Pentagon Paper

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 Prager Utopia. You'll also get access to 15 years' worth of archives as well as the daily show prep. Subscribe at pragertopia.com. Welcome back. Your dreams were your ticket out. Welcome back. Well, that is very nice. Same old place that you— thank you, thank you. Hi everybody. I don't remember the last time I was gone for a week. Really don't, because Every year I have been gone for 2 weeks because of the listener cruise, which is coming up this year, in fact, in a month. But over the lockdowns, of course, there was nowhere to go like cruising. Anyway, it's good to be back. I'll tell you where I was. I was in Mexico all this week. I was in Cancun, which is the far east corner of Mexico. It's as long to fly to Cancun from Los Angeles as it is to fly to the East Coast. 4.5 hours. It's really remarkable, the distances here. And I was the featured speaker at a Passover retreat where about 1,500 people attended and where I spoke 3 times. And my kids and their kids were there, and it was, uh, it was very— it was a glorious time for me. I was at a hotel the likes of which I had never seen in years of very fancy hotels for all sorts of retreats. It, it was a world unto itself, and Anyway, I am very rested. I am back, although I will be flying a tremendous amount. I'm going to Europe and back 3 times in the next 6 weeks. So the reason I didn't broadcast 2 of those days from Mexico, which I wanted to, was my, my syndicators are very intent on having the video up and excellent of the show, and that was not doable in this case, at any rate, from Mexico. So I want to thank the people who sat in for me, 4 spectacular people who enable me to rest knowing you are in truly good hands. Julie Hartman, Mark Eisler, Bob France and Amala Eponobi. I mean, 4 different people, as different as you can get, and all superb. Yes, it gives you hope, especially in the case of the 2 younger ones, the 2 women. It does give you hope for the future. And then you returned. From this paradisiacal experience. And I, I just, I was drowning in, in, I want to say depressing news, but I don't want you to get depressed because I don't get depressed. I get, I am affected. I am a feeling human, but I keep telling you that despair is a sin. And I try to follow my own advice. I'll tell you one thing about this release of papers by this young man in the National Guard. Is that correct? Is that, is that the area he was in? Uh, two things that are just a given. Had this been a Trump war and somebody had revealed papers had revealed papers that they themselves revealed things were happening that shouldn't be happening, like American troops in Ukraine with British troops, then he would have been regarded as a whistleblower and a hero. And of course, one famous case— if you may not have lived through it, but you should know about it— called the Pentagon Papers. Which is exactly what they were— vast troves of Pentagon Papers to harm the American effort in Vietnam. And the people responsible for the Pentagon Papers, published by the way, of course, by the New York Times and Washington Post— these people were heroes to the left. So if you reveal confidential or highly confidential matters, and the left doesn't like the war, you're a hero, and if the left likes the war, you're a criminal. That's the world in which we live, and it's just worth having clarity over agreement, which is one of my mottos. On the positive side, Anheuser-Busch is losing billions of dollars. Whether this will continue or not is unknowable. However, if you buy an Anheuser-Busch product now, you are contributing to the decay of the United States of America. To put a man who says he is a woman on a can of beer is an act of such a middle finger at the vast majority of Americans, including Democrats, that it takes a woke female to come up with the idea, which is exactly who came up with the idea. I was reading an article. Did you— I don't know if you sent it to me or I was reading it on my own or you saw it on your own about how the upper echelons at Anheuser-Busch had no idea that this was happening. Did you happen to see that?

No.

Yeah, they had no idea. She just did it on her own. And I— there's no doubt in my mind they're incensed at the woman. It's not like Bud Light needed this. And what is remarkable is the feminist support for men who say that they are women, even to compete against women, not only for fashion contracts, modeling contracts, and the like, but of course even in sports, even in female sports. And there is a reason, and I have said this all of my life, Feminists do not give a damn about women. Feminists are, A, first leftists, and B, they have generally a deep hostility to men, hence the use of the term patriarchy, toxic masculinity, and the like. What you have here, this is true for all of the left. Black groups do virtually nothing, sometimes a lot of harm to blacks, but they are animated by anti-white loathing. Feminists are animated by anti-male loathing, not by a commitment to helping women. And that is the way it sort of works. I would say that the ADL, which was supposed to fight anti-Semitism, now does less for Jews. In fact, I think it is actually a net harm to the Jewish people. But it is animated by a hatred of the right wing. It is not animated by a concern, an overwhelming concern for Jews. And that, and every leftist group does that. They say they are, they're animated by a group. Look, the Asian, there are Asian leftist activist groups, and therefore affirmative action, which means bigotry against Asians. Asian American left-wing groups are as committed to Asians as feminists are to women and black groups are to blacks. This is the, this is the sick world of the left in operation, and hence you have this example here. Who exactly it will appeal to in the beer-drinking world, having a man who says he is a woman? A picture of this individual on a beer can. It is— it takes somebody who— did she go to Harvard? Yes. Yeah, it's perfect. The female who went to Harvard. It's like if I couldn't have scripted it better. Well, you can't always predict after all, because Julie Hartman went to Harvard, but I don't think she typifies her fellow students when she was there. It's really something. Nike is another one. I, I begged people not to buy Nike products for years since they elevated Colin Kaepernick into a white-hating individual who was raised by two loving white parents. Remember, one of my mottos is If you're not an ingrate, you're not a leftist. Ingratitude is a characteristic of leftism, as wings are a characteristic of birds. You can't fly without wings, and you can't be a leftist without ingratitude. He has mastered it, Colin Kaepernick, in a way both micro and macro. The— what this country has done for him is worthy only of gratitude. What his parents did for him is worthy only of gratitude. On the list of people that I feel most sorry for in America today are the Kapernicks. They are. I think about them. You never know with children, my friends. You just never know. It's a crapshoot in many ways, having children. I'd like to tell you about a new film that I highly recommend, and more importantly— God, is this true— Mrs. Prager recommends it. Nefarious is a spiritual thriller from the filmmakers behind God's Not Dead and Unplanned. It's excellent, well-acted, suspenseful, and scary in all the right places. It's like C.S. Lewis's "Screwtape Letters." But much more than that, it is a powerful reminder that the battle between good and evil, ultimately between God and Satan, is being fought not just around us, but within us. What better way to bring God into the marketplace than through the movies? In a world that calls good evil and evil good, "Nefarious" is a kind of red pill. That also happens to taste good, especially if you enjoy a good roller coaster ride. Nefarious is the kind of smart, thoughtful filmmaking we want to support and promote. The film opens in theaters nationwide starting April 14th. Take a moment to buy your tickets today at whoisnefarious.com. Hello everybody, Dennis Prager here, back from Mexico. People think, totally understandably, so did I, that it's dangerous to visit Mexico. In fact, the State Department issued warnings with regard to visiting, among other places, Cancun, which is where I was all of this week. Now, I have— I'm always totally open with you. I stayed at this phenomenal resort where I was giving lectures at a Passover retreat for the week. And I didn't do my usual rent a car and drive around, but of course I drove to the airport, or I was driven to the airport and from the airport. But I, uh, my sense right now is that tourism is quite safe in Mexico. They are not randomly shooting or kidnapping Americans, to the best of my knowledge. There are places to avoid, I think right by California or Tijuana or Ensenada, I think, is a riskier thing. But even there, the interesting thing, or one interesting aspect of Mexico, because my impression has always been— this was not my first trip at all to Mexico, but I hadn't been there in a while— but both Mexicans in the United States and Mexicans in Mexico I have always regarded as a hardworking people. Any of you who have ever employed Mexicans at your home or in your business, I think, would vouch for that fact that these are hard— generally hardworking people. And you— so then you ask, why is Mexico as poor as it is? There are obviously some very wealthy people there. What is his name? Carlos Sim? Is it— what is the— that's the wealthiest, huh? One of the wealthiest. Yeah, one of the wealthiest in the world. Yeah, he doesn't— he own a good chunk of the New York Times. He did. He sold it. Uh-huh. Uh, so it's an interesting question. Why is Latin America— that means Central America and South America— so behind North America? I don't have a perfect answer for you, but it is a— you can't get answers if you don't ask the right questions. That, that is a right question to ask. And there are any number of possible responses. One might be that North America is Protestant and the rest of Latin America is Catholic. There's no knock on Catholicism, just different work ethics seem to have grown up, or different types of governing patterns. On the other hand, France is Catholic, and France is in the fully developed world, and Poland is Catholic, and it is tremendously advancing. So I, I'm not sure that that is the, the, uh the answer, might be part of an answer. What was the famous book by, was it Max Weber, Protestantism and the Work Ethic? So there was an advanced idea about that. Another one is climate. Hot climates don't tend to produce as robust an economy as moderate climates. In other words, climates that have both cold and heat and in the middle. So that's a possibility, but the American South is certainly developed. Of course, it developed slavery, and that killed its economy, ironically. It was good for slave owners economically, but it wasn't good for the South. But here is an answer that I have found very compelling, which I offered you many, many years ago when I actually interviewed the author of a book titled Who Prospered. And it's such an important question— who prospers? And his theory, Lawrence Harrison, who was in AID, A-I-D, much of his life working in South America, uh, his theory was, or one of his theories was, what he calls familism. Discrimination on the basis of family. In North America, the tendency was you hired the best guy, and in Latin America, you hired your brother, your brother-in-law, your son, your son-in-law. That's, uh, that was a very compelling argument And then finally, because of familism and whatever other factors, there's a tremendous amount of corruption. Corruption is the road to poverty. It is also the road that is a dead end to getting out of poverty. When I was in Africa, one of my many trips to Africa, in West Africa, I don't remember if it was Togo or Benin that this took place. I believe it was one of those two countries in West Africa. And I was in a van. My wife and the producer of the show and his wife were in a van, and the van came to a stop, a roadblock placed by police. And the driver looked at us and said, watch this. And what did we watch? The van was stopped at the roadblock by police. Was there an accident? Was there roadwork? No, there were police stopping the car to get a payment so that the car could continue on the road. Remember that? We don't have that yet here. We're getting there. The amount of corruption in the United States is unprecedented, and it will be the road to our impoverishment and the failure of the society. That is the C-word— corruption. The more corruption, the more poverty. You can't get out of poverty when you have corruption. When I was at this resort, when you walked along some of the corridors, everything was open. I mean, you were open to enormous amounts of pool water. You could actually swim. My grandson swam from his dad's room, my son's room, to ours. I mean, how's that for a rare thing at a hotel? And you— so it was open and you could see from the other side, not looking out onto the pool and the ocean, you could see apartment buildings across the way from this lavish, lavish hotel. And you saw the, the face of real Mexico in the in the state of the apartment. I don't know how you get out of corruption, because when there's enough corruption, if you fight corruption, there's a good chance you'll get killed. We return, 1-800-PRAGER-776. The Dennis Prager Show. Natural disasters, airline cancellations and runway near misses, supply chain issues, inflation, rising interest rates, and sky-high government debt. This is Dennis Prager for AmFed Coin and Bullion. There's a lot in the news about what consumers cannot control, so let's talk about what you can control. You can control how you choose to invest and protect your wealth. That's why I choose to do business with Nick Grovich and his company, AmFed Coin and Bullion. Now is a great time to own tangible assets like gold, silver, and platinum. With over 41 years' experience and tens of thousands of satisfied clients, Nick will help you make informed decisions and show you smart choices which have been proven winners time and time time again. AmpFed Coin and Bullion will sell you the right types of precious metals to get the maximum value for your money. Take control of your investments like I did. Call Nick and his team at AmpFed Coin and Bullion at 800-221-7694. AmericanFederal.com. AmericanFederal.com.

Hi everybody, Dennis Dennis Prager here.

What is the latest on Bud Light that Anheuser-Busch— what is the billions that they— $6 billion in worth on the stock market. Yeah. It's very important that they be hit. It is a middle finger to the vast majority of Americans and to all women. The moral track record of feminist groups is— I'm thinking of the proper adjective. Pathetic comes to my mind. I would say borders on evil, to be honest. Well, every, every left-wing group does evil, otherwise it would be liberal or conservative. That's, that's the nature of leftism. Okay, there is, uh I'm trying to get in as much as possible. So some of you were calling like good things, like, uh, David, grandparents came from Mexico, doesn't agree, which is great. So I want you to call first thing third hour when I just take calls because I have so much that I need to get through with regards to what has been happening while I have been gone indeed over there. Budweiser distributor in Springfield, Missouri has canceled all planned appearances of the Clydesdale horses, citing threats to its employees. I find that hard to believe, to be honest. There are threats to Budweiser employees because they're gonna bring out the Clydesdale horses? Yeah, I don't think that's it. I think the threat is to the goodwill that has been lost by Budweiser, which— who is competing with Nike for hating the values of this country. The news comes as the boycott of Bud Light on account of its partnership with trans activist Dylan Mulvaney continues to grow. The beer's parent company— this is from Yahoo News— Anheuser-Busch is having to react to criticism as well as increasing problems, including a stock price that's dipped. Will Fisher Distributing decided to cancel all of the Springfield Clydesdale showings, citing safety concerns for their employees. I, I don't believe them. If we do not attract young drinkers to come and drink this brand, there will be no future for Bud Light, the beer's VP of marketing explained last month. That's this woman, correct? Yeah, the Harvard woman. Now, that's an interesting question. And by the way, there might be some truth to that. Who was the determinative vote in Chicago's desire to commit suicide? Which I mean literally. Chicago was killing itself, and it did so in the last election. What is most remarkable is that the people hurt most by the increase in homicide, homicides in Chicago, were the ones to overwhelmingly vote for the left-wing candidate. So the question is, did, uh, did Black Chicago vote overwhelmingly, uh, for him because he's Black or because he's leftist? I, I, people, most people think because he's black. I think it's because he's leftist. Blacks have come to believe that the left is their ally based on what? That's one of the great puzzles of life up there with why God made the mosquito. But remember, had it been a black moderate The odds are overwhelming that the individual would not have gotten much of the black vote. So the guy who is most anti-police, the one of the most important things that the black community in the living, in any event, in crime zones would benefit from, namely police presence. The one who wants less police presence is the one that blacks voted for. It shows you, by the way, That ideology trumps reality. That women support trans women and their right to compete against women shows you that ideology has trumped even self-interest. That's why you must understand, as I have explained all of my life, that all of these, all of leftism is secular religion. That's what it is. It's secular religions— feminism, environmentalism. People will hurt themselves. They will martyr themselves for their faith. So please play a clip from the President of the United States, Joe Biden. The single existential threat to the world is climate change. We don't have a lot of time, and that's a fact. They're even recognizing— finally, everyone's recognizing— America. Whenever he says that's a fact, I assume he's lying. It's like a signal: what I just said is not true. It's the single greatest existential threat in the world. It's the single best way for me and the left to overthrow Western civilization as we know it and destroy the economies of the Western world. That would be the truth. I wonder if he had ever said that during COVID that this is the greatest existential threat right now. Just curious. Curious. So we— all of these great threats, you take away the rights of people. He said that in Ireland. See, the Irish, uh, prime minister's dog started barking at him. And did you see that? Oh, it's really— it's remarkable. Now, I'm not using this as proof that the dog knows what I know, that this is the scummiest human being to be a president of the United States in our history. But dogs are sensitive to, to meanness. So it's not proof, just I thought it was very, very funny to see the dog's reaction to our president. Wall Street Journal: Biden's EPA remakes the auto industry. His new car rules are a de facto order to make and buy EVs, electronic vehicles. That's right. And then they, they call out Donald Trump as fascist. When the government tells business what to do, that is one of the true, uh, signposts of incipient fascism. The U.S. industry is nominally still privately owned, but it is slowly becoming a de facto state-directed utility. That's correct. This is all done with an excuse. There is no existential threat from climate change. It's a— it's one of the gigantic lies of human history. But we bathe in lies like men give birth. Men give birth and biology— biological life's existence is threatened by climate change are equivalent. What they do is they serve to destroy because destruction is intrinsic to leftism. Didn't I quote— remember I quoted Time magazine last month? It was its 100th anniversary issue, and it says, we will continue to do and live by our purpose: change and disruption. Not report. Not tell the truth. Change and disruption. Yes, that is truly— that is a perfect synopsis of leftism. Change and destruction. Look at what they've done to art, architecture, music, education. It's all just been disruption. That's what they know how to do. It gives them meaning. In their vapid secular lives. That's the meaning of the Environmental Protection Agency's proposed new vehicle emissions standards Wednesday that will force-feed the production of electric vehicles whether or not consumers want them. The EPA is using its authority under the Clean Air Act. God, was Barry Goldwater right. Government just passes these acts and then uses them which has nothing to do with the original intent. We, we, we have morphed from banning discrimination on the basis of race in lunch counters and hotels and restaurants to banning discrimination against men competing against women in sports. It took 50 years, but it was done. The moment the left has a law, it will use it to its own purposes. The Clean Air Act— there's always a reason, and vast numbers of the well-educated fall for it. The EPA lacks the legal authority to mandate electric vehicles, but it will do so indirectly by setting carbon dioxide emission standards for 2027 through 2032. The standards are so strict that automakers must electrify their fleets to meet them. That's it. So they have, they have said you You will be violating federal law if you do not get most of your buyers into electrical vehicles. And then what? You think it will end with that? It never ends. It never ends. That is the point. You thought it would end with same-sex marriage. Now you have men competing against women because they say they're women. There is no end because these are people who need to fill their empty souls with meaning. This is all a product ultimately of secularism. Religious people don't say men give birth. We return. Just when you thought it couldn't get any better, Michael Lindell with MyPillow. Is launching the MyPillow 2.0. When Mike invented MyPillow, it had everything you could ever want in a pillow. Now, nearly 20 years later, he discovered a new technology that makes it even better. The MyPillow 2.0 has the patented adjustable fill of the original MyPillow, and now with a brand new fabric that is made with a temperature-regulating thread, the MyPillow 2.0 is the softest, smoothest, and coolest pillow you'll ever own. For my listeners, the MyPillow 2.0 is buy one, get one free offer with promo code Prager. MyPillow 2.0 temperature regulating technology is 100% made in the USA and comes with a 10-year warranty and a 60-day money-back guarantee. Just go to mypillow.com and click on the radio listeners square to the buy one, get one free offer. Enter promo code Prager or call 800-761-6302 to get your MyPillow 2.0 now. Well, hello everybody, I'm Dennis Prager. The intensity of the news. Well, here is a piece. What is our— this is the last segment of the first hour already. We go to the happiness hour. I got a very, very good subject for you. And it is a piece that should concern you about 1,000 times more than global warming, and all induced by policies of the, of the left and using fear to hurt people. Here, here it is. Let me read to you the headline: Suicides Jump 4% in a Year to Become Second Leading Cause of Death in under 35, CDC report shows. Suicide was the 11th leading cause of death in 2021, with over 14 deaths per 100,000. The 4% jump from 2020 to 2021 was the sharpest yearly increase in 20 years. Pandemic-related lockdowns and isolation contributed to the increased deaths. Yep, that's right. You'll die. You'll kill if you get together. That's right. You'll die if you don't get an electrical vehicle. You'll kill the Earth. You'll kill. You'll die. You'll kill. You'll die.

You'll kill.

They lie and they lie and they lie. They've been saying this at least since 1990. For 33 years they've been saying this. There is no end to their saying this. Now they say by the end of the century X and Y and Z will happen. They no longer do the 12 years— we just have 12 years and then we're dead, then it's too late. But then nothing happens in 12 years. And it's not too late. Yes, you go to church, you go to school, you'll kill a teacher. So now they're, they're killing a number of kids whose spirits they've killed. It's unbelievable. Rates of suicide in the U.S. have, after enjoying a dip— this is a CDC report The economic and widespread psychological fallout from the pandemic. Of course it's not from the pandemic, it's from the lockdowns. I told you that the whole time. I wouldn't, wouldn't Wouldn't, wouldn't, wouldn't miss a happy, happy hour. No, I would never do so. Hi everybody, it's the Happiness Hour on the Dennis Prager Show. Every week since 1999— I can't say every week— every week that I've been on on a Friday, which is about, I don't know, 46, 48— now 48 Fridays a year. Because the happy make the world better and the unhappy make it Worse, and there is an entire industry to make you miserable. It's called college, and many others, I might add, not only college. How many people leave college happier and healthier than when they entered? But that's not my subject. I'm Dennis Prager, and I have been lecturing about happiness for many decades. I got my topic today from my son, one of my sons, who is a, uh, what do they say, recovering addict. And he has been sober for about 6 or 8 years. What was the— what is the year? And he has more wisdom than I would say 95% of the students at Harvard. Because he went through AA. I learned that from you folks who have called me all of my broadcast life, and I kept hearing these words of wisdom, and I would say, where'd you pick that up? Where'd you pick that up? In almost every case, it was, oh, 12-step program. And I said decades ago, people have People who went through 12-step programs have more wisdom than the faculty at any, almost any university. So, my friends, I got a topic from him. We were just together. I just came from Mexico where I spoke at a very large Passover retreat this week, and it was quite a week, and my family was there, and it was a very beautiful, a beautiful week. So here it is. The topic came out. I'll tell you about the topic, but this is— the topic was resentments, and I'll tell you exactly how it arose. We were talking about someone we all knew. I won't go any further than that, who is in his 40s, and he harbors massive resentments against his parents, especially his father, over things that happened when in some cases he was about 10 years old. So then my son said that resentments have the following description in the 12-step world. And I thought it was so brilliant I noted it. I'm reading to you from the notes on my phone. Resentments, they are like drinking poison and hoping someone else dies. There you go. That's more wisdom than you'll get at Yale in 4 years. Resentments It's like drinking poison and hoping someone else dies. In other words, in case you need other words, resentments poison you. You die from resentments. Sometimes others die from your resentments too, because people who act out resentments might in fact kill somebody, as happened in— was it Nashville with the With the trans murderer, whom of course our sick media focus on the guns issue and not the hatred that is being engendered among a fair number of trans people at traditional people— in other words, people who don't believe that there's more than two sexes, there are more than two sexes. In any event, resentments, that's the subject, both on the micro and the macro. We were talking micro, but of course you could apply it massively to the macro, and I will. But I first want to talk to you about the micro and how they eat you up and destroy you. This is the Happiness Hour, meaning we address the issue of how you can be happier. The more resentments you have, the less happiness you will have. I gotta put that into another one of my equations. I have a lot of equations about life, like for example, secularism plus affluence equals boredom leads to leftism. There's one there. Or unhappiness equals images minus reality. The amount of unhappiness you have is the amount of difference between the images you had for your life and the reality you had for your life. So you got to get rid of the images and embrace the reality. So here's another equation: the more resentments, the less happiness. How do you put that into an equation? With one of those more than signs? Uh, you know, so I have to figure out, because it is an equation. 1-800-PRAGER-776. If you can verify that this is a factor in somebody you know or in yourself, did you get rid of them? Do you understand the 12-step statement that it's like taking poison and hoping someone else dies? If you see resentments as poison, as internalized poison, drinking Drano, to be really graphic, then you will understand how toxic resentments are. I believe that at least half the therapists of this country— I'm talking psychotherapists, not physical therapists— half the psychotherapists, psychologists and psychiatrists, feed resentment. That is why so many people leave their therapist no more happy than when they arrived, and often worse. I'm a big believer in psychotherapy when done well, but the amount done well is about equivalent to the amount of colleges that do well. The professions have been taken over by fools It's an interesting question on its own terms, by the way. Did you learn to be more or less resentful by going through psychotherapy? That would be a fun— well, not fun, would be an extremely interesting topic. I say fun because I, I find learning almost anything fun, even if topic is distressing. 1-800-PRAGER-776-877-243-7776. I am stunned by how long people hold on to resentments, in many cases till the— through the rest of their lives, till the end. One of my favorite calls in my history of 40 years of talk radio was my first job as a talk show host. I was on LA radio and I was the host of a show called Religion on the Line. It was a gift from God that I was given this show, literally 10 years, August '82 to August '92. And I had guests each week for 2 hours with no commercials, as it happens. They were all clergy, 3 clergy, usually a Protestant minister, Catholic priest, and a rabbi. Jewish rabbi is sort of redundant, but I'll say it anyway. Catholic, Protestant, Jew. And then the second 5 years, I, I often opened it to a 4th person from some, uh, other faith community. LDS and Muslims and atheists and Shintoists and Buddhists. It was a great, great 10 years for me. Anyway, what really fascinated me— and I'll be speaking next week at a big Catholic university in Ohio, and This was all revelatory to me, the, you know, Jew from Brooklyn. I didn't know internal Catholic life like I do now. But how many people called up who, you know, resented their Catholic upbringing, recovering Catholic, ex-Catholic? But one guy called me, and I think he was about 88, and he spoke to all of us about how he left the Catholic Church because a nun had rapped him on his knuckles with a ruler. And I asked him, when did that happen? He said, when I was 12. I said, you've been carrying that resentment for 76 years? He goes, yeah. And it was a true, it was a revelatory moment to me. Theologically and psychologically. We return. Hi everybody, it's the Happiness Hour and the subject is resentment. And everybody on earth can have resentments. There is nobody, literally no one on earth who has nothing that they, that they could resent. Okay, so let's get that straight. You, you are not alone if you have a lot of resentments. Join the crowd, folks. And like almost everything, not everything, but like almost everything, it is a choice. Do you bathe in those resentments? Or do you get rid of them? And that's why I read to you the great 12-step line that my son taught me, and I share with you. Resentments are like drinking poison but hoping someone else dies. Brilliant. Guess who dies because of your resentments? And you know, life goes really, really, really speedy. And every year, let alone every decade, that you allow those resentments to just hang around, you have lost a joie de vivre. You have lost a joy of life. So apparently there's another equation about this. Abby in Columbia, South Carolina, hello.

Hi, so I just, you know, was thinking, and I, you know, you can say that happiness is inversely related to resentment. Happiness would equal 1 over resentment. That would be your formula.

Is that an AA formula?

That's just, um, no, that's just math. It's a direct inverse relation. So the more resentment you have, the less happiness.

Yeah, well, that was, yeah, I I said that with— I was just curious, had you— did you just come up with this, or had you heard this before? I see. Okay. You're—

yeah, um, I'm a master's student, so I deal with a lot of, you know, relations and things like that. So I just thought of that and called in to tell you that.

Yep, that's exactly correct. I, uh, I had said that, but you said that in your words. It can't be said too often, and I thank you very much for listening. And here's another one who has almost the same thought. Bath, Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania has the strangest names of cities of any state. Hello, Will.

Hi, Dennis. Thanks for all you do. Yeah, I came up with the same equation, and like, I've done a lot with like Lean Six Sigma and things like that too, but it is— it would be happiness equals 1 over resentment. And from my experience, it's worked out that way because you're resenting the person. And if you talk to them years later about your resentment, they have no idea. They're not even thinking about it. And you're destroying yourself, and they don't even realize what they did.

That's right. Thank you. Well said. See, I, I don't have this problem, to be perfectly clear. I, I knew so early in life that, uh, keeping them— and I had reasons for them, like, as I said, everyone on Earth, uh, but I realized it, it was pure destruction. It did, it did me no good. So here's a question. This I don't have an answer to. What joy? Because if— or, or what benefit or what reason even, just to make it neutral, keeps people holding on to resentments? Is it, I don't want to let them get away with what they did to me?

Is that—

is that— you think that's it? Does that sound right? I mean, why would somebody hold on to resentments? Well, you're assuming it's I'm assuming it's what? It's like voluntary. They just can't. Oh, I, well, I do believe it's voluntary. I mean, if it weren't voluntary, I wouldn't do this. I wouldn't be doing this hour. I mean, the existence is not volitional. The continuation is volitional. Resentment is a natural reaction to either alleged or real hurts that a person has received. That, that is non-volitional. Keeping it the next day is volitional. Keeping it 10 years later is ever more so volitional. That the guy's still angry at the nun 76 years later is clearly an act of volition. So why do people harbor this? It all began with a discussion of somebody I know who harbors these resentments. It's not like he was sexually abused or physically abused or psychologically abused in any manner that would give meaning to the word abuse, but he has pains from a parent from his childhood, and he won't, he won't get— he won't let them go. The number of people who have pains from parents from childhood is not— well, it's not equal to the number of people on earth, but it's certainly a very large number. You were raised by flawed humans, not by angels. You decide. We, in the macro realm, there would be no left if there were no resentments. Leftism is the resentment industry. And those, uh, those who are affected by it, particularly women and racial minorities, these, uh, these people who have bought into this resent America campaign, and tens of millions of people have, they— it's a perfect example of taking poison and hoping someone else dies. Well, In this case, you die and the country dies. There must, there must be some appeal to resentments. I have to admit that I, I am puzzled. I don't exactly know, uh, what it is. Ferndale, Michigan, and Keith. Hello.

Hello, Dennis, how are you?

Good, thank you.

Thank you, it's a pleasure to speak with you again. While I was on hold, I was thinking it's important— a therapist did point out to me once that there was a difference between a justified resentment and one that was not so justified, and that sometimes the justified ones are harder to deal with. So she asked me to concentrate on those.

Oh, that's entirely, uh, accurate. I'm gonna deal with— I'll deal with that when we come back. That's right, there are— of course there are justified resentments, and of course there are unjustified resentments. That's right. It was a great call. Thank you. I will comment on it. Hello everybody, I'm Dennis Prager. It's the Happiness Hour. The subject is resentments. The last caller notes, and it actually triggered a discussion here, I salute you, that there are— his therapist made it clear to him there are justified resentments and unjustified resentments. Entirely true. There's no question about that. I think the macro resentments in this country are unjustified overwhelmingly. So that, that even makes it worse. Even if they were justified, uh, they, uh, it's not healthy to keep it up. But I'm mostly concentrating on the individual here and not the group. So let's say you, you have— here, here's a simple, truly— I'll use a simple, almost simplistic example. Somebody cuts you off on the road. You're 100% right, the person was 100% wrong. And to make things even worse, they gave you the finger because you honked or flashed your lights or whatever. So it's a good example in that you're 100% right You have every right to resent what they did. So the question is, how long will you carry that resentment? That's what I'm referring to here. That's why I'm using this simple example, because you would consider somebody who spoke about this 5 days later and was still seething, you'd think that they were mentally ill, right? Uh, even probably 5 hours later. So that's a little good simple microcosm example of how long will you hold on even to legitimate resentments. In the case of the individual I know who isn't speaking to his parents as an adult because of the childhood resentments, I don't even think they're justified. Not that he didn't have some hurts, but who doesn't have hurts? I, I promise you, I can give you a list of resentments that I could, I could have entertained in my life. Vis-à-vis my upbringing. I got rid of them so early. It's one of the reasons I've been, I've been happy virtually all of my life. I just realized of what good are they to me or to anybody else? Anderson, South Carolina. Chuck, hello.

Hi Dennis, thank you for having me on.

Yes sir.

I went into AA when I was, uh, 33 years old. I'm 75 now, so I've attended probably thousands of AA meetings. Uh, you, you were talking about you were wondering why people would, you know, choose to hold on to these.

Yes, yes.

Uh, uh, here in the AA program, you know, you do a lot of self-examination. It's been my observation over the years A lot of people don't do any self-examination. Uh, I've heard people say, you know, I'm just the way I am.

But what a great line. That's, that's terrific. You're right. I've— you hear that line all the time, and it's the opposite of self-examination. I salute you, sir.

Yeah, well, I got it all from AA, and, uh You know, when I first went in, yeah, I had resentments I didn't even know I had until I did started doing the— yeah, I hated my father for years. And my hatred— I hate to— this sounds two-faced, but it was justifiable. But in order for me to have any peace of mind and serenity, I had to learn to let go. And for an addict or an alcoholic, the resentment You were talking about poison. This is even though, yeah, it's really, it's really death. As, uh, you have any resentments, you aren't going to stay sober. It's just about impossible.

Well, you, you are the— you're the living embodiment of, of my, of my realization of at least 30 years ago of doing radio, that there's more wisdom in AA than of the faculty at Harvard. Thank you, sir.

And klop from de molen.

And klop from the molen, which means hitting the head by a windmill in Dutch. If you know any Dutch, which you probably don't, like me. No, I do know something in Dutch. I can say I speak Dutch, which is not true, but I can say it. Oh, I got a great story for you. Hi everybody, Dennis Prager here. Oh, enjoy the music. All right, everybody, this is the hour you set the agenda, whatever's on your mind about you, about me, about life, about death. How's that? How many calls do you get on death? People don't like to talk about death. It's an interesting thing. The Denial of Death by Ernest Becker, and that was a big seller for many years. So I got a story for you because I thought of Dutch. Oh yeah, by the way, any subject including Cigars, fountain pens, classical music, audio equipment, and photography. I got it down, guys. I got it down. When I was 18 years old, they had— they don't have them anymore, it's too bad, they were great— a World's Fair in New York City where I was living until I was 25. I went to the World's Fair in New York City. I was 18, as I said. And, uh, you probably never heard of Parker Pen. It was a big pen company, Parker Pen. I was into pens even then, but I went to the Parker Pen Pavilion not to see pens. I don't even know if they showed them. Well, they probably did, but I remember that I went to get a pen pal. People have pen pals these days? Is that like a dead, uh, sort of a dead subject because they just connect on Facebook. Yeah, yeah, but it— but it— they connect with people they know. I mean, do you— for example, do they connect with somebody in, uh, let's say Argentina that they don't know, just someone their age to, to learn another way of life? So anyway, I was always interested in the world And I went and they made it clear at Parker, the Parker Pen Pavilion, that they were not, they said this, we're not a lonely heart society, so we're going to give you a pen pal of the same sex. Okay, so we're not here to facilitate romance. Okay, fine, I don't care, I'll get a guy. And so you put down your interests, your age, and what you're looking for. And then, I don't know, I guess they didn't do it by computer. They did it somehow or other, but you got a name. Sure enough, I put in my interests, my age. I got an 18-year-old guy in Holland. This is what brought this up. Do you know this story? It's an amazing story. So I get this pen pal and I remember the person's name, Steineke Deuser. So I start writing to him and in English and Steineke knew English and we had a lot of correspondence and it was very friendly. Then I, I had already started my travels. See, yeah, it was only— yeah, it was 8 years. Yeah, I was old. So I— when I was about 20, I went to Holland, among other places that I visited. So I went to Holland and I told Steineke to meet me at the Amsterdam airport, and I arrive in Amsterdam and Steinica comes up to me, but Steinica is not a boy. Steinica is a girl. How did this happen? No, it was not transitioning. Good guess.

Eh-eh.

Not correct. Steinica wanted to correspond with a male. So she put in that she was male to get a male, but she never told me that. So you have— I'll tell you, this is the only time in my life that I underwent what some people undergo today, is that somebody becomes the other sex. Now, I had never met Steinecke, but we had corresponded for at least a year, and I was— I had this total certitude I was talking to a male. I can only imagine— this was not even the reason I told the story. The reason I told the story was because Holland came into mind. But I can only imagine, on a totally serious note, what it must be like think, and I mean literally, I only imagine, I can't know, to actually be involved with someone, a parent, a child, a spouse, a sibling, a friend, who becomes or claims to become the other sex. That's— that's— we don't talk about that. We—

the—

in the narcissistic world of the victim groups, and the narcissism is, is so pathologic that it's all— it's almost incredible. Like this guy, uh, or what's, uh, what is her name again? Leah Thomas. Yeah, the he/her who swims against women and doesn't realize what an utter narcissist he/she is for doing so. But the narcissism has another effect. You're supposed to totally be on board with my transition. The slightest hesitation on your part means you're transphobic, you're a hater. You're a bigot. There is, there is no realization as to the trauma, and yes, I think that that is a very fair term, the trauma undergone by the loved ones, friends, siblings, parents, children. Your father becomes a woman and you're supposed to go, gee, that's great, Mom. Right? You, you, it's, there's something wrong with you if you don't accept that that is a woman. It's a sick age of the well-educated. They become sick. High school graduates don't think this way. When I, when I think of this, there was a case that I was just reading now where the, uh, a married man said he was a woman, and his wife said, I love him and I, I support him, now her. And I'm going to stay married to her. You married a man and now you're married to a woman and you're okay with that? This is not— I don't mean this in any way to put you down. It is, it is not a put-down, it is a puzzle. Your husband becomes a woman and you're, you're in there for the long run? By the way, it's a very interesting question to pose to people who, for religious reasons or other reasons, say you should never get divorced. Unless they say, well, they always have an out if there's adultery. Okay, fine. So, but there's no adultery here, okay? But your husband has become a woman. That's not a legitimate grounds for divorce. Well, so be it. Some thoughts here as your calls come in. I'm going to be able to take them momentarily. I'm awaiting an update on my computer, which has decided to have the longest update that I have ever experienced. Since I have owned computers. I was in Mexico, as I mentioned the first hour. I was in Mexico all week, and I was the, uh, the featured speaker at a Passover retreat. An entire gigantic resort was taken over by mostly American Jews, and for the Passover holiday, which is 7 or 8 days. I won't explain the differences of who observes which number. And I, I was there for much of, of the holiday with my, my two sons, their families. It was a very beautiful experience for me. Hence, I was not on during the course of this week. And They say it's an interesting question about the perception of danger. When I was there, I perceived no danger at all. It's a very interesting issue in life of the further you are, the more something frightens you. I'm going to talk about that and take your calls. I'm a big, big, big proponent of getting gold and silver. Obviously, it's not the only thing you should have for your investments, but you should have them. And I am a big proponent of Nick Grovich, a particularly honest, particularly idealistic in the best sense, and particularly competent man who runs AmFed. Americanfederal.com, AmFed Coin and Bullion. You have no obligation, but you should contact him. I endorse him personally. americanfederal.com, or call 800-221-7694. AmFed. Okay, y'all, let's go to line 1. And who is that? Is that in— Kenneth in Morganton, South Carolina, is that correct? North Carolina. Okay, I'm sorry, my apologies.

Oh, that's fine. It's a pleasure to talk to you, Mr. Prager.

Thank you.

I had a question. Let's say that you did everything right and you found your wife and You know, you got along, abstinence before marriage, and then you had your ceremony, and then the night of the honeymoon you found out that you married a man. Is it— you get— do you have to get a divorce? Is it like a mulligan in golf? You know, what happens then?

Did that happen to you?

Oh no, but with you talking about, you know, somebody changing sex—

oh, oh, oh, you're— oh, I see, you're just— you're asking what should one do. Yes, in light of what I had just said. Sorry, thank you for the call. That's a— look, if you undergo a transition from, let's say, man to woman, and you are dating men, that means that you are, at least biologically, you are a gay man looking for a man. You're biologically male and you want to have sex with men. And you didn't tell the man who was interested in you as a woman that you are biologically male. And you don't have the respect, the decency, the non-narcissism to tell the person who was falling in love with you the truth about yourself. That, that is, the, the disgrace is 100% upon you, the selfish transitioned female. And then, by the way, I read about this a great deal. When this happens, they feel there's a bigotry on the part of men against trans females, that men are just— they're not open to dating a woman who in most cases was not castrated and has a penis. And they blame men for being bigoted in this regard. We live in a very sick age. All right, let's go to the call, uh, that I asked in hour number 1 about having the Mexican grandparent. Who was that? Mark in, in what city? Zagreb, Croatia. Okay, one of you was telling me Illinois and one of you was saying Croatia.

Mr. Prager, it's David.

And where are you, David?

Montgomery, Illinois.

Montgomery, Illinois.

It's an honor and a privilege to speak with someone so closely associated with Otto Prager.

Yes, yes, I I, I agree with you. My bulldog gives me great pride.

And I, and I say Snoopy's the wind beneath his wings, and an unknown tortoise is the wind beneath Snoopy's wings or ears, whichever is more aerodynamic.

If my wife is listening now, I hope she's not driving.

I think you're wonderful. Can I call you Dennis?

Of course.

Okay, Dennis, I'm David. Um, it's such a privilege to speak with you, and I pray for you. And I feel like the, the little girl who saw General Lee, the Southern girl from the Union, and she said, I wish he was ours as a Christian.

Oh, well, I take that as a great compliment. Thank you.

I do. I, I, I, I think you're wonderful. And, and what I want to say is, um, I've heard people say debate, and I don't want to debate you. It is, uh, is a way you should really, if you have the heart of, I want to help you understand something, and I'm just going to give you my experience. And someone will say anecdotal, uh, Marxist—

fine, your anecdote is very worthwhile. Go ahead.

Okay. And, and I tell young people, anecdotal— when they try to dismiss me as anecdotal, I'll say, yes, so was an eyewitness account. Um, good.

That's a good answer.

Yes. And, uh, so what I'm gonna say is my grandparents came from Mexico, uh, around 1920. And, um, on my mother's side, she's German-Irish. My folks are going on their 65th wedding anniversary next week. And it was not common for a Mexican man to marry a white girl from the South Side of Chicago, uh, 65 years ago. So, um, my mother and father are not racist people. And I was going to say about Mexico, and one thing, the caveat is I'm not talking about the good people of Mexico who love their country and live there, and the good people of Mexico that come here legally. I have a problem with illegal immigration. And, uh, I'm a retired physical therapist. I like to drive trucks. That's what I did in college. And so I'm doing it now. And, um, I get to meet a lot of people from all over the world and, uh, I see them coming in illegally and I have friends. I spent Thanksgiving with a friend of mine who's illegal.

All right. But tell me, tell me what it is you, you, you differ with me about.

Okay. When, when I hear people say Mexicans are hard workers, They're people, and because they're people, it's like 20% of the people are working hard and the other 80% aren't. And it's the same with people from Mexico. Having brown skin or speaking barrio Spanish or Castellano Spanish doesn't make you a hard worker. And even the Mexicans will say, hey, someone will say, hey, you guys are hard workers, and they'll say, hey, I'll bring you in back and I'll show you the some lazy Mexicans. Um, I think that's a mistake. And also that they're—

so, so you disagree with my positive assessment?

Yes. And it's like, and it's like, here, here's my, my thinking is it's like saying all black people are great.

Well, I never said all. No, no, no. All—

no, no, you didn't. No, you didn't. No. But I just want people to know is—

so you think— all right, so you think Mexicans are no different from anybody else No, they are not. In being divided among hard workers and non-hard workers. Okay, that's fair. I don't know. I can, again, since you're a fan of anecdotes, my experience has been they're hard workers. And I saw this in Mexico this week, the people who worked at the hotel. I will say that the service in every case, there were many restaurants in this resort. Was slow. If you'd ask for, you know, a soda or whatever, it was, I would say, at least 10 minutes till it arrived. But I think that that's almost universal. American service has been the best I've seen. Hello everybody, I'm Dennis Prager. The hour you call in on anything. A lot of really interesting calls here. Here's a micro call. Wayne in Waukegan, Illinois. Hello.

Oh, Dennis, thanks for taking my call. I, uh, I was just curious. You seem to brag about being an underachiever in high school. How did you get into Columbia?

I got into Columbia Graduate School, and I did work in college. That's how I got into Columbia for graduate school.

Where did you go to undergrad?

Brooklyn College and the University of Leeds in England.

All right, well, see, I got that—

No, no, you didn't get it wrong. It was a perfectly legit question. I graduated in the bottom 20% of my high school class. I did no homework. I, I Enjoyed myself for 4 years in high school. I thank God that I did. I, uh, it was re— I, I've never had any even brush with burnout. I have the same joie de vivre enthusiasm about work today as I did 40 years ago. There is zero diminution in my energy, and I think in part it's my nature, it's my inclination, it's my idealism, but it's in part as well The fact that I decided to start really working hard later, and I, I look back at that as a very, very good thing, a very good decision that I made in life, at least for me. I'm not saying it works for everybody, but as soon as I got into college, I knew I can't horse around like I did in high school. I didn't horse around, and in fact, I won. They gave one sophomore at Brooklyn College a year a scholarship, all expenses paid, to study anywhere in the world, plus a stipend and travel. And I won it out of 2,500 sophomores. So I obviously did apply myself. Although that, to get that award, uh, you had to have a certain index, as they called it, grade point average. It was not this— once you had that, then it was decided on interviews. And to be honest, I had a very strong sense that I, I might, I might win this award once it got into the interview phase. Okay, let's see here. Salt Lake City, Utah. Arthur, hello.

Uh, Dennis, uh, the first time I called you, I think I asked you, are— have you been trained as a rabbi?

Yeah, I have been trained as a rabbi, but I'm not a rabbi.

Uh, Rabbi Yamakan, now for a question, because you don't have a dog in this fight.

Right.

Can a Christian, in the light of, uh, Luke 22:35 and 36, be a pacifist?

What is Luke 22:35?

It's during this, uh, the, uh, Last Supper, and Jesus said, when I sent you out with no purse or script or shoes, lack ye anything? And they said nothing. Then he said, but now I send you out, and he that has a purse, let him take it, likewise his script. And he that does not have a sword, let him sell his cloak and buy one. In that, in that light, can a Christian be a pacifist?

Okay, thank you for calling. Even without the scripture from Luke It is inconceivable to me how any religious Jew or Christian following the Bible could be a pacifist. It's, it is, it's actually painful, morally painful for me to hear of a believing Christian or Jew who was a pacifist. If you're, if you're an atheist and you're a pacifist, I disagree with you, but it's not painful. When people get scripture wrong, it's painful. One of my favorite verses is from the Psalms: those of you who love God, you are obligated to hate evil. Uh, how do you hate evil if you don't fight it? It's— there is no answer to that question. You cannot hate evil and not fight it. You're fooling yourself, and you're not— but you're not fooling God. The idea that it is morally wrong to defend yourself or anyone else when their life is being threatened by someone who is intent on doing evil— pacifism increases the amount of evil on earth. I don't see why that is God's will. 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 Prager Utopia. You'll also get access to 15 years' worth of archives as well as the daily show prep. Subscribe at pragertopia.com.