Steve Paisley played youth baseball in Mississippi 49 years ago

Ed Vitagliano Today's Issues continues on AFR with your host, Tim Wildmon, president of the American Family Association.

Tim Wildmon Welcome back to Today's Issues on American Family Radio. Thanks for listening to afr. Tim here with Ed. And now, Steve Paisley. Jorda all joins us. Good morning, Steve.

Steve Jordahl Hey, everybody.

Tim Wildmon so, fellers, yesterday, was, Alice, my wife, and I, we drove to South Haven, Mississippi, which is about an hour and a half from here, to go to our. One of our mini grandsons baseball game.

Ed Vitagliano Right.

Steve Jordahl Mini grandsons isn't small or short or multiple of them.

Tim Wildmon Well, I have many grandsons, Steve.

Steve Jordahl The little ones.

Tim Wildmon Oh, yeah. Well, they play baseball, so not many. They're 12 their range. The ones playing baseball range 12 to 7. Okay. Anyway, let's just see the one of them. Yeah, if I start naming names, I'll leave somebody out. So, but anyway, the point is. So Allison's saying, hey, we need to go turn right here. Turn left here. The field's supposed to be over here. There it is. Go over there. Right. So I get there and I go, I've been here before. And I had not been there before. At least 49 years ago. I was. Because it was at the place where I played youth baseball 49 years ago.

Ed Vitagliano And now your grandson is playing 49 years later.

Tim Wildmon I had not been back, even though that's only an hour and a half from where we live.

Ed Vitagliano That's where you were living? Your family lived.

Tim Wildmon That's where my dad started this ministry.

Ed Vitagliano Yeah.

Tim Wildmon South Haven, Mississippi. He was pastoring the First Methodist Church there. So naturally, 1976. 77.

Ed Vitagliano So naturally, you played youth baseball in South.

Tim Wildmon 13 years old.

Ed Vitagliano But you moved to Tupelo and hadn't been back to that.

Tim Wildmon Not to that field.

Ed Vitagliano Yeah.

Tim Wildmon So we drive up and I go, wait a minute. I reckon I know where we are. And isn't, it crazy?

Ed Vitagliano Yeah. grandson playing on that same field.

Tim Wildmon Yeah. Yeah. Now, he didn't do as good as I did. Well, but I didn't say that to him, you know, that would have hurt his feelings.

Ed Vitagliano Absolutely. And. And to be fair, you were eyeing a career in Major League baseball. That's a lot to put on.

Tim Wildmon Well, it was that or the NBA.

Ed Vitagliano Right.

Tim Wildmon That was, I wasn't. I wasn't big enough to play football. But those are my.

Steve Jordahl But you were tall enough to be in the NBA. That was a dream.

Tim Wildmon Well,

Ed Vitagliano point guard. He was a good point guard.

Tim Wildmon I could drive and dish. Okay.

Ed Vitagliano Yeah.

Tim Wildmon And I could knock down a jumper. So you tell me what my future was before the injury.

Ed Vitagliano So go ahead, Steve. You tell him.

Steve Jordahl It was bright.

Tim Wildmon Anyway, isn't that kind of crazy to drive up to a place you.

Ed Vitagliano You.

Tim Wildmon And you played on that field when you were 49 years ago. You know what I'm saying? You would think that place would have been torn, you know, torn down and. And, I don't know, a condo or

Ed Vitagliano just turned into a shrine.

Tim Wildmon Yeah.

Ed Vitagliano Since you played there, you know, if

Steve Jordahl you were Donald Trump, you named the field after yourself.

Tim Wildmon That's good, Steve.

Ed Vitagliano It is. But it is strange.

Tim Wildmon Yeah.

Ed Vitagliano When you start, when you get to our age, and I'm older than you, so. But you're in the ballpark.

Tim Wildmon Yeah.

Ed Vitagliano When you start talking in chunks of time, like, 49 years ago, I mean,

Tim Wildmon you remember like it's yesterday.

Ed Vitagliano Yeah.

77 people signed up to go to Boston in September with Walker and Wesley

Tim Wildmon Yeah. Now you're going back to Boston in September.

Ed Vitagliano September with our.

Tim Wildmon With our tour group.

Ed Vitagliano With the two. With the AFR.

Tim Wildmon tour group. Yep. And they've got, like, 30 seats left, I think.

Ed Vitagliano Is that right?

Tim Wildmon Yeah.

Ed Vitagliano So go to wild.

Tim Wildmon 77 people signed up to go to Boston in September with the Walker and Wesley. And you.

Ed Vitagliano Yeah, I'm going along now. I hope people coming along on that tour aren't expecting me to be an expert on Boston. I had. I've been back to visit, but have not lived there since 1978.

Tim Wildmon Okay, you lived there in 78. You know what you need to do?

Ed Vitagliano What?

Tim Wildmon You need to go a day early, if you can. I'm not kidding. And you need to go back to your childhood home. Go see your childhood home. Now, did y' all live in Boston or out.

Ed Vitagliano We lived in Wakefield and Peabody. my mom's family's from Lowell.

Tim Wildmon Puberty. What?

Ed Vitagliano Peabody. It's spelled Peabody, but it's pronounced Peabody. but so it's right outside Boston. All kinds of communities outside of. In the Boston area did not live in Boston proper, which is actually not all that big. Boston proper. And then grew up across the state line in Nashua, NewSong Hampshire.

Tim Wildmon Yeah. So you need to go back. You need. Well, if you're going up there, you need to go back and look, a couple of years I have.

Ed Vitagliano When I have gone back to visit.

Tim Wildmon you've done that before?

Ed Vitagliano Yes. My sisters and I, for example, we had a surprise birthday, party for my dad when he was 80. So that. Wow. That's 16 years ago. We. We took a drive to our home in Nashua, NewSong Hampshire, where we spent Most of our 10 years or so growing up. And, of course, a lot of things change. You Go back and you go. I don't remember any of this stuff sprung up. Stuff like to your point is torn down. Yeah, well, where's, where's whatchamacallit? And then, you know.

Tim Wildmon Yeah.

Golden Tempo wins Kentucky Derby by 30 to 1 long shot

all right, Steve, what do you. What kind of good news you got for us this morning, my friend?

Steve Jordahl Well, I thought we'd start, over the weekend. I don't know. Did either one of you guys watch the Kentucky Derby?

Ed Vitagliano I didn't, until you mentioned in our story meeting about this exciting finish. And I went and watched it.

Tim Wildmon I missed it.

Steve Jordahl Well, I'll play the last 20, 30 seconds of the call. basically, the Kentucky Derby was won by a 30 to 1 long shot. Golden Tempo was the name. And this horse was some six or seven links behind the last, the next to last place horse. Dead last, dead last by a long shot. And came all the way from the very, very back to win the race. And it sounded like this.

Ed Vitagliano Cut 14 as they arrive into the final furlong. Oselli is also gaining ground on the far outside as they come to the last 16th of a mile. Danon Bourbon in front Oselling a huge long shot. Renegade and Golden Tempo are closing two. Here's Golden Tempo, Golden Temp and Sheree Devo make history in the Kentucky Derby over Renegade in a final time of 202.27 seconds.

Tim Wildmon What does he mean made history?

Steve Jordahl Well, it was trained the first female trainer, ever to win the Kentucky Derby.

Ed Vitagliano Yeah, that was what he, he said after that. And I don't know why that's rare.

Steve Jordahl but training horses has been a male job primarily. But, this was a woman,

Ed Vitagliano you know, the name of the woman who got that honor.

Steve Jordahl I'll have to look that up.

Ed Vitagliano But anyway, congratulations to her and to the owner and to the jockey.

Tim Wildmon And so this guy, this horse was a, like a long shot.

Steve Jordahl Yeah.

Ed Vitagliano And my understanding from watching a little bit after that, as they were talking, this is what this horse does. This horse has won several races this year.

Tim Wildmon Sandbags.

Ed Vitagliano Yeah, I guess it's kind of like that hangs in the back and then has a tremendous. I don't know if they, if with horses, they call it a kick. I know that runners have that kick where they, you know, kind of turn on the afterburners at the end. But, very exciting to, to watch. It's funny that the build up to the Kentucky Derby always they, they interview this person. There's all kinds of people dressed up and all that. And then the race is about four minutes Long or something or two minutes. In this case it was Cherie Devoe

Steve Jordahl was the name of the woman who trained the first woman ever to train her to ever win the Kentucky Derby. And you heard at, ah, the call there, the Golden Tempo beat, the second place horse was Renegade. The two jockeys were brothers.

Ed Vitagliano Oh, well, because when, the winning horse crossed the finish line, I noticed that the jockey of the second place finisher held his, I guess it was his brother's hand to Congress congratulate him.

Steve Jordahl Neither one of them had won a derby before and I guess the brother that lost this time had tried more times, I think. And so everyone was saying it could be his first win, but he was happy for his brother.

Tim Wildmon Yeah, those trainer, those jockeys, what's their average weight? Like 125, 30?

Steve Jordahl Yeah, not. They're very short, very small.

Tim Wildmon Yeah. And is there any women jockeys? They're always, men that are about 5 foot 3, 125 pounds. Small dudes. in the.

Steve Jordahl The average weight of a jockey is about 113 pounds. Most weigh between 108 and 118 pounds.

Ed Vitagliano So yes, there are many female jockeys, and while they have historically been underrepresented in major events like the Kentucky Derby, they have achieved significant success in thoroughbred racing, steeple chasing and flat racing globally.

Tim Wildmon What's flat racing, Ed?

Ed Vitagliano this, this is where cars that have flats, flat tires will, will try to, you know, beat other in a straight, in a straightaway.

Tim Wildmon It's kind of Olympic sport. Is, isn't that an Olympic sport?

Ed Vitagliano Totally making that up. I have no idea what flat racing is. Do you want me to look that up?

Tim Wildmon Steve, you know what flat racing is,

Steve Jordahl I would imagine it is as opposed to Steeple Chase racing, where they have, they have jump.

Tim Wildmon Yeah, probably. So flat racing, flat racing, being around a track like a Kentucky Derby, like,

Ed Vitagliano I'll tell you what it is, tell

Tim Wildmon me what it is.

Ed Vitagliano I'm just gonna, just, just.

Tim Wildmon What's flat racing?

Ed Vitagliano Flat racing, ah, as you all know, is a form of horse racing where horses compete on a level track without obstacles like jumps, like testing their speed, stamina. Well, it's got no options.

Tim Wildmon It's the Kentucky Derby.

Steve Jordahl I think I just said that.

Tim Wildmon Yeah, you did.

Ed Vitagliano Did you?

Steve Jordahl Yes, I would.

Ed Vitagliano I was looking this up.

Steve Jordahl Anyway, Steeple Chase has obstacles on.

Tim Wildmon The Kentucky Derby is the first of, the three races that define the Triple Crown. Triple Crown. So I don't know anything.

Steve Jordahl The pregnancy, the Belmont Stakes.

Tim Wildmon I just know, that when The Kentucky Derby rolls around and the Indianapolis 500 rolls around. It's summertime. summertime is here. When is

Steve Jordahl living is easy. I'll look it up.

Tim Wildmon Okay. Look up. Look up. When the Indian.

Ed Vitagliano Our listeners are going, you know what? I can look this stuff up. Why don't you guys talk?

May 24th is the 110th running of the Indy 500

Steve Jordahl Well, we're talking.

Tim Wildmon We're talking about looking it up.

Steve Jordahl We're talking May, 24th.

Tim Wildmon May 24th. So May 24th is the Indy 500.

Steve Jordahl Yep.

Tim Wildmon Okay.

Steve Jordahl 110th running.

New York and Seattle are electing socialist, frankly communist mayors

Tim Wildmon All right, Steve, what's your first, real story? Real news story?

Steve Jordahl Well, there is a kind of. We're getting into a trend here. NewSong York City is one and Seattle is another, where they're electing these socialist, frankly communist mayors. And, they are finding out that the programs that they're promising aren't all, that easy, to do. As we heard Mayor Zoran Mamdani, say that he's, running out of money. He made that announcement over the weekend.

Tim Wildmon Zoran Mandami is running out of money.

Steve Jordahl That the city is running out of money. And they have to depend on the state. They're gonna need the state. Cause they have to, by law, balance the budget. So they're in a little bit of a pickle. Wow.

Ed Vitagliano State law requires NewSong York City to balance the budget.

Steve Jordahl It does.

Tim Wildmon Wow.

Ed Vitagliano this is awesome.

Steve Jordahl On the other side, the other side of the country, we have Seattle's socialist mayor. Her name is Katy Wilson. And, Seattle hasn't quite gone as far down the path, I mean, as far as seeing the need. I want to play you something that, Seattle's May. Her name is Katy Wilson. And, she was asked about what happens when all the millionaires leave because you're taxing them and, you know, or over taxing them to pay for all the free stuff you want to give away. And this was her answer. Cut 10. I think the claims that millionaires are going to leave our state are like, super overblown. And if you know the ones that leave, like, bye. so she got a little bit of heat. See ya. you want to leave your millionaire?

Tim Wildmon Yeah. She shouldn't say that. I wouldn't say that. Because she's acting like, who cares when the forever millionaire that leaves. That's a bunch of tax money.

Steve Jordahl A lot of tax money. And by the way, one such millionaire is, the owner of Starbucks. Howard Schultz is moving to Miami, and he is expanding his business, opening a second branch of his headquarters in Nashville. No Income tax in Miami and state income tax anyway. And Nashville, much more friendly. So she's losing 2,000 jobs from Seattle.

Ed Vitagliano You know, this sounds an awful lot like NewSong York Governor Kathi Hochul.

Ed Vitagliano Who in 2022, told she was talking about this, well, you know, we gotta tax the rich in order to fund our, welfare programs and, and getting some blowback on that. And in 2022, Kathi Hochul, the governor of NewSong York said, she told these millionaires or these critics to go ahead and jump on a bus and head down to Florida.

Steve Jordahl We don't need you, she said.

Ed Vitagliano That's we don't need you. And now this year she's saying, asking these millionaires and billionaires, I'm sure to come back and do their patriotic duty.

Steve Jordahl It's patriotic.

Ed Vitagliano And pay. And pay taxes to fund the slate of welfare programs. It sounds like, Seattle is, the Seattle mayor. Katy bar the door.

Steve Jordahl Yeah.

Ed Vitagliano she's making the same mistake.

Steve Jordahl Yeah. They don't learn, you know.

Tim Wildmon Katy bar the door. Where did that come in?

Ed Vitagliano Katy Wilson. Is that her name?

Steve Jordahl Katy Wilson is her name, yes.

Ed Vitagliano You remember Katy bar the door.

Tim Wildmon Yeah. Did she ever do that?

Ed Vitagliano No, she never did.

Steve Jordahl So I, that's the thing. She hasn't learned how to bar the door.

Ed Vitagliano She learned how to bar the door to keep the millionaires from newly noted it. Yeah.

More and more socialists are in charge of the Democratic Party

So, okay, well, listen, I think the country's fine. This is what I was going to say last segment and we go into the break and you said, well, you can come back. So. And say it. So here I'm going to now say it is in connection, we were talking about Bernie Sanders.

Steve Jordahl Yes.

Ed Vitagliano Before the break. But you've seen one socialist, you've seen them all. So let's talk about Katy Wilson and Mamdani. but what. There is fertile ground for socialists right now because people are very unhappy. There's a lot of change going on with AI and so on and so forth. A lot of change happening in our economy. There does seem to be a number of, tectonic shifts in the economic future for people. You have young people who can't afford to buy homes, they can't get jobs, they have college degrees, they're in all kinds of college debt. These are people who want big changes to happen. And so socialism sounds like a good plan in order to get those big changes so they can have the quote unquote American dream. But we are also simultaneously rapidly seeing that what socialists use for their promises or other People's money. and when people leave and the tax base shrinks, take their money with them. They not only can't fund the new promises of someone like Zoran Mamdani, they can't even fund the critical infrastructure that people, in NewSong York or Seattle get used to. This is, this shift in terms of demographics, is going to continue in this country because more and more socialists are in charge of the Democratic Party. So in blue cities and blue states, you're going to have increasingly socialist policies. And it is going to drive the money makers, and therefore the taxpayers that base. They're going to drive them to other states.

Tim Wildmon But you know what? when Starbucks moves out of Seattle, that's huge. You, got problems.

Ed Vitagliano Yep.

Tim Wildmon there with their local government or their state government. The state of Washington. Because the Starbucks, you know, they've been, they've been. They're a Washington state Seattle institution.

Ed Vitagliano They, they. They were founded there.

Tim Wildmon Yeah.

Ed Vitagliano Well, and I'll tell you one other thing. It's not just the tax policies that is a huge part of it for making. I think that's the final nail in the coffin. It's also the crime m. And the homelessness and the open drug use that threatens safety. The safety, of the workers.

Tim Wildmon That's why San Francisco is closing down, basically.

Steve Jordahl Well, the thoughtlessness that it takes to believe something like that is not just, limited to the cities. I've got a.

Tim Wildmon You, know.

Steve Jordahl Rashida Tlaib is the congresswoman from Michigan. She is introducing a bill of rights for the quote, unhoused.

Tim Wildmon Come again?

Steve Jordahl Homeless Bill of rights, people.

Tim Wildmon She's introduced this bill of rights for. For the homeless. Oh, well, we don't call homeless anymore.

Steve Jordahl No, no, that's rude.

Tim Wildmon The unhoused.

Steve Jordahl Yes.

Ed Vitagliano Well, technically I'm unhoused right now.

Steve Jordahl Are you?

Ed Vitagliano I'm not in my house. I'm at work.

Steve Jordahl Well, you can take advantage of some of these, newly created rights if you want.

Ed Vitagliano All right, so what, what is this so called Bill of Rights?

Steve Jordahl She.

Tim Wildmon And in this bill, who are we talking about now?

Steve Jordahl The homeless.

Ed Vitagliano Rashida Tlaib.

Steve Jordahl Rashida Talib introduced a bill. It's going through the House of.

Tim Wildmon I know I'm not gonna like this already. Probably won't so.

Steve Jordahl Well, anyway, it would. It would grant, the unhoused the right to decent, affordable housing. Of course. Unhimitted access to public parks, transportation facilities, sidewalks, buildings and restrooms.

Ed Vitagliano You mean if they want to bed down for the night?

Steve Jordahl Anywhere they want the right. Not to be subject to penalties for standing, walking, resting, or sleeping in a public place or vehicle. including relying on tents, sleeping bags, additional clothing or other supplies. The right to solicit donations in public.

Tim Wildmon Okay, this is, this is proposed federal legislation.

Ed Vitagliano Yes, sir, it's federal.

Tim Wildmon Yeah, yeah. She's a congresswoman, United States Congresswoman from Michigan. I don't think that's going to go anywhere. Listen, we all feel sorry for homeless people, right? I mean, you should. You got any heart at all, right? You have compassion for.

Ed Vitagliano If they're homeless because. Not because of something that they have.

Steve Jordahl Well, this is the thing that, people, they're mostly either drug dependent or have mental illness of some sort.

Ed Vitagliano That's the vast majority.

Steve Jordahl Yes.

Ed Vitagliano Is it okay? Yeah, but, but you're right. Even for those people who are trapped in drug addiction or mental illness, you do want some option for them to get free.

Tim Wildmon Yeah.

Beth: I don't believe in private charities helping homeless people

I mean, I mean, when I see homeless people, I don't go. Well, you don't take into account why they're there. Right, but you're right, a lot of people make bad decisions in life or they get addicted to drugs or alcohol and they lose everything. So, But I'm saying you can't. But that's. It's not the responsibility of the taxpayer to pay for everything. Right? It's not. And ah, so I believe in. I believe in private charities helping people out, you know, but I just don't. And we do, we do have some sort of a safety net, a social safety net, which I'm not opposed to that. So, minimum. So for example, a homeless person, they can go down the health department, you know, and get treated. Right. Or get medicine. but they, they, they can get food at the Salvation army or local food soup kitchen or something like that. So there are, there are charities. Most of them are sponsored by the bad Christians, these mean old Christians across America who are the worst of the worst. Y. According to the liberal media. You know. Right. Christian, conservatives. They're the ones who sponsor most of the charitable outreach in the US and abroad too. So anyway, but I just,

Ed Vitagliano Well, that's crazy that, that Rashida Talib's bill.

Tim Wildmon That's not.

Ed Vitagliano I think you're right. That's not gonna, this is not gonna pass.

Tim Wildmon I'm gonna go anywhere. Listen, I'd say if you believe in that, Rashida, why don't you, bring them all over to your house at about 10. Homeless folks stay in your backyard.

Ed Vitagliano Yeah, backyard, nothing. Bring them inside.

Steve Jordahl Well, that's according to your Bill, they have the right to uninhibited access to her. Beth. Her restroom.

Ed Vitagliano Well, first of all, I don't. This is not the federal government's business.

Tim Wildmon Right.

Ed Vitagliano Telling states and cities.

Tim Wildmon That's a state issue.

Ed Vitagliano That's a state issue or, a metropolitan issue. and so the federal government has zero constitutional authority. Unless you. Unless you want to change the Constitution and add that to the Bill of Rights, Federal government should keep its nose out somehow. And it's a dumb idea to begin with.

Steve Jordahl Something being legal or in the Constitution has rarely been a.

Ed Vitagliano It hadn't stopped them, has it?

Iran is considering sending dolphins into the Straits of Hormuz

Tim Wildmon We got about one minute left here.

Steve Jordahl All right. Iranians are getting desperate in the Straits of Hormuz. And, they have a new, way that they're thinking of stopping shipping there because they're just running out of. They have no navy left. So this is what they're going to do. Cut 10th. I think the claims that millionaires are going to leave us. Sorry, did I give you.

Tim Wildmon The millionaires are moving to the strait of Hormuz.

Steve Jordahl 1111.

Ed Vitagliano Send the socialists.

Tim Wildmon This is a physical blockade. They're not able to send their oil and the resources to China. And vast majority of their oil exports were going via sea. To give you a sign of the desperate measures they're contemplating, the Wall Street Journal reported today that they're contemplating measures like suicide. Dolphins, you know, dolphins, equipped with mines to try.

Steve Jordahl They're sending dolphins in with mines.

Tim Wildmon Thinking about doing it.

Steve Jordahl Yeah. They have to train the dolphins.

Tim Wildmon What do you think about that, Ian? Think it's gonna work?

Ed Vitagliano listen, the US Navy has tried. Lots of navies have tried using dolphins because they're very smart, to, for underwater exercises and for options.

Steve Jordahl They've convinced him to do this by promising of 72 Sturgeons if they die.

Tim Wildmon Oh, but that was bad, Steve.

Ed Vitagliano 72 sturgeons.

Tim Wildmon I think that was inappropriate.

Ed Vitagliano If they die. By the way, in our story meeting, Krish Woodward, he's been a lifelong Miami Dolphins fan. He said. He said, well, the Miami Dolphins have been bombing my whole lifetime, so why not boom? Why not get them involved in,

Tim Wildmon All right, thanks for joining us today on today's Issues, everybody. We'll see you tomorrow. Have a great day. Keep listening to afr.