Lowcountry Lowlifes

Kenny Rogers on my iPod

August 08, 2023 Josh Bates Season 2 Episode 7
Kenny Rogers on my iPod
Lowcountry Lowlifes
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Lowcountry Lowlifes
Kenny Rogers on my iPod
Aug 08, 2023 Season 2 Episode 7
Josh Bates

Ready to dive into a thrilling journey of survival, history, and cultural exploration? Catch our latest episode of Low Country, Low Lives where we confront the stark realities of residing in areas prone to natural disasters. Immerse yourself in the historical events that shaped Charleston and its ever-present danger of hurricanes. Relive the devastation of Hurricane Hugo and dare to contemplate another storm of a similar magnitude. 

Settle in as we transport you to the scorching climates of the Middle East, recounting tales of Afghanistan's humidity and Qatar's extreme temperatures. Ever wondered what it was like to live and work in foreign countries during the early 2000s? Explore the fascinating stories of iPods, Kenny Rogers' popularity, and the disparity in earnings between the U.S. and other nations. Listen as an American contractor recounts meeting his wife in Thailand, and discover the varied reactions of people to Americans across different countries.

As we navigate the complex issue of gun control in the U.S., we don't shy away from controversial topics. Reflect on government regulations, potential solutions, and the chilling side of freedom. We charge headlong into discussions on the leaders of the American Revolution, the 1619 project, and the enduring scars of slavery. Learn how the experiences of Irish immigrants, African Americans, and other minority communities have shaped the US, and close out with an exploration of the nuanced relationship between Japan and the United States. It's a conversation you won't want to miss.

Show Notes Transcript Chapter Markers

Ready to dive into a thrilling journey of survival, history, and cultural exploration? Catch our latest episode of Low Country, Low Lives where we confront the stark realities of residing in areas prone to natural disasters. Immerse yourself in the historical events that shaped Charleston and its ever-present danger of hurricanes. Relive the devastation of Hurricane Hugo and dare to contemplate another storm of a similar magnitude. 

Settle in as we transport you to the scorching climates of the Middle East, recounting tales of Afghanistan's humidity and Qatar's extreme temperatures. Ever wondered what it was like to live and work in foreign countries during the early 2000s? Explore the fascinating stories of iPods, Kenny Rogers' popularity, and the disparity in earnings between the U.S. and other nations. Listen as an American contractor recounts meeting his wife in Thailand, and discover the varied reactions of people to Americans across different countries.

As we navigate the complex issue of gun control in the U.S., we don't shy away from controversial topics. Reflect on government regulations, potential solutions, and the chilling side of freedom. We charge headlong into discussions on the leaders of the American Revolution, the 1619 project, and the enduring scars of slavery. Learn how the experiences of Irish immigrants, African Americans, and other minority communities have shaped the US, and close out with an exploration of the nuanced relationship between Japan and the United States. It's a conversation you won't want to miss.

Speaker 1:

off. Hey there, did you're holding that mic and it's turning me on the way you're holding it. It's a huge mic, it is, and you are gripping and ripping it.

Speaker 2:

Dude, it's very thick, not so thick that I can manage it. Well, I can reach my, get my hand around it. Only do so all right.

Speaker 1:

Look at you. Got a ring on. Yeah, you like that Because you're you work with your hands.

Speaker 2:

Stone gray. Yeah, nice little medical silicone.

Speaker 1:

Is that a quail or whatever they're called Groove Okay.

Speaker 2:

Quailude ring.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, quailude, yeah Lemon 714.

Speaker 2:

You buy. You buy five bottles to get a ring. Yeah, yeah, I like it, it's all right, it's comfortable. Look at you. Yeah, I'm a who would have thought.

Speaker 1:

Look at us. Who would have thought? Who would have thought? Little Danny Dick cheese.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, living in his truck is now Mr. Yeah, danny, dick cheese is a proper man now. Did you think this would be the case? Yeah, back then, oh yeah.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, no, I saw it, it was all over, it was. Yeah, it made sense.

Speaker 2:

I was gone. I was never coming back. My name is Josh.

Speaker 1:

Bates, I'm Dan Sweeney. Welcome to low country, low lives. I'm glad you're here.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, happy to be here we were, we were chatting. Yeah, also, I like the arm on the. I liked. Yeah, it's a different vibe.

Speaker 1:

My wife is out of town, me and my son. We leave tomorrow, so I guess you can come steal shit from my house, not true? My brother will be here, yeah, but um, yeah, so my wife is gone, which is weird to have the house without young children here, and so Dan and I are doing the podcast in the kitchen, yeah, and because we're guys and there are no adult women in the home, nope, I'm like, well, it's time to pull the. Pull the guns out, put the gun right on the table.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so my gun is literally sitting on the table. We're ready. Yeah, it's, it's wracked. You know, we always want to be ready, we want to be ready.

Speaker 2:

And then we started just talking about you know apocalypse and you know being ready for that, and well, it's interesting because I'm we're, we're, you know you're further down the line of life, your children mortgage home, sure, you know. You think about where I'm starting. I'm beginning that process, yeah. And of where we want to live and we've chosen to live on a, on a place that's mostly topsoil, pluff, mud, right next to the ocean, yeah, and where it's the edge of where land and ocean, air and currents and storms meet, yeah, and there are horrifying, and with others the Horn of Africa, that like spitting off these little, these little storms.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and I'm surprised Charleston's do, as we have a average, about every 30 years, of a major hurricane doing major damage to this area, and a big part of this city was built by the Horn of Africa.

Speaker 2:

A lot of people, sure from that place, were brought here, and now the storms destroy it. And now, well, they're going to. There's that one back in the day, hugo.

Speaker 1:

Hugo. Oh, you mean I don't need to leave? I was here for Hugo.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, if you survived here, hugo, I mean the amount of confidence you must get wasn't even a cat five. It's a cat four. Dude. Cat four is still a thing I mean nowadays. I'm not impressed. I've heard it was on. It was like on that, that median of cat four, cat five. It went right up 26.

Speaker 1:

Nice, like literally did the path of 26. That's pretty cool yeah.

Speaker 2:

That's how 26 was made. Actually, even fuck summer villa. Yeah, it destroyed. It destroyed Isle of Palms, absolutely.

Speaker 1:

Like was just like you're no more. I was telling you James Island and Kiowa, yeah, the right approach, that it's gone and we're due for one, and it's a and it's a hot.

Speaker 2:

I can't tell. It's like I have amnesia. I'm like is it every summer? Is it this hot? Or it feels particularly hot. This summer already it felt it was sneaky because it was cold.

Speaker 1:

It was kind of cool.

Speaker 2:

And then all of a sudden boom like a lot oh it was late yeah. Delayed puberty. There was a hotness.

Speaker 1:

The heat hit some traffic on the way here. Yeah, I was like oh hey, here I'm here guys.

Speaker 2:

I'm on my way, don't worry. Yeah, and now we're just smacked with it right up against my leg. Yeah, it's making things stick to my leg. Yeah, it's hot, it is, they said with the heat index.

Speaker 1:

It feels like yeah, I don't means it is.

Speaker 2:

This is such a hacky premise, but then it is yeah.

Speaker 1:

Then it is that they said it was like 110 115.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I feel it because and I make the mistakes sometimes of you know it's the morning and 80 degrees or whatever. Yeah, you know, I'm like, all right, I'll just keep my windows up, whatever, but then I'll leave them up all day and then you get in. You're like what the fuck?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it's so hot. Yeah, that's what it was like in the Middle East outside.

Speaker 2:

Was that?

Speaker 1:

your. I don't know what that was. I called a prayer. Okay, yeah, no, it was the best way I can explain it is. It's that feeling. And then fully turn on your heat into your car yeah, full blast. And then put your face up against it. Is it humid there?

Speaker 2:

Is there a humidity?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, depending on where you're at. Yeah, yeah, afghanistan is their humidity? 100% humidity some days, damn, depending on where you're at, like near the mountains, no.

Speaker 2:

Dry, dry Desert humid.

Speaker 1:

Oh yeah, is there a Qatar, for example, qatar, 135 degrees, 100% humidity, and you go, josh, it can't be 100% because that means it's just wet. Yeah, and my answer to that is yes, it should be raining. Are there beaches?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, Wow, yeah, there's beaches. If I was a billionaire, I'd get an Afghanistan beach house.

Speaker 1:

They have. They have man-made islands with houses on them. It's probably gorgeous, right. The beaches, I mean they're okay.

Speaker 2:

Okay, they're all right. It's like half a tank sticking out.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

Nothing right home about, yeah, okay.

Speaker 1:

No, because the whole place looks like a beach, just minus the water yeah. And then you get there and you're like, oh, there's water. That water is like 120 degrees.

Speaker 2:

Okay, it's not.

Speaker 1:

What ocean is that? The Indian, the Arabian, if it's the Pacific, technically, but it's Arabian.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah, the Arab Sea, the Arab Sea, the Arab water, yeah.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, but oh that there's, Arabian water, there it's hot dude, it's really hot.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, you miss that heat at all.

Speaker 1:

No, no, it was unbearable that, and like you, couldn't go outside without sunglasses on.

Speaker 2:

Oh, I bet.

Speaker 1:

I mean, it's impossible.

Speaker 2:

You got those sensitive baby blues. You got dude, you got burnt corn. Oh it's great.

Speaker 1:

There's one guy I remember he was like an old master sergeant was like hey, sergeant Bates, come here. I was Airman Bates at the time. Airman Bates, come in here.

Speaker 2:

Airman.

Speaker 1:

Bates, Come in here for a second. I was like, yeah, he's like, come here, boy. He's like I'm going to send you home with a body bag if we don't get you working on night shift. And he is, and that was like the golden shift, because that's, yeah, I mean that was great.

Speaker 2:

He saw your freckly.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, he was like you're going to die if I have you out there during the day, you will catch on fire.

Speaker 1:

So he was like you can drive stick, right, yeah, I'm like, yeah, of course I am stick, I am a stick. What are you talking about? Of course I could drive a stick. He's like, okay, well, you're going to start night shift tomorrow. I was like, great, so I'm working that last day shift, yeah, and I had to go learn how to drive a stick. Oh, you didn't know how to, no, so I took this little Haji Jeep and this guy taught me how to drive a stick, not that hard. The desert, no, it's fine. I learned in a day. Because I was like I'm learning this because I'm going to go work the night shift.

Speaker 2:

Stick shift kept you away from skin cancer. Saved you, yeah, saved me. Stick shift shaped your life.

Speaker 1:

And then I remember, of course I was asleep during the day, as you do, and our air conditioner broke and so it got in. It was like 130 degrees. People have like heat stroke out there all the time.

Speaker 2:

It's just a constant thing.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and our air conditioner just shit, and within a couple of minutes it's 150 degrees in the room, my Lord. And so I was like, well, I need to go to sleep because I still have to work tonight. It's not like I'm like hey yeah can't operate. So I just took a blanket and went and we had this little tiny building that was a movie theater.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

And they would just constantly play movies on a loop.

Speaker 2:

Was. The air conditioning is like the 30s in the south You're like I'm going to go to the movie theater to get some air conditioning.

Speaker 1:

I would go in there and just the air conditioning was great and I would just sleep in there and they were like playing a I can't remember what movie, I think it was Superman.

Speaker 2:

Okay With Christopher Reeves no, no, no. With Henry Cavill no, that was after your time.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, no, it was that other guy.

Speaker 2:

Who's the other guy?

Speaker 1:

No, maybe it was a cavill. I don't remember what Superman it was.

Speaker 2:

It wasn't the old one with Gene Hackman as like no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no no, I thought there was that one that was in the middle. It's like I think our tax dollars are better.

Speaker 1:

I think, oh, oh, yeah, yeah, kevin Spacey was didn't do yeah, didn't do well, didn't do well, didn't do well at all. It was on loop and I just slept in there. Nice yeah For the troops, for the troops, dude.

Speaker 2:

But he out of the people out there Are. They are their bodies just acclimated, like genetically.

Speaker 1:

It's just years of I think reading in that heat, because they would work. They would work out there in the day and do construction work like no problem. Just out there ripping it just working and long clothes too Right.

Speaker 1:

It's not, in short, their whole bodies are covered from the sun and then like they would make fun of us because we would drink our water in ice. Yeah, they're like. No, you drink it hot. And I'm like what are you talking about? They're like so when you put it in your body, your body doesn't go into shock and want that cold. Oh, so just, we just drink it warm. Wow.

Speaker 2:

Hard people. Yeah, people in the Middle East are hard, tough people.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I would hate America too, oh we're the best. I know, I mean I have like forests and lakes.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

And porn, air conditioning and air conditioning. Yeah, you know. Yeah, like the World Cup to me was insane that it was in Qatar, it was the same. That was a big controversy.

Speaker 2:

Well, there's the mafia because they were like Qatar doesn't like homos and stuff like that, you know you couldn't drink or be gay.

Speaker 1:

Well, you couldn't be gay, I mean, but you can't even drink.

Speaker 2:

So if you're gay, alcoholic he loves, loves, soccer. You got to sit that one out.

Speaker 1:

Well, they, they. They were like hey, we're in Arab countries, you can't drink yeah.

Speaker 2:

But you can rip darts all day Like.

Speaker 1:

Hey, we're going to create these little, yeah, we're going to create these little alcohol zones. Yeah, you can drink in little areas of freedom. Yeah, these little freedom circles little democracy pockets and I was the same with with pork. Ah, you could get pork and like it's like underground pork market. Yeah, Pork and beer. I remember we went to an Applebee's off base.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, in Qatar.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, a Qatari.

Speaker 2:

Applebee's yeah, to be the manager of that place they had baby back ribs.

Speaker 1:

Well, they were beef ribs. So they're the big like Fred Flintstone fucking ribs.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, you frame a house when you're done with them.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it's like that. You know what they love, what they, because I'm racist. Uh-huh Madonna, they love Madonna.

Speaker 2:

No, they uh.

Speaker 1:

Kenny Rogers. They still love Kenny Rogers. Do they love Kenny Rogers? They love fucking Kenny Rogers. I remember had an iPod.

Speaker 2:

Why did they love Kenny Rogers? I had an iPod and they would all be Cause he's got, cause he got a beard, probably Like he's our guy.

Speaker 1:

No, but I had an iPod. And this is when Narls Barkley was really big.

Speaker 2:

Is that gonna be crazy yeah?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so we're jamming to it Right and uh, and had a little. It was the first one that had the little screen on it. Okay, you know, I'm talking about the touch, the touch, yeah, it was the very first touch and, uh, it was huge and they loved it and they were like, wow, this is, this is really cool, this is sorcery.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, this is sorcery. And uh, they're like, do you have any Kenny Rogers? And I would laugh and I'm like, oh, no, dude. And they're like, no, seriously, you don't have Kenny Rogers, you're American, you don't have Kenny Rogers, on your thing.

Speaker 2:

No, no, no. What do you?

Speaker 1:

mean, but no, straight up, like they love Kenny Rogers Really. Yeah, they love them.

Speaker 2:

Did they ever explain why? I don't, I think just like there's never went out of popularity he was like blue jeans, like there's just something quintessentially.

Speaker 1:

West American about Kenny.

Speaker 2:

You got to know when. Who. That's right, they just fucking love them they loved them.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and they're just yeah, they, I mean the guys that would work there. They were called the TCNs third country nationals and they would uh, uh, they were all from, like, thailand and the Philippines, and they would come and work at guitar. Wow, real guitaries don't work. No, because they're all related to the Sultan, they're all Royal Prince. Yeah, they're all Royal. So these guys make $5, $6 a day. Yeah, and I remember, uh, this guy. He was working in our little coffee shop that we had on base. I'm at Night Shift so I'm dropping him back off.

Speaker 2:

Great song by the Commodore's, by the way.

Speaker 1:

What's that Night Shift, night Shift, that's a very good song. And he's like how much did people make per hour at Starbucks? Yeah, and this was.

Speaker 2:

Early 2000s.

Speaker 1:

Early 2000s. I was like I don't know like nine bucks an hour. And he's like, whispered newest friend. He's like are you serious? $9 a night. He's like do you know how much I make? And I was like he's like $4 a day. Wow, I don't like it.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, he's like I made $290 last year. Yeah.

Speaker 1:

Wow, check this iPod out. Like it would take you Several years, several years to get this iPod.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

But it was hot.

Speaker 2:

Money's weird like that where it's worth so much more. I remember that scene in EuroTrip. That was a big movie of my adolescence, because boobs or boobs in there A lot of boobs. Yeah, and Michelle Trachenberg Wow, what a gym. Yeah, rip. I don't know where she is, but but you're not here.

Speaker 1:

When a celebrity disappears.

Speaker 2:

You're like they're dead or something Sure, but that they go to like some Eastern European country and they're like they get robbed. And they're like we have like three quarters and 50, like five nickels and several pennies, like what can we get with this? And then there's some like five star restaurant and he tips them like a penny and the guy's like you see this, and he like smacks the manager. He's like I quit and I retire, he just goes off. Just gotta love that exchange rate.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and then all those guys, they would work there and they would send all their money back home.

Speaker 2:

That's a hard life, man.

Speaker 1:

Cause that money was good. Though that money was good money back in Thailand.

Speaker 2:

Oh, yeah, I bet yeah, oh, you can live like a king in Thailand.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I had friends who go over there. They would go do a couple of years and they'd go back.

Speaker 2:

They just bought a girlfriend for like two weeks. You know, I mean you can do that. That's how I met Janet. Got in Thailand, yeah, she bought me.

Speaker 1:

Oh, bangkok, bates over there, yeah, bangkok Bates, that was the, that was my name.

Speaker 2:

I knew when I saw you in that alleyway in Bangkok you were, you were going to be my wife, yeah.

Speaker 1:

Good times. Yeah, it was weird, it was weird.

Speaker 2:

It was a weird time. It feels like a different universe.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

And then you know, amidst all the you know, you're probably constantly asking yourself why are we here? This feels like I'm just the tentacle of some empire.

Speaker 1:

And I don't understand. This is weird occupation.

Speaker 2:

What was weird was all of the in some places they liked you right, Like in Qatar, where they're pretty cool with you, they're fine.

Speaker 1:

You go off base and they're like, oh hey, it's an American.

Speaker 2:

But where there are other places like you, go off base. They're like you or you're like I'm not going.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, they're spitting. They're spitting it. Yeah, and you can't do anything, rushing their kids away. Oh no, what do you get if they spit on you? What do you do? You wouldn't do anything.

Speaker 2:

You know? Yeah, it's just weird that if the roles are reversed, you know you get in trouble in our country.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, You've paid women to spit on you. Yeah, of course. What's the going rate to get spit on?

Speaker 2:

$60 last I checked. But again, this is the early 2000s. Obama was in office. It was a different time, dude.

Speaker 1:

But no, what was weird was the American contractors that worked on base the big money machine.

Speaker 2:

The three letter guys.

Speaker 1:

Well, there were those guys. That was different, but the they would scare me. Those were. We had some scary like black water guys, but I'm talking just the guys that, like, did our job, that got paid $200,000 a year, tax free, yeah, and they were just out there just having a great time. Or like we got fed like Kings because the contractor, you know, ordered too much food or something Not even ordered too much food.

Speaker 1:

It was just like copious amounts of food because they were getting paid so much, yeah, and they were paying their, you know. Again, their chef was a Filipino guy. Yeah, making two dollars. Yeah, some five star Filipino chef. Dude, we ate lobster and steak once a week.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that's wild, it's crazy. Yeah, it doesn't make sense.

Speaker 1:

No but war. We didn't question it back then. Why would you? It was. It was. This was eat the lobster. Fight on terror, bro.

Speaker 2:

Dude, you have to wage war against a verb.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, you have to. I fought a war against a verb yeah. Against a feeling yeah, terror.

Speaker 2:

It's orange today, remember that. Oh yeah, today's terror threat is yellow. Yeah, thank goodness.

Speaker 1:

Well, we have these things called FP cons force protection conditions FP cons yeah. Fp cons and we're in Bravo, mm. Hmm, and there's one called alpha, which means like everything's great.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

We'll never go to alpha again. No Like, why have alpha then?

Speaker 2:

Well, I think, I think we're going to start at some point. It seems like we'll have, like you know they talk a lot about. Back then it was like there's terrorists like George Bush and stuff yeah, terror. And then even in Obama there was ISIS and there was terrorists out there. And now, with January 6th happening and like people crack into grown terrorism, domestic terrorism, and that's interesting. And then the shit that's going on in France right now, where yeah, I got caught up.

Speaker 2:

People taking the streets with like weapons and shit like that. I saw videos of some guys like shooting like automatic weapons, which is weird because France is like very, not a gun. I could see that here. It's hard to get there. I also saw another video of these guys that took like an angle grinder to a light pole. Yeah, they were cutting it down. The guy like finishes cutting him. He's like yeah, and he's like walking away and the pole just falls on him and his three friends.

Speaker 1:

Oh yeah.

Speaker 2:

It's wild, that's crazy. It's what Russia should look like.

Speaker 1:

Dude, and then we almost saw a coup in.

Speaker 2:

Russia. Yeah, but then they were very.

Speaker 1:

They're like all right, I miss he's misunderstand you go to Belarus, well, I'll let you live. And then he was like okay, all right, he's living like a, he's getting a BJ, like from like five women right now. The dream Wagner, the Wagner group guy.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, he's like coming down and give him three Bellarinos.

Speaker 1:

I mean, he, he like marched on fucking Moscow.

Speaker 2:

dude, they're like where were the some?

Speaker 1:

on the way as others.

Speaker 2:

Some other important Russian metropolis, yeah, that I've never heard of, but they're like this is important, so I'm like we're like doing doughnuts with their tanks. Yeah, they were like we're taking over. Well, they're an interesting, that mercenary group. It's like a mercenary group, but it's prisoners. Right, they've like recruited prisoners for the most part, but are the prisoners, like you know, like rapists and murders, or are they people who like criminals? Or they're just like I don't like Putin and then they threw him?

Speaker 2:

no, it's mainly murders, and so it's psychos, yeah, but not like hardcore is probably like just that. You know a lot of petty theft a lot of you know that kind of shit In.

Speaker 1:

Russia.

Speaker 2:

It's pretty the penal system is pretty strict. You know, you know.

Speaker 1:

I like this episode because this episode is because we have a gun on the table, and this is why we're talking about this stuff.

Speaker 2:

Well, I mean, you know, a big thing right now is we could come to a day where what we're doing is highly illegal.

Speaker 1:

That's a big point of contention in this country is guns.

Speaker 2:

You know that's a question they ask every candidate Are you going to take away people's guns?

Speaker 1:

Are you going to take?

Speaker 2:

away the right for you to put a gun on your kitchen table while you do a middling podcast with your friend? Are you going to do that?

Speaker 1:

It's all. It's all right. It's a. It's a shitty cut. There's not an answer to it.

Speaker 2:

I like your answer. Every time I've asked you and you go no.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

Why no?

Speaker 1:

no, I mean, it's just a weird, it's a conundrum. There's not a right answer to it. They'll make it more difficult and you should, yeah, make it more difficult. I'm fine with that. Yeah, I'm also fine with making me a little too much government overreach here. This is where I'm liberal. Yeah, make me make me have insurance on it. That's not a bad idea, you know like so, because I have a clean record, because I'm a veteran, my insurance rate would probably be very low to have a gun.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

I have a little higher risk. Maybe I've had you know whatever. Yeah, I've gone to jail for some other bullshit. Yeah, my insurance rates a little bit higher, yeah, so if I accidentally kill somebody, I shoot the mailman because he knocks too hard, the insurance company covers it. Covers it, yeah, to a degree. You know like take care of the family, yeah, this or that.

Speaker 2:

Dude, we should start this company. I'm just saying like insurance millionaires.

Speaker 1:

I got to have insurance to have a motor vehicle yeah, why don't I have to have one for a gun? That's it. Yeah, that's true, that's a good point. So you put a little free enterprise in there. Yeah, let them help create a new economy.

Speaker 2:

More people are buying, you know chickens and it curbs the.

Speaker 1:

People produce more or less money for chicken A little bit more before you go by 20 guns, yeah.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

Now, do you? Do you need a AR?

Speaker 2:

Who's to say what you need, though that's the thing. That's that, that's where I.

Speaker 1:

That's where I go under.

Speaker 2:

I get it. That's where I go. What? Why are you telling? Because the government does so much dumb shit that it's like the balls for you to be like you can't do this yeah.

Speaker 1:

It's like well who are you to? Well, here's the problem. With that too, though it's like OK, republicans, what good what good war, or thing has the government done since your birth? Obamacare. I'll say it it's. It's provided easier access to health care to a lot of people.

Speaker 2:

It's trying to fix the big fuckery but the quality and the cost of it. Oh, it's.

Speaker 1:

It needs to be worked out. Yes, absolutely, it's still fucked.

Speaker 2:

So it's, the road to hell is paid with good intention, sure.

Speaker 1:

It's not going to deal here's my thing with the Republicans. They're fighting so much for it. I get it.

Speaker 2:

I get it, they're right.

Speaker 1:

It's a constitutional right. But then it's like, yeah, but we want to control a woman's body.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, well, that's the conservation, come on. The thing is they're conserving a thing. That's that's what I think. In a lot of ways, and in regards to women, it's like they're conserving an old notion of what a woman is. Now there is this interesting thing where, if, let's say, you get a mother and she's pregnant, she's like I'm not getting an abortion though.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

But she's viciously addicted to heroin.

Speaker 1:

Okay.

Speaker 2:

And people are like you need to, you can't be doing this because you're pregnant. She's like it's my body, my choice. And they're like but you're going to kill that baby inside of you. And she's like yeah, it's the same thing as a, as an abortion. Sure, she's killing the child.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so it's this weird. Well then, now we're just in everyone's lives.

Speaker 2:

Exactly, I think. I think there's that weird thing where you shouldn't be allowed to tell people what they do, even the quote, unquote, ugly thing of killing an unborn child. There's a dark side to freedom. There is a ugly choice to it.

Speaker 1:

Well, there's an ugly part of mother nature. There's a there's a reason why women should be in control over their bodies Totally. There's times where women know.

Speaker 2:

They got to bear the brunt of that thing.

Speaker 1:

Yes, and and and in nature. Yeah, the dark side of nature. Other animals take care of their bodies when they don't, when they know they should not have a child. Yeah, and it's disgusting and it's gross and sad and it's grotesque thinking about it. But it's just Nate, it's nature.

Speaker 2:

It is yeah, they did it back in Egypt or Sparta. They throw the child over the end of the creek.

Speaker 1:

Feed the crocodiles. Hamsters eat their babies.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it's the. It's the gross part, or the ugly part, or the vicious part of being a yeah, it's just a part of being. I saw, I watched this video of a bird picking out the weakest one and just throwing it. It's like, you know, it had a nest on the top of a telephone pole and just picked up the weakest one and it's because it couldn't feed them both the rows are right over.

Speaker 1:

Probably couldn't feed, you know, both of them would be dead. Yeah, it sucks Never. Just.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I just, I don't know, but you know the overreach is the scary part. The weird on both sides. The weird experiment of freedom in America, yeah, puts, puts us in these weird conundrums where it's like, but they can't do that, but they can't do that. And it sucks. There's no right answer.

Speaker 2:

No.

Speaker 1:

Here's the thing. I don't want you to have a gun.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

I want to have a gun.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

No, I don't want the. I don't want bad people having guns.

Speaker 2:

But I want to have one because I'm a good person. I'm a good person. I've made the self determination, as a free citizen of this country, that I want a gun, that I'm good.

Speaker 1:

I'm going to be a gun carrying, a respectable gun carrying, gun carrying citizen. And then there's other people. I don't want them to have guns, but crazy people also think they're good. Here's the problem with with mental health.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

So my dad is fucking nuts, right.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

He's been in and out of situations with hospitals and stuff. They're like well, we need to take those guns away from them. Yeah, how, how do I know they even have what? Do we knock on their door? Hey, sir, so you, just, you're crazy, we need your guns.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, he's going to react real well to that.

Speaker 1:

Or he goes. Well, I don't have a gun. Ok, have a good day. Oh my bad, or what? Oh, here's my gun.

Speaker 2:

We take it by force. And then there's that line of people. Do you call someone who speaks out against the government crazy? Because they're speaking out against you?

Speaker 1:

know that's that's the sea. Here's the problem in Tennessee. So where my dad lives spand a definition my dad lives. You can't commit someone.

Speaker 2:

You can't 50, 150.

Speaker 1:

No it's very impossible because of your freedoms and your own, your individual rights. So people that are really needing help, yeah, hospitals can only keep them for so many days, yeah With and have to send them out on their own, and so they have these crazy homeless people.

Speaker 2:

In a broader sense. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, not shoot it up. No, we need to blow it up and start it over.

Speaker 2:

I don't know. I always remember my dad being like George Bush is like fucking up education, because I think things changed under him, with no child left behind and the government getting involved with like standardizing schools to get them at a certain level and then they would get more funding. And then that began. It opened the door to this like weird slippery slope where every you know whatever administration's in there, they're just going to inject their Whatever they needed to get.

Speaker 1:

They're going to.

Speaker 2:

They're going to political ideology into it, yeah it's just like, it's weird, it sucks, it's like kids shouldn't be. It's why my kids go to private school. Yeah, get them out of it.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it's this I don't trust. It's not that I don't trust the government, but I don't trust them to do a great job with my children. Why would I have them go to?

Speaker 2:

You're skeptical of it. Every day, go there. Yeah, to that I went to public school. I did too, and I'm an idiot.

Speaker 1:

I had a really good experience in school. I was very lucky. I think I was there at a time when there was really great educators and it was just like this little golden period I had a communist teacher. That's awesome.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that's cool. He's like this is any. Loved Howard Zinn? Yeah, and I had a buddy next to me.

Speaker 1:

Have you read the history?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, People said yeah, it's not a great account of what we've done.

Speaker 1:

Oh no, it's sad, it's depressing.

Speaker 2:

Pretty honest, yeah. But I think On both sides I think it's a but the part of me that disagree Not necessarily disagree. I don't disagree with the premise. I disagree necessarily with the characterization of it, because I don't think that the United States as a whole is a net negative for the world. I think we've been a positive. I think we're We've fucked it up, but I think in the 20th century we weren't the worst thing for the world.

Speaker 1:

I think we have looked At all In the 80s and the 70s and the 60s and whatever we looked at, our founding fathers and even the 19th century with rose-colored glasses.

Speaker 2:

Well, because I think, in order for us to have survived as a country, we had to. We had to, sure, but in any country ever in the history of recorded human animal history, there have always been some bad things done. Yeah, you know, yeah. So I just don't think like it's not, but it's not.

Speaker 1:

Let's look at it. Let's look at just the founding fathers. We look at them and we put them on this pedestal. It's amazing. I've read so much about our About the 1770s and the 1750s and pre-revolutionary war. We look at these guys as rock stars and they were fallible humans.

Speaker 2:

Well, they were a bunch of aristocratic, slave-owning white guys who didn't want to pay taxes.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and they spun it to this whole American freedom thing.

Speaker 2:

I think and here's the thing they were paying taxes to a thing that didn't benefit them all at all, that was doing equally as horrible things. They were like why can't we get something that benefits us in this physical land?

Speaker 1:

Well, it's weird that we hear fireworks on the 4th of July.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

When South Carolina first voted not to succeed from England oh yeah, they were Tories. Yeah, and it's weird to me that we're like, yeah, freedom. I'm like dude, you guys didn't even want to leave. Well, you guys had to get fucking talked into it.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, we s shaded. Oh yeah, financially weighted, but it's interesting because I'm Thomas Jefferson. I think we were just writing the Declaration of Independence, so he was shitting on Britain. It was like you guys are a bunch of slave-owning cunts, yeah. And they were like Thomas, you got to take that out because, because, look at you, dude, he was like, yeah, but I'm not happy about it. It's like, but you're still doing it. He's like, yeah, but I fucked them.

Speaker 1:

There's only a few, a few of them that were anti-slavery, like really anti-slavery Atoms, where they didn't have any Atoms. Atoms was a gangster. He was a little bitch, no, but he was physically. He practiced what he preached. Yeah, hamilton, he pretty good dude, mm-hmm. I mean, besides the musical and the banking. Some people were Well he was big on the. He thought he thought Washington should be king. Yeah, you know, it's it's.

Speaker 2:

They all had good qualities and I think for a long time we only focused on their good qualities, cause they were pretty epic given the time and space that they took place in. Yeah, thank God, we, we, yeah. But at the same time now we're looking holistically at them. We just go, yeah, well, it's like the, it's like there's this whole contention with history now. Cause history is written by the winners.

Speaker 2:

And the winners were like, yeah, slavery was a part of it, but like it wasn't a huge part. And then there's the 1619 thing, where it's just like the only reason this place is here is cause of slaves, and you're like both things are kind of true.

Speaker 1:

Well, here, here's the thing too. Like if I was black, yeah, when I celebrate the fourth of July. No, I wouldn't, no, I'd be like this sucks.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I remember learning about slavery and being like oh, it's insane for me to think that this had no effect on black people today. Yeah, that is like it's even monuments.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, Like we. We had this debate about monuments after George Floyd, which white people did. We just started arguing about statues.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

Cause that's what we do, but that's how we fix things. Yeah, we're like statues. Let's talk about those. Well, let's fix that. But it it's weird to me being a black man walking up to a Capitol building and seeing some of these statues. It does mean something. Yeah, it's in the history of where the statues came from. They weren't always there. Some of the statues of the civil war leaders didn't come around until like the 1950s and then they built the statue. Yeah, that's why they're here. But even that, despite all of that, I don't know Like I just it's a, it's a gross idea that this country was founded on freedom.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, well, it was, but not for all.

Speaker 1:

For some, not for all.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, for the white man yeah.

Speaker 1:

And then it's we talk a lot about slavery, and then we I mean talk about women or Asians or you know, the Native Americans or the Irish, or, yeah, those poor Irish. I mean, I was taught in school that the Irish had it as bad as the slaves.

Speaker 2:

Well, this is the interesting thing and this is. This is uh, this is like renegade history so to speak, but like Irish children in the North and Irish men were treated far worse than slaves were.

Speaker 2:

I mean, obviously there were horrible things that happened, but in in it would be illogical to beat the shit out of your property to the point where it would. It would serve no purpose to. It was chattel. It was a thing you owned because you didn't have industry, yeah, but in the North, where there was industry, some Irish guy, they'd work them to the debt. They'd get their arm ripped off in a gear. They'd be like fuck, fuck him. It's not like there was workers comp or something like that. It was a greedy world and when the Irish first came here they were bugs. I mean, they're dirty, freckled freaks, little potato.

Speaker 1:

So it's weird about that, though. He's like, and I get that and Irish, or butthurt about it.

Speaker 2:

No, no, no, they were tight with black people.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

And they got into politics and becoming cops.

Speaker 1:

And they divided them. Yeah, just like the blacks and the Jews, they were all. They were tight, but it's weird to me because it was like everyone was against. You know, there's a lot of racism, with Irish, the Italians, the fucking, the Jews, the blacks, the Asians, who, who? Who was it being? Who was it that was doing it? It was, they were doing it to each other, like you know, like in New. York, for example, where you know they were all, but who was it? Germans.

Speaker 2:

English it was wasps.

Speaker 1:

So was waspy people yeah.

Speaker 2:

I mean the, you know all the. Yeah, I think it was Britain. British people suck.

Speaker 1:

Fuck the British is what Dan and I are trying to get at. That's what this whole episode has been about. Fuck the British. It was always the British dude. Fuck the British and fuck Sean Patton.

Speaker 2:

Although I think the British were the first to to stop slavery, I think they were one of the first.

Speaker 1:

I think they, I think they abolished it.

Speaker 2:

They're still cunts. They're fuck faces, dude yeah.

Speaker 1:

They're crowns with all of the stolen jewelry on it. Fuck your king. Fuck your king is a fucking inbred prince was best friends with, I guess.

Speaker 2:

I mean, look, yeah, I guess we got some people here who were friends with Epstein. Sure, they're not in our royal family. Yeah, why? Because we elect our royals, and you know what his punishment was? He was stripped of his like. Yeah, they're like. You can't live here.

Speaker 1:

You can't have these like metals. You can't wear the uniform anymore.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, Every kid you fuck, we take away one metal. He's like oh, blimey yeah.

Speaker 1:

All right, here's my 80 metals.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, what's he going to do now? Sit in his on his bare skin couch and not give a shit.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, now he's got a fuck. 18 year olds. Oh bullocks. Yeah, this bullshit.

Speaker 2:

I think the history of yeah, I don't know, I was just, it was funny I was looking at like I never mind, I'm not gonna even say it.

Speaker 1:

John Oliver. I love John Oliver because he shits on the British more than anyone I know.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

He hates England.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, what's the like?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, he's like fuck that place.

Speaker 2:

They were never Dude. Britain is wild. They went to war with China to let them continue selling opium. That's what the opium wars were about. China was like stop Please, you're, you're really hurting people here. And Britain's like fuck you. Yeah, you're fucking China, yeah, you know. Yeah, no, they were Dude, they're, they're so bad.

Speaker 2:

And China is just this little I mean not little, but at the time relatively like we're just rice and we're just trying to get by Britain's like we're raping the world and you're either with us or against us and they're like we're not with you and they're like, all right, well, bend over, we're gonna go to war with you twice. Yeah, it's not gonna be nice. We got a lot of money, we're gonna do it.

Speaker 1:

Oh yeah, Dude fuck.

Speaker 2:

England and we're gonna keep the their foods horrible.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, there's nothing good about them, nothing, nothing. The accent's kind of hot, it's kind of hot, it's all right. Yeah, yeah, till you see the teeth. Yeah, there's a couple of hot British chicks there's a few.

Speaker 2:

Stella Cox, I don't know, stella Cox.

Speaker 1:

Cornstar, I heard England.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, oh yeah, she's British.

Speaker 1:

You know a lot of British breasts that I've seen. They have the little pencil eraser nipples. What?

Speaker 2:

is that.

Speaker 1:

They're like the nipples are like long, yeah, like little fingers, mm, hmm.

Speaker 2:

Like little lack of sunlight little Vienna sausages poke out. Yeah, it's for easy feeding ability. Is that what that is? I don't, I don't know, I don't know. I mean, if it makes sense, if you explain it like in a like, does that make sense for, like, the evolution of a thing to make it?

Speaker 1:

I don't know it's England specific though.

Speaker 2:

Yeah Well, they have poor tiny mouths, little British mouths.

Speaker 1:

That's a bread and they need the inbreeding.

Speaker 2:

They need a big, droopy witches tit to get in there.

Speaker 1:

Maybe that's what a witches tit is.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, Just a big long nipple candy corn nip. That just gets in there and fuck them dude. But you know most people. Every country has good things about them and every country has bad things about them. Every country, not North Korea, they're good people I don't know enough about. The people are great, the people are just trying to get by. The people are getting just a rail, the raw end of it no good internet from that fat squinty fellow.

Speaker 1:

No.

Speaker 2:

Xbox. Yeah, they, he's not.

Speaker 1:

They got nothing up there. Cuba, Cuba, Cuba. The poor guys in Cuba. Yeah, Cubans are great people.

Speaker 2:

They're driving around like 75 fucking no, they're like 56 belairs yeah with like a Toyota Prius tires and fuck. Yeah, cuban people are tough people. I feel bad for them. They didn't know but the history of Cuba I think it's like any place that you know, like Spain used to have an amazing, amazing, rich history of coming over here and genociding people and owning everything, and now they're just a place where they eat at eight and drink wine and take naps poor people, though they had a nice pillowy.

Speaker 1:

You know England too. Like we talk about freedom, you can't talk about certain things there. Yeah, you get fine, because they're concedude.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, dude, Fuck them Because they're like we don't want minute. They start talking freely.

Speaker 1:

We can't talk negative about the country on on TV. You get arrested, dude.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, you get arrested. Say something bad over there. It's like Canada, dude. Canada's like that. America is the greatest country that has ever been and ever will be. Now there's gonna be some blemishes with that.

Speaker 1:

What about, like I don't know, there's some good countries, like what? Denmark?

Speaker 2:

all white, it's all white. So you're saying it's great because it's all white.

Speaker 1:

No, I'm saying it's fine.

Speaker 2:

There we are.

Speaker 1:

That we are all free. They're out of any country.

Speaker 2:

out of any country, we are the most.

Speaker 1:

What's your?

Speaker 2:

limit are the most inclusive. We have elevated, I think, every single minority. Oh, we've elevated highest echelons of pop culture and financial culture there is. It's not perfect. I'd never said it was perfect, but it's better than it is in Fallujah.

Speaker 1:

Yes, but the world's not Fallujah. A lot of it is no.

Speaker 2:

no, I mean everybody who points to these, like like northern European countries, like Switzerland even like the most of Mexico.

Speaker 1:

Yeah it's a pretty good place.

Speaker 2:

Mexico is a beautiful country.

Speaker 1:

Most of it is minus the one part, the turning people in the Stumps and America hanging them off bridges. It's all real close to them, that's all.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

And that's the dark side of Mexico they don't like talking about it.

Speaker 2:

Oh, they talk.

Speaker 1:

But then, like, look at America though, look at us. Yeah, what about us? We're perfect.

Speaker 2:

Our kids fucking shoot up each other, and yeah you know, it's just it, dude, it's part of the game, it's like that. It's like that line in RoboCop we made the guy that was on the apprentice, or president.

Speaker 2:

Remember when Ed 409 comes in and they're like doing the demonstration, and yeah, he's like, and then malfunctions and blows the guy up and then they're going down in the elevator and he goes too bad about Kenny and the guy just goes to life in the big city. You know that's life in America. There is a underlying element of just immediate violence and carnage in America. But offsetting that is the underlying notion that you can be anything you want to be and become a tall, alive, rich, become your. It's not, it's a lie for most people but for some, you know, it's wild is the caste system.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and India, oh yeah. Yeah, they love the caste. That's crazy. Yeah, they're like oh no, you, you're from this. Yeah, and you are this. That's just the way it is, mm.

Speaker 2:

hmm, japan's pretty dope now, japan is interesting, but Japan has no soul outside of what you do as an occupation, which is why when, like, they retire from something, they kill themselves.

Speaker 1:

My God buddy.

Speaker 2:

I think he's here Japan and came in.

Speaker 1:

He's like I got some, I got some shit to say I, I love. Maybe you guys forgot about W W I love to go to Japan says I love Japanese vehicles, love Japanese motorcycles and Japanese carpenters.

Speaker 2:

They are on. The American carpentry is like relatively young Sure In Japan. There's just generations from the time of Khan. Yeah, he was in Japanese, but I'm sure they were doing carpentry when he was roaming the earth that they've just been doing that the joinery. They cut their like, their chisels, their steel, all of it. It's so amazing. It's like this mystical. My dog doesn't high art.

Speaker 1:

He's like stop talking about?

Speaker 2:

Don't you remember Pearl Harbor?

Speaker 1:

It's really this little island called Midway.

Speaker 2:

Have you heard of it? Huh, don't you say kamikaze in front of me. I enjoyed this. This was good. This was nice. It's a good practice, buddy.

Speaker 1:

It's a good boy. He hates the Japanese.

Speaker 2:

He's a dog, I get it, you get it. No, I mean.

Speaker 1:

I get why he does it.

Speaker 2:

Okay, yeah, I don't know. God bless America. Happy Fourth of.

Speaker 1:

July. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah.

Preparing for Hurricanes in Charleston
Life in the Middle East
Life in a Foreign Country Memories
Controversy on Guns and Government Control
Historical Perspectives on Slavery and Colonialism
Opinions on Japan and Japanese Culture