Good morning and welcome everyone. Thank you so much for connecting on this morning's mentoring hour. We have a subject which is of concern to all of us and we'll get into it shortly. But before we talk about the subject and hand it over to the person who will be sharing, let's begin with the word of prayer and I want to request one of us on the call to please go ahead and lead us in prayer. Alright, maybe Natasha? Natasha, is it possible to please lead us in prayer? Yeah, sure Nancy. Thank you so much. Father God, we just want to come at this hour into your care. Lord, you know our needs. You just fulfil the desires of our heart this morning. Just answer our questions, meet our needs and be with the deeper Ma'am as she teaches us Lord and everyone who has some question on their heart. Just answer them. Lord, we just come at this hour into your care. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Amen. Thank you so much Natasha. So today's subject is familiar to all of us because in some of the other season of life we're sure we've all experienced worry and anxiety to a certain extent. But today Pasadipika is going to shed more light concerning what is a godly concern regarding matters as compared to worrying or being anxious about matters. So I'll just hand it over to Pasadipika who's also one of our faculty here at the Bible College and Pasadipika will take us through what she has for us today. Over to you Pasadipika. Thank you so much. Yeah, I will open up the presentation and then we can get started. Yeah, just let me figure out. Is it showing up on everyone's screens? It is, but it's fairly large. So if possible to just reduce it a little, it would be helpful. Yeah, perfect. This is awesome. All right. Yeah. So yes, today we will talk about the difference between godly concern and ungodly anxiety. If we were to look in 2 Kings chapter 13 verse 23, it says over there that the Lord had compassion on the Israelites and showed concern for them. So it is a good and godly thing to have concern for our families, for the people that we love regarding the things that are important to us. It is good to have a godly concern in the same way God was concerned for his family of Israelites, for their life, for their future. So we should be concerned about how we manage our finances, about paying our bills on time, about our health.  However, we are told to never worry about these things. So we should be careful and see to it that our godly concern for these things doesn't cross the line and turn into ungodly worry or anxiety. So how can we know whether what we are experiencing in our mind, whether it is godly concern or whether it is ungodly worry. So we will look at a few points which can help us to determine whether what we are experiencing is godly concern or whether it is ungodly worry and anxiety. So the first point to remember is that whenever it is legitimate godly concern, it is always god-centered in the sense in a crisis situation believer with godly concern would do whatever he is able to do in his capacity from his side. And whatever is beyond his capacity, whatever is beyond his control, he trustingly releases that into God's sovereign hands. He chooses not to worry about it. In other words, he is content to let God resolve the issue in what way God sees fit. On the other hand, worry is very self-centered because worry rises out of a desire to control every event and somehow make it turn out exactly the way we want it to turn out. You know, because God doesn't give us exact details about how exactly he is going to resolve the problem and what exactly he is going to do, when he is going to do it. He doesn't give us those details. The warrior is not comfortable with this. The warrior is not comfortable with leaving things in God's hands. He wants to be in control of every aspect of that issue and only that will make him feel safe. And so he worries, he thinks to himself, what if God doesn't make things go the way I want it? What if the outcome is different? What if this happens? What if that happens? And so he is not comfortable with allowing God to be God and allowing God to decide what is best. So the warrior is very self-centered and this causes him to worry. On the other hand, a person who trusts God will do whatever he can from his side and leave the rest in God's hands trusting God to decide and make decisions. So one question that we can ask ourselves when we are feeling concerned about something is, we can ask ourselves, am I just doing my part regarding this problem regarding this issue? Am I just simply doing my part sincerely and leaving the rest in God's hands? Or do I keep worrying and wishing that somehow I could control even God's part and somehow make him do things the way I want things to go? So that indicates, I mean if our attitude is of the second type where we are trying to control all of it and we want to just somehow make God work things our way, if that is our attitude, it shows that we have crossed over from godly concern into ungodly worry where we want to control events, where we want to have our way. And that is why we go on reflecting upon that issue in our mind and thinking, okay, what can I do to somehow force things in this direction instead of just trusting the Lord and leaving it in his hands. A second point that maybe we can keep in mind is that godly concern is always action-oriented because the person has a godly concern and he is looking to God trustingly. He asks himself, what would God have me do in this particular situation? Because we read in Ephesians 2-10, we are told that we are created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. So which means for every situation of our lives, God already has certain works in mind for us which he would like us to do in those particular situations. So a person who is trusting will ask the Lord and say, Lord I am deeply concerned about the situation that I am going through that my family is going through. What would you have me do with regard to this? So they trust God and they take a step of faith and they do whatever God is leading them to do. On the other hand, worry paralyzes action because instead of looking to God, the warrior goes on looking at the problem and the more the person looks at the problem, the bigger the problem becomes in their eyes and they become so filled with anxiety and fear that it literally paralyzes them and they do nothing, they just keep worrying. So that would be a negative way of approaching it. So we see that especially in the case of the David and Goliath story where we are told in 1 Samuel chapter 17, we are told that for 40 days, every morning and every evening, Goliath comes to the Israelite army and he challenges them saying, give me a man to fight with. And we are told in 1 Samuel chapter 17 verses 10, 11, it says over there that Saul and the Israelites kept looking at this giant and it says over there that they were dismayed and terrified. So you see their eyes were on the giant. Their eyes were on what the giant is saying and that dismayed and terrified them. On the other hand, David does not look at the giant. He doesn't look at the problem rather he looks at God and he takes a simple step of faith. He takes his staff in one hand. He takes up the sling in the other hand. He takes five smooth stones and he steps out to do whatever little he can do. And in fact Goliath is amused with his efforts. Goliath says to David in 1 Samuel 17 verse 43.  Because you see what David is doing on his part is very, very little. But then David clarifies and he says, I'm coming to you not with sticks. That's basically what he's trying to indicate. He says, I'm not coming to you with sticks. He says in verse 45 he says, I am coming to you in the name of the Lord of hosts. And he says in verse 46, this day the Lord will deliver you into my hand. So David was not under any impression that his staff or his sling is going to achieve the end result. He was stepping out in faith doing the little bit that he could do. Trusting God to do the bigger part of bringing down the giant. So a question that maybe we could ask ourselves, a second question that we can ask ourselves is, when we are concerned about something, we can ask ourselves, am I proactively going to God trustingly and saying, Lord for all of my life situations, you have already planned good works that you would like me to do. So in this situation, what small role would you like me to play? So we ask him and whatever we feel the Lord telling us to do, we do that. Knowing that that little bit that we are doing is not going to resolve the problem. But the God in whom we are trusting, he will take care of the bigger issues. Our role is just to do the little part that he is entrusting to us. So we ask ourselves, am I exercising godly concern and just doing whatever God is leading me to do? Or am I so paralyzed with fear that I am not able to take any action? So if it is the latter, then that would be ungodly worry rather than godly concern. A third point that maybe we can keep in mind is that godly concern shows love and care. But ungodly worry tends to get obsessed when we care about someone, when we love someone. Yes, we do feel deep concern regarding them, regarding the situation that they are facing. But we choose not to become obsessed with it. An example that we can look at is in 1 Samuel chapter 15, where the Lord says that Saul is now rejected from being king. And this grieves Samuel very deeply. In 1 Samuel 15 verse 11, it says, it grieves Samuel and he cried out to the Lord all night. The entire night he intercedes on behalf of Saul. This is an example of godly concern where Samuel takes this issue before God and pleads on behalf of Saul. But then later in 1 Samuel chapter 16 verse 1, this is what God says to Samuel. He says, how long will you mourn for Saul? And he says to him, fill your horn with oil and be on your way. So we are not sure how many weeks or how many days Samuel spends in thinking about Saul and in praying for him and all of that. But a point comes where the Lord says, no, I have rejected him as king and now it is time for you to move on. So it is good for us to care for our loved ones and be concerned for them and intercede for them in prayer and think about them. But we are never meant to be obsessed with them and their issues. We are meant to leave things in God's hands and let God be the final person in authority who decides what should be done and how things should go. So a third question that we can ask ourselves is, this thing that I'm very deeply concerned about, this person about whom I'm deeply concerned. Am I placing them before God in prayer? If I'm doing that, that is definitely godly concern. But if I'm constantly worrying and obsessing about them and I want things to go in a particular way regarding them, then that would be ungodly concern. So these are just three simple points that we looked at to assess whether what we are experiencing in our heart and mind is godly concern or whether it is ungodly anxiety. So in case we are experiencing ungodly concern, ungodly worry, then what can we do regarding that? How can we see to it that our concern stays godly and something acceptable in the eyes of God and not turn into something that is displeasing to the Lord so that we don't allow this godly concern to turn into anxiety or worry? What can we do? What preventive measures can we take? There's this one Christian counselor who suggested this. He said, imagine two circles, a very large circle, that would be God's circle, and then imagine another small circle. And so he says, whatever is outside of your control, things that you can't do anything about, place them very firmly in God's circle. They are meant to be handled by the Lord. So you commit it to him and you say, Lord, you take care of these things for me because they are outside my control. And whatever you can do from your side, whatever little faith steps that you can take with God's permission and with his help, you write down those things in the small circle. So you do those things to the best of your ability and choose not to worry about the things which have been placed in the large circle. To use an example, let's assume that a mother is very concerned about her teenager who's becoming very, very rebellious. So she's very concerned now about the future of this girl. But can she control the future of her daughter? Can she make things go in a certain direction and determine what kind of a career that girl is going to move into and what life choices she's going to make? Those are outside the mother's control. So she has to trustingly place the daughter's future in the large circle. But as a mother, there are many things that she can do to improve the future of her child. So in the small circle, prayerfully, she can jot down the things that she can do to work towards improving the child's future. For instance, she can keep her in prayer, intercede for her. She would maybe write down in the small circle in what way she's going to spend more time with her so that they can start talking, be comfortable with each other and talk about certain issues that need to be brought up. Maybe in the small circle, she could put down prayerfully some point that she specifically wants to take up with a girl and then ask God for an approach on how best to bring up that topic. So things that she can do, she places them in the small circle, focuses on those things, prays about them, does it to the best of her ability with the Lord's help. But she makes a conscious choice to place the bigger things which are outside of her control in God's circle and say, Lord, you take care of it. I choose not to dwell upon this. So whenever thoughts come about, okay, what's going to happen? If she doesn't get the required marks, will she get a seat in that college? So whenever those thoughts come which are outside of her control, she would firmly say to herself, no, this is in God's circle. God is going to take care of it in his time. So I choose to trust in him and not dwell upon this. So that would be one good strategy to employ in dealing with worry. So from our side, we are acting in faith so we can have confidence in that, that we have God's backing. And on the other hand, when it comes to the larger circle things, we are choosing consciously to place those things in the Lord's hands to move very, very quickly into the rest of the points. Another thing that we can choose to do is to prevent our concerns from growing into idols. Because it says in Matthew 633 that if we seek God's kingdom first and His righteousness first and the spiritual things that need to come first, which should be the first priority, He says that if we seek those things and focus on those things, all the other things which we need for our life will anyway be automatically added to us. That is the promise that He has made. So rather than idolizing the secondary things and worrying about them, if we choose to keep our priorities straight and if we keep the first things first, then we can have the confidence that God will do His part and He will add the secondary things to us as and when required. So rather than idolizing the secondary things, if we can get our priorities right, that would help us not to worry too much. Another point is that... Sorry to interrupt you. Would we be able to wrap up maybe in a minute or so so that we can open up the time for questions? Alright. Sure. So another point is that we are expected by God to plan for the future and work towards the future, but we are not supposed to worry about the future because it says in Matthew 6.34 that when that future comes, when that day of future, that day that we are working towards comes, whatever is required for that day will be provided on that day, on that tomorrow. So we work towards it, we plan towards it, but we don't worry about it because the provision for that day will come on that day. So we don't need to worry about it beforehand. Another point that we can dwell upon is to offer our prayers with thanksgiving because when we offer our prayers with thanksgiving, it's a reminder to our heart and mind about the nature of God, His faithfulness of God and that builds up our faith and another point when we have these worrisome thoughts coming into our minds about what if I don't get a job, what if my health doesn't improve. So when those what-ifs come into our mind, we take hold of those what-ifs and we declare scripture to them. That's basically what we do. So if the thought comes, oh what if I don't get a salary hike, how am I going to handle all the bills which are going to come in? So I take hold of that worrisome thought and I declare to it and say whether or not I get the salary hike, my God shall take care of all my needs, He shall supply all my needs according to His riches and glory. So these are just some of the pointers that we can use in seeing to it that our concern stays on the side of godly concern and doesn't go over, cross over the line and go into becoming a very ungodly anxiety or a worry. Yeah, so let me stop sharing the screen and yes, yeah. That's about it. Thank you. Thank you so much Deepika. This subject as we stated earlier is, you know, it's interesting but it's also something that each one of us have experienced at some point or the other experiencing godly concern and then, you know, maybe worry, anxiety and I'm sure that there will be a whole bunch of questions today. So we're going to open up this time for us to go ahead and ask our questions. You may either post the questions on the chat or kindly unmute your mics and ask the questions. Deepika is here and so are our other faculty and we'll do our best to answer your questions. All right, so maybe just let me just pose a question to Deepika. Deepika, practically how do you handle worry? Like if you're in a situation where worrying is an option then what do you do practically in order to overcome that? Yeah, so I mean it was a few months ago that I read about these two circles so I practice it almost every single day. And when a thought comes into my mind if it is something that is outside of my control something that I cannot do anything about I immediately remind myself this is in God's circle. So God is going to take care of it in his time, in his way. I just need to do whatever I can in the smaller circle. So if it is something that I can do something about maybe work towards achieving that bigger thing so whatever little bit I can do from my side I will prayerfully do but I have made a conscious choice and ever since I got to know about this whole two circle thing to tell myself if it is something that belongs in that bigger circle I say no, I'm not going to dwell upon it the Lord will take care of it and the faith to be able to do that that basically has come by spending a lot more time than earlier in God's presence basically to learn two things first to educate my mind more and more about his faithfulness and his love that has been a big help the second thing is to become more and more aware of who I am in Christ my status so these two things even as I'm dwelling upon them and improving in knowing these two areas God, his nature, his faithfulness and who I am how he regards me what my status is so even as I have been dwelling more on these things it's become much easier for me to leave those things which are in God's circle let him take care of it in his way in his time I'm not going to meddle, I'm not going to try to control that area and make God do things in my way it's become easier because now I'm able to trust him more so that has been one very very helpful thing for me sure thank you so much thank you Deepika while we wait for questions would just like to open out this question to all our faculty anyone can please answer if you're facing a very difficult situation there's always that temptation to go into worry and anxiety but how do you handle it what are some practical things that you do in order to take care of that situation and not move into worry and anxiety any of our faculty please feel free to unmute and share okay I think I'll go ahead and ask Pastor Jai Kumar Pastor Jai Kumar any thoughts on this morning everyone I think that was a great distinguisher between godly concern and worry and while we have the direct commandment from the Lord not to worry and practically some other things that we can do for me personally there are a couple of things that I'd like to do in the natural and in the spiritual one of the things is in the natural physical I just like to go for a walk just to move more and physically do something that always helps me and at the same time just to pray in the spirit and just to worship the Lord pray in tongues and we know that we pray in tongues that we are being edified in the inner man sometimes we don't know what we should pray for as we ought but the Holy Spirit makes the prayer for us and with that Francis so those are things that I immediately I can think of that I would move to and do in my life thank you thank you Pastor Jai Kumar that was really helpful any others of our faculty want to share please feel free to how do you handle a difficult situation and not going to worry alright while we wait for questions or comments I can just share two things that I can think of right now one of course is prayer as Philippians chapter 4 encourages us to bring everything to the Lord with thanksgiving that is very powerful so when we pray we can actually strengthen our trust our faith in the Lord and we know that we hand over our burdens we cast our cares on the Lord and then we receive off His peace and that is incredible that's a great privilege that we have so praying in these times and secondly I think breaking down the task into doable sections so to have a good look at the task be very objective about it and as Pastor Deepika was sharing she was saying that what God can do we need to just hand it over to Him and do what we can do and so when we take a good objective look at the task we can understand which sections we can tackle and then if we can break that down and tackle with the smaller sections and therefore have a plan to deal with what we are able to deal with that's also empowering so those are two things that I can think of and that way be able to overcome worry and anxiety so we have a question here in the chat section Jefina is asking what's the difference between worry anxiety and depression that's quite technical but any thoughts on it about the faculty as well so worry is generally thoughts about the future things which have not happened and will probably never happen it's all these thoughts in the mind what if this happens what if that happens so it's basically the what ifs so worry is about thinking about things which may happen or purely imaginary things which will never take place that would be worry I suppose anxiety is more a kind of pervasive feeling of fear that goes on and on because I mean you might have had a bad experience in the past and now you're anxious that maybe it's gonna happen again and it's this kind of fear always constantly that oh you know the bad experiences of my past are gonna get repeated again what am I gonna do what am I gonna do that would be anxiety I suppose it can also be a very severe worry where you are so worried about these imaginary things that you're thinking may happen that it turns into anxiety where it becomes a kind of pervading fear that's always there in the background you know it's always there running in your mind so anxiety I would say is a stronger you know yeah it's a stronger symptom where you have allowed the worry to get to a stage where it has now become a continuous background noise of anxiety depression on the other hand with regard to worry and anxiety is it because depression on its own I suppose would be sadness I know it's a feeling of deep sadness that you're not able to come out of it's a sense of hopelessness so with regard to the topic of worry and anxiety depression is maybe when you have if you have given up hope you feel that the problems are so big and so huge and these imaginary things which you think may may happen in the future seem so impossible that you have just given up and maybe that has you know left you feeling depressed so maybe that could be one way of putting it across if anyone else can throw more light yeah that would be good yeah yeah thank you Deepika you know as I stated these are technical words as well like as far as mental health is concerned so to get their exact definitions a little bit of Google search and some research would help but Deepika shared you know from her understanding so we're grateful for that I hope that's okay Jafina can we move on to the next question okay thank you thank you for that we'll go to Sheba's question Sheba Shinde she says in sickness sometimes we get scared about that sickness we know the word we confess we confess it then also suddenly sometimes we get scared what is this and what we can do in this situation is it anxiety or fear yeah if I'm going through a sickness then I would have a lot of thoughts coming into my mind you know in different scenarios I may wonder whether it's going to take a long time for me to get well I may wonder whether the medicines are going to be working so you just have all of these thoughts coming in so we would have to you know whatever we can do you know if you think that sickness has lasted long enough and you would need a second consultation so whatever you can do from your side logically thoughtfully prayerfully you would take those steps and do that but then some of the things that you may be imagining about your sickness those things may not even take place because those are in the future you're thinking it may go that way it may go this way so anything that is beyond your control the Lord will take care of he would not hold you responsible you know to somehow resolve something that is out of your hands so the bigger issues regarding your sickness the Lord will take care so you continue to claim the scriptures and we would just continue to exercise our faith and in his time the Lord will provide the healing so when these thoughts different thoughts come to us any step that we can take from our side we do we go ahead and take it but if it is something beyond our control and it may not even happen in the future we just leave it in the Lord's hands and we say Lord you know you will take care of this in your time and we continue to hold on to the scriptures so yes thank you Deepika I was just wondering if we could also discuss the faith aspect in such a situation because you know as she was sharing here in when one is sick and seemingly it's you know be extending that sickness is extending and a person is getting scared anxious and fearful so how can we apply faith I will just request Pastor Ashish would you have any thoughts about how to handle this matter what the Bible teaches us is you know to to just continue strong in faith so there is God's side to this to healing and there is man's side to healing man's posture is not one of passive waiting but it's active faith and that's where I think a lot of us miss it faith is not passive faith is active that means so you know sometimes we use the phrase leave it in God's hands and how do we translate that the wrong way to translate leave it in God's hands sit and do nothing that's not what the Bible calls us to to leave it in God's hands means yes I know God's the healer his will is to heal me his timing is now his timing is not in the future my second Corinthians after 6 verses 1 and 2 says now is the appointed time now is the day of salvation so when does God want me to be saved God doesn't want me to be saved tomorrow God wants me to be saved now that's God's appointed time so that's very clear that scripture so God's timing for salvation is now but and faith is now but many times because of our our thought we say I'm leaving it in God's hands what we're really doing is we're putting it off into the future but God's timing is now salvation is now and the word salvation we understand includes healing safety deliverance everything so what is God's time to heal what's God's time to save us it's now not tomorrow not day after so our the wrong understanding of faith is I leave it in God's hands which means I become passive that's not Bible faith Bible faith is active it's dynamic it means I am standing in faith and I'm pressing into what is mine that's Bible faith passivity is not Bible faith right so going back to this question we have to ask ourselves what is the posture of my faith is the posture of my faith passive what is the posture of my faith active if my what is active faith it's pressing in right Jesus said Matthew 11 verse 12 the kingdom of heaven suffers violence and the violent take it not the passive take it or the violent take it by force so there's a difference between being violent and being passive and who are the ones who are going to take what's in the kingdom those who are violent not those who are passive so in those times of sickness we need to stay violent we need to stay active we need to keep pressing in with every ounce of strength we have to press in not to be passive right so how would that translate that means okay my healing hasn't manifested but I'm going to maybe double up in the time in the word of God if I was spending an hour meditating healing scriptures I'm going to start doing two hours or if I've been speaking God's word you know once a day I'm going to say Lord this is mine I'm going to do it twice a day now so God's appointed time for our healing for our salvation for our deliverance is now not tomorrow and so we have to be aggressive pressing into the kingdom of God and like Paul said and I'll probably close with this verse I don't want to make this a sermon what Paul said in Ephesians 6 he says having done all to stand stand therefore that means I've done everything what else must I do keep standing you know and that's standing is not a posture of passivity passivity would be having done put on your full hama having done all to stand, sit down, relax that's passivity but the active posture is having done all to stand I'm standing up and I'm pressing forward with the the weapons that God is giving me so I think that's what we should be doing being very active and not faith shiva and fear is an enemy it's something we don't tolerate doubt is an enemy anxiety is an enemy so we resist it we don't tolerate it so there's that active sense of pushing against those things sorry thank you pastor, thank you so much that is very helpful pastor sorry to bother you once again but if you could also address Natasha's question that will be very helpful so Natasha is asking sometimes when God seems silent for years then what should be our attitude to handle this issue yeah I think I've shared some thoughts which definitely is to continue to be to be active in faith and and maybe double up in what we're doing in the active expression of faith and also to discern what is it that that's going to give me my breakthrough there could be things that we can't do to get us a breakthrough I think if we actually seek God for that He will definitely speak to us so continue with active faith double up or increase what we're doing in pressing into the kingdom and also seek God for what is it that's very specific going to give us our breakthrough you know we continue to very actively seeking God for the breakthrough and He will lead us into it Thank you pastor, thank you so much for answering Natasha's question as well I hope both Sheba and Natasha are okay with those answers please let us know we could accommodate one more question so if at all there's a question that any of us call have please feel free to share that or a thought or an experience even like if you just want to talk about it please feel free alright so seems like we have addressed the questions that were posed and there are no more questions so what we can do is we can pray and wrap up for this morning and before we do that I just want to extend a heartfelt thank you to Deepika for sharing on this subject of godly concern versus worry and anxiety truly helpful to you know understand these aspects and also see how we can live our lives as believers putting our trust in the Lord and staying away from worry and anxiety so let's close with the word of prayer and would like to request one of us on the call to please go ahead and pray not able to hear anyone let's pray yes father in heaven we thank you for this wonderful day we thank you for the lecture for the mentoring hour that we've been having but many of us we've always been having worry but at least now we have a glimpse of how we should react in case such a thing happens and again being Bible college with the faculty and with students we should also extend what we've learned to all those out of the people in our circles so that worry should not get a better of them I do pray please Lord continue in anointing to all the faculty especially to our lecturer who has shared with us the moderator plus all the bigger drums in the house Lord I do pray for our ourselves the students as we prepare to go into our next we do pray that you bless us in the name of the Father the Son the Holy Spirit Amen Amen Amen Thank you once again Deepika Thank you everyone for joining on this call God bless you have a wonderful day ahead


Good evening friend. This is your host to welcome you through the creaking door in the Vienna St.  Well friends, we don't have a very interesting studio audience tonight. Just the usual ghouls, ghosts, vampires and werewolves. Of course there is one fellow who came here without his head. He says he left his home because he didn't want to lose him. And then there's a girl named Myrtle who just asked me to autograph her death certificate. Just the same old bun. But maybe next week we'll have somebody really unusual. Tonight's Inner Sanctum Mystery, Death Demon, was written by Milton Lewis and stars Miss Leslie Woods in the role of Regina with Mr. Everett Sloane as Howard. All right. Better turn the steam up and throw another leg on the fire. I mean, hogs, let's see. Now remember, all scandals on this program are held up as horrible examples, usually at the end of a role. Ready now, then let's get grim. The sound of a siren howled in his ears like the whale of an avenging demon. As the man ran from the gaunt grey building behind the high wall, he ran with all his power and never fought it. Even though he felt his heart would burst as he began to hear the dogs behind him picking up his trail, and then, as though he'd summoned it by magic, an automobile stopped for him. The driver, a woman, seeing him approach, saw blood streaming down his hand, so I'm reaching to his jacket, pulled out a knife. The woman slipped out of the car, fled. The man got in, drove off. Four hours later, the car stopped in the driveway of an isolated house in the outskirts of a New England town. The man got out, slowly walked to the door, rang the bell. Yes, what do you... Oh. Don't scream, and don't try to close that door. But you can't come in here. I've got to come in. Get away from the door. No. Instead, get away. Who's in this house? I, uh, no one. No one but us. Let go of my hand. Let go, you're hurting me. Sit down. Go on. All right. Who are you? What do you want here? All right. I don't know. If you want anything, only go away. Please go away.  Well? I, uh, I'm Regina Barman. George Barman's wife? Yes, do you know him? Sit down. All right.   You do know him. I know him. Did you come to see him? No. Does his sister still live here? Yes. Where is she? Diana drove to town. Why? I don't know. I think you do. I don't. Was it to see some man? I don't know what Diana does. What do you want from me?  To kill me? Who knows? I, I was told to come here. What do you mean told? You, you wouldn't understand. Where is George? I, uh, I expect him right now. You know who I am? No. Doesn't Diana ever speak of her husband? Her husband? He was in some sanitarium. He, your Howard? Yes. Diana's husband? Yes. Didn't she ever tell you about me? Well, only that you had some sort of breakdown. Breakdown? Yes, I suppose that's how they would refer to it. But it wasn't a breakdown. It was something far stranger. They still don't believe me. They still don't understand. Understand what? That, that something's happened to me. They don't want to believe that such things could happen. That's why they had me locked away in the state prison for the criminally insane. Criminally insane? Didn't Diana tell you that's where I was? She never told us where you were. Did she tell you that I was considered a homicidal maniac? No. Ah, you're frightened. You think that's what I am too, don't you? Don't you? Put down that knife. Don't you? No, no. Why do you tremble? Why is your face so white? That knife. My knife, yes.  You think you can understand that? No. No, but there is someone who comes in the knife from some ancient grave, someone who comes into my body, controls my hands, my limbs, my heart, my brain. I, I try to fight him, but I can't.  I, I can't fight him alone anymore. And that's why I must see Diana. She'll help me. She always used to help me. What's that? Your wife's car. Diana. Yes, I think so. Stay where you are. Don't get up when she comes in. You'll do exactly as I tell you. I'm going to stand here on the other side of the door. Don't let her know I'm here. I won't. Quiet now. Hello Diana. I got that later than I thought. George, home here? No, he's coming back on 1130. Did he send me here all alone? Not exactly. Don't run away. That's not. Yes. Yes. From here Diana. Holland. Yes. He came here like that and threatened me with that knife Diana.   Quiet. Afraid of you Holland. Are you? No. How did he get here? I escaped. But that blood. From my hands. The top of the walls are covered with broken glass. You came back to me. Yes. Do you still love me? Yes. Even now? Even now. From here. Holland. Are you going to plead for me to release you as she did? You won't harm me Holland. Don't be too certain. Diana I'm putting the point of this knife at your throat. Do you feel it? One twist of my wrist and it'll be over.  I don't know yet. Why are you doing this? I must know certain things. What? Will you help me? Be careful how you answer. I'm watching your eyes. If I see the shadow of a doubt, the quiver of a lie. I'll help you. They're after me. Will you hide me? Yes Holland. The doctors have tried and failed.  You'll have to live with me. You'll have to help me fight this this thing inside of me that takes possession of me that wants to kill that may want to kill you. Will you risk that? I will. I love you Diana. Will you kiss me? Here. Here's the knife. I'm tired. Very tired. Yes. There's a room downstairs where you can lie down so you can't stay long. They'll be looking for you. I'll have to find some place where we can go. Yes. Find a place Diana. I'll be all right now. I'll be all right as long as I can be with you. Come on. Come this way. Yes Diana. Lie down over there. Yes. I'm exhausted. I'll be waiting outside for you when you wake up. Oh Diana. I thought he was going to kill both of us. No. What are you doing with that phone Regina? I'm going to call the police. No you're not. Why not? Diana you couldn't have meant it when you told him you'd help him. I meant every word of it. That's a man's a homicidal man. Perhaps he isn't. Perhaps what he says is true. You mean you're going to live with him? I can't live without him. I don't know what it's been like with him away. You're as mad as he is. Perhaps. But he's back now. And nothing Regina understand me clearly. Nothing is going to take him away. Well I'm not going to stay here with him. Yes you are Regina. But you're going to stay here while I go to town. I think I know the place where I can hide him. Oh no you're not going to get me in on him. You do exactly as I tell you. But or I'm going to tell my brother a few things that I found out about you. What are you talking about? What do you think? I haven't the faintest ideas. I'm talking about Tom Wilson. Roger Steele and this present one Richard Boyd. Why you. I don't mind the slap Regina. I want you to think of what my brother's money means to you. And what will happen to you if he ever finds out about you. Think carefully Regina. Or just like your brother. Seeking a round and spying I could kill him. Sorry Diana dear. I'll help you. Of course I will. If I thought you would. There's only one thing I don't want to be here alone with him. I'll take care of that right now. Locking my husband in his room. There's only one small high window and he won't be able to get out so you're perfectly safe. But George returns before I get back. I'd advise you to see to it that he doesn't call the police either. Don't worry darling I can handle George. Yes you can. Where's Howard's knife. It's over there. Now I better hurry. Goodbye Diana. Hello darling. George I thought you were catching me eleven thirty home. Well I didn't have to take the train dear I ran into Dick Bowers in the city. He gave me a lift right to the door. Where's Diana. He drove to town. Come on sit down darling. You must be very kind. Oh I am I had quite a little chat with Bowers on the way up. Yes he seems to admire you very much Regina. Too much. Well then he should envy you because I'm all yours George. You're so beautiful. Why'd you draw away from me. I didn't. I distinctly noticed you. Oh darling darling let's not quarrel. Let me just put my arms around you. I will forget everything.  Regina I'm sure. What's that. Nothing. I thought I heard something in the guest room. You didn't. You didn't hear a thing. There it is again. Regina do you have some. Regina. That knife. What are you doing. Regina don't. Don't stop. Call it back. No. You'll never get away with it. I won't tell. I swear I won't tell. Who's that. No one who will be able to help you George. Help me. Wherever you are. No father George he can't hear you. Let me out. Let me out of here. Regina. No use George he can't listen to you. He is helping me. You. Yes he's Diana's husband. He's going to be blamed for your murder it was his knife. You'll never get away with it. No you never thought I was clever enough to work this out did you. You and Diana are always so contemptuous of me.  Regina it won't work I hope you're bright enough to see that the only thing you can do to save your pretty little neck is to call a doctor before it's too like. Why won't it work.  There is no flaw. What is what's wrong with my idea. I won't tell you. It's too Where did I make a mistake. Where. They never fooled me for a moment. I knew all about Wilson. But I love you. I know what you were but I love you. Tell me where I made my mistake George. Where. Yeah. I can't let you out. Who's there. Hold it from the inside. I. I didn't know it was. Regina I found a place for how I could stay. We'll be safe for a while and then we'll be dead Diana. I warned you but you wouldn't listen to me. Was it my husband. Yes of course he killed him. In his room. How did he get out. I don't know all I know is that he was suddenly here and he killed it. It is Regina. And how did you get him back into the room. Why I buy I've come to stop it and I stop it. Your whole story is an impossible line. You couldn't have let him out of the room. I have a key. All right I didn't. You killed my brother. Yes I did and what are you going to do. Call the police. Yes. Well then you'll have to give up your husband. Now listen to me Diana. We can both get what we want out of this. I'll help you and Howard. I have money you can travel hide. Hope you could have a few years together. You might even be able to kill him. But you wouldn't let us Regina. You only saw in his return an opportunity to get your hands on my brother's money. Now I'm sorry Regina and you are going to call the police. You don't want my offer of help. I think I would trust you. Don't go to that phone Diana. Regina that night. Yes I gave you a chance to live a moment ago and you throw it away. But you can't. Why not. It will all work out perfectly. All I will have to do is let him out of his room and I can take the key from you. So I suppose you can. But he's dangerous Regina. When you let him out of the room you'll have to face him. I'm not worried about that. You're making a mistake. I can take care of him. Warning you Regina when he sees what happens. I've planned everything.  Just as I hear the sirens I'll let him out.  Why are you telling me this. I just wanted you to know.  No Regina I don't think you are. You're telling me this because you're not sure of your plan. You've always defied me because I was prettier than you are. Wait a minute. Regina you now do what you want. I'll go away with Holly. Oh Diana you're too late you think I trust you now. Regina don't scream. I've got my hand over your mouth Diana don't try to scream. Get me the police department quickly. Get hurry it's an emergency. Hello police. This is Mrs. Regina Barman on Holly Lane. There is a man here a minute. He murdered my husband and his sister. Will you hurry please. I'm going to open the door. I have something to tell you. Where's my wife. Just called in from town. She found out that they're looking for you. Listen do you hear that. It's the police. You've got to get out of here. But Diana. She said to meet her at Hemlock Inn. Where's my knife. Here. Go out the back way and run for it. The police are almost here. How do I get out of that door. You won't tell them. Of course not but hurry. All right. Yes he escaped a minute ago. He heard your sirens and ran. I think he went to Hemlock Inn. I heard him tell his wife that he was hiding there. His wife. Is that what he did. Yes he murdered the most. He would have killed me if you hadn't come. If you're hurry you can still catch him on the road. Was he armed. Yes he had a knife. I'm afraid we may have to shoot. Goodbye Mrs. Barman. They'll find Howard and kill him. There will be no one to deny my story. No one no one. Hey. How did you. I came in the back way. Hey. They can't hear you. They drove off looking for me. Get away from that door. Get away. I. Would have been dead by now. Now I didn't want anything to happen to you. I hid in the shrub. I heard what you told that policeman. You thought how you found out. No I found blood on the knife and then I looked in the window. Oh it doesn't go through that. Yes it's over. Diana dead. Why did you do it. I don't see she was going to call the police and turn you over to them. She was helping me. Why did you do it. Put down that knife Howard. I just want to know why. What harm did we ever do you. We just wanted a little time with each other. She could have helped me so much. Now there's no one to help me. What made you do this. Listen you must kill me. Look we can both escape you and I. Isn't that a good idea Howard. You and I. If you don't kill me Howard isn't that a good idea. What are you trying to tell me. Oh don't you see it can be just as you wanted it even better. I'll take Diana's place. I'll go with you anywhere. I'll do anything you say. Anything. I'll make you well Howard. And I'm much prettier than Diana ever was. I don't want to see that Howard. Put the knife down. I know what he wants me to do now. Yes. Don't. No I don't. I don't. I could have both gotten away with it. If you don't listen. Diana we may be together so I hear the fire. They're coming back to get me. He made me do it Diana. You understand that. He forced me to. Oh. Oh they're here Diana. I'm going to let them in. Hold it. Drop that knife or I'll shoot. There. That's better. You got her too.  He made me. Homeward. Someone. Someone who comes in the night from some ancient grave. Someone who comes into my body controls my hands my limbs my brain and at last I know why he made me do it.  That's why. Yeah. Hold your hand. There. You won't do any more harm. No one moment. Good bye Diana. Goodbye.  Just close my eyes and disappear for a while. Which brings us to the moral of the night nightmare taken from the double talk of Gorham Godula Spanish bullfrog who says when you made a murderer don't stop dead. But I make it easy for him. Inner sanctum is heard each week in the United States over CBS the Columbia Broadcasting System. And has been rebroadcast for servicemen and women overseas through the facilities of the United States Armed Forces Radio Service the voice of information and education.


Hi everybody, this is Ethan Earl reporting to you from Paris, France. It's 20 hours or 8pm on March 19th and like every evening recently at exactly 8 o'clock, all of the people in the city of Paris get out at their windows and their balconies to salute and applaud the healthcare workers, the hospital workers who are helping all of us in this tremendous crisis that we're facing with the coronavirus. So here, the people of the city are letting them know how much they appreciate the work that they're doing while at the very same moment in the Senate there is a bill that is being considered for coronavirus relief which completely excludes hospital workers. This is all the more significant considering the more than one year battle that President Macron has had with city hospital workers which has led many of them to go on strike to protest the terrible conditions of austerity that are being opposed upon them. So in recent days we have heard Macron speak about the need for solidarity, the need for us to take certain basic fundamental things outside of the market to protect our most vulnerable citizens. Will those words be accompanied by real action or not? We'll have to fight for that.


It was shocking also given the time and coming off that blowout win a couple nights ago. Yeah, Bob I think there are a couple of things you have to think about right? It was definitely a surprise I think for just about everybody Who is on the outside and I'm not privy to the inside internal conversations both Kenny and and Sean I've had so it's unfair for me to comment on what those discussions were all about but with you know 20 games left you don't see that happen all that much But one thing I will tell you is that obviously they've parted ways I think you'll continue to see Sean Marks do a great job in terms of building the culture of this Organization in terms of going forward depending on how they tweet that how they change that that remains to be seen I think on the other side though with Kenny Atkinson. I think everybody respected him as a coach I think he's done a great job with the organization in terms of developing players getting them to the playoffs Just getting everybody to like him and buy in and I know that Kenny Atkinson will do very very well wherever his path takes Him next all right for more on the next parting with Atkinson Let's head right out to Brooklyn now the court side report with Michael Grady and Michael What is the vibe out there a lot has changed in the last 24 hours? Well a lot of folks are still processing Bob this came as a shock to a lot of people I think a lot of folks woke up on Saturday morning and the last thing that they were expecting including myself Was to find out that the Nets and Kenny Atkinson had mutually agreed to part ways Listed 24 hours after a dominant performance Against the San Antonio Spurs look there are a lot of question marks and a lot of speculation Once the big names were added to the roster and what's gonna be the long-term plans the timing of it really threw a lot of people off Especially in a season with so many injuries not having Kevin Durant out there on the court So at the press conference yesterday with Sean Marks one of my first questions was the timing Why was now the right time to make this move? I? Think there was a couple of reasons I think it was probably fair for both sides I think it's fair for Kenny, you know if this is where we were all thinking It's you know let him have an opportunity to seek Somewhere else, you know future employment and so forth, but also it gives the Nets an opportunity to To look at you know Jacques Vaughan will obviously Take over as head coach and and let's look at this group and see how and evaluate this group as well Now one of the things Sean Marks said was that again a new voice was needed in the locker room And he felt and he said Kenny Atkinson also acknowledged at Kenny's voice Was it holding as much weight in the locker room that it used to and one of the questions I was asking the guys including Jacques Vaughan yesterday in the last few years under Kenny Atkinson There have been highs and there have been lows and one of the things that I asked was How of the lows this season felt differently than what they did in previous seasons? I got different answers from the guys Coach Jacques Vaughan said that he felt resiliency was something that they were able to rely on in past years But they really couldn't say that as much this season the team didn't respond well after losses the Memphis loss Not withstanding phone that up with a strong performance against San Antonio You really look at the past week or so it was a game We recall the game against Orlando a big match up an opportunity to create some distance between the Nets and the Magic In the Eastern Conference standings the Nets lose that game the next game is against Washington a Washington team Trying to get into the playoff picture in DC the Nets lose that game They follow that up with a matchup in Atlanta the Nets should be Atlanta worst record in the Eastern Conference They give up 141 points to the Hawks very next game They lose to Miami the Boston game the Nets the Celtics are playing without Jason Tatum And they were beating the breaks off of the Nets for a good portion of that game And it took a 51-point performance from Karris Laverde to stun the Celtics in Boston great win You want to carry that momentum into the next matchup with the Grizzlies and you give up a hundred and forty points to the Grizzlies That goes to the point of Coach Jacques Vaughan saying resiliency is something that they didn't really hang their head on this season The team really wasn't responding well after tough losses may have contributed to the decision And and why they said that the voice wasn't holding as much weight in that locker room But it was certainly something disappointing for this team this season the way they responded to tough games Bob Yeah, and Grady for everybody and certainly I imagine in talking to the players that reminded that Ultimately when things like this happen, it's a business and sometimes when it's somebody you like as much as Kenny Atkinson It kind of hits you in the face doesn't it? Yeah, you know it's a harsh reality you're 100% right Bob guys will say look I understand it's a business They can say that a thousand times But the truth is especially for the guys that have been here for a long time and I've seen their careers Blossom in the last few years under coach Kenny Atkinson and this coach and staff. Yes, it's a business But there's a human element to where like you said it really hits you in the face You think about the way Spencer Dinwiddie has blossomed in these last few years under this coach and staff this developmental team Joe Harris what's happened with him? Jared Allen what's happened with him a number of guys Karis Lavert Included have literally seen their games go to an entirely different level under coach Kenny Atkinson It hit them hard and that's something I asked them about to get their reaction to the news that Kenny Atkinson the next have mutually agreed to part ways Obviously, it's tough.  There's but there's also, you know It's one of those things where you're just, you know, grateful for the time the opportunity that you had with him You know, we all loved playing for Kenny grew a lot as players and as people and You know valuable experience, but it's one of those things where the NBA at the end of the day You know, it is a business and you know stuff like this happens with teammates coaches, you know And it's tough and it's tough to see but it is the nature of the NBA itself I asked coach Jocvan a little bit earlier how his experience as a former player influenced how he communicated with his players With this transition again a short turnaround the news yesterday and then playing a three o'clock game today against the Chicago Bulls And he said he really looked at the emotional side of this He understands the guys who've been with Kenny Atkinson a little bit longer Or maybe handling it a little bit differently than guys who were in their first year with the Brooklyn extra haven't spent as much Time with coach Kenny Atkinson So he really wanted to encourage the guys to handle this situation to process everything in their own way He had individual meetings with each player yesterday at conversation with them building that trust having an open environment for honesty Transparency really important for him asking guys what they like what haven't they liked over the course of this season really trying to get their input and Make sure that there is open communication Between the two sides there's not a lot that he can implement in a short amount of time One of the things that he will do is alter the starting lineup Bob Deandre Jordan is going to be inserted into the starting lineup Wilson Chandler will once again start ahead of Torian Prince But Jared Allen goes to the bench Deandre Jordan is going to start for the fifth time this season He will also Jocvan add some tweaks on the defensive side of the ball Not as much time to tweak things on the offensive side outside of some drawn-up plays out of time out So short turnaround everybody's processing coach Vaughn said the one commonality is that we get to play a game today This is the guy's passion. This is what they love and he expects them to play hard and to compete today against the Chicago Bulls All right, we'll look forward to that Michael look forward to seeing you again


One of the political predictions that you've publicly made, Matt, is that there's going to be some sort of political violence unfolding this year, or at least you're worried that that's going to happen. And part of that seems to come down to how people view what has transpired in this country over the past four or five years. Specifically, the touchstone there is January 6th. And you wrote a piece that I think drew a lot of fire calling out Vivek Ramaswamy's comments on January 6th. Let me pull that up here. The headline is Vivek Ramaswamy really, really wants you to know he thinks January 6th was an inside job. And I highlighted a passage from here. This is what Vivek had to say about January 6th. There's now clear evidence that there was at the very least entrapment of peaceful protesters similar to the fake Gretchen Wittner kidnapping plot. The FBI won't admit how many undercover officers there were in the field on January 6th. Capitol police on one hand fired rubber bullets and explosives into a peaceful crowd, who then willingly later allowed to enter the Capitol. That doesn't add up. If the deep state is willing to manufacture an insurrection to take down its political opponents, they can do anything. Once you see it, you can't unsee it. What is the fundamental problem with Ramaswamy's formulation there? And what are your worries about how this kind of increasingly, that if this formulation is increasingly accepted or embraced by mainstream political figures, what effects are you worried that that's going to have on American civil life? That is not clear evidence of entrapment or the manufacture of an insurrection. It is not. It is not. That's not clear evidence of that. You show me the clear evidence. It's the beginning noting that there's been an admission that at least a handful of FBI informants were in the field that day. And that's by the FBI in hearings over the summer. Noting that is not clear evidence. It is the beginning of a series of questions. And those questions then should lead you to where the next place that you would find evidence for this, especially if you're going to say that this is very similar to the Gretchen Whitmer kidnapping in which, like so many cases after 9-11, the FBI had people, like people who were pretending to be people that they were not, not just informants, not just sort of like saying, hey, these guys over here are doing it. They were cooking up the plot themselves to kidnap Gretchen Whitmer, a plot that was never going to happen, it's private among a small group of somewhat gullible people. We've seen this over and over again. We've written about this over and over again at reason, including back long before Vivek Ramaswamy expressed any interest in the subject in any kind of public way. So the next place that you would look in a place like Gretchen Whitmer is like, OK, is testimony from those people as part of the charging documents in the case? Is it part of the criminal conviction when it goes to trial? In those entrapment cases, they were. And that is typically how that goes. That's how we learn about it. That's how in the case of Michigan, some of those charges were thrown out, although they were then retried, in the 889 convictions that have happened related to the January 6th riots in Capitol Hill, 200 of which involved violent activity, there has been zero cases. As far as we know, as far as I'm aware of, in which that showed up in the charging documents, and that was part of the trial, testimony, evidence from agents, provocateurs, informants in the field. So if this is clear evidence, it would show some fingerprints somewhere, unless I'm still holding out the possibility here in general, like we should suspect the FBI, having a default suspicion in a deep one is totally fine. So then where do you look? So the way that you can imagine that this was, that we wouldn't need to use that testimony that could have been there is just by simply that the actions of the people charging through barricades, causing injury to more than 100 Capitol Police, that their actions alone were enough to convict them. But that should lead you to, and so therefore they didn't need this testimony, even though they could have totally done it, but that should lead you to another conclusion, which is to say, the way that you avoid that kind of entrapment, and let's remember that, since I wrote that article of Vivek has now called January 6th, Entrapment Day. The way to avoid an entrapment is to not bust through barricades and break windows and fight with Capitol Police officers while trying to enter the Capitol building on the day that they're supposed to be certified in the presidential election. You could totally avoid it by not doing any of those things. And I don't say that cheekily. And I don't say that in a way to be like high-fiving these grossly long sentences of various Proud Boys members. I don't think that the insurrection, the sedition charges, I don't think that those were appropriate. I think they're way too long. I agree with Vivek Ramoswamy that people who are nonviolent shouldn't be serving prison for their activities on that day. I agree with him. But it's not clear evidence of entrapment. It just isn't. And he also said that the Capitol Police are just the same as the FBI. No, they're not. They're different. They're actually different organizations. And if the Capitol Police, and the other two things that he's pointing to as clear bits of evidence were like, well, look, they did tear gas and rubber bullets over here, although very small amounts. But they let in the barricades over here. So look, they're just like letting them right in. That doesn't add up. It's a chaotic scene. If anyone who has been in a riot knows that it doesn't add up.  Like everyone is acting in strange ways. And if the Capitol Hill police were in on it, that means that they ushered in, but first of all, that means that all of the interviews that have been done with them, they all managed to just sort of like be completely disciplined about not spilling the beans on the worst day in the history of the Capitol Police. They're like, okay, we'll just totally swallow this conspiracy. It's hard to whistle a blower. Yeah. How many people would have to be in cahoots for all of this to add up, right? Like it would have to be hundreds and hundreds of people who've all perfectly synced up their stories with not a crack in sight and not even anybody privately sort of admitting to their groups of friends, what's what, right? I do want to get to the beginning of Zach's question, which is because it's not one-sided. It's not just January 6th is my worry about violence. The way that I'm worried about violence related to January 6th is that it is clear that the Republican Party, the mainstream of the Republican Party is not taking responsibility for January 6th. Clear majority is when you poll Republicans either blame it like on Antifa or the FBI or Ray Epps or whoever's in their imagination who did it or they say, yeah, it's fine. Like it's justified because Biden stole the election. So like that's not taking responsibility for human action at all. You have to like own the agency of it one way or the other in my estimation, or else you are basically intellectually greenlighting further violence. And on the left, that is the same in different ways, but that overall dynamic is the same with the 2020 post George Floyd riots, which killed 14, 19 people. I forget the exact number, huge amounts of damage. And not just that, but Portland was on fire for a hundred consecutive days.  Over and over, there's burning stuff day after day. We boarded up New York City, Manhattan, which I don't think is a Trump, a big Trump supporting region. We put plywood on windows here because we assumed that if Trump won, the people who didn't like him would riot. So that says to me that we've normalized a lot of political violence and the post October 7th demonstrations, which I mentioned before, which do irritate me to great effect because it keeps me from getting home. And that's just no good. If we're allowing small groups of raggedy ass protesters to close bridges to prompt the evacuation of the White House, which happened the other day, that says to me that we haven't thought, we haven't come up with a plan on what to do. If you behavior that gets rewarded gets repeated in the famous formulation. And so if that all it takes is a couple of beardies and some college dropouts to block a bridge that well, that seems fun. Let's block O'Hare airport. Let's snuggle LAX. The worst thing is that they're not college dropouts. They in fact graduated from their liberal arts schools and now wants loan forgiveness from the rest of us. So it's important to note that. But I do also, I was confused by the boarding up windows all up and down Fifth Avenue on election day. This past go around as well, especially because one of the things that was most striking to me was that sleep number, the mattress store was boarded up.  Like, how exactly was that going to go? Like, please play this out for me. But you're pretty tired and like from a long night of rioting and needed a little rest. But I think your point is well taken. And I think you're writing on this actually at least shakes me out of this mindset where since this has just been the state of play for the last, I don't know, frankly, since 2020 summer of 2020 post George Floyd, it was very much normalized. But even before that a little bit, we saw Zach and I were just talking recently about all of the carnage in Ferguson, Missouri. And basically how that was sort of, obviously there have been different waves of protests LA in the 90s is another good example that you mentioned earlier. There have been these waves of protests and riots that have popped up. But to some degree, I kind of feel like from 2014 and then we had a little pause when things were kind of good and decent from 2016 to 2020. And then 2020 up until now, these eras where it feels like small groups of people exerting extraordinary influence and really affecting other people's abilities to live their lives, shopkeepers' abilities to actually earn a living for themselves, people's abilities to go out their business unmolested. It's kind of increasingly rare and it's important to kind of whip our heads, snap our heads out of this. And remember living in such a politically tumultuous era is not a normal thing. This is not aspirational, this is not good. This is not how every single era has totally been, though obviously there have been these waves of it, but at least for the last four years, the fact that this is at least to me feels like a fact of life is a hugely problematic thing where it does feel like political violence has sort of increasingly, it's like we increasingly act like if it's for the right cause, it's no big deal.  I think that's the key point is that the excusing of it and the cowardice from political leaders to condemn political violence if it's coming from your side more or less, that's what Matt is describing with January 6th, that's what we saw with these riots and that denying of personal agency, which I would think is something that libertarians would be particularly attuned to and able to recognize like the importance of agency and responsibility, but I do think it's becoming an increasingly unbridgeable divide among libertarians and other small government types who more or less believe what Ramaswamy says about January 6th and the lead up to it. And those of us who think there's, there might be some shadiness, there might have been some egging on, but don't see the evidence of some massive setup. And that's not even to say that the entire insurrection framing or narrative is exactly right either. I just think there's a lot of contributing factors and blame to go around, which you can trace all the way back to if you wanted to be getting so the Trump administration and the Russia investigation and the discontent, I think a lot of it legitimate about how that was handled, the outrageous, the lies and the bad policy around COVID, the media, the political hypocrisy and defenses of looting. It's all a valid discussion, but if one of us believes that January 6th was a manufactured plot to stop us from discovering the truth and the other just doesn't see the evidence for that, it's such a different view of reality. Hey, thanks for watching that clip from our new show, Just Asking Questions. You can watch another clip here or the full episode here. New episodes drop every week, so subscribe to Reason TV's YouTube channel to get notified when that happens or to the Just Asking Questions podcast on Apple, Spotify or any other podcatcher.


That's the way, you know, happened here. That's that's wow. That's hard. That's hard. You hear tonight. And it's crazy. Got to make them start to make no mistakes. Yeah, we don't boss talk one on one, one on one. Yeah, we gonna talk. Man, that's that's one thing about it, man. P. Man, he had to be he had to be a special kind of leader to even, you know, have an ear for that type of sound or to go with what he felt like was his because he had to go with his gut when you're young. You got to go with what you feel. You got to go with what you think is going to be the right way. You know, just the fact of all of those different songs. It makes you somewhat of like I told you on the phone, like the net I compare you to Nate, though, when it come down. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, because of the way that you, you know, the way that you hook in them, you know, the hooks, man, the way that you was doing your thing, man, you can't deny that that that talent is there. And it's not a talent that everybody possess. I'll just say it like that. So you blessed to be able to do that. God, it's great. Man, I'm just expressing myself the way I knew how, you know, I'm saying and feeling those voice that I figured that, you know, I was in on the vibe, you know, just had a vibe, catching the vibe. And when that vibe was felt, you know, because we say, don't let that come. They used to call me that a lot. Because could mean him because y'all are cousins. So how are y'all coming through the mom, dad or what paternal side? OK, OK, OK, OK. His his dad's dad and my dad, their brothers. OK, close. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. And so when you think about just you guys early on, we're going to go back to the early stages with when you went to you end up going to L.A. Or Richmond, which when you ended up going to Richmond. No, keep going. I'm listening. I just want to know how you end up there. I know how K.O. When he first when it was him serve on and Mia X, right? Well, the full story is in that book. Oh, really? Yeah, I got it. It's called movie before, you know, I would say partial story because it's not a that book. Moby-Dicapetus isn't a psychopedic format. Oh, OK, you have to go research. So the psychopedic, you know, the second format of psychopedic is summarized stories. It's not like the full blown out story. Yeah. So I got summarized stories in there. But that story, you know, happened here. Down? Wow, that's hard. That's hard. You hear tonight. And it's crazy. Got to make them start to make no mistakes. And it happened, you know, me and my frat brothers, we were road tripping from Kansas. And two of my frat brothers were, you know, security there got in there and got in there for free. Ran across my cousin, you know, inadvertently, didn't know that he was doing a promotion tour. And he spotted me, actually. And then, you know, we made that reunion type of thing. Connection exchange numbers. Two weeks later, I was in, you know. Oh, that's awesome. Yeah, that's how that happened. Wow.


The report from the commander, that task force out there, that they have sighted two unidentified vessels and three unidentified prop aircraft, and therefore the carrier launched two F-8s, two A-4Ds, and four A-1s, which are prop aircraft. To echo those again, what are we launching? We launched two F-8 fighter aircraft, two A-4Ds, which are jet attack aircraft, and four A-1 Hs, which are prop-driven aircraft. So we have launched eight aircraft from the carrier to examine what's in the vicinity of the destroyers and to protect the destroyers. The report is that they have observed, and we don't know by what means, whether this is radar or otherwise, I suspect it's radar, two unidentified vessels and three unidentified prop aircraft in the vicinity of the destroyers. What else do we have out there? We have only the Taycan de Roga with its aircraft and a protective destroyer screen. I think there are three destroyers with the Taycan de Roga. We have the constellation, which is moving out of Maikong, in which I sent orders to about an hour or two ago to move down towards South Vietnam. We don't know exactly how long it'll take. We guess about 30 hours. We have ample forces to respond not only to these attacks on the destroyers, but also to retaliate should you wish to do so against targets on the land. And when I come over at noontime, I'll bring you a list of alternative target systems. We can mine the swatel bases, and I just issued orders to Subic Bay and the Philippines to fly the mines out to the carrier, so we'll be prepared to do it if you want to do it. We can destroy the swatel craft by bombing. There is a petroleum system that has concentrated 70% of the petroleum supply of North Vietnam we believe is concentrated in three dumps, and we can bomb those, bomb or strafe those dumps, destroy the petroleum system, which would be the petroleum for the patrol craft. In addition, there are certain prestige targets that we've been working on the last several months, and we have target folders prepared on those. For example, there is one bridge that is the key bridge on the rail line south out of Hanoi, and we could destroy that, and there are other prestige targets of that kind. All right. Good. I told the Revers the other day, and I told him that what is going to be in Charles's and he can announce that. Oh, surely. Surely. Thank you.


Hello and welcome to this session in which we will discuss the taxability of pensions and annuities. Let's talk about pensions first. What is a pension? Well, when you work for a company for a period of time, and this used to be very common back in the 60s, 70s and early 80s, what would happen if you work for a company for 20 years or 30 years? And what they do after you work for this company are going to retire. And what would happen after you retire, the company will keep making payments for you. Why? Because you service the company over a period of time. Now pensions are still common for governmental jobs. If you're a police officer, a firefighters, teachers, they do still have retire pensions as a retirement option. So what is a pension? Pensions are series of payments made to the taxpayer after he or she retires from work. These payments are determined based on the taxpayer years of service and prior compensation. Now how much do you get paid? If you have a retirement plan, there is a formula under retirement plan, each individual will get paid differently based on the actuarial assumptions. But you'll get the more, obviously the more time you put into your work, the more you would receive the higher your salary, the higher is your pension amount. Now pension plans may be contributory where the taxpayers makes contribution to the plan while being an employee or non-contributory. So you have to understand the difference between the two. Let's start with non-contributory.  You don't have to worry about contributing any money to the pension plan. Why? Because your company, the company that you work for, your employer will contribute all the money. So it's free to you. Or the plan could be contributory. Contributory means, well, the company pays an amount and you also have an amount deducted from your paycheck. Most pension plans now, if they still exist, they're contributory because it's more expensive for the company to have a non-contributory plan. Non-contributory means you don't have to pay anything. So let's start with the taxability of non-contributory plan because it's easy to deal with. If it's a non-contributory plans, when you start to take this money out, when you retire, all the withdrawals should be included in your gross income. Why? Because you have nothing invested. You don't have any money invested in the plan. Everything that you receive is income and that income is taxable. So it's easy. Before we proceed any further, I have a public announcement about my company, farhatlectures.com. Farhat accounting lectures is a supplemental educational tool that's going to help you with your CPA exam preparation as well as your accounting courses. My CPA material is aligned with your CPA review course such as Becker, Roger, Wiley, Gleam, Miles. My accounting courses are aligned with your accounting courses broken down by chapter and topics. My resources consist of lectures, multiple choice questions, true-false questions, as well as exercises. Go ahead, start your free trial today, no obligation, no credit card required. How about if it's a contributory plan? Contributory plan means you put some money and the company contributed the other. In a contributory plan, the amounts withdrawn by the taxpayer after retirement are as follows. Well, recovery of the employee contribution are executed and we should notice this is considered the return of capital. They're giving you back the money that you contributed. Recovery of employer's contribution, employers now, which is the company, so this is the company contribution. Guess what? The company contribution is taxable to you, are included in your income. Now withdrawal and access of total contribution, if you're still taking money in access of the contribution, everything becomes taxable, of course, because you did not contribute anything. Let's look at the form where information is being reported. Usually when you have an annuity or a pension, you'll receive a 1099R. They will tell you the gross distribution, how much you receive, how much of it is taxable, if there's anything deducted for federal taxes. On your income tax, form 1040, you would receive, there's a line 5A. Now this could change in a separate year, it doesn't really matter. Some of the pension is non-taxable, some of it is taxable. Same thing with annuities, some of it is taxable, some of it is non-taxable. Now let's talk about annuities. Annuities in concept are similar to pensions, but they are different. Why? Because remember, a pension is the assumption is you work for someone, you work for a company and the company have the pension plan. Annuities are a little bit different. Annuities is when the individual, they invest themselves and they want to receive an annuity. What is an annuity? Same thing, a series of payments. This is what an annuity is. When you should be familiar with the term annuity, because you need to understand how leases work, bonds, any payment for the same amount at the same interval is called an annuity. So usually what happens is this, once you get close to retirement, let's assume you want to retire at age 65. What people usually do, they sell their stocks, they sell their bonds, they sell all their investments and they take their money. Let's assume they have half a million invested and what they do, they purchase an annuity because they don't want to worry about the stock market, the investments, the bond going up or down. They want to receive a certain amount of money every month or every year guaranteed. So this is what annuity is. They will take this money, half a million, they will give it to an insurance company and they will purchase an investment and this investment will start to pay them. For example, every year, let's assume they want $50,000 and for example, they want to do it for 20 years or whatever the amount is just giving you an example. So typically annuities are issued by insurance companies, typically, but you can buy them from any investment firm. The purchaser of the annuity invests the money, an amount of money for the right to receive a future stream of payments. The payments can be made over a fixed period of time so the annuity could be for example for 20 years or you can buy an annuity forever. Forever means it will keep paying you forever. Obviously there's a different cost for each annuity but the point is sometimes you don't know how long you're going to live. Sometimes you might say, let me buy it for 20 years and I do have other income where I can bring in after 20 years and it will help me survive the remaining 20 years and sometimes you would say, I just want to buy a lifetime annuity, I may live five years, I may live another 30 years, I don't know, so you can either buy either or. So the insurance company would typically invest the money received from the purchaser and generate income.  However, the purchaser of the annuity does not have any obligation of interest income because that's considered interest until he or she starts collecting the payment. So as the annuity generates cash value, you're not taxed until you receive the money. Now in general, each payment made to the purchaser of the annuity consists of principle amount, which represent obviously non-taxable, the principle is return of capital, return of capital, and an interest component. The interest component, the return, is the taxable amount and we're going to look at different scenarios. In case of a lifetime annuity, what's a lifetime annuity? Well, you buy it and you receive a payment forever. The principle amount obviously is non-taxable is computed by dividing the initial amount invested, which is the investment by a life expectancy factor determined using the IRS life expectancy table. We'll look at an example of course, but this is how you do it. Now, if the taxpayer dies before the end of his expected life, any unrecovered investment is deductible on the taxpayer local last income tax return.  You get a deduction for that. However, if he or she lives more than the expected, the payment received after the end of the expected life becomes taxable in its entirety.  Then if that's the case, you return your capital, everything now is taxable. In case of a fixed period annuity payment, fixed period means you buy it for 10 to 15 years. The principle amount is computed by dividing the initial investment by the number of payments to be made. Don't worry, we're going to look at an example at a lifetime annuity, as well as a fixed period annuity. Now, what happened if you have an early withdrawal? If the purchase of an annuity decides to withdraw a given amount from an annuity, what would happen? So simply put you put your money, then you change your mind.  I'm going to need this money. Well, the amount withdrawn, if the amount withdrawn is less than the original amount, guess what? If it's less, it's non-taxable. They're giving you back the money that you gave them. They're not giving you any extra. It's a return of capital. If the withdrawal exceeds the original investment, then the amount is treated as interest income. So hopefully you understand this concept. You should understand this concept. If I'm getting back my money, then I should not be taxed on that. If I'm getting back more than the money that I invested in that annuity, interest income will kick in. Let's start by looking at a simple example. Elias H50 buys an annuity from an insurance company for 45,000. So this is the investment. In exchange, Elias is to receive a lifetime payment of $480 starting at age 63. So notice, the insurance company is going to invest this money from age 50 to age 63. By age 63, they will start issue Elias a check for $480. Now, Elias investment cost is 45. This is the original balance. Elias would not have to recognize any income until he reaches 63 and start collecting the monthly payment. Now, how much of the monthly payment is taxable? We would look how to compute that. Given that this is a lifetime annuity, the amount of interest income to be reported, determine use in the IRS, life expectancy factor, and let's take a look at an example. Amy, an individual taxpayer, was 56 years when she purchased an annuity from an insurance company paying 120,000. That's Amy's investment. Amy is to receive lifetime monthly payment of $500. Great. Now, what do we do is this? If she's 57, would look at her life expectancy and she would expect it to live almost 30 years, 29.8. Now, this table is provided by the IRS. We don't have to worry about this. Now, what do we do next? Now, what we do is we take $500, her monthly payment times 29.8, times 12 months, and she would receive in total 178,800, assuming she expect to live all that time, 29.8. Now, the $500, how much of it is taxable? How much of it is not taxable? Well, let's take a look at the annual execution amount. The annual execution amount is computed by taking the 120 divided by 178,800. So, simply put, we're going to take the amount originally invested divided by the total expected based on the life expectancy, and that's 67.11%. So, 67.11% will be executed times, whatever we receive per year, we receive per year. If we take 12 times $500, we receive per year $6,000. So, of the amount of $6,000, $4,026.85 is executed. That's a return of the original capital. How did I find this percentage? It's what I invested divided by the total amount of money I expect to receive. How did I find out the amount of money I expect to receive? $500 times 29.8 times 12 months, 178,800, which is, so 67.11% of my payment is executed. What does that mean? It means the remainder, whatever the remainder of 100%, 100% minus 67, whether at approximately 33% is actually taxable. So, as a result, on an annual basis, Amy would receive a total amount of $6,000, of which $4,026, let's make it $4,027, represent a return of capital, the remainder, which is $6,000 minus $4,027, which is approximately $1,973, will be taxable. Now, let's assume that Amy lived longer than that 30 years. Well, once the investment is fully recoverable, because remember this is a lifetime investment, let's assume she lived more than 30 years, 29.8, that's fine. Then all the $500, 100% of it is taxable because Amy recovered the $120,000, now she's getting all interest income. So, this is an example of a lifetime annuity. Again, with Amy, here Amy is buying a plan, but she's going to be paid for a certain amount of time. So, when she was 57, she purchased an annuity for 65,000. Amy is to receive 500 over 12 years. Well, that's all what she wants. Why? We don't know. Maybe she has other income 12 years later that's coming to her. We don't care. The point is, she's going to receive a limited amount of money. Well, in this under those circumstances, we know that she's going to receive in total $72,000, which is $500 times 12 payments per year times 12 years, times 12 payments, which is $72,000. That's the total. The annual execution amount is computed by taking the investment divided by 12 years. So, we're going to take the 65,000 divided by 12 years and the executed amount per year is $5,416.67. So, every year, she would receive a total of $6,000 of which $5,416 is not taxable. The remainder is taxable. Whatever the difference between the 6,000 minus the 5,416.67, this amount is considered interest and it is taxable. Now, after 12 years, the insurance company would no longer pay Amy. Why? Because it was a fixed period annuity. It was not a lifetime annuity. Under a lifetime annuity, they pay you forever. There's something called the simplified method. I'm not sure if this is covered on the CPA exam or not. I just want to make sure it's covered for you. The simplified method is required by annuity distributor from qualified retirement plans. If you have a 401k and the 401k have an annuity, they use a slightly different formula. The execution amount is determined by dividing the initial investment by the number of anticipated monthly payment. So, the number of anticipated monthly payments is based on the age of the taxpayer and again, this will be provided to you. So, let's take a look at an example, explaining the simplified payment. Andy, an individual taxpayer who was 64 years old, invests $100,000 in a qualified retirement plan to receive a monthly annuity of $500. Well, determine the non-taxable amount. Well, Andy is 64, we go back to 64. 64 is between 61 and 65. We're looking at expecting monthly payment of 260. Simple, we're going to take based on the table presented above with the age of 64, Andy is expected to receive 260 payment. Therefore, we're going to take the 100,000, the investment, what Amy put in divided by 260 and that's going to be the non-taxable because this is my money, I'm getting my money back. Now, I'm receiving $500 as a payment. Well, $500 minus 384, let's make it 385 to keep the math simple, minus 385. What's left for me, I believe, if my math is right is 115, that's taxable. So, this is how I figure out my taxable amount using the simplified method. What about the 385? It's ROC, return of capital, an important concept, whether we are dealing with annuities, whether we are dealing with investments, whether we are dealing with pension plan, it's very important to understand the concept of return of capital, non-taxable. What should you do now?  Good luck, study hard, and of course, stay safe.