Cognitive Dissonance - Episode 93: God’s Bass Boat

Episode Date: April 1, 2013

Want to stream Cognitive Dissonance to your Android or iPhone? Buy the app! Go to DissonancePod.com and click on the link on the right-hand side of the page. Each purchase helps support the show. You know, I was married for 23 years to the love of my life, and he died six years ago. And I think of all the wonderful years we had and the wonderful fringe benefit of having three beautiful children.

I don't miss the sex, you know? And to me, that's kind of what this boils down to. I don't miss that. I mean, I certainly miss it, but I don't... It's not... It is certainly not the aspect of that relationship, that incredible bond that I had with that human being, that I really, really genuinely wish I still had.

And so I just, I think to myself, how could I deny anyone the right to have that incredible bond with another individual in life? To me, it seems almost cruel. And someone made the comment that this is not about equality. Well, yes, it is about equality. And why in the world would we not allow those equal rights for individuals who truly were committed to one another in life to be able to to show that by way of a marriage my daughter came out of the closet a couple of years ago and you know what I thought

I was just gonna agonize about that nothing's. She's still a fabulous human being and she's met a person that she loves very much and someday by God I want to throw a wedding for that kid and I hope that's exactly what I can do. I hope she will not feel like a second-class citizen involved in something called a domestic partnership which frankly sounds like a Mary Maids franchise to me. Be advised that this show is not for the childish, the critical thinker, or the easily swayed by scientific fact. The Blasphemy Tag is there for a reason. 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 Tom mad. to any topic that makes the news, makes it big, or makes Tom mad. It's skeptical, it's political, and there is no welcome mat except for Tom. Tom, I'm going to welcome you to the show. How are you doing tonight? I cannot be welcomed places, Cecil. Don't let you places. I can be reluctantly invited in.

I'm sort of like a vampire in that regard. Right, right. I don't know that I ever want to see you in glitter, to be honest with you. I don't know that I ever want to see that. Because that would require to see parts of your skin. And I don't know that I'm interested in seeing any of that. I'm still pale. I virtually glitter anyway.

This is episode 93, by the way. 93. Coming up, we're chugging our way towards a factor of 10 relatively soon. Seven short weeks. And that'll be a big deal because it's a different number. It is. It's a different number. And then it's going to be even shittier with our titles because most of our titles in iTunes already are pushed over because of the episode. You're just going over one more character then.

Take that. I know. That sucks. But we have a great show planned this week, a little shorter show than normal. Oh, so something's different, huh? No, it's not, actually. I'm just getting their hopes up so I can let them down. That's all.

I mean, I think the country's views on this issue are changing. They're changing dramatically. But why are they changing? Well, because I think that the same-sex marriage advocates have done a credible job of getting out there and making their case. I mean, for years, those who oppose gay marriage take their religion piece out of it for this, because there's no arguing that. I mean, the Christian religion teaches what it teaches. The Bible says what it says, I mean, about marriage and... But our policy shouldn't be made by that. I know, so take that

out of it. right what i'm saying is that when you ask for example i had an interview with with tony perkins of the family research council what is it about calling marriage calling a gay union marriage that offends you how does it hurt a traditional or heterosexual marriage and i didn't hear anything articulated that was particularly persuasive what people go back and i agree with you a hundred percent right a hundred percent and i hate to say this kelly and next week i i got something that kelly that she's not going to like i agree with you a hundred percent wow okay the compelling argument is on the side of homosexuals that's where the compelling argument is we're americans we just want to be treated like everybody else that is a compelling argument and to deny that

you've got to have a very strong argument on the other side. And the other side hasn't been able to do anything but thump the Bible. This being sort of an April Fool's-ish show, I think the best story we can start with is Bill O'Reilly coming down on the side of the gays. Bill O'Reilly says same-sex marriage foes are just a bunch of Bible thumpers. This is from the Raw story. And there's a video attached to this where Bill O'Reilly talks to Megyn Kelly. And they have a conversation about homosexual marriage because there's a couple of big bills and laws that are being brought up to the Supreme Court right now.

And they had a conversation for a few minutes about this sort of thing. And Bill actually came down on the side of homosexual marriage, at least on the side of civil unions. It's unbelievable. He says, I agree with you 100 percent. The compelling argument is on the side of homosexuals. That is where the compelling argument is. We're Americans. We just want to be treated like anybody else. That's a compelling argument. And to deny that, you've got to have a very strong argument on the other side.

And the other side hasn't been able to do anything but thump the Bible. Is this really Bill O'Reilly? I know the guy's a giant Poe, but my God, is this really Bill O'Reilly? Like, I know the guy's a giant poe, but my God, is this really Bill O'Reilly saying this? I don't know. It's crazy to me to think that Bill O'Reilly would say these things, although Bill, I think, does on occasion say one or two things that make me think, wait a minute. And Silverman even said that when he was on our show.

Silverman even said, Bill O'Reilly's a totally different dude off camera and then he is on camera and i've heard that i've heard that before too that when you meet him when you go to the studio and you meet the guy and you know it's pre-interview and everybody's buddy buddy and shaking hands and you know he seems like a really rational if lumbering an enormous man and you know then all of a sudden the filming starts and he turns from a brontosaurus into a t-rex you know becomes like this weird republican attack dog which always made me wonder how it is after the show you know if it's like if he just like wipes his brow and he's like good game good game all right yeah like snaps his towel at your ass and the you know because it's if it's so fake, then I mean,

come out and take a bow when you're done. I mean, how do you, how do you reconcile that when the show is finally completed? But for, for him to come out and say that the other side isn't do anything but thump the Bible. And this is a guy who likes to thump the Bible. Right. And he's acknowledging that thumping the Bible is not a reasonable argument. It's just a reasonable argument. Yeah.

It's just a loud sound. It's a hollow, loud sound. This week has been one of those weeks where, you know, you get a chance to see, especially on Facebook, right, because everybody's using the equal sign. I don't know if you've noticed this, Tom. Yeah. But there's like a bunch of people are using the equal sign and to show like their support of homosexual marriage. And I haven't changed my profile pic partly out of laziness but partly because it's like, yeah, well, I talk to – I talk on this show with you every week about homosexual marriage and how we're pro-gay rights in every way. I don't feel like changing my profile pic is any more activism than I already do. You know what I mean? Like every week,

we have a conversation about something because almost every week, there is some religious ass bag out there who's trying to bash homosexuals in some way, either physically or mentally or socially. And I find that this week especially, like when I think about the Supreme Court, you know, for a long time, many homosexuals and many straight people have kept on saying, you know, that line, that tagline, it gets better, it gets better. people have kept on saying, you know, that line, that tagline, it gets better, it gets better. Well, here's your fucking chance, Crypt Keepers, to fucking actually do something that actually makes it better. You know, like we can talk all day about how it gets better, it gets better, it gets better. But we have very little power when it comes to that sort of thing. They have

actual power now to make things better. And I hope that the right thing gets done. I've been reading some of the stuff that's been coming out of this and some of it's disheartening, especially the Scalia stuff. Yeah. But from what I was reading today, DOMA sounds like it's, like the arguments in favor of overturning DOMA sound like they're going to go through. Right. Like that. That is a thing that is.

And that's a big one. DOMA is the bigger. DOMA is the bigger of the two. Yeah. Getting rid of the Defense of Marriage Act, like punt that thing out of the way. And hopefully the Supreme Court won't punt. Hopefully the Supreme Court will will make a decisive ruling on that issue. You know, it's funny that you mentioned the Facebook thing because I didn't do the same.

Mostly because I didn't. I use Facebook mostly on my phone and I don't know how to do that on my issue. You know, it's funny that you mentioned the Facebook thing, because I didn't do the same, mostly because I didn't, I use Facebook mostly on my phone, and I don't know how to do that on my phone. So that's mostly why I didn't do it. But also it's like, I don't have anybody on my feed. I don't have anybody on my feed that could possibly know or think that I am not in favor of gay rights. Like, if I wouldn't friend you, like, it wouldn't be my, like, I wouldn't get a friend request from a bigot. Like, no, fuck off. You don't get to play here.

And I did read somebody say, somebody said like, well, the reason why we do it is because we post on people's boards and we, you know, we get a chance to post on. And, and, but the thing is, is I don't post on anybody's board. Right. So it's like, and I even said on somebody's status, I was like, look, if you don't know I'm for gay rights, you never fucking met me. Like, you've never met me. She was talking about contracts, folks, just so you understand. And we all are equal in the ability to make contracts.

Everybody can contract with a member of the opposite sex to marry them. But her point was, if same sex fits the bill of the contract, then everything fits the bill. And at some point, who's to say you cannot have sex with a child? So we want to talk in conjunction here. Rush Limbaugh. Good man. Recently.

Dumb motherfucker. conjunction here, Rush Limbaugh recently, what a dumb motherfucker, this fat fuck sitting in front, deep throat in his golden microphone here, Limbaugh on marriage equality, who's to say you cannot have sex with a child? Well, don't ask that to a priest, dude. This comes from the Raw story, and basically Rush Limbaugh said – he was talking. He said everybody can contract with a member of the opposite sex to marry them, but her point was that if the same sex fits the bill of the contract, then everything fits the bill. And you're like, no, it doesn't. He doesn't understand the idea of consensual.

And I think this goes back to what I think that's actually a Bill O'Reilly joke about him and consent. I can't do it. I can't do it because Bill is too nice this week. So I can't use that joke. It turns out. Bill gets a Bill O'Reilly gets a pass. Bill O'Reilly gets a pass. My God.

When Bill O'Reilly gets a pass, you know things are April fucking fools. Yeah, totally. I mean, this is totally an April fools episode. We're on the side of Bill O'Reilly for a moment. Yeah. What the fuck is going on here? You know, it's like you say, like it comes down to consent. Like dude and dude want to have some sexy times.

They're both in on it. Great. They're both old enough to make that decision. Right. They're both adults. Fantastic. Woman and woman want to have some sexy times? Fantastic. Sexy it up, you know? A man and a woman? No way. Not a chance. That's just gross. Absolutely not.

But it's like, who cares? But all of a sudden it's like, well, who's to say anything goes? That's not true. The slippery slope is a fallacy for a reason because it doesn't work. It's not a – you're actually using a fallacy. I don't understand how they could just keep going back to this when it's been clearly pointed out to them that this is not the case in any way. And that one, you know, I think the reason they keep going back to it is because they have lost the intellectual argument. Oh, yeah. The intellectual argument is gone at this point.

There is nothing that they can argue at this point that isn't either an appeal to emotion. And that's what this is. Right. You're appealing to emotion in this or it's an appeal to an authority religion. Those are the only two ways in which they can argue this point anymore because all the rest of the chances for them, they're blown out of the water. I mean there's nothing that they can say. So what he's going to try to do is say – first he's going to try to compare homosexuals to pedophiles because that's what this is – the underlying theme of this is to say that homosexuality is deviant behavior and we're going to compare it to other, you know, what we would consider deviant behavior. So that's, that's how we're going to react here. And that's stupid.

But then the idea too, is that, you know, you know, he could have said lobster. He could have said we're having sex with a lobster, marrying a lobster. He didn't, he chose not to. He's choosing his words very carefully. He's not, he's not saying, well, he choose to marry a silverback gorilla. No sex with arthropods.

Like that's what I'm saying. Like nothing with an exoskeleton. That is the least sexy thing ever. Like you've got to at least have a fucking vertebrae. Like that's a bare minimum standard. And I know a lot about bare minimum standards. Where those are, they're sitting around

and they're just like, man, I'd fuck her so hard I'd crack her shell. You see the antenna on her? That's right. Don't cover those up with a veil, baby. Oh, no. Flap that hardened tail. Look at her scurry under that rock.

Oh, man. What's happened here? What has happened to the show? I don't know, man. We're just trying to fucking phone this one in. That's all there is to it. I'm randomly smelling roses in the house and... That's your grandmother.

Does she have a message for me of any kind? Yeah, she's sending you roses to tell you she's there. Thank you very much. Yeah. This story comes from sunsentinel.com. Three psychics admit fraud. Alleged ringleader still going to trial. This person acknowledged, and her name is Nancy Marks, that she lied to customers to obtain large sums of money.

She told clients she could contact spirit guides who would provide God-given directions, which included giving her money for cleansing to remove negativity or evil. She promised the money would be used in rituals or sacrifices, donated to charity, or in some cases, returned. And donated to charity, I don't know that she is a 5013C. I'm not sure, but I don't think she is. Yeah, but her website is.org. So she felt pretty justified there. Fucking psychicscams.org.

I like this. And in some cases returned, oh, sorry, this wasn't one of those cases. This was one of the cases where I steal your money. I'm just going to where I steal your money. Right, right. I'm just going to take all of your money.

Boy, that's a tough break. Should have been one of those cases. I like that the spirit guides would give God-given directions. Fucking, you don't need the spirit guides. Just get a Garmin. You don't need a way for God to give you directions. You don't need God-given directions. You don't need a way for God to give you directions.

You don't need God-given directions. Later in the article, it says that from one goofball, she stole $400,000 worth of gold coins. She robbed a pirate. Yarr. She has me de bloons, she does. The coins, it was bad. But I really miss me parrot, I do. Why did she have to steal the parrot? It totally was a pirate because when she told them that they were buried in the cemetery,

she could not remember where she forgot her treasure map. She did not have her treasure map to find the gold coins buried in the cemetery, also buried in her bank account. Right. You know there's going to be people who read this article, like those weird wackadoos that have the metal detectors and walk around the beach trying to get a nickel. You know, like, I found a bottle cap.

It's always bottle caps, you know? Somebody's going to be walking around the cemeteries in Florida trying not to get eaten by alligators with a fucking metal detector looking for $400,000 of fake pirate treasure. Here's a hint. It never made it to the cemetery. Just call Michael the Archangel. He knows. You just got to fucking get Michael the Archangel.

Michael the Archangel is actually pretty easy to reach. He works for Dick's Towing down there. And he's actually really easy to reach. He works for Dick's Towing down there. And he's actually really easy to reach, so no problems. Yeah, the sad thing about that is that the person was hearing voices. And so they think that, I mean, at least I think that the guy was probably maybe not right in the fucking head. Yeah, of course. Right. But he's got $400,000 in gold coins just lying around.

You know, if you are a caretaker to someone who is hearing voices, maybe you might not want to let them have access to the $400,000 in fucking Krugerrands or whatever the fuck you have. You have to wonder, when he's handing over his $400,000 worth of gold coins, that has to take room. Did he have it in a pirate treasure chest? He must have. Because if I've got that kind of money in gold coins, I would put that shit in a treasure chest for no other reason than it's awesome. Right. And I'd have like pearls dangling out the side of it for effect too. You totally have to. You know, I think the reason why he gave those up is because I think the parrot had power of attorney.

A parrot of attorney. Habeas corpus. Black beard is sad. Blackbeard is sad. Well, the tourism board of Punjab has their work cut out for them, Tom. I think they're going to have a new slogan soon. It's like, take us home with you so we can torture you and your family. Your family, too.

It looks like clerics attack a Medi house, torture family in Punjab. I don't even know how to fucking pronounce it. Punjab. I don't know what the fuck. I don't know how to say it. Basically, someone was asked to convert. They refused. And hilarity ensued.

They followed him home, broke in, beat them in front of their aunt and, I think, brother, and then basically tortured him for a while. You know, there should be, I think India really needs one of those signs. You know how we have those signs on, like, the roadways here? It needs a sign that's like, it's been three days since a brutal gang rape. You know what I mean? Like, they need to warn people, like, it's been 22 hours since a brutal gang rape. You know what I mean? They need to warn people. It's been 22 hours since a brutal home invasion with torture. They need to warn their citizens of these things.

When your argumentative tactics are, I'm going to torture you into unconsciousness, beat your wife and 70-year-old uncle, I think you have left, like, Robert's rules of, like, behind. Like, it's just over at that point. Like, the debate is lost. Convert to my religion. Oh, like, have you heard the good news? What's the good news? Convert or we'll torture you.

Well, that's not good news at all. That's actually really bad news. It's the worst news I got all day. And, like, at what point would you just not? I would just convert. I mean, you can call me a fucking pussy if you want, but Cecil, if you break into my fucking house and you're beating my wife and you're beating a 70-year-old man and you're fucking torturing me, I'd be like, I will convert. Whatever you want. What are the words you need me to say? Just let me know.

I'll fucking write them down. I will read them. Right. Like, it's not like you don't have the fucking secret codes to the nuclear launch site. You know, it's not like just convert. I would convert to anything. I would convert. I will convert right now to anything anybody has me to convert to.

It's meaningless. If you don't change, if you don't change how I actually feel, what's the fucking difference? I'll say anything. Just stop torturing me. I know. And the thing that puzzles the shit out of me is how we expect to win him over with torture. I know. And how do you win over somebody?

When is the last person who was won over by torture? It's like, man, you're really sweeping me off my feet and right into that chair full of electricity. I mean, like, you walk away from the torturing like you're the guy that did the torturing. You're like, I think we got through to him. I really think we made a difference here, guys. Waterboarding again! I think when we stormed his house in mass and beat his wife,

I really think that's the moment where I could see him change. Into a dead-eyed, traumatized lunatic. From someone who hates me to someone who really hates me. India is not a fucking place that it should be on anyone's list

recently to go there. I mean, there's there has been every other day there's a brand new violent gang rape that's happening over there. I would seriously consider staying away from India. Unless, of course, India

starts subsidizing the show, then we'll start asking people to go to India. We're going to outsource the show to India. Unless, of course, India starts subsidizing the show, then we'll start asking people to go to India. We're going to outsource the show to India. It wouldn't be cost-effective at all unless they paid us to outsource it. That would be the only way it would be cost-effective. You said it actually in the beginning as a joke, but

honestly, India's tourism board's got to be looking around like, come on! Would you just stop raping people? Could you? Please? Ixnay on the apiary, please. This is a terrible, like we used to this. Don't we have, it's beautiful here.

Come on, we got a lot of history. No? No, you're just going to go ahead and ruin it all. We got the rape mahal here. Rape mahal? That's terrible. So we're going to take a break and give you information on how to contact us if you want to. And we'll return in just a few moments for the rest of the show.

Want to contact Cognitive Dissonance? Visit them on Facebook. You can find the link at the website DissonancePod.com or type it in the Facebook search bar. Be sure to follow the guys on Twitter. Their handle is at Dsonance underscore pod. The guys also post to Google Plus now, too, so check them out there. And if you'd like to email them, you can do so at dissonance.podcast at gmail.com. You can also leave a comment on the blog at their webpage,

or give them a call at 740-74-DOUBT. That's 740-743-6828. Long distance rates apply. And to everyone who listens, shares, retweets, or rates the show, Cognitive Dissonance would like to cordially thank you for all of your fucking support. Tom, you and I found some articles this week, and they all kind of go in conjunction with one another. But really, they have to do with punishment in the United States, punishment in Norway, and then punishment and prisons in New Hampshire. We're going to start with the first article.

They all kind of glom together, but this one is written by Matt Taibbi of Rolling Stone. Cruel and unusual punishment, the shame of three strikes laws. I read this earlier today. It's a pretty long article. You got to get five clicks in the article in order to finish it, but it's really well written because it's Matt Taibbi, and he's a very smart guy. And really it just sort of shows the brokenness that is the three-strike system. beginning of the article who spent 18 years in jail since the last time he was arrested and he

was arrested for stealing a pair of socks this whole like get tough on crime movement that uh began um i think in the uh 1990s late 1980s um has really resulted in some unbelievable travesties of justice. And the American prison system is so supremely fucked up. It's such a bankrupt, morally bankrupt system that what we really do is we sacrifice a certain segment of our population to the prison system in order to keep those wheels grinding and moving and in order to satisfy people's thirst for justice. But justice isn't being served.

You know, when you have when you take away from judges discretion in punishment, discretion in sentencing, and you make everything, well, you know, third strike and you're out, it's life in prison. Yeah, 25 to life most of the time. Yeah. I mean, 25 before you're even considered for parole. Like you said, this guy who stole socks. That's not a violent crime. Socks and violence don't go hand in hand.

Right. Unless you're putting a padlock on your hand and punching someone with it. Right. Somebody else, baby shoes. Like they stole a pair of baby shoes. Another person in the same article, pizza, a piece, not even the whole pizza. I know. A piece of pizza from a kid.

Right. It's like seriously, we are going to lock a man up for his entire life for taking candy from a baby. Like that's really what we're doing at this point. Somebody got found with the tiniest amount of meth. I think I've ever. It was like it was like a under a tenth of a gram. It was like a hundredth of a gram like point. Oh, one eight of a gram.

Life in prison because that guy needs to go away forever. Forever. You're just like, well, you're just kicked out of society. Fucking what? Why? For something you can't measure on a home scale. I don't understand the push for this. I think that there are some telling signs when we look at lobbyists and we look at the private prison systems that have cropped up all over the United States. I mean, you know, you can't really say here's the cause. I think that there's a lot of factors that go into it.

I think you're right, Tom. I think there is a feeling of, you know, we were for a long time, our murder rates were much higher. Our crime rates, violent crime rates were much higher. Crime rates, violent crime rates were much higher. And I think that people did started get started. The governments around the country started getting more and more tough on crime. But I think that, again, our system allowed for some sort of entrepreneurial money making that could be that could be found there. So what they did was they started privately funding some of these prisons because they noticed that the prison populations were expanding. And so now some of these private prisons are spending, I read an article last week, in the last presidential election, or not in the

last one, in the last two, I think it was since 2002, they've spent $3 million in just funding for elections, just, you know, in campaign donations in the federal level and $7 million in the state levels. We're talking about, that's a lot of money to go for somebody's campaign, especially if you're a small senator from somewhere or congressman from somewhere, you know, and your race is small. That's, you know, you could imagine, you know, $50,000 could turn things around for you. And that kind of money, the money that they're throwing around and the money that they're spending, they're spending over $10 million plus just trying to get, you know, on this

lobbying that they're spending on. They got all these lobbyists. They have 140 lobbyists, I read. So there's a, it's a big chunk of people that are, that are pushing for these lobbyists. They have 140 lobbyists, I read. So it's a big chunk of people that are pushing for these private prisons. And these private prisons, I think I read recently that there was a private prison. The private prisons came out and said, look, we want a 90% fill rate. We want a 90% fill rate. I think we covered that story on this show.

90% fill rate. I think we covered that story on this show. 90% fill rate. So we're talking about these people that are coming in and pushing for more and more people to get longer sentencing. They're taking away the rights of or the options for judges, and they're getting longer sentences. And we're stuck with a prison industrial complex that is growing vastly by the year. We have 5% of the population of the world and 25% of its inmates. That's wrong. You can't look at that and say we're doing that right. There's obviously something there we're doing wrong.

Recidivism numbers are through the fucking roof. Right, through the roof. And part of the reason is the way that we treat criminals when they're in jail. And I'm not pro criminal. Don't get me fucking wrong. I'm not pro criminality, but you know, I don't know how it is in other, in other countries, but here in the States, if you are convicted of a felony and there's a lot of felonies that aren't violent there. So, so you can be convicted of a felony. That's a nonviolent felony. If you're convicted of a felony, getting a job when you get out is extremely difficult. Right. Very, very hard to get a good job as a felon afterwards.

So, you know, what you end up with is this is this cycle where somebody fucks up. You know, they make a they make a mistake. They have a they make a bad choice. They do something fucking stupid, maybe not even violent. Maybe they don't do something violent. Maybe they get caught, you know, dealing some drugs or, you know, whatever it is. It's, it doesn't have to be like, there's this idea that, that felons are fucking bad people. They're not always bad people. Like they've, they are sometimes just people and they fucking make mistakes. And, you know, I'll be honest. Like like if if I had a fucking video camera watching me my entire life, I've committed felonies. I'm sure of it when I was

a young person. The difference is I wasn't caught. You know, I did stupid shit as a teenager, like a lot of teenagers do. So, you know, somebody fucks up, but then they get this huge sentence, right? You get these massive fucking sentences and you go into jail or prison rather. And the prison system is violent and it's corrupt and it is a fucked up place to live. And, you know, prisons are so violent that oftentimes inmates are forced to, um, band together by race or by some kind of gang affiliation just in order to get through their time. And their time is a lot of time. Like, we have this idea that putting people away for a really long time is the right way to go. Then they get out and they're a felon and they can't get a decent job. So what are their fucking options?

Well, their options are to turn to what they've just been doing for the last seven or eight or ten years while you locked them up and to associate with criminals and to, you know, engage in more criminal activity. And that's part of, and not the entire, it's a part, though, of the reason why, you know, these are not rehabilitative institutions. I think the major problem is the rehabilitation, like you said, Tom. There's just, it just does not exist. It's put them in a place, punish them, and really, you know, there's no real separation between, like you said, people that are just, you know, they're just a dude who did something that was the drug crimes especially. Some, like, ridiculous drug crime where you're next to a murderer or, you know, a rapist or something like that.

And it's interesting because there's an article that we were talking about earlier today from The Guardian. And this article is entitled, The Norwegian Prison Where Inmates Are Treated Like People. And it's funny because you read through this article and you get a chance to see that critics brand as cushy and luxurious, yet it has by far the lowest re-offending rate in Europe. And you look at these pictures, it looks like a city. It looks like a little city where these guys all just work together to keep this little city going. And they're learning skills. They're learning traits. They're not hurting each other.

They're not trying to attack each other. I mean, try to do that in an American prison. You know, try to have something like this in an American prison where these guys aren't trained for it. It's just it's just out of the question. There's guards in this in this story where the guard is shocked that America like even the UK, there's like a six week training course. She's been training for like three years to be a guard.

Well, yeah. And, you know, you look at this thing and like you read this article, it's you just have to ask yourself, like when I when I look at this, I just have to ask myself, do we have the same goals? What are our goals of our prison system? Yeah. If the goal of the prison system is to take these people who have fucked up like they are criminals, they fucked up. Right.

Take these people who are fucked up and defuckify them. Right. Make them part of the world again. Exactly. If that's the goal, then all the research, time and effort and money needs to go into one thing and one thing only. research, time and effort and money needs to go into one thing and one thing only. And that is, how do we get these people to reenter society and be functional and non-reoffenders? That's it. If you can do that, then you're winning. Then you are accomplishing the goal that I think a prison system should accomplish. It should bring you in for the least amount of time possible and churn you out better

than you came in, right? Here is a bad person. Oh, that bad person, we'd like him to be better. If he were better, he would be better for the society we live in. Let's fix that. If we can fix it, let's fix it. Not everybody's fixable. I do get that. Please. No, absolutely not. I get that. And they have prisons over there in Norway where they're specifically like max prisons. I guess that they still consider them cushy because they're basically just segregated from everybody. Like that's the only punishment. They still have kind of a lot of creature comforts that we wouldn't even consider in a prison over here. But they still are segregated.

that we wouldn't even consider in a prison over here, but they still are segregated. So there are people over there that they think they can't make it to this little village place that they're talking about. Right. You know, we also have only two tiers of two major tiers. I know I'm going to get a million corrections. We only have two major tiers here. You know, you've got misdemeanors and felonies. And I know there's subsets within those just class whatever but you know there really needs to be um discretion and sentencing like we talked about earlier you know and then there really needs to be a third designation for

violent criminals there just needs to be like violent criminals you get something else so that it's easy so it's obvious so that people can put on a fucking job application that they are a fucking tier one or tier two, but not a tier three. So that if you're not a violent criminal, because, you know, let's be honest, everybody, every hiring manager in the world does the same shit. You get an application, you're looking at it. Have you ever been convicted of a felony? Yes. Oh, well, I've got a hundred applications where they haven't.

So why am I going to take the chance on you? But if I can, there's no reason, but if I can identify, oh, well, you know, you were convicted of a felony, but it was 15 years ago and it was for a nonviolent crime. Well, what do I care? Maybe, you know, now it's not taking a chance. Maybe I know you went into the prison system and you learned skills my company needs. Not you went into the prison system and learned to like fucking hide a shank up your ass for fear of getting stabbed in the yard. No kidding, right? Yeah. You learned how to make prison wine. Good for you, bro. No, but like I totally understand, Tom. And I think that's the case in these

Norwegian prisons. I think what they're doing is they're taking these people, giving them a skill, and then they're able to go back into the workforce. And one of the things they get to do is say, okay, well, I can hire you at a lower rate, even though you probably have more experience than somebody I would hire that's brand new. And so, you know, because they're a prisoner, they were a prisoner, and that would, I'm sure, make them come in at a lower rate, but at least they're able to reenter society. I mean, if you are a felon in this country, what else can you do? I mean, it's like you're going to dig a ditch or you're going to serve a cheeseburger.

Like those are the things you get to do. Maybe mop a floor if you're lucky. Backbreaking labor is really all you have in your future. And they do backbreaking labor in the prisons. And we're transitioning to the third article here. This is from Think Progress. New Hampshire House votes to prohibit private prisons. Now, this is something that we were talking about a little bit earlier, especially with Matt Taibbi's article with the reason why people are getting these long sentences is because

there's these private prisons that exist. But I'm reading directly from the article here. The House of New Hampshire on Thursday voted to forbid the executive branch from privatizing the state prison system, saying that to do so would shirk the state's constitutional responsibility to rehabilitate inmates. And I think that this is a really good thing. And I think other states should take a cue from this and be like, OK, we want to rehabilitate inmates. And I think that this is a really good thing. And I think other states should take a cue from this and be like, okay, we want to rehabilitate people. Let's not put them in a private prison system where we just keep them there and we just throw fucking food at them while they're in the hole. Yeah. You know, and if you're going to use a private prison, then that private prison's grading system should be on its recidivism rate.

You know, if I'm a private prison and I can say, hey, I've got an idea. Let me try my idea. This is a marketplace of ideas. Let me run this prison. We'll get this thing worked out. My prisoners will come back less. They will reoffend less often. Well, then, if that was the case, then I would be down with the private prison system.

I would say, hey, private prison system is doing a better job of rehabilitating people and churning out less dangerous people, people who are less often reoffending. And that's better for society. So, yay, pro-private prison system. Instead, they're just housing, feeding. Like, that's all they're doing. They're just, I mean, it's a cage. Like, they're just building better cages. But they're not helping to build a better society because there's no money in that.

Where's the money in that? This is a this is a multibillion dollar prison system for the private prison system. And, you know, it is cheaper to just bring people in. It's actually better for your business model if they reoffend, right? They're your customer. Absolutely. And longer sentencing is way better for your business model. The amount of money we spend, Taibbi talks about it, it's like $50,000 a year a prisoner. You know, that's government money that's going to feed and house somebody. Could you imagine what would happen if people didn't have to pay that money into the kitty happen if people didn't have to pay that money into the kitty?

If we didn't have to pay that money into the kitty because that one guy, two guys, three guys, 20 guys, 200,000 guys or whatever aren't in the system? Right. I mean, that's $50,000 a piece for all those people. That could be used for public work projects. Create a $50,000 a year job. Hell, create a $30,000 a year job with benefits. No kidding.

Send some to pay off some student loans. Let some people go to school. Re-educate the workforce. I mean, it's 2.2 million people in the United States currently housed in prison. 2.2 million at 50 grand a year per person. Let me do the math real quick. Carry the forward. That's a lot.

That's a lot. I did the math, too, and I came up with a lot. Fuck. I broke my goddamn calculator. Fucking A, man. It's like it's always been the little women that caught the vision of giving, beginning with Jesus himself, out of their private means some of you little precious ones have that little grocery money some of that little money set aside assure tonight

the blessings of god on your family by giving it to god and speaking that. Say it. God, this is for blessings on my family. This article comes from ChristianPost.com. Why are we at ChristianPost.com, Tom? What is happening to this show? We have no fucking journalistic integrity anymore. We've lost control. Admittedly, we had no journalistic integrity before. We had no control before.

And we had no control. We had no control. Just look at our belts. This is our show. There's only two fucking people involved in the whole production, and it's out of our hands. We have no control over it. National televangelist tells viewers to obey God to send him $273 recovery seed donation. I like that it's $273 exactly.

Like you have got this donation down to a science. Todd Kuntz, father of Rock Wealth International Ministries, a nonprofit organization, although some would say he may be a prophet. Am I right? Am I right? Okay, kids. He's coming under fire for telling viewers that if they act obediently towards God and send him a minimum, a minimum, act now, $273 for a recovery seed donation, God will reward them with supernatural change in 90 days. Now, this sounds like an infomercial to me. I wonder if they offer the four easy payments of. Yeah, right?

Four easy payments of. Wait, that doesn't divide into 273. Fuck, what do we do? Not really well anyway, no. No, God damn it. The last payment's more. It's always more. This guy's such an obvious charlatan that he's being called out by ChristianPost.com.

I know, right? You know you have fucked up your televangelism when ChristianPost.com is like, whoa, whoa. Settle down, son. This prosperity gospel shit is prosperity only for the people who are preaching the gospel. Absolutely. It's not prosperity for the people who are preaching the gospel. Absolutely. It's not prosperity for the fucking pew warmers. It's not prosperity for them at all. And this guy seems to be mocking them.

You know, his Twitter account shows pictures of him working out in opulent locales in San Diego and Beverly Hills. He tweeted a picture of Rodeo Drive from his hotel room. He may as well have tweeted a picture of himself fucking you in the ass while you write him a check he's like wrapping his dick in $100 bills and masturbating that's what he's doing

fuck it no literally fuck it it says here several months ago this is this guy Kuntz. He's talking several months ago. God gave me the single greatest miracle of my lifetime in one day. And the numbers two, seven, and three were involved.

And you got to wonder, you're like, okay, so it wasn't specific. What was he fucking sleep talking to you? Like what? It was just like, and was a 273 with a, take the dog out. Make sure you got to cook the stew more. You know, like, what? Like, what did he,

is he just saying random things to you? Yeah, well, I mean, at least he's asking for 273, you know, and not 732. At least he didn't just juggle that to the highest possible. He could have. He could have gone the other way. So, you know, at least $732. At least he didn't just juggle that to the highest possible. He could have. He could have gone the other way.

So, you know, at least he's striding the middle line there. So, you know, bully for him. He says in this same article, my financial life changed in Honolulu, Hawaii. He tweets a picture of a FedEx truck giving him money from people. Basically, a FedEx truck shows up and is delivering checks from poor people to him for 273 bucks a pop, and he's in Honolulu, he's like, my financial life changed. This guy, this is the kind of guy who would fuck your mom and tweet you pictures. You know what I mean? Like, this is the kind of guy we're talking about here. There's a,

there's another part of this article too because it says this guy who's, this guy Kuntz, who's often featured a guest on Prosperity Gospel Pastor Benny Hinn's program told viewers earlier this year on the Hinn show that God sent him seven prophetic

promises for 2013 and one promise is that he's going to receive a triple favor anointing. And if the viewers also want to receive God's triple favor anointing, they must sow a seed by sending a donation of $300. And I actually checked this out with Hillbilly God earlier, and he said, and I quote, he said, it's 100 smackers for a favoring. Don't you go cheapskating on God now.

I need a new bass boat. Those live whales don't come cheap, you know. I need a trolling motor. I need a new fishing pole. Oh, sure, I could just hit him with lightning, but that's just not sporting like. God's fishing. pole. Oh, sure. I could just hit him with lightning, but that's just not sporting like. God's fishing. Oh, that's awesome, man. This guy is awesome though. This, this guy too. I love the,

just the random number generator he used to get like, it's almost seemed like he scientifically figured out exactly how much he could squeeze out of his parishioners without having them run away. You know, in this article, they also say Anthony, the guy, one of these guys commenting, Anthony believes the prosperity gospel is becoming more pervasive in our culture because of the, quote, spiritual infantilism of the American public and the great financial need of the world around us. He's right. Like, this is only, like, the prosperity gospel only works for people whose theological foundation is slim to begin with. Right. Like, you can't have read that book, and I'm not a proponent of that book, but you cannot have read that book and been like, I think Jesus wanted me to be rich.

Yeah. Well, I think Jesus wanted me to send money so that then I could be rich. Like, I mean, I've been lying to people for years, for years about this stuff. You know, sow your little seed. All you got to do is, you know, if you put money in, you're going to get money out. That other guy, God, what the hell is his name? Popoff? Yeah. Not, not, Popoff too, but I want to say I don't think it was Falwell, but there was this American life story with a pastor who eventually

became like, he's not an atheist, but he teaches the gospel of inclusion now. The guy who gave up hell. I remember that. But he had another he was like under the wing of somebody. I don't know who, but like one of those big pastors Oral Roberts?

That was it, Oral Roberts. He was under his wing forever and you listen to like some of the Oral Roberts tapes that they were playing on fucking This American Life and it's just like you know, you give me a little money and you're going to sow that seed. You're investing that money in your own good fortune and you're like that guy sold that shit years ago.

That shit's been going on forever, man. People think that if they're going to put a little money in, they're going to get some money out. That fucking Joel Osteen, he fucking face fucks people every week for money. He's fucking, he's just stealing from you. Well, and if you don't get money, it's your fault. You didn't love enough.

You didn't pray enough. You didn't believe enough. God is, you know, you're not nice enough to your wife or your neighbor. You know, love enough. You didn't pray enough. You didn't believe enough. God is, you know, you're not nice enough to your wife or your neighbor. You know, like God's got a million reasons to be mad at you if you believe in this convoluted bullshit idea of sin. So God's got a jillion reasons to be mad at you. So you never have an opportunity to be like, what? And what's your opportunity for redress? Like, who do you tell Like who do you – where's the complaint department with like, well, God, I gave you my goddamn $273. I didn't get a dollar back. Cricket, cricket.

It's God. It's not a thing. It's not a real thing. You gave your money to a thief. Well, it's like – it's very similar to like a mafia protection rack. You know what I mean? Like it really is. Very similar to like a mafia protection rack.

You know what I mean? Like it really is. And I mean, I say that and I joke about it, but it's also true because you can't go to anybody to get your money back. Nice soul you got here. Be a shame if something happened to it. Go get your shine box, Tommy. Go get your shine box. You want answers?

I think I'm entitled. You want answers. I want the truth. You can't handle the truth. The last story we're going to cover is pretty fucking stupid. This one comes from Newser. Newser.com. Read less, no more. Creationist says 10,000 bucks, 10,000 smackeroonies, 10,000 simoleons to anyone who can disprove Genesis.

And not the band Genesis. He's talking about... He's talking about... You're no son! Wait, what's going on here? Phil Collins didn't exist! He's talking about the biblical book of Genesis. A California creationist believes the biblical book of Genesis

is a literal account of the universe's origins. And he's putting his money where his mouth is. Dr. Joseph Mastropoleo. I don't know. Whatever. Paleo. I don't know. Whatever the fuck your name is.

Mastacholi. Joseph Mastacholi. Joseph Masticholi is offering 10K to anyone who can successfully disprove the literal interpretation using science in front of a judge. And basically you have to pay 10K and he will pay 10K and winner takes all. And this guy has a PhD in kinesiology. Kinesiology? I don't know. Is that how you say that? Kinesiology. Kinesiology? Whatever. Whoinesiology, I don't know. Is that how you say that? Kinesiology.

Kinesiology, whatever. Who cares how you fucking say it? It's like kinesio tape. It's the same thing. That's what this guy is a PhD in, putting little weird squiggles on people's body. PhD in kinesio tape. This is a 30-hour class. PhD.

It comes on tape. I don't know why they just, I got PhDs. Yeah. You know, it strikes me as impossible to disprove a negative. So his money is pretty easy. Like,

Hey, disprove this. Uh, what? That's not how you got to use science. Science doesn't prove things aren't that's wait what you can't i gotta put up my 10 grand it's not even like you gotta put up your 10 grand in order to play like you can't just play he's not just saying like hey anyone that

does it gets 10 grand instead it's a bet this is just a fucking bet. Like, I bet. And they're using the process of a mini trial. That's their dispute resolution model that they're using because that's how you know things are scientifically true. Right, right. That's how every, I mean, every article that's going up into the journal Nature has to go through a judge and jury. It's got to go through arbitration and a mini trial. Absolutely, yeah. That's actually how Einstein's theory of relativity is often tested, is they argue about it in front of an arbitrator.

Yeah. Yeah, that's how you decide if things are true. Like that's a true deciding mechanism. No, that's not actually at all accurate. Proving of the negative is just hilarious to me. It's like, what are you going to do? I mean, you can walk up there and be like, you know, what you want to say to him is

be like, you should pay me $10,000 and prove it to me. Well, because you're the one making the claim. Like, you're making a claim and then saying, prove I'm wrong. What the fuck? That's not how that's not how even responsible, logical arguments are made at all. It's just it's just this is madness. You know, and it's also like Genesis is where you're hanging your hat.

There's two creation stories. There are two right in the same book. stories. There are two right in the same book! You're hanging your hat on a book that is internally contradictory, like on like page two. It's like you don't even have to read the whole thing. You'd be like, wait,

didn't he already do that? Didn't he already? Is this fucking deja vu? Because I thought he already did fucking what? This is like a book with a DVR version of the same book. To choose your own adventure. How did I get back to page one?

God damn it. I always choose wrong. So Cecil, we got quite a bit of email and some voicemails. Let's go ahead and play these voicemails. We got a voicemail from Megan. We got a voicemail from, as we are going to affectionately refer to him, the butt enzyme guy.

Take that. That is now your new moniker, my good man. And we got a voicemail from Allah Akbar. So go ahead and play the voicemails now hi this is megan i live in michigan i was just listening to your podcast about where that four-week-old baby was circumcised which i completely agree is a barbaric practice in and of itself regardless of anesthetic or any excuse it's awful but i just wanted to put it out there

as an atheist and vegan um when you guys were talking about how you wouldn't allow this to be done to a cow that you were going to eat i don't know if you guys are vegetarians but actually well i guess you wouldn't be if you're trying to go to Calgary, you're going to eat, but in the way that they raise cattle traditionally in the U.S., that are going to be used for food, they do castrate them without anesthetic, as they do with pigs, and they also, with cattle, they cut off their horns without anesthetic, which is also bad, obviously. So I just thought I'd put that out there, not to criticize you, but just to let you know. Maybe it would encourage you to research it a little more and let you know how barbaric the food animal raising process is here and everywhere in the world.

Thank you. Hey, guys, great podcast. Listen, I just came across a bit of information that might serve your show. It's my understanding that there's a lack of capable swordsmen in the Middle East because of diminishing blood enzymes. I think that's worth looking into. By the way, you might want to share with the audience the dispensary that sponsors your show

because it's just a thought. Thanks so much for everything. I love your show. Hey, Cecil and Tom, this is Eden Prime. I actually called in a while back about that atheist band, The Faceless. Yeah, so I have something interesting on your way. I was carpooling, and on the radio, the dude was listening to Power 106,

and it had this thing called clear your throat, hip, and foot, or something stupid like that. And basically, people need to call in and try and imitate this little clip as well as they could, you know, just. So I had an idea. You know that Islamic call to prayer, I think that's what it's called, where that guy's just like getting down. I thought it would be awesome if you could have people or listeners call in and try and mimic it as well as possible,

like, I think it would be hilarious and, you know, a competition that has, you know, no prize at all to it other than just the satisfaction of being the greatest call to prayer, I guess. But, yeah, okay, I wanted to officially start it off, so here we go. But, yeah, okay, I wanted to officially start it off, so here we go. Hello, Ekba. Hello, Ekba. Hello, Ekba. Hello, Ekba. Well, giving my best shot.

I don't know if I'll be the champion but i also would want i want to call out uh the king of cash man that we called in a few times i think he can nail it pretty good so um that's pretty much it love the show guys see ya so i'm gonna go ahead ahead and read one of these Google Voice translations. This is from Megan. Hey, this is Maggie, and I live in a machine. And I was just listening to podcasts opt out. We're not illegal TV with that. If I completely agree is, hey, about their practice in and out of South, regardless of in static or excuse, it's awful. But I just want to put out there, hey, right?

I think ESTNT. Then when you guys are talking about how you would have allowed us to be done to have you were going to eat, I don't know if you've ever experienced, but actually it like if you would be and i hope you're gonna eat but s it's pretty cool really good they raised selfishly left though so they're gonna be as for food they do castrate them certainly do with that in fact as they do with tags and they also her with kyle they cover calling about a third worst. It also that obviously so I just happened out there not because I see you, but just

so just let you know, maybe it would. I'm crazy. That research a little more in. Let me know how. Barbarics food animal reason process is here and everywhere in the world. Thank you. barracks food animal reason processes here and everywhere in the world thank you

that one turned out good i like anything right at all yeah well done google voice yeah so we got an email from uh butt enzyme guy um who makes it buttons i don't know there's much to say about buttons he makes a good point you know maybe it is the lack of butt enzymes that's causing the sort of shortage. And then Allah Akbar had a great idea. I like this idea. I like that idea too. If our listeners have a desire to sing the Allah Akbar, the call to prayer, I'd sure like to listen to you embarrass yourselves. You know what we have? I'd sure like to listen to you embarrass yourselves.

You know what we have? We have in our possession an extra large test shirt for the very first shirt that we have. We just came out with a brand new shirt. It's a Noah's Ark shirt. On the front of it, it says, all of the animals were harmed in the making of this story. And it's got a beautiful picture of all the goofy animals that were in Noah's Ark. And on the back, it has a logo. Well, we got a test shirt from the company. And it's an extra large, Tom.

We could give that away to feasibly the best Allah Akbar singer. Yeah, we'll put up, if you guys leave us your Allah Akbar voice messages, we'll go ahead and put those up on our site. You guys can vote on them. We'll go ahead and put those up on our site. You guys can vote on them. And the winner, as judged impartially by Cecil and I, through a mini trial process. You know, the winner is going to be the person who's the closest,

that I don't have to pay a lot of shipping. You people from China are right out. That's all I'm saying. Well, it turns out if you ship them to South Korea, they never arrive. We had some. Yeah, well, this shirt, this was a test shirt. It passed the test. So you know that it's a high quality shirt. It's a very high quality.

You can barely see through it. Women, if you're wearing an extra large, you're going to want to wear a T-shirt underneath this. That's all I'm saying. Wear it with a friend. Right. I think that sounds great. to want to wear a t-shirt underneath this that's all wear it with a friend you know right i think i think that sounds great if you guys want to uh call up and leave us your ala akbars um we would love to hear you sing a few bars so we'll put them up on the site and you guys can humiliate yourselves keep them short short ensures they get played just so you know nobody's gonna listen to

five minutes of you rambling right right so we got an email from kim um kim suggests that we do something similar to what uh geo does for his show um geo george crab from the geologic podcast has a uh a keyword vibraphone is what he uses um to encompass all of the i'm a fan of your podcast you're great thanks for doing the show the emails that we get a lot of and appreciate very much he suggests our keyword cecil should be glory hole what have we become like i mean like he gets fucking vibraphone, and we get glory hole. You know, initially I was opposed. I was like, come on, there's got to be something better than glory hole.

But it's hard for me to think that there is something better than glory hole. You know, horrifyingly enough, it fits. It really does. Well, it barely fits in that hole. Well, a Dremel will widen the hole, so there you go. So, yeah, you know, if you guys want to send us an email and use the keyword glory hole. Yeah, that's fine. We will know what you mean.

Yeah, and if you see us in person, forget it. No. Forget it. Let's just, this is an email only sort of. It's an email only interaction. This offer does not. Yeah, this offer does not yeah this offer does not apply to meeting us

in person it'd be awesome we're like having a cup of coffee somewhere it's like dude glory hole glory hole

like my kids right here yeah right everybody daddy what's a glory hole well with a person and another person who don't know each other love each other Danny, what's a glory hole? Well, when a person and another person who don't know each other love each other very much.

When a filthy truck stops at a restaurant. So Cecil, we got an email from Diane from Minnesota. Diane is sending us a hello. And she also sent us a letter that she sent to the archbishop at the Archdiocese of St. Paul in Minneapolis. Yeah, this is nice to get these. I like getting these because, you know, I've done something similar in the past. So I like to read these. So we want to thank Diane for sending that in because it's nice to see that other people do this too. There's only so much you can take, and then eventually you just want to tell somebody.

And this is a perfect person, I think, to sort of vent at. And we got an email from Mike. Mike's is short. I'm just going to go ahead and read it. He says, when you were talking about Saudi sword executors, executors, I almost read. Executors. When you were talking about Saudi sword executors, and you mentioned there were no village

idiots anymore, I think they call them evangelists nowadays. But I'm tish. I like that. I think that's funny. And Michael sends us an email, Cecil, regarding Michelle Bachman. Yeah, he says that he's from Minnesota, and he heard us talking about his greatest embarrassment, or their greatest embarrassment, I should say.

Michelle fucking Bachman. I didn't realize that was her middle name. I'm going to read directly here. It says, this stupid piece of shit has never earned more than 190,000 votes. So she's got the support of less than 4% of Minnesota. Uh, so that tells you something. Um, it says here, uh, Mike also says, uh, now about one thing you mentioned, I'm convinced she could get elected in other parts of the country because Minnesota, like other states, has been gerrymandered to the point that even though 95% of Minnesotans are completely sane,

idiots like this can get reelected. And that's totally true. I saw some of those recent gerrymandered precincts and they look ridiculous now. Some of them are just like, they're like really long and they like shoot out for like miles, but they're like super thin. And it's crazy the amount of, uh, the amount of, uh, shoving around they do with those just to make sure that they can keep getting voted in. Uh, and I think that Michelle Bachman has the exact same thing, you know, they're like the city limits of Chicago where like O'Hare, you know, just like stretches out, like there's like a bridge out to the airport.

So we got an email from Stu. Stu sent us a link to a story from the Emirates 24-7. Man sentenced to death for aborting 40 women. Saudi court sentenced a man to death after he was convicted of aborting more than 40 pregnant women and practicing magic, which is strictly banned in the Muslim Gulf Kingdom. It's also banned in the magic kingdom. The magic kingdom? No, it's not.

It's encouraged. It's highly encouraged in the magic kingdom. Well, it's actually opposite world. You know, in the magic kingdom, the magic is okay, but still the aborting of the women. Abortions. That's a very few abortions. You got to go to, in Epcot Center, there's the abortion zone. It's like a train that takes you through, you know, it's really detailed way in which they give abortions.

You can pay extra to have your abortion done by one of the characters in full outfit. There's that one really fun ride, Abortion Mountain. That's a good one. That's terrible. It's a small zygote after all. The whole ride is shaped like a coat hanger. Oh, no. The track is shaped like a coat hanger, Tom.

It's a fetus-shaped ride car that you're on. It just goes up and down the code. We need to get off. This is really, really off color. Everybody's quickly turning off the podcast. No one wants to listen anymore. They do that at the beginning. They don't do that at the end.

So we got an email from Brian. Brian says that we mentioned last time that we both have home-brewed some beer recently. He asked if there's a cognitive dissonance brew yet. He says that we mentioned last time that we both have home-brewed some beer recently. He asked if there's a cognitive dissonance brew yet and if there isn't, he would like to brew it. There is not yet a cognitive dissonance brew. No. He asked what style do we think it would be. I think we're going to both agree on IPAs.

We both like IPAs pretty well. Yeah, IPA would be good. Yeah. Yeah. We disagree on our beer tastes a lot. IPA is a good. I think it's got to be something fruity. No matter what it is, it's got to be fruity. That's for sure.

Something aggressive and bitter. Something aggressive, bitter, and fruity. I think all those things, if there is such a thing. And Cecil, we got an email from Isaac. Isaac's asking us a question. He says, I've recently been talking to an ex-girlfriend who I knew was pretty religious before. Anyway, she's now planning on going to a theological school for a year. Should I just stay away from that particular well, as I am pretty open about my views on religion when people bring

it up? Yeah, I say, you know, look, one, she's an ex-girlfriend. I mean, maybe obviously you're still friends or you still speak, but unless you have some reason to guard your speech, I don't guard my speech around people whenever I can, especially good friends. I never, you know, because you would expect that they would know you for who you are. So if you want to be who you are around these people, I mean, friends are different than coworkers. I wouldn't do it around a coworker because I don't have to like them.

I don't have to hang out with them. This is a choice relationship, not a forced relationship. Yeah, I don't see the harm in chatting about it. I mean, this is clearly somebody that you know. I mean, it's an ex-girlfriend, but you're still worried enough about what she thinks and what you think of her to ask us the questions. So, fuck, bring it up. Who cares? Yeah.

I mean, like I say, if it's a regular relationship with someone out there, normally it's rare I'll guard my language unless they're like some old people that I don't think I'm ever going to change their mind. Then I don't even really talk about stuff. We got an email from Pauly? I don't know. Somebody from Denmark, but living in Sweden. Pale. Pale. We got an email from Pale.

It's Pale with an extra L. And he addresses actually a question that was asked on our last show. People wanted to know where to go to get a good movie review podcast. And he suggested read-weep.com. It's not a podcast, but it's a website that does some movie reviews that he found some similarities to our Everyone's a Critic days. Yeah. I mean, it's great that they also do books, I guess, and TV shows. So there's a bunch of different things that they can do. I'm going to want to mention Marty real

quick. We put the design for our new ARC shirt on our Facebook page. And in talking back and forth a little bit, we weren't able to create a black shirt with a white image. And Marty came to the rescue because I am barely aware that we even have the shirt, much less able to redesign it. Well, in a couple of seconds, he was just like, yeah, I can do this. And so I sent him the mock-up. So we're recording here pretty early in the week, and we're hoping that he'll have a black shirt soon. So if you want to support the show and you don't mind wearing a white shirt or you prefer a white shirt, the white shirts are on sale now. They're $30 and $35. We see a significant portion of that

money. So if you're interested in buying one of the shirts to help support the show, that's a great way to do it. The white shirts are on sale now. I'm going to talk to our supplier this week. Hopefully, if I get these proofs from Marty within the next week or so, and I'm going to basically send them off to our printer and see if we can get this other shirt printed up and ready to go

so people can have a black shirt to choose from if they'd like to have a black shirt. So we'll have both colors available, white and black, the only two colors that matter. Racist. I said white and black. And then I also just wanted to take a second to give a quick shout out and a thank you to the people who donated some funds to us via PayPal. Anybody who's interested in supporting the show or supporting our trip to Tam can go to our website,

dissonance pod.com. There's a link right there where you can donate. You don't have to have a PayPal account. You can use a credit card, whatever you want. If you're interested in doing that, you're certainly welcome to, we certainly appreciate it.

And Justin, thank you very much for your donation. Daniel, thank you very much for your donation. Daniel, thank you as well for your donation. We really do appreciate the donations. They're going to help us. They help support the show. They help pay for us to pay for the hosting. And hopefully they'll get our fat asses over to town.

That would be awesome. That would be awesome if it happens. Yeah. We want to thank everybody for doing that, though. That's wonderful that people have thought enough to donate money to the show. We're very, very grateful that people did that. Before we end the show, we've got a thank you to Ryan for putting together the intro for our show. And then Ryan also put together the Believer believers creed which is the antithesis to the

skeptics creed and we're going to end the show with ryan's version the believers creed skepticism is not a virtue it's well-reasoned critical analysis examination of the facts nonsense couched in accurate empirical peer-reviewed, measurable, scientifically verifiable, documented fact. Alpha Centauri, chemotherapy, clinical substance abuse treatment, life and healing, American Journal of Medicine, psychology, neurology, EKG machines. Coelacanth, rhino, panda bears, universities, laboratories, hospitals, observatories. Worms Atlanta Dolphins Truth

Biology Professors Academians Vaccines Surgeons Doctors Researchers Double speak

Critical thinking Nonsense Close your mind Bury your head Faithful Hopeful Believe even this The opinions and views expressed in this show are that of the hosts only.

Our poorly formed and expressed notions do not represent those of our wives, employers, friends, families, or of the local dairy council. so uh So we got an email. No, we want to talk about these Allah Akbar. We got the Allah Akbar thing we're going to talk about. Allah Akbar. You know how to do it. Voicemail thing. You're not very good at this.

I'm not. I shouldn't be doing this. I shouldn't be allowed to do this.