Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
A lot of fundamental principals of leado, national self interest
and an individual wats this is the show? Oh right?
Everybody welcome to yourn book show on this Christmas Eve,
(00:26):
December twenty fourth, Christmas Eve. Christmas is tomorrow, so Merry
Christmas to everybody. We'll talk abou about Christmas later in
the show. New Year's it's just around the corner. I
want to remind you of the New is Eve's show
on December thirty first, at one pm East Coast time,
and we'll go for four plus hours. I do have dinner,
(00:49):
so we do have dinner reservations. But other than that
we'll go. We'll go as late as we can. Encourage
you to come, just even for a little bit, just
to support the show, coming and do a super chat
or do a sticker and just show your presence those
of you who would like to support the show, either
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(01:11):
max you can do in super chat is five hundred dollars,
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support and put in whatever amount, whatever amount you would like.
By which to support the show. So PayPal, you're on
(01:33):
book show, just a one time amount, not a monthly contribution,
and just just do it. If you want to do
monthly contribution, that's great as well. Monthly contribution slightly better
if you do it on Patreon, but mostly because it's
easier for you to manage after the fact. But yeah,
one time contributions on PayPal. We've got ambitious goals for
(01:59):
the year end, and so I'm going to need all
the help I can get from you guys. All right,
before we get to the fun stuff Christmas and stuff
like that, let's do some of the you know, depressing stuff.
So I was, I'm reading this book. I'm reading a
(02:20):
book about the Andalusia, Andalusia that is in the Spain,
the Muslim conquest and everything happened between the Muslim conquest
and the reconquest by the Christians, and what happened to
the Muslims after the reconquest by the Christians. And they
(02:43):
mentioned something that reminded me, reminded me of something that
I knew but kind of hadn't really made the connection
into kind of the stuff that we've been talking about
around racism and collectivism and tribalism and all this stuff.
So so, and it's a fascinating historical fact that I
(03:04):
don't know that you guys know, so I figured we
talked about it a little bit today, but it is.
It is a historical fact about Spain, about Christianity in
Spain after the Christians basically successfully defeated the Muslims in
(03:25):
the Iberian Peninsula, and actually this started even before they
completely fully defeated the Muslims in that area. Historically, if
you were a Jew or Muslim living under Christianity in
Spain or pretty much anywhere else. So there are a
(03:46):
few that weren't that many Muslims living under Christianity anywhere
else other than Spain, But in Spain, really throughout the centuries,
they were Muslims living under Christian rule. There were population
movements constantly between the Christian and Christian monarchies and Muslim territories,
(04:08):
and and and there were Christians living under Islam, a
lot of them, and then there were Muslims living out
of Christianity, and depending on who conquered what when, this
constantly evolved anyway, but there were a lot of Jews
living under Christianity. So if you are jere Christian living
under Christianity pretty much anyway, in the Christian world, including
(04:33):
Spain pre fifteenth century, you you typically couldn't hold a
significant office. You certainly couldn't, you know, hold a senior
position let's say, at universities, professions, although again there were
some exceptions. There were always exceptions, always places and times
(04:53):
where they were exceptions. You couldn't hold military positions, so
you you were second classicism in the Christian world. Jews
and Muslims were second class citizens in a variety of
different ways. And this would always be true. But here's
the key. If you converted to Christianity, that is, once
(05:13):
you were baptized, you now became a Christian. And by
becoming a Christian, you could now join religious orders, you
could take on government military posts, you could be joining
universities and the various professions, and you could hold church
offices and coming out offices, and the second nd citizenship
(05:37):
went away. So there were basically two types of I mean,
these cultures were very hierarchical, but there were basically two
types Christians and people who are not family Jews, Christians
and people who are not And if you convoted to Christianity,
(06:00):
you were treated as a Christian. What happened in the
fifteenth century when Christians started taking big chunks of Muslim
Spain and suddenly had many Muslims and Jews living under
Christian rule, is they first of all, you know, again
(06:23):
different places, at different times, they tried to force the
Muslims and the Jews to convert to Christianity, and they forced.
There was huge forced expulsion of Jews and Muslims from
the Iberian Peninsula, both in Spain and Portugo. In Portugal,
(06:44):
whether it was to northern Africa or even northern Europe.
Portuguese Jews, for example, Spinosa was a was a Jew
originally who had whose parents had been expelled from Portugal.
It up in Amsterdam, so they were expelled. Some Jews
(07:06):
ultimately landed up in Ottoman Empire, so in even as
far places as far east as Romania and all across
northern Africa and Intinumal East. But then you had so
they expelled the Jews and Muslims, although some you know,
remnants of those communities remained in certain pockets within their
(07:29):
being finished. Mostly they were expelled over time. But then
you had the problem of what about these Jewish converts
or these Muslim converts. And the issue was much bigger
for Muslims because there were a lot more of them,
many many, many many Muslims converted to Christianity. They were baptized,
the whole thing. And there was a real suspicion of them, right,
(07:53):
they were suspicious, were they really converting? Did they in
their hearts really still hold to Muslim beliefs? Did you know?
Were they now competitors in a in a decomp competing
(08:15):
with the Christians for these senior positions that were only
available to Christians. And now you had a whole lot
of new Christians. And many of them, many of these
Muslims were very well educated and came from established families
and and uh, and and we're just as competent as
the Christians. There was also a suspicion of many of
(08:38):
these who maybe lived in remote areas and where yeah,
they'd given up on Islam and they supposed to embraced Christianity,
but they were probably practicing some mixture of of these things.
And so what you got is the creation of a
(09:02):
of a third class Christians, Muslims and Jews, and then
a class in between that was a converts, Jewish converts
and Muslim converts who were suspect, spiritually suspect and loyalty suspect.
(09:24):
You know, it relates to kind of the Nick Foyt says,
we don't trust those Jews, they have spiritts loyalty. Well,
we don't trust these converts because maybe they still maybe
they're still loyal to the old religion, old religion, and
maybe the political loyal to the to the to the
Ottoman Empire, to the Arabs in North Africa, whatever, the
Muslims in North Africa. So what happened was that they
(09:53):
baptism no longer was enough. And what Christians in Spain
embraced was something called and this is the beginning of
the Fifth beginning in the fifteenth century, but lasted really,
you know, well into you know, lasted almost the twentieth century.
(10:17):
They are. What they embraced is something they called blood
purity laws. Blood purity laws, and what they basically, what
the laws basically said was if your ancestors would Jews
a Muslims, if you had converted, but even your children
(10:41):
and your grandchildren, if we can find an ancestor who
is a Jew a Muslim, even if you were baptized
into Christianity. Even if you're not living as a Christian.
You cannot hold church office, you cannot become a priest,
I'm uncle bishop, you cannot serve at a university. Many
(11:04):
professions a block to you. Governor military post a block
to you. And of course you can join some of
these religious orders. So you could be a devout Catholic,
a devout Catholic and in a Catholic kingdom and still
(11:26):
be treated as a second ance citizen if it was
known that you had Jewish and Muslim ancestry. Now what's
interesting about this is that this is really as far
as I can tell, and if I'm wrong, I'm just
one of you will tell me. As far as I
(11:49):
can tell. This is the first time will you get
this idea of blood of hereditary. I mean this hereditary
in the sense of aristocracy and kings and things like that.
But the first time you get heredity as determining your
status as a citizen, it's the first time hereditary overrules
(12:17):
Christian theology, because according to Christianity, according to the theology,
baptism makes believers spiritually equal before God. I mean, one
of the things about Christianity is its universal character. And
indeed most people convert to Christianity in the Dark and
(12:40):
Middle Ages. Right as Christianity was growing, it was growing
through conversion. It was taking territory and Pagans and Jews
and Muslims and Muslims later of course, and others were converting.
This is where Christianity grew. And yet this is the
first time in Christianity and the first time in the
(13:01):
West that I know of, that this is overridden. And
now it's not about whether you con voted Christianity. That's
not enough. Now we keep track of your bloodline, of
your genealogy. Jews and Muslim ancestry permanently taints you, permanently
(13:26):
taints you, and faith cannot overcome lineage. Baptism cannot overcome
lineage effectively. This is the first time we've really used race, bloodline,
genealogy as close to race as we have, even though
(13:48):
in terms of really the genes, they're all everybody in
Iberian Peninsula is pretty much the same type of mutt,
because they're all a combination of a lot of different things.
But this is the first time we've dealing with excluding
people because of their ancestors, and it really created a
(14:14):
kind of a caste system in Spain and Portugal. And
that kind of caste system that was established in Spain
and portug on the fourteenth century, they then exported to
Latin America where racial issues, issues of lineage became super important.
People were categorized based on how pure their blood was
(14:38):
as originating from Spain, whether they were tainted by Jewish
Muslim ancestors, whether they were Indians who had converted, whether
the Indians were not converted, whether they were slaves who
had converted, whether they were slaves who were not converted.
And there was a real caste system in Latin America
that survived for a very long time. And really this
(15:01):
became this provided a template for secularized racial ideologies that
came about in the eighteenth century and then later in
the of course nineteenth and early twentieth century. It helped
normalize the idea that there was something like collective guilt
(15:25):
associated with hereditary and it changed the perception of Jews
from being just a different religion to now being a
different race, a different type of human being, a different
(15:46):
category of human being. It's the first time Jews are
racialized versus just treated a second Answerizen, because they're a
different race. So a lot of a star view this,
you know, this idea of blood purity and the blood
(16:06):
purity laws that existed in Spain as a bridge between
medieval religious antisemitism anti Semitism based on religion they turned
their backs to Christ and modern racial antisemitism, which views
you somehow as a race that needs to be discriminated against. Now,
(16:34):
this blood laws were not adopted widely in the Christian Church. Indeed,
you know, many places and Protestants for example, rejected this completely.
If you were baptized, you became a Christian, it didn't matter,
it didn't matter. But you know, for a while, but
(16:54):
there were some places in Italy where it was embraced,
and it was never really dealt with directly by the
Church because they didn't want to offend Spain. If you
think about Spain and the Catholic Church Spain, once Protestantism
rises up, Spain becomes the most powerful force within Catholicism. Right,
(17:16):
Spain is the Holy Roman Empire, the Habsburg's who later
also rule over you know, Austria, Germany coming out of
coming out of Spain. So there's opposition to it theologically
in Italy among the popes, but there's no explicit condemnation
(17:40):
of it. In fifteen thirty seven, the Pope firms that
all human beings are capable of faith and they for
baptism is enough, but he doesn't repudiate explicitly the Spanish
law is the Council of Trent again reinforms the transformation
(18:02):
power baptism, rejects any ideology implying inhabited spiritual corruption, but
didn't abolish blood purity statutes, and indeed local church authorities
within Italy start using discrimination against converts as well. It
(18:23):
doesn't go beyond Italy, but certainly in Italy it exists. Now,
these laws are slowly abandoned between the seventeenth and the
nineteenth century. By the eighteenth century, you know, blood laws
are widely seen as you know, non model truths, customaries, laws,
(18:44):
and they're slowly being repudiated. The laws are only really
explicitly unequivocally repudiated by Vatican two Betican two in the
nineteen sixties, in the post post Holocaust period, where the
(19:04):
Vatican rejects collective or inhabited guilt, explicitly affirms the ongoing
spiritual dignity of Jews and condemns religion and racial discrimination outright.
But that's in the nineteen sixties, after the Holocaust. So
I just found it fascinating. You know, people like what's
(19:30):
his first name now, Holland something Holland who owe Dominion?
The book Dominion would claim that Christianity is responsible for
the abolition of slavery, and no, not just abolition of slavery,
but but the abolition of racism because of the whole
idea of baptism. And well maybe not maybe maybe in
(19:52):
its modern form, it is actually Christianity that's responsible for
this idea of discriminating against people based on heriditary based
on these blood law you know what your blood is,
(20:12):
what your blood is, of course, I mean the Spanish
and Portuguese inquisitions really helped enforce these and spread these
and make sure they were implemented. Just itters in Latin America,
(20:39):
I don't know, the Spaniards born in Europe ranked above
Spaniards who were born in Americas. Converts, indigenous people, and
Africans were placed in very rigid high keys within each group,
again depending on whether they were converts or not. You know,
Church and civil authority in Latin America were quite proof
(21:03):
a pure ancestry and a whole cast system was established
in in both the Portuguese and the particularly the Spanish Empire.
All Right, I thought that was interesting if you if
you compare the blood purity laws to like the Nuremberg laws,
(21:26):
the Nazi laws, you know, they're very similar. Uh. You
know again, now the target group for the for the
for the Nazis were Jews, but not Jews, not practicing Jews. Uh,
not even technically Jews. That is, in Judaism, you're only
(21:49):
a Jew if your mother was a Jew. Uh. But
the Nazis didn't care about that. They cared if you
had an ancestor who was a Jew. That is what
mattered to them was not belief, not even technicality, i e.
Mother Jewish, But if you had a grandparent who was
a Jew, you were Jew. Uh, same thing. I mean,
(22:14):
the Christians even went further than a grandparent, any any ancestor,
any ancestor. You can imagine that before marriages were ranged
and stuff like that, people had to prove what their
genealogy was. I mean you can you can just imagine
the the the various distortions and perversions that happen all right,
(22:40):
So that's a little bit of history about the origins
I think of of racism, of racism in the modern
world at least. All right, yeah, well Christmas there show.
(23:00):
The Free Press had a good article on this today
and oh yesterday, really yesterday, pointing out that the one
Christmas is not you know, people are not saying Merry Christmas,
so not I don't know, you know, celebrating what is it,
(23:21):
you know, some African holiday or or something instead of Christmas.
The real one Christmas is happening right now in Europe.
So in Germany, for example, Christmas markets are festumed with
concrete barriers and police armed with automatic rifles. I don't
(23:43):
know if you've ever been to a Christmas market in Germany.
These are very festive events, full of light, big Christmas tree,
very traditional kind of German stuff, a lot of food,
German food so not that great, but human food, and
you know, just fun markets. And because of past terrorist
(24:07):
attacks and threats of terrorist attacks, we now have concrete
barriers and again police armed with automatic weapons all over
the place. The famous Christmas market in Saltzburg in Austria
has thirty three surveillance cameras and twenty four hour security guards.
(24:28):
Same in France, and indeed authorities in France have canceled
the city's New Year's Eve party because a fear of terrorism.
Fear of terrorism. There be numerous foiled attacks at Christmas
(24:50):
markets this year, from Bavaria in southeast Germany to Leipzig
in the east central part of the country to and
this was a shock. I don't know if John's on
right now, but John Davies, who constantly asks me about
why are there no terrorist detection in Poland, wanting me
to say because because they banned Muslim immigration in there,
(25:13):
so they don't have any terrorist attacts in Poland. So
maybe it's a good idea to ban Muslim immigration. You
won't get, I mean, that's what he wants. Anyway, It
sounds it seems like there was a foiled attack on
a Christmas market in Lublin, Poland. Yeah, I looked it up.
In Lublin, polar Poland. Polish authorities foiled Islamic state inspired
(25:39):
Christmas market attack plot. It turns out, I know this
is to be a shock to you. The terrorism is
not committed by a only by a particular ethnic group.
Terrorism is not in the blood tourism is not in
(26:03):
new genealogy. In Poland, a nineteen year old law student
at Poland's Catholic University of Lublin who was a Polish
citizen from a Catholic family with a Polish name, I
(26:27):
assume white as snow, well not as snow, but you know,
like dirty white. He you know, he basically decided to
attack a public place in support of ISIS because he
(26:47):
got radicalized by ISIS. You know, he had watched videos
from them, and he was he or so was had
purchased a bunch of objects related to Islamic religion, and
he was really excited about representing the Islamic state because Islam,
(27:13):
like Christianity, is a universalist religion and you don't have
to be born a Muslim to be a Muslim. You
can convert, and you don't have to be even a
practicing Muslim right now to commit terrorist attacks in the
name of Visis. That'll take you a nihilism. It turns
out is not unique to Muslims. So maybe ISIS needs
(27:38):
to be defeated. Maybe the Islam missed cause needs to
be defeated before you even before you get terrorist attacks
in places like God forbid Poland, which doesn't have any
Muslims in it. Anyway, I thought that was fun when
(28:00):
I came across it, because, you know, I assumed that
there were no terrorist attacks and no attempts to terrorist
attacks in Poland, and that's why John was using it.
But I guess John doesn't read widely enough. He's not
as knowledgeable as he pretends to be. Quite shocking. I anyway,
(28:22):
this is horrific, you know, allowing you know, taking this
for granted, allowing this to happen. And this doesn't involve
rounding up all the Muslims and putting in camps, but
it does involve recognizing Islamism is a real threat, rounding
(28:46):
up the preachers who preach it and deporting them, rounding
up the immigrants who involved actively involved in some of
these you know, pro sharia prosis. I don't know po
Islam asked groups, running them up and depoting them. Basically
declaring Islamism unwelcome in Europe. And if you're involved in it,
(29:12):
even if you're not picking up a gun, but if
you're involved in it, that's like being involved in the
Nazi movement during World War Two. You're unwelcome. You could
ban the Nazi Party in America during World War Two.
You can ban Islamism right now in Europe and in
(29:32):
the United States and make it a criminal offense to
be involved with him. I mean isis isis IS continues
to recruit online. It has a newsletter. Why is a
newsletter blocked? You know it's again, it's it's it's it's
(29:55):
enemy propaganda. Why isn't a stand taken against the enemy.
On its September eighteenth edition of its online newsletter, it
urged Muslims and I guess also non Muslims to target
Christians and Jews and kill by all means. We know
(30:18):
that the body Beach was inspired by ISIS. We know
that in Manchester, England, just a few days ago, a
jury found two Muslims guilty planning what could have been
the deadly stars attack in UK history. They were targeting Jews,
(30:41):
but reportedly viewed Christian victims as well as you know,
that's okay, we kill a few Christians, that's cool, all right?
(31:02):
So yeah it. You know, it's been time since nine
to eleven and all the terrorist attacks that have happened
since nine to eleven in Europe, it's time to take
this seriously, and taking it seriously does not mean you
know TSA. Taking it seriously does not mean you know
(31:29):
police force and concrete barricades. It's just unbelievable to me
that So last week when it was two American soldiers
were killed in Syria by ICE by this guy who
was affiliate with ISIS, and then America went in with
airplanes and they bombed dozens of ICEIS targets. Why did
(31:50):
these targets still exist? Like we'd be fighting ISIS for
over ten years? Why does ICE still exist? Got the
mightiest military force in human history, and it allows ISIS
to still exist. Europeans who have the direct interest in
(32:14):
destroying ISIS and no way to be seen in terms
of trying to destroy it. All this recruitment is happening
by a group called ISIS. That group is still based
in parts of Iraq and Syria. Well, why doesn't Europe
send their planes and maybe even troops to destroy them
and kill them once and forre. Somebody must be publishing
(32:36):
this newsletter it's coming out of somewhere. How about finding
where that location is and destroying it. I mean, this
is what I mean by war. You gotta go to
war against the Islamists. It's not about immigration, It's about
(32:58):
defeeding the enemy. Defeat the enemy. Immigration becomes a lot
less of an issue. There's nobody to radicalize them. And
if it turns out it's not Isis, it's the Muslim brotherhood,
then fine, it's time we went to Doha and cleaned house.
(33:19):
You know, some people think that Ben Shapiro is a
wollmonger up. I mean, they've obviously not never met me, right,
I mean, there's an enemy out there advocating for and
training people and equipping people and financing people to kill
Jews and Christians and Americans and Europeans, and America and
(33:45):
Europe are sitting in their hands, humming a song with
noise canceling headphones and pretending, you know, none of this exists.
And yeah, while they've got their head cancing headphones though,
holding a semi automatic weapon in the hand. But the
(34:05):
point is, even if you bann Muslim immigration, it won't
solve the problem. And you won't ban Muslim immigration. Nobody
bans Muslim immigration. Well, look at what Trump has done.
A Trump banned Muslim immigration. No, and even when he
does a pretend ban on Muslim immigration, he doesn't include
half or actually he doesn't include the most populous Muslim countries.
(34:31):
So it's just a it's a charade. You could instead
of and much cheaper, by the way, much cheaper, much easier.
You could go out there and just destroy the people
who fund support, make possible terrorism against the United States
and Europe and then come home. It would be very cheap,
(34:54):
very easy. And you tell them every time there's a
terrorist attack in Europe, Doha gets bombed, it would stop tomorrow.
It would stop tomorrow. And yeah, maybe once in a
while something would slip by, but as a phenomena, it
would stop. Every time we get tough on terrorism, on
(35:18):
the people funding it and the people supporting it and
the people making it possible, terrorism goes down. Every time
we get lacks about the source the origin, terrorism goes
up the more. And if you think, if you think
banning immigration will stop them from hijacking and airplanes somewhere
(35:39):
and flying it into Europe and landing it somewhere, landing
I mean crashing it into something you know, who knows?
You really think that they won't become more creative if
you band immigration. Are they gonna give up? Are they
gonna say say, oops, sorry, whoops. Yeah, we don't want
to take over the world anymore because they band immigration.
Yeah you'll make it a little harder for them, but
(36:00):
sho deal with the cause. I mean, how difficult would
it be for a terrorist group to get a hands
on ballistic missiles and launch them into Europe? Not that hard.
The Uranians could give them a few. The Qataris will
pay for it. You want to stop jihad, you gotta
(36:24):
destroy gihad. You got to destroy the people who make
it possible. It won't go away because you build walls.
Wars are never won by building walls. Ever, walls delay
your defeat, but almost always a sign that you're going
to be defeated. Banning immigration is a cowardly thing to
(36:45):
do and ineffective. Doha is where the money is coming from.
It's an issue of blood guilt. It's an issue of
the government of the government of Qatau is funding terrorism. Therefore,
the people of Katau are going to suffer the consequences
(37:09):
of what their government is doing. This is why government's
are important. This is why governments are important. The government
represents you. The government does what it does in your name,
and it's completely legitimate to target you when the government
(37:30):
has acted on your behalf. Completely legitimate to target Germans
when attacking you know, even though it was the Nazis
who did it. Many Germans died. Just completely legitimate to
target Japanese, even though it was just the imperialists did it.
(37:51):
But it's the Germans and the Japanese who feed the
war machine. It's the Germans and Japanese who don't really
object to what's going on. And it's the Germans and
Japanese who it's their government. It was done in their name.
You know, when when you elect to voar of directors
(38:14):
in your business, you're a shareholder, you elect the board,
let them run the company, and they drive it into bankruptcy.
You lose money, and you go like, wait a minute,
they made the mistakes. Why am I losing money? Because
they represent you and they did bad stuff. And indeed,
(38:38):
in the legal system we have in the United States,
if they commit fraud, shareholders at least up until the
value of their shares are going to pay for that fraud.
The company gets fined, not just the individuals, and often
never the individuals themselves. The company does so absolutely. This
(39:05):
is why it's important to get involved in politics. Government
represents you. If they do something evil, you will suffer.
And it's completely legit. He was Shima Nagasaki one hundred
percent legit, morally, politically, militarily, strategically, in every regard there's
flattening of Dresden completely legit, morally, strategically, militarily, any respect,
(39:31):
one hundred percent. If you're curious about it, check out
my article about the morality of war. It's available online.
You can find it in lecture form, or better than that,
(39:52):
you can find it as as an article just war
theory versus a and self defense. That is the name
of the article. You can find on them on the
Inman Institute website. UH and UH. If you're really curious
about why it's not collective guilt to bomb a civilian
(40:16):
population a time of war, then check out my article
where I discussed that in great length, and I'll put
the link in the chat in a minute. There it is.
Here's a link. Check out the article. Who's written in
(40:38):
two thousand and six. It's co authored by the way
with Alex Epstein, the Alex Epstein. So there's the link.
You can find the article. Check it out, and indeed uh.
You check it out and see. So. Yes, I believe
(40:58):
in offense. I don't believe in John says, sorry, I
was driving, Okay, that's fine. I can't believe you're driving
and listening to my show and yet you have zero
respect for this show. You have zero respect for me,
uh and as you listen to it. I don't get that.
If I if I had as much disrespect for somebody
(41:22):
as John has for me, I would never listen to
this show. Maybe once in a while I get a
clip from four Intes, but I would never listen. You
find it hysterical anyway, Just what theory is there? Check
it out. Those of you who who disagree with me
about bombing Doha, uh and or bombing Gaza, or bombing
(41:46):
he WashU Wanagasaki, or bombing Dresident or any of these things. Yes,
I definitely justify attacking civilians if it serves a strategic game.
Absolutely nothing justifies a cotuber Seventh, because the initiator of
(42:12):
force in the Israeli Palestinian conflict in Israeli Gausian conflict
is not Israel, It's the Palestinians. The Palestinians ain't the wrong.
And by the way, nothing justifies. Nothing justifies raping and
and and just and just gratuously killing children and uh,
(42:34):
you know, gratuously you know, burning people alive and chopping
people's heads off. Nothing justifies that. But in a war,
in a war initiated by your government, civilians are going
to die, and that is absolutely justified, one hundred percent.
(42:56):
All right. I don't want to get into a huge
discussion of this. We can do that on another show
another time. But anyway, just one Christmas is happening in
Europe right now, a lot more serious than celebrating whatever. Epstein, Epstein, Epstein,
(43:16):
Jeffrey Epstein. You know, more and more documents are being released,
more and more photos of being released. I don't know
what is going to come of all of this, probably
very little. It's embarrassing to a lot of people because
a lot of people associated with Epstein in kind of
sleazy kind of ways and sleezy deals, both financial deals,
but mainly around the way they treated women and the
(43:40):
way they related to women. Epstein himself and potentially some
of these others are though no proof has been shown,
we're also involved in violent actions against women, rape, and
in many cases it appears suddenly Jeffrey, but not clear
about others having sex with minus with girls as young
(44:05):
as you know, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen. So Epstein has been
is being you know, Epstein is. All these files are
coming out, all these photos of who is ware? But
what do we know more about what Epstein actually did?
(44:26):
Do we know anything more about who's slept with whom?
Do we know any more about actual rape or actual
peterophilia by anybody other than Epstein? No, not yet And
maybe and I don't know if there is anything that
is We don't know if there's a there there. But
(44:49):
the files keep coming out. It's embarrassing for Trump. He
keeps denying it. And so it turns out he was
on the airplane a lot more than he admitted to
being on the airplane, on the Litlita Express as it
was called. Uh, but again no testimony of any actual
things that he did that And the same is to
(45:10):
it Bill Clinton, The same is true of all these
other people who will be named. Bill Clinton is now
calling for all the files to be released. Uh. And
we're getting a bunch of a bunch of again files.
And and what was funny, What one thing was funny
was they were redacting. They were adacting supposedly to protect
(45:34):
the identity of the women, so they were adacting a
lot of stuff. But it turned out that you could
take some of these documents and copy them into wood
and the redaction would disappear and you could see the
woods underneath. So they they were they were redacting them
in PDF and in Acrobat and then but when you
(45:55):
copied pasted it, the redaction went away and you could
see exactly what was written behind it. So just in
components of the Department of Justice, they are doing this fast.
There's still hundreds of thousands. Suppose you have documents that
have not yet been released, and Congress is all pissed off.
But it's not clear where this goes, what happens. Maybe
there's a smoking gun somewhere, Maybe there are actual accusations
(46:18):
of Peterophilio rape or something like that against Donald Trump
or against other government officials, but so far nothing. So far,
it's just reaffirming everything that we already knew. There's no
real new information, there's nothing really exciting going on. Or
(46:40):
one thing you'll notice is there's a lot of fake
stuff being released. So there was a letter from Jeffrey
Epstein to in the city, the pedophile who abused the
women's gymnastic team, the doctor who abused the women's the
nasty team. There's a letter from him. It talks about
(47:01):
Trump groping women. Fake letter. There were some other fake
stuff that's come out, So there's going to be up,
particularly with the AI. There's going to be a lot
of fake stuff that people say is part of the
data dump from their justice apartment, but is not, so
don't get caught up in it. It seems to me
that until it's all out, and until somebody does a
(47:23):
proper fellow systematic analysis, we won't know much. The New
York Times has done a real deep dive into some
of this, and again, you know, they show that Epstein
and Trump were very close in the nineties. They were
friends in the nineties, they hung out all the time,
they had you know, they had this attraction to young
(47:45):
women in common. But again, nothing in the story deep
dive into it suggested anything criminal. It suggested that Donald
trumps the sleeves, but that is not new. That is
not new or news. We all know that. So there's
just there just doesn't seem to be much there there,
(48:08):
but more of this is going to be coming out.
All right, there's another story here that disappeared. It was
an interesting uh g EP number that came out. It
Groes domestic product. The economy is supposedly in the third
quarter of the year good and annual rate of four
point three percent, which is very high, much higher than
(48:30):
people expected, and bewildering given that uh employment seems to
be very weak, that his job creation seems to be weak.
People people gaining new jobs relative to the number of
people being fired seems to be very weak. But the
but the four point three percent is high, you know,
(48:55):
it's it's it's almost certainly not sustainable, but it is high.
And the question is what's driving it. Now, If you
look at the numbers, it was driven primarily by two things.
One is investment in AI, which we know investment in
AI construction of data centers, and that is going to
have a long tail because that's going to go on
(49:16):
for a long time. You know, very few of the
data centers that are being promised even in the stage
as a production of construction, but they're so huge and
so costly that that is driving a lot. But beyond that,
almost no business investment beyond AI right, so almost no
business investment. We know manufacturing is basically in a recession
(49:38):
right now. Manufacturing jobs have declined dramatically over the last
over the most of the year. And the second aspect
of this is consumption. Consumer spending is way up, which
is really curious because survey ask the survey are saying
(49:58):
that Americans are pessimistic on the economy, that they know
consumer confidence is historical loose, and yet everybody's spending money
like there's no tomorrow. Everybody's spending money now. It turns
out that much of the money being spent is being
spent by the wealthiest ten percent of Americans or the
highest income ten percent of Americans. But still there's a
(50:21):
lot of consumption. Credit card companies are indicating the holiday
season's being seen a lot of purchasing, and yet people
are super pessimistic, but they're not pescifically about their own lives.
They're not pessimistic enough to stop shopping, but pessimistical about
your lives. Everybody's shopping. Everybody's shopping. It'll be interesting to see,
(50:41):
and they're saving less, savings down significantly. Now. It's quite
possible that this is driven by increased productivity as a
consequence of reduced to regulation and the base of AI.
But it's still too early to tell. We'll have to
(51:03):
watch the numbers and see. But reduced regulations should increase productivity.
We know they increase productivity. AI will increase productivity. The
question is when and when can we see it in
the numbers. But it could be that economic growth ultimately
is driven by that. GDP is a it's not a
(51:24):
particularly useful number. I mean it is over a long
periods of time. It correlates with an all the other
important things. But the reality is the disposal of income,
disposable disposable income. It is not growing to compensate for
the rising prices. It's growing lower than the rise in prices.
(51:49):
So you could say, stand up, living quality of life
is actually going down in spite of people spending a lot.
They don't have a lot of money to spend because
it's disposable income. As the amount of money you have
to spend out. The investment is not happening. You're not
seeing private investment grow significantly. The one place where you
see businesses investing is to attract the wealthy. You know,
(52:16):
so I travel a lot, so one of the things
you notice is many, many more airport lounges, and they're
getting richier and richier. That's to tract you know, big
spenders and people who own the the the the premiere
credit cards and premier status at the at the airlines
(52:36):
and things like that. So you know, we'll see, we'll
see how sustainable this is. We'll see what happens. But
there's plenty of reasons to be worried about the economy.
Employment and an investment in particular for a while, AI
can drive this thing forward. Consumption can drive things forward
(52:58):
for a while, but at the end of the day,
you've got to get business investment, uh and increased productivity
from deregulation. It can drive stuff for it and it's
really good and that's I think that's what drove I mean,
the economy under Trump one was primarily driven by deregulation.
(53:18):
That was the main person. All the other thing has
happened is you know, there are being some tax cuts
right also tax increases they call tariffs, but also some
tax cuts which kind of the tax increases on certain
items of consumption. You'd expect people to consume less of those.
Although businesses have to buy the steel and have to
(53:39):
pay the tariff. They have no choice. But there were
some tax cuts in the big beautiful bill. Maybe people
have a little bit more money or they're expecting refund
checks and that's why they're spending more. But the economy
is I think in because of elation in okayse shape.
(54:02):
But everything else other than the regulation is in pretty
crappy shape. I mean, the government is still borrowing at
record levels. Uh, you know, money, money has to flow
into the economy in order to compensate for that borrowing,
and the Fed is started to buy buy gunment securities
(54:23):
and indeed increasing the amount of money in the economy
as a consequence. You know, maybe that's why gold is
going up as much as it is with the anticipation
of future inflation because of all the of all the borrowing,
of all the borrowing, and all the money creation that
is anticipated in the years to come. Right, M two
(54:46):
has not gone up that much. It actually went down
quite a bit, but it's starting to go up again.
All right, finally, Okay, is this is our real? Is
(55:20):
this some kind of bot spamming me? All right? Let
me block him. Let's see if that works. All right,
Tomorrow is Christmas. Christmas is a phenomenal holiday. It's a
(55:43):
holiday of benevolence. It's a holiday of gift giving, it's
a holiday of celebration of lights. It's a holiday really
as celebrated today, that was created in the nineteenth century
by American capitalists, by people trying to sell stuff. It's
(56:05):
a holiday to a loge extent, created by Madison Avenue,
a marketing ployee to get you into the stores. But
it's holiday. That aspect of it has been embraced and celebrated.
And we all have Christmas trees and lights, we all
(56:26):
buy gifts, we all enjoy going to places, you know,
with lights and celebration. The Christmas markets that I talked
about last time, they go back to the fifteenth century
in Central Europe as a way to celebrate Christmas. So
even back then there was an element of marketplace celebrating
(56:49):
Christmas by going to a marketplace, by buying stuff, but
also lights and all of that. So there's a certain
celebratory aspect to Uh, there's a huge celebratory aspect to Christmas.
There is quite secular. It's not primarily about going to church,
(57:11):
it's not primarily about you know, and this is why
very religious people reject kind of the popular way in
which Christmas is celebrated. It's too commercial, they tell us, No,
it's perfectly commercial. The more commercial, the better. It is
a real it's a celebration of life. The Christmas tree
(57:35):
is an evergreen tree brought in, uh you know, from
the from the from the bitter cold of Scandinavian winter
into the home to celebrate life. The life can thrive
and exist and continue in spite of the hollurs of winter. So,
(57:59):
you know, I think it's wonderful holiday. I hope you
guys all enjoy it. You know, it's It took me
a while when I first came to the United States
to separate Christmas from Christianity, because, as you know, I'm
not a fan of Christianity. But I've learned to really
(58:20):
love Christmas and to celebrate it now. You know. We
always did gifts Christmas Morning, and we always had a
big tree, and my wife would spend hours and hours
and hours decorating it and it would be amazing. And
when we traveled around the world, we kind of collected
(58:42):
Christmas ornaments from all over the world, and it was
a time where friends and family would get together and
you know, whether you give gifts or not. At some point.
For example, we used to celebrate the holidays on a
regular basis with Leonard, both Christmas and Birthdays, and Christmas morning,
(59:02):
Christmas during the day, Lena would always come over and
we would eat together, and we decide at some point,
no more gifts. It's just impossible. The effort of trying
to find gifts in a in a society that is
as you know, wealthy as ours, is just too difficult.
It's too difficult. What do you give somebody who has everything?
(59:24):
So so with a number of our friends we've decided
no more gifts. Were just hanging out together. That that's
the fun part the gifts. You know, any anything I
can buy you you can buy for yourself. You know,
with kids it's different. But as soon as the kids
go up, the whole gift thing is, we don't get
(59:45):
into it. I'd rather, you know, we just buy the
stuff that we want to buy for ourselves. So enjoy it,
celebrate it, have fun with it. Hopefully you all in
a you know, a secular in spite of our attacks
(01:00:09):
on Christianity here, you're all in a secular mood and
you can embrace it as a secularist. Yeah, so I've
got one Christmas movie I think I recommend it every
Christmas or something. You know about this. I got one
Christmas movie that I recommend. It's a favorite of mine.
It's by a director who I think is one of
the best directors in the history of Hollywood, and so
(01:00:33):
I recommend all the movies, but this one is charming
and fun and benevolence and entertaining and everything a movie
should be, particularly a Christmas movie should be. I know
everybody loves Die Hard for Christmas, but it's too violent
for Christmas, right, I mean, you shouldn't be focused on
(01:00:53):
violence for Christmas. My favorite Christmas movie is The Shop
around the Corner. It's a nineteen forty movie. It's a
romantic comedy, comedy drama. I guess they called it the director.
It's directed by Ernst Lubitch Lubich l U b I
T s c H. L u b I T s
(01:01:14):
c H. Well, I think is one of the great
directors of the twentieth century and twenty first century, the
best director of comedies certainly that I know of. Every
single one of his comedies is a masterpiece. I mean
almost all his movies and comedies. I think it stars
Margaret Sullivan, Margaret Sullivan, James Stewart, Frank Morgan, James Stewart
(01:01:38):
is wonderful in it. Margaret Sullivan is wonderful in it is.
It is based on a play written in nineteen thirty
seven by a Hungarian. The play is called Poff Fu
Marie by Micholas less Slow Less Slow. I'm not gonna
tell you what it's about. It's a love story. It
(01:02:01):
has a great twist at the end. The movie has
been remade a million times in all kinds of formats
and all kinds of ways. I don't think any of
them match the you know, the quality of the original.
Uh it's in black and white, so you have to
suffer to black and white. I apologize. But it's great writing,
(01:02:23):
it's great comedic timing, it's it's it's it's just charming
and yeah, and you know, just a wonderful love story.
So enjoy it's. It's it's good to sit around and watch.
Uh it was yep. Uh yeah. He did it about
(01:02:53):
the same time he did his most famous movie, It's Lubitch,
and probably his best movie, which is Nina Nina is
a must see. Unoska is a is a classic. Ninochka
by Ernst Lubich is one of the great movies of
all time, probably makes my top five. I love that
movie and so so check it out. I've got a
(01:03:15):
big poster actually of a Ernst Lubitch film right on
the wall behind my monitors, and it is for a
movie that almost nobody has ever seen. But my audio
and video out of sync. While I'm talking about movies,
that's that's inappropriate. I would refresh your screen. I don't
(01:03:40):
think there's anything I can do about it. It's synced
on my end. So anyway, the movie, the movie poster
that I have right in front of me, is called
Coloney Brown. The movie's clooney Well, it's also but ERNs
(01:04:02):
Lubach So Coloney Brown just a wonderful, charming again romantic comedy, intellectual, smart,
women's libbish. It's like a woman, a strong woman character.
It's great. Coloney Brown is just one of the great
characters in movies. So you know, y'all have a really
(01:04:25):
good time with ERNs Lubberg movies. If you don't, if
you've never watched any, you know this holiday season is
a good time to start. Start with Chappa on the
Corner for Christmas, and then Coloney Brown and in Natchka
and if you can, if you can manage movies about
they make fun of the Nazis. To me and not
(01:04:47):
to be not the mel Brooks version, but the original
Ernst Lubberty version is really really funny in spite of
the fact that it makes fun of something that you
shouldn't make fun of. All Right, Finally we've got some reviews,
just a few, but I'm trying to catch up. I'm
trying to chip away at them and see how many
(01:05:08):
I can get done by the end of next week,
which is I'll probably still have a few laggards that
I'll have to do in January. But I'm trying to
get the low hanging food done. All right, So we've
got a few here, let's see, let's start. So here's
what I still need to do. I still need to
do Folk in the Road, the last short story in
(01:05:31):
the book, and that is that is that I still
need to do. You guys need to email me or
text me or something if I'm missing anything. I still
need to do better Man, John's biopic Better Man I
need to do Ford Versus Ferrari and and write The Tiger.
(01:05:57):
I think by the end of today I will have
caught up in all the rest. So let's start with
Shaw's botts. A Black Adda season two episode Beer where
Black Ada gets into a competition, a beer drinking competition,
an alcohol drinking competition with some of the other fellows
(01:06:20):
that are in Black Ada. But it's happening at the
same time as he's meeting is some relatives who are
super duper unbelievably religious, and they're talking about his inheritance
and how much money they're going to leave him. And
he's trying to do both things at the same time,
(01:06:41):
manage the beer competition in one room and these relatives
in the other room. The relatives is hysterical. The funniest
part of the whole thing is the how the writers
of the show portray these religious nuts. I mean, it
really is, really is funny. I mean, I have to
say it's not my favorite Black Added episode, but it is.
(01:07:04):
It is funny in parts of it. Hysterical. Black Added
generally is a really is one of the funniest shows ever.
It's a combination of silly of silliness of slapstake and
(01:07:26):
a really clever social commentary. It loves to make fun
of the church. The funniest episodes are making fun of
the church it makes it makes fun of of of
suit of intellectuals. In the final season, it's making fun
of war. The final season is is uh is placed
(01:07:46):
during World War One in the trenches, so super fun
uh super funny. Again. A black Adda is particularly good
at making fun of of of religion, and this episode
does not disappoint in that sense. The Puritans are just
(01:08:08):
portrayed as you know, I don't know, you know, as
boorish and and not very smart and and and the
way they're dressed, the way they appear. Uh. And of
course by the end of it, the Puritans is just
as drunk as everybody else and uh and and I've
(01:08:30):
given up on the whole Puritan charade. Uh so uh
funny and and in particular, the best parts of it
are they are They are the portrayal, uh, of the
Puritans as just being ridiculous hypocrites, uh duplicitous. The woman
is running the whole thing. The man is completely silent
(01:08:51):
the whole time, He just does whatever she says. The
whole thing is is. Yeah, it's really well done and
really really funny. All right, let's see Chasbudas asked me
to review the Simpsons Season two episode nineteen, Lisa's Substitute.
This is where Lisa falls in love with the substitute teacher,
(01:09:16):
who is described as looking like a Jewish cowboy with
Semitic good looks, which I find interesting in as we're
debating and discussing anti Semitism, that you could sneak in
those kind of those kind of expressions into Simpsons. Okay,
so I don't like the Simpsons. I really don't like
(01:09:39):
the Simpsons. I don't like the animation, and I never
have from the day it came out, I've really disliked it.
I don't like the animation, which is just not very interesting.
It's ugly, Yeah, that's the it's ugly. It makes everybody
look ugly. Everybody's ugly in this. Since the whole show
(01:10:02):
is super cynical, I don't find it that funny. Most
of it is silliness and stupidity. It's kind of touching
that Lisa falls in love with the substitute. He's a
cool guy, you know, But but much of the humor
that drives it is kind of the immature, you know,
(01:10:29):
gross behavior of the sun. I forget his name now,
but a Bart his immaturity and the immaturity of all
the students around him. They make fun of the nerd,
but of course there's a stupid that they can't beat
the Nord at anything. There is some making fun of
this idea of egalitarianism that everybody has a talent, but
(01:10:52):
the talent are so stupid and ridiculous. They're just done
in the name of everybody having a talent, there's no
real talent. And so it's making fun of of the galitarianism.
But problem is it's making fun of everything. It makes
fun of every aspect of it, you know. So it's
(01:11:15):
you know, the the idea that that bod not but
who's the who's the father in the Simpsons, God, his
name is on the tip point tongue, Homer. That Homer
is a baboon. It gets into the whole discussion of
of parenting and what parenting, what parenting constitutes, and and
(01:11:37):
and what's involved and and you know, Homer kind of
comes out of it is yes, of a boon, but
he's also a good parent because ultimately he loves his kids,
and he gives them this fake good advice. Uh, you know,
(01:11:58):
I don't think I don't. I don't think it's particularly
smart humor. I mean it probably is in the world
of being cynical. And it combines this off the charge
stupidity of home and bought with the women being much better.
Of course, the men always baboons and the women are better, smarter,
(01:12:21):
So it's it's very anti male, but that's true of
almost all sitcoms are anti mao. And then but it's
it has kind of a loving, positive approach to these
guerrilla men, you know, which I don't sympathize with the baboons.
They really are so I don't know, I can't. I
(01:12:43):
can't enjoy them. And it's it's all just it's it's
very driven by cynicism, by by putting values down, by ridiculing. Now. Now, granted,
Lisa does really have a cross on the teacher, and
for quote good reasons. The teacher kind of is weird
(01:13:06):
and how he relates to her, But there is a crush,
there is a lesson to be learned. There there is
some ideas, there's some cleverness, but it's so surrounded by
this ridiculous stuff going on that I really have no.
(01:13:28):
I find it very difficult to review things I don't
like because the things that I don't like about them
pop out at me. And and here it's the the
buffoonery of two of the main characters, the son and
the father. They're just buffoons and and there's no redeeming
there's no redeeming value to them. Everything about them is
(01:13:52):
really ridiculous, empathetic. Uh and uh, yeah, I can't watch it.
I find it embarrassing. If you will to not embarrassing
unpleasant to watch, you could you review the song by
(01:14:17):
a Loto Bylando Bachata. So bachata is a is a
is a dance. BA Chatta is a Latin dance. Uh.
It's origins and its popularity is it comes from the
Dominican republics are not far from where I am now,
(01:14:38):
not far from Puerto Rico. There's quite a few bachata
here in Puerto Rico. It is a very popular. It
kind of took the United States by storm, I think
about fifteen years ago, and and it's very very popular.
It's popular in Europe. It's it's it's popular, you know,
in in Latin America. And but it's origins are in
(01:15:00):
and in the Dominican Republic. This particular song is a
straight up but chat the song. I don't think it's
anything special. It has the chata beats, it's it's dance music.
It's for dancing now as and I can't remember who
asked this question. I can't you who sponsored this. But
as he says, it's so refreshing, he says, because it
(01:15:21):
avoids the usual needy begging, whining and helpless worship. It's
a love song. And it's true. There's no needy, begging, whining, helpless.
It's a straight up, uncynical love song. But the limcs
are super simple. There's no poetry here, there's no sophistication here.
(01:15:44):
You know how lucky I am that I can see
you and I wake up every morning and when I travel,
I miss you. I have your photograph in my wallet.
I don't know what it is about your eyes, your lips,
your skin, that this honeymoon never ends. We are glass
and wine. You and I and I've been and you
and I have been together since we saw each other.
(01:16:04):
We go up, we go down, we cry, we laugh.
It's because you, because with you, my love. Everything tastes
better and you and it goes on and that's fine.
I mean, I just there's no sophistication. There's no poetry
like I like poetry in song lyrics, you know, straight
up again, this is a song to dance too, but
(01:16:26):
chat as it's pretty, you know, it's it's of Latin dances.
It's it's a little bit more close intimate, you could say. So.
Love songs are quite frequent in this and yeah, I
mean I I I it's enjoyable, particularly, I mean I
(01:16:49):
can I can listen to a chat the song one one.
I can't do more than one. It's they repeat and
and they're not that interesting. And you know, this is cute,
it's nice, it's candy, but I can't say it's anything special. Sorry.
John John asked me to review another Incabus song in
(01:17:13):
spite of my negative reviews in the past. This one
is for the Incabus song Drive. Now, of the three
Increbus songs that I've reviewed, this will be the third.
I like this the best. I think it has the
nicest rhythm and melody. I still don't particularly like the
(01:17:34):
way they sing it. There's something haunting about the way
they sing. Incabus and I'm not a big fan of it,
but it was less obvious here than in the other songs.
The constant beat gets a little bit annoying. I'm generally
not a beat guy. When it's repetitive and it's constant,
(01:17:57):
it's just I don't know, I find it. I want
something more sophstigated. I want more of a melody. I
want more. But but there's a melody here, and it's
it's it's pretty and the lyrics are good. You know.
The lyrics are basically this idea that that you know fear.
You know, uh, fear drives you into making bad decisions
(01:18:20):
or not making decisions, or in in John's terms, uh,
fear pushes people into second handedness. And I think that's right.
Uh here's the lyrics. Sometimes I feel the fear of
uncertainty stinging clear, and I can't help but ask myself
how much I let the fear take the wheel and steer.
(01:18:42):
It's driven me before, and it seems to have a vague, haunting,
mass appeal. But lately I'm beginning to find that I
should be the one behind the wheel. I like that.
Don't let your emotions, don't let your fear be you
know drive, You steer your core in your life. You
need to be behind it wheel, which I would interpret
(01:19:04):
as you being reason being, rationality being your mind, your
choices thought through, not based on emotion. The course, the
course is whatever tomorrow brings, I'll be there with open
arms and open eyes. In other words, I'm gonna overcome
my fear. Whatever bring tomorrow brings, I'll be there. I'll
(01:19:24):
be there. So I decide to waiver my chance to
be the one to be one of the hive. Will
I choose water over wine and hold my own and drive?
So yeah, and the rest it pretty much pretty much repeats.
(01:19:45):
So not bad of the ink of his songs. The
one I like the best, decent lyrics, too little to lyrics,
a little repetitive, and they don't go really anywhere. There's
too and there's too much do do do do do
do do in the end. But but yeah, pretty good.
So I enjoyed this one a little bit more than
I enjoyed the other Incubus songs. Thank you, John, Thank
(01:20:07):
you to all the people who funded these reviews. So
I've got folks in the road. Better man Ford versus
Ferrari and Ivola Right the Tiger those four are the
ones I need a finish, and I'm hoping I'm hoping
(01:20:27):
to have some of these done next week and then
everything done sometime in early January. I know I've said
that before, but I'm chipping away at them. So unless
you add a lot of these reviews for me, I
should be done with reviews. Feel fee to add reviews now.
Now that I've got it down to manageable. I won't
(01:20:48):
do them for a while until these are finished. These
will get priority. But if you have more stuff you'd
want me to review movies, TV shows, movies of five hundred,
episodes of TV shows are two fifty, songs one hundred.
Books start at five hundred, books started five hundred. Okay,
so movies five hundred, TV episodes two fifty, and songs
(01:21:14):
one hundred, and books starting at five hundred, depending how
long they are. All right, great, thank you guys. All right,
(01:21:34):
let's turn to our super chat. Let's turn to the
super chat and go through those, and then I'll let
you all go to Christmas Eve. I know some people
open presents Christmas Eve and have their big dinner, the
big Christmas dinners Christmas Eve. We do it Christmas Day,
and Christmas morning, but it's your Everybody does it a
(01:21:58):
little differently, So I don't want to keep you all
too late, because I know some of you have to
go out to Christmas. Okay. John asked this question he
had made a comment on one of my videos and
I told him to ask it in the super chat.
So thank you John for doing that asking the super chat.
I don't think you're on live now, so you'll probably
hear this later. But so here's the question you're on.
(01:22:20):
What kind of citizenship do you have in mind? Objective
legal standards, so abstract understanding of Americanism? How could this
avoid turning into a state enforced ideology over time? So
a few things I want to say about this. So
this is my point that I made a few shows ago,
and I made it briefly, and I probably shouldn't have
made it because it's too speculative. So first one, this
(01:22:44):
is not objectivism. This is me. I don't know if
any other objectivist intellectual who agrees with me. I certainly
don't know, or don't think that I Ran agreed with me,
or lennapeak Up agrees with me, I don't know. I
never never asked Leonard and of course I never talked
to advance. I wouldn't know, so it's not objectivism, it's
(01:23:05):
just me. Second, this is my idea for an ideal society.
This is not something I would implement today. There's no
way in hell I would give today's government the ability
to establish a citizenship test. That all this is. This
(01:23:25):
is the idea. I guess I should tell you what
the idea is. The idea is everybody should have a
citizenship test, even Americans, even that is people born in America.
Nobody should be a citizen automatically. You should have to
pass a test. Now, so I want to say that
(01:23:47):
this is this idea is for an ideal society. This
is for an ideal not for today necessarily. Now, why
why do I think that, Well, because I think that
if you're going to vote, if we're going to have
voting in this future government, and I think we should.
(01:24:09):
I mean, it's minimal voting. The voting is not that
important in the sense that you have a strong constitution,
But who runs the government, who represents you in a Congress,
makes a difference. So voting is important, and it's important
(01:24:30):
for the survival of the system. What you want to
make sure is that everybody who votes actually understands the
system knows what its principles are, what it's based on.
You can't test agreement, and I wouldn't test agreement, but
(01:24:54):
there has to be an understanding of, for example, what
individual rights mean. How can you vote into a system
vote people to represent you in defending individual rights, which
is the fundamental principle of the American government or of
a future objectivist government called it a future free government,
(01:25:17):
capitalist government. If the people who are going to the
people who are voting on it, don't know what individual
rights mean, they don't understand the concept. Again, an understanding
don't have to agree. They have to know the basics
of the constitution. They'd have to know what they mean.
(01:25:43):
And you know, we're not talking about sophisticated We're talking
about a straightforward understanding, and a constitution should be written
in a straightforward way that everybody can understand. So I
think that it would be an understanding of the documents
of the system of government at a basic level. But
(01:26:06):
you know the key principles that you're voting about, because
you're voting in a representative to represent you in protecting
these principles. If you don't know what those principles are,
what are you voting for? And what makes you an American?
So that's my view, and in that sense, I don't
(01:26:27):
see any difference between immigrants and an American. You can
be born in this country and have no clue as
many Americans. Most Americans that they have no clue about
what individual rights mean, about the history of the country,
about the Constitution, about the Declaration Independence, they don't know.
They have no clue, and then they vote. And that's
ub said. I also want to make clear that I
(01:26:52):
don't consider voting to be that important. Voting is a
civil right. It's not an individual right, it's a derivative right.
But that everybody should be able to vote is not obvious.
I mean that the founding of the country, there were
(01:27:14):
there were limits, only certain people could vote, right, And
you know, I can imagine a world in which to
vote you would have to pass a test in Robert
Hanlin's Starship Starship Trooper, to vote, you have to civil
the military. I don't think you need that. I don't
(01:27:35):
think you need that, but you know, it's not crazy idea.
So minimum requirements to vote don't seem to me wrong.
And knowledge seems to be important. And if you don't
have that knowledge, or if you can't pass a test
on that knowledge, you don't vote. You still have all
(01:27:57):
the protections as a residents of the United States, you
just can't vote. You don't have false citizenship. Now does
it avoid turning into state and falced ideology over time?
It's not an ideological test. It is a knowledge test. Now,
(01:28:19):
anything can be distorted and provoted, and this could be
distorted pervoted. But the more we know about the founding
principles of our state, the less likely it is to
be distorted and provoted. And then, by the way, that's
why I wouldn't do it today. Right, First, you have
to have people who actually know what the what the
(01:28:40):
principles are, and today we have nobody, certainly nobody in
positions of authority. All right, thank you, John. If you
have a follow up, let me know, Michael, why does
success bother people so deeply? Watching other individuals groups succeed
(01:29:05):
drive some people mad to the point where they spend
their lives trying to undermine and destroy their success. Well,
I don't know how you know how many people this accoustic,
but it's it's envy. It's it's a lack of self esteem.
It is the idea that a zero is some world,
somebody else's success, uh, you know, points out to me
(01:29:29):
my own lack of success or makes it impossible for
me to succeed because it's a zero sum world. So
I think people have a mentality of zero s. But
they also have a mentality of not explicitly, but somebody
else's success points out their own failure, the fact that
(01:29:53):
they didn't succeed, and that drives them nuts and that
upsets But it's irrationality and emotionalism and altruism. Altruism. Remember,
you know, why isn't that Why isn't that person more autistic?
Why isn't he sacrificing more? Why is he so focused
on himself that he's so successful. That's evil, that's wrong.
Altruism destroys all this stuff. Chasba says, great booze up.
(01:30:22):
I'm not sure what the booze up is. Boobs up.
I think that's from the beer episode. I think they
all wear fake boobs. Anyway, it's quite silly but fun.
So great boobs up. Thank you, chas about fifty dollars.
Really really appreciate that. Thanks for the support. Let's see
with the stickers. Let me see, yeah, call Mysen had
(01:30:50):
a sticker, Mike Dial has a sticker. And there's another,
all right, Jennifer. Did Romans have any bloodline ideal ideas
or did they think barbarians could become Romans? All barbarians
(01:31:12):
became Romans all the time. And Rome was a very
diverse place, if you will. Indeed, some of the Roman
Empire emperors were former barbarians. Some of the Roman emperors
were black Roman empress you know, within the Balkans enemies
(01:31:36):
previous enemies of Rome. So no, there was no as
far as I can tell that I know, and I'm
not an expert on Rome, there was no bloodline. Anybody
could become a Roman. Anybody who indeed everybody was subjugated
by the Womans did become a woman. Haunta Hunter? Did
you tell your kids about Santo? Did you fill their
(01:31:57):
heads with wild conspiracies about the parents putting presents under
the tree Merry Christmas? I was a conspiracy guy. Definitely,
parents putting the presence under the tree. Definitely. Santa Claus
was just like Mickey Mouse. It was a nice story.
It was a nice idea, It was a nice it's
it's just it's pretend, just like so many other things
that they experienced in life that will pretend. No. I know,
(01:32:21):
Leonard very much advocated for pretending and and and told
Kira that Santa Claus was responsible for the presence. I
did not. I couldn't bring myself to do that. So no,
I I try to tell my kids the truth of
what I actually thought about pretty much everything. Where did
(01:32:45):
babies come from? They got the truth from me, so
at a very very young age. Greg Merry Christmas, unhappy,
prosperous New Year. Thank you, Greg. I appreciate that Michael
elements of the right, or is collecttavistic elements of the left,
But there are no elements of the on the left
as capitalist as elements on the right. That is true,
(01:33:09):
although the number of elements of capitalism on the right
is shrinking and they're not very vocal, and they're disappearing,
and I'm not sure you should call them right anymore.
So my whole point is you shouldn't be calling in
the left and right at all. Michael says, is there
any way you can push for you and Nkar to
(01:33:30):
be on the panel with Stephen pinkad Ocon. I do
not make those decisions anymore. So I have no idea
who's going to be on and am. Will existing euro
elites ever fight jihadism? I think at some point they will.
Bet it will be at a point where a lot
(01:33:52):
of blood shed is already a lot of blood has
already been shed, and Europe is already in deep, deep trouble,
and they'll do it by embracing authoritarianism. Sadly, they'll wait
until authoritarianism to do it, John, Sorry, I was driving,
all right. We talked about that. Thank you, John Cook.
(01:34:15):
Merry Christmas, Thank you Cook, Ali Musa, Merry Christmas. Thank you,
Ali Musa. Loan dissenter Ernst Lubitch made the only real
movie iron Man reference in the fountain Head? Do you
remember what it is? No? I don't, No, I don't
you need to let us know? Now I'm in suspense.
(01:34:38):
What is she reference in the fountain Head? Can't you
remember Juron? Have you seen Jason and Argonauts? I don't
think so, should I? Right? Lone Descender says, the answer
is designed for living. That's right. It's a fabulous movie
(01:35:02):
with Gary Cooper if I remember, right, Gary Cooper. A
journalist uses it pejoratively to describe the relationship between Rock
Weinand and Dominique. Yes, because Design for Living is about
two men in love with one woman, and it's got
Gary Cooper in it, and it's It's again. It's a
lubitch classic, definitely worth watching. Es I V. Merry Christmas Hiron.
(01:35:29):
Thank you for all the hard work and research you
put into your shows. It does not go unnoticed. I
appreciate that. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Equal to
reality in general. What do you think of British humor.
I'm a big fan. My favorite comedy is all British
Faulty Towers, Blackadda Yes Minister and then Yes Prime Minister,
(01:35:55):
which are the best, the best comedies of our politics
ever made, even Cooky You Enthusiasm? No American? What's what's
the one I'm thinking of? I can't remember the name
of it. God, I don't know why Coby Enthusiasm came
to moment. Anyway, I'm a big fan of British human
British comedies, big fan, much more than American comedies, which
(01:36:17):
I find pretty dull and unsophisticated. Jeffrey telling you before
my parents my wife is pregnant. WHOA, that was fast.
Expect years of super chats for parenting advice. Oh, congratulations,
that is fantastic. That is really really fantastic. Good for you.
(01:36:44):
Congratulations to you and your wife. And look forward to
seeing you guys, and look forward to seeing the baby.
And that's terrific. That is amazing, amazing, amazing, amazing news
and happy to do shout parenting advice. So though you
know for what it's worth, I don't know what it's worth.
(01:37:05):
I have to ask my son Andrew. I sense to
some objectivists conceive of emotions as inalterable facts. But you
can't change an emotion if you change it's underlying premises.
That seems to a cood with the objectives y of emotions. Yeah,
I mean, I don't know any objectivists who believe emotions
(01:37:26):
are unalterable inalterable facts. I mean, you fall in love,
you fall out of love. That's a good example of
emotion changing. But emotions change all the time towards the
same thing. So I mean different evaluation, maybe changing facts
(01:37:46):
the same object, the same phenomena. So yeah, I absolutely
all right. Last question, I guess somebody could jump in
if they really wanted to. Tom says, enjoy the benefits
of my new appliances, my devices, access to ideas. They
make my life better and the future and the better
(01:38:09):
future for my kids and grandkids. Absolutely, I'm glad you
are enjoying all of that. MirOS Lev says, some people
like to feed the nuts. This is some clooney Brown.
Some people like to feed nuts to the squirrels. But
if it makes you happy to feed squirrels to the nuts,
(01:38:32):
who am I to say nuts to the squirrels. So
a little bit of subjectivism there, granted, but it's all
in good fun. That is from clooney Brown, Ernst Lubitch's movie.
All right. Andrew came in with another one. I want
an essay on a psychological basis for collectivism, built off
(01:38:55):
of Rant's claim that altruism is a result of fear
of independence. It's too long. Would you read it if
I send it to your email? Sure, send it to
email and I will read it. Thank you, Andrew, Thank
you everybody. I really appreciate it. Have a great, great Christmas.
No show tomorrow. We might be back on Friday, we'll see,
(01:39:19):
but certainly back on Saturday with an Ama and it's
not too long, you said, not too long. Yeah, I
can't read, but send it. Have a great Christmas. I
hope you get the presents you want. Don't forget to
give presents the people you love, if that's a thing.
(01:39:39):
If the presents, I think, And yeah, I'll see you,
and don't forget. January thirty first, January thirty first, December
thirty first, the Big Show, No Christmas show. I'm not
doing a show during Christmas. Have a great Christmas, everybody. Bye.
You will survive without me one day during Christmas