I'm going to talk about food crisis and responding to food crisis. And first the question is, which crisis am I going to talk about? And I'd like to spend a couple of minutes on trying to sort out what we mean by food crisis. And then I'll spend a few minutes trying to convince you that if we really want to understand government responses to any kind of food crisis that we may define, we need to pursue a political economy approach. If we don't do that, we won't be able to understand why they responded as they did, and therefore we cannot even attempt to predict how they would respond next time there is a so-called food crisis. So if you would just remember those two things from this, plus the last part of my presentation I'm going to share with you some empirical results from a study, a political economy study we did, jointly with the UN, UNU Wider and Cornell and Copenhagen universities, precisely about the response to the world food crisis increase in 2007 and beyond. So which indicator, what does it mean when there's a food crisis? Does it mean that there's a dramatic drop in food production or in food supply? Is that what it means? So if we have, say, a drop of 5% in the global food production, then we have a crisis. Or does it mean that the prices go up dramatically? Or does it mean that there is a dramatic increase in the prevalence of food insecurity, malnutrition or health? And depending on which of these we pick, are we looking at the global level? Are we looking at the national level? Are we looking at the community level? Or are we just looking at the household level? And the point I'm trying to make here is that when we talk about the global food crisis of 2007, 2008 and subsequently 2011 and 2012, we're talking about the world market food prices increasing dramatically, particularly food stables, the grains. Well, keep in mind that a very large share of what's being produced is not traded. So how relevant is it when the world market food price fluctuates? I'm going to show you some results from the study that I just mentioned. That indicates that in many cases what is a crisis for the Chicago market, futures market, or for the export or import of food may not be a crisis for those people that we're really worried about, namely those who are very vulnerable to the kind of thing that we just heard, to the nutrition problems, to the food problems at the household or the community or the national level. Because the intermarket transmission may not be very high. What may happen in the global market may not have much to say about what's happening in the national and the local market. So my conclusion on this is that we need to specify what we're talking about. It's not good enough just to say, well, we have a food crisis. What do you mean by that? Well, the rice prices tripled in the international market. Yeah, they did. That's true. Was that a crisis? We had more rice in the world than we ever had before. So it certainly wasn't a supply shortfall. What was it? Well, I don't have time to go into all of the explanations of it, but the point I'm trying to make here is we have to be very careful what we're talking about. That's all I'm going to say about that because time is short. But I want to talk a bit more about the courses of food crisis. It can be income fluctuations. It can be climatic fluctuations. It can be armed conflict, speculation and market manipulation. And yes, governments can create crisis for themselves and for the rest of the world. And there are other courses that we could add to that. Now, what do I mean by a political economy approach to this? What I mean is a very narrow definition of that. I want to know what makes the decision maker tick. What's the process within which those decisions are made? Why are those decisions made the way they are? What are the goals of those decision makers? Whether they are in government or outside? And can these goals be made compatible with the nutrition goals that we just talked about? Or the health goals or the food security goals? Are there win-wins out there? We don't know unless we know what makes that policy maker take the decisions that he or she is taking. And the problem with much of the literature today in this general area, including my contributions, so I'm not blaming anybody else, we have developed so many pathways between what is happening in the food system or in the general economy and what the impact on nutrition or food security might be. We have odors of pathways, flow diagrams coming up over there, right? And we have loads of recommendations to policy makers. But you know what? Not much is happening. Why is that? Because we have not done the research on what I just talked about. The decision making process and whether there are ways of combining those goals that decision makers currently pursue with those that some of us would like the decision maker to pursue. That's where we need a lot more, a lot more evidence. Some are instigators of these so-called crises, depending on how we define it. We can choose the definition as which it fit. And some are responders and I'm giving a list. Government agencies, some are instigators and some are responders. And I'll come back and talk about that when I talk about some of the empirical results from the joint UNU, wider Cornell Copenhagen study that I just mentioned. Civil society may be a responder, it may be an instigator. Private sector the same way. Farmers, individual farmers, now they respond. They don't have a whole lot of power but if they get together, again, in a couple of the case studies that we did in that study, farmers actually had quite a bit of power. The big, the Farm Association in Brazil for example, the Farm Association in South Africa had quite a bit of power. The agribusiness, sometimes the traders can get together and either instigate a crisis for others or they can respond. And then we have international agencies which in the case of the study that I referred to, didn't have much impact and I'll come back to that because there was one of the many interesting findings. Now we, the food policy analysts and advisors of course have, you know, we're just neutral. We're not instigating anything, we don't respond to anything. Of course we do. Of course we do. We are as biased as anybody else in picking what we want to do research on. I'm not arguing that the results are biased. I'm arguing that the choice of what we work on is biased. And the advocacy that we end up providing can be extremely biased, just as biased as some of the advocacy groups that admit to be advocacy groups. Agriculture resource organizations. Why do they continue to spend almost all their money on producing more calories for people who are already overweight and obese? Why don't they spend more money increasing productivity of fruits and vegetables and pulses and the kinds of things that will produce the micronutrients that we need so badly? Yes, of course they have priorities. The decisions they make have an impact on what the rest of the world is going to look like. Foreign direct investors are not going to get into landwrapping. I promise I won't because it becomes a very emotional issue on my part but it's certainly that can have an impact as well. News media is just reporting what they hear and what they see and what they can find, right? No, of course they're not. They're advocacy groups just like the many of the rest of us.  So what are the motivations of these decision makers? Legitimacy goals in all of the 14 case study countries that I'm going to report on in a minute. Maintaining legitimacy was priority number one for all of the governments. Did they necessarily admit that? No. You had to do a little digging in some cases. For the private sector, yeah, we want to be loved. We really want you to love us. So we have social responsibility programs and I'm not arguing that they don't do a lot of good stuff. Of course they do. We need them. We are part of the capitalistic system. Of course we need them, but they really go out of their way to kind of make us feel that they are really on our side and in many cases they are. Profit goals, of course, are driving decisions by many. And then, of course, everybody claims to be pursuing humanitarian goals. We want to protect food security, nutrition and health, and we want to make sure that we don't have any more poor people. In some cases, those are actually pursued. In other cases, they are just used as an excuse. Let me now talk a little about some of the empirical research from the joint study that I mentioned a minute ago. The study, which, as I said, was undertaken by the UNU wider Cornell University, Copenhagen University, and researchers from 14 developing countries, and one from the United States and one from the EU. The project was funded by the various organizations that participated, the wider and Cornell University as well as the Gates Foundation. This shows where the countries are. There will be a test after I stop where you have to put names on all of these countries right there. Actually, I do this to my students. I won't do it to you. So I already mentioned, so if we have a global or an international food price increase, does that, is that transmitted to national markets? It depends, but it's an important issue because if it isn't, Little Johnny's nutritional status is not going to be affected by what happens in the Chicago futures market unless somehow what the mother or father of Little Johnny is going to have to pay to get food. So I'm giving you three illustrations out of the 14 that we have. This shows a very high correlation between what happened in the global market and what happened at the national markets for wheat in South Africa and Bangladesh. You see there's a very close, very close correlation. This shows the international rice prices in the world market. They went roughly tripled up from $300 a ton to about $1,000 a ton in a matter of a few months. But look at what happened in China and India. Nothing really. Rice has went up a little bit, but not much. How did they manage that foreign trade? But worse than that. They managed the foreign trade so they could protect their own consumers at the expense of those who had to buy in the international market. They were part of pushing up the rice price by holding back exports, certainly India was. So you got that close relationship. And that's one of the findings from the study, of course, that national governments are really trying hard to be nice to the rest of the world, unless it pays better not to be. They really protect their own people first. Is that a big surprise? Of course not. It's not just developing countries that go around everywhere. This is a third illustration. There's no real correlation between what happened in the world market or corn or maize and what happened in the maize market in Malawi and Sambia during this period of time, as you can see. So depending on that price transmission, we have to be real careful concluding how many poor people are going to be worse off when the world market prices change. Just a quick anecdote. Sorry about time, but put that five thing away with you and the two and the one. When FAO wanted to get more attention because food prices were going up towards the end of 2007, they published numbers that showed that the prevalence of under nutrition, under nourishment is the term they use, which basically means lack of calories. Prevalence went up from 820 million people to a little more than a billion. A billion.03, I'll never forget. It's such a nice number.  I'm not claiming any credit for that, but there were quite a few people who said this just can't be. Because China and India, for one thing, they're protecting their markets. We don't have enough people out there. We don't have these 200 million additional people who could possibly suffer in addition to the 820. Then FAO did a little calculation and they brought it right back. So the new indicator is that nothing really happened in terms of prevalence of under nourishment during that period of time, which is probably close to the truth. Just an anecdote. Policy responses by those countries, there were two options basically followed. One was to decouple the world market and domestic prices. That's what China and India did. Secondly, to permit price transmission and compensate the losers. In the case of wheat, that's what Brazil and South Africa did. And I don't have time, of course, to give results from all the other countries. There were a number of interesting activities within each of those two. And again, I don't have time to go through them, but the book is on the table outside. There's a brief as well. The best news is that three days ago, the book became available in open access for free on the web. Thank you Oxford and thank you wider and thank you Finn. Three days ago, right Finn? Now it's available for anybody for free. Do I care? Yeah, you better believe I do. I'm an editor of the book. Political economy lessons. So whatever I don't have time to cover here, buy the book. And you have to buy it quickly because it's going to be out in paperback in a couple of months. So if you want to pay the big bucks, you should buy it while it's still available in hard copy. Protecting government. I already mentioned that pursuing domestic policies irrespective of international consequences when India and Egypt and Cambodia and a few other countries decided to hold back on rice exports. As I mentioned, the rice prices tripled. The Philippines is a traditional rice importer. And depending on what happens to the rice price, the legitimacy of the Philippine government may be questioned. So the Philippine government went into the market when the prices were very close to $1,000 a ton. And bought up enough rice to last for a while because according to the news media, the prices were going to continue to go up. You better buy while you can. Thailand and the United States were really nice. They said, sure, you can buy from us at $1,000 a ton. That would be just fine. So they did. So you see how much damage one country's policy can do to another. I'm not saying it was the wrong thing for the Indian government to do. It probably was the right thing for them to do. But it wasn't a good thing for the rest of the world. Unitary government decision making is unusual. You would have the Ministry of Finance doing this and the Ministry of Agriculture doing something totally different. Sometimes they were both publicized and they were attempting to implementing policies that would go against the other. Path dependence was quite common. There wasn't very much innovative policy making in response to these food price increases. They pretty much went back to the archives and pulled up the past policies. The relative power of stakeholder groups would vary a great deal. Which one are you with? Is it the five one? Thank you. That's good. The relative power of stakeholder groups varied a great deal from one country to the other. In some cases, the millers, the wheat millers or the rice millers could be an important group. In other cases, as I mentioned earlier, the large farmers could be an important group. So it all varied depending on the country. But again, this points out the importance of a political economy approach because if you don't understand the relative power and the relative influence and the agendas of each of those stakeholder groups, you're not likely to be able to predict what's going to happen next.  What this study showed was that there was more focus on the urban lower middle class than the rural poor when the prices went up. Why? Even though many of the rural poor were net buyers of food, I should add. The reason, of course, was the obvious one. You want to keep your legitimacy as a government that may be more or less stable. You want to make sure that the lower middle class in the urban area is happy. And one way to make them happy, of course, was to compensate them for the food price increase. And there were different ways of doing that. You have to get hold of the open access to see those. Smallholders versus larger farms. We had lots of discussion with policy makers and former policy makers in these 14 countries. And many of them said, yeah, yeah, of course we're focusing on smallholders. Of course we are. Absolutely. That's what the donors want. That's what we're doing. They didn't. They really didn't. They focused on large commercial farms in almost all other countries. Mutual mistrust between government and the private sector. That's something I must admit. I did not expect the strength of that mistrust. They were playing games on both sides to make sure that the other side didn't get the information until it was too late. And again, I could go into more detail if we had time. I mentioned that foreign agencies, foreign organizations and national organizations had very little influence as opposed to the structural adjustment period. Remember the tremendous impact or the tremendous influence by the development banks and by the bilateral organizations for countries to change their policies in the structural adjustment period. In this particular case there was virtually no interest in influencing the government. Whatever the government wanted to do would be supported or not by international organizations but very little pressure put on the governments but a lot of support from the World Bank, for example. A lot of support in helping the governments getting through this. I thought that was an interesting finding until I realized that the structural adjustment of course included a lot of money that these development banks had somehow invested in there. So there was a very good reason for being very concerned about structural adjustment but maybe not for the food price increase because after all that just means fewer people can eat. Now here are some of the, this is Danish sarcasm by the way in case you didn't recognize it. Finn would recognize it. Recommendations, how many minutes, which one have you lifted so far? The two? We have this one. We have this one, that's good. You're a good man, thank you. Recommendations real quick. Protect price signals. Many other countries try to de-link what happened in the world market and what happened in the national market and when prices would go up internationally you would hope that somehow there would be a signal sent to the national producers to produce more food but it wasn't in those cases where these prices were de-linked. Where they were de-linked because these price increases didn't go to the farmers. When prices went down governments were much more likely to let them pass through to the farmers which again shows an urban bias. There was an emphasis on targeted compensation over price intervention. It's a little bit of the same question and keep in mind that the targeted compensation was in almost all cases targeted to the lower middle class urban consumer. Now there's a lot of targeting that didn't work but where there was an attempt made that was the target. Risk management tools missed at almost every level all the way from the farmer, the consumer, the trader and all the way up or down the system as you like. Seeking high levels of price transmission, the point I already made, protect the price signals and low levels of trade restrictions, kind of components of the same of the same issue. Now you're going to call me a free market economist. No, I'm really not. I like trade but I like it to be regulated for the benefit of the masses. What can I say? Increasing supply resistances for food, much more investment in rural infrastructure and other factors that are hindering supply response by farmers extremely important. But only of course if prices are permitted to pass through to the producer if not there's not much point in increasing the price elasticity if in fact the price doesn't change. Improve the management of cereal stock. Some of the governments decided to buy up stock or buy up grain when the prices were going up because after all the news media said the prices were going to continue to go up. And therefore you had to buy up now where that pushed the prices up even higher of course. India increased its grain stock from about 20, 25 million to about 80 million tons of grain much of which was done while the prices were still going up. Now was that rational behavior on the part of the Indian government? It depends on what your price expectations are. If you think the prices are going to continue to go up, you better get in there and buy while you can. Of course it turned out that the prices did not continue to go up. We need a more competitive behavior in the supply chain. It isn't just a national versus international price transmission. It's also a matter from the producer to the consumer what's happening in the value chain. I'll skip the rest of them because if not I'm never going to talk to me again. So let me just end with the source I already mentioned. This is the book. It's out on the table. As I said it's now available, open access. It will be available as a paperback in a couple of months. Thank you very much for your attention.


Three men block grandma at ATM, find out they messed with the wrong granny. Three would-be muggers take their chance on a frail old lady. Little do they know, she has different plans for the encounter. Just a pushover. We hear about elderly people being taken advantage of every day. Everything from door-to-door salesman and phone scams and of course thieves, it seems that there are just people with low morals everywhere. While Winifred was on a shopping trip something scary was unfolding around her. She felt a presence behind her and turned to see three menacing figures very close by. Luckily for Winifred, she wasn't just any old lady. A quaint town. Winifred Peel is like many older ladies. She lives in a small town near Liverpool and happily goes about her daily life at a leisurely pace. She's 77 and long since retired from any fast-paced job, she has no reason to ever be rushed or in a hurry. Winifred grew up in this area and felt safe in the comfort of familiar surroundings, but all of that would change in a heartbeat.  On a cold winter morning, Winifred started her day as she had many before. She left her house and walked the distance through town to her most frequented café to sit down for a hot cup of tea and a slice of cake. On her way, she glimpsed a group of young men outside the bank having an argument but thought nothing of it. It was just another day, or so it seemed. Winifred, in her youth, had spent many hours helping her father around the house, becoming quite skilled at fixed things. She also enjoyed a variety of sports which kept her fit and healthy. She continued these hobbies throughout her life, keeping her mind and body sharp. If the men outside the bank had known anything about Winifred they would not have dared to try what they were thinking. Penelous. After enjoying her mid-morning nibble, Winifred remembered it would soon be her friend's daughter's birthday and decided to do some shopping. There were sales at some of her favorite clothing and accessory stores and she spent some time browsing before selecting her gifts and bringing them to the register. Only then did she realize she had no money with which to pay and, embarrassed left the shop in a rush for the ATM, flustered, she didn't even notice her surroundings. Apprehensive. There were only a handful of banks in the small town and Winifred made use of her sporty past, walking quickly through the quiet streets. She stopped to catch her breath and felt a little apprehensive but couldn't quite figure out why. Dismissing it as low blood sugar, she ignored her innate feeling of unease she continued on. Absorbed.  She pushed aside keys and slips of paper, searching the contents of her bag with her hand. She heard footstep coming up behind her and turned to see a young lady standing behind her, waiting for a turn. Please, go ahead. I can't seem to find my cards, Winnie assured her. The lady offered her thanks and was soon finished and carrying on her way. Winnie, frustrated with her seemingly inability to locate her bank cards didn't hear the true danger that once again approached from behind. All of a sudden. Now Winifred had always been a trusting woman. She lived by the motto, give kindness. Receive kindness back, and so she continued her daily routines without worrying. She was aware that there were people behind her as she used the machine to withdraw her money because she could see tall shadows reflected on the screen. She began to enter her pin, select the amount she wanted and heard the worrying of the machine as it began to dispense the cash. As soon as the money popped out of the slot in the ATM she began falling to the floor, her vision leaving her. Reaction time. Everything happened so quickly. Winifred found herself lying on the ground, large feet shuffling around her and then the adrenaline kicked in. You are not taking my hard earned money, she thought in a wave of anger and injustice overcame her launching her to her feet. Winnie was up and flying at them before the men knew what was happening. Counter-strike. The same three men she had seen making a commotion outside the bank early had clearly changed tack, thinking old ladies would be easier targets. They were gravely mistaken. Winnie lunged at her closest assailant, grabbing his head in a vice-like grip and wrestled him against the wall using the full weight of her body. The would-be accomplices wrenched their partner in crime free from her grasp and fled down the road. A realization. Winnie, fueled by the adrenaline coursing through her veins gave chase but stopped short when the implications dawned on her. Only afterward did I realize what I had done and start to shake, she said, what if he'd had a knife? I might not be here today. But even though her senses had returned she couldn't help feeling angry that she had let them get away. Or had she? Lending a helping hand. A few people had heard the commotion and came running over to assist a distressed looking Winifred. Wanting nothing but justice she urged them to chase after the men in order to identify them before they made an escape. Puzzle pieces. The police quickly picked up where the good Samaritans left off. They were able to do some detective work, evidence supplied by Winifred herself. During her daring self-defense counter-strike, Winnie had left a lot of damage and clues for the police. Around the ATM machine and on the walls were the not so subtle marking of the altercation with more evidence trailing around the corner. Able bodied. Winifred had always been an avid gym goer as regularly as four times a week and as she grew older she did not forego the habit. Her workouts did not sport the same intensity but she was still a force to be reckoned with. During the attack her instincts were to fight and she gave everything she could, her anger, fear and strength which would ensure justice was found. Dead end. Further up the road the police apprehended the initial attack who had pushed Winnie to the ground. He was notably marred with a wound on his head. His two accomplices had nowhere to go and were found hiding nearby. The police cornered the last two and swiftly took all of them in to be judged for their crimes. Sentences served. As Winnie looks back on this difficult dark time she remembers feeling shaken but never helpless. She knows now better than ever before that her gym-honed body is still strong and capable. The three men confessed quickly to their shameful crime that almost cast a shadow over Winnie's twilight years. The judge disgusted by their lewd action convicted them to serve their sentences out in prison but is that enough for Winnie?


We are following the breaking news out of Texas and it is heartbreaking news 14 students and one teacher are dead killed after a shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas It doesn't matter Who you listen to what matter fact you can turn in any station virtually any station how it can even be a sports station and somebody's gonna be talking about this Unfortunately in our country Really in our world this happens a lot right this this this isn't the first this isn't the last time Unfortunately, this isn't the last time and I don't know how many times it's happened but the issue is always gonna come out come down to Why this happens and then what should we do about it? Obviously the way we ought to approach it is from a biblical point from a vehicle standpoint Why? Biblically is there a biblical explanation as to why this happens and then is there a biblical solution? And so while this is going to be biblical at the same time This is also probably going to be a little bit political But the fact of the matter is there is a cause of this biblically and a solution So and I don't know what the what the death toll is right now. I know when I first saw it. There was What 14 then it went to 18 and 19? I know it's at what 22 the last I checked There may be some other people that may pass away as a result of this and We'll probably even get into the whole political points of this but And it's not to say that I'm not Bothered by it. I'm not. I don't have sorrow or any or any grief because of it. I do but Let's just be honest. Let's be clear What is it 20 children 19 20 children were killed yesterday You all do realize that in the span of this week Probably three four or five times that many children will die Just not all lumped together in and at in one instance But this happens But these are one of these instances where we see it and just the fact that somebody would go and just intentionally Target children now. So the first time or the only time that someone has targeted children It happens all the time happens all the time across this country in this world where children are actually targeting and we'll talk a little bit You know as a matter of fact Yeah, we will talk a little bit about about the political ramifications and so forth about guns and and all that kind of stuff but This happens so often that if we're not careful we can become callous now me I Look at this stuff Kind of you know at a bit of a distance the reason why is If I started looking at all the children that are killed, you know how on the different news stations They're gonna show the victims well for me. This is just me when you show babies when you show these little children That that just does something I saw two of them this morning. I said no honey I can't even look at that. I can't I can't look at that And here was even sad about it was another baby He was 18, but he's still a baby that actually goes in and kills him Don't know all that's happened people do jump to conclusions as to what happened now And and then even more more More crazy is that people they don't jump to the Assumptions and the conclusions of what happened what caused it, but we jump to these different Beliefs and statement as to what can be done about it. What's the cause of it? Who's fault is it? Parenting or gun manufacture of mental health. We don't we before we hear the whole matter. We answer it We know all about it. We can tell you all about it. Well, that's wrong I heard someone talk about What do they call him former vice president Joe Biden? It took me a while to catch on why they call him former vice president. He is a president, but he gave his his statements on yesterday and they They were they were pretty they would be expected, right? I am sick and tired of it We have to act And don't tell me we can't have an impact on this carnage I spent my career as a senator and vice president Working to pass common-sense gun laws We can it won't prevent every tragedy, but we know they work and have positive impact when we pass the assault weapons ban mass shootings went down When the law expired mass shootings tripled The idea that an 18 year old kid Can walk into a gun store and buy two assault weapons. It's just wrong What in God's name do you need to solve them for except to kill someone Durant running through the forest with Kevlar vests on for God's sake It's just sick And the gun manufacturers were spent two decades aggressively marking assault weapons which make them the most and largest profit For God's sake we have to have the courage to stand up to the industry well as You can see the he decided and that's a big expected to to go political. Let me address something real quick I haven't given anything.  I'm not blaming God for for any of this At least hear the matter first before you respond, which is the problem that Joe Biden has But at least with him his is politically motivated. I'm not gonna blame God for any of this stuff There I'll get to that in a second and then once you hear me I'm gonna use the scriptures as to where this comes from the point of this But I'm yeah, I don't like who blaming God either, but at the same time I'm not blaming God, but it's also the same time There are things that God does do and does cause and he's big enough to handle it if it's the truth And so I'm just oh, okay. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I thought you sent me. Well, I apologize But folks have been saying that hey, are you are you blaming that? No, no, no We're gonna find out the actual blame the truth of this Some folks have a political bent Like Joe Biden now a couple things before and I said it's gonna get political I don't mean to although. I don't have a problem with getting political but The reason why I try to stay out of some of the political stuff not all of us some of the political stuff is Yeah, yeah, I got that chest. Yeah. Yeah, I apologize But the reason why I try to stay out of some of the politics is Because people become emotional Two things you can't argue with and this is why I don't do as much back and forth as the next person Two things you can't argue with you can't argue with stupid and you can't argue with emotions There's never been an argument one against either because there's there's there's just nothing that you can do to convince them When it comes to politics, it's a lot of stupid people in politics This is art and they say stupid things and they also say emotional things now what Joe Biden said was in many cases was just false Passing the bill did not cause Violent crime to go down as a matter of fact, it was headed down before he passed it And and then once it was rescinded it was still going down But these things kind of ebb and flow different crime statistics and so forth and so but we are in a fallen world Let's let's let's keep that in place guys.   I wasn't even talking about abortion But we abort babies as though it's gonna earn us some money And I'm gonna talk about that in a reason. I'm gonna I'm gonna say something That's gonna stick each and every last one of you Design to it's gonna stick each and every last one of you make you think and then point you to the Bible But he makes this statement and then he talks about well first of all he didn't buy two assault rifles I he did buy one Of course the definition of the assault rifle that varies depending upon who you talk to the term because there is no Solid term or definition for an assault rifle. He did buy a handgun now Interestingly enough politically speaking, they didn't talk about the handgun being personally because in Texas at 18 you cannot buy a handgun You can buy a Long gun you can buy a rifle, but you can't buy a handgun because you know, we hunt in this state So they won't talk about that because the big the big villain are the assault rifles We'll talk about we may even get into some of the numbers in terms of how many people actually die From these different weapons and even where our our country ranks in the world But that being said he has his political reasons as to why and what the cause is his his reaction and so forth And I think that sometimes the best reaction Especially in the in the initial state is just you know what guys let's let's let's hold our peace Let's see what happens. Let's now unfortunately young the young man passed. I don't know what was going on We don't we won't have very much information from this person as to why it's a small community Valdez is a small community and so I Imagine someone is going to come and say some reasons as to what was going on still We won't ever know because he's gone But then you got people who are kind of more Ideological who just kind of more on the progressive side who want to offer Their statements like Steve Kerr did yesterday Since we left shoot around 14 children were killed 400 miles from here and a and a teacher And in the last 10 days we've had Elderly black people killed in a supermarket in Buffalo. We've had Asian church goers killed in Southern California and now we have Children murdered at school By the way, let me let me stop in for a second. Isn't it interesting and amazing how we pick and choose which deaths with tragedies to be outraged about to be bothered by that's just Notice that now. I'm pretty sure you all have been noticing that When are we gonna do something? I'm tired. I'm so tired of getting up here and offering condolences to to the Devastated families that are out there. I'm so tired of the excuse. I'm sorry. I'm tired of the moments of silence enough There's 50 senators Right now who refused to vote on HR8, which is a background check rule that the house passed a couple years ago It's been sitting there for two years so the young man Take gets a background check done passes a background check Okay, so the background check is done now what he still goes and so We look at the wrong things we focus on the wrong things and we want to To kind of beat our chest and act as though we are really bothered by senseless killing again again again if we were really bothered as a country by senseless killings We would stop the first The most torturous the most inhumane the worst Kind of senseless killing that would be abortion These babies who have no body at least in Washington. What about I take the balance and I don't say no one That's really speaking for them. There are there are but in some states doesn't seem like it It's fashionable nowadays to to have an abortion and and we forget those are kids Those are kids those are kids that if we would allow them to be born in 10 years, they would have been in 4th grade Doesn't matter Doesn't matter if if if a black or Hispanic kid gets killed Well, we care depending on who actually did the killing If another person of color killed the problem, that's what happens in the hood. It goes down in the hood If a cop did it oh Now we got to Mars. We got matter of fact. We got to burn the place down if a cop did it The kid did it another another kid. It looks like if it was gang related drug related anything like that Nope, no big deal. No big deal so Please miss all of us With your tears the fact that you don't want to do anything the fact that Yeah, I'll go on it. I'll go on it I I said I was gonna try to avoid the politics, but I'm not forget it Forget it. We're gonna we're gonna jump into it But we'll try to keep it biblical because I want to I want to I want you guys to be focused I want you guys to be focused on all of this Why would got why does God allow this to happen? Why is this happening on God God? God talking to you got that way whatever God why is this happening? What's going on God and know what by the way God? This has been happening. This has been happening Okay, God, I got I got one for you Lord guy you you allow these things to happen Lord God But and you can put it on us We can put on ourselves But there's a baby somewhere starving Now that rain has reached the land and so there's a famine well last I checked God you control the the rain and How things sprout up? What's the deal got? Well, a lot of that does go to the fact that it's a falling world and that's gonna happen.  Why does that happen? Okay, you guys ready now. I said I was gonna stick some people all of you this is The thing that got this person to do what he did The same issue that's in this person What caused him to do what he did is also What causes someone to rape someone? What causes someone to traffic a little child? What it's the same it's the same thing that causes a suicide bomber It's the same thing that causes some foreign warlord to commit genocide It's the same thing that was in the heart and mind of a Hitler It was the same thing that was in the heart and mind of oh, let's go back further Person like a till of the hun or Alexander the Great The same thing that was in the mind of Caesar which Caesar all of them the same thing that caused this person This boy 18-year-old boy to go in and kill Is the same thing that causes a man to cheat on his wife or a wife to cheat on her husband or? For someone to cheat on the taxes. It's the same thing that causes you to have hatred in your heart for another brother It's the same thing that had that causes you to Type mean nasty thoughts on YouTube in the comments section chat section same thing It's the same reason why you don't feel like helping somebody else out It's the same reason why you post comments all day long on Facebook Snapchat mice is my space around whatever the same thing same thing What was in that boy is In me and in you the exact same thing and We push this thing this let's call it a disease. Let's go ahead and call it a disease for the moment We push it we push it we promote it all of us do The good and the bad Christians push it Unbelievers push atheists push it we all push it Let me go to the scriptures real quick since we need to go there since this is the smart Christian channel The Bible tells us in Isaiah 14 12 Speaking of Satan he says How are you how you are fallen from heaven? Oh daystar?  I will ascend to heaven above the stars of God I will set my throne on high I Will sit on the mount of assembly in the in the far reaches of the north I will ascend above the heights of the clouds I will make myself like the most high but you are bought brought down to she owe to the far reaches of the pit The theme in that is I I I I I I One of the first words that we learned as a matter of fact, I got a two-year-old grandson. Everything is my My it can be yours. It can be your glass of water. That's my glass of water My daughter has a cat not his cat, but that's my cat my my my my my And we perpetuate we promote that now we tell him no and we teach him to share and so forth But then we send mixed signals I Said this one time. I don't know if many people caught on this. I've been saying this ever since In schools today, they have these anti-bullying campaigns now Both sides of the anti-bullying campaign for those who are against anti-bullying campaigns and those who want to be bullies Have the same thing in common. I I it's about me Some of you all are old enough remember we talked about expressing ourselves. It's about me I need if you cut me off I gotta give you a piece of my mind if you say something I got to type something bad about me and put it on on Facebook or whatever else I got to get back at you. I I got to I got to defend me. I got to talk about me now I me Mine This was in us. This was in us Well, why do you say that Corey? I wouldn't have to do that boy yesterday.  I got something to say about this. I want to do this I think this is the way it should be done. I I I I when you Y'all do realize Yeah, it's cheap and corny and cliches, but it's true in the very middle of sin is I Heard somebody say that and it's true Name a sin that doesn't have I in it name a sin that isn't about selfishness Pick one pick a sin that doesn't have anything to do with selfishness. They all do you cannot sin without unless you're selfish and it Isn't possible What did Jesus say the the the two greatest commandments love God With everything and then what love yourself. No Love your neighbor like you love yourself See one thing for sure if you get home today, you're gonna feed you because it's you If you get tired there, you're gonna you're gonna take a nap because it's you If if you're not feeling well, you can go get checked out because it's you But how often do we just intentionally go look for the other person? That's what we do now Corey you briefly mentioned the anti bullying campaigns.  So these kids these people grow up having everything done for them Never having experienced anything traumatic never understanding what it's like to suffer to not have to be Scorned to be the object of ridicule to be talked about and they don't know how to cope and So when you've got a five-year-old who can't cope he'll become a teenager who can't cope He'll become a young adult who can't cope and then the first time the girl says no he kills her The first time he gets done get the promotion at his job. He comes back and shoots it up The first time someone insults his religion. He wants to get a bond and blow up everybody Yeah, that's what I leads to not being able to cope because it's all about you. How dare you not accept me?  I get it. I get it. I get it. There is a such thing as mental health is that we got these issues But people are no crazier today. They were a hundred years ago. We had a guy named walking Smithy This was 73 74 75 walking Smithy walk through the neighborhood real fast You ever see how George Jefferson walks with his arms moving? Well, that's how walking Smithy did all day long Walking speed was a little touch in the head to one day We found out the walking Smithy was walking fast to catch dogs to have sex with the dogs That's that was walking Smithy was doing and someone killed him because he messed with the wrong dog Mess messed up in the head this stuff has been going on for a long time Take mental illness and then combine this selfish ingredient to it Now you got a problem Now you got a serious problem when you've got fat happening We we're on a powder cake and what do we do? We promote even more You should feel good about yourself matter of fact We want parents to feel good so much We want our parents to feel so good about themselves that they will live their lives or their children and Then put this same mess on them. Yeah, it happens all the time Yes, the same thing that was a net boy yesterday Was the same thing that's in you? And if you're not careful it will show up. Let me get some more scriptures out on the on here We're told in Philippians 2 3 do nothing From selfish ambition or conceit. Those are I things me me me But in humility what count others more significant than yourselves Let each of you look not only on his own interest, but also the interest of others Name a sin That didn't violate that That's what sin does it violate that you you're not looking at others on the way you look at yourself now I get it there are some people that that have a Disposition to where they're always down and depressed about themselves and so forth, but That's also about me depression is also about me Yeah, do realize it right The narcissist and the person who's an extreme depression It's still an I thing And I won't go into all the intricacies, but you sit in council folks You're gonna find out a whole a whole when someone is dealing with depression You're gonna find a whole lot of I me coming out When the person listen we call Trump the narcissist the narcissistic president But don't act like Biden or any of the other presidents weren't either He was just real what he is. He was just open with his and you know what Trump can do He could also handle so now he's gonna bite back and hit back and push back and so forth, but he could also keep it moving Some people don't don't know how to deal with that Because all we've told them is it's about you it's about me. It's about us And it's only reason the only reason ever about us is because I'm in the part of us Now what if it's about y'all and in you people? No No, no, sorry Sorry if I ain't in it. It ain't about nothing, right? it's how we are and I Knew some I knew somebody was gonna do that. I knew somebody's gonna do that the Trump 2024 We got bent out of shape over mean tweaks Some of those same folks are wishing those mean tweets came back, right now This isn't about Trump or Biden. The point is it's a worldview that pushes me me. It y'all listen I kind of mentioned this on the video about Bill Maher and transgenderism when I was in prison and I kind of I got from a rough prison to an easy prison to a to a laid-back prison but if these laid-back prisons you're gonna have a lot of sex offenders there and What's happening people who had never ever once thought anything about their sexuality had decided to go ahead You know what? I'm not making it as a man. I'm struggling rejection and so forth You're gonna find at the end one of the heart issues of some male who is wanting to change his gender Or who is becoming homosexual one of the heart issues one of the issues to the court Is them not being able to deal with with rejection them filling inadequate? Now I know this because It's been a lot of years with these people And would dealt deal with them and will minister to them and just pray with a lot of them Now some of them wouldn't wouldn't come around but some would and one of their things they would always talk about is how many people in Their programs is one place at Siegelville. As a matter of fact, it's a sex offender treatment program and they have people who aren't even who are Nothing changed on them. They're not even taking the hormone pills or anything like that But they're can they're designated as transgender because that's what they want to be because they weren't part of the club They feel accepted make no mistake about it. The the the the driving force in the lgbtq Ajr, whatever it whatever new letter they have this week. The driving force behind that is self-inclusion There is a lack y'all do realize they have the highest or one of the highest suicide rates of Just about any group on the planet That's a transgender people. This is pre and post op. I was like 40 plus percent Suicide rate or a typical side rate of suicidal thoughts pretty high Even in countries where it's more accepting Because it's all about you and it didn't work out as a male or female or things going along with How many folks who were formerly straight Have now decided to become bisexual or what have you because this relationship didn't work out of that relationship What didn't work out? People are taking longer to get married because of their selfishness. It's about me. I You can't find it. It's hard to find a decent relationship in Hollywood now Right because you got two people who are jockeying for their own career Somebody's got to support the other person. Well, listen, I got this movie coming up Well, I got this this TV series coming up and so well we're on splits feel That that's what happened, but it's not just Hollywood. It's us also It's all about me the last time you got an argument with your wife or your husband your spouse Was there some selfishness involved? Yeah Incidentally, I the other day. I forget what day was it? I don't even what day it was But it was an argument that my wife and I had it was it was silly. It was really silly Of course, I was right. She was wrong, but it was all right. And What happened she was getting mad She was good and see me. I don't get as emotional as she would like You know because we want they want you to show some emotion. I don't all right. All right I got something to do and so but before it got out of hand No, Satan you're not getting plays here. And so what we do I went and pray We went and prayed together. By the way, that works guys Somebody's upset even if he or she's in the wrong. Let's go pray pray with them not not away from the go pray with them. I Love you too much to allow any foolishness on my part of your part and any intention out on Satan's part to come Between us and so you pray Well, what does a prayer do? What is that show? Well, it's not about me now.  I'm gonna show you that in a second and so just another pass I want to pull up as far as this this cause tell me if this is important to selfishness as the cause and James 316 says for where jealousy and selfish ambition exists Look at that where jealousy and selfish ambition exists There will be disorder and look what it says in every vile practice So the cause is selfishness and the result is what every vile practice When you can't get past yourself then can't then came doesn't happen I've seen good teams good sport. I like watching sports I've seen good sports teams wreck themselves over one or two individuals that made it all about them Y'all know from Indiana, right? And there was a year that the Indiana Pacers were easily not easy They were the better team in the east they were better than the Miami Heat with LeBron James, but guess what? internal strife tour that team up Tour the team up. That's why Paul George left Roy hybrid who was not a good player He's he went back to being a horrible player internal strife Internal strife happens on football teams. It happens in business meetings At the work site if you can't get along with people It's typical of something selfish on both parts or one party's part But that's the and he says that that is the cause of all Vile or every vile practice you name it the root cause of is selfishness selfishness now The question is gonna be okay core. We got it. We see the reason why How do we stop it? Good question. Glad you asked. I wish someone would get a letter to Washington, DC Get a letter or somebody email him Call up Joe Biden and tell him smart Christian channel on Listen, this young fellow ball head guy Cory, he's getting ready to tell you the key the key to fixing all of this He ain't gonna listen, but you Christians. I want you to listen. Let me just say this. Let's be clear This is gonna happen again All right, here's the truth. You're not gonna stop it. You're not gonna stop it. I know that's We look for Cure cures to things But in this case, there is no there's there's a cure There is a cure But it didn't well for most for the overwhelming majority of the planet So there is a cure but now but the solution I'm talking about is how we deal with it as believers How we deal with it? First of all how The ways and cures for to stop a school shooting. We'll get to that in just a second I said this we'll go ahead and take the political turn in just a little bit But the way that we deal with this practically Biblically, let me pull up a passage speaking about David Now I'll have to explain it after I read it in Acts 13 36 is for David after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation fell asleep And was laid with his father's and saw corruption. Let me read that again. You all see if y'all can see where I'm coming from after I'm sorry for David after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation Fell asleep and was laid with his father's and saw corruption. Do y'all see where I'm going? Does anybody get my point? By the way guys this work this works My wife would ask me are you worried about this worried about that? My mother asked me one time Because she had found out about Beaumont also when I when they said I had no I why they said me to Beaumont You sent me to the worst prison. Why what's going on? Well? Well She asked she said are you gonna be okay? She thinks it's anybody messing with you. No mama. Nobody's messing with me. I'm all right But I don't know what's gonna happen next week or next month, but I told her something. I said I'm gonna be fine Why? Because God has a purpose for me. I believe that with all my heart and I believe that me being here is part of my part of the Training for for the purpose that he has for me. We see that the Bible says that after David had served his purpose Then he died Come on somebody are y'all are y'all catching on what I'm saying after David served his purpose Then he died Some of y'all stand up because it's going over your head after David served his purpose in His own generation then he died Make it clear if you are about doing the business that God has you to do Guess what guess what you are you are basically immortal until God says so God We are the means by which God uses to spread about his gospel his plan Jesus makes a statement in John 14 He says that these things that I do you'll do because I go to the father great greater works You do all the things that I did Because I go to the father and I've got the spirit now Jesus also made another statement. He was speaking to people. He says a light Should not be hidden a bushel A City on the hill should not be walled off or hidden.  No, he said let your light so shine that men will see your what your good Not mouth your good works and then glorify God. Let them see that let them see you doing something Let them hear you shutting up.   Is there a point in time where you ought to defend yourself? Yes, there is but is there is that most of time I still say I still say most of the time shut up That's me. That's just me. I could be wrong But it's worked out for me I go back and look at all the times that I've ran my mouth and defended me and it was about me And I saw where it got me, but then when I when I made it about God Specifically and someone else I saw where it got me One it doesn't even compare and so If you are serving your purpose Then this statement doesn't apply to you Jesus says if salt loses a saltiness It's season Then it is this is Jesus words not mine, but I concur He says you are worthless good for nothing to be thrown out and trampled under foot by men That's what Jesus says Because what is salt's purpose? To season to season guys.   They'll give you some some peanuts or what have you some you all been into Bar and They've got things with salt in it to do what to make you thirsty So as a believer that we should cause someone to be thirsty They should see our work and then want to after seeing our work want to be like us and glorify God So that's what should happen But Jesus says if you don't do those things you're worthless, but David after he served his purpose Oh, by the way, did not David commit a huge sin David committed a pretty bad sin Rick guys He slept with another man's wife first of all he was checking her out. That's the first thing he's know the second sin He was supposed to be off at the war But he's he's he's chilling. He didn't got too big-headed. He's sitting out on on on his on his deck On his penthouse deck looking over peeping at some woman checking her out lusting then goes inquires and bring her in and Then he has an affair with he sleeps with it and then devise a plan To have the husband To sleep with the woman to make it look like that.     David you pretty bad pretty horrible That's the day the guy says in the scriptures that after his purpose was fulfilled was served Then he rested So even in the midst of our messing up and just screwing up from time to time or all the time Serving your purpose Keeps you alive keep and guess what you want to have the same thing happen with your family now as far as the schools are concerned Let me just say this and somebody get upset with me. My wife is a teacher at a public school You know where our daughter is in the other room she's homeschool That might be it was the last home school shooting that you've seen So and there are ways for working parents who don't have a lot of money to homeschool So I would invite you guys to check that out. Just Google on YouTube Did I say it right Google it on YouTube the same company anyway, y'all know what I mean look it up There are different organizations around who will These homeschool co-ops are people that teach other kids Children with their they may have a child that's being homeschooled and they don't it's a lot of parents a lot of parents don't mind bringing in another kid To homeschool with their kid because it also adds just a little layer of camaraderie a little Fellowship relationship with the other child Parents do that as well or they may Split some things change change some things Right. I know some kids who help someone else out another person out Let's say the child is third twelve thirteen fourteen fifteen and they go to someone else's house Help them out over at that house and then the evening do their homeschooling stuff There's ways to work. That's my point but The public schools There are some good public schools depending on where you are, but it's getting worse and worse Not just the safety aspect, but just what they're teaching now Let me get my drink Because I said we'll go ahead and get political about this. I don't have a problem with this. I think on this I I think I stand firm on this. I think I'm right on this We're trying to figure out what we can do to stop this this from happening You all know like I do there's nothing that you don't do You cannot get in the mind of a person and make them to stop I used to think that there were certain programs that can be brought up for these children for these people to do certain things But when I was in prison and my goal is I'm trying to Minister to people to share the gospel to help some folks along I've had I don't how many times I had to go to bed trying to put some fires out Try to stop somebody from not from not from not accepting the gospel I'm trying to get you to not stab this guy over here I'm trying to get you to stop throw some boiling baby oil or cheese on this person's face I'm trying to get you to do all these things. Don't look can we just have some peace? I'm I'm like the ball headed Rodney King in prison. Can't we all just get along? So I've seen Some of the worst people you could imagine people who just don't care about anything anymore And all of the bad people there's a lot of bad people in prison But all of me in prison as you well know And so bad guys are gonna do bad stuff He talked about the president talked about about how this is a we say this thing that this is a crime That's an American crime. Well, no in terms of Violent crimes and homicide and murder and gun and gun violence. I think we ranked I Think we ranked I think 80 80th 83rd 4th in the world amongst industrialized nations I think we ranked we rank 11th. Not that there's anything anything to be proud about But it's not an issue Unlike other plate. Well, first of all think about it.  They got the internet. They got cable. They got a Wi-Fi. They got cell phones And so it's a little bit different to compare us to them Do we have too many gun crimes? Well, that goes back to the point that I said in the beginning But I issue it's all about me and I'm gonna solve it. You're gonna feel me.  I got this gun that's gonna do it for you I'm gonna get my point across even if I gotta spend the rest of my life in jail or go to death row Cuz we don't think when it when it when we get into our little selfish modes We don't think do we the last thing we'll do is think and So Someone said I'm too political. What'd you sell? Let me read that again.  What? Well, how my political what? Okay, for you say that I I don't know if you watch this this channel very much I don't get very political at all. Yeah, I'd love to know even what what what persuasion I am I'm conservative, but I'm not a Republican But I dang sure in a Democrat So that being said, I Don't have any faith or trust in any of them. I'm just speaking Biblically and really what we would call common sense So you guys if you can go back 30 years or 40 years or 50 years or 80 years or 100 years And we all have kind of the same view on things on how you ought to do certain things But it's just these last 15 20 years All of a sudden everybody before them were wrong. It's like my 30 my 30 year old Her view on life is That the older folks people my age and older we didn't have it right We didn't as As far as I know sweetheart when you were born there was running water and electricity When you were born we had computers and we had all kind of stuff. We had cars moving We had planes in the air.  We tell people that we get we outlaw abortion and then we're gonna have people in the back alleys With cold hangers and what happened before then we didn't have was it ever perfectly imperfect. You're older than me Do you recall an outbreak and epidemic of people in the back alleys having abortions? No, it wouldn't happen guys. What happened? Number one if you listen to people who are young stop that just stop list I'm not saying don't ever listen to them But don't get your marching orders from from from young folks, especially college-age and high school folks. Just don't I don't respect. I do not respect high school age and college-age people's opinions. I'm sorry I'm not being mean, but you haven't earned the right to have a valid adult opinion just yet You just have it I'm okay with the 30 somethings. Sorry 30 somethings, but I'm okay with you a little bit But not too much because you you can do the point where you realize I'm not as smart as I you getting your 40s and 50s like okay. All right. That's why that's when I learned to Might have to be quiet I meant to sit back You couldn't people call it and I've seen it people call you wise when you shut up Because you didn't say what that guy said and you didn't say what she said And so What are some things that we could do that if if if I were not president? Because I would make a horrible present.  Well, yeah, maybe that's the issue They certainly aren't stopping people from getting shot.  I want her to have a pistol I want I want her to if guns are coming this way. I want her shooting guns back that way I want to shoot and bullets back that way. That's that's what I want That that's what I want. I Want and I don't care what you feel about guns. I really not care, but you call somebody on the phone Hello Yeah, we got a guy over here shooting Yeah, now listen what I don't want you to do is make sure the cop comes don't tell him don't bring his gun We don't need any more guns here We don't need any more guns at this shootout. So tell the cops to bring a social worker a priest Tell them I don't know tell him bring his grandma.  It's his buddies with some more bullets What puts it into these threats every time hug of a bullet? Unfortunately cuz guess what I heard of I heard the Western the God and West say some people just need a killing If you had a school shooting up kids, you need a killing. I'm sorry. Is that biblical yet is yet is and so We got I forget how many billions dollars left over for the school relief packages for COVID take that and and and harden these targets up Yeah, I'd like to see more my wife's I'm not gonna say this But there are some schools that don't have metal detectors still We need security there We just do People can say otherwise, but I promise you if your child went to a school where there were two or three security guards there You wouldn't you feel better than the school Then that did not have them there. You just would Disagree. I don't care. I don't care. I Heard somebody put it this way. So you know, they got a good product They got a they had a good point. We just we're sending 40 billion dollars to Ukraine What's the 40 billion dollars gonna go to bullets missiles to shoot back and so The fact of the matter is you do what you can do until All right in the Bible when the bad guy showed up unless God Unless God took them out naturally on his own Unless he calls them to either go blind and start killing themselves as he did once What most often happened with God When a bad guy came what a guy do he caused the means other people to go and to fight the bad guys and the killer With the sword or in David's case with a slingshot or with a bow. That's not an outdated thing That's not perpetuating violence. That's stopping it.  You asked the actual criminals They'll tell you I ain't going to work. I think they got some guns.  I don't care what city you in Well, I take it back. It does it does a term but let's say if you're in a large city A hundred twenty thousand people Let me tell you if you're in a city with a hundred twenty thousand or more a million two million If you're in Dallas if you're in Washington if you're in Seattle if you're in Denver You're in Indianapolis if you're in L.A. Chicago. Can I tell you where the largest? Collection of cash is cash That's it. I can tell you guys right now Don't have a problem with this I can tell you right now where you can go and get a bunch of money It's a lot of money there a lot of money. I'm talking about a lot of money You want to wear? police station They had a lot of seized money at the police station guys A lot of money now. Do you know anybody that's really willing to go in and rob the police station? No, you don't you know why because what do they have there? They got some guns They got some folks with not just one gun But some backup guns and we've been trained to use the guns Because that's what criminals they know where they go. We're not we're not to go And so even even the fools even the deranged people and so for me, I think that's what we ought to do We ought to I don't have a problem with army some folks say hey arming teachers is one step too far Well, I don't think so.  I want her to have a gun. I don't want the next person I want her to have a gun. That's what I want Well, she's not she's not a marksman. What need is a guy shouldn't place up either So but that's just my take You all go ahead and now I'm looking at you at you all's comments in Yeah, I found that out a buddy of mine who's a police officer Toesie. Yeah, we got a bunch of cash here.  But matter of fact, we got drugs there, too so We say School shootings since 2009 United States 288 Mexico 8 South Africa India. All right cool. Yeah, America has a gun issue Jim, where do you live? Jim, where do you live? How much are what are you are you willing to go live in Mexico, South Africa, India, Nigeria, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Canada, France, Brazil, Estonia Are you willing to go to any of those places? No, you're not Again, I know we got a we got a lot of problems. We got a lot of problems We got a we got an abortion problem. We had a suicide problem All of these relate to what I just read all of them all of them and so naturally if we're gonna act out in some areas Because of our Fixation on us. It's gonna also show up in How we deal with people violently or not about it with guns or not with knives run over folks blowing up people so Amen Now and the only problem with with that is there are in some of the small kids Especially in Texas some of the as you start start going out west the places like Abilene and sweetwater You go to places that are in West Texas even in this area as well all the schools There's text like Texas Texas is so big There's not enough resources Kind of resources to put retired officers or trained officers there and so sometimes you got there's I forgot where it is There's one community where they vote and the teachers do have guns, you know, it ain't nobody doing nobody shoot that place up Oh, I'm sorry Some of you all never thought or knew that there are some school districts in America that do have teachers who are packing Yeah, have you ever heard of a teacher shooting a kid in school and happen yet? By the way, y'all do realize that people that have The people that are some of the least likely to commit a crime are Americans with a concealed license a concealed carry permit You know, there are less likely to commit a crime than an actual police officer is think about it A police officer is more likely to commit a crime than a person with a concealed permit Why because most case not all case most most cases folks are trying to abide by the law they want to keep that permit as well Right The person's gonna commit a crime. He doesn't need to permit or anything. He's gonna go ahead and do it That's it right there. They need the gospel They need the gospel problem is in America is that this we give the gospel we don't get we give a gospel verbally We don't give the gospel physically We don't do things to let folks know that I am definitely a Christian my mouth Don't tell you that it says that but my words my actions my feet my hands. They verify that I'm a Christian and What's what's the old saying that that Reagan said trust would verify? Yeah, what you're saying, but let me see your work. And so a lot of times we don't We don't show it We don't show it so Why does everybody blame the gun? It doesn't go off by itself.  It might have been guns and his point was would you would you feel better if they'd have pushed him out of a window? I mean people people gonna do what they're gonna do Whether it's a gun Whether it's a knife granted. It's easier. It's easier to do it with a gun than it is with the knife I I get that I get that but I can tell you from the other guy standpoint that if they know you got a gun Because what these guys aren't they're not trained It's like the old Wild West where they I'm a fast draw and I don't care who you got in town I can out draw all of them. No, no They know that if someone has the potential to fire back I go. I'm gonna do it Because what are most criminals most criminals are also selfish and they don't want to get shot so This only happens in what actually it doesn't only happen in America, but to the degree that it does first of all, it's more known it's more talked about It happens to have a rape again with a third lord y'all do realize we have a third largest country population wise in the world in the world and America's got some problems. I'm not I'm not gonna sit and say that we don't have problems we and so So let me ask you all let me ask you this question You all believe it is true America. America does have a gun violence problem That would be wrong to say we don't America has a gun violence problem So knowing that America has a problem with gun violence What do you want in return since there are people out there who are? Crazy who are deranged who are about themselves when it comes to guns And we'll use a gun to come in and take your stuff. What do you want to do about it?  Listen, I like to call the person with the gun, but it's better to have the gun there with you, right? We have a violence problem Exactly, right? We have a sin problem and sin begots again We just unless we think that the Bible is incorrect the Bible says what causes that the cause of all of that is selfishness selfishness We need I Say what do you want manual says a bigger gun? Yeah The bigger gun how I was talking to a guy. This was funny I was talking to a guy. He was educating me on my AR-15 and some of the other guns and I My question was I'm playing devil's advocate. Why do you need this kind of gun that can do that kind of damage?   I want to kill you I could use a slingshot. I can use a butter knife. I can grab a toaster and throw at you I can use darts or I can use a gun now if I use a gun which kind of gun One that I know for a fact will do the job or one that might not I Want the job that's gonna if I pull the trigger I mean for a certain result to stop the threat And and it's not my fault that you robbed the house or you attacked the person who has the AR-15 Sorry, not my not my fault your fault. Don't try to rob me next time It's kind of how it goes and so I'm not bothered by because you mean to end the threat now How many magazine I mean how many clips did you have how many books you've been the magazine? Well, what's saying by the way, this is I should have brought the point I didn't think about this, but there was a case where they actually brought up a Person was Attacked in their home. It was two or three people trying to get in their house and They shot They killed two two of the people one got away got hurt. I forget Thirty something rounds so I had to hit a reload And he needed all of those rounds You give me only seven bullets and I need eight now what I'm gonna do So I Don't I will never tell someone how they ought to defend themselves Just that you have that right But when it comes to now, here's where it to me. This is the this I don't get it It shouldn't even be political, but when it comes to babies, these are babies y'all I got a fifth a fifth grader a grandchild was in fifth grade. I Got a grandchild in fifth grade and one I think she's a kindergarten And apparently what's happening is age doesn't matter to them to the to the to the violently insane Age does not matter to these people and so I don't care what they if you come to attack a child Whatever you get coming. Hey, listen hopes and grace hits you But I hope the grace hits you after the bullets have stopped you from harming these children That's what I hope My concern is no longer yours is for the is for these children and I want the teachers that at this school I think the boy was was was he was in the building. I'm not don't don't quote me I might be wrong, but I think in the building for 30 minutes to 45 minutes before he did anything kind of meandering around also outside of the building for a while and so There was a failure or a lapse in getting the authorities there because again, it's a 15,000 or 16,000 Population community. So it's not a whole lot of law enforcement. I like here in Dallas or Chicago anywhere with the police everywhere Okay, so it took a little while and who and and ultimately it wasn't a police officer that stopped it It was a Border Patrol agent who was nearby who went in think that guy. Amen to him who went in there to In the threat and all of this happened apparently in one classroom The guy goes in there and he kills everybody. I don't think he kills everybody But all the folks that died were in that one classroom But Anyway Let's see. Let's see An AR team is only glorified by the military. They are not as power Not as powerful as mainstream media wants you. Yeah, what it is is that they look they look scary And they are 15. They're much more powerful guns than AR 15, but it looks scary And so that is the argument. Why do you need 190 mile per hour? Because that Corvette look good. It's got some get up and go But that is argument. I don't think it's a good argument What if why do you need a million dollar life insurance policy with really all you need is a hundred thousand dollars? Because I want to have it. I want I wanted to do more than what I needed to do What if I need it and I don't have it? so The question is going to be though guys now if you really want to stop the onslaught of violence If you really want to stop the onslaught of violence in America Then share the gospel Make that your mission. I Think more people who become Christian. I mean show enough Christian as I say real Christian those who have Put honest to goodness faith in Christ That's one person who's not likely to go out and to kill by the way Have you ever looked at the stats of people who who are Christians?  There's no there's no way to really measure Nationally through a survey if a person's a real Christian or not But one of the things that can that can happen is If we if we just look at the habits of people who attend church regularly The divorce rate is not 50% amongst them. It's very low the suicide rate is low crime and fairly low The the achievement rate of their children is higher Amongst folks who call themselves Christian and who attend church regularly. That's one of the only ways that we can really measure someone's biblical commitment because we are commanding the Bible to go to church so That's something that we can do we can be used to spread the gospel As a matter of fact proverb 17, that's what I'll be doing this evening Walking around in in a in one of the hoods sharing the gospel I'm a matter of fact I'm gonna put on a B smart shirt today and go out and share the guy Well, I'm sharing the guys will be out there a little B smart shirt.  I Mean, I can call myself a woman and you can do about that Apparently you are whatever you want to call yourself and it's always been that folks who call themselves Christians get lumped in with the actual Christians You know we can do about that so Hey, but you know what I mean don't feel I mean when I say devil's advocate I'm saying I'm just I get what you're saying I'm just playing the other side of the fence just trying to throw something out to see how someone would counter that But no, I'm not advocating for the devil's side. You're right. You're right He is mark he's always been trying to get people's attention I Said it before folks took took offense to it. I'll say it again God will do whatever it takes to get your attention even that means knocking down to two towers in New York Folks showed up in church didn't after the after 9-eleven, didn't they? If if that means he's got a flood Katrina. That was his water that came He will do what it takes and we forget that God is not into doing the things that with the same means that we would We would rather just have a campaign online campaign put some billboards on the side of the street to get folks who recognize that He's got no guys. You know what? I'm gonna do this. I'm gonna let you see who's the big dog in here and so If we really are bothered by what happened the one thing that we can do is As best we can do one live out our The guys we say we're promoting with our mouth live it out in our bodies, but also share And the best way you can you can protect yourself and your family is to make sure that their purpose is God's purpose. I Think I think David gives us the example of If our purpose is still yet fulfilled and we're still working in it Well, I think guys gonna take care of us. He's gonna keep us This nice I see Rashan be and we ought to repent now. Unfortunately, this nation will never repent This nation will never repent. It ain't gonna happen The world is not guys The world is not going to get better. Look at the scriptures. He's not coming back to a repenting world to a world whose heart is turned to To Him Are you angry with the shooter in Texas? I'm not angry with them. I'm extremely disappointed.  I'm angry. I'm disappointed. I don't know what happened I don't know who failed him. I Heard talking about abandonment abandonment issues again.  So I'm not shooting a you know, try to hit him in the kneecap and maim him No, I'm shooting and take him out I would pray Lord like what's the movie that Mel Gibson was in pray Lord make my aim accurate make me fast and accurate And so because that's that's what you're supposed to do But after having shot him if he's still living I would try to save him I would try to do my best to you know, give him to the hospital have you and I feel bad because again He was a baby himself We think that 18 means you know something but no 18.  That's why I don't advocate Sending 18 year olds off to four-year colleges miles and miles away when the previous week You couldn't get the cat the kid to clean his room up And you go to junior college for the first two years are online and then as you become more You know more custom doing things on your own then you can go so But my heart goes out to that guy No, I'm not making tic-tac videos yet But but they again the guy that came in there he was a hero the the what's his Border patrol agent do I own a gun? Nope, and I can't I'm a felon now at some point in time I will because of the nature of my crime. I it'll be easier for me to get my My gun rights back you can't what people do is they get their gun rights back to the state Well, just about every state. Well, I wouldn't say that but it won't be hard to get it back in Texas But you have to get it back federally And I've seen guys who got their gun rights back from the state in really wasting the federal government has Got it as a thing to say about that. So That will happen later And when it does I plan to be packing so Now there are there are other weapons that I can have if you are a felon you can have You can have other weapons that discharge, but it cannot be a firearm I mean there cannot be an explosion to send out a projectile Can you tell I've researched this He says I do amen Yeah, so I listen I'm an advocate of other folks having guns too so Wait a minute, did you change your you change your avatar don't do that I get used to I get used to seeing you guys But you change. Okay. What does that mean? I'm not sure what does that mean?   So I'm But that but I do have something I do have something so but I'm not opposed to violence. I'm just not against it either I'm not. I'm sorry. I'm not advocating violence. I'm not opposed to it in defending yourself But this is what we have to do as we get ready close I don't want a big cane corso cuz I because I don't I don't want a dog that if it turned Because I've seen I'm I didn't do more research on these cane corsoes. I don't like pit bulls Do not like pit bulls. Nope. Nope. Nope. No People say it ain't the pit bull. It's the owner. Okay, whatever Yeah, what a pit bull turns and they have been known to turn on the owners Even if the owner is trained pit bulls, they just it's just that their bread their breed They're unstable and so when they turn somebody getting hurt if a pit bull has a bad day you having a bad day No, I don't know who Henry Henry minor is I if you maybe maybe he's a cousin. There's not a lot. I was told most Most minors are related so might be Yeah, pit bulls are good dogs until they turn Until they turn out. There's a lot of stories of folks who love that dog and the dog turn Every everybody think about a guy's everybody has a bad day every dog has a bad day If if my dog coconut or Lucy has a bad coconut can do some damage, but she's not she I don't know She can kill anybody Lucy she couldn't she she cake Lucy cake. She can't even eat bread, right, right?  They can't they have a bad day and who knew but the pit bull has a bad day Yeah, I thought about getting the mask now. Look, that's what happens on this channel We talk about something now you tell my masters and so but I'll never get a pit bull And some cities have outlawed pit bulls why because when you go down the list of each state and you see Who is responsible for killing and maiming people to commit the type of list now in Texas the dog That that leaves the state in bites or chihuahua. That's why I use the word That's why you chihuahuas chihuahuas lead the state in in bites in dog attacks No one's no one died.  Well, yeah What are you gonna do if your neighbor got a tiger? And he walking down the street with it.  Anyway, but In the end all of this senseless foolishness all of this violence all of And it's just it's not just this guys because guess what we talk about the 22 that died at that one school Do you know how many people died? period yesterday car accident heart attack cancer violence You know me people died a lot What is it one point something first people die every second born to but still so life and death are promised and We get hung up on the house. I do pray that some of those children they were old enough to know Christ I prayed that was the case for those teachers as well And so all we can do guys is pray that we are in God's will that we are serving him that we are doing We're supposed to do that our purpose is in him and then and and then when it's time for us to lead It will be after we have served his purpose Would that be at age 50 at age 20 at age 100? I don't know but You won't leave until that time occurs. So guys, I want to go ahead and leave you I don't see Lisa because Lisa hates the way that I end the in the programs But I need to consult with her with how she wants me to end them But guys, I will see you all tomorrow. I had to push the video back. That was for today It'll be there tomorrow tomorrow is Thursday We haven't in our Q&A. So we'll probably do that. You know what because it can't be Friday Don't go on it We'll probably have it. Okay, we'll have two videos tomorrow. That'll be we'll have the Q&A tomorrow So guys have your questions and answers. We have your questions ready tomorrow and we'll do the Q&A tomorrow So guys also, I still have not heard what the deal is with With Dina I sent her an email. I hadn't I hadn't responded. I she hadn't responded back yet I did see she put something out on her community posts. So Hopefully she's doing better, but keep keep her in prayer Anyway, guys, you all have a wonderful day y'all pray for us as we go out hit these streets that somebody will come to the Lord but Because someone else is out there preaching that mean you don't that doesn't mean that you don't need to either So be a priest around your home to your children to your husband to your wife I don't mean the priest is the leader but but live the gospel out at home but then let someone else know that God has done something for them and testified to them what has happened.  But first start with your home Start with your home in your neighborhood in your community and in your city At least the Lord at least heaven will know that this person is going to fight Like all get out as bad as he can to let someone know what Jesus has done. Amen. Amen


Welcome to JSA TV, the newsroom for tech and telecom professionals and JSA radio, the voice of tech and telecom on iHeart Radio. I'm Barb Mitchell and I'm here today with Rob Barlow, president and CEO of YRIE. Rob, thanks for coming. Oh, thanks for having me. Just before Christmas there was some great news that came out of the government of Canada regarding new essential services for Canadians. Can you talk a little bit about how that impacts your business? Well, for one thing it really validated our whole business plan. It basically stated that the digital economy is important for the government of Canada and we are going to be enhancing the ability for citizens of Canada to actually access digital technologies. And it's very important and specifically YRIE is very happy to participate in such a pro program. It's something that, you know, it's going to get us started. This really focuses on enhancing what's out there and also building NetNew. And I know that education is always a big priority for YRIE. So can you talk a little bit about some of the things that you want to focus on with regard to education around some of your customers and the industry in general? Well, what we find is that people don't know what they don't know. And it's important to educate the end customer to make them understand that technologies such as Ethernet and that the fact that you don't have to, you know, be satisfied with like for like and procurement contracts and things like that, that Ethernet is here to stay. The growth of Ethernet is exponentially 20 to 40% annual growth per year. It's something that YRIE is very passionate about, making sure people understand the things that you can do. It's really something that enhances productivity, unleashes the potential of businesses and communities and citizens of Canada. And with 2017 now upon us, can you talk about some of the new things that you'll be working on this year and in the years ahead? Well, basically we're really focusing on making sure that our network that's out there today is, I mean, being utilized with partners, making sure that the business case that we have is facilitated correctly. Of course, new funding like the government of Canada has put out there for the digital economy really helps our case. Great. Well, thanks again, Rob. Thanks for coming. And thanks to all of you for tuning in to JSA TV and JSA Radio.