Transcript
The Jacobsen Group with Jon Jacobsen · Mon Dec 29, 2025
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Welcome on this beautiful Saturday morning on KXEL to our Christmas edition of the Jacobson Group.
Boy, we have a great show for you today on the mighty blow torch here extending into all the big 10 states and Canada from this great America's original 50,000 watt signal.
Folks, we have Father Clam.
Life is worth living.
The Reverend Kenneth Clam, who's going to talk about
the great Christmas Oh Antiphon season here of Advent prior to Christmas.
The Advent Oh Antiphons leading right up to Christmas.
And then we're going to have the great Gwartney group, free market economics in America from the great group of professors, McCullough Jacobson and Clark from Ottawa.
And that's Ottawa, Kansas, Auburn University, the great think tank there at Gwartney.
And then we will have Barbara Hames Bryant to the wonderful folks at Hames Homes, Manufactured Homes, talking about the great ability to provide safe, affordable, beautiful homes for families here in eastern Iowa.
And then a final pre-Christmas reflection from Father Clem, a very special show today, ladies and gentlemen, on KXEL.
A beautiful, crisp, cold, Sunday winter evening on the east central plains of Kansas, and you are listening to Life is Worth Living with the Reverend Kenneth Clem.
Father Clem is the pastor and superintendent of Sacred Heart.
Catholic Church parish and school here in Ottawa and thank you all of you who are listening in from Franklin Anderson Miami Lynn Johnson Douglas Counties all you folks from Emporio to our capital of Topeka to Rockchalk Jayhawk Lawrence Baldwin City to Wellsville to here in Ottawa and to our friends in Osage Oswotomy Garner Garnett Princeton Paolo Linden
and Richmond and all of our folks in the East Central Plains, as we are your home and away voice of the Kansas City Royals and your Ottawa Cyclones, as well as your country music giant on the East Central Plains of Kansas.
Every Sunday evening on this here, the Lord's Day.
Harkening back to the Fulton Sheen era and making all things new again.
Our great evangelist here, Father Clem, welcome back as we are just about at Christmas on another beautiful Sunday in Advent.
And I did put in a request last week to at least spend a few minutes on the Oh Antiphons.
Oh, yes.
But no, yeah, that
it is that as we are here in these very final days before.
Our Lord's Nativity, that beautiful feast of Christmas.
There is this beautiful tradition in the Church's calendar, the way that she moves throughout the year, that here during these penitential seasons, whether of Lent or Advent, as we get close to that end of our waiting time, that we enter into a super condensed version.
redoubles itself in the way that we are of waiting, anticipating, and sitting here in this grand expectation and hope of what is coming.
And so here during this season of Advent, these final days before Christmas are, yeah, this of this particular beauty that in them that we have, there's this sort of ancient tradition of that throughout these
these last week of each of these days and it has a particular antiphon or a hymn to announce another prayer that this antiphon associated with it and that with that, that these antiphons, these hymns that announce another prayer that they are here in these days here before Christmas,
that as a part of the church's evening prayer.
So that again, we've kind of discussed or just kind of touched on before, that aside from that beautiful prayer of the Mass that we are so very familiar with, the church actually has, I mean, a great multitude of prayers that she is always praying.
And one of those most beautiful prayers is something that is often called the liturgy the hours or the brevery.
prayer that is the number of little, you know, sectioned out prayers throughout the day, a number of seven or eight prayers that are associated with different times of the day, whether in the morning or the mid-morning or the midday or mid-afternoon or evening or even of that night prayer, that it is this...
of stopping throughout the day to offer a particular prayer.
There's offering a prayer of consecrating that little section of the day to our Lord and that here in these these final days and before Christmas, that in that evening prayer, that late afternoon, that evening prayer of the church, that again, that all
priests and religious pray throughout and of the world that always, always something always was I encourage people to pray that liturgy of the hour said it's that beautiful encouragement that it's that same exact prayer that every priest and monastery and convent is praying the exact same way across the whole world that it's that same prayer that the Pope is praying this evening that with that though that it is this
While while it is this prayer that the priests and religious are bound to pray that it's one that the whole of the church is invited to pray to pray this beautiful prayer of that voice of the church praying there into the face of her Of her spouse Christ himself but that with that
that here in these final days before Christmas, that in leading up that in that evening prayer there is an Antiphon, again this hymn that announces another prayer about to be said, and that in these days before Christmas that these Antiphons all begin with this exclamation, oh, oh something, oh something, and that in each of them it is this
title, this messianic title of our Lord, whether of Oh, Key of David, or Oh, Wisdom, that it is, or one that we're all very familiar with, that Oh, Emmanuel, that Kamo Kamo Emmanuel, that these beautiful titles, these messianic titles of our Lord, again, this recognizing Him as this promised one, this Messiah, this one foretold to come, and that, and so with that, that each of these,
these hymns, these antiphons, that it is this ancient, again this ancient prayer of the church, that these exact, oh antiphons that were ones that we have had since back when the world still spoke Latin as her, um, kind of, uh, lengua franca, the, the language of, of the world was, was Latin, and so it's one that
is this, it has been around for so long that we do have so many songs and hymns associated with each of these antiphons.
And the one that, again, that we're all so very familiar with is that, that Okum Okum Emmanuel, that, that O Emmanuel, this beautiful one that is specifically, you know, there for Christmas Eve, but that each night, each evening before, of this week before Christmas, there is another.
Oh Antiphon, another him that is there to be exclaimed, exclaiming again this prophecy of this Messiah.
Because each of the Oh Antiphons is, again, this messianic title, this title of our Lord distinguishing him as the Messiah, and the Messiah, and that it's coming to us from the Old Testament, specifically the prophet Isaiah.
and this is something that one of the reasons why I get so very excited about Advent that it is of all of the seasons that it is one that is so very clear and so very bold and exclaiming that all of this is something that from the beginning our Lord has been planning.
From the beginning He has been preparing us for this and that we see as we look back and sing these hymns of praise that have been with our church for so long that
They have been with us since before even the church herself that they have been with us.
Yeah, they're
from the Bible.
Yeah, from December 17 through December 23.
If you go back to the Latin Vulget, that was the first Bible that was translated
by
Jerome.
And you hear Latin words there.
These Latin anophons.
O sapiensia is a wisdom.
Oh, Adonai, oh Lord, a lot of our popular music uses Adonai for all.
Lord.
Oh, Radix, root of Jesse, we're all familiar with that.
Shoot of Jesse in the biblical readings.
Oh, Clovis, David, O'Kee of David.
Oh, Orians, the rising sun, the dawn from where the word orient comes.
Oh, Rex, Gentium, king of the nations.
And oh, Emmanuel, of course, God is with us.
And what's great is that the first letter of the anophons, when read backward, Emmanuel,
Rex, Orion's, Clavis, Radix, Adonine sapiensia, Spell.
Arrow cross which is the Latin for I am coming tomorrow a powerful message
from Christ when it isn't I think it's it's so beautiful that it now that this is the way that they had never arranged these antiphons because it's it's one that as you're going through you don't quite see that until you're standing there on the evening of Christmas Eve waiting and looking back at over this last week that we have celebrated looking backwards is the only way that you're able to see those those titles in that that
That array that being able to see that I come tomorrow and I'm coming tomorrow that that beautiful Declaration of our Lord that this is something intentional that that this time of waiting this time of anticipating is not accidental or just Happen stance, but know that here our Lord has been preparing Preparing not just the world but preparing us here for his coming that we might all that more be ready to receive him
What a
great, great exegesis and homily.
Father, would you lead us out this evening with your priestly benediction for our
people?
The Lord be with you.
And with your spirit.
We ask that you pour out your spirit upon your servants here in these final days before that celebration of your coming that we might indeed joyfully wait and anticipate that celebration of our Lord's nativity to celebrate his coming those 2,000 years ago and to prepare our hearts for his coming that he desires today.
That coming that he desires to bring about here through each one of us that we might have that strength that great to call out.
upon your name, to be filled with your grace, to go here this way, to bring that light of your wonder here into the world.
And we pray this, like all things, name your beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen.
The Lord be with you.
And with your spirit.
And may Almighty God bless you, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Thank you, Father Clem.
Another great episode of Life is Worth Living.
Kenneth Clem, the pastor and superintendent of Sacred Heart, Catholic Parish and School.
Church
here in Ottawa, Kansas.
We'll be back.
Welcome to our show today.
My name is Peter Jacobson.
I'm the Gordney Professor of Economic Education and Research.
Joining us today we have Dr. Russ McCullough, the Wayne Angel Chair of Economics, also the founder of the Gordney and Dr. Justin Clark, the Menard Family Professor of Philosophy and Ethics.
All right, so we thought we'd talk about the morality of maybe war but also bombing people.
So it's been in the news lately that we have taken out some Venezuelan ships that we were told are carrying drugs and heading their way to the United States.
So presumably the US has operatives and information on the drug trafficking and other things that might be going on in the seas heading towards Florida or wherever it's heading towards our border.
And so there was an incident where presumably the boat was bombed and there was a couple people that survived it somehow and were adrift at sea and the
reports are that they were told to kill the remaining two.
And I don't know if that was direct or not, but this is kind of the news out there.
So, you know, we have our resident philosopher here on the morality.
We've done some book clubs on just war, like when is war just?
You know, when is it okay to engage in how?
And so there's people that are
claiming, you know, this is a murder or a war crime or whatever.
So it's kind of rules of engagement.
And then there's been some other things with the Trump administration kind of setting the stage so that we might have a little bit more of a avenue to pursue threats with Venezuela to open the door.
So, but I kind of, at least for starters, wanted to get on on this path of
You know, is it moral for us, Dr. Clark, to retaliate if we think there's been a very good evidence of a high weight to America of drugs that are ultimately leading to the drug crisis and killing of Americans?
Does that give us the right to do that if we think that that harm is coming our way?
Take it away, Dr. Philosophy Clark.
So I think there's two questions there.
The first might be something like, well, what does just war theory say about this?
And the second would be, regardless of just war theory, what's the right answer in this case?
And I'm not sure that I know the answer to either of those questions.
So.
I think one of the things to think about with just war theory is that just war theory was developed largely by, I think historically by Catholic, Catholic theology, and it was an attempt to try to bring some kind of order to war to make war less.
destructive and so things like wars are can only be just if they're fought defensively that is you know you're not allowed to throw the first stone as it were and then there's prohibitions against intentionally killing
Innocence in battle, right?
And then this gets developed into like well, what do we do with people who are captured in battle?
When are we required to capture about capture people in battle rather than kill them if they're if they've surrendered that kind of thing and so you could see how a framework that's developed like that would have something to say about a case where You take a foreign combat or a foreign combatant surrenders on the battlefield what we have to do with them, right?
But I think there are two problems with applying that to the Venezuela case, which is, again, that there was a boat that was allegedly smuggling drugs.
And the way that that was handled, it was that there was a strike that killed, I guess, some people on the boat and destroyed the boat, and then a second strike to kill the remaining survivors.
And that apparently this was intentional.
And the thing is, like, to make this, it's
It's going to be a stretch to apply just war theory to this no matter what, because they aren't regular combatant, right?
And I kind of see this as maybe the failure of just war theory as a whole to cope with warfare in general post-World War I.
In World War I, you have sides lining up against each other in trenches, and the innocents are kind of separated from the battlefield, right?
But beginning in World War II, we have the large-scale bombing of industrial munitions manufacturing.
We have the firebombing of Dresden, the firebombing of Tokyo, the nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, all of which are war crimes, according to just war theory.
So both sides of the war, the victors and the losers,
running afoul of just war theory.
And then, I mean, that's even easy compared to warfare in the 21st century, where we are declaring war against these like Al Qaeda or whatever, these cells, which are embedded within a population.
So it seems like just war theory only works if you're fighting other people that also agree to abide by just war theory.
I heard somebody who described getting beat up in eighth grade and they said, I took a lot of karate classes, but it turns out karate only works if you're fighting other people that also only agree to use karate, right?
And I think something similar to that was just war theory, where I mean, if we're in the rise of the 20th century, we have total war, right?
Which is entire populations mobilized against each other.
There's a line in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid where they're having a knife fight to see who rules the gang.
And Butch, I think it's Butch, he kicks the big guy in the balls, you know?
And he goes, that's against the rules.
And he goes, rules?
There's no rules in a knife fight.
And I think something similar applies to war.
Like if we're really serious about like war being total war, it's tough to come up with rules that both sides agree to.
As Hobb said in war, the two virtues are aggression and lying, force and fraud.
So.
That's my just war answer.
So I don't know, maybe we could stop there and say, I don't know what you guys think about that.
The applicability of just war theory to this case, I'm just not sure, even if we could figure out how to make just war theory apply, whether that would tell us what the right thing to do in this case.
So I guess there's a...
I was just trying to think of it if it matters that they were in international waters compared to let's say a domestic attack of some sort or domestic drug dealers for that matter and the force that we think we can use morally against them.
Like is there a difference there?
Again, presumably the CIA or whatever other.
Organization has awesome intel that this was real, but there's been some questionable things.
If there
were smuggling drugs into the US, it might have been the CIA on the boat.
Hold on, I'm getting drone-striked right now.
Yeah, I don't know.
So my take on this is, I do think the context of Just War theory is warfare, and I think it's strictly warfare.
And so I don't think that we can have a comparable thing here because even if you sort of like talk about cartels, well cartels just aren't nations, right, at the end of the day.
And so the way that you handle criminals, maybe also follows rules, but even like in a traditional Christian background, it wouldn't be equivalent to Just War, you don't think.
You could draw principles, probably.
So I'm not opposed to that idea.
The other thing, and kind of related to what Justin was saying, maybe a little different, is I don't know that I agree from a Christian perspective that, like, just war theory only applies if someone else is also ascribing to just war theory.
I think part of just war theory is that, like, you actually are beholden to follow the limitations, even if your opponent doesn't, which maybe puts you in a bad position.
Or might get you killed.
Yeah.
But I think, like...
in general, like that's what oral rule does, is it constrains you in a way that you might not like.
But I will say the other kind of contextual thing about just war theory is that just war theory began to be theorized when Christians began to take over governments, right?
And so like the real context of developing just war theory is now that Constantine, who is a Christian, controls an empire.
What sort of moral rules and laws does he follow?
And I know a lot of our presidents call themselves Christian, but at the end of the day, we are not a Christian controlled country.
people want us to be, that's a totally different question.
But at the end of the day, we have a secular government right now.
Maybe we won't always, someone argued that we didn't always, but we do now.
I agree with Justin in a sense of saying like, should we follow just war theory?
It's like, well, you'd have to have steps A through Y before you got there.
And just war theory would be step Z. And so why are we talking about Z at all?
But my concern with the whole, I'm opposed to the drone striking thing.
And I am not opposed to being careful about like who's coming into our country and all this stuff.
And so I understand like the
The needs of preventing, like, unrestricted access of drugs and violent gangs into our country, I am totally on board with that.
But I've never liked drone strikes for the sole fact that, like...
Who are these people being drone strike?
Are they American citizens?
Of course, our government says no, but, you know, our government could say no to any person they drone strike, right?
It's only when whistleblowers figure out the US government did something wrong that we would ever hear about it.
And so, you know, every drone strike is against a terrorist until some whistleblower group finds out that it was actually like a UN diplomat that we blew up in Afghanistan at one time, right?
Or actually, no, it was a hospital we blew up and so.
I don't like the idea that the government can just decide, here's a boat of people, I'm going to blow them up.
I think that we are perfectly within our capability to intercept these boats.
If we're not, then we should divest from our equipment and add staff members who can go out in their own boats, right?
Seems like it should be cheaper to drive a boat than it should be to launch a missile out of the sky.
Could be wrong.
And so intercepts these people.
deal with them via courts.
Some people will say, well, they're not citizens, so they don't have a right to jury.
I don't want to argue about the judicial question, because there is a judicial question there.
But as a matter of fact, I would still like to deal with those people in court, because we just don't know who citizens are and aren't when the government's deciding to make the calls.
The government will always buy.
So if they weren't a citizen, we don't have to give them rights.
And we would never know, right?
This is just a smoldering pile of ash in the middle of the ocean.
How will we ever find out?
So I don't like the drone strikes.
I think, by the way, they're mostly distractions.
I think the Trump administration has perfected the art of doing edgy things to distract from failure.
I think the Trump administration has had a stagnant two or three months.
I don't think they've done anything of note.
A lot of their big projects they started have failed.
And so now Trump is coming out and saying naughty words and Pete Hagseth is tweeting like, uh, you know, he, I can't remember what the meat he put out was about this.
It was like some cartoon character blowing up a boat or
Franklin.
Yeah.
Right.
It was Franklin, the turtle blowing up a boat.
It's like, isn't this funny?
And it's like, dude, you don't get paid to post memes, or at least I don't think you do.
uh why don't you actually just do your job and that's how I feel about the Trump administration general right now is stop posting start doing uh and I don't think doing is just blowing up boats right like you promise change change is not just blowing up a random narco boat in the water like what what the impact is that gonna make they're gonna say oh it's lives but uh you need systematic changes not like we blew up a boat one time aren't we good so
so a couple things to add that when Justin was talking came to mind um I believe
administration, I don't know if I necessarily want to say Trump or Hex either whatever, but said that Maduro is essentially the leader of this drug cartel, which might change a little bit putting it more into the war context.
Again, I don't know how much goes on of nefarious activity that Maduro is a part of since he basically took over the country by force as well and got rid of democracy.
So there you've got the leader of the country that might be on the inside of this
action going or at least benefiting in some case if he gets you know half of the drug revenue or whatever because the country is kind of hurting in terms of tax revenue since the whole economy is kind of imploded.
So that was one thing.
We've recently taken steps to close the airspace over Venezuela which is usually a move when we're getting closer to you know some sort of conflicts anyway.
I don't know if I want to put the war word on there or not.
And then
with the bombing I mean is it we can disagree with it but it also if drug trafficking has been going on for the last 40-50 years and we've done interceptions of boats and we're still having a heavier flow coming was this just kind of a final straw to say I'm gonna really send a message to these guys you're gonna die if you if these boats continue to come.
And so I guess what I'm saying is, is it more of a way to send a message and actually get some real action and some real change that maybe hasn't happened for a long time?
with other methods like intercepting the boat and giving them some sort of trial or whatever.
And I'm just throwing that out there to be devil's advocate.
If that's the case, that might change a little bit on the approach we take to try to stifle the trafficking.
I don't know.
I think that for me, like the outrage around it seems totally fabricated.
Personally, I'll tell you why.
It's like when there was huge outrage against George W. Bush for initiating wars of regime change in the Middle East, right?
And then Barack Obama was elected on an anti-war platform.
And when Obama was elected, he stopped doing as many boots on the ground.
operations and switched to a drone program.
The Obama administration launched the drone strike program in the United States, and it's a way of doing foreign policy where you put less American lives on the line, right?
And that's a trade-off.
In fact, in the Obama administration, there were 10 times more drone strikes than in the Bush administration.
And during the Obama administration, we drone-striked American citizens, one of whom was the
son of an Al-Qaeda operative.
The Al-Qaeda operative wasn't even there, but we drone-striked his son.
And when asked about it, Robert Gates, Obama's press secretary at the time said, well, I would say he should have had a better dad, which is like a really terrible thing to say.
The kid himself wasn't guilty of anything, right?
We not only did that, we also drone-striked a bunch of Afghan weddings where, you know,
killing people who were just going to celebrate a wedding.
We have done this so many different times.
And then when Obama got out and Trump won went in, both the drone strike against Iran's Soleimani, I think his name was, who was one of the leaders, the leader of the Iranian Guard.
And immediately after that happened,
that there was this eruption of outrage on the left.
Like how dare Trump drone strike.
And it's like, dude, you guys just initiated this drone program.
So we have this history of doing one thing and then objecting to it when the other side does the exact same thing.
And it seems to me like this was kind of set up because one day before this drone strike outrage,
You had Mark Kelly and another senator, I can't remember.
They put out this video saying, make sure the armed forces know.
You guys don't have to follow on...
unconstitutional orders.
And then it was like, and by the way, the very next day, we're going to tell you this thing that we have been doing for the last 20 years is unconstitutional and unacceptable.
And it's like, if it was unacceptable, it should have been unacceptable for the last 20 years.
And in fact, there are people who have been writing about it saying, this is unacceptable for the last 20 years.
And I trust the people who have been saying that for the last 20 years.
And they're also very mad about this one too, right?
But
It's the selective partisan outrage over it that makes me think this isn't a really serious debate unless you really want to object to all of it.
I respect that opinion and it's an opinion that I'm very close to.
I think it's a valid one and I might hold it, but you can't just be selectively outraged about this stuff.
Yeah, maybe this looks like a good spot for break when we come back.
I'm hearing the difference between politics and the military industrial complex.
Did I say that right?
That it looks like the military industrial complex is winning because they seem to keep doing it.
But let's flesh that out after the break.
We'll be back in a bit.
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Alright, so we're back and Justin, you had a few more comments to add on to where you were talking before.
Yeah, so just like I said, the left is like selectively outraged about this when they've been doing it for, you know.
They did the exact same thing for 12 of the last 20 years.
The right excuse for this as well, they're importing drugs and drugs kill Americans and therefore their state is a legitimate target because of course we have a bunch of fentanyl deaths in the US.
And fentanyl by and large doesn't come from Venezuela.
I think cocaine does and there's less cocaine overdose deaths or whatever.
But in an enormous amount of fentanyl comes through Canada, right?
we're not drone striking Canada over this.
And so what actually seems to be going on from the right is that we're getting this, it seems like a slow buildup to an attempted regime change in Venezuela.
And that the excuses that were given for why these strikes are happening, those aren't the real reasons why those strikes are happening either.
It seems like we're targeting Venezuela as opposed to other countries where plenty of drugs are coming from.
And so on both sides, we have these excuses or these claims about
why we're doing what we're doing and they don't seem to be honest.
Well the military industrial complex I've come to
understand a little better.
I'm showing my class a free to choose video that recently came out called the true cost of defense.
So Milton Friedman headed up the free to choose video series back in the early 80s and wrote a book and so they've continued they have the free to choose network.
So anyway just a little background on where that came from.
So in this
Video they're talking about you know the billions of dollars really interesting just to hear where we're spending money and how you know how it gets to be such a large number and One of the striking things that I think is relevant to what we're talking about here is we're down to basically five major US companies that handle all of the defense contracts so like Boeing you know all the big fighter jets and All of that stuff so there was like five and I think they said you know
20, 30 years ago or some period of time before, you know, there was maybe 30 contractors.
So you go out for competitive bid, blah, blah, blah.
And maybe there'd be some turnover of companies that we work with.
And so it just made me think how much of...
you know cartel and in in economics we call it an oligopoly where there's just a few firms and then we've got even worse the few firms are directly contracting with the u.s.
government and kind of these sweetheart deals that make it pretty tough to change and so i can when i said earlier before the break on how maybe politics is losing to the military industrial complex is that obama or trump or you know biden you name it they come in and they step into this goliath that
they really don't have a choice.
They're kind of told, hey, here's the morality of this.
This would be a good idea if we do drone strikes.
And of course, they're the ones building the drones and making billions of dollars in those contracts.
So I don't know.
Not only
that, they're also the main sponsors of cable news programs too.
Are you serious?
Yeah.
It's pharma and defense who are the big sponsors of cable news programming.
Wow.
No, I didn't know that.
If you wonder
why, like why is Boeing advertising on the like, do you think someone's going to buy a fighter jet?
I get all my travel, uh, destination.
That's for Fox News, uh, commercials, Justin.
I didn't want to go on vacation this year, but then I watched the news and I remembered, there are planes.
I forgot that there were planes.
Boeing makes good... I care about Boeing, uh, as a company.
I don't just get on whatever plane that's there at the day.
Anyways, yeah, I mean...
Uh, anytime we get into this topic, uh, I always have to recommend my, uh, dissertation advisor, Chris Coyne, who I think has written innumerable books on the subject of, uh, defense and peace economic and U.S.
militarism.
And I think at the end of the day, uh, this is just like raw naked public choice.
You get people like Pete Hegseth, who I think Pete Hegseth is probably a true believer in the things that he believes, but he's selected for by a process that prioritizes expansion, right?
Government bureaucracies thrive when they grow, they die.
when they shrink, how do military, you know, department of war, how does the department of war grow while shocking it grows through war, right?
Like, so at the end of the day, it's unfortunate, but none of this is surprising to me.
I suppose the only surprising thing is that Trump had such strong rhetoric of not being involved internationally, both in 2016 and in 2020 and in 2024.
Now he always had a lot of bluster and he was always willing to say, oh, if somebody hits us, we're going to hit back four times as hard.
But these situations,
don't seem, I guess like a drug boat, you can argue they're hitting us first, maybe, so I can stretch, but the Venezuela stuff, it's like left field, like yeah, but Venezuela has been mean to us for like...
30 years like a fruit fly is mean to me when I'm eating an apple.
But like nothing to warrants like a Trump punchback.
It's a big departure from his rhetoric.
I can't say it's a departure from his person because it's what he's doing right now, right?
Like it turns out Trump is acting a lot like Obama and Bush, which is that they're like, oh, yes, foreign intervention.
We shouldn't do too much to that.
And then they get an office.
Right.
Because they find out how big the how big an influential the military industry complex actually is once they're in that position.
Or like sometimes you get in the
inner circle and the behaviors which got you into the inner circle are also the ones that turn you into the inner circle, right?
And so like, you don't realize you're doing it and you don't mean to, it's not like, oh, I'm going to get in and change here to get more power.
It's just like, oh, they've convinced me.
Wow.
That's kind of the process.
Or this time is different, right?
I'm sure that's the thought in Trump's head is like, well, this is an irafic cafe in the sand.
This is Venezuelan.
Here's XYZ reason why this Venezuela is so much.
Yeah.
And it all comes at a high cost of just the
military, having bases set up.
All right.
Well, this has been a production of the Gorton Institute here at Ottawa University.
I'd like to thank you all for listening.
Five Star Rating helps other people find us.
Otherwise, feel free to just pass this along to your friends and family that might like to take a listen.
Other than that, be fruitful and
multiply.
Thanks.
and Waterloo, and this is our weekly segment.
Boy, as Iowa got snow this year, and of course it's cold because we're heading into Christmas.
But you know what, guys?
I've got Barbara Hames Bryant on the phone with me today.
Barbara, you and your family have been welcoming people in from the cold with your beautiful homes for many years, and I can prove it with this retro ad from television almost half a century ago.
called The Hames Way.
Curt and Norma Hames can show you mobile homes that keep you warm and comfortable.
Attractive, well built, well insulated homes.
Easy to heat, easy on fuel bills.
Come on in from the cold.
Visit Hames Mobile Homes in Marion, Iowata or Iowa City.
Open seven days a week at 9 a.m.
daily, noon on Sundays.
Hames, The Homes People.
and Barbara, just to prove our continuity with your great legacy.
We still play that Neil Diamond instrumental music as our intro riff for you, Barbara Haynes Bryant.
Oh, I love to hear crackling, Rosie.
It reminds me of the good old days.
It does.
There's a lot of things that have changed in our business.
Mobile homes are called manufactured homes now.
Yes,
yes.
But they're even warmer and better insulated than they have ever been.
Indeed.
The heating bills and the bills on these homes will surprise you how low they are.
Indeed, Barbara Hamas Bryant.
So great to have you on, you know,
Barbara, I'm always upbeat here during the Christmas season.
Current and normal are always where the successive generations are.
I'm also still very bullish on America's economic climate.
We've had
three rate decreases of 25 basis points in succession, almost a full percentage interest.
I think they're going to go down again here in 2026.
We're going to have a new Fed chair.
GDP, despite the government shutdown, is going to end up at 3% for 2025.
Barbara, I think we're going to have a breakout year in 2026 akin to 1984.
I really do.
I think it'll be a good time to finance, especially.
And this is the time for people to start looking
for these safe, beautiful, affordable homes.
We have a wonderful selection of both new and used, single and double sectional homes.
John, we've got two-bedroom, three-bedroom, and four-bedroom homes, and we've got a good selection of people willing to finance them.
So there's good competitive interest rates out there for folks who would like to finance and get a loan for their home.
Otherwise, cash is always accepted.
Exactly.
Well, you know, Barbara, they always tell us we didn't need not so much to be told always is to be reminded, but folks, there are so many reasons why Hame's home beats apartment living every time.
I mean, Barbara, no shared walls and more privacy is one.
Your own driveway every single day is number two, three, one floor living equals comfort and convenience.
Number four, laundry day without the workout.
and number five, a locally owned community that cares.
These are compelling reasons to shift from that apartment living and to be into a permanent safe, affordable, beautiful, manufactured home.
That's so right, John.
I wish everybody would come to Grand View or Summit View in Southwest Cedar Rapids.
We're at the corner of Wilson Avenue and West Post Road Southwest.
Just come and look around the communities.
They're open to look around, see how lovely these homes are, how they take great care of the streets, and the driveways are already plowed.
Oh, the playgrounds are still open, and the dog park is still open, even though it's chilly and snowy outside.
It's a different kind of life from apartment living.
It isn't any more expensive than apartment living.
I wish folks would come and visit us at handshomes.com.
and view our large selection of homes.
There's something out here for everybody.
That's so true.
You know, you've got storage garages on the premises at nominal charge, off-street parking at each mobile home site for two vehicles, fiber optic underground cable for high-speed communications hookups,
Plenty of family-friendly activities, mail, delivery directly to individual home sites, and I love your location.
I mean, you've got amenities like basketball courts, covered picnic pavilions, fitness trail, playground, community center, and Barbara, you guys are close to business and industry.
The West Hill Mall, Kirkwood Community College, Eastern Iowa Airport, and a man of colonies, minards, everything.
We sure are.
And one other thing I'd like to point out, most people don't realize about our manufactured homes.
Most of them have garages.
And this time of year, that's really important to a lot of folks.
You sure don't want to be leaving your house and having to scrape ice off your windshield.
We can certainly accommodate that too with garages.
And there's floor plan here for everybody.
Like you were saying, it's something for everyone.
And we're also close.
to CRSP, West Side Trucking.
We're close to the new data centers that are being built
here in Cedar Rapids.
Yes you are.
We're very excited about those, having those nearby.
And the airport now that Edgewood Road is open all the way through, it's only 12 minutes door-to-door to get through to Iowa Airport.
Unbelievable.
That is convenience.
You cannot beat that.
And you know, you're close to Iowa City where the Hawkeyes play.
You're close to the Amana Colonies.
You're right on I-380, Barbara.
The U.S.
Post Office is nearby.
You can dance to the YMCA song at the YMCA.
My goodness, it's you, you know, I love Marion, but you're in a great place there in Southwest at Grand View and Summit.
We're our own little cities here.
You'd be surprised even though you're so close to everything.
It's so quiet here and everything is so well taken care of.
You feel like you're in the country or maybe at a big estate.
Well, and Barbara, like you said, there's something for everybody.
Those 55 and up.
like me, plus 10, for downsizers, for young families, for kids that may even want to go to medical school, dental school, pharmacy school in Iowa, maybe they're a young married couple.
Again, the convenience, your max 20 minutes to university hospitals and the campus there in Iowa City even.
Well, don't forget we've got two great hospitals here in Cedar Rapids as well.
That also is true.
Yes, that's absolutely correct.
You know, I'm so focused on my alma mater Hawkeyes with her bowl game coming up.
But yeah, Cedar Rapids has two extraordinarily great hospitals there and has been that way for many, many years and they survived the flooding.
You know, Cedar Rapidians are very robust people.
You guys have survived floods, durachos,
tornadoes and Barbara, your homes have survived as well or better than conventional homes during those climate crises.
It's a myth that trailer parks are attracted.
tornadoes.
Our homes, our manufactured homes are so well built and so well installed that during that derecho five years ago, none of our homes tipped over.
A few of them shifted slightly on their foundations.
Now we did have some roof inciting damage, but all in all, our homes fared exceptionally well.
Our office, brick office, the roof blew off.
The roof did not blow off any of our homes.
Can you believe that?
It's just the quality, you know, and you guys have been leaders in the industry nationwide, the Hames family, they have clout, they have the respect in the industry nationwide, and you guys have impacted that in such a great way.
And you know, there's nothing better than...
testimonials.
Val Overbeck says the addition of the dog area makes Hames an even more desirable community to be a part of.
Karen Smith, very clean and quiet, very well kept, very friendly staff.
John and Bobby O'Brien, we live in a gorgeous neighborhood thanks to the Hames family and everyone that works so hard to maintain grand view.
Gabby Galloway, great community and a great place to live.
Melody Turner, everyone here is so kind.
I love the extra things this neighborhood does for its residents, the food pantry, the clean lots,
the play areas.
Michael Heffrin, wonderful community to live and enjoy.
Retirement, Darren Hay, great place.
well kept.
The Benskins, Hames treated us fair and square and we were more than satisfied with the deal they offer us.
J. McDonald, Hames runs a top shelf organization.
It's highly regarded everywhere.
You can tell that people care about their homes.
John and Bobby O'Brien doesn't get better than the testimony of, as a lawyer, I can tell you Barbara, these are eyewitness testimonies they would count in the court of law.
They were not coerced either.
I promise you that.
We've got a good Iowa stock here and folks will say their mind and they won't sugarcoat it so we're very happy and we're just delighted with that kind of feedback.
Well you got time before Christmas to pump up your wish list and drive by or call or get online one more time.
Barbara the drill on how they can find you folks.
Our number is our Marianne phone number that we and we've had it for 56 years now 319-377-4863.
That's 319-377-4863.
Most people check us out online first at Hames.
homes.com.
H-a-m-e-s-h-o-m-e-s.com.
And as I said earlier, we're at the corner of Wilson Avenue and West Post Road, Northwest and Cedar Rapids.
Our sales centers are open seven days a week, except for, of course, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day and New Year's Day.
Otherwise, please come out and visit us again.
Please just drive through our communities and picture yourself living in a safe, affordable,
Lovely place.
And Barbara, thank you for this nostalgia as we go into Christmas.
I think of all the KGEN, then it was called WMT.
It was Channel 2, where there were those commercials there.
I actually think I hear those playing in the background of my mind now as we posed for classic Christmas card family photos in our home in Marion, circa right about the time those ads were running when the late great Darrell Hall would make house calls with his big flash bulb cameras.
and take the family Christmas photos.
Oh, Barbara, I'm nostalgic these days, but the beauty of it is the future is even brighter than the past.
And the great people at Hame's Homes have brought the quality and the comfort and the safety to even higher echelons with your next generations of great family custodianship.
Well, thank you, John.
I couldn't agree more.
Barbara Hame's Bryant, ladies and gentlemen, we'll check in with her one more time before Christmas.
Put it on your wish list.
The Hames Home.
Talk to some elves.
They're not necessarily on a shelf, but they'll be somewhere on maybe on a rooftop there at Summit or Grand.
Barbara, we'll talk to you next week.
God bless.
Have a great weekend.
Go Hawks!
Go
Hawks, John.
The great Barbara Hames Bryant from Hames Homes on 1540 KXL the Blowtorch.
We'll be back after this.
And our bonus round here with Father Kenneth Clem, life is worth living.
Pastor and Superintendent of Sacred Heart Catholic Church, parish and school here in Ottawa, Kansas.
Father at Christmas, there were a lot of cooperators in grace with our incarnate Lord, such as the angel Gabriel, Elizabeth, John the Baptist, St.
Joseph, the angel that appeared in Joseph's dream, the three wise men.
But Father, my favorite, the lady who's led me to Jesus Christ, my mom,
Mary the ultimate cooperator in grace.
Let's talk about Mary during this Christmas season in her singular role
really It is and it's yeah, I think a beautiful time, too And to spend some time talking about our lady about Mary that it is because in this this season of of Advent of getting ready for our Lord's coming of preparing for his coming at Christmas that it is a time where where we are Waiting anticipating and hoping there on our Lord and that
that our Lady is one who exemplifies that so very well, is one who not only hoping there on our Lord, but trusting therein in His will.
And that beautiful, yes Lord, let it be done according to your will.
She offers to the angel Gabriel when he comes with that message that the Lord desires to be made incarnate there in her womb.
That they're not under fully understanding or knowing what this might mean.
She says yes, Lord that let it be done according to your will this great Yes, Lord and that she provides for us this this example in that that that saying yes to our Lord in those places where yeah We might not see where exactly he's going or what this means, but that she provides this this beautiful leading leading us to him again in this not only this example of her life and of her yes, but They're continuing then
Every time that we spend any time talking about our Lady, that she is always one who is constantly pointing us, constantly leading us to her Son.
That in everything that she does, and especially throughout the scriptures, but then also afterwards, that she is always pointed to her Son, always directing whoever it is approaching her there onto her Son.
I think the greatest example of that is that wedding feast at Cana, where she is the one who brings that servant there to our Lord.
in this great beginning of these miracles of his public ministry that that she is this one leading them on to our Lord and that in that same way as one who is always leading us onto her son.
And I think in a very beautiful point that just very recently that Pope Leo had spoke on a number of the titles of Mary and that we do it.
There's this beautiful tradition in our church of giving these titles to Mary to highlight these
aspects of her ministry of this beautiful reality that again that those who have have died in Christ are not truly dead but alive in him and that as she is one who continues here in her ministry of leading of pointing the world onto her son that there are these beautiful aspects within that like of indeed that she is Mary the mother of God that this one who brought our Lord here into the world but that Pope Leo had specifically asked there were a number of titles that had
had been causing a bit of confusion, and they asked that we just refrain from using those for a time.
Not saying that they are incorrect or that there's anything wrong inherently in them, or that no, that the reality of what they're saying is true, but that the use of them is confusing, and that unless we have a very specific theological understanding that they can
they can be misconstrued and that no, we shouldn't be causing confusion, that our lady should not be a stumbling block, that she should be this great place where as individuals are seeking our Lord and wanting to find him, that she can be this guide along the way to lead her, us back to our Lord, and this beautiful and of heart of Pope Leo, of wanting there to be no stumbling blocks of wanting there to be nothing in the way of us.
encountering our Lord, asking that, yeah, that they're, for at least for this time, for now, that these titles be ones that, these specific titles that he's asked that people not use.
just so that there not be that confusion.
Because it is this beautiful thing that whenever again, that whenever we talk about our lady, whenever we give any sort of explanation of any wonder or miracle work there in her life, whether in of those of her appearance to individuals across time, whether Lady of Guadalupe or Lady of Lords or whether they're in those beautiful realities about her own life and like her own immaculate conception, that in everything that we talk about with our lady,
that is always saying something so much more wonderful about our Lord, that in all of it it is always directed on to her Son, and in all things that she is this one who is leading us there, home leading us to her Son, and teaching us there not only by her example of her life, but teaching us there by her companionship with us, to like her say, yes, Lord, let it be done according to your will.
And that beautiful prayer in Luke's Gospel, after the angel declares unto her, hail full of grace, the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou among.
Women and blessed as the fruit of thy womb Elizabeth carries on with that in the gospel
of
Luke between the angel and and Mary which forms the Ave Maria prayer that we know but that that that In Luke's gospel we call
it
the Magnificat
because
she she magnifies the Lord never for her But she magnifies Jesus Christ
always magnifying and that's and that's and that's a beautiful thing that even those those prayers of me I'm always associated with Mary like yeah the Hail Mary
or even like the rosary that ultimately they are they are both not only extremely scriptural but they are both pointing and directing there to that wonder of the incarnation pointing on and to that wonder of her son and that yet the the Hail Mary being this prayer kind of pulled right from the scripture itself is one the end of
highlighting that wonder of our Lord being made incarnate there in her womb.
And then the Rosary being this, yes, this bit longer prayer and a bit repetitive for some folks, but it is a prayer that in its length and in its repetition allows us that opportunity to reflect on the scriptures.
The whole purpose of the Rosary is to provide that opportunity to reflect on those wondrous moments in the life of our Lord and to allow our Lady to be that guide and that help in doing so.
Indeed, all those beautiful reflections on Scripture, if you do the joyful, the sorrowful, the glorious, the luminous mysteries, you've got five, you've got...
five in each.
You've got 20 different huge chapters, if you would, and each of those has 10 separate mini stories, I would say, of scriptural reflections of the life of Jesus.
And again, it always goes back to Luke.
Luke is that herald, and after Gabriel says,
hail full of grace, the Lord is with thee, Elizabeth in, says, bless are you among women, bless is the fruit of your womb.
So we've got this great biblical background and the rosary starts with Luke and goes all through these episodes in the life of Jesus Christ and always Mary loyal and they're at his side from the first miracle at Cana to the
crucifixion and resurrection and the coming of the Holy Spirit as it says in the Bible as well as those early days of trepidation just think they were after her son's life the second she bore her son and they had to flee to Egypt.
So a woman of great faith and great courage and great love.
Indeed.
Well father, show us out
one more here.
Our expanded audience today.
You're going into many states today on the KXEL blowtorch 1540 signal here for many of our listeners in what I would call the traditional Big Ten area of the country.
One more benediction
for us.
So these folks will be listening to us this morning.
Father, on a Saturday morning here, take it away.
Father and Son of the Holy Spirit, amen, our help in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth, the Lord be with you.
Father, we ask that you would pour out your blessing upon all your servants and that they indeed might be filled with that strength, that grace to answer that call you make of each of them there in their own lives in this particular and beautiful way that you have called each of them to follow after you.
And we ask that our Lady would be this help and this guide to not be a stumbling block to be, but to be one
who guides, who leads us ever on to her Son, to your Son, to our Lord Jesus Christ.
And we pray this like all things through His name.
Our Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen.
The Lord be with you.
Amen.
May Almighty God bless you, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Go in peace.
Thank you, Father Kenneth Klem, the Reverend Kenneth Klem, pastor, Sacred Heart Catholic Church and school in Ottawa, Kansas, outside of the Kansas City and Lawrence area.
And we'll be back shortly.
Thank you everybody for listening in today.
We wish you all a joyous Christmas season upcoming, and we'll be back next Saturday as well.
And we want to thank all of our guests, Doctors Russ McCullough, Justin Clark, Peter Jacobson, along with the Reverend Kenneth Clem, Father Clem, Pastor,
and Superintendent of Sacred Heart Catholic Church Parish and School outside of Kansas City and Lawrence in Ottawa, as well as Barbara Haymes Bryant and on behalf of all of us in KXEL land, we wish you to be safe, stay smart, be good, be strong, love Jesus Christ.
Thank him for appearing in history in
saving mankind, welcome the Christ child back into your hearts this Christmas, and prepare for his coming again in glory.
God bless us everyone in the words of Tiny Tim, and until we meet again, bye-bye.
