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April 24, 2013 - Rush Limbaugh Program
33:10
April 24, 2013, Wednesday, Hour #3
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Time Text
Hi, welcome back.
Rush Limbaugh, the Excellence in Broadcasting Network.
Great to have you here.
Vocal vibrations emitting coast to coast behind the golden EIB microphone.
Telephone number if you want to be with us.
And we will get to your phone calls in this hour.
800-282-2882.
Okay.
I want to get back.
Our young student is in a time crunch here, and I uh normally don't take phone calls in the monologue segment, but I told him I would be back, and if he has any questions, and there's one more thing that I want to mention to him about this program and why it's successful.
Okay, Michael, any questions?
Yeah, uh first of all, I just want to say thank you uh for your honesty in answering the questions.
And I as a listener, I do realize that you don't usually take uh calls during the monologue, so uh I appreciate it very much.
Um you know I I think one of the things that I wanted to say is uh it's kind of ironic that because of your success, you are caricatured, and that causes people to overlook you, which is unfortunate because of the nature of your show, uh people don't have to agree with what you say to enjoy the program.
I also that that's a uh something that not a lot of people mention when when talking about your show.
So one of the questions I had for you was um I I have a theory, but I I was wondering if you ever thought of combating your negative perception commercially.
So, in other words, have you ever thought about, for instance, like running um advertisements on TV on on cable news uh channels or anything like that, you know, like with your bumper music, and you could show uh you know you talking about something in sort of an upbeat manner to kind of get the word out that way.
No.
Well, I say no.
Because they give you a lot of free advertising anyway when they're not.
No, no, no, no, no.
No, it's it's because that's not going to change their mind.
Um voters might see that though.
Um well, we've got our own the technique with a low information outreach going on here.
But but let me uh let me tell you two more things, and I'll address your thing first.
Before this program started in 1988, nobody who knew me thought I hated anybody.
Nobody thought I was racist, nobody thought I was an extremist, nobody thought I was mean.
Six months after being on the radio, that's what was being said about me, and that was because I was conservative.
Now, when that started happening, nobody was able to tell me what to do about it, and nobody had prepared me for it.
Nobody said, if you get successful, this and this and this is gonna happen.
And when that stuff that you just described started happening, nobody had an answer for it.
The uh and I I talked to a bunch of people, and for every person I talked to, I had a different theory.
I got a different theory about how to deal with it.
And some people said, You can't let that stuff stand.
You have to respond.
You can't let them call you a racist.
You have got to respond to that.
So one time I tried responding to some of this stuff, and you know all it did was invigorate the critics and let them know I was bothered by it.
So it must be somewhat true, they said, and they just ratcheted up.
The um criticism.
And virtually every time I've done even any at any time I have tried to respond to generic or specific criticism.
It just generates more.
I I told the story in my own book.
I happened to be in the New York restaurant 21.
Uh I don't know, five years into this program.
It was 1993, surely after my first book had come out.
And I was this my first time there, and my host said the restroom attendant here, big fan, would would would love to meet you.
He brought your book in.
Would you go in and sign it?
I said, sure.
So I walked in, the guy's name is the Rev, and he actually was a minister from uh Westchester County in New York.
And I hadn't said a word.
I just walked in and said hi.
And this guy said, you know what?
This is the second biggest day of my life.
The first day is when I met President Reagan.
President Reagan came in there.
You know what?
You know what, Mr. Limbo, he just laughed at you.
All he ever did was just laugh at him at everything that said he just laughed at him.
And I said, I didn't even ask.
I didn't even bring it up.
And here I'm getting the answer about how to deal with it.
Just laugh at it.
Now, it's much harder on my family and friends than it is on me.
I've had to uh make a psychological adjustment in my life to deal with this.
Now most people are not raised to want to be disliked.
And most people are not raised to want to be hated.
Where in fact it's the opposite.
Everybody's raised to be loved.
Everybody's raised to try to make people happy.
Try to make people like you.
You know, be polite, do whatever.
Make everybody like you.
That's the key.
And I was no different.
And I've had to learn not a take as a measure of success that the twenty-five or thirty percent of the country hate my guts.
But it's not personal, it's all politics.
And my politics isn't going to change.
And that would be the only thing that would change their opinion of me is if I change mine.
I'm not gonna I'm not I'm not gonna do that.
So no, I'm uh believe me, there's nothing could affect that change.
George Bush couldn't do it.
George Bush, as president, could not change the lies and distortions that were told about him.
And he had the bully pulpit of the presidency.
It just there's there's nothing, believe me, on on that score that that uh that can be done.
Right.
It's just you know it you somebody might say it's fair, unfair, whatever.
It's just the way things are in the country today, given the political climate, I've chosen to do what I do the way I do it, and there are certain things that are going to happen as a result.
And you can't change them, and you can't cry about it.
And it just is what it is.
The the the best thing you can do is is make sure it doesn't change you.
Right.
I mean, I've I've had uh, you know, to to a much uh a much lesser extent than what you've had to deal with.
I mean, you can imagine uh I mean I've had people tell me that I'm racist or that you know you're racist, they've never listened to you know your show out of maybe a brief sound by the but who are these people?
Why in the world do we these people are by definition ignorant?
They don't know what they're talking about.
Why respond to them anyway?
What is what is in it to change their minds?
They're peont, they're small minds.
These are people who haven't even listened.
They don't even they're making a guilt by association judgment on you.
You need to laugh at them in their face.
You mean you need to make them feel small as they are.
Right.
Yeah, I think that's uh on a national scale, you know what your your show does and why partially why it's uh so successful and uh let me tell you something.
Michael, I've gotten to the point where I enjoy ticking them off.
I've gotten to the point where I enjoy tweaking them.
Snerdley and the guys will tell you we we you know I I consider during a commercial break so here's what I'm gonna say about this next day.
We know it's gonna be in Media Matters in two hours, and it's gonna be on MSNBC, and they're gonna be flipping out.
And I just love toying with them.
They're so predictable.
They're so small-minded, predictable.
But the thing is, Michael, they have not caused me to lose any audience.
They have not convinced people listen to this program that they're right.
They have not that doesn't happen.
They have not hurt me.
They have not maybe feelings now and then, but that I'm long past that.
They they have not hurt.
That's that's the thing that you have to realize.
Yeah.
Hey, I'm I'm glad you brought that up because that uh uh uh connects to something else uh I I wanted to bring up and I've wanted to say this to you for a while.
I think you'll get a kick out of it because uh you viewed high school as something of a prison.
Uh I hope this uh you like this uh when uh when I was a senior in high school, you know, when you're a senior, the the seniors get uh a special place in the yearbook and you get colored photos.
Well, I didn't I don't remember that.
I wanted out of there so fast I did, and you're a lot we were allowed to pick a quote to put next to our senior portrait in the yearbook.
And you know, as you can imagine, if I had uh quite a few liberal teachers and uh you know, aside from the fact that I enjoy your program very much, I thought it would be great to put a quote of yours into the yearbook.
And that quote of yours I chose was was this.
Enraging liberals is simply one of the more enjoyable side effects of my wisdom.
Well then you've got it.
You've got uh look at uh let me tell you something.
I really appreciate the fact that you are bothered by how maligned I am and how uh misreported on them and that you wish I would do something.
I know how you feel.
I felt that same way about Bush when he's being tarred and feathered all during those eight years and he didn't respond to it.
I know, and I really appreciate uh the what's behind that.
I mean, you you're offended by it.
It bothers you.
You know it isn't true, you don't think it's fair, you don't think it's right and it ought not to happen.
You want something done about it.
And I appreciate that.
More than you know.
But there's one other my I've gotta go here, but there's one other element uh uh go we go and go back to your original premise here of why this program is a success.
And I'm gonna I'm gonna probably tick off a lot of people in when I say this.
But I started in this business when I was fifteen, and I am a radio guy.
I uh too often this business has plucked people off the street and put them on the radio, thinking that's all you have to do.
Go get a psychiatrist, go get a couple of car mechanics, uh and a guess some I've known radio stations that put wacko callers on the air and giving them shows.
Uh Howard Cosell used to talk about the jococracy, which is uh a bunch of people don't have the slightest knowledge, experience in broadcasting, who are nevertheless nevertheless installed in top positions because they played the game.
May not be able to talk, may not be able to know how to communicate, but it doesn't matter.
They're put in the booth because of their name recognition, and he always lamented what that meant for the business of broadcasting.
And I I understand what he means by it.
Um but there there's a there's a reason why the people in any industry succeed.
The people at the top, there's a reason why.
And that is they're veterans, they're experienced, they've been at it a long time, they love it, they understand it, they're devoted to it.
It's special to them, they respect it.
It's not just some place to go be famous.
It's not just some place to have people hear what you think.
It's not just some place to maybe get a TV gig out of it's it's radio.
It's specific, it has specific requirements, it has specific talents that are called for, and it's not everybody that can do it well.
Right.
And so it's th those are those are all I'm I'm telling you, they're they're they're all factors in the um in the success.
So I I wish you the best with your paper.
Hell, we practically written it here.
Yeah, Russ, I I thank you so much again for being on honest with me, and it's uh it's been great talking to you, and in uh in an age when we live in a time when responding emotionally is seen as a valid substitute for thinking critically.
You know, you're a you're a great beacon on the radio and you know, we all know.
That is the best let me tell you something.
That is what you just said to me cancels out ten years of snivelling little chihuahua yapping at the heels criticism.
Because you get it, critical thinking and substance counting more than just emotional plays.
And you've got it.
You you you understand it thoroughly entirely, plus you understand the the critical importance of independent thought anyway, as a human being.
Well, thank you, Russ.
Thank you very much.
People aren't gonna be able to put much over on you.
You're you're uh you're you're you're really ahead of the game, and I'm um I'm I'm gratified that people like you are in the audience.
And I really appreciate you calling and asking me about this.
I don't normally talk about myself, as you know I don't like doing that.
Right.
Well But a student in need will always get response here.
Thank you.
Thanks, Ross, and I'm a I'm a political science major.
So uh, you know, I I appreciate it.
And uh I wanted to uh I want to ask you one last question.
If I uh did I uh perform the duties of the collar to make the host look good.
Uh oh yeah.
Okay.
With without without question.
But you made yourself look good at the same time, too.
Don't think you didn't.
Uh yeah, I I love it too.
I love it, Rush.
I love your humor and uh don't stop.
Just want to t remind you one thing.
Mitt Romney spent about a billion dollars trying to change the perceptions of him, the lies about him, and he wasn't able to do it because there were some he got he got in it too late.
What was said about him was too ingrained by the time he got around to responding.
But I'm here every day.
I prove them wrong every day just by virtue of my existence.
And that's enough for me.
It really is.
And the fact this audience knows all that monk is monk.
So audience is it.
The audience is everything.
The audience is the show.
And you're in it, and I'm glad.
I'm glad you called.
Brief time out, folks.
We'll be back and continue after this.
Don't go away.
We're back, Rush Limboy here to cutting edge.
Having more fun than a human being should be allowed to have.
Mark Steiner just pointed out in a little blog post, an ironic line about Tamerlin Sanayev that is in the New York Times.
And I must admit I missed this.
New York Times has a line about uh Tamerlin Sanayev.
Quote, he was angry that the world pictures Islam as a violent religion.
So obviously Tamberlin set out to change that perception.
Tamerlin Sanaev sitting there ticked off that people picture Islam as a violent religion, so he says, I'll show them and blows up the Boston Marathon.
Honestly, folks, not making this up.
And from the Boston Globe, Russia contacted the U.S. government multiple times, multiple times over their concerns about Tamil and Sanaev.
The FBI's well, okay.
But we're unable to track him for some reason.
The suspect's former brother-in-law says there were other people involved now.
Let's go to Audio Summit 27.
This is on CNN this morning.
Wolf Blitzer is interviewing Elmirza Kozigov.
El Mirzak Kozigov, ex-brother-in-law of Tamerlin and Jokar Sanayev.
And Wolf said, Do you believe these two brothers acted alone or were they involved in any other terror groups?
I believe that there are other people involved.
When you say other people involved, what does that mean?
Some movement.
I mean some extremist.
Um terrorists.
Not terrorists, but like extreme extremely radical people.
Don't want to point out the religion itself because it's a peaceful religion, but there are people who preach in it the wrong way, probably.
So I believe, yes, there are some people involved.
Okay, that's the ex-brother-in-law of Tamerlin and Jokar Savion of Sonayev uh uh El Musa Kazakhov.
What is it with American media people?
This guy says I believe to have other people involved.
Litzer says, when you say other people involved, what does that mean?
It's like Diane Sawyer yesterday said, Pierre, what does it mean?
He's in custody.
Well, Diane, it means that police have him.
He's in police custody.
Oh, like recycling.
So yesterday, Diane, sorry, what's custody mean?
Wolf today, what do you mean other people involved?
What does that mean?
President Obama has canceled plans to deliver the keynote address at Planned Parenthood's annual fundraising dinner Thursday night.
After critics decried his high-profile role at the abortion rights group amid new concerns about the brutality of illegal forms of abortion, Jay Carning announced the decision to cancel a keynote speech at the Gala during his daily press briefing with reporters today.
He attributed a schedule change to Obama's desire to spend more time at a memorial service in Waco, Texas for family members of the victims of the fertilizer plant explosion.
That's not what what has happened here.
Timeline, Kermit Gosnell, and uh everybody knows the details now.
No thanks to the media, but everybody knows the details of what was going on in this guy's it's unspeakable things were going on in there to women and babies.
And Obama has a history of supporting legislation that would allow babies surviving abortions in Illinois to be killed.
Because that was the intent of the mother.
Here comes Kermit Gosnell with an illustration of what that means and what that can lead to.
And then the next key element is a planned parenthood babe would not condemn what happened at Gosnell's place.
Or close to that.
Planned Parenthood Babe would not really so all hell has broken loose over Kermit Gosnell, and now Obama has pulled out of the Planned Parenthood keynote address.
And I'm telling you that's Wacan.
They can say it's the Waco Memorial and he wants to spend more time there.
But it's because of all the attention brought to bear on Kermit Gosnell and what Planned Parenthood does.
The the the Planned Parenthood Babe would not condemn killing babies who survive abortions.
That's what it was.
That's that's that pretty much substantiate what Gosnell was doing.
We'll be back.
Don't go away.
Welcome, sir.
Great to have you on the program.
Thank you, Rush.
Um my research on this sequester thing, could that's uh taking money away from the FAA.
Uh and that's supposed to be an increase in the money that was already in the budget.
So if the money was already there, and the sequester is just this minimal amount of money, then why are they asking these people to take furloughs?
And then if they did ask them to take furloughs, why isn't the military being used to fill in the gaps for air traffic controllers?
Because well, you answer it.
What do you think the answer?
Um they want the chaos.
It's a fear campaign to make people uncomfortable, plus it's also tying up air traffic.
There's two well, of course.
They're they're punishing.
They're punishing people that fly.
What they're doing is twofold.
They're trying to make sure the Republicans are blamed for these inconveniences, and they're trying at the same time to make people think if the government's not fully involved, nothing can happen correctly.
We need the government, we need the government, we want the government, the government's good, the government's great, we need the government, planes can't fly on time without the government.
They want people thinking that.
And then since they're not flying on time, because it's a question, who made that happen?
Republicans made it happen.
That's the objective.
Obama's idea, you're right, it's an inconsequential amount of money.
It's easily replaced.
There are there are pennies and dimes they can find throughout this budget to not spend it, wouldn't affect anything because there's so many redundant programs.
choosing these things.
That's correct.
Hey, listen, the event in West Texas has been overshadowed Uh by what happened in Boston, and I lived in Boston for a while, and my heart goes out to those people.
But uh that the uh tragic event in West Texas uh basically destroyed the firehouse and and most of the firemen were killed there.
In fact, even one of the fire chiefs from Dallas was killed there.
Uh uh that went in to try and save the people.
And uh what I've been asking people on eBay to do that have had vehicles for sale, emergency vehicles and fire trucks, is instead of selling them, maybe if they can donate them to the people in West Texas.
So since I was able to get on air here with you today, if there's anybody out there that has a fire truck collecting dust anywhere, an ambulance, can you please uh get it down to Mr. George Smith?
Yeah, he's the uh head of West Texas emergency services.
Or you sp this is Waco, you mean, right?
No, it it the town was actually West Texas.
Oh, not what's uh it's next to Waco.
And Waco also was affected.
And they all lost many, many vehicles, and of course they lost thirty-five people that we know of now that died in in the explosion.
But most of those people who died were first responders.
Yeah, but there's no way to blame this on America or Republicans, so it's not getting a lot of attention.
So I'm glad you brought some to it.
You might be surprised at what you end up getting here, uh Peter, with your uh request.
This audience comes through in ways that you cannot imagine.
Laurie in Pittsburgh we go back to Pittsburgh, great to have you on the EIB network.
Hi.
Hi Rush.
Um I wanted to bring up something I've been thinking about.
Is there a possibility that what's happening with the with the bombers, I can't say their name 'cause I'll brutalize them, that it could be like generational envy or uh generation uh specifically generational envy or generational guilt.
And let me explain that it's a theory I have.
Like I can use Barack Obama as an example.
Um up until he was an eighteen year old in high school going to that private school he was very Sorrento.
Then he became aware.
He wanted to get down with the struggle.
He started, you know, he there's multiple things where he then because the generational envy he felt of not being part of the sixties and radical and protesting and all the things that went on there, he in his own way took the path of socialism and became a radical in his own way.
Now folks b before you have a conniption here, there is something to this Obama himself has spoken of regretting missing living in the sixties exactly generational envy.
He he wished he would have been around when that was happening.
He has spoken of that.
And you look and you can apply that to these two brothers.
They their parents went through a struggle and the struggle they went through in Russia I mean and and and the things that happened over in Russia, they come into here to America are you asking if these two guys just did it just because they they want to get involved in what they thought were good times that they missed.
I think it's a guilt.
It could be a guilt of them not having participated in that it could be a guilt that they mean the jihad happened and all they've got's the T shirt.
Exactly or that you know they're or they here they are living the Shaw sunset lifestyle which is a television show on Bravo and their parents talk about how bad they had it.
So in essence they're looking at they have a guilt complex now that they didn't live through that therefore they embrace it.
They radicalize it as sort of and this is the radical they take well I don't I had not considered this why are you what what steered you to this?
Um because you see it so often it it it exists so much.
You just like Barack Obama.
It exists.
I know but are you let's leave Obama from a concept that people can go multiple ways with this sort of guilt or are you not satisfied with the explanations we've been given so far.
I think that I I agree there's parts it but I think there I think that you know that this is not being looked at that you know here they are living a a completely different life than what their parents live and maybe being told this all the time and then looking at the conditions back in their old country and that this concept of what their generation their generation and what they had there was a guilt or an envy there.
And I think that's I think that's a factual part of that could be part of it.
I don't think anybody's really looking at that.
I don't know how much guilt or envy there were c but I think there's you gotta have some hate here too I agree.
I agree but it's how you it's how you take what you what people are saying.
Like if you take and you make it this wonderful thing and you know you it's it's the level to which you take what your guilt of that j you know that generational you know the whole of being separated by that generation.
Yeah.
Do you take it to a case of hate in their case taking that to hate you take it as like you like for example you can take it to the extreme for them which is hate, the bombing or the small extreme with that little Mercedes got got the Mercedes that got hijacked that had a coexist Okay,
look all this is well and good but it it's it's a fun exercise to get into why they did it where they radicalized them but you know I I'm not interested in it from a standpoint that well this will help us prevent the next I I don't want excuses to eventually be made for these guys.
And that's what's starting.
I'm not saying you are, but people start to make excuses for these guys.
Well, radicalized by their mom.
Well, Afghanistan in Iraq.
Well, the American foreign policy is to blame for it.
These guys knowingly built the bombs, learned how to do it, and set them off.
And there are two hundred and sixty people in the injured, lost limbs, people have died, and uh that's to me the fundamental point of this.
They're bad guys.
How they got that way, we can we can surmise.
Anyway, look, Laurie, I appreciate the call.
I'm not trying to diminish what you're saying is I don't know.
That's that theory could be right on the money.
It's just this is a new tumbler.
I've got this tumbler here that apparently people see it on a ditto cam.
They've been asking, what is it?
And it's uh new tumbler.
Well, here it is.
It's uh it's I use this glass all the time now.
It's a well, it's a new, we got it at the website for the tea, but it's it's uh it's America's Anchorman by Day and Rush Revere by Night.
So you're looking at the Rush Revere side right there, and then this is me in my suit and sign, this is Rush Revere.
Any it's hot and cold, but the great thing about this is you it's it's hot and humidity, the glass doesn't sweat.
Well, I cannot stand getting a drink of any kind and having sweat and drip all over me.
So I've been using these tumblers for I don't know how long.
We just decided to get some made up for for the tea.
And they came in the other day, so we put them up on the website, and they're cheap.
They're like $12.99.
And uh I think they're 12 ounces or whatever.
But I use these things at home.
I've been using these things for years.
Ice doesn't melt as fast, so whatever you're putting in there doesn't dilute as fast.
It doesn't sweat.
There's two it's insulated.
There's there's actually two containers.
One's um one on the inside.
They're very narrow gap between the two, but it keeps it from sweating.
I don't know about you.
That bothers me.
Maybe you dress nicely and you take it.
We go to a restaurant in the summertime.
They bring you a glass of water, you pick it up, and it drips all over your tie or your shirt.
And, you know, I always it's a pain in the butt to have to hold a napkin under a glass when you're taking a drink.
Well, this thing you don't have to.
And I've been using these things for years.
So we looked into it, and we've got, you know, tea logo on one side and L Rush Bowl on the other.
And I just I've had it here on display of people have seen it and asked, what is that?
So that's what it is.
And uh they really are the the coolest things, and it's only 1299, so that's what it is.
It's a two of by tea.com if you're interested in it.
But everybody has their pet peeves.
And mine is a dripping, sweating class.
And I'm telling you, out South Florida with the humidity as high as it gets and the temperature is high as you take this thing outside.
Uh you can mix your favorite adult beverage over rocks or just put a diet coke or whatever in there, whatever you want with ice, and it's not gonna drip all over you, it's not gonna get diluted.
Plus uh ours are classy looking.
These are these two logos we've had on there.
So if by tea.com website is where you can see them.
I gotta take a brief time out here, folks.
Don't go away, we'll be back much more after this.
Sit tight.
Oh, you can put them in the microwave.
A dishwasher.
What do you think we're gonna do?
They're made in America.
You can put them in the microwave in the dishwasher and every.
It's not cheap stuff, snerdly for crying out loud.
Here's Bill in St. Clair Shores, Michigan.
Welcome to the EIB network high.
Thanks, Roy.
It's a real pleasure.
Uh, to the point.
I received a letter from unemployment insurance agency informing me that there will be a ten point seven percent cut in benefits, and the reductions are generally known as sequestration budget cuts.
Wait a minute, you got a letter State Unemployment Office, and they're reducing your unemployment benefits?
By 10.7%.
And the reductions are generally known as sequestration budgets.
Well, what ten there's the sequester is the defense budget And Medicare primarily.
That's why all this stuff with the airline delays and air traffic controllers is odd in the first place.
The sequester deals with two things primarily, but unemployment benefit.
10.7% cut in your unemployment check?
That's correct.
And although I did collect benefits early in 2012, it's been a good six months, possibly eight months since I've been collecting unemployment.
And uh so apparently I'm still on their mailing list.
So you're not you're not wait a minute.
You are or you aren't getting unemployment now?
I am not.
Oh, okay.
So you found a job.
I did.
How'd you do that?
Well, hard work and being tenacious.
Do you like the job?
I do.
Well, excellent.
So the unemployment benefit cut is only interesting to you in the fact that it is happening because they're blaming the sequester for it.
They have sequestration and quotation marks.
That's unbelievable.
Because you know how many people are on unemployment getting that.
If if that's true and it's happening system wide, think of the millions of people who are now being told that their unemployment benefits are being cut because sequestered, of course, the Republicans did that.
It says if you aren't receiving benefits, no action is required.
Right.
Well, good That's underlined.
Yeah.
Bottom line, get a job, which you did.
Bill, thanks for the call.
I um I appreciate it.
Lots of fun today, folks.
Sadly it's over, but we'll be back twenty-one hours.
Look forward to being with you tomorrow.
Thanks much being with us today.
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