RUSH: Ed in Chicago, you’re great, great to have you on the program. Nice to have you with us on the EIB Network. Hello.
CALLER: Hi, Rush. How you doing? Dittos from the —
RUSH: Thank you. You bet.
CALLER: — democratic heartland of the Midwest hopefully for not long.
RUSH: (laughing)
CALLER: Listen, you were talking about the Academy Awards, and I think you missed one of the highlights. The highlight was when Kathryn Bigelow, who won the best director for The Hurt Locker, received her award, you have to take a look and focus your attention past Kathryn and look at the presenter, Barbara Streisand.
RUSH: Yeah, you know, you’re absolutely right about this. I’m surprised that Streisand didn’t stab Bigelow.
CALLER: Well, she looked like a vampire that just had a steak driven through her heart when Bigelow —
RUSH: Kathryn Bigelow praised —
CALLER: — congratulated and thanked our troops.
RUSH: — congratulated and thanked the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.
CALLER: Yes.
RUSH: They bring Babs out for the big best picture award, best director, and they have to give it to Bigelow, and when she announced it was Bigelow, what did she say, we’ve crossed another threshold, first woman ever to win the best director.
CALLER: Right.
RUSH: And she did it twice. She came back out after it won best picture and thanked the troops again.
CALLER: Yep. And I thought it was wonderful.
RUSH: It was. You know, The Hurt Locker is the — how to put this? It’s the least-seen best picture in the history of the Oscars.
CALLER: It only made $14 million, I believe.
RUSH: Well, it’s going to make more now.
CALLER: Well, sure it is.
RUSH: It cost $15 million to make. Avatar cost, what, $250 million to make and made $2.5 billion. And the director of Avatar used to be married to Kathryn Bigelow.
CALLER: Yeah, that’s a kick.
RUSH: For two years, 1989 to nineteen eighty — well, maybe three, depending on when it started. And so yeah, that was interesting. Now, this movie, The Hurt Locker, have you seen it?
CALLER: Yes, I have.
RUSH: It’s not without controversy. The guy who wrote it, his name is Boal, claims that the actual soldier involved here that is the focus of the movie claims he had the idea, gave it to the reporter, and the reporter stole it. So that’s being discussed, and then Special Forces and Special Ops guys who have seen the movie have said everything in this thing is wrong, they don’t have us in the right uniforms, there’s no way a guy would go outside the Green Zone all by himself, no way, never happened.
CALLER: Well, I’m a Vietnam vet myself.
RUSH: Yeah.
CALLER: And I watched various movies portraying the war and the fact is is that they have to take some freedoms because basically war is pretty boring. As we used to say, it’s 99% boring, then 1% of the time is when your adrenaline really rushes, and to think of how they could really portray the war in a correct light, I mean people would leave the auditorium. It wouldn’t be any good to watch.
RUSH: I haven’t seen it yet. I’m not being critical. I’m just telling you some controversy surrounding it.
CALLER: Well, there’s always going to be controversy because the guys that actually live it can always pick it apart.
RUSH: Yeah. They are.
CALLER: It really doesn’t portray what they do on a daily basis.
RUSH: Yeah.
CALLER: But again, who would sit there and want to watch what they do on a daily basis —
RUSH: By the way, I don’t want to take anything away from Bigelow here, you understand this?
CALLER: Oh, no.
RUSH: But Cameron never had a chance.
CALLER: No.
RUSH: Up against his ex-wife in Hollywood, there is no way that he’s going to win this thing.
CALLER: Well, I think Babs showed her true self, though, because like I said, when Bigelow came through and thanked the troops both in Iraq and Afghanistan, Babs’ face, what’s left of it, like I said, it looked like a vampire that was just exposed to sunlight for the first time.
RUSH: Well, yeah. As I say, I’m surprised she didn’t put a choke hold on her or something. ‘Cause, you know, it’s bad enough that Obama has escalated things in Afghanistan, they’re not happy about that. Now Hollywood basically awarded a director who comes out and thanks the troops rather than Obama. You know what I expected to happen last night? It didn’t happen, and this tells me this is how bad it is for Obama. He should have won an Oscar just in case he decides to act later in life, just like he won the peace prize. He won the peace prize on the come, and so they should have given him an Oscar, but he didn’t get mentioned, Obama didn’t get mentioned, and neither did Bush and neither did Cheney and neither did I. Drudge got mentioned, but that’s ’cause he was in a movie. But you know it’s bad out there when they don’t — and even Ben Affleck, he was a presenter, and Ben Affleck, you know, he came out the other day and he said everybody is disappointed in Obama, having to close Gitmo, he’s escalating these wars, redid the Patriot Act. They’re not happy out there.
If anybody was going to come out and sing Obama’s praises it would have been Ben Affleck, but it didn’t happen. (interruption) I’m not answering the question, Brian. I don’t have to explain to you. ‘First you’re watching The Bachelor, and now you’re watching the Oscars?’ I’ve watched the Oscars before. I watched The Bachelor — (interruption) I have not lost control of the remote, and I haven’t lost control of my television. (laughing) The staff here is very, very brave. Very brave. I’ve not lost control of the remote. If I want to watch something she doesn’t want to watch she goes in another room. I don’t lose control of it. I watched The Bachelor because I finally had to do some cultural examination and analysis of — and I’m telling you, I am very frightened. I told you this after I saw that show, I am very frightened. Is it not obvious? You want me to tell you why? Let me think about it. Let me think about it.