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April 5, 2007 - Rush Limbaugh Program
34:30
April 5, 2007, Thursday, Hour #1
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Welcome to today's edition of the Rush 24-7 podcast.
You want to hear something funny.
I just found this out today.
On the day that Al Gore showed up at the uh the whatever, the that joint committee to testify about global warming, how bad it is, and we've only got X number of number of viewers to save ourselves.
The fire hydrants froze in Anchorage, Alaska.
It was so cold.
The winter was so called the fire hydrants froze the same day Gore opened his mouth about global warming.
It happens every time he goes someplace, opens his mouth about global warming.
The exact opposite kind of weather happens somewhere, usually where he is, snowing in New York City today.
The high temperature can be uh 35.
Uh greetings, folks.
Nice to have you with us.
Rush Limbaugh, the fastest three hours of media here on the Excellence and Broadcasting Network.
I, of course, utilizing talent on loan from God, uh, half my brain tied behind my back just to make it fair.
Telephone number if you want to be on the program today, 800-282-2882, couple programming notes.
You know, yesterday after playing audio sound bites from the John Edwards Town meeting.
There was to me a fascinating question from uh one of the students at New Hampshire University, Jenny Ballantine.
Uh, and uh we played the truncated version of her question.
We have the entire question today.
And I put out an all points bulletin yesterday if uh would because I wanted to talk to her.
Uh I felt I felt great sympathy and and in some cases empathy uh for her when I listened to her question.
And I we also had the shortened version of uh John Edwards' answer.
We have the full version of that, somewhat rambling and so forth.
It really is not about Edwards, it's not about any of that.
I just uh w the things that she said made me really want to talk to her, so we put out an all points bulletin for her, uh, asking anybody if they knew her to get hold of her and let her know that we wanted to talk, and that has been done.
So we're gonna talk to her today, uh beginning of the bottom of the hour, like at 1233 Eastern time.
And then at the top of the next hour, one hour from now, we'll be talking to Vice President Cheney.
Uh he will be on the phone with us.
Also, as you know, uh uh ladies and gentlemen, we have started a new feature at Rush Limbaugh.com called Rush in a Hurry.
Uh and the Rush in a Hurry is a little T is a little tidbit, a little email that you get from us, uh, detailing what's coming up in detail as the website is updated around 6 p.m. Eastern to reflect the contents of that day's program.
And as you uh as you well, you might not know what we're doing.
We are uh giving away at random uh eight eighty gig video iPods engraved with my signature.
One a week for eight weeks.
We've given away two of them.
So what are you frowning in there for?
What what what's what?
Well, I don't know, Snurt.
I don't even have one of these myself.
Snurt, what are you angling to get one?
I don't.
I I've in fact we're gonna take a picture of one, and we're gonna have it on the website later this afternoon.
So people see what it looks like.
Uh but my signature is engraved.
We've got the first two winners is what I wanted to mention to you.
We've given two of them away.
We've Kenneth from Cadillac, Michigan, and Dave from Dublin, Pennsylvania.
Uh, we're gonna pick another winner at the end of tomorrow.
We do this every Friday for eight weeks, so we'll give away the third tomorrow, and this is very simple.
You just go to Rush Limbaugh.com and to go halfway down the page, the right side, there's a uh little red box that says Rush in a hurry.
You sign up, and it's uh it's free, there's no charge, and it's uh it'll added service, tied you over until the site is updated uh after the program concludes on uh a daily basis.
So uh five more signature iPods to go.
When I uh I uh uh probably think snurdly that we can we can come up with a few more of these things.
I mean, if you if you would like one.
You want an eight you want an engraved 80 gig iPod.
Mr. Snerdley, the uh the official screener of calls here at the EIB Network.
We got a lot of wacko stuff in the in the uh in the news.
Let me just give you some of the headlines in the wacko stack uh, or the what we call the uh the lifestyle stack today.
By the way, global warming is happening on Mars.
They're attributing the cause to Mars dust.
Now we know that there aren't any uh CO2 emissions on Mars to speak of, certainly not by human beings.
Uh Mars is warming up.
Get some of these headlines.
Pregnant woman accused of selling sex, child panhandlers, police say woman 30 posed as teen boy, in turn admits thefts from U.S. Archives.
This is a guy that stole 164 Civil War documents.
Uh He better, he better get hold of Sandy Burglar's lawyers, and he better demand equal treatment to uh, you know, walk as uh as freely as Sandy Burglar did after his escapade of stealing documents from the National Archives prior to his testimony to the 9-11 Commission hearings.
All right, the big news today, I guess, is so much of it.
Nancy Pelosi, the uh the Speaker of the House.
Let me take you back to what I said yesterday on this program.
This is tough to say, folks, as I as I mentioned leading into this comment.
I don't think that she is blessed with a tremendous IQ.
I don't think this is the brightest bulb.
Incandescent or compact fluorescent in the socket.
I don't think I don't think that the elevator goes all the way to the top.
She is an order of French fries short of a happy meal.
There are any number of ways that you can say this.
I really do think that she's she's she's stupid there.
You happy?
For her years and for her experiences, what she's pulled off here is over the top.
It turns out that she came out and uh she made a statement, proudly announced that she had told Basher Assad that a Hood Olmert uh of uh of Israel was ready to talk peace.
Uh, this is what she said yesterday afternoon after she had met with Assad.
The meeting with the President enabled us to communicate a message from Prime Minister Omer uh that Israel was ready to engage in peace talks.
Well, that's a little problem with this.
Olmert did not authorize her to say such a thing, and he doesn't believe such a thing.
They're not going to talk peace with Syria until Syria renounces its state sponsorship of terrorism.
Now, it was bad enough that uh that Pelosi offered a photo op credibility to Basher Assad and the other leaders of Syria, the people who run state sponsored terrorism, they've been linked to the assassination, attempted destabilization of Lebanon, they coddle Hezbollah.
They've thrown in their lot with uh with Iran and Mahmoud Ahmadine is odd.
It's bad enough when uh when Pelosi pulled uh, you know, the Gucci scarf to make a hijab, although sh that that that might be something that's excusable.
That was uh observing religious custom as she went into a mosque, and a lot of people will would do that.
But then she can't even get it right.
Here she is, she's not even empowered to conduct foreign policy.
She's the speaker of the House.
And foreign policy does not come into the purview of members of Congress, even if they are Speaker of the House.
But she couldn't even get it right when she tried to convey a message from Israel to Syria, and she forces Olmert to put out a clarification that exposes her incompetence, and that's what this is.
Uh you can't say she's trying to massage things.
You can't say she's trying to mobilize and get started the peace talks.
This is just that you have to chalk this up to incompetence.
So you might say duplicity.
Uh it really doesn't matter whether she was deliberately deceitful or just hopelessly naive and inadequate.
This is just an ugly scenario, and it's embarrassing.
And I talked to some people in Great Britain today, and and uh the news that uh, you know, their their fifteen uh sailors and marines are back is secondary to this news of Pelosi having to be corrected by the Israeli Prime Minister.
Uh and even the Washington Post today weighs in with an editorial, Prattfall in Damascus.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi offered an excellent demonstration yesterday of why members of Congress should not attempt to supplant the Secretary of State when traveling abroad.
And they go on to detail what happened, and they say only one problem the Israeli Prime Minister entrusted Ms. Pelosi with no such message.
What was communicated to the U.S. House Speaker does not contain any change in the policies of Israel, a statement quickly issued by the Prime Minister's office in Israel.
In fact, Mr. Olmert told that uh Ms. Ms. Pelosi that a number of Senate and House members who recently visited Damascus received the impression that despite the declarations of Assad, there's no change in the position of his country regarding a possible peace process with uh Israel.
So in other words, as the Post writes here, Ms. Pelosi not only misrepresented Israel's position, but was virtually alone in failing to discern that Assad's words were mere propaganda.
Everybody else understands what this guy's all about.
She doesn't.
And I'll folks, I'm just telling you again where this stems from.
This stems that they're trying to isolate President Bush.
They're trying to make him look more and more irrelevant.
Uh, and in the process, Pelosi is trying to um infuse her own version of liberalism into foreign policy, which is based on this premise.
The only enemy in the world today that the U.S. has is George W. Bush.
There is no war on terror.
They're even going to strike that language from the defense appropriations bill for fiscal year 2008.
There is no war on terror.
I mean, if it weren't for the fact that Bush went over to Iraq in Afghanistan and started killing Muslims, why they wouldn't even dislike us.
And so people like Pelosi honestly believe, having grown up with conflict resolution class after conflict resolution class, that all we have to do to go to bad people, evil people, the bad guys are enemies, to convince them to like us is to go say, look, we love you, and we understand your problems, and we want to get along.
And if you'll just be patient and wait for us to get full power in Washington and uh and get rid of President Bush, then we can do business.
Of course, Assad recognizes a SAP when he sees one, as does Amandinizad or any of these other Islamists.
They recognize a SAP when they see it.
You you think Assad would rather be dealing with somebody like Pelosi in the White House than somebody like Bush?
You think bin Laden would?
You think uh you think Ahmadinezad would, of course, they they actively have campaigned.
Uh publicly so with uh uh statements to the worldwide media hoping Democrats win the election in 2006, and uh they'll do so again in 2008.
Pelosi doesn't understand this.
There is an arrogance and a condescension about about liberals like Nancy Pelosi, who think that the power of her personality and the desire for goodness and kindness and love can change these renegades into people we can do business with.
And they just recognize her as the sap that she is.
Give her whatever she wants, allow her to go out and claim victory.
Uh, post concludes never mind that Pelosi's statement is ludicrous.
By the way, the statement they're referring to is this we came in friendship, we came in hope, and we came determined that the road to Damascus is a road to peace.
And that is sophistry.
I mean, there's that's that's that's that's the kind of thing you'd get from a Miss America contestant or a national honor society society uh candidate.
Never mind that the statement's ludicrous.
Any dem ask any Democrat who has knowledge of the region, and he could have told Pelosi that Assad is a corrupt thug whose overriding priority at the moment's not peace with Israel, but heading off UN charges that he orchestrated the murder of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Al Hariri.
The really striking development here is the attempt by a Democrat congressional leader to substitute her own foreign policy for that of a sitting Republican president.
The Post is exactly right about this.
Two weeks ago, Pelosi rammed legislation through the House that would strip the president of his authority as commander-in-chief to manage troop movements in Iraq.
Now she's attempting to introduce a new Middle East policy that directly conflicts with that of the president.
And the Post says we found uh much to criticize in Mr. Bush's military strategy and regional diplomacy, but Miss Pelosi's attempts to establish a shadow presidency.
Uh, not only counterproductive, it is foolish.
Uh and it has become a focal point.
And I uh folks, um this is the kind of thing the Democrats are sowing their seeds for an eventual landslide defeat, and in their condescension, their arrogance, they don't see this.
Uh trust me on this.
We've you people have been upset all week about how it is that this kind of stuff goes uncommented upon, unnoticed by what you think are a majority of the American people.
Believe me, this gets noticed.
Even the drive-bys are all over this one today.
Quick timeout, we'll be back and continue.
Your phone calls as well.
Don't forget uh the college student Jul uh uh Jenny Ballantine, bottom of the hour, Vice President Cheney at 106 Eastern Time today, back in just a second.
America's real anchor man, doctor of democracy, Rush Limbaugh, the by virtue of consensus, the most accurate and most correct media figure in the country today, the largest audience, and by virtue of consensus, just as consensus among scientists says there is global warming, consensus of the American people says I'm right, and I'm the biggest.
Anybody that uh disagrees with that is a simple rush denier.
800-282-2882, if you want to be on the program.
Speaking of global warming, we've got a little update.
Actually, uh a huge global warming stack.
I just want to throw one item in it uh today.
There's a there was a meeting of the New York Coal Trade Association.
They had their 94th annual banquet and meeting at the New York Hilton uh earlier this week, and one of the CEOs, a guy named Bob Murray, who was founder and CEO of Murray Energy Corporation said some wealthy elitists in our country who cannot tell fact from fiction can afford an Olympian detachment from the impacts of a draconian climate change policy.
For them, the jobs and dreams destroyed as a result of that will be nothing more than statistics and the cares of other people, the little people.
These consequences are abstractions to them, but they're not to me, as I can name many of the thousands of American citizens whose lives will be destroyed by these elitists' ill-conceived global goofiness campaigns.
And according to the New York Sun, Bob Murray, again founder CEO of Murray Energy Corporation, regards Al Gore as the shaman of global doom and gloom.
He's not joking when he says Gore is more dangerous than his global warming.
And so you see, they're they're all of these people, both in business and uh in science that are starting to speak out against this uh global warming thing.
It's a testament to the fact that global warming crowd is just they've jumped the shark.
They've gone so far overboard with all of these tales of woe and destruction.
They're making it hard for people to believe it.
You remember back in the eighties when the the the big leftist movement was we have to disinvest from South Africa because of the apartheid situation.
We have to disinvest.
And they just hammered it and hammered it and hammered it.
You see Davis, you see Berkeley divested South Africa, South Africa, a number of other places.
But after a while, people ran out of emotion.
They're just they didn't have any more emotion to feel sorry or feel anything.
And the global warming crowd, although not on not yet at the risk of doing that for reasons we've discussed.
This is more of a religious movement than science.
Uh uh they they still are jumping the shark on a regular basis.
But a whole bunch of people are refusing to bite.
Uh Al Gore is not going to have the clean sweep on this that he had hoped for.
Shane in uh College Station, Texas, have about a minute and a half before you have to go.
I wanted to welcome you to the program.
Hi.
Thank you, Mr. Limbaugh.
Uh fighting Texas Vaggies dittoes to you and your staff.
Thank you, sir.
Yes, sir.
My question is um Nancy Pelosi, the third highest member of our government, has gone to Syria and uh basically uses pawn.
My question, though, is where's the outrage from the Jewish do uh uh Jewish community and the Israeli descendants or or any population therein, that a representative of our government has gone over there, and according to uh Syrian newspapers at least twice agreed to the fact that peace can only be achieved after Israel returns to occupy Talking territory.
Running short on temperature.
There is, there is there is uh I wouldn't call it outrage, but look, this is something the drive-by media doesn't ignore.
It's all over the place that Pelosi's in trouble.
Pelosi has has made a fool of herself.
For the Washington Post leading the way, some of the drive-by cable networks, but you have to understand something.
You ask why uh hasn't there been any Jewish uh uh uh outrage over this.
You have to understand something about liberals, Shane.
They are liberals first.
Whatever else they are, be a feminists or Jewish or what they're liberals first, and liberalism, akin to being a religion, will always triumph when it comes to the and so and Pelosi's a lib, they're gonna stand by her.
They're not gonna throw her under the bus.
That's right, folks.
At least 900 decibels.
So you do not miss one glorious syllable of the host of this program.
That would be me, Rush Limbaugh on the EIB network.
And I am very happy to welcome to the program uh Jenny Ballantine from uh Durham, New Hampshire.
She's a student at the University of New Hampshire.
Jenny, hi.
Hi.
I uh I I can't tell you how excited I am that you agreed to do this.
This is something I've been looking forward to ever since I uh heard uh an edited version of your question to uh to Senator Edwards yesterday.
Let me ask you a question first off.
Are you nervous?
Uh a little, yes.
Don't be nervous.
Don't be nervous.
I I talked to my chief of staff this morning who uh told me that you were you had a little you had some doubts, and that some people told you that you're gonna be mistreated on the program, and I want to assure you that when this is all over, you're gonna have felt like a mink glove has been massaging your back.
Yeah, and you're you're gonna want to do it over and well, don't don't be nervous.
Now, first what I want to do so people who weren't with us yesterday will understand what this is about.
I want to play the full version of your question.
We edited it yesterday for time, but we'll play the full version of the question because this is the reason I wanted to talk to you.
So let me it takes about a minute and forty two seconds.
And uh this was her question yesterday to Senator Edwards at a town hall meeting.
Well, actually, was it uh it was uh It was Tuesday.
Yeah, it was Tuesday night.
Okay.
Oh well Monday night.
I'm sorry, it was Monday night because Tuesday had class.
All right, fine.
Here's here's the question that you asked.
Hi.
My name is Jenny Ballantine and I'm a senior here.
I've kind of been all over the place.
Um I'm gonna throw you a little zinger, so it's not so much a question, it's more words of encouragement and inspiration on my behalf.
I've been on my own since fourteen.
I am one of those people that you're talking about that is poverty stricken.
I made less than eight thousand this past year.
I instead of going to school, I could have gone the dirty place, the bad place.
Um I need help.
I need severe help.
I need to be able to look to my leader and see words of encouragement, words of hope.
I need to be able to trust that person.
I need to be able to know that I'm gonna grow in a world that's not gonna be full of hate and prejudice and racism, and to know that I matter, that I wasn't just dumped in this world for no particular reason whatsoever.
I'm pardon my French, I'm busting my ass though in school.
I work 25 to 30 hours a week, and it's just me and my dog.
So what can you do for the people that are in my situation that are trying their dandest in school, wanting to go to grad school is gonna be hit with the loans.
Oh god, the loans.
Oh Jesus.
And uh I have no idea what I want to do when I grow up.
I don't know what I want to be when I'm an adult, but I'm 22 right now.
So people are like, honey, you are an adult.
So sorry.
So I know this isn't a question, but you know what?
It's about me.
It's about me voting for you or supporting somebody who's gonna be the next president.
So it's all about me right now.
And I always wanted to say that.
Just kidding.
You enjoyed that, didn't you?
I do.
I enjoyed this very much.
All the cameras are really just so just words of encouragement, something.
Just just give me something.
It's been really rough.
Okay.
Now uh I'm not gonna play Edward's answer because this is not about Edwards, this is about you.
Oh, sweet.
Pardon.
Pardon me?
I I was excited.
I was just excited.
Well, the reason I wanted to talk to you is because you sound very intelligent.
Oh, thank you.
And you you s yeah, but at the same time, you you sound desperate and you sound you sound uh uh almost as like you have some uh you're consumed with hopeless hopelessness here.
And I wanted to try to you you meet you asked in this in this question.
Uh I need to be able to look to my leader and see words of encouragement, words of help.
I need to be able to trust that person.
And I um I don't know anything about your background, but I have a belief, Jenny.
I I believe that most people are far more capable of great things than they realize.
They're just not inspired that way when they're kids, when they're growing up, most especially in some cases, uh young girls are told they can't be ex or can't be why, uh, or whatever they say they want to do.
I had a call from a woman who who wanted to be a cop.
She just wanted to be a police officer.
Her parents told her, You that's not for women.
Women can't do that.
And she went through her life and got married at nineteen, did everything she didn't want to do until finally in her thirties, she she said, the hell with this, and I'm gonna do it.
And she's now a cop and she's never been happier.
Uh and you're you're looking for inspiration.
Well y the situation that you describe yourself being in, your student loans and you only made $8,000 and and you are uh you're in poverty.
You know, you're not unique in that.
Um you're you're an American uh and you th countless Americans have come from circumstances that are worse than yours and have triumphed over all kinds of obstacles and have become great.
And the opportunity is there for you too.
Uh but the the idea that that you think you need leadership or inspiration from a presidential candidate, any presidential candidate, is uh is is a that's not what presidents are for.
Presidents are not to motivate and inspire.
Well, they can uh if you really happen to agree with them and and so forth.
But what you need or what you want is inside you.
Uh it's it's it's it's inside you.
You have all the capability in the world.
Now you're gonna need help, everybody does.
But I just wanted to cost you, don't sit around and wait for any presidential candidate to determine how you feel or think about your future.
They ought to have not that much to do with it.
Yeah, I I understand that.
And uh I knew I wasn't gonna be expecting a hardcore answer.
I just absolutely want to throw them a zinger to kind of give 'em not a knock at the real world, but to understand that it isn't a publicity stunt.
It isn't about him campaigning around making these millions, not giving two cents worth to just ordinary people.
So I don't know.
I just kind of wanted to just throw something out there.
And I understand that it's all about myself and I don't need to look into the words of encouragement from a president or anything in that respect.
But it's just also too to see that young people are trying to find a role model to look into, and I'm not one for Hollywood to look for a role model.
I'm you know, I've got a poly science art history major going on right now.
So I was trying to you got a double major of political science and art.
Yeah.
Oh art history and uh political science, so it's a dual major.
You've got you you say you got a three point oh, is that what you said?
Yeah, I have a little bit over a three point oh.
I don't know the specifics, but I have over a three point zero.
Okay, well, so what is what is the uh may mean I misinterpreted your question, but it sounds to me you're you're still in the throes of uh despondency or depression or you're you're you're unhappy.
What what is it about your life experience right now that's causing you to feel that way?
Why do you feel lost?
Why do you feel like there's no future for you?
Um I don't know, I just it's hard for me to gather resources and to gather information that I need to seek out internships, to know that I have a stable position, that I have a safety net set up if I plan on doing an internship, say down in Washington, DC, that I'll be able to pack up all my stuff.
And I have my dog a responsibility right there that I need to make sure that he's accommodated for.
And it's just um I don't have that many prominent adults.
I have a handful of prominent adults that I can speak with or that can help and give me assurance and guidance, but it's just it's difficult because I'm just kinda I mean, I'm young and just trying to figure out everything.
It's just a little overwhelming.
And I come from a really rough background, and so that kind of doesn't follow me around, but it um it's just always a reminder.
So, yeah, I am a little depressed, I am a little not happy with my life, but things are things are perking up and uh as I get older, I mean, I accomplish each challenge and each struggle and I've been surviving so far.
See, I think uh you you I I you have a lot about your life that you could reflect upon and and take the positive from.
Um I don't know what the details and I don't I don't want you to have to tell them, but you you you said that you come from a really rough background.
Seems you've overcome that.
You're in college, you've got a little above a three point oh in polysaw, you got a double major in art.
Uh you're an American.
One of the things that I uh I I wanted to try to impress upon you is that this is a country because of the freedom that we have.
You can do anything.
There's nobody now, wait a minute.
Now listen to me, there's nobody stopping you but you.
Most of the limitations that human beings have in life are self-imposed.
Such as uh uh you you just I don't mean this to be a criticism, I'm just I'm just trying to give you an illustration.
You say you want to go to Washington but you got your dog is a problem.
Well, okay.
I I was just using it as an example, but no, but still there's some people that that grow up in a in a town and they don't want to leave that town.
Uh well, that town may not have all the opportunity that they want, but they're making a decision they don't want to move, don't want to leave family.
That is a self-imposed limitation.
That's not the society's fault, it's not the government's fault, it's not the president's fault, it's not anybody else's fault that the opportunity might not be realized.
It pe people do this constantly.
I your horizons are far broader than you know, and you're being and I understand why you're consumed here with uh the problems that you're immersed in uh at the moment, but there are countless millions of people in your circumstance, and the way the way people get through this is to accept the responsibility of their circumstances and do what they can.
And you everybody needs help, and I'm sure you'll find it if you engage in positive steps designed to keep uh as you as you're doing with your school work and uh and everything else.
It was something else that you said um um uh y you could have gone uh uh the dirty place, the bad place.
I was stumbling for words.
I was searching for words.
Um, but I know what you meant.
I know I know exactly but you didn't.
That's that's a positive.
Yeah, and I know I I I kind of did that all on my own too.
I didn't have any direction.
I just did it myself.
And I I had um or I had uh honors and AP classes all throughout high school and it was we were based on a five point oh GPA and I had a four point six seven or something like that.
Okay.
Well here's another thing.
I need to be able to know that I'm gonna grow in a world able to trust that president, meaning the president.
I need to be able to know I'm gonna grow in a world that's not going to be full of hate and prejudice and racism, and to know that I matter, that I wasn't just dumped in this world for no particular reason whatsoever.
Now that's what really caught me.
For the first place, you were not dumped in the world for no particular reason.
You have every legitimate reason to be here, as does anybody else.
You weren't dumped.
There is there is no mystery why you're here.
Uh it's uh those of us who have life, you know, it's a God given gift, and we only get one, and it is to be maximized and enjoyed, and uh however you choose to pursue it, hard work combined with uh combined with pleasure, but this business about when when I saw that you mentioned uh a world full of hate and prejudice and racism and so forth, and it's really unfortunate.
It's just it's just unfortunate.
I know that that's that's what the world that we live in, and that's what's going on right now.
It's just it's really unfortunate.
And it's well, it always has, though.
I mean, there's always going to be racism.
There's always going to be prejudice.
There's always going to be bad guys.
There are always going to be enemies.
There are always going to be reprobates.
There's always war, too.
And I understand the reasons for war.
I actually enjoy Machiavelli, the Prince, very much so.
And I uh I really appreciate his philosophies, and that's what a lot of people use for when they engage in war and the aftermath of it.
And I respect war and I understand why there is a need for it.
And I understand why there's a need to push for democracy, and I understand the gap that occurred and happened, the widening gap I should say, with um discrimination and so forth, and so and it's a lot of people.
But it's not, see, wait a minute.
There is no widening gap of discrimination.
It's getting better.
See, your your historical perspective, as is most people, most people began the day you were born.
You're twenty-two years old.
You're gonna have to really study because history education is pretty inept in this country, particularly in high school, but you d the the discrimination that existed in this country in the forties and fifties, even before is far, far worse.
So much progress has been made in all this.
Racism is far less than it was.
Prejudice is the uh multicultural theory class I'm taking right now.
Uh I think you're not gonna be able to do that.
Well, you're exactly right.
You are well, way to go.
The multicultural curricula is designed to get you feeling full of chaos and tumult over the unfairness and the injustice of the country, because the teachers of this career, the people who believe in it want that exact thing to happen in your mind.
I I hope my professor is not listening to this, but I've always this is how I feel.
It's she says, think outside the box.
However, it's thinking outside the box on her terms, on her perspective.
And the books that we're reading that we're engaged in, it just it's full of, as you say, chaos, and it's just full of all these, you know, this happened and this happened, oh good God.
And it's just like, okay, we've addressed that.
Why don't we start establishing legislation for whatever else, the Senate to start working on progress?
Or why don't we go ahead and state what the progress has been since we're just such a screw up nation back in the forties and fifties.
I just don't understand like the literature that we've been reading, and it's just been frustrating.
And I'm not the only one who feels that way in my class.
And it's just been really hard.
Well, you are warming my heart.
And again, I – No, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
Can you hang on a couple minutes?
All right, don't go away, we'll be back.
The Jenny Ballantine from uh Durham, New Hampshire, who asked a question of John Edwards uh Monday or Tuesday night in one of the town meetings.
We'll be back and continue with her in just a second.
How are you?
Welcome back.
Elle Rush Bowl the all-knowing, all caring, all sensing, all feeling, all concern, Maha Rushy, documented to be almost always right, 98.6% of the time.
We're back now with uh Jenny Valentine from Durham, New Hampshire.
She's a student, poly sci student, uh three point plus GPA at the University of New Hampshire.
Uh, Jenny, I know that you uh you want to make it plain here to people, you're not an Edwards supporter, right?
Uh yeah, I just um I went to the campaign just to hear what he had to say, just to, you know, just to experience what he was saying.
I wanted to s know what each presidential candidate, regardless that they're Republican or Democrat, have to say, just so I can gather information and hear their standpoint.
So it wasn't so much I mean, he's a nice guy and so forth.
I mean, it wasn't so much that I was there on the John Edwards standing.
It wasn't anything like that.
That's that's fine.
I want you to I uh the fact that you went to an Edwards event is irrelevant to that.
It's has nothing to do with why I wanted to talk to you.
You can uh ask this question of anybody.
That's you know, whether you end up supporting him or not, you know, if you do call me back and we'll talk.
But uh uh the reason I wanted to talk to you is is because you know, you you you said in the previous answer about multiculturalism that you uh you've heard enough about what a screw up nation we've been.
Let's get legislation to fix it and so forth.
See, you we're the United States is not a screw up nation.
United States is God's gift to the world.
The United States is the greatest nation, the greatest civilization of free people ever to walk the planet.
Now, of course we've had problems, but we are not inherently racist or bigoted or sexist or homophobic, or we've the finest people in the world.
Well, it's something no, it is something that's taught to you.
It is something that people have been trying to stuff in your skull full of mush and get you to believe this.
There's a certain cadre, a certain group of people that want you distrusting your own country.
They want you suspecting it.
And this is you have more opportunity as a human being that all you have to do, Jenny, is find out what it is you love, and 22 is not too old for that.
You're you're twenty you're you you you're thinking, you know, I know you're you're self-absorbed right now, you're self-focused, and you think you look at yourself at 22 and you think, my gosh, I'm a failure, I'm not going anywhere.
You haven't even begun to crack the egg, you've barely hatched yet.
All you need to do, find out what it is you really love, whenever that is, and don't let anybody talk you out of it.
And when you find out what that is, talk to people who've done it and who have succeeded at it, and let them mentor you or motivate you.
Don't talk to people who tell you you can't do it or it's not for you, or what have you.
You know, learn all this stuff that you're learning, keep an open mind.
Understand that everybody teaching you something, including every history book has an agenda.
And don't think that you're an idiot.
Don't think that you're not bright.
Don't think that you don't you're capable of learning anything, and don't, whatever you do, don't run around and think that what you think is wrong or what you think is uh is incorrect.
Don't don't put yourself constantly on defense in dealing with teachers or dealing with other people or other students.
You know, and and finding your passion and doing what you love is what's going to give you the confidence necessary to overcome whatever obstacles that you find yourself mired in now, which and believe me, I know that you're gonna think this is insensitive, but they are not that great.
And there is no president that's gonna get you out of them.
I don't care.
Yeah.
There's no president that's gonna pay off your student loan.
There's no president that's gonna forgive your student loan.
Yeah, uh, it's interesting how Edwards, he was claiming his, you know, universal policy of like education and so forth, but it's also it it it doesn't seem impossible, but you know, it's a lot of people.
If you look, Jenny, if you hang around and wait for a president or any politician to do anything for you, you're gonna be waiting when they bury you.
It's up to you.
Not that they don't do valuable things.
Look, I have to run, I appreciate it.
I want to talk to you again, but I've got I've got my back up against the wall here on time.
I'm gonna make you a comp subscriber to the limball letter.
Hang on, don't go away.
You gotta give this uh young woman some credit.
She doesn't have much of a support group and she's ahead of the game, doesn't even know it.
Vice President Cheney coming up right after this break.
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