Cognitive Dissonance - Episode 54: Pro Exorcist Circuit

Episode Date: July 2, 2012

Oreo sees support, but also backlash and boycott, for gay pride rainbow cookie[http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/oreo-sees-support-backlash-boycott-gay-pride-rainbow-cookie-article-1.1103369] Texas GOP Platform Calls For A Return To Racial Discrimination And Intolerance[http://www.addictinginfo.org/2012/06/27/texas-gop-platform-calls-for-a-return-to-racial-discrimination-and-intolerance/] Rape Victim Can Sue for Denied Contraception [http://www.courthousenews.com/2012/06/25/47785.htm] People Who Say They're Moving To Canada Because Of ObamaCare[http://www.buzzfeed.com/daves4/people-moving-to-canada-because-of-obamacare] EGYPTIAN PRESIDENT MOHAMMED MORSI: “JIHAD IS OUR PATH & DEATH IN THE NAME OF ALLAH IS OUR GOAL”[http://www.humanevents.com/2012/06/24/egyptian-president-mohammed-morsi-jihad-is-our-path-death-name-allah-is-our-goal/] Amateur Exorcist Stabs Wife to Death, Streaks[http://en.rian.ru/russia/20120628/174291406.html] Clips: Carl Sagan Cosmos, The Simpsons, Jesus Camp Visit our Website at http://dissonancepod.com for more info.  

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It's skeptical, it's political, and there is no welcome mat. This is episode 54 of Cognitive Dissonance, and it is also the culmination, it is the end today, of International Gay Pride Week? Day? Time? Regional celebration thing? Festival? I don't know. Very festive. Yeah, very. That's all I know. That's why I was picking festival. I was like, you know, it's a pretty festive time.

My week felt particularly fabulous. Yeah. So. But we've got a host of stories to really cheer you up. And by cheer you up, I mean probably horrifyingly depress you. So this story is from the New York Daily News, but it's all over the everywhere. You can find this story just about anybody. Google Oreo.

Yeah, no kidding. So the Oreo cookie is gone in support of the gay pride week time celebration. They have an image of an Oreo with like the rainbow, you know, like the inclusive, hey, rainbow thing. And there's a backlash, Cecil. People are angry at Oreos. Yeah, I think it's mostly fat people. I mean, really.

No, as a fat person, I've never been angry at an Oreo. I mean, anger isn't the emotion that i feel it's i've been regretful about a lot but i've never been angry no uh it's funny because there has been a lot of backlash and the the the image as you say is of the rainbow and then on the bottom it says made with cream colors that do not exist which i think is fucking bullshit, by the way. I'd love to eat it. I would eat the fuck out of an Oreo with that much cream in it. Are you kidding me? That's like a heart attack in a cookie.

It's perfect. They're already a heart attack in a cookie. Aren't they like the most trans fatty? Oh, yeah. And then the double stuffed ones. They're like full of shortening. They're just like, yeah, we just take a big spatula full of shortening and lay it in there. The thing is, is that people were upset, Tom.

They were very upset that Oreo came out in favor of tolerance. They came out in favor of tolerance and people were upset about it. They didn't like the fact that Oreo was not a bigot company, that Oreo didn't want to, you know. I mean, I don't even know what you, what do you expect? Do you expect a company to come out with like a, a really fucking provocative stance like that? Is that what they expect? This is already a cookie that I think is pretty controversial, right?

It's, it's two black cookies, double teaming a white filling. Right. So it's already kind of pushing the envelope. You know, it's pushing the envelope anywhere but porn. You know what I You know, it's pushing the envelope anywhere but porn. You know what I mean? Like it's pushing the envelope anywhere but there. Yeah. If you're so bitter that you're angry at a cookie, I mean a cookie.

Yeah. You're really kind of worked up about nothing here. I'm actually very encouraged I love seeing these companies publicly come out in support of you know equality and inclusion and I just think that the people who get worked up about this they seem increasingly strident

and less rational and like you said what do they expect like a bigot cookie like a the KKK anniversary cookie it like lights itself on fire Like a bigot cookie? Like the KKK anniversary cookie? It like lights itself on fire. Hey, my chips ahoy are shaped like little burning crosses. What?

Talk about heartburn. Jesus. You have to dunk them in milk to put them out? Yeah. What I think is so funny, and i'm always bad tom you know we talked about this i think on chats when i was talking about how i even after someone describes what irony is to me i still don't really know what it is and i'm afraid to say something is ironic but i think i i don't know that this is ironic i think it's just a weird coincidence that people who are against – that want to still hate homosexuals and don't want their cookies to reflect this, that are so mad about it, they start opposing Facebook pages that say boycott Oreo cookies. The thing that they don't get is that Facebook is an organization that is inclusive to gays, that actually supports gay rights. So you're specifically, you know, working on a social network that is built and maintained

by people that are completely against your views, but you don't seem to care about that. And they don't care that, you know, Apple does it or Google does it or, you know, any of the number of companies that do it. And Oreo is just a tiny little bit of Kraft Foods, which is a huge conglomerate corporation that just has massive reach all over the world. world, the idea that you would boycott from your life all the companies that wind up supporting homosexual rights, you would fucking – you'd have like – all you'd be able to do is eat a Chick-fil-A sandwich. Right. It's the ultimate austerity measure, right? Yeah.

You're in lockdown. Yeah, exactly. Does Chick-fil-A get any of their products from Kraft, I wonder? I wonder. And that'd be interesting too, to take a look at. You know, Chick-fil-A, they word it differently. They're like, oh, we're for, we support, you know, we're a Christian organization and we support, you know, what is it? Traditional marriage is what they'll say. But you know, that's just a different way of being a bigot. Right.

Sure. That's like saying, like, well, I don't think blacks and whites should get married. I support traditional, you know, same race marriage. Like, let's talk about tradition for a second, because traditional does not mean good. They are not synonymous things. Traditional simply means that like this is culturally ensconced. Yeah. Like that's all that that means is that but tradition is not an inherent good.

There are there are a lot of traditions that are not good things that should be. Circumcision. Well, I mean, like you can be like, well, this is just a traditional genocide. It's just a traditional old fashioned genocide, you know, like Mama used to make. Yeah. Like there's a lot of shit that used to be fucking tradition. Right. It's like that's not a good thing.

We've abandoned traditional racial roles that, you know, you could have legitimately said, well, you know, I mean, these racial power discrimination and what have you and the separations of blacks and whites and their abilities and how we view them in society. Well, you know, we've been doing that for generations. So it's traditional. Yeah. It's traditional. Well, it's still terrible. It doesn't mean it's good. It just means that you were wrong for a longer time.

Right, right. I'm eating like 100 Oreos, and that is stepping it up from the 99 I would normally eat. I was going to say, Tom, this isn't really a stretch, is it? So Cecil, this next story is from Addicting Info. Texas GOP. The Texas GOP platform,

the Republican platform, is kind of crazy. It's kind of gone off the train a little bit. Texas has always been, you know, one of those states that kind of is a nation unto itself. This is unrelated, but, you know, my work, I work in real estate. A few years back, there was a national reform of the RESPA system. That's the part of the laws that govern how real estate is done. And one of the forms, one of the primary disclosures provided to borrowers changed. And all the states, of course,

have to do it, right? Because it's a federal guideline. And Texas just said, we're just not doing it. And they just didn't do it. Texas, again, has some crazy shit going on. Their platform calls for a conscience clause and for some interesting views on homosexuality. Again, a nation unto itself, Cecil. I was, you know, Tom, I was looking through this platform and I was searching for it. I didn't see it. I thought that they wanted to change the name of the state or the sort of sub name of the state from the Lone Star State to the Lone Brain Cell State. I was almost certain that they were going to try to do that. When you read through this, I'm just shocked, constantly shocked at how, you know, we just talked about traditional marriage, How many people latch on to that? And one of the things in this – they talk about – obviously they talk about traditional marriage.

They talk about traditional values. They talk about homosexuality itself tearing at the fabric of society and contributes to the breakdown of the family unit. But the one thing that really I think is the most egregious, and I'm reading directly from, this is quoting their platform and it's on the Addicting Info site. It says, additionally, we oppose any criminal or civil penalties against those who oppose homosexuality out of faith, conviction, or belief in traditional values. That's, you know, that is a protection to bullies clause. That's what that is. They're saying, you know what, we want people to be able to discriminate.

And I mean, what if you oppose it using your fist? Is that okay? Right. Like what level of opposition is acceptable? What about if every day you belittle and berate um homosexuals in your school at your workplace you refuse to hire them you refuse to allow them in your home in your uh establishment you isolate them from society and there's repercussions to that shit and like you said it's this is a bully clause this is is like, yeah, well, you know, we don't like these people, and we're just going to make it as miserable as fucking possible for them to exist in Texas.

You know, because God loves you? Yeah. I don't know. And of course you'd choose to be homosexual. Well, you do. Yeah. Because I'll tell you what, if I was a fucking Texan, I would choose to be homosexual. Right? Like, how does that even work? Yeah. Well, you know, if I was a fucking Texan, I would choose to be homosexual. Right? Like, how does that even work?

Yeah. I chose. Well, you know, it's a lifestyle. It's a lifestyle that I chose. It's just a lifestyle choice. Yeah. A lot of people choose lives of terror and isolation. That's.

I remember when I woke up this morning, I was thinking to myself, see, so I woke up and like, you know, I kind of stretched out a little bit. I was like, you know, something's missing. I don't feel fearful for my life today. I'd rather live in Liberia than be a gay Texan, you know? Oh, no. And then, you know, they have a conscience clause in here. We believe that doctors, nurses, pharmacists, any employees of hospitals, any employees, the fucking janitor of hospitals

and insurance companies. I'm not going to process your claims. Healthcare organizations, medical and scientific research students, and any employee should be protected by Texas law if they conscientiously object to participate in practices that conflict with their moral or religious beliefs. Quit your job. Yeah yeah just that's not a job you get to have and then they go on to to to discuss um you know the the various including but not limited to and it's abortion and all of the stuff that you would think that these fucking backward ass hillbilly motherfuckers might oppose right um and one of them is like they're talking about euthanasia, comma, assisted suicide.

How are they different? What is the difference? That's a distinction without a difference. I don't know. And then he says, and the withdrawal of nutrition and hydration. So basically, like, there's no pulling the plug at all. Oh, my God. In Texas.

like there's no pulling the plug at all oh my god in texas so if somebody's on life support like and you're you're so cecil you're you're in like you're driving through texas you're on vacation and you get hit by all the buses right that's all of them it's like a fucking gravitational pull of buses right across the state and just Yeah. And you're on life support. Right. And you have a deeply held personal belief that you don't want to live or be – the doctors could just refuse to allow that by this law, the conscience clause. Your wife could say, my husband didn't want to be kept – he's brain dead. Let's call this shit a night. Not in Texas. Yee-haw. Conscience clause brings the worst presents, it turns out.

Right. Abortions for all. Very well. No abortions for anyone. No abortions for anyone. Abortions for some. Abortions for some. Miniature American flags for others. So this next story is from Courthouse News Service.

This is a story out of Tampa, Florida. A woman was arrested. She had been raped and not connected to that event. She was arrested. And when she was arrested, she had taken one of two of the morning after pill in order to not get pregnant by her rapist. And the jailer refused her her second pill, citing a conscience clause, basically saying he was opposed on religious grounds to providing it for her. That's kind of despicable.

Just kind of. Why? Totally. Why do you have a say in whether or not someone gets to do this? It's not. And that's the thing is like the morning after pill, there's nothing there at that point. There's really nothing there. It's just taking an extra dose of like the birth control pill to make sure that the egg doesn't get fertilized.

That's it. It's not a – I mean as far as I know, I could be fucking wrong here. But I don't think it's like aborting the little zygote. It's just making sure the egg doesn't stick. Yeah, but I mean, let's get worked up about it. Yeah. I mean, really, like, let's get fucking worked up about it. Let's make sure that somebody doesn't have access to this because, you know, what would you – you have to put yourself, Cecil, in the mindset of a religious person.

I know you're not good at this, so let me help you. I'm ready, Tom. Okay. I'm ready. I know you're not good at this, so let me help you. I'm ready, Tom. I'm ready. I am the right person to walk you through this, right? Okay. So I'm also going to put you in the mindset of a woman, and you've been raped. You've been assaulted. It's a terrible, traumatic event.

I don't like this scenario so far. It's not a good deal. All right. Admittedly, it's a bad deal. And now flip the coin a little bit. And you're a doctor and you've got these two pills. But you have to stop and consider, Cecil, what would Jesus do? You know?

And Jesus clearly would say, well, you know, we want all the little children to be born of rapists. Jesus loves rapists. That's Jesus loves rapists. That's in Mark somewhere. I'm sure. Yeah. You know, blessed be the rapist. Is that go forth and multiply by force. You shouldn't be meddling with something like this.

I understand it. Like, look, if she turns to him and says, oh my God, I got pregnant. You need to fucking perform an emergency abortion. Yeah. I'm not going to do that because I'm a fucking deputy. You know, I get it. Okay. Makes sense. I understand. But when you're like, hey, I'd like to have that pill and it's not drugs. And you mentioned this earlier, like, Hey man, she's in fucking jail. You don't get a pill, but he, the person even said, well, I'm not going to give that to you because of my religious convictions. Like that's fucking ridiculous. I can see not giving someone who has been arrested, not giving them a pill because they came in with it. Right. That makes sense. That suddenly makes sense. Right.

That suddenly makes sense. But don't put a qualifier on it then. Well, it's like it's against my religious belief. Well, no one's asking you to take the pill. Yeah. You know, that's the thing. It's like if you don't want to take the pill, then when you get raped, don't fucking take it. That's like it'd be like imagine you go the, you get arrested and the guy sitting there,

he, you know, it's the same thing. If he's not going to give you the pill, it's like him fucking force feeding you the wafer in the wine. You know, like this is my religious belief. You have to take this fucking little cracker and stuff it in your face.

And I'm going to pour the fucking wine. Either you're going to open your mouth or it's going to go in your eyes. I don't care, but it's my religious belief. God damn it. You know, like, fuck you, dude. I don't have to eat your fucking Ritz cracker. Get away from me. Nobody would do that. But the fact is, is that we've got to follow their religious beliefs when it comes to other things. Well, I don't have to fucking get down on my knees and look at Mecca every day. Like it doesn't, I'm not fucking required to do it. So if your religious belief encroaches on my freedom, then suddenly you have to take a step

back and be like, well, fuck my religious belief shouldn't be doing that. You know, if I'm at my job and I'm asked to do something that I strongly believe is immoral, but I have to do it right. It? Then I got to quit my job. Right. That's my choice. Okay, this job is not compatible. This place of employment is not compatible with my moral decision making. Right.

And so I'm just going to walk away. The solution isn't to just do a bad job. When is that ever the solution? When do you just say, well, I know it's kind of my job, but I'm just not going to do my job. Could you get away, Tom? Could you – like if there was this law here, let's say, and you were a cashier and you could have like right to refuse through conscience, through the conscience clause. Could you just say it's against my conscience to serve other people, to look other people in the face? Sorry, but you hired me to be a person who looks other people in the face while I'm ringing them up, but I can't do that.

So I'm just going to sit in the corner over here and I'm going to collect my money. Like, is that a possible thing to do? And really, why wouldn't somebody push it that far? You know, it would be like I'm going to get a job and then I'm going to say that all of the job responsibilities you've given me, I have a moral objection to, which is protected now by law. Right. So I'll be the guy over here getting fat, rich and happy while you guys do all the fucking work. Right. So this next story is from the Hurriyet Daily News. Hurriyet?

I don't know. It's a leading news source for Turkey and the region. Iran to execute two for alcohol. I guess they ran out of homosexuals. You know, you run out of them eventually, Tom, if you keep murdering them. If you keep killing them all, eventually people are going to stop. The thing is, it's a choice. You know, it's a choice. Iran is just totally off the fucking crazy train with the executions.

They're executing people for drinking alcohol. And, of course, why is drinking alcohol verboten in Iran? And that's because it's not allowable in the Islamic tradition. Tradition. Yeah. Something we should always bow down to. Yeah. Traditions.

They have, you know, we have a big contingent here in the States against drunk driving, and it's called MAD. engine here in the States against drunk driving and it's called MAD. Well, they have a different MAD over there, but it's Muslims assassinate drunk dudes instead of mothers against drunk driving. Yeah, what the fuck? I mean, this though, I think the interesting thing about this is that it's, I think, an analog to our drug problem here in the States. There's a part of this article that was really intriguing to me. And I'm going to read directly from this.

What was it again? I can't even see it. It's so small. I can't even read. Humph. What is it again? Horeat. Horeat.

Where are you seeing that? I'm looking at it in the address bar. Oh, there we go. I couldn't read that either. Because the logo is so small. Right. It's tiny. It's impossible to read on that logo.

The Horyat Daily News. It says, alcohol is also covertly manufactured in Iran, sometimes resulting in deaths due to production methods used. And I know it's just a throwaway sentence, right? In this country with things that are maybe not to be consumed. Right. But give some sort of effect so that it doesn't take away from the potency of the drug and things like that. So there's some – there's an analog there. I mean like when you leave it up to the citizens to fuck themselves up, they will fuck themselves up sometimes to their detriment. No matter how harsh the penalties are, people still seek to alter their brain chemistry.

Right. And I think just as importantly, this story, these two individuals have been caught previously and they were whipped, fucking whipped, 80 lashes each. Yeah. And still they drank. Right. And so you have to look at that and say, well, they've got a fucking drinking problem. I mean, they're not, they're not, it's not like you and I are like sitting out on the fucking porch having a couple of beers.

If somebody said, hey, Tom, I'm going to whip you 80 times if you drink that Sam Adams. I'm putting down the Sam Adams. When I'm not doing that is when I'm an alcoholic. Right. When I have a drinking problem, when I feel a compulsion to this activity that feels out of my control. Right. They're going to die for that. That is grossly unfair.

And that is an analog to, I think, the drug situation here. I think it's a good point. People seek out these experiences. And the solution is not punitive measures. Punitive measures aren't going to solve the problem. Nobody is going to be cured of alcoholism by being murdered, right? I mean, I guess you would be. You wouldn't drink anymore. But it doesn't fix the problem.

Just like people aren't cured of being addicted to substance abuse here in the States by being incarcerated for ridiculously long periods of time. That doesn't fix the problem. It doesn't – it's not like there's a city in America where they can say, woo, we got that one licked. Yeah. No drugs. I mean, Iran licked. Yeah. No drugs. I mean, Iran kills you. Yeah. And they still have.

And they still have people doing it. I wonder if after they got whipped, Tom, they were able to use alcohol antiseptic on the back. Right. I wonder if you're able to dab those wounds with alcohol. You know, the other thing, too, Tom, is when, you know, you're so right when you say people will find ways, no matter how, what their means are, they will find ways to alter their brain chemistry. I read an article a while back about this, this process. It's called Jenkem, J-E-N-K-E-M. I have no idea if I'm pronouncing that correctly, but this is basically you're taking human waste, shit and piss, putting it in a bottle and then fermenting it.

And then you huff it. What? And it's a hallucinogenic. It makes you fuck because it's the methane in it and shit and all the other fucking waste product shit that will fucking make you flip out, make you freak out. But like the fucking downsides of it are horrifying. What is poop wine? Dude, it's worse. And you like smell and taste it for days after.

Oh, it's like the word like like it seems like the worst downsides to any drug ever. And it's like poop smelling. You know, it's like the worst of all. But people do it. People do it because they want to alter their their state. So the fact that you're never going to be able to outlaw everything. No matter what you do, you cannot outlaw every

way in which to, you know, change your brain chemistry, as you say. So it's just even, I mean, it seems like tasting and smelling poo for several days is a fate worse than death. You've hurt me with that story.

Like you have damaged me. Yeah. Yeah. You're going to go on a sort of a crash diet now. Oh, my God. That's I had no idea. That's the worst thing. God. Yep. Yeah. I had no idea. That's the worst thing.

God. Yep. Yeah. That should be the punishment I ran. It's like, you didn't drink alcohol? Yeah. Uh-uh. You smell this poo.

It is. Yeah. That's a poop smelling. God, I can't. That's like, I mean, imagine like a port like a porta potty at a concert i know the first thing that goes through my head is like you know if it if you go into a porta potty after a hot day right the first thing you do is go fuck someone shoot me in the eye like that's the first thing that goes through your head is like i've got to go there's nowhere else to go. And they even put chemicals in there to deaden that stuff. Oh, my.

That is just awful beyond comprehension. Goodness gracious. Yeah, it's a horrifying thing. But people do it. Yeah, people do anything, right? They'll do it. Fucking the licked toads. Poisons.

They'll eat poisons. They do it all the time. And then you get those people like you watch that intervention show, that girl's huffing constantly. Oh, yeah. You're just all – I mean you are fucking – you have taken the strings of your mind as if it were a guitar and just completely loosened them to the point where they won't even play a tune anymore. Right? Never to be tightened again, man. Butch laugh.

Butch laugh. That's what it sounds like. You're like this person is so fucking off the rails crazy at this point. They will never be fixed. Yeah, this is a song in crazy minor. Crazy minor. Fucking Iran. Hey, you know where I'm not going to move to?

Yeah, no kidding, right? We're already apostates. We can't move there. That's true. Yeah, we're apostates now. I don't think their immigration policies would allow for us anyhow. I don't think so. Plus, it would be harder to get the show out every week.

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Cecil, we would be remiss not to talk about the Supreme Court decision. Supreme Court decision came down and it was initially reported by CNN and Fox News. I love that. Inaccurately. Yeah. So they reported that... Dewey defeated Truman, too, in other news. Right, I know. Like, Dewey wins!

That was the first thing I thought. So funny. The Affordable Care Act, that's the Obama... They're calling it Obamacare. I love Obamacare. I want to keep Obamacare. Keep it there. It's like he's giving me a big hug.

Right. Oh, Obamacare. That's so nice. So that act was ruled constitutional. It was being challenged on the grounds that the government didn't have the authority to force the individual mandates. The individual mandate portion of the law is the portion of the act that says that all Americans, and there are some exceptions, but that the vast majority of Americans must pay into the pool. That they must become insured. And if they don't get insured, they have to pay a fine. Now, the fines aren't terribly egregious.

get insured, they have to pay a fine. Now, the fines aren't terribly egregious, but if you don't get insured, you do have to pay a fine. Otherwise, you've got to provide insurance. And there's outs, there's exceptions, there's religious and moral exceptions, of course, to the law. And the states in turn have to set up insurance exchanges to allow people to buy insurance at reasonable costs and what have you. And so there's a lot involved. And isn't there – and really quickly, just to interrupt, Tom. I think there's also a portion of this bill that limits the profits that insurance companies can have. Yes. They have to spend 80 percent of their revenues on claims.

Yeah. Which – good. Yeah. That's what I want. I want my money to go into paying my claims. Yeah. Which, good! Yeah. That's what I want. I want my money to go into paying my claims. Because as somebody who uses their insurance, not enough of that money has gone to pay claims. Right.

No, and it's totally true. It's still a money-making venture. It's just less money than they were making. Right. So it was challenged the supreme court upheld that and people people are all abuzz uh about saying that they're moving to canada rush limbaugh said he's moving to costa rica costa rica buh-bye stupid he'd take up most of costa rica right Sink the fucking island.

I'll tell you what. That motherfucker shows up. They will vote him off. Yeah, they will vote him off. They'll extinguish that motherfucker's torch. That's for sure. That's done. Moving to Canada to get away from Obamacare is the very height of ridiculousness. Is that irony, Tom?

I think that that is irony. You're my official irony expert. I'm the irony police. I'll be the iron-o-meter. Iron-o-meter. Iron-o-meter. We should set like an irony level, like the National Defense Alert level. Like the irony, like we're set to yellow, you know, like an elevated risk of irony at any moment.

How would you move to Canada to get rid of – so there's a lot of confusion, Cecil, about Obamacare. But specifically people are somehow still conflating this with socialized medicine. That's the confusing part, Tom, is that it's not socialized medicine. And that's why when people say that they're going to move to Canada, first off, newsflash to anybody who's thinking about moving to Canada, they have an immigration policy there. So you just can't just pick up your bags and be like, and I'm off to Canada because they'll give you a visa on the way in. Yeah, come on in. You get 30 days or whatever. Americans seem

to think they can just move to any country. Like, look, we own you assholes. We can move up here or whatever. No, no, no. It doesn't work that way. Just like every other sovereign nation, you have to get permission to move there. Canada's going to build a wall?

That'd be so funny if they treat us like we treat Mexico. like if they treated us like anything farther south, like there's another consecutively larger wall as you go farther north. But it's so funny that you think you could just move there. Regardless of that, let's just skip over that, gloss over that fact. They have socialized medicine. over that fact, they have socialized medicine. They have, they have, gays can marry up there and they're, you know, with, in the entire country. It's not just a few states that allow it where, you know, you can get married in California, but if you move to like fucking some other part of the, part of the United States, they may not recognize your marriage. Up there, it's, it's just, yeah,

you can just be, have a homosexual union and that's fine. It's all good. So they are a more liberal country than we are. So the idea that you're leaving the liberal socialist policies of the United States for a more liberal nation is – you just didn't do your research. Well, just none of it. Just none of it at all not even the smallest tiniest wow portion of it at all let's let's see so let's list in alphabetical order all the wealthy industrialized nations that don't have socialized medicine. You ready? The United States of America. And that's it.

So that would be the list in... That's it! I could name individual states if that would help make the list longer. If it would lengthen the experiment. It's that there's nowhere to move to, you know, because the rest of the fucking civilized world has decided that healthcare is a common good. Right. Absolutely. We're the only ones who are like fucking pay for it, stupid.

And the amount of money that people are. Well, the thing is, is that one, since there is no socialized health care here, you're not paying taxes for it. So the thing is, is like, oh, you're going to be paying this amount in taxes. No, you're going to be paying for insurance. The insurance company isn't going to be able to fuck you like they used to. You're not going to have to. You're not going to. The preexisting conditions thing is going to be gone.

Kids are going to be able to live on their parents insurance until they're 26. Like we said earlier, the profits are margin is going to is going to shrink. like we said earlier, the profits margin is going to shrink. Thereby, it necessarily has to lower premiums because they won't be able to charge you what they used to be able to charge you. It's just going to be a better system all around. I'll be perfectly honest, Tom. I would much prefer socialized medicine. I would much prefer not to have my company and me pay into a kitty for our

big, huge company policy of health insurance. I get a very good deal, but I still think I would much rather have a worse deal on my taxes than what I pay right now in healthcare and have socialized medicine than to not have it at all. I would much rather take home less money and make sure everybody in the United States has an opportunity to not go bankrupt because they're sick than to walk away with more money in my pocket at the end of the day. Yeah, I am 100% on that. We need it. It's it is it is

the only way, you know, we don't have a we don't mandate a private education system in this country. You know, there are some things that work better when they're made public. They just work better that way. And, you know, I think you raise a good point. Like the economics of our current system, they don't work. You have to consider what you pay, but you also have to consider what your employer pays for your health insurance because that's money they're not giving you. Right. That could be part of your salary. That's part of what it costs them to employ you. So when they hire you, they're saying, okay, we're going to pay you X salary.

And you have to kick in X or Y dollars from that salary to pay your insurance. But it costs them X plus Z, Z being the amount of money that it costs to insure you and your family. So even if you don't pay dollar one through your employer, you still make less money than you would otherwise be able to make. Absolutely. Because it costs your employer, you still make less money than you would otherwise be able to make because it costs your employer more money to employ you. So that's, you're already kind of getting taxed because your, your employer is not able to pay you that money. They have to account for it. They have to pay it. It costs them that money. They don't get to pass that forward to you. And then let's say you have insurance. I have insurance.

That doesn't mean that you, oh, I have insurance, so I don't pay anything if I get sick. Well, that's not true. You have insurance, so the insurance pays some of it, and then you pay some of it. So you have to pay for the insurance, and then you still have to pay for a portion of the medical care. And then you still have to pay for a portion of the medical care. So if something does happen in our current system that happens to be expensive, you can still end up paying thousands and thousands of dollars, even with fairly decent insurance. So you're out the money your employer is paying in our current system. You're out the money your employer pays to match your insurance benefit.

You're out the amount of your insurance benefit. And you're out the amount that your insurance doesn't cover, which can be substantial. And that's in opposition to socialized medicine where you're just like, well, I paid more taxes. But if I get sick, I'm OK. That's a better system. Yeah. And the things that they say about how socialized medicine is worse for you and how you don't get care as quickly. Man, I have an HMO. And trying to make an appointment on an HMO is not an easy thing to do. It's not like I can just walk out and be like, well, I'm going to go to the doctor tomorrow.

You know, they have emergency rooms in other countries too And if you're sick You've got to make appointments here too If you have an HMO You've got to make appointments ahead of time too It's not like you could just be like Well I mean if you were fucking independently wealthy That's the only system of healthcare

That's better than what the normal person has Because you could just walk into a doctor and be like, I am sick. Here is my gobs of money. Please make me unsick. And then you get to be unsick faster. But every other working stiff in the world has to follow the same fucking rules that everybody else does.

So the fact that it's like, oh, it's worse for America. It's worse for our healthcare system, which is the most innovative in the world or whatever. That's a bullshit argument. Yeah, and if it was true, if it was true, we would have the highest life expectancy, right? If our health care system was so much better than everybody else's, if they – you hear that argument all the time. Like, wow, if you live in one of these countries with that socialized medicine and you when you get sick you gotta wait you know nine months before you see anybody and that's well if that's true then these people would they would die more but we're not in the top 20 we're not in the top 25 right we're the 30th right

when you look up life expectancy by country the united states ranks actually it's lower than that. I'm sorry. We're the 38th. We're behind Cuba in life expectancy. That's we're behind the United Arab Emirates in life expectancy. Are we behind Russia? Are we behind Russia? I don't think so. I don't think so. But in Soviet Russia, life expects you. So this idea that like, well, the United States has got the greatest health care system in the world and you can go see a doctor anytime you want. That's not just not true. It's just not the case. And if it was the case, we would just live long. Right.

You'd be healthier as a country. We're not healthier. We're not even close. There was like a, there was an article that we both looked at where they, they had a ton of examples from other countries where, you know, this person is in, is in England and they had heart problems. And this person is in the United States and they had heart problems. And they were, you know, all the, all the same sort of specs about their life were the same, except they had socialized medicine and we didn't. And the person here wanted to be there going bankrupt or they had an HMO, so they were lucky enough to have an HMO, so they were able to cover it. But they still had some really crushing bills at the end of it.

And the person in the other country was just like, yeah, and I'm fine now. So we both have our health. One of us has money. Yeah. One of them has our financial health too. Yeah. And it's not the American. That's for sure. That's for sure of us has money. Yeah. One of them has our financial health, too. Yeah. And it's not the American. That's for sure.

That's for sure. We're America. Yeah. We're going broke. Yeah. And the idea that Obamacare is going to change that, I don't know that it is. It may still keep a lot of that around. We'll see how it pans out when it finally does.

But, you know, the medical bankruptcies in this country, that's a ridiculous number. It's a ridiculous number. It is. And that is the point. You know, we're talking about this for a long time, but I think it really deserves some coverage. That's the point where they really got you by the balls, Tom. I mean, really, it's your fucking health. It's the fucking thing that's keeping you here, man. Like,'s the one thing that is non fucking negotiable. It's the one thing where you're just like, I don't care if you burn everything I own, save my life. Right? No, yeah, you're absolutely right. And I have to think, I do think insurance is a stupid way to pay for healthcare. Insurance is a great way to pay for catastrophe so you have car insurance and life insurance and fire insurance right because you have you insure unlikely events

needing medical care is not an unlikely event it is a certainty you are eventually going to need some medical care because you're made of biology you know maybe fucking iron man doesn't go to the doctor too often but the rest of us are made of flesh so shit sometimes is going to go wrong you're going to fall and hurt your back you're going to break your leg you're going to catch you know some virus that you say you're going to need a doctor. Everybody does. Everybody needs care eventually. It is not a smart way. Insurance is not a smart way to pay for certain events, events that are going to occur.

Imagine trying to get car insurance and saying, well, I'm going to crash this car. I will have at least three crashes this year and every year from now on. Right. That is going to happen. Let me tell you something, local agent. Thank you for the insurance. I am crashing this car right now. It's not going to happen.

I'm moving to Canada? Yeah. I would if they'd have me, Tom. Right. I go to move to Canada and be like, what services do you offer? What skills do you have? You're like, whoa. Fine, I'll go back to America. be like, what services do you offer? What skills do you have? Like, whoa. Fine, I'll go back to America.

Yeah, right. No kidding. I was like, I've got an English lit degree. Oh, let him come in. Yes. We love the arts in Canada. We're short of humanities majors. Welcome.

Contribute to our grand society. Everyone up here gets a useful degree yeah kick out another electrical engineer this philosophy major wants a job oh that's awesome that is awesome so this next story is from humanevents.com. Powerful conservative voices. Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi? Hmm. Jihad is our path, and death in the name of Allah is our goal. Finally, a rational voice in politics.

Man. Do they have socialized medicine over there? Yeah, they probably do. It's called, we'll put you to death if you disagree. Don't talk back. Right. Yakety yak. Ow my neck.

Yeah. So the Muslim Brotherhood presidential candidate, Mohammed Morsai of the Muslim Brotherhood, was quoted as saying, Jihad is our path and death in the name of Allah is our goal. The Quran is our constitution. The prophet is our leader. Well, since you put it that way.

They know how to keep religion out of politics over there. That's for sure. I heard Santorum's actually moving there instead of Canada. here we go turns out they have a lot in common they really do santorum would fit right in over there um that's a terrible path it's not it doesn't seem like definitely doesn't seem like the one less traveled though when you come when you come to think about it yeah uh this this is uh this is common for them to sort of shout this stuff over there. But but is it a step down? I think it's a step just sideways, really, because that guy was a douchebag to the old president was a total douchebag. Yeah, it's you know, it's at least this is democratically elected. So that's you've you've got to get down with that.

So that's you've got to get down with that. But establishing, you know, his stated goal of establishing Sharia law, Sharia law is difficult to get behind. You know, I know Texas likes it. Yeah. I know that a lot of the Bible Belt states here in the states would get behind religiously validated laws, that that's how they make their decisions. But making decisions and making public policy based on ancient Bronze Age texts, you know, based in a supernatural belief system strikes me as not a great way to catapult yourself into the 21st century. Yeah, and really you're just ensconcing your own culture in Bronze Age ethics. You're saying this is fine. And there's been some really horrible things that have been happening in that country very recently.

People being beaten to death, women being raped, women being groped, a big group of women getting groped. One story we didn't cover this week that you posted to our Facebook was that woman who got beat to death by her husband, that pregnant woman who got beat to death by her husband, that pregnant woman who got beat to death by her husband for not voting for this guy. So there's a lot of violence over there and a lot of misogyny and it all comes right out of the Koran and that sort of way in which to live your life based on that book. That's not a real moral way to live your life. And you can I mean, you can even see it in in his in the way in which he's talking.

You know, it's like death. We're willing to die in the name of this. Not many people, I think, that are rational are willing to die in the name of things. Yeah. You know, it's not like Neil deGrasse Tyson is like saying, you know, saying like, you know, astrophysics is our path and death or cosmos. No, that's not. You can't even do it. You can't even make it. You can't even fucking mad lib that thing. Right. Yes.

There's no way to secularize this kind of madness because there's no there's no there's no analog to it. You know, it's only the insanity of religious fervor that can lead to this sort of thing sounding like, and people cheer, the masses, they cheer by the thousands. You know, that sounds great. I can't wait to die and be rewarded for my violence and my hate, you know, in a heaven, in an afterlife that rewards this sort of behavior based on a holy text that is anything but holy or moral, righteous. I just pray over this equipment. We speak over the PowerPoint presentations,

all of the video projectors, and we'll say, devil, we know what you love to do in meetings like this, and we say you will not, in Jesus' name, you will not prevent this message from going out. No microphone problems, in Jesus' name. Cecil, I know we've talked before about the Olympics. Now, the Olympics was, at least for a long time, I know they've opened up certain sports, but it used to be a place for amateurs.

Right, right. To gather together. You know, professional athletes were excluded, but they would gather together and the greatest amateur athletes in the world would compete. Right. Except for when they opened up for like the dream team, United States, basketball.

Yeah, that's been kind of bastardized over the, yeah. But in disappointing news for amateur exorcists everywhere, a St. Petersburg, Russia resident was placed in a psychiatric ward. He is never going to be able to turn pro. He will not make it to the 2012 exorcism games. He's not going to get any sponsorship. Right. He's not going to be on the Wheaties

box. The Wheaties box? The exorcism version of the Wheaties box? It's actually Frankenberries that does that one. Booberry. Booberry, Booberry. And actually you can tell what it works because then it's just berry.

The ghost is gone. It just disappears. My devil O's been exorcised. It just disappears. My devil-o's are just o's now. They used to have little... It's all the shards of the o. They look like horns. That's why they're evil. They just remove them directly. It's like a fucking bowl of Cheerios afterwards.

It takes hours to pick all those things out. It turns devil horns into halos. Right? This story is crazy as hell. Dude tried to exorcise the devil from his wife, and he did it through the recognized, acceptable means of exorcism by stabbing her with knives and a screwdriver. Right. In his defense, I'll read from the story that after sticking a screwdriver into her head, he expected the wounds would heal by themselves, but they killed the woman instead. Interesting expectations.

Right. You know, I don't know if he knows anything about tested evidence, but I have never seen a person walking down the street like trying to catch a subway with a screwdriver sticking out of her face. It's never happened to me. I don't know why this person would be like, so if I stab her in the face with a screwdriver, she's gonna be fine. Oh yeah, she'll be... No worries,

man. She's gonna be awesome. Uh, this has gotta suck, too. It's gotta be so bad. suck too i mean really it's just gotta suck because he stabbed the fuck out of her and then stuck a screwdriver in her forehead and you gotta you really gotta give it the old college try to give it to the bone up there this guy was he was fucking hopped up on goofballs or something well in his again in defense, after it didn't work, he did the only thing you could think to do, which is to leave his apartment and run around the

neighborhood naked. Was his cell phone dead? I don't know what he did. He's just like, I was going to dial 911, but my cell phone was dead. So I just took off all my clothes and ran around naked. Yeah, I just flopped Johnson all across

the neighborhood. Just... What the fuck? The series of events that goes into this story. They're so fucking crazy. I just love that they call him an amateur exorcist.

He's an amateur. Whoa. We don't want to give the professionals a bad name. Right. Let it be known. This guy was acting outside the established auspices. How do you know he didn't eject a spirit, like a fucking demon spirit from, if you're willing to admit that somebody

is an exorcist, right, an amateur exorcist, why not just say, you know, we're not sure whether or not a spirit was expelled from the body. I mean, chances are if there's a spirit, it was expelled from the body. All right. But maybe another, you know, a fucking hitchhiking spirit was fucking expelled as well. You don't know. Nobody knows.

It's a bad deal for her. I wonder, it says he stuck three knives into her vital organs. Take that, vital organs. I was like, which organs are we talking about here? Lungs, heart, and what? Intestines?

I immediately went to which organs aren't vital? Which are your disposable organs? You're just like, blarp, there's a knife in there. You're just like, ha ha, joke's on you. I wasn't using that one. And what wouldn't be like, okay, so your vital organs that could get punctured and you wouldn't do it.

So like you get stabbed in the bladder. You'd be like, well, that's still horrible. Yeah, sure. It's still just a really terrible thing that occurred. That's not a good day. Yeah. Yeah. And if that's the case, could you just take a piss and piss the demon out?

Here's the thing. I wouldn't want to get stabbed in my calf, let alone the places where all the things function in my body. It's a bad deal. But again, it should be stressed. They should not reflect on all of the hardworking professional exorcists out there. Right. He was an amateur. He was probably an unlicensed exorcist out there right he was an amateur he was probably an unlicensed

exorcist he didn't have his acme exorcist license right so it's uh the amateur just stay out of the exorcism business actually he i think he was actually trying to go pro with this one but he failed the test this is the entrance exam this is it didn't work out so good. Okay, you have 30 minutes. Oh, God. Oh, he's just stabbing her. Oh, man. Where did this guy go to exorcism school? This is it.

Who let this quack in here? You don't just stab the victim. We're kind of disappointed about your test results here, Bill. I don't know how to break this to you, but she's dead. You only have three re-dos. So we got some email and some voicemail. We're going to play the voicemails for you. We got three voicemails, one from someone we're not sure who it is, one from the Pope, who is definitely not Carlos, and we also got one from, uh, the Pope, uh, who is definitely not Carlos.

And we also got one from Godless Matt. Um, I'm going to play all three for you. And then Tom is going to read the transcription from Google voice for Godless Matt. And we're going to talk about the voicemails after I play them. But here's the voicemails that we got right now. Hey boys. I couldn't help but laugh when George called you guys boys. It was perfect.

Good day, gentlemen. Hey, Tom and Cecil. This is Godless Matt calling. One of the hosts of the Broadly Focused podcast. Just calling to leave you a message and let you know that I really enjoyed the last episode. I thought the coverage of the issues was really great. But you had made a comment. I think it was in the last episode. I thought the coverage of the issues was really great. But you had made a comment, I think it was in the last episode. It might have been the episode before,

wherein you guys were talking about how there hasn't been a whole lot of information about you personally and you guys don't get into it a lot. And that it doesn't matter because it's really about the content. It's about the news. It's about the discussion. I agree. Your podcast is totally about the content. It's about the news. It's about the discussion. I agree. Your podcast is totally about the discussion. For me, it's totally about the irreverence that you guys bring to it and your personality

that you bring to the stories, sometimes more than it's about the stories themselves. But I did want to say that for some listeners, it really can make a difference in how we connect with the show and connect with sometimes even the content to have a little bit of background on you guys. And that's why I thought that it would be – that it was so cool that you guys did delve a little bit into, you know, your family lives and so forth to a limited extent, which I certainly understand. I also wanted to let you know that I work right next to a busy freeway here in Southern California,

and so instead of finding a nice quiet room in order to give Google Voice Translate or Transcribe a challenge, I thought I'd stand on the berm right next to the busy freeway and see if we can get some background noise for Google to have fun with. Anyway, keep up the good work. Enjoy the show immensely. Looking forward to the next episode, and we'll keep in touch with you guys on Twitter and so forth. Now I'm calling to tell you again that even though I'm from Germany, I talk like I'm from Italy. It's okay. It's okay.

You want to live in China, man. Okay. You don't believe in God. Okay. That's fine. That's all. Anyway, I'll tell you. It's fine with me.

With your name off the books, we will no longer be wanting to die from you. We don't want your evil atheist money anyway. Funding our cocaine and little boy party. Okay, okay. So that's all. You're a son of a bitch by the devil himself. But it's okay, because me and God love you. Or maybe God.

I think you're an asshole prick. And I think you need to go fuck yourself. Okay. So that is all. Also, I have one more thing to say. That I took the Carlos Challenge last week. And I choked on it about five times. Before the sleeping pill kicked in.

And taking the day, I used to go a lot longer. But my grip is not so tight anymore. Not tight like an 80-year-old boy's butthole, but loose like a regular man's butthole. Who's been pissed off and fucked with big black fuck many times. I do not know anything about that because I'm not gay. But okay, I'm going to go fuck yourself again. I'm going to go drink some wine. I think about the Lord Jesus and fuck little boy.

Okay, goodbye. This is the Pope, not Carlos. That's the best. That's the best. This is the Pope. This is the Pope. That's fantastic. That's fucking great, man.

I can't believe the Pope called in. So we want to thank Carlos,los too for sending in his message we're very happy that carlos sent in his message i'm the pope i'm sorry it was the pope it was the pope yeah wasn't carlos the pope not carlos sent in a message um and i'm happy to say that uh that the vatican did get my letter and uh and they've and they've responded. So that's awesome. So, Tom, Google Voice thinks Godless Matt said something. And I'm sure that the recording will say different. So can you read what it says?

Hey, John and see. So this is Got This Matt Calling. One of those probably focused podcasts. I'm just calling to leave you a message and let you know that I really enjoyed last at the So Talk To coverage of if you are doing great that you had made a comment thing with the last of the So

it might have any episode before. We're into you guys. We're talking about how they're having a whole lot of information about you personally and you guys don't get into a lot and it doesn't matter because it's only about the contents about the news about the position

I agree your podcast is holy about the session for me it's only about the air reverend. You guys bring to it. That's why it's holy. There's an air reverend.

You guys bring to it in the your personalities you bring to the stories. Sometimes more than I thought the stories in cell. But I don't want to say that first listen. There's it really to make a difference and how we can next with michelle and connect with their sometimes even the content you have a little bit a back when you get on with you guys that's why i thought it would be that it was so poor that you guys did felt a little bit into the of your family lives and so forth through with it, except which I shirt certainly understand,

also wanted to let you know that I work right next to the busy freeway here in Southern California. And so instead of funny and nice quiet room 30, give Google voice, translate or transcribe challenged. I thought I'd stand on the firm right next to the busy freeway

and see if we can get some back Ryan nice for pool though. Have fun with anyway. I like that. Have fun with anyway. Keep up the good work. Enjoy the show immensely. Looking forward to next episode and we'll keep in touch with you guys on Twitter and so forth.

That was pretty awesome. That was pretty weird. Thanks for listening, Godless Matt. You can find Godless Matt's podcast. It's the Broadly Focused podcast where he and a friend talk about news items. It's a similar podcast to ours. If you do a search, I know you can find him on Twitter, and then Broadly Focused podcast, if you just do a search for that in Google, you'll find him.

them on Twitter and then Broadly Focused Podcast. If you just do a search for that in Google, you'll find them. And Matt, feel free to post on our Facebook wall a link directly to your podcast. We'd love to share it with our listeners. So we finished our voicemail, but we have some emails that we want to talk about. We didn't get a chance to cover some emails last week, and there's a few that we want to cover that we didn't get a chance to last time. This first one, Tom, is from Sarah. that we didn't get a chance to last time. This first one, Tom, is from Sarah. And Sarah sends a heartfelt email. She grew up in a town in Texas, population about 5,000.

Her dad is a pastor at the Baptist Church. And it's a long, heartfelt letter about how there's a possibility if she did come out as an atheist that there would be some problems. This letter was – I mean I'll be honest. Like I was a little moved by this letter, you know, that somebody would send this to us that, you know, here we are. We think we're preaching to the choir. And to get something like this where, you know, clearly the show means a lot to somebody. I think that's spectacular. And it sucks that this person has to stay in the closet. Yeah. You know, they don't get to be honest. You know, we're we're a country where a lot of people bang on and on about, you know,

religious freedom and religious expression unless you happen to not be religious and live in a small town in the south. And it's real easy to, um, you'll see if you go on any atheist boards and I'm thinking of our atheism on Reddit, especially where somebody will say something like this, there'll be a story like this and a bunch of people that are, that wouldn't ever really have to deal with something like this would just be like, come on out and fuck them if they can't, if they're not going to, you know, take you for who you are and all that. out and fuck them if they can't, if they're not going to, you know, take you for who you are and all that. And I would caution this person who sent this letter, Sarah, I would caution you from coming out directly. Um, especially if your parents were to be, um, if your parents are going to be

that freaked out by it, coming out slower, uh, as an atheist, sort of letting it flow over time, letting them take like little bites rather than just forcing it into their face might be a better option. I know that when I came out, because my dad was, you know, he wasn't super religious, but because he didn't go to church all the time, but he was definitely a believer and a firm believer. And when I came out to him, it took me many years to finally just come out and say I was an atheist. But there was many talks that we had leading up to that point that where I was sort of pushing the limits of what I what he thought I believed. So there's a there's a lot of play that happens and there's a lot of inner dynamics that you just can't understand that happen in a family.

So good luck to you. I don't know how it's going to end and I don't know how eventually you'll be able to tell him if you'll ever be able to tell him. But, Sarah, we wish you luck. That's for sure. Yeah, absolutely. And if you can get out of that small town, get the fuck out of the small town in the south dan savage on his savage love podcast gives advice to to gay people trapped in the closet in these small bigoted towns all the time and it's i think it's good advice it's get it you know get an education and get the fuck out yeah

just you know move to a seattle or new york or chicago a place that's going to be more open and more welcoming to people with a diversity of worldviews. Absolutely. Okay, Tom. Looks like Emily made it back to Narnia. We got an email from Emily. Hello, my beloved Tom and Cecil. I apologize for the long delay in my correspondence.

After my last message and the repugnant tale i was fortified in my search for an exit from this caustic parallel universe and with copious amounts of research and exploration i actually found a wardrobe sadly the wardrobe deposited me in a place you might have heard of arizona i was thrilled with my exit from narnia and immediately set of exploring this new, though somewhat extremely arid environment. Tragically, I was stopped by an officer of the law who asked to see my government issued identification. Not anymore, thankfully. Yeah.

And as I've been living in Narnia for some time, I did not have it. And I was told I would be deported. Months of searching only would be deported. Months of searching, only to be deported. Thankfully, this officer was not adamant about receiving sexual favor for my release, but I was escorted back to the wardrobe I had exited and forced to reenter Narnia. I suppose my search will continue, looking for a better wardrobe to exit from. A better wardrobe. You won't find one that goes to the States.

Yeah, right? Find one that goes to Canada. They don't have Obamacare? Yeah, they have good health care there. Or Australia. People seem to love Australia. We got a letter, Tom. This is from Ken.

And Ken is a 65-year-old who lives in Mississippi. And that's a demographic I did not think we were going to reach. Yeah, I would have not guessed that we would get a whole lot of folks from Mississippi, first of all, and in the age bracket, I'd figure this is like a 12 to 14 year old age bracket, you know, maybe 12 to 13 and a half. The explicit tag is there for a reason. No, Ken, we're, we're very happy to get your email. I mean, we're, it's, it's, it's awesome. And as, as much fun as we make of the South, uh, it's warranted. And, uh, we're glad to have you. Yeah, we are glad to have you. Very glad. Yeah. Thanks for

listening, Ken. Now, Tom, we've got to read this email from Matthew. Matthew is an Australian living in Michigan. And this is a very funny story that he sent us. Hello, Cecil and Tom. I am in Michigan visiting family and experience something new with regard to snakes, a theme I have worked almost to death in the wake of the recent death of Mark Randall Wolford. A theme I have worked almost to death in the wake of the recent death of Mark Randall Wolford. In my sister-in-law's backyard, I saw a flash of movement by my mother-in-law's foot.

Snake, yells I, with the shorthand thinking of generations of paranoia behind my words. Safe in the knowledge that a type 1 error, false positive, would be infinitely preferable to a type 2, false negative. I grab the shoulders of my four-year-old son, preparing to hoist him onto my own and leg it into the middle distance, leaving my mother-in-law to fend for herself. Good choice. Way to go, Matt. When I remembered where I was. Michigan has a rattlesnake that is venomous, but it is rare and largely confined to the Upper Peninsula.

Fighting what felt like hindbrain flight response, I bent down and looked close. A garter snake. I love it. They're the most pitiful of the snakes. It is. It is. You can use them as shoelaces in a pinch.

Oh, my gosh. They are seriously the most pitiful of snakes. We stood and watched it glide across the grass and disappear under a rock. A rare opportunity to watch a live snake at close quarters without personal risk. Hooray for wussy American snakes. Hey, man, I fucking agree. I'll fucking put one of those under my pillow. Are you kidding me?

In comparison to fucking having to fight whatever the fuck you got down there the 30 seconds into your dead snake australia as far as i'm concerned just says here there'll be dragons no kidding right it's just like everything breathes fire fuck that i would op i would shoot on sight yeah every wildlife like koala bears i don't give a shit i'd walk around in a fucking spacesuit down there. Like the Kevlar everything in a minigun. Fucking A. That's the only way to survive an afternoon in Australia. We got an email from Allison.

Another email that was in a way similar to Sarah's email that we mentioned earlier. It's a great email. We're not going to read the whole thing, but we're just happy that, Allison, that you listen to the show and you get something out of it. We're both very happy that that's the case. Yeah, absolutely. The very idea that we might make an actual difference in somebody's life shocks and amazes me.

Constantly. I'm very pleased. Yeah, it's great. And it's great. It was a great email. Thank you for sending it, Allison. Tom, Paul sent us an email. Did you want to read it?

Sure. Cecil, congratulations on 12 years of merit. Thanks, Paul. Tom, you mentioned that schools drive property values. The premise that if you pour money into schools, the schools will do better and thus drive up property values as people flock to the school district seems to work in the opposite direction. Not to mention that your property taxes pay for your schools. Schools do well in better neighborhoods because of the type of students you have. Students that come from professional, well-educated, two-parent families that have good moral values and a stable home life will do better than students

that have one or no parents who are uneducated, immoral and or have an unstable home life. And then he goes on to relay a personal anecdote, which I don't think I'm going to read. It's not. Yeah, that's not really that necessary. Tom, I know you have a rebuttal to this. I just want to say, Paul, I'm not comfortable with your use of moral and immoral here. Paul, I'm not comfortable with your use of moral and immoral here. Just to say that somebody who comes from a better neighborhood has good moral values and someone who comes from a poorer neighborhood is immoral, I'm not comfortable with that at all. And I don't feel like that's a good

distinction to make or even a factual one. So I'd want to be able to pull that directly out of that statement in general and say that there's a lot of immoral people and they live cross-economic lines. The problem I have with this is that I just think it's – I just disagree entirely, Just completely disagree with this. I recently bought a home. I've got a child. I recently bought another house. And when I was looking to buy a house, when I bought my first house, I didn't even consider the schools. I didn't have a kid.

Didn't care. I'm in a wholly different financial position now than I was eight years ago when I bought my first house. And I now have a kid. And the very first thing that I did and the very first thing that every parent that I've spoken to that has looked for a home or shopped for a place to live, the first thing you do if you have any financial resources of substance is you sort all of you. I mean, you sort by school district. That's what you do. You look and say, OK, I've got, you know, X amount of dollars, X hundreds of thousands of dollars that I'm going to be able to spend on a home. What are the best school district neighborhoods I can afford to buy into. So what that means is that if I have, let's say I'm going

to spend $50,000 on a home, it's not a lot of money, right? So when I look at what homes are available for $50,000 and I sort them by school district, I'm not going to be able to buy into the high-end school districts, the high-performing school districts. I can't do it. high-end school districts, the high-performing school districts. I can't do it. So when I'm a person of lower financial means, I'm going to buy into neighborhoods that have schools which are not as high-value schools. They're not doing as well. But if I've got money, I can buy into neighborhoods that have awesome schools because those neighborhoods are always more expensive. They are uniformly more expensive. Property values stay up in those areas too. Right. Because if there is a neighborhood that has a very high performance school, people of means are going to flock to that school.

And that's going to perpetuate. It's a cycle. So now those property values continue to climb as the neighborhood, as the demand for that neighborhood continues to increase and remain strong. You know, out here where I'm at, we have one of the best school districts in the country, just about seven to ten miles north of where I live. I'm not in that school district. I don't have that kind of money. But it's one of the best. It's been voted many times one of the best school districts in the country. And even during the financial meltdown and even during the housing crisis, values in that neighborhood stayed strong.

During the housing crisis, values in that neighborhood stayed strong. They stayed strong because if you have financial means, that's where you buy a home if you live in that area. That's it. So I disagree with your premise that it's the students who make the school. Yeah, to some degree, but, you know, kids of means come from stable, you know, households, not because those households are more moral or what have you. It's because they have fucking means, man, that that goes a long fucking way. So I disagree with with your assessment, Paul. And we now wrap up this show and look forward to the next one. but we're going to leave you as usual with the skeptics creed credulity is not a virtue it's fortune cookie cutter mommy issue hypno babylon

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