Foreign. Here we are, Martin and I here to in the secular foxhole celebrating another
Blair:episode.
Blair:I believe it's number 98.
Blair:Hi Martin.
Martin:Hi Blair.
Blair:It's good, good to hear from you.
Blair:Same today here in the United States.
Blair:It's Memorial Day.
Martin:Yep.
Blair:And it's where we honor our, our fallen soldiers.
Blair:And I was.
Martin:Is that clear? Missing in action also.
Blair:No, missing in action means that they don't know what happened to the soldier.
Blair:He could be in a prison of war camp or he,
Blair:they couldn't find his body.
Martin:Yeah.
Blair:A prisoner of war.
Blair:But missing in action means they couldn't find his body or he's still in prison camp or they
Blair:just don't know his whereabouts.
Blair:I was thinking earlier today that Ayn Rand the dominant ethics around the world is Judeo
Blair:Christian and the word sacrifice is just oozing out of everyone's TV commentators
Blair:mouths.
Blair:But I like what Ayman Rand said that it's not a sacrifice to defend something you value.
Blair:You know, that's.
Blair:I think that that sentiment needs to be more
Blair:widely.
Martin:If you advertised, if you will.
Martin:Yeah.
Martin:If you defend values.
Martin:Yeah, yeah.
Martin:Defend values and liberty and freedom.
Blair:That's right.
Blair:It's not a sacrifice.
Martin:Yeah.
Blair:But it's a tragedy if you lose your life.
Blair:But it's.
Blair:If you understand the meaning and value of
Blair:freedom and liberty, it's not a sacrifice.
Blair:So. But that was something I thought of
Blair:earlier and we are, you know, but this, it's a solemn day for many, many people across the
Blair:country and around the world.
Blair:But otherwise, you know,
Blair:my wife and I had went out today and did some errands and did some things and had some at
Blair:lunch.
Blair:But what else did we do?
Blair:I have a couple of interesting stories and some thoughts about.
Blair:Again, this is episode 98. So we have one more before episode 100.
Martin:Yep.
Blair:And I'm trying to reach out to an objectivist intellectual.
Martin:Yep.
Blair:For show number 100.
Blair:But he, that gentleman has not responded.
Blair:Okay.
Blair:So we will see if that takes.
Blair:Takes fruition or not.
Martin:Yep, it will, it will happen.
Martin:We have some backup plans also.
Martin:I mean with 100 episodes we could have a review.
Martin:We could have a so called best of.
Martin:Even if every episode is the best so far, I
Martin:think you learn from it.
Martin:And so and also of course the listener out there, what's your favorite episode?
Martin:And then you could support us in that way, could send a gift for that episode because
Martin:it's a creation and we are putting in time, energy and money into this and it's so called
Martin:free because you could Listen for free,
Martin:but it's not really free.
Martin:And we will continue doing this.
Martin:But it's great to get this appreciation and some support and getting something back, so to
Martin:speak.
Martin:But that's also as we are interested in
Martin:philosophy and fundamental ideas.
Martin:You often hear that giving back to the
Martin:community,
Martin:to the society, to the country,
Martin:to the, to the race, to the labor party, whatever.
Martin:And that's scary.
Martin:So we don't want to have any sacrifice.
Martin:But the good thing with this value for value
Martin:model and with real money like parts of bitcoin satoshis, you could send a very small
Martin:amount without any special fees and it would go directly to us and then we could distribute
Martin:it and split it to our guests.
Martin:So I really see the opportunities here in the future.
Martin:But it will take time and still accept silver coins and check in the mail.
Martin:They could send it to you and PayPal, we have several buy me a coffee and other things like
Martin:that.
Blair:But what was I my train of thought was.
Martin:The guests that you're planning and also our episodes and you have reached out.
Blair:Right.
Blair:So hopefully that gentleman will respond.
Martin:Yep.
Blair:But as you just said there are backup plans and but I wanted to.
Blair:I do have a bit of a sandwich today.
Blair:New sandwich I have.
Blair:I want to start off with a good some good news and of course when I look for good news I
Blair:always go to human progress.org yep.
Blair:And I'll just read this off if I may.
Martin:Yes.
Blair:Quote.
Blair:Over the last few weeks there there's been a
Blair:massive nuclear policy shift in Europe and North America.
Blair:Belgium voted to abandon its nuclear phase out plan.
Blair:Germany signaled that it will no longer oppose classifying nuclear power alongside renewables
Blair:in EU law.
Blair:Sweden plans to build an additional 5 gigawatt of nuclear capacity by 2035.
Blair:Good for you.
Martin:Yeah, it is.
Blair:Then. See, President Trump signed four executive orders intended to expedite nuclear
Blair:reactor approval,
Blair:boost domestic fuel supply,
Blair:authorize reactor construction on federal land and dramatically expand United States or US
Blair:nuclear energy production.
Martin:Yeah. And Blair, to be a bit symbolic, we have talked about that we are not as
Martin:atheist per se because that's, you know, removal of God or whatever.
Martin:Atheist, atheist.
Martin:But the symbol is the atomic symbol for many atheists and it's also nuclear power.
Martin:So that's interesting in a way with science and nuclear and this power thing.
Martin:So that's something I saw that you did as fun as a co pilot and also the AI to the secular
Martin:foxhole.
Martin:And when you got the fox and a microphone and
Martin:the word of our podcast.
Blair:Yes, I think that should be I honestly think that should be our new symbol.
Blair:But that's.
Martin:Yeah, we will look into that.
Martin:And that's.
Martin:I mean if we find creators that are good at this and we could come up with some kind of
Martin:cooperation with this value for value and the split.
Martin:So every time the artwork is showing in the episode, the art creator will get something or
Martin:if we could go and like a funding crowdfunding campaign or something like that, or using AI
Martin:in a way.
Martin:So I like what we have so far and it's worked for a long time, but I think it's a bit time
Martin:to do a new thing and even with the jingle also.
Martin:And we will talk more about that in the future.
Martin:So that was great news to hear about nuclear development there.
Martin:Of course it has to be safe.
Martin:And that's a problem here in Sweden.
Martin:When we had this so called election to go and vote for that, it was either.
Martin:It was very scary tactics because it had been this, you know,
Martin:tragic accident in Harrisburg.
Martin:And so it was hard to promote safe nuclear because.
Martin:And,
Martin:but so much have developed over time.
Martin:But Sweden then you're not allowed at all to
Martin:do research and development or looking into the science and develop it over time.
Martin:So it was shut down totally.
Blair:That's crazy.
Blair:That's crazy.
Martin:And Germany was the leading pack there.
Martin:They really put that.
Martin:And then,
Martin:sorry to say, many other European countries influenced and that's the Green.
Martin:The Green Party and the Green Movement coming from Germany.
Martin:That's original from that.
Blair:Oh yes.
Blair:Oh yeah.
Blair:Well,
Blair:otherwise I know that there has been significant advancement in nuclear safety
Blair:certainly.
Blair:So that should be incorporated into what's
Blair:happening in here in the near future.
Blair:So that.
Blair:But as far as the new sandwich, the couple of bad news things both involve President Trump.
Martin:Yeah.
Blair:As you might expect, yes.
Blair:He has betrayed the.
Blair:The Afghanis who assisted the military in Afghanistan during that protracted conflict.
Blair:He has not only threatened to send them back, he has actually sent them back to Afghanistan.
Blair:The people that assisted our military for all those years and were,
Blair:because they were loyal to us,
Blair:they were granted access to the United States while he has kicked them out.
Martin:Yeah. Strange.
Martin:And as continue.
Blair:So that's the right hand sucker punch.
Blair:And the left one is that in this big beautiful
Blair:bill it's in front of the Senate right now, there's a 62 word plank, if you will, that
Blair:fellow objectivist Nicholas Provenzo has sounded the alarm about.
Blair:I didn't bring that up and I. Let me see if I can get that his comment on that.
Blair:But it's basically removing a protection of ordinary citizens,
Blair:the constant, the constitutional protection of the people.
Blair:So that is a huge alarming Trend.
Blair:And so Mr. Provenzo, if you will, has urged every objectivist or every decent human being
Blair:to write their senators to have that,
Blair:that plank removed from this big beautiful bill.
Blair:And so I'm going to formulate.
Blair:And he actually wrote his.
Blair:And he said he could.
Blair:Anyone who wanted to, could use his template, just, you know, substitute your senators and
Blair:so on and so forth to.
Blair:To it.
Blair:To that template and send it off.
Blair:So that's what I'm going to do in the next day or so,
Blair:because that they're not.
Blair:I think they're still contemplating it.
Blair:I don't think they're.
Blair:Hopefully they'll take their time and look this thing over.
Blair:Go ahead, go ahead.
Martin:I will add a thing short commentary about.
Martin:Because I will publish this on Ascension Day, or we call it in Swedish,
Martin:like Christ Flying Day. It is so called when Christ was coming alive and going up to heaven
Martin:with the apostles.
Martin:So it's important for religious people.
Martin:And then you could fly.
Martin:And then Trump went to the Arab world and got
Martin:a plane from Qatar.
Martin:Right.
Martin:Like a brighter thing.
Blair:Yes.
Martin:And you know, follow money where.
Martin:What, what,
Martin:what do they do in Qatar? That's something to think about,
Martin:you know, with mosque building and religious dogma and other things like that.
Martin:And the by.
Martin:How do they call it, the studying schools that
Martin:they are doing when they really put it inside their head, Quran thing.
Martin:So that's something to think about why he went to these places in the Arabic world.
Martin:You know,
Martin:he even wanted to change the name of the Persian Gulf now.
Blair:Oh, really?
Martin:Yeah. And that were Pahlavi,
Martin:the son of Shaun of Iran.
Martin:He said that's BS it always have been called
Martin:Persian Gulf and shouldn't be called Arabic or Arab Gulf in order to appease them.
Martin:I mean, it's very.
Martin:Yeah. Tragic.
Blair:He's a blowhard.
Martin:Yeah. So the positive ending, positive thing then, right?
Blair:Yes, I wanted to discuss the positive thing.
Blair:I want to discuss.
Blair:I guess I could use the word triggered.
Blair:People may or may not know that.
Blair:Of course, I'm an objectivist to the best of
Blair:my ability.
Blair:I follow my own ability to reason based on Ms.
Blair:Rand's ideas.
Blair:But I am alone in my family in that regard.
Blair:And I got a clip from a family member on Facebook about the Reverend Charles Stanley
Blair:and his little five minute ditto or Diddy was about where would you be without Jesus?
Blair:And I just thought, you know what,
Blair:I've listened to it and that I immediately thought I need To I had bought the pamphlet
Blair:and the Kindle version of On Cargatte's Finding Morality and Happiness Without God.
Blair:So I started reading that as the antidote to Mr. Stanley.
Blair:And I highly, highly, highly recommend our listeners to find that pamphlet on Amazon and
Blair:either get the hard copy or the Kindle version.
Blair:And it's 31 pages and it is a gold mine of sunlit ideas, if you will.
Blair:So that's my new sandwich for the day.
Blair:I can end on that.
Blair:And I know that again we've,
Blair:you know, this is episode 98. 98 episodes of this podcast.
Blair:That's over what now five years?
Martin:Yep, time flies.
Blair:Yeah, I'm very proud of that.
Martin:Yeah, you should.
Martin:And,
Martin:and, and me too.
Martin:And we have been then recognized another time
Martin:in a. In a list of secular secularism or secular podcasts.
Martin:And this time we got the placement number five.
Martin:So I will include that in the show notes.
Blair:Yes. Yeah, yeah.
Blair:So in one survey we're number nine and in this
Blair:new survey we're number five.
Martin:So it looked.
Martin:Yeah in similar in a way in the layout and
Martin:design and so on, but it was a new domain and a new list.
Martin:And also I pointed out to them because I tweeted to myself and others that on the list
Martin:that our email address how we could contact and go to the secularfoxhole live and there
Martin:you could have the contact information there.
Blair:Right.
Martin:We have listed because that's an address but it is a lightning address.
Martin:So now it's getting this, you know,
Martin:lingo but that's.
Martin:We have one albit in order to get support and
Martin:donations and this giving back in in a way.
Martin:And that's looks like an email address but
Martin:it's going to.
Blair:Oh no, that's not an email address.
Blair:No.
Martin:Yeah, I pointed out that to them.
Martin:So. Yeah, so.
Blair:But they still haven't changed it.
Blair:So they need to change it.
Martin:But they.
Martin:They.
Blair:Another way to reach us, if I may just interject.
Martin:Yeah.
Blair:Is those who want to write us can just write us@secular foxholemail.com Good, that's
Blair:very easy.
Blair:Secular foxholemail.com yeah, but otherwise
Blair:that's about all I have for this time.
Martin:Great.
Blair:And oh, I do want to mention one more thing.
Martin:Yes.
Blair:I don't know, Martin, if you have Netflix.
Martin:No,
Martin:but I haven't.
Martin:I'm not a subscriber.
Martin:That's again talking about value for value.
Martin:It's often lock you in.
Martin:So I would like the model that you put pay for as you want and you pay for a certain movie,
Martin:whatever not locked in per monthly but it could be a good thing also.
Martin:I mean saying that if you are listening out there and want to do that in an easy way, you
Martin:could support us on a monthly basis.
Martin:So that's an option also.
Martin:But yeah.
Martin:Well, what's on Netflix? Any new good stuff?
Blair:Well, it's a Swedish film called Caliphate and I'm sure you can imagine what
Blair:that's about.
Blair:And so,
Blair:and I follow on,
Blair:I think it's Bing. I follow someone who reviews Netflix under the radar things and
Blair:that was one of the things that they mentioned a Swedish film called Caliphate and so I
Blair:haven't seen.
Blair:I've started to watch it but I haven't finished.
Martin:So please, please send the link and I'll include that and I will, I will check it
Martin:out and see if it's original Swedish or if it's, I.
Blair:Mean it's Swedish with English subtitles.
Martin:So yes, then I definitely have to see it and find it.
Martin:Maybe I will find it on the so called state public television but we pay it by the tax
Martin:money there.
Martin:We can't choo.
Martin:But otherwise it could be on a commercial channel also.
Martin:So I mentioned that in the Green Room to the Armageddon movie that's about the last battle
Martin:and that's a scary movie but that's only I think available now on Alazera so that you
Martin:have to take it with a bit of grain of salt, so to speak.
Martin:But it's an interesting documentary to watch about how the religious.
Martin:I think it's the evangelist,
Martin:how do you call it? Evangelical,
Martin:how they,
Martin:you know, plan for the future about the last battle, the Armageddon.
Blair:Well, I mean that's part of.
Blair:I'm assuming that's probably part of
Blair:revelation in the Bible.
Blair:I would assume, yeah.
Blair:And there are,
Blair:I don't know how many Christian sects.
Blair:Sects, S E C T s sects.
Blair:There are probably over 200 and probably each one of them has their own bizarre version.
Blair:And it is bizarre, I'm sure nonetheless we will continue to advocate reason,
Blair:individualism and capitalism here at the secular Foxhole.
Martin:Yeah, and the Trader principles.
Martin:I will also include that in the show Notes on
Martin:the Rand lexicon and also about this value for value concept episode when they're talking
Martin:about that.
Martin:And also a segment that you could listen and that's in a way coming from religious because
Martin:they have been good at that.
Martin:After the sermons you have this collection box
Martin:or the net so it's time.
Martin:But you listen to us and you spend time on that.
Martin:We value that and then your talent, if you want to help with your future jingle or new
Martin:artwork or maybe helping with chapters in the future.
Martin:And then, of course, treasure, that's payment and gifts giving in different ways.
Martin:So that's this concept.
Blair:Right.
Martin:We do that in the show notes also.
Martin:So very good.
Blair:Yes.
Martin:Great player.
Blair:All right, Martin.
Blair:Well, thank you very much.
Martin:Yep.
Blair:And we will.
Blair:I think we can call it a wrap.
Martin:Yes, we will do that.
Blair:All right, Martin, thanks.
Martin:Bye for now.
Blair:Bye.
Martin:Bye.