How To Avoid Lying: Don't Answer the Question, and Attack the Questioner

A caller is pointing out some hometruths about states and their spending of money. Rush goes into attack mode with his "what is it like?"

The caller responds by asking him if he's "off the oxycontin."

Well, Rush doesn't answer that. He also didn't answer, a couple of days ago, when someone asked him about his trip to the Dominican republic and being caught with a bottle of Viagra.

But Rush's solution is the same. Answer indirectly, in a way that makes the audience think he's answering what's being asked (the Viagra question a few days ago, which I don't believe made it into any transcript) and the one today, where he just ignores the Oxycontin question.

RUSH: Do you really believe that tax rates and tax collections today are lower than they were during Reagan? Do you really believe tax policy is less punitive than it was under Reagan? Do you really believe these things?

CALLER: Rush, I believe every word I said. I believe that the Tennessee Valley Authority, a government program, powers large swaths of the South. I believe that the percentage of GDP collected in taxes today --

RUSH: What is it like...?

CALLER: -- is much lower than it was under Reagan.

RUSH: What --

CALLER: Sorry?

RUSH: What is it like? See, I can't relate. What is it like...?

CALLER: Oh, so you really are off OxyContin?

RUSH: See? What is it like to go through life being so wrong about everything? I can't relate. What is it like to go through life believing drivel and bilge? What is it like to be so uninformed and to be happy about it? What must it be like? What is it like for you to get up every day and be so ignorant and to believe such poppycock? These kinds of people, ladies and gentlemen, are why the country faces the great challenge it faces. It is people like this that we have to overcome. They can't be counted on to help us recover from this mess because they are creating it with their ignorance and their lack of being informed. They've just made the work even harder.

Having said that, there's a difference between people who abuse illegal drugs like heroin, cocaine, even marijuana, and those who become addicted to painkillers because they're in so much pain all the time. Users of heroin and cocaine don't want to have to use their brains, while people who are in agony because of a bad back or what have, want to be able to use their brains but can't because of the pain.