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- [00:00]
Glenn Beck
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Rules and restrictions may apply. Oh, what a great show today. You don't want to miss any of it, but we're going to give you the highlights of today's full podcast on this best of the history of Christmas gifts. Putting Christ back into Christmas. Our first offering from Glenn AI and also England is, I mean, England is getting rid of the jury trial according to the prime Minister. And also they've put about 12,000 people, you know, in jail for freedom of speech, which is, you know, not a problem unless you're the ones who came up with the Magna Carta. I explained that coming up. And a quick little poem for the GOP. TWAs the night before Christmas, the night before the GOP caves on Christmas as they always do. You don't want to miss a second of today's podcast. All right, let me talk to you about preborn. Sometimes the most powerful moments in life are the ones that quietly rearrange your heart. For a lot of expecting moms who feel scared and unsecure, the moment happens.
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The second they see that ultrasound. The second they hear that tiny heartbeat, the connection was is there that they didn't know was there. Preborn makes that moment possible every single day all across the United States. Right now it's happening someplace. They'll provide an ultrasound and support a mom that is facing one of the hardest decisions of their life. Not with pressure, but with compassion and with love. They show up with help and hope and the belief that every life deserves a chance to be seen. There are babies in their mom's wombs right, right now that need help. As the year comes to a close, your tax deductible donation could be the difference between life and death. And if you could consider a leadership gift to save babies in a big Your gift of 5, 10 or $15,000 will be used to save countless babies for years to come because $15,000 will put an ultrasound in to one of these clinics. Dial pound250 say the keyword baby. Pound250 keyword baby. They'll take any donation from you or a prayer because there is a woman getting an ultrasound right now in America. Pray for her. She makes the right decision. Sponsored by Preborn. Hello America. You know we've been fighting every single day we push back against the lies, the censorship, the nonsense of the mainstre that they're trying to feed you. We work tirelessly to bring you the unfiltered truth because you deserve it. But to keep this fight going, we need you right now. Would you take a moment and rate and review the Glenn Beck podcast? Give us five stars and leave a comment. Because every single review helps us break through Big Tech's algorithm to reach more Americans who need to hear the truth. This isn't a podcast, this is a movement. And you're part of it, a big part of it. So if you believe in what we're doing, you want more people to wake up, help us push this podcast to the top rate, review, share together, we'll make a difference. And thanks for standing with us. Now, let's get to work.
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Glenn AI
You're listening to the Best of the Glenn Beck Program.
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Glenn Beck
Let me just start here because there is. There's another story that is out in our newsletter today that talks about how people of college age are freaking out after Charlie Kirk's death. They don't want anything controversial on campus. I mean, that's the reason why colleges, universities had protection of free speech in the first place, was to be controversial, to be able to say the things that nobody wants you to say.
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And it's really important. But let me, let me first remind people of what the Magna Carta is. 1215. The Magna Carta is Latin for the great charter. And this wasn't some magnanimous gift from the king. The king, King John of England, he was, he was losing a battle. France was just cleaning England's clock. The barons and all the lords and the ladies and everybody was like, you know, this king sucks a lot. King sucks a lot. And we gotta stop him because he's destroying everything. And he, he had lost most of the land to France. And then he started just imposing huge taxes on everybody. And because nobody in the lower class had any vote, this all happened with the lords and the ladies. And they were like, enough, enough, enough, enough, enough. You're abusing your royal power. Well, nobody had ever said that before. That wasn't. That just didn't happen. What do you mean? He has a divine right. He's the king. But in England, they said, no, you still have to be moral. You, you have certain laws and you can't just do these things. And so what they did is they got him to agree to the great Charter, the Magna Carta, and it placed the king under the law. Before that, the king was the law. So now king is under the law. It created the principle of due process. Never before did we have that you can't be imprisoned, punishment, or stripped of property except by the lawful judgment of your peers or the law of the land. So this creates jury trials, it creates habeas corpus, protection from arbitrary arrest, all of these things. The government now has to justify itself in a court of law. That's revolutionary, okay? It also limited taxation without consent, which we interpreted later as no taxation without representation, rule of law, jury trials, rights of the excuse accused, limits on government protection of property, accountability of leaders. All of that comes from the Magna Carta, okay? That gave birth 500 years later to us and our ideas, okay? Now, England, the birthplace of the Magna Carta, is now thinking about getting rid of jury trials and arresting more than 12,000 people every year for what they call speech crimes. 12,000. Now I want you to think about that In. In Russia, in the same year this stat came out, the latest year that we have, 2023. In 2023, Russia arrested 4,000 people for speech crimes against the Russian military. For Ukraine, 4,000 in Russia, 12,000 in England.
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The number I saw, and we don't have all the numbers, but the number I saw that were arrests for speech crimes in China was 120, okay? Not for violence, not for theft, not for treason, 12,000 in England for words. Okay? Now while that's going on, now the Prime Minister is floating the idea of eliminating, if not most many jury trials. It'll only be for murder, manslaughter and something else like that. Okay? So in other words, if you're like I believe, you should be able to read the Bible in your own language in your own home, Tinsdale. You don't get any help. You don't get a jury trial. You get the court, you get the king trying you, not a jury of your peers.
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This goes against the Magna Carta, the lawful judgment of your peers. That is the safeguard that stands between you and an out of control state. This is the first and ancient firewall against tyranny. It is what makes England England. And if England, of all places, tosses that aside, what does the word free mean anymore? Okay, what does it mean? You can't speak and you have no jury trial of your peers. Wait, what?
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First of all, understand this. A nation that polices speech is not free. A nation that dissolves juries is not just unfree. It's prepping for something worse. Because the entire architecture of the Western world, the liberty that we have, rests on a single radical belief. The truth does not need a king.
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The truth shall set you free. Who is it? Not what who is the truth? Okay, no king, but Christ, because Christ is the truth. That's the Western world.
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A person's conscience does not need a permit. Speech does not need a bureaucrat's approval before it leaves your lips. That's the West. That's what built the world, what took it from darkness to today.
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Freedom is not granted by the state. Freedom pre exists government. Government's only legitimate job is to protect it.
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Now, here's a dark little secret that every single tyrant and every politician knows today. If you control speech, you control thought. If you control thought, you control people. If you control people, you don't ever have to worry about controlling the government, because no one will ever challenge you again. This is why it is so essential for. For any side to go. You can't talk to them, don't talk to them, don't listen to them, don't question. You can't hear that. No, they can say whatever they want, but I have a right to refute it. That's why free speech has to be absolute, not mostly free.
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Not free unless it makes, you know, Billy over there cry and uncomfortable. No, sorry, Billy. You don't like it, refute it. Freedom that depends on somebody else's free feelings is not freedom. Freedom that requires government approval, approval is not freedom. Freedom that can be revoked because a bureaucrat doesn't like your tone is not freedom.
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Once speech becomes conditional, everything becomes conditional. Your rights, your property, your conscience, your place in society, because you only live by permission, never by principle. We live by principles, not people.
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Who is actually free?
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Who is actually free?
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The England that once declared the King himself to be subject to law? Or the England that now arrests a man because he's posted the wrong meme. 12,000 people can't find one in 2023 that was arrested for that in America. Not one.
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The England that gave us John Locke.
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The philosopher of natural rights, is that person free? Or the England that now warns citizens that context doesn't matter if their words cause someone, anyone, emotional harm.
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Britain is about loss. But this is not just a British, British problem. This is the canary in the coal mine for the entire west, because these are the people that came up with it. When the mother country forgets its own legacy, jury trials and freedom of speech, when the land that once stared down monarchs now cowers before hashtags and activists and speech tribunals, then somewhere deep inside the Western soul, a light is flickering.
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We must remember here before that same darkness reaches our shores, because it's already coming on to our beaches. It's Already there. There is no such thing as partial liberty. Freedom of speech is the First Amendment for a reason.
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It is the guardrail for every other right. If you lose the First Amendment, you've lost freedom. And if you lose the Second Amendment, you've lost the ability to defend that first freedom. It's number one for a reason. You must be allowed to speak, to gather, to have a free press, to question your government. You must have those abilities. You must be able to say, especially about government, the worst things about your government and question them and demand answers, to petition them. That's all in the First Amendment. It is the pressure valve that prevents societies from blowing itself up. The more we contain speech, the more we say, don't talk about. Don't talk about. Don't talk about. Can't say that. Can't say that. Can't say that. The more the pressure builds up, the more likely it is we blow ourselves up. It's the mechanism where the powerless can speak to the powerful. It's the shield that protects dissenters, unpopular thinkers, prophets, reformers, and, yes, even the offensive. Look, there's, you know, there are quote, unquote, historians now who are giving you all kinds of bullcrap about Hitler and everything else. None of that's true. I don't want to silence them. They have a right to say it. I have a right to say you're wrong and show you the evidence on what makes them wrong. That's the way it works.
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England is about to forget all of this.
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They are truly the birthplace of these kinds of ideas, and those ideas led to our idea of real freedom. No, King, if they forget this, we cannot. We cannot because there won't be anywhere else in the world to go.
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The lesson of history, the lesson that history whispers quietly at first, then louder, and then finally, and we're about at this point, with a scream.
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Is that when a state decides which words are allowed, it will eventually decide which thoughts are allowed, which beliefs are allowed, which citizens are allowed. In the end, in the end, the prisons don't need bars.
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The cell will be in your own mind.
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Do you understand that, America? Do your kids understand that? We don't even know what it means to be free. I thought this weekend a lot about.
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And the truth shall set you free. Thought about a lot, in fact, maybe I'll talk to you about it here in a minute or so.
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Because I don't think people understand what it means to be free.
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We think everybody in the world is free. They're not. And you're about to really find that out.
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You want to be free or do you want to be safe? Because you cannot have both. When safety is defined by those who fear your liberty, it's over.
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We used to be people who would explore. We were people that crossed the oceans when everyone said we couldn't. We. We went to space when everyone said it's impossible. We crossed mountains that no one had ever crossed. We forged. We forged a nation of really different people and lived side by side for so long. Yes, with bloodshed from time to time, but generally in ways nobody had ever done before. Freedom. Freedom is grand, but it's really dangerous. It's messy. Freedom offends you a lot. Get over it.
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Real freedom. Real freedom is the only thing that has ever allowed the human spirit to rise above a king, above a tyrant, above the mob, above the bureaucrats. Real freedom that belongs to you, given to you by God.
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And that's what they're about to lose. In England, the Magna Carta, the simple idea, no man, not even a king, no man is above the law. Do we have that here? Do you think no man is above the law? Or do you think there is a class up in the political range somewhere that if you're on the right side, don't worry about jail? That's what the Magna Carta tried to stop. That's what we've forgotten even. And they're about to get rid of it entirely.
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The modern west is drifting into far more, a far more sinister creed. No man is above a fence. And that is how civilizations fall.
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So I'm reading some really exciting stuff. Three dozen Democrats and Republicans introduced a proposal to end the taxpayer funded Obamacare Obamacare subsidies, which is really great. And it was spearheaded by Josh Gotten Heimer, a Democrat from New Jersey and Ken Kiggins, a Republican from Virginia. And it's a measure that's going to extend and reduce the tax credits in a two step process requiring two separate votes from Congress. Okay. So the first vote would extend the tax credits for a year with some modifications including the addition of a new income limit. Okay. And then the second vote, which will definitely happen, would implement what the group described as more significant reforms. Okay. Don't worry. I mean they're just putting it into a two step process. Not because they think the second step will fail, but because they just want to make it simple for people. And it's always easier to take two steps than one. You see what I'm saying?
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Now.
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Here'S a New Jersey congressman and self declared conservative, quote, I do not like the Affordable Care Act. I do not like it. Sam, I am. No, I'm sorry. I do not like the Affordable Care Act. It's fraught with all kinds of problems. There's a lot of corruption. But that's not the point today. That's not the discussion today. These subsidies haven't been good. But ladies and gentlemen, we have a responsibility.
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Right, to stop things that aren't good and are full of corruption, one might say, but he doesn't. So I believe we have two responsibilities. One, to have a bridge for the American people that will allow them to keep their health insurance. The second is a responsibility that we have to do much, much better with health care. Okay, well, those aren't vague, Stu.
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I'm standing on, I'm standing, let's say, in front of a body of water and I'm going to build a bridge.
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What would I be assuming.
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I'm standing on a cliff and in front of me is a body of water and I want to build a bridge.
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What's the question that comes to mind?
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Bridge to what? What? A bridge to where? What's on the other side. What are you building the bridge to? If I said, if I'm standing on a cliff and it's the Pacific Ocean and I say I want to build a bridge here, you would logically say, can't be done too far. Where are you going? Hawaii, Australia, China, Russia. Where are you building the bridge? Might not be able to do that. It's, quote, a bridge too far. Or you might just say, there's no way you can build a bridge here. What are you going to do? You're building one to Russia. Cause all kinds of new problems. Okay, all right. Nobody's asking that question. What are you building? A bridge. You're building a bridge for the American people. What's on the other side of that bridge? What is your plan after they get to the middle of the bridge? Because assuming you got them to the middle of the bridge, there's going to be something on the other side. Or is it just they get to that cliff where the bridge has been built, there's still no land to get onto. What do you say then we need a bridge to get people from here and do we build another bridge to nowhere? We just keep tacking these bridges together until finally we arrive somewhere.
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Stu Burguiere
These are excellent bridge related questions, Glenn. Can I ask additional bridge related questions?
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Glenn Beck
Bridge relay, we're keeping it in the bridge related family.
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Stu Burguiere
Yes. This is a show, I would say, most mostly known for its architecture talk.
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Glenn Beck
So, yeah, our architecture. Engineering.
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Stu Burguiere
Engineering.
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Glenn Beck
We're big with engineering, right? Yeah, big. Yeah. So.
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Stu Burguiere
When this was created in 2021, these subsidies. Yes, they were a bridge to 20. They were a bridge to 2022. And then what was interesting that happened is in 2022, they built yet another bridge to 2025 with the expectation that we should all understand that in 2022 we wouldn't need that bridge anymore. And also in 2025, we would. Wouldn't need that bridge anymore. And now they're saying we desperately need a bridge to 2027 or 2028, depending on who you're listening to.
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Glenn Beck
I think it's 2027. Okay. I think it's 2027 dot 2027. But we're not going to need another bridge.
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Stu Burguiere
We're not going to need another bridge after that. And what's fascinating about building a bridge, Glenn, is the expectation of that bridge is it's going to last a very long time. You don't temporarily build bridges all that often. Maybe the military, they're in the middle of a war, they'll build a temporary.
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Glenn Beck
Bridge Over a bottle of water.
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Stu Burguiere
That's possible. There are some uses for temporary bridges, but most bridges are actually designed to last forever or as long as they could possibly exist until a new bridge is built after them. And that seems to be what we're doing here with this, which is just slowly building temporary bridges that we're calling temporary but actually are permanent and continue to grow. We seem to have several bridges across the same river already, and now we want more bridges over the same river.
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Glenn Beck
We should have bridges to the other bridges.
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Stu Burguiere
Oh, that's the way to do it. Government efficiency in action.
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Glenn Beck
If you have bridges to other bridges that aren't finished or going anywhere, then you have Washington in a nutshell. Then you have something really to brag about. Now, he also went on to say that he was upset that the GOP has not been working on this, on this problem for the last 43 days. And I would. I would tend to agree with that, except I would say, I don't know. Where have you been since 2009? Where. Why haven't you been working on this since 2009? Every time you have an election, you're like, we're going to get rid of Obamacare. We're going to fix that. We're going to fix. It's really not that complex to fix. You get government out of the way. You take down all of the stupid, stupid rules between the states where you can't let anybody compete from one state to another. Get rid of all those things. Get rid of them. It's not that hard. And I don't need to build a bridge. I just. I can do that right now. I can just do that. What you do is you say, bridges out, go this way. And then all of a sudden, the path is right there. You can go there. Cheaper health care, access to your doctors. It's really great, you know? Since we're in the holiday mood today.
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I thought I would write a poem for the gop. And I mean this deeply and sincerely. It is a salute to the GOP.
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Money. Hear it.
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Twas the night before Christmas and all through the rite not a plan could be found that was honest or tight. The base hung their stockings with dwindling care in hopes that a real GOP would soon be there. The voters were nestled with thoughts growing bleak while leadership mumbled the same lines each week. And mama in her maga and I in my cap had just settled our hopes for another year's crap when out on the House floor there rose such a clatter. I sprang from my desk to See what was the matter Away to C Span I flew like a flash Just in time to see Congress set fire to our cache when what to my wondering eyes did appear But a miniature bill wrapped in fraudulent cheer With a leadership driver so slippery and bland I knew in a moment they had no real plan more rapid than progressives Their excuses all came they whistled and shrugged and they shifted the blame now tax cuts now budgets now spending to galore on omnibus on bailouts, on debt here's some more to the edge of disaster Let the treasury fall now charge away, charge away, charge away all like money that flies into DC's furnace flies they burn through our future with pork stuffed supplies so up to the debt ceiling skyward it flew with a sleigh full of nonsense and excuses too and then in a twinkling I heard on the Hill the whispers of justice that gave me a chill Indictments, investigations. I leaned in to browse Are they really clean? Cleaning house? No, they were spying on you and your spouse. The CIA, FBI and doj too had wrapped secret programs in Media View Their webs spun like garland through the bureau and press A tinsel of treachery, a deep state Christmas mess. But the GOP stood there all timid and meek not drawing a line, not even a squeak. Not at Nazis, those socialist vile yes, socialist kids read a book once in a while they claim to love markets, the founders, the laws yet cave every time when confronted with flaws Their words are like snowflakes that melt when they land no principle strong, no backbone at hand. I spoke not a word but went straight to my list A party that means what it says. Did I miss a repeal of Obamacare that isn't pretend A budget that cuts more than taxes, my friends, I signed it with hope though the odds seemed quite slim. Constitutional principles, teach them to them and if you've got space in your sleigh for a treat, wrap corrupt officials for prison. So neat. Santa sprang to his sleigh with a cynical grin. Kid, you're asking for miracles. No one's voted in but I heard him exclaim as he flew out of sight Merry Christmas to all and to the gop. Get it freaking right.
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Just maybe once. You're streaming the best of the Glenn Beck program and you can find full episodes wherever you download podcasts. So Stu, how many years ago was it that we we wrote Ramahaan and Kwanzmas?
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Stu Burguiere
Oh my gosh, very long time ago.
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Glenn Beck
Very long time. Yeah.
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Stu Burguiere
I don't know.
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Glenn Beck
Fifteen? A huge hit. Yeah, it was. Huge hit. Back in the day And. And, you know, if you were listening back then, you remember it. But that was at the beginning of this political correctness stuff. And now that I feel like we're at the end or nearing an end of this political correctness stuff, I thought I would offer you the first Christmas song, the first offering, if you will, from Glen AI. Here it is.
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Glenn AI
Well, the season's here and the lights are bright. But they tell me I can't say Merry Christmas tonight. They want rhyme of Hannah Quine's mess All in one breath.
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Buddy, that phrase is gonna bore me to death. So grab some cocoa, let's reclaim this bliss. It's the birthday of the baby. Yeah, remember who that is.
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So I'm putting the cry back in Christmas. No microaggression here, my friend. If words can break you, we'll bless your heart. Cause that's a battle we can.
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Glenn Beck
Yeah.
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Glenn AI
I'm putting the Christ back in Christmas. Let common sense unfold. Out with the new, in with the old. Merry Christmas. Let the truth be told.
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Stu Burguiere
And.
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Glenn AI
Hey, baby, it's cold outside, relax, it's flirting, not a federal crime. We used to laugh and dance in snow. Now they fact check mistletoe. They say intent don't matter. Well, sure it does, ask Nana, he's judgin hearts, not Twitter buzz. So I'm putting the Christ back in Christmas. You can keep your outrage warm if every jingle is problematic. Buddy, that's the real snowstorm. Yeah, putting the price back in Christmas. Not buying what they sold. Out with the new, in with the old out. Merry Christmas. Let the truth be told. They say that greeting is oppressive. Well, bless my soul, who knew if Merry Christmas makes you tremble? The problem ain't the phrase, it's you I'll question with boldness, I'll reason with grace. But don't rewrite my holiday to make it a safe space.
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So here's to the manger, the star in the sky. The angels who sang of that holy night. Here's to the story that still brings hope Even when culture's lost the remote. Raise your voice, let the bells all ring. This season was always about one king. Yeah, I'm putting the Christ back in Christmas. Let the real good news unfold.
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The world may chase the wrapping paper, but the manger holds the gold. So I put my Christ back in Christmas. From the young to the gray and old. Out with the new, in with the old. Merry Christmas.
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Let the truth be told.
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Glenn Beck
From Glenn AI. Putting the Christmas back in Christmas. Christmas. I'm sorry, did I say.
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We'Re glad you're here. Thank you so much. It is, what, two weeks away from Christmas. How many more shopping days do we. Shopping days do we have left?
- [34:07]
Stu Burguiere
December 8th. So we have 17 days until Christmas.
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Glenn Beck
17.
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Stu Burguiere
Probably 16 shopping days, though you probably don't want to get out there on, you know, during the morning and try to find stuff so easy.
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Glenn Beck
It's probably a little late. Probably a little late. Hey, I got you a gas card. So, you know, in the. In the very beginning, the. The whole thing, Christmas packages, you know, they didn't happen. You know, I'm not talking about just back in Jesus time, you know, so it's not like they showed up and went, hey, we got you this Christmas present because you're the Christ. It didn't happen that way, obviously, but in the early days of, you know, of. Of Christmas, we. We didn't do things like that. We didn't give packages or anything else. What. What we would originally would give, like, would be like, give bread. You know, bread for the hungry, alms for the poor, you know, offerings in, you know, you know, in the memory of the Magi or whatever. That's. That's what we would do. And gifts were acts of worship, not transactions.
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And we were to imitate heaven, not to impress, you know, some neighbor. Then history, as it always does, you know, kind of takes things and complicates the purity of the thing, you know what I'm saying? So the Middle Ages come around, and the European communities begin. Start to give small tokens. They start giving apples and coins and wax candles and especially. Especially on St. Nicholas Day. And, you know, I'm sure back then I was like, I can't believe you're buying an apple. You're. You're commercializing this. And what they were. What they were trying to do was not to outdo one another. He gave. Did you see that? He gave his wife two apples. But it was the idea to teach children that generosity was a virtue. And the gesture was still really small. And the idea was to enlarge the heart. And then came the Victorian age, kind of the global pivot point, you know, and everybody, because everybody idolized Dickens and Christmas Carol, Christmas Carol by Dickens really revived the holiday spirit, but it also introduced something new, the romance of the Christian, of the Christmas marketplace, because we suddenly had industrialization, and now we could make toys cheaper, and factories made novelty easy, and we had a middle class that had some disposable income for the very first time. And then suddenly, quietly, slowly, gift giving expanded, and the boxes grew larger and larger. Not the heart, but the boxes did. And by the late 1800s, early 20th century, you know, the. The stores, especially the new department store, discovered what the church once knew is that Christmas makes people more generous. And so, you know, it also makes more people more vulnerable, I guess. And so the advertisements wrapped themselves in holiness, and Santa was drafted into service. You know, not a lot of people know. I have this little teeny statue of. Of Santa that I got when I was in Sweden. Where was I? And at the Church of St Nicholas, and it's this little statue of Santa, and he's standing by a pair of boots, and he's the size of the boots. Because originally he wasn't like what we think of now. He was like this little elf kind of thing. It was Thomas Nast who, you know, did the whole. You know, twas the night before Christmas that changed the whole look of Santa. And then, of course, Coca Cola got involved. And once Coca Cola got involved, well, then everything, you know, quickly, quickly changed. And now three gifts of the Magi has become 30, yada, yada, yada.
- [38:12]
And then we started advertising everything, and here we are. Here we are. Now, to Christmas, which.
- [38:22]
I don't know, it starts. I don't even know. When did you start to see Christmas stuff? I first saw it before October, before Halloween was done. That's when I first saw Christmas stuff up right before. Before Halloween.
- [38:40]
And we have turned this thing into, I don't know, a fiscal quarter. That's all it is now is a fiscal quarter.
- [38:48]
And as we're getting ready for Christmas and we have, you know, so many shopping days Left, what the 20th century has done to Christmas has left us feeling, I don't know, emptier, lonelier, more frantic.
- [39:05]
I mean, we have.
- [39:08]
We have expanded the spectacle, but not the soul. And today we live in a world where everything can be shipped to you and your doorstep in 24 hours.
- [39:22]
And we have a chance to reclaim it. But it's a short chance to reclaim it, I think. How do we reclaim what we've nearly lost?
- [39:35]
May I suggest we go back to the beginning, back to the stable.
- [39:40]
Back to the stunned young mother. I'm writing some stuff for Christmas right now, and I was thinking about Mary this weekend, how stunned, you know, she had to be. I'm trying to look at. I don't want to make light of it, but, I mean, she had to be like. Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. Hold it. What? She had to be that way. I mean, she was a teenager. She had to be just like, wait, hold it just a second. And then what? She must have been thinking about how am I going to tell Joseph? I mean, you are coming back to tell him, right? Because he is not going to believe me. You are telling him, right?
- [40:16]
And how she must have felt when she gave birth in a stable.
- [40:24]
And the frightened shepherds. And later the magi come.
- [40:33]
You know, that first Christmas was not wrapped. It was not advertised.
- [40:40]
It was given to a world that really, honestly did absolutely nothing to deserve it.
- [40:49]
And I guess we give our gifts with that.
- [40:54]
We receive them. I did nothing to really deserve this. But maybe this year, instead of what should I buy? We begin asking, what should I give?
- [41:07]
Not the biggest box, but the truest offering. What should I give? A handwritten note of gratitude? Something that really comes from you. An apology long overdue.
- [41:20]
A moment of peace with a family that has been worn thin. A meal for somebody who has no table.
- [41:29]
A reminder, spoken out loud, that hope is still alive.
- [41:37]
Because.
- [41:40]
When the gifts become reflections of him, the one given to us, Christmas can stop being a transaction and will become a miracle again.
- [41:52]
And I think that's how we put the Christ back in Christmas. Not by shouting it, not by living it. Just one gift, one act of love, one reborn heart at a time.
- [42:08]
I was talking to Tanya about this.
- [42:13]
We've gone from.
- [42:16]
We've gone from having nothing to having more than enough.
- [42:24]
I've gone from a guy who couldn't afford.
- [42:28]
An ornament at CVS that my oldest daughter wanted when she was young.
- [42:37]
To a guy who, one Christmas said, by everything I can possibly think of for my kids, it was the emptiest Christmas we ever had.
- [42:49]
Now our kids are all over 20. And.
- [42:56]
I told Tanya, maybe we just.
- [43:00]
We got to find something of real meaning that comes from us, something that we do ourselves, something.
- [43:08]
Like the letter, something that doesn't cost us anything except time.
- [43:14]
And give those to the children. Exchange that with one another.
- [43:22]
I mean. I mean, you know, not for me. I've already sent Christmas, my Christmas list to Tanya. And those gifts aren't buying themselves, so, you know, for the kids, but definitely not, you know, for me.