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Dec. 16, 2013 - Rush Limbaugh Program
36:21
December 16, 2013, Monday, Hour #1
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Time Text
Welcome to today's edition of the Rush 24-7 podcast.
Okay, so I got a question, folks.
Real quick question.
For the progressive left, does this mean now that it's okay for you people to be openly supportive of the Roman Catholic Church?
I have never seen, I've never seen the left come to the defense of a Pope or the Catholic Church like I have seen them come to the defense of the Pope and the Catholic Church this time.
This is one of those days where my dad would not believe what has happened here.
Greetings, my good friends, and how are you?
Great to have you here.
Rush Limbaugh, as usual, predictably, reliably so, behind the golden EIB microphone, executing assigned host duties flawlessly, zero mistakes.
Even though it's early, there won't be any because I can't do wrong.
I mean, the show is me, and what happens is me, and there's no mistakes to it.
Anyway, telephone number, if you want to be on the program, is 800-282-2882.
The email address, lrushbo at eibnet.com.
So here it is.
It's all over the place.
Pope Francis to Rush Limbaugh.
I'm no Marxist, but I've known plenty of good Marxists, and they're not bad people, but I'm not one of them.
Or whatever.
Folks, the media is beside itself.
They don't know what to do.
They just, they're conflicted.
They can't.
I mean, the A, look at that.
You know they despise the Catholic Church.
They despise it.
They despise the Pope, the papacy, not the Pope personally, but just the office.
They despise it because it is the seat of modern morality and judgmentalism.
It is purely pro-life and anti-abortion.
It is anti-gay marriage.
And yet, the media's jealousy, envy, hatred for me has driven them into the arms of the Pope.
But they can't, they can't, I'll tell you what else I've detected.
Six audio soundbites on this.
The media is livid at the same time that the Pope gained to respond to me.
That has him ticked off.
They name him man of the year simply because he attacks capitalism and ticks me off.
And in the process, they've named as man of the year the biggest pro-lifer in the world, the institution that's biggest pro-life institution in the world, the biggest institution anti-gay marriage in the world, and they are recognizing this guy as man of the year for one reason.
He did a big hit on capitalism, they think, which is an ancillary reason that ticked me off, so they think they've got a twofer here.
But they have now been unwittingly driven into the arms of the Catholic Church.
They are embracing ill papa.
I'll tell you, the Lord does work in mysterious ways.
This, I mean, it wasn't that long ago.
If you hit out at the church, you would be excommunicated or otherwise.
But you would never, ever be responded to.
You would never be reacted to.
Talent on loan from God.
You know, the thing is, I didn't know about this over the weekend.
Nobody told me.
And I didn't pay any attention to the news over the weekend.
I really didn't.
I was, we did some Christmas, both days, a lot of Christmas rapping and stuff and just the usual Christmas season stuff.
And I really, I didn't have any news on.
And so I didn't know until last night I got an email from somebody last night who said, you believe all this snarky coverage about you and the Pope?
And I didn't know what it was about.
I got in here this morning and there are six sound bites that Cookie has prepped on this.
And so the legitimate question here for the left, I mean, they're ticked off.
I'm not making this up.
I've studied it now.
They're ticked off that the Pope acknowledged me and responded.
No matter what he said, that's not the point.
The fact that he responded ticks them off.
The second thing is, look at what they've done.
Just to repeat, this is profound.
The left's sacrament is abortion.
It's the defining characteristic of modern progressivism and liberalism.
Bigger than anti-capitalism, bigger than the redistribution of wealth, bigger than pro-abortion identifies them.
That is the litmus test.
You cannot be a leftist and be everything else, but if you are pro-life and Marxist, you cannot be a leftist.
You can't.
Being pro-life will cancel everything up.
That's how big it is on the left.
Pro-abortion, abortion itself is the sacrament to the left.
And you can be the biggest leftist, socialist, communist in the world.
But if you're pro-life, you don't get a ticket into their little tent.
And yet, they have embraced, they have honored, they have bestowed upon one of their highest awards, the man of the year.
Time magazine, representing the Democrat Party, representing the Obama administration, representing all of the worldwide left, Time magazine, man of the year, Pope Francis, a man who is opposed to the main thing they believe in, abortion, opposed to the second biggest thing they believe in, gay marriage.
And yet they have honored him.
Why?
All because I, El Rushbo, who they despise apparently even more, deigned to be critical of the Pope's criticism of capitalism.
And that made them think that he was an ally of theirs.
As Mr. Snirdley just said, the Lord works in mysterious ways.
And so now it's a serious question for the progressive left.
Does this mean that it's okay for your Catholic members to say they're Catholic?
Is it okay for leftist Catholics to be openly Roman Catholic now?
Are you going to stop bashing the church at every opportunity?
Or was it just a convenience play?
Was it just a convenient thing to side with the Pope for a few days because you think the Pope is a compadre in your anti-capitalism?
And as a bonus, you hate me and this gives you a chance to think everything's about me.
Look at the conflict that they've got.
So now you name the Pope the man of the year.
How can they come out and continue to bash the Catholic Church now?
Seriously, with any credibility.
They will.
Don't misunderstand.
I mean, they're not going to openly embrace Catholic Church.
I'm just, I'm putting them on the spot with the question here.
Salon.com, March 2011.
Let's take a look at some headlines from the past just to show you.
March 2011, salon.com, is Pope Francis a fraud?
Nope, not anymore.
Pope Francis is man of the year.
I'm sorry, March 2013, March 2013.
From November 2012, 50 Reasons to Boycott the Church, salon.com.
From May 2002, the arrogance of the Catholic Church, salon.com.
November 2008, Why Churches Fear Gay Marriage, Salon.com.
November 2009, the Pope launches a right-wing affirmative action program, salon.com.
Pope Francis to Rush Limbaugh.
I'm no Marxist, but I have known plenty of good ones.
That's salon.com over the weekend.
They've gone from, when I tell you that they have an unabated hatred for the office of the papacy and the Catholic Church, do not doubt me.
The significance of these people embracing Il Papa.
They just, I cannot tell you what a profundity it is.
Let's just show you.
Getting through the audio soundbites here.
This is a montage of the media responding to all of this.
Jonathan Carl of ABC News, headline news, Natasha Curry, George Stephanopoulos.
I don't want to give you all the names.
It's from all over the spectrum.
Rush Limbaugh recently attacking the Pope, but this weekend Pope Francis responded.
Pope Francis is firing back at critics accusing him of being a Marxist.
Rush Limbaugh blasted the Pope.
He responds to criticism from prominent conservatives, including Rush Limbaugh.
Pope Francis says, nope, I'm not a Marxist.
The Pope's blunt criticism of capitalism led Rush Limbaugh to call the Pontiff Hughes pure Marxism.
Radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh was quick to jump on that comment.
He's not offended.
Rush Limbaugh calls him a Marxist.
The Pope responded to some of his critics who called him a Marxist, and maybe not some, but one, Rush Limbaugh.
Let's use the name.
Rush Limbaugh lashed out against the Pope regarding capitalism.
The Pope says that he is not a Marxist.
Rush Limbaugh sparked a debate over the Pope's beliefs.
The Pope fires back at Rush Limbaugh.
See, see, folks, that's from the broadest spectrum of the media over the weekend.
They're just beside themselves.
They can't, they just, they can't square it.
Here's Yahoo.com.
Pope Francis says he's no Marxist, greets worshipers at St. Peter's Square.
Pope Francis said he knew a lot of good Marxists, but he was no communist himself, following criticism of his diatribes against unfettered capitalism from conservative commentators in the United States.
They quote the Pope, Marxist ideology is wrong, but in my life, I've met a lot of Marxists who are good people, so I don't feel offended.
Well, Marxist ideology is wrong, but I've met a lot of them are good people, so I'm not offended.
That does not mean being a Marxist, the Pope said.
Just because I know some, just because I like some.
Some of my best friends are Marxists, but that doesn't make me one.
I've known a lot of really cool, really good Marxists.
U.S. radio host Rush Limbaugh, labeled as pure Marxism, a text published by the Pope, blah, blah, blah.
The stories are here's media it.
Pope Francis addresses ultra-conservatives and Limbaugh, calling him a Marxist.
Yes, it is one more.
They're just all over the place here, folks.
So it's a profound thing, I think.
Profound thing.
That the leading anti-abortion, anti-gay marriage person in the world has been named man of the year by people who any other day of the week hate the man.
The official program observer, Mr. Snerdley, has questioned what's questioned.
Why do I suppose the Pope responded?
Well, how can I possibly know that?
How can I possibly know why the Pope responded?
What would be the reason?
I have no idea.
This is not something I would feel comfortable speculating or get.
All I can tell you is, and I've seen nothing officially, but you even mentioned to me, you saw this last week.
I saw two different stories that the Vatican was trying to walk back the comments that were interpreted as anti-American capitalist.
But I've not seen anything official on it.
I've just, there have been maybe a total of three, maybe four different stories that alluded to the fact the Vatican was a little nervous and was trying to walk it back.
Now, if that's true, that could be a reason why.
But normally, when you react to something, it's because whoever does it, and it's an open field as to whether or not somebody in the public should respond or should not.
I've had this little fight with myself for 25 years.
And I've got, for as many people have advised me, there are that many theories on whether, and I remember when the program first started and I started getting labeled, you know, just because I'm a conservative, the racist, sexist, big, and homophobe stuff.
And I would have people say, you cannot let that stand.
You have got to refute that.
You have.
So, yeah, that makes sense.
So I'd refute it, and the critics delighted.
Oh, wow, must hit home here.
This must really bug limbo.
So they just kept it up.
They thought by responding, I was admitting it.
And other people just ignore it and laugh about it.
You can't stop it anyway.
Don't give them the pleasure.
There are just as many different theories, but the Pope responding to it, again, I'm not going to speculate.
I don't know why.
I know he's gotten more spokesmen than anybody else in the world.
He did it himself and so forth.
I think that this Pope is clearly a populist.
In addition to being a Pope, he's clearly a populist.
And clearly, by virtue of his own words, he does not want to be thought of as a Marxist.
For whatever reasons, he doesn't want to be thought of.
So maybe that's it.
I got to take a break, folks.
Sit tight.
We're loaded today.
We got the healthcare stack again.
The healthcare stack is bigger than I have time for in this three-hour program.
It's just stunning some of the things that continue to be learned and pop up here.
Astounding things.
People who have signed up are not signed up.
50,000 to 60,000 paper Obamacare applications still haven't been processed.
Nobody knows when or if they will be.
And do you know January 1st, the 60-watt and 40-watt incandescent light bulbs are illegal?
Stop and think of that.
The 60-watt and the 40-watt incandescent light bulbs are illegal in the United States of America, illegal.
I also want to weigh in a little bit more today on the Republican Party, what's going on inside the Beltway.
The Washington Times has an editorial that kind of buttresses one of the points I made last week about the Republican Party is shell-shocked.
Now, that's not their term, but they claim they're just in total fear, that their daily existence is spent in total fear.
And they make the case for that.
So, you sit tight, folks.
We're just now beginning to strip away the peedles of the onion, and we'll get back and go to all the rest of today's exciting excursion into broadcast excellence right after this.
Hi, how are you?
Welcome back, Rush Limbaugh, leading more leftists to the Catholic Church, leading more progressive leftists to the teaching of the Catholic Church than any modern media figure.
Merry Christmas.
It's astounding, is it not?
Great to have you here.
Let's keep up the sound bites here just to get this out of the way.
PBS Inside Washington Sunday morning, Mark Maxie Shields is on the panel, and they're discussing me and the Pope.
And the host is Gordon Peterson.
And he says to Maxie Shields, Rush Limbaugh says that he's Karl Marx out to destroy free market capitalism.
The words haven't changed, but the music has.
That's the difference.
He welcomes the divorce.
He welcomes lesbians and gays.
He speaks to and for the poor.
He drives around in a 1984 Ronaldo.
You see, you see, folks, when the choice is between me and Il Papa, these liberals see what they want to see.
The Catholic Church is not welcoming gays and lesbians, not in the way Maxie Shields wants you to think.
The Catholic Church is still opposed to gay marriage.
They're not changing any aspect of their belief system on that.
They're not changing the doctrine of the church whatsoever.
The Pope, whoever the Pope has been, has always spoken out for the poor.
And a lot of popes have driven around in old cars.
And by the way, Gordon Peterson even mischaracterized me in the question, Rush Limbaugh says he's Karl Marx out to destroy free market capital.
It's not what I said at all.
What I said was that if this is true, the Pope doesn't understand economics.
What I said was that capitalism is what built the Catholic Church and is responsible for its wealth.
And by the way, that might be reason enough for there to be some walking back there inside the Vatican because you can't deny that.
You see, Camille Pagla's piece in Time magazine.
Camille Paglia, a well-known feminist, art critic, but that doesn't do her justice.
Social commentator, she has a piece in Time magazine called It's a Man's World and It Always Will Be.
Man's World Always Will Be.
If men are obsolete, then women will soon be extinct unless we rush down that ominous, brave new world path where females will clone themselves by parthenogenesis as famously do Komodo dragons, hammerhead sharks, and pit vipers.
It's a long piece.
I'm not going to read the whole thing to you, but it's something steeped in reality.
I'll tell you, it leads me into an attempt here to explain something.
Two things.
As you know, every year, to one degree or another, there are attempts by the left to eliminate Christmas.
If they could, they would totally eliminate it.
They're unable to do that, and they will never succeed, by the way, in eliminating Christmas from our minds, from our hearts, from our faith.
They will never succeed.
All they can do is raise a ruckus about nativity scenes or other public displays, outlawing Christmas carols or not being allowed to say Merry Christmas, but having to say happy holidays.
They can do all of that they want.
They can tinker with that all they want.
But they are never going to prevent Christmas.
They can't.
Christmas is.
Christmas will happen.
You can eliminate all the ancillaries.
You can outlaw Christmas trees if you want.
You can outlaw Christmas decorations.
You can outlaw Christmas carols.
You can do all of that.
The left can try to do all that, but they are not going to stop Christmas.
They are not going to end it, and they're not even going to make a dent in it.
The thing to note about the so-called war on Christmas is who's conducting it and why.
And what is it about Christmas that makes them unable to, if not embrace it, to simply accept it?
Okay, so they don't happen to believe it.
Move on, celebrate something they do.
Why must they spend their lives wiping it out?
Why must they get rid of all visible signs?
Because it makes them totally uncomfortable.
And why does it make them uncomfortable?
Why in the world would something that's steeped in joy and love and giving make them so uncomfortable?
Well, you and I all know that we know the answers.
Don't even need to say it.
It basically comes down to the fact they're threatened by it.
They are threatened by a timeless, eternal devotion and faith.
They are threatened by a timeless, eternal set of values and morality.
So threatened that they have to embark on efforts to erase the signs.
And who knows?
They may have various degrees of success in eliminating the signs, but they will never take Christmas away from us.
They will never be able to erase it from our hearts.
They will never be able To erase the joy, the values, the love that we all celebrate at Christmastime and try to the year-round.
They will never succeed in that.
And I doubt they'll succeed in the other, but it won't stop them from trying.
Now, you could draw an analogy.
I think somewhat, if you wanted to analogize this to politics, the Tea Party is not really a party in the sense that it's not an acknowledged party with party papers and identification.
The Tea Party is a way of life.
You see the poll, Ted Cruz, the third most admired man in the world.
Did you see that?
Let me find it here right quick because it dovetails here.
I didn't put it at the top of the stack, but I've got it here somewhere.
And I think it's world.
It could be country, but I think it's third most admired man, even if it is just country.
Hang on, stick with me, folks.
I did not intend to do this now, and it's somewhere here buried in the stack.
And no, I can't do this on a computer.
It would take me just as long to keyword search it and find it that way.
I must have put it.
Here it is.
It is, let's see, Senator Ted Cruz.
It's the world.
The Pope is number 23, Obama at 21, and Cruz is number three.
It's a Rasmussen poll.
Who do you consider the most influential person in 2013?
Pope Francis, the Pope is always up there.
President of the United States, no matter who it is, is always up there.
Ted Cruz, Ted Cruz is the third most influential American.
Let me find this.
The way this is written, it's question.
Whom do you consider the most influential person in 2013?
So I guess you consider people from all over the world since the Pope is in it.
And Ted Cruz is number three.
So let's go back.
You can't take Christmas away from us.
You can do all you want on the surface.
You can take away all the signs, all the trappings, all the symbols.
You can do that.
You're not going to take away Christmas.
You're not going to end it.
And you're not going to reduce the scope in which it's celebrated.
Secondly, the Tea Party.
Tea Party is not a political party.
It is a way of life.
It's a body of thought.
It is large and it is real.
And you can have all of the donors muscling the Republican Party to oppose the Tea Party all you want.
You can attack the Tea Party the way the left attacks Christmas, but you are not going to get rid of the body of thought that's represented by the Tea Party.
And it is huge.
And it is misunderstood by everybody inside the Beltway.
Conservatives, so-called conservatives, Republicans, Democrats, liberals inside the Beltway, they know enough to fear it.
And they fear it greatly, which is why they, the DC establishment, are trying to do to the Tea Party what the radical left tries to do to Christmas.
Wipe it out.
Get rid of it.
Pretend it doesn't exist.
Erase it.
Well, they might be able to defeat certain Tea Party candidates.
They might be able to embarrass certain Tea Party representatives inside the Beltway, but they are not going to get rid of the Tea Party.
In fact, such actions are going to end up building it.
Keep in mind, the Tea Party is a body of thought.
The Tea Party is the ideals of the American founding, and it is a large and sizable group of people.
And they are not going to be erased.
They're not going to be whittled away.
They might be outmuscled here and there in the strict political sense of fighting in battles, but the Tea Party is not going to be summarily dismissed.
Despite what the people inside Washington and the Beltway try to convince themselves that they are doing and succeeding at doing, it isn't going to happen.
And all of this is going to come to a head at some point.
And I think the stuff that's really on the ground things that are happening in Washington, this budget, Obamacare, that body of thought represented by the Tea Party, I think is actually expanding.
I think the number of Americans who are literally in an informed way totally opposed to what's happening in Washington almost every day is a growing number of people.
Now, it's a different matter how to coalesce them, put them together in a voting block in the political sense, but strictly as a body of thought, they exist.
They are huge.
They are growing.
Many of them are apolitical and are not involved in the political system at all.
But they are terribly frightened inside the Beltway in both parties of the Tea Party.
Just like the left is trying to stamp out Christmas, they're not going to be.
Look at what they try to do to Ted Cruz with this government shutdown in Obamacare.
And he ends up being the third most admired man in the country, in the world, in a poll of Americans.
So whatever the daily soap opera is, whatever the story coming out of Washington, you've got to keep the faith.
As you do, you keep your faith in Christmas.
You keep your faith in God.
You have to keep faith in yourself as well.
Brief timeout.
Bill Rushball, the EIB network, back after this.
Don't go away.
No, no, no.
My only point is I don't care how hard they try among people who are legitimately in or make up the membership of the Tea Party.
The left can throw everything in the world at them they want.
Those people will never stop believing.
The left cannot get you to stop believing in Christ.
It can't get you to stop believing in Christmas, no matter how they attack it.
All they can do is shield themselves from whatever it is about it that makes them uncomfortable and feel unwanted and abnormal.
And by the same token, they're never, ever going to be able to make you stop believing in freedom, in liberty, in the concepts of entrepreneurism and the rugged individual, limited government, all of that.
They are never, ever going to be able to eliminate your belief in that.
They're not going to give up trying, however.
There will be continued assaults primarily on leaders that identify and arise, witness Ted Cruz and Sarah Palin and others.
But they're never going to succeed at it.
And as a result of this, they're going to be shell-shocked now and then at election time.
And this is not blind faith, folks.
This is a fundamental belief, actually, that is informed by a lot of faith.
Not denying that.
But primarily, I just, I'm a true believer.
And I'm a true believer that this kind of decency and goodness will eventually triumph.
And that's why we hang in.
That's why everybody's hanging in, not phoning it in or checking out.
Back to the audio soundbites.
I just want to wrap up two more things on the Pope and the left really totally snarky and beside themselves that the Pope responded to me.
Cannot tell you how that frosts them.
We just heard Mark Shields just say, well, the Pope welcomes the divorce.
He welcomes lesbians and gays and speaks.
The church doctrine on that stuff hasn't changed.
I don't care what they want to try to convince themselves.
Mark Maxwell Shields has to say that to justify his support of time choosing the Pope as man of the year.
This guy is anti-abortion, anti-gay marriage, and they are embracing him.
I can't, folks, I really, running the risk of making this about me, which I'm not doing, and I hope you don't think that, because I want to stay focused.
What has happened here is really profound.
You have the number one figure, statesman, whatever, the most powerful office in the world that stands for life stands opposed to gay marriage, and the left has embraced the man.
The left has honored the man.
Who cares why?
It is astounding.
And so to make themselves feel comfortable with what they've done here, because they really can't believe it, they have to now tell themselves stories.
Well, you know, the Pope is open-minded about gays and lesbians and is open-minded about the divorced and the transgendered.
Church doctrine hasn't changed.
This is just how they tell themselves this stuff because their whole world upset the cocoon has been penetrated.
It's leaking and they're upset.
Did you ever think, did you ever think that the drive-by media led by Time magazine or anybody would ever honor the Pope or anybody who's pro-life and anti-gay marriage in this climate, and yet they have.
And here is a reporter from CNN.
This is one of the international correspondent, a guy named Ben Whiedeman.
The anchor is Martin Savage, and they're talking about me and my criticism of Pope Francis.
And Martin Savage says, look, is Pope Francis being seen by many as a reformer of the Catholic Church?
Is he too liberal, Ben?
Martin, there's been a lot of talk about Pope Francis and his so-called liberal views, but it's probably a bit more complicated than that.
For instance, he's made it quite clear that he's not about to change the church's stance on gay marriage or bringing women into the priesthood or abortion.
Instead, he seems to want to refocus the church's attention away from these divisive issues and onto the plight of the poor and the marginalized.
Which the Catholic Church does any day, every day, and always has.
I know Mark Scheidel says he's a practicing Catholic, but here, Mr. Wiedemann is exactly right.
The Pope, in fact, after this controversy erupted, came out last week and affirmed, using my words, he said in no uncertain terms to anybody, if you think that this means the church is going to change on abortion, think again.
If you think that we're going to allow women a priesthood, if you think that we're going to change on gay marriage, think again.
He made a point to tell them this.
And here is Dan Harris.
This is Good Morning America.
This is their discussion about this.
Then there was what he wrote in a major Vatican document last month, attacking unfettered capitalism as a new tyranny.
That provoked conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh to say this.
This is just pure Marxism coming out of the mouth of the Pope.
The Pope responded, saying Marxist ideology is wrong.
Also in the interview, the Pope was asked about the possibility of female cardinals.
No, he said, women should be valued, but not clericized.
That is another example of how Francis is refusing to change core church teachings on hot-button issues.
There you go.
Bottom line.
They're not changing the doctrine, no matter what the left tries to tell themselves.
They're stuck with it now, folks.
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