Point of View May 16, 2025 – Hour 2 : Weekend Edition

[00:00:04] Across America, Live, this is Point of View, and now, Kirby Anderson. Second Hour, if you'd like to join the conversation, 1-800-351-1212. We are privileged to have in studio with us still Liberty McCarter as well as Jeff Mateer. And Liberty, I thought we'd come and talk in just a minute about the high price of drugs, which is our next article.

[00:00:34] But then we're going to get into some of the things that are happening in the Middle East. We don't want to overdo that, but a speech by the president and some very significant deals. If there's one thing this president is, he's a deal maker, and so we'll talk about that. Also, do you want to talk about artificial intelligence? Because you've been talking about that certainly in the Know Why podcast, and we have an article about that as well. Of course, we'll get to Penna Dexter's piece before we're all through on shop classes.

[00:01:03] But I haven't forgotten the fact that Jeff would also like to talk about Pete Rose, and we've got to talk baseball a little bit, or in the midst of baseball season, and that's the case. But let me come to that. And we talked about this the other day, Liberty, but it's worth mentioning that the issue of drug prices is significant. And it was interesting, since we were just mentioning the Secretary of Health and Human Services,

[00:01:28] that absolutely there has been some comments by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. that he really never believed that a Republican would try to do something to bring down prescription drugs, because oftentimes Democrats promise to do it and never do that. And he even said the other day when he was talking that a number of my kids really kind of left a center there, Bernie Sanders supporters.

[00:01:56] But when I told them that the president was going to bring down the price of drugs through these different actions, they got tears in their eyes. And so just to use one quote from Cal Thomas, drug prices in America are nearly three times the price of drugs in 33 comparable countries, according to a report from the Department of Health and Human Services. Now, that puts you front and center against big pharma, but it does look like that might happen.

[00:02:24] I hope so. I know I don't want to take good health for granted. And I've seen so many acquaintances and friends and members of my church have to go through health crises. And often it's the church family or the community pulling together to help them afford treatment. And it's very expensive. And so, again, we were talking before the break about areas where we can find common ground. And I think this is a big one.

[00:02:53] And I noted in the article that Bernie Sanders had said, you know, he supports this. Make it a congressional bill, not an executive order. But, you know, I think I don't know of an American outside of big pharma who wouldn't want to see progress on this issue. And this is part of making America healthy again. Well, it's the politicians who receive money from big pharma. They have such a huge lobbying effort. And that's what's wrong.

[00:03:19] And so that's I mean, this is I mean, again, this is one of those things that that, you know, Joe Biden didn't do. Obama didn't do. Bill Clinton didn't do. It took Donald Trump to do something like this. And, you know, this is an issue. It always the fact that you could go to Mexico and get a drug and it would be substantially less than you can get in the United States. And what's the explanation for that?

[00:03:46] Well, the explanation that the pharma companies say are, oh, it's because of R&D. Well, all that means is Americans pay for the R&D for the rest of the world. And that's just not right. It's not fair. And big pharma. And I think the results should be American prices will go. Well, should and will go down and prices across the world will go up.

[00:04:09] But doesn't that make sense that if if you take a pill and it costs X amount to make, it should cost the same everywhere. So I, you know, another one to give give President Trump credit for. I'm always a little cautious when I hear I'm on the same side as Bernie Sanders. I'm always a little cautious. But because you've got to think, am I right? Now, where's Elizabeth Warren on this issue?

[00:04:37] Because and I think because I think for it is it's one of those weird ones when you get the far left of the Democratic Party and then you have Republicans who are doing some common sense things. Yeah. Well, Bernie Sanders says, I agree with President Trump. It is an outrage. The American people pay for far higher prices in the world for prescription drugs. Now, if Trump is serious, now it's the next point about making real change rather than issuing a press release, he will support legislation I'll be introducing. But again, he wants to come up with some of the socialist ideas.

[00:05:06] But here's the argument. And that is, if you just made as he was arguing that the United States has kind of most favored nation status like others do, then it would only require the price to go up some in these other countries. And that's where Robert F. Kennedy Jr. the other day said, if you just had the prices go up just 20 percent in Europe, that would generate, you know, and he went into the amounts, which more than a trillion dollars of R&D research and development.

[00:05:35] And so you're not talking about a lot because you're now, instead of just having 95 percent of it being done through the United States government, according to, of course, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., spreading it out among those other 33 comparable countries. Each one gets a little bit of a bite at the apple. You still can eat the whole apple rather than having Americans have to eat almost all the apple. And that's the idea.

[00:06:03] And so I don't think it's going to be terrible for other countries. And again, back to something else you said, again, Robert F. Kennedy says they're actually more lobbyists for big pharma than there are members of Congress. And that they spend more money on lobbying. And the number two is really far down the list. So, again, people have no idea how influential big pharma has become. You know who they also lobby in addition to Congress? They lobby physicians. Yes.

[00:06:32] And so I think the other issue, and I hope, Secretary Kennedy, that this is on the radar screen. And I suspect it is. And I suspect it's on Trump's radar screen because of his pick for Surgeon General, Dr. Casey Means. And it's the over-medication. And she makes this point in her book, the over-medication of Americans. And the reason we're over-medicated is because, again, big pharma. I sound like I'm big pharma.

[00:07:00] But big pharma is not only lobbying Congress. It's lobbying physicians to have them prescribe medications that, in many cases, not all, but in many cases aren't warranted. Yes. Yeah. While we're talking about drugs, if I can promote one other thing, since we have been talking about the idea of viewpoints, my May 13th viewpoint commentary, because you know where I'm going with this, was on China's chokehold on medicine.

[00:07:28] And, again, Liberty, we've talked about this before. Remember during the pandemic? Again, you and I maybe weren't taking those drugs, but there were a lot of people that we knew that were dependent on certain pharmaceuticals. And when we closed down China and we closed down America, we began to realize that, can you believe this? The United States relies on China for 95% of the key ingredients that go into at least the generic drugs. And we need to turn that around.

[00:07:57] Yeah, that should alarm us, because if we are dependent, and, you know, that could end at any time. And so, yeah, that was a huge wake-up call, definitely. Yes. Well, again, I just never miss an opportunity to talk about the viewpoints commentary, because, again, we've been promoting that. But we come back from the break. The president's gone overseas. He wants to get Saudi Arabia to join the Abraham Accords. He's really recognizing that we're not necessarily going to be able to change everybody's attitude.

[00:08:27] We're not going to make all of these Middle Eastern countries into constitutional republics. But let's, if we can, at least get them to make a deal and try not to kill us. And maybe that's a win. And so we'll talk about some of the things that he's been trying to accomplish over in the Middle East. All that coming up right after this.

[00:08:58] This is Viewpoints with Kirby Anderson. It should come as no surprise that the U.S. faces a housing crisis. Over a year ago, President Biden promised during the State of the Union address to lower housing prices. He blamed rent-gouging landlords and greedy realtors. He promised to build two million more homes. In the end, there was a lot of accusing and lots of fiery rhetoric, but little change. Miranda Devine cites a Heritage Foundation study that documents the following.

[00:09:25] During his presidency, the cost of a median-priced home more than doubled and rent soared to record highs. She explains something I've mentioned in previous commentaries. In many cities, it takes more than the entire median household after-tax income to afford a median-priced home. Those with a house don't fear much better. Almost one-third of American adults are house poor, meaning they spend more than 30% or more on their income on a place to live.

[00:09:53] Sadly, the younger generation has all but given up on the American dream of home ownership that their parents and grandparents achieved. Miranda Devine cites some of the reasons for the housing crisis, but I want to mention a major reason not mentioned in her column. The price of housing is going up because the value of the dollar is going down. This relates to my two previous commentaries this week about the economy. My house, for example, is supposedly worth twice as much as it was 10 years ago, but it isn't more valuable.

[00:10:21] It's just that it would take twice as many dollars to buy it because the dollars are worth less each year. To solve the housing crisis, we need to look at such issues as zoning and housing regulations, but the best chance to really solve it is to acknowledge we have a broken economy and broken money. I'm Kirby Anderson, and that's my point of view.

[00:10:46] For a free copy of Kirby's booklet, A Biblical View on Inflation, go to viewpoints.info.info.inflation. That's viewpoints.info.inflation. You're listening to Point of View, your listener-supported source for truth. Back once again, I just wanted to spend just a little bit of time talking about the Middle East for a couple reasons. Those of you that actually received the Outlook magazine, I'll give you a preview.

[00:11:13] I've written one on foreign policy and the new axis of evil. And Liberty, I forget what yours is, but maybe you'll remember. Tariffs. There we go. There we go. So you can be looking for that in the future. But when we see what is going on right now in the Middle East, it's very interesting. But I think Larry Kudlow, gosh, it's been decades since we've had him on, had a great line. Democrats are digging their own political graves, and Trump is selling them the shovel.

[00:11:39] And he talks about the fact that right now Democrats find themselves defending criminal gang members, terrorists from Trenda Agua, which are MS-13. Also, the other day, we had a couple of Democrats decided to actually try to break into an ICE facility in Newark, New Jersey. These are not winning issues. Well, meanwhile, Donald Trump's over in the Middle East, and they're trying to badmouth that.

[00:12:05] But, again, in his speech in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Donald Trump said, Before our eyes, a new generation of leaders is transcending the ancient conflicts, entire divisions of the past, and forging a future where the Middle East is defined by commerce, not chaos. Now, I don't want to overplay that, but, again, one of the problems that even the moolahs are facing in Iran

[00:12:29] is that this younger generation and a disproportionate number of people in Iran are younger. They have access to cell phones. They have access to the Internet, and they recognize what kind of world that they're in. And individuals that find themselves in Iraq and Iran and Saudi Arabia and Qatar and all sorts of places saying, you know, maybe we'd rather just be able to participate.

[00:12:54] And the consummate dealmaker, President of the United States, is saying, can we just make some deals? Let's stop killing each other. Let's make some deals. Let's engage in trade. And I'm not going to be like George W. Bush that gets to an article we'll talk about in just a minute to try to turn your monarchy or your particular jihadist group into a constitutional republic. But maybe we can at least agree to treat each other nicely, not kill each other and work out deals.

[00:13:24] Well, that would be a starting point for sure. And, again, I think it – I hope that this next generation is listening because, as we will get into, I'm sure, over the next few minutes, if you really want change in a culture, it has to come from within the culture. It can't be forced from the outside. So, Trump said a lot of things that sound really good, and hopefully that does inspire from the inside

[00:13:49] and motivate maybe the next generation to pursue some policies that would be in partnership with the United States and also benefit their own nations. Yeah, I'm reminded of when I was reading this article because I hadn't seen it before you sent it, Kirby. I was reminded of – and this is going to be a weird connection – but Bible translation. Oh, sure. Yeah, I knew where you were going with that. And the old style used to be you would – an American or an English person from either the U.K.

[00:14:19] or from America would basically go in the country and embed themselves and do – that person would do all the work. Right. And there was a switch at some point, and I don't – I mean, I don't know my Bible translation history, but maybe the 90s. It's not that long ago. Well, for us, it's not that long ago. For Liberty, it's before she was born. I remember the 90s. Okay. Before she was born.

[00:14:46] But there was a switch where they said, no, what we're going to do is we're actually going to train people in the country, and we're going to work with the churches in the country to actually do the work because they actually grew up there. They understand it, and they're going to be more effective in taking the translation – getting the Bibles out and things. And I thought when I was reading this, I thought, well, that's really what he's – that's what they're doing, the same sort of thing. Yeah.

[00:15:11] Is instead of us embedding people in and doing things, that actually we're going to just support them and allow the people, as Liberty said, the people in the country rise together and bring – so I thought that's interesting. And it's also that we're Americans, we know best, and sort of the ugly American. It doesn't help. No, not at all.

[00:15:37] Now, that doesn't mean we don't support and we don't train the trainers, so to speak, the way they do in Bible translation. Yeah. And again, indigenous missionary activity, in this case, indigenous individuals that maybe understand what needs to happen in order to change the foundation of the culture in such a way. Because the biggest problem, as we've pointed out before, is it's really hard to grow a democracy, much less a constitutional republic, on Muslim soil.

[00:16:03] Because if you start with the assumption that men have more rights than women, which is basically a teaching in the Koran, or that Muslims have more rights than non-Muslims, which, again, you can really discern from the Koran, you've got some difficulties. But maybe you can get to the point where it is at least a little bit more civil, and you recognize – a good example is Turkey is a Muslim country, but it's also a member of NATO, and as a member, isn't it, of the European Union?

[00:16:32] But if not, it certainly is one that's a little bit more open-minded to that. So that's one of the things he talked about. But in the midst of that, he also recognized – it gets back to the axis of evil, because he said Iran will not get a nuclear weapon. And one of the things that we have in this upcoming Outlook magazine is that, of course, Iran wants nuclear weapons, and we will not let them have them, because, first of all, it would allow Iran to project power in that region.

[00:17:00] And if you want to understand what that's like, just look at South Korea. We don't do some things against South Korea that we would if they didn't have a nuclear weapon. Number two, it's at least a possibility that a nuclear weapon could be used, not maybe against the United States on our land, but instead launched into the air, and then you get an electromagnetic pulse, which would then destroy all these electronic equipment that we have around us right now,

[00:17:28] and that would knock us back to almost the Stone Age. Or just the third issue is a lot of people say, well, yes, but Pakistan has a nuclear weapon, and that was one we tried to avoid recently between Iran and Pakistan. But the difference is that in Iran you have some of these individuals that are part of what are called Shia Islam 12ers,

[00:17:50] and that is they believe that there was an imam who is one of the 12th imam who is going to come back and protect them if indeed there is any kind of conflict, even a nuclear conflict. So now for the two old of us that remember mutually assured destruction, the argument was the Soviet Union would not launch nuclear weapons against us because they knew we would launch them against them.

[00:18:17] But if you are in Iran and have this rather bizarre belief that there will be someone who protects you from nuclear weapons, the issue of deterrence goes out the window, and that's why a nuclear Iran is dangerous not only to Israel but to the United States. Absolutely. And I think it's interesting. Trump's speech on the one hand. He talked about Syria and the U.S. lifting sanctions. He gets a standing ovation. How often does that happen for an American president in the Middle East?

[00:18:45] But at the same time, you know, he was very forceful with his remarks about Iran. And, again, trying to talk around the leadership there. I mean, the people of Iran, you know, we love and support. This leadership, we cannot. They cannot have a nuclear weapon. So, again, that's kind of where we are on that one more piece I thought I'd mention. We have this piece by John Smirik.

[00:19:12] America First is more Christian than global jihad for democracy. And what he's doing is comparing a speech from George W. Bush. And, again, I appreciated the speech because he said it was grand, it was high-minded, and it's the idea that if nothing else, we want to appeal to the hope and dreams of individuals that really long for peace

[00:19:35] and even long for freedom and talks about the fire in the mind, which is actually harkening back to another reference there as well. But, again, what we found is that some people in the Middle East don't really want freedom. They are quite content sometimes, as hard as it is to believe, to just live under a ruler, under a dictator, under a monarch, whatever it might be. And so, as good as the wordsmithing was, it didn't really register.

[00:20:04] And even though, interestingly enough, George W. Bush, and we can remember back when he first ran, was not into nation-building. As soon as 9-11 came, and as soon as we first went into Afghanistan and then into Iraq, we sort of were into nation-building, and it's just hard to build anything like a democracy in the Middle East. Whereas Trump says, look, I'm not even going to try, but instead, I'm not going to talk about the fire in the mind.

[00:20:29] I'm going to talk about something else, and that is, is it in your best interest to cut a deal with us? And that's kind of the deal-making in him, the art of the deal, and that's one of the reasons why he's coming back. What are they talking about now with almost $4 trillion worth of deals out of the Middle East? Yeah, it was a big number, and, you know, I think he's making a lot of good points, and so hopefully it bears fruit. Yeah, well, we're going to take a break, and I just thought we'd cover that briefly.

[00:20:58] When we come back, artificial intelligence, well, we've got to get to Pete Rose, talk about baseball a little bit, and, of course, also a couple of other issues, because Penn and Dexter's talking about maybe we're going to bring some shop classes back. And just more recently, you might have seen in Outlook magazine about the whole issue of jobs and the need for especially if we're going to bring jobs back to the United States, we need to have young people fill those jobs. We'll talk about all that right after this.

[00:21:31] The Bible tells us not to worry, and yet there is a lot of worrying stuff in our world today. Thankfully, the Bible doesn't stop at telling us not to worry. God gives us a next step. He says we need to pray. But sometimes even knowing what to pray can be difficult, and that is why Point of View has relaunched our Pray for America movement,

[00:21:58] a series of weekly emails to guide you in prayer for our nation. Each week, you'll receive a brief update about a current issue affecting Americans, along with a written prayer that you can easily share with others. We'll also include a short free resource for you in each email, so you can learn more about the issue at hand. Will you commit to pray for America?

[00:22:25] Go to pointofview.net. Click on the Pray for America banner at the top of the page to subscribe. Again, that's pointofview.net. Click on the Pray for America banner. Let's pray together for God to make a difference in America. Point of View will continue after this.

[00:22:52] You are listening to Point of View. The opinions expressed on Point of View do not necessarily reflect the views of the management or staff of this station. And now, here again, is Kirby Anderson. Final half hour today. We're going to spend some time again talking with Jeff Mateer and Liberty McCarter. And our topic, and to hold this up, is artificial intelligence.

[00:23:22] This is actually a booklet that we produced two years ago. And as you can imagine, it's already out of date. But this article, I think, would be very helpful to you because, first of all, it talks about the danger of outsourcing our brains. Artificial intelligence is here. And it's illustrated by the fact both Liberty and I write. And if you have a newer version of a computer and of, say, Microsoft Word, you have this thing called Copilot.

[00:23:52] And every time Copilot comes up and wants to know if I want to know, I want you to get out of the way because I want to write this. But the bottom line is whether you have Copilot or ChatGBT or a variety of other things. And I know some of you think I'm speaking in tongues. But nevertheless, these are all the various kinds of apps that are out there. But we very quickly, and that's why I think I'm going to update this very quickly, are going to be in the danger of not necessarily having the robots take over in something that looks like a Terminator,

[00:24:21] but where the ChatGBT and the artificial various intelligence apps begin to do our work for us. And we get even lazier. And I was unaware of the fact that you can even, as it talks about here, Liberty, actually have the artificial manager become a social media manager and do the posts and everything.

[00:24:46] So now we have the possibility of one AI talking to another AI on social media. And my mind is just about ready to explode. Your thoughts? Man, I would encourage people to go to KnowYPodcast.com or look up KnowYPodcast on YouTube because we're actually in a series right now on AI. And I've talked with some great experts in this area. But you're right. It's not necessarily a forceful takeover from robots.

[00:25:15] We're just giving the technology the power because, you know, and again, we don't want to be Luddites. There may be place for, you know, this technology in certain areas, like maybe the medical field. But more and more people, if you look up what it's used for most commonly, it's actually talking to AI in place of a friend.

[00:25:38] Because, and I've read multiple instances of this, people say, I don't want to bother my friends with talking about something that maybe they'll think is boring. So I'll just talk to AI about it. And you have this wave of companionship AI. That's just amazing. Talking to AI for therapy. Using it to do college assignments. And then, in fact, I saw the article that you sent out yesterday.

[00:25:59] And then this morning on Facebook, I saw someone say that a college professor had called a student out because they were able to detect that they had used AI to cheat and write their paper for them. And then the student sent an email written by ChatGPT to apologize. And so it's really, I think, the core issue is that we are farming out our brains to a computer. People use it to even write their grocery list.

[00:26:27] They just, you know, we're not used to sitting down and thinking anymore. And it's also a fundamental breakdown of human relationships and normal interactions that we should have. And we're already too isolated. And so I could go on about that. But, again, go to Know Why Podcast because we're talking about it every week right now because it's so important. Well, again, we'll get a link to Know Why Podcast up there. And you can find that pretty easily. But your point about Luddites, that goes back to Ned Ludd. You know, the Luddites. And those were against the textile people.

[00:26:55] And that was the argument that, well, if we allow these textile machines to actually then do the weaving, then people lose their jobs. What we found is actually technology gave people a better life and a safer life. And so that is certainly the case. But we've up until now usually had people react against whether or not robots would build your car. And when I say robots, sometimes they don't have a head or anything, but they will actually do the welding and everything else.

[00:27:25] And up until now, it's always been, well, I'm really sorry that this technological development will get rid of individuals that are blue-collar workers. But now with artificial intelligence, it will get rid of white-collar workers. And when, let's use the lawyer example, when in some respects the various artificial intelligence programs can write a brief, evaluate, write contracts and all the rest.

[00:27:55] There are some individuals that are saying that might even affect the legal profession. I know very much. And there have been just in the last several weeks, there have been examples where judges have called out lawyers on briefs that they submitted that were written by – apparently written by AI. And the most classic is a case here in Dallas in which the brief cited four cases that don't exist. Yeah, hallucinations they call them.

[00:28:20] And the judge ordered the opposing counsel to produce copies of those cases. Well, they don't exist. And so I think that's one is, look, AI is not – I mean, it's not – It's not perfect. It's not – no. It makes mistakes. It makes a lot of mistakes. The other thing that I think a lot of people don't realize – and we're dealing – I mean, at First Liberty, we're dealing with this. I mean, what – because one way, we want to use the tools to gain as much advantage as we can over our opponents.

[00:28:49] But at the same time, you have to realize when you use an AI program and you don't know that much about the program and you put information and you provide information, that information, whatever you provide, you're sharing it outside. Yes. And AI uses that to build on for others.

[00:29:09] And so in the legal profession, if you share client confidences, you share proprietary information or confidential information, and you don't know, it's just going out there. And so the lawyer says – I mean, be very, very careful about that. Quick, quick story. We're actually interviewing someone, and I think we're going to hire the person, so I should start there. Very nice young man for one of our IT positions.

[00:29:38] And I asked him about what – and he's a recent college graduate. I said, what do you know about AI? And he said, well, you know, I prepared for this interview using AI. And I said, well, what do you mean you prepared for the interview? He said, well, I asked AI to ask, you know, what questions you would ask me. And I said, well, what questions would Jeff Matir ask? Have I asked you those questions? And what's the best question? But, I mean, I think it is to a certain – certainly younger than us, Kirby. That's right. Perhaps even younger than you, Liberty.

[00:30:08] I mean, they are living in the AI world. And they see it as a tool to make themselves better. My concern is I think we have to be concerned about, you know, what information we're sharing, where that information is going out. And then the other things this article points out, I think, absolutely true. Are we – or we're not going to have critical thought anymore? Yeah. Are we just going to rely on, you know, these lawyers – I mean, I use that example of that lawyer. You write a brief.

[00:30:38] I guess you're so strapped for time. You don't check what the brief says. You just – there's no thinking. No thinking at all. Well, this one goes into, by the third page, some things which, again, you can put in your next Know Why podcast that, you know, the old argument was, well, if we give kids calculators doing math, then eventually they won't learn their multiplication tables and things like that. But it says AI is a lot more than punching numbers into an occasion.

[00:31:04] And in some cases, as we point out, it's cranking out images that are false, black Nazis and things like that, and, of course, hallucinations and all that. But as you point out, it can and is replacing critical thought. And you wonder what kind of nonsense is getting fed in. If there's one thing I do remember from the days in which I programmed computers, that's how I put myself through graduate school, garbage in, garbage out. And so that's another issue.

[00:31:32] And if nothing else, back to the issue of writing, you and I, we write. And I don't think that when this pops up and say, oh, can you – you write that for me? No, I don't want you to write it for me. I know you'll mess it up or you'll take it in a direction. Now, every once in a while, it still bugs me and says, well, can we rewrite that? And I'm going, well, okay. And I led you one sentence. I said, well, you moved some nouns and verbs, but I don't think you really improved it any much.

[00:31:59] But that's the world that we're going to find more and more. And I have a book on my shelf, and I did a commentary recently where the entire introduction to the book on AI was written by AI just to show how very coherent and informative it is. So once again, we have to figure out what the benefits and the drawbacks are of artificial intelligence. So you need to be listening to the podcast.

[00:32:26] Yeah, one of the people I interviewed, she's actually going to be on Point of View with me next week when I guest host, Emily Harrison. And she talks about how young kids have been raised on screens and with the Internet. And so that line with now AI and things like chat GPT, it really is blurred. And so I'm glad that so many people are talking about it because I don't think it's something that's completely scary that we have to stay away from.

[00:32:51] I think there are legitimate uses, but really thinking critically now, while we still have the capability to discern what are appropriate uses and what are not, and especially equipping the next generation to think through those questions, too. And then again, just mentioned the booklet that we produced two years ago. I think we'll do a new one, and we'll probably borrow a lot from the Know Why podcast. But it's got about three pages there about just kind of a biblical perspective on how to think about that.

[00:33:19] Then point you to various articles that we have seen from a number of individuals like John Stone Street. I even give one quote from Bill Gates and Jim Dennison and some others. And again, that's a resource. Of course, the podcast is one as well. But as we go to a break, let me just mention we'll have Pentatextra's commentary and then maybe some final comments about what's going on in the world of baseball. All that coming up right after this.

[00:33:54] Amidst a push to bring manufacturing back to our shores, many communities are bringing shop classes back to their high schools. According to the Wall Street Journal, as baby boomers retire, companies are looking for workers in the skilled trades. But there simply aren't enough young adults trained in plumbing, electrical work, and welding. Some businesses are beginning to look at high school students and not just as future hires. Some companies want them now or at least soon.

[00:34:20] School districts are getting on board by resuscitating the shop class and giving manufacturers tables at their job fairs. In some cases, businesses are teaming up with high schools to enable students to work part-time, earning money as well as academic credit. Employers told the Journal this is a strategy that is likely to become more crucial in the coming years. Most industries are tech-infused and seek younger workers who are comfortable programming and running computer diagnostics. They need tech-savvy workers to run advanced equipment.

[00:34:50] According to the Journal's report, the smartest employers get a foot into high schools early. They're attracting high school students by running summer camps to expose them to careers in the trades. They're offering internships and shadowing opportunities at workplaces and are sometimes even dropping by to meet students at school and see them in action. One welding instructor told the Journal employers regularly visit his classroom, bringing branded swag and offering students jobs when they graduate.

[00:35:18] For many reasons, college is no longer a given, even for the smart kids. In fact, smart kids everywhere are rejecting the college's for all mindset. Smart parents are considering the cost, especially when their students don't have career goals that require college degrees. They're advising caution about student debt. Some smart kids are foregoing the student debt for financial freedom by starting well-paid, skilled trade jobs right out of high school. Shop class isn't for everyone, but neither is college.

[00:35:47] For Point of View, I'm Penna Dexter. You're listening to Point of View, your listener-supported source for truth. Back once again, and let me just one more time welcome those of you listening from the life-changing radio network stations covering most of New England, Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island. We're certainly glad that you can join us.

[00:36:14] And for those of you listening on computer, you probably heard the commentary by Penna Dexter. We always play it at the quarter to the top of the hour. It's entitled Shop Class Returns. But even if you did not hear it, you can, of course, find it on the website, pointofview.net. My commentary today is about the housing crisis, and that's one we've talked about before. But I thought it would be good to get into this for just a moment. One, because Liberty, we were just talking about the fact that one of the most recent issues of Outlook is about the workforce.

[00:36:44] And we have so many million young men that are not working, not looking for work. If we're going to bring jobs back to the United States, and I think that's a real possibility, we better make sure that we understand the importance of these jobs. And if nothing else, one of the things I noticed when Penna Dexter's commentary came out is, Jeff, she said, oh, it brings back fond memories. Because you and I both had shop classes, right?

[00:37:11] We had shop class, and it was something that I did not excel at. I think I didn't say fond memories. I said memories. Memories, okay. I did not say fond. No. I made a few things. We're okay. Yeah, but I'm not even sure I did. But that is true. Look, I mean, she's spot on on this, and this is something we've done a disservice to say sort of this expectation that everyone who graduates from high school should go to college.

[00:37:41] I mean, that's sort of been the mantra the last 30, 40 years. And anyone who has the ability and wants to pursue, I mean, they should go to college, but not to the exclusion of some very valuable trades. And we all know that. I mean, the plumbers, the electricians.

[00:38:06] I have a brother-in-law who went to college, has an electrical engineering degree, and he's an electrician because he actually can make more money being an electrician. I believe it. Using his hands and his brain than if he were just sitting in some office somewhere. And so very, very important that we begin to really promote.

[00:38:33] And I think in our Christian communities, not everyone has to go to college. And we shouldn't look down on people who don't go to college. Being a welder, being an electrician, being a plumber is an honorable profession and, quite frankly, much needed. Yes. And I might just mention, I've said this before, my first job was in a machine shop, so I was around people that were welders. And Mike Rowe, of course, we have his picture on my commentary that came out on Monday from Dirty Jobs.

[00:39:01] He oftentimes talks with individuals. And back to the issue, this isn't a male or female issue because one of the welders that he has talked about making six-figure income is a woman who's a welder. So whether you're working in a machine shop, whether you're working in manufacturing, as a matter of fact, more and more of the manufacturing is going to probably be done by robots. But you'll need to know how to do computer programming. You know how to actually fix machines and things like that.

[00:39:29] That's why I think this return of shop classes is a really good idea. And I think whether you're a male or a female, a boy or a girl, you should be able to take a shop class. Oh, absolutely. You know, one of my best friends from growing up that I'm still close with, she has moved to an office job now. But for years, she engineered airplanes. And, you know, that was a great career for her.

[00:39:50] So this is something that I think the younger generations are welcoming because there is so much debt associated with college, so much stress. And we are also seeing a trend of Gen Zers kind of moving away from the big metropolitan areas and actually kind of becoming rooted in smaller towns again. This is all a really great movement, I think. And they're realizing that they can lead fulfilling lives.

[00:40:18] You're also going to start seeing earlier marriages and children if younger adults are able to actually get a job where they can support a family right off the bat and not be, you know, burdened with debt. And I think they're starting to think about that. So I think this is really positive. Yeah. Well, again, that is a commentary. And, again, we've mentioned that if you haven't already done so, there's a place where you can subscribe to the Viewpoints commentary. Mine will arrive in your inbox Monday through Friday, Pentadexters. The one on shop class returns.

[00:40:46] If you sign up, you'll see it tomorrow in the inbox on Saturday. But I did want to leave a little bit of time. If you've listened to the program at all, you know that Jeff Mateer and certainly Steve Miller and myself, we like baseball. And, of course, this is a guy that actually goes out to spring training. And you asked if we were going to maybe talk about Pete Rose. So let's get into it. Yeah. So I think it's interesting, the commissioner of baseball, not Kelly Shackelford, the commissioner. The other commissioner.

[00:41:14] The commissioner of baseball this week in response to a request has taken off. And I want to get the right term. It was the term is it's the permanently ineligible list that Commissioner Rob Manafred has removed.

[00:41:35] Pete Rose, Shoeless Joe Jackson and a host of other deceased players who had who had been on this list, which says you were ineligible for the Hall of Fame. And he has removed them. And basically the rationale being the reason they're removed from the list is they're dead. And so they can't hurt the integrity of the game anymore through their actions. And I and this that the the article, there's an article in National Review by Dan McLaughlin. Yes.

[00:42:04] Who makes the point that Pete Rose should should go into the Hall of Fame. Shoeless Joe should should not. And the read despite the movie about about Shoeless Joe. But the point being Shoeless Joe actually received money and and and at least participated in a conspiracy to throw the World Series for the Chicago White Sox.

[00:42:27] And I believe 1919 where Pete Rose, of course, has been banned because he's he was gambling, but never bet against his own team. He bet for his team and bet and bet for other teams. And the point that that many people have made, including our our our our great producers, Steve Miller, has made is that I mean, there's no one who competed and had a zeal for winning. Oh, don't you know.

[00:42:56] I mean, Pete Rose did not want want to lose. And so I think it's interesting. And so on the one hand, I do agree with that. But but but I would say it. Why? Why now? And one is Donald Trump has been lobbying on behalf of the Rose family. So you've got, of course, Trump's involved. I mean, Donald Trump's involved in everything. Of course, Trump's involved. Of course. On behalf of the Rose family. But I do think it is.

[00:43:21] And I go to I mean, we're at a point where, you know, I mean, does character really matter? We're just going to look at results on the ball field. Yeah. It does matter. But as as my father reminded me, you know, if if if character were where if we were going to go by character in the baseball hall of fame, there will be a lot of people in out who are in now. So let's stand on there.

[00:43:51] You know, Pete Rose did not use performance and enhancing drugs. He did not bet against his team. He didn't throw games. He's the all time hit leader, the all time games played leader. It's time to put Pete Rose into the whole thing. Again, the only argument against it is you don't want to reward bad behavior. But that's not what we're doing. I think we're recognizing that you and I both into Cooperstown. It's been a while since we've both been there. And it's worth going back there again because they've got some new exhibits. But baseball Hall of Fame worth a thought.

[00:44:21] And again, always one of those troubling ethical issues. But I thought we'd cover that as well. So first of all, let me just say that tomorrow, those of you that signed up for our trip to Greece will be with us and we'll be heading off for a trip. So first of all, Liberty, you're going to be doing the program for two separate occasions. Pentatextra will be doing it for two occasions as well as Dr. Merrill Matthews. So two, two and two, and then I'll be back. And so again, looking forward to that opportunity.

[00:44:50] Looking forward to meeting some of you face to face there in Greece as we follow the footsteps of Paul and John going even to Patmos and Ephesus. I want to thank Megan for help engineering the program. Steve, thank you for your baseball advice and for producing the program. And we look forward to seeing you back here on Monday right here on Point of View. Have you subscribed to the Viewpoints commentary? No?

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