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July 13, 2023 - Dennis Prager Show
01:22:39
Preserving Standards
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Dennis Prager here.
Thanks for listening to the Daily Dennis Prager Podcast.
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Subscribe at PragerTopia.com Hello, my friends.
Now we're in the middle of summer.
Hey, did they have the All-Star game?
Who won?
Who won, Sean?
Wow, the National League won.
Does the National League now have the designated hitter?
Have they adopted it?
Maybe that's the reason they got used to using that.
I mean, it's just speculation.
I don't like the idea.
The whole point of baseball.
Was that the pitcher, who almost never knows how to hit, was a...
Wednesday night was last night.
Okay, you're driving me crazy.
It was not intentional.
The whole point of baseball was that the manager and the team had to figure out a way to decide do we keep the pitcher in or not.
Since every player in baseball must bat as well as field.
And then they knocked it out because they thought the fans want to see more home runs.
It was not love of baseball.
It was love of revenue that the Major League Baseball changed one of the most important aspects of the game.
And it is just typical.
There is...
It's hard to find an institution that asks what is best for the larger entity, whether it's America or, in this case, baseball.
What is best for it?
They don't ask that.
See, that's why I saw some Internet place that cited me.
Dennis Prager, all his life, has been saying that There is a question to be asked.
It's the most important question.
How does society make good people?
Because you chip away at its foundations one by one by one by one.
And people don't react.
A lot of fans even like the rule.
But oh good, the pitcher could stay in and we just have a guy who does nothing but hit.
That's just great.
It's fun.
What's better?
There's an article today, actually, that sort of represents exactly what I'm saying in the Telegraph in Britain.
Couples who decided dual income and no kids, too good to give up.
Britain isn't having enough babies, and now the state pension is under threat.
Yes, that's exactly right.
Who's having babies in the Western world?
It's disproportionately religious people.
Religious Christians and Jews, and for that matter, Muslims.
Religious people are having babies.
But hey, religion doesn't make people do anything better.
Nah, who needs religion?
I have me.
So people don't ask what's better for society, they ask what's better for themselves.
Every aspect of life, but they're all, as I said, small, so they don't alarm people.
I've spoken about the question of how people dress in public all of my life.
And by the way, in this regard, religious people are generally not any better.
God doesn't care what you wear to church.
Many wonderful people have called my show over the course of decades to tell me that.
God doesn't care.
I don't even understand the notion.
God doesn't care what you wear to church.
Really?
Well, maybe we should care.
Why did people dress up in the past?
Because it was a way of honoring your fellow citizen and honoring your society.
In other words, it represented the larger question, what's better for not me?
It's easier for me to dress utterly casually.
But what is better for society?
It's better for society if you marry and have children.
It is better for society if you dress nicely, whether it's at school or at church or at the office or even on an airplane.
Men walking on, grown men in t-shirts and shorts.
Whenever I see that, I ask myself, can I imagine my father going out in public in a t-shirt and shorts?
Not talking to the beach, not talking about, obviously, at home, going on an airplane?
And now it seems to almost, not almost everybody, but to, I would say, a majority of people, including Conservatives.
That I'm sort of tilting at windmills here.
It doesn't really matter.
These are not big issues.
They're representative issues.
That's what they are.
What is good for the society?
It is good for the society if you put out an American flag on a national holiday.
Vast numbers of Americans don't do so.
And that's all thoughts based on designated hitter.
So now I'm going to ask Sean.
Sean, do you like the designator-hitter rule?
I bet you do.
And you can say it.
You don't mind it.
He understands my argument.
What's the one positive?
I know.
Okay.
It allows players past their prime to stay in the game because they can field, they can't really run, but they can hit.
Right.
Why would I want that other than it's fun to watch good players continue to play?
Right.
So it's fan-oriented.
It's not baseball-oriented.
That was exactly my point.
Anyway, it's fun to see a home run, but why don't you have every player as a designated hitter?
Why just pitcher?
Why should the shortstop, if he's not a good hitter, have to hit?
Why don't we extend it?
We'll have nine fielders and nine hitters.
I'd like to know what the answer to that question is, actually.
Why, given that fact?
Yep.
Well, anyway, welcome to the show.
There is a lot going on on Earth.
They still don't know who the cocaine...
No, they've given up.
They've given up.
They've given up.
So, by the way, I believe they're lying, because they are lying.
There's very little doubt in my mind.
If it were the Trump White House, they would know within a day.
But aside from that, if they're telling the truth, that's even more worrisome.
The Secret Service cannot tell who brought in an illegal substance into the White House?
So I'm supposed to derive some comfort from that?
Every institution has deteriorated, shall we say.
Okay.
I mentioned to you, and a lot of you are writing to me, so I'm going to mention the name of the book.
It's Bill O'Reilly's wonderful series.
This is Killing the Rising Sun.
The last days of World War II in the Pacific and against Japan.
Japan when I mentioned to you the staggering evils that the Japanese committed against Koreans, Chinese, and Filipinos, among others.
So it's called Killing the Rising Sun.
And I'm well through the book.
The O'Reilly series is truly readable.
And I believe he has no axe to grind other than to teach the reader history.
I would like somebody to be aware.
Of the number of Japanese and Americans that would have died if there would have been an invasion of Japan without the atom bomb.
I really do.
I wonder if they're aware of that.
Do you know that children were taught how to strap bombs on themselves and lie under a tank?
An American tank?
1-8 Prager 776. The Dennis Prager Show.
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Brett Stephens has a column up at the New York Times.
On behalf of free speech.
It's a good, fine column.
If you don't defend what you don't like, free speech is meaningless, which is exactly the point.
That's why it's very scary how the Democratic Party, like all leftists since the French Revolution, suppressed free speech.
It's the first thing they do.
To give you an idea of how bad it is, even among liberals, But not nearly as much as among leftists.
You know what I do often?
I look at the comments on any given article.
Not just my own.
Any given article.
And then what I click on in the New York Times is Reader's Picks.
Or in other places it's Popular.
I click on that.
You can click on Newest, Oldest, Most Popular.
I believe those are your three choices.
I click on Most Popular.
I want to see what other readers like.
So listen to the most popular comment on the New York Times' Bret Stephens' column defending free speech.
John in San Carlos, California.
Where is San Carlos?
Do you know?
I was just curious.
It doesn't matter.
Famously yelling fire in a crowded theater is not considered free speech.
So, is actively distributing misinformation that is clearly harmful to public health and safety not similar?
Why should we protect people who are doing the harm instead of people who are being harmed?
634 recommends.
They're all subscribers to the New York Times.
The second most popular comment has 300-something.
It is almost twice number two.
This is what New York Times readers support.
The government says it's misinformation.
Suppress it!
There is no difference between the American left and the communists of the Soviet Union.
There is no difference with regard to freedom.
The entire left is communist in terms of morality, values, and liberty.
They are.
This is a perfect example.
The government says misinformation if the government is Soviet or the government is Democrat Party U.S. You suppress it.
Or New Zealand.
If you do not hear it from the government, it is not true.
That woman is now teaching at Harvard.
Along with Lori Lightfoot.
Gives you an idea of where Harvard is descending.
Harvard now has more administrators than it does students.
And way more.
Probably twice as much as faculty.
More than twice as much.
It is amazing how it doesn't disturb most liberals that the people they vote for are for suppressing speech.
But you hear it.
This is it.
The most popular comment on Bret Stephens' article.
If you spread misinformation, like what, for example?
What did he have in mind?
That lockdowns are pernicious.
That children shouldn't be masked.
That children should be allowed to school.
All of that was declared by the left as lies, misinformation, disinformation.
So I asked the entire time, is the Swedish government lying to its people?
They let kids in school the entire time.
The entire time kids under 16 were allowed in school.
You're yelling fire in a crowded theater if you're against mandates.
Well, look at what the neo-communist who runs Canada did during the truckers.
When truckers were told you will be fired if you do not get vaccinated, shut down their bank accounts.
And the average Canadian yawned.
The human species is not created with a particular yearning to be free.
Their particular yearning, as I have so often said, is to be taken care of.
And guess what?
They're mutually exclusive.
At a certain point of being taken care of, you have in fact traded in your freedom.
To be fair, listen to the number two most popular comment on Bret Stephens' article in the New York Times.
It is the name of the guy.
They all have a name.
It was John, the most popular.
Traditional Western liberal.
Chagrin Harbor, Washington.
Long, long ago I thought of myself as a Rockefeller-style Republican.
By the way, for those of you who don't know what that means, it means you stand for nothing.
That's what it means.
I would like to ask this guy, what does that mean even?
What is a Rockefeller-style Republican?
Where is your stance on any given issue?
Anyway, it doesn't matter.
With the advent of the Tea Party and its malignant successor, by the way, he spells it's I-T apostrophe S. Do you know how painful that is for me to see?
Do people learn anything at school?
If you don't know the difference between it's with an apostrophe and without, do you understand your ignorance of English?
One is it is and one isn't?
Anyway, I'll read to you the rest of this comment back in a moment.
I'll read to you the rest of this comment.
It's why I mentioned him by name.
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So, Brett Stevens has written this article on behalf of free speech in the New York Times, which does not support free speech. - That's not an opinion.
That's a fact.
So, I read the comments on the article.
The most popular comment was, if you disagree with the government, it's like yelling...
That's the most popular comment on the New York Times, number one.
But not all readers feel that way, so listen to Rico in Boulder, Colorado.
At John.
John was the man with the most popular tweet.
What is misinformation?
And who decides on that?
As a liberal, I find it disgusting that we can't have a discussion about things like the vaccine or trans issues without being called a conspiracy theorist or a bigot.
I have no respect for liberals crying about free speech.
Okay, now folks, I now met somebody I would answer the question to.
I'm periodically asked by callers, Dennis, if you could have lunch or dinner with anyone in the world, who would it be with?
I have an answer now.
Rico in Boulder, Colorado.
And do you know what I would ask him?
You know what I would ask him.
So Rico, since you're disgusted by liberals who smear rather than answer and who suppress free speech, whom do you vote for?
Well, as a New York Times subscriber living in Boulder, Colorado, the odds that he votes Democrat, and only Democrat, are about 10,000 to 1. So he's disgusted by liberals who do what he's described.
Say you're dealing in misinformation.
We'll call you a bigot if you don't want kids' breasts, girls' breasts cut off when they're in their teen years.
I don't want them cut off when they're in their 20s either, to be honest.
And it has no effect.
He's disgusted, but he won't vote.
The disgust will not translate into a vote.
Because to these people, to the vast majority of liberals who are disgusted by the left, they are more disgusted by Republicans.
Not by Trump, okay?
They're not exactly DeSantis voters, or Vivek Rawaswamy voters, or Larry Elder voters, or Tim Scott voters.
They're not those voters either.
Okay?
So don't give me this nonsense, oh, well, I just can't vote for Trump, but otherwise, oh, yeah, really?
Maybe.
Maybe.
I think that there is a segment of the population, but I have no idea how big, who would vote for a Republican other than Donald Trump.
However, is it offset?
This is not an argument, it's a question.
How many Republicans would sit home if Trump were not the nominee versus people who are not Republicans who would vote for Republican if Trump were not the nominee?
The very fact that I even asked the question fills me with sadness.
That there are Republicans who would not vote for another Republican other than Donald Trump?
Maybe it's not true.
Maybe I'm making it up.
Not because I want to say a fib, but because it just may be a fear and not a reality.
Is there a percentage of Republicans that would not vote for anyone other than Donald Trump?
Do you believe that they exist?
I believe they don't.
Yeah, I do too.
So my view, my friends, is very simple.
I have an equal amount of disrespect for the never-Trumpers as for the only Trumpers.
Neither asks what's best for America.
One asks only how do we get rid of Trump, and the other asks only how do we elect Trump.
And I thought he was a great president.
For the record, as you may recall, my passionate defense of him for four years.
1-8 Prager 776 we return.
My producer will enjoy the following point.
Okay.
There is a new book out called Lincoln's God.
Have you seen that?
Yeah.
So it interests me.
Lincoln's God, meaning what were Lincoln's religious views?
And I found it interesting that the New York Times, which doesn't give a crap about Lincoln's God, would review the book.
The God of the New York Times is the editors of the New York Times.
So, here is a line from the review, which is, I know the left as well as I know my family, so I completely was not surprised.
But I want you to hear this line from the New York Times reviewer of the book, Lincoln's God.
In an age when the adjective godless is hurled about to score political points, it is a healthy restorative to remember just how deeply this former infidel thought about his place in creation.
In an age when the adjective godless is hurled about to score political points, All my friends, from the moment I read anything other than see, spot, run, I heard the left mock people who spoke about godless communism.
They still mock it.
They think that godless is a joke.
That anyone who uses the term as the writer in the New York Times writes, that's what he thinks.
In an age when the adjective godless is hurled about to score political points, that's why people use the term godless, to score political points.
Not because godless matters.
To the New York Times book reviewer, godless is a joke.
Godless, schmodless.
My column this week was on the adults who don't speak to their parents, ever.
A point I made, a lot of points, but one of them is, it is the cruelest thing that most of these people will do to anyone in their life.
They will never match the cruelty.
That they exhibit by not speaking to a parent.
But one of the other points was, if you don't like your parents, there are a lot of you out there.
That doesn't justify never talking to them.
Those of us who believe that God said, Honor your father and your mother, the fifth of the Ten Commandments, do not ask, Do we like our parents?
That's it.
We can ask it, but it has no effect on whether or not we observe the commandment, which at the very least means...
Do not inflict the greatest possible cruelty you can on a parent, never talking to them.
I think that to a certain extent it is worse than your child dying.
Not to let your parents see their grandchildren, for example.
Unless your parent is a...
A horrific, sadistic child abuser.
That's about as cruel a thing as a human being can do and not get arrested.
So does Godless, dear New York Times reviewer, Godless really is a joke?
It's thrown around for political...
What is his word?
To score political points.
Oh, really?
You know why he thinks that?
Because he's a New York Times reviewer.
And they think that godless means nothing.
The death of God to them is a political scorecard.
That's it.
That's all it is.
It doesn't mean anything.
The shallowest institutions of our society are godless.
They're called universities.
Do you know of a more shallow intellectual institution than the university?
Can you name one?
Do you know that I'm testifying next week in the Arizona State House?
Are you aware of that?
Yeah?
I won't be on on Tuesday.
I will be in Phoenix.
I'm testifying on Arizona State University's lowlifes, professors.
The intellectual lightweights, the thugs who teach their children at Arizona State.
37 professors write that I'm a white nationalist because I came to speak and they don't like my views.
They don't even know my views.
They have no clue.
So I'll be in Arizona at the Statehouse.
The emptiness of the university, the emptiness of secular life.
And the guy writes, godless is a term thrown around to score political points.
Yep, that was a nice pick.
That's the way they think.
I've reported to you on a couple of occasions, but with no depth, 40% of Brown University students say they are LGBT. Suggesting the Washington Examiner writes, social contagion.
Suggesting.
That's great.
That is, shall we say, the understate of 2023. Suggesting social contagion.
Right, we've gone from 3% to 40% in a couple of years.
You think it's social contagion?
New survey data from Brown University Student Newspaper provides further evidence that this is social pressure.
Back in a moment.
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Hello everybody, I'm Dennis Prager.
Do you know, for years, I would do one show a year on a subject about which I am very passionate, adoption.
And it was about blood as well as adoption.
How important is blood?
I, for one, have never been a blood fan.
As I have said very often, I am much more interested in passing on my values to my children than passing on my seed.
When you think about it, the odds are you think that way too, but you probably haven't thought about that.
Many people think that blood is really important.
What do they say?
Blood is thicker than what is the...
than what?
Than water.
What does that even mean?
Blood is thicker than water.
That we value blood more than we value water?
Yeah, but you can't live without water.
It's a little absurd.
Blood is thicker than water?
Okay.
I think that's died.
You don't hear that anymore.
And it should be buried.
Blood is thicker than water.
Okay, doesn't matter.
So I've been making the argument for decades the importance of adoption, the beauty of it, the importance of it, based on my belief that it doesn't really matter.
The blood issue is quite overrated.
Anyway, the blood issue is very problematic in and of itself.
If you have a biological child, and for the record, I have one of each, if you have a biological child, it's only half you anyway.
There's no such thing as a full biological you, unless you're cloned.
In which case it's theoretically you.
So I have a question for you.
And I've never actually done this.
I've always been, when I've talked about the subject, advocative of adoption.
That, incidentally, is certainly relevant to the abortion issue.
Giving birth and enabling the child to live.
And to be loved by another couple is about as beautiful a thing as a human can do.
But the issue I want to raise with you is this.
If you are adopted, or you have adopted, I'd like you to call in and tell me how that has worked out for you.
1-8 Prager 776-877-243-7776 I have no preconceived notions.
I'm simply asking a question.
How has it worked out for you?
If you adopted a child and or if you yourself were adopted.
Incidentally, that should be Further refined, because it's not the same thing when you are adopting a newborn and adopting, let's say, a five-year-old.
You have no idea what happened the first five years, which may have figured in to what may be the person who he or she is.
So I think, not I think, I was going to say I think I should confine the calls to adoption at birth, but I won't.
However, I will always ask you, at what age was the child that you adopted adopted, or at what age were you adopted?
How has it worked out for you?
Who cannot conceive for whatever medical reason they cannot conceive.
I don't know what percentage, but a certain percentage of people will not adopt a child and would prefer not to have a child than to adopt a child.
They are afraid of how the child will grow up.
Is there a...
Greater percentage of troubled, adopted children than biological children.
It is a subject that is filled with emotion.
1-8 Prager 776. I'll take your calls after I tell you an anecdote.
Happened on the show.
One of the years that I did my annual Values Over Blood issue pro-adoption arguments, and a man called up and he said, Dennis, I always agree with you.
I don't think he was in almost, except in this case.
And he explained that his parents were Holocaust survivors.
Their entire families were murdered by the Nazis.
Both the parents had children.
And all their children were murdered.
I am their only blood relative.
Do you understand why blood might be important, having heard my story, Dennis?
So, I was very moved, obviously.
And then I said, I'd like you to call your parents after we hang up, and I'd like you to ask them this question.
Since obviously your parents are Jewish, ask them, would they prefer to have a blood-slash-biological child who wanted nothing to do with Judaism?
Or Israel, or being Jewish, or an adopted child who wanted to carry on the faith.
And he didn't have to call them.
The answer was self-evident.
So even to people who had had their entire families erased from...
From the world, it was obvious that values are more important than blood.
But that doesn't mean it always works out, whether it's for you, or as an adoptee, or for your parents, or for the parents who are adopters.
okay let's see so let me say to Leslie in Palos Verdes California please call in the next hour I I would love to take a call, but it's not about this subject.
So please, please do call next hour.
And likewise, let's see, Lee in San Bernardino, California.
So folks, I'll remind my screener, we're only taking calls on...
From people who were adopted or who did adopt.
How has it worked out?
And my agenda, when I do this, my agenda is just to learn.
You know where I stand.
I'm very pro-adoption, but I always put truth before my conviction.
If a disproportionate number of adoptions...
It didn't work out in the sense that it was a very troubled child, which might well be for whatever reason, then I'm curious to hear about that.
Okay, let's see.
So this is adopting that.
She was adopted.
Let's see.
All right, Kathleen in Dallas, Texas.
Hello.
Hello, can you hear me?
I can.
I have such a great story.
I was adopted.
I knew I was adopted very young.
And I grew up, though, with not a very good adoptive family.
Pretty much when I was 18, I left.
And my father hasn't spoken to me since.
My adoptive father, my adoptive mother, has since died.
And when I became 30 years old, a roommate of mine talked me into finding my birth mother.
So we called the agency because I did have the paperwork, and I met my birth mother literally over the phone within just a couple days.
She had apparently been looking for me for 20 years.
All right, hold on, hold on.
We're going to keep everybody in suspense.
Back in a moment.
So I'm devoting this hour to the question, how has adoption worked out in your life if you adopted a child?
Or if you yourself were adopted, I believe it is one of the most wonderful things in the human condition, adoption.
A child needs stability, love, family, more than a child needs blood.
Okay, Kathleen, back to you.
So you didn't have a particularly wonderful family.
They adopted you.
At birth, you were adopted at birth, is that correct?
Yeah, I was about three days old.
And so it was right from the beginning.
My parents adopted myself and my older sister because my mother, my adoptive mother, couldn't have children.
And when she found out she actually could and she was pregnant, that's where everything kind of took a different turn.
I was the middle child and it just didn't go well.
As a matter of fact, I haven't had contact with my adoptive family in probably 20 to 30 years now.
Now, I've reached out many, many times just to say hello, heck, just to see if they're alive.
I know my adoptive mom has passed away.
So no relationship there at all.
Gotcha.
So go on.
So at 30 years old, my roommate suggested I meet my birth mother.
And we did the researching.
It didn't take that long.
Apparently, she had been looking for me for 20 years.
And the agency got us in touch with each other because they back then, I mean, I'm 58 years old, so back then they kept all that secret.
And they connected me with my mother.
We got on the phone.
She was elated.
She told the whole family.
And one thing led to another.
We talked on the phone for about a year.
And I was now in my early 30s.
She was turning 50. And because we'd been talking...
We surprised her where I flew to where she was at and met her, but her husband knew all about it, so he set the whole thing up, and my whole family, probably 30, 40 people, were there to meet me and greet me, and we have been so tight ever since that my daughter that I had at the late age of 40 only knows them as her grandparents.
She only knows my brothers as her uncles because the adoptive family who's dropped off the face of the planet.
And me and my mother, we talk probably at least three or four times a week as we have for years.
And I don't know that that's so much blood is thicker than water.
I think it was just the circumstances that she was looking for.
That's right.
Exactly.
Exactly.
That's correct.
And I was looking for her.
Well, I'm very happy for you to say the least.
You know, as I pointed out in my article about a passionate cause in my life about kids who don't speak to their parents, in most cases it's an act of disgraceful cruelty.
And in those cases, 99% of the time, it's blood.
They're not talking to their blood parents.
Well, look, it's a beautiful story.
I don't understand the adoptive family, but...
The human condition is a messy one.
So there is really no conclusion to be drawn, which to her credit, she pointed out as well.
It just worked out beautifully, and I'm very happy for all concerned that it did.
Okay, let's see here.
Yvette in San Diego, hello.
Hi, Dennis.
I've been listening a long time.
I do have an adoptive daughter.
We adopted her at birth, and it has been the best thing that we can imagine.
Unfortunately, she has medical issues, and that's been a drain on our family.
And she did find her birth parents and has had a mix.
Review with that.
At first it was wonderful.
She has a full sister that she was unaware of and her birth mother gave her up at birth and we adopted her immediately.
So we've had her forever and she is almost 26 now and it's been wonderful.
Well, it obviously was, and I thank you for calling.
See, I wonder, given the strained relations between so many parents and children, I'm talking about blood parents, biological parents, I wonder if there's a difference in percentage-wise strained relations between non-blood children and blood children.
I have no idea.
That's part of the reason that I'm doing this hour, is to at least anecdotally establish something.
Reading, California, and Robert, hello.
Yes, this is Robert.
Hello.
Hi.
How are you, Dennis?
Well, thank you.
Good.
Glad to hear it.
I was very saddened by your first caller on the subject matter, the woman who was a dog family didn't work out for her.
That gives me grief.
As I told your screener, I have three sons, all of whom have been adopted, all at birth.
And all I can say is that it's been a fantastic benefit to my life.
I don't think I've ever grown so much or had such a wonderful experience raising these boys.
The first one was a little bit difficult.
But he's now doing extremely well.
And the second two are twins, and they're coming along very, very well.
I'm very proud of them both.
Well, it's good to hear.
And I want people to hear this who think, oh, it's, you know, they think a lot of things.
A lot of people who hesitate adopting think the chances are greater that something will go wrong.
I don't know the answer to that.
Because people don't know the background.
For example, the pregnant mother might well have been drug addicted, which was the case with my child, for example, my second child.
And that can have an effect.
He's terrific today.
But there were struggle years.
Nevertheless, it was...
Given to me that it was one of the greatest things I could possibly do.
For him, for me, and turned out, I thank God every day, turned out great.
Or others, some people think, well, you can't really love and adopt a child the way you do a biological child.
That's the bizarrest one.
I knew that.
Before I adopted, that was nonsense.
You hold a child in your arms, you love it.
And if it's your child, you really love it.
Adoption is the subject...
Were you adopted?
Did you adopt?
How's it worked out?
Okay, let's see here.
Alright, so now, Mark in Michigan adopted his grandson, so that doesn't count here.
It's beautiful that you did.
It's just, I'm going to let you go.
Oh!
Yes, so...
I don't think he was referring to me.
I think he was marveling.
I think he's watching some baseball highlights.
But as it happens.
So that's not what I'm referring to.
Where you're adopting blood...
Is not what I'm looking for.
Where it's non-blood.
Because my point is that blood doesn't matter.
That's the key.
Anyway, alright.
Let's see.
Paula in McAllen, Texas.
Hello.
Hello.
Hi.
I have three adopted children that are now grown.
We adopted all three of them at birth, miraculously, and I cannot imagine loving anything anymore.
Well, you wouldn't.
You wouldn't.
That's the point.
Right.
People who think that, they don't know.
There's an ignorance that explains this bizarre notion, oh, I don't think I could love.
A child that isn't blood-related as much as a blood-related.
Forgive me for one second, Paula.
I just want to note to people, how much do most people love their dog?
The answer is an incredible amount.
Most people are not blood-related to their dog.
Is that fair to say?
So, if you can love your dog with the love that you do, imagine how you can love a child with the love that you do.
Anyway, go ahead.
My goal, we adopted with open adoption, which was very scary when we did it, because that means you have identifying information on both sides.
Came to know my birth mothers, especially in those early days, and what tremendous sacrifice they made.
And so I want to shout out to anyone who is brave enough to place their babies for adoption because it is probably the most sacrificial, loving thing that they do maybe in their lifetime.
I came to love them.
I never wanted my children to know the day they found out they were adopted, nor did I ever want them to know, to remember the day they met their birth mother.
We did not have constant contact with them, but it was unique.
And with adopting all three, I've actually realized how much genetically they reflect their genetics, no matter what the other three.
You mean temperamentally or physically?
Temperamentally.
Temperamentally, they're made up of a lot of preferences that they have, personalities that they have.
You know, I no longer can say how much is environment and how much is genetic because they both play a power.
Yeah, I always say they're both 100%.
I'm with you.
But I come down, well, I was just going to say I come down on the side of nurture.
I mean, if you look at...
What I reported last hour, 45% of Brown University students say they're LGBTQ. That's not genetic.
That's environmental.
In the vast majority of cases, not at all.
Well, the open adoption issue is a very interesting one.
I should do an hour on that.
How has that worked out?
But when she said that it was the greatest thing that a person could do, give their child up for adoption, exactly right.
Yet so many women would prefer to abort them.
I'd like you to come with me.
The subject this hour is adoption.
I am a big fan of it.
I think my argument about loving people's dogs, how much people love their dog, should answer the argument, oh, can I really love a non-blood baby?
Like a blood one.
I laugh because the question is so silly.
The second your child is your child.
You love it.
That's the way it works.
I have one of each.
I'm in a rare position.
So I can tell you how true that is.
All righty.
Let's see here.
Let's get an adoptee.
Yep.
Jeff, Palos Verdes, California.
Hello.
Yes, sir, Dennis.
Can you hear me?
I can.
Big fan, first of all.
A little nervous.
I've never called in.
Oh, well, that's understandable.
You sound great, though.
Go ahead.
So, anyhow, my story is my sister and I were both adopted from Richmond, Virginia, probably at the age of three to five months.
And then my parents are my parents.
You know, I mean, they're not blood.
But, yeah, and at some point in my early...
Late 20s, maybe.
I did a hard-pressed search for them.
My sister had no interest to look for her biological, who are different than my biological.
And I did, and my dad had saved some information, a copy of the live birth certificate, which was sealed and vaulted for Virginia state law at that time.
But I ended up going to the home for unwed mothers and spoke to a lady across a desk, who I was later convinced.
Knew my biological mother, but for certain laws and restrictions, she could only spoon-feed me the information.
I got to a certain point where I was very close, but then got a call from my dad, who had no...
He was indifferent to me finding her, my biological mother at that point, and said, your mother does not understand why.
It can't grasp the concept of why, and is hurt.
And that was it.
You know, for me, I just...
Oh, that's fascinating.
That's fascinating.
You stopped the search because it might hurt the parents you love.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So, that's really, it's a very touching story, actually, and shows the bond you had with them.
I, with regard to my child, the one who was adopted at birth, Much later in his 20s, he was curious to meet his birth mother.
And they did, and there's nothing to report.
I was like your dad.
I was indifferent.
I didn't encourage it, and I didn't discourage it.
I wanted him to do what he wanted.
And it turned out to be, I don't know.
I don't know if nothing burger is the appropriate term.
I understand what you're saying.
In my case, the only reason I really did want to seek that out is because my biological parents had given me so many opportunities living overseas all over the world in the Middle East and in Africa and moving every two years.
They gave me experiences that I would have never had before.
Possibly, say, riding horses and playing the piano and all these things I was allowed to do because they had the ability to afford them for me.
And I was a natural at doing certain things, and I couldn't understand why.
And then there were other parts of me, bad parts of me, that I think that I couldn't understand either.
And as I did that dig and I listened to that lady at the home, Frontwood Mother, she knew certain things about my dad.
Daddy went to Vietnam and was drafted.
He was a little bit of a pool shark, a card hustler in a certain town in the mountains in the Blue Ridge.
My mom, her parents rode horses.
They farmed tobacco and raised horses.
So there were certain things that I could understand DNA that I got from that meeting, and that was enough for me.
Fascinating.
Well, you're a good man.
You really are.
I enjoyed hearing from you.
Hmm.
I have another theory of...
That's my life is theories.
I have another theory.
I don't know if this is true, but I believe this, but I do not know this to be a fact.
So I'm not saying I know it.
I say I believe it.
I believe that despite what you just heard, more often...
Girls will go on a search for birth parents than boys.
Because I think girls have an instinct that who carried them was important, whereas boys don't carry.
They don't think in those terms.
I think that that's accurate, but as I said, I can't prove it.
I also ask myself, if I were adopted, let's say my parents had said to me, Let's say when I was 20, Dennis, we just think you ought to know that you were adopted at birth.
So there's no way I could know how I would react.
My instinct is that I would have thought, huh, that is really interesting.
And then continue doing what I was doing.
It's just a suspicion.
There was no possible way I could know.
Would I go on a search?
If I did, it wouldn't be for love or human connection.
It would be out of sheer curiosity if I did.
So I think about it.
I want to repeat what I said before the last break.
That is a major, major act of goodness.
If you're pregnant, not to abort, but to give to people to love.
How can anybody argue against that?
We shall return.
Hello everybody, Dennis Prager here, and doing an interesting, I don't know if the word experiment is right, but I guess it's right, with Julie Hartman with me on the third hour of shows now.
And I have been loving it.
Julie and I do a broadcast called Dennis and Julie each week, which is as wonderful a...
Broadcasting situation as I've ever been in.
It brings out parts of me that I, and I'm very open, and still it brings out so much more.
Anyway, it's really the show, but now, at least this hour, with Dennis and Julie, but different from the podcast, so hi, Julie.
Hey, Dennis.
Shalom, I should say.
Yes.
Julie loves to say shalom.
You know how I know when I am...
This is going to crack you up, Julie.
I'm going to crack up almost everybody listening.
So how do I know if I'm talking to a Jew or a non-Jew?
If they say shalom, it's a non-Jew.
Well, you got it right with me.
Exactly.
Well, yeah.
Well, Shalom, if you're Israeli, it's said.
If you're not Israeli, then the non-Jew rule that I just said applies.
But in Israel, people who speak Hebrew will of course say Shalom.
It's hello, it's goodbye, it's hello, it's peace.
Peace.
And some people think it also means broccoli quiche.
Yeah, it's very odd.
I'll have my Shalom, please.
With some garlic bread.
Okay.
You know what?
I'm telling you, I flip out in her presence.
It's troubling.
It is troubling.
So anyway, on a totally serious note, so listen to this.
One of my least favorite Americans.
It takes a lot for me to dislike you.
People I'm not fans of, but...
Megan Rapinoe, the soccer player, I can honestly say I have deep disdain for that woman.
I think she is a blot in our society.
So the latest is, Megan Rapinoe backs male athletes competing against women and slams transphobic critics.
So here is a woman in women's sports who is undermining women's sports.
And so why am I even raising this?
Because she is of no interest to me.
She's a very big U.S. women's soccer star.
I can't say I root for her.
There are a lot of teams I find it difficult to root for.
My own Los Angeles Dodgers I find it hard to root for because values are more important than those things to me.
So, sure, she was the co-captain of America's national women's soccer team.
Asked whether she would welcome a transgender woman on the U.S. women's soccer team, even if that woman took the place of someone assigned female at birth.
By the way, why does anybody who does not sign on to transgenderism use the term assigned at birth?
No, no.
That is a phony term.
I was not assigned male at birth.
I was born male.
That is the way people should say it.
Only assigned at birth.
You're assigned to a dorm room.
Yes, you're assigned a name.
Yes.
My name assigned at birth was Dennis.
I agree.
But I wasn't assigned a sex.
You know, we see a lot of people now who claim to support women and claim to say that we live in a misogynistic society, and yet they are allowing people who dress up as women to steal women's trophies.
I mean, you couldn't even make it up.
It's the same way that people who proclaim to care about causes pertaining to black people also support these crazy things happening in schools, like the Oregon Department of Education saying that finding one right answer in math is white supremacy.
If you really cared about the education of black children, the first thing that you would do is uproot some of those crazy theories and teach hard skills.
But as you say, Dennis, many of these individuals just use the group name.
To get themselves in a position of power.
That's right.
They don't care about the things that they claim to.
I learned that because of my study of leftism.
Communists didn't give a damn about workers.
They spoke in their names.
The NAACP, I really believe, does not care about colored people.
They care about their power.
They care about the Democratic Party.
They care about leftism.
It is almost universal.
They speak in the name of a group that they use for their own power, prestige, and incomes.
So anyway, listen to this.
So here's my punchline with Megan Rapinoe, who has now said she's absolutely fine with biological males competing in women's sports, which is an astonishing, horrible view.
It's morally indefensible.
So sure enough, thanks to my files of research that I've done over the years, I looked up her name in my files.
This is from June 30th, 2019. So that's four years ago, almost exactly four years ago.
And Donald Trump was president, right?
So listen to this.
Earlier in the week, Rapinoe said in an interview with 8x8 that she's not going to the effing White House if the team won the cup.
So for the co-captain of a U.S. team to call the White House effing...
Because she doesn't like...
Can you imagine me saying that with Biden?
And I hate Biden as much as she hates Trump.
So, why am I noting this?
Almost everyone is a package.
The fact that she supports men competing in women's sports, it's...
Almost inevitable that I know every position this woman will take.
Right?
It shouldn't be.
But isn't it true?
I'll tell you, I was driving to work today, and there was a guy who on the back of his truck had a big American flag.
And so I sped up to him.
Which is probably a little dangerous.
But I went up to him and I waved.
And he saluted at me.
And I saluted at him.
And you know what?
In that one exchange, we knew everything that the other person thought.
I knew that he would vote for Trump.
He knew that I would vote for Trump.
I knew that he believes in God.
He knows that I believe in God.
I know that he believes that there are men and women and that's it.
And he knows that I believe the same thing.
So it just reminded me...
Right.
So here is the question.
Why is it always a package?
Okay, let me be more precise.
Almost always.
So, I know Megan Rapinoe's position on capital punishment.
Yes, you do.
I've never heard her even hint at it, but I know it.
Well, because now we're so segregated and so different in our political beliefs that if you have one belief, then it is assumed that you have a whole host of others.
Right, but why does it go that way?
And by the way, this is not a rhetorical question.
I am curious why, if you listed ten subjects, I'll bet you I could predict Megan Rapinoe correctly on nine of the ten.
Just knowing that she thinks that men should compete against women in women's sports.
Capital punishment, socialized medicine.
What does that have to do theoretically with socialized medicine, right?
So why does it always go...
Do you have a thought?
Because I have been struggling with this.
Nietzsche would say that we are all herd animals.
And he may be right in this case.
There are few people today who really have nuanced opinions, who in some ways may agree with conservatism, in some ways may be liberal.
Increasingly, we are just seeing people who are segregating into one camp or the other.
So I think it's the death of nuance.
Right.
Is it the death of nuance?
Well, then you could say the same for me, because you, knowing my position on the transgender in women's sports, you could predict, am I a herd?
I actually think, Dennis, you have a lot of opinions that people wouldn't expect you to have.
For instance, I'm sure that people would think because you're conservative, you are a nuclear family absolutist, but you have an adopted child.
You talk about how love transcends blood.
I actually think you are quite nuanced.
Now, maybe most of your opinions align with conservatism, but I think you see the fuller picture in a way that...
Someone like Megan Rapinoe doesn't.
So, I agree with that.
So, even putting me aside, why will a person...
I have a theory, which I'll say when we come back.
Why would a person, when I know that they think that biological men can compete in women's sports, why will they be for all these other positions?
That I mentioned earlier.
I have a theory.
When we come back with Julie Hartman and Dennis Prager.
So here is a really interesting subject.
Julie Hartman is with me this third hour of the show.
So Megan Rapinoe is the former co-captain of the American National Women's Soccer Team.
And I remember having great contempt for this person.
Which made it impossible for me to root for the women's soccer team, which is painful for me not to root for an American team.
It's painful for me not to root for the Los Angeles Dodgers.
But they lost me with their not just allowing, but honoring this mocking of Catholicism group called the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence.
Be that as it may, so she was now asked, this is July 10th, what is today's date?
13th, so three days ago, National Review.
So she was asked if she would welcome a quote-unquote transgender woman on the U.S. women's soccer team, even if that woman took the place of someone assigned me female at birth.
Whoever posed the question was obviously a captive of the rhetoric.
Rapinoe was unflinching.
Absolutely.
So what I was noting was I remembered her, and sure enough I found it.
She called the White House an effing place when Donald Trump was president.
She wouldn't show up there even if the team won and were invited.
Okay, so this is who we're dealing with.
And then it occurred to me that I'm sure I could predict every position, virtually every position, Megan Rapinoe has on the whole...
I'm sure she's for socialized medicine.
I am sure that she was for mandates that if you didn't get a vaccine, a COVID vaccine, you should be fired from your job.
You name the subject capital punishment.
I'm sure she's against all capital punishment.
If I had to bet, I would bet she's for defunding police or at least refunding them in a different way.
And so the question arose, why is that?
So Julie offered the thought that people think in herds.
I think that that is truer on the left than it is on the right.
The divergence of opinions on the right is quite extensive.
But I also think...
That there is something consistent.
A, anything that gives the state more power, they seem to favor, therefore mandates on vaccines and so on.
And anything that overturns traditional values.
Yes, you're right, that that is the through line.
I would also say, though, that the reason that there's more nuance on the right than on the left is because cancel culture isn't on the right.
It is very much on the left.
For instance, you know, I mean, I've said on this show probably a dozen times that I'm very conflicted on the issue of abortion.
I really do understand both sides.
Now, am I an abort at nine months type of thinker?
Absolutely not.
I believe that there should be a date at which it is not allowed.
That being said...
I don't know really exactly where I fall.
I feel totally comfortable saying that in your presence.
I feel totally comfortable saying that on national radio on a conservative program because I know that nuance can live on the right.
You will not cancel me for saying that.
That's key.
On the left, if you do not march in lockstep with leftist opinions, you are out of the party.
Okay, that's really important.
Larry Elder, whom I adore.
As everyone knows, we're very, very close.
We have been for decades.
I brought Larry to radio.
It was one of the best things I ever did in my life.
And Larry is for same-sex marriage.
And I believe marriage should be defined as man and woman.
Yet Larry worked for years for an evangelical-owned and run Syndicator, the one we work for, Salem.
Salem did not disqualify Larry because of that position.
Yet, if you worked for CNN or MSNBC and said, I think marriage should only be between a man and a woman, you're gone, baby.
You can't deviate.
See, I mentioned in the last segment that I saw a guy driving with an American flag, and I knew that he was conservative, and he knew because I waved to him that I was conservative.
But he doesn't know my stances on abortion.
He doesn't know my stances on gay marriage, and I don't know some of his stances.
All he knew, I'll tell you what he knew.
He knew a pretty young woman is waving at him.
Okay?
Hello, everybody.
Welcome to planet Earth.
That's what he knew.
He saluted at me.
I'm sure he did.
Well, come on.
Sean, am I right, Sean?
Oh, please.
Because you're the only other male around here.
I looked like a dragon.
I looked like a total dragon this morning.
Who looked like a dragon?
You looked like a dragon?
Yes, I didn't have my makeup on.
It was a disaster.
She doesn't know men.
You think he was thinking, oh, she doesn't have her makeup on?
I'm looking at your dear colleague here, and she's totally on board with me.
Okay, go ahead.
Trust me, he noticed.
But it was an exchange of values more than anything else.
No, no, I agree with that.
But it's interesting because we do live in a time where you can kind of literally identify by what people wear or the bumper stickers that they have on their car, what people believe.
When I see an American flag, I know that person is conservative.
When I see someone walking down the street wearing an AAPI t-shirt, I know that they are not conservative.
That's right.
By the way, this is a change.
This is a very sad change that if a person puts the flag out in front of their home on July 4th or Memorial Day or Veterans Day, that it means they're conservative.
This shows...
That's as dramatic an example of the collapse of liberalism.
Forget leftism.
Leftists never put out the flag.
They have contempt for the American flag.
But liberals were patriotic.
And now they say, I can't put it out because it represents the right wing.
Really?
It doesn't represent liberty to you?
It represents the right wing?
Well, it occurred to me on the 4th of July when I went to my annual town's parade that now the only people that show up to that event are conservatives.
That was not true when I was young.
That's right.
That is correct.
What did you say, Sean?
Oh, that's what he said.
All right.
1-8 Prager 776. Boy, if you read the rest of her statements on the transgender...
And I will.
I'm going to read a little more to show you how they think.
Because you said we may differ.
You don't know if they believe what they say.
I think they do.
Dennis Prager here.
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