{"id":33636,"date":"2009-10-07T01:01:01","date_gmt":"2011-05-19T01:50:25","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2021-05-19T11:49:03","modified_gmt":"2021-05-19T15:49:03","slug":"it_s_still_a_free_country_isn_t_it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2009\/10\/07\/it_s_still_a_free_country_isn_t_it\/","title":{"rendered":"It\u2019s Still a Free Country, Isn\u2019t It?"},"content":{"rendered":"

RUSH: Oh, man, folks. Get this. When you were a kid in the park, the playground, and somebody said something that ticked some kid off, the other kids would say, ‘Hey, it\u2019s a free country, it\u2019s a free country, I can say whatever I want. Back off. Lighten up.\u2019 I doubt kids say that to each other anymore. ‘Hey, it\u2019s a free country.\u2019 I have a story here from the San Francisco Chronicle: ”Michael Jordan Caught Smoking\u2019 — San Francisco is asking basketball superstar Michael Jordan to snuff out the cigars, after he was caught on the front page of The Chronicle\u2019s Sporting Green breaking the city\u2019s ban on smoking on public golf courses. City officials sprang into action after seeing the full-color photo Tuesday of the NBA Hall of Famer enjoying a good cigar while teeing off.\u2019 He was not teeing off. I saw the picture. He was in a sand trap. How could anybody look at that picture and see sand flying out of the trap and think he\u2019s hitting a tee shot?<\/p>\n

At any rate, they sprang into action after seeing a full color photo of Jordan ‘enjoying a good cigar while teeing off at Harding Park\u2019s 14th hole during a Presidents Cup practice round. In an interview with PGATour.com, Jordan was asked how many cigars he planned to smoke during this week\u2019s tournament. ‘Well,\u2019 Jordan replied, ‘that depends, because I heard this is a public place, so they limit what you can smoke. I\u2019m not even supposed to be smoking, but this was a practice round and no one said anything.\u2019 If he is permitted to smoke, Jordan said, ‘I would say (it\u2019s) a three-cigar round. I would try to keep it at a minimum of three.\u2019 And what is the city\u2019s response? ‘You mean about Spare the Air Jordan?\u2019 said Recreation and Park General Manager Phil Ginsburg. ‘I\u2019ve already sent off an e-mail to the PGA Tour director,\u2019 Ginsburg said. ‘It was sort of a gentle nudge reminding them that smoking is illegal and that we would appreciate their support.”<\/p>\n

\"\"The fine\u2019s a hundred bucks here when you get caught for doing this, and the city attorney spokesman Matt Dorsey said, ‘Don\u2019t expect me to ask Jordan for the money.\u2019 ‘But, Rush, but, Rush, it is a city ordinance.\u2019 It\u2019s stupid! We are talking about a golf course. You know, I was at Heinz Field on Sunday night for the Steelers-Chargers and I\u2019ve been to Memorial Stadium in Lincoln, Nebraska, to see Nebraska football games. I\u2019ve been to a lot of stadiums, I\u2019m sure you have, too. I\u2019m sitting in the NBC booth on the 50 yard line, and I\u2019m looking at the end zone, and there\u2019s just smoke all over the place wafting all through the stands, wafting all up to the scoreboard, I said, ‘What the hell is that?\u2019 It was a concession stand and they were grilling something out there, burgers, hot dogs, whatever the hell it was. It smelled great, by the way. I love the smell of ballparks. The only thing you can\u2019t smell at a ballpark anymore is a good cigar. I used to go to Busch Stadium when I was a kid, Dad would take my brother and I up there and we would walk in there and just the aromas of the guys sitting there smoking the cigars and the hot dogs and everything. It was fabulous.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m looking out there, and literally, folks, this is thick smoke. At its thickest you can\u2019t see through it. And I said, ‘Certainly somebody\u2019s going to go down there and make \u2019em stop this.\u2019 I\u2019ve seen the same thing at Memorial Stadium in Lincoln, Nebraska. I said, ‘Why doesn\u2019t anybody stop this?\u2019 and then I got to thinking, if one person lit up a cigarette or a cigar, the police would be summoned in five seconds to head down there, frog march \u2019em out or what have you, and probably half the people around the guy who lit the cigarette or cigar would go get the cop. Meanwhile, the concession stand can put all that smoke out there and nobody says a word. It\u2019s idiotic. So here\u2019s Michael Jordan, who\u2019s smoking a cigar on a golf course — the average golf course, folks, is huge, and this one is. ‘But, Rush, but, Rush, it\u2019s a public park.\u2019 I know this is a public park and these are stupid Nanny State rules. You add to this that they are raising tax revenue on the sale of tobacco products to fund health care programs for kids.<\/p>\n

If you can\u2019t use a product that you can buy, you\u2019re not going to buy it or you\u2019re going to break the law using it somehow. These clowns are making it impossible for the most law-abiding among us to not break the law, to enjoy your damn life and enjoy your damn day. You\u2019re playing in a practice round in a President\u2019s Cup, you smoke a cigar, and the San Francisco Chronicle and the city go nuts. And now you\u2019ve got Kathleen Sebelius saying you must take the pig flu vaccine, you must take it. Screw you, Mrs. Sebelius, I am not going to take it precisely because you\u2019re now telling me I must. It\u2019s not your role, it\u2019s not your responsibility, and you do not have that power. I don\u2019t want to take your vaccine. I don\u2019t get flu shots. I\u2019m not going to mess around with them. ‘You must,\u2019 she says. And then Napolitano over at Homeland Security, she\u2019s told Joe Arpaio to stop it. You can\u2019t conduct raids to find illegals. If an illegal happens to make himself available as an illegal, Arpaio could do something about it, but the raids have gotta stop.<\/p>\n

So we cannot have raids to find lawbreakers. We are going to have all kinds of mess here with Sebelius saying you must take the pig flu vaccine. No, we don\u2019t. How are they going to make me take it, Snerdley? Wait \u2019til they get control of my health care? That\u2019s not going to happen \u2019til 2013. Sebelius is saying today, you gonna take it. How are they going to make me take it if I refuse to take it? What is this, you must take it? Who the hell do these people think they are? You must take it? You know, I\u2019m a contrarian, I\u2019m a nonconformist, you have some idiot government official telling me I must take this vaccine? I\u2019ll never take it. You must turn out the lights at certain times of the year; you must change your lightbulbs; you must eventually drive a certain kind of car. Have you heard about this Japanese airline? I mean the news out there, it\u2019s almost like David Letterman is writing the script for the news.<\/p>\n

Did you see Letterman last night, by the way? I didn\u2019t either. But good old Cookie somehow saw Letterman. We had our 15-minute dropout yesterday on the phone line, but I didn\u2019t know about it for a couple minutes I guess, and the Dittocam is still on, so I\u2019m viewed by people on the Dittocam, I\u2019m just yapping away, but there\u2019s no audio. Letterman plays that and says I\u2019m funnier without the sound, and then he goes in and starts attacking Sarah Palin again.<\/p>\n

\"\"And yet I\u2019m reading all over the place how I don\u2019t matter. I\u2019ve got David Brooks saying I\u2019m irrelevant. I got Howard Kurtz today echoing Brooks, I\u2019m irrelevant, and yet I\u2019ve got the government preparing to make a law to shut me up, yet I\u2019m irrelevant. I don\u2019t speak to anybody, I don\u2019t have any influence, nobody votes because of what I say, and yet they can\u2019t stop talking about me. And the Congress can\u2019t stop focusing on me and all of my brethren. So we got this Japanese airline requiring people to go to the toilet before they get on board to reduce weight so that they can save fuel. They want you to go in and eliminate your waste. I\u2019ve got the story right here. Airline asks passengers to use toilet before boarding so they weigh less and help cut carbon emissions. The Japanese airline started asking passengers to go to the toilet. ‘All Nippon Airways (ANA) reasons that empty bladders means lighter passengers, which in turn means lighter aircraft and lower fuel use.\u2019 I\u2019m not making this up, and I\u2019m going to tell you something, I\u2019m looking at a picture of the paint job of an All Nippon Airways jet. Why don\u2019t you strip the paint off the thing? I\u2019ll guarantee you the weight of the paint on your stupid jets weighs far more than the waste yet to be eliminated in the bodies of your passengers. It\u2019s insane out there!<\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: So Canal Fulton, Ohio. This is Mary. I\u2019m glad you called. You\u2019re up first. Welcome to the program.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Hi, Rush. Hey, I want to ask you to rethink your refusal to get the swine flu vaccine because I\u2019m thinking that they know that if they tell you you have to get it, they know that you won\u2019t get it just to spite them, and then you\u2019ll get the swine flu and then what will all the rest of us do?<\/p>\n

RUSH: Look, I have a healthy ego. It\u2019s not out of control like Obama\u2019s, but I actually don\u2019t think that that dork, Kathleen Sebelius, is playing a mind game with me. I don\u2019t think she\u2019s saying, ‘You must take it,\u2019 knowing full well I won\u2019t and then I will get the flu.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Well, mom always said, ‘Don\u2019t cut off your nose to spite your face,\u2019 so just be careful out there.<\/p>\n

\"\"RUSH: Look, see, I\u2019m not seeing these mass deaths from the swine flu — I\u2019m sorry, I really don\u2019t want to insult the pork business, from the H1N1 virus. All I see is a bunch of typical government panic and hype. Remember the bird flu. Remember the monkey flu. Remember the pig flu of four years ago. Every year some disaster is going to wipe us all out, and the life expectancy keeps going up. I\u2019ve never had a flu shot in my life. (interruption) Approaching the threshold of what? What threshold am I approaching? The age threshold, oh, is that right? The age threshold. Then why are they closing schools in panic? This one hits the young harder, huh? That\u2019s right. Then why are you even telling me about the age threshold? Well, you know, I really can\u2019t relate. Even some of my own staff here are now warning me against my obstinance here.<\/p>\n

Let me ask you a question. Who put the notion that you gotta have this shot or whatever the hell the vaccine is, who put the notion in your head that you gotta do it? Government did. The Obama government, to be specific. One of my fervent objectives and goals before I do move to New Zealand and start spending everything I have before they take it away from me, is to convince as many people as possible that the damn government is not God, and nobody in it even comes close to being as competent as you are to run your life. And yet, ‘Oh, my God, the government report says –‘ Next time you hear ‘the government says,\u2019 don\u2019t believe it. You\u2019ll be healthier. Trust me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RUSH: Oh, man, folks. Get this. When you were a kid in the park, the playground, and somebody said something that ticked some kid off, the other kids would say, ‘Hey, it\u2019s a free country, it\u2019s a free country, I can say whatever I want. Back off. Lighten up.\u2019 I doubt kids say that to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[12,1],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nIt's Still a Free Country, Isn't It? - The Rush Limbaugh Show<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2009\/10\/07\/it_s_still_a_free_country_isn_t_it\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"It's Still a Free Country, Isn't It? - The Rush Limbaugh Show\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"RUSH: Oh, man, folks. Get this. 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