0075 Sir Gene Speaks with Dude Named Ben

SIr Gene: 0:14

This is sir Gene and joining me you name Ben name. Ben.

Ben: 0:18

Well dude, name, Ben name, Ben defender megawatts.

SIr Gene: 0:21

that's even even fuller name. That's good. And you even have an email address that

Ben: 0:27

I do dude dude name ben.com.

SIr Gene: 0:31

Yeah. Do to name ben.com, which is great. So I guess would you be willing to forward for somebody doodet@namedben.com?

Ben: 0:39

Sure. sure. Absolutely. Anyone

SIr Gene: 0:40

right up due debts, get a free forward.

Ben: 0:43

Absolutely.

SIr Gene: 0:46

that's great. Have you been Ben?

Ben: 0:47

Oh fuck. This has been a week, man.

SIr Gene: 0:50

Yeah,

Ben: 0:51

I was in Baltimore all week for a company on site, which was good in a lot of ways and bad in a lot of ways. And air travel post COVID sucks people.

SIr Gene: 1:01

Well, Eric travel post nine 11 sex people.

Ben: 1:04

Yes, indeed. And by the way, the, the trick of raising your arm does not work at the Baltimore airport. Just,

SIr Gene: 1:10

okay.

Ben: 1:11

just just giving everybody a heads up, prepare for the pat down.

SIr Gene: 1:14

Mm-hmm I know man works for me everywhere I've ever gone.

Ben: 1:18

Yeah. Well, there's a slight age difference between us, so.

SIr Gene: 1:22

Oh, like a year. More or less give, take

Ben: 1:25

Yeah. More or less a couple

SIr Gene: 1:26

mm-hmm

Ben: 1:27

know? Yeah. Anyway, now they're like oh, so you're opting out. No, I just wonder, I mean, I, it's funny thing at IA H Houston flying out. No problem. Baltimore problem. So, yeah, and probably the most aggressive pat down I've received yet.

SIr Gene: 1:46

like a thorough massage

Ben: 1:47

oh

SIr Gene: 1:48

mm-hmm well, there you go. Learn something new. So you're back in Texas

Ben: 1:54

I'm back. Yes. Thank God. Tell you what man. You know, I've been to DC a lot. I usually flying in and out of Reagan. This time I was flying out of BWI cuz I was closer to Baltimore and that airport sucks.

SIr Gene: 2:10

mm-hmm

Ben: 2:11

Yeah. Anyone flying in and out of DC, Metro area Reagan for the love of God Reagan, not du Reagan.

SIr Gene: 2:20

I always used to fly Reagan, but kind a friend that lives close to Dallas. So I ended up playing there for the last probably decade or so,

Ben: 2:26

Yeah.

SIr Gene: 2:28

but yeah, DC is just a big traffic jam. Sit file.

Ben: 2:33

Well, depends on where you're going. If you're gonna be actually in DC, then Reagan's nice. Cuz you can just hop on the Metro, go wherever you need to go.

SIr Gene: 2:40

Yeah, they actually do have a decent Metro. That is one thing that DC has always had going for it. It's totally supported by government funding. It's not paid for it by the ticket price, but it's pretty good. Metro

Ben: 2:50

Yeah, absolutely man. So, I picked a hell of a week to be, you know, kinda off the grid.

SIr Gene: 2:58

mm-hmm mm-hmm

Ben: 3:00

you saw the Peterson thing,

SIr Gene: 3:02

I did indeed.

Ben: 3:03

man. You saw his reaction too. That was

SIr Gene: 3:06

posted his reaction. Yes.

Ben: 3:08

Good for him, man.

SIr Gene: 3:10

got a little back, a little bit of the old angry Peterson in that one.

Ben: 3:15

Yeah, absolutely. And you saw his deal with daily wire?

SIr Gene: 3:19

yes. Daily wire has just been killing it.

Ben: 3:21

Well they had

SIr Gene: 3:22

Well, you know,

Ben: 3:23

they announced that they had 890,000 paying subscribers.

SIr Gene: 3:28

well,

Ben: 3:29

crap. If you, I mean, you look at the on their pricing plan,

SIr Gene: 3:33

mm-hmm

Ben: 3:34

the, the lowest one is like$9 a month.

SIr Gene: 3:37

yep.

Ben: 3:39

So you gotta figure they've got some paying more than that, but at$9 a month, you know, that that's some substantial revenue. Yeah.

SIr Gene: 3:47

that's more than people pay for. Well, I guess not anymore. I was gonna say more Netflix, but Netflix has raised their prices.

Ben: 3:53

I mean, so at 890,000 subscribers at$9 a month, minimum pricing, you know, that's$8 million a.

SIr Gene: 4:02

Mm-hmm well, they do say Jews run the world.

Ben: 4:05

Yeah.

SIr Gene: 4:07

So the, the, the alt media conservative network that's winning is well, of course, run by Jews.

Ben: 4:14

well, you know, and here's the thing people don't like to talk about it, but IQ research is a thing and there is differences in the races on IQ and Hasidic Jews are up at the top of the IQ range. So there's no conspiracy theory really needed. It's fairly natural. That that's a thing.

SIr Gene: 4:37

yeah.

Ben: 4:38

And you know, you, that can be racist or whatever anyone wants to say, but empirical data is empirical data.

SIr Gene: 4:46

Yeah. Well, and I think Ben is I don't think he solely owns it either, but HES, certainly the the face of the thing.

Ben: 4:54

Yeah. And for those who don't know, we're talking about Ben Shapiro,

SIr Gene: 4:56

Yeah. Ben Shapiro. Hi. I'm gonna assume everybody's listening to us. Knows who Ben Shapiro is.

Ben: 5:01

probably

SIr Gene: 5:02

He was known for being the, the Mo mouth yamaka wearing guy going around college as a decade ago and explaining why liberalism sucks

Ben: 5:15

I could not talk that fast if you, you know, I just couldn't do it.

SIr Gene: 5:19

I still think the absolute best freedom tune is the one that Shamus did of the Shapiro family Thanksgiving. Have you seen that one?

Ben: 5:28

No, I have never watched any freedom tunes. Nope.

SIr Gene: 5:32

do you have a problem with Catholics

Ben: 5:34

Well, other than our current president, no,

SIr Gene: 5:36

well, it it's a is a very, very like outgoing Catholic meaning. He talks about it nonstop

Ben: 5:45

yeah. I, I, I have seen him on Tim cast

SIr Gene: 5:48

Tim cast. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Ben: 5:50

you know, here, here's the thing. I I'm, I'm a Christian. I don't push my religion on anyone. And primarily it comes down to the fact that I'm a libertarian, so, you know, whatever anyone wants to do, I don't see it necessarily affecting me unless you're causing harm to my life, my Liberty or my property. So I don't care.

SIr Gene: 6:11

well, James has got about 10 cartoons with bench Shap beer with, but I have to play a clip for the Thanksgiving one just because it's so awesome.

Ben: 6:19

oh, we're doing

SIr Gene: 6:20

Freedom tunes. Yeah. Do you talk fast? Always? Yes. Is like you're born this way. Yes. Is this like one of my family, everyone in my family talks this way. Your family. Abby Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving, happy Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving. Okay. Folks who made these cranberries, honestly, these are the worst cranberries I've ever tasted. I made them and it's actually extremely, I polite for you to insult my cooking on Thanksgiving. Okay. Folks, our taste buds don't care about your feelings. Okay? Okay, gang. Well, if you wanna make your own cranberries, feel free, but you're not entitled to free food. And the idea that you would complain over quality of service when you're receiving it for free is just ridiculous. Okay? Okay. Can somebody please pass the mashed potatoes folks? Actually, these are my mashed potatoes. Okay. I made them myself and they're therefore the product of my own labor and the idea and the idea and the idea that you feel it's acceptable to put a gun to my head and force me not only to give you the mashed potatoes, but to actually have me pass them to you as well is absolutely asinine. Okay. Okay. Well that would be a solid argument. If not for the fact that you're eating asparagus, which I made. Okay. Ben, how could you seriously not pass the mashed potatoes after taking her asparagus? Is it my fault? She gave it away for free and lost all leverage. I'm trying to teach my child how to compete and succeed within the free market. Okay. Folks. Good guy, guy, folks. I didn't realize I was surrounded by communists. I have the mashed potatoes and the asparagus because I make good decisions. Okay. Folks, honestly, Ben, you're the last person to get smart with me considering you're the only one in the family to be born with an IQ lower than 300. Okay. Well, you know what anti, believe it or not. Some people consider an IQ of 215 to be relatively impressive. All right folks. Sorry. I'm late folks. I had more important things to take care of. I'm actually a doctor. She's a doctor, folks. This wife's a doctor. She's a doctor. My wife's a doctor. Did you bring the Cherokee social works? So anyway, that that's a little bit of the Thanksgiving at the Shapira family.

Ben: 7:43

gotcha.

SIr Gene: 7:44

So I.

Ben: 7:45

I'll have to add freedom tunes to the round table of

SIr Gene: 7:48

They are pretty funny. I'd say 70% are funny enough to laugh out loud and the other 30% go a little too far and try to make a point,

Ben: 7:57

Yeah.

SIr Gene: 7:58

which is kinda like shameless. I think he's 70% funny and 30% over the top trying to make a 0.0, Ian

Ben: 8:08

time he opens his mouth, it's like, dude,

SIr Gene: 8:11

Ian is there to absolutely fuck with your hormones and trigger you. Oh, he, he is. I think I swear of guy. That's why Tim keeps Ian on that show is Ian is the

Ben: 8:23

makes everyone, he makes everyone look smart.

SIr Gene: 8:26

He does make everyone look smart, but he has this absolutely serious expression on his face all the time. And he'll say like three words that seem to be going somewhere and then throw in like three more that are completely just out of left field.

Ben: 8:41

graphine, have you heard about graphine gene, gene, graphine, graphine

SIr Gene: 8:45

it's the future, man. It's the future, you know, graphing and batteries. Actually the, the experience being done on that is it looks like it's gonna be a huge factor in improving battery life.

Ben: 8:55

yeah, what we actually need to do is actually move away from batteries and actually develop some super capacitors

SIr Gene: 9:00

Well, I've always preferred capacitors myself, you know, they're less communist, but they don't take a, a portion of the energy you put into'em the way that the batteries do.

Ben: 9:09

Mm-hmm

SIr Gene: 9:10

But yeah, I think isn't the issue with capacitors, just the, the inability to create as much surface

Ben: 9:18

Well, there are several issues. It, so electric cars could totally be feasible if we had actual super capacitors. And I know after I made a math mistake last episode, but anyway,

SIr Gene: 9:30

Oh, did you make a math

Ben: 9:31

dude. Stupid Stu order a magnet. Yeah, you did. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Order a magnitude. I'm a physics major. Leave me alone. Order of magnitude is

SIr Gene: 9:40

yeah. Philosophy major here.

Ben: 9:41

E E everything can be summed up in a, you know, sphere. A horse can be estimated to be a sphere. We can work it with it anyway. Now so capacitors surface area is a deal. But really it's a, it's about finding the right dial electrics and being able to successfully store enough energy at scale. You know, when, so when we talk about grid stabilization devices and everything else, and we have these capacitor banks, so industrial size capacitor banks are very useful for voltage regulations and things like that. But they're a high wear item, believe it or not. And it's it, it, it's one of those things that's necessary for the modern grid. So we use them, but they're really an expensive resource because, you know, dialogics, everything else ends up being a

SIr Gene: 10:28

mm-hmm.

Ben: 10:29

but.

SIr Gene: 10:29

And where do we, where do we find these dialectric materials in Afghanistan or in Ukraine? Or where do they come from?

Ben: 10:36

No dialect, I mean, dialectic can be as simple as, you know, any insulating material between the two

SIr Gene: 10:42

Right. But for the fancy ones, the ones that actually allow us to have the greatest storage, where do those materials

Ben: 10:47

Well, we don't use them. So most, most modern capacitors are pretty rudimentary. Actually. We don't have any, all the super capacitors, advanced capacitors are way smaller scale. So the equivalent, just to not get too much into the weeds cuz who the fuck cares about those. But the equivalent would be it, you know, lithium ion on your cell phone, everything else and industrial is lead acid would be the comparison. Yeah. Uhhuh

SIr Gene: 11:16

yep. Gotcha. Yeah. Capacitors were fun. I remember back when I was a kid in shop class, we made shockers, you know, like for doing pranks with other kids and you get a nine vol battery in there, and then you get a pass and you ramp up the voltage and you have some contacts on the outside of the device. Go tell somebody to bring it over to you. Then you laugh your ass off your ass off.

Ben: 11:45

yeah. So funny story

SIr Gene: 11:48

I don't think they do that in schools these days.

Ben: 11:50

So used to, if you re remember in the early two thousands, we had this high end usage before digital cameras, we had these disposable cameras. So instead of buying film and everything, you'd just buy this disposable camera. Well, you can make that into a pretty effective taster actually.

SIr Gene: 12:07

mm-hmm

Ben: 12:09

Cause it's got a decent enough capacitor on it for the flash that yeah, you, you, you, you can Chuck the hell outta someone with one of those.

SIr Gene: 12:17

yeah, the idea of disposable cameras just seems like crazy at this point,

Ben: 12:21

Oh man. But they still sell them. So my, my

SIr Gene: 12:24

paper ones

Ben: 12:25

my, my stepdaughter, she is all into, you know, lots, lots of things. And she goes through and she uses disposable cameras with her friends. She's got a Polaroid, you know, it's a whole thing. It's like, this was technology when I was a kid. What the hell?

SIr Gene: 12:42

That's that, that was technology way before that actually. Yeah, that is nuts. It's a I can't imagine. Well, so somebody's gotta be still making Polaroid film

Ben: 12:51

yep. Polaroid.

SIr Gene: 12:54

that's nuts. Is it more expensive now than it used to be?

Ben: 12:59

I don't know. I haven't tracked the.

SIr Gene: 13:01

I mean, it used to be like, I think quarter per image, which was pretty expensive back in the old days

Ben: 13:06

it's more of a novelty thing for them. So I don't think anyone cares, you know?

SIr Gene: 13:11

Hmm. Yeah. I guess just that Polaroid film effect is not enough on their cell phone.

Ben: 13:18

Yeah. Polar, you know, it, it's funny because when I was a kid, my mom had this 3d camera that she used, so take a picture and then had to go to some special processing and it would produce this, that the, it was a rough textured image. It wasn't, you know, flat and it was a 3d effect on it. And it, it was different. It was weird. And I don't know why that technology never went anywhere.

SIr Gene: 13:43

Yeah. I think they used micro front lenses on that thing.

Ben: 13:46

Mm-hmm

SIr Gene: 13:47

So you kind of, or prisms you're basically are separating

Ben: 13:51

separating the image to get depth. Yep.

SIr Gene: 13:53

into, so you're only seeing one with one eye and the other one with the other eye mm-hmm

Ben: 13:59

No, no, no, no. This was the printed image required. No viewing device.

SIr Gene: 14:04

yeah, that's what I'm saying.

Ben: 14:05

Yeah.

SIr Gene: 14:06

So it's a, it's a coating on top of the image that basically has,

Ben: 14:10

Right. But you required a special camera that was able to take in.

SIr Gene: 14:14

but not a special viewing device.

Ben: 14:16

Correct. And it was a icon technology.

SIr Gene: 14:19

Hmm.

Ben: 14:19

I, I just don't know why that never went anywhere. Who knows.

SIr Gene: 14:23

Well, printing was probably pretty pricing.

Ben: 14:25

Yeah. Something to

SIr Gene: 14:27

I, I remember I had one of those cameras

Ben: 14:30

Yeah. So how have you been this week? June

SIr Gene: 14:32

Pretty good. Pretty good. Just kinda, you know, leading up to the big weekend here in the us for the fourth a lot of people taking time off before and after. So that definitely means I was dealing with less people because a lot of'em were off already. So I, I generally don't take time around Christmas or 4th of July off because it's usually the least stressful least busy time

Ben: 15:02

least amount of work you gotta do.

SIr Gene: 15:04

Yeah. Pretty much. exactly.

Ben: 15:06

So I've got a flight etiquette question

SIr Gene: 15:08

Okay. Sure. Shoot. I flown.

Ben: 15:11

Yeah. If you're in economy, unfortunately, and

SIr Gene: 15:15

Okay. I gotta stop you right there. I, I don't really know the answer to that one.

Ben: 15:19

Fuck you. All right. So here here's the thing to me, everyone should shift towards the window. So if you got the window seat, you shouldn't take an armrest. You should just take your armrest and the wall. If you're in the middle, you should take the armrest towards the window. And if you're in the aisle, you kinda get the middle armrest and you got the aisle armrest. But when an asshole in the middle takes the two armrests, what ends up happening is the poor bastard in the aisle ends up having to lean out to the aisle. So anytime anyone walks by boom, boom, boom.

SIr Gene: 15:53

yep.

Ben: 15:54

Yeah.

SIr Gene: 15:54

That happens.

Ben: 15:56

Anyway, and man, there was this one guy on the plane. He was right across the aisle for me. And he was one of those guys that, you know, and I'm believe me. I do not listen to instructions. Well, okay. I am not the kind of person that just complies with shit, but he had his laptop open and watching shit literally up until landing. And then we land seatbelt slam comes off. I stand up immediately cuz that's what I do every time. And he did too. And now there's two of us cramped in the aisle and it's like,

SIr Gene: 16:30

oh,

Ben: 16:30

no, dude, etiquette is whoever stands up first that's that's who's up, you

SIr Gene: 16:34

you, well, you gotta shift right to the middle of the aisle and not give them room to stand up. That's the trick there.

Ben: 16:41

Anyway, it, it was crazy. It was a crazy trip. We had the flight was scheduled for three

SIr Gene: 16:46

flying enough to get upgrades yet.

Ben: 16:47

Not this year, not since COVID I'm I'm I'm still working on getting that status back up. And the other problem I've had is I've had to fly several airlines this year instead of just United.

SIr Gene: 16:57

that's right. You don't like flying American

Ben: 17:01

Yeah, no. Which actually, you know, we can call it station American would be advantageous to me cuz it could just fly outta here. But no, I I don't like layovers and the American leg that flies outta here just goes to DFW, which DFW is a shitty airport to have a layer over in. So in

SIr Gene: 17:18

Well, I totally disagree. The club. There is really good.

Ben: 17:22

I, I haven't ever been in the American club I'm I've got United passes and stuff like that. So I'll go to the United club and things like that, but yeah.

SIr Gene: 17:31

yep. Got it. So you were off traveling out in the area,

Ben: 17:35

Yep.

SIr Gene: 17:36

Any riots out there?

Ben: 17:37

No but I tell you what, it was very interesting to see a very D diverse group of people they're masking protocols for some of them and then and the funny thing is the in, in slack right afterwards, people are like, I just got home and I tested positive for COVID and every single one of'em that was like, oh, me too. And da, da, da were the ones that were masked up and they're the most vaccinated.

SIr Gene: 18:01

Well, wearing masks does contribute to lung,

Ben: 18:04

Oh yeah, absolutely.

SIr Gene: 18:06

in general. Yeah.

Ben: 18:07

Yeah, anyway, but the, the neurosis of the people who were so, you know, wearing the N 95 plus another mask over the top and then yeah, literally double masking. And then they're the ones on slack. I, this, this was a super spreader event. Oh my God, what did we do? You know, I just wanna let everyone know I got home and I tested positive. Do you feel bad? Why the fuck are you testing?

SIr Gene: 18:33

yeah.

Ben: 18:34

Just insanity, man. yeah.

SIr Gene: 18:37

Well, I've gotten to the habit now and people are wearing a mask and they give, made dirty look, cuz I never wear masks. I say, Hey, I just wanted to thank you for wearing the mask since you're sick. Cause that's what it is. That's what it's always been in. Like in Asian countries is if you get a cold, you wear a mask,

Ben: 18:54

Yeah, no, I, I think it's a mental illness.

SIr Gene: 18:57

it is a mental illness, but that's what I'm saying.

Ben: 18:59

Well, and the funny part is

SIr Gene: 19:00

for wearing a

Ben: 19:00

the people who were the people who were so pro masking and the, some of the people who I work with that were involved in this part of their job is risk analysis. That's the

SIr Gene: 19:12

a scary thought, man. That's a very

Ben: 19:14

you have no idea. It's like, you're really good at this part, but in daily life, you kinda suck. So

SIr Gene: 19:23

Well, and right now, if, if you watch any of the dark horse podcasts, they like a recurring theme on there is more and more evidence coming out suggesting that that getting vaccinated had actually increased your odds of having serious COVID

Ben: 19:40

Well, did you, have you looked at Mercola and some of the others talking about the Russian roulette theory?

SIr Gene: 19:46

no,

Ben: 19:47

So the Russian roulette theory around the vaccinations and what's happening with injury is, is less to do about the individual and more to do about what you actually received in the vaccine. So what they're saying is these mRNA vaccines, because they are so unstable and so on. And there's so many variables about, you know, you're having multiple draws from a single vial. So, you know, multiple shots are administered. Things are getting into the vaccine. And so on. Most people basically got a dud. So the vast majority of people who are getting vaccinated, get a dud, there's basically little to no effect, but those who got an actual full on he hellacious dose are, are the ones that are seeing problems. And, you know, whether you think the VA's data is nuts or whatever, when you look across Europe and everywhere else, it's pretty obvious that this vaccine should have been halted a long time ago.

SIr Gene: 20:44

yeah. Mm-hmm yeah. The percentage of heart attacks and people under 25 is directly correlated to the vaccines.

Ben: 20:52

Fertility.

SIr Gene: 20:53

Yeah. Fertil well, that one's been a long running joke, but it's true.

Ben: 20:57

Well, it, it, it, and it's, and it's COVID as well. So here's the thing. I, I think COVID definitely has an effect on fertility, the spike protein based off of the research that's coming out. Hell Dave Rubin came out and was pretty,

SIr Gene: 21:11

Is he concerned about his Verity?

Ben: 21:12

Well, him and his husband are currently having two kids via surrogate. So they've got two surrogates pregnant right now and

SIr Gene: 21:19

They got two of them. Wow.

Ben: 21:20

yeah. One from his,

SIr Gene: 21:22

one looks the best.

Ben: 21:23

no, no one one's from his sperm. One's from his husband's sperm. Same ag donor, both ways. And anyway, he, he was talking about how they had surrogates have several miscarriages during COVID.

SIr Gene: 21:35

holy shit.

Ben: 21:36

Yeah. Like, and that, I mean, this is a hell of thing. I mean, you're talking about someone you're fed it.

SIr Gene: 21:42

thing. That's like 60 grand per person.

Ben: 21:44

Yeah.

SIr Gene: 21:46

Hmm.

Ben: 21:47

So, I mean, I don't know there there's something's up. That's all I can say. Of course. According to Adam, we're the Twitter of podcast, by the way you heard that, right?

SIr Gene: 21:56

we're the Twitter of podcasts. Is that, did he say that? No, I didn't hear that.

Ben: 22:00

Yeah. So he, he was talking about podcasts that don't play clips. Well, you play a clip, so I guess we're safe now. And just talk

SIr Gene: 22:07

Oh yes I did. That's right. I did. Yes. Yes. He didn't like podcasts that just give opinions and look at TWI tweets. He liked podcasts that have clips. So there you go, Adam,

Ben: 22:16

Yeah, I,

SIr Gene: 22:18

I think that was mostly a jab at Tim cast.

Ben: 22:21

I think so a little bit.

SIr Gene: 22:23

like, all they do is they bring up a tweet and then they talk about it for an hour.

Ben: 22:27

Yeah. Well,

SIr Gene: 22:28

Yeah. Well, Well, I've decided on the last episode of my other podcast Darren on relenting, I, I, I realized that, you know, Darren, I think our path, our podcast is, is literally Seinfeld. Like it's a podcast about nothing. We, we have no topics. We have no prep. We have nothing that's even from episode to episode carries on. It's just, it's a podcast about nothing.

Ben: 22:56

you know, uh, do, that's

SIr Gene: 22:57

he agreed.

Ben: 22:57

that's not a bad thing. I haven't finished it yet. I'm little over halfway through, but in my defense, I was in the air for, you know, almost six hours when it was

SIr Gene: 23:05

a perfect

Ben: 23:06

hour flight.

SIr Gene: 23:08

Wait, how are you in the air for six hours on the three hour flight? This I gotta hear.

Ben: 23:11

weather delays, Houston got slammed yesterday. So, they taxied us out on the runway and no cell phone coverage out there. And so, you know, an hour on the tarmac there, and then in the air delays, reroutes, all that, it was, it was a long flight

SIr Gene: 23:30

wow, that sucks.

Ben: 23:31

Yeah.

SIr Gene: 23:32

Yeah. I hate it. When they do that, it's it's sort of like, has the weather changed so much in the time that it took you before boarding the plate? Come on.

Ben: 23:42

Well, you know, we had a thanks to the rain sticks. We had a tropical depression move in and

SIr Gene: 23:47

I did see that. Yeah. Yeah, because the wind was coming from the north, which is unusual.

Ben: 23:53

yeah, yeah. Anyway, it was a weird day for flying yesterday. That's for sure. Did you see that the DOD is going to ignore the Supreme court ruling?

SIr Gene: 24:03

mm-hmm yeah.

Ben: 24:05

Eh, you know, everybody gives Tim a lot of shit for saying civil war, civil war, civil war,

SIr Gene: 24:11

Mm-hmm

Ben: 24:12

you know, when the government starts ignoring itself you know, when the, when the branches start fighting in the way that I think we're really about to see, and then I know you don't think there's a red wave coming here in November, but I, I, I think there's a, actually a pretty good chance. And so we're about to see the Supreme court is already squaring off against the executive branch, and we're about to see the the legislature square off against the executive branch. It's gonna be, it's gonna be a very interesting two

SIr Gene: 24:41

than that though. I, I think this is actually very reminiscent of what was happening in Soviet Russia in the USSR where you did have all the same branches of government that we have in the us, they were dominated by single party. And so what really mattered wasn't who was the president of the country, or, you know, who was the head of various departments? What mattered was, who was the head of the party? Because the decisions about what the government does come from the party that controls it. And I think we're seeing the exact same thing here is that the head of the party, Barack Obama does not like what is happening in the single branch of government, not under the party's control. They have a very slim minority, barely a minority in the Supreme court. And they don't like it because they would like to have the government be controlled by the party, much. Like it was in the grand old Soviet times. And I say grand old, because this is what the us is going towards the USS fast on its path to socialist organization. And I've been a number of times been saying it's, it's quickly becoming the, the S S a,

Ben: 25:52

Mm-hmm well, you know, going back to my onsite this last week, it was scary to see the amount of Ukraine, pens, and flags, and yeah, it it it's You know, working for a company that is as woke as this one is, is definitely interesting, but Hey, that there's some freedom respect there. So it, it all works out. And also some, one of the things I learned this last week is the number of people who think like me is actually a fairly high percentage in the company. So it it's the vocal minority that's out there yelling and

SIr Gene: 26:28

I'm just gonna tell you what you always say, which is when you think you need to bury your guns, maybe it's time to use them

Ben: 26:36

a hundred percent, man. You know, it, it, it, there was a poll that came out this week that a quarter of the country thinks that it's time to take up armed Devolt against the United States government.

SIr Gene: 26:50

Aqua country. There's another poll I just saw that shows that 27% of the us population of those poll. Anyway, think that Biden should run again. So

Ben: 27:00

That's a scary thought.

SIr Gene: 27:01

that, that, that me, it like, that's a scary thought, cuz I think that number should be zero. But the inverse of that is also that you have what, 73% of the people that see Biden as not somebody that would want to see an office again,

Ben: 27:21

mm-hmm

SIr Gene: 27:21

that's a positive thing, but really it ought to be like 99% of the people should see that. I'm trying to remember back cuz I was around back then. I'm trying to remember what Carter's numbers were in the midterms. I, I don't recall off top of my head.

Ben: 27:35

Yeah, I, I think we're headed towards that sort of surge. The amount of revolt that's going against this woke wave that we're seeing. So, Disney Disney has gone off the rails buzz. The new buzz light year movie, total flop should have been a summer blockbuster, but like, and, and my, my, my son loves the toy story movies. I like the toy story movies, cuz it's not, it's not a prince and princess movie. Right. It doesn't give bullshit on love. It's just a hero story. Right. It's nothing but a hero story of coming together and working together. The toy story movies are pretty damn good for the most part. And now the buzz light year movie, you know, has the lesbian kissing scene and then the,

SIr Gene: 28:23

not know that I was not aware of

Ben: 28:24

oh yeah, yeah. They've got a same sex, couple kissing in the new buzz light year movie

SIr Gene: 28:29

Of course they do.

Ben: 28:30

and then big hero six. The there's a new TV show. That's a spinoff of that. And which I haven't seen the movie, but the protagonist is this Android that's trying to help a little girl. Who's getting her first period. So he goes to the tampon island ask and there's a transgender male. giving advice on what tampons and beds to use.

SIr Gene: 28:52

Yeah. And so

Ben: 28:53

does not belong in a kid show it

SIr Gene: 28:54

while you were watching that I watched the movie about God, what was it called? It was about the, the 40 year old dude that goes to the spelling bees for kids. Have

Ben: 29:05

I have no clue.

SIr Gene: 29:07

Oh really? It has one of my favorite actors in I'll tell you what the movie is. It is called bad words, Jason, Bateman's the guy who's in it. And as a movie about adult dude, that through a loophole in contest, rules ends up going and competing at like, eighth grade spelling bees.

Ben: 29:30

Well, does he win?

SIr Gene: 29:32

yeah, he works as a proofreader.

Ben: 29:34

Ah, there you go. See, I would fail. My spelling is not a good thing.

SIr Gene: 29:38

same here. Interesting.

Ben: 29:40

Yeah. Yeah. I can do lots of things, spelling and fuck hominems by

SIr Gene: 29:44

I, I volunteered to fix the spellings of the English language when I was in school, because they were clearly incorrect. I don't understand why words are not spelled phonetically that never made any sense.

Ben: 29:56

Yeah. I, I, I had a joke as a kid hooked on phonics. Didn't work for me

SIr Gene: 30:00

Well,

Ben: 30:01

when I was a, when I was a kid hooked on phonics was a big deal. And they had all the kids saying hooked on phonics, worked for me, you know? So,

SIr Gene: 30:08

Yeah, definitely. I remember that, that So, get some numbers on Carter. It looks like during the midterms, the the house lost 34 seats.

Ben: 30:17

yeah.

SIr Gene: 30:17

So that will be interesting. Carter's approval was at 22% at midterms.

Ben: 30:26

Well Biden's is below that.

SIr Gene: 30:28

Now Biden's right now is at 29%.

Ben: 30:31

based off of what,

SIr Gene: 30:33

The last Rasmuson,

Ben: 30:35

what about real real clear politics?

SIr Gene: 30:37

I don't know. I mean that doesn't exist back in the Carter days. So that's, that's comparing different polling organizations

Ben: 30:43

but it's just, yeah, it's just the average though.

SIr Gene: 30:46

I know, but my point is that it's, it's about as bad it's in the same general acidity with Biden right

Ben: 30:53

Mm-hmm

SIr Gene: 30:54

Um,

Ben: 30:54

well, really what we need to look at is what gas prices are doing and inflation that's that's what's gonna tell the story when it comes to the midterms, I,

SIr Gene: 31:04

mm-hmm

Ben: 31:05

if gas prices stay where they're at, he's done. I mean, the, the Democrats are gonna lose tremendously.

SIr Gene: 31:12

well, I'm really, really hoping that that California governor runs,

Ben: 31:17

Oh, my God. If

SIr Gene: 31:18

I'm almost ready just to move to California and just to vote for him and the primaries, because I really want him to run. That means literally any Republican wins

Ben: 31:28

Oh yeah. Well, he, he won't get the nomination.

SIr Gene: 31:32

I hope he does. God.

Ben: 31:33

he won't, he, he won't Kamala Harris will get the nomination

SIr Gene: 31:37

No, no, no. I think people are tired of her. I don't think she

Ben: 31:40

I I, okay. AOC could run and get the

SIr Gene: 31:44

I, I would vote for AOC.

Ben: 31:46

Yeah.

SIr Gene: 31:47

Yeah. We need more hot chicks in office.

Ben: 31:50

she's not that

SIr Gene: 31:51

Well, she's reasonably

Ben: 31:53

her face. Yeah. Yeah.

SIr Gene: 31:55

She's dorky hot

Ben: 31:57

Okay. Whatever,

SIr Gene: 31:58

name, another, another person in Congress. Who's hot. Her

Ben: 32:01

Yeah. Mm-hmm

SIr Gene: 32:03

Uhhuh.

Ben: 32:04

Uhhuh

SIr Gene: 32:05

she's the, the queen of the ball there. No, I, I do. I think she has no business being in politics obviously, but I do think that she has that sort of like dumb blonde, but she's not a blonde kind of thing going for her where it's like, it's, it's adorable that she makes simple mistakes. You know what I mean?

Ben: 32:24

no, she, you know, she makes some complex mistakes. So something that Tim brought up the other day was her comments about the civil war in the Supreme court. And it's just as night, which by the way, People people, people, you gotta just either be honest about history or don't talk about it because one of the things that bugs the shit out of me that Tim does is he sits there and he waffles on history. And I think he's actually doing enough research on this award to go, Hey, you know what? This wasn't necessarily all about slavery. There, there was a lot of other things going on.

SIr Gene: 33:00

Everybody knows

Ben: 33:00

Yeah. Well, not everybody, but anyway, he he's finally coming to that realization, but he, he doesn't wanna piss people off. So he still coach coaches, his language, couches, his language in, in such a way that is just come on. You're there let's, let's move on. Whatever.

SIr Gene: 33:19

that. Mm-hmm He does. Yep. Yeah. He, he, I agree with you on that. I think he, Tim gets a lot of undeserved ragging for like things like, oh, why is he wearing a hat at all the time? But on that particular issue, I do agree with you.

Ben: 33:29

I mean, what it comes down to is, you know, re if anyone wants to know what the civil war was about and why the south left Reed, South Carolina, expositions and protest by then vice president, John C. Calhoun and read the Bills of se succession that were passed by the state legislatures. You know, Tim keeps looping in Texas saying, well, they, they, they succeeded because of geography. No, that's not why they succeeded. Actually there's a whole segment in the Texas declaration of se succession bitching about, Hey, we were a free and independent country. We didn't join to be overruled and abide by these abominable tariffs. You can't do this to us. We're taking our ball and we're going

SIr Gene: 34:12

by the way, one of the biggest mistakes Texas made. Nope.

Ben: 34:15

Oh, absolutely. Texas should have never joined the union.

SIr Gene: 34:19

And, and they literally, from the first day of independence of Texas, there was a movement to join the union.

Ben: 34:26

And that was problematic. Yes. And that, that, so Texas selling off a lot of the land that we sold off to enter the union debt free. I, I'm fine with doing that, sell that land to the us, but stay Texas. The other thing is that you know, had the civil war been fought in the 1850s instead of the 1860s, the south would've absolutely won.

SIr Gene: 34:51

And was that a technological issue or what?

Ben: 34:54

Well, it was a development issue. It was a financial issue. So, cotton you know, famous declaration in the Senate is cotton is king well in the 1850s, that was absolutely absolutely true that the south was the undisputed economic powerhouse. A lot of people don't realize, but Mississippi going into the civil war was one of the richest states in the union after reconstruction is still to the stay of the poorest. But what's interesting was great Britain had developed by the 1860s, some cotton plantations in Indiana, other countries and, and and in Egypt. So before that, the south was the undisputed cotton producer and economically the world couldn't would've backed the, the Confederate states of America. Absolutely. They were on the fence. You know, the there's actually great Britain actually did have an embassy to the confer states of America. People don't know that, but it was, they recognize the Confederate states of America as a separate country. Well, that's kind of a big deal, you know, if the world sees it as a civil war,

SIr Gene: 36:00

mm-hmm mm-hmm okay. Yeah.

Ben: 36:00

Is coaching our history today, typically, you know, powers don't recognize factions like that.

SIr Gene: 36:07

Yeah, but I mean, faction recognition is always political. There are, there are plenty of countries that don't recognize Taiwan as a separate country today. There are,

Ben: 36:16

a problem.

SIr Gene: 36:17

yeah. I, for one, don't recognize Northern Ireland as a separate country from Ireland. So there are lots of politically based decisions on who's recognizing what a lot of countries right now don't recognize crime as being part of Russia. So recognition of territories has more to do with, if I do that, what do you give me than anything else? Now, the, the, the reality of the situation is that when you can't argue it and you recognize it, then it's, it's not motivated so much by political gains, but by just reality. And that's what happened when China took over the seat at United nations for Taiwan, because obviously China, communist, China, as much as we don't like communist China was nonetheless the country that held that seat with a new government.

Ben: 37:12

Yeah. And you know, this is where. It's gonna be very interesting to see what happens over the next couple of decades, because you know, a as the one country, two, two systems treaty with the UK fades out

SIr Gene: 37:27

Yeah, well, it has, it's gone. There's nothing enough of that.

Ben: 37:29

well, except there's time. So, you know, tech right now, I would say China is in violation of the treaty.

SIr Gene: 37:36

So what it's irrelevant. I mean, the treaty, a treaty that is unenforceable is in irrelevant treaty.

Ben: 37:43

Well, you know, great Britain couldn't enforce it.

SIr Gene: 37:46

Nope, they

Ben: 37:47

not try it?

SIr Gene: 37:49

cause great Britain is almost bankrupt right now.

Ben: 37:51

Okay.

SIr Gene: 37:52

They can't afford the fuel for their fleets.

Ben: 37:55

Yeah. Well, you know, go get in the fight. Declare article, whatever of NATO. let's go.

SIr Gene: 38:02

AR yeah, article six. It can only be declared upon an attack on a country of NATO, not upon a NA country attacking somebody else. In fact, there's

Ben: 38:11

They don't have to attack. In fact, all they have to do is do a blockade between mainland

SIr Gene: 38:16

a blockade is considered by the entire world as a declaration of war. You cannot blockade somebody.

Ben: 38:23

Oh. So then when we talk about Fort Sumter, it wasn't the south that started the civil.

SIr Gene: 38:28

No one thinks the south started. So north started civil war the south.

Ben: 38:32

this all started civil work

SIr Gene: 38:33

Well, nobody. I know nobody. I know thinks that

Ben: 38:37

So for those that, for, for those that don't know Northern ships, we're trying to run a blockade. We're trying to get into Fort Sumter and yeah,

SIr Gene: 38:46

Which they erroneously claimed belonged to the north.

Ben: 38:49

Yep.

SIr Gene: 38:50

Clearly not the case. So at, during I looked this up while we're talking here, it looks like the inflation hit 14.8% peak during Jimmy Carter's term.

Ben: 39:01

oh, we're gonna blow past

SIr Gene: 39:02

We are currently past that,

Ben: 39:04

You're looking at shadow stats,

SIr Gene: 39:06

shadow stats using the same formula that was used in the 1970s.

Ben: 39:11

Uhhuh

SIr Gene: 39:12

We are over 20% right now.

Ben: 39:14

oh, I a hundred percent believe that, man. You know, traveling, looking at cost of goods, different areas, different places. It it's, it's insane

SIr Gene: 39:23

You can't get a meal for under 10 bucks anymore. They just don't

Ben: 39:27

You, your average, my, my average lunch while traveling, and this is airports, this is things like that. So yes, it's

SIr Gene: 39:34

shitty cheap food.

Ben: 39:35

Well, but expensive. So,

SIr Gene: 39:38

cheap

Ben: 39:38

you know, flying pre C I could do a lunch at an airport or something like that for 50 abouts, you know, 25, 50 bucks, 50

SIr Gene: 39:47

lot more than a lunch in an airport for 50. What you can, how much are you drinking

Ben: 39:52

That's a whole nother topic. Gene no,

SIr Gene: 39:54

gonna say typically lunch at well. If I wanted to pay for lunch, it was always under 20 bucks in the airport. I couldn't imagine more than 20 bucks in the airport.

Ben: 40:01

Right. But now it's all in. It's 50 easy. That, that, that's my point. So fuck my breakfast flying outta IA H the other day, which was a crappy little breakfast burrito was$15

SIr Gene: 40:15

oh shit.

Ben: 40:16

and that's no pro that's just eggs. That's not bacon or anything else. That's just eggs. Pico and the tortilla.

SIr Gene: 40:23

Well, eggs is one of the biggest factors that went up. So in the eighties, the price of eggs was 29 cents for a dozen.

Ben: 40:30

Yeah.

SIr Gene: 40:30

Maybe you hit 39 if you went to a more fancy grocery store, but it was under 50 cents a dozen and it was under a buck, a dozen for decades. I mean, I think it probably went over a buck, a dozen, maybe 15 years ago, but now it's five bucks, a dozen for eggs. And those things are pooped out once a day by a bird that basically you get for free

Ben: 40:56

Well, eh, so, Different different species, different races of chicken. D different breeds of chicken produce different amounts of eggs. But yeah, generally once every 22, 23 hours and for the first couple of years, and then they get laid out pretty

SIr Gene: 41:12

mm-hmm and then you get rid of'em and you get new ones. Yeah.

Ben: 41:14

yeah,

SIr Gene: 41:15

And you have one rooster just to repopulate the ones you get rid of.

Ben: 41:18

mm-hmm

SIr Gene: 41:20

I mean, this is not expensive or complicated farming here.

Ben: 41:24

well, and if you let'em out in your yard, you'll have way fewer bugs and way

SIr Gene: 41:27

Yeah. They love eating bugs. That's their main source of protein.

Ben: 41:31

lizards man, you, you, here's the thing. People think chickens are,

SIr Gene: 41:35

the killing of lizards myself,

Ben: 41:36

people think chickens are vegetarian,

SIr Gene: 41:38

they're definitely not vegetarian. No, I'll

Ben: 41:41

So when I had chickens, I used to throw'em scraps and like, I would take, you know, meat scraps and stuff and put it in the scrap bucket for'em and throw it out there and they will fucking fight over some meat man

SIr Gene: 41:52

Oh yeah. Oh, you wanna get rid of a body chicken farm?

Ben: 41:57

or hogs or anything else. Yeah.

SIr Gene: 41:59

Yeah. Hogs will make it disappear real fast, but yeah. Chickens are definitely Omni and so are so are ducks.

Ben: 42:08

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,

SIr Gene: 42:09

AOUS geese vegetarian, you know that.

Ben: 42:13

yeah. Depends. But yeah. I

SIr Gene: 42:15

What, what do you mean? Depends.

Ben: 42:17

mean elite insects and stuff like that. They're insectivorous as well.

SIr Gene: 42:21

Mm, I don't think so. I think they're purely vegetarian.

Ben: 42:24

Okay.

SIr Gene: 42:26

We can check, we can Wikipedia it, but I'm I'm

Ben: 42:29

the book of knowledge.

SIr Gene: 42:31

honestly, I thought all birds were AOUS. I didn't think there was vegetarian birds. And then I read up on geese and I was like, oh, I guess geese are.

Ben: 42:38

you know, some of the best duck is, you know, fish eaters, you know, pescatarians largely.

SIr Gene: 42:44

I'm not a big fan of duck. I don't know. I've I used to like duck Lauren, but

Ben: 42:49

we gotta get you some duck and

SIr Gene: 42:50

prefer lean meat. This is why I love Buffalo. It's my favorite meat these days. I probably eat it at least twice a week.

Ben: 42:57

Yeah. I, I need to make you some duck and sausage gumbo. I'll change your mind on duck.

SIr Gene: 43:02

You know, I love gumbo. It's one of my favorite meals.

Ben: 43:05

me too. I, I grew up making it and you know, it, I, I like to cook and I love Cajun food. I've got a red fish Coon.

SIr Gene: 43:14

Hm

Ben: 43:15

Recipe I'll, I'll give you at some point and, you know, yeah. I always put a redneck spin on everything. So like, when I do my Putin ASCA, you know, it's usually cat catfish, Putin, ASCA. And when I do a ceviche, I'll do catfish and shrimp and

SIr Gene: 43:31

Really? I would think catfish S viche would be very taste like strong taste to it.

Ben: 43:37

no catfish is perfect for ceviche because it firms up so well under the acid

SIr Gene: 43:43

Mm.

Ben: 43:44

does really well actually.

SIr Gene: 43:46

Yeah. Cause I, I do like catfish, like I grew up eating catfish, but they were basically junk fish. They could catch'em.

Ben: 43:52

Mm-hmm

SIr Gene: 43:53

But a lot of people don't like the taste of catfish.

Ben: 43:55

really see, I don't like

SIr Gene: 43:56

dweller, you know, it's digging through the muck.

Ben: 43:59

yeah, so I don't like salmon. I can't stay in salmon. So salmon to me is a trash fish.

SIr Gene: 44:04

Hmm.

Ben: 44:05

It's too fishy.

SIr Gene: 44:07

oh, I disagree. I think salmon has a it. Okay. I know exactly what you're saying. Cuz compared to tuna, raw salmon versus raw tuna salmon is very fishy. But I also love, I guess I don't mind the fishy taste as from the ocean fish, cuz I also love sardines. A lot of people don't like sardines. You do like sardines. Okay.

Ben: 44:28

But something about salmon. I just don't like, so like, I, I grew up eating red fish, which is a, a drum and you know, I grew up eating flounder and, you know, lots

SIr Gene: 44:38

fan of flounder.

Ben: 44:39

what the hell is wrong with

SIr Gene: 44:40

Nope. Not a fan of flounder.

Ben: 44:42

No, you, you

SIr Gene: 44:43

I like Cod you like Cod

Ben: 44:45

I, I mean, it's just blah, it's bland. It's about like tilapia.

SIr Gene: 44:49

it? It will. No, it's not like the lobby. It's a completely

Ben: 44:52

well be, it's a salt water tilapia, but okay.

SIr Gene: 44:54

Cod I think is closer to like non fatty, tuna

Ben: 45:00

And anyway you know, I, I grew up on the back deck of a shrimp boat for the first 10 years of my life and I got to eat some really good seafood all the time. So I don't know, different world. And you know, up in Baltimore, I had some oysters this week and there were some good oysters and everything else, but

SIr Gene: 45:17

Don't eat that

Ben: 45:18

you don't need oysters.

SIr Gene: 45:19

eat oysters. Nope. Don't like them.

Ben: 45:23

Okay. Well,

SIr Gene: 45:24

don't like the texture

Ben: 45:25

so, well, let me different textures depending on preparation, but yeah.

SIr Gene: 45:29

Slimy things.

Ben: 45:31

okay. Okay. Well for those who don't know, Gulf oysters are actually fantastic. People talk about, you know, Chesapeake bay and all this, that, and the other. There's some big, pretty oysters up there, but flavorwise golf. Oysters are fantastic. So yeah.

SIr Gene: 45:49

yeah. I've just the only Moss that I will eat are escargo. Cuz they're cooked in hot oil and they're they're not slimy at all. They're they're very firm

Ben: 46:00

Well, I had some oysters this week that you would've liked then, because it was grilled oysters on the half shell. And they were in that garlic butter, same sort of thing as Escar and they were grilled and they were just absolutely

SIr Gene: 46:13

Okay. You know what? I've never tried that I would be willing to try it, but I, the oysters that I've tried and I've I had plenty of friends. Oh, you gotta try these. These are awesome. I never like them, so, but I'd be willing to try'em in, in garlic.

Ben: 46:25

my favorite oysters are the ones my dad and I used to do when I was growing up. We'd go out and we'd dredge oysters, east Galveston bay, come back, Chuck'em, you know, I'd eat'em raw while we were shocking.'em too, but we'd have big parties. We had October parties down in the beach all the time. Because October down in Galveston area is fantastic. Tourists are gone. It's fucking great weather. It's just perfect for an outdoor barbecue weather. Typically anyway, what we would do is we'd take these oysters and we'd wrap'em in bacon, one toothpick, and you throw'em on the grill, real hot grill, just enough to cook the bacon, take'em off and you're done. And oh my God.

SIr Gene: 47:03

that sounds pretty good.

Ben: 47:05

Yeah,

SIr Gene: 47:06

Yeah. I'd, I'd certainly be willing to try stuff like that. But I don't like the typical sort of oysters with just some lemon sprinkle on top kind of

Ben: 47:13

well, I mean, raw oysters aren't for everybody,

SIr Gene: 47:15

No,

Ben: 47:16

you know, some people have a, I I'm swallowing a luge sort of thing. And you know, I, I, I get that. I get that. So

SIr Gene: 47:23

Yeah. And yeah, I just, I'm not a, not a fan, well eat most other foods. I'm not particularly picky in a lot of foods. I'm not a fan of certain Chinese foods. Like, I, I don't particularly like tripe or other gastrointestinal organs.

Ben: 47:39

no Minuto for you.

SIr Gene: 47:41

No, but I, I do like liver. I, I have liver in the fridge right now.

Ben: 47:46

Liver can be good. Liver can be real good. Yeah. I'm not a big organ eater at all. You know, a bowl of Minuto depending on the day and the hangover, you know, that can, I can see that. But you know, I, I, I, I, I prefer PA sole over Mando, so

SIr Gene: 48:01

well, I would prefer FileMan young.

Ben: 48:04

who wouldn't

SIr Gene: 48:06

Well, apparently you cuz you, you would actually prefer ribeye.

Ben: 48:09

prefer ribeye, but yeah, but if you're giving me the choice between, you know, stomach and filet and YN, I'm gonna take the filet and YN, come on.

SIr Gene: 48:18

sure, sure. Yeah. And I've had, I've had some of these organ meats in Hong Kong years ago and at a, a restaurant that doesn't exist anymore. Unfortunately, Hong Kong's really changed, you know,

Ben: 48:32

never been wouldn't

SIr Gene: 48:33

Yeah, you missed it. it's right now, post full Chinese sort of, I don't wanna call it occupation cuz it is part of China, but it full Chinese control the tourism and sort of high end lifestyle is fast disappearing. A lot of it's already gone. And so Hong Kong is it is no longer the gateway to Asia that it once was. I think Singapore probably is these.

Ben: 49:01

you know, China is I, the Chinese economy is really gonna be hurting here pretty quick, I think.

SIr Gene: 49:07

I don't think so.

Ben: 49:08

Okay. Why

SIr Gene: 49:10

Why would it be, I mean, I think China right now

Ben: 49:12

Chinese real estate market is about to fucking collapse and that is the store of wealth. For most Chinese, they don't have 401ks. They don't have investments in foreign stocks for the average Chinese it's. Property in China, they have all these ghost cities that they've built, where they have these buildings and people own X number of apartments. And there's no stairs, no elevators, no nothing. I mean, it's, it's such an artificial construct and with the global economy about to fucking tank with the us. I, man, I don't know. I, I, I, I am happy to be in the us because I think we'll survive it better than the rest of the world. For the most part. I

SIr Gene: 49:52

our parachute is way better than European parachute. That's for sure.

Ben: 49:55

Oh shit. Europe's, Europe's gonna be screwed. I think China's gonna be screwed.

SIr Gene: 50:01

Yep.

Ben: 50:01

I think Russia's actually gonna be okay because of the moves that they made during this entire conflict to back their currency, at least partially by gold is huge.

SIr Gene: 50:11

So China just ordered 300 new airplanes from Airbus and canceled their orders with Boeing. Which is what some people, I don't know if I've fall into this camp or not, but where some people are calling the, the beginning of the anti-US sanctions

Ben: 50:27

I can see it. I can see it.

SIr Gene: 50:29

and you don't have to declare formal sanctions the way the us likes to make a media show about it. You just basically prevent anybody in your country from doing business.

Ben: 50:40

Yeah.

SIr Gene: 50:41

And this is a huge order. This is, I can't remember how many billions it's like$200 billion or something worth of airplanes. Now I don't know if Airbus is gonna be able to deliver this because Europe is gonna not have any electricity. So it's gonna be pretty hard to run a factory without power. But but the idea that, that these orders, which were projected to be split between Airbus and Boeing have now all gone to Airbus is definitely gonna affect Boeing's price. And probably there'll be some layoffs.

Ben: 51:13

So one thing I'll say for you well, a yes, Boeing is about to be screwed, but B China may survive. You know why?

SIr Gene: 51:23

Why?

Ben: 51:23

Because Uganda just found$12 trillion worth of gold.

SIr Gene: 51:28

Oh, Chinese gold. That's pretty cool.

Ben: 51:29

Well, in Uganda, but they're owned by belt and road initiative. Man, Uganda has leveraged so much through China,

SIr Gene: 51:38

China owns a lot of the African countries at this point.

Ben: 51:41

Yeah. But when you think about the infrastructure and everything, that's gone into Uganda through the belt and road initiative, and now you've got this resource that should be great for your country, but then there's that?

SIr Gene: 51:54

Yeah, no, that's awesome.$12 trillion worth of gold, apparently,

Ben: 51:58

Yes.

SIr Gene: 52:00

which is a good chunk that the Chinese are gonna be able to together there.

Ben: 52:04

Well, I, I, I, I would bet money that when they go to start mining that it will be Chinese companies doing the

SIr Gene: 52:12

Oh yeah, yeah, no, they'll get what will happen is Uganda will get a royalty fee, but China's gonna get the gold. So it's good for the country because they did nothing to deserve this. This just happens, but and they will get a reward for it, but it's, it's vastly different than a civilized country discovering 12 trillion worth of gold somewhere.

Ben: 52:34

Yeah. Well, I don't know if it's different. I mean, natural resources are natural resources, but you know, and that they're not spread out evenly across the NA across the globe.

SIr Gene: 52:44

Yeah. Yeah.

Ben: 52:45

I mean, that, that was one of you know, pain's arguments in common sense was, you know, that the us had these natural resources and why, if not now, when, so yeah,

SIr Gene: 52:56

that's true. Let's see, what else go down the other bit of news, it looks like the blame game between Europe and Lithuania has come to an end.

Ben: 53:07

I don't know the story.

SIr Gene: 53:09

Well, the story is that you I'm sure are aware that there's a small slice of Russia

Ben: 53:16

Mm-hmm

SIr Gene: 53:16

that is disconnected. It's an exclave called cleaning grad

Ben: 53:20

Yes.

SIr Gene: 53:21

and which was part of reparations from Germany, basically for world war II. And so instead of that, becoming part of Poland after world war II, it became part of Russia and it stayed that way. No one was really all that concerned because they were all part of the Soviet union anyway. But Lithuania had decided that they're gonna do a strict interpretation of the EU sanctions on Russia, which forbid the transport of Russian products in a whole bunch of different categories. Right.

Ben: 53:52

yeah,

SIr Gene: 53:54

And Russia was, you know, sending goods. Back and forth, but primarily I would imagine two Le and grad through, yeah, through Lithuania. Well, not for export. I mean, it's, it's Russia sending to Russia, right? So it's just shipments back and forth between a disjointed part of Russia and the mainland Russia. And and so, Lithuanian said, well, we we're forbidding the transport of all these Russian goods on their railroads because they they've had, that's how most of those goods were conveyed. And the Russia said, okay, so you're blocking transport of goods from Russia to Russia. That's a blockade. And as defined by international law, that is a declaration of war. So we're gonna give you a week and make sure that you understand that you're just declared war in Russia. And by declaring war, it means that that all the NATO treaties don't apply because you're not allowed to declare war on somebody in NATO. You're only supposed to respond

Ben: 54:59

right, right, right.

SIr Gene: 55:00

declaration of war on you. And Lithuania said, look, we are just doing what EU has told us to do because we're part of the EU. So blame them. It's the EU declaring war on you, not little old Lithuania EU. Meaning Germany, which is mostly who runs EU said, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, this is bullshit. We never told them to do this. We never said block goods from transit between a country and itself. That is a blockade. We're only saying blocking the transport of goods from Russia to your country or a third party country, not Russia to Russia. So, no, that's all Lithuanian. That's not the EU. So if they do this, it's on them. It's not on us. And so now, depending on what you read as the source, like if you read the German papers, they're saying that Lithuania will surrender to Russia literally using those terms for its illegal halting of transport. If you read Polish newspapers, it'll say Germany siding with Russia in and against Europe, you know, it's, it's like, there's a lot of infighting that's starting to happen in Europe right now.

Ben: 56:16

Well, and

SIr Gene: 56:16

because they can't agree with each other.

Ben: 56:18

so it's interesting. I work with a guy who's, I'll just say it he's fucking brilliant. He is one of the smartest guys. I know probably one of the best people at regular expressions I've ever seen. Very, very intelligent

SIr Gene: 56:31

a whole language in and of itself.

Ben: 56:32

Exactly. He's Russian and at this onsite and everything, he, he was not drinking and I asked him why. And he said, well, I've given up drinking until until Putin's dead.

SIr Gene: 56:43

interesting.

Ben: 56:44

Well the, the might be a while. All right, cool.

SIr Gene: 56:48

be.

Ben: 56:48

Yeah. I mean the, but there there's a visceral reaction in a lot of people.

SIr Gene: 56:54

there's a certain old, Russian ethnic profile who can't differentiate between Russia and the USSR

Ben: 57:06

yeah. And it's not just Russians. It's a lot of various people. I

SIr Gene: 57:12

mm-hmm

Ben: 57:13

you know, I CSB God bless him. You

SIr Gene: 57:15

they're racists. I mean, CSB is a total racist. That's what it comes down to.

Ben: 57:20

I won't go

SIr Gene: 57:20

I, well, I'm definitely going that far and by the way, I think CSB and I agree on most issues, but

Ben: 57:26

Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

SIr Gene: 57:27

when it comes to the interpretation of this military action that's happening in Ukraine, this deification, he is completely oblivious to it. He doesn't understand it.

Ben: 57:38

so for me, I don't have a dog in this hunt. Right. I don't give a shit. I don't care what happens to Ukraine. I just don't, I, I can see multiple sides of the issue. I don't think Russia is inherently evil. I don't think the us is inherently good. I, I just have a different take on the world. So when I see actions happening in Ukraine, I see what was happening in Dom bass as being quite frankly ethnic cleansing of a sort. So I can see a response to that. I don't think Russia has tried to just bowl over Ukraine and take over the entire country. I don't think that

SIr Gene: 58:12

At this point,

Ben: 58:13

I'm sorry.

SIr Gene: 58:14

I think they should at this point.

Ben: 58:16

No, I don't. And the re I think that would, that would validate too many wrong opinions.

SIr Gene: 58:22

Yeah. But I think the problem with Ukraine at this point is that it's gonna become the Afghanistan of the 1970s. Russia, if they don't

Ben: 58:31

Oh, well, I, I think if they stop at the Don bass and just hold what they've got, I think they'll be fine. I, I, I think that I actually, I would say that I think Ukraine, especially with the money that's been dropped in there, the arms that have been dropped in

SIr Gene: 58:43

it's all gone.

Ben: 58:45

it's gonna become the, the Mexico of Europe.

SIr Gene: 58:49

Mm-hmm Hmm.

Ben: 58:50

It's gonna be a failed NACO state

SIr Gene: 58:52

Yeah. Yeah. But like any money that comes in is gone instantly there, that that is not hanging around

Ben: 58:58

Well, it's going to the mob.

SIr Gene: 59:00

Well, I was going to the politicians through the mob. It's basically funding their retirement accounts by stealing taxes from their population, using the cause of anti-rusia. To basically fund their offshore accounts. So we send a hundred billion to Ukraine and probably the politicians get 20 billion of that back into their own private reserves. 80 billion goes to various actors

Ben: 59:28

well, well first it's gotta go through our defense contractors. First, all this aid is, is nothing but a bailout to, you

SIr Gene: 59:34

That's a good point. So let's say that we, we call it a hundred million, which is the retail prices. So the, the wholesale cost of all these military products are probably third of that.

Ben: 59:45

yeah, this, this is a bailout to Boeing. This is a bailout to Lockheed. This is bailout to general dynamics, et C.

SIr Gene: 59:52

yeah, but I'm literally right now seeing us manufactured products for sale from Ukraine on the, on Russian language you know, eBay type sites.

Ben: 1:00:05

well, it ammo. So we, we put sanctions, everybody thought ammo, you know, ammo prices were gonna go through the roof based off of these sanctions, cuz Russian ammo wouldn't be available. Dude. It's getting shipped to Bulgaria and other places stamped and shipped out. Yes, there is a surcharge, but you know, to say that you right now, you can get, what is Russian manufactured, ammo with a different stamp on it?

SIr Gene: 1:00:28

exactly. Yeah, no, that's absolutely the case. So there's a lot of That's the thing is I, I wish somebody in the west had enough of a brain to calculate the full equation of sanctions. And I don't think anyone has had enough of a brain to do that because they assume that sanctions will punish Russia with zero cost to the us or Europe. And the reality has been that for each sanction down the list is they maybe affect Russia by 20% and they affect Europe by 80%.

Ben: 1:01:04

well here's the problem with sanctions? I'm fine with tariffs, but saying I can't do business with someone is a problem. Show me where in the constitution that the government has that power.

SIr Gene: 1:01:15

Mm-hmm

Ben: 1:01:16

They have the power to tariff. I'm good with that, but to make it illegal for companies to do business with each other across borders is inherently imoral. And just, you know, if you're a free market capitalist at all, just totally anathema you can argue about tariffs and protectionism and all those sorts of things. We that's an entirely different conversation, but the question is, if I am a free person, why can I not do business with someone else?

SIr Gene: 1:01:44

Mm-hmm

Ben: 1:01:45

What, what is it? What, what right. Does the government have to tell me? I cannot buy something from someone in Russia?

SIr Gene: 1:01:52

yeah. What right. Does the government have to. Steal 300 billion

Ben: 1:01:57

Well, I mean,

SIr Gene: 1:01:58

by telling banks not to do business with the other country.

Ben: 1:02:02

well, the due process is gone and to take it back to the earlier portion of the podcast, since I was in Maryland this week, you know, this all started with Lincoln and his executive order to suspend habeas Corpus. And the reason why he did that, by the way, if you don't know, Maryland was going to succeed and Lincoln suspended, habeas Corpus, so the military could arrest the state legislature and prevent them from doing so This is really where the, the inflection things started because, you know, yeah, you had this edition act and you had lots of things, but to actually just arrest people without any, you know, deprive people of any due process started there fast forward to today, you've got the red flag laws, you've got these sanctions, you've got everything in place. And the government really is just saying, you know what we're gonna do to you, whatever the hell we want to.

SIr Gene: 1:02:57

yeah. For the good of the country we're going to become dictators.

Ben: 1:03:03

Yes. Trust us. It's in your best interest.

SIr Gene: 1:03:07

Yep,

Ben: 1:03:08

And the fact of the matter is the average person doesn't want to be free. They want to be taken care of. So it jives and that's that's that's the fucking problem is people don't want to be free.

SIr Gene: 1:03:21

No. I, I think people, especially in the west, especially in the us lately, but in Europe as well, certainly they, they have what I would describe as a more traditionalist view of the government, which is the government is the monarchy they're here as our parents in effect to make decisions that are for our good, they, they see the government as their betters, not as their employees. And this was a distinction that was made during the us declaration of independence in that the government was something that was, you know, controlled by the people to ensure certain fairness that

Ben: 1:04:07

Well, I mean, let's be honest. Europe is barely out of CDO,

SIr Gene: 1:04:12

It is.

Ben: 1:04:12

I mean, they, they are just right outta CDOM and they still have that mentality. The us you, have you ever heard of the what was it, the colony theory of IQ?

SIr Gene: 1:04:23

The, I, I'm not sure if I have,

Ben: 1:04:25

So the most independent, the highest intelligence people are the ones that are gonna go to a colony and Australia being, not a good example cuz of its conversation

SIr Gene: 1:04:34

so it's a prison

Ben: 1:04:35

Right. But, but beyond that, so the us, you know, the people who were industrious enough to make it over and to build a life, you know, ha had a certain quality that, you know, I, I, I, I, I think we're gonna have to colonize Mars or something to get that

SIr Gene: 1:04:52

Oh, totally. Yeah. Musk is right onto that.

Ben: 1:04:55

yeah. Have you ever read the expanse series?

SIr Gene: 1:04:59

I have, I thought we even talked about it. So I got, I, I got to the third book. I haven't read anything beyond that yet

Ben: 1:05:04

Yeah. Well, for those who don't know in the expanse, the Mars was, is colonized by Texans and Indians. So you've got Alex. Yeah, yeah. From Alex. One of the main characters is a Indian guy, but he speaks with a Texas accent. So it's hilarious.

SIr Gene: 1:05:19

Mm-hmm

Ben: 1:05:20

Yeah.

SIr Gene: 1:05:20

yeah, I always really, that was my favorite character, honestly, in the expense and yeah, absolutely. And when they fired him, I did a, a whole mail writing campaign. Cause that was such bullshit

Ben: 1:05:31

do you mean when they fired him

SIr Gene: 1:05:33

when they fired Alex, when

Ben: 1:05:35

off the TV

SIr Gene: 1:05:36

Yeah. Off the TV show.

Ben: 1:05:37

I, I haven't watched the show, so,

SIr Gene: 1:05:39

You gotta be kidding. You haven't seen the show.

Ben: 1:05:41

ah,

SIr Gene: 1:05:41

You should totally see the show. First of all, it is very close to the books, but I think up until, well, the, you should watch the first three seasons after that, it kind of goes into its own little place. Like no TV show that starts well ever ends. Well, I don't know why, but that seems to be almost universal. But the first three seasons of expanse, very close to the books. And I thought the acting was outstanding. And the, the thing about that show for a lot of like space video game nerds, like me is universally accepted as the, the most realistic TV show in science fiction ever

Ben: 1:06:17

the books, I mean the books are all the, the physics of accelerating, decelerating, all that is very realistic. For like, for instance, man, in the high castle, love the book, read the book,

SIr Gene: 1:06:28

mm-hmm

Ben: 1:06:29

reread the book several times. Couldn't get past the first season of the show.

SIr Gene: 1:06:33

I think the first two seasons were good after that and went down the hill.

Ben: 1:06:36

Yeah. Mm-hmm

SIr Gene: 1:06:38

Uh, I actually kinda like the actress that, I mean, she's not like beautiful or anything, but she has a certain something about her in the TV show. I mean the high castle. And I also thought that the portrayal of Nazi Americans was very well done.

Ben: 1:06:53

yeah.

SIr Gene: 1:06:53

the integration of America, apple pie with sort of Nazi aesthetic was just right on the money.

Ben: 1:07:04

what do you think of the so one thing that I got out of the watching the first season was, you know, that the Nazis continue to advance in technology in Japan did not.

SIr Gene: 1:07:14

yeah.

Ben: 1:07:15

was an interesting take

SIr Gene: 1:07:17

I think that's, I think that's a pretty good take though, because I think historically. It's probably closer to reality because Japan only got to the point of technological advances through the, the 1980s and nineties, that dominated technology in the us because of American occupation after 1940s.

Ben: 1:07:43

the book. Interesting because you know, Japanese engineering Toyota, everything else,

SIr Gene: 1:07:47

All of it is based on American mentalities. It's the what's the guy's name? I'm I'm blanking out on him, but I actually talked no, not MacArthur, no MacArthur. Yeah. He, he, he ran the occupation, but no I'm thinking of ding Deming who brought and is acknowledged by Japan. Yeah. Brought the concept of continuous improvement.

Ben: 1:08:10

Yeah. Lean six Sigma the Toyota way. Yeah.

SIr Gene: 1:08:13

it all came out of ding and I actually did some work for the DMing Institute here in the us, and it was a fascinating to learn about the history and the lack of acceptance of Deming's approach in the us. I think

Ben: 1:08:27

I disagree. Lean six. Sigma is huge in

SIr Gene: 1:08:30

in the 1950s

Ben: 1:08:32

well,

SIr Gene: 1:08:33

yes,

Ben: 1:08:34

I, today

SIr Gene: 1:08:34

it didn't get accepted in the us until after.

Ben: 1:08:38

well

SIr Gene: 1:08:38

They saw the success of Deming's approach in Japan. And he was greatly respected and basically spent the rest of his life, you know, working with Japanese companies that enabled them to get to where they were. So I think traditionalism in Japan was probably the most likely condition after a success by Japan and against the us.

Ben: 1:09:03

So, so that's very interesting because from my perspective, being in manufacturing today for the last, you know, well over a decade now, you know, lean six Sigma, the Toyota way HPI human performance index. Those sorts of things are pushed constantly.

SIr Gene: 1:09:20

yeah, yeah. That's that is absolutely true. But all of that wasn't originated in Japan.

Ben: 1:09:28

Okay. I, I, I guess I gave Toyota and the Japanese more credit for that origination than I

SIr Gene: 1:09:33

You should give them credit for seeing the benefits of that, but not for coming up with the processes. So ding was born in 1900. He developed a lot of this plan, do study act processes in the 19 late twenties, early thirties.

Ben: 1:09:48

Uhhuh Huh.

SIr Gene: 1:09:49

And it, it just did not catch on in the us. So quality management was not a thing here until after. It was part of the rebuilding of Japan.

Ben: 1:10:02

Interesting. So, funny story from this week, I hit some people in the mouth this week. We were talking about lots of things and nine 11 inevitably came up and started talking to people about building seven and they had no fucking clue.

SIr Gene: 1:10:15

really

Ben: 1:10:16

Oh, it was funny to see the shocked eyes and quick Googling and, huh,

SIr Gene: 1:10:20

they, did they watch the video? Did you play the video of the building? Just

Ben: 1:10:23

I did. I did. I did. Yep. Yep. It, it was hilarity ensued. Hilarity, definitely ensued. Oh man. And oh fun story. So, one of the guys I worked for at this company, I'm on my third boss at this company, cuz we're growing so fast and moving stuff around and he was giving me shit because I was wearing my backpack everywhere. I was keeping my laptop with me. He's like, dude, just leave your laptop in your hotel room, whatever, you know,

SIr Gene: 1:10:49

Fuck that

Ben: 1:10:50

Yeah. Hold on the very next day laptops stolen out of this hotel room. I walk up to him and I'm like, you know what? You call that? What karma bitch

SIr Gene: 1:11:00

Exactly

Ben: 1:11:01

yeah. He ended up

SIr Gene: 1:11:02

old bitch karma.

Ben: 1:11:03

yeah. Yeah. It mean just hilarious. You know, he's giving me crap cuz I'm walking around, I've got my lap, my bag with me and all that. And he is just, you know, Ben, come on, you know, you know, friendly circumstances. I'm like, have you seen the card readers on the hotel? Not great. You know? No. And yeah. And anyway, it was just hilarious. So I had to share that cuz it was

SIr Gene: 1:11:25

no, that, that is total karma kicking kicking in. I'm not a fact fan of adults wearing backpacks. To me, it always looks cheesy unless you're mountain hiking and you have a legitimate reason for it. But when you got like, you know, dudes and basically business clothes or Jackies and polos wearing backpacks, it just looks cheesy. Of leaving your laptop in a hotel room is also bullshit.

Ben: 1:11:45

yeah. Okay. So I I'm gonna defend my backpack. I carry a lot of shit around my bag is the backpack that gets searched every effing time. I go through security because I've got hard drives. I've got cables, I've got multiple laptops, I've got a Roku in there. I've got lots of stuff. So, smaller bags just don't work for me.

SIr Gene: 1:12:07

okay. Uhhuh.

Ben: 1:12:07

And when you're carrying as much weight as ends up in that bag, a backpack is the way to go.

SIr Gene: 1:12:12

Hm. I think a roller bag is better.

Ben: 1:12:15

I, no, I, I, I, I do a roller bag for my suitcase and that's it.

SIr Gene: 1:12:20

Okay.

Ben: 1:12:21

But anyway, regardless.

SIr Gene: 1:12:23

Regardless. But it is. I mean, that is always fun to hear of karma

Ben: 1:12:26

Oh yeah. I mean, it was just poetic justice. It was poetic justice. Give me crap, you know, making fun of me a little bit. All right. All right. Boom.

SIr Gene: 1:12:34

yeah.

Ben: 1:12:35

Yeah,

SIr Gene: 1:12:35

Well, and then, I mean, if you really wanted to kind of split that, what you wanna do is bring your backpack to the front desk and have them hold it for

Ben: 1:12:45

yeah,

SIr Gene: 1:12:46

And then you pick it up when you get back and then it's not in your room and it's acceptable to theft. Usually most hotels have in the area that people can leave luggage that is supervised after they're leaving their rooms, but before they leave for their flights. So there is a place

Ben: 1:13:03

A way to check your luggage.

SIr Gene: 1:13:04

yeah, you can kinda,

Ben: 1:13:06

And, and, you

SIr Gene: 1:13:06

you can't go back there yourself, like, they'll get it for you.

Ben: 1:13:09

right. And I, I, I, I do do that sometimes, but it's not practical when you're in a business meeting and then you're going to you know, a happy hour or dinner or whatever, you know, I'm not gonna run back and forth. And anyway it, it, it was just funny because it wasn't just him. It was it was an inside job. So this was ho where we had our onsite was at a casino and yeah, no shit. And someone got a master key and went through that floor and they ended up catching'em, but yeah,

SIr Gene: 1:13:41

Oh, they did catch him. So he got his laptop

Ben: 1:13:42

he did. He did.

SIr Gene: 1:13:43

Oh, that's good.

Ben: 1:13:44

Yeah. So it, wasn't

SIr Gene: 1:13:45

That's a close call.

Ben: 1:13:47

a very, very close goal.

SIr Gene: 1:13:49

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, this is a, had another argument for not actually keeping anything on your laptop and doing everything in the cloud and just using your desktop or your. Your

Ben: 1:13:58

Yeah.

SIr Gene: 1:13:59

Display for a VNC that's running somewhere else.

Ben: 1:14:03

yeah. VDI is a, is a thing. But one of the things I'll say, though, is. It's a good argument for having a a, a hardware token required to access your laptop, good encryption and, you know, anything important being in a true grip volume or something like that at the very least.

SIr Gene: 1:14:23

man, I haven't used true encrypt ages, but I remember I always used to use true. In fact that I remember my it guys at work were bitching about the fact that I always use through

Ben: 1:14:33

Well, so

SIr Gene: 1:14:34

it's cuz I want to use something where the keys are not available.

Ben: 1:14:37

exactly. And you know, some, one of the things I would say is in there's a convenience trade off, and it depends on the level of information you're dealing with. You know, do you trust the administrators there? There's lots of things there, you know, if I can control physical access to the device, I can control physical access to the token that I'm using in cord. You know, it, it depends. Are you gonna be responsible? And are you one of those people who has to reset a password? Well, if you're that person has to reset a password, you have no business keeping encrypted data on your laptop.

SIr Gene: 1:15:10

yep.

Ben: 1:15:11

Because you're gonna lose it. But if, if you're like me and you're retentive and wanna keep everything as secure as possible, then there you go. And you know, I, one of the guys was like, well, dude, what's your threat model? Why, you know, why do you think this is a thing? Well, I have access to a lot of utilities. I have a lot of access to customer data. I have access to environments, like, you know, access to my laptop from a threat model would be a bad day for our customers. So let's not go that route, you know,

SIr Gene: 1:15:41

absolutely. No, that's, that's a, now one thing I've started doing more of too is putting putting expiration dates on various things. Like when there, there seem to be more tools available that LOI to do that. So like one of the things you and I communicate through signal, and I think I have a 40 day expiration on all our signal communication.

Ben: 1:16:02

Yeah. I mean, I, so for instance, it depends on the person

SIr Gene: 1:16:07

Some people it's one day

Ben: 1:16:08

no, no, no. Actually for some people it's unlimited, just because I want that historical record and I, you know, yeah. I don't know. I, I, the expiring communication thing to me, so you can set that, but if I decide to take a screenshot of our communications, I've got that.

SIr Gene: 1:16:25

well, and I have no problem with screenshots. The, what I have a problem with is somebody getting a hold of your device and the entire string of communication being available on it. The

Ben: 1:16:35

Yeah. That, that's the thing. You know, and if the encryption of signals ever broken, you know, being able to rip that out and yeah, I, I gotcha. But you

SIr Gene: 1:16:45

other issue is there's nothing that we talk about that will need to be referenced two months later,

Ben: 1:16:51

yeah, I

SIr Gene: 1:16:52

literally nothing.

Ben: 1:16:53

completely agree that there are other people that I want that reference,

SIr Gene: 1:16:57

Yeah. Yeah. And if you have legitimate use for it, like, when I was doing security work back at target Corp one of the things that surprised me, this is back, would've been around 2006, maybe. One of the things that surprised me was their email retention policy.

Ben: 1:17:14

companies go one of two ways than this. Go ahead.

SIr Gene: 1:17:17

So their email retention policy was two weeks.

Ben: 1:17:20

Wow. Uhhuh.

SIr Gene: 1:17:21

your email was in your inbox for two weeks and then it was automatically deleted. And that was companywide. And if you needed to have longer term retention of email for some particular purpose everybody had like a separate folder. You could move things to selectively for longer rotation. And that one was held I believe for six months. And then that would delete it after that.

Ben: 1:17:46

So my last company our retention policy was 90 days and could not archive out no exceptions, so on, but you could print emails. So I wrote a VB script to go through and print emails to a folder. and,

SIr Gene: 1:18:02

course she did.

Ben: 1:18:03

yeah. Anyway, so I had retention beyond, and then later on a few years after I got hired on, I ended up on legal hold because of my position and everything else. So I, I could always go to legal hold and be like, I need that email now so

SIr Gene: 1:18:17

yeah. And

Ben: 1:18:18

that's one way around it. Yeah.

SIr Gene: 1:18:19

there, there's certainly plenty of times when I look things up, but I, I, I have to say I kinda like the two week email out a delete thing, because if you don't get to something in two weeks, it probably is low enough priority that you don't really need to do it unless you have somebody following up with you.

Ben: 1:18:37

I'm a bigger fan of marking. So people who strive for inbox zero, for example

SIr Gene: 1:18:44

not one of those, but I do appreciate it.

Ben: 1:18:47

well kind of what I do is a AutoMark red after X period of time again through VB, but which VB is not the running

SIr Gene: 1:18:57

I was gonna say, boy, you sure. Trust VB. Well, don't you

Ben: 1:19:00

and no, no. Well, the, for my work stuff, that's a whole different thing. I would, you.

SIr Gene: 1:19:04

mm-hmm

Ben: 1:19:05

Versus private and so on. It's just easy, man. You know, I'm not gonna write it and rust to go do this, you know, just not but regardless organizing your email, you know, I've, I've got rules that dump diff you know, every emails from customers go to separate folders, things like that. And you know, internally email, if I, if I miss something and you don't call me or message me directly, well, you know, screw you.

SIr Gene: 1:19:28

Mm-hmm

Ben: 1:19:29

Yeah. Yeah.

SIr Gene: 1:19:31

Yeah, exactly. I think it's a good, good way to go. If you want longer term things, there are other software tools besides email track things like project management, software,

Ben: 1:19:43

Well, and AB absolutely, you know, and Jesus Christ, what is with companies and JIRA?

SIr Gene: 1:19:49

Yeah. We're just getting rid of our gear right now. In

Ben: 1:19:51

Oh my God. I can't stand JIRA. Yeah. Atlassian is not a good project management solution. It's just not I'm I guess it works for developers, but if you're doing an actual waterfall project where, you know, timelines have to hit and things like that,

SIr Gene: 1:20:06

mm-hmm yeah, I think you're, you're, you're showing your age here because in my I've interviewed project managers for a good three months

Ben: 1:20:17

agile, agile, agile.

SIr Gene: 1:20:20

Until recently I hired one a couple of months ago, but, but it took three months to find one. And I, one of my standard questions during the interview is can you, can you go through and name six different styles of project management for me? And like half the people that call themselves project managers can't do that. But you know, once they do that, assuming they, and I would say, well, can you gimme an example of why you would use waterfall over agile or something else? Nobody uses waterfall anymore for anything it's really fallen out of fashion. And I don't understand, maybe companies just don't care and they're flexible enough to have shifting dates for everything.

Ben: 1:20:59

yeah. Well, what I would say is it depends on, and I think you're hitting on it directly. Is there are different use cases for different types of project management, software development. Agile works fine for lots of things when you can fail. So in my

SIr Gene: 1:21:16

yeah, exactly. When you can

Ben: 1:21:18

When you can fail in my world in critical infrastructure when failure really isn't an option and millions and millions of dollars are on the line. And if you become the critical path project, you're fucked because everyone's looking at you going, Hey dude, you're the one costing us millions and millions of dollars every day that we're not back up and running. And when you have dependencies along the way that I have to get step a done before I can get step B done. And so on, waterfall is absolutely the way to go.

SIr Gene: 1:21:48

That's certainly my take on it as well. But I think that this is kind of a minority position at this point. Because more and more projects seem to be

Ben: 1:22:00

Yeah. Again, I think it depends on your world, right?

SIr Gene: 1:22:04

Yeah. That could, that could be, but just from interviewing people that's of the people applying for a project manager position,

Ben: 1:22:11

Oh, well it,

SIr Gene: 1:22:13

the impression I

Ben: 1:22:14

and the agile Bigos that I'll call them. Think that, oh, everything can be done through agile. Agile is, you know, everything can be done. Fuck you. I'm tired of scrums. I'm tired of doing this, that and the other. No, no, no. And, and you can beat it to fit, I guess, but why, when I can open up, you know, Microsoft project and put a timeline, a Gantt chart together and be good, you.

SIr Gene: 1:22:39

Mm-hmm yeah, there, there are uses for,

Ben: 1:22:42

You know, what's hilarious.

SIr Gene: 1:22:44

for each methodology.

Ben: 1:22:45

Have you looked at the structure add-on for for Atlassian.

SIr Gene: 1:22:49

No.

Ben: 1:22:50

So it basically takes JIRA and makes it into a waterfall project management tool,

SIr Gene: 1:22:56

Hmm

Ben: 1:22:56

is hilarious. So everyone wants to talk JIRA, everyone wants's talk water, you know, agile and everything

SIr Gene: 1:23:02

mm-hmm mm-hmm

Ben: 1:23:04

why does the add-on exist to basically make it a waterfall tool

SIr Gene: 1:23:08

Hmm. Yeah. It's

Ben: 1:23:10

And also JIRA is not a fucking ticketing system for love of God.

SIr Gene: 1:23:14

have you, have you been in situations where people were using it for that? Mm,

Ben: 1:23:17

Yes.

SIr Gene: 1:23:18

Mm-hmm

Ben: 1:23:19

And it sucks. My, my last gig we were forced to use JIRA as our method of record. And you know, why can't we use a CMDB or an actual ticketing system? Oh no, no, we gotta use this. We gotta beat it to fit and it just it's painful.

SIr Gene: 1:23:36

yeah. Sounds like you had some JIRA issues to work out there, buddy.

Ben: 1:23:41

It, it has been the Baning my existence for many years now.

SIr Gene: 1:23:46

Hmm. So, let me ask you a question. Now you used to play video games in the past.

Ben: 1:23:51

Yes. In the.

SIr Gene: 1:23:52

Yeah. And

Ben: 1:23:54

gamer for a very long time.

SIr Gene: 1:23:56

yeah, PC gamer,

Ben: 1:23:58

then a little bit of a console mm-hmm

SIr Gene: 1:24:01

right. And that's fairly similar to my background with gaming as well. Cuz I, I played PC games for quite a while and then I kind of stopped playing all games and then I, I kind of felt like maybe I'm missing something. So I got a console, I got a, this was during the Xbox one era

Ben: 1:24:18

mm-hmm I had an Xbox one in college and immediately hacked it after that came out and used it for lots of things for a long time.

SIr Gene: 1:24:26

There you go. I just played video games on mine, but eventually it just, I started getting jealous of the videos I was seeing of people playing on the PC, doing shit I couldn't do on the console. And I gave in and I took the intermediate step of buying and gaming laptop thinking, well, it's not, it's not a full blown PC, cuz it is an all in one thing. I'm not tempted to do what I used to do. Like back in the early two thousands where I, I had a$7,000 Sub-Zero cooled PC. That was purpose built for gaming. I didn't wanna go back to that, cuz that seemed like a big waste of money.

Ben: 1:25:04

it

SIr Gene: 1:25:05

then the gaming laptop lasted about a year. And then I said, well, this thing is not doing what I needed to do. So I need to actually buy a real gaming PC. Well

Ben: 1:25:12

well, the problem with the laptop is you can't really upgrade, right? You can't go to the next graphics

SIr Gene: 1:25:17

that was literally one of my benefits is that I wouldn't be tempted to, to spend money, but as it turned out, I was tempted to buy a whole new

Ben: 1:25:25

And we can agree that a keyboard and mouse is so far superior to any controller ever made. Right.

SIr Gene: 1:25:31

Well, depends on for what? Because certainly for flying airplanes or spaceships, dual sticks is much better.

Ben: 1:25:37

Okay. First person shooter.

SIr Gene: 1:25:40

Ah, yeah. Keyboard mouse, every all, all the way. For sure. Yeah. There's nothing that that I've used anyway and I've tried most controller types. That comes close to the aiming accuracy without any kinda auto assist turned on. I'm talking like real manual aiming

Ben: 1:25:57

mm-hmm

SIr Gene: 1:25:58

of a mouse because the mouse you can move drastically and have large changes in direction. You can barely move it and have pixel changes. And, and then you could just pick up your hand and it'll not move at all.

Ben: 1:26:11

you wanna hear the funny shit I ever saw at a land party?

SIr Gene: 1:26:14

What's that?

Ben: 1:26:15

This is in the quake three era.

SIr Gene: 1:26:17

Okay.

Ben: 1:26:19

There was this guy that came, kept coming to our land parties. And this is in the early two thousands. When, you know, land, the internet online play was not as popular because lag and everything else. And you actually had land parties. And I was doing I was a member of the LC web monks at the time, and I was doing the network admin for our big land parties. And we had like 200 people land parties, man. I mean, we had different servers running. We had different groups, different playing different games. Anyway, this guy was playing quick three and he was using a fucking track ball.

SIr Gene: 1:26:50

Oh yeah.

Ben: 1:26:51

I was like, why the hell are you doing that? And he goes, because I can do this. And he flicks it and stops and just does a three. It was he was good enough with that track ball that it just was insane.

SIr Gene: 1:27:00

Well, it's funny, you mentioned that, cuz I just ordered a new track ball two weeks ago as an addendum to my controls for gaming on my gaming.

Ben: 1:27:12

Now here's the question. Do you have tracking on your new track balls,

SIr Gene: 1:27:17

Tracking on my new track ball.

Ben: 1:27:20

like chipping tracking? I was just trying to make a stupid

SIr Gene: 1:27:22

it's not even funny. Now the thing about the track ball is and there's two types. And the one I order, I may order the other type, the one I ordered is traditional middle of the track ball, track ball with a fairly large ball, but you're using kind of your middle fingers

Ben: 1:27:39

Oh, no, this, this one was one of the thumb ones

SIr Gene: 1:27:41

Right? So that's the second type is to use the thumb. The reason I went with this one is because the thumb has five different buttons that can reach on this one, as well as a scroll wheel on the thumb. And so I thought, okay, well let me try this. So I have three buttons on top and the plus a track ball and then five buttons on the left side, plus a, well, I guess technically four buttons plus a pressable wheel on the left side. See how that compares because I've been using the world's best gaming mouse now for about almost a decade, probably. I've gone through three of them. And when this thing came out, it was over$200. But it is

Ben: 1:28:21

too much for a mouse man.

SIr Gene: 1:28:22

it it's, it is a professional gaming mouse. It has an Ola display on it. It has like eight buttons. Out of which four are pressure sensitive and different functions can be done by different pressures in the mouse, on the buttons. It has a gyre scope. So for any games where, you know, you're using it, normally when you're running around, you get in an airplane or helicopter, you just pick up the mouse about half an inch off the desk. And now the gyre scope is functional. So you can tilt the mouse in whatever direction, just like a joystick. It is a very, very cool mouse in terms of functionality,

Ben: 1:28:58

So you're one of those guys that when you play a racing game, you actually have those wheel and pedals and

SIr Gene: 1:29:03

do have a wheel in pedals. Yes. Yeah. And I have the foot pedals for airplanes for the rudder and for space flight. Some, I have dual joysticks for six degrees of freedom. So I am one of those guys that likes to win when I play. Yes and I'm not gonna let technology stand in the way.

Ben: 1:29:24

Yeah. I'm, I'm the guy that had a joystick when I was playing descent in the nineties. And other than that, man, I just, I, I, I enjoyed video games, but it was never that big of a hobby for

SIr Gene: 1:29:39

Sure. That makes sense. And really honestly, video games became more of a hobby for me. Pre-marriage and pulse divorce. Like while I was married, I didn't really play video games as much. Probably still, you know, too much if, if you asked my ex-wife, but

Ben: 1:29:56

You know, it's funny because my video, it it's interesting. Cuz my video game, my video gaming declined actually when my wife and I started dating

SIr Gene: 1:30:06

mm-hmm

Ben: 1:30:07

yeah, yeah.

SIr Gene: 1:30:08

I think that's true of everybody because you you're spending time doing other activities. But my video gaming probably picked up a little bit after about five, six years of marriage, cuz we weren't doing the other activities nearly as much.

Ben: 1:30:22

I'm not sure what activities you're talking about there. Jean

SIr Gene: 1:30:25

There's only two types of activities. Men engage in, you see one of'em involves using joysticks and the other and,

Ben: 1:30:33

the other involves using the joystick.

SIr Gene: 1:30:37

yeah. Yeah. One of'em is using a joystick and the other one's playing video games. So,

Ben: 1:30:42

That, that was not the reason for the decline, but okay.

SIr Gene: 1:30:44

But the, where I was leading up with this is have you at least just peripherally seen some of the video game that are well, some footage I should say from video games that are currently available or coming soon, meaning this year to release. Cause it it's, it's literally. Better than reality at this point, it's, it's better quality fidelity than watching a movie.

Ben: 1:31:11

yeah. I, the graphics are insane. Absolutely.

SIr Gene: 1:31:14

they they've they've jumped the Rubicon if you ask me, because they've gone from something that was trying to be realistic to being literally photo realistic, like there, there is no way to discern something that was not video game from some of these games. And I think the ghost of KF was a perfect example of that. Where for literally over a week, a lot of people, including mass media kept running this story of these incredible feats of flight, which were literally just scenes from a air combat video game.

Ben: 1:31:51

the, well, this is the cognitive dissonance that we're in, where people are believing things that are,

SIr Gene: 1:31:58

But I don't really blame them because if you look at the quality of the

Ben: 1:32:01

I, I, I do because it's, it's not about the quality of the video. It's about what can really occur in life.

SIr Gene: 1:32:07

sure, sure, sure. Yeah.

Ben: 1:32:09

But you know that from Orwell taught us that that's, you know, that that's the ultimate end of the state, right. Is to, well,

SIr Gene: 1:32:17

know that two plus two is five.

Ben: 1:32:21

to know something is wrong, but to still believe it because the state said it right.

SIr Gene: 1:32:24

Yeah. Yeah. And in this case, that that was, literally an example. Now. I'm not sure if the, the people that released the video with that description were doing it because they were pro Ukraine or if they were doing it just because they're on Reddit and wanted the fuck with people or if they were doing it. Because they wanted to demonstrate what you just said, which is people are so stupid and gullible that they will believe whatever the mass media messaging is, which let's face it. Even though it's not state owned. What we have in the us for mass media is a state media.

Ben: 1:33:03

It might as well be, I mean, there's seven entities that control the us media.

SIr Gene: 1:33:07

Yeah. Well now eight with apparently Ben Shapiro

Ben: 1:33:11

Yeah. Okay. Yeah. The, the the quote from 1984 was the party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears, and it was their final, most essential command. There we go,

SIr Gene: 1:33:24

mm-hmm Yeah, no. And that that's, I think the ideal and why people are getting kicked off of Twitter is because they are telling you to reject what your eyes are. Seeing a man and simply call that a woman

Ben: 1:33:43

well, or a woman and call it a man, or, you know, the other point that Peterson made with the sports illustrated tweet and people gave him a lot of crap because, you know,

SIr Gene: 1:33:54

attractive,

Ben: 1:33:54

well, he said that, but she wasn't unattractive. She had symmetrical features. She was a bigger girl, not my type, but whatever not what I would call ugly.

SIr Gene: 1:34:03

mm-hmm

Ben: 1:34:04

Um, just, you know, bigger. But what he's pointing out is that Being told that that is attractive. And that is an ideal to shoot for is the problem. And that there, I agree with him and this is not the fat shame, anyone, or to say, if you like bigger girls, whatever man, who cares. But when we're talking about what is the pinnacle of human existence, right. A model on sports illustrator or something that's going to be held up as an ideal, then it ought to be an ideal. And that it's a manipulation to do something like that. And that I completely agree with.

SIr Gene: 1:34:40

Yeah. And I think specifically relating to sports illustrated, which was a magazine that was built, showcasing fitness.

Ben: 1:34:46

Exactly.

SIr Gene: 1:34:47

Like it wasn't just, Hey, look, we have Playboy models which are just, you know, pretty skinny girls. It's like, no, we have girls that go to the gym girls that are toned, where you can see their six packs, not just girls that are within the healthy weight.

Ben: 1:35:06

Yeah.

SIr Gene: 1:35:07

And they've completely done a 180 on that to where again, not to say that necessarily somebody can't be beautiful and. But to have fat chicks as the ones that are brought up on the pedestal in lieu of also beautiful women who are who are also athletic. Well,

Ben: 1:35:32

Well in shape. I mean, you don't have to necessarily be hard body athletic, but you know, I, I, I don't know. It

SIr Gene: 1:35:39

this is where I call it fitness. Cuz like there are female body builders and that to me is unattractive that's that's beyond the Rubicon, right? It's like, they might be perfectly good women, but doesn't do this shit for me. I, but somebody

Ben: 1:35:52

body builder doesn't do it for me, nor does the you know, the whole

SIr Gene: 1:35:55

yeah, cuz they have a male shape to their body. they're broad shoulders, you know? It's like if you work out too much and you're a woman, your body starts to look like a man,

Ben: 1:36:07

anyway se at, you know what, I

SIr Gene: 1:36:09

brought this up, man. Not me. This is your,

Ben: 1:36:11

I brought

SIr Gene: 1:36:12

I, I remember I've always, I've always been a little, I don't know, maybe surprised. I don't know what to even describe, but like I've always known guys. And usually these are the super skinny, tall guys that really like the fat chicks. Like every girlfriend they have is almost like double their weight.

Ben: 1:36:31

you know, I would get cited an example, but he's one of my best friends, so I'm just gonna leave it there.

SIr Gene: 1:36:37

Yeah, well, but that's my point is we all know people like that. Right. We've all known guys that their preference is very Rubenesque. That that is the thing.

Ben: 1:36:47

I had a roommate in college that, you know, said fat chicks are like mopeds. They're fun to ride, but you don't want your friends to see you on one

SIr Gene: 1:36:54

oh my God. Yeah. Yeah. And I could see, and I, but I think it has more to do with their self-esteem than their actual physical body. That's the other little bit of psycho crap I'll throw out there because I've met a few fat chicks that have been totally, you know, normal and cool and everything, but most of them get offended at absolutely everything. And that is a psychological defense relating to their self-esteem

Ben: 1:37:20

I I'll disagree there. So I actually think the one buddy of mine his now wife is a total sweetheart and goes well above and beyond and is just, yeah, I think it's because of other issues and low self-esteem that she overcompensates in other ways. So there's that aspect?

SIr Gene: 1:37:40

well, that's not really disagreeing

Ben: 1:37:41

Well you're saying they get offended by everything. And I would say that this particular person is absolutely

SIr Gene: 1:37:47

by nothing. Yeah. But that's what I'm saying. I think that's an exception. I think that's more rare. Then the, the typical fat chick, this is a great topic for us. fat chick that that is overly offended by most things. And as a result of that tends to not be courted as much let's say. And it, again, it, it's not, it's not even based so much on their body as their attitude. And I've said this for a long time, the most attractive quality a woman has is her smile is how does she respond to the rest of the world and the activities that guys like,

Ben: 1:38:31

since we're being completely offensive to everyone right now, have you noticed at all these demonstrations, post Roe V Wade

SIr Gene: 1:38:39

oh, the blue and pink hairs. Yeah.

Ben: 1:38:40

yeah, that there's no, there's no risk.

SIr Gene: 1:38:43

women at all. Like none. Yeah.

Ben: 1:38:46

you do not. You're not

SIr Gene: 1:38:47

risk of being pregnant. Yeah. The only risk of getting pregnant they have is if, if they're at a, you know, a party with a bunch of drunk people at it male drunk people at the party, and then they're the ones doing the pursuing and trying to hook up. Yeah, I would agree. I don't look, I've dated a blue hair before, you know, I I'm not I'm not completely opposed to that as long as other features are good, but the blue hairs definitely have a particular political stance. That's for sure.

Ben: 1:39:21

Yeah. And you know, it, it, it doesn't matter what it comes down to is, you know, how do I put this, the decision on Roe V. Wade just kicked it back to the states. Let's look at it that way. So most of the places where these protests are going on and everything else you're not affected

SIr Gene: 1:39:41

where it's not gonna be affected, but that, but let me, let me steal a man their argument though. Okay. So their argument, I think at least for the intelligent ones would be, it's not a question of, should this be a state's issue? It's a question that this should not be an issue. The government has any business, whether at a state level, city level or federal level being involved in, because what I do with my body and as long as there's something in my body, it is my body is my, my choice. And nobody else's

Ben: 1:40:14

And I'll still steal man, the other side. So does that go up to the ninth month of pregnancy? You're literally crowning and it's still in you so we can kill

SIr Gene: 1:40:21

yes, yes. And I would say, it's not to say that that should be. A good decision, but I'm allowed to make bad decisions like drinking alcohol or smoking cigarettes. And there's no reason I shouldn't be allowed to make a bad decision. That also is about my body

Ben: 1:40:38

Yeah, you're allowed to make bad decisions up until the point and it impacts someone else. And that's the crux of the argument is that there is a point of viability. There is a point of this is inarguably, a separate entity. For some people that argument starts at conception for other people, it's somewhere along the spectrum. From my stance you know, the question is when does life begin? But regardless, I, I, I think if, if we, if, if, if the Democrats in the last decade, would've codified Roe into law saying that up into the point of viability, you know, you have a right to evict, which is the libertarian approach. I don't think this argument would exist today,

SIr Gene: 1:41:18

yeah, but until you have a state that is willing to sentence a woman for murder, because she fell down the stairs while she was pregnant, then it's, it's a religious, not a political argument.

Ben: 1:41:33

well, I mean, there's a difference between an accidental death and manslaughter,

SIr Gene: 1:41:38

It's negligence. Okay. Well fine. So a state that's willing to sentence a woman to manslaughter for falling down the stairs when she's.

Ben: 1:41:45

Well, again, did she slip or was she purposefully negligent? Because that's the difference between manslaughter and an accident? Because of an accident, you're not necessarily going to jail for manslaughter.

SIr Gene: 1:41:56

Well, but if you accidentally killed somebody else, you would be going through manslaughter. If you,

Ben: 1:42:02

Okay. So a, a woman who is pregnant and got a, a

SIr Gene: 1:42:06

gonna get

Ben: 1:42:06

a woman who is pregnant drunk drives gets in an accident, no one else was involved, but her

SIr Gene: 1:42:10

Mm-hmm yeah.

Ben: 1:42:12

Yeah.

SIr Gene: 1:42:13

Well, I thought you wanted to get rid of all laws relating to alcohol

Ben: 1:42:17

the, the, the why doesn't really matter there, but the gross negligence is the point. You know, and I have a hard time with that. I have a hard time with all these laws because I I'll flat out say it. The state is never gonna make me live for anyone else. And I have a problem with that. So I get a lot of the sides of the argument here. I'm not such a religious fundamentalist that I just go, oh, well, the baby's life, the baby's life, the baby's life. Well, what about my life? What about other things? There, there, there are competing priorities here, and that's what makes this such a hard thing.

SIr Gene: 1:42:49

Yeah, yeah.

Ben: 1:42:51

So I think up until the point of viability and here's, here's where I land. It's an area that I don't think we need to police morality. I think it's gonna happen one way or the other. It's like, it's like prostitution. Prostitution is imoral to me But

SIr Gene: 1:43:07

But shouldn't be

Ben: 1:43:07

happen, right? It's gonna happen no matter what. Now post viability I think the answer should be that, you know, we're go, we're going to take the baby. We're gonna take it out. You don't have to deal with it anymore. You relinquish all rights and we move on with our lives. That, that's, that's my answer. I think that's the most moral, but you know, what

SIr Gene: 1:43:28

Well, and I, I think what you're getting at is, is or what you were saying is basically the first part of the quote for van Rand of, I swear by my life and my love of it, that I will never live for the sake of another man nor ask another man to live for mine. Yeah. And that is, that is something that is a a very real moral distinction between people that agree with this sentiment and people who don't.

Ben: 1:43:55

well, and you know, again, shockingly enough, I found out one of my coworkers named her daughter Dagney

SIr Gene: 1:44:01

Yeah.

Ben: 1:44:02

so there, there are more of us out there than you might realize. And you know, it, it really comes down to, are you an individualist or not? Right. So those that aren't familiar with it, go read John Gold's speech out of Atlas shrugged at the very least.

SIr Gene: 1:44:20

Yeah. And that you could read the speech online. Like you don't need to buy the book to read the speech that's fully available in tons of places. But if you haven't ever read the book, I would certainly recommend reading Atlas, shrugged. And I happen to like most of her non-fiction I, I kind of find it, you know, better but, but she's more famous for the fiction

Ben: 1:44:42

well, what I'd say is read Anthem and if you do not

SIr Gene: 1:44:46

Yeah. Anthem's very short. That's an easy one.

Ben: 1:44:49

Yeah. But if, if you like Anthem, then, you know, yeah.

SIr Gene: 1:44:55

absolutely. Although we have anything else that's news relevant and interesting. I know we jumped around as we usually do.

Ben: 1:45:02

I mean, it's a conversation, right? That's all we do. No, nothing

SIr Gene: 1:45:06

we're not looking at tweets and just talking about'em

Ben: 1:45:09

well, there is that. No, there's not a whole lot else. I really care to talk about, like I said, I've been busy this week, but it's definitely been an interesting week.

SIr Gene: 1:45:18

mm-hmm did you go out and use your gun? The new one you got? Did you take that out to the range?

Ben: 1:45:24

Have, have we not talked about it since then?

SIr Gene: 1:45:26

We talked about you getting ready to take it. I thought maybe we just forgot to talk about it after you took it

Ben: 1:45:32

Yeah, I, I, I did take it to the range. got to put

SIr Gene: 1:45:35

did it fail miserably? Like I predicted.

Ben: 1:45:36

Not at all. It was a very awesome gun. Now I did have to get used to the SIG site. So this is my first SIG and I'm used to doing a six o'clock hold and that does not work on SIG sites. You're going to hit low.

SIr Gene: 1:45:49

oh, it's a tactical hold.

Ben: 1:45:50

yep.

SIr Gene: 1:45:51

Got it.

Ben: 1:45:51

So it, it, it

SIr Gene: 1:45:53

can adjust that.

Ben: 1:45:54

I did, I did anyway, I adjusted for it,

SIr Gene: 1:45:56

And so what, 365 or what? What's the model.

Ben: 1:45:58

It's a three 20 M 17.

SIr Gene: 1:46:01

Okay.

Ben: 1:46:02

And anyway, so the first magazine I was shooting low shooting, low shooting low, and it's been, oh shit, man. Since I've really shot a pistol at a range trying, you know, target shooting, it's been two and a half years. So I was like, Jesus, is it me? Am I this outta practice? I mean, everything was in inside the eight ring. But you know, that's, and this is at 25 yards. So 25 yards speed target inside the eight ring, not terrible. I mean, you know, we're talking under 10 inches, but not where I wanna be. And I finally just got the adjustment right. And realized it was a tactical hold and dead on dot. And after that, everything was in the nine and 10. It was

SIr Gene: 1:46:39

Hmm. That's good. Yeah. I just, I, I think it's a little bit small and it's got

Ben: 1:46:45

Not the M 17, the, the M eighteen's a little small, the M Seventeen's a full size pistol. And, and that's part of the reason why I chose it is cuz I want that longer site picture.

SIr Gene: 1:46:54

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Ben: 1:46:54

you know? Yeah. The I'm not a subcompact guy. I, I'm not a easy concealed carry.

SIr Gene: 1:46:59

guy

Ben: 1:47:01

Yeah. Well, regardless, I, I want a full size frame. I, you know, my hands are big enough and I want the site picture, so, anyway, put a hundred rounds through it. That's all I did because the range was closing, but shot. Well, it, it was fun. Definitely happy with the purchase. Yeah. And you know, when you look at the three 20 and the M 17 and the modularity that is brought by that platform, it, it really is a different pistol platform. I think you ought look at it.

SIr Gene: 1:47:28

have they got a version of that without the safety?

Ben: 1:47:30

Not in the M 17, the three 20, they've got plenty of different versions of it without a safety. I personally like a physical safety.

SIr Gene: 1:47:37

Yeah.

Ben: 1:47:37

And the reason why is, you know, if I'm out in the woods or out trucking around or doing whatever now most of your holsters today have good trigger covers and everything else, but that historically hasn't always been the case and it's just something I grew up on and I trained on and it works for me. So I've got the dexterity to flip that thumb down and that's just the way I've done it. So, and I hated Glocks. I've never been a Glock guy, so sorry, Josh.

SIr Gene: 1:48:05

That's funny. Yeah. I I've shot tons through GLS, but I, at this point prefer the the six or sorry, the Springfields.

Ben: 1:48:13

Really the XDS.

SIr Gene: 1:48:14

Yeah.

Ben: 1:48:15

Fuck.

SIr Gene: 1:48:15

I've gotten rid of almost all my GLS and switched.'em over to Xs.

Ben: 1:48:19

can't stand the XD,

SIr Gene: 1:48:20

I know why, dude. It's a better gun.

Ben: 1:48:22

Recoil, impulse.

SIr Gene: 1:48:24

Oh yeah. We did talk about the re impulse. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You don't like the recall

Ben: 1:48:27

Re recoil. Impulse is just the, the, the way I do my grip and everything else. The XDS,

SIr Gene: 1:48:32

you shot the XDM long barrel in 45.

Ben: 1:48:39

no, I have

SIr Gene: 1:48:40

Okay. I will bring that when we get together, because I think you're gonna like that impulse.

Ben: 1:48:45

well, maybe, but

SIr Gene: 1:48:47

It is very similar to a full size in 1911

Ben: 1:48:50

then, yeah, I probably will. The, most of the XDS I've shot have been in nine mil and 40 Cal and they've been shorter barrels and they're just real jumpy to me. So follow up shots are just not there.

SIr Gene: 1:49:01

yep. Yep.

Ben: 1:49:02

Yeah. So that, that, that's my thing is I need to be able to be high enough up on the gun with my, you know, right hand, my primary hand need to be able to get high enough. The dovetail on a lot of the XDS with the shorter barrels, I don't feel like I can get as high and then, you know, pulling the rip down. It's just, it's, it's different for me. But, you know, everybody likes different things. I also hate a mushy trigger. So one of, one of the things I really liked about this the SIG is there's not a lot of mush, you know, it's bam right there, good wall. And then the take up, you know, there, there are other guns that have quicker take up, but I'll take no mush over a quicker take up personally. Because the reality is if you're in a tactical situation where you're actually using your gun or you're shooting at something, it, it could be game for that matter. You're not sitting there thinking about it. And the muscle memory it's varies so much between guns. You're not sitting there just writing the take up, unless you have one gun that that's all you shoot all the time and you've got the muscle memory down for that take up. It's not a reality.

SIr Gene: 1:50:09

Yeah. For follow up shots, you probably are writing it, but yeah,

Ben: 1:50:12

Yeah. So again, that's why I'll take a, a, a, a quicker takeup trigger.

SIr Gene: 1:50:18

how much are these things going for? I don't even know what that gun is these days. Oh, it's not bad. Yeah.

Ben: 1:50:21

Six 50 ish. No, it's, it's a, it's not a cheap gun, but it's not a horribly expensive gun either.

SIr Gene: 1:50:28

I mean, that's certainly within the range of Glocks.

Ben: 1:50:31

Yeah. It comes with three magazines 2 21 rounders in the 17.

SIr Gene: 1:50:36

And the 21 stick out.

Ben: 1:50:38

yeah. Yeah. 20 ones are

SIr Gene: 1:50:39

Mm-hmm That makes sense. So,

Ben: 1:50:42

And it's optic ready. If you wanna put an optic on it, I've never shot an optic on a pistol.

SIr Gene: 1:50:46

and that I was, I was literally gonna ask you, given that SIG makes a full line of sites for these things with either hollow or red dots. Have you thought about slapping that on there?

Ben: 1:50:57

well, I, I have, but I'm probably looking at the Tricon if I go that way. Some of the, you know, so the argument is so the sites that come on there are great night sites. They've got Tridium inserts. It's, it's a great site picture on this gun. Part of the reason why I got it I've never shot an optic on a pistol. So I'm looking to try that out and see how I like it. If this becomes a carry gun for me, then I think I'm more likely to do it because an optic for a carry gun makes a lot of sense to me. And the reason why is quicker draw quicker, tar well, I'm thinking target acquisition in both eyes open, but, you know,

SIr Gene: 1:51:35

what I meant. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Ben: 1:51:37

Yeah. And you know, there are some professionals out there that are espousing the benefits of it. And when ick puts an optic on his pistols, I kind of take note of that. So

SIr Gene: 1:51:49

Jerry is a fucking God. That's not a human.

Ben: 1:51:52

that's what I'm saying. So when he's got an optic on his pistol, that says something to me,

SIr Gene: 1:51:57

Yeah. But Jerry can do with no optic what I can't do with an optic.

Ben: 1:52:00

Oh, yeah, he he's insane.

SIr Gene: 1:52:03

Yeah. Have you seen his daughter? Shoot

Ben: 1:52:05

Oh yeah. Yeah. Incredible.

SIr Gene: 1:52:07

yeah,

Ben: 1:52:08

Not quite hi his level, but incredible.

SIr Gene: 1:52:11

yeah. Yeah. I mean like his whole, body's just basically been rebuilt to shoot fast.

Ben: 1:52:18

And incredibly accurately.

SIr Gene: 1:52:22

Now, and he is a he's just a fun character anyway. Just a very unassuming guy. If you've seen just interviews with him.

Ben: 1:52:29

Well, just a laid back character.

SIr Gene: 1:52:31

Yeah. Just, he's not, you know, you would think he'd be the super competitive type. Not at all.

Ben: 1:52:38

No, he's just, he's one of those guys. That's like, I'm the fucking best in the world. I don't have to compete with anyone.

SIr Gene: 1:52:44

Mm-hmm

Ben: 1:52:45

there's no ego here.

SIr Gene: 1:52:46

I, I think he's a little more modest than that, but yeah, he, he is definitely a guy that I think is a great representation of the sport,

Ben: 1:52:55

Yeah. Well, I, again, I don't own guns for sport, but yeah.

SIr Gene: 1:52:59

but, but what he's doing is effectively sport.

Ben: 1:53:01

Yeah. And I enjoy the sport of shooting, like, you know, going out and shooting clays is challenging. It's fun. You know, even going to the range and just target shooting

SIr Gene: 1:53:11

Totally. And it's more fun with your buddies, you know, it's fun to go and there's nothing more fun than,

Ben: 1:53:19

dualling tree is one of the best

SIr Gene: 1:53:20

doling trees are awesome than having a, a woman come out and

Ben: 1:53:27

And wipe the you everybody's

SIr Gene: 1:53:28

the shit off the guys. Exactly. And, and this is something that I noticed a long time ago is

Ben: 1:53:34

Yeah. Women are better natural shots

SIr Gene: 1:53:36

they are absolutely 100%. Their muscles are made for fine control. That's they're not made for big, you know, you know, gro sea rock gro, pickup, rock gro, throw rock. And, and so they two people with the same rough level of training, the woman will be a more accurate shot. She'll get tired faster, but she will be a more accurate shot until she gets tired. And the guys are always just pissed off. It's hell about there's like, oh, it's bullshit. Oh, but it's it's generally been the case and it's not until you've really spent a lot of time practicing as a man with a gun that you can consistently surpass the accuracy of women.

Ben: 1:54:19

Well, I will give the one caveat when you've grown up shooting. Well, here's

SIr Gene: 1:54:23

That's called practicing for a long time when you've grown up shooting,

Ben: 1:54:27

you can also have a lot of bad habits.

SIr Gene: 1:54:29

you can. That's true. That's it depends who taught you, I

Ben: 1:54:32

yeah, I mean, it, it, it there's a lot of variability, but anyway, dualling trees for anyone who doesn't know what that is. It's literally, you have targets on either side that flip around. So if I hit a target that flips to gene side, he hits a target that flips to my side. And the entire goal is to get all the targets on one side that's who wins. And man, can that be fun, especially if you've got two fairly equal shooters, it's all who can reload faster, who can get back on target faster. It's fantastic.

SIr Gene: 1:54:59

yeah, it's, it's just in general a good time. Now the one thing I will say is that when I started shooting bow and going to the bow range, I realized there's a huge benefit in doing that versus firearms. Well, there's

Ben: 1:55:14

Well, you're hearing for one

SIr Gene: 1:55:15

hearing is the main one, right? So it's the idea that I can stand and shoot while having a casual conversation with my buddy who is shooting in the next lane over. And all you hear is a thump thump, th which I think is, you know, it's not ever gonna be that quiet, even with a really good silencer on your gun, but maybe shooting 20 twos with silencer might be in that general vicinity of loudness.

Ben: 1:55:41

I, I can speak from experience on this. So a buddy manta Walter threaded for suppressor, and we had some fun with it. And 22 subsonics all you heard was the clack of the action.

SIr Gene: 1:55:53

mm-hmm mm-hmm that's cool. Yeah. For sure. So I don't know. I think I think firearms going to the range is always fun. It's fun with friends. It's, it's definitely fun with newer people, people that haven't gone out, it's fun to actually try out your, your buddies guns, cuz you probably have slightly different guns than they do

Ben: 1:56:14

Well,

SIr Gene: 1:56:14

they just copy everything you have.

Ben: 1:56:16

and, you know, rifles, one thing people don't realize, especially if you've got a scope on a rifle, you can't just try out a buddy's gun and it fits you. Right. Right. Because your IRA relief, everything's gonna be so individualized. And that's the other thing is if you, if you had a scope mounted on your gun, it's probably mounted wrong, cuz it's mounted to the guy who mounted it, not to you.

SIr Gene: 1:56:37

oh, you mean if you get a gun with a scope Mount. Yeah,

Ben: 1:56:40

Right. If you like people take their guns to a gun store and, you know, have a, the scope thrown on there and oh, boresight it in for me and everything else. Well, your eye relief and all that. And as a shooter, if you're doing anything long range, one of the things you wanna do is find your comfortable spot, have your cheek come and pull. Correct. And then you wanna put the scope where you're comfortable not put the scope and then try and make yourself comfortable. So

SIr Gene: 1:57:05

Absolutely. Because unless you're using a red that site where a lot of'em have a zero eye relief, which really doesn't matter,

Ben: 1:57:13

Yeah.

SIr Gene: 1:57:14

but if you're using a normal scope with some magnification, there's absolutely a sweet spot. From the distance from your eye to the back lens of that scope and that sweet spot will be the same length. But your position of your head with the cheek weld in the proper place will vary depending on your, what your body's like along in your arms. How, how tall is your neck, all these

Ben: 1:57:38

what's your cheekbone structure?

SIr Gene: 1:57:40

Yeah. You know, do you have fat chubby cheeks? So you're gonna end up having to ideally adjust that scope. And I mean, if you really do it right, you're gonna adjust both up and down and forward and back.

Ben: 1:57:53

Yep. And you know, and this is one of my big bitches about vortex optics, even their high end stuff, which I actually bought a vortex PST, which is one of their higher ed optics recently for a gun. And it ended up being the best option for this particular gun. Without going like Leah poll, mark six, but my biggest gripe about vortex forever in a day. And they still haven't changed. This is the I box. So I have to spend more time making sure I've got that scope right for me. And the odds of like my dad being able to pick up that gun and shoot it effectively that I box is totally off for him. Now it works cuz it's my gun, it's what I'm doing with it. And I've got the I box where I want it. But you know, that's one of the things that really matters about a scope, especially if multiple people are gonna be using the gun is how big that iBox.

SIr Gene: 1:58:41

Yeah, absolutely. The, and the big iBox is always gonna be preferable. I can't think of a reason why it wouldn't be.

Ben: 1:58:46

Well, I mean, you get into cost differences on how the scopes are manufactured and things like that. So that's

SIr Gene: 1:58:52

And that is one of the things I've always liked about the a cogs is the,

Ben: 1:58:57

Well, but that's a fixed power scope, so yeah, it's easy, you know, but so I'm, I've always been a variable power scope guy for, you know, pretty much every gun I've ever had has had pulled on it at one point in time or another. I'm, I'm really sad that Nikon stopped making scopes because the Nikon scopes were fantastic in so many ways, especially when they started actually producing you know, so people get into this debate about first or second focal plane. And what I think it is is a lot of people who don't shoot enough and they get caught up on well, oh, you know, if you, if you do second focal planes for blah, blah, blah, well, it depends what kind of hold are you doing? How much math are you actually doing? You know, or anyway, to say a second focal, plain melt out scope, which I have a few of them still is, you know, just trash or whatever. Well, you don't shoot enough and you're not using it the way I'm using it. So. Unless I'm making a really long shot and I'm doing calculated wind holds, and I've got a spotter and we're talking and everything else that mill.is an approximation and approximate hold for me, where I can see where my shots are hitting and I can follow up with other shots and adjust, not based off of math and me sitting there and running the ballistics equation, but just experience of shooting.

SIr Gene: 2:00:18

mm-hmm

Ben: 2:00:19

So anyway,

SIr Gene: 2:00:21

yeah, no, it's, I, I think this is where it's obviously a lot easier with iron sites where you don't have to mess around with a lot of these factors.

Ben: 2:00:30

yeah. Well, I mean, it depends on the distance and everything else, you

SIr Gene: 2:00:35

Right. Well, that that's the limitation. Exactly.

Ben: 2:00:37

Yeah.

SIr Gene: 2:00:39

All right. Well, I think maybe we should wrap it up, been going for a while here. And I think we're still working on trying to figure out a schedule to bring Josh in. Maybe have a little more history conversation.

Ben: 2:00:50

yep. We've gotta figure that out and get him on. And I think he'll be a fun addition.

SIr Gene: 2:00:57

yeah. Yeah. I think it'll be fun to get his perspective on a lot of this stuff. I know he's avid listener of both of my podcasts, and I appreciate that Josh. And certainly thanks for the donations you make. You totally don't need to be doing that, but you know, it's. It always demonstrates the the value for value that people get out of listening to a show.

Ben: 2:01:17

Absolutely

SIr Gene: 2:01:19

Yeah. All right, guys. Well, with that, we're gonna wrap it up. Hopefully you enjoy this episode and we'll be back in about a week.

Ben: 2:01:25

have a good fourth gene.

SIr Gene: 2:01:27

Oh yeah. Have a happy fourth July to as well.