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June 11, 2012 - Rush Limbaugh Program
36:53
June 11, 2012, Monday, Hour #1
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Welcome to today's edition of the Rush 247 podcast.
I tell you what, folks, the White House, the White House hasn't had this much leaking since Billy Carter watered the Rose Garden.
You remember those days?
I mean, down came the zipper and Zamo.
Anyway, it didn't matter, but the Rose Garden was a favorite target.
We are happy to have you along with us, my friends, here at the beginning of a brand new week of busy broadcast excellence.
L Rushball behind the golden EIB microphone.
The telephone number is 800 28282 and the email address L Rushball at EIB net.com.
You know, whenever the Democrats screw up, whenever Obama screws up, whenever a Democrat president screws up, it's always time for a truce.
And the offering for a truce comes today from Mark Halprin, our old buddy at Time Magazine in a short little blurb entitled Stop the Gaff Patrol.
Here's what he says.
The president doesn't think the economy is doing fine.
By the way, on that.
You know, I live in Realville.
I parse words.
Obama did not correct himself on Friday.
He went out there on Friday to Presser and said the private sector is doing fine.
In the afternoon, he went out ostensibly to correct himself and said the economy isn't doing fine.
That's why I went out there.
He did not say the private sector isn't doing the economy.
He did not correct himself.
He didn't say one thing different.
But he made everybody think that he did.
So anyway, Halpern writes the president doesn't think the economy's doing fine, and Romney doesn't oppose firefighters or police or teachers.
Do you believe that, by the way?
Here's Axel Rod on television yesterday, and and Obama too, all these Democrats.
The problem in our private sector is we don't have enough cops.
We don't have enough teachers.
We don't have enough firefighters.
That's the private sector to them.
Now, those are municipal employees.
And nothing against them.
But that's not private sector stuff.
Those are municipal employees, and many of them are unionized, which is the key.
At any rate.
So Obama's being heart by all that.
I mean, last week there are stories about Obama's week, last week maybe being the week that he lost the election.
The Democrats are all over the place writing that.
The Democrats are all over the place worrying about that.
So here comes Halperin to the rescue.
Come on, gang.
He said, but the president doesn't think the economy's doing fine, and Romney doesn't oppose firefighters or cops or teachers.
Yeah, there are legitimate questions about the president's understanding of how the private sector operates, and yeah, Governor Romney supports less federal aid to states and localities for such jobs than the Democrats do, but shame on the media for starting this week perpetuating the self-fulfilling prophecy that Friday's gaffes will be a big deal in the election by continuing to pump them.
These gaffes will matter because we in the media say they do.
What gaps?
I thought the gaff was Obama's.
Did Romney commit a gaff?
Romney didn't commit a gaff.
So anyway, Halpern says, how can the press ever criticize politicians for trivializing our politics when we focus on statements that have little to do with the candidates' actual views or their proposals for the future?
Mark, when the president of the United States goes out there and says the private sector's fine, or the economies, but whatever, it is substantively relevant.
It's not trivial.
When the president of the United States, I don't think has concept of a private sector if he thinks that adding police officers and firefighters and teachers to it is the way you build it.
And I see, I think Halpron knows this, and that's why he's offering the truce.
When their guys starts getting creamed, it's time to offer the truce.
And so here's Halpern.
How can the press ever criticize politicians for trivializing our politics when we focus on statements that have little to do with the candidates' actual views or their proposals for the future?
But also, shame on both campaigns for saying, in effect, the other guy's gaffe matters, but our guy just had some bad phrasing, which should be ignored.
I just love it.
The Democrat screws up, always time for a truce.
We're nearing the end, uh, ladies and gentlemen, of commencement address season.
You're nodding your head like you know where I'm going.
Don X Lac.
There was the most amazing commencement address in Wellesley, Massachusetts.
You heard about this?
Yep, it is.
This is June the first.
The tape has just leaked.
Now, we've had in this country for the last, what is it, 30 years.
In elementary school, secondary school, half school, middle school, junior high school, whatever the hell I call that stuff now.
Self-esteem has been one of the primary things that's been taught.
You're wonderful, little Johnny.
You're special, little Susie.
You are unique, little Zeke.
You're wonderful.
You're special.
And it has been this way, as I say, for 30 years.
And so a teacher at Wellesley Haskell at the commencement is an English teacher, David McCullough, Jr.
Delivered the faculty address.
We have four sound bites.
Here they are.
Here's the first one.
Each of you is dressed, you'll notice exactly the same.
And your diploma.
But for your name, exactly the same.
All of this is as it should be because none of you is special.
You're not special.
You're not exceptional.
Contrary to what your U-9 soccer trophy suggests, your glowing seventh grade report card, despite every assurance of a certain corpulent purple dinosaur, that nice Mr. Rogers and your batty Aunt Sylvia.
No matter how often your maternal Cape Crusader is swooped in to save you, you are nothing special.
Oh my God.
Oh no.
This is not ever heard.
You are not supposed to insult the children.
You are not supposed to damage the children.
You are not supposed to harm the children.
You are not supposed to hurt the children.
You are not supposed to attack the children.
You are not supposed to criticize the children.
Everything we do is for the children.
And you're not supposed to criticize them.
You're not supposed to hurt their feelings.
You're not supposed to harm them.
And this guy has just gone out and told his little high school kids, hey, you're nothing.
You're nobody.
You're not special.
You know, you people may have forgotten, but way, way back in the 80s.
First in Sacramento, and then I brought it forth to this program.
I did my commencement speech.
My message was I got in trouble for it.
It was just a bit of satire.
And I told them, contrary to what you've heard, there's nothing unique about you.
There's nothing special about you, and you are not the future.
Our world is not dependent on you yet.
There are a whole lot of people ahead of you that got started five, ten years ago that are not just gonna sit down and lay down and get out of the way for you.
I remembered, I've I remember my commencement address.
I said the only thing that defines you right now is the kind of car you drive.
That's it.
That's why I just said, I said I said you, I said you, you, you, you, you're gonna hear that you are the future of the world.
That the world is now on your shoulders.
That's bo hunk.
Nobody's gonna depend on you.
You don't know diddly squat yet.
You haven't experienced anything yet.
There are people, 10, 15 adults older than you, who not just gonna lay down make room for you.
You're gonna have to push them out of the way.
Oh, it was a satirical commencement of this is again a classic illustration of how if you listen to this program, you are on the cutting edge.
So here's this guy.
David McCullough.
You're the same.
You're exactly the same.
Your diploma.
Exactly the same.
The only thing different is your name on it.
You're nothing special.
And he was just getting warmed up.
Dawn, are you irritated by this?
You don't like this.
I thought I detected a facial expression.
Uh Dawn transcribes calls to this program, so I can uh read them if I can't understand them.
Cell phones are very difficult for me to understand.
She's sitting in there and her face getting contorted and so forth, and I I knew it.
I knew it.
There are many extent right.
There are many special.
Well, there may be within that universe, but it doesn't matter to Hillabits haven't done anything yet.
Getting out of high school is a pro forma act.
Now, getting out of high school, able to read your diploma, that's an achievement.
Here's the second soundbite from the English teacher David McCullough at the Wellesley Hascell commencement on June 1st.
You've been pampered, cosseted, doted upon, helmeted, bubble wrapped.
Yes, capable adults with other things to do, have held you, kissed you, fed you, wiped your mouth, wiped your bottom, trained you, taught you, tutored you, coached you, listened to you, counseled you, encouraged you, consoled you, and encouraged you again.
You've been nudged, cajoled, wheedled, and implored.
You've been feted and fond over and called sweetie pie.
Yes, you have.
And certainly we've been to your games, your plays, your recitals, your science fairs.
Absolutely, smiles ignite when you walk into a room and hundreds gasp with delight at your every tweet.
But do not get the idea you're anything special.
Because you're not.
Whoa!
Oh!
Ladies and gentlemen, the dagger twists again.
Don't get the idea you're anything special.
Now, you can probably tell from the tone of my voice, my reaction.
I think this is uh I think it's great.
There's a reason.
It's called commencement.
Commence means what?
Begin.
Start.
You're at zero.
Commencement means you haven't done diddly squat.
Commencement means get out there and get started.
Now, this bit about kissed you, fed you, wiped your mouth, wiped your bottom.
They mean he meant that in a in a hygienic way, folks.
I don't want anybody to get the wrong idea what he was saying here.
Well, you never know, sturdily, some people in this audience, you gotta you gotta rein them in out there.
No, no, no, no, no, no.
This is he's not doing Sandusky on anybody.
This is this is uh no, this guy does not have an ice cream cone named after him.
Like Sandusky did in um State College, Pennsylvania.
It was the cone in two scoops.
Well known.
I mean, everybody knew it was not a secret.
It was called the Sandusky.
At any rate, here is the third soundbite of English teacher David McCullough and the faculty address, high school commencement, Wellesley Haskell, June 1st.
Across the country, no fewer than 3.2 million seniors are graduating about now from more than 37,000 high schools.
That's 37,000 valedictorians, 37,000 class presidents, 92,000 harmonizing Altos, 340,000 swaggering jocks, 2,185,967 pairs of UGS.
But why limit ourselves to high school?
Think about this.
Even if you're one in a million on a planet of 6.8 billion, that means there are nearly 7,000 people just like you.
And consider for a moment the bigger picture.
Your planet, I'll remind you, is not the center of its solar system.
Your solar system is not the center of its galaxy.
Your galaxy is not the center of the universe.
And you aren't the center of anything.
How about that stat?
Think about this.
Even if you are one in a million on a planet of 6.8 billion, that means they're nearly 7,000 people just like you.
Now, I'm probably dating myself.
I think this is I've I think this is long overdue.
I think this mayor of Realville.
This guy is telling these students the best thing they could hear if they soak it in, if they accept it, if they understand it, the spirit in which he means it.
He's telling them you're not going to get coddled out there the way you have been.
You're not going to be celebrated, you're not going to be fawned over, your bottom isn't going to be wiped when it meets you, and the world isn't going to stop when you walk into a room.
And you better learn this very fast.
There are a lot of people out there, and they all want the same thing you want, and they're not going to sit around and wait for somebody to give it to them.
And if you do, you're never going to get it.
They are going to nudge you, push you out of the way.
I can't help but take this personally, folks.
I mean, I...
And in a complimentary way, I have often said selflessness is the best thing you can do for yourself.
And you know how I've been misunderstood in that.
People confuse selflessness and selfish.
And you know, being you know, being self-focused and being self-interested.
That's fine.
Those are good things.
Self-interest lifts everybody around you.
Selfish is an entirely different thing.
Anyway, here's the here's the last of the four bites from this commencement address.
Like accolades ought to be, the fulfilled life is a consequence, a gratifying byproduct.
It's what happens when you're thinking about more important things.
Climb the mountain not to plant your flag, but to embrace the challenge, enjoy the air, and behold the view.
Climb it so you can see the world, not so the world can see you.
Go to Paris to be in Paris, not to cross it off your list and congratulate yourself for being worldly.
Exercise free will and creative independent thought, not for the satisfactions they will bring you, but for the good they will do others.
The rest of the 6.8 billion, and those who will follow them.
And then you too will discover the great and curious truth of the human experience is that selflessness is the best thing you can do for yourself.
The sweetest joys of life, then, come only with the recognition that you're not special, because everyone is.
Selflessness is the best thing you can do for yourself.
The sweetest joys of life, then, come only with the recognition that you are not special, because everyone is.
David McCullough, Jr., his father, is the famed historian.
Thank you.
Let's take a brief time out.
We'll come back and started with all of the rest of today's program right after this.
In a better world, ladies and gentlemen, these kids at Wellsley Hash School would not be hearing that commencement address for the first time this late in their lives.
How many of those kids heard that philosophy for the first time in their lives, do you think?
They would have heard it, they would have lived it long before they were graduating from high school in a better world.
Reality.
Realville.
But all the things that used to introduce us to reality have been perverted now in order to increase our self-esteem from tests to sports to grades.
Lowering standards to become a cop or a firefighter for women, lowering standards for entrance into college everywhere in the interests of not hurting anybody's feelings.
In the interest of making sure everybody's feeling Fine and okay.
And the problem is the real world isn't like that.
And I think I really do some of the problems that we have in our culture involving crime.
Some of the problems we have culturally with moral decline are rooted in this notion.
I mean, if you are told all your life that you're special, and that translates into being better than anybody else.
That's how it's heard.
That's how it's processed.
You're special.
You're better than anybody else.
It's a hard cold awakening when you find out that that's not how you're treated once you get outside your little protective cocoon.
Now I know some of you, regular listeners are probably emailing me right now.
Rush, I remember you saying that your mother told you were special.
She did.
She did tell me I was special, but I will give you the context of that.
When we come back.
Also, another C I told you so, blaring, glaring brightly when we come back.
On the cutting edge of societal evolution, Rush Limbaugh, the EIB network.
Let me expand a little bit among the the the other C I Told You So is that a high school official in suburban Philadelphia has called for banning high school football.
And it's another C I told you so, and it's gonna go nowhere right now, but I'm telling you, I told you within recent months, this is going to start picking up steam, and it's gonna happen faster than you realize.
More on that in just a second.
Now let me explain, because I don't want to be accused of being hypocrite on this.
My mother did tell me that I was special, not because I was alive, not because I'd been born.
After I had been fired the fifth time, and I was thinking of just cashing it in radio wise.
I was 28 or 29 years old.
I've given this my best shot.
It was a DJ.
There aren't too many people 30 years old playing Donnie Oswald records and succeeding at it.
We haven't moved on from that age.
It was probably.
And I had everybody in radio that I had worked for telling me basically that I just didn't have talent.
Hard worker and all that.
But if I really liked broadcasting, I should stay in sales.
Something like that.
And my mother had remembered, I once uh when I was uh at a station in suburban Pittsburgh, Lily Tomlin was in town to promote a movie or something she was doing.
And at the time, her character was Ernestine, the telephone operator on Laugh In.
And the PR people for Louie Tomlin had her doing appearances on all the radio stations in town, and the appearance that she did on my show was a morning show.
I said, Look, let's let's do a thing where I call a grocery store and ask them if they have any frozen fried raccoon TV dinners, and you, the operator, interrupt me saying you're monitoring calls for the phone company, the government, and you say it's outrageous, there's no such thing, and even if there is, you're gonna report me, and we'll just wing it and take it from there.
So we she laughed at it.
We did.
And I sent the tape home to my mother, and she said, you know, that was funny.
That was special.
You do have talent.
My mother was was telling me that that I was special in that that I did have the talent to do what I wanted to do, and then to not listen to all these other people and not quit.
But she was not telling me I was special simply because I was alive.
She was not, in fact, I'll I'll tell you, folks, and for those of you who are close to my age, this is going to sound awful familiar.
I remember when I was when I was growing up, you know what the operative adult motto was children are to be seen, not heard.
I want to tell you a story, and I want to get the details of the context right of this to show you how that had changed, and I was blindsided by this.
There was a dinner party, and it was adults.
Was without having to be stated, it was adults.
There were 16 adults.
And the hostess, this is twenty years ago.
The hostess calls, said, I don't know what to do.
What?
Well, one of the people she'd invited was insisting on bringing her two kids.
And really wanted the person there, but didn't want the kids, didn't know how to say it.
Talked about it.
I said, just you should you've got you've got to say no.
But that they won't come if they can't bring the kids.
Well, I said they don't come.
They don't come, they don't go.
And I um that would have never happened.
I mean, when I was growing up, my parents would no more have said, well, yeah, but if if we can bring Rusty and David, then we'll it would not have happened.
I remember teachers.
My dad telling me.
You think the world owes you a living?
That was something my dad, when he got mad at me, would throw at me all.
You think the world owes you a living?
You know, because every kid is self-centered by human nature.
And are the whole thing money doesn't grow on trees.
Do you think the the world owes you a living?
My fear is that all too many teachers today are in fact teaching their students that the world does owe them a living.
And it's not just youthful people, not just young people being told the world owes them a living.
We have civil rights groups in this country telling their charges, America owes you a living because you're a minority.
And because the things that happened hundreds of years ago, thousands of years in the world, this country owes you a living.
Obama believes the country owes people a living.
I believe I just told Snurley during the break, I think Obama's a classic example of what this teacher was warning about.
I think Obama his whole life.
One of the ways to explain him is that he was taught how special he is.
If he needed an A, some teacher gave him an A when he only deserved a C. The way was paid for him.
And he has trouble dealing with criticism now.
He has he has trouble dealing with people not reacting in awe.
He's the embodiment of it, the the walking embodiment of it.
Anyway, it was just refreshing to hear this.
And I couldn't help when I first uh heard the the sound bites of this guy's commencement address.
I was like, Well, how much trouble is this guy gonna get in?
How many parents are just gonna have a fit over?
And I don't know.
I don't know that any parents have uh had a a fit uh over this.
But I th I thought clearly a lot of them would.
So anyway, it's fascinating to me, folks.
And you know, I always vowed when I was uh younger.
When I get older, I'm not gonna be listening to elevator music like my parents.
When I get older, I'm not gonna be one of these old fuddy duddies who tells young people, well, you know, I had to walk ten miles in the snow to get to school.
I'm vowed I was never gonna do that.
And now it's constantly on my mind.
I don't want to sound like an old fuddy duddy, but there clearly are right ways and wrong ways to do things.
There are right ways and wrong ways to prepare children for later life as adults.
And we've been engaged in too many wrong ways, like no score in sports, no humiliation if you lose, everybody wins, everybody feels good.
It's not life.
The whole notion of fairness is a myth anyway.
It's not possible.
And it's precisely for the for the reason that Mr. McCullough said here.
We aren't special because everybody is.
Everybody's different.
Everybody has different talent levels.
Everybody has different levels of ambition, desire, stick toitiveness.
Everybody's Different.
It's like the news that's come out in the past two weeks that exercise actually hurts some people.
Yeah, because people are different.
We have all of these efforts to cocoon everybody and to make everybody the same, particularly when it comes to outcomes.
And it's a political agenda that's behind that.
It's a leftist political agenda that's behind it, and it doesn't serve anybody.
And it leads to later problems that probably will never be diagnosed properly as having roots in this notion that life is painless and that you get what you want.
Because you're special.
And so if this if this notion of entitlement is implanted in you, and if it's something you're raised with, and if it's something that you graduate to adulthood with, this sense of entitlement, for whatever reason, you're an American, you're entitled.
You're special, you're entitled.
I would maintain that one of the outgrowths, one of the greatest illustrations of the of the problems with this is the arguments that are now being had state by state over lifetime pensions and lifetime health care for retired municipal employees.
You have an entitlement sense.
People feel entitled to this.
Where does that come from?
Who planted that notion?
And by the way, that's going to be a central focus of the program today as a bunch of Republican governors are all of a sudden now getting steel spines.
Thanks to Scott Walker.
Yes, my friends, a bunch of Republican governors are now telling Romney, you better remember what Scott Walker did.
A bunch of Republicans, you know, it could have gone the other way.
If this recall could have gone the other way, we would have not had a single Republican governor with a steel spine.
Much less a spine.
I'll explain all that in detail with sound bites as the program unfolds before your very eyes and ears.
That's right.
What we used to call childish is now what some people call entitled.
It's exactly right.
Childish behavior is now exhibited in many adults, and it's called entitlement.
Comparing has scrubbed football to the gladiator fights of ancient times, Council Rock Scroll board member Patty Sexton has called for banning the sport at the Hass Gruel level.
Patty Sexton's a Philadelphia public screw teacher.
She made her comments late at Thursday night's Council Rock board meeting.
This is from Philly Burbs.com, which is a website of combined suburban newspapers in Philadelphia.
She said continuing the sport, football at scruols, funded by the general taxpayer base, is inappropriate.
It's become too dangerous.
It carries too much of a risk of lasting effects from injuries, particularly concussions.
She said it's no longer appropriate for public institutions to fund gladiators.
I am very, very concerned about putting these student athletes in the position of getting a concussion.
Football's gotten faster, harder, and more dangerous with each passing year.
And I'm extremely scared that we will eventually be sued over injuries suffered in sports.
She said that she has concerns with other contact sports in Haskiruls and mentions specifically the risks involved in heading the ball in soccer, but her main focus was on football because she thinks it's the most dangerous sport played in Haskiruls.
I warned you.
And here's the thing.
Once, and I guarantee you, she's let me not even mention that.
I'm just telling you, once these people start with things like this, it never goes away.
They never give it up.
They will eventually get banned all smoking, including in someone's private house.
They will not stop.
They start out with banning cigarettes in public places, iron planes, and okay, you get that.
Now they go for more.
Going to raise taxes on it.
We're going to fund children's health care programs with the tax revenue.
We're going to allow the sale of it, but we're not going to let you use it.
Thank you.
Which means they're not going to have the money for children's health programs.
I don't think about that till it's too late.
And she's not the first to call for banning football.
And there are sports writers who cover the pro game, who are now openly saying that they are wondering how long they can write about such a brutal game.
So it has begun.
And I don't know how long it's going to take.
And I don't know a lot of the ancillaries, but I do know that it's only going to build.
And while, and everybody right now is laughing every time they hear one.
Oh, come on, get serious.
It's some busybody woman.
That's how these things all start with some busybody telling you that you can't eat trans fat in New York City.
Some busybody telling you that you should not be allowed to purchase a Coca-Cola or a Pepsi that's larger than 16 ounces.
That's how this stuff all starts.
Some busybody, everybody laughs at it.
The attack on the SUV.
Now, Patty Sexton asked to comment on this on Friday, said, Look, I know my chances of eliminating football at Council Rock are about as good as keeping the sun from coming up tomorrow, but I feel like it has to start somewhere.
Some school district has to stand up and say we care more about our children than we do about feeding them into the funnel of the NFL.
So it started.
And you can laugh at me all you want.
You watch.
It's only going to grow.
And at some point you'll be surprised at the way it manifests itself.
David McCullough Jr. was on television today.
He's the guy who did the commencement speech at Wellesley Haskrill's on CBS this morning with the uh co-host Gail King, and she said, How long, David, did it take you to write this commencement speech?
Twenty-six years and two hours.
I have been teaching high school kids for 26 years.
In that time, one comes to see uh what kids need to be told.
Yeah.
These are wonderful kids.
One grows very fond of them and proud of them.
But that doesn't mean you should indulge them with things with platitudes or false encouragement.
I wanted to give them a notion that with their privilege comes responsibility.
You know, we've got a parrot.
We've been parodying this for 20 years.
We play it.
Well, his dad's the famous historian, David McCullough.
That's his that's why he talks.
He's fine.
One does this and one does that.
Um we've got a parody of the.
We parodied this 20 some years ago.
Little Johnny, how much is two plus five?
Right, little John.
We've been parodying this for I don't know how long.
Here's the second question.
She said no question.
He just continued.
Part of this, too, is the way they're being raised.
Like I said, they're doted upon.
And I must say that I'm as guilty as anyone.
I have four children, three of whom are teenagers.
We're raising them in the same way the people of Wellesley are raising their kids.
The people of Wells here are good people.
People with means see opportunities for their children, and they think, great, why not?
And they start overscheduling their kids, and with these opportunities come expectation, and the kids feel the strain of those expectations.
They understand that what they're supposed to achieve with all they've been given is an Ivy League admission.
Wait a minute now, isn't that somewhat contradictory?
That's the first thing he said that's contradictory.
He says with these opportunities come expectation.
The kids feel the strain of these expectations.
How do they feel the strain of anything when they're told they're special?
I know what he's saying.
But I think the kids feel that on their own.
Now parents do.
Not disagreeing.
Parents implant that.
And it doesn't have to be Ivy League.
I mean, you grew up in Southeast Missouri, and getting into the University of Missouri is the same thing as some schlub from Boston getting into Harvard, believe me.
The same kind of pressures exist.
And the pressures genuinely derive From what was considered status when the parents themselves were growing up.
And of course, that always changes.
Anyway, I have to take a brief time out here, ladies and gentlemen, but sit tight because we've barely scratched the surface.
There's much more ahead here at the Excellence in Broadcasting Network.
Hey, get this.
David McCullough Jr.'s commencement has now been viewed over half a million times.
Alone on YouTube.
Just over half a million times in that one place.
Imagine now, after having aired it here.
So being told that you aren't special is such a novel experience.
Kids are seeking it out.
Half a million can't believe this.
They're seeking it out trying to find it.
It's excellent.
We'll be back, my friends.
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