Easier to Destroy

Check out monorail.com, America's affordable investment app made for conservatives who want to keep their hard-earned money with companies that share their values. Download the Monorail app today. Join Monorail. Hello everybody, welcome to The Dennis Prager Show, the last day from Miami. All things going well, I'm back at the home studio in the police state of Southern California— of California. I'm in the free state of Florida. It's actually difficult to go back, and it's difficult emotionally for me to even say that to you, because when I moved to California in my 20s in the 1970s, I felt I was moving to the best place in America. Just free and open and beautiful. Everything. And the left has ruined California, just as it ruins everything it touches. There is no exception to it. I'll give you a little example of the difference between the left and conservatism. By accident, I spilled an iced coffee about 20 minutes ago. Here in my studio in Miami, and it took 20 minutes to clean up the mess, and it took 3 people 20 minutes, I might add. Wonderful people to whom I'm very grateful. And I— it made me realize— well, I mean, I always realize it, but it, it just embodied one of the most important things you could know about life, how much longer it takes to construct than to destroy. I knocked over the coffee in a nanosecond. Took 20 minutes, 3 people, so that's, if you will, an hour of human work. To undo the damage of a nanosecond. It is so much easier to destroy than to build. And for the, the empty souls of the left— and they're all empty souls, they're overwhelmingly secular— like John Kerry, they need meaning in life, and they find it from saving the planet, from their make-believe belief that there is an existential threat from carbon dioxide. That's what it is. Destroy. 100 years ago, schools taught things. Then progressives took over and schools stopped teaching and stopped teaching and stopped teaching and stopped teaching. And now kids know so much less than kids 100 years ago. They just know a lot less. Anything— grammar, literature, math, history— they knew so much more 100 years ago. Read the writing, even the letters of Civil War soldiers, how erudite they are in comparison to the average college student today. When I sign my books to young people, do you know what the first question I ask them is? Can you read cursive? And half the time the answer is no. I actually have to print my message, just say even pleasure meeting you, or all best wishes, or enjoy my book, whatever I might write. I sign my name, but I guess they only know that because they know that I wrote the book. It is an embarrassment to be in the educational system of the United States today. You should be embarrassed unless you're a fighter or an outlier, and they exist. Here's a question, and believe it or not— oh well, wait, I got something even better for you. I have a present for you. Somebody sent me a picture of a woman at Costco wearing the following t-shirt. I've never been fondled by Donald Trump, but I have been screwed by Joe Biden. How's that? I would love to know what reactions this woman gets, this cheerful smile on her face. It's a gutsy thing to wear. It's entirely accurate. That's the reason it's funny. If it's not accurate, the whole country's been screwed by Joe Biden and the Democrats. It's irrelevant if it's Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Adam Schiff. It's irrelevant. If it's a Democrat, the country will be hurt. Makes— it should make voting fairly easy for most of you. The issue isn't do you like a candidate. I discussed that at length yesterday. Liking a candidate is as important as liking your oncologic surgeon. It's nice, it's a bonus, but it's not why you choose your cancer surgeon. Correct, correct. That was a great t-shirt. The woman deserves some sort of award. John Kerry at the most frightening conference of all, the World Economic Forum, whose interest is in taking over your life. This is from the Wall Street Journal editorial board. The world needs to treat climate change like World War II, Mr. Kerry said. This is what he said: in order to win the war, that we had to organize ourselves to take control In other words, World War II. He's comparing World War II, the mobilization of every resource that was done then, and to do it again in the war against global warming. In order to win the war, we had to organize ourselves to take control of the skies and take control of the seas and be able to smash the battlements that had been built along the coastline line of France and Belgium and the Netherlands. And that's what we have to do today to combat climate change. That's right, take control of the skies, take control of the seas. Smash. Yeah, you can see him on the video of the show here. It is a joy to share the screen with John Kerry. A once-in-a-lifetime view, ladies and gentlemen. John Kerry and I. I don't know if you'll ever see that again. He said that the world needs most— what the world needs most to fight climate change is— and this is a direct quote, ready? Money, money, money, money, money, money, money. That's good. I'll bet in the history of the English language, the word money has never been repeated, or stated to be precise, 7 times. I wonder if they have Guinness Book of Records for that sort of thing. How often was a noun repeated by a public official? And the Wall Street Journal adds correctly, by which he means other people's money. He's very wealthy and he will remain very wealthy, but you won't, and for that matter, I won't. The key is philanthropy, he said. Translation: Government and financial institutions must make grants and low-interest loans to poor countries with no expectation of a financial return. This was the idea behind the climate reparations to low-income countries that Mr. Kerry committed the U.S. to at the U.N.'s conference last fall in Egypt. So the poorer countries of the world are just laughing themselves silly at the amount of money they will be able to extort, thanks to the environmentalists, from all you rich people listening to me, because you're in a first world country and you know how wealthy you all are. You know how much I realize that Americans are hurting Vast numbers of Americans are hurting financially. When I see ads or hear ads or read ads that you will, if you buy X or Y or Z, you'll get a dollar off. Dollar's not a lot of money today, and yet obviously there are a lot of Americans for whom a dollar off matters. This is because of all the money that has been printed by the Biden administration. And by the way, Republicans have often gone along with this, but Democrats are worse at this. I'd like to know what they think when they print all this money. I really would. I don't know what they think. Do they think, well, the next generation will pay it off? What, what do they think? Usually I know what people on the left think. In this case, I don't. What is it, $30 trillion? What, what is that? What is the, the national debt? I'll check on it during the— $30 trillion? When I have spoken at colleges, I have often opened up my talk by saying, I just want to thank you all. Every one of you who votes Democrat, I want to thank you for enabling me to live comfortably, and that you will pay what has been spent on me and my generation. I, I'm sure you realize that when you vote Democrat, that that's— you're assuming the debt of my generation. It's quiet when I say that, not thinking about the future. Is one of the benefits of being on the left. The best-selling Eden Pure Thunderstorm air purifier uses proven Oxy technology that quickly destroys viruses, odors, mold, and so much more. With over 265,000 units already sold, you know it works. 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All 5 books, 240 hours. This is unrelated, except obviously the content being the same 5 books, to my Rational Bible. They are very different. So it's available on a flash drive, an MP3 player, or on a collector's set of CDs. PragerStore.com or the banner at my website. 65% off only today. Answers to a lot of life's problems there. I've been here in Miami with Jordan Peterson. And Ben Shapiro and others, all scholars of the Bible, from— 3 from England and from around the US. It's been quite a week. It's been a sort of high, actually. I do it an hour after I finish this broadcast in a beautiful room I'm in a side room that they've made for me to be able to do this transmission. So I do the 3-hour show. There's an hour break, get makeup, get food, and then 2 hours on Exodus. It's an intense day. I like that. I do. It's very life-filling. 1-800-PRAGER-776. Got a number of items here for you. And for this hour, I gave you the John Kerry thing and how, uh, we're gonna take control of the skies and the seas. It's all about control. As is the Joe Biden, uh, constant keeping of the country in, uh, in a state of emergency. This has nothing to do with COVID This is about control. I'm starting to think, given the abuse of states of emergency by Democratic mayors, governors, and presidents. I have to say that there has to be a different mode of declaring a state of emergency. It's too abused. It's like people who are against the death penalty— I am not— but people who are against the death penalty say, well, what if there is an innocent person That's their only valid argument, and it— I— there are answers to that, but there are many safeguards with regard to sentencing a person to death that render it today so unlikely as to be, as to be bordering on the impossible to execute an innocent person. There have to be that many safeguards now in enabling a president to declare a national state of emergency. It's all it is on the left, is a combination of hypochondria, panic, hysteria, and power. That's all it is.

All.

It is a way to control you. For those of us who have no desire to control other people, it is very difficult. In fact, for me, impossible. I don't understand the urge to control other people. I don't understand it. I don't even have that urge with regard to my children. I mean, they're grown children. I wanted to control 5-year-old— when they were 5. And by the way, the left regards you all as children. That's because they're children, but that's a separate issue. People who don't want to control people don't understand people who do want to control people. It's like telling me you really enjoy eating ants. I don't get it. I would put the desire to control other people in the category of loving ants as food. So to, to its credit, USA Today, which is a left-wing paper, has a piece today, From Student Loans to Masks: Why Does Biden Want to Keep Us in a Perpetual Emergency? We've made it to 2023, nearly 3 years since the pandemic hit the United States in full force. The virus is less deadly. We have effective vaccines. Well, we don't, but that's separate issue. And life is pretty much back to normal for most of us. If you're President Joe Biden, however, the COVID-19 emergency is still front and center.

Hmm.

Don't get me wrong, I don't think Biden actually believes we are still in the state of emergency. He admitted as much in September when he declared the pandemic was over. Yet the president and his administration have enjoyed the extra powers that have accompanied the national emergency declaration And they are working hard to cling to this authority, which has granted the executive branch broader control over our lives. That's right. That's exactly right. While the country has been distracted with the classified documents that keep popping up in Biden's office, the garage, and home, the administration continues its crusade to convince the courts the country remains in a state of emergency. But the Biden administration won't give up on its plan to forgive hundreds of billions of dollars of federal student loan debt. Biden did this through executive action with the national emergency over COVID-19 as the rationale. Huh. Let's see what'll happen here. Well, the U.S. Supreme Court has taken up two cases and plans to hear arguments next month. Biden hasn't stopped meddling in student debt, separating personal responsibility from borrowing decisions. That is correct. This month, it issued a proposed rule for income-driven loan repayments. If Biden gets his way with debt cancellation, the cost to taxpayers will balloon to as much as $600 billion. So close, we're more than half the way. To a trillion dollars more in debt. We return. There's a lot of talk about the Great Reset and digital currencies. The US government has been floating the idea of a digital dollar for quite some time, opening up the door to the government controlling your bank account, or worse yet, freezing your money. They did that in Canada, remember? This is Dennis Prager for AmFed Coin and Bullion, and for my friend Nick Grovich. Now more than ever in this woke world, it's important to own tangible assets like gold and silver. Owning physical gold and silver gives you control over your wealth They're proven, stable commodities that have held their value over time, beyond the overarching reach of government. And it's so important you do business with a trustworthy and transparent company like Ampfed Coin and Bullion. Ampfed's owner Nick and his experienced team will always provide you with honest, sound advice. No pressure sales. Moving a portion of your wealth into precious metals is a prudent decision. Call Ampfed Coin and Bullion, 800-221-7694, americanfederal.com, American Federal all right, that knocks out the— I'm sorry, Sean, but that knocks out what I was going to do. All right, let's continue here. I have been reading to you from the, uh, from USA Today, where they're, they're talking about where the— amazingly The, the writer is writing about how there was just the continuity of the state of emergency in the country over COVID, for example, and of course the, the student debt issue. We, we have to stop this. I, I need, I need people to awaken. To the threat that the left constitutes to everything in this country that is noble. It's a real battle because half this country votes for the left, votes for the people who, who are ruining children's lives. But listen, I just want you to know, it's very important that you do know this, there is a lot of fight in this country. Half this country understands that the existential threat to freedom that the left constitutes. There's no existential threat to biological life. That's a phony issue in order to get more control over your life. Do you understand that? I'm not saying that global— that the world isn't getting warmer. I'm saying that the existential threat part to take control of more of your life, to tell you what car you can drive in California starting in 15 years— not 15 years, 12 years. Is to take control of your life. When they told you you couldn't eat in a restaurant, it was— they lied. Newsom was in a restaurant when he told you to close your restaurant and go out of business, and he was reelected. There is nothing a Democrat can do that will not enable him to get reelected. Well, maybe there is. Maybe sexual harassment. Why, what, why wasn't that the most obvious possible statement? That they lied in order to close restaurants, that he went to a restaurant at that time with no mask. The issue is not hypocrisy. I always said that, that's true. It's such a minor sin compared to what he did. I will ruin your life in the name of a lie. And he got reelected. No recall. This is, this is what is going on. And the border, millions upon millions of people coming into the country. We are opening the country to Mexican cartels, no less vicious vicious than Nazi stormtroopers. Mexican cartels have the viciousness of Nazi SS, and this regime— it's not an administration, it is a regime— is allowing them in. And, and, and people complain about Ron DeSantis? Because why exactly? Because he allows Floridians to live a normal life? This obsession with Donald Trump is also phony because they know they can get away with it because it's pure emotion. Oh, he's so obnoxious. Oh, he said such a terrible thing about ladies' private parts. The viciousness of the attacks on DeSantis, if he's nominated or even just runs for the nomination, will be equal to that of Trump. It's all a facade for power for the left. The whole thing, the whole shutdown, was a facade for the left's power, as should be obvious now. Given that Sweden has the lowest excess death rate on earth and kept open the whole time. Tell this to your kid at college, if in fact your kid at college is willing to actually hear things. That may— that's a problem. The problem is not so much that they're only given left-wing views of life. It's that they are— their ability to think clearly is shut down in colleges. That's, that's the issue, my friends. They, they don't— they're, they're not capable of thinking clearly. That's very worrisome. Oh, as I will regularly today Because it's only today the complete collection of my Torah teaching is 65% off. 65% off. It's regularly $995, and a lot of people have purchased it. It's life-changing stuff. 240 hours of my classroom lectures, and it's completely different from my Rational Bible Series. This has been my life's work. Every chapter from all 5 books of the first 5 books, the Torah. It's available on flash drive, MP3 player, collector's set of CDs. PragerStore.com or the banner on my website. $349 only today. Even I, I may buy it. Okay, let's go to San Diego and Katie. Hello, Katie.

Hi, Dennis. I love your show, by the way.

Um, thank you.

And I hate to say I share that name with Katie Hobbs in Arizona because it's so horrible. It's now my name's becoming a curse. I think she's kind of a wicked Democrat. But, um, I lived in San Diego for a long time and what I wanted to say is I think that Gavin Newsom, no matter how hard we tried, um, being Nancy Pelosi's nephew, it was going to be fixed somehow high up in the voting, the registrar of voters for the state. We weren't going to stand a chance. It's kind of like Russia and the USSR. You know, you get one candidate.

Yeah, no, no, there, there wasn't a chance. I couldn't, I couldn't agree with you more. It's just important that people understand they don't believe their lies all the time. Sometimes they do. How can you say restaurants must close and go out of business in tens of thousands of cases and people cannot eat out, and then eat out in a restaurant? How do you do that? What— I'd love to know from any of you, especially if there's anyone who's a Democrat who has the courage to listen to non-left-wing ideas. How do you explain what Newsom did when he did that? You, you citizens of California cannot keep a restaurant open, and you cannot of course visit one except for takeout, but I can. So you have to understand, when, when we on the right— you don't have to be on the right— when those of us who understand evil call the Democratic Party pseudo-communist, crypto-communist, neo-communist, it is exactly what Soviet leaders did. I was in the Soviet Union a number of times, so, and that was my field of study. That's why I learned Russian. The Russian Institute at Columbia. This is an area I know well, the Soviet Union. So Soviet leaders would not allow Soviet citizens to own Western currency. You could only own rubles, which were worthless. You couldn't own dollars. You couldn't own French francs. This was before the euro. You couldn't— and obviously once the euro existed. You couldn't own that. You couldn't own a Swiss franc. You couldn't own the English pound. You could only own the ruble. But Soviet leaders shopped in dollar stores. They were known as that. They had special stores for Soviet leaders. Newsom is indistinguishable from a Soviet leader. Everyone who lived in the Soviet Union knows what I'm saying is true, but the naive people of America don't know that. They will perhaps one day, and then it's too late because they don't give up power easily. From 1917 to— what is it— 1989? 72 years of the crushing of life. I used to think that there was something in the Russian soul or the Russian culture that allowed for autocracy, whether it was the czar or the Soviet ruler, the czar or the commissar, as they used to say. And the last 3 years changed my mind. Every society is susceptible to becoming communist. It is not something in Russian culture. This was a major, major change of thought in my life. I want you to know I would never have thought that Americans could voluntarily succumb to communism. I was wrong. It's painful to say this. That is why the Newsom restaurant thing is of such surpassing importance. That's exactly what Soviet rulers did. You can't eat in a restaurant. You Soviet citizens cannot eat in a restaurant that takes Western currency. I can! I, Nikita Khrushchev. Or Leonid Brezhnev, or any of the other Soviet leaders, or any of the communist upper echelon, not just the first secretary of the Communist Party. There was no difference, no moral, no political difference between a Soviet leader and Newsom. This is the giveaway. The rules I impose, I draconianly impose upon you, do not apply to me. That's not hypocrisy. That's evil. That's totalitarian. That's what the state of emergency is about. That is what the environmentalists are about. The environmentalists are indistinguishable from Newsom who is indistinguishable from Khrushchev. They always have excuses for it. Soviet leaders had excuses for it. Of course, because they're fighting capitalism. They're fighting to create the world's first socialist paradise. "Фпériод к kommунизму"—Forward to Communism. All the signs up. The first thing I saw when I first went to the Soviet Union, my early 20s, was a gigantic sign. The only color in the Soviet Union were billboards that had red. The rest was gray. Speriod ke kommunizm. Forward to communism. Never thought I'd have such signs here. 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Another one. You can't fix a society if you deny its, its problems, my friends. That's why I can't fill you with good news if, if there's also bad news. CNN Business: Regal Cinemas is closing 39 more movie theaters. Regal Cinemas is closing 39 more movie theaters across the United States. This comes 4 months after its parent company Cineworld filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy after the pandemic devastated the industry and public screenings. Of course, it's not the pandemic. Everybody says it— conservatives just as much as people on the left. It's the shutdowns, not the pandemic. I never say COVID, I always say shutdowns. Without the shutdowns, COVID would have been another virus, a more serious one. But as Sweden showed, you can stay open. Cineworld said it's planning to reject leases for the 39 theaters beginning February 15th, saving the company $22 million annually. Regal Cinemas is the United States' second largest theater chain after AMC Theaters, which has 950 locations. And then it lists, and it's just very sad to see the list all over— Alaska, California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maryland, North Carolina, etc., etc. Yep. So let's see, people are going to watch movies at home and they're going to work from home and they're going to get fast food in their car. And when exactly will people see other people? Are they joining clubs, book clubs, for example? Or for that matter, knitting clubs, Rotary clubs, Lions clubs, bowling clubs— bowling leagues, actually. When are people going to be with other people? People need people, folks. They're not going to church either. Where exactly are people going to be with people? They're not going to the mall. They're shopping at home. I'm going to talk about this at length. This is a very big change, and it's not a good one. The needed happiness hour coming up. The Dennis Prager Show, live from the Relief Factor Pain-Free Studio. Here we go. It's the happy, happy, happy, happy hour. Yes, it is. Hello everybody, Dennis Prager here. Happiness. Is a moral virtue, and it is now a health emergency. That's right. That is why we have a happy, happy hour. Yes, it is, my friends. Every single Friday since 1999. 24 years. Wow, coming on a quarter of a century of Happiness Hour. The happy make the world better, the unhappy make it worse. Happiness and health are so interrelated, the case for the pursuit of happiness should be pretty obvious. Today's subject I alluded to at the end of the first hour of the show today. People need people. It was prompted by reading how the second largest chain of movie theaters in America— I think it's Regal Cinema— is closing a couple of dozen more theaters as people don't go to the movies as much as they used to. And because of 2 and a half years of the, the truly vile lockdowns that were ordered by the truly vile health authorities of the United States, listened to by the sheep and lovers of control, Sweden kept everything open, has the lowest excess mortality rate of any country. Keep reminding you of that. It's pretty dispositive, it would seem to me, that we actually have a test case. Never in my life did I think— well, never in my life did I think a lot of things that I now think, but I never thought I would be speaking about the virtues of Sweden. But truth is truth, and truth is number one. So here's the, uh, here's the issue. Given the tendency today to do everything alone or at home, you must pursue ways of being with people. The human being is a profoundly social creature. According to de Tocqueville in the early 19th century, the great strength of the United States was its non-governmental organizations, its clubs, its associations, its religious institutions. I mean, it just met— Americans just met with other Americans and did things together. Today, let's— I mean, let's go down the list. You can watch a movie at home, not go to a theater and be with people. You can eat at home. Obviously, people, people have for a long time, so that's not a, not necessarily a bad development. And you can now work at home, which can be in some occasions. For example, if you are a parent taking care of kids, then that, that facilitates your working at home. But generally speaking, there was a massive advantage in going to the office. I could broadcast from home. I did, in fact, for a number of years when I lived very far from the studio. But I decided to move nearer to the studio in order to be with people. This again, the show could be broadcast from my home. I'm broadcasting right now from Florida because I have a machine that enables me to broadcast. You can't hear a difference between— audibly, you can't hear a difference between my broadcasting with this machine or broadcasting from the studio in Glendale, California. But it is a healthier thing to go into an office and be with people, people associated with the show, the salespeople, other people who work there. You can do everything alone today, or not with a group. People are going to church much less. In fact, I think it's the first time in American history that under 50% of Americans regularly attend church. I think I read, read that recently, and it certainly would make sense if I, if I did read it. People had so many clubs, as I mentioned last hour. I mean, knitting clubs, book clubs. My parents met with friends regularly at different homes, so each home would serve you know, dessert and coffee, let's say, and they would discuss a book. They had a book club. Are you a member of a book club? Do you, do you ever meet with other people? It's— that's the, that's the topic of the happiness hour. This is a perfect example of why I say you have to pursue happiness. Especially today, because the things— so many of the things that enabled people to be happy, which were taken for granted in the past, don't exist anymore. Organized religion is a perfect example. You know, I got a call from somebody here at the show. It was really moving. If this person is listening, I'd like you to call in again. I've never— or maybe, I don't know, maybe I have, but I rarely Maybe never ask them, somebody to call in again about the same subject. But if you are listening, it was a woman who said she took up my challenge. She was not a churchgoer, but she took up my challenge to go to church for 6 months. Obviously, I would tell a Jew, go to synagogue for 6 months. At least not a woke synagogue, which I admit is not easy to find. It's not easy to find a non-woke mainstream Protestant in many Catholic churches, but they exist. And she said it changed her life. And during that period, if I'm not mistaken, from— if I remember correctly, she lost a loved one, and she, she had a community that she never would have had which she so needed during the time of bereavement. 1-800-PRAEGER, 776-877-243-7776. How do you gather with other people? And, and, or, well, I guess, or Have you been affected by this movement away from movie theaters and churches and clubs and associations? Have you been affected by the increasing atomization of modern life? Kids don't even talk to each other on phones, let alone meet outside of school. As much as they used to. They text. I see nothing wrong in texting. I text a tremendous amount, but I'm with people a tremendous amount. As I have always said, I have contempt for humanity and I love people. I'm a people person. That's my nature. But if it is not your nature, you still need it. So if you don't go to synagogue and you watch movies at home, when do you meet other people? People don't shop in stores as much at all, right? They, they order what they need from the internet or on the internet. So no shopping with people. Kids used to work at movie theaters. Kids used to work in malls. The, the only gathering place that seems to still be as strong as ever is the restaurant, for which I am very thankful, by the way. That you don't, you don't interrelate much with other people, but still there are other people around. A lot— we have a lot of, of non-human factors at play in the time in which we are living. I read that thing about the movie theaters with great sadness. Just standing in line forces you to talk to strangers. Strangers are a very important feature of life. My, my good friend Joel Alperson, who lives in Nebraska, has a fun saying about me: Dennis has more fun in an elevator than most people do in a day. Yeah, I enjoy strangers. They're important because you're a stranger too. Back in a moment.

Love is but a song we sing, feels the way we die. You can make the mountains ring or make the angels cry. MUSIC's a little loud.

Okay, only today the Prager Store is offering the complete collection of my teaching of the Torah, 240 hours of my classroom lectures. It is always $995. Today, and today only, it is $349. This is life-changing stuff. It is very, very, very, very different from the Rational Bible. You are not duplicating if you already own the Rational Bible. It's on flash drive, MP3 player— get the player as well as the content— or flash drive, or collector set of CDs. PragerStore.com or the banner on my website. It's only today. This is the Happiness Hour, and I'm talking to you about the increasing atomization of people. In other words, people not getting together nearly as much as they did all through history, and certainly through American history. People are getting unhappier because they're not with people. So the closing of more movie theaters brought that to mind as I read about it last hour. Not going to movies with other people, and not going to church or synagogue with other people, not going to book clubs or glee clubs. Can't imagine how many clubs there were historically. None of those exist, or in most people's lives they exist, but than not in most people's lives. Sean made an interesting point during the break that a lot of young people think that they do have a social life because they're together on the internet. Virtual— that's not the same thing, my friends. Real people in real life, live with you, is not the same as on the internet. So this is something you have to pursue. Start one. We're gonna meet, uh, every other week or every month, every day as far as I'm concerned, whatever you want to do, and just talk about a book. Play a PragerU video for 5 minutes and then talk about it for the next 90 minutes. Believe me, you'll have plenty to talk about. The possibilities are endless. What was the other point you made, Sean? One was the social media. Oh yes, a lot of people, the only time they get together with other people is at a protest. That was a good one. A little bitter, but it's good. Let's see, Jim in Sacramento, California. Hello. Is the phone line on? Okay, Jim's just not there. Well, let me at least cite what the screener says he said. If you have God, then you don't really need people. I could spend an hour on that one. Maybe I will. It's not what God thinks. I don't know where people got that idea. Really, I do wonder where religious people come up with ideas that I, I have no idea where they came up with it. You don't need people because you have God. Hmm, it's not what God said. The first statement God said about the human being is, it's not good for a man to be alone. Hmm, talking about Adam and about humans in general. Adam had God. Why wasn't God enough for Adam? God declared God was not enough. Now, you're in solitary confinement and you have God, you might be able not to go nuts. That's true. Let's put it this way: if you only have people and no God, That's not good. But if you only have God and not people, that's not good either. Okay, that should be clear. Man shall leave his mother and father and cling unto his wife, and they shall be as one flesh. Really? Why cling unto a wife? Just cling to God. I hear a lot of religious ideas that I never, never know where people got them from. Okay, did we clear line 1 so that we can open that to other humans? Yes, you did. All right, Bill, Detroit, Michigan.

Hello. Hey, Dr. Prager, how are you? Well, blessings, sir. I just want to co-sign, even though I know I don't You don't need me to. I, um, went to an Eastern— a place called the Eastern Market this weekend, and, uh, it's a place where farmers meet, is where vendors go, it's where entrepreneurs meet, and they just sell their, their items, they trade, and they talk. I had such a great time just getting around folks. I— it felt like I had been missing something for the last 3 or 4 years.

I love it. What a great story. What prompted you to go?

I just wanted to get some fresh dairy products that were not altered by stores. And I just— I'm going back. I just had such a good time. I met people I had not seen. I met people who were selling products they had invented or created. And it was just a good, lovely place for families, people walking around talking. Man, it was just good. It was good. Gosh, I love your call.

Thank you. That's great. Listen, I don't care if it's fresh dairy products that forces you to get together with people. I don't care what it is, frankly. Solitary confinement is torture. I, I consider waterboarding terror, but I consider solitary confinement torture. People are sort of putting themselves in this very unhealthy state today as one socializing institution after another gets shattered. The only thing people— a lot of people relate more to the government than to other people. Another thing, remember, remember my saying, the bigger the government, the smaller the citizen? The bigger the government, the less people interact. The government sort of sucks out the air from socializing in life. All right, Chicago, Robert. All right, I'll get to you, Robert, when we come back. Just got the 30-second notice in my earphones. When I think about it, I mean, I, I love it. Look, I go to synagogue every— I founded a synagogue along with two of my dear friends, the Living Martyr, producer of the show Alan Estrin, and Dr. Stephen Marmer, psychiatrist that I've had on the Happiness Hour any number of times. Um, so I'm there every, uh Every week, among other things, even pen shows. I love them. Hey everybody, Dennis Prager Happiness Hour. Reminding you each break, today only, the Prager Store tells me you can get my complete— over 240 hours of my lectures teaching the Five Books of Moses, the Torah. It is completely different from the Rational Bible. People's reactions have been very powerful. It's $995 all the time. Today only, it is $349. It's on flash drive, MP3 player, or collector set of CDs. PragerStore.com, or click the banner on DennisPrager.com. It's the happiness hour. So often I think, well, I can't tell you anything more important than this, and today would qualify as that. You need people, and the closing of more movie theaters that I read to you is taking place prompts this subject. People are with people less than ever before in American history. Maybe it's a worldwide phenomenon, but it's— or at least in the first world, but it's certainly true here. And it's a very big loss in people's lives. It's one of the reasons for depression. One of the biggest places for meeting people, synagogues and churches, are seeing fewer people attend than at any time in American history because people think they're too sophisticated for religion. God, is that stupid. Blows my mind. Blows my mind. You're taught by fools and totally understandably by the foolishness that they teach at college. Okay, let's go to Clearwater, Florida.

Jeff, hello. Hello. Hello, my name is Jeff. Hello, can you hear me? I can. Okay, my name is Jeff, and what I wanted to talk about was that I was, uh, 34 years ago, I was suffering and dying of addiction, and I found the 12-step support group that meets nationwide, worldwide, all the time. I meet daily. I meet very exciting, recovering spiritual and religious people. We believe in God and, and we work the steps and we stay sober, and I see people saving their lives every day. It's a fantastic organization that you can meet with for free, don't cost anything. It's fantastic.

I'm glad you called in. I learned about this through the radio Many years ago, I would get these truly wise comments from callers, and I'd say, where did you pick that up? And they'd go, 12-step program, AA, or whichever 12-step program it was. I soon came to realize that there's more wisdom at an AA meeting than at Harvard, and Harvard is not as bad as Yale. Yale was a cesspool. Yale's actually a bad institution. And hey, UFP is not far behind. Columbia is not far behind that. Columbia was voted the— actually, the most suppressing of free speech of any major university in the country. But wisdom, it's completely lacking. AA meetings filled with it. My whole notion about happiness is that you should act it even if you don't feel it, because the more you act it, the more you'll feel it. And because you owe it to others. But we shape our feelings by how we behave. And sure enough, I learned long ago that that's a basic AA tenet: fake it till you make it. It sounds simple, and it is. But simple is not the opposite of profound. Simplistic is the opposite of profound. Secular is the opposite of profound. These are phenomenal institutions. I asked someone I know recently, how is it that the left hasn't destroyed the 12-step programs? Because they destroy everything they touch. And they said it's so, uh, non-organized because you, you know, everybody is anonymous. That's the whole point. Alcoholics Anonymous, Gamblers Anonymous, Overeaters Anonymous, that it's, it's hard to do so. But I, I'm sure that they have been trying especially to get rid of the notion that you need a higher power. That really ticks off the left. Each break, I'm reminding you, because it is only today My over 240 hours of teaching of the 5 books of the Torah— Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy— is on sale 65% off. Regularly $995, today only $349. On flash drive, MP3 player, or in a collector's set of CDs. Go to thepragerstore.com. That is not the— go to pragerstore.com or click the banner on my website, DennisPrager.com. It is completely different, by the way, from the Rational Bible, believe it or not. All right, back to wonderful Lisa, and the issue of the Happiness Hour is the need to get together with other people and how people are doing more and more things alone. Shopping, no church, no synagogue, not going into work, not going to movies. All right, take it away, Lisa. So you teach a Torah class, uh, and in person. Is that where we stopped off?

Yeah, that's where we stopped up. I teach a monthly Torah class in person. And last week in Los Angeles, it was pouring rain and people come to my— we meet at one person's home. And this particular location is in one of our canyons where it was, there was, there was flooding and so forth. So I suggested to the group, why don't we meet on Zoom just this one time? You know, we'll meet on Zoom. Everybody will get together. And I had several women in this group said, absolutely not. We will not meet on Zoom. We will only meet in person. They were sticklers, and they made me change and postpone it to a different date because they were not going to meet on Zoom.

They've been— and so, and so, in retrospect, do you think they were right?

You know, I didn't mind every once in a while doing this. It didn't— I, I For me, it didn't matter either way, but I understood where they were coming from. Some of the women work on the computer all day long, and they did not want to be on the computer anymore. And they said, which is true, the social interaction that takes place is as important as the content.

God bless you, Lisa. It was a great story. Oh boy, I wish I could have taken Dawn, Royce, Dean, Linda, Sharon, and Steve. I, I think I'm going to do it again. This is too important an issue, and I need— and I need your input. What's our timing, Sean? All right, everybody, now call in on any subject under the sun. 1-800-PRAGER-776. Let Dennis be Dennis. That's right, let Dennis be Dennis is accurate, and that's, uh, how I have thrived. My parents decided to do that when I was 14. They didn't even ask me if I had homework because they knew I wouldn't do it anyway. All right, everybody, this is the hour you set the agenda about you. Anything on your mind about you, about me, about life, about death, and of course about fountain pens, classical music, audio equipment, photography equipment, and cigars. And now, enjoy the music. Yep. Hi everybody, Dennis Prager here. Third hour of Friday. Let's go to your calls. And by the way, I always announce, if I drop your call before I get to you, don't be offended. People are offended too easily. It's not meant to be offensive. It's just for— could be 100 reasons. It just may not be fit the, the show or not be something I, I even know about. That, that happens, folks. I don't know anything. Okay, Northvale, New Jersey. Dean, hello.

Yeah, hi Dennis. You know, I was thinking when you were talking about Trump and how the left demonized Trump and they made him into this Nazi figure like Hitler, and you said if you were in Nazi Germany you would lie, cheat, steal, and do anything you could to stop Hitler. Um, since the left now is an existential threat to the United States and their value systems, is it okay to start? Yeah, go on. Is it okay to be lying and cheating and stealing? Oh, oh, oh, oh, is it okay to lie and cheat to stop them? Yes, at this moment.

Okay, all right. No, no, no, I'm glad you asked. I'm glad you asked. It's a very fair question. The answer is no. The, uh, first of all, over time, lying doesn't work. And if I claim, which I do, truth is the greatest enemy of the left, then if we start lying, we're not all that different from the left. I mean, in World War II, uh, Churchill said that he protected Britain with a bodyguard of lies, but that's different. There was a physical war, and in order to subvert the enemy's intelligence, you had to put up a bodyguard of lies. We, we don't They do put up a bodyguard of lies, and I believe that it's all the more important that we stick to truth. Over time, it may take a long time, may take generations sadly, that will prevail. My favorite line from the New Testament is, the truth shall set you free. And I do believe that. Let me, let me repeat something I say frequently, and that is, if everyone knew the truth, there would be no left. Okay, let's see here. Let's go to Inver Grove Heights, Minnesota.

Dan. Hello, Dan. Hello, Dennis Prager. Um, yeah, I'm calling you because, uh, every year my wife watches the Miss Universe contest, and, uh, this year we had to watch it in Spanish. The only channel we could get it in was Telemundo, and it was all Spanish. I never saw that before, and it was held in New Orleans. That's very interesting. Yeah, I thought so too. I, I believe— well, I'm gonna— if you have— go ahead. No, no, go ahead. I was going to say, I believe that if you had us, if you paid extra money for, uh, another channel that we don't have with Xfinity— and we have a lot of channels though— but I believe there was another channel you could buy on Xfinity to access it in English, maybe through translation. I don't know how it would work.

So is it usually on free TV?

Well, that's a great question because we don't have— you said you—

we have— all right, but you said you usually watch it. How do you—

how did you watch it in past years in English? Yeah, on Xfinity, through Xfinity.

Oh, then they— and they dropped it this year.

Apparently they dropped it in English on the— on the— on our— in terms of—

yeah, all right, I'm gonna look into that. I'll tell you why I'm going to look into it, why I think this is important. Uh, there is, uh, the left is waging a war against all the beauty pageants. They're— they love when men dress as women and take off some of their clothing in front of 5-year-olds. But they are profoundly offended when biological women appear in a swimsuit in front of adults. Everything about the left is sick. That's one— it's a perfect example. They infantilize adults and they sexualize children. The, uh, by the way, uh, To give you an idea of how I believe that you got to tell the truth even when it hurts, I'm a big supporter of Israel, but I found that Israel's removing themselves from the Miss Universe contest was a stupid decision. The amount of goodwill to Israel in appearing there So much so that I had the former Miss Iraq on my radio show just a few months ago. The, the very famous photo of Miss Iraq and Miss Israel posing in swimsuits together caused Miss Iraq to be kicked out of Iraq, her whole family. She has never returned because of death threats because she took a smiling photo with Miss Israel. So what exactly is offensive about the Miss Universe contest, that women appear in swimsuits? What— when— why exactly is that offensive? Because they're sexualized? What are you, a child? Wow, women sexualized, what a shockaroo! We can't allow something like that. That's— it's just beyond belief. Remember, to understand the left, you have to understand something I have understood and talked about for decades. They are afraid of death. That was clear during COVID But they're also afraid of life. I learned this— oh God— decades and decades ago. A woman writer— I wish I remembered her name— wrote that the left— to understand the left, you must understand that they are afraid of— and then she lapsed into French— les faits de la vie. They are afraid of the facts of life. And that, that's exactly correct. That's why when you say something that's true, they never rebut it. They call you a name. So if you defend the Miss Universe pageant You're called sexist. They don't actually argue with you. They call you a name. If you, if you speak about, as I have, the disproportionate role women have played in hurting children today through the fact that 85% of kindergarten teachers are female— no, 95%, I should say. And of elementary school teachers, 85%, uh, then you're called a misogynist. Of course, if you say that men play a disproportionate role in violence, you're not called a man-hater. All right, let's continue here. Okay, even though I have no answer to this question, I'm taking the call. Eric in West Los Angeles, California.

Hello. Hey Dennis, uh, so here's my question. If you were being sent to an island and you were not allowed to take anything classical and you could only bring something, you know, from let's call it the emergence of rock in the late '50s till the current day, nothing else allowed, no movie, no film scores either, is there anything you would take? Beatles, Beach Boys, anything at all?

Yeah, since you included late '50s, I'm bailed out. I'm okay with that. Yeah, Beach Boys. I love Beach Boys. I love Elvis Presley, for that matter. I, I love rock. I love rock and roll from the '50s and early '60s. So you're— you— I, I can't answer you because I thought I was stuck from the, the '70s on, uh, and, and then my musical ignorance is, uh, is overwhelming.

And what do you think?

I have to admit, how long would I be on this desert island?

Oh, forever. No Beethoven, no Mozart, no Bach. Only, only—

All right, well then, all right, that's a very serious problem. Okay, well, wait a minute, wait a minute, I got another question. Wait a minute, was I— would I be on the desert island alone till I died?

No, no, you could have all your family and your friends, but the music—

Oh, all right, so we'll We'll hum like the Swingle Singers. We'll just hum Beethoven symphonies. I love those kinds of questions. Okay, Tom, Alvin, Texas. And this is truly— when I say the famous Tom of Alvin, I am not kidding. One of the wittiest people to communicate with this show. He has been communicating with us since 1837. Oh yeah, there's a '50s, uh, rock and roll that I don't know. What year is that from, Sean? '55. Yep, it's the happiest music ever written is '50s rock and roll and 1920s Scott Joplin music. Those are the— I'm— that's one of the reasons I love them both. And I love Haydn and classical because he makes me happy. I have, I, I have two favorite composers: Haydn to make me happy and Bach to bring me closer to God. Talking about God, just want you to know, that's why I'm repeating this each hour, each segment of each hour for that matter. The one of the most popular things I've ever recorded, over 240 hours of my decade-long teaching of the Torah, the Five Books of Moses, the first 5 books of the Bible. Regularly $995, today only $349. It is unrelated to the Rational Bible, so if you have that, this is totally different experience. Fat flash drive, MP3 player, or a collector's set of CDs. PragerStore.com. Or the banner on my website. And now, ladies and gentlemen, let us, uh, let— well, a lot of interesting questions here. Wow. All right, should I take a light one or a heavy one? I'll let you decide, Sean. Light or heavy? Light it is. Michael, Spartanburg, South Carolina.

Hello. Good afternoon, Dennis.

How you doing? Really well, thank you.

So am I. Beautiful day here in South Carolina.

I'll bet it is. Don't rub it in.

I have a question. You're always talking about, about your sound system. What equipment are you using?

Well, all right, so just so you'll know, it varies at different stages in my life. At this time, and I'm happy to give them a free promotion, all of my electronic equipment is a T+A. It's a German company. Little did they know what T&A means in America, these poor people. They got really killed by it. It's a very— I know it's— I know you weren't because you're in South Carolina. You can get clobbered for that there. But I, I have to say, my heart goes out to these guys. It means theory and application, but in America, TNA doesn't mean theory and application. Yeah, so here's what— but more interesting is this. And I'm in the minority when people think about it, though. I almost always convince them your electronics are more important than your speakers. People getting into classical— not any music, forget classical— people getting into serious audio equipment think speakers are the most important. There is no bad speaker. Oh yeah, what? Uh, no, I don't think so.

I mean, oh, oh, that's funny.

Okay, that's funny. All right, well, that's not it. That's not audio equipment. That, that's, that's— I don't, I don't knock Bose because they're not competing in the audio world. But for serious equipment, just people should know, uh, and any of you thinking of, of having the joy of music in your home Garbage in, garbage out. The electronics are more important than your speakers. My electronics cost 5 times more than my speakers. I have interconnects and cables that cost as much as my speakers, which is a story unto itself. All right, that was fun. Now we go to heavy. I don't exactly know the content of this call, but I'll, I'll try it. Nancy in Jacksonville, Florida. Hello.

Hi Dennis, I wanted to call and, um, talk about the death of my daughter. She died June 27th of neuroendocrine cancer, and, um, it's a little difficult for me, but number one, the death of an adult child, not enough parent talk about it or think about it. I never thought that my— any of my children would die before me. Also, she had neuroendocrine cancer, which is an extremely rare cancer, and she was treated by Mayo doctors. It started out in her rectum and it proceeded up to her pancreas, liver, and lungs. But at one point they said she was cured of the cancer, and then she started having excruciating pain. And the doctor said when they did an X-ray of her that she had taken so much ibuprofen that she had a blood clot in her stomach the size of a grapefruit.

I'd never— uh, you can't take too, too much of that stuff. I, I— listen, my heart goes out to you. I wish we had more time. To, uh, to discuss it. I am preoccupied with parents who've lost children. I'll comment on that when we get back. In the meantime, and what was it I was about to say something about? Oh yes, I was going to tell you, I have been preoccupied in light of the last call. My heart goes out to you. She lost her grown daughter to cancer. My mother used to say, may she rest in peace, parents should die before their children. Oh no, parents should die first. That was the way she put it. That's exactly— I, so I We all feel that way, obviously. I know— I think I know more people well. I mean, doctors know more people who've lost children than I do, but I think I know more people well who've lost children than, than anyone I know. I don't know why. But I just do. And I have a sense, only a sense. Anybody who says to somebody who's lost a child, you know, I think I know how you feel, should never— you should never say that because you don't. It's like telling somebody who was just tortured, I know how you feel. You don't. If you're not tortured, you don't know. But I, uh, I might, I might devote an hour to it. I know it's not the sort of thing talk show hosts want to do because they think they'll lose their audience if they talk about something that sad. I have never thought that. I take pride in talking about everything in life, from happiness hour to unhappiness. Unhappiness is part of life. But I do know a lot of people who've lost children. I could only say that to, to the many that I know who walk through life with their head held up, with their heads held up, and who do not radiate depression when you meet them I salute you from the bottom of my heart. The only thing I can say as one who did not lose a child is Viktor Frankl was right. The brilliant psychoanalyst who went through the Holocaust said there was only one thing that we were free to have. The Nazis determined everything. When you ate, if you ate, if you ate, when you relieved yourself, when you died, when you got tortured or not. Said we had only one freedom: how to react. I read that in high school, Man's Search for Meaning. It's one of the 10 books that most influenced me. It might be the book after the Bible that most influenced me. And that is, that is true. And these strong people who have lost children, whom I know, have decided to react with a life-embracing reaction. Okay, let's see here. Northridge, California, and Russ.

Hello. Hey Dennis, um, yeah, did you watch Tucker Carlson last night? No, I missed it.

I've been on the road all week and I usually catch him and I didn't catch him.

Go ahead though. Well, well then, my question's not— he talked about the deep state, uh, its connections to the assassination and, uh its possible connections to getting rid of Nixon. But if you didn't see it—

well, no, it doesn't matter that I didn't see it, and I'll tell you why. Uh, I am aware of a lot of what he is saying, so I will, I will tell you all. I'm often asked, do I ever change my mind? Of course, if there's evidence, I change my mind in a nanosecond. I have been adamant that Lee Harvey Oswald was the only assassin involved in Kennedy's assassination all of my life, and I'm, I'm no longer adamant about that. I acknowledge that the last 3 years have changed many of my perceptions. I have utter contempt for the medical establishment of the United States of America. I didn't have that 3 years ago. I consider the CDC and NIH to be lying, mendacious, politically driven, money-hungry scum. But other than that, not much has changed. There are some wonderful people who work for this scummy organization, but that's always true. So I'm not saying it about everybody at NIH or CDC. I'm saying it about Fauci and the other heads. The American Medical Association is as corrupt as the Soviet Medical Association was. You should not list the sex of a child on, on its birth certificate. That is the official position of the American Medical Association. The Society of Pediatricians, whatever their official name is, They are for removing girls' breasts if they say they're boys. So I have been deeply affected by the last 3 years. I never in my life thought about questioning vaccines. The amount of lying about the COVID vaccine— I believe the young people killed by the vaccine is so staggering, is so obvious to all but paid liars and the people who believe paid liars, that I, I'm not any longer shocked that there might have been a conspiracy to kill Kennedy. Well, everybody, let's see the final segment here. So I want to remind you, it's my last time because it's— this— the sale is over today. It's only today. Over 240 hours of my teaching of the Torah, the first 5 books of the Bible. It's always $995. Today only it's $349. It'll give you a long time of listening. It is completely different from the Rational Bible. They are each their own works. You can get it on flash drive or even with an MP3 player or in a collector's set of CDs. And that's at the— at pragerstore.com or the banner at dennisprager.com. Oh boy, let's see here. Glenn in Phoenix, Arizona. Hello.

Yes, Mr. Prager. Um, it's not clear, not clear.

I'm going to put you on hold, see if, if we can fix that up. The transmission from the moon was clearer, and that was a long time ago. Uh, let's see here. Now let me give that one more try. Are you there? Can you hear me, Mr. Prager? No, no, I can't unfortunately. I, I don't know why, why that is happening. Uh, Tenafly, New Jersey. Stan, hello.

Yes, uh, Dennis Prager, if I had $2 billion, I would donate or set up a fund for $100 million to $200 million to advertise and ask other rich people to advertise and spread the truth, the morality the religious values of what is going on with Elon Musk and what he's coming up with. All of the information coming out on Musk is through Republican sources. The word has to get out to the general population, the 50% who have no idea.

But how would, how would you get it out? How would you get out to the general population with all that money? The New York Times still wouldn't publish ads out.

Yes, yeah, there was an ad in New York Times by, by, uh, uh, uh, uh, there were healthcare people that said that they should not have lost their jobs. They had a—

right. Okay, uh, listen, uh, I, I, I totally love your sentiment. The blocking of information by the left-wing media is probably like— and it is very hard to break through. Just remember this: we read them, they don't read us. We study under them, they don't study under us. It's a big difference. We know a lot more than they do. From Miami, Florida, I wish you a wonderful weekend. Dennis Prager here. Thanks for listening to the Daily Dennis Prager Podcast. To hear the entire 3 hours of my radio show commercial-free every single day, become a member of PragerTopia. You'll also get access to 15 years' worth of archives as well as the daily show prep. Subscribe at prageropia.com.