Ep. 817 - The Blob Declares Us The Enemy of Their State
The White House threatens another lockdown, a NYT reporter labels Trump supporters “enemies of the state,” and Nancy Pelosi orders the Capitol Hill police to arrest almost anyone without a mask.
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We have officially passed the 500th day of 15 days to slow the spread.
And public health officials are marking the occasion by reinstituting mask orders all around the country.
And not to be outdone, the White House celebrated this milestone by spread slowing once more and threatening to lock down the entire country again.
President Biden says that we are not returning to lockdowns, shutdowns, and school closures.
But he also once said that we didn't have to wear masks anymore once we were vaccinated.
So why should Americans trust him now?
Well, because we listen to the scientists.
We listen to the expert.
This is a public health situation.
This is not about politics at all.
This is about saving lives.
And this is what the president is all about.
He wants to make sure that we are saving lives.
If you look at, Peter, the last six months, that's what he's done every day.
And you see that in the numbers.
Now we're at a point where we have to double down and make it very, very clear to people that we can't let the pandemic win.
We have to continue to fight.
So if you're listening to the science, if scientists come to you at some point down the line and say, it is our opinion that there should be shutdowns and there should be school closures, you would do that?
Well, we listen to, like I said, we listen to the CDC and the expert and their guidance.
The CDC is a body that is very well respected, and again, we follow their guidance.
Why should we trust the president?
Well, because he listens to the scientists.
Why should we trust them?
They've gotten everything wrong, too.
Meanwhile, The Atlantic magazine calls MyPillow owner Mike Lindell a threat to democracy.
A New York Times reporter labels Trump supporters enemies of the state.
And Nancy Pelosi orders Capitol Hill police to arrest the unmasked.
I'm Michael Knowles.
It's the Michael Knowles Show.
Welcome back to the show.
My favorite comment yesterday is from BO7341, who says, to be fair, I think January 6th, 2021 was the worst day in American history.
Joe Biden was confirmed as president on that day.
You know, good point.
I guess I could have a January 6th commission.
I could get behind that if the purpose of the commission is to investigate how on earth we got to this point.
You know...
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I don't think anything irritates me more in politics than when politicians say, look, this isn't political.
When the White House spokesman talking about various mandates and orders from the President of the United States says that those mandates and orders are not political because he got the advice for them from other politicians who work in public health and public and politics mean the same thing.
They're synonyms.
It's so preposterous.
I guess it works.
I guess that's why politicians continue to use this rhetorical device.
But sophisticated people like you would never do this.
Whatever a politician does, whenever a politician does a thing that pertains to the public and policy, it is by definition political.
By the way, when private companies do things that affect the public broadly, that is, by definition, political.
And what Joe Biden is doing is political and it's very dishonest.
And it tarnishes whatever credibility he had left because not so long ago, Joe Biden said unequivocally, if you've taken the shot, then you do not need to wear a mask.
If you've been fully vaccinated, you no longer need to wear a mask.
Let me repeat.
If you are fully vaccinated, you no longer need to wear a mask.
But now you do.
Now you do.
And by the way, Biden and the White House has addressed this.
And what they have said is, that was true then.
If you've been vaccinated, you don't need to wear a mask.
But it's not true now.
Because the words and the judgment of the president...
All that matters, this is according to them, all that matters is what unelected technocrats in lab coats have to say.
And whatever their whims and caprices suggest on any given day, that will be the public policy of the United States.
Why do we have a president?
I have no idea.
I don't really know.
He's not doing anything.
If truly his public policy just amounts to listen to the scientists, specific scientists, and do whatever they say, then we have no need for a president.
And I think that is kind of the point of the Biden presidency, is he is simply a vessel for the unelected liberal bureaucracy.
Biden's going further, though.
It's not just, yeah, you should probably mask up now.
He also wants to impel people to get the vaccine, and he knows that he probably can't do that at the federal level.
He knows he probably can't pass a law or an executive order that says everyone's got to get the vaccine.
So what he's doing instead is using the so-called private companies that aren't really private at all, and he is using them as proxies to coerce people to take the experimental drug.
Why not push for vaccine mandates in states, private companies, schools?
Do you want to see those entities pass vaccine mandates?
Well, I'd like to see them continue to move in that direction.
And that's why I pointed out, I had asked the Justice Department to determine whether that is they're able to do that legally.
And they can.
Local communities can do that.
Local businesses can do that.
It's still a question whether the federal government can mandate the whole country.
I don't know that yet.
So that's still a question, by the way, according to Job.
I thought it'd be a pretty simple answer that the federal government can't mandate the whole country take an experimental drug.
But he says that's an open question.
We're working on that.
But in the meantime, what we're going to do is use so-called private entities as proxies to force you all to do it anyway.
This gets to President Trump's lawsuit against Facebook and the other big tech companies.
He's suing them on First Amendment grounds.
Now, usually you're only allowed to claim a First Amendment violation, or it would only carry credibility, if you're making that claim against the government.
Because private companies have no responsibility to protect your First Amendment rights.
But what Trump is alleging is that these so-called private companies are just an extension of the government.
And he makes a good case.
And every time Joe Biden opens his mouth, he seems to make a good case.
Meanwhile, China is spreading disinformation on COVID. So what China is saying, they've sent out a bunch of tweets from their propagandists, and they've said...
The U.S. is responsible for the world.
How has the U.S. poisoned the world?
By the way, they're like missing...
It says, how has U.S. poisoned the world?
U.S. is responsible to the world.
And like all this...
You'd think they educate all of their students at American universities.
You'd think they'd have a slightly better grasp on the English language.
And they don't really.
But this is obviously a...
Piece of propaganda to deflect blame from the Wuhan Institute of Virology where the virus escaped to blame the United States or something.
It's worth pointing out that under the lead of Dr.
Fauci, the United States actually funded the Wuhan laboratory.
So I guess we bear some responsibility in that regard.
But sure enough, this is misinformation.
Now, when I think about COVID misinformation, though, and we're all putting ourire on China, I think, hmm, would we ever spread misinformation?
Would the US government ever?
Because you just saw the Biden clip about the masks, and you remember seeing the Dr. Fauci clip about the masks, and you saw the government denying that it escaped from the Wuhan lab, and then later they said that it did, or that it very likely did.
And it seems like the United States has spread a bit of misinformation as well.
It seems that the bureaucrats and the politicians in charge in this country have spread a fair bit of COVID misinformation as well.
As a matter of fact, I think there are three groups right now that are being called misinformers on COVID. There's the Chinese government, there's the U.S. government, and then there are just random conservatives.
Those are the three groups.
Only one of those groups gets kicked off of Twitter for spreading quote-unquote misinformation.
And ironically, it's the group that tends to be most correct, where the misinformation turns out just to be information.
China goes out and says that the United States developed this and released it.
Obviously a lie.
They get to stay on Twitter.
The U.S. government says, don't wear masks, they don't work.
Do wear masks, they do work.
Didn't escape from the lab.
Maybe it did escape from the lab.
Vaccines have no side effects.
Back and forth and back and forth, they don't get kicked off of Twitter.
Conservatives say, huh.
Kind of looks like that Wuhan virus.
I bet that might have something to do with the lab.
Misleading, misinformation.
I think there might be some side effects involving myocarditis and periocarditis and nerve system disorders from the vaccine.
Misinformation, censored, suspended for 12 hours.
That's a pretty strange state of affairs that the people who are most correct are the only group that are going to be censored for stating some plain facts.
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And which one am I most afraid of?
That's a real...
The liberal establishment is really ratcheting up.
The hysteria is really ratcheting up the sense of crisis and is really ratcheting up attacks on political dissidents in the United States.
And I'm not just talking about a handful of kooky dissidents on the fringe.
I'm talking about half the country.
New York Times reporter Katie Benner has just labeled Trump supporters, Trump supporters writ large, half the country, at least, enemies of the state.
Quote, today's January 6th select committee underscores the America's current, the Americas, New York Times people aren't hiring their best anymore.
The America's current essential dilemma, national security dilemma.
Work to combat legitimate national security threats now entails calling a politician's supporters enemies of the state.
Katie Benner, by the way, covers for the Times the Justice Department.
As Americans, we believe that state power should not be used to work against a political figure or a political party.
But, and there it is, there's that but that's going to negate what she just said, but what happens if a politician seems to threaten the state if the politician continues to do so out of office and his entire party supports the threat?
Well, what happens is you're going to, if you can, disingenuously, but nevertheless, if you can label your political opponents, half the country, enemies of the state, then you can more easily justify weaponizing the full force of the federal government against those people,
including the NSA, which has a foreign service mission, and yet was just caught spying on Tucker Carlson, a domestic, very, very popular, I guess you'd call him political dissident because he opposes the liberal regime, but it's very, as mainstream as they get, he's got the highest rated show on cable news.
And yet the NSA, which is only supposed to be looking at threats outside of the country, spying on him.
The FBI going after Donald Trump's campaign in 2016.
A Democratic Party using the FBI as its enforcement arm to spy on the political opponents.
That's pretty scary.
The jailing of political dissonance.
I mean, even if you look at the way that the January 6th people are being treated compared to BLM. The January 6th people relatively wrought very little damage, didn't kill people.
The only person who died in political violence on that day was one of the Trump supporters.
And yet they get the book thrown at them and they're going to rot in prison.
Meanwhile, BLM burns down federal courthouses and kills a bunch of people and they get off the hook.
Broadly get off the hook.
That is because the BLM people are considered good, useful foot soldiers for the liberal establishment, and the Trump supporters are enemies of the state.
And we treat enemies of the state differently than we would treat foot soldiers for the establishment.
Speaking of enemies of the state...
You know that insufferable cop, Officer Dunn?
The one who said he was called all sorts of terrible names on the basis of race.
He had no evidence of this whatsoever.
Cameras all over the place that day, zillions of hours of video.
But no, we never found any evidence of the dubious events he's describing.
So Officer Dunn has something to say about enemies of the state.
He says that the people at the Capitol, the people who stole Pelosi's lectern, were much, much worse than the BLM rioters who burned the country down.
First Amendment protests is what this country is about.
The First Amendment, the Constitution, that's the democracy of it.
But once you start attacking people, attacking things, then that's wrong.
And you know what?
That goes to the riots this summer.
They were wrong.
If you peacefully protest, then sure.
But the riots and the violence and the damage this summer, they were wrong.
They were wrong.
And that's the exact same thing that happened at the Capitol.
But their goal was to overthrow democracy, which is a bigger threat to America.
Wow, big of you to say that killing dozens of people and burning down businesses and homes and courthouses, big of you to say that that's wrong.
Hey, look, I'm a reasonable guy, okay?
I think killing dozens of people is wrong.
Thanks, man.
Okay, I'm glad we can at least agree on that.
But that's the exact same thing that happened at the Capitol.
No, it's not.
No, it's not.
They're not even close.
Burning down city after city after city, killing person after person after person, burning down police station after police station after federal courthouse, stealing property after property after property, and threatening to do it again with the explicit support of members of the Democrat Congress and Senate and the sitting vice president now.
That is not the same as making a mess of Nancy Pelosi's desk.
It's not.
It's not even close.
They are completely incomparable events.
And yet, not only is he saying they're the same, he's actually then later saying what happened at the Capitol is worse because they want to overthrow democracy.
Burning down a federal courthouse, that's not overthrowing democracy.
Burning down the symbol of the justice system, that's not overthrowing democracy.
But...
Jumping up and down with a horn hat on.
That is pathetic.
Pathetic.
So what are we going to do about it?
We're just going to complain, right?
That's what we're going to do.
I think the only people who are doing their job in this entire fiasco And I hate to toot my own horn, but it's those of us on the communicator side of it.
It's those of us in the conservative media.
And I'm not saying, look, I think it'd be much better if legislators were actually taking action or judges were taking action or people with real hard political power were taking action.
But all we can do, if you have a microphone, all you can do is call attention to this stuff that the mainstream media won't talk about.
All you can do is call attention to not only what's happening in the news, but what that relates to from a philosophical perspective, from an historical perspective.
You can provide context.
You can lay out the plan of what to do.
But if you're not sitting in Congress, if you're not sitting in the Senate, if you're not a legislator, if you're not in the bureaucracy, if you're not a judge, then you don't have that hard political power to do something.
So do something.
Do something, guys.
Thankfully, some congressmen are finally doing something very important here.
Representatives Jim Jordan and Kathy McMorris-Rogers are now introducing legislation.
Finally, finally, thank you guys for doing this.
I don't know why other Republicans hadn't done this yet.
To amend Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, you know this is the provision of the CDA, which would give legal protections, liability protections to big tech companies and allows them to act as publishers, but then claim that they're not publishers and basically just allows them to censor you and political dissidents.
And the President of the United States, for that matter, who ironically is a kind of political dissident when the entire political order is run by the liberal establishment.
The Communications Decency Act, which ironically was gutted by the Supreme Court and the central provision, the anti-indecency provisions.
The whole point of the CDA was to control pornography on the internet in the early days of the internet.
And that central provision was gutted by libs on the Supreme Court.
But this Section 230 has remained.
And so this is great stuff.
Section 230 stipulates that, quote, no provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider.
This law or this bill that's being proposed by Jordan and Rogers would exempt certain gigantic big tech companies from this sort of protection.
It's a good step in the right direction because the entire establishment right now is trying to criminalize conservative thought.
Exhibit A, The Atlantic.
The Atlantic and Applebaum, who's a well-known political writer, she has a piece out called The MyPillow Guy Really Could Destroy Democracy.
So Mike Lindell, you know, MyPillow, a company that has supported this show and many, many other conservative shows, he could destroy democracy.
He's a very nice guy, patriotic guy, very inspiring story.
He could apparently destroy democracy.
Democracy.
If democracy can be destroyed by a pillow salesman, then democracy was probably not all that sturdy in the first place.
Okay?
And I just want to reiterate here.
When Ann Applebaum or Nancy Pelosi or Kamala Harris or anybody else refer to Our democracy!
They are not referring to democracy.
None of these people like democracy.
All of these people are progressives.
The point of progressivism is to make the country less democratic, to take political power away from the people, to upend the constitutional order, and give it to bureaucrats.
Biden and Biden's spokesmen said it clearly.
We follow the science.
We don't follow the...
We don't follow the Constitution in many places.
We follow whatever the egghead bureaucrats tell us.
They don't like democracy.
As Angelo Cotevilla says very well, when they refer to our democracy, they are actually referring to their oligarchy.
Okay, so please spare me the crocodile tears over our democracy.
When you're trying, you're casting a perfectly patriotic, inspiring American citizen who all he's ever done is sell pillows.
You're casting him as an enemy of the people.
You know, Mike Lindell has a really nice mustache.
It's really, it's very, very impressive.
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Not to be outdone in the hyperbolic rhetoric and overreaction against the unwashed masses.
Now they're called the unvaccinated.
Or the unmasked.
Nancy Pelosi has ordered the Capitol Hill Police to arrest visitors and staff members of committees and United States congressmen who are not wearing masks in the Capitol.
There are two houses, right?
There are two chambers.
There's the House of Representatives and the Senate.
Both are controlled by the Democrats right now.
In the Democrat-controlled Senate, you do not need to wear a mask.
There's no mask mandate.
You won't be fined.
It's cool.
So a Democratic senator can just walk around without a mask on.
It's fine.
Or a Republican senator or anyone else.
If you're in the House of Representatives, you'll be fined $500 for Every time that you do not wear a mask, if you're a member of Congress, and if you're a staff member or a visitor, you will be arrested.
I'm glad at least that Pelosi has stopped short of arresting House members.
Might look a little bit like an insurrection, wouldn't you say?
Might look a little bit like a coup, huh?
How ironic.
So she stopped short of that for now.
But this, of course, has nothing to do with science, and this has nothing to do with stopping the spread of coronavirus.
On the very day that Nancy Pelosi decided to start enforcing this measure of arresting people, for goodness sakes, if they're not wearing masks in the Capitol, Nancy Pelosi was spotted and photographed at a crowded event not wearing a mask.
The event was outside, but it was very crowded.
It's very, very crowded.
And by the way, Pelosi's ordering the masks to be worn all over the Capitol grounds.
It's not even that it's only in certain rooms or anything like that.
And she violated her own order or her own principle the same day.
But it doesn't matter.
No one really believes that this matters in terms of public health.
These people just want to impose their will.
It's politically advantageous.
They took a lot of power from people and they're not going to give it back.
As some of us I warned last year when there were some conservatives who went a little squishy.
I got to tell you, they went a little squishy on the masks.
And I said, oh, it's okay.
It's a reasonable measure and it'll help us get back to normal.
It won't.
It won't.
It is the symbol of the power that the left took from you.
We need to go on offense.
Here's a great new bill that was introduced.
It's probably not going to go anywhere, but it's a great new bill.
This is what I'm talking about.
When I say offense.
Ronald Reagan had a great line.
He said, when you're explaining, you're losing.
You might have every perfect explanation in the world because you did something or because you said something, but it doesn't matter.
If you're the one on defense explaining, then you're losing.
We need to put the left on defense.
So, Representative Michael Waltz from Florida has introduced legislation meant to promote financial transparency within the Biden and Harris immediate families because of Hunter Biden.
Hunter Biden, who is this influence-peddling criminal who has traded on his father's name and sold his father's influence to the highest bidder around the world, to Ukraine, to China.
He tried to sell it to China.
He's made a lot, a lot of money on this, merely selling his name.
In industries that he has absolutely no expertise in whatsoever.
So now Hunter Biden is a painter.
He calls himself a professional painter.
His work is actually not, by the standards of modern art, so I'm damning with faint praise, it's not terrible, but it's not good.
It looks, it's like something a third grader could do.
So Hunter Biden is now a painter and he's selling his very bad paintings for half a million dollars a pop.
Hmm.
Do you think that the anonymous buyers of these paintings, do you think they just really have an appreciation for the little doodles that Hunter's doing?
Or do you think maybe they're trying to buy influence, which is the real industry that Hunter Biden's worked in his entire life?
So, Representative Waltz introduced the Preventing Anonymous Income by Necessitating Transparency of Executive Relatives Act.
Or, because you know Washington loves an acronym, the Painter Act.
Really great stuff.
It's a bit harsh, actually.
It says that these relatives need to report the source and type of earned income exceeding $1,000, and the source and type of any honoraria received more than $200.
And so it's actually the source and type of income from rents and dividends and interest and capital gains over $200.
So that's a very low threshold for earnings, but it doesn't matter.
The law's not going to go through.
I just love...
I love the name.
I love the angle.
I love the point of it.
I actually wish a similar law would go through.
And I like that we're on offense.
I like that we're calling attention to...
Hold on a sec.
Why are you still talking about Trump?
Look at what the Bidens are doing.
Look at their corruption.
This is how I feel about the January 6th commission is...
Why are we talking about January 6th when BLM burned the country down with the encouragement of leftists and Democrats for six to eight months?
Speaking of going on offense, really, really great stuff from professors Robbie George and John Finnis.
These are two conservative scholars and professors.
They filed an amicus brief In this Dobbs case, you know, this is the case I've mentioned a few times on the show.
It's the one that seeks to overturn Roe v.
Wade and to overturn Planned Parenthood v.
Casey and to say there's no constitutional right to an abortion, which obviously there isn't.
So they filed a brief for the court to give them context, arguing not just That, you know, if Roe v.
Wade is overturned, that then the question goes back to the states and the states can decide if they want to have abortion or not have abortion, right?
That's been the kind of conservative talking point for the last few decades.
They're going further.
Robbie George and John Finnis are going further and they're saying, actually, the 14th Amendment, when it was ratified, was understood as To consider unborn children as persons.
And if unborn children are persons, then they have the right not to be killed without due process.
So it goes further.
It's not just the abortion question goes back to the states.
It goes further to say that abortion is illegal.
It's obviously unjust.
It's obviously immoral.
And it's prohibited by the 14th Amendment.
I love this kind of offense.
I love this kind of aggression.
Really, really good stuff from these professors.
Is it going to have an effect on the case?
I don't think it's going to give us this result in the case, but I think what conservatives need to start doing is arguing past the sale.
Don't just ask for what you want.
Don't just demand what you want.
Go further.
Go way, way, way further so that when you start to reconcile, when you start to compromise, then you can go back to what you really want.
Donald Trump was really good at this.
The Democrats are really good at this.
And Republicans need to get much better at this as well.
The Authoritarian Moment.
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We'll be right back with the mailbag.
Welcome back to my favorite time of the week, the mailbag.
First question from Marisa who says, I recently heard that yoga is actually bad and demonic.
I have never heard this before and enjoy yoga on the occasion for both exercise and relaxation.
In a world with constant stimulation, I find it nice to relax and clear your thoughts as you do in yoga.
There is the old saying, an idle mind is the devil's playground and is that why yoga is bad?
Why does something that brings me relaxation, why is it detrimental to my soul?
Sincerely, Namaste!
Whatever Knowles says is right is probably right.
Wow, great, great sign-off.
Yes, it is.
I was trying to figure out if I could sugarcoat it.
It is bad, and it almost certainly is demonic, and you shouldn't do it.
Why?
Because yoga is not just stretching.
Stretching is fine.
Meditating, actually, is fine.
Clearing your thoughts and having stillness.
Prayer is certainly fine.
Yoga is not just that.
Yoga is a religious ritual.
It is a Hindu liturgy.
That's where it comes from.
Hinduism has all sorts of different gods that it worships that are not the god of Christianity.
It has all sorts of spiritual aspects.
It's got the chanting and the humming and the...
The focusing, and it falls into a number of theological errors, pretty dangerous ones.
One of them, for instance, would be monism, the idea that everything is just one, right?
It's all the universe, man, and we're part of the universe, and we're part of the creation, and God is kind of part.
It's all just the same thing, man.
We're all just going back into that same thing.
That is a very popular idea in New Age.
It's popular in non-theistic religions, but it's not Christian.
The Jewish idea and the Muslim idea is that there is God, and then God, the creator, makes the creation, and we are part of creation.
So we have a close relationship to God, and we are made in the image of God, but we are not all just one man.
There actually are distinct things.
It also falls into the heresy of Gnosticism, that if you just sort of think certain things and you know certain truths, and you just kind of meditate on that, that you'll be able to transcend the world, and that's very important.
I understand we're getting into subtle distinctions here, but that is not a Christian idea, this Gnostic idea that's associated with yoga.
Same thing with this technical idea of yoga, that if you put your body in certain positions, this is going to unlock certain spiritual fruits.
This technical aspect is also not Not exactly Christian.
But even just the basic fact that it is a liturgy from another religion that is rather different and contradictory toward your religion is why you shouldn't do it.
If you want to stretch and relax, I recommend Pilates and meditation and prayer.
From Sarah, Hey Michael, I started dating a guy almost a year ago and things have been going really well.
We're extremely compatible.
I think we both helped each other improve as people.
I love him to death and I wouldn't trade him for anything.
There's only one problem.
He's an atheist and I'm a Christian.
I've been able to ignore this problem thus far.
As people have started mentioning marriage, he seems to be nowhere near converting and it's become abundantly clear that I need to address this.
Do you think it's acceptable for me to continue with this relationship?
If not, how do I approach him about this?
Thanks for the help.
Sincerely.
Facing the atheist factor.
Trademark.
Tough problem that you're in.
It depends on your place in life.
When sweet little Elise and I started dating, you know, back in the Carter administration, back when we were like two years old.
We dated in high school.
We've known each other since we were 10 or 11 years old.
So back in those days, we had very different political views, very different religious views.
I told you I was an atheist for a decade or so.
And so we've grown together.
You either grow together or you grow apart.
And if you're, you know, 16 years old or something and you've got these different views, I wouldn't worry so much about it because you're still educating yourself.
You're still changing.
You're evolving.
You're going to grow together, very likely.
If you're 30 and you're really looking seriously at marriage right now and you guys just have these really set views that are not likely to change all that much, then that becomes a real problem.
In no small part because, theoretically, your husband will be the head of household, right?
And so, how do you have a marriage Where the husband has this just completely false view of the world and where he, if he assumes a leadership role, is going to lead your family on the most important matters, any spiritual matters, in the wrong direction.
And if he doesn't assume a leadership role, that's a problem too.
So I think it is going to come to a head.
It's a tough issue for you, but...
He's got to get it in order, and he's going to have to make some hard decisions, I think.
Or you're going to give up your faith.
But you will grow together, or you will grow apart.
And if he's not going to come see the fullness of truth, then you're in for a bad conclusion either way.
From Anders, Anders, Anders, greetings and salutations to he who knows much.
I've been watching your show for a little over a year now and have been intrigued by your faith.
A lot of religious questions today.
There always are.
I grew up as a member of a Christian household, but in recent years have fallen away and lost interest in the church, mainly because of the lack of leadership there.
That being said, my question is this.
In your mind, is there a difference between Protestantism and Catholicism?
If so, are the two irreconcilable?
I find the tenets of Catholicism attractive, but was raised to think of it as a kind of false doctrine.
Sincerely, he who knows little, but seeks much.
There's a great book on this point for people who...
You know, I was not raised Protestant, so I didn't have those problems.
Though I... On my way back from atheism, I spent a lot of time reading Protestants and really appreciating.
I mean, some Protestants were actually very important in my reversion to the faith.
But ultimately, I did not remain in the Protestant world.
I reverted to Catholicism.
I do think that's the true faith.
Obviously, I think there's a distinction, and I've made my choice.
There's a good book called Rome's Sweet Home.
Which is a book about people who are either fundamentalist especially or just Protestant more broadly and answering some issues about Catholicism.
It has been said that there are not a hundred people in this country who hate the Catholic Church, but there are millions of people who hate what they believe to be the Catholic Church.
They just are, you know, have been taught wrong.
I mean, you'll hear a lot of these things.
Catholics worship Mary and the saints, which is not true.
Or Catholics believe that you earn your salvation, which is, you know, that you achieve your salvation through your own effort exclusively.
That obviously is not true.
That Catholics worship idols.
That obviously is not true.
And these debates go back 2,000 years and there are many more sophisticated people who have written on them and settled them than you or I or many people writing today.
So I would encourage you to do that.
I would encourage you to check out resources like Catholic Answers.
Great, great website and media company.
I would recommend that you check out the Patrick Madrid show.
It's a wonderful podcast and radio show, a friend of mine, Patrick Madrid.
My friend Patrick Coffin, great, great too.
He's a little more for the already initiated, you know, but still very, very terrific broadcaster.
But Patrick Madrid, I think, could really help answer some of these questions.
And I think...
They're irreconcilable until the church comes back together in the end, which I suspect will happen.
But beyond the issue of the place of Mary and of the saints and of the episcopacy and the bishops and the pope, beyond all that, I think the central issue here is...
One, if you believe in the divine institution of a real church by a real guy who's incarnate, and you believe that the apostles really did receive certain graces, and you believe that they really did choose their replacements, and you believe that there is a line, and there is history, and there's a continuity to this institution, I think that leads one in the direction of the Catholic Church.
And also, on a philosophical level, if you believe that there's the physical world and the metaphysical world, And they seem very separate, right?
This world that we're living in and then the supernatural, the outside of physical.
And you believe that sometimes they come together most perfectly in the person of Christ who is fully man but also fully God and somehow he's together in this hypostatic union.
If you believe that...
You believe that he institutes sacraments.
He says, you have the power to forgive sins.
Whose sins you forgive are forgiven.
Whose sins you retain are retained.
You have the keys to the kingdom of heaven.
He says this to Peter, the first pope.
You have the keys to the kingdom of heaven.
And the gates of hell will not prevail against my church and go feed my sheep and all of these sorts of things.
If you believe in the institution of the Eucharist that the Eucharist really is the body and blood of Christ, then what you're saying at a philosophical level...
Is mankind requires the regular meeting of the physical and the metaphysical.
And we know that we do because we are physical beings but we're also metaphysical beings and we need that regular communion between those two things.
And I think the place you're going to find that is the Catholic Church.
Your mileage may vary, of course, but that would be one of my arguments.
From Ben.
Hi, Michael.
There is a lot of talk about the flaws of America and other Western countries where they criticize and are allowed to complain at a nauseous level.
My question is, which country would you least desire to live in if you could also exclude only one?
Basically, in 2021, which country would win the bleephole country medal at the Olympics?
Thanks.
Sincerely.
Came for the beer and blue jeans.
Stayed for the beer and blue jeans.
Hashtag America.
I think Afghanistan would be the place I'd least like to live.
It is historically one of the most dangerous, poor, tumultuous countries.
No one seems able to conquer it.
I guess that's something it has going for it.
But it seems like a tough place to live.
And pretty strange that the United States has been there for 20 years.
It's 20 years now.
Isn't that wild?
But that's probably where I mean no offense to the Afghani people.
It does not seem pleasant.
Of course, according to the left, America is no better than Afghanistan.
In some ways, we're worse.
From Archie, Michael, what is your favorite brand of sockless loafers?
And where do you stand on tassels?
My favorite brand of sockless loafers, I'm not even being paid to advertise them as Rancourt and Company, from Maine.
My thoughts on tassels, are they a little more old school?
I'm not quite, I don't have quite enough gray hairs yet.
I prefer the penny loafer, but I'll wear tassels on occasion.
From Jared.
Dear Michael, my wife is not a citizen yet.
We're working on the paperwork, though.
She informed me recently that one of her relatives is here on a student visa and is planning to let the visa lapse and just stay here illegally.
As a Christian and a conservative, I feel very strong loyalty to my family, but I also feel a duty to do something about this, lest I be a hypocrite in discussions of illegal immigration.
What can I do to remedy this dissonance?
Sincerely, in a Vin Diesel voice, I don't need ice, I got family.
That's...
Tough predicament you're in, but I actually think there's a pretty straight answer.
You should state your views on the matter, both to your wife, to your wife's relative, to anyone who is interested in listening.
But I don't think you should rat this relative out to the cops.
I don't think that would be the right thing to do.
I think perhaps you should persuade this relative to leave the country, and then if she wants to move here, to do that in a legal way.
But I don't think it is your obligation or your duty or really even your place to call the cops and have your relative deported, especially as the immigration law is not being forced even by law enforcement.
I don't think it would do anything, frankly.
We've already let a million illegal aliens into the country so far this year.
There's no chance, there's no evidence that they're going to slow down.
So I just think nobody likes a tattletale.
So what you can do is work on a personal level, but I don't think that you need to be the tattletale and the enforcement arm of ICE. Even ICE is not the enforcement arm of ICE. From Nick, in 1984, the slogan, War is Peace, lends to the idea that the party can use international war for the purpose of domestic peace.
But what would you say that our party...
But would you say that our party is using a domestic culture war to establish peace within the shifting political landscape via sleight of hand?
From Nick, the happily married one.
Good, this is not the Nick who...
I like that other Nick too, but that guy's got problems sometimes.
So to the more stable Nick, I think you're catching on to something.
What you're asking, if I understood your question correctly, is the Republican Party just ginning up people's opinions in the culture war without any intention of ever resolving the issues because actually they benefit?
So, for instance, on pro-life, I suspect that there are many conservatives and Republicans who don't really want to move the needle on abortion.
They actually would prefer to keep abortion a live issue because they can fundraise on it and it actually helps them politically.
Yeah, I think that's true.
I've talked with various people on Capitol Hill who have told me as much, that there are some squishier Republicans who, they actually don't really want anything to happen on abortion.
They just like fundraising from it.
It's too bad, but that's the way it works, and I think probably we've got to do a better job of chasing those people out of office.
All right, final question.
From Jessica, conservatives have a very traditional view of women in the world where traditional has become synonymous with sexist and malignant.
They have infiltrated the minds of women and men, seemingly placing a higher value on masculine qualities such as monetary success and success outside the home.
Shouldn't the right's focus be on redefining success and happiness or focus on showing the feminine qualities are different rather than less than?
Respectfully, no-splaining over man-splaining.
You are so right, my dear.
You are so right, Jessica.
What the right often does...
Is, accepts the left's premises, and then impotently sort of tries to argue against them.
Don't accept the premises.
Fight back, push hard, get aggressive, or else we're going to be here, not on the 500th day to slow the spread.
We're going to be here on the 1,000th day, the 1,500th day, the 2,000th day.
I'll see you next time.
I'm Michael Knowles.
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On today's episode, President Biden addresses immigration and crime, countries around the world loosen their travel restrictions, and Democrats push for student loan forgiveness.
