quo and hoping that a little bit of extra money will smooth over the challenges is a complete fiction.
The government, due to published details of its reforms in the health and social care bill on Wednesday, the health service, get this now, and soon to be true in our great country.
The health service is Britain's biggest employer.
It costs more than $158 billion a year.
Man, wouldn't we go for that?
It is a political football reformed and criticized by government since it was established in 1948.
Despite the constant tinkering, no major political party proposes privatizing the health service.
And even free market politicians like Cameron go out of their way to praise it.
On Monday, Cameron said a free national health service at the point of use for everybody was part of Britain, part of Britishness.
Yeah, it's got them into so much trouble that now it is a backdoor privatization scheme in order to fix it.
He spoke of the care received by his son Ivan, who died in 2009 from cerebral palsy and a rare and severe epileptic condition in the medical staff who delivered his baby daughter Florence last year.
Oh, speaking of delivering babies, there's a new term out there.
Let me find this.
Keith Urban and the lovely Nicole Kidman.
Here we are.
Nicole Kidman, Keith Urban, welcome a daughter.
They reveal this Monday they're the parents of a baby girl.
Faith Margaret Kidman Urban arrived December 28th at the women's hospital at Centennial in Nashville.
Faith was born through a gestational carrier and is the biological daughter of Kidman and Urban.
Our family, truly blessed and just so thankful to have been given the gift of baby Faith Margaret, the family says in a statement, no words can adequately convey the incredible gratitude we feel for everyone who was so supportive throughout this process, in particular, our gestational carrier.
This is a new term for surrogate, right?
Like circame is a new term for succumbed.
Gestational carrier almost sounds like a disease.
And some women pregnancy is a disease.
Them and the feminazis, of course.
I don't know.
Sturdily, I don't know if it was a medical reason for this.
Maybe she doesn't want to bother with getting pregnant again.
don't know.
Or maybe there was a, I just, I don't know.
I'm not even going to hazard a guess on that.
Anyway, just keep a sharp eye.
Government plans major health care reform.
They're going to get rid of the freebies, essentially.
And there are charges of backdoor privatization.
As I said, look, Obama's got this great piece.
Everybody's hailing it.
Well, not everybody.
A lot of people praising Obama's piece for a review of burdensome regulations in the Wall Street Journal today.
If he were serious, If he were serious about getting rid of obstacles in our way, he'd get rid of a lot of the regulations dealing with his moratorium on oil drilling, and he would join us in repealing his own health care bill.
Good lord, the number of regulations in that bill and open-ended regulations, as the secretary shall determine, as the secretary shall see fit, as the secretary shall decide.
It's an open-ended disaster.
Sarah Palin appeared last night on Fox and just made all these establishment ruling class people crazy again.
She appeared in a cliché, is a wide-ranging interview with Sean Hannity to describe how she saw the left blame her and all of us for the shooting.
Hannity said, When did you first realize you were being connected to this tragedy?
I read my name in the reports and then I read Rush Limbaugh and then soon your name, Sean, and Mark Levin, and soon Tea Party Patriots, and soon the entire state of Arizona was being falsely accused of somehow being accessories to this horrendous, horrendous crime.
That is why I was puzzled at first as to why, before facts were even gathered, why it would be that the mainstream media would start accusing and using such a tragedy for what appeared to be right off the bat some political gain.
So Hannity said, well, what could you tell us about this map?
Crosshair map.
For many, many years, maps in political races have been used to target certain districts that people would feel that they can get into those districts and find someone whom they believe would represent the constituents' will better than an incumbent.
And that's not original.
In fact, Democrats have been using it for years.
In fact, Bob Beckle, I believe that he had bragged on your show, Sean, that he is the one who invented these crosshairs or these targets.
Hannity asked her if this impacts her or her political future.
They're not going to shut me up.
They're not going to shut you up or Rush or Mark Levin or Tea Party Patriots or those who, as I say, respectfully and patriotically petition their government for change.
They can't make us sit down and shut up.
And if they ever were to succeed in doing that, then our republic will be destroyed.
And he asked her about blood libel.
Some of your critics saying that you didn't know the historical significance.
Others criticize you for the phrase.
I want you to address the timing and that phrase.
What is it?
Blood libel obviously means being falsely accused of having blood on your hands.
And in this case, that's exactly what was going on.
And yes, the historical knowledge that people have of the term blood libel, it goes back to the Jews who were falsely accused back in medieval European times of using the blood of children.
And, you know, the criticism of even the timing of this statement is being used as another diversion because I believe that there are many on the left, many critics, who don't want, for instance, Congress to buckle down, get back to work.
So she was remarkably composed, once again, on the Hannity show last night.
She was, what do you think of the president's speech the other night out in Tucson?
Well, I thought that there were parts of it that really hit home that all of us can hold on to and can live out, obviously.
I agree with those who have said that the setting was a bit bizarre.
It was kind of like a pep rally, kind of like a campaign stop, and that was unfortunate.
You ever have moments of doubt, feeling that you would like the comfort of not having to deal with all of this all the time?
People are facing much greater hardships and making greater sacrifices that I am in just engaging in debate.
And I'm thankful for the opportunity that I have to speak for many.
And I will continue to do so.
I feel very blessed to be in the position that I am.
And I'll take the darts and the arrows because I know others have my back, and I have their back.
You know, I still say, I don't care what you think about this woman.
I don't care what you think about her presidential possibilities, qualifications, or any of that.
But I just have to tell you, I don't know of anybody, the political arena who has been more impugned, libeled, slandered, ripped, mischaracterized.
It has been vicious, personally vicious, and merciless.
And she appears untainted by it.
In fact, she has risen above it.
And as you know, our party is filled with people who just cave at the first sign of this, and they try to make peace with the critics.
Oh, no, no, don't think of me that way.
She has not done that at all.
So whatever else you think of Sarah Palin, folks, you have to marvel at how she has dealt with this and risen above it, not become bitter by it.
And it just continues and it increases in its intensity.
What, Snerdly?
What do you well?
Snerdley asked me if I could appreciate it more than most because I know what she's going through.
I've got a microphone if I want to address it every day.
She, up until she's decided to go to Facebook, she didn't.
But I don't, I don't want to get into a comparison of it because I think it's the left is always going to criticize those that try to destroy those who think are their biggest enemies, the biggest threats.
And it's, I don't know, it just can be a tough thing to deal with.
I'm just particularly, you know, getting audience is different than getting votes.
I mean, that's why people ask you, ask me, if you're going to run for office, and I always do the pay cut line, but getting votes is a whole lot different than getting an audience.
In radio, it doesn't matter how many people hate you.
Politics, you can't win with people hating you.
You just can't.
And so it's an entirely different mindset that you have to have in dealing with this kind of criticism when you're in politics.
And the moment, the moment you act affected by it and the moment you respond to it, they just pounce on you as not having character, not having the steetle spine, not having the ability to deal with it.
That's where she has totally befuddled them.
She's gotten stronger throughout all this, I think.
Hey, Snerdley, you ever get sick after an orgasm?
You do.
There's a mysterious syndrome out there, mysterious syndrome from Reuters out of London, where they have free health care.
A mysterious syndrome in which men come down with a flu-like illness after an orgasm may be caused by an allergy to semen.
This according to Dutch scientists, men with the condition known as the things you learn on this program, even as hosts, Men with the condition known as the post-orgasmic illness syndrome or POAS, P-O-I-S, and documented in medical journals since 2002, get flu-like symptoms such as feverishness,
runny nose, extreme fatigue, and burning eyes immediately after orgasms.
Symptoms can last for up to a week.
Marcel Waldinger, a professor of sexual psychopharmacology at Utrecht University in the Netherlands, published two studies in the Journal of Sexual Medicine, which suggests that men with POAS have an allergy to their own semen.
And the treatment known as hyposensitization therapy can help reduce its impact.
Waldinger said that while the syndrome is probably rare, it is likely that many men who suffer with it do not know that it is a recognized condition and so do not come forward to doctors.
Now, who would?
Who in the world would associate the two?
And does it affect women for crying out loud?
This thing says it only affects men.
They soon as the soon as the soon as soon as the right after that, they became ill.
33 of them agreed to undergo a standard skin prick allergy test using a diluted form of their own semen.
Of those, 29 or 88% had a positive skin reaction indicating an autoimmune response or allergic reaction.
Yeah, I know.
It's just, it's coming up.
It is lunchtime in the eastern and central time zones and coming up on brunch down in the western time zone.
We'll be back.
Phones next.
And welcome back, Rush Limbaugh, to the phones we go.
As promised, this is Mary in La Crosse, Wisconsin.
Nice to have you on the EIB network.
Hello.
Hi, Rush.
You're on fire today.
Thank you very much.
Every day.
Yes, every day.
Today is just how high are the flames.
Say, the reason I'm calling is because of this book that has come out by Ronald Reagan's son, where he states that he believes his father could have had Alzheimer's disease while he was in office.
And my thought on that is, is if he was as great a president as he was with Alzheimer's, my gosh, what would he be like without it?
Well, it just goes to show that Reagan also could do his job with half his brain tied behind my back, just like I do.
But it's such a, such a, I mean, his dad's 100th birthday and this son hawking his book with this story, it's made the order for the left has believed this.
They've wanted to believe Reagan was stupid from the day he was born.
So Ron Reagan's still feeding the left what they want to hear for whatever acceptance issues he's got.
I don't know.
This is, look, every family has wacko kids.
And every family has kids who think they've got wacko parents.
And some see the need to want to give even for the rest of their lives.
I can't relate to it.
But I guess it does exist.
I just think it's very small.
I think it's small and I think it's pretty sad.
And it just shows you that civility comes in all different shapes and sizes.
Yeah, that's a point I made when I mentioned this in the last hour.
It is real civil, isn't it?
Yeah.
My dad had Alzheimer's when he was president.
Very civil.
Thanks, Mary.
I appreciate that.
By the way, here are the details.
An Oklahoma couple urging thieves to return a stolen computer they say has the power to save millions of lives.
Last Sunday, Suk Shin. was carrying a possible cure for cancer on a small Apple computer.
Had years of data not backed up.
Suk Shin said, I can't eat.
I can't sleep since last Sunday.
I'm devastated.
I feel so guilty.
Suk Shin and her husband are leading cancer researchers at an OU research lab.
They have committed their lives, working long hours, often seven days a week, to find a cure for prostate cancer.
Unfortunately, most of the data was never backed up, a mistake Sheen said could be a major setback in the fight against cancer.
Some of the data can never be replicated even.
Other parts of that research could take up to two years to do over.
This is earth-shattering considering 30,000 men die in the U.S. every year from prostate cancer, meaning people could lose their lives all because of a crime.
They are offering a $1,000 reward.
$1,000 reward.
That's, well, I'll just report it as a good journalist.
They are offering a $1,000 reward for the return of potentially life-saving data which can't be replicated.
If there's ever a lot, we're going to follow this.
I want to see if the thieves bring it back.
Let's see, what do we have here?
Let's see if I want to use this soundbite.
Let's go ahead.
This afternoon, a Chicago campaign rally for Rom Emmanuel, the first black president spoke and said this.
It's number 29.
I forgot to tell a broadcast engineer.
I just assume he knows what I know when I get the roster.
He's got it.
Number 29, 321.
Look, we're going to get out of this mess we're in, and we're going to go forward.
And I agree with Rom.
A lot of that is because of the difficult decisions the president made and that he helped to make and implement in the first two years.
It reminds me eerily of what happened in my first two years.
So again, Clinton's out campaigning for somebody.
It's all about him.
Obama goes to a memorial and it's all about him.
What Rom's doing out there is crazy.
It reminds me of what I went through.
Bill Clinton, saving a day.
Eric in Houston, you're next on the EIB network.
Hello.
Thank you, Mr. Rush, for taking my call.
You bet, sir.
Give me the honor of speaking to you.
But hey, I wanted to point out, I was born and raised in Tucson, Arizona, and just recently moved to Houston.
And before I came here, one of the things that I remember happening was Ann Coulter being attacked at the University of Arizona.
And I never saw a call for civility or anything like that when she was being attacked by the moon bats in that city.
And I'm wondering why they're so adamant about calling for it now.
Well, you can answer.
And by the way, the same sheriff was the sheriff.
Sheriff Dipstick was the same.
Sheriff then is the same sheriff.
And there was your right.
But see, Coulter is an approved target.
Coulter promotes uncivility.
So it's only fair she should get treated that way.
That's the justification for it.
Well, the charges were dropped by the university.
Yes.
And Ann didn't pursue it either herself, did she?
No, I don't.
No, she used it in a wise way.
Students did $3,000 damage, but that's not in her nature.
She tried, but if she figured out she knew the game, it wasn't going to go very far.
I mean, look at you've got the same law enforcement people out there.
Right.
Well, if I may point out a couple things.
Tucson is an extremely liberal city.
Really?
Yeah, really.
Phoenix isn't, but Tucson is.
Yeah.
And one of the things about this little get-together that Gabby was putting on was all the people that were there were liberals.
And from my perspective, it was a liberal that actually went and shot her.
And the first thing they did was they started blaming conservatives.
And for me personally, I can't speak for everybody, but it was very offensive.
And it just strengthens my resolve to vote against anybody that even wavers the slightest bit towards a liberal.
In other words, if you're a rhino, you don't get my vote.
Just bottom line.
And I'm tired of being blamed for all the ills in this country.
I'm tired of seeing people like you.
I'm tired of seeing people like Ann.
You know, you guys, you speak what's on our minds on a daily basis, and you're slammed, you're attacked, and you're not being attacked by your own.
You're being attacked by the liberals.
So for me personally, I thank you for allowing me to say what I'm saying.
You're more than welcome.
I've got the solution to all this.
I've got the solution to most crime in America.
From this day forward, somebody propose it.
Liberals should not be allowed to buy guns.
Just that simple.
Liberals should have their speech controlled and not be allowed to buy guns.
I mean, if we want to get serious about this, if we want to get, if we want to face this head on, we're going to have to openly admit liberals should not be allowed to buy guns, nor should they be allowed to use computer keyboards or typewriters, word processors or emails, and they should have their speech controlled.
If we did those three or four things, I can't tell you what a sane, calm, civil, fun-loving society we would have.
Take guns out of the possession out of the hands of liberals.
Take their typewriters and their keyboards away from them.
Don't let them anywhere near a gun and control their speech.
And you would wipe out 90% of the crime, 85 to 95% of the hate, and 100% of the lies from society.
Rush Limbaugh, half my brain tied behind my back just to make it fair.
And Pedro from Jacksonville, Florida.
Nice to have you on the program, Pedro.
Testing.
One, two, three, Pedro.
Pedro.
He's not here.
Let's go.
Uno dos tres, Pedro.
Okay, John in Nashville.
You're next in the EIB network.
Hello.
Hi, Rush.
Thanks for taking my call.
You bet, sir.
Thank you.
We've been a long time listener.
First time I got an opportunity to talk to you, and I appreciate that.
I'll get right to my point.
I worked for the state of Ohio, Department of Youth Services, for several years.
And when I retired, of course, our pension set up to where I know I'm a little off subject with you today, but our pension setup where we donate or don't donate.
We put in so much of our own money through our paycheck to our yeah, I know where you're going.
Your pension isn't there, basically, is what you're going to say.
Well, no, basically, what I'm going to say is that if the state is going to have to take our pensions because of this shortfall, you know, it's not working out too well, I think at least we ought to be able to receive our money that we personally put in along with some interest.
Wait a second.
You have a pension.
You are willing for the state to take it except for your personal contribution with interest.
Yeah, I mean, if that's what it takes, that's your civility.
That is your compromise.
Well, you know, let me give you the facts.
Let me tell you how this is going.
Let me give it.
I have a story here from the Financial Times.
The headline: States warned of $2 trillion pensions, $2 trillion pension shortfall.
U.S. public pensions face a shortfall of $2.5 trillion that will force state and local governments to sell assets and make deep cuts to services, according to the former chairman of New Jersey's pension fund.
The severe U.S. economic recessions cast a spotlight on years of fiscal mismanagement, including chronic underfunding of retirement promises.
Your money isn't there.
They didn't save it for you.
It has been spent.
Well, nothing is real.
All the people like you who think you have a pension out there, $2.5 trillion unfunded nationwide.
California, Illinois, New York leading the way.
I don't know what situation is in Ohio, but it's got to be pretty similar.
Well, no, actually, Ohio is pretty solvent.
Our pension plan is set up to where the money that was, they have to have 10 years by law worth of funds to fund the pension for 10 years by PRS and Ohio State law.
Well, the same laws exist in California.
The money's not there.
The same laws existed in Vallejo, California.
They got nothing.
It's nothing.
I mean, zilch.
Yeah, ours is pretty solid.
If you take a look at the pension in Ohio, actually, it's in pretty good shape.
You know, it's not perfect, but it's in a whole lot of people.
Well, then why are you willing to let them keep the state?
Then why are you willing to let them keep most of it?
Well, we make agreements with folks.
And I do business mostly on a handshake.
And if they can't obligate, you know, if they can't live up to their obligations, that's not.
No, no, but you've said they've lived up to them.
Your pension fund's solvent.
Yeah, it is.
It's pretty solid.
All right, so if it is, why are you willing to make compromises only take out what you've put in?
Well, Rich, because that's all I earned.
Well, I understand that, but you said you made a deal, that your pension is X. They're going to be matched or what have you, or a certain percentage of what you contribute is matched, and you're willing to forego that in a solvent fund.
Yeah, if things are as bad for our country as they say, we have to come out, we have to come out of this bind that our country's in.
Our individual comfort.
You are willing to accept the penalty and the blame for something is not your fault.
Well, we do our damnedest to do what we have to do.
The men and women that serve in our military.
How about this?
Why don't you, why not, would you support this?
Would you support what they're doing in Illinois?
Raise income taxes 66% to deal with the pension shortfall.
No.
Why?
I mean, that's everybody contributing.
We're going to all pay a price.
Do you want the states to be bailed out by the federal government?
No, I don't.
I want the states to be able to be able to go on their own.
Okay, so you want to feel the pain.
It's not that I want to feel the pain, Rush.
Okay.
Well, look, I live in Rielville.
It'll be painful.
It'll be painful if you do what you want to do here.
You improvise, you adapt, and you overcome.
Okay, I understand the valor.
I understand this is a ⁇ this sounds like it's a patriotic thing to you because what you think you're doing is saving the country.
You're working with other people, all these unfunded pensions.
You'll forego a portion of what you're owed if that money will go to help somebody else get a portion of theirs where they might not be getting anything.
Am I basically reading that right?
I don't know if that's right or not, Rush.
You know, I'm going to go back on a little something and kind of go around the bush a little bit, if you'll bear with me.
Sure, sure.
All right.
And 19, or yeah, 2008, I'm working for the state.
The big shots from the union come around.
They're pushing Obama for a president.
Well, I'm upfront in the Communications Center, and we politely tell them, hey, I'm sorry, you union bosses, but you're wrong.
He's not the right guy for our country.
So just go on out.
We're not going to lead you to the bank.
You're going to tell me now you've lost your kneecaps, right?
And you can't walk at any time.
And forgive me.
That's for another time.
I'll stick with the pension funds.
I think that what our country needs is for men and women to stem up and do what we have to do to keep our country from falling into the hands of the Chinese.
Oh, okay.
Well, I want to try to comfort you a little bit.
The Chikom premier Hu Zhintao is in town, and a bunch of people have done some stories today on the real situation we have with China, that they're not outperforming us economically, that they don't own our debt.
They own 11% of it.
That we actually manufacture more stuff now than we did in the 1950s.
There are a lot of myths about us losing to China when, in fact, the Chikoms are only where they are because they have adopted, in part, a capitalist economic system.
At any rate, I got to run now.
I appreciate the phone call, and I understand what you're talking about.
I was not lying, ladies and gentlemen.
The story is: U.S. public pensions face a shortfall of $2.5 trillion.
That'll force state and local governments to sell assets and make deep cuts to services like the cops and the school teachers, which they won't cut.
You'll just do it less to avoid all that.
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