00:01:20.260But if you see me and you want to come say hi, I'd love to love to see you and meet you and just get to know you a little bit.
00:01:27.500So anyway, but today we're going to go over a few things. Obviously, we're going to go with listener questions.
00:01:32.260We have such great questions every time that I do this episode and I appreciate them.
00:01:36.720Some of the questions that I'm going to answer today are ones that are emailed to me personally.
00:01:40.620And I'm not going to mention the people's names, but the subjects they email about are subjects that we get multiple questions on.
00:01:46.820So I'm going to talk about those in a few minutes. But we'll start today. And I know people get tired of hearing this. I really understand that. But we need to continue to make sure that everybody's up to date on what's going on with Iran. But I need to remind you of a few things. And I ran across an article this week that I wanted to bring up.
00:02:08.280It's a couple of months old, but I think it was very important.
00:02:14.040Now, as you know, France is not the most conservative country in the world, and they're not necessarily good buddies with the current administration that we have.
00:02:22.100But the France's UN ambassador, Jerome Bonifat, warned the UN Security Council in June of 2026 that Iran's nuclear programs is still a serious international threat, pointing to the independent quarterly reports by the International Atomic Energy Agency, IAEA, which we talked about before.
00:02:46.780He said Iran is the only non-nuclear weapons state, and there are a few countries that have nuclear weapons,
00:02:55.200but they are the only one that has enriched their uranium to at least 60 percent.
00:03:00.620And you remember, as I said before a few months ago, that it only takes a few weeks to go from 60 to 90 percent.
00:03:08.420And 60% is even far more than is needed for civilian nuclear power fuel,
00:03:14.420which Iran kept saying that's all they're doing.
00:03:17.420If they keep enriching the 400 kilograms of uranium that we believe they have,
00:03:22.380they could potentially produce 10 nuclear explosive devices.
00:03:27.040What's even scarier is that the IAEA has lost track of their uranium since June of 2025.
00:03:34.580Now, we hope that our bombing got all that earlier this year, but we don't know that for sure because we haven't been able to go in there and check it, and they haven't allowed anybody to come in there and check.
00:03:46.500In September of 2025, the U.N. Security Council reinstated international restrictions, and it takes the U.N. Security Council made up of five of the main countries, okay?
00:03:57.480That's like the U.S., China, Russia, France, and England.
00:04:01.500I think those are the five that are on.0.94
00:04:03.000I may be wrong on one of those, but I think that's correct.
00:04:06.900Because they had repeatedly broken commitments under the 2015 nuclear deal, which was Obama's deal.
00:04:13.520When we shipped them all that cash on the airplane in exchange for this deal, they've broken that deal.
00:04:19.280And despite several attempts by Europe and the United States to negotiate another agreement, they have stopped and they've also stopped allowing the IAEA to inspect its most sensitive nuclear facilities.
00:04:32.880please. I just want to remind you that the reason that we're in this conflict is because we cannot
00:04:39.820afford for a country that has stated, their leadership has stated they hate us. They want
00:04:46.380us dead. Death to America. We can't afford for them to have a nuclear weapon. And negotiations1.00
00:04:51.420have not worked in the past. So now what we're trying to do is put military and economic pressure
00:04:57.920on them. How long that's going to last, I thought it would have already been taken care of by now.
00:05:02.880But one of the things that we've learned is that the leadership in Iran doesn't care about their0.74
00:05:06.680own people. They really don't care about their own people. This could be over tomorrow if they
00:05:11.720would just wake up and come to a reasonable agreement. We would open back up the Strait of
00:05:15.920Hormuz. We would lift the economic sanctions, but they just are unwilling to do that. So
00:05:21.920it's really important that we stay the course. And I know we get some questions sometime about,
00:05:29.120golly, it's really hurting our economy. I get that. I know that you feel that. I really do
00:05:33.780understand that. I've got kids, adult kids that are trying to raise families, and it's hard on
00:05:38.540them. I understand that. However, it's not only always just about us right here and now. One of
00:05:44.740the reasons that we need to stay the course is for our grandkids, your kids, right? What we do
00:05:52.480now will have a major effect on them. Do you really want Iran to have a nuclear weapon that
00:05:57.680they could bomb cities in the United States with a nuclear weapon when your kids are trying to grow
00:06:03.180up and raise their own families? You don't want that. Yeah, it's a little tough on us right now,
00:06:08.000but we need to stay the course. In fact, one of the questions that came out was that if we
00:06:15.640effectively dismantle the current leadership in Iran, what steps would the Trump administration
00:06:19.840need to take to prevent another terrorist regime from taking over? The only way that that's going0.93
00:06:25.040to work is, first of all, the people of Iran would have to participate in that and prevent that.1.00
00:06:30.540You know, for 2,500 years, as I said, I think on our last time that we got together, 2,500 years,1.00
00:06:39.840Iran and Israel were partners. They were allies. And it's only been since the early 70s when the
00:06:48.180radical Islamic leadership took over that they haven't been allies. So it's not like they've
00:06:53.220hated each other forever, all right? That has not been the case. But the radical leadership
00:06:58.200that consists, the mullahs and the Iranian Republican Guard, that really all they want is
00:07:04.040power. They want power. And remember, power and leadership are always in conflict. If you're a
00:07:11.640great leader, then you don't abuse your power. But the challenge is people become quote-unquote
00:07:18.780leaders of nations and companies and things like that. And they let the power go to their head
00:07:24.220and they become consumed by power and they quit worrying about leadership. And that's
00:07:30.240obviously what happened in Iran. What we're going to have to do is we're going to have to make sure0.65
00:07:34.620that there are inspections, that there are inspections going on related to nuclear weapons,
00:07:39.300that there are inspections going on to any other restrictions that we put on them. So I just
00:07:44.820wanted to mention that briefly so that you can understand why it's important to stay the course.
00:07:50.120We have to stay the course. And it's not pretty. I get it. And I don't like some of the rhetoric
00:07:55.640that, you know, the current administration uses sometimes, but I certainly support our men and
00:08:01.040women in uniform that are trying to protect our country. And I support the leadership in
00:08:06.000the administration that's trying to make the very hard, hard decisions that other presidents in the
00:08:11.660past have not been willing to do that. What do you think? And I wasn't alive then. Maybe there's
00:08:17.760somebody listening to this podcast that was alive then. But if you do any history reading, think
00:08:23.060about going back to World War II. There was a large percentage of the people that did not want
00:08:28.060us to go into World War II. That was their war. That was Europe's war. That was Germany and France0.58
00:08:33.380and England. And we weren't going to be a part of that. Now, behind the scenes, President Roosevelt,0.95
00:08:39.140even though publicly he was saying, no, we're not going to go there. We're not going to do that.
00:08:44.020He was behind the scenes knowing that we were needing to do that. And of course, we were trying
00:08:48.380to help Britain any way we could during that particular time before we actually got in the
00:08:54.060war. But aren't you glad we did? Aren't you glad we did? I'm pretty much convinced that if we
00:09:00.460wouldn't have gotten in that war, that Germany, a lot of people would be speaking German today.
00:09:07.220and not the Germany we know, but the Nazi regime, the Third Reich, the thousand-year reign.
00:09:15.360I mean, maybe England could have stuck it out and eventually won, but they were fighting a battle
00:09:21.280against a much, much larger force. So it's very difficult. And I appreciate what we're doing,
00:09:27.560even though it certainly has consequences. And one of the consequences could be the midterm.
00:09:33.080I don't know what's going to happen in the midterm elections. We talked about it last time. I wanted
00:09:36.960to kind of bring it back up, remind you, remind you that there are some very close races in a lot
00:09:44.380of the states and we're voting for not a person. We're voting for policy. So you should look at
00:09:51.600the Democrat Party's policies and the Republican Party's policies, what they stand for. I mean,
00:09:57.540if you're pro-abortion and you don't mind babies being murdered right up until birth,0.64
00:10:02.820then you should vote for Democrats. If you're pro-life and you want to you think every life
00:10:07.720is important, then you that's that's on the Republican side. All right. Those types of
00:10:14.020things. If you think that more individual liberty is important, that's Republicans. If you want the
00:10:20.160government to be more of a nanny state, then that's Democrats. OK. And again, there's a lot
00:10:25.320of things that they probably agree on, like, you know, maybe in a large part, a lot of them agree
00:10:29.580on our military. Most of them don't agree on our police force because the Democrats, a lot of them
00:10:36.080want an open border. And they also want to defund police in some ways. And they want to get rid of
00:10:41.680our immigration customs and enforcement. Republicans don't want to do that. And all the0.96
00:10:48.940polls show that borders are really, really important. So we're going to see what happens
00:10:53.700in the midterms. Now, a lot of people will say this is an election about Donald Trump. And in
00:10:59.220some ways, I guess it is that, you know, that there's so much hatred out there for Donald Trump
00:11:04.420that a lot of the people that are going to polls are voting against him. So whatever he's for,
00:11:08.360they're against. I understand that. However, what we need to do, if those of you that believe in
00:11:14.420the conservatism, that believe in pro-life, that believe that we should have borders,
00:11:19.440we need to make sure that we're getting our friends out in these close states,
00:11:23.680making sure they're going to vote. And just a reminder, in the Senate, the states are Texas.
00:11:27.980Texas generally has not been a very close state, but it is a close state this year.
00:11:33.120There's no question about it that Ken Paxton and James Tallarico are in a neck and neck race.
00:11:39.560It just depending on which polls you look at, Tallarico is up one or two percent.
00:11:43.900I just read one today where it's a dead heat. A lot of these polls have margins of error.
00:11:47.980So if you're up two percent, it's probably more like a dead heat.
00:11:50.840Need to be up about five percent in order for it to be outside the realm of the margin of error.
00:11:57.480And so we'll see what, I don't know what's going to happen in that.
00:12:00.120But I do know that if all the Republicans in Texas go out and vote for Paxton, vote for
00:12:05.380the policy that he represents, he's a flawed candidate, no question about that.
00:12:09.740But Tallarico is someone that doesn't believe in hardly anything that you and I believe in.0.55
00:12:18.080I mean, he believes in gender mutilation for children on the transgender scenario.0.70
00:12:25.220He believes that abortion should be allowed right up to birth.0.71
00:19:13.220There are people that want to come work here.
00:19:16.240Especially, let's just take Mexico, for example.
00:19:17.740There are a lot of people, and we use some of these special work visas for this, that want to come up here and work during our work season, and in the winter, go back home and work down there.0.72
00:19:28.040They're not interested in staying up here, okay?
00:19:30.820But it's hard for them to get a visa to be able to do that.
00:19:59.100He also said, if you remember the iconic picture, when he goes down to ground zero after 9-11, within just a couple of days after 9-11, he goes to ground zero.
00:20:10.740and he said, I'll kind of start talking on my stump speech about how we're going to get past
00:20:16.780this and da-da-da. He said, honestly, you may not could have heard it, but I got some booze.
00:20:22.440And what those people wanted to hear, which was all first responders primarily, a lot of them had
00:20:28.820lost family or friends in those Twin Towers. He said, I threw, in my mind, threw away the stump
00:20:38.540speech and I said, I want you to know that I hear you and America hears you. And that's what those
00:20:47.560people wanted to hear is that they were being heard and that we were going to do something about
00:20:51.180it. And this small invite that I was a part of was a very special time this week. And it really
00:20:57.700encouraged me because I can get discouraged like everybody else in the way things are going on.
00:21:02.480And, you know, are we going to get on the other side of this election and our house is going to
00:21:07.100get more affordable for my kids and grandkids. And, you know, things go through cycles. And
00:21:13.100President Bush and Dr. Rice reminded us of that. And they are very optimistic. And listen,
00:21:19.420they still get intel that you and I don't get, of course, right? They still, I'm sure,
00:21:24.920have some types of security clearances, or at least they have the people there that they know
00:21:29.020that they can get information that you and I can get. But it was a really great time. If you had
00:21:33.600the opportunity ever to go hear some people like that statesman, I'd encourage you to do it. I think
00:21:38.820it'll feel good. Take your kids to it if they're old enough to understand that, especially your
00:21:42.480teenagers. I think they would really, really enjoy that. All right. A few more things here. Let's go
00:21:48.580to some listener questions here. I want to go through these as many as I can today before we
00:21:53.660finish up. Is accepting school choice fun socialism? No. Public schools, in my opinion, are more
00:22:01.080socialistic than school choice, because if you're in a state that just requires you to go to public
00:22:05.880school, then you don't have any choice. I mean, the state's telling you what you're going to learn,
00:22:11.880where you're going to go. That is totalitarianism, in my opinion. We're forced to do that. School
00:22:18.300choice gives the parents the option. And remember, that's not the government's money. That's your
00:22:23.180money. That's money that you've paid in taxes over the years that they've been putting in a
00:22:27.900government-run school. And so, no, don't feel bad about that at all. What can we do about Islam in
00:22:35.840America? I've got a couple of questions on that. First of all, remember that we live under a
00:22:42.780constitution, all right? And our constitution guarantees the freedom of religion. And Islam
00:22:48.560is a religion. So we can't outlaw Islam. I mean, we can't do that under our current constitution.
00:22:55.400I would never support that. But what we can do is we can make sure that we are monitoring it for radicalism, okay, because that's breaking the law. Terrorism breaks the law, obviously. We can outlaw Sharia law, which we've done in places like Texas and other states.
00:23:11.300And we can also keep taxing districts.0.96
00:23:16.840Like in Texas, we have something called a municipal utility district where essentially a developer can go in there, essentially set up their own city and actually charge taxes and collect money for water, sewer, those types of things.
00:23:30.720We can, and they've been trying to do that in Texas, and we've been able to stop that so far.
00:23:35.560We can avoid religious exclusive tax districts, things like that.
00:23:39.980But we can't stop them from having their religion.0.96
00:24:03.840Oh, this was at a university in Texas.0.98
00:24:06.920that's a religious university that for some reason these Muslim girls went there because it was0.96
00:24:11.320probably good education on some other fronts, and they've become Christians. Now, their families
00:24:15.140have disowned them, but the community there is obviously supporting them, and so that's really
00:24:20.060important as well. All right. Somebody asked about comparing the 529 accounts to the Trump accounts.
00:24:25.960I've done that already in a previous episode, and they're going to link that episode to
00:24:29.520the show notes here, so make sure you take a look at that. All right. The other one is,
00:24:36.060somebody says, my husband regrets that he voted for Trump. And how can I convince him or what can
00:24:42.120I bring up that might, you know, make him understand? And I get it. He, you know, it costs
00:24:47.340more to fill their vehicles up. Restaurants prices are higher. But remember, restaurant prices and
00:24:54.040gasoline prices, all this stuff went up during the Biden years. And yes, it's still gone up a little
00:25:00.320bit. But remember, I told you last time it's gone up 21 percent during the Biden years. It's gone up
00:25:04.840about 5% since Trump took over in two years. So we're at a better pace. Now, the Iran war is
00:25:11.440hurting that, but that will be temporary. I promise you that. I don't know how long. I thought
00:25:16.100it would have already gotten behind us, but it hasn't. But again, you have to look at a broader
00:25:21.120picture. It's not just about us right now. Again, we may have to sacrifice a little bit in order for
00:25:27.440things to be better for our kids going forward. And the other question was, how can I support my
00:25:33.440a friend who has a kid with special needs. You need the way you can support them the most other
00:25:39.720than just loving them, being their friend, listening to them because sometimes they may
00:25:43.180just need to vent. Also, respite care. If you think that you can give that mom or that mom and
00:25:49.000dad a couple of hours to go out to a dinner and y'all can keep that child if you're capable of
00:25:53.560doing that, that is a huge help. Most of them don't get any respite care. You know, we're going
00:25:59.940through with our adult son Daniel right now who has a mild form of autism and that's manageable
00:26:05.540but he has epilepsy and that has gotten worse in the last year or so for whatever reason we're
00:26:12.500working on medicine combinations and all sorts of things and that's been difficult it's been
00:26:17.260difficult on Lisa and I and it's been difficult on him bless his heart he he's a trooper it's
00:26:22.680unbelievable I mean I was just with him a couple weeks ago and he fell which he does sometimes
00:26:27.320with these seizures and cracked his collarbone. And, you know, he, he just fights through all of
00:26:32.900it, but it's difficult. I will tell you. And so encouragement, respite care. Hey, can I,
00:26:38.600hey, can I, you know, if somebody, if somebody called us said, Hey, can we take Daniel out to
00:26:42.460dinner? You know, give you guys a couple hours off. That'd be awesome. We love that. All right.
00:26:47.460But it doesn't happen very much because we feel uncomfortable doing that. So just make sure that
00:26:53.080you're you're just encouraging them and then you know how do we what do i do with little kids and
00:26:58.600you know keeping the relationship with my spouse that's a question that we always get and is just
00:27:04.500i've said this before but make sure that you have a date night make sure you have a day even if
00:27:09.320you're not spending money if y'all are just going to go drive around town or go sit at the park or
00:27:13.980just get a get a soda pop or something like that make sure you have a date night i'd like to see
00:27:18.760you do it once a week, but at least once every other week. Really, really important, okay? Really
00:27:24.440important. No matter how tired you are, no matter anything, you need to have that date night. And
00:27:29.280it's not a date night to talk about the kids. Obviously, sometimes you'll do that, but it's a
00:27:34.720date night for you too. That's what's really important. How do I submit to my husband even
00:27:39.740when I know he's making the wrong decision? I get those sometimes and kind of related to,
00:27:45.380hey, I think maybe we ought to move to a more conservative area, but my husband doesn't want
00:27:49.760to. I think in all of these, obviously, husbands are called upon to cherish their wives. So that
00:27:59.420means that what their opinions are important, guys, very important. Wives, you're called on
00:28:04.820to respect your husband and assuming that he's honoring what he's supposed to be doing as well.
00:28:13.380And so the way you can get, I know that if Lisa needed me to do something when our earlier marriage and what have you before, you know, we've known each other now for almost 50 years.
00:28:23.600But what Lisa would do, Lisa, she learned early on, she focused on herself.
00:28:31.160She would bring things up to me for sure.
00:28:33.700She was never demanding or anything like that.
00:28:36.380But I knew I didn't, I wanted to please her.
00:34:24.240Now, I want to finish up with one thing.
00:34:26.120I've gone a little bit longer today than I normally want to go in these.
00:34:29.180But I think I told you guys earlier that I was reading through the Bible this year in a year.
00:34:34.540Now, I started in April, so I'm not going to be done by December.
00:34:38.220But one of the things that I'm doing is I got this little notebook, and I am writing down a precept that I read in the chapters I read that day.
00:34:49.380I write one or two precepts down that spoke to me.
00:34:53.080And so I'm going to try each couple of weeks to share with you one of those precepts.
00:34:57.200And the one this week that I wrote down, and I wrote this down back in April, it says,
00:35:01.640God honors righteous action that carries risk. God honors righteous action that carries risk.
00:35:08.860And this refers to Luke 19, 12 through 27. And it's the story of where the noble man,
00:35:17.700in fact, I'm going to read it to you. That'll be the easiest thing. It says,
00:35:20.360a certain noble man went to a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and to return.
00:35:24.600So he called 10 of his servants, delivered to them 10 menace, which is money, and said to them,
00:35:31.080do business until I come back. But the citizens hated him, and they sent a delegation after him
00:35:37.540saying, we will not have this man to reign over us for whatever reason. And so it was that when
00:35:43.020he returned, having received the kingdom, he commanded those servants to whom he had given
00:35:47.080the money to be called to him so that he might know how much every man had gained in trading
00:35:51.660and doing business. Then came the first, Master, I have earned 10 menas and M-I-N-A-S. And he said
00:35:58.620to them well done good servant because you were faithful and very little you have authority over
00:36:03.26010 cities and the second one came master i've earned five likewise you will have over five
00:36:08.280cities then another came saying master here is your money that you gave me which i have kept put
00:36:13.500in a handkerchief for i feared you i feared you because you were an austere man you collect what
00:36:18.960you did not deposit and reap what you did not sow and he said to him out of your own mouth i will0.99
00:36:24.380judge you, you wicked servant. You knew that I was an austere man collecting what I did not deposit0.99
00:36:29.200and reaping what I did not sow. Why then did you not put my money in the bank that at my coming,
00:36:34.680I might have collected it with interest? So you can see all three of these servants were probably
00:36:38.880a little nervous about what to do. These people that worked for him. And, but some of them,
00:36:44.200two of them said, okay, I'm going to take the risk. All right. And because I think this would
00:36:52.540be the right thing to do. If I wasn't afraid of the man, this is what I would do. Well, this other
00:36:57.400guy, he didn't want to take any risk. But what's happened here? The parable here is that God is
00:37:04.820honoring our dutifulness, our obedience, but sometimes that carries risk. So think about that.
00:37:13.640But thank you for joining me today. I hope you have a great day. I hope to see a lot of you
00:37:17.180at Share the Arrows next weekend. Talk to you later.