Way back in the early 1600s, scientist Galileo Galilei was sentenced to house arrest for holding the belief that the Earth revolved around the sun. The Inquisition, the tribunal of the Roman Catholic Church, persecuted Galileo and other scientists, banning their works and ideas. On radio today, Glenn took a look at the world political and cultural landscape today and wondered if history was repeating itself. Has the church been replaced with the state? Is anyone who disagrees having their life destroyed by political correctness?
Related: To vaccinate or not to vaccinate? Rand Paul grilled by host
Below is a rough transcript of this segment:
GLENN: I had dinner last night with a friend who was not a friend of mine two years ago. Didn't want to be with me. And then became friends with me. He's on the left.
And his business partner, this woman, she hates me.
PAT: Still?
GLENN: Listen. Hates me. Hates me. Hates me. Hates me. Would like not -- I'd call his office and say, can I talk to him? Yeah, no, he's -- he's -- he's anywhere, but around a phone for you. So she didn't like me.
So last night, we have dinner, and I can just feel it coming off of her. And my friend brought her because he wanted her to listen to me. Be around -- because she didn't really listen. So she listens. She cries -- before we leave, she cries, and she says, I am so sorry. I am so sorry. I had no idea. We may not agree on everything. But I know who you are, and I'm in. I'll help you.
PAT: Wow.
GLENN: I mean, unbelievable. And it's not that we agree on everything because we don't. But we're willing to sit down and say, where do we have common goals? Where do we have commonality? Where can we -- we have to stop the bickering back and forth. We have to stop name-calling. We have to stop -- we have to stop this. We have to stop trying to win. Because winning -- right now -- in the old days, we used to -- when the Republicans would win, they would get a bill passed and they would win, they would hold up and say, we won. And the Democrats would hold the same bill up and say, we won too because we got these things. And so everybody walked away a winner. Now everybody is walking away trying to crush the other one. It doesn't even matter if you get what you want in Washington. It does for the American people, but it doesn't even matter if you get what you want as long as we win and you lose.
I'm not interested in making somebody lose. I'm not interested in being vindictive. I'm not interested in punishing -- what was it the president said? Punishing our enemies? I'm not interested in that. I'm interested in moving forward. I'm interested in moving to common sense. I'm interested in moving in a direction of freedom. And so when it comes to these measles vaccinations, we have a lot in common with the left.
And we can't separate ourselves. We have to reach out to -- to allies that say, okay, I disagree with you on many things, on this, let's agree. Let's move forward on this.
PAT: Is it possible that the godless animals on the left love their children too? Is it possible?
GLENN: No, it's not. It's not possible.
PAT: No. We can't consider that. We don't have that in common.
GLENN: No.
PAT: We can't come together on this --
GLENN: They're just hatching children and then -- I don't know what they do it for, but...
PAT: Well, they do it for a tax write-off.
GLENN: I don't think they're interested in tax write-offs.
PAT: They pretend not to be, but they are.
GLENN: They're just that evil.
PAT: They're liars. All godless animals are liars.
GLENN: Thank you, Pat. I think you helped out a lot there.
PAT: It's great. But we have that commonality. We all want the right thing for our kids and no one wants measles to spread through the society. How can we possibly come together on this?
GLENN: Wait. None of us want measles. None of us want our children to have measles. Nobody wants an outbreak or somebody to die from measles. Let's have that as a baseline.
PAT: Right.
GLENN: However, we also don't know what's going on with autism. We don't know what is happening to our children and to our families. If you look at what the numbers were for autism 25 years ago to what they are now, and now they're saying.
PAT: Yeah, there's something going on.
GLENN: I don't know what's going on, but there's something. One in 300 now have autism. It used to be like one in 5,000. Now it's one in 300. They're saying, if this trend continues, by 2025, it will be one in every two will have autism. Well, I think that's concerning.
PAT: Very.
GLENN: And if you happen to be a parent and you say, you know, I'm sorry, God gave me a brain. God gave me personal choice and responsibility for those choices, I'm going to say no to those vaccines because I've done my homework.
It's not like -- nobody that hasn't done their homework says no to vaccines.
PAT: By the way. According to the CDC, about one in 68 children have identified with autism spectrum disorder. One in 68.
GLENN: Wow.
PAT: And you're right. It used to be something like one in 5,000 or greater than that before. Now it's one in 68. It's amazing.
GLENN: And that could be our food. That could be our environment. That could be -- it could be vaccines. I mean, there are -- there is research that shows that the vaccines somehow or another, are tied to some children having -- you know, going into --
PAT: It was that study in 1998 that threw a lot of people. And since, I think the doctor was kicked out of the medical association and it's been pretty discredited. And there's been a lot of evidence that they've thrown at us that is, no, it has nothing to do with it. A lot of people remain unconvinced because there's something going on somewhere and we don't know where.
GLENN: And the way to solve that is to not just brush it under the rug. Not to say, it has nothing to do with that. Science is settled on that.
PAT: And you're a moron for even thinking it.
GLENN: Right. That doesn't help. That won't convince anybody. Coming out and saying, yes, it might. We don't know. Now, let's look at all the evidence.
PAT: That's essentially what Obama was saying in 2008.
GLENN: Exactly right. Let's really look at all of the evidence. We all have a right to opinions.
Now, we also have a responsibility -- when we execute those opinions, we have a responsibility. So if you don't want to have a vaccine for your kids, then the community does have a right to say, you're not going to school. And you're going to have to home school. That's fine. That's fine.
I mean, we have a right as a community to do those things. We don't have a right to bash each other and say you're a moron and I'll strap you down to this table or I'll take your children from you. You don't have a right to do that.
I mean, since when? You know, Pat and I were you be talking about this. And I'd like to take some phone calls on this. We have a lot of great people who are on the phone already. I'm going to spend a lot of time on the phone today. But I'd like to hear. I'd like to make a list of all the people who have been discredited or destroyed in the last ten years.
PAT: By political correctness?
GLENN: By political correctness and by the political machine. On both sides. But look at how many people have been destroyed. This hasn't happened before in my lifetime. Here's another group of people that are now being rounded up and pointed at and being called morons and idiots and crackpots and crazies. Just totally discredited. If you stand -- if you stand out of line, where is anybody saying, my gosh, we're living in the days of Galileo. The church has become the State. And if you don't practice their religion exactly the way they tell you to practice it, you're done.
How many people have lost their jobs? Have lost their credibility? Start all the way back to -- the -- the -- the -- the auto bailout, with the GM dealers. Remember the GM dealers. All of a sudden they wake up morning, and the government says, you no longer have your dealership. What?
PAT: Mostly Republicans. Right?
GLENN: Yeah. I mean, that -- that was the beginning of this. And it just doesn't stop. We have got to unite. We've got to stand together.
I was talking to the chief rabbi of England, and he was so powerful. Man, he was one of the most powerful men I've met in a long, long time. And I said -- you know, I told him where I thought things were headed. And he said, Glenn, let me tell you what God is telling me.
And this was off the air.
He said: God is calling all of his children to stand together. Muslim. Mormons. Catholics, Jews, Hindu. Buddhists, atheists, all of them. We all need to stand together. Because evil is going to pick us off one by one. And unless we stand firm on a few basic principles that we all have in common, we ain't going to weather this storm. And he's right.
We have to reach out and start talking about basic principles that we have in common. Because those things work. And I'm sorry, if freedom is a crazy idea, as Rand Paul said, well, then, you go ahead and call me crazy. I will -- I will -- I'll proudly be deemed crazy for standing up fort freedom of choice.
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