Ralph in New Hope, Pennsylvania, welcome to the EIB Network, sir. Hello.
CALLER: Rush Limbaugh, 2.9 trillion dittos from Bucks County Playhouse, the State Theater of Pennsylvania.
RUSH: Thank you, sir. Nice to have you on the program.
CALLER: Well, thank you. I was listening to a science special a couple of nights ago, and they were talking about the creation of the planets and the moons.
RUSH: What network?
CALLER: I think it was Discovery. I’m not a hundred percent sure.
RUSH: Okay. Discovery HD or Discovery?
CALLER: HD, because the technical conservatives here all have High Def TV.
RUSH: Okay, good.
CALLER: They made the point that the moon at one point when it was established, was 14,000 miles from earth and now it’s 240,000 from earth, and as the moon continues to pull away at an inch and a half a year, that we are going to continue to wobble on our axis, and eventually the axis of the earth won’t exist and there will be catastrophic climate change. Deserts will turn into lush rain forests, and vice-versa. They also implied, although I don’t think it was politically correct for them to do so, that this is one of the reasons we’re having climatary change right now.
RUSH: Because the earth is wobbling on its axis?
CALLER: Correct, and secondly —
RUSH: Wait, wait, wait.
CALLER: Go ahead.
RUSH: Just a second, just a second. Now, here I go. I’m just going to be my normal, ordinary, average Joe guy. The moon was 14,000 miles at one point; now it’s 240,000 miles.
CALLER: Correct.
RUSH: And it’s still moving away?
CALLER: It’s still moving away at an inch and a half a year. That’s gotta be a conservative plot, of course.
RUSH: An inch and a half a year?
CALLER: Correct.
RUSH: Okay, if that’s so, why are sunrise and sunset still at the same times today as they were when I was born?
CALLER: Sunrise and sunset? You’ve got me there.
RUSH: Well, if we’re wobbling, that wouldn’t be the case. If we’re wobbling, we’d start seeing some change. We would start seeing later sunsets in the winter and earlier sunsets in the summer! Now, I know I’m not a scientist. I’m probably not even qualified to ask this stupid question.
CALLER: Well, not if it wobbles back.
RUSH: I know you’ve got another point. Hang on. I’m very much concerned with sunset in the wintertime because the later the better, because you get to play golf. I have found a website. I can check the sunset for any day in the next hundred years — and, you know what? It’s the same on January 20th X year as it is a hundred years from now on this website. Now, if we are wobbling, how can that be? It can’t! What is your second point?
CALLER: Well, the second point is, water is the only substance that I know of that expands when it goes from the liquid to the solid state, and it’s my understanding that the ice caps are primary underwater. Well, if they’re going to melt…
RUSH: Nope. Nope. See, I’ve tried that, too, but the wackos come back and say, “Nooo, nooo! That’s a mistake everybody makes. The ice caps, most of the ice caps, the polar ice caps are on land, and so when they melt…” Oh, they’ve got every answer for you, folks. They’ve got every answer. I once asked a question. “Wait a minute. How in the world, if ice on the planet melts, is the sea level going to rise? All we’re talking about here is water displacement,” and of course the wackos respond, “This is why Limbaugh should get off the air! He misleads people, and this is why Limbaugh is not a scientist, because Limbaugh doesn’t know that polar ice is on land!” That’s what they say to this. So melting ice? It will flood Manhattan, and it will flood Chicago! There won’t be any Long Island, and so forth. This is, of course, in the next 40 or a hundred years. They’re not quite sure. But we’re going to wake up one day and Long Island will not be there! It will have happened overnight.