Welcome to Free Thoughts from Libertarianism.org and the Cato Institute. I'm Aaron Powell. And I'm Trevor Burris. And joining us today is Lawrence Reed, President of the Foundation for Economic Education. Welcome to Free Thoughts. Hey, it's a pleasure to be with you, Aaron and Trevor. I guess let's start with having you tell us just a bit about the Foundation for Economic Education, which has been around for quite a while. It's one of the granddaddies of the free market movement. Yes, it is. It was founded in 1946 by the late Leonard Reed. No relation. He spelled his name R-E-A-D, whereas mine is with two E's. But I did know him in the last seven years of his life before he passed away in 1983. He was a remarkable man, born in Michigan, became interested in, first of all, private enterprise and general business principles early on. He was a businessman himself for a time and worked later for the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce. But he had an epiphany at one point when he was with the Los Angeles Chamber, thanks to another gentleman who equated him with very principled ideas of liberty and genuinely free market. So he transitioned from a pro-business guy to a pro-enterprise free market guy. And over the years that he ran fee from its founding in 1946 until his death in 83, he was an amazingly prolific man, a gentleman of the First Order, and really kept the flame of liberty alive at a very dark time in the late 40s and 50s, especially when fee was practically alone in promoting these ideas of individual liberty. This distinction you just made, his shift from being pro-business to pro-free markets, that's often a distinction that I think gets lost on a lot of people, especially non-libertarians, non-free market sorts. What is that difference? The difference is huge. In fact, there are an awful lot of people who have come to oppose what they think free markets are or capitalism, because they think that these things involve businesses using their political connections to get something at other people's expense or use the political power of government to stick it to their competitors in some way, a kind of cronyism. I know that the term often is used crony capitalism, but I like to say if it's capitalism, it isn't cronyism. The more cronyism that's practiced, the more it looks like some form of socialism, with political power determining who gets what. So I think it's important, in a generally free market, there are no favors, free and open field for people to compete, to start businesses, to compete with the biggest of existing firms, and no special favors from the government in the form of subsidies or goodies of one kind or another that disadvantage anyone else in the marketplace. So in the original incarnation of fee, was the idea for an educational, has fee changed much in basic mission since 1946, still focusing on educating young people in the ideas of economics? Was there anything very different back in the 50s? Yeah, in those early years, because fee was alone for the first decade or more, it spoke to almost anybody of any age, any occupation, and so it was probably rather difficult to market in that fee never really focused on a particular demographic. And I can understand that, I think at the time that's what it had to do. But over the years, in part because of fees progress in spawning a lot of other groups, we've had to make some changes at fee. Now we focus exclusively on young people, high school and college, and even within that demographic, we've focused more narrowly on those young people who are newcomers to ideas of liberty. If you come to us and say, I want to come to a fee seminar because I've been to Cato University, I've been to an IHS program, I've read Human Action three times, we say wonderful, we'd be happy to connect you with the next level, but you're not what we're looking for. We want to be thought of as the first start, the first portal into liberty ideas for young newcomers to ideas of liberty. That's how we change, but our core principles have not changed one iota. Is there a difference in the way that, I mean aside from maybe the degree of knowledge that you assume on the part of the person you're talking to, is there a difference in the way that you go about teaching young people versus older people about these ideas? Yes, there is. The younger the audience, the more you've got to make use of technology. I think the younger the audience, the more stories are important to communicate the message. That's what young people remember, that's what they relate to. For instance, one of our key themes is the indispensable connection between liberty and personal character. If we talked about that in any kind of a preachy, condescending way, we'd lose our audience. But when you're talking to young people, I think in discussing matters of personal character and its connection to liberty, I think the best way to do that is through stories. So we've become great storytellers at FI. At many of our programs, we're getting our principles across by talking about exemplary people, living and from the past, who have been advocates for liberty and walk the walk. I wanted to ask you about someone who, actually, I don't think we've really mentioned much on free thoughts before, but who is very associated with FI, Henry Hazlett. I wanted to ask you about him and for listeners who aren't familiar with him and aren't familiar with his excellent book, Economics of One Lesson. Can you tell us a little about him and his association with FI? Absolutely. Henry Hazlett was a very good friend of Leonard Reed's. He was on the board of FI for many years. When he passed away in the 1990s, he bequeathed his personal library to FI, which we still have. He was a remarkable man and contributed so much to our understanding of communicating ideas of liberty and free markets to a broad lay audience. He was not a PhD in economics, but he had an uncanny ability to communicate ideas so that anybody could understand them and actually get excited about them. He certainly did that in his classic and best known work, Economics in One Lesson. FI has helped to keep that book alive. It remains to this day available on our website and in our bookstore. You can get it from other places as well, but we've made sure that it's always in print and it's one of our best sellers. But Hazlett was just a phenomenal guy. One of the most treasured things I have is correspondence letters that he and I exchanged way back in the early 80s. He's a remarkable guy. We're talking about communicating free markets to young people or anyone whatsoever. I'm sure you have a lot to say about the fact that since Adam Smith, we seem to know a lot about how markets work, but it seems to be very difficult to convince people that markets are a good thing. Why is it difficult to convince people that markets are a good thing? Well, I've often said that anybody can be a socialist. All it takes is the desire to have something that belongs to somebody else and the willingness to use political power and force to get it. But to be an advocate of liberty and to be a consistent one whose actions follow on from the principles, you've got to practice things like restraint. You can't stake a claim on somebody else's possessions just because you want it or have a good idea. I think liberty is the only social, political, economic arrangement that requires that we live to high standards of character. I've never in all my reading of history seen a single civilization where the people have lost their character and kept their liberty. So it doesn't take much to be a socialist, but it does take a higher level of understanding and of moral character, I think, to live your life within the principles of character and liberty. You've got to keep your hands out of other people's pockets. You've got to associate with others in a way that respects their lives and their property and sometimes with the human desire to be secure, those things go by the boards if we think we can grab something no matter how we get it. So among young people right now, Bernie Sanders is quite popular and the Bernie Sanders supporters might respond to what you just said by saying, don't you have it backwards? So the free market's capitalism is motivated by acquisitiveness, by greed, by competition that grinds people down and leaves people out whereas it's the socialism or the social democracy that is based on the character of sharing, of recognizing when you have enough and other people don't and using the mechanisms of the state not to steal but to better the worse off, give everyone a leg up, give everyone a chance. Well, I wouldn't call it sharing if you have to do it at gunpoint and that's what socialism ultimately reduces to. So I think it's important for people to understand that each of us comes into this world with the right to do anything that's peaceful and we are each obligated to respect the lives and the property and the wishes, the choices of other people so long as each of us leaves each other alone. But socialism departs from that and assumes that if it's a really good idea we can use the political force of government to get it. I want a society and I think this is true of every libertarian where people do the right thing because they want to not because they have to. I think it's great that kids can go to college and I think it's great that people contribute to scholarship funds to enable them to go to college but it wouldn't occur to me as a believer in liberty to call the cops and to at gunpoint take from people so that anyone can go to college and that's not because I think government or that the private enterprise is inherently greedy or anything. I think we all have a sense of acquisitiveness. There's nothing about socialism that does away with that. It's just that under socialism your acquisitiveness can only be satisfied by using political force to get what you want. Whereas in free markets if you want something you've got to persuade you've got to convince, you've got to produce, you've got to freely associate. You don't use the force of government to get what you want. Given that you're in the free market education and business and world when not business life pursuit is a better way of putting it have you come to a conclusion of something that you think is the sort of the main reason people disagree with free markets? And I mean specifically with Aaron and the Bernie Sanders thing. Is it that they don't think that the market would supply these things or do a good job of supplying healthcare so people don't know enough about the mechanism of the market that can make these things work to have healthcare and education and charity or is there something more rapacious in some of these people who really just want to take from people who have something to give it to people who don't because of their view of justice maybe not rapacious but at least more just about forcible redistribution for justice's sake. Yeah, I think there's something to that but there are other factors at work as well. I'm trying to remember how you exactly put it at the opening of your question there. Well the question I'm just about, yeah, the question of just they don't have the belief that the market works. I mean and so I mean maybe the first thing we have to do is just convince them that it does because they think that they're comparing Bernie Sanders promises to Mad Max chaos of the robber barons era or some sort of image they have of what markets are like that they're probably wrong about. Yeah, people often judge markets against a perfect ideal and if you judge anything according to that it's going to be found wanting. They don't have the same high standard when it comes to government if they did they'd be looking around right now and saying holy cow we trusted it with providing education but we've got 40, 50, 60% dropout rates in government schools that are graduating kids claiming that they've got a 12th grade knowledge but in fact it may be 7th or 8th grade unprepared for the future we've got massive government failures in so many areas but yet people so many people seem to think well that's okay at least we mean well when we do it through the government but if they applied the same standards to the private sector they'd be horrified. So I think part of the problem here is we just got to get people to realize you can't judge markets against an ideal and judge government against far lower standards and then end up saying well we just have to have more government what if it's a massive failure and I would argue that it has been in so many areas. So I'm curious about your thoughts on one issue in convincing people of the value of markets and the freer the markets the better I mean a lot of us around the country and all of us in DC are both baffled and reeling at the rise of Donald Trump and his anti-immigration and his anti-free trade arguments and when I have criticized Trump on my Facebook page or elsewhere one of the arguments that people make about why his supporters about why we ought to be more sympathetic to his supporters than we might otherwise be is that free trade brings enormous benefits overall and it brings enormous benefits in the long term but free trade can also hurt people who lose out in that competition that you allow people to exchange with other countries and suddenly the high paying and relatively low skilled factory jobs move overseas and so now you're saying look free trade is good GDP is up and the country is becoming wealthy over time and you don't have a job. Yeah and you don't have a job and the skills that you have are now worth a third or half as much on the open market as they used to be so how do you go about promoting the value of economic liberty specifically to the people who have been hurt by the competition that comes with economic liberty. Yeah it is a tough issue there's no question about it because people are interested in the here and now often more so than they are the future and they're more interested in themselves and what immediately affects them than what might affect them next year or in 10 years part of the problem we always have in advocating for free markets is to get people to think longer term that what strikes the eye as Henry Haslitt would put it isn't necessarily the full story so there's no question we cannot deny the fact that when you allow people greater freedom to trade with people elsewhere in the world that some individuals will in the near term be hurt but that's no different than it is in any other aspect of an economy even when domestic competition arises one hamburger joint puts another one out of business because consumers say I'd like the new burger better than the old one so these are changes I don't think you can ever get completely behind us it's the nature of a dynamic economy that's based on the right of individuals to freely choose with whom they want to do business so yeah I... It might not convince everyone but it's a one way of doing it I guess That's right and if you get people to realize hey it may be uncomfortable to have free trade for some people but it's even more uncomfortable and probably for a lot more people if you try to freeze the market in place close the door to things like competition from overseas new options, slower prices, more choices and so forth in the long run that does benefit everybody better and no one has the right to use the political force of government to feather their own nest or to keep the job that they presently have you have the right to convince people hey buy for me instead of that guy but you have no right in a free society to use the force of government to compel somebody to buy from you or to hire you instead of whoever they may choose otherwise to deal with Now you've been doing this for a while if you found sort of methods of communication to talk about free markets that A you think are particularly useful and good and you mentioned stories is a really good way of doing it but if you sidle up to someone at a bar and you just sort of start talking you know what's the first kind of thing you say to them and then the second part of the question is do you have any particular pet peeves about the way that some people might talk about markets that you think are counterproductive and not really helping the situation Sure, I do have thoughts on these issues and in many cases they were prompted originally by my reading of our founder's work Leonard Reed he had a uniquely special way of communicating to people he was always calm he was always gentle he never came across and say what's wrong with you I got to beat this into your head until you get it and he strongly believed that if you are a humble person and your humility shows in the sense that you communicate to people that you don't think you know everything that you're willing to listen then certain barriers come down right away but also I think another important tip is be patient with people sometimes you see someone advocating for liberty who is just so impatient to get you to come aboard 100% on everything as quickly as possible sometimes it works better just to convince people of a few points here and there and be very encouraging to them as they rethink their premises let it take a little time and ultimately you're going to have a greater chance of a guaranteed convert than if you try to beat them over they have with everything all at once So I want to go back to this project that you talked about on exploring the relationship between liberty and character I had recently read your essay on this topic and I was struck by the line that you mentioned earlier about how free markets and liberty is the system that demands of us high character and is unique in that regard and I was wondering how that fits with this other defense of a system of ordered liberty in a system particularly of free markets and of capitalism that says one of the really neat things about this is that it works even if people are of let's call it lower moral character or in particular are greedy because it channels that it turns what look like vices into productive virtues in a way that other systems don't So is there a conflict there between the system requiring moral virtue and then this argument that it seems to make productive vice? No, I don't see a conflict at all I think you can come at it from both angles and in my mind sometimes it's which came first chicken or the egg issue but I think the two things together work powerfully together that before a society can become free I think people have to understand such things as respecting the lives and the property of other people I don't think a society of thieves will likely emerge into a society of freedom so at some point you've got to raise your character and recognize that there are others in society and they deserve just as much respect from you as you would expect from them but then I also agree with the argument you've raised that free markets have among its many benefits free market has the benefit of encouraging progress every time I go into say Walmart or any store for that matter I'm greeted by people who would otherwise have no reason to ever say hello to me or what can I do for you or how can I help you but the very fact that they're part of an operation that is designed to curry favor with me and get my patronage means that they've raised their standards so I think it works in both directions but what I'm most convinced of is that a people who abandon strong elements of personal character who become largely dishonest or impatient or timid or irresponsible I think it's only a matter of time before whatever freedoms they've got will be lost some people might listen to you say character and think that you sound antiquated is the word I want to say that the discussion of character belongs in a different era it's the kind of thing that leave it to Beaver talked about and he sits down while he and the beef and he tells them about these things and we don't really do that anymore it all seems kind of quaint to talk about character with such earnestness so two questions like if you agree with that that's kind of changed why do you think that has changed and is it a valid critique to say that character has kind of it's kind of passé and we need a new way of talking about markets Well you can certainly advance ideas of character or at least pretend to advance them in ineffective ways like wrapping yourself in the stories or analogies that seem like yesteryear to a lot of people I think it's more important to stress today that how many people out there really don't want to live in a society where people deal with each other honestly would anybody really upon reflection want to live in a society where everybody's lying to you all the time stealing from you or in other ways are irresponsible or impatient with you I mean these are timeless values yeah it's true that times have changed and our heroes are not the same that they once were but the timeless values underneath strong character I think are just as valid as ever most people overwhelmingly most people want to live in a society where they are respected where others deal with them in an honest fashion so I don't see these core character values as being in any way outdated it's just how we sell them that can be seen as outdated now that's kind of interesting because I mean people might be thinking about character less and we do have again I bring up Donald Trump again which I mean it's important to talk about it because it's such a crazy phenomenon post-character post-character kid does that mean that maybe people aren't drawn to good character anymore they just they want someone who's a clown and funny and says whatever pops into his mind well I think what's motivating the sympathy for Trump is and I admit that it's far greater than I would have anticipated and in that sense it's been a disappointment to me but I think what motivates it is a justifiable anger with the way government has been operating in recent decades I just think Donald Trump is a very poor vessel into which to pour that anger but I'm sympathetic with I mean people have darn good reason to feel disdain from so many in both parties who have let them down so many times but I'm afraid if they glom on to Donald Trump that they're setting themselves up for just as much of a disappointment at some point as they've ever had before Do you think there's anything about government or big government in general that you can kind of expect disappointment or it will breed the kind of disappointment with Washington that maybe Bernie Sanders and Trump are both a part of because government promises a lot and can't deliver much and when we centralize things in Washington it creates difficult situations where everyone feels like they're not being represented maybe it's just part of the growth of government it just makes people disappointed Oh absolutely I've written on this in a number of places if anyone thinks that they can have both good government and big government at the same time I think they're sadly mistaken the bigger government gets the more it claims a share of what other people have produced the more it's in the business of pleasing constituencies by throwing other people's money at them buying votes with public money and so forth the more you concentrate power in Washington or any place else the more you get nastiness the more you get people falling over themselves to get in charge of this massive redistributive apparatus and they'll do anything in many cases to get a hold of that massive amount of power and wealth either to enjoy it personally or to keep it at bay and what happens is increasingly the bigger government gets the more truly good people of solid character look at it and say why would I want to drag myself through the mud forget that business I'm going to do something else so you end up getting the worst people in big government so you got the worst of both worlds you got a big powerful government with the worst people running it that's why I think it's a critical point that people understand that the bigger it gets the more corrupt the nastier it's going to be and the more of a magnet it's going to be for the worst among us well I've heard this different story though where I mean the story that I know is that before the government came along to save us from many things such as food and drug regulation in the progressive era or how the government needed to help us out in the new deal that the real chaos helping out unions, workers minimum wage laws the real chaos that existed which is not a product of government it seems that as we've progressed as a society we have seen it has moved with bigger government we're richer and we're living longer lives now we probably have higher happiness quotients than people in 1850 and we have a much larger government so it can't be that bad it seems like the story is actually the progress it's synonymous with the growth in government well it's constantly amazing to me how relatively free people and relatively free markets continue to overcome some of the worst mistakes and follies promoted by government but in your question you rattled off quite a string of what I like to call bumper stickers of the status left and each and every one of them reports What a coincidence I did that Yeah really I had no plans whatsoever but bumper stickers I like that bumper stickers of the status left so what are some of those? Well one of them you mentioned was that the New Deal saved us and you know if people buy into this stuff yeah they're going to be led ultimately to the wrong conclusions and to embrace the wrong ideas but just take that one about the Great Depression and the New Deal so many Americans have been taught the bumper sticker that capitalism failed us free markets failed us in the late 1920s and had to come in and rescue us but you look at that more closely as one of the chapters does in my recent book Excuse Me Professor you'll find that at the core of that crisis was mismanagement of the economy and lousy policies from government you had the Federal Reserve a creature of the federal government causing an unsustainable bubble in the 1920s with historically easy money dirt cheap interest rates just like we had before 2008 you had a boom in the stock market because of it and then later when the Fed reversed itself and jacked up interest rates dramatically it pricked the bubble and the depression began and then Congress made it even worse and two different administrations Republican and Democrat successively exacerbated it with a string of crazy policies you had Herbert Hoover writing the Smoot-Hawley tariff in 1930 that virtually closed the borders to international trade if you were in a business that depended upon trade overseas you got flattened by Smoot-Hawley and then in 1932 in the face of the depression the income tax was doubled the top rate more than doubled this is even before Franklin Roosevelt but when he comes in with the new deal he ends up prolonging the depression by at least seven years so there's a lot more to all of that but we are constantly those of us who advocate free markets barrage by these status bumper stickers that say very casually all the free market caused the depression governments the answer what in fact a detailed scholarly analysis proves just the opposite Do you think that this is an interesting part where I think fee fits in because we feel like we've we in the broad free market tradition thinkers since in the 20th century in America we feel like our story hasn't been told I feel like in a very big way and that's why we started things like fee and then later Cato or IHS because the professors just weren't teaching it and the media wasn't talking about it that's the way it's often discussed do you think that's true I almost never run into anybody who's hostile to the free market because they thoroughly read our side they know the literature they've read Hayek, Mises, Friedman and so forth and have simply come to the conclusion that it's false what I run into almost all the time are people who think they know what free markets are who know the bumper stickers that criticize it but know nothing of the literature or the rebuttal to status myths that we are trying to feed constantly propagated put in front of people so I think what we're fighting is not a scholarly reasoned and deep-seated fundamental understanding of the economy that just happens to be different from ours I think what we're fighting is widespread ignorance false assumptions that need to be corrected so I like your project as a way of addressing that because it is when you're trying to get people to accept these ideas one of the problems with free market economics as it's often presented is it's and arguments for liberty as well is that it's often very abstract economics unfortunately becomes very mathematical those are difficult things to inspire people with like you want to get the people to read the literature but most people unless you are really hardcore are not going to pick up human action and read it you have to be quite inspired to do that and so this way of going about it through storytelling so one of the things that you do at fee is write this series called Real Heroes about men and women who have lived these values and contributed to this tradition are there people who are particularly inspiring or have particularly good and valuable stories for promoting these ideas Oh absolutely, I've been writing this series now every Friday on our website fee.org for about a year so I've come up with almost 50 of them already and there's so many more if you take Ludwig Erhard for instance a name that I remember hearing as a child growing up in the 50s and 60s but his name is largely forgotten today here's a guy who after World War II became an important figure in Germany, ultimately Chancellor he was an architect of fixing the post war Germany economy, just imagine what he inherited the place was a mess, defeated, devastated, occupied refugees pouring in Germany was a complete socialist mess after the war, after 12 years of national socialism under Hitler but within a decade it would become the richest country in Europe again largely because of Ludwig Erhard was a Sunday when he announced to the German people he was going to abolish all price controls and rationing and rely upon free markets for the distribution of goods he was going to employ a sound currency and replace the hyper inflated one he followed market principles and in no time at all the free markets saved Germany there are lots of people like that in history that students are not hearing from and typically in the government schools in writing your series on these heroes these interesting characters, did you have one that was the most surprising that you sort of discovered I mean maybe we just heard about it but is there someone that you said wow I've never heard of this guy and this is quite amazing? Yeah absolutely quite a number of such occasions but most recently one that really grabbed me I'm happy to say I met this man's son just a few weeks ago in Poland he concerns a gentleman I'd never heard of until last fall his name was Witold Pilecki P-I-L-E-C-K-I he's got to rank as one of the bravest people in the history of the world he not only fought to secure Poland's independence after World War I for the first time in over 100 years as a country again he later when the Nazis invaded Poland in 1939 and two weeks later the Soviets invaded from the other direction he joined the resistance against both the Nazis and the Soviets became a leading commander in that resistance and after a year of fighting with word that there was this place called Auschwitz in southern Poland where desperately things may be happening he volunteered to get himself arrested in the hopes he might be sent to Auschwitz so he could report from the inside he had no guarantee that he would in fact be sent there he could have been shot on the spot but he got his wish he was sentenced to Auschwitz where for two and a half years he organized a resistance and his reports the documents he smuggled out the transmissions that he was able to do makeshift radio for a time became the first comprehensive eyewitness accounts of the holocaust in the Auschwitz concentration camp but his story didn't end there I thought if nothing else had happened but he spent those two and a half years in Auschwitz he'd be a hero but he did something that only 143 other people have ever or ever did and that was to escape from Auschwitz he made his way back 200 miles to Warsaw where he became a leading commander in the Polish uprising, the Warsaw uprising he was captured again by the Germans they didn't put two and two together and realize he was the same guy that formed the resistance within Auschwitz he spent the last months of the war in the German prisoner of war camp and finally when the camp was liberated in May of 45 he had about four months of freedom the Polish army had him in Italy for a time and then when it was apparent that the Soviets weren't going to leave Poland they needed somebody to infiltrate back into Poland go underground and report on Soviet atrocities and so they sent Witold Poletski and for two and a half years under cover in Poland he's now reporting on Soviet activity and atrocities until he was finally arrested and tortured put on a public show trial and executed in 1948 at the age of 47 well the reason that that's important for history is important is I think that courage is one of those indispensable character traits of liberty I don't see how it timid people will long keep their liberty because the world is just full of people who would be happy to take your liberty from you if you give them the chance and Poletski put everything on the line for these people and that was how I did not know about him before I have to say that in March of this year just earlier this very month I spent an hour with his son who's now 85 and still keeping alive the legacy of his father so when we look at figures like how do you say his name again? Poletski and say that okay we're going to talk about him on the fee website as you've written about him is it unfair to have libertarians take quote-unquote ownership of people who probably were not libertarian in themselves if someone doesn't want to be oppressed like that's most people but they're not libertarian heroes per se they just don't like to be oppressed is that fair to take ownership of them? I would never claim something of another person that isn't true and in my story about Poletski I didn't talk at all about what his views may have been on issues like the role of government or free trade I mean who knows that just wasn't what he was known for but he certainly exemplified one of the key character traits that are that is essential to preserving liberty and to read too much into these stories but when somebody stands out in one way or another irrespective of where he may have been on other things I think often those are stories that need to be told Now when you look around and you see where fee has gone and what fee is doing now and then you also look at the world and see Donald Trump and other things going on do you feel optimistic about what we've accomplished how much do you feel that we and particularly fee too but in the broad free markets have accomplished and then going forward do you feel optimistic about being able to accomplish more? Well I'm very proud of the movement for liberty of course I wish that we had more victories under our belts than we have and arguably in many respects the trends are not moving in the right direction at the moment but I'm a long term optimist and I try not to let events of the moment ever get me down you have to be an optimist I've often said to audiences if you're not an optimist if you're a pessimist you've got to ask yourself what's the point of pessimism you don't know the future at least we ought to have reason to believe it can be better if we work pessimistic you're not going to work very hard for what you know to be right and you're probably not going to be very effective in convincing others to join your cause so I think optimism is an important motivator for all of us nobody knows the future but I do know this if those of us who believe in liberty decide the cause is lost, what's the use let's just go back home and do something else then I would be very pessimistic about liberty I would not win the future but there are so many people today who weren't around doing these wonderful things for liberty 10 or 20 or 30 years ago planting seeds that will sprout in due time I'm very optimistic for the future I just don't let pessimism ever get me down Thank you for listening Free Thoughts is produced by Evan Banks and Mark McDaniel To learn more, find us on the web at www.libertarianism.org


All right guys, welcome back to the channel. If you're new, my name is Bobby guys Let's talk about another benefit that I haven't listed in my 30-day Carnivore review If you haven't seen it, make sure to click here and check it out first Let's talk about that benefit. Let's talk about taste guys The carnivore diet is the perfect way to reset your taste buds 100% I did the keto diet before. In the keto diet, you're still eating avocados You can still eat certain berries and what not.  It is a total reset button After the 30-day experiment, I started reintroducing carbohydrates just for athletic performance Not because I was craving it quite the opposite. If it was up to me I would have stayed carnivore forever But I started losing weight and for my bodybuilding goals It was just more beneficial to add carbohydrates back in But let me tell you, those carbohydrates are not enjoyable at all anymore Really, when I eat a potato, I get bored. I feel as if I am seeing it for what it is A potato, yes Potatoes are boring Boring as hell, no matter what Dr. McDougal and the starch solution might tell you Those foods are not naturally appealing to us at all I mean, if you want to dive deeper, then you will have to face the fact that potatoes are not naturally occurring You have to plant them, to cultivate them, and then you will have to cook them Potatoes are boring and the same goes for rice and pasta Since I was on the zero carb carnivore experiment My taste buds don't react well to sugar, to carbohydrates at all I prefer egg yolks, cheeses, blocks of butter any day Over any carbohydrate source As I said, nowadays I'm just using them for function, but you will have to try it out for yourself Once you go zero carb, you will clearly see the difference between nourishing animal foods and Empty carbohydrates Let's face it guys, the vegans will tell you that those foods, the plants, come with the highest nutritional value That is of course bullshit. It's all empty carbs. Yes, I know, they're even worse foods If you look into Twinkies, into Snickers or just white bread, of course those carbs sources are even more deprived But if you look into rice, if you look into potatoes, pasta Go even so far and go into lentils if you want, those things are super low in key nutrients They cannot stand the comparison with organ meats or red meat Of course not, they are devoid of all nutrients You have to overeat on those carbohydrate foods And in turn, you will just chuck down tons and tons of sugars You will absolutely lower your insulin sensitivity You will trash your pancreas with those practices There are many doctors out there, Fort Brewer, being one of them I'm gonna link his channel in the description box, who was plant-based for I believe over 28 years And now is a type 2 diabetic This is what the vegans will have to face You cannot overeat on carbohydrates every single day Our bodies are not adapted for it We evolved to eat meat Simple We've been eating meat all our existence, all our waking lives This is what our machinery runs best on So guys, I'm gonna cut it off here, just a quick short video Give it a go Once you reset your taste buds, you will perceive food in a totally different way You will see carbohydrates for what they are Just sugar, empty calories, empty of nutrition Try the animal foods for yourself and let me know how the experimentation goes for you Alright guys, that's it for today's video If you liked it, leave it a thumbs up If you haven't subscribed already, please do so And as always guys, much love and peace


Welcome to the Endless Knot. Today, we're going to get weird. The word weird comes from Old English weird, meaning fate, and goes back to a Proto-Indo-European root meaning turn. Think of the phrase turn out, and you'll see the connection between turning and fate. It's related to another Old English word, wearathon, which means to become, as well as German werden, which is sometimes used to construct the future tense in German, in Ich werde kommen, I will come, and occasionally the Old English wearathon is used with something of the sense of the future of the verb to be. Weird is also related to the word to ward, and its Old English equivalent, to ward, which could mean future. Of course, the Proto-Indo-European root where gives us many other words in modern English, many through Latin verterrat to turn, such as avert, literally turn away, pervert, literally very turned, and version. Weird was an important concept and much has been written about fatalism in Germanic culture. It used to be argued that weird represented a personified fate goddess in pre-Christian Anglo-Saxon belief, though more recent scholarship is doubtful about this. What's clear is that the Old Norse cognate of Old English weird, Urther, is one of the Norns, along with Verthandi, and Skuld, the Norse fates who determine the course of an individual's destiny. Urther and Verthandi both come from that turning root, the first in the past tense, the second in the present, whereas Skuld comes from the same root that gives us shall and should in English, and thus the three have traditionally been associated with past, present, and future respectively. The Norns hang around Urther Brunner, Urther as well, at the foot of Yggdrasil, the world ash tree that lies at the heart of Norse cosmology, and could bring both fortune and misfortune. And the overall arc of the Norse mythological story ends in the destruction of the gods at Ragnarok, the fate of the gods. And this is but one example of the fatalism often found in Germanic heroic literature, the glory of fighting a losing battle. Better known today perhaps are the Greek equivalents, the Moirai or fates, generally depicted as three women, sometimes named Clotho, Lakesis, and Atropos, meaning spinner, allotter, and unturnable, who determine the destiny of both mortals and gods. As their names imply, they were often seen as woolworking women, spinning the thread of a man's life, measuring his lot, and implacably ending it. Note that turning turns up at both the beginning and end of their job. It's no coincidence, of course, that there are three of them, like the three principal Norns. Three is a significant number in many mythologies, and particularly so for women. There are many sets of three women in Greek mythology, like the graces, the graii, the gorgons, and the nymphs of the Hesperides. The fates have a complicated relationship with the gods in Greek myth. Sometimes even Zeus is bound by their decrees, but sometimes he is warned by their prophecies and is able to avoid his potential fate. And that grouping of three prophetic women is now probably most famous from the weird sisters in William Shakespeare's Macbeth. They appear to Macbeth and Banguo with the famous lines, I'll help thou shalt be king hereafter. And to Banguo, lesser than Macbeth and greater, not so happy yet much happier, thou shalt get king though thou be none. Macbeth, his ambitions aroused, then goes about making this come true by murdering King Duncan and taking the throne for himself. And though we often refer to these three mystical figures as the three witches, they're never called that in the play. In both Shakespeare's text and his source, Hollinshead's Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland, they are referred to as the weird sisters, that is to say the fates sisters, since they tell Macbeth his fate and in a way determine it through their self-fulfilling prophecy. In Shakespeare's time, the word weird had mostly disappeared from the English language, but it had been preserved in the Scots dialect of English. A 16th century Scottish translation of Virgil's Aeneid renders Parkae the Roman fates as weird sisters. Shakespeare used this unfamiliar term because his source, Hollinshead did, and he was certainly not one to pass up an unusual word. But the word was evidently a difficult one for Shakespeare's readers, as the early and authoritative first folio version of his plays prints it as wayward or wayered. Of course, in more recent times, the phrase weird sisters has become much more well known, especially in fantasy fiction like Terry Pratchett's Weird Sisters series of books or the fictional band called the Weird Sisters in J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter. There's an interesting parallel to Macbeth's Weird Sisters in Saxo Grammaticus' Gesta D'Norum, in which he tells a version of the Norse story of Balder and Hother. Unlike the more well-known version of this myth told in the prose Eta, Hother kills Balder not accidentally, but because they are both in competition for the love of the same woman, Nana, who loves Hother but with whom Balder has also fallen in love after catching sight of her bathing. In Saxo's version of the story, Balder is not a Norse god but a demigod, and Hother is a human hero who is helped by forest maidens who magically appear to him in a striking parallel to the Weird Sisters of Macbeth, and they may be the figures shown on the 8th century Frank's casket, which depicts several mythological stories from various different traditions, both Christian and Pagan. While we're on the topic of Shakespeare's plays, one of the conventions he uses to distinguish upper and lower class characters is to have the upper class characters, like Macbeth, speak in verse, as if they're speaking poetry, whereas the lower class characters, like the porter who guards King Duncan's tent, speak in prose. Surprisingly, both these words, verse and prose, come from the same turning route as Weird, as Latin versus meaning turned, and proversus meaning literally turned forward, or in other words straightforward speech. The metaphor behind verse is that the lines of poetry are like a plowed field, with lines that have to turn around at the end, like the rows in the field. And speaking of dramatic conventions in Shakespeare, the Bard and his contemporary playwrights drew on two distinct traditions of tragedy. The older descends from ancient Greek tragedy, like Oedipus the King, formalized by the Greek philosopher Aristotle in his book, The Poetics. This focuses on the character of the tragic hero, and his tragic error, or hamartia, which brings about the tragic outcome and arouses feelings of pity and fear in order to bring about catharsis. In this form of tragedy, the individuals can control their fate and prevent their tragic outcome, but they don't, and thus bring tragedy on themselves. The other model for tragedy descends from the Roman world, and is most indebted to the Roman philosopher Boethius in his book, The Consolation of Philosophy, in which we find the figure of Lady Fortune who blindly turns her wheel of fortune, raising some people up from misfortune to fortune, and casting others down to misfortune. The emphasis here is on fate, which is completely beyond the control of the individual who is, to borrow a line from another Shakespearean play, Fortune's Fool. Shakespeare, being the clever fellow he was, sometimes borrowed elements from both tragic traditions. Macbeth is given a prophecy, but he makes it happen himself because of his own ambition by killing King Duncan to seize the throne. Is he controlled by the self-fulfilling prophecy of the fates, the weird sisters, or is it his tragic error? But if weird originally meant fate, how did it come to have its modern sense of strange, odd, or unusual? Well, it comes down to the fact that the word was so unfamiliar when Shakespeare used it. Basically, although the word traces its ancestry back to the oldest stock of English words in the language of the Anglo-Saxons, few people knew what it meant in the time of Shakespeare and shortly thereafter. And since the weird sisters were shown acting a lot like the early modern stereotype of witches, double-double, toil and trouble, fire burn and cauldron bubble. The Elizabethan period was way more fascinated by witches and obsessed with witch hunts than the medieval period that Macbeth was actually set in, by the way. People assumed that the sense of the word had something to do with witches. So, supernatural and strange. And it seems to be another of English literature's most famous poets, Percy Bish Shelley, who first popularized this new sense of the word more familiar to us today. The phrase weird fiction was then used to describe the supernatural literature of Edgar Allan Poe and H.P. Lovecraft. And today, the word has taken on an almost slangy sense of simply unexpected or different. It's now everywhere from film titles like Weird Science to the unofficial slogan of Austin, Texas, keep Austin weird. In popular music, it appears in the name Weird Al Yankovic and in the lyrics of Professor Elemental's song All In Together. There's no such thing as normal. Everybody's weird. Speaking of Weird Science, a teen comedy from the 80s in which two nerdy boys create an artificial woman, another sense of weird is odd or unusual in an unsettling way. The near synonym uncanny is often used to describe the unsettlingly similar, as in the case of Uncanny Valley, which describes the discomfort that one experiences seeing a representation of something that is similar, but not similar enough to a healthy natural human likeness, like an artificial human automaton. But there's another twist in this etymology. The word Worm probably also comes from that same turning root. Makes sense when you think about a Worm. But the word Worm in Old English was used of a dragon or serpent, like the dragon that Beowulf fights at the end of his eponymous Old English epic poem. And that brings us back to the Old English word Weird, which occurs some 12 times in the poem, such as Gaffa weird, Swahio shell goes always weird as it shall, which some scholars have held up as another prime example, like Ragnarok, of fatalism in Germanic culture. The heroism of the great warrior Beowulf fighting a losing battle and sacrificing his life to save his people. Speaking of Old English, perhaps unsurprisingly the translation of Boethius' Latin consolation of philosophy into Old English by King Alfred the Great uses the word weird to render the concept of fate or fortune. And some have argued for a direct connection between this philosophical work and the epic poem Beowulf and a bridge between the old pagan worldview and the new Christian religion. But the word Worm in the sense of a small serpent also brings us back to Shakespeare's Macbeth who comments after his assassins have killed Banquo but allowed his son Fleance to escape. There the grown serpent lies the Worm that's fled has nature that in time will then imbred no teeth for the present. And to bring us full circle, one other derivative from that proto-Indo-European turning route is anniversary meaning literally turning of the year. And since April 23rd, 2016 is the 400th anniversary of the day that, to quote William Shakespeare himself, death hath made worms meat of him it turns out that releasing this video now is weirdly appropriate. Thanks for watching. If you've enjoyed these etymological explorations and cultural connections please subscribe to this channel or share it. You can also sign up for email notifications of new videos in the description below. And check out our Patreon page where you can make a contribution to help me make more videos. Leave a comment or question or tweet at alliterative. You can also read more of my thoughts on my blog at alliterative.net


Hello, everyone. I'm Sanjay Gupta. I welcome you on Sanjay Gupta Tech School in this video. I'm going to demonstrate how you can set up visual studio code for lightning web component. So in my previous video, I just gave you introduction about LWC and before implementing lightning web component, we just need to set up visual studio code and other configuration. So in this video, I will be guiding you step by step. So first step will be to download and install visual studio code. So for that purpose, you can use this link, which is a simple code.visualstudio.com slash download. So just click on this link. So you won't be able to click because it is available on my system. So you can just type this URL in your system and you will see these options. Like if you're using windows, you can click here for Linux. These options are available for Mac. These options are available. So you can just click download and install so that your visual studio code will be available in your system. Right. And once your visual studio code is installed, so you will see a icon on your desktop or if you're using a Mac, so it will be available in the bottom bar. So you will see this kind of icon and you can open that now moving further. So after completion of step one, like if you have downloaded and installed visual studio code. So next we need to focus on the step number two. So it is to install Salesforce DXCLI. So to connect the visual studio code with Salesforce or we need to install Salesforce DXCLI. How we can do that? So here's the URL. So you can just type developer.salesforce.com slash tools slash SFDXCLI. So I'm just clicking here. So this type of UI, you will see once you type this URL in your system and you will see the options like for Mac, Windows and Linux. So you can just click. So right now Mac is already selected. So it is showing download format. If you click on Windows, so you will see these options. If you click on Linux, so you will see these options. So as per your system, you can just download it and after download and install what you need to do. So once installed, you can just test it by opening the command window and type SFDX. So you will see the version and other details about Salesforce CLI. So in my system, I'm just using Mac. So in my system, it is already installed. So if I open the terminal in the Mac, so I'm just going to show you how it will look like. So I'm on the terminal and I'm just typing SFDX and pressing enter. So here you can see, you will see the version, usage, topics, commands. So if you see these details, it means SFDX CLI is installed in your system successfully. So this was the step number two. After completion of the step two, like download, install and verify whether Salesforce CLI is installed or not. So after verifying this, you can jump to step number three. So for step number three, you just need to open your Visual Studio code and you need to install Salesforce extension pack. So once you install Salesforce extension pack, so it will be installing Apex, Salesforce CLI integration, Apex interactive debugger, Apex replay debugger, Visualforce, Aura components and Lightning Web components. So now I'm jumping to Visual Studio code. So this will be the UI, like if you open Visual Studio code, so this kind of UI you will see. And on left hand side, you will see this extension icon. If you click here, so here you can search for Salesforce extension pack. So at top, you will see it. So you can type complete as well. Otherwise it will be available on the top as you type Salesforce EXT. So just click on it. So in my system, it is already installed. So this extension pack includes these nine packages. So here you can see I am having this uninstalled button, but in your case, if you are doing it for the first time, you will see the install button. So just click on that and it will take some time and all those nine packages will be installed in your VS code. So this was a step number three. Now moving to step number four. So step number four says like how we can create a project with the help of Visual Studio code. So to create first project in Visual Studio code, so you need to open command palette or you can press control or command plus shift plus P. So if you are using Windows, so you need to press control plus shift plus P. If you are using Mac, so you just need to have a combination of command plus shift plus P. Then you need to type SFDX colon create project with manifest. Then you need to type the name of the project and then press enter. Then it will ask you to select the location where you want to save the project and your project will be created. So I'm just going to give you a brief demonstration of this. So just jump to Visual Studio code. So after installing this, so this is one time step. Now you just need to press control shift P or command shift P as per your system. So I'm using Mac, so I'm pressing command shift P. So you can see this palette is open and here in my system SFDX create project with manifest. This is highlighted here like in the second option. But if I type SFDX colon create project with manifest, so this option will be available. So I just need to click on it. So here you can see it is asking for the name. So I'm typing name as Sanjay Gupta at school and pressing enter. So my project will be created with this name. So one thing that I want to correct before typing this project name, we just need to select any one option from here. So I'm just selecting standard project template that is default and now you can type name of the project and here you can see press enter to confirm or escape to cancel. So I'm just pressing enter. So it is asking for the location. So I'm selecting desktop and clicking on create project. So here you can see project is created with name as Sanjay Gupta at school and here lots of folders are automatically available where you can do some things. So this was our step number four, how to create a project. Now next step is to connect your project with Salesforce org. So this project that we created right now we need to connect it with the Salesforce org. So again we need to open the command palette.  Then this time you need to type SFDX then authorize an org. Then you need to select the environment then you need to provide the org Elias name then browser will be opened and you need to provide a username and password and then if prompted you need to click on allow. So now let's do this together. So I'm pressing command shift P and SFDX colon authorize an org. So this option is available here. I'm just clicking. So here you can see as I showed you in the slide. So it will ask you to select the environment. So it is disappeared. So I'm just selecting it again. So here you can see default is this login.salesforce.com then it is having production, sandbox and custom. So as per the environment so if you are using production environment so you will be using login.salesforce.com if you are using sandbox so you will be using test.salesforce.com. So if you are working on a real project so then you can understand production and sandbox difference but if you are new so I can explain like whenever any client purchase licenses from Salesforce so they get production licenses but when they deal with a consultancy form so consultancy form basically creates sandbox copies of those production environment. So they will be creating DAF sandbox. They will be creating QS sandbox so that they can do some hands on they can implement things and after testing and very very fine. They can just deploy them from sandbox to production back right so it depends on the requirement like if you're using sandbox you will select test.salesforce.com if you are using production then you will be selecting login.salesforce.com. Right now in this complete video series I will be using developer edition org and maybe if you are doing practice so that is free org developer edition org so that free org is basically having production licenses. Those developer edition orgs have two users free licenses and that is for production so you just need to choose this production that is login.salesforce.com. Now if you click any of the option then it will be asking to provide alias name for your org which will be with which you will be connecting so I am labeling it as sgorg. Right as I click enter so it will automatically redirect to the browser and browser will be using the URL like login.salesforce.com because I selected production. If I would have selected sandbox so it will automatically redirect to test.salesforce.com right so I am just clicking enter and here you can see it is often opening automatically login.salesforce.com. So here you just need to type username and password of your org and that org will be connected with your visual studio code project that we created earlier. So here I am filling username and password and clicking on login. So here you can see it is asking for verification code. So you can just go to the email that is associated with the user and through that email you can just get your verification code. So I just pasted the verification code and I am clicking on verify. So first time when you will be connecting your org with the project so it will ask for allow access. So Salesforce CLI is asking to access the identity URL service manage user data via web browsers manage user data via APIs perform request at any time. So if you agree you can click on allow otherwise you can click on deny as well. So I am just clicking on allow. So I am logged in into my org. So now I am jumping to visual studio code and if you see the visual studio code earlier like this cloud was not available. Now it is available. So if this icon is available cloud icon is available in your visual studio code after creation of the project. It means your org is connected with this project. And at the bottom you can see your org alias name is available here. Right. And anytime if you want to your if you want to open your org so you can just click on this icon so your org will be open automatically. Right. So this step number five is completed I hope if you follow the complete steps so you will also be able to connect your org with visual studio code project. Now after this we need to go to step number six. So it says how to retrieve components. So if in your org some components are already implemented if you want to fax them in your visual studio code project so how we can do that. So you just need to open the package dot XML from manifest folder. So in your VS code we have this manifest folder. And here we have package dot XML and this package dot XML is having this code pre implemented. So what it is saying if you want to retrieve epics classes epics component epics pages and other things and as stress means all all the epics classes all the components. And if you want to enter any other code or if you want to remove any of the sections so you can do that as well. Right. Then, like you can modify package dot XML to add or remove components. Then finally right click on the package dot XML and you need to select SFDX retrieve the source from all. So I'm just right clicking. And here I have retrieved source in manifest from all. So if I click. So some operations performed. And like these components which are listed here they are available here. So if I go to force app. Right. So force hyphen app package. So here you will see those things. So in my org like this this component is available if I go to classes. So these classes are available. Right. So initially when you create your project so these will be blank. When you retrieve your components through this package dot XML in your project. So these things will reflect and here LWC components. So right now you don't have any LWC components. So those are not reflected here. Now we have step number seven which is the last step. So finally now we can create a lightning web component. So I will be creating a dummy lightning web component which will be blank. And I will let you know how you can deploy that lightning web component to the org so that you can use that. So here what you need to do you just need to right click on this LWC. So I'm just repeating the steps like we have these folders. So this force hyphen app slash main slash default if you expand this accordion this folder. So here you will find this LWC folder. And if you expand this so you will see all the lightning web component available under this. And if you want to create any lightning web component. So what you need to do just right click on this LWC and you will see this option create lightning web component. So here you need to provide the name of your lightning web component. So I'm labeling it as demo LWC. So it is asking where you want to store this. So this is the default option force hyphen app slash main slash default slash LWC. So I'm choosing this option. So here you can see under LWC folder demo LWC folder is created with this first lightning web component. And you can see demo LWC dot HTML is created demo LWC dot JavaScript is created and demo LWC dot JS hyphen. Meta dot XML is created. Right. And this I already explained in my previous video like you will be having HTML there. You need to write all the markup related code inside the template text. Then we have JavaScript which is by default importing this LWC module. So here you can see module name is LWC and lightning element is the functionality that we are importing. And this functionality is already extended. And here class name you can see it is demo LWC, which is also this demo LWC name is taken from your component name. And if you click here and press enter. So inside these databases, you can write the code related to your JavaScript. And here this is better dot XML, which is our configuration file. So by default it is having false. If you want to place your component anywhere in the org, so you just need to make it true. And after that, you need to specify the targets where your lightning web component will be available. So here now I'm typing the code like you need to use targets. And inside this targets, you can specify where you want to place your component. So here I am using target and I want to place this component on the lightning home page. So here you can see certifications are available. So I'm just selecting lightning home page. So this way, first you need to change is exposed from false to true. And then inside targets, you need to define the target where you can use your lightning web component. And then you just need to save this file because there is some changes in the file. In this JavaScript, also we did some things like I just moved this closing categories to the bottom. So I'm just saving this file and in HTML, there is no change. Right. So I'm not saving it. Now, if you want to deploy this component so that it will be available in your org. So what you need to do, you just need to right click on this complete component.  So you just need to click here, deploy source to org. So it will show this message running SFDX. So here you can see deploy source to org successfully run. And here you will see this message successful message. And whenever there will be some error, so it will show those errors as well and problems you will see here. So in output, you will see the success and failure result. And if your code is having any problems, so you will see that here. Right. So this way whole component is deployed to the org. Now, if you want to deploy a particular file, like if you change something in the HTML file on the. So what you can do just right click and deploy source to org. This file will be deployed on the. So this way you can deploy your Lightning Web component to the org. Now how you can verify whether your component is deployed or not. So we can just try to place that component on the home page. If it is available to place, then it means it is deployed successfully. So I'm in the org and here you can see we are on the home page. Now I'm going to edit this page and at left you can see we have standard components if I scroll to bottom. So here custom component is available and that is our first Lightning Web component. So it is available to place on home page. Right. If I drag and drop it, so it will be available here, but it is not having anything in the HTML. So nothing will be displayed. Right. So I am just deleting it. So I just gave you the proof like it is available here on the home base to place. Now if I go back and if I add any record page, let's say I open. A count record. And if I added this record page, so let's see whether that Lightning Web component will be available or not. So here you can see that component is not available. So this custom flow component is available, but that Lightning Web component is not available because in the components configuration file, we just mentioned like it will be available for Lightning home only. So if you want to place your component on more than one places, so you just need to add more targets. So this way you can have the target like if you want to place it on the record page. So you can modify this thing and what you need to do just save it. Then either redeploy this configuration file only or redeploy the complete component. So just click on deploy source to all. So it will be deployed. Then come here and you can just refresh. So we are still on record page. So if I refresh now you will be able to see that component. So demo LWC component is available to place on lightning report page as well. So this way I hope you understood how we can set up Visual Studio code for Lightning Web component. So if you follow all the steps. So you will be all set with the Visual Studio code and you will be having a project created that project is linked with your Salesforce org. And you know how to retrieve components from org to VS code and you know how to deploy components from VS code to the org. Right. And later in another videos you will see these things again and again so you will be able to understand the things in detail. So in upcoming videos I will be explaining things in detail so that you understand the concepts very well. Thank you.


Hey guys, today I'm feeling pretty good. Pretty excited. We're making Vitamix cornbread. It's one of our oldest recipes actually. I don't know what took us long to get it up on YouTube. Here we are. It's so easy. It's so good. 100% plant-based. There are some substitutions if you want to make it whole food plant-based. And so by default, it's vegan and then par of two. So if you're going to be barbecuing, I want to know quickly there are a lot of steps and a lot of sort of sections within the steps. This is an easy recipe. You can't mess up and it doesn't take a lot of time. Okay, just stick with me. Let's get into it. Start by preheating your oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. That's about 200 Celsius. Okay, so it's cornbread. We're going to make our own cornmeal using our Vitamix. And today we're using popcorn. You can use dried corn as well. We are using the dry grains container, but you should be able to use any container. Take a cup of dried corn or popcorn. You put it in your Vitamix container and turn it up to variable speed 10 and let it run till it's cornmeal. I mean, it's so easy. And while it's running, I got to tell you, fresh homemade cornmeal is like so much better than store-bought cornmeal. It's something that has stabilizers and additives and preservatives. Admittedly, there are times when we still use store-bought cornmeal. We have a bag sitting in our cabinet, so we use it in a pinch. Sometimes if we don't have dried corn or popcorn to make our own or if we want to just do it really fast or don't want to deal, we're not perfect. We don't claim to Vitamix all of our food and make everything perfectly fresh, but when we do, it's so much better. No tamper. 30 seconds. The only thing I'll say is this is loud. The dried corn hitting against the container is like the loudest thing that you can make in a Vitamix. So get some headphones if you don't already have them. All right, so set our fresh cornmeal aside and we're going to get into the whisk phase. So you're going to use any container. We're going to add one and a half tablespoons of apple cider vinegar and one and a half cups of nut milk. You can probably use water because as we know, store-bought nut milk is basically just water and a few nuts, but old habits die hard and here we are. We'll whisk this mixture together in the Vitamix for about 10 seconds, high speed, and we'll let it sit there for five minutes. This is important. It's going to kind of react while we do the next steps, beginning with the dry ingredients. So in a bowl, we're going to add our cup of cornmeal, three quarters cup of flour. So we're using regular old white flour here, but you can use any flour, holy flour, oat flour, almond flour, whatever you like. And then we'll add one and a half teaspoons of baking powder, half a teaspoon of baking soda, and a quarter teaspoon of salt. We're going to mix until it's combined and then transition back to our wet ingredients. So we'll take six tablespoons of melted coconut oil. If you're whole food plant-based, just substitute that with applesauce. That's fine. One tablespoon of maple syrup. Again, if you're whole food plant-based, maybe throw a date or two in. Half a cup of applesauce, and we're mixing all that together with the apple cider vinegar and the nut milk, the stuff that we whisked. We'll blend all that for about 15 seconds on variable speed 10. All right, the last little step is to mix by hand. Vitamix is all done for the day. We're going to pour the wet ingredients into the dry and we're going to mix with a spoon until it's just combined. The batter should have small chunks and should be foamy. We'll pour everything into a greased pan. Be a big loaf pan, brownie pan. We've used these little cute shapes for the holidays and we're going to bake for 20 minutes. When it's all done, let it sit for a few minutes to kind of settle and get some butter. We like this Miocos, yeah, Miocos Creamery. You can show all of the vegetarian who loves cheese and butter out of our house, loves this Miocos. Kids love this cornbread. It's sweet. If you want to hide some black seeds in it and get a little more hearty, a little more healthy, you can do that. And guys, this cornbread really takes your soups, your homemade soups to the next level. And guys, subscribe to our channel if you haven't already. Hit that bell to get notified and if you appreciate videos like this, Vitamix recipes, tutorials, hit that thumbs up. We really love to see it. Thank you so much for watching and we will see you in the next one. Bye guys. Life is no yoke. Thanks. A little post script here. I just went upstairs to say, okay, all done with work for today and said, hey, record of the voiceover for the cornbread video. And Shalva said, hey, that's my recipe. I want to do the voiceover. It is my recipe. We took a lot of scientific research to it correctly. I actually read the post and it said you tried it one time and nailed it. I wonder which of those is true. But it did. I had to research it to do it right the first time. You know, we've been making a recipe for four years. You know, I've had this sweater for like eight.


Most cats are easy to care for. Their independent nature means they tend to meet most of their needs themselves if provided with the right environment, except for some social loving, on their own terms, of course. However, some cat breeds are easier to care for and more low maintenance than others due to their unique traits, both physical and mental. The primary reason cats are given up to animal shelters is that they are unsuited for an owner's home and lifestyle, so choosing a cat that fits you is an important decision. European Shorthair The humble European Shorthair is a superb choice for those looking for a simple and easy care cat breed. This breed comes with all the lovable cat qualities, with no extra hassle or special care. Their coat is short and regular, with average amounts of shedding. Their lifespan can reach up into the 20s, and their health is wonderful. Considered the original house cat, this breed can come in all sorts of colors and patterns and will happily live alongside you in the home. Owners of European Shorthairs adore their loyal friends. American Shorthair Like their ancestors, the European Shorthairs, the American Shorthairs are excellent, easy care cats. The American Shorthair was bred for pest control around crops, so it developed a slightly different appearance. You can identify an American Shorthair from their cousins by their stockier body and more rounded face. Severe to fine than a European Shorthair, this breed is abundant in the United States and is a well-loved low-maintenance breed in the home. They do, however, need more grooming attention as they get dense coats in the cooler months. Ragdoll Ragdolls are well-loved for their laid-back and docile attitudes. Their gentle nature makes them an excellent pick for families and children. Their name hailed from their willingness to be picked up, often going limp in your arms to be contently cradled like a baby. While ragdolls show off a stunning, long coat, the coat care is relatively simple. They primarily tend to their own grooming, but regular brushing does not go amiss. However, despite how much fur they have, they are considered low shedding. Their normal shedding is minimal due to lacking a dense undercoat. However, they shed heavily twice yearly. Hello. This video is sponsored by Beemix Pets. Are you looking for high-quality cat collars at an affordable cost? Check out BeemixPets.com. Use coupon code KittenLife to get 20% off. Bombay This gorgeous breed emerged when Burmese and American short hair were intentionally bred to create a miniature panther. Its striking black coat and glistening yellow eyes indeed make it look like a top predator. Still, Bombay is a lovely, low-maintenance housecat. While this cat is friendly, healthy, and has a neat coat, it does have higher energy than a traditional housecat. Extra toys will be needed to keep them happy and occupied. Being a hybrid cat, Bombay's specific personality may vary between the relaxed American short hair and the more needy Burmese. Burmese Burmese is a spunky-we-cat breed. These sauceride cuties are highly intelligent, playful, and social.  Their soft coat is very low maintenance, with minimal shedding. They have seasonal sheds, but it is a lot lighter than many other cat breeds. The Burmese are an excellent low-maintenance breed, granted you have plenty of time to spend with them. They enjoy human company and do not like being left alone for long periods. Russian Blue Russian blues are one of the most popular modern housecats. They have a calm and affectionate nature that fits well into families of all kinds. They possess the classic cat intelligence and loyalty while not overly overbearing. Their independence means they can happily co-exist with minimal care. The Russian Blue also has excellent health. The breed is thought to have naturally emerged rather than selectively bred into existence. This gives them a genetic health advantage, however, they are still prone to typical cat illnesses. Berman The Berman is an ancient breed loved for its stunning appearance and calm temperament. Bermons are gentle and easy-going, making them a good fit for families of all kinds. They have little activity and socializing requirements, just the average amount of family attention will do. Its long coat is light with a dashing of color on the points. However, despite being long and fluffy, the coat is relatively easy to care for. Like the ragdoll, Bermons lack a dense undercoat, so grooming is a breeze, and shedding is only occasional. If you enjoyed this video, kindly press the like button. Also don't forget to subscribe with notifications on, so that you don't miss out on videos like this. Thank you for watching.