Dec. 18, 2006 - Rush Limbaugh Program
36:19
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| Time | Text |
|---|---|
| Hang on here, I'm making myself a note. | |
| Versus things going to hell in a hand basket. | |
| Hand basket. | |
| HB. | |
| I ought to remember HB stands for hand basket. | |
| Okay, greetings, welcome back. | |
| Uh folks, Rush Limboy here and the Excellence in Broadcasting Network, a program that meets and surpasses all audience expectations on a daily basis. | |
| As always, uh thrill and delight to be with you. | |
| Fun frolic and frivolity for all, as well as the serious discussion of itsues. | |
| Uh telephone number is 800 282-2882, and the email address is rush at eIBNet.com. | |
| So I watched uh the Nativity story one Friday uh uh and and I told everybody that I would have my thoughts on it today. | |
| And I'm gonna be honest with you about one aspect of it. | |
| I um it n none of these releases that uh that they send me, uh it's interesting how they all do it. | |
| They imprint my name uh right on in in a very faded white uh font or or graphic uh fairly large, right in the middle of the screen. | |
| After a while you forget it's there. | |
| When I was watching Rocky Balboa, he's at the cemetery visiting the grave of his deceased wife Adrian, and the frame put my name on the tombstone. | |
| And I thought, my gosh, they got me dying. | |
| And then I had to realize that it was the imprint. | |
| Now the reason they do this is so that uh if any uh people that that get preview copies of these things make copies and run around and they don't know who did it, and then all hell is unleashed on you. | |
| Another thing they do is that they put these movies on four by three letterbox form, which means four by three is a standard TV size, and then they make that a letterbox so that it does not fill any screen you watch it on, don't care how big. | |
| I watched on my 15-foot high definition rear projection screen, uh and it it showed up in a 16 by nine letterbox format, but it didn't fill the screen. | |
| They do that uh also as a means of preventing copying. | |
| And sometimes they'll they'll uh uh take the voice track out of sync with the with the video. | |
| So they don't send you a perfect, they do this on purpose. | |
| And I understand all this. | |
| Uh they also do not close caption these things. | |
| In the case of Apocalypto, it wasn't a problem because that whole thing was captioned since all the dialogue was in Mayan. | |
| So uh when it when it came to uh Rocky uh Balboa, I picked up quite a bit of it. | |
| I watched it twice. | |
| Uh I picked up quite a lot the first time, even more the second time when I when I had familiarity with the scenes and what was coming. | |
| The nativity story, uh, the accents that uh some of the actors have made it tough for me to understand the dialogue and the opening 10 to 15 minutes of the movie. | |
| But remember when I talked to Stallone last week and I asked him uh uh how tough it was to get this movie made because it ten or eleven years since uh Rocky V. Uh and he said it was very tough because everybody the franchise has been cooked. | |
| I mean, it's it's been milked for all it has, and it it took quite a lot of effort and time for him to get it made. | |
| I have to think. | |
| This is uh this movie is uh one of the one of the companies behind its New Line Cinema, and I happen to know that there are a couple of rush babies in the executive team at New Line Cinema. | |
| Uh and their names are in the credits, and I have to think it took these guys a tremendous effort to get this movie made. | |
| And I think one of the things that succeeded in getting it made was probably the success of the Passion of the Christ. | |
| Uh and I don't know how well it's doing at the at the at the box office. | |
| Here's here's here was my take on it. | |
| It is magnificently beautifully done, and it tells a story that uh all Christians know. | |
| And we know the story by having read it, and we've seen artists' portrayal of the Nativity scene. | |
| Uh, and and we've heard at Christmas time uh from the time we were children, uh the story of the three wise men and the bright star, and we've heard science there wasn't anything special. | |
| It was just probably some you know, outer space phenomena. | |
| Scientists try to apply all of these um uh theories to explain what the ancients saw and what they were writing about and so forth. | |
| But uh the the the it starts out uh with um I guess a prequel and gives you about five minutes of life at present for those days, and then goes back one year earlier, and it it tells the story of the year leading up to the birth of Jesus. | |
| And that gets, I think probably the last 20 minutes, 25, 30 minutes of the film, if I remember right, is devoted actually to the manger scene and the three wise men arriving. | |
| I have to tell you that it affected, I got a lump in my throat watching, because I'm a profound believer, true believer. | |
| I got a lump in my throat watching the way this was portrayed on film, something that I have thought about my whole life, something that I have been taught, something that uh is is part of every Christmas at the least, uh the uh the whole story, to actually see it portrayed uh with the best effort I'm sure to be accurate in terms of uh circumstances, life circumstances, dress and so forth uh at that period of time. | |
| Uh I got a lump in my throat, a little s a tingle uh down my spine. | |
| It is uh uh it it's it's it I my my descriptive powers fail me here because I know exactly how I'm thinking about this and what I'm feeling about it. | |
| It's tough to put into words. | |
| There's almost a mythical I'm 55, and all of these years, hearing the story read to me, uh seeing still pictures, artists, renderings, uh when I was a kid, my imagination running wild as I heard the story and so forth, uh there there becomes a mythical, supernatural uh quality to it, and the movie doesn't do that at all. | |
| The movie portrays this. | |
| Uh these are just average, normal run-of-the-mill people. | |
| There's there's nothing special about them in any sense. | |
| It just it just tells the story as it was. | |
| Uh when I say average people, what I'm talking about is that the the in the in the in the crowd of people they live with, there's nothing particularly remarkable about them that set them apart from anybody else, any of their friends or associates, other than at the beginning of the movie when the word spreads that this birth is going to happen, the prophecy that it is going to happen, and that gets everybody all worked up, and there are efforts made to prevent the birth from happening, as you know. | |
| Um King Harrod is featured prominently in this movie, trying to uh wipe out every newborn baby under two years old uh after this uh after this happens. | |
| It's it's really, really, really well done. | |
| Uh and I I think it runs about a minute four an hour forty minutes. | |
| And if uh if this I uh uh people have asked me, well, it's PG, and I still take my kids out. | |
| I would. | |
| I mean, if you're raising them this way, I I certainly would. | |
| It was compelling. | |
| I I um it's one of these things you know what's gonna happen. | |
| In your own mind, you've created your own mental images. | |
| You know what's gonna happen, and yet I sat there and watched it and uh and enjoyed it. | |
| And it was I was more easily able to understand the dialogue as the movie progressed. | |
| Uh but that's not their problem, that's mine. | |
| So I'm I'm uh I'm unable to share with you all of the dialogue and some of some of the things I missed may have been profound in terms of the way the writers wrote it. | |
| Uh so uh I don't I don't mean to make a problem with the movie because of that. | |
| I'm just telling you my ability to have heard all the dialogue was impaired uh somewhat. | |
| Uh and and if if this happens, by the way, in every movie with uh if if if there's dialogue during crescendo-type music or so forth, I'll have to ask somebody I'm watching with what ha what they did the pause button, what'd they just say? | |
| Or turn on the closed captioning if it's available. | |
| Uh you'd be surprised. | |
| If you ought to turn on closed captioning anyway, it doesn't take you long to get used to it, and you'd be surprised what you miss. | |
| Uh if you're uh especially on shows like 24, uh where much of the dialogue is whispered while the music is going and the bombs are exploding and this sort of thing. | |
| At any rate, I I I liked it. | |
| I I was um affected by it. | |
| Uh it it it established even more so the uh Christmas season for me. | |
| That's the nativity story. | |
| Now, here's another thing. | |
| We I I want to go back to this call that we got uh from the woman. | |
| She was from Dayton or somewhere in Ohio. | |
| Uh in Kimberley from Dayton, Ohio. | |
| And you know, I struggled. | |
| She was passionate, and she was really, really, really trying to tell me something, but she was like she was afraid to go all the way there because she didn't want to offend me. | |
| So I was trying to understand what her point when somebody wants to tell you something, but they're trying not to. | |
| It's difficult. | |
| And you have to sit there and presume. | |
| So when it was over, when the call was over, the next commercial break, I look I got on the IFB to the gang on the other side of the glasses. | |
| You know, I really feel like I blew that call. | |
| I she was passionate, she had something to say, and I I I didn't get it. | |
| And they said, You did too, you got it. | |
| She's scared to death of Hillary. | |
| And I said, Well, what was it that she was trying to tell me, didn't have the guts to tell me. | |
| And uh Snerdley's theory is that what she was trying to tell me was look at you sit there and you keep telling us, don't worry, you're optimistic, everything's gonna be fine, and we're losing everything. | |
| And we just got stuck with Sherrod Brown in Ohio for six years, and there's nothing we can do about it. | |
| And there's real depression. | |
| That's what you think she was saying. | |
| Well, I want to address that at uh at some point. | |
| I I imagine uh a lot of you uh think that things are going to hell in a handbasket, and you wonder why in the world I seem so happy and optimistic and don't seem to care. | |
| Uh yeah, well, why don't I panic uh like like the rest of you uh are panicked? | |
| Because many of you think I'm responsible for your panic. | |
| Many, let's face it, be honest, folks. | |
| I sit here, I I I talk positively, I believe positively. | |
| I think ultimately uh in the long term, things are gonna end up okay. | |
| Uh, and you believe that too, and then when it doesn't manifest itself, when it doesn't happen, you get mad at me for misleading you. | |
| And wondering, you know, why I don't see things the way you do. | |
| This is not all of you, by the way, but it's uh, I'm sure it's some of you. | |
| So at some point today, I'll get some phone calls after this, and we've got to look at we got Democrats continuing to visit the enemy. | |
| John Kerry's the latest to go over to Syria. | |
| Arlen Spector is going to go to Syria. | |
| Bill Delahunt took a delegation down to Cuba. | |
| He's a congressman from Massachusetts, took a delegation down to Cuba, members of both parties. | |
| I think it was ten members uh uh Republicans and Democrats, essentially propping up the Castro regime. | |
| Uh yeah, I know Dellahunt's the guy that goes down and props up uh Hugo Chavez and makes the deals with him for uh reduced price heating oil for uh Massachusetts customers uh and others who live in the Northeast. | |
| Anyway, I've got to take quick timeout. | |
| We'll be back and uh rev right back up with all this in just a second. | |
| Well, the commissioner of the NBA, David Stern has handed down the punishment here for the uh the brawl in a garden of evil on Saturday night, Madison Square Garden. | |
| Well, you know, Malice at the Palace, Garden of Evil. | |
| These things have to have their names. | |
| Uh Carmelo Anthony, who is a Denver Nuggets star and is the scoring leader of the NBA, suspended for 15 games today. | |
| Six other players were penalized as well. | |
| Nate Robinson and J.R. Smith each got 10 games, four other players were suspended, and Stern fined both organizations a half a million dollars each. | |
| $500,000 each, no separate penalty for the coach of the Knicks, Isaiah Thomas, and uh and many of the sports media wizards uh in New York thought that he would be uh uh singled out because during a timeout with a minute and a half to go, he warned Carmelo Anthony, don't go into paint, meaning don't go in the lane, don't go for the basket, because if you go in there, your head's gonna be hunted. | |
| And sure enough, somebody went in the paint, they got a neck job, rammed the guy to the floor, purposeful card foul, and uh the fight began, and that's where the suspensions come from. | |
| And uh it's what it is half million dollars for um. | |
| And the root of this is, folks, uh actually the the fault here is these well, I don't know, fault. | |
| But you know, George Carl, the coach of the Nuggets is a good friend of Pat Riley's, uh uh uh Larry Brown's, who was the fired coach of the Knicks last year. | |
| He fired him after one year and brought Isaiah Thomas in. | |
| And so the Knicks were beaten being beaten by 20 or points or some such thing, and Carl kept his frontline starters in against the Nick Scrubs, and the Knicks felt, whoa, we're being dissed. | |
| Why, we're being dissed. | |
| Why, we had surrendered, the game is over, it's their fault. | |
| Their fault for keeping their starters in. | |
| They were embarrassing us on our home court. | |
| One guy, one Nick went in for a reverse jam backwards layup, and that's considered to be showing up the other team. | |
| Uh when the game was already won, and it's bad sportsmanship and so forth, and uh or it is said to be. | |
| Um I always believe the team's gonna surrender, pound them further. | |
| If they're gonna give up, make them pay for it. | |
| Pound 'em and pound them. | |
| But I you know, that's just me, folks. | |
| Here's uh here's Dave in Tampa, Florida. | |
| Dave, welcome to the EIB network. | |
| Great to have you with us. | |
| It's uh an honor and a pleasure to speak for you. | |
| Thank you, sir. | |
| Thanks very much. | |
| I appreciate it. | |
| Yeah, I I just wanted to talk about the how the grumpy grams you're getting about the uh Allen Brothers gift you gave away. | |
| And uh first of all, I think that you use every product that you promote on your program, and uh and I've tried uh several of them and and they're always good, like you say they are. | |
| But in the case with Allen Brothers, it's uh it's a product that's uh probably a little pricey. | |
| I haven't ordered any yet, but even if it is, you have a certain percentage of your audience that can afford that and will buy it at will, and possibly you have somebody else uh in the audience that will use it on a special occasion. | |
| But I thought it was uh a good point to give it to uh someone who maybe couldn't afford it once they try it and really enjoy the product, if it's at all anything like you say it is, then maybe they'll get I'm sure it is, and I'll I'll be trying some, but I think that maybe he'll get together with four or five buds and say, hey, we need to get some of this stuff one week or one month, you'll get the stakes, I'll get the hot dogs, and next month we'll split it up, and then you'll reach another market share. | |
| Well, I appreciate your thought, and I I I really do. | |
| But I let me comment on a couple things that you said. | |
| Um you said that it's pricey and that uh some people this audience wouldn't be able to afford it or would make the decision not to pay for it even if they can't afford it simply because uh it it seems a little excessive. | |
| When you can save money up for other reasons and so forth. | |
| I I totally understand that. | |
| I have uh and by the way, I'm just this just information. | |
| Do not interpret this as whining or moaning or complaining because I don't do that. | |
| But I I have I've gotten emails from people who have taken my advice and gone to the Allen Brothers website, which is ABstakes.com, and they've said, My God, Royce, what who do you think we are? | |
| We can't afford this one, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. | |
| And I'm sitting there, well, what am I supposed to do? | |
| Am I not supposed to advertise something because some people can't afford it? | |
| I mean, these people have come to me. | |
| They have a rare product. | |
| I mean, the the reason it's expensive is uh because there's not much of this quality of beef made available to the whole country. | |
| It's it's it's just because most of the beef on your average steer or cow is not the best quality. | |
| I mean that's and that's true in any product. | |
| Um there's there's always an element of it that's gonna be better than something else. | |
| In a commodity, especially got different size eggs, you've got you know, all kinds. | |
| It at any rate, um the people who have tried it, feedback has been wonderful. | |
| But the the guy that I gave the gift pack to on Friday, what irritated people was that they thought he was a seminar caller setting me up. | |
| They thought I got fooled and duped by the guy, and they don't like it, especially if they think the guy's a seminar caller means they think he's a liberal. | |
| They don't like me giving stuff away to liberals when they, the audience, views themselves as the ones who are staunchly supporting the program and the uh and the sponsors. | |
| And as I said, uh there's there's uh there's a marketing component to it too. | |
| But something that this is tough to say about myself, as you people know, I don't I don't like talking about myself, and it's also tough to say because I know I know the kind of reactions that I'm gonna get from this, or f to this. | |
| But for me, uh you get a call like that and the guy's whining and moaning about his uh his m his mother, and rather than give him a lecture at Christmas, stand up to your mother. | |
| Uh it's just f it's it's fun to share this stuff, folks. | |
| It's it's fun to be it's fun to be generous. | |
| It it just is. | |
| I mean, I don't I don't give this stuff away for any reason other than it's fun to do it. | |
| I'm not I'm not looking for feedback. | |
| I'm not expecting something in return for it. | |
| That's not uh at least not personally. | |
| Uh I just I just enjoy doing it. | |
| And it was really no more complicated than that. | |
| I thought the guy was setting me up, and I thought the guy might have been a seminar caller and so forth, but uh still, like I always say it, Chris, the fun when you when you become an adult is giving. | |
| And if whoever you give it to is playing a trick on you get snookered, fine. | |
| Doesn't rob me of the fun I've had and do it. | |
| Just check the um uh long-term National Weather Service wild guests for Christmas Day here, 78 degrees a week from today here at the EIB Southern Command. | |
| Here's Art in Shepherd, Montana. | |
| I'm glad you waited, Art. | |
| Welcome to the program. | |
| Hi, Rush. | |
| Uh unfortunately Pittsburgh doesn't have a black and gold basketball team, but it has three other black and gold teams. | |
| Anyways, can you imagine Red Arbok, Dick Mata, Rudy Tomjanovich and Popovich tolerating what happened in New York? | |
| Or can you imagine? | |
| Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. | |
| Well, I don't know who tolerated it, but uh I personally believe if you have a coach like Popovich or Tom Janovich or Dick Mata or Red Arbach, that this stuff would not happen. | |
| Look, come on now. | |
| Look at I'm not even that big a basketball fan. | |
| Does the name Kermit Washington mean anything to you? | |
| I've heard the name. | |
| Well, Kermit Washington, this is this goes back I'm I'm guessing 30 years. | |
| Twenty-five, thirty years. | |
| Kermit Washington came in playing for some team against uh I think uh uh Tom Janovich don't even remember the team. | |
| Okay, Kermit Washington was with the Lakers and Rudy Tomjanovich was playing for the Houston Rockets, and there was a brawl on the court, and Kermit Washington came in with a vicious right hand full-fledged hook. | |
| And basically Tom Janovich's destroyed Tom Janovich's career, ruined his face, ruined his career. | |
| I mean, it was it was over. | |
| That's he's he's a coach now, or has been. | |
| I mean, this this stuff is not unprecedented. | |
| Pardon? | |
| That's what I mean. | |
| As a coach, he would not tolerate it. | |
| Well, I know, but but but uh you what you're really saying is he wouldn't have permitted it. | |
| Uh I think what you're really saying is that the coaches here, Isaiah Thomas and George Carl are responsible for this because they created the atmosphere which which made the players think it's okay to behave this way given certain circumstances in a game, because tolerate it means when it happens, you don't do anything about it except slap some wrists. | |
| Nobody's tolerating this. | |
| What you're really can I think what you're really saying is you think these coaches, as opposed to the old great coaches of the past, would uh are are making these these things possible by by not reining in the natural instincts of these guys in the competitive arena. | |
| Well, in hockey, Scottie Bowman kept McSorley under control. | |
| And uh Oh, come on, hockey. | |
| You can't possibly br cite hockey to me as someplace where Yeah, but McSorley removed the face of a guy when he was playing for a different team, but when he's playing for the Penguins, Bowman kept him under control. | |
| And Danny Murtaugh, look at the teams that Danny Murtaugh had. | |
| I mean, and look at the. | |
| Come on, man. | |
| This is look at this is this is everybody thinks this is the worst that's ever been. | |
| You've forgotten what happened in Auburn Hills uh at the Palace at Auburn Hills with the with the Pacers and the and the Knicks. | |
| Have you forgotten? | |
| You had a great manager in Walter Alston, Los Angeles Dodgers, and the Dodgers are playing in San Francisco. | |
| Juan Marischal uh got it and got into a beanball war with the catcher of the Dodgers, Johnny Roseboro, and Marishaw picked up Roseboro's bat, tried to hit him in the head with it. | |
| And it was their bench clearing brawls in baseball frequently. | |
| There were a couple of them last season. | |
| There is not an era where this didn't happen. | |
| What's different now, I think, if you want to try to attach a difference to some of the lack of civility in sports, is blame it on me. | |
| Blame it on politics, but because everybody's talking about I'm being facetious. | |
| Everybody says we are in a more partisan country, and and and there's we need we need more civility, and we all need to learn to get along. | |
| Well, who's responsible for the incivility that's going on? | |
| It's always conservatives, right? | |
| Because they don't compromise their principles and agree with uh with Democrats and liberals. | |
| The the the the circumstances here as to why these brawls are happening, like in Detroit, like in uh in in uh Madison Square Garden on Saturday night. | |
| There's there's probably a reason if somebody wanted to do a sociological examination. | |
| But to say that the events are new and it's certain people never allowed them, that's that's probably true, but there never was an era where there was really fair and pure and constant 100% sportsmanship. | |
| Uh it's it's it's just it's never existed. | |
| Uh you know, here's here's the uh here's the thing about this incident in New York that nobody's talked about, and I I'm frankly surprised. | |
| What started it all was this hard foul as a guy's charging in for a layup. | |
| And uh I don't forget the names here, but the Nick player, in order to prevent the basket, literally put the uh the nuggets player in a chokehold for a couple seconds and rammed his head into the floor. | |
| Let go before, but they end up, and of course, the guy who just got jammed to the floor stands up, I'm not taking that. | |
| And a brawl starts, and where do they end up? | |
| They end up in a seat full of fans. | |
| Now, I know I haven't heard about the health of the fans. | |
| Somebody had to get hurt when these two guys tumbled into them and the rest of the team piled on right under the basket. | |
| Uh and so the fans got involved in this again. | |
| I haven't heard the fans didn't get involved, and the fans didn't fight back or anything. | |
| The fight spread, but uh this this was this could not have been a pleasant experience, and those are the expensive seats. | |
| So the rich uh rich took it on the chin uh at the at the garden as uh well, those seats can go for 250 or 300 bucks. | |
| Uh those are more expensive than Allen Brothers' uh stakes uh folks, and you know, you don't get to see a fight when you buy Allen Brothers steaks. | |
| But then here's another thing. | |
| I want I want you people to consider this. | |
| You mentioned hockey. | |
| Guys go to sporting events, and a fight breaks out, and I guarantee you nobody leaves for a beer. | |
| Nobody goes to the bathroom. | |
| They want to see it. | |
| Now the league has to come out and say, we're appalled. | |
| Well, this is not who we are. | |
| Yes, it is. | |
| You did it. | |
| Oh, this is not us. | |
| Yes, it is. | |
| Happens a lot. | |
| Uh well, this is not the image clearly that we want to project. | |
| But you did, and you do. | |
| Uh and and it's the dirty little secret in marketing is that they'll go through the notion of suspending these guys, uh, and they'll find the teams $500,000. | |
| But it's gonna keep happening. | |
| It's just it's just human nature. | |
| I mean, heck, I mean, don't do women like watching these fights too when these things break out and so forth. | |
| I don't believe you. | |
| I think the women secretly love it too. | |
| At any rate, I appreciate the call out there. | |
| Peter and Palm Beach, you're next on the EIB network. | |
| Hello. | |
| Afternoon, Rush. | |
| How are you? | |
| Fine, sir. | |
| Yeah, thank you for taking my call. | |
| I have a com comment about the uh Nativity movie. | |
| Yes. | |
| I I did the movie with my wife, and the movie was great. | |
| It was fabulous to be done. | |
| My only problem is the young lady who played Mary is an unwed uh and pregnant uh mother, a single mother. | |
| Yeah, she was really pregnant during the filming, right? | |
| Yes, but she's not married, and that is why the church, as attic and did not allow her to come to the premiere of that movie. | |
| Well, I didn't know that. | |
| I didn't know they didn't allow her to go to the uh premiere. | |
| Oh, yeah. | |
| I mean, because you know how the Catholic church feels about unwed mothers. | |
| Yeah. | |
| Who are pregnant, and that's a big no-no, especially when it's playing Mary. | |
| I mean, out of all the 16-year-old girls. | |
| Well, but that look, no, no, no, no, I I understand that. | |
| But but it is what it is. | |
| She was pregnant, she was not married at the time, she got the role. | |
| Her real life status is not a factor in the movie. | |
| Yeah, but she is playing Mary, who is a wholesome icon and among Roman Catholics. | |
| And that, you know, it is but it is troubling to some Roman Catholics. | |
| I'm a captain with a small C, and it just it bothers me a little bit. | |
| Did it uh well I I can understand that. | |
| Um people are very sensitive about uh about a lot of things. | |
| Uh I I didn't even know that. | |
| Now that I know it, um it's a movie. | |
| And it was you know, the movie takes you there. | |
| You mean you feel like you're really there when you're when you're watching the movie. | |
| But uh i i I if if that news hadn't gotten out, there would have been nothing in the movie that is uh tolerant of or is in any way promoting unmarried single motherhood. | |
| Uh so and I I you know the the I this is just me, but I'm not so sensitive that I now that I know this and I'm gonna consider this an insult uh to the uh Virgin Mary. | |
| Uh the the way this actress was cast in the uh in the role. | |
| I mean, to me, it's just not it's not worth it. | |
| Anyway, I appreciate the call, Peter. | |
| Thanks for the information. | |
| We'll have a brief time out and be back in just a second. | |
| Talent on loan from God, America's anchor man, El Rushbow. | |
| And Merry Christmas to all of you from all of us here with an EIB network. | |
| Nancy Pelosi is going to have a four-day inauguration gala. | |
| Speaker elect Nancy Pelosi has big expensive plans for commemorating her ascension to the head of the House of Representatives in early January. | |
| She has slated a four-day gala of pomp and circumstance that will make the installation of Pope Benedict the 16th seem absolutely skimpy by comparison. | |
| I'm reading this, a column written by John Lilpop at the Canada Free Press.com. | |
| Um to begin with, the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce and Labor Council delegation of 50 people will be flying to Washington to participate in the first coronation of a queen in American history. | |
| Excepting only the first wearing a ceremony for Barney Frank several years ago. | |
| This guy writes. | |
| Again, this is uh John Lilpop of Canada Free Press. | |
| I'm just quoting San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom plans to be in Washington as well, and this icon of decency and rule of law will perform emergency weddings for any same-sex couples that just can't wait. | |
| Provide proof you voted Democrat in at least five successive elections, and the mayor will throw in an autograph picture of Mark Foley at no extra charge. | |
| The main event, though, the main event scheduled for noon on January 4th, when the House meets to elect Pelosi in a formal process expected to take several hours. | |
| On the evening of January 4th, Pelosi will be honored at a concert fundraiser for the Democrat Congressional Campaign Committee, admittance $15,000. | |
| Fifteen thousand dollars. | |
| Now, ladies and gentlemen, the last two presidential inaugurations and uh all the attending inaugural balls and so forth, we have been treated to story after story after story about how too expensive it is. | |
| Couldn't that money be better spent somewhere else? | |
| And then we found no, these are corporate contributors and political contributors. | |
| Well, couldn't they give their money to something else? | |
| Why does it why does it have to be so expensive? | |
| Why do we have to go into such pomp and circumstances just over the top? | |
| None of that will be said about Nancy Pelosi's coronation. | |
| Uh and and what about all these new ethics? | |
| If you see where Pelosi wants to farm out the ethics committee now to an independent group of people, and people are gonna jump on that. | |
| Ooh, that's really a good idea. | |
| Really, really like that. | |
| If you think anything is going to seriously come of that, even if they do it, uh, you have another thing coming. | |
| There is no member of the political class that will purposely and willingly set up a committee that's dis that That it has as its as its premise, the removal of said political elite from office. | |
| They're just they're not going to do it. | |
| It'll have just the opposite, whether it's run internally or externally. | |
| But what about all this new push for ethics? | |
| And the uh and and and de-emphasizing lobbyists and their role. | |
| Who who in the hell has $15,000 to pay to go to this? | |
| Who would want to? | |
| Serious, who would want to pay $15,000 to see a speaker of the house sworn in and then go to a bunch of parties that are going to be taking place over four days. | |
| I mean, it's just I don't care if people do want to pay for it, but the fact is that uh if I I'd be very surprised if individuals besides, this is going to Democrat Congressional Campaign Committee. | |
| Uh $15,000. | |
| What's the price of the ticket? | |
| One buck? | |
| And the tax is $14,999 or something that as the uh columnist writes to keep the homeless out. | |
| Uh you have to put the price up pretty high. | |
| Uh and this is a great story. | |
| Statement of California State minimum wage increase to drive up prices. | |
| California raises wage for first time in five years. | |
| Stockton. | |
| Enjoy the sales uh this holiday season because starting January 1st, California businesses that pay minimum wages or thereabouts say they have no choice but to raise prices on everything from pepperoni pizza to dry cleaning to a sack of potting oil. | |
| For the first time in five years, California's minimum hourly wage will increase by 75 cents an hour from 675 to $7.50 an hour. | |
| That's an 11% increase. | |
| Stockton dry cleaner Nubia Vargas said we have to raise prices. | |
| My customers, I don't think they'll understand. | |
| They think it's already expensive, said Vargas, owner of Snow White Cleaners on Main Street. | |
| Of course they won't understand it, Miss Vargas. | |
| They're idiots. | |
| That just, yeah, just like this. | |
| We had this brilliant guy call last week. | |
| Well, they should just cut costs. | |
| Miss Vargas, you can't pass these price increases. | |
| You've got to cut costs. | |
| You have to understand that these people you're talking about who won't understand think that you are filthy rich. | |
| You own a business. | |
| And they think that that means you have stashes and stashes of money in the back room or in the bank, and that you are very cheap paying your employees, but you keep a lot for yourself. | |
| You will not modernize your equipment because you want to drive around in your fancy spancy car and live in your mansion. | |
| This is what people think of anybody who owns a business. | |
| How many of you small business owners have encountered people who think that your life is one of immense wealth and leisure, and that you do not pay your employees well enough, and that you are hiding most of what you earn, and any time some things come along that cause you to raise prices, they think you're just flinty and cheap, that you won't use those stash reserves that you they know you've got. | |
| There is such, because of the success of class envy as a political weapon over the last, what, 50, 60 years, I guess it's always been around in terms of human nature. | |
| But people who've never run a business, who have never met a payroll, who haven't the slightest understanding because they've never been taught about it properly either, uh, invariably have this attitude that anybody who owns a business is rich. | |
| Immensely so. | |
| Uh and so here comes the minimum weight. | |
| 11% when you run a business and your labor costs in one day are gonna go up 11%. | |
| Uh that's serious because labor, there's no other expense that outdoes labor in terms of size. | |
| That's the number one expense that all businesses have. | |
| And uh it it you know, there's they have to make they have to make budget somehow, and uh they raise prices, reduce services, uh what most people just cut back the extravagance. | |
| And uh most small business people say there isn't any uh extravagance. | |
| It's it's really it's a shame that there is such a misunderstanding of the whole concept of business, but people in California are about to be stunned. | |
| As story here is full of people who are gonna have to raise their prices because of this, just exactly as I told you last week. | |
| Back here in just a second. | |
| See? | |
| Okay, fastest week in media, fastest uh three hours in media, two of them already in a can. | |
| Katie Couric is complaining about all the vultures that are out there circling around her, hoping for her demise. | |
| My I I don't believe she said that. | |
| It's in People Magazine. | |
| We'll talk about that. |
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