RUSH: I met this guy, by the way, at dinner and after dinner, I met this guy who never listened to this program before, but he knew who I was. He’d never listened before, so he started asking me probing questions about the program. And it was all about the callers. “Well, how many callers do you take? How do you treat the callers? How do you decide which callers you’re gonna take? Do you know what the callers are gonna say? Do you have your insults ready to go?”
I said, “I may take five calls a day. It’s not about that.” It didn’t matter. All he wanted to know was about the callers. So I said, “Well, the easiest thing to do is go to RushLimbaugh.com or 980 KMBZ if you’re in Kansas City. It’s a radio. You turn it on, find the station, switch it there. Put it on scan and you’ll eventually get there. You’ve now heard my voice, you’ll recognize it.”
“But the callers, though, how do you decide which ones you’re gonna take? And does somebody screen them? You really screen them? Isn’t that unfair?”
It’s a learning experience every time I venture out there, folks. Speaking of, I just want to tell you that ’cause we’re gonna go grab a caller and, yes, I know what he’s gonna say. Well, I think I know what he thinks he’s gonna say, but when they get on the air sometimes they get nervous, sometimes they’re liars, tricksters, you never know. Sometimes they’re great. Oh, you shoulda — when I told this guy the purpose of a caller is to make me look good, “Oh, yeah, yeah, I’ll bet it is. You just want them to call and compliment you.” No, no. I tried to explain what making me look good is. Anyway, Jim, Spokane, Washington, great to have you on the program. Not to put any pressure on you here Jim, but I just wanted to welcome you to the show.
CALLER: Well, thank you and, you know, I usually agree with you, Rush, on most things, but I think this terror connection that we have in Boston isn’t because of radical Islam and the teachings and going to Russia, but I think it’s probably bullying that they had here at school.
RUSH: Bullying? One of them was a boxer.
CALLER: Well, yeah, it’s the psychological bullying they would get. They didn’t feel like they were part of the US and they —
RUSH: Well, you know, that’s true. They didn’t have any friends, one of them didn’t have any friends, and they didn’t particularly like it here, but, yeah, bullied. I hadn’t considered that, but you may be on to something here.
CALLER: I think we’ll hear more about it because it’s ingrained in America that we don’t accept people usually —
RUSH: Yeah. We don’t. We’re not inclusive.
CALLER: Right.
RUSH: We hate people from other parts of the world.
CALLER: But I think we need to look into that and maybe get some help from our friends on the left and the right.
RUSH: What do you mean, get some help from our friends?
CALLER: Well, help lead us down the path to understand what could have caused this.
RUSH: Oh, yeah, the path to understanding.
CALLER: Correct.
RUSH: Yeah, I’ve heard about that path.
CALLER: But I know you’ll come around sooner or later and see it my way, Rush.
RUSH: Bullying. Bullying. Well, I’m not that far away yet. I hadn’t considered bullying.
CALLER: I’m sure we’ll hear about it.
RUSH: Well, it’s not their fault. Look, folks, I have a piece here. Thank you, Jim, very much for the call. I have a piece here in the Boston Globe that ran Saturday, and the headline: “Islam Might Have Had Secondary Role In Boston Attacks.” It is written by Lisa Wangsness. “Islam Might Have Had Secondary Role In Boston Attacks.” She said: “But family, neighbors, friends, and social media sources painted a complex picture of the brothersÂ’ religiosity.” So Islam might have had a secondary role in the Boston attacks.
This inspired James Taranto, Best of the Web Today, Wall Street Journal, to write a series of typical Boston Globe headlines on Twitter to help illustrate the absurdity of Lisa Wangsness and her piece: “Islam Might Have Had Secondary Role In Boston Attacks.”
Such as, Booze might have had a secondary role in a hangover. Gravity might have had a secondary role in a fall. Fault might have had a secondary role in the quake. The Surgeon General has determined that cigarette smoking might have a secondary role in lung cancer. Brando might have had a secondary role in The Godfather. The bomb might have played a secondary role in Japan’s defeat. Anti-Semitism might have played a secondary role in the pogrom. Slavery might have played a secondary role in the Civil War. Racism might have played a secondary role in cross burning. Abortion might have had played a secondary role in the Gosnell case. That would be if the Boston Globe were covering the Gosnell case.
The LA Times is reporting that the Tsarnaevs attended services at the Islamic Center of Boston mosque in Cambridge near their apartment. The Times had no trouble finding members who recalled them. But the Boston Globe said that Islam might have had a secondary role in the Boston attacks. Given that, it’s entirely possible that bullying could have been the culprit.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Don’t laugh about this bullying business. During the break mere moments ago, CNN was running through possible defenses for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. I’m not kidding. This is my point. CNN had somebody on to discuss possible defenses for Dzhokhar, and they’re talking about how he could blame everything on his older brother. His older brother radicalized. His older brother bullied him. You see how this could work out. How about this. Do you think Lisa Wangsness at the Boston Globe would ever write a story with the following headline: “Guns Might Have Had a Secondary Role in the Newtown Shooting?” “Islam Might Have Played a Secondary Role in the Boston Bombings.”