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May 24, 2023 - Dennis Prager Show
01:12:58
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Dennis Prager here.
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Hi everybody and welcome to day three from Orlando, Florida from the National Religious Broadcasters Convention and tomorrow back in LA after being in Germany and Florida from the National Religious Broadcasters Convention and tomorrow back in I am doing research on jet lag on behalf of a number of medical schools, and I have conquered it.
Well, I conquered it decades ago.
In case you're curious, and I'm not saying it'll work for everybody, but it works perfectly for me.
Proof is that you hear me every day as energetic as if I were in the same time zone every day.
The trick is to sleep somewhat on the airplane, especially if you're going many time zones, as to Europe from the United States.
And the bigger trick is to...
Immediately embrace the local time you're on.
If you go, take a nap, get up, and then have to go to sleep at the evening hour of that city, you are ruined for about five days.
So, in case you were curious, and some of you I have no doubt are, and some of you I have no doubt are not.
Such is life.
Compelling thing happening here.
There are thousands of people.
Thousands or a thousand?
I think thousands.
And it is largely Christian, though there is a fairly significant contingent of religious Jews here, which is fascinating and very good, because I'm a big believer in Judeo-Christian values.
Whether we share theology or not is for God to decide, but whether we share values or not is for God and man to decide.
And the values are very similar.
After all, we're the only two religions that have the same, or that share a Bible, the Old Testament.
No other two religions share any Bible.
None.
That's a pretty significant thing for those of you who scoff at the term Judeo-Christian.
You don't know what you're talking about.
You're angry because you feel that your faith is the only valid one, and therefore linking the other one is somewhat heretical to you.
But when you share a Bible, for Jews their entire Bible, and for Christians about two-thirds of their Bible, that's not something to scoff at.
Alright, anyway.
So I'm here, and I've been speaking constantly and being interviewed by many Christian and Jewish.
I spent 45 minutes being interviewed by the Jerusalem Post on a video interview, audio and video.
The issue that I have raised often...
And it is really, really worthy of every single one of you reflecting on how much does one's faith really make a difference in a person's life?
Jordan Peterson raised that with me when I asked him if he believed in God at a PragerU gala right before the lockdowns.
And here's a man who came from a secular background and who was instrumental in the pursuit of truth.
And his answer was powerful.
He says, how can I say I believe in God?
It is so difficult to say you believe in God.
I'm paraphrasing.
I should get the exact words, actually, and play them for you.
But if you really do believe in God, then You've got to show it.
Otherwise, it's not true.
I'll give my own example.
Let us say I say, you know, I really don't like walking in a downpour.
And I believe there will be a downpour.
But I'm not taking a raincoat or an umbrella.
Then most of us would assume you don't really believe there will be a downpour.
Because if you believed that, you would be taking an umbrella and or a raincoat.
I mean, give it any example you want.
I really love hamburgers.
And there's a hamburger on the menu and you visit this restaurant or any restaurant for six months and you never order a hamburger.
We assume you don't love hamburgers.
I mean, there may be a health reason that you can't eat it, but you haven't articulated that.
The failure of synagogues and churches during the lockdowns, the sheep-like behavior, really does make me ask the question, what difference does your religion make in your life?
If you are as sheep-like as the non-believer, What the hell's the difference if you're a religious Jew or a religious Christian?
If that's not a fair question, you should tell me.
But I have mentioned that here, and people appreciated it immensely.
Overwhelmingly, the people here are devout Christians.
And they understood that was a very valid question.
Eric Metaxas is one of the handful of Christians who has posed that and written a book, A Cry from the Heart.
It's not the name of the book, but that's what it is, A Cry from the Heart, about the failure of so many of his fellow Christians in that regard.
And I can say the failure of so many of my fellow Jews.
The failure of the Mormons.
Nobody looked good during that.
And here's the thing.
If you opened up, if you actually said, you don't have to come to services, of course.
If you're frightened or you have a comorbidity and you're frightened, you know, don't come.
This is only open for those who wish to come and pray and study the Bible at the church or synagogue.
But if you're afraid to say that because you'll be attacked verbally by Gavin Newsom in California, Or by whatever the Democrat is governing your state or city, then the thought that there is greater fear of Newsom than fear of the Lord is, shall we say, disturbing.
Anyway, I've said that here.
People have applauded quite passionately when I did say that.
So here's an example.
How many priests, rabbis, and ministers in Los Angeles, where I live, will tell their parishioners, their congregants, don't go to a Dodger game?
And the answer is almost zero.
Almost zero.
There is a group that mocks nuns.
These are men in drag dressed as nuns.
What is it?
Sisters of Perpetual Indulgences.
It's a complete mockery of the Catholic Church and of the nun.
And the vast majority of believing Christians who go to Dodger games will continue to go to Dodger games.
Because going to a Dodger game is more compelling than fighting the mockery of religion.
That's the reason.
But then, don't get angry at the German churches that didn't speak out in the Hitler era.
They at least had the threat of a visit from the Gestapo.
The Nazi secret police.
What's going to happen to you if you don't go to a Dodger game?
You're going to be visited by some secret police?
No, of course not.
You didn't go to a Dodger game.
We're right, Bart.
The Los Angeles Dodgers have indeed proven themselves to be the Bud Light of baseball after backing down to the woke and re-inviting the radical anti-Christian gay and transgender group the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence to their Pride Night on June 16th.
Now that the Dodgers have reversed their decision to disinvite the hate group, From its gay pride night after acquiescing to Christians who were outraged.
By the way, I'm not a Christian, and I'm outraged.
It's really pathetic if you have to be a Christian to be outraged.
Why isn't an atheist outraged?
That the group was set to get a community award.
This is how sick we are.
How sick Los Angeles is.
I root for no Los Angeles teams as a result of this.
Not just this.
I mean, the general...
Perversion of sports into a Soviet-like propaganda mill.
A community award, yeah?
Christians are again mounting efforts to denounce the team for re-inviting the LGBTQ group to the game.
Catholic Vote is vowing to resume its campaign to pressure the Dodgers to distance itself.
From the hate group after the team went groveling back to re-invite them to their June 16th game.
After the Los Angeles Dodgers on Monday night re-invited an anti-Catholic hate group to be honored at the team's June 16th LGBTQ Plus Pride Night, Catholic Vote President Brian Birch vowed to launch a barrage, quote-unquote, of advertising against the team across quote-unquote, of advertising against the team across Los Angeles and in game broadcasts.
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Los Angeles Dodgers will give an award, an award, a community award, to men dressed in drag as nuns.
An award.
And people will go to the game, and people will applaud, and some Catholics may not go.
I'm a Jew, I wouldn't go.
If it has to be your group that gets hit, good will always lose.
You either stand up for what's right, irrespective of what group is being hit, or you don't stand up for what's right.
It's really sick, folks.
It's just sick.
Plus, they're such cowards, the LGBTQ crowd.
They mock Catholic nuns.
Would they mock women who are Muslim?
Would they mock a burqa?
And I don't think they should, by the way.
But I'm just saying, would they?
Of course not.
Because they're cowards.
You know why they can fight Christians?
A, they hate anything Bible-based.
But B, because Christians won't hurt them.
That's why they could put a cross in urine and bring it from museum to museum.
A crucifix in urine.
Piss Christ, that's what it was called.
You think you could do such a thing?
I've asked for years with the Quran.
And I'm against it.
But you could never do it.
Because they're cowards.
Christians don't blow you up.
Well, this is the crisis of our time.
People don't fight.
There's a famous statement.
I don't remember who said it.
Was it Pastor Niemöller?
Something to the effect he said about...
He was a Christian pastor in Nazi Germany.
And he said something to the effect.
First they came for the communists, and I wasn't a communist, so I didn't say anything.
Then they came for the Jews, I wasn't a Jew, so I didn't say anything.
And then he goes down the list.
Then they came for this, but I wasn't that.
Then they came for this, I wasn't that.
And then they came for me, and there was nobody left to speak up for me.
A very famous quote from the Nazi era.
The famous statement of Santayana, people who don't learn from history are condemned to repeat it.
The problem with that statement is, it's been said so often, it goes into one ear and out the other.
But it's entirely true.
Learning from history involves two things.
First, you have to learn history.
History is not learned today in an American school.
So, you can't learn from history.
If you don't know any history.
They know preferred pronouns.
They know that sex is not binary.
But they don't know history.
Ask the average kid at Yale, what is the Gulag Archipelago?
If you don't know what the Gulag Archipelago is, you're an ignoramus.
You are a thorough, total ignoramus.
You may be sweet, kind, and darling.
You are an ignoramus.
In fact, if they don't know Gulag, I then ask, what's Auschwitz?
I'd be curious, how many kids at Yale could identify Auschwitz?
How many could pronounce it if they saw the name?
So you can't learn from history if you don't know history.
Or if you get a left-wing version of history, which is utterly and totally distorted.
Like America was built by slaves.
No, they were slaves in America.
But America was not built by slaves.
It's just a total lie.
If America was built by slaves, Brazil, which had ten times the number of slaves, why didn't they get built up and get rich?
Maybe it wasn't slavery that made America rich.
Slavery made no place rich.
The poorest parts of America were the ones that had slavery, the South.
So, the statement, those who don't learn from history are condemned to repeat it, Only applies to those who learn something from history.
To learn history.
The second issue is, if you learn history and you don't have wisdom, what is wisdom?
Learning from things you didn't experience.
That's what wisdom is.
People think wisdom is, oh, I've done this on the show.
The radio show has been my way of studying the human species.
I have such a diverse audience of human beings who call in and tell me what they think.
And, you know, I asked once, if you don't get your wisdom from the Bible, not once, a few times, I just had people call in for an hour, if you don't get your wisdom from the Bible, where do you get it from?
And nearly everyone answered from life experience.
Which is really remarkable.
If that's true, if all wisdom comes only from life experience, or mostly, why do we give the vote to 18-year-olds?
You shouldn't have the vote until you're 50. Because you're acknowledging you're sort of an idiot until 50. Wisdom is everything.
Everything.
Good intentions are meaningless.
Wisdom is everything.
So that's the problem with Santayana's statement, those who were condemned.
Those who don't learn from history are condemned to repeat it.
A, you need to learn history, and B, you need to learn from it, which is called wisdom.
So as I watch America being transformed into the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, and I mean that literally, then you realize, of course people don't learn from history.
Again, I would say that the average student at Yale...
I pick on Yale because it's really a cesspool.
But it really competes with almost every other college for the cesspool award.
And if I ask, what is the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics?
I'd be curious if they would even know.
Maybe one Soviet leader.
1-8 Prager 7-7-6.
So don't go to a Dodger game if you're in L.A., okay?
Just don't go.
I promise you the Dodgers will cave in because the Dodgers, like Walmart and Nike, these people don't believe in wokeness.
They're cowards.
The woke control them.
Hey everybody, Dennis Prager here in Orlando.
Last day.
Tomorrow I'm back in Los Angeles.
I don't know what I'm going to do with myself staying in the same time zone for a whole week.
That's when I find sleeping hard.
That's when I stay in the same time zone.
I was in Germany three days ago.
It's an amazing world in which we live.
It truly is.
Yep.
I'm talking to you about the Los Angeles Dodgers and the cowards who run the...
The corporation.
As every corporation.
Can you name a courageous corporate entity in the United States?
And it's an open question.
It's not a rhetorical one.
I would love to celebrate them.
If there is.
Who did you guess?
Sorry?
Oh, you gotta yell it.
Oh, Hobby Lobby.
Yes, that's true.
Hobby Lobby would be.
Yeah, but they're run by Christians.
Yeah.
Anyway, I don't know how big Hobby Lobby is compared to Los Angeles Dodgers.
You know.
You know, the big corporate groups.
Well, Bud got clobbered.
That was a good lesson.
And Walmart is now a little frightened.
They've gone the way.
You see, the vast majority of Americans do not believe that sex is not binary.
Okay.
The vast majority of Americans believe that there are two sexes.
End of issue.
That it's a gigantic hoax.
It's a farce to say that sex is not binary.
Is sex binary in the animal kingdom?
I mean, I'm not talking about unicellular or unisex few-cell creatures, but certainly anything from mammals up.
Can you name a species wherein sex is not binary?
Did you ever meet a male cow?
Yes, they're called a bull.
Just for the record.
For those of you who didn't grow up as I did in farmland.
That's right, a good old Jewish farm.
A lot of those in America.
So how does the LGBTQ crowd manipulate Nike?
And I think Nike is composed of true believers, though, because they went all in for Colin Kaepernick.
Colin Kaepernick may be the single most famous ingrate in the United States.
And ingrate, that's one of the lower forms of the human condition.
Adopted and raised by two loving white parents, and then spends his adult life crapping on everything they stand for.
And even speaking about negative experiences, which was so trivial, something about his hair.
You know, nobody talks about this, and I don't blame people for not, but my heart breaks for Colin Kaepernick's parents.
You devote your life to loving a child, raising him to be a man.
And he turns out to be a schmuck who has contempt for everything you hold dear, your country, your faith, you.
You know, it's a crapshoot when you have kids.
I mean, that's true.
It's not just true for the Kaepernicks.
It's a crapshoot.
There's no guarantee your kid is going to turn out the way you have hoped that the kid would turn out.
You know what?
Almost everything's a crapshoot.
Marriage is a crapshoot.
My dad used to go to Brazil every year when I was young.
He'd go for six weeks.
He was the accountant of a big firm down there.
He needed to make money, so he left for six weeks.
My mom was stuck with me.
Anyway, he...
This is amazing to me that I remember this because I could not have been more than 10. He brought back a record in Portuguese, which is the language of Brazil, of course, and I know no Portuguese, and yet I remember the title of a song on the record.
Casemiente é a Loteria.
Marriage is a Lottery.
And I looked it up recently and the song exists in Portuguese.
I remembered it correctly.
So the Kaepernicks did not win in their lottery.
It's painful.
I hurt on their behalf.
To not stand up for the national anthem when the flag is brought out.
Wow.
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All right, everybody.
Dennis Prager here, and this is the...
Male-female hour.
Every Wednesday, the second hour of my show is, I believe, the most honest talk about men and women in the media.
If there's a more honest one, I'd like to know about it, and I will commend them.
I'm not in a competition.
I'm just noting how open this is.
And each week, I remind you, I'm not a man fan or a woman fan.
I'm a good person fan.
And there are good women and good men and bad women and bad men.
I have a fun topic, though.
It's not fun in the sense that it's light.
It's just fun in the sense that you will enjoy, I suspect, hearing people reflect on my questions.
And it's another one that I'm not sure, I don't think that we have discussed in the past.
It's multifaceted, the question.
The general question is, but there are subsidiary ones, do parents know best who their kid should marry?
And number two...
If you feel you do know best, and you might, by the way, you might.
I am agnostic on the question.
I have a lot of thoughts about it, but I won't tell you right now where I come down.
But there are people who have intervened in their child's choice of a spouse.
They turned out right, to the best of our ability to know.
There are people who have intervened in the choice of their child, and they have alienated their child and the future spouse, which is the reason a lot of parents don't say anything.
And there are people who intervene and may well have been wrong.
It is Prager family lore that my mother's father did not want her to marry my father.
Yeah.
My father would recount this with great relish because he was certain that my mother turned out marrying a great guy.
My father did not suffer from excessive modesty.
It was not one of his flaws.
He thought my mother was very lucky.
By the way, to be fair, he also thought he was very lucky.
I want to make that clear.
I don't think he thought he was luckier than she was.
So I have to be fair because I have to be honest, period.
But he was sure that she was lucky.
And he, therefore, could laugh about the fact that her father did not want him as a son-in-law, and the reason was not particularly impressive, because he didn't make a lot of money.
He ended up being, by far, I believe, I don't want to...
Nobody is around, so I'm not hurting anyone's feelings.
I'm quite certain that he was his favorite.
He had four daughters, my grandfather.
My mother was one of them.
And he was, by the time I was a kid and knew them, I think he was quite certain that my father was the best son-in-law.
But my father never ceased reveling in the tale of how he objected.
I never established, isn't that interesting?
I never established what my mother's mother thought.
Perhaps because she was completely deaf and wasn't aware of what was happening.
I'm just making dark humor here.
She actually knew exactly what was happening.
So, I know of another couple, I won't say obviously whom, where the parents of the groom did object.
To the future daughter-in-law.
And it did cause some pain, though over time that also dissipated.
But it did cause pain at the time, especially to the future daughter-in-law.
It's a very difficult question, and I'm not sure that there is a generalizable answer.
I wonder if...
What the percentage of parents' assessments is accurate?
How many times do parents object and turn out to be right?
What percentage of the time?
I have no idea.
Literally only God knows.
So the child of the parents objecting is in a very difficult position.
I'm talking about the child...
Who respects his or her parents, loves and respects even his or her parents.
Do you listen to them on the most fateful decision you will ever make?
It's not like, you know, I want to move to Vermont and your parents say, that's not a great state, it's out of its cold.
Okay, big deal.
You can always move out of Vermont.
Yeah, theoretically you could always divorce, but especially if you have children, that is not an easy thing.
In the past, parents completely controlled, I mean, for most of human history, even in Western history, parents decided who you married, whom you married, if you will.
Did that turn out well?
I know people, I'll show you how complex this question is, I know people whose parents did arrange their marriage.
People from other cultures than our Western...
Basically Protestant culture.
And they claim that they have a terrific marriage.
Even, by the way, today in arranged marriages, the child can say no.
It's rare that a child is forced.
But nevertheless, there are arranged marriages.
There are many in India, for example.
Is the average Indian marriage worse than the average Western marriage?
We have a pretty high divorce rate.
I've been divorced.
There's no holier-than-thou statement.
It just is.
That's why I mentioned last hour how virtually everything in life is a crapshoot.
And includes your children, how they turn out.
I mean, you have an influence, but a lot of people who have had influence, the kids did not turn out like the parents influenced them to turn out.
And marriage is certainly such...
I mean, I ought to do this, Alan, I need to do this on a male-female hour.
How many of you...
I'm not doing it now, so don't call in on this.
But how many of you...
Are or were married to someone who radically changed after marriage?
I know personally of such cases.
The person was X while dating and then anti-X, the opposite of X, after marriage.
It could be philosophically, religiously, temperamentally, personality-wise, work-wise.
You don't know how people will turn out.
So anyway, it would be an interesting survey trying to isolate, in other words, same socioeconomic level, young people, let's see, people who marry in their...
20s in the United States.
People are marrying 20s in New Delhi, India.
Middle-class India, middle-class United States.
Arranged marriage in India.
The child determines who they marry in America.
I won't ask the divorce percentage because divorce has a lot to do with other issues, how much society accepts it.
But happiness.
Which society will produce happier marriages?
I have no position on it.
I just throw it out as a question.
Who knows best what's best for your child in marriage?
1-8 Prager 776 We're good to go, Mr. McConnell.
Hi, everybody.
Dennis Prager, Orlando, Florida.
You hear a din in the background.
I am at the National Religious Broadcasters Conference.
We have a standing room only crowd listening to the show right in front of me here.
Now, it's not fully honest.
Standing room, but not only.
All right, everybody.
The question on the table today is, do parents know better whom their child should marry?
And there's a secondary question.
If they are certain they're right, whether they're right or not, I'm not addressing, but if they're certain they're right, should they intervene?
Should they tell their son or daughter, you're really making a bad choice?
My heart goes out to such parents because they know they're flirting with disaster.
Because if the prospective spouse learns what the parents are saying about him or her, it'd take a very special person not to resent those people.
I will say this, though.
I haven't thought about this, but spontaneously this has come to my mind.
If I were to marry someone and her parents objected to me, but the woman I wanted to marry nevertheless said, I really know you, Dennis.
I want to marry you.
I think it would have the following effect on me.
One, to adore my choice even more.
And B, I wouldn't mope.
I wouldn't think I'm a victim of the parents.
I think what I would do is, I would say to my prospective wife, well, over time, I have reason to believe they'll see they were wrong.
Maybe, unless the parents are jackasses and such people exist, maybe the reaction of the prospective spouse whom the other parents object to, instead of carrying a grudge forever, takes it as a challenge to prove them wrong.
See, We only have one freedom in life.
We are not free to determine what happens to us.
We are only free to determine how we react to what happens to us.
So if your prospective in-laws object to you, you have the choice to spend the rest of your life hating them or resenting them or Working to prove them wrong.
I mean, unless they are jackasses, which as I said may well be the case, they will come over time to realize, as my father's father-in-law, my mother's father, came to realize that my father was a terrific husband for his daughter.
He didn't think so in the beginning.
Alright, let's see what you folks have to say here.
We go to Romeoville, Illinois.
That's a new city for me.
Romeoville.
Hello.
Rick.
Hi.
Hi.
Yes, I would interject.
You know, just from my experience with my marriage, I've had people tell me not to marry my ex-wife.
And if I saw certain attributes in a man or woman that's going to marry my child, I would most definitely interject.
So your parents said, don't marry this woman, and they were right?
Is that what you're telling me?
Well, it wasn't my parents.
Her parents were mostly friends of mine, but her family had various addictions, and it was ranted throughout their whole family line up to their grandparents that I'm aware of. and it was ranted throughout their whole family line up Was she addicted at the time of the marriage?
She drank a lot.
But near 20-something years of marriage is when I saw a lot of...
Bike addiction coming out.
So your argument is that sometimes, or at least in your case, at least friends knew better than you.
Yeah.
Okay.
All right.
Listen, I appreciate that.
I'm going to let you go.
I appreciate that.
See, this is a very tough call.
I don't mean his call.
I mean the whole issue.
I don't know.
I love generalizations.
I love rules for life, but I don't have one here.
I would have to say, though, at least if I think of my own life, and I'm not talking about my own experiences, just my own life, I have such wise friends who really love me that if they were Pretty unanimous.
This is not the woman for you, Dennis.
I don't know what I would do.
I admit, and I'm very strong-willed.
But I also have an understanding that there are outsiders who can see more clearly than insiders.
I could be blinded.
By any number of things, men are often blinded by beauty.
Women are often blinded by charm.
So the outsider might have a clearer picture.
Okay, let's see here.
Dominic in Dallas.
Hello, Dominic.
Hello, Dennis.
Thank you for taking the call.
I hope you're well.
I am.
Hi.
Thank you.
Oh, I'm sorry.
No, no, no, go ahead.
As a parent of four children, I have three daughters and a son.
I would say that it's kind of difficult for a parent to know whether they should marry an individual person, but it is very clear to me when they should not marry an individual person. but it is very clear to me when they should And I say that, first of all, I'm 67 years old.
I've been around the block a few times.
And having the benefit of time and wisdom, you learn about people and the types of people.
Yes.
Your point about...
Knowing who's bad for you, but not necessarily who's right for you, I like that.
Looking at you with you, looking at me, it's always the same, it's just a shame, that's all.
Okay, all, Dennis Prager here, male, female hour, second hour every Wednesday.
The din in the background is the din of human voices, interacting with one another rather than with their cell phone.
There are, however, two men in the front row who are looking at their cell phones as I speak, completely oblivious to how offended I am by the fact that they are doing so.
And they consider themselves men of God.
It's truly a difficult moment for me.
Okay, everybody.
I'm at the National Religious Broadcasters Convention, and I spend a good deal of my time ribbing religious people, because I'm one of them.
Alright, here we are.
A male-female hour on do you tell your child if you object to their choice of spouse?
And do parents in general know better?
Anyway, the last caller made a very good point.
Parents may not know.
Really, it's a very intelligent point.
I want to salute that, man.
I love learning.
Really, I mean it.
I love it.
I think learning is the biggest high, maybe the biggest high in life.
And his point was excellent.
Parents may not know or friends may not know who the right person is for you.
But they are very capable of knowing who the wrong person is for you.
That was really, really good.
In fact, Sean, if you can somehow get in touch with that person, I will tell him that you'll be visiting him and bringing him a gift.
It's a very...
I love that.
It's a very great insight.
I agree with that.
I don't think people know who's good for someone.
You know how often people will think...
I'm telling you, I'm in love with that point.
Because so often you think, I love setting people up to get married.
It's a hobby of mine, getting people married.
It's actually, a hobby is too trivial.
It's a passion of mine to get people married.
But I never, ever assumed, I had not put two and two together like he did, but I never assumed I knew who's good for someone.
That's the reason, unless I have reason to think the person's a jerk, then obviously I won't set them up.
But otherwise, how do I know who's going to work out?
There's no way of knowing who will work out.
But there may be a way of knowing who won't work out.
That was good.
Holy crow.
That was worth the hour.
I mean, it's a really powerful insight.
Although, now having said that, and I obviously passionately agree with that assessment, You're still not guaranteed to be right.
As I said, my grandfather thought my father was the wrong choice for his daughter, my mother.
But here is a very important point.
Those of you who object to somebody, a future daughter-in-law, a future son-in-law, your friend's prospective wife or husband, you need to have a reason.
And my grandfather's reason that my father didn't earn enough money was a crappy reason.
Because my father, first of all, is the Depression.
Who made a lot of money in the Depression?
He was, in fact, employed.
And he was a go-getter.
My grandfather should have realized, as so many women realize, it's not what does he make now.
Is he ambitious?
In the best sense.
You know, not in a supercilious way, but does he want to make something of himself?
Women should have an instinct about that.
And so that was a wrong reason for my grandfather to object to my father.
That's why there are reasons, and if you have them and they're valid, Like, did you notice that he has a real temper?
You know, you may be so infatuated with him or her that you don't realize what the rest of us realize.
You know, you've got to walk on eggshells with this person.
Now, by the way, you may say, you know what, I so love him, I so love her, I'm okay with walking on eggshells, because when I'm not walking on eggshells, it's absolutely heaven.
Okay.
But if you do object, you better have a good reason.
It can't be a hunch.
Hello everybody, I'm Dennis Prager.
This is the Male Female Hour.
Every Wednesday, the second hour of my show, the din in the background is Human Interactions.
I'm at the National Religious Broadcasters Convention, and I'll be back in California tomorrow.
I want you to understand that as a sacrifice, I'm leaving a free state for a non-free state.
I'm going from Western Europe to behind the Iron Curtain on an airplane today, just like I did when I was a kid and visited communist countries.
It's an eerie feeling when you leave Florida for California.
Sad, sad, but true.
Anyway, the topic today is, do parents know better, or friends, that's fine, than you, but I've been telling more about parents, about who you should marry.
Or who one should marry.
It's a really fascinating issue, and I want to repeat the insight of a caller earlier that I thought was brilliant.
That people don't know who you should marry, but they are often right about whom you shouldn't marry.
That's a very good one.
And if they do object, those of you who object, you need good reasons.
Can't be a hunch, can't be a feeling, and then you have to give the reason.
You know, every three weeks he punches you.
There's a good reason.
Even if he treats you great the other two weeks and six days.
Okie doke.
Let's see.
New York City and Ricky, hello.
Hello.
Hi.
Hello.
Hi.
Thanks for taking my call, Dennis.
Thank you for calling.
Hello?
Yeah, I believe the parents do know.
I believe the parents do know who you should marry or not.
One of the reasons is by my experience, and I'm not going to be long, but my mother knew and saw bipolar traits in my ex and split personalities.
But I was crazy about her, and what happened was she got pregnant, and I wanted to be honored.
I love that.
One minute, one minute.
I want to revel in the passive voice.
She got pregnant.
Just out of curiosity, did you have anything to do with the pregnancy?
I'm not prying into your life, but she got pregnant is like the juice spilled.
Yes.
Okay, go ahead.
Yeah.
Yeah, and my mother saw bipolar traits.
I didn't know anything.
Did she?
Oh, I am curious.
Did your mother say this to you?
I see bipolar traits?
My mother, yes.
She was, you know, the old-time mother.
They knew.
You know, I don't know.
No, no, no.
I'm just curious.
Did she use that term?
Yes, she did.
Wow.
And used a schizophrenic term and bipolar term.
But I was crazy about the young lady and, you know, we, let's say we got pregnant.
And, you know, it turned the whole thing around because I came from a religious background and my father was like, you've got to do the honorable thing.
And we got married and my mother was right.
I went through hell and high water, divorced.
But three beautiful children came out of that.
Well, okay, so you've given me another subject for a male-female hour.
Wow.
And that is, it's a very interesting topic.
How many people who had a difficult or even bad marriage and ended up with terrific kids out of it?
And would they swap?
I understand that.
So, how long did you stay married to the bipolar schizophrenic?
18 years.
And then you turned bipolar and schizophrenic.
18 years.
That's the end of the story.
Yeah, the guy's nuts.
I'm speaking to a bona fide nut.
So you stayed together 18 years, and why did you stay together that long if she was that difficult?
Well, I thought that I would prove my mom wrong.
You know what?
This may be one of the greatest hours I have done on radio.
The answers I am getting from callers, I wanted to prove my mother wrong.
I have heard crappy reasons to stay married.
That is the crappiest.
I wanted to prove my mother wrong.
You didn't, did you?
That didn't work out.
No, I didn't.
Did you remarry, by the way?
Did you ever remarry?
No.
Why?
I don't understand.
You know what?
I'm doing that as another...
Another subject for a male-female hour.
The topic will be, why didn't you remarry?
I gotta talk about that, because I don't fully understand that.
My view of that is like, so you were in a car crash, and you'll never drive again?
That's how I look at that attitude.
A divorce is a car crash.
And it's not fatal, you didn't die.
But that's a great one.
I wanted to prove my mother wrong.
That is really priceless.
This has really been a gem today, I have to say.
But he got three great kids out of it.
So, you know, that's beautiful.
All right.
Anyway, thank you for that.
Let's see.
Where should I go?
Alaska, Texas, Pennsylvania, Florida.
Well, I'm in Orlando.
I'll take a call from Orlando.
Hello, Marsha.
Hello.
Hi, Dennis.
Thanks for taking my call.
I'm privileged to talk to you today.
Your what?
I'm sorry?
I said I feel privileged to talk to you today.
Oh, thank you.
That's very kind.
I don't hear compliments very well.
That's why I always have them repeated.
Oh, okay.
Hi, everybody.
Dennis Prager here, and this is the National Religious Broadcasters Annual Convention.
I think thousands of people are here.
This is the biggest Christian media convention of the year.
And I have, I've generally not been interviewing people because I wanted to have a regular show, but I have a gentleman here I'm going to talk to for a few minutes.
He's a Christian who is employed by the Israel Ministry of Tourism.
You're the Midwestern director, is that correct?
No, I am the PR director for the Midwest.
Oh, you're in PR. Yeah.
So can I trust you?
I hope so.
Oh, yeah, it's PR, not HR. Oh, okay, I trust you.
That's fine.
It's Ryan Talley.
Yeah.
How did you end up doing that, Mr. Talley?
Oh, wow.
It's a wild story.
I ended up in Israel.
Put the mic a little closer to you.
That's good.
Okay.
And raise it a little.
That's it.
Perfect.
Thank you.
I actually moved to Israel.
About a little over four years ago.
Really?
And I ended up getting a master's degree in tourism from Kinneret Academic College on the Sea of Galilee.
My wife and I moved.
We both got master's degrees in tourism.
You got a degree at the Sea of Galilee?
Yes.
You got a really rough life.
Oh man, it was so hard.
Oh boy, do I feel for you.
That's close to walking on water.
It's an amazing place.
The school's good.
The Sea of Galilee's amazing.
It was a wonderful experience.
So are you an Israeli citizen?
No.
So you're just there on a permit to...
Yeah, we did student visas.
Both you and your wife?
My wife, yeah.
Did you meet her there?
No, no.
We've been married for 13 years.
Do you have kids?
No kids, no.
So are you learning Hebrew?
I understand quite a bit, but I... So if I said the essence of effervescence is its quintessence in Hebrew...
Would you follow that?
I can barely follow that in English.
That was a good response.
Now, this guy's sharp.
That was a sharpness quotient question.
Okay, so are you enjoying your time in Israel?
I don't live there now.
Now I live in Chicago.
Oh, my God.
Hold on.
I traded the Sea of Galilee for Lake Michigan, but I'm working for the government, and I just feel blessed to be involved with anything Israel.
When you went there four years ago, was it with the intention of doing something with the Israeli government?
No.
Actually, I feel, the best way to explain it, I feel like I had a call from God.
And we just went.
We started going on tours.
And then the tour turned into us selling our house.
And making preparations to go to Israel and to do volunteer work.
And we ended up volunteering.
And as a result of finding a place where we volunteered at, we helped a wonderful lady run her bed and breakfast, who is an Israeli citizen.
And she...
Is she a Jew or a Christian?
Yes.
She is a...
That was a good one.
Yes.
Okay, a Hebrew Christian.
Yes.
Okay.
So, wait, is she Israeli?
Yes.
She's born in Israel?
She's born in America and made Aliyah.
Okay, interesting.
Okay, so you helped her bread and breakfast.
She actually had an NGO in Africa, and she actually worked in the Congo.
And she was doing humanitarian aid in the Congo, and so we were watching her house for her in Israel.
And as a result of that, that's where we found the college program, and we were able to...
So you felt a calling from God to go to Israel?
Yes.
Did you feel a calling from God to go to Chicago?
Yes, actually.
Wow.
One minute.
I have to really relish that for a moment, if you would.
I didn't want to go to Chicago.
A calling from God.
You need a calling from God to go to Chicago.
That's my belief.
Yeah, I didn't want to go to Chicago.
It wasn't my preference.
My preference was to go back to Israel somehow, some way.
But I don't live by my steps.
He appoints my path.
So how long are you with the Israeli Ministry of Tourism?
I'm new.
I've been just around two months.
I just started.
So I've only been back in...
So, forgive me.
That's okay.
Because our time is somewhat limited.
So what percentage of visitors to Israel would you say are Christian?
A lot.
Right now, probably, they would say 65%.
I think it's actually more, because there are a lot of people that go on trips that are not in Christian-categorized groups.
That's absolutely true.
By the way, folks, I'm taking a group, again, of listeners to Israel this fall.
Go to my website, dennisprager.com, and click on the link, Stand With Israel.
Aside from everything else, I'll be there and you'll meet great people.
Okay, final moments here with Matthew Talley, works for the Israel Ministry of Tourism here.
He's Christian, spent four years in Israel.
You got a degree, right?
I have my master's degree.
Wait, wait one second.
I don't know why this was turned down because we're not hearing you.
Go ahead, I'm sorry.
Yes, I got that.
Okay, I'm sorry.
Check.
Yeah, I'm not...
Yeah.
It's Matthew Ryan, but I go by my middle name.
Don't know why.
My whole family.
Oh.
So you're called Ryan Talley.
Yes.
Very nice.
I'll answer to whatever.
So about 65% more, you think, of the tourists to Israel.
You know, I have a very funny story about that.
How true.
I believe you're right.
Yeah.
Many years ago, it's not even recent, my brother and sister-in-law were visiting Israel.
We're Jews.
And my brother is and his wife is.
And she was on a flight.
They live in New Jersey.
They were on a flight from Tel Aviv to Newark.
And night flight, my sister-in-law leaves the lavatory and a woman waiting to go in just starts to talk to her and says, What church are you affiliated with?
And my sister-in-law says, well, actually we're Jewish and affiliated with the synagogue.
And the reaction was, oh, Jews visit Israel too?
Oh my goodness.
It's funny.
It's actually a funny and endearing story.
Because they were used to just seeing fellow Christians.
And that could have been.
When a Christian visits Israel, generally speaking, to the extent that you can generalize, are they overwhelmingly going to Christian sites, or is it 50-50, whatever, 60-40 of modern Israel as well?
Yes.
It's kind of hard to put a number on that because generally people first go on a group tour.
And then whenever they're going on a group tour, sometimes those tour operators put in areas in Tel Aviv.
I know my first trip, we went into Tel Aviv.
We did Independence Hall.
We got to see where the nation was born.
And we went to Ben-Gurion's house in Tel Aviv.
So we got to see some of the modern Israel because it was reborn.
In modern Israel.
Yep, that's exactly right.
I think that people should enjoy both.
Yes.
Whether it's a Jew going for the holy places of Judaism or not, anybody goes, it's too interesting, Israel.
And one should see it all.
Well, listen, I wish you good luck.
You've obviously followed your dreams, and it's really worked out.
Although you are in Chicago, so I won't continue on that.
I'll go wherever the Lord leads.
Yeah, well, that's apparently so.
Good luck, my friend.
You were a joy to meet.
Thank you.
Thank you, sir.
Folks, there's an interesting thing just sent to me by a truth committed listener and colleague.
California bill on youth mental health services distorted on social media.
This is an AP news item.
So it's sort of a truth, what do they call them, fact tracker of AP. Claim a proposed California bill would allow school mental health professionals to remove minors from the custody of their parents or guardians.
Who do not consent to the child receiving gender-affirming surgeries.
So, I went on to read this.
They say this is not true.
This claim is not true.
Everything has to be done with parental consent.
So, I've read most of this.
I didn't have the time to read this whole claim in AP. So, I have a question.
If you have to have parental consent to have any gender-affirming care if you're a minor in California, why is it a sanctuary state?
What does that mean?
Sanctuary state means you're a kid, you're a girl, you say you're a boy, you can't get gender-affirming care back in Alabama because it's a conservative state.
So you come to California and you can't get it either?
Does that make any sense?
So let me think.
The parents, I'm trying to really think this through because truth is more important to me than any other issue.
So let's say you're a kid in Alabama.
You want hormone blockers.
You're 14 years old.
You're 12 years old.
Your parents agree with you, but you can't get it in Alabama.
I get it.
Maybe that's it.
So you can get it in California, but only if your parents consent.
So it's a sanctuary state with parental consent.
That's what AP, I assume, is claiming.
I'm going to look into this because it's more important that I report to you what is true than anything else.
But it's hard for me to believe that a kid in California, forget even coming from another state, kid in California, girl says I'm a boy, my parents don't want me to have hormone blockers, and nobody will then give that child a hormone blocker?
Child runs away from home.
My parents don't understand me.
I'm going to kill myself.
That's the claim that they always make.
That you're playing with the possible suicide of your child if you block their transitioning.
And you won't be able to get hormone blockers in California if the parents don't agree?
I find that hard to believe.
Alright, my friends.
Take some calls and continue your listening to the Dennis Prager Show.
Last segment from Orlando, Florida.
Coming up.
Final segment from Orlando, Florida.
Tomorrow will be from California.
I was going to say home sweet home, but I knew the Lord would strike me down for lying.
It's home sweet home in the sense that my home is a sweet home.
But California is another issue.
Alright, let's see.
This is going to be, I think, a good one.
Jeff in Pasadena, California.
Hello.
Hello, Dennis.
Pleasure to speak with you.
Thank you.
Yes, I want to point out something.
If I may ask you, what's the natural color of flamingos?
Pink.
No.
Actually, the natural color of flamingos is white.
In the wild, they eat a pink shrimp, which goes to their feathers and makes them pink.
Now, flamingos in zoos, I worked as a zookeeper.
Can we afford fresh pink shrimp every day?
No.
So we made a synthetic, and every day, and this has been done in zoos for, I don't know how many years, we had red dye number three.
To the flamingo synthetic food to give them the pink color.
Now, how many...
Wait, wait, wait, wait.
So why aren't kids eating Skittles turning pink?
That's exactly why I'm calling.
None of our flamingos died of cancer or any red dye number three related disease.
But some died of laughter when they heard this report.
Yeah, well...
I just wanted you to know that...
I love that.
I said this would be a great call.
This refers to my earlier report to you folks that California is banning Skittles.
You have to understand that Democrats, a.k.a.
the left, believe that the more laws you pass...
Banning things in people's lives, the better a legislator you are.
I mean it sincerely.
This is not at all an exaggeration.
And that is why they win.
One of the many reasons.
Because they pass moral laws to either ban things that are unhealthy, so that's a beautiful party, or give you benefits.
And as I have said, and I do believe, I believe that free things, are more addictive than heroin.
It is easier to get off heroin than get off charity.
That's the way it works.
And they know that.
And that's the reason they win elections even when they're not cheating.
Well, it has been a joy to be here.
To the standing room only crowds sitting before me.
All eight of you.
I want to thank you.
Only one of you is here from the beginning, the great, awesome, saintly Glenn McGill, whom I pay good money to sit in my audience.
Dennis Prager here.
Thanks for listening to the Daily Dennis Prager Podcast.
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