Michael Knowles (2:47)

Hi, Grandma.

Grandma (AI App Voice) (2:48)

Hey, Charlie. How was school today?

Michael Knowles (2:50)

It was really fun. I made this crazy shot in basketball.

Grandma (AI App Voice) (2:53)

I don't really care that much about basketball. What about the crush?

Michael Knowles (2:57)

Stop, Grandma, stop talking.

Grandma (AI App Voice) (2:58)

Just tell me one thing.

Michael Knowles (2:59)

Look who's gonna be a great grandmother.

Grandma (AI App Voice) (3:01)

Oh, Charlie, congratulations.

Michael Knowles (3:05)

She says that he's been kicking a lot, though, like a little too much.

Grandma (AI App Voice) (3:09)

Tell her to put her hand on her tummy and hum to him. You loved that.

Michael Knowles (3:17)

You would have loved this moment.

Grandma (AI App Voice) (3:19)

You can call anytime.

Michael Knowles (3:21)

You can call anytime, Charlie. You can summon the dead whenever you like, Charlie. And just remember, your grandma tells you to worship idols. That's right, Charlie. What was that, Grandma? Oh, no, nothing, Charlie. I was talking about baking cookies and how you need to get down on your knees and worship the devil. Charlie. What? Well, my grandma's telling me to. This is creepy, man. It's really creepy. It's obviously very psychologically damaging, and I want to approach whatever servers. No, people. I'm talking about whatever technology is housing this app, and I want to explode it with a nuclear bomb. I hate this so much. I couldn't possibly hate it more. The one thing I'll give to the necromancy app is that it is the smartest, strongest way I have ever seen to get someone to continue a subscription. You know, when I want to cancel my audible subscription, it says, oh, well, don't you want to keep reading? Not really. Well, if you cancel, you're going to lose your credits for audiobooks. Oh, well, I don't want to lose my credits. Well, if you. And they give you all these inducements when you try to cancel, in this one, they say, hey, are you sure you want to cancel? Because then you'll murder your mom forever. You'll never get to talk to your mom again. Or your grandma or whatever. You sure you want to kill your grandma? I don't. Well, you better keep giving us $12.99 a month. You want grandma to stay? Please, Charlie, don't kill me. Give me your $13 a month, please. Oh, really horrifying. And the N word keeps coming up. Obviously, the essential part of this app is the N word, necromancy. And for a lot of modern people, they're gonna say, oh, you're exaggerating. Oh, you're being a catastrophist or something. This isn't actually necromancy. You're not actually summoning the dead. But I guess what I would have to ask to the modern materialist atheist is, what's the difference? To you? What's the difference? Because necromancy is when you summon the dead for the purposes of divination, to tell you something about the future or to, I don't know, answer a question or just out of curiosity, which can become a sin. And the Bible is pretty clear. The Bible says, don't do that. Don't summon the dead. Don't engage in divination for all sorts of reasons. Cause you don't wanna be like, talking to demons. You don't want to compromise your free will. Death has a purpose. And if you want to overcome death, I got great news for you. There's a way to do it. There is a man who is God, who died on the cross and conquered death. And if we believe in him, we can have eternal. But the false idols that are promising you eternal life are. They're not gonna come through for you in the end. They're gonna really screw you up. Whether we're talking about seances or psychics or mediums or necromancy apps. But the question that I would ask to the modern, materialist, atheist type person is, what's the difference? Because for you, you're saying human beings don't have souls. There's no life after death. Our loves, our joys, our thoughts, our everything are just illusions. Actually, we're big bags of meat. We're just chemicals and physical matter. And inasmuch as we think we have thoughts and desires, it's really just pistons firing off in our head. So I guess then the question is, what's the difference between Grandma on the app and the real Grandma? It's just the same difference as between the real grandma and the spirit that you call through the medium or whatever, through the traditional understanding of necromancy. When you summon. You have a seance or something, and you supposedly summon the ghost of Grandma. I'm so furious about this, I'm knocking over my microphone. When you have a seance or something and you supposedly summon the ghost of Grandma, which in reality means you probably do nothing or summon a demon. What are you doing? You don't think that's, like, truly Grandma in as much as there's no physical body, it's just like the kind of spirit or some, you know, some more ethereal version of Grandma. Well, it's the same thing in the app. Yeah. It's not literally grandma in the sense that there's no body, but for all intents and purposes, it's the same thing. Really, really bad. And I guess my final question on this, I want to acknowledge that people will be tempted to do this because they miss their dead relatives. That's what the app is preying on. Just like people have been tempted to necromancy. Remember there was a show 15, 20 years ago, crossing over with John Edwards, and there's this guy who said that he could speak to the dead, and all these people who were grieving would go to his show and he would prey on them and he would make them think that he was speaking to their dead relatives. That's a totally unnatural temptation. All sin involves natural temptations. I understand the allure of doing a ton of drugs and sleeping around with a bunch of women and gambling and I don't know, I understand the allure of all those kinds of sins, but what good can come of that? As far as I can tell, it would lead you if you were to use this app, it would just lead you to harp more on the fact that your loved ones are no longer really with you. You can't hug them, you can't hold them. You can't have a real. The unreality of it would be sadder than kind of joy of pretending you're seeing some simulacrum of your relative. And what it would ultimately do is turn you away from the actual way that we can have eternal life. And there's only one way that we can do that, and it ain't through an app. Now, speaking of AI the number one Billboard charting song right now was generated by AI by an AI creation called Breaking Rust. The song Walk My walk been beat.

AI Song Vocalist (9:24)

Down but I don't stay low Got mud on my jeans still ready to go Every scars a story that I survived I've been through hell but I'm still alive they said slow down boy don't go too fast But I ain't never been one to live in the past I keep moving forward, never looking back With a worn out hat and a six string stretch you can kick rocks if you don't like how I talk I'm gonna keep on talking and walk my walk Ain't changing my tone, ain't changing my song? I was born this way, been loud too long? You can hate my style, you can roll your eyes but I ain't slowing down I was born to rise so kick them rocks if you don't like how I talk I'm gonna keep on talking and walk my wall.

Michael Knowles (10:27)

Everyone hates this. I don't really hate it. Everyone hates it. I don't really hate it. I hate the necromancy app. I hate summoning the demon ghost of grandma through your cell phone. But this thing doesn't bother me at all. Doesn't bother me at all. Because as far as popular music goes, it's actually pretty good. It sounds fine. And because of the state of popular music, it doesn't really bother me. AI should not be able to write a poem or a song, I guess, like a really good song. But let's just take the lyrics AI should not be able to write a poem. Because to write poetry involves two things. It involves sensual experience, and it involves taking metaphors that have become dead and revivifying them. You know, coming up with new metaphors that allow you to understand the world in a new way, to see the world in a new way. There's an excellent lecture on this by Jory Graham out of Harvard. And she's explaining why Wallace Stevens is a good poet and Walt Whitman is a terrible poet. And part of it is the sensuality of it. In the poetry of Wallace Stevens, when he's describing some piece of nature, a grape or something like that, you experience the sensual phenomena. Whereas with Walt Whitman, he's just dealing in ideas. So he doesn't really give you a place to see. And the whole point of art and poetry is to have a sensual experience. If it were just about ideas, if it were just about the moral of the story, say you could read an essay, then the proper medium for communicating that would not be art. It would be some essay or book or something like that. Same thing with the metaphors. Our language basically comes about because we have these vivid images, and then they become dead metaphors. And then we use them. You say so, and so is hoisted with his own petard. No one really knows what that means. Most people don't know what petard even means. It's like a bomb. You get thrown off with your own bomb. But we just use it. It's just become a dead metaphor. It means nothing. What poetry does is it creates these new metaphors that we understand. Okay? AI should not be able to do that because AI doesn't have any senses. You have eyes and taste and smell and feel and everything. AI doesn't have that. AI is just a computer program. Likewise, AI Large language models are just running on all the language, all the metaphors. So the one thing it should not be able to do is create new metaphors. And so I understand people's hostility to the AI Number one song. Obviously, some people like it. It hit number one on Billboard. But I guess because popular music is already so derivative, because it's already such weak poetry, because, frankly, I think that the AI Is doing it better than most of the human artists. And that's fine. I don't think it. In principle, I don't think it can ever beat the actually great human artists. And so, all right, that's fine. If we're just gonna have slop pop music anyway. I'd rather have it made by an app than by some. I don't know, kind of degenerate mediocrity. Now, speaking of degeneracy, I want to get to the Epstein files. First though, I want to tell you about Crowd health. Go to joincrowdhealth.com, use code knowles. It is open enrollment season. Insurance companies are betting that you will just auto renew without asking questions. But you're smarter than that. If you're tired of overpriced premiums and confusing fine print, there is a better way. CrowdHealth is a community where people fund each other's medical bills directly. No middlemen, no networks, no nonsense. Stop playing the insurance game. Take control of your healthcare. With CrowdHealth, you get healthcare coverage for under $100 a month. And that is not some bare bones plan with a million exceptions. That includes access to a dedicated team of health bill negotiators who fight on your behalf, discounted prescriptions and lab tests that actually save you money, and a vetted database of affordable high quality doctors handpicked by crowd health. If something major happens, you only pay the first 500 bucks and the crowd steps in to help fund the rest of your medical expenses. It is what healthcare felt like before everything got over complicated by corporate middlemen. A real community of people who actually want to help each other with unexpected medical events. You are not just another policy number in some faceless corporation's database. So far, crowd health members have saved over $40 million in healthcare expenses because they simply refuse to overpay for care. The system is counting on you staying stuck in the same overpriced, overcomplicated mess year after year. Do not give them the satisfaction this open enrollment. Take your power back. Join CrowdHealth to get started today for 99 bucks for your first three months using code Knowles Canada W L e s@joincrowdhealth.com that is joincrowdhealth.com Code Knowles Crowd health is not insurance. Opt out. Take your power back. This is how we win. Joincrowdhealth.com Four Republicans are joining the effort, which is almost exclusively led by Democrats, Democrats and Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky, to make the Justice Department release all the Epstein files. At this point, I'm not even sure what the Epstein files are. However, the one thing that I'm certain of, and I've said this from the beginning, and it's not popular, but it's true. We currently know everything that we are ever going to know about Jeffrey Epstein and we've known it for six months or a year or two years. Everything that you are ever going to know about Jeffrey Epstein, you already know. Because if what we're all hearing from, not just the government, but from, I don't know, all the established authorities, if that's all true, that Jeffrey Epstein was just some weird sex freak and that's it, he was a rich sex freak, he wasn't a super duper spy, he was just a weird sex freak, then we already know that. And if Jeffrey Epstein were a double, triple super agent James Bond guy running all sort of clandestine evil programs for various governments, if that were the case, we'll never find out. Those documents don't exist anymore. The people who would reveal it are dead. We're not gonna find out. That's not how the government works. But there are some Republicans who wanna join with most of the Democrats and Thomas Massie, who is a political enemy of Trump within the Republican Party, who President Trump is trying to primary, and they wanna release the files. Now I think Stephen A. Smith, a Democrat, had the best take on this. Ladies and gentlemen, keep in mind that the Epstein files were in existence and free to have been open during the Biden administration. You were there for four years. How come you didn't open it as a Democratic Party then? What am I missing? What am I missing? It's a great question. I made this point, actually. We filmed bar fight last night. It was a lot of fun. We'll try to have that out asap. And at one point at the very end, the Epstein files came up and I said, the guys are trying to insinuate that Trump was seriously implicated in the Epstein files. And I have it on good authority that obviously he comes up because he knew Epstein. But even very serious Democrats have told me he's not seriously implicated in any way. But I guess my point was if Trump were seriously implicated in the Epstein files, don't we think that Biden would have released it? Don't we think that the party that prosecuted Trump four times, that tried to kick him off the ballot and that raided his home and that justified his near assassination, don't we think those guys, if they had some real good dirt on them, would have used it? Of course they didn't. And then to Stephen A's point, if it were such a big deal that we have to release the files, why weren't the Democrats pushing for this when Biden was pressed a year ago? Why weren't they pushing for this? Or the handful of Republicans who are really, why weren't they pushing for. Seems to me it's just kind of a political op. Because I Guess the question is, what is the real accusation? Is the accusation that Trump was. Trump is some, like, pedophile or something? Give me a break. It's totally ridiculous. There's zero reason to believe that at all and many reasons not to believe that. Is the accusation that there are a lot of rich guys who palled around with Epstein? Yeah. Okay, I believe that. Would I like to know more about the Epstein case? Yeah. Do I think that Jeffrey Epstein just accidentally killed himself? No. Are there all sorts of inconsistencies in the handling of Jeffrey Epstein? Yes. Are there reasons to believe that he was, at the very least used by intelligence agencies? Yeah, totally. But, like, what are you gonna get out of the files? What does that mean? I just don't. I think this is largely a distraction. I'm not saying it's an open and shot case. I don't believe that for a second. But I think the files think the fact that this is being led almost exclusively by Democrats and Trump's chief rival, chief opponent in the Republican Party tells you this is a distraction. And what's it a distraction from? Is it a coincidence that the Dems are pushing this Epstein file thing immediately after their stupid shutdown failed? No, I don't think that's a coincidence at all. I think the shutdown itself was an attempt to distract from Democrats big problems like crime in cities. The shutdown itself was a way to say, man, we're on the wrong side of every 80, 20 issue, basically, other than healthcare. So we're gonna shut the government down, which is a tactic that has always worked for us. And we're ostensibly gonna do it on the issue of healthcare, which is the closest thing we have to a winning issue right now, and then maybe public opinion will turn for us. And that didn't happen. Trump was not really blamed for the shutdown. Their arguments on healthcare completely flopped. And Republicans pointed out they actually were supporting healthcare for illegal aliens. So they gave up on that. And then two seconds later, they're trying to change the conversation back to Epstein. That's what I think. I would just like some more specificity on exactly what's supposed to happen. Do I want to know more about how he died? For sure. Do I want to know more about his connection or lack of connections to intelligence agencies? Definitely. Are we gonna get that in the files? No. No chance. No chance. I suppose I could be proven wrong. Please prove me wrong. Read all the stupid files. I said this when the JFK files came out. Said anything real, anything juicy that could pertain to JFK is not gonna be in the files. So read. Good. Good. And people attacked me for it. Good. Have you guys finished reading the 80,000 pages yet? You find anything juicy? No. Same thing with the Epstein files. But please prove me. I'd love to be proven wrong. Okay. Speaking of foreign affairs, various intelligence agencies. A former member of Al Qaeda has just met with President Trump in the oval office and President Trump gave him some cologne in a very funny interaction. We will get to that momentarily. What it all means first though, I want to tell you about Preborn. Go to Preborn.comKnowles A recent Danish study found something deeply concerning. Just one year after an abortion, women were 50% more likely to need psychiatric treatment and 87% more likely to experience personality or behavioral disorders. These are not just statistics. They represent real women facing real struggles. That is why preborn takes a different approach. When a woman walks through their doors uncertain and afraid, she finds something she may not have expected. Support through an ultrasound. She meets her baby for the first time. And suddenly what felt like an impossible situation begins to look different. But preborn doesn't stop there. When a woman chooses life, they walk alongside her for up to two years, providing practical help like maternity clothes, diapers, ongoing counseling and emotional support. It is care for the whole person, addressing her physical needs, her mental health and her future. As you think about your year end giving, consider the greatest investment you could ever make. The gift of Life. Dial pound250 say keyword baby b a b y that is pound250 keyword baby or visit preborn.comKnowles Knes all gifts are tax deductible. Preborn is a five star rated charity. I personally donate to preborn and I recommend you do as well. It's a great charity. Preborn.com knowleskanaw L E S to make a difference for generations to come. Ahmed Hussein Al Shara who is the president of Syria. After Bashar Al Assad was ousted from Syria, he just met with President Trump in the Oval Office. Ahmed Hussein Al Sharah created Al Nusra front with Al Qaeda. He was a member of Al Qaeda in Iraq. It's kind of weird to see Al Qaeda members in the Oval Office. Here's their interaction. This is men's.

AI Song Vocalist (23:22)

Men's fragrance.

Michael Knowles (23:27)

This is. It's the best fragrance. Good morning. I have more here, sir.

AI Song Vocalist (23:36)

Okay, so what we'll do is just.

Michael Knowles (23:39)

Take that, Joe, put it in and then the other one is here.

Grandma (AI App Voice) (23:42)

Your wife.

Michael Knowles (23:43)

How many wives? All of them were in Syria. All right. I don't want to wait for the translation you get. You get the point. He goes, I love. I love the double joke. He goes at the top, he goes, all right, I'm gonna spray this cologne on you. You're a Middle Easterner. You probably wear a bunch of cologne, which is true. They do. They do. I actually have a cologne from the Middle east called Passion of the Desert Shake. They do. They do. They smell fragrant. But then he goes, and here, I've got some perfume for your wife. How many wives do you have? I only have one wife, sir. Oh, yeah, One wife. Okay. I don't know. You never know with you people. I love it. I love it. I love the guy. I don't know how you don't love the guy. But let's get back to the bigger question, which is why is a member of Al Qaeda in the Oval Office? Member of Al Qaeda is in the Oval Office because he's the new president of Syria because the old president of Syria got booted out. And this kind of gets back to the broader discussion of geopolitics, America's role as a nation or an empire. Israel has become a huge flashpoint in all of this. And the reason that that guy. That. That al Qaeda guy is in the Oval Office right now is because Israel and Turkey went in and ousted the old guy and because the United States has supported groups that have tried to oust the old guy, which was Bashar al Assad. And Bashar al Assad was, you know, as far as leaders of Syria go, he wasn't all that bad. But Bashar al Assad was not allied with the United States and American allies, like our NATO ally Turkey, or like our longtime ally Israel, or like any. Bashar al Assad was allied with Russia and Iran. And so that wasn't great for our geopolitical imperial position. And so we ousted him, and now we have this guy in here. And I know it's kind of weird, but politics makes for really strange bedfellows. And so when people ask all the time, they say, you know, what do we care about Syria for? What do we care about Israel and Gaza for? What do we care about Venezuela for? That's a new one that's coming up because it looks like we're gonna go to war with Venezuela. What do we care about? I don't know, all these other place. The simple answer is we are an empire. We just are. We're a global empire. I talked about this the other night in my Belmont Abbey speech, which is available on YouTube if you want to check it out. And we are. And empires have territories and provinces and nation states that are allied with them and that are opposed to them and says nothing about the individuals there. It's not even based, really on morality. It's just based on how the world shakes out. And in this case right now, the guy who was in Al Qaeda in Iraq, the guy who founded Al Nusra front with Al Qaeda, he just, like, kind of happens to be on our side. And, you know, Saddam Hussein used to be on our side. There's pictures of Don Rumsfeld meeting with Saddam Hussein, and then he stopped being on our side, and that's just what happens. And it is scandalous. You know, I've had friends say, why was an Al Qaeda guy in the Oval Office? Why are we making deals with the Taliban? Why are we. And the answer is, because geopolitics is really messy and ugly, and there are alliances, and there are all sorts of great debates and conversations to be had on whether an alliance with this country or that country is actually benefiting us. Maybe the other country's getting more of the better end of the deal than we are. Maybe we need to re. But I guess my whole point on this is if you do not at the very least begin with the observation that, yes, we're a global empire, and, yeah, we have interests overseas. And that's just if you're starting from the place that we need to just retreat to our own borders and become a yeoman republic or whatever, at that point, you're so disconnected from reality that practical political arguments don't really pertain. Just go to an ivory tower somewhere. Go talk about political theory in the abstract, but in practice, yeah, we're gonna meet with an old Al Qaeda guy, and if you're Trump, he's gonna charm him and schmooze him and kind of make fun of him a little bit and dominate him and spray him with cologne because he's a Middle Easterner and ask how many wives he has. Okay, speaking of religion, some good news in our religion, not the other religion, but ours. Bible sales are up 36% since Charlie Kirk's assassination. And that is a real silver lining. But this is. According to Wall Street Journal reporting, Bible sales soared 36% starting in September, and they continue to be up. This is based on data from the publishing sales tracker Circana Bookscan. This is irrefutable evidence of the Charlie Church bump. And a lot of people were saying after Charlie was assassinated that they noticed more people coming to church, checking it out. I get stopped on the street by people who say, hey, Michael, you were friends with Charlie. He changed my life. Or we're seeing more people at church. It's really, really important that in a storm cloud, you want to find a little bit of a silver lining. This is not totally new. This is based on a trend that was already happening. The decline of Christianity had already started to level off. People were beginning to explore. People were beginning to say, well, what do these eternal questions mean? I think technology is a big part of that. Getting us back to the horrifying AI app. I think the fact that technology is changing means that we're gonna reevaluate who we are and our position in the cosmos. This has always happened. You know, when the printing press came out, there were all sorts of theories about impression. You know, the notion that what we see is kind of printed onto us and leaves a mark on our soul. When the steam engine came out, that gave us Freudian psychology. There's no Freudian psychology without the steam engine. The notion that we have to blow off a little steam, the theories of repression and all the rest. When the computer came out, we had all sorts of theories of the mind that relate to computing. We talk about how we're going to upload our consciousness or something like AI is going to cause us once again to rethink our place in the cosmos. How the mind works, how the mind relates to the body and the soul, who we really are. And that's a silver lining too, because there's gonna be all sorts of horrific stuff that come with AI. There could be not certain, but there could be massive job losses. There will be a huge upending and disruption of society. You will get the occasional necromancy. I mean, there's a lot of. There's gonna get a ton of weird porn stuff. It's gonna be awful. In many, many ways, the silver lining to that is it's gonna cause us to rethink our place in the cosmos, which is important. Cause you have to remember first things and ultimate realities. And the ultimate reality is if our chief relationship is not gonna be with a phone and it's not gonna be with a simulacrum of grandma telling us how happy she is about our new grandkid. Our ultimate reality is going to be with the source and summit of all being with God, or we're not gonna have an reality at all. Okay, on this point of Charlie, one other good bit of news. Harmeet Dhillon, the Deputy ag, has just told the LA Times that the DOJ is investigating Charlie's assassination as A potential hate crime?

Ad Read Announcer (31:07)

Was Charlie Kirk's assassination a hate crime?

Legal/Political Analyst (31:11)

Again, I would have the same answer. There are indications that it may have been a hate crime. There is a Christian aspect to this. There's a transgender aspect to this. The fact that young people, and even not young people, have such a volume of evidence on their phones and their social media communications, means that doing a comprehensive review of all the people involved, maybe beyond the. Beyond the actual suspect that's been charged in Utah in this case, means to jump in the other evidence. Are you investigating Charlie Kirk's assassination as.

Ad Read Announcer (31:54)

A potential hate crime?

Legal/Political Analyst (31:56)

The DOJ is investigating it as a potential hate crime.

Michael Knowles (31:59)

So there you have it. Yes, it is being investigated as a potential hate crime. Why? Because there's a Christian aspect. Because there's a transgender aspect. This was an important point that came up in that Senate testimony that I went to a couple of weeks ago, which is now everyone admits political violence in America is primarily a left wing problem. They say in years past it wasn't really a left wing problem. But all those numbers, including the one today that admits that it's a left wing problem, all of them are predicated on data that exclude a ton of left wing violence, like the BLM riots, like trans, on Christian violence. So Harmeet's saying, no, no, we have to include that. We have to seriously consider these things. And we need to ask ourselves if this is a hate crime. Now, there are two ways that conservatives can deal with the notion of a hate crime. The typical way is conservatives say all crimes are hate crimes. And this is ridiculous. And there shouldn't be special categories of crime based on identity groups. It's the kind of liberal, libertarian, right wing view that's crazy. This whole idea of hate crimes is crazy. And we need to repeal the hate crime legislation. Whatever. Then there's the conservative based in reality view, which is, look, this is how our justice system works now. Certainly post Civil Rights act, post, I don't know, the 80s, 90s and 2000s identity politics. After all of that, certain crimes are elevated as hate crimes. And we can either deny that fact, we can deny our political order, we can deny that we're a global empire, we can deny these things, or we can recognize political reality and wield it to our advantage. Yeah, there is such a category as hate crimes here. And what we need to do is work within the political system to turn it toward good ends. Right now it's just being wielded almost exclusively by the left for unjust ends. We need to turn it and wield it toward good ends. Yeah, absolutely. That was a totally, totally right approach from Harmeet here and the doj. And obviously we'll keep tracking that story very, very closely. There is still time to win my personal Daily Wire Lifetime membership. One winner will get all access for life. Every feature we have today, every feature we build tomorrow, locked in for your lifetime. All you have to do is download the free Daily Wire + app on iOS or Android and tap follow right under my face. That's right, that's your entry. If you don't want to leave it to chance, you can purchase one of our 10,000 Lifetime memberships yourself. Fewer than 1500 remain. When they're gone, they're gone. Go to DailyWire.com Lifetime for all the details or to claim your spot in Daily Wire history. Now, my favorite comment yesterday is from that hate loafanatic who says, when I grew up, Black Beauty was a horse movie. That's because Michelle Obama said we need to all be educated on her Black Beauty. But Black Beauty was a Horus movie. Do you remember? That's a great. I like that. I like that joke. Finally, finally, we've arrived at my favorite time of the week when I get to hear from you in the mailbag. Our mailbag is sponsored by Pure Talk. Go to PureChalk.com knowlescanawlas to make the switch today. Take it away. Howdy, sir. No, I'm asking on behalf of young men everywhere. I consider myself a very conservative Christian man, but I am just into tattooed goth women. Any advice for young fellows like me who want a traditional Christian relationship but have a proclivity towards women who are at least outwardly less traditional? Thank you, sir. God bless you and yours. Okay, good question. And my top line advice is gonna be, that's good. There's someone for everyone, isn't there? And if you're the trad who likes the girl who seems like she's kind of like a bad girl, but she, you know, but she's not. And I don't know. I'm sure there are plenty of women who either used to be more rebellious and then trad it up a little bit or and even maybe they're tatted up a little bit. And so that's great. There's someone for everyone. Cool, man. I'm not. That's fine. However, here's the. But I would like for you to ask yourself, what is it about these tattoos or the girl that's kind of goth or whatever? What is it that attracts me and is that good? What does that tell Me about myself. Is that perfectly innocent? Does that relate to something that's going a little wrong in my thinking or behavior? What's that? That's all I'm asking. I'm slightly kink shaming you. That's the term, I think, right? Kink shaming. You just have to ask yourself, I'm not going all the way. Hardcore Puritan. No, the girl has to. I'm not saying she has to wear some homespun dress, floor length, and if anything, less than that, you have to, you know, send her to the gallows. I'm not saying that. But likewise, I'm not going fully lib and saying, you know, don't yuck my yum. Whatever you want, man. It's all cool. Don't kink shame or whatever. I'm just. I'm kind of doing this middle ground, which is. Yeah, that's okay. Whatever. That's great. There's someone for everyone. But why? What is it about the tattoos and the God? What is it about these things that kind of turn you on? Is that. Don't give me like, I don't know, I was born this way. What is it about? Does that tell you something about yourself? Is that something you need to work on? Is that. Or is it perfectly innocent? I don't know. I don't know. I'm just asking you to think about it. Next question.

Caller with Family Question (37:27)

Hi, Michael. Love all you do, especially how you share the faith, to jump right in. My sister lives in New York City in an open marriage in a polyamorous relationship. They have one son together. My sister and I grew up Lutheran, but her atheist husband has moved her entirely away from any belief in God. When my husband and I both converted to Catholicism two years ago, they were the family most angry with us. We still don't understand this. Recently, they shared that they're most disgusted with the part of our faith that disallows self abuse, calling our faith abhorrent, especially since we're raising four boys currently, all six and under. Please help me understand why they're so angry with us and why. Why in the world. This is the hill they're dying on with regard to our faith.

Michael Knowles (38:05)

Wow. Oh, I'm sorry to hear about. Well, I'm sorry to hear about them. You know, just their general situation and strife within your family and everything. That's gross. Though not surprising for those who don't know, who don't understand the euphemism of self abuse. We're talking about, like, that thing that teenage boys really like to do. You Know, alone, you know, we're talking about what Woody Allen once described as sex with someone you love. Anyway, that's fine. It's a family show. We can leave it at that. Your sister is upset that you don't want your little boys to be good. Man, that is sick. That's sick. It's totally gross, but it's not exactly surprising. It's shocking, but it's not surprising because of 1 Peter, 1st Peter, chapter 4, describing the Gentiles as engaging in all sorts of lawlessness and licentiousness and debauchery and gross stuff. And the fact that when you don't engage in that, they hate you for it. That when you don't join people in weird, debauched profligacy, they don't like you, they mock you, they turn on you. This is probably if you've ever been at a party and someone offers you drugs and you say, nah, I'm good, I don't want drugs. They get angry with you. I cannot tell you how many times in my life I have been offered cocaine. I've never done cocaine, but I've been offered cocaine many times. And I always thought it was so funny. People say, hey, you wanna do some cocaine? And I say, no, I'm good. No, thank you. And they say, come on, why not? I don't know, I just don't really want to. I don't wanna. I don't need another bad habit. I'm fine. Come on, just Duke. And I thought, isn't cocaine expensive? I heard cocaine was expensive. Why are you trying to make me do the coke? And it's because they feel a kind of ashamed. The fact that you don't want to do something that they want to do often for moral reasons, makes them feel like, well, hold on now I'm even more aware. I have to confront the fact that I'm doing something that's not good. And they get angry with you for it. And obviously your sister is in some gross, completely disgusting kind of lifestyle. And the fact that you say, no, I'm not doing that. And actually I am joining the mystical body of Christ. And I am in the clearest, most long standing, doctrinally sound and consistent community that there's ever been. The only institution from antiquity that has survived in the West. Yeah, of course she's going to dislike you for it. Yeah, it was ever with us. It's in scripture. Too bad. Sorry. I hope she comes around and I'm sure you'll be nice to her in the meantime. But that's Sick, man. That's gross. Totally gross. I assume her response would be, don't be so judgy. You know, don't be no be judgy. Don't condemn her, you know, per se. But that behavior, that's gross, man. Yuck. Yuck. Next one. Hi, Michael. I work for a tribal casino and wanted to get your perspective on legalized gambling. It's an issue I haven't heard you talk much about and there's so many different aspects to it from state lotteries to sports betting, online gaming and casinos. What should our stance be as Christians and conservatives? Should the government regulate it or prohibit it? Really appreciate the time. Love the show. Thanks. Great question. I don't like it very much and I'm probably gonna gamble today because I, a buddy of mine, buddy and I actually a couple buddies and I for over 10 years now, whenever we go out, get lunch, get drinks, whatever, we will play credit card roulette or rock, paper, scissors for the bill. Which means if you do this with friends or family members over many, many years, you were talking about many thousands of dollars going back and forth. And in a way, I guess that's gambling. But it's an acceptable degree of gambling as far as I'm concerned, because you would be willing to buy your buddy a drink. You would be willing. It's with your friends. It's a kind of a little fun thrill. Generally, though, I think people need to be a lot more cautious of gambling than they are. I don't like that sports gambling is being legalized. Everywhere you see some data come out that where sports gambling is legalized, you see instances of like, domestic abuse increase. When people have that kind of ease of gambling, it can create major problems. It does prey on weaknesses and addictions. You know, the lottery used to be handled by the mafia. They used to run the numbers out of, you know, little mafia strongholds in the Bronx. And then the government realized they could get in on it and make a ton of money. So then the government came in and said, we're going to be the Mafia. It's not great. I like a game of blackjack as much as the next guy. But I guess my answer is it should not be totally unrestricted as the licentious and the libertarians want. I don't think it should be entirely prohibited. That's not even really in the Christian tradition. It's not that any kind of betting should be verboten. It should. It said it should be heavily, heavily regulated culturally and by the law. Next question.

Caller with Parenting Question (43:28)

Hi, Michael. My Husband and I are both longtime listeners and Daily Wire plus subscribers. My question today is about your stance on kids and toddlers in church. My husband and I have a three year old, an almost two year old and a six week old baby. Our middle boy goes into church ready to rock every Sunday. We just this morning left a particularly tough daily mass and I wondered where you stood about this issue. When would you remove you and your child from mass? Are you a cry room family? I'm interested because I think this is a really divisive Catholic parenting topic. But we're pretty anti Cheerios and snacks here. Thanks.

Michael Knowles (44:00)

Yes. Oh, this is one of the most difficult issues for parents at church, parents of young kids at church. Because there's no clear answer on a lot of issues when it comes to church. There's like a clear divide between the more conservative people and the liberal people. You know, the more conservative people wear a suit and tie, the liberal people wear Birkenstocks or something. It's a clear issue. The conservatives don't wear Birkenstocks and the libs don't wear suits and ties. It's clear separated. On kids in Mass, on kids in church generally. Bring in the Protestants in the Eastern Orthodox. Here it is totally unclear because you could have someone just come out and say, no, we're gonna keep our kids sitting in that pew the whole time. If a church ain't crying, it's dying. This is great. We want there to be babies in the church. And you could not. Is that a lib? Who said that libs have fewer children? But that could be a lib. That could be a conservative that you don't know. Likewise, you'd have someone say God loves children. He doesn't wanna hear em cry. Get that kid out while he's screaming. And you don't know, is that a lib? Is that a conservative? You have no idea. We don't have a cry room in my church. I know a lot of churches do. We don't. I go to a very traditional church. I don't like the idea of cry rooms sequestering the kids. But I don't want kids screaming, running up to the altar, you know, willy nilly. I certainly no snacks in church. Hate that. I try to instill the fear of God in my children before we go into mass. That's the stick. You know, I threatened to just viciously beat them if they make noise. No, I'm joking. But I do kind of. There are vague threats to keep them quiet and then there will be a little carrot too. Say, boys, if you behave in church, maybe we can go out to lunch after church. That helps a little bit. And then when they get a little out of line, sometimes I gotta just take them and hoist one of them over my shoulder and walk out of the church and give them a stern talking too and go back in. That's it. That's my via media moderate position. You got the stick, you got the carrot. You take them out when it gets to be too much, you leave them in. When it's just a little like, that's it. That's a very totally unsatisfying answer. But that's what I do. And I think that's what you should do too. Today's Fake Headline Friday. The rest of the show continues now. You do not want to miss it. Become a member. Use code Knowles at checkout for two months. Free on all annual plans.

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