A recent article has the Good Friar and the Rabbi discussing whether or not a sermon, written entirely by AI, can have any “soul,” whatever that means. Of course it dredges out the past for Dave and it turns out that he has no empathy. For anybody.

K.K. Rowling gets an apology, but it has a weird vibe to it. The military is shooting down balloons, but they ain’t West Taiwanese.

And in the audience participation segment, we have an HR nightmare of a set up…

It IS February 17th.

I actually had a person yell at me today because he was certain that today is February 18th, and he is expecting me to do something for him on the 18th. But… for the record it is not the 18th.

February 17th, 1600ce, was the day that the Government authorities took a man from a prison cell, clamped a vice on his tongue, and then took him to be burned alive at the stake.

His crime?

Not adhering to and openly questioning the narrative.

Sound… oddly familiar to anybody?

I’m late to the party on the Superb Owl, that said, why does anybody take anybody talking about Superb Owl Commercials seriously? The days of the commercials being “the show” are long gone, thanks to parity, officiating and the inundation of advertising we now see everywhere.

Look, people say weird and dare I say, controversial things, on social media. Just because I am friends with somebody – including you – doesn’t mean that I am in lock-step agreement with everything you say. Also, the fact that I do not take to my social media to ridicule and/or condemn you for your nonsensical post comes from my faith in which we are taught not to say everything that comes to mind.

Look, nothing happens in a vacuum.

Whether it’s a Papal Bull that results in the eradication of cats that seems to lead to millions of human deaths, or a grain shortage in the middle of a violent revolution that leads to a Economist and Reverend watching what is going on and coming up with what will become one of the most impactful theories in human history…

Last week I was wondering out loud about the whole fentanyl situation. Luckily, one of my compatriots from the US Navy Submarine Force is involved with a Florida non-profit that aims to educate people about the dangers of fentanyl.

Today I am joined by Judd Spitzer, who is the Co-Chair and Technical Director for the Blue Plaid Society. We talk the story of fentanyl and what each of us needs to know and can do to protect our children.

NOTE: Judd refers to Fentanyl as more powerful that oxycodone. He meant to say morphine.

Recent developments in the world of AI have the good Friar and the Rabbi concerned about the things that might be coming in the future. It's more than just using AI to create deep fakes that offend and outrage. In a politically charged atmosphere, how will you discern truth from the fake?

It appears to be open season on UFOs. The Pentagon told us that at least three have now been shot down. West Taiwanese satellites are now being used to put on laser light shows in Hawaii.

All that and more Burt Reynolds than you ever wanted this week on What The Frock?

Seymour Hirsh is not a source that I take overly seriously. That said, his latest story about the Nordstream 2 Pipeline is rattling some cages, including mine. If, and that’s a super big “IF,” Hirsch is correct, then we got bamboozled and almost dragged into WWIII.

In Washington State the Legislative Privilege debate rages on. Now, the Legislators in question have released documents that show us the things that they were redacting were… well… banal.

The Superb Owl goes down on Sunday. The over/under on punts is seven. In a counter intuitive move, I’m taking the over.

In practical terms, how many people does it actually take to approve and enact a law that is binding of the people of the United States? Now… you might think that the answer is obvious, but… is it? More importantly, when you finally get that number, does it make sense to you as “representative” of the people of the United States?

Brutus continues his explanation as to why the proposed Congress is too small. Not only is too small a group of people subject to easier bribery and influence, it is also not possible to be very representative of the nation as a whole.

One of the biggest issues Brutus has though, is just how few people it actually takes to pass a law that effects the entire country. Think about this, in 1791 it would take roughly seventeen Congressmen to actually pass a law. Assuming that the Senate and the President went along with it, that would mean that just thirty-one people were in effect, speaking for the entire (just under 4 Million) people of the United States.

You may have thought that today it’s a lot better.

As Brutus predicted… it’s not better… it’s far worse…

It's a fact that most people today form their opinions long before that actually have anything close to the full information about... well... anything. And, those opinions more often tell us more about the person who has them than it does about the actual subject at hand. Now we have reached the point where the jokes about it are not just written before the subject has even been broadcast, but the opinions were also reached long before things resolved.

A local murder up here has people debating a few issues. Is mail theft worth a death?

The first American Civil War was every bit as vicious and hate-filled as the second. And... like the second, it eventually resulted in amending the US Constitutional to try and make things better.

It all started when the state of Georgia decided that it wasn't going to pay the guy who sold their militia supplies during the war.

It led to an intense debate during ratification over the concept of State Sovereignty, then went before the US Supreme Court, where the court... got it "wrong."

On February 7, 1794 We the People of the United States made that absolutely clear.

Or... did we?