Firings, Mergers, Special Session On Crime & More

This week, Hy and Christopher explore how Louisiana government is doing nothing about either the Hundreds of American Queen cruise ship personnel who received a termination notice last week, or the announcement that Marsh McLennan, the world’s largest insurance broker, acquired two middle-market agencies—Querbes & Nelson (Q&N) and Louisiana Companies. These mergers may constitute one of the largest buyouts of local insurance agencies/brokers in decades, with tens of thousands of customers affected.

The question remains whether the consolidation of the “insurance middlemen” in Louisiana is good for the consumer? Critics fear these consolidations — and many others like it—may leave smaller agents with fewer insurance markets to offer to their customers—driving up personal and commercial insurance rates.

We then talk about it crime initiatives in the special session, and whether the death penalty is the “pro-life” position.

Finally, on a related note, we an initiative by the Hungarian government which has cut abortions in half, without outlawing the practice. Basically, a woman had four children, she never pays income tax for the rest of her life. Should that be part of the Louisiana debate on abolishing the state income tax? Federally? Viktor Orban is wrong on many things, but the use of tax incentives bolster family demographics family demographics and reduce abortions?

Episode Transcript

(00:03):
Bide holes. The politicians address thedigitators and magicians first to see the money.
They just don't there's nothing to fillthe holes. Well, then filling
their pockets bid holes. The politiciansmountain down the road everyvider's wish for no

(00:26):
moment, corruption and dysfunction. It'sgonna take me divide this ofvention. Governor
Landry's Special Session on crime is underwayand still throughout this week, and the
whole question of how we execute inLouisiana has raised another question should we execute?
We're also looking at the presidential race, and after South Carolina, we

(00:49):
now look at Trump versus Biden,But will it be Trump versus Biden?
Mansion maybe out, but RFK Juniorisn't and it affects the polls. According
to Ron Forshay, we also seethe loss of hundreds of jobs here in
New Orleans when they closed the AmericanQueen Steamship Company. There's a real story
behind it and a loss to theeconomy, and it's pretty much fraud.
We're also talking about a merger ofsome of the biggest insurance agencies in Louisiana.

(01:14):
To Marsh mcclennan, the biggest brokerin the world, which might mean
your insurance rates will go up.Also, ladies and gentlemen, we're looking
at possible answers and even to stopclock is right a couple times a week.
How has Hungary cut its abortion ratein half without keeping abortion legal?
It all comes down to taxes,that and other issues on this edition of

(01:34):
The Founder's Show. But Christopher,you said, American Queen, why does
that have ay thing to do withMargaro? You know we got American King,
King of Carnival, illegal king,American Queen. I can't wait to
hear about this one. Christopher,Well, God bless all out there.
You are now listening to the FoundersShow, the voice of the Founding Fathers.

(01:57):
You're Founding Fathers to you deep withinthe bowels of those mystic and cryptic
alligator swamps of the Big Easy,that old Crescent City, New Orleans,
Louisiana, and high up on topof that old liberty cypress tree draped in
Spanish moss, way out on theEagles Branch, is none other. Then
you're Spingary baby all the Republic ChaplainHi mckenry, who with Christopher Tidmore,

(02:23):
you roving reporter, resident radical,moderate and associate editor of the Louisiana Weekly
newspaper at Louisiana Weekly dot net.And we got a lot of stuff to
talk about, particularly the special sessionand what's going on in the presidential race
in the wake of South Carolina.But you mentioned American Queen. An American
Queen, for those that don't know, is one of what was until very
recently the largest passenger overnight passenger steamboaton the Mississippi River. You mean like

(02:47):
Marie ant when that, of course, how is she American? And she
was a queen, but she wasa lower I lora d one of the
greatest queens of all times, andcertainly if it's an American queen, it'll
be the greatest queen. I've knownmany great queens, but I wouldn't number
marianton And amongst them at least halfahead. And so, but the point
being that American Queen was a majorindustry, even though it had been based

(03:13):
in Memphis for most of it isit was most of the personnel who worked
on the American Queen. We're talkingabout almost a thousand employees between that and
its sister boats, the American Duchessand all this live in New Orleans and
they all got an email last Mondaywith no warnings saying they are terminated,
no severance, no nothing. Nowit made this The official argument is American

(03:35):
Queen and her sister boats that goup and down the Mississippi River and the
Columbia River were went out of businessbecause of COVID and because of this,
it's all false. Hundreds of peoplelost their jobs because of financiers. So
for those that don't know right now, there are even with the addition of

(03:55):
Viking, only six boats that goout the Mississippi River. Every single cruise
boat on the Mississippi River is ninetypercent full, nine zero percent full.
Some of them are over one hundredpercent full. The average tourists they bring
to New Orleans, and most ofthese cruises actually do start New Orleans,
is about five thousand dollars to ourlocal economy. These are the cultural tourists

(04:19):
because it costs ten thousand dollars totake an American flag cruise. This was
a very successful company. I'm actuallybusiness partners with somebody who helped start the
company, Christopher kit who has beenon this program before. It has no
longer been involved with it, butone of the things that happened is there
are two cruise boats that do theGreat Lakes, the Victory one and the

(04:40):
Victory too. And essentially they wereput through financiers and a New York and
a Chicago financier. Sam Zel said, let's leverage the company to buy these
boats and go through all these defaultcredit swaps to be able to do it.
And essentially they ran out of money. Cruise ships cannot b money from
a bank. Most people don't realizethat because there's no there's no land under

(05:03):
the assets, so banks, forthe most part won't land. And why
am I telling you all of thisbecause this is going to be a huge
hit to our local economy. Andother than a very off standed story in
on NOLA dot com, nobody's reallypaid attention to this. But here's the
irony of it. We could weare now spending somewhere in the neighborhood of
a billion dollars to create about thirtyor forty jobs at a plant up the

(05:29):
Mississippi River. We're spending a billionand a half to create eighty jobs right
down and Violet for the new portfacilities, eight zero, not eight hundred,
eighty jobs and Yet there's nobody inLouisiana who's gone to American Queen to
the employees and management who were selling, who had ninety percent bookings, not
for the next month, not forthe next six months, for the next

(05:50):
two years, and said, whatkind of state funding can we arrange?
What can we do if you're willingto move your headquarters to New Orleans from
where it was in Memphis and itwas going to go ex what can we
do? This would be hundreds ofjobs of people who already are working and
would keep an industry going that hasroll off in thras. Nobody at State

(06:11):
Tourism is saying a word, andI think this is one of the problems
that we have in our In othercities, you'd immediately have people coming down
and saying, how do we savethis industry of all the essentials. Remember,
these boats went out of business,not because of anything that happens in
the Mississippi River, but because theyspent almost one hundred and fifty million dollars
to buy two twenty year old boatsto be on the Great Lakes that have

(06:34):
never run, and they just simplyran out of money. It's a company,
by the way, for those thatwonder if this is a familiar tale.
It's happened before with the American Queen. The Delta Queen steamboat Company was
one of the four boats out ofNew Orleans. American Queen was one of
their four boats that did the verysame thing, not in the Great Lakes,

(06:55):
but with the Hawaiian Islands, andran out of money. They were
going to build boats go around theHawaiian Islands. And I'm not saying you
don't expand, but I also saythat once you have a core market that
works very well. The Mississippi Riveris a very good core market you look
at it. But my argument aboutpolitics why you should care is we have
six hundred New Orleanians people who livein the metro New Orleans area, who

(07:16):
are on average, the lowest paidof all of them makes forty three thousand
dollars a year with full benefits,Christopher how many? And they're not going
to lose their jobs because the stateis doing nothing. How many berths or
how many customers can they have ona boat like that on a cruise up
and down the river, typically somewherearound four hundred and fifty well, and
they go for like a week ortwo right a week to four weeks.

(07:39):
If they're going to do the wholeriver, Wow, what a party.
I'd love to do that. It'sone of the more expensive cruises the American
Flag, but they pay well.They pay us wages, so you can
be a made on there and makeenough to send your kids to Catholic school.
I mean, it's enough. It'sa good living. And I'm very
disappointed that we haven't done anything aboutthat. And I'm not surprised because the

(08:00):
other thing that happened on Monday,and this is something that I was talking
with our good friend Jim Brown aboutthis morning, was that. And I
have a new column about it inthe Louisiana Weekly at Louisiana Weekly dot net
that you can get on Monday.But if you hadn't noticed, this is
going to sound like a lot ofinside baseball, but it shouldn't. This
is going to cost you money,folks. This is going to raise your

(08:22):
insurance rates even further. The largestbroker insurance broker in the world. These
are the people that basically sell insuranceto use a company called Marshan McClendon.
Now I have nothing against Marsha mccleinnon. My dad was a senior vice president
for Marsha McClendon for eleven years.I started my career working for Marsha mcleinon.
They're a good company. They're afortune five hundred multinational. Their slogan

(08:46):
is quite literally, water covers threefourths of the Earth's surface. We cover
the rest. It was witty,But the problem is they just acquired two
of the biggest middle market agencies thatare local Q and n Cuburbs and Nelson
and Louisiana companies. Now, whyis that important that they bought out some
of the middle agencies. Simple.It all has to do with your ability

(09:11):
to buy and have insurance choice.This transaction may constitute one of the largest
buyout of local insurance agencies in decades, and the question is is buying out
these middlemen good for the Louisiana consumer. A lot of critics can fear these
consolidations and others like it, sothis is only the latest example. May

(09:33):
leave smaller agents with fewer insurance marketsto offer up to their customers, driving
up personal and commercial insurance rates.Now, Hi, you used to be
an insurance agent. You know this. Partially, All of this is a
factor of how the insurance policy purchasesgenerally work. In Louisiana, state law
requires an agent a broker to serveas the primary retailer of insurance policies operationally,

(09:56):
with the exception of captive agents whorepresent one market like state farm agent.
Most agents and brokers are empowered tosell insurance from a variety of companies,
tailor insurance coverages to the needs ofthe person with the best price.
Technically, brokers are the ones whodo that for multi markets, but agents
and brokers who become intertwined anyway.That doesn't mean, though, that the

(10:16):
insurance agent broker has access to everypossible insurance market, every possible policy he
could sell you. Many carriers requirea minimum number of clients for an agent
to continue to market the underwriter's policies. In past years, that just meant
insurance agents were held accountable they hada relatively low threshold of clients they had
to get to a company. Butas the consolidations have happened over the last

(10:39):
two decades, the threshold required foran insurance agent to represent a particular insurance
company a market has so skyrocketed thatmost of them don't have enough customers.
This has forced many smaller insurance agenciesout of the business, lacking in a
variety of products to sell to theirclients. Meanwhile, as the number of
independent insurance agents decrease ladies and gentlemen, the incentive has grown for major brokers

(11:03):
to buy out the mid range competitionput it out of business. As large
underguiders require greater and greater pools ofcustomers to write policies. In Louisiana,
Guess what this all means. Highit's one of the justifications why premiums in
Louisiana insurance have skyrocketed in recent years. That's not to say there aren't reasonable
environmental factors for this. That wedid have Hurricane Ida and a lot of

(11:24):
hurricanes since two thousand and five.Yet, if a smaller group of agents
and brokers have captured most of themarketable choices for insurance agencies, little incentive
exists for anything but the most expensiveproducts to be brought to the local market.
In other words, if you onlyhave a few big broker agents,
they're just going to give you limousineinsurance policies that might work, but they're
going to be a lot more expensive. Former insurance commissioner Jim Brown's view of

(11:48):
the current insurance climate is troubling.He told us right before the show.
I feel we're seeing the demise ofmany small insurance agencies throughout Louisiana. This
is particularly unfortunate for live in smalltowns. It means less service and the
cost of premiums will continue to rise. And so when this merger came and
it got a lot of big things, Louisiana Companies, just so you know,

(12:09):
was the largest independent Louisiana agency andhad had places in multiple towns,
but it was completely Louisiana. Mywife's grandfather was one of the founders of
it. He and a guy bythe name of Randy McKelvin, and they
they're long since sold out of thecompany and all this. They don't have
any financial interest in this. Butthe point I'm bringing is one of the

(12:30):
things I talked to my wife's grandfatherabout recently, was well the market and
he says, yeah, it'll getless and less and less. So you
wonder why your insurance rates are goingup. Well, when you only have
about a couple dozen agent brokers sellingyou the stuff, do they have enough
competition to have the interest to giveyou the best policy at the best price.

(12:54):
Hi, I think not. Andwhy the tim teeple and the insurance
department isn't all over this continues toworry me. Wow, Chris, forher,
this is something. This is seriousinformation here, folks. If you
if you're praying, folks, youbetter get on your knees and start praying
about this, because you know howvital insurance is. You can't get loans

(13:16):
and so so many things you cannotdo if you don't have insurance. And
uh, it's you know, it'sa necessary evil. I personally, I'm
not a big fan of insurance.I sold insurance so for seventeen years life
and health along with investments doing astate planning. But and I just saw
it as a necessary evil. Anduh but I never really had a real
great liking for it. Let's anintrinsic, inherent liking for it, But

(13:43):
I didn't know it was necessary.So, folks, this is big time
trouble for us here in Louisiana.I mean, how many more hits can
this poor state take. There's somany things that are doing us in right
now. And look, we're justlosing this big luxury liner. You know,
American Queen that was a dynamic assetfor Louisiana, for New Orleans.

(14:09):
Where's all this going to end up? Taking systems? Like every time we
get some kind of business news,it's negative. It's rarely positive. We
can only take so much, folks. It's shame to think that we sit
at the greatest watershed of wealth inthe world and we get almost nothing out
of it. There is something wrongthere in a person I think gets our
crooked politicians. But that's another storywe could go. We've been over it

(14:33):
before. I could spend an hourjust talking about that right now and the
stories. I know, the factsthat I know about how we've been done
in time and time again by ourpoliticians. Americans, Louisiana and Louisianians rise
up, hit your knees in prayer, and get out and see your politicians,
shake the bushes, go after thepeople who are making these terrible decisions

(14:58):
for us, and and take action. I don't mean anything violent, not
folks. I mean, you know, protests, write letters, but unite,
unite and put the heavy duty pressureon them and maybe we can start
turning things. I know there's agroup right now rising up. I'm not
at liberty to talk about it,but it could be a very powerful political
movement in this state that could finallystart putting the pressure on our politicians where

(15:20):
they're gonna start doing the right things. They're always looking at how they can
rip us off. Christopher Well,and I think the thing about these two
stories, both the Marsha mccliny acquisitionof Louisiana companies and Q and m's insurance
agencies and the failure of American Queenand it's not just the American Queen boat,
it's American Duchess and the other boatsthey own, is the fact that
Louisiana Economic development officials, whether they'rein the insurance department or they were in

(15:45):
Louisian Economic Development, literally reacted withoh that's too bad. Now. Look,
you could say, well, incapitalism, that's what happens. Let
me be practical about this. Weare in highly regulated industries. We talk
about the river, We're in highlyregulated industries when we talk about insurance.
I'm an insurance agent, by theway, and I also own part of

(16:07):
a riverboat that hasn't been sailing forseveral years. I'm not a disinterested person
in either of these, but I'ma little person I own. I own
a little agency, and I ownthree or four percent of this boat.
And the point I'm getting at allof this is this is one of those
situations where Louisiana is a state ifit takes proactive action, could actually make
your life better. If it's theriverboats, could it actually keeps jobs here?

(16:30):
It could bring more jobs here.We're spending all this money on the
river district to keep shell oil here, billion dollars, and yet we have
we're not even talking about American queen. And as for the Marsh mcclennon mergers,
why is it the insurance Department?I know Tim Teeple's only been the
job for a few weeks, butwhy is it the insurance Department didn't hasn't

(16:52):
come out and said, wait,we're going to examine this to see if
this is a good idea. Guys, if we're taking away twenty percent of
the Louisian agency market, we betteractually have some public hearings about this.
We got it's a lot to thinkabout, high but we got to take
a break in home real quickly.Talking about bad business news. I hate
to be the bearer of bad news, folks, and please I'm just a

(17:14):
messenger. Don't shuit me. Butthere's another devastating thing happening right now.
Are L ANDNG refineries here in SouthLouisiana. I think we had the first
one and maybe the largest one,and the ones across the border in Texas.
I understand the federal governments getting readyto shut them down. Think it's
about time for us to take abreak. But we will be back shortly
after these brief announcements. When wecome back, ladies and gentlemen, we

(17:37):
turned to the special session on crimeand allud to the presidential race. And
lastly, we talk a lot aboutabortion. But what part does tax policy
and reducing abortions have. You mightbe surprised there's been a connection made in
Europe, in Hungry, of allplaces, and it might gives us some
lessons as we look at redoing thetax system here in America back after this

(18:02):
rescue, recovery, re engagement.These are not just words. These are
the action steps we at the NewOrleans Mission take to make a positive impact
on the homeless problem facing the greaterNew Orleans area. Did you know in
twenty twenty, homelessness in our communityincreased by over forty percent. We are

(18:23):
committed to meet this need through thework being done at the New Orleans Mission.
We begin the rescue process by goingout into the community every day to
bring food, pray, and sharethe love of Jesus with the hopeless and
hurting in our community. No oneis meant to live under a bridge.

(18:44):
No one should endure abuse, noone should be stuck in addiction. The
New Orleans Mission is a stepping stoneout of that life of destruction and into
a life of hope and purpose.Partner with us today. Go to www
dat New Orleans Mission dot org ormake a difference by texting to seven seven

(19:08):
nine. If you're listening to thison wr ANDO on Sunday, February twenty
fifth, it's not too late,folks. One of the best Churchill events
that we've ever had is going tobe happening at a private home on Third
Street in the Garden District, andyou can go. You can still go.
All you have to do to goto meet John Gagenheimer and former Congressman

(19:29):
Bob Livingston talking about the new bookChurchill Versus Hitler is go to Gardendistrict Bookshop
dot com and click on the event. The event. Bright's right there will
give you all the information. Andat four pm on Sunday, February twenty
fifth, you can join some ofthe leaders of New Orleans to hear the
premiere of this new book, ChurchillVersus Hitler in the Golf Match that Changed
History. It's actually an incredible newhistorical novel by John Gagenheimer. And folks,

(19:53):
not only is it a great book, it'll be a great occasion at
a private Garden District home that isnever open to the public. It is
what's it is February twenty fifth,As I said, four pm and ladies
and gentlemen called, wine and food, all provided for the low low price
of thirty five dollars a couple,and that includes the book. You can't
make a better deal than that.Go to Gardendistrict Bookshop dot com, or

(20:14):
if you're in the last few minutes, give a call to the Garden District
Bookshop at five oh four eight ninefive two two sixty six. That's five
oh four eight nine five two twosixty six to go to this great event
February twenty fifth, Sunday afternoon,four pm, thirty five dollars to at
a copy of Churchill versus Hitler.An occasion with John Gegenheimer and former Congressman

(20:34):
Bob Livingston and some of the leadersof New Orleans having wine, cheese and
talking about Churchill it is. It'llbe an incredible event at a private home
of the Garden District. Come outand see us for only thirty five dollars.
Christopher, that's a deal. I'mgoing thirty five dollars a couple.
It's two people in fact and afree book along the way. Check out
more at Gardendistrict Bookshop dot com.You can click on the event to be

(20:56):
able to get it on the eventright or call the Garden District Bookshop at
area code five oh four or eightnine to five two two sixty six.
It's Sunday. It's not too lateas you're hearing this, folks, come
join us this afternoon for those listeningin wr and O five oh four eight
nine five two two sixty six ourGardenership Bookshop dot com. But Christopher Dolan,
what about them flowers you know fromVillari's And what about Saint Patty's Day?

(21:18):
We need flowers, green flowers forSaint Patty's Day? What you got,
oh, we got it? Wegot Saint Patrick's Day flower arrangements in
Saint Patrick's Day baskets of Villa RoadVillaries Florist at one eight hundred VI L
L E ri E or Villariesflorist dotcom. Folks, all the possible things
you would need for your Saint Patrick'sDay party, for a centerpiece, for
a basket for a friend to gointo the Saint Patrick's Day parades either uptown

(21:41):
or an old matter around the region, or my favorite, which is the
Islanios Saint Patrick Irish Parade out inSaint Bernard, Folks. All that's available
at Villari's Florists. You can goin and check out their two locations on
Martin Burman right off of Veterans Boulevardright near the Veterans Orleans line at Lakeview,
or on Highway one ninety in Covington. Folks, It's incredible these Saint
Patrick's Day best baskets along with allof their flower deals including their carryout rows,

(22:02):
specials and everything at Villary's floorst checkthem out, give them a call
one eight hundred VI L L Er E or Godline at Hillaryesflowers dot com
and tell them you heard it hereon the Founder Show. Got ohs the
t sh well, folks were backand you are listening to the Founders.
So the voice of the Finding follows. And you can hear us every Sunday

(22:22):
morning on wr O. That's thenine to nine point five on your FM
dial from eight to nine am inthe morning. You can also hear us
during the week Mondays, Wednesdays,Fridays, fries Wednesdays and Mondays on WSLA.
That's one five six zero on theAM dial or ninety three point nine
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(22:45):
is get the iHeartMedia app, downloadit to your phone or your computer or
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and I know you're gonna get awhole lot of it and you're gonna love
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(23:07):
nine free none and nine free nineof nine. Folks. There you go.
So this is Chaplin, hih mcgenrywith Christopher Tidmore and folks, we
got to turn our attention to whatmost of the press is actually covering,
which is believe or not the president, not the presidential race in the wake
of South Carolina, which we'll talkabout in just a second, but the
Special Session on Crime, which isabout halfway over as we broadcast our main

(23:29):
airing unto br now and most ofour airings in WSLA, and a few
of the bills that have progressed through. There's a lot of Troy Carter,
Congressman Troy Carter, who used tobe a state center who passed a lot
of the bills not to prosecute seventeenyear olds as adults and to reduce prison
sentences. He's he's worked up aboutGovernor Landry reversing this. A lot of

(23:56):
this legislation. You'll have to serveeighty five percent of a sentence before or
you claim good behavior. Seventeen yearolds can be prosecuted for following crimes as
adults, so and so forth.It's basically going back to the situation that
existed before the last eight years.And I've had some mixed feelings on it,
but I got to tell you,you know, this part of me

(24:17):
who's experienced crime. Who what's theold line he says, somebody is a
conservative until they've been arrested. Somebody'sa liberal until they've been mugged. You
know. Well, I've found inthe ladder sometimes. But there is something
about the session that has raised abigger issue for me because one of the
changes that's going on is about howwe execute people in Louisiana. For those

(24:41):
that don't know, there hasn't reallybeen much of an execution in Louisiana for
the last eight years. For themost part Governor John Bell Edwards. He
didn't commute sentences, but he didn'tproceed most people to final execution. And
part of it was born of hisCatholic faith. He you know, you
can make criticisms of John Bell Edwards. One you can't make. He wasn't
pro life. He signed one ofthe toughest pro life bills in the country.

(25:03):
He was very ardently, very prolife, and he made no particular
bones about it, and the leftdidn't like him for that. But he
was also a very devout Catholic andhe had he came to have some serious
problems with the death penalty. Heactually ran for office saying he was open
to it, and he ended upnot. He never gave up saying he
supported in principle, but he saidfrom a practical standpoint, and one of

(25:26):
the death penalty elements that's being proposedis to use nitrous to use nitrogen and
to essentially put a person into anexphyxiation. It was done in Alabama a
few weeks ago, successfully over aconvict who had they tried to execute about

(25:48):
six months before and had failed.He had survived, and some say he
was in duress as he was dying. I don't know, frankly, of
a form of execution where there isgoing to be some degree of duress.
I wish they were. I dojust like when you get to go into
the hospital for an operation and theygive you anesthesian all that. It totally

(26:10):
knocks you out. You don't knowwhat's going on, and then you just
kill them, you cut the throat, whatever you want to do, I
mean, bleed them out. It'sso easy. Well, and part of
the thing is one of the thingsthat's happened about, and there was a
lethal injection. That's what they did. They basically gave you a massive sedative,
knocks you out, and then gaveyou drugs to stop your heart.
That's how it worked. Right now, drug companies will not sell that to

(26:33):
states, and the reason is theyit's part of a hippocratic oath. I
mean, you may, you mayfind it difficult, but most of these
guys are doctors. In the firststate, what is the first statement of
the hippocratic oath? First you dono harm? So I mean it is
actually the oath that a doctor takesis And they're like, we can't do
this. So that's one of thereasons why a lot of states are looking

(26:56):
at different forms of execution. ButI want to raise a bigger issue,
and it's the kind of concept Iunderstand, the religious concept of guilty versus
innocent blood. I'm not arguing thisfrom the standpoint of Christian faith. I'm
arguing the standpoint of as a citizenof a republic. And one of the
reasons people have often asked me aboutmy opposition to abortion is I think human

(27:21):
life is sacred. They're like,well, you're pretty liberal on a lot
of issues, why don't you followthat, And I said, well,
it comes down to the idea thatif you're in a society that doesn't honor
life completely, it doesn't honor otherthings. It's one of the most fundamental
statements you wonder about liberties. Youdon't respect liberties if you're able to take
life. And we can get ina whole abortion conversation or not, but

(27:45):
that's not I'm bringing that up asa metaphor to explain something. Obviously,
an innocent life for a baby isnot the same as a convicted murderer.
But when a society decides that ithas the right to take away or allow
the taking away of life, exceptin a defensive situation where you're trying to
protect your or other people's lives,it raises an issue about that society.

(28:10):
Will it respect the rights of theweakest of all of its citizens. One
thing about a consistency of view,and the Catholic Church's consistency of view in
this is it makes a statement lifeis sacred or it isn't. It doesn't
mean that a murderer shouldn't spend therest of his life in solitary confinement,
you know, chickged up forever.We're not saying that. What we're saying

(28:33):
is and what I'm saying is Iraise a question, and it's not an
easy one for me, because,you know, having seen some really horrendous
things in this world, I knowthat there are some people that you cannot
redeem. I'm sorry. The Bibleis very clear about that. We don't
know who they are, but it'svery very clear there are people who are
irredeemable. They're gonna reject God,They're gonna hate God to the day they

(28:55):
die, and nothing can change that. It just calls them the seed of
Satan, the devil seed tears amongthe wheat, wolves and sheep's clothing,
these people and those who have committedthe sin of blasphemy or the Holy Spirit.
So these are all messages we getin the Bible that there's some people,
like you just said, they're justirredeemable. They're never going to tell
it. Well, but I'm talkingabout this from the standpoint of the taking

(29:18):
of human life. So my statementabout all of this is, yeah,
the Bible allows execution. The Biblemakes an allowance for slavery. But the
point is that doesn't mean no,listen, let me finish. But it's
also one of its greatest acts ofmiracles is relieving an entire people from being
enslaved. The point about all ofthis that I'm saying is the Bible is

(29:41):
the beginning of wisdom. It doesn'tmean just because the Bible says something is
allowed, that it should always beallowed. One of I mean the beginning
of the Civil War, it wasa New Orleanian Bishop Palmer who said the
defense of the South was based onthe fact that slavery was a Christian tradition.
I don't think any preacher would saythat today at all. I certainly

(30:02):
wouldn't. My point, my pointbeing that, and it's a bigger point,
I want you to address the pointnot about slavery, but about the
life. If life is sacred fromand should be, from the beginning of
conception to natural death, then asa society do we have to raise the
issue Is it the right thing forour society to execute citizens are aside,

(30:22):
no matter how heenous their crimes are. It is absolutely not a Christian tradition.
I've got to say this because that'sshocking. And if you study the
history of the Church and all that, and you study the teachings of the
New Testament, it basically ends slavery. When Christianity grew within a couple hundred
years. Slavery ended one half toone third of the Roman Empire with slaves.

(30:45):
So believe me, the Bible doesnot promote slavery. And if you
had a slave in the Old Testament, you can only keep them for seven
years. So back to the lifeand death situation and the death penalty and
all that. I believe there isa place for it, but I believe
that the way the Bible presents itis there's a balance here. There's justice,

(31:06):
and justice would require if you havea murderer or require his execution.
This has proven, beyond the shadowof a debt over the years to be
a deterrent for murderers. However,the Bible also teaches mercy, justice and
mercy, and so there are timeswere mercy the judge in the case should
think about should this man be shownmercy even though he deserves death? Should

(31:30):
he be and there should be abig place for mercy in the justice system.
How you handle all this, it'sup to the judges to figure all
that out. But I do believethere is a place for the for the
death penalty. It's a very sadthing. I know people who have gone
to the you know, gone throughthat. I used to work on death
row, and they because they werefacing this, they actually turned to God,

(31:51):
which is quite wonderful, and theydied in peace. They were looking
forward to crossing over to the otherside, if you will. It had
pretty sad life. A lot ofpeople who are in crime and everything.
If you look at their background,you can see they were just they were
designed to be criminals by their ownenvironment, their families or whatever, their
neighborhoods. We're creating criminals. We'redoing that right now. The welfare system

(32:13):
is creating a whole giant group ofcriminals. It's terrible what's going on there.
And so when you consider all that, it's to me that calls for
a measure of mercy. But ifyou going again, if you get a
murder and he's just a repeat murderer, I mean, come on, Christoph,
there's a time to end this thing. Even the criminals in the jail
will say kill them. They'll sayit because they know this man's dangerous and

(32:34):
he's going to just keep killing people. There are people like that and saved,
but there are people like that.So what do you do? You
put them out of their misery,you save the rest of the folks,
and you hope you never have todo that again. I would like to
say that as a society, andthis is not being naive, This is
statement that if human life is notsacred, people cheap in it in other

(32:55):
ways. And we find how manypeople are saying that somebody isn't worthy of
living because of X a genetic conditionor this or that, and you hear
it, you hear euthanationis no.What I'm saying is it's part of the
same kind of attitude if human life. And you keep shaking your head.
But what I'm asking you is froman operational standpoint, there's a reason why

(33:17):
the Catholic Church turned against execution aswell as against abortion and has been the
most consistent opponent of both. Andit has to do with the idea that
societies, when they cheapen life,cheap in life anyway, it's the murderer
who's cheapening life. And if,like I say, if he's a chronic
murderer, what are you going todo? I mean, you can chain

(33:38):
him to a post somewhere and youput him in Of course, I wouldn't
put him in solitary comfinement, becausethat's just downright cruel. That doesn't fix
anything. But you could keep himin jail, but you got to keep
them separated from the main popular he'llbe killing all other persons and they know
that. They know that. Sometimesthey will kill the guy to save themselves.
I mean, when you're dealing withsomebody that's that bad, you have

(34:01):
to take critical steps. And it'svery true. It doesn't mean you don't
appreciate or believe in the sanctity oflife and the sacredness of the gift of
life that God has given it.It doesn't mean that at all. It
means you're protecting the other lives ina sense like self defense. This is
a preventative action, so these guysdon't keep killing people. Well, I
would simply simply say that we cango back and forth on this because it's

(34:22):
an honest disagreement and we're not gettingrid of the death penalty in Louisiana anytime
soon. The legislature is going toapprove it and it has overwhelming support.
My point about this is I wouldpoint out that the actual name of a
prison is not a prisoner or ajail, it's a penitentiary. And the
idea it's derived from the Quaker wordfor finding penitents. And yes, if

(34:42):
you're in solitary confinement for the restof your life, that's a heck of
a penance. Anyway, Speaking offor this while we got in the last
five minutes, I do you wantto mention something in the presidential race in
the wake of South Carolina, ButI do want to bring up something different.
And look, I'm no defender ofVictor orbon, but even a stop
clock is right a couple times aday. And one of the things that
I want I wanted to bring forthis I heard something that I couldn't quite

(35:06):
believe because we keep talking about theidea of of you know, abortion and
what happens. But one of thethings that Hungry managed to do is cut
its abortion rate in half. Howdid it without getting rid of access to
abortion to abortion? What it didwas literally incentivize people to be able to

(35:32):
have children. What do I meanby that, Well, it's very simple,
folks. In Hungary, the firstthree children you have you receive a
benefit, but the fourth child orthereafter you never pay income taxes. Ever,
let me let me explain how thisworks. Hungary has been going under

(35:53):
some major demographic problems. People aren'thaving children like they used to. This
is true in every part of theindustrialized world, including the United States.
We went in nineteen sixty six fromtwo point four children per couple, and
we're better than most. We're aboutone point nine, not quite at replacement
level. Better in Europe and inmany parts of the world it's one child

(36:15):
per couple, and essentially we're lookingat major demographic problems in the future.
That's why a lot of economies areentering some problems. It's why the US
economy actually is in some good shaperight now because we have nine hundred thousand
people retiring in four hundred thousand entryin the workforce. It's one of the
explanations as to why we have sucha low unemployment rate. But part of

(36:35):
the answer what I was orbon whoI look. I have a lot of
criticisms that he did when his oppositionto NATO expansion is support of pute and
all of this, But when Iread this, I was like, he's
been the only world leader who successfullyreduced the abortion rate, and how did
he do it well? Some ofthe ways we're pretty conventional, conventional.

(36:57):
He made universal pre K. Hecreated essential subsidies to be able to have
children so it didn't cost I mean, some of the things about a person
keeping a baby is that the abilityto have it. But ultimately he said,
you know what we need is biggerfamilies. And he said it's a
lot to ask a woman to havemore than two or three children. So

(37:21):
they said, not only will wegive subsidies for bigger cars or houses if
you have a big family, butif when you hit your fourth child,
no matter how much money you make, you will never pay income taxes for
the rest of your life. Ilike that. Christmas and I looked at
that, and of course it wouldhave a reaction here in the States.
But if we really wanted to increasethe birth rate, and that's actually something

(37:44):
we're going to be facing in thenext ten years. One of the reasons
the Social Security is going broke isthere are fewer people paying into it than
receiving it. And so one ofthe fundamental questions in all of this is
are we willing to do something creativeand to be hoond honest, I'm not
sure there exists in America the willto do something along those lines. Now,

(38:07):
I mean this is one of thereasons why when there were some conservatives
who started opposing the whole idea ofthe child tax credit, I looked at
them like they're crazy. They said, people you know who don't pay taxes
or getting credits, And I'm saying, well, first, every time I
looked at it, I said,most people pay sales taxes, property taxes,
all those other taxes. Getting twothousand dollars per kid is not erasing

(38:29):
the cost of a kid. Butas a society, we have to ask
ourselves, are we really willing tomake it easier for parents to have kids?
You want to reduce abortions? Yougot it. One of the considerations,
certainly not the only one. Butcan I afford to have a kid?
And that requires us as a societyand make some choices, and you
can have a big social welfare stayor you simply can say, you know

(38:52):
what, raising large families is goodfor the society, and therefore that's the
taxes you have paid. It's controversial. The left would say you're letting rich
people not pay taxes. The rightwould say you're you're you're having people mooch
off of government and not pay taxesfor people. But I don't know.

(39:12):
I thought it was a pretty goodidea, and the proofs in the pudding.
If you can reduce the abortion ratewithout changing the law by half,
and there's a series of different reformshe made. This is not the only
one. I think that's a lessonat least worth examining. And certainly it's
nothing no part of the US politicalconversation. Very interesting, Christopher, and

(39:34):
I'm listening. I think this isa good, interesting thing that we had
to really look into to make it. You know, when you motivate people
financially, it's amazing how they moveand they start realizing, hey, maybe
I better have some babies. It'sit's worth it. You know. The
all wonderful story of the book andthe movie Cheaper by the Does is When
I was a kid is one ofthe most favorite books. I love that

(39:55):
book, and IL was sad,I'm gonna have twelve kids. Well it
never worked out. I actually endedup with maybe a couple of hundred kids
because they're a ministry folks. Butanyway, we work with inner city kids,
and so you remind me of thelining Goodbye, mister Chips says sir,
did you ever have any children?These remembers what his wife said,

(40:15):
We had hundreds of children, allboys. So, folks, this is
something very interesting and very worth thinkingabout, and maybe we get our politicians
to comply, that would be wonderful. I'm going to tell you why bringing
this up might be an issue fortwo reasons. The presidential race right now,

(40:38):
latest tracking polls by Louisiana's own ronfourchet has shown Trump leading Biden by
one point, which is to say, essentially a statistical debt heat between the
two of them when you add thirdparty candidates. We did say last week
Mansion was going to run, andof course he drops out immediately after,
but there's going to be somebody fromno labels. There is RFK Junior,

(41:00):
and there is it's a two pointTrump advantage, but it's very up in
the air, and form neither sideto recognize one basic fact in where it's
up in the air is working classpeople, not just whites, increasingly Hispanics
and men African Americans. But rightnow Democrats consistently are only getting forty percent

(41:22):
of people who make less than onehundred thousand dollars a year. That doesn't
mean Republicans get the remaining sixty sometimesthey don't go vote. And if you're
going to motivate people to go vote, you need a policy that actually motivates
hits people where they are. Andthe ability to forward children is one of
the major policies that people are confronting. And look, I don't think we

(41:45):
should just stop at four kids.I think there ought to be better subsidies
for two kids. I think thebiggest mistake that GOP made and the Conservatives
made was opposing a major expansions inthe child tax credit, because that ultimately
should be the very people they're supporting. But you know, Christopher, interesting
thing, and we know this isalready working in America. It's working quite

(42:05):
well actually, and people don't thinkabout it. But I'm talking about the
welfare system. And I'm telling youbecause these are my kids, this is
our ministry. This is so muchof our life. And do you all
know what a six pack is ortwelve pack? Christopher? You know what
a twelve pack is? Six packhas nothing to do with your abs directly,
kind of perhaps indirectly, you know, like when you work out real

(42:29):
hard and you work your abdomen andmuscles, you get finally defined muscles and
it looks like a six pack.Well, folks, we're not talking about
that. We're talking about this highschool girls in our in here in New
Orleans. They'll make a vow.Six of them will get together and they
make a solemn vow, or twelveof them will, and the vow is

(42:50):
this, they will be pregnant bygraduation because they know this money in it.
That's their career, that's their financialfuture. They know that. And
then so we can see right thereit's working. That's the wrong way.
But imagine if you did it forthe right reasons, like you're talking about
Christopher. Well, i'd also pointout, well, and I'm not questioning
what's happening because I've seen you experiencethat if you look at and you're dealing

(43:12):
with African American kids for the mostpart, it also happens in Appalachian with
white folks wherever that I'm talking aboutyou, I'm whatever groups are hooked on.
Well, the reason why I usethat statistic is that if you look
at African Americans who make less thanfifty thousand dollars a year, the birth
rate actually has decreased, just likeeverybody else overall, it is it is
below it's actually the African American birthrate is now less than the white birth

(43:36):
rate, which it's not by much, it's like one point eight versus one
point nine, but the birth rateis going down and it's not at replacement
levels for the current population. Andanyway, we got to end on that
because you've got to go to this. That's a very important point. We
are we're losing our country just biologicallyspeaking, we're losing it. If we
don't increase the birth rate, we'refinished. It's happening in Europe. It's
very dangerous thing and it's being replacedby basically our enemies, Muslim terrorists,

(43:59):
et cetera. What So, folks, it is time for us to go.
But we're going to take a briefbreak and then we'll be right back
with the Chapelin Bah Bah Patriarch momentand the Chaplin bay By Gospel moment.
So we'll see you in just alittle bit. Well, folks, is
Chaplain High McHenry and I'm here totell you about our ministry, LAMB Ministries.

(44:21):
We are an inner city ministry withan inner city focus and formula four
inner city folks. Please check usout. Go to our website lamb n
o la dot com and check usout. We are a very exciting ministry.
We've reached about five thousand kids overthe past twenty some odd years.
We've had hundreds turned to Christ andgo on and live very good lives who've

(44:45):
grown in their faith. Hundreds who'vegone on to do great things with their
lives instead of living the terrible lifeof the ghetto kid, the you know,
the gang banger, all the thingsthat are so tragic in their culture,
breaking free from it, and they'reliving good lives, getting married,
going to finishing schools, staying outof trouble with the law, I mean,

(45:06):
really moving ahead and making themselves literallymodel citizens in our community. What
a blessing. So, folks,if you have any interest and what we're
doing, please contact us. Youcan call me Chapelinhai mcchenry at er code
five zero four seven two three ninethree six nine. We need all the
help we can get. We needfinancial support, we need prayer warriors,

(45:29):
and we need volunteers. So ifyou have any interest, please go to
our website lamnola dot com. That'sl A m b n o LA dot
com and thank you so very verymuch by osde the t ships. Well,
folks were back and it's chapelinhih mcinryand you are listening to the Founders

(45:50):
Show, and it's not time forus to go into our chaplain. Bye.
By patriotic moment, we just takea brief moment to remind you of
the biblical foundations of our country,our Judeo Christian jurisprudence. And today we're
going to talk about none other thanGeorge Washington. As this is the month
of President's Day, we remember ourgreat American presidents. The original holidays started

(46:12):
way back in It was the thirdholiday started in I think it was eighteen
seventy nine, and they they weregoing to celebrate George Washington said it on
his birthday, I believe, thetwenty second of February. Every then Abraham
Lincoln came in, of course,I mean he had been the president also
one of our great presidents, sothey decided to make it for both men.
Then eventually decided to make it forall presidents, which was really the

(46:35):
right way to do it, butthey kept it in February. So what
about George Washington, Well, Ijust want to tell you a few things
about him. Give you an understandingof what a great man this man was.
Why they named our capitol after him, Why like their Washington names all
over America, for cities, states, rivers, whatever geographic locations, you
name it. This man was themost wonderful and amazing man ever, maybe

(46:59):
certainly in the history of this country. And there were many great men and
women, but he seems to bemaybe the greatest of them all anyway,
when it came to his understanding ofGod in government. These are some of
his stories. He prayed so hardat Valley Forge that a great and famous

(47:22):
Tory, a royalist, decided hewas going to leave America because George Washington
was going to win. And hetold his wife, we got to go.
And I don't care how great ourvictories have been. This man,
the way he prays, I canassure you, because of the way he
prais, he will win. Andwe won the American Revolution, which is
shocking. He used to have bigdebates with his subordinates and the other officers

(47:45):
in his unit and under his command. They would say, look, you
got to quit buying bibles and gettingchaplains. You spend all our money and
time on that. In the meantime, we're the beans and the bullets.
Washington stood strong, He did notbudge. He continued to put a great
focus on get chaplains and Bibles forhis troops. UH. When he came
to education, he made it veryclear that a good and proper education had

(48:07):
to be built on the cornerstone stoneof the Lord Jesus Christ. When he
defined what a great American was,he said, and he said this to
his troops, he said, andto the and to the character of a
patriot, add the more noble characterof a Christian for being a great,
a good American citizen. When hecame to his prayer diary, then you

(48:32):
would really get to see into theheart and soul of the man. You
could fill up a couple of shelvesof his prayer diaries. He kept two
sets of diaries his every day Itwas called the secular diary. His his
operations and activities, and for hisfarm, and for his uh you know,
his business dealings, and his uhyou know, maybe his family relationships,
and also his his friends social andand also his time in the military.

(48:55):
So you can learn a whole lotabout him from that diary. But
you can get really deep into hisso when you go to this prayer diary,
and I'm going to tell you,folks, it reads like something Billy
Graham would have written. It's stunning. And remember, you could fill up
a couple of shells in a librarygist of his prayer diary. That's how
committed, that's how amazing that manwas. Folks. Do you think he

(49:15):
wanted to keep God out of government? I don't think so. He loved
the Lord. He was a devoutChristian. He all comes out in his
prayer diaries and as many other sayingsand actions. I remember when we had
the first inauguration, he called thenation to prayer and fasting. When the
inauguration they had sworn him in everything, he invited all the government to go

(49:36):
with him to his old church therein New York City, Saint Paul's Chapel,
where he called for prayer and Bibleteaching and sermons and whatnot. That
lasted for three hours, folks.And when he spoke, he called us
to what Solomon called Israel to todedicate the nation to God. And this
is what he said in Second Chronicle, Second Chronicles seven fourteen. If my

(50:00):
people who are called by my nameshall humma themselves, seek My face and
turn from their wicked ways. Thenwhile I hear from Heaven, heal their
land and answer their prayers. Folks, that's what we need in America today.
But what about you, Because itall starts with you. It all
starts with the individual. Where areyou on all this? Are you turning
from your foolish ways so you canturn to God? Are you turning from

(50:22):
the foolishness of religion if you will? And all those other things. And
by the way, that's called repentance, when you change your mind about knowing
God. It all starts with repentance. Jesus kept saying repent and believe it's
part of your faith. It's notan action. It's not doing some kind
of good religious works, given money, whatever, you know, so many
different things you can be doing.No, it's not about your righteousness.

(50:44):
It's only in all about Christ's righteousness. The scripture says that he that new
no sin, meaning the Lord JesusChrist one Corinthians five twenty one. He
that new no sin. Jesus wasperfect, new no sin. He that
new no sin, was made sin. He was turned into all all of
our horrible, dirty, rotten sinsthat we you might be made the righteousness

(51:06):
of God in him. Folks.That's how much God loves you and how
much he wants you to go toheaven and be with him forever. You
know, the Bible says, believeon the Lord Jesus Christ, and now
shalt be saved. So where doesit take, folks? What it takes?
This? First of all, yougot to believe you can't save yourself.
And then the second thing is,you got to believe that Jesus really
did die for all your sins fromthe day you were born to the day
you die, your tiniess the greatestsins all went on Christ. Jesus.

(51:30):
He was actually turned of that sin, and his blood washed them all away,
all of them, folks. Andthen after that it didn't in just
there. Then He rose from thedead to win for you his precious free
gift of resurrection, everlasting life.And the moment, with the faith of
a little child, you put youbelieve this, You put faith alone.
In Christ alone, God guarantees youeverlasting life. He guarantees you that you

(51:52):
will go to Heaven when you die, no matter what. You're His child
forever. What a blessing, whata great gift. Folks, if you
don't have that, you need todo it right now. Don't wait till
it's too late. Like the oldcountry preacher said, and like the Bible
says, now today is the dayof salvation. Well, I want to
tell you another story, and thisis about John Newton, because it is
now time for our testimony time.The chaplain by by testimony time. We're

(52:12):
just gonna tell stories about men andwomen, boys and girls who came to
know Christ and the impact that hadon how they came to know the Lord
Jesus. Well, John Newton wasa reprobate, he was a slave trader,
he's a sea captain. I don'thave time to tell you how bad
he was. He's one of theworst people of his day. And he
in the midst of a terrible stormand where they knew the ship was going

(52:34):
down, and the whole crew wasso desperate. It was the end.
And he heard a sailor curse butused the name of Jesus. And when
he heard that, it made himthink about Christ and he was born again.
He remembered the things he'd been taughtin Sunday school as a little kid,
and from his parents that if hejust trusted Christ. I just taught
you, he would go to heavenand he would be delivered from all of

(52:59):
his troubles and griefs and agonies andmisers, and he had a lot of
them. He was a drunkard,he was a horror monger, he was
honorable. He turned to Jesus.He went back to marri Oll, England,
and he became a preacher. Andhe didn't just stop there. He
wrote what's considered to be the greatesthymn in the history of Christendom, Amazing
Grace. And then of course hefought very hard to end the slave trade.

(53:20):
Folks, what a wonderful story,John Newton. And now you've heard
your testimony for the day. Itis not time for us to go.
As we close with them one SaintMartin singing a creole goodbye, and God
bless all out there they call youcREL goodbye. They think we just wasted

(53:45):
out the time. All three sibonof me. There is time