Is There Demonic Influence in Our Technology? (Full LOCALS Show)

The modern world didn’t just get “more chaotic” over time, it crossed a line, and we can feel it in our bones. We start with the small stuff that poisons your mood fast: doom-scrolling, gender-war clips, and true crime culture that turns suffering into a hobby. Then we ask the harder question hiding underneath all of it: are we losing our moral clarity because we’re bored, because we’re entertained, or because we’re actually afraid to name what’s evil?

From there we jump into two stories that force the issue. First, a surrogacy and IVF controversy where a pregnancy is treated like a contractual deliverable, complete with pressure to abort after a bad diagnosis. We talk IVF ethics, why “choice” gets warped when money and contracts enter the room, and why the child is the only party who never consents but bears the consequences.

The anchor topic is Tucker Carlson’s claim that nuclear weapons weren’t purely human in origin. We explore what people mean when they say “demonic influence” in technology, why the atomic bomb and the Manhattan Project still feel spiritually charged, and how the post-1945 order can become a kind of civil religion that shields certain wartime choices from moral scrutiny.

The most personal segment lands close to home: a family wedding planned outside the Catholic Church, the question of attending, and the cost of obedience when it makes you “the bad guy.” We invite you to join us in a Novena to Saint Monica for loved ones away from the sacraments. If this conversation helps, subscribe, share it with a friend, and leave a review.

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Transcript

Awkward Intro And Feed Fatigue

SPEAKER_01 0:11

Yo. Oh my gosh, dude. Yo, Taffy, are you kidding me? That was the most uncomfortable intro I've ever sat through. Rob, you previewed that? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 0:37

It's kind of stupid, but it's funny.

SPEAKER_01 0:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 0:42

It is.

SPEAKER_01 0:43

Oh man. What a slow content draft. You know what it is? Like the only thing my feed is showing is how awful women are. And I'm just so blackpilled from it. Like surprised.

SPEAKER_02 0:56

We've had we've done how many shows on it, but that's all that's going on.

SPEAKER_01 1:00

Can't talk about Lindsay Clancy again, but like, man, the women have really just oh my gosh, man. I spent um spent an hour with my wife and daughter before the show just to like restore my faith in women. Because it's it's you you can get very jaded just watching videos on X and forget that like they're not all like that, you know.

SPEAKER_02 1:23

It's just it doesn't restore my faith in woman, it just makes me more grateful for the ones that I continue to keep in my life. Yeah, oh man, I don't know. It's just like I otherwise the rest of them compound sand.

SPEAKER_01 1:41

It's funny, like, even Candace came out and said Lindy Clancy is innocent, right? But oh yeah, like come on, that's not surprising. No, but I don't even know if she actually believes that. I just think like the Candace audience is the true crime audience, like that is her audience, right? So the majority of people who watch Candace are crazy delusional women who watch true crime stuff, hover around a 70 to 80 IQ at best, but they're obsessed with true crime stuff, and though that's why they're obsessed with the Charlie Kirk thing. So, like people are trying to turn the Lindsay Clancy story into a true crime thing, like trying to solve what really happened. It's like, no, the nobody's even arguing what happened here, you psychopaths. Like, everybody knows what happened. The question is, was she morally responsible for it? Oh, I'm so sick of this stupid case.

SPEAKER_02 2:34

I I think I think it's women who, for whatever reason, I'm I have no idea, but for whatever reason, like cannot stand their lives so much that they have to like pretend everything is some special mystery that only then can they can solve, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01 2:51

Like, yeah, they're just bored, they're bored, bored housewives, the majority of them. Like, they don't, you know, like modern technology has made life so easy. You throw a load on the dish in the in the laundry, you throw a load on the dishwasher, and your house is clean and you got nothing to do but watch true crime crap. So these women are bored, unless they have like a gaggle of children that they're taking care of. You know, they most of them got one or two, some of them are in school and they're just sitting around and they're they're bored. So they make themselves into detectives. I don't know, it's nuts. It's like um, but the other thing is uh tonight.

SPEAKER_02 3:30

Like texting my wife reminding me that she loves true crime. I know you do, sweetie, and I love you very much. But everything I said still kind of stands, generally speaking.

SPEAKER_01 3:43

I actually I like a little true crime here and there too, but I'm not talking about like people who just like true crime, like there is some crazy women who watch true crime.

SPEAKER_02 3:52

I mean, like uh the uh a lot of this you YouTube stuff I listen to is like mysterious dis disappearances, right? Like people who just disappear to no one has any idea like unsettled. I feel like there's something different there than then listening to how also not making it your identity, like yeah, you know what I mean.

SPEAKER_01 4:12

Like to casually listen to a true crime thing is different than making it like I love sword and scale. Like if we're taking a long car ride, we'll listen to Sword. You ever you ever listen to Sword and Scale?

SPEAKER_02 4:23

You mentioned it, and I tried it once and then decided that I hate those people. Why don't I? I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 4:30

Oh you know how I am about with the way people sound, like audio-wise, yeah. They just basically do audio versions of like true crime stories and stuff, but like they'll play audio from the court case or that you know, it's just like it's a good story. So if you're doing a long car ride, it's like you know, it's like watching an episode of uh 48 hours or something, but um yeah, I just think that so like today. Um we weren't sure if we were gonna do a show today because we're interviewing Father Maudsley on on Saturday. Well, no, there isn't much to talk about, but that's the point. So, like, we we were interviewing Father Maudsley Saturday, so we're like, should we skip Thursday and just do Saturday? Or what I think what we're gonna do is interview Maudsley Saturday, put it on locals only.

SPEAKER_02 5:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:19

So if anybody wants to watch the show live or get it early access, you'll have that Saturday, and then we will release that on YouTube at a later date. And probably Tuesday. Yeah, something like that. So um, but yeah, I'm I'm reading Maudsley's book right now, Know Thy Anime. He's got some interesting uh a lot, a lot of it is um covering some of the stuff we already know, and then he gets into like some stuff with Freud that's really interesting. He's he he has some stuff from Michael Hitchborne that he covers too. It's pretty it's pretty good. Um, I recommend everybody go and get it. It's on Amazon, Know Thy Anime by Father Maudsley. I'm trying to get through it. I'm only like a third of the way through. I want to try and get through it before we interview him on Saturday.

SPEAKER_02 6:01

So I just got it in the mail yesterday. There's no chance I get through it.

SPEAKER_01 6:08

Yeah, if you even if you skim through it, I think

True Crime Culture And Moral Blame

SPEAKER_01 6:10

I think I'll I'll send you the chapters he wanted me to focus on. So this way here you can maybe at least you know get it because there was a couple topics he definitely wanted to touch on. Um, so we were I was looking for stuff to talk about today, and one of them is the um the uh that uh IVF, the the surrogate story, like that surrogate story is wild. Where the the the woman was hired as a surrogate. Um the they found like a defect in the sonogram, and the the couple who contracted her wanted her to abort the baby, and she decided not to, and now she's being hailed as this hero. And it's like yes, all right, I'm gonna be able to do that. Like, I'm yeah, like seriously, there's no good guys in this story. The baby, the baby's the only good person in this story. Let Lindsay Clancy choke them out. This this woman signed a contract agreeing to have an abortion if there were any birth defect. Like, she signed the contract saying that, and she's like complaining now about the contract, and it's like this whole thing is so diabolical and evil. Like, this child is now going to grow up knowing that its parents wanted it killed. And the thing is, the parents are now suing for custody. She's still pregnant, the parents are suing for custody, and she's fighting that now, and it's like you like they are the parents, it's just such a bizarre situation. Like, we are playing with witchcraft with surrogacy. So I thought we could talk about that. Um, Lila Rose being being held up, like holding this lady up like she's some pro-life hero or something. It's like, and they and they they talk about IVF, like the only bad part of IVF is that there are innocent embryos that have to be, you know, uh discarded after. And it's like there's a list of reasons why IVF is diabolical. I mean, if you're removing it from the marital act first off, there's just so many things that are wrong with it. Um, so that was one. Then I had uh I had a clip of a girl talking about how she like her all she wanted to do was be a stay-at-home mom, and she's 26 now. And it was like, I don't know, I thought it was an interesting clip. Uh, because I wonder with the state of male female dynamics right now, like I have kids that I want to find a spouse, and they're around that age, and I'm just worried for them for both my son and my daughters. Like the the pickings are just getting so slim. And you see, you see this tension between the sexes on social media. Men hate women, women hate men. Everything's just this, you know. I think there's supposed to be like um a healthy amount of enmity between men and women, you know, like we're supposed to make jokes about them being bad drivers and stuff, but I don't want men and women to hate one another. Like, that's not good. Right? Like, it's just I know I make a lot of jokes and I tease the ladies, but like I don't want men and women too.

SPEAKER_02 9:07

Yeah, but if we cut their access to social media, they won't know that they are supposed to hate us.

SPEAKER_01 9:11

That is true, and men seem to be unwilling to do the the the hard work that needs to be done. Um, so then we went, we've went I wound up settling on this Tucker story. So Tucker made comments recently, which he's been saying this for a while now, that he thinks um nukes were not created by humans. But I don't think he means like demons built the nukes. I just think he means humans created them with demonic influence. Which I mean, I think we all think that too, right?

SPEAKER_02 9:44

Yeah. I mean at the very least, like yeah. If not so much in the even in their creation, then definitely in their use. You know, you have basically what was it, nine out of ten of the joint chiefs telling uh telling um Truman not to use it. The only one that wanted to, I think, was MacArthur, who then wanted to use uh 50 nukes in the Korean War.

SPEAKER_01 10:21

It's not just that, it's like they were doing like sick sadistic occult practices in the labs, like in the Manhattan Project and stuff. So we'll get into all of that tonight. So basically, we're gonna play the Tucker clip where he says it, and then we have JD Hall wrote this whole thing about it's basically like pitting because Eric Metaxis is because they all just hate Tucker because Tucker speaks about Israel and the Jews. So Eric Metaxis, the crazy Zionist, is trying to make it like Tucker is crazy for having this opinion. But Eric Metaxis will say, like, uh aliens are demons, and they'll say the trans thing is demons, and he'll say everything's demons, but it once you get into saying that nukes are demons, it messes with his mythology of the American is basically the post-war consensus.

SPEAKER_02 11:10

Well, yeah, because if if nukes are demons and the vast majority of the scientists involved in the creation of nukes were Jews, then then they're playing with demons, and then you know, if you have the um the secrets of the American nuclear pollen program stolen by Jews to then be sold to the Soviet Union while there's issues there, and then if of course you have the other Jews dealing it to give to Israel, well then there's issues like yeah, it always comes back to the older brother, doesn't it?

SPEAKER_01 11:38

So um the last thing I sent to the chat is the clip of Tucker. So let's just let's just play what Tucker said. And we'll uh we'll we'll go from there because I actually like I think we've said as much on this topic. Like, we I think that's kind of the consensus for most Christians that we think there's just demonic influence on our technology. I mean, when you get into especially when we get into talking about when the bomb is created, that's when you start seeing these uh you know UAPs popping up and stuff like that. We all kind of bring it back to the year 1947, is when these things were created. That's when you start getting all these uh alien sightings and UFO sightings and Area 51 pops up and all this stuff. This is it all kind of culminates in that year when these things were created.

SPEAKER_02 12:28

Well, and like you know, the Nazis were of course trying to get the bomb to they went a different route using uh deutonium and heavy water compared to you, anyways. They were working on it too, and of course, they are heavily involved with the occult. Yeah, you have Himmler

Surrogacy Contracts And IVF Ethics

SPEAKER_02 12:45

traveling to India looking for um crazy stuff, but at the same time, Oppenheimer is uh obsessed with the the Bhava Gita, right? Or forget I don't know how to pronounce it, but the bavada bhavada vagita is the thing. I don't know, you know, this is in Vada the Vita, baby like the two scriptures that talk about seemingly like aliens in a nuclear war thousands of years ago, you know, like his famous line, I've you know, I've become the you know destroyer of world comes right from that work. So all all these guys are heavily involved with the occult on both sides, trying to get the bomb.

SPEAKER_01 13:28

But yeah, okay Tucker clip. All right, so let's play the Tucker clip and we'll go from there.

SPEAKER_00 13:33

And I'm to this, let me just indulge my theory, which I can't control myself from talking about. Run, baby. I've heard it before, but I just think I think nuclear weapons, which I don't think were created by people, sorry. I don't care how many movies they make about it, don't believe it. Did you see Oppenheimer? Yeah, okay. Wouldn't watch that crap, wouldn't let that into my head for one second. But anyway, because it's all lies. But anyway, sorry, now I'm getting really crazy, but it's all true. What I'm saying is true. I think once man possessed the power or believed he possessed the power to destroy everything that's alive, I think that he rejected God. Like that is kind of like reject that's rejection of God, and like everything changed after that. People became convinced they were gods, and that's when the true craziness started. It's not the 60s, the 60s, or the you know, Obama years or whatever you want era. It's like post-nuclear weapons. That's what I believe. And I'm to this, let me just indulge my yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:34

All right, so um, all right, so JD Hall uh says, uh, Tucker Carlson suggested demons helped invent the atomic bomb, and Eric Metaxas said it was utterly stupid and accused him of being insane. Oddly, Metaxis has claimed that Candace Owens is demonic, Halloween is demonic, UAP phenomena is demonic, Tucker Carlson is demonic, Islam is demonic, the Democratic Party is demonic, and anti-Semitism is demonic. But apparently, Metaxis draws the line at the invention of a weapon that tears a hole in creation and annihilates mankind. Calling that demonic is certifiable and stupid, apparently. Is Tucker off his rocker? When Oppenheimer was at Harvard, uh, he joined a group that used satanic poems as liturgy. Four years before he died, he was asked what book was the most influential for his vocational attitude and listed a collection of satanic poetry that praises the devil throughout it. Its pages are crowded with demons, damnation, vampires, possession, death, blasphemy, and rebellion against God. His favorite poem, the one from Harvard, praises Satan as the giver of forbidden knowledge and for giving the light of new inventions. This is like um Kabbalah's stuff. And uh like reading um reading Maudsley's boy. The reason I thought this would be a good show is I thought it would be a good primer for Maudsley because going through the Freud stuff, it's weird how some Jews have like this obsession with like either satanic stuff or the idea of like killing, like Freud was obsessed with this myth of killing Moses that he he like that he would he believed the Jews killed Moses, their prophet, and it's like he was just substituting Moses for Christ. It was it was really bizarre the stuff, the stuff that Freud was into. Um uh so all right. So Isidore Rabbi, his friend and Nobel Prize-winning physicist, said Oppenheimer sometimes turned away from the hard, crude methods of theoretical physics into a mystical realm of broad intuition. The physicist reportedly turned to metaphysics to give him knowledge from a mysterious unknown source. He learned Sanskrit to study from the what Rob said before, bag Bhagavad Bhagavad Gita, the way the Bible scholars learn Greek to study the scriptures, and historian James Hajia said without the inspiration of the Gita, Oppenheimer might not have been able or willing to direct Los Alamos. He named Ground Zero for the first atomic blast, giving it the codename Trinity. Oppenheimer was Jewish, mind you. The first victim of atomic weaponry was the Trinity. Coincidence, and then the famous line, I am death, the destroyer of worlds, comes from a Hindu demon god. Was he just citing the demon, or was the demon taking credit and identifying himself? Jack Parsons was one of the pioneers of American rocketry who would eventually make long-range, long-range nuclear missiles possible. He was also a devoted follower of Alistair Crowley, joined the Ordo Templi Orientis, headed its agape lodge, and reportedly recited Crowley's hymn to Pan during rocket tests. In 1946, Parsons and future Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard performed the Babylon Working, a series of ceremonial rituals using Enochian magic. Enochian, right? Enochian magic in an attempt to manifest the telemic goddess Babylon. He later proclaimed himself the Antichrist, developed a form of witchcraft venerating Babylon and Lucifer, and describes his age in occult terms as one of fire, power, violence, and energy, characterized by war and the discovery and liberation of new energies. I mean, we're I'm stopping there for a second. This goes on, but okay, you're gonna tell me these guys aren't seriously involved in the occult. These guys aren't worshiping Satan himself. Come on. In other words, one of the men helping pioneer the technology that would eventually carry atomic weapons across continents was not merely interested in the occult, he was practicing ceremonial magic and deliberately attempting contact with non-human spiritual intelligences. I uh it's part of the uh stuff that what's that uh Anna Passulka?

Tucker’s Claim About Nuclear Weapons

SPEAKER_01 18:55

Like, I I did you watch any of her Rogan interview? I have no idea what you're talking about. All right, so Anna Pasulca, she's like a she's Catholic and she starts looking into the UAP phenomena. And her I think what she's saying is she thinks what AI is going to be is a conduit for humans to interact with these non-human intelligences.

SPEAKER_02 19:23

Like a silicone-powered Ouija board, something like that, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:28

Yeah, because I've seen clips of people talking about how they're using AI to remote view and all this stuff. Like this is this is what we talked about when we had Daniel O'Connor on by saying, like, we were like, there's two two things that can happen with AI. One is it just becomes like uh a thing that eats itself, where it's just you know, it's like the LLM basically devours itself and it just keeps spitting out garbage because of the city. Entropy gone crazy, exactly. Yeah, or it's going to be a way to embody these non-human intelligences. So, like, all of this stuff is connected. It's so, it's so weird. Like you get into 1947, the atomic bomb comes about, the UAP phenomena starts, and it and they already start talking about artificial intelligence. It is kind of interesting. You'll see people read something from like the 1950s and 60s, and they talk about artificial intelligence, and people are like, he was telling the future, and it's like, no, this was like this was what I mean. You go back to Terminator 2, and it was you were in 1997, it was like, Oh, the A we achieved AI and the machines take over. Like, we've been talking about this for decades and decades, since the invention of the atomic bomb, at least.

SPEAKER_02 20:37

Yeah, I mean you know, the it's believed that Satan was a member of the cherubim, right? And the the cherubim are like the knowledge keepers, right? And so Satan has always been um intricate intricately connected with with knowledge and the pursuit of knowledge, and you know, the the the fall was was Eve wanting the knowledge of good and evil, you know. So I I mean I it literally part of the fallen human condition is is searching for knowledge from Satan himself, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:17

And and and how they're all you're looking, you're all these tech guys looking to reverse the curse of the garden, like all of this stuff is so interconnected, man. It's such a trip. Like, we are living through some wild times, guys. So, um, of course, the Bible speaks of demonic forces interacting with mankind, the powers and principalities of darkness and high places, intelligent and personable beings of superior intelligence who interact with man and in revelation incite the kings of the earth to make war. That's in the book of Enoch. So, uh Molly's saying this is such a guy's episode. Um, I want to talk about something on locals tonight that uh I want to yeah, I want to talk about uh. Catholic weddings, or like non-Catholic Catholics attending non-Catholic weddings. We'll get we'll get into it on the other side, but I also have kind of like a little update on that, Rob, which I think you'll find interesting. Um, good, good, like yeah, like really, really. Like, I'm just I have complete faith in God that that situation is going to work out. Okay, like complete faith in God.

SPEAKER_02 22:19

Um, worst case, maybe we'll turn into good content for the channel.

SPEAKER_01 22:23

Yeah, that's worst case scenario. Um, so uh the book of Vina. All right, so the cited in the Bible by Jude and Peter explains a passage in the old testament of these beings coming down to earth and involving themselves in the last uh in the lives of men. Frankly, it sounds exactly like the tales from every ancient culture on earth in their stories of the Anunnaki who came from the heavens to teach them the art of warfare and technologies that exceeded their understanding. This is what we talked about with Michael uh Hitchborne, right? Like, like what what are what are these ancient monoliths that exist? Are they pre anti-deluvian like structures that exist, but that they were built with the help from from these intelligences, things like that. None of this means that demons help make the atomic bomb. What it does mean is that it's not crazy to think so. In fact, it does indeed seem like some dean something demons would be very excited about. So, other than reading from Israel's cue cards today, why would Metaxis allege Tucker was crazy for believing it? After all, if Candace and anti-Semitism and the DNC are demonic, why not nuclear weaponry? Metaxis's reaction makes more sense.

SPEAKER_02 23:36

Hold on, to be fair, according to Candace, she is Legion.

SPEAKER_01 23:41

That is so bizarre. I think she's just dumb and doesn't know what she's saying. She does.

SPEAKER_02 23:46

I I agree.

SPEAKER_01 23:47

I have to imagine she's just dumb and doesn't know what she's saying.

SPEAKER_02 23:50

Like the charitable assumption is she's just functionally illiterate and doesn't know what that means.

SPEAKER_01 23:56

She doesn't know what that story is from. She doesn't understand that that's literally from the story of Christ um exorcising the demon from the man, and the demon says, We are legion. Like that's what that story is from. Um, that's what that phrase is from. Um, so Matax's reaction makes more sense when you understand his post-war civil religion, which is post-war consensus, right? That's what this all is. Bonhoeffer is its main is its martyr and prophet, the Holocaust is its atonement, Churchill its Messiah figure, and the and allied victory functions as the final judgment of history, granting the victors an almost retroactive moral authority over whatever they did to win. Tucker's theory threatens that arrangement because it permits Satan into the machinery of Allied victory itself. That is so that paragraph is so powerful.

SPEAKER_02 24:50

That I mean, everything about the post-war consensus and the world we live in now is an attempt to convince us that we're not fighting the same spiritual battle we've always been fighting. Yeah, yeah. Or or that if we that that that battle was won when we defeated, you know, the the new Satan named Hitler, more or less.

SPEAKER_01 25:08

Yeah, it's Holocaustianity. Like that's that's it's Holocaustianity, which that phrase was coined by Williamson, I'm pretty sure. Like, I'm pretty sure Williamson coined that phrase, right? Holocaustianity. It's like it's not one Jew who died for our sins, it's all the Jews had to die for us. That's the whole point in calling it the Holocaust. Like Christ was the final Holocaust.

SPEAKER_02 25:35

Right.

SPEAKER_01 25:35

It's a it's a denial of it. Yeah, it's suddenly Dresden, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki can be judged as moral acts rather than automatically sanctified. Sorry, guys. Suddenly, Dresden, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki can be judged as moral acts rather than automatically sanctified because of the ally because the allies committed them. Metaxis is perfectly comfortable finding demons in Hitler, communism, Islam, anti-Semitism, witchcraft, and his political enemies. But the demonic influence aboard an American bomber, however, and supernaturalism becomes insanity. That isn't Christianity, it's the national mythology wearing Christian clothes. Holocaust the enemy. Thanks. I'll use that in my history class of Monday report back how it goes. I can't even

Occult Links Around The Bomb

SPEAKER_01 26:25

imagine. You know what, though? You'll be fine. Yeah, you get a pass, bro. Yeah, you get a you'll be a pass like I get an M-word pass. You're allowed to say whatever you want. Um, yeah, so all right, he says, uh, this isn't Christianity, it's national mythology wearing Christian clothes. Besides, if demons make war in the modern world, then maybe they have more than something to do with Israel killing 90% civilian non-combatants, a girl's school of 200 wiped off the face of Iran, and a war in Ukraine going on longer, then makes sense for literally no good reason. And if Satan isn't banned by the American border, and even the good guys can be subject to demonic influence, that destroys the liturgy of the civil religion. Mataxis has given his soul to worship. That's a brutal freaking line there. No, believing Satan could go nuclear must be dismissed post-haste, or too many suppositions fail at once. So instead, he's chosen to attack a Christian for believing in supernatural things. Satan can be blamed for criticizing the Israeli state, but not for making the nuclear bomb. Uh so I want to make sure this is JD Hall. I think it is J.D. Hall, right?

SPEAKER_02 27:39

I don't think I don't I think it is JD Hall.

SPEAKER_01 27:42

JD Hall is like a recent convert, I think. Not catholic. I don't think he's Catholic, but it is um it is pretty cool that uh everyone kind of is awake to this stuff now. Like everyone's just kind of awake to this stuff now, and we're seeing everything breaking down. Like the the the the the the the Holocaust narrative is breaking down, the World War II narrative is breaking down. We're seeing how it's affected every single facet of our lives today. Like we look back, we're gonna do a 9-11 episode with Hitchborne because everybody was saying, Oh, Hitchborne would have been good for this one. We're gonna have Hitchborne on for 9-11. Now, what I want to do for that episode is I want to spend in like three weeks, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 28:30

9-11's coming up for the 25th anniversary, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 28:34

So, what I want to do is yeah, that's on YouTube. I want to just talk about the day. Like, I just want to talk about like the day, reminisce, reminisce on on the day. Um, because and you're booming business afterwards, yeah. Well, I mean, well, I'll get into all I mean, I was in New York when it happened, right? So I want to get into the day on YouTube, and then on locals, I want to get into all the conspiracy theories on it because Hitchborne's got some wild theories, and I I like I I have such a different view on that event now than I did then. Like, you just think about the the difference in how much our opinions have shifted just from having all these narratives break apart and seeing how much BS we've been fed in our lifetime. Like everything is nonsense. Yeah, it's crazy. 25 years.

SPEAKER_02 29:31

I mean, you know, putting aside whether or not the event happened as we're told. The event did cause us to hold on to the post-war order another 20 years, 25 years, 20, 23 years, right?

SPEAKER_01 29:55

I mean, we're still clinging to it. So, yeah, it's not just it's not just building seven ocean out. Like, I don't I I used to think what's his name. Um what the hell is the wrestler that became governor? Don't say Jesse Ventura. Just I used to think Jesse Ventura was out of his freaking boat with the thermite paint.

SPEAKER_02 30:17

Okay, as a Minnesotan, trust me, he's out of his mind. He is out of his mind. I know, I know.

SPEAKER_01 30:23

But I look I look at those planes hitting those buildings now, and I'm like, those planes shouldn't have taken down those buildings, dude. They shouldn't have taken, they shouldn't have taken down those buildings. I've been I I would have literally fought someone who said that years ago. The jet fueled stream down and I would have fought with them about it. And I'm just now I'm just like, yeah, I don't know. Like, I don't put it past any of them anymore to literally line that, but that thing looked like the detonation of a building.

SPEAKER_02 30:54

I wouldn't okay, so that I mean, I will we're gonna talk about it in three weeks, but I wouldn't be surprised, like I I think maybe they were I I think they were surprised that the buildings came down actually. And then maybe there was something in building seven that was evidence of uh of the attack, and they're like, Well, I don't know, man.

SPEAKER_01 31:18

This building needs to come down. You get into the guy taking the insurance policy out like a week before he like the guy bought the buildings and put an insurance policy on it and up the insurance, like, but that's a different because you could say he knew something was going to happen, but that doesn't mean he knew the buildings would come down, you know. I don't know. Look, there's there's a ton of shady stuff. I'm going to go, I'm gonna go, I'm gonna deep dive into the craziest conspiracy theories, and we'll bring that to that locals episode. I'm gonna have to drink Rob's not a voice of reason, Rob's a voice of contrarian opinion. Like it's just I'm uh I exist to oppose Anthony. He's just being contrarian. He thinks he thinks the Jews loaded that thing with dynamite. Don't don't let him fool me. Um when you say did I see it, I don't know what you mean by that. I did not, I was not in the city when it when it happened. I was in a mad rush to get my wife, and it's it was just a hectic, insane day. Um but no, I was not like in the city. I was not in south southern Manhattan when it went down or anything. I was I like I you know we but even just being in New York for the days following was such an intense time. So we'll get we'll get into all that. We'll we'll we'll go through a lot of it.

SPEAKER_02 32:43

And it's like, Ma, did you keep all the food, all the food food from the Y2K scare? We might need it.

SPEAKER_01 32:52

Growing up, my mom was convinced that the end of the world was coming in 2000, and she stockpiled food, and it had a lot to do with Mejigori and Marion Apparitions. Because of Mejigori, wasn't it? It was like all to do with Marion Apparitions, and then then this whole like you for you guys that don't know what Y2K is because a lot we have a lot of young dude. I went to Mass on Sunday.

SPEAKER_02 33:21

The Mormons should sponsor Garabandle.

SPEAKER_01 33:23

I I went to Mass on Sunday and met two guys who were attending their first Latin Mass who are fans of the show, and they're 17 years old. Seven two 17-year-old guys who watched the show, Anthony and I think Jason, Jason or James, I forgot the other guy, but one kid's name is Anthony. Um, and they both watched the show and it was their first Latin mass. Really nice guy, really nice kids. But that just goes to show you like those kids would have no idea what Y2K is. So for the younger guys, like even uh Ocean. When when we were approaching the turn of the century, we were approaching the year 2000, they had us all convinced that every single computer was going to shut down and all the power was going to die, like like power plants were going to shut down because of some glitch in computers. That when they created them, they didn't account. What was it? Like what why was you why two k I don't even know how to explain it.

SPEAKER_02 34:26

I mean, basically that that when the dating when when dates were coded, that they were coded as a two-digit year, right?

SPEAKER_01 34:38

And that like 96, 97, 98, right, and that when that programs weren't written to account for a year that was zero zero.

SPEAKER_02 34:52

And I don't I don't know why. And it's of course it proved to be completely stupid that they're like nothing happened.

SPEAKER_01 34:58

Listen to me, I'm telling K9 Shepard, I'm I did have Y2K fever because my mother made me think the world was going to end, okay. 2000 is the year I graduated, okay. We were at my friend's house for New Year's Eve 2000. I'm I'm uh I was I 18 yet. I might have been 17.

SPEAKER_02 35:18

Really, Y2K was invented so that the Geek Squad at Best Buy could you know charge you a couple hundred bucks to make sure you're gonna be able to get a few years.

SPEAKER_01 35:26

To come and fix your computer and stuff. They had us all thinking like power plants were gonna shut down and they were selling software updates and other programs. Yeah, it was just they they made it like the world was was going to be in chaos, you know. So New Year's Eve 2000. I I don't know if I turned 18 yet. I think I turned 18 in the year 2000. So no, I was 17. We're at my friend's house, counting down, and I ran in the basement and found the freaking the circuit breaker, and I as soon as it hit zero, I flipped the circuit breaker down and everybody freaked out. Good times, man. It was a fun night.

SPEAKER_02 36:05

Well, and you know, being um being at central time, you know, like we had the advantage of hey, if starts stuff's happening at midnight, we'll see it happen over on the east coast first. That's true, yeah. You would yeah, so when we're watching the the ball come down, it's actually about to be 11 o'clock. The ball comes down and nothing happens, and it's like poof.

SPEAKER_01 36:32

I don't have to worry for the next hour. So, so um people say like they didn't really think about it much. You have to I'm trying to explain to you guys Y2K audits.

SPEAKER_02 36:41

That's what was every business was doing Y2K audits.

SPEAKER_01 36:45

Yeah, I see. I was in the construction world, I had no idea what was going on there, but in my home, like this was like end of the world fervor. Okay, so like my mom showed me like bleeding statues, and like, why is the statue of Mary crying? Like that, like I'm telling you, we thought it it was so much that my older brother, when those things didn't happen, that I think that was part of the reason my brother lost his faith. Like my brother was really like expecting this stuff to happen, and when it didn't happen, he kind of was just like, No, no, it's all this stuff. It's all BS. Like this, the end of the world's not coming, knock it off, and it caused him to lose his faith, you know. Whereas me, it definitely had an impression, and it it also like I never forgot the miracles of Catholicism, right? So, like I knew about Eucharistic miracles, I knew about marrying apparitions, I knew about bleeding statues, I knew about incorruptible saints, I knew about all that stuff. So that even when those years I was away from the faith, or like away from the I don't even say away from the faith, away from the sacraments. I was never like I was away from the sacraments, like I never doubted there was

Postwar Mythology And Moral Authority

SPEAKER_01 37:55

only one place to go, you know? And it's what it's what made me, even though I married a Lutheran girl, say, no, no, no, we're getting married in the church. I wasn't going to mass at the time. But those things that my mom told me about like ingrained something in me enough to say, no way, I'm not, I won't get married outside the church. Like, I always knew the sacraments were real. I always did. Like, I always always knew the sacraments were real. Who's that? Maddie or uh uh Iggy.

SPEAKER_03 38:29

What's up, bud?

SPEAKER_01 38:41

What's up, Egg? Did you guys did you guys have birthday? Did you guys have a birthday cake for Bash the other night?

SPEAKER_04 38:52

Uh no. Cupcake?

SPEAKER_01 39:02

And baby bash is one now?

SPEAKER_04 39:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 39:05

One year old? Big brother. Are you being a good big brother? Yeah. How old are you now? How how old are you now?

SPEAKER_04 39:23

Five?

SPEAKER_01 39:24

You're five?

SPEAKER_04 39:25

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 39:26

Wow, you're a big boy.

SPEAKER_04 39:27

I was when I I was I would do a ball.

SPEAKER_01 39:34

What do you say?

SPEAKER_04 39:38

I would do ball.

SPEAKER_01 39:41

Oh, you were just four? Well, all right. Well, it was nice talking to you, Iggy.

SPEAKER_04 39:48

But I didn't. I'm five.

SPEAKER_01 39:50

Now you're five, I know. He's just like Rob.

SPEAKER_04 39:57

I love you, buddy.

SPEAKER_01 39:59

I see you, buddy.

SPEAKER_04 40:01

Goodbye.

SPEAKER_01 40:02

Bye-bye. He's just like Rob.

SPEAKER_04 40:04

And by the way, I read your hair.

SPEAKER_01 40:06

He likes your hair. This is how we had talks at work. Uh oh, he said he wishes he was still four. Oh, okay. He said he wishes he was still four. Um I said, I said, did you have cake for uh Basper's birthday the other night? He said, No, I had cupcakes.

SPEAKER_02 40:26

Cupcake, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 40:27

He said cupcakes. Um, yeah, so like that fervor growing up in my house, like it was. I'm telling you, my whole basement was stocked with canned food and all this stuff because we really it was just like I have a feeling chef boy or d wasn't allowed though. Oh, I don't know. My parents, we were pretty ghetto, dude. We didn't have like Italian standards like that. We don't care. No, there was no chef boyard or spaghettios or anything, but like like even in my house, I'm not I'm not like Rayos isn't beneath me, you know. It's like we'll do we'll do uh jarred sauce in a in a in a g in a jam or something, but um yeah, speaking of uh Catholic weddings, maybe we'll go to the other side, we'll cut this one short. Yeah, it's like this was the whitest member of avoiding battle. Um yeah, so we're all right. So we're going to do the Y2K episode. I thought I just thought that was a really good um 9-11 by JD Hall.

SPEAKER_02 41:29

9-11 episode, not Y2K.

SPEAKER_01 41:32

Oh, well, we could talk both of them. Yeah, we're gonna do a 9-11 episode with Hitchbourne in three weeks, though we have him booked already. And um it's uh I but I thought that whole thing, like getting into how this really is the religion for for for the neocons, especially. Like, all of us are willing to touch these taboos now. It's kind of interesting how like we're gonna have Maudsley on Saturday, and I I kind of want to reminisce about like just like how how far we've come on this issue because I feel like he's kind of evolved on it the same time as us. We've all like together collectively started to go, wait a minute, something's not right here. And then we went from like thinking some things were off to just deep diving into the like that that relationship between Jews and Christians that hasn't been spoken about in 60 years. Yeah, it's kind of kind of wild. Like, we all discovered it together, like even Sam Shimon on that episode, like he never really talked about that stuff. That's really a recent thing for him, too. Um love the sponsors, free new A B.

SPEAKER_02 42:42

What is that? Um he's trying to remind us to talk about our sponsors, which we are about to.

SPEAKER_01 42:49

Um, I was trying to um think of a good Knick-Knack success story. But all right, so we're gonna go to the other side. Yeah, I don't know. There's not much.

SPEAKER_02 43:02

You know what, you know what technology wasn't influenced by demons?

SPEAKER_01 43:06

Nick knacks. Nicknacks.com. Go to nicknack.com and use code bring it up.

SPEAKER_02 43:12

Unlike uh, unlike Alp, which is very uh is made by uh demon worshippers in India.

SPEAKER_01 43:18

100%. They like Alps are made by Hindu. They're just filthy, they're made in India. How could you put something in your mouth that was made in India? Do you ever see how those people live? No way, no way will I put something in my mouth that was made there. Go to nicknack.com, use code AB25% for 25% off your first purchase, use code AB10 for 10% off all subsequent purchases. Nick Knacks is a nicotine product, nicotine is an addictive substance. Um, it is a miraculous drug. We have told you guys, don't forget about our contest, whoever can get. We're we're doing like tears too. Like you get a thousand dollars if you get a knick knack into Pope Leo's hands, but if you get like If you get like if you go to Michael Matt's conference and Bishop Strickland's there and you get Bishop Strickland a whole one up, you get a hundred dollar bonus for that. Yeah, we'll give you 200 for a 200. 200 bucks for Bishop Strickland. We'll get like we'll we'll we'll weigh it out, depending on how well known the Catholic figure is.

SPEAKER_02 44:17

100 if you get Michael Matt to admit he knows about us.

SPEAKER_01 44:21

That you get a video of Michael Matt saying, Yes, he is aware of us. We'll throw 100 bucks your way. Um, okay. So we are also go to blackmonkrosary.com. Uh use code avoiding babylon at checkout there. You'll also get 10% off. Been using my Black Monk Rosary every day again. Really love having that rosary in my truck. It smashes every time I hit a pothole, nearly breaks the shifter cable on my on my truck. It's pretty amazing. I gotta send them to the video.

SPEAKER_02 44:55

I'm trying to convince them to come up with an avoiding babylon themed rosary, but he says you guys haven't bought enough using our code yet. So you have to go buy more rosary. Oh, come on.

SPEAKER_01 45:04

Yeah, they're paying us for this, guys. Go and buy a black monk rosary. Are you kidding? You guys are not on the team. That's the problem. You guys are not on the team. So go to Black Monk Rosary, get 10% off your rosary using code Avoiding Babylon. All right, we're gonna go to the other side. I want to talk some. Oh, one of my co-workers got arrested.

SPEAKER_02 45:21

Yeah, I saw that.

SPEAKER_01 45:24

Again, another co-worker arrested. Ghost go ghost guns again, or no, it wasn't that. It was it was for assault. Oh hear the story on the other side. If you guys want to know behind the scenes stuff, that's why we do it. So um, and then maybe one of these days we'll do an episode of locals just trashing Set of Picante. I just feel I just hate that little shit. So maybe we'll just do an episode one day. Not tonight, but maybe one day. We'll see. I don't know if I want to give them the I don't know if I want to waste oxygen on them, but we'll see. Um, all right, we'll see you guys on the other side.

SPEAKER_02 46:02

It'll be the most anyone's ever thought about them.

SPEAKER_01 46:04

It is true. All right, take us out, Rob.

SPEAKER_02 46:08

Okay, I'm I don't I'm not gonna do a video. We're just doing this. Just killing the feeds, just killing the feeds.

SPEAKER_01 46:19

Let me bring the locals chat up. That's gotta be a terrible way to end the YouTube feed. It's just taters out. See you guys.

SPEAKER_02 46:35

Okay, we're on locals.

SPEAKER_01 46:38

Uh all right, hold on, let me get my local chat up.

SPEAKER_03 46:43

What the hell's going on here?

SPEAKER_01 46:47

Good morning, Babylon. Uh my computer's been slow last episode, too. I went and got a haircut because I was so gray in that episode with Josh and Mike. Like if I let my hair grow at all.

SPEAKER_02 47:03

Oh, hold on. Is it because the I When did you get the haircut? Today. It wasn't because the AI made the made you. That too, man.

SPEAKER_01 47:14

My wife wants to kill you, man.

SPEAKER_02 47:17

It is your fault. You said you would rather have AI old-looking ant than you have to do headshots.

SPEAKER_01 47:24

My wife, as soon as I got I knew I was gonna get the phone call, too. So I texted Rob and like, Rob, could you possibly make me look older in the thumbnail? Like, I look like so weathered and just old in that thumbnail. My wife goes, Anthony, I am going to kill him. I'm going to kill him. Tell him to change that. I got I said, he said the only way he's changing it is if you take headshots of me, and I'm not letting that happen. So you're

Planning A 9/11 Deep Dive

SPEAKER_01 47:45

dealing with it. I'm not afraid of gray hair. It's like it's kind of funny. Like, I never I would get haircuts like once every four months before we did this show. Now that we do the show, like I shave regularly, I get my hair cut. My wife loves it. She's like, You're always so well groomed. Like, because you I I've seen other guys just not care about their appearance. I'm like, bro, you're doing a show, like to carry yourself a little. What are you doing? You know? So I try to like I try to at least once every three weeks go and get my hair cut and keep cleaned up. But I don't, I don't, it's not that I don't know. I just look I just look 10 years older when I when I look look this stuff growing.

SPEAKER_02 48:25

But um so um all right, so here's they say you look great for 50.

SPEAKER_01 48:33

Yeah, thanks. You're awesome. So um this thing came up where uh I mean I guess I'm just gonna say exactly what it what's Oh wait.

SPEAKER_02 48:47

I gotta click only put it behind the paywall.

SPEAKER_01 48:49

Yeah, yeah. Put it behind the paywall.

SPEAKER_02 48:51

You got a minute, kill a minute. Tell us about your uh uh coworker.

SPEAKER_01 48:55

Oh, the co-worker. So, like of like two months back, one of my co-workers uh he was going to all right, so oh man, that's kind of tricky. All right, so a guy used to work for us and he stopped working for us, and he's working for another company that runs the dump in Staten Island. One of my co-workers that still works for me was going to dump his truck, and the guy that used to work for us was joking around and like squared him with the hose real quick. The guy squared him with the hose, the guy holding the hose is like 60 something years old. He's an old man, he could barely walk. The guy who was dumping the truck is like 38 or 39 and is like jacked and you know, roided out. And the guy squared him with the hose, like joking around to be funny. And the kid gets out of the truck and attacked the guy and not punched him in the face and knocked the guy out. And it was like so uncalled for, so ridiculously stupid. And like everybody was just like, What is wrong with you? So for months, he hasn't the guy who did the hitting hasn't gone back to Staten Island because he's he lives on Long Island. It's not like they have jurisdiction, like they're not gonna go to his house and arrest him. They just put a warrant out for him. And it's like if he, you know, if he gets pulled over, there's a warrant out for your arrest for assault.

SPEAKER_02 50:05

Right.

SPEAKER_01 50:06

The guy that used to work for us is still in all the work group chats, though, because he'll like tell us, hey, um uh uh truck enforcement is on the highway over here or something like that. Now every day they put out a list of who's taking what truck and what borough they're gonna be in. So the guy that used to work for us has been watching that list every single day, waiting for Sal to be in Staten Island. And he saw that Sal was gonna be in Staten. It's been months since like so, like my my uncle took him out of Staten Island, you know, he's like, I can't send them there anymore. And he was just like, he was like, screw, you gotta go to Staten Island. And so it went on the worker board that he was gonna be taking the truck from Staten Island, he would be in Staten Island. When he got back to the yard at the end of the day, the guy that used to work for us was waiting with the cops for him. And he gets back to the yard and he didn't even make it to the yard. He was like three blocks away from the yard, and the cops pulled him over, they arrested him and just took him in. Now he would have had to spend the night in jail, except there's cashless bail in New York. So he got out in a few hours. This mental patient tried putting in overtime. He got out at eight o'clock at night and tried putting in overtime until eight o'clock at night. My uncle lost his mind. Went nuts. Never a dull moment at my job, man. Um, so alright, so hey, you know what though?

SPEAKER_02 51:39

At least we know that when someone is laying on the ground dying after an attempted murder, at least your guys will put out cones for him.

SPEAKER_01 51:51

So, um the situation I'm dealing with. Um, the uh I have two sisters that are getting married. Bobby's marrying one of my sisters, and then my other sister's getting married as well. And we found out that she wants to have the wedding ceremony at the reception hall, and it's not gonna be a Catholic wedding. And I'm like, oh no. My sister hasn't been to Mass in years, she's like away from the sacraments right now and stuff, and the guy she's marrying wants nothing to do with it.

SPEAKER_02 52:26

And I'm just but he's a baptized Catholic too.

SPEAKER_01 52:29

He's about they're both baptized Catholics, and they want to get married at the reception hall and not a Catholic wedding. And like my heart just sank. And I'm like, I don't want this day to be about me protesting this thing, but like I can't go to this wedding. Like, I can't. And I love my sister, and I don't want it, I don't want the day to be about me saying I'm not going. And I know if I don't go, then it's gonna like other people are gonna feel like they can't go either, and it's just it's gonna be an issue, you know. So I called, I called a trusted, I don't want to say the thing because I don't want to tear out a dirty laundry, not dirty laundry, just personal information. But I called a trusted priest, and I and I was like, what do you think about this? And he's like, Look, this is one of the hardest parts of being Catholic because um he said, I had I couldn't attend a family member's wedding recently, and it caused like a thing, you know. So now it's like it's like you don't want the thing to be bad. Like some people were saying, like, um, well, just don't go to the ceremony and just go to the reception. It's like you guys don't understand, you can't even give a gift. You you can't even give a gift, you can't participate in any way in the days events. And this has just been weighing on me, you know. And I called my mom and I kind of laid into my mom. And I was just like, I was like, I don't understand how like you I'm even in this position. Like, you're paying for the wedding. Just say, yeah, I'll pay for the wedding, but it has to be in a Catholic church. Like, it's as simple as that. Like, I'll pay for the wedding, sure. It has to be in a church, though. Like, you want me to pay for the wedding, and it has to this, these are the these are you're allowed to put boundaries up for where your money goes. We talked about this with the trust the other night, right? Like, so I kind of like Yeah, you you you do get a say when your money's involved. Yeah, you get a say, and like there's yes, I I I I'm I I'm thrilled you guys are getting married, and I will pay for the wedding. These are the guidelines, like you're allowed to do that, you know. So I kind of like laid into her a little bit. I felt bad, like, because I was a little rougher on the edges about it. And I said, but I th I left it off. I said, listen, mom, I'm not I'm not going to say anything yet. What we're going to do is we're going to pray in Novina about this. And I'm just gonna I'm just gonna see if God has any anything. I I just want to I'm I'm just gonna pray Novina about it. And I'm just gonna I'm gonna hope that maybe you can say something gently so it doesn't become Anthony's Anthony, because it's always me. It's always me. It's always Anthony has to be the difficult one that makes the scene that causes the fights. It's always me. Those darn middle children. Yeah, it's just always me, man. Like it's just like I don't want it to be me. I don't want anything to do with this. I don't want, I don't want, I don't want anything, I don't want any attention on me for this thing. Like it's her wedding, I want her to get married. I just want her to get married in the church. That's it. I just like it. I don't I don't want to not go to my sister's wedding. I want my sister to get married in the church. Like,

Y2K Panic And Lessons On Faith

SPEAKER_01 55:35

that's what I want. So um, I I when I was talking to the priest, he said, look, something he said was so like just hit me. He goes, Look, when when our parents confirm us, we belong to the church. Like it's as simple as that. We belong to the church, whether we leave the sacraments or anything, like we still belong to the church. And that's a good thing because if you ever have that reversion later in life, all you have to do is go to confession and you're welcomed with open arms back into the church. You don't have to go through some ritual, you don't have to go through RCIA, you don't have to do any of that. But now, if you get married outside the church, now you have to get your marriage convalidated, and now you have to do all that. So, like the whole point is even if your heart's not there at the moment, like just get married in the church. Because you don't know what God has in store for later, you know, and it's like it is a good thing that the church does this to us, right? And it's like I could find a hundred thousand justifications to say, Oh, well, I guess I can go because the church doesn't specifically say anywhere that you can't go. Like, there's no you're not gonna find it in catechism or huh?

SPEAKER_02 56:41

There's no, there's nothing it, you know, there's nothing that's moral theology, so it's not it's not doctrine, and it's not a canonic law.

SPEAKER_01 56:49

So all the moral theologians will tell you you can, and all you know, there, but there's nothing.

SPEAKER_02 56:53

Well, it's modern the more the old moral manuals, of course, say absolutely not.

SPEAKER_01 56:58

Listen, the the truth is you will not find anything before the council allowing it. Right. You just won't. You won't find anything before the council allowing it. You might find some things after the council allowing it, but the more I think about it, it's like we went through the book of Ephesians, and it's like marriage is the icon of the Trinity. Like it is the icon of the Trinity. It is it's like there's nothing more godlike you can do than enter remarriage and procreate. That is there is nothing more godlike we do that the the two become one, and nine months later you have to name it. Like that is that is participation and creation, right? And marriage is such a such an important icon. It's like Christ is the bridegroom and the church is the bride. Like, you can't play games with this stuff, you just can't. So I call a father and he and I was like, Do you know a good saint to offer to have a novena to? He says, Saint Monica. Like, obviously, Saint Monica, like the the the saint of wayward children, right?

SPEAKER_02 58:07

Like plus her husband was not Catholic.

SPEAKER_01 58:11

Yeah, she praised like her son is away from the church, she praised him in, right? Like when so when you read the beginning of the novena, the whole thing is about children who have stepped away from the church or wayward children who you want to become Catholic or have left the sacraments, things like that. That is the novena, right? And it's the day the novena starts, like it's the day the novena starts. So we like the novena ends on St. Augustine's feast day. It's just it was just perfect, right? So I I had that conversation with my mom, and we start praying the novena, and apparently my sister came up and asked my mom out of nowhere, mom, do you think you could uh start teaching? She has a daughter already with the guy she's marrying. She goes, Do you think you can teach uh me and her daughter uh some some things about like Catholicism? Like out of nowhere. So like I I'm at a point where I'm not that worried about this. Like I'm really not I don't think I'm going to have to not attend a wedding uh it's months away, it's in March next year. Okay or April, April next year. I don't think I'm going to have to not attend. I think she's gonna get married in the church. Like, I I just trust that she's going to. I I really do. I just trust that she's going to. But what's kind of crazy is it like hypothetically, if she doesn't, like I'm going to be the bad guy that doesn't know, I'm going to be called a Pharisee. I'm going to be called like they're going to, it's not going to be like, oh, Anthony's doing some noble thing. No, it's going to be Anthony, you're causing turmoil in the family, or you know, you're you're a Pharisee or a hypocrite, blah, blah, blah. That's what it's going to be. But in reality, like, I have several Catholic siblings, and my parents are Catholic. And it's like, if we all said, hey, look, we can't go to this wedding, and it did it in a gentle way, like, she would have no choice but to like reconsider. Like, right? But no, you're gonna leave it on one person to be the bad guy. And it's like, I don't, I don't want to be the bad guy here. I don't want, I don't want this to be about me whatsoever. It's just it's one of those things that look, these are these are some of the hardest times to be Catholic when you have to make these decisions and people revile you, and people speak all sorts of calumny about you because you're doing it for Christ. Like it's actually like that's treasure, you're building treasure in heaven when you do that, but it's still the hardest freaking thing in the world.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:46

Yeah, and you know, it I mean, I know you know it would be the right thing to do, but like and I told you this privately. So so Hope and I, when we were our our wedding was outside the church. Yeah, I was a baptized, she's not, she wasn't a baptized Catholic at the time, but I was, right? And I didn't get a dispensation, so it was an invalid marriage. Um, until of course we I came back to the church and she converted and we got a invalidated. Um but no, I I you know all of my supposedly Catholic family that we invited came, no problem, no questions asked, and nobody even said anything. No, no, and no, and I I I didn't I didn't know that they should at that point in time, right? Um but I wish I wish they had at this point, you know, because I think it would have kicked my ass back into shape a couple years earlier.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:49

Yeah, so like what one of the things that would have come up is I went to my brother Dom's wedding uh years ago. My brother Dom got married when I got married. Um, my brother Joey got married by a retired Catholic priest, but at the reception hall, it lacked form.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:08

So my brother Joey Well now it doesn't necessarily lack form just because it's outside of a church building.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:19

It it was like whatever it was, whatever he likes when he went and he talked to a priest about because like he he got married, and then he has his coming back to the sacraments as well later. And the priest he spoke to, the priest said, Your marriage is invalid.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:33

It definitely could have locked form, but but it did whatever it was, it did. You can have a Catholic wedding outside of the physical church, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:44

We don't know that priest's display. We don't know, I think it was something to do with the priest, but so like I went to Dom's wedding, I went to Joey's wedding, and nobody said anything. So that would have been brought up. But the thing is, I I didn't know back then, like it fell under invincible ignorance, it really did. Like, I didn't know any better, and it wasn't until the past seven years that you start taking your your deep diving into the tradition and finding this stuff out. It's like I can no longer claim invincible ignorance on this, I have to so like my brother Joey had to maintain a period of abstinence until they and it was like months. Mike Mike Pantile, same thing, had to go a few months of like sleeping in a separate bedroom from his wife until they were able to convalidate their marriage. It's like it's a difficult thing to go through, but the but if this is the this is the point father was making is that once you're a confirmed Catholic, like you belong to the church, even if you stop attending the sacraments, you belong to the church. And I my thing is I belong to the church and I obey the church, and like the argument I was having with certain family members, they were like, uh, this is I uh I I'm

Sponsors And Switching To Locals

SPEAKER_01 1:03:55

not I I I have to answer to God, I don't have to answer to the church. And I'm like, wait a minute. Like if your if your morality and conscience is contradicting what the church says, like you submit yourself to the church. I'm sorry. There's no that is the point of the church.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:10

It's when you think something should be okay, and God literally said that the church has the power to blind and loose.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:18

That's it. So I mean, this was the conversation, and whatever it was, whatever it was that I said to my mom, it it I think it had I think it I think it pricked her conscience too, because sh she said, just hold off on saying anything, say the novena, and let me talk to her first. So because I don't want to be the one, like I really don't. I don't want to be the one. I don't wanna I don't want I I don't want anybody being in that position. I just want my sister to get married in the church. I want to I want it to be an awesome day, I want to be happy for her. But to me, like marriage is just way too freaking important, man. Like it's just it's just too it's just the icon of the church and the relationship between Christ in the church and God the Father and the Son. Like it's just there's too much. Like, if you go through the book of Ephesians and how Paul, it's like the the mystery of Christ is marriage, like it's this it's this really deep mystery, and it has to do with marriage and the whole thing of Christ being the bridegroom and the cross being his his marital bed, uh and him saying it is consummated on the cross. Like all of this is just it's just too uh too important and too deep to just go, oh you know, like it's you can't presume God's mercy on a thing like that. You just have to oh it's I know a lot of people that have gone through this too, but a lot of people reached out to me about it. Um but there's also like so if anybody else wants to join in on the um novena to St. Monica, you Can add your own intention in on it. If you have family members that are away from the church, like it would be awesome if just 150 of us were praying a novena to St. Monica right now. So we started it. And um Yeah, it's just uh I don't know, man. I don't want it to Rob, you don't know what that little it will be mayhem in my family if I if I have to do that. Like it will not go well. My sister will probably not talk to me for a very long time. And I'll tell you, it really the really the conversation I what's crazy is this didn't even dawn on me until Eddie came up. My co my cousin Eddie came up from Kentucky and uh he mentioned he didn't go to his sister's wedding. And I was like, Really? He's like, he's like, Aunt, you have no idea. He's like, it was one of the most challenging things I ever did, but like, yeah, I couldn't do it. He's like, and that was like a year or two ago. He's like, and finally now they're starting to talk again, and she's gonna come and visit him and stuff. Um, she's like a militant anti-Catholic Protestant now. His sister. And um it was like as soon as he said it, like my I was like, wait a minute, I'm facing that same exact scenario. Like it did, it just didn't dawn on me until he said it, right? And then as soon as he said it, I was like, I'm facing that exact scenario. I have to make the same decision here. Like, I have to. Like, I can't, I don't, I just it's I can't believe I hadn't thought of it up until that point. It's you know, it's just I I actually didn't like know exactly what they were doing for the wedding and stuff, so it's like, um I don't know. I just honestly, I think it is a grace from God that my cousin came up. My cousin said that to me. It was a grace from God that I have the priests in my life that I do to counsel me the way they did. Because I think the miracle is going to be my sister actually having a sacramental wedding in the end. Like, I I I pray that that's the outcome. Um, yeah, that's all you can do. No, that's the thing, and there's marriage prep involved, right? So it it has to be soon. But a novena, I can wait. Like, there's there's it's it's happening in yeah, you can you can wait seven more days at the time. I can I can wait a novena, you know what I mean? And I'm really praying that there's a miracle at the end of the novena. My mom would pray novenas to um Saint Teresa, Saint Teresa. Is it Saint Terese or Saint Teresa? Little flower. Saint Terese is a little flower. My mom would pray novenas to her and get flowers at the end of everyone. I'm not saying that everybody gets them at the end of them, but my mom would get roses at the end of her novenas to her all the time. So I'm confident, I'm confident that Saint Monica's interceding for us right now.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:10

Yeah, just keep in mind, might be uh part of God's plan for you to turn out to be the asshole.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:18

I know, and I accept whatever it is. I do, I accept whatever it is. I accept whatever it is, but I still pray for the miracle.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:26

Yeah, of course.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:27

You know, that's that's really how it always should be. But it's like we, you know, we don't see I and even if I even if I do have to be that guy, like maybe down the road one day, my sister will come back and she'll see why I did it. You know what I mean? You know, like and honestly, I'll like my family is very forgiving of stuff. We've had some real blowouts in my family, and like we always forgive one another. And I know she'll be very hurt, but I don't think she'll never talk. I don't think it's one of those things she'll never talk to me again. I think I think she understands I she understands like how big how important my faith is to me, and that it's not, you know, it's not has nothing to do with judging her. It's

Coworker Arrest And Workplace Chaos

SPEAKER_01 1:10:10

more I just have to be an obedient son. Like if I want my wife to obey me, if I want my wife and children to obey me, I have to obey the church. It's just it's just the way it is. You can't if you're if you don't obey the church and obey God, you can't expect those under your authority to obey you. It's just the order of things, and it's bad enough I got one sister marrying a freaking Eastern Catholic man.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:41

It's like I did not that was Don's joke. Hold on, do I have that invite around here? I didn't see is that is it a Latin parish or an eastern parish?

SPEAKER_01 1:10:57

Okay, so um okay, so Father said it's not just your it's your baptism. Uh it's your baptism and reception into the church that places you under the church's laws, not confirmation.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:11

Yeah, I mean, because you become a the reason not at baptism.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:15

The reason I thought it was confirmation is because so many the church recognizes so many baptisms outside the church, you know what I mean? Like so many non-Catholic baptisms, like as long as it's in the proper form. Like I don't I don't think a Lutheran who's baptized in the proper form is are they under the church's law? No, but I guess if you're baptized in a Catholic church in the in a Catholic church is different. Just because we recognize their baptism is valid doesn't necessarily um it's funny uh because we had the conversation on the phone yesterday, he's getting he's getting YouTube recommendations on uh can Catholics attend non-Catholic weddings. But um yeah, we're gonna we're gonna it's it's just a uh it's a hard subject. I don't know. It's it's not always easy being Catholic. And I think those are these are the times that like in the long run.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:22

There used to be an exception where those who have left the church through a formal act of defection were no longer um bound by the church's laws on marriage, but Benedict removed that exception entirely in two things.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:41

Literally, conversation father had with me yesterday. He said that he's had that exact conversation with me yesterday. He goes, Benedict had to clarify that and say, and say, no, that's not accurate. Um, Molly, it's it's not even harder when your family isn't counting because like technically you can attend two Protestants getting married. Yeah, that's a valid marriage. That's a valid, um, natural marriage, right?

SPEAKER_02 1:13:12

You can't participate in the rite, obviously. But I mean you could go to the reception, or if it's a if it's uh if there's no religious rite at all, it's and if it's just the wedding itself.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:24

Well, that's the thing, even for my sister. My sister, it's like when I just need to have a mass, you don't need to have a mass, just make just make sure it's a catholic priest or deacon witnessing the the marriage. Like in a Catholic church, that's it. It's not like what's the big deal? What's the honestly?

SPEAKER_02 1:13:45

If if the the priest can get permission by from the bishop to do it at the reception hall, it could it does, yeah, it could be at the receptional, even technically.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:57

Yeah, yeah, if it's a cat if a catholic priest witnesses, I thought that lacked form.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:01

No, no, as long as he has permission from his ordinary. The problem is in an ordinary apparently is more likely to give permission when it's one baptized Catholic and one um one non-baptized Catholic, right? But when they're both baptized Catholics, ordinary the bishops usually don't give permission to do those outside of a physical church building.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:29

Um, somebody's asking about funerals. Funerals, you can I'm pretty sure you can attend any funeral. It's not it's not a sacrament, there's no validity to it or anything like that. That's more on the priest, is the priest has to make the choice do I give this person a Catholic funeral if they didn't live a Catholic life, I would imagine. Uh I don't know. I mean, it doesn't stand anymore though, right? Like they used to refuse Catholic funerals to suicides, they used to refuse

Catholic Weddings And Family Fallout

SPEAKER_01 1:14:55

Catholic funerals to certain things. I don't, that doesn't happen anymore, though.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:58

Yeah, if you were excommunicated, you don't get a Catholic funeral. Which I think during interdicts, during interdicts, no Catholic funerals could be held.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:08

I think um I think it's a mercy the church grants that they give Catholic funerals to even those who fall away, for the for the family members, even. Like, please just allow my child to have a Catholic funeral at least, you know, and and let us offer a mass for him. And you know, like I think that's a I think that's a acceptable mercy. Who the hell am I to say anything? The church does it. Like my opinion on it matters not.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:37

Um I mean uh I I will not attend a celebration of life.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:47

No, I don't think so either. I don't know, it depends how like what your relationship is to the person, I guess, and stuff.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:55

You know, but yeah, but if I'm really close to someone, then I'll celebrate their life my own way. I don't need to go to some gay gay thing where we all share our feelings about them.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:10

Um are there any other uh interdicts, Robin? Keep it up and you'll find out. You're putting just for men touch of gray because it's so ruthless. Um, yeah, Molly, if they're marrying a lapsed Catholic, then um weddings aren't the only thing to deal with. Like that, yeah. It's like get married in the just get married in the church. There are two baptized Catholics. There's nothing preventing them from getting married in the church. It's just just get married in the church. That my diocese does pre-cana in one day. It's like you go to a one full day retreat, and precana is one full, it's like a retreat you go on, it's a full day, it's like 12 hours. Bobby and Chrissy are doing it.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:55

It's way better than like six months of week.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:58

I had to do like six weeks in a row of meeting at this couple's house, and it was it was terrible. And they and it was the worst wedding preparation imaginable. Like, I should teach a wedding prep course. I should actually volunteer. Me and my wife should volunteer for that to talk to young couples getting married, not marriage prep. We really should. I'll tell you right now, you know who I'm more worried about if I say we can't go to the wedding than my sister is my wife and kids. Why listen to me? It's one thing for us as men to take a stand on this stuff. Women don't want women, like they don't want my wife. My wife's not gonna want to not attend my sister. Are you kidding me? Do you have any idea what that's gonna be like for her? She's gonna be furious, she'll do it because I say it. Like she'll do whatever I say, but she will not be happy. She thinks it's like ridiculous that I want. I'm like, it doesn't matter what you think. My mom thinks it's ridiculous. It doesn't matter what you think. It just does not matter what you think. I know your heart's in the right place, like their heart's in the right place. They don't want to seem judgmental, like and it might make you your sisters turned off from catalog. I get it. I understand. Believe me, I understand the empathy that women have, and I get it. It's it's your heart's in the right place. Reason and logic are not part of this equation.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:34

It's just it's really a microchiasm of everything going on with women in society in general, right? Like the inability to do something uncomfortable, even when it's right reasoning.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:49

Yeah, doing something very uncomfortable because it's the right thing to do, not because it's going to upset people. Because the greatest sin in New Church is don't offend.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:58

No, no, I mean, let's be honest, many men suffer from that too, but 100% it seems like it's about 99% of women that suffered from it.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:06

But and most men suffer from it because they're afraid to deal with the consequences from the women. Yeah, that's true. Yeah, like most of the men who are doing that are like, I just don't want to deal with the wrath of my wife. I just don't want to deal. And it's like look, the very thing that me and Pantile were talking about this. It's like every every fight I've ever had with my wife is about tone, it's about like the way I said something, you know. It's not about it's like it's literally the way I say I gotta send you a screenshot of something. I gotta send you this. You gotta put this in the telegram.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:41

I I have learned that no matter what she might say to the contrary, my wife does not want my help solving issues she has.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:55

Wait, you gotta put this up. You gotta put this up. Oh, where did you say? I said this telegram. I sent this to my wife earlier.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:11

Hold on.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:13

So I I sent this to my wife earlier. Uh it's been it was a video of a girl just saying, the longer we're married, the more I realized that 95% of the time my husband is right, I just didn't like his tone. So I said this to my wife, she said, yes, the tone. So I when I was talking to Pantilia about it, goes, Anthony, it's every argument I've ever had in my marriage, said me too. Like it's just, but the thing is, the very thing that she hates, like that tone that she hates so much is also the reason she loves me, is because, like, in a situation like this, like I'm gonna do the thing I that nobody wants to do. I'm going to be uncomfortable because I have to do, I have to do it. And it's like that tone that that she finds so abrasive towards her is the very thing she finds attractive when I do it towards in a protective situation or you know, something like that. It's like that that brashness of mine that she both loves and hates. Yeah, it's what makes her respect me. It's that like I, you know. Yeah, I have to be very gentle with my wife. My wife is very sensitive. Like I have to, if I'm going to say something, like there was something even recently, it was like something, something she did in the moment that I was like, I'm gonna let this go right now. I'm gonna wait till the right time to talk to her. And then, like, when I went to bring it up, even like two days later, when it was I thought it was the right time, it was like never the right time, dude. It was like something simple. Like, I like it was something with my kids. Like, my kids said something to me, I was like, No, I don't want that. My wife was like, Oh, knock it off, let them do it. And I said, I'm gonna let this go. And then later on, I was like, listen, I was like, if I say something like that, like don't like it's one thing if you want to pull me on the side and say, Hey, you know, I I don't, you know, you could do that, but never in front of them, you know. You would think I accuse her of murder. You would think you would think I called her an awful person and she's the worst, and you murdered your three children and strangled them with the belts. Like, that's the reaction I got. I was like, never mind, calm down, relax. Uh they're just it's just any kind of approach to like you women are so finicky. And then later on, she came out there, she's like, You're right, I'm sorry. I'm like, all right, thank you. It's just like in the moment, she gets super defensive. Um, yeah, all right. I think look, it's gonna be a short one tonight, but we're doing a Saturday show, so you guys are gonna deal with a short episode tonight. I don't know, man. I I hope when we share things like this, like conversations like this, it gives people like a little bit of inspiration when you guys have those hard moments and you gotta do the right thing because they're not easy, it's really not, and like that's kind of how this channel started was me talking about the COVID vaccine, it was the same thing.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:08

Yeah, you've made me realize I have a similar situation happening next month. Uh I hate you. It's dude, doesn't it suck? Doesn't it suck?

SPEAKER_01 1:23:18

You didn't even think of it, like you don't even think of it.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:20

Well, so my cousin and his longtime girlfriend eloped without like eloped back in like March without telling any of us. They just eloped, yeah. So he's a baptized Catholic. I don't know if she is or isn't, but he was he was baptized Catholic, but never really raised in the church. They brought him to his first communion, but I don't even I don't even know if he was that's when it gets confirmed, it gets you know, so but so so they eloped back in March, didn't tell anyone until like June, and they're and now they're holding you know, we're there's gonna be like a a party in a in a barn, yeah, in next month. Is it a reception? I don't know, it's not gonna be a ceremony because that's already done, but like I'm like, well, crap. Yeah, can I go to that thing?

SPEAKER_01 1:24:12

I'm not I I'm not I'm not gonna pressure anybody to do anything. I just know my situation is my situation, and it's like I don't know. Crap. One man, it's tough, tough, tough, tough, tough to be Catholic. But yeah, it was that was how the channel started was me doing

Novena To Saint Monica And Farewell

SPEAKER_01 1:24:35

the COVID vaccine thing, and it was like, I I don't care, I'm not getting this thing. Like, if I have to get fired, I get fired, I don't care. And it's like there's gonna come times in our lives where you just gotta do something that it would make it so much easier to just do the thing. But you just can't, like you just you just can't. So pray for me that I have the strength. Pray for my sister. Honestly, I'm gonna ask everybody, just pray for my sister. If anybody's willing, please pray the uh St. Monica Novino with us and uh add your own family members to the intentions of those who are fallen away. We all have family members who have fallen away, man. Like all of us. All of us have family members that have fallen away. So or we're never Catholic and you want to become Catholic. So let's all let's all that's that's that's your homework assignment. Everybody, tonight at bedtime, pray for all of our fallen away family members. And uh, we will see you guys Saturday morning, 9 a.m. Eastern. Saturday morning, 9 a.m. Eastern, if you guys want to jump in the live chat.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:43

I will be uh at an Airbnb, so this should be interesting.

SPEAKER_01 1:25:48

I do 90% of the talking with Maudsley anyway. It'll be fine. Like with Maudsley interviews, I'm gonna read the book, I'll catch everything up. I'll have I'll have a good set of questions. You'll you'll uh you'll just help me run the uh production production end of it. If you it depends. I mean, if you have good quality audio and stuff, you know, we'll figure it out. But it'll be terrible. We'll see you guys on Saturday morning.