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March 14, 2023 - Dennis Prager Show
01:14:25
Distressing
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And a good Friday to you, my friends.
I'm Dennis Prager.
I'm laughing because I'm trying to put myself in your shoes.
Or more precisely, in your ears and minds.
With regard to...
Not regards, incidentally.
Regards is, if you see my mom, give her my regards.
It's a losing battle, but I wage it nevertheless.
Anyway, I was on the road to saying that there is so much that is distressful.
And my point is to motivate you, not distress you.
There's a very big difference.
And what is it I had?
I didn't come up with this phrase, but I discovered it in one of the many Bible commentaries I read in writing my own.
I'll tell you the story so you'll have the context.
In the fourth book of the Bible, in Numbers, Moses sends spies into Canaan, the promised land, to see how to best attack it in the war that is upcoming.
And he had already received God's promise that the Israelites would be victorious.
His reason for sending the spies was to reconnoiter the land to figure out what is the best way to achieve that victory.
It was not whether or not there would be a victory.
And they came back, 10 of the 12, for the 12 tribes, 10 of them came back with a negative report, we can't do it.
They're stronger than us.
We look like grasshoppers compared to them.
And in fact, we are grasshoppers compared to them.
And that's when this commentator wrote, despair is a sin.
Good line.
I love good lines.
To summarize life in a sentence, or one life of insights, you can't summarize all of life in one sentence, is a gift which I have sought to achieve in the course of my life.
So I don't tell you these things for you to despair.
If you do, it's bad for you and it's bad for the country.
There are, however, many items.
I'll tell you one I can't get out of my mind.
It's the Texas father who had twins with his ex-wife, a female pediatrician who had been transitioning one of the two boys since the age of two into being a girl.
She kept telling him, you are a girl, you are a girl, wear this dress.
And in other ways, enact being a girl because you are a girl.
She had the school have the boy go to the girl's room and be called by a new name, a girl's name.
Lost in this, incidentally, is not only the horror to the boy inflicted by the sick, sick, sick woman doctor, but...
The harm done to the twin.
My twin brother is a girl.
How do you think that affects a child of five?
Or nine, as I think they now are.
And then with the permission of the Supreme Court of Texas, she just got up and took the children.
They had joint custody.
But because he continued to call the boy by his boy's name, he lost custody of the child.
What a sick, sick world we live in.
What a sick, sick world we live in.
I'm quiet because I have such anger.
That I want to control it in the form of speech that I engage in.
If you think this is good, you're not a good person.
There's something wrong with you, which shows how easy it is to render people Pathologic in their understanding of life.
Wouldn't it be interesting if we could have a plebiscite in the country, a vote in the country?
Do you agree with the mother or the father?
Should the mother have been allowed to go to California, which is now quote-unquote a sanctuary state?
The only thing accurate about that is that it begins with the letter S, as does the word sick.
I live in a state run by truly bad people.
However, I always bring this to your attention, they think they're good, which shows you the incapacity of the human conscience to direct people to do what is right.
The conscience is as strong morally as the appendix is.
You might as well consult your appendix, in most cases, as people consulting their conscience.
That is why when I am told in debates, we don't need a God or a Bible.
Just consult your conscience.
You're accountable to your conscience.
But the people ruining this child, and ruining the twin brother, and ruining the dad, And not to mention ruining the boy.
They all have clear consciences.
So much for conscience.
I don't say you shouldn't consult it.
You should develop it.
But it's a very weak muscle.
I would say that more people can do push-ups than can use their conscience correctly.
And a lot of people can't do push-ups.
He was on Tucker Carlson last night, the father.
And as Tucker Carlson said to him, my heart goes out to you, really.
And so too mine.
My heart goes out to him.
He married a bad woman.
Who is a pediatrician?
Thank you.
Thank you.
She's an MD. Next time you hear doctors, some doctors association says, think of how easily doctors mislead people.
Not consciously.
This woman sleeps well at night, destroying her child and her family.
She thinks she's right.
Probably half the pediatricians in the country do.
That's really scary.
Virginia's Lieutenant Governor slams top public school for withholding merit awards.
Virginia's Lieutenant Governor decried one of her state's top school's decisions To withhold handing out merit awards.
You ready?
To protect the feelings of students who didn't receive them.
Whatever the left touches, it destroys, excites.
Example number, I don't know, 180. You protect the feelings of those who didn't get a merit award by withholding the merit award from those who received it?
This is a form of child abuse.
And I always use my terms carefully.
If a child's feelings are hurt, I didn't get that award?
And you honor those feelings by withholding the award, you are damaging that child.
Wow.
Sean?
Did you receive a merit award when you were in high school?
Uh-huh.
So just...
He did not get one.
He got one in the Boy Scouts.
He's a merit badge.
He got several merit badges.
Wonderful.
How badly did you feel that you didn't get a merit award at school?
You didn't care?
You still don't care?
I thought this was a lingering factor in your pathology.
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All's well.
Well, I wouldn't go that far.
And I came up with the answer about two years ago.
So, how are you, Dennis?
Which is very frequently said to me.
To which I have been responding better than my country.
It is not lost, however.
There are tens of millions of us who understand what the left is doing to this country.
Here's just another example in Virginia.
Lieutenant Governor Winsome Sears said the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology's policy was, quote, not the way, unquote, during an impassioned appearance on Fox& Friends.
This is not America, she added, where they're not giving out merit academic awards at the high school because it would hurt the feelings of the kids who didn't get the award.
If your feelings are hurt when you didn't get the award in high school, you're a high school kid, your feelings are hurt as the winners are brought up.
This is what you do.
Any number of these possibilities.
Let's think of the range of possibilities that should enter a young person's mind seeing other young people awarded, rewarded.
For academic achievement.
One possibility is, wow, they must have worked really hard.
I'm happy for them.
Can you imagine that?
Now, I'm just curious if the left-wing morons at that Thomas Jefferson school in Virginia would actually want to cultivate character, which is the last thing on leftist minds.
Cultivating character in people is alien to the left-wing outlook on life.
It's a materialist outlook.
So, let's just think, what is the finest thing to tell a child is a reaction?
What is the finest reaction?
It would be, I'm happy for them, they really worked, they must have worked hard.
I guess tied with that is reaction number two.
Man, if I really wanted that award, I'd have worked a lot harder.
That's a good one.
And then you resolve, you'll work harder.
The other possibility is, I really resent them for getting the award.
That's the left-wing attitude.
You resent those who achieve more.
Leftism comes from the basest part of the human spirit.
Then we have base parts.
They have to be fought.
On the left, they're cultivated.
The Fairfax, Virginia school came under fire after parents learned it had intentionally handed out awards for commended students from the National Merit Scholarship Corporation two months later than was typical and too late for many students to note the accomplishment on their college applications.
Wow!
So it actually hurt the students.
It's not just that it wasn't a public ceremony.
It was that it was delayed so much that they couldn't use it in trying to get into a quote-unquote prestigious college.
I won't say good college because that doesn't exist for the most part.
Parents have demonstrated outside the school and called for the firing of Principal Ann Bonitabos.
Bonitatibus, sorry, Bonitatibus, and Director of Student Services Brandon Kosatka, who they allege are responsible.
Lieutenant Governor Sears called for an official probe into the allegation against Thomas Jefferson High.
Quote, I'm astounded, and if these allegations are true, you know I'm just livid.
I am hopping mad.
Good Lieutenant Governor, good for her.
And because, imagine as a parent, you tell your child, son, study hard, daughter, work hard, do well.
That is what these children are trying to do.
And how dare some of these educators keep these children's future in jeopardy like this.
When questioned, Kosatka, the Director of Student Services, just mentioned, According to Yashar, who is Yashar?
I don't know.
Shawnee Yashar is a parent.
Explained that staffers had wanted to hand the letters out, quote, discreetly, unquote.
Are you ready?
To avoid hurting the feelings of students who failed to garner that distinction.
Did I ever tell you the story of how I made the basketball team in high school?
Is it worth telling again, Sean?
You'd never get tired, really.
I'm flattered.
Not flattered.
I'm delighted.
That's better.
How much time do we have?
It takes about a minute.
Perfect.
I made my high school basketball team for only one reason.
I was 6'4 in high school.
I was the tallest kid in the high school.
And I was not in a wheelchair.
I had no talent.
None.
None.
I made it because I was not disabled and I was that tall.
And sure enough, the last day of tryouts for the team...
The cuts were made, and the coach announced as follows, and Prager made the team, we've really scraped the bottom of the barrel.
And I remember thinking two things.
This guy is a real schmuck for saying that out loud, and he was entirely right.
I remember thinking he's entirely right.
That was a healthy reaction.
My feelings were not hurt.
They did scrape the bottom of the barrel, putting me on the team.
There is nothing like truth to set you free.
And I didn't come up with that one.
The Dennis Prager Show.
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Hi everybody, welcome to the Dennis Prager Show.
Oh.
1-8-Prager-776.
Is there anybody listening?
This would fascinate me.
And you know I won't give you a hard time.
Is there anyone, like a lot of people listening, is there any one of you that agrees with the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, yes, that's its official name, that it did not have a public ceremony, in fact it delayed it two months in any shape or form, for those who won a National Merit Scholarship?
Or National Merit Award.
Because it would hurt the feelings of those who didn't.
This is the feminization of society.
This is what people mean when they say it.
They're doing it to the army.
The whole country is being feminized.
So just as there is toxic masculinity, people should discuss toxic femininity.
There is beautiful femininity and there is beautiful masculinity.
And each sex has a toxic side.
The female side is thinking with emotion.
Oh, I feel for the kid who didn't win an award.
But what you do is you produce a weak human being.
That's why I called it a form of child abuse.
Our task is to produce a very difficult thing in life, a good and strong adult.
Instead, we produce weak and confused adults.
And this is an example of it.
Your feelings might be hurt.
Do you remember?
I mean, I've been reporting this.
This is not new at all.
This is just another iteration of this phenomenon.
What about the move?
I remember it was Massachusetts, and it's probably elsewhere as well, that in high school, a team cannot win by more than X number of points or runs because it will make the losers feel so bad.
For the record, analyzing my own brain and instinct, if I were on a team in high school that lost 66 to nothing in a football game, I would think, wow, I really have something to share with my future grandchildren, should I be blessed to have them.
Your grandpa was on a team that lost 66 to nothing.
It's a hell of a lot more relatable and funny and fun than I was on the team that won 66-0.
Because I would have lessons to teach my grandchild or obviously child if I were on a team that lost 66-0.
This is the nature of life.
This is the feminization of society that we are engaged in.
It's feelings-based.
It is not behavior-based.
It is not wise.
There is an enduring war in life between your mind and your heart.
You should follow your heart on Less important decisions.
In making less important decisions.
What will I have for dinner?
Is perfectly fine.
Well, not perfectly fine.
You might choose very unhealthy foods.
But, in other words, will it be healthy Thai, healthy Chinese, healthy Italian, healthy American, healthy French, healthy fast food?
Yes, there is healthy fast food.
That could be heart.
What movie do I want to watch?
Could be heart-based.
But any major decision has to be mind-based.
And that is what we have not cultivated.
Follow your heart is a sign I have seen in homes that I have visited.
Can you think of worse advice?
Really?
Did you raise your children?
To follow his or her heart?
1-8 Prager 776-877-243-7776 That's a really great question I posed earlier.
I know it sounds like I'm complimenting myself, but it's not the point, obviously.
But it was a great question.
What is the ideal response?
That you should try to inculcate in your child, or any child, when the child feels bad that others won a National Merit Award.
That's a very important subject for every one of us in life.
There will always be more successful people.
You must learn very early on you don't resent them unless they cheated.
Then you resent their cheating, and wisely and correctly so.
But otherwise, that is one of the most important lessons you can inculcate in your child.
I felt this so deeply since I was preoccupied with my two boys' character, not their grades, that in my heart I was ambivalent with regard to their winning or losing in their baseball games.
They both played, you know.
I wouldn't even say a little league, just school baseball against other schools.
I wanted them to feel good about winning, but I wanted to train them how to deal with losing.
So my emotions wanted them to win, and my mind wanted them to lose.
I wanted to prepare them for adulthood.
That is the task of a parent.
That is why we have so many children.
In our academic world, most professors, most teachers at college are children.
They have never left school.
They are in kindergarten to this day.
Children are teaching children how to remain children.
That is true for most teachers in elementary schools and high schools as well as colleges.
Children are teaching children.
How to remain children.
The fact that you have a PhD in no way negates the fact that you are probably still a child.
That is the reason that this policy was adopted at this school in Virginia.
Don't hand out, don't even announce the winners of the National Merit Award, lest we hurt the feelings of children.
The same thing held true in the biological world as in the emotional and psychological and character worlds.
Don't let your child be exposed to any virus or to any dirt, for that matter.
And so they don't build antibodies.
We have prevented children from developing antibodies to viruses.
And antibodies to disappointment.
That's what we've done.
Among the many other ways in which the fools who run just about every institution dealing with children have dealt with children.
Teachers, teachers, unions.
And, like this, the principal of the high school.
You need to develop antibodies to become a healthy adult.
Okay, let's go to one of my favorite cities in the country, Rockford, Illinois.
Actually, it's not one of my favorite.
I have no reaction.
I just thought I'd say that.
Michael, are you offended?
Dennis, no.
I want to thank you for bringing back a memory for me.
Yes, sir.
So I was going to a parochial school in Glenview, and we only had freshman and sophomore year for high schoolers.
And we did not have enough players to field a football team, so they recruited some of us 8th graders.
We were able to get 11 people all dressed up.
We played one game, and we lost 78 to nothing.
And a highlight that you reminded me of is the fact that I blocked a punt during the game.
But the problem was it was my team that was actually punting the ball when it happened.
That is precious.
There were 11 guys that broke through the line and I happened to be that last guy that was supposed to block them all.
I want to understand the mechanics of this hilarity.
How did you block your own team's punt?
Well, when 11 other players broke through our line of scrimmage of our 98-pound people, I was that last guy that's supposed to, you know, block anybody that walks through the line.
And I got pushed back so far that...
Oh, God, that is precious.
...picked up my backside.
But I survived it.
You know, I ran to the wrong basket in Madison Square Garden.
We really are kindred spirits.
Well, you know, I look back at it, and I look at it as a very pleasant memory.
Exactly.
Exactly.
78-0.
So I'm curious.
And they kicked off both halves, too.
And the furthest we ever got the ball was our own 42-yard line, and that's only because their kickoff guy had a bad kickoff.
Well, you didn't have a kicker who could kick a 59-yard field goal?
Unfortunately, I don't know if we could have kicked it 20 yards.
Uh-huh.
So here's my $64,000 question.
In your development as a man, do you wish you had been on the team that you were on that lost 78-0 or the team that won 78-0?
You know, I think I candidly could say the team that lost.
Yes, that's correct.
That's correct.
Me too.
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Hey, hey, hey, hey!
Hi everybody, Dennis Prager here.
Another example of the way in which the progressives ruin children.
This example, which is so important.
Of not announcing National Merit Award winners at this high school in Virginia, lest it hurt the feelings of those who didn't.
This is really key.
Ah, let's see, where is the parent here?
There's a parent.
The calls are so good, I tell you, it's painful to me.
Oh yeah, here it is.
Michelle in Los Angeles, hello.
Hi, Dennis.
Hi.
I am a teacher.
I'm not a parent.
I teach in an infamous Los Angeles school district.
I won't mention the name.
I used to write to the parents' email.
There's a dojo email.
Every month, the children who have received good grades, because I think they deserve it, they got perfect grades.
And until one day, a parent went to complain to the principal.
And said, how come this teacher is always writing?
It's the same children, the same children who are getting good grades.
And then basically I stopped writing altogether.
Because you know what?
I'm not going to write about the other children who are not putting their efforts and they're not doing well.
And I just stopped doing it altogether.
Just to show, this is an example.
So wait, did the school agree with the complaining parents?
Yes, the principal...
Needless to say.
By the way, you said an infamous school district in Los Angeles.
Please understand, they're all infamous.
It's irrelevant what the name is.
I think, you see, I would have an answer.
If I were her, if I were she, to be technically accurate, I would say, okay, I will send out mailings of all the students who didn't.
Do well.
Just for the record, ladies and gentlemen, I graduated in the top 80% of my high school class.
And for those of you mathematically challenged, let me get to the point.
That's the bottom 20%.
And I was as happy as a clam.
I have no idea why they say that.
I don't know that clams are particularly happy.
Your calls are great.
Russell in Minneapolis, failure is the key to all success.
Russ in Northridge, California made a basket at the other team's basket.
That's my man.
He did better than me.
I only ran to the wrong side.
I did not shoot to the wrong basket.
Nice one from Monica.
She would tell her kids, if no birds sing, the woods would be silent.
Nice one.
Thomas in Moneta, Virginia.
The Bible says we are supposed to rejoice for others.
No kidding.
Join me, ladies and gentlemen.
Join me, ladies and gentlemen.
It's the happy, happy, happy, happier.
Yes, it is.
My friends, the happy make the world better, the unhappy make it worse.
It is a moral obligation to act happy even if you don't feel it.
Just as we wash away our bad body odor, we should wash away our bad moods.
We do not inflict them.
Ha ha ha.
The innocent.
It's the happy, happy, happy, happy hour.
It's the happy.
Yes, everybody!
We inaugurate another year.
This happiness hour began in the 20th century.
Never missed a Friday that I broadcast.
There are about four Fridays I don't broadcast.
Maybe five.
Otherwise, I have never missed a happiness hour, no matter what happens.
In the course of that week.
If you can't talk about happiness in the midst of tragedy, then your whole happiness world of thought is really a house of cards, a sandcastle, a piñata.
As it says in the good book, he who cracks himself up, cracks himself up.
Thank you.
Famous phrase.
It's in Ecclesiastes 2. Second Ecclesiastes.
And those of you who know the Bible know there's only one Ecclesiastes.
But I fooled the rest of you.
Sean, for example, thought, oh really?
Second Ecclesiastes?
Yeah, he was Googling it.
In fact, two Ecclesiastes walked into a bar.
It's a famous joke.
Okay, everybody, welcome to the show.
The Happiness Hour.
My subject is actually the result of Hour 1 of the Dennis Prager Show.
Which I happened to hear at just the hour preceding this one.
I reported to you that a high school in Virginia, the Thomas Jefferson School for Science and Technology, the principal and some other official at the school did not announce the winners of the National Merit Award and did...
And delayed even telling the winners because they didn't want to hurt the feelings of the other students.
Another example of child abuse from the progressive world in which we live.
If you could design a way to hurt children more effectively, I don't know one.
So I want to talk to you about failure and happiness.
It's big.
The protecting of children for the last two generations from feeling bad has resulted in the catastrophe in which we are living of fools running everything.
It really emanates from that.
Protecting people from feeling bad gratuitously is a good thing.
I know in my own life I am adamant about never humiliating a person in public or, well, in private.
It doesn't matter because you need other people to humiliate.
I guess it could be you.
But anyway, I was taught in my religious education one of the greatest phrases.
Every single Jewish kid knows this phrase.
Sean, should I do it in Hebrew as well as English?
Why would I even ask was his response.
Are you Jewish?
Because they say Jews answer questions with questions.
And that's what you just did.
What you just did.
He is levitating now.
Which is quite an achievement.
He who...
He humiliates his neighbor in public.
It's as if he has murdered him.
It's a play on words in Hebrew.
I won't develop the idea.
I'm just saying we do want to protect people's feelings from gratuitous hurt, obviously.
But otherwise, you have to toughen up.
You have to build, as I put it last, our antibodies.
You have to learn that failure is normal, and therefore you must learn how to deal with it.
Much of life is a failure if you compare yourself to others, which is what failing is usually about.
How do you know if you failed?
Because others succeeded.
Nobody thinks they failed.
If they can't run a three-minute mile, because nobody has run a three-minute mile, so nobody feels they're a failure.
But if you're a runner, and somebody runs a four-minute mile, and you run a six-minute mile, you feel that you failed.
So it's all of life.
I've noted on occasion the Forbes 400, you know they list the 400 richest Americans?
And I always wonder, how does number 183 feel, let alone number 392?
Do they feel like, wow, I made it to the Forbes 400?
Because, let's be honest, if you're that wealthy, it's very important to you to be that wealthy.
People don't become wealthy unless they're preoccupied with wealth, as a general rule.
So how do they feel?
I don't know the answer.
It would be truly a fascinating insight into the human condition.
How do the ones that...
Well, not just at the bottom of the 400. How does number 10 feel?
Or better, at what number do you start feeling bad?
I'm on the list.
That means that...
Virtually every single American has less wealth than I do.
And yet, whom do people compare themselves to?
The ones who have more.
Life consists of failures.
That is the way it works.
Therefore, the sooner you learn in life how to deal with it, the happier a human and better human you will be.
1-8 Prager-776-877-243-7776 Did your parents allow you to fail?
How would they have reacted to the national merit winners not being announced at this Virginia high school?
Or for that matter, they have dropped valedictorians from many schools.
Because the kids will feel bad.
I'm not a valedictorian, and here we're going to honor the valedictorian.
So what they do is either they drop it in many schools, or they give valedictorian to ten kids.
But I don't know why that suffices.
Because there are so many more than ten kids in the school, and they'll all feel, theoretically anyway, bad.
That's the way it is.
What if we applied this to sports?
We're not going to announce who made the team this year because it's going to hurt the feelings of the guys who didn't make the team.
Boy, if there's any area of life where you have to learn to deal with failure, it is sports.
I was eating at a restaurant in my neighborhood when the Georgia...
Ohio State game was on.
Did you see that, Sean?
Well, do you know what happened at the very end?
So here's the field goal kicker coming in for a manageable, a long field goal, but manageable.
And it's the last play of the game.
The clock will run out in two seconds or whatever.
If he actually kicks the field goal...
Ohio State wins.
If he misses the field goal, Georgia wins.
They go to the championship game.
Well, he came in, and he not only missed the field goal, the ball was so wide of the goal posts that it was an atypical kick for him and for any...
Field goal kicker.
I mean, if it's a long one, maybe they don't make the distance.
But to be that wide of the goal post is relatively rare.
So the guy, which is why the issue for kickers in American football is really one, can you handle the pressure?
He would have been the hero or the goat, and he ended up the goat.
I said the Ohio State.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That guy actually learned how to deal with failure back in a moment.
Hi, everybody.
Happiness Hour every Friday, second hour.
Periodically, I note to you that I wrote a book on happiness titled Happiness is a Serious Problem.
It's an enduring enigma to me why you would be deeply touched by this Happiness Hour and not read that book.
And I'm being totally open.
Read the reviews.
It's a life-changing book.
It's called Happiness is a Serious Problem.
Anyway, just bringing it to your attention.
My subject today is failure and happiness.
That if you don't learn to navigate failure early in life, you will be a very unhappy person.
You will probably end up a progressive.
This is not meant to be cute, but it is exactly one of the animating impulses.
Don't let people fail.
It's a feelings-based world.
That's why I gave the example last hour of the high school in Virginia that does not announce winners of the National Merit Award.
And they say why.
Lest the feelings of other kids be hurt.
Protecting kids from hurt feelings is very instinctive and very stupid.
It's like protecting them from...
All colds and viruses so that they don't develop antibodies.
You need to develop antibodies early in life, biologically and psychologically.
Failure is the norm.
It's not only ubiquitous, it is the norm.
You learn to handle it, then you celebrate the victories that you have.
That's the good thing.
Okay, let's see here.
Welford, South Carolina, and Katerina.
Haven't heard from Welford in a long time.
Hi, Katerina.
Hi, Dennis.
Hold on, hold on, hold on.
You're on a speakerphone, and it's hard to hear you.
Okay, I'm not.
Okay.
Much better.
I saw you when you came to Greer and we really enjoyed it.
Thank you.
Thank you.
I just want to say that one of the most valuable things my parents taught us very young is that life isn't fair.
And they said, the sooner you learn this out, the better off you're going to be.
And I really do think that has enhanced my life immensely.
Well, bless your soul.
Your parents did a good job.
That is exactly right.
I just want to comment on life is not fair for a moment.
Sometimes parents misuse the term.
They should definitely teach that to the child, just like Katerina's parents did.
She is obviously better for it, happier for it, and stronger for it.
However, There are times when I remember as a kid, adults using life is not fair to justify their unfair policy.
That's wrong.
Life is unfair, but it doesn't mean we don't try to make it somewhat fairer.
Or we don't, at the very least, we don't amplify its unfairness with things that we do.
But that is exactly correct.
Okay, let's see now.
All right, well, that's not going to work.
Let's go to Crown Point, Indiana, and Bill.
Hello, Bill.
Good morning, Dennis.
Not to split hairs or get off topic here, but that field goal kicker was put in a rather tenable position by some questionable play calling that preceded that kick.
Ohio State had a first down, and they tried to run the ball.
They lost a yard, and then they tried two long passes rather than chipping away and trying to make the field goal a little more manageable.
So even though, yeah, he missed the kick, what would have been an otherwise kick he should have made, he was nevertheless kind of put in that predicament by some questions.
But from the perspective of...
The point I am making, you may well be right.
I watched that.
You may well be right.
I don't know.
But it doesn't matter.
He failed to get the field goal.
Whether he was put in a bad position by bad calls or not is interesting, but not relevant to my happiness point.
It's relevant to the football game.
So in the long run in his life, what will have ultimately enabled him to be stronger and happier?
Because strong people are happier.
Weak people are not happy.
When they do all of these polls, one of the few things both left and right agree on is that people on the right are happier.
One of the reasons is that the further left you go, the weaker the person.
Because if you are just feelings-based, look, the very notion that people walk around with microaggressions, it shows how weak they are.
It's a very important thing to realize.
This whole microaggression, micro means it's tiny.
That's what micro means.
If you ask somebody who has an accent in speaking English, hey, curious, where are you from?
That is considered a microaggression.
To me, it's a microaggression not asking them where they're from.
It means you don't give a damn about them.
The weakness of character is at the foundation of what is called progressivism.
I know it sounds political, and I'll live with the consequences of that.
I don't like to bring politics into the happiness hour.
But if I don't bring real life into the happiness hour, it's not a very useful hour.
This whole thing of protecting you from hurt feelings is a massive part of what has gone wrong and going wrong in the weakening of American life and the American character.
Dealing with failure.
Dealing with hurt.
Santa Clarita, California.
Steve, hello.
Hi, Dennis.
I got Deuteronomy for Christmas.
Oh, thank you.
I'm delighted.
There's been a great Dr. Pepper commercial during the college season where a number of fans confront the quarterback for State College.
And ask him why he's not upset that they didn't make the playoffs.
And he says, hey, it's a game.
Hey, it's what?
What did he say?
It's only a game, yeah?
It's only a game.
What's the deal?
It's only a game.
He's just cool as a cucumber and the fans are just moving.
Fascinating.
They gotta see it.
Let Dennis be Dennis.
Bye.
That's right.
Hi, everyone.
I forgot to tell you at the end of last hour, now call in on any subject under the sun.
1-8 Prager 776. Third hour of the Friday show.
That was a convoluted beginning.
Is open lines.
Whatever's on your mind about you, about me, about life, about death.
And needless to say.
Audio equipment, photography, cigars, fountain pens, classical music.
I got it right.
All right, everybody, what is on your mind?
If I let your call go, if I delete it from the list, please do not be hurt.
Perfect, by the way, perfect, in light of my last hour dealing with hurt, that I even have to announce that don't take it personally if I don't take the call, shows the age in which we live of...
E's with which people are hurt.
Very big problem.
Anyway, call in and I will begin with your calls right now.
Raleigh, North Carolina, or Raleigh.
I say Raleigh, but it's probably Raleigh.
Charles, how do you pronounce your city?
I pronounce it Raleigh.
Raleigh.
Alright.
Hi there.
Hi, it's a pleasure to speak with you, Mr. Prager.
Thank you.
This happened a few weeks ago, and you didn't talk about it when it happened, and I was sure you were going to say something, so I just wanted to ask you.
A few weeks ago, New Zealand passed a bill banning the sale of all tobacco products to everyone born after the year 2008. So, a 14-year-old in New Zealand will never legally be allowed to buy a cigarette, a cigar, or what have you.
And I just wanted your opinion on that, but I think I kind of already know what it might be.
What do you think it'll be?
That it's a sign that the Western world, specifically the Anglo part of the Western world, has lost its mind.
I'm glad I asked you.
How did you discover me?
I discovered you.
Originally, I was a fan of Ben Shapiro, and I think it was when you went on his Sunday special a few years back, and I was like, I like him.
So I decided to check you out, and I was like, yep, yep, I like him all right.
Oh, thank you.
I'm delighted.
I appreciate it.
Okay.
Seeing that he called the first hour, I checked it during breaks.
And he's exactly right.
When the war against tobacco began in the 80s, I was publishing a newsletter called Ultimate Issues.
And I wrote a very, very long piece saying that the country had lost its mind.
There must be something wrong with its value system that it's warring on tobacco but not on alcohol.
Now, I don't want there to be another prohibition with regard to alcohol, but I wanted to make the point I am much less troubled by people hurting themselves voluntarily than I am people hurting others involuntarily.
In other words, the others got hurt through no action of their own.
Alcohol is present in a majority of cases of criminal violence.
It is prevalent, wildly prevalent in rape and child abuse, spousal abuse.
But this society...
Went after people who smoke.
We have drunk drivers massacring thousands.
Do we have smoking drivers massacring thousands?
Of course not.
Anybody beat up a spouse or sexually abuse a child after a cigarette?
No.
After a drink?
Yep.
Would you prefer your pilot drink or smoke?
It's endless.
I knew that the country's moral conscience was broken.
Its compass was broken.
And that was, to me, an indication of it.
The fact that it emanated from San Francisco, that they were the leaders of the crusade against tobacco.
The fact that they lumped cigars with cigarettes.
Showed that they didn't know what the hell they were talking about.
They have nothing in common except tobacco.
You don't inhale a cigar.
You don't smoke it for the nicotine.
You smoke it for its taste.
But the war on tobacco.
Then second-hand smoke because they failed to convince people.
So they made up this gigantic lie.
It's when I first began to realize how much lying comes from the medical community.
When they announced 50,000 Americans die a year from secondhand smoke, I knew it was a lie.
Everything in me realized they were lying to you.
And they did.
It's a pure lie.
They made up a figure.
Is there anybody who they list?
Death from secondhand smoke?
That's when I began to suspect that epidemiology was BS. Not entirely.
There is such a thing as epidemiology.
But if there is a group of people that I consider particularly stupid, it's epidemiologists.
Which is, by the way, a very big deal because the competition with professors of gender studies is a serious one.
Which is the stupider group?
But in terms of harm of society, well, it might be equal.
It's the epidemiologists who are the greatest pushers of lockdowns, which were utterly and totally destructive.
And they were behind the lie that 50,000 Americans die of secondhand smoke.
Why did they lie about it?
They lied about it because they couldn't convince people to stop smoking in terms of averting danger to themselves.
But now it became a moral crusade.
You're killing others when you smoke.
So you now have the total idiocy of not even allowing people to smoke outdoors.
Because we all know you'll die from secondhand smoke outdoors.
There was a direct line between the war on tobacco and the lockdowns of 2020 and 2021. Remember that unless you hear it from us, it is not the truth.
So that's the Prime Minister of New Zealand last year, or two years ago.
Unless you hear it from us, it is not the truth.
So I'm not surprised New Zealand, which is a particularly autocratic country, it's as woke as America, to the best of my knowledge, although I don't know if they're as woke on the transgender issue, which is a big issue.
I don't know if you have to say in New Zealand men give birth as you have to say at an American university men give birth.
I don't know.
Or at the New York Times.
Which is indistinguishable.
From an American university.
New Zealand has lost its mind.
And of course, again, the cigars aspect is particularly dishonest.
You won't be able to buy it.
But I'll tell you what happened.
I'll tell you exactly what happened.
Most people don't smoke.
So they didn't give a damn.
About depriving smokers of the right to kill themselves.
So ironic, in Canada and other countries, you have the right to kill yourself.
But you don't have the right, in some of these countries, to smoke.
So if you kill yourself immediately, that's legal.
But if you kill yourself over the course of a half century, that's illegal.
And by the way, most people do not kill themselves.
One-third of cigarette smokers die from cigarette smoking.
That's a lung association statistic.
One-third of cigarette smokers, cigar smokers, and I have no idea if it prolongs their life because of the relaxation or in any way affects their longevity.
My father smoked cigars all day his whole life and died at 96.
I know that's an anecdote, but an important one.
Hi, everybody. .
By the way, I want to thank Avner Stein for letting me know what happy...
As a clam comes from.
It's originally happy as a clam at high tide.
And then people...
From somebody's reaction here, I can tell.
It has not made your day.
It made my day.
From now on, if I ever say happy as a clam, it will be at high tide.
Why is a clam happy at high tide, you ask?
That, too, is explained.
If I can find it.
Here we go.
The reason is, you know, the Wi-Fi in this room is really pathetic.
There we go.
Okay.
Because when the water is at high tide, The clams are protected from predation by birds.
Why didn't you realize that?
It seems so obvious.
It's exactly right.
The idiom originated in the United States around the year 1830. Yep, that's right.
Okay, now you know.
That was a really important call, by the way.
From that young man in, where was he?
Raleigh.
In Raleigh.
So, New Zealand feels good about itself.
They've banned forever if you were born.
Anytime, what is it, 2008 or later, you cannot buy tobacco in New Zealand.
How sick.
But...
Most people in New Zealand don't give a damn because it doesn't affect them.
So if you deprive people from the right to do something they want that is dangerous, why don't they ban motorcycle driving?
I'm dead serious.
Not let alone alcohol.
Because it's a cheap little target.
That's why.
The wealthy, and of course the poor, but the wealthy drink...
And the poorer guys tend to smoke cigarettes.
Cigars tend to be among the wealthier.
They always lump cigars in because they talk about cigarettes and then they say tobacco.
Okay.
It's really sad.
Phoenix, Arizona, Mike.
Hello, Mike.
Hi, Dennis.
Hey, I'm a delivery driver.
I drive around the Phoenix metro area and per capita...
I see way, way, way, way more black people that are homeless, waiting for buses, waiting for just standing around, just, I don't know.
It just seems like there's way more that are down.
And I'm just wondering if, in your opinion, why is that so?
Is it that there is systemic racism and they truly are kept down?
What do you think it is?
Do you think that that's what's happening?
No, I think it's five or more generations of, oh, you're a poor victim, you can't help it, so we'll take care of you and we'll just let you do whatever or struggle or what have you.
I can't put the right words on it.
That is why William Buckley said that he'd rather be governed by the first 2,000 names in the Boston phone book than...
2,000 Harvard professors.
I would rather be governed by the first 2,000 people in the Boston Telephone Directory than by the 2,000 people on the faculty of Harvard University.
That's right.
He got it exactly right.
Do you know, it has been documented by Tom Sowell and others, I think it was as late as the 1930s.
The black family was more intact than the white family.
At a time of much more racism.
And then came the completely destructive progressives, then called liberals, now called left or progressive.
Ah, we're going to help, we're going to make a war on poverty.
And we're going to...
Particularly focus on black America.
You don't need a husband.
You give birth, we'll support you.
And the rest is history.
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and the famous Nicole of Pittsburgh.
Hello.
Hello.
I have a question.
I would really like to get into classical music, and I'm just wondering, what is the best way to study it and to study the composers?
Why do you want to get into it?
I've always enjoyed listening to it as background music, but I really want to learn to appreciate the different instruments, the different moods, the different tones and variations in it, and also I'm interested in knowing if the composer's personality can be felt or experienced through the music itself.
Wow.
Oh, you made my day, Nicole.
You're welcome.
Good, I'm glad you said that.
So, my primary piece of advice to people in terms of classical music and coming to love something that has been my drug of choice since high school is you have to, in most cases, you need to listen to a piece.
A fair number of times to come to love it.
Pop music is lovable the first time you hear it.
Very rarely is classical music.
Maybe Beethoven's Fifth, you'll love it, or at least the first movement as soon as you hear it.
But generally speaking, you need to hear a few times and then one day you'll go, wow, I love that piece.
So I hope that's helpful.
What you need to learn is the various forms.
A symphony is an entire orchestra.
Usually it's in four movements.
That's called orchestral music.
Chamber music is if it's a few instruments, like the most famous is a quartet.
Two violins, a viola, and a cello.
That's called chamber music because it can be played in a chamber.
You don't need a big hall.
There's also piano trios, piano and violin and cello.
And then there's just solo instruments.
I can listen to a piano for hours on end, but it may not be your favorite.
Anyway, you are in for the ride of your life, Nicole.
I'm excited.
Good.
To call me in six months and tell me how it works.
Okay, I will do that.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
Yeah, you see that?
Now we just need fountain pens, audio equipment, photography equipment, and cigars.
Boom!
And we will have had a call on my five favorite subjects outside of religion and a lot of others.
All right, everybody.
We shall return.
The Dennis Prager Show.
Dennis Prager here.
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