Who Is Good?

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. Hi, my friends. Welcome to the Dennis Prager Show. There is a hero in our midst. There's so many bad people, and there are many good people. It's an interesting question: are they in equal numbers? I've thought about this question all of my life, and most people will say, what, are you kidding? There are far more good people than bad people. Well, I don't know if that's true. I think there is a certain balance. See, the problem with people saying there are as many good people is their definition of good. Basically, it's people who are nice, which is important by the way, and who have not committed a criminal act. But remember, when we say bad, we're not talking about the average selfish person. We're talking about people who do real evil. So you have to balance it with people who do real good. And the people who do real evil are in numbers perhaps less than the people who do real good. The outlier is rare in both instances, but I only mention this because I want to mention someone who is really good, not someone who, who doesn't commit crimes. Not being a criminal doesn't make you a good person. I have Spoken against that definition all of my life because when I would speak to young people, high school, college kids, and I would ask them, what's the definition of a good person? In fact, you can watch the video I made about goodness directed by David Zucker of Airplane fame and much else. Brilliant, brilliant director and writer, and co-written with Alan Estrin. That is how I met The Living Martyr. David Zucker had brought him in, and it was, uh, it was, it was a love at first sight, as it were, when that happened. I will mention others who were responsible for that, but I want you to know that there is, uh, an ability for you to see. For goodness' sake, you'll get a kick out of seeing me 30 years ago, or nearly 30 years ago as well. But I, I went around to people on the street and I asked them, are you a good person? Every single person said that he or she is a good person. And why is that? Well, hey, you know, I don't kill, I don't rob, and that's the definition. I consider good people, people who do good, just as bad people are people who do bad. Rich Markey is a name that some, many of you won't know, But I want to always mention him because if it weren't for Rich Markey, there would not have been For Goodness' Sake. He has played a very, very special role in my life for which I am permanently grateful. The video is For Goodness' Sake. Just type it in, For Goodness' Sake, Dennis Prager. Your kids will love it. You will love it. It is hilarious. The— some of the truly biggest names in Hollywood, when it was okay in Hollywood to be associated with a person who was conservative. Yes, it was actually possible in the 1990s. The rape of every institution by the left is before your eyes. Education, medicine, music, art, religion. Read my column this week on the banner on one of the oldest, most beautiful churches in the country in Boston, the Church of the Covenant. How sick, truly sick mainstream Presbyterian, mainstream Church of Christ, mainstream non-Orthodox Judaism have become. Sick, morally sick. The ease with which institutions have been taken over by bad, cruel ideas, sick ideas, is a phenomenon. So back to the beginning. I have a hero to talk to you about, the man who saved, oh my God, maybe dozens of lives. Yeah, well, is that in Indianapolis? Well, in Indiana. Wall Street Journal: Police have now identified Alicia Dickin as the 22-year-old who stopped the mass shooting Sunday at an Indiana mall. At 5:56 PM, a 20-year-old attacker exited a mall bathroom and began shooting a rifle into a food court. 3 people were killed, 2 others were wounded, including a 12-year-old girl. It's horrific to imagine how much worse this could have been. So the attacker— I'll continue— whose name we won't give more notoriety had several magazines and over 100 rounds of ammunition. He had spent 2 years practicing at a firing range. But police said that Mr. Dickon swiftly drew his own pistol and engaged. He was at the mall in Greenwood, south of Indianapolis, shopping with his girlfriend, and he was legally carrying his weapon. Thanks to his quick action, the mass shooting ended within seconds. Now I want you— before I continue with that, I want you to understand that if it's a matter of seconds and 3 were murdered and 2 wounded, imagine had this taken minutes how many would have been murdered and wounded. Very, very few people on the planet can say they literally saved lives. In a better world, in a world governed by Republicans rather than Democrats, for example, this man would be given a Congressional Medal of Honor or the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Instead, this despicable president gave it to Megan Rapinoe, The America-hating soccer player. Hate America, get awarded by the Democratic president. Thanks to his quick action, the mass shooting ended within seconds. I will say his actions were nothing short of heroic, said Greenwood Police Chief James Ison. He engaged the gunman from quite a distance with a handgun. Was very proficient in that, very tactically sound. And as he moved to close in on the subject, he was also motioning for people to exit behind him. To our knowledge, he has no police training and no military background. This has inspired me to continue my gun shooting lessons. Since it is clear that in most cases police cannot— I don't blame the police, I'm a big supporter of the police, the thin blue line between barbarity and civilization. Nevertheless, they can't stop these shootings. If they start, then you call them, the damage is done. We have to protect ourselves and others. That sounds disgusting to every single human on the left. We have to protect ourselves and others. Do you realize how sick the left is? The notion we have to protect ourselves and others sounds bad to everyone who is a leftist. Not to every liberal. Well, to every leftist. To many liberals, not every, but every leftist. Isn't that amazing? Think about that. Ask your anti-gun friend or relative what is wrong with the idea that people should protect themselves and all those around them. I'd like to— maybe they have an answer. It would be most interesting to hear it. Only 4 months ago, Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb signed a bill to allow carrying a handgun in public without a permit. Well, how do you like that? Governor, you are also responsible for saving countless lives in that Indiana mall. I salute you. 1-800-PRAGER-776.

The Dennis Prager Show.

When times are tough, you find out who your friends really are. That's true in the mortgage business as well. When the market's good, there are a lot of mortgage companies to choose from, but when the market changes like right now, those companies are out and they leave you high and dry as they close their doors. Instead, go with the company who'll be there when things get tough. AndrewandTodd.com. Andrew Del Rey and Todd Avakian aren't just mortgage brokers, they're bankers with Sierra Pacific, one of the only banks with the same name and same owners for the past 40 years. Whether you're buying a new home or considering a reverse mortgage to tap into your home's equity and never pay another monthly mortgage payment, Andrew and Todd will be there when you need them. When things get tough, you need Andrew and Todd. Don't wait, get your pre-approved loan today while rates are still historically low. Go to andrewandtodd.com. That's andrewandtodd.com. andrewandtodd.com. A genuine hero is living in the United States. Elisha Dickon. Only 4 months ago, Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb signed a bill to allow carrying a handgun in public without a permit. Mr. Holcomb said the legislation, which took effect July 1st, quote, entrusts Hoosiers who can lawfully carry a handgun to responsibly do so within our state. One of those Hoosiers appears to have been Mr. Dickon. We could not find that he had a permit, Mr. Ison said, the police chief. He was carrying legally under the constitutional carry law. The law went into effect July 1st, enabling him to carry without a permit, and he saved maybe dozens of lives from death or injury. On what date? Let's see, it was on Saturday. Today is Thursday, Thursday the 19th. So I assume— let's see, Wednesday, Tuesday, Monday, Sunday— 5 days ago. So it was signed into law on July 1st, and it was the direct contributor to the saving of these people's lives on July 14th. Now let's see, this thing is dated— I mean, so it doesn't matter. Within 2 weeks of the law being signed, as a result, these people's lives were saved. Hmm. The police chief couldn't have been clearer about Mr. Dickens' heroism. "Many more people would have died," Mr. Ison said, "if not for a responsible armed citizen who took action very quickly." The Wall Street Journal editorial ends, "That's worth meditating on for states like New York, which are trying to make it all but impossible for responsible gun owners to take their weapons anywhere in public." So what the left has done is said it's a crapshoot whether you die from a, a bullet, whether you die by a bullet from a monster's gun, or whether you do not, is a crapshoot. It's a roulette wheel, and there is zero you can do about it. Zero. You can call the police, who can then ceremoniously take your body away and put yellow tape around the area you were murdered or blinded or brain damaged or paralyzed. That's the left-wing position. The idea— see, it's not guns, let's be honest. It is about the idea that I will take care of myself and the state won't. This, this is the great divide. Are you a nothing or are you a something is the great divide between left and right. You are a nothing if in the left's view. Nothing. You will not teach your children. You will not feed your children. The state will do both. The state will take your body away. You will not defend yourself, your family, or your friends. Or you're strangers, as in the case of Elisha Dickin. "The bigger the state, the smaller the citizen" is something I said many years ago, and it is exactly apt in this case. You are a nothing. In the American vision, you are everything. The state is close to nothing. You are something. You have the dignity of defending yourself and your family and strangers. Not on the left. We will even drive you where you need to go. The idea that you are of your independent and have a car to go anywhere you want, anywhere you go, anywhere you want, anytime you want, is anathema. To the left, and people are fine with it. Half the people vote for being controlled. You will determine nothing about your life. You will be obedient. That's what it's about, my friends. That's what it's about. And do you know what? Human nature leans towards obedience. To strength. Not obedience to God, obedience to strength, to mortal power. That is the human predilection. That's the reason for the antipathy to guns. By you having a gun, you are saying, I am not relying on the state to protect me. Oh, that's chutzpah, baby! That's chutzpah with a capital H. Now that's chutzpah. Charles Krauthammer, maybe. It takes a lot of chutzpah. Oh yeah, who was that again? Charlie Rangel. Is that our chutzpah file? We have a chutzpah file? How'd you look it up? Is it— how do you— but are your folders in alphabetical order? Because I don't know. It starts with a chet in Hebrew. It's under C. It's under C. Okay, that's very appropriate. Would you please play something the president said exactly a year ago? There, you're okay, you're not gonna, you're not gonna get COVID if you have these vaccinations. Yeah, now that's chutzpah. No, that's not chutzpah, that's a lie.

Are you lying then? Are you lying now?

And the vast majority of Americans— chronic and habitual liar. It's pretty true. Is he called to task for this? Mr. Vaccinated and Boosted now has COVID. Towels just don't seem to dry you anymore. They feel soft and lotiony in the store, but you get them home and they don't absorb. Well, Mike Lindell at MyPillow found that out around 2006, and towels changed forever. He found the best towel company right here in the USA. They have proprietary technology to create towels that feel soft but actually work. And that happens to be true. I use them. They are all made with USA cotton and they come with the MyPillow 60-day money-back guarantee. 6-piece set, 2 bath, 2 hand towels, 2 washcloths. Regularly $109.99, now $39.99. Just go to mypillow.com and click on the new radio listener specials and get deep discounts on all MyPillow products, including the towels, by entering the promo code Prager, or call 800-761-6302 for these great radio specials. mypillow.com, promo code Prager. I spoke to you at the beginning of the first segment. We're in— I got today's date wrong, by the way. It's the 21st. I was looking at the article I was reading from and thinking it was dated today. Anyway, I was talking to you about how many good people are there, and of course the question is, how do you define good? To me, since we define bad as actively engaged in doing bad, good is actively engaged in doing good. I have someone on the line who embodies that goodness, that, that, and it takes courage to be good. It doesn't take courage to be bad. So it's another reason that the, the question is weighted in favor of the bad. Simone Gold is a doctor. And a medical doctor. I had her on very in the very beginning of the lockdowns, and she was a doctor who told the truth. The medical profession has been corrupted by the left, just as your local college and your local public and private schools. Simone Gold has quite a story. And in fact, she is, uh, I, I'm shocked to say this, but it is true, she is headed to jail. We'll find out why. Dr. Gold, welcome back to my show.

Thank you so much. Glad to be back, Dennis.

That's good. It's good that you're glad to be back. Let's go to the beginning and then we'll work our way up to the present. How did we first meet? Why did we first meet?

I think we first met because we both attended a freedom rally in defense of people's inalienable rights to control the decisions over their bodies against vaccine mandates and constitutional freedom, defending our Bill of Rights. I think we were both scheduled speakers at a local Los Angeles event.

Oh, I remember at City Hall in Los Angeles. Was that it?

Yes.

You know, I have reflected on that, Dr. Gold. I, when I look back at it, I'm saddened by the small turnout, relatively speaking. What do you think about that?

Uh, that is generally true for the whole fight for the last 2 and a half years, that are not— not enough people are standing up for the rights that we know matter to them. We know most people do actually care if they live in freedom, but they're not really willing come out on a Saturday, Sunday, or weekday to defend their own rights. So I agree with you.

Okay, so anyway, that's how we met. By the way, folks, you have to understand, it takes more courage for a doctor to appear at such a rally than for me to appear at such a rally.

May I add something to that? Especially in California, they're trying to take away the licenses of doctors that speak out. There's a court case that's already been filed. A plastic surgeon stood up and spoke out at a school board meeting and they are threatening his license. And he's just now engaged in a lawsuit. He filed it 2 weeks ago.

Who is, who is threatening his license? Who precisely?

The California Medical Board.

Because he spoke out against or for what?

Um, he, he, uh, they, they are going after him for the claim of disinformation. They say that that's unprofessional conduct and it was for words that he said at a school board meeting that amounted to his opinion. He's speaking out against masks and lockdowns and mandatory vaccines.

So are you telling me that a physician in California— I really want to get this clear— who publicly speaks out against masks in schools or anywhere, who says that vaccines should not be mandatory, and what was the third thing?

It was lockdowns, masks, and that vaccines should be mandatory. And I will get his name.

Okay. No, no, I want to have him on too. So you're telling me that that can render you losing your medical license in California? Is that correct?

It can render you in a fight with the California Medical Board. I believe he will prevail, but it has had a very chilling effect on physicians out. And in fact, any licensed professional, any person who's been licensed by the state, issued a business license, becomes very afraid to speak out against the narrative with threat to their business license.

If I'd have asked you 5 years ago, when you were of course still practicing— well, you are now practicing medicine— if I would have said to you, most of your colleagues will turn out to be sheep, Would you have said, Dennis, you're out of your mind?

I would have said, Dennis, you're out of your mind. Yes, definitely. Wow.

But is it, is it been very, what, discouraging?

It's been very surprising. It is discouraging, but it's very surprising. I never thought the doctors would have cared so little for their own profession and their own freedom, both.

Back in a moment. Dr. Gold is the founder— is that correct to say that— of the American Frontline Doctors? And you can check them out on the internet where?

AFLDS.org. A-F as in Frank, LDS.org.

AFLDS.org. Back with Dr. Gold. In, in a moment. I have the founder, the medical doctor, the physician who was the founder of America's Frontline Doctors. It's where I sent you folks if you wanted to try to get ivermectin or hydroxychloroquine and zinc, both of which I took for about a year. I've had COVID twice. And I had the, the Delta, which was supposedly and was serious in many cases. And I had the Omicron, which is, in my case, it was a mild cold. I have enough antibodies to actually offer them as a gift to those who would like. She and I met at a rally for freedom that you can't tell people you, you will be fired from your job if you don't take a vaccine. That obviously doesn't work. I'd like you to hear, Dr. Gold, I'd like you to hear what the president of the United States, who now has COVID, said a year ago. You're okay.

You're not going to— you're not going to get COVID if you have these vaccinations.

Yeah.

So would you— and I'm perfectly fine with whatever answer you have— would you characterize that as a lie?

100% lie. We had Rochelle Walensky, the head of the CDC, saying the same thing, that you couldn't get it. We had the same thing. They all said it. There was no way they didn't know why. I'm not a scientist. I'm a bedside physician. But when you read the applications of the Pfizer and Moderna applications in December of 2020, when they were authorized, We clearly stated they did not stop transmission. All it did was reduce the severity of the symptoms. The problem with that is that if you release what's called a leaky vaccine in the middle of a respiratory pandemic, you will just encourage the creation of variants. And that's exactly what we've seen. The vaccines do not stop transmission, and we've birthed innumerable variants.

So you were a physician in California much of your life, or if not all of your medical life, I don't know. And were you threatened with license removal?

Yes, I'm currently fighting to maintain my California medical license. I'm under severe threat. In fact, they uniquely passed— uh, they're trying to pass a bill really to stop me and people like me. They call the bill AB 2098, December Bill 2098. Uh, it doesn't reference me by name, but they do reference me in their committee hearings that they're trying stop me and people like me that they categorize as spreading misinformation. I just think the thing is really funny. I mean, everyone can see everyone who's taken these shots has gotten COVID. I mean, Fauci, Biden. And this is the kind of stuff I was saying. I didn't really say anything different than that. And everyone can see with their own eyes that what I was saying is verifiably true.

Yes, exactly. So let's go to January 6th. You were at the Capitol that day. Why were you there?

I was an invited guest speaker to speak on what I always do, which is health freedom. And there's about 20, 25 people. I'm the only one speaking on health freedom. Other people were there, of course, to talk about the election. But I speak about health freedom. I spoke on the same subject the day before. I spoke on the same subject 3 days before. And I was due to do the same speech on January 6th. From my perspective, it wasn't any different than any other speech I'd give, except there's a larger audience. As you all know, I'm heavily centered on social media, so I look for opportunities to speak speak in person. That was why I was there on January 6th. I've got my own private political opinions, but that's not what I discussed publicly, and that's why I was there. Now, when I showed up, they canceled the public speakers at the moment we were supposed to start speaking. So imagine, if you will, that there's tens of thousands of people coming to hear speakers, and then the government or somebody cancels those speakers. We had a permit, and those are people that are kind of like waiting to see They've got their tickets to the Super Bowl, and all of a sudden the Super Bowl is canceled and they didn't give any reason or notice. So there's kind of a lot of excitement in the air. And the side I was on, which is the east side of the Capitol building, was entirely peaceful, filled with moms and grandmas and people praying and singing. And that's why I was there. I'm probably the only person that was there for that reason, but that's why I was there. When the speeches— sorry.

No, no, no. If you want to continue, do that. Otherwise, I have a question. Go ahead.

When the speeches were canceled, I was at the top of the steps trying to give my speech. And while I was there, the doors were open from the inside. That was my recollection. And I've since seen video of the doors being open from the inside. And that's how I found myself physically inside the Capitol. At the time, I didn't think that much of it, but in retrospect, I do think it was an entrapment, because otherwise I personally would never have been in the Capitol. And that's how I found myself there. While inside, again, I kept giving my speech. There's plenty of video showing me. Peacefully giving my speech, and eventually I exited the building.

Who invited you?

Oh, I don't know the organizers, but that's normal for me. I don't— I don't— I'm not really the person who knows the invitations. I say yes or no to them, but I do a lot of public speaking.

So you were invited by whomever, and your assumption was you would be speaking outside or inside?

No, it wasn't. Oh no, outside. My assumption is I'd be speaking outside because when we showed up at the platform area, which had a platform, had microphones, you know, had been set up for a long time and the invitation was a month or two earlier, um, for some reason we weren't allowed. Like the guard around there said we couldn't speak. I assumed at the time that the mayor of DC canceled it, but I don't know that for sure.

Do you have an official permit to have spoken?

I do. I can send you the invite. I have the invitation, uh, and I was told that you can see it's very official. The congressman that would appear with us, uh, I think Paul Gosar, Marjorie Taylor Greene, there were others.

So the permit was issued by whom?

I have to go back and look. It was definitely a Freedom Rally. I mean, like I said, I'm the only one who's speaking on health. It was a Freedom Rally. It was Um, I don't remember the name of the organization.

All right, so why is the government prosecuting you?

So, like they did to many other defendants, anybody they could, they wanted to that day, they went after me though immediately. And I just know it's because I was a relatively public person. So, uh, within days I found out that I was being targeted. I didn't believe it. It didn't make any sense to me. That is what I felt was very confusing. I personally only was doing the speaking. And we had just lived through the summer of 2020 where we saw people rioting and assaulting and causing tremendous damage, and none of those people were prosecuted. So I had no sense that walking in with thousands of other people was going to lead to any kind of prosecution. I mean, it was not—

All right, when we return, I want to know what a video of you at the time would show. This, this brave doctor is headed to prison in the United States of America. Hello, my friends. I'm Dennis Prager. The enlightening aspect of the last few years has been in the light of, of lightning. Intense, dangerous, powerful, sudden. The realization of the ease with which half of this country would accept a Soviet-like existence. I swear before the God in whom I believe that I believe that, that half my fellow Americans would unquestionably accept Sovietization of the United States. There's no question I would not have said that 3 years ago. The good news— and there is good news, and I never manufacture good news to make people feel good— is that that means half the country would not accept it. That's, that's very big, because I can't think of any other country where half the half the population would resist a Soviet-like totalitarian state. That's a very big deal. And I never tell you things to make you feel good. I tell you things that I believe to be true, and, uh, that is— that is one of them. Half of this country would resist a Soviet-like takeover. But that's what the half called the left, the progressives, the woke, whatever term you wish to use, the Democratic Party. The Democratic Party and the Communist Party of the Soviet Union have far more in common than they don't have in common. I never said that in my life. I never even thought it. Well, for most of my life it wasn't true. In fact, I was a Democrat through the— until the Reagan presidency. I voted for Jimmy Carter, for which I do atonement every Yom Kippur, and hopefully a benevolent and forgiving God will forgive me. Anyone who votes Democrat has sinned. A lot of nice people sin. It's not, uh, it's not just others who do the sinning, the bad guys. A lot of nice guys do. But Simone Gold is going to prison, the woman, the doctor that I just spoke to, the misdemeanor of entry. So let me understand something. You're released by the Democratic Party-supported DAs for terrible crimes. She went to give a speech at the Capitol, for which she had a permit revoked at the last minute for no intelligible reason. The permit— went to speak. This video of her doing nothing wrong. The doors were open from the inside of the Capitol, and she went in. The judge, who was not only— not only said lies from the bench, but who sentenced her, has now sentenced her to not the, you know, sort of white-collar prison, but to a more secure place, like she's a threat to the society. This judge would have been very much at home in the Soviet Union as a judge for the Communist Party. It's very hard to make good people. It's a republic if you can keep it. It's what Benjamin Franklin said to a woman who asked him about the country that was being founded. It is a republic, ma'am, if you can keep it. George Washington, in his farewell address, said this— I'm paraphrasing— if the country abandons its religious roots, it will cease to be. And that is exactly what has happened. The lies about the secular founders of this country abound in the education system. These people understood that the bedrock of liberty is the belief that God wants us to be free. The powerful American founding belief: God wants you to be free. Man does not want you to be free. The French Revolution ushered in the opposite of the American Revolution. And the biggest reason was it was completely anti-religious. The American Revolution was founded on religion. It is a gigantic lie of the left that religion played no role in the American founding. We get our rights from the Creator. It's in the Declaration of Independence. Can you be more forthright about the significance of a belief in God than that rights emanate from that God? They don't emanate from man. What man giveth, man taketh. But what God giveth, ah, only God can taketh. That is our present condition. I spoke about a hero. I had two heroes. One I spoke about, one I had on, Simone Gold I had on, the doctor, and this Elijah Dicken. The more you learn about what he did, this 22-year-old, I believe he's 22, uh, in saving dozens of lives in that mall and risking his life obviously in doing so. That guy I believe had a rifle. The murderer, and he had a handgun. He was very far away. He really knew how to wield it. Man, do I love good people with weapons. Ah, good people with weapons is the greatest hope I have for staying free. What do they say? The Second Amendment protects the First Amendment. It's not an idea I grew up with. In New York City, but it's one that I came to understand in the course of a lifetime, and I have never understood it better than now. Andrew in San Diego, hello.

Hey Dennis, hi. Hey, long time listener, we've chatted a few times. Um, first of all, you're talking to a good person. The deeds you're wondering, while my bride is, is working I emptied and reloaded the dishwasher.

You are another hero, the third hero of my show.

Hey, the reason I'm calling is I'm a retired lieutenant with the San Diego Police Department and a former SWAT officer, and I just wanted to comment on, on the shot that you've been speaking about, or the actions of this, this young man, to put in perspective just how absolutely unbelievable it is for, for him to to have shot at what I understand is 40 yards and to strike the target 8 out of 10 times. I mean, I called a friend of mine yesterday and I said, if I had ever made that shot, I would have spent the rest of my life bragging about it. I mean, just to put it in perspective, the San Diego Police Department does not even test their officers with handguns beyond 25 yards.

Oh my God, is that interesting?

I mean, I was— I got in a shootout, and this is another story for the day, but I took my algebra teacher from college on a ride-along, and it was the one night in my 33-year career I got in a shootout, and I was at 10 yards, and it was— I mean, we got it done, but it was freaking hard, man. And for that guy to make that shot at 40 yards, you know, without training, without the experience, without a beat, without being in the military, or even if he had had all of that experience, when you're in the mix like that, and, and it's— I mean, it's just, it's incredible.

Those— the people, the people present there, uh, I wonder if they appreciate how lucky they were that this young man was there.

Well, you know, it's an interesting thing. Folks who actually experience something like that suddenly, uh, suddenly understand those things a lot better than those who are sitting on the couch critiquing them. So I suspect that they probably do.

Thank you for your call. I wonder if any of those whose lives were saved have changed their minds about gun ownership. I would love to interview every single person whose life was probably saved at that Indiana mall. I'd like to— and particularly, I would like to vote for Democrats. I'd like to interview Democrats, not vote for— interview. Back in a moment.

The Dennis Prager Show.

Fight indeed. Yes, you got one life, my Friends, the purpose is not to be safe. The purpose is to be good. Goodness is rough. It is not easy to be good. It is easy to be nice, but it is not easy to be good, because good involves fighting the evil. I knew I wasn't a leftist. I thought I was a liberal all of my life. I still think that I hold liberal positions, but that makes you a conservative today. But I knew I wasn't a leftist in high school because they were not anti-communist. Any group that does not fight the greatest evil of its day is a crappy group. And that was what it did. That's what it did. That was very big in my life. Uh, okay, let's see here. Oh yeah, well, this is an interesting— Minneapolis, Bob.

Hello. Hello, Dennis Prager. Thank you for your work and your guest host Julie Ann Amalo from last week. They were exceptional, and I believe are a reason to be hopeful and pragmatically optimistic for our country. These are thoughtful, well-educated, decent individuals who are committed to what's right. And I want to thank you for recognizing them and the wisdom to share your platform. They will go far thanks to you.

That's right. Thank you. I deserve thanks because I am on the lookout for young men and women who can carry on this mission of fighting for liberty, fighting for Judeo-Christian values. Like God wants us to be free. How's that for a Judeo-Christian value? That was the great, great genius of the founders of this country. They were giants. I read to you yesterday how the left has raped the Jefferson Monticello house. People, I don't know, that people don't like when I say raped, and I understand that. Obviously, I don't mean it literally, but these terms are used figuratively. And figuratively, it is accurate to say what the left has done to Monticello, just as they have done to your kids' schools. They have Let me read to you what is happening in schools. For example, where I live, Los Angeles, from the City Journal: Los Angeles Unified School District has adopted a radical gender theory curriculum. When I read this to you, if you have a kid or grandchild in a Los Angeles public school, and you continue to send them there, you are an accessory to the injury, probably permanent, to your child's moral health and psychological health. I'm sorry, my heart breaks for you. It's very hard to take your kid out of school. But after I read to you what is going on in the Los Angeles Unified School District by the disgusting people called teachers— not all teachers are disgusting, of course not, but like professors, most are cowards and some are disgusting. I can't believe I'm saying that. I was raised to basically worship teachers. In the school I went to, when the principal walked into the room, we stood up. That is how I was trained to regard teachers and educators. They have raped that profession too. Encouraging teachers to work toward the, quote, breakdown of the gender binary. That is the, that is the words from the LAUSD. Los Angeles Unified School District, breakdown of the gender binary. Do you want— that is the task now of teachers. You know what gender binary means? That humans are divided between men and women. That's it. There are two sexes, period, end of issue. By the way, to those who believe that the gen— in the non-binary notion, why didn't scientists know this 15 years ago, 150 years ago, 250, 550. Wow, this is a major new discovery that the humans are not divided by sex. This is brand new. What giant leap has science made to teach people this? Because it has nothing to do with science. Nothing. To experiment with gender pronouns such as they Z and tree. Yes, T-R-E-E. This is in— these are directly from LAUSD documents to adopt trans-affirming programming to make their classrooms, quote, queer all school year. You want your child to go to such a school? Many people in LA are not listening to the show, obviously. But many are. If you know anybody with a child in the Los Angeles Unified School District school, we will put this article up at DennisPrager.com. Don't say you weren't warned about the damage deliberately inflicted on children by the teachers and the, quote, so-called educators in of Los Angeles Unified School District and so many others. Okay? You, you, you will be informed. Queer All School Year. The author has obtained a trove of publicly accessible documents from Los Angeles Unified that illustrates the extent to which gender ideology has entered the mainstream of the nation's second largest school school district since 2020. I will continue when we come back.

The Dennis Prager Show.

Hey everybody, I'm Dennis Prager and I welcome you to the program. If you missed the last hour, you can get the article up. It's up at dennisprager.com on what is being taught to 600,000 students in the Los Angeles School District. Even 5 years ago, this would have seemed like a dystopian nightmare rather than a reality, but it is true everywhere. Let's remember the quote from the devil In Goethe's famous poem story Faust, Mephistopheles the devil says, "Everything that exists deserves to perish." That is the motto of the left everywhere, and certainly here. The soulless want the society to be as soulless as they are. It's very hard— in fact, I would say impossible— for any of us who are not sick to understand the desire to demolish everything: the family, the arts, education, religion, everything. There is a— there must be this staggering emptiness at the core of these people that can only be filled by nihilism. I, I— but I don't understand it. It's like I don't understand people who molest children. I understand a lot of sins, but I There are some that I don't understand. To even see a prepubescent child as a sexually desirable object, I can't understand it. I know it exists, but I can't understand it. In the same sense, I can't understand the desire to destroy everything that is at the root of the left. It is so hard to build We have achieved such a remarkable civilization in this country and in the West generally. That's why people want to move to the West. There's very little movement elsewhere in the other direction. So people say on the left, well, it's because it's affluent. Yes, but it's It's affluent because it has values that enabled it to become affluent. Freedom produces affluence. Tyranny produces poverty. Anyway, you can catch that article up at DennisPrager.com. More on that—

Popeye!

Yep, Popeye. It's Popeye the Sailor Man. The Popeye comic strip getting woke makeover with, quote, more characters who aren't heterosexual. After nearly 100 years in existence, the Popeye comic strip is reportedly getting a woke makeover, with the strip's latest cartoonist promising more ethnic diversity and, quote, more characters who aren't heterosexual. I might add, 97% of society is heterosexual. Cartoonist Randall K. Milholland described the Popeye character as being gender fluid. Oh, Popeye is now gender fluid. I warned you about Superman, who gave up his American citizenship, you will recall, in the comic strip. Citing old episodes in which the plot required Popeye to dress in drag, "I want to bring in more characters who aren't heterosexual," Millholland said in an interview with the San Antonio Express-News. "I don't live in that purely straight white world, and I don't think a lot of other people do either." Most people do live in a straight world. It may not be straight white, but it may be straight black or straight Hispanic or straight Asian. Well, Popeye's cartoonist is an idiot. In one of the strip's biggest changes, Olive Oil's sister-in-law Celinda Oil is now Afro-Latina Celinda. Now Afro-Latina, period. Celinda has traditionally been portrayed as a white woman with dark bobbed hair. Milholland took issue with the way Popeye's recently used men dressing as a woman for comic relief, but that wasn't always the case, he told the newspaper. If you go by today's definition, Popeye was gender fluid. That's right, you think Popeye was a man or a guy? Nope, they know better. During the strip's early days, Popeye once met an orphan girl who didn't have a mother. So Popeye dresses up as a woman and says, "I'm your mom now," Millholland says. And it's not a joke. It's Popeye being the kind character he originally was, someone who'd do whatever he could for someone down on their luck, like an orphan. On the basis of that old comic strip, Popeye is now gender fluid. The Popeye character was first seen in 1929 in the Thimble Theater comic strip. The comic is still owned by King Features Syndicate, a division of Hearst Communications. There is so much On a personal note, I have mentioned occasionally that when I went from weekend radio— next month I'll talk about that because it's my 40th anniversary on radio— I went from weekend radio to daily radio. I went to 3 hours a day, and I remember asking the late, great Ray Breen. We were on the same station in Los Angeles before I went national. His show was national, but mine was local. Mine was in LA. It's a pretty big place anyway. And I remember saying to him once when I started, I think I'll have enough to talk about for 3 hours. Ray Bream laughed. I don't remember a word he said. I just remember he laughed. I understand that as I have these sheets of such important things to relate to you, don't get to all of them. Maybe if I had a 6-hour show. Sean has been clamoring for 6 hours. He's underworked and just felt maybe that's the solution. For example, there's a very— I couldn't believe how important this piece was. I had missed it, but I must bring it to your attention. Alicia Finley Dennis Prager, who's a member of the Wall Street Journal editorial board, wrote a piece on cannabis and the violent crime surge. There's no doubt in my mind that they're related. After you read this article and you realize the potency of the cannabis related today, part of the sickness of this society is that we have legalized recreational marijuana. Marijuana, which— no, there is no doubt it, it can play games with the, the brain of a growing adolescent. Terrible games, I might add. That's legal, but they're banning vaping because you might get addicted to nicotine. Getting addicted to nicotine is as dangerous as getting addicted to caffeine. Who cares? The ignorance of the argument— oh, they got addicted to nicotine. If it's not being transmitted by cigarettes, what the hell do I care? They're banning vaping. But they're legalizing marijuana. Another example of the left's war on young people. That's what it is, it's a war on young people. If you love young people, basically, if you always do opposite of what the left says, you'll probably raise a healthy and happy young person. Person who will become probably a responsible adult. We continue. The Dennis Prager Show, live from the Relief Factor Pain-Free Studio. All right, everybody, I'm Dennis Prager. Okay, this is, uh, what I read to you about what is being taught to kids in the LA schools is is sick beyond words. Uh, Philadelphia and Jason, hello.

Yeah, hey Dennis, how you doing?

Well, excellent.

Hey, I just didn't know your thoughts there. It's been a while since I've read Brave New World, but it really seems like we're going down that path of how they sexualize the kids in the book. And when I first read it, it didn't really seem feasible, but they were telling kids to play with each other, experiment on each other, and all that kind of stuff. Just wondering your thoughts.

Oh yeah, I talk about that a lot. Thank you for calling. The, the robbing children of innocence is part of the left's destroying everything that exists, as the devil says in Faust. That was a motto of Marx. It is a motto of the left: destroy everything that exists. If it's good, they tear it down. I have said now many times that another thing that I have had to rethink is my belief that it is built into the woman, to females, to protect children's innocence. Even that has been shaken, that belief, by the left. It is overwhelmingly female teachers who are ruining your children. Overwhelmingly female principals, female heads of the NEA and of the local school boards, and etc. Women are disproportionately involved in robbing your children of sexual innocence. The irony is, again, destroying everything that exists. They, they are super duper innocent when it comes to adult sexuality. We don't want Miss America contestants to wear bathing suits. Oh no, that's sexualizing adults. But we do want to sexualize children. Get it? They're sick. Every leftist has this sickness, or they would be liberal or conservative if they weren't sick. Think about that. What was it? There was a— what was the line I just read yesterday about getting sexual toys into classrooms? Yep. God, if you can't protect children's innocence, you're really bad. I mean really, really bad. Okie doke. Oh, there's more, by the way, just, just for the record. Because they're going to probably have— the left is in control of everything in LA, so they're probably— this sick woman, this nothing named Barbara Ferrer, will have a mask mandate. Doctors have come out and said it is not necessary, but it doesn't matter, they're dismissed. Most doctors are sheep, like most every other group. And so they'll go along with her. A mask mandate. Kids will have to wear masks again so that they can't see other kids. Beautiful way to grow up. I refused to wear a mask a long time ago. I was the only one at airports who didn't wear one. It's quite something when you're the only person out of thousands to do something. And at 6'4", it's not like I blended in. I did stick out. Nevertheless, I have to answer to God, not to Barbara Ferrer. And now they're going to reinstitute the mask mandate. It's already— it's been in force in LA airport, but half the people people don't observe it. But restaurants, for example, the poor workers in restaurants have to breathe in their own air all day because if they don't, they can be closed down. They could lose their license. A new study published this month revealed— this is from Epoch Times— that COVID-19 mask mandates in schools have little to no effect. Quote, this is from researchers at the University of Southern California, USC, and University of California Davis, UC Davis, in a preprint study published on Research Square. Quote, our findings contribute to a growing body of literature which suggests school-based mask mandates have limited to no impact on the case rates of COVID-19 among K-12 students. Researchers evaluated two school districts in Fargo, North Dakota, in which one had a mask mandate and the other did not during the 21-22 academic year. Quote, we observed no significant difference between student case rates while the districts had differing masking policies, nor while they had the same mask policies. Impact of school-based mask mandates on COVID-19 transmission in children is not fully established. Researchers in Toronto, Canada, and California replicated a 2021 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, that CDC, study of counties in Arizona published in The Lancet, one of the most prestigious medical journals in the world, in May, that expanded the number of data points and extended the time period They discovered that cases quickly declined in the weeks after the CDC cut off its study and decreased more quickly in the counties that didn't have mask mandates. School children— I'll review the quote when we come back. Masks, it's an adult pacifier.

The Dennis Prager Show.

Hi everybody. Take a break from the, the horrors of what's happening in our schools. But as, as odd as it sounds, I actually believe in intersectionality. I don't think I've ever put it quite that way, but when you think about it— so I'm now going to talk about peace in the Middle East. Very important new book just, just published this past week. Week, and I have the author on. When you think about it, if you know that somebody who wants to rob children of their sexual innocence and teach them that there's no such thing as male and female, I'll bet you a lot of falafel that you could predict their position on the Middle East. Now, why would that be? Why would people who want to rob children of sexual innocence hate Israel? Why are they always connected? Because you can— all of this is connected. On that great quote from Faust, the devil says, I want to destroy everything that exists. The author has built something remarkable, and he is Aryeh Lightstone. The book, Let My People Know, play on Let My People Go, of course, the incredible story of Middle East peace and what lies ahead. Brief, easily read, but very important. Let My People Know. He was the, the principal aide to David Friedman, the ambassador to Israel during the great Trump years. And they were great years if you don't want to destroy everything that exists. So, Aryeh Lightstone, welcome to the Dennis Prager Show.

The last time we sat together was inside the United States Embassy.

That's right. That's right.

It's nice to see you again.

Yeah, well, you're, you're visiting Jerusalem right now, though. You're, uh, you're— where were you based in the United States? Washington?

No, originally from Colorado, uh, and we moved— my family and I moved from Long Island. That's where I knew David Friedman from. We were basically neighbors, uh, and when he brought us with—

and, and where do you live now?

And live now, we split our time in between Israel, where we were for 4 years officially, and now we're there unofficially, and Pennsylvania.

Very nice. And right now you are there in Jerusalem. I have to ask my engineer a question. Why are our international calls the clearest, and if I interview someone in LA, it sounds like they're an astronaut? This is, forgive me, Aryeh Lightstone, I just had to get that off my chest.

Understood.

Thank you. You are truly one of the architects of this extraordinary thing called the Abraham Accords. Not everybody is familiar with them. In a nutshell, what are they?

So first of all, thank you. I'd like to call myself an architect. It's actually not true. I was a builder. The architect was Jared Kushner, Donald Trump, David Friedman, Avi Berkowitz. I had the privilege of putting them to work once they were built with our team. And what are they was some of the most exciting 123 days in US foreign policy history. It began on August 13th, 2020 at 10:00 AM Washington, DC time with a phone call between President Trump, Prime Minister Netanyahu, the Prime Minister of Israel, and Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, the Crown Prince of the United Arab Emirates, now the President of the UAE. And on that phone call, if you remember, the dark days of August 2020, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed said on the phone call, "We are not going to allow the past to determine our future." And that phone call set in motion what ultimately would be peace and normalization between Israel, the United Arab Emirates, the Kingdom of Bahrain, Sudan, Kosovo, and concluding with the Kingdom of Morocco. 5 significant peace and normalization agreements in 123 days in the midst of COVID a reelection, a lost election, all of those things happening simply because the United States of America acted like the one true superpower and treated our allies like our allies and our enemies like our enemies. The recipe was actually not that complicated.

You're good. You are. I, I don't always say that. That was, that was exactly why peace came. You, you, I know you know, but I, I want to say this for my listeners' benefit, that the grace after meals said regularly among observant Jews ends with this, with this prayer: May God give his people strength and bless his people with peace. You don't have peace if you aren't strong. It's a basic concept of life and a prayer. The book is Let My People Know. I'll be back in a moment with Aryeh Lightstone. It is an amazing development, all of these Arab countries, Muslim countries, making peace with Israel. Never would have happened with a Democrat in office. Never. Not now anyway. Hi everybody, Dennis Prager here. I met with this gentleman once in Jerusalem when our country moved the embassy. Actually, when Donald Trump, on behalf of our country, moved the American embassy from Tel Aviv, which is not the capital of Israel, to the capital of Israel. And I remember vividly the warnings of the State Department, which essentially is always wrong, and the New York Times, which is essentially always wrong. That the— there would be a blowup in the Middle East and in the Muslim world, the likes of which we have never seen, or not seen almost ever. Nothing happened. Is that a fair way of describing it? R.E. Lightstone was the top assistant to our ambassador, and he helped coordinate these phenomenal things called the Abraham Accords, of all these Arab countries now recognizing— and Muslim countries, Kosovo is not Arab, for example— recognizing Israel. Is that a fair summary of what, uh, what took place?

Yeah, experts get to be experts even if the only thing that they are consistently good at is being incorrect. And this is the, you know, from 1995 Congress, by a wide bipartisan majority, passed the Jerusalem Embassy Act, which required by law that the US president would recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, move the embassy, the United States embassy, to Jerusalem, and then open up the ambassador's home in Jerusalem, the capital of Israel. And every major candidate who ran promised to do so. Every candidate who won promised to do so. Some even on their second time around, both Republicans and Democrats failed to follow the law. President Trump on December 6th, 2017, recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. On May 14th, 2018 at 4:11 PM officially opened our embassy in Jerusalem. And later on in 2019 opened up the ambassador's home in Jerusalem, fulfilling the law that was passed in 1995. President Obama, who was in Jerusalem just down the block from where I'm sitting right now, exactly a week ago, went to East Jerusalem, removed the Israeli flag from the Beast, which is the car that the President of the United States of America drives in, and committed to give money to the Palestinians while sitting in the united and undivided capital of Israel, Jerusalem, which is the exact opposite. You pointed out so clearly, peace only comes through strength. The other thing in the Middle East that's as critical strength is clarity, and chaos comes from confusion. And once again, we are back to— instead of Back to the Future, we're back to the past, uh, leading with confusion instead of clarity.

I didn't know that about President Obama, what he just did. This is a week ago.

President Biden, when he came to Israel and then to Saudi, he went to East Jerusalem unaccompanied by—

oh, oh, oh, it was President Biden. I thought you said Obama for some reason.

I, I may have said that. I might be a little jet-lagged. It was definitely President Biden.

Oh my God. By the way, I just want to note about the strength and peace issue. I asked— I'm sure you're familiar— one of the greatest living historians is Niall Ferguson, formerly of Harvard, now at the Hoover Institution at Stanford. And I asked him on my show, and it's one of the rare times I asked a question And I had no idea what the person would answer. Usually I have an idea. I said, do you think that Putin would have invaded Ukraine if Donald Trump were president? And with— I don't think that there was a second hesitation, and he said no. This weak president, he's very strong against against Americans, but he's very weak against evil, has enabled that. The book is Let My People Know. We are his people, as it is, are you Lightstone's people? The Incredible Story of Middle East Peace and What Lies Ahead. So I have a question, and here's a perfect example. I don't know what you'll say because I have no idea what the answer is. So explain for a moment the Gulf States. We have Abu Dhabi, we have Qatar, we have United Arab Emirates. What else?

So you have Bahrain, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, Saudi. Uh, that's sort of the, the group there that represents the GCC, uh, the Gulf States. Oman is not always included in that, and you have Yemen as well. But really what you have is you've got an alliance of Sunni countries that want to stand with the United States of America. They also want us to stand against their foe, Iran, who is also our foe. And these countries are critical strategic partners of ours. Some of them are allies of ours. And if you look at the Middle East today versus 25 years ago, or today versus 5 years ago, It's not your Hollywood Middle East. The, the goal in the United Arab Emirates, which has 7 emirates, amongst them Abu Dhabi and Dubai are the 2 most famous ones. They just celebrated the Expo, which had people from every country in the world have an opportunity to come in peace and harmony. Abu Dhabi and Dubai are 2 of the top 3 or 4 safest cities in the world, something United States of America leadership could learn a little bit something about these days. Bahrain is an open country for religious and women and advancement and modernity. And these countries are trying to get closer to the United States of America. And one of the ways they were able to do that was by getting closer to the state of Israel, which is supposed to be— and under some administrations is treated as our number one ally in the region.

So we don't have much time. Tell me, I'm very curious, why is Qatar an outlier?

So that probably will get— if you ask 10 people who are experts in the region, they'll probably give you 10 different answers.

Okay.

Qatar and Saudi and UAE were at odds with each other for the vast majority of the Trump administration, before the Trump administration, and frankly, a little bit after the Trump administration. And one of the issues that I think needed to be resolved first was where they fall within the GCC. GCC, before you can figure out where they fall with Israel. And one of the accomplishments that nobody will ever talk about was Jared Kushner and Avi Berkowitz brokered the GCC reconciliation, which was to bring Qatar back into the GCC.

Terrific. All right, folks, the book is up at DennisPrager.com. Let my people know. 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 pragerutopia.com.