A feminist just made the worst argument of all time, President Donald Trump is back at war with LeVar Ball, and he finally has comments on Roy Moore. Plus, Thanksgiving is coming up, and we ll go through the Thanksgiving mailbag. This is The Ben Shapiro Show, and because it is a shortened week, we will have the opportunity to do the mailbag for you. So that s why you need to be a subscriber right now, because that means you get to be part of the live mailbag today! But before we get to any of the myriad news items that are on the table on this, the day before Thanksgiving, we have a lot to be thankful for. I mean, Hillary Clinton isn t the president. Judge Neil Gorsuch is the president, and there are lots of things for us here at the Ben Shapiro show to be THANKFUL for. But first I want to say thank you to our sponsors over at Dollar Shave Club. They make products for your hair, your face, your skin, and the shower that I've added to my daily routine. They only use the finest premium ingredients to deliver it to you just like they do their razors. And then after that, replacement cartridges shipped for just a few bucks a month so you're not stuck with a dull razor when the news gets bad. After that, you get that travel size version for just $5, and then you have the sharpest razor you can be stuck in your home with just a duller than that. And then that s not stuck anymore. Get yours for $5 exclusively at the dollarshaveclub.com slash ben.club. And again, you re gonna be stuck with that by the dollar shave club for a reason! Ben Shapiro . And the Walking Dead poster from The Walking Dead? Get your first month of their SHave Club and all of their other goodies for just that s $5? And all of your other goodies, you ll get your own dildos, you can get yours for a better service, you ve got it, I bet that s gonna be that s a better than that, I ll be helping you get it, too, right in the show, right here, right there, at the dollarshaveclub, slash ben that s that seeeeeeeeedeeeeeeeedeedeeeeedeeeedeeeeeeeedeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeseeee
00:00:17.000So because it is a shortened week, we will have the opportunity to do the mailbag for you.
00:00:21.000So that's why you need to be a subscriber right now, because that means you get to be part of the live mailbag today.
00:00:25.000But before we get to any of the myriad news items that are on the table on this, the day before Thanksgiving, and we have a lot to be thankful for.
00:00:32.000I mean, Hillary Clinton isn't the president.
00:00:36.000Donald Trump continues to tweet, like lots of things for us here at The Ben Shapiro Show to be thankful for.
00:00:40.000But before we get to any of those things, first I want to say thank you to our sponsors over at Dollar Shave Club.
00:00:45.000So you've heard me talk before about how the Dollar Shave Club razors, which I use under my chinny-chin-chin for Jewish
00:00:52.000Ritual reasons why the razors are just fantastic.
00:00:56.000Well now, they have Dr. Carver's Shave Butter, which is terrific, and there are even more Dollar Shave Club products that I've added to my daily routine.
00:01:03.000So they make products for your hair, your face, your skin, the shower.
00:01:19.000I want you to love Dollar Shave Club as much as I do, so I have arranged for you to try your first month of their best razor, along with travel-sized versions of their Shave Butter Body Cleanser, and yes, even the fabled and famed butt wipes, for just $5.
00:01:31.000After that, replacement cartridges shipped for just a few bucks a month, so you're not stuck.
00:01:36.000In your house with a dull razor when the news gets bad.
00:01:38.000Instead, you have the sharpest razors available from our friends over at Dollar Shave Club, plus all of their other goodies.
00:01:45.000It is the Dollar Shave Club Starter Set.
00:01:47.000Get yours for just $5 exclusively at the dollarshaveclub.com slash ben.
00:02:13.000It's basically the zombie apocalypse out there.
00:02:14.000You get on the freeways, and it looks like the road out of Atlanta in the poster from The Walking Dead.
00:02:21.000It's just a bunch of people who have their desiccated corpses kind of hung over their steering wheels because no one can get out of the city.
00:02:28.000But everyone is happy because it's Thanksgiving Day, and in that mode, I think that it is time for us to bring back our newest
00:02:33.000And for the moment, our favorite segment of the Ben Shapiro Show, of course, I refer to none other than Eloquent Trump.
00:02:54.000President Trump, familiar with all of these terms, of course.
00:02:56.000So today, he tweeted out at LeVar Ball.
00:02:59.000And LeVar Ball, as you know, is a dummy.
00:03:01.000So LeVar Ball, as we have said, is the father of LiAngelo Ball, who's a UCLA basketball player who was arrested in China for shoplifting.
00:03:08.000And LeVar Ball has said he will not say thank you to President Trump because he's an adult.
00:03:11.000President Trump feels that it is absolutely of necessity that he tweet back at LeVar Ball so we can have this clash of the intellectual titans.
00:03:52.000It took me months to write those thank-you notes, so I have a particular place in my heart that despises people who sit around at their mailbox and wait for the thank-you note.
00:04:01.000There were people who legitimately would call up my grandmother, and they'd be like, you know, I gave the gift, and I never received a thank-you note.
00:04:09.000Like, who cares whether you received a thank-you note or not?
00:04:11.000I thought that the joy of giving was actually the giving, not the receipt of the useless thank-you note that will end up in your garbage after I spend money on the postage.
00:04:19.000President Trump, I have to say, he's got the feel of a guy who gives a gift and then sits around for three months waiting for the thank you note and then calls my grandmother because here is what he just tweeted.
00:04:50.000Along these lines, LaVar, you could have spent the next five to 10 years during Thanksgiving with your son in China, but no NBA contract to support you.
00:04:56.000But remember, LaVar, shoplifting is not a little thing.
00:04:59.000It's really a big deal, especially in China.
00:05:55.000Thank you for that just spectacular job, Mr. President.
00:05:58.000Okay, so in other news, sometimes you have to start with the fun stuff.
00:06:03.000In other news, President Trump has finally commented on Roy Moore.
00:06:06.000So after weeks of basically keeping silent on Roy Moore, the Senate Republican Alabama candidate who has been credibly accused of child molestation or of ephebophilia.
00:06:16.000He was trying to hit on and have sex with 14 and 16 year old girls when he was in his 30s.
00:07:30.000I can tell you for a fact, we do not need somebody that's going to be bad on crime, bad on borders, bad with the military, bad for the Second Amendment.
00:07:40.000Is an accused child molester better than a Democrat?
00:07:43.000Is an accused child molester better than a Democrat?
00:07:48.000I mean, if you look at what is really going on, and you look at all the things that have happened over the last 48 hours, he totally denies it.
00:08:39.000I am a firm believer that a woman should have the freedom to choose what happens to her own body.
00:08:45.000And I'm going to stand up for that, and I'm going to make sure that that continues to happen.
00:08:49.000I want to make sure that as we go forward, people have access to contraception, they have access to the abortion that they might need, if that's what they choose to do.
00:08:59.000I think that that's going to be an issue that we can work with and talk to people about from both sides of the aisle.
00:09:50.000This is an argument, as we say, that proves too much, because
00:09:53.000You know, you could presumably have an actual murderer running for Senate against Doug Jones, and Trump would then say, okay, so he's a genocidal murderer.
00:10:02.000Hitler is running against Doug Jones, but at least Hitler has the right votes on tax cuts.
00:10:07.000At some point, you gotta draw the line, I would imagine.
00:10:10.000And that's why President Trump is actually hesitant to just say, well, make the full David Horowitz argument.
00:10:14.000I've mentioned the David Horowitz argument before.
00:10:16.000David's very extreme on this, and he basically makes the argument that I just stated.
00:10:20.000It's fine if it's Stalin, so long as Stalin votes my way.
00:11:13.000On that stuff, President Trump is incredibly credulous, but when it comes to the allegations against Roy Moore, then it's, Moore denies it, so what are we supposed to do?
00:11:21.000I think that that is Trump attempting to avoid the horns of a dilemma.
00:11:24.000The reason that Trump is doing this is, number one, because I think that he has a gut-level response to the media piling on anybody that he perceives on his side of the aisle.
00:11:34.000He thinks that those pylons are politically motivated, as they very much are.
00:12:10.000And if he doesn't back Roy Moore and Roy Moore loses, then a lot of his base, led by people like Steve Bannon, are going to blame Trump and say that he's been co-opted by McConnell.
00:12:16.000So Trump isn't going to play that game.
00:13:00.000Back in 2006, the Republican Party was running well behind the Democrats in the Congressional Generic Ballot.
00:13:05.000They were running anywhere from 8 to 10 points behind the Democrats in the Congressional Generic Ballot.
00:13:09.000Then come late September, there was, September 2006, there was a scandal that broke.
00:13:13.000Mark Foley was a Republican congressperson from Florida who'd been closeted, he was gay, and he'd been having sex with one of the Congressional pages.
00:13:21.000And this congressional page revealed that information, and it turned out that the Republican leadership in the House had known about this for a couple of months and had basically kept it quiet.
00:13:30.000And when this broke, suddenly that D plus 8 jumped up to D plus 20.
00:13:34.000You can go back and look at the polls.
00:13:36.000And the Republicans ended up getting wiped out.
00:14:24.000If you are perceived as the party that greenlights child molestation because you're attempting to avoid a vote for abortion, then you are going to be labeled as the party of evil.
00:14:47.000That even the people who vote for Roy Moore in order to stop Doug Jones, those people are basically letting child molestation go.
00:14:53.000So Katie Turr over at MSNBC is already making this case.
00:14:56.000Roy Moore is going to be an albatross around the neck of every Republican who doesn't vote to expel him in the Senate.
00:15:00.000Going to be an albatross around the neck of every Republican who doesn't answer questions about Roy Moore from now until the 2018 election.
00:15:50.000Okay, the backlash is strong enough that Roy Moore right now is running neck and neck in an Alabama Senate race where he should be winning by 20 points.
00:15:57.000Instead, there's a possibility, I don't think it's high, but I think there's a possibility he loses this race to Doug Jones, a hardcore Democrat in one of the reddest states in America.
00:16:05.000How do you think that's going to play across the country?
00:16:07.000You think the Democrats aren't going to put every Republican on television who won't say that they back, who won't say that they distance themselves from an alleged child molester?
00:16:17.000John Heilemann is doing this routine too.
00:16:18.000This is the drum the media is going to beat.
00:16:21.000Yeah, I'm going to play this and then I'm going to explain why I think that the Republican perspective on this, which is to kind of get their backs up, may be wrong here.
00:16:32.000They're both pretty bad, but Donald Trump does not seem to find a problem with being on the side of the neo-Nazis, and apparently he doesn't find a problem in being on the side of the accused child predators either.
00:16:41.000So this is the line that the Democrats are going to use.
00:16:44.000A lot of people are saying, well, Trump will stand up to them, right?
00:16:46.000Trump is standing up to them because he's saying that Moore is innocent.
00:16:49.000It doesn't matter whether he thinks Moore is innocent.
00:16:51.000It matters whether the public thinks Moore is innocent.
00:16:52.000The public overall does not think that Moore is innocent.
00:16:55.000Beyond that, Republicans are saying, well, if we don't stand and fight, what, are we just going to back down every time there's an allegation?
00:17:00.000You're going to back down when there are credible allegations.
00:17:02.000You're going to back down when there are credible allegations.
00:17:05.000Because it is not moral to stand by these people.
00:17:07.000Now, there is a school of thought that says, on the right, well, the left does it too, so we'll be able to fight them to a draw.
00:17:14.000Sort of how there were allegations of sexual harassment against Trump during 2016, as Trump wheeled and hit the Clintons, and so it all ended up coming out in the wash.
00:17:21.000Maybe we'll be able to do the same thing with the Democrats.
00:17:43.000I think that that is a distraction to be talking about resignation, because what's really at the bottom of this whole issue of sexual harassment is that it is pervasive in our culture, and Al will be going through the ethics probe.
00:17:58.000He'll be cooperating, and that's appropriate, because people who— So it's a distraction, right?
00:18:02.000So a lot of Republicans are saying, listen, if the Democrats are going to play this off as a distraction, why can't the Republicans do the same thing?
00:18:08.000The Republicans can't do the same thing for two reasons.
00:18:30.000Two things can be bad and one can be much worse.
00:18:32.000And the ramifications for the Roy Moore thing are going to be worse for the Republicans, particularly because the Republicans hold themselves out as having a higher moral standard.
00:18:39.000This is the benefit of being a Democrat.
00:18:40.000When you say you have no moral standards, no one expects you to have moral standards.
00:18:43.000When you say as a Republican you have moral standards and that you stand for character in office, then people expect you to do that.
00:18:49.000I do think that there is a reckoning that's going to happen here, and I think that Republicans don't really expect it coming.
00:18:53.000When it comes, it's going to be very ugly.
00:18:56.000And so, Republicans just better be aware that this could happen.
00:18:58.000Before I go any further, I want to say a quick thank you to our friends over at the U.S.
00:19:03.000So, if you're a gun owner, can you say with 100% confidence that your family and your home are safe?
00:19:08.000What if you're forced to pull the trigger?
00:19:09.000You don't know what's going to happen next.
00:19:10.000The police are going to show up at your house.
00:19:12.000They will arrest you if you have to pull the trigger.
00:19:15.000And then you need to know what to say, when to call a lawyer, and all the rest of it.
00:19:17.000Well, you're going to find all the answers in the USCCA's Complete Concealed Carry and Family Defense Guide.
00:19:22.000You can get it completely free, but you're about to miss your chance unless you do it right now.
00:19:25.000In that 164-page guide and free audiobook, you will learn how to detect attackers before they see you, the safest and most dangerous places to sit in a restaurant, how to responsibly own and store a gun even if you have little kids, and more.
00:19:36.000But they're only offering this to my listeners for a few more days.
00:19:39.000If you want your free copy, you have to hurry.
00:19:41.000If you act fast, you're leaving in a bonus home defense checklist, which is awesome.
00:20:01.000I think Roy Moore will end up winning his race.
00:20:03.000I think Roy Moore will end up taking his seat.
00:20:05.000I think the Republicans don't have the stomach to actually expel Roy Moore from the Senate.
00:20:10.000I think they're afraid of taking off their own base, even though there would be very little risk to expelling more at that point, because then he would be, his seat would be filled by a Republican governor in Alabama.
00:20:19.000But they'll just say, listen, you guys won't expel Franken, we're not going to expel more, and everybody gets to sit.
00:20:23.000I think that's the most likely outcome here.
00:20:25.000Democrats are willing to get rid of, the hypocrisy is on full display, Democrats are fully willing to get rid of people they no longer find valuable.
00:20:31.000So John Conyers, we talked about yesterday, the representative from Michigan, a Democrat,
00:20:35.000He has now been, it's now come out that there are sexual harassment settlements that were put into place because he was sexually harassing the help and sexually abusing the help.
00:20:44.000Jeffrey Toobin over on CNN, who's on the left, he says Kanye should go.
00:21:04.000He is a walking advertisement for term limits.
00:21:06.000I know the Supreme Court has said they are unconstitutional, but it is absolutely outrageous that that man, in that condition, is getting a salary from the taxpayers to do this job.
00:21:17.000It's not because he's guilty, you see.
00:22:55.000There's a reason that that's an unpopular opinion.
00:22:56.000I mean, Jake Tapper went after Emily Linden.
00:22:58.000He said, did you fail your 7th grade book report on To Kill a Mockingbird?
00:23:02.000I'm actually not at all concerned about innocent men losing their jobs over false sexual assault, harassment, allegations, and she went on to say that, you know, if a few innocent men get caught up in the proceedings, then I guess that's just the way that it's going to go.
00:23:14.000This sort of insanity is going to become more and more common as we become more and more polarized as a society.
00:23:21.000If we don't have any rules, then whatever is beneficial to your side is what you're going to do.
00:23:24.000If your side is the side of, quote-unquote, anti-sexual harassment, sexual assault, then there's going to be a group of people
00:23:31.000who decide that it is important for even innocent people to go away in order to fight that battle.
00:23:36.000As soon as we start letting ends justify means, folks, the definition of morality is trying to balance the ends and the means.
00:23:41.000Suggesting that the ends always justify the means leads you to the logic of Emily Linden or David Horowitz.
00:23:46.000It leads you down some pretty dark paths with regard to what you are willing to do in order to get to an end point.
00:23:52.000And here's the thing, you rarely arrive at that end point.
00:23:54.000You rarely arrive at that end point anyway.
00:23:56.000So the idea that you can use any means to achieve your end
00:24:00.000It usually doesn't work that way in real life.
00:24:03.000Okay, so, I am going to do some things I like, things I hate, and then we're going to do the mailbag.
00:24:07.000But first, I want to say thank you to our sponsors over at Birch Gold.
00:24:10.000So, right now, you're looking at the economy and you're thinking to yourself, the stock market looks good, but it may be inflated.
00:24:15.000What if we don't pass a tax cut in the House and Senate?
00:24:17.000What if there is no continuing economic boom?
00:24:20.000Or, maybe you're just thinking that a lot of this is artificial inflation in terms of the real estate market, for example.
00:24:25.000Whatever you think the economy is going to do, you owe it to yourself to at least hedge your bets a little bit with some precious metals.
00:24:30.000That's why I work with the folks over at Birch Gold Group.
00:24:32.000Right now, thanks to a little-known IRS tax law, you can move your IRA or eligible 401k into an IRA backed by physical gold and silver.
00:24:39.000It's perfect for people who want to ensure their hard-earned retirement savings are protected from the ravages of inflation and any more stock market crashes.
00:25:47.000And the DUI ends in manslaughter, so he ends up getting somebody killed in a DUI.
00:25:52.000DUI manslaughter comes with some hard time, and it's basically about how this guy gets sucked into the maw of the prison culture, and how prisons, especially in places like California, because it's in California, how prisons are essentially run by the gangs.
00:26:05.000What guards often say is that they control the locks and they control the doors, but the gangs control the actual prison.
00:26:10.000And so it's about this guy's evolution from stockbroker into a hardcore prison inmate, essentially.
00:26:17.000You know, just the sort of uplifting, cheery thing that you'd want right before Thanksgiving.
00:26:21.000And here's a little bit of the preview.
00:27:53.000This happened on Australian News, and there is a guy who's asked about same-sex marriage, and he's anti-same-sex marriage, and so what he says is, we have higher priorities.
00:28:01.000Watch the segue here, it is magnificent.
00:28:04.000Final observation on the same-sex marriage debate from Bob Katter.
00:28:10.000You know, people are entitled to their sexual proclivities.
00:28:14.000I mean, let there be a thousand blossoms bloom, as far as I'm concerned.
00:28:21.000But I ain't spending any time on it, because in the meantime, every three months, a person is torn to pieces by a crocodile in North Queensland.
00:28:31.000So we should put the whole country on hold until we sort out that particular problem.
00:28:38.000No matter where you stand on same-sex marriage, there's nothing better than people let a thousand flowers bloom, do whatever you want to do in your bedroom.
00:28:44.000But I'm not going to spend time on it because every three months one person is mauled by a crocodile.
00:29:26.000So now she's very upset because Donald Trump calls her Pocahontas.
00:29:30.000The reason he calls her Pocahontas is because apparently she got her job at Harvard Law, at least in part, by claiming Native American ancestry.
00:29:35.000There is no evidence whatsoever she has any Native American ancestry.
00:29:38.000When asked the evidence for this, she presented a cookbook that she'd written a recipe for called Pow Wow Chow.
00:30:39.000The first half, Donald Trump thinks if he's going to start every one of these tweets to me with some kind of racist slur here, that he's going to shut me up.
00:30:49.000It didn't work in the past, it's not going to work in the future.
00:33:42.000The Republicans are trying to make up ground with the individual tax rates by getting rid of a lot of deductions.
00:33:47.000They're actually creating a new income tax bracket for the highest income earners.
00:33:51.000All of that is designed to make sure that the Republicans can sneak in under the wire.
00:33:55.000Because remember, they're using a process called reconciliation in order to only need 51 votes in the Senate to pass something.
00:34:01.000The CBO has to score your bill as revenue neutral, right?
00:34:04.000It can't lose money to the quote-unquote, it can't quote-unquote lose money to the federal government and so in some ways they're clawing back a bunch of money from individual tax returns in order to pay for the corporate tax returns.
00:34:18.000The Democrats, of course, are misclassifying this and suggesting that this is attempting to hurt the middle class.
00:34:22.000The vast majority of people in the middle class will see their taxes go down.
00:34:25.000The people it hurts are people like me, people who are at the upper end of the bracket in places like California.
00:34:29.000Those are the people who are going to get absolutely screwed.
00:34:31.000I'm going to get hammered on taxes under the GOP tax plan.
00:35:17.000Birth of a Nation, the original Birth of a Nation, which is a really well done movie by D.W.
00:35:22.000Griffith, but it is also horrifically racist, justifying the KKK and leading to an upswing of the KKK from basically 1916 all the way through the civil rights movement.
00:35:32.000The Birth of a Nation was a really damaging film.
00:35:34.000As far as bans, I know I'm going to get a lot of flack for this.
00:36:09.000Adults should live like teenagers, without responsibility, and they should all be in their 30s, single, without any children, and this is the epitome of happiness.
00:36:39.000Take all of his questions seriously, and make sure that you actually have logic to support the rules that you are pushing.
00:36:47.000So, the difference between authoritative parenting and authoritarian parenting is that authoritarian parenting says, I'm the boss, I don't have to give you an excuse.
00:36:54.000Authoritative parenting says, I'm the boss, I don't have to give you a justification, but here's the justification.
00:36:59.000And I think authoritative parenting is better because, again, I think that your child is going to learn to reason and is going to respect your rules more if they know that there's a logic to them.
00:37:08.000Well, there is a sentence called life without parole.
00:37:18.000And if you get life without parole, then you don't get parole.
00:37:20.000But if you have a life sentence, then they will let you out for good behavior.
00:37:23.000This does happen pretty frequently after 20, 25 years.
00:37:28.000So, yes, there's no mention of heaven in the Old Testament.
00:37:32.000In the Old Testament, meaning the Torah itself, there's no mention of the idea of a heaven or a hell.
00:37:39.000In some of the prophets, there's mention of the idea of sort of an afterlife, where God is talking to people after they've died.
00:37:46.000Judaism does believe in what we call Shemayim, the heavens, and the idea of heaven is that
00:37:54.000Well, at least the way Maimonides puts it, is reserved for the people who have, on balance, done more good than evil in their lives.
00:38:00.000Judaism is not completely asimilar from Christianity with regard to what heaven looks like, but it is very different with regard to what hell looks like.
00:38:09.000Judaism doesn't really believe in the notion of an everlasting hell where you burn in fiery torment.
00:38:13.000It believes more as hell is sort of a cleansing process.
00:38:16.000It's sort of more like the Christian purgatory.
00:38:23.000Hi Ben, I don't know if you have covered this in your show before, but I am unclear on what exactly are the lawful powers of the judicial branch.
00:38:28.000Lately it seems that every executive order or law faces an activist judge who declares it illegal.
00:38:33.000This seems to mean that unelected judges are more powerful than other branches of government and get to veto them.
00:38:37.000Well, this goes back to Marbury v. Madison.
00:38:39.000Do courts have the power of judicial review?
00:38:41.000Meaning, can they look at acts of the legislature and declare that they are in breach with the higher law, the Constitution, and then declare that those laws are no longer applicable?
00:38:49.000So, the judiciary has the power to interpret.
00:38:59.000is that the courts don't have a self-created power of enforcement.
00:39:03.000The executive has to enforce their orders.
00:39:05.000If Trump were to just say to the judicial branch, listen, I'm ignoring you and doing what I want, there's not much the judiciary could do about it, except hold them in contempt, and then nobody would be there.
00:39:12.000It would really be up to Congress to enforce the judiciary's rulings by cutting the power of the purse strings.
00:39:18.000Well, I think you can really tell in the first 45 seconds.
00:39:28.000If the person is listening and responding to your point, then the conversation is worthwhile.
00:39:32.000If it appears the person is mainly sitting there thinking about what they're going to say next, then you're wasting your time.
00:39:37.000You're gonna have to use your gut a little bit on this, but how do you know if a conversation with your friend is purposeful or not?
00:39:42.000The only answer is you just know, and I think that, unfortunately, I don't have a better answer than that.
00:39:46.000Juan says, hey Ben, I love the show, but what is your issue with Knowles?
00:39:49.000While you were away on vacation, I was forced to listen to his show, and I admit I liked it.
00:39:58.000So my issue with Knowles is that Knowles sold literally a hundred thousand copies of an empty book with my blurb on the cover and then I hooked him up with my literary agent who got him another major advance for a blank book.
00:40:13.000You know, there are some people in life who are just blessed people.
00:40:16.000And I think Michael Knowles is one of these people.
00:40:18.000You know, people who don't necessarily put in the hard work, people who don't necessarily slave away, people who can sort of just bob like a cork on the waves of life.
00:40:27.000And Michael Knowles is one of those, and I really do resent it.
00:41:18.000I think the Christmas season is just wonderful, and I think that more Christians actually observing the Christmas season is better for the country.
00:41:24.000So, what I tell my three-and-a-half-year-old and one-and-a-half-year-old is, look at all the pretty lights.
00:41:32.000You know, we have a holiday called Hanukkah that's also really beautiful.
00:41:34.000The lights from Hanukkah are really beautiful.
00:41:37.000I think that you can appreciate, from an aesthetic point of view, the beauty of Christmas without necessarily having to imbibe all of the religious messaging inherent in Christmas.
00:41:47.000As a Jew, I don't believe in the divinity of Christ, so Christmas is not a celebratory time for me, but I can still appreciate the aesthetic joy and wonder, and I do appreciate that there are so many Christians who deepen their relationship with God during this period.
00:42:02.000Do you think the current flood of sexual assault scandals gives credence to the left's claim that we live in a rape culture of sorts?
00:42:07.000Have conservatives been too dismissive of this claim?
00:42:09.000So, I don't know that we... You know, I've said we don't live in a rape culture.
00:42:14.000The reason I say we don't live in a rape culture is because when a rape is actually brought to light, there are very few people who are defending the rape.
00:42:21.000Like, do you see anybody going, ah, big deal.
00:42:25.000What I will say is that, and I think to me that's the definition of rape culture.
00:42:29.000If you're asking, do a lot of men sexually harass women, I have been a bit astonished by the level to which this has been a thing.
00:42:38.000As a person who has never sexually assaulted or harassed a woman, it has been astonishing to me to see just how many men have.
00:42:45.000And I guess that, I will admit that that has surprised me.
00:42:49.000But again, when you say rape culture, it's the culture part that bothers me.
00:42:53.000The idea that rape is okayed by the culture, I don't see that.
00:42:56.000But the permissiveness of a society that has basically allowed this to go on for years, or at least turned its eyes the other way, that I do find sort of astonishing.
00:43:08.000But when it's brought to light, I'm not seeing a lot of people defending it.
00:43:11.000Brad says, Ben, who is your all-time favorite White Sox offensive player and pitcher?
00:43:14.000So my favorite offensive player of all time, not the best, but my favorite player of all time was Ozzie Guillen.
00:43:22.000He was my favorite player going all the way back to the 90s.
00:43:25.000That's because when I was a little kid, I've been looking for this picture everywhere.
00:43:27.000We were at a Sox game at Comiskey Park.
00:43:29.000And the players used to do this thing where they would actually go into the stadium and actually take pictures with people, and Ozzy was taking pictures.
00:43:37.000I was way back in line, the game was about to start, and he came up to me, and he picked me up, I must have been three, and he brought me to the front of the line and took a picture with me, so that was always a cool thing.
00:43:45.000And I always liked how he played the game.
00:43:47.000So Ozzy Guillen was my favorite White Sox player, and this brings me back to my childhood.
00:43:51.000As far as my favorite White Sox pitcher,
00:43:55.000And so, I really liked Mark Bierle when Bierle was pitching for the White Sox.
00:44:00.000I loved that he pitched quickly, that he pitched to spots.
00:44:04.000He was more like Greg Maddux than he was like a power pitcher.
00:44:06.000The most fun pitcher that I saw in all my years watching the White Sox was Bobby Jenks.
00:44:11.000Bobby Jenks was the closer for the team for like a year and a half.
00:44:13.000And he came in as a rookie the year they won the World Series and he was throwing like 101 and it was just amazing to watch.
00:44:20.000Bradley says, I've had a few friends say things like, I'd be willing to pay another 4% in taxes to pay for health care for everybody.
00:44:25.000There's a laughably low estimate on what universal health care would cost.
00:44:27.000What is a realistic estimate of how much taxes would actually need to fund universal national health care?
00:44:33.000Well, you'd have to look at the tax rates in places like Denmark, where it is 60%, not just on the upper class, but on the middle class as well.
00:44:39.000When people say, I'd be willing to increase my taxes by 4%, absolute horsepucky.
00:44:44.000In order to pay for all of the things we've been paying for, I mean, we're $20 trillion in debt now.
00:44:49.000In order for us to pay for all the things that we have been spending, we'd have to raise our taxes up to 60, 65% across the board.
00:45:12.000Connor says, Hey Ben, I'm currently a law and public policy student at Indiana University planning on pursuing a career in police work and later in politics.
00:45:19.000Additionally, I have Asperger's, which is recently a part of the autism spectrum.
00:45:22.000I'm a strong believer in transparency and that people should know what they're voting for.
00:45:25.000At the same time, I believe that as long as someone is able to do the job, should it really matter to the voters?
00:45:30.000Should I tell the voters that I have such a condition so they know what they're voting for?
00:45:33.000Should I just keep it to myself so long as I feel it won't impact my job performance or something in between?
00:45:37.000Well, in voting, I think that transparency is always the best tactic, because people are going to find out anyway, and they'll use it against you.
00:45:43.000And that shouldn't be something that's used against you, that you have Asperger's.
00:45:46.000That doesn't seem to me like that's... I think that, honestly, there are a lot of people who will vote for you for saying, honestly, what you are.
00:45:54.000Transparency in politics, authenticity in politics, is the key quality that people are missing.
00:46:18.000Yeah, I think that some of the parallels are true.
00:46:22.000You know, the idea that the Roman Republic caved in, made way for the Roman Empire, that eventually gave way to basically weakening from within.
00:46:58.000Okay, so that brings us to the end of the mailbag.
00:46:59.000So, I hope that you've enjoyed this entire year with us, because we've enjoyed this entire year with you.
00:47:05.000And I have to say that, of all the things that I am thankful for this year, aside from, you know, God and my family, the thing that I'm most thankful for is that there are so many people who engage with the show, who really enjoy the show, who listen, who are thinking on a daily basis and sending challenging questions, people who disagree with me and who listen.
00:47:19.000We are so grateful for your listenership, and on Thanksgiving, I think that we should thank you for that.
00:47:24.000Also grateful to the staff who put up with me every day, and grateful to myself for putting up