The Michael Knowles Show

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00:00:30.400 Just when you thought it was safe to go back to work in Congress,

00:00:35.740 it turns out that there's another staffer filming gay sex tapes at the Capitol.

00:00:42.080 I'm Michael Knowles. This is The Michael Knowles Show.

00:01:00.000 Welcome back to the show. Lots of dysfunction between the sexes.

00:01:05.820 Cameron Diaz wants married couples to sleep not only in separate rooms, but in separate homes.

00:01:10.900 We'll get to that in just a little bit.

00:01:12.240 We will also get to the dysfunction within the sexes, I suppose, after another gay sex tape emerges in Washington, D.C. at the U.S. Capitol.

00:01:24.760 I wish we didn't have to talk about that, but we do.

00:01:26.940 And when you want to talk, you got to check out Pure Talk.

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00:02:31.280 Last week, a staffer for some Democrat senator was caught filming—I think I'm the only show in America that did not post screenshots of this in his show or on his Twitter page.

00:02:47.080 And I don't—no one needs to see the screenshots, but it was pretty gross.

00:02:51.240 And the staffer then said that he was being persecuted for who he loves.

00:02:56.260 Of course, he was not being persecuted for who he loves.

00:02:58.380 I'm not quite sure that what he was doing in that video would be described as love.

00:03:02.540 He was certainly being persecuted for how he loves, because that isn't love.

00:03:05.960 And if he's trying to love, he's doing it the wrong way and definitely doing it in the wrong place.

00:03:10.400 Where he loves, I guess, is another issue, namely the Senate Judiciary Hearing Room.

00:03:14.420 So, just a week after that, turns out there is another congressional sex tape involving a couple of fellas.

00:03:22.800 This one apparently circulated on Snapchat last year.

00:03:26.100 But for those of us who are not in those circles, we're only finding out about it now, conveniently, after this other sex tape.

00:03:33.440 This is from the story of a user going by Adam J.

00:03:38.840 Recordings of this were viewed by Semaphore and mercifully not by all of us.

00:03:43.220 But Semaphore says that the videos featured a man inside a house office building doing something alone.

00:03:52.320 This is a family show.

00:03:53.000 I'm going to try to clean it up.

00:03:53.760 You know, he was doing what Woody Allen referred to as sleeping with someone you love.

00:04:00.120 And then there was also another one with a dude with two men engaged in something unfortunate.

00:04:07.560 The participants' faces are not visible in any of this material.

00:04:11.500 And then on top of that, on top of that, a slightly different but still related scandal.

00:04:17.580 Jill Biden's press secretary, Michael LaRosa, was just forced out of the White House

00:04:21.440 after he apparently tried, quote, tried to take gay dates to his room on a secure floor of the hotel

00:04:28.740 where the president was staying during a NATO summit in Madrid.

00:04:32.520 So when we say dates, we're not talking about this is a man who had been cultivating some sort of relationship

00:04:37.680 over some weeks and months.

00:04:39.500 No, it was a guy who, like, went on an app or something or met a guy at a bar.

00:04:42.580 And this press secretary for the first lady of the United States

00:04:45.540 brings some random dude back to the secured floor where the president of the United States is staying.

00:04:51.440 To go engage in weird stuff that apparently happens in places other than the U.S. Capitol.

00:04:58.520 I am calling for a complete and total shutdown of homosexual political staffers with iPhones

00:05:08.400 until we figure out what the hell is going on.

00:05:10.820 Okay, I am a complete and total shutdown.

00:05:14.580 We should not be reading this many headlines within the span of two weeks

00:05:17.840 at very high levels of the government.

00:05:19.880 That is really weird, man.

00:05:22.440 What is driving this?

00:05:23.580 This is completely insane behavior.

00:05:25.380 Let's start with the most anodyne of the behaviors,

00:05:27.840 this dude working for Jill Biden who decides it's a smart idea during a NATO summit.

00:05:32.460 You're there working for the first lady.

00:05:33.860 You're with the president.

00:05:34.920 You're with the entire Secret Service.

00:05:36.260 And you decide it's a good idea to pick up some random dude in a foreign country

00:05:41.540 and go back and do creepy, weird stuff in your hotel room on a floor with the president.

00:05:46.080 What kind of insanity would have to have taken over your mind and soul to convince you that was a good idea?

00:05:53.800 You're going to give up a promising political career with one of the most enviable jobs in politics.

00:05:58.280 You're working right there for the first family in the White House.

00:06:01.620 And you give that up to do weird, creepy sex stuff with some rando Spaniard.

00:06:06.080 What has to take over your mind?

00:06:07.740 You've got a job in the U.S. Capitol working for a member of the House of Representatives or a senator.

00:06:12.820 And you decide it's a really good idea to not only engage in creepy actions that would obviously be cause for immediate termination

00:06:20.020 and actions which are in themselves extremely humiliating.

00:06:23.460 But you're going to film it and send it around.

00:06:25.860 And you think that's going to be fine.

00:06:27.100 No one's going to trace it back to you, even though you're on camera committing the actions.

00:06:31.160 The guy who was working for the Democrat senator, he posted all sorts of weird, creepy sex stuff all over his social media,

00:06:37.140 not only after he was hired, even before he was hired, he somehow still got the job.

00:06:40.720 What is taking over these people's minds to convince them to do something not only that is gross and immoral,

00:06:47.400 but that is just so stupid, that's so profoundly foolish, and that is guaranteed in the long run to lose you your job and career?

00:06:57.100 And to humiliate you at the national level?

00:06:58.840 I'll give you the answer.

00:07:00.160 I know exactly what it is.

00:07:01.140 We've been talking about it for two weeks.

00:07:03.240 It's porn.

00:07:04.400 That's what's doing it to these people.

00:07:06.060 That is what is melting these people's brains.

00:07:08.400 And the reason I know that is because I read the mailbag.

00:07:10.940 The reason I know that is I read surveys and statistics on porn usage, which is 90% plus among men,

00:07:19.480 because I read the statistics that show that the average age or the median age of first exposure to porn is something like 11.

00:07:26.540 And then I read the mailbag, and I hear from people, not only the libs, who brag about how addicted to porn they are,

00:07:31.280 but even conservatives who say, I've been struggling with this since I was a kid or a teenager,

00:07:34.740 and it's really awful, and I keep trying to fix it, and I can't.

00:07:40.200 Most people are addicted to this stuff, at least among men.

00:07:43.060 I hope not among women, but even the rates apparently of viewership among women have gone up.

00:07:48.440 And it melts people's brains.

00:07:50.480 It warps their perception of reality.

00:07:52.060 It, like any drug, is just totally warping their risk analysis, like a crackhead who's trying to score.

00:08:01.860 They totally ignore risk.

00:08:04.800 They engage in reckless, dangerous behavior that almost always redounds to their disadvantage.

00:08:11.820 And they're literally filming porn in this case, right?

00:08:16.820 In the case of these two dudes, the Senate guy and the congressional guy, they were,

00:08:21.580 the reason I know porn is at the heart of this is, they weren't just engaging in creepy sex acts in the Capitol.

00:08:26.660 They were producing pornography.

00:08:28.560 And then they were disseminating that to other people.

00:08:31.420 So it's not even that this was just something they wanted to keep for their own posterity,

00:08:36.000 you know, a little memento of their romp at the Capitol.

00:08:40.400 Part of whatever was driving them was the fact that they would be viewed by other people on a screen.

00:08:46.040 How did this dude in NATO, how did this Jill Biden press secretary meet that random guy?

00:08:50.300 Maybe they met at a bar, it could be.

00:08:52.600 Statistically, though, what's most likely is they did it on one of these swipe apps.

00:08:57.400 It's a major problem, okay, because it is causing people to become enslaved to one particular desire.

00:09:05.960 You can easily become enslaved to any vice and sin.

00:09:09.160 If you're a booze hound and you drink out of moderation, what happens?

00:09:15.080 You think you're really free.

00:09:16.540 You think you're really liberated.

00:09:17.640 You can do whatever you want.

00:09:18.580 But the moment that you break those bounds of moderation, the moment that you engage in mortal sin and cultivate that vice, what happens?

00:09:26.180 You become a slave.

00:09:27.080 You become owned by that sin.

00:09:29.340 You become a slave to booze.

00:09:30.900 Or you could become a slave to drugs.

00:09:33.860 Or you could become a slave to gluttony, to food.

00:09:36.020 Or you could become a slave to pride, to vanity.

00:09:38.580 Or, in this case, you become a slave to your lusts.

00:09:43.000 And so you do things that any rational person knows is completely insane.

00:09:48.120 You damage your life.

00:09:49.360 You become a national laughingstock like all of these guys have.

00:09:52.480 You lose your career.

00:09:53.920 For what?

00:09:54.560 To do some embarrassing, degrading action on camera for other people?

00:10:01.200 How sad.

00:10:03.140 And how pathetic is it?

00:10:05.140 How pathetic is it for us as a country that we have to talk about sex this much?

00:10:09.600 The libs will say, why are the conservatives so obsessed with sex?

00:10:12.180 We're not the ones filming this stuff in the Capitol.

00:10:14.600 We're not the ones picking up random dudes while we're press secretary for Jill Biden.

00:10:19.880 We're not the ones changing all the sexual rules, trying to redefine marriage,

00:10:23.420 trying to put dudes in the women's bathroom,

00:10:25.200 trying to put porn in the hands of kindergartners.

00:10:27.180 We're not doing that.

00:10:28.700 We're the ones saying, hey, whoa, chill, man.

00:10:30.900 It's the libs who are the aggressors in the sexual revolution.

00:10:33.800 It's the libs who are the aggressors in the culture war.

00:10:35.980 And it's pathetic.

00:10:37.340 It's very shameful for them.

00:10:39.180 And it's annoying for us that we, a once great nation,

00:10:42.600 supposedly the global hegemon,

00:10:44.360 have to spend all of our time talking about genitals.

00:10:46.800 It's ridiculous.

00:10:47.700 It's sad.

00:10:48.340 It's pathetic.

00:10:48.740 There are other things in the world.

00:10:50.360 And if we want to be a great nation again,

00:10:52.200 we're going to need to focus on some of those things.

00:10:54.500 But you can't focus on those things when your brain is so melted by porn

00:10:57.860 that in our nation's capital,

00:11:01.140 we have to spend our time investigating who is filming pornography in the Senate hearing room.

00:11:06.840 Or we need to spend time investigating what really is a man and what really is a woman

00:11:10.940 so that we can have a national debate over whether dudes should be allowed

00:11:15.020 into your little daughter's bathroom at a public pool.

00:11:19.340 Pathetic.

00:11:20.580 No nation will be great if that is what we have to do.

00:11:23.800 But the problem is you do have to address some of these things because if we don't understand basic facts of life,

00:11:30.640 if we can't agree on basic facts of human nature, we can't have a polity.

00:11:34.140 We can't talk to one another.

00:11:35.240 We can't deliberate.

00:11:35.820 We can't even speak.

00:11:36.380 We don't even speak the same language anymore.

00:11:39.180 And if we don't overcome our most basic appetites and passions,

00:11:42.900 then we won't be capable of rational thought or a rational will or being a great nation.

00:11:48.100 Absolutely pathetic.

00:11:49.060 Now, I'm hoping, I think I see a little glimmer of light here, and it actually comes to me via TikTok.

00:11:58.960 Amazing, but all things can be used for good, I suppose, in some way.

00:12:03.180 I think that the conservative constellation, which is that reality ultimately reasserts itself in the end,

00:12:10.760 we're beginning to see this breakthrough in the form of a bisexual Eastsider from Los Angeles,

00:12:18.180 which we'll get to in one second.

00:12:19.160 First, though, we need to take a break really fast to discuss the BreakFast podcast.

00:12:25.500 There are a lot of podcasts out there.

00:12:27.340 Most of those podcasts are people talking about their intimate lives,

00:12:31.380 complaining about how America's racist or how religion is evil.

00:12:35.320 Now, outside of the Daily Wire, it is tough to find creative, handsome podcasts

00:12:39.540 that are both enjoyable and intellectual and extremely charismatic and even sexy, some would say.

00:12:45.540 Well, luckily, there's a great new Catholic podcast that I just heard about.

00:12:49.820 The podcast is called BreakFast and is the perfect mix of entertaining and spiritual Catholic content.

00:12:56.540 BreakFast explains the Catholic faith through the prism of food, drink, landmarks, and architecture.

00:13:02.180 The Catholic faith is so interwoven in our culture that we often don't even realize it.

00:13:06.800 The word breakfast, for example, comes from Catholics breaking the fast after morning mass.

00:13:11.040 Did you know sushi tempura has its roots in the Catholic faith?

00:13:14.780 I didn't know that.

00:13:15.540 Or how champagne was actually created by a Catholic monk named Dom Perignon.

00:13:20.820 I assumed it was made by a priest named Father Cristal, but I was wrong.

00:13:25.780 It's a monk named Dom Perignon.

00:13:27.820 The show's creators saw the need for a podcast that is engaging and accessible to everyone of any faith or none at all.

00:13:36.160 BreakFast is not just a random assortment of Catholic-related facts.

00:13:39.980 It covers hard-hitting topics who will make you ponder the important questions.

00:13:43.860 Each episode of BreakFast is around 20 minutes long.

00:13:45.980 Super easy.

00:13:46.700 Download it right now on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

00:13:49.820 A liberal feminist east side bisexual gal has gone viral on TikTok for relating her shock, her awe at her own reaction to going on a date with a bro.

00:14:08.220 I went on a date this week and I felt the feminism leaving my body.

00:14:13.500 I live on the east side of LA and if you don't know what that means, it's sort of like the artsy-er part of LA.

00:14:18.680 You know, it's people say it's like Brooklyn and New York.

00:14:21.520 So I go on dates with a lot of men and women who, you know, live over here.

00:14:25.420 There's always a negotiation about who pays and that's great.

00:14:28.040 I like to pay for people, all that.

00:14:29.380 But what I will say is that I sort of fell into going on a date with the most guy's guy I've ever been on a date with.

00:14:39.680 And he's from West West, you know, Santa Monica.

00:14:42.200 He's a bro, right?

00:14:43.900 A guy's guy is usually not my type.

00:14:45.960 Like I cannot remember the last time that I went on a date with like a straight bro's bro, you know what I'm saying?

00:14:51.580 But it befell me.

00:14:52.720 It befell me in an organic fashion.

00:14:54.800 So I'm on this date with this guy and the thing about a guy's guy is he's putting his card down.

00:15:00.960 He's paying for everything.

00:15:03.120 And I really just, it sort of activated something feral in me.

00:15:07.820 I'm not going to lie.

00:15:08.860 He went to like another bar and he went, he was going to go to the bathroom.

00:15:12.360 So I was getting prepared to pay for our drinks because he's been paying all night.

00:15:15.800 Of course, I'm going to pay for the next round.

00:15:17.380 But as he's going to leave for the bathroom, he turns to me and he hands me his credit card.

00:15:22.620 And he goes, here's my card.

00:15:24.600 Get us whatever.

00:15:29.100 It might be time for me to get away from all these, you know, liberal snowflakes on the east side.

00:15:36.060 I love it.

00:15:37.640 I love this video.

00:15:39.500 I love her take.

00:15:41.140 There's a little touch of irony here when she uses that phrase at the end, these liberal snowflakes.

00:15:45.280 But that little touch of irony is speaking to a big truth and she's actually feeling it.

00:15:51.820 And reality remains undefeated.

00:15:54.640 Love it.

00:15:56.240 This is the consolation for conservatives.

00:15:58.900 The whole culture is against us.

00:16:00.540 The principalities and powers and spiritual wickedness in high places that rule this world, they're all turned against us all the time.

00:16:05.780 But here's, but reality is still there.

00:16:09.900 There is still an order to the cosmos.

00:16:12.200 There is still justice.

00:16:13.380 There is actually.

00:16:15.700 And truth and goodness and beauty are not overwhelmed.

00:16:19.820 They are not overshadowed.

00:16:21.420 Reality remains undefeated.

00:16:24.620 I love it.

00:16:25.820 Think about this video.

00:16:27.040 Some people are attacking her.

00:16:29.240 Some very misguided conservatives are attacking this poor girl.

00:16:32.720 I think, I find her very charming.

00:16:35.500 But they're attacking her because all she's saying she's happy about is that he paid for the date.

00:16:40.560 She's not saying she liked the conversation.

00:16:42.340 She's not saying he was good looking.

00:16:44.240 She's not.

00:16:44.940 She just, she liked that he paid for dinner.

00:16:48.280 And when he went to hit the head, passed her his credit card and said, hey, could you order the next round of drinks?

00:16:53.340 Get whatever.

00:16:55.200 Oh, she's just a gold digger.

00:16:56.720 No, no.

00:16:57.520 No, this is a poor girl who deserves our sympathy and encouragement.

00:17:03.520 And she's typical in this culture.

00:17:05.120 Could you imagine, could you imagine for the normal people listening to this show, how far our sexual relations have fallen?

00:17:15.140 I don't mean, you know, saucy stuff.

00:17:17.000 I'm talking about actually how men and women relate to one another.

00:17:19.380 That this woman, for the first time in her life, perhaps, had a guy buy her a drink.

00:17:27.780 And she's floored by it.

00:17:29.360 This woman, she's in her 20s.

00:17:31.220 I don't know how old exactly.

00:17:32.500 A guy bought her a drink and she can't get over it.

00:17:36.140 She has to take to the internet to explain to the masses what this unusual experience is like.

00:17:43.820 This is baseline stuff.

00:17:45.480 This guy did not lay his coat out on a puddle for her to walk over.

00:17:51.240 This guy did not send flowers to her home or her office.

00:17:56.500 This guy did not, I don't even know if he opened the door or the car.

00:17:59.640 He just bought her some drinks and dinner.

00:18:03.720 And she just melts.

00:18:05.520 Of course, she melts.

00:18:07.600 This whole attitude.

00:18:10.180 You know, I'm an east side feminist.

00:18:12.260 I live in Los Feliz, L.A., whatever.

00:18:14.620 I'm hip and cool.

00:18:15.280 I'm kind of a lesbian, you know.

00:18:16.720 Like, I'm cool.

00:18:18.060 I was cool in college.

00:18:19.500 I'm a lesbian.

00:18:20.760 Like, all of that goes away.

00:18:23.040 And she's laughing about it.

00:18:24.280 But of course it does.

00:18:25.520 It's not even her fault.

00:18:26.880 She probably went to some stupid liberal arts college that doesn't actually teach you the liberal arts.

00:18:31.740 That just encourages you to, like, wear silly sweaters and date all sorts of members of both sexes.

00:18:40.540 And study grievance.

00:18:42.680 And then move to L.A. and become whatever kind of artist she is.

00:18:45.640 Okay.

00:18:46.020 She had a disadvantage from the beginning.

00:18:48.640 Is this the first time she's ever met some kind of finance bro wearing a Patagonia zip-up vest with some kind of button-down collar who even has a credit card?

00:19:03.000 This might be the first time that she hasn't met some guy who's just, you know, vaguely soy, kind of pumped full of estrogen, has an unkempt beard, and asks her to pay for dinner.

00:19:13.580 And so I don't knock her for it.

00:19:17.360 She's discovered something new.

00:19:19.660 And you know what?

00:19:20.160 It's not that she's discovered the West Side guy with a job and a line of credit.

00:19:24.520 It's not just that she's discovered a date, what a date is supposed to look like in the most basic degree.

00:19:32.140 She's discovered reality.

00:19:35.760 Just a little hint of reality in a culture that has heaped mud and dirt and obscured reality.

00:19:41.880 She's just seen, like, a little glimmer of it, and she's excited by that.

00:19:44.580 And I'm excited by that, too.

00:19:45.620 I encourage her.

00:19:46.340 That's great.

00:19:47.380 Keep going.

00:19:47.880 Keep going, lady.

00:19:49.880 I'm with you.

00:19:50.660 I'm cheering you on.

00:19:52.100 Now, turning back to Washington.

00:19:54.660 But keeping on with women.

00:19:56.580 Nikki Haley was asked, point blank, will you consider being Donald Trump's vice president?

00:20:05.060 Here is her non-answer.

00:20:07.420 We're going to talk about you as vice president.

00:20:09.420 And I know what you're going to say.

00:20:10.800 I don't play for a second.

00:20:12.020 I got it.

00:20:12.720 I've seen the line, and it's authentic.

00:20:15.060 I get it.

00:20:16.280 But Ron DeSantis has ruled it out.

00:20:18.380 Says, no way.

00:20:19.080 I'm not going to do it.

00:20:19.700 Are you going to rule it out?

00:20:21.440 I don't play for a second.

00:20:22.860 I knew you were going to say that.

00:20:23.840 It's offensive when anybody says that, oh, she wants to be vice president.

00:20:28.260 You don't do something like this to be vice president.

00:20:30.660 You don't sacrifice emotionally, mentally, physically, with your family, everything, to come in for a second.

00:20:37.860 That's not me.

00:20:38.600 I've never done second a day in my life.

00:20:40.540 I'm not going to start now.

00:20:41.640 I'm doing this because we have a country to save.

00:20:44.780 Everybody knows it.

00:20:45.820 Our country is in disarray, and the world is on fire.

00:20:49.180 And I don't trust anybody else to fix it.

00:20:51.660 And I'm determined to get that done.

00:20:53.640 And we're going to get it done.

00:20:54.900 And the people want us to get that done.

00:20:56.740 You can feel it.

00:20:57.720 And that's why you're seeing us move in the polls, is because they're tired.

00:21:02.100 With me, there's no drama.

00:21:04.220 There are no vendettas.

00:21:05.460 There's no whining.

00:21:06.700 It's just work.

00:21:07.740 It's what I've always done is work.

00:21:09.520 But you're not going to rule it out.

00:21:11.300 You're not going to rule it out.

00:21:12.560 It's not even a conversation.

00:21:14.260 And it doesn't matter what candidate wants me to answer it.

00:21:16.480 I don't play for a second.

00:21:17.480 I don't know what more I can say than to get them to understand that.

00:21:20.480 You could say no.

00:21:24.000 Right?

00:21:24.640 I mean, I really like Nikki.

00:21:26.660 And this is probably the best answer she could give.

00:21:29.180 Because the moment she says, I would consider it, then it gives Trump an opening to attack

00:21:32.700 her.

00:21:33.420 Or it makes her look like she's not really running for the job.

00:21:36.320 So she gave the politician answer that she, I guess, had to give.

00:21:39.160 But the fact that she didn't say, no, I will not be Trump's VP, as DeSantis did, means that

00:21:45.120 she would be Trump's VP.

00:21:46.220 Of course she would.

00:21:48.620 But the reason this is a smart answer is Nikki knows that the only way she's going to be Trump's

00:21:57.120 VP is to be strong.

00:22:00.860 Nikki knows she's not going to be Trump's top choice as a VP because she worked for him.

00:22:05.640 And then she turned on him.

00:22:06.840 And then she cozied up to him again.

00:22:09.100 And then she said, I wouldn't run if he's running.

00:22:11.140 But then she did run.

00:22:12.260 And so she knows that she's probably on the outs of Trump world right now.

00:22:16.040 She's not going to be top of the list unless she can consolidate a large part of the GOP

00:22:21.500 behind her.

00:22:22.220 She's already starting to do that.

00:22:24.060 She's got the Koch network.

00:22:25.640 She's now running second and a pretty strong second in New Hampshire.

00:22:30.380 She's getting the establishment types to start coming behind her.

00:22:33.860 She knows that's her lane.

00:22:35.640 That's not enough to put her over the edge.

00:22:38.020 Not a chance.

00:22:38.960 It's not even clear.

00:22:39.480 Her surging in New Hampshire is still a country mile behind Donald Trump.

00:22:43.440 But if she can amass the support of a large part of the GOP,

00:22:49.080 want to say 30%?

00:22:51.060 Maybe, I don't know, 35% of the GOP?

00:22:54.400 40% would be amazing for her.

00:22:56.440 But 30 or 35 would probably get it done.

00:22:58.700 Then you might be able to have like a Reagan-Bush type of situation where Reagan represents the

00:23:04.440 conservatives.

00:23:05.620 Bush represents the moderates in the establishment.

00:23:07.800 They come together for a ticket to unify the party.

00:23:10.460 And they win in 1980 and in 1984.

00:23:12.740 Even though they came from totally different ends of the party, I don't think they liked

00:23:15.680 each other very much.

00:23:16.880 George H.W. Bush actually coined the term voodoo economics to make fun of Ronald Reagan's

00:23:22.140 economic policy during the primary.

00:23:24.060 It wasn't a Democrat who came up with that term, even though it's today used by Democrats.

00:23:27.420 It was George H.W. Bush.

00:23:28.960 But they came together to unify the party.

00:23:30.640 I think that's what Nikki is trying to do here.

00:23:32.760 But Nikki knows the only way out is through.

00:23:35.180 She's got to go through this process.

00:23:36.880 She's got to get DeSantis out of the race.

00:23:38.560 She's got to get Christie out of the race.

00:23:40.120 She's got to, Vivek probably doesn't matter.

00:23:42.500 They hate each other so much.

00:23:43.700 It's not as though getting him out of the race is going to help her numbers necessarily.

00:23:46.760 But she's got to consolidate the anti-Trump vote.

00:23:50.400 She's doing a pretty good job at it.

00:23:52.080 Looks good for her.

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00:25:04.020 My favorite comment yesterday is from Kila Kopriva, 6746, who says,

00:25:08.740 I love how they say, stop breathing or you will die.

00:25:11.540 But I feel the best response to that is, okay, you first.

00:25:14.540 Right.

00:25:15.060 When the environmentalists say, your breath is destroying the world.

00:25:18.980 You've got to stop breathing.

00:25:19.860 You say, okay, you first.

00:25:21.040 When they push for assisted suicide, you say, okay, you first.

00:25:24.180 When they push for abortion, you say, okay, well, you're a former fetus.

00:25:27.200 You first.

00:25:28.780 When they talk about overpopulation, you say, okay, there's too many people.

00:25:31.740 You deal with it.

00:25:33.620 You take the first step.

00:25:34.820 Then we'll hear about this.

00:25:36.980 But it's never about them.

00:25:39.120 The overpopulation always means that there are too many of the other guy.

00:25:43.460 The importance of abortion is always that someone else's kids needs to go.

00:25:50.760 Not them.

00:25:51.680 Not them.

00:25:53.520 Speaking of the likelihood or unlikelihood of a Trump presidency,

00:25:58.340 distressing new poll out of YouGov America finds that most Americans approve of Donald Trump

00:26:07.880 getting kicked off the ballot in Colorado.

00:26:10.360 There's a new poll found that 54% of Americans approve of kicking Trump off the ballot in Colorado.

00:26:16.800 That includes 24% of Republicans.

00:26:19.700 So there you have it, by the way.

00:26:21.100 There is that anti-Trump lane.

00:26:23.680 24% of people, 24% of Republicans would happily go to any non-Trump candidate,

00:26:31.000 whether that's going to be DeSantis, whether that's going to be Nikki Haley,

00:26:34.540 whether that's Chris Christie, whoever.

00:26:35.940 They just hate Trump that much.

00:26:37.800 And then the non-Trump candidate might be able to pry away another 5%,

00:26:40.600 maybe even another 10%.

00:26:42.200 Almost a quarter of Republicans happy that Trump has kicked off that ballot.

00:26:47.520 And most Americans.

00:26:48.620 That's bad.

00:26:50.260 Democracy will not work under those circumstances.

00:26:52.800 It can't.

00:26:54.440 I don't think that anyone is particularly interested in democracy working at this point.

00:26:59.560 The Democrats obviously are not.

00:27:01.240 They hate democracy.

00:27:02.160 And that's why they're kicking Trump off the ballot,

00:27:03.540 because they don't think that people ought to have the right to vote for the popular candidate.

00:27:06.360 They've made their opposition to democracy very, very clear.

00:27:10.260 Even a lot of Republicans, though,

00:27:12.200 the Republicans are much more in favor of democracy than the Democrats are.

00:27:17.260 But Republicans wisely have shared the fears of the founding fathers,

00:27:20.740 which is that democracy can decay into mob rule very, very quickly.

00:27:24.460 And for most of history, it's been considered not the best, but the very worst form of government.

00:27:29.900 Now, it has worked more or less well in America at different times.

00:27:34.120 But democracy requires that both sides respect the right of the other to have a chance at winning elections.

00:27:44.580 That both sides accept that the other is politically legitimate.

00:27:50.000 So even if we lose, it's okay, the system endures.

00:27:54.480 Or even if we win, we're not going to be imprisoned.

00:27:57.640 Well, we're not going to be prevented from winning.

00:28:00.140 We're not going to be prevented from taking office, whatever.

00:28:02.840 And we don't really have that.

00:28:04.340 The Democrats were the first to chip away at that, very clearly.

00:28:08.040 If you just look at elections in the last hundred years,

00:28:12.160 they are far and away the more likely to deny elections and to profane our sacred temples of democracy or whatever.

00:28:20.320 But Republicans, to some degree, too, are skeptical of these things.

00:28:24.800 Like in 2020, when the Democrats changed all the rules to favor them in the weeks and months before the election,

00:28:29.000 in some cases, unconstitutionally, like in the case of Pennsylvania.

00:28:31.920 We're a little skeptical of the elections now, too.

00:28:33.800 But in any case, if most people believe that it is acceptable or preferable or downright good

00:28:42.800 for some partisan appointed or elected official to keep a popular candidate off the ballot,

00:28:50.400 to prevent the people from voting for the candidate of their choice,

00:28:55.220 democracy is not long for this country, which is natural.

00:28:59.940 I mean, Polybius, the ancient political writer, talked about this many moons ago.

00:29:04.800 Regimes decay.

00:29:07.160 There are good kinds of regimes, monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy.

00:29:10.340 There are bad kinds of those same type of regimes, which would be tyranny, oligarchy, and mob rule.

00:29:16.580 And the regimes, as they decay, they transform one into the other.

00:29:20.900 We might be transforming now, and it might be inevitable.

00:29:24.880 You know, the Roman Republic transforms into the Roman Empire.

00:29:28.580 And in our modern Republican and Democratic age, we look on this as a very terrible thing.

00:29:34.600 Caesar, for the first time in history, really, has been cast as the bad guy in that exchange.

00:29:39.960 But if you think Julius Caesar is bad, just wait until you hear about the Roman Senate.

00:29:44.140 If you think the Roman Empire was bad, just wait until you hear about the late-stage republic.

00:29:48.040 Things had gotten really bad and decadent and debauched, and the people had very little say in their government,

00:29:54.040 and there was very little accountability.

00:29:55.560 And that's what brought on the political conditions for that kind of change.

00:29:58.080 Well, if we keep seeing polls like this, there's going to be a political change here in the U.S. as well.

00:30:04.680 Speaking of the presidency, this is a big story that no one's heard about.

00:30:08.240 Washington Post is reporting that the FBI has James Biden, this is Joe Biden's brother,

00:30:12.920 on tape negotiating business involving his brother, the president of the United States.

00:30:18.080 The FBI has these tapes, which means that they were spying on the guy,

00:30:21.760 which means that they've been investigating them for a long time.

00:30:23.780 The FBI, which initially denied Hunter's laptop, which has carried water for the Democrats,

00:30:29.880 we're now finding out.

00:30:30.560 Now, they know what's going on with the Biden family.

00:30:33.980 We know that the Biden business earned $24 million between 2015 and 2019.

00:30:38.540 Is that for James Biden's expertise?

00:30:40.420 Is that for Hunter Biden's expertise?

00:30:41.940 I don't think so.

00:30:43.180 Business used more than 20 shell companies.

00:30:45.140 Sounds pretty dodgy to me.

00:30:46.580 Not very straightforward business.

00:30:48.420 And associates sold the Biden brand.

00:30:50.340 What does this tell us?

00:30:51.700 It doesn't tell us anything new about Biden.

00:30:53.200 We knew all this stuff.

00:30:54.620 Tells us a little bit about the FBI.

00:30:57.300 Tells us a little bit about the American deep state,

00:30:59.500 which is just another term for the liberal establishment, the entrenched bureaucracy.

00:31:04.900 We know that the Washington Post is mobbed up with intelligence.

00:31:08.080 We've known that since Deep Throat and the Nixon tapes, the Watergate scandal.

00:31:14.160 Washington Post got this story from intelligence, obviously.

00:31:17.480 Tells you one of two things.

00:31:19.000 Either the story is legit, probably is, because we know about Joe Biden's corruption.

00:31:24.020 We have the receipts.

00:31:25.480 Or, at the very least, it tells you that the intelligence agencies want people to believe that the story is legit.

00:31:31.380 The intel agencies are not in the business of protecting Joe Biden anymore.

00:31:36.480 That's what it tells you.

00:31:38.160 Either way, very, very bad news for Joe Biden.

00:31:42.060 Either he's associated with these crimes, and it looks bad for him and his family,

00:31:46.340 or the intel agencies, which, to quote Chuck Schumer, can get you nine ways from Sunday.

00:31:52.420 They've turned on Biden.

00:31:53.640 They don't like him anymore.

00:31:55.380 Speaking of the establishment papers turning,

00:31:57.940 the New York Times is turning on Claudine Gay, who's the Harvard president.

00:32:01.940 So, the Harvard president, you know, has plagiarized everything up to and including thank you notes for coming to dinner.

00:32:07.540 And Harvard tried to dismiss this.

00:32:10.380 The woman has basically no academic record.

00:32:13.360 She has 11 published papers.

00:32:15.080 It's pathetic.

00:32:15.620 It's nothing.

00:32:16.700 But I think everybody knows why she's in that position.

00:32:19.920 Why the white lady who was running UPenn was fired for saying exactly the same thing that Claudine Gay,

00:32:26.880 a black lady, said before Congress on the same occasion.

00:32:31.020 But Claudine Gay gets to keep her job because she checks some DEI boxes.

00:32:34.920 Well, now, all of a sudden, the media, which had been quiet about this, starts reporting.

00:32:39.080 New York Times, Harvard finds more instances of duplicative language in the president's work.

00:32:43.320 She's faced growing criticism, not only of her response to anti-Semitism, but also her scholarship.

00:32:48.540 This is great.

00:32:50.300 Why is the establishment going after Claudine Gay now?

00:32:56.580 I think in part it's because these New York Times writers and editors don't want their degrees to get watered down.

00:33:03.260 The press used to be run by ordinary normal people.

00:33:07.120 It was kind of a blue-collar job, you know, shoes on the pavement, tracking down a story.

00:33:11.880 In recent years, it's become a very elite job.

00:33:16.000 And the people who fill up the New York Times offices now are graduates of places like Princeton and Stanford and Yale and, yes, Harvard.

00:33:23.500 And I think some of them don't want their alma mater to become a laughingstock because they want that degree to continue to carry prestige.

00:33:29.080 Also, because of the dogged work of Christopher Ruffo, the right-wing think tanker and journalist, and more than anything, perhaps, political operative, who has really, really pushed this story.

00:33:40.580 Keep the pressure up.

00:33:41.720 This is a great new phase in the war on Harvard.

00:33:43.900 It looks like we might be able to claim this political scalp.

00:33:48.080 Now, we've reached my favorite time of the week, which is the mailbag.

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00:34:48.040 Before I get to the mailbag, I have to hit this story from Cameron Diaz.

00:34:53.760 Cameron Diaz just came out and said we need to normalize couples sleeping not only in separate

00:34:58.240 bedrooms but in separate homes, and everyone has been dragging her for this.

00:35:02.020 The only defense I want to make of Cameron Diaz here is that aristocrats have been doing

00:35:05.800 this forever.

00:35:06.340 Aristocrats have been sleeping in separate bedrooms forever.

00:35:09.140 The royal family sleeps in separate bedrooms.

00:35:11.260 The queen, Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip would sleep in separate bedrooms.

00:35:14.700 There's something to that.

00:35:15.980 I think where the disconnect is here is that people sleeping in separate homes is a little

00:35:22.920 bit clinical.

00:35:23.680 I'm reminded of a line from Robert Frost, which is from a poem, Departmental.

00:35:27.820 The line is, it couldn't be called ungentle but how thoroughly departmental.

00:35:31.940 And what this comes from, I suspect, is not an old aristocratic sense that we want to have

00:35:36.920 our proper spaces and, you know, be together in this very well-ordered, high-class kind

00:35:43.400 of schedule.

00:35:45.840 But it comes from a demand for individualism.

00:35:48.880 You know, it actually comes from totally the opposite.

00:35:51.180 The old aristocratic order for sleeping and behavior and living came from the notion that

00:35:58.400 we don't have really very much privacy, that everything is sort of public, and we don't

00:36:02.100 have a ton of individualism that we express however we please, but we have duty and we

00:36:06.080 have honor and we have to behave in a certain proper way.

00:36:08.600 We have to wear certain clothing and eat dinner at a certain time and behave in a certain way

00:36:12.560 with members of the opposite sex up to and including our spouse.

00:36:15.340 What Cameron Diaz is talking about here is expressive individualism, which is I want my

00:36:19.100 own space, I want my own thing, and maybe my husband can come and visit me when it's

00:36:22.800 convenient for me.

00:36:24.120 That probably not a great idea.

00:36:26.980 Separate bedrooms can be nice because our spouses always steal the sheets, but if one

00:36:33.120 had to choose, I think it's probably good to cuddle up next to your honey and tamp down

00:36:37.720 the individualism that threatens to destroy our civilization.

00:36:40.720 This mailbag is sponsored by Pure Talk.

00:36:42.440 Go to puretalk.com slash Knowles, K-N-W-L-E-S to save an additional 50, 5-0% off your first month.

00:36:47.900 Take it away.

00:36:49.360 Hello, Michael.

00:36:50.080 You talk a lot about practicing virtue on your show for good reason.

00:36:53.720 I have developed a lot of bad habits over the years, and no matter how hard I try, I always

00:36:59.800 seem to fall for temptation.

00:37:02.080 Whether it's too much TV or mindless internet scrolling, anger, impatience, selfishness,

00:37:07.460 and so on.

00:37:09.000 I will do good for a short period of time and always fall into these vices again.

00:37:14.200 It seems that I'm either doing really well or doing really bad.

00:37:18.240 And there's really no in-between.

00:37:20.880 My question is, do you believe change is really possible?

00:37:24.820 I pray and go to confession, but I just always seem to fall back into these bad habits.

00:37:30.860 I really want to change, but I feel like that at this point, I'm just damaged goods and have

00:37:36.920 little to no hope left.

00:37:38.340 And I know one shouldn't despair, but I always seem to just lose control at some point and

00:37:45.220 pledge headfirst into these vices.

00:37:49.100 I hope you can offer some advice, and thanks for all you do, and may God bless you and your

00:37:53.920 family.

00:37:54.540 For your kind, thank you.

00:37:56.800 I don't want to hear, I know one shouldn't despair, but.

00:38:01.120 I don't want to hear the but.

00:38:02.980 No buttheads around here.

00:38:04.520 Okay, yes.

00:38:05.480 Do not despair.

00:38:06.760 It's a sin.

00:38:07.700 Hope is a theological virtue and something you are commanded to do.

00:38:10.460 So, cut it out.

00:38:11.880 Okay?

00:38:12.520 Yes, you're committing all sorts of sins and vices, and you fall into it.

00:38:15.620 You mentioned confession.

00:38:17.220 So, I'll give you a more robust, mackerel-snapping papist take on this sort of thing.

00:38:22.560 Avail yourself of the sacraments, and confession is very important.

00:38:26.700 Make sure you're giving a good confession.

00:38:29.100 The number of times you commit a certain sin.

00:38:32.380 The severity of the sin.

00:38:34.080 There's details, specifics about the sin.

00:38:37.220 So, the reason to do that is, well, one, you don't want to commit sacrilege by hiding

00:38:43.140 something.

00:38:43.720 You don't want to just be totally vague and then just go along committing all the sins

00:38:47.120 forever.

00:38:47.700 Be very specific about it.

00:38:49.120 Also, because we believe, Catholics believe, Christians believed for, all Christians believed

00:38:54.960 for a very long time, and most Christians still today believe, that there are different

00:38:57.780 kinds of graces.

00:38:58.700 There's sanctifying grace, which is active within our souls.

00:39:01.800 This is what we talk about when we say we're in a state of grace.

00:39:04.180 When we commit a mortal sin, which is a sin that is grave and deliberate, you know, a

00:39:09.580 sin that involves a conscious choice and an action of our will, then we sever our sanctifying

00:39:15.140 grace, and then we're really lost, and then it becomes much easier to just fall into those

00:39:19.480 habits.

00:39:19.740 You say, once you start doing some bad stuff, then you end up going really far, you know,

00:39:23.520 in for a penny, in for a pound.

00:39:24.600 And right, that's because you've severed that kind of grace, so you need to go to the sacraments

00:39:30.480 to restore that, like the laundromat for your soul.

00:39:34.160 But there's another kind of grace, which is actual grace, which refers to acts.

00:39:39.460 You know, you think of actual grace, that doesn't come from within you.

00:39:42.400 That comes from God, and it's God giving us the grace to overcome whatever trials are

00:39:47.020 before us, totally outside of ourselves.

00:39:49.380 So a good example of this is Saul on the road to Damascus gets knocked off his horse.

00:39:52.600 That would be a pretty clear example of actual grace.

00:39:56.400 And you can request that of God, and if you avail yourself of the sacraments and you have

00:40:01.340 sanctifying grace, then you can perhaps remind God, you're really just reminding yourself,

00:40:06.460 but you can articulate this, that God promises you the grace to overcome these habits and these

00:40:13.160 vices and sins.

00:40:15.120 Some more quotidian kind of advice for this, if there's a sin that you commit regularly,

00:40:20.240 you doom scroll when you're sitting on this one part of the couch, don't sit on that part

00:40:25.160 of the couch.

00:40:25.900 If you get really, really angry when, I don't know, when your wife does something that you

00:40:34.320 observe, then don't be in the room when she does that thing, or politely ask her not to

00:40:38.240 do that, or whatever it is, whatever sets you off.

00:40:40.620 Don't put yourself in the near occasion of sin.

00:40:42.440 By doing so, you are in large part culpable for then falling into the sin.

00:40:51.080 And just avail yourself of those sacraments and be very clear and pray all the time.

00:40:54.380 Prayer is not a last resort, it's a first resort, as my friend Father, Father Benedict

00:40:59.060 Keeley points out.

00:41:00.360 So pray.

00:41:01.480 When you would otherwise be sinning, you pray, pray a rosary.

00:41:05.420 I'm not saying it's easy.

00:41:06.300 Obviously, virtue is difficult to cultivate, vice is easy to cultivate and hard to fall

00:41:11.960 out of, and you can't do it on your own anyway.

00:41:16.460 You know, you actually do need graces, sacramental and actual.

00:41:19.900 So you are availing yourself of them to some degree, do it more so, and then don't despair.

00:41:24.900 I don't want to hear, I know we shouldn't despair, but nix the but, that's a good first

00:41:29.660 step.

00:41:29.920 Next question.

00:41:31.580 Hey, Dr. Covfefe, quick question for you.

00:41:34.180 So, my wedding's coming up on January 6th, and I had a quick question for you.

00:41:43.660 Uh, basic question is, do you have any advice for a newlywed couple?

00:41:50.920 Thanks.

00:41:51.640 Love the show.

00:41:53.600 Well, my advice would be to take the wedding seriously, and you already are, because you've

00:42:00.100 picked a hilarious date for your wedding.

00:42:01.940 So, clearly, you are being intentional about it.

00:42:04.660 Yes, my advice is, actually, first, pertaining to the wedding, that you recognize that the

00:42:11.320 wedding is your first act as a married couple.

00:42:14.080 It's going to set the tone for your marriage.

00:42:17.040 So, if the way you're treating your wedding is, oh, my wife is just going to do everything,

00:42:21.020 and I'll just show up maybe on the day.

00:42:22.560 I don't know that that's a great way to start your marriage.

00:42:24.740 I'm not saying you're doing that.

00:42:25.680 But I know a lot of people do.

00:42:28.800 If your wedding is, oh, well, I'll let my mother-in-law do everything.

00:42:33.860 I don't know.

00:42:34.340 Is that how you, do you want, do you want your mother-in-law doing everything in your

00:42:36.480 whole marriage?

00:42:37.280 Probably not.

00:42:38.580 That would be my first advice.

00:42:39.920 Drew gave me two pieces of good advice when I got married.

00:42:43.420 First one is to have a good marriage.

00:42:45.200 Don't sleep with other people.

00:42:47.320 Step one.

00:42:48.300 Step two, throw feminism out the window.

00:42:51.380 Just throw it out.

00:42:52.220 It's bad.

00:42:52.960 It's poison.

00:42:53.500 It's totally fake.

00:42:54.300 It will make both of you miserable.

00:42:55.480 Throw that out.

00:42:56.860 And, you know, just be normal.

00:43:00.400 What's that?

00:43:00.800 Next one.

00:43:02.100 Good morning, Michael.

00:43:02.980 This is Arun.

00:43:04.100 So, I am an assiduous follower of your Instagram feed, and therefore, I can wish you a happy

00:43:11.140 return to the United States after your time in India.

00:43:13.920 You seem to have a great time there.

00:43:15.280 By the way, you rocked Akurtha.

00:43:16.880 And I have a question for you based on your recent travels to my ancestral homeland, sadly

00:43:23.400 also the ancestral homeland of Kamala Harris, but, you know, let's not talk about that maybe.

00:43:29.220 I am curious if you share my particular vice for American fast food in India.

00:43:37.540 Now, I know that this is probably blasphemy against the culinary gods, right?

00:43:42.440 I mean, when in Rome, do as the Romans, when I go to India, I should be eating Indian food.

00:43:46.680 And to be clear, there is a lot of excellent food in India that is native to India.

00:43:51.820 But as you've probably noticed, everything in India just tastes better.

00:43:56.240 I can't explain it, but that appears to be the case.

00:43:59.600 And that includes the American fast food, in my experience.

00:44:02.780 You know, I love going to McDonald's and having their alu masala burger, especially since,

00:44:09.200 you know, I'm a Hindu Brahmin and therefore don't eat any meat.

00:44:12.800 That's the only time I can have a burger at McDonald's.

00:44:16.520 You know, Burger King has this great paneer tikka burger.

00:44:21.500 And Pizza Hut has a paneer masala cheese pizza.

00:44:26.660 It's just unlike anything you'd ever get in the United States.

00:44:29.540 And I am curious if you have engaged in any kind of foray into American fast food in India.

00:44:37.500 And of course, because this is the Michael Knowles show, I have to ask a philosophical

00:44:42.220 question as well, a moral question, really.

00:44:45.460 And that is, do you think that it is right to go to another country and eat American fast

00:44:50.940 food instead of indulging in their cuisine and experiencing it firsthand?

00:44:55.320 I'm curious as to your thoughts on the matter.

00:44:56.840 Thank you, as always, for your wisdom.

00:44:59.780 Yes, I think it's a good thing to do that.

00:45:01.480 I did not have enough time on this trip to India to indulge in McDonald's and Pizza Hut

00:45:06.060 there, though my Indian buddy assured me of this very same thing.

00:45:09.800 He said, he said, McDonald's in India is amazing.

00:45:13.220 You could, you could take a woman on a date there.

00:45:14.960 You know, it's really, McDonald's in India is delicious.

00:45:19.500 Fast, Pizza Hut, same thing.

00:45:21.460 I didn't have time to do it.

00:45:22.640 It was kind of a busy trip, obviously trying to pursue my dream of being a sitarist.

00:45:25.940 But I think it's, I think it is good.

00:45:27.780 My stepbrother will, he travels all over.

00:45:30.060 He will send me pictures of him eating Burger King in different countries because it's, it's

00:45:34.580 enlightening in that you are learning something about the culture there.

00:45:39.440 Even, even in their interpretation of American fast food, you are learning something not about

00:45:44.680 America necessarily, but about that indigenous culture.

00:45:48.800 So I think it's great.

00:45:49.740 You should try the local fare too.

00:45:50.960 But trying American fast food in other countries is a great little trick of travel.

00:45:56.880 Okay.

00:45:57.120 Next question.

00:45:58.560 Hey there, Smokey Mike.

00:45:59.540 I've come on to an idea that I think many would consider to be too anachronistic, but I think

00:46:04.900 in principle is perfectly reasonable.

00:46:06.860 I think that dueling should be legalized and though I do think it should be constrained

00:46:13.440 by the legal system and there should be standards applied to it.

00:46:16.740 I do think that the satisfaction of a duel, at least certainly to the first blood, maybe

00:46:21.040 not to the death, is perfectly justifiable if there are legal constraints put on it and

00:46:27.620 it doesn't devolve into vigilantism or other chaotic and unjust violence.

00:46:33.180 I do think that if there is reason and justice applied to a duel, it could be perfectly reasonable

00:46:39.400 and just.

00:46:40.640 And I do think that, well, I certainly don't believe that there is a political will to have

00:46:44.520 any change in this direction.

00:46:46.400 I do think that dueling should be legalized.

00:46:49.880 Anyway, I was hoping I could get your thoughts and thank you.

00:46:52.780 I'm afraid I have to disagree because you say you don't want it to devolve into vigilantism.

00:46:56.840 It is a type of vigilantism.

00:46:58.420 It is taking the satisfaction of justice outside of the civil authority.

00:47:07.700 So that's why dueling has always been illegal.

00:47:10.600 And even where dueling itself is not illegal, the consequences of dueling are illegal.

00:47:16.680 You know, killing someone, attacking someone, that has always been illegal.

00:47:19.740 So it was always outside of the justice system.

00:47:22.400 And it would be very difficult to circumscribe dueling, as you say, you know, to first blood,

00:47:27.840 but not to death.

00:47:28.620 Well, what if you just shoot the guy?

00:47:30.040 You blow his head off.

00:47:31.080 You say, there's the first blood.

00:47:32.480 Oops.

00:47:33.160 Guess that led to death, too.

00:47:34.140 I would not recommend that.

00:47:35.980 I do think we should have a culture of honor, and I think people should be more polite and

00:47:39.700 they should be worried.

00:47:40.740 You know, if you walk up to someone in a bar and insult his mother, you should expect to,

00:47:46.680 you know, not just get a stern talking to as a consequence of that.

00:47:49.960 But, no, I wouldn't recommend getting rid of the legal system.

00:47:53.140 Okay, I want to get to one written mailbag before we get to the member room segmentum.

00:48:00.180 This is from Jess.

00:48:02.660 Hey, Michael.

00:48:03.240 Is believing in racial stereotypes inherently racist?

00:48:06.000 Not the modern definition of racist, but the traditional one.

00:48:08.260 When I say stereotypes, I don't mean condescending ones.

00:48:10.520 For example, black people are athletic and Jewish people are financially responsible.

00:48:13.800 Thanks.

00:48:16.380 No, it's not.

00:48:17.500 I guess it's technically racist in the sense that it acknowledges distinctions between races

00:48:21.980 of people, but it's not racist in the sense that it's not evil or cruel or unjust or anything

00:48:28.920 like that.

00:48:30.540 All stereotypes are true.

00:48:32.960 I guess this is sort of politically incorrect.

00:48:35.100 You're not allowed to say it today.

00:48:36.460 But it's just a truism.

00:48:39.060 All stereotypes are true.

00:48:40.400 That's how they became stereotypes.

00:48:41.680 It doesn't mean that one ought to deny people's individuality.

00:48:49.260 It doesn't mean that we ought to treat people unjustly based on a stereotype.

00:48:54.120 But stereotypes are true because, or stereotypes are around because they are true, because they

00:49:01.620 speak to something that is true.

00:49:02.440 So there's nothing wrong with that, whether it's the positive ones or the negative ones

00:49:06.140 or whatever, that's not, what would be wrong would be to treat someone unjustly based upon

00:49:12.060 your frequency of notions of his race or any other category that he falls in.

00:49:16.520 But to say, no, no, no stereotypes are true.

00:49:19.880 Oh, yes, no, absolutely.

00:49:21.080 I think that, you know, the Vietnamese are just as good at basketball as African American

00:49:26.360 people are.

00:49:26.980 You know, of course.

00:49:27.620 What are you talking about?

00:49:28.860 No, no, no.

00:49:29.740 What do you mean?

00:49:30.500 No, of course, this race or that race.

00:49:31.880 No, all stereotypes are true.

00:49:33.220 Of course, it's okay.

00:49:34.240 You're allowed to say it.

00:49:35.980 You were allowed to say it even 20 years ago.

00:49:37.980 I don't know if you're allowed to say it anymore, but we still say true things.

00:49:41.380 I think it's good to say true things.

00:49:42.520 I think clarity is charity, as a pal of mine says.

00:49:44.920 The rest of the show continues now.

00:49:46.040 You don't want to miss it.

00:49:46.600 Become a member.

00:49:47.160 Use code Knowles at checkout for two months free on all annual plans.

00:49:49.740 If you are not a member, then I suppose this is the last time I'll be chatting with

00:49:55.320 you before Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

00:49:57.080 So I hope you've all had a blessed Advent and have a very Merry Christmas.

00:50:00.780 And if you are a member of the Crème de la Crème,

00:50:03.400 Membrum Segmentum, I'll see you in just a moment.

Ep. 1394 - Second Gay Sextape Filmed By Democrats In US Capitol

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