A couple nights ago, Rush Limbaugh had his first ever speaking event "on Broadway" as a way to collect donations for recent hurricane victims. Rush on Broadway was apparently a huge success. In fact, it had sold out about an hour after the advanced announcement last month.

Yesterday, while discussing the show, Rush read the following email. It really hit me in the gut.

Rush,
I know of no way to distinguish this email from the countless others you must receive daily so that it stands out and receives a full read. I just saw your two hour monologue at the Lion King Theater. It was exactly what I took my son, my wife, and myself to see, but I'm writing this to tell you about a very brave lady that I saw there. She was seated two rows ahead and a little to the left of me, by the seating chart it looks like mezzanine, row dd, seat 114. She was pretty, looked to be about mid - late 20's, and it showed that she wanted to look good for the show. She was alone. Soon after the show started it became obvious to my wife and myself that she had Tourette's Syndrome. You may have heard someone from the mezzanine applauding at inappropriate times, that was her.

A lot of the people around her did not know what was going on, and as the night went on they became increasingly annoyed at her ticks. The annoyance went from shushing, to angry requests to be quiet, to some even chuckling to themselves at her. I knew of no way to let all the people around her know what was going on without causing more of a scene. I noticed that she was sitting trying to control her ticks, holding her hands together tightly. Sometimes it worked, sometimes not. Toward the end of the show the couple next to her got up to leave, one of them made a finger gesture of shooting her as he left. She soon got up to move toward the end of the aisle into the newly empty seats, she must have wanted to give the couple on the other side of her some relief from her distractions. When she got up someone behind her, who thought she was leaving, started clapping, both to say 'good-riddance' and to mock her. She sat and stayed to the end of your show.

I know that the people around her were frustrated and did not understand the situation, but I'm sure that these could not have been very reaffirming moments for her. I was hoping to catch up with her afterward to ask her how she enjoyed the show and just make small talk to possibly counterbalance some of the other reactions she received. I could not find her after the applause died down. On the way home I thought about her a lot. Here was a lady who truly believes the conservative ideals that we all preach. Here she was with a handicap that would debilitate and dishearten most, and she said: "World be damned, I'm going out tonight." I only hope that when the time comes to have my body fail on me that I will be able to show such courage and grace.

When you came out and someone from the floor threw flowers on the stage you might have heard some yahoo from the mezzanine shout, "Thank you, Rush!" That was me. When you answered the Connecticut question you may have heard another yahoo from the mezzanine shout "Come back to Connecticut!" That was my wife. Neither one of us was the biggest fan you had there that night and we're huge.

I don't know if it would be appropriate or even ethical to find out who this woman was, but if it were possible to give her some affirmation I would say she earned it. BTW: I was planning on joining 24/7 at Christmas, but joined today so I could send you this. Just another yahoo in the mezzanine.

I don't know whether the less-than-understanding people knew what was going on or not. For all know, they may have known and just didn't care. Either way, it's really a shame when people refuse to see the courage in those around them.

In thinking about this woman, I keep trying to tell myself that the people being so rude to her were the ones with the problem, they are the ones that should be embarassed, etc. While that is all true, that doesn't change the fact that she must have been embarassed.

She must have known what would happen. I'm sure it's all to common. But God bless her for having the courage to put up with the rest of us.

I don't think I'd have that kind of strength.

I've been thinking a lot lately about this since I've been talking to some future CS and IT majors. There is a lot of garbage you hear about college while you are in high school that just isn't true. Here are some of the ones that bug me the most.

10. You have to be able to teach yourself in college.

Well, it certainly helps, but it isn't required. It's a miracle if you can walk ten feet on campus without passing offers for free tutoring all over the place. There are people all over the pace getting paid to help people -- you just have to swallow your pride and go.

9. Most people graduate in 4 years.

Not very often. Do the math an you'll see why. If you figure it's about 120 credit hours to get a bachelors degree, divide that into 4 years of 2 semsters each. That works out to 15 hours a semester, which assumes you pass all the classes, they are all available, they all transfer with you, you don't change majors, and so on. So if you plan on graduating in 4 years, you'd better take summer classes at every chance -- including before your first fall semester and earlier if possible.

8. You'll need to have a major picked out very soon.

If you know whether you are going for a science degree or an arts degree, you will be doing yourself a big favor. But you may not know. That's still okay because a lot of programs offer both degrees (my college even offered a bachelor of arts degree in computer science of all things). But most people end up changing majors anyway and on the average around 4-5 times before graduating. Don't feel bad when it happens -- it's much better than finding out you hate something after you graduate.

7. You will need 3 hours for homework and study for every 1 hour of class.

Some will have even more. Most will have much less. Not all majors are the same so don't let anyone kid you. I had math classes where we would be assigned 5-10 major proofs to complete a week and it took me countles notepads of trying different things to get something that was close to working. Programming, chemisty, and physics were tough too, but nothing came close to the math. My education classes were all a joke, but that's mainly because they let total morons into the education program and had to cater to them.

6. Good grades in high school means good grades in college.

Not by a long shot. There really isn't much correlation at all. Most high school teachers are giving grades away. If you got straight As, don't kid yourself -- some of those were given to you because of who your parents are, what sport you played, or because the teacher didn't want to be known as the one who "ruined" your perfect average. But anyway, I had around a 3.7 GPA in high school. At junior college, it was closer to a 3.9 GPA. At my university it was more like a 2.9 GPA. Don't sweat that stuff -- you have to really deserve an A most of the time in college and in some of your classes, no amount of studying will ever get you to that point because it just isn't your expertiese.

5. You need good grades to get into college.

This is total nonsense. Want to go to a prestigious school? Yeah, you'll need really good grades. You'll also need good SAT or ACT scores (and those will matter to them even more). But for most of us, if you can get by with a B average, you can get into college.

4. If you get an associates degree, your core curriculum is taken care of.

This is true in the way it's worded, but that isn't to say your core curriculum is not going to come back to get you. The university may not care at that point, but any entity that certifies you in something probably will. Don't get burned like I did by taking PE instead of health, government instead of history, and so on without checking with the people certifying you.

3. You will be treated like an adult in college and will be responsible for yourself.

I really wish this was true. Unfortunately, just about any college you go to will still take attendance at the start of class. They give a lot of reasons for this, but don't kid yourself -- it's about funding.

2. College professors focus too much on research.

Some do, some don't. It depends on where your college gets its funding. But don't knock the professors who focus on research -- they may be lousy in the classroom but they can expose you to more cutting-edge stuff than the ones that focus on teaching.

1. College is expensive.

No, college is expensive for some people. As long as you are unemployed and your parents are unemployed, you can usually go to college for free. Maybe not Harvard, but you can go for free somewhere.

I heard some good advice on the radio the other day.

Never get in an argument with an idiot because most of the people around you won't be able to tell the difference.

Words to live by...

At the start of this week, my wife was out of town at a conference for her job. Something about working with substance abuse clients, though I have a hard time keeping straight what all the things she goes to are called.

One of the nights she was gone, she called and told me how much the people there reminded her of me. Somewhat confused, I asked her what people. She said she meant the people speaking and leading and said it was hard to explain.

But she doesn't really have to. I know what it means.

I'm generally a humble person and don't often brag, but I don't really consider what I'm about to say bragging. It's just a reality that some of us have a certain kind of personality that makes us stand out. And yes, even I can see I am one of them.

Not that it means anything on its own. In fact, I'd say the vast majority of people with that inherent trait are not happy. It's like we can exist in only two states, either on the top or at the bottom.

People like them -- and me -- either end up being leaders and experts in whatever it is they do, or end up going nowhere. There doesn't seem to be an in between. When the are successful, people stand back and see how much sense it makes that they succeeded.

But when they aren't, it makes just as much sense because people like that also tend to be pretty excentric and solitary. In other words, it's one of those two sided coins.

So which way will I turn out? Who knows? Some things are out of our hands and it can be silly to try and control everything in this world that one can't.

Personally, I'm just glad to see there is an up-side to being like me. When you can't help but be noticed even though most days you just want to be completely ignored, at least there is a chance of it all making sense someday.

I recently saw a Toby Keith concert on TV where he was playing requests and naturally a request was "Courtesy of the Red, White, & Blue (The Angry American)." This is a song that has moved me since I first heard it as it has many other Americans. The lyric that always brings a tear to my eye is

You'll be sorry that you messed with the US of A -- 'Cuz we'll put a boot in your ass; it's the American way.

Now it has long struck me as strange that such a rowdy lyric would make me feel so proud and sentimental. So I tried to figure out what it was stirring in me. And I figured it out...

The USA is referred to as a melting pot because, or so we are told, that there is no distinct American culture. We are told that it's instead a mixture of many different ones. I, however, completely disagree with that. We come from many different backgrounds, this is true, but we have melted them into an American culture that no other place on Earth can claim.

What is so special about the American culture, you may ask?

Americans lead the world in terms of research, innovation, and just plain smarts. Others may improve on our ideas, but we are almost always the ones coming up with them. Yet, while that might make us sound like a bunch of nerds and geeks, we'll still go toe-to-toe with the meanest SOBs around.

Those few in my life who have the (mis)fortune of getting to hear my thoughts are often subjected to my complaining. It's not that it's all that frequent, but I know it's repetitive. I've essentially been griping about the same three or four things for the last three years and all that's changed is the settings each time.

I've finally come to a conclusion: it's possible that those things that bother me so much will never be fixed. I'm not saying it's impossible that the circumstances will change, but it's possible they won't.

To me, that is far from being cynical. If I was a cynic, I wouldn't bother complaining. But I know people are capable of better and I refuse to quit holding them all to it. Along with that sort of quasi-optimism comes a certain amount of frustrastion that I can more than accept.

So what if things don't change? In all my thinking, I can find only one solution. I'm just going to have to achieve every one of my dreams in life. And the whole world can kiss my ass if it thinks it's gonna stop me.

High school football began again last night in Illinois. The games, that is. For some of us, it usually lasted year-round.

It's been several years since I quit coaching. Most of the football seasons since have come and gone and not really bothered me much. For the first time, I really miss it.

But I don't miss it for the reasons most people would think. I guess the things I miss are actually kind of selfish.

I miss watching a player go from that "picked on" feeling I gave them at the start of the season and the realization in their eyes when it finally pays off and thy get that I wasn't being mean. What would have truly been mean is to let them only meet their self-imposed limitations without challenging them.

I miss the moms talking to me after games and practices and seeing on their faces a kind of love that I've never seen anywhere else. I wouldn't even know how to describe it other than the love a mother feels for someone who is everything he needs to be to her son or daughter.

I miss the dads who watch from such a far distance at games or practices and wondering if they are mad about something. Sometimes they would be, but usually when they finally introduced themselves it would be to tell me how much their son talked about me at home and how much they respected me.

Outside those things, I don't really miss that much. The things that seem really important and impactful at the time, in anything we do in life, seems to almost always be periferal. One never seems to know what makes something so meaningful until it's over.

As a conservative, I'm often accused of being just another helpless pawn of the "religious right." I don't actually think what people are referring to as the "religious right" is nearly as powerful as they are credited -- if they were, then that would mean that majority of American's were in that group and pretty well justify being "in their pockets."

Rush said this on his show today and I found it very motivational. It goes ahead and accepts that premis and essentially says, so what?

We had a caller yesterday saying the Republicans were controlled by the evangelicals. I've been thinking about that call ever since I got it yesterday -- and, you know, it's almost a focus group phrase. Republicans in the hands of X. It used to be last time we heard that, Republicans were in the hands of the NRA. And I got to thinking about, you know, she may have had a point.

Republicans are in the hands of evangelicals and of gun owners and of stockholders and those who want less spending and less taxes. Republicans are in the hands of those who want better schools for their kids and less government regulation. This is what the evangelicals want. It's what the NRA types want. It's what mainstream-down-the-line conservatives want.

We want people who want better schools for their kids, less government regulation, tax cuts. We want a culture that is thriving and healthy and not depraved. And that's not a curse; it's a blessing. It's a reason why we're gaining popularity and why the left is losing it.

The left is under the control of union bosses, a shrinking body, of those living in slavery and the depression, in those eras in their minds, that's a dying breed and those who still follow liberalism, a failed system. So you can have your union bosses, you can have your race business leaders who try to portray everybody of color in this country as still living in the depression and among slavery, and you can have your liberals because you're losing with all three groups.

I'll take the evangelicals, I'll take the NRA, I'll take the stockholders, I'll take the gun owners, I will take middle America, any day of the week.

Neither did I. Does that make NAMBLA left-wing?

Even further, suppose there is a poisonous fruit found on some remote island. Would it then be fair to publish an article titled "Fruit are Poisonous"?