Podcasts about caesar

In Matthew 22:15–22, the Pharisees and Herodians try to trap Jesus with a question about paying taxes to Caesar, but He responds with wisdom: “Give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's.” The coin bore Caesar's image, so taxes rightfully belonged to him; but since people bear God's image, our lives belong to God. This passage teaches us to respect governing authorities and fulfill civic duties like paying taxes, while remembering that our ultimate loyalty is to God. More than money, He desires our whole selves—our time, talents, and treasures—as a response to His grace, because in Christ He has declared us priceless.

Listen to Zooming In at The UnPopulist in your favorite podcast app: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Podcasts | RSS | YouTubeLandry Ayres: Welcome back to Zooming In at The UnPopulist. I'm Landry Ayres.We find ourselves in a deeply troubling moment for American democracy, grappling with the stark realities of a political landscape increasingly defined by fear, performative cruelty, and a conscious assault on established norms and institutions.This special live recording from ISMA's “Liberalism for the 21st Century” conference features host Aaron Ross Powell, as well as longtime observer of the militarization of police and author of the Substack, The Watch, Radley Balko, and co-founder and former contributor of The Bulwark, Charlie Sykes, author now of the Substack To the Contrary. They explore the mechanisms of this assault, how a manufactured crisis of fear is being weaponized by law enforcement, and the profound implications for civil liberties and the rule of law in America.The discussion is insightful, if unsettling.A transcript of today's podcast appears below. It has been edited for flow and clarity.Aaron Ross Powell: Welcome to a special live recording of The UnPopulist's Zooming In podcast here at the “Liberalism for the 21st Century” conference in Washington, D.C. I am Aaron Powell and I'm delighted to be joined by Radley Balko and Charlie Sykes to talk about the situation we find ourselves in.To me, the most striking image of Trump's campaign, months before he was reelected, was from the RNC. Before that, there was the weird one of him in the construction vest. But the most terrifying image was the one depicting the “Mass Deportation Now!” signs and the sneering and cruel faces celebrating the culture that they were wallowing in. Those faces made me think, as I was looking at them, of the faces in photographs during the Civil Rights Movement of police officers about to inflict violence, turn on firehoses, let dogs loose, and so on. And it felt like what we are seeing now.The “Mass Deportation Now!” images characterize not just the policies of Trump 2.0, but the attitude that they're trying to inflict upon the country. It feels like a rolling back of what we achieved in the 1960s from the Civil Rights Movement—it feels like we're in a retreat from that. This is a conscious attempt to roll that back. So I wanted to talk about that.Radley, I'll start with you. We're sitting in D.C. right now as National Guard troops and members of all sorts of agencies are patrolling the streets. Is this surprising to you—the pace at which these nominally public servants, who are supposed to serve and protect, have embraced this role of violence and fear and chaos?Radley Balko: I'm surprised at how quickly it's happened. I've been talking to people about this day for the last 20 years. I've been warning about the gradual militarization of our police, which is something that has happened in conjunction with the drug war and then the war on terror over 40 or 50 years.That debate was always about, “How militarized should our police be? How do we balance safety, and giving police officers what they need to protect public safety, with civil liberties and constitutional rights?” The fear was always that another Sept. 11 type event would cause what we're seeing now—that there would be a threat, a threat that everybody acknowledges as a threat, that would cause an administration, states, mayors, to crack down on civil liberties. But it would at least be a threat that everyone recognizes as a threat. We would be debating about how to react to it.When it comes to what's playing out today, there's no threat. This is all manufactured. This is all made up.Your juxtaposition of those two images—the clownish image of Trump in the construction vest and the other one depicting this genuinely terrifying anger and glee a lot of his followers get from watching grandmothers be raided and handcuffed and dragged out of their homes—show the clownishness and incompetence of this administration juxtaposed with the actual threat and danger, the hate and vitriol, that we see from his followers.We always hear that story about Ben Franklin after the Constitutional Convention: a woman comes up to him and says, “So, what is it, Mr. Franklin, do we have a republic or a monarchy?” And he says, “A republic, if you can keep it.” That phrase, of course, has been echoed throughout the ages. If Franklin were alive today, he would say, “You know, when I said that, I was worried about a Caracalla or a Sulla or a Caesar.” Instead it's like, this guy, the guy that has to win every handshake, that's who you're going to roll over for?I saw a lot of libertarian-ish people making this point before the election—that Trump's not a threat, he's a clown, he's incompetent, he's not dangerous. And you know what? He may be incompetent, but he's put people around him this time who do know what they're doing and who are genuinely evil.So, on some level, this was the worst case scenario that I never really articulated over the years when I've talked about police militarization. This is actual military acting as police, not police acting as the military. But here we are and they're threatening to spread it around the country to every blue city they can find.Powell: He's a clown, he's rightfully an object of ridicule, he doesn't know anything, he's riddled with pathologies that are obvious to everyone except him. And yet it's not just that he won, but that he effectively turned, not all of the American right, but certainly a large chunk of it into a personality cult. Charlie, given that he seems to be a singularly uninspiring personality, what happened?Charlie Sykes: Well, he's inspiring to his followers.Let me break down the question into two parts.I was in Milwaukee during the Republican Convention, when they were holding up the “Mass Deportation” signs—which was rather extraordinary, if you think about it, that they would actually put that in writing and cheer it. It's something that they'd been talking about for 10 years, but you could see that they were ramping it up.But you put your finger on this culture of performative cruelty and brutality that they have embraced. Trump has made no secret of that. It's one of the aspects of his appeal. For many, many years he's been saying that his idea of law and order is to have cops who will break heads and inflict harm. He's talked about putting razor blades on the top of the wall that Mexico was going to pay for. He's told stories about atrocities. One of his standard stories—that I think the media just stopped even quoting—was about Gen. “Black Jack” Pershing in World War I taking Muslim terrorists and shooting them with bullets that had been dipped in pig's blood. Totally b******t—he made the whole thing up. But it was an indication of a kind of bloodlust. He's talked about extrajudicial killings. He has expressed his admiration for strongmen like Duterte in the Philippines who have done this. He's talked about having drug courts that would have trials and executions the same day. So this is not a secret.What is really remarkable is the extent to which he's communicated that to his base. I mean, there are Americans who legitimately have concerns about immigration and about the border. But what he's also tapped into is this really visceral hatred of the other and the desire to inflict pain and suffering on them. I think that that is one of the ugliest aspects of his presence in our politics, and we saw that with the “Mass Deportation Now!” signs.Now, the second part is how he is implementing all of this with his raw police state, his masked brute squads sent into the city streets. And, again, he's made no secret of wanting to put active military troops into the streets of American cities. He was blocked from doing that in Trump 1.0, but obviously this is something that he's thought about and wants to do. And one of the most disturbing parts about this is the embrace of these kinds of tactics and this culture by law enforcement itself. Radley's written a lot about this. Donald Trump has gone out of his way, not only to defend war criminals, but also to defend police officers who've been accused of brutality. So he's basically put up a bat signal to law enforcement that: The gloves are off. We're coming in. There's a new sheriff in town.What's happening in Washington, D.C. is just a trial run. He's going to do this in New York. He's going to do this in Chicago. He's going to do this in one blue city after another. And the question is, “Will Americans just accept armed troops in their streets as normal?”Now, let me give a cautionary note here: Let's not gaslight Americans that there's not actually a crime problem. I think Democrats are falling into a kind of trap because there are legitimate concerns about public safety. So the argument shouldn't be: There's no crime problem. The argument should be: This is exactly the wrong way to go about dealing with it. Having mass, brute squads on the street is one step toward really running roughshod over a lot of different rights—due process rights and other constitutional rights—that most Americans are going to be reluctant to give up. But we're going to find out, because all of this is being tested right now.Balko: I'd like to jump in on the crime point. I mean, crime is down in D.C. D.C. does have a comparatively high crime rate for a city of its size. There's no question. It's always been that way here. But the idea that there's something happening right now that merits this response is what I meant when I called it a manufactured crisis.I think it's important to point out that, like you said, he's always wanted to do this. This is just the reason that he's managed to put his finger on and thinks is going to resonate.“I've been talking to people about this day for the last 20 years. I've been warning about the gradual militarization of our police, which is something that has happened in conjunction with the drug war and then the war on terror over 40 or 50 years. That debate was always about, ‘How militarized should our police be? How do we balance safety, and giving police officers what they need to protect public safety, with civil liberties and constitutional rights?' The fear was always that another Sept. 11 type event would cause what we're seeing now—that there would be a threat, that everybody acknowledges as a threat, that would cause an administration, states, mayors, to crack down on civil liberties. But there would at least be a threat that everyone recognizes as a threat. We'd be debating about how to react to it. When it comes to what's playing out today, there's no threat. This is all manufactured. This is all made up.” — Radley BalkoI do think we need to talk about crime and about what works and what doesn't. But I think it's important to acknowledge that “crime” is just the reason that he's found right now. This is something that he's been planning to do forever. Like Kristi Noem said, it is basically about deposing the leadership in these cities. In Los Angeles, she said that their goal was to “liberate” it from the socialist elected leaders.Sykes: I agree with you completely about that. I'm just saying that there is a danger of putting too much emphasis on the idea that there is not a crime problem—because in Chicago, there's a crime problem, in New York, there's a crime problem. People feel it. And, I mean, didn't Democrats learn a lesson in 2024 when there was inflation and they said, “Oh no, no, no, there's not really inflation here. Let me show you a chart. You can't think that the cost of living is a problem because here are some statistics that I have for you. There's not really a problem at the border—if you think there's a problem of immigration, a problem at the border, here, I have a chart showing you that there isn't a problem.” Well, you can't.If the public honestly thinks that there is a problem at the border, that there's a problem with inflation, and that there's a problem with crime, it's politically problematic to deny it because as David Frum wrote presciently in The Atlantic several years ago: If liberals will not enforce the border—you could add in, “or keep the city streets safe”—the public will turn to the fascists. If they think you will solve this problem and you're pretending it does not exist or you're trying to minimize it, they'll turn to the fascists.Balko: I don't want to belabor this, but I just think it's dangerous to concede the point when the premise itself is wrong.So, Trump made crime an issue in 2016, right? Recall the American Carnage inauguration speech. When Trump took office in Jan. 2017, he inherited the lowest murder rate of any president in the last 50 years. And yet he ran on crime. I think that it's important to push back and say, “Wait a minute, no, Obama did not cause a massive spike in crime. There was a tiny uptick in 2015, but that was only because 2014 was basically the safest year in recent memory.”Trump is also the first president in 30 years to leave office with a higher murder rate than when he entered it. You know, I don't think that presidents have a huge effect on crime, but Trump certainly does.So, I agree with you that we can't say crime isn't a problem, but we can also point out that crime went up under Trump and that what he's doing will make things worse.Sykes: I think these are all legitimate points to make. It's just that, Trump has this reptilian instinct to go for vulnerabilities. And one of the vulnerabilities of the progressive left is the problem of governance. If there is a perception that these urban centers are badly governed, that they are overrun with homeless encampments and crime and carjacking, then the public will see what he's doing as a solution.By the way, I'm making this argument because I think that we can't overstate how dangerous and demagogic what he's doing is. But I'm saying that this is going to be a huge fight. He's going to go into Chicago where crime is just demonstrably a problem, and where I think the mayor has an approval rating of about 12 to 16%, and he's going to say, “I am here with the cavalry.”There's got to be a better answer for this. There's got to be a way to focus on the real threat to the constitutional order that he is posing, as opposed to arguing on his ground and saying, “No, no, don't pay attention to crime, inflation, the border.”And, again, I'm making this argument because this is one that I think the country really has to win. Otherwise we are going to see militarization and an actual police state.Powell: Let me see if I can pull together some of the threads from the conversation so far, because I think there's a nexus, or something that needs to be diagnosed, to see the way through.When you [Charlie] were mentioning the bullets covered in pig's blood, what occurred to me was ... I was a kid at the height of '80s action movies. And that's the kind of thing that the bad guys did in '80s action movies. That's the kind of thing that justified the muscular American blowing them up or otherwise dispatching them.There's been a turn, now, in that we're seeing behavior from Americans that they would have at one point said, “This isn't who we are.” The Christianity that many Americans hold to, this is not the way that Jesus tells them to act. There's been a shift in our willingness to embrace this sort of thing, and it's behavior that I would have expected to horrify basically everyone watching it happening.And it is—his approval readings are declining rapidly. It is horrifying a lot of people—but fewer than I would have hoped. One of you mentioned that, on the one hand, there's the cruelty, but there's also the fear—and those are feeding into each other. And what I wonder is, yes, there's crime, but at the same time, if your media consumption habits are those of a committed Trump supporter, you are being told constantly to be afraid that everybody outside your door, except for the people who you recognize, or maybe the people who share your skin color or speak with the same accent you do, is a threat to you and your family.I see this with members of my own family who are Trump supporters. They are just terrified. “I can't ride the subway. It's too scary to ride the subway.” Or, “I go out in D.C. and I see youths doing the kinds of things youths do, and now I don't feel safe having my family there.” We don't have a war. We don't have a crisis. But we've told a huge portion of the country, “You should be afraid of every last thing except your immediate family and that guy who now rules the country.” And the crime rates are part of it. It's like, “You should be scared of every single one of these cities.”Sykes: It's a story. One of the speakers today was talking about the power of stories, that demagogues will tell a story. And a story of fear and anger is a very, very powerful story that you can't counteract with statistics. You need to counteract it with other stories.“This culture of performative cruelty and brutality is one of the aspects of his appeal. For many years he's been saying that his idea of law and order is to have cops who will break heads and inflict harm. He's talked about putting razor blades on the top of the wall that Mexico was going to pay for. He's told stories about atrocities. He would tell the story about Gen. ‘Black Jack' Pershing in World War I taking Muslim terrorists and shooting them with bullets that had been dipped in pig's blood. He's talked about extrajudicial killings. He has expressed his admiration for strongmen like Duterte in the Philippines who have done this. He's talked about having drug courts that would have trials and executions the same day. What is really remarkable is the extent to which he's communicated that to his base. He's tapped into this really visceral hatred of the other and the desire to inflict pain and suffering on them. I think that that is one of the ugliest aspects, and we saw that with the ‘Mass Deportation Now!' signs.” — Charlie SykesPart of the problem is that Trump has made that narrative. So, for example, you have members of your family who are Trump supporters. My guess is that they could name the young women who had been raped and murdered by illegal immigrants. Because, I mean, on Fox News, this is happening all the time, right? On Fox News, illegal immigrants are criminals. “Look at the crimes they are committing.” They tell that story in the most graphic way possible, and then turn around and say, “If you oppose what Donald Trump is doing, you are defending these ‘animals'”—as Trump described them.It is deeply dishonest. It is deeply dangerous. But it is potent. And we ought to look at it in the face and recognize how he is going to weaponize those stories and that fear, which is really the story of our era now. We're living in this era of peace, prosperity, general safety—and yet he's created this “American carnage” hellscape story.Balko: Yeah, I also think there's this weird paradox of masculinity in the MAGA movement. It's not about masculinity—it's about projecting masculinity. It's about co-opting aspects of masculinity. And it's like, “We're the manly men. We need men to be men again. And that's why we support men who sexually assault and sexually harass women. And, at the same time, we're all going to genuflect and debase ourselves in front of this 79-year-old man, because he's our leader and we need to let him insult our wives. And we're also scared to take the subway.” I think there were 10 murders last year in the New York city subway. The subway is one of the safest public spaces you'll find anywhere. But you'll regularly see MAGA people go on Fox News and talk about how scared they are of it.I mean, I don't know how persuadable any of MAGA is, but I do think pointing out the sheer cowardliness might resonate. When Markwayne Mullin goes on the Sunday shows and says he doesn't wear a seatbelt anymore because he's afraid he'll get carjacked and he needs to be able to jump out of his car quickly ...Sykes: ... He actually did say that.Balko: Yeah. And, I don't know what the stats are, but it's something like you're 40 or 50 times more likely to die in a car accident than you are in a carjacking. So, you know, he's sealing his own fate, I guess.But I do think that maybe there's something to appealing to their lack of masculinity when they try to push some of these narratives.Sykes: Well, yeah, I do think there are narratives out there.We have National Guard troops here in Washington, D.C.—where were they on Jan. 6th? Why did the president not bring them in then? We had one of the greatest assaults on law enforcement. So we can call b******t on Donald Trump being the “law and order,” “back the blue” president.One of the first things he did when he took office was issue the blanket pardons to all the rioters and seditionists who not only assaulted the Capitol, but specifically the ones who attacked police officers. We can stand up and say, “I don't want to be lectured by the man who gave the Get Out of Jail Free card to the people who tased and bear sprayed police officers in this city. Not to mention,”—before he brings up the whole “defund the police” thing—“the man who right now is dismantling the nation's premier law enforcement agency, the FBI.” Because all of these FBI agents who are being gutted or tasked with hassling homeless people in Washington, D.C., you know what they're not doing? They are not investigating child sex trafficking. They are not engaging in any anti-terrorism activities.So, what you do is call them out, saying, “You are not making this country safer. You are not the ‘law and order' president. You are a convicted felon. You in fact have freed and celebrated people who actually beat cops.” If Barack Obama would have pardoned someone who had attacked police officers, the right would have been utterly incandescent. And yet Donald Trump does it and he's not called out on it.I understand that there are some who are reluctant to say, “Well, no, we're actually the party of law and order. We're actually the party of public safety.” But you hit him right in what I think is a real vulnerability.Balko: One of the guys who literally told Jan. 6 rioters to kill the police is now a respected senior member of the Justice Department, whereas the guy who threw a sandwich at a cop is facing a felony charge. That is Trump's approach to law enforcement.Sykes: I always hate it when people go on TV and say, “This should be a talking point.” But that ought to be a talking point. Don't you think everybody ought to know his name? We have the video of Jared Wise saying, “Kill ‘em! Kill ‘em!” and calling the police Nazis. And he is now a top official in Donald Trump's Justice Department.Powell: This is my concern, though—and this allows me to belabor my Civil Rights Movement point some more. One of the reasons that the anti-civil rights movement, the counter-movement, was as vicious and as ugly as it was is because it was a group of people who felt like they had a status level by virtue of being white, of being men. As they saw things, “If we help minorities and others rise up, that lowers the baseline status that I have.” So they wanted to fight back. It was, “I'm going to keep these people down because it keeps me up.” And when Radley said that they're “projecting masculinity,” I think that's a big part.A big part of the appeal is, “Now I'm seeing guys like me dominating. Now I'm seeing guys who are from my area or share my cultural values or dress like me or are into the same slogans or have the same fantasies of power as I do, or just aren't the coastal elites with their fancy educations and so on, dominating.” And my worry is if that's what's driving a lot of it—that urge to domination coupled with the fear, which I think then allows them to overcome any barriers they have to cruelty—if you marry, “I can have power” and “I'm scared of these people,” that to them justifies their actions in the same way that it does the action movie heroes killing the guys who put the pig's blood on bullets. It becomes justified to inflict cruelty upon those they hate.My worry is if you go after them in that way, it feels like, “Okay, now what you're saying is these guys who look like me, who were dominating, don't actually deserve it.” I don't think that means that we stay away from it, but I think it risks triggering even more of this, “What I want is for it to be my boot on people's necks and I want them to stop putting me down. And I want them to stop telling me that I'm not good, that I'm incompetent, that it's not okay for me to beat my wife” (or whatever it happens to be). Trump is like an avatar for very mediocre men.Sykes: Well, I wouldn't use that as a talking point.Balko: A few years ago, I wrote a piece about a Black police chief who was hired in Little Rock by a mayor who ran on a reform platform and this police chief had a good record. He was in Norman, Okla. before that—he was the first Black chief in Oklahoma. And he was not a progressive by any means, but he was a reformer in that he wanted things to be merit-based and Little Rock has a really strong white police union. I say that because they also have a Black police union, because the Black officers didn't feel like they were represented by the white union.One of the first things that Chief Humphrey did was make the promotional interviews, that you get to move up through the ranks, blind. So you didn't know who you're talking to. If you were white, you didn't know if it was a fellow white person you were interviewing. Most of the people in charge were. The result of removing race from that process was that more Black officers were getting promoted than before. And I wrote about him because he ended up getting chased out of town. They hit him with fake sexual harassment charges; the union claimed he was harassing white women. Basically, they exerted their power and managed to chase him out.But one of the things he told me when I interviewed him was—and other people have said different versions of this—that when your entire life you've been the beneficiary of racial preferences as a white person, as happened in this country for most of its existence, meritocracy looks a lot like racial discrimination. Because things that you got just simply because you were entitled to now you have to earn. And that looks like, “Hey, this Black guy is getting this job over me. And that's not right. Because my dad got that job over the Black guy and his dad got the job over the Black guy.”And I think this backlash that we're seeing against DEI—I'm sure there are parts of this country where DEI was promoting unqualified people just to have diversity, and I do think there's there's value in diversity for diversity's sake—is white people, who have been benefiting from our racial hierarchy system that's been in place since the Founding, were starting to see themselves passed over because we were now moving to a merit-based system and they saw that as discrimination. That's a big part of the backlash.I don't know what the solution is. I don't know that we just re-impose all of the former policies once Trump's out of power, if he's ever out of power. But I do think that there is value in diversity for diversity's sake. Obviously I don't support strict quota systems, but I do think it's important to make that point that addressing historical injustices is critical.We went to the art museum in Nashville the other day and they had a whole exhibit about Interstate I-40 going through Nashville. It was supposed to go through this industrial area where there were no neighborhoods or private homes. And the Tennessee legislature deliberately made it run through the wealthiest Black neighborhood in Nashville and destroyed about 80% of Black wealth in the city. That was 1968—that was not 1868. That's relatively recently that you're destroying a ton of wealth. And you can find that history in every single city.I think a big part of this backlash is not knowing that history—and only knowing what's happening now and experiencing it out of context. For those people, it feels like reverse discrimination.Sykes: So, yes, a lot of this is true. But it's not the whole story. In the state of Wisconsin, overwhelmingly white voters voted for Barack Obama, a Black man, twice in a row before voting for Donald Trump. So we do have that long, deep history of racism, but then also an America that I think was making some progress. I'm just going to put this out as a counterpoint: I think that if people were appealing to the “better angels of their nature,” a lot of these people would not be buying into the cruelty, the brutality, the racism. Instead, we're appealing to their sense of victimization.But let's be honest about it. We moved from a Civil Rights Movement that was morally based on fairness and the immorality of discrimination to one that increasingly was identity politics that morphed into DEI, which was profoundly illiberal. What happened was a lot of the guys we're talking about were thinking not just that they want their boots on people's head, but they're constantly being told that they were bad, that their contributions were not significant. There were invisible tripwires of grievance—what you could say, what you could do, the way you had to behave. In the before times, a lot of the attacks on free speech and the demands for ideological conformity on university campuses were not coming from the illiberal right—they were coming from the illiberal left.And as I'm listening to the speakers at this conference talk about the assault on liberalism, I think one of the questions we have to ask—and maybe this is a little meta—is why it was so brittle. Well, it was brittle because it was caught in a pincer movement by the illiberal left and the illiberal right. My point is that a lot of this reaction is in fact based on racial animus, but there's also a sense that I hear from a lot of folks, a sense of liberation that they feel, that the boot was on their necks and is now being taken off, that they're not having to go to these highly ideological DEI training sessions where they were told how terrible and awful they were all the time. And how, if you believed in a race-blind society, that was a sign you were racist. If white women actually were moved by stories of racism and wept, that was white women's tears. This was heavy handed.“I do think the people who signed off on extraordinary rendition and snatching people off the street and sending them to a literal torture prison in El Salvador, those people need to be criminally charged. But I also think there need to be civil society repercussions. There are so many people in media—pundits, politicians who know better—who have a long record of pointing out how dangerous Trump was and then turned on a dime and started supporting him. I don't wish any physical harm on those people. I don't think any of those people should be put in prison. But I think those people should never be trusted as public intellectuals.” — Radley BalkoSo there was a backlash that was going to be inevitable. What's tragic is the way that it has been co-opted by the people who have really malign motives, who are not acting out of good will—the Stephen Millers who have figured out a way to weaponize this. But that line that goes from the racism of 1957 to the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s, to a broad-based civil rights consensus—and, again, there's caveats in all of this—to identity-based politics. Let's be honest about it. That was not without sin. That was not without problems.Balko: So, I agree that there was I guess what you could call an illiberal approach to a mutual exchange of ideas on college campuses. There was a lot of shouting down of conservative speakers. In some cases, there were invitations revoked to valedictory speeches. There was some cutting off of funding for conservative speakers. But I want to make sure we're not delving into false equivalences here. I mean, the boot that you're talking about, Charlie, was a metaphorical boot, and we're talking about a very literal boot now.Sykes: Absolutely. That distinction is a significant one.Balko: So, my preferred way of expressing my disagreement with someone isn't to shout them down. I will say, though, that protest is a form of speech. I think, even to some extent, interrupting speeches that are particularly problematic or extremist is a form of speech. It's not one that I personally would engage in. But the type of censorship we're seeing now is direct. It is government censorship. It is not a violation of the spirit of free expression that we were seeing on college campuses before.Sykes: Oh, it was more than just that kind of violation. You had universities that required people to sign a DEI statement where they had to make ideological commitments in order to get a job. I mean, this was very heavy handed. There were no literal boots, but ... I like Jonathan Rauch's analogy that the illiberalism of the left is still a real problem, but it's like a slow-growing cancer. Right now, what we're facing with the illiberalism of the right is a heart attack. We have to deal with the heart attack right now, but let's not pretend that everyone who objects to some of the things that were happening are doing so because they are just vile, white racists.This is part of the problem. People spent decades accusing others of being racist on flimsy grounds. If you support Mitt Romney, you're a racist. If you support tax cuts, you're a racist. You know what happened? I come from this world and there was a time when to be called a racist was the worst thing you could possibly say about somebody. And it got to the point where, literally, if you were in favor of school choice, you were racist; in favor of tax cuts, you were racist. If you voted for a Republican … John McCain was a racist, George Bush was a racist. So when the real thing came along, guess what people said? They just rolled their eyes, shrugged, and said, “We've heard this before.” I mean, it was crying wolf for decades.And I've had these conversations when I would say, “How can you support someone who is just espousing this raw, vicious racism about Haitians eating dogs?” You know what I would get? “Oh, we've been hearing this for 20 years. Literally everyone I know has been accused of being a racist.”So we need to come back to a consensus. If we're going to restore that liberal consensus, we're going to have to say, “This is acceptable behavior. And this is not acceptable behavior.” But we are not going to use these labels to vilify. The politics of contempt is just not helpful. It is not helpful to tell people, “By the way, I think you're an idiot. I think you're stupid. I think you're racist. Would you like to hear my ideas about taxes now?” It doesn't work. And I think that one of the things that, tragically, Trump has tapped into is the sense that these elites look down on you.So, Aaron, when you say that this is the revolution of mediocre men, not helpful. Now, some of them are mediocre. I certainly agree. I write about mediocre people all the time—but, again, the politics of contempt is not the way to get ourselves out of this.Powell: I think there's a distinction between messaging and diagnosis. And if we're to understand how we got here, or the kinds of beliefs or values that can lead someone ... and I don't mean, you've been a partisan Republican voter for your entire life, and you come from a family of this, and you pulled the lever for Trump, but you're mostly an uninformed voter, which is a lot of people—I mean, the people who are cheering on Stephen Miller, they're in a different category. So it might be that, if you have one of those people in front of you, the message is not to say, “There's a broken set of morals at play here,” or “there's a cramped view of humanity at play here,” because they're not going to hear that in the moment.But if we're to understand how we got here and what we're up against, I think we have to be fairly clear-eyed about the fact that the [Trumpian] values that we've discovered over the last 10, 15 years have much more appeal and purchase among a lot of Americans than I think any of us had really expected or certainly hoped, and then figure out how to address that. And, again, it's not everybody—but it's more than I would like. If those values are central to someone's being, and the way that they view others around them and the way they relate to their fellow man, then I think a lot of the less condemning arguments also won't find purchase because, ultimately, it's not a policy difference. It's a, “I want a crueler world.”Sykes: This is where I think the argument that says, “Let's look at this cruelty. Let's look at this brutality. Let's look at the Stephen Millers” ... believe it or not, I actually think it's potent to say to somebody, “Do you want to be like that? Is that really what you want America to be? You're better than that.” And then, “Let me tell you the story of decency.”The story that we heard earlier today about how neighbors who are Trump voters will be there if your house is burning down or your father dies ... you appeal to that innate decency and say, “Do you really want this cruelty?” This is what's lacking, I think, on the right and in the Republican Party right now: people who say, “Okay, you may want less taxes, smaller government, a crackdown on street crime, less illegal immigration ... but is this who you want to be?” Show them the masked officer who is dragging the grandmother away. I do think that there is the better angel that says, “No, that is really not the American story.” You have to appeal to them as opposed to just condemn them. I'm not sure we're disagreeing, but I actually think that that's potent.Balko: I think there is not only room for ridicule when you're up against an aspiring authoritarian, but a lot of history shows it's often one of the few things that works because they really hate to be disrespected.I agree with Charlie that I don't think it's necessarily productive to make fun of people who have been tricked or who have been lied to, but I also think it's worth pointing out that Trump has contempt for his own supporters. I mean, one of the great ironies of our time is that when Trump would need a boost of self-esteem, he would go hold a rally in a state that, before he ran for president, he would never have been caught dead in. He grifts from his own supporters. His lies about Covid got his own supporters killed at higher rates than people in states that didn't vote for him. But I agree that it doesn't serve much benefit to denigrate people.Sykes: But do ridicule the people who are doing it. I mean, don't get me wrong. South Park is doing God's work right now.Balko: Absolutely.Powell: What, then, is the way forward?“This is part of the problem. People spent decades accusing others of being racist on flimsy grounds. If you support Mitt Romney, you're a racist. If you support tax cuts, you're a racist. You know what happened? I come from this world and there was a time when to be called a racist was the worst thing you could possibly say about somebody. And it got to the point where, literally, if you were in favor of school choice, you were racist; in favor of tax cuts, you were racist. If you you voted for Republican. John McCain was a racist. George Bush was a racist. So when the real thing came along, guess what people said? They just rolled their eyes, shrugged, and said, ‘We've heard this before.' I mean, it was crying wolf for decades.” — Charlie SykesLet's assume that democracy survives this current moment and that we somehow put Trump behind us. We can't go back to the status quo before this. We can't just say, “We're going to go back to the kind of politics we had during the Biden administration.” That seems to be off the table. We need something new. We need a new direction. What does that look like?Sykes: I honestly do not know at this point. And I don't think anybody knows. But I do think that we ought to remember, because we throw around the term “liberal democracy” a lot, that democracies are not necessarily liberal. Democracies are not necessarily kind. And I think we need to go back to things like the rule of law.I think it's going to involve some kind of restoration of balance in society. The damage that's being done now is so deep and some of it is so irreparable that I'm hoping that there will be a backlash against it, that there will be a pendulum swing back towards fundamental decency. And even though we keep talking about democracy a lot, I think we need to start talking about freedom and decency a little bit more.You know, I was listening to the Russian dissident who spoke tonight and he asked us to imagine what it's like trying to create a democratic society in Russia with all of their history and all their institutions. As bad as things are for us, we have a big head start. We still have an infrastructure, compared to what he is up against. We still can restore, I think, that fundamental decency and sense of freedom and equality before the law.Balko: I also don't know exactly what it's going to look like. I will say this: I think one of the big reasons why we are where we are today is that there wasn't a proper reckoning, and no real accountability, after the Civil War and Reconstruction. It's been the same with Jan. 6. There was no real accountability. The Democrats waited too long for impeachment. The DOJ was slow.I do think there have to be repercussions. I'm not saying that we throw everybody in the Trump administration in prison, but I do think the people who signed off on extraordinary rendition and snatching people off the street and sending them to a literal torture prison in El Salvador, those people need to be criminally charged.But I also think there need to be civil society repercussions. There are so many people in media—pundits, politicians who know better—who have a long record of pointing out how dangerous Trump was and then turned on a dime and started supporting him. I don't wish any physical harm on those people. I don't think any of those people should be put in prison. But I think those people should never be trusted as public intellectuals. We shouldn't employ them in that realm. I think they should be able to earn a living. I don't think they should earn our trust.I have zero confidence that that's going to happen. But I can personally say that I have no interest in participating in events like this with those people. I have no interest in giving those people any kind of legitimacy because they tried to take our birthright away from us, which is a free and democratic society—the country that, for all its flaws, has been an exemplary country in the history of humankind. They literally are trying to end that. And I don't think you just get to walk away from that and pretend like it never happened.Sykes: I totally agree.Powell: With that, thank you, Radley. Thank you, Charlie.© The UnPopulist, 2025Follow us on Bluesky, Threads, YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, and X.We welcome your reactions and replies. Please adhere to our comments policy. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.theunpopulist.net

Welcome to the Christmas series! Caesar's decree for a nationwide census couldn't come at a worse time for Mary and Joseph. But perhaps this journey to Bethlehem is exactly what God planned all along.  Sign up for special devotionals at StoriesoftheMessiah.com. As we dive deeply into iconic Bible heroes' enthralling narratives, we find more than just stories of faith and miracles. We discover a recurrent theme, a spiritual undertone that connects each tale to the grandeur of the Gospel. They're not just standalone legends; they're threads in a divine tapestry, weaving a story that foreshadows Jesus Christ, the ultimate hero, the promised Messiah who brings light to the darkest corners of history. For more Bible stories download the Pray.com app.  To learn more about Rabbi Schneider visit https://discoveringthejewishjesus.com/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Whose glory and authority should we honor? Matthew 22:15–22 looks forward to the evening sermon on the coming Lord's Day. In these eight verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that we honor all glory and authority, and therefore especially Christ's glory and authority as God Himself. The devotional explores the Pharisees' attempt to trap Jesus with a question about paying taxes to Caesar, revealing a deeper theological challenge regarding allegiance and identity. Jesus, recognizing their hypocrisy, redirects the inquiry, asserting that while earthly authorities like Caesar deserve what is due them, ultimate devotion belongs to God, Who communicates Himself supremely in Jesus Christ. The message transcends a simple political answer, urging listeners to consider their own creation in God's image, to heed God's inscription through Scripture, and ultimately to worship and obey Jesus as the definitive revelation of God Himself.

Since the harbor was unsuitable to winter in, the majority decided that we should sail on, hoping to reach Phoenix and winter there. This was a harbor in Crete, facing both southwest and northwest. 13 When a gentle south wind began to blow, they saw their opportunity; so they weighed anchor and sailed along the shore of Crete. 14 Before very long, a wind of hurricane force, called the Northeaster, swept down from the island. 15 The ship was caught by the storm and could not head into the wind; so we gave way to it and were driven along. 16 As we passed to the lee of a small island called Cauda, we were hardly able to make the lifeboat secure, 17 so the men hoisted it aboard. Then they passed ropes under the ship itself to hold it together. Because they were afraid they would run aground on the sandbars of Syrtis, they lowered the sea anchor[b] and let the ship be driven along. 18 We took such a violent battering from the storm that the next day they began to throw the cargo overboard. 19 On the third day, they threw the ship's tackle overboard with their own hands. 20 When neither sun nor stars appeared for many days and the storm continued raging, we finally gave up all hope of being saved. 21 After they had gone a long time without food, Paul stood up before them and said: “Men, you should have taken my advice not to sail from Crete; then you would have spared yourselves this damage and loss. 22 But now I urge you to keep up your courage, because not one of you will be lost; only the ship will be destroyed. 23 Last night an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve stood beside me 24 and said, ‘Do not be afraid, Paul. You must stand trial before Caesar; and God has graciously given you the lives of all who sail with you.' 25 So keep up your courage, men, for I have faith in God that it will happen just as he told me. 26 Nevertheless, we must run aground on some island.”

This is a preview of a bonus episode! Check it out in full on our reasonably-priced patreon! This week November brings us a little Podcast Dessert. Hail, Caesar! is a Coen Brothers movie about a day in the life of a fixer for a booming film studio in the 1950s that all three of us enjoyed watching, but understood on vastly different levels. TSHIRT ALERT: ADVERSE CONDITIONS MOVIE CLUB PREORDERS NOW OPEN Thats right, the long-awaited Adverse Conditions Movie Club shirt is finally available for preorder on our website. Featuring art from the incredibly talented Mika Kurzmann-Abrams! Preorders close MIDNIGHT AUGUST 31ST ----- We've been nominated for Podcast of the Year at the ITV bCreator Awards! It's public vote, so vote for us here under “creator shortlist”. should take about a minute, you don't have to live in Britain to vote! www.bcreator.co.uk/awards/ ----- Friend of the show Bella, a refugee evacuated from Afghanistan in 2021, is raising money for her gender confirmation surgery! Anything you can give would be hugely appreciated! https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/team-bella ----- Check out friend of the show Mattie's new book Simplicity here, or wherever fine graphic novels are sold! ----- FREE PALESTINE Hey, Devon here. In our home, we talk a lot about how insane everything feels, and agonise constantly over what can be done to best help the Palestinians trapped in Gaza facing the full brunt of genocidal violence. My partner Rebecca has put together a list of four fundraisers you can contribute to- all of them are at work on the ground doing what they can. -Palestinian Communist Youth Union, which is doing a food and water effort, and is part of the official communist party of Palestine https://www.gofundme.com/f/to-preserve-whats-left-of-humanity-global-solidarity -Water is Life, a water distribution project in North Gaza affiliated with an Indigenous American organization and the Freedom Flotilla https://www.waterislifegaza.org/ -Vegetable Distribution Fund, which secured and delivers fresh veg, affiliated with Freedom Flotilla also https://www.instagram.com/linking/fundraiser?fundraiser_id=1102739514947848 -Thamra, which distributes herb and veg seedlings, repairs and maintains water infrastructure, and distributes food made with replanted veg patches https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-thamra-cultivating-resilience-in-gaza ----- WEB DESIGN ALERT Tom Allen is a friend of the show (and the designer behind our website). If you need web design help, reach out to him here:  https://www.tomallen.media/ Kill James Bond is hosted by November Kelly, Abigail Thorn, and Devon. You can find us at https://killjamesbond.com , as well as on our Bluesky and X.com the every app account

On today's episode, Summer of 70s comes to a close with one of the most-classic comedies of all-time.  The Jerk was the ninth-highest grossing movie in the US in 1979.   It was also the first starring role and producing debut of Steve Martin.  Per the Gerret Layoff Confused Breakfast actor database, it is the fifth Steve Martin appearance on this podcast.   Apparently it was Stanley Kubrick's favorite comedy.  Join us as we break it down- scene by scene! •0:00:00 - Introductions •0:03:30 - Memories of first viewing •0:07:00  - Pertinent movie details  •0:11:00  -  Critical and fan reviews •0:20:00 - Scene by scene breakdown  •1:20:00 - Modern day ratings —————————————————————— **Support us at http://patreon.com/confusedbreakfast for bonus weekly episodes, voting on upcoming movies, giving your modern-day ratings on our movies and much more. **Mail us something   The Confused Breakfast PO Box 10016 Cedar Rapids, IA 52402-9802 Special thanks to our executive producers- Josh Miller, Starling, Michael Guiliano and NicMad. Welcome to our newest members -  Mike H, Tony Haga, Nick Heiderscheit, Caesar, jon boy, WA-1-1, Matthew Zwick, Brian Iobello, This Justin, Kevin Surnear, Edison Cruz, Dan Doty Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"Render unto Caesar what is Caesar's and unto God what is God's." In Donald Trump's America you can render unto Donald Trump what is God's as well.On Free State today, Dion and Joe look at the gangsterism that is taking over Britain and America and how the media fail to challenge it.Trump is intimidating and seizing power in America while Nigel Farage is being elevated by a media that knows what it's doing.The consequences of this are obvious but still so many deny what is happening. Why? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

David Stevenson, Director of Energy Policy at Delaware's Caesar Rodney Institute, scores a "win" for Delaware by helping to eliminate unreliable wind power from our energy grid.

Why does Germany exist? The question isn't as simple as it might seem. To answer this massive question—and several related ones—Ted is embarking on a multi-part series that explores how Germany came to be, from the Romans to the Reichsbürgerbewegung and Caesar to the CDU. This short episode introduces the series, with about a dozen more to follow!*****Follow Spaßbremse on Twitter (⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@spassbremse_pod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠). Hosted and produced by Ted. Music by ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Lee Rosevere⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Art by Franziska Schneider.Support us on Patreon here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/spassbremse

Why does Germany exist? The question isn't as simple as it might seem. To answer this massive question—and several related ones—Ted is embarking on a multi-part series that explores how Germany came to be, from the Romans to the Reichsbürgerbewegung and Caesar to the CDU. This short episode introduces the series, with about a dozen more to follow!*****Follow Spaßbremse on Twitter (⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@spassbremse_pod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠). Hosted and produced by Ted. Music by ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Lee Rosevere⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Art by Franziska Schneider.Support us on Patreon here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/spassbremse

Christ's Mission and Unwavering ObedienceChrist enters his ministry fully aware of his mission and his fate: he must live a perfect life, die at the proper time as the true Passover Lamb, and be raised by the Father and the Spirit. His path is one of precise obedience, never deviating from the prophets or his Father's will. As opposition grows, the religious leaders seek to trap him with questions that could compromise his credibility or hasten his death, but Christ remains faithful, calm, and clear-headed in every test.The Coin Test: Loyalty to God Above AllThe first test concerns paying taxes to Caesar. The chief priests and the scribes sent spies to trap Christ. They approach Christ with flattering words, hoping he will either endorse rebellion against Rome or show disloyalty to God, ultimately losing credibility with the crowds. By asking for a coin from the spies and pointing to Caesar's image, Christ exposes their hypocrisy. They act like they are wrestling with a moral dilemma, but clearly, they already live within Rome's system. His response, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's,” affirms both lawful duty and ultimate loyalty to God, leaving his opponents silenced and the crowd marveling at his wisdom.The Marriage Test: The God of the LivingThe second test comes from the Sadducees, who deny the resurrection, and they seek to challenge Christ. They lay out a hypothetical scenario of the Levirate (Latin husband's brother) marriage in Deuteronomy 25:5-10. The purpose was so that a man's name would not be blotted out from Israel (Dt. 25:6). They challenge Christ with a hypothetical about a woman with seven husbands. They aim to prove the resurrection absurd because they want to know whose wife she will be in the resurrection. They are viewing life as nothing more than an earthly continuation. Christ corrects their misunderstanding by teaching that in the resurrection, people are like the angels who no longer marry, but are living in glorified bodies in God's presence. He then uses Moses, their own authority, to prove resurrection is real: God is not the God of the dead but of the living, for he declared himself the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob when God appeared to Moses at the burning bush in Exodus 3. God is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living.Christ's Victory and Our Hope in ResurrectionThrough these encounters, Christ shows that he will not be trapped or turned from his mission. He is the Lamb of God, steadfast until the appointed hour of sacrifice, and every test only confirms his identity and authority. For believers, the coin points to our true citizenship in God's kingdom, while the marriage question points to our final hope that we will arrive at the banquet of the Lamb of God in glory. Christ's victory assures us that we are a resurrection people both now and in the future. We are called to live with hope, peace, and confidence that our redemption is secure in him because he has been raised and we walk in His Spirit united to our redeemer.

How do follow Jesus example and focus on what we give to God more than what we give to the world?

From Wayne Jackson Studios, Adam and Michael look at all of the footy news. Some Mad Monday advice, TDK is G-O-N-E and we bid farewell to the Bulldogs mascot - Caesar. Grab your tickets to our live show with Steve Johnson, Jordan Lewis and Travis Cloke. Sunday, August 31 - 4pm - tix at optic.com.au Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What traps are shaping your life without you even realizing it? In this powerful message from Mark 12, we watch Jesus face off against political and religious elites trying to trap Him with tricky questions...and instead, He exposes their flawed thinking and points to something far greater: the eternal.From political polarization to fear of death, from chasing approval to being stuck in past mistakes—we all face mental and spiritual traps. But the gospel offers us something better: a new perspective from above.Discover how living “above the line” changes everything...your identity, your purpose, even how you face trials. Learn how Jesus refused to be defined by temporary debates and instead invites us into a deeper freedom grounded in the unseen, eternal reality of God's kingdom.

Philippians 4:10-23 NLT10 How I praise the Lord that you are concerned about me again. I know you have always been concerned for me, but you didn't have the chance to help me. 11 Not that I was ever in need, for I have learned how to be content with whatever I have. 12 I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little. 13 For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength. 14 Even so, you have done well to share with me in my present difficulty. 15 As you know, you Philippians were the only ones who gave me financial help when I first brought you the Good News and then traveled on from Macedonia. No other church did this. 16 Even when I was in Thessalonica you sent help more than once. 17 I don't say this because I want a gift from you. Rather, I want you to receive a reward for your kindness. 18 At the moment I have all I need—and more! I am generously supplied with the gifts you sent me with Epaphroditus. They are a sweet-smelling sacrifice that is acceptable and pleasing to God. 19 And this same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from his glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus. 20 Now all glory to God our Father forever and ever! Amen. 21 Give my greetings to each of God's holy people—all who belong to Christ Jesus. The brothers who are with me send you their greetings. 22 And all the rest of God's people send you greetings, too, especially those in Caesar's household. 23 May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. • • •1. Look Inward • • •Philippians 4:10 NLT10 How I praise the Lord that you are concerned about me again. I know you have always been concerned for me, but you didn't have the chance to help me. • • •Romans 8:28 NLT28 And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them. • • •2. Look Upward • • •Philippians 4:11-13 NLT11 Not that I was ever in need, for I have learned how to be content with whatever I have. 12 I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little. 13 For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength. • • •John 15:5 NLT5 “Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing. • • •3. Look Outward • • •Philippians 4:14-20 NLT14 Even so, you have done well to share with me in my present difficulty. 15 As you know, you Philippians were the only ones who gave me financial help when I first brought you the Good News and then traveled on from Macedonia. No other church did this. 16 Even when I was in Thessalonica you sent help more than once. 17 I don't say this because I want a gift from you. Rather, I want you to receive a reward for your kindness. 18 At the moment I have all I need—and more! I am generously supplied with the gifts you sent me with Epaphroditus. They are a sweet-smelling sacrifice that is acceptable and pleasing to God. 19 And this same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from his glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus. 20 Now all glory to God our Father forever and ever! Amen. • • •Philippians 2:3-4 NLT3 Don't be selfish; don't try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. 4 Don't look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too. • • •2 Corinthians 9:6-8 NLT6 Remember this—a farmer who plants only a few seeds will get a small crop. But the one who plants generously will get a generous crop. 7 You must each decide in your heart how much to give. And don't give reluctantly or in response to pressure. “For God loves a person who gives cheerfully.” 8 And God will generously provide all you need. Then you will always have everything you need and plenty left over to share with others. • • •Application:Growing up in Christ should result in a life of contentment and generosity towards others.

God doesn't give revelation to rebels except His gracious call to repentance and restoration. A right relationship with the risen Messiah will cause you to become more and more like Jesus every day.When it was decided that we should sail for Italy, they delivered Paul and some other prisoners to a centurion of the Augustan Cohort named Julius. And embarking in a ship of Adramyttium, which was about to sail to the ports along the coast of Asia, we put to sea, accompanied by Aristarchus, a Macedonian from Thessalonica. The next day we put in at Sidon. And Julius treated Paul kindly and gave him leave to go to his friends and be cared for. And putting out to sea from there we sailed under the lee of Cyprus, because the winds were against us. And when we had sailed across the open sea along the coast of Cilicia and Pamphylia, we came to Myra in Lycia. There the centurion found a ship of Alexandria sailing for Italy and put us on board. Acts 27:1-6 ESVWe struggled along the coast with great difficulty and finally arrived at Fair Havens, near the town of Lasea. We had lost a lot of time. The weather was becoming dangerous for sea travel because it was so late in the fall, and Paul spoke to the ship's officers about it. “Men,” he said, “I believe there is trouble ahead if we go on, shipwreck, loss of cargo, and danger to our lives as well.” Acts 27:8-10 NLTWhen a light wind began blowing from the south, the sailors thought they could make it. So they pulled up anchor and sailed close to the shore of Crete. Acts 27:13 NLTWisdom isn't determined by the direction of the wind!  But the weather changed abruptly, and a wind of typhoon strength (called a “northeaster”) burst across the island and blew us out to sea. The sailors couldn't turn the ship into the wind, so they gave up and let it run before the gale. Acts 27:14-15 NLTDon't let a moment of favor or desire determine your direction or destiny. The next day, as gale-force winds continued to batter the ship, the crew began throwing the cargo overboard. The following day they even took some of the ship's tackle and threw it overboard. The terrible storm raged for many days, blotting out the sun and the stars, until at last all hope was gone. Acts 27:18-20 NLTIn a severe storm, earthly possessions and navigation systems can become of little or no value. No one had eaten for a long time. Finally, Paul called the crew together and said, “Men, you should have listened to me in the first place and not left Crete. You would have avoided all this damage and loss. Acts 27:21 NLTA tactical “I told you so” can be a blessing if you receive it as an encouragement to listen next time. - But take courage! None of you will lose your lives, even though the ship will go down. For last night an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve stood beside me, and he said, ‘Don't be afraid, Paul, for you will surely stand trial before Caesar! What's more, God in his goodness has granted safety to everyone sailing with you.' So take courage! For I believe God. It will be just as he said. But we will be shipwrecked on an island.” Acts 27:22-26 NLT God will always prioritize the condition of your soul and salvation over any temporal success or solution.Just as day was dawning, Paul urged everyone to eat. “You have been so worried that you haven't touched food for two weeks,” he said. “Please eat something now for your own good. For not a hair of your heads will perish.” Then he took some bread, gave thanks to God before them all, and broke off a piece and ate it. Then everyone was encouraged and began to eat, all 276 of us who were on board. Acts 27:33-37 NLTOften it's our response to the problems we face that is the real problem, and what causes us to lose our way.The soldiers decided to kill the prisoners so none could escape by swimming, but the centurion, determined to save Paul, stopped them. He gave orders for anyone who could swim to dive in and go for it, and for the rest to grab a plank. Everyone made it to shore safely. Acts 27:42-44 MSGBut Paul shook off the snake into the fire and was unharmed. The people waited for him to swell up or suddenly drop dead. But when they had waited a long time and saw that he wasn't harmed, they changed their minds and decided he was a god. Acts 28:5-6 NLT For the next two years, Paul lived in Rome at his own expense. He welcomed all who visited him, boldly proclaiming the Kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ. And no one tried to stop him. Acts 28:30-31 NLTThe faith and faithfulness of Paul was only outmatched by the faithfulness of our loving, living God.

THE FIRST PERSECUTION OF THE CHURCH (Acts 4:1-22) As believers we are to obey those that God has placed in power over us, whether they be Caesar, or Nero, or our current leaders.  Yet, there are times when Caesar so abuses his power as to command that we do something morally or spiritually wrong.  That is where the believer must draw the line, even at the cost of death.  The believer must respectfully, but firmly, refuse to obey the commands of human authority when it defies the laws of God.  And when the time comes, and it will come, that we are prohibited from preaching and teaching the name of Jesus, that is when we must refuse to obey the command of the rulers placed in authority above us.   Peter does just that as he proclaims to the Sanhedrin, “Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye. For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.”  This was Peter's and John's reply when they were commanded by the religious leaders to stop teaching in the name of Jesus.  They declared that they would continue to teach, preach, and heal in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, no matter the cost.   It is not by the name of Confucius, Buddha, or Allah, that a lost person can find salvation; not even by the name of one of the great heroes of the Bible, not Abraham, or Moses, can a lost person find salvation.  Only in the name of Jesus can salvation be found.  Jesus is the world's only Savior.  John 14:6 6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. KJV The law can't save you. Religion can't save you, and there is absolutely no ceremony that can save you. You cannot get to Heaven through the pope. You cannot stand before God clothed in the robes of righteousness by doing more good works than bad works.  Your friends and family cannot pray you into heaven.  You cannot buy your way out of darkness and an eternity in Hell. There is only one way to get rid of Satan's darkness, and that is the light of the Word of God, Jesus Christ the Son of the living God.  We have victory in Jesus because no force on the earth, or below the earth, can stand against the mighty majesty of His name.  When you come to Jesus for salvation, it is His blood that wipes away your sin.  It is His blood that provides eternal life for you.   Click on the play button to hear a message about the first persecution of the church that would dare to teach about the gospel message found in the name of Jesus. This is a live recording of The Master's Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS. Amen.

In this solo episode of This Life Ain't For Everybody, Chad takes the mic and rolls through the things he's fired up about right now. From the music spinning on his playlist to the magic of Jack Daniels, Nashville nights to the lights of Caesar's Palace, all the way back to the beauty of Lake Tahoe. This one's a ride through the places, people, and sounds that fuel his life. And then there's Metallica. Chad breaks down what it's like to see one of the greatest bands in the world live. This episode is brought to you by Jack Daniel's Tennessee Whiskey, Caesar's Palace and Entertainment, Travel Nevada, Napa Valley Olive Oil and Oakley Sunglasses

We investigate chapter 58 from the New Testament section of A Practical Commentary on Holy Scripture.Please support the Our Lady of Fatima Podcast:http://buymeacoffee.com/TerenceMStantonLike and subscribe on YouTube:https://m.youtube.com/@OurLadyOfFatimaPodcastFollow us on X:@FatimaPodcastThank you!

On today's episode, we finally dive into one of the biggest movie franchises of all-time.  This movie is the 29th highest rated movie on IMDB and was nominated for 11 academy awards, winning 6 of them.   This was the first movie to make over $300 million at the domestic box office.  Of the first 7 movies in the franchise, this movie has the shortest run time, and is the 2nd highest fan rated and the 1st highest critic rated.   We are of course talking about 1977's Stars Wars:  A New Hope.  •0:00:00 - Introductions •0:03:00 - Memories of first viewing •0:08:00  - Pertinent movie details  •0:16:00- Critical and fan reviews •0:22:30 - Scene by scene breakdown  •1:57:00 - Modern day ratings —————————————————————— **Support us at http://patreon.com/confusedbreakfast for bonus weekly episodes, voting on upcoming movies, giving your modern-day ratings on our movies and much more. **Mail us something   The Confused Breakfast PO Box 10016 Cedar Rapids, IA 52402-9802 Special thanks to our executive producers- Josh Miller, Starling, Michael Guiliano and NicMad. Welcome to our newest members -  Mike H, Tony Haga, Nick Heiderscheit, Caesar, jon boy, WA-1-1, Matthew Zwick, Brian Iobello, This Justin, Kevin Surnear, Edison Cruz, Dan Doty Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Julius Caesar was no aspiring autocrat seeking to realize the imperial future but an unusually successful republican leader who was measured against the Republic's traditions and its greatest heroes of the past. Catastrophe befell Rome not because Caesar (or anyone else) turned against the Republic, its norms, and institutions, but because Caesar's extraordinary success mobilized a determined opposition that ultimately preferred to precipitate civil war rather than accept its political defeat. Based on painstaking re-analysis of the ancient sources in the light of recent advances in our understanding of the participatory role of the People in the republican political system, a strong emphasis on agents' choices rather than structural causation, and profound skepticism toward the facile determinism that often substitutes for historical explanation, Julius Caesar and the Roman People (Cambridge University Press, 2021) offers a radical reinterpretation of a figure of profound historical importance who stands at the turning point of Roman history from Republic to Empire. Robert Morstein-Marx is Professor of Classics at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/history

Kelly Gibney is here to share her recipe and says a mix of seeds adds big crunch to schnitzel. The addition of hemp, sesame and chia seeds to panko breadcrumbs makes a very crunchy and super tasty coating for chicken. While Brussels sprouts are in season, try them in a salad or slaw. When very thinly sliced (ideally via a mandolin) they're a fantastic salad green. They work really well with a richly flavoured dressing, such as this easy Caesar dressing. Recipe is here

There's this disease that hits college campuses in the spring every year. It's called "senior panic." You arrive at college as a freshman with this sneaking suspicion that you might just meet the person you're going to marry while you're there. And as you go through college, that suspicion becomes an expectation. Now, my wife and I met when we went to college, where we began our education. And D. L. Moody, the man who founded our school, the great evangelist, well, he was a shoe salesman. In fact, they used to say that Moody was a shoe factory where they would take in old heels, and repair their souls, and send them out in pairs. So, you wanted to come out of there with a mate if at all possible. Right? You started with that suspicion that you might find somebody, and then it became an expectation, and then maybe in your junior year it became a determination, "I've got to find somebody here! I might not have anybody." And then you hit your senior year; there's no husband or wife in sight - senior panic! Quick, do something! I'm going to miss it if I don't do something fast! Who says panic is only a senior problem? I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Problem With Panic." Now, our word for today from the Word of God comes from Acts 27. I'll begin reading at verse 30. The Apostle Paul has been for two weeks in the middle of a terrible storm at sea, as he's being carried by a Roman ship to meet with Caesar in Rome. And as they begin to go aground, some of the crew starts to have, not senior panic, but sailor panic. Here's what they decide to do, listen: "In an attempt to escape from the ship, the sailors let the lifeboat down into the sea pretending they were going to lower some anchors from the bow. Then Paul said to the Centurion and the soldiers, 'Unless these men stay with the ship, you cannot be saved.' So the soldiers cut the ropes that held the lifeboat and they let it fall away." Okay, some background: The Apostle Paul had gotten assurance from the Lord, in the middle of the storm, that though the ship would go aground, the people would be saved. In fact earlier in the chapter, here's the message he conveys, "Do not be afraid. God has graciously given you the lives of all who sail with you, so keep up your courage, men. I have faith in God that it will happen just as He told me." Well, their panic was understandable; the ship's coming apart. Looks like God's not going to deliver them in time. They panic! They scramble for a quick answer. Have you ever done that? See, if they do this, they're not going to make it. If you do, you won't make it. How many times do we look at our storm, we see the ship going down, financially, romantically, emotionally, and we panic. We go for a lifeboat instead of waiting for God's answer, God's provision. Abraham did it with Hagar and he created a problem for centuries with the two sons of promise, because he and Sarah could not wait for God to fulfill His promise. Rebecca did it with her son, Jacob, when she lied about him to try to get the blessing for him and all she ended up with was a family split apart. You and I do it when we settle for these patchwork solutions. Because of panic, many of God's kids have ended up with a lot of heartache, in the wrong job, the wrong relationships, the wrong marriage, a mountain of debt. The greatest enemy of God's best may be impatience. We can't wait for God to do as Paul said, "All that God said that He would do." Those seniors who panic over singleness often get the wrong person. In their rush, they often make a life-long mistake. When they think time's running out, God is right on schedule. Remember, if you panic, you can make a life-long mistake.

If you're a wild game Provider, you can't miss this Eat Wild edition! How to make sure your wild game is perfect for the table, even when it makes a pit stop in the freezer. TFL Midwest Host Joel Kleefisch, award-winning Provider Chef Ellie Lawton, and Professional Butcher Mike Kretschmer break down exactly how to make sure the birds you bag in the field are fresh as the day they're harvested. This episode is brought to you by The Provider Culinary, Caesar's Palace and Entertainment, Travel nevada, Travel Wisconsin, ZLINE, and Nappa Valley Olive Oil

Caesar's decree for a nationwide census couldn't come at a worse time for Mary and Joseph. But perhaps this journey to Bethlehem is exactly what God planned all along.Today's Bible verse is Matthew 16:24, from the King James Version.Download the Pray.com app for more Christian content including, Daily Prayers, Inspirational Testimonies, and Bedtime Bible Stories.Pray.com is the digital destination for faith. With over 5,000 daily prayers, meditations, bedtime stories, and cinematic stories inspired by the Bible, the Pray.com app has everything you need to keep your focus on the Lord. Make Prayer a priority and download the #1 App for Prayer and Sleep today in the Apple app store or Google Play store.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Archaeology Show is taking a break this week, so please enjoy this episode of The Past Macabre, another excellent show on The Archaeology Podcast Network.In this first of a two-part series, The Past Macabre travels back to Late Iron Age Britain before the Roman conquest to explore the world that shaped one of history's most famous warrior queens: Boudica. Her story has been told many times for nearly two millennia, but what is the truth behind the Celtic warrior queen who stood against Rome? Uncover the archaeology of her tribe the Iceni, from sacred sites, workshops, and homesteads. We'll explore the first contacts between Rome and Britain as early as the 2nd century BCE to Caesar's failed invasion in 54 BCE and the uneasy alliances that turned native leaders into Roman client-kings. Then we'll look at how growing disunity amongst the Celts paved the way for Emperor Claudius' invasion in 43 CE.Learn about the hoards of treasure, settlements, burials, and hillforts found across England and what they can tell us about the world Boudica was born into at a time of rapid social, economic, and political change.TranscriptFor a rough transcript LinksSee photos related to episode topics on InstagramLoving the macabre lore? Treat your host to a coffee!University of Warwick Teaching Resources - BoudicaEast Anglian Archaeology Report on Excavations in Thetford 1980–82New Discovery of Horse Gear Hoard in North YorkshireExperimental Archaeology Video: What did Iron Age women wear?ContactChris Websterchris@archaeologypodcastnetwork.comRachel Rodenrachel@unraveleddesigns.comRachelUnraveled (Instagram)ArchPodNetAPN Website: https://www.archpodnet.comAPN Discord: https://discord.com/invite/CWBhb2T2edAPN on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/archpodnetAPN on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/archpodnetAPN on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/archpodnetAPN ShopAffiliatesMotion

Whose authority are you living under? When confronted with a politically charged trap, Jesus shows Himself to be the wisest person on earth. The Pharisees and Herodians, enemies who unite only because they hate Him more, try to corner Him with a question about taxes. But Jesus doesn't take the bait. Instead, He exposes the deeper issue—our rebellion against God. “Why put Me to the test?” He asks, cutting straight to the heart. His answer, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's,” challenges our view of ownership and authority. Taxes may belong to Caesar, but our very lives belong to God. To render to Him is not to pay from what we think is ours, but to surrender what has always been His. This call feels costly, but it comes from the One who gave up His own riches, stepped down into poverty, and bore the cost of our rebellion so we could be made rich in Him. The real question is not whose authority Jesus affirms—but whether we have surrendered ourselves fully to God.You can join our OneLife Sunday morning gatherings via livestream at 8:45am and 10;30am CST every Sunday morning. Or if you're local to the Bay Area of Houston, we'd love to have you join us in person Saturdays at 5pm and Sundays at 8:45am, 10:30am, or 12:30pm!Subscribe to our YouTube channel to join us live on Sunday mornings: https://www.youtube.com/@onelifechurch381Listen to more messages from OneLife Church at https://www.onelifehouston.com/messagesIf you would like to give to OneLife Church, you can do that here https://www.onelifehouston.com/giveAt OneLife, we want to be and make disciples of Jesus who love God, one another, and our world. We are God's people making much of Jesus in everyday life for the good of the neighborhoods in the Bay Area of Houston and beyond.For more information about us and our gatherings, visit https://www.onelifehouston.comConnect with us over social media!Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/onelifehouston​Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/onelifechurch

The Gospel of Luke is the most detailed and comprehensive account of Jesus' life, revealing how He reached people from all backgrounds with His message of hope and salvation. Throughout this series, we explore how Jesus interacted with the outcasts, the religious, the rich, and the poor—demonstrating that He came to seek and save the lost. No matter who you are or where you come from, Jesus is for everyone.Join us as we walk through Luke's Gospel, uncovering its powerful themes and life-changing truths. Whether you're new to faith or a longtime believer, this series will deepen your understanding of who Jesus is and what His message means for you today.Subscribe for more! Don't miss an episode—follow along on YouTube and your favorite podcast platform as we explore Jesus for Everyone.Reflection Questions:Where in my life am I giving more loyalty to “Caesar” than to God?What would change this week if I truly believed my worth comes from being made in God's image?How can I reflect God's character more clearly in the way I treat the people I interact with daily?What is one specific area I need to surrender to God so I can “give Him what is His”?

Marianne Murciano, Bob Sirott's wife and founder of Savvy-Planet, joins Bob to share tips on what you should and should not say when talking to someone online. Marianne also details her Caesar salad recipe with homemade skillet croutons. Marianne joins Bob for a weekly segment Fridays following the 8:30 am newscast. For more savvy tips, go […]

On today's episode, we discuss the 117th highest rated movie ever made, according to IMDB.  This movie was nominated for 10 academy awards and won an astonishing 7 of them.  When the dust settled after its release, it had become fourth highest-grossing film in history.   Arguably the greatest heist comedy thriller ever made.  We are of course talking about 1973's The Sting •0:00:00 - Introductions •0:03:30 - Memories of first viewing •0:06:30  - Pertinent movie details  •0:10:00- Critical and fan reviews •0:20:00 - Scene by scene breakdown  •1:23:00 - Modern day ratings —————————————————————— SPONSORS- **ASPCA-  To learn more about Pet Health Insurance, visit http://aspcapetinsurance.com/breakfast  —————————————————————— **Support us at http://patreon.com/confusedbreakfast for bonus weekly episodes, voting on upcoming movies, giving your modern-day ratings on our movies and much more. **Mail us something   The Confused Breakfast PO Box 10016 Cedar Rapids, IA 52402-9802 Special thanks to our executive producers- Josh Miller, Starling, Michael Guiliano and NicMad. Welcome to our newest members -  Mike H, Tony Haga, Nick Heiderscheit, Caesar, jon boy, WA-1-1, Matthew Zwick, Brian Iobello, This Justin, Kevin Surnear, Edison Cruz, Dan Doty Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Michael Gibson and Danielle Strachman, co-founders of 1517 Fund, join the show to discuss their rebellion against higher education, why universities stifle creativity, why IQ doesn't correlate with innovation, and how betting on "misfit toys" is the way to go—plus we explore Girardian mimesis, the perishable nature of creativity, the laziness of pessimistic storytelling and MORE! I hope you enjoy the conversation as much as I did. For the full transcript, episode takeaways, and bucketloads of other goodies designed to make you go, “Hmm, that's interesting!”, check out our Substack. Important Links: 1517 Fund Michael's Twitter Danielle's Twitter 1517 Substack Show Notes: Why 1517 Fund Rebels Against Higher Education Giving Individuals a Shot “It's cool to be building stuff, it's not cool to be a Thiel Fellow” The ‘ATM Founder' and ‘Rich Too Early' Syndrome The Power of Predictive Character Traits Flipping Credentialist Thinking "How do we become Spielberg? How do we do something truly great?" Simple Memes and Powerful Narratives Avoiding a Monoculture of Misfits The Incestuous Universities Scene Choosing Your Own Path People Contain Multitudes Michael and Danielle as World Emperor and Empress Books & Essays Mentioned: A Mind at Play: How Claude Shannon Invented the Information Age; by Jimmy Soni and Rob Goodman Collective Illusions: Conformity, Complicity, and the Science of Why We Make Bad Decisions; by Todd Rose "A Gift for My Daughter"; by Harry Browne (Full text available here) Paper Belt on Fire; by Michael Gibson The Idea Factory: Bell Labs and the Great Age of American Innovation; by Jon Gertner The Right Stuff; by Tom Wolfe The Status Game; by Will Storr The Two Cultures; by C.P. Snow What Works on Wall Street; by Jim O'Shaughnessy White Mirror: Stories; by Tinkered Thinking Zero to One; by Peter Thiel The Founders: The Story of PayPal and the Entrepreneurs Who Shaped Silicon Valley; by Jimmy Soni Rome's Last Citizen: The Life and Legacy of Cato, Mortal Enemy of Caesar; by Jimmy Soni and Rob Goodman How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World; by Harry Browne

When two Daves walk into a podcast, you don't expect to stumble upon a meditation on art, failure, persistence, and horror-comedy. But that's exactly what happened in this electric and delightfully unfiltered conversation with Dave Campfield, a filmmaker, actor, and host of the Troma Now Podcast, best known for his work in the cult Caesar and Otto comedy-horror film series.Dave Campfield is a fiercely independent filmmaker whose journey from a now-defunct film college in New Mexico to directing his own cult horror satires has been a long and winding road paved with hustle, humor, and horror.We start in the sand-colored surrealism of Santa Fe, where adobe buildings and the ghost of City Slickers set the stage for Dave's early filmmaking dreams. In the land of tumbleweeds and tumble-down gym studios turned sound stages, Dave cut his teeth not just on film but on the art of adaptation.The college no longer exists, but the memories—like chalk lines under studio lights—remain vivid in his story. “It was like going to school on Tatooine,” he says, laughing, but behind that joke is a bittersweet nod to the ephemeral.From there, Dave walks us through the illusion of success—early meetings with Universal and New Line Cinema where hopes were dangled like carrots in front of eager young dreamers. The industry, he quickly learned, speaks its own coded language: familiarity, marketability, and sometimes, plain deception. One mentor told him to “say you're young, from the streets, and have a dark comedy,” regardless of truth. Dave gave it a shot but came away with the haunting realization that "they were intrigued enough to keep me on leash, but not enough to make it happen."That experience seeded his first real film, “Dark Chamber,” a mystery-horror project which deliberately bucked slasher formulas. It took five years to make—five years of blood, sweat, and overdrafts. And yet, when the studios responded with, “We wanted something more familiar,” Dave knew he was swimming upstream. Still, he sold the film to a small distributor, endured its repackaging as something it wasn't, and got it onto Netflix. A win—just not the one he envisioned.But here's the heart of it all: Dave didn't stop. He pivoted, not with bitterness, but with evolution. “I decided I wasn't going to be one of those people waiting for opportunity. You had to make it happen on your own.” And so, he leaned into comedy horror—a genre he describes as “Abbott and Costello meet Frankenstein, but for the splatter generation.” Thus, Caesar and Otto were born: two absurdly lovable doofuses bumbling their way through massacres, monsters, and paranormal mayhem.One of Dave's secret weapons is loyalty to what's real. Whether recounting how Lloyd Kaufman forgot him (then remembered) or editing commercials for the Philadelphia Pet Expo, he keeps a kind of grounded magic about his craft. He shares a deeply personal new project, “Awaken the Reaper,” born from a decade of introspection and struggle, calling it “the most personal thing I've ever written.” He says, “It's about being stuck—feeling like every day you're not moving forward—and finally getting out of your own way.”All along, Dave's been quietly building a reputation for casting future stars before they break—Trey Byers (Empire), Peter Scanavino (Law & Order)—and hosting a podcast that thrives not just because of brand synergy with Troma, but because he genuinely knows how to talk to people. “They've never rejected an episode,” he remarks. “I tease Troma a lot, and they're always game. It's a beautiful collaboration.”The conversation wraps not with grandiosity, but a recognition that even the smallest cult followings can keep a creator going. “My fanbase is small, but intense,” Dave says with pride. “I can rattle them off on two hands.” Maybe that's enough. Maybe that's everything.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/bulletproof-screenwriting-podcast--2881148/support.

August 14, 2025

Interview with Allen and Barb Vest of Double Vee. Allan was the primary songwriter, lead vocalist, and multi-instrumentalist for indie/orchestral pop band Starlight Mints, producing and releasing four albums between 2000 and 2009, with legendary producer Dave Sardy co-producing the critically acclaimed debut album, The Dream that Stuff was Made Of. Major motion pictures and television series have utilized his music, with TV shows including Malcolm in the Middle, Californication, One Tree Hill and Gossip Girl and movies including Barnyard, Van Wilder 2: The Rise of Taj and The Art of Getting By. The BBC mini-series Demons effectively used "Eyes of the Night" off the 2006 album Drowaton as the series' theme song. Allan's instrumental scores have been featured in Disney animated shorts, writer/director Mickey Reece's movies Seducers Club and Punch Cowboy, and in projects by Canada-based writer/director Erahm Christopher and features helmed by award-winning director Bradley Beesley among other productions. Allan has produced and arranged music for clients including Francine, Skating Polly, Student Film and Bishop Allen. He also composed the theme music for the podcast In Sickness and In Health with Dr. Céline Gounder.   Barb's diverse background includes sixteen years in public radio where her achievements included writing, hosting, and producing Filmscapes, a nationally syndicated film music program. She edited a music webzine for several years and marketed and produced eight garage sale/shows featuring local bands and merchants. While Barb's vocal music history includes appearing in themed cover shows and providing backing vocals on recordings for local bands, her love of music began with her family, with her grandmother regularly putting a tape recorder on her piano bench and singing along to her original compositions, before she passed away after a sudden heart attack at the age of 57.  Barb grew up singing around the piano with her mother and sister.  She enjoyed writing poetry and short stories during her younger years and loves exploring the inventive worlds of lyrics and songwriting with Allan.  When they're not creating new music, Allan and Barb enjoy working with clients…teaching, recording, producing music and videos and more. In their free time, they like to travel, watch movies, hike, and spend time with friends and family. Favorite hiking trails include Angels Landing at Zion National Park, Precipice Trail at Acadia National Park and the Cape Lookout Trail in Oregon. They love concocting meals in the kitchen together and especially savor making Caesar salads at home and trying them anytime they're on the menu at a new restaurant. They're grateful to be producing music and appreciate the support of their listeners.  http://doubleVee.net. http://doubleVee.bandcamp.com. http://YouTube.com/@doubleVeeBand. http://Facebook.com/doubleVeeSongs. http://Instagram.com/doubleVee_band.  

There is a growing segment of our American society, this so-called new woke aspect, which seeks to redefine the meaning/definition of a man, a real man, a Biblical man.The definition of a man, by both Biblical and Societal definitions, was clear, not subject to debate or change. That man, created by the Great G-d Jehovah, the Great I Am, was created in His image and was to be like Him, ordained by God to be the ruler of the planet and to be head of all things. That man was biologically determined, and both sex and gender unchangeable. But, a man today, accordingly to the radical woke element of our society, can both decide and determine his sex/gender, and should he choose a different gender identity, he can do so, no matter any Biblical or biological determination.And, that changing definition is today a work-in-progress. A man today can now be gay, that is homosexual, bi-sexual, transgender, queer (LGBTQ), or some different alternative with which the individual may identify.It is really a tragedy what is happening to God's first man, His creation. This new definition of man makes him not like HIM the Great Creator, but made in mans image and definition.But, let us review what the Bible says about a real man. He is called upon to be strong, not only in body, physically, but in mind, will, spirit, and soul. The real man is possessive of a God-made body, which is, as described by the Bible:THE TEMPLE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.That physical body of a real man should be honored, respected, cared for, and kept in the best physical shape possible by that man, never forgetting that it is the housing of the spirit, The Holy Spirit of the Great Divine Triumvirate.That real man, like our Lord Jesus Christ, may enjoy the fruit of the grape, the wine which Jesus himself drank, if he so chooses, but should never, ever, be drunken. Drinking wine or alcohol to excess is the ruination of the temple of The Holy Spirit. No real man can function mentally or spiritually under the influence of drugs or alcohol. None.The real Biblical man respects his body and his sexuality, and will not be given to adultery, fornication, lascivious living, and always respects, protects, and honors marital intimacy. He is a man with strong fidelity and ultimate respect for:ONE WOMAN. ONE WIFE.The real man constantly strives to learn, educate himself, and in all things, asks for the wisdom for his life and decision making, which only God can give. The request for God given wisdom is constant, continuous, and totally sincere in all things, everything. God honors the sincere request of any real man for HIS wisdom.That real man is strong spiritually. Learn-ed in the Bible, and always learning. studying, sharing, witnessing, and teaching, always growing in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. That is the only way that man can be a real father and train up his children in the way they should go, the way of the Lord.That real Biblical man is a protector of the Christian faith, and to that extent, politically active. He renders unto Caesar the things which rightly belong to Caesar, but demands morality, truth, respect, and honesty in all things political. The real man is a watch dog, a watchman on the wall, making certain that Caesar functions in the way that Caesar should, so that the things of God Almighty are never interfered with.The real man discharges his duties as HEAD OF HOUSEHOLD. That ethical principle has become more unpopular today. Far too many men abandon their responsibilities and any substitute for a real father is never enough, inadequate, and most importantly, not Biblical.If the real man is privileged to have a real family, then that man, husband, father, friend, and teacher spends time, quality time, consistent regular and respectful time, with every member of that household lovingly together as one family unit but also, lovingly and respectfully individually with each member. Only by implementing both, together and individual, can the individuals of that family thrive and grow.The real man is truthful. That Biblical man does not lie. He is known for telling the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, transparency in all things. Any in the family, even the youngest, can sense hypocrisy, and can even more easily ascertain the lie of any kind. Nothing sabotages the credibility and integrity of a man/father than the lie, nothing.The Biblical man/father never fails to discipline when necessary. That discipline is not physical, but lovingly confrontational. That real man, and the real woman of the household, must be living examples of any rules and regulations which are established for the operation of the family and the household.The real man, and of course the real woman, must spend quiet time, time and prayer, meditation, and thoughtful evaluation and in the study of Scripture. And so much to every family member.The Bible, Old and New Testaments, has so much more to say about a man, a real man. It is difficult, if not impossible, to be a real man without that Biblical knowledge, definition, and encouragement of what a real man is. Today, the challenges of this world make it far too easy to compromise, surrender, and succumb to the definitions, pleasures, and lusts of the modern society. It is our prayer, our revival prayer, that the Biblical man, the man God and our Lord Jesus Christ intended, reemerge, become the shining light for society and for any family, and once again, both do and become the man/person which God intended. That man is always humble before the Lord, ready to admit wrong, apologize, to shed a tear, and to show love and respect to everyone. If a man, a Biblical man, lives and loves like the Bible intended, there is nothing in life any better, no greater force than that of a:REAL BIOLOGICAL AND BIBLICAL MAN.

Full Text of ReadingsNineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time Lectionary: 117The Saint of the day is Saint LawrenceSaint Lawrence’s Story The esteem in which the Church holds Lawrence is seen in the fact that today's celebration ranks as a feast. We know very little about his life. He is one of those whose martyrdom made a deep and lasting impression on the early Church. Celebration of his feast day spread rapidly. He was a Roman deacon under Pope Saint Sixtus II. Four days after this pope was put to death, Lawrence and four clerics suffered martyrdom, probably during the persecution of the Emperor Valerian. Legendary details of Lawrence’s death were known to Damasus, Prudentius, Ambrose, and Augustine. The church built over his tomb became one of the seven principal churches in Rome and a favorite place for Roman pilgrimages. A well-known legend has persisted from earliest times. As deacon in Rome, Lawrence was charged with the responsibility for the material goods of the Church, and the distribution of alms to the poor. When Lawrence knew he would be arrested like the pope, he sought out the poor, widows, and orphans of Rome and gave them all the money he had on hand, selling even the sacred vessels of the altar to increase the sum. When the prefect of Rome heard of this, he imagined that the Christians must have considerable treasure. He sent for Lawrence and said, “You Christians say we are cruel to you, but that is not what I have in mind. I am told that your priests offer in gold, that the sacred blood is received in silver cups, that you have golden candlesticks at your evening services. Now, your doctrine says you must render to Caesar what is his. Bring these treasures—the emperor needs them to maintain his forces. God does not cause money to be counted: He brought none of it into the world with him—only words. Give me the money, therefore, and be rich in words.” Lawrence replied that the Church was indeed rich. “I will show you a valuable part. But give me time to set everything in order and make an inventory.” After three days he gathered a great number of blind, lame, maimed, leprous, orphaned, and widowed persons and put them in rows. When the prefect arrived, Lawrence simply said, “These are the treasure of the Church.” The prefect was so angry he told Lawrence that he would indeed have his wish to die—but it would be by inches. He had a great gridiron prepared with coals beneath it, and had Lawrence's body placed on it. After the martyr had suffered the pain for a long time, the legend concludes, he made his famous cheerful remark, “It is well done. Turn me over!” Reflection Once again we have a saint about whom almost nothing is known, yet one who has received extraordinary honor in the Church since the fourth century. Almost nothing—yet the greatest fact of his life is certain: He died for Christ. We who are hungry for details about the lives of the saints are again reminded that their holiness was after all, a total response to Christ, expressed perfectly by a death like this. Saint Lawrence is a Patron Saint of: CooksDeaconsPoor Saint of the Day, Copyright Franciscan Media

August of 70s starts off with a review of one of the greatest zombie movies ever made!  This movie set the bar for the genre and made us all wonder what it would be like to hole up in a shopping mall during the zombie apocalypse.   Would you go slowly insane?   Would you be smart enough to realize that your girlfriend will never be able to learn how to fly a helicopter?   Due to your constant scrolling and purchasing of things you don't need, are you actually a zombie right now?!   Tune in for this full episode.   •0:00:00 - Introductions •0:03:00 - Memories of first viewing •0:05:30  - Pertinent movie details  •0:11:00- Critical and fan reviews •0:21:00 - Scene by scene breakdown  •1:49:00 - Modern day ratings —————————————————————— SPONSORS- ****Quince-  Grab your EXCLUSIVE eal by going to http://nordvpn.com/breakfast to get a Huge Discount off your NordVPN Plan + 4 additional months on top! It's completely risk-free with Nord's 30-day money-back guarantee! —————————————————————— **Support us at http://patreon.com/confusedbreakfast for bonus weekly episodes, voting on upcoming movies, giving your modern-day ratings on our movies and much more. **Mail us something   The Confused Breakfast PO Box 10016 Cedar Rapids, IA 52402-9802 Special thanks to our executive producers- Josh Miller, Starling, Michael Guiliano and NicMad. Welcome to our newest members -  Mike H, Tony Haga, Nick Heiderscheit, Caesar, jon boy, WA-1-1, Matthew Zwick, Brian Iobello, This Justin, Kevin Surnear, Edison Cruz, Dan Doty Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The BanterThe Guys talk about sourcing new products including attending the Fancy Food Show and getting a good tip from a podcast guest. Hear about the latest one that has caught their attention.The ConversationThe Restaurant Guys are sharing two conversations with two chefs who are fusing cuisines. Tyler Akin has gotten attention for marrying Corsican and Sardinian dishes at Bastia in Philadelphia . Chaz Lindsay in Jackson, MS has taken his culinary experiences in NYC and Italy back to his home in Mississippi where he blends in down home Southern cooking. BioTyler AkinTyler Akin is a Philadelphia-based chef, restaurateur, and founder of Form-FunctionHospitality. Akin is currently the chef-partner of Le Cavalier at the Green Room, at the iconic Hotel du Pont in Wilmington, DE. Tyler also serves as chef-partner of Bastia, at the Hotel Anna & Bel in Philadelphia's Fishtown neighborhood. Bastia was named a “Must-Visit New Restaurant” by Bon Appétit prior to opening, it has since earned accolades including placement on Esquire's list of “Best New Restaurants in America” for 2024.Chaz LindsayChaz Lindsay was raised in Belhaven, MS, graduated Culinary Institute of America, externed and worked at Eleven Madison Park. He was a sous chef at Colicchio and Sons and Craft in NYC before leaving  to work in Tuscania, Italy. Chaz returned to the states and in 2023 he opened Pulito Osteria in Jackson MS. Pulito Osteria's menu merges Italian cuisine with flavors of the Deep South. In 2025, he opened Rowan's bar with fresh takes on pub classics. InfoTyler's Bastia, Philadelphia, PAhttps://www.bastiafishtown.com/Chaz's Pulito Osteria, Jackson, MShttps://www.pulitojackson.com/Elephant Green Chili  Chutneyhttps://elephantgreenbrand.com/Francis' Caesar salad recipe email TheGuys@restaurantguyspodcast.comThe Martini Expo!Presented by the award-winning publication The Mix with Robert Simonson https://martiniexpo.com/Sept 12 & 13, 2025 @ Industry City in BrooklynJoin us for martini experiences with acclaimed guests (see martiniexpo.com)Restaurant Guys Regulars get a 10% discount. Subscribe at https://www.restaurantguyspodcast.com/ Our Sponsors The Heldrich Hotel & Conference Centerhttps://www.theheldrich.com/ Magyar Bankhttps://www.magbank.com/ Withum Accountinghttps://www.withum.com/ Our Places Stage Left Steakhttps://www.stageleft.com/ Catherine Lombardi Restauranthttps://www.catherinelombardi.com/ Stage Left Wineshophttps://www.stageleftwineshop.com/ To hear more about food, wine and the finer things in life:https://www.instagram.com/restaurantguyspodcast/https://www.facebook.com/restaurantguysReach Out to The Guys!TheGuys@restaurantguyspodcast.com**Become a Restaurant Guys Regular and get two bonus episodes per month, bonus content and Regulars Only events.**Click Below!https://www.buzzsprout.com/2401692/subscribe

Make You Cry July comes to an end with a surprisingly fun treat of a movie.  So bad it's good, perhaps?!  On today's episode, we are going to breakdown the 2nd lowest critically rate movie in the franchise and the last of the franchise to be released on VHS.   This was the only movie in the Fast and Furious word that doesn't feature at least a cameo by Vin Diesel.   This movie taught us that talking to yourself while street racing is the secret to going faster and that racing for pink slips is a totally normal occurrence.  Our pockets aren't empty cuz.  We are of course talking about 2003's 2 Fast 2 Furious. •0:00:00 - Introductions •0:03:30 - Memories of first viewing •0:07:30  - Pertinent movie details  •0:13:00- Critical and fan reviews •0:22:00 - Scene by scene breakdown  •1:40:00 - Modern day ratings —————————————————————— **Support us at http://patreon.com/confusedbreakfast for bonus weekly episodes, voting on upcoming movies, giving your modern-day ratings on our movies and much more. **Mail us something   The Confused Breakfast PO Box 10016 Cedar Rapids, IA 52402-9802 Special thanks to our executive producers- Josh Miller, Starling, Michael Guiliano and NicMad. Welcome to our newest members -  Mike H, Tony Haga, Nick Heiderscheit, Caesar, jon boy, WA-1-1, Matthew Zwick, Brian Iobello, This Justin, Kevin Surnear, Edison Cruz, Dan Doty Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

CLEOPATRA'S FIRST CONQUEST.  1/8: Uncommon Wrath: How Caesar and Cato's Deadly Rivalry Destroyed the Roman Republic by  Josiah Osgood  (Author) https://www.amazon.com/Uncommon-Wrath-Rivalry-Destroyed-Republic/dp/1541620119 1863 DEATH OF CATO In Uncommon Wrath, historian Josiah Osgood tells the story of how the political rivalry between Julius Caesar and Marcus Cato precipitated the end of the Roman Republic. As the champions of two dominant but distinct visions for Rome, Caesar and Cato each represented qualities that had made the Republic strong, but their ideological differences entrenched into enmity and mutual fear. The intensity of their collective factions became a tribal divide, hampering their ability to make good decisions and undermining democratic government. The men's toxic polarity meant that despite their shared devotion to the Republic, they pushed it into civil war.

CLEOPATRA'S FIRST CONQUEST.  2/8: Uncommon Wrath: How Caesar and Cato's Deadly Rivalry Destroyed the Roman Republic by  Josiah Osgood  (Author) https://www.amazon.com/Uncommon-Wrath-Rivalry-Destroyed-Republic/dp/1541620119 In Uncommon Wrath, historian Josiah Osgood tells the story of how the political rivalry between Julius Caesar and Marcus Cato precipitated the end of the Roman Republic. As the champions of two dominant but distinct visions for Rome, Caesar and Cato each represented qualities that had made the Republic strong, but their ideological differences entrenched into enmity and mutual fear. The intensity of their collective factions became a tribal divide, hampering their ability to make good decisions and undermining democratic government. The men's toxic polarity meant that despite their shared devotion to the Republic, they pushed it into civil war. 1875 COSSING RUBICON

CLEOPATRA'S FIRST CONQUEST.  3/8: Uncommon Wrath: How Caesar and Cato's Deadly Rivalry Destroyed the Roman Republic by  Josiah Osgood  (Author) https://www.amazon.com/Uncommon-Wrath-Rivalry-Destroyed-Republic/dp/1541620119 In Uncommon Wrath, historian Josiah Osgood tells the story of how the political rivalry between Julius Caesar and Marcus Cato precipitated the end of the Roman Republic. As the champions of two dominant but distinct visions for Rome, Caesar and Cato each represented qualities that had made the Republic strong, but their ideological differences entrenched into enmity and mutual fear. The intensity of their collective factions became a tribal divide, hampering their ability to make good decisions and undermining democratic government. The men's toxic polarity meant that despite their shared devotion to the Republic, they pushed it into civil war.

CLEOPATRA'S FIRST CONQUEST.  4/8: Uncommon Wrath: How Caesar and Cato's Deadly Rivalry Destroyed the Roman Republic by  Josiah Osgood  (Author) https://www.amazon.com/Uncommon-Wrath-Rivalry-Destroyed-Republic/dp/1541620119 In Uncommon Wrath, historian Josiah Osgood tells the story of how the political rivalry between Julius Caesar and Marcus Cato precipitated the end of the Roman Republic. As the champions of two dominant but distinct visions for Rome, Caesar and Cato each represented qualities that had made the Republic strong, but their ideological differences entrenched into enmity and mutual fear. The intensity of their collective factions became a tribal divide, hampering their ability to make good decisions and undermining democratic government. The men's toxic polarity meant that despite their shared devotion to the Republic, they pushed it into civil war.

CLEOPATRA'S FIRST CONQUEST.  5/8: Uncommon Wrath: How Caesar and Cato's Deadly Rivalry Destroyed the Roman Republic by  Josiah Osgood  (Author) https://www.amazon.com/Uncommon-Wrath-Rivalry-Destroyed-Republic/dp/1541620119 In Uncommon Wrath, historian Josiah Osgood tells the story of how the political rivalry between Julius Caesar and Marcus Cato precipitated the end of the Roman Republic. As the champions of two dominant but distinct visions for Rome, Caesar and Cato each represented qualities that had made the Republic strong, but their ideological differences entrenched into enmity and mutual fear. The intensity of their collective factions became a tribal divide, hampering their ability to make good decisions and undermining democratic government. The men's toxic polarity meant that despite their shared devotion to the Republic, they pushed it into civil war. 1712

CLEOPATRA'S FIRST CONQUEST.  6/8: Uncommon Wrath: How Caesar and Cato's Deadly Rivalry Destroyed the Roman Republic by  Josiah Osgood  (Author) https://www.amazon.com/Uncommon-Wrath-Rivalry-Destroyed-Republic/dp/1541620119 In Uncommon Wrath, historian Josiah Osgood tells the story of how the political rivalry between Julius Caesar and Marcus Cato precipitated the end of the Roman Republic. As the champions of two dominant but distinct visions for Rome, Caesar and Cato each represented qualities that had made the Republic strong, but their ideological differences entrenched into enmity and mutual fear. The intensity of their collective factions became a tribal divide, hampering their ability to make good decisions and undermining democratic government. The men's toxic polarity meant that despite their shared devotion to the Republic, they pushed it into civil war.

CLEOPATRA'S FIRST CONQUEST.  7/8: Uncommon Wrath: How Caesar and Cato's Deadly Rivalry Destroyed the Roman Republic by  Josiah Osgood  (Author) https://www.amazon.com/Uncommon-Wrath-Rivalry-Destroyed-Republic/dp/1541620119 In Uncommon Wrath, historian Josiah Osgood tells the story of how the political rivalry between Julius Caesar and Marcus Cato precipitated the end of the Roman Republic. As the champions of two dominant but distinct visions for Rome, Caesar and Cato each represented qualities that had made the Republic strong, but their ideological differences entrenched into enmity and mutual fear. The intensity of their collective factions became a tribal divide, hampering their ability to make good decisions and undermining democratic government. The men's toxic polarity meant that despite their shared devotion to the Republic, they pushed it into civil war.

CLEOPATRA'S FIRST CONQUEST.  8/8: Uncommon Wrath: How Caesar and Cato's Deadly Rivalry Destroyed the Roman Republic by  Josiah Osgood  (Author) https://www.amazon.com/Uncommon-Wrath-Rivalry-Destroyed-Republic/dp/1541620119 In Uncommon Wrath, historian Josiah Osgood tells the story of how the political rivalry between Julius Caesar and Marcus Cato precipitated the end of the Roman Republic. As the champions of two dominant but distinct visions for Rome, Caesar and Cato each represented qualities that had made the Republic strong, but their ideological differences entrenched into enmity and mutual fear. The intensity of their collective factions became a tribal divide, hampering their ability to make good decisions and undermining democratic government. The men's toxic polarity meant that despite their shared devotion to the Republic, they pushed it into civil war. 1836

Join the Three of Seven Project team for the Monday Meeting segment discussing Matthew 22.  https://www.3of7project.com Apply for Rite of Passage at: https://www.3of7project.com/train Thank you for supporting Three of Seven Podcast on Patreon at: www.patreon.com/threeofseven Three of Seven Project Store https://3of7project.myshopify.com/pages/shop Apply for The Basic Course at: https://www.3of7project.com/train Check out the Three of Seven Project Youtube channel at: Three of Seven Project Youtube Nuff Said