Cognitive Dissonance - Episode 180: That's Demonic Kids!

Episode Date: September 29, 2014

    Carlos’ Music: Help out someone with traveling costs:   Picnic!

Do you want to get cognitive dissonance streamed to your iPhone or Blackberry? If so, download Stitcher free today at Stitcher.com. Yeah, glory hole, you guys. This is Rev G, this is Slack Attack. I just was listening to the new episode, and you guys are talking about ways to beat a kid without leaving a mark. It reminds me of the immortal words of Bing Crosby as he was seen on The Family Guy.

Why don't you beat them with a bag of valentine oranges? They won't leave a bruise and they'll let them know who's boss. Ha ha ha! Be advised that this show is not for children, the faint of heart, or the easily offended. The explicit tag is there for a reason. Recording from Glory Hole Studios in Chicago, this is Cognitive Dissonance. Every episode we blast anyone who gets in our way. We bring critical thinking, skepticism, and irreverence to any topic that makes the news, makes it big, or makes us mad.

It's skeptical. It's political. And there is no welcome mat. This is an episode that I am checking to see what number. 180. Oh, man, we're back to it again. I didn't trust the notes. I didn't trust the notes because I made the notes and I kind of fudged around on them a little bit.

So I was like, fuck, is that 179 or 180? God damn it. It says 179 up top, but the name of the fucking file is episode notes 180. I did change that for you. I know, but we didn't change it. I just needed to double check. I'm terribly confused! Look, who can keep track of these things, alright?

I don't know. A fucking normal person who knows I add one thing. Anybody who can add, like my fucking seven-year-old could be like, Dad, it's fucking plus one. Seriously. I'll tell you what, he'd use his common core to figure that out, too. I'd be like, he'd use the common core. I wouldn't be able to figure out his fucking math, but he'd be able to get it done. See, if you subtract 32 from 179 and then add in 6.

Well, you got to first count the tens. Fuck, what? I don't. Yeah, the thing is, like, I actually love his common core math. Like, the numbers make, like, they actually try. They go out of their way to make sure that kids understand what the numbers are doing, not just to do something.

So they're not doing just like, manipulate these numbers. It's like, what are the numbers? What do numbers do? How do numbers work? How are they meaningful? But like, I'm not part of that discussion in the class. I just see the homework when he comes home and I'm like, it's like, count the doubles, then add seven. You're like, I don't know what comes home and I'm like, it's like, count the doubles, then add seven. And you're like, I don't know what that means.

I'm like, Googling how to do his homework in order to help him. And then he's like, teaching me. I'm like, I think you do this. He's like, no, that doesn't seem right. Dad, you're a fucking idiot. He's like, there's a reason you got a fucking degree in English literature, dumbass. Dad, you're

awesome to play with. You're terrible to do homework with. Yo. Science. What is it all about? Technology. What is that all about? Is it good or is it whack? This story comes from WBEZ.org.

That's the local public radio station here in Chicago, incidentally. The Fountain of Youth at Schiller Woods. How convenient. This is actually very conveniently located, Cecil. I will say that there's a picture here of Larry Powers who's been curious about the water pump for over 40 years. He looks very old. So I'm just saying clearly it is not the Fountain of Youth. It is water that people like the taste of.

I think that's what it's all about. That's what this whole story is about. No, this is the fountain of youth. It's here. It's right here. No, what are you talking about? So this is a mile east of Chicago's O'Hare Airport. Right.

So when I think good, clean, healthy water, I think airports. Right. That's what I think. I think diesel fuel and fucking jet exhaust. Sure. I think airports. I think diesel fuel and fucking jet exhaust. Sure. That sounds delicious. I'll dip my donut in it. It sounds awesome. Well, the thing is, man, people fucking line up. I know.

They line up to get the fucking water. And this isn't the first Fountain of Youth. And one would think, like you said, one would think that the Fountain of Youth would be a pretty easily testable proposition like person a makes claim hey it's funny youth in schiller woods really yeah did you take any uh-huh did you get older yeah i'm still aging still getting older okie dokie great yeah you the thing is though is that a lot

of people are coming to this uh with a different angle which is the water tastes like where i grew up so it's got this well taste to it and some people from like poland and other places are coming there to get the water because it doesn't there's also some fluoride nuttery in this article too i don't know if you saw that but there's like some other stuff they're like the water doesn't have fluoride in it and some of your people like it because it doesn't have fluoride in it and so some of your people like it because it doesn't have fluoride in it. And so there's there's a level of that that people are going there for. But the thing is, is like people are showing up with jugs to get this well water that they have to hand pump. It's like fucking it's like an Amish community.

I love, too, that it's like word travels fast among well water drinkers. And I thought, like, like man if there's ever a sign that like america just doesn't have fucking real problems like here we are like we have a fucking subculture of well water drinkers like oh man it's like you go on a fucking subreddit you know like well water drinkers what's their bill their bulletin board forum look like? Oh my gosh. And then like somebody standing in line and they've got like just like a couple of jugs and they're like, that's all you have. She looked at one man toting several plastic bottles and empty gallon jugs and asked disbelievingly,

that's all you have. That's awesome, man. It's awesome. It's like, so now there's like fucking well water snobber. What you need to do is bring like a, like a magician's box with you, drink it, walk in, and then have Finn come out. That's what you need. It worked! It worked! Like go have him scream and then run and drive your car away.

Do like the leprechaun heel click. You know what I mean? I'm young again! Tiddly-doo! You know what I mean? I'm young again! Tiddly-doo! They're saying that the Ten Commandments have been taken out of the courtrooms and out of the schoolhouses, lest we offend the atheists.

Let me be very clear. This country was not built for atheists nor by atheists. It was built by Christian people who believed in the word of God. This story comes from the, uh, there we go. This story comes from the Friendly Atheist blog. I'm like, come on, come on. Relative of Duck Dynasty clan now running for Congress said Sandy Hook Massacre was the result of atheism. Because we're dragging up this old fucking canard again, Cecil.

Well, it's Duck Dynasty, so it's got to be a canard, doesn't it? I like this guy's name. And I will say that, really, if you're going to run for Congress, Zach Dasher is a great name for Congress. It sounds like a superhero, right? I thought he was on The Incredibles. Like, Zach Dasherher why so fast he opens up his shirt he's got a big cross yeah he wants to he's basically pulling up this old this old fucking argument that we heard back when sandy hook happened and all that stuff that the reason why these sorts of things happen is that there's no god in washington dc rights. Rights don't come from men. They come from God. And I always wonder when people say that, right?

When they say rights don't come from men, they come from God. You know, aren't you just pushing one level higher? Like, aren't you just basically saying like, well, rights don't really come from anywhere except for this really mystical place. Instead of like trying to think about where they come from, what an actual moral good would be, instead of really contending with that, it feels fucking lazy. It's almost like asking your dad when you're a kid or your mom when you're a kid, why is the sky blue? And they'd be like, well, because it just is. Right.

Well, you know why it feels lazy, though? Because it's fucking lazy. That's why it feels that way. You know, just in case you were wondering why it did feel that way, it's because it fucking is objectively just fucking lazy. And I will go a step further and I'll say it's dishonest

because we don't, it's when you say things like, well, you know, our morals come from God. Oh, okay. So then we all have an agreed upon set of moral principles. Well, no. Oh, well, then that doesn't really fucking make sense, does it?

Like, it doesn't, it doesn't make sense because there are, you know, like, it's easy to say things like, well, killing is wrong, right? Oh, okay. Well, but that's a meaningless statement because we know that certain kinds of killing and we can create contextual situations where certain kinds of killing doesn't feel as wrong to us as other types of killing, right? You know, like there's the great example I remember hearing on a radio lab episode where it's like, you know, would you pull a lever to redirect a train? So there's a train full of people, right? And it's going to run off a cliff and you're standing there and you've got a lever in your hand that can switch the tracks. And if I pull the lever, the lever will redirect the train,

and the train will not fall off of the cliff. It will, however, hit a man standing on the other track. Do you pull the lever? And almost everybody says, yes, we'll pull the lever, because there's a recognition that by pulling the lever, you're killing one person, the person standing on the opposite track, right? But you're saving more lives. So it's kind of a utilitarian argument that's being made there. And people are generally pretty comfortable with that.

Then the second, like the corollary is, you know, okay, so you're standing in the same situation and there's a very, very fat man, right? And the train is moving slowly and you can push him off of a bridge and in front of the track and you'll certainly kill the man, but it will, but you know that it will slow the train enough to stop it from traveling the next six feet and falling off the edge of this cliff. Do you push the man off the bridge onto the tracks to save the train? And people become much less confident about their answers, right? It's the same argument from a one-to-one mathematical perspective, right? Do I kill one to save many?

But all of a sudden, now that argument feels fuzzier because there is no such thing as an agreed-upon set of moral principles because context is what determines how we feel about things morally. You know, and I want to point out too, he says, you wonder why porn is so rampant in our culture? And I'm like, no, I don't wonder at all. Actually, it's fucking really obvious. You wonder why video game addiction is so rampant in our culture and i'm like no i don't wonder at all actually it's fucking really obvious you wonder why video game addiction is so rampant in our culture not sure that it is it's a result of post-modernism i just want to scream like you don't understand post-modernism exactly yeah like don't use like that make that kind of makes me fucking crazy it's like it's not like i fucking read derrida and fucone was like oh fuck i'm gonna go murder a bunch of people like oh my oh, my God, I read Limited Ink.

I don't know what to do. I'm going to go play a video game while I'm fucking someone. Like, you just fucking don't understand. And then he says, it's a consequence of post-modernity combined with atheism. And it's like, hold the fucking phone here for a second, dude. And he says, that's all there is, is matter and material. And all that matters is matter and material. You fucking do not understand any of the words you're using. Like you're fucking using words that do not like the, you, you fucking simply are not capable of understanding the

goddamn words you're using here, man. But it's like, it's a scapegoat, right? That's, and that's all that matters in his, in his argument is scapegoating. He's basically saying like, look, most people aren't going to understand what postmodernism is. Most people don't understand, you know, what atheism is or how atheism works or how the arguments, you know, materialist, naturalist arguments work in terms of, you know, sussing out a moral worldview. So all I need to do is just say it. I don't need to expound on it. Because what I'll do is then is I'll be able to play to my audience. And this is just a play to an audience.

Lord, we just asked it to be covered with the blood of Jesus. Open hearts, Lord. Open hearts. This next story, I feel so bad right now. This next story, I did not write this title. I just want to point this out. This is the actual title to the article as sensitively written by the kind folks. And I have to point out at 11alive.com.

It's so bad. It's so bad. So if you were to go to 11alive.com and search for this story, you would not find an alive child. It should be an 11 fucking deceased. Quote, prayer baby drowns in church's baptism tank. And I'm not laughing at the fucking loss of a child. But to have a fucking website that is 11 alive, name the fucking deceased child a prayer baby. Prayer baby sounds like a title to like a folk song, doesn't it?

It's like prayer baby. Come on down. Prayer baby. Come on down. Dosido your partner. Come on down. Sounds like a euphemism for a shit. Oh man, I got to totally take a prayer baby.

Hang on. I'll be back in a few minutes. You got something to read? I'm gonna go float a prayer baby in the baptismal tank. Oh shit! I totally backed up your baptism tank. Oh no!

It's full of prayer babies! Do you have like a holy plunger we could use? A holy snake? Prayer babies. This is terrible. This is the worst. You know, okay, so a little kid died, okay? It wouldn't be an episode of Cognitive Dissonance if a little kid didn't die, right?

So clearly a little kid, 22 months old kid died. But the thing that I want to talk about, now clearly there's part of this article I'm going to read what this person says I've been preaching 30 years this is the first time in my ministry I've been speechless this pastor tells the AI.com I know God is too wise to make

mistakes but in my humanity I can't lie I've had to get on my knees so he's basically saying I know God doesn't make mistakes. Like, okay, well, maybe not. But clearly the person who was watching the child did. That's not a good thing to have happen. But the one thing that I,

you know, this wouldn't even be a story if I didn't click on an existing link that showed this other, it clicks to another link and it talks about a child who drowned hours after they had come out of the pool and it's this uh this this uh phenomenon called secondary drowning which i didn't even know existed this i wish i like sometimes you read something you're like i don't

i didn't need to know that like as a as like as a parent i just don't even need to know because there's nothing you can do yeah secondary. Secondary drowning, basically, like, the kiddo's, like, swimming around and everything is fine, but they, you know, they aspirate a bunch of water into their lungs, which pools and settles, and a few hours later, they're just like, ah, fucking dead. And you're like, what the fuck are you supposed to do about that? Like, what is your, it's not like, what are you supposed to do? Okay, everybody out of the pool. Did anybody aspirate enough water to sit in their lungs to die hours later?

You know what you have to do. Okay, at my gym, if I go use the pool, they have a little thing on the side that I can put my trunks in and it spins around to get the water out. You got to put your kid in there and just spin around and the water just shoots right out of their lungs. They, of course, do not live through that process, but the water's gone. The water's fine. Yeah, you put them in a fucking centrifuge that's a toddler centrifuge. You treat them all

like Russian astronauts. They got their fucking faces all pulled back. Little kids are fucking completely passed out as they're spinning around this thing. They all go limp and shit. They're having a near-death experience from lack of oxygen

and then an immediate death experience from death. It's fucking terrible. We did such a disservice to this article that you had to introduce it because I couldn't even do it. Good Lord. It's a sad article, though.

It's so sad. The worst part is that it was somebody else with a teen sister was in charge of watching the child and the child drowned. It's a freak accident. It's a freak accident and it's awful. The only things that we're talking about is how it's being reported, the prayer baby. Oh, God. How it's being reported, the prayer baby. Oh, God.

You know, like I will point out, though, I will point out that, you know, the parents prayed and like and they prayed for having they wanted to have a child. They prayed for having a child for like two years. They were having a hard time conceiving the helpless kid. This terrible fucking freak tragic accident occurs. And then I will say like that. And then the minister is basically acknowledging, without coming out and saying it, because I don't think they even know how, they're basically saying, I can't make sense of my worldview anymore.

It is a true experience of cognitive dissonance that's taking place there. But there's no good, there's no upside to it. It's not like, oh, it's a good thing. Maybe they're going to lose their faith as well. I don't feel good about that. I don't feel good about anything here.

And not only that, it also introduces you to a new phobia you can do nothing about. Right, exactly. Oh, and here's also secondary drowning. So for anyone else who happens to not want to see children die, which should probably be everybody. Be everyone. Here's something else to fucking just panic about generally. I know. That's awful, man. I'm not even going to give my kid a bath anymore.

I'm just going to roll him in ashes like it's fucking old timey world. He's like he's a chinchilla or something. Just give him a bath in dirt. Allah Akbar Muhammad Jihad Allah Akbar Allah Akbar Allah Akbar Allah Akbar, Muhammad Jihad. Allah Akbar, Allah Akbar, Allah Akbar, Allah Akbar. Allah Akbar, Muhammad Jihad. Allah Akbar.

So this story comes from TheMirror.co.uk. Hashtag, not in my name. Young British Muslims stand up to ISIS. An online campaign. A London-based action group launched a YouTube and Twitter campaign. Hashtag not in my name to condemn ISIS terrorism. Cecil, this is actually a chunk of good news. I know. We normally don't cover good news on the show because there's not a lot of jokes that can be made about it.

It's not normally that funny. And we just kind of most of the time we just kind of just golf clap. We're like, hey, that's great. Good for you. So whenever there's victories, most of the time, we just kind of just golf clap. We're like, hey, that's great. Good for you. So whenever there's victories, most of the time we don't even cover it. But I wanted to mention this because this is something I've said on this show many, many, many times. Where are all the moderates when all these fucking crazy fundamentalists start doing

insane shit in the name of their religion? And you can't say that it's not in the name of the religion because they're fucking basically pointing to the Quran every time they do something awful and it happens over here too with you know certain sects of Christianity will do some crazy shit and the point to the Bible and be like this this is why we're doing it and you always want the moderates to stand up and and the people who are very lax in their religion and clearly these are moderate people because you know they are there's a lot there's women in the headscarf and they're, you know, they're, they are followers of

this religion. And they're saying, look, I'm not, I'm not condoning anything they do instead. And in fact, I'm against it. And I don't want them to say it's in the Muslim's name. I want them to say it's in their own fucking name that they're doing these awful things. And I love it. I just think it's a great movement. And I think it's, I think it's, it needs to happen more often. That's a, that's a, that's a use of their religion that I totally respect. And I, and I think it's awesome that they're out there going out of their way to say that this is a bad, awful thing. And I'm not willing to associate with it in any way.

And how dare you use my religion to further your own aims? religion to further your own aims. Who's that guy on the other side of the glory hole? It's Jesus. So this next story also comes from Americans Against the Tea Party website, aatp.org. Virginia town

that still debates witchcraft wants to drive out teen girls donut shop. And I have to say, like of all the articles that we are going to cover today the idea the very notion Cecil that for a moment a donut shop is in danger fuck how dare you

infuriates me you can take my life but you can never take my fried pastries fucking fried dough how dare you it's worse than that though it's worse than that because it's fried dough how dare you it's worse than that though it's worse oh my gosh because it's fried dough with frosting on it you know sprinkles there's sprinkles i see sprinkles in this picture i mean that's here the beauty of that is that you have fried the dough then you have covered it in

sugar beautiful delicious sugar and then at some point you stopped and you scratched your chin and you thought, what about if we put even more sugar on that? You know, we have a different textured sugar. Let's try that. There's nothing crunchy and sweet in this. I mean, the only thing better is if this donut shop had the jelly filled ones that are also icing covered with sprinkles. Oh, see, I think that, yeah, I think you're hitting it out of the hole.

You know what? I'm kind of getting a little hot and bothered if you're talking about it like this. Keep going. Keep going. Yeah. And speaking of hot and bothered, the place is called Naughty Girls Donut Shop. You know, what's happening here is that the shop is decorated in sort of these pinup girls, 50s pinup girls, which are not, if you think a 50s pinup girl is fucking offensive,

you're an idiot. I mean, you're just an idiot. I mean, there's nothing offensive about a 50s pinup girl. It's like nostalgia at this point. Like, I can't imagine, that's like getting mad at like a fucking, an old timey oil sign. Like it just feels,

it's like somebody walking at like a fucking an old timey oil sign. It's like somebody walking into like a cracker barrel and fuming because they have like an axe handle on the wall. You know, like it's just it's so innocuous. I don't even understand how you get mad about it. But they're so mad in this community that they're attacking this girl because it's, you know, it's naughty girls donut shop. Because it's, you know, it's naughty girl's donut shop. You know, I think the naughty is the I'm breaking my diet, not I'm fucking fingering my hole. You know what I mean? Like, I think that there's a difference.

It's got nothing to do with sticking your thumb in the custard. No, and there's nothing to do with glory holes. I mean, this is clearly, yeah. And maybe there's some cream filling, but it's a totally different thing. And, and I feel like, I feel like, uh, this is that, that they're just missing the point and that they're, I mean, they're doing some crazy shit. They're throwing trash at the girl's door. They're telling her to burn in hell. They're leaving bad Yelp reviews.

They're pretending they're churches and sending letters. I mean, like they're fucking mobilizing at this point. Against a teenager. Right. But there is one thing I want to say about this. If they want to protest this store, while I think it's stupid, more power to you. You know what I mean?

Like, I am all about people voting with their dollar. And if you think this is an offensive, I mean, if you're dumb enough to think, you know, fucking, first off, I don't know how you operate a motor vehicle, but let's just say that you're dumb enough to think this. I'm fine with people protesting it because I'm fine with people protesting

the people in other states where the gay people can't get a table there or whatever. I'm fine with fucking protesting those. So I'm clearly fine with people protesting here. I just think it's stupid. Yeah, I mean, here's the thing. They're protesting against, like, this is just a case of getting worked up about nothing, right? This is like the people who go out of their way to get offended because a movie came out, you know,

and it's got a boobie in it or something, you know? This is a 17-year-old girl who opened her own business. And by all accounts, it's a reasonably successful business that delivers a good product and a good service. People tend to like it. You know, it says in here that she's contributed $28,000 to support local businesses, $2,000 to purchase backpacks for local children, $1,000 actually given to local churches.

She supports a homeless shelter, the 4-H club, athletic associations, high schools, elk lodges, hospitals, and charities. So if all of that, all of that is not enough for these folks, if the sight of a scantily clad woman on a fucking poster from like old timey era, you know, it's not like you're walking in there and there's just like porn on the ground, you know, because that's not what it is. Sure. It's like you're walking in and it's like. Nobody's spreading their lips. Right.

Exactly. It's not like, you know, anal intrusion donut shop. Somebody's using like one of those, one of those tools to open up the vat. Oh, God. Oh, shit. I'm getting hungry here. I'm not saying. I'm just saying. No, that's actually the cronut shop across the way. the way. Oh, man.

You know, you should see what they do for the three-for-one sale. It's a party, I'll tell you that. It's a Long John and a donut. When they have a BOGO, you got to get a hose to clean the place up. You're all sick! Oh, be nice! Oh, my son doesn't stand a chance. The whole world's gone gay!

Oh my god, what's happening now? We work hard. We play hard. This story comes from Storti? I guess I've been edited by the sixth grade class at HuffPo, right? This story... I can't do that. This story comes from LGBTQ Nation.

God, that is hard to read. Jeez. Church denies communion to married same-sex couple and suggests that they divorce. A gay couple has been told they can no longer receive communion or participate in church ministry after a new priest at a Roman Catholic church in central Montana learned that they had been married in a civil ceremony more than a year ago. And I'm kind of amazed by that, to be really honest with you, because a civil ceremony shouldn't be recognized by the Catholic Church as a binding religious ceremony.

So I would see it as having no actual consequence. Yeah, but the thing is you've got to understand that the Church is up in your bidness. You know what I mean? That's the thing you've got to remember. Sarah and I, Sarah more than I, had a conversation with a priest a while back when, before she left the Roman Catholic church. And he said, we should get our marriage annulled because

I was getting a vasectomy because I was not going to have children. I wasn't going to procreate and there's only death in the rectum. And so I can only like, basically we're fucked. Like we just don't do this. You can't, no matter what you do you can't uh procreate so and and really i i i kind of feel a little bit sad for these guys uh but one of the things it says here it says that they did not public publicize their marriage in the community but once it became known in the town of 5900 people it had to be dealt with publicly it's hard for me to believe that people don't know they're gay. You know what I mean?

There's gay people in communities all over the country. They just, you know, these two old guys are living together for a long time. 30 years. You know, it's not the fucking odd couple, okay? Like, fucking, this is not fucking, you know, Felix Unger.

This is, you know, you've got to be really kidding yourself if you think that two people are going to live together for that long and just be like, oh, they just like to golf, and they're just good friends, you know? Just fucking a couple of swinging bachelors at 66 and 73, you know? You know, and it's particularly sad, too, because, you know, like, this is a couple that's been together for 30 years. They lived in this town in Lewiston for 11 years. And they married so they can make medical and financial decisions for each other.

Right. You know, that's the reason that it was a fucking civil ceremony. And the thing that, like I brought up in the beginning, the thing that really is kind of galling is the church isn't even, the church is not even being consistent because the church only, like the Catholic church expressly only recognizes the validity and sanctity of their own church, right? Like if you are a Catholic church, one of the teachings is that the Catholic church is the only church. And if it is the only church, then it is the only church that can perform a marriage. And they didn't get married at all by any religious body. They only had a civil ceremony, which I would think would have no religious consequences

because they didn't undergo any kind of a religious marriage at all. And if you didn't undergo a religious marriage, how can you say that you're married under the eyes of the Catholic Church? So either I'm married in the eyes of the Catholic Church when I get a civil ceremony and then that becomes a problem or a civil ceremony is not a Catholic marriage. You know what I mean? Like you're not being consistent. I think the problem is, is that they got uppity, right?

Like here's the thing that happens when people you know and this is this goes back to the point i was making earlier this isn't a fucking secret that these guys are gay and they're living together like it's a community of 5900 people they're saying they had to deal with it publicly that's bullshit everybody was fucking believing their own polite fiction before you know what i mean everybody was fine they were in the community i'm sure that they weren't you know harassed whatever they lived there for a long time so that they weren't, you know, harassed, whatever. They lived there for a long time. So clearly they weren't, you know, 11 years they were living there. So clearly they weren't harassed, but people knew they were gay. They just didn't talk about it. But then, you know, when you quote unquote, throw it in the community's face, basically saying,

well, you know, we got the civil union, even though they didn't want to publicly let it known. Now you're getting uppity now yeah you're getting you're getting to the point where up we got to put you back where you belong we got to put you in your place you know we were all fine pretending that you weren't married before even though we clearly fucking knew that you were together exactly but now that we were out in the open now we got to make sure we fucking swat you down and show you that you did wrong. Podcasters, they live in squalor, destitute and disenfranchised, eking out an existence as best they can in such desolate places as Chicago. In pairs, but otherwise alone, they suffer from hunger and thirst, barely making it day to day on store brand chicken wings and weak domestic beer. Fly away from here. From this dark, cold hotel room.

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Please, go to patreon.com backslash dissonance pod today, make a pledge, and help these poor innocent creatures lead a life worth living. So this story comes from the new civil rights movement website. Fox's Hannity fears liberals will make it illegal to tell kids that being gay is not normal. Oh my God. This is just, I can't make a sense out of

this, Cecil. You know, let's listen to him because I don't think he can make a sense. Wounds all over his hands, defensive wounds. I'm looking at the report here. I gotta tell you, this is my problem with liberals, because here's where my fear goes with all of this. You guys want to tell parents what they can and cannot do.

For example, is it going to become illegal if a parent teaches the politically correct view that being gay is not normal? Or if a parent says that whatever the parent wants to teach a kid that you would disagree with. Right. Okay. I gotta stop. Okay. Can we, can we, they're talking about Adrian Peterson,

when they started talking and he says that there was defense wounds on the kid, he's talking about Adrian Peterson, the football player, the fucking 270 pound full of muscle football player who took a switch to beat his child on his testicles okay that's what we're talking about here let's fucking not mistake this for you know a good stern talking

to from your father or being put in the corner he physically beat his child okay so can we like let's fucking stop pretending that we're you you know, talking about discipline and we're talking about, you know, whether or not it's right or wrong. There's already child abuse laws. There's already, you know, you can't neglect your child. You can't fucking, you know, like, I can't just have a kid and be like, OK, you can hang out here during the day, but you've got to find a place to sleep tonight. You know what I mean? Like, I can't do that to a child. I've got to take care of the child.

I can't beat the child. I can't malnourish the child. There's already fucking laws, stupid. They fucking exist. And the thing is, is like, it's all about physical, right? There's all these physical law. Like you can't do this. Can't do this. Can't do this. But you know what? You want to fill your head up. You want to fill your kid's head up with fucking stupid shit, stupid shit that they can't fucking use in the future. Like all the Bible stuff that you're going to talk about in a few minutes, or you want to tell them that to hate gays, that's not against the law. Yeah, well, you know, and he says, like, you know what my problem with you liberals is?

And it's like, wait a minute, a moment ago you were talking about, somebody was actually talking about a thing that happened. And then he just launches into this crazy conjecture world, right? And then he's like, you know, well, the government's going to tell me what I can and can't do with my kids. And like you point out, that's something governments do. Like we have lots of laws about kids. And it was pointed out on our Facebook page that like if I walked up to somebody that I work with, I'm in a power dynamic where I'm their boss. And I said, well, you did bad, so I'm going to beat you at this switch.

Wait, what? You're going to fucking do what like I can't hit a grown man I can't I can't walk up and spank somebody you know I couldn't I couldn't do that to my spouse that would be spousal abuse but there's this ideal with kids that like that they're and it's kind of like this weird

like holdover idea from days gone by that kids are like feral animals that need to be trained into their humanity. And the only way that you can train them into their humanity is to sort of beat the wild out of them. And people really do behave like that. And they really do believe that. And in fact, it was pointed out on a page, I think even on our facebook page or somewhere else that i was reading where somebody's like well what else would you do if you're not going to spank your kid and it's like well i don't know any one of a dozen other things but none of them lead you down this fucking garden path that hannity wants us to go

down where all of a sudden the government is saying like, we can't, we are unable to draw distinctions between beating your child and telling your child about a world of ideas. The person who, who said that, and I don't know if it's on our page or any other page. I don't, I didn't look, but if they're like, what else would you do? My answer to that is fucking try harder. You made the fucking thing. fucking harder asshole because you know what like that's a fucking cop out if i ever heard one like what else would you do fucking like you said a million other things you know talk to the child if the child's too young to be reasoned with then punish the child in a non-violent way which there's like a hundred different punishments

like let's say your weird belief said you had to cut the child to a non-violent way, which there's like a hundred different punishments. Like, let's say your weird belief said you had to cut the child to bleed them or something. Like, would you let a person do that? Would you let them physically injure a child? And you know, if it, and the thing is, is if it doesn't, if it's not beating, people would say, well, no. But there's this weird thing,

this weird thing we have about beating. And I think somebody tweeted at us, like, when are you guys going to stop torturing your children? And it's totally true. It's like, fucking, you might as well waterboard your kid when he does. He just fucking goes and, you know, he fucking got his bike muddy. Oh, Billy, time to get the fucking wet towel

out, lay out on the bed. I need to fucking waterboard you, Billy. The fucking operatives, like, swoop down. Jesus Christ. What a weird household you have, where you're fucking, The fucking operatives swooped down. Jesus Christ. Weird household you have. Where you're fucking dipping your kid in some hot water and then fucking throwing him in cold water. Weird ass shit. I'm reminded of that Simpsons thing where Flanders at one point, like Flanders' parents are beatniks.

And their kid's out of control. Ned is out of control. And Ned's dad is sitting in front of the doctor. He's like, I've tried nothing, and I'm all out of ideas, man. And it's like it's so true. It's like, oh, man, I had one idea, and it didn't work. What should I do? I don't know.

Fucking read a book. Switch to a different idea. But stay away from to train up a child that may be one you want to avoid yeah let's listen to a little more of this and see if there's anything worth a while wait a minute this is an important question because i think we're gotten to the point where you know if if we don't politically correct our kids we might as well just hand our kids over to the government the day they're born let them raise them i don't think liberals i don't think anybody in society should tell somebody else because of of a political worldview, whatever, this is how you should raise your kids.

I do think... Then why can kids go to school and get birth control? Is that a fucking non-sequitur if you ever heard one? Wait, I didn't... Wait, what? The birth control. It's so weird. It's just, like, that really actually honestly threw me for a loop.

Like, then why can kids go to school and get birth control? Because fucking getting pregnant at a young age is bad. Everybody universally agrees that that's bad. And the thing is, you could coat a child in birth control. And if they weren't having sex, it wouldn't fucking matter. It's not like birth control means people are going to be more likely to engage in sex. It just means they're more likely to engage in safe sex. I know that always puzzled me. It's like, you can still teach your kid to be fucking abstinent and the birth control can just be

available. It's like, it's a fucking parachute, man. You know what I mean? It's like, it's like, if you're going to fucking go skydiving, yeah, okay, I mean, you could trust that the first chute's going to open, and most of the time it will, but it makes a little bit of sense to have a fucking backup plan. Like, when is a backup plan a problem? Every time I read that, all I can think is, like, you don't believe

your shit either, or you wouldn't be worried about it. Yep, that's exactly it. Because if you believed your shit, then you would be be worried about it yep that's exactly because if you believed your shit then you would be like i don't care give my kid condoms he's not gonna fucking have sex anyway because i taught him better morals than that and he's a fucking high and mighty righteous little dick bag he's just you know he's not gonna just put him in a condom just put the whole kid in a condom i don't you know like you have some treat it like an oven bag and just put the fucking kid in it i don't care put my kid in a condom and just put the fucking kid in it. I don't care.

Put my kid in a condom, put the kid in a condom in another condom. That's how much I don't care. He can't breathe in there, actually. But like, you know, and I just want to say, like, don't you have any fucking faith in your kid? No, of course not. And I think you absolutely hit the nail on the head. They don't think it works. They don't think it works.

And they're actually, what they want is young pregnant people. That's what they want. It's got to be what they want. It's what they fucking produce. I do think that the cops should enforce the law, which is exactly what's happening here. Why should kids be allowed to get birth control at school without their parental permission? And I think an employer has the right. I asked you a question.

Why should parents, why should kids be allowed to get birth control at school without parental permission? Because there are all sorts of reasons. Because you think you know better than... You're changing the topic. No, but... No, it's whether the state... Because the Supreme Court has decided that the Constitution has a right to privacy that doesn't necessarily start when you're 18 years old. A right to privacy?

What, 12 years old? No, but not 18 years old. What about counselors that take kids for abortions without parental consent? Sean, we're talking about abortions. We're talking about Adrian Peterson. Noelle gets it. She's intelligent. It's one step. It's almost like it's a gateway.

It would be a gateway offense. Meaning how far do you want government in your life? Counselors taking kids to get abortions is a gateway chug. To what? To what?ions is a gateway chug to what? To what? Like what is the gateway?

Bigger abortions? Aborting twins? Taking fucking in vitro medication to the chicken house? Like as many fetuses as possible? And aborting them all.

So your uterus is just this tiny graveyard of little skeletons? They're like aborting a six pack. You like put your ass in the air and shoot them off like fireworks. At some point the kids are like trading them like fucking baseball cars how far there's a difference this isn't a question about this isn't a question of big government this isn't government overreach this is the cops enforcing the law and you're taking adrian peterson's side you see and i'm saying i'm saying that goodell the commissioner goodell has an obligation a moral obligation because his he has a right to discipline his child.

And Goodell has a right to discipline Adrian Peterson. He has a right to smack his child in the testicles with a switch. What is wrong with you people? There's no limits to your right to discipline your child, man. There's no limits. And, you know, you've said this several times, C-San. I think it's funny because you've made a comment around the idea that parents feel like they own their children. Yeah, right.

And I think a lot of people really feel that that's true. I think people feel like they own their children, like children are some kind of a possession that people can do with whatever they want. Like you don't own your child. Like you have a duty and an obligation to your child, but you don't have ownership of your child. It's yours in the sense that, like, you are now responsible for taking care of it. Right, right.

I still think that's a cop-out, though, too, even. Because here's the thing. I own my fucking cats, okay? There's fucking... We don't cohabitate. They don't fucking pay rent they don't put food on my table motherfucking i own those bitches i own all of them okay and the thing is is i don't ever fucking hit them because i don't think it's fucking useful because i

recognize that if a cat does something and this is just it's the same thing with a child it's too stupid to realize it's fucking doing wrong. They're fucking little ids, man. They just run around and be like, fuck it, I want candy, fuck you. You know, like, they're just, like, I've been around kids when they freak the fuck out. And, you know, let me tell you, when a kid is throwing a temper tantrum, the very last thing that will calm that child down is beating them. Good solid beating ought to fix this.

You know, it almost makes more sense to shake a baby because that quiets it down. You know what I mean? Holy shit. Like that at least, like eventually it'll quiet down. You know, maybe it won't ever start back up again, but it's certainly a quiet down. This at this point, when you're beating the child with a switch, tell me that's going to be just, you know, that's going to quiet the kid down. That doesn't, let me tell you, man, when when my dad my dad used to bring the belt out and he used to whoop

our asses with that belt and and he used to get mad at us when we'd keep crying about it and he'd be like you want it again he'd be like but you can't stop crying because it hurts because you've been you've got fucking giant welts on your ass like it's i mean it it's the most backwards ass fucking way to think in the world but people think that it's a good idea to be like walloping on your child i don't even understand what you get out of it other than like a frustration right and then well you know because that is a lot of what it is right it's like i am angry because something is going wrong and i don't have a fucking more creative way to deal with this problem. And I don't know shit about childhood development or how like, how like fucking reward and response behaviors work. So I'm just going to start swinging and hope that

it's, you know what it is. It's how I play sports. You know, if, if you ask me to play virtually any sport, I will respond by, and the perfect example is pool. I'm horrible at pool. When I play pool, I hit the ball as hard as I can in a general direction of other balls. And then I hope for the best. That is like, that's what like spanking your kids is like the disciplinary equivalent of. It's just like you ball up your hand and just start hitting. And you hope something good happens later.

It doesn't connect. You're not connecting the behavior with a response. You're not like building any fucking new passageways for the child to express or like explaining why something is dangerous. All you're doing is like swatting at something.

You're treating your kid like a fucking hornet. I wonder if violence itself is just ingrained in a mindset when we talk about left and right. Because I don't think violence is really the answer to anything. It's rare that I'll be like, you know what that needs is just a big fucking cup of violence. Have you tried violence? A cup of violence would really solve that in a second. Big overflowing ladle cup of violence. You tried violence? A cup of violence would really solve that in a second. Big, overflowing ladle full of violence.

I'll clear that problem right up. I never think that, right? It never crosses my mind. I think that there is a group of people who that, when they're confronted with a problem or when they're confronted with something, that that is the answer, that violence is the answer. Because there are clearly pro-war people out there.

There's clearly pro-vigilante people out there, you know, that just think that fucking violence is a good idea. It's like when you and I were talking before this show, and we were talking about cooking, and I had made a chicken pot pie and I was struggling with the dough. It's like at no point were you like, did you try punching the crust? Did you hit your kid?

Did you try joke slamming the pie? Wait, no, that's crazy. Did you throw it across the room in anger? It is actually similarly. It's like, well, that just created a bigger problem. Fucking well done.

There's times in my life, in my past, you know, I had been pretty violent. Like I got mad at something and I hit it, you know, or something like that. I know I recognize that there is a level of that. But I think it's very different from me spiking an iPod and me spiking my newborn. You know what I mean? Like there's a fucking level of difference there. It's like fucking, yeah, maybe I could fucking replace both of them,

but still, you know, now the concern obviously is if this isn't bottled up in San Francisco, this kind of nonsense, then it's going to be spreading across the entire fruited plane. And you're going to be going to your burger King in Des Moines, Iowa, and you're going to have a rainbow your Burger King in Des Moines, Iowa, and you're going to have a rainbow-colored wrapper for your Whopper.

This story comes from the raw story, and the picture comes from the past, because that picture, let's just pause real quick. I'm going to read the headlines. I'm guilty of doing this all the time. New York pastor's wild rectum rant. NASA Voyager probe proved homos are perverts. And if you understood that, please throw your technology away

and bury your fucking head in the sand somewhere. Moving on, look at this man's... Hold on a second. He is wearing a purple shirt, a yellow tie,

a white collar, what appears to be a blue vest, and a brown suit jacket. A tan. I think that's tan. That is fucking, that's the bravest outfit I have ever seen a not-clown wearing. I'm going to say, that's a lot of bright colors for an anti-gay guy. That's all I'm saying. It's very flamboyant. It really is. Look at that.

We have a, now for Tom to actually try to fucking explain this to you would be very difficult. So I don't think that we're going to try to explain it. I think what we're going to try to do is let him, was his word speak for him. Now it is kind of long. We're going to probably skip over some of it, but we want you to hear it. This is straight from

ATLA's mouth here. This is from their sermon. It's from a YouTube. It's Reverend James David Manning, and this is from his ATLA Church YouTube site. It says it must be male and female. It must be opposite of one another. Everything in the universe testifies against the sodomites and against the sodomite gospel and against the sodomite bible. So I am simply presenting this information to give the scriptural authority to every and anyone who wishes to argue against this perversion. Let me tell you where sodomy and the sodomites find their desires. They are demon possessed.

They are possessed with a spirit. Remember the book Sybil, the 16 personalities? Can you get to the fucking point already? No, he cannot. He very clearly has demonstrated the answer to that question is no. And does he sound like he's got a wishbone in the back of his throat? Like, oh, you want me to go? You see, there are demons in the earth.

Read Matthew, Mark, Gospel chapter 5. There are demons all over where, and Jesus cast out demons when he walked the earth. These demons take over the lives of people and they begin to pervert them and to tell them that this is normal. You know, there there is nothing normal about being a sodomite. There is no life that will come out of a rectum. You cannot produce life. It's only death.

Every time, there's nothing in a rectum except waste, refuse, and death. What are you eating? What are you eating? You know what? What you need to do is you need to get a tramp stamp that says there be monsters here. It just points right back down there. You get like a fucking Grim Reaper face like on your asshole.

It's like Descent 3, my rectum, you know? What the fuck, man? Man, this guy's had a fucking rough night. If the next morning he's like, oh, what's back there? What's going on? It's death. Oh, it's death. It's coming.

Uh-oh. Uh-oh, honey. This is a three-candle job. It's a two-flusher and a death, actually. Honey, I need you to go to the store and buy some Glade. There's not a lot of lights all in the world to cover up this. I love that shit. There's a little more.

However, the womb brings life. You can get womb. You can get womb. You can get womb. Have you got your womb now? Womb for rent. Act fast. Only $29.95.

Get womb. I mean, I got to admit, I really do like the womb. And there's no practice of the sodomites that will bring life. And without the true, authentic creation that God has put in order, all sodomites would die. Because there's nothing but death and refuse in the rectum. No life can come out of the rectum rectum nearly killed the rectum is designed to get rid of death notice actually his joke though would be rectum actually killed i love too that's like it's it's all the butt sex for this dude, right? I know. I know.

What about just people that don't have butt sex? What about heterosexual people or lesbians? See, the thing is that he's calling them sodomites, but sodomy doesn't necessarily mean anal sex. Right. Like, sodomy can be oral sex. Right. Which I feel bad for this guy. Although, and it says here on Wikipedia, sexual activity between a person and a non-human animal.

Well. Well, I mean, I don't know that you're going to get much life out of there. Yeah, well. And wait. It's designed for that one purpose. And the sodomites are cheering on and praising the rector. I mean, rector. He sounds like an angry Kool-Aid man.

He's so crazy. He's like a pitcher full of brown liquid, and he just like runs. Instead of like, oh, yeah, he's like, oh, no. I'm filled with death! Actually, he kind of sounds like fat. He does. That's demonic, kids!

That's demonic, everybody! It is absolutely demonic! And there is no scientist or doctor that can validate you can get anything out of the rectum other than waste, refuse, and death.

There is no life. This is cold, man. He's so obsessed. He's so obsessed. There's no scientist that can validate you can get anything out of the rectum. Let me tell you something. You can get something out of the rectum. His wife just needs to let him put it in her butt.

He is so fucking obsessed. I know. He's so obsessed. Oh, man. I know. He's so obsessed. Oh, man. I would argue that anybody who argues for sodomy, ask them, is there any life in the rectum?

Can two women produce life? And the answer, of course, would be no. Then the ultimate goal of life is life. Ultimate goal of life is life. Oh, thanks for clearing that up, dude. That's awesome. Fucking Aston answered. I wonder how he feels about ass to mouth. You can't have anything delicious out of the rectum.

And the ultimate reality of sodomy and the sodomite is death. And that's just how that is. As we go forward, don't call me mean-spirited. Just call me honest Manning. Just call me truthful Manning who has observed these things and willing to speak upon them. And so when you hear of the Sodomites preaching their gospel, understand that they are destined to death. They are filled with demons. And the only thing that can help them is to bring them

to the altar of the Lord God Almighty and cast out demons. However, you cannot allow anyone who is a transgender to come into the church. Deuteronomy chapter eight, verse one says that anyone who has cut off their private cannot enter into the house of God. So you can't even pray for them. Maybe you'll take them out on the street and pray for them that they get rid of the demons that are in there. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. You can't even pray for them.

But then he pauses and says, well, maybe you can take them out on the street. So this is like, there's something magic about your fucking brick and mortar structure. It's like you're you're you're putting your faith. You're like a supplicant to God. Like, God, I really need you. Oh, yeah. I'll step outside. Hang on.

Yeah. I want to make sure not to offend you by being in a fucking constructed building. Like, is God worried about zoning laws? Like, what the fuck is that all about? This guy is a fucking idiot, but clearly he has some fucking real fixation on debuts. Yeah, man. I mean, like, this guy really, if you look at his search history, I bet you that would be telling.

Now, see, so I didn't get a whole lot about the NASA Voyager probe, but it's clear he's interested in brown stars. Brown dwarfs? That's a whole other search. That turns out that's a whole other search. You want answers? I think I'm entitled. You want answers.

I want the truth. You can't handle the truth. So this story comes from enca.com. Grass-eating pastor. You heard that right. You can't handle the truth. So this story comes from enca.com. Grass-eating pastor. You heard that right. Grass-eating pastor now has congregation drinking petrol. We actually covered this.

Do you remember this? Yeah. When he made them all eat grass? And they were all like on the grass. I mean, they were fucking eating grass. It was the fucking weirdest thing. And he was like telling them that if they believed in Jesus hard enough, the grass was like manna or something. Well, now he's got them fucking drinking gasoline and telling them that it tastes like pineapple juice. And then they're clamoring desperately to drink gasoline. And then they

think it tastes like pineapple juice. It's so weird, man! I love this line. This is the best line, Cecil. According to Healthline.com, petrol is poisonous to the body. Oh, who would have fucking thought that? Holy shit! Fucking zero out of ten doctors recommend

drinking gasoline! Yeah. And they list the sensations here that you get or the symptoms that you get. Breathing difficulties, throat pain, burning of the esophagus, abdominal pain, vision loss, and vomiting with blood and bloody stools. And then it also causes disease, extreme fatigue,

convulsions, body weakness, and unconsciousness. And then it says, which members of the congregation appear to display in the video? Yeah. What the what? the what but they're begging like give us more gasoline it's like you do realize you're not cars

Tom what is the fucking end game for this preacher is he just insane or is he just trying to flex his nuts to show how like devoted his followers are cause like I mean you could seriously like injure your, your flock, the people who follow you by doing something like this. What is the end game?

I can't wrap my head around what he could possibly be getting out of this other than some sort of like power hard on. All I can think is that this is the, this is the equivalent to the snake handlers, right? And the strychnine drinkers. So they're basically saying like the power of God makes everything, power of God makes everything, you know, all poisons drinkable. The power of God can transform all things. Let me demonstrate how the power of God can make fucking gasoline taste like pineapple

juice. You know, but part of me does wonder, Cecil, like, is he just trying to see what he could, like, is he just sitting around, like, every fucking thing I tell him to do, he'll do. What crazy shit can I dream up next? Maybe I'll fucking make him eat grass. Oh, he fucking ate grass! Why you wouldn't think that? Maybe I'll make him

drink gasoline. Maybe tomorrow he's gonna be like, you know, the power of God can make you fly, jump off a cliff, and just see how many of them will jump off cliffs. The power of God can reattach your genitals. Here's a knife right oh my god it the thing is like i'll be honest cecil if i read that story tomorrow i would just all i would do is be like control c control v put it in the notes move on i wouldn't even think i wouldn't even think like wow that's a new level of crazy like that's the same level of crazy we've seen before the thing that bothers me about it and the thing that that is so crazy about it is that it's so fucking demonstrably false right like it's it's it's one

thing to say eat some grass it's manna from heaven blah blah blah it's not gonna hurt you whatever and you know if there's fucking no fertilizer on the grass probably not gonna hurt you just fucking get past three like maybe you might get a tummy ache or something right that's probably the worst that's gonna happen you might throw up you might get a tummy ache or something right that's probably the worst that's going to happen you might throw up you might get a tummy ache i don't really even know but when you're doing something that can you know really fuck you up and this is demonstrably false they're falling on the ground exhibiting the exact symptoms that you know drinking gasoline causes what and what is compelling you to do this to the people because I guess it's because he has no fear of them recognizing that he was trying to do harm to them. He has no fear of that. So you could just do

whatever he wants and then they will just do it. And that is a terrifying thing to have so much control over another human being. And that's something that I can't even wrap my head around thinking. It's like that, you know, I'm also reminded of that pastor who just kicks the old lady in the face. And he's like, the power of God! It's like, you at some point, there's nothing crazier left for you to do. And you're just pushing boundaries. I will say, I would much rather drink Kool-Aid than gasoline, to be honest. Oh, yeah!

So we've got a ton of new patrons we want to mention. We want to thank all of our patrons, but we specifically want to thank our new patrons. Mustafa, Mick, Renee, Ryan, Carlos, Jerry, Paul, Brian, Ryan, Weston, John, Chris, Cheryl, Duff, and Misha. Thank you all so much for donating to our show. We appreciate all the money that you've given us. We are putting on a picnic next week.

It's coming up. We decided we actually have enough people at this point where we're not going to cook the food. We're going to get it catered because it's just too many goddamn people. So we're getting – there's this great barbecue place right by us, so we're going to get some beef and some pork and we're going to have, you know, a couple of things for vegetarians, maybe

a salad and some cornbread, but if you're a vegetarian you may want to bring a food for you to eat because there's probably going to be lots of meats there for other people to partake on. There should be plenty of food, but if you feel like you want to eat something different than what we got, go ahead and bring something. If you feel like you're going to want to drink something other than beer and maybe a Coke or something, you might want to bring something else to drink.

All the information is on the website, so you can find out exactly where we are. Just go to episode 180 and I'll put a link to the Eventbrite. If you want to go, you only have one day left at this point to sign up because we're going to shut down the reservation system. We're going to shut it

down early this week because we have to order a couple days in advance to get the food. So we're going to shut it down with a final count and we're going to run through it. So if you want to come, this is your last chance to get tickets. We hope to see everybody there. It's going to be a good time. We're going to have some bags to throw around into

the glory hole, and then we're going to have bocce balls. We've got to make sure we have lots of different phallic male phallic symbols and other things. So we're making sure that we're going to have a lot of innuendo in our games. We have lots of different phallic, male phallic symbols. Right. You know, other things. So we're making sure that we're going to have a lot of innuendo in our games.

I would also point out that I'm going to bring some chairs from home. There's going to be some picnic tables and what have you. But it appears that there may be more people than seating. So if you wanted to bring a lawn chair, you know, like one of those folding camp chairs, you might use it. So we got a message from Weston who listens to us from Montana, which he said that he's the one of the two listeners we have in montana one of the two people in montana i was gonna say we've got we got fucking half the population so now it's awesome that's actually in in response to our episode with jake which was hashtag masturbators for christ um he started a new bar trivia name called Fapping for Jesus.

And I guess he's offending people out there in the bar doing bar trivia. I think that's hilarious to put up offensive shit as a name for bar trivia. That's some funny fucking shit. We got a message. This is from Christian Downs. He sent us a message. And I think that this is great. Basically, it's Amish romance

novels and there's a line in here, Tom, that you have to read because it's fucking great. Yeah, he writes, the jokes write themselves. I began to imagine my own Amish romance novel. Her heart fluttered as she gazed upon him. His iPhone meant only one thing. He was a man with electricity.

She had heard many a wondrous thing about electricity. Whispers of iceless ice boxes, on-demand hot water, and light bulbs. The two, for an instant, locked eyes. Miriam quickly hid her eyes behind her bonnet as she boarded her buggy. I think that is tremendous. You should write one of these because it's brilliant and very funny. So just like the guy who wrote the fucking Harry Potter thing, you should fucking write an Amish love story. I think you are you with that sentence is a sort of example of the things that you could put together.

You need to write one right now. We got a message from Sakura and I'm going to gonna i'm gonna put this as an image on uh on this episode episode 180 so sakura found the image that the uh the police force sketch artist wrote up actually sketched out for the guy with the 666 on his forehead so we want to post it on this episode i think it's a great likeness. I think that this is exactly what, you know, I mean, if you sit down with the guy. I laughed out loud when I saw this. That's awesome.

So it'll be the image for this episode, episode 180. It's very funny. Got a message from April, Tom, about the Baker Ministries building houses. Yeah, so strange. Soly um they there was this thing called kevin's house it was supposed to be a house um for like handicapped people to live independently like a and um there was a scandal they raised three million dollars for the construction seven hundred thousand dollars was actually spent on the home. So my math leaves $2.3 million not spent on the home. That's pretty good.

And then it did not meet minimum standards for habitation. So three years after the ribbon cutting, they had to fucking move out of the thing. I like when she posts a link. This article talks about Kevin's house in the context of some of the ministry's other projects. Spoiler alert. It's not flattering.

Got a message from Marie, and she said that the map is wrong. The Google map is wrong for the picnic. So I changed it to Naperville, but that was the address that they gave us. The entrance for the Forest Preserve is on Hassert Boulevard and Book Road. So I just want to mention that for the picnic.

It's the 21st century, so you should be able to find this place. Just enter the name of the place and you'll be able to find it. We found it and we're incompetent. Right. And I was actually in charge of navigation that day. We got a message from Carlos and Carlos sent us his band camp. He has a bunch of music up for free on a band camp. We're going to put a link to this.

So thanks for sending that in, Carlos. We'll post it on this episode. So if you want to check out Carlos' music, go to episode 180, and the link will be on there. It's the band camp, punk band camp. So we mentioned last week there was a head of the Russian Orthodox Church got a fighter jet. Somebody sent us a message and said,

by the way, the Huffington Post is not the most reliable source. On the Reuters page, we went to that and actually the Russian fighter jet, it turns out it was just a model fighter jet. It's even lamer than an actual fighter jet. Big, big difference.

So whoops. Whoops. Thanks, HuffPo, for fucking misleading us into hilarity. I still think it's funny. I don't care either. It's fucking funny. We got a message from Bill, and Bill sent us this message about there was a, on Skepticality, they played a lecture from Dragon Con Conference talking about denying evolution

and climate change. I want to go listen to that. So thank you for sending that in. But my favorite part of the email is the dad joke at the end. It says, I'm a marine biologist. Here's the only marine biology joke I know. What's worse than having lobsters on your piano? Crabs on your organ. Love it. I love it.

That's pretty great. I also like I just want to say like when when i found out that my wife was pregnant the first time i always wanted to be a marine biologist when i was a kid and so i i was hoping that my son would become a marine biologist so i could live vicariously through him because that's the kind of nerd shit like i'm not like hoping he becomes like a football player or like baseball so i can like i want to live vicariously through his Marine biology work. So I'm, I will admit that I'm a little jealous.

I think that's awesome. We got a bunch of messages about doctors this week. Cause we were talking about Glenn Beck and, and sort of going back and forth. And we had a long segment in the last episode talking about Glenn Beck and also talking about the medical profession in general. And we got a message from Todd and Todd says he's a family doctor in a small town. And basically there's a lot of hippies

and a lot of very well educated but they're ill informed people and he says you're spot on about physicians not having financial interest in the medicines we prescribe he says we do have more to offer than just medications and surgery in fact

exercise and healthy diet is more effective for many conditions than most medications we surgery. In fact, exercise and healthy diet is more effective for many conditions than most medications. We end up prescribing medications, frankly, because most people are too lazy to even make small changes in their lifestyle. And I find that that seems to be a very true thing to say.

And he also says that a lot of naturopath doctors and chiropractors that push the natural approach push meds, but they're not, they're just supplements and they're actually selling those things and they're making the money. So whereas people will blame the doctors and big pharma for having like, oh, it's a big conspiracy. Like there really is a financial interest for chiropractors and naturopaths to give

you this stuff because they're selling it right out of their fucking case. It's not like you have to, your insurance is going to pick it up at the CVS pharmacy you go to. Instead, you're going to pick it up when you're done with the chiropractor. Yeah. I mean, just, just look at who you're buying it from. Like when you go to the doctor and they write your prescription, then you go take that prescription to another place. Yeah. The other place gets the money for the thing you bought. Like the doctor gets the money for seeing you and the pharmacy gets the money for the, and most doctors don't have their own fucking pharmacy, you know, but yeah, you go to the fucking, the vo for the, and most doctors don't have their own fucking pharmacy. Yeah.

You know, but yeah, you go to the fucking, the voodoo doctor or whatever and they, they exactly, they've got like, oh, I happen to have some fucking ginseng and ginkgo biloba and fucking whore's root or whatever the fucking nonsense they've got. You know, it's like, hang on a minute. It's only like $49 for a fucking bottle of this jib jab and you can fucking stick it in your system and have no effect at all.

I got some fucking placebo pills. Oh, placebo. I've heard good things about those effects. The placabo. The wild placabo. Oh, yeah, it's harvested from the placabo fields. Are they organic placabos? I only take organic placabo.

That's awesome. I got gotta mention this about swords at home. Henry sent us a message and said, hey, by the way, people having swords at home, I made one in school and I have a fucking sword. So I thought that was pretty cool. I actually want to admit too that I

have two swords in my house. So I wanted to mention that before we got any more email about this. I have two swords, actual real swords that are in my house right now. So when we were making jokes and laughing about it, I'm one of you. I think it's awesome that in Finland in school there is something called handicrafts where people can learn to actually do something. And like, because here in the States you don't learn, like there is no vocational education anymore in a lot of the schools. That's been taken out.

And there's no way you could be like, I want to make a sword. You can't even make a sword-shaped object. You can't even allow it in the States to fucking sharpen your pencil. You can't even draw a sword because they took away art. So there you go. You can't even draw it. Anyway, so we got a message from Donna. And Tom, why don't you read Donna's message here?

Yeah, Donna's in contrast to Todd. She says, government vaccine conspiracy is as much a myth as the belief that physicians do not benefit from prescribing certain medications. Come on, boys, be realistic or be skeptical to very least. Physicians are people who invest their money in lucrative businesses. Big Pharma is a lucrative business. They would be foolish not to promote products that will sweeten their 401ks. Some doctors even become paid promoters for certain medications and medical interventions. While they may not receive a direct stipend from each prescription they write,

they can, and most, or at least many, do profit when a drug or medical product sells. Healthcare is a massive American industry fueled by profits. While your personal physicians may be practicing Mayberry-style medicine, the industry as a whole has lots of room for those in it for the money. Doubt everything, even this. Yeah, so I guess what I want to say is

I'm sure that there are doctors who prescribe things and ask for treatments and stuff like that because they have to make a boat payment. I'm sure that that happens all the time. And I'm sure that there are ways in which people find to make a lot of money off the medical profession. We wouldn't charge so much if lots of people weren't getting their hand in this. I understand that completely.

But I really am skeptical of the idea of people prescribing prescriptions and making money off of it. That just doesn't seem like – it seems like such a long route around getting money. Yeah, it's kind of a convoluted system that you're hoping to prescribe certain medications that are created by, say, Pfizer. So you're going to say, okay, I've invested a significant portion of my 401k in Pfizer, so I'm going to personally promote Pfizer products in my practice. How much of an effect would one person, even seeing a lot of patients, even a pretty successful doctor, how much of a bottom line effect on the revenue situation can one person have on a company like Pfizer? You know, my feeling is it's probably pretty minimal,

although I don't have numbers to back that up, but I would guess that it's probably pretty minimal in percentage terms. I just think that that's kind of like a weird collusion-based long game to get your money. I also just have some personal experience. And again, you know, I'm not saying that this necessarily translates across the board, but, you know, I just paid many, many thousands of dollars in medical bills just last month. And it's funny because you get a bill from the doctor and it's the doctor's bill. And then they order a test, you get a bill from the lab and the lab money goes to a different fucking address. And then you get a bill for the, not the lab work, but you get a bill for like an MRI and that goes to the MRI company.

So, you know, even ordering, if I'm fucking Dr. Jones and I order these labs and then I order these tests, it's not like I get money for that because the lab work is done by a lab company and then the testing is done by the MRI company or the x-ray technician gets paid. Like everybody's got their hand out, but it doesn't all funnel back to one source. Like, it's not, at least here in the States, like, everybody has their handout, but everybody gets a discreet piece of the pie. It's not like, oh, yeah, order that fucking test,

and I, as the doctor who ordered it, get a percentage back. It just doesn't work that way. And you can just tell by the way when you go to pay your bills. We got a message from Foster, and Foster put together a sign. He was going to the rally in Bedford, Pennsylvania where they were going to protest the desecration of the statue that the

teenager basically posted. Picture him mouth fucking Jesus. And so they were going to go protest. And he put a sign together that says, who's that guy on the other side of the glory hole? It's protest. And he put a sign together that says, who's that guy on the other side of the glory hole? It's Jesus. And he actually got found by Bill from Barroom Atheists. And he got a little tiny interview.

And there's a picture of him and Bill. And he's holding the sign above his head. And Bill's got a microphone to him. So we're going to post that on this episode. It's pretty great. Episode 180. So check it out. If you want to find it, just go to DissonancePod.com and look at episode 180.

You'll get a chance to see the picture of Foster and Bill basically promoting the show, which I thought was really great. So thank you both for the image. I love the idea that we're like polluting the world with our nonsense. I know. God. What I love about the glory hole thing is that we had nothing to do with it. Right.

It wasn't even us. We got a message from, uh, from Sakura and Sakura says that there's a person who is, uh, person's named Dave. Dave's wife is in the hospital fighting cancer. And Dave just learned that he may be having lung cancer himself.

Um, and it's just this, uh, he wants to basically have some travel costs covered and he just can't because it's too much money. He's traveling a huge distance to try to get to the hospital. They're trying to raise $500 in New Zealand dollars. I don't know if those are actual real dollars, but there's $500 in New Zealand.

So we're going to put a link. If you want to donate a couple bucks to this, this is basically like a GoFundMe for New Zealand people. We're going to put a link on this episode show notes, so go take a look. If you have a little extra cash to chip at Dave so he can go and actually drive the places he needs to to get the medical

care he needs and his wife needs, we think that's a pretty good cause. They're basically doing a little crowdfunding thing. See if you can help out. We got a message from Micah, and it's about basically being a humanist without being a feminist, Tom. And this is a long email that I don't think we're going to read, but we are going to talk about. Yeah. So let's, let's talk a little bit about, and we've, we've kind

of steered around this conversation a little bit, but I think Micah's email drives to the front that we need to address a few things. So first of all, when it comes to that word, feminism, let's be clear about a few things. Feminism, like any other movement and like any other general term, it has a lot of different people in it and it encompasses a lot of different ideas. So it exists on a spectrum, right? So there are people that would be, you know, way on one side of the spectrum as far as their ideas about what feminism is and what its goals and its precepts are and what its, you know, founding principles would be. And there'd be people on a totally different side of the spectrum and then a whole bunch of folks, you know, of course, who are kind of in the middle. So I think it's important that we kind of define, Cecil, how we feel. Like, what does feminism mean to me? What does feminism mean to you? How does it relate to the show?

So for me, I would say feminism and my interest in feminism as related to humanism is just that the idea that women as a gender should be treated equally in all things, um, is an idea of merit. It benefits all of society. Um, it is not there yet. We are not as a, as a world, we are not in a position, um, where women are treated equally. Um, I think it's important to note that there are vast differences in cultures and how different cultures, um, treat genders. So, you know, I can't look at a world and say, okay, in India and Pakistan and Iran and Iraq and Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan, women have in Malaysia and Mali, you know, women have rights that are even remotely, even remotely equivalent to the rights,

the privileges and the respect afforded to men. So now when we start talking about the United States, when we start talking about Western Europe, those conversations become, I think they become harder because the forms of discrimination become much less obvious, you know, right? We're not asking people to wear a fucking burlap sack and they're not allowed to drive anymore. Like now all of a sudden we have different cultural issues that need to be addressed and examined. And I think those conversations become much more nuanced, but they're still important conversations to have. And I would argue that we are not there yet. We are not to the point of equality. And until we're at the point where we're really,

I feel I can't point to a world and say, yeah, I think that there is real genuine equality, then feminism is just part of my humanism. And that's kind of the angle that I come at it with, Cecil. Yeah, I'm with you. I think that, you know, there are a lot of places that still need work i look at our current congress so right now we're not even at 20 we're at 18.5 with 20 women serving in congress and uh and 79 women serving in the house that you know there's it's not 18.5 of the population that are women we're not getting that's not a that's not a representative of women in this country. It's a smaller group of people. So, I mean, that's just one example, just one tiny example. And there's many examples where women aren't getting a fair shake.

And I'm against that. I think that that's wrong. Yeah. And feminism is not synonymous with man hating. It's just not like most everybody in my life is a feminist. Like most of the friends and people that I associate with would also, if pressed, call themselves feminists. Um, I don't think that it's necessarily a defining position for everybody, but it's certainly if, if they were asked, you know, do you agree?

Do you consider yourself a feminist? I think most of them would say yes. Um, but none of them are man hating. I don't like, it just like it's, it misandry is wrong misogyny is wrong like it's it's fucking silly to even have to point that shit out um if you engage in misandry or misogyny you're you're you're fucking just wrong you're doing humanism wrong at that point because you're discounting half of the humans so the last message you want to talk about we got a message from donovan and donovan said uh basically the reason why we haven't signed the child soldiers thing in the un is because the u.s still allows 17 year olds to enlist with parental permission um and so that's why they're not signing it and uh and i i that's something one of the things that happens all the time when it comes to

treaties and laws and all that there's all this know, there's a lot of it that goes, there's a lot of fine print that goes into it. And this is an example, you know, yeah. Why didn't we sign it? It's not because we want six-year-olds in other countries to have a fucking rifle. It's because we want to make sure that we keep enlisting 17-year-olds. And I, you know, it's something that I think we, you know, with a little research, you can find these things out.

But that's something that we'll only find out when people point out the research. Right, yeah, and I appreciate you sending us. Thank you very much. We're not going to have a second episode this week, but we are going to have a picnic, so get on the picnicking tickets if you're coming, and we look forward to meeting you all. We'll be posting pictures and such from the picnic grounds,

so we're going to leave you, as always, with the Skeptic's Creed and catch you at the picnic later this week. Credulity is not a virtue. It's fortune cookie cutter, mommy issue, hypno-Babylon bullshit. Couched in scientician, double bubble, toil and trouble, pseudo-quasi-alternative, acupunctuating, pressurized, stereogram, pyramidal, free energy, healing, water downward spiral,, brain dead, pan, sales pitch, late night, info, docutainment. Leo, Pisces, cancer cures, detox, reflex, foot massage, death in towers, tarot cards, psychic healing, crystal balls, Bigfoot, Yeti, aliens, churches, mosques and synagogues. Temples, dragons, giant worms, Atlantis, dolphins, truthers, birthers, witches,

wizards, vaccine nuts, shaman healers, evangelists, conspiracy, doublespeak, stigmata, nonsense. Expose your sides. Thrust your hands. Bloody, evidential, conclusive. Doubt even this The opinions and views expressed in this show Are that of the hosts only Our poorly formed and expressed notions

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