RUSH: Yes, Snerdley, I’m gonna talk about the preacher, but I’ll do it in my own time. (laughing) This guy is from my high school graduating class, Terry Jones, and the media, there’s some media out there accusing me of hiding this fact from all of you. And I didn’t even know it!
I got an e-mail yesterday afternoon right before the program ends, ‘Do you know this guy was in your graduating class?’ No. No. I’m trying to think of who it was. And then somebody sent me the picture from the yearbook. The media is saying, ‘Limbaugh had to know the guy. This guy’s pictures on page 130 of the yearbook, Limbaugh’s on 132.’ (interruption) Well, it’s a small town, yeah, but Dawn do you remember everybody you went to high school with? Do you? My high school was like 2,000 people. Do you remember everybody in it? Look, if this guy’s name happened to be Ennis Slobodnik, then I would remember it, but how many Terry Joneses are there out there? This guy is in Florida to boot. He’s not in Missouri. He didn’t have a mustache. I’ll tell you who this guy was. This guy was a pitcher. He was a left-hand pitcher. I remember him not from school. I don’t ever remember seeing him in school. Not denying it, had to happen, but I don’t remember it. We were in the Babe Ruth League together, which is the next stage after the Little League.
He tried out for the high school baseball team and made it. I didn’t. I didn’t make it. That ticked my dad off but that’s another story. My dad knew the coach and couldn’t understand what happened, but it was a good life lesson for me. Anyway, this guy was a left-handed pitcher and he threw the ball faster than most of the kids in the league at that time, and his father was practically at the pitching mound during the game guiding the kid as he pitched in the game, teaching to throw curveballs and sliders and stuff, and you got the impression he was a very involved (I’ll be gracious about it) father who was obviously trying to shepherd the kid here to a Major League Baseball career. We’ve all seen these kinds of Little League fathers. But that’s the extent. I had no idea the guy was devoted, a man of the cloth, religion. No clue.
When I saw this news yesterday, I said, ‘This is just unbelievable.’ I said, ‘Wait ’til the media finds out about it.’ I sent Levin a note at 5:30 yesterday. I said, ‘You won’t believe this. This guy in Florida is from my high school graduating class.’
He said, ‘This is too good, can I announce it?’
I said, ‘Go ahead.’
He said, ‘Do you remember the guy?’
I said, ‘I don’t, other than from playing baseball.’
He wasn’t even on my team! I don’t remember seeing the guy in the class, certainly don’t remember anything the guy ever did or said in class. I have no clue. Look at this town, Cape Girardeau, Missouri: Me and this preacher Terry Jones, a former Babe Ruth baseball star. Do you know my uncle and cousin are federal judges from Cape Girardeau, Missouri? You wouldn’t believe. I mean there’s stuff the media hasn’t discovered about people who grew up and were born in Cape Girardeau. I sent another friend a note. I said, ‘You won’t believe this. This guy is in my high school graduating class.’ He said, ‘You wait, World War III is gonna start in Cape Girardeau.’ (laughing)
So anyway, it’s funny. ‘What is Limbaugh hiding? Why didn’t Limbaugh admit this? Why is Limbaugh not being forthcoming?’ I’ll tell you who informed me. It was the North Carolina mistress who’s, what, a year or two behind me in high school. She sends me this note: ‘You won’t believe this.’ I must have had four people tell me yesterday. My cousin Steve said, ‘You better go to the KFVS Channel 12 website ’cause they got this guy’s picture up there saying he’s in your high school class.’ It doesn’t mean anything. It has nothing to do with anything, but the media is trying to make it out that it is a big deal.
You know what they want to write. They’re hoping that somewhere in Sarah Palin’s genealogical tree that some of her relatives might be from Cape Girardeau. They are hoping that Glenn Beck’s family might have drank the water in Cape Girardeau. Sean Hannity once went through Cape Girardeau. You know what they’re hoping to do. (laughing) Well, no, Terry Jones’ house is not a tourist stop. Mine is, my old house in Cape Girardeau. There’s a whole map of places in Cape Girardeau where you can go that I was. I don’t think… Well, there might be now. People are gonna start researching. ‘This is where Terry Jones grew up. This is the pitcher’s mound where his dad oversaw throwing sliders.’
You know, Snerdley, what they’re trying to do with this. I know it’s high school. I know it’s high school. I hated high school. In fact, I did not get one signature in my yearbook. I got out of there. I shouldn’t admit this. Well, I can do it, my parents have died. I can’t get in trouble here. I cut two months in high school my senior year. I hated it. I got an excuse. I was hanging around the radio station. (interruption) How did I get out of it? The teachers were so mad when I brought in the notes saying the absence was excused. I mean, it wasn’t two straight months, but the last two months of my senior year I might have been there an aggregate of ten days.
Everybody knew where I was. I was on the radio every day. I’d come in with the note saying ‘the absence is excused,’ and the teacher said, ‘This is not right’ and so forth. But I mean I was slated for graduation. I just didn’t like it. They were not going to hold me over for another year, of course not. I’ve told you people, this is nothing new. I despised it. School was prison to me. My parents made me go to college for one year. I had to go to ballroom dance as a PE course taught by a former drill sergeant in the WACS, and I said, ‘This is not for me.’ I never went to that class and my mom found out about it and took my car away — the car that I bought! She took my car away. My mom was driving me to school in college! You think I had time to figure out where the preacher was? I was trying to get out of there.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Who is Terry Jones’ spiritual mentor? Well, I mean, we know who Barack Obama’s spiritual mentor is (and they tried to keep that news from everybody). It’s the Reverend Jeremiah Wright. We’re gonna know everything about this Terry Jones guy before it’s all said and done — and, of course, that he graduated from my high school, Cape Central High, Class 1969. Go Tigers!
That was the mascot.
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RUSH: A little observation here as we go into our profit center time-out here at the top of the hour. President Obama is left-handed. (He’s not wearing the wedding ring, today, by the way. I’m not saying anything. He’s just not wearing the wedding ring.) President Obama is left-handed today just like Reverend Terry Jones. They must know each other.
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RUSH: So yesterday afternoon, about this time, maybe 2:30 Eastern, bottom-of-the-hour break, I look at the computer, there’s an e-mail: ‘Stand by. This might be the Terry Jones that was in your high school class at Central High in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. Go Tigers.’ (laughing) Can’t be. Cannot be. This guy did not have a mustache, can’t be. After the program a couple more, yep, it looks like it. Then my cousin Steve in Cape Girardeau sends me a note saying, ‘Well, you better go to KFVS Channel 12 Eyeball News website, ’cause they got it all up there, pictures out of the yearbook, everything else.’ I said, ‘Well, how about that?’ So I find out that the Koran-burning preacher in Gainesville, Florida, with a flock of 50 was in my graduating High School class in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, in 1969, go Tigers. I don’t think I was ever in a class with the guy.
My staff, when I mentioned this earlier in the program, started teasing me, ‘Oh, come on, it’s a small town, how do you mean you don’t remember?’ Look, there were 2,200 people in the school. The man’s name is Terry Jones. How many Terry Joneses are there? In the state of Florida alone how many Terry Joneses are there? So when it was brought to my attention and I saw the pictures, ‘Well, okay, I remember this kid from Babe Ruth League baseball.’ He was on another team, little summer baseball league, one notch up from Little League. I remember his dad was very involved. We all had the impression his dad thought this kid was going to be a Major League Baseball pitcher. He was teaching him to throw curveballs and sliders and stuff, and that’s it, that’s the extent, I don’t even remember seeing the guy in the halls. Of course I wasn’t in school much. I also dealt with that in the first hour. I hated it. I just hated school. I don’t think there’s anything in life more that I have despised that I had to do than that. Folks, it was pure torture. I’m sitting in the classroom looking out the window, and there’s people walking by and driving by, and to me they were free and I was a prisoner. Anyway, that’s off the beaten path.
So the media is just so excited by this. (laughing) Oh, they are hoping that we had secret meetings in somebody’s basement back then that nobody is talking about. I don’t even know where Mr. Jones lived in Cape Girardeau. I never saw Mr. Jones to my knowledge other than in the summertime on the baseball diamond when we played Babe Ruth League baseball. He was not on my team because I had to face the guy. I actually liked facing him because I was a right-handed hitter, I always felt more comfortable facing left-handers. I just did. I don’t remember ever having said a word to Mr. Jones, but I know the media. He-he-he-he-he-he-he. They’re trying to find out, ‘Did Mark Levin ever spend any time in Cape Girardeau? Did Sean Hannity ever spend any time? Limbaugh’s brother, number one on the New York Times best-seller list for the second week in a row, Cape Girardeau.’ And now the preacher, who they’re protesting against in Afghanistan. So that’s the extent of it. I don’t know any more than that.
It’s been kind of funny actually. If I could show you the e-mails because the e-mails that people started sending me 24 hours ago were, ‘Uh oh, oh no, you better brace yourself,’ because all my friends know what the media would try to do with this bit of information. If the guy’s name, like I said in the first hour, if his name was Ennis Slobodnik or something, then I would remember. You don’t forget a name like Ennis Slobodnik or Eli Ezra Borntreager, something like that. I remember Eli Ezra Borntreager, but I doubt there’s another one anywhere. I don’t know where he is, either. Don’t misunderstand. Ezra may have a church throwing Molotov cocktails someplace, I have no clue. Terry Jones, I never knew he was religious. He never set fire to second base. He never threatened to burn down the stadium. No. There was no indication that Terry Jones had any affinity for fire or the Word of God. I had no clue. (interruption) What the question? Have I ever been to Gainesville? Honestly I can tell you I have not been to Gainesville. (laughing) Now watch. They’re trying to find out if I’ve been to Gainesville. I haven’t been to Gainesville. I have flown into Tallahassee but I’ve never gotten off the airplane there.
I’ve flown over Gainesville. I’ve never dropped leaflets there. I think I’ve flown over it. It’s probably right there in the center north part of the state, but I’ve never been there, no. Any other questions? Anything else you might anticipate that I might be asked? He never set second base on fire, never threatened to burn down the stadium. I probably conducted more pranks than this guy did when he was in school. What’s the next question? What other extremists did I attend high school with? Were there any Republicans in my high school, and some conservatives? Yes. In fact, one of the people I do remember, it’s sketchy, coming back to me, one guy I was in high school with was in fact the son of a lawyer for the Teamsters. Yes. One was the son of a lawyer for the Teamsters. I remember that distinctly. And I remember another guy I knew. He was the son of somebody who had an asphalt concrete company who got a big contract to built I-55 to nowhere on the way to St. Louis. I remember that.
What other question do you have, Mr. Snerdley? What is the question? Hm-hm. Did I ever make fun of Terry Jones and spark this current rage in high school? No. I do not recall Terry Jones from high school. I don’t know if he had a sister. I recall his father. I’ll tell you what I recall. His father, between innings, would go out and watch the kid warm up in the middle of games, one of these very involved Little League fathers. But, no, I never talked pyrotechnics, religion. I never talked to Mr. Jones other than out there on the baseball — and I don’t even remember that because he was on the other side, he was a competitor. Yes, another question? Last question and we hope to bury this. I hope the media is listening because I’m not going to respond. I don’t have time. I’ve got other things I want to do and I’m not going to respond.
Is there any way he might have gotten these ideas on the Koran from you? I actually got that question a minute ago. Is there any way, because the blogosphere is saying this, would you like to address this? The blogosphere, the slogosphere, bunch of Looney Tune kooks, bigger kooks than he is are on the blogosphere. What’s the last question? Hm-hm. Hm-hm. Hm-hm. As incestuous as the press corps and the power brokers in Washington are, why is this even important? Well, there are two reasons why it’s important. The first original reason why it’s important is because a guy in a small church who has a mustache and a cheap little truck with a sign on it in the front yard of the church in Gainesville fits the template of the media who think that all religious people are southern hayseed hicks. Okay, so this guy fits that template. Now, the second reason they’re interested is to find out to the extent Limbaugh’s involved.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Let me review a little more and answer some other questions about Terry Jones, because I want to make sure I cover every angle, dot every I, cross every T. None of my friends in high school ever blew up the Pentagon. To the best of my knowledge, the Reverend Terry Jones has not blown up the Pentagon. The Reverend Terry Jones I don’t believe has strapped bombs to himself, gotten a gun, taken hostages and claimed he was inspired by Algore, which James Lee at the Discovery building did last week. And of course nobody’s interested in that at all. Barack Obama sat in the pew of the Reverend Jeremiah Wright’s church for 20 years and said, ‘I don’t remember a thing he said.’ I was four years in high school with this guy and they’re not believing me when I say I only remember him from Babe Ruth League baseball. But I don’t have any friends who blew up the Pentagon. He was not my pastor for 20 years. So I don’t know what all this is about. Look, it was 40 years ago. Cut me some slack, media. Obama was in Reverend Wright’s church for 20 years a couple years ago, and doesn’t remember a thing he said.
And finally, you can look wherever you want in the Girardot, that’s the high school yearbook and you will not find Terry Jones voted ‘Most likely to incite a Muslim riot.’ You will not find it. Terry Jones has not won the Louis Farrakhan Lifetime Achievement Award as has President Obama’s preacher, the Reverend Wright. I don’t believe the Reverend Terry Jones has ever said, ‘God d- the US of KKK.’ I don’t think the Reverend Terry Jones ever said we deserve what we got on 9/11. That’s about it.
Now, one more brief departure. A woman I know had a birthday yesterday in Minnesota. Her name is Shammy. She turned 94. She is a regular listener to this program, and she just recently converted an 89-year-old liberal in Chicago to this program ’cause I’ve gotten to know Shammy over the years and Shammy told her 89-year-old liberal buddy that I’m a nice guy and that’s all it took for the 89-year-old liberal woman in Chicago to become a fan. So I meant to wish Shammy a happy birthday yesterday. She listens in the basement of her house every day, I think in Eden Prairie. Not far from Brett Favre Brett Favre Brett Favre headquarters, Minnesota Vikings training complex. I can always find a way to relate this to the National Football League. Anyway, happy birthday, Shammy. And I should also point out, Terry Jones has never heard of Shammy, and Shammy has never before today heard of Terry Jones. I’ve never discussed Terry Jones with Shammy, and she’ll back me up on this. I think what the media is trying to do is trying to tie me to Terry Jones because they want the Muslims to call a fatwa on my head. They’ve tried everything else. Get the Muslims on my case. Have a fatwa against the EIB Network.
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RUSH: Brian, Colorado Springs, great to have you on the EIB Network, sir. Hello.
CALLER: Hey, Rush. Nine years ago, well, the imam, he wants us to have tolerance for the building of the mosque. Nine years ago, 3,000 Americans were murdered and there was no tolerance shown. And then Daniel Pearl, he was decapitated, there was no tolerance shown. So I don’t want to listen to this imam. I know his ultimate goal is to build the mosque so that he can show the Muslim world — that’s like a victory thing for them. And I think over there in the Middle East, whatever, when they conquered people, they built mosques to show they were conquerors, and I don’t trust that guy, and I don’t trust the vacationer-in-chief we have as president, either.
RUSH: Again, you are one voice in a chorus of an increasing number of millions. But I would just say, remind you the story we had yesterday, this imam actually said that had he known in advance it was going to cause all this trouble he would not have put it there, but it’s too late now because it will be seen as a sign of weakness and there will be Muslim uprisings. What? So regardless here, we are supposed to kowtow to the threat of militant Muslim uprising. Oh, yeah, he says, okay, he wouldn’t have put it there if he’d have known there would be this division, but now it’s too late, and now he can’t move it because that’s gonna cause all kinds of riots and uprisings in the religion of peace. So this is what I hear people saying in their own words. They’re saying and asking, ‘Why are we bending over all the time here? What did we do?’ We got Reverend Wright saying America’s chickens have come home to roost, you know, a lot of Americans said, ‘Okay, yeah, we’ve supported Israel, yeah, we’ve been imperialist, well, what do you expect, they blow up the World Trade Center, yeah, with our planes, yeah. Well, we kind of deserve it.’ Most Americans said, ‘What the hell did we do? Why do we have to keep bending over? Why do we have to keep apologizing? Why do we have to keep showing tolerance? What did we do? What did those 3,000 people do? What’s the price they had to pay? Who’s in charge of that?’ Whatever the subject matter when people call this program, there is an effervescing dissatisfaction and anger at the way the, quote, unquote, ruling class, particularly on the Democrat side, is not only leading the country, but taking it, and they’re not happy about it. Thanks, Brian, for the call. Appreciate it.
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RUSH: Mike in Columbus, welcome to the EIB Network. Hello.
CALLER: Hi, Rush. Dittos. Hey, I’m just getting back to Jones. I know we probably should have ended the conversation a while back but…
RUSH: No, no, no. It’s Open Line Friday. It’s an open-ended conversation. Say whatever you want to say.
CALLER: Well, I just wanted to know how many people would be defending Jones if he called it ‘art.’
RUSH: Well, I get your point. Like if he was going to burn the Koran or not even burn it, just sink it in a beaker of urine.
CALLER: That’s right. Mapplethorpe. Exactly.
RUSH: Andres Serrano put a crucifix in a jar of urine and it was on display in museums. It was a ‘work of art.’
CALLER: Who was that? Mapplethorpe?
RUSH: No, Mapplethorpe was an artist.
CALLER: Who’s the one who threw doo-doo on a painting?
RUSH: I don’t know if Mapplethorpe threw ‘doo-doo’ on a painting. He might have done that. Mapplethorpe had erotic art and then there was somebody that threw elephant dung on a painting at the Brooklyn Museum.
CALLER: Yeah.
RUSH: I don’t think that was Mapplethorpe. It might have been. And then there was some wacko, Karen Finley, who covered herself in chocolate on stage and was paid to do it by the National Endowment for the Arts. So we know where you’re going with this.
CALLER: Yeah.
RUSH: Obviously, Reverend Jones is not sophisticated enough to understand how to pull this off (laughing) —
CALLER: (laughing)
RUSH: — and get credit for it. Instead of doing this on the front lawn of his church he needs to rent space in a museum. If Jones does not do this, if he ends up not burning the Koran, he needs to be the first recipient of the Courageous Restraint Medal.
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RUSH: All right. Robert Mapplethorpe, he had a fetish with whips in various orifices. That was Mapplethorpe. He was not the doo-doo guy. The doo-doo guy, the elephant dung… (interruption) Yeah, the doo-doo person was an elephant — a woman. She put elephant poop on a picture or something at the Brooklyn museum. I forget what it was.