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Jan. 10, 2014 - Rush Limbaugh Program
35:49
January 10, 2014, Friday, Hour #3
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Hi, folks, and welcome back.
You are tuned to the one and only Rush Limbaugh program, the most listened to radio talk show in America, the most talked about radio talk show in America, and the most talked about host on the most talked-about show in America on Friday.
Live from the Southern Command in Sunny South Florida.
It's open line Friday.
And that means we got one big busy broadcast hour remaining of your telephone calls and a whole bunch of other stuff thrown in today.
Telephone numbers 800 282-2882, the email address, L Rushball at EIB net.com.
And remember, on Friday, as callers, you can talk about anything.
It doesn't have to be the news of the day.
It doesn't have to be an issue.
It can be anything.
That's why we do it.
So use your imagination and your curiosity.
And don't think anything you would ask about's too stupid.
And don't think that Snurgley's not going to let you on because what you might want to know you think is too off the wall.
That's that's what Friday is for.
And the number again's 800-282-288-2.
The uh the last call we had, John uh Pennsylvania on the uh it he talked about that he had read uh Rush Revere and The Brave Pilgrims, and it reminded me of a couple things.
A, I've had people asking, is the book still available?
Of course it's still available.
A number one, the second thing he said that he read it.
It's a children's book, as you well know.
It's it's it's target written for the uh 10 to 13 age group.
But as I, as I said when I announced the book last September, October, this is actually a book for everybody.
It's it's a book for grandparents and parents to share with the grandkids and kids.
What I have heard from a lot of adults is exactly what that guy said.
That he enjoyed it too, because it contained things about the pilgrims that they didn't know.
As adults, they weren't taught these things.
And they hadn't learned since they got out of school.
And so even and I gotta say that was really gratifying when I first started hearing that.
Because when we did this book, I didn't know what to expect.
A children's book, that's a brand new thing.
I've never done anything like that.
Uh, and it's you know, every every book that I've done has been targeted as a conservative manifesto for politically uh involved and engaged aware adults.
But this book was it had a mission too, and and the mission is to counter what kids are being taught in in elementary and middle and even high school today.
They're they're being lied to about American history.
A multicultural curriculum as devised by leftists has taken over, and they believe this country was unjust and immoral and ill-purposed and founded by a bunch of racists and sexists, and this is the kind of stuff that kids, young kids are taught.
They're raised and educated to be suspicious and doubtful and untrusting.
And it's the greatest country ever.
And it it has to be dealt with.
And one things I've always said here is that the left owns the pop culture.
They own Hollywood, they own television, they they own music and this kind of, and they own education.
And if we're ever going to really make any inroads in reversing where we are culturally, we're going to have to make inroads in education.
So that's my little effort here was this this first book.
And it to learn that adults, the parents who were buying the book for kids were also reading and learning from it.
Well, that was just a plus.
I mean, that was that was an added unforeseen benefit.
Um I maybe mistakenly, I assume that most of the adults in this audience That would buy the book for their kids were pretty much up to speed and informed on the truth, say, of the pilgrims, who they were, where they were, why they came, what happened on the way, uh, what happened when they got it.
True story of Thanksgiving and all that.
And it's been really gratifying to hear so many adults say that it was educational for them, too.
And it's it's of course it's still out there.
I mean, this thing is gonna have a long, long, long history.
Folks, we haven't even begun to scratch the surface what we have planned, except I can't divulge any of that right now.
Because that's just we have a formula here.
But yeah, this is uh it's exciting and it's fun and it's thrilling.
It's it's something haven't done before, it's brand new, and and to have it as received as it was was just, I just can't tell you, as it is, I should say.
But is it still a thought, maybe, you know, after Christmas?
No, it's it's still all over the place.
Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Brook and Brick and Mortar stores, uh, what have you.
If you were hoping that your kid would get it and didn't, it's still time.
And it's it's not expensive, it's not like a full-priced adult book, plus it's beautiful.
The cover is beautiful, and the the with the paper that we chose for the actual book is uh is faux parchment.
It's just the illustrations uh in this book, it's just it's a it really is a beautiful thing.
And I can't tell you how gratifying it has been.
And yes, there will be more.
You can't just do one of these.
Now, here I found the story on working hard makes you sick.
It's dated January 4th.
It's by Gregory Miller, Edith Chen, and Gene Brodie.
Can upward mobility cost you your health?
Now, what in the name of Sam?
Thirty years ago, this kind of concern would never even occur to anybody.
Upward mobility was the personification of the American dream.
Upward mobility is simply improving your standard of living.
Upward mobility is simply making a better life for yourself.
And I don't care where you live.
Every human being is trying to do that in his or her own way.
But only in America are we gonna sit here and start trying to say that to do that might make you sick.
Why in the world?
What kind of convoluted thinking would even give somebody this premise?
And it is critical thinking that allows me to conclude that something like this is done and conceived in order to cover for the absolute rotten economy given us by the modern Democrat Party in Barack Obama because there isn't any upward mobility.
Much like in the early days of the Obama regime, we got stories on the blessings of unemployment and how it could actually improve your life.
And they came up with a term to characterize it, fun employment.
And we actually had stories on how being unemployed was the greatest thing could happen to you because you'd have to stay at home.
You'd get to relearn what it's like to be at home with your kids, and you'd you you'd be closer to your family and all of this this absolute lunacy, the benefits of being unemployed.
Fun employment.
Anything to cover the disaster being given this country by the Democrat Party.
It was like in the 90s when Bill Clinton was lying every time he opened his mouth.
We got stories in the media about how lying was good.
It protected people.
It prevented hurt feelings.
Everybody does it, just like everybody has sex, and as long as it doesn't affect your job, it's nobody's business, and on and on and on and on and on.
And now, can upward mobility cost you your health?
Americans love a good rags to riches story, even in an age of soaring inequality.
We like to think that people can still make it big here if they work hard and if they stay out of trouble.
The socioeconomic reality of most of the last four decades, stagnant wages, soaring income and wealth inequality, reduced equality of opportunity, have dented but not destroyed the appeal of the American dream.
Now that is an absolute crop.
decades of this?
The last 40 years stagnant wages?
The last 40 years soaring income and wealth inequality?
What do they think?
That there is some committee that's assigning wealth to some people and poverty to others.
No, it's another disguised attack on capitalism.
People who have more ambition are going to likely do better than people with less ambition.
People with more desire, people who work harder, who study more, who learn what it is they love, who discover what it is they love, who educate themselves on what it is those people are by definition going to do better than people that don't do those things.
And this is called unfairness.
It's not inequality of wealth.
It's simply the difference in human beings.
It's the difference in desire, the difference in ambition.
And yeah, there's luck thrown in there, but luck is simply where preparation meets opportunity.
That's all luck is.
Reduced equality of opportunity?
When has opportunity ever been equal?
When has wealth ever been equal?
Anywhere in the world, under any system, it never has been.
When have wages not been stagnant for somebody?
Wages are stagnant for all kinds of people who are not qualified, who aren't prepared, who don't do good work.
Sometimes wages are stagnant for union members because that's all the latest contract gets them.
But no, what we have to do now, we have to blame America for it.
And then we have to add to it to try to overcome all these obstacles that's just going to make you sick.
Which is just flat out absurd.
Those who do climb the ladder against the odds, it says here, often pay a little known price.
Success at school and in the workplace can take a toll on the body that may have long-term repercussions for health.
Now, what in the name of Sam Hill?
Who in the world thinks this way?
And by the way, this isn't new.
Success is the result of hard work, and there is stress involved.
There's stress involved in the success track.
There is stress involved getting there.
There is more stress involved staying there.
You know why?
Because everybody wants what you've got.
Everybody, at least in the immediate arena where successful people compete, everybody wants to be the best.
Everybody's trying to be.
It may be a universe of ten people or a hundred or whatever, but there's always competition, and that is stressful.
Some people don't do as well with competition as others.
Some people thrive on it, some are intimidated by it, some ignore it, whatever.
We're all different.
Success of w whoe had the idea that success is pain free?
Whoever had the idea that success doesn't have consequences?
Everything does.
Where do you think the old adage money isn't the route to happiness came from?
It came from people who ended up earning a lot of money and were still not happy for other reasons.
And they weren't happy because of stress or because of well, any number of things.
The idea here somehow is that everybody thinks success is a daily red carpet and the after party.
And then the awards show.
Is that what success is?
And the media loves you, and everybody wants your autograph.
Everybody wants their picture with you.
And every holiday you're either on a beach in St. Bart's or Hawaii or somewhere in the Caribbean or Florida, and you've got a supermodel on your arm.
That's what success has always been.
Is that what it is?
And then people start looking for success and find it, and they find out, just like Woody Allen said.
One of the greatest things Woody Allen ever said.
All success is that you get rejected by a different class of woman.
He's right on the money.
It's a classic line.
Stop and think about it.
Things don't change no matter what your economic circumstances are.
And having success is not something that erases everyday problems or stresses in life.
But yet people must think it does because a story like this ends up getting.
By the way, don't work too hard.
It could make you sick.
Don't work too hard.
It's not what it's made out to be.
This is this is the absolute wrong kind of thing to be saying to particularly now, because the route out, the way out of these dire economic circumstances a lot of people find themselves in is hard work.
The best way out is hard work.
It's not extended unemployment benefits.
It's not social security disability checks.
It's not Obamacare.
The way out is what it's always been.
Ambition, drive, desire, singular focus, and hard work.
And an added bonus is if you find something you really love, then all the rest of that stuff is much less difficult.
Because if you're really doing what you really love, the rest of that stuff doesn't matter.
If you're doing something you don't like, and you're successful at it, then the rest of that stuff will be a bigger problem.
But people who found what they really like don't even think they're working.
They think they're just getting to do what they love every day.
Whatever it is.
So you love to get up, and the first thing you do is get on a computer and start learning things, or whatever you do.
First thing you want to do when you get up is uh jog.
First thing.
Whatever the first thing you want to do every morning is find a way to get paid for it.
That's what a lot of people have done.
The idea, though, that seeking success is going to make it says here, high stress, you're you're going to become obese.
Uh, and it's not what it's made out to be.
Among American children, there are wide socioeconomic gaps on many dimensions of well-being, school achievement, mental health, drug use, teenage pregnancy, juvenile incarceration.
Despite the risks that lower income children face, we also know that a significant minority beat the odds they perform admirably in school, they avoid drugs, they go to school, and they get sick, even they get sick.
And several years ago, we began studying these resilient young people, trying to find out if their success stories also translated into physical health benefits.
And we reasoned that if disadvantaged kids were succeeding academically and emotionally, that they might also be protected from health problems that were common in lower income youths.
Oh, yeah, I gotta take up.
Sorry, folks.
Back at the So it seems to me that the left has decided that The main problem, biggest problem people face is getting sick.
I guess it stands to reason what you're all one illness away from bankruptcy, your one hospital visit away from poverty.
I mean, they've just been throwing this at you.
So now even success can make you sick.
They studied a bunch of kids, young people who were achieving success by all conventional markers, experienced deteriorating health.
So what?
Don't do it.
So make sure you've got your Obamacare policy.
So everything makes you sick.
Let me tell you what else makes you sick.
Poverty makes you sick.
Laziness makes you sick.
Unemployment compensation for two plus years can make you sick.
Everything, anything can make you sick if you sit around and wait for it, and you're not going to get a program for every damn one of those things.
Now let me clarify something that I said in my monologue moments ago.
In pointing out that there is a lot of stress in success.
There's a lot of pressure in success.
It manifests itself in all kinds of ways that you can't imagine until you become successful.
And by that I mean when you've reached what whatever success is to you, when you've reached your goal, or you're getting close to it, I guarantee you it'll be different than you think it is.
That's not bad or good.
It's just I'm telling you, it's going to be much different than you think.
Success is going to be it's going to have a far different reality than what you think it's going to be.
The stress of competition is different than the stress of despair.
The stress of working at peak performance levels and earning money, there's a lot of stress in that.
and You get yourself in a circumstance where a lot of people are depending on you for their own lifestyles.
There is a lot of stress in that.
But it's far healthier than the stress of being out of the game.
The idea that the stress involved in success can make you sick.
*sad music*
Fear is one of the greatest motivators there is.
And since there's stress and pressure in everything, including retirement, I would just as soon have the stress that goes along with success as opposed to the stress that you get when you're in despair.
I would much rather have the stress that comes from competition than the stress and pressure that comes from not even being in the game.
You ever noticed, folks?
Speaking of upward mobility.
Have you ever noticed how under capitalism the rich become powerful?
And under socialism, the powerful become rich.
It's amazing when you look at it that way.
Under capitalism, the rich become powerful.
Under socialism, the powerful get rich.
They exploit others.
They get rich by taking from others, by using their power.
In capitalism, the rich become powerful.
It's a minor little distinction.
It's something that's always one of those little pithy bullet points that is just shy of a profundity.
Here is Michael in Westfield, New York, as we head back to the phones.
And Michael, welcome back.
This is a young college student who did an on-air report of me.
He asked questions for a report that he wrote on me on the air last year.
And I guess you're calling to tell us what happened, right?
Well, yeah, before it's great to talk to you again.
And before I get to my open line Friday question, I just wanted to tell you that our last two conversations helped me to get the ball rolling.
This in the world of broadcasting after after you and I spoke last year a couple of times, I had these great long transcripts.
And long story short, I I took them to a um an interview for a uh a radio internship, and they and it was a paid internship, and those are rare.
And so the transcripts really helped to impress the people who interviewed me and ultimately land me the job.
Well, congratulations.
Yeah.
Way to go.
Way to be.
Yeah.
Yeah, your name opens doors.
That um closes them too.
So make sure you're going in the right one.
Yeah, yeah.
And so uh m my open line Friday question.
You've often mentioned your numerous numerous firings, uh, seven or so, I think.
And considering your talent, if you face those difficulties, anyone in broadcasting could, and so I'll be graduating and heading into that venue this May.
And I just wanted to know what kept you going during the downtimes and what did you tell yourself in the early days before success in Sacramento.
Um well.
I never believed the people who told me I didn't have the talent to succeed.
I thought they were all wrong.
I can't tell you why.
I I just always in quotes knew, which I guess means I thought, felt.
I just I I I thought I was gonna hit it.
I I I thought I was gonna make it.
I I thought and not in spite, uh it wasn't that I was gonna show them.
That that was never my motivation.
I never wanted to succeed in order to show those people who fired me they were wrong.
That was I always thought that was childish motivation.
I just knew that it was I mean, if you're asking me what kept me going, it's a I loved it, and and I I tried quitting it.
I tr I got out of it for five years and and and worked for the uh for the Kansas City Royals, and it just wasn't me.
I just uh d being confined in a in a corporate structure just didn't work with me.
So I said I'm I'm I better go back to what I love because I'm at least that that's the best route for me to be happy if I can just do what I love doing.
And so I always uh my mother, by the way, was a second factor, who she um uh she always what did she say?
She's it didn't say she just she said you're special, but she's she just she thought I was gonna make it too.
She thought I was gonna be a success at this.
Uh and it was because of uh a comedy bit she heard me participating in with Lily Tomlin uh in Pittsburgh.
She said, that's just you don't know how few people can do that.
So she just she thought that if I got the right breaks it would work out.
And she was always pushing me.
She she never uh that nobody in my family ever tried to talk me out of it or uh tell me I was making a mistake.
I I wasn't surrounded by a bunch of pessimism.
And that's key too.
If you if you find yourself surrounded by pessimists, get away from 'em.
Because most people most people are.
Yeah.
I know I have uh I have a great mother too, and so I know what you mean about that.
And so I I wanted to say too, it's been a joy talking to you while you conduct broadcast excellence because it was you who inspired me to embark upon a career in broadcasting, and you know, it's meant a lot to me over the years.
You come home, you're not you know, you may be in a down mood, but you turn on turn on the radio or listen to the podcast, and your so show's been a blast over the years, and uh I also wanted to thank you for turning me on to Thomas Sowell.
That was that was really great, and I I appreciate that a lot.
Thomas Thomas Sowell is mind expansion.
Yes.
Thomas Sowell opened your mind up to things you didn't otherwise, particularly about economics, but not just that.
Well, I'm glad you're this is very gratifying.
I am I'm um I'm happy to hear that that you have availed yourself of uh the same things I did in a way.
So congratulations, all the best to you.
Thanks, and I can't wait to get all those health problems from from the success.
That's the act.
That's the ticket.
I can't wait to get sick from success.
You ought to send a letter to the New York Times, just say just that.
I read your I read your story on how pursuing success can make uh me suffer ill health, and I can't wait to get sick.
Absolutely.
I'll tell you about it.
Michael, thanks very much, and and all the best.
Stay in touch, too.
I will thank you so much, Russ.
All right, you bet.
And we'll be back, folks, after this brief but obscene profit timeout.
By the way, in the Chris Christie business, there's this interesting story that's uh divulged in the Daily Caller.
And the the brief version of this is that back in 2000, an operative for Al Gore organized a traffic jam during the New Hampshire primary to try to help Gore against Bill Bradley.
The traffic jam kept Bradley voters from voting.
This wasn't just inconveniencing some people on the George Washington Bridge.
This was somebody who created a traffic jam so that Bill Bradley voters couldn't show up and vote in the 2000 New Hampshire primary.
And the Gore operative who did this is a man by the name of Michael Hooley.
W H O U L E Y. I guess it's Hooley, it might be Howley.
Anyway, you know what he's doing today?
He's a top advisor to Hillary Clinton.
And back then, when the story surfaced in 2000, the media said, boy, this is just some good clean fun among the Democrats.
This was a brilliant tactic that this guy used.
A brilliant idea on the part of the Gore campaign to thwart the effort of Bill Bradley voters to get to the polls of the New Hampshire primary.
There wasn't any federal investigation.
There wasn't an investigation at all.
It is called voter suppression.
But but when Hillary and Gore were doing it to benefit themselves, that's just that's like Clinton lying and marveling at how good he is at it.
That's like Nina Burley offering Clinton uh a Lewinsky or two as thanks for keeping abortion untouched.
Remember that?
Nina Burley, Time Magazine.
So when the Democrats do these things, it's smart politics, it's good, clean fun, and isn't that clever.
Let's go to the audio sound bites.
This is Neil Cavuto.
He was on uh Fox yesterday on his own show with former Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown.
And they were talking about Christie's press conference yesterday on the bridge lane closure.
And this is how that went.
Rush Limbaugh is not a van of his Mark Lennon.
You know all these characters, and they almost seem to be, you know, feeding all of this as much as the left.
Well, they're not fans of mine either, Vice.
You know, I understand their vim and vigor against us.
Politics is a blood sport.
The sad part is there's got to be room for people like me and Chris Christie and Rand Paul and Rush Limbar and everybody else, because if we don't start to bend together and show that we have great ideas and convince the American people that we can actually move forward and solve problems together, then we're gonna be uh an irrelevant party.
So I'm hopeful that they'll find it in their bailiwick that we're in fact going to work together to take on the people that are causing the problems, which are the Democrats.
Now, that is interesting that Scott Brown, a former Senator of Massachusetts, who I supported to the max when he was seeking the Senate seat for the first time in Massachusetts.
He's on with Cavuto, and his point here is that these rhinos, the moderate Republicans, they want us to help them.
But and then they say in going after the Democrats.
If Scott, the day you decide to go after the Democrats and not the Tea Party, I'll be by your side.
But the way I see it, sitting where I sit, moderate Republicans are trying to wipe out their own conservative base.
I don't see you guys going after Democrats.
And by the way, I didn't see any of you defending Christie yesterday either.
I saw all of you sitting off to the side like the wildebeests do when one of them's under assault by a lion.
Or yeah, a lion.
Tigers are in India, there aren't any wildebeests there.
Except in zoos.
And why anybody would want a wildebeest in a zoo?
I mean, the ugliest things, but nevertheless, if you guys ever decide, you moderate Republic to actually go after Obama, to actually go after Harry Reed, you're gonna have an ally in me like you've never had.
But I'm not gonna join you as you try to wipe out the Tea Party or the conservative base.
Let's go to, maybe let's see, something...
Grab number seven.
This is Al Jazeero.
Al Jazeera's America.
Consider this show.
The guest Republican strategist Leslie Sanchez.
And having a discussion here about Christie and his press conference and the in the bridge lane closure.
The host is Antonio Mora.
And this is how that went.
Republicans haven't been rushing out to defend him.
Conservative Republicans who have never been big fans of Christie, including people like Rush Limbaugh, are at best giving him a sprinkling of support.
And that's not uncommon.
I think when anybody is looking at let's be honest, a 2016, perhaps presidential bid, the last thing you want is an independent investigator or your Democratic legislature having these types of hearings or investigations.
I think one thing you know in politics is you have to see where all the chips fall.
So what what Leslie Sanchez is saying here is that the wildebeest are right to stay away from Christie.
And I'm guarantee you this is what the consultants are advising other Republicans.
You stay away from this until we see how this is going to pan out.
But what I wanted to play this for was you've got conservative Republicans who've never big big fans of Chris.
That's not true.
There was a time I was big behind Governor Christie.
And for me, the uh that boardwalk with Obama, I that I that contained a lot.
I don't know that that's something I'm gonna ever really uh forget.
That was the biggie.
I even thought the speech for Romney was a little curious, but but the embracing about one week before the election gave me a different perspective.
That's just me.
Although I happen to think that's a big deal for a lot of people.
And the people inside the beltway do not know that, get that, understand that.
They think that's something people like me or you will forget.
And they're worried the bridge thing is gonna be the big deal.
And they need to get out of there.
They need to get out of that beltway environment now and then, just a little, just to see what.
I'll tell you, I don't think there was anybody more bipartisan than Scott Brown after he got elected.
And we see what good it did him.
He was beaten by a pretend Indian.
A real lunatic.
After he went bipartisan.
CNN says that New Jersey legislators are gonna release 907 pages of documents on Bridgegate.
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