Ep. 399 - Media Continues To Mourn Beloved Terrorist
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Summary
General Soleimani was a hero in Iran. He was shot and killed by a U.S. drone on his way home from a funeral service, and his remains were flown back to Iran in a box on a United Airlines flight.
Transcript
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So, did you see this photo? It's Soleimani flying home to Iran. He's on his flight.
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His casket is there. Look at the photo right now. This is apparently him flying home
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in his casket. His casket's in the seat. And people are saying this is weird. It's weird
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for the remains of a global mass killer to be flown home commercial in a box. But the thing is,
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in fairness, I know people are reacting to this, but in fairness, this is how everybody flies on
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United now. It's the new policy, unless you pay for the living person upgrade, which is just $89.99,
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by the way. Speaking of Soleimani, you know, the media is still in a state of mourning over his
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passing. And ABC went so far as to send a reporter to Iran to very somberly and respectfully cover the
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terrorist funeral. Martha Raddatz was on the scene there in Iran. And I think you just need to,
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well, you just need to see this. Good morning, Robin. I have been in the
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midst of anti-American protests in Iran before, but nothing like this. A powerful combination of
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grief and anger with shouts of death to America echoing through the streets around us.
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This morning, mourners filling the streets of Iran's capital of Tehran for the funeral of
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General Soleimani, killed by that U.S. drone strike last week. Aerial images capturing the sea of
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Iranians, packing the streets to pay tribute to a man revered by many here.
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Soleimani's image everywhere. The impact of his death, profound.
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The crowds are massive and emotional. There are many tears here, many signs with Soleimani's picture
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on them. But the message is also very clear. These people want revenge.
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As we made our way through the streets of Tehran, people surrounding us, shouting death to America.
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Inside the funeral service, the emotion just as powerful. The supreme leader of Iran,
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weeping and praying over a coffin draped in the Iraqi flag. This is the largest funeral in Iran
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since the death of the Ayatollah Khomeini in 1989.
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Hard revenge. Doesn't that sound like a Dolph Lundgren movie? Sounds like a B-list action movie from the
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80s. Hard revenge. But you get the idea anyway. This is pure Iranian propaganda.
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The Iranian government couldn't have scripted it any better. I mean, maybe they did script it. I don't
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know. No mention of the fact that Soleimani was a murderous scumbag. No mention of him attacking our
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embassy or killing our troops. No mention of his oppression and torture of many thousands of people.
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No, instead, we get the story of Soleimani, the beloved hero, now mourned by millions.
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Which, as far as that goes, the media has been very impressed with the turnout for his funeral
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and for all the mourning, the millions of people in the street. Mourning is passing. But remember,
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this is Iran. So when you hear that millions of people are out bewailing the death of a government
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official, it's a bit like hearing that there's a 99.99% voter turnout in North Korea or something
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like that. If you don't show up for the funeral of the dead government official, you could be taking
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your life into your hands. So the fact that everybody's out there, I'm not sure we should
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be impressed by that. By the way, side note, maybe you had the same thought when you were watching that
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clip there. Martha has, as you notice, the scarf, you know, the hijab on her head there. Which is kind
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of interesting because, of course, in fundamentalist Muslim cultures, women aren't allowed to show their
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heads. Women really can't show any part of their body except for their hands and their faces. And in
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fact, in the most extreme cases, they can't even show their faces. And why is that? Well, because a woman
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in these cultures, a woman is owned by the men in her life, her father and then her husband. And for
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her to let anyone see her head aside from her male owner would be a great sin. Now, feminists in this
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country complain about the patriarchy and about the alleged systematic oppression of women and so on.
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But there is no patriarchy here. There is no systematic oppression of women. Women can do and say
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whatever they want in this country. They can even, as I've gone over many times, they have more rights
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in this country than men do. They can do things. They have power and authority that men do not have.
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In fact, very profound power and authority. They can kill their children without the consent of the
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father. They have power over life and death, judge, jury, and executioner. That's what they can do in this
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country. Yet in this country, feminists still complain that they're being oppressed. And they look for the
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patriarchy around every corner and they try to find every opportunity they can to label something
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patriarchal oppression. But then they go to Iran, a truly patriarchal country. You want to know what
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the patriarchy looks like? It looks like Iran. That's what the patriarchy is. You've got a country
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where women are really oppressed, where they can't even show their heads in public. And Martha Raddatz
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goes there and she wears the scarf on the head in order to respect the custom. That's what I saw
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online. There was this discussion on social media about the fact that she's wearing that. And the
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defense that I saw from people as well, she's respecting the local customs. So if it's an anti-woman
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custom, if it's an oppressive patriarchal custom, you'll respect it. Really? You don't do that here.
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Or you wouldn't do that here, I should say, because there really aren't any oppressive
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patriarchal customs here in this country. But you certainly wouldn't. And even many of our customs
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that are not patriarchal or oppressive, we're told that we don't have to worry about those customs
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anymore. So as long as it's a Muslim custom, then you'll respect it. Since when do leftists care
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about customs? You know, that's, it's, in this country, they couldn't give a damn about custom.
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Custom, tradition, not only do they not care about it, but they'll say it should be torn down just
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for the sake of it. You should tear down old traditions just because they are old traditions.
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But Muslim customs, even anti-woman ones, even ones that treat your entire body like it's shameful,
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like it is the, the, the owned property of a man. Uh, well, those customs, we have to respect,
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respect those customs. I mean, in this country, think about a feminist complain, um, uh, you know,
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that the patriarchy won't let them go topless at the beach. That's pretty much anytime we talk about
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it in the past when I've talked about the fact that women have all the rights that men do in this
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country and, and even rights that we don't have. And so the, the fight for women's rights in this
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country is over. The one example I'm always given, there's always somebody who says, well,
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wait a second. Uh, women can, women aren't allowed to take their shirts off in public, but men can,
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which actually, I don't even think that's true anymore. I think in pretty much every,
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pretty much anywhere you go, uh, or most places in this country now it's, it's, you know, if, if,
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if it's a place where men can take their shirts off, technically women can too in, in many places in
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this country. So that's not even really true anymore. Um, but I mean, just think about that.
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So in this country, that's a custom that shouldn't be respected.
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But again, the fundamentalist Muslim custom of, of, of, you know, in other words,
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if I were to defend, if there are any laws anymore saying that women can't take their shirts off in
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public, but men can, if I were to defend that by saying, well, you know, that's our custom. That's
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our, that's our social convention. And maybe in Europe and some other places, it's, it's, it's a
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little bit more libertine, but that that's not the way that it is in this country. So if I were to
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defend it on that basis, no liberal would be convinced by that because they would demand to
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know, okay, well, why is it a custom? Who cares if it's a custom? I'm not going to respect it just
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because it's a custom, but no, you go to a fundamentalist Muslim country, they put where
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they put women in bags essentially. Um, but that one, yes, with, with, with the utmost reverence,
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we must respect those customs. It's absurd. Now you could point out that, uh, Raditz had to dress
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that way because if she didn't, she'd be stoned to death. And that's fair. That's a fair point. Um,
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I, I, if I were her, I certainly wouldn't want to be stoned to death either. But if you have to
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submit to oppression in order to go there, and you're only going there in the first place to do
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a puff piece about a terrorist who died, then maybe don't go, maybe don't go and do the puff piece.
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So you are debasing yourself, submitting to patriarchal oppression, covering yourself in shame.
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Uh, just so that you can go there and tell us what a wonderful guy this terrorist was.
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Maybe, maybe don't. That's my thought. Maybe don't.
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Anyway, we're not done yet with the, with the media's mourning. Um, because the media is not
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done mourning. Tom Elliott has put together a montage of the media wailing over the death of
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their hero. And it's, well, again, it's just something you have to see. Watch this.
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He was a war hero, the commander of Iran's feared Quds Force. Qasem Soleimani was no ordinary general.
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The U.S. officially classified him as a terrorist, but in Iran, he was a national hero.
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He's regarded as personally, incredibly brave. The troops love him. I was trying to think of
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somebody. I was thinking of De Gaulle. A revered figure in Iran and some other places in the Middle
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East. Smart, charismatic, ruthless, strategic, and bold. His power made Iranians proud. But even
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many of Soleimani's enemies admitted he was a military genius. Qasem Soleimani was an evil genius.
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Soleimani was in charge of spreading Iranian influence around the world, and he was extremely good at it.
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He is the, think of the French Foreign Legion, you know, if you will. By killing Qasem Soleimani,
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the U.S. has stripped Iran of an inspirational military leader. The crowds are massive and emotional.
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There are many tears here. Thousands of mourners on the streets in Iran. Symbolic caskets aloft,
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weeping and chanting, I am Soleimani. The supreme leader of Iran, weeping and praying over a coffin
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draped in the Iraqi flag. Smart, charismatic, ruthless, bold, strategic.
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Do you think they eulogized bin Laden that way? Did the media? Bin Laden was smart. He was strategic.
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He was bold. He had a following of a lot of people who loved him. Yet when he died, for some reason,
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the media didn't use those kinds of words to describe him, did they? Well, why is that?
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Because it would be completely crazy and inappropriate. And the fact that he's smart is not the point.
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Okay, that's not what he's going to be remembered for. Bin Laden is remembered and will always be
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remembered as one of history's great villains, as a mass murderer. And so, in this country,
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that's how we eulogize him, or should eulogize him. Same for Soleimani. But the difference is,
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the reason why the media is using these kinds of descriptors for Soleimani, but they didn't for
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bin Laden, what's the difference? Well, of course, the difference is that bin Laden was killed under
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Obama, and Soleimani was killed under Trump. And that's the difference. That's the only difference.
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Of course, we know, it goes without saying, but I'll say it anyway, we know that if this was Trump,
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or if this was Obama who had done this, it would be entirely different. The descriptions of strategic,
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bold, and genius, that would be applied to Obama and his mission to kill Soleimani. That's the way
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it would go. But because it's Trump, no, he's not the strategic, bold genius for doing it. It's the
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guy he killed that was the strategic, bold genius. All right, and then there's Colin Kaepernick.
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Um, you know, Colin Kaepernick, he wants you to know, by the way, that he's still very much
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oppressed. And in reaction to the killing of Soleimani, Kaepernick sent out a few tweets of
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his own, which, first of all, I went to his Twitter page just to find these tweets. And can
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we just take a look at his Twitter page for a second? I don't know if you've seen this, but
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take a look at it. This is what this is. I'm not making this up. This is what his Twitter page
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looks like. He's got eight pictures of himself at the top of his page. His page is decorated with
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eight pictures of himself. And every photo has that pensive, thoughtful, persecuted look to it.
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It's, it's amazing. I mean, how did that conversation even go? His social media manager
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or whatever, you know, said to Kaepernick, hey, we, uh, we got your page set up and we've got your
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header with a really nice photo of you. I think you'll like it. Check it out. And he says, no,
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needs, needs more me. Okay. So we'll add another photo. No more. Okay. We'll put three photos up
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of you more five more, more, more, more, more me. Put up all the photos, all the photos of me,
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put them all up there. Anyway. So, um, to his, uh, his, his very narcissistically adorned Twitter
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page, he posted a few tweets and this is what he said. He said, there is nothing new about American
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terrorist. Uh, there is nothing new about American terrorist attacks against black and brown people
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for the expansion of American imperialism. And then he said, America has always sanctioned and
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besieged black and brown bodies, both at home and abroad. American militarism is the weapon wielded by
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American imperialism to enforce its policing and plundering of the non-white world. So killing
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Soleimani who was, who has tortured and murdered, murdered thousands in his life, um, not just white
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people, by the way, that is a terrorist attack against brown people, we're told. And America is
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always sanctioning and besieging black and brown people. He says, well, let's, let's think about this.
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How has Kaepernick himself been sanctioned and besieged by America? Let's take a look at that.
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Kaepernick was paid to play a game for six years. And, and, and during that time he made well over
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$40 million. Then he flunks out of the league because his production is declining and he's not
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worth the trouble anymore. Once he starts with the, with the Anthem antics, it becomes a PR nightmare.
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Nobody wants to bother with him. And so he leaves, he's, he leaves the league. He flunks out,
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ends up signing a deal with Nike worth millions and millions of dollars. And then he sues the NFL
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and gets paid something reportedly in the range of 60 to $80 million. Uh, and then Nike just a few
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weeks ago or a few months ago released, uh, Kaepernick's new shoe. He's got a shoe coming
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out. He's got his own shoe, even though he's a failed NFL player. He's not an athlete anymore.
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He's a professional victim, but he's got his own shoe. So this is sanctioning and besieging to be a
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professional football player turned professional victim, obscenely rich, famous, hailed by the media,
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millions of, of fans adore him as a hero for doing nothing at all. Really? This is sanctioning
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and besieging. This is the persecution that Kaepernick has suffered. All I can say is,
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and I'm sure you're with me on this, please somebody besiege me in this way. I would love
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to be besieged with a hundred million dollars. Please. I beg someone persecute me in the way that
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Colin Kaepernick has been persecuted. I would, I would, I would love that kind of persecution that,
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you know, there's, there's a lot of persecution that goes on in the world, uh, that doesn't look
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quite so fun, but, but the Kaepernick persecution. Yeah. I think I would, I think I could go for that.
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I could get used to that. All right. Let's take a look at this. Speaking of frauds and charlatan,
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Jim Baker, Jim Baker is a televangelist, convicted fraudster, accused rapist, allegedly raped his
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secretary back in the eighties, paid her off, um, was kicked out of ministry, then gets convicted on
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multiple counts of mail fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy, went to prison for that. Um, and
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basically through his whole career, he's, it's just been one scandal after another. Most of the scandals
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are sexual or financial in nature, but he's back to being a televangelist now somehow, somehow people
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still go and listen to this guy deliver sermons. Now, the good news is, I guess, uh, if I, if we're
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going to give, uh, old, uh, Baker, uh, credit for one thing, he's not a prosperity gospel preacher
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anymore. He used to, he used to be a prosperity gospel charlatan back in the eighties before he went
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to prison. And he, uh, and that's the, that's the idea that if you're really holy and you pray a lot,
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God will give you lots of money and make you rich, which means that of course, if you're not rich,
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if you're poor, it means that you're not holy and you haven't prayed enough. So that used to be his
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thing, but he went to prison and he says that he read his Bible in prison and he realized he was
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wrong. So this is a guy who's, I think he's 80 years old now. And I believe, uh, and he went to
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prison and he was in the prison in the nineties, early nineties. So he read his Bible all the way
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through for the first time when he was what, like 50. He'd been in ministry his whole life.
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Finally, in his fifties, he says, you know what, maybe I'll pick this thing up and read it.
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So he just read it recently, only recently realized what's even in the Bible.
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Yet people still go to him to hear his theological opinions. I think he got out of prison in like 94,
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95, got back into ministry in 2003 or four. So it's only been eight years since this 50 plus
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year old man even read his Bible and he's a televangelist. And people are going back to him
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to hear what he has to say about theology. It's amazing. And he delivered one of those theological
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opinions this week. Let's take a listen to it. You know what? Trump is a test whether you're even
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saved. Only safe people can love Trump. No, you got to be really saved. You got to forgive.
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You got to be able to forget. You forgive when you're saved. So there you go. If you don't love
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Trump, you aren't saved. That's Baker's new grift. You know, you see, he, he, he just moved on from
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one scam to the other. His old scam was prosperity theology. That didn't work. He took his own advice
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a little bit too much, ended up in federal prison, but he gets out and eventually reinvents himself
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and his theology, starts pandering to the Trump crowd, starts getting more political, realizes
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there's an audience there. And now he says that no wealth is not the test of whether you're saved.
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Trump is the test. So it's a, it's a, it's not a, it's not an economic or financial litmus
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test that gets you into heaven. It's a political one. God's going to check your scorecard, check
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your voting record, decide based on that. All I could say is, you know, obviously it's not
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worth our time to break this down and explain why this charlatan fraud scamming people,
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so on and so forth, uh, is wrong about this. It's not worth the time, but it does just bring
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up again, you know, this, this guy has an audience, people that watch him on TV, people that go to,
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to, to, uh, to his, you know, whatever, listen to him speak. Why it is such, and he's not the only
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one, of course, you know, there's a, there's a, a lot of them out there of these blatantly obvious
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charlatans and frauds who are manipulating and, and, and just saying whatever they have to do
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to gain a following and enriching themselves and using the Bible and the, the, this cloak of
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Christianity to do it. And it's so obvious what they're doing yet. Millions of Christians
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It is an, it's an indictment on the, the, the lack of depth and intelligence among so many American
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Christians. And I'm sorry to put it that way. I, I, I don't, I don't, I, I, I hate that that is the
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fact, but it is the fact. And maybe I shouldn't even say intelligence because I think that lets
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people off the hook. If people that go and listen to Baker to say that they're stupid, uh, I wish that
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it was just a matter of stupidity because you know, you can't help being stupid, but it's more than
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that. You're being willfully deceived. So I, I actually, in fact, I'm going to amend that
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statement. It's not, it's not a matter of intelligence, uh, because I'm not gonna let
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anybody off the hook. I think these are people who are being willfully deceived
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because they go and listen to this guy because they, they get something out of it that they like.
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He's tickling their ears. He's saying things that they want to hear. He's giving them a version
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of Christianity that they like. And that's why they go to him. And at some level they must know
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because they're not stupid. They must know that this is all BS and that this guy's a wolf in
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sheep's clothing. They, they must know it. So I hold them accountable too.
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And before it was, okay, you go to somebody like Baker, uh, because of the prosperity theology.
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And he says, and he promises you wealth and riches if you pray the right way. And of course,
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that's going to be appealing to people. And so that's why they go to him and they're willing
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to overlook all this stuff. He's like, he's convicted of fraud. He's a convicted fraudster.
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Then we're going to overlook that because he's telling us what we want to hear. Well, he, you know,
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he, he decides that's not so popular anymore. So I'm not going to do that anymore. And remember,
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and also prosperity theology, the heyday of prosperity theology was in the eighties,
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the seventies and eighties. Um, in, in recent years, a lot of people have woken up to the scam
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and other people in Christian, in, in the church are fighting back against it. So it's not so popular
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anymore. I don't think it's a coincidence that Baker had his come to Jesus moment. Literally,
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he had his realization right around the time when prosperity theology wasn't popular as popular as
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it used to be. So he realizes it's not so popular. He comes up with a new scam.
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And this time it's more political and everything. And, and, uh, he's like a Republican televangelist
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now. And so people who are Republican, they like to hear this. That's great. I mean, if you're
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already a Trump supporter, right, you would, and this guy says, Oh, you're saved. If you support
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Trump, that's nice to hear. Yeah. But you know, it's wrong, you know, you must know it. And we got
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to do better than this. We just have to, and I don't want to hear it. You know what? And I know
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I'm going to get emails from people saying, Oh, well, what about forgiveness, Matt? Shouldn't we
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forgive him? Yeah. He went to jail. Yeah. He's a convicted fraudster and liar who went to prison
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was originally was supposed to go to prison for like 40 years and got out. I mean,
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he should still be in jail right now. Um, uh, and yeah, he paid off a woman that he allegedly raped
00:25:19.540
and so on, but we should forgive. We forgive. I don't want to hear that. Okay. This, this
00:25:28.340
forgiveness thing has become such a cop-out. It's become this sort of such a broad concept
00:25:37.800
that it's supposed to be a get out of jail free card for people. And it's not, first of
00:25:42.820
all, what does it mean? If you're not directly affected by something bad that somebody did,
00:25:49.540
you realize that you forgiving them means nothing. What do you mean you forgive them?
00:25:55.640
So a guy commits fraud and, you know, scams people out of money and you are not one of
00:26:04.480
the people who got scammed out of money and you forgive him. What do you mean? You, it's
00:26:08.320
not up to you to forgive. It's like if a guy's a serial rapist and, and you say, Oh, I forgive
00:26:14.360
him. I forgive him. You weren't a victim. If you're not a victim and you're not a family,
00:26:19.920
what do you mean? What does it mean for you to forgive him? What does that even mean? It's not
00:26:24.000
up to you to forgive. And it costs you nothing to forgive. Yeah. It's really easy to do that.
00:26:29.540
Yes. I can sit here. In fact, right now I'm going to sit here, I'm going to wave my hand
00:26:34.020
and I'm going to forgive everyone who's ever done anything bad that didn't affect me.
00:26:37.720
I forgive all of you. Yeah. Every single one of you. Yeah. I forgive you. I mean, there's
00:26:44.700
a guy in Chicago right now, stealing somebody else's car. I forgive that guy. I forgive
00:26:50.880
him. Go in peace. You have my blessing. What does that mean? It doesn't mean anything.
00:26:59.560
Forgiveness is something that you do, um, that you offer, uh, to someone who has wronged you
00:27:05.700
personally. It's the same thing with a turn the other cheek. Oh, we're supposed to turn
00:27:10.060
the other cheek. Yeah. Turn the other cheek is when you are personally offended or insulted
00:27:15.400
or attacked and, and, and you respond that way to your own. But if someone else is attacked,
00:27:21.380
um, and you don't respond to it and you just sit back and let it happen, you can't say,
00:27:28.620
Oh, I was turning the other cheek. It's not your cheek. It's really easy for you to turn
00:27:32.660
it when you're not the one getting slapped. So it's a similar thing with forgiveness,
00:27:38.180
which doesn't mean that I'm not, I'm not saying that we should hold, that we should, uh, sit,
00:27:44.780
hold grudges or that we should not allow people to change their ways and so on. That's not my point.
00:27:51.280
I'm just saying forgiveness is easy and cheap when you are not the one affected by it.
00:27:56.660
Second point about forgiveness, just because you forgive someone doesn't mean that you trust them
00:28:04.420
again. It doesn't mean that you, uh, go to them as an authority, especially a moral authority ever
00:28:12.040
again. It doesn't mean that you forget what they did. It doesn't mean you allow yourself to get
00:28:17.460
scammed by this person. That's not what it means. So, uh, Jim Baker convicted fraudster.
00:28:27.320
Yeah. Go ahead and forgive him. Whatever the hell that means. If you're not a, if you were not a
00:28:32.260
victim of one of his many crimes, so go ahead, go ahead and forgive him. That doesn't mean
00:28:37.700
that you should go and listen to him as a moral or theological authority.
00:28:42.540
And in fact, if he was actually serious in his, in his, if he was actually repentant
00:28:48.740
and penitent, he wouldn't be putting himself up as a moral and theological authority. He would
00:28:54.560
have gotten out of prison and went off into obscurity and moved into the mountains or something
00:28:59.540
and, and, and lived in penance for the rest of his life because he would have realized that he is not,
00:29:06.080
that he is not capable of being, of being in that position, that he had betrayed people's trust in
00:29:13.400
such a way, in such a, in egregious way that it would be wrong for him to put himself in that
00:29:18.840
position again. That's what he would do if he was really penitent. But no, he gets, he hops right
00:29:26.460
back on the saddle, starts making money again off of, uh, off of distorting the gospel. And you
00:29:34.520
think that's penitent? No, not at all. I mean, it's just like if, if, I mean, here, here's a time
00:29:44.560
of real forgiveness. You know, if, if a spouse cheats on you and then you find a way to forgive
00:29:53.800
them, okay, well now that's, that's a real heroic feat. I mean, that's meaningful. If you can actually
00:29:57.500
forgive your spouse for cheating on you, forgive, forgive someone else's spouse for cheating on them.
00:30:03.220
That doesn't mean anything for you to do that. Good, good job. Nicely done. Good for you. But
00:30:07.220
so forgive your own spouse. Yeah, very, very, uh, it takes a lot, but that doesn't mean that you
00:30:15.320
automatically trust them again. Okay. And, um, it doesn't mean, you know, and, and, and there are
00:30:22.180
going to be things like probably if, if, if they've, if they've cheated on you and you're trying to rebuild
00:30:27.420
the marriage, there are going to be things like, okay, now you, you can't have the same sort of
00:30:33.540
privacy online that you had before. Okay. I mean, I'm going to be suspicious. If you're locking your
00:30:38.740
phone down, if I, you know, if I'm trying to go on, if you're making sure that you're logged out of
00:30:44.820
Facebook or something before I go and use the computer, I mean, things like that, I'm going to be
00:30:49.720
suspicious. Not because I haven't forgiven you, but because I'm not stupid. And I know that this
00:30:57.220
is something that you've done in the past and that you apparently are prone to.
00:31:05.320
All right, let's, uh, okay, let's move on. I have a bunch of emails to answer, but first,
00:31:10.600
okay, well, my wife went to an organic grocery store. Uh, actually it was, it was, uh, it was called
00:31:17.120
the, the organic mommy market. I think she said, or mom's organic market or something like that.
00:31:22.780
Something along those, one of those places where you go there and you buy a jar of almond butter for
00:31:27.660
$43. One of those things. And she comes home with, um, with these, I don't know if you could see that
00:31:35.360
there. These are, this is a bag of crickets, barbecue crickets. And she dares me to eat them on my show
00:31:44.380
to do a taste test of the crickets on my show. And this is pretty evil on her part. I have to say,
00:31:49.660
because she knows she, she, she damn well knows that I have the maturity of a 12 year old. And so
00:31:56.300
when you say to me, I dare you to do this, I double dog dare you. She knows that I have to do it. I can't
00:32:03.200
not do it. Even though I'm a 33 year old man, allegedly, if I'm dared to do something, I feel like
00:32:09.040
I have to do it. My six year old son can and has coaxed me into doing things that were not necessarily
00:32:16.100
smart just by daring me to do them. So that's, that's where I'm at. And so she says that, and
00:32:20.620
that means I have to do it. But as it happens, um, she didn't even really need to dare me to do this
00:32:26.460
because bugs are all the rage these days. It's very environmentally friendly. Everyone's talking
00:32:30.260
about how you're supposed to eat bugs. And as you guys know, I care deeply about environmentalism.
00:32:35.900
It's an issue that's near and dear to my heart. It's probably my number one issue in life. As you
00:32:41.140
know, I talk about it all the time. And so, uh, this is something that, you know, I, I feel morally
00:32:48.100
obliged to do. Um, I just hope that these are free range crickets because I only eat it. I only eat
00:32:57.000
insects that are free range, open source, grass fed Buddhist. By the way, this is a, just to give a
00:33:04.820
shout out to the company. This is a company called Bug Bistro barbecue crickets. These are barbecue
00:33:10.220
flavor crickets, uh, from Entomo Farms, it looks like. And there is a, there is a warning, very
00:33:18.940
helpful warning on the back of this. It says, uh, allergy warning contains insects. So if you were
00:33:25.580
wondering if the bag of insects contains insects, it does. The bag of insects doesn't contain Skittles.
00:33:31.160
It turns out it does contain insects. So, um, all right, well, let's, let's give these a try. First
00:33:38.300
of all, they do, it, it, you know what, it, the bag of crickets, it smells like a bag of crickets.
00:33:46.720
It pretty much smells exactly like you would expect. If I were to blindfold you and put this
00:33:51.120
in front of your nose, you would say, hmm, smells like a bag of crickets. And you would be exactly
00:33:55.240
right. So let's, um, let's stop stalling and give these a shot. This could be life-changing. I mean,
00:34:02.700
if I discover that I love these things, I can just go outside anytime, grab some crickets and have a
00:34:07.840
nice snack. So, um, they do look like crickets too. Got the eyes still there. You know, they haven't,
00:34:16.100
they haven't really tried to pretty these things up at all. Hmm. Yeah. You know,
00:34:27.720
so the taste, it's got a little bit of a, a little bit of a nutty almond taste to it.
00:34:46.100
Definitely very, there's a very, very distinct almond flavor there. It, it tastes a little bit
00:34:55.120
like there's a little bit of, of, of almond. There's a little bit of mud and there's a whole
00:35:05.500
lot of cricket. Yeah. It tastes a little bit like if you were to walk outside in, in, in the mud,
00:35:14.740
then come back inside, take your shoe off, smother the bottom of the shoe and barbecue sauce and lick
00:35:22.760
it. That's sort of the taste. Not terrible, not good. I'll tell you the worst thing about it.
00:35:32.820
The taste is, you know, the taste is not so bad on a, on a pure taste scale. I would say it's,
00:35:37.880
it's a, it's a, it's about a level above Taco Bell, which isn't hard to do, but what makes the
00:35:44.760
experience somewhat horrifying is the anatomical aspect of it, where you can really feel and taste
00:35:52.480
all the different parts of the cricket exploding in your mouth. And that's that, that part I don't
00:36:00.340
really enjoy as much to be honest. Um, I wonder what happens if I just, so I just tried the head
00:36:11.600
there. You know what? The head's not so bad. I think I'm more of a head guy. I think, uh, I think
00:36:18.280
I like the head, but, but the red, because the rest of the body, that's where you get all the legs
00:36:22.600
and everything and the wings. Plus when you eat the head, you get the, you, you absorb the brain,
00:36:29.580
the tiny little brain of the insect. And so you, I believe scientifically you, you absorb the insect's
00:36:34.600
IQ. And so after about three or four of them, you'll be as smart as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez,
00:36:41.100
uh, which is, which is nice. So that's insects. I, um, I think I still prefer to eat cows instead
00:36:50.540
as, as, as somewhat tolerable as these are, I think I would just prefer to stick with beef,
00:36:57.120
but that's, that's just me. Uh, and I am, I am wondering how much these costs because this was
00:37:02.120
at an organic market and I don't even want to ask my wife, but I'm afraid that when I ask her,
00:37:07.600
she's going to tell me they were $27 for a bag of bugs. Yeah. The aftertaste, not so great either.
00:37:18.380
Very crickety aftertaste. All right, let's move on. Uh, this is from, uh, let's say we'll go to
00:37:26.800
emails, mattwalshowatgmail.com, mattwalshowatgmail.com. Now I have the cricket parts sucking my teeth
00:37:33.120
and in my throat. Not pleasant, not very pleasant. This is from Jana says, uh, Hey Matt, just a heads
00:37:43.880
up. Never attend a mass in Argentina. My mother is from there. So I have firsthand experience.
00:37:49.280
If you, however, decide to ignore my advice, you'll be expected to not just shake people's hands,
00:37:53.380
but to also hug them. Argentinian men kiss each other in the cheek. Most Argentinians are of Italian
00:38:00.580
descent. So there's that. And Pope Francis knows that of course, but this Pope is a commie. So he's
00:38:04.760
fine with Castro and Maduro grabbing his hands, but lashes out when someone else does it.
00:38:08.660
You know, um, Jana, I kind of appreciate that. And I got a few emails, but we talked about the
00:38:18.480
sign of the peace in Catholic mass last week. And yeah, I heard from other people from other
00:38:22.840
countries saying, Oh, you know, in our country, it's even worse than that. There's hugging and
00:38:27.120
kissing. I kind of appreciate that. Now don't get me wrong. It's horrific. If I ended up in a church
00:38:33.260
where they did that, I just become a Jehovah's witness on the spot. But what I'm saying is if
00:38:38.640
you're going to take a break in the action randomly to let people exchange signs of peace, whatever that
00:38:44.200
means, you may as well go full tilt. I mean, you might as well really go for it because the awkward
00:38:50.440
formal American thing with the handshake, where you're just peace be with you. Yes. And with you.
00:38:57.640
Yes. Yes. Peace be with you. Peace be with you. Peace, peace, peace. Or you're just barely grabbing the
00:39:02.000
person's hand. It sort of defeats the purpose. So at least with the Argentinians, they really,
00:39:07.540
I mean, when they give the sign of peace, they really give it. And so that I, as horrible as it
00:39:14.720
is, I can appreciate that. This is from Nicholas says, Hi, Matt, greetings from the land of spiders.
00:39:20.180
And unfortunately right now, fire. I wanted your thoughts on the, I've got crickets on the desk here.
00:39:26.260
I wanted your thoughts. And I've still got crickets stuck in my throat right now,
00:39:31.660
as I'm, as I'm, this is, can't they at least, can't they at least tear the legs off these things
00:39:38.440
before they put them in the bag? Greetings from the land of spiders and unfortunately right now,
00:39:43.640
fire. I wanted your thoughts on the theological considerations of these fires. Last year,
00:39:47.420
a famous Australian sports star said that the fires were God's punishment for same-sex marriage
00:39:52.040
and abortion. Both are legal in Australia, but we also have the rare distinction alongside Ireland
00:39:57.820
of approving same-sex marriage in a popular vote, which happened in 2017. Do you think he's right?
00:40:03.700
So are the, okay, so the question is, the fires in Australia, are they a punishment for God for
00:40:07.920
same-sex marriage? First of all, Nicholas, I'm sorry for what you guys are going through down there
00:40:13.040
in Australia. It really is unbelievable the extent of these fires. Is it divine punishment?
00:40:23.500
No, absolutely not. I think that's ridiculous. Really big fires like this happen in Australia
00:40:29.980
because it's hot and dry. And that's why it happens. If God was going to torch countries that
00:40:37.560
allow same-sex marriage, you mentioned Ireland, why isn't Ireland on fire? Well, you could say Ireland
00:40:44.220
is wet and cold, so they don't really get forest fires like other countries, like Australia does.
00:40:48.960
But if this is divine action, then the physical conditions don't matter. Do you think God needs
00:40:55.240
it to be the right physical condition in order to start a fire? This is God we're talking about.
00:41:02.480
God could set Ireland on fire if he wanted to, and yet he doesn't. And in fact,
00:41:08.960
I think if you were to see, if Ireland were to be on fire to the extent of Australia,
00:41:13.240
that would be quite a statement. I mean, you'd almost be forced to come up with some supernatural
00:41:19.800
explanation for it. But it just so happens, I guess, that the places that God decides to punish
00:41:26.540
with a fire are also the places where fires always happen anyway, and the place where even fires of this
00:41:33.700
magnitude have happened in the past, even before same-sex marriage. So that's the problem with saying
00:41:37.920
that a natural disaster is some kind of punishment from God, because they happen all across the world,
00:41:43.220
natural disasters do, at random places, affecting everyone randomly, and they've always happened
00:41:50.900
everywhere, natural disasters have. There's no observable connection between a country acting
00:41:56.940
immorally and natural disasters. So we really don't observe that. We don't observe that as a country
00:42:03.300
descends into immorality, natural disasters become more common. We don't, we don't, that's, that is not
00:42:09.840
what we observe. I think what Christians try to do with this is very similar to what leftists do
00:42:16.040
by blaming it on global warming. Again, you can't blame it on global warming because Australia has
00:42:20.720
always had bushfires, and they've, and they've had really bad ones in the past also. It might, maybe
00:42:25.680
it's been a while since they've had one like this, but it has happened. There was a bushfire in 1920
00:42:30.000
something, 1926, I think, that killed 30 plus people. There was a bushfire in the 1930s that
00:42:35.260
killed 70 plus people. But way back in the 20s and 30s, very few people were driving. There weren't,
00:42:42.600
you didn't have nearly the same number of factories and the industrialization that we have now
00:42:47.200
to the same extent, the same degree. And yet these things happened back then. So you, you really,
00:42:54.780
again, you don't observe this steady increase in bushfires to go along with so-called global warming.
00:43:06.460
And just, and it's the same thing with people that try to make it a divine punishment.
00:43:10.300
And I get, and I think this is probably the most prescient point here, actually, is that,
00:43:13.800
and I should have mentioned this before, the fires in Australia right now, many of them have
00:43:17.540
been deliberately set by people. Last I read, 200 people have been arrested in Australia for setting
00:43:23.480
fires. So you can't blame it on climate change. It wasn't climate change that made them set the
00:43:28.680
fire on purpose. It wasn't God who made them do it. They did it on their own. And so that's how I
00:43:35.340
would respond to that. By the way, since we're on the subject, and yes, as we've talked about,
00:43:40.780
the fires are really bad. It's a terrible situation. But the media is doing quite a lot of sensationalizing
00:43:45.920
because they want to draw this connection between this and global warming. So I want you to look at
00:43:51.200
this. This is, this is pretty incredible. Here's a map. This is a map that ABC posted yesterday.
00:43:57.660
And this supposedly shows the scale of the fires in Australia. That red stuff around the edges,
00:44:03.720
according to ABC, that's all fire. Now, now let me, let me show you another map. This is a map of
00:44:10.060
Australia's population density. And you see where all the population centers are in Australia.
00:44:15.800
And you see how they're around the coastlines there. What do you notice? According to this,
00:44:21.320
according to ABC anyway, everybody, almost everybody in Australia is on fire right now.
00:44:27.460
So everyone is dead, according to ABC. You see all the places where there's population,
00:44:34.440
all of that is on fire, which of course is not the case. I think that the actual death toll is 25
00:44:40.520
or 30 at this point, which is horrible. It's obviously a terrible thing. And, and, but that's what
00:44:46.500
makes it so atrocious when the, when the media sensationalizes, because you don't, not only is
00:44:55.300
it unethical and immoral and you're lying, but it's not necessary. The actual situation is really,
00:45:02.240
really bad. So you don't have to make it up. You can just report what's actually happening.
00:45:06.880
It's the same thing with mass shootings and school shootings. You see the media trying to pump up the
00:45:12.120
numbers by saying, Oh, there are 200 mass shootings a year or whatever crazy number they come up with.
00:45:17.180
No, it's not anywhere close to that, but they do happen and they're really terrible. And so you
00:45:23.660
don't need to do this. Putting aside how unethical and immoral it is. It's also, it's so unnecessary.
00:45:29.760
You could stick to the facts and the facts themselves are horrific enough on their own.
00:45:43.720
Let's see. I'll do one more. This is from Andrew says, great show. Love your commentary. I enjoy and
00:45:47.440
have for the most part, always enjoyed comedians like Gervais, Chappelle, and Rogan. However, I find
00:45:51.620
that as much as we like to lift them up right now, as we side with them against the outrage culture,
00:45:55.400
the Catholic predator jokes and atheistic attacks always strike me the wrong way.
00:45:58.680
Is this an inability to take a joke on my part or would you want these jokes to be gone from the
00:46:03.660
repertoire for better enjoyment? And this is an interesting point. I saw somebody online yesterday
00:46:09.000
say, Hey, conservatives, Ricky Gervais isn't on our side. He's not a conservative.
00:46:13.580
And that's true. He's not. He's Ricky Gervais is pro-abortion, socially liberal, extremely atheist.
00:46:20.580
His standup act, I've watched a couple of his standup acts and I think he's very funny. I think he's
00:46:27.620
really talented, not just as a comedian, I think he's more talented even as a, you know, as a,
00:46:35.260
in creating shows and as a script writer for TV shows. But anyway, this atheism is a big part of
00:46:43.080
what he does. And his standup act consists of at least the ones I saw. It's like 80% jokes about
00:46:48.860
religious people. But that's actually why I appreciate him because he's not pandering.
00:46:53.600
He really is an equal opportunity offender. Joe Rogan also is atheist and is very outspoken about
00:46:58.600
that. But I appreciate that because number one, you're being honest about how you feel and what
00:47:04.060
you think. And I think we need that in this country, even if I disagree. I mean, at this point,
00:47:11.040
I'm at a point right now where I'm so tired of the pandering that happens on both sides.
00:47:17.920
I'm so tired of the same old thing from everybody, everyone, just the same talking points. It's just
00:47:25.220
how redundant and repetitive everything is and how safe everybody is. You know, you find your tribe or
00:47:31.200
your side and you stick to those talking points. You don't want to upset them. You always want.
00:47:35.660
So I'm at the point where I can appreciate anyone who is actually honest about how they feel and
00:47:44.660
thinks for themselves and isn't worried about cultivating a tribe or sticking to a tribe's
00:47:51.800
talking points. But it's just, it just says, look, this is how I feel is what I think.
00:47:57.440
Some of it is going to be consistent with what this camp says. Some of it's going to be with this
00:48:01.900
camp. I don't care. This is just what I think. So I appreciate that. Um, and I also appreciate
00:48:08.660
that, you know, somebody like Ricky, Ricky Gervais, he is liberal yet. He's up there calling out his
00:48:14.900
own people. And, uh, I, I respect that as well. So, you know, it doesn't, yeah. I mean, if,
00:48:23.180
if I'm going to sit and watch a comedian, would I prefer if they don't spend 25 of the 45 minute
00:48:32.960
set, making fun of Christians? Yeah. I mean, I'd prefer it personally, but, um,
00:48:40.040
I guess my point is the fact that somebody like that with that viewpoint got up at the golden globes
00:48:48.500
and did what he did. I think that's more powerful.
00:48:53.180
The fact that he's a socially liberal atheist and even he's up there saying this to these people
00:48:59.540
that makes it more powerful. It's more powerful than if some conservative Christian had done it.
00:49:06.200
Not that a conservative Christian would ever be invited to host the golden globes in the first
00:49:09.760
place, but that's the point. We need people in that world to, you know, speak out against some of this
00:49:18.400
stuff. All right. Uh, we'll leave it there. Thanks everybody for watching. Thanks
00:49:23.120
for listening. Go get your, uh, bug bistro crickets today and enjoy them. And I'll talk to you tomorrow.
00:49:31.180
If you enjoyed this episode, don't forget to subscribe. And if you want to help spread the word,
00:49:37.540
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00:49:52.600
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The Matt Wall show is a Daily Wire production, copyright Daily Wire 2020.
00:50:13.000
Hey everyone. It's Andrew Klavan, host of the Andrew Klavan show. You know, Harvey Weinstein is
00:50:18.000
on trial, but it's not just him. It's the entire mainstream news and entertainment media and the
00:50:23.360
kind of feminism it promotes. It's also on trial. And you can see that mainstream media continuing to
00:50:28.780
shame itself by mourning the death of terrorist leader Qasem Soleimani. And we'll talk about that too