January 2, 2026 • 36 mins
Featured in Hour Two of The A&G Replay...
- Just Make Yourself Happy
- Perils of Texting ( I did something terrible)
- Joe Explains The Constitution
- Woman struggles with sobriety
Stupid Should Hurt: https://www.armstrongandgetty.com/
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Broadcasting live from the Abraham Lincoln Radio Studio the George
Washington Broadcast Center. Jack Armstrong, Joe Getty.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Arm Strong and Jetty, and He Armstrong and Getty Strong.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
I'm already broken all of my resolutions. I got drunk today,
I didn't go to the gym. I eight donuts, so
I'm off to a bad stone.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
My resolution is to have a higher resolution TV. It
occurred to me when I said the words, so I'm
off to the store. Meanwhile, you enjoy some great Armstrong
and Getty replay Don't Happy Be Worried? It's one more thing.
(00:56):
I was reminded of the Bobby mcferry classic don't Worry
Be Happy the other day as it was listed on
the Worst Songs of the nineties something like that.
Speaker 3 (01:06):
Very popular.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
It was a cute little ditty. It's fine, I don't know,
it's fine. People love, you know, slamming other people's choices
in music too much.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
You gotta hate on being happy?
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Yeah, right, exactly. But don't Happy be Worried is the
theme kind of sort of a really interesting study that's out.
Researchers from the University of Toronto, Scarborough and University of
Sydney the Canuckers joining up with the Australians. Trump will
be you know, annexing them both soon. But anyway, for now,
(01:43):
we'll let them have their cute little universities. But they right.
We live in a happiness obsessed world. Self help guru's
promise paths to Bliss, Instagram influencers pedal happiness is a lifestyle,
and corporations build marketing campaigns around the pursuit of positive emotions.
But new research suggests, say a prizing twist, I doubt
if you're familiar, yeah, exactly, trying to are to be
(02:06):
happy might make you miserable. The researchers that the aforementioned
universities found that actively pursuing happiness drains our mental energy,
the same energy we need for self control, among other things.
Says the researcher, the pursuit of happiness is a bit
like a snowball effect. You decide to try making yourself happier,
but then that effort deplete your ability to do the
(02:27):
kinds of things that actually make you happier.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
All right, Well, there's the key right there. What kind
of things actually make you happy? So among my favorite
books I've ever read in my life, the Art of
Happiness by the Dali Lama, which he says, your goal
every morning when you wake up should be to make
yourself happy. You should spend all your time trying to
make yourself happy. That's what you should do. But it
(02:51):
gets down to the data on what makes you happy
and what doesn't. And many, many the things we all
do every single day don't make us happy. They've never
made us happy. We have ample evidence from our own experience,
let alone other people's experience, that it doesn't make us.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Happy, yet we continue doing it.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
Like eating bad food or buying stuff, or promiscuous sex
or whatever it is. It has never made us in
the happy, It doesn't make other people happy, yet we
keep thinking that's what's gonna make us happy. So pursuing
happiness every day is okay. You just need to define
what makes people actually makes people happy.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
Maybe this is the key. Pleasure is not happiness. Fun
is not happiness, right, it can be part of it.
We mentioned all them. No life of purpose is what
makes people happy? Yeah? Yeah, happy? Happy? You wake up
determined to have a great day. You plan mood boosting
activities and work hard to stay positive, but by evening
(03:53):
you're ordering takeout instead of cooking. Mindlessly scrolling social media
and snapping at your partner while you're pursuit of happiness
might be the problem. The scientist marketing professor, what's it?
Bluntly quote, the more mentally run down we are, the
more tempted will be to skip cleaning the house and
instead scroll social media.
Speaker 3 (04:11):
And they're saying the same thing as the Dalai Lama says,
I just I like the way he words it. It's
a little more positive. Pursue happiness all day, every day.
That should be your goal in life, that should be
everybody's goal. But now let's break down what actually makes
people happy, as opposed to saying don't pursue happiness, because
then it seems like it's a gotta eat my vegetables,
gotta you know, all negative stuff and maybe it there'll
(04:33):
be a payoff in the end.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
Right, It's like the difference between pursuing money and pursuing
the skills that will make you money. In a way, Katie,
do you have something you want to jump in with?
You look thoughtful.
Speaker 4 (04:47):
I I'm kind of overthinking this, I think Okay, to
be honest.
Speaker 3 (04:53):
Well, it's it's amazing that human beings do things that
make themselves unhappy all the time, all the time. It's
just like one of those the common things we do
is make do things that make us unhappy. Eat stuff
that's going to make us either feel bad in the
moment or make us feel bad long term, or you know,
pursue relationships.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
That we know aren't good.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
But there's either sex, prestige, whatever that that makes you
do it.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
Just we regularly chase things that we know are bad.
Speaker 4 (05:23):
For us, right right, watching my brain was going with like,
things you don't want to do, but the payoff in
the end is good.
Speaker 3 (05:33):
Oh, the simplest one is the stirring at your phone.
Nobody ever, at the end of the day, says I'm
sure glad I spent that much time scrolling on my phone.
Nobody ever, not even for one day, right right.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
I was just going to contrast doom scrolling on Twitter,
which I have the compulsion to do and I resist
pretty well most times, versus the other day. I mean,
this is as mundane as can be. I cleaned out
my closet. I went through it thin, the herd of clothing,
you know, shoes I don't wear, etc. It's neater it's
better organized. It's just it's better. And that made me happy, right,
(06:08):
like happy? Yeah, Like today, I was not pleasurable. I
would love to lay on my couch all day, but
I know I have laundry to do, and when I
get it done, I'm going to be happy that it's done.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
Okay, I was just reading an obituary of a fella
that I barely knew, and it was post retirement, I'm
pretty sure. But he filled his life with the Boys
and Girls Club of the area where he lived, and
it was really pivotal in guiding them through difficult financial
(06:40):
times and growing the programs and stuff like that. I'll
bet there was very little of that that was pleasurable.
Some of it was because watching kids learn and grow
is immensely satisfying, but there's a hell of a lot
of work there, and I guarantee that made him happy
to his soul.
Speaker 5 (07:01):
I think the best happiness comes from accomplishments. It could
be like mowing the grass. Like you're pushing the mower
and you look back and you see what you've done,
and then when you're all finished, you look at and
you think, hey, I'm really feeling happy.
Speaker 3 (07:13):
So why then evolutionary speaking, why are we is our
body screaming out to now mow the lawn tomorrow. Lay
on on the couch watching this football game is what
It's going to make me happy. Even though you're absolutely
right afterwards, I don't think why did I watch? I
don't even care about these two teams as opposed to
you'll feel happy after you all the one.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
Well, the greatest minds of our time are devoted toward
getting you to do things for pleasure for their profit
in a way that didn't exist. I mean even two
hundred years ago. There is advertisement, but it was not
nearly as effective, manipulative and scientifically based as modern you know,
like like Facebook TikTok. My god, we as a species
(07:58):
don't stand a chance against that sort of rological manipulation.
Speaker 3 (08:02):
Yeah, I've noticed recently. I don't know if my well,
I just I guess I just started doing the Instagram
reels thing. I'd never done it in be fourth. It's
kind of the American version of TikTok, I guess anyway.
What's disappointing to me is it's not like doom scrolling
or something where I think why did.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
I do that? Or it's pretty good. It's pretty enjoyable.
Speaker 3 (08:26):
It feeds me lots of stuff I really like, I
mean like really like here's some rare concert footage that
it figured out i'd be into that I've never seen before,
and stuff like that. But it kills a freaking hour
where I should either been sleeping or exercising or whatever.
So it's actually it's actually enjoyable, like really enjoyable in
(08:48):
the time.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
So that's what I got to fight now is not
even start. I am going to further parse language. You
got pleasure, you got happiness, and Michael, to your point,
you have satisfaction. Maybe that's another word to think about
happiness and satisfaction as opposed to pleasure.
Speaker 3 (09:09):
If you don't say you're retired and you don't really
need to accomplish anything.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
That's when it's the most important, according to everybody I've
talked to, to have some purpose.
Speaker 3 (09:23):
You don't think you could just look at Instagram reels
feeding your stuff that you actually enjoy and be okay,
or would you be miserable you'll.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
Be dead soon. I don't know. I can't state that
you know with confidence, But I've read a fair amount
about retirement, which is funny. Because I don't know, probably
like my job too much. But yeah, if you're the
sort of person who just retires and you have nothing
to do, it makes people miserable. Even if you have
(09:54):
things to do. You have TikTok, you have something to do.
And the golf course, I just play golf, look at TikTok.
I wake up in the morning, I go play golf
again that I look at TikTok.
Speaker 3 (10:04):
Yeah, I've since I started on Instagram reels, it's in
the TikTok algorithm scares me if it's substantially better. Like
I was listening to Sarah Iger of The Dispatch saying,
if you think Instagram reels is addictive, you have no idea.
Because she got sucked into TikTok and then got it
off her phone.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
She says, just so good. It's just every day stuff.
I love that. I'm super into. My daughter did the
same thing.
Speaker 3 (10:30):
That's why I feel with Instagram reels, like, man, is
it good? With coming up stuff that I like? S
and l clips, concert videos.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
Stuff that I just love.
Speaker 3 (10:41):
But you can't, you know, wants to live their life
doing that.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
Yeah, it's you know, Lord knows, I've lived a checkered life,
but one gift that I got somehow or other. And
this may shock you, folks, I used to take walks
on the wild side now and again, not in the
lou Reads sen itse not gender bending madness, but you know,
occasionally in the rock and roll world of the eighties
and nineties, there were substances about. And there are a
couple of experiences I had where I thought, no, I
(11:07):
like this too much. Yeah, and so it is with
the tickety talk. From what I've heard, you realize I
am powerless against this. Yeah. It is like an endless.
Speaker 4 (11:20):
They provide you endless entertainment on there, especially when they
figure out what you like.
Speaker 3 (11:25):
I mean, you could do that for hours. I wonder
if that's what happened. I wonder if I spend enough
time on Instagram that it was able to Okay, now
we know we got him figured out. Yeah, because it
just seems like in the last week or so, it's
like really grabbed me.
Speaker 4 (11:38):
Well, and what sucks about that is because I thought,
I I'm a dumb ass. I thought I could outsmart
the algorithm because I thought maybe if I don't interact
with any posts, you don't like anything.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
I don't interact with any of them, but it picks
up your eyeballs or no, it picks up your watch time.
Speaker 4 (11:54):
So if you so like let's say you're scrolling, you
stop on a video and you spend the time to
watch that video. The algori of them goes, Okay, we
kept him here for such and such a second.
Speaker 3 (12:03):
Because I didn't click on it. I didn't do anything.
It was just part of a stream.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
It's just because you watched it. I am going to
rewatch on YouTube. The social dilemma. The thing is so
good documentary, Jack, you gotta watch that. You got it?
Speaker 3 (12:18):
You just gotta can They put it in twenty second
chunks on a Instagram reel.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
Jeez, we can't save him.
Speaker 3 (12:28):
Was I gonna say? I had one more thing to
say about this. It's just I don't know how good
it is at figuring out stuff that you really really like.
It's it's troubling, actually, and there's stuff that it would
have been hard for me to find, like on my own.
Oh I was I was thinking about they fixed what
used to be. I don't know if you're old enough
(12:49):
for this or not. Katie. You probably are back when
you used to you want something. You sit down, you think,
how do I have one hundred and twenty channels and
there's nothing I like here? You click through and there's
nothing you like. They fixed that. It's the opposite. Now
you like every single thing on every channel. They know
exactly what you're into. They got your sports thing, your
music thing, your kid's thing. You're just every every channel
(13:11):
is something you love as you click through. It's the
exact opposite of what he used to be.
Speaker 2 (13:16):
Right, Leggy, blonde guitar players playing golf, constant videos, sexy
golfing guitarists with giving me lessons.
Speaker 3 (13:26):
With a dog doing something funny, and a kid doing
something cute.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
Yes, yes, see.
Speaker 5 (13:32):
If you guys agree with this, false happiness comes immediately.
Real happiness comes later. You have to wait for real happy.
Speaker 3 (13:39):
Pretty much always is the case.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
You the Armstrong and Getty Show or Jack your show
podcasts and our hot links thee Armstrong and Getty Show.
Speaker 3 (13:53):
So here's a little text exchange I had with my
son yesterday. I texted him I did something terrible. I'll
be home in three minutes. I stopped at Fluffy's Donuts.
Here's something you got to remember about texting that I've
noticed too, especially if you like look at it on
your watch or you get the alert on your phone,
you often only get the first sentence or a few words.
So all he saw was I did something terrible. Like
(14:14):
you can send to an employee, boss, girlfriend, whatever, I
need to talk about dinner Friday night or something like that.
But if all they see is I need to talk, Yeah,
all of a sudden, it's super serious. And I've had
that APF. That sort of thing happen on both ends anyway.
So I sent my son that text and he just
saw the top part and he said, oh my god,
(14:35):
I thought you hit someone or killed someone. They said, no,
I stopped at Fluffy's Donuts. I just bought one million donuts.
He said, well, I guess I'll take my belt off.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
Wow. The acorn does not fall far from this, No,
it does not.
Speaker 3 (14:50):
I keep having this thing where I hit the donut shop,
which I should never go to the donor shop period.
But I stop at the donut shop and it's like
closing time, and so they're just like giving away donuts.
Want to buy a donut, and they said, here I get,
I'll give you this whole box. Well thanks, I guess.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
And then you go and give them to your neighbors
as a gesture. I did that a couple of weeks ago,
but God that remember that.
Speaker 3 (15:12):
So I gave I got new neighbors and I took
them the box of donuts that I just didn't want,
and welcome to the neighborhood. Yeah exactly, I said, welcome
to the neighborhood and everything like that, and he yelled, Hey,
our neighbor's really nice. He got us these donuts. And
then just the other day, over the weekend, I was
doing something and I saw my new neighbor and he
(15:33):
said to something, Yeah, that's the guy that gave us
the donuts.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
So I lived it looks glad you enjoyed those. Here's
a here's a stack of my old undershirts I don't
wear anymore, And can you use the thanks donut man.
Speaker 3 (15:45):
I just go through my mailbox and pick out all
the junk mail. Here, there's a bunch of coupons.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
I was just giving leftovers out of your fridge.
Speaker 4 (15:54):
So I've I've kind of fallen out of getting the
first line of the text because I changed my updated
my iOS. Now it gives me like the summary the
AI summary.
Speaker 2 (16:03):
The other day it said somebody text message for me,
thank you.
Speaker 4 (16:08):
It was like expressing gratitude, would like to know what
you're doing Saturday.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
And I'm like, oh god, the other thing interesting? Nice. Yeah, theoretically,
although like, I gotta be careful here the uh the
section of humanity that replies all when it's completely unnecessary.
If I see the first line of the email is
(16:33):
I can be there looking forward to it. I know,
Oh god, somebody replied all to the group and I
just swipe it. But this says dinner is Thursday night.
Contact information was provided.
Speaker 3 (16:44):
That's good.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
I'm gonna touch on it. And yep, sure enough. It's
just replied all to RSVP to something unnecessarily. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (16:54):
So the other thing that happened at the domant shop
is the UH that worked there said you look like
that actor and she mentioned a name. Did you know that?
Do people tell you that? And I said, I don't
know who that is. I'll have to google it to
see if that's a compliment or insult, and the person
working with her said, oh, it's a compliment.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
And uh.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
The only reason I think about that is one other
time somebody had said you just you looked just like
that guy from something or other. And then I looked
up and I was like, oh my god, I do
that's horrible.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
Well who you don't know who the actor was. I
don't seen Hackman just before he died.
Speaker 3 (17:30):
After he got hot the virus.
Speaker 1 (17:33):
Strong the Armstrong and Getty Show.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
We were talking about the fourteenth Amendment and the question
of birthright citizenship, which is a hot conversational topic these
days and actually really interesting. And I mentioned that the
fourteenth Amendment is actually five paragraphs long and it would
take a long long time to read to you. The
first part is about all persons born or naturalized, YadA, YadA, YadA,
(18:07):
the birthright thing. Second part is representatives shall be apportioned
among the several states according to their respective numbers. Blah
blah blah.
Speaker 3 (18:14):
But the next third's about streaming contracts, which is really weird.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
Right exactly. Yep, you got to be able to cancel them.
Third one is about senators and congress people who may
or may not have been involved in an insurrection or rebellion.
Remember that one came up, you know, after January sixth,
and a couple more paragraphs. Nobody knows, but I was
looking at the amendments, and it would appear that in
(18:40):
a close race, the shortest amendment is the eighth Amendment.
Excessive bails shall not be required, nor excessive finds imposed,
nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted cruel or unusual cruel
and on you and unusual. Right, And you know, my,
(19:01):
they can cruel and unusual. Right, if it's merely cruel,
but you do it a lot, that's fine. And if
you know, a beating from a clown is certainly unusual,
but it's no more cruel than any other sort of beating.
Fair dam Clown beatings would be approved in the court
of Joe Getty's justice.
Speaker 3 (19:21):
So you're on somebody over with a car. People get
hit by cars all the time. There's nothing unusual about that, right.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
Now, It's cruel, unspeakably cruel, but not unusual. I think
we're missing a loophole here, folks. But I think everybody
knows the Oh my god, I almost said one of
the stupidest things as things I've ever said. I think
everybody knows what's in the Bill of Rights. No, obviously
most people don't. You should, but you don't, which is
(19:50):
why you end up quartering troops. You jackasses, study history.
Speaker 3 (19:54):
I just learned the other day James Madison was really
against a Bill of Rights. He thought it was a terrible,
terrible idea, but then when the vote went against him,
he like, we should do more often now decided Okay,
well that's been decided. Now I'm going to argue what
they ought to be because it's going to happen, even
though I didn't want it to happen in the first.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
Place, And indeed he brought it to the floor of
the House immediately because he said he would.
Speaker 3 (20:18):
The reason he didn't like the Bill Wrights is he
is afraid that now that makes it seem like outside
of these ten things, everything else the government can do.
That was his concern.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
Yeah, yeah, I think history has proved that he was
wrong as a real statesman. And yeah, oh yeah, tiny,
tiny lady. And I've never seen a smaller founding father.
Oh boy, not a long hitter, James Madison. So everybody
knows freedom of religion, press expression, the first right to
bare arms, quartering of soldiers, that's the third.
Speaker 3 (20:51):
I don't have to work, so man, when I get home,
I got some news for those guys.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
Get out of my house. I get my stuff, at
least i'll ship it to you. Search and seizure, trial
and punishment, compensation for takings. That's the Fifth Amendment. Everybody
knows the part about how you don't have to testify
against yourself, but that's actually one of many things mentioned
in the Fifth Amendment.
Speaker 3 (21:15):
I didn't know that I should read that over.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
I'd forgotten it. It's one of those things. I had
to memorize it at one point. But here's the entirety
of the Fifth Amendment. I thought this was interesting. No
person shall be held to answer for a capital or
otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of
a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land
or naval forces, or in the militia when in actual
service in time of war public danger. Nor shall any
(21:40):
person be subject, for the same offense, to be twice
put in jeopardy of life or limb double jeopardy straight
out of the Fifth Amendment. Nor shall be compelled, in
any criminal case, to be a witness against himself.
Speaker 3 (21:53):
That's the wheel of fortune. After the jeopardy portion. It's
the wheel of fortune portion correct.
Speaker 2 (21:58):
Nor be deprived of life or property without due process
of law. That's where that very famous phrase let comes
from due process. Nor shall private property be taken for
public use without just compensation, which there's a lot to
the fifth Amen, we aren't always.
Speaker 3 (22:15):
Good at where's the thing where you can't testify against
your husband or wife or you don't have to? Is
that in the Bill of right?
Speaker 2 (22:22):
No, somewhere, Yeah, that's just in case law. I don't.
I wish I knew.
Speaker 3 (22:27):
But why can't you testify against your husband or wife?
There are no other relationships like that you can justify?
Oh you can, you can, but just can't be required.
But how come you in some situation but you can
be required to testify against your kids or your kids
against you, but not husband and wife.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
I was talking to my law student daughter about this
the other day, and I don't remember exactly because.
Speaker 3 (22:49):
There's you and Judy's big Ponzi scheme and you're worried about.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
Oh yeah, I tell you what. The second the cops
are here, I go states she was running it. She
made me do it right under the bus, and Jody, honey,
I hope you're comfortable under there. Oh, let's see. So
I think the longest of the amendments I can find
is probably the twelfth about choosing the president vice president.
(23:17):
They had to clarify how that was going to work.
But man, they get long. The fourteenth is long, five
paragraphs long. Liquor abolished, bastards. What number is that you suck?
That's the eighteenth And did you say it is longer?
Speaker 3 (23:32):
Is it short?
Speaker 2 (23:33):
No more booze? Parties jackasses?
Speaker 3 (23:36):
That's what that one's called.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
Yeah, it's long and boring, just like a world without alcohol.
Another are three shortish?
Speaker 3 (23:45):
And then how soon after that one is the one
that says parties back on.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
The twenty first, God bless it. Actually the eighteenth was
ratified in nineteen nine, nineteen, and it was repealed in
nineteen thirty three. Wow, I always forget how long that
period was. Of no favorite. Some of my favorite writings
(24:11):
by H. L. Menken were written during Prohibition. What he
would describe how congress people and senators Washington, DC, you
could get a drink practically as easy as you can
right now. It was everywhere because the senators were never
going to hold themselves to the same standards. They were
just doing it because it was politically popular. It was
a popular movement among women when women first got the
(24:32):
right to vote because so many of their husbands would
come home hammer drunk and either be useless or violent,
or or have spent all the money at the bar.
Speaker 3 (24:42):
Your people, Katie to awaar our party.
Speaker 4 (24:45):
Yeah, because of what your people put us through every
day by being drunk a holes.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
Yeah. Well, if your people weren't all day long, maybe
I wouldn't need a drink.
Speaker 4 (24:55):
Well, if you would do some things around the house,
maybe we.
Speaker 2 (24:57):
Wouldn't all the time. Oh my God, give me the bottle.
Where's the bottle? I think that was all right.
Speaker 3 (25:06):
Boardwalk Empire if you never watched that series with Steve Buscemi,
really great portrayal of those years.
Speaker 2 (25:15):
Nineteenth Amendment Women's suffrages I was ratified in nineteen twenty.
Speaker 3 (25:19):
Man need a duo over on that one.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
Uh yeah, so again, women's voting and prohibition came up
at the same time, although admittedly liquor was abolished just
before the year before women got the right to vote.
Speaker 4 (25:33):
One of my favorite places, near the Radio Ranch in
San Francisco was an old prohibition bar, and the owner
took us down into their storage room one day and
all of the old tunnel doors were all welded shut
because they used to move alcohol underneath San Francisco in
this tunnel system.
Speaker 2 (25:51):
But it was really cool.
Speaker 3 (25:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:52):
Yeah. One of my favorite liquor stores was named twenty
second Amendment Liquors, which I always I'm sorry not to
twenty forty first Amendment. Yeah, yeah, twenty second is presidential
term limits. That'd just be a weird name.
Speaker 3 (26:06):
Went to a bar name after term limits.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
Oh, by the way, ladies, keep in mind nineteenth Amendment.
We gave you the right, we can take it away, and.
Speaker 3 (26:18):
Yes it's on a as a needed basis.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
Let's see, can anybody name the last amendment? I'll tell
you that it's the twenty seventh, So anybody remember what
it is? Limiting congressional pay increases, ratified nineteen ninety two. Essentially,
you don't get a raise until another round of elections
is held. You can vote one in, but you don't
get it. You know, our friend Tim thinks there should
(26:46):
be more amendments that that we have been. We've made
it too difficult.
Speaker 3 (26:50):
It seemed like it's acted like it's just too big
a crazy a deal to ever talk about amendments. Yeah,
I would agree.
Speaker 2 (26:59):
I mean, you spend two hundred and fifty years doing
something you ought to get better at it, figure out,
oh we forgot this. I would like to see some
stuff clarified, like the fourteenth Amendment that the birthrate citizenship.
All I want is added on if the parents have
legal status in the United States. You can't just sneak
in all I know. I'm glad you read that.
Speaker 3 (27:21):
When I get home, there are some soldiers sleeping soundly
in my bed, who are gonna You're not gonna be
happy to hear what I now know.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
I will court to you no longer.
Speaker 1 (27:31):
Jebediah, The Armstrong and Getty Show, yea or Jack your
Shoe podcasts and our hot links The Armstrong and Getty Show.
Speaker 2 (27:47):
So I found this interesting, speaking of being intoxicated or altered.
It's in the Fabulous Free Press by a woman by
the name of Katie Herzog. She's talking about the fact
that she was a chronic drinker, alcoholic for twenty years.
We're talking ten to twelve drinks a day, every day,
(28:07):
ten to twelve a days. Who not a big gal either, Yeah,
that's getting after it. Yeah. And she said short of rehab,
I tried all the usual treatments to get better, and
a few less usual ones, alcoholics, anonymous, cognitive behavioral therapy,
individual counseling, group counseling, yoga cleanses, white knuckling it through
(28:28):
cravings and shakes. At one point I tried swapping out
my drinking habit for a cannabis one, which no drug
counselor would recommend, but was less dangerous. The worst thing
that happened to me on weed was accidentally inhaling old
bong water and everything. Most of the things worked, at
least for a little while, but even when I wasn't drinking,
the obsession with drinking was still there. She says. I
marked sober days on my calendar as though I were
(28:50):
in prison, counting down each one until eventual relapse, which
she says she was kind of secretly hoping for. And
then man, she was in terrible, terrible shape after she'd relapsed,
just crippling hangovers and like abdominal pain, probably from a
liver and and before I get to the uplifting and
(29:13):
really interesting scientific part, here's like the sad, sad moment.
She says. At some point I realized I was the
last one at the party. There so long the party,
party slowly withered away as my drinking buddies got careers
or kids or cancer. I was alone with my bottle
and miserable for it. So anyway, she mentions she had
(29:34):
read of was she at that time?
Speaker 3 (29:36):
Do you have any idea?
Speaker 2 (29:38):
Oh? God, yeah, a late thirties, maybe early forties. But
then she talks about how AA came to be the
standard treatment of alcohol use disorder in the US. But
she read about another treatment that had been developed in Finland,
the Sinclair method. Have you ever heard of this? Because
(30:00):
you know a lot about this stuff. All you do,
she wrote, is take a dose of the opioid blocker
now treck zone, wait an hour, then drink. This has
been shown, she said, to reduce both cravings and consumption.
Some people use this method to drink normally moderately. Others
get entirely sober. Though it's long and so it's a
way that you can drink. I that's interesting, Yes, whether
(30:24):
it's on your way to sobriety or just moderation or whatever.
But the point of it is you get all the
physical effects of alcohol slurred speech, drowsiness, last last loss
of coordination, hangover, et cetera, without the buzz.
Speaker 3 (30:40):
I'll take this out of it drug.
Speaker 2 (30:42):
Precisely, this drug cancels your ability to feel any sort
of buzz.
Speaker 3 (30:48):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (30:49):
A lot of people are doing this on their own.
You have to get a doctor who's who says, wow, okay,
I get it, that makes sense, or is familiar with
this treatment. But it's not like super well known or approved.
There are a few private Facebook groups with thousands of
members and that sort of thing.
Speaker 3 (31:09):
Well, I have two comments on that. When whatever works
for you works for you, try whatever you again if
it works good. Two comments on that, though, one it
kind of reminds me of my since I can't taste sweet.
I lost my ability to taste sweet because of COVID
and almost everybody's reactions. Oh I wish that would happen
to me. I eat more sweets than I ever ate
(31:30):
my life because I can't taste sweet. So I just think.
I don't wonder how that factors in the fact that
you you're taking the drink, probably because you want the buzz,
but you're not getting it. So I wonder what that
does do you, if it makes you want other things
or whatever. I don't have any idea. And then I
also know the problem with that because the what is
(31:51):
that an abuse? They're the thing you can take that
makes you throw up if you drink.
Speaker 2 (31:56):
That's what I was just thinking of.
Speaker 3 (31:58):
Yeah, because I've known people who tried at the problem
with it is, at some point you decide you want
to drink. See, you don't take it. So at some
point these people maybe they would. You think, I want
the buzz, So I'm not going to take that thing
that keeps me from not getting the buzz.
Speaker 2 (32:13):
Now, right, she just what she says, is it in
a way that nothing else did just ended the craving
for her? Now that's interesting, like for years, and she's
been sober for a long time now and hangs around
people who are drinking and it's fine. She just has
no desire to drink. And again, I don't I'm not
claiming that this is a universal cure. All I saw
(32:36):
the cover of a book somewhere. Yeah, drink your way sober. Yes,
the brain is so freaking complicated. This is what I
always say on this topic.
Speaker 3 (32:47):
I'm stunned with all the addicts we've got laying around
on the street that we haven't gotten further down the
road of figuring this out. I'll tell you what doesn't work. Rehabs.
They are they're like a practically useless but it's everybody's
first choice to throw money at best.
Speaker 2 (33:05):
PR two results ratio in the history of mankind might.
Speaker 3 (33:08):
Be Yeah, well, this lady's thing works.
Speaker 4 (33:11):
I have a question about that an abuse stuff, Jack.
I don't know how much you know about it, but
is it something that you take on like a daily
basis and build up a tolerance with it or do
you just take it prior to drinking? Because I had
a friend that tried this and she would just take
it prior to thinking she might drink.
Speaker 3 (33:28):
Yeah, I think it's just prior to I don't know.
I don't remember. I knew somebody to try it, and
their thing was sometimes they drank because they wanted to
drink so bad and then they violently threw up. Yeah,
and then other times they think, I want to drink today,
so I'm not going to take my awn abuse pill today, right.
I remember years and years ago you were talking about
this this sort of topic. Can correct me or edit
(33:51):
me if I'm off, But it's said in the recovery
community that you're trying to fix your brain with your brain. Yeah,
that's a very challenging thing to obviously.
Speaker 2 (34:02):
Yea. And the point of this, semi obviously is that
the positive feedback slowly just goes away because you don't
get it. You got to be motivated enough to do
it over longer and long enough period that your brain saying, oh,
this will be great, this will be great, this will
be great, just goes away.
Speaker 3 (34:22):
That's what reminded me of the sweets thing, though. I
was I've been hoping that would happen with the sweets.
Speaker 2 (34:26):
Now.
Speaker 3 (34:26):
Maybe it treats whatever you get out of drugs and
alcohol escape differently than sweet, But I kept thinking, doesn't
my brain at some point realize you don't get any
benefit from the donut so quick trading sweets.
Speaker 2 (34:40):
I wonder if it has something to do with the
discovery that like diet, soda and artificial sweeteners don't do
you any good really, because your body still has an
innate lust desire need for something sweet, which is probably
four hundred thousand years old to do with needing to
get a certain amount of fruit or whatever. Probably I
(35:04):
and so your animal brain is craving that in a way,
it doesn't crave forgetting about my problems for an hour
while I watch music videos on YouTube. I'm describing a
friend's evening, not mine. I wish I craved vegetables the
way I crave sweets. Wouldn't that be awesome. I've never
craved a vegetable in my life, but constantly sure, go
for some broccoli right about now.
Speaker 3 (35:25):
Constantly crave sweets, and I can't satisfy the at least
the taste of it because I can't taste it.
Speaker 2 (35:30):
Yeah. Yeah, anyway, the book once again is called Drink
Yourself Sober, which is obviously kind of a clever and
counterintuitive title to grab your attention.
Speaker 3 (35:40):
I hope it works. That would be great for everyone
if it works. There is a famous story of a
woman who wrote a book about moderation or something that
got pretty famous for a while, and she ended up
dying in a drunk driving crash when she drank again.
Speaker 2 (35:51):
So she Yeah, So I hope it works, and you know,
and even if it works for I don't know, twenty
percent of people, ten percent, that's better than none, have
much higher than rehabs. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (36:03):
Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty The Armstrong and Getty Show
Broadcasting live from the Abraham Lincoln Radio Studio the George
Washington Broadcast Center. Jack Armstrong, Joe Getty.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Arm Strong and Jetty, and He Armstrong and Getty Strong.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
I'm already broken all of my resolutions. I got drunk today,
I didn't go to the gym. I eight donuts, so
I'm off to a bad stone.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
My resolution is to have a higher resolution TV. It
occurred to me when I said the words, so I'm
off to the store. Meanwhile, you enjoy some great Armstrong
and Getty replay Don't Happy Be Worried? It's one more thing.
(00:56):
I was reminded of the Bobby mcferry classic don't Worry
Be Happy the other day as it was listed on
the Worst Songs of the nineties something like that.
Speaker 3 (01:06):
Very popular.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
It was a cute little ditty. It's fine, I don't know,
it's fine. People love, you know, slamming other people's choices
in music too much.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
You gotta hate on being happy?
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Yeah, right, exactly. But don't Happy be Worried is the
theme kind of sort of a really interesting study that's out.
Researchers from the University of Toronto, Scarborough and University of
Sydney the Canuckers joining up with the Australians. Trump will
be you know, annexing them both soon. But anyway, for now,
(01:43):
we'll let them have their cute little universities. But they right.
We live in a happiness obsessed world. Self help guru's
promise paths to Bliss, Instagram influencers pedal happiness is a lifestyle,
and corporations build marketing campaigns around the pursuit of positive emotions.
But new research suggests, say a prizing twist, I doubt
if you're familiar, yeah, exactly, trying to are to be
(02:06):
happy might make you miserable. The researchers that the aforementioned
universities found that actively pursuing happiness drains our mental energy,
the same energy we need for self control, among other things.
Says the researcher, the pursuit of happiness is a bit
like a snowball effect. You decide to try making yourself happier,
but then that effort deplete your ability to do the
(02:27):
kinds of things that actually make you happier.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
All right, Well, there's the key right there. What kind
of things actually make you happy? So among my favorite
books I've ever read in my life, the Art of
Happiness by the Dali Lama, which he says, your goal
every morning when you wake up should be to make
yourself happy. You should spend all your time trying to
make yourself happy. That's what you should do. But it
(02:51):
gets down to the data on what makes you happy
and what doesn't. And many, many the things we all
do every single day don't make us happy. They've never
made us happy. We have ample evidence from our own experience,
let alone other people's experience, that it doesn't make us.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Happy, yet we continue doing it.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
Like eating bad food or buying stuff, or promiscuous sex
or whatever it is. It has never made us in
the happy, It doesn't make other people happy, yet we
keep thinking that's what's gonna make us happy. So pursuing
happiness every day is okay. You just need to define
what makes people actually makes people happy.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
Maybe this is the key. Pleasure is not happiness. Fun
is not happiness, right, it can be part of it.
We mentioned all them. No life of purpose is what
makes people happy? Yeah? Yeah, happy? Happy? You wake up
determined to have a great day. You plan mood boosting
activities and work hard to stay positive, but by evening
(03:53):
you're ordering takeout instead of cooking. Mindlessly scrolling social media
and snapping at your partner while you're pursuit of happiness
might be the problem. The scientist marketing professor, what's it?
Bluntly quote, the more mentally run down we are, the
more tempted will be to skip cleaning the house and
instead scroll social media.
Speaker 3 (04:11):
And they're saying the same thing as the Dalai Lama says,
I just I like the way he words it. It's
a little more positive. Pursue happiness all day, every day.
That should be your goal in life, that should be
everybody's goal. But now let's break down what actually makes
people happy, as opposed to saying don't pursue happiness, because
then it seems like it's a gotta eat my vegetables,
gotta you know, all negative stuff and maybe it there'll
(04:33):
be a payoff in the end.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
Right, It's like the difference between pursuing money and pursuing
the skills that will make you money. In a way, Katie,
do you have something you want to jump in with?
You look thoughtful.
Speaker 4 (04:47):
I I'm kind of overthinking this, I think Okay, to
be honest.
Speaker 3 (04:53):
Well, it's it's amazing that human beings do things that
make themselves unhappy all the time, all the time. It's
just like one of those the common things we do
is make do things that make us unhappy. Eat stuff
that's going to make us either feel bad in the
moment or make us feel bad long term, or you know,
pursue relationships.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
That we know aren't good.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
But there's either sex, prestige, whatever that that makes you
do it.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
Just we regularly chase things that we know are bad.
Speaker 4 (05:23):
For us, right right, watching my brain was going with like,
things you don't want to do, but the payoff in
the end is good.
Speaker 3 (05:33):
Oh, the simplest one is the stirring at your phone.
Nobody ever, at the end of the day, says I'm
sure glad I spent that much time scrolling on my phone.
Nobody ever, not even for one day, right right.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
I was just going to contrast doom scrolling on Twitter,
which I have the compulsion to do and I resist
pretty well most times, versus the other day. I mean,
this is as mundane as can be. I cleaned out
my closet. I went through it thin, the herd of clothing,
you know, shoes I don't wear, etc. It's neater it's
better organized. It's just it's better. And that made me happy, right,
(06:08):
like happy? Yeah, Like today, I was not pleasurable. I
would love to lay on my couch all day, but
I know I have laundry to do, and when I
get it done, I'm going to be happy that it's done.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
Okay, I was just reading an obituary of a fella
that I barely knew, and it was post retirement, I'm
pretty sure. But he filled his life with the Boys
and Girls Club of the area where he lived, and
it was really pivotal in guiding them through difficult financial
(06:40):
times and growing the programs and stuff like that. I'll
bet there was very little of that that was pleasurable.
Some of it was because watching kids learn and grow
is immensely satisfying, but there's a hell of a lot
of work there, and I guarantee that made him happy
to his soul.
Speaker 5 (07:01):
I think the best happiness comes from accomplishments. It could
be like mowing the grass. Like you're pushing the mower
and you look back and you see what you've done,
and then when you're all finished, you look at and
you think, hey, I'm really feeling happy.
Speaker 3 (07:13):
So why then evolutionary speaking, why are we is our
body screaming out to now mow the lawn tomorrow. Lay
on on the couch watching this football game is what
It's going to make me happy. Even though you're absolutely
right afterwards, I don't think why did I watch? I
don't even care about these two teams as opposed to
you'll feel happy after you all the one.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
Well, the greatest minds of our time are devoted toward
getting you to do things for pleasure for their profit
in a way that didn't exist. I mean even two
hundred years ago. There is advertisement, but it was not
nearly as effective, manipulative and scientifically based as modern you know,
like like Facebook TikTok. My god, we as a species
(07:58):
don't stand a chance against that sort of rological manipulation.
Speaker 3 (08:02):
Yeah, I've noticed recently. I don't know if my well,
I just I guess I just started doing the Instagram
reels thing. I'd never done it in be fourth. It's
kind of the American version of TikTok, I guess anyway.
What's disappointing to me is it's not like doom scrolling
or something where I think why did.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
I do that? Or it's pretty good. It's pretty enjoyable.
Speaker 3 (08:26):
It feeds me lots of stuff I really like, I
mean like really like here's some rare concert footage that
it figured out i'd be into that I've never seen before,
and stuff like that. But it kills a freaking hour
where I should either been sleeping or exercising or whatever.
So it's actually it's actually enjoyable, like really enjoyable in
(08:48):
the time.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
So that's what I got to fight now is not
even start. I am going to further parse language. You
got pleasure, you got happiness, and Michael, to your point,
you have satisfaction. Maybe that's another word to think about
happiness and satisfaction as opposed to pleasure.
Speaker 3 (09:09):
If you don't say you're retired and you don't really
need to accomplish anything.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
That's when it's the most important, according to everybody I've
talked to, to have some purpose.
Speaker 3 (09:23):
You don't think you could just look at Instagram reels
feeding your stuff that you actually enjoy and be okay,
or would you be miserable you'll.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
Be dead soon. I don't know. I can't state that
you know with confidence, But I've read a fair amount
about retirement, which is funny. Because I don't know, probably
like my job too much. But yeah, if you're the
sort of person who just retires and you have nothing
to do, it makes people miserable. Even if you have
(09:54):
things to do. You have TikTok, you have something to do.
And the golf course, I just play golf, look at TikTok.
I wake up in the morning, I go play golf
again that I look at TikTok.
Speaker 3 (10:04):
Yeah, I've since I started on Instagram reels, it's in
the TikTok algorithm scares me if it's substantially better. Like
I was listening to Sarah Iger of The Dispatch saying,
if you think Instagram reels is addictive, you have no idea.
Because she got sucked into TikTok and then got it
off her phone.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
She says, just so good. It's just every day stuff.
I love that. I'm super into. My daughter did the
same thing.
Speaker 3 (10:30):
That's why I feel with Instagram reels, like, man, is
it good? With coming up stuff that I like? S
and l clips, concert videos.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
Stuff that I just love.
Speaker 3 (10:41):
But you can't, you know, wants to live their life
doing that.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
Yeah, it's you know, Lord knows, I've lived a checkered life,
but one gift that I got somehow or other. And
this may shock you, folks, I used to take walks
on the wild side now and again, not in the
lou Reads sen itse not gender bending madness, but you know,
occasionally in the rock and roll world of the eighties
and nineties, there were substances about. And there are a
couple of experiences I had where I thought, no, I
(11:07):
like this too much. Yeah, and so it is with
the tickety talk. From what I've heard, you realize I
am powerless against this. Yeah. It is like an endless.
Speaker 4 (11:20):
They provide you endless entertainment on there, especially when they
figure out what you like.
Speaker 3 (11:25):
I mean, you could do that for hours. I wonder
if that's what happened. I wonder if I spend enough
time on Instagram that it was able to Okay, now
we know we got him figured out. Yeah, because it
just seems like in the last week or so, it's
like really grabbed me.
Speaker 4 (11:38):
Well, and what sucks about that is because I thought,
I I'm a dumb ass. I thought I could outsmart
the algorithm because I thought maybe if I don't interact
with any posts, you don't like anything.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
I don't interact with any of them, but it picks
up your eyeballs or no, it picks up your watch time.
Speaker 4 (11:54):
So if you so like let's say you're scrolling, you
stop on a video and you spend the time to
watch that video. The algori of them goes, Okay, we
kept him here for such and such a second.
Speaker 3 (12:03):
Because I didn't click on it. I didn't do anything.
It was just part of a stream.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
It's just because you watched it. I am going to
rewatch on YouTube. The social dilemma. The thing is so
good documentary, Jack, you gotta watch that. You got it?
Speaker 3 (12:18):
You just gotta can They put it in twenty second
chunks on a Instagram reel.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
Jeez, we can't save him.
Speaker 3 (12:28):
Was I gonna say? I had one more thing to
say about this. It's just I don't know how good
it is at figuring out stuff that you really really like.
It's it's troubling, actually, and there's stuff that it would
have been hard for me to find, like on my own.
Oh I was I was thinking about they fixed what
used to be. I don't know if you're old enough
(12:49):
for this or not. Katie. You probably are back when
you used to you want something. You sit down, you think,
how do I have one hundred and twenty channels and
there's nothing I like here? You click through and there's
nothing you like. They fixed that. It's the opposite. Now
you like every single thing on every channel. They know
exactly what you're into. They got your sports thing, your
music thing, your kid's thing. You're just every every channel
(13:11):
is something you love as you click through. It's the
exact opposite of what he used to be.
Speaker 2 (13:16):
Right, Leggy, blonde guitar players playing golf, constant videos, sexy
golfing guitarists with giving me lessons.
Speaker 3 (13:26):
With a dog doing something funny, and a kid doing
something cute.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
Yes, yes, see.
Speaker 5 (13:32):
If you guys agree with this, false happiness comes immediately.
Real happiness comes later. You have to wait for real happy.
Speaker 3 (13:39):
Pretty much always is the case.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
You the Armstrong and Getty Show or Jack your show
podcasts and our hot links thee Armstrong and Getty Show.
Speaker 3 (13:53):
So here's a little text exchange I had with my
son yesterday. I texted him I did something terrible. I'll
be home in three minutes. I stopped at Fluffy's Donuts.
Here's something you got to remember about texting that I've
noticed too, especially if you like look at it on
your watch or you get the alert on your phone,
you often only get the first sentence or a few words.
So all he saw was I did something terrible. Like
(14:14):
you can send to an employee, boss, girlfriend, whatever, I
need to talk about dinner Friday night or something like that.
But if all they see is I need to talk, Yeah,
all of a sudden, it's super serious. And I've had
that APF. That sort of thing happen on both ends anyway.
So I sent my son that text and he just
saw the top part and he said, oh my god,
(14:35):
I thought you hit someone or killed someone. They said, no,
I stopped at Fluffy's Donuts. I just bought one million donuts.
He said, well, I guess I'll take my belt off.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
Wow. The acorn does not fall far from this, No,
it does not.
Speaker 3 (14:50):
I keep having this thing where I hit the donut shop,
which I should never go to the donor shop period.
But I stop at the donut shop and it's like
closing time, and so they're just like giving away donuts.
Want to buy a donut, and they said, here I get,
I'll give you this whole box. Well thanks, I guess.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
And then you go and give them to your neighbors
as a gesture. I did that a couple of weeks ago,
but God that remember that.
Speaker 3 (15:12):
So I gave I got new neighbors and I took
them the box of donuts that I just didn't want,
and welcome to the neighborhood. Yeah exactly, I said, welcome
to the neighborhood and everything like that, and he yelled, Hey,
our neighbor's really nice. He got us these donuts. And
then just the other day, over the weekend, I was
doing something and I saw my new neighbor and he
(15:33):
said to something, Yeah, that's the guy that gave us
the donuts.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
So I lived it looks glad you enjoyed those. Here's
a here's a stack of my old undershirts I don't
wear anymore, And can you use the thanks donut man.
Speaker 3 (15:45):
I just go through my mailbox and pick out all
the junk mail. Here, there's a bunch of coupons.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
I was just giving leftovers out of your fridge.
Speaker 4 (15:54):
So I've I've kind of fallen out of getting the
first line of the text because I changed my updated
my iOS. Now it gives me like the summary the
AI summary.
Speaker 2 (16:03):
The other day it said somebody text message for me,
thank you.
Speaker 4 (16:08):
It was like expressing gratitude, would like to know what
you're doing Saturday.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
And I'm like, oh god, the other thing interesting? Nice. Yeah, theoretically,
although like, I gotta be careful here the uh the
section of humanity that replies all when it's completely unnecessary.
If I see the first line of the email is
(16:33):
I can be there looking forward to it. I know,
Oh god, somebody replied all to the group and I
just swipe it. But this says dinner is Thursday night.
Contact information was provided.
Speaker 3 (16:44):
That's good.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
I'm gonna touch on it. And yep, sure enough. It's
just replied all to RSVP to something unnecessarily. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (16:54):
So the other thing that happened at the domant shop
is the UH that worked there said you look like
that actor and she mentioned a name. Did you know that?
Do people tell you that? And I said, I don't
know who that is. I'll have to google it to
see if that's a compliment or insult, and the person
working with her said, oh, it's a compliment.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
And uh.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
The only reason I think about that is one other
time somebody had said you just you looked just like
that guy from something or other. And then I looked
up and I was like, oh my god, I do
that's horrible.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
Well who you don't know who the actor was. I
don't seen Hackman just before he died.
Speaker 3 (17:30):
After he got hot the virus.
Speaker 1 (17:33):
Strong the Armstrong and Getty Show.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
We were talking about the fourteenth Amendment and the question
of birthright citizenship, which is a hot conversational topic these
days and actually really interesting. And I mentioned that the
fourteenth Amendment is actually five paragraphs long and it would
take a long long time to read to you. The
first part is about all persons born or naturalized, YadA, YadA, YadA,
(18:07):
the birthright thing. Second part is representatives shall be apportioned
among the several states according to their respective numbers. Blah
blah blah.
Speaker 3 (18:14):
But the next third's about streaming contracts, which is really weird.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
Right exactly. Yep, you got to be able to cancel them.
Third one is about senators and congress people who may
or may not have been involved in an insurrection or rebellion.
Remember that one came up, you know, after January sixth,
and a couple more paragraphs. Nobody knows, but I was
looking at the amendments, and it would appear that in
(18:40):
a close race, the shortest amendment is the eighth Amendment.
Excessive bails shall not be required, nor excessive finds imposed,
nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted cruel or unusual cruel
and on you and unusual. Right, And you know, my,
(19:01):
they can cruel and unusual. Right, if it's merely cruel,
but you do it a lot, that's fine. And if
you know, a beating from a clown is certainly unusual,
but it's no more cruel than any other sort of beating.
Fair dam Clown beatings would be approved in the court
of Joe Getty's justice.
Speaker 3 (19:21):
So you're on somebody over with a car. People get
hit by cars all the time. There's nothing unusual about that, right.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
Now, It's cruel, unspeakably cruel, but not unusual. I think
we're missing a loophole here, folks. But I think everybody
knows the Oh my god, I almost said one of
the stupidest things as things I've ever said. I think
everybody knows what's in the Bill of Rights. No, obviously
most people don't. You should, but you don't, which is
(19:50):
why you end up quartering troops. You jackasses, study history.
Speaker 3 (19:54):
I just learned the other day James Madison was really
against a Bill of Rights. He thought it was a terrible,
terrible idea, but then when the vote went against him,
he like, we should do more often now decided Okay,
well that's been decided. Now I'm going to argue what
they ought to be because it's going to happen, even
though I didn't want it to happen in the first.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
Place, And indeed he brought it to the floor of
the House immediately because he said he would.
Speaker 3 (20:18):
The reason he didn't like the Bill Wrights is he
is afraid that now that makes it seem like outside
of these ten things, everything else the government can do.
That was his concern.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
Yeah, yeah, I think history has proved that he was
wrong as a real statesman. And yeah, oh yeah, tiny,
tiny lady. And I've never seen a smaller founding father.
Oh boy, not a long hitter, James Madison. So everybody
knows freedom of religion, press expression, the first right to
bare arms, quartering of soldiers, that's the third.
Speaker 3 (20:51):
I don't have to work, so man, when I get home,
I got some news for those guys.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
Get out of my house. I get my stuff, at
least i'll ship it to you. Search and seizure, trial
and punishment, compensation for takings. That's the Fifth Amendment. Everybody
knows the part about how you don't have to testify
against yourself, but that's actually one of many things mentioned
in the Fifth Amendment.
Speaker 3 (21:15):
I didn't know that I should read that over.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
I'd forgotten it. It's one of those things. I had
to memorize it at one point. But here's the entirety
of the Fifth Amendment. I thought this was interesting. No
person shall be held to answer for a capital or
otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of
a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land
or naval forces, or in the militia when in actual
service in time of war public danger. Nor shall any
(21:40):
person be subject, for the same offense, to be twice
put in jeopardy of life or limb double jeopardy straight
out of the Fifth Amendment. Nor shall be compelled, in
any criminal case, to be a witness against himself.
Speaker 3 (21:53):
That's the wheel of fortune. After the jeopardy portion. It's
the wheel of fortune portion correct.
Speaker 2 (21:58):
Nor be deprived of life or property without due process
of law. That's where that very famous phrase let comes
from due process. Nor shall private property be taken for
public use without just compensation, which there's a lot to
the fifth Amen, we aren't always.
Speaker 3 (22:15):
Good at where's the thing where you can't testify against
your husband or wife or you don't have to? Is
that in the Bill of right?
Speaker 2 (22:22):
No, somewhere, Yeah, that's just in case law. I don't.
I wish I knew.
Speaker 3 (22:27):
But why can't you testify against your husband or wife?
There are no other relationships like that you can justify?
Oh you can, you can, but just can't be required.
But how come you in some situation but you can
be required to testify against your kids or your kids
against you, but not husband and wife.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
I was talking to my law student daughter about this
the other day, and I don't remember exactly because.
Speaker 3 (22:49):
There's you and Judy's big Ponzi scheme and you're worried about.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
Oh yeah, I tell you what. The second the cops
are here, I go states she was running it. She
made me do it right under the bus, and Jody, honey,
I hope you're comfortable under there. Oh, let's see. So
I think the longest of the amendments I can find
is probably the twelfth about choosing the president vice president.
(23:17):
They had to clarify how that was going to work.
But man, they get long. The fourteenth is long, five
paragraphs long. Liquor abolished, bastards. What number is that you suck?
That's the eighteenth And did you say it is longer?
Speaker 3 (23:32):
Is it short?
Speaker 2 (23:33):
No more booze? Parties jackasses?
Speaker 3 (23:36):
That's what that one's called.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
Yeah, it's long and boring, just like a world without alcohol.
Another are three shortish?
Speaker 3 (23:45):
And then how soon after that one is the one
that says parties back on.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
The twenty first, God bless it. Actually the eighteenth was
ratified in nineteen nine, nineteen, and it was repealed in
nineteen thirty three. Wow, I always forget how long that
period was. Of no favorite. Some of my favorite writings
(24:11):
by H. L. Menken were written during Prohibition. What he
would describe how congress people and senators Washington, DC, you
could get a drink practically as easy as you can
right now. It was everywhere because the senators were never
going to hold themselves to the same standards. They were
just doing it because it was politically popular. It was
a popular movement among women when women first got the
(24:32):
right to vote because so many of their husbands would
come home hammer drunk and either be useless or violent,
or or have spent all the money at the bar.
Speaker 3 (24:42):
Your people, Katie to awaar our party.
Speaker 4 (24:45):
Yeah, because of what your people put us through every
day by being drunk a holes.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
Yeah. Well, if your people weren't all day long, maybe
I wouldn't need a drink.
Speaker 4 (24:55):
Well, if you would do some things around the house,
maybe we.
Speaker 2 (24:57):
Wouldn't all the time. Oh my God, give me the bottle.
Where's the bottle? I think that was all right.
Speaker 3 (25:06):
Boardwalk Empire if you never watched that series with Steve Buscemi,
really great portrayal of those years.
Speaker 2 (25:15):
Nineteenth Amendment Women's suffrages I was ratified in nineteen twenty.
Speaker 3 (25:19):
Man need a duo over on that one.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
Uh yeah, so again, women's voting and prohibition came up
at the same time, although admittedly liquor was abolished just
before the year before women got the right to vote.
Speaker 4 (25:33):
One of my favorite places, near the Radio Ranch in
San Francisco was an old prohibition bar, and the owner
took us down into their storage room one day and
all of the old tunnel doors were all welded shut
because they used to move alcohol underneath San Francisco in
this tunnel system.
Speaker 2 (25:51):
But it was really cool.
Speaker 3 (25:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:52):
Yeah. One of my favorite liquor stores was named twenty
second Amendment Liquors, which I always I'm sorry not to
twenty forty first Amendment. Yeah, yeah, twenty second is presidential
term limits. That'd just be a weird name.
Speaker 3 (26:06):
Went to a bar name after term limits.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
Oh, by the way, ladies, keep in mind nineteenth Amendment.
We gave you the right, we can take it away, and.
Speaker 3 (26:18):
Yes it's on a as a needed basis.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
Let's see, can anybody name the last amendment? I'll tell
you that it's the twenty seventh, So anybody remember what
it is? Limiting congressional pay increases, ratified nineteen ninety two. Essentially,
you don't get a raise until another round of elections
is held. You can vote one in, but you don't
get it. You know, our friend Tim thinks there should
(26:46):
be more amendments that that we have been. We've made
it too difficult.
Speaker 3 (26:50):
It seemed like it's acted like it's just too big
a crazy a deal to ever talk about amendments. Yeah,
I would agree.
Speaker 2 (26:59):
I mean, you spend two hundred and fifty years doing
something you ought to get better at it, figure out,
oh we forgot this. I would like to see some
stuff clarified, like the fourteenth Amendment that the birthrate citizenship.
All I want is added on if the parents have
legal status in the United States. You can't just sneak
in all I know. I'm glad you read that.
Speaker 3 (27:21):
When I get home, there are some soldiers sleeping soundly
in my bed, who are gonna You're not gonna be
happy to hear what I now know.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
I will court to you no longer.
Speaker 1 (27:31):
Jebediah, The Armstrong and Getty Show, yea or Jack your
Shoe podcasts and our hot links The Armstrong and Getty Show.
Speaker 2 (27:47):
So I found this interesting, speaking of being intoxicated or altered.
It's in the Fabulous Free Press by a woman by
the name of Katie Herzog. She's talking about the fact
that she was a chronic drinker, alcoholic for twenty years.
We're talking ten to twelve drinks a day, every day,
(28:07):
ten to twelve a days. Who not a big gal either, Yeah,
that's getting after it. Yeah. And she said short of rehab,
I tried all the usual treatments to get better, and
a few less usual ones, alcoholics, anonymous, cognitive behavioral therapy,
individual counseling, group counseling, yoga cleanses, white knuckling it through
(28:28):
cravings and shakes. At one point I tried swapping out
my drinking habit for a cannabis one, which no drug
counselor would recommend, but was less dangerous. The worst thing
that happened to me on weed was accidentally inhaling old
bong water and everything. Most of the things worked, at
least for a little while, but even when I wasn't drinking,
the obsession with drinking was still there. She says. I
marked sober days on my calendar as though I were
(28:50):
in prison, counting down each one until eventual relapse, which
she says she was kind of secretly hoping for. And
then man, she was in terrible, terrible shape after she'd relapsed,
just crippling hangovers and like abdominal pain, probably from a
liver and and before I get to the uplifting and
(29:13):
really interesting scientific part, here's like the sad, sad moment.
She says. At some point I realized I was the
last one at the party. There so long the party,
party slowly withered away as my drinking buddies got careers
or kids or cancer. I was alone with my bottle
and miserable for it. So anyway, she mentions she had
(29:34):
read of was she at that time?
Speaker 3 (29:36):
Do you have any idea?
Speaker 2 (29:38):
Oh? God, yeah, a late thirties, maybe early forties. But
then she talks about how AA came to be the
standard treatment of alcohol use disorder in the US. But
she read about another treatment that had been developed in Finland,
the Sinclair method. Have you ever heard of this? Because
(30:00):
you know a lot about this stuff. All you do,
she wrote, is take a dose of the opioid blocker
now treck zone, wait an hour, then drink. This has
been shown, she said, to reduce both cravings and consumption.
Some people use this method to drink normally moderately. Others
get entirely sober. Though it's long and so it's a
way that you can drink. I that's interesting, Yes, whether
(30:24):
it's on your way to sobriety or just moderation or whatever.
But the point of it is you get all the
physical effects of alcohol slurred speech, drowsiness, last last loss
of coordination, hangover, et cetera, without the buzz.
Speaker 3 (30:40):
I'll take this out of it drug.
Speaker 2 (30:42):
Precisely, this drug cancels your ability to feel any sort
of buzz.
Speaker 3 (30:48):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (30:49):
A lot of people are doing this on their own.
You have to get a doctor who's who says, wow, okay,
I get it, that makes sense, or is familiar with
this treatment. But it's not like super well known or approved.
There are a few private Facebook groups with thousands of
members and that sort of thing.
Speaker 3 (31:09):
Well, I have two comments on that. When whatever works
for you works for you, try whatever you again if
it works good. Two comments on that, though, one it
kind of reminds me of my since I can't taste sweet.
I lost my ability to taste sweet because of COVID
and almost everybody's reactions. Oh I wish that would happen
to me. I eat more sweets than I ever ate
(31:30):
my life because I can't taste sweet. So I just think.
I don't wonder how that factors in the fact that
you you're taking the drink, probably because you want the buzz,
but you're not getting it. So I wonder what that
does do you, if it makes you want other things
or whatever. I don't have any idea. And then I
also know the problem with that because the what is
(31:51):
that an abuse? They're the thing you can take that
makes you throw up if you drink.
Speaker 2 (31:56):
That's what I was just thinking of.
Speaker 3 (31:58):
Yeah, because I've known people who tried at the problem
with it is, at some point you decide you want
to drink. See, you don't take it. So at some
point these people maybe they would. You think, I want
the buzz, So I'm not going to take that thing
that keeps me from not getting the buzz.
Speaker 2 (32:13):
Now, right, she just what she says, is it in
a way that nothing else did just ended the craving
for her? Now that's interesting, like for years, and she's
been sober for a long time now and hangs around
people who are drinking and it's fine. She just has
no desire to drink. And again, I don't I'm not
claiming that this is a universal cure. All I saw
(32:36):
the cover of a book somewhere. Yeah, drink your way sober. Yes,
the brain is so freaking complicated. This is what I
always say on this topic.
Speaker 3 (32:47):
I'm stunned with all the addicts we've got laying around
on the street that we haven't gotten further down the
road of figuring this out. I'll tell you what doesn't work. Rehabs.
They are they're like a practically useless but it's everybody's
first choice to throw money at best.
Speaker 2 (33:05):
PR two results ratio in the history of mankind might.
Speaker 3 (33:08):
Be Yeah, well, this lady's thing works.
Speaker 4 (33:11):
I have a question about that an abuse stuff, Jack.
I don't know how much you know about it, but
is it something that you take on like a daily
basis and build up a tolerance with it or do
you just take it prior to drinking? Because I had
a friend that tried this and she would just take
it prior to thinking she might drink.
Speaker 3 (33:28):
Yeah, I think it's just prior to I don't know.
I don't remember. I knew somebody to try it, and
their thing was sometimes they drank because they wanted to
drink so bad and then they violently threw up. Yeah,
and then other times they think, I want to drink today,
so I'm not going to take my awn abuse pill today, right.
I remember years and years ago you were talking about
this this sort of topic. Can correct me or edit
(33:51):
me if I'm off, But it's said in the recovery
community that you're trying to fix your brain with your brain. Yeah,
that's a very challenging thing to obviously.
Speaker 2 (34:02):
Yea. And the point of this, semi obviously is that
the positive feedback slowly just goes away because you don't
get it. You got to be motivated enough to do
it over longer and long enough period that your brain saying, oh,
this will be great, this will be great, this will
be great, just goes away.
Speaker 3 (34:22):
That's what reminded me of the sweets thing, though. I
was I've been hoping that would happen with the sweets.
Speaker 2 (34:26):
Now.
Speaker 3 (34:26):
Maybe it treats whatever you get out of drugs and
alcohol escape differently than sweet, But I kept thinking, doesn't
my brain at some point realize you don't get any
benefit from the donut so quick trading sweets.
Speaker 2 (34:40):
I wonder if it has something to do with the
discovery that like diet, soda and artificial sweeteners don't do
you any good really, because your body still has an
innate lust desire need for something sweet, which is probably
four hundred thousand years old to do with needing to
get a certain amount of fruit or whatever. Probably I
(35:04):
and so your animal brain is craving that in a way,
it doesn't crave forgetting about my problems for an hour
while I watch music videos on YouTube. I'm describing a
friend's evening, not mine. I wish I craved vegetables the
way I crave sweets. Wouldn't that be awesome. I've never
craved a vegetable in my life, but constantly sure, go
for some broccoli right about now.
Speaker 3 (35:25):
Constantly crave sweets, and I can't satisfy the at least
the taste of it because I can't taste it.
Speaker 2 (35:30):
Yeah. Yeah, anyway, the book once again is called Drink
Yourself Sober, which is obviously kind of a clever and
counterintuitive title to grab your attention.
Speaker 3 (35:40):
I hope it works. That would be great for everyone
if it works. There is a famous story of a
woman who wrote a book about moderation or something that
got pretty famous for a while, and she ended up
dying in a drunk driving crash when she drank again.
Speaker 2 (35:51):
So she Yeah, So I hope it works, and you know,
and even if it works for I don't know, twenty
percent of people, ten percent, that's better than none, have
much higher than rehabs. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (36:03):
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