RUSH: Lisa, Stafford, Virginia, great to have you on the EIB Network. Hello.
CALLER: Hello, Rush. Good to talk to you.
RUSH: Thank you. Same here.
CALLER: Hey, well, I was in the mall in Fredericksburg, Virginia, the other day and completely humiliated my 20-year-old when I thanked Thomas Jefferson for fighting the African pirates —
RUSH: Wait, wait, wait, wait, hold a minute. You were in a mall in Fredericksburg, Virginia, and completely humiliated your 20-year-old?
CALLER: I did.
RUSH: You had a 20-year-old with you?
CALLER: Yes.
RUSH: You humiliated your 20-year-old?
CALLER: Yes.
RUSH: Oh. Oh. Oh. When you thanked Thomas Jefferson for fighting the African pirates, the Barbary Coast pirates?
CALLER: Exactly. I think it’s a little known fact that the United States has been paying the pirates off the coast of Africa since the beginning of our history, and so I was making that known rather loudly in the mall. You know, people think this is all new, but the fact is United States has been paying off these pirate — I don’t know if they currently are, but the history books show that we paid ’em off — and then when Jefferson was president he said, ‘I’ve had enough of this,’ and he sent the United States Navy and eight Marines over to Tripoli to get to the [Navy Frigate USS] Philadelphia that had been captured.
RUSH: Exactly right. And this was the United States’ first encounter with militant Islamists.
CALLER: Yes, it was, sir. That’s another little-known fact.
RUSH: Barbary Coast pirates. These clowns are, too. But yeah, we had our appeasers in the founding days, and we paid ’em off to leave us alone. Protection money. And you’re right, Thomas Jefferson got fed up with it after a while and that was our first armed conflict with these people.
CALLER: It sure was.
RUSH: But your son had no knowledge of this?
CALLER: Oh, it was my daughter. No, she knew. She was just humiliated because I was being rather loud and we were right there in the mall, but I don’t really care.
RUSH: I don’t think it’s so much what you were saying as it is that you’re the parent.
CALLER: Well, probably.
RUSH: I wouldn’t take it personally. I just think, you know, any kid age 30 and below is going to be embarrassed by their parents, especially out in public. I mean, how often does your daughter ask you to go to the movies with her?
CALLER: Actually we go quite frequently.
RUSH: Well, then I take it back. If she’s not embarrassed to be seen at the movies with you, then it may be that she’s reacting specifically to what you said.
CALLER: We’re a strange family. My husband’s a United States Marine and he’s in Afghanistan right now, and we have pretty much stuck together and the girls have been nice to spend their time with me and not their buddies. I’m very lucky.
RUSH: (clapping) Well, God bless you and the family — and you’re doing the Lord’s work out there. You probably shocked your daughter into thinking of something she didn’t want to think about, and that’s always good.
CALLER: Yeah.
RUSH: Get ’em out of the cocoon. Lisa, thanks much. I appreciate the call.