RUSH: Here’s Stephanie in Savannah, Georgia. Welcome to the program.
CALLER: Hi, Rush.
RUSH: How are you?
RUSH: I do. Thank you.
CALLER: Okay. Hey, I just wanted to thank you, first of all, just for being you. You got me hooked on talk radio. My husband tried to get me to listen to it, and I thought it was just for old people. And then I heard your show, and I couldn’t stop listening. And for years you’ve kept me hooked, and I just want to thank you for that.
RUSH: Well, thank you. Thank you. You thought it was for old people? Do you realize —
CALLER: Yeah, I thought it was —
RUSH: Do you know how old I was when I started this show, Stephanie?
CALLER: No.
RUSH: Well, 33. Is that old?
CALLER: Well, I just thought it was for old people, and I thought it was boring, but then I heard you and I could not stop listening. And then I heard “this is the Rush Limbaugh Show,” and I had no clue what I was listening to and from then on I’ve been hooked to talk radio.
RUSH: I didn’t mean to be poking holes in it. I’m very flattered. I’m very appreciative, because at least where other shows might be for old people you’ve learned this one isn’t.
CALLER: It is not.
RUSH: Well, I am glad you’re hooked. I really am. How often do you get a chance to listen?
CALLER: Whenever I’m in the car, I’m always, you know, transporting my kids here and there and all over, and whenever the DVD player is not on in the car, you’re on, or a talk radio is on.
RUSH: How long have you lived in Savannah?
CALLER: My whole life.
RUSH: Did you read the book The Garden of Good and Evil?
CALLER: I have not read it. I’ve seen the movie and —
RUSH: Ah, the movie’s okay. You really should read the book. I was gonna ask you, how much of it do you know to be factual, but —
CALLER: I think a lot of it is, really.
RUSH: Hmm. No kidding.
CALLER: There’s tours and stuff all the time down here about it.
RUSH: Yeah, that’s true. That’s true. Well, anyway, I’m glad that you called. I really am. I’m more flattered than I have let on. I really do appreciate that.
CALLER: Thank you.
RUSH: Okay, Stephanie. Thanks very much. All of this stuff just fascinates me. Thinks it’s for old people. Then she finally catches it and realizes it’s for her. You know, when I first started this show back — well, Sacramento was nine a.m. to noon. So this show August 1st, 1988, noon to three Eastern time. You know the objection we had, besides being controversial, the objection we had with advertisers? You know what it was, Mr. Snerdley? You’re gonna know exactly when I say this.
Back in 1988, and we embark, and we start, and we’re calling advertising agencies, “Noon to three? I mean, who’s listening but people on welfare? Aren’t people working from noon to three?” The assumption was not that they were old, that they were losers, which we quickly dispelled that notion. You know, in radio, prime time’s always been morning drive. And we threw that upside down too. But, anyway, she thought it was for old people. Little did she know — (interruption) What’s that? Oh, she’s still there? Oh, I thought she was through. She’s got another — okay, Stephanie in Savannah, you have something else that you wanted to say?
CALLER: I did. I’m sorry.
RUSH: It’s my fault. It’s my fault ’cause I didn’t hear you. I assumed you were through.
RUSH: What’s the other point?
CALLER: I was just calling about the Day Without Women, and I just wanted to comment on the double standards and the contradictions of the liberal feminists and just… You know, I’ll be 28 tomorrow, and in all of my years, I’ve never once felt at a disadvantage for being a woman. Not one time. I think that a lot of people that are participating in this holiday or whatever you want to call it, they’re not about equality. They want to be superior to men. They don’t want to be equal.
You know, one second, women are the victims, and they’re put down and belittled and held back by men; and then in the next breath, women are so important and so much smarter and more capable than men, that, you know, women run the world. And the point of today’s protest is to show that things can’t happen without women. But I thought we were oppressed. You know, which is it? Are we victims or are we not?
RUSH: Yeah.
CALLER: And then there’s, you know, women need equal rights. Name one right that men have that we don’t. But the next minute they’re asking for special rights. And, you know, if a man kills an unborn child, it’s homicide. If a woman does it, it’s just her choice. You know, you can’t claim to have unequal rights and then ask for special rights. And then… But the biggest double standard is the constant outcry of “male privilege,” “male privilege.” Who did the left applaud for being voted Woman of the Year last year? A man, Caitlyn Jenner!
RUSH: (laughing)
CALLER: You know, how much more privileged can you get that a man wins a title only meant for women?
RUSH: (laughing) That’s right. (clapping)
CALLER: So it’s frustrating. It’s frustrating to me, because these women don’t represent me or my values or my ideals at all, and —
RUSH: Congratulations.
CALLER: (giggles)
RUSH: You know what? This is what? You’re 28, and you have never felt disadvantaged?
CALLER: Not once.
RUSH: Are you married?
CALLER: I am.
RUSH: Do you have any kids?
CALLER: I do.
CALLER: Absolutely.
RUSH: Absolutely you do! You probably have more power in your family than you even know —
CALLER: (laughs)
RUSH: — or maybe you are aware of it. Southern women know. They just know. There’s something.
CALLER: (giggles)
RUSH: You do. That’s why I love you.
CALLER: Why, thank you.
RUSH: I gotta ask: Are you familiar with my momentous work called the 35 Undeniable Truths of Life?
CALLER: No.
RUSH: You’re not familiar with it? Well, you should look ’em up and find number 24.
CALLER: Okay. (writing it down) “Twenty-four.”
RUSH: If you Google “Undeniable Truths of Life” or “Rush Limbaugh” or whatever, you’ll be able to find them. I do not… I’d just rather have you read it and absorb it and then call us back with your reaction to it, because it —
CALLER: Sure!
RUSH: — dovetails in part with exactly what you have been saying here, in a way. You didn’t touch on this specifically, but it goes to much of what you were talking about here.
CALLER: Well, great. I’ll look it up, I promise.
RUSH: All right. And try to get back through and let us know what you thought of the Undeniable Truth of Life #24.
CALLER: Okay!
RUSH: In fact, maybe Mr. Snerdley could arrange a way for you to get back in after you’ve read the Undeniable Truths of Life. And remember, Stephanie, these things… I used to have a newspaper column back in Sacramento. One day I had writer’s block, so I just started writing down one-sentence things I believed trying to spark a column, and after I got to about 20 of them, I said, “This is the column.” I just kept going until I had 750 words. So it’s the 35 Undeniable Truths of Life, and it dates back to 1986 or ’87, and many are still relevant to this day, okay? Thanks for the call, and I’m sorry I cut you off earlier.
CALLER: (silence)
RUSH: Okay, she’s talking with Snerdley.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Yeah, it was Undeniable Truth of Life number 24 that established me as one of the great and deep thinkers in American political and social science way back in the 1980s.
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