December 16, 2025 • 23 mins
In this episode, Mary Katharine Ham and Karol Markowicz examine a series of sobering global and domestic events shaping today’s headlines. They discuss the tragic attack on U.S. soldiers in Syria, a devastating shooting at a Hanukkah gathering in Australia, and what these acts of violence reveal about rising instability and antisemitism worldwide. The conversation also turns to the troubling decline in reading proficiency among American students and the cultural consequences of losing educational rigor.
Follow Clay & Buck on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/clayandbuck
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Hey, guys are back on.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Normally the show is normally takes, but when the news gets.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Weird, I am Erican him and I am Pyle Michaels.
We're going to have a really sad show today. The
news is not good top to bottom. So let's start
with a little lightness. How was your weekend?
Speaker 2 (00:19):
It was pretty good. Had to take the not had to.
This is one of my favorite yearly events. We go
to a little Santa brunch where they get to meet Santa,
and we have a nice, nice meal with our friends,
and you get the kiddos dressed up, and as we
were leaving, as is customary with children, I'm leaning over
(00:40):
my four year old daughter and she's putting on her shoes.
At part of the long struggle of getting a decent
outfit on, She's putting her shoes on and I'm like, oh,
this is the wrong feet, But who cares? Like, if
you want to change them, change them. If you don't,
no big deal, And she goes, that's okay, mom, and
then she triumphantly jumps into the air into my Oh no,
(01:01):
I do not have a broken nose. I do not
have a mark. Like we're in a good We're in
a pretty good place, but in the moment, it hurts
so bad. And I was like, they broke my face.
To my oldest daughter, I was like, can you take
over here stairs and deal with us, like try not
to cry, try not to flip out, And all was well,
Like I said, I am unmarked, just bruised, and ego, yes.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
Yes, yeah you look great. You don't you don't look
like you you take care a beating. But h yeah,
those kids they could like exuberantly love you until a
lot of pains.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Yes, it happened, and Steve said, don't let your self
are protected like that, right, it's your fault, which, like
you know, I've had a lot of kids. I should know.
I should know.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
Yeah, we are deep in holiday party season down here
in Florida. Buck Sexton had a really fun one on Thursday.
Dave Ruben had one on Saturday. The gang was all there.
You were missed. You are always welcome in South Florida.
You know this. You don't have to suffer up there
in the cold. We could come down to our chili.
But still, you know, pretty good seventy degrees.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
No party season down there does look great because I
do have an issue with dressing up and going out
in the cold. Yeah, and I do it basically once
a year. I do black tie in the cold and
that is the Travis Mannon Foundation Gala, which I did
on Thursday and it was beautiful.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
Yeah. But man, sweater dresses. I like sweater dresses personally for.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
That b there, you could do that.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
They really they work very well. All right, let's talk
about all the terrible stuff going on in the world
and how much it sucks. We're actually going to start
with there were two US Army soldiers and an American
interpreter killed in Syria on Saturday, and we're starting with
that because it's such an underreported story. It's just not
(02:51):
out there at all. And we understand that there's a
lot of news that we're going to talk about, Bondi
in the next segment. But I do think I and
you know, I could be accused sometimes of being not
America first because I dare be Jewish, But I do
think American news should lead our news. I think American deaths,
especially military deaths, should be at the top of our
(03:12):
news feed. And so we're going to talk about it
on here. The name of the two Iowa Army National
Guard soldiers are Sergeant William Nathaniel Nate Howard, he was
twenty nine of Marshalltown and Sergeant Edgar Bryan Torres Tavar,
twenty five of Grimes. It's just a giant tragedy, and
(03:33):
there were three other soldiers wounded. They are apparently doing well,
but we lost these two young men and it's just
a giant tragedy and we need to commemorate them.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
This is part of a support system or support mission
that US troops are doing. About nine hundred of them
are stationed in eastern Syria as part of a coalition
fighting the Islamic State Group and to hinder Iranian influence.
They think the shooter was sort of an inside job
who had infiltrated but was an ISIS guy, and I
believe he was taken out by in retaliation. Apparently. I
(04:10):
just read that Syria has arrested five in this plot,
and Trump of course is vowing retaliation. This seems like
what might be an interesting early test of the relationship
between this Syrian president who was not an ally but
then sort of became an ally.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
He was just at the White House, Yeah, he was
just at.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
The White House and Trump but it's terrible news to
hear right before the holidays, and I'm glad you brought
it to all of our attention because it did get
lost in the news this weekend. These are the first
combat deaths since Trump took office. I guess, I guess
National Guard the young woman in DC, but she that
was not combat death per se.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
That was right, Trump posted on truth Social There will
be very serious retaliation. He said, this was an isa's
attack against the US and Syrian a very dangerous part
of Syria that is not fully controlled by them. The
president of Syria, mad al Shara, is extremely angry and
disturbed by this attack. There will be very serious retaliation,
and as has become his closing comment, he wrote, thank
(05:12):
you for your attention to this matter. I don't know
where this leads, because look, nobody wants a hot war
in the Middle East, and nobody wants obviously more American
troops in the ground. I feel like everybody's kind of
united in that thought. But you also can't let stuff
like this go just go right, And that's really what
often is expected from Israel. Israel is expected to just
(05:36):
you know, take it on the chin and move on
a lot of the time. And I think this kind
of thing brings home to Americans that you can't do that,
You just can't. You have to fight back.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
Yeah, And I think the Hudis is a good example
of Americans having to eventually just take out a bunch
of hoo de capabilities because they were after targets that
mattered to us, and specifically American targets. And eventually you
have to do something about that. And if you lose deterrence, yeah,
(06:07):
as we did during the Biden years, the price of
regaining it can get really, really high. Yeah, And so
taking care of this stuff quickly, I think is the
preferred method, even though for some people. And I think
Trump's very comfortable with it. Trump's very comfortable with like,
you did something wrong, We're taking care of that. But
it doesn't mean troops on the ground or nation building.
(06:27):
That's right, that's his sweet spot.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
I was going to say the same thing, it's a
sweet spot if Trump has one, that's it. He looked.
He doesn't always handle every situation the way I would
like him to handle it, and he doesn't always say
the right words, but in times like this, I think
he actually shines. So I will also add that just
because America is not in a hot war, it doesn't
mean our troops are not in danger. And this is
(06:52):
a good reminder of that. My kids to this day,
they're fifteen, twelve, and ten, they think every time they
see somebody in a military hat or in uniform obviously,
but also police officers, firemen, they say thank you for
your service to them. And I think this is just
a reminder that we might not think of it as
they're in harms way all the time, but they are.
They're literally frequently on the front lines of defending us,
(07:14):
even if we don't know anything about.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
It, It's true. And even in cases where they are
not on the front lines per se, there are still deployments.
There are still families who pay the cost back home,
and having just spent Thursday, Friday, parts of Saturday with
the families who are involved with the Travis Mannon Foundation,
you meet these stunning folks who sometimes didn't serve themselves,
but you know, paid the full price with their spouses
(07:37):
or their brothers and are still out there trying to
serve the American people and to if you never have
been or if you've never watched an army, navy game
worth trying to do that at some point during your life,
just because the pageantry, the commitment of every single person
there on the field to sacrifice everything for your freedom.
(08:00):
It's really something. And you know, I love my SEC football,
but that is a different level of experience and something
that I think everyone should try to take in at
some point in some way, because it does help appreciate
these things.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
Tell us who you root for, just tell us, Oh,
I'm a Navy girl.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
Okay, yeah, but it's all pretty friendly, you know.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
Fun. I saw some people mad about some Georgia football
with you this weekend.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
To that but separate issue. But on this one, I
think we can all be friendly rivals as when it
comes to Army Navy and appreciate everyone.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
We'll take a short break and come right back on
normally with some more sad and devastating news from the
last few days. Be right back all right.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
We are back on normally, and again the news is
heavy this week. In Bondi Beach in Australia, there was
an attack on a Hanukkah gathering the first night of
Hannah on the beach. At least fifteen people were killed
in an attack in Sydney, including a ten year old girl,
a long serving rabbi and a Holocaust survivor. If you
have been paying attention to the news this weekend, you
(09:10):
saw that an incredibly brave early forties fruit stand fruit
vender overtook one of the shooters who was armed while
he was not and probably prevented a lot more carnage.
He was shot himself, but it looks like he will survive.
And just my prayers to everybody and also commendation to
(09:31):
that guy. It was having seen the video, it was
an incredibly risky and brave thing to do.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
Really amazing. Yeah, it was such a devastating story to
wake up two on Sunday. It's just, you know, Bondi Beach.
I've never been there, but it's obviously a very well known,
very chill beach. Australians in general, I always found to
be very mellow people. The Hanuka celebration part. My daughter
had been on a beach in South Florida having a
(09:57):
Shabbat celebration the day before. It really hard and I
hate that the conversation is now turning to how much
more can Australia ban guns like it? Just it doesn't work. Like,
here's your evidence that banning guns doesn't work. The guns
were banned, these men had.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
Been most banned.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
Yeah, and yet here were a father son duo opening fire, reloading,
having absolutely no problem doing that, and no police stopping them.
The police didn't do anything for ten minutes of this shooting. Uh.
You know, I understand, I understand the fear and everything,
But if the police aren't going to do anything and
you're an armed you're leaving it to unarmed fruit stand
(10:39):
man to help you, that's not always going to work out,
even as well as it worked out here. So it
just it's really bad and the fact that Islamic terrorism
continues to rear its ugly head the way it is
here and in a couple of other situations that we're
going to talk about right now. It's just it's an
ongoing thing, and so many people refuse to call it
(11:02):
what it is. And it's not anti Muslim to say
that radical Islamic ideology is propelling a lot of this.
I have Muslim friends who agree that radical Islamic ideology
is propelling a lot of this. So I don't know,
I don't know where the West goes from here. Leah
Libowitz had a great piece in Tablet Today where he
(11:24):
talks about, you know, the Jews are going to be fine,
We're going to lick our wounds, take care of each other,
move on. It's Western civilization that we all have to
be concerned about. And that's what I'm most afraid for.
And I think I've said it on here before, but
I'm not worried about Israel. I'm worried about America. I'm
worried about where we're going and the paths that we
are following. And I just don't want us to end
(11:45):
up like Europe or like Australia, and it sometimes feels
like we're heading in that direction.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
Five men were also arrested in Germany, suspected of being
involved in a plot to drive a vehicle into a
Christmas market. So it is not just the Jews, and
I bet you can guess the ideology that drove that plot.
Thank goodness it was broken up. But I think you're right, Carol,
that unless we are honest about what is happening here
and take practical measures to make sure that the people
(12:13):
you're welcoming to your country are not either already radical
or becoming radicalized. While they're here, You're going to run
into more and more of this everywhere. And if it's
politically incorrect or frowned upon to even point that out,
we have a serious problem. And as we talked about
in one of our last episodes, if you don't have
(12:34):
the cultural self confidence to say our way of life matters,
our Christmas markets matter, our public Monora lightings matter, you
are not allowed to attack them in the name of
your radicalized religion. You're not going to be able to
protect yourself.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
Yeah, you have to name it before you could do
anything about it. As we're recording this, Cassia Kiva posted
that the FBI stopped a terror attack planned for New
Year by the left wing pro Palestinian group Turtle Island
Liberation Front. Turtle Island is an indigenous term from North
America adapted by radical leftists who reject the continent's name
(13:11):
as colonialist. It's not going to be just Jews. No,
people need to wake up and see that this continues
to be an attack on Western civilization in general. One
of the victims on Bondi Beach is Habad Rabbi Eli Schlanger,
and I just want to note he has been and
I had a couple of friends posts about him on Instagram,
(13:31):
particularly welcoming to my community of ex Soviet Jews who
moved to Australia around the same time that I moved
to America. Really an extra sad loss for my people.
Let's say, he was apparently a real force in welcoming
the people that moved to Australia and making them feel
Australian part of the Australian Jewish community. And that's so important.
Speaker 2 (13:55):
Oh, it's terrible. Just the range of victims. One guy
was there is like a free lance photographer. It's just
terrible as always, And like you said, it will immediately
pivot to banning.
Speaker 1 (14:08):
Gun already doing it.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
Yeah, I'm not sure how much more illegal you can
make murder to begin with.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
That's always the question, how much more can you make
murder illegal? I also want to note Arson Ostrowski, who
is a Twitter friend of mine for a long time.
He had recently moved from Israel to Australia, was on
the beach the bullet grazed his head. He posted pictures
of himself bleeding profusely, but he looks like he's going
(14:36):
to be okay. He's was lighting Candles in the hospital
last night, and we're obviously praying for Arson.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
I want to note also we do not know the
motive of it yet. The Rhode Island shooting at Brown
University another place where guns are very very very banned,
and Rhode Island in general has very strict rules. Two
students died at Brown and and at least one there
was in an economics study session. One of the shooting
victims is Ella Cook, who was the vice president of
(15:06):
the Republicans club. And again we don't know exactly what
motivated this, but apparently the professor was Jewish. This woman
was a leader of a Republicans club on campus. There
are very few conservatives on Brown's campus. She was a
visible one. They do not have this shooter yet as
we are reporting, so we don't know a lot here.
(15:29):
But I do think those things are notable. And another
tragedy to see a nineteen year old killed at this
stage in her life, who clearly was a leader, who
clearly was gifted. And we will find out more about that.
But very very low percentage of conservatives on campus.
Speaker 1 (15:43):
Right, it's odd if that is a coincidence. Amy Swearer,
who is at the Heritage Foundation, and she's a senior
legal fellow there. She's brilliant, especially on the issue of guns,
but on basically everything that she writes. But she pointed
out the shooting occurred in the classroom of Professor Rachel Friedberg,
who is Jewish, part of the program in Judaic Studies
and whose research focuses on the intersection of economics and
(16:06):
Jewish studies. That seems like it might be incredibly relevant.
It could be random, but doesn't sound like it.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
Many of these facts are worth considering, and then when
we know more, will know more. Also, as always, it's
worth being careful about people you name in the wake
of these things. The person of interest's name was out
and picture was out and he was later released.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
Yeah, so I had his names and I didn't release
it because it wasn't one hundred percent and I had
it at like high nineties and it's still I was like, Okay,
let's let's hold off on this. But yeah, it's scary
actually that they don't have him yet. Y also like,
how could they not have him? I'm hearing from kind
of normy friends being like, I don't get it. How
(16:51):
is there not aren't there security cameras? Everywhere, Like we
see the cameras everywhere. How could they not have this
guy yet?
Speaker 2 (16:57):
The press conferences are not with local folks, are not
inspiring a ton of confidence at this moment. They say
that they're just warn't a lot of cameras in that building.
They are asking the public for more information and hopefully
we will have more progress to update you with in
the future. But sad news again.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
Yeah, sorry to bum everybody out for our second segment,
but had to talk about the big stories from the
last few days.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
We'll be right back.
Speaker 1 (17:21):
With more on normally and hopefully not a topic that
makes us want to just lose it. Be right back
all right, we are back on normally. I wouldn't say
that this is a happy topic either, No, but it's close.
Speaker 2 (17:37):
It's pleasure.
Speaker 1 (17:37):
Yes, there's no death involved here, which is already a plus.
Apparently kids no longer read books at all, and this
you know, you and I have been talking about this
for so long that that reading has become something that
is just not done, and especially full books is unheard of.
It's awful, what a tragedy. And I don't understand how
(18:00):
English teachers go along with it, and they don't make
the kids read entire books.
Speaker 2 (18:05):
Yeah, here's the New York Times reporting on it. And again,
we've talked about this a lot, but it is helpful
to have the New York Times backing up of this
kind of stuff with reporting It says in America high schools,
the age of the book may be fading. Many teenagers
are assigned few full books to read from beginning to end,
often just one or two per year. According to researchers
and thousands of responses to an informal reader survey by
(18:26):
The New York Times, twelfth grade reading scores are historic lows,
et cetera. I mean, even in at elite colleges kids
are getting they're not having read books. Karen Vates, who
is a great follow on Twitter. Vates is Vai Tes.
She follows this stuff and follows curriculum and how they
shape what we teach kids. And she says, what's disturbing
(18:46):
to me is what she says is that this is
something that everyone in K twelve education knows, of course,
but the info hadn't gotten to the normies until recently,
because normies assume, of course, you read books in school.
Doesn't read books, right, But that is not the case,
they do not read books in school. And as much
as you know, I think it's easy to clown on
(19:08):
college students who turn out not great work. They're like, oh,
you can't read any books. It's like, well, if they
were never asked to do that, right, what do you
want they have learned to do it?
Speaker 1 (19:18):
Yeah. I would just say, if your a kid is
not made to read books in school, make them read
them at home. I just don't understand this whole, Like, well,
they don't have to read it in school, so that's it.
I don't know. Are we really heading towards a book
free world? A bookless world? That sounds so sad.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
Well, yeah, that's what I said. Not only is it
a joy, but you learn to read tougher and tougher
things as you go. Here's Karen's reporting on this earlier,
which went pretty viral at the time. Says Hillary is
a sixth grader in Connecticut. For the last five years
she has been given an English language arts curriculum selected
by her district. Wonders, published by McGraw hill in twenty twenty.
We all know McGraw hill from growing up in schools.
(19:58):
Wonders includes no actual books for Hillary sixth graders. The
Wonder's grade six curriculum includes only short texts and excerpts.
The average length of those texts is seven points three pages.
The longest text is just eighteen pages. Those pages, those
page counts include some full page illustrations, so it's actually
more like thirteen pages. And that's sixth grade. And she
(20:21):
notes that many kids who are hitting chapter book level,
which would be about fourth fifth, sixth grade even earlier,
they're not getting introed to smaller chapter books. And I'm
with you, Carol. The uplifting part about this story is
that you can correct it in your own home right.
And I think I stumbled on doing this for my
kids when schools closed, because I did them out of
(20:43):
the Zoom school and because I didn't know how to
do anything else. I said, we're going to read, right,
And so we read a ton of books. And I
have readers now as a result. They love to read books.
I know your kids to two.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
Two out of three, you know, well, what are you
going to do?
Speaker 2 (21:01):
That is a pretty good person.
Speaker 1 (21:03):
The third one reads books like he doesn't like it.
He sets a timer for his twenty minutes like you know,
but he does it. And he finishes them. And he
you know, he has a certain number of books he
completes every month. I don't even understand the Oh he doesn't.
They don't. They just don't read whole books. No, he
reads whole books again under duress, but nevertheless he does it.
Speaker 2 (21:24):
Yeah, this is one of those things that I think
can creep into curriculum and into K twelve schools in
such a It's such a horrible idea. It was a
bad idea from the start. It creeps in and this
confluence of the school's not wanting to admit they're not
doing their jobs, plus parents wanting to just see a'son
report cards without pushing their kids. Hey, gets you in
(21:45):
this really bad position where suddenly, oh, an entire generation
can't read books. That does seem bad.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
It seems really bad. And it will give such a
distinct advantage to the kids who can read whole books.
It helps you in a variety of ways. To be
able to hold your attention throughout a whole book is
something that the kids that are just swiping along and
never reading full books will never have. And I'm telling you,
the book readers will succeed ahead of them. It's inevitable. Yeah,
(22:12):
read your guys. Yeah, when you're on vacation in the
next few weeks. If you have any time off, read
a book like It's very good for you. It feels great,
makes you smarter, enjoyable, the whole thing. But I will
do better than TikTok.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
I will do my annual recommendation. By the way, I
read aloud a book called The Best Christmas Pageant Ever
to my children. It's like ninety five pages long. It's
a novella written in the mid seventies, maybe early seventies.
The prose is hilarious. The book is great.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
It right now.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
Kids will love it. It has some politically incorrect funny
stuff in it.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
Perfect. It is a.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
Blast and I cry at the end every year because
it's so beautiful. So enjoy that with your kids.
Speaker 1 (22:56):
If you say the name one more time, the Best.
Speaker 2 (22:58):
Christmas Pageant Ever. And actually, I'm wondering that's a movie
of it last year.
Speaker 1 (23:03):
You haven't watched the Oh, I watched the movie. You
watch it, okay, but I read the book.
Speaker 2 (23:09):
It's our tradition. Okay.
Speaker 1 (23:10):
I thought you were saying you heard Netflix made it,
but you haven't seen.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
No. I was trying to remember who read the movie
all right.
Speaker 1 (23:16):
Thank you for joining us on normally. Normally airs Tuesdays
and Thursdays, and you can subscribe anywhere you get your podcasts.
Get in touch with us at normally theepod at gmail
dot com. Thanks for listening, and when things get weird,
act normally
Hey, guys are back on.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Normally the show is normally takes, but when the news gets.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Weird, I am Erican him and I am Pyle Michaels.
We're going to have a really sad show today. The
news is not good top to bottom. So let's start
with a little lightness. How was your weekend?
Speaker 2 (00:19):
It was pretty good. Had to take the not had to.
This is one of my favorite yearly events. We go
to a little Santa brunch where they get to meet Santa,
and we have a nice, nice meal with our friends,
and you get the kiddos dressed up, and as we
were leaving, as is customary with children, I'm leaning over
(00:40):
my four year old daughter and she's putting on her shoes.
At part of the long struggle of getting a decent
outfit on, She's putting her shoes on and I'm like, oh,
this is the wrong feet, But who cares? Like, if
you want to change them, change them. If you don't,
no big deal, And she goes, that's okay, mom, and
then she triumphantly jumps into the air into my Oh no,
(01:01):
I do not have a broken nose. I do not
have a mark. Like we're in a good We're in
a pretty good place, but in the moment, it hurts
so bad. And I was like, they broke my face.
To my oldest daughter, I was like, can you take
over here stairs and deal with us, like try not
to cry, try not to flip out, And all was well,
Like I said, I am unmarked, just bruised, and ego, yes.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
Yes, yeah you look great. You don't you don't look
like you you take care a beating. But h yeah,
those kids they could like exuberantly love you until a
lot of pains.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Yes, it happened, and Steve said, don't let your self
are protected like that, right, it's your fault, which, like
you know, I've had a lot of kids. I should know.
I should know.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
Yeah, we are deep in holiday party season down here
in Florida. Buck Sexton had a really fun one on Thursday.
Dave Ruben had one on Saturday. The gang was all there.
You were missed. You are always welcome in South Florida.
You know this. You don't have to suffer up there
in the cold. We could come down to our chili.
But still, you know, pretty good seventy degrees.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
No party season down there does look great because I
do have an issue with dressing up and going out
in the cold. Yeah, and I do it basically once
a year. I do black tie in the cold and
that is the Travis Mannon Foundation Gala, which I did
on Thursday and it was beautiful.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
Yeah. But man, sweater dresses. I like sweater dresses personally for.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
That b there, you could do that.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
They really they work very well. All right, let's talk
about all the terrible stuff going on in the world
and how much it sucks. We're actually going to start
with there were two US Army soldiers and an American
interpreter killed in Syria on Saturday, and we're starting with
that because it's such an underreported story. It's just not
(02:51):
out there at all. And we understand that there's a
lot of news that we're going to talk about, Bondi
in the next segment. But I do think I and
you know, I could be accused sometimes of being not
America first because I dare be Jewish, But I do
think American news should lead our news. I think American deaths,
especially military deaths, should be at the top of our
(03:12):
news feed. And so we're going to talk about it
on here. The name of the two Iowa Army National
Guard soldiers are Sergeant William Nathaniel Nate Howard, he was
twenty nine of Marshalltown and Sergeant Edgar Bryan Torres Tavar,
twenty five of Grimes. It's just a giant tragedy, and
(03:33):
there were three other soldiers wounded. They are apparently doing well,
but we lost these two young men and it's just
a giant tragedy and we need to commemorate them.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
This is part of a support system or support mission
that US troops are doing. About nine hundred of them
are stationed in eastern Syria as part of a coalition
fighting the Islamic State Group and to hinder Iranian influence.
They think the shooter was sort of an inside job
who had infiltrated but was an ISIS guy, and I
believe he was taken out by in retaliation. Apparently. I
(04:10):
just read that Syria has arrested five in this plot,
and Trump of course is vowing retaliation. This seems like
what might be an interesting early test of the relationship
between this Syrian president who was not an ally but
then sort of became an ally.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
He was just at the White House, Yeah, he was
just at.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
The White House and Trump but it's terrible news to
hear right before the holidays, and I'm glad you brought
it to all of our attention because it did get
lost in the news this weekend. These are the first
combat deaths since Trump took office. I guess, I guess
National Guard the young woman in DC, but she that
was not combat death per se.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
That was right, Trump posted on truth Social There will
be very serious retaliation. He said, this was an isa's
attack against the US and Syrian a very dangerous part
of Syria that is not fully controlled by them. The
president of Syria, mad al Shara, is extremely angry and
disturbed by this attack. There will be very serious retaliation,
and as has become his closing comment, he wrote, thank
(05:12):
you for your attention to this matter. I don't know
where this leads, because look, nobody wants a hot war
in the Middle East, and nobody wants obviously more American
troops in the ground. I feel like everybody's kind of
united in that thought. But you also can't let stuff
like this go just go right, And that's really what
often is expected from Israel. Israel is expected to just
(05:36):
you know, take it on the chin and move on
a lot of the time. And I think this kind
of thing brings home to Americans that you can't do that,
You just can't. You have to fight back.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
Yeah, And I think the Hudis is a good example
of Americans having to eventually just take out a bunch
of hoo de capabilities because they were after targets that
mattered to us, and specifically American targets. And eventually you
have to do something about that. And if you lose deterrence, yeah,
(06:07):
as we did during the Biden years, the price of
regaining it can get really, really high. Yeah, And so
taking care of this stuff quickly, I think is the
preferred method, even though for some people. And I think
Trump's very comfortable with it. Trump's very comfortable with like,
you did something wrong, We're taking care of that. But
it doesn't mean troops on the ground or nation building.
(06:27):
That's right, that's his sweet spot.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
I was going to say the same thing, it's a
sweet spot if Trump has one, that's it. He looked.
He doesn't always handle every situation the way I would
like him to handle it, and he doesn't always say
the right words, but in times like this, I think
he actually shines. So I will also add that just
because America is not in a hot war, it doesn't
mean our troops are not in danger. And this is
(06:52):
a good reminder of that. My kids to this day,
they're fifteen, twelve, and ten, they think every time they
see somebody in a military hat or in uniform obviously,
but also police officers, firemen, they say thank you for
your service to them. And I think this is just
a reminder that we might not think of it as
they're in harms way all the time, but they are.
They're literally frequently on the front lines of defending us,
(07:14):
even if we don't know anything about.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
It, It's true. And even in cases where they are
not on the front lines per se, there are still deployments.
There are still families who pay the cost back home,
and having just spent Thursday, Friday, parts of Saturday with
the families who are involved with the Travis Mannon Foundation,
you meet these stunning folks who sometimes didn't serve themselves,
but you know, paid the full price with their spouses
(07:37):
or their brothers and are still out there trying to
serve the American people and to if you never have
been or if you've never watched an army, navy game
worth trying to do that at some point during your life,
just because the pageantry, the commitment of every single person
there on the field to sacrifice everything for your freedom.
(08:00):
It's really something. And you know, I love my SEC football,
but that is a different level of experience and something
that I think everyone should try to take in at
some point in some way, because it does help appreciate
these things.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
Tell us who you root for, just tell us, Oh,
I'm a Navy girl.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
Okay, yeah, but it's all pretty friendly, you know.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
Fun. I saw some people mad about some Georgia football
with you this weekend.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
To that but separate issue. But on this one, I
think we can all be friendly rivals as when it
comes to Army Navy and appreciate everyone.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
We'll take a short break and come right back on
normally with some more sad and devastating news from the
last few days. Be right back all right.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
We are back on normally, and again the news is
heavy this week. In Bondi Beach in Australia, there was
an attack on a Hanukkah gathering the first night of
Hannah on the beach. At least fifteen people were killed
in an attack in Sydney, including a ten year old girl,
a long serving rabbi and a Holocaust survivor. If you
have been paying attention to the news this weekend, you
(09:10):
saw that an incredibly brave early forties fruit stand fruit
vender overtook one of the shooters who was armed while
he was not and probably prevented a lot more carnage.
He was shot himself, but it looks like he will survive.
And just my prayers to everybody and also commendation to
(09:31):
that guy. It was having seen the video, it was
an incredibly risky and brave thing to do.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
Really amazing. Yeah, it was such a devastating story to
wake up two on Sunday. It's just, you know, Bondi Beach.
I've never been there, but it's obviously a very well known,
very chill beach. Australians in general, I always found to
be very mellow people. The Hanuka celebration part. My daughter
had been on a beach in South Florida having a
(09:57):
Shabbat celebration the day before. It really hard and I
hate that the conversation is now turning to how much
more can Australia ban guns like it? Just it doesn't work. Like,
here's your evidence that banning guns doesn't work. The guns
were banned, these men had.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
Been most banned.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
Yeah, and yet here were a father son duo opening fire, reloading,
having absolutely no problem doing that, and no police stopping them.
The police didn't do anything for ten minutes of this shooting. Uh.
You know, I understand, I understand the fear and everything,
But if the police aren't going to do anything and
you're an armed you're leaving it to unarmed fruit stand
(10:39):
man to help you, that's not always going to work out,
even as well as it worked out here. So it
just it's really bad and the fact that Islamic terrorism
continues to rear its ugly head the way it is
here and in a couple of other situations that we're
going to talk about right now. It's just it's an
ongoing thing, and so many people refuse to call it
(11:02):
what it is. And it's not anti Muslim to say
that radical Islamic ideology is propelling a lot of this.
I have Muslim friends who agree that radical Islamic ideology
is propelling a lot of this. So I don't know,
I don't know where the West goes from here. Leah
Libowitz had a great piece in Tablet Today where he
(11:24):
talks about, you know, the Jews are going to be fine,
We're going to lick our wounds, take care of each other,
move on. It's Western civilization that we all have to
be concerned about. And that's what I'm most afraid for.
And I think I've said it on here before, but
I'm not worried about Israel. I'm worried about America. I'm
worried about where we're going and the paths that we
are following. And I just don't want us to end
(11:45):
up like Europe or like Australia, and it sometimes feels
like we're heading in that direction.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
Five men were also arrested in Germany, suspected of being
involved in a plot to drive a vehicle into a
Christmas market. So it is not just the Jews, and
I bet you can guess the ideology that drove that plot.
Thank goodness it was broken up. But I think you're right, Carol,
that unless we are honest about what is happening here
and take practical measures to make sure that the people
(12:13):
you're welcoming to your country are not either already radical
or becoming radicalized. While they're here, You're going to run
into more and more of this everywhere. And if it's
politically incorrect or frowned upon to even point that out,
we have a serious problem. And as we talked about
in one of our last episodes, if you don't have
(12:34):
the cultural self confidence to say our way of life matters,
our Christmas markets matter, our public Monora lightings matter, you
are not allowed to attack them in the name of
your radicalized religion. You're not going to be able to
protect yourself.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
Yeah, you have to name it before you could do
anything about it. As we're recording this, Cassia Kiva posted
that the FBI stopped a terror attack planned for New
Year by the left wing pro Palestinian group Turtle Island
Liberation Front. Turtle Island is an indigenous term from North
America adapted by radical leftists who reject the continent's name
(13:11):
as colonialist. It's not going to be just Jews. No,
people need to wake up and see that this continues
to be an attack on Western civilization in general. One
of the victims on Bondi Beach is Habad Rabbi Eli Schlanger,
and I just want to note he has been and
I had a couple of friends posts about him on Instagram,
(13:31):
particularly welcoming to my community of ex Soviet Jews who
moved to Australia around the same time that I moved
to America. Really an extra sad loss for my people.
Let's say, he was apparently a real force in welcoming
the people that moved to Australia and making them feel
Australian part of the Australian Jewish community. And that's so important.
Speaker 2 (13:55):
Oh, it's terrible. Just the range of victims. One guy
was there is like a free lance photographer. It's just
terrible as always, And like you said, it will immediately
pivot to banning.
Speaker 1 (14:08):
Gun already doing it.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
Yeah, I'm not sure how much more illegal you can
make murder to begin with.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
That's always the question, how much more can you make
murder illegal? I also want to note Arson Ostrowski, who
is a Twitter friend of mine for a long time.
He had recently moved from Israel to Australia, was on
the beach the bullet grazed his head. He posted pictures
of himself bleeding profusely, but he looks like he's going
(14:36):
to be okay. He's was lighting Candles in the hospital
last night, and we're obviously praying for Arson.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
I want to note also we do not know the
motive of it yet. The Rhode Island shooting at Brown
University another place where guns are very very very banned,
and Rhode Island in general has very strict rules. Two
students died at Brown and and at least one there
was in an economics study session. One of the shooting
victims is Ella Cook, who was the vice president of
(15:06):
the Republicans club. And again we don't know exactly what
motivated this, but apparently the professor was Jewish. This woman
was a leader of a Republicans club on campus. There
are very few conservatives on Brown's campus. She was a
visible one. They do not have this shooter yet as
we are reporting, so we don't know a lot here.
(15:29):
But I do think those things are notable. And another
tragedy to see a nineteen year old killed at this
stage in her life, who clearly was a leader, who
clearly was gifted. And we will find out more about that.
But very very low percentage of conservatives on campus.
Speaker 1 (15:43):
Right, it's odd if that is a coincidence. Amy Swearer,
who is at the Heritage Foundation, and she's a senior
legal fellow there. She's brilliant, especially on the issue of guns,
but on basically everything that she writes. But she pointed
out the shooting occurred in the classroom of Professor Rachel Friedberg,
who is Jewish, part of the program in Judaic Studies
and whose research focuses on the intersection of economics and
(16:06):
Jewish studies. That seems like it might be incredibly relevant.
It could be random, but doesn't sound like it.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
Many of these facts are worth considering, and then when
we know more, will know more. Also, as always, it's
worth being careful about people you name in the wake
of these things. The person of interest's name was out
and picture was out and he was later released.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
Yeah, so I had his names and I didn't release
it because it wasn't one hundred percent and I had
it at like high nineties and it's still I was like, Okay,
let's let's hold off on this. But yeah, it's scary
actually that they don't have him yet. Y also like,
how could they not have him? I'm hearing from kind
of normy friends being like, I don't get it. How
(16:51):
is there not aren't there security cameras? Everywhere, Like we
see the cameras everywhere. How could they not have this
guy yet?
Speaker 2 (16:57):
The press conferences are not with local folks, are not
inspiring a ton of confidence at this moment. They say
that they're just warn't a lot of cameras in that building.
They are asking the public for more information and hopefully
we will have more progress to update you with in
the future. But sad news again.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
Yeah, sorry to bum everybody out for our second segment,
but had to talk about the big stories from the
last few days.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
We'll be right back.
Speaker 1 (17:21):
With more on normally and hopefully not a topic that
makes us want to just lose it. Be right back
all right, we are back on normally. I wouldn't say
that this is a happy topic either, No, but it's close.
Speaker 2 (17:37):
It's pleasure.
Speaker 1 (17:37):
Yes, there's no death involved here, which is already a plus.
Apparently kids no longer read books at all, and this
you know, you and I have been talking about this
for so long that that reading has become something that
is just not done, and especially full books is unheard of.
It's awful, what a tragedy. And I don't understand how
(18:00):
English teachers go along with it, and they don't make
the kids read entire books.
Speaker 2 (18:05):
Yeah, here's the New York Times reporting on it. And again,
we've talked about this a lot, but it is helpful
to have the New York Times backing up of this
kind of stuff with reporting It says in America high schools,
the age of the book may be fading. Many teenagers
are assigned few full books to read from beginning to end,
often just one or two per year. According to researchers
and thousands of responses to an informal reader survey by
(18:26):
The New York Times, twelfth grade reading scores are historic lows,
et cetera. I mean, even in at elite colleges kids
are getting they're not having read books. Karen Vates, who
is a great follow on Twitter. Vates is Vai Tes.
She follows this stuff and follows curriculum and how they
shape what we teach kids. And she says, what's disturbing
(18:46):
to me is what she says is that this is
something that everyone in K twelve education knows, of course,
but the info hadn't gotten to the normies until recently,
because normies assume, of course, you read books in school.
Doesn't read books, right, But that is not the case,
they do not read books in school. And as much
as you know, I think it's easy to clown on
(19:08):
college students who turn out not great work. They're like, oh,
you can't read any books. It's like, well, if they
were never asked to do that, right, what do you
want they have learned to do it?
Speaker 1 (19:18):
Yeah. I would just say, if your a kid is
not made to read books in school, make them read
them at home. I just don't understand this whole, Like, well,
they don't have to read it in school, so that's it.
I don't know. Are we really heading towards a book
free world? A bookless world? That sounds so sad.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
Well, yeah, that's what I said. Not only is it
a joy, but you learn to read tougher and tougher
things as you go. Here's Karen's reporting on this earlier,
which went pretty viral at the time. Says Hillary is
a sixth grader in Connecticut. For the last five years
she has been given an English language arts curriculum selected
by her district. Wonders, published by McGraw hill in twenty twenty.
We all know McGraw hill from growing up in schools.
(19:58):
Wonders includes no actual books for Hillary sixth graders. The
Wonder's grade six curriculum includes only short texts and excerpts.
The average length of those texts is seven points three pages.
The longest text is just eighteen pages. Those pages, those
page counts include some full page illustrations, so it's actually
more like thirteen pages. And that's sixth grade. And she
(20:21):
notes that many kids who are hitting chapter book level,
which would be about fourth fifth, sixth grade even earlier,
they're not getting introed to smaller chapter books. And I'm
with you, Carol. The uplifting part about this story is
that you can correct it in your own home right.
And I think I stumbled on doing this for my
kids when schools closed, because I did them out of
(20:43):
the Zoom school and because I didn't know how to
do anything else. I said, we're going to read, right,
And so we read a ton of books. And I
have readers now as a result. They love to read books.
I know your kids to two.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
Two out of three, you know, well, what are you
going to do?
Speaker 2 (21:01):
That is a pretty good person.
Speaker 1 (21:03):
The third one reads books like he doesn't like it.
He sets a timer for his twenty minutes like you know,
but he does it. And he finishes them. And he
you know, he has a certain number of books he
completes every month. I don't even understand the Oh he doesn't.
They don't. They just don't read whole books. No, he
reads whole books again under duress, but nevertheless he does it.
Speaker 2 (21:24):
Yeah, this is one of those things that I think
can creep into curriculum and into K twelve schools in
such a It's such a horrible idea. It was a
bad idea from the start. It creeps in and this
confluence of the school's not wanting to admit they're not
doing their jobs, plus parents wanting to just see a'son
report cards without pushing their kids. Hey, gets you in
(21:45):
this really bad position where suddenly, oh, an entire generation
can't read books. That does seem bad.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
It seems really bad. And it will give such a
distinct advantage to the kids who can read whole books.
It helps you in a variety of ways. To be
able to hold your attention throughout a whole book is
something that the kids that are just swiping along and
never reading full books will never have. And I'm telling you,
the book readers will succeed ahead of them. It's inevitable. Yeah,
(22:12):
read your guys. Yeah, when you're on vacation in the
next few weeks. If you have any time off, read
a book like It's very good for you. It feels great,
makes you smarter, enjoyable, the whole thing. But I will
do better than TikTok.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
I will do my annual recommendation. By the way, I
read aloud a book called The Best Christmas Pageant Ever
to my children. It's like ninety five pages long. It's
a novella written in the mid seventies, maybe early seventies.
The prose is hilarious. The book is great.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
It right now.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
Kids will love it. It has some politically incorrect funny
stuff in it.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
Perfect. It is a.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
Blast and I cry at the end every year because
it's so beautiful. So enjoy that with your kids.
Speaker 1 (22:56):
If you say the name one more time, the Best.
Speaker 2 (22:58):
Christmas Pageant Ever. And actually, I'm wondering that's a movie
of it last year.
Speaker 1 (23:03):
You haven't watched the Oh, I watched the movie. You
watch it, okay, but I read the book.
Speaker 2 (23:09):
It's our tradition. Okay.
Speaker 1 (23:10):
I thought you were saying you heard Netflix made it,
but you haven't seen.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
No. I was trying to remember who read the movie
all right.
Speaker 1 (23:16):
Thank you for joining us on normally. Normally airs Tuesdays
and Thursdays, and you can subscribe anywhere you get your podcasts.
Get in touch with us at normally theepod at gmail
dot com. Thanks for listening, and when things get weird,
act normally
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show News
Hosts And Creators
Clay Travis
Buck Sexton
Show Links
WebsiteNewsletterPopular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark
My Favorite Murder is a true crime comedy podcast hosted by Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark. Each week, Karen and Georgia share compelling true crimes and hometown stories from friends and listeners. Since MFM launched in January of 2016, Karen and Georgia have shared their lifelong interest in true crime and have covered stories of infamous serial killers like the Night Stalker, mysterious cold cases, captivating cults, incredible survivor stories and important events from history like the Tulsa race massacre of 1921. My Favorite Murder is part of the Exactly Right podcast network that provides a platform for bold, creative voices to bring to life provocative, entertaining and relatable stories for audiences everywhere. The Exactly Right roster of podcasts covers a variety of topics including historic true crime, comedic interviews and news, science, pop culture and more. Podcasts on the network include Buried Bones with Kate Winkler Dawson and Paul Holes, That's Messed Up: An SVU Podcast, This Podcast Will Kill You, Bananas and more.