Speaker 1: Well, whiskey, come and take my pain, hondys.
Speaker 2: My brain, Oh whiskey.
Speaker 3: Why think alone when you can drink it all in
Speaker 3: with Ricochet's Three Whiskey Happy Hour. Join your bartenders Steve Hayward,
Speaker 3: John You, and the international woman of Mystery Lucretia where
Speaker 3: they slapped it up.
Speaker 1: And David, ain't you easy on the should taps? Got
Speaker 1: to give me and let that whiskey flow. Welcome everybody
Speaker 1: to this very special, Merry Christmas edition of the Three
Speaker 1: Whiskey Happy Hour. I am joined as always by my
Speaker 1: favorite and only co hosts Steve Hayward and join you.
Speaker 1: How are you this evening, gentlemen?
Speaker 3: I'm good? But who are you?
Speaker 1: I mean, nobody cares?
Speaker 3: No, you don't need an introduction, that's true.
Speaker 4: Hi?
Speaker 1: John?
Speaker 5: Hi?
Speaker 4: Can everyone see Steve? Stupid Santa hat?
Speaker 3: It's Christmas? John? Why are you being such a grinch?
Speaker 1: You are looking a little grinchy tonight, And I don't
Speaker 1: blame you because I have some bad news for you.
Speaker 1: I came prepared through a sky happy Hour with a
Speaker 1: bottle of Bookers, of which this is the well I
Speaker 1: can't see the number on it, the seventy third one
Speaker 1: off the production line, of which only one hundred and
Speaker 1: two were made. Bookers is made by Jim Beam Distilleries,
Speaker 1: which has been around since I believe it was seventeen
Speaker 1: ninety six if I'm not mistaken. However, Wow, Jim Beam
Speaker 1: is pausing production for a year. I heard this a
Speaker 1: full year because all of these sort of goodie two
Speaker 1: shoes gen zers would rather sit home and scroll the
Speaker 1: Internet with TikTok videos and Instagram videos, and they don't
Speaker 1: want to drink alcohol, They don't want to go anywhere,
Speaker 1: they don't want to do anything. And in the article
Speaker 1: I sent these two guys, the funniest thing about it
Speaker 1: was was the the author made the comment that, look,
Speaker 1: these people have uh, you know, free delivery to your
Speaker 1: home and Uber. Imagine how much drinking we could have
Speaker 1: done if we had somebody to uber us home every
Speaker 1: single time we had a little bit too much to drink.
Speaker 1: Of course, you're a little bit younger, John, but Steve
Speaker 1: and I remember the days when we really didn't worry
Speaker 1: about it all that much. What I mean is is
Speaker 1: that the the enforcement of dui laws was nowhere near
Speaker 1: as stringent as it is today.
Speaker 4: So I've heard of these wonderful times when one could
Speaker 4: drive without a seatbelt and would smoke your cigarettes in
Speaker 4: the car while driving and drinking simultaneously, and throwing winter
Speaker 4: out the window as.
Speaker 2: You went down the highway.
Speaker 1: It. Yes, I hate to admit I probably did all
Speaker 1: of those things at one time or another. I yes,
Speaker 1: although I probably didn't often drive when I was really
Speaker 1: really drunk, because why I didn't so well, you would
Speaker 1: have designated drivers, which was always the bummer to be
Speaker 1: the designated driver? You know now you just call an uber?
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: And both my kids when they were in college, I
Speaker 1: would tell them, you know, they had an Uber account.
Speaker 1: Don't you dare drive home, here's the Uber account. You
Speaker 1: just call them. And so I never had any issues
Speaker 1: with my kids getting DUIs or any things like that.
Speaker 1: But they're older now and they know better. I'll just
Speaker 1: leave it at that.
Speaker 3: Well I will, since we're I'm having killed corn again.
Speaker 3: This wonderful stuff I got it done.
Speaker 1: Is at the end of the second bottle.
Speaker 3: No still, it's the end of the first bottle. I
Speaker 3: poached from the second bottle to bring this down to
Speaker 3: my office. See and let me mention that I have
Speaker 3: the I've got the YouTube live stream up going on
Speaker 3: my other computer, and I can see a chat window.
Speaker 3: We've got eight people watching live. And if you guys
Speaker 3: have a good question or something that you want us
Speaker 3: to address and it fits, go ahead and put it
Speaker 3: in the chat window and I'll try and bring it
Speaker 3: up as we go.
Speaker 1: Well, so I don't know if I actually made the
Speaker 1: point clear. Jim Beam is shutting down production for a
Speaker 1: full year because they have a glut of alcohol, not
Speaker 1: just in their less expensive that I'd never dream Jim
Speaker 1: Beam sort of regular stuff. But they're bakers, they're bookers.
Speaker 1: What's the other one, Basil Hayden. I forget which of
Speaker 1: the higher end whiskeys come under Jim Beam, But they're
Speaker 1: shutting down. They're shutting down production of whiskey for a year,
Speaker 1: the largest whiskey maker in America.
Speaker 3: Well, the solution of this is obvious. We need to
Speaker 3: bring back prohibition. That will sa that will send conception
Speaker 3: up right. My my favorite Will Rogers line of all
Speaker 3: time was his squip that, well, at least prohibition is
Speaker 3: better than no liquor at all. I always thought was.
Speaker 3: I mean, he said a lot of great ones, but
Speaker 3: that's my favorite.
Speaker 4: Well, I was just in Costco for Christmas Eve. I
Speaker 4: didn't realize correlate that, but yeah, there were huge hard
Speaker 4: liquor sales going on at Costco, like.
Speaker 2: Twenty thirty percent off. Yeah. Yeah, So I'm planning to.
Speaker 4: Go back the day after Christmas and filler up.
Speaker 1: Did you I was gonna say, did you stock up
Speaker 1: or not yet? Huh?
Speaker 2: Not yet? There's got to be discounts after Christmas.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but I can't imagine being Costco on New Year's Eve.
Speaker 1: I am not big on crowds. I haven't left the
Speaker 1: house all day today. I'm afraid of I'm xenophobic. I'll
Speaker 1: just leave it at that. Or no, no, no, agoraphobic, achorophobic, well, chorophobic.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but you know, xenophobia. That could be user special bonus.
Speaker 1: Yeah. All right, enough of that. We want to talk
Speaker 1: a little bit today about Christmas in America and what's
Speaker 1: kind of been happening lately. So I posed to these
Speaker 1: guys that something very interesting is happening. And I saw
Speaker 1: this just before I came on the podcast. Didn't get
Speaker 1: to internalize it fully. But even even President Donald Trump,
Speaker 1: who seems to be following in the footsteps of Thomas Jefferson,
Speaker 1: and Abraham Lincoln when it comes to his religion. Does
Speaker 1: that make sense to you guys, that he's very much
Speaker 1: pro Christianity, very much not sectarian or claiming to have
Speaker 1: belonged to any church anyway. He's coming out and saying
Speaker 1: that Christianity is making a revival in America. I want
Speaker 1: to give you, guys two examples, and then I want
Speaker 1: to ask John a question. The Sarah Sarah Huckabee, who
Speaker 1: everyone is known, is a Christian and is not shy
Speaker 1: about her faith. But when she was asked to, when
Speaker 1: she had to justify I believe it was giving the
Speaker 1: day off after Christmas something like that, she instead of
Speaker 1: doing it in terms of, oh, religious freedom or you know,
Speaker 1: the culture of Christmas, she came out and said, this
Speaker 1: is the day that our Savior was born, God became
Speaker 1: man on earth, and this is why I am giving
Speaker 1: this day off. And if you don't like it, I
Speaker 1: will pray for you. And I think that we've seen
Speaker 1: a lot of that sort of thing since Charlie Kirk.
Speaker 1: So I was listening to my favorite, my only favorite,
Speaker 1: actually Outnumbered co host John You about to answer a question. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: you're their favorite victim.
Speaker 4: Yeah, no, this is on this podcast.
Speaker 2: I'm the victim on that time.
Speaker 3: I guess.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they love you, John, It's it's obvious, and they
Speaker 1: think you're so smart, and they say and then they
Speaker 1: go back and apologize for saying them because they know
Speaker 1: you're going to be smarter than they are. It's very funny.
Speaker 1: But I didn't get to hear your answer when they
Speaker 1: were asking what is the First Amendment issue when a
Speaker 1: city wants to have on I guess a public parking
Speaker 1: lot a nativity scene. Is there a separation of church
Speaker 1: and state problem? You might want to give the details
Speaker 1: on that.
Speaker 4: John, Yeah, so yeah, So first, yeah, I'm not being
Speaker 4: elevated to a host because I think only women can
Speaker 4: be the host.
Speaker 2: This is like a Lucretia dream show.
Speaker 3: Well, John, well that's not that's not an obstacle. More.
Speaker 3: You just switched teams.
Speaker 4: And there's a guest, the man who's in the middle,
Speaker 4: but they don't gang up on him the way Lucretia
Speaker 4: gangs up on the two of us.
Speaker 3: So I.
Speaker 4: You know, it's you know, this is a takeoff on
Speaker 4: a John F.
Speaker 2: Kennedy joke.
Speaker 4: So you know Kennedy once said that he had a
Speaker 4: reception for all the Nobel laureates, and he said, you know,
Speaker 4: this is the smartest assemblage of people in the White
Speaker 4: House since Thomas Jefferson eight alone. And I would say,
Speaker 4: you know, four Fox hosts Women is the greatest collection
Speaker 4: of feminine talent since Lucretia did a solo podcast. But
Speaker 4: you know, so you know, on this show they asked
Speaker 4: about this example of this mayor demanded that a Nativity
Speaker 4: scene be removed from a public space, publicly owned parking lot,
Speaker 4: and then said, because the Constitution requires a separation of
Speaker 4: church and state. So I said, you know, this mayor
Speaker 4: should go back to school because he will discover that
Speaker 4: the separation of church and state is not a phrase.
Speaker 4: It appears in the Constitution that the First Amendment only
Speaker 4: forbids the government from establishing a religion, not promoting religions plural,
Speaker 4: and that the Supreme Court had decided this issue several
Speaker 4: times and it said, if the government wants to open
Speaker 4: up a public space for religious displays at the holiday season,
Speaker 4: it can. They just can't say only Presbyterians or maybe
Speaker 4: even only Christians. So you've had displays which the court
Speaker 4: is upheld, which would have a Christmas scene and a
Speaker 4: Nativity as a Nativity scene, and then a Jewish Manora
Speaker 4: for example, would be okay. I don't know if the
Speaker 4: government has to allow every possible religion because it has
Speaker 4: to have space concerns. And you know what if someone
Speaker 4: just makes up their own religion and wants to put
Speaker 4: like some I don't know, wiccan whatever those people are
Speaker 4: some kind of wicked dispount even.
Speaker 2: Know what that would be.
Speaker 4: Would that be like the cauldron from Macbeth with the
Speaker 4: three witches?
Speaker 2: I don't know what the wickan would do.
Speaker 4: But my point is that the Supreme Court has I
Speaker 4: think undone the mistakes of the Warrant Court, which was
Speaker 4: to try to actually separate church and state and to
Speaker 4: allow the government to promote and support religious belief generally,
Speaker 4: so long as they don't pick out and single a
Speaker 4: specific religion to support and to suppress all the others.
Speaker 1: You might remember, Steve, I'll let you come in on
Speaker 1: this last year. We just around this time we discussed
Speaker 1: the fact that the Iowa Capitol Building, as I recall
Speaker 1: of all places you know, good good Christian girl from
Speaker 1: Iowa that I am, actually allowed a Satanic display at
Speaker 1: Christmas time. They removed Thomas Jefferson to put up a
Speaker 1: Satanic display. So what do you think, Steve, Does that
Speaker 1: mean that the government is being neutral to all religions?
Speaker 3: I have to think about the satanic display business. I'd
Speaker 3: forgotten about that, So you're minded me just now. I
Speaker 3: think I could construct a case for a government to
Speaker 3: say no, but it might take me a while. I
Speaker 3: do think that the interesting thing here is, for a
Speaker 3: while the Supreme Court was badly confused or worse on
Speaker 3: these issues. And I'm thinking thirty forty years ago the
Speaker 3: Lemon test, which I've forgotten what it is, but I
Speaker 3: think it's gone now. But the point is that the
Speaker 3: last ten to fifteen years the Supreme Court has become
Speaker 3: something of a leading indicator. I mean, you've actually had
Speaker 3: some nine zero decisions on the side of religious liberty
Speaker 3: as we would understand it right. What is that the
Speaker 3: alliance defending freedom people who cause riots when they show
Speaker 3: up at law schools has won I think fifteen Supreme
Speaker 3: Court cases so and so, and I say a leading
Speaker 3: indicator because as you hinted at, is we're seeing this
Speaker 3: return to church in America. We'll talk about the Charlie
Speaker 3: Kirk Memorial service. In a moment because I think that
Speaker 3: was quite significant. But there's the Supreme Court kind of
Speaker 3: leading the way. I'll just say it. On the substance
Speaker 3: of it, Yeah, I mean, I think there still are
Speaker 3: some incoherencies. Is that a proper plural world? So, you know,
Speaker 3: we had the extually it's twenty years ago or more now,
Speaker 3: we had the Ten Commandments case, and here was a
Speaker 3: case that they consolidate a case with, was it Alabama
Speaker 3: and Texas because Texas has the Ten Commandments on the
Speaker 3: capitol grounds all other stuff, and then Judge Moore in
Speaker 3: Alabama wanted a big Ten Commandments inside the courthouse, And
Speaker 3: essentially what the court said was, no, you can't have
Speaker 3: the big Ten Commandments in Alabama because they're too big,
Speaker 3: but you can have it on the grounds of the
Speaker 3: state capitol because it's not too big. I mean, I
Speaker 3: mean that's John. You can correct me if I'm too
Speaker 3: grotesquely distorting what they said. But I thought that that
Speaker 3: was an incoherent ruling because the implicit rationale was, well,
Speaker 3: you don't take it as seriously if it's not so big,
Speaker 3: but if you really put it out front and center,
Speaker 3: it means you really mean it, and we can't have
Speaker 3: displays of religion that really mean it, or go back
Speaker 3: even further to the seventies, you had the pair of
Speaker 3: cases I forget which ones they were, but as the
Speaker 3: one that's said that the local school district could not
Speaker 3: give away or loan textbooks that weren't using anymore to
Speaker 3: the local Catholic parochial schools. But then in a separate
Speaker 3: case nearly at the same time, they said the public
Speaker 3: schools could give maps to parochial schools for their buses
Speaker 3: that picked up students. And that's what prompted pat and
Speaker 3: Wey in a hand to say, how would Supreme Court
Speaker 3: handle an atlas in a book of maps? And I
Speaker 3: understand the reasoning of why maps made sense. That wasn't
Speaker 3: actually religion. It was simply a police power thing. But
Speaker 3: still there's still, at the end of the day, this
Speaker 3: tortured reasoning we've had towards religion in the public square
Speaker 3: for decades. I think it's trending the other way slowly.
Speaker 3: I kind of like it. Can I just add one
Speaker 3: quick joke though, John, you mentioned the Kennedy line about
Speaker 3: the greatest assembly of mine since Jefferson dined alone there's
Speaker 3: a Reagan era version of that, which somebody said it
Speaker 3: wasn't Reagan. Sadly, someone said, this is the greatest assembly
Speaker 3: of brains in the White House since Richard Diamond Darman
Speaker 3: dined alone, which he did often. Oh no, no, we hated
Speaker 3: Richard Darman. He was horrible. He's a terrible person.
Speaker 1: It was.
Speaker 3: Martin Anderson has said to me once, why do people
Speaker 3: take an instant dislike to Richard Darman? Saves time?
Speaker 2: Don't say that as a joke about Ted Cruz, which.
Speaker 3: Was right, Yeah, not fair, but I get it, yes, right, Yeah.
Speaker 4: The one done them I'd make on Steve's description of
Speaker 4: the cases is that there's I think there's been a
Speaker 4: radical change by the Roberts Quarter religion because of the
Speaker 4: Warrnancourt decisions. The a lot of like two bit local
Speaker 4: officials like this guy we're talking about in South Carolina,
Speaker 4: believe that the government had a telling purpose to exclude
Speaker 4: religion from public life, and so they would allow Yeah,
Speaker 4: satanic worshipers and cannibals whoever you want to mention, you know,
Speaker 4: fly flag in front of the Boston City Hall, or
Speaker 4: you know, have a demonstration of some kind. But they
Speaker 4: would say we are required to stop religious groups.
Speaker 2: And so the one thing that.
Speaker 4: Religious groups did that was very clever in terms of
Speaker 4: litigation was to say, if you interfere with us participating
Speaker 4: on an equal footing with other groups, you've not only
Speaker 4: deprived us of the free exercise of religion, even though
Speaker 4: the government's saying, oh, we can't do that because otherwise
Speaker 4: we'd be violating the establishment clause. But they've also said,
Speaker 4: and this was I think part of what helped them
Speaker 4: start winning even under the Renquesst Court, was to say,
Speaker 4: you could think of religions as having as being free
Speaker 4: speech organizations like the ACLU or you know, the Republican Party,
Speaker 4: and so if you exclude religious groups, you're actually violating
Speaker 4: their free speech rights and the right of belief to
Speaker 4: pursue this idea that religion has to be extinguished from
Speaker 4: the public sphere. And I think that's what is the
Speaker 4: That was the change in the arguments that started to
Speaker 4: allow religious groups really to.
Speaker 2: Pile on the winds.
Speaker 4: And then you know, under the Roberts Court it's been
Speaker 4: almost an unbroken winning streak.
Speaker 1: For right and it's also been much more how should
Speaker 1: I say, true to the original intent of the First
Speaker 1: Amendment under the Roberts Court than it was under the ranks.
Speaker 1: You're right, and you can't blame those litigants for going
Speaker 1: to the court and asking for some relief based upon
Speaker 1: any way they thought they might get it. But of course,
Speaker 1: the establishment clause doesn't mean you can't have a manger scene,
Speaker 1: you can't allow a moment of silent prayer in schools.
Speaker 1: It doesn't mean that school children, school aged children can
Speaker 1: never be exposed to something that they might somehow feel
Speaker 1: uncomfortable about. That was I mean, that had to be
Speaker 1: the dumbest decision ever by the Supreme Court, and there's
Speaker 1: been a lot of them, and so you know, the
Speaker 1: Roberts Court, you're right, they took it further, but they
Speaker 1: did it ach in my opinion, much more solid ground
Speaker 1: ways that made a lot more sense. Not that there's
Speaker 1: anything wrong with saying that you have a First Amendment
Speaker 1: freedom of speech, right to practice your religion, but you
Speaker 1: also have a dual, dually protected first and foremost in
Speaker 1: the First Amendment right not to have a religion forced
Speaker 1: upon you, a specific, established, government sponsored religion force upon you,
Speaker 1: But that you have the freedom to practice your religion
Speaker 1: without government interference. That's the most amazing thing in many ways,
Speaker 1: it's happened in the history of civilization and why America
Speaker 1: became the free place that it is. Was Sorry, I'm
Speaker 1: pontificating here. It don't mean to, but I believe that.
Speaker 3: Well I could do that too. I mean, I think
Speaker 3: about you know, I always like to point out to
Speaker 3: students that Britain embraced toleration with the Toleration Act of
Speaker 3: what that's part of the sixteen eighty eight Revolution. But
Speaker 3: just think about the title of the Act and the
Speaker 3: actual language of it is, we will tolerate you. We
Speaker 3: will no longer throw you in jail for not being
Speaker 3: an Anglican. There were still religious tests for office, by
Speaker 3: the way, that lasted well into the nineteenth century. They
Speaker 3: just meant it. It is decriminalized being a nonconformist. Gee,
Speaker 3: well that's real. And it was you know Washington's famous
Speaker 3: letter to the Hebrew Congregation at Newport when he was
Speaker 3: president saying, it's now no more that toleration is spoken of,
Speaker 3: spoken as though it were by the indulgence of one
Speaker 3: group that another group gets to enjoy their natural rights
Speaker 3: of conscience. That was brand new, right, I mean was
Speaker 3: huge that and along with John you probably singleed this
Speaker 3: out too with students our constitution saying no religious tests,
Speaker 3: republic office, first constitution anywhere that ever said that in
Speaker 3: the world. I think right as I say, it was
Speaker 3: not true in Britain until the twentieth century. For goodness sake. Now,
Speaker 3: you know, we often talk about the theological political problem
Speaker 3: and the nutlical philosophy and the rest of that. I
Speaker 3: do have a one of our viewers on YouTube asks
Speaker 3: about something. I mean, I've heard this, I forgot about it,
Speaker 3: but what's the Blaine Amendment and how is that implicated
Speaker 3: in all this I have forgotten.
Speaker 4: I have to say, oh, well, the Blaine Amendment was
Speaker 4: this effort to so this was an effort to try
Speaker 4: to change the constitution that failed. You know, Blaine, if
Speaker 4: I remember correctly, was a losing presidential candidate for the
Speaker 4: Democratic Party in the late nineteenth century, and he so
Speaker 4: I believe, after you lost, there were a number of
Speaker 4: these Blaine amendments that were added to state constitutions, which
Speaker 4: in practical effect, I don't think they were all worded
Speaker 4: the exact same way, but am practical effect for bade
Speaker 4: money going to not just churches, but religious schools. And
Speaker 4: I think it's interesting the Supreme Court these last few
Speaker 4: cases has essentially held these amendments to be unconstitutional, even
Speaker 4: if they haven't directly said so. So you remember, there
Speaker 4: are several examples where the Court where states and cities
Speaker 4: have tried to exclude religious groups from participating in grant programs,
Speaker 4: for example, that are opened to everybody else. So the
Speaker 4: one well known wass is I think this involved the
Speaker 4: Lutheran Church. You know, nonprofits could go to the state
Speaker 4: and say ask for a grant to I think in
Speaker 4: this case repave the parking lot. And the government said
Speaker 4: everybody but religious groups and churches can participate in this
Speaker 4: grant program. And they would say, because the Blame Amendment
Speaker 4: in our state constitution requires us to forbid any money
Speaker 4: going to any religious organization. And this Freme course struck
Speaker 4: that down for the reasons we gave. Really that they're
Speaker 4: the government singling out religious groups for this favorite treatment
Speaker 4: violates the free exercise clause.
Speaker 2: Those Blane amendments.
Speaker 4: I don't think that court has said they're all unconstitutional,
Speaker 4: but effectively you can see the writing on the law and.
Speaker 1: They've gone from other I'm just going to say really quickly,
Speaker 1: sorry Steve, that not only have they done things like
Speaker 1: parking lots, but in my state. Now I know that
Speaker 1: they don't have a Blaine Amendment state equivalent, but in
Speaker 1: my state, I can and do give twenty five hundred
Speaker 1: dollars for a married couple directly to a Catholic school
Speaker 1: in my community. And it is not an write off,
Speaker 1: It is a tax exemption. It comes off of my
Speaker 1: state taxes. But what I would say is, in many
Speaker 1: places the Blaine Amendments are not necessarily overturned, but there
Speaker 1: have been rulings that say, yes, if you are giving
Speaker 1: a voucher program, for instance, to parents, they have to
Speaker 1: be able to use those vouchers at the school of
Speaker 1: their choice, which could include an does include Catholic schools
Speaker 1: and other parochial schools. Sorry, Steve gollahad, that's all right.
Speaker 3: Well, I just want to correct correct a rare factual
Speaker 3: error from John U which is James Blaine was a Republican,
Speaker 3: not a Democrat.
Speaker 4: In fact, he.
Speaker 3: Lost to Grover Cleveland. And by the way backwards this
Speaker 3: part I remember it was during that campaign of what
Speaker 3: as an eighteen eighty eight I guess or whatever the
Speaker 3: you'd have this democratic campaign. Crowds would march through the streets,
Speaker 3: you know, with candles and dressed darkly, all solemn. They'd say,
Speaker 3: James Blaine, blame James G. Blaine, the continental liar from
Speaker 3: the state of Maine. That the great politics of the
Speaker 3: old day. But I just mentioned as a cultural thing.
Speaker 3: You guys may not have seen it, but Netflix has
Speaker 3: a three part series out right now called Death by
Speaker 3: Lightning about James Garfield his assassination.
Speaker 2: I've been watching it. It's from halfway through. It is good.
Speaker 3: It is terrific. I think I can't believe how good
Speaker 3: it is. And it's now making people realize Garfield was
Speaker 3: a pretty good guy. We didn't know that because he
Speaker 3: was skilled so early. Right. But the person who plays Blane,
Speaker 3: I forget the actor, but he does a very good job,
Speaker 3: and Blaine comes across. Some of the characterizations, like Roscoe
Speaker 3: Conkling are probably a little overdone, but it's drama. But
Speaker 3: they make Blaine into a very sympathetic figure. I have
Speaker 3: to say I should see it. It's really really.
Speaker 1: Good, you see.
Speaker 4: The other thing I like about the show is that
Speaker 4: it I think what's fair based on what my you know,
Speaker 4: my reading and the histories at the time was how
Speaker 4: important the Civil War still was twenty five thirty years later,
Speaker 4: where you.
Speaker 2: Know, people who have been generals and officers in.
Speaker 4: The Union Army are all being elected, right, All the
Speaker 4: presidents served in the Union's.
Speaker 3: Side of the war.
Speaker 4: And this is really important with Grover Cleveland, it's he
Speaker 4: the first Democrat that wins. Actor were, yeah, yes, because
Speaker 4: so you have an unbroken you know, Republican victories. You
Speaker 4: know in the TV show they're still shouting about Lincoln, right,
Speaker 4: and Grant made a comeback try for a third term
Speaker 4: in that Garfield that year that Garfield was nominated, and right,
Speaker 4: they were still talking about the hero of Appamatics was
Speaker 4: I mean, we don't we've lost touch with that.
Speaker 2: I think how important that.
Speaker 4: Civil War was for like thirty years after the Civil War.
Speaker 1: Well, guys, I would be watching it tonight after this
Speaker 1: podcast and before I go off to midnight mass, except
Speaker 1: that I haven't yet had my my annual dosage of
Speaker 1: die Hard, So that's what I'll be watching. You don't
Speaker 1: watch Garfield tomorrow.
Speaker 4: Yet you watch it every every holiday season.
Speaker 3: Oh guy, it's like the Peanuts, specially you watched two things.
Speaker 1: Last night, Watching Right Special and the How the Grinch
Speaker 1: Stole Christmas and scrooged. You know that great movie with
Speaker 1: Bill Marie.
Speaker 4: Oh you don't watch ELF?
Speaker 2: What about Elf?
Speaker 1: I've never seen that. I can't stand Will Ferrell.
Speaker 3: Oh really, Oh no, it's it's uneven. But he's you know, well,
Speaker 3: we'll say that for some other time.
Speaker 4: And I would have and I would have thought Steve
Speaker 4: thinks he's living in the National Lampoon Christmas vacation. I
Speaker 4: can he not be watching that?
Speaker 3: Well, because I can't stand Chevy Chase. That's one reason
Speaker 3: why he's a.
Speaker 1: Real chur And never mind, all right, back to what
Speaker 1: Steve brought up, which is I think he probably didn't
Speaker 1: mean to, but pointing out that John had a factual error.
Speaker 1: And he's right. John almost never gets the facts wrong.
Speaker 1: He sometimes gets the facts that I say and twists
Speaker 1: them for his own purposes, but when they're his facts,
Speaker 1: he never gets them wrong. But an interesting thing, an
Speaker 1: interesting commentary today out of the Liberal Patriot, you know,
Speaker 1: Rey to Shara and his his his group that is
Speaker 1: desperately trying to save the Democratic Party. I think that's
Speaker 1: probably their biggest endeavor. Going on right now? Wouldn't you
Speaker 1: agree that what can we do to make sure the
Speaker 1: Democratic Party doesn't completely implode? By the way, they are
Speaker 1: sixteen million dollars in debt as of the month of November.
Speaker 1: They brought in way less money than they spent and
Speaker 1: they're still paying off Kamala's debt. And anyway, and part
Speaker 1: of the pason go ahead, please Steve.
Speaker 3: And most of that deficit is the loss of Jewish donors.
Speaker 3: I've actually seen the numbers now, yeah, it's the shift
Speaker 3: of the decline of Jewish donations Democrats and Democratic Party
Speaker 3: is huge, and about half of it has gone over
Speaker 3: to the Republican Party. I've got the numbers, and all
Speaker 3: this I don't have in front of me, and I
Speaker 3: won't do it anyway, but there you go.
Speaker 1: Sorry, but it's quite all right. That's an interesting factoid,
Speaker 1: Thank you, Steve. But what I want to talk about
Speaker 1: is an article that came out today in the Liberal
Speaker 1: Patriot talking about the fact that there has been a huge, huge,
Speaker 1: growing disparity between Republicans and Democrats on the question of religiosity.
Speaker 1: Would we call it on the question of who? And
Speaker 1: they have a four part test that they go by
Speaker 1: to determine who is and who is not religious and
Speaker 1: where they are religious. This bothers me a little bit
Speaker 1: because they break it down by Black Protestant, Hispanic Protestant,
Speaker 1: White Catholic, Hispanic Catholic. I'm not sure those things matter.
Speaker 1: They don't at my church, that's for sure. But they
Speaker 1: break it down all Christian versus all non Christian. If
Speaker 1: you look at the numbers, and maybe Steve can pose
Speaker 1: us if anybody's interested. Back in back in two thousand
Speaker 1: and eight, eighty six percent of Republicans were Christian. That
Speaker 1: number is eighty one percent today, Okay, all categories of
Speaker 1: Christian For Democrats. In nineteen excuse me, two thousand and eight,
Speaker 1: it was seventy four percent claimed to be Christian of
Speaker 1: some kind. Today it is fifty four percent total. And
Speaker 1: that includes just about any kind of thing you could
Speaker 1: possibly put under the category of Christian, any nutty whatever. Sorry,
Speaker 1: I don't mean to be rude about it. Is this
Speaker 1: a problem? And the article sets it out as these
Speaker 1: are people, these Democrats are the college educated elite that
Speaker 1: live in the coasts like you two. They're not the
Speaker 1: good old, good solid Americans who live in the hinterlands
Speaker 1: like me, and they vote for things like more immigration,
Speaker 1: they vote for things like more protection for trans in LGBTQ.
Speaker 1: They make the comment in the article that most people
Speaker 1: in the flyover states don't even know what the LGBDQ
Speaker 1: plus plus plus letters stand for. Right, right, So anyway,
Speaker 1: what do you guys think about? And at the point, finally,
Speaker 1: the point of the article is this is going to
Speaker 1: be a real problem going forward because the numbers just
Speaker 1: don't match up. You can't win elections by just now
Speaker 1: it's certainly not national elections by just concentrating on the coast,
Speaker 1: the elites and so forth. Go ahead, Steve, you look well, oh.
Speaker 3: God, yeah, you know, I've got both barrels of my
Speaker 3: twenty gay shotgun loaded for this one. Right. The author
Speaker 3: of this John Halpin, and he's you know, his policy
Speaker 3: instincts are progressive, his political instincts are much better. I
Speaker 3: had lunch with him, you know, fifteen years ago, along
Speaker 3: with ruy t Chera. He's his partner in the liberal
Speaker 3: patriot right. Important to say liberal patriot because, by the way,
Speaker 3: the decline of religious belief amongst Democrats tracks with the
Speaker 3: decline and patriotism among Democrats, they don't. They've done separate pieces.
Speaker 3: I think Ruy's done a separate pieces saying democrats are
Speaker 3: also less patriotic. I think those things go together for
Speaker 3: a reason. I don't think they're randomly correlated here at all. Right,
Speaker 3: and put it this way. You know, I wrote that
Speaker 3: long piece for the New York Post about Franklin Roosevelt
Speaker 3: and revisionism what a week ago, and I did go
Speaker 3: back to thinking about Roosevelt and Roosevelt, who, by the way,
Speaker 3: he was a high Church Episcopalian, sort of like John,
Speaker 3: maybe not John, okay, and so another.
Speaker 2: Way Lucretian thinks were the same.
Speaker 3: Then well okay, well well you know I remember Andrew Claven,
Speaker 3: who you know, converted from Judaism to Christianity, and someone said,
Speaker 3: what are you Episcopalian? He says, no, no, I'm a real Christian.
Speaker 3: Lets I ran that by Rob Long the other day
Speaker 3: and he said, yeah, I totally get that.
Speaker 1: See before you go any further, let me just I
Speaker 1: don't want to interrupt, but I just want to say
Speaker 1: that that fifty four includes all of those Episcopalians and
Speaker 1: all the Rainbow Flags and all the Methodists who Mary
Speaker 1: pallia amoris, couples, truplstruples, that's what they're called these days, trupls.
Speaker 4: You know, Pol John, you don't want to know.
Speaker 1: Fifty of Democrats encompass all of those those.
Speaker 3: That would be a very interesting subject for a survey
Speaker 3: of what those fifties four. I'll bet that would be
Speaker 3: a huge golf there. Right. You know that what's the
Speaker 3: old joke about Unitarians is there believe that there is
Speaker 3: at most one God. And you know when a Unitarian
Speaker 3: wants to run you out of town, they burn a
Speaker 3: question mark on your lawn. You know, I got all
Speaker 3: those jokes, right, I can, I can. I can do
Speaker 3: those next to the episcopal episcopal jokes. But look here,
Speaker 3: here's the point is. You know, Roosevelt, whatever you may
Speaker 3: say about him, and for that matter, about John F.
Speaker 3: Kennedy or even Bill Clinton, massive hypocrite. But somewhere deep
Speaker 3: down inside I think you know, he does have the
Speaker 3: residue of being raised as Southern Baptist in Arkansas, and
Speaker 3: and I think that connects to why he was a
Speaker 3: popular politician. I'll leave that for some other day to
Speaker 3: talk about. But you think about Roosevelt, so what did
Speaker 3: Roosevelt do on D Day, he led the nation in prayer,
Speaker 3: a Christian prayer for the troops in the field. Before
Speaker 3: D Day. He actually throughout the war he wrote a
Speaker 3: preface to a little pocket Bible. Actually it was a
Speaker 3: New Testament, even worse if you're not Christian. Right, And
Speaker 3: he said, I recommend actually let me get the quote
Speaker 3: because I you know, I do have it handy. He says,
Speaker 3: as commander in chief, constitutional phrase, Right, I take pleasure
Speaker 3: in commending the reading of the Bible to all who
Speaker 3: served in the armed forces of the United States. If
Speaker 3: if Trump said that today, Democrats would be calling for
Speaker 3: his impeachment. Right, that's how far we have changed. And
Speaker 3: really it's not how far the country has changed, it's
Speaker 3: how far one party has changed. I think there's deep
Speaker 3: reasons for that. You know, I wrote about this some
Speaker 3: months ago on our sub stack that you know. Sixty
Speaker 3: years ago the new thing on the sort of secular
Speaker 3: left was God is Dead, and then Time magazine put
Speaker 3: it under cover. Was a famous cover that in nineteen
Speaker 3: eighty nine I put on the cover is Government Dead.
Speaker 3: And I read the article and said, this is the
Speaker 3: same article as there is God Dead. Because government is
Speaker 3: the secular substitute for religion for a lot of people
Speaker 3: on the left, and that I think explains why they're
Speaker 3: so angry about things these days. Now, that's a thumbnail
Speaker 3: for a much longer analysis that I probably could turn
Speaker 3: into a book, but I'll stop there because I'm going
Speaker 3: on too long.
Speaker 4: I'd be curious how many of these things correlate together. So, yeah,
Speaker 4: you know, Steve Lucretia says there's been a decline in
Speaker 4: religious belief in Democrats. You know, Steve says, you know,
Speaker 4: there's other things that have declined in amongst Democrats. Maybe marriage,
Speaker 4: you know, family foundation, you know, like you know, but
Speaker 4: also maybe like increases and income, you know, throupoles or
Speaker 4: whatever these you know, these new Christmas orinaments start talking
Speaker 4: about are they have more of those drug use number
Speaker 4: of teslas? I mean, you could go on and on,
Speaker 4: like how it would be very interesting to see like
Speaker 4: what the high the high correlation of different characteristics are
Speaker 4: with the progressives or Democrats nowadays. And I bet religion
Speaker 4: is not just the only patriotismist. Steed said, military service
Speaker 4: I'm sure as in decline too, But yet I've prochoids
Speaker 4: also with higher education levels, you know, higher income, you know,
Speaker 4: more urbanization. I don't know, but I bet that has
Speaker 4: a lot to bet there's a This is just one
Speaker 4: of many things that are going on amongst Democrats.
Speaker 1: This is an interesting one. I mean, interested to think
Speaker 1: hear what you think. Highly religious Americans highly religious. So
Speaker 1: that's not the methodist, uh but woman with the rainbow
Speaker 1: garments and you know, the whole thing marrying off through polls.
Speaker 1: That's highly religious. People like me who go to church
Speaker 1: more than once a week, you know, say they pray
Speaker 1: every day, all of those kinds of things. Highly religious
Speaker 1: Americans are less likely to say the government should give
Speaker 1: more help to people in need. Think that one through
Speaker 1: why because Christians, real Christians believe there is not government.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 1: It is your responsibility as an individual to help the
Speaker 1: guy that's the Samaritan that you pass by on the street.
Speaker 1: It is not to tax your fellow citizens to have
Speaker 1: money sent in part to help the poor and then
Speaker 1: the rest of it go to NGOs and funnel back
Speaker 1: to leftists. Sorry that was an editorial side comment, but anyway,
Speaker 1: I think that's very interesting that and of course democrats
Speaker 1: favorite my favorite anecdote about that. It'll be quite as
Speaker 1: the anecdote about al Gore and Tipper when he was
Speaker 1: still married to Tipper and their children are sitting outside
Speaker 1: at this lovely little coffee shop in Washington, d C.
Speaker 1: And in home, a homeless guy comes by, and one
Speaker 1: of the kids says, let's take him home. He needs
Speaker 1: you know, he needs a bath, he needs a hot meal,
Speaker 1: and and al Gore's response is no, no, no, much better
Speaker 1: that we give some money to the government and let
Speaker 1: the government take care of it.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Right, So that's going to have implications long term.
Speaker 3: I think as well, well, you've heard the I forget
Speaker 3: we made this joke. I think it way predates the
Speaker 3: Babylon b But it's you know, it's two liberals walk
Speaker 3: along and they see the the person who's been assaulted
Speaker 3: and you know, at the good Samaritan that is right.
Speaker 3: They see the person who's been beaten up by a
Speaker 3: criminal in the ditch, and they look at each other
Speaker 3: and say, we must find a person who did this
Speaker 3: and help him. That's that's that's modern liberalism, right. Yeah,
Speaker 3: there's data on this, by the way, I know it is,
Speaker 3: but it's true, there's data on this. And actually this
Speaker 3: is Arthur Brooks early work that was really good, which
Speaker 3: was who gives in America? Who's the most charitable? Turns
Speaker 3: out it's not rich Conservatives or rich Christians. It's average
Speaker 3: working class Christians who they tithe their churches that give
Speaker 3: them money to the food banks. And and they're not
Speaker 3: people who itemize. They're not taking a tax benefit for
Speaker 3: this because they don't itemize. They do it because that's
Speaker 3: what they think they ought to do. As you were
Speaker 3: saying a moment ago. Whereas what does Hillary Clinton do
Speaker 3: on there as underwear? Their underwear underwear? We're gonna take
Speaker 3: a dollar fifty induction for bills used underwear.
Speaker 1: Okay, all right, I have to do this because it'll
Speaker 1: come back. We're almost done and it will come back
Speaker 1: on the Babylon b But I'm gonna give a little
Speaker 1: bit of leeway to a should it that's not the
Speaker 1: right way to put You'll get it, Bill Clinton. I'm
Speaker 1: going to speak a little bit on behalf of Bill
Speaker 1: Clinton for a moment. So with the release of the
Speaker 1: Epstein files, the more of the Epstein files, Bill Clinton
Speaker 1: of course has figured prominent prominently in them, and one
Speaker 1: of them that kept showing up over and over again,
Speaker 1: at least on the things that I see and read.
Speaker 1: Was Bill Clinton shirtless in a hot tub. I'm sorry,
Speaker 1: I don't like Bill Clinton. I think he's a scum.
Speaker 1: But I don't know anybody ever in the history of
Speaker 1: hot tubs who's a guy who's gone in with a
Speaker 1: shirt on into a hot tub. If you're in a
Speaker 1: hot tub, you don't have a shirt on. But it
Speaker 1: goes back to what we talked about last time, which
Speaker 1: was framing a narrative in just the way that you
Speaker 1: present the facts. Yeah, he was shirtless in a hot tub.
Speaker 1: He did a lot of other bad things. I'm not
Speaker 1: giving him any grace on those other things. But the
Speaker 1: idea that he's somehow this terrible pedophile because he was
Speaker 1: shirtless and hot, that just doesn't ring true. Sorry. Do
Speaker 1: you guys have any comments about the Epstein files.
Speaker 3: No, that's I'm bored at this point.
Speaker 1: That was bored six months ago.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, but but but your point, I mean, you
Speaker 3: want to I know, we want to move to an end.
Speaker 3: But the flip side, so you know, you talk about
Speaker 3: religion and John Halpin and you know, our smart progressive
Speaker 3: friends like Ruye and John, then you have the same
Speaker 3: time here in the last couple of days. Uh, the
Speaker 3: politico saying the far right is exploiting Christmas. I mean
Speaker 3: this is like Sam, Well, it's what happens is well,
Speaker 3: first of all, I mean that's just the political story
Speaker 3: skips over the facts, which is Christmas markets in Europe
Speaker 3: have been in some cases canceled. In other cases they've
Speaker 3: had put up ballards to stop you know, truck not
Speaker 3: truck brought people driving through. There's a number of examples
Speaker 3: now of what looks like groups of aggress Muslims deliberately
Speaker 3: trying to do some of their prayer observances on the
Speaker 3: grounds of Christian churches. What's that about. There's no need
Speaker 3: to do that. That's not okay. And so but you're
Speaker 3: seeing maloney in Italy and others saying, you know, we're
Speaker 3: for we're for Christmas. Boy, what a bold, controversial thing
Speaker 3: to do. You know, we're for Christmas. Right. The other
Speaker 3: one is there's a good story the other day in
Speaker 3: USA today. I say good story, I mean the fact
Speaker 3: that they reported at all. It's like conservatives are having
Speaker 3: kids and getting married and liberals aren't. And this is
Speaker 3: a real problem for liberals because you know, you play
Speaker 3: out how that works. Right, We're going to out number
Speaker 3: liberals someday, I'm told by the way, and I know
Speaker 3: some of the people have done this. People have have
Speaker 3: five or six kids and they go to Europe for
Speaker 3: vacation and everybody stares at them. They can't what. They
Speaker 3: can't believe that these American families have five six kids.
Speaker 3: It's just because almost nobody does accept now. Of course,
Speaker 3: the number of faithful people in Europe is much smaller
Speaker 3: than America. That's part of the problem over there. But
Speaker 3: guess what, the people who have high birth rates, it's
Speaker 3: the seriously religious and faithful people in Europe are still
Speaker 3: having kids because they actually have a reason to believe
Speaker 3: in the future, no matter how incompetent their governments are.
Speaker 1: John, do you have any comment?
Speaker 2: He's still trying to figure out what all that other
Speaker 2: stuff Steve said, haven't.
Speaker 3: You looked up troubles yet? No, you don't want to know.
Speaker 4: No, from access to these websites recommended by Steve Hayworth.
Speaker 1: You probably don't want to read that.
Speaker 3: Can I just just say real quick? Since we have
Speaker 3: a lot of good questions in the chat thread, but
Speaker 3: some of them want to hold till I think we're
Speaker 3: going to do another episode Friday or Saturday. We'll figure
Speaker 3: it out where we well Friday, and we're going to
Speaker 3: do sort of year end wrap up in a few things.
Speaker 3: And so you know, one faithful reader and listener wants
Speaker 3: to know Lucretia why you don't like a quil Lamar
Speaker 3: and that will take more than thirty seconds, so let's
Speaker 3: save that and a few others. So anyway, okay, sorry,
Speaker 3: I just talk to listeners or you know, Okay, we'll
Speaker 3: do what we can about that. I mean, I want
Speaker 3: to say to a conference with him next fall, so there.
Speaker 1: Yes we are, I do want to say. And I
Speaker 1: don't dislike him at all.
Speaker 3: I don't know him, so I don't agree with him,
Speaker 3: disagree with age.
Speaker 1: Yes, And and by the way, my good friend John
Speaker 1: and I have some agreement on our on the disagreement
Speaker 1: with him, but I won't I'll leave that aside too.
Speaker 1: I want to say that that that even small things
Speaker 1: like Okay, I don't know if you knew this, but
Speaker 1: for the first time since the start of the gause
Speaker 1: of War, they actually had Christian celebrations in Bethlehem for
Speaker 1: Christmas Eve. So that's a wonderful thing. But also just
Speaker 1: look at the Trump administration. I mean, Trump is on
Speaker 1: some great things. Malania's Christmas decoration of the White House
Speaker 1: compared to that monstrosity clown show that Joe Biden put
Speaker 1: on last year. We've never discussed that. It came out.
Speaker 1: You know, this isn't new news, but it it points
Speaker 1: to an understanding of the importance of faith, the importance
Speaker 1: of one of the most holy days for Christians in America.
Speaker 1: And I see between the Charlie Kirk thing, which you
Speaker 1: said we come back to, we didn't. We don't have
Speaker 1: time today. But I'm just seeing more and more everywhere
Speaker 1: people willing to talk about their faith, people willing to
Speaker 1: people not being embarrassed about it anymore in a way
Speaker 1: that they probably were even ten years ago. And I
Speaker 1: think that's a wonderful thing, because, as Steve pointed out
Speaker 1: in his article juxtaposing the two different times time pieces
Speaker 1: his subset article, when you don't have anything to believe in,
Speaker 1: uh things, get things? You know that it explains the
Speaker 1: crisis of our time. It explains the crisis of our
Speaker 1: young people. It explains the crisis of people who who
Speaker 1: really do they don't have children because they don't believe
Speaker 1: there's a future. Those of us who believe there's a
Speaker 1: future have hope. And so anyway, I'm not going to pontificate.
Speaker 1: I'm going to move to the babylonde and give you guys, well,
Speaker 1: I'm pulling it up. One last word, John.
Speaker 2: Uh huh, No, no, no, go ahead, he doesn't have
Speaker 2: a last word. Okay, No, no, I don't. I don't
Speaker 2: what's the last There was no question.
Speaker 3: Yeah, let's just I'll just give you a look at
Speaker 3: the sunset out my window right now from my home. Awk.
Speaker 2: Wow, are you in the middle of the storms?
Speaker 3: Yeah. My power was out last night for several hours
Speaker 3: and it came back that surprising me. I thought it'd
Speaker 3: be out for two days. But PG is actually trying
Speaker 3: to do a good job these days, which kind of
Speaker 3: amazes me.
Speaker 4: Anyway, in the quarter of San Francisco lost electricity, right, Yeah,
Speaker 4: most of downtown and.
Speaker 1: The way mos all just had to stop in the
Speaker 1: middle of the street because without street lights they can't operate.
Speaker 1: You are safe from that, right John.
Speaker 2: Yeah, No, I'm not in San Francisco.
Speaker 1: So, yeah, you weren't in San Francisco.
Speaker 4: At the I wasn't in San Francisco in the power
Speaker 4: outage happened, but it was a few years ago when
Speaker 4: the power went out for two weeks because of the wildfires.
Speaker 3: Oh right, I was excited.
Speaker 2: Yeah right.
Speaker 1: I was once without power for three and a half
Speaker 1: weeks in upstate New York. That was That was an adventure.
Speaker 1: I'll leave it at that. But now, first of all,
Speaker 1: to both of you, I wish you both a very,
Speaker 1: very merry Christmas. It is when we're recording, this is
Speaker 1: actually Christmas Eve. So I hope, I hope your Christmas,
Speaker 1: even your Christmas Day, is wonderful. And uh, that's the
Speaker 1: same to all of our listeners. We'll be back with
Speaker 1: you on Friday. And so in the meantime, a few
Speaker 1: real quick uh bablon bees Texas issues and you'll reminder
Speaker 1: not to shoot Santa a second.
Speaker 4: I'll never be sure who's under that costume.
Speaker 1: This one, This one hits way too close to home, guys,
Speaker 1: because I will tell you that the thing I confess
Speaker 1: most often at confession are the really bad words I
Speaker 1: scream at people when I'm driving. All right, just okay,
Speaker 1: because I'm anyway.
Speaker 4: Oh glad, I'd like to hear Actually, I was in
Speaker 4: a car with you. You don't scream all kinds.
Speaker 1: I was on my best behavior, John.
Speaker 4: I mean what worries me is when you start taking
Speaker 4: the guns out of the central console.
Speaker 1: Well, no, but I will do.
Speaker 2: So much rather have the cursing.
Speaker 1: I was driving down a highway the other day and
Speaker 1: the speed limits fifty five. But it's one of those
Speaker 1: highways that has lights, and you know the cars that
Speaker 1: can come off side roads. And I had the green
Speaker 1: light on the highway, so it's fifty five. I was
Speaker 1: probably only going to maybe sixty two. And I see
Speaker 1: this car getting ready to turn onto the highway out
Speaker 1: a red light sitting there, and it sits there, and
Speaker 1: it sits there, and it sits there. And then right
Speaker 1: when I get to the intersection, it turns in front
Speaker 1: of me, and I have to slam my my break.
Speaker 1: Somebody's on the other side of me. A slammy breaks.
Speaker 1: Good breaks, thank God. And so then I start honking,
Speaker 1: and then I pull around and I honk and I
Speaker 1: say some not very nice things. But then the guy
Speaker 1: rolls down his window, gets up next to me on
Speaker 1: the other side and rolls down his window and says,
Speaker 1: my dad's eighty three and I said that he shouldn't
Speaker 1: be driving, and he says, I know that, but I
Speaker 1: can't stop him. It's just crazy. But that that kind
Speaker 1: of thing happens to me all the type. Okay, back
Speaker 1: to the babble on bees. Uh oh, car, you honked
Speaker 1: and swore at for driving too slow, just turned into
Speaker 1: your church parking lot.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, that happened to me once.
Speaker 1: I hate to tell you what happens to me all
Speaker 1: the time. I can't leave it with this, but let
Speaker 1: me get these out of the way. New photos reveal
Speaker 1: Epstein had a sick fetish for girls with giant black
Speaker 1: squares for heads. It's one click here, since I don't
Speaker 1: want anybody to think that I was actually speaking on
Speaker 1: behalf of Bill Clinton. Click here to see all the
Speaker 1: Epstein photos so far that don't include Bill Bill Clinton.
Speaker 1: By the way, guys, Nicki minaj.
Speaker 3: Is, I don't know, but okay.
Speaker 1: I'll end with this one because you guys will appreciate this.
Speaker 1: And by the way, Lucretia would never never do something
Speaker 1: like this to mister Lucretia. Disappointing. Thompson's submachine gun shaped
Speaker 1: box turns out to be socks Oh, it's.
Speaker 4: Good since he already has one. He just wants the
Speaker 4: box anyway, right.
Speaker 1: He wants another one? Trust me?
Speaker 4: Go ahead, Well, always drink your whiskey, meat, buy more
Speaker 4: books and Steve, what does artificial intelligence have to say
Speaker 4: about Christmas?
Speaker 3: So, now, John, I have broken AI this week. I'll
Speaker 3: just yeah, this will be brief. I tried with a
Speaker 3: prompt asking AI to produce a satire in the style
Speaker 3: of first Woody Allen, then Robin Williams and Jerry Seinfeld,
Speaker 3: and it struck out all three times. I mean, the
Speaker 3: products were horrible and completely lame. But I will give
Speaker 3: you the very best of the relatively speaking, was Jerry Seinfeld.
Speaker 3: And here's what it came up with. And you know
Speaker 3: Jerry Feinfeld, you know his style.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 3: What's the deal with the Clean Air Act? I mean air?
Speaker 3: You don't even see it, It's just there. And suddenly
Speaker 3: in the nineteen seventies the government goes, hey, we've been
Speaker 3: looking into this air thing. Turns out it's disgusting. But
Speaker 3: I have to say that the products of all those
Speaker 3: prompts were really pathetic, and so we broke it with
Speaker 3: the You're right about the Clean Air Act? This week? John,
Speaker 3: it really does kill everything, so including.
Speaker 2: A New York gonna mention it somehow this episode.
Speaker 3: That's well, you know we've got we've got listeners to
Speaker 3: say more Cleaneric.
Speaker 1: Okay, anyway, okay, wait, I almost forgot. I almost messed
Speaker 1: up big time on this and this is actually an
Speaker 1: old one. I had to go searching seeking better counsel
Speaker 1: because we know that John has on more than one
Speaker 1: occasion made fun of the U the lawyer, the lawyer's
Speaker 1: stable that uh President Trump keeps excuse me, seeking better counsel.
Speaker 1: Trump hires Sydney Sweeney as news.
Speaker 4: Oh oh, I was waiting because I thought Steve had
Speaker 4: forgotten to mention her all episode, all episode.
Speaker 1: But I saved the day for you, Steve.
Speaker 3: Thank you.
Speaker 1: Merry Christmas, everyone, Merry Christmas.
Speaker 3: Everybody will be.
Speaker 2: Back this weekend Christmas, right, Okay.
Speaker 5: The news had come out in the First World War,
Speaker 5: the bloody Red Baron was flying once more, the all
Speaker 5: command all of his men, and calling on Snoopy to
Speaker 5: do it again well the night off Christmas for him.
Speaker 5: Below were Snoopy went up in search.
Speaker 1: Of his Poe spy, the Red Bear.
Speaker 5: Seriously, they bought with ice on his wings, snooping.
Speaker 1: Who it was gold.
Speaker 6: Christmas Well cost Christmas bang up as him Paver and
Speaker 6: the thrill.
Speaker 5: That the baron had snoopy.
Speaker 3: Ricochet joined the conversation