Richard Battle answers the question, “How can we teach our children to use their gifts to serve others, not just themselves?” Plus—what’s really happening inside America’s SNAP and welfare programs? Are they helping families climb out of hardship, or trapping them in it? https://RichardBattle.com https://RushToReason.com
SPEAKER 17 :
This is Rush to Reason.
SPEAKER 06 :
You are going to shut your damn yapper and listen for a change because I got you pegged, sweetheart. You want to take the easy way out because you’re scared. And you’re scared because if you try and fail, there’s only you to blame. Let me break this down for you. Life is scary. Get used to it. There are no magical fixes.
SPEAKER 17 :
With your host, John Rush.
SPEAKER 10 :
My advice to you is to do what your parents did!
SPEAKER 06 :
Get a job, Turk! You haven’t made everybody equal. You’ve made them the same, and there’s a big difference.
SPEAKER 09 :
Let me tell you why you’re here. You’re here because you know something. What you know, you can’t explain. But you feel it. You’ve felt it your entire life. That there’s something wrong with the world. You don’t know what it is, but it’s there. It is this feeling that has brought you to me.
SPEAKER 04 :
Are you crazy? Am I? Or am I so sane that you just blew your mind?
SPEAKER 14 :
It’s Rush to Reason with your host, John Rush, presented by Cub Creek Heating and Air Conditioning.
SPEAKER 16 :
All right, Hour 2, Rush to Reason, Denver’s Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560. Richard Battle joining us now. Richard, how are you, sir?
SPEAKER 05 :
Good afternoon, John. We’re doing fantastic. Thank you.
SPEAKER 16 :
All right, we’ve all been given gifts, music that inspires American hearts. Talk to us about that.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, one of the things that we’ve had people in government try to do is make everyone equitable or equal, and people that have multiple kids know that you can’t do that regardless of your parenting style. But we’ve all received gifts at birth that we have the opportunity to develop, and that development and service from those gifts helps others. And so this is an example of one from a field we haven’t talked about, but one that inspires us all when we hear his creations.
SPEAKER 16 :
I’ve said this many times, although probably not enough, Richard. I don’t have a musical bone in my body. I can somewhat sing a tune. That’s about the extent of it. Don’t play any instruments. Never tried. Never learned. Never had a desire to. I can play the radio. That’s about it. And I admire those individuals that do those things so well because that’s not how my brain works.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, exactly. And as I’ve told you before, I’m the only person I know that was asked to lip sync in the second grade Christmas pageant. Good one. So I know. And I realized a few years ago that a lot of the personal development classes I took in business or other places, they would focus on areas that we weren’t strong and try to help us develop those. And just lately, I attended one where it focused on our strengths. Yep. And so the better we develop our strengths, the better we can impact people and we can let other people who are strong at the areas we’re not strong serve those areas.
SPEAKER 16 :
Absolutely. No, I’m a big believer in that. In fact, I might even chime in after we’re done in the next segment about that because I think that’s really key for young people especially. But talk to us about these particular – let’s talk about music. I mean, that’s really what we’re talking about here, Richard, and something that I’m a big fan of. I love music. I’m not very good at creating it, but I sure love it.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah. Well, the person that I wanted to highlight today is John Philip Sousa, and we have him in Americans Who Made America, the 19th century volume. And on October 1st, 1880s, when he became the conductor for the United States Marine Corps Band. His birthday is next week, the 250th anniversary of the Marine Corps coming up in about 10 days as well, which is part of the reason we picked him. But he illustrated that he was gifted in music, and he developed it beyond what most people do, and it presents us gifts too. every day and every time we hear it all right so give us some examples of some of the things he left us or he gave us i should say let me say it that way our national he was known as the march king he wrote over 130 marches and so a lot of times when you see parades and you see military bands or others performing marches they’re his our national march is the stars and stripes forever right And the Marine Corps march is Semper Fidelis. I know everyone will recognize those songs when they see them, and they were written so long ago, but they will still stir hearts and get our feet tapping when we hear those play.
SPEAKER 16 :
Very well said. No, very well said. Okay, so he does these things, and yet – and by the way, this is the nice thing about music. I think even more so, Richard, than – I mean, art and poems and literature and things like that, I mean, it lasts for a very long time as well. Don’t get me wrong. But there’s something about music that – We have an oldie station. It’s a sister station here called Legends here next door. It’s just a couple of doors down from where I’m at right now. And we play oldies on it continually. And there’s something about music, Richard, that is just everlasting. I don’t know how else to say it.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, that’s exactly correct. And what’s interesting, the music that he composed are probably the most famous songs in our country next to the Star Spangled Banner. And that’s what’s amazing. Most of the people that conduct bands, few will compose things. Very few will reach the heights. John Williams here contemporaneously said, probably the most noted composer that we have, but not even he has composed things that reached as many generations as Sousa did. And what’s interesting to me is He wanted to write and did write other types of music as well, but it was the marches that people loved and very patriotic music back before the globalism attacked us, if you will, and when people of both parties loved the country and most people loved America and loved celebrating America.
SPEAKER 16 :
Before the Marxists started to take over is what you’re trying to say.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, yes.
SPEAKER 16 :
That’s exactly what it is. All right, talk to us about some of his famous quotes and things that he believed in.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, one of the things I think is important was that he recognized that it wasn’t he that was composing this great music that was celebrated by so many people. And he said, “…any composer who is gloriously conscious that he is a composer must believe that he receives his inspiration from a source higher than himself.” And I think that’s important because so often today we see successful music people, and almost all of them are self-focused and believe that they are the only creation creating this particular music, if you will. They don’t recognize the divine providence involved. And so he had that humble spirit that I think enabled him to hear the inspiration and create the music.
SPEAKER 16 :
By the way, I can’t disagree with him on that because, again, as I was telling you, I marvel at people that can do this. They can take just even a piece of regular notebook paper and draw lines across it and put musical notes on it and words to it. And I just sit there and think, how does your brain do that? Because my brain doesn’t have that functionality at all, Richard.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, no, and if we – Translate that into other areas. If we as parents and grandparents, if we can help young people identify their gifts early and then start to work on those gifts and develop them and let them know that the gift isn’t just theirs, but they have a responsibility to develop it and use it to help other people. And Adam Smith, the great Scottish philosopher back in the 18th century, wrote The Wealth of Nations. And one of the things he recognized was when people pursued their self-interest and utilized their unique gifts, that it came together to help the country be better because we all are better together when we’re all using our gifts uniquely to help each other.
SPEAKER 16 :
He has a quote that I did not know came from him. I know most people know this quote, and they probably have no idea where the originator of said quote was, and that’s the dance as though, and I’ll let you finish it, because I don’t think most people know that’s where it came from, Richard.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, I think most people would be shocked. Agree, I am. And he said, dance as though no one is watching. Love as though you’ve never been hurt. Sing as though no one can hear you. Love as though heaven is on earth. And that is so profound and so true. And if we think about how we can incorporate that into our lives and the freedom that would give us that, to live better lives. That’s what’s so important. And with that freedom, then we can do more than we’re doing, and we can help more, and we can impact more people for longer periods.
SPEAKER 16 :
What he really is saying there, really, in a nutshell, is time is short, have fun, live in the right way, and don’t worry about what everybody else thinks.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, exactly, and we’ve talked about that another way before about society and culture wants us to compare ourselves to other people. Right. And how do we compare with the Joneses, so to speak? That’s right. And as we’ve said, the only thing that matters is are we better today than yesterday, and what can I do tomorrow to be better than I am today? Absolutely. And when we do that, that releases us from this – anxiety and gives us a freedom to go out and just develop ourselves.
SPEAKER 16 :
Absolutely. Well said. Richard, that’s a great way to close out. I appreciate your time. RichardBattle.com is the website. What can folks find there, by the way, especially as we head down this stretch into the holidays?
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, thank you. All books at richardbattle.com are signed. If you would like something for a gift, email me, richard at richardbattle.com. The Americans Who Made America, the 18th century and 19th century volumes are great gifts for young people. They will inspire people to achieve more than they think they can, because we highlight that American do spirit.
SPEAKER 16 :
Awesome. As always, Richard, appreciate you very much. Enjoy the rest of your day, sir. My pleasure. God bless America. God bless you, Richard. Have a great evening. Golden Eagle Financial coming up next. Al Smith, and he did an interview of late. Listen in. Don’t forget, Al’s got his own program right before ours on Wednesdays, 2 to 2.30 here on KLZ. Find him at klzradio.com.
SPEAKER 04 :
This is TJ with KLZ Radio, and once again, we have Al Smith with us from Golden Eagle Financial. And Al, we’re coming up on the end of the year, and I figure there’s probably quite a few things that a retirement planner has to do to prepare for the new year, yes?
SPEAKER 11 :
Well, there are a couple of things that have a just 31st deadline that we talk to some of our clients about. If people are thinking about converting part of their traditional IRA to Roth, they’re that needs to be done before December 31st and we don’t usually wait until the last week in December because the financial companies get really busy so it’s a good idea to address that in November and usually by then people have a pretty good idea how much money they have earned, and we can guesstimate their tax bracket.
SPEAKER 04 :
So you’re just basically helping them reach out to figure out what sort of distribution they should get from an investment?
SPEAKER 11 :
Well, not so much distribution, but if they’re younger people, they may have a longer-term strategy to convert traditional IRA to Roth. And that will add income to their income tax they pay each year. And we usually wait till near the end of the year because by then people know what tax bracket they will be in. But it has to be done before December 31st.
SPEAKER 04 :
Excellent. And that’s why we trust you, Al. How can people get in touch with you if they want to start their retirement planning adventure with you?
SPEAKER 11 :
That’s a good way to describe it as an adventure. You can reach me at 303-744-1128. And if you’re driving when you hear this, contact KLZ and they’ll put me in contact with you. All right. Thanks for joining us today, Al. Thank you for having me.
SPEAKER 17 :
Putting reason into your afternoon drive. This is John Rush.
SPEAKER 16 :
All right, we are back. Rush to Reason, Debra’s Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560. Okay, I’m changing topics here because I had something I was going to slip in here because Sonny Kutcher is normally with us at 430, but she had something come up, so she just texted me a moment ago. So don’t have any guests now until the top of the hour. And dovetailing into what Richard said a moment ago, it’s something that I touch on occasionally and probably need to talk about. more and in I apologize cuz we’ve got young people especially the listen to us and I’m by the way I’m extremely thankful thankful for every listener but I am extremely thankful for our young listeners and I mean that sincerely it means a lot to me that we’ve got people out there listening that are literally in their early teens, mid-teens, late teens. I hear from some of you. There’s probably a lot more listening that I don’t hear from because maybe you’re shy and you don’t want to reach out, but I encourage you, please reach out. I love talking to young people. You guys are the next generation, literally. And I want to pour into you guys as much as I can. So I appreciate all of the young people that listen. And I appreciate all of you adults, by the way, that have young people that listen. And you probably encourage them too, which I appreciate greatly as well. But I want to dovetail into some of what Richard was talking about a moment ago. And that’s the whole, you know, strengths, building up strengths. And in a lot of ways, building up strengths to overcome your weaknesses. I’m a big one on, and I didn’t used to think this way. I had a good mentor at one time that gave me a book. It’s called Strengths Finders. And it’s a great book to figure out what are your strengths and strength finders. That whole book is based upon the premise of, you know what, we all have weaknesses. Yet the majority of people try to fix those weaknesses. In fact, a lot of even leadership development and coaches and so on, they’ll work on helping people fix weaknesses, which isn’t always bad. There are times where those need to be fixed, yes. But far too often, people spend so much time on their weaknesses, they don’t develop their strengths. So this whole StrengthsFinder book, and there’s a test that goes with it and so on, it’s really encouraging you to build out your strengths even more and have those overcome some of the weaknesses. And by the way, I agree with that premise. And I think one of the things that we do to young people that’s a total injustice is we want to mold them into what we want them to be. rather than allowing to be the individuals God created, helping them along that way, helping them to develop their strengths so that at the end of the day they know exactly what they want to do, where they want to go, how they can fit in, how they can make money, how they can feed families, and so on. But unfortunately, a lot of… Parents even, coaches, a good coach, by the way, knows where to put people and how to help build strengths, but there’s not all good coaches out there, unfortunately. There’s some bad ones as well. I think teachers can make some of these mistakes. Guidance counselors can make these mistakes. You know, they try to get kids to do things that maybe they’re not even good at, not even their strength. By the way, I would encourage every parent. You might know this on your own, but if you don’t, if you don’t really know what your kids’ strengths are, there’s plenty of tests. This book you could buy, have them take the test, have them read the book. You read the book. You take the test. And at the end of the day, you’ll know what their strengths are. Now, again, typically parents, you know the strengths of your kids. And you know what you could build upon when it comes to those strengths. And the reason why I say know what their strengths are is because I think far too often, individuals young people then they become adults they see what somebody else does and they want to be that we just talked about a music composer uh clear back from the 1800s that was richard’s main character that we talked about today and there’s lots of people that would love to be like that you know i want to i want to be a you know i want to write music i want to be in a band i want to be a singer i want to do this i want to do that you know by the way great great aspirations Can you carry a tune? Can you handle a beat? Can you play the drums? Can you play a guitar? Do you even understand how all that works? And does your mind work in a way that really does connect? Because, by the way, mine doesn’t. I love music and listen to music. Ask my wife. She knows that firsthand. I love music. I really do. All kind. There’s only a few kind of music I don’t like, but I like most music. Not a big classical guy. Sorry, some of you that love classical music, that stuff puts me to sleep. Not a big classical guy, but most every other music, except for maybe some of the weird rap stuff, I can pretty much tolerate, listen to, and I have favorites. But I like all kind of music. Now, would I do well in a band? No, I’d suck at it. It’s not me. I don’t really have any kind of rhythm. I mean, it’s not in my nature to do those things at all. As much as I love music and would have been one of those young kids to probably even go join a band and do some of those things, I would have been awful at that. Not me. Now, give me the instruments to fix, and yeah, I’m okay there. Give me the stage to set up. Give me the organizational sides of things to actually help them be on tour and do all the things necessary to make all of that work and so on. Yeah, I’m good at that stuff. I can do that all day long. But don’t put me in the band. Don’t put me up on stage singing. Now, you can put me up on stage talking, as you guys all know, because I do that daily. That’s easy for me. But yeah, don’t put me up there singing and doing anything along those lines. That’s not my forte. And by the way, growing up in the church that I did, and Charlie would understand this, you did those things as a young person, period, because you kind of got forced to. You didn’t have any choice. Whether you were good at it or not, you sang in the choir, you did this, you did that, because you didn’t have any choice. It really was forced upon you, and I hated every minute of that. That’s why I knew at that point in time, this is not for me. But unfortunately, there’s a lot of parents and folks listening out there even right now where you’ve got somebody in your life, a young person in your life, and you’re probably a huge influence in their life. You may or may not know that. What you encourage them to do is going to make a huge difference in their life, but far too often we either don’t recognize that or, in some cases, we try to get kids to do something they’re not designed to do. God didn’t make them to do that. By the way, that’s the whole problem we’ve got with the whole transgenderism end of things. Kids don’t know who they are. If kids knew their strengths and knew who they were, this transgenderism thing would end tomorrow. It wouldn’t exist. That tells you that, parentally speaking, in schools especially, we don’t know what their strengths are, and so we come at them with this, well, what do you want to be? That’s the dumbest thing to ever ask a kid. especially when they’re little. They want to be all sorts. I want to be Superman. Well, yeah, we all do, but that ain’t going to happen. You know, I want to be this. I want to be that. Well, is that one of your strengths? You know, Jimmy, is that your strength? Sally, you know, is that really what you’re good at? You know, I want to be the next, you know, Taylor Swift. I can’t imagine being, but… Yuck, but whatever. I mean, sorry for all the Taylor Swifties, or what do they call themselves, Swifties, Charlie? Sorry for all the Swifties out there. Sorry, I didn’t mean to say it that way. She doesn’t do anything for me, by the way. Just side note. But there’s a lot of even young people that, you know, they idolize that sort of stuff, and that’s what they want to be, so they work towards that, and yet they suck at it. And then we wonder why some of these people are, and this is what I’m going to dovetail into, we wonder why they’re on SNAP and welfare. Well, because nobody ever taught them what they’re good at. And even fostered that. And as Richard said earlier, every single person, no matter who you are, has a particular talent. That’s how God makes us. And this is where I’m so big on, no, we’re not equal. We are created equal under the law, but we are not equal. Not even close. And this whole idea of equity and inclusion and that everybody is the same, folks, that’s a lie. That’s a lie from the left. We are not the same. We are not created equal. Yes, like I said, we’re equal under the law, and we’re all equal when it comes to the rule of law. We should be. That’s the way it’s supposed to be. But we’re not equal. I am not Charlie. Charlie is not me. I am not you. You are not me. I am not my wife. She is not me. We’re all different. We all have different talents and things that we’re good at and things that we’re not so good at. One thing that my wife always tells me, and I know this is an area that is a huge weakness for me, I have very little patience. Hardly any. I’m a guy that I hate waiting in a drive-up line, and I don’t go to drive-ups hardly ever, but when we do, it drives me crazy because they’re not fast. This whole idea of fast food, that’s a big fat lie, by the way, because it ain’t fast. I mean, you could even just be rolling through for a drink or something. It’s not fast, and I have no patience, especially for that, because you’re advertising it’s fast. It’s not. You lied. So I know I have no patience. My wife is the first to remind me of that on a routine basis. I have little to no patience. I’ve always been that way because I am a high-energy guy, as you guys all know. And I don’t have room to dink around with stuff. So I don’t have a lot of patience. And sometimes to a fault. Not sometimes. A lot of times to a fault. Because I will do and say things at times where I probably should have stepped back, listened a little differently, approached that differently. But because I don’t have the right patience, I don’t approach that correctly. So that’s a weakness of mine. Patience. So in my world, because I know that’s a weakness, yes, I can work on having more patience. And I do consider that and work on that as much as I can. But what I do to overcome that weakness is I build on the strengths that I have. I’m very well organized. I’m a great time manager. I do really well at those sorts of things. And so if I do all of those well, guess what? The patience thing just kind of comes along because there’s nothing to have anxiety over on the patience end if you’ve got everything else all dialed in. So, again, I’ve learned how to work on my own strengths to make myself better. And what I’m getting at is we don’t do that well enough with young people. We do the opposite, actually. You know, do what you love and you’ll always feed your family. That’s the dumbest advice ever, by the way. If I hear any guidance counselor, teacher, any adult say that to a kid, I want to backhand them. You are so wrong. That is the dumbest thing, the most idiotic thing you could ever tell a young person. Just do what you love. You’ll always feed your family. You’ll always have food on the table. No, you’ll be broke in most cases. If you’re not good at what you love and you suck at it, you’re going to be broke. You’re going to be on EBT and food stamps. Snap. Because somebody sold you a bill of goods. You were told, oh, yeah, if you do what you really love and enjoy, you know what? You’ll be it. You’ll have it made. If you want to be the best artist in the world, But you can’t draw a stick figure? How’s that going to work out? By the way, that’s me. I’m doing good to draw a stick figure. Don’t ask me to paint a picture. I’m not Bob Ross. Not at all. So don’t ask me to be. I can’t paint trees like Bob Ross does and lakes and mountain scenes and all the stuff that Bob used to paint. That’s not me. I can’t do that. It’s not in my brain. If I’d have gone down that path, I would be broke today. Fortunately, I did have parents, my father especially, where he knew what my talents were. He fostered those talents, and I did very well at those things. And he knew what I was good at. Now, I will say this, and I can say this now. My father’s gone. My brother’s gone. If both of them were alive, they’d be in here laughing with me. But I think one thing that my dad did try to do is, because I was as mechanically minded as I was and could pretty much take apart, put back together, work on things, even from a child. I’m not exaggerating. You can ask my family. That was me. My dad, I think, thought my brother should be the same. And so in a lot of ways, my dad kind of, in a way, forced my brother to do some of those things, and yet that wasn’t my brother’s forte. My brother became a minister. He was not somebody that went around fixing things like me. He fixed people, but he didn’t fix physical things. Now, my brother and I love each other dearly, and I’ll see him again someday, but we are polar opposites. My brother’s a people fixer. I’m a thing fixer. I don’t fix people. I’m the kind of guy to tell you, this is where you’re screwing up, go fix it, see me later. You can’t do that, in ministry especially. So this is an example, though, of my own father whereby, because I was one way and I was the oldest, he thought my brother, who was next in line, should be the same, and he wasn’t. Now, fortunately for my brother and my folks, they finally realized some of this, and they changed their approach and so on, and it all worked out in the end. But my brother and I were completely opposite. And what I’m getting at is I think a lot of young people today struggle because, first of all, they’re fed with you’ve got to go to college, got to go to college, got to go to college. And no, they don’t. And, oh, if you go to college and get this degree, then you’ll be successful at X. Maybe not. You know, there’s all sorts of professions out there. And unfortunately, a lot of these kids get sent down the wrong path. And by the time they realize they took the wrong path, it’s too late. And they’re ingrained in something else and they’re miserable the rest of their life. And I’m sorry to say that’s a lot of people. Some of you listening are that. And I’m sorry. I’m sorry that’s the case because it shouldn’t be that way. Now, I also believe in this. It’s never too late. If you don’t like what you do and you’re not good at it, but you kind of got stuck into it in the first place because of some of what I’m talking about, change. Change careers. It’s never too late. Do something different. Now, again, I’m the opposite of don’t just go do what you enjoy because if you’re not good at it, it’s not going to get you very far. Now, here’s where it really gets nice. If you’re really good at something and you enjoy it, okay, now you’re golden. And it does happen. For me, I love fixing stuff. Now, for me, as a business owner, I did have to make a shift. I love fixing things. But there was a point in time in my career where I knew I had to work on my business and not in the business, meaning I had to hire people to do the fixing, which is what I was doing at one time. And I had to make that switch over and become an owner. And I’ll be honest, that was not an easy transition because that wasn’t who I was at that time. I had to change my mindset. So where I’m going with this is back to what Richard kind of started with is, yes, work on your strengths. Use those to overcome your weakness. Teach your kids and your young people, some of you that are mentors and coaches and teachers and so on that are listening to me, learn how to do that with young people, and you’ll have a lot more successful young people around you if you do that because we, collectively, we don’t teach what I just said near enough, in my opinion. So I’ll leave it at that. Got more to talk about when we come back on other subjects. Appreciate you guys very much. By the way, Cub Creek Heat and Air Conditioning is up next. $56 off tune-up special when it comes to your furnace right now. Three of those, three levels to choose from. Talk to them today. Just go to klzradio.com to find them.
SPEAKER 12 :
Life gets busy, but Cub Creek Heating and AC makes staying comfortable in your home easy. Whether you need a tune-up, inspection, or even a full HVAC replacement, just hop online and choose the date and time that works best for you. Cub Creek’s automatic scheduler is quick and easy, and their online assistant is always standing by to answer your HVAC questions. In most cases, there’s no need to call. The smart sign-up system asks all the right questions, so you can book with confidence. Still have a question? No problem. Someone from the Cub Creek team will call you back as soon as possible. And if you’d rather schedule over the phone, you can find our certified Ream Pro Partner Cub Creek’s contact info on the KLZ Advertisers page. For a limited time only, mention you heard this ad on KLZ Radio to save $56 on your tune-up. Make your life a little easier with Cub Creek Heating and AC. Schedule your furnace or AC service today at klzradio.com slash HVAC.
SPEAKER 16 :
All right, Geno’s Auto Service, where, hey, anything you need for your car, especially a cooling system flush, they’re there to take care of you on that and any other service you need. Geno’sautoservice.com, and Geno starts with a J.
SPEAKER 01 :
Take advantage of Geno’s Auto Service’s Fall Coolant Flush Special. Even as the weather is starting to cool, your engine runs hot. When coolant degrades, it becomes acidic and can corrode your radiator, thermostat, and water pump, sending debris into your engine. These debris, if left unchecked, can lead to major headaches and repairs. Reduce the chance of overheating, even in cooler weather, and keep corrosion at bay with a coolant flush from Geno’s. Maintaining your vehicle will give you additional years of performance and reliability. Geno’s is celebrating 42 years in business in Littleton. We are all for making your life simpler, offering loaner vehicles so you can drop your car off and pick up when ready. Give us a call or go online to schedule an appointment. Geno’s is AAA approved and located at Bowles and Platte Canyon. Don’t forget to check out all of Geno’s Google reviews. Reduce the chance of overheating with a coolant flush from Geno’s. Stop in or visit us online at genosautoservice.com.
SPEAKER 17 :
That’s Geno’s with a J. Now back to Rush to Reason on KLZ 560.
SPEAKER 16 :
And we are back. Rush to Reason, Denver’s Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560. Joe, what’s going on, sir?
SPEAKER 08 :
John, a couple things. I want a little quiz for you about musicians. First, you know what they call a guy who’s always hanging around with a bunch of musicians?
SPEAKER 16 :
No. The drummer. Good one. Good one. I never heard that one. Good one.
SPEAKER 08 :
And what do you call a musician who doesn’t have a girlfriend?
SPEAKER 16 :
Unemployed. Homeless. Homeless. Okay, so I was close. Home’s close.
SPEAKER 08 :
Close. And getting back to, John, doing what you love, you know, I wasn’t sure, but, you know, I started when I was about 12 or 13, started working at my grandparents’ ranch all summer. Yeah. I mean, that was my job. And, you know, when you’re 30 miles from town and you’ve got tractors and hay rakes and balers and mowing machines and well water pumps and hay conveyors, John, you know, learning how to maintain and fix that stuff and learn about universal joints and shafts, I just had this love of, okay, what’s wrong with this thing? How are we going to fix it? How do we take it apart? How do we, you know, how do we get this old bearing off? How do we replace the bearing? And that’s what prompted me to select engineering as a career. Nice. And, you know, as a course of study. Now, I tell people, I learned more about the principles of engineering working on my grandparents’ ranch for seven years or eight years than I did in engineering school. But what I did learn in engineering school was, okay, how do you figure out how big that shaft has to be? You know, does it, is, is two, is it two inches enough or does it have to be four inches? You know, that’s where you learn to calculate, you know, so, you know, so, you know, don’t get me wrong. I value the, the engineering education I got. It was a great education. So I can, So to this day, I can design things. But in terms of how things worked, the time I spent – and it wasn’t just summers. Every spring break, every winter recess I had, I would go up there and work on the ranch too. But I tell you, you work on a farm, and there’s this incredible array of mechanical equipment. You wouldn’t believe how much mechanical equipment there is.
SPEAKER 15 :
Yep.
SPEAKER 08 :
And, of course, you’re doing your own – you’re doing your own wiring, you know, yeah, we need to run some lights over here, so, you know, we’re running Romex cable, we’re installing light fixtures, we’re changing out switches, you know, we’re swapping out incandescents for lessons, so I learned about wiring, you know, we had, of course, we had well pumps, running water pumps, installing electrical outlets. To this day, John, that’s why all my neighbors, wherever I live, my neighbors always went to me to be, Joe’s the fix-it guy. We got a problem called Joe. He’s got the tools and knowledge. In fact, One of my good friends at the gym the other day said, hey, we’ve got a bad dimmer switch that my wife wants me to call electrician. Do you know how to change out a dimmer switch? Yeah, piece of cake. Piece of cake. Just five minutes.
SPEAKER 16 :
And he said, you just saved me $150. Yep. And, Joe, you bring up a great point because I think – And I don’t think I’m wrong on what I said earlier about, you know, the direction that we send young people in. And I really do mean this. If young people from an earlier age, I mean, we’ve got a lot of transgender nonsense that starts to happen. I mean, yeah, it happens in some cases at a really early age because the parents are absolute, complete, utter moron knuckleheads, Joe. I’m not talking about those particular situations. We’ve got kids that are in their, you know, middle school to teenage years. And, you know, they start wondering, you know, who am I and am I in the wrong body and so on. And frankly, Joe, I don’t know about you, but that thought for me, I had so many other things going on. That thought never crossed my mind because I knew from an early age like you what I really liked, enjoyed, what I was good at. It didn’t take me long to figure that out. I didn’t have to have anybody tell me I needed to stay a boy.
SPEAKER 08 :
No, you and me both, John. Again, that thought never crossed my mind. I knew what I liked doing. I enjoyed that, you know, because to me, you know, working with mechanical equipment, number one, it starts with problem solving. What’s, you know, what’s wrong with this thing? Correct. Critical thinking. Critical thinking. You know, you go through a troubleshooting, mental troubleshooting. Why is this not doing what it’s supposed to be doing? By the way, have you ever looked at the innards of a bailing machine, including the little thing that ties the knots?
SPEAKER 16 :
Masterful. Unbelievable, Joe.
SPEAKER 08 :
It’s got a set of fingers that literally ties knots in the strings.
SPEAKER 16 :
It’s unbelievable. And really, not to get off track, but to think when some of that was developed, Joe, and the people and the minds that were behind that is just, to me, it’s amazing.
SPEAKER 08 :
It really is, John.
SPEAKER 16 :
I mean, I look at times, and just the way my mind works, you know, I watch the How It’s Made show periodically, and I just think, okay, wait a minute. Every single machine that is making these things that we now use when it’s all said and done, it’s produced, somebody made the machine. There wasn’t a machine prior that existed like that. They took a machine, in some cases literally from a blank slate, and made that to produce that. That is ingenious.
SPEAKER 08 :
John, it’s funny you mention that. How It’s Made is one of my favorite channels as well. And here it’s, I think it’s on the Discovery Channel on Sunday mornings. And they typically run. Six or seven 30-minute episodes back-to-back. It’s one of my favorite shows.
SPEAKER 16 :
And for me, Joe, it’s not so much, again, I’m weird, but it’s not so much the product that comes out. That’s amazing in and of itself. I look at the machines and think to myself, some man designed it, men then built it, and now it produces some widget at the end of the day. But who thought of how to make all that happen in the first place?
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, the mechanisms, the levers, the heat treating, the racks, the moving, you know, the conveyors, it’s just amazing.
SPEAKER 16 :
It’s mind-boggling, Joe. I mean, to me, I look at that and think, okay, wait a minute. And again, we, as an industrialized nation, and frankly, folks, yes, I’ll plug us in for this, we’ve done more of that, Joe, than any other nation. Yes, I know a lot of Asian countries and so on have a lot of manufacturing, but we started all that, Joe.
SPEAKER 08 :
We did. And, John, I know I’ve mentioned this before, but there was a, An analysis done, it’s probably 10 years ago, said, you know, the 100 greatest inventions of the 20th century. And all but one came out of capitalist countries because it was a reward. It was because these people took enormous risks. You know, you look at Jobs and Wozniak, you know, they maxed out their credit card. They worked for two years in Wozniak’s garage. You look at Willis Carrier, you know, he mortgaged his house. He borrowed money from friends and family to invent, you know, the air conditioning systems. McCormick, you know, the harvester and John Deere and those people. I think if you follow that, the machines, following the men that built America, they had to think about the machines that built America, about the evolution of the tractor and some of those other machines. All those people took enormous risks, and the only reason they took them was because of the chances, as Obama used to derisively refer to it, to become life’s lottery winners. Well, yeah, that’s because… Yeah, they took a chance. They took the chance because of that, the chance to get a golden ring. And do you remember what the only invention of the 20th century was that didn’t come out of a capitalist country?
SPEAKER 15 :
AK-47.
SPEAKER 08 :
AK-47. Killing machine. Right. Now, they didn’t say most beneficial. It said the most important. And the AK-47 has been the most widely produced gun in the world. by miles, and it’s been responsible for more revolutions and civil wars and overthrowing of governments. So yes, the AK-47 was an important invention. It wasn’t beneficial, But it was incredibly important.
SPEAKER 16 :
It was a cheap – it’s such a – So, Joe, I want to dovetail really quick because I want to talk about this anyways. And as I watch some of these videos where there’s all these SNAP recipients and even some of them yelling that it’s my responsibility as a taxpayer to feed their kids, which, no, folks, it’s not my responsibility or obligation to feed your kids. All of what you and I, though, just got through talking about, is it because these people – have never had anybody sit down and go through the things that you and I are talking about right now as to why they’re on, you know, SNAP and welfare? Or what are your thoughts there?
SPEAKER 08 :
I think, John, I think it is like, you know, when I was, you know, 12, 13, you know, my family wasn’t well off. You know, we were blue collar. Yeah, ours either. And, you know, I said, well, I want a bike. And my father said, well, you know.
SPEAKER 16 :
Go work for it.
SPEAKER 08 :
Go out. You know, so I had a paper route. I mowed lawns in the wintertime. So I had a paper route, and in the summer I mowed lawns in addition to the paper route. In the wintertime, I shoveled snow, literally went door to door with a snow shovel, you know, snowing driveways, shoveling by hand, shoveling driveways and shoveling sidewalks to save up money. So I could buy my own bike. Nobody bought me a bike, John. Right. And that’s a work ethic, and I don’t think these people have ever had that.
SPEAKER 16 :
Yeah, so I mean, is this a, you know, and I don’t know. I’m just asking the question, Joe, because I don’t know these people on an individual basis. I mean, is this a cyclical thing where somebody, you know, a family member gets on… you know, SNAP and welfare, and so then the kids end up on it, and then their kids end up on it, or is it something that just sort of happens and they realize the benefits of, and since I don’t really have to work and I can get all of this stuff free, I can get my Section 8 housing, I can get my card, I can still go to the grocery store and buy the same thing everybody else buys because there’s a limit on what I actually can buy, maybe a few limitations, but not very many when it’s all said and done. I mean, is that the cycle that happens?
SPEAKER 08 :
Not for everybody, but John, yes, there are numerous documented stories of three generations of a family all never having a job, living off public assistance. The grandmother, the mother, and the grandkids who are now 17, 18, 19 years old, all living in public housing for three generations. Now, that’s not 100% of them, and there are people that fall into it. They get a drug addiction. They become alcoholics. But, yeah, but, John, it is not uncommon – For living off the state to become a generational thing, just a generational model, well, that’s how Grandma got through life, and that’s how Mom is getting through life, and that’s how I’m going to get through life. And it just becomes a normal, natural thing to let the government support you. And by the way, this thing about, well, health care is a human right or food is a human right, there is no other human or constitutional right that requires somebody else to pay for it. You don’t need to – You don’t need to contribute any money for me to practice my freedom of religion, my freedom of speech, or my freedom to own a gun. It doesn’t require any contribution from you or anybody else for me to exercise those basic human rights. So when you say, well, health care is a human right, the ability to seek health care is a human right.
SPEAKER 16 :
To have it given to you is not. No.
SPEAKER 08 :
No, to ask somebody else needs to pay for my health care, that is not a human right.
SPEAKER 16 :
No, it is not. It’s never a human right to have somebody else have to do something for you.
SPEAKER 08 :
That’s right. That’s a good definition of it right there.
SPEAKER 16 :
It’s never a human right where somebody else has to be involved in what you’re doing.
SPEAKER 08 :
Exactly. So that’s my when people start telling me, well, you know, health care is a human right now, not if I have to pay for it.
SPEAKER 16 :
Right.
SPEAKER 08 :
It’s not. Absolutely.
SPEAKER 16 :
So anyway, I think just a side note, and I was going to read an article here, but I can maybe do this tomorrow or at another time. But the amount of people I think now in the backlash, you know, figure people figuring out there’s 40 million plus people on welfare. Joe, I think it’s a wake up call. This is one thing that’s backfiring on the Democrats. I think it’s a wake up call for people to realize, well, wait a minute. I’m working. I’m paying my taxes. Why aren’t they?
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, it’s earth-shaking. And by the way, John, I want to just back up. AI, you know, all these layouts, Amazon’s going to lay off 14,000. UPS is going to lay off 44,000 people, half of which are going to be white-collar. If you have a job where you are an electrician, an automotive technician, HVAC guy, plumber, millwright, pipe fitter, you don’t have to worry about AI taking your job.
SPEAKER 16 :
And really quick, I read some things last night and watched some videos on the whole Amazon UPS. It’s not all just AI. They’re realizing, wait a minute, we’ve got some fat. Yes, AI may be a component of that, but I think they’re realizing that, wait a minute, we can get as much production out of one as we are two. Why do we need two? We’re just adding costs we don’t need.
SPEAKER 08 :
Well, actually, John, in terms of the automotive, the automotive industry has put in several million robots One robot does the work of seven people. Yep. Now, if you want to be the guy who fixes robots… That’s different. That’s a great job.
SPEAKER 16 :
That’s right. Fixes and programs.
SPEAKER 08 :
Fixes and programs robots, that’s a great job to have. That’s right. But if you’re doing a job that can be done by a robot, you need to probably start thinking.
SPEAKER 16 :
You probably should rethink your career.
SPEAKER 08 :
Rethink your career.
SPEAKER 16 :
Yep. Same thing with AI. If you’ve got a job whereby, and I’m sorry to say this, but if you’re paralegal, for example, or you’re in a medical office and you’re doing a bunch of filing and things along those lines, or even writing reports and doing things like that, you probably ought to think about a different career because those are going to get replaced, Joe.
SPEAKER 08 :
Right now, a quick story, John. You know, every year I get my renewal from SiriusXM, and every year I call up and I tell them I want to cancel because, you know, the price is too high. And every year for the past five years, I’ve talked to a human being, and then they refer me over to a customer retention specialist, and they knock it down from $250 a year to $750 a month, you know, which is literally a two-third reduction. This year I called up and I get a voice assistant. what can we help you? And I say, cancellation. And it was all, and John, I went through the whole process, same result, never spoke to a human being. And I wound up with the same result. I went from a $250 annual renewal on the Sirius XM radio to, I think it was $799 a month. And there was no human being involved. But every year for the past five years, I’ve had to interact with not one, but actually two people, the first call taker, and then the quote, customer retention specialist. And by the way, anybody out there with Sirius XM Radio, if you haven’t been calling up to say you want to cancel, you need to do that. You’ll save yourself a lot of money.
SPEAKER 16 :
That’s exactly right. Joe, as always, man, I appreciate you. Talk tomorrow night. Appreciate you then. We’ll talk to Joe again tomorrow night. I have more topics as well. My High Coin coming up next, folks. Again, if you’ve got a collection of things you’ve been sitting on trying to figure out what’s the value. You know, maybe you were a collector and you’re not any longer, but you want to turn that into cash. Mile High Coin can help you with all of that. Free appraisals for KLZ listeners, 720-370-3400.
SPEAKER 03 :
Dealing with estate jewelry doesn’t have to be complicated, and you certainly don’t have to go into a pawn shop and feel totally uncomfortable. David here with Mile High Coin, and we help hundreds of clients each year with their jewelry and watches. Whether it’s high-end Hallmark pieces like Tiffany, Cartier, or Rolex, or mid-range brands as well, or even damaged or broken pieces that you don’t wear. Most people are surprised with what their jewelry is worth. Gold is at an all-time high and we highly encourage people to take advantage of the market. There are options when it comes to selling your jewelry and we will educate you on which option is best for you. We work with people who have lost loved ones and need help sorting through the valuables that were left behind. We also work with people who are simply downsizing and getting rid of the unused or unwanted items. Call our office today at 720-370-3400 or visit our website milehighcoin.com and complete our contact form and we will call or email to schedule an appointment. Our office is safe, private, and we guarantee that you will enjoy the experience.
SPEAKER 16 :
Michael Bailey, he is our mobile estate planner. Make sure your estate is all dialed in, in order, and his appointments will be at the first of the year now. So get that done. Get on his schedule, I should say, sooner than later. Find him at klzradio.com.
SPEAKER 14 :
In real life, you don’t want an imposter handling your estate plan. You want Michael Bailey, our KLZ mobile estate planner. You can dress up as anything you want this Halloween. A ghost, a ghoul, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, or even a copper firefighter. But come November 1st, you’ve got to go back to real life. Because if you don’t make your wishes clear, the real boogeyman, the government of Colorado, will. And trust me, that’s scarier than any horror movie. Court decisions, default rules kicking in, blended families thrown into the mix. It’s a real nightmare. Michael Bailey doesn’t play dress-up with your future. He gets to know you, what you want, who matters to you, and how you want things handled. That way, your estate plan isn’t a horror story. It’s a gift to your family. So go ahead. Have fun being a zombie, a slasher, or even Count Chocula this Halloween. But when it comes to your estate plan, don’t make it spooky. Make it Michael Bailey. Make an appointment with mobile estate planner Michael Bailey today by finding him on klzradio.com slash estate.
SPEAKER 16 :
Roof Savers of Colorado coming up next, folks. Again, if you want to talk to Dave, rejuvenate that roof. In other words, we can extend the life of. It is a complete rejuvenation. And again, it works with your insurance company in a lot of ways to save you money over time. Call Dave today. Find out how that works. 303-710-6916.
SPEAKER 02 :
Homeowners in Colorado are getting letters from insurance companies dropping their coverage, all because their roof is getting old. Even if it isn’t leaking yet, insurance companies don’t want the risk. But there’s a smart solution that can help protect your home and your policy. RoofMax. Roof Savers of Colorado can apply RoofMax, a plant-based treatment that restores flexibility to aging shingles and extends the life of your roof for up to five more years at a fraction of the cost of replacement. It’s fast, affordable, and often helps homeowners meet insurance requirements without a full tear-off. Call Roof Savers of Colorado today at 303-710-6916 or visit RoofSaversCo.com for a free roof assessment and protect both your home and your insurance coverage. Roof Max of South Aurora, giving old roofs a new lease on life.
SPEAKER 13 :
Is your office ready for a new copier? Business Equipment Service has you covered. Whether you’re a small business or a large corporation, Business Equipment Service has current model Konica Minolta and Canon copiers on sale right now. Our models have very minimal usage at a fraction of the cost of buying new. We stand behind our equipment with a 90-day parts and labor warranty, as well as a one-year or 100,000-page performance warranty. giving you the reliability you need to keep things running smoothly. Right now, get free delivery and installation when you mention this ad. Why choose us? Aside from saving thousands on high-performance copiers, we have lease options starting at $100 per month, we service and supply what we sell, we offer full-service maintenance plans, fast on-site service, and remote support. For over 20 years, Business Equipment Service has helped hundreds of Colorado businesses find affordable, reliable office solutions. Visit us at besofcolorado.com or call 303-825-5664. We don’t yell at you. We inform you. Now, back to Rush to Reason.
SPEAKER 16 :
All right, we are back, closing out hour number two. I got a text message that came in, and I think this is a legitimate question. I’ve had this question a couple of times. So the question was, so I didn’t grow up, me, John Rush, didn’t grow up with a silver spoon in his mouth. No. What Joe just explained, I mean, did we lack for anything as a family? We didn’t know that we did if we did, but we went without… a lot of things. And my folks, to their credit, my mom and dad both are gone now, but they made a lot of sacrifices to make our lives seem very normal. And now looking back on it, I know what some of those sacrifices are, and I can look back and remember some of the things that I could even hear them know overhear them as a child talking about and how are they going to do this and how are they going to do that and how are they going to pay this bill and how are they going to pay that bill and so on and and all that to be said that yeah no i didn’t grow up with a silver spoon in fact as i became a little older like joe i started working at a very young age had a paper out by the time i was nine ten years of age did that for about three years and i started working in the family business after that because of the family business yeah times could be really really Those of you that have had family businesses or your own businesses know exactly what I’m talking about. And I can remember a time when I was all but probably, I don’t know, 15 or 16. And, yes, I made money during the summer and I worked and I worked any time I could after school, you know, spring break, Christmas break, all those sorts of things. But I remember there was a couple of times where my folks were struggling, you know, to make the house payment. They didn’t have enough money. It wasn’t there. I could overhear the conversations. And I was old enough at that time where I said, listen, I’ll pitch in. I’ll help. And I did. And I did that on more than one occasion. And I had the ability, and I’d made my own money, but I had the ability to be able to chip in and help my folks along those lines, and I did. And I don’t regret doing that, and I would do it all over again exactly the same way. In fact, looking back on it, probably should have helped more. My folks did a lot for us. I should have done more for them as far as that’s concerned. So, no, I did not grow up with a silver spoon or a gold spoon or anything along those lines. What I would call, I hate the class system and what we describe that way, but we were very middle-low income. I don’t want to say we were poor, but we were not upper middle income. And there were probably years where we might have even been in that lower income end of things. But my folks did a very good job of masking all of that. And we as kids didn’t know at times probably how poor we actually were because my folks did a really good job of masking that. Now, did we ever go without? No, but my dad was a big one on making something work properly. that, you know, wouldn’t have otherwise in a lot of families, and we never had a lot of new things. My dad was one of those where he would make something used to still work, whether that was bicycles or whatever. That’s what my dad did, and he had a way of, you know, wheeling and dealing and making things happen, and that’s how it worked in our family, and that’s how we grew up. So, no, I did not grow up with a, you know, golden or silver spoon and In fact, Bob Duke and I were talking about this on the roundtable a little bit this morning. I mean, I can tell you as a business owner in my own life, there’s been lots of times for me whereby you weren’t sure how you were going to make payroll and or feed your family all at the same time. And it was very, very, very difficult. With all that being said, I watch some of these people today that are on, you know, food stamps and on Snap and so on. And I look at them and think, you know what? I could have done that legitimately at one point in time in my life. I refuse to. I am not taking a handout from anybody. Maybe that’s my pride talking, but I am not taking a handout from anyone, especially, especially Uncle Sam. That would have been the last place I would have ever gone to have gotten help. So that’s me. That’s my story. Stick into it, by the way. So that’s it for Hour 2. We’ll be back with Hour 3. Rush to Reason, Denver’s Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560.
SPEAKER 1 :
Thank you. I’m a rich guy.
