RUSH: Here’s Brian. Brian in Los Angeles. Welcome to the EIB Network, sir. Great to have you with us.
CALLER: Mega dittos from La-La Land, Rush.
RUSH: No, yes, you are in La-La Land, I have to grant you that.
CALLER: I’m a minority because I’m straight. (Laughing.) Anyway —
RUSH: Now, now, now, no, no, no, don’t go there.
CALLER: Okay, sorry, sorry auto.
RUSH: You’re not a minority because you’re straight in La-La Land.
CALLER: Okay. (Laughing.) I keep hearing this commercial on the radio constantly out here about how if you change a light bulb in your house, it will take 400,000 cars off the road, and it baffles my mind so I sat down and started thinking, and I’m not a very smart man, so I wanted to run this by you and maybe you could help me out —
RUSH: I’m sure I can.
CALLER: The wife drives a Camry so I base this on a Camry, not my Ford F-250 7.3 turbo diesel, that I need, I need for work —
RUSH: Don’t justify it. You don’t have to explain to anybody the kind of truck you drive.
CALLER: It’s a beautiful truck.
RUSH: It’s a beautiful truck and you sound like a guy who drives a truck and sound like a guy who drives that kind of truck. You don’t have to defend yourself or explain yourself on this program.
CALLER: Okay. Okay, no problem. Okay, the Toyota Camry, if you took 400,000 of them off road, that would be $10.2 billion, so I’m going to raise that, purchase those and take them off the road this year, that would be like taking 800,000 gallons of oil, 240 million gallons of gas, 200,000 gallons of break fluid, 200,000 tons of steel, 8,000 tons of rubber, I couldn’t come up with a number for roadway repair, labor profit, or tax dollars. But this car boasts a 400 watt speaker system. That’s 160 million watts. That’s 3.2 million —
RUSH: Where we headed with this?
CALLER: Anyway, if you take all this off —
RUSH: Okay, Brian, hold it, hold it, hold it, hold it, I’ve gotta go to a commercial break, and I just know the entire audience is intrigued beyond their ability to handle it to know what’s next. Sit tight so we can all find out.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: I can barely hold my breath here for what comes next with Brian in Los Angeles. I gather what you’ve done is you’ve run all the numbers of these 400,000 Toyota Camrys that would be taken off the street if you switched to compact fluorescent lightbulbs.
CALLER: Right. Right. The thing is, I’m a young, corporate entrepreneur, and I just keep hearing this commercial, and I go over and over in my head, and that last stat that I was giving you, there’s a 400-watt stereo in this car. That would be 160 million watts. Now, in order to equal that in 50-watt lightbulbs, that would 3.2 million 50 watt lightbulbs. Now, that’s not the point because the car has four bulbs in the front at 65 watt, 65 watts, 51 watts, and 51 watts. That would be 92.8 million watts! Now, I know it’s fuel that’s running all this, but —
RUSH: No, no.
CALLER: — you got a make sense.
RUSH: Actually let me intercede here. I know what you’re trying to do, and maybe you’re not missing the point but to me it sounds like you might be missing the point. You’re talking about these compact fluorescents, and one of the things that one of the proponents of the compact fluorescent lightbulb is saying — that’s Laurie David.
CALLER: Right.
RUSH: She’s saying that if we would all just put one of these in our house it would be the equivalent of taking 400,000 cars off the road in terms of pollution.
RUSH: But they don’t say that on the commercial, though. They don’t say that and they don’t say 400 thousand per year, 400 thousand per week, per month. They don’t say any of that. They just say 400,000 on this commercial.
RUSH: If you get a bulb? They just say if you go out and buy one of these bulbs you’ll be doing the equivalent of taking 400,000 cars off the road? Well, look, the bottom line with this is that it’s all a joke and it’s stupid and it’s idiotic, and you’re trying to have fun with it, which I understand —
CALLER: (chuckles)
RUSH: — but the proponents of this are actually trying to say that these lightbulbs, if we all would just put one in our house would be the equivalent of taking 400,000 cars off the highway. They don’t describe what kind of car.
CALLER: Right, and that’s ridiculous, because the sexy voice man voiceover, even says that global warming is not inevitable, it’s a choice. What is that? What is that?
RUSH: Propaganda.
CALLER: Okay. Hey, Rush, thank you so much.
RUSH: All right, Brian.
CALLER: Have a great weekend.
RUSH: You do the same. Keep calculating out there. What kind of entrepreneurial business are you in?
CALLER: Ah, I’m in construction. Yeah, I incorporated four years ago out here in Los Angeles from Cincinnati, and I’ve just go at it every day, six days a week and I try my best.
RUSH: Well, I appreciate that. That’s the can-do spirit.
CALLER: Yes, sir.
RUSH: Let me ask you this question, though. You hire day laborers?
CALLER: No! No!
RUSH: (laughs)
CALLER: From day one, that has been my biggest thing that I will not, cannot, and won’t ever, ever do. Now, I’m going to be honest with you.
RUSH: That’s what I thought.
CALLER: I’ve had subs that I suspected, but I did not card anybody.
RUSH: Well, I appreciate your honesty on that. We need more of that in this country.
CALLER: Thank you, sir.
RUSH: Brian, thank you. I appreciate it.