← The Michael Knowles Show
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- [00:00]
Michael Knowles
These are questions that take cultures thousands of years to answer. During Answer the Call, I take questions from people just like you about their problems, opportunities, challenges, or when they simply need advice. How do I balance all of this grief, responsibility? How do you repair this kind of damage? My daughter Mikayla guides the conversations as we hopefully help people navigate their lives. Everyone has their own destiny. Everyone. The Pope and the the Secret Vatican Files of World War II is about to start streaming. It is hosted by your favorite podcast host. It is about one of the most maligned, smeared, slandered men of the 20th century who also happens to be one of the greatest men of the 20th century. That would be Pope Pius XII. Daily War members can start streaming Aug. 13. If you're not a member yet, join today@dailywearplus.com a major win for pro Lifers and a major humiliation for the Panicans as the White House reveals its new IVF policy. Then, speaking of life, the New York Times clarifies its desire to kill you and harvest your organs. Not joking. More important than all of that, Sydney Sweeney's voter registration has been revealed and apparently everyone is surprised but me. I'm Michael Knowles. This is the Michael Knowles Show. Cynthia Erivo, who is an LGBT elementop actress, has gone viral for playing Christ in Jesus Christ Superstar at the Hollywood Bowl. We will get to that performance with these long, pointy, scary looking nails and a million different piercings and we'll get to it if we have to. I have much more to say first though. Go to donewithdebt.com the American Dream looks different these days. You know what most people are dreaming about now? It's not the white picket fence anymore. They just want to get out of debt. If you're feeling crushed by rising costs, credit card bills that keep growing, and the constant stress of trying to keep your head above water, I get it. But here's the thing. There is a way out. Done With Debt has one simple mission to help you break free from debt for good. They're not going to try to sell you another loan or push you toward bankruptcy. What they do is send their experienced negotiators straight to your creditors to fight for you. They work to slash what you owe, get rid of those crushing interest charges and wipe out penalties. And they don't give up until your debt is actually gone. Here's what gets me excited. Most of their clients start seeing more money in their pocket within the first month. You've worked way too hard to let debt control your life. With Done With Debt, that dream of Being debt free, it's not just a dream anymore. It's something you can actually achieve. Go to donewithdebt.com, talk with one of their experts. It's completely free. Some of their solutions are time sensitive. Do not wait. Go to donewithdebt.com donewithdebt.com before we get to any of the other things in the news, including there's a big Christian pop star who says he was miraculously healed of a broken back. And there's a lot. There's a lot to get to. It was a long weekend. But before we get to that, obviously the most important story. We now know Sydney Sweeney's voter registration. Drum roll, please. If you're driving, pull over. If you're standing, sit down. She's not a Democrat. She's a Republican. BuzzFeed is reporting that Sydney Sweeney, after the whole American eagle backlash, has emerged to be a Republican. So I can't even just say she's not a Democrat because there are plenty of people who would say, well, I'm independent. Well, I don't. Neither party represents me. But apparently, according to buzzfeed, Sydney Sweeney is a registered Republican in Florida. She left California for Florida. That was probably the first clue. I'm not surprised by this at all. Apparently, some people are. Many people are saying, who cares? I don't care what Sydney Sweeney's voter registration is. But that's kind of rich coming from the party that has for 20 years said AD nauseam, politics is downstream of culture and we need to win back the culture. You wanna win back the culture, but you don't care what the celebrities are saying about politics. No, those two things can't be true at the same time. You obviously care what the celebrities say about politics. You say you don't care what celebrities think about politics only because the celebrities are always huge lib. So you say, well, I don't care about that. I'm going to minimize the effect of their political views. But it's good to have popular people, people like Sydney Sweeney, who are objects of affection for a great many men in this country. It's good to have these attractive people support your political side. Because we live in public life. They're public figures. Politics is about the public. So obviously true. I am not surprised she's a Republican at all. And I think the reason some people are surprised is, is that they don't understand a basic rule of thumb in Hollywood. And with good reason. I guess if you haven't spent time around Hollywood, you would have no reason to Know this rule of thumb in Hollywood. If a celebrity is not constantly braying about his left wing politics, he's a Republican. That's how you know. It's not that some celebrities constantly are mouthing off about politics on one side, and some celebrities are constantly mouthing off about the other side of politics. That's really not how it works. There are some exceptions, but generally speaking, they're all constantly braying and mooing and wooing about being huge libs and trying to get you to donate to Planned Parenthood and Vote for Bernie or whatever. And then there are some other celebrities who just don't talk about politics. Those celebrities are all Republicans. That's how you know. And there are other reasons that you could tell Sydney Sweeney is a Republican. She looks normal. She's very beautiful, but she looks like a normal, beautiful person. She seems generally happy much of the time. She hasn't mutilated her body in ways that express a hatred of her father. She's not just completely covered head to toe in tattoos with 150 different piercings everywhere. She's not. Her hair is a normal color. I don't know if it's a natural color, but it's a normal color. She's just kind of normal. And survey after survey, social science study after social science study shows that conservatives, and therefore Republicans, tend to be generally a little bit more content in life. They're not screaming and whining and crying about their families or the political order or ultimately reality. Which is what liberalism comes down to, is just rejecting reality and trying to liberate yourself from it. Now, last bit on this. Some people are gonna say, well, Sydney Sweeney's not a real conservative. She does these kind of sexy scenes and she showed too much skin in that American Eagle ad or what? I'm not saying she's Russell Kirk in a pair of blue jeans, okay? I'm not saying she's the blonde reincarnation of William F. Buckley, Jr. Okay? But she's a Republican. And there are plenty of people in the Republican Party who don't wear three piece tweed suits all the time, okay? And which is a good thing, because if the Republican Party only comprised people who wear three piece tweed suits and bow ties, we would never win any elections anywhere, including Dog catcher in the most right wing county in America. You need to bring in all these eccentric people, the Maha people and the trads and some of the right wing libertarians and the normal people and the people who don't think that much about politics and. And a handful of Rich people and a lot of not rich people. And you gotta bring in all sorts of people who don't have exactly the same views. So I'm into it. I love it. The woman who is considered probably the most beautiful, presently popular, attractive Hollywood starlet is a Republican. I'll take the win. I'll take yes for an answer. Okay. I know there are all sorts of malcontents on the right who must clutch defeat from the jaws of victory. I will take yes for an answer. One last point on American Eagle. American Eagle has finally responded to the nontroversy that their jeans commercial was apparently a call for a Fourth Reich and channeling the spirit of Goebbels and Hitler. A particularly funny claim given that the CEO and chairman of American Eagle is Jay Schottenstein. Not the most pro Hitler name I've ever heard. Seems like he's a member of a certain ancient nomadic tribe. But nevertheless, they were calling this guy a Nazi and accusing the advertisement of promoting eugenics. Eugenics, which they support when it founds Planned Parenthood, their favorite nonprofit. But eugenics, which the left hates when it promotes beautiful blonde ladies. This is what American Eagle had to say. Their first statement on the matter. Sydney Sweeney has great genesis, is and always was about the jeans. Her jeans. Her story will continue to celebrate how everyone wears their AE jeans with confidence, their way. Great jeans look good on everyone. There you have it. And I know a lot of people were worried. They said, oh no, American Eagle, don't back down. There's gonna be a cancel campaign. There's gonna be a lot of pressure, but don't back down. Don't cave to the woke mob. I hope they don't back down. They were never gonna back down. You know how I knew they were never gonna back down? Because they put out the commercial in the first place, which was not subtle. And you know why they put out the commercial in the first place. And you know why they weren't gonna back down. And you know why this was a successful ad. And you know why they issued this non apology? Because they saw what happened in November. That's why. We're good, guys. We're good. Woke is over. The particular expressions of woke, notably transgenderism, a lot of the race hustling, it's over. It doesn't work. Corporations that have boards that have Excel spreadsheets, that have men in suits and ties making cold calculations about what's gonna make them a marginal extra dollar, the corporations have concluded that WOKE liberalism, leftism, progressivism, is a loser. Good looking blonde Actresses wearing normal clothing, saying normal things. That's a winner. That's it. American Eagle did not not back down because we were all rooting for them. American Eagle chose not to back down out of a cold calculation, which is really, really great news. This is the winner, folks. In part, this is a generational thing too, because I think had it been just the millennials, this company would have had to back down. They couldn't have put the commercial out in the first place. But I think looking at the trends, Gen Z, it's a polarized generation. The ones who have gone left are really far left, like castrated themselves at 15 left. Though some have actually come back since then. But I think the broad trend with Gen Z is these people are to the right of Francisco Franco. This liberalism ain't selling. And if you want to get your jeans over the checkout counter, you gotta try a different tag. Okay, now, speaking of Republicans, a major Democrat figure, Eric Holder, he was the Attorney General for Barack Obama. He is claiming that Donald Trump is an authoritarian and is actively rigging the midterms. We will examine that major, major claim. Hold on one second. Before we get to any more very, very important stuff, you must go to Hillsdale. Edu Knowles. You ever hear the phrase that's unconstitutional? People toss that phrase around like confetti at a political rally. You hear it pretty much anywhere people gather to debate the issues of the day. But here's the thing. When someone drops that phrase, do you just nod along and take their word for it? Or have you ever actually cracked open the Constitution yourself to see what all the fuss is about? I think you should. And that is one of the many reasons that I'm thrilled about Hillsdale College's brand new free online course called the Federalist. You know those Federalist papers everyone references but few have actually read? They were penned by Alexander Hamilton and James Madison. And don't forget John Jay. To explain how our Constitution creates a government strong enough to protect our rights, yet safe enough to trust with power. Brilliant stuff. More relevant today than ever. Hillsdale breaks it down into 10 digestible 30 minute lectures that you can tackle whenever you want. No deadlines, no cost, no catch. Here's the bonus. They got over 40 other free courses waiting for you. From CS Lewis to ancient Rome to early church history. It's like having a world class education at your fingertips. It is having a world class education at your fingertips. Completely free. I love it. Hillsdale's one of the absolute top learning institutions in the entire country. And their courses are just Magnificent. The Federalist. I highly recommend course on CS Lewis. I highly recommend right now, go to Hillsdale Edu Knowles to enroll. No cost. Easy to get started. Go to Hillsdale Edu Knowles. Eric Holder making a major, major claim. He's saying that Trump is rigging the midterms. This is just an extension of the same threat to democracy line that we've heard about Trump for 10 years. But don't forget that that line, which says that Trump poses an existential threat to our republic, almost got him murdered twice, came within about a twentieth of an inch, blew off part of his ear in Butler, Pennsylvania. So this is a very serious accusation. Why is Eric Holder saying that Trump is rigging the midterms? Because down in Texas, group of legislators on a Texas House panel voted on Saturday to advance a new draft of a congressional map. You know, every number of years, the different states rewrite their congressional districts because people move into districts, they move out of districts, the balance of power shifts, and so they redraw the districts based on where people are actually living. Eric Holder says this is beyond the pale, authoritarian rigging of our elections.
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Eric Holder
Thank you for joining us this morning, Mr. Holder. You know, you've been leading an effort to stop gerrymandering. Now you say it's time to fight fire with fire. Why the turnaround? Well, I think we have to understand that the nature of the threat that has been put upon the country through what they're trying to do in Texas has really increased the danger to our democracy. And as a result of that, we've got to do things that perhaps in the past I would not have supported. This is an authoritarian move by the White House to try to make sure that they can rig the election, the midterm elections in 2026. And so I think that a Democratic response that is responsible, that is responsive and that is temporary, is appropriate, given these facts.
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Michael Knowles
If it's responsive, if it's responsible, if it's responserous, if it's responsorific, if it. Okay, you want Democrats to respond to what? That Republicans in the Texas legislature, who have the majority redrew the congressional maps in ways that might be good for Republicans, in ways that might just reflect the reality of the voter base, but that might also benefit Republicans. And you're saying this is beyond the pale. We have to do something to stop this. This is the rigging of our elections. This is the end of democracy. Okay. Even George Stephanopoulos, who was the hatchet man for Bill Clinton, even George Stephanopoulos, who was head of communications in the Bill Clinton White House. This guy is a Democrat operative through and through. Even he says, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Don't Democrats do the same thing?
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Eric Holder
You saw what Karl Rove, the former Republican strategist has said. He said, we've always had partisan redistricting. Thus it ever was, thus it ever will be. How is this different? Well, you know, simply because this is something that has afflicted the nation for, you know, an extended period of time doesn't mean that it's right there.
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Michael Knowles
We. Oh, yeah, I mean, sure, yeah, both parties have done it, but now it's bad. Now, as always, doesn't mean it's right. Now it's bad. Yeah, but Mr. Holder, you never had a problem with it when it was you Democrats rigging the congressional districts. You only have a problem with it now because you're accusing Republicans of doing that. JD Vance pointed this out. He pointed this out a few days ago actually, before Eric Holder made these comments. He said the gerrymander in California is outrageous. Of their 52 congressional districts, nine of them are Republican. That means 17% of of their delegation is Republican. When Republicans regularly win 40% of the vote in that state, how can this possibly be allowed? 40% of California among the voters is Republican. 17% of the legislators are. Come on. What's that? It's not just California though. What about. I'm gonna take you on a little trip around the country. Have you ever visited the 13th congressional district in the state of Illinois? No. You haven't? Okay, so CD 13 in Illinois. If you're just listening to this, it looks like it's almost a 90 degree angle. Starts in St. Louis, goes up, curves a tiny little bit, goes right. Looks like a pistol or something. This is through. I'm probably gonna mispronounce some of the names of these towns. Decatur, Springfield, Urbana Champaign. Why is this congressional district look like a weird snake? Well, because if it just were a plot, if it were a square or a circle or a normal looking shape, it would include a lot of Republicans and then the Democrats would lose a safe seat. So it just connects a bunch of disparate little Democrat strongholds to give Democrats the seat. Okay, let's leave Illinois. Let's go. We've been to California, We've been to Illinois. Let's go to Maryland. Maryland. CD6, they call this one the earmuff district. It looks like earmuffs. It's right over the top here. You got goes down on the left, it goes down a little bit on the right, it goes down A little bit snakes across the top of the state. Why? Because if it had a normal shape, Democrats could lose the seat. Let's go. You know what? Let's go back to Illinois for a second. This one is one of the weirdest ones I've ever seen. Illinois CD4. So Illinois CD4. Hold on. Is CD4 the earmuffs district? It's kind of confused. Yeah, no, here, I guess this is the. This is Illinois CD4. No, it doesn't look like earmuffs. This is very confusing. All the Democrat gerrymandered districts. CD4 looks like a big splotch. It looks like a birthmark or something. Starts in Chicago and. Yeah, there we go. It starts in Chicago, moves west a little tiny bit down to the south and then west. Then you meet up with this line, and then it cuts in the upper right into another splotch. It looks like a cancerous birthmark. Why? Because that way Democrats can hold the seat. Eric Holder not whining about that district, Maryland, the other Illinois, all of California, and many, many more. I don't have time to get through them all on the show. Thus it ever was, thus it will be. This is the best they've got against Trump right now. This is the best. It's sad actually, to see after 10 years of calling this man the reincarnation of Hitler. The best they've got to prove that Trump is an authoritarian beyond the pale of normal American politics is some state legislators around the country are gerrymandering, maybe sort of things that Democrats have put Republicans to shame to look at the most gerrymandered districts, you will see consistently, it's the Democrat districts. Republicans do it too, but. And it's their right to do it, by the way. That's a right that they have as legislators. That's the best they got. Okay, let's turn to other supposed authoritarians. Big news story. You're going to hear it. And since I'm one of the big promoters of this world leader, I want to address it on the show. Nayib Bukele, my favorite Latin American strongman. Bukele is the leader of El Salvador. He has just suspended term limits in El Salvador and slightly extended the term of the presidents, but he suspended term limits. And this has everyone saying he's a dictator. He's an authoritarian dictator because he can run for reelection. Someone posted. Some guy, I don't know. It's probably not even a real guy. It's probably just some operative Twitter account. He says if you admire the man on the left, that's naive Bukele more than the man on the right. That's Ukraine's Vladimir Zelensky. You're not a conservative, you're an authoritarian. If you like the leader of El Salvador more than you like the leader of Ukraine, you're not a conservative, you're an authoritarian. This is a hilarious line because only one of these men holds elections. Can you tell me which one it is? I'm going to tell this random Twitter account is not the guy on the right. It's actually the authoritarian, awful, fascist, dictator, right wing, whatever. He holds elections. The guy on the right does not. Volodymyr Zelensky. So that's the first part. What of getting rid of term limits. Do you know who else campaigned tirelessly to repeal term limits on presidents? Ronald Reagan. All these guys. All these people who insist in this really pedantic, condescending, nebbishy kind of way of the true conservative. I'm a true conservative. That's why I support whatever the liberals want to do in Ukraine or anywhere else, because I'm a true conservative. I practically support open borders because I'm a true conservative. Okay, okay, well, hold on now. You're a true conservative because you insist upon term limits for presidents. But all those true conservative conservatives, they all talk about Ronald Reagan as though he were an actual canonized saint. Saint Gipper. And yet Ronald Reagan, by the end of his presidential term, into his early retirement, which was unfortunately interrupted by an Alzheimer's diagnosis. But from the end of his second term, through the rest of his public life, Ronald Reagan campaigned tirelessly to repeal term limits because there is a term limit. I break with some of my right wingers when they insist on term limits for Congress or the Senate or for the president even. I see why they want the term limits because they think that these people can be corrupt. That's obviously true. I just think what they fail to see is that when you insist upon these term limits, all you do is empower the staffers and the lobbyists who can be even more corrupt than the electeds. I'm with Reagan. I'm with Reagan and Bukele and all the actual real conservatives who. One who support practical matters in elections and lowercase d Democratic politics, but who also realize that there is more to politics than just procedure. There are substantive goods. And if your political ideology leads you to ignore substantive goods in favor of some abstract procedure, then maybe you're not quite as conservative as you think. That's just my view. Okay, speaking of presidents, great, great announcement from the white House. The libs are furious, the panicans are humiliated. The plan trusters such as myself totally vindicated. Hold on one second. You need to go to PureTalk.comKnowles how many times have you told someone, if it ain't broke, don't fix it? That's true about most things. It's good advice, not always for your cell phone because over time the battery life fades, the processor can't keep up, it's fallen in the commode one too many times. Fortunately, thanks to PureTalk, your cell phone is something you can replace without feeling guilty. 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This is kind of a niche news story. But if you know, you know, if you know, you know, I'm just gonna read it directly from the Washington Post, which is freaking out about this. The White House has no current plans to mandate insurance coverage for in vitro fertility. I love this. I know there are gonna be many people listening to this show who support in vitro fertilization. Even if you do support in vitro fertilization, do you really think that the White House should be mandating that insurers cover it? Meaning mandating that people who disagree with in vitro fertilization who believe that in vitro fertilization is immoral, that they be forced to spend their money to pay for ivf? Come on, this is a big win. Look how upset the Washington Post is over this. Look at the commentary around this article on social media. It'll show you what side of this you should be on. This is a great move from the White House. Major win for bioethics Good policy move, good win for pro lifers, especially because I see why people. I see why people support ivf. We all know someone at this point, or at least know someone who knows someone who was conceived by ivf. And we are tempted, not at a rational level, but at an emotional level, to say, well, I like that my friend exists, so I have to support ivf. Well, my sister couldn't conceive, allegedly, and so she needed ivf. Allegedly. Again, I'm a little skeptical. Cause the minute you have fertility issues, you go to fertility clinic, they try to sell you ivf. And having gone through fertility struggles for a couple years, they were constantly trying to sell us ivf. We said, no, we're not doing that. Two years later, happily, we were able to get a kit. Doesn't work out for everybody, but a lot of people are told they need ivf, and they don't really. Yet they haven't exhausted the other options. But even beyond these practical considerations, let's just take that argument on its head. My nephew wouldn't exist without ivf, therefore I have to support ivf. And you're crazy if you don't support ivf. Okay, do you agree? Do you concede that while kids are good, it's good to have kids? Do you concede that there are some methods of conception that are immoral? Yes, Everyone would concede that rape is a method of conception that is immoral. No one would justify rape. No one would say rape should be legal. No one should say taxpayers should subsidize rape. But hey, I do know. I know someone who was conceived in rape. I know multiple people who were conceived in rape. Doesn't mean those people don't have a right to life. Doesn't mean they don't have the same human dignity as everybody else. Doesn't mean that it's not good that they exist. Doesn't mean any of that stuff. But likewise, no one would justify the means of their concept. We can be happy for their existence, but we don't need to try to justify the means of their conception when it's obviously immoral. What's another immoral means of procreation? Incest? I don't know. The list goes on and on. So if you grant that in principle my nephew wouldn't exist without IVF is not a sufficient argument for ivf because you grant in principle that there are some methods of conception that are immoral, then you need to come up with another argument. And I don't think you can, because this is no knock on people who support ivf. This is a novel technology and a novel moral issue that most people have not even really had the opportunity to consider deeply. But when you think about what IVF entails, practically speaking, practically speaking, it entails the murder of a lot of people, because it entails making a lot of human beings in little petri dishes and test tubes and then either killing them immediately or freezing them for a long time and then killing them. Or if you are pro life, if you think life begins at conception, you cannot possibly support ivf. IVF drastically increases the number of abortions by orders of magnitude. It can't. Doesn't make any sense. Beyond that, though, what else does IVF do? IVF commoditizes human life. It means you can go to the baby store and buy a baby, or not even just buy a baby, order a baby, custom order a baby. I want the baby to be this sex. I want the baby to have this kind of genetic background soon enough. I want the baby to be likely to be this tall, have this color eyes, have these. That's commoditizing human life. But human beings are not commodities to be bought and sold on an open market. This is a question that we were supposed to have resolved a while ago. That's another problem. IVF establishes the domination of science and technology over the origin and destiny of human life. Do you have the right, for every generation that follows you, to engineer them as though they were your science experiment rather than begotten of you, rather than the sort of thing that proceeds from you that you do not control? But as a subject with proper rights, of course not. There are many more things to say about ivf. I'll leave it there. As people are considering these bioethical implications, and on the point of the administration, I'll just point out some of my fellow pro lifers, some of my fellow social conservatives, bioethical conservatives, they've railed against Trump. Trump is. Oh, he's turning his back on the pro lifers. Oh, he's supporting abortion. Oh, he's supporting ivf. Oh, he's doing this. Oh, he's doing that. And I just said, yo, guys, yo, yo. He's the most successful pro life president in my lifetime. He's the first one to show up to the March for Life in person. He's the one who got Roe v. Wade overturned. He's got a good record. And so if he says something, he sends some tweet, he mentions something on the campaign trail. How about you just chill and give the guy a little bit of Grace. Cuz he's been your biggest advocate you've ever had in the White House. And how about you just maybe give him a little bit of grace? Because he keeps doing the right thing, even if sometimes the way he talks about it is confusing. Panicans yet again on so many issues. On immigration, on trade, on war, on now on bioethics. Panicans humiliated, I'm happy to say, plan trusters yet again vindicated. Okay, speaking of bioethics and life and death, this is an amazing about face from the New York Times. Headline from the New York Times. No, hold on. You know what? First, first I'm gonna read you a headline that I read on the show. No, no, get that off my screen. I want the headline that I read on the show a couple weeks ago or something. Here it is. A push for more organ transplants is putting donors at risk. Remember this? I covered this story a week or two ago. People across the United States have endured rushed or premature attempts to remove their organs. Some were gasping, crying, or showing other signs of life. So saying, hey, you check the box on your driver's license and then, you know, you get into a car accident, Your kid gets into a car accident, he's there, he's on life support, and then these scavengers go in and cut him open and take his organs out. And he might be twitching, he might be making sounds, he might be crying, saying, don't do that. But they say, no, it's a natural reaction, he's not really alive, whatever. They take his organs out. And I've pointed out for a long time that this is pretty Susan because it's based not on actual death, but on so called brain death, which is a dubious definition that came up in the 1960s to deal with emerging technologies and ideologies like this. But that death is when the soul leaves the body. That's what death is from a classical and medieval perspective. And brain death isn't really. That doesn't really seem like that. And so I said, this is a slippery slope. This is really bad. Not only were social and bioethical conservatives like me saying this, this got so bad even the New York Times said it. And then what, two weeks later, July 20, no, 10 days later, July 20 to July 30. Opinion essay. Donor organs are rare. We need a new definition of death. The New York Times admitting, hey, we're harvesting organs from living people. That's kind of scary, right? New York Times, 10 days later, hey, we need to harvest more organs from living people. Give me your organs. That was fast. But of course, that is the inevitable consequence of consequentialist ethics. That is the inevitable consequence of utilitarianism. Well, you know, look, you're all roughed up from this car accident. You might be in a wheelchair the rest of your life. Who knows? You might not even wake up. And we could give your organ to somebody who will walk for the rest of his life. So isn't it worth it? Doesn't he deserve your organ? That's how we think about it. That's how the New York Times thinks about it. Now, this is what happens when we tell lies. Our present understanding of brain death is a lie, because at least some of the time, it's not really death. So a thing that is not death, we call death, and we act as though it is death. And we do that in order to be able to accrue some of the benefits that we get from people's actual death. And it can be for the best of intentions because you want to save some kid who needs an organ transplant or something. It could be for the best of intentions. The road to hell is paved with good intentions, and this is it. Just keep this image seared in your mind. Because when we talk about the slippery slope, when we talk about, oh, well, you know, if you make this moral compromise and you do this immoral thing here, it's going to lead down the road to bad consequences. People say, oh, forget about your slippery slope. Ten days, kids. Ten days. Wow. A push for more organ transplants is putting donors at risk of having their organs harvested while they're living. We need to harvest their organs while they're living. Same paper, 10 days now. Speaking of the liberal media, a major liberal media journalist has left the Washington Post, and the reason why is just delicious. We'll get to that in a moment. First, you've asked for years in thousands of comments. Yes, we actually read them. At least some of them. When is Jordan going to answer our questions again? Not celebrities, not headlines, just real people with real problems looking for real answers. Now he is. Jordan B. Peterson's new series, Answer the Call, is going back to where this all started. To speak directly to the people who need it most. You. This is your chance to ask Jordan questions that keep you up at night. Get new episodes of Answer the Call every Monday on the Jordan B. Peterson Podcast. My favorite comment Yesterday is from LMS2379 who says, Michael successfully injects common sense into philosophy. That's very kind of you to say philosophy is common sense and should be common sense and was understood to be common sense for most of the history of philosophy. What was philosophy? What is the original image that we in the west have of philosophy? It's Socrates walking around Athens just talking to people, talking to people in a commonsensical way and asking them questions. That's what philosophy was. That is actually the ideal of philosophy. And he wasn't standing there at a chalkboard. He didn't use a lot of jargon. He wasn't writing 25,000 page books. He was just walking around talking to normal people, asking them questions. And that was philosophy. It was sometimes more formalized, especially into the scholastics, but that basically was philosophy through antiquity, through those Middle Ages and the Scholastics, up until modernity, when. And there was a big shift here with Karl Marx because Marx said philosophy has sought to understand the world, but I want to change the world in the 11 theses on Feuerbach. But it's not just Marx and it actually predates Marx a little bit. Philosophy starts to get a little absurd, get a little jargony, get very, very abstract, but abstract in a way that's not merely able to model reality, but is actually divorced from reality. But real good philosophy for most of this degree of philosophy has been complementary to common sense. Okay, speaking of the liberal media, Jonathan Capehart. Jonathan Capehart is leaving the Washington Post. He is a major liberal journalist. Here is why. Folks will have noticed that we introduced you slightly differently tonight than we usually do. We should point out after nearly two decades at the Washington Post, you recently made the decision to leave. I just wanted to give you a chance to speak directly to our audience to tell them why.
- [39:19]
Jonathan Capehart
Well, the direction of the opinion section changed. Jeff Bezos, the owner of the Washington Post, as is his right, decided that he wanted the section to focus on the twin pillars of personal liberties and free markets. And it became clear as time went along, and especially when he chose a new leader for the section, that there was just not going to be any room for a voice like mine. Especially when we were told that we would have to be unapologetically patriotic in talking about the positive things happening in the country.
- [39:53]
Michael Knowles
So there it is. Take out. He says, look, I want the page to be a little more pro free markets. Okay, whatever. But pages have a slant and some people disagree with it. And I don't. You see what really gets him riled up here? You saw the ask that was simply too great. That's when he said, hey, journalists, you need to be patriotic. He asked two things. He said, you need to be patriotic and you need to talk about positive things about the country. I don't even think he said exclusively. Sometimes you have to make any positive observation about the country, and you have to love your country, not hate your country. That was too much to ask. This guy, Jonathan Gabor. I'm out. I have to be a patriot. I'm out. I have to say. Any positive thing about America ever, even once? Nope. I would rather lose my job than do such a thing. Is it too much? There are gonna be some people who say, well, actually, a journalist should be totally neutral and above everything and indifferent to all. And he just needs. He can't be a patriot. Good grief. No one can be neutral about everything. We're not blank slates. We're not a tabula rasa. We're human beings. We have desires. We have prejudices, we have affections, we have loyalties. We have bonds of kinship. We have countries. You can tell the truth while being a human being. It is possible. Can liberal journalists tell the truth? No. And they go even further. They can't even tell the truth about being human beings. Okay, well, he's out. See ya. I've gotta get to the story that I wanted to avoid. Cynthia Erivo. Cynthia Erivo, she's this actress, looks a little bit funny sometimes. She's an actress. I'm not commenting even on her natural appearance. I'm saying she. Sometimes in performances, she has really long points, pointy, scary nails, lots of. Tons of. Tons of piercings, hunched over. And that's how Cynthia Erivo, a woman, decided that she would play Christ in Jesus Christ superstar at the Hollywood Bowl. Waiting for you. Yeah, they're waiting for you. Every time I look at you, I don't understand why you let the things you did get so out of hand. You'd manage better if you had. That's enough. That's all I need of the performance. You know the one thing I'll say for Cynthia Erivo? She is striking looking, which is helpful for actors. It is. And Brando is striking looking. Okay. What does the director say? Cynthia's brilliant. Her voice, presence and simultaneous power and vulnerability absolutely blows my mind. And working with her has been a dream. I'm excited by the challenge of presenting the audience with a production led by a female black Jesus and encourage the audience to expand their minds a bit. Originally utilizing rock and roll, Jesus Christ Superstar is supposed to provoke and challenge. That's the point. And shouldn't the teachings of Jesus transcend gender? And this is going to convince some Christians because obviously Christ's teachings. Well, it's not that they transcend gender. It's that they speak to both genders. They speak to men and to women. But even if. Let's just grant the premise Christ's teaching transcends gender. Christ does not transcend gender. And this is a real stumbling block for people. Christ does not transcend gender in that Christ is a man. Christ has a holy Mother, the Virgin Mary. The whole story isn't all just men, but Christ is a man. And this is the part that is just impossible for people to understand. This has been, and especially in the fullest extent in the crucifixion. This has been a stumbling block in foolishness. This is just to quote 1 Corinthians, chapter 1:20 to 25. Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of his age? Of this age has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom. But we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles. But to those who are called both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. This is the key here. Here St. Paul is writing about the crucifixion, but we can extend this even to the whole of the Incarnation. This is a stumbling block to Jews, because in the Jewish understanding, God's not supposed to be a man. This is folly to Gentiles. This is ridiculous to Gentiles. Not just that, as St. Paul is describing, that God can be crucified, but how can God be crucified? Because God has a human nature in Christ, a divine nature and a human nature together. And that means Christ is a man. Which means he looked like something. And he didn't look like Cynthia. He looks like something, I should say. But during his sojourn on earth, he looked a certain way. Glorified body looks a little bit different too. But in the Resurrection. But he doesn't look like Cynthia. Eriva. He does, in the sense that we're all human beings. But he is a certain height, He's a certain sex, he has certain hair. He is a certain race. He's particular. There is a particularity to God that is a fact of the Christian faith, a fact revealed in the Christian faith that is a stumbling Block to Jews and folly to gentiles. And all these people, these directors, oh, how wise they are. Imagine though, what if Christ were Cynthia Erivo. And again, it's not even just about her natural appearance. It's the long pointy nails. It's all of the mutilations, all of the, the piercings and all the rest of it being hunched over it's presentation that I think is intentionally or unintentionally looks. Doesn't quite look divine. That's the issue. And it comes out of a scandal. All these wise people. Imagine if. But listen, I'm going to show you how smart we are. Imagine if Christ were a woman. Imagine if. Imagine if. Yeah, that sounds to me like the thought of the wise man, the scribe, the debater of this age. But the foolishness of God is wiser than men. Okay, now, speaking of Christianity, one story I have to get to. This was called to my attention by my very hip, cool, pop culture oriented Protestant producer, Mr. Davies. Have you heard of Forrest Frank? Is that the name? Am I getting the name right? I'm not intentionally getting it wrong, Mr. Davies. That's correct, Forrest Frank Forest Frank is a pop musician and he has a song that just hit number one everywhere, I guess Lemonade. And he wrote another song recently while he was waylaid. And it's called God's Got My Back. And he wrote that song because this guy was skateboarding. He's got blonde tips, he's always smiling, kind of funny facial hair, and writes pop guitar songs about worship. This man, he is the most perfect American protestant there has ever been. So but here's the story. He's waylaid. He writes this song, broke his back, now is claiming a miraculous healing. Guys.
- [48:45]
Forrest Frank
Do you want to tell them?
- [48:46]
Michael Knowles
What do you mean? I'll tell him.
- [48:48]
Eric Holder
Guys.
- [48:50]
Forrest Frank
So I broke my back. Exactly two weeks ago is today day 14. Got an X ray and a CAT scan. It showed that I had multiple fractures, could not move an inch without excruciating pain. You wait, I wake up today, forget to put on my back brace. Just start doing the morning I pick Bodhi up. And then I realized, wait, I'm not wearing my brace. What is going on? I'm wearing my brace right now. For a precaution, order an urgent X ray. Go get the X ray. I have complete healing in my back. I have no fractures in my back. No, no sign of a fracture in my back. So praise God, we saw a miracle.
- [49:35]
Michael Knowles
Mwah. This is pretty cool, huh? As I mentioned, I'm not familiar with this guy. Whenever I hear claims of a miracle, it's not even that I'm skeptical. It's just that I want more information. I want to test all natural hypotheses first. I'm not calling the guy a liar. I don't know, he seems like a very nice guy. For me, I have stuffier musical tastes. When I want Protestant praise and worship music, I turn to Johann Sebastian Bach. But this guy writes some bops. There's no doubt about it. Obviously, 50 million Frenchmen can't be wrong. But it is entirely possible that this guy had a miraculous healing. And this calls to mind St. Thomas teaching on miracles. Which is one, do miracles exist? The answer is yes. Why is that? Because miracles are supernatural, so they go beyond the natural order. Now, if you even just acknowledge that the natural order exists, you know, time and space and stuff and all that, if you acknowledge that the natural order rests upon something or someone, if you acknowledge that the natural order is not sufficient to explain itself and its origins and its continuation, then you are granting, using your natural reason from the natural order, that there is such a thing as a supernatural order. You are looking beyond nature, given the evidence that you have from nature. Okay, so miracles can in principle happen. If you're a Christian, you think miracles certainly happened in the Bible, the Old Testament, the New Testament, the Book of Acts. Do they happen today? I think they do. The Christian tradition is that they do happen today. I see evidence of miracles all over the place. One of these might be too. So then what are miracles? Well, miracles are ways to point beyond the natural order to the supernatural order. You can know some things about God just from nature, like God's existence, but you can know other things about God from the supernatural order. And St. Thomas in the Summa Theologiae, in the Summa Secunda Secunde, I think it's question 178 says that there are two kinds of miracles. Miracles that are wrought to point to the holiness of an assertion, and miracles that are wrought to point to the holiness of an individual person. So there's one. And he describes St. Jerome, I think, writing about the gospel of St. Matthew, where it says people who are imperfect, people who are even downright bad people, can perform miracles calling on the name of Christ. And when they call on the name of Christ, miracles can happen. And that is to show the power of Christ. Nothing about the person through whom the miracle happens, but the power of Christ. God's power is far greater than our weaknesses. He says there's a second way, which is to point to the holiness of a person. Here he points to the book of acts where St. Paul is. You know, people are touching handkerchiefs to him and then bringing it to sick people and feeling the relic or the handkerchief heals the person. And that's to point to the sanctity of Paul and the authority that Paul has in Christ. But those are two distinct ways in which miracles happen, both of which point ultimately to God's glory, to the reality of Christ and God's glory and the authority of, well, the authority of the mystical body of Christ, the authority of the church. And so getting to what we were just talking about with Cynthia Erivo, a real scandal for people is the particularity of Christianity. God's a man and he has a mother, and he has apostles who pick successors and he establishes a church and he gives people particular power and particular sacraments. And it's also particular. And that's just for the Greeks, who are so waylaid by philosophy, abstract philosophy. They don't like the particularity of it. And for the Jews as well, they don't like the imminence of it. But it's forever. So it's everyone, Jew and Greek. That's everybody. And yet there you have it. That's how God chooses to reveal himself. And he reveals himself in very particular ways and in particular miracles and maybe even a miracle to Mr. Forest Frank. Okay, today is Music Monday. Speaking of music, the rest of the show continues now. You don't want to miss it. Become a member Use code Knowles Ken at WLES at checkout for two months free on all annual plans. Like many of you out there, I enjoy shooting guns in my free time and in my busy time. Now I thought I had it pretty good until my friends over at Silencer Shop showed me what I was missing. Shooting suppressed is not just quieter, it's just all around better. Less noise, less recoil. A lot more fun. Once you try it. You will wonder how you ever shot guns without silencers. Your ears, your range, neighbors, your aim, all of those things will thank you. 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