The Matt Walsh Show - November 06, 2018


Ep. 137 - Why The Democrats Deserve To Lose


Episode Stats

Length

32 minutes

Words per Minute

162.38388

Word Count

5,285

Sentence Count

303

Misogynist Sentences

1

Hate Speech Sentences

4


Summary


Transcript

00:00:00.000 Today on the Matt Wall Show, it's election day, so we'll talk about why voting isn't actually necessarily your civic duty.
00:00:07.920 We'll also discuss what's at stake if the Democrats win today.
00:00:11.700 And we'll dissect the popular modern idea that violence is never justified. Is that true? We'll talk about it.
00:00:18.620 Finally, I have a very serious and very important cautionary tale that all married men must hear.
00:00:25.040 So stick around for that as well on the Matt Wall Show.
00:00:30.000 Now, I feel like I should begin with the biggest news of the century that nobody else is covering.
00:00:37.140 For some reason, scientists recently discovered a strange, elongated, large tube that was careening through the solar system.
00:00:50.420 It apparently came from another solar system and then was going around and then it left the solar system.
00:00:57.300 Okay. And they dubbed it, they called this thing, Oumuamua.
00:01:04.300 Oumuamua is what they called it, which means a weird space tube in Hawaiian.
00:01:09.700 I don't know if that's really what it means.
00:01:10.740 But anyway, the thing is, as I said, it came from another solar system, ended up in ours, left.
00:01:16.600 And now, researchers at Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics just wrote a paper theorizing, you guessed it,
00:01:27.960 that this may have been aliens who came to this solar system on a reconnaissance mission
00:01:37.280 and will return to enslave mankind.
00:01:42.700 Now, they didn't extrapolate it all the way there, but they did say it could be, there could be aliens behind this tube thing.
00:01:50.740 So, I mean, it just seems kind of silly for us to be sitting around worried about elections
00:01:55.540 when we're about to be enslaved by these malevolent super aliens.
00:01:59.980 It's like, and we're, it just, it doesn't make any sense.
00:02:02.240 Why are more people talking about this?
00:02:07.740 Anyway, as we, as, as, as, I guess, as we await our fate and we await the arrival of the aliens,
00:02:14.740 which is, which is, by the way, not something, is, is not a result that I would find particularly displeasing.
00:02:21.740 I'm kind of looking forward to it, honestly.
00:02:23.540 But as we await for that, I do have a couple of things I want to say about, about voting day.
00:02:30.760 The first thing is, you know, today on voting day, people are encouraged, really, really more than encouraged.
00:02:39.140 They are, they are cajoled, harassed, emotionally blackmailed, bribed, threatened into voting.
00:02:47.860 And many people will respond to that, and they'll go out and vote, and they have already gone to vote, many people.
00:02:56.520 And they'll announce it proudly on the internet and say, hey, I voted.
00:03:01.960 The idea is that voting is some kind of civic duty.
00:03:06.100 And if you vote, you've fulfilled that duty, which, of course, means we know in modern society
00:03:11.740 that any time you do something you're supposed to do, the first thing you do is you tell everybody about it.
00:03:17.860 That's why the internet exists.
00:03:21.100 Now, I agree that voting is a civic duty, but I just think we should clarify, because it is not clarified enough,
00:03:29.440 that it is a secondary civic duty.
00:03:32.140 It is, it is, maybe I should say, a contingent duty.
00:03:36.620 It is a duty that depends, first, on fulfilling another responsibility, a primary responsibility,
00:03:45.240 and that responsibility is to be knowledgeable and informed and engaged as a citizen.
00:03:52.680 And, as I've said many times, this is my problem with the get-out-the-vote campaigns,
00:04:00.460 where we're told to, you know, go vote, just vote, vote, vote, vote, just go vote, go vote, that's all.
00:04:06.500 But nobody ever mentions, oh, you know what, by the way, maybe you want to learn a couple things about our country
00:04:18.240 and about our system of government.
00:04:20.100 Maybe you should know, like, for instance, what the branches of government are,
00:04:24.140 and you should have a basic fundamental idea of how they operate so that when you vote for someone,
00:04:29.760 you know, not only should you know who they are, but you should know what job you're putting them in
00:04:35.520 and what it is that they're going to be doing.
00:04:38.400 Like, these are things you should know before you go vote.
00:04:43.500 But the message that we send is that basically knowledge is irrelevant, and information is irrelevant.
00:04:50.360 You know, it doesn't matter how much knowledge you have, how much information you know,
00:04:54.800 but that's simply not true.
00:04:57.540 You not only have a duty to vote, or I should say, you only have a duty to vote
00:05:02.440 if you have fulfilled the duty of being an engaged, informed, contributing member of society.
00:05:08.140 If you haven't done that yet, if you have not gotten past first base yet,
00:05:13.540 if you haven't rounded first, that's first base, then you can't go on to the next base.
00:05:18.700 If you haven't bothered to inform yourself, then I think voting is actually not only not a duty for you,
00:05:28.040 but I'd say it's an act of supreme recklessness and selfishness.
00:05:32.400 Because you are, in that case, inflicting your obliviousness on the rest of us.
00:05:39.060 You're making a decision based on nothing.
00:05:42.060 You know, so we like to say that, well, voting is a really important decision.
00:05:44.840 It's the most important decision you'll ever make, which, of course, it isn't.
00:05:47.920 But if it's an important decision, then obviously it should be a decision that you make based on something.
00:05:53.060 If you're not making it based on anything, then you shouldn't be making it at all.
00:05:58.080 You'd be making a mockery of the system, abusing it in that case.
00:06:03.140 I think the problem in America, one of the problems, anyway, among many,
00:06:06.260 is that many people approach voting in the same way that they approach, like, the game of pool.
00:06:14.120 You know, if you've ever played pool against someone who doesn't know what they're doing.
00:06:18.940 And so what they do is that they'll, they know if their stripes are solids.
00:06:24.340 And so they just kind of wind up with the pool cue and smack the white ball in the general vicinity of the assigned ball.
00:06:32.260 And I have found that very often, just like with fantasy football, the person in fantasy football who doesn't know what they're doing always wins.
00:06:43.260 And so it's the same thing with pool.
00:06:45.200 Like, those people, for whatever reason, often are very successful.
00:06:49.240 But in pool, you know, that's a fine way to go about it.
00:06:54.560 The just sort of hit and pray method of, like, I don't know what I'm doing.
00:06:57.400 I'm just, I'm just putting the ball in that direction.
00:07:00.800 But I think we should approach voting with a bit more knowledge and competency.
00:07:08.720 If you're not informed, if you're not prepared to cast a meaningful vote, then your patriotic responsibility is to stay home.
00:07:18.120 And try again on the next go-round when you have, you know, learned a thing or two.
00:07:22.840 I know that sounds harsh, but it's true.
00:07:24.980 And no one else will say it, so that means every time there's an election, I have to be the one who says it.
00:07:30.140 Now, for those who are informed and prepared to cast a meaningful vote, maybe we should talk a little bit about what's at stake here.
00:07:38.460 What happens if Democrats take the House or the Senate?
00:07:42.580 And they probably won't take the Senate.
00:07:44.620 I've learned not to make any predictions when it comes to politics, so I'm not going to, you know, I have no idea what's going to happen.
00:07:49.720 But if they make gains and take control of either the House or Senate, what happens then?
00:07:57.080 Well, I think a few things happen, and we should keep this in mind.
00:08:01.100 First thing that happens with Democrats in control of, let's say, the House is, the first thing that happens is a lot of nothing, gridlock.
00:08:08.280 We know that basically nothing substantial will get done with Democrats in.
00:08:14.720 It's already hard enough to get anything substantial done with just Republicans, but with Democrats in, then we really know that that's it.
00:08:24.020 And this is where we are now with politics in America.
00:08:26.800 And it really has not always been this way.
00:08:28.820 I think we take it for granted that, well, you know, this is all it always has been.
00:08:32.100 Politics has always been this sort of rough and tumble sport, and there's always been this division.
00:08:36.820 And, yeah, that's all true.
00:08:38.480 But there did used to be a time when the parties could agree, at least on some things.
00:08:46.400 But that's not really the case anymore.
00:08:49.220 The Democrats will simply obstruct and interfere with anything that Trump and the Republicans try to do.
00:08:54.860 So it will be total dysfunction.
00:08:56.680 That's what politics has become now.
00:08:58.580 It's just become whatever party is not in power, they just disagree with whatever the in-power party is trying to do.
00:09:11.380 So that's the first thing that will happen.
00:09:12.620 That's the first thing we can look forward to if Democrats get in there.
00:09:16.080 The second thing is it will be presented as a historic indictment of Trump's presidency.
00:09:22.900 No matter how silly that characterization may be, that's what the media is going to do.
00:09:27.480 Now, granted, if the Democrats did take the House and the Senate, then, yes, it would be not a historic indictment, but quite an indictment anyway.
00:09:35.180 But there would be nothing especially remarkable about Republicans losing just the House.
00:09:41.340 I don't think it will be a really significant statement about Trump or about his agenda.
00:09:45.540 That's how the media will present it.
00:09:47.680 But if that's the case, it will just be kind of how these midterms usually go.
00:09:51.580 But the third thing, and this is the most important, I think, and I touched on it yesterday.
00:09:57.620 A Democrat victory will reward, and this is the worst thing about it, it will reward their deceit.
00:10:06.360 Their deceitful, immoral, obstructionist tactics will be rewarded.
00:10:09.620 Now, I'm under no illusion that if they're defeated, it may cause them to rethink their whole way of approaching things, and they'll have a come-to-Jesus moment, and, you know, they'll reform themselves.
00:10:25.240 Of course, that's not going to happen.
00:10:26.680 But at least it would be a rebuke.
00:10:28.260 It would be a righteous rebuke.
00:10:29.540 A victory of any sort for the Democrats allows their evil to prevail.
00:10:35.860 And so I think that's reason enough to, as they themselves might say, resist.
00:10:42.100 I think that's reason enough to resist them because they need to be, they cannot be rewarded for the way that they have carried on, especially over the last two years and especially in the last couple of months.
00:10:54.080 Now, with all that said, let me also just mention one other thing, and I think it's crucial, and I know this might sound like contradictory, but I don't think it is.
00:11:08.280 This election is very important, and in a sense, it really is the most important in our lifetime.
00:11:14.700 They say that every election is the most important in our lifetime, and in a sense, that's true because the election that we have now is the most recent,
00:11:20.800 and therefore is, you know, the most pressing and will have the greatest impact on our lives because it just so happens to be the most recent one.
00:11:31.260 And though I do hope that Democrats are rebuked and resisted, as they need to be,
00:11:36.560 I do also think that as we vote, we need to keep in mind that our entire lives and our well-being and our happiness is not hinged on the results of an election.
00:11:50.800 For the most part, our lives, the significant part of our lives anyway, the most important parts, are not noticeably affected by political outcomes for most people.
00:12:04.000 Now, that isn't to say that we shouldn't vote or that voting doesn't matter.
00:12:06.940 I'm just trying to caution against this attitude, this belief that politicians hold in their hands the key to our very existence, to our satisfaction with life, to our joy and fulfillment.
00:12:20.420 And they can end civilization as we know it.
00:12:24.040 They can end our happiness, and they can make life a barren, nihilistic wasteland of meaninglessness if, you know, that they have the ability to do that, and they don't.
00:12:33.940 Now, those egoists, they would certainly like for us to see it that way.
00:12:40.100 They play this up because they want you to think that they have that kind of control over your life, but they really don't.
00:12:49.300 And I think we've lost this perspective over time.
00:12:51.740 It's like we are incapable of having any kind of perspective.
00:12:55.400 So even what I'm saying right now, I know there are going to be people who say, well, how could you say that?
00:13:00.460 You're discouraging people from voting.
00:13:01.940 I'm not discouraging anyone.
00:13:03.060 I'm just saying it's possible to encourage someone to do something without claiming that it's the most important thing in the world, and if it goes wrong, their life will be over.
00:13:12.560 You know, it is possible to have some little bit of perspective on these things.
00:13:18.360 Or, yes, it's super important, but it's not, you know, 95% of your life will go on as normal, no matter what party is in control.
00:13:29.220 Now, the 5% that is affected, that's important.
00:13:32.920 That's 5% of a life.
00:13:34.320 It's an important portion.
00:13:35.640 But the fact remains that I just, I want to get rid of this notion that I think is really just un-American and harmful, this notion that politicians have that much control over us.
00:13:54.700 And you saw this with, I mean, look at the way Democrats reacted when Trump was elected.
00:14:03.420 They were, and still are, just utterly traumatized, falling to their knees in the streets, screaming.
00:14:11.800 Meanwhile, although various policies have been put through that they disagree with and all of that, their lives have gone on as normal.
00:14:21.660 Their life has been basically, for them, their lives have been almost exactly what their lives would have been had the election gone their way.
00:14:31.980 There's very little difference, actually, substantively, because as you go about your, you know, you wake up, you know, you have your kids, you have your spouse, and maybe you go to work, you come back to your family.
00:14:44.700 Certainly, I would hope that most of your joy and meaning in life is derived from that, from your family, from your faith, from these things that you still have, no matter who is in office.
00:14:59.720 So, I just want to keep that in mind as well.
00:15:03.820 All right.
00:15:05.360 So much for the election.
00:15:07.180 All we can do now is, after we have voted, all we can do now is hope and pray.
00:15:12.520 I want to go back to a topic we covered yesterday.
00:15:19.200 I mentioned this story of Marston Riley, who's the high school teacher in California, arrested for punching a student.
00:15:26.600 And the student was asked to leave the classroom.
00:15:30.460 He refused.
00:15:31.460 Then he got in the teacher's face, began threatening him, cussing him out, hurling racial slurs.
00:15:36.600 He threw a basketball at the teacher at Riley.
00:15:39.600 Finally, Riley had enough, punched the student, then a fight broke out, and now Riley is being charged with child abuse.
00:15:49.260 Now, I said that I have sympathy for the teacher.
00:15:52.780 I have no sympathy for the punk kid whatsoever.
00:15:56.220 I'm sorry.
00:15:56.780 I just don't.
00:15:57.360 I understand, as I said yesterday, that I understand that the school can't officially condone punching students, but I hope that they just suspend Riley with pay for a week or something like that, then send him back to work while expelling the student.
00:16:15.860 So, I hope they come down much harder on the student than they do on the teacher.
00:16:18.740 And my reason for that is twofold.
00:16:20.840 Number one, Riley's a human being, and humans can reach a breaking point, especially when they're abused and harassed all the time by punks like this kid, which apparently is the case with Riley.
00:16:32.580 And I'm guessing it's probably the case with a lot of teachers at the school.
00:16:36.100 I know we're kind of used to it.
00:16:37.200 We say, well, that's just what it means to be a teacher.
00:16:39.160 Yeah, maybe that is what it means to be a teacher these days, but it shouldn't be that way.
00:16:43.360 That's not how it's supposed to be.
00:16:45.340 That's not normal.
00:16:46.580 That's not how schools are in many other countries, where it's just like, yeah, well, the kids are totally out of control, have no respect at all, they're a complete delinquents, they act like animals.
00:16:55.460 You know, it's just how it is.
00:16:56.480 You just have to deal with that.
00:16:58.500 Do you ever think that maybe our attitude towards it is why it is that way?
00:17:06.700 Schools were not like that 50 years ago.
00:17:10.000 And I know there are many reasons for that we could talk about.
00:17:13.300 But I'm just saying, schools have not always, yes, there's always been delinquent kids, there's always been behavior problems.
00:17:18.740 It hasn't always been like this.
00:17:21.560 It just hasn't.
00:17:25.960 But the second thing is, the point I made is, I think it would be a terrible message to fire this teacher.
00:17:32.840 The message would be that students can treat teachers however they want, and if the teacher defends himself or reacts in a human way, he'll be fired.
00:17:42.840 His life will be over, essentially.
00:17:45.360 I mean, his career, anyway, let's say, will be over.
00:17:49.820 So the delinquent student wins twice over.
00:17:52.540 He wins by harassing the teacher, and then he wins by seeing the teacher's life destroyed, because he was able to provoke this human reaction.
00:18:00.440 And I just think that's untenable.
00:18:02.840 Students should understand that if they behave this way, and a teacher responds, they, the student, will not win.
00:18:12.360 I think that's got to be the message from the school to a student like this.
00:18:16.820 You are not going to win when you act this way.
00:18:21.460 Sorry.
00:18:22.280 Actually, not sorry.
00:18:23.560 You're just not going to win.
00:18:24.540 The student should know that if I act like this, and that is just way over the top, in someone's face, screaming racial slurs, throwing things, you know, if I act that way, and I'm able to elicit a response, if I'm able to provoke the teacher and smack me in the face, guess what's going to happen?
00:18:48.720 Yeah, that teacher's going to get a slap on the wrist, and I'm going to get expelled.
00:18:54.360 And I think that's the message that students should, as I said yesterday, what is the downside to students knowing that?
00:19:01.480 I can think of many downsides to the opposite scenario, where they know that they can do whatever they want, there will be no immediate consequences, and if they are able to provoke an immediate consequence in the form of a smack to the face or something like that, then the teacher is the one who's going to suffer the harshest consequence.
00:19:16.880 I can think of many problems with that scenario, which is the scenario that we have in almost every school in the country right now.
00:19:23.520 There are many problems.
00:19:24.520 We're looking at the problems.
00:19:25.620 I don't see any problems with the other way of doing it.
00:19:30.620 Now, and as I said, I think the kid deserved it.
00:19:33.620 You know, I just think he did.
00:19:35.800 I think he needed it, too.
00:19:36.980 Now, anyway, kind of shockingly, I was, you know, I was contacted last night, kind of late last night.
00:19:48.780 I was contacted by the organizers of an event that I'm supposed to be speaking at soon, and they uninvited me from the event.
00:19:55.980 They told me I'm not welcome anymore, apparently, because of my opinion on this issue, which I have said so many things that I think are way more controversial than this, but this was enough to get me uninvited.
00:20:12.900 Apparently, my defense of the teacher and my lack of sympathy for the out-of-control delinquent who was hurling racial slurs and basketballs at him, that was, you know, that's just unacceptable, apparently.
00:20:24.920 Kind of strange, considering many students at the school are supporting the teacher, and his fellow teachers are supporting him, and someone set up a, you know, a GoFundMe that raised like $70,000 in a day.
00:20:37.560 So, it seems like most people, like me, are simply fed up with this kind of behavior, and they're especially fed up with it being tolerated from kids, and they just aren't going to cry any tears when one of these delinquents gets punched in the face.
00:20:56.200 I think that's the attitude of most people, and that's why I didn't even think that what I said was all that controversial.
00:21:02.120 It seemed like there was wide agreement on the point.
00:21:07.560 And, you know, honestly, I think some of these kids, this is a lesson they need to learn, and I think for their own safety, it's better that they learn it like that than maybe through something that's a bit more severe than a punch to the face.
00:21:24.300 It's because, you know, this kid, if he doesn't learn now, one of these days he's going to run his mouth to the wrong person in the wrong situation, and the consequences of that are going to be significantly worse than getting punched in the face.
00:21:42.120 And so, it really is for their own safety.
00:21:48.040 These kids got to learn.
00:21:49.940 Like, you cannot act that way.
00:21:53.960 Not everyone's going to tolerate it, and people have different ways of not tolerating these things, and you need to know that.
00:22:03.500 But, you know, I was uninvited, and there were other people, not a majority, but some who expressed disapproval of my unchristian position on this topic.
00:22:20.360 One thing that I heard quite a bit is that it's never okay to hit anyone, right?
00:22:28.540 It's never okay to hit, and that's the refrain that you often hear in these situations.
00:22:35.200 Well, it's never okay to hit.
00:22:36.100 It's never okay to use violence.
00:22:37.900 But is that true?
00:22:40.320 And why is it true?
00:22:42.280 Now, let's put this particular incident aside for the moment and just deal with that blanket statement, which is so common these days.
00:22:49.740 In the case of the teacher, my argument was that the teacher's actions were understandable, and I'm sympathetic to it.
00:22:58.540 And in the long run, I think it will even benefit the kid who needed to be taught a lesson.
00:23:03.220 But I didn't, you know, there's a difference between saying that an action is understandable and saying an action is okay.
00:23:10.600 So we could debate about whether it was okay.
00:23:13.560 In fact, you know, we have to say officially it's not okay.
00:23:17.360 And that's what the school has to say, which is why, you know, there has to be some minor consequence.
00:23:22.280 But it is, in my view, understandable.
00:23:24.740 So I don't want to deal with whether it can be understandable.
00:23:29.140 Let's talk about the people that say it's never okay.
00:23:32.380 Well, you know, it's never okay to respond to words with violence or whatever.
00:23:39.420 Where does that come from?
00:23:41.760 We take it as this obvious, self-evident truth, but why?
00:23:46.360 Can you explain that?
00:23:47.200 Why is it not okay?
00:23:48.880 Where are you getting that idea from?
00:23:50.540 You're not getting it from the Bible, I'll tell you that much.
00:23:52.660 Now, yeah, Jesus did say turn the other cheek.
00:23:55.900 He also used a whip against the money changers in the temple.
00:24:00.700 And the Bible is filled with examples of force being used and sanctioned by God.
00:24:06.360 So it's just not true that the Bible calls us to be nonviolent at all times.
00:24:12.280 And honestly, I can't believe that anyone who thinks that way has actually opened the book.
00:24:17.820 I mean, just open it and read it.
00:24:19.500 This is not a peacenik religion that we're in.
00:24:28.420 I mean, it's certainly not a violent religion either.
00:24:30.860 I'm not saying that, but it is not a hippie, peacenik, violence-is-never-justified religion.
00:24:37.540 It just simply isn't.
00:24:39.960 Old or New Testament, there is very little justification you can find theologically for that point of view.
00:24:47.480 So where do we get this idea?
00:24:54.700 Now, I have to assume that the people who say it's always wrong to hit someone, they must agree that physical self-defense is an exception.
00:25:02.480 I have to assume that you agree with that.
00:25:03.780 But are there other situations where it could be okay, not just understandable, but okay morally, to hit somebody who has not hit first?
00:25:14.360 These days, we say no.
00:25:17.900 I think most of human society up until recently would all agree that, of course, there are situations where it could be okay.
00:25:24.100 But now we say, no, never okay.
00:25:26.380 Never okay.
00:25:28.860 Can you explain that, though, without just restating the premise?
00:25:32.260 Well, it's violence.
00:25:33.520 Okay, fine.
00:25:34.260 It's violence.
00:25:34.860 So what?
00:25:36.180 So what's your point?
00:25:37.900 Why is it always worse?
00:25:39.520 Why is it always unjustified?
00:25:40.860 Can you actually explain it without just restating it?
00:25:45.260 Let's take one hypothetical.
00:25:48.280 Let's take a hypothetical that isn't, I mean, it's not, people have encountered situations like this.
00:25:52.060 It's not totally outlandish.
00:25:53.380 Let's say you're out with your wife, and a man comes up and doesn't physically touch your wife or you, but screams in her face, harasses her, calls her various sexually demeaning names.
00:26:07.140 As the man, as the husband, would it be completely not okay, completely wrong for you to respond to this behavior by punching the man in the face?
00:26:23.980 To defend your wife's honor and your own and to teach this man a lesson?
00:26:30.420 I think it would be.
00:26:31.580 I think, in fact, a punch to the face, all things being equal, would be the most appropriate response.
00:26:40.440 All things being equal.
00:26:44.100 My point is that it just seems clear to me that occasions can arise where it is perfectly justified, moral, and just, to use physical force in the face of even nonviolent provocation.
00:26:56.480 That doesn't mean that you just run around punching everybody, or that any time someone upsets you, you can punch them.
00:27:01.620 That's not the point.
00:27:02.660 But there are clearly situations where a physical response is warranted.
00:27:12.400 And I think we just live in this really weak, emasculated culture where we've got this idea that it's just never okay.
00:27:20.720 I mean, that's the kind of, like, it's almost childish.
00:27:22.860 It's just, you're getting this from children's TV shows, this idea.
00:27:32.580 I mean, if a man defended his wife in that situation and were to punch the guy in the face, lay him out on the ground, would you really go to him and say,
00:27:40.120 Yeah, you shouldn't have done that.
00:27:41.240 You should have just, well, I mean, should he, excuse me, sir, excuse me.
00:27:44.620 I really would, I really would, I would prefer if you would stop harassing my wife, sir, please.
00:27:49.640 Would you, please, if you wouldn't mind, please, please, sir, please.
00:27:52.360 If you wouldn't mind, stop calling my wife those names, sir, please.
00:27:56.140 Please, sir, I'm asking you nicely.
00:27:59.300 If I, now I'm, now I'm going to write a formal request that you please stop.
00:28:03.560 Here you go.
00:28:04.000 Here's my, here's my, here's my sticky note, please.
00:28:09.180 I think at a certain point, you know, at a certain point, a more, let's say, corporal method can be warranted.
00:28:22.360 So, I just, that, that blanket statement that people make, I think is, is, to me, it's just absurd.
00:28:31.980 And like I said, it is not, I'm sorry, but it actually is not a statement that is clearly vindicated by Christian teaching.
00:28:42.140 All right.
00:28:47.800 What else did I want to talk about here?
00:28:50.020 Oh, one more thing.
00:28:53.540 Yesterday, people who watch the show, you can't see it if you're listening, obviously, on iTunes, but people who watch the show noticed that there's a banjo.
00:29:01.360 I think you can see it in the, there's a banjo right there behind me, and people noticed it, and there are some people who are asking me if I could even play it and maybe sing a song or something.
00:29:13.660 Well, as for singing, I would never do that to you because my singing voice sounds like the noises a warthog makes when you boil it alive in acid.
00:29:23.100 And yes, I do know what that sounds like.
00:29:27.080 But as for playing the banjo, I cannot do that either.
00:29:30.200 I don't know how to play the banjo, even though I have that banjo right there.
00:29:35.400 And I tell you this as a cautionary tale, okay?
00:29:38.280 Let me just take a quick story here.
00:29:40.400 You see, about eight years ago, before we were married, my then fiance, now wife, asked me what I want for my birthday.
00:29:48.980 And I said, you know, half-jokingly, but I said that I'd really gotten into bluegrass music recently, which I had, and I'd like to learn the banjo.
00:30:02.940 Well, my wife very thoughtfully went out, and she bought a banjo for my birthday.
00:30:07.100 And she even, you know, she researched, tried to find the best banjo she could find, and she found a great banjo, and she bought it.
00:30:13.660 She gave it to me.
00:30:14.520 So I got it on my birthday.
00:30:15.940 I said, I'm so excited to play the banjo.
00:30:17.300 So that same week, I went, and I got some banjo books, and I downloaded some banjo tutorials to learn how to play.
00:30:23.880 And I'm telling you that I spent minute after minute after minute trying to learn the banjo.
00:30:32.780 But after many minutes, I mean many, many minutes, I'm talking 45, even 50 of them,
00:30:39.280 I realized that learning the banjo was really hard, and so I gave up.
00:30:43.320 And now, that was eight years ago, that banjo now just sits there staring at me in judgment every single day of my life.
00:30:52.020 And my wife, because she is a woman, never forgets anything, ever.
00:30:58.180 And so she has not forgotten about the banjo, and the banjo that I asked for and never played and gave up on the very same day that it was given to me.
00:31:07.140 So on occasion, she'll pull out that trump card, and she'll say, oh, yeah?
00:31:11.580 Well, you never learned the banjo.
00:31:13.760 Or every time she gives me a gift now, for eight years, every time, she'll always say, like, the same thing.
00:31:18.440 Well, hopefully you used this one, unlike the banjo.
00:31:21.780 Or any time someone comes over, and they see the banjo, and then there's always that awkward comfort.
00:31:25.620 Oh, you know the banjo? You know how to play the banjo?
00:31:27.620 And then my wife, well, let me tell you a story about the time I bought them a banjo, and you never learned it.
00:31:31.320 And she's right. I have no response. I have been, I didn't learn the banjo.
00:31:37.680 I've been tempted over the years to learn it, just so that my wife couldn't use it against me anymore.
00:31:42.580 But then I realized that it's kind of weird to learn the banjo out of spite.
00:31:46.360 The banjo is not a very spiteful instrument, unlike, say, the tuba or something.
00:31:51.040 So the lesson here, my only point is, the lesson here for men is,
00:31:54.140 never ask your wife or the woman in your life to get you an instrument as a gift that you don't know how to play.
00:32:06.440 Because she will expect you to learn it.
00:32:09.580 And if you don't, you will suffer the curse of the banjo, which has been my life now.
00:32:14.540 And the only way to put an end to the curse is to learn it.
00:32:17.040 But as I said, it is way too hard.
00:32:20.400 All right. We'll leave it there. Go vote if you haven't.
00:32:23.640 I mean, vote if you are informed and know what you're doing.
00:32:28.260 Then go vote.
00:32:30.840 And I'll talk to you tomorrow.
00:32:32.420 Godspeed.