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March 14, 2023 - Dennis Prager Show
01:19:45
Anti-Semitism at Berkeley
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Dennis Prager here.
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Hi everybody, I'm Dennis Prager.
Wonderful to be with you on this Friday.
I know a lot of people on the west coast of Florida.
And my heart breaks for these people.
The damage done by Ian.
Ian.
How did they get the name Ian?
Do you know, by the way, If I'm not mistaken, weren't all hurricanes female?
Yeah.
This is a story almost nobody remembers or knows to begin with.
Hurricanes were always given female names, alphabetically, as they continue to be today, alphabetically.
So E would be the fifth storm of the season, and so on.
And the feminists said, This is clearly sexism, that hurricanes are named only after women.
So now they alternate.
Yeah, I'm well aware.
Well aware.
So now its equality has been applied to hurricanes.
You will be happy to know.
To say that the human race is richer...
And better for it is to clearly understate the case.
That we now have hurricanes named after men as often as women.
This undoubtedly has helped enormous numbers of women grapple with life.
As I pointed out at the time, it happened during my career as a talk show host.
If all the hurricanes had been named after men, they would have said that was sexist.
Oh, men are strong.
So men get hurricanes named after them.
We want half the hurricanes named after women.
So it's sexist if all the hurricanes are female, and it's sexist if all the hurricanes are male.
These are the battles that feminists have fought, that the left has fought.
It is all...
You'll have to look this up if you don't know the name.
It is moral onanism.
It makes you feel good, but nothing is ultimately produced.
So now we have Hurricane Ian, and it is a tragedy.
Don Lemon had a, did you see that?
The Don Lemon clip from CNN, or Don Lemon, as Tucker Carlson calls him.
So he had an official on CNN from, I don't know, the National, whatever, the whatever Association of Scientists oversees the hurricane issue.
And said, so tell us the effect that global warming had in producing such a powerful storm.
And the guy says, I'll talk about that another time.
Let me talk about the storm.
And he pursued it again, and the guy says, well, the effect of global warming on any given storm is not all that clear.
So Don Lemon pursued and said again, well, it is clear storms are rougher today, stronger today because of global warming.
He's telling the scientists that he knows that they are stronger today.
There were years that we didn't even have a strong storm in the very, very recent past.
It may have absolutely nothing to do with global warming.
Let's put it this way.
I don't know, and Don Lemon doesn't know.
But the global warming, climate change thing is not based in science.
It is based in hysteria, which is a vehicle to control on the part of your fellow human being, well, your fellow American on the left.
How many people don't know about the names of the storms?
I would love to, next time I go to a college campus, I'd like to say, if all the hurricanes are named after women, raise your hand if you think that that's sexist.
Then I will ask, if all the hurricanes are named after men, raise your hand if you believe that that is sexist.
Complaining about non-issues or insignificant issues has been the hallmark of the left because life is so good in America.
You have to complain about non-issues in order to complain at all.
There are reasons, however, to worry.
I'd like to talk to you about the black vote and the Jewish vote.
Never in the history of America, in my opinion, to the best of my knowledge at any rate, have two groups so overwhelmingly voted for the party that hurts them.
It's as simple as that.
We'll begin with blacks because it's the most obvious.
So more blacks than any time in the recent past are being murdered as the murder rate in Virtually every metropolitan area increases.
It is a direct result of Democratic Party policies.
Direct result.
And they keep voting for the party that does them no good.
The history of the Democratic Party, whether it was in support of the Ku Klux Klan or support of slavery in the beginning, or for the government taking over The record of the Democratic Party is almost uninterrupted damage.
Uninterrupted.
But blacks continue to vote for the Democratic Party.
The Jews had a reason at some point.
Their love affair with Franklin Roosevelt is an example, despite the fact that Roosevelt did nothing for the Jews during World War II. This is a sore spot that Jews don't like to discuss.
But in any event, I'm not going to go there because that's not my point.
My point is that they associated the Democrats with pro-Jewish, then pro-Israel, Harry Truman.
A Democrat was one of the first two leaders in the world.
Stalin, amazingly, was the other to recognize the state of Israel in 1948. And now I'd like to read to you from the Jewish Journal.
Berkeley develops Jewish free zones.
If it wasn't so frightening, one might be able to recognize the irony in the sight of campus progressives trying so hard to signal progressive virtue that they fall victim to a deeper moral shame.
Nine different law student groups at the University of California at Berkeley's School of Law.
My own alma mater writes this author.
Who is the author here?
That's odd.
Oh, Kenneth Marcus.
Okay.
Nine different law student groups at the University of California at Berkeley School of Law, my own alma mater, have begun this new academic year by amending bylaws to ensure that they will never invite any speakers that support Israel or Zionism.
And these are not groups that represent only a small percentage of the student population.
They include Women of Berkeley Law, Asian Pacific American Law Students Association, Middle Eastern and North African Law Students Association, Law Students of African Dissent, and the Queer Caucus.
Berkeley Law's Dean, Erwin Chemerinsky, a progressive, Zionist has observed that he himself would be banned under this standard, as would 90% of his Jewish students.
Yet Erwin Chemerinsky continues to be a progressive.
So this is another example.
So let me make this clear.
Nine different law student groups at the University of California, Berkeley Law School.
Have amended bylaws.
If you are a pro-Israel or pro-Zionist speaker, you may not speak at the campus.
And Jews continue to vote Democrat.
Just as blacks continue to vote Democrat, no matter how much harm the Democratic Party does to black America.
People do not vote rationally in very many cases.
They vote with their heart.
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And it is always a delight for me to announce a new station affiliate of the Dennis Prager Show.
Alright, there we go.
Very nice.
Amsterdam and Schenectady, New York.
Talk Radio 1490 and 106.9 WCSS. That's right.
I happen to know your area.
My beloved uncle lived in Schenectady.
One of my all-time favorite relatives, Uncle Murray.
I can't think Schenectady enough.
He owned a women's clothing store.
And he was a doll.
He was just...
He was goodness...
What would be the word?
Not incorporated or not encapsulated.
What is the word?
Incarnated.
That's right.
He was goodness incarnated.
And now his nephew is on in his city.
Such is life.
Good to be with you, my friends, in Schenectady and Amsterdam, New York.
So what is wrong with all these law students banning any speaker who is pro-Israel or pro-Zionist?
For those of you who don't know, Zionism comes from the biblical word Zion.
Referring to Jerusalem and or Israel.
There were a vast number and still are Christian Zionists.
They would be bad too, obviously.
Zionism was merely the modern movement of the Jews back to their homeland, Zion.
That's all it meant.
There are many cities in America named Zion.
I expect that they will be renamed.
I can only believe that when people get a whiff of the fact that there are cities named after Zion, you can't get more Zionist than Zion as the name of your city.
There is no difference between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism.
The individual anti-Zionist may not hate all Jews.
That's true.
But the ideology is as anti-Jewish as any anti-Semitic ideology.
What it says is, of all the 200 plus nations in the world, only one is illegitimate.
The Jewish state the size of New Jersey.
And then people are supposed to say, oh, that's not anti-Jewish.
I see.
That's really quite an argument, isn't it?
To isolate one country as illegitimate on the face of the earth, a country the size of New Jersey, which is the oldest country in the world, arguably with the possible exception of India.
I don't know how old India is.
So one of the two or three oldest countries in the world.
That's illegitimate.
Isn't that something?
There are 22 Arab states.
Every one of them is legitimate.
But the one Jewish state in the middle of the Middle East, that's illegitimate.
And you can't speak at Berkeley campus.
Truly rotten people have taken over a good chunk of academia.
Rotten people.
Not to mention moral idiots.
Although a moral idiot is by definition rotten.
What is a moral idiot?
I'm explaining all these terms.
Zion, anti-Semitism, anti-Zionism.
So let me explain moral idiot.
It means that in at least this one realm of life, you are an idiot.
What is an idiot?
One who is incapable of thinking clearly.
And that's what they are.
They're moral idiots.
Not to mention, the fact is not that they will be even condemned.
They will be barred from speaking on the campus.
Those are the bylaws.
You can't invite a Zionist.
Wow.
That would exclude many of the most recent presidents of the United States.
It's remarkable.
But I began by saying it is truly a great enigma demanding an explanation why Jews continue to vote for the left.
In their own lives, they practice a very conservative lifestyle.
They send their kids to school.
They emphasize good grades and doing homework.
They want their kids to marry before they have a child, and yet they vote for the party that is dooming all of those middle-class values.
And I don't think there's anything that progressives on campuses can do that would have a Jew think, maybe I shouldn't vote Democrat.
Maybe I shouldn't support the left.
Because since it is not based in reason, it cannot be undone by reason.
That's the point.
Just as the black vote for Democrats, it is not based in reason, so it cannot be undone by reason, even though we're trying to do that.
Candace Owens with her Blexit, black exit from the Democratic Party, and others.
You should see Larry Elder's film, by the way.
Uncle Tom and Uncle Tom 2. A lot of this stuff is explained there.
Yep.
What is it?
The heart has reasons.
The mind does not know.
Something to that effect.
God, is that ever true?
I would say people are more irrational in how they vote.
When they vote on the left, then they are in any arena of love.
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Well, here's another company I will be boycotting, Virgin Atlantic Airways.
Where is this from?
Daily Caller.
Airline shows off inclusive uniform policy with trans cross-dressing flight attendants.
Virgin Atlantic Airways launched an ad campaign Wednesday.
That's two days ago.
Highlighting the company's new uniform policy allowing men to wear skirts, along with several other new transgender-related policies.
The company's new ads feature men in women's uniforms and several people who appear to be transgender dancing.
Walking on a red carpet and giving interviews about the company's LGBT inclusivity.
The airline also introduced optional pronoun pins employees can wear on their uniforms, mandatory inclusivity training for employees, and a ticketing system update allowing people with gender-neutral and a ticketing system update allowing people with gender-neutral passports to use their gender codes and titles.
Wow.
Hmm.
Thank you.
That's what we want, is male flight attendants and skirts.
I would say 20% of the country welcomes that, and 80% of the country does not.
But the 80% will continue to fly Virgin Atlantic.
Because there are very few fighters in life.
It's really, it's almost unbelievable, actually.
This policy allows everyone to have a seat at the table.
A man wearing a woman's Virgin Atlantic uniform says in one ad.
I'm not taking away from anyone.
It's just allowing everyone from the community to just have a voice.
Huh.
There is no question in the narcissist's mind, what is good for society?
Is it good to smash the male-female distinction?
Which is what men publicly in skirts is about.
They don't ask what is good for society.
This is a remarkable event in human history.
I beg you not to fly Virgin Atlantic and to let them know why you're not.
And if you're a frequent flyer on it, you have more clout in what you write to them.
You are not among those who believe that there is no distinction between men and women.
It's ironic.
There is a law, and I explain it.
You will be able to see it within ten days when my newest volume of the Bible commentary comes out.
A man cannot wear a woman's clothing.
There's actually a biblical law against it.
Now, of course, to the progressive and to the secular, that reinforces their belief that they're right.
Shows you how sick this Bible stuff is, is what they're thinking.
So, you have a choice.
Do you get more wisdom from the woke or from the Bible?
You've got to choose one or the other, my friends.
The biblical view is that there are two genders, or two sexes, to be more precise.
And that's it.
There is no room for non-binary ideology.
It's an ideology, it's not science.
Sex is binary.
It is binary among all animals, and that includes human beings.
I would not want my child to come on an airplane and see the steward, the male flight attendant wearing a skirt.
Virgin Atlantic said its new uniform policy was driven by research which found that workers are happier when they can embrace their individuality at work.
Well, so here's an interesting question.
What if you're a nudist?
I'm very serious.
This is 100% meant seriously.
What is wrong in being a naked flight attendant?
That is how they express their individuality.
By the way, there is no secular answer, none, against public nudity.
There is not a single secular answer.
is devoid of answers.
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Hello, everybody.
A reminder that if you want to fight, one way to do it is to help the Alliance Defending Freedom.
They bring more cases to the Supreme Court than any other conservative legal organization.
And we have a banner up at DennisPrager.com.
I raise funds for a handful of groups a year.
They're quite diligently chosen.
These people do a lot of good work.
And we're in a civil war in this country.
I've just been saying this for decades.
So go to the banner and help.
It's wrong not to help the fighters.
I'm sorry to put it that way.
It is.
And it's not a matter of not having the money, because it doesn't matter how much you give.
It's just a matter of overcoming one's inertia.
That's what it really is about.
It's about as easily a do-good thing as you can do.
Anyway, the banner for the ABF is on my website, dennisprager.com.
And you can help this wonderful legal organization.
I just saw the latest ad for Virgin Atlantic where they celebrate all sorts of different expressions of life.
So they have a woman.
It's fleeting images of people.
One of them is a woman.
Did you happen to see the ad?
See the woman who opens her mouth, sticks her tongue out, and it's filled with, what do you call them?
Studs.
Studs, right.
Tongue piercings.
Tongue piercings, thank you.
This, there is no notion on the left of higher civilization and lower civilization.
Thank you.
That's what it...
It amounts to in the final analysis.
It began in the arts with the attack on artistic greatness.
Art was considered completely subjective.
Commercial is up for people to see, but I can't play it now because most people are not watching.
We could put...
Oh, the video is on in the background, yes, while I'm talking.
That's right.
Right.
So here's the point.
There's no end.
He makes that point in the DEI video for PragerU that I just looked at.
It's coming out in a couple of weeks.
There's no end game.
It's just shatter as many standards as possible.
Express your individuality.
There's a person in there who just stuck their fingers in their mouth and spread their cheeks.
And that's part of the ad.
Now you're expressing your individuality.
That's what it's about.
Of course, these people are not individual at all.
They think like sheep.
That's the joke.
This is not individuality.
This is screw middle class standards.
That's what it is.
Virgin Atlantic, if there's no pushback, this will spread to other airlines.
So you must understand this.
You have to push back.
There are so many ways of flying across the Atlantic.
Why bother with Virgin Atlantic?
You know when it began?
In the airlines, I remember reporting it.
One of the advantages of broadcasting a long time.
When Alaska Airlines ceased giving biblical quotes on their meals, there was a time, some of you may not remember this, there was a time when you got a meal in Coach.
Is all Coach meals, are all Coach meals gotten rid of?
Domestically.
Even transcontinental.
You don't know?
You fly LA, New York, you're flying five hours, five and a half hours sometimes.
What is the, actually New York, LA, going west takes longer because you're going against winds.
So do you not get a meal?
I don't know the answer.
But in any event, when they gave meals out, And they still do in first class, of course.
There was a little, I guess, ticket.
Was that the best word for it?
A little, what would you call it?
I can't think of another term for ticket.
A little piece of paper, but, you know, hardened paper.
On which was inscribed a biblical verse to inspire you.
Then the left got very angry that Alaska Airlines would be giving out biblical verses in its meal, with its meals.
So, they got rid of it.
And I remember thinking that was a seminal moment in American history.
That the left that hates religion.
Because this is not separation of church and state.
This is separation of airline.
Right?
Church and airline.
The thought that America will be a better place because you can't get a biblical quote, that it would make people uncomfortable, all it says is something about those people.
It says nothing about the quote.
If I were to fly Air India, And they gave an uplifting quote from the Bhagavad Gita.
I would be delighted.
Wouldn't I assume that?
Wouldn't I assume that there was something good about India celebrating its holy work with an uplifting quote?
If Royal Air Morocco gave out an uplifting verse from the Quran, I'll bet you, by the way, if they did, in fact, if Alaska Airlines did, I'll bet the left would not object.
Their hatred is for the Judeo-Christian Bibles, not for the Bibles of others.
Hi, everybody.
87% of Democrats in Pennsylvania support Fetterman.
I'm sorry?
It says a lot.
He's a bad man.
Not too long ago he just would have been labeled a communist.
Which, for all intents and purposes, he is.
This was the theory.
David Horowitz.
David Horowitz.
He said all his life, because he grew up in a communist home, parents were members of the Communist Party, said the left is communist.
And I believe that nobody knows the left better than him, including me, and I know the left better than almost everybody.
But David Horowitz really knows the left.
And I thought that it was a drop overstated to say that the left is communist.
He was right.
There's no moral distinction.
Let me put it to you this way.
If Merrick Garland were Attorney General and actual Communists took over the country, I believe he would serve them faithfully.
Just as the Attorney General of the Soviet Union, whatever title he had, faithfully served Stalin and the Communist Party.
I believe these people are devoid of a functioning moral conscience in these matters.
I'm sure he's nice in his family life and with his friends.
That's why I wrote a whole article.
Which the left found to be literally indecipherable.
They didn't even understand my point.
When I said that there were nice people who supported slavery, or even were slave owners, they didn't understand.
There are nice people who support every evil.
The human being is divided into the macro and micro.
Merrick Garland may be very nice in the micro and supports evil in the macro.
But if you have a position of macro power, that's all that matters.
That's why I didn't care about Donald Trump's micro life.
I cared about his macro life.
Yep, it's a battle.
We haven't lost, my friends.
Gotta fight.
Happiness Hour coming up.
All right.
It's the happy, happy, happy, happy hour.
Yes, it is.
The happiness hour.
This is now 23 years.
It's hard to believe.
It's hard to believe.
Hard to believe.
How fast can I fly?
It's the happy.
Alright everybody, the happy make the world better and the unhappy make it worse.
You have a moral obligation to act happy and to pursue happiness even if you don't feel it.
You owe it to others not to inflict your bad moods on them.
Just as you believe you should not inflict bad body odor on them.
You wash it away, you should wash your moods away.
Happiness is a big deal.
The happy do make the world better.
I'm Dennis Prager, and this is the Happiness Hour, second hour of my radio program every Friday.
So my topic today concerns the biggest holiday in the Jewish calendar next week, Yom Kippur or Yom Kippur.
Yom Kippur is sort of a fast way of saying it for people who don't speak Hebrew, which is most Jews and most non-Jews.
Anyway, I'm just explaining the difference between Yom Kippur and Yom Kippur.
It's next Tuesday night and Wednesday day.
Incidentally, for the 15th year, I will be leading services again, and you can see it live or anytime now, between now and the end of the year.
go to SalemNow.com or go to DennisPrager.com and click on the High Holy Day Services line in Sighted on the Show.
My producer watched the Rosh Hashanah service on the first night, then came to the service during the day.
And he is not known for his effervescence, but he pretty much bubbled with enthusiasm.
It deeply moved you.
It's meant to deeply move you.
It's beautifully produced, yes.
It's not just the content.
It's true.
It's like watching a concert on TV, he says.
It's in 4K. I thank Robert Antal, the gifted, gifted photographer, for being in charge of this.
He is a good man and a good professional.
So if you want to see it, you can sign up at Salem now or at my website.
It's worth seeing.
The more depth in your life, the happier a life you will lead.
And this stuff is deep stuff.
It doesn't matter what your faith or no faith.
The head of the Prager store is a Christian, a very deeply committed one, and said, He loved it.
He texted me, and there was no need for him to do so.
So what is it about this holiday that applies to the happiness hour?
It's quite simple, actually.
Yom Kippur is the day of penitence, day of atonement.
So what is the underlying belief in any religion that has atonement?
Here it is.
It's the biggest.
You can change.
That's right.
You can change.
You can become happier.
You can become better.
They're usually the same.
As you become a better person, you become a happier person.
So, here is a question for you, because you will directly benefit listeners.
What prompted you to change for the better?
One of the most obvious examples is the person who was addicted to alcohol and gambling.
You name it.
The person who was addicted and is now no longer addicted, is now sober.
This person has said, I can change my life.
It is not easy to change.
It is easy to change for the worse.
It is not easy to change for the better.
So the question is, Those of you who have undergone a very deep change, how do you counsel others to do it?
It is said that addicts have to reach bottom in order to become sober.
Well, that doesn't fully explain it.
I do believe that to be true.
By the way.
But it doesn't fully explain the issue because how do you know when you're at bottom?
That's still a decision that you have made.
There is a very deeply optimistic message in the message of the Day of Atonement.
The optimistic message is you can change.
That is not easy.
But it can happen.
You can become a better human.
You can become a deeper human.
You can become a happier human.
How do you believe, how would you counsel people doing it?
That's my question.
1-8 Prager 776 877-243-7776 Is it a decision process?
Is it giving up your life into a higher power's hands?
Meaning God's hands?
Is that the way to do it?
I think that, by the way, that for vast numbers it is.
I'm a big fan of Alcoholics Anonymous.
And of the Blue...
What is it?
The Big...
Not Blue Book.
It's just the Big Book.
That's right.
Not Blue.
The Big Book.
Which I read, by the way.
I was very interested in why the AA programs work.
And apparently they do.
Not apparently.
They do work.
And why do they work?
How do you get somebody off addiction, for example?
This hour is not just about addiction.
How do you get somebody off addiction before fentanyl kills them?
Or an overdose?
These are tough questions.
A lot of parents have suffered.
You know that fentanyl is now the greatest source of death for people between 25 and 40, I believe it is?
Isn't that astonishing?
Something people never heard of a few years ago, is now the greatest source of basically homicide.
This is one of the toughest questions in life, how do you change for the better?
How do you change for the better?
Because people know what they need to do, but how do you muster up the courage to do it?
If you have changed for the better, I'd like you to call in.
If you had conquered an addiction, for example, I'd like you to call in.
If you were a drama queen and are now a source of joy in people's lives, that's a topic I would like to address on the Happiness Hour.
Aiming to be easy.
Have I done that?
Yeah, but it's worth doing again.
It's worth doing again.
I want the reputation among those in my life being easy.
I asked my producer right before the happiness hour if his parents often told him positive things about himself.
And his answer was interesting.
I'll share it with you and take your calls.
1-8 Prager 776. It's a happiness hour, everybody.
Can people change?
I'm raising this topic because of Yom Kippur this coming week, next week.
And it's the holiest day of the Jewish calendar, and it's called the Day of Atonement in English.
The whole assumption is that you can decide to change for the better.
That is, after all, what distinguishes us from an animal.
They can't change.
I mean, we can train them to change, but they didn't train themselves.
How does it happen?
Springfield, Virginia.
Virginia in Virginia.
Hello.
This is Virginia from Virginia.
Indeed, I gather.
Before I answer your question, may I thank you first for PragerU and for your radio show.
I'm a conservative university professor at a government-run institution, government-run university.
And your program and PragerU keep me sane.
I'm sure they do.
I feel for you.
Oh, no.
God sent me there.
It's my calling.
Bless you.
And so one of the ways that I've been able to change is through your program by giving me courage.
I've been a conservative for decades, but not one of courage.
And so that is just a great way to change is by listening to programs like yours.
But the answer to your original question and the reason I called is because of the 12-step programs.
So my husband and I both needed to go to 12-step programs in order to figure out what was wrong with our marriage.
For him, it was Alcoholics Anonymous.
For me, it was Al-Anon.
And through both of those programs, we were able to focus on our own issues, go to our higher power, which in our case is Jesus and God, and focus on the issues that were tearing us apart.
And the motivation?
We were destroying our marriage.
And neither of us wanted to do that.
The 12-step programs gave us the means to do it.
The motivation came because of our unhappiness.
Is he sober?
No, 30 years.
Oh, this is a while ago then.
Uh-huh.
But it's been ongoing.
I mean, you never really get over it.
These are things that you continue to work on, and those 12 steps give you the means to do that.
They're wonderful programs.
I didn't really realize what my problems were until I got involved in Al-Anon.
I was still focusing on my husband's problems.
I didn't even realize how selfish and hard to live with I was, that my perfectionism was also destroying our marriage.
But Al-Anon gives you the freedom.
To stop focusing on other people's problems and focus on your own.
You're a gem.
Thank you.
My fear with regard to much psychotherapy today is that they do not cause you to ask, how have I contributed to my problems?
That's the beginning of health.
If everybody else is the source of your problems, then you don't have health.
That's key.
By the way, now I understand what she meant.
Listening to the show and PragerU videos helped her.
It just occurred to me now, I was wondering, why did they do that?
The very fact that somebody listening just now heard me say, you can't get better if you don't believe you contribute to your own problems, that can change your life.
That's right.
That's very big.
But you know, this is key.
Half the people who hear good advice don't take it.
That's why when people come over to me and I'm very touched, they say, you know, I want you to know you've changed my life, which is what I want to do.
So I'm very happy to hear that from someone.
But I always, or nearly always, I always think it, but I don't, and I almost always say it.
You get half the credit.
Plenty of people hear the same things and it has no impact on them.
So you get half the credit.
All right, let's see.
Got a lot of people who've had this.
Peter in Phoenix, Arizona.
Hello.
Hi, Dennis.
Thanks for having me on.
Right.
Yeah, you can change.
People can change.
For me, I'm 33 years sober.
I grew up in the most horrible circumstances that one can imagine.
And we're all seeking solace.
We're all trying to survive.
We're all trying to get along in life.
And the first question I ask myself and my head is, why do I want to take that drink?
What is it giving me?
And when you start to ask that question, Then you start to understand how your own mind and your own behavior is contributing to your station in life.
So what was your answer when you asked yourself, why am I taking the next drink?
Because I was unable, I was emotionally insecure and emotionally immature and unable to function in a way that would allow success and happiness.
Because in life, people have to like you.
You have to have an ability to move through society in such a way that the person who sees you says, you know, we like that guy.
He has a good attitude.
He's on time.
He does his job.
How long were you addicted?
I got sober 33 years ago.
I'm 66, so for 30 years, I'd say for a good 20, I started right out of the box at 10 years old with cigarettes, and then you start smoking marijuana, and then you start doing other things, and before you know it, you've lost yourself, because you really never taught yourself.
And so everything...
People need smart people in their lives in order to come out of the box in a way to be successful.
And I've found that if you don't have good parenting, if you don't have good people in your life who love and care for you and who tell you the truth about yourself and how your behavior is affecting them, they're not teaching you anything.
They don't teach you about social skills.
They don't teach you anything.
Or even point out to you how your behavior is affecting your success.
The need for wise people in one's life is the biggest.
That's right.
Good stuff.
I learned about AA through the radio show.
Gradually came to regard it as the wisest institution we have.
Back in a moment.
Let Dennis be Dennis.
As I remind you often, that was finally my parents' realization, and that began a happy life for me.
When they decided when I was 14, To let Dennis be Dennis.
I sort of self-raised.
Hey everybody, welcome to the third hour on Friday, whenever's on your mind hour.
Uh-oh, we're getting to the music that I want you to hear.
Take it away.
Music, the gift of God.
There's no evolutionary explanation for music.
Music.
There's no evolutionary explanation for much, actually.
Welcome to the hour.
In case I didn't note, I said Dennis, but not the last name, Praker.
Both my names have two syllables.
How many people could say that?
For example, Sean McConnell cannot say that.
It's completely imbalanced, his name.
He has a total of four syllables, but one is one and one is three.
That's right.
I go to bed humming that, folks.
It induces sleep like that.
I snapped my fingers for those of you not watching.
See, that explains a lot, Sean, the imbalance of your two names versus the balance and symmetry of my two names.
I'm sorry.
You reflect that imbalance.
That was his comment, not mine.
Anyway, this is the hour.
Whatever's on your mind, certainly, most particularly, fountain pens, audio equipment, photography, Cigars.
And...
What the hell's wrong with me?
I've done this for so many years.
Classical music.
That is so true.
The gift of music.
1-8 Prager 776. Don't be insulted if I don't...
If I don't take your call.
If I drop the line.
Don't be insulted.
That's key.
People get insulted too easily.
All right, let's see here.
Greenville, South Carolina, we'll begin with D. Not D as in Dennis, but D as in D. Hi, Dennis, how are you?
Well, thank you, D. I had never heard of Thomas Sowell before, listening to you.
I'm going to be 60 years old here soon.
I've never heard of him.
My husband never heard of him, and he's from the South.
Ironically, after I heard about him on your show, I got my Imprimus from Hillsdale College, and there was an article in there written by Jason Riley.
And so I read through this thing voraciously, like, this is crazy.
I've never heard of him.
And in the article, he says...
Sowell says that one of his favorite books that he wrote is A Conflict of Visions.
I have two questions for you.
Which of the Thomas Sowell books should I read first?
And my second question is, if you could only have five books, not counting the Bible or stuff like that, what would your top five books be?
Wow.
You're a tough E.D. First of all, Conflict Divisions is a great way to start.
His basic, basic, basic, basic book is Basic Economics.
I had him on, I'll never forget, many years ago.
And I told him, because I'm a major admirer of his, and I said, you know, Tom Sowell, if you'd have named the book Tom Sowell's Guide to Bikinis, You'd have sold a lot more than Basic Economics.
And it was revealing about him how hard he laughed.
That is classic Tom Sowell that he found that hilarious.
And anyway, Basic Economics is not a sexy title.
That was my point.
But it's a great book.
But Conflict of Visions is a terrific way to start.
Five books, not any biblical one.
So I actually have this on my website, the ten books that have most shaped my thinking, and I don't remember all of the ones that I put up there.
Certainly Man's Search for Meaning is one, because it taught me that the greatest human need after food is meaning.
Okay.
This is like the third way to explain humans.
So Marx is we're economic beings.
Freud is we're sexual beings.
And Frankl is we are meaning-seeking beings.
And he turned out to be right.
There are plenty of people who have no sex.
But if they have meaning, they're happy.
But people who have sex and no meaning are not happy.
May I add for the record, it is good to have both.
Okay.
Thank you for that.
Lakewood, California, and Rob, hello.
Hi, Dennis.
Thank you.
He wished me a Happy New Year for the 99% of you who don't know Hebrew.
Hi.
Dennis, I'm an original Religion on the Line listener, and I just wanted to compliment you.
I saw you last night on The Young Turks, and you ate her up.
She had no idea what you were speaking about.
And every time you made a great point, her answer was, well, let's move on to the next one.
Well, thank you.
Thank you for that.
So, I didn't even comment on this, because I didn't...
I didn't have anything that I wanted to really impart here.
The Young Turks are very, very popular left-wing podcast, and they invited me on after I said the left never debates me, so I went on.
I was thrilled to go on, actually.
So there were two of them.
Cenk is the male, and Anna is the female.
So I had the female.
I don't know if he was on even in the first half hour.
Then they do a second half hour.
It was just him for subscribers, but it's been put on, I believe, on YouTube.
And he spent most of the time talking, which, by the way, has never happened in the history of my show, that I spent more time talking than my guest.
I think it was true for her too, but his was yelling more than hers was yelling.
And he was yelling about how Israel is sort of like Nazi Germany.
The left's hatred of Israel is perfectly understandable because they hate everything good.
That's why they hate America.
Hatred of America and hatred of Israel generally go hand in hand.
I don't even know that we would end up talking about that.
But I will say this.
As soon as I hear that the attacks on Israel, because they, in battling Hamas in Gaza, there are far more Palestinian dead than Israeli dead.
I know I'm talking to someone who doesn't think clearly.
Who I don't think is even capable of thinking clearly, which is very scary when you think about it.
As I pointed out, but there was no response to it, it just went by.
If the criterion for who is moral is which side has more death, then the Allies were immoral and the Germans were moral, because the Germans suffered way more civilian deaths than even the English, let alone America, which didn't...
Which didn't have civilian deaths.
I don't know where his hatred of Israel came from, but it was...
Well, I do.
They don't think clearly.
It's like, why do they hate the Judeo-Christian value system?
Why do they hate middle-class values?
They hate all that's good.
And the caller was right about the changing of the topic.
I had learned that from callers who differ with me.
I have so much practice in doing this.
So often I would have callers who differ from the left.
And when I would raise a point, they would go to another point.
And I don't even think consciously.
But I learned that that was a major factor.
In the people that I argued with on the left.
They changed the topic.
We will return.
Dennis Prager Show.
Whatever is on your mind here.
Yeah.
And let's see.
Costa Mesa, California, Mark.
Hello.
Hey Dennis, how you doing?
Well.
Yes, I had a relationship question for you.
I've been in a relationship for about nine months.
I'm 39. Me and my girlfriend have the same faith, the same politics.
People want children.
But where I'm concerned is she has a PhD in pharmacy and she has about $300,000 in debt.
And then when we've talked about in-laws, she has a special needs sister that possibly I might have to support or assist in the future.
And it's not that I don't want to help or support, and I do financially pretty well and don't have any debt or money issues in a center.
Those kind of challenges.
And I'm trying to figure out how I can move forward, if I should move forward.
Because I want to do the right thing.
I do love her.
But I also know money is a big issue or can be in a relationship or a marriage.
So there are two separate issues.
The potential sister-in-law and the debt that she comes in.
Is she earning money as a pharmacist?
Yeah.
How much is she making?
Around $100,000.
Right, that's what I assumed.
And how long has she been earning this?
About, I want to say, only about four or five months.
Right, okay.
She's a recent graduate.
Right.
So, if she didn't marry anyone, Would she be able to pay off this debt?
That's a good question.
She didn't marry anyone.
Well, I think where the problem, not necessarily because when I first met her and she's kind of changed on how she's seen debt, I kind of told her, like, you know, the best thing to do is to try to pay it off as fast as you can.
What about the Biden plan to excuse debt?
How will that apply to her?
With the amount she has, it will only take out maybe $5,000.
Oh, really?
That's interesting.
Yeah.
Well, look, I don't agree with his plan.
I think it's a slap in the face of all those who paid off their debt or those who didn't incur one to begin with.
Look, as always, there are so many factors involved here that I'm only hearing By necessity, only a little part of your story.
Let me say, if I may be personal, if this is of any help.
So my wife, who I adore, came in with debt from law school, and she has an autistic son who is our responsibility.
So I can actually somewhat relate to your issue.
And it was never even a factor because I know how rare it is to find somebody that is good for one and she is great for me.
So it never occurred to me.
I thought, if this is the minimal price I'm paying, I'm a lucky man and I am a lucky man.
So if you can say all of that, then I think the answer is self-evident.
And I would say that in the final analysis, the sister-in-law thing, I assume, is something only down the road.
I assume the parents are taking care of her in the meantime.
See, let me just say, I really am not telling Mark what to do.
And I don't have any hesitation in suggesting to people what to do.
But I'm not in this case.
I can only say that...
Here is where philosophy of life is so helpful.
I so don't assume that anything good comes without a price, that I never focus on the price, but the good that I got out of it.
I focus on the price of, in macro, what is the price of giving more people Raising the minimum wage.
Then I ask, the biggest question is, what is the price?
The price is unemployment, restaurants going out of business, and so on.
But in personal life, macro and micro are very different.
In your personal life, you just have to have this list of priorities.
Meeting the right person is not easy.
And if you feel you did...
Then, okay, so it comes with this issue.
But of the two issues, anyway, I find the sister-in-law is a more daunting one, but I don't know when you'll have to take care of her.
I hope that was at least a help.
I don't know if it's...
It's not meant to be a definitive issue.
Okay, let's see here.
Lori in Bloomington, Minnesota.
Hello.
Dr. Fussbend, I hope you're listening to this one because it's a doozy.
That's very funny.
Hi, thanks for taking my call.
See, a couple of weeks ago I got the most recent schedule for the Minnesota Orchestra, and I thought you would enjoy the title of one of the contemporary works they're doing.
It's Carlos...
Simon's emotional elegy, a cry from the grave.
And it's a work in remembrance of Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, and Michael Brown.
Needless to say, I'm not going to this.
What do you think?
God.
It's painful.
It's painful.
The inability of the left to leave anything alone.
Anything.
Whatever the left touches, it destroys.
destroys, it's a perfect example.
Hi everybody, Dennis Prager here of the The third hour on Friday is what is known in radio as open lines.
Hmm.
And this is how I began radio.
People called in on whatever was on their mind.
I enjoy that immensely because I'm pretty much interested in everything.
And certainly not just the news.
As important as it is.
But there are very many other important things and also just enjoyable things.
The calls that I got when it was open...
Some of them were priceless.
I'll tell you one that I don't think I ever repeated on the radio, but the many thousands of calls that I've had, obviously, it's impossible to remember any great number of them, but this one stayed in mind.
When people fool themselves is the thing that, Makes the biggest impact on me.
It's not when people tell me something false.
It's when they tell themselves something false.
But this actually has overtones of humor.
But anyway, here is what it was.
So, you know I'm very open about sexual matters.
I got that gift from my father who talked about sex the same way he would talk about politics.
Or religion.
It was just part of life.
And I was raised in such a home.
And it worked.
That's why I could have the male-female hour and talk about these things.
So I talk, including on the radio.
So I was speaking about the power of the visual in males.
Because I realized at a very, very early age that women had no clue what men were about.
It's not their fault.
We're not women.
And women think we are women until they learn otherwise, which can result in some cases at attempted suicide.
To really know what men are like is tough news for women.
But of course, men who control themselves are terrific men.
But male nature is an issue.
By the way, so is female nature, just in a different way.
Anyway, so I was talking about the power of the visual in men, and this guy called me up, and I was in my 30s, he was in his 30s, and he goes, I'm sorry, Dennis, but pictures of women do nothing for me.
I only respond to the woman I'm in love with.
So my first question was, are you certainly or heterosexual?
Because if you are, you're full of crap.
Basically, that was my attitude.
I said it more gently.
He said, yes, I am heterosexual.
Okay.
So you're telling me, and I said to him, you're telling me that if you see a playboy centerfold, it has no impact on you.
He said, that's right, only when I'm in love.
Okay.
So I realize I'm talking to a guy who's in self-denial about his own basic nature.
And finally, I was about to give up, and I just posed one more question.
I said, so let me ask you a question.
Imagine a picture of a gorgeous woman, unclothed, naked, if you will, and a gorgeous Mack truck.
Do you have the same response?
To both.
And believe it or not, the guy goes, oh, I get your point.
Now you know why I remember this call 30 years later.
That's what it took.
Centerfold, Mack truck.
So I'm only telling you that because it's a reminder of what you can have when...
People call it on anything.
Oh, my God.
I have learned more about the human condition doing a radio show than I believe any professor has at Harvard.
I do believe that.
I believe that if you have the choice of getting a PhD in psychology or doing a talk show...
For 30 years, you will learn way more about the human condition doing the talk show.
By the way, that's true for you who are listening.
It doesn't only involve my learning if you listen regularly.
At least to my show, and I'm not bragging in any way, I'm merely noting that I talk about the human condition a lot.
That was an educational phone call.
A man was fooling himself.
By the way, people fool themselves about a whole host of subjects, not just the sexual.
Dennis Prager here.
Thanks for listening to the Daily Dennis Prager Podcast.
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