RUSH: Have you heard that the mayor of New York, Bill de Blasio, wants to ban smoking inside rental homes to start? He wants to ban smoking inside rental homes. I have been predicting, for I don’t know how long, that this is where all of this anti-smoking frenzy is headed, that you aren’t gonna be able to smoke in your own home ultimately. Somebody that lives three doors down from you is gonna complain they can smell it. They’re gonna explain to the city council or whatever, and you’re gonna get shut down. In fact, I had just such a call when I made just such a prediction five years ago in August of 2007, and this guy just did not believe me.
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CALLER: There’s no law against smoking in your own house.
RUSH: Oh, they’ve tried to do in a couple of counties in Maryland, and it’s next if you let ’em into the car! Damn right it is. There is no question about it.
RUSH: (laughter)
CALLER: Some things are obviously sensible and some things are not, and no one is suggesting in any real way or has it ever come close to being a reality.
RUSH: Wrong. I am suggesting it and you’re blind to it. It is not “paranoia” when evidence already exists of the trend.
CALLER: It… The… You… You’re not honestly, seriously suggesting that there is a trend to ban smoking within private homes.
RUSH: I’m telling you it’s coming. It’s been tried.
…
CALLER: Okay. You’re talking about one place, one person, making one complaint. I wouldn’t call that a trend.
RUSH: Well, Michael, this is how liberalism spreads. Once they start this stuff, it never goes away. Like gay marriage is going to happen in this country.
CALLER: What I’m saying is… What I’m saying is when you see it quote, “spreading,” end quote, that is right-wing paranoia. (snickers)
RUSH: No, it’s not right-wing paranoia.
CALLER: That’s just the only word for it.
RUSH: It’s stopping it. It’s making sure it doesn’t grow. It’s making sure that these powers — these liberal ninnies, nannies and do-gooders — do not get foothold and traction in trying to tell everybody else how to live, including in their own homes. In New York, for crying out loud, you have to ban trans-fat at the grocery store as well! You are blind if you don’t see what’s happening here…
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RUSH: It’s exactly how liberalism advances. Now the mayor of New York wants to ban smoking inside rental homes. Now, granted those are not privately owned homes, but somebody owns them. The renter doesn’t. But that’s just the next phase. After you get that done then you move on to the owners, the people that live in their properties not being able to smoke inside them. There’s no doubt this is the way this is going. You see, I’m labeled here by this caller as a, what, right-wing paranoid? I see a liberal plot?
By the way, what’s the old phrase, “Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not out to get you”? Being paranoid does not disqualify what you’re saying. But it’s not paranoia, in my case. It’s knowledge. Did you hear him? This is five years ago. Did you hear me tell this guy, “It’s like gay marriage; it’s going to happen in this country”? Five years ago. Five years ago! I’m telling you, ten years ago you would have been laughed out of a polite conversation if you had told people that gay marriage was gonna be the law of the land inside of ten years. Just ten years ago, you would have been certifiable.
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