Ep. 162 - Donald Trump Doesn’t Kneel
Episode Stats
Words per minute
195.31442
Harmful content
Misogyny
17
sentences flagged
Hate speech
22
sentences flagged
Summary
On this episode of The Michael Knowles Show, host Michael Kosta joins us to talk about what s going on in our culture, politics, and marriage. Plus, we answer your marriage and political questions. Thanks to our sponsor, Upside.
Transcript
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This Men's Mental Health Month, CAMH is confronting a silent crisis.
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I cannot believe that the culture would do this to me right before my wedding.
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It's right before my wedding and the culture is trying to kill me with all this winning.
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Not only, you saw it made me sick and tired last week.
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the United States sends a clear message and backs it up with action.
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Meanwhile, Donald Trump triggers the left into attacking the American flag again.
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I don't know why they keep doing this, but great.
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Then Patrick Coffin joins the show to give me and the world advice on marriage.
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You know, there's a lot of confusion these days.
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I'm Michael Knowles and this is The Michael Knowles Show.
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Before we get into what's going on on culture and the politics
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and get to our guest and answer all your questions,
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Donald Trump is spiking the football because the NFL announced yesterday that they would
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no longer allow these players to kneel down and that this had always been the rule, but
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now they weren't enforcing it for the last two years.
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And so they will not allow players to protest the American flag on the field at the NFL.
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The NFL has put, the owners have voted unanimously to approve a new national anthem rule that says,
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if you're not going to stand, stay in the locker room.
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If you have a protest, your team's going to get fined.
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I don't think people should be staying in locker rooms, but still, I think it's good.
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You have to stand proudly for the national anthem.
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You have to stand proudly for the national anthem.
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And the NFL owners did the right thing if that's what they've done.
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If that is the story, do you feel like you pushed this story forward and you pushed this to a conclusion?
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And, you know, that's something ideally could have been taken care of when it first started.
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But if they did that, they're doing the right thing.
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They shouldn't be in the country if they hate it so much.
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If they hate the country so much, they should not be here.
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The country gives them a lot of privileges, a lot of opportunities.
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And if you hate it, if you want to disrespect it and you complain about it and whine about it all the time, leave.
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It's kind of harder to sneak into those other places because every other country enforces its own immigration laws, unlike the United States.
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Also, I'd like to point out here, people say Trump is a narcissist.
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He only wants is about himself and this and that.
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What Donald, what Barack Obama would have said if it were some, some issue that he had participated in.
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He'd say, well, listen, I want a million Barack's and Michelle's.
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All the future leaders of America are going to be a million Barack's and Michelle's.
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He just sees everybody in the light of himself.
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But Brian Kilmeade asks Donald Trump, says, Mr. President, do you take credit for this?
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And he's, and Trump is right about that, by the way.
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The New York Times is so angry, they ran a big headline today about how the NFL kneels to Donald Trump.
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The NFL kneeled to the American people who stopped watching their programming.
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The NFL realized if it wanted to stay on TV and have people keep buying their products,
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they would have to stop spitting in the face of people's country, which they love.
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This actually didn't have a lot to do with Donald Trump.
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What Donald Trump largely is, we talked about yesterday on the show, how Donald Trump is a people person.
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He's living in reality, and he sees the present pretty well, so it looks like he's seeing the future,
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And what he does is he sees what people are saying, and then Donald Trump is this big, gigantic microphone.
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He is just a huge microphone for what's going on in the culture, and that's why it resonates.
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That's why when he says it, people say, oh, he's saying what we're all thinking.
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That's why he gets 50,000 people to go to his rallies.
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That's why he goes there, and he's tapping into the zeitgeist.
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He's tapping into what's going on in the culture and amplifying it, but it didn't originate with him.
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I'm glad that the NFL wants to keep its money and stop, you know, giving the one-finger salute to its audience.
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But now we have some skittish conservatives who are up in arms about this.
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The left only cares about free speech, by the way, when it suits their purposes.
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So they don't care about free speech at universities.
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They don't care about free speech defended by the government.
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All they care about is free speech for millionaire athletes during one particular sort of athletic broadcast.
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But now some conservatives are up in arms about this.
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David French, whom I like personally, but he's lost it with this op-ed.
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The op-ed is called Conservatives Fail the NFL's Free Speech Test.
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And this line of thinking is so wrong and detrimental to the conservative cause and to the defense of free speech.
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And really, I'm mostly just peeved at David right now because he published it in the New York Times.
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You write for a great publication called the National Review.
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Don't put it in the New York Times, for goodness sakes.
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Here is his argument, and I'll explain why it's wrong.
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And then he goes on a little bit and he says that, you know,
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conservatives are saying that it's different when it's about the flag.
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Because it's about the flag, the censorship is even worse.
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So what David is saying is that conservatives talk a good game on free speech,
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but also we don't want our national athletes to spit on their country.
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but we're also criticizing this particular speech,
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an attack on the flag, because it is nonsensical.
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Because you're using the rights defended, enshrined in our constitution,
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protected by our communities and our governments and our law enforcement,
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that you're using those rights to attack those rights,
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to attack the source of those rights, which is the country,
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the star-spangled banner, the flag, which is a symbol of the country.
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and that's the only thought that ought to be stopped.
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So as a matter of free speech, the players, they can protest the flag all they want.
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and they can't do it because the NFL will disappear.
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Do they have any rights to air what they want to air during their broadcast?
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hey, you can't use our product to showboat your anti-American trash?
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I wonder if David will write another column in the New York Times about this one.
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If actors in Hollywood movies, they're filming the movie, you know,
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You say, what if a Hollywood actor inserted his own political views in a Hollywood movie
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and said, you have to put that in the final movie or you're abridging my free speech?
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There are writers, there are directors, there's the studio, the distributors.
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We have a product and we don't want you to, we're hiring you to do a job.
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We're not hiring you to run your mouth about anti-American nonsense.
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These guys, these millionaire athletes who get paid to run around on grass and throw a
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ball back and forth and enjoy the wonderful prosperity that this country has to offer,
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that we take a time off, you know, once a week and just watch grown men run around and
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They are hired to do a job, which is to run around and throw that ball.
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They are not hired to voice their political views.
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They can go to Twitter later and say, I hate America.
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And that's what they're saying, by the way, when you protest the American flag, you're saying,
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Take it to Twitter, do whatever you want, but you can't do it on our dime.
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And by the way, there's nothing contradictory about disagreeing with the content of the speech,
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particularly when the content of the speech undercuts free speech itself.
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That's the only thought that ought to be stopped.
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I don't know if they're being obtuse or pretending, or they honestly don't see that distinction,
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but there is a thought that stops thought that's categorically different.
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And by the way, the NFL has a right to make its TV shows and which is what it is.
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This is a TV broadcast paid for by advertisers under the NFL and Hollywood movie makers have
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the right to make their movies and employees don't have the right to take over, hold that
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entire production hostage and air their anti-American dribble.
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That has nothing to do with free speech at all.
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Before we get to Patrick, I've got a really good guest.
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Before we get to him, I do want to talk about Trump canceling the Korea summit,
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And so, you know, we've seen, they've been building this up for a long time saying, oh,
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maybe, you know, Trump will get the Nobel Peace Prize.
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They're all saying Trump really wants that Nobel Peace Prize.
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They cast a little coin at one of the White House gift shops or something.
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Here is the letter that Donald Trump sent to Kim Jong-un.
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I will explain why, why this really should give us a lot of confidence in the guy and
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in Pompeo and in John Bolton and the foreign policy advisors around him, because this move
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Dear Mr. Chairman, we greatly appreciate your time, patience, and effort with respect to
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our recent negotiations and discussions relative to a summit long sought by both parties, which
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was scheduled to take place on June 12th in Singapore.
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We were informed that the meeting was requested by North Korea, but that to us is totally
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Dig, you know, you, you asked for it guys, but hey, we don't need to talk about that.
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I was very much looking forward to being there with you.
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Sadly, based on the tremendous anger and open hostility displayed in your most recent
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statement, I feel it is inappropriate at this time to have this long planned meeting.
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Therefore, please let this letter serve to represent that the Singapore summit for the
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good of both parties, but to the detriment of the world will not take place.
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You talk about your nuclear capabilities, but ours are so massive and powerful that I
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I felt a wonderful dialogue was building up between you and me, and ultimately it is only
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Someday I look very much forward to meeting you in the meantime.
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I want to thank you for the release of the hostages who are now home with their families.
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That was a beautiful gesture and very much appreciated.
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If you change your mind having to do with this most important summit, please do not hesitate
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The world, and North Korea in particular, has lost a great opportunity for lasting peace
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This missed opportunity is a truly sad moment in history.
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Sincerely yours, Donald J. Trump, President of the United States of America.
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Whoever wrote the letter, I don't, you know, presidents tend not to write these things
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themselves, and it's a no slight to President Covfefe, but whoever wrote it, whether it's
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Stephen Miller or somebody, Pompeo or something, really superb.
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It does have all of that, you know, he gets in there.
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And basically what he tried to do is move the goalposts.
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Kim Jong-un, Kim Jong-un, we're, you know, they're in dialogue about this meeting.
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And Kim Jong-un thought he could turn up the heat on Donald Trump, on the frog, on America
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frog, turn up the heat so we were going to get a bad deal out of it.
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Barack Obama with the Iran deal was so desperate for that deal to happen.
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He so wanted his second nuclear peace, nuclear Nobel Peace Prize.
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He was so desperate he would take any deal, even if the deal didn't give us anything.
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He was, he, they, Iran kept changing the terms of the deal.
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They said, hey, let all of our money free up in the banks.
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Iran captures American sailors, holds them hostage, takes humiliating pictures of them,
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Thank you for not releasing more video of our sailors being humiliated.
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I mean, absolutely pathetic because they couldn't accept a deal falling apart.
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The way you negotiate, the only way a negotiation works is if you're actually willing to walk
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If you're not willing to walk away, that isn't a negotiation.
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They say, Trump's not going to get that Nobel Peace Prize.
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Turns out Trump didn't give a darn about that Nobel Peace Prize, did he?
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A lot of people say I deserve one, but I just want the thing to happen.
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I want to accomplish the reality, not just the appearance of the thing, which the left
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I want the essence of the thing, which is a lasting peace and denuclearization of Korea.
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But just look at what we've gotten out of this.
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So we got this crazy, you know, back and forth media circus over this meeting.
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If it's actually over, we got three American hostages released, one of whom who's been held
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And North Korea demolished one of its nuclear test sites today in Punggiri, I think is vaguely
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But they actually demolished one of their nuclear testing sites.
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So we got two pretty big concessions out of it.
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And Donald Trump walked away because the worst thing that could happen would have been that
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He went down and he said, hey, Castros, I know that we've been fighting you for years.
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You almost destroyed us with nuclear weapons 50 years ago.
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You're just monster thug mafia pinko monsters.
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But we'll give you whatever you want so that we have the appearance of a deal.
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The worst thing that could have happened is if we legitimized Kim, we allowed them to
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We could have ended up worse off than we were before.
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Now, because Trump was willing to walk away, we ended up way better off.
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We get those hostages back and we get a nuclear site demolished.
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And maybe there will be an opportunity in the future.
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He says, you know, you threaten your nuclear weapons.
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Just remember, we could blow you off the map in a second.
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In a New York minute, we could blow you off of the face of the earth.
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You know, there's, he has no fear of looking like a failure here.
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Patrick Coffin, for nearly eight years, hosted the top rated Catholic radio show in the country,
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Catholic Answers Live and the podcast Catholic Answers Focus.
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He's the author of the contraception, deception, Catholic teaching on birth control, as well as
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sex au naturel, what it is and why it's good for your marriage.
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And currently, he's the host of the Patrick Coffin Show.
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You know, I really wanted to turn the Catholicism up to 11 as I prepare to wed.
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I'm getting on a flight tomorrow to New York to begin my bachelor party.
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So I guess that could, that could end up being my last show ever, I suppose, you know, depending
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Should I leave a Michael shaped hole in the wall somewhere?
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You know, do you have any advice for me and the rest of the world on marriage?
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My, my favorite quote on marriage comes from our mutual literary mentor, GK Chesterton,
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who said, marriage is a duel to the death that no man of honor should decline.
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So, yeah, you, my friend, are about to embark on the highest adventure imaginable, and that
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is the union of two sinners, each of which represent a mirror.
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I mean, your, your fiancee, soon to be your wife, God willing, will be your introduction
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It's just like two giant, you know, two-sided mirrors.
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And likewise to her, you're, you're in for, um, I call, I call them the three rings.
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You, there's a lot of talk of the engagement ring and the wedding ring.
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You know, uh, marriage is, um, it's the ultimate form of friendship between two sexually attracted
00:21:19.800
And when people ask me, let's say if they're, they're dating and they're, they want some
00:21:24.880
advice on whether or not they're compatible, I say, so are you, are you a boy?
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But, uh, no, it's also, um, through the action of Christ, it's raised to the dignity of
00:21:40.060
So you're also getting that third party in there.
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You know, uh, Bishop Sheen's wonderful 1951 book, three to get married tells the tale
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very, very well of the, the sacramental grace that you bestow on, uh, on your wife and she
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So you kind of, you are the sacrament together.
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It's, uh, it's all, they never tell you, it's a lot of fun.
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And, you know, I keep saying, I've been having a lot of fun in the run-up to the wedding.
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So I've been telling sweet little Elisa things like, you know, Hey, I think you're going
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to make a great starter wife or, you know, I can't, I can't wait for my first wedding.
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I can't, you know, I hope maybe it'll be less stressful on my second one.
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And she does remind me, she says, you know, you're Catholic pal, which means you are stuck
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There's no, but there's, there's a lot of, uh, uh, confusion about marriage these days.
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I love that you bring up the suffering, which is, I think the most Catholic answer you could
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Certainly by the logic of that Obergefell decision, uh, it seems that there's no reason to preclude
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Uh, the, it, the nature of the whole thing keeps changing even within one man and one woman.
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The nature of the institution is quite different now, uh, over the last 50, 60, 100 years, people
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Feminism has reared its ugly pink hat plaid head.
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Uh, you know, there are a lot of things that have affected marriage.
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Um, is there any hope to bringing a consensus back to marriage or are we all going in our
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I think there's a lot more hope than there is despair.
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And the reason I say that is, um, there's a, a common myth that's floated around.
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I've actually heard bishops repeat the myth and it's the 50, 50, uh, divorce rate.
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So, you know, marriage rates 50%, it's not true.
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That comes from a misunderstood, uh, garbled interpretation of a 1990 Lewis Harris poll.
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And it failed to distinguish between people who had been married once and never divorced
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and people who had been multiply divorced in marriage and, and, and remarried.
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So imagine you're at a, you're at a, you're at a dinner party and, uh, there's 12 couples
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And one of the couples is, uh, Liz Taylor and one of her husbands.
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So how do you reckon the divorce rate at the table?
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Uh, there's a researcher named Shanti Feldon who, um, has a book on this.
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And she says that for people just starting, have never been married before the divorce
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Now it depends on, on where in the world that you, you know, cite that she's mostly dealing
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Um, but I think you're right about, um, the Obergefell Hodges decision, uh, 2015.
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That was, that was a big seismic shift change in our culture.
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And one of the interesting ironies to me, having debated it before, during, and after
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that decision is rather than, um, a get into a conversation about homosexual behavior or
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B be on the defensive and talk about real marriage or traditional marriage, ask the person who's
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advocating for the redefinition of marriage, what his or her definition of marriage is like
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Marriage is, and what you'll find is invariably their definition of marriage never mentions
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Cause a lot of scrabble, a lot of violent backgammon apparently.
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So yeah, their definition of marriage tends to be some combination of, well, it's a, it's
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a warm, emotional, lifelong commitment between two people.
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On your definition, why would you limit marriage to monogamy?
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And this is where it becomes the thin edge of the wedge.
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So I always encourage people who'd like to see marriage, uh, defined as it's been publicly
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This, this definition, by the way, predates Judaism.
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This is not a Bible based only, you know, Jesus pointy hat, Pope document, uh, kind of
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That marriage is the lifelong union of one man and one woman till death, open to the adventure
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Now, if you want to have a zebra, okay, you can argue for zebras, but it's not a thoroughbred.
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Different in kind, uh, not just in, uh, in degree.
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Well, they, they found to, sometimes people will say, they'll say, well, what about in,
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in the old Testament, a, uh, you know, men had multiple wives and you say, okay, sure.
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So I'll even, I'll even grant that over the course of history, union, uh, marriage has been
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the union of a husband and wives, at least one wife.
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And, you know, sometimes multiple wives, it is, that's still pretty strict.
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And that still includes the complementarity of the sexes.
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I love, you know, in that decision, in the big Supreme court decision that changed the
00:26:39.040
definition of marriage, justice Kennedy wrote, he said that, uh, the constitution offered
00:26:43.900
us a right to intimacy, which I, I never found that.
00:26:47.400
And then maybe it's, it's somewhere in article five or something.
00:26:53.240
But he, I loved in Scalia's dissent, the late, great, uh, justice Scalia, he said, uh, okay,
00:26:59.100
even if you find a right to intimacy, surely marriage constricts rather than expands the
00:27:06.420
opportunities for intimacy, ask the nearest hippie.
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And it seems to be some of the illogic of their argument.
00:27:16.380
So I, so that, that part is all very confused out of this confused culture, because we can't
00:27:21.500
let more than 11 minutes go on this show without discussing Donald Trump.
00:27:25.560
Uh, but I'd like your perspective on it as a Catholic because, uh, evangelical, so out
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of this confused culture, we elected Donald Trump, you know, and he's done a pretty good
00:27:36.240
Uh, evangelical Christians, fundamentalist Christians, that kind of variety of American
00:27:41.080
Christianity, they're getting a lot of flack because they've largely supported Donald
00:27:45.440
Trump and, uh, Catholics like me who have supported Donald Trump, uh, I don't know, we get a little
00:27:52.000
And I wonder if that's because the Catholic faith is different, uh, and makes different
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00:27:56.440
claims than fundamentalist varieties and evangelical varieties.
00:28:02.560
And, and is it okay for a believing Christian who goes to church to support Donald Trump?
00:28:15.300
It's all, you can give a, yeah, all glib stuff.
00:28:18.060
No, I think you're, I think it's a very interesting question for a couple of reasons.
00:28:24.440
Uh, America in its founding documents is quasi Protestant.
00:28:28.780
It's secular, but there's a kind of a Christian soul to it.
00:28:31.700
If you read the works of, uh, uh, de Tocqueville and Chesterton's, uh, ruminations about traveling
00:28:37.440
here in America, uh, the Catholic faith is a kind of an exotic bird to most American Protestants.
00:28:44.280
They just don't get that someone can be a citizen of one country, uh, and not have a
00:28:51.840
And this is where John F. Kennedy made his, I think, disaster, maybe disastrous is overstating
00:28:57.100
it, but his 1960 speech to the ministers in Houston, where he basically promised to be
00:29:03.840
His faith would not inform his political decision decisions.
00:29:06.840
Well, uh, Catholics who are disciples of Jesus Christ do not believe that God especially
00:29:17.120
You know, this country was not formed without original sin.
00:29:23.400
And so Catholic citizens of all variety of political systems can coexist and flourish under
00:29:30.940
communism, under, uh, Republic, under representative government, under, you know, Canadian, um, or
00:29:38.440
So we're, we're not as wedded to one way of being a citizen in a, in the social political
00:29:45.040
And I think, um, therefore, uh, Catholics are, we're not wedded so much to who's in
00:29:53.600
that office because we don't put our trust in, in princes and, and so on.
00:29:57.180
Ultimately, I think, yeah, I think our, our, our point of loyalty, uh, is higher than the
00:30:07.580
There is among certain varieties of Christianity in America.
00:30:11.100
I think people, uh, endow the White House and the Oval Office with this quasi-religious,
00:30:18.240
uh, clerical, uh, status, which I don't even know if Catholics afford that status to the
00:30:23.820
Pope, you know, I mean, it really has a special, uh, religious honor to it.
00:30:28.780
And Catholics, we just say, you know, yeah, okay, this guy's in office.
00:30:32.640
He says some funny things sometimes, and there will be another guy after him and another guy
00:30:37.940
after him, and eventually it'll all go away because to quote John Maynard Keynes, which
00:30:42.200
I do infrequently, but I like this one quote, in the long run, we're all dead.
00:30:49.580
Then another guy will return and put a big bow on everything.
00:30:52.760
It's funny how, how, uh, worldview comes through in art sometimes.
00:30:55.780
You've probably seen this, uh, in various meme forms, forms online.
00:31:02.760
All due respect to my separated brethren out there listening and watching.
00:31:05.760
But, uh, it's a picture of, I first saw it with President Bush and he's at the White
00:31:12.400
So the Bible's on the, on the Oval Office desk and he's in prayer and above him, there's
00:31:17.220
Jesus, like the, the Mormon missionary Jesus with his hand on Bush's shoulder.
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And there's Abraham Lincoln and there's, uh, George Washington.
00:31:31.540
The cloud of witnesses, they don't have to be presidents.
00:31:35.920
I think it gets to the point that, uh, every, everybody's got to serve somebody.
00:31:39.820
And I find when people reject aspects of faith, natural aspects of faith, they just
00:31:45.480
So they say, oh, how could you ever pray to the saints?
00:31:48.480
But then there's this deification of, uh, Abraham Lincoln or, or George Washington or
00:31:53.700
Very good men, you know, probably, probably they are saints, but you've got to believe in the
00:31:58.200
Uh, before I let you go, I've got a couple more minutes.
00:32:01.060
I, I want to ask you about a really important question.
00:32:14.200
I notice conservative guys tend to flock to those two passions and pursuits and especially
00:32:21.060
the Catholics, especially the, uh, why is that?
00:32:25.440
What is it about the conservative character and the Christian character, the Catholic character?
00:32:30.040
Because a lot, you know, certain Protestant groups, they say no drinking.
00:32:35.580
Some of my waspy ancestors were like that.
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The Catholic side, you know, they pour a lot of wine.
00:32:39.860
What is it about the conservatives and the Catholics that make us, uh, like to have a
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Uh, I heard a ribble joke from a former Southern Baptist and I'll share it with you.
00:32:51.480
Uh, it's, it's the observation that strict Southern Baptists are not permitted to have
00:33:01.120
So, uh, the Catholic worldview, uh, is very much focused on, uh, John 10 verse 10.
00:33:07.600
I came that you would have life and have it abundantly.
00:33:11.240
Uh, the, the scene at the wedding at Cana makes no sense whatsoever if what they're drinking
00:33:19.720
Uh, and also one of the Proverbs says, uh, you know, wine makes you happy.
00:33:28.740
So that's, that's to the, for the whiskey and the adult beverages in moderation, of course.
00:33:33.540
Now for the cigar smoking, I believe there is a, uh, almost biblical, uh, precedent for
00:33:41.180
And it runs like this under the old dispensation, God commanded the Hebrews to incense the temple
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How much more in the new dispensation, the new covenant, should we incense the temple of
00:33:59.280
The body is a temple and the temple needs incense.
00:34:04.100
You know, I have to, I, I think it was, uh, yeah, it's going to be when I retire, when
00:34:10.520
Ben retires me finally and fires me, that's going to be my new line of, uh, that's going
00:34:14.460
to be my new line of work making thurible cigars.
00:34:17.200
The GK Chesterton, who I think we've only referenced 150 times in the last six minutes,
00:34:22.940
Chesterton said the Catholic church is like a thick steak, a glass of red wine and a good
00:34:28.900
And even in that first, uh, miracle at Cana, it's, uh, it's turning the water of ritual
00:34:37.340
And, uh, it's, and it's also obviously prefiguring the water and the blood, the, the Christ's
00:34:45.380
But there, there is, uh, such a joy that comes out of that, right?
00:34:55.480
And you're about to participate in that, in that, uh, great mystery, that great, uh,
00:35:00.760
And it's called matrimony, uh, I think for a profound reason, uh, matrimony makes mothers
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And hence that connection with fertility and fecundity and union.
00:35:12.460
Um, and the wedding of Cana miracle is very interesting to me because he doesn't heal anybody
00:35:17.100
He just does it because it's a, like a, a supercharged, supernatural injection of joy into an already
00:35:25.000
And, uh, it's just one more reason to love being Catholic.
00:35:30.860
And at my wedding, I'm certainly following in the footsteps of that, uh, first miracle.
00:35:35.060
I suppose I'm going to have to lean in to that, uh, free flowing red wine and, uh, take one
00:35:40.200
for the, take, take one for the team, you know?
00:35:42.100
Uh, well, Patrick, that is, this is, I'm, there's no way I'm going to run for the door.
00:35:46.280
Sweet little Elisa might run and leave a sweet little Elisa shaped hole in the wall, but I'm
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very excited to get married and I appreciate it.
00:35:52.000
When I get back, we'll have to do a cigar and scotch back on the West coast, your lips
00:36:05.020
And where can people find you on Twitter and Facebook and all that?
00:36:09.440
It's well, the public page is Patrick Coffin author and podcaster, demigod, something.
00:36:15.420
Um, and, uh, Patrick underscore coffin at Twitter and, um, coffin nation.com is a good
00:36:22.140
Well, I got to say, I've always loved your programs on the radio, on podcast.
00:36:25.360
It's really helped me think through faith and Christianity and, you know, and issues
00:36:34.180
And, you know, more, uh, more, uh, political and cultural and all that.
00:36:37.820
I've always enjoyed your, your programs and writing.
00:36:40.020
So I urge you to read Patrick's books and check out his shows.
00:36:46.920
We will move on to the mailbag, but I got to say goodbye.
00:36:50.680
I got a good mailbag today and we're going to have to fly through it because I got to
00:36:54.680
You know, I, I'm hanging out with Allie Stuckey later today.
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She's coming by and I wonder how long she's going to excoriate me for how popish this show
00:37:05.900
And I'm going to get a, I'm going to get a good talking to from my Protestant friend.
00:37:10.200
If you're on Facebook or YouTube, go to Daily Wire.
00:37:20.200
You get me, the Andrew Klavan show, the Ben Shapiro show, $10 a month, $100 for an annual
00:37:25.260
None of that matters because when those NFL players, when they can't kneel, when little
00:37:30.640
rocket man just starts getting a one-way ticket straight to the moon, we blast him off the
00:37:35.220
face of the earth, these leftist tears are going to flow.
00:37:38.040
And I won't be with you for, you know, my honeymoon.
00:37:43.140
I am obviously bringing this to the beach with me, not to, to save me from the ocean,
00:37:53.320
Not a lot of time left, but we're going to fly through.
00:38:09.960
Dear Michael J. Knowles, or current resident of the Ben Shapiro broom closet, congratulations
00:38:17.400
My brother is getting married this Saturday and I'm delivering the best man speech.
00:38:21.380
If you have a younger brother, if you had one, or is there anything that you would want
00:38:26.700
And is there anything you would not want him to say?
00:38:37.980
I have very strong opinions about speeches at weddings because they're all terrible and
00:38:43.460
there are too many of them and there are terrible statistically 100% of the time.
00:38:51.580
I've helped people write speeches for weddings before and here's what I do.
00:38:56.220
They hand me a little piece of paper like this and I read through their speech and I cross
00:39:00.480
out every instance of the first person singular pronoun.
00:39:05.300
The, the best man now, sometimes made of honor gives a speech because you know, the glory
00:39:10.880
of Europe is extinguished forever in the age of chivalry is dead.
00:39:13.700
So the best man, well, let's say he gets up there and I'll say, you know, I couldn't
00:39:19.340
I remember when Johnny and I were doing something that I like to do with me and then he and
00:39:30.680
If you're giving the speech, talk about the couple, talk about the bride and the groom.
00:39:34.020
The next one is, and this should be a basic one, but this happens all the time.
00:39:39.220
If you're giving a speech about, uh, the bride or the groom, do not reference other people
00:39:46.200
I know that seems that you would think that would be basic etiquette.
00:39:52.840
I have been to many weddings, many weddings where the, the best man or the maid of honor
00:39:58.540
will talk about like past boyfriends and, oh, you should have seen the guy she was bringing
00:40:04.280
You know, I don't want to think about that on the wedding day.
00:40:11.320
Uh, don't talk about the bride and groom having sex with other people and keep it short.
00:40:17.360
This is not, this is supposed to be a toast and okay.
00:40:20.520
And then I've been to somewhere, the bride and the groom speak.
00:40:25.160
It's a, people want to see you as like a little figure on a cake.
00:40:32.060
The minute you open your mouth, you're going to shatter that fantasy.
00:40:34.460
This is a day of people doing nice things for you.
00:40:38.600
And then all of this, I mean, all these speeches now, the this father and the that father, traditionally
00:40:42.740
speaking, it's the father of the bride and the best man.
00:40:55.260
And, you know, focus on the stuff that matters.
00:41:01.480
Don't, don't put on a, don't put on a variety act up there.
00:41:10.320
I've noticed that you don't end your shows with stuff I like.
00:41:13.680
Is this because in Catholicism, if you like something, that it's probably a sin?
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In all seriousness, stuff I like can help your audience get to know you.
00:41:25.520
For example, do you prefer fiction to nonfiction?
00:41:28.000
Do you enjoy any music from the 1900s that isn't in a musical or movie score?
00:41:33.420
Do you enjoy movies with leftist messages despite their messaging?
00:41:40.400
I have to push back a little on the Catholic thing because we do go into suffering and we
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But I believe it was Puritanism, which was defined as the heart-stopping fear that somewhere
00:41:54.320
You know, the Catholic Church, they pour out the wine pretty freely at least.
00:42:00.340
So do I enjoy, do I prefer fiction to nonfiction?
00:42:04.320
I almost exclusively read nonfiction, which is tough because one of my very good friends
00:42:14.020
But I just don't read fiction that much, and I should because fiction is better than nonfiction
00:42:17.940
and it tells you more about the human condition.
00:42:20.180
I just don't get around to doing it too much because I'm too busy reading all these fun books
00:42:27.360
So do you enjoy any music from the 1900s, 20th century that isn't in a musical or movie
00:42:39.540
Most of the time, I usually just listen to classical or occasionally jazz.
00:42:44.100
Like I never listen to the rock station in the car or anything like that.
00:42:51.260
But yeah, if I'm hanging out or about to go out or, you know, having a little after dinner
00:42:55.740
or drink or something, yeah, I like music even up to like the 1980s.
00:43:02.700
That's like the most modern conservative guys get.
00:43:07.620
Well, I lost my place, so no one's out of here.
00:43:10.240
From Corey, dear Michael, I've found as I've taken more responsibility in my life and dug
00:43:14.860
more into what it means to be conservative and conservative values, I've found myself growing
00:43:19.320
stronger in my Christian faith as I saw a clear correlation.
00:43:22.720
Why is it that some conservatives try to separate themselves from the Christian faith that is
00:43:33.640
We can extend this a little bit, too, to Jews, non-religious Jews.
00:43:38.400
They don't see how all of these thoughts come back as early as Genesis, right?
00:43:46.060
I don't think that they are actively disagreeing with true religion and the religious basis
00:43:53.480
I just think they haven't thought through it, really.
00:43:56.240
It has frequently been said, I forget whose quote this is, maybe it's Chesterton.
00:44:00.320
All the quotes are Chesterton, is that no one has ever tried the Christian faith and found
00:44:05.060
it lacking or assailed the Christian faith successfully.
00:44:11.280
They try the Christian faith and they find it hard and they don't want to keep doing it
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So if people say, I want low taxes, but I don't care about all that abortion stuff.
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Ann Coulter once said to me, I was with a group of college students, and she said, when you
00:44:29.260
have two candidates, even if you personally don't care about abortion, when you have two
00:44:33.100
candidates who promise to lower your taxes, one is pro-life, one supports abortion, vote
00:44:41.860
And what she's saying is, the candidate who, the lower taxes comes from a defense of liberty,
00:44:49.360
an appreciation of liberty and life and one's role in the world.
00:44:53.340
And that comes from natural rights, which comes from natural law, which comes from the natural
00:44:57.520
law giver, which comes from the Christian tradition, which comes from, which then leads
00:45:02.200
on to bioethical thought, the human dignity, how we ought to protect life from the very beginning.
00:45:14.340
And so there's a coherence to that one guy's thought, the pro-life cut your taxes guy, that
00:45:19.360
there isn't for the pro-choice cut your taxes guy.
00:45:24.360
So there are plenty of conservatives who say, oh, I'm an atheist, or I don't think about
00:45:34.560
But when you start thinking a little bit about it, I think that that atheism is going to
00:45:49.140
Well, maybe I'll do like a Facebook live from the beach or something.
00:45:54.280
I am going to be a junior in college this coming academic year, but I'm unsure about keeping
00:45:57.820
my major in business administration, and I'm unsure of what I want to do when I graduate
00:46:02.660
I have many paths to choose, but I know that only one of them can be chosen.
00:46:07.520
Are there any tips you have for matters like this?
00:46:22.920
So I don't, you know, regardless of what the major is, I don't know that your major is
00:46:34.960
I've trained at very serious acting conservatories for a long time.
00:46:46.960
Moved to LA, was still working in both of those things.
00:46:54.840
Does any of that have to do with my Italian literature degree or my history degree or
00:47:05.800
You should not go into a lot of debt to just, just cuz.
00:47:12.440
You shouldn't go to law school just cuz, you know, because that's the next thing to do.
00:47:16.860
You should go to law school because you want to be a lawyer.
00:47:18.500
You should go to medical school because you want to be a doctor.
00:47:20.220
Uh, but if you can't plan these things out perfectly, so I don't, I wouldn't worry that
00:47:24.700
you have to plan everything out when you're a junior.
00:47:28.580
God can't drive a parked car, so just work.
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00:47:35.140
I've, I've been, uh, doing show business stuff and working in politics for as long as I can
00:47:46.180
And the more you do, you're gonna be able to figure out, hmm, maybe I'm good at this.
00:47:50.680
I should try to do, uh, this a little bit more.
00:47:53.600
Okay, maybe I'll take this class then because of that.
00:47:57.060
You're not gonna figure it out by philosophizing and thinking and abstracting everything.
00:48:07.960
Uh, well, I gotta hang out with Allie Stuckey and get yelled at first.
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I'll be broadcasting all next week from New York.
00:48:17.180
Don't do anything that I wouldn't do, but it'll be my bachelor party.
00:48:20.020
So that will give you, I'll give you a pretty wide breadth.
00:48:26.600
The Michael Knowles Show is produced by Senia Villareal.
00:48:50.120
The Michael Knowles Show is a Daily Wire Forward Publishing production.