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Nov. 10, 2023 - Dennis Prager Show
01:14:39
Veterans Day
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Dennis Prager here.
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Hello everybody!
Country is somewhat celebrating Veterans Day today.
Tomorrow is November 11th, which is Veterans Day.
I wonder how many Americans under 25 even know that it is Veterans Day.
I wonder how many of them even know what a veteran is.
I'm sorry?
Oh, I see.
Okay, I won't repeat it.
But now I have to repeat it because I said I won't repeat it.
So people will think something important was said to me or perhaps even dirty.
But he would like a day in the country to celebrate people who take care of their animals.
If we had a day like that, there would be no cars on the road.
What percentage of Americans don't have an animal?
What do you think?
20?
More than that?
Yeah?
Do you know anyone?
Well, hello everybody.
Veterans Day.
I was thinking, driving into work and seeing very little traffic, I might add.
I was thinking of another...
Change that has taken place in my country.
Remember how many stadiums, baseball, football stadiums, were named Memorial or Veterans Stadium?
Remember that?
Are any still named Veterans Stadium or Memorial Stadium?
I don't think so.
Most of them have a corporate sponsorship.
So they, I know, they have a corporate sponsorship.
So, you know, it's now Jerry's Plumbing Goods Stadium.
I get that.
Now, the money that Jerry's Plumbing Goods pays to have its name on a stadium goes to the owner, obviously.
And then...
The owners of football and baseball teams are generally very wealthy people.
I do not resent the very wealthy.
It has no impact on my emotional state or any other state.
But what it did was it enabled teams or owners to be richer.
But we gave up something in not having Memorial Stadium.
Or Veteran Stadium.
Very few stadiums had other names, and if they did, well, you know what was a bad one?
Comiskey Park.
He was not a good man, Comiskey.
He owned the team.
He owned the team, exactly.
How many stadiums were named after owners?
That's an interesting question.
Comiskey stopped his best pitcher from pitching the last couple of weeks one year.
He was the owner of the Chicago White Sox because he had a bonus clause.
He'd get, I don't know, a few thousand dollars if he won a certain number of games.
So he had him not play in order not to win that number of games.
Are you aware of that story?
Yes, it's in, I think it's in the book and film with regards to the White Sox throwing a World Series game.
It's a very famous story.
There is one left.
The Chicago Bears play at Soldier's Field?
Soldier Field?
That's the last one left?
That's amazing.
I do believe that that represents a deterioration in the ethos of the country.
So many things do.
If you want proof that...
The whole pro-Palestinian, which means in favor of people who wish to annihilate a state.
It's unique in the world.
It's a unique evil.
Jew hatred is unique because it's exterminationist.
And Israel hatred is unique.
It's also exterminationist.
In the Western world, it is all...
Created by the left.
Liberals were very pro-Israel for nearly all of its history.
It was a Democrat president, Harry Truman, who recognized Israel immediately against the wishes of his State Department, one might add.
The State Department has obviously some fine individuals, but...
It's not been a source of moral courage.
Here is a little tidbit from the Middle East that shook me up.
I'm not easily shaken.
It's from the New York Times column by Thomas Friedman, whom I differ with regularly, but it doesn't matter.
It just adds to the credibility of what I'm about to read to you.
He has Netanyahu derangement syndrome along with Trump derangement syndrome.
I never believed that existed.
I thought it was a hyperbole.
I never used it during the four years of Donald Trump in all of my broadcasting and writing.
But it exists.
What does it mean?
It means that you have stopped thinking clearly because you are consumed with hatred.
That's the definition of Trump or Netanyahu derangement syndrome.
So Thomas Friedman lives in his beautiful home in Maryland and writes about how stupid the Israeli people are for electing Benjamin Netanyahu.
So I don't care for the man in this column.
It doesn't matter.
It just adds, as I said, to the credibility of what I'm about to read to you.
What is most dispiriting, she concluded, citing, I believe, an Israeli source, is that it appears that some Gazans who worked on the kibbutz gave Hamas maps of the layout.
Did you happen to come across that?
Yeah.
Which, by the way, it's very important for many reasons.
One, we've been told this lie by Hamas spokesmen that they didn't intend to slaughter all these civilians.
It was a last-minute change of order.
This shows this thing was in order for an indefinite period of time.
Number two, can you imagine that?
You're given employment, and I presume treated rather well by the Jews you work for on the other side of the fence.
They trust you, and you give a layout of their home so that they can be slaughtered.
Whew.
I veer between believing love is the most important force and hate is the most important.
Did I say important?
No.
Powerful.
That was a mistake.
Most powerful force.
And I don't know which love or hate is more powerful.
Intense love or intense hate.
Maybe they're equal.
There are a lot of Israelis who listened to the recording published by the Times of Israel of a Hamas gunman who took part in the October 7th onslaught, identified by his father as Mahmoud, calling his parents from the phone of a Jewish woman he'd just murdered, and imploring them to check the WhatsApp messages to see the pictures he took of some of the ten Jews he alone killed.
In Mifalsim, a kibbutz near the Gaza border.
Look how many I killed with my own hands.
Your son killed Jews, he said, according to an English translation.
Mom, your son is a hero, he later adds.
His parents can be heard seeming rejoicing.
Your son killed ten Jews.
Aren't you proud of him?
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The deterioration of our society solely because of leftism is universal.
Here's a story.
Did my beloved producer see this?
Washington Post takes down anti-Hamas cartoon after Ebro.
You sent it to me?
Did you see the cartoon?
It shows a Hamas spokesman.
I want to explain this to people.
It's mind-boggling.
There's a Hamas spokesman, and he's holding a bunch of kids in front of him, lifting them up, holding them in front of him.
We'll put it on our one Dennis Prager dot com?
Yeah.
Good.
And he says, how dare Israel attack civilians?
Right?
Because that's what Hamas does.
They hide behind children.
And other civilians.
And the Washington Post was apparently inundated with complaints that it was racist.
Racist.
And they took it down.
Because there's no such thing as courage on the left.
In fact, it's almost founded on cowardice.
Like companies, do companies really believe in all their woke ads?
Of course not.
They just, they don't want to confront the woke.
It's easy to confront conservatives.
You don't fear them.
It's up.
It's already up at DennisPrager.com.
Done by our good friend Michael Ramirez.
I know, done by Michael Ramirez.
I can't believe they put up a Michael Ramirez cartoon.
That was as shocking as anything.
He's a good man.
It's a very funny and perfect cartoon.
It's racist?
So, it has nothing to do with race.
Nothing.
Do you know the automatons who sent that in?
They're automatons.
They're frightening people.
A non-white, he's certainly not black, he's a tiny bit Semitic.
Not in facial features, if there's such a thing, but just darker than white.
But it could be anybody.
The Washington Post pulled the cartoon.
The Post's opinion editor, David Shipley, said he removed the cartoon from the website after many readers, many readers, perceived it to be racist, according to his editor's note.
Racist!
Wow.
Half of Israel is not white.
You think they would have said that cartoon with regard to any of the non-white Israeli leaders?
Would it have been racist?
Nah.
Opinion.
Readers respond to a Hamas cartoon.
Washington Post, November 8th.
Editors note, as editor of the opinion section, I am responsible for what appears in its pages and on its screens.
The section depends on my judgment.
A cartoon was published by Michael Ramirez on the war in Gaza, a cartoon whose publication I approved was seen by many readers as racist.
This was not my intent.
I saw the drawing as a character of a specific individual, the Hamas spokesperson, who celebrated the attacks on unarmed civilians in Israel.
Right.
That's what it was.
And he happens not to be...
Caucasian.
However, the reactions to the image convinced me that I had missed something profound and divisive.
And I regret that.
This is a man of courage.
Why couldn't he say, it was not racist?
It saddens me that anyone would even think it is.
It has nothing to do with race.
Have a nice day.
But no.
Oh, I missed something profound and divisive.
Who did it divide between if it was divisive?
Pro-Hamas and anti-Hamas readers?
Our section is aimed at finding commonalities.
This statement comes with a vomit bag.
Yeah, you can sign in and get a free vomit bag.
I will be truly displeased if you barf anywhere but in that can.
Our section is aimed at finding commonalities, understanding the bonds that hold us together, even in the darkest times.
Do you realize if I would put a gun to your head or your beloved wife's head and said, come up with that paragraph on your own, you'd be shot?
You couldn't invent this verbiage.
The bonds that hold us together and find commonalities.
Wow.
Yeah, the Russia hoax crowd.
Find commonalities.
Anyway, please, out of curiosity, in your thank God long, though not as long as my life, Did you ever use the phrase, find commonalities?
No.
You're sure?
I'm not sure I ever used the word commonality.
You're not even sure you used commonality without find?
It's their own talk.
I had missed something profound.
Really?
David Shipley...
This editor at the Washington Post, if we put you on a lie detector, do you think you'd pass the test that the objections to the cartoon saying it was racist were profound?
In this spirit, we have taken down the drawing.
We are also publishing a selection of responses to the caricature.
Oh, good.
I want to read that to people, too.
And we will continue to make this section home to a range of views and perspectives, including ones that challenge readers.
We will be back.
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I am reading some of the letters accusing the Washington Post of...
Publishing a racist cartoon because it showed a Hamas spokesperson holding a bunch of children in front of him.
And he is saying, let me get the exact cartoon up, how dare Israel attack civilians with civilians and a woman standing behind him, cowering behind him, presumably his wife.
And here are some of the letters that caused the Washington Post to take down its cartoon.
Suzanne Van Goens, G-E-U-N-S, Princeton, New Jersey.
The letter writer is identified.
She is a post-doctoral...
It's already a bad sign.
That's all you need to know.
Post-doctoral.
Because the longer you stay in the university world...
The less clearly you think morally, the less clearly you think, period.
I believe that literally.
She is a postdoctoral research associate at the Center for Culture, Society, and Religion at Princeton University.
I wonder how many clear thinkers are at the Princeton University Center for Culture, Society, and Religion.
Listen to her letter.
It's very short.
There is no topic in reporting in which word choice is as fraught as in reporting on the Gaza Strip.
Why does the Post not subject the visual language of its cartoons to the same scrutiny?
I am a scholar of religion and media.
Whoa.
That's a bad sign.
Because it means she understands so little.
I recognize a deeply racist depiction of the quote-unquote heathen.
What does heathen have to do anything?
Because non-Christian is a heathen?
Is that the point?
And his barbarous cruelty toward women and children when I see it again in Michael Ramirez's November 8th editorial cartoon.
Really?
It's a racist depiction.
Because women are treated as equals there?
O scholar of religion and culture?
I know.
Religion and media.
But the name of the institution is religion and culture.
It is in no way informative, helpful, or thought-provoking to look at the conflict through the glasses of 19th century colonialists.
Do you understand how the brainwashes worked on this woman?
But it is helpful.
She is the one who sees the world through 19th century colonialists.
That's the irony.
If there were a cartoon and it negatively depicted a white Christian, let's say, holding a Bible and saying some right-wing...
Quote-unquote bigoted thing.
You think she would have written a letter to the Washington Post?
Colonialism.
Oh, this is all so instructive.
Here's another one.
Who is this from?
Philip Farah.
The writer is a co-founder and board member of the Palestinian Christian Alliance for Peace.
I'm going to look up the Palestinian Christian Alliance for Peace.
See how much they are pro-peace.
I'm curious.
Michael Ramirez's November 8th editorial cartoon depicting Hamas hostages with the Hamas character condemning Israeli attacks on civilians was full of bias and prejudice.
Is the message meant to be that Israel is justified in bombing civilians?
I played for you yesterday one of the greatest thinkers, Douglas Murray, one of the greatest thinkers living, I have, and courageous, standing at the Gaza-Israel border speaking to Pierce Morgan,
and if you want a moral and intellectual justification for Israel, You should watch that.
It's easily accessed on the Internet.
Nobody, I have literally not seen, and I devour the subject, I have not seen a single statement of what Israel should do.
What should Israel do?
Okay, so they don't bomb.
They don't attack.
What should they do?
The case for owning gold and silver is foolproof.
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So the question is, whom do you buy your gold and silver from?
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AmfedCoinandBullionAmericanFederal.com So this, they've taken down the cartoon.
The letters are instructive.
That's the reason I'm spending the time.
The mentality of the folks on the left is revealed in this.
So here is a Palestinian Christian.
Co-founder and board member of the Palestinian Christian Alliance for Peace.
You know what?
I'm going to look that up.
I want to see.
I wonder what their positions are.
Do you know who wants peace in the Middle East?
The Israelis.
Okay?
Just so you'll know.
That's who wants peace in the Middle East.
Do you know any time in the history of the modern world where there was a battle between a police state and a free state where the police state wants peace and the free state wants war?
Can you think of a single example?
Is this the one exception in all of a recorded history?
Oh, it's the police state that wants peace.
It's the free country, the democratic country.
The country with human rights, they're the ones who want war.
Oh my God, this is so sick.
The voice of the Palestinian Christian American community.
Our vision is peace with justice in the Holy Land, with all of its people enjoying equality and dignity.
Yeah, Christians have been doing well in Muslim countries.
Enjoying a dignity.
So the first thing on its opening page is urgent call for solidarity and action from Palestinian Christian Alliance for Peace.
We ask all churches and Christians worldwide to act urgently to end this humanitarian catastrophe and impending genocide of the people of Gaza.
These are the people who pervert the word Christian.
That's what they do.
This Palestinian Christian group, Alliance for Peace, really?
You know, it's a gigantic lie.
Do you know that there are five times as many Palestinians today than there were in 1960?
Israel is intent on genocide?
Is lying part of your Christianity?
See, these people are examples, and it exists, by the way, in all religions.
But these people are the ones I'm addressing now.
These people, their religion has no moral impact on their thinking.
It's like people who, on a micro level, this is macro, on a micro level, Claim to be religious Christian or Jew or whatever else.
And then defraud people.
Or otherwise hurt people.
I'm not talking about religious people being sinless.
that's not possible.
Right.
What else do they have to say?
Hmm.
How Zionism forged an apartheid state from river to sea.
Okay.
That's one of the books they're highlighting.
And they're for peace.
See, this is a perfect example.
This group, Palestinian-Christian Alliance for Peace.
How are Christians doing among Palestinians, by the way?
Yeah, I'd just like to ask this guy who wrote this letter to the Washington Post.
They're for peace?
I'll tell you how they're for peace.
They're not for peace with Israel.
They're for peace without Israel.
Our mission is to provide a clear Palestinian-American Christian voice and presence in the U.S. Okay.
Anyway, now you know.
Now you know about what happened to an editorial cartoon at the Washington Post.
That's a different world.
How they think.
On other matters...
I'm going to talk about this in the Happiness Hour.
There was a really frightening piece in the Wall Street Journal just yesterday.
Loneliness isn't just bad for your health, it's deadly.
One out of five Americans says they have no close friends.
Did you see that statistic?
Do you know how, from the beginning of my Happiness Hour, 23 years ago, 24 years ago, Remember, I would say, and anybody listening to me now has heard the Happiness Hour knows that I have said this so often.
You should date for friends like you dated for a spouse.
But the studies, I'm not a studies fan.
You know my motto.
Studies either confirm what common sense suggests or they're wrong.
The only counterintuitive study that I accepted Because it made sense once I heard it, was that people who lived together before marriage are more likely to divorce than people who didn't live together.
But it has nothing to do with sexual practice prior to marriage.
It's not a conservative argument on sexual matters.
It has to do with a very interesting, totally logical thing.
If you live together, rather than just dating, you're much less likely to break up if things go wrong.
And so, people who shouldn't marry end up marrying.
See, that's the one example in a lifetime of a study that is counterintuitive and, by golly, makes sense.
Otherwise, they just confirm common sense.
And it's been exacerbated by the damn lockdown, which within a month I called the greatest international mistake in history.
You can check it out.
It's on the internet.
We'll be back.
The Dennis Prager Show.
I'm enjoying the music of Manitas de Plata.
And Hermanos Gutierrez. - By the way, Manitas de Plata was a real guitarist.
I think it means hands of...
was it gold?
It was plata...
silver, yeah.
Hands of silver.
Welcome back, everybody.
Dennis Prager here.
Seal Beach, California, Jim, the famous Jim of Seal Beach.
Hello.
Hello, Dennis.
You know, Dennis, nobody wants to say it for political reasons, but I think there's enough evidence to show the majority of Palestinians support Hamas, and when you talk about innocent Palestinians...
I think there's very, very few, unfortunately.
So this is definitely a war.
They declared war.
It's not a battle.
It's not a bar fight.
And in wars, there's collateral damage.
And if my assumption is true, which there seems to be plenty evidence of it, that this collateral damage is basically just Hamas-Palestinians one of the same.
That's my opinion.
So there are two separate questions that are both interesting.
First, what percentage of Palestinians support Hamas?
There's no doubt that it's the majority.
Everybody knows that.
We don't know what majority means.
Is it 51%?
Is it 81%?
I don't know if it's knowable.
I will tell you this.
The reason that there are no elections on the West Bank has nothing to do with Israel.
It has to do with the Palestinian Authority there, the dominant group being Fatah.
They are afraid that Hamas would win in an open and free election.
That's on the West Bank, obviously.
They already have won elsewhere.
There were elections on the West Bank at a university.
And they ran for office, student offices, based on affiliation with, whether it was Hamas or the Palestinian Authority, Fatah, and Hamas won among the young people.
Then the next question is, does that make you guilty?
And there is no answer to that.
Israel is bombing because it has no choice.
Like we bombed Germany and we bombed Japan because we had no choice.
Had Germany, Japan, and the Palestinians wanted peace, there would be no bombing.
It's the obvious truth.
But if people believe men menstruate, they'll believe that the Palestinians are peace lovers.
We return.
It's the happy, happy, happy, happy hour.
Yes, it is.
Yep.
It's a dark world out there in many ways.
And that's exactly why we have to talk about happiness.
It's easy to be happy during happy times, although even then, vast numbers of people aren't.
But what about unhappy times?
All right, let's hear the band.
All right, everybody.
Since 1999, the happiness hour because the happy make the world better, the unhappy make it worse.
Happiness is a moral obligation.
You cannot inflict your bad moods on other people any more than you can inflict bad body odors onto other people.
We brush our teeth and we mouthwash and we gargle and we scrub our bodies with soap in order to smell good for others.
We wash away our odors.
You should wash away your moods.
Some people can't.
The existence of people who cannot do something does not negate the need for most people to do it.
That's the way it works.
So let me read to you a study just published today in the Wall Street Journal.
Loneliness isn't just bad for your health, it's deadly.
People who report often feeling lonely or being socially isolated are at an increased risk of death from any cause, new research suggests.
I'm trying to think if I ever felt lonely.
Did you?
No.
That's interesting.
It's interesting, not in the sense that I'm surprised, it just is interesting.
I don't know what, in other words, I didn't know what you would answer.
I have never felt, there's another thing, I just mentioned it to somebody yesterday, and I don't even remember the context.
I have never, I never recall feeling bored.
You too.
It's such an interesting question.
You know, If either of my sons ever said to me when they were kids, Daddy, I'm bored, I had an answer.
No, you're not bored, you're boring.
And they never said it again.
It was literally one time each.
If you're bored, that is a statement about you, not about your circumstances, unless, God forbid, you're in solitary confinement.
I made sure not to be lonely.
Yeah.
I always, from sixth grade on, I don't remember pre-six that well, from sixth grade on I had close friends.
I might have felt lonely at times before sixth grade, but it's a little, it's somewhat hazy.
But not since sixth grade.
How old are you in sixth grade?
If you're 13 and 8, 12, 11. So prior to the age of 11, I don't remember.
But since age 11, I have never felt lonely.
I always ensured I had a close male friend in my life.
At least one.
Usually one.
And I also had a robust social life otherwise.
There was school.
Obviously.
And there was religious life.
Every indicator of the increasing secular society is negative.
Every single one.
And yet, people still believe because they want to believe that religion isn't necessary.
By the way, some religion is not necessary.
Not all religion is terrific.
But in American life, to a large extent, dominant religious tendencies were pretty positive.
Of course, they didn't stop a lot of people from defending Christianity, from defending slavery, which I will admit boggles my mind.
It's very tough to know with people, do they believe what they want to believe or do they believe it because they have rationally concluded what they are saying.
Loneliness and social isolation were linked to an increased risk of death from any cause, according to new research.
That includes missing out on seeing loved ones, not having weekly group activities like a book club, Isn't that amazing?
Even the Wall Street Journal.
What's the most ubiquitous weekly activity?
Isn't it going to church?
Book club?
What is the ratio of church to book club?
A thousand to one?
Isn't that amazing that they don't use that as an example?
Book club?
How many people belong to a book club?
Sean, you're a member of the Dog Lovers Book Club where you guys get together and talk about dogs.
It's a beautiful thing.
Books about dogs.
Books about dogs.
I'm sorry.
I was not precise.
Not having weekly activities like a book club or just feeling lonely.
It is hard to think of a health condition that is not impacted by loneliness, said Dr. Carla Perezinotto, a geriatrician and palliative care physician at the University of California, San Francisco.
All of these experts, I'm not saying her, I have no idea, but it is so fascinating that The most obvious correlation, the correlations actually, are not drawn by all these quote-unquote social scientists and journalists.
As America has become more secular, it has become worse in every single dimension.
Less happy people, more lonely people, more suicide, more depression.
More violence.
You name it.
Listen, you can stay an atheist.
is...
Atheist doesn't mean dishonest.
It means not clear thinking, but it doesn't mean dishonest.
So an atheist can say, look, I'm an atheist, but I understand the The social benefits of religion and the moral benefits, not of all religions and not of all religion, that is important to note.
I'm talking about the way in which religion was widely practiced in the United States of America.
It was a net plus.
The people who have worked their lives to secularize American society Every single one of them is a fool.
A sweet fool in many cases, but a fool.
Americans are now spending more time alone and less time socializing in person compared to just two decades ago.
A trend that started taking hold even before the COVID-19 pandemic.
A 2023 Gallup poll found that 17% of U.S. adults and nearly a quarter of adults under the age of 30 reported feeling a significant amount of loneliness the day before they took the survey.
By the way, the numbers have to be higher, and I'll tell you why.
People don't like to admit a negative in their life.
It's not demeaning, but it goes along that spectrum of demeaning.
It's...
People don't like to acknowledge they're lonely.
Oh, well, you know, sometimes I feel, you know, that's how they'll think.
So if these are the people admitting it, what is this, a quarter of adults under 30?
Wow.
Lacking social connection could be as dangerous as smoking up to 15 cigarettes a day.
I love that.
That's the stuff that cracks me up.
So, here is my take.
It is better to have a lot of friends and smoke 15 cigarettes than not smoke any cigarettes and not have friends.
I have been arguing the importance of this.
Call up if this is an issue in your life and why you think it is.
You're anonymous and you'll help people if you open up.
1-8 Prager 776. I think you should all send Sean McConnell an invitation to just visit you for a dinner.
Not that he's lonely, but I don't want it to even happen.
It's just preventive care.
And if he could bring his dog, that's even better.
I understand.
By the way, I didn't see in the article, this is the happiness hour, I'm talking about loneliness, which is such a crisis that there are actually countries that have a minister of loneliness.
It's actually what we would call a cabinet position.
But I do wonder, and this is a very serious question, even though I am totally biased toward human companionship, how much do pets like dogs and cats assuage loneliness?
Well, I... I'm going to do a search on this article.
It's a very interesting question.
Well, I put in pets and pet and dog so they don't discuss it.
I'm not saying they should, but I do wonder.
It must have some impact, especially for those who lack human companionship, to have that in their lives.
Otherwise, people wouldn't have them.
I mean, they serve something.
Look, if you were in solitary confinement and allowed to have a dog, it would be far, far less of a horror.
It would still be a horror.
But it would be Manageable.
What was the Tom Hanks movie when he was on a desert island, Sean?
Castaway.
How do you come up with that so fast?
I know how he has me hooked up to artificial intelligence, which, here's my question, gives him the answer in real time, and then he says it to me like he came up with it.
I caught you.
I caught you.
In fact, Sean is artificial intelligence.
You have faked it for all these years, and now I realize you're a robot.
A lovable robot.
An annoying robot.
I think the...
Increased importance, I have to believe, somebody should do a study on this, the increased importance of pets in American life over the last 50 years.
And it is no doubt in my mind, it's not always by any means, but it is related in general to a breakdown in human companionship.
Nevertheless, I want people to be less lonely, so that might be a helpful thing.
People talk to their dogs, right?
The artificial intelligence said it's only a problem if they talk back.
It's true.
If you hear dog voices speaking English to you, I'll never forget.
My first visit to Hungary, I was in my 20s, sitting on a park bench, just observing people, and a guy is walking by with his dog on a leash, talking to the dog in Hungarian.
And my first reaction was, does this guy think this dog understands Hungarian?
And then I laughed at myself.
Wait, so it makes sense that we think our dogs understand English?
But not Hungarian.
Oh yeah, so in Castaway, his loneliness was somewhat assuaged by a volleyball.
Right?
Was it a volleyball or a soccer ball?
Wilson what?
What was Wilson?
What was Wilson?
I think it was a volleyball.
Yeah, Wilson, I know.
Yeah, I painted a face on Wilson.
And when he went on a totally risky mission out to sea in the hope he'd be picked up, he lost Wilson and he cried.
And so did we, the audience.
That's how much we want companionship.
I thought it was a superb movie, incidentally.
My criterion, well, I have a number of criteria for an excellent movie.
One is do I continue to remember it?
And boy, do I remember that one.
That's how much we don't want to be alone.
that a volleyball with a smiley, as it were, can help us.
Wilson! I'm sorry!
I'm sorry, Wilson!
Wilson, I'm sorry! - Come on, hurry!
I'm sorry!
Wilson!
I can't!
Wilson!
Okay, it's enough.
This is the happiness hour, Sean.
And you're making everybody miserable.
But I'm happy.
But you're happy.
That's all that counts.
All right, everybody.
What's on your minds here on this subject?
The really important one.
Let's see.
Santa Clarita, California.
Steve.
Hello, Steve.
Well, hi, Dennis.
My wife and I were listening, and she immediately commented that she thought smokers would be less lonely because they're used to going outside to be with people to smoke.
I love it.
I think that's great.
One of the most congenial places in the United States of America is the Cigar Lounge.
Have you ever been to one?
Yes, I have.
Well, I go to one every time I go to another city if I'm there and they're still open because I often arrive late at night.
But I don't go to a restaurant.
I go to a cigar lounge.
And strangers are enjoying one another.
Every race, color, creed, age, it's a phenomenon.
So your point is entirely accepted.
Thank you.
Have a nice day.
Okay.
I'm working on it.
That's a very funny thing.
Doctor says to you, don't smoke.
You say, yeah, but doctor, having close bonds with people and social interaction...
Is equivalent to, or not having that, is equivalent to smoking 15 cigarettes a day.
So my smoking gives me social interaction regularly.
Be funny to know what your doctor would say.
We return.
In the broadcast, in the building we're broadcasting from, they're having a fire drill. in the building we're broadcasting from, they're having a fire We're going to be right.
I recommended that I not broadcast right now.
However, Sean, who likes to inflict pain...
Okay.
Now...
Why are you cracking up?
I think it's a farce.
You now know the reason for radio stations to have their own buildings.
How many times is this recording going to come on to use the elevators?
I mean, not to use the elevators.
I assume, folks, that this will end...
Shortly, but if it doesn't, I am going to advocate we go to a best of third hour.
People cannot listen with this on.
He repeats, do not use the elevators.
Okay.
Sean, I think you should dig up a third hour until this is over.
I don't want to inflict this on my audience.
Can you find one, Sean?
Well, my friends, I apologize.
This has not happened in my 24 years in this building.
Well, I guess maybe they just were...
...show of 2022. Wow.
That actually does mean something to me.
Lasts and firsts.
Alright, y'all.
Let's see what's on your mind here.
Bob in Germany.
Alright.
Let's see.
What time is it in Germany?
I would say it's probably 8 p.m.
That's my theory.
What time is it now in Germany?
My good friend.
2010. It's 10 minutes after 8. Right, right.
I was good.
I got it.
Yep.
Well, thank you.
Thank you.
Sir, I cherish you and your program.
I wish you a happy new year and good health, and God bless you.
And Dennis, may I ask you, I hope you like the DVD I sent you of Andre Ruh with the Strauss Orchestra.
Yes, bless you for that.
I was very touched.
By the way, where do you live in Germany?
I live in about Frankfurt, about 50 miles, about 78 kilometers.
I see.
And that's in a little town of Gießen.
Well, thank you for listening.
It means a lot to me.
Gut Jahr to you.
Yes, there are listeners around the world.
Why wouldn't there be?
Because what I have to say is applicable to the human condition.
Or it's not applicable to anyone.
That's my view.
It's like my Bible commentary.
People ask who's it for.
It's for humans.
If it can't be applicable to only one group, then I don't see why it's worthwhile.
I might go to Munich in...
When is it, in May?
I think it's May.
I may go to Munich to go to the world's largest audio show.
That's how committed I am.
Because I'm crazy about music and I have a great music system in my home.
What an amazing thing to be able to listen to music with that quality.
You know when I bring, when young kids come over, And often they do to my house.
And I always bring them to my listening room.
And I say, what is your favorite music?
Give me any piece of music you really love.
And then I play it for them on my system.
And of course they've never heard it like that.
They're used to earbuds.
That's the way they consume music.
It's a revelation to them that you can hear music that clearly and powerfully.
I watch them.
It's fascinating to see their reaction.
Unless they have gone to a live concert and sat essentially in the front row, they have never experienced that.
It's sort of like everything is on a miniature level.
Book reading has been replaced by texting.
I'm not sure what's happening.
When I was a kid, we would so brag to other kids, at least the boys, you've got to hear my new speakers.
I wonder if that language would even make any sense to most young people today.
Come over and hear my speakers?
My new speakers?
No, I don't think so.
You know, I think I've mentioned this to you, that when I sign books to young people after speeches, I actually ask them, do you read cursive?
And many do not.
It is not possible to overstate how incompetent.
The educational system is.
If schools of education and the Department of Education closed tomorrow, if the National Education Association and all teachers' unions disbanded, the qualitative increase in the excellence of education would be almost immeasurable.
Every educational institution I mean, there are exceptions, obviously.
And I don't mean every single, like Killsdale is wonderful.
There are some others.
But generally, the institutions, the schools of education, NEA, teachers' unions, think about it.
It's like a massive collaboration to hurt children.
Okay, let's go here to Colorado Springs and Mike.
Hello, Mike.
Hello, Dennis.
Hi.
You had on Wednesday, and I do a workout every morning, and I'm a Priggertopia fan, through and through.
So I was listening to Wednesday this morning, and you were talking about your theme music.
And I loved it.
But I thought, oh my gosh, this is Wednesday.
I can't even tell them that.
I'm telling you now.
I'm glad you did.
So I'll explain Pregnatory to people in a moment.
So tell me now, what did you like?
Well, I love the fact that it starts with like the jaws.
Oh, you liked the Dvorak.
Blood in the water.
That's where we are.
Yes, that's so interesting.
So I'm going to play that again.
Thank you.
Happy New Year.
I appreciate that you're a PragerTopia subscriber.
I'll talk about PragerTopia in a moment.
I should talk about it more.
Sean, play it because we're not going to be using it.
We're going to stick to Gladiator, I say, with some degree of ambivalence, but nevertheless.
You have our Dvorak?
I heard that this is Hugh Hewitt's theme when he talks to Larry Arnn of Hillsdale.
So that would be another reason we wouldn't switch to it.
I don't want to duplicate a colleague's theme.
PIANO PLAYS
PIANO PLAYS One of the greatest symphonies ever written, Dvorak's Ninth Symphony.
PIANO PLAYS In E minor, I believe.
But we won't be using it.
I have been talked into retaining the gladiator theme.
I've wanted to preserve Western civilization symbolically by going to a great Western piece.
We had three contenders.
I chose three contenders, a Beethoven, Dvorak, and a Tchaikovsky.
There were more votes for the Tchaikovsky, but people I respect, including callers, who said that I'm so identified with the gladiator theme, and it so resonates, the battle that we're in.
Anyway, so we'll see.
Well, my friends, it appears that the fire drill in the building is over.
I can't tell you how sad I am not to be assaulted by that incredibly loud noise.
So welcome back.
All right, this is the hour you set the agenda.
Now, let's see.
Did anybody stay on?
Yeah, people stayed on.
People of faith.
Okay, let's see here.
All right.
Let's, whatever is on your mind, my friends.
So, we have a lot of carryover on happiness topics.
So, I'm going to let some of those go because I want to.
I want to vary the subjects.
1-8 Prager-776-877-243-7776 Alan sent me some examples.
Before I take your calls, I just want to review a thought with you.
Here, this is Students Across New York City.
This is from CBS New York.
Participate in walkout demanding ceasefire in Gaza, end of U.S. support for Israel.
So where did these students pick up their vile values?
If you can't see the difference between good and evil, Hamas is evil and Israel is good.
Okay?
Israel is not perfect.
Hamas is perfectly evil.
But I wrote a column a few weeks ago.
As far back as when I was young, do not learn about evil.
So it's a cartoon concept.
They don't know about Auschwitz.
They don't know about Gulag.
They don't know about Pol Pot.
They don't know about the starvation by Mao of 60 million Chinese.
They know nothing about evil.
To them, evil are MAGA Republicans.
That's evil.
Because the left doesn't understand evil.
Bunch of naive, spoiled brats.
New York City kids are out demonstrating...
Oh, here we go.
Sean, you misled me.
What did he do?
He doesn't think he misled me.
You promised me that the fire drill was over.
Oh.
Alright, he said it's not true.
He did not promise me.
Okay.
This is a very important issue that they don't know what the hell evil is.
They know nothing about evil.
Hundreds of New York City public school students organized a walkout Thursday.
Well, by the way, I'm just curious.
Will these kids be declared having cut classes, or they don't even record that any longer in New York City?
Then they rallied together outside of the New York Public Library in Midtown.
Walked out of their classrooms across the five boroughs at around 11.30 a.m.
and took trains and buses.
First of all, it gives them meaning.
Their meaningless secular lives are filled.
Oh, I get...
It is.
It's a thrill.
You meet other kids.
You feel you have meaning.
You think you're doing good.
People love to think they're doing good when they do bad.
Who thinks they're doing bad?
Seriously.
Although one can say that in this regard, and only in this regard, Hamas is actually on a lower level than the Nazis.
The Nazis hid what they did to Jews.
Hamas videoed it.
That's a difference.
That means the culture of Hamas is one that you are heroic if you murder Jews in their homes.
And that is true for all you who romanticize the Palestinians.
The average German, I don't think, would have been proud of Auschwitz, would not have been proud of the Einsatzgruppen, the groups of mobile killing units that the Jews stripped them naked and shot them by family, by ditches that the Jews had to dig.
They wouldn't have sent those pictures home.
Hey Ma, you should be proud of me.
Look at what I did today.
But Hamas did.
They want the fighting between Israel and Hamas to stop.
Very simple way.
The way the fighting stopped with the Germans and the Japanese.
They surrendered.
And that regime was ended.
Do an unconditional surrender, and that will stop the fighting.
Many were in solidarity with Palestinians.
It shows we are all a community.
It shows that we are all together, Fort Hamilton student Mahdi Shaheen said.
Now, it is an interesting question.
I wonder how many of these students in New York City come from homes from the Middle East.
That would be interesting.
Here's another one.
This is a message of peace.
This is a message of saving lives, Anissa Badran said.
Now, that's important.
Another one.
It was Munir Marwan, Palestinian youth movement.
Well, read my column from, what is it, how many years ago?
Eight years ago.
On the unwisdom of bringing a lot of people from the Middle East into Europe and the United States.
They come with different values.
That's the way it works.
Okay, let's go to Edward in Devon, Pennsylvania.
Hello, Edward.
How are you?
Thanks for taking my call.
It's always nice to hear from you.
I'm hearing from you, actually.
But yeah, you're hearing from me.
You're right.
That's true.
You're right.
Go ahead.
So the other day on Dennis and Julie, you were talking about briefly, but still with the intensity that you go into Dennis and Julie, Men in Marriage as a book.
And I actually wrote to you on your website, but I know that you probably will never see that email.
But I have a 16-year-old grandson who I am not estranged from.
I just see him very rarely for reasons that we can go into if you'd like.
His father is, well, there are people who I know who might be listening to this who might not know this, but his father's incarcerated for the next five to seven years, so he's sort of out of the picture.
There are other male influences in his life, in my grandson's life, obviously, but all the books that I have found so far that deal with how to become a man in America, which is very difficult these days, You know, one of the things they stress is, you know, the...
Alright, hold on.
This is an interesting call.
How do you make a boy into a man?
Back in a moment.
Dennis Prager here.
Thanks for listening to the Daily Dennis Prager Podcast.
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