RUSH: Here’s Lindsey, 17 years old in Rockford, Illinois. Thank you for calling the EIB Network.
CALLER: Hi, Rush. I just wanted to let you know before I started talking that Rush is one of my top male names for males anywhere.
RUSH: Well, thank you. I appreciate that. I’m not told that very much, Lindsey.
CALLER: Yeah. I think it’s a great name, and I just wanted to let you know my mother is really jealous that I’m talking to you right now. I’m a first-time caller. I’ve been listening to you since about fifth grade, that’s when 9/11 happened. I’m going to be a senior, actually, this year. And I was listening to your anniversary show all week, and I love listening to you. I listen to you at work, listen to you at home and everything. And I came home from work on Friday right after your show, and I was watching TV, I think it was USA or something, and I was watching TV, and the screen went red because it was a commercial, and it said, ‘Stop global warming now,’ and then it came on with the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, and it said, ‘or all the Reese’s will melt.’ And I was thinking, wow, even now candy companies are going to start buying into Algore’s lies about global warming and everything else they keep telling us —
RUSH: Lindsey, Lindsey, hang on here just a second.
CALLER: Okay.
RUSH: I want to make sure I heard you correctly. You’re watching the USA network.
CALLER: Yes.
RUSH: Channel 242 on DirecTV.
CALLER: Okay.
RUSH: You’re obviously watching on cable. I don’t know what the channels are on cable.
CALLER: Yeah.
RUSH: And there’s a commercial that comes up for Reese’s Butterfingers?
CALLER: Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups.
RUSH: Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups.
CALLER: Yes.
RUSH: And it shows them melting because of global warming?
CALLER: Yes.
RUSH: And the message is what? That if we don’t stop global warming your Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups will melt on you?
CALLER: Yes.
RUSH: They’ll melt on you now if you take ’em outside and put ’em on your car.
CALLER: Yep. That’s what I was thinking. I was thinking, I can’t even believe this, and I was really upset that I hadn’t seen it beforehand so I couldn’t call you on Friday and let you know about it, and that’s why I hate the weekends because you’re not on on the weekends, and I was stunned. And the funny thing is, actually, I took a science class this past school year, and our science teacher forced us to watch Algore’s video, Inconvenient Truth.
RUSH: Yeah, I’ve heard of it.
CALLER: Yes.
RUSH: This is happening all over the country.
CALLER: Hm-hm. And he had us answering questions on it so you couldn’t just like doodle or anything, you had to actually pay attention, and I couldn’t even believe it, because the girl that was sitting next to me actually started asking our teacher questions and she was asking him about all this global warming and everything, I wanted to raise my hand, I wasn’t going to because class was almost over, and I wanted to raise my hand and say, ‘Mister, this is not happening. Global warming is not happening. Yes, the earth is heating up, it’s summer. Get over it.’ But it was very interesting. And I just thought that I should call you and let you know about it.
RUSH: Well, I appreciate you making the effort to call. It’s a thrill to talk to you. Are you enjoying your time away from school in the summer? Don’t tell me you’re out of school yet, are you out of school?
CALLER: I’m not out of school. I’m going to be a senior in high school, and —
RUSH: No, no, I mean for the summer, are you on your summer break?
CALLER: Yeah, we’re out of school, yes. We don’t start again until late August.
RUSH: Yeah. Yeah. Well, you sound like you enjoy school. I envy you.
CALLER: Oh. (laughing) yeah. I do for the most part. I like most of my —
RUSH: Well, where did you get this courage, Lindsey, to stand up to the onslaught of public relations in the Algore movie and from your teachers and I’m sure a lot of your fellow students buy into all these hoaxes, where did you get the courage to stand up for yourself?
CALLER: I honestly have to say it’s probably from you and from my mother. She started listening to you right after 9/11, and so I’ve been listening to you right along with her, and even when I was in fifth grade when she first started listening to you, there was something about the way you spoke and how confident you are and how you knew everything that you were talking about and how you have this confidence, and it just —
RUSH: You spotted those things in the fifth grade?
CALLER: Yes.
RUSH: Hmm. That’s impressive. So you responded to confidence, you responded to certitude, you responded, obviously, I do this program every day in a good mood, and that made an impact on you, that added to the persuasion factor of listening to this program.
CALLER: It did.
RUSH: I want to comment before I have to go here on your Reese’s Peanut Butter commercial and your fear that companies are now going to join the green agenda. Let me tell you why. And, by the way, it is starting to fizzle in a lot of places. They are finding, a lot of corporations that have gone green in their marketing and advertising, it’s not helping. Now, the reason they’re doing it is not because they fear global warming, and it’s not because they’re great citizens of the world. They figure that people like you believe this garbage, and they think it’s probably going to be — this is very crucial to understand, Lindsey — they think, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, doesn’t matter what the company, they think it will be easier to convince you to buy their product at a profit for them if you think the company is oriented toward saving the planet rather than if you think buying the product will just enlarge their bottom line. So this is strictly the result of a number of companies in many sectors thinking the public’s buying into this, here’s a way to market to them and almost make the purchase of the product a mandatory thing to do to save the planet, or in your case, save the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups.
CALLER: Yep.
RUSH: Because we cannot have our Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups melting on us.
CALLER: Yes.
RUSH: So the only way to stop this is of course not to put ’em in the refrigerator, not to put ’em in the freezer, don’t leave ’em inside, you are so stupid your peanut butter cups will melt on you as you leave them outside. No, what we need to do is stop global warming, that’s the only way to stop your peanut butter cups from melting. Now, you have the smarts and the brains to understand, no, I’ll just leave ’em in the kitchen here at room temp, your house is air-conditioned?
CALLER: It is.
RUSH: Absolutely. And if that doesn’t do the trick, then put ’em in the fridge.
CALLER: Yep.
RUSH: Or, better yet, Lindsey, eat them.
CALLER: Exactly.
RUSH: Instead of sitting around looking at them, waiting for them to melt, eat them.
CALLER: Exactly.
RUSH: Well, I’m so happy you called. I love hearing from the youth of America. I love hearing from young people like you, 17 years old, you have your head on so straight and so solid, it’s a tribute you and your mother. And a little bit to me.
CALLER: Thank you, Rush.
RUSH: You bet. (laughing)
CALLER: Have a great day.
RUSH: You do the same, Lindsey and all the best.