Alright, dear listeners, it has been a while since I cut in before a show with some preliminary

message, but it feels a little important to say that we recorded this before the chaos

in the Middle East started.

Well, I mean, this latest round of chaos, of course.

But Chris has been here so often covering so many different topics that if I didn't at

least mention this fact, then I could see it seeming weird to some listeners that throughout

the whole conversation, it wouldn't at least be referenced.

But given the nature of every single conversation on every single news channel podcast and social

media account this week, I'm sure there are some who consider it a blessing to be able

to enjoy this conversational time capsule from the far away time of 15 days ago.

The flip side is that I've gotten a lot of messages regarding how I feel about this

Gaza-Israel situation, and even a few calls to cover it quickly.

And to be honest, I still have a couple of episodes from my pre-Roman's birth stockpile

to roll out.

And I don't have anything scheduled regarding this conflict on the calendar at this point.

But I think we've been well trained over the last decade by a ton of great guests to

parse through propaganda and see that the big machine loves to present us with very dramatic

and emotionally triggering thoughts and images to rally us into giving them the green

light to increase the violence and fulfill agendas that think tanks have dreamt up a long

time ago.

And as for Exhibit A, on that point, I would say, see if anyone talking about this conflict

can go five minutes without some mention of dead babies.

...