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I Don't Pretend to Have the Answers
Rush Limbaugh.com ^ | December 17, 2012 | Rush Limbaugh

Posted on 12/17/2012 12:47:18 PM PST by Kaslin

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: I think all of this, folks, is missing the point. The discussion that we're having here on this is missing the point. What if somebody were to say to you, "You can't stop these things from happening"?

"They've happened throughout human history. Mass murder, criminals, evil people. You can't stop them. They're going to be there. There isn't a fix. Not a pure fix." What do you think people's reaction to that would be? (interruption) Well, it'd be stronger than, "We have to try." It would be, "We gotta get people stop listening to Limbaugh," but fact of the matter remains that it's true. As I point out: The worst school, mass death, mass killing in this country was in 1927.

It happened with dynamite.

But we live when? We live in a culture where the left wants us to give up oat bran one day and then eat it the next so we'll be healthier. The left wants us to stop drinking sodas that are bigger than 16 ounces, because why? "Well, it's healthier! You might not die." What, you might not get sick? You might live longer? What? Why can't we drink something bigger than 16 ounces? "You can't have trans fats." Why?

We live in a culture where the political activists in our society think they have an answer for everything, that they can prevent and stop everything bad from happening. I would maintain to you that they have done more to exacerbate these problems. Because what they essentially do is put a jackbooted foot on people's freedom and liberty, and sometimes in the most innocent ways. Who cares if I drink a 32-ounce Coke? What business is it of anybody, particularly government's?

Now, Bill Bennett, just to illustrate another point that I like to make. Twenty-five years ago when I started this program, it was filled with warnings. "If we don't get a handle on X, we're gonna end up here, and this is gonna happen, and that's gonna happen," and I maintain to you now: We've arrived. The threat is no longer the problem. The reality is the problem. Now, Bill Bennett is a former education secretary. Back in 1994, Bill Bennett published what he called the Index of Leading Cultural Indicators.

It was an adjunct to the Index of Leading Economic Indicators, which has always been around and is very popular. What Bennett did was to compile how the moral, social, and behavioral conditions of modern American society had changed since 1963, and he chose 1963 to get a 30-year take on things. Here's what he found. In 1994, as compared to 1963, violent crime had increased over 500%.

Illegitimate births had increased 400%. Divorces had increased 400%. Children living in a single parent home had increased 300%. Child abuse was up 340% since 1976. Teenage suicide had increased 200%, and SAT scores had dropped almost 80 points. Now, I remember. I was here, I was there in 1994 when Bennett released these, and he was mocked and made fun of and accused of trying to tell people how to live their lives.

He was Mr. Morality, and "What right did he have?" Yet that stuff all matters. I mean, if you want to try to find out what happens here and if you are serious about preventing it in the future, it's gonna require some courageous honesty. It may also require the acceptance of the fact that you can't stop all of them. Somebody pushed somebody front of a subway the other day. You can't ban subway cars.

People are going to die, in all manners.

It happens to everybody.

What if you could make the case that mass shootings are actually much lower today than they have been in the past in this country? Do you think that anybody would be willing to talk to you seriously about that? Or would they accuse you of having your head in the sand and trying to downplay this, "Because you realize that you might have to give up your gun and you're just trying to protect your gun, and so you're trying to come up with kinds of reasons to not get so riled up about this."

At any rate, I think that so much of what's happening here was predicted -- and don't forget, it was just a couple weeks ago we went back and repeated from my TV show a monologue about a mass killing in Chicago involving an eight-year-old and a four-year-old. Remember the Bob Greene column? Bob Greene, living in Chicago, asked: "Have we lost our soul?" That bothered people. "Oh, now it's a religious problem?" The thing is they keep happening. They do.

Obama got it right. This is the fourth mass shooting during his first term. It averages out to one a year. (interruption) No, I'm not making any correlation. That's for you to make. If you want to play that game, go ahead. It is interesting we were supposed to be unified and loving one another and at peace and all these wonderful New Age things by now.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Ladies and gentlemen, I should have said this at the top of the program. I assumed that people would understand this. I do not come to this program today thinking I know what to do about this, and I don't want anybody to assume that I'm sitting here thinking I have the answers, 'cause I don't. I think I have some pretty good theories as to why we are where we are in our culture, but how to stop this? I'm not qualified. I don't know that it can be. I have such a cynical view about most every health story that comes down the pike sponsored by the left, from this stupid mayor putting a ban on 32-ounce sodas.

It's absurd and I don't think it's responsible. But in the process we've created this belief that if you don't do this and don't do that and don't do that and don't do that, somehow you're never gonna get sick, and you're never gonna die, you're never gonna get cancer, and you're never gonna get leukemia. It's folly. We're lying to people as part of a political agenda to expand the size of our government. I think what's going on is hideous. But I don't want anybody to misunderstand that I think I've got the answers here, in terms of how to prevent this. I don't know that it can be. But I just want to tell you a couple things that I do believe.

I don't believe that you can have a culture, a society where over a million babies are aborted every year and not have a dwindling respect for the sanctity of life. I don't think you can have a culture which talks about euthanasia, the Jack Kevorkian story that was big for a while, killing people later in life for the convenience of the living. I just don't believe that a society which can so easily kill for the convenience of the living can do that without suffering some real consequences when it comes to the sanctity of life. I don't know what role video games play. I don't play video games, so I don't know if a kid playing a video game all of his life actually ends up thinking that people come back to life after you kill them. I don't know that. I don't know if a kid playing a video game forever ends up with a cheapened view of life and a fun, glorified view of killing. I don't know any of that.

But I do know, because I see it each and every day, that young people in this country are obsessed with fame and are willing to do a lot of insane, crazy things to get noticed because they think there's glamour and wealth and love in fame. People watch the famous and think everybody loves them and we all want to be loved. Everybody loves them. Everybody thinks they're cool. They have cool things. They have a lot of friends. They're rich. All these things make people want that. You couple that with the fact that everybody wants their life to matter, to have meaning in their lives, fame, attention. I do know that that's not healthy. And I do know that it has infected a lot of people. But I don't know that it can be proven that a desire to be famous has a role in this episode. Maybe it does and we may never know, but I do know some of these things are just not good for the foundation of the culture in which we live overall.

END TRANSCRIPT


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: guncontrol; secondamendment

1 posted on 12/17/2012 12:47:20 PM PST by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

Neither do I have all the answers either.


2 posted on 12/17/2012 12:53:22 PM PST by Biggirl ("Jesus talked to us as individuals"-Jim Vicevich/Thanks JimV!)
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To: Kaslin

Secular people will never arrive at the core issues, nor have answers. Their worldview leads them in the wrong direction to begin, and you can’t get there from there.


3 posted on 12/17/2012 12:58:21 PM PST by lurk
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To: Biggirl

We should just start calling all Leftists narcissistic sociopaths, and keep repeating it until it sticks.

But what do I know about anything?


4 posted on 12/17/2012 1:00:06 PM PST by txnativegop (Fed up with zealots)
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To: Kaslin

When the perp reaches the gun free zone it’s too late.

Eliminate the gun free zone nonsense and arm anyone who is competent to carry. Minimize the threat.


5 posted on 12/17/2012 1:06:37 PM PST by VRWC For Truth (Roberts has perverted the Constitution)
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To: lurk

I look at it like a set of directional instructions.

Two people starting from different locations can follow the directions to the letter, and not make any mistakes, and one is going to end up at the right place, and the other at the wrong place.

Thus it is with those with a foundation in Truth and those whose source of truth is human reason.

Both can rationally arrive at a conclusion, but if the starting point is wrong, not amount of “reasoning” is going to get you to the right conclusion.


6 posted on 12/17/2012 1:10:00 PM PST by MrB (The difference between a Humanist and a Satanist - the latter admits whom he's working for)
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To: Kaslin

What I notice about Rush lately is that his characteristic optimism is in a semi-crisis state. I think the election really rattled him just as it rattled a lot of us.


7 posted on 12/17/2012 1:17:22 PM PST by Yardstick
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To: Kaslin
“If we ever forget that we are One Nation Under God, then we will be a nation gone under.” ... Ronald Reagan
8 posted on 12/17/2012 1:20:05 PM PST by Servant of the Cross (the Truth will set you free)
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To: Kaslin
I Don't Pretend to Have the Answers

The Emperor Hussein 0bama and his lib buddies have ALL the answers - you don't even have to ask, they'll tell you. The problem is is that absolutely NONE of them seem to be correct, but that doesn't stop them, and they are incapable of learning from mistakes, because they never admit to any.

9 posted on 12/17/2012 1:24:24 PM PST by The Sons of Liberty (America 2012 - What Would Our Forefathers Do?)
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To: Kaslin
But the problem is the sheeple WANT an easy answer and an answer that doesn't require anything from them. So Obama and his ilk, always happy to oblige, propose some gun control legislation that will be ignored by criminals and inconvenience law abiding gun owners and doesn't even address the original problem. But the sheeple are happy, they say, “Oh, look! We did something! Problem solved!” then go back to watching American Idol...until the next mass murder.
10 posted on 12/17/2012 1:26:06 PM PST by apillar
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To: Servant of the Cross

As November 7, 2012 shown, The Republic is dead. Replaced by popular demand with a slave State.And it is going to get worse for Conservatives very fast. This election proved that we can no longer change things via the ballot box. Our options are down to two:Fight back or die docilly.


11 posted on 12/17/2012 1:27:12 PM PST by sport
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To: Yardstick
What I notice about Rush lately is that his characteristic optimism is in a semi-crisis state

Beng an optimist doesn't mean deluding yourself. When it rains there is nothing for an honest man to do but say "it's raining." The rains have come and they aren't going away any time soon. Rush sees it. He gets it.

12 posted on 12/17/2012 1:36:32 PM PST by jboot (This isn't your father's America. Stay safe and keep your powder dry.)
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To: Kaslin
Someone posted this on another thread and it is worth posting here for all of those out there who would suppose to take away our natural right to self defense and liberty.
"Among the natural rights of the Colonists are these: First, a right to life; Secondly, to liberty; Thirdly, to property; together with the right to support and defend them in the best manner they can. These are evident branches of, rather than deductions from, the duty of self-preservation, commonly called the first law of nature...In short, it is the greatest absurdity to suppose it in the power of one, or any number of men, at the entering into society, to renounce their essential natural rights, or the means of preserving those rights; when the grand end of civil government, from the very nature of its institution, is for the support, protection, and defence of those very rights; the principal of which, as is before observed, are Life, Liberty, and Property. If men, through fear, fraud, or mistake, should in terms renounce or give up any essential natural right, the eternal law of reason and the grand end of society would absolutely vacate such renunciation. The right to freedom being the gift of God Almighty, it is not in the power of man to alienate this gift and voluntarily become a slave."

-- Samuel Adams, The Rights of the Colonists


13 posted on 12/17/2012 1:52:10 PM PST by mc5cents
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To: Kaslin

Rush’s point is well made. We keep electing frauds and phonys to political office and, by virtue of their election, they think that they magically have all the answers to all of the problems in the world.

Would that that were so. But, just look at the problems America faces. Let’s start with a simple one - the fiscal cliff. This isn’t something that sneaked up in the middle of the night and then jumped up and screamed “Boo!” to scare the poo out of us, it’s been building for a long time. Politicians (the ones with god-like intelligence that provides them with all the answers) have been pushing this problem into the future so that, hopefully, they could retire and someone else would have to deal with it.

Then, along came Benghazi Barry. He accelerated the spending in the absence of tax revenues to cover it and exacerbated the situation. In essence, he grabbed a white hot light and pointed it at this fire and, suddenly, the political geniuses who created the problem discover that there is a problem.

Politicins and journalists (who also believe that they have god-like intelligence) all believe that they know more and know better than we do. The hard, cold truth is that the opposite is true. Politicians and journalists are responsible for the mess we are in today. They made the mess, but they don’t know how to fix the mess.

We are well past the time to enact hard term limits on our political class as well as limiting their “symbolism over substance” legislative power. The Founding Fathers had it right when they placed the bulk of the power at the state level, NOT the central (federal) government level.

Today, we are the America that Ayn Rand described at the end of Atlas Shrugged. Corrupt, bloated government; union thugs; anti-business environment; class and wealth warfare; phony environmental issues to wrest more freedom and rights from the taxpayers. Sound familiar? This is where America is today. The land that Reagan once described as “the shining city on a hill” isn’t shining anymore and is so far away from the hill, they can’t even see the hill. The only thing we’re missing from Rand’s description is Galt’s Gulch.


14 posted on 12/17/2012 1:52:50 PM PST by DustyMoment (Congress - another name for anti-American criminals!!)
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To: Kaslin

“I don’t pretend to have the answers.”

But psychotic Progressives do and they know everything, dontcha know.

/s/

IMHO


15 posted on 12/17/2012 2:07:01 PM PST by ripley
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To: The Sons of Liberty

“The Emperor Hussein 0bama and his lib buddies have ALL the answers - you don’t even have to ask, they’ll tell you. The problem is is that absolutely NONE of them seem to be correct, but that doesn’t stop them, and they are incapable of learning from mistakes, because they never admit to any.”

The problem today is that a majority or near-majority (and growing number) of Americans are willing to swallow whole what the left tells them. It’s not getting better for our side. We try our best to defend traditional mores, values, and precepts, but an increasing cohort of the people no longer seem interested.

For an example, look at the public consensus regarding “gay marriage”. Fifteen years ago people’s attitudes on this subject were considerably different than they are today. And what’s most telling is that the most-changed attitudes (group-wise) are those of the younger generations, who will define popular opinion tomorrow. Before November 6, it was quite common for Freepers to assert, “there has never been one state that opted for gay marriage, when the voters were given a choice”. You don’t hear that around here no mo’…

I don’t know if the gun control advocates are going to score a big win this time or not, it’s just too early to tell. But I sense that in the future, we may begin to see the weight of public opinion begin to shift away from us on this issue, as well, at least in the blue states.

Wish I could be more optimistic, but that’s how I see it here (10 miles from the Sandy Hook Elementary School)...


16 posted on 12/17/2012 2:11:20 PM PST by Road Glide
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To: Kaslin

What to do: Stop sleeping with those loose women, marry, and raise your own children.

“When Ronald Reagan was first elected in November 1980, 18 percent of our babies were born to unwed mothers. Today 42 percent are. Anyone who thinks this is not of crisis of the first order can just as easily vote for a Democrat as a Republican.”
http://www.wnd.com/2012/11/gop-talk-more-values-not-less/


17 posted on 12/17/2012 2:45:07 PM PST by donna (Pray for revival.)
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