NetNews Usenet Archive 1993 #3/NN_1993_3.iso/spool/alt/fan/rushlim/13978

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From: [e-mail] (John Switzer)
Subject: Summary Mon 1/25/93
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Summary: Unofficial Summary for Monday, Jan. 25, 1993
Keywords: Unofficial Summary Rush Limbaugh
Organization: Netcom Online Communications Services (408-241-9760 login: guest)
Distribution: world,usa,na,alt
Date: Tue, 26 Jan 1993 21:15:33 GMT
Lines: 978

Unofficial Summary of the Rush Limbaugh Show

for Monday, January 25, 1993

by John Switzer

NOTE: This is being posted to both alt.fan.rush-limbaugh and
alt.rush-limbaugh and thus you may see it twice if your sysadm
aliases the two newsgroups together. Since most sites don't
support both groups, this double-posting appears to be
unavoidable, however, if anyone has any ideas on how to avoid it,
please let me know. Thanks - [e-mail].

This unofficial summary is copyright (c) 1993 by John Switzer.
All Rights Reserved. These summaries are distributed on
CompuServe, GEnie, and the Internet, and archived on GEnie (NPC
Roundtable) and Internet (cathouse.aiss.uiuc.edu).  Distribution
to other electronic forums and bulletin boards is highly
encouraged. Spelling and other corrections gratefully received.

Please read the standard disclaimer which was included with the
first summary for this month. In particular, please note that
this summary is not approved or sanctioned by Rush Limbaugh or
the EIB network, nor do I have any connection with them other
than as a daily listener.

******************************************************************

January 25, 1993

LIMBAUGH WATCH

January 25, 1993 - It's now day 6 of "America Held Hostage" and
84 days after Bill Clinton's election, but Rush is still on the
air with 546 radio affiliates (with over 14 million listeners
weekly) and 206 TV affiliates (with a 3.6 rating). His book has
been on the NY Times hardback non-fiction best-seller list for 18
consecutive weeks and is currently number one on the list, with
almost 2 million copies sold.

MORNING UPDATE

Last week Bill and Hillary Clinton opened the White House to the
public; however, they didn't get the word out that you needed a
ticket to attend. About 2500 tickets were printed and
distributed, but thousands more without tickets showed up.

This almost turned into a PR-catastrophe but fortunately Hillary
took over. She was upset that people with tickets were still
standing in line while people without tickets were getting in.
Bill Clinton had to go outside to speak to the people and calm
them down. Here's what happened:

Hillary: Here's the problem - for reasons unknown to us, they've
opened the gates and let people without tickets in, and these
guys - we have screwed all these people.

Unidentified man: You're setting up the sound system outside . .
.

Hillary: Well, here's what I just told Wendy - I want the people
with the tickets brought in. That's what they're paying all this
money to us . . .

Bill (to unidentified man): Go back through that line and get the
people with the tickets.

Man: We're doing that right this minute.

Bill: Here's another thing I got to do - I need to take a
bathroom break now.

So Hillary's running the show, telling Bill what to do, and he
goes to the bathroom. Meanwhile the whole country is just looking
for more freebies. "This is just the first sign of it," Rush
warns. "We're in trouble."

FIRST HOUR

Items

o       Rush is doing today's show at the studios of KNBR in San
Francisco because he's attending the annual convention of the
National Association of Television Programming Executives. Rush
loves being in San Francisco, especially since the rain vanished
when he arrived. Unfortunately, Rush didn't bring his camcorder
with him, and the city and Golden Gate are so beautiful that he
had to go out and buy another camcorder to record them for
posterity.

o       It seems that when Rush leaves New York, "all hell breaks
loose." First, Rush is being blamed by Lars Erik Nelson for what
happened to Zoe Baird. In today's NY Daily News Nelson claims
that Rush, along with Ralph Nader, is to blame for creating a
public uproar about Baird, and Nelson thinks "pols need to be
dial-tone deaf" from now on.

Nelson writes, "This victory for the people may prove to be a
disaster for Clinton's legislative agenda. Baird's withdrawal
once again showed how easy it is to spook Congress. First, put
Ralph Nader and Rush Limbaugh together and generate a few
thousand telephone calls, and Congress flees in terror."

Rush points out that he does not use his show to urge people to
make phone calls, and he almost never, ever gives out phone
numbers for the public to call. In fact, when ABC World News
Tonight came to his show to get public comment on Zoe Baird, Rush
and EIB had to scramble to find some callers for them.

Nelson, though, ignores all this and even tries to make a link
between what Rush allegedly did about Baird and what happened
during the House Bank scandal. Rush points out that he didn't
give out phone numbers back then either; all he did was to
enunciate what he believed to be the truth in the matter.

The Wall Street Journal, though, makes the point in an editorial
today that Baird was Clinton's nominee, and he knew all about her
hiring of illegal aliens. It was liberals who were the first to
oppose Baird's nomination, and they had a lot to do with her
confirmation troubles. If anything, the events of last week
proved that the liberal wing of the Democratic party can still
muster a lot of power; Clinton had best learn this really quick.

Rush thinks that the interesting thing to note in the aftermath
of Zoe Baird's withdrawal is that Ron Brown is still around, and
he probably is guilty of far more ethics and lobbying violations
than Baird. Certainly Baird should have withdrawn her name from
nomination, but the WSJ asked a pertinent question - why is Ron
Brown still around while Baird is long gone? The answer is that
the liberals like Brown because he's one of them; Baird was
definitely not.

Rush mentions another article about him by Walter Goodman.
Goodman's article in yesterday's NY Times attacks conservative
television hosts (such as Rush) for bashing multiculturalism.
Goodman, though, is the one doing the bashing. He first extols
the virtues of multiculturalism and its tolerance, but then shows
absolutely no tolerance for Rush, whom he calls "the cruder face
of conservatism" in the "rampant right-wing," and who "rages in
the raving right."

If Goodman really believed in this concept of multiculturalism,
then he wouldn't criticize Rush. If multiculturalism really means
accepting a diversity of cultures and viewpoints, then why should
liberals bash Rush?

Rush also loves how liberals used to revile Reagan, Buckley, and
George Will. Now that Rush has come along, though, he has taken
their place as conservatism's worst evil. Liberals now even
praise these three men as being proper representatives of
moderate conservatism.

Goodman also mentions Rush's book, which is something that rarely
happens in the NY Times. Goodman writes, "His large radio
following has evidently been keeping his book, `The Way Things
Ought To Be,' on the best-seller lists. It's all the rage on the
raving right." Goodman is the epitome of the great
multiculturalist, Rush notes, because he's now not only insulting
Rush but also every single one of his fans.

Besides, what difference does it make why his book is number one?
Why is it a disqualifier that Rush has a large radio audience?
Rush's critics would claim that other authors don't have such
large audiences and this therefore disqualifies Rush's book from
any "fair" comparisons with other works. However, don't these
other authors do the talk show circuit, on both radio and TV? Why
can't they have their own shows? Doesn't America still have a
free market that allows them to take the same risks that Rush has
taken?

Rush notes that Goodman doesn't even mention how his TV show is
the third highest-rated show in late-night. The selective
hypocrisy of people such as him really is amazing at times, and
Rush wonders if his book can be categorized as "the rage of the
raving right," can Gloria Steinem's best-seller be called "the
rage of the menopausal left?"

Rush finds it funny that he has been out of New York for only
three days and is already being blamed for having a highly-rated
TV show, for writing a best-selling book, and for causing the
downfall of Zoe Baird.

Rush, though, is bothered by how liberals, such as Nelson,
consider phone calls from the public to be an assault on
democracy. Every time the people call Congress in great numbers
to express their opinion, columnists complain about how democracy
is being cheapened. Wasn't this, though, what Perot's campaign
was all about - the people taking the country back?

When the people do speak up, the inside-the-Beltway crowd starts
acting as if democracy itself were threatened. Rush points out he
normally doesn't urge people to call their congressman, but even
if he did, so what? What kind of problem does that pose to the
republic? These columnists act as if this were some sort of
"artificial" manipulation of the public, yet don't they write
columns that are intended to mold and guide public opinion? Isn't
it the goal of newspaper columnists to have some sort of
influence?

Rush suspects that jealousy is a powerful motivation here - the
newspaper crowd is angry that they aren't wielding the power they
think they should, and therefore radio and TV hosts are suspect
because they can motivate people into action. Why, though, is it
dangerous that the people are responsive to what happens on talk
radio? Why are TV and radio hosts somehow subhuman because they
talk about the issues?

Last week a textbook blamed Rush for not promoting democracy, and
now Lars Erik Nelson blames him for encouraging too much
democracy. Rush admits he loves being in this enviable position.

o       Rush recalls the call he got from a Hewlett-Packard
employee on Friday; the caller, Gus O'Donnell from Folsom, gave
an excellent explanation of how global competition works and what
the challenges are for US industry. Gus sent Rush a note on
CompuServe to tell him that he's been suspended for calling
Rush's show. Although he's been suspended with pay, his company
is holding a meeting today to investigate what he said in his
call.

Rush doesn't think Gus made HP look bad at all, and in fact may
have done the company a great service by explaining the facts of
life for American business. Perhaps HP has a policy against
speaking about or for the company in public, but Rush thinks it
would be very unfortunate if Gus got into any trouble for
speaking his mind.

*BREAK*

Rush is proud to report that Linda Bloodworth-Thomason did get
the note he left for her at the White House. As he explained on
Friday, he asked President Bush to leave a small note for
Bloodworth-Thomason on the bed in the Lincoln Bedroom, where she
and her husband spent the night last week. Bush couldn't
guarantee that she would get the note, but he did promise to
leave it for her.

The note said "Dear Linda, I was here first and I WILL be back.
Sleep tight, you deserve it. Rush Limbaugh. P.S. Congratulations
on a great show."

Rush hadn't heard anything about this until this weekend when he
got a CompuServe message from someone who saw Harry Thomason on
CSPAN at the National Press Club; Thomason started off his speech
by waving the note around and "complaining" about how the first
thing he and Linda found was "Limbaugh's note."

A story in today's USA Today also refers to the memo, and they
quote Linda Bloodworth-Thomason as admitting she found the note
but she said "well, he might be back in the White House someday,
but at that point he'll be far too old to enjoy it." In other
words, the Democrats are in the White House to stay.

Rush has to admit he enjoys thinking about how the Thomasons
would have reacted when they saw the note and bets that the first
thing they did was rush to show it to the Clintons.

*BREAK*

Items

o       Rush returns to Lars Erik Nelson, who blames him for Zoe
Baird's downfall. Rush points out he did not make Baird hire
illegal aliens, nor did he have any contact whatsoever with Ralph
Nader. However, if Rush ever does decide to use his radio show as
a forum for public activism, he'll do so on an issue that counts,
such as recalling Clinton. He definitely will not waste his time
going to such lengths for something as an Attorney General
nominee.

o       Rush suspects that the reason environmentalist wackos
love Algore so much is because he does a flawless interpretation
of a tree - since Algore is as wooden, as colorless, and as dull
as any tree, hugging him is like hugging a tree.

o       Lloyd Bentsen, America's new Treasury Secretary, was on
one of the Sunday talk shows and confirmed that it's "bye-bye,
middle-class tax cut" and "hello, consumption taxes." Rush joked
last Friday about how Democrats will soon be taxing air, but the
latest Clinton economic plan comes really close to this absurdity
by taxing energy according to BTUs expended.

"You people don't even now the scope of what's ahead of you,"
Rush warns. He notes that EIB recently had a "quite candid"
discussion with "Lloyd Bentsen," and he plays a couple of sound
bites from that interview. On the middle-class tax cut, "Bentsen"
says "those fools in the middle class buy that tax cut line every
time." On the deficit, "Bentsen" said "$18 billion - why, that's
nothing."

Rush notes that only his show can produce this sort of candor in
America's elected officials.

Phone   Carol from Chattanooga, TN

Carol wants to know why the Clinton administration has thrown the
White House press corps out and refused to let them back in. Rush
says that Carol is referring to how the Clinton administration
has closed off press access to the offices of George
Stephanopoulos and Dee Dee Myers; historically, their offices
have been open to the White House press corps.

Rush explains that one of the reasons for this is that Hillary's
office is now in the West Wing, which is taking space away from
that previously allocated for press and media purposes. However,
there's more to it than this, and Rush asks Carol why she thinks
this was done.

Carol says that she heard Helen Thomas, White House press corps
veteran extraordinaire, comment on this and Thomas was most
upset. Carol thinks that Clinton and his people are trying to
limit access to their administration and to keep a lot of news
from the public.

Rush says that one reason Clinton is doing this is because he's
trying to imitate how Ronald Reagan handled the press during his
two terms. Reagan was a master at going directly to the people,
without his words being filtered and interpreted by the press.
Because Reagan was able to communicate effectively over
television, he went over the heads of the media and spoke right
to the people.

The 1992 Presidential candidates were praised by many for using
television and talk shows to address the people in a more direct
manner, but Reagan was really the first President to do this.
Clinton's people understand this and this is why they have de-
emphasized the daily presence of the press in covering the
Clinton Presidency.

The question about the closing of the press offices, though, is
whether Clinton authorized it or did Stephanopoulos take it upon
himself? The press is squawking big time about this, and in the
past, Clinton has shown himself to be vulnerable to this sort of
criticism. It will be interesting to see if this pattern is
repeated now.

The basic thing to understand, though, is that the Clinton
administration wants its policies and words to be stated on its
own terms as much as possible, without having their words
filtered and modified by the press. The example of Reagan has not
been lost on Clinton, and he is hoping to follow it.

*BREAK*

Rush plays more of the truth from "Lloyd Bentsen" who says "we're
never going to reduce this deficit and he knows it!" Rush is
pleased he can bring the candid truth to the nation.

Phone   Jeff from Cleveland, OH

Jeff says that if liberals object to Rush's "America Held
Hostage" line, then they should consider how liberals have tied
the hands of entrepreneurs and held them hostage for years. Jeff
also wonders if conservatives are being far too polite and
reserved in comparison to liberals.

Rush says that Goodman's article shows he considers Rush to be
"crude" and "raging on the raving right." Liberals obviously
don't think conservatives are too polite at all; the media,
though, has controlled the media for too long, which is why they
cannot understand why shows such as Rush's are so popular. The
same thing can be said of why the public is so angry at Zoe Baird
- people in Washington have been stunned at the anger and
response that her case has generated in the American public.

However, this anger is easily understandable - Baird is yet
another person of privilege who did something the people
themselves can't do; she then turned around and asked to be
excused for her crime so that she could become the nation's
highest law enforcement officer. Liberals don't understand this,
probably because they still think they've been in chains and
shackles for the past 12 years.

During the Inaugural celebrations, one celebrity after another
sang a song about "freedom" and how they were again free. Yet,
what are these people free from? How have their freedoms been
denied during the past 12 years? Republicans opposed the use of
federal funds to support some of these people's perverted art,
yet nobody tried to stop them from pursuing art with their own
funds. Is this what they think being enslaved means?

Rush thinks that all of this talk about "freedom" really means
that they think they are free from any morality. They now believe
that they can go through life without any moral judgments being
made against them. This is how they view conservatives - people
who condemn anyone who doesn't follow a strict moral code.

Now that Clinton is in the White House, though, they think that
they will have carte blanche to do anything they want. If Rush is
right about this, then the country can expect to see a continuing
and even accelerating lack of morality in the "arts."

*BREAK*

The Associated Press reports that after Harry Bloodworth-Thomason
gave his speech to the National Press Club, he was asked if he
saw the ghost of Abraham Lincoln that reportedly haunts the
Lincoln Bedroom. Rush says that he's certain the reason this
legend of the ghost got started is because the room has the most
haunting portrait of Lincoln; the picture is huge and accents
Lincoln's deep, hollow, piercing eyes, which seem to be looking
straight at you.

Thomason said that he didn't see the ghost of Abraham Lincoln,
but he did see a note by Rush Limbaugh which said "ha, ha - I
slept here first!" Rush points out that he did not write "ha,
ha," and people shouldn't believe this spurious lie which implies
he did not show the proper respect while in the White House.

Rush realizes he referred to Harry Thomason as "Harry
Bloodworth-Thomason." He apologizes for confusing Harry with his
wife, and then muses on whether Clinton should now be called
"President Bill Rodham."

*BREAK*

SECOND HOUR

Items

o       USA Today has the headline "Iraq denies shooting at US
planes." Rush points out that the latest attack on Iraq occurred
after Clinton's inauguration; the Iraqis, though, are claiming
that this attack was totally unjustified since they didn't shoot
at any American planes. Does this therefore mean that the US is
now being governed by a blood-thirsty, war-mongering, "I'll show
those Iraqis" President?

After all, this is what some people accused Bush of doing.
Another explanation, of course, is that the military is just
doing things on its own, which is something Rush admits he
prefers to the alternative of Clinton telling them what to do.

o       Rush saw an interesting picture in this morning's San
Francisco Chronicle - a little girl is kneeling down and is
face-to-face with a pig. The picture's caption reads "Zoe
McLaughlin, 12, of San Francisco, stops to talk with Annabelle, a
three-year-old pig near the riding stables in Golden Gate Park
yesterday. Both were out enjoying the sunshine."

Rush says that the pig has no idea about what the sun is or what
sunshine means. Pigs don't get "happy" when the sun comes out
because they don't have the mind that can understand what is
going on. The pig did not head out to the park because it wanted
to enjoy the sunshine, but this is what animal rights activists
love to make people think, the activists love to portray animals
as human beings. The pig is in the park only because somebody let
it out of its cage.

Also, though, pigs cannot talk because they aren't human beings,
and although Zoe may be talking to the pig, it is not talking
back and it doesn't understand what she is saying. The EIB staff
says that pigs are supposed to be as intelligent as dolphins, but
Rush has his doubts, especially since pigs like to wallow in
their own slop.

Update  Feminist         (The Forester Sisters, "Men" with "in
your face" slogan)

The EIB staff confuses Rush a bit because they mix in some
feminist drummers with the Update theme, but he quickly realizes
what they are up to. Continuing on with the update, Christie
Hefner was featured on 60 Minutes last night because she has
revitalized her father's Playboy empire, saving it from declining
revenues.

Rush has to admit that Hefner is "quite a gal." After a moment he
realizes his gaffe, and rephrases his compliment as "quite a
lady." The EIB staff, however, still doesn't think this is quite
appropriate, and Rush gives up - "oh, hell - she's a swell dame!"

Hefner, however, has not only saved the company, but expanded the
business. Furthermore, she has succeeded where many men have
failed. Playboy, of course, is a company that has succeeded and
prospered by "publishing photos of naked women body parts in
rather close-up range."

Leslie Stahl therefore asked Christie Hefner if feminists
"accept" her for exploiting women. Rush has to ask since when the
US has had a "Supreme Court of Feminism" that decides whether a
woman's success is "acceptable" or not. Rush had thought that
feminists believed choice was an overriding goal; if so,
shouldn't Christie Hefner, the epitome of the 90s liberated
woman, be able to run a company that publishes photos of naked
women?

If choice is really what feminism is all about, then shouldn't
women have the choice to live their lives as they want? Shouldn't
women be allowed to be beauty contestants or stay-at-home moms?
This is why many women are so angry at feminism, because
feminists attack the choices these women have made for
themselves.

Rush would have thought that feminists would readily praise a
woman who has done what men could not, and who has bucked the
recession and overcome the magazine industry's declining ad
revenues. Shouldn't feminists be proud of what this woman has
done? Of course they aren't, and this is why these feminists are
feminazis - they freely condemn other women who don't follow
their narrowly prescribed ideology.

*BREAK*

Items

o       Rush says that he slept very fitfully last night, waking
up every 10 minutes or so. He also had a nightmare that when he
arrived in San Francisco, his TV syndicator forced him to do a TV
show for publicity. Since he doesn't have a TV studio on the West
Coast, Rush dreamed that he did the show on the street, with
people lining up on the rooftops along the street.

Furthermore, the audience was full of people who hate him with
every fiber of their being. To make things worse, Rush was
wearing a pair of pants that had only the left pant leg. The EIB
staff asks if the people around him had rotting vegetables, and
Rush says no, but they did have stupid looks on their faces. The
EIB staff suggests that the people were rotting vegetables.

In his dream, Rush started the show and nobody responded at all;
it was as if they were mannequins. Rush then woke up and
fortunately did not resume the dream when he went back to sleep.
He bets that some psychologists in the audience will jot off deep
analyses of his dream and fill his mailbox with them.

o       Rush received a CompuServe note that told him a Saginaw
paper did a poll on whether people liked him. Instead of the 200
to 300 responses the paper normally gets for its polls, the paper
got 1500 votes, with 58% of the people supporting Rush. The
person who wrote Rush with this news, though, was part of the 42%
who hated Rush, and said "if you'd just be a little more liberal
and agree with liberals once in a while, I'd have more respect
for you."

Rush, though, wonders why he should have to compromise his
principles by agreeing with people whom he steadfastly opposes.
This is another example of how much liberals love symbolism;
besides, Rush has tried to agree with liberals but his audience
doesn't buy it (e.g. his "support" for Clinton).

o       Rush regrets that he has never been able to accept Tim
Russert's invitation to appear on Meet the Press. Moynihan,
though, was on the program yesterday and was asked about how
Donna Shalala is claiming that she is not going to change her
mind on the need for welfare reform. Moynihan replied that all
it's going to take to smooth out this situation is to take
Shalala out for a cup of coffee and tell her the way things are
in Clinton's Washington.

"I tell you what, Senator Moynihan," Rush advises, "when you have
a cup of coffee with Ms. Shalala, it's going to be spat right
back in your face if you try to change her mind on this welfare
reform."

*BREAK*

Items

o       Rush plays another one of his "Bentsen" sound bites - "I
quit the country club once for Dukakis, I'm not doing it again!"
He also adds his official EIB-disclaimer, delivered at warp
speed: "celebrity-voices-heard-on-the-Rush-Limbaugh-show- not-
necessarily-those-of-the-people-speaking." He spells it out for
his listeners in Rio Linda - these "Bentsen" sound bites were
actually recorded by a caller who sounds exactly like Lloyd
Bentsen.

Rush had thought that people would be hip enough to realize what
he was doing, but Bo Snerdley has told him that he has had many
calls from people who are outraged that Rush has not been doing
any disclaimers for this impersonator. Rush repeats the
disclaimer, even more quickly than before, just in case anyone
still thinks he's trying to pull a fast one.

o       Rush recalls the "President Rodham" comment he made last
hour, and he replays the conversation Bill and Hillary had during
last week's open house at the White House. Hillary is giving
orders like a field general, and not only does Clinton agree with
her but he practically begs for a bathroom break. "There's a lot
we have yet to learn about this duo," Rush states.

Phone   Bonnie from Madison Heights, VA

Bonnie saw This Week With David Brinkley yesterday, and one of
the guests claimed that the reason the general public was so
upset about Zoe Baird was because people can easily understand
this case, while they can't relate to "more complicated" issues
such as Iran-Contra. According to this pundit, Zoe Baird was
"something the barstool sitters could relate to."

Bonnie is angry that there are still people in Washington who
really think the public is just sitting on barstools "waiting for
Big Brother to tell us what to do." Rush didn't see the show, but
it's clear that the press inside the Beltway continually focuses
on things which the people aren't interested in, and ignores the
issues people really care about.

This is why so many reporters called Rush to find out why
Americans were so angry about the Zoe Baird issue. In the
meantime, though, these people have been pounding Iran-Contra,
Iraqgate, and the October Surprise into the ground, trying to
make these things into real news; the people, though, simply
aren't interested.

Bonnie thinks the press is more concerned with "making news" and
telling the people what to think and what to do. It seems to her
that this is just part and parcel of the general trend in this
country towards a more socialist state where Big Brother controls
everything people do.

Rush doesn't think that the country really has to worry about
going that far, because socialism doesn't work; it's failed
everywhere it's been tried. The real problem is that there are
still those who don't get it, and these utopians can still do a
lot of damage with their futile attempts to turn America toward
socialism.

Phone   Stephanie from <<unknown>>

Stephanie says that there is hope for America. Rush says that
this is a given simply because he's here and on the air.
Stephanie admits this is true, but adds that her 16-year-old
little sister smuggles her Walkman into class each day so that
she can listen to Rush at school.

Rush is flattered and says that he is hearing more and more of
these stories every day. Some teachers even play his show during
detention, and students are begging to be allowed to stay in
detention just to listen. Stephanie says that her sister's
teachers are liberal, and wore Clinton buttons before the
election; her sister, however, remains unbowed and even wears her
"Just Say No to Democrats" T-shirt to class.

Rush thanks Stephanie for calling in with this heartening news.

*BREAK*

Phone   Kerry from Philadelphia, PA

Kerry says that Les Aspin is meeting with military leaders about
ending the ban on gays in the military; Kerry is worried that the
blood supply for soldiers may be compromised by having gays in
the military. Rush says that this is one reason why many oppose
ending the ban. Others, though, are claiming that gays are just
the next civil rights battleground, and that this battle will
mirror the one that happened about having blacks in the military.

Another school of thought says that the status quo should be
maintained - gays are in the military, but they are undercover
now and there's no reason to change. Plus, there's a big
difference between a characteristic such as skin color, and a
behavior such as the homosexual lifestyle. Some people fear that
openly admitting gays into the military may sanction homosexual
behavior and lifestyles.

An example of this is an editorial cartoon that shows what
"lights out" at a military barracks will be when the ban on gays
is lifted. Six guys are in their bunks, and five of them are wide
awake with looks of fear on their faces. The sixth man, who is
the gay soldier, is sleeping peacefully.

In addition to the blood supply question, there are questions
about how the morale of the military will be affected by openly
admitting gays. If gays are openly admitted into the services,
will this have any affect on future recruitment?

One thing that may happen, though, is that the debate on gays in
the military may finally change the AIDS issue from a civil
rights one into a medical one. For far too long, AIDS has not
been viewed as a disease, but as a civil rights concern, but the
implications AIDS poses for the military may change this.

However, it's simply not true that opposition to gays in the
military is founded on bigotry, fear, and ignorance. General
Colin Powell is not threatening to quit the Army over this issue
because he's homophobic, but because military history has taught
a number of lessons over the years.

These lessons must be remembered, especially since the function
of the military is not to implement the social issues of the
moment, but to kill people and break things. The military is too
important to the nation to allow activists to casually experiment
with it, especially if this means ignoring the lessons of
history.

One thing about this issue that will be fun to watch, however, is
that Congress is not that much in favor of ending the ban. In
particular, Les Aspin is very hesitant about it, and so watching
this issue play out over the next few months will make for some
interesting politics.

*BREAK*

A San Diego jury has ruled in favor of urologist Howard Lowe who
discontinued treatment on a gay patient who was impotent. Lowe
said he stopped the treatment because he feared he might be
contributing to the spread of AIDS if he had cured the man's
impotence. The gay patient sued the doctor, but the jury ruled
against the patient. Rush thinks this is a landmark decision, but
today's USA Today story gives it only seven lines.

*BREAK*

THIRD HOUR

Items

o       Rush's name is apparently all over the press today -
first, Lars Erik Nelson and Walter Goodman in New York talk about
him, and then Matt Rausch in his "Critics Choice" column in
today's USA Today reviews Comedy Central's "Women Aloud" talk
show. Rausch does his review of the show, but ends his last line
with "obviously not for Rush Limbaugh zealots."

Rush has to wonder how his audience likes being called "zealots"
and "followers"; the press is never satisfied at calling his
listeners "listeners," but always has to denigrate them somehow.
Rush suspects these people are "conservaphobic" - they preach
multiculturalism and openness, but this tolerance stops when
conservatives are concerned.

o       Bo Snerdley is a proud African-American, and he likes to
tease Rush about how western civilization has stolen its culture
from Ancient Egypt. According to Bo, every thing good in the
world was ripped off from the Egyptians. Now a news item in
today's paper shows that this is the "Week of Bo."

A Harvard professor claims that ancient Egyptians sailed up the
Mississippi 3,000 years before Columbus. Bo remarks that he is
not surprised. Rush tells him that his source is the National
Inquirer, but Bo is undeterred from his faith in his ancient
ancestors. According to the Inquirer, Dr. Barry Fell, a professor
of marine biology, claims that some Indians have even
incorporated Egyptian words into their vocabularies.

The EIB staff points out that there is a Cairo, IL, and Rush adds
that southern Illinois also has a Thebes and Little Egypt. Bo is
proud that his ancestors were the first to visit Illinois.

o       Today's USA Today has a picture of Jesse Jackson in a
camp of deprived, starving Haitians, and he's bending down with
both hands outstretched to a woman who has only one hand
outstretched to him. Rush is not surprised that Jackson is using
both hands - he's probably doing it out of force of habit.

The picture's caption reads "A Haitian woman asks Jesse Jackson
to `give me one dollar.'" Rush notes that the story doesn't say
if Jackson accommodated the woman's request, but the picture
shows both his hands as being empty.

o       The January 22nd issue of the Cleveland Plain Dealer has
a story that supports much of what William Raspberry said in his
column last week about how America is lowering its standards. The
Plain Dealer reports that two girls have been charged with
plotting to murder their junior high school English teacher
because she told one of them to pay attention in class.

Furthermore, 10 to 15 classmates placed $200 in bets about
whether the two seventh-grade girls, aged 12 and 13, would
actually kill the 46-year-old teacher. The girls came within
minutes of committing the murder, according to police officials,
and they were carrying the knife that was to have been used to
stab the teacher.

Police say that they were most surprised by how callous the girls
appeared about the whole matter. Instead of tears, the girls were
laughing and joking with each other in the holding cell. The
girls freely admitted what they planned to do, and they did so in
cold, emotionless tones.

Rush says that he is not surprised by this since he has been
warning against the continued devaluation of human life for the
past four years. He adds that these girls obviously have no
respect, no regard, and no awe for the sanctity of life. This
certainly appears to have something to do with how society seems
reluctant to criticize anyone's lifestyle or to condemn anything
as wrong.

Furthermore, a society which kills 1.5 million babies a year for
25 years has to be affected adversely by this slaughter. The NY
Times even has an editorial today supporting Jack Kevorkian and
his efforts to become Dr. Death; instead of condemning Kevorkian,
the Times blames society for not carrying enough to kill its sick
citizens. Given all this, is it that surprising that two young
girls don't think killing their teacher is a big deal?

The police chief says "we've trivialized violence - it's no big
deal anymore." Rush agrees and says that this is what can be
expected from a society in which there is no absolute morality
and no absolute values.

*BREAK*

Phone   Mark from Boston, MA

Mark gives dittos from Boston, "where there are more feminazi
wannabes than anywhere else in the country." Rush comments that
if someone wants to be a feminazi, then there's nothing stopping
them from achieving their goal. Mark has a suggestion as to whom
Bill Clinton could appoint as Attorney General, now that Zoe
Baird is out of the picture - Anita Hill.

Rush calls that a "fine suggestion - she's an icon of a jurist."
Mark recalls how during the ABA's meeting in San Francisco,
Hillary Clinton praised Hill, who then received an award from the
ABA. Rush suggests that all of his listeners should call the
White House to tell Clinton they want Anita Hill; after all, if
this is what Lars Erik Nelson thinks Rush routinely does, then
why disappoint him?

Rush would love to see Hill's confirmation hearing, especially
with Carol Moseley-Braun asking some of the questions. He thanks
Mark for this great suggestion and muses on the possibility of
doing a skit about this. Mark hopes that Rush enjoys his stay in
San Francisco and doesn't get wet, but Rush says that the weather
is perfect and as sunny as he could ever hope it would be.

Phone   Mike from Kansas City, MO

Mike saw Les Aspin on Face the Nation yesterday; Rush admits he
didn't see any of the Sunday news shows because he was out being
a tourist. Mike says that Aspin basically said that the military
now has to deal with the same problems (i.e. gays) that the rest
of the country has to deal with.

Rush is not surprised because this is one of the techniques that
the left uses to implement their social policies. He had dinner
the other night with a group of friends and associates, and one
man stated that gays in the military was just an obstacle that
the country will have to overcome, just as having blacks in the
military was overcome several decades ago. Rush promises more
about this after the break.

*BREAK*

Rush says that if the military is forced to reflect the current
social issues, then the military's real purpose and reason for
being are going to be diluted. The military's standards and codes
of conduct, which have been developed over the years and have
proven to aid the military in its mission, will have to be
changed.

The fact that this is happening during peace time is one reason
many people feel freer to do these changes, but Les Aspin seems
to be changing from the conservative person he's been on military
matters for the past decade or so. Aspin is now hemming and
hawing and avoiding the issue. This is easily explainable, though
- Aspin has a boss and is now working for the President, and like
anyone else he will do what the boss wants.

Rush says that Clinton will get rid of the ban on gays in the
military in two stages. First, Aspin will instruct the Secretary
of Defense not to enforce the ban on gays and to end all
prosecutions of gays. After six months or a year, Clinton will
lift the ban with an executive order. Aspin is thus setting the
stage to justify why the directive ending the enforcement of the
ban is needed.

However, it's still clear that once the military gets saddled
with all of these social concerns, it will end up spending far
too much time fighting lawsuits and not training to fight real
battles.

Phone   Michelle from Lansing, IL

Michelle's husband served in the Army at Fort Bragg, and she
doesn't think that the political cartoon Rush discussed is quite
accurate. The five straight soldiers aren't going to be lying
awake in fear, but rather will be lying awake thinking of ways to
make the gay's life miserable.

Rush says that this is a good point, because this is bound to
happen. Gay activists are already complaining about the rising
tide of gay violence, and so if social problems have to be
transferred into the military as Aspin states, then violence
against gays will also have to be handled in the military. This
violence is even happening now, from harassment to murder.

Michelle doesn't think that it is realistic for people to think
that it's going to improve a gay man's life to openly admit in
front of his fellow soldiers that he's gay. Soldiers are taught
to have a "macho" mentality, and this won't go well with gays,
according to Michelle.

Rush says that there are a lot of gays who have that instinct and
who can do the job heroically. But allowing gays to openly join
the military will exacerbate many of these problems, which is why
many are counseling to keep the status quo - let gays join but
keeping their homosexuality a secret.

Michelle thinks that the gay rights activists just want to
achieve a paper victory; they want to be able to say they can
join the military, but it's doubtful whether actually entering
the military will improve their lives. Rush hates to be cynical,
but in his experience, people of his generation have not been in
a real rush to join the military; often, as was the case with
Clinton, they ran the other way away from military service.

Now, though, if you are to believe all of this talk about gays in
the military, it seems that everyone who's gay wants to serve
their country. Certainly the service's unlimited health coverage
is an attractive offer, especially with insurance being so
expensive. There are other benefits to being in the military, not
to mention that the US is at peace right now.

Rush doesn't doubt that many people really want to serve their
country, but the financial benefits of military service also have
to be considered when one asks why these people are all of a
sudden demanding to be let in.

*BREAK*

Rush comments that he's got "headphone hair" because he didn't
bring along his "real radio announcer headphones" from the EIB
offices; he is thus suffering the indignity of having his hair
mashed by standard headphones. When he goes out to lunch today,
people will either laugh at him for having headphone hair, or
wonder where he went to get it styled. The EIB staff bets Rush
will start a new fashion trend.

Phone   Laura from Omaha, NB

Laura loves Rush's TV show and adds that the local newspaper
reported that Omahans watch Rush's TV show more than David
Letterman's. She knows Rush would rather not talk about himself,
but just wanted to prove how popular Rush is. Rush comments that
his TV ratings hover around 3.3 to 3.6, while Letterman gets 2.7
to 2.8, which basically means that Rush gets about 600,000 to
800,000 more listeners than Letterman.

Rush adds that although it's common knowledge that Letterman is
moving to CBS, most people don't know that he may also be moving
his show from New York to Los Angeles. New York City is panicked
about this, and Letterman's publicist has managed to use this
fear to great effect; every day the New York papers are full of
stories about how catastrophic Letterman's move to Los Angeles
would be.

Yet, New York still has many other talk shows and Rush doesn't
really see how Letterman's move to LA would really affect NYC
business. The latest news, though, is Letterman's griping about
not being able to find a parking space, and so NYC's traffic czar
is promising to do whatever it takes to find Letterman a
convenient parking space.

Rush wonders what would happen if he threatened to leave New
York; perhaps he could get some freebies out of the city? Rush
thinks about this for a moment and then dismisses the idea
because if he ever made such a threat, Mayor Dinkins would
probably roll out a red carpet leading straight out of town.

Rush, though, wonders why Letterman needs a parking space since
he is making $7 million. Why doesn't he hire a driver and
limousine? Rush suspects that Letterman is just playing games and
trying to convince people that he's just a regular guy. However,
Rush bets that his TV show brings in more affluence to New York
City than a week's worth of Letterman shows. And Geraldo's show
probably creates a deficit for the city, considering the sort of
people he attracts.

*BREAK*

Phone   Pat from Tulsa, OK

Pat is a stay-at-home mom, and she asks why Rush, with all of his
talent and ability, is so divisive. She thinks Rush could
accomplish a lot more if he didn't make fun of so many issues;
she belongs to a diverse group of stay-at-home moms, and they
believe in many issues Rush ridicules.

Rush is out of time, but he will call Pat tomorrow to continue
this discussion.

--
John Switzer             | 1/21/93 - Clinton fails to follow through on promise
                         | to have economic legislation ready the day after the
Compuserve: 74076,1250   | Inauguration. Programmers rejoice because he gives
Internet: [e-mail] | them an excuse to further slip their schedules.