Your guiding light through times of trouble, confusion, murkiness, tumult, chaos, despair, decline, cave, you name it.
Also your guiding light through even the good times.
Rush Limbaugh on Friday, live from the Southern Command in sunny South Florida.
It's open live Friday!
And the telephone number is 800-282-2882 and the email address, Elrushbo at EIBnet.com.
It's great to have you here.
It always is.
The telephone number, if you want to be on the program, is 800-282-2882.
And the email address, El Rushbo at even, El Rushboat, EIBNet.com.
My folks, even though out of necessity, on the program, we often chronicle things that could be defined as unpleasant, not good, bad, what have you.
For example, when I say your guiding light in times of trouble, confusion, tumult, chaos.
Let's face it, we find ourselves surrounded by a nation in decline.
And every day, there's another seemingly inexplicable bit of evidence for it.
The latest is just this whole thing with caving to a bunch of unknown hackers, now said to be with the FBI, the North Koreans, with the assistance of the Chikoms.
Some people are out saying this is the equivalent of our cyber Pearl Harbor, and that we've lost the first cyber attack, major cyber attack launched against us.
And if you take the time to get immersed in this stuff, like I got a note from a friend the other night.
He said, look, I just spent a half hour on a drudge report, and I don't think I should even go on living.
I don't know how I can, I don't know how I can get up the next day.
Just 30 minutes with a drudge report makes me, my God, it's over.
But it isn't, folks.
And there are a lot of people doing a lot of things.
In some cases, the most they can do to try to reverse this and stop this in the best ways they know how.
And I must throw myself into that category.
The Rush Revere book series is an effort to reach young people before their minds get corrupted by other people at other places.
To teach them in a fun way, taking them to the events.
Made this country possible, American history.
And it's three books so far, more on the way, time travel adventures with exceptional Americans.
And we are building an entire mission-based movement here, and it is really beginning to take off.
And one of the things that we are featuring here is day-to-day interactivity with the readers of these books.
We've set up the Rush Revere website, the Rush Revere webpage.
And these young kids are sending us videos and pictures and emails and reactions.
And we are responding to as many of them as we can.
We hope all of them.
And it's a huge endeavor, but it's well worth it.
And you don't see it, unless you happen to visit our Facebook page or the Rush Revere page or rushlimbaugh.com.
You don't really see it.
We do.
It encourages us, but you don't really see it.
If you're immersed in all the bad things, it can't help but have an impact on you.
It can't help but depression, which is one of the objectives, by the way, of the people on the left.
And trying to counter this and having some success at it is encouraging.
And so bringing all this up now and then is an effort to share with you what we all think is some really good stuff happening in our little mission here, our little effort to reach young skulls full of mush and to get hold of them before the corrupting influences do.
We want them to love America and respect it.
We want them to be in awe of what happened that made this country possible, that made their lives as free human beings possible.
So it's not just writing the books, and it's not just getting the books into the hands of many people as possible.
It's then having an ongoing relationship with as many of those, the readers, their parents, their grandparents, whatever.
And one of the things that we have done recently, we did a little contest.
And I just, I want to diverge from Up Online Friday for just a moment to tell you about some amazingly talented, exceptional young Americans.
What we did, we recently hosted three challenges at the Adventures of Rush Revere website.
And we asked kids who are reading the books from across the country to either on video, to recite a portion of the Constitution in a creative way and to send their video to us or to create a unique book report on video.
And then we have the third thing was ask the author a great question.
If you could ask Rush Limbaugh anything you want, what would it be?
And we asked for the readers at our website to submit entries on video.
And I'm telling you, you would be stunned.
You'd be hard pressed to remain pessimistic if you saw what we see.
And you can if you go to the Rush Revere Facebook page or the Rush Revere website.
Facebook page is where we post most of the stuff for now.
But folks, we received some of the most superb, engaging, uplifting videos that we've ever seen.
And none of this was part of the original plan, by the way.
It just, all of this just evolved.
And Catherine and I, over the last week, by the way, it's Catherine's birthday today, folks.
So December 19th is always a big day, but even bigger because it's her birthday.
So everybody wishes her a happy birthday today.
And she's working.
I mean, you would not believe how just committed and devoted to this entire project that she is.
It's her baby.
We have sat down over the past week or so and watched all of these videos that were submitted.
And we laugh and we stare open-mouthed at some of these things.
These are young, in some cases, four years old, six years old, 10 years old.
Something that never ever dreamed a radio talk show would be actually focusing on people of that age.
We've always hoped it would happen.
I know the Rush babies kids listen or hear this program because their parents are listening.
But these are people we wanted to actually reach.
They're not going to listen to talk radio, but the books provides us an entree to them.
And so they're producing these videos and sending them in, entering the contest.
We had to select winners from all of these.
And that was tough.
I mean, because we're really faced with one of these things, like we don't want to humiliate anyone by having losers.
We had to really grab ourselves, hey, don't do liberals.
Don't be liberals like this.
We said we're going to be winners, first, second, third place.
We're going to stick to it.
But they were all qualified.
They were all one way or another could have easily been winners.
But speaking personally, these things give me such pride and hope.
People ask me, how do you remain optimistic?
Well, this is one of the reasons why.
So, Catherine and I and our panel of judges selected winners in these categories, and it was hard.
We watched numerous videos over and over trying to select the first-place winners.
And I just want to announce them here because it's part of the deal that we promised them.
I mean, there were hundreds and hundreds of entries here.
You would not believe it.
So, here we want to congratulate Gabriella from Pennsylvania, Eden from North Carolina, Ian from South Carolina.
Those were the first place winners in the three categories that we had.
And you can see the videos that they submitted.
We are going to be posting.
Gabriella had just a beautiful poem on freedom, combination freedom and the character freedom in the books.
Gabriella from Pennsylvania used a beautiful poem on freedom.
And these are at the Facebook page.
It's facebook.com/slash rushrevere.
And the others are at the rushrevere.com website under featured videos.
They are just a must-see.
And they'll give you a little hope for the future because they're so heartwarming.
And you know that their parents are right in there participating or not, not their parents are of the same mindset, is the point.
I mean, it's a little beacon of hope that shows you and illustrates that not everybody is falling under the spell of what I referred to yesterday as naive hope that everything is just going to be fine and this and that.
These are really worthwhile and inspiring for what they are videos.
And I promised all these people, we promised them when they entered that we would mention the winners' names and they get prizes.
They get all kinds of great stuff.
But I just wanted to make time.
Open Line Friday is the perfect day to do it as we head now into the official holiday season, Christmas season.
It's the perfect time to do it.
And to express thanks to everybody who submitted an entry because it was really hard to select these.
So thanks once again to all of the people, all you kids who entered, and to Gabriella, Eden, and Ian, congratulations to you for winning.
There were first place, second place, third place winners.
Not everybody won, but there were enough to spread it around.
Got to take a brief time out.
We'll do that and come back and start on the phones.
Sit tight.
Don't go away.
Okay, back we are.
Open Line Friday, and we go to Idaho Falls Line Host is Robin.
And thank you so much for waiting.
Great to have you on the EIB network.
Hi.
Hi.
I'm super excited to talk to you.
As long as I can remember, my mom started listening to you as far back as I can remember.
And so I'm a rush baby.
Well, thank you very much.
That's great to hear.
How old are you now?
Do you mind my ex-ing?
I'm 26.
26.
So you, that's that you've been since you've been a baby, pretty much.
I mean, out of the womb, you've been listening in this program.
That's about right.
Yeah.
Since you achieved fetal personhood, as they say now.
Yes, I did.
Well, congratulations.
Thank you so much for calling.
How can we be of service today here at the EIB network?
Well, growing up, I knew I had some leadership skills or, you know, the talent there.
And I finally developed the confidence to develop my skills.
And I've been thinking, instead of complaining about all the stupid politicians that are doing everything wrong, why don't I go and do something to change that and be one myself, but do it right.
And I want to know how to do that.
What do I need to study?
What do I need to do to prepare volunteering?
Or what should I start with?
Okay.
All right.
These are good questions.
And let me first, and I'm saying, let me first applaud you for being honest with yourself in your assessment of your talent.
I mean, that is key.
Most people would be afraid to say so because it sounds braggadocious.
But if you know your talent and if you're proud of it and you want to exploit it and cultivate it, that is excellent.
There's absolutely nothing wrong with believing in yourself.
And it sounds like you do.
There's actually nothing wrong with having confidence in yourself.
And don't ever let anybody talk you out of that.
One of the things that I have found over the course of my career, you know, there are people, you may not know this, Robin, there are people that don't like me.
Oh, yeah.
I can't understand why that is.
Well, one of the reasons why is I'm so sure of myself.
Most people are not.
And it makes people nervous when someone is so sure because most people are ambivalent.
They're afraid to have an opinion.
It might offend somebody.
And if you are confident in who you are and what your talents are, do not let anybody intimidate you out of being.
Don't let anybody tell you that that's bad manners.
Don't let anybody tell you that it's effrontery or any of that.
You just stay that way and stay dedicated to your desires, number one.
That will guide you, your passion.
What do you really want to do?
Now, you want to go into politics.
I've been thinking about it lately, and it seems like that might be something that I should do.
Okay.
Well, here's what I would, if I were going to go into politics, the first thing I would realize about it is that it does have its own specific ingredients and requirements for success.
It's like any other endeavor or any other business.
And this radio show is not politics per se.
We talk about it, but I don't have the same problems, challenges, responsibility.
I have to get an audience.
They have to get votes.
But the differences vary greatly from that point of what you should do is what anybody who wants to do anything should first do.
You should seek out people who also love it and who have been successful in it and pick their brains.
Learn everything you can, not from people who failed at it, because they're a dime a dozen.
The people that fail at anything will tell everybody else, don't wear Nat.
You don't want to do that.
It'll ruin you.
It'll destroy you.
It'll chew you up and spit you.
Don't talk to the people that are negative about it.
Talk to people who love it and who have succeeded in it and pick their brain.
And the next thing to do, at the same time, you become as intimately aware of the Constitution of the United States as you can because that is your Bible in politics.
It should be.
If you're serious about making a difference, you're serious about fixing this.
The Constitution must become your Bible.
Take these free courses that Hillsdale College offers online.
You'll have their actual professors do 10-week online courses, same thing that are taught in the classrooms at Hillsdale on various aspects of the Constitution.
And then listen to this program.
Oh, I do.
Well, then keep doing that because there's no course credit, of course, for it.
But you will hear on this program honest assessments of people in politics.
Nothing dishonest here for any purpose is uttered on this program.
Everything is in terms of the analysis of what happens politically is serious.
You're free to disagree with it, of course, but you can be confident that what you're hearing here is a never-ending quest for the truth about what is happening and to be able to explain it to people.
And then after you do all this, after you hear from people who have succeeded in it, and you're going to, my guess is you're going to hear some things that you haven't even thought of.
For example, well, you're going to have to have a network of fundraisers, and you're going to have to have a network of donors, and you're going to have to have people on the ground that will make phone calls for you.
This is if you want to be elected.
If you want to be a staffer on some politicians in some office, that's a different thing.
But as you run around and talk to people in politics, and that could be electoral, it could be staff, it could be consultants, any number.
It could be even media.
There are media experts in politics that do commentary.
You talk to them.
And if you find out that it's still what you want to do, well, then you figure out what it is, what is really your purpose in going into politics, and then focus on that, because it'll become clear after you've done these other things.
Okay.
Now, is it a good path to start out as a staffer for somebody to kind of, you know, as kind of like an apprenticeship?
Well, you mean like getting an internship somewhere?
Yeah, well, just to start out assisting a successful politician so I can watch them, observe them.
Of course.
And then become, you know.
Absolutely.
That would be part of learning it and talking to somebody who is successful in it or who has succeeded.
And by the way, you're going to talk to people who have lost elections.
I don't mean that is a person to avoid.
I mean, politics, people win and lose elections all the time and come back and try again.
What I mean to avoid is avoid, if you really want to do it, avoid people who are going to try to talk you out of it because failures are a dime a dozen.
You're not going to learn anything from a failure.
You want to learn from the people who succeed in it, whatever you want to do.
But yeah, the more exposure you get to the real world of it, a particular part of it that we all never see, I guess a whole lot, every business that we don't see, we don't see what actors and actresses go through.
We don't know what politicians actually, some of us do, but most people don't.
You will if you engage in this.
You may be turned off.
You may be further inspired.
But the more you dig into the things that I've suggested, the more your passion will be revealed as legitimate or not.
And that will, your desires, Robin, will dictate where you go.
If you really want it, if you really want it, if your passion remains top drawer, that will dictate.
That will lead you in the right direction.
Well, I could have said that, but I figured, why throw any call blankets on it?
But okay.
Okay.
Robin, in your quest here to learn the business of politics, you may have to become accustomed now and then to the smell of alcohol during the day and certainly at night.
Something that you might want to just learn to ignore.
But outside of that, everything else I said, I stand.
What?
What?
Come on.
Do not do that.
You know for full well that you've seen it.
All right.
Back to the vote.
Chuck in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Great to have you on the EIB network.
Hello.
Good afternoon, Rush.
How are you doing?
Good.
Merry Christmas to you and happy birthday to your wonderful bride.
Thank you.
I'm sure she appreciates that.
Thank you very much.
Well, I'll tell you, Rush, it's been over 20 years waiting to say this, but Great Lakes dittos to you.
I appreciate that very much.
Yeah.
Hey, Rush, it's kind of ironic if you look at what's going on with the North Korean now with this deal with Sony, how everyone seems to be shocked that they gave them what they wanted and they still want more.
Isn't that exactly what happens with all of the liberal mindsets with environmentalists or especially you can't in this case, we get blackmail going on.
You cannot ever satisfy blackmailer.
You pay once and it's over.
They're going to keep coming back over.
It's never over, actually.
Now, in your case, what you're talking about, the left is in a way saying that no matter what they get, it's never enough.
It's never, they're never happy.
And by the way, the one thing that people need to remember, when the left proposes solutions to big problems that they have made in the first place, they create these problems, they fix things, break things, then they want their own agents, government, bureaucracy, whatever, to fix the problem.
There's no solution.
Everything they do is just the beginning of a new set of problems.
They never solve anything, and they're never happy with whatever you end up giving them.
That's why they're never happy now.
They've got the president they wanted.
They got their health care.
They're never happy.
And your point about them being the environmentalist wackos, okay, so Obama doesn't do Keystone Pipe.
That's not going to make them happy.
They're going to be upset somewhere that somebody somewhere else in the world is using oil.
It's impossible for them to be happy.
And yet they keep blackmailing.
I know what you mean, exactly.
So they're referring to these folks as terrorists.
So can we relate this back to the same thing?
You mean in what way?
But the environmentalists, in their own way, are terrorists themselves.
Well, they have been in the past.
I mean, there was a group called Earth First back in the early days of the EIB network.
Earth First would actually destroy timber company property.
They would blow up SUVs on automobile sales lots.
They would spike trees in order to destroy saws.
They would destroy housing developments.
They would blow up housing.
The environmental movement has been filled with eco-terrorism from the get-go.
So in reality, it's in full circles to bite them.
Yeah, you could say that.
You could say that.
Pending in a terrorism, well, this is being called terrorism.
This is cyberterrorism.
There's no question this is terrorism.
What is terrorism?
You get right down to it.
Terrorism is upsetting norms and instilling fear in people when they engage in normal behavior.
If you make people afraid to engage in normal behavior, you've succeeded as a terrorist.
And they're succeeding left and right.
And we're caving left and right.
And there's always going to be an America, folks.
It may not always be the America that was founded.
And it looks like, depending on what happens these next two years, it looks like that what really is being sliced apart here is America as a superpower.
When we speak of America in decline, that's really what is in decline here.
Not just that culturally we're in decline.
We've got corruption, perversion, and rotting throughout our culture.
No question.
But we also are seeing the decline of the United States as a superpower.
And I believe that to be targeted.
I believe that to be purposeful.
And our ability to project power is in decline, as is our willingness to project power in decline.
The two go hand in hand.
Anyway, Chuck, I appreciate the call.
This is Eric and Wichita.
Great to have you on the program, sir.
Hello.
Hello.
Happy birthday to your wife.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
I'm sure she appreciates that.
I want to tell you, I really like your Rush Revere books.
I think they're great and hilarious.
That's super.
They make you laugh, huh?
Yes.
My little sister, when we heard, oh, she listened to the first book on the radio.
Wait a minute.
How old are you, Eric?
I am 14.
How old's your sister?
10.
She's 10.
Okay, so she listened to the audio of the first book, you say?
Yes.
Yeah, okay.
And when she heard the part about the French word, la poupe, she burst out laughing every time I say it.
Yes.
A lot of our readers love that.
Yeah.
Poupe.
Oh, yeah, the poop deck.
You should have seen what we started getting.
They didn't know what the poop deck was, and they thought they did.
It was funny.
Yeah.
And also, I like the history in them.
Like, I've read history books, but I think these are great examples of them.
Well, I have to tell you something about it.
Everything you've said is something that I greatly appreciate.
But we really go to great lengths to make sure that the history in the books is right on the money and accurate.
Now, we're writing for people your age, 10 to 13, 14, 15.
So these are not college-level textbook dissertations on history.
But it's not history light either.
We want to make sure that we touch on the important aspects of the Boston Tea Party.
You could write three novels on the Boston Tea Party.
We try to synthesize it down to the bare essence, keeping in mind the attention span of young people and all that.
It just bore in on what really was important about the event to lead up to the event in the aftermath.
And the fact that you get that is music to my ears because that was one of the things I was really concerned about was the abridged nation of some of the history that we get.
In the latest book, American Revolution, we've condensed a couple of three wars into one book for the purposes of making a point, but not a political point.
It's about the greatness of the country and things that happened.
But on these three wars, we could write 10 books, for example, if we wanted to get into every detail.
We can't do that.
So to hear that you are a student of history and you are validating what's in my books, I can't tell you how I appreciate it.
That is so great, and I thank you for it.
You're welcome.
And also, I think Liberty is hilarious.
Liberty is hilarious?
Yes.
Like, all the things he's done in all three of the books are hilarious.
Well, you're just making my day because you're validating everything that we are trying to do.
Have you read all three?
Do you have all three?
Yes, I have.
I have all three books and all three of the CD sets.
Wow.
Holy smokes.
Well, I tell you what, let me get your shipping address.
And sometime soon, I want to send you some autographed versions so that you can share the books that you have with others.
And you could keep the ones that I've signed as your official copies.
It's the least I could do.
And we'll put together a whole little package here for you.
But this is, Eric, it's really great.
And I can't, I really can't thank you enough for your astute observations and your deep level and your ability to perceive and appreciate what's in the books and what we're trying to accomplish.
Really made my day.
I thank you and hang up.
Or don't hang up.
Hold on.
And we'll be back and continue with much more right after this, folks.
Don't go away.
And back to the phones.
Rush Limbaugh would have my brain tied behind my back just to make it fair.
Look at here.
Obama's supposed to do a press conference at 1.30.
He's late.
It hasn't started.
You know, people ask me, are you going to jip it?
Are you going to join it in progress?
I said, no, we're not going to do it.
People do not turn into this program, tune in here to hear Obama.
They tune in here to hear what we think of Obama.
And so why?
Besides, if you want to plan on jipping or carrying Obama live, you can't because he's never on time.
So all these reporters are sitting around just filling.
And it's sickening.
You know, it is sickening how breathless these guys are.
We've had six years of Obama just wandering aimlessly in vain search of a thought in all these press conferences, and they're sitting around breathless.
He's only five minutes away.
Obama's coming in four minutes, three minutes, two minutes.
We can't wake up.
It just makes me sick.
The sophistry, the sycophantery that these people engage in, waiting for this guy.
I guess it's, you know, they're all in the same club and they're all excited.
But just for me, I have no patience for it.
I'd rather talk to you.
Brian Jacksonville, Florida.
Hello, sir.
Thank you for calling.
It's great to have you here.
Thank you, Rush, and Merry Christmas to you and your staff.
And thanks for having a very good show.
Thank you, sir, very much.
I hope that I have as much passion in this phone call as I did this morning talking to my wife, and I hope I come across clearly.
Listen, Sharkson and people like him, the only reason they're still in power is because people continue to give them the opportunity to have power.
Sony has a lot going on.
I realize that.
But when the lady called to apologize or whatever she did to him, why does she feel obligated?
It was a private interaction between her and another employee.
And like you said the other day, I think it was the other day where you said, hey, it's out there.
She meant it.
If they didn't mean it, they wouldn't have done it.
So why would you apologize for it?
The only reason that he and other people have their power is because people keep bowing down to them and giving them power.
And until somebody stands up and says, look, you're insignificant.
We're not going to do this.
We might get hit a little bit on our profit margins.
But why are you going to give up your independence?
I just, I still can't understand.
Well, you're right.
You're right.
But let me try to explain how this happens.
And what you must try to do here is relate to the liberal brain and the liberal mind.
So let's now become, for just a moment, you and me, Brian, will become Amy Pascal.
And she is the co-leading highest executive at Sony.
There's the chairman, the CEO, and she's the co-chair of Sony Pictures.
Okay, so right away we know she's in a business filled with make-believe and phoniness and fraud, slapping people on the back and making a lot of people you don't like like you.
Okay, it is a, it is its own world.
It's its own business.
As such, I don't know what her real politics are.
Probably liberal, but even if they're not, she has to act like one.
She has to be one.
She has to give money to liberals.
She has to kowtow the liberal causes.
She has to go to liberal fundraisers.
She probably is one.
She probably likes it.
But even if she weren't, she has to do that.
Okay.
As such, Amy Pascal is a student of media.
She has seen what has happened to people Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson have targeted.
She doesn't want that treatment.
She has seen that the media constantly align with Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson.
If Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson decide to target something or somebody, the media is right in there amplifying it, promoting it, giving a little acceleration.
And she doesn't want that because she lives in a world where it's more important what people think of her than who she really is.
It's more important to her what people think of her and her work than who she really is and what she really does.
And so the short way of saying this: if the media can make you, they can break you.
If you let the media make you, if you, in other words, if the public perception of you is not rooted in your work, your body of work, and if your work doesn't speak for itself, if your success is because the media has told people you're great and because the media has been in your corner, well, then you realize the media can break you.
And she knows that race is something that people have been ruined and destroyed over.
And she doesn't want to go anywhere near it.
So she will do anything, Brian, to avoid this.
She will grovel.
She will bend over.
She will beg.
She will go so beneath herself and go down to Al Sharpton's level and raise him up to her level to save her career and job because every bit of her identity or the vast majority of it is rooted in what people think of her.
That's why they're in panic over these emails being released.
Well, it must be great living in her fake and plastic world because she has no freedom.
And until people have freedom and stand up for what is right and what the principles are of this nation, then this is going to continue.
Stop giving them the power, regardless if it's her or anybody else.
You can't bow down to who they will conquer you.
Who is the last person?
Wait a second now.
Wait, who's the last person that you can think of that stood up to Al Sharpton?
Who's the last person that said to Al Sharpton?
Go to hell, bud.
I don't care what you think.
You can't touch me.
Go to.
I don't care.
Name one.
Well, let's start with me today.
How about that?
And I'm not apologizing for anything I'm saying today.
How about that, Will?
Take that.
Yeah, but Al Sharpton's not attacking you.
Well, he might act to this, won't he?
Well, sounds like you want him to.
It can be arranged.
Well, it's not a rage.
It's a passion to where someone just needs to stand up and say the word stop.
Everybody just stopped.
I agree.
Everybody would have stood up Ferguson or all that other people.
It is a question of guts and the easiest route to someplace.
That would be considered the hardest way for her to survive.
She's going to take the easy path.
But I want to make one point, but we have to get out of here on this break about your point about freedom.
She has no freedom.
If she can't be who she is, if she can't react the way she'd really like to, she's got no freedom.
He's exactly right about that.
I want to share with you a very short story about Natan Sharansky.
He was a Soviet Jew.
He was imprisoned in the Soviet Union speaking out against the regime.
He's Israeli as well.
I got to know him shortly after.
He dates back to the Reagan era and a little bit beyond.
And he tells the story that while he was in a Soviet prison, he would look at the Soviet guard and say, I may be behind bars, but I have more freedom than you do.
And the guards, what?
Crazy?
Look at you.
You're behind bars.
I'm on the other side of the place.
Sharan said, yeah, I can laugh at Putin.
I can laugh at all of them.
You can't.
Yeah, but you're behind bars.
Maybe so.
But I am free to be who I am and you aren't.
And Brian may not know it, but that's the exact point he's making about these Sony people.
They are not free to be who they are.
They're all having to play a role here, and that's why they're all in trouble, and they're afraid to be who they really are.
And that's what's been exposed.
Police in Arizona say they are no longer going to enforce Arizona's landmark immigration law.