Bill Gunderson delves into current economic indicators and their implications for the stock market in this insightful episode. From the nuances of the January effect to sector rotations, Bill shares his strategies for managing portfolios during this time. He also addresses the significance of the ongoing strength in the labor market, holiday retail performance, and examines the latest updates from international markets, including China and its economic forecasts.
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He's been seen on CNBC, the Fox News Channel, and the Fox Business Channel. His articles can be found on MarketWatch, Seeking Alpha, thestreet.com, and many other places. He's the author of the weekly Best Stocks Now newsletter and the inventor of the Best Stocks Now app. He's president of Gundersen Capital Management. Here is professional money manager Bill Gundersen.
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and welcome to the uh thursday the day after christmas the day uh when will the trash man get here and haul all of this trash away it looks like we got a little bit of returns on some of the gifts that were given on christmas eve markets giving a little bit back this is bill gunderson President of Gundersen Capital Management. The best stocks now show. The Dow is down 78 points right now. It's at 43,218 with just five days left in 2024. The Nasdaq is down 63 right now. It's mostly Tesla. A few others that have been quite elevated here lately. The NASDAQ is at 19,962. The S&P 500 is down 15, so that's about a quarter of a percent. We had a really good day on Tuesday, however, on Christmas Eve, which we'll go over a little bit here. The Russell 2000 down 45 basis points, and I'm going to point to the yield on the 10-year. We are up again there on that 10-year and closing in on a 52-week high on interest rates. We're at 4.63% today. We're up three basis points. That is hurting equities. And 4.70 is the high for the year, which we're closing in on. And last but not least, Bitcoin right now is down 3,300 to 95,214. So welcome to today's Best Stocks Now show with professional money manager Bill Gunderson, president of Gunderson Capital Management. Barry has the day off with family this time of year, and I will be flying solo here today, but we certainly have plenty to talk about on this day after Christmas. We've got a full day in the market today. And we have a full day in the market tomorrow. And then, of course, we'll deal with New Year's Eve when we get there. I don't even know what day New Year's Eve is right now. I'm thinking maybe Tuesday, something like that, next Tuesday. And that will be a half day. And, of course, New Year's Day, the market will be closed. close we have a little bit of a sell-off going on in the market today i'm sure it's very light volume how many people are actually putting in a full day uh in in my business today we are we're i'm putting in a full day here uh looking at a bunch of charts i don't have as many to look at as i did For a while after that big move after the election results, I had about $1,300 to look at today. That's been cut on a daily basis. That's been cut in half. I'm down around to about $600, which is much more normal when you add up the A-plus momentum stocks, the B-plus stocks, which meet the momentum and the valuation criteria. the stocks that we own here at Gundersen Capital Management, and then some of the bellwether stocks that I check on a daily basis. So we're at about 600 right now, which is a much more manageable number, easier on the eyes than the 1300. But I'll tell you what, I mean, during that time, a lot of good stocks were exposed. uh sometimes uh when the tide comes in it brings some goodies with it and it did we found a lot of new stocks a lot of new players lining up some of the leadership stocks for 2025 as we get ready to turn the page i have found my history in the market is that no two years are really alike And sometimes you can get dramatic changes in the first few weeks of January and kind of set the tone for the rest of the year. A lot of times, too, you'll get a false rally in those first few weeks of January. A lot of times you'll see the small caps. The small caps, they always have one false start right after another. You know how the guys line up for the 100-meter dash, and before the gun sounds, one guy jumps the gun. Well, you have a lot of false starts. With small caps, they never follow through. Maybe this year will be different with a looser regulatory environment and a little more grease skids for small cap companies. We'll see if it has any impact. But this continues to be pretty much a large cap market, Amazon, Microsoft, Tesla, Nvidia, etc., etc., etc. But it's not, even in the large caps, you still have to be selective because there's a lot of bad large caps. What was the worst performer in the NASDAQ this year? Intel, large cap stock. Okay, we had a good day the day before we took Christmas off. The Dow was up 390 actually on Tuesday. The NASDAQ had a really good day on Tuesday. I'm really surprised by that. Usually people are gone or off on vacation, but that does set the stage for what they do call a Santa Claus rally. Christmas Eve is included in that calculation. And with that 266-point rise on the NASDAQ, you could officially say... that were in a Santa Claus rally, but obviously it has to follow through. Bitcoin had a big day on Tuesday. It was up 5,087 points. And Tesla on Tuesday was up 6.9%. Huge winner. Tesla has probably been one of the biggest winners since the election of Donald Trump. So the NASDAQ was up 1% on Christmas Eve, marking the first step in a Santa Claus rally. I don't know. I don't give too much credence. Like I say, every year seems to be unique and different. And we shall see. A lot of times, I will say this, though, more often than not, we see some pretty radical changes in the first few weeks of January. They call that the January effect. Yale Hirsch had his theory that proves to be true more often than not, where those first few weeks of January kind of set the tone for the year. And a lot of times, I see some pretty vicious sector rotation out of some of the big winners, well, okay, put it this way. If you've got a big gain in one of these big tech stocks or several of them, and you want to make a move and diversify a little bit, maybe a position has gotten too big in your portfolio, you want to trim it a little bit. Well, you're going to wait until after the first of the year because you don't want to incur that taxable event. You want to put it off. You can't get around the taxable event, but you can delay the taxable event. as far as you can. It would be silly to sell a big gain stock this week or next week and incur that big capital gain. So that's another thing that's in play this time of year. How did the holiday sales go? Well, somebody adds this all up. This comes from MasterCard. The late burst helps holiday retail sales rise 3.8% versus last year. Notably, the last five days of the holiday season accounted for 10% of all holiday spending. It's called the mad rush. I've been a part of it. You've been a part of it. That mad rush, that line just to get something wrapped up under the Christmas tree or whatever the holiday you celebrate is. The last five days, 10%. Look how important those last five days are. Consumer demand for experiences like dining out strengthened in the holiday season with restaurant spending growth. Up 6.3% compared to last year. I find it getting harder and harder to get into some of the popular restaurants. I was in the middle of reserving some place for tonight as we've got some company in town. And by the time I verified it with the other parties, if they could go or not, the reservations were gone. So, so much for that. Apparel was up 3.6%. Jewelry up 4%. Electronics 3.7%. the holiday shopping season revealed the customer who was willing and able to spend but driven by a search for value as can be seen by concentrated e-commerce spending during the biggest promotional periods But solid spending during this holiday season underscores the strength we observe from the consumer all year. And obviously, as we enter into a new year, there's always going to be a recession watch. Always. There's always a recession watch. We have not had a recession since 2008, 2009, when we had one of the worst recessions of all time caused by the housing market, caused by the loan market, caused by the mortgage market. We've had rising earnings every year since 2009. It's obviously the longest run I've seen as far as earnings growth, bull market. expansion in the U.S. economy, but it will come to an end at some point in time. And one of the things we watch is the consumer very closely, because that's your economy right there, or most of it. And the other thing we watch very closely, we'll talk about when we come back. The numbers are in, and we'll go over those. This is Bill Gunnarsson. It's the Best Stocks Now show. And welcome back here to the second quarter of today's Best Docs Now show. Well, that weekly report every Thursday is also going to be critical because the consumer can't really make reservations at restaurants and spend at the local mall and online without a job. Well, some people can, I guess. But for the most part, the jobs market is also very, very important to watch. Every Thursday we get clues, at least initial clues, called initial jobless claims. How many people went in and filed for unemployment? The jobless claims came in at 223,000 today, slightly up, but that is still a very low number. If I were to draw a baseline, anything under $300,000 is pretty darn good on those initial jobless claims. So we continue to see a strong labor market. If the person wants a job, there pretty much is a job out there. It may not be the job you want, but there pretty much is a job out there. And that remains a bullish indicator for the market. What's the third big indicator? Well, I'll add just two more right now. GDP, obviously, gross domestic product. Obviously, the market has priced in increasing gross domestic product with the new administration coming in. We'll see. Because there's a lot of things that could also hurt that gross domestic product, like the tariffs, obviously, and DOGE. Cutting government spending is also, you know, the government spends a lot of money, obviously, more than it has, year after year after year after year, month after month after month after month. That's also an important indicator. gdp the fourth one obviously the one that i really key off of because what does it all lead to what does the funnel all come down to you can take this funnel and at the top you can put in all these things gdp uh you know interest rates uh the job picture uh and all the other things and out comes earnings that's what comes out of that is how much do corporate america companies make bottom line earnings and I use the S&P 500 as my proxy. That's what pretty much everybody else uses. And we look at those earnings, which are looking to be about $275 or so for next year. That's $275 per share. That would be a record. We've only had, I think, since 2009, obviously, the COVID year, which was an anomaly. There might have been one other year where earnings were flat or just a few cents lower. But if you look at the trajectory of earnings, If you draw a line from 2009, March of 2009, that's when earnings bottomed to where we are today. We've gone from $60 to about $250 this year, and we're looking for $270 next year. That's also very critical. You start to see those earnings estimates decline. Now, you want to get even more granular. That's why I watch the individual companies that report earnings and the trends. And we have consistently had for several months, several years, 70% of the companies beating their earnings estimates, very few guiding lower, usually 10% or so. That's also a very important indicator. How many companies are guiding lower, starting to guide lower? All of a sudden you'll see a trend start to take place and it could start to happen at any point in time. Interest rates also key. Because once we have those earnings, then it's a matter of applying a multiple to those earnings. The market is trying, or the big analysts, the big Wall Street firms are trying to justify, were trying to justify a couple weeks ago, the 22.5 times forward earnings for the S&P 500. It's hard to justify that number. What's keeping it high? Momentum, demand for stocks, exuberance, I guess, optimism, et cetera, hopes for higher growth going forward with the new administration. But 22.5 is really not sustainable. And in fact, over the last week or so, we've dropped down a full point somewhere in there. to 21.5 times forward earnings. And, of course, we went back up a little on Wednesday. But that's another thing we have to watch. And interest rates have a big effect on that number, and we're at 4.63 right now on the 10-year. That's not good. I mean, that shrinks that multiple. That's more than likely why we saw, seeing this sell-off in the Dow, you had nine straight days where the Dow was down. As the interest rates went up, the multiple did some shrinking along the way. Okay, other factors. Obviously, other countries that we trade with are trade partners. How's China doing? Not very good. That's a problem that we have to keep continuing to monitor and watch. The World Bank recently updated its economic forecast for China, raising GDP growth for 2024 and 2025. They now expect 4.9% in 2024. China used to consistently put out 7.5% growth. Not anymore. They've come down to earth. 4.9% 2024, 4.8% in 2025. Beijing's target is 5%. So we'll see how that goes. But China is a huge trading partner of the U.S., mostly selling things to us. not buying a lot of things from us. But that definitely is something that we're going to be watching going forward in 2025. You can never take your eye off the ball in the market. I call it vigilance, being vigilant. One of the issues that China has, probably their biggest issue, is their real estate market. Their average housing rent, which we're having, that's one of the biggest parts of our inflation is lodging. And rent these days is a big part of that inflation. We have a tight rental market. They have a four-year low. They have a rent slump going on. Why? They have too many units. They have a supply glut. And that has hurt the Chinese economy, and it continues to hurt. It's all about supply and demand, right? Speaking of which, Bitcoin. Sanctions. Russia is now using Bitcoin for international trade, okay? And that's not traceable. It's kind of that dark, murky kind of underneath the surface market. And that probably has something to do with the big uptick in Bitcoin, where it recently hit $107,000. Now, it's down about, what, $12,000, $13,000 from that all-time high, which is pretty volatile. You know, recently you had Microsoft say no. to carrying Bitcoin on their balance sheet instead of cash. Why? Well, cash is a lot more stable. You look at the movement of the U.S. dollar versus Bitcoin, which has lost $13,000 over the last couple of weeks. That's why Microsoft said no to carrying Bitcoin. We'll be right back with some more world news and some individual stocks in the news today. This is Bill Gunderson. Thank you for tuning in to today's Best Stocks Now, Best Inverse Funds Now show. I put several hours of research in during the wee hours of the morning each day to bring you the very best cutting-edge stories that I can. To get two free weeks of my newsletter, go to GundersonCapital.com. To talk to us about our fee-based only money management services, call us at 855-611-BEST. Now, back to the second half of the show.
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Thank you.
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And welcome back here to the second half of today's Best Stocks Now show with professional money manager Bill Gunderson, president of Gunderson Capital Management. Boy, I've got a lot of people to have some fun with today. As soon as the show's over, I get going on my charts. i've sent out two messages so far on the market not a lot happening obviously kind of a slow day so far but you know you never know when you look at five i've got 600 charts to look at today a lot of times you find stuff underneath the surface if you're willing to look it's out there and if i If I see something, I say something. I try to keep everybody posted throughout the day of what's going on in the market, things I'm finding, things I'm buying, things I'm selling. I've made a few quick trades here over the last couple of weeks in the incubator portfolio, the incubator trading portfolio, which is for people that want a little more action and you know a little faster the vast majority obviously of the stocks that I own I'm an investor in for my clients in the fee based portion of my business but I also have the do it yourself portion of my business we have a lot of fun I try to educate I'm in the market anyways I may as well be texting what I'm seeing as I go through the market on a daily basis I continue to offer four free weeks as of now. This is December the 26th. We've got five days left in the year, and then I'll decide whether I'm going to renew that offer, continue it into January. We'll see. But I'm having a lot of fun. I really am, and I hope I haven't read. We sent out a survey. I'm always afraid to read a survey. I think Gunnarsson is nuts. I hate this. I don't know what it's going to say. You have to be willing to accept. I have not seen it. I have not had time to look at it, but I have had lots of good conversations or people emailing me from all over the world, frankly. All over the world. And if you'd like to do four weeks, learn something about technical patterns, get in the full newsletter every Saturday, Seeing my activity during the day, every day for four weeks, the five different portfolios, etc. Go to GundersenCapital.com. And if you like it, you can subscribe after four weeks. Now, big change is about to happen in the world on January the 20th. That is just 24 days away now when you get the Trump inauguration and out with the old and in with the new or in with the old, however you look at it. You've had a dozen companies donate a million dollars each to President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration. In other words, they want to be on Trump's good side. So far, we've got Ford kicking in a million dollars. General Motors, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, AT&T, Toyota, Stanley Black & Decker, Intuit, Coinbase. And I want to say Elon Musk himself and I know Jeff Bezos, Amazon, all contributing a million dollars towards the inauguration, hoping that they'll be found on Trump's good side after January the 20th. How about your home? Remember the meteoric 10% a year rise? I can't even believe how much home prices have gone up. I look at my home that I left in Carlsbad and how much it's gone up. I would never pay that for that home today. But luckily over here in Charleston, it's been about equal on the home that we traded for once we got to Charleston. Well, this past year, what do you think you earned on your home? Of course, it depends on where you live. U.S. home prices advanced 5.7%. Okay, that's way more in the average. It's still above average, but it's come down. That's the smallest annual increase since October 2023. So things have definitely moderated. But they're still going up faster than inflation, all right? 5%, 6% is still faster than inflation. But it's not that 8%, 10% area. Well, it's a lot harder. There's not as many people. There's not as much demand for homes because a lot of people have been taken out of that area. demand equation because they can't afford a 7% interest rate for a 30-year loan. 13 of the 50 most populous U.S. metro areas recorded a seasonally adjusted month drop in home prices in November. The biggest decliner was Fort Lauderdale, Florida, down 1.1%. Tampa, down 1.1%. San Diego, California, down 1%. The highest, Charlotte, North Carolina, plus 1.4. Minneapolis, 1.3. The highest month-over-month gains. That's just month-over-month now. So anyways, the home appreciation has definitely slowed down. uh considerably as and that's what higher interest rates are kind of meant to do right to cool off some of these overheated markets tesla rallies into the christmas break q4 deliveries report looms uh when will they report their deliveries let's see analysts blah blah blah it's coming up i know real quickly uh report late next week okay Let's just look at Tesla stock today. Tesla is basically flat, but at or near a new all-time high, $460 per share. Market cap of $1.48 trillion. $1.48 trillion is where Tesla is at these days. And, of course, if you want to double your fund, Granite Shares has a, well, they have a Tesla at one and a quarter. So you get 25% more than what it does on the upside. And on the downside, you get 25% more drop. And they have a 2 to 1 Tesla upside. And they have an inverse Tesla, which that has not been a good investment here. But at some point in time, I suppose there will be a big correction in Tesla. Uber gets the snub in Taiwan. Okay, Uber has been a disappointing stock. That would be one of the disappointers here in 2024. It's cheap, in my opinion, with 237 estimated earnings next year. And that's about a 25 forward PE multiple. And it's still growing. I look at the last four quarters, 20%, 16%, 15%. I think it's still a 15% to 20% grower. But they did get the snub in Taiwan. Uber tried buying a company over there, Delivery Hero, a food panda business for delivering meals and whatnot. Taiwan stepped in and blocked it. The Fair Trade Commission, Uber is down 19 cents today, so no big deal. Lyft, the main competitor to Uber, sues San Francisco for allegedly overcharging 100 million in taxes. Well, the city of San Francisco was charging on the price of the entire ride without subtracting out the cost that the driver paid. The cost of the driver. You should be paying on the gross, not on the net. And, of course, San Francisco sees it differently. Lyft is going after California for overcharging them by $100 million in taxes. OpenAI ponders a humanoid robot. Was there one under your Christmas tree yesterday? I don't know. Will everybody have to have a humanoid robot at some point in time to vacuum, do the laundry, make the beds? Be nice. In a quest to take AI to a new level. Well, OpenAI, which is Microsoft, backed by Microsoft, has considered the possibility of building humanoid robots capable of a wide range of tasks. And, of course, Tesla's working on the same thing. Humanoid robots, two legs, two arms, can do a whole lot. We'll see where that goes and a lot of people said that's one of the most lucrative irons in the fire that Tesla has along with their robotaxi and of course microsoft has some exposure there too so does nvidia uh... which would uh... be part of the uh... artificial intelligence that uh... runs these humanoid robots can you claim them as dependents on your tax return i don't know about that uh... toyota rips a nine percent gain after a report of a lush ROE Yeah, I just don't know about the car, the auto builders, other than Tesla, obviously. And when we come back, guess who is endorsing Eli Lilly's weight loss drug? And we'll take a look underneath the market when we come back. This is the Best Docs Now show.
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The way you wanna go, do what you wanna do with whoever you wanna be. The way you wanna go, do what you wanna do with whoever you wanna be.
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And welcome back here to the final segment of today's Best Docs Now show. Well, Elon says he likes Terzepatide better than... than semaglutide. In other words, he likes Lilly's drug. Now, whether he's on it or not, I don't know. But he must, to form that opinion, he must be doing something with those drugs. And he is endorsing Lily's drug now that has also been a disappointment in 2024 I'm just gonna look real fast and see what Lily stock it did a lot better than most drug stocks that's for sure especially the large pharmaceuticals Eli is coming Eli was up 37.4% this year that's not bad okay that's a lot better than the S&P 500 we continue to own Lily Over the last year, it's up 40%. Over the last three years, it has averaged 44% per year. Not bad for big pharma. And over the last five years, it's delivered 45% per year. This is one of the best performing large pharma by far. Nothing even comes close. It just lacks momentum right now. That's what it lacks. It lacks a catalyst to really get it going. It's had a couple things go its way recently. It's no longer a shortage. It got its designation for sleep apnea. The competitor's drug, the studies show that it's much, much more effective. It got an endorsement from the UK today, which is good. And now Elon Musk says he prefers Lily's Mongero over Novo's Ozempic for weight loss therapy, which would really be Zep-bound over Wagovi. So anyways, we'll take that into account. And we'll also worry a little bit about RFK. who has long advocated for dietary control over drugs to fight America's obesity epidemic. You know, I'm not with RFK on that. I think a lot of people have tried and tried dietary control, and it's not easy. Just look around at the results and this seems to make that whole quest a lot easier. And anyways, that's where Lily is. Now let's take a look underneath the surface of the market on this day after Christmas, which has got to be some pretty light trading. Out there most people eating holiday leftovers, cleaning up the garbage, taking things to the trash, picking up, blah blah blah, doing things with the family. Let's take a look at the S&P 500 right now. It doesn't look like there's much on the upside, much on the downside. Macy's is up 5.1%. That's a pretty good chart on Macy's. I wouldn't be a buyer of Macy's, but that's a pretty good chart. The retail stocks are doing best today by far. Kohl's up 3.9%. Gap Store is up 3.7%. Advanced Auto Parts, maybe you got an oil change kit. under the tree over the week. Just don't do it. Don't make a mess. 3.4% on advanced auto parts. Walgreens is up 2.8%. Target's up 2.5%. FedEx up 2.4%. Guess what? It was a good holiday season. They're the leaders in the market today. Not a lot on the downside. I don't see anything other than Netflix down 1.4%. I don't know how their football, I heard it was a roaring success, but it is down 1.4% today. Now, let's look at the NASDAQ, the home of the disruptors. I visited the NASDAQ last week, had a good time, saw a lot of those disruptors, pictures on the wall the day they went public. A lot of history there at the NASDAQ. And again, it looks to be the only tech stock I see on the upside to any extent, and it's one of the better performers over the last quarter of the year is Broadcom. Broadcom has been on a tear. Broadcom is at an all-time high. It's now over a trillion. It's $1.1 trillion and definitely a part of that AI race. And then I see a lot of retail stocks. Raw stores up 1%. Dollar Tree up 1.3%. That's where I do all my Christmas shopping, over at the Dollar Tree. Henry Schein up 1.4%. Ulta up 1.7. Starbucks up 1.9. Good day for retail. What do we have on the downside over at the NASDAQ? You know, not much. Like I say, Netflix and Tesla. Tesla down 1%. Meta down three quarters of a percent. NVIDIA, which had a really good Christmas Eve. NVIDIA is down 7 tenths of 1%. And one last thing we'll take a look at is the Dow. Not much on the downside on the Dow. On the upside, Boeing, which has been on a nice little run here recently. Not a bad chart on Boeing as they're back doing, I think the assembly line is going at 100% again finally. So that's good news for Boeing. Okay, well, this is, don't forget, I mean, take a look at your tax planning. You've only got a few trading days left. Tomorrow's the 27th, 28th, 29th, market close. You've got Monday. You've got basically today, Friday, and Monday, and a half day on Tuesday. To take advantage, get rid of those big losers. At least get a little bit of a tax write-off loss to offset gains. If you've got some big losers to write off, now's the time. Otherwise, you've got to wait until next year. So tax planning is very important here. I've got a few hanging around that are a little bit underwater. I'm open for a little rally between now and the end of the year on Tuesday when the bell rings. And if I don't get it, I will sell and take advantage of some losses to offset a lot of gains from this year. Set up an appointment with us. Get on the right track. Get on the right track in 2025. I think there's going to be a little bit different leadership in the market next year than what we saw this year. Give us a call to set up an appointment at 855-611-BEST. 855-611-BEST. And to take advantage of the best offer, just like the guy on my pillow, you know, comes out of your medicine cabinet. No, instead it's my live trading. Go to Gunderson.com. GunnarssonCapital.com, GunnarssonCapital.com. Sign up for four free weeks, and we'll have some fun together, all right? And happy holidays, and I'll be talking to you throughout the day if you're one of my subscribers here. Have a great day, everybody.
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This show is not a solicitation to buy or sell any securities. Bill Gunderson or clients of Gunderson Capital Management may have long or short positions in stocks mentioned during the show. Past performance is not indicative of future performance. Gunderson Capital Management is a fee-based registered investment advisory firm. All accounts are held at Charles Schwab. Schwab is a member of SIPC and FINRA.
In this episode, we reflect on the powerful story of the Advent wreath's third candle, symbolizing joy and illumination brought to a darkened world. We recount the angelic visits that heralded the arrival of the Messiah, and examine the reactions of those who first heard the joyous news. From the courage of Mary and Joseph to the awe of the shepherds, this engaging narrative invites listeners to reconnect with the spiritual meaning of Christmas. Emphasizing the eternal message of goodwill and divine grace, this episode offers a heartfelt reminder of what it truly means to celebrate this sacred season.
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The Crawford Stand, as the president of Crawford Media Group, Don Crawford, brings the third of three Advent messages. This week, the greatest love story ever told. The story of how God's miraculous power brought light to a dark world.
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With God, all things are possible. All things. Even an event like the virgin birth. Some 2,000 years ago, an angel was sent by God to the tiny town of Nazareth in the Galilee area of Israel. The area was small, the inhabitants few, and a popular saying of the day was, Can any good thing come out of Nazareth? Perhaps not. Perhaps not before, but after the visit by the angel Gabriel to an unknown Mary, from Nazareth would come the Savior, the Savior God. of the world Mary the Virgin was pledged to be married to a man named Joseph a descendant of David the angel Gabriel said to her greetings greetings Mary you who are highly favored the Lord the Lord is with you and don't be afraid Mary you have found favor with God you will be with child and give birth to a son and you are to give him the name Jesus Jesus. He will be great, he will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever. His kingdom will never end. Wow! Can you believe that kind of message? Isn't that incredible? Can you imagine the reaction of Mary? Mary was troubled, and she said to the angel, How will this come about, since I am a virgin? I'm a virgin. To which the angel responded, The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the Holy One to be born would be called the Son of God. Well, I'll tell you what, it takes a whole lot of faith to believe in that, but to believe it is probably the most wonderful commitment any human being can make.
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And Mary said, My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior, for he hath regarded the lowest state of his handmaiden. For behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.
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The natural man scoffs at angels, but the spiritual man knows that with God, with God, all things are possible, all things, including angels. So Mary, now with child, the Holy Ghost having come upon her, went to the home of Zechariah and Elizabeth. relatives of hers. And when she arrived, Elizabeth knew of this immaculate conception, and Elizabeth said to Mary, wonderful, wonderful words, Blessed are you, Mary, blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear. Blessed is the fruit of thy womb through the Holy Spirit, Jesus. Elizabeth knew that Mary would be the mother of her Lord and ours as well. So the world was about to change because of that event in Nazareth. Jesus of Nazareth would soon be born in Bethlehem of Judea, and this Nazarene, this Son of the Most High, would soon be known as the Savior, the Savior of the world, the Prince of Peace, the Christ of Glory. And when Elizabeth had finished, Mary began her very own song of praise, the Magnificat. Mary's Magnificat.
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Listen to these words. And Mary said, He that is mighty hath done to me great things, and holy is his name. And his mercy is on them that fear him from generation to generation.
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Ah, such powerful, powerful praise and adoration this Magnificat of Mary was! Mary the Virgin, so humble in spirit, thought of herself as the handmaiden of the Lord, perhaps still puzzled as to why she was chosen to bear the King of Kings, but willing and obedient to do the will of God. and the babe of Bethlehem grew within her. Fiancé Joseph, of the lineage of David, sought to put her away, but again an angelic message explained to him what had happened, foretold the birth of this son, and the instructions to him that his name would be Jesus. Thereafter, Mary would be wife and mother for Joseph, but only thereafter. It really is incredibly difficult to imagine how this man 2,000 years ago would react. How would you as a man react to that news? Nothing like this in human history had ever happened before, ever. He, Joseph, was chosen to supervise and support the birth of the Savior of the world. That would be impossible for any man to comprehend. But Joseph, obedient like Mary, accepted the angelic explanation, and this divine drama proceeded. Surely Joseph could see the remarkable changes in Mary. For those precious months, Mary's soul glorified the Lord. She told all that her spirit rejoices in God, in God my Savior. Surely that glorifying and rejoicing was well noticed, even participated in by Joseph. I hope so. Mary, the humble servant of the Lord, knew what great things God had done for her, and she was perhaps the first to live in a brand new revolutionary state of praise and worship. And soon, soon, my fellow Americans, soon that would be available to all mankind. to you and me. And then came the decree from Caesar Augustus that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. Joseph, who belonged to the house and lineage of David, therefore went to Bethlehem of Judea to register with Mary, since Bethlehem was the city of David. But the town was full, full, and there was no room in the inn, no room in the inn, so that Mary and Joseph slept in a manger." And there, there, in that manger, Mary gave birth to a son, and as a proud and loving mother, she wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and she laid Jesus of Nazareth, born in Bethlehem, in a manger. Such were the humble circumstances of the birth of Jesus of Nazareth, the Babe of Bethlehem, the Prince of Peace, and the Savior of the world. And that, That is the real meaning of Christmas. That birth of the Savior of the world is what we celebrate at Christmas, or we should. This rabidly secular world of ours wishes to de-spiritualize this event and take Christ out of Christmas. And boy, are they doing a good job of that. We who believe, we who believe in this miracle, for again, all things with God are possible, we who believe must never let that happen, but rather band together in glorious praise and worship to the babe, and especially to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Let not, my fellow Christians, let not the secularists abandon the Christ of Christmas. Don't let it happen. So, Christ was born. And there began the spreading of this marvelous message.
SPEAKER 02 :
And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them, and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people." For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you. You shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men.
SPEAKER 03 :
I find it so interesting that shepherds were chosen as the first to hear this angelic enunciation. Shepherds were watchmen, observant, especially at night, as they made certain to protect their sheep. and they knew the heavens and the stars and their movements. They were familiar with the night, and they could, like wise men and kings, identify and follow the star of wonder, the star so bright, the star with royal beauty bright, the star which shone brightly that night over the city of David, the blessed Bethlehem of Judea, where the Prince of Peace was born, our Lord. And those shepherds left immediately, and they found Mary and Joseph and the babe lying in the manger. And when they had seen him, when they had seen him, they were the very first evangelists. They spread the word of this miraculous and marvelous birth, the message they had been told by the angel about this babe. And that, that was the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ. From then on, the shepherds glorified and praised God for all the things they had heard and seen, even as we who believe do so today. And we do so today, never having seen him like the shepherds did. And we will say today as the shepherds and angels did then. Glory to God in the highest. Glory, glory to God in the highest. And on earth, peace and goodwill toward all mankind. Men and women search for truth, even as the shepherds did. They do that today. We all do. The search is everywhere. But the truth, the ultimate truth, was revealed to mankind in a manger in Bethlehem 2,000 years ago. Wise men and wise women who truly seek him will find him there and here and now. Those who scoff, mock at a virgin birth, the concept of angels, and the creation of a God-man will never ever know that nothing, but nothing, is impossible with God. nothing but to find him as a most joyous, wondrous discovery. It is an epiphany like no other. The finding of the babe is the finding of the world's greatest treasure. The power, the love, the understanding which results from finding him is life-changing then and forevermore. That finding allows us to become, as a little child, open and transparent, filled with love and compassion, fully understanding the grace of God and that gracious gift which changed the world 2,000 years ago. That faith in the babe of Bethlehem is the key, the key, to entering the kingdom of God, humbly trusting and believing even as Mary did of old. Women become handmaidens of the Lord like Mary did. Men, believers, become servants of the Lord as the shepherds did. So that on Christmas Day, on Christmas Day, on such a wonderful day, we discover the greatest present, the greatest gift one could ever find, the babe, the babe of Bethlehem, the Savior of the world. The gifts we give to others at Christmastime can never begin to equal the gift of God to us. We should celebrate that gift first, and wherever possible, give the love of that gift to others. That is what Christmas is all about. And that, that must never change. it must never change. And we, like the shepherds of old, should spread the good news of the gospel, of the birth of Jesus Christ, the good news that is true evangelism. And we who believe must never let that message die, not only at Christmas, but every day of the year. The wise men of old found him, and the wise men and women of today they do the same. The truly wise who search will find him. For in him it is all that God is. And that, as the angels well said, is indeed the glad tidings and the great joy for all mankind. Have you found that? Have you experienced the joy, the love, the forgiveness, the salvation offered by the babe of Bethlehem? I hope and pray you have. For God so loved the world, He so loved the world, that He gave His only Son to all mankind, so that those who believe could have life abundant here and life eternal there. For those who received this gift of God, there comes the power of God, making them sons and daughters of God. Life all brand new. Do you have it? Women praise the Lord like Mary of old. Men glorify the Lord as the shepherds of old. And that, and only that, can bring peace to the world. The message of that babe is the only message which can spread the goodwill of God and transform the lives of all mankind. Oh, I hope and pray at this wonderful season that this gift may be yours. We, the Crawford Broadcasting Company, all of us, wish you a very happy, merry, blessed Christmas centered around the Babe of Bethlehem. And may the love of God in Jesus Christ be your very special gift this Christmas season. And I say, glory to God, glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace and goodwill for all, like the angels of old. Christ, Christ is born.
SPEAKER 01 :
Let him know you appreciate his daily visits here on the Crawford Stand. His email address again is stand at CrawfordMediaGroup.net. When you want to review what you hear, go to our website, CrawfordMediaGroup.net. The Crawford Stand is a public affairs presentation of Crawford Media Group and this station, serving God and country. I'm Bill McCormick.
God's 10 problem-solving devices: Rebound. Filling of the Holy Spirit. Faith Rest Drill. Biblical Orientation. Grace Orientation. Personal Sense of Destiny. Personal Love for God. Impersonal Love for Others. Sharing the Happiness of God. Occupation with Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ lives in you! This is the mystery doctrine of the church. “To whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery which is Christ in you” (Col 1:27). The real you is what you think. The Bible says, “As a man thinks so he is.” We are members of the body of Christ. In the family of God. We have a new purpose, a new responsibility, a new source of authority and we have a life that is planned specifically for us. A life of purpose, meaning, and definition.
Click for Full Transcript: https://rhem.pub/unique-life-8120a9
Our Unique Life – Part 5
Transcript of FLOT Line Episode 620 aired on July 16, 2017
Good morning and welcome to the FLOT Line. I'm your host Rick Hughes and for the next few
minutes I invite you to listen up. It's going to be a time of motivation, some inspiration, a whole
lot of education, done with absolutely no manipulation. No gimmicks, no games, no requesting
money. We’re only here for one reason, that’s to give you accurate information. And that
information I pray will help you verify as well as identify the plan of God for your life. And if
you wish to orient and adjust to the plan, then you have the freedom and the liberty to do so. But
my job is to be accurate, not to give you some human speculation, but to give you Biblical
revelation and to be accurate from the Bible, the canon of Scripture. That’s right this is a show
about the Bible so don't turn it off yet. It's not like anything you've heard before I promise you.
No jumping up and down, no yelling, no screaming, just some logical presentation of the Word
of God. If you're new to the show, FLOT stands for Forward Line Of Troops. And what we're
using here is a military analogy of how a believer in Jesus Christ can establish a main line of
resistance in his life using a forward line of troops. And that F.L.O.T. stands for Forward Line Of
Troops and that is made up of ten unique problem-solving devices. When you learn these and use
these, then you will be able to stop the outside sources of adversity before they ever become the
inside source of stress. That's why we always say adversity is inevitable and yet stress is
optional. Because adversity is what circumstances do to you and stress, well that's what you do
to yourself. So learn these ten problem-solving devices. We have a book about it. It's free if you
want it, I'll send it right to you. No charge.
It lists rebound as problem-solving device number
one. It lists the filling of the Holy Spirit as problem-solving device number two. It lists the
faith rest drill as problem-solving device number three. And it lists Biblical orientation,
grace orientation, a personal sense of destiny, personal love for God, impersonal love for
others, +H or sharing the happiness of God and occupation with Jesus Christ. Those are
your ten unique problem-solving devices.
Somebody says prayer is not in there. Well, prayer is
not designed to solve your problems. Prayer is instantaneous communication with the Father, but
as Paul said in 2 Corinthians 12:8 I prayed three times for my problem to be removed and it was
not removed and that's when God told him that My grace is sufficient. Grace orientation is a
problem-solving device. Four weeks ago I started a special study on the uniqueness of the
Christian life. And since that time I've been to Texas and spoken in Texas, presented this study,
added some notes, so I’m going to review a little bit before we press on to where we left off last
time. I have already taught you our unique assets as believers in Jesus Christ. What God the
Father has given to us and what He’s provided for us, our unique assets. One of the most unique
things the world has ever known, ever seen, ever heard of, I mean shock and awe,
is called the
mystery doctrine of the church, it is Christ living in you.
No one ever heard of that before.
Christ living in you. In the Old Testament, in the tabernacle, the Shekinah Glory indwelled the
tabernacle but it never indwelled any individual. But now, according to the Bible in Colossians
1:27,
“To whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among
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the Gentiles, which is Christ in you.”
So the Gentiles were brought into the royal family of God
to begin the unique dispensation called the Church Age. Christ living in you. The Holy of Holies
of the tabernacle has now taken up residence in you. And so Paul tells us in Romans 13:14 to
“put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh.”
When I say put on the Lord
Jesus Christ, what I'm saying is that
as a believer in Christ, a Christian, you need to have a
different identity and a different personality profile.
A different identity and a different
personality profile. You were an unbeliever, you’re now a believer. Now you have to assume the
profile of Jesus Christ which is humility.
“He humbled Himself,”
the Bible says in Philippians
2:5,
“and made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Himself the form of a man and was
obedient all the way to the cross.”
So we take on His mentality. We take on His personality. He
lives in us. And then guess what happens? Ephesians 3:20,
“Now to Him who is able to do
exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think”
not only in eternity but in time as well
because we have divine operating assets. That's what makes us stand apart from the unbelievers
in the devil’s world. I call them the disadvantaged ones. They don't have the advantages that we
have. But the sad thing is, I think it's very possible that a lot of believers never really tap into
their unique assets. We’re under orders, we’re under orders from God, we must present ourselves
for His service. Romans 6:13,
“Do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as
instruments of unrighteousness but
[here’s the mandate]
present yourself to God as those alive
from the dead and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.”
Present yourself to
God is the Greek word
paristemi
and it's an imperative mood in the Greek New Testament that
says when you don't do this you are sinning. If you disobey the commander’s orders you are
sinning.
Presenting yourself to God means
that you take your flesh, your sin nature, remember
the Bible says
“The flesh wars against the Spirit, the Spirit wars against the flesh, they’re
contrary one to the other,”
so you put your flesh aside,
you deny self, you say no to self and
you begin to grow in God's grace plan.
Learning the protocol plan of God, utilizing the grace
provisions that God has for you because your body is now the temple of God. There is no longer
a tabernacle. You are the tabernacle. 1 Corinthians 3:16,
“Know you not that you are the temple
of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?
[and goes on to say]
if any man defile the temple
of God, him shall God destroy for the temple of God is holy and so should you be.”
Divine
discipline is real for the believer in Jesus Christ. When we reject the plan of God, we go through
warning discipline (Hebrews 12:6), we go through intense discipline (that’s when God takes us
out behind the woodshed), and we can also go through dying discipline. So you cannot afford to
turn your back on the Word of God or to defile your body, which is the temple of the Holy Spirit.
How do you do that? By getting sin in your life and not confessing the sin, letting the sin
hibernate, letting the sin saturate your life. It could be any sin. But you defile the temple of God.
If that sin nature controls your body, then you're going to scar your body up.
And if you do
enough sin, enough times, the damage is inconceivable. Because Ephesians 4:19 says,
“Those
being passed feelings
[that means they’re calloused and they’re insensitive, they’re apathetic,
they have no conviction, they've destroyed all of their norms and standards]
those that are passed
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feelings have betrayed their own self to lasciviousness and produce uncleanliness with greed.”
This is a pattern in the latter days of the church, the Bible says. In 1 Timothy 4:1,
“Now the
Spirit expressly says in the latter times some will depart from the faith
[in other words they walk
away from the Word of God]
and they will listen to deceiving spirits
[doctrine of demons]
and
they will be having their conscience seared with a hot iron.”
Conscience seared with a hot iron.
What does that mean? That's the Greek word, seared is the Greek word
kauteriazo,
and we get an
English word from that, cauterize, and this means, you know, to cauterize something, to burn it
so it doesn't keep bleeding, you cauterize a bleeder. Those who spread false doctrine, those who
walk away from the faith are branded in their mentality like a cow is branded with a branding
iron. That cauterizing of their soul, no conviction, no consciousness, all norms and standards
destroyed. So you must not let that happen to you. You can't afford to dabble in sin and fail to use
problem-solving device number one which is rebound. It's a volitional decision you must make.
You have to make this decision. Ephesians 4:22 says,
“You must put off that old manner of life,
those old habits and those old actions which are corrupt, that lead to deceitful lust and be
renewed in the spirit of your mind.”
In other words,
learn to think differently, acquire divine
viewpoint, take on the mentality of Jesus Christ.
So what are the mechanics? Again, use your
volition to advance spiritually, change the way you think, start thinking some divine viewpoint
(learn God's Word), change the way you live (grace orientation, God graced you out, you grace
other people out), change your goals (you have a new sense of destiny, a new identity, you are a
believer in Jesus Christ) and all of this is done by means of the filling of the Holy Spirit. So we
have incredible assets. We have the Bible, we have different spiritual gifts. We have a well-
qualified pastor teacher who's designed to teach us God's Word. We have all of these things
available to us if we take advantage of them. And here's the thing that God's going to do with
you. He's going to inspect your heart. Revelation 2:23,
"I am the One who searches the minds
and hearts and I will give to each of you according to your production.”
So we have amazing
promises here. I want you to hear this one promise. This is the most amazing promise of all.
“I
will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee because he trusts in Thee.” “
Thou
wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee because he trusts in Thee.”
This
is an amazing lifestyle.
There's a possibility that you can live a life free of anxiety, free of stress,
free of fear, free of worry. That you can have perfect peace. Psalm 119:165,
“Those who love
Your Law have great peace and nothing causes them to stumble.”
That's to be discouraged or to
be defeated. And this is not the peace that comes from getting saved. I mean, Billy Graham wrote
a little article called “Peace with God,” and that's what happens when you get saved for sure.
“Having been justified by faith we have peace with God,”
Romans 5:1-2,
“through our Lord
Jesus Christ.”
That’s salvation peace. But what I'm talking about is a peace after you’re saved, a
peace as you live your Christian life. A way to live with a relaxed mental attitude. It's incredible.
It's a life free of worry, a life free of anxiety, a life free of fear. That's why Paul wrote in
Philippians 4:6-7,
“Be anxious for nothing...”
Listen, capacity for life, the capacity to live your
life, is related to you being content with what God gives you. And the instructions from the Word
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of God are designed to develop integrity in your life. And this is the attitude of stability and it's
the capacity for really true happiness - having this integrity. Arrogance will destroy any chance
of integrity. No integrity, no contentment. So the details of life, those things that are out there,
that's not the source of true happiness. I mean, I enjoy having fun, doing certain things, I love to
fish, bass fishing is a hobby for me, but it’s not the source of true happiness. Even Paul said it
this way and in Philippians 4:11,
“Not that I speak in respect of want for I've learned to be
content in whatever circumstances I have.”
This is a question I have to ask you, are you content
today or do you think that something else could make you happy? Look at your life. Look at
your circumstances. Are you content? Now I’m not talking about your spiritual life. I hope you're
not content with where you are spiritually. But physically the assets you have, you know, the
details of life, are you content or do you think if you could win the lottery or do you think if you
could just meet the right person or do you think if I just lived in a different place that I could get
a different job then I could be happy? See, unhappy people are going to take their unhappiness
with them wherever they go. So to have tranquility of soul, to have stability of mental attitude,
it’s an amazing thing, not letting your emotions control you, and living under this peace that God
supplies you. This kind of true contentment, that’s peace. That's the peace of happiness. And it is
possible through the power of God to come to the place in our lives where we have this
happiness. It’s called +H, it's problem-solving device number nine. This tranquility and this
contentment and at the same time to have a fantastic love and appreciation for our Father. Now,
last time I was talking to you about this. I also want to let you know that
there is great comfort
and relief in prayer.
Listen to the verse I’m fixing to read to you. Philippians 4:6-7, as I started
it,
“Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer
[by prayer]
and supplication
[prayer]
with thanksgiving
[prayer]
let your requests be made known to God.
[prayer, prayer, prayer,
prayer, and what does it say after that?]
And the peace of God, which surpasses all
understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”
There's comfort and
relief in prayer. When you express your helplessness, when you express your dependence on
God, that’s you recognizing and orienting to His grace provisions. And thus we can relax, we can
enjoy the peace of God with a relaxed mental attitude because Satan is going to attack your
thinking. That's where he works. He's attacking your mind. That's where you live your spiritual
life - in your mind and your soul. You're not what you look like, you’re what you think.
The
Bible says, “As a man thinks in his heart so he is.” The real you is what you think.
And this
is where the battle goes on. It’s the battle for your thoughts. So you live your Christian life in the
mentality of your soul and that's where he will focus his attack. He wants you to doubt, he wants
you to be deceived, he wants you to be discouraged. These are all weapons that Satan uses. And
the Bible says if you’ll make those requests known to God, the peace of God which passes
understanding will guard, the future active indicative of
phroureo,
it will guard you. It will
protect you. It will protect your mind and your heart. Your mind, your
nous
(n.o.u.s.), that's the
Greek word mind and your heart
kardia
(k.a.r.d.i.a.),
they’re two different compartments in the
soul. The mind is where you assimilate information and the heart is where you apply the
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information. So one is intake and one is outtake. One is take it in and one is put it out. So you
take it in with the mind and use it in the heart. When you use it in the heart it’s called wisdom in
the Bible. It’s an amazing thing. And so there's never any need for you to worry yourself sick.
Never a need for any of this sort of stuff because the peace of God will guard you. Amazing.
Amazing. I told you last time that Satan will try to neutralize you by recapturing your thoughts.
He will try to get your thought life. He will try to get the way you think. And this is why Paul
wrote it this way, he said,
“Cast down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against
the knowledge of God and bring into captivity
[listen now]
every thought to the obedience of
Christ.”
Casting down imaginations and every high thing. High thing,
hupsoma
, it's a Greek
word meaning barrier or antagonism. Paul describes his mental attitude to us, it’s him talking
about his self there. He speaks of the way he handled things, his resources. That's what that is.
And he said we destroy human speculations. That's casting down imaginations. Let me give you
a little modified expanded translation of 2 Corinthians 10:5,
“We destroy human speculations
that are antagonistic to God as well as every barrier in our soul that stands against the
knowledge of God and by doing this we capture every thought and bring them into obedience.”
Now remember, Satan is going to play mind games with you. The victory in your life begins with
what you think. So he will try to change the way you think. Recapture your thoughts. He will try
to reclaim your affections, that’s why the Bible says,
“love not the world.”
And he will seek to
redirect your focus, that’s why the Bible says,
“don't look at things that are seen but things that
are unseen.”
And he will seek to redefine your values and that's why the Bible says,
“don't lay
up for yourselves treasures on this earth but seek first the kingdom of God and His
righteousness.”
So you as a believer you have all these assets.
You’re a royal priest, you’re a
member of the royal family of God, you have the power of intercessory prayer, you have the
filling of the Holy Spirit.
All of these things so that you can have a tranquil and a quiet life. The
Bible clearly says this. Paul encourages prayer on behalf of 1 Timothy 2:1-2, he says to Timothy,
“I urge that entreaties, prayers, petitions and thanksgiving be made known on behalf of all men
[and look at verse two]
for kings and all who are in authority
[like the president]
so that we may
live a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and all dignity.”
In other words, what Paul is saying
is he wants Timothy to pray for the government so they will be undisturbed by government
authorities and they can have a tranquil calm life and learn and serve and worship God, not have
a stormy life. And Paul knew the deteriorating political atmosphere of Rome. He knew what was
going on and essentially in 64 A.D. Rome burned down and Nero accused Christians of doing it
and I mean he persecuted them unmercifully. So if there's one thing we don't have in America
today, it's tranquility or quiet lives because we are assaulted every day by media bullies seeking
to impose their agenda on the masses. The only way to debate that or defeat that is through
prayer. Now, let’s talk about your unique times that you live in, okay? The most unique thing is
we live in the Church Age and when we became believers in Jesus Christ, we are automatically
adopted into the family of God, made heir with God and Christ. We’re heirs to the family of God.
Listen, Galatians 3:26,
“For you are all the sons of God by faith in Jesus Christ. Having
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predestined us to the adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good
pleasure of His will.”
That means, here's what it means, you and I, we are spiritual aristocracy.
That's the highest class in society. We are spiritual nobility. We might not be presidential. We
might not be kings. But we are nobility in Christ and this is superior to any other dispensation in
the history of the church, even from the beginning of time until the end of time. No one has the
spiritual nobility of the royal family of God except the church members. You, me,
we are
members of the body of Christ, adopted into the family of God. We have a new purpose, a
new responsibility, a new source of authority and we have a life that is planned specifically
for us
and us alone. So, as we learn that purpose, we learn our unique assets, we use our assets
and we know that we are now (you, me) we are now the personal representatives of Jesus Christ
during our time here in the arena of contention called earth. We are ambassadors from heaven.
The Bible says we’re royal ambassadors. That means we’ve been left here for a purpose and for a
certain time. And so if we're going to do that, we’ve got to have a certain mindset. That mindset
requires us to have humility and to commit ourselves to the life that God has for us. Paul said it
this way, he said,
"I’ve been crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, and yet it's not me, but it's
Christ living in me. And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who
loved me and gave Himself for me.”
What Paul is saying is, he put to death the flesh. He’s not
living for the flesh anymore and he's not living by sight anymore.
The only way to live is to live
by faith and you must trust God.
In other words, Christ died for you experientially, thus you
die for Him in your position. You say, ‘No, I’m not going to obey the lust of the flesh. Yes, I'm
going to let the Holy Spirit control my life. Yes, I'm going to take God's Word and learn and use
it. Yes, I’m going to change the way I think. Yes, I'm going to change my personality. Yes, I'm
going to represent Jesus Christ to a lost and dying world.’ I mean, the Son obeyed the Father and
you have to as well. You have to obey the Son. Jesus said to the disciples,
“If anybody wants to
come after Me, let him deny himself.”
That means put your life aside. You’re going to have to
live for Me. And this act of sacrifice is simply you denying what you may have the right to do in
order to serve Him. In other words, your existence, your life must forever be a channel for the
flow of the gospel demonstrated by virtue love to all that you meet. Whether it's impersonal love
for the lost man, whether it's personal love for the believer, having personal love for God the
Father. Because Paul said,
“For me, to live is Christ,”
Philippians 1:21. That must be you. For
you, to live is Christ.
That's why you're here - to re-present Him.
Not only represent Him by
means of your local church but to re-present Him in your personal life. That's why Paul said,
anything that I had in the past I count that all as dung. I have a new life, a new mission, a new
purpose. All that other stuff is just rubbish. If He is my Lord, I have a new ownership. I'm His
servant now, Paul said. He called himself a slave of Jesus Christ and we are also. Think about it.
Your destiny, your history depends on your attitude about this. I hope you're learning. I hope
you're putting this together. It's an awesome time to grow in the grace and the knowledge of your
Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Thank you for listening. Until next week, same time, same place.
Thank you for being with us
Join us in this festive episode as we dive into the warm-hearted world of Christmas. With cheerful songs that will light up your spirit and discussions on financial planning to ease your holiday worries, this episode has everything you need to make merry. From fun holiday traditions to crucial financial advice, celebrate the joyous season while planning wisely for the future.
SPEAKER 04 :
We wish you the merriest, the merriest, the merriest, the merriest New Year!
SPEAKER 05 :
We wish you the merriest, the merriest, the merriest, yes, the merriest. We wish you the merriest, the merriest, the merriest, you cheer! We wish you the happiest, the happiest, the happiest, yes, the happiest. We wish you the happiest, the happiest, the happiest New Year! May your tree be filled with happiness, happiness and friendliness for all. May your heart be filled with cheerfulness, happiness and cheerfulness for all. We wish you the happiest, the happiest, the happiest, happiest, yes, the happiest. We wish you the merriest, the merriest, the merriest. You'll cheer and the happiest. We wish you the happiest, the happiest, the happiest, yes, the happiest. We wish you the happiest, the happiest, the happiest New Year. May your dream be filled with happiness, happiness and friendliness for all. With happiness and cheerfulness and friendliness for all. We wish you the happiest, the happiest, the happiest. Yes, the happiest. We wish you the merriest, the merriest, the merriest future.
SPEAKER 1 :
We'll be right back.
SPEAKER 11 :
old mr kringle is soon gonna jingle the bells that'll tingle all your troubles away everybody's waiting for the man with the bag cause christmas is coming again he's got a sleigh full it's not gonna stay full he's got stuff to drop at every stop of the way everybody's waiting for the man with the bag cause christmas is coming again he'll be With the answer to the prayers that you've made through the year, you'll get yours. If you've done everything you should, extra special good he'll make this December. The one you'll remember, the best and the merriest you ever did have. Everybody's waiting for the man with the bag. Christmas is here. Oh, Mr. Kringle is soon gonna jingle All the bells that are tingled All your troubles away Everybody's waiting for the man with the bag Christmas is here again He's got a staple and it's not gonna staple. Got stuff that he's dropping every stop of the way. Everybody's waiting for the man with the bag. Christmas is here again. the prayers that you've made through the year you'll get your if you've done everything you should special good he'll make this december the one you'll remember the best and the merriest you ever did have everybody's way Better watch out now.
SPEAKER 13 :
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SPEAKER 19 :
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SPEAKER 18 :
Your ghost of Christmas past is you haven't gotten that estate plan done. And with KLZ's mobile estate planner, Michael Bailey, here to help you, it's going to be okay. Some of us also worry about what will happen in the future. You can deal with that ghost of Christmas future too. Get started on your estate plan now with Michael Bailey so you don't have to worry about the past or the future. Ebenezer Scrooge learned how to change his ways in the present, and you can decide to make changes too. Taking care of a will or estate plan in the present means you don't have to worry. It frees up the future to be whatever you want it to be. You can have happiness, peace, joy, love, although probably not from your estate plan, but at least you will have peace of mind knowing it's done. Let your, I should have already done this, fears and worries go. No judgment here. Just call our mobile estate planner, Michael Bailey at 720-730-7274 or go to the klzradio.com advertisers page.
SPEAKER 16 :
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SPEAKER 21 :
Christmas. It's the only time of year in which one can sit in front of a dead tree and eat candy out of socks. Happy Holidays from Rush to Reason on KLZ 560.
SPEAKER 07 :
Twas the night before Christmas and I'd gone to bed late. Lord only knows how much fruitcake I ate.
SPEAKER 08 :
Christmas Eve I dreamed that Santa was arrested. Yeah, they handcuffed him and they hauled him off to jail. Christmas Eve I dreamed that Santa was arrested. A crime so bad they held him without bail. Cruelty to reindeer was the first charge that they read. We got there just in time, your honor. He had nine of them hitched to a heavy sled. And abuse is indicated. One's got a nose that's awfully red.
SPEAKER 07 :
And the prosecution had only just begun.
SPEAKER 08 :
OSHA closed his workshop down for safety violations. And there are product liability claims for every toy built since creation. We found out he hires only elves, and of course that's discrimination. He'll be put away for life before we're done. That sled is not airworthy. The FAA won't certify. He's over 60 with corrected vision, therefore he should not fly. Why, this could be the trial of the century. There's over 10 billion instances of unlawful entry. Christmas Eve, I dreamed that Santa was arrested. And not only for the things they claim he did Christmas Eve I dreamed that Santa was arrested For being a poor role model for kids Why, just look at him, Mary, Your Honor. He doesn't shave or cut his hair, and he's grossly overweight, and he only works one day a year. Now, we all know he smokes tobacco, and that he's fur on that suit he wears. We must protect our kids from men like this. Order in the court, said the judge. I've heard enough about his crimes. And clearly, this is a man who's out of step with modern times. But one of those houses he so often entered unlawfully was mine. And therefore, all charges are dismissed. Oh, I woke up to the sound of ho-ho-ho-ing. It must have been the maraschino cherries.
SPEAKER 06 :
Woo! Somebody done been to the Walmart. Man, that's just the stuff I got for Christmas. Well, you cleaned up. What'd you get? Five flannel shirts. Four big mud tires, three shotgun shells, two hunting dogs, and some parts to a Mustang GT. You foe, you got Jeff. There's 12 days to Christmas.
SPEAKER 01 :
I know that.
SPEAKER 06 :
I got it covered. Look over in the corner. That's yours too? Yeah, 12 pack of bud, 11 wrestling tickets, 10 of Copenhagen, 9 years probation, 8 table dancers, 7 packs of Redman, 6 cans of Spam, 4 big mutt tires, 3 shotgun shells, 2 hunting dogs, and some parts to a Mustang GT. Man, these ain't normal Christmas presents. No, they're redneck gifts. Redneck gifts? Yeah, you know, like if you buy your wife earrings that double as fishing lures, or if you can burp the entire chorus of Jingle Bells. Perhaps if you think the nutcracker is something you did off the high dive. Or if you've ever misspelled anything in Christmas lights. Or if you leave cold beer and pickled eggs for Santa Claus. What's wrong with that? I didn't say anything wrong with it. It's hard to beat. Twelve pack of Bud, eleven wrestling tickets, ten of Copenhagen, nine years probation, eight table dancers, seven packs of Redman, six Kansas Pass.
SPEAKER 04 :
Five final shots.
SPEAKER 06 :
Four big mud tires, three shotgun shells, two hunting dogs, and some parts to a Mustang G2. Well, you know, you can't really consider it a Christmas unless you go down to the penitentiary and visit your mama. You're not listening to me. Get the car key out of your ear. That's where the nine years probation comes in. I'm going to do it for you again. Now listen. 12-pack of Bud, 11 wrestling tickets, 10 of Copenhagen, 9 years probation, 8 table dancers, 7 packs of Redman, 6 cans of Spam, 5 little she-hards, 4 big maters, 3 shotgun shells, 2 hunting dogs, and some cars to a Mustang GT. Are you crying? No, just my allergies. Happy holidays, everybody.
SPEAKER 21 :
Let's keep Christmas fun and festive. This is Rush to Reason on KLZ 560.
SPEAKER 18 :
The holidays are the busiest season for plumbers. And High Five Plumbing, Electrical, Heating, and Cooling wants you to be ready now. There are several things you can do to prevent freezing, busted pipes, and other plumbing issues just as guests arrive. If you have plumbing inside cabinets, leave the doors open to warm them. especially if they are on an exterior wall. Hi-5 can better insulate pipes if this is a constant issue. And if you're going away for a vacation, don't forget to turn the water off to prevent those really bad emergency pipe breaks. When the cold dips lower than normal, leaving your faucets dripping will keep water flowing and prevent it from freezing. Plumbing inside your home is constantly degrading. So even if you haven't had an issue in previous years, Hi-5 can help you make sure it's still working. Have them out for a pre-holiday inspection and receive a waived inspection fee just for being a KLZ listener. Schedule your inspection today at klzradio.com slash plumbing.
SPEAKER 20 :
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SPEAKER 02 :
American Stonehenge by Mike Goldstein is more than just a children's book. It's a way to connect with the children in your life and encourage them to read to you and for themselves. When Mike Goldstein started writing American Stonehenge, he went after a specific problem. Children today don't think for themselves, and test scores nationwide show that. American Stonehenge is gorgeously put together, so it'll draw their attention. It's filled with action, the prose flows as smooth as sand through an hourglass, and it's historically accurate from the stories and the illustrations. But it's also a portal to quality time with children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews. It's a way to connect with them while tacitly teaching them the importance of critical thought and giving them a break from scrolling in their free time. Find American Stonehenge on klzradio.com slash read and bring your family together this holiday season.
SPEAKER 17 :
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SPEAKER 21 :
Remember the reason for the season. Merry Christmas from Rush to Reason on KLZ 560.
SPEAKER 14 :
It happened one day near December's Inn, two neighbors called on an old friend. And they found his shop so meager and lean, made gay with a thousand bows of green. And Conrad was sitting with faces shining When he suddenly stopped as he stitched a twine And he said, old friends at dawn today When the cock was crowing the night away The Lord appeared in a dream to me And said, I'm coming your guest to be So I've been busy with feet astir And strewing my shop with branches of fir The table is spread and the kettle is shined And over the rafters the holly is twined Now I'll wait for my Lord to appear and listen closely so I will hear his step as he nears my humble place. And I open the door and look on his face. So his friends went home and left Conrad alone for this was the happiest day he had known. For long since his family had passed away and Conrad had spent many a sad Christmas day. But he knew with the Lord as his Christmas guest, this Christmas would be the dearest and best. So he listened with only joy in his heart, and with every sound he would rise with a start and look for the Lord to be at his door, like the vision he had had a few hours before. So he ran to the window after hearing a sound, but all he could see on the snow-covered ground was a shabby beggar whose shoes were torn and all of his clothes were ragged and worn. But Conrad was touched and he went to the door and he said, you know, your feet must be frozen and sore. I have some shoes in my shop for you and a coat that'll keep you warmer too. So with grateful heart the man went away But Conrad noticed the time of day And wondered what made the Lord so late And how much longer he'd have to wait When he heard a knock he ran to the door But it was only a stranger once more A bent old lady with a shawl of black With a bundle of kindling piled on her back She asked for only a place to rest That was reserved for Conrad's great guest. But her voice seemed to plead, don't send me away. Let me rest for a while on Christmas Day. So old Conrad brewed her a steaming cup and told her to sit at the table and sup. But after she left, he was filled with dismay. For he saw that the hours were slipping away. And the Lord hadn't come as he said he would. and Conrad felt sure he had misunderstood. When out of the stillness he heard a cry, Please help me and tell me where am I? So again he opened his friendly door and stood disappointed as twice before. It was only a child who had wandered away and was lost from her family on Christmas Day. Again Conrad's heart was heavy and sad, but he knew he should make the little girl glad So he called her in and he wiped her tears and quieted all her childish fears. Then he led her back to her home once more. But as he entered his own darkened door, he knew the Lord was not coming today, for the hours of Christmas had passed away. So he went to his room and knelt down to pray, and he said, Dear Lord, Why did you delay? What kept you from coming to call on me? For I wanted so much your face to see. When soft in the silence a voice he heard, Lift up your head, for I kept my word. Three times my shadow crossed your floor, And three times I came to your lonely door. I was the beggar with bruised cold feet, and I was the woman who gave something to eat. I was the child on the homeless street. Three times I knocked, and three times I came in, and each time I found the warmth of a friend. Of all the gifts, love is the best, and I was honored to be your Christmas guest.
SPEAKER 10 :
No Christmas gift could I bestow That could ever quite impart the fondest wish The dearest dream that I feel within my heart. May God above send down his love and bless the world with cheer. May all the joy of Christmas time live on throughout May peace on earth, goodwill toward men, be the dream for which we live. All the good of brotherhood be the Christmas gift we give. May God protect us one and all and keep his goodness near. May all the joy of Christmas time live on throughout the year. Oh, little star of Bethlehem, may your bright and shining light forever guide all you Through the darkness of the night May God in heaven bless us all With peace we hold so dear May all the joy of Christmas time live on throughout the year. May heaven bless with happiness all people everywhere. And fill the world with love and joy That's my fervent Christmas prayer
SPEAKER 01 :
You work hard to keep a roof over the heads of you and your loved ones. The last thing you need is to be worrying about the condition of that roof. That's where we come in. At Roof Savers Colorado, we pride ourselves in helping homeowners like you get a new roof without all the worry. Deductibles are skyrocketing, and since it's illegal to waive those fees, the financial burden of upgrading your damaged roof can seem overwhelming. But here at Roof Savers, we offer both financing options and referral fees to offset some of those upfront costs. Already filed a claim with your insurance? We are happy to utilize those insurance proceeds to get your roof the replacement it needs and your home stronger protection from hail. With over 23 years of roofing experience, Dave and his team are ready to help. Call us today at 303-710-6916 or go to RoofSaverCO.com to set up your free inspection. That's 303-710-6916, or go to RoofSaverCEO.com and stop worrying about your roof today.
SPEAKER 19 :
Your parents still have a mortgage payment weighing on them every month, and our reverse mortgage expert, Bruce Simmons, might be able to help. In many cases, our parents keep paying their mortgage and waiting for the house to finally be paid off, when Bruce could potentially get them set up with a reverse mortgage. That would eliminate their principal and interest payment. That can even be true if your parents live in other states where Bruce's company works, including Florida, Texas, Arizona, and more. A lot of the parents that Bruce works with like to fully involve their families for checks and balances. Bruce will gladly do that, too. And Bruce can also set up a line of credit for your parents for emergencies and unexpected expenses. This is a great way to preserve your parents' independence and keep them in their own home. while reducing the monthly financial burden on their budget and keeping everyone informed. Give your parents their freedom by contacting Bruce Simmons at klzradio.com.
SPEAKER 20 :
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SPEAKER 21 :
A little more sparkle, a little less stress. This year at Christmas, we wish you the best. Happy Holidays from Rush to Reason on KLZ 560.
SPEAKER 09 :
Once again Choirs will be singing Silent night Christmas carols Back in the light Please come home for Christmas Please come home for Christmas If not for Christmas And salutation Sure as the stars shine above This is Christmas Yes, Christmas, my dear It's the time of year to be So won't you tell me You'll never more roam Christmas and New Year We'll find you warm There'll be no more sorrow No grief and pain And I'll be happy Happy Once again
SPEAKER 03 :
I'll be happy Christmas once again I'm very very worried Mr. Santa Claus I've got a very big problem and it's all because When you get to my house We haven't got a chimney. Well, my behavior, Santa Claus, has been the best. I know you have my name and with it my address. But what good will it do me, don't you see? Because, Santa, we don't have a chimney. On Christmas morning Santa, I sure want to be surprised. But sir, without a chimney, how could you get inside? I think I have a plan of what I'm going to do. I'll leave the key beneath the front door mat for you. Cause when you get to our house, you will see We haven't got a chimney On Christmas, Warner, Santa, I want to be surprised But sir, without a chimney, how could you get inside? I think I have a plan of what I'm gonna do I'll leave the key beneath the front door mat for you And if there are no presents underneath the tree, we're going to have to get a chimney.
SPEAKER 15 :
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SPEAKER 21 :
Remember the reason for the season. Merry Christmas from Rush to Reason on KLZ 560.
SPEAKER 12 :
Merry Christmas from the Harveys and from Amway. And from all of the 75,000 and more independent Amway distributors throughout the United States and Canada. We're all one family all the time, but especially somehow today. My, what a news story I'd have been broadcasting less than 2,000 years ago. Now how I would like to be here to broadcast two more. The second coming. And a cure for cancer. I guess the real miracle of Christmas is that any religious significance remains, what with the tendency to commercialization. Despite the gaudy tinsel wrapping, the meaning of the Christ mass remains somehow intact. Though our eager eyes now search the skies for man-made stars, we yet remember best the one which once upon a time stood still over a stable. This is the miracle of Christmas. Not that so many profane the day with self-indulgence, but that so many still trudge through snow to an early service or a midnight mass. I saw a drunken street-corner Santa with booze on his breath and his beard in his hand hauled off to jail this Christmas tide But I saw the whole selfless Salvation Army standing by its cattle in the cold, giving meaning to his birth and purpose to his life. I saw a woman with shoes twice resold leave a dollar there. No, Virginia, the unbelievers are the greatest proof of what they profess to disbelieve. For two centuries they have sought to destroy Christmas. They coined ribald greeting cards to divert the devout. They sought with finite science to deny the infinite. They negotiated with union contracts for Christmas gifts. They crowned the day with imitation gold and hung it on an artificial tree, and said, See, but when they'd done their worst, Christmas was still there, haunting them, shaming them, calling out to them, Believe. If, after generations of effort to disparage the day, what do you suppose would happen if we instead renewed it? There are no more lengths to which we can go to dilute its significance. Perhaps we should revert to reverence. For if this magical day, despite the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, has somehow survived and thrived, with proper care intending, the love it represents might heal all our hurts. The faith we could not starve to death, properly fed just once each year, might overwhelm the world. Anyway, we've tried everything else. The revitalization of Christmas will be as tedious as its erosion was gradual, but there is no better time than now, for it's later than it's ever been. Where to begin? With prayerful thankfulness, I think. Merry Christmas, we traditionally say, yet that is not the larger meaning of the day. You know, it's his birthday, not yours. Christmas means something very special to every man and woman and child, yet no two families will celebrate it in exactly the same way. Many will attend special services, and others will gather with friends and family... But all of us who observe Christmas are finding an extra measure of peace and reassurance now, a momentary respite from the cares and worries of routine workaday lives. And yet Christmas brings with it many thoughts which are not quite adequately expressed in the timeless greeting. May the peace and joy of Christmas be with you throughout the year. Unable to trace its proper parentage, designated this as my Christmas story of the man and the birds. You know, the Christmas story, the God born a man in a manger and all that escapes some moderns, mostly, I think, because they seek complex answers to their questions. And this one's so utterly simple. So for the cynics and the skeptics and the unconvinced, I submit a modern parable. Now, the man to whom I'm going to introduce you was not a Scrooge. He was a kind, decent, mostly good man, generous to his family, upright in his dealings with other men, but he just didn't believe all that incarnation stuff which the churches proclaim at Christmastime. It just didn't make sense, and he was too honest to pretend otherwise. He just couldn't swallow the Jesus story. about God coming to earth as a man. I'm truly sorry to distress you, he told his wife, but I'm not going with you to church this Christmas Eve. He said he'd feel like a hypocrite, that he'd much rather just stay at home, but that he would wait up for them. And so he stayed, and they went to the midnight service. Shortly after the family drove away in the car, snow began to fall. He went to the window to watch the flurries getting heavier and heavier and then went back to his fireside chair and began to read his newspaper. Minutes later, he was startled by a thudding sound. Then another. And then another, sort of a thump or a thud. At first he thought someone must be throwing snowballs against his living room window, but when he went to the front door to investigate... He found a flock of birds huddled miserably in the snow. They'd been caught in the storm and in a desperate search for shelter had tried to fly through his large landscape window. Well, he couldn't let the poor creatures lie there and freeze, so he remembered the barn where his children stabled their pony. That would provide a warm shelter if he could direct the birds to it. Quickly, he put on a coat, galoshes, tramped through the deepening snow to the barn. He opened the doors wide and turned on a light, but the birds did not come in. He figured food would entice them in. So he hurried back to the house, fetched breadcrumbs, sprinkled them on the snow, making a trail to the yellow-lighted, wide-open doorway of the stable. But to his dismay, the birds ignored the breadcrumbs and continued to flop around helplessly in the snow. He tried catching them. He tried shooing them into the barn by walking around them, waving his arms. Instead, they scattered in every direction except into the warm-lighted barn. And then he realized that they were afraid of him. To them, he reasoned, I am a strange and terrifying creature. If only I could think of some way to let them know that they can trust me, that I'm not trying to hurt them but to help them. But how? Because any move he made tended to frighten them, confuse them. They just would not follow. They would not be led or shooed because they feared him. If only I could be a bird, he thought to himself, and mingle with them and speak their language. Then I could tell them not to be afraid. Then I could show them the way to the safe, warm... to the safe, warm barn, but I would have to be one of them so they could see and hear and understand. At that moment, the church bells began to ring. The sound reached his ears above the sounds of the wind, and he stood there listening to the bells, the deste fidelis. listening to the bells pealing the glad tidings of Christmas, and he sank to his knees in the snow.
SPEAKER 1 :
BELLS CHIMING BELLS CHIMING
SPEAKER 05 :
i heard the bells on christmas day their old familiar carols play and wild and sweet The words repeat of peace on earth, goodwill to men. I thought as now this day had come, the belfries of all Christendom. had rung so long the unbroken song of peace on earth, goodwill to men.
SPEAKER 04 :
Peace on earth, goodwill to men.
SPEAKER 05 :
And in despair I bowed my head. There is no peace on earth, I said For hate is strong and mocks the song Of peace on earth, good will to men Then pealed the bells more loud and deep god is not dead nor does he sleep the wrong shall fail the right prevail with peace on earth
SPEAKER 21 :
remember the reason for the season Merry Christmas from Rush to Reason on KLZ 560
Join us in this heartwarming episode as we explore the many dimensions of the festive season. From joyful holiday tunes and nostalgic Christmas stories to the humorous side of holiday indulgences, there's something in store for everyone. We also share the timeless Christmas story, inviting listeners to reflect on its enduring message of love and joy.
SPEAKER 15 :
It's the most wonderful time of the year With the kids jingle belling and everyone telling you be of good cheer It's the most wonderful time of the year It's the hap-happiest season of all With those holiday greetings and gay happy meetings When friends come to call It's the hap-happiest season of all There'll be parties for hosting, marshmallows for toasting and caroling out in the snow There'll be scary ghost stories and tales of the glories of Christmases long, long ago It's the most wonderful time of the year There'll be much mistletoeing and hearts will be glowing when loved ones are near. It's the most wonderful time of the year. There'll be scary ghost stories and tales of the glories of Christmases long, long ago It's the most wonderful time of the year there'll be much mistletoeing and hearts will be glowing when loved ones are near it's the most wonderful time yes the most wonderful time oh the most wonderful time
SPEAKER 09 :
Put on your seat belts, everybody. Put on your food belts. Oh, no, it's not that time of year again. No, it can't be. It can't be. Tell me, pinch me. Tell me it's not here.
SPEAKER 14 :
It's the most fattening time of the year. With that pumpkin pie filling and everyone swilling down eggnog and beer. It's the most fattening time of the year. It's the lip-smackingest season of all. While you're shopping, you're cheating, impulsively eating that junk at the mall. It's the heaviest season of all. There'll be turkeys for basting and stuffing for tasting and giblets and gravy will flow. There'll be cookies that mom baked and a leftover fruitcake from a Christmas a long time ago. It's the scale-flattening time of the year. While your diet you're blowing, there's calories going straight down to your rear. It's a scale-flattening time of the year.
SPEAKER 09 :
Hey, wait a minute, wait a minute. I know there's food everywhere, eggnog flowing out of fountains. It's like one big bar mitzvah. But listen, you don't have to do that. You could have small portions and make ribbons instead of fudge. You can do it. Please try.
SPEAKER 14 :
After meal dosing And arteries closing Cholesterol levels will grow It's too cold to go jogging Too brisk for to bargaining So pass me a hot buttered roll Don't you dare touch that roll I'm watching It's the most fattening time of the year All those gingerbread shingles and chocolate Kris Kringles will tremble in fear. It's the most fattening time. It's a belt-loosening time. It's the most fattening time of the year.
SPEAKER 28 :
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SPEAKER 02 :
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SPEAKER 21 :
Remember the reason for the season. Merry Christmas from Rush to Reason on KLZ 560.
SPEAKER 19 :
It's comfy. This is the Christmas Story. At the start of the story, Mary is working on her computer.
SPEAKER 20 :
An angel just popped up out of nowhere.
SPEAKER 19 :
I'm seeing an angel! And then an angel says, you will be pregnant someday, and you have to name that baby Jesus. Like, he will be the Lord. and she went to Joseph the next morning. She said, I'm pregnant. Did you know that? That night, he had a dream of the same exact angel coming to him, and that angel said, You will be pregnant to Mary. Do you know who Mary is? Yes, I do. Then marry her. But that was a weird dream. The angel left, and Mary got married to Joseph. Whoa, Mary, you look so cool. Mary, you are the best Mary ever. Could you marry me? Mary. Yes.
SPEAKER 20 :
But they went back to his homeland, which was Bethlehem.
SPEAKER 19 :
Hopped on a donkey and went do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do. Can you get off my back? It really hurts. I really want to stop. And then... They looked at an inn. But all the hotel rooms were full. Hey, can I stay here? Um, sorry. We have a lot of people staying here, so we can't do that. Are you sure?
SPEAKER 20 :
Um, yes, I'm sure. The innkeeper kept saying it was full and he said that they could use their stable.
SPEAKER 19 :
Meanwhile, there were shepherds watching their flock. I'm glad they didn't run away. You know what I mean? And then angels came down. We are the angels and Jesus will be born. Follow the song to discover he is in Bethlehem. And then a bunch of angels start singing. I'm not the singing type. I just sang a whole concert last night. And they said, wow. Whoa, that's cold. Wake up, sheepy sheep. The Messiah is going to be born. I'm a sheep. We're going to tap our sheep, and they're going to walk fast. There were three wise men. And it's not just an ordinary baby. It's a baby Jesus. They saw a star. Can you please bring me to Jesus? Because I'm going to give Jesus a present. And then the star says the Messiah is being born at the barn. And then they reached the stable. They were so rejoiced and happy that the Savior had come. They gave gifts. I'll give him a crown. Diamonds, gold, and a crown, and a baby bottle, and diapers. This is the best. Well, it is. It does have a bit of a smell, Joseph. I smell donkey poop. How did the poop get there? Well, no one cleaned it out, so. Oh, he's so cute. Is he going to be able to save you? Yes, he is. I love you, God. You are my Lord. I love you so much. I'm so happy you were born. Thank you, God, for giving us a baby Jesus. I love you. I love you.
SPEAKER 15 :
Some children see him lily white The baby Jesus born this night Some children see him lily white With dresses soft and fair Some children see Him bronzed and brown The Lord of heaven to earth come down Some children see Him bronzed and brown With dark and heavy hands Some children see him almond-eyed, this Savior whom we kneel beside. Some children see him almond-eyed with skin of yellow hue. Some children see him dark as they And they love him too The children in each different place will see the baby Jesus face like theirs, but bright with heavenly grace and filled with holy light. I'll sign each earthly thing And with thy heart as offering Come worship now the infant King Tis love that's born tonight
SPEAKER 16 :
And ransom captive Israel That mourns in lonely exile here Until the Son of God appear Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to thee. O come, thou Dayspring, come and cheer our spirits by thy hand. Disperse the gloomy clouds of night And death's dark shadows pull to find Rejoice Rejoice, rejoice, Emmanuel shall come to thee.
SPEAKER 07 :
Thank you.
SPEAKER 21 :
Remember the reason for the season. Merry Christmas from Rush to Reason on KLZ 560.
SPEAKER 26 :
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SPEAKER 23 :
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SPEAKER 22 :
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SPEAKER 13 :
Reading is fundamental to understanding the world, and that's why author Mike Goldstein wrote American Stonehenge. This breathtakingly beautiful book was written in order to bring parents and grandparents together with their children to enjoy stories while they learn to read. The book follows a boy and his immortal telepathic dog, with whom he communicates as they travel through time to learn about the dog's experiences through history. The book is historically accurate, including the illustrations, so you and your little one will learn something about the history of God's beloved Earth. The time that you spend with your children laughing and enjoying this beautifully written book will be something you treasure for a lifetime. Learn more about American Stonehenge and the adventures of Jimmy and Andrew by going to klzradio.com slash read and flip through a free preview of the beautiful prose and illustrations. That's klzradio.com slash read to learn more.
SPEAKER 21 :
Wishing you holidays filled with fun and laughter. Thanks for listening to Rush to Reason on KLZ 560.
SPEAKER 29 :
Now for something rather rare and something rather enchanting. It's one of the oldest tapes I have. Christmas Eve, 1964. ABC fed a live broadcast from the North Pole with Paul Harvey, who you will see turned out to be quite an actor in this. Not too many people have a tape of it. Once I called ABC Radio to ask if they had a better quality copy so I could use it on the air. They said, you have a copy of it? I said, yes. They had just redone it and had to fake the script because they couldn't find the original of the show. So here we go. It's Christmas Eve afternoon, December 24th, 1965, as the ABC Radio Network goes...
SPEAKER 06 :
live to the north pole and paul harvey here at santa's polar headquarters it is at this moment just past 11 p.m greenwich meantime christmas eve it is dark it has been dark since september it is cold that is to me it's cold to 64 degrees below zero outside our broadcast shack this i understand is comparatively mild but it's snowing tonight it does not snow here often Though there's always adequate ice on the polar cap, I understand from the Kringles that they have less snow here than we customarily have back in Chicago. Moments from now, I'm going to step outside this enclosure. The windows are so steamy and iced up so that you and I will have a better look at the takeoff of Santa's sleigh, which is presently in the final loading process, in the interim, and in behalf of the Hastings Manufacturing Company, which is making this remote origination possible. Let me wish for you and for those you love everything that's good for you. And you filling station men back in the United States, take tomorrow off. Don't eat too much and have fun. But before you lock up for tonight, be sure your regular customers have a can of K-Side tuned up in the crankcase so they'll be sure of a quick start tomorrow.
SPEAKER 1 :
You'll be interested to know our K-Side is good for the little engines, too.
SPEAKER 06 :
The generator which is making possible this broadcast from the North Pole is one of a battery of generators which powers Santa's workshop. And I am assured that the lubrication of these engine parts at temperatures as low as 100 degrees The low zero is insured with K-site additives. How about that? In the faint light of this arctic night, I'm having some difficulty inside this radio shack, this glass window visibility again, so though my remarks may be less intelligible in the 45-knot wind that's swirling through the Santa Land tonight, I'm going to step outside presently for a better view. The workshops opposite resemble a beehive when I arrived late this afternoon your time, but one by one, the lights in those long buildings have been going out. Ladies and gentlemen, I just received word from the good St. Nicholas himself that his ETA over the USA will be 1.53 a.m. That's just a little more than four hours from now.
SPEAKER 1 :
That means tailwinds are anticipated. We'd better get out on the loading apron beside the runway.
SPEAKER 06 :
If you can give me a little more mic cord, Dave Cole. Dave is another of the crew to whom we're indebted for upsetting themselves from their stateside families this Christmas Eve to make this... Bye, George! Can you still hear me? Can you hear me? I can see you, fellas, through this early snow. I'm going to assume that we're on the air. Santa's sleigh is still alongside the loading dock. Helpers are fussing with the eight reindeer harness. Dunder and Blitzen and Dancer, as previously announced in the States, Rudolph is not going to lead the hitch this year. For the first time in ten Christmases, Rudolph, whose red nose was a prime navigational aid for several of those years, is laying with a slightly injured fetlock. We'll stay behind. The newer navigational gear is under the front seat of the Great Sleigh. Radio contact will be maintained with remote control weather stations on the floating ice islands. These automatic devices have been made available by the United States Air Force. Actually, the Sleigh will be in voice communication with Point Barrow shortly after gaining cruising altitude, but that's almost 1,000 miles away. I passed Point Barrow just as... Oh, here comes St. Nicholas! In the yellow-lighted doorway of the Crickle Residence, He's kissing Mrs. Kringle. He's kissing Mrs. Kringle, and she's smiling. She always worries until he's home safe, she says, but she's smiling. Look at the workshop, the elves.
SPEAKER 1 :
There must be a hundred's eye erroneously indicated moments ago that there was no activity around here when the lights were going out. But the elves are all around the loading platform, Santa's waving and moving toward his sleigh on the steel net runway. It's still snowing slightly. Certainly those of us away from our families must be excused for saying this is a most momentous experience.
SPEAKER 06 :
I'm being motioned closer to the microphone. I can't get any closer. You take this thing up so the cold metal will not stick to my lips. Is this better? I'll hold it out of my parka up here so that I'm cutting the wind a little bit.
SPEAKER 1 :
The mooring houses have been relaxed and tossed aboard now as Santa's sleigh draws up this way.
SPEAKER 06 :
We can see the load of oh my goodness, we've been assured it's a record smashing capacity this Christmas, but the sleigh has piled approximately 40, maybe 45 feet high with packages. There's a tarp drawn tight. The elves here. Santa's waiting. So long, Santa. Excellent snow landing conditions have been promised down through My goodness, she's waving. Santa's waving and saying something. Did you get it? I got it. I got it. Santa, who is now headed your way, had this to say. Merry Christmas to all and to all. Good night from the North Pole. We return you now to your regularly scheduled programs.
SPEAKER 24 :
Merry Christmas from the ABC Radio Network.
SPEAKER 10 :
Santa looked a lot like Daddy. Daddy looked a lot like him. It's not the way I had him pictured. Santa wasn't much too thin. He didn't come down the chimney. So Mama must have let him in. Santa looked a lot like Daddy. Daddy looked a lot like him Well, they thought I was fast asleep and They thought I was tucked in bed They never thought that I'd come a-peepin' Or that I'd hear what was said Santa put his arm around Mama Mama put her arm around him So if Santa Claus ain't daddy Then I'm gonna tell on them Well, Santa looked a lot like daddy Daddy looked a lot like him That's not the way I had him pictured Santa was so much too thin He didn't come down the chimney So Mama must have let him in Santa looked a lot like daddy I never saw a dancer or prancer I never heard the sleigh bells ring I never saw the red nosed reindeer Like the show on the TV screen But it sure brought a lot of presents So Santa Claus he must have been Well he sure looked a lot like daddy And daddy looked a lot like him Well Santa looked a lot like daddy And daddy looked a lot like him It's not the way I had him pictured. Santa wasn't much too thin. He didn't come down the chimney, so Mama must have let him in. Santa looked a lot like Daddy, and Daddy looked a lot like him. I saw Mommy twisting with Santa Claus. Twisting with Santa!
SPEAKER 11 :
Well, I saw Mommy in her nightgown. She was jumping all around, twisting with old Santa Claus. The record kept a-playing and Mommy kept a-saying, old Santa was a-built for the cause. His tummy kept a-shaking and Mommy kept a-making jokes about the look in his eye. I'll make a little bet I'll never forget Mommy twisting the sign of that night Well, it was Christmas night And all was quiet And I was in my bed asleep Then something woke me from the other room So I thought I'd better take a little peep I sneaked up to the old keyhole and took a little look inside. In the sight I saw how it shocked me so, I like to jump out of my hide. There was my mommy in her nightgown. She was jumping all around, twisting with old Santa Claus. The record kept a-playin' and Mommy kept a-sayin' Old Santa wasn't built for the cause His tummy kept a-shakin' and Mommy kept a-makin' Jokes about the look in his eye I'll make a little bet, I'll never forget Mommy twistin' with Santa that night Well, then I cracked the door, stuck my head inside to try to get a better view. And then I stomped my toe and I fell inside. But I got another look or two. There was my mommy in her nightgown. She was yomping all around, twisting with old sanny claws. The record kept on playing and Mommy kept on saying, Oh, Santa wasn't built for the cause. His tummy kept on shaking and Mommy kept on making jokes about the look in his eye. I'll make a little bet, I'll never forget, Mommy twisting with Santa that night. Mommy kept on twisting, Santa kept on twisting, Mommy kept on twisting, Santa kept on twisting.
SPEAKER 01 :
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SPEAKER 26 :
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SPEAKER 28 :
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SPEAKER 21 :
Thank you for welcoming us into your home. This is Rush to Reason on KLZ 560.
SPEAKER 27 :
Tonight the whole house smells like cakes and pies. And downstairs I hear the kids decorating the Christmas tree. Somewhere in the house a radio is playing, Old Little Town of Bethlehem. I've been sitting here staring through the falling snow at a gaslight in our front yard. I keep thinking about a Christmas Eve when I was a boy. It was snowing then, too, and my mother was downstairs baking the same stuff my wife's baking now. My grandmother was tucking me into bed and talking to me, and my dad was standing in the door waiting to turn off the light by my bed. He was ashamed of me being scared of the dark. Before he came upstairs, I'd been telling my grandmother how sad I was because I wasn't getting what I really wanted for Christmas, which was a puppy. My dad wouldn't let me have a dog. At that time, he was building up his business, and he never had time to play with me. When he did get home, he was tired and irritated. I was an only child, and I hadn't started school yet. I was lonely a lot of the time. When I stopped talking, my grandmother studied my face for about a half a minute and then she said, Sonny boy, you're worried about what you want for yourself. And I can understand that. But Christmas is about giving. Christmas time is when you think about making other people happy. She picked up my hand off the quilt and held it in both her hands. That's when our Heavenly Father gave us the greatest gift of all. He gave us his own son so that he could grow up and teach us about his father, our father, and about love, about giving, and being a help to one another. From the time he was a little boy, he was unselfish and good, and he cared about people, whoever they were, and whatever shape they were in. And he always tried to be a help. I wasn't seeing my grandmother sitting on the edge of the bed or my dad leaning on the door frame and looking down at the floor. I was seeing the little boy growing up and learning and playing around his neighborhood. Suddenly I had a thought. Grandma, did the little boy have a dog? She smiled down at me. I don't know if he did or not, sonny. She reached up and combed back my hair from my forehead with her fingers. But I know he went around doing good all the time he was here. You might say his whole life was a gift to all of us. He taught us to be unselfish like our father is. She stood up then and said, now you go right to sleep. In the morning, there'll be presents under the tree for everybody. When she went out, my dad leaned around her to turn the light off. As I drifted down into sleep, I was thinking how that was the first time I'd ever seen tears in my dad's eyes. I wondered what was wrong. A little later, I woke up for a few seconds when I heard my dad's car start up and drive down the driveway, crunching the snow. A strange sound woke me up the next morning. At first, I couldn't figure out what it was. I heard something kind of like a baby crying, only different. And then I heard a little bitty bark. By then I was going down the stairs full speed. I'll never forget the scenes I experienced that morning. That little brown and black puppy, who I'd already named Bo, running across the floor with a long wrapping ribbon in his mouth, growling and barking, pretending he was a big, mean, grown-up dog. And my dad and me playing with a set of cars and trucks and a little green tractor I still have somewhere. For the first time, my dad was having fun at Christmas. It seemed like his eyes were rounder and his face wasn't so tight anymore. Later, we built a snowman and Bo got all wet. Mom gave me a towel to wrap him up in. He went to sleep in my lap. I didn't know at the time what had really happened to my dad. I just knew it was a wonderful Christmas and I loved everybody and everything.
SPEAKER 16 :
Do you remember me? I sat upon your knee I wrote to you with childhood fantasy And still need help somehow I'm not a child But my heart still can dream So here's my lifelong wish My grown-up Christmas list Not for myself But for a world in need That wars would never stop. And time would heal our hearts. And everyone would have a friend. And right will always win. And love would never. As children we believed the grandest sights to see Were something lovely wrapped beneath a tree Heaven only knows that packages and bones can never heal a hurting human soul. No more lies torn apart. There was what never sought, and time would heal all. And right would always win. And love would never end. This is my grown up Christmas list. What is this illusion called? The essence of you. Maybe only you. No more lies torn apart There was, will never start And time would heal our hearts Oh, and death And everyone would have a friend And right will always win This is my grown-up Christmas list This is my only life I wish This is my grown-up Christmas list
SPEAKER 24 :
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SPEAKER 21 :
Don, we now are ugly sweaters. This is Rush to Reason on KLZ 560.
SPEAKER 16 :
Isn't there anyone who knows what Christmas is all about?
SPEAKER 05 :
And everything was going along very smoothly, and all of a sudden Sparky said, we're going to have to have Linus read for the Bible.
SPEAKER 04 :
It's arguable. The greatest 47 seconds in Christmas television history aired on CBS, December 9, 1965. Sparky, Peanuts creator Charles Schultz, he was a Christian man. CBS, however, wanted nothing to do with any reference to Christianity in A Charlie Brown Christmas. They wanted the scene featuring Linus quoting from the Bible to be cut. Can you imagine? But Schultz took a stand for Christ.
SPEAKER 18 :
You're Charlie Brown. I can tell you what Christmas is all about.
SPEAKER 05 :
And Bill and I looked at each other and he said, oh, gee, we don't know if you can animate from the Bible. You know, it's never been done before. And he said, well, if we don't do it, who will?
SPEAKER 25 :
Sparky was a little bit offended by people who said you should not put something as sacred as a Bible verse in such a crass thing as a comic strip. And that offended him. He didn't think a comic strip was crass, obviously. He was putting his whole heart and soul into it. But I also think that he probably felt that The Bible verses aren't just for church. No, they're not for the priesthood. They're for everyone.
SPEAKER 03 :
Linus' speech was from the book of Luke, chapter 2, verses 8 to 14 of the King James Version of the Bible.
SPEAKER 25 :
So Linus is the philosophical one, and it's true. He is the only one who could have said, who would have had the innate wisdom to, first of all, know the verse, but also to know that that was the true meaning.
SPEAKER 03 :
It evokes the best qualities of the religious experience of Christmas.
SPEAKER 18 :
Lights, please. And there were in the same country shepherds, abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them. And they were sore afraid, and the angel said unto them, Fear not, for behold, I bring you tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you, He shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace and goodwill toward men.
SPEAKER 16 :
Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown! Hark the herald angels sing, glory to the newborn King. Peace on earth and mercy mild, God and sinners reconciled. Joyful all ye nations rise, join the triumph of the skies. With angelic hosts proclaim, Christ is born in Bethlehem. Hark the herald angels sing, glory to the newborn King.
SPEAKER 04 :
Merry Christmas from all of us here at the Crawford Broadcasting Company.
SPEAKER 08 :
Angels from the realms of glory Wing your flight o'er all the earth Who sang creation's story Now proclaim Messiah's birth
SPEAKER 12 :
In excelsis Deo Gloria
SPEAKER 1 :
Thank you. Thank you.
SPEAKER 12 :
He shall fill his Father's throne Gather all the nations to him
SPEAKER 17 :
CHILDREN SINGING
SPEAKER 21 :
Remember the reason for the season. Merry Christmas from Rush to Reason on KLZ 560.
Join Andy Pate and his guests as they explore the intricacies of modern political strategies. This episode kicks off with lively discussions on Donald Trump's strategic changes, bringing in insights from media and identity politics. Andy talks with Todd Watkins and Jersey Joe to unravel how Trump's new team approach is sending ripples across political spheres and why media narratives are more polarized than ever. As the episode progresses, the focus shifts to the economics of immigration, taking a closer look at proposed policies and their potential impacts. This dialogue provides listeners with a well-rounded understanding of today's political landscape, peppered with humor and compelling stories that you won't hear anywhere else. This episode is a must-listen for anyone looking to unpack the complexities of America's political and economic environment.
SPEAKER 04 :
This is Rush to Reason.
SPEAKER 15 :
You are going to shut your damn yapper and listen for a change because I got you pegged, sweetheart. You want to take the easy way out because you're scared. And you're scared because if you try and fail, there's only you to blame. Let me break this down for you. Life is scary. Get used to it. There are no magical fixes. With your host, John Rush. My advice to you is to do what your parents did. Get a job first. You haven't made everybody equal. You've made them the same, and there's a big difference.
SPEAKER 10 :
Let me tell you why you're here. You're here because you know something. What you know you can't explain, but you feel it. You've felt it your entire life, that there's something wrong with the world. You don't know what it is, but it's there. It is this feeling that has brought you to me.
SPEAKER 15 :
Are you crazy? Am I? Or am I so sane that you just blew your mind?
SPEAKER 04 :
It's Rush to Reason with your host, John Rush. Presented by High Five Plumbing, Heating, and Cooling, where every call ends with a high five.
SPEAKER 01 :
Filling in is Andy Pate, party of choice.
SPEAKER 08 :
And welcome to hour number three here on Rushed Reason. I am Andy Pate filling in for John Rush, who is taking some very well-deserved time off. Along with me, we have Todd Watkins. Todd, how are you holding up? This is a long show.
SPEAKER 07 :
No, this is great, Andy. We keep going. All right, let's keep going.
SPEAKER 08 :
On the line right now, we got Jersey Joe. Joe, how you doing? Andy, I'm doing good. How's my Goomba doing? Doing all right. Doing all right, yeah. I do the worst accent in the world, and I'm proud of it.
SPEAKER 16 :
And Todd, how are you doing? How's my Pazan doing?
SPEAKER 07 :
I'm doing great, Joe. I'm not even going to try.
SPEAKER 08 :
Joe, before we get into it, I know you've got a whole load of stuff. I just want to get your feel, because we were talking about this at the end of our number two. On the big four, or you could say the big five, because here's what I mean. Donald Trump has a whole different strategy this time around. Last time he put in place people who were careerists who, you know, like Mike Pence, who were there because they made him look more rational as if he wasn't. I mean, you know what I mean? But they were people who were not totally loyal to him. And quite honestly, they were not very effective debaters. Now he's got J.D. Vance. He's got Elon Musk. He's got Vivek Ramaswamy. He's got Tom Holman. He's got people who he is dispersing everywhere. And they are just wrecking these interviews. Everywhere they go. And I mean that in a good way. They are just, you know, they go in with these left wing, you know, ABC, CNN and so forth, these moderators, and they are just cutting them to ribbons and he is dispersing them everywhere. And so what is the media saying? Well, you know, Elon is our it's like Elon is president. No, it's like this and that. Now, suddenly the dictator, they're acting like he's helpless behind the scenes. I I think the left is in a tizzy. What do you think, Joe?
SPEAKER 16 :
Couldn't agree more. And I've been a CEO of two different companies. And one of my goals was to always try and hire people who were at least as smart, if not smarter than I was, maybe didn't have my experience. But, you know, if they were out representing me and I could, you know, I was able to see or hear what they did. If I saw them saying something that was even brighter and smarter than something, I would have said my reaction was yes. you know, that's exactly why I hired these guys to do that.
SPEAKER 08 :
What do you think of this? What do you think of this new strategy? I mean, really, because let's face it, it's a totally new strategy before it was Trump. Now it's team Trump and team Trump. We, you know, as I was saying in the last hour, Trump's only real big weakness is debate. He's not good at it. Okay. So he's got a bunch of people who are, and this time around they are front and center.
SPEAKER 16 :
I think it's a, it's a magnificent winning strategy. And also, uh, As a guy who doesn't have to worry about reelection, I think Trump can even be bolder than he was last time because he doesn't have to worry about getting reelected. So I just think it's a super strategy, brilliant strategy actually, and it's probably the smartest thing he's done. in 12 years.
SPEAKER 08 :
Well, they look panicked. I mean, when you come out and tell all of America that the guy you've said is a dictator for the last year, you suddenly say somebody else is president. It's President Elon Musk. I mean, that just tells me that you've run out of answers.
SPEAKER 16 :
You know, there's an old saying that has been frequently attributed to Socrates. Nobody can verify it, but it says, when the debate is lost, slander becomes the tool of the loser. So what you're seeing now is people resorting to slander, uh, to try and defame Trump because they've got nothing else to say.
SPEAKER 08 :
Do you think they're afraid? I mean, do you think they have literal fear at this new strategy of Trump's?
SPEAKER 16 :
Absolutely. And if, if you spend as much time on some of these liberal websites as I do, uh, they're, they're in an absolute panic. I mean, panic, panic. It, uh, You know, if you people want to say just go to something like being liberal or move on dot org or whatever, and you're going to see fear and loathing and, you know, these insane proposals. And it's just they're they're absolutely petrified.
SPEAKER 08 :
Well, let me throw this one to Joe. Before we go any further, really quick, how can people reach you?
SPEAKER 16 :
Oh, if you want to see my website, just go to Jersey, Joe, Jersey. Excuse me. Jersey Joe dot com. And you spell Jersey.
SPEAKER 08 :
Do you have to cough and clear your throat when you go there?
SPEAKER 16 :
J.E.R. Z.E.E. J.E.R. as in Robert Z as in Zebra E. Jersey Joe dot com. And if you want to send me an email with a question or a show topic or you want to be put on my distribution list, just send me an email to Joe at Jersey Joe dot com. Just remember to spell Jersey J.E.R. Z.E.E. And that's how you can reach me.
SPEAKER 08 :
But you're a conservative white man. I mean, are you going to be mean? Are you going to try to oppress them?
SPEAKER 16 :
I will try and give them what they want, and if what they want is not what they need, I'll give them what they need.
SPEAKER 08 :
Okay. Let me turn to Todd really quick here. Todd, okay, this strategy, Trump is not even in the White House yet, and this strategy is working, and here's one example how. The House had a 1,500-page bill, which was a pile of garbage, okay? And Trump... Barely saying a word, simply echoing what his team Trump is doing, you know, led by Eli and Vivek at the time, but it could have been somebody else. His team is incredible. They cut over 1,300 pages out of that. It's 116 in the end, wasn't it?
SPEAKER 07 :
Yes, thereabouts.
SPEAKER 08 :
And here you had, who's the head of the, Joe, who's the head of the Democrats in Congress?
SPEAKER 07 :
Hakeem Jeffries. Hakeem Jeffries.
SPEAKER 08 :
Hakeem Jeffries comes out and touts it as a victory for the Democrats. They just lost about 1,350-ish pages off the bill that they wanted, and he's acting like it's a success. Todd, let me just ask you this.
SPEAKER 16 :
Including the funding for their new football stadium for the Washington Command.
SPEAKER 07 :
The RFK Stadium there in D.C., right?
SPEAKER 08 :
Oh, they lost so much stuff. They lost so much power they had in this thing. Todd, what does it say that Team Trump is already cutting over 1,300 pages off a bad bill and he's not even in office yet? What does this portend for the future?
SPEAKER 07 :
In literature, it's called foreshadowing. Yes! And I do like this omen. I think so, too. What do you think, Joe?
SPEAKER 16 :
No, I think Todd's got it exactly right. They are petrified. They're trying to spin everything like this was a huge win for the Democrats, that he didn't get his debt ceiling, you know, debt ceiling provision. No, that was my it was. Hey, he tried to get it, but. the big win was cutting over 1300 pages out of a 1600 page bill.
SPEAKER 08 :
But Joe, do you think that Mike Johnson's really the problem or that it, no, don't get me wrong. He shouldn't have agreed to anything like that, but he has virtually no majority that he's dealing with. And he was just trying to clear the slate to let Trump in. And the moment team Trump came in and said, Oh hell no. Johnson worked with them immediately and put out something better. Is he really a problem?
SPEAKER 16 :
I don't think so, and I think he was trying to appease everybody, and I think everybody has learned a lesson that appeasement is not going to work, so stop asking for it or stop fighting for it because you're not going to get your appeasement.
SPEAKER 08 :
Maybe it's just hard for somebody, and I can kind of relate to this, okay? It's just kind of hard for somebody who only has a couple-seat advantage to get into kick-ass mode.
SPEAKER 16 :
It is. I mean, you get three people turn against you and you're dead in the water. So he does still have to be the diplomat and still has to do a little give and take here and there. But there has to be limits on that. And I think, you know, Trump's got the big hammer and hopefully he'll he'll wield it to help Johnson along because we can't go through another. throw Johnson out and not have a Speaker of the House for three months. We can't go through that again.
SPEAKER 08 :
No, I don't like that idea either. I know they've got a vote coming up, and I'm sure there will be others running, but let me ask you this one last thing, and then we'll go to break. We'll come back with all your stuff here, Joe. Do you see anybody else in the House who could just magically have everybody suddenly voting on the same page, whether they're in purple districts, red districts, or whatever?
SPEAKER 16 :
Unless Jesus is going to come back from the dead, I don't see that happening.
SPEAKER 08 :
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SPEAKER 06 :
Let's keep Christmas fun and festive. This is Rush to Reason on KLZ 560.
SPEAKER 08 :
And welcome back to Rush Trees and Denver's Afternoon Rush. KLC 560, Andy Pate filling in for John Rush. On the line right now, we've got Jersey Joe. Joe, are you ready for Christmas?
SPEAKER 16 :
Oh, in fact, I'm so ready. I went to my first Christmas party the other night, and, you know, basically cocktails. But it was strange because there was not a single vegan at the party. You know how I knew that? How? I was there for five minutes, and nobody told me they were vegan.
SPEAKER 08 :
I know, because they've got to tell you immediately. By the way, I just want to thank you. Unlike the other shows you come on, thank you for sobering up before you come on the show. That's really good. It's going to be a much better show, I can tell. Okay.
SPEAKER 16 :
And, Todd, by the way, you may not know, the title of my podcast, it's a weekly podcast, 30 Minutes, and I call it The Situation, News in Perspective You Won't Hear on TV. And tonight I've got a ton of stuff. either stories you didn't hear on TV that you should have heard, or it's, as Paul Harvey used to say, the rest of the story. And I got a ton of stuff. But before I get into that, Andy, as a theology major, I got one question for you. You know, Noah spent all that time and effort building the ark. Why didn't he just pay more taxes to end climate change?
SPEAKER 08 :
Oh, he did that. It's in the Hebrew. In the Hebrew. Yes, it's deep, deep, deep, deep in the Hebrew. Noah actually advanced the agenda.
SPEAKER 16 :
paying more taxes to prevent climate change?
SPEAKER 08 :
Yes, he did. And that didn't go through. And then, you know, when all else failed, he built the ark, Joe.
SPEAKER 07 :
Built the ark, all right. I thought it was the Septuagint that had that part, but okay.
SPEAKER 08 :
Well, it was one of them. Come on, you know, I don't want to get too technical with people. All right. It's in there.
SPEAKER 16 :
Well, I want to start off with the media and identity politics. And it's not just the media. It's people like Elizabeth Warren and Robert Reich and Biden, you know, this identity that... The rich are evil. Here's a quote by Thomas Sowell, the economist. And he said, there has now been created a world in which the success of others is now a grievance instead of an example to be emulated. How sad is that?
SPEAKER 08 :
It's very sad. You know, Joe, really quick here. Every time somebody says the rich have to pay their fair share, I immediately shoot back. No problem. Let's have a flat tax. OK, if you believe they are, if you really believe, because you can always isolate a year when Elon didn't pay or Trump didn't pay or whoever didn't pay. Everybody has years when they don't draw an income and then they have the next year Elon pays 12 billion or whatever. Look, you can always do that. But if you really believe that rich aren't paying their fair share, then you should want a flat tax. No write offs.
SPEAKER 16 :
Yes.
SPEAKER 08 :
And every single time that every leftist runs from that every single time.
SPEAKER 16 :
And let me give you another twist on that. When I hear they need to pay their fair share, here's a statistic. And this is under the Trump tax plan. And you can find this data on the IRS website, irs.gov, taxpayer statistics. Today, under the Trump tax plan, the top 1% of taxpayers alone are paying more in income taxes than the bottom 90% combined. And so the question I ask, if that is not already true, their fair share, and remember, a share is a percentage of the whole. If that is not already their fair share of all income taxes being paid, then what percentage would be?
SPEAKER 08 :
Andy, I've asked that question easily 100 times, not once has anybody... Okay, but really quick here, let's say I'm a leftist, okay, devil's advocate here. If I'm a leftist, I shoot back, and I shoot back, well, yeah, but what if they're making 90% of the income? And they are. The top 1%. They're making 26.3%.
SPEAKER 16 :
There you go.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, I know that. I just wanted to make sure that people understand because there might be a leftist out there listening in and just saying, oh, yeah, well, that's because they're making all the money.
SPEAKER 16 :
No, they aren't. And they don't have all the wealth either. So the ignorance, by the way, you know, is astounding. And it's hilarious when these people voluntarily publish their own ignorance. But there is so much ignorance on the left. It's astounding. It'll bother your mind how much ignorance there is. And I think they get it from these websites they follow. These websites never tell them the entire thing. By the way, you tell people that currently under the Trump tax plan, even though it was a tax rate cut, it is continuing to generate new all-time record high tax revenues. And the percentage of those revenues being paid by the top 1% is also at a new all-time record high. You tell people that, they accuse you of lying, they call you being a troll, they call you making stuff up. No. Tax revenues are now 35% higher than they were in 2017, which was the last year of the Obama tax plan. When, by the way, tax revenues were growing at a pathetic rate of less than 3.2% per year. So people think that tax rate cuts mean tax revenue cuts. And has been proven time and time again. But when Reagan cut tax rates by almost 60%, tax revenues exploded because what happened is that there were 16 million formerly unemployed people who had been net tax receivers wound up becoming employed net taxpayers, even though he made a dramatic cut in rates. tax revenues skyrocketed, even though he cut the rates by more than 40%.
SPEAKER 08 :
Joe, what do you think is going to happen as a result of deporting a lot of illegal aliens? And I'm talking economically. I'm not talking about the fact that, well, gee, a lot of them are criminals and doing bad things. I'm just talking economically speaking. Because you have Americans right now, when you look at job growth over the Biden years, it's all gone pretty much to foreign-born people.
SPEAKER 16 :
And I think the solution, Andy, is, and I know this has been discussed, is a work visa program. You want to come in for six months of the year to pick vegetables, whatever, we'll give you a six-month work visa. Sure. And, you know, so it's a very simple fix. But, you know, you start, and first of all, you can't deport 13 million illegal immigrants in a year or even two years. But you need to start with the bad guys. And we're going to talk about the guy who set the woman on fire on the subway. Right. And how the press covered that. But you start with them. You start with the people in Aurora that are currently, you know, pulling out people's fingernails. You start with those and then you work your way down the list.
SPEAKER 08 :
And by the way, Joe, you're also going to get a very large amount of applause from the public early on by going after the low-hanging fruit, like you're saying, by going after these people who are violent offenders. I mean, Americans are going to be like, yes, get rid of them.
SPEAKER 16 :
Yeah, like Trending Rug, I think we talked about this a month ago, they already put out a notice to their members that it's okay to kill cops. So, you know, we need to start with them. And we'll talk a little bit more about how the press has been covering this. Okay. You want to go right into this? Yeah. Let's start with New York City. And here's the press bias. Now, at 2.30 yesterday afternoon, 2.30 Eastern yesterday afternoon, New York Post, which is one of the few conservative papers, published, you know, who this guy was and that they identified him as a An immigrant from Guatemala in the New York Post. Clearly, 2.30 p.m. 6 o'clock news. ABC, NBC, CBS.
SPEAKER 08 :
Joe, Joe, Joe, Joe, Joe, Joe. Take a step back and explain who this guy is and what he did for those who don't know.
SPEAKER 16 :
He was on a New York City subway train. There was a woman sleeping on the train. He walked over to her with a lighter, set her clothes on fire, and then stood there and watched her burn to death. An immigrant from Guatemala just for no reason walked up to a sleeping woman and set fire to her clothes and she burned to death. And he... He didn't run. He stood around to watch her burn.
SPEAKER 08 :
And were they the only ones in there?
SPEAKER 16 :
No, there were other people, and some of them took videos.
SPEAKER 08 :
They took videos rather than trying to put her out?
SPEAKER 16 :
Yep, yep.
SPEAKER 07 :
Where's Daniel Penny when you need him?
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, where's Daniel Penny when you need him?
SPEAKER 16 :
Where's Daniel Penny when you need him? But on the 6 o'clock news, the network news shows, instead of identifying as an immigrant from Guatemala, they said the police have arrested a, quote, Person of interest. I didn't know Guatemala was spelled person of interest. That's how they identified him on the signal.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, that's in the Hebrew, too. OK, but go ahead.
SPEAKER 16 :
That's one of the again. You didn't you didn't hear that. Nobody told you that. But that's how the network they I think it was more than an oversight that none of them chose to use the word immigrant words immigrant from Guatemala.
SPEAKER 07 :
Now, was he illegal?
SPEAKER 16 :
Yes. That's been undetermined.
SPEAKER 07 :
I believe I saw that he's actually a prior deport.
SPEAKER 08 :
Todd says he believes he saw that he was actually a prior deport.
SPEAKER 16 :
Could very well be.
SPEAKER 08 :
Okay, go ahead.
SPEAKER 16 :
Been here since the first time he was in the country was 2018. So, again, he may have been deported. But, again, I don't know. You have to ask yourself, why did the press clearly, when the 6 o'clock news came on, this information about his background had been widely available for at least four hours. Why didn't they intend to? Why didn't they choose to use it?
SPEAKER 08 :
Well, obviously, because they're trying to hide the prevalence of crime committed by dangerous crime committed by immigrants and especially illegal immigrants. And my question to you, Joe, is, is this really still working, trying to hide that stuff?
SPEAKER 16 :
No, I think because the outrage, you know, is so great on the right. And there are papers out there, you know, like the like the New York Post. And you've got a conservative paper in Denver right now. And by the way, there is a plethora of conservative talk shows. I can't find a liberal talk show on the AM stations anymore.
SPEAKER 08 :
No, they don't sell. They can't get ads.
SPEAKER 16 :
Right. So I think shows like, you know, Rush to Region and others, you know, are getting the word out. So I think they're maybe getting ready to give up. But Let me tell you about some more perception in the other direction. Sure. So the school shooting we had up in Madison, Wisconsin, a week ago Monday. Right. That night, the first thing I see after they report on the shooting, this marks the 323rd school shootings in this country so far this year. And I almost spit out my drink. 323 school shootings. And I go, are you effing me? Because I track these things. And then I hear another one, they call it, it was 112th one. And I'm going, what happens, let me explain. There's this anti-gun group called the Gun Violence Archive. And they created a database of what they refer to as a school shooting. Now what they call a school shooting, in a rural district, if a stray hunter's bullet hits a parked car in the parking lot during deer season, They call that bullet strike of a parked car, they refer to that as a school shooting. If some kid shoots out a window of a school during Thanksgiving recess and that BB breaks a window, they refer to that as a school shooting.
SPEAKER 08 :
Well, Joe, just so you know, the original figure of over 330, Elon made a call, threatened them, and immediately they dropped it to 112.
SPEAKER 1 :
112.
SPEAKER 16 :
Yeah, if a drug deal goes bad in a school parking lot at 10 o'clock on a Saturday night, that's a school shooting. Anyway. The only one, you know what the real number was? Because Lester Holtz and NBC got right. You know what the actual number was? What? This is where somebody walked into a school with a gun and intentionally shot it, trying to injure a student and or teacher. The number was four. Four. Not 323, not 112, four. Okay, so why do you put out the big number? Well, here's what happens. This anti-gun group that tracks these and keeps these ridiculous, they have this mailing list, an email blast. They have every editor of every network news station, every Dallas, Denver, New York, St. Louis. And when they have a school shooting, they send out an email blast. Now, my question is, so these reporters and editors get these, quote, press releases from these anti-gun groups. Now, are they just too lazy that they don't bother to fact-check And they just believe it? Are they that stupid that they believe it? Or do they know it's a lie, and do they choose to report it anyway, knowing that's a lie?
SPEAKER 08 :
That one.
SPEAKER 16 :
Which is it?
SPEAKER 08 :
That one. They know it's a lie, and they choose to report it because it benefits their agenda. Go ahead, Tom.
SPEAKER 07 :
It's the Joseph Goebbels propaganda. If you say a lie enough times, if you repeat it enough, it becomes true.
SPEAKER 08 :
Right. So they're in on repeating it enough.
SPEAKER 16 :
Right. And here's another one, by the way, and this was— So let's move on to unarmed black men killed by police. And this was a study done, I forget which group did this, but this is a very credible study. So they asked a bunch of people.
SPEAKER 08 :
Well, I hear it happens every 20 seconds.
SPEAKER 16 :
Right. So they asked people, what is your best guess of approximately how many unarmed black men were killed by police in 2022? Well, the results varied widely. They had very conservative, conservative, moderate, liberal, very liberal people. 75% of the liberal people thought it was either about 100 or about 1,000. Todd, do you want to guess how many unarmed black men were killed by police that year?
SPEAKER 07 :
What's the year? 2022. FY20. It's in the dozens. It's a very small number.
SPEAKER 1 :
11.
SPEAKER 07 :
It's nowhere near.
SPEAKER 1 :
11.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah.
SPEAKER 1 :
11.
SPEAKER 07 :
Then you have to define what constitutes an armed person because that varies too.
SPEAKER 08 :
Well, and also you've got to go into the reason. What, were they just being hunted because they were unarmed and black or did they actually do something?
SPEAKER 16 :
In one case, it was a 200-pound black man on top of a female cop choking her. She was on her back on the ground, and he was choking her, so she pulled out her gun and shot him.
SPEAKER 08 :
And so that's treated as an unarmed black person shot by a cop. Okay, go ahead.
SPEAKER 16 :
In two other cases, the person, the suspect, tried to run the police officer over with his car. So a 3,000-pound car apparently makes him unarmed.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, I don't understand that. Wouldn't the car be armed?
SPEAKER 16 :
Generally, yes.
SPEAKER 08 :
I mean, I think the people right now in Germany would say a car means you're armed after what just happened.
SPEAKER 07 :
And be probably charged with assault with a deadly weapon, too.
SPEAKER 08 :
Vehicular homicide.
SPEAKER 16 :
Go ahead. But here's what gets me. Where do 75% of liberals get the idea that the number of black people, unarmed black people killed by police officers in any given year is between 100 and 1,000. Where are they getting this belief from?
SPEAKER 07 :
All their media. Yeah, mainstream media.
SPEAKER 16 :
Right. MSNBC, The View. Right. By the way, conversely, almost 50% of conservatives knew it was around 10. And only 28% thought it was close to 100.
SPEAKER 08 :
Well, Joe, and before we go to break here... We have to keep in mind they are creating danger for cops because what are they doing? By putting this lie out, and as Todd says, saying it over and over and over until it becomes a truth, what they're doing is teaching young black people all across the country with these lying numbers, white cops are hunting you.
SPEAKER 16 :
You might as well fight back because if you don't fight back, you're going to be dead anyway.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, if you don't fight back, you're going to be dead anyway. And so what they're basically saying is you're being hunted. Well, if you are being hunted, if you are being hunted as a group, then aren't you justified in fighting back in advance? Aren't you justified in protecting yourself? Aren't you justified in having a higher level of aggression toward authority? And they do have a higher level of aggression toward authority. Look, we all know the black population, on average... has much, much, much higher level of aggression toward the cops than others. Well, wouldn't part of the reason for that obvious? I mean, there's really two reasons for that. Number one, you're committing more crimes on average, and therefore you have more reason to be aggressive toward authority, toward anyone who would stop you. And number two, you're being told these people are hunting you.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah. It has a chilling effect on law enforcement for the cop on the street, too. That's really important to point out. Go ahead. Is that when this narrative, it... It has this impact on, again, the cop on the street. I mean, what kind of protection, legal protection, do these cops have? And it's precious little, especially in a state like Colorado that took away qualified immunity. So if you're the white cop that shot the black guy, that could be a career ender. So it causes hesitation.
SPEAKER 08 :
So you're going to enforce the law less, don't you?
SPEAKER 07 :
Differently. Very differently. You're not going to pull over the car with black people in it because it's profiling. And if something happens, if you have to get physical, if there is an escalation or use of force, you're going to be under the microscope and you're going to be roasted in the media for it.
SPEAKER 08 :
Okay, Joe, go.
SPEAKER 16 :
Well, not just protection. It's financial ruin because qualified immunity protected them from civil lawsuits for any legal action they took in the performance of their job. So now they can be sued by anybody they arrest. I mean, if somebody says, well, he mishandled me, he was too rough with me, or he killed my son, or the mother says, he killed my son, let's say a cop is found not guilty by a jury in the death of a suspect, but then the parents sue for the death of their son, the standard of what's the word I'm looking for in a civil trial is far lower than in a criminal trial. All they have to do is get You don't need a unanimous verdict. You just need to get a majority of six jurors to say, yeah, he used too much force.
SPEAKER 08 :
And, Joe, it's a majority of six jurors in a liberal district, in a liberal inner city urban district. My gosh, if I were a cop working in Baltimore or downtown Denver or Philly, I'd quit. I would run for the hills.
SPEAKER 16 :
They would bankrupt you. I mean, they would take your house. I mean, if you lose that verdict, they're going to take your house. They're going to garnish your wages for the rest of your life. I would not serve as a cop in a state or town where I didn't have qualified immunity from civil lawsuits. Now, again, qualified immunity does not protect you from criminal acts. I mean, if you committed a criminal act your qualified immunity disappears.
SPEAKER 08 :
Rightfully so. Yeah, rightfully so. You can't go out and start hunting black people. Because guess what? If you do that, you're a savage and a monster, and I want your butt in jail. Actually, and if you kill them, I want your butt worse than in jail. Yeah, absolutely. Qualified immunity doesn't mean that, hey, man,
SPEAKER 07 :
Let's start lynching. And quite honestly, the statute that was passed that removed qualified immunity here in Colorado, that was vilified. That term was so brazenly and incorrectly vilified as giving the cops a blank check to go out and beat and maim and shoot anybody that they wanted. Yes, totally misrepresented.
SPEAKER 08 :
Okay, Joe, when we come back, go ahead. Sorry.
SPEAKER 16 :
And I just want to say, the press spun that As it was qualified immunity from criminal prosecution, it had nothing to do with immunity from criminal prosecution. Nothing.
SPEAKER 08 :
I totally agree. Okay, Joe, we'll be right back with Jersey Joe on Rush to Reason here in just a moment. Up next is Geno's Auto. After that big blizzard, you might need an alignment. And Geno's has a $64.95 alignment special for Rush to Reason listeners. Call Geno's. That's Geno's with a J at 303-794-6700.
SPEAKER 11 :
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SPEAKER 12 :
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SPEAKER 03 :
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SPEAKER 06 :
A little more sparkle, a little less stress. This year at Christmas, we wish you the best. Happy holidays from Rush to Reason on KLZ 560.
SPEAKER 08 :
Boy, I really do sparkle, don't I? When you look at me, I mean, it's just kind of, it's sort of an aura.
SPEAKER 07 :
It's a glow.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, it's a glow. Welcome back to Rush to Reason, Denver's Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560 online. Right now we've got Jersey JoJo. One thing really quick. I think it's not just terrible for cops, how we put them in that position in the inner cities. I think it's terrible for people who live in the inner cities. Right now, if you look at downtown Chicago, you see a lot of people wearing MAGA hats. And here's why. The worst thing in the world for the people in downtown Chicago or Baltimore or Denver or anywhere are having cops who are hesitant in defending them.
SPEAKER 16 :
Yeah, and it's particularly sad in neighborhoods like Chicago because And this comes right from, you know, every once a year the FBI puts out their annual nationwide crimes from all the police departments fill out this standard report that goes to the FBI. Do you know what percentage of homicide victims in this country are African-Americans? Do you want to take a guess, Todd?
SPEAKER 07 :
It's per capita, it's much greater than the white population. But I would also add that the vast majority of those homicides are committed by other black people.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, but they're only about 13% of the country, 12%, 13%. And I'll bet over half the victims are black.
SPEAKER 16 :
56% of the homicides, and you're absolutely correct. African Americans represent 12.5% of the population of this country. 56% of the homicide victims in this country were African Americans. And over 90%, and remember, not every homicide is solved. They can't identify who the assailant was. But in those cases... where the assailant was identified, more than 95% of those identified assailants were other African Americans. So the biggest threat to the life of a young black man in this country today is another black man, not a police officer.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, and these are precious young people with spectacular potential for their entire lives, and they have moms weeping over their graves. I just think it's an absolute tragedy.
SPEAKER 07 :
Go ahead. And so many of these liberal policies, not to beat a dead horse, to continue with the qualified immunity issues, is there are no-go zones. Cops won't go into a lot of these areas in Baltimore, in Chicago. And you can't blame them. No, because it's, again, so Joe knows, I did 24 years as a Border Patrol agent. My dad was a cop. My son's a cop. Cops aren't afraid of getting shot or stabbed. They're afraid of that life-altering legal issue that you could get into where it ruins your way of life, your mechanism of income.
SPEAKER 08 :
Well, because you're not just thinking of yourself. You're thinking of your family.
SPEAKER 16 :
You're ruined for life. Right, Joe? Absolutely. By the way, I have two police officers in my family, too. In fact, I was at a Christmas party with one of them the other night. Those are some of the things we talked about. His hesitancy... to take action that he normally would take if it was a white suspect. So we talked about that.
SPEAKER 08 :
Well, Joe, I just want you to know I have no cops in my family. It's all teachers, and they disagree with you.
SPEAKER 16 :
Of course they do.
SPEAKER 08 :
But they are wonderful people, and they don't hurt anybody. So go ahead, Joe.
SPEAKER 16 :
I want to go back to the question about journalists when they get these ridiculous press releases. Are they too stupid to not know it's a liar, or are they— or do they know it's a lie and do it anyway? There was an interesting study that was conducted about a year ago. And every industry has its industry association, whether it's the concrete manufacturers or the HVAC guys. They all have their get-togethers. And so there was a gathering annual of journalists, and they got 80 of them to volunteer to participate in a psychological test. And it was a two-part test. One, it was the typical... Multi-choice answer where you took the number two pencil and you filled it, you picked your answer. And then they gave them some actual tasks where it was like a role play thing. They had him start doing something, then they interrupted him and had him do something else. And it was very interesting. What came out of that, I'm trying to find the, what they found is there's something called executive functioning, which is the ability to multitask, to control your emotions. What was the other one? Anyway, what they found is that on average, this group of journalists, their ability to function at what's called executive level was far, far below that of an executive in terms of controlling their emotion, report on things without bias.
SPEAKER 08 :
So they were more biased and less in control of their emotions than somebody who is not in that position.
SPEAKER 16 :
I found it right here. Here's a quote from the study. This is from the study. switch between tasks and show creative and flexible thinking.
SPEAKER 08 :
Joe, those are all the things that bring us objectivity. So what you're saying is this group that is supposed to, above all things, be objective is less objective.
SPEAKER 16 :
Right. And it went on, by the way, and it said the results also showed that journalist brains were operating at a lower level than at the average population, particularly because of dehydration and the tendency of journalists to self-medicate with alcohol, caffeine and high sugar foods. That is from the study.
SPEAKER 08 :
Well, during the holidays, the high sugar foods is kind of an issue for me, too. So I sympathize with them. I really do. Joe, can we take a break, come back? Yes, and then we can go international reporting. Ooh, let's do that. We're going to go international with Jersey Joe after the break. Up next is Flesh Law. Kevin Flesh, that's F-L-E-S-H. He's writing for court, so your opponent knows you're not bluffing. Call Flesh Law at 303-806-8886 or go to FleshLawFirm.com.
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SPEAKER 14 :
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SPEAKER 02 :
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SPEAKER 06 :
Remember the reason for the season. Merry Christmas from Rush to Reason on KLZ 560.
SPEAKER 08 :
And welcome back to Rush to Reason, Denver's Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560, Andy Pate filling in for John Rush, along with Todd Watkins. And on the line right now, we've got Jersey Joe. Joe, what you got for us?
SPEAKER 16 :
A couple more, and then we've only got a few minutes. Remember in the U.S., how it's become, the press always wants to demonize the object, like where 26 people were killed by an AR-15. Never by a crazy man, never by an evil, no. They were killed by an AR-15. Well, In Germany last Friday, during a Christmas street festival, a Saudi national drove a car into a crowd of people on the street, killing five, seriously wounding 200, some of whom may also die. The AP reported, this is how the AP reported, not that he was a Saudi national, drove his car. The opening lead, a car drove into a crowd of people. A car drove into a crowd of people, killing five. Must have been one of Elon Musk's self-driving cars.
SPEAKER 08 :
It must have. So is Musk being brought up on charges?
SPEAKER 16 :
I'm just shaking my head when I read this. You had to go way down the story before you found out that the driver was a Saudi national.
SPEAKER 08 :
That's awful. You know, Joe, sometimes I wonder how we ever win an election the way the media protects anybody who doesn't go according to the narrative of the left.
SPEAKER 16 :
Right. Well, and that's why I do, you know, that's one of the reasons I do my podcast. Again, I call it news in perspective you won't hear on TV because you either won't hear this at all or you won't get the perspective that, you know, because the media, unless you're watching, and I try not to watch Fox News because they can be as bad as some of the other mainstream. But, you know, I try to get a good balance. I've got multiple sources.
SPEAKER 08 :
Well, once again, how do people reach you?
SPEAKER 16 :
The website is jerseyjoe.com, J-E-R-Z-E-E. JerseyJoe.com. If you want to send me an email and get on my mailing list or ask me a question or suggest a topic, just send me an email to Joe at JerseyJoe.com. Just remember to spell Jersey, J-E-R-Z-E-E, and I'll respond to you.
SPEAKER 08 :
And call Joe at 2 a.m. He loves that.
SPEAKER 16 :
Actually, I'm awake at about 4.30 a.m. every morning, Eastern Time. So 2 a.m. Colorado time would work just fine.
SPEAKER 08 :
Okay. Go ahead. Got a couple minutes. Go ahead.
SPEAKER 16 :
Now, last week we had people getting Luigi tattoos on their arms and necks. This weekend, check your e-mail. They now have circulating Luigi portraits of him dressed like Jesus. Did you see the portrait of him dressed like Jesus?
SPEAKER 08 :
No, I missed that one. I've kind of tuned out the Luigi mania.
SPEAKER 16 :
Well, they're going up all over Baltimore, which is his hometown. It's a picture of him in the white robes and the sacred heart in his chest with a halo around his head.
SPEAKER 08 :
He's a murderer.
SPEAKER 16 :
He's a murderer. So this idolization of Luigi is just sick, absolutely sick. So that was another thing. China, by the way, there's a chart.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, but, you know, really quick here, Joe, America doesn't care what you do. They only care who you do it to. And if you do it to the right people, then you're justified. Go ahead.
SPEAKER 16 :
Right. And by the way, the same people who are praising and idolizing him, are the same people who are vehemently opposed to the death penalty in capital murder cases. So how do you reconcile that what he did was good and justified?
SPEAKER 08 :
Right, because he carried out a death penalty against somebody who runs an industry they're bitter against.
SPEAKER 16 :
Right. But I guarantee you, now, by the way, New York State doesn't have a death penalty, but the federal government does, and the federal government has brought terrorism charge against him. Yep. I bet you these same people who are praising him for executing a father and husband... who didn't commit any crime, if the federal government, if he gets sentenced to death, I bet you these are the same people are going to protest that the death penalty is cruel and inhumane and should be abolished.
SPEAKER 07 :
Right.
SPEAKER 16 :
Absolutely. I guarantee that'll happen.
SPEAKER 07 :
Well, Biden's still got a few weeks to pardon him. Jeez.
SPEAKER 16 :
Oh, my gosh. Well, he could pardon him for federal charges, but not for state charges.
SPEAKER 08 :
Okay, you got about 30 seconds.
SPEAKER 16 :
Go. Congress. Congress. In 1980, only 4% of the people in Congress, I'm coming to the House and Senate, were over 70 years of age. You know what percentage of our current Congress is over age 70? How much? Almost 20, 24%. Almost a quarter of the people in Congress today are 70 years of age or older.
SPEAKER 08 :
You know, Joe, that's not necessarily bad, but it has become bad in some cases.
SPEAKER 16 :
Particularly like the woman in, our Congresswoman in Texas who has been in a Alzheimer facility for six months. That's sad. That's sad.
SPEAKER 08 :
That's absolutely sad. Jersey Joe, once again, thank you so much, sir, for joining us. Next week, right? Next Monday? Next Monday. We'll see you again. Talk to you then, guys. Take care. Talk to you then. Okay, that's it for the show here on Rush to Reason KLZ 560. Todd Watkins, thanks for joining us, sir.
SPEAKER 07 :
Thanks, Andy. Anytime, man. Anytime.
SPEAKER 08 :
You were awesome. It was a lot of fun. Folks, we will be back. I will be back this Friday. We're going to have movies, and we're also going to be having your favorite male recording artist. That's going to be our number two. We're going to have a lot of fun. Until then... Thanks for joining us here at Rush to Reason, and God bless.
In this episode of Sportsman of Colorado, Scott Watley talks with Steve Osterhauser about the inspiring work Of Mountains and Men does in nurturing young men into responsible adulthood through outdoor adventures. Learn how they provide thrilling yet educational experiences like hunting and canoeing, all aligned with instilling Christian values. Hear firsthand stories of transformation, and find out how you can support or get involved with this incredible initiative that brings hope and strength to those from challenging backgrounds.
SPEAKER 02 :
Welcome to Sportsman of Colorado, Colorado's premier outdoor radio show heard every Saturday afternoon on KLZ 560 with insights on hunting, fishing, archery, guns and ammo from Colorado's top outfitters featuring the industry's leading experts on how to enhance your experience in the great outdoors. Now, here's your host, Scott Watley.
SPEAKER 13 :
Welcome back to the show. Thank you so much for being with us. Well, you've heard of our next guest of Mountains and Men for several months now, and it's great to have the founder and president of that group, Steve Osterhauser, back with us. So, Steve, good to have you back in studio. How are you?
SPEAKER 04 :
I'm doing awesome. Thank you for having me back. It's been a good year for you guys. It has been a very exciting, very dynamic year for Mountains and Men. Yes, indeed.
SPEAKER 13 :
Well, good. Before we recap that, you know, I'm sure some folks have maybe not heard you before on the show. So maybe just give a recap for our listeners of who you guys are and what you're all about.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, great. Thanks. So of Mountains of Men, who are we? What do we do? So we are a 501c3 Christian ministry whose mission statement is to guide teens in the Christian manhood. I mean, it's no surprise today in that youth are being challenged, particularly for those who don't have a father in their life. Masculinity is under attack. And so what we want to try to do is help these young men on the road to manhood. How do we do that? We do that in two ways. First are adventure trips. We're doing big game hunting here in Colorado. Wilderness canoeing along the Minnesota-Canadian border. We're doing winter adventure in New Mexico, up in the mountains. We're building snow caves and spend the night inside them and snowmobiling and ice fishing. And these adventures are important because they instill the kid with skills that result in the confidence. Confidence that is so critical in developing into a man. Second way that we help guide teens in Accretion Manhood are our campfire talks. While we're on these adventures, we're doing nightly discussions about Christian masculinity based upon the book Wild at Heart by John Eldredge. And they're designed to help the young man begin to answer four questions that every young man wrestles with. What's it mean to be a man? How do I become one? What's this beautiful creature called a woman all about? And how do I become really alive? And we know the young man's not going to answer all four questions in a four-day elk hunt or a nine-day canoeing trip, but we can plant the seeds. We can get them to start thinking about these critical questions.
SPEAKER 13 :
Right. And, you know, like you say, this is kids from all over. And I think I remember ages 12 to like 17? Yep, 12 to 17.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yep. Okay. Yep. And you mentioned kids coming from all over. So we've had kids from Florida, Maine, Texas, Oregon. People come from all over the country to be part of these adventures.
SPEAKER 13 :
Wow. Very, very cool. Now, we were talking before we came on air about elk hunt coming up next month. Tell us about that.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, I'm super excited about that. So big game hunting. We in October, we did a pronghorn hunt and we had five kids and all five kids had tagged out on their very first pronghorn the very first day. We're very blessed, very fortunate to be able to hunt 80,000 acres of privately leased land here in Colorado. And what I'm really excited about is next month. Next month, we are doing four elk hunts, 28 young men. We have 28 cow elk tags in which 28 young men from all over the country are going to elk hunt for the very first time. We did our first elk hunts last year. They're extremely successful. We had 20 young men hunt and 18 of the 20 harvested their first elk. So it's really going to be a very dynamic, very fast paced, very, very exciting experience for these young men.
SPEAKER 13 :
Wow. So are there pretty much every month you're doing something or just during hunting season, so to speak?
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, it seems like we're growing so much that we're on the horizon. It feels like we're doing trips every month. But basically the way it's structured is we're doing our big game hunts in the fall. We're doing our winter adventure. We're doing those trips in March. We're running three wilderness canoe trips, nine-day trips in the Boundary Waters wilderness canoe area. We're running those in June and July. And this coming August, we're doing our first ever gator hunt. in Florida, which that ought to be a riot. That should be great.
SPEAKER 13 :
Man, what will they use for calibers of guns for those?
SPEAKER 04 :
To be honest, we're still working with the outfitter on the hunting technique, but basically we're going to have four young men and four mentors because every young man coming on our trip has a mentor. They can either bring a mentor with them, be it their father, uncle, family friend, or Or in the cases in which we have some single moms every time who are said, I don't have anybody in that category, we provide a background check mentor for them. Yeah, so we're going to be going down in the Orlando area and spend the weekend down there. We have an outfitter. very generously donated these hunts and uh so we're gonna be in the lodge and doing our campfire talks and the meals and gator hunts they're gonna provide the guns the guides and uh sunday we're gonna be doing hog hunting down there so it ought to be it ought to be really really a lot of fun sure you can check out the website of mountains and men.org and um learn more about them and um you know this is something where in this time of year a lot of people are um
SPEAKER 13 :
thinking about donations and you know there's a lot of different charities out there and there's some well-deserving folks out there but none more than mountains of men so if people want to do something to maybe help you guys and we'll talk into some of your needs here in just a moment but how would people help you out the most
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, great question. Well, first of all, I think what's very important for people to know is, hey, we're doing all these incredible adventures all over the country. These are absolutely free, 100% free for both the youth and the mentor. We're not charging a dime. Right. And obviously these hunts are very expensive. I mean, many thousands of dollars on equipment and permits and gas and travel for the guides and everything else. So we do rely on generous donors to go ahead and invest in these young men. You know, some people think we have a million dollar, you know, a millionaire, you know, donors just writing us checks. It's not. It's people who are giving small amounts, $20, $50, $100, who really want to invest in these young men who say, all right, I recognize there's a great need out there. Some of these young men come from very desperate home lives. We're talking physical abuse, fathers who are in jail, moms who are strung out on meth, the stories that I could tell you about the hard backgrounds that these kids come from. And so when they come on these trips, they are being able to have Christian masculinity modeled for them. For some of these young men, being around the guides, being around the mentors, for the first time in their entire lives, they're being able to be shown, this is what a strong Christian man is. So back to the finances, right, is we rely on people who are willing to invest in these young men, believe in what we're doing. So the simplest way if people want to invest in these young men is through our website. Website's very secure. We've got a donation page on there. People can make a one-time donation, a monthly donation. They can even buy particular pieces of gear. that we need, or they can sponsor a young man. So you just go to our web page. We've got the donate on there. We are a 501c3, so it is tax deductible.
SPEAKER 13 :
All right. Good deal. Any couple of stories that stand out when I say stories? I mean, if you think of a couple of young men that you've had this year, any couple of stories that really stand out about those young men?
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, two stories really stand out here. The first is on our Boundary Waters Wilderness Canoe Trips. And I may have shared this with your listeners last time, but to be honest, I can't remember. I talked to so many people about this. But we had four brothers who are in the foster care system. Father is facing many years in jail for being a drug dealer. And the young man just got taken away from their mom because she's strung out on meth and not able to take care of him. And so when the foster dad showed up with the four young men, I said, okay, tell me a little bit about each of these young men, right? And he turned to one, or he looked at one, and he said, well, that's Alex. Alex has severe anger issues. In fact, the day that we brought him home, he's so mad at men, he threatened to kill me and my entire family, and he actually tried to attack my wife with a chair, right? I was like, okay, well, that's good to know. That's good information. Watching his transformation from the very first day, being just this angry young man, by day nine, he was the most enthusiastic, confident, kind, helpful young man. And you see this transformation happen. And we had one of his brother, his brother, before we head out into the wilderness, we spend two days at base camp at a bunkhouse where we're teaching young men the skills they're going to need on the water. We're teaching them how to canoe, how to fish, how to start a fire. We're equipping them with skills. And we had one young man who was just, he picked up a t-ball bat that we had, a wiffle ball bat, and he just started tapping rocks. Not maliciously or anything. Well, the darn kid put a rock right through the window of the outfitter's van. And he came to us just instantly, just sobbing, saying, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry. And Ben was one of my assistant guides. He's like, hey, it's okay. You manned up, you took responsibility. Steve will talk to the outfitter. It'll be okay. So Ben went back inside and he was thinking, that was a little over the top. out of proportion for his reaction. So I go talk to the outfitter and Ben comes out five minutes later from the bunkhouse and he finds a young man behind the bunkhouse with a shovel trying to dig out these enormous boulders. And Ben's like, what are you doing? And the kid was just really upset and said, well, he says, my dad always told me that whenever I broke something, I had to repay the debt in hard labor at a rate of $1 an hour. So I figure it's going to cost $250 to replace that window. I owe the outfitter 250 hours of hard labor. So I thought I'd start by removing these boulders, right? and you're like wow that just gives you an idea of the the background that some of these kids have um the second story we're trying to make it real quick is on our last hunt on our pronghorn hunt we had a young man 13 years old in which his mentor a family friend got with me beforehand said hey just to let you know we'll we'll call the young man scott okay He said, Scott is really angry at God. His dad abandoned him when he was one years old. And so he doesn't believe in God. If he's there, he's really, really angry. I was like, okay, well, we'll see what happens, right? So the first campfire talk on Friday night, he's sitting there with his arms crossed, not saying a word. Saturday night's campfire talk, his hands are on his knees, leaning forward, answering some questions. By Sunday night, this kid was just input left and right, had his hand in the air the whole time. And Monday morning, when we're doing our man hugs and taking off and everything, his mentor came to me, and actually his guide came to me and said, young man came to me and said, you know, I think I'm ready to give my heart to Christ. And it's like, bam, drop the mic. That's why we do what we do.
SPEAKER 13 :
Sure. Wow. Again, if you're just joining us, Steve Osterhauser is with us. It's ofmountainsandmen.org. Again, check out their site. And once again, whenever we have groups like this, I want you to know we've done our due diligence. And I promise you this is a well-deserving organization for your donations, your prayers. And maybe you're thinking, wow, I wish I could get – This young man, maybe it's your son, maybe it's a family member, or maybe it's a friend of a friend. So what's the application process?
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, that's a perfect question, perfect timing to be able to do this. Starting January 1st, we're going to be taking applications for next year's trips. The application windows can be from January 1st to March 15th. People find out about information about the types of trips and apply through our website, right there on our homepage, beginning January 1st. We're very excited about this next year's trips. So we are, in addition to doing winter adventure in New Mexico, we're going to specifically take applications for our Boundary Waters Wilderness Canoe trips in June and July. We're going to be taking applications for next year's big game hunts. Again, we're going to be doing a pronghorn hunt and four elk hunts with about 30 young men. We're going to be doing that next January. So we'll take applications during that time period, along with that gator hunt that we mentioned. think there's gonna be a lot of people wanting to apply for that one that one's gonna be it be in august again all these hunts are for are for free and uh that's how you find out more information and apply is through our website all right good deal and we'll try to get some young men on we've done this in the past where we've had malachi yeah come on and uh talk about their source we'll try to do out that do that as well throughout 2025 but uh
SPEAKER 13 :
Well, Steve, thanks for having your burden and answering that and helping out these young men. You know, we probably never reap all the rewards till that one day we're all in heaven. But, you know, hey, it's awesome, man.
SPEAKER 04 :
It's just absolutely amazing. I mean, just, you know, like last year on the elk hunt, we had one young man from Florida, never seen snow, never seen an elk before. And that weekend, that's when it was 15 below zero, the wind chill at 25 below zero. So his first day ever elk hunting, he's trudging through a foot and a half of snow, doing a stalk on 400 elk when it's 15 below zero. You can imagine what that 12-year-old's mind was. He got his first elk, and you just watch the confidence just bloom in these young men. It's truly transformational. We're just so blessed in so many ways with the doors that God is opening for Mountains of Men, and we'd love people to be a part of that. If people want to volunteer, they're like, hey, I could be a guide for that. Go to our webpage. We've got a volunteer button on there. Find out how people can get involved with the Mountains of Men.
SPEAKER 13 :
All right. Sounds good. Thank you so much.
SPEAKER 04 :
All right. Thank you so much, Scott.
SPEAKER 13 :
Hey, check out that website. Go learn more about them. And, hey, give some money. Help them out and help a young man out. We'll be right back after this break.
SPEAKER 01 :
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SPEAKER 13 :
The holidays should be a happy time for us humans and for our pets. Hey, this is Scott Whatley and from my friends and my vet, Lone Tree Veterinary Medical Center, here are just a few holiday tips to help your pet stay safe and happy. First, make sure your pet is wearing a collar and ID tag that your pet is microchipped and your contact information is correct. It's easy for a pet to slip outside and escape unnoticed when the front door is open for guests. you'll be happy you prepared in advance when you're reunited with a pet that was lost. Second, hey, remember if it's cold outside for you, it's cold for your pet, especially if your pet is older or a short-haired breed. And regardless of the breed, age, or size, bring your pets indoors when the outside temperature drops below 40 degrees Fahrenheit. Remember, our pets can get hypothermia and frostbite, too, when left outside in the cold. So for more holiday and winter tips for pets, visit the blog page at LoneTreeVet.com. To schedule your pet's appointment for medical care, boarding, grooming, or behavioral training, just call them at 303-708-8050. That's 303-708-8050. Lone Tree Veterinary Medical Center is located at 8681 East Lincoln Avenue in Lone Tree. It's the place where my pets go.
SPEAKER 08 :
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SPEAKER 13 :
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SPEAKER 09 :
Scott, I appreciate it. It's definitely been a couple fun four years with the CBA and getting to know Henry and getting to know everybody else on the team and the things that we've been able to accomplish in the short time that I've been part of the board. And it should be a fun future as we kind of focus on some of our outdoor youth education and outreach and really what we want to do and how we want to showcase hunting here in the state. It'll be a fun time. I'm definitely looking forward to it with the team.
SPEAKER 13 :
Yeah, absolutely. And so kind of walk us through when you first came on board and maybe some of the roles you've kind of gone through to work up to this point now of being the new chairman.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah, it was actually a good old Henry Ferguson. It approached me when I can't remember if we were at a, at one of the outdoor expos or if we were at an archery shoot, I just kind of got to know Henry a little bit. And he's a, he's one of those people that if you've gotten to known him over any of the time with the CBA, he's just always like that good guy on your shoulder. And he kept kind of etching me to get into it, trying to get me involved and trying to get me to come to a couple of meetings. And once I finally had an opportunity to show up in person and get to know some of the organization and really, what they were trying to do. It was a no brainer for me at that point, it was time to dive in full force and both feet and just help out any way I could. Yeah. I'm, I'm extremely big into youth outreach and I really want to focus on growth of huge, uh, youth and kids in the outdoor industry. And as we approached that in the 2025, 2026 sector, Henry's really allowed me to take it on. And, uh, the program that we've put together called spark. is hopefully going to be one of the most influential youth outreach programs that you're ever going to be a part of. Other than that, I've helped out with the magazine. I do a lot of writing, not just for the CBA, but for a couple other national publications. And it's been a fun ride, though.
SPEAKER 13 :
I tell you, the magazine, man, has really been a really, really good publication, man. I mean, it's been sharp.
SPEAKER 09 :
It's been a fun process on the magazine. I don't know how long a lot of folks have known the CBA, but we went from a black and white paste, copy, print, photo-looking newsletter, turning it into probably one of the best publications out there right now that I'd compare with a lot of the top-notch ones, and it's been a fun process. I help out the editorial staff, Matt Jackson and Joe Bradley. We bring in all of the articles. We do all the editing. And then we send it off to our design creator, Dustin. And Dustin does a phenomenal job of bringing it to life and making it look pretty because none of us have that skill set.
SPEAKER 13 :
Yeah. Well, I tell you, even writing, man, I mean, you know... Because that is certainly not my skill. Talking isn't really much my skill. But writing, man, and bringing things to like where you picture yourself on the stalk with someone or in the blind or whatever the case may be. You're on the mountain. You can almost feel the wind blowing. We were describing maybe a cold wind. I mean, man, there is definitely an art to that. I mean, it really is.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah, you're definitely preaching to the choir on that. If you can bring a reader and literally get them to the point where they're reading nothing but a magazine and they feel like they're there in the moment with you, it's a style of writing. It's a type of writing that's really hard to envelop. And when you get to that point as a writer, it's the next level of engagement. And that passion is really what's driven me for the CBA in general. I've got a passion for writing and a passion for hunting. I've been doing it since I was 12 years old. Archery, rifle, muzzleloader, it doesn't really matter to me. I just like hunting and being in the outdoors. And being able to bring that to people, it's a huge thing for me. And being able to showcase that's an incredible feeling. We take guys who've never been able to tell a story before and we'll do Zoom meetings with them. And then I get to take their entire article and turn it into like a campfire story. It's a lot of fun.
SPEAKER 13 :
Right, absolutely. Again, Caleb Bell is with us. He is the newly elected chairman for the Colorado Bowhunter Association. You can check out their website, coloradabowhunting.org. And hey, if you're not a member, we're going to bring up some things here in just a minute about all of those groups we need. came together here for this prop 127 and i want to get on that here in a minute but if you're not a member and you say hey i'm not a bow hunter hey still they fight a lot of battles for us just in the outdoors as a whole so if you're not a member please become a member hey it's only 40 bucks to become a member you can get a three-year membership for 105 dollars As Caleb mentioned, hey, they're really focusing on youth. The youth can become a member for $20. They can get a three-year membership, I think, for $50. So it is a great organization to become a member of and just to support them. And, you know, that is a big part of this because, man, you see, Caleb, the – The youth of today, and you see what, you know, CPW is doing with youth tags, different things like that, which is great. But, man, we have got to keep this out in front of our youth to keep this hunting going, don't we?
SPEAKER 09 :
You're definitely right, Scott. I mean, you hit the nail on the head. The CBA isn't just about bow hunting. And I think our youth outreach program is really going to showcase that to everybody. Because to me, hunting isn't just about being an archery guy or a rifle guy or a houndsman. It's about being an outdoor enthusiast, a sportsman or a woman, right? It's about being an outdoorsman. And if we can take the next generation and educate them in everything that we take for granted, you know, teach a kid how to survive in the woods if they get lost, teaching a kid the different biology of animals, teaching a kid how to fish, teaching a kid how just to go hike and enjoy the outdoors. At the end of the day, if we can collectively come together as sportsmen and women and show the next generation the battles that we're fighting, like Prop 127, aren't going to go away, but they're definitely not going to be as prevalent as they are in today's society. And that's my whole goal.
SPEAKER 13 :
Yeah, no doubt, no doubt. And, you know, it was cool. I wouldn't mention this now with the Prop 127. It was cool to see all the different folks that came together from all across other states, but, of course, here in Colorado. And I'd be lying if I didn't say I was surprised. Not that we won, but that it was a convincing win. I kind of was surprised by the margin of the win. So what were your thoughts on there when you saw that?
SPEAKER 09 :
Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER 13 :
And the ground game, I think, that we had, and Dan Gates said this a lot, you know, because the other side, I mean, hey, money came in from all over, but the boots on the ground, so to speak, and whether it be those that got their tailgates on their pickups wrap or window signs in their vehicles or yard signs, and just getting out and trying to talk with non-hunters and letting them get a true picture of what this was all about. I think all of that culminated to get that message across of just what you said. Hey, this is what we do. There's a reason behind what we do. And the number of mountain lions in the state is certainly grown for many, many years now with the pros, so to speak, you know, putting the science and putting all that behind our conservation efforts.
SPEAKER 09 :
I couldn't agree more. And again, right, it's the education aspect. Information is the most powerful weapon in the world. And when we can put the information in front of the public and we can do it respectively as outdoorsmen and women, we change and set ourselves aside from the opposition. We're not going out there and browbeating individuals. We're not going out there and trashing other people's names or reputations. We're just giving honest facts based on proven science and biology. and educating everybody around us so they have the facts when they go to the poll. And that right there is what sets us aside. Right. Absolutely.
SPEAKER 13 :
All right. Now, March the 8th just came out recently. I got a post and already bought my two tickets. So March the 8th will be our CBA banquet. Tell us what you can about that evening.
SPEAKER 09 :
It's probably one of the most fun nights of the year. You know, I go to just about every banquet out there in Colorado just to help support everybody because, like we said, we're all united. But that big banquet that we do on March 8th is kind of unique. We bring probably 150 to 250 different elk, deer, mountain lion, goose. It doesn't matter. Any sort of mountain that we can, we build this elaborate wall with Joe Bradley to show on display all night long. We bring in a bunch of vendors that are going to do seminars all day. They'll talk to you about DIY caribou hunting. They'll talk to you about picking the right boots for the type of hunt you want to do. Or Trevins DeFolstice might show up and talk to you about how to hunt mule deer in western Colorado. We bring in a group of people, and we all unite for one night, all under one premise to raise money for the CBA, fund our youth outreach, and then fund our efforts that we put at the legislative level. It's a big deal for us. We open the doors usually about 10 a.m. We'll bring in 500 to 600 people. And my favorite part is the live auction. I bring in 10 to 15 different hunts from all around the world. I bring in a bunch of great gear, bows, firearms, backpacks, tents. It doesn't really matter to me. What I care about is all of us getting together and having a fun night, talking about the CBA, talking about conservation, and talking about the next steps. And it's a great time to catch up with everybody and look at a phenomenal amount of wild game species that we put on display.
SPEAKER 13 :
Right. And, you know, you talk about a family event. This is it. This is a great deal for the family just to buy a table, isn't it?
SPEAKER 09 :
It is. I personally have four girls. My entire family, we pick a table. We have way too much fun all night. Even though I'm running around like a chicken with my head cut off, the girls will laugh at me. But we get the kids involved. They draw raffle tickets. They have some fun. Slinging arrows at different little props that we have. It's an all-around family event night and it's done right there at the Loveland Ranch and just outside of Loveland right there in Fort Collins, Colorado. It's a good night. It's a fun time. This will be our third year doing it at the Ranch Complex. And every year it just kind of evolves and gets a little bit bigger and a little bit better and a little bit more fun.
SPEAKER 13 :
Yeah. You know, the big part I hate is it's kind of the banquet time, you know. And so, man, sometimes there are some other events that conflict with that. And I wish because, like you say, I like to go to a lot of them, too. So but folks, you're going to pick one. I'm telling you. And there's other things happening on March 8th. I highly recommend. This banquet. It is a great, great banquet. Everything Caleb said is 100 percent true. You'll be around a lot of great folks. Hey, make some new friends. And that never hurts as well. You know, you mentioned the legislation side. Let's talk about that just a minute. And I know Wes has done a really good job there. But maybe talk about some of the things you guys got accomplished this year for us.
SPEAKER 09 :
There's definitely been quite a few things on the back side of that, the West and Lane and Ty, and everybody's kind of put a full force effort in and really shown up for, especially when it's on the archery side, primarily focusing around the OTC change that was proposed. Those guys did a phenomenal effort, boots on the ground, raising awareness, getting everybody on the same page to understand the impact. of the otc tag change in allocations for archery hunting in the state of colorado we uh we honestly owe the majority of our success on that one to wes and the guys that were hanging down there at the legislative level in the capitol um again boots on the ground effort through true education and facts they were able to prove and show really who we are as bow hunters And just as outdoorsmen and sportsmen around in general to focus on primarily the preservation of wildlife in the state of Colorado.
SPEAKER 13 :
Yep, absolutely. Now, when you become a member, let's talk about some benefits of membership real quick. They will get the issues of the magazine, correct?
SPEAKER 09 :
Yep. A membership brings you the full issues of the magazine. We're moving over to a quarterly publication. A little bit bigger magazine with more depth and media articles. Obviously, you're always going to be entered into our member drawings when we do different raffles and things like that for the local membership level. You're also going to be entered into some unique things throughout the year. You're going to be able to stay up to date on any of the outdoor events that we've got planned, like our Jamboree, which is coming up in July. obviously the banquet in March and anything that we keep going on like that. And then also on the backside of that, we've got a lot of great partnerships with not just local companies, but national level organizations as well that are exclusively set up for CBA members. Okay, great.
SPEAKER 13 :
Well, Caleb, hey, man, I appreciate you taking a few minutes, and I'm sure this will not be our last conversation, so we'll look forward to working with you in 2025. And the CBA, anything we can ever do for you, we're here. And, folks, once again, if you're not a member, please go to the website, check it out. It's coloradabowhunting.org. Become a member. Hey, $40, all right? Get the three-year one for $105. And, like I say, the magazine that you get... And just the information that you'll get from the website and just getting to stay in touch with them of what all is going on in the archery world. But also, as we said, as they fight for a lot of these other things on the legislative side that helps us all in the outdoors. So, Caleb, once again, congrats, man. And hope you and your family have a wonderful, wonderful Christmas. And we'll look forward to 2025 with you, sir.
SPEAKER 09 :
Awesome. I appreciate it, Scott. Take care. Have a great holiday season. Look forward to meeting all the new members and seeing everybody at the banquet. Other than that, hope everybody has a great, safe end of the year and gets out there soon for some more hunting trips.
SPEAKER 13 :
Absolutely. We appreciate it, sir. Thanks so much. Thanks, Scott. That's Caleb Bell, once again, the newly elected chairman for the Colorado Bowhunter Association. Once again, the website, coloradobowhunting.org. And get your tickets now for the March 8th banquet. It will be a great, great couple of days there and a great meal and a great time. You're listening to Sportsman of Colorado. We've got to take a quick break. We'll be back with more right after this.
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SPEAKER 13 :
Welcome back to Sportsman of Colorado. Again, thank you so much for joining us. Quick reminder now. If you're listening on Saturday from 1 to 2, that is our live show. And then on Sundays at 8 in the morning, 8 at night, you'll hear a replay of that previous Saturday show. Then on Thursdays, 9 to 10 a.m., we'll also do a replay there of Sportsman of Colorado. So, hey, you can catch us four times now. And if you miss all that, of course, you can get our podcast wherever you get yours and also at sportsmanofcolorado.com. All right. Hey, always good to have our good buddy Ryan Resch with us. It is Bighorn Firearms. They are located at 2175 South Jasmine Street. Ryan, good to see you, sir.
SPEAKER 03 :
Good to see you, too, Scott.
SPEAKER 13 :
And you brought a guest in today.
SPEAKER 03 :
I did. One of our amazing staff members, Houston. He's been with us. We're working towards a year now. He's been a great asset, and he helps us out in a lot of different areas. Real versatile guy who can kind of just do whatever needs to get done. You know, everything from listing guns online to shipping to working with customers at the counter. And he's got a really high-level knowledge in shotguns and hunting and all those things. aspects.
SPEAKER 13 :
All right, good. Well, Houston, welcome to the show. Thank you so much. Happy to be here. All right. We'll get to you in just a second. Don't go to sleep on me now. Ryan told me I had to start with him, so anyway. That's not true. No, that's not true. I shouldn't say that. Well, Ryan, when you think about it, good night. It seems like two months ago we were at a summer event with you, and then the first year, you know, we're all hitting show seasons, different things like that, and wow, and then wrapping up another year. So this is wrapping up year number... What were you? Two? Is this two now? I mean, with Bighorn Fireworks. Oh. Yeah, Bighorn Fireworks.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, yeah, our anniversary is in the summertime, but we're moving into year 13 right now. Yeah, 12 years in this past July, so we're 12 and a half or so now.
SPEAKER 13 :
What's changed the most kind of just besides the craziness of the laws, I mean, and all that? What's kind of changed the most in just –
SPEAKER 03 :
Oh, that's a good question. Um, well, I've, I'm not standing behind the counter by myself anymore. And, uh, you know, even in the last, um, three years, you know, the staff has grown, um, from three to six. So, um, I think that's probably one of the biggest changes for me is like, uh, just continuing to try to, uh, lead this thing in a right direction. And, um, You know, find new ways for us to grow as a company and for all of us to grow as individuals and be able to better serve the local community and figure out, you know, how to stay relevant, especially with all the the changing with the changing political landscape. And, you know, hopefully we're we're looking at a little bit of a shift in a more pleasant direction for us. But. We won't really know until we're halfway through the year, I think next year, but I'm optimistic, and I'm really happy with how far we've come. We've got a really awesome crew, great team members right now. Everybody gets along well. We do good work, and I'm excited to see what we can put together for 2025.
SPEAKER 13 :
When you look at what online stuff has done for every industry, I was just this morning earlier, I was over at LandLaw Chevrolet and I was talking with Dan Johnson. And I said, when I asked him the same question, because he's been in the car business a long time, I said, what's changed so much? And he goes, well, we used to do all the ads in the Denver Post, you know, used to have the car ad page after page. And now online stuff has changed so much in so many businesses. Do you wish it wasn't there kind of for online stuff, or are you glad it's there?
SPEAKER 03 :
You know, competition's always good. So, you know, I do think that... Good consumers, whether they're buying online or in person, do the research. But I definitely feel like we have to undo a lot of bad decisions for people in the store because they just go online and they just buy things because they're cheap. or inexpensive or they think it's a good deal or something like that and you know what what a local business can provide to those people is a level of knowledge that you know It takes them from being uninformed to being a well-informed consumer and making a good decision. I mean, it's an expensive purchase. Even if you're getting a great deal or you're buying something, you know, quote-unquote cheap, you know, it's important to know what you're buying because even a cheap gun's a few hundred dollars, you know, and that's – it's a significant amount of money. I don't, it doesn't really matter who you are, you know, do your research, come in, find some local guys that you can trust, like the guys that we have at Bighorn and come in, ask some questions, talk to them, listen, you know, that's, that's a big thing too. You know, um, a lot of people like to come in and, ask a lot of questions, but they just overlap questions with questions and they don't hear what we're saying. So, you know, slow down and take your time and really hear what the experts have to say. And, and, and if you need to take some time and digest that and then come back and make a decision when you're really ready, because, you know, guns are, you know, an expensive item. And when you take them, When you actually transfer them to an individual and they leave the store, you know, there's a lot of paperwork that goes on. If you decide that you want to, you know, return said item or exchange it or trade it in, you know, it's not like a pair of pants at Macy's.
SPEAKER 13 :
Used gun when your door closes and their car door opens, right? I mean, really.
SPEAKER 03 :
Correct. And I mean, the other thing is, too, it's just there's a lot more to it than people, I think, really understand with the paperwork that's involved with a gun purchase. You know, there's another background check that needs to happen. That gun has to be brought back into the books and written into the books with a... uh, transferee information, you know, there's just, there's a lot of liability there. Compliance is a really big issue with that. The more guns that come in and off of our books, the more, um, uh, exposure we have to, uh, errors that could cause us to be out of compliance. And it's a big deal. And it's, uh, it requires a lot of time and, uh, and knowledge to make sure that we can continue to do what we do, um, for people here in the Denver Metro area. Um, So, you know, returning a gun is not always the most cost effective option. Going and renting a gun. You know, some people look at that as like an expense like that. They don't want to spend 60 bucks to go rent some guns at the local range. But you can spend 60 bucks, you know, have a new level of confidence and a new level of understanding coming into a gun store to purchase a firearm rather than. Purchasing the firearm, taking it home, taking it to the range one time, deciding you hate it, and then bringing it back. And it ends up costing you maybe $150 or $200, depending on what those guns are looking like. That was an expensive rental, wasn't it? Yeah, exactly. And a lot of these local ranges, like Shootin' Doors over here in Buckley, you go in there and you pay a flat fee to rent guns. all the guns in the fleet. So you have access to 20 different guns or however many, let's just say nine millimeters they have. You can rent all, try all those guns for the same price. You buy a couple of boxes of ammunition, you know, maybe worst case scenario, a hundred bucks at the range, but you leave there with, you know, confidence and a new level of knowledge when you walk into the gun store that, and you can make a really good, smart, um, decision on which firearm it is that you ultimately want to have, you know, that's going to serve the purposes you need it to serve. So, you know, and we do that all the time when people, we can just tell people just don't know. We say, go over to shoot indoors, you know, rent some guns and come back and tell us about your experience. And then that'll give us More information to try to continue to guide you towards making the right purchase the first time. And you're not going to get that shopping online. That is an in-person thing that you're going to get from a local store where you can talk to people that you trust.
SPEAKER 13 :
Yeah, absolutely. Ryan Resch is with us. Once again, it's Big Horn Firearms. Also, Houston West is with us. And one more question for Ryan, then we'll get to Houston here for a few minutes. So what's happening as you're winding down the end of the year here? What's what our listeners need to know what's happening at the store? Maybe some deals you got going?
SPEAKER 03 :
Oh, yeah. We're running all of our holiday specials through the end of the year. Holiday hours are closed Christmas Eve, closed Christmas Day. Just something I like to do for the guys to make it a nice holiday break. So we will be closed Tuesday and Wednesday next week. Um, then we will be back to normal business hours, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. We'll have a pretty full staff. We've got a great deals going on, uh, 10, 15, and 20% off throughout the store up to 15% off on in stock firearms. Um, and, uh, and we'll also have discounts on special orders and things of that nature. So we're all stocked up on, um, all of our our hunting stuff all of our tactical stuff and uh that's part of the reason we brought houston down today to talk about some hunting stuff and uh some some uh duck hunting waterfowl and all that we got some great shotguns in stock everything's discounted right now okay and we'll be running that through the end of the year so um great time to come in the christmas shopping's done you know how much money you got left over you know Come get a great deal, save a couple hundred bucks on that shotgun you've been wanting for the last six months but didn't feel comfortable spending the money with Christmas right around the corner. So we will also be closing early on New Year's Eve, and we'll be closed New Year's Day. So if you're not sure if we're going to be open or not, just give us a call ahead of time. If we don't answer the phone, that's because we're closed. Yeah. So we're pretty confident in that. We make sure that we've got enough phones floating around the shop to take all the calls that come through. So, yeah, just come on down and hang out. It's pretty casual. We've got Christmas movies playing. You know, Christmas carols, Christmas music, kind of like hit or miss with that. But we've got the Christmas movies on the TV. So come hang out. It's a nice time to just –
SPEAKER 13 :
chill it's a it's a good vibe in the shop and uh we'd love to have you come down and get a good deal on on a new gun yeah hey nothing like buying your own christmas gift you know you'll love it so absolutely go see them it's 2175 south jasmine street all right hey and i can already tell we're gonna have to bring houston back uh next week to cover some things we wanted to cover here but um um first of all give us a little your your background and from hunting to guns whatever uh tell us a
SPEAKER 10 :
grew up hunting uh pretty much all my life started probably when I was three or four years old uh grew up in Alabama so it's a little different than it is down here that's for sure um didn't really get into the duck stuff until I was later in life probably in college um but really really took a liking to that I don't know what did it for me I think it's just those birds um Do a lot of deer hunting, sitting in a blind, gets old, at least duck hunting, you get to shoot a lot and have some fun. Worked in Birmingham for a while, sold guns there, gotten to sell guns in a couple different areas across the country. So it's very interesting to see what people are into in different areas, you know. It's very intriguing, speaking of online, of what sells in different areas. Stuff that sells out here, people don't really like as much back south, but the stuff out south, people don't like it as much out here. I know. I'm from Texas.
SPEAKER 03 :
We got it. We do send a lot of guns down towards Texas. Absolutely. Big online buyers there for our collectibles and auction site and unique. We do a lot of hunting, like vintage hunting rifles and things like that online on GunBroker.com. And we see a lot of stuff headed towards Texas. Right. Big gun buyers down there.
SPEAKER 13 :
Yeah, for sure. So what do you see? We're going to have to get the hunting stuff next week on the show, but I have to get you back. But what do you see, you know, as you deal with customers in the store and things like that, what are you kind of seeing happening? from knowledge from customers a little bit? I mean, I'm sure you see many things across the board where you get some that know a lot or think they know a lot, and then you get some, maybe it's their first gun purchase or whatever. What are you seeing coming in the store for customers?
SPEAKER 10 :
You know, a lot of it is, kind of what y'all were touching on earlier is come talk to somebody a lot of people think they can just go read an article of their favorite gun writer and buy everything that they've got and it's going to work perfect for them everybody is so different everybody has different needs and wants and being able to specialize and have exactly what you need for the outing that you're going on it's very important just because your buddy told you this is what you need It might work great for what he does, where he is, but what you're going to do might be different. So come in, talk to somebody that, for the most part, goes out there and does it too and has experienced, you know, what breaks, what goes wrong, where you run into issues, because that's where you learn the most is when things don't go right.
SPEAKER 13 :
And we were kind of talking before we came on air, and I think this fits with anything you're doing, but, man, having a gun that fits you. I mean, your buddy could shoot a .300 Weatherby Mag. Yep. maybe that's a little more recoil than you want so maybe you need a 270 you know and maybe they shoot a you know a 45 or maybe your hand's a little smaller maybe you need a nine mil i mean in shotguns we talked about that man there's so much to talk about there are shotguns fitting you so you gotta have a gun that fits you which goes back to ryan's point hey you know You've got a lot of guns there, but if they actually want to shoot them, which would be good. I can't do all the shotguns over shooting doors buckling, but you know what I mean. It is a purchase everybody's got to take serious.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah. And speaking on shotgun fitting, we could probably talk about that for three or four hours alone. Sure. But when we kind of touched on it earlier, how important it is, and you might not notice the difference until you get something that fits you correctly, of how much of an improvement it can make in your shooting and just ability to feel more confident in your setup and what you're taking out into the field. Right, right.
SPEAKER 13 :
And so, hey, this is kind of what you find. And, again, join us next week as well. We're going to bring Houston back and kind of touch on some of the hunting things at the store. And, Ryan, this is something you've talked about before. While everybody likes guns, some have different areas they enjoy talking about more or know more about, let's just be honest. So, I mean, somebody there in the store is going to know something about the guns you got, right?
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah. We've all got kind of a – a lane that we enjoy the most. And, you know, it was really nice because we were lacking in the hunting and the shotgun lane quite a bit. I mean, we have some good general knowledge, but somebody who's out there who's, you know, actively pursuing duck hunting... And it's one of their passions, having somebody like that on the team. I mean, it is huge. And not just for us, but for everybody walking through the door. I mean, we've got, you know, some really fantastic product lines from Benelli and Franke. And then, you know, their entry level Stoger. And then we have access to Browning, Beretta, and who knows what we got coming in the front door used. So, you know, it's a good opportunity to start a relationship with a local guy who's actually out there doing it. Get a different perspective. You know, here's something different than what you've been told, you know, growing up or wherever you were hunting previously. And, you know, and just come in and make a friend that can really point you in the right direction and make sure you're getting the right gear. So, you know. We were just talking about one of our employees just bought a shotgun, and he didn't even know that Benelli shipped them with the full shim kits where, you know, you can actually fit the gun yourself. I mean, knowing what to do is maybe not so straightforward, but there is information in the manual, and there's always, you know, Houston is, you know, that living person here who can just, like, tell you about what these shims are good for and what they're not good for and what you may do. you know shooting a gun right-handed versus left-handed and and how these shims make a huge difference on how the gun's going to perform i mean uh the shooter can shoot great but you know having equipment that that enhances that is i mean is totally invaluable yeah absolutely well guys our time's gone too quickly but um ryan thank you for a great year look forward to 2025 with you guys and uh houston i'll drag you back next week but sounds good all right man
SPEAKER 13 :
Hey, thanks for being with us today for Sportsman of Colorado. Merry Christmas to everyone. Please be safe and travels. And we are looking forward to wrapping up this year and enjoying a great 2025 with Bighorn Firearms. 2175 South Jasmine Street. When you go in, let them know you heard about them here. And we'd appreciate that as well. Have a great rest of your day.
SPEAKER 07 :
The views and opinions expressed on KLZ 560 are those of the speaker, commentators, hosts, their guests, and callers. They are not necessarily the views and opinions of Crawford Broadcasting or KLZ management, employees, associates, or advertisers. KLZ 560 is a Crawford Broadcasting God and country station.
Join Dana Lash in a spirited examination of recent moves by the Texas government to restrict THC products, sparking a widespread debate about personal freedom and state interference. Dana navigates these choppy political waters, offering insights into the implications for Texans, especially considering the potential for federal changes in THC regulation. Through lively commentary and personal anecdotes, she questions the portrayal of THC as a danger to children and links it to greater themes of partisan politics and government control.
SPEAKER 20 :
Lights are going up, snow is falling down, there's a feeling of goodwill around town. It could only mean one thing, McRib is here. People throwing parties, ugly sweaters everywhere, stockings hung up by the chimney with care. It could only McRib is here.
SPEAKER 10 :
At participating McDonald's for a limited time.
SPEAKER 23 :
Welcome back to the program, your lovable retired goth, Dana Lash, in a Christmas-played Here, back at the top of this third hour, you can find the discussion over a rumble. You can also find us on YouTube and find us on X as well. Channel 347, DirecTV, the best of in the podcast. So all good things. So a few, I got to tell you, and we've been watching all of this stuff. As it pertains to the we were talking about Doge a little bit ago and a lot of these cabinet picks, et cetera, et cetera. And I saw I had I saw this story last night and I'm trying to wrap my mind around it. And I got aggravated. I always get mad at people who think that politics began the day that they signed up for an X account. Because some of us have been out here busting our edible snakes for quite some time, pushing it back against rhinoism, right? And you always get these drive-bys who are like, oh, I can't believe people think that Republicans are... you know, like the party of small government or whatever. And I'm like, you know, broad first off, you know, drop the drunk bridesmaid act. I get that you, you know, when you created your ex account, you think that all politics began that the day that you became self-aware. But some of us have been out here doing the heavy lifting while you could sit here and go and get your overfilled face done and your ratty ass extensions. And you could try to like talk platitudes about it on X. Stop. I get so aggravated over this stuff. Stop it. A lot of people out there have been doing the heavy lifting. A lot of you out there have been doing the heavy lifting, pushing back, calling your lawmakers, holding everybody accountable. And we're not going to be judged by people who just opened a drive by account and all of a sudden want to weigh in like, you know, they're the generals of the movement. Stop it. We're not doing it. And I specifically got aggravated over this one post that I saw from Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick of Texas. So he he posted this. Did you see this, King? This is going to be up your alley. It's in Slack. He said it's a major legislative initiative to ban all THC. Thousands of stores have opened to sell all types of dangerous products with unlimited THC. And these stores even target your children is what he's saying. Let me read it first off. Oh, don't roll your eyes. I don't care if you're I'm not Tommy Chong. Okay. I'm no Tommy Chong, but I know government overreach when I see it. That's what this is about. Today, it's about whatever the hell THC. Tomorrow, it's guns. You don't know. So he had this... He wants to ban all THC. Thousands of stores have opened to sell all types of dangerous products. What? Wait, there's more. He's talking about this... Representative Tracy King, this bill, blah, blah, blah. Part of the bill allowed for the commercialization of hemp, which might include unremovable, non-intoxicating trace amounts of Delta 9 THC. Quote, dangerously, retailers exploited the agriculture law to sell life-threatening, unregulated forms of THC to the public and made them easily accessible. They sold them to adults, and they targeted Texas children, exposed them to dangerous levels of THC. I mean, they keep saying the word dangerous, and then they use the word life-threatening levels in another sentence. I'm sorry, excuse me? Okay, again, I'm no Tommy Chong here, but I'm pretty sure that you would have to have all the THC on earth In order for it to be considered dangerous. Am I correct? I was talking to some of my more pot minded associates about this. Some of these. So, yes, maybe we know people in California. I don't partake in any of this. But they get so into the like, what am I thinking of the artisanal marijuana? It is hysterical how it is not a reality show. I do not know. If you've ever tried to see hippies turn into bougie entrepreneurs, it's the funniest thing I've ever seen in my life. God love it. But anyway, Kane, don't they include a tiny amount? I mean, it's not like they're tripping acid.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah, no, it's not unlimited. It's definitely limited. There's only so much.
SPEAKER 23 :
I mean, you can regulate it. From what I understand, it's already Texas law that it's regulated.
SPEAKER 09 :
It is regulated. So that's a lie.
SPEAKER 23 :
Dan Patrick published a lie. I'm so surprised.
SPEAKER 09 :
He's talking about the THC that they've, in the lab, removed a molecule so that it isn't the illegal THC-9 on the federal level. So he's talking about the THCs that have had the molecules removed so that they're a different THC from the THC-9, and he's saying that those are dangerous. So it's a little bit different because this is sort of a laboratory thing that's created for these vapes and the consumption for people. So I don't know. He's technically not lying, though.
SPEAKER 23 :
I don't want to sound like Joe Rogan talking about this stuff. And that's not an insult, but I'm just not a pot person. I'm not, I'm not, but I just am like, this is big government. This is big government.
SPEAKER 09 :
Oh, without a doubt it is. Oh, without a doubt. It absolutely is.
SPEAKER 23 :
So the same government that was like, y'all better get these shots. Now it was like, no, you can't have gummies. Right. Same, same people. Right. And we are to listen to them. Why?
SPEAKER 08 :
I can't sell you on that.
SPEAKER 23 :
No means no, Texas government.
SPEAKER 08 :
That's not what AOC says.
SPEAKER 23 :
I mean, okay, because you guys think it's funny that I know so little about football. Wait until you hear me talk about marijuana. This is Kane's other favorite. Because what did I tell you yesterday? How did I say it yesterday? I was like, well, doesn't THC, doesn't that just make you like fat because of munchies and suspicious?
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah, it was suspicious and fat? That's what you said.
SPEAKER 23 :
Yeah, doesn't it just make you suspicious and fat?
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah. I'm like, what? What do you mean? Paranoid? Yes. And get the munchies?
SPEAKER 23 :
Yes. Because isn't that like the common... thing is like you're always paranoid and so we there are a couple people i know who actually work in this industry like i was saying and uh both of them are veterans and one of them we just met but we know uh somebody that does this it's like a lot of veterans use it especially to help manage ptsd because they don't want to be hooked on big pharma stuff they don't want to have to take like these like you know psychotropic drugs and all of this and They just need, you know, and it helps them to relax at night or whatever. I don't have any problem with that. I don't know why anybody, mind your business. I don't know. I mean, for crying out loud, it's a gummy. And they put, from what I understand, like a tiny percentage of whatever in it. It's not like people are going out there, you know, tripping beans and acting like Beta or Rourke, breaking and entering and drunk driving. Nobody's doing that.
SPEAKER 09 :
I know, and it's this kind of work by the government that actually has us putting our names on lists when we want to get pseudofed for our nose running or something. Yeah. That's what big government, this is what will end up happening.
SPEAKER 23 :
Someone was saying that it was similar to taking melatonin. Yeah. I was reading that in the comments. I take like 10 milligrams. Sometimes I'll take 20 of melatonin. I'm actually trying to take less because I get so groggy. I'm so groggy in the morning. But I take 10 milligrams of melatonin a night. I'm definitely not out there being dangerous. on 10 milligrams of melatonin. If what I have been told and what I've read, that it is similar in terms of like relaxing it, which is why a lot of veterans take it and they take it at night.
SPEAKER 09 :
Do you get suspicious in fat? No, I don't. Okay.
SPEAKER 23 :
I don't get suspicious in fat. No, that's because it doesn't have the pot in it. It's not just melatonin, like the fast dissolve melatonin tablet, right? Right. I mean, I'm just saying, why is this an issue that they're focusing on in Texas? No, I get that people can walk and chew gum at the same time. But out of nowhere, let's go after the THC. And from what I'm understanding, it's a tiny... I don't want the government involved in anything else. No, Texas should be shrinking government, not expanding it. This is just big government. And I don't care if you're a pot person or not. It doesn't matter. It's irrelevant. I mean, this is a variable. What have I always told you? In all of these instances, guns are a variable. Pot is a variable. Look at all of this. It's the same formula. They just switch out the variables. That's it. That's it.
SPEAKER 09 :
I wonder if on a federal level, the fact that they're talking about changing the schedule of it.
SPEAKER 23 :
I think they're trying to nationalize all regulation of it to create an industry for themselves that they can monopolize.
SPEAKER 09 :
I wonder if this is just Texas' response to that potential. I have no idea, though.
SPEAKER 23 :
I don't think so. That's not how I look at it. I mean, if I'm wrong, I'm wrong. I mean, I like being correct on issues. I'm not, you know, I'm not a petty partisan. But to me, from when I was reading this, like, why do you need to ban it? They're not trying to... They just want to ban everything. Why do you need to ban it? And sorry, they're not targeting the kids. They're not. That sounds like a gun grabber argument. Oh, you're marketing these guns to kids. No one is selling... THC to kids. Have you seen these stores? No offense to anyone, but I'm going to be very honest. Okay. You know what do they look like? Do you want to, you know what they look like? They look like, oh gosh, you're going to, they look like white trash boomer places. I'm sorry, but they do. It's like, they're so uncool looking. They are so uncool. They're uncool. Kids don't want to go to an uncool place. It's not like they're sticking Barney out front or whatever the hell furry. They're not sticking that stuff out front. You know, come on, stop it. Stop it. I'm not making nobody get mad because I'll print out your email and I will, I will roll over it with my mini segue that I got six years ago on Amazon for mother's day. And then I'll take it to the range and shoot Buckeye through it or birdshot through it. So stop it. But you know what I mean? They look like adult places. It doesn't look cool. They don't look cool. Kids are not going to go to a place that doesn't look cool. I seriously take issue with the whole marketing to the kids thing. That's what big government always says with stuff that it wants to ban. Oh my gosh. It's going after the kids. Wait, the same government that's going after the kids trying to cut their genitals off and flip their genders against the wishes of their parents? Suddenly this government's all worried about the kids? Oh, what? The same government that lost hundreds of thousands of kids that it allowed to come across the border illegally. Suddenly that same government, oh my goodness, we can't have these cannabis stores targeting the kids. Just can't have it, Cain. Can't have these cannabis stores going after the kids, no.
SPEAKER 09 :
I've seen the ingredients list on like Fruit Loops. They're allowing some pretty poisonous stuff. to our kids eat it right in front of the TV.
SPEAKER 23 :
They literally use a bird to advertise it to the kids.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yes, directly to the kids.
SPEAKER 23 :
Come eat our cancer cereal, kids. Full of cancer. Yeah, I'm not really going to pay attention to the government. So out of all the, and you know what? Lieutenant Governor Patrick has come on the show before. Can we have, let's bring him on again to talk about that. He's going to be like, oh my gosh. We get along with him so well, even when he's so wrong. We're so nice because he's very genteel. But I'm just like the same guy. Is anybody else fed up with the government telling you what you can and can't do, especially after, I don't know, the whole Wu flu drama? Yeah. That's what it seems like. I'm just done with it. The same government that was doing all this stuff. That was shilling out books about oral sex to your kids in elementary school. The same government. Oh, we don't like these. These stores are targeting the kids. No, they're not. You are. Stop. We got more on the way.
SPEAKER 04 :
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SPEAKER 09 :
And now, all of the news you would probably miss. It's time for Dana's Quick Five.
SPEAKER 23 :
Oh, man. I just remembered it's time to watch Nightmare Before Christmas. Deadly Nightshade. Movie actress dies at a Mexican spiritual retreat after consuming deadly monkey frog potion. What gave you the idea that this might be deadly? Anything that's a monkey frog potion already sounds like it's going to be deadly. Why do people do this? I don't think you need to say movie actress, but they did. This strange potion, they said, dates back to the Inca period. It's meant to cause uncontrollable diarrhea and vomiting for consumers, which supposedly acts as a cleanse. So, Marcela Rodriguez, she apparently decided that she was going to do this and it didn't work out well for her. It's 40 times stronger than morphine. Oh, my gosh. Why? Who would who's like, you know, well, you're going to basically leak out of everything to death. That's how it's going to work for you. Who wants to go? OK, let's do that. No, it was in Durango, northern Mexico. I mean, it literally took hours to kill her. They're doing an autopsy, but pretty much have an idea of how that happened. It's going to say that's horrible. An officer uses a child. An officer uses a child's bicycle chasing down a felony suspect. And there's body cam footage and it's actually hysterical. He was not near a squad car. He used a little kid's bicycle to go after the felon. He commandeered a kid's bike to continue the pursuit, said the department in its paperwork. And it was a bright lime green bike, too, which is funny. They got him. He got him. He caught the suspect, charged him with felony theft. The guy also had three other outstanding warrants. And they said the suspect might have had a scooter, but Officer Tarr had determination and a kid's bike. Yeah, he thought he was going to get away on a motorized scooter, but it wasn't going to happen. Not with Officer Tarr. He was on it. I mean, and kudos to the kid who let him take the bike. Juan's showing you the footage right now. He grabs the kid's bike, and he's like, here we go. Here we go. We're going after him. I mean, this actually makes me want to now ride a bicycle. Right? Remember how fun this was back in the day? Oh, yeah. This was fun. By the way, this is what Peloton should have had. Peloton should have had, like, revisiting your childhood by riding your, instead of the stupid stuff that they had. They favored us. Yeah, going through the neighborhood. Let's see here. Oh, the worst time to shoplift. Here's an idea. If you're shopping with a cop, don't steal while you're doing it. And they did this as a Walmart event, their annual shop with a cop. And someone who was shopping with a cop decided to steal from the Walmart. Didn't work out well for him. Stick with us. We got more in store.
SPEAKER 04 :
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SPEAKER 21 :
Welcome to Pro Tips for the Pros, brought to you by Florin Decor East Brunswick. In this series, we'll explore essential advice for professional contractors to deliver outstanding renovation results. Let's dive in. Clear communication is key to a successful renovation. Keep the customer informed at every stage of the project, addressing any concerns or questions promptly to maintain trust and satisfaction. Thank you for joining us for this pro tip on planning thorough renovations. Stay tuned for more expert advice, brought to you by Florin Decor East Brunswick.
SPEAKER 18 :
A lot of people tolerate ordinary. Ordinary bathrooms, kitchens, entryways. Well, not on your watch. If you're a pro, you've got a new partner in town. Floor & Decor. From tile to wood to stone, Floor & Decor has more styles and job lock quantities of Schluter, Mapei, Ladecrete, and other brands pros trust. Come see a whole new way to wow with Floor & Decor. Now open in East Brunswick.
SPEAKER 25 :
So I will leave this chamber with a sense of achievement. But in truth, I will also leave with the recognition that I did not achieve everything I'd hoped. Among other things, the scourge of partisan politics has frustrated repeated efforts to stabilize our national debt.
SPEAKER 23 :
Oh, boy, bye. Welcome back to the program. Dana Lash with you. Bottom of this first hour. That's Mitt Romney, who's saying that he's oh, he's leaving. He says that, I love how he said, a country's character is a reflection of its elected officials and we must be voice of unity and virtue. Little known, but very true fact. This was back during the 2012 presidential election. And I was one of the token conservatives at CNN. And when I would go on, One of my biggest criticisms, because obviously the hot topic of debate was, this was Obamacare, and it was about Obamacare, and it was also about how really... Republicans made it difficult to argue against Obamacare because the Republican Party nominee for the election that year was Mitt Romney, who, when he was governor of Massachusetts, literally created Obamacare first and introduced, backed it and introduced it zealously into the state. And I was very critical of that. And I was not hyperbolic. I was very honest. It was just the facts. And I talked about all the things that Romney did leading up to the introduction of it to the state legislature, the passage of it, how he repeatedly defended it. And that made his campaign livid. So the Romney campaign, and I also... was still a radio host at the time too. So I was on CNN as a contributor and I was still hosting this program. And the Romney campaign, they refused to come on my radio program. That was first and foremost. They would not come on the radio program. And then I found out later, well, actually it was still at the time I found out through one of the people who work with the contributors that he was demanding, his campaign was demanding that I be pulled from air or that I only go on air with a Romney surrogate because they were saying that it was, I can't remember the exact wording, but they were very, they were very vociferously angry or critical of my criticisms of Romney. his tenure as governor of Massachusetts and his introduction of Obamacare and the problem that created for Republicans, because that was one of the things that Obama and Democrats always cited as why, you know, this is going to pass and why it should, because Republicans did it first. And the, so he tried to get me pushed out at CNN. Absolute fact, try to get me pushed out at CNN. And he, Then when CNN was like, no, we're not going to get rid of her. I've had Republicans and Democrats try to get me fired from CNN. It's a trip. And then his campaign demanded that, well, at the very least, I should be put on only with a Romney surrogate. And to CNN's credit, well, I mean, they probably liked the infighting. They said, no, we're not going to do that either. So they listened to Media Matters more than they listened to Mitt Romney at the time. So I kind of I've given you that full disclosure because that has that has fueled my dislike of him as a as a politician to be a little bit hotter than my dislike of most politicians. And there's a personal aspect to it because this guy literally tried to get me booted from a network because I was critical, accurately so, of his moderate record. And yes, I did have Mitt Romney actual flip flops that said Mitt Romney on them, which I wore. But that's beside the point. He puts this veneer of religious family man on, but he is just as dirty as all the other politicians. Just because he can put on... I just remember when Jesus would tell his disciples, when you're fasting, don't make a show of it like the Pharisees do. You don't need to put on all the robes and the ash and do all the... He told his disciples, you don't need to do that. Don't be performative. Do it from the heart. And it just reminded me of that because... There are a lot of and he's one of them, a lot of politicians that really hide behind this veneer that they've constructed. But they're just as dirty as everybody else. Just as dirty, just as underhanded, just as petty and mean spirited as everybody else. So that's kind of I mean, I'm glad to see him go because he's he has been an anchor on the neck of conservatism. And that's an accurate statement. And I have not in any point changed my position on his moderate record. And he never got into the White House. He never got me booted from CNN. And now he's leaving the Senate. And I'm still here. So. I'm fine with being consistent. And I will add, I caught a lot of hell from Republicans back in 2012 for that. I lost a lot of friends. And that's when I first really saw that just because someone's on your side politically doesn't mean they really are. And not every R after every name is the same shade of red. So I bring that up because I think consistency is important. And consistency is a great tool to Of refuting any kind of accusation of hypocrisy or changing. I mean, it's it's consistency is key. And the reason I bring this up. is because of this stuff with Joni Ernst, like we were talking about. And this has to do with the Hegseth stuff and, you know, this palace intrigue. I think that Trump could end all of the palace intrigue by saying, I stand behind my nominee, this is my nominee, and I want him to sec def and let's make this happen. His statement fell short of that. And you guys all know it. Nobody's saying it, but you guys all know it. I don't like to see him put through the grinder like that unnecessarily. I don't want a nominee to get that so badly dinged up before the confirmation process that the confirmation process is nothing more than just chiseling in the epitaph in the stone. I don't want to see that. And I also don't like to see the infighting that it creates by lack of a strong, distinct personal endorsement. So now we're seeing and Joni Ernst is a moderate. She's not a demon, but she's a moderate. Right. She's a moderate that I think can be pressed to be more conservative. I have different grades for different politicians. She's always been kind to me, so I don't have any personal dislike of her. There's no personal animus here. But she's a moderate on certain things. There's things I definitely absolutely do not agree with her on. She says she's not waging an all-out campaign against Hegseth. I don't care enough to, like... I don't have... I'm not going to spend any capital on anybody saying that they did or didn't. But what I do think is interesting is that yesterday, I saw a lot of people criticizing her for... for her previous positions being weak on certain aspects of gun control, which I've criticized her for too. But I did find it interesting that the same people that were criticizing Ernst for her gun control positions are the exact literal same sacks of meat that were excusing Pam Bondi's gun control. So Pam Bondi, who is being nominated for AG, is a huge gun control supporter. And I reject the defense that, well, Pam Bondi only was supporting it because it was after the legislature passed it. And as AG, she has to defend Florida's law. Okay, don't sit here and be like, oh, it's just my job. I got to do it because we've heard that before throughout the years, particularly 1930s Germany, number one. But number two. She's on record before it even came out of committee in the state legislature of pushing red flag law, of pushing waiting periods, of pushing increasing the age requirement to purchase and even more. She's on record both in written word and on video using her own mouth to talk positively about these issues. So when I talk about consistency, I don't take any of these people seriously who are criticizing one candidate who is wrong on gun control, but excusing the other one politician wrong on gun control, but excusing the nominee for AG for also being wrong on gun control in an even worse manner. Even further than the other candidate. You've got to have consistency. Otherwise, do you know what happens? You can fool people some of the time, but you're not going to be able to keep it up. Because people are dumb. At some point, they pop their head up from their work or from running the kids here and there or whatever it is. And they start looking around like, wait a minute, this doesn't make sense. How are you? It's bad here, but it's okay here. It should disqualify. So Joni Ernst's position on gun control should disqualify any complaints that she has about Pete Hegseth. But Pam Bondi's positions on gun control qualify her for the position of AG. How does that work? You see what I mean? Consistency is key. And people are going to wake up and realize, and then a lot of people are going to start losing a lot of influence. It makes zero sense to spend your personal political capital by doing stupid stuff like this. And I will say, and I know people don't want to hear it, you got to have strong leadership and you have to have a strong voice come out and say, this is my nominee. Reject him at your own peril. that's all that needs to be done. In fact, I think if Trump came out with that statement, do you honestly think that any Senator is going to stand up and be like, okay, well, I still oppose him. No, no, they're not because it's going to put all those people in the weird position of having to make their base happy while also trying to kind of moderate their position to be more, uh, more mainline Republican and not so much Trump Republican. It puts them in a difficult position, which they need to be put in. So by not doing it the way that it needs to be done, you're also letting these people off the hook. That's doing it 40 chest style. This is just he hasn't made a decision yet. And it's a it's a statement that was not a strong statement. And it was uncharacteristic. I don't think he's made up his mind. And I think it's because the factions are fighting it out. And I mean, the good news is that we've got a lot of good people that we can. I mean, we're not Democrats for crying out loud. Our only options aren't that dude from the Penguin from Gotham, J.B. Pritzker and Gavin Newsom, which, by the way, you guys know that Democrats are getting ready to pitch them, right? You know that they're going. Pritzker's already made it clear he wants to run. Not kidding you. Pritzker's going to run. Newsom's going to run. You're going to have Big Gretch. Big Gretch is going to get in. Poot Booty Juice still thinks that he's the chosen one. He believes that he is the golden Bob the Builder and that he can come out and he's still going to run. He's got to make that bank. He doesn't have an administration position in January anymore. How is he going to grift, guys? He's going to actually have to get a job. Like in the private sector, a job. Good night. These people don't like to work. You know that. They want to be on glorified welfare, which is what an elected office truly is. So... What is he going to do? These are the stooges. They're going to run. So we're not like Democrats. We have a little room to say, you know what? I want a little more from you. I want a little more boldness from you. I don't want no statement that leaves lots of daylight in places. I want something definitive and hardcore. I want a statement that kicks people's teeth in. That's what I want. That ends the palace intrigue that puts everybody in line and he can do it. He just got to make up his mind. He needs to make up his mind what he wants to do. But again, there's no bad news scenario in this. So don't be led to believe that everything has got to be burned into the ash war. If I were a Democrat, I would want you to believe that so you undercut your greatest strength. But since I'm not, I don't want us to do that. We're not Democrats. We don't have, like, no choices. Gosh, can you imagine being a Democrat? Those are your choices. Imagine, America. You're a Democrat. I guess all we have is Newsom and Pritzker and Big Gretch. And then Amy Klobuchar comes in and throws a comb at somebody. I don't know. That's who you have. Who else do they got? They don't got anybody. Seriously? He'll go out and pretend to have another baby and chest feed for like the first, even if he were elected, the first half, you know, his first half term. Good night.
SPEAKER 21 :
Welcome to Pro Tips for the Pros, brought to you by Floor & Decor Parsippany. In this series, we'll explore essential advice for professional contractors to deliver outstanding renovation results. Let's dive in. After completing the renovation, follow up with the customer to ensure their satisfaction and address any remaining concerns. Provide maintenance tips and guidance to help them preserve the results of the renovation for years to come. Thank you for joining us for this pro tip on planning thorough renovations. Stay tuned for more expert advice brought to you by Floor & Decor Parsippany.
SPEAKER 18 :
A lot of people tolerate ordinary. Ordinary bathrooms, kitchens, entryways. Well, not on your watch. If you're a pro, you've got a new partner in town. Floor & Decor. From tile to wood to stone, Floor & Decor has more styles and jaw-block quantities of Schluter, Mapei, Ladecrete, and other brands pros trust. Come see a whole new way to wow with Floor & Decor. Now open in Parsippany.
SPEAKER 21 :
Welcome to Pro Tips for the Pros, brought to you by Florin Decor East Brunswick. In this series, we'll explore essential advice for professional contractors to deliver outstanding renovation results. Let's dive in. Prioritize quality craftsmanship and materials to deliver results that exceed the customer's expectations. Attention to detail and superior workmanship will leave a lasting impression and ensure customer satisfaction. Thank you for joining us for this pro tip on planning thorough renovations. Stay tuned for more expert advice brought to you by Floor & Decor East Brunswick.
SPEAKER 18 :
A lot of people tolerate ordinary. Ordinary bathrooms, kitchens, entryways. Well, not on your watch. If you're a pro, you've got a new partner in town. Floor & Decor. From tile to wood to stone, Floor & Decor has more styles and job lock quantities of Schluter, Mapei, Ladecrete, and other brands pros trust. Come see a whole new way to wow with Floor & Decor. Now open in East Brunswick.
SPEAKER 09 :
Like sands through the hourglass, so are the days of the United States.
SPEAKER 03 :
There's a little bit of controversy about that podcast, because you didn't. Do you know about this?
SPEAKER 06 :
No, what?
SPEAKER 03 :
Because in D.C., this interview happened in D.C.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah.
SPEAKER 03 :
In a hotel.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, not in a hotel. It was like a random house.
SPEAKER 03 :
It was like a random house. But apparently, you can tell me, they spent, the Harris campaign spent like $100,000. I did see that. You know about this? It's hilarious. To build the studio.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, that's not true.
SPEAKER 03 :
Not true. To make it look like it was the studio that you used in L.A.,
SPEAKER 06 :
My studio that is gorgeous in Los Angeles doesn't even cost six figures. So I don't know how cardboard walls could cost six figures.
SPEAKER 03 :
But do you think they did that? I mean, you saw it.
SPEAKER 06 :
Absolutely not. With love to them. Oh my God, it was gorgeous. But like, it wasn't that nice. It wasn't like gorgeous marble. Like, no, that was not six figures. Why was it allowed to happen?
SPEAKER 23 :
First off, Oh my gosh. We, so our set, my set is not, and she's talking about, this is a podcast. I was talking about Kamala Harris. They, the interview that she did, they created this fake set and that's six figures on it. My studio. So behind me is not just a television. It is a giant Florida ceiling, led wall. It is legit. It is super not cheap. It's not six figures. I have my tactical walls loaded up with all my actual real Kel-Tec guns. And also not six figures. I have a custom huge desk with a four and a half foot wide gamer screen. Custom mic. Everything custom, custom. A super bougie, like, you know, ergonomical chair that also props me up. And full lighting rig, total pro build out, pro cameras. Like these are like the cameras that you would find at Fox or ABC or CNN. That's why I don't look dim or hazy. Nobody in podcasting has better cameras than we do for our simulcast. Literally nobody in the business in podcasting or doing digital shorts has the kind of cameras I do. Not six figures. When do they not money launder? That's the question. This was money laundering. Stick with us. Second hour coming up.
SPEAKER 21 :
Welcome to Pro Tips for the Pros, brought to you by Floor & Decor Parsippany. In this series, we'll explore essential advice for professional contractors to deliver outstanding renovation results. Let's dive in. After completing the renovation, follow up with the customer to ensure their satisfaction and address any remaining concerns. Provide maintenance tips and guidance to help them preserve the results of the renovation for years to come. Thank you for joining us for this pro tip on planning thorough renovations. Stay tuned for more expert advice brought to you by floor and decor Parsippany.
SPEAKER 18 :
A lot of people tolerate ordinary. Ordinary bathrooms, kitchens, entryways. Well, not on your watch. If you're a pro, you've got a new partner in town. Floor & Decor. From tile to wood to stone, Floor & Decor has more styles and jaw-block quantities of Schluter, Mapei, Ladecrete, and other brands pros trust. Come see a whole new way to wow with Floor & Decor. Now open in Parsippany.
SPEAKER 21 :
Welcome to Pro Tips for the Pros, brought to you by Floor & Decor Parsippany. In this series, we'll explore essential advice for professional contractors to deliver outstanding renovation results. Let's dive in. Prioritize quality craftsmanship and materials to deliver results that exceed the customer's expectations. Attention to detail and superior workmanship will leave a lasting impression and ensure customer satisfaction. Thank you for joining us for this pro tip on planning thorough renovations. Stay tuned for more expert advice brought to you by Floor & Decor Parsippany.
SPEAKER 18 :
A lot of people tolerate ordinary. Ordinary bathrooms, kitchens, entryways. Well, not on your watch. If you're a pro, you've got a new partner in town. Floor & Decor. From tile to wood to stone, Floor & Decor has more styles and job lock quantities of Schluter, Mapei, Ladecrete, and other brands pros trust. Come see a whole new way to wow with Floor & Decor. Now open in Parsippany.
SPEAKER 10 :
Last night at the Patriot Awards, I think we got a clip, he was doing the Trump dance. And I'm sure you've seen that evolve over the last... As you look right there, how do you describe your husband's dance moves?
SPEAKER 26 :
Oh, this is very special and unique dance. And I think a lot of people are copying it and everybody has fun with it.
SPEAKER 10 :
Is this how you dance?
SPEAKER 26 :
No.
SPEAKER 10 :
Which part of the Trump dance, did you give him any tips? Like in the beginning it was low and then it was up high and now there's a golf swing. No, he's coming along his own. Have you ever done the Trump dance? You are Mrs. Trump.
SPEAKER 26 :
I did not.
SPEAKER 23 :
That is hysterical. It's like he's got string. it cracks me up the first time that i saw him do it i think it was back during his first term when he's campaigning for his first term and he did kind of a little thing and nobody really noticed it i think well i think people talked about it and they laughed about it and then he kind of started every time he'd get happy he'd do it it was funny welcome back to the show i just like the dance because it's hysterical what was the video that um It was SNL where he was redoing that video. Oh, my gosh. Who was the guy who was on Nickelodeon but acts like he comes from the life of Hard Knocks, school of Hard Knocks? Steve, who am I thinking of?
SPEAKER 03 :
He did a sketch on SNL where he recreated Drake in Hotline Bling.
SPEAKER 23 :
Thank you. Yes, he recreated that video, Hotline Bling. That's right, right, right, right, right. That's what he did. He did that video. And it was funny because that's when he really got into it. And that, I think, really is when it was officially born. And he was doing his Trump dance with his string, his invisible string. This just cracks me up. So welcome back. It's Friday. He was doing it to YMCA. I was reading this story about... Victor Willis, the YMCA singer who says that he's he supports Trump using the song because it brings joy to the American people. He did an interview about it. And he says he has no problem with it being used. But he said he will sue outlets who call it a gay anthem. He said he supports Trump using it to bring joy to the American people. He goes, I decided to allow the president-elect's continued use of YMCA because he seems to genuinely, genuinely like the song. And so many other artists were stopping him from using their music. And he goes, if you were to ask me today if the village people would perform at the inauguration, I would probably say no because we'd be concerned about endorsement. He goes, however... Because he's done so much for YMCA. He goes, the song's actually gone back to number one. It's still number one today. He goes, so if he were to ask the village people to perform it live for him, we'd have to seriously consider it. But he goes, the song was never gay. And I'm going to sue people who say it's a gay anthem. I am dying. He goes, come January. And then he drops it. He goes, come January 2025, my wife and I, we're going to start suing each and every news organization that falsely says it's a gay anthem. I mean, he like went right into it. It's hysterical. This guy cracks me up. But, you know, he's like, he's having fun with it. I always hate when people say that, like these artists that go out, like, how dare you use my music? The way it works is they have to license their music. That's how they make more money off of their songs. If they license it for different use, like you can get different licenses, like for public use. There's different categories.
SPEAKER 09 :
Publishing for actual production, for score, you know what I mean? There's all kinds of different ways that you can attach your name to it. But it's ultimately about ownership of your own music. So by doing that, you're licensing. You now have the license to decide where that song goes. And if you put it in the public domain and allow it to be purchased... That's just what happened.
SPEAKER 23 :
Right. It's like similar to what if you're Nike and you're selling shoes. Somebody buys your Nike shoes, they can wear them.
SPEAKER 09 :
Right.
SPEAKER 23 :
I mean, or you're licensing your logo out for certain. Yeah, I mean, that's. Right. So once they do that, you know, it's. Yeah, I mean, you can't say for him, but not for him. That's not how the licensing works. And that's ASCAP. So you have your ASCAP, BMI ASCAP. Yeah.
SPEAKER 08 :
And CSAC.
SPEAKER 23 :
So I always get mad when I see these musicians go out and say, he can't use our music anymore. Why'd you license it then? I think they do that as a way to get more attention for themselves. So good on this guy. Good on the YMCA guy. It's a joyful song. It's a very joyful song, you know, I got to say. So now I saw this story over, first of all, I think this was over at Red State. So you know how every president gets a presidential library? Okay, well, apparently Biden, I don't know how that's going to work with him. Apparently donors are withholding their contributions because they're livid that he pardoned Hunter. They said it was a, quote, abrupt, clumsy pardon of his son, end quote. And so they're tightening their grip on their wallets. Yep. A couple of different outlets are reporting this, including Axios. You know, that bastion of conservatism. There's an article over at Axios saying, talking about what's happening behind the curtain. And they're saying, you know, 82-year-old Biden will limp away from the limelight, widely disliked by the public, loathed by many Democrats who blame him for the twin sins of selfishness, running again and pardoning Hunter. And apparently, and Politico mentioned this in another piece, some of Biden's own family are shocked at the vitriol being shown to him by their fellow Democrats. They said that they thought that there would be blowback, but not what was described as a, quote, wicked backlash because they are so damn blind and tone deaf. Now you can see why Biden makes stupid decisions because he's surrounded by stupid people. They're shocked that that would get the backlash that it would, especially from other Democrats. You're shocked? Give him the pain and tension then. So then the, I mean, he could have, he could have pardoned, you know what, if he would have pardoned Trump and his son Hunter, would that have helped? With other Democrats though? Would that have made Democrats angrier? It would have given him cover for, In that it was not so much personal for him, right? Maybe. I don't know.
SPEAKER 09 :
But I think all of the stuff for Trump will have to happen after he's president. So they still have to wait four years.
SPEAKER 23 :
I mean, Biden said his son didn't do anything wrong. Well, then why do you got to pardon him? For all a blanket pardon for all this stuff. Why do you got to pardon him then if he did nothing wrong? We had a thing up about that on Instagram, on my account. We put it up going over. Remember how, not just him, but like the Hakeem Jeffries, everybody was saying, oh no, Hunter did nothing wrong. Biden said Hunter did nothing wrong. Well, then now here we are. But they said that as a result of this, these people, because that's where your library comes from, people donate, et cetera. And it looks like, Democrats are not, they don't want to donate to his library. It might be a bookmobile. They said that most Democrats, a YouGov poll, which is kind of a lefty thing, that 64% of Democrats approve the pardon. 64%. That was a reversal of earlier sentiment. But it's 64% of people that they had described as like Democrats, not even likely voters, registered voters, things like that. However, the other percentage, because the way that they did their polling, it's like, you know, do you approve, strongly approve, strongly? This was just approve. The strongly approve was a small percentage. But everyone else was strongly disapprove. And the other thing that they're so angry about is the fact that he left so long. Now, when they asked separately whether or not Democrats felt that he that they were angry that he stayed in the race too long, like 70 percent of them were angry that he had that they disapproved of how long he's like strongly disapproved of how long he stayed in the race. So they're angry at him because he pardoned his son and they're doubly angry at him because he waited so long to get out of the race. And it made it doubly impossible for Democrats. I felt like they didn't want to waste a good candidate on a fool's errand by using their good candidate to replace Biden. But this is Democrats' own fault. They built Joe Biden. Joe Biden was always a jackass. He really was. Is. One of the meanest people. When I was growing up, and I wasn't really aware of politics like in the 80s. I was in elementary school. And I wasn't really aware. I think the first time I ever saw Biden was on TV during the Clarence Thomas thing. And I remember feeling bad as a kid in a family of Democrats in southern Missouri for Clarence Thomas, because Joe Biden in his line of questioning, he was so ignorant to him. And I was a little I was a little kid in elementary school watching this. And it was on, and I just remember playing around the house, and it was on the television. And I remember thinking, this guy is so mean. This old man is so mean. He was an old man even then. He's so mean. And that's the first time that I ever really saw him. And then as I grew up and, you know, you go through his, just become more aware of politics and you study history. I found out how ignorant he was with Reagan and in different hearings like that. I would see him on TV over and over again. And he was always mad and hateful about something. He was always like super, super ignorant about something. And just a really not a nice guy. And I say this because Democrats built him. They really did. They built him. And they only have themselves to blame. They can sit here and try to brush it off and accuse everybody else of this stuff. But ultimately, they're the ones who built him. They made Joe Biden who he is today. So I feel like... I don't feel bad for them about any of this, Cain. I don't feel bad about any of this. Audio, audio some by five. Senator Fetterman says that the he says that Hunter was deserves a pardon because it was politically motivated. I disagree on this. Listen.
SPEAKER 27 :
Well, I think it's undeniable that the case against Hunter Biden was really politically motivated. But I also think it's true that the trial in New York for Trump, that was political as well, too. And in both cases, I think a pardon is appropriate. And I really think collectively, you know, America's confidence in these kinds of institutions have been damaged by these kinds of cases.
SPEAKER 23 :
The thing, the Hunter Biden case, the pardon wasn't just for one thing. You it was for his tax issues in California, which he's guilt. I mean, for crying out loud, that was that had nothing to do with politics. The family was switching money around to their different shell companies and the amounts that they were moving triggered. the banks to investigate. So that had nothing to do with politics. That's standard operating procedure. The gun charge, that's not politically motivated. You know what's been politically motivated is stripping FFLs of their licenses over grammatical errors because you're looking for any way possible to shut down retailers. That's politically motivated. So you can't just say that the whole, all of the things that Hunter Biden is being charged with, they're not even remotely all the same. They didn't even start remotely all at the same time. Oh my gosh, like the bank thing, that was like even before the laptop. That's how shady this family is. So, no, it wasn't political. It was not all political prosecutions. None of it was with Hunter, really. It really wasn't. The New York thing to take an expired misdemeanor and attach a mystery charge to it to falsify its elevation to a federal charge is asinine. That is political.
SPEAKER 21 :
Welcome to Pro Tips for the Pros, brought to you by Floor & Decor Parsippany. In this series, we'll explore essential advice for professional contractors to deliver outstanding renovation results. Let's dive in. After completing the renovation, follow up with the customer to ensure their satisfaction and address any remaining concerns. Provide maintenance tips and guidance to help them preserve the results of the renovation for years to come. Thank you for joining us for this pro tip on planning thorough renovations. Stay tuned for more expert advice brought to you by Floor & Decor Parsippany.
SPEAKER 18 :
A lot of people tolerate ordinary. Ordinary bathrooms, kitchens, entryways. Well, not on your watch. If you're a pro, you've got a new partner in town. Floor & Decor. From tile to wood to stone, Floor & Decor has more styles and jaw-block quantities of Schluter, Mapei, Ladecrete, and other brands pros trust. Come see a whole new way to wow with Floor & Decor. Now open in Parsippany.
SPEAKER 21 :
Welcome to Pro Tips for the Pros, brought to you by Florin Decor East Brunswick. In this series, we'll explore essential advice for professional contractors to deliver outstanding renovation results. Let's dive in. After completing the renovation, follow up with the customer to ensure their satisfaction and address any remaining concerns. Provide maintenance tips and guidance to help them preserve the results of the renovation for years to come. Thank you for joining us for this pro tip on planning thorough renovations. Stay tuned for more expert advice brought to you by floor and decor East Brunswick.
SPEAKER 18 :
A lot of people tolerate ordinary. Ordinary bathrooms, kitchens, entryways. Well, not on your watch. If you're a pro, you've got a new partner in town. Floor & Decor. From tile to wood to stone, Floor & Decor has more styles and job lot quantities of Schluter, Mapei, Ladecrete, and other brands pros trust. Come see a whole new way to wow with Floor & Decor. Now open in East Brunswick.
SPEAKER 09 :
And now, all of the news you would probably miss. It's time for Dana's Quick Five.
SPEAKER 23 :
So apparently two Delta flight attendants failed a breathalyzer test right before an international flight. Do they have to take breathalyzers before they... Yeah.
SPEAKER 11 :
Really?
SPEAKER 23 :
I mean, they're not flying the plane. They got pulled after failing a breathalyzer in Amsterdam on Friday. They were randomly tested by Dutch authorities before a flight to JFK, and a female intendant had a .02, so it was seven times over the legal limit. Honestly, can I be real? Yeah, .02. Like, what's their limit there?
SPEAKER 09 :
.08 is the legal limit, so she's under the legal limit?
SPEAKER 23 :
They said that the female flight attendant showed blood alcohol seven times over the legal limit. Oh, and a male flight attendant failed by .02. Oh, gotcha.
SPEAKER 11 :
Okay.
SPEAKER 23 :
So honestly, like I like a lot of flight attendants, but some of them probably need to be drunk to offer better service. So I don't know if I'm some of them need to chill out. You know what I mean? So I feel like I don't know if I'm for this. I'm just saying I got to be honest. So let's see. Scammers are using bogus QR codes on parking meters. Yeah, I believe that. Why would anybody do that, though? Like, don't just don't just scan stuff and do. But the FBI said that they're hijacking QR codes. They're placing stickers with codes they create on top of the real QR code. And then that directs you to phishing websites where people can steal personal or financial information. Just be careful about this stuff. Right. OK. Just be very always double check. Make sure it's not a sticker over a sticker. Stick with us.
SPEAKER 21 :
Welcome to Pro Tips for the Pros, brought to you by Florin Decor East Brunswick. In this series, we'll explore essential advice for professional contractors to deliver outstanding renovation results. Let's dive in. After completing the renovation, follow up with the customer to ensure their satisfaction and address any remaining concerns. Provide maintenance tips and guidance to help them preserve the results of the renovation for years to come. Thank you for joining us for this pro tip on planning thorough renovations. Stay tuned for more expert advice brought to you by floor and decor East Brunswick.
SPEAKER 18 :
A lot of people tolerate ordinary. Ordinary bathrooms, kitchens, entryways. Well, not on your watch. If you're a pro, you've got a new partner in town. Floor & Decor. From tile to wood to stone, Floor & Decor has more styles and job lock quantities of Schluter, Mapei, Ladecrete, and other brands pros trust. Come see a whole new way to wow with Floor & Decor. Now open in East Brunswick.
SPEAKER 21 :
Welcome to Pro Tips for the Pros, brought to you by Florin Decor East Brunswick. In this series, we'll explore essential advice for professional contractors to deliver outstanding renovation results. Let's dive in. Prioritize quality craftsmanship and materials to deliver results that exceed the customer's expectations. Attention to detail and superior workmanship will leave a lasting impression and ensure customer satisfaction. Thank you for joining us for this pro tip on planning thorough renovations. Stay tuned for more expert advice brought to you by Floor & Decor East Brunswick.
SPEAKER 18 :
A lot of people tolerate ordinary. Ordinary bathrooms, kitchens, entryways. Well, not on your watch. If you're a pro, you've got a new partner in town. Floor & Decor. From tile to wood to stone, Floor & Decor has more styles and job lot quantities of Schluter, Mapei, Ladecrete, and other brands pros trust. Come see a whole new way to wow with Floor & Decor. Now open in East Brunswick.
SPEAKER 05 :
True in every respect, but on page 195 of the CAS report it says, there is no evidence that gender affirmative treatments reduce suicide.
SPEAKER 22 :
What I think that is referring to is there is no evidence in the studies that this treatment reduces completed suicide. And the reason for that is completed suicide, thankfully and admittedly, is rare. And we're talking about a very small population of individuals with studies that don't necessarily have completed suicides within them. However, there are multiple studies long-term longitudinal studies that do show that there is a reduction in suicidality, which I think is a positive outcome to this treatment.
SPEAKER 23 :
So this is the ACLU's attorney, the trans attorney, who was trying to present as an argument for her case that gender—I hate this phrase— I'm not saying gender affirmative, the experimental surgeries and the chemical castrations and the puberty blockers and the hormones and all of this stuff, the elective mastectomies, all of it, that it reduces suicide. That was what they were trying to argue in the beginning. And now when they have to actually provide any something substantial to support their their argument, they are unable to, and they have to, I mean, they have to relent and acknowledge that there's no evidence in these studies that it reduces suicide. Cain keeps going back to suicidality. Yeah, you like that word?
SPEAKER 09 :
I mean, it's everything. It's like, but people think about it, though, is the thing. People think about suicide. So that's why we need these surgeries, because people think about suicide.
SPEAKER 23 :
I mean, being suicidal, and then that's a very different, what they're trying to, I mean, that's a Ma Bailey.
SPEAKER 11 :
Exactly.
SPEAKER 23 :
That doesn't make any sense. That's so stupid. I mean you're either – I mean there's a medical evaluation for that. And literally there's criteria already established to determine whether or not someone is suicidal clearly. This is just them trying to shore up this losing argument. They're not going to – it doesn't look like the court is going to lean their way. But we'll see. Just –
SPEAKER 09 :
Other countries have done the studies and they realize that there's no future in this path that's good for humanity.
SPEAKER 23 :
That's why they're banned in Europe.
SPEAKER 09 :
Exactly right. And they know that this is the end game here, but they're trying to play the drama up. The media is trying to do that now with this SCOTUS situation.
SPEAKER 23 :
Now, Lorraine made note of this. I didn't. Someone else did. Because I had this thought that I wasn't going to say anything because I thought I was the only one. No, Lorraine just came out with it in Slack. Lorraine's going to learn real quick. She goes, the lawyer's name is Chase Strangeo, LOL, aka Chasing Strange. I am dead. I am dead. It sounds like a very fancy way of saying, I mean, you could say Chasing Strange. That's just, you know, or Chasing Strangeo. Strangio. Chasing the Strangio. I don't know. Gosh, it's so... You guys know what that means. No, I'm not going to explain it. Don't Google it. Do not. I feel like they're doing it when I say to not, Cain.
SPEAKER 09 :
But that can't be... Is that the real name? Yeah, that's what her name is. That can't be real.
SPEAKER 23 :
Chase Strangio.
SPEAKER 09 :
That cannot be real. So there's nothing real about this person.
SPEAKER 23 :
That's like someone's name... being no don't do it you're gonna do it aren't you don't do it don't do it well you know like if their first name was michael okay no i know what you mean and i get it and his parents are the hunt family oh man what just saying it's like a joke almost like jokey like that right yeah it is Chase Strangio. What a name. Like, of all the names you could... For real, like, if you're going to change all that about yourself, maybe don't make your name Chasing Strange. It's like Chasing Amy, but not. Right? You all right over there? Yeah. I don't know, man. I blame Lorraine for that one.
SPEAKER 09 :
It's all her, man. They even have a real lawyer?
SPEAKER 23 :
Is she a real lawyer? She has... She's a lawyer. She's with the ACLU, whatever that means.
SPEAKER 09 :
But is the she part the lawyer or is the he part the lawyer? Nah, she's a lawyer. Did she take the bar or did he take the bar?
SPEAKER 23 :
I mean, does it matter?
SPEAKER 09 :
I thought it did.
SPEAKER 23 :
I don't know. But still, that's the argument that they're having. That's the Supreme Court. Like I said, I still feel like SCOTUS, especially with some of the questioning, it feels like they're leaning towards... not, I mean, in favor of Tennessee. That's what it sounds like. But, you know, I'm still, we'll see. It's a All right, we've got – I'm looking at some – there's like a bunch of odds and ends stuff. Like I've got Doge stuff. We've been talking about the cabinet nominees and this thing with SecDef, which I think we're not going to know until Trump actually just comes out and says, hey, guys, I'm either going to stand behind my nominee or I feel like maybe – Maybe we need to have somebody else because there's been a lot of rumors about DeSantis and all this. So we'll see. But I will say that one of the other moves, and I'm going to go to Doge just because I like saying it. One of the other things that we've seen is this department. I was actually shocked at this. So Luke Rosiak, who does really good work and he's done stuff with Daily Caller, etc. He had said in this in his examination of the federal workforce, I did not know it was this much. He had said that 94 percent of the feds of the federal government still works from home. The EPA had poisonous water in its own headquarters because it was sitting in the pipes stagnant from disuse. USDA inspectors claim that they inspect food facilities for safety issues from home. It's 2024. 94% of them still work from home. What in the world? He noted that that the Social Security Administration just spent $120 million renovating its massive headquarters. But the building is 91% unused. And Biden just signed an agreement giving them, all the way through the Trump administration, I mean, to be able to continue using this building, even though Biden used his 2022 speech to say workers have to come back to the office and be productive. At the VA, their website states that you can break away from the traditional nine to 540 hour work week. One third of calls to one mental health hotline for veterans went unanswered. This is unreal. Unreal. So apparently now. It looks like this might be one of the first things Doge cuts. It might be one of the very first things that they cut. When you look at how before the pandemic, apparently it was only 3% of the federal workforce that worked from home or teleworked or whatever before the pandemic, 3%, like barely 3%. Now they said 6% report in person on a full-time basis. One-third entirely are remote. The government spends $16 billion a year to operate all of its buildings, the properties that it puts all this stuff in, right? And so even knowing that, even knowing that, They only have an occupancy rate of 12%.
SPEAKER 1 :
12%.
SPEAKER 23 :
Even GSA, and that's the General Services Administration, that's the entity that manages federal real estate. They work from home. Their base in Missouri came. Unbelievable. Like the EPA. That's how Luke Rosiak noted that they had dangerous bacteria in their water, according to an audit, because the water was left in the pipes stagnant from disuse. But yet they have the unions, which I don't think public sector unions absolutely have no place in American society. Private unions are one thing. I don't have an issue with private unions. Public unions, where the government gets to sit at the table with big fat cat public unions, funded by the taxpayer bosses and taxpayers are told that we don't get to have a say in it oh hell no and a lot of them taxpayers are private unions too private working private sector unions does that sound like it's fair hell no it doesn't and but you have the public unions that are demanding full individual workstations for each employee being maintained in the event that they're used Those rare occasions. So now it looks like because one of the things Musk has said is that if people don't want to come into work, then they can go find another job. I agree. But you know what? What's more? If it's shown that we don't need all this, then why do we have it? If we don't need all these employees, why do we have them? I think we need to eliminate a lot of these offices entirely. Social Security Administration, give everybody money back. Stop government spending. Take it all down to Article 1, Section 8. Return money to the people. Eliminate it. Eliminate Department of Education. Eliminate Social Security Administration. Eliminate DHS. I mean, I could go on, on and on and on. But it requires an austerity that most people, including Republicans, don't have the spine to endure. This congressman says it's absurd to get rid of the Department of Education. Listen.
SPEAKER 14 :
I've got many examples where CBO has absolutely failed to adequately assess the cost. I think with the issue of getting rid of the Department of Education, for example, they claim it would cost millions and millions and millions of dollars to get rid of an agency. That makes no sense at all. You're getting rid of an agency that costs us $80 billion a year, and yet it's supposed to cost us more money if we get rid of it?
SPEAKER 23 :
That just is absurd. It's not going to cost you more money if you get rid of it. Do you realize the amount of spending that we do per student in some of these states where you have the worst academic performances? What the states spend per student actually exceeds about 90% of private school tuition per student. When I was in Ohio for an event, I think it was they were telling us that they spent over $13,000. I think it was over $13,000. Let me check my notes. The spending... student per student in Ohio. Oh, sorry, I was under. It's over $15,000 per student. In fact, the approximate average is $15,427 per pupil. And that's in Ohio. In some states, it's higher. Illinois, it's higher. California, it's higher. New York, it's higher. I was at an event, and I was talking with a family. They have three kids, and their kids are in private Christian school. And their private tuition per student was cheaper than what they spend public school per pupil. Now, I homeschooled my kids, and then they went to a Christian school. And we spent less per pupil than what the state of Texas spent, spends per pupil. We spent less on their per student tuition than what the state, that's unreal. My point in telling you this is that when you talk about school choice, what you're talking about is allowing all that money that you're paying into these schools that are not performing, a department of education that has been failing your kids ultimately since its inception, and allowing you to choose a better education for your kids. People who argue against school choice, they don't want your kids better educated. They want you to be as uneducated as they can make you. They don't want your children to, they don't want them, they don't believe in upward economic mobility. And they use this as a weapon against it. That is what this is. They don't want you choosing a better school for your child. These people who want to deny you the right of what to do with the money you work for and the child that you are raising. Now you can see why this is such a common denominator issue for so many. Republicans need to be louder and louder and louder about this.
SPEAKER 21 :
Welcome to Pro Tips for the Pros, brought to you by Florin Decor East Brunswick. In this series, we'll explore essential advice for professional contractors to deliver outstanding renovation results. Let's dive in. After completing the renovation, follow up with the customer to ensure their satisfaction and address any remaining concerns. Provide maintenance tips and guidance to help them preserve the results of the renovation for years to come. Thank you for joining us for this pro tip on planning thorough renovations. Stay tuned for more expert advice brought to you by floor and decor East Brunswick.
SPEAKER 18 :
A lot of people tolerate ordinary. Ordinary bathrooms, kitchens, entryways. Well, not on your watch. If you're a pro, you've got a new partner in town. Floor & Decor. From tile to wood to stone, Floor & Decor has more styles and job lock quantities of Schluter, Mapei, Ladecrete, and other brands pros trust. Come see a whole new way to wow with Floor & Decor. Now open in East Brunswick.
SPEAKER 21 :
Welcome to Pro Tips for the Pros, brought to you by Floor & Decor Parsippany. In this series, we'll explore essential advice for professional contractors to deliver outstanding renovation results. Let's dive in. Clear communication is key to a successful renovation. Keep the customer informed at every stage of the project, addressing any concerns or questions promptly to maintain trust and satisfaction. Thank you for joining us for this pro tip on planning thorough renovations. Stay tuned for more expert advice, brought to you by Floor & Decor Parsippany.
SPEAKER 18 :
A lot of people tolerate ordinary. Ordinary bathrooms, kitchens, entryways. Well, not on your watch. If you're a pro, you've got a new partner in town. Floor & Decor. From tile to wood to stone, Floor & Decor has more styles and job lock quantities of Schluter, Mapei, LATICRETE, and other brands pros trust. Come see a whole new way to wow with Floor & Decor. Now open in Parsippany.
SPEAKER 09 :
It's his life mission to make bad decisions. It's time for Florida Man.
SPEAKER 23 :
Jeez, straws, axes. So, this Florida man, a saw-swinging Florida man, struck a guy during a wrong-way driving argument. Boy, oh boy. Yeah. Yeah. So this Fort Myers, Lee County Sheriff's Office, an argument over a wrong way driving landed one man in jail and another left with life, non-life-threatening injuries. Rolando Ruiz Alonzo. Too many names, Rolando. He was the primary aggressor in the altercation. And according to police, the old dude began swinging a... Was it a saw or not? A saw-like tool toward a victim as the argument escalated and the victim was struck. And then he also used a piece of ceramic pottery as a weapon. He was charged with aggravated battery with a deadly weapon. Uh, I guess he, I mean, he was driving the wrong way and got called that. I don't know, but good heavens. Like there's how many people have saws and machetes there? Like it's like people just go to their trucks and get them. Here's our, here's my machete. Okay. Here's my saw. A Florida man who was accused of murder was captured after TikTok revealed his whereabouts. People overshare. He shot and killed his girlfriend in front of her two children while they were at a cemetery of all places. St. Petersburg police were searching for him for three and a half years. No success. And then a video of a local news story was shared on TikTok. He was in Mexico and it showed him in Mexico and they were able to get him. So now he's been charged with first degree murder and two counts of child abuse. They just happened to get him. So, wow. They just happened to see him in the background of this news story. He was in Mexico. Not really hiding out too well, I guess. We have our third hour on the way and the latest with just all the latest. Stick with us.
SPEAKER 21 :
Welcome to Pro Tips for the Pros, brought to you by Florin Decor East Brunswick. In this series, we'll explore essential advice for professional contractors to deliver outstanding renovation results. Let's dive in. After completing the renovation, follow up with the customer to ensure their satisfaction and address any remaining concerns. Provide maintenance tips and guidance to help them preserve the results of the renovation for years to come. Thank you for joining us for this pro tip on planning thorough renovations. Stay tuned for more expert advice brought to you by floor and decor East Brunswick.
SPEAKER 18 :
A lot of people tolerate ordinary. Ordinary bathrooms, kitchens, entryways. Well, not on your watch. If you're a pro, you've got a new partner in town. Floor & Decor. From tile to wood to stone, Floor & Decor has more styles and job lock quantities of Schluter, Mapei, LATICRETE, and other brands pros trust. Come see a whole new way to wow with Floor & Decor. Now open in East Brunswick.
SPEAKER 21 :
Welcome to Pro Tips for the Pros, brought to you by Floor & Decor Parsippany. In this series, we'll explore essential advice for professional contractors to deliver outstanding renovation results. Let's dive in. After completing the renovation, follow up with the customer to ensure their satisfaction and address any remaining concerns. Provide maintenance tips and guidance to help them preserve the results of the renovation for years to come. Thank you for joining us for this pro tip on planning thorough renovations. Stay tuned for more expert advice brought to you by floor and decor Parsippany.
SPEAKER 18 :
A lot of people tolerate ordinary. Ordinary bathrooms, kitchens, entryways. Well, not on your watch. If you're a pro, you've got a new partner in town. Floor & Decor. From tile to wood to stone, Floor & Decor has more styles and job lock quantities of Schluter, Mapei, Ladecrete, and other brands pros trust. Come see a whole new way to wow with Floor & Decor. Now open in Parsippany.
SPEAKER 23 :
Welcome back. Top of the third hour. Dana Lash with you. Find us over at Substack as well. Chapter and verse. And you can also check us out on Rumble, Channel 347, DirecTV, all that good stuff. I want to show you this video. Imagine you are in the grocery store. And in this instance, it's a Walmart superstore. And you witness this in front of you as captured in video.
SPEAKER 11 :
Watch.
SPEAKER 23 :
It's this little girl. Who is the annoying broad who's going, you don't know what she's been through. Shut up. Tell me that you don't have kids without telling me you don't have kids. This woman, you don't know what she's, what the hell, why does anyone care what, it's not about what she's been through. It's about what she's doing right now, her illegal criminal behavior in the store right now. That's the issue. Where are her parents at? Everyone's like, don't touch her. Don't do this. This enables this behavior. You're not doing this kid a favor. Where's this kid's parents at? Why is she doing stuff like this in a store? You know, she's feeding off of all that. All those people who are going, don't touch her, don't touch her. She's feeding off all of that. And that's part of the reason why she keeps going. Everybody's watching me. Look what I can do. But this one woman who's got to be there, anytime anybody tries to intercede, that lady gets involved. Just shut up, you and your bell-bottom yoga pants, and walk right back into the bread aisle where you came from. Good night. I'd have beat my kid's ass if they'd done something like this in a store. So what do you do in this situation? What would you have done, Cain? You're in a super Walmart, Cain, or any of you out there. You come across this right in front of you. You're just trying to shop, you know, get your foodstuffs. What do you do?
SPEAKER 09 :
Wait, are we saying if that's my kid or if that's just a random?
SPEAKER 23 :
Oh, if that's just what you see. Everyone's like, don't touch her. She's throwing stuff. She's throwing glass.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah, it becomes dangerous at that point.
SPEAKER 23 :
Yeah. What if she throws a glass bottle at your head?
SPEAKER 09 :
Well, not only that, but what if she's walking around on top of said,
SPEAKER 23 :
Mm hmm.
SPEAKER 09 :
Glass.
SPEAKER 23 :
What liability is that creating for the store if anybody slips and falls on any of the stuff that she's thrown and breaking in the floor?
SPEAKER 09 :
Not to mention the actual loss of the products themselves.
SPEAKER 23 :
Right. Finally, there's a man who goes over and intervenes, but then you got busy body, rowdy woman who comes over there.
SPEAKER 09 :
just shut up I don't know like instinctually you'd want to grab the kid by the arm and pull him away from there and give them a nice physical you know like oh a little jarring it's like oh what is this what's going on here not an abuse not any sort of you know litigatable pain or suffering this is literally just a little jolt that's what you're doing here is not what you need to be doing plus now it's dangerous and so what I know for sure I would have said something to that woman
SPEAKER 23 :
Oh, yeah, I would have said something to her, too.
SPEAKER 09 :
Without a doubt.
SPEAKER 23 :
Oh, yeah, completely. I mean, you don't know what she's going through. That's not validation. That's not justification to destroy stuff and put other people in danger in a store.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah, you don't want to put hands on someone else's kid. You don't put hands on anybody else. You don't want to do that. The fact that she's putting people in that position is a problem.
SPEAKER 23 :
I think if people don't want their kids to get their ass beat from throwing around wine bottles in a store, then maybe they ought to do it themselves before other people will. That's kind of how I look at it. Because I'm going to tell you what, your kid throws a wine bottle at me, I will beat your kid's ass. I will be the parent that you failed to be. Absolutely. And then I will sue you. for everything I can think of and I will run you into deficit by occupying you in warfare as punishment for not parenting your child and then your child will be taken and given to somebody who can raise your child better so there's a whole process I I mean that doesn't help the kid by oh don't touch her encouraging this behavior people are afraid to parent anymore Isn't that wild? At one point, does anybody in that video go, where are her mom and dad? I mean, where are her parents? I mean, she comes off as an entitled brat. It doesn't look like she's on hard times or nothing. She's dressed nice. It looks like she's clean and fed. You know, I don't know. But they're like, oh, you don't know what she's going through. You can't intervene. That's not justification for any of it. A lot of people go through a lot of hard stuff. And I think it's insulting and it's weak to blame your circumstances for acting like that in public. There's no excuse for it. There's none. Absolutely none. You don't just get to destroy stuff in a store. And I don't know where her I kept trying to look and see. I don't know. I couldn't identify whether or not she had a parent there in the store. I mean, how would your mom just be or your dad just be watching you do this stuff? I don't know. But that's, you know, don't don't touch her. Oh, you don't know what she's been through. Well, what about all the other people there that are just trying to shop? What about what they've been through? You know, they've all been through stuff, too. They don't want to be subjected to this stuff. They don't want to have stuff thrown at them. They don't want to watch this kid. I mean, what, you're giving them room to destroy store product and throw around bottles of juice? It's crazy. I mean, I don't know. They... This is the kid knows that she was that she's pushing boundaries in this video, clearly, which is why she's she's doing it. And all these people that are standing there like don't do anything. She knows that she's got the upper hand because everyone's terrified to do anything. And then what happens when she's allowed to destroy this stuff as a kid? What happens when she turns 18 and she tries this? Huh? Who gets the blame then? for her going to jail for property destruction or assault or something of that nature, then who gets the blame? You know, it could have been prevented. I mean, I don't know. The woman who's like, don't touch her, don't touch her. She's part of the problem, too. She also needs to have her A-double-snakes beat. She's part of the problem, also. This kid needs to be in a juvie ward. I mean, the worker's standing there doing nothing. You know, nothing. All the workers that are just sitting there looking at her. The man steps in and finally restrains her. The man. You got all these do nothing women standing there. And then the man has to step in and restrain the child. And then you got that mouthy broad that comes in. Shut up. Now who's going to pay for all the destruction? Who's going to pay for that? Who pays extra for cleaning up the broken glass? I mean, that's entitlement. You're destroying something that other people are expected to clean up while pretending that you're the victim. Man, this kid's already been failed clearly by their parents. This kid's just a bad kid. She's a bad kid. And then the woman who was like, don't touch her. Is she paying for all this? I didn't see that broad running her mouth. I didn't see her getting down on her hands and knees to clean up the mess that this kid was making. Did you? I didn't see her getting down. I didn't see her taking out her purse to get some money out of her wallet to pay for everything that was destroyed.
SPEAKER 09 :
And what's even more upsetting is that now it's completely reversed. They'll call the cops on parents that are actually implementing discipline and won't on parents who let their kids do what we just saw in that video.
SPEAKER 23 :
I never acted out in a store like this because my mother would have murdered me. And my kids didn't do this. My kids only acted up one time in public. One time. That's all it took. And I did the one, two, three count. And I think they remember it to this day. Because the youngest was being real... The oldest was being real... Wasn't listening too well, being kind of dangerous, climbing up and jumping up too high. And I'm like, he's going to break his legs off. Wasn't listening. And then kept running around because the playground we were at, it was separated by a really low stone wall. And you could just climb right over it and go out into the road. Youngest kept trying to go on the other side of the wall. I'm like, you have a whole playground over here. Why are you attracted to the street? Stop it. And I told him once, I was like, I'm going to give you a count. This is one. And I tell you again, and you don't come in. When I get to three, that's it. We're going. It's like, whatever. didn't listen again, gave him a warning, counted. I said, one, still didn't come back over the wall. Wanted to go and play in the street. Two, got to three, went, picked him up, screaming, hollering. It was like I was murdering him or skinning a cat or something. Got him and his younger brother in the car and we left. That was the, oh my gosh, it was just like, you know, a bomb went off, a bomb of screaming and shrieking. But it was the only time I ever had to count. And I was able to use the one, two, three thing literally up until they were like 16. So actually, I probably could still do it today. Come to think of it, because not only did I put him in a car, but I whooped his ass right there, whooped him, put him in the car. Let's go. Oh, my gosh. It's about to follow through. I literally never had to do it again. Ever. It was a magical thing. I'm like, one? That was it. Everyone was like, oh my gosh, she's at one. Stopped. This kid? Jeez. This is part of the problem. I still, can I just, I'm going to move on, but the other thing that gets me are the workers. They're women, too. I've noticed it. There's the there's only one what there's there's one man who's kind of comes up towards the end, but he's holding something. He was shopping and then a dad. You could tell that's a dad. The dad comes, but not her dad. It is a dad comes in immediately when she's throwing glass and he stops her. Kids like this who do not get their behavior corrected become problems for society. They grew up to be Hunter Biden. That's what happens. They grow up to be Hunter Biden. Speaking of which, have you guys seen the Bidens? Have you seen the Christmas decorations that Jill Biden put up? They didn't have big fanfare about it this time, did they? Let me pull this link up. So, yeah. So apparently it was Jill Biden that was the one who was convincing the family about to convincing Joe to do the pardon, to pardon Hunter. And she apparently, I was reading a story yesterday, she led the family campaign to pressure him to do it. Although I really don't think that, to me, it seems like I don't really think that they needed a lot of pressure, right? That's something that I don't really think they needed a lot of pressure on. But in addition, when I was reading this piece, let me pull this story up. My link is broken. Did you guys see their Christmas decorations? They were circus decorations. They were, it's being described as fitting, her Christmas decorations. One of them is a literal actual circus, like in the room. And pull this up. I mean, it is like a literal circus decorations. The last holiday, the last Christmas they're having at the White House, they have circus decorations. I can't think of anything more fitting than this. Right? They did circus decorations. I don't know, man. I mean... It is, yeah, it looks intentional, doesn't it? And it also is kind of just tacky. I don't like it. I like the more traditional stuff. I don't like this kind of stuff. But I just want to say, I don't think that they do this. Remember, they're not doing the stockings on the fireplace like they were.
SPEAKER 09 :
Do you think merry-go-rounds when you think Christmas?
SPEAKER 23 :
Yeah, I don't know. And why is the tree in the bars? It's like jailed in the circus merry-go-round. I don't understand this. If you're looking at the simulcast on Channel 347 or X or Rumble, if you're looking at Juan showing you, that's part of the decorations. Why does it look like the Christmas tree is prisoner in a merry-go-round? Why? Why? Isn't that weird? I'm not trying to be picky. See, they got mad at Melania Trump. Her decorations were great. She would not have done some like jumbled up mess like that.
SPEAKER 24 :
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SPEAKER 09 :
And now, all of the news you would probably miss. It's time for Dana's Quick Five.
SPEAKER 23 :
So in Ohio, I told you the Ohio woman who was charged with killing and eating a cat because that was happening, she did plead guilty to one felony count of animal cruelty. She did plead guilty. So that story was true. I just want everyone to know that. Gay couples are rushing to marry and have kids before Trump's inauguration. Why? This is so stupid. Why? Like he literally never did anything to, why? Yeah, and he didn't. Look, that's one of the reasons why some of the evangelical sect got mad at him over some of this stuff. You know what? You're going to have a crappy wedding, and you're going to have a horrible reception, and you're going to have bad music and a bad DJ because you're rushing because you're a turd. Stop it. So stupid. Nobody cares. Do what you're going to do in your private life and leave the rest of us the hell alone. Right? Some of us got baking to do and I'm high on Augmentin right now. The antibiotic. I have to tell people this because people are like, you seem really cheery today. No, I don't. I'm spacey. Now I feel like I got to be meaner. I feel like everybody thinks I'm nice today and it's just, I don't know. Harvey Weinstein was rushed to the hospital over... Doesn't he have like... What did he have? Leukemia. That's right. Blood cancer. Does anybody care? No. Let's see. A man suffered a chemical burn that lasted for months after squeezing limes. Hold up. Hold up. Wait a minute. They... I did not know this. You could actually do this with limes. This guy, it took him two hands, two days for everything to go back to normal. Lime juice and sunlight. So he had squeezed a dozen limes. He went to an outdoor soccer game and didn't apply sunscreen. And then when he came back, he had a rash all over his hands exactly where the lime juice was. And they were saying that it was phytophotodermatitis. It was in the New England Journal of Medicine. And that a number of plants... It might not be toxic right when you're working with it, but when you combine that with the UV light, then it can become that. I actually have heard of this before. That's why, but they were saying sweet orange, lemon, lime, carrots, celery even. Crazy. We have a lot more on the way. Stick with us. That's crazy. Celery?
SPEAKER 19 :
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SPEAKER 16 :
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SPEAKER 23 :
Back to the program, Dana Lesh here with you and we are uh Of course, you know, here discussing all of the latest cabinet picks, everything else with POTUS and POTUS Elect. And then we were kind of questioning where POTATUS is. Not quite sure where he went. I don't know what's happening there. We'll see. A couple of things. I got some audio I wanted to put out here. This is... This is wild. Audio Soundbite 15. Eric... Adams, the New York City mayor, he says, well, he's been very, very critical over the illegal alien crisis in New York. And he had some things to say about it. He dared the left even to cancel him yesterday. He also added this, audio soundbite 15.
SPEAKER 02 :
The long-term impact of what we did to this city is going to, you're going to see it materialize in administrations in the future. They hurt the future of New York City. And when people hear me say $6.4 billion, they may say, okay, it's just a billion here, a billion there. No, we didn't invest in seniors the way we should have and young people the way we should have. We're not going out to get these chronic absentee students the way we should have. the crimes that we witnessed, this impacted our city and people don't seem to understand why were you fighting so hard for this? Because I reflected on that 11 year old boy that was denied and I went into government to stop these 11 year old boys and I came up with a plan to do so and the federal government made me take $6.4 billion out of providing these services that we should, we all should be angry at what happened to our city. under this administration.
SPEAKER 23 :
Oh, it was that last point there. They're going to get him. He's not going to be invited for any more Democrat fundraisers after that. I don't see how that happens. But he's not wrong. Here's the thing. And I keep seeing this because I'm just sort of watching some of the stuff at play and looking at things like Democrats going into 28 and all this stuff. there's going to be a huge problem. They still have a big problem. They haven't done a proper actual post-mortem of why they lost. It's obvious to us why they lost. It's not obvious to the left why they lost. Now, by the left, I mean people in D.C., Because Eric Adams seems to kind of get it. And I don't agree with him on hardly anything. But on this, you know, it's not incorrect. That's not what you're hearing from Democrats in D.C. Democrats in D.C. don't think that anything's wrong. They think the economy's great. If you listen to their soundbites. that economy's great, there's no issue at the border. What they're, I guess, living or experiencing is miles wide, inches deep in terms of the depth that they're willing to explore it. It's so different from what we're living. But then you've got governors and you've got mayors like Eric Adams who are saying things that he's not, what he's saying isn't Republican stuff. I mean, what he's saying is what anybody would say if they had a brain and eyes. They can see exactly what's happening. They know what's going on here. They can see the crime. They can see the unfettered thousands that are being brought illegally across the border and being sent to New York because it's a sanctuary city. They see the crimes committed illegally. by unvetted individuals who were just allowed to enter. No way of checking any kind of criminal record. People are done with it. They're fed up. This is reflected in the language and the positions of local and state lawmakers. But then it seems to end there. Nationally, federally, in D.C., totally different story. They're not going to be able to win another election until they fix that schism. It's a difference of, and I said this earlier, when your ideology meets reality. Reality requires sober observance. Reality requires practicality. Reality requires policy. like actual workable policy, not just simply denial. Until they figure this out, this is going to be a problem that they have for quite some time. We may never see another Democrat victory in our generation again. They're saying two different things. They're saying two different things. It's why in some states you had, like in blue wall states, If you went back and looked, some of the state lawmakers who were running for re-election were Democrats and they did well. But then the people voted for Trump for president. Don't you think that's interesting? You had Democrats that didn't turn out. The turnout for us this last election was actually pretty much almost the same as it was in 2020. Republicans didn't have a banger year for turnout. There wasn't any kind of exorbitant record-setting turnout because Republicans are good like that. But what you did have was record-setting lack of turnout for Democrats. No enthusiasm. They were giving nothing concrete to rally around. And a lot of them, a lot of Democrats that did turn out, they changed their affiliation and they voted for Republicans because they felt that the messaging that they were hearing, the policy proposals that they were reading were more in line with what they wanted and what they needed to happen than what they had previously believed with Democrats. This is going to be a problem for Democrats until they can get this. They've got to figure out how to reconcile these two very different things here. So did you hear about, I didn't know that there was luxury cannabis. I mean, I guess you can have artisanal weed. You can have artisanal anything, right? But what makes it artisanal? I mean, it doesn't get much more artisanal than growing in the sequoias with Bigfoots, right? I mean, I don't know. Jay-Z had apparently a luxury cannabis company, which is funny to me. And it struggled to sell $50 joints. I'm sorry. Was it? Now, I don't know how. Don't make fun of me. Shut up. Does it come in like a carton like cigarettes? Do you get like a bunch of the joints or is it just like one carton?
SPEAKER 09 :
No, I mean, I guess you can buy several, but they don't come in packs like cigarettes. There is a company that does them, and they make them look like cigarettes, but they're actually... Or do people make their own? Yeah, no, people mostly roll their own, but they sell them in pre-rolls.
SPEAKER 23 :
Sorry, do you do like a grape leaf, like with cigars, or is it just like cigarette paper? I'm curious. Yeah, it's cigarette paper. Okay, so were these, I guess, pre-rolled? Right. Luxury joints. $50 again, not knowing. I only know like the hysterical stuff that I've ever seen with Cheech and Chong. I mean, I'm assuming they're like that, but $50 for one of them. How much does that get you? What is, what are we talking about here?
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah. Cheech and Chong is shockingly real life. Oh, that's real life.
SPEAKER 23 :
So you get one joint for $50. No, no. That's what it says here. $50 for one of his luxury joints.
SPEAKER 09 :
I get that was their effort, but it didn't work out, obviously.
SPEAKER 23 :
Yeah, they lost half a billion dollars since they launched. How do you lose money on weed? If you do it stupid?
SPEAKER 09 :
Make it really expensive.
SPEAKER 23 :
This is like one of the dumbest things I've ever seen in my life. They act like they're like, oh, Sean Carter's a great businessman. Maybe, but not with this because I'm not even in the pot. And I could have told you you're selling one little joint for $50. Are you stupid? It's the luxury joint. What is it like? Do California condors talon roll it? Like, how does that work? Are there gold flakes that you smoke? What is it? Apparently, California has a tough legal pot market. I didn't know that either. It's wild. I love that everybody has to deal with bureaucracy. Like nobody, even the sin industries. I love it. They said that none of the retailers across California and Arizona, they don't stock Jay-Z's buds or joints on their online menus. Yeah. And they had, oh my gosh, this is Kamala level crazy, $575 million that they launched with. And now they're in trouble. They said that Jay-Z's monogram products are overpriced and underwhelming. Wow. And see, you never really get rid of the criminal element. They say California's legal weed sector has been stymied by complex rules, high taxes, competitions from black market traders, wildfires, sliding prices. A lot of people have been pushed into insolvency. But they said that it was mind-boggling the amount of money that was pushed for this. I could have told you immediately that probably not going to work. You're talking about luxury pot. People are broke. Everybody is broke. And the people who are going to be doing this are probably not going to be like the Jay-Z rich level people. They're going to be people who think that smoking this makes them Jay-Z rich level. And now they can't afford it because everybody's broke because of the president Jay-Z endorsed. And his administration. So I can't say that I feel sorry for him. I don't. I just think it's funny. Like, who thought that? You know what? We're in a time of, it's a lockdown. Let's launch a luxury cannabis company and charge people $50 per joint. What else can you make luxury? Like artisanal weed. Are you going to do artisanal kefir, Cain? It's pretty artisanal. I don't know how much more artisanal you can make it.
SPEAKER 09 :
It's pretty artisanal on its own. I don't know. Glass bottles preserved from Quaker. I have no idea what you could do with it.
SPEAKER 23 :
Yeah, that sounds... During a time of inflation, I just don't think that luxury stuff, especially starting any kind of luxury line, is going to make it take off. Gen Z, here's a story. Gen Z is killing the Christmas party. People are sober curious. Band-aid is banned. And everybody goes home early. Golly, this generation sucks. This is horrible. I don't want to party with these people. Yeah, I know, right? Who dookied in their Wheaties? Jiminy. They even know what those are. They said mistletoe is a firm no-no. Apparently, mistletoe sales have plummeted. I didn't even know.
SPEAKER 09 :
I've seen that.
SPEAKER 23 :
So stupid. They said that going to bed early is in. Gifting olive oil instead of alcohol. Shut up. Hot chocolate. And then out, band-aid, mistletoe, and alcohol. I mean... I don't know. I just don't know. Christmas parties, I don't care if somebody drinks or not. But if you're gifting, if you're giving olive oil, man, you better be knowing you're cooking. Don't just grab some cheap old olive oil because it's just stupid. Cain just gave me a serious look.
SPEAKER 09 :
That's a real thing. No plastic bottles. No plastic bottles.
SPEAKER 23 :
Yeah, you don't keep it on a plastic bottle either. I don't know. Isn't this the generation or is it millennials that got upset over baby, it's cold outside?
SPEAKER 09 :
I think it was millennials.
SPEAKER 23 :
Yeah, they ruin everything. These people ruin everything. Yeah, now they're like, oh, here we are hanging out and just, you know, no mistletoe. Band-Aid's part of it. You got to make fun of Band-Aid. That's the whole point of it. You play it and you make fun of the fact that all these celebrities got together and apparently Michael Jackson was weirded out. It's weird. It's funny. You make fun of it. Jiminy. Everybody stop being so serious.
SPEAKER 16 :
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SPEAKER 23 :
I read this story about how Hunter Biden apparently, isn't that interesting? He celebrated the pardon, his dad's pardon of himself. He celebrated it by watching a movie of himself. Well, what? So this is New York Post. He celebrated this unprecedented pardon from Daddy Joe by watching a movie about himself. Okay, what? It was a private screening of a documentary. Remember the sugar brother, Kevin Morris, the guy who facilitated everything by buying his horrible paintings? So he was the guy who apparently financed this documentary about him. And I guess he was at watching a screener of that. the day that the pardon came out. So, and he was very, he was very happy. He's this, apparently a source said he's had a huge weight was lifted off and he's had to carry since his dad got elected. I mean, his dad wasn't the one making you do all the gross things that you were doing, but okay. I mean, it, can you imagine being his kids and seeing this stuff about your dad in the press? It's just heinous, heinous. So yeah, they said that, you know, people were attacking me and they were attacking me because of my father. Or because you were a deadbeat nepo. I mean, that's kind of like, you know, really what we're looking at, but whatever. So he, I guess that, I don't know if it's ever going to be released. I don't know. So we'll, but yeah, that's how he spent, that's how he celebrated.
SPEAKER 09 :
So in 2020, Biden was adamant that Hunter's laptop was misinformation, wasn't real, and then recently now has pardoned him for all the crimes listed in the laptop.
SPEAKER 23 :
Yeah, so the laptop isn't real, but he got a pardon for all the stuff that he did in the laptop. So that's... The difference. Yeah, it's D different. There you are. That does it for us, at least for that portion. Of course, we're going to watch everything with the Penny case and then there's the Supreme Court as well. Any kind of cabinet changes, we'll have that covered tomorrow. Make sure you catch us at Substack Chapter and Verse as well. To date in stupidity, Cain.
SPEAKER 09 :
All right, looks like the medical treatment for transgenders conversation was happening with SCOTUS, and Sotomayor had a response to a question when it was asked, how many minors have to have their bodies irreparably harmed for unproven benefits? And I don't know about you, Dana. When I've taken aspirin, I don't have irreparable harm, but this is what her response was. Let's listen.
SPEAKER 07 :
cannot eliminate the risk of detransitioners. So it becomes a pure exercise of weighing benefits versus risk. And the question of how many minors have to have their bodies irreparably harmed for unproven benefits is one that is best left... I'm sorry, Counselor.
SPEAKER 12 :
Every medical treatment has a risk. What? Even taking aspirin. Oh, my Lord. Okay.
SPEAKER 23 :
It's just like the train. So just like lopping off your schlong. Same thing, Dana. Just like it. Yeah, it's just like it. That's, you know, you guys didn't know that. All right. That does it for us today. I hope you all have a great rest of your evening. Make sure you find it. Find us on Substack, Chapter and Verse, as well as Facebook, YouTube, like and subscribe. I'll be back on Monday tomorrow.
SPEAKER 15 :
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On today's special Christmas program, we feature inspiring conversations about faith, miracles, and redemption from our limited series, Profiles in Leadership. Randy Weber, U.S. Representative for the 14th District of Texas, Josh Brecheen, U.S.
SPEAKER 02 :
from the heart of our nation's capital in Washington, D.C., bringing compelling interviews, insightful analysis, taking you beyond the headlines and soundbites into conversations with our nation's leaders and newsmakers, all from a biblical worldview. Sitting in for Tony is today's host, Jody Heiss.
SPEAKER 16 :
Merry Christmas. Thank you so much for joining this very, very special edition of Washington Watch. I'm your host, Jody Heiss, a senior vice president here at the Family Research Council and president of FRC Action. We are so thrilled to have you join us. And let me just say, all of us here at FRC are deeply, deeply thankful for each and every single one of you, our viewers and our listeners. We hope that today has been for you. A HOPEFUL DAY FILLED WITH HOPE, JOY, PEACE, AND LOVE AS WE ALL CELEBRATE THE BIRTH OF OUR LORD AND SAVIOR, JESUS CHRIST. AND WE ARE REMINDED THAT THE WORD TELLS US THAT UNTO US A CHILD IS BORN, A SON IS GIVEN, AND THE GOVERNMENT SHALL BE UPON HIS SHOULDERS AND HIS NAME SHALL BE CALLED WONDERFUL COUNSELOR, MIGHTY GOD, EVERLASTING FATHER, PRINCE OF PEACE. ISAIAH 9-6. HOW AWESOME THAT IS. AGAIN, MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU. AND FOR THIS SPECIAL EDITION, WE'RE GOING TO SHARE WITH YOU SOME INTERVIEWS THAT TONY HAD WITH FOUR DIFFERENT MEMBERS OF CONGRESS. THIS IS ALL PART OF OUR PROFILES IN LEADERSHIP SERIES THAT YOU CAN FIND, BY THE WAY, AT FRC'S STAND FIRM APP. If you don't have the app, we encourage you to get it, and I'll share with you how you can do that a little bit later in the program. But these interviews go beyond the policies and politics and all the news of the day. They dive into the hearts of these different lawmakers and the faith that drives them. Featured today will be Texas Congressman Randy Weber. Oklahoma Congressman Jasper Keene and Kevin Hearn and Florida Congressman Greg Stubbe. And each of them have a unique story to share on how God guided them to where they are today. And we're happy to bring them to you today as maybe a little gift from us to you. But if you miss any portion of today, again, you can catch this program, this edition at TonyPerkins.com. WE'RE NOT ONLY THIS, BUT ALL. MANY, MANY PAST EDITIONS AND TONS OF RESOURCES, SO AGAIN, BE SURE TO BOOKMARK THAT WEBPAGE, TONYPERKINS.COM. ALSO, AS WE CELEBRATE THE BIRTH OF JESUS CHRIST HERE AT FRC, WE ENCOURAGE YOU TO JOIN US AS WE CONTINUE SHINING THE LIGHT OF BIBLICAL TRUTH RIGHT HERE IN WASHINGTON, D.C., AND ACROSS THE NATION. AND THIS CHRISTMAS SEASON, EVERY DOLLAR YOU GIVE IS DOUBLED THROUGH A GENEROUS, LIMITED TIME CHALLENGE MATCH THAT WE HAVE. ALL OF THIS HELPING US TO DEFEND FAITH, FAMILY, AND FREEDOM IN THE COMING YEAR. AND TOGETHER, WE CAN ALL STAND FOR THESE BIBLICAL VALUES AND PROCLAIM THE ONLY TRUE SOURCE OF HOPE FOR AMERICA. If you'd like to give and join us, you can do so by texting the word LIGHT to 67742. And let's do it. Let's shine the light of Christmas, the light of Christ together as we enter a new year. All right, let's jump into our first interview today. This is when Tony sat down with Congressman Randy Weber, who serves the 14th Congressional District of Texas.
SPEAKER 09 :
we begin with the story of how congressman weber came to faith in christ and it is an awesome awesome story here's how tony got that part of the conversation started let's talk a little bit about that faith now you you and i have interacted quite a bit and and i know that you are a man of deep abiding faith i've seen it in your prayers Let's talk about that encounter that you had with God, a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Let's talk about that.
SPEAKER 14 :
Okay. Well, I grew up in the sixties, child of the sixties, flower power, drugs. I was into drugs, very, I was deeply into drugs. I was actually selling drugs. I was a small town drug dealer selling marijuana by the lid. We'd buy pounds at a time. We'd sell lids. Well, now you'd just be in business. Now I'd be in business, I know. LSD, uppers and downers. I mean, I was really your basic booger head. Well, I was living with a girl. We were selling drugs out of her apartment. And a friend of mine named Jeff Wilson used to come by and buy marijuana from us. He came by one night and he knocked on the door and he said, Randy, I got something I want you to try. I thought it was some kind of new drug or something. He said, I want you to go to church with me. And I said, Jeff Wilson, you have lost your mind. I grew up in a family. They went to church twice a year, whether we did it or not, you know, you know, right. And, but my girlfriend wanted to go to church. So we went there to a church that was on fire, taking people in off the street and their own homes, get them off of drugs of prior homosexuals, prior drug addicts. So as I said, maybe the marriage in shambles, prior alcoholics down on their luck out of a job. They really loved Jesus and it showed. It really showed. There was a guy there, a second guy named Jeff Cawthorn with a real deep voice that was kind of praying for us and loving on us. Long story short, my girlfriend got saved and kicked me out of her apartment. And so where'd that leave you? I started searching. I was going to play search because I knew there was something more powerful here than me. And I was working as a welder's helper in a construction facility. And so I started playing church. I quit smoking, drinking, cussing, telling bad jokes. Although my kids today say, dad, you still tell some pretty bad jokes. I said, I'm talking about dirty, not the bad. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so long story short, my girlfriend was at my mom's house. I moved back in with my parents on July 2nd, 1973. I was born the first time, July 2nd, 1953. Reborn July 2nd, 1973. But anyway, I got home. My girlfriend was there with my mom cooking me a birthday dinner. The guys at the chemical plant, when I quit smoking and drinking and cussing and all that, they were merciless on me. Man, they were tough on me. You can just imagine. So they convinced me to go out to the bar. It's my birthday, Weber. Come on, go to the bar, which I did. back to smoking drinking cussing telling bad jokes things i hadn't done in four months i was playing church those four months tony so i get on my mom gives me a living first i didn't even own a bible first bible gave me a living bible i'm walking down the hall from the kitchen to my bedroom and the lord says to me read ephesians 5. I didn't know if Ephesians, I didn't know where Ephesians was, Old Testament or New Testament. So what did I do? Go to the table of contents. It's in the Old, New Testament. I didn't know if Ephesians had five chapters. It's got six. Paul writes a living Bible that's come to our attention that some of you have fallen, I'm paraphrasing, but fallen back into your own ways. And it talks about dirty stories, coarse jokes. These are not for you. And later on in Ephesians it says, Arise, O sleeper, and Christ will give you life. Man, I got down on my knees and I said, Lord, you're talking directly to me. Please come into my life and be my personal savior. I went down on my knees on the way to hell, died in the wool center, got up a child of the king. I walked down the hallway into where my girlfriend, my mother was, and she said, you've been crying. I said, I just got saved. She goes, wow, the phone rings in the kitchen. Now, that was the house was built in 72, so it was orange for my countertops. It was the phone like this. Oh, absolutely. And it was Jeff Cawthorn, deep voice. He said, Randy? I said, yeah, Jeff. Just calling to tell you how glad I am you just got saved. I spun around to my girlfriend, I said, This is Jeff on the phone. He knows I just got saved. Did you call him? And she said, Jeff, Jeff, who was Jeff, Jeff Cawthon or Jeff Wilson? I said, no, this is Jeff Cawthon. He knows he just got saved. She said, well, praise the Lord. Tony, God put a stamp on my life. You'll never doubt. You'll never forget. That's how I came to be a child of the King and the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER 09 :
When that's part of the foundation that you bring to this place, the nation's capital, I have to say this from my observation of you, Randy, is that that sensitivity and that tenderness from that moment back in 1973 is still there.
SPEAKER 14 :
Yeah, it is. He who is forgiven much, loves much. And to whom much is given, much is required. I never forget that.
SPEAKER 09 :
There's a radical transformation of your life.
SPEAKER 14 :
man was it out of a life of drugs well quite frankly being a child of the world and the devil if you will to being a child of the king the most high god so how does that influence you today as a member of congress as you said only 288 from texas have served in this capacity if i have the numbers right yeah so how does that influence you today Well, I think our nation, as I said earlier, was ordained by God. We should be a nation of Christian values and principles, and we should walk by those ordinances and principles and, quite frankly, the Ten Commandments in the only one true holy book, and that's the Bible. And that's how we should walk, that's how we should govern, and that's how we should actually treat each other, too.
SPEAKER 09 :
You have a sense of confidence because you've seen the work of God in your own life, so you know this is real. Oh, yeah. So when there's this great attack that we see on faith, this effort to try to suppress Christianity in the public space, I mean, what we've been talking about here, people would say, well, that's Christian nationalism, that you would bring your faith to this place. How do you respond to that?
SPEAKER 14 :
Well, actually, it's Christian rationalism. the only way i can rational this is that if i had not gotten jesus christ as my savior i would still be i might not even be here quite frankly because two of my friends died of drug overdoses one died in prison another one died after he got out of prison So I would say it's Christian rationalism. That is, this is a God-ordained country. And the reason it is, what was it, Alexander de Tocqueville said, the reason America is great is because America is good. And it's because we're based on God's holy word. It's just that simple. Christian rationalism, we'll coin a new phrase.
SPEAKER 09 :
I like that. Because if you think about it, it is the only rational explanation for a life transformed, a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. As he said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father but by me. You're not alone up here. There are other Bible-believing, God-fearing Christians that it's kind of the untold story of Washington, D.C. Not a lot of people see that. We need to be more vocal about our faith.
SPEAKER 14 :
Jesus said, anyone who's ashamed of me before men, of him will I be ashamed of my Father who is in heaven. Jesus Christ paid much way to have a price for me, for me to ever be ashamed of him.
SPEAKER 09 :
But when they see, when people, people watching this program hear your testimony, they see you, you've been at our annual gathering for the day of repentance, prayer and repentance that we've done the last two years at the Museum of the Bible. You've prayed openly as a member of Congress. People see that and they take hope in that because if a leader can be bold in their faith, they can as well.
SPEAKER 14 :
I would hope that they take great hope in that, and that they would stand up for Jesus Christ, stand up for God Almighty, and say, you know what? There's a right way and a wrong way to do things, and we need to get back on the path of the right way. And what did you just quote, John 14, 6? I'm the way, the truth, and the life. And I'm going to paraphrase, and no country can make this happen without me.
SPEAKER 16 :
Well, that was Texas Congressman Randy Weber during an exclusive sit-down interview that's part of our Profiles in Leadership series that you can find on FRC's Stand Firm app. This is a special Christmas Day edition of Washington Watch, and we are going to encourage you, if you've not already done so, you want to be sure to have our Stand Firm app as we enter into a new year. You will find so much valuable information there from News of the Day from a biblical perspective to Washington Watch, a host of different things that you will be able to find to help your walk with the Lord and how to look at our world from a biblical perspective. If you don't yet have it, you can go to your favorite Apple Store, Google Play, or wherever, or you can simply text the word APP, A-P-P, to 67742. You'll definitely want to... DO SO. NOW, WE'VE GOT MORE INTERVIEWS COMING YOUR WAY. NOT ONLY CONGRESSMAN WEBBER, BUT MORE COMING YOUR WAY RIGHT AFTER THE BREAK. WE'RE GOING TO HAVE JOSH PERKINE. SO STAY TUNED. MUCH MORE OF WASHINGTON WATCH ON THIS SPECIAL CHRISTMAS DAY EDITION COMING YOUR WAY RIGHT AFTER THE BREAK.
SPEAKER 12 :
During these challenging times for our nation, Family Research Council continues to serve as a watchman on the wall for faith, family, and freedom. And together, thanks to your support, we're making an eternal impact. 2024 has been another year of shining the light for biblical truth in Washington, D.C. This fall, over 1,000 spiritually active, governance-engaged conservatives gathered for the Pray, Vote, Stand Summit. to pray for our nation and ensure that the issues impacting sage cons were understood and advanced. Washington Watch with Tony Perkins marked a major milestone this year, its 900th episode, and added the Washington Watch News Desk, a new production that presents the top news each day from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand published 2,000 articles of news, commentary, and podcasts in 2024, garnering over 5 million views. FRC's outlet for news and commentary continues to pursue the truth on the issues that matter most to you and your family. And with the launch of the Stand Firm app, you can listen to, watch, and read our content in one simple place. Pray for current issues, stay rooted in the scriptures, and engage the political sphere with a community of believers on our new platform. In 2024, FRC shaped public policy and culture, organizing the National Gathering for Prayer and Repentance, where members of Congress and Christian leaders came together to seek God's intervention in America. In May, FRC called upon believers to pray for and stand with Israel by dedicating a portion of their worship services to pray for Israel's peace, prosperity, and protection. With Pray, Vote, Stand Decision 2024, FRC and Real Life Network led a powerful evening of election night coverage to analyze the election results and pray that our nation would turn back to God. We also filmed a transformative educational course, God and Government, Launching in January 2025, this series will explore the biblical and historical foundations of our government, empowering you to stand confidently in your role as a citizen of heaven and earth. Family Research Council thanks you for partnering with us for another year of standing for faith, family, and freedom.
SPEAKER 05 :
Looking to grow closer to God in the new year? FRC's Stand on the Word spiral-bound journal is here to help. Dive deeper into Scripture with thought-provoking questions, note-taking space, and context for each book and author. This second edition, covering Isaiah 2 Revelation, will guide you in tracking your journey through God's Word while deepening your faith in Christ. Order now at frc.org slash store or text journal to 67742. Perfect for you and your loved ones.
SPEAKER 16 :
Merry Christmas. Welcome back to this special Christmas Day edition of Washington Watch. I'm your host, Jody Heiss. So glad to have you joining us today. Today, as you have probably already seen, we're sharing some excerpts from some exclusive interviews that Tony had with some members of Congress. You can find these interviews on FRC's Stand Firm app. THE WHOLE THING IS CALLED DEFENDING THE FAITH, PROFILES IN LEADERSHIP. AND AS I SAID, IT FEATURES SOME SIT-DOWN INTERVIEWS WITH SOME OF OUR NATION'S LEADERS. AND ALL OF THESE GO BEYOND POLICIES AND POLITICS. IT GOES RIGHT TO THE HEART OF THESE INDIVIDUALS' FAITH. IF, AGAIN, YOU DO NOT HAVE OUR STAND FIRM APP, THIS IS SOMETHING YOU DEFINITELY WANT TO HAVE. YOU CAN GO TO THE APPLE STORE, GOOGLE PLAY, OR YOU CAN SIMPLY THAT'S RIGHT. THAT'S RIGHT. APP TO 67742. ALL RIGHT. THIS NEXT SEGMENT IS GOING TO FEATURE TONY'S INTERVIEW WITH OKLAHOMA CONGRESSMAN JOSH PERKINE WHO TALKED ABOUT WHY CHRISTIANS SHOULD HAVE A ROLE IN GOVERNMENT AND HOW HE WENT FROM THE PATH OF A LAWYER TO THAT OF BEING A AND IT ALL STARTED WITH A CHANCE CONVERSATION THAT HE HAD WHILE WORKING AT HIS FAMILY'S RANCH WAITING TO GET INTO LAW SCHOOL. HERE'S HOW CONGRESSMAN
SPEAKER 09 :
Let's talk about what led Josh to want to run for Congress and come up here where, I mean, there's a lot of weighty issues, but there's a lot of political division and bickering that's going on.
SPEAKER 11 :
Well, a lot of decisions I was starting to make as a young man had come to a real depth in my faith. I was in prayer in college, Oklahoma State University, and really trying to figure out those next steps, typical of most freshman, sophomore, who've got most of those basics knocked out, but you've got to start figuring out what the major's going to be. And man, the word law would just illuminate off the pages when I read my Bible. And so much so that I just was really convinced that I was supposed to be a lawyer. And so I applied at the height of when 9-11 occurred. I had the LSAT score, the GPA, etc. to get me into OU. I had a scholarship that I was going to transfer. But they put me on a waiting list because it was a historic year for OU. I was put on this waiting list. It never occurred. My family had started a faith-based ranching program. My father trained cutting horses professionally. My mother and father were very active in ministry, and they had started kind of converting the ranch into a ministry for young men who had alcohol, drug addictions. And so I prayerfully felt led to, in this limbo season, stay there until I got a reply, basically, from what was going to happen on law school. Long story short, I remained doing that for a couple of years. My flesh was screaming, but I knew I wasn't supposed to be doing anything else. And I was, in addition to the cutting horse program, started a heavy equipment business with my father. I was unloading a dozer. A guy jumps on the dozer. I had had a member of Congress reach out to me. And I was telling him about this. It just happened to be a Democrat member of Congress. And he said, man, there's a guy by the name of Tom Coburn that's going to come to this particular meeting in a few weeks. I want you to come with me. And so I met Tom Coburn running for the United States Senate. And it wasn't long before I was working for Tom Coburn. I helped him get elected along with many others that were part of the staff and then became full-time staff with him. And really cut my teeth on a good man who was biblically accurate, constitutionally sound. And then a few years later I found myself making law. So it's amazing what we know in part and know in part.
SPEAKER 09 :
In a small world, because Tom Coburn, when I came to the Family Research Council 21 years ago, he was on the board. And of course, we also share in common, I grew up in Oklahoma, of course, the other side of the state, I'm up in the northern part of the state, you're in the southern part of the state. Let's go back a little bit to that encounter, your first encounter with the Lord that brought you into a relationship. Tell us about that.
SPEAKER 11 :
Look, I was young. You know, I grew up in a Baptist Methodist combo churching, you know, mother and father, one of each. And depending on what year we were in, what type of church. But I grew up with good parents who, you know, taught me to get in the Bible, picture Bibles. If any parents watching and not doing a good job of getting your kids early in life in a picture Bible and then not only Bible studies, man, our culture's losing out because that's a lost practice. But I remember just having an encounter at a young age and I had my share of sin, but I've walked with the Lord. There was a hunger for the word that developed early in my life.
SPEAKER 09 :
So Josh, a lot of people would say, as a Christian, You're talking about politics. That's a dirty business. I mean, things are said about you. You have to get involved in issues that just are not consistent with what they would say would be our faith. How do you respond to that?
SPEAKER 11 :
Our founders, you know, there's a great quote that's used a lot. I think Charlie Kirk has probably made it famous, John Adams' quote that says that our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It's wholly inadequate to the government of any other. I encourage people to go look further. That writing was to the Massachusetts militia by the second president. And he actually starts it off by saying, we have no government armed with power capable of continuing with human passions unbridled by religion and morality. And being somebody who grew up in the cutting horse industry, I like any time the word our founders used, bridle. And then he goes on to say that avarice, which means extreme greed, ambition, and revenge, will break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Then he finishes with that our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. So, you know, it clicks with me that if you want to maintain liberty, then you have to have self-governance. And self-governance is the only way our founders saw true liberty being maintained, a limited government. What we see now is that what was started by limited 18 enumerated powers in Article I, Section 8, the vacuum of government is starting to fill and we're becoming a lawless society because we're not self-governing like we used to.
SPEAKER 09 :
And government cannot be big enough.
SPEAKER 11 :
Yeah.
SPEAKER 09 :
to restrain what individuals will not keep themselves from doing. The government was created to get the outliers, not to constrain the entire population.
SPEAKER 16 :
That was Oklahoma Congressman Josh Perkin during an exclusive Sit Down interview that's part of the new Profiles in Leadership series that you can find on our Stand Firm app. And you're tuning in to this very special edition of Washington Watch. Also, as we celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, I want to again encourage you to join Family Research Council in shining the light of biblical truth across our country, as well as right here in Washington, D.C. And if you give to FRC between now and December 31st, your gift will be doubled. WHAT A BLESSING THAT IS. YOU CAN JOIN US AND DOUBLE YOUR GIVING EFFORTS BY SIMPLY TEXTING THE WORD LIGHT TO 67742. THAT'S LIGHT TO 67742. ALL RIGHT. AFTER THE BREAK, WE'LL SHARE TONY'S INTERVIEW WITH THE CHAIRMAN OF THE REPUBLICAN STUDY COMMITTEE. THAT'S OKLAHOMA CONGRESSMAN KEVIN HEARN. SO MUCH MORE COMING YOUR WAY HERE ON WASHINGTON WATCH IN THIS SPECIAL EDITION.
SPEAKER 04 :
So if you like to think and you like to pray, FRC is the place for you.
SPEAKER 03 :
I think it is the best program out there.
SPEAKER 11 :
Yeah, I've absolutely loved my experience interning at FRC.
SPEAKER 04 :
They really are making waves out in the political world and doing it from the light of the Lord. It's really humbling for me as a college student who has been involved in the life movement for only a couple of years to be able to witness it alongside of some of the people who have spent their entire lives fighting. A huge thing that sets FRC's internship apart from others is they're looking for what they can pour into you instead of what they can get out of you.
SPEAKER 03 :
I have talked to so many of my friends who have interned other places and they're responding to emails or taking phone calls and doing things like that, but here we get real hands-on experience and get to talk to important people and do important things that we get to see the impact of.
SPEAKER 07 :
The throne of Jesus Christ is unchallenged. His name was never on the ballot to begin with, and it's never gonna be on the ballot. He's the King of Kings, and He's the Lord of Lords, and nothing's gonna change that. And so our mission stays the same, preach the gospel, make disciples, get ready for heaven. In the meantime, that we're to advance the concerns of the kingdom of God here on earth.
SPEAKER 09 :
America has entered a critical and vulnerable period from now until January the 20th. Join Family Research Council for Operation Prayer Shield, a 10-week prayer initiative for our nation. From now until January 20th, our country faces global challenges, a transition of leadership, and a lame duck session of Congress. This season calls for heightened spiritual vigilance, discernment, and prayer. Text the word SHIELD to 67742 to join us. You'll have access to prayer points, scripture, prayer calls. Text SHIELD to 67742. Unite with us and pray for our nation.
SPEAKER 16 :
Merry Christmas and welcome back to this very special edition of Washington Watch. I am your host today, Jody Heiss. Glad to have you with us. And if you're just tuning in now, today we've been sharing some excerpts from an exclusive series on FRC's Stand Firm app. It's called Defending the Faith, Profiles in Leadership. The series features some exclusive sit-down interviews that Tony has had with some of our nation's leaders. And all these interviews go far, far beyond simply policies and politics. So you'll want to be sure to view all of these in full. And the only way to do so is by having our Stand Firm app. We encourage you to take that and utilize it, not only for this series, but much, much more. This is a platform that serves as a state-of-the-art digital community. It's a place where followers of Christ can connect, grow, receive encouragement, stay up to date on news from a biblical worldview, and just simply be empowered to defend the faith. So again, you can get the Stand Firm app by going to your app store or Google Play or wherever, but you can also simply text the word app TO 67742, AND WE CERTAINLY ENCOURAGE YOU TO DO THAT AND JOIN US ALL IN 2025. WELL, THIS NEXT SEGMENT FEATURES TONY'S INTERVIEW WITH OKLAHOMA CONGRESSMAN KEVIN HEARN. KEVIN CHAIRS THE CONSERVATIVE REPUBLICAN STUDY COMMITTEE IN THE HALLS OF CONGRESS, AND IN THIS PARTICULAR CLIP, CONGRESSMAN HERN SHARED WHY HE CAME TO WASHINGTON AFTER A VERY SUCCESSFUL CAREER AS A BUSINESSMAN. HE ALSO SHARED HIS FAITH JOURNEY.
SPEAKER 09 :
So let's talk about business. Very successful businessman. Not to trump a competitor, but I started in Oklahoma. You actually represent the area that I grew up in, the Tulsa area. I grew up in Cleveland. I worked at Sonic. You ended up two dozen chains, two dozen stores of McDonald's. Very successful businessman. You left that to come here. Why?
SPEAKER 15 :
Well, you know, I look at America being a place that, you know, I grew up very poor. You and I were talking about before we started this about my dad being in the military. I was a product of a military life, a broken family from that. My dad went to Vietnam for three times. My mother, who had myself and my younger brother, 18 months younger than I. I had a sister that passed away about a year and a half before I was born from spina bifida. And my mother was young and she said, you know, I need to go back to work. your dad and I were from, which was Arkansas. She went back, married a guy that didn't really like to work much, first generation welfare, and we lived in extraordinary poverty. I didn't have any running water, no indoor plumbing until I was in the eighth grade. My mother went on to have three more children with him, one of which, the first, my older sister, still to this day, still alive, has spina bifida. Her daughter has spina bifida in a wheelchair. So we've lived this, you know, very difficult life. But I think, you know, life's about a binary choice. You can either continue to live like that or you can get out and start the grind of life where you're going out and you're facing the adversities of everyday life. And we didn't have any money. I would actually skip school to go work at a sawmill so I could make gas money. I made $12 a day. A whole lot of money. Bought a lot of gas then. I did. Yeah. But, you know, that's really why I ran it. and ultimately was to really protect this opportunity we have. No guarantees, but protect the opportunity.
SPEAKER 09 :
But that's a part of who you are. I mean, I spent my summers in Oklahoma working in the oil field as a roustabout. You couldn't do that today at 16 or 17 years old. Are we depriving our kids of those difficult experiences that actually build the character and drive them forward?
SPEAKER 15 :
Well, I believe so. I've been criticized a lot by several members up here because I do think hard work is good for you. Working at the sawmill, getting hot, working at 115.
SPEAKER 09 :
Oklahoma gets pretty hot. Well, Arkansas gets hot.
SPEAKER 15 :
Yeah, a lot of hay, and we picked a lot of cherries in California. We'd leave school a week early to go pick cherries up and down the coast of California. And I do think it makes you appreciate other things when you see that kind of hard work when you're young.
SPEAKER 09 :
But there's more to Kevin Hearn than hard work and growing up in poverty. You discovered an element of richness that is intangible in terms of dollars and cents, your faith journey. Let's talk about that.
SPEAKER 15 :
You know, I think a lot of people, you know, coming from the Midwest, the Bible bell, if you will, will say, I grew up in church and, you know, I, uh, you know, my parents took me to church and I went to Sunday school and all that being, you know, a product, uh, Protestant Baptist, uh, believer. But I think, you know, when you look at my life, uh, as I mentioned, uh, the very impoverished life, we didn't go to church. We didn't, we didn't talk about use God in a way that you would talk about it as a Christian and. You know, I went through a divorce. I thought that I could do anything that was invincible. And at 31 years old, I realized that I wasn't invincible. God led a special person to me who's sitting here with us today in this room, but led me to Christ at 31 years old. And I always tell people this story. She asked me, she says, do you know God? And she says, I'm not going to go out with you until you can answer these three questions. This was a 31-year-old guy. I was a guy who knew everything. I'd been through all kinds of adversity in life. And she said, do you know God? I said, no, it's God. She was thinking big G. I was thinking little g. And she said, well, are you a Christian? I said, man, I'm getting a little uncomfortable here. And then she asked me if I was saved. And I said, I have to get back with you. So that's how it started out. And, you know, about three months later at Antioch Baptist Church in Conway, Arkansas, you know, by myself, you know, I felt like Pastor Horton was talking directly to me and, you know, I was led to Christ. And that changed my life forever. I was at rock bottom. And everything we have today is from that moment.
SPEAKER 16 :
That was Oklahoma Congressman Kevin Hearn during an exclusive sit-down interview that's part of the Profiles in Leadership series. You can find that series on our Stand Firm app. You're tuning in today to a very special edition of Washington Watch. Again, if you don't have the Stand Firm app, you can go to your favorite app store, Google Play, or simply text the word APP to 67742. All right. After the break, more coming your way. And this time, an interview that Tony had with Florida Congressman Greg Stubbe. That includes an amazing story that you don't want to miss. So don't go away. We'll be back.
SPEAKER 09 :
Hello, I'm Tony Perkins, President of Family Research Council here in Washington, D.C. Behind me is one of the most recognizable buildings in all the world, the U.S. Capitol. What does it stand for? Well, most people say government. But do you know the Bible talks about four institutions of government? Do you know what they are? And do we have a republic or a democracy? Well, what do you say? Also, what about this thing, separation of church and state? Does that mean Christians shouldn't be involved in government? Guess what? We address those issues and more in our new God and Government course. I invite you to join us to see what the historical record and the Bible has to say about government. Join us for God and Government.
SPEAKER 10 :
Let's not be discouraged. Don't lose heart. Don't lose the faith. Stand now strong because the Lord has given us the great privilege of living in a time when our choices matter, when our lives matter, when our courage matters. So let's stand together and save this great country. God bless the United States of America.
SPEAKER 13 :
The American Republic has a freedom like no other. It has roots in the scriptures far more than any other heritage. And if we as followers of Jesus and conservatives don't defend it, who will?
SPEAKER 01 :
Neutrality is not an option. There are many Christians who believe that if we just keep our heads down, if we just don't say the wrong thing, that somehow we will come out of this unscathed. You're naive if you think that, because what they want from us is not our silence. What they want from us is our submission.
SPEAKER 08 :
Part of the dilemma of Christianity in our generation is that we've relied a little too much on human wisdom and human reasoning, human strength, human resource, and we've relied too little on the power of God and God's ability to open doors that we can't open and do things that we couldn't even hope to begin to do.
SPEAKER 06 :
This may not be an easy task, But we are living in a moment of challenge, but also a great opportunity. And we know always that we are not alone, that His Spirit empowers us and protects us. and that he could do the unimaginable. Dobbs, after all, was never supposed to have it.
SPEAKER 09 :
Father, we thank you. You have entrusted us with this moment in history, and I pray that we would be found faithful, and that as a result of our faithfulness to you, that thousands, millions would come into the kingdom as they would experience the forgiveness of sin and the new life that is found only in Jesus Christ. Amen.
SPEAKER 16 :
Merry Christmas. Welcome back to this special Christmas edition of Washington Watch. I'm your host, Jody Heiss. Glad to have you with us today. Today, we've been sharing some excerpts from an exclusive interview series on FRC's Stand Firm app. It's the only place you can find this series. It's called Defending the Faith, Profiles in Leadership. This series features exclusive sit-down interviews that Tony has had with some of our nation's leaders. You want to see all of these in their full. And the only way you can do that is by watching it on our Stand Firm app. If you don't have it, go to the App Store or Google Play, wherever you get your apps. You can also simply text the word APP to 67742. All right, this final segment features Tony's interview with Florida Congressman Greg Stubbe. He shares his faith journey and how it's shaped, really, by a miraculous recovery from a life-threatening accident. Incredible story. Here's a preview of that interview.
SPEAKER 17 :
let's start with your faith journey because that plays a role in why you are here yeah um and it plays a role as to the steps it took to get here we were very prayerful when the seat was opened i was in the state senate at the time we were in the middle of session and tom rooney announced that he wasn't going to run for re-election And my wife and I started praying about what we should do. Because, you know, a congressional seat, once it's open, because there's no term limits, you never know when it's going to be open again. You have to kind of seize that opportunity if you're going to do it. And we got many confirmation through Scripture. My wife was just doing her daily verse, and we got confirmation after confirmation. That's the direction the Lord wanted us to go. So within a week, we made a decision announced. I had like two or three months before qualifying. And that certainly charted the path for us. And throughout the campaign, I wasn't the Washington DC establishment pick. We were out-fundraised. We were outgunned by the different people in Washington that were supporting my opponent. And every time it was we needed something, checks showed up at the door. There was an outside group that that got involved for me and helped tremendously. And so God made the resources available that I needed to put in place and had set it all up. I had such a hard Senate primary. And the majority of the Senate district was in the new congressional district. So I had knocked on 20,000 doors just two years before I ran for Congress, which again, we didn't know that it was setting the stage for us to run for Congress and it worked out.
SPEAKER 09 :
You had to develop that ability to walk by faith and to be able to sense the voice of the Lord leading the Holy Spirit. Talk about your experience of coming to know the Lord.
SPEAKER 17 :
Well, I grew up in a Methodist religious household. My grandfather on my mom's side was a Methodist minister. So I grew up in the church. But obviously growing up in the church is different than our faith walk. And I'd say about five years ago, my wife and I went through some challenges in our marriage, which has really strengthened our spiritual walk. We had found a church actually through Senator Rick Scott because he was in an event in my district. We went to a Southern Baptist church before we were at the church we were at now, which gave us a biblical foundation for where we were and what we were doing. And everything was kind of charted before we got there. My wife will tell you the same thing that. Like we didn't realize the steps that we were taking that was building our faith. I would say I've always I would always probably identify myself as a Christian, even in high school and college. But I wouldn't say that my spirituality and faith and relationship with the Holy Spirit hasn't gotten as strong as it has in the last five or six years. And that was through what we went through politically and then what we went through personally. So I would say I've been a Christian growing up. I would say I received my salvation probably as I started my political steps and being involved in a Baptist church. And then I would say made Jesus my Lord and Savior like the last five or six years.
SPEAKER 09 :
When you've integrated that quite well, I've watched you and you went through a situation a year, two years ago. I lose track of time. You had an accident. And that seems to have strengthened your faith even more.
SPEAKER 17 :
I could spend an hour, 30 minutes talking about the miracles that were involved in me getting knocked off a ladder. A very high ladder. Yeah, I was 25, 30 feet up with a 20-inch bar chainsaw in my hand, cutting a limb on our property. And the limb snatched free, hit the ladder. I went up into the air, fell straight to the ground. God had an Amazon driver at the very exact moment in time that that happened in our front driveway. That Amazon driver had been fasting for a week. The Holy Spirit told him to fast. He didn't know why. So fast forward a week later, he's standing in front of my property, hadn't had anything to eat in a week. and is there at the exact moment in time that he has to be there to witness it. He choreographs getting me in an ambulance on the way to the ER before my wife even knows what's going on. It's being reported in mainstream media because the local news was monitoring the 911 calls. It was being reported in the national media that Congressman Stubbe was in the ICU and my wife had no idea what was going on. And so the Lord's hand was all over that from miracle upon miracle. There was even a gentleman who prayed over his name's Woody, prayed over Woody before he came to our house, which set the time up perfectly for him to be there. So there was... I mean, these were very serious injuries. Yeah, I had a significant concussion. I still don't remember probably about 48 hours worth of time. I don't remember being on that part of the property. I don't remember the ER. I don't remember the ICU. I remember going into surgery on my pelvis. So I had a significant concussion. I tore the ligaments in my neck. I punctured my lung pretty significantly and I broke my pelvis. And then the healing power after that of the wraparound of prayer from people all across the country. I was getting little letters from... from people in a church in, I think it was in New York, from people in Iowa who had heard about the accident and were praying for me. And four months later, after having all of those injuries, I was pitching for the Republicans on the baseball field in the congressional baseball game. So not just the miracles of being there.
SPEAKER 09 :
I think you had a home run too, didn't you?
SPEAKER 17 :
That was a couple of years ago. Oh, okay, all right. I almost hit one out again this year, but I was like a foot short. And you're 100%? Yep, 100%. Jen, my wife will tell you that I'm stronger now than I was before the fall. that has to be the hand of god 100 yeah there's and if you look at medical statistics it's kind of interesting a fall from 11 feet or higher results in death or paralysis like 90 of the time it's like a medical statistic in the medical insurance world and i was easily over 25 feet straight to the ground with a chainsaw in my hand so there's there's no other reason why i'm here today
SPEAKER 09 :
Let's talk about how that new spiritual strength has met a greater political challenge. Even at the beginning of this last year when the Republicans gained the majority and there was a You know, a long process of trying to determine who the speaker was going to be. There came a moment where members went to the House floor, just a small group, you were among them, to pray. Your prayer life has taken on a new depth.
SPEAKER 17 :
Yeah, and there was some prophecy going on that day that none of us really knew because if you look at the picture, and we didn't even know that there was press on the floor because we weren't in session at that time. The prayer caucus just said, hey, anybody that wants to come and pray for what's going on, let's meet on the House floor. And ironically, there were seven of us, which is the number of perfection in the Bible and completion. And as I'm praying, my hand is outstretched and I'm praying over the speakership, over the house chamber and over the leader of the house. And my hand is facing Mike Johnson, which is kind of interesting, given less than a year later, he's the speaker of the house who joined us that day. But yeah. very intentional and deliberate about prayer life. And we know that we're in a spiritual battle and we have to wage war in the spirit realm up here. Just as important as praying at home. I think it's probably more important. um to be involved in prayer life and asking god to intervene in what's going on in our country because everybody can see the darkness around what's happening from transgender stuff to 66 million children have been aborted in our country to the complete loss of biblical values and the teaching of god in our schools And I believe we're in a pivotal spiritual place in our country where we need leaders who are willing to put selfish ambitions aside and focus on what God wants them to do.
SPEAKER 09 :
prayer is essential i mean that's the lord taught his followers how to pray we're challenged to pray pray without ceasing paul says but there's more than just prayer i mean james says faith without works is dead you have also displayed an element of of courage and boldness i recall this has been a few years back you went to the house floor quoted scripture. You mentioned the transgender issue. That issue has continued to stay at the forefront. You led out on the women's sports bill to protect women's sports. But on the House floor, you quoted scripture regarding what the Bible has to say about men wearing women's clothing. And you got a very interesting response from the Democratic congressman from New York, Jerry Nadler.
SPEAKER 17 :
Yeah, again, that's why our prayer life is important and being in the Word is important. I had read the day before that exact passage in Tony Evans' Commentary Bible, because that's just what I was reading that year. And I thought, okay, this is definitely something I need to say on the floor. And I elicited some... interesting response from the Democrats, which tells you a lot about where they are.
SPEAKER 09 :
I don't have the quote verbatim, but Jerry Nadler, after you left the floor, said, Mr. Stubbe, God has nothing to do with what this Congress does.
SPEAKER 17 :
Right. And I wish, the way that the rules work on the floor, I couldn't respond to him, but I wish I could have, because all I would have said is, right above us, above the rostrum, says in God we trust. So to say that we should not infuse our biblical values, I mean, our country was founded upon Christian Judeo values. And to move away from that, I think that's why you're seeing the darkness and the challenges and the things that we're seeing in our country.
SPEAKER 09 :
So you served in the army. I mentioned that earlier. You were in Iraq. You were a JAG officer, but you also helped kind of track down some of the bad guys there. There's this effort to drive Christians away from the source of their strength. And you mentioned this is a spiritual battle. We're in a spiritual battle. But this whole issue of what you just described, if MSNBC, one of their commentators were to be sitting in here, would be saying, well, that's Christian nationalism, all designed to suppress our engagement.
SPEAKER 17 :
yeah the mainstream media and it's really the enemy is is trying i mean jesus foretold about these things um the word the bible says that christians will be persecuted that jesus's followers will be persecuted and we're seeing that play out in real time in our lifetime right here in the united states and they're using these terminologies to try to pigeonhole you as, oh, you're just a Christian nationalist and making it a derogatory term, which is like their attempt to make MAGA a derogatory term, like making America great again is suddenly a bad thing for our country. And it's kind of interesting to see that, and it does, I don't, it doesn't bother me. We just had a hearing not too long ago in Ways and Means, and I quoted Isaiah where I feel like we're living in the times foretold in Isaiah where evil is good and good is evil. And we were discussing pregnancy centers and this attack and the demonization of pregnancy centers that are just trying to help women to have babies and not go to abortion clinics. And it's just fascinating how the mainstream media uses these terms to try to pigeonhole certain people. And it's just, again, we're not fighting against flesh and blood.
SPEAKER 09 :
How do we respond to that? Because, you know, it's one thing people say, well, you're a member of Congress. You're a leader. You know how to handle this. But The instruction of Scripture is not just for leaders. It's for followers of Christ. How should Christians across this country respond to this effort that would suppress their public display of their faith and their engagement in being salt and light?
SPEAKER 17 :
Well, we're told that the sword of our spirit is the word of God. And I believe wholeheartedly that you combat, especially in the spiritual realm, with the word of God. And it's irrebukable. It's God's word. it can fight the battles for you. And I think just encouraging people not to lose sight of that and to not be scared of what people will say about you. I mean, just look at my Facebook page or my Twitter page, and you can see horrible things that people say about me all the time.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah, I tell the kids, don't Google me.
SPEAKER 17 :
Yeah, don't look at the comments on posts. It's fascinating. I lead a men's group in my church, and they'll be like, how do you deal with that? I'm like, I don't read it. I don't pay attention to it. Those things don't matter. And I focus on what I feel like God has put me up here to do and what I want to work on.
SPEAKER 09 :
But that means you have to be listening to him, which means you have to be in his word. So it goes back to what you said. As Christians, we need to be in the word of God.
SPEAKER 17 :
I read a Bible a year. This year I'm reading the New King James Version, which I really like that translation. And I think this year I have five devotionals. So every day I spend, I don't know, 20 or 30 minutes, usually in the morning, especially I need to do that up here and giving myself time up here to do that.
SPEAKER 09 :
It's a source of encouragement, strength, but it also helps put things into perspective, which let me ask you this question with that in mind. What gives you hope about, I mean, when you look at all of these issues, I mean, you talked about the transgender issue. We've had the redefinition of marriage, 66 million unborn children that have been murdered. And we have an administration that wants to do even more of that. How do you find hope in the midst of that?
SPEAKER 17 :
Well, God, the Holy Spirit, the word of God gives me hope that our country was founded on Christian and Judeo principles. And the majority of Americans believe that. And the majority of Americans support that. And I think the majority is going to speak up in November and hopefully redirect our country back to the direction that God wants our country to go and not the direction that has been going.
SPEAKER 16 :
THAT WAS FLORIDA CONGRESSMAN GREG STUBEY DURING AN EXCLUSIVE SIT-DOWN INTERVIEW THAT HE HAD WITH TONY PRIOR TO ELECTION DAY. AND YOU'RE TUNING IN TO A VERY SPECIAL EDITION OF WASHINGTON WATCH. OF COURSE, WE ALL KNOW NOW THAT VOTERS DID INDEED SPEAK UP IN NOVEMBER. AND WHILE WE'RE THANKFUL FOR THAT, WE ARE MINDFUL THAT OUR ULTIMATE HOPE IS NOT IN WASHINGTON, D.C., BUT IN JESUS CHRIST, WHOSE BIRTH WE CELEBRATE TODAY. He indeed is our Redeemer, our Savior, our Lord, and it's in Him that we trust. Well, that's all the time we have for today. Hope you and your family have a very Merry Christmas. And tune again tomorrow for Washington Watch.
SPEAKER 02 :
Washington Watch with Tony Perkins is brought to you by Family Research Council and is entirely listener supported. Portions of the show discussing candidates are brought to you by Family Research Council Action. For more information on anything you heard today or to find out how you can partner with us in our ongoing efforts to promote faith, family and freedom, visit TonyPerkins.com.
In this heartwarming Christmas edition of the National Crawford Roundtable Podcast, hosts Neil Boron and John Rush delve into the roots of our holiday traditions. Have you ever wondered where Santa Claus origins stem from or the meaning behind these cherished customs? This episode takes you on a journey across time, exploring the myths versus the realities, and how the commercialization of Christmas impacts its true significance. Join the roundtable discussion as they dissect the stories of St. Nicholas and how they've transformed our celebrations today.
SPEAKER 02 :
Welcome to the National Crawford Roundtable podcast, a view of culture, current events, and politics through a biblical lens brought to you by Preborn, saving babies and souls. Join us in the fight to save babies from abortion. Your gift provides a free ultrasound for a mother in need. 80% of the time she will choose life. Visit CrawfordMediaGroup.net and click on the Preborn logo to donate to save babies now. and by SunPower LED light therapy devices. Bring light to your pain. Visit CrawfordMediaGroup.net and click on the SunPower LED logo to get out of pain and improve your overall wellness. And now, here are your hosts, Neil Boron, Bob Duco, and John Rush.
SPEAKER 07 :
Well, good to have you back with us for another edition of the National Crawford Roundtable Podcast, and Merry Christmas. Good to have you with us on our Christmas edition of the program. Now, we're definitely recording this a couple days in advance, so it's not officially Christmas Day as we're talking about this, but we're putting our minds right there in the middle of Christmas. My name is Neil Boron, the host of Neil Boron Live on WDCX Radio in Buffalo, New York, and Bob Duco of The Bob Duco Show in Detroit, Michigan, will not be with us today. He's enjoying Christmas with his family. John Rush, host of Rush to Reason on KLZ in Denver, joins me here. John, it's amazing. I just want to say thank you live here on the podcast. Just went outside, and in the driveway, there was a big, gorgeous, brand-new Tesla with a red bow on it. It said, from John and Elon.
SPEAKER 04 :
I just want to... Merry Christmas.
SPEAKER 07 :
Thanks, man.
SPEAKER 04 :
Ho, ho, ho.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, exactly. It was so nice of you and Elon to team up on that. There we go. That's incredible. Anyway, so I don't know. We're going to talk about all things Christmas today and try to make some sense of this crazy holiday that we so desperately are grateful for in the sense that God sent his son Jesus. On the other hand, the commercialization and everything of Christmas just kind of leaves a scratch in our heads. But
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, I think it gets worse every year too, Neil. I mean, to your point a moment ago, it's a great time of the year. For some, it's a very joyous time. For others, depending upon what's happened in their own family, sometimes there's deaths and things like that that happen around this time of the year. For some, it's a very joyous time. And yet, Neil, for others, it's not. It's a very sad time for some.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, it sure is. It's a hard time because, you know, we think of friends and loved ones, you're right. So, you know, I want to start maybe by just looking a little bit at the history of Christmas as we know it, not as the Bible portrays it per se, because the Bible doesn't really talk about it. Anything related to Christmas trees or opening presents, etc. There's a different story there. We'll get to that in a minute. But how we celebrate Christmas here in North America, especially, and in other parts of the world, it's similar, I think. But I was doing a little bit of research. Now, this is usually Bob's domain. Bob is the apologist, man. He just digs into everything. about, you know, paganism roots and all that stuff. But there was literally a person named St. Nicholas, and he was a living person during the years 2070 AD to 343 AD. That's a long time ago. He was a Christian bishop of Greek origin, officially, I guess, during the time, basically, of the Roman Empire. But anyway, two specific stories about about him that they feel really actually launched Christmas. I was not familiar with these, John. So if you get a second, you know, let me just throw this out because this is a lot to swallow here. But St. Nicholas, of course, was considered to be a saint in the church and inspired this modern day idea of Santa Claus, which we'll get to a little bit later. But um the legends at least or the stories that associate with the name saint nicholas say this in a better known tale three young girls were saved from a life of prostitution when young bishop nicholas secretly delivered three bags of gold to their indebted father which could be used for their dowries that was one story of where saint nicholas burst on the scene you know showed up basically on the radar screen for people the second story is a little easier to hear but you know you can kind of draw a bit more of a direct line from the modern santa claus and the love for children apparently this saint nicholas individual bishop nicholas maybe at the time entered an inn whose keeper had just murdered three boys and pickled their dismembered bodies in basement barrels the bishop not only sensed the crime but resurrected the victims as well Wow. Okay. Merry Christmas. Yeah, Merry Christmas. Somehow, in some way, I mean, this is, you know, I read this off the internet. This is legit. This is 100%. But somehow that person became like this chubby guy dressed in red who traveled the world in a single night, you know, to give gifts to all kids. And people would leave milk and cookies and the whole thing. But anyway, that's kind of the secular version of how Christmas happened. Good Lord. I... I kind of like, I just want to sort of distance myself from all that. I don't know how you feel about it.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, that last story you just said, I would definitely want to distance from. I mean, that just sort of puts a whole damper on the whole thought process about Christmas in the first place.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, well, anyway, there was a guy named St. Nicholas, and he is sort of the person behind the idea of Santa Claus. Now, we also want to make it known at the beginning of the podcast, I think I just want to flat out say this, nobody on this podcast believes Santa Claus is what Christmas is about.
SPEAKER 04 :
No.
SPEAKER 07 :
So we're ultimately going to talk about Jesus here. But John, you grew up in a very similar setting to me.
SPEAKER 04 :
Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER 07 :
Grew up in very legalistic kind of upbringing.
SPEAKER 04 :
Very much so.
SPEAKER 07 :
And I remember being told you can't celebrate Halloween or have anything to do with Halloween. And the Christmas trees were sometimes referred to as pagan bushes. We did have a Christmas tree in our family, and I think most people in our church did. Okay, but some people really went off the rails about it.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, no, to your point, Neil, I mean, I grew up around some folks that just thought that thing was, you know, to your point a moment ago, I mean, it was pagan, you couldn't have it, it was a form of quote-unquote worship. I mean, we never viewed it that way. We'll get into some of that today with maybe some of the, you know, family traditions and things that, you know. happened throughout the years. But I knew from a very, very early age that, number one, the Santa Claus guy, I mean, it didn't take me very many years. And I've got a story to tell along those lines we'll talk about in the podcast if we have time today, Neil. But it didn't take me very long to figure out as a young boy that this thing is, yeah, there's no such thing. And of course, we were taught even even with all those that were out there with Santa Claus and all of that. I mean, I grew up in the church, to your point, very legalistic, but still that message of Christmas, what it really meant, the birth of Christ, God's Son coming down, born of a virgin, which, again, we'll get into as well. But all those things, yes, Neil, I was raised with all of that as well.
SPEAKER 07 :
And I remember, very similar in my situation, but I remember, you know, I was born in 1960, but the 60s were an age of, you know, if I see furniture from the 60s, I go, that's from the 1960s. You can just recognize it.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yep, you can see it.
SPEAKER 07 :
Okay. Well, Christmas trees were kind of the same. Ours was a silver tree, almost made of silver tinsel kind of thing. It had red and green balls that hung on it, and then a red, green, and yellow light. It was just a light, but it had like a little thing, a circular... It turned. Yeah, a cellophane thing that turned or whatever. And so then you got the three different colors shining on the tree. It was like so 1960s. But I have to say, even in that setting, probably because of my upbringing, growing up in church and hearing about the birth of Jesus, I don't even remember once... thinking that somehow Santa Claus was the answer. He was the guy to focus on. I always thought of Jesus, and I knew that the world... And it wasn't like I was overly spiritual. I was just a little kid celebrating. And my friends talked about Santa Claus, and I'd heard of him, and I sometimes probably joked about him. In fact, I remember one year, my sister and I left cookies and milk on the table rang a bell in the middle of the night yelled ho ho ho and ran back to bed to see if we could trick my mom into thinking he was real but it didn't work man but you know i mean some people john literally went to the to the stage of saying well you know the exact same letters are in the word santa as in satan right and ultimately you know this is just a tool of the devil i don't know i mean was it was it just foolishness on the part of people or do you think this was really a demonic plot I don't know. In some ways, the devil would do anything to deceive people, but I don't know.
SPEAKER 05 :
And I don't know that I would go towards the demonic, although I think there's times that, you know, in some situations that may very well be the case. And I think, you know, as we get through this podcast today, Neil, we can talk about really the, let's face it, it's the, and it's not all Coca-Cola's fault, but Coca-Cola did a lot to promote, you know, Santa Claus. They were trying to figure out how to sell Coke all year long because their sales dropped off tremendously during the winter months, of course, because it was a summer soft drink back then. And they were really trying to do everything they possibly could. And I mean, is that the reason Santa Claus is red? Maybe partially. I mean, the reality is, yes, Coke did a lot to commercialize not only, you know, Santa Claus, but Christmas at the same time. So, you know, was that demonic or was it just, you know, these guys, you know, trying to keep the company alive and make more money? I mean, I don't know, Neil.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, I don't know, like a marketing opportunity. Correct. So on the one hand, really honest, I mean, this is a, help me, Lord, with this, but okay, Jesus said, if you're not for me, you're against me. So in one sense, you're either a believer or you're totally lost. And Jesus said, you know, that he died for his enemies, right? He died knowing that we were sinners in Romans 5, 8. He demonstrated his love for us. In verse 10, it says he died while we were enemies of God. So in one sense, He knew that we were enemies of God and totally lost when he died for us. So, like, there's all that. But on the other hand, I don't know, it feels to me like sometimes just simple foolishness. We get off track and we need to be brought back to the reality of what's going on.
SPEAKER 05 :
Balance. Yeah. Balance. And we can talk about that today. In my opinion, Neil, it all comes down to balance.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, 100%. And, you know, let me just tell you, before we even go on here for a minute, how grateful I am that we get a chance to talk about truth here on this program because of our sponsors. And one of the new sponsors of the National Crawford Roundtable is SunPowerLED.com. Now, recent report, you know, congressional report comes out, and it says basically, for everything people got canceled for on the internet, or most things people got canceled for on the internet, you know, like saying that that social distancing was foolish or that vaccine mandates were not necessary, etc. All these things that people could cancel for were actually true. Like that people who were labeled conspiracy theorists were not conspiracy theorists. And now the medical science is showing us that COVID, in that sense, was a joke. Now, it was real and it killed some people. My own parents, at least my mom, for sure lost her life due to that. But, you know, the bottom line is there are other ways to deal with things besides what big pharma and big government have to tell us. And one of them is what's called red light therapy from a wonderful believer in Christ, a guy named Tom Kerber, the developer of SunPowerLED.com. SunPower LED is something you want to check out because it takes the very light waves that God himself created, takes a certain frequency of that wave, and then hones it in on cells in the human body using a light wand, basically, to excite those cells, wake them up, and cause them to do what the cells were created to do, and that's to heal the human body. so if the reduction of pain and swelling and the promotion of healing in our body is possible because of the very light god himself created then i want to know about that and you can learn about it by going to crawfordmediagroup.net and click on sunpowerled.com you weren't dreaming things during covid you were being sold a bill of goods the bottom line is big pharma wants to keep you on medication when in fact there are many ways to heal your body and sun power led can help
SPEAKER 05 :
click on uh the sun power led logo at crawfordmediagroup.net john we could like i said we couldn't do this without the support of our sponsors including pre-born which you know you talked a moment ago about you know the narrative around certain things uh in in regards to uh you know the therapy you just mentioned a moment ago and what most people would say you know on a regular basis well the same thing applies to And the unborn, Neil, the reality is the narrative from the left is, oh, it's just a clump of cells. It's not a real baby until it's actually delivered out of the womb. Nothing could be farther from the truth. And the more technology we get, the more we're able to see what's inside of us. the belly of mom, you know, inside of the womb, we soon realize that that development happens very, very, very quickly. It is not just a clump of cells. It turns into a baby that you literally can see in a matter of weeks. And that baby starts doing things inside of the womb that it does outside of the womb, by the way, Neil, as you would know. So point being, pre-born is out there helping these young moms. Expected moms trying to figure out a what to do be trying to help them in their life Not only through what I just mentioned a moment ago about the ultrasound images But literally being a positivity in their life in some cases is very traumatic These young girls or women are trying to figure out exactly what to do. Sometimes the dads involved sometimes not and But Preborn is there to help these young ladies, and most of the time it's young. Ladies figure out exactly what to do next, giving them education and information through these ultrasound images, which, by the way, those of you listening, can help provide your monthly donation. If you can do it reoccurring, that's even better, or a one-time gift to buy an actual ultrasound machine, $15,000. Some of you that are doing a little better or you're looking for the end-of-year tax deduction sides of things, you can do that as well. But I encourage you guys to change the narrative, get the information out to these young women when it comes to what's really going inside of the womb. And you can do that by going to CrawfordMediaGroup.net and support Preborn.
SPEAKER 07 :
Amen. Thank you for Preborn. Yeah, all of this available at CrawfordMediaGroup.net. So we were talking about Santa and, you know, sort of the genesis of the whole idea of Santa Claus. We were talking about ultimately Christmas and the whole genesis of Santa Claus, per se. And, you know, over the years in certain circles in Christianity, people have been warned to avoid everything related to Christmas. Don't celebrate. You know, that's a pagan bush, that Christmas tree you got there in your living room. Whatever, for whatever reason, I mean, I never felt like that was... my chance to worship Satan. I only thought about Jesus at Christmastime and wasn't really fully aware of how all that fit in. One other thing, however, I think if there was anything that came out of this was the idea that good gets rewarded. John, I've done a lot of, you know, door-to-door evangelism even, and there's a major Christmas, I'm sorry, a Christian music festival that happens every year in our area called Kingdom Bound. It happens at Six Flags nearby, and, you know, there's tens of thousands of people there, and we would do what we call flap-to-flap evangelism, literally going tent-to-tent asking people questions like, hey, what are you doing here? How did you come here? Are you enjoying yourself? And then ask the question, by the way, what do you think it takes to be kingdom bound, which is the name of the festival? And sometimes they would say, kingdom about what do you mean well like to get to heaven what do you think it takes to get to heaven they go oh well well i mean you know you got to be a good person whatever and you know that's not the gospel that is not what the word of god says yeah it's by grace that we're saved through faith it's not of ourselves okay so ephesians 2 is clear on that but the point is it would be immediately clear that the idea of good getting rewarded is false. And John, that's a big part of, I don't want to belabor this, we're going to turn the corner here right now, but just final thing, you know, the idea that good gets rewarded, that's part and parcel with the story of Santa Claus. That has nothing to do with the Christmas story of Jesus.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, he knows if you've been bad or good, so be good for goodness sake. That's the whole message of Santa Claus, right, Neil?
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah. I just wonder how much I'd have to pay to actually sing that line. Please, John.
SPEAKER 05 :
You bring up a great point, Neil. I mean, the reality is, as with anything... And we talk about this in politics. We do that pretty much on a weekly basis, what one side does versus the other. And the reality is the world, Satan, I guess you could say, and maybe this is where he comes into play with all of this, Neil. I'm not saying that Christmas in and of itself and Santa Claus and all of that is demonic in any way, but... he does take and twist, it's what he did in the garden from day one, he twists what the real message is into something that he feels he can get across to us as humans and therefore draw us to him, rather us being drawn to God himself. And that's been the history of it from day one.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, no doubt about it. And, you know, deception is a big part of what the enemy does. He wants to keep us focused on everything that is not true and is not real. And yet the Word of God is a very different story about Christmas. And this is where we're turning the corner. By the way, I did a... uh interview recently on my program with a pastor named robbie simons he's a daily uh bible teacher on our station and he's the pastor of a church in oakville ontario called hope bible church but he recently wrote a book called god with us 25 advent devotionals on the glory of the incarnation because john the real story i mean it's powerful by the way i recommend it for anybody who wants to read it but the real story of christmas is that god put skin on and came to earth to rescue us from sin god literally entered our mess and died in our place and you know there's no good friday there's no easter without the incarnation meaning that god came here to earth and think about it the king of kings born in a feeding trough who would have ever thought that john if you were writing a story would anybody even believe it if you said yeah the greatest the most powerful being in the world the creator of all things the preeminent God of the universe put skin on and was born in a feeding trough with animals in a lowly manger amongst shepherds, the lowest of the low, in order to come to earth to rescue human beings from their sin. That doesn't even make sense, but it's so far off the beaten path that if you actually look at it and you say, if God did this, then I want to know him, I want to worship him. And ultimately, isn't that the Christmas message?
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, I mean, to your point, would anybody sane write the story that way? No. I mean, people that write books and so on, Neil, in most cases, no, they wouldn't. Now that we've heard the Christmas story, they might, but before that, no, nobody would write a story along those lines. You would want a quote-unquote prince coming into a palace, not into a feeding trough in a lowly, stinky, nasty, disgusting manger. You know, we... we kind of modernize that thing and make it look really quaint and neat and the stars up above and it's all clean and there's hay everywhere. No, it was a disgusting, filthy, let's face it, feces-ridden area where Christ was born. And yet, because of that, this is how I see it, Neal, showing everybody out there, no matter where you come from in life, no matter what your quote-unquote classification is, God can meet you right where you're at because guess what? He sent his son in that particular setting to save the world.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, and whether it's Christmas Day or some other day, you know, immediately following Christmas, you're listening to this, and who knows, maybe driving in your car on a lonely interstate, and you're wondering if there is a God and if He loves you. And I want to speak directly to you to say, yes, there is, and yes, He does. He knows you. He died for you. He came to earth for the very purpose of rescuing you from the situation that you're in. He wants a relationship with you, and that's the story of Christmas. I want to focus for a second real quick on Philippians 2.6, because It says, though he, which is Jesus, though Jesus was by nature God, he did not consider equality with God as a prize to be displayed, but he emptied himself. In some cases it says he humbled himself in other versions of the Bible, but he emptied himself by taking the nature of a servant when he was born in human likeness and his appearance was like that of any other man. um god of all the universe came to earth put skin on for one reason to rescue us from sin and i want to say one more thing real quick get your feedback um you know why did god do this and i think it's because adam and eve you know in the garden thought they could be like god that they didn't need god and they believed the lie of the the enemy satan and they said yeah human beings really don't need god we could be just like you i mean we're just as powerful we could do this well god had to show them they couldn't And so gave them the law, and through the law ultimately proved that it was impossible. You know, Romans 8, 3 says, for what the law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did. Sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh as an offering for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh. Galatians 4 says, but when the fullness of time came, God sent forth his son, born of a woman, born under the law. In other words, Jesus came to earth to do what mankind couldn't do. God gave us 10 commandments, and in like five minutes, we were melting down our gold and forming calves to worship, right? John, we're sinners, and our proclivity is to sin. It's what human beings do. We needed somebody to rescue us from our inability to save ourselves, and we needed to see that we needed Jesus. What a beautiful story that God entered the picture to rescue us in person.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, it's the, literally, Christmas is the beginning of the redemption that every one of us can have. You know, history says, Scripture is full of, and the only way that we could come to God, and Christ says this Himself, of course, and now after Him is through Christ Himself. Before that, of course, as you said a moment ago, Neil, it was a law. There was all sorts of rules and regulations. Sacrifices had to be, you know, done just right. And depending upon your, again, classification in life, depending upon the sacrifice, it was even acceptable. All sorts of rules and regulations around all that. Then Christ comes along and says, we're throwing all that out the window. I will become the ultimate sacrifice. My blood on the cross. ultimately in the blood that I'm shedding for you is all that it will take. And by the way, all you have to do now is believe on me, believe in me, and that's the way to the Father. And at the end of the day, God made it very simple for salvation to happen after. Which, by the way, Neil, things to be thankful for, that I was born after Christ came, not prior, because prior would have not been fun.
SPEAKER 07 :
yeah it wouldn't have been good for any of us and thank god that jesus did this um john you know i'm thinking of the person driving along in the car right now listening to this they're kind of on their own and they're thinking i've never been able to to live right i've never been able to do the right thing ultimately you know it in your heart and the holy spirit of god reveals that to us that we actually need help, we need a savior, we need somebody to help us with this situation we're in. And how precious that God saw that, and in spite of our sin, came and said, I'm going to step into this equation for you. I'm going to do this for you. And so he came to earth, ultimately lived the perfect life none of us could live. and then died in our place shed his own blood and when he did he was the perfect lamb of god who took away the sins of the world he he made it possible for us to be restored in our relationship with god and honestly i mean that takes us back to the reality john there's no greater gift ever given than when god sent his only son he gave his son as a gift to mankind so that we could have hope in a future like i'd be i'd be lost without it 100 amen yeah so praise god we've got a lot to talk about in the second half of the round table but i just want to talk again real quick here about sunpower led the owner of that group tom kerber is a personal friend he's a wonderful man of god and he's a huge proponent of what's called photobiomodulation or light therapy all right everyone's seen you know the woman the opera singer who can sing a particular note she hits that note and holds it for a minute and the champagne glass explodes why because the resonance of that particular audio wavelength is what can shatter that glass well if you find the right light wavelength you can actually uh excite the cells in your body the mitochondria energize the cells to do what cells were created to do you know if a baby you never taught the baby anything six months old cuts its finger by accident you could sit there for three weeks if you had the time and watch that thing heal right before your eyes how is that possible because god put that in the human body well when the cells are doing what they're supposed to do then you can reduce pain and swelling. You can deal with stuff like migraines and arthritis, and you can experience healing in your body, and it's possible. So how do you get that light in there? Well, SunPowerLED. Check it out. Light therapy or what's called photobiomodulation from SunPowerLED. They're one of our sponsors, and you can find them at CrawfordMediaGroup.net. Just click on it. Find out how to reduce pain and swelling and promote healing in your body with no surgical intervention, no pharmaceuticals, Just the Light God Himself Created, all at CrawfordMediaGroup.net. And John Preborn is a major sponsor of ours as well.
SPEAKER 05 :
Awesome. Yeah, appreciate them very much. We wouldn't be doing what we're doing without them. And for those of you looking at the end of the year, especially a lot of you business owners where you're looking at the end of the year, you're looking at some of your pre, you know, sort of figuring on taxes and where you're at and, you know, how do I, you know, what do I do to reduce some of my liability? Well, a charitable donation, of course, comes right off the top. helps you immensely when it comes to what I just mentioned a moment ago. And we have got an organization that can help you with that. That is Preborn. And they are out there helping moms, helping babies, helping babies, moms, families, I should say, because we know that down the road, after these ladies have an abortion, Neil, it can affect the entire family negatively on down the road. So Preborn is there literally to help the entire family. They're saving babies' lives. You hear Bob talk about it all the time. In a lot of cases, they are saving mom's life, not physically, but spiritually as at the same time by the very means neil you and i've been talking about when it comes to christmas so that is pre-born folks i cannot stress highly enough that you know what we need to change the narrative when it comes to the whole abortion sides of things it's very evil it's very wrong the left you know sort of dignifies that and there's no dignity in having an abortion At the end of the day, somebody's life has been taken, and it's the life of the baby. Help pre-borns save babies' lives today. Go to CrawfordMediaGroup.net. And as I always say, guys, put your money where your mouth is.
SPEAKER 07 :
100%. But, John, let me just jump on that and say my wife is a head nurse at a pregnancy care center here in the Buffalo area, statewide pregnancy care center. They've got offices across the state. But right here in the Buffalo area, she's regularly doing ultrasounds, just like you're describing. And the women who see their baby overwhelmingly choose life because they realize it is not a block of tissue. So, yeah, support pre-born. Go to CrawfordMediaGroup.net. That's CrawfordMediaGroup.net. Well, Merry Christmas, everybody. It's the Christmas edition of the National Crawford Roundtable. My name is Neil Boron. John Rush is with me. And if you're at a station where you only hear the first half of the podcast, go to CrawfordMediaGroup.net. Listen to the whole thing. The second half is coming up right after this.
SPEAKER 02 :
This is a Crawford Media Group production.
SPEAKER 07 :
All right, welcome back. The second half of the National Crawford Roundtable podcast, our Christmas edition with just John Rush and me, John Rush, host of Rush to Reason on KLZ in Denver. My name is Neil Boron, host of Neil Boron Live on WDCX Radio in Buffalo, New York. Bob Duco, somewhere in the universe, probably vacationing in Tahiti or something, I'm not sure, but I hope he's enjoying his Christmas vacation. He's not with us today. He's the host of the Bob Duco Show on WMUZ in Detroit, Michigan. So, John, we've been talking about Christmas, a little bit about the secular history of it. We're talking about the biblical meaning and reality of what Christmas is all about. And I wanted to kind of shift in a direction of talking about the church today and how we deal with the issue of the true Christmas story. Because some people, you know, I mean, there's even songs written about it. We should be celebrating Christmas all year round and keep the Christmas message front and central. Well, what we talked about just a few minutes ago was Christmas that Christmas is ultimately not in any way whatsoever about a guy named Santa Claus, it's about the God of the universe coming to earth to rescue us. And since Christmas is essentially ground zero for the Gospel message in some fashion, Don't we have to find a way to better communicate that this thing we celebrate once a year is really important to our understanding every day of the year?
SPEAKER 05 :
And I think, you know, to your point earlier, Neil, one of the things as you were talking through all of that, that I just don't think we, you know, collectively as a church do well enough is, number one, you know, man's depravity. You know, we have an original sin nature. We're all depraved. We would do what we want to do, not what God wants to do. And the Christmas story, and then, of course, what happens on Easter ties right into it. You can't have Easter without Christmas. It all ties together. But this whole idea that man needs a Savior, we need a go-between between us and God. You know, the thing that we don't do well enough at, Neal, because people get this idea that somehow, someway, we are quote-unquote good enough. Well, we're not. Folks forget, and the church doesn't do a very good job of this, God can't look on sin. Now, he knows about it, but we cannot be in his presence in our sinful nature. It doesn't work that way. That's why God cast Adam and Eve out of the garden. He can't stand nor tolerate sin, nor does he. So in turn, before Christmas, before Christ, as you said earlier, Neil, we had all these rules and regulations and so on to where at that time only certain individuals that had done certain things, could even hear and speak to God and have that direct connection. When Christ came and did what he did through his birth, the death, and resurrection, we now have this constant community with God, or the commune with God, I should say, the ability to talk and fellowship with him that, frankly, the folks before Christ never had the opportunity to do. And by the way, Neil, we don't do a good enough job of explaining that to folks, because I think a lot of people feel like, oh you know i'm a good person if i say a little prayer today you know i'll be okay well no because no offense until you actually say the prayer that says i'm accepting christ into my life as lord and savior he's not hearing you at all yeah uh isaiah 59 2 says that that you know our sins have made a separation between us and god so he's turned his face away from us and he does not hear
SPEAKER 07 :
And the fact is that for somebody who is in Christ, the Holy Spirit of God takes up residence within us, never leaves us, never forsakes us. And so, you know, communion with God and having relationship with God is ultimately what Christianity is about. If you think of, is it Matthew 7, where, you know, Jesus is saying like, hey, like you cast out demons in my name, you perform marvelous works in my name. But then he says, depart from me. I never knew you. What does he mean by relationship, right? And so, I mean, it is literally possible for us to have a relationship with God because of what Jesus did, and that's the story of Christmas.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, thank you, Neil. That is the story of Christmas, that we really, again, as a community of believers, don't do well enough at communicating that, and I think because in one way, Neil, telling someone that they're depraved and they have no access to God is somewhat negative, and it is. But on the same token, it's reality, and Scripture is very clear on that. I mean, the reality is we cannot come before God without having that ultimate Christ sacrifice in our lives, His blood covering us, that then allows us to have that communion with Him, because without that, it can't exist. And we're afraid to say that because we might hurt someone's feelings.
SPEAKER 07 :
yeah well we don't care about that here on the national crawford round you know we don't seriously because we care about you enough to tell you the truth and john you mentioned you know the sin issue just a second ago i kind of think that even for those of us who come to faith in christ we need to keep sin or at least the fact that we were slaves to sin front and center and the reason i say that is because even after coming to faith in christ we still sin and sure absolutely none of us are perfect no not one When we present a picture that, you know, that God can't have anything to do with sin, it's like, but we're believers and we don't ever sin. And while, yes, we do. And when we present anything less than that, when people find out that we're struggling with some form of addiction, sometimes it's a substance, sometimes it's porn. Good Lord, I did a conversation on air the other day on my program about like 85 percent. The numbers have gone up since since COVID, you know, people being addicted to porn in the church and outside the church. And it's like 85% of men in the church have looked at porn in the last 30 days. Like, okay, so we got a real problem. Well, let's be honest about it. Because the God of the universe who came to rescue us is not only big enough to save us from sin in the first place, but to help us choose life rather than sin right here and right now because we're in relationship with him. So it's both, really. It isn't just coming to faith in Christ one time so we can be holier than thou, John. It's we have an advocate. We've got somebody walking with us in this present world. And again, I'm thinking of you as you listen to this on Christmas Day or somewhere around the Christmas holiday. You're thinking about what does this all mean? Well, it means that you have an advocate. You've got somebody with you in your situation right now to walk with you, to lead you, to help you live life and freedom from sin, because you're in a relationship with God Almighty. John, to me, that's way beyond just going to church ritualistically and worshiping God once a week.
SPEAKER 05 :
That's a daily advocate. Absolutely, yeah. It's something that, as Christians, you know, and those of you that maybe are listening, Neil said earlier, you're not a believer. Maybe you... don't know what we're talking about. All this seems foreign, and you've known Christians because, yes, Neil, we all sin and come short, and it's because of that presence of Christ in our lives and that relationship we have, the grace that's there and abounds, and we could do an entire podcast on grace, and yes, does grace get abused? It does, but it's still there, and the reality is we're able to still continue on and have that fellowship. Now we're supposed to take care of those sins in our life, and that's a whole other Again, I don't want to get deep into the spiritual end of things. That's a whole other conversation that we could have, Neal. But bottom line, yes, we are supposed to abstain from wanting to have a daily relationship with him. Does it mean that we're going to be perfect? No, but it is something, Neal, that we should be striving for and living in that life of Christ on a daily basis. Now, do all of us fall short, myself included? I would be the first one to tell you that, yes, in fact, Neal, I fall short all the time.
SPEAKER 07 :
All right, I'm going to big time admission. You ready for this, John? True story. I'm wrestling with my eating habits to make sure that I'm taking care of myself.
SPEAKER 05 :
You and me both.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yesterday, pumped some gas. The receipt didn't print out on the outdoor pump. Had to go inside. Can I get a receipt for pump number three?
SPEAKER 04 :
There's a temptation.
SPEAKER 07 :
While I'm standing there, I'm looking at the Baby Ruth candy bar. Yep. And John, I should have asked Jesus for help, and I only thought of it later, but honestly, I mean, that could seem so trivial to anybody, but the reality is God has given us power over sin. The same power that raised Jesus from the dead, for crying out loud, is available to help me say no to a baby Ruth candy bar. And that's what you're describing, and I just wanted to bring it up to say, if you're listening to this right now, you're not alone in the fact that that sometimes you make poor decisions. We make them all the time, but we're learning.
SPEAKER 05 :
I want to dovetail on that. I was talking to this to somebody the other day because, and this is not to brag by any means, but I've never been an individual that's had any kind of an addiction. I don't have a drug addiction, an alcohol addiction, even a porn addiction. It's just something that I guess because of how I was raised and No offense, Neil, I don't have a lot of spare time given the schedule that I keep, so the reality is I don't have a lot of time for that. But the one area that, yes, I do in fact struggle with and, yes, I do sin in is I love to eat. There isn't a food on this planet that I will not eat. It is something that I struggle with daily. it is no different than somebody struggling with you know porn or sex or any other addictions i am addicted to food and i struggle with that on a daily basis yeah and what's hard is you don't need my point is that is no different than any of the other addictions i just mentioned by the way i'm in the same category well it isn't different but it i think in one way it's harder john and the reason i say this because it's everywhere
SPEAKER 07 :
Well, yeah, but you also you don't need LSD or cocaine. No, that's right.
SPEAKER 04 :
But you know, that's right. You know, good point. You do need to eat food. And great point.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yes, it's. And yet, I mean, the idea that it's an addiction or that could be an addiction or a problem, that's no different. But the idea that you you actually have to engage with this at some point in your life is a problem.
SPEAKER 05 :
Very true.
SPEAKER 07 :
And anyway, we got a lot to talk about in one.
SPEAKER 05 :
And let me jump in because pre-born, you know, we just talked about some different things along those lines. And I know, again, I said this last half hour. You know, the end of the season tax thing, which, again, I'm helping a lot of my clients with, and they're looking at ways to reduce their liability. And one of those easy ways to do it is to find a great charity that you can donate some money to. You know, I hope, first of all, it's your local church. But for a lot of folks, Neil, they're wanting to do something extra. They're wanting to make a difference in others' lives. And not that the local church isn't doing it, but they want something else that they literally can put their, quote, unquote, signature on and say, yes, I helped church. do that, you know, with Christ and God blessing my business, I want to do something very specific for someone else. And that's where pre-born comes in for you guys that are business owners. And Andrew, maybe you just had a really great year. You got a big bonus this year, whatever the case may be, and you want to make a difference in the lives of others right now, ultrasound machine, buy one for pre-born. We talk all the time about what those machines do. Neil, you talked about it last half hour in regards to what your wife does. The reality is showing mom's What's going on inside of their womb with that ultrasound machine and one single donation of $15,000 will actually make that happen. So for a lot of you that are listening, again, you're trying to figure out what do I do here towards the end of the year? And yes, this is Christmas Day that this is playing on. You still have time to make that donation happen by the end of the year and still get that on your taxes. Just go to CrawfordMediaGroup.net, look for pre-born, contact them through that link and find out exactly what you can do to help them acquire a ultrasound machine. And Neil, that will save multiple, multiple ongoing babies' lives after the fact that you do that.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, sometimes when you give to things, you wonder, is my giving going to make a difference? You're actually saving lives.
SPEAKER 05 :
And for years down the road, this will make a difference.
SPEAKER 07 :
Hallelujah. Entire families will exist. Ministries will ultimately exist because of all this. Yeah, and by the way, there's, you know, one thing I think we learned through the last election cycle was how much distrust there was for the nation's media. And people were like... like we've been lied to man i mean and i think even going back to covet people felt like the government wasn't necessarily telling the truth and so when um the mention was made that rfk jr potentially would lead the secretary of health and human services that he was going to come in and kind of blow up the system that was telling us that all you need is pills man just take more pills vaccines and pills Well, guess what? Big Pharma has a vested financial interest in vaccines and pills, and if they can keep you on those things for the rest of your life, they make money for the rest of their lives. Well, are the pills that you're taking really actually making you healthy? Are you getting better? Or are you kind of spinning your wheels health-wise but continuing trying to manage situations with all these medications and then often taking more medications to deal with the effects of the current medications you're on? Well, bottom line is there is an alternative, and it's called light therapy or photobiomodulation. Can you imagine literally taking the very light God himself created, and use a particular unit a handheld unit or other you know units that are available larger ones for instance to cover the entire chest or whatever but actually use a light unit to shoot the very wavelength of light you need to excite the cells in your body to do what they were created to do and that's reduce pain and swelling and promote healing and i'll just say that when i had covid in 2021 and i couldn't breathe i mean i could take a deep breath Somebody would say, like, take a deep breath. And I would, and my fingertips were blue. Why? Because I was only at 79% oxygen saturation, and I needed literally to go to the hospital. But the EMTs were saying, please don't go. You'll be sitting in a hallway. Nobody's going to deal with you. The hospitals are overrun right now. If you're OK, stay at home and try to deal with this here. Well, I used light therapy from SunPower LED. It healed my lungs in a matter of like 7 to 10 days. I completely turned around and I could breathe again. I was back to 98, 99% oxygen saturation. If you want to learn about all of what light therapy can do, go to SunPowerLED at CrawfordMediaGroup.net. Sun, like S-U-N in the sky. SunPowerLED at CrawfordMediaGroup.net and check it out for yourselves. Man, we've had an interesting conversation today. One more thing before we change gears and talk about some lighter stuff. But we were talking about what the church maybe can do to do a better job of telling the true Christmas story all year round. And I want to throw something out here, John. It seems to me that, you know, we talked about, like, maybe really the issue of transparency, that transparency matters. if we struggle with sin we should say that we should let people know that jesus is not only our savior he's the one who's helping us to become the people god created us to be but i think we need that from our leaders too and how many times have we read the christian post or something else to see about another leader falling and having issues with sin and whatever shouldn't humility amongst our leaders shouldn't humility amongst the church in general and the idea of servanthood be a part of like the major message of what we are
SPEAKER 05 :
Absolutely, Neil, and again, people, this is where I think the church sometimes makes mistakes. They feel like they can't be quote-unquote offensive, and yet if you do it in the right way with what you just said a moment ago, being totally transparent, the reality is as other people see that, oh, these guys have the same type of struggles that I have, and yet they figured out a way to overcome these. I mean, that in and of itself, Neil, is extremely, extremely powerful, and And again, I'm not criticizing every church. Some churches do a great job of what we're talking about. I'm talking church in general. Put an air quote around it. Catholic, Protestant, doesn't matter. Just in general. I just don't think we do a really good job at some of this because unfortunately, and this is probably a future podcast, we have become too woke and we're too afraid to hurt people's feelings. And in turn, we don't get the right message out.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, and it's so pervasive. And I'm not trying to pick on anybody in particular. I'm just saying, like, the message of the King of Kings being born in a manger. And you talked about interaction with fecal matter. I mean, come on, we're talking about a barn here, ultimately. King of the universe was born in a barn in a manger.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, I highly doubt, for everybody listening really quick, because this is what you don't see in the pictures, I highly doubt if you read scripture and you know what the innkeeper actually said, Neil, I highly doubt that he went out there and cleaned the actual stable before he said, you guys can go out there and hang out and sleep and deliver your baby in it.
SPEAKER 04 :
I highly doubt that happened. It's been approved by the Radisson Hotels and the Hampton Inns.
SPEAKER 05 :
You know, I mean, we sanitize some of this stuff. And I have a manger scene in my front yard. And, you know, I can't make it look like that was. I wish I could. And I would if I could. But at the end of the day, we sanitize those things to... In a lot of ways, you know, we make it look really clean and neat and cute and look at the cute baby Jesus and so on. And I'm not saying he wasn't, but, you know, to your point, Neil, earlier, we forget what that environment would have looked at. And then you've got these lowly of low, you know, really at that point in time, sort of the outcast of the world shepherds that show up. These guys are sheep herders, if you would. In fact, we even sanitize that by calling them shepherds. But really, they're sheep herders, which were... Stinky, smelly, they lived out among the sheep. These weren't the cleanest of individuals either. I'm here to tell you, you would have needed a little bit of Vicks underneath your nose to hang out in the manger that night.
SPEAKER 07 :
Exactly. And honestly, that scenario you just described is the picture of our lives. So why would we present it any different?
SPEAKER 04 :
Exactly. I mean, we're laughing, but it's so true, Neal.
SPEAKER 07 :
If anyone in the body of Christ would ever try to say, look, as Christians, we are immune from this kind of stuff. We're leaders. We're prosperous. We don't have problems. No, Jesus came to rescue us in the midst of our mess. We live in a mess, and Jesus is our answer, not any way that we live our lives or any title we hold or anything like that. I mean, ultimately, that's who Jesus is. So let's focus on that this Christmas. All right.
SPEAKER 05 :
And the fulfillment of prophecy and the things that he did and Again, as we talked earlier, the ability to bring abundant life to each and every one of us. And believe me, folks, I don't think any of you really understand and recognize, and you can see it throughout Scripture, Neal, Old Testament versus New. Not saying they weren't happy in the Old Testament, but there's just no way they could have had the same joy then that we have now because they didn't have Christ in their lives.
SPEAKER 04 :
That's right.
SPEAKER 07 :
you're 100 all right so let me uh let me switch gears here and ask you about little johnny rush all right all right okay back in the day when i say the word christmas john seriously what comes to mind like anyone something you got a picture in your head tell me about that picture
SPEAKER 05 :
At Christmas and around our house, my dad and mom, bless them, my mom since has passed here just recently. My dad's in memory care, so I wish he would be able to listen to this, but he can't because his memory just isn't of that. He's just not sound mind where he can do these things, Neil. But the way they raised us and made Christmas so special, not only with us knowing about the birth of Christ, but the way we did presents and so on, we were kind of a weird family. My folks didn't wrap presents. They would put the presents under the tree after all of us.
SPEAKER 04 :
Really?
SPEAKER 05 :
Had gone to bed. And then, of course, we'd want to get up super early to go out and see exactly what we had gotten and what my mom and dad had gotten us and so on. And it was just a beautiful time. And it was a tradition in our home at that time where that's what my folks did. And I don't know where that tradition for them came from. Most people wrap presents for their kids. But my folks never did. We kind of knew. And we didn't have a lot. We didn't grow up in any kind of a wealthy home at all. I mean, we were talking one, maybe two gifts for each one of us kids. And that was... About it and my folks made huge and looking back now. I Know the huge sacrifice they made Very thankful.
SPEAKER 07 :
Hallelujah Hallelujah, I can relate to that John my mom grew up in a home in northern, Canada I mean she's Canadian so isn't it weird that God put me at a radio station that covers? But I mean she was born in a home that had a dirt floor and my mom was born sometimes and yeah sometimes the windshield would be 40 below zero they'd have to you know start the fire just to be able to survive inside the home but uh and my dad you know grew up in a poor home of polish immigrants and a whole thing just so grateful for the simplicity of the love that was shared in that setting man i understand your tears because i've i've lived that and you know my favorite christmas memory really is not about any specific thing other than the idea that christmas eve for whatever reason was more important than christmas day and i think it was the anticipation the idea of what was coming and it wasn't all about the gifts it was about the whole experience you know we would gather together and sing christmas songs usually having gone to church but then coming home and we would all exchange one present that night we'd all give each other one present we were that family we could do that so you were that family yeah man you know but whatever we did that on christmas eve and the next day was very for whatever reason anti-climatic and there's something about the darkness and the sparkling lights and sometimes there was snow falling outside the window and whatever right right i don't know it was a very precious time of just enjoying the grateful gifts we'd been given and a lot of them weren't fancy i mean i i think the the most important thing i ever got was a goalie stick one year for hockey and I wasn't, you know, much of a hockey player, but I, I've got a story along those lines really quick.
SPEAKER 05 :
Cause we, we talk a lot about the whole, you know, transgender end of things. And I was raised by a man's man. And I can remember, uh, you probably do as well, Neil, when GI Joe became a really big deal in my brother and I, you know, we wanted GI Joe, we wanted the tank. We wanted the little trailer that went with the tank. And I can remember my folks probably didn't know this, but I can remember listening to some of the, uh, conversations that were happening in the evenings after we had gone to bed. You lived in a house where the walls weren't super thick, if you know what I mean. And, you know, we could hear all sorts of things. And I was a I was a pretty, you know, how should I say I paid attention as a young child pretty well. And I can remember my dad sort of having these arguments with my mom that you know my boys are not going to play with dolls and he looked at gi joe as a doll again i was raised by a man's man and there was a big big arguments among him and my mom about us having gi joes because they were like a barbie doll and he did not want us playing with dolls i don't know somehow my mom must have convinced him that we'd still grow up and be you know the kind of men that we ended up being anyways despite having gi joe but for the longest time my dad resisted gi joe
SPEAKER 07 :
know what's so funny john like he was thought of in my world as a man's man i mean he was like this military hero right gi joe and everything guys would play with him the only question we all had was about the hinge in the wrist you know what i'm saying right the hinge of the wrist that was the one thing right not sure about that anyways in a way though it just cut you know again it showed how
SPEAKER 05 :
You know, again, my dad did a great job with especially us boys, you know, teaching us how to be men, how to hunt, how to fish, how to survive, you know, all sorts of circumstances in the wilderness and so on, which, again, I'm very thankful that he taught me all those things. And for him, you know, it was a big deal for us boys to grow up to be men and not cowards.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah.
SPEAKER 07 :
Amen for that.
SPEAKER 05 :
Something we've forgotten today, Neal.
SPEAKER 07 :
And on top of it all, just because you're saying that, I just want to thank God for parents that lived below the poverty level in some cases or whatever. They didn't have great means, but they showed us love in the process.
SPEAKER 05 :
They sacrificed, Neil.
SPEAKER 07 :
Sacrificed. It made all the difference in the world, and it made the reality of the sacrifice Jesus made in our half all the more meaningful on our behalf.
SPEAKER 05 :
Speaking of sacrifice, folks, Preborn, which again, great organization. And yes, for a lot of you listening that maybe you don't make a lot of extra money, but you still want to have that ability to leave a legacy. And you can do that by giving to Preborn any, and I mean this, folks, any donation will help Preborn because as we stack those donations on top of one another, they save babies' lives. They help make those ultrasounds happen. You hear us talk about them every single week. Bob does just such a beautiful job of explaining prenatal you know, pre-born and what they do and the way they handle mom and the family and showing mom, you know, pictures of the baby and what that means. And then in a lot of cases, you know, bringing mom to the Lord, some of what we've talked about during this entire podcast, Neal, you know, pre-born just does such a wonderful job of that. They are literally... saving lives, not just baby's life, but in a lot of cases, mom's life, a family's life, you know, plural, if you would, at the end of the day. And again, for those of you listening, whether you can give a big donation or a little donation, it doesn't matter. All of it will go into helping save babies' lives. You can help out pre-born by going to CrawfordMediaGroup.net.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, it's an excellent site because you can support the podcast and literally support organizations that are changing lives physically, emotionally, and spiritually. And CrawfordMediaGroup.net is where you want to be. Our other brand new sponsor is SunPowerLED. John, I'm sorry, I was going to say Tom Kerber is the founder of SunPowerLED. He's a friend, and he's been involved in all kinds of ministry and other things over the years. He's a wonderful believer, and John, seriously, if he was on Gilligan's Island, the series would have had to end because they would have gotten off the island. He's an amazing inventor, and he's been involved in the study of light waves and what they can accomplish and how they can actually penetrate the skin without burning your skin, without causing any problem, but literally promote healing in your body. Why is that? Because the cells in your body are often compromised for a variety of reasons. And when the mitochondria in your cells wake up, Your cell starts to do what a cell was created to do, and that's reduce pain and swelling and promote healing. Like if you're struggling with arthritis or some kind of an injury, if you've got migraine headaches, if you have problems with your skin or other things, light therapy could be the answer you're looking for. And it is the one thing Big Pharma really honestly doesn't want you to know about. Light therapy has been used to heal so many different things. You can learn all about it on a free webinar that happens every Tuesday night by going to sunpowerled.com. And literally just put your, I think you put your email address in and you're in. You can ask questions. You can learn about the power of light to heal the human body. And by the way, it's the light that God himself created. Learn about it at sunpowerled.com. That's sunpowerled.com. All right. Well, we got about a minute left here, John, real quick. I think probably realistically, I mean, I love the movie Deck the Halls, but It's a Wonderful Life probably has to be my favorite movie of all time. What about you?
SPEAKER 05 :
We watched the other night, and I know it's sort of sacrilegious, but Christmas Vacation is still one of the funniest movies of all time. It's just so hilarious. I know it's one of Bob's favorites as well, so I can say that.
SPEAKER 07 :
Chevy Chase, man, it's so good. On the heels of vacation comes Christmas Vacation. It's just so good, right? That's the one you're talking about?
SPEAKER 05 :
Yes, Christmas Vacation.
SPEAKER 07 :
Absolutely love it. Anyway, John, thanks for all you do. And I just got to say, you know, if I'm thankful for anything this Christmas, it's iron sharpens iron. You guys have taught me so much, and I'm just grateful for you. I'm grateful for our Savior and that we get to talk about biblical truth every week.
SPEAKER 05 :
Amen. I feel the same way, Neil. You guys are such a joy to be with on a weekly basis. I've learned so much. We've figured out in the last five-plus years that it's amazing time has flown by that fast. Yeah.
SPEAKER 07 :
Amen. Well, have a Merry Christmas, everybody. Thanks for listening to our Christmas edition of the National Crawford Roundtable.
SPEAKER 02 :
You've been listening to the National Crawford Roundtable podcast, a view of today's culture through a biblical lens, brought to you by Preborn, saving babies and souls. Join us in the fight to save babies from abortion. Your gift provides a free ultrasound for a mother in need. 80% of the time she will choose life. Visit CrawfordMediaGroup.net and click on their logo to donate. And by SunPower LED light therapy devices. Bring light to your pain. Visit CrawfordMediaGroup.net and click on the SunPower LED logo to get out of pain and improve your overall wellness. You can download this podcast from Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, and more from your local Crawford Media Group stations website or at CrawfordMediaGroup.net. And please give this podcast a five-star rating on your Apple app. Look for the notification on your app for when the next weekly edition of the National Crawford Roundtable podcast is ready for you to download. This is a Crawford Media Group production.