And greetings to your music lovers, thrill seekers, conversationalists all across the fruited plane.
This is the award-winning Thrill Packed Ever Exciting, increasingly popular, growing by leaps and bounds, Rush Limbaugh program.
And it is Friday, live from the Southern Command in sunny South Florida.
It's open live Friday.
And the telephone number is 800-282-2882 with the email address rush at EIBNet.com.
All right.
We lost Marie.
Somehow the phone connection died.
We have her number, and we're trying to get back to her.
But she's trying to call us.
So, Marie, hang up so we can get through to you.
Now, while we're trying to reestablish contact with her, let me again explain this.
Because Snerdley and I were talking about this during the break because she jogged our memories.
She called in 1994.
She was in college with a daughter.
She was divorced and falling asleep in class.
The professor told her to go on welfare.
Get out of college, go on welfare.
It did her no good to go to class.
It's just falling asleep.
And this is one of the things I want to ask her.
I don't remember exactly what I said, but she said I excoriated her.
And Snerdley says, I remember this now, and I think you were.
You were pretty rough on her.
And because we got some calls from people.
We got some calls from people who said that after the call that she was on it, that said I was too mean to her.
That was way over the top.
And so we've got her back on the line.
Now, just one thing before I pick up the phone.
I'm going to say this one more time, and I'm going to drop it.
I do not hate women.
You guys, you people out there, you're totally misunderstanding this.
It's just the exact opposite.
Perhaps to my detriment, it's just the exact opposite.
I am always on the lookout for the next Mrs. X Rush Limbaugh.
Okay, now we go back to Marie in Pelion, South Carolina.
Now, Marie.
Yes, sir.
What happened to your phone?
It just disconnected on you?
Well, I have a teenage daughter, and she's doing her best to kill phones on a regular basis.
And it just does that sometimes.
I apologize.
No problem.
No problem.
I'm glad that we had your number.
We're able to call you back.
I want to start from the beginning here.
I want you to take us back to 1994.
And the reason I want you all to hear this is because this is, I love these kinds of calls because they are profoundly inspirational.
You called here in 1994.
You were falling asleep in class.
You were divorced with a daughter.
Same daughter that keeps killing the phone.
Yes, sir.
And Professor told her, get out of college.
You're wasting your time here.
Go on welfare.
Oh, no, He recommended I go on welfare while I was in college so I wouldn't be falling asleep in class and wouldn't.
Okay, but what would being on how would going on welfare change your sleep pattern?
Because you wouldn't have to work.
I was working full-time and going to school full-time and had a two-year-old.
All right.
What did I say to you?
You said that I excoriated you, and I remember we were talking about it because I got some calls after your calls, your original call, when people said I was too hard on you.
What did I say?
Well, you told me that it wasn't anyone else's responsibility for my poor wife's decisions and the things that had happened, my ex-husband's violence and all that, and that I shouldn't expect other people to basically support me while I attempt to rectify those bad decisions.
which at the time seemed very, very harsh.
You know, I was doing this.
Well, I didn't want you to become...
Once you go on that stuff, once you get a check for doing nothing, Regardless of how little it is, it gets it's there's a comfort level it sets in.
You destroy your potential.
Well, and that's true.
And I did not want to do it.
And the only reason I agreed to do it, like I said, is I was falling asleep in class.
I was putting my grades at risk.
And it made sense at the time to do that.
And like I said, a couple of professors who were the most well-meaning people.
They wanted me to succeed, but falling asleep in class isn't conducive to that.
So they pushed me.
It depends on the class.
Well, this is true.
I actually made it through ecology and evolution and slept through most of that one.
But so that was.
Well, you didn't miss anything.
You just missed a bunch of lies.
Well, so I called you and I was very, very upset afterwards.
There were a couple of folks who called afterwards, actually, who agreed with you and called me some rather unpleasant things, not name-calling, but just descriptive adjectives and so forth.
So, of course, I quit listening for a while.
And about three months after the call, it was finals for coming up, and I got a letter from the local welfare office that I needed to be at the office particular day, and I don't recall the day now, but happened that was finals day for me.
So I called the caseworker and I said, you know, that's finals day.
I cannot miss this day.
Can we reschedule?
What can I do?
And she said, well, if you're not here, you're going to lose your benefits.
Now, stop right there.
And you pointed out this is before welfare reform.
Yes, sir.
Now, this is a crucial point.
Here's these welfare office people dealing with Marie here.
And she's trying to do everything she can to get herself out of the circumstances that she is in.
She's going to school.
She is trying to prepare herself to go out and achieve and have a better life.
And the welfare people would not be flexible with her.
In other words, we're not assisting you at all in your effort to help yourself.
Oh, not at all.
As a matter of fact, as I said earlier, going up the chain trying to get this resolved, I had one person tell me that if I said I couldn't find a babysitter, then that would get me off of it.
But by then it was purely philosophical.
I said, that is not my problem.
My problem is this is finals day for me.
I cannot miss this day.
And I wasn't willing to lie about it.
So what happened?
Well, eventually I got as far up the chain as I could, and the man said basically the same thing.
If you're not here, then we're going to take your benefits away.
And I said, well, you know where you can put your benefits.
And I went back to work.
Took me six years, but I did graduate from a four-year college with Phi Beta Kappa, Magna Cum Y.
Now, did you maintain as rigorous a work schedule as you were maintaining when you were falling asleep in class?
Oh, yes, sir.
You did.
So you worked full-time and you went to college full-time?
Yes, sir.
I ended up working third shift, and then I would go to classes while my daughter was in school, catch a nap here and there.
That went on for a couple of years.
Then I met my husband now, who I know you think about marriage, but he's the best thing that ever happened to me.
Hey, honey, I love you.
Now, that's great.
No, no, that's great.
I want to gloss over something here.
You ended up magna cum laude and phi beta kappa.
Yes, sir.
You got your key.
Yes, sir.
Through all of this.
Now, you understand that all of this was in you from the get-go.
I mean, you, I mean, you might have had some things wake you up along the way, the professor, your phone call to me, but you really, you did this on your own.
What do you, when you think about it, attribute the characteristics that you displayed here, the stick-to-itiveness, the willingness to work yourself to the bone while going to school?
Where did that come from?
Well, it's something, you know, unfortunately, I've always had it, and it has manifested in horrible ways.
I hitched hike cross-country at 13, was a runaway, quit school after eighth grade.
I've always done what I wanted to do.
And it was that same streak in me, only this time applied towards something far more productive.
And it's actually still here.
I broke my back in 2001 and have a bunch of titanium in my spine.
And I still work full-time.
I take care of my kids.
I garden.
You know, people all the time tell me, you know, you should be on disability.
I don't want to be on disability.
Because of your back.
You broke your back.
Yes, sir.
But how ambulatory are you?
Oh, I can walk.
I'm actually, my guardian angel was doing triple time.
I'm very fortunate.
But I had to take morphine for about two years every day.
And I'm off that now.
That couldn't have been easy.
Well, it wasn't.
I mean, and I have my bad days, believe me, I really do.
But the same streak, I think what it really took for me was hearing that person tell me to lie, and then, you know, they'll help me.
And I thought, you know, I'm trying to do what people for years have been telling me I needed to do to begin with.
Okay.
And all of a sudden, I have people telling me to lie about what I'm doing.
I mean, I'm not sure.
See, they're reading from their bureaucrat policy manual.
Oh, if you don't show up on this date, you lose your benefits.
They're not interested in you as a person.
They weren't then.
And there was nothing about the U.S. social safety net or welfare system back then that was supposed to do what it was designed to do, which was motivate people to get out of these circumstances that you were in.
Well, that's exactly right.
And what's worse is that instead of saying, okay, you know, you're trying to go through school, you're just starting.
It's going to be a long trek.
So here's how we can help.
Instead of doing that, it seemed much more to me like, well, if you're not on our roles, then that's one less our caseworker has, and that's one less person we have to employ.
So we're going to keep you where you are so that we can get what we want.
Exactly right.
Now, tell me, why did this all happen a long time ago?
Why are we benefiting from your call today?
Why did you decide to call today to tell us this?
Well, I heard you talking earlier about the way folks with liberal perspectives tend to view people.
And being in college, now, mind you, I started in physics for my college degree and switched over to English.
So I have a minor in physics and mathematics.
And then.
This is unbelievable to me.
You have a major in English, a minor in physics, and in 1994, you were falling asleep in class and being advised by a professor to go on welfare.
Well, you know.
But what I found, especially between the science departments and the English departments, was the way people look at you and the way you're considered.
You're not actually a person.
You are a means.
You are, I mean, it sounds horrible to say.
And this is not, you know, a blanket statement because there are some wonderful people.
I actually, my advisor in the English department was a closet conservative.
He'd never admit it.
But, you know, he and I would sit in his office and talk about how ludicrous things were.
He was a great guy.
He was trying to talk me into going to medical school, but I didn't want to do that after my son was born.
But he was a great guy, and there are great people there.
But the overarching culture says that you are only worth what you're going to contribute to this cause or to that cause or to the other cause.
It's not, you are worthwhile as a human being, and you have within you the ability to do X, Y, Z, A, B, C, whatever it is, and we're here to help you get there.
That's one of the best descriptions of the way certain liberals look at individuals that I've ever heard.
Well, and you know, and it was shocking to actually see that in action.
I can't tell you how many, and even my fellow students, of course, I was a good bit older than most of my fellow students.
But those who were kind of in my same situation, we would look at these people and we would think, you know, what is your purpose here?
Is your purpose here to perpetuate your position or to get along, help me get to my position?
And more often than not, it was that they were there to perpetuate their position, which is the absolute antithesis of education.
Exactly right.
What you're describing is indoctrination.
Well, and you know, it's funny, my daughter, who was two when I called you, she is now a freshman in high school.
And she's.
Has she run away from home yet?
Oh, no, sir.
No, sir.
We have a very different home than the one I grew up in.
She's a faithful Rush fan.
Too bad she can't hear that.
You're a rush baby.
Oh, yes, sir.
Oh, yes, sir.
She's been listening to you since she was born, matter of fact.
She will go to school, and she's, of course, in South Carolina, it's not as bad as in other parts of the country because it's fairly conservative, especially in the country where we are.
But there are still elements there that she has to go in and fight about.
Oh, it's all over the place, Marie.
It's not, they're pockets, but it's all over the place.
It's an infestation out there, the things that you've described.
Look, I have to take a quick timeout.
Can you hang on just one more break?
Sure.
All right.
We'll be back and continue with this in just a second, folks.
Don't go anywhere.
Be right back.
Hey, it's Open Line Friday, Rush Limbaugh.
Again, talent on loan from God.
We rejoined Marie in Pelion, South Carolina.
Marie, the only reason I wanted to hold on, I don't want to interrogate you anymore, but I just wanted to tell you how proud I am of you to hear this story.
Well, thank you.
And I want to say thank you for the tough love.
And it really did hurt me at the time because I had been listening to you since 1991 in Colorado Springs.
And I really, really admired you, and I wanted to be that conservative person.
I wanted to be that kind of person.
And the situation I found myself in, it was very difficult to be that person.
And so, I mean, it was very, I mean, I cried.
I did.
It was just so hard on me.
Well, I'm sorry about that.
But it was worth it.
How long was it before you rejoined the program in the audience?
The day after I got the final notice about the welfare.
I said, you know, you people are freaking nuts.
And I want you to know you've made my daughter's day.
She'll come home and get to hear this on the podcast, and she'll be, you know, falling over herself.
Well, I'll tell you what I want to do.
You said that you have you broke your back and you're ambulatory and you're on pain medicine, but morphine.
I mean, that's heavy stuff for two years.
Yes, sir.
And I want to do something for you.
And this is not welfare.
You have earned this.
Okay.
Right?
I have just a thing for your back, and that's a select comfort bed.
Really?
Yes.
Are they really that good?
Would I tell you they are if they're not?
Okay.
Okay.
I'll shut up now.
Now, what I want you to do, after we finish here, I want you to hold on, and Mr. Snerdley will come back on the phone and get all the information we need to make this happen and get it to you.
You can choose whichever one you want.
I would suggest you go for the big mama.
Go for a king size if you've got room for it in your bedroom.
Oh, yes, sir.
My husband would shoot me dead if I got anything smaller.
Well, fine.
And then you try this, and I guarantee you.
I don't know how much pain you're still in with your back, but if any bed out there can help, this bed will.
Well, that's great.
Well, thank you so much.
Oh, it's the least I could do.
I mean, I probably was a little hard on you.
Now, some of these people that you talked about that called after your call, I said the reason they were hard on you, because the way they heard it was that you basically wanted to put your hand in their back pocket.
Oh, no, no, no, no, that's how they heard it.
But I wanted to be them, I wanted to be who they were.
And at the time, that seemed like the only way I was going to be able to do that.
Grandma, look at you now.
You've got a major in English, a minor in physics.
You've got a great family.
You finally found a good lug to marry.
Oh, no, he's no lug.
Well, I felt, see, I can't win with this.
That's the subject I just can't win with.
Now, Rush, let me tell you.
Yeah.
When I broke my back for a year, my husband Minch is not an animal person.
He fed my horse twice a day.
He scooped the litter box, fed the cat, fed the parrot who constantly tried to bite him.
He did all of these things and never once complained, and he did it for me.
That's okay.
I take lug is just, you know, stereotypical.
You found a great guy.
It's obvious you did if you'd risk being pecked by the parrot.
Well, to all those girls who may be listening who were where I was in 1994, 12 years, 13 years seems like a long way away.
But if you just hang in there, you know, Maria, you got there long before 12 or 13 years.
I mean, you're looking back now for the total time, but you got there on your way.
Well, in a sense, I did.
But in another sense, you know, I'm still learning.
It's still, you know, you're really going to laugh.
I work for a very large insurance company.
And so when we're talking about health care, we think we're seeing the beginnings of the federal takeover of the healthcare system.
Yeah, you are.
You are.
But, you know, some people will say, you know, well, wouldn't it be great if you hadn't had to wipe out your life savings because of your accident?
And I said, well, yeah, that'd have been nice.
But, you know, I had the savings.
We were able to handle it.
And I got much better care.
And that's what it's for.
That's why you save.
Well, my God, the more I hear from you, the more admiration I have.
And it's a pleasure to hear back from you again.
We couldn't be happier here.
Now, hang on for Mr. Snerdley to get all the information from you so we can get to your sleep number bed by select comfort.
We'll be right back, folks.
Well, it's very helpful.
We are back.
El Rushbaugh and the staff has made a request of me, ladies and gentlemen.
It's Open Line Friday, so we're going to play it back to the archives.
Dallas's own Barbara Chenault Law.
Check the email during that, Barbara Chenault Law.
We love to hear Rush Limbaugh.
You can't say that, Rush.
You said God on the radio.
That's right.
It's time for the Justice Brothers, ladies and gentlemen.
Fight the power.
Isley Brothers.
Favorite, Isley, of course, Rudolph, plays the, well, Ronald, too, lead singer, but Rudolph on the tambourines here.
We play more music on this show than music stations play.
All right, back to the phones on Open Line Friday.
This is Honesty?
Honesty from that's her, that's her name, Jacksonville, Florida.
Hi, Honesty.
Nice to have you with us.
Mega Rush Baby Dittos, Mr. Limbaugh.
Thank you.
I asked Collie to talk about those marriage and divorce statistics that you mentioned a little while ago.
Yes, yes.
I don't think this study is taking into account the millions of couples that are bypassing marriage altogether and just shacking up or just producing children without ever.
Well, you know, you may have a point about that if we're going to talk about statistics.
The divorce rate is said to be the lowest it's been since 1970.
And Honesty's point here is that, well, less people are getting married.
So if you get less getting married, you get less divorces.
Exactly.
I don't, you know, I didn't read the whole story, but I don't think that that, is that in there?
It is factored in there.
It is factored in there.
It is fact.
Okay, they say it's a reason.
Okay, it's on page three, and the interesting stuff of the story to me was on page one and two.
Snerdley told me that they did.
They say it is a reason, so you're right.
Don't know how big a factor it is, but I think it'd be a pretty big one because I know with lots of my friends, my generation, you know, I'm 25.
Well, your generation's hooking up.
Exactly.
I'm not even shacking up.
They're hooking up.
Yeah.
It's pretty sad.
I mean, there is a problem.
It's a problem.
I mean, it's loveless sex.
It's predominantly big in a lot of big-time universities.
You know, that's a cult—well, yes, because it devalues women.
Precisely, it's a problem.
Snerdley.
You know, Snerdley is out here stirring this.
You like the host at dinner last night.
Snerdley, let me tell you, honesty, what he just said to me.
said, my gosh, this is every kid's dream growing up, the hookup thing.
They weren't hooking up when we were young, and now it's, but I'm telling you, it devalues women.
I would agree.
And it's going to have long-term effects on those women.
Bad, bad effects.
Well, the funny thing is that some of the women of my generation are seeing the shackup trend with our mother's generation and going, that didn't work.
We're not going to do that.
And we're staying home with our kids and being more traditional than our own mothers were.
Well, that you're married now?
Yes, sir, I am.
Been married for about five and a half years and happily so.
So you got married before you were 20.
Yes, sir.
I was 19.
But I had been in love with the man since I was 13.
Well, that melts my heart.
We have a long and silly love story.
Well, I wouldn't know.
But it warms my heart nevertheless.
I had a question I was going to ask you, and it has slipped.
Oh, when you said that you don't want to live the way your parents did, your mothers, or you don't want to be those same kind of parents.
This is exactly what I have said.
When we have discussions about the cultural rot, and every generation thinks that the cultural rot during their time is worse than it's ever been, which is not true.
There's been cultural rot since there's been culture.
But what always, in a free society like ours, what always puts the brakes on the country going down the tubes is precisely attitudes like yours.
You're 25 and you're looking at adults of your parents' age and older.
I don't want to live that way.
And this is how it happens.
And it's evolved slowly and it's not the result of any movement.
It's just young people look at the way their parents are living and if they don't like it, they don't want to duplicate it.
And certainly nobody gets married wanting to get divorced or even expecting to, except me.
And nobody wants to have meaninglessness in their lives.
And you probably see a lot of people living their lives that don't have a whole lot of meaning that you can perceive, and you don't want that for yourself.
Exactly.
Well, from what I can see, radical feminism sure doesn't work.
Amen to that.
Wow.
What a day this has been to reinforce my confidence in the future of the country.
Well, I'm glad to be a part of that.
Well, just don't call me Mr. anymore.
Call me Rush or whatever.
You don't want to call me Mr. Been listening to you since the 80s, so can't help it.
Sorry.
When did you get, how did you get the name honesty?
My parents were both young, and my mother was reading a novel by Piers Anthony Centaur Isle.
And the main character in the book couldn't spell worse beans, and that's how he thought the word honesty was supposed to be spelled.
So they thought it was pretty, and that's how I got there.
Yeah, she spells the name H-O-N-E-S-T-I.
It's O-N-E-S-T-I.
Right.
Oh, there's no H on it?
No H.
Oh, there's no H on it.
Snurdley screwed that up.
Okay.
All right.
Well, it's great to hear from you.
Thank you, sir.
Thanks very much for the call.
We've got to take a quick timeout here, folks, but we will be right back in contact.
I just looked up.
I've been looking at the computer, and you people watching on the Ditto Cam know this.
I look at the computer, I'm doing some stuff there, and I'm getting my share of grief on the computer for you things you like.
I don't spend this much time with men.
Why is that?
Go figure it out, guys.
So I turn, I look at the call roster computer, Martha St. Louis, and the subject line.
I said, Snerdley, why are you doing this to me?
He said, it's Open Line Friday.
So here's Martha in St. Louis.
Hi, Martha.
Nice to have you.
By the way, I love that name.
Oh, well, thank you very much, Rush.
Can I play Dr. Ruth with you just for a minute?
No.
Dr. Ruth, she was a sex doctor.
Well, I know, but I really believe that you do love women.
And even though you've been married and divorced three times, you continue to tell everybody you love women.
No, wait a minute.
Don't put it that way.
Okay.
I'm only saying that because I'm being challenged here in the email.
But you do love women.
Yes.
Okay.
To a fault.
All right.
What is the perfect woman for you?
Do you really believe?
You know, I should do this.
You really should.
I actually should put it down on a list, to put up a list on a piece of paper.
And if the future Mrs. X. Rush Limbaugh doesn't meet the criteria, then bam.
Yep.
It works.
I did it.
And I didn't settle the second time.
I got the perfect man.
Yeah, you know, that's what most people settle because they don't like themselves enough.
Exactly.
And I don't want you to settle.
But I would love to see you with a woman that you're happy with.
Why?
What is the big deal?
Well, because you're an interesting man.
You're energetic.
You're humorous.
Somebody could really love you, and you could really love somebody else.
I know it.
Gee, get me the violins.
I don't mean to sound like that.
This kind of talk embarrasses me.
Is my face getting flushed?
Yeah, I knew it would.
That's why I asked if I could do it.
But in the privacy of your own home, why don't you put down the things that would make you the most happy?
And then you could say, I could marry that person.
And then put it on the website?
No, this is for you.
It's not for you.
I don't want to know what it is.
I want you to get in touch with what it is.
There's a part of me that thinks I am married to the audience, that I'm married to my job.
This is where I devote 90% of my energy.
And you do.
When I'm not here, I do.
I mean, 90% of my thoughts are, how will this work on the radio?
Will this is like that dinner party last night?
It's show prep.
I had fun, and I leave the office at the office when I go home.
But my point is, is that I'm wedded to this.
Well, did your wives feel left out completely?
Well, that's a more complicated answer than I probably want to get into something.
Yeah, but to an extent, but I don't think that's unique, though.
No, it's not.
And I don't know.
Maybe you can't share the audience and a wife.
Maybe it's not possible to do that.
But a really secure woman would love it if you could.
She would love it.
How do I feel about what?
Secure woman?
Snerdley, wait a minute.
He's asking me.
I got all these people asking me what I think of what you just said.
You know, Snurdley's asking me.
He wants to know how I feel about your whatever you said about my sharing an audience and a woman.
Right.
Do you realize how that sounds?
Well, it's a serious question.
Well, I know it is.
And it's a valid serious question.
Right.
And he was so glad I asked that.
He said, oh, my gosh, this is a great question.
I can't wait to hear what he says.
Yeah, because, well, see, he thinks I'm going to expose a bunch of private stuff on the radio.
That's what titillates people.
Well, I'm not after private stuff.
I'm after somebody falling in love with you and you falling in love with them and being happy.
That's what I'm after.
Why?
Why?
Seriously now, why does it matter, Dr. Martha?
Because to you personally.
Oh, it's something you've gotten so much joy out of you want to share.
I do.
That's what it is.
Okay.
I do indeed.
And it's one of the things.
Well, I understand that.
I love sharing my passions too.
See?
There you go.
Steve Smith is the best man in the whole world.
And when I talk about him, I could cry.
That would be your husband or your ex-wife?
It would be.
You're just kidding.
I'm sorry.
I can't stop making these jokes.
No.
Well, look, I appreciate that this matters so much to you.
It does.
It does embarrass me.
I get embarrassed.
I get embarrassed talking about this stuff.
And I do too.
And I'm glad I'm not on a video so anybody can see me right now.
Okay, well, you think about it over the weekend.
And next Friday, you tell us who that lady might be.
Well, you said not to make it public.
Well, I really do want to know.
Then just call me back.
All right, leave your number with Snurdy.
I will.
Leave your number with Snurdy.
Okay.
I've had people tell me before you, you're like the third or fourth.
You need to put this down on a piece of paper.
Really?
You should.
And like the ideal woman.
Yeah.
She's out there.
Well.
And I know you can do it.
I know you can.
Oh, there would be no problem doing it.
It's just, I even feel, that feels discriminatory to me to do.
The ideal woman.
Of course, the concept of ideal is fleeting.
It's like perfect.
There is no such thing.
Well, wouldn't you say this woman cannot be jealous of anything that you do?
She cannot be insecure.
Well, now that obviously.
Yeah.
Obviously.
I mean, when that happens, I got to cut my repertoire of discussion subjects in half, if that's the case.
No, you don't.
Well, I vote for peace at home.
Yes, I have to.
Well, then you're settling.
Half of this show today could not have happened if I were married.
I guarantee you.
That's too bad.
That's exactly right.
I'm telling you, exactly.
Anyway, I have to run here.
Okay.
Martha, don't hurt me.
Love you.
Bye.
Don't hang up.
That's right.
Okay.
Sterling, get your phone together and say.
Bye-bye.
We'll be back in just a second.
All right, I made the list here, folks.
Ideal woman, 36, 24, 36, 5'7, flat spot on top of the head, deaf mute.
Flat spot on top of the head with your drink.
It's a joke.
I want to close.
I just.
I have to close the program out with the famous last words today uttered by poor Dawn, who's the only woman amongst us in there.
And she clicked on the intercom a mirror a moment ago and said, some days it is just a struggle in here.