Boom, boom, boom. Good music. Great music. Love
it, man. Second half music. Well, it's the first
half as well. Yeah, I was going to say we heard
the first half too. We considered changing it,
but, you know, it's not an original. There's
a lot of industries and businesses that use this
one because this was like a free one. Well, there
you go. Yeah, we picked it up because we weren't
going to get, like, busted by YouTube when we
post this shit. Ding. Jesus. And because it's
cool. It is cool. Yeah, we got dinged by Romania.
Yeah, we get dinged. Romania. So when we post
shit on YouTube, we will... You guys are famous
worldwide. They hit us everywhere uniformly.
Unless they're looking for a husband, you're
going to be a Romanian. They want some Romanian
brides, right? There you go. Right. Pretty much.
So the thought around that whole thing was that
every time we do like some skits where we have
80s music, 60s, 50s, whatever it is, and we do
the top hits or top videos or whatever, we play
these sound bites and we upload it to YouTube.
And the YouTube, if it's over like 5, 10 seconds,
they're coming. They're like, oh, my God, you
just played ABBA. You guys are assholes, and
we're going to hurt you. Oh, yeah, they researched
that against their catalog, and there's artificial
intelligence that looks at the rhythm. Oh, AI
is all over all that crap. We even got flagged
for COVID disinformation. Which was probably
true. It was 100 % true. I don't think they're
doing that anymore. Yeah, I wonder why. Well,
maybe I should contest it at this point and get
those other podcasts. We had two strikes. We
allowed three strikes. I think we had two strikes,
didn't we? Well, I don't even know. YouTube still
dropped. These other guys were on TV the other
day, and they did a podcast with Donald Trump,
and they came out with a hard seltzer. Yeah.
Because YouTube, the very next day, they had
like three million views on YouTube. The next
day, they got dropped. Because they talked about
a hard seltzer? Trump was on there. They interviewed
Trump along with their hard seltzer. It's so
much bullshit. For five or ten minutes. Trump
actually showed up. That is outrageous. For their
podcast. Yeah, I heard about that. It happens
all the time. So they didn't discuss anything
that violated rules. They just don't like Trump,
so they dropped him. Yeah. Recently. In the last
year. They have the power to do it. And you know
what? The thing is that I hope that our administration
is looking into all these weird -ass, loopholes
that these cocksuckers are throwing at us. But
look, it's April 8th. It's the second half of
the Dudes Like Us podcast. Chuck, our producer,
is on board here. We have a special guest tonight.
Dudes Like Us. I'm Sean. I'm Paul. I am Jeff.
And Mike. And Mike. Mike is here. And Mike, you're
from Katy, Texas originally. Where do you currently
live? Oh, Katy, Texas. Yeah. You still live there?
Yeah. You're from New York. I grew up in New
York. Yeah. Yeah. Fled as quick as I could. Yeah.
There you go. Well, you know, I... Was born in
Maryland. I'm a military brat, so I moved a lot.
But I guess it's set aside from being here in
Texas. I was from Jersey a lot. We've got a lot
of family in Connecticut. God's country. Yeah.
Yeah. I want to retire and die there. Yeah. Yeah.
Well, he took a trip to New Jersey and he was
like, oh my God, it's so beautiful. Dude, it's
called the Garden State for a reason. Parts of
Jersey are absolutely gorgeous and parts of upstate
New York are phenomenally gorgeous. He was a
Newark. I was not fucking Newark, you cock. He
was like, I don't ever want to come home. I love
it here. There's so many Irish bars. I grew up
in the city. McSorley's Bar, downtown New York
City. I grew up in the city and it's just coming
to Texas, having the elbow room. And the ability
to buy a gun and shoot it and nobody complain.
You don't go deer hunting in New York. Not very
much anyway. Even outside of the big cities,
you can't go. You can, yeah. Upstate New York,
yeah. Yeah, but you travel a little bit further.
Like in Connecticut, you can't even have, I mean,
you travel with bullets, you get in trouble.
Well, see, I, you know, during, remember the
Obama years when they were trying to outlaw AR
-15s? Oh, yeah. Well, my cousin is a police officer,
right? He just recently got elected county sheriff,
another story. But so he's been in criminal justice,
police officer, all his life. And so during that
time. The average gun, the rifle, AR -15s, et
cetera, went from like 700 bucks to $2 ,000,
$2 ,500. Right. And he calls me up one day and
said, hey, man, what's going on? He goes, do
you want my rifle? I built an AR -15. You know,
I can't keep it anymore. It's like, what do you
mean you can't keep it? He said, it's a new law
in New York State. He said, so you're a police
officer and you have an FFL. Right. And he said,
yeah, the law changed. So what happened is I'm
a police officer. I have my FFL. If I clock out
and I'm still in my squad car and I still have
my uniform on, I cannot have the AR -15 in my
trunk, even if it's under lock and key, because
I'm no longer on the clock as a uniformed police
officer. He's off duty. He's off duty. So he
said, I'll give it to you for like 700 bucks.
I said, sold. No kidding. And I had to go find
somebody so he could transport it. But at the
time, I could have resold it for two grand. Sure.
I said, no, I want one. Oh, absolutely. It's
like, hell yeah, I want one. They're fun. Yeah.
It's great. It's just an adult toy. It is. It
really is. It's just plinking. It's like, okay,
fine. It's fun to shoot. And I'm not paying two
grand for something I know is worth 700. Right.
So, yeah. Yeah. Super cool. As a police officer
in a uniform, he's not allowed to have it, even
if he had his FFL. He said, so I'm giving up
my FFL. I'm getting out of the business. I think
they've reversed some of that language in the
policies. That's how it worked recently. Yes,
even New York. Really? Yep. Is he still in the
force? So he wants it back. So did he go? And
you're like, sorry. Was he in New York City?
No, upstate New York. County sheriff. He's one
of the county sheriffs. Okay, so did he catch
any of that defund the police and all that protesting
against the police? Did he experience any of
that? I don't know. He doesn't talk about it
much. I know how he feels about it. Sure. Right?
But I don't think not near as much. The New York
City cops, God bless them. That's right. I mean,
it's like, whoa. Yeah. And they're short -staffed.
And they're short -staffed. Right. It's horrible.
And they're not appreciated. Yeah, and they're
not appreciated. That's changing. I do feel that's
changing. The tide has turned. People are starting
to realize, wow, they prefer law and order as
opposed to crime. I hope so. I hope so. Even
most of the folks back then did. The normal people
that you would talk to in neighborhoods, no,
we want the police because the violence goes
down when they're walking the streets. Oh, yeah,
absolutely. Absolutely. When the social worker
walks down the street, they don't care. Yeah,
they're like, hey, don't do that. Yeah, it used
to be like when I was a teenager, you mouthed
off to a cop, you got the baton on the side of
your head. If you're lucky, that's all you got.
Right. They didn't beat the crap out of you,
and then you went home and told your parents,
then they beat the crap out of you. Right. So
you don't do that. You don't do that anymore.
It's like, who beat you up? Some strange kid.
Not a police officer. That was warranted, though.
I mean, look, it was just like sometimes your
parents didn't want to beat you, so they're like,
all right, well, we'll let somebody else do it.
And it worked. Hey, look, I've had some friends
that needed it. I mean, some guys that were just
off the hook, you're kind of like, yeah. You
know why you got beat up by the cops? Because
you deserved it. Oh. I don't know. What's going
on? Well, I know I told all my boys' teachers
that if you need to spank my boys, you have my
permission. I'll put it in writing if you need
it. They can't even do that anymore. But still,
I was like, if they do it. The paddle is our
friend. Yeah, that's what I said. I was like,
you know, the paddle was big in my school growing
up, and nobody wanted it. So you behave yourself.
Have you gotten paddled? I never got paddled.
Oh, bullshit. What about you? Oh, yeah. Did you
really? No, no, no. I'm talking in school. Oh,
yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Not in the bedroom. No,
no. I went to private Catholic school when I
was younger. Oh, now the plot thickens. Not Sister
Mary Elephant, Irish Christian Brothers. And
so they would, remember in the adult school,
they used to have like the four inch tall rubber
molding on the bottom of the floor. Yeah. They
just rip that stuff off the floor and start hitting
you with it. Okay. And so you gotta hold out
your hand. right and you get like three whacks
if you pull your hand back you got another three
yeah you got like double so it's like you just
take your medicine your hand was like beet red
and it's like no it's just yeah they didn't screw
around just suck it up i had a co -worker that
told me when she was a school girl the nuns would
walk around and if and if they with the ruler
yeah with the ruler oh yeah like writing something
incorrectly anything if they were left -handed
anything writing with their left hand you know
i mean just like anything and don't say a word
yeah Thank you. May I have another? Just don't
say a word. Yeah, you're not allowed to complain
about it. No, we need that. Let's go back to
that. Let's bring it back. Corporal punishment
in the schools. So I remember when I lived in
New Jersey and my dad got restationed to the
United States Army Sergeant Majors Academy in
El Paso, Texas. And we moved down there in the
first school I went to. The Hispanics, let's
be honest, on average, they're shorter than I
am. So I was out on the basketball court, and
I was playing basketball because I played a lot
when I was in New Jersey. And I'm throwing around,
doing my thing, and all these guys are so much.
I'm just trouncing on them. So I grabbed the
net because I'm not that big because I'm normal.
But they're not normal. So I grab the net. I'm
like, I pull myself up, and I grab the net. I
slam it. You're showing off. Oh, just being a
dumbass. So this coach, I'll never forget him.
This black coach. I don't remember his name,
though. But he says, hey, come on over here.
And I was thinking, oh, he's going to ask me
to be on the team. Absolutely. This is good.
You look that good. Oh, why don't you come over
to my office here? He takes me. Put your hands
right there. And I was like, oh, what's going
on over here? Open up a drawer. And he was like...
You're not allowed to be grabbing the net like
that. And as a punishment, you know, just go
ahead and leave your hands there for a second.
Whack! And I was like, broke all your fingers?
No, he hit my ass. Oh. He hit my ass. And I was
like, are you fucking kidding me? So you didn't
even see it coming? No, not at all. Which was
actually kind of a blessing because, you know,
the fear of - No, no, no. You'd have clenched?
Oh, I would have clenched. It would have been
horrible. Yeah. But I was just thinking - The
clench? The aftermath. That's a thing? The clench?
The clench. It's just like the fact that the
audacity of that teacher to react like that.
Right. And take it upon himself. self to to do
that to me now now did it teach me yes was it
wrong for him in retrospect i'm thinking yeah
there's probably should have been a little due
process probably you know i think that was that
was uncool did he get his point across yeah i
fucking never touched another net again yeah
well no the good thing is you never play basketball
again oh yeah and that's good the world needed
that yeah well he asked me to actually play after
that i told him really And I was like, no, man,
I'm not playing for you. You lost your star player,
coach. So now we can't even jump to grab the
net. Come on. Well, you got that little trampoline.
You can scoot that under the rim. For our listeners
that don't know what he's talking about, I bought
myself a, is it a Bellatone? I bought myself
a little trampoline. It's a very expensive exercise
trampoline. It's a Jazzercise trampoline. Yeah,
man, I got one. And you know what? It works.
It has tightened up my core strength, and I'm
super excited about that because it has done
nothing for my weight, but it has done everything
for my core strength. Now you're country. strong
oh dude i could like i could just sit ups all
day like well you can carry you can carry like
like eight drywall drywall boards but with one
arm what i could do is i could jump around like
i'm on the trampoline so if i need to get up
and you know but what it does it tones my or
your polka dancing mckinney yeah that too oh
you were jumping so high it's the core strength
i'm telling you it's the core strength and it
really doesn't work because at the end of the
day uh guys our age We have to maintain that
core strength. We should be doing something.
We should be doing something. If you're getting
up like Paul sometimes at 4 fucking 45 in the
morning, you idiot, and you go play basketball,
that's one thing. That's a little extreme. The
exercise to go to the bathroom at 445. Yeah.
There you go. There's a difference. I don't like
to get up that early, though, frankly. I got
my routine thing. My point is exercise. For guys
like us, you got to do it. The core strength
thing is awesome. It is. It's important. Yeah,
walks. I don't do those, but I rationalize that.
You heard that they're good? Well, I mean, that's
what my doctor says. Hey, go for a walk. Did
you buy some rollerblades? I did. That was a
noble effort. That was kind of like... Cut down
trees. Cut down trees. Use my chainsaw. No, no,
with a hatchet. I was a human rollerblade enthusiast
in the early 90s. I rollerbladed off the frickin'
hook. I was a freak. You know, I mean, I'd go
down big here. Oh, yeah. What I would do is I'd
have a backpack on with water and Gatorade and
snacks and like a half pound of pot. And I was
like going to these woody forested areas. And
your shorts were this big? Oh, with the tall
socks, go fast stripes and just like flying through
there. And the chicks were like, that's a bad
look. But I didn't care. I had my little, I had
my cassette player with headset on and I was
just like cruising. Your Sony Walkman? Dude,
I'm telling you. I'm telling you, I could go
for 20 miles on rollerblades. Sounds like a hot
tub time machine. Yeah, that's kind of what the
deal was. You're scaring me. Well, it's true,
though. But my point is that I wanted to get
back to some of that because I enjoyed it. Because
I could rollerblade forever and ever and ever.
You could just diet. That ship has sailed. It's
not about dieting and losing weight. I actually
enjoyed the rollerblading. It was a lot of fun.
Oh, yeah. I mean, it is fun. Because you're going
super fast. I mean, you're going down these trails
and stuff. That's you right there. Look at you
jumping over. Jumping over little... Actually,
that's 100 % me. I really enjoy doing that, and
I did it when it wasn't even cool. It's much
more strenuous if you do it in rush hour traffic.
Yes, and jump over cars and shit. Yeah, yeah.
Well, I didn't do it on the streets like that.
I lived in Las Colinas, Texas, Irving, Texas,
and we hit a lot of parking garages at night,
like 11 o 'clock at night. And scraped up all
the railings and scraped up all the stuff. No,
no, parking garages. So we go, this is what,
we take an elevator all the way to the top. I'm
watching and I'm thinking organ donor. I'm sorry.
Right? Well, there's a video of these guys. But,
you know. He's a hot shot. But I wouldn't jump
up on stuff like that. It was mostly just, it
was pure fun. It really was. I enjoyed it and
I encourage people to do it. Well, it's great
for de -stressing, right? That ship has sailed.
We all have something different. But yes, I did
buy some rollerblades. Yeah. Did you at least
try it? Oh, yeah. Put the rollerblades on, and
I went down the street, and I was like, fuck.
I'm done. I can't do it anymore. I got to go
back now. And you walked back? No, I really played
it back. Take him off and walk back. I got a
bunion. This was a bad idea. No, well, I mean,
I could probably do it. I just don't make time
for it. Oh, Lord. Look at this. That's Sean now.
No, that is. There we go. We're watching a few
train wrecks here. Stop at the brick wall, please.
Yes, yes. Oh, that was horrible. All right, so
de -stressing. Mike, what's your de -stressing
go -to? Cut down trees. Seriously? Yeah, with
the chainsaw, yeah. He uses his new patented
chainsaw. Yeah. Do you have a lot of trees on
your land or anything like that? Well, enough
to use a chainsaw, yeah. I would love to do more
deer hunting if anybody knows any deer hunting
places to go, but yeah. So you have land in South
Houston? No, no, just a couple acres. Oh, okay.
Just enough. Yeah, we're on the outskirts of
the city. It's just enough. You know, trees in
Houston are subtropical, so trees grow where
you don't want them to. Right. You know, and
if I don't take care of it this year, I'll get
it next year, but the tree is 10 feet taller
next year. Yeah. Literally, so yeah. Yeah, and
you mentioned it's a cherry. What was the name
of the tree that's very invasive? Oh yeah, the
Chinese tile. Chinese tile. And then bamboo's
the same way, isn't it? Very invasive. Bamboo's
a grass, but yeah, technically it's a grass.
It's the biggest grass you ever saw. That's almost
impossible to get rid of. That's got a couple...
A couple species of bamboo. There is a bamboo
grass. There's a bamboo freaking chute, too,
that comes out like 8, 10, 12, 15, 16 feet in
the air. That's a grass, and yet it's like a
freaking stalk. Oh, it's a spear. It is. It's
a javelin. It's crazy. It's like Jeff's nose
hairs. It is. You don't want to put that in your
yard, either, because it spreads. It'll spread
to your neighbors and their neighbors. It's crazy.
It's crazy. It's bad. I read stories. You garden
with Roundup. You have to kill it. You can't
cut it down. I wouldn't want to use Roundup with
all the lawsuits and chemicals. Send my kid out
there. Let him do it. Send your kid out there
to Roundup. Just burn it. Just burn it. I guess.
I don't know. Speaking of burning, what do we
got going on this weekend? It's my anniversary
this weekend. Oh, April 12th is your anniversary?
April 12th, 28 years. Yeah, 28 years. We were
going to head to the Scarborough Fair. We may
still go, but I'm kind of on the fence. I may
not go. We usually go to the Renaissance Fair.
Oh, that's nice. We being the family, the kids
and I, and my kid being the youngest is 22. Oh,
so you can drink with them. That's good. Have
some mead or something. That's fun. It is fun.
And they all get dressed up. Yeah, we get up.
I wear a kilt. My son dresses up like a pirate.
You want to wear funny clothes and you want to
drink mead and have a sword because you got to
have alcohol with something sharp in your hand.
They sell all those swords that are real. They're
dangerous. Yeah, sure. There's a couple of swords.
Battle axes. Perfect. Not the wife. There's a
lot of people that have that kind of stuff. They're
dressed up like it's the Game of Thrones kind
of program. Also, like last year, I saw some
guys dressed up like Star Trek. I thought it
was freaking hilarious. If I went, I'd wear my
flamingo joust. Perfect for Halloween. I still
have the jousting things. That's kind of cool.
So for those dudes like us listeners out there
that don't know what we're talking about, Jeff
arrived at my Halloween party, which he seldom
does, dressed. He shows up at the Halloween party,
but he never shows up dressed up. In costume,
yeah. This time it's one of those little blow
-up things. You step into it. It's got those
little 2D batteries. This thing blows up. It
is dressed up like the arcade game. I don't know
if you know what that is. It's like some sort
of bird. I've got a Gandalf costume, so that's
not so bad. That would work. That's like a gray
wolf robe. It's pretty cool. That would work
for the Renaissance Festival. Does it come with
a beard? Yeah. I made an even bigger stick to
take with me. You bring that. There you go. That's
perfect. Your little onesie and a thong. There
you go. And you have the Renaissance Festival
in Magnolia. Yes, sir. Actually, that one's a
pretty big one. Have you been? That's a huge,
oh yeah, several times. Oh, you've been? Oh yeah,
many, many, many, many times, yeah. Nice. It's
actually, yeah, it's pretty cool. No, it's actually
in Plannersville. It's not in, it's just north.
Well, true, yeah, right. It's north. Just north
of Magnolia, yeah. Really? I used to, so I lived
in Cyprus. It's a production. It's a big deal.
Oh yeah. So I lived in Cyprus and then I went
to A &M, right? Right, okay. And so I took that
back road through Magnolia, 249, and I used to
go right past that Plannersville. You can't believe
all the homes now? It's insane. I mean, it's
crazy. Are they actual homes for residents? Are
the communities they set up for all the... Well,
million -dollar homes. I thought you were referring
to the... The starter homes, 500K. No, no, no.
Immigrants. No, no. You know what he's talking
about, right? They built some sort of migrant
master plan community somewhere. No, well, there's
one colony there that everybody looked the other
way, and they've been decimated now because of...
The INS has come into town. Oh, have they cleaned
it out? Yeah, so they're starting to clean it
out, yeah. Nice. Well, Colony Ridge, I think
it's called. Yes. But some of the developers
took advantage of people, you know, and they
made them sign leases or contracts. And that's
not right. No, that's not right. And they knew
they could because they had them by the balls.
Yeah, because they're undocumented. Right, and
they're like, okay, when you take this deal,
we'll kind of rat it right now. Right, and so
it was just a mess. You know, the whole thing
is a mess because the developers took advantage
of people. Right. Well, you know, the roads aren't
up to code. Yeah. Which came right. Yeah. It
becomes like another egg. And it's just like,
dude, the poor people or the, all the developers
that took advantage of them. Right. So it's nuts.
And then ultimately it becomes a no go zone like
in Europe. Yeah. It's yeah. Well, that shit's
not going to fly. Yeah. I mean, that's exactly
why we were talking about the, uh, what is it?
That city in Plano. Totally different. We're
not going to dive too much into it, but you know,
it's just simply like that. You don't want to
create communities that. That had the potential
to be nefarious. Well, so, you know, the history
lesson is my grandparents, one set was Irish,
one set was Italian. They came over. Actually,
they met. Both of them met while they were here.
Yeah. And they all came through Ellis Island
with these certificates, and you had to do a
couple things. You had to swear that you weren't
sick, first of all, so you weren't a drain on
society. But you also had a financial sponsor.
So my grandmother was sponsored by my aunt, right?
So my aunt came over first, got a job, and then...
One by one, yes, it's like chain migration, but
there was no welfare. So if you came over and
you had a relative, you had to live with them.
They were supported. And they had to support
you and you got a job, great, you could stay.
If you couldn't, eventually they'd say, you know,
if you can't find a job, get the hell out and
go back home. That's the whole point. And that's
how it worked. Now, not so much. Now it's we
just give you money and debit cards. There was
no cell phone. There's no cell phone. There's
nothing. It'd stay at the Ritz -Carlton Hotel.
Yeah, no. It'd cost 500 bucks a night. Insane.
So my Italian grandfather was very skilled at
carpentry, and we still have furniture in our
house that was made by him. Yeah. Over 100 years
old. Because it actually is built to last. But
you can't buy this anymore. It would cost a fortune
if you could even get stuff like this. Sure.
Handmade walnut that's curved and bowed. It's
just amazing. But didn't you build all that for
your wife? Well, whatever I didn't have from
my grandparents. He commandeered it. He purposed
it. I'm a Frank Lloyd Wright guy. I like Frank
Lloyd Wright architecture, so I build the oak
out of that, and that's what I do. So that's
kind of my specialty, yeah. But how do you have
time to do that? Woodworking is very time -consuming.
Yeah, I know. I guess I don't sleep. I don't
know. Are you one of those? You operate on three
hours of sleep every day? No, five or six probably.
Yeah. You know, but yeah, it just, it comes and
goes sometimes a lot, a lot more and a lot less.
Yeah. Yeah. It's, I think differently. I just
don't know. I just think differently. I'm on
a different schedule. You've got your hand in
so many things that it's like, yeah, you're,
you're kind of all over the place, which is great.
I mean, you got a creative mind and it's great
for ADD. It keeps you going. Yeah. Just kind
of keep moving. I'm either ADD or a genius is
one of the two. Well, you said that you were
a rocket scientist and I know that, uh, SpaceX
just had a big old thing a couple weeks ago.
Big deal. Where they went up there and... Rescued
the guys. Boeing. Those two folks. The Boeing
Starliner astronauts. The proper word is rescued.
They were rescued, 100%. But, you know, there's
so much going on there. I mean, set aside for
the politics, you know, of the fact that Biden
stunted the process getting them for whatever
reasons, for political gain. Forget that part.
But let's slide over to the other side where
you've got these two astronauts that are stuck
up in space. Almost there for the longest period
of time for any astronaut to be in the United
States. They almost beat that record. They were
supposed to be there for, what, eight days? Yeah,
maybe they extended for, what, nine months. Nine
months. A long time. And did you see the interview
they had? I did, but what I was getting at was
that the effects of being in zero gravity. I
was afraid for them coming back that their recuperation
would be too long. What it's going to do on their
body, because your body just starts. Your muscles
atrophy. Your body metabolizes different in zero
gravity. And just because they have, is it anaerobic
with the stretchy shit, you know? Just because
they have that type of exercise. Gravity is everything.
It's different. Well, your bones get weaker.
Yeah. Potentially smaller. Your muscles get smaller.
Do your organs? It's because there's no gravity.
I don't know. I don't know how that works. Yeah,
your digestion. They move around. They move around.
They move around. Your heart goes down into your,
you know, your abdomen. It does it. So it doesn't
that they... I like it. I like how you go into
space. You turn into some sort of... Blob. Yeah,
you'd want to form because it's natural for your
body to be able to form into itself, into its
own personal little gravitational pull. And,
you know, that's what their body's doing. Slow
decomposition, so to speak. So I'm kind of wondering
from a person that's in space for an extended
period like that, when they get down to Earth,
I am super interested in the science that goes
behind it. What kind of changes were made from
their cells? And my question is, do they prep
for that? How can you prep for that? Well, that's
what I'm wondering. You can't live in a vacuum.
So they have the treadmills, and the treadmills,
they have rubber bands on their shoulders. So
when you jump up and down, the treadmill with
the rubber bands forces you back down. It's fake
gravity, right? Right. Because you're under stress
of rubber bands. Yeah. It's still not the same.
But it's not the gravity. Yeah. My point is they
were planning on being there for eight days.
Right. They have astronauts that are planning
to be there for six months. Right. Do they train
differently to try to condition the body to be
less effective? All you can do is be in the best
shape possible when you lift off. Right. That's
all you can do. After you get there, there's
this same amount of exercises. Something's happening.
We're hearing noises. No, it's gone now. Feedback.
So all you can do is the exercises that you're
given are the same for everybody. Right. All
you can do, you can do more of them. Right. I
just wondered that. You know what I'm saying,
though? It's like maybe they were less prepared
for their return because they... Oh, shoot. There's
a buzz. There's a feedback. That's interesting.
It's not doing it now. I'm thinking, is... Your
electricity has done a weird number on this room
today, Mike. Yeah, why are you charging us? Weird
shit's going on right now. Well, I was going
to say, is there phantom power put into your
microphone, but it's not lit up back there, so
that's weird. Well, you know, if they've been
up there for nine months, and I know the want
is to go to Mars. How long of a trip is that?
And what is that going to do to the body? Or
are they accounting to try to do? Because, you
know, you see these movies where they have the
spinning things to create. That's the centrifugal
force is probably the only way that I would see
that. It's not real, though, I don't think. I
think Mars is six to nine months. But once you
leave the atmosphere of the Earth, you've also
got the magnetic radiation of the Earth that
shields you. From the solar radiation and the
gamma rays, you no longer have that when you
leave the sanctity of the Earth. There's no protection.
There's no protection, so they've got to have
extra shielding. You lose that once you leave
orbit anyways? Well, yeah. When you get into
orbit, you lose that, right? They went to the
moon for seven days, though, not seven months.
Right. Yeah, yeah. That's what it is. That's
what I thought, too. So that is real. That is
awesome. But the radiation from space comes from
all directions, not just from the sun. So, yeah.
You get gamma rays from everywhere. And that's
why we have great bourbon. That's right. Because
the gamma rays. That's what it is. And the, yes,
we never can't. So that was my thought with the
Mars is because I know there's a big push, you
know, Elon Musk wants to do it. Well, what's,
I guess I haven't seen, what is his solution
for all the gamma rays, the radiation and the.
The body falling apart. Yeah, the body just.
deteriorating on that six to nine month trip
out there. There is no good solution. No. There's
accommodation. You can go there and then you
can come back, hopefully. No shit. That's what
I was talking about with the interview with these
astronauts that were trapped up there. They started
to talk about what happened when they were getting
ready to dock. And the thrusters They were not
working. They could not control the vehicle,
and they were worried that they were not going
to be able to dock with the space station. If
they couldn't have, they're saying they would
have died. Like they would have just gone out
into space? Because they would not have been
able to return to Earth, and they would not have
been able to steer the vehicle, they would have
died. Because they didn't have any thrusters.
And they were terrified. They didn't have any
suits that they could have just walked over to
the other ship? No. There's no exterior. Really?
Can't you just hold your breath? Yes. Well, haven't
you guys seen Guardians of the Galaxy? Remember,
he's going, and he gets all crystallized. Well,
I was thinking, like, Princess Leia. Yeah, Princess
Leia did that, too. Oh, her shoe, yeah. But they
didn't have spacesuits? I mean, they... They
were up to for eight days. They weren't going
spacewalks. Even if they... You would think you
would have, like... It's kind of like when you're
in a boat. You need to have a life jacket, you
know? I don't think we appreciate how much is...
at risk and the planning that goes into it. Well,
they had enough to make sure that they had enough
food. Well, yeah, but that's on the space station
itself. They could not dock with it. And so what
happened was they had to reboot it and hope that
the thrusters came back. And they did this remotely.
And they did. And they were able to control it
and dock. And it was dicey. You know, the government
has these funny programs where once you get into
the process and you get in the groove, You go
with that groove and that groove for space is
a five or 10 year cycle. So it, it wasn't uncommon.
If you remember the Intel processors, you know,
we started with like, if you remember the 80,
86 years ago, I'm dating myself. One of the first
Intel processors. Then you had the two 86, the
three 86, the four 86, the Itaniums and all.
Right. So I remember the two 80s member of all
that stuff. Right. So if you think about it,
By the time NASA was deploying the equivalent
of the 286 processor on Earth, we had the 486.
Right. Because we're two generations ahead. And
for them to switch that would probably take another
two, three years. So they probably, that's why
Elon Musk is so successful because he says, just
throw that crap out and use something new. Right.
And then it's cheaper to just buy new crap, retest
it, and recertify it than it is to just. go through
these 20 meticulous steps because they're all
so programmatic because they're so afraid of
making a mistake. It can ruin your career if
you make a mistake. And the build it, test it,
break it, and fix it, and then go on is not a
mentality that's common in the government. In
the government, it's never make a mistake, never
fail. Well, if you never fail, you've got to
spend 10 times more effort. just to get to where
you would be if you just tried stuff and broke
it and fixed it and then moved on. You learn
something from your mistakes, right? Absolutely.
Sometimes it's not worth rehashing and bringing
something back to life. It's just better to scrap
it and move on. I wonder, so what is the future
of the Boeing Starliner program? I mean, they
got into massive screaming arguments, NASA and
the Boeing officials, because they were like
wanting to, Boeing wanted to bring the astronauts
home. Right. And they were like, we can't, we
have no confidence that the vehicle is going
to, and it did. It came home safely. Right. And
it would have been fine. But they got into screaming
matches about it, probably because, you know,
they knew they were going to be up there. Who
knew how long they were going to be up there?
And it was a huge black eye for Boeing. Well,
it's a black eye for everybody, right? I mean,
you know, but there's always one guy that's more
of a black eye than the other. Yeah, sure. But
I wonder, what's the future of the Starliner
program? Well, it says it's as of the 8th, which
is today, it is uncertain. No shit, and they've
invested, God, probably a billion dollars. Well,
I'll tell you what, Boeing's had several missteps
over the last 10 years. They're struggling. If
you know anything about Boeing, a lot of great
engineers, like I said, a lot of great people,
but... It's a top -down system. Shitty management.
And their culture is like from the 1960s. It's
like Mad Men. Well, it's a company that merged
with them. McDonnell Douglas. McDonnell Douglas.
And I watched that documentary. You told me to,
and it was great. That's when the culture changed,
when McDonnell Douglas came on board. They were
all about shareholders and stock price and cutting
corners and punishing whistleblowers. Well, and
again, you know, at the end of the day, something
has to work. If you have a jet and it takes off
and the door pops off. Yeah. Bad things happen.
You know, it's like, did you not check the bolts?
I mean, of all things. By the way, there's eight
out of, you know, 20 missing. So did you think
that's a good idea? Nothing on an aircraft is
ever, always has a redundant system. And that
air sensor that caused the 737 MAX. Well, you
know, years ago, like when I was in IT, you know,
I was a CIO, but everybody, the CEO and the CFOs
were all pushing me. Yes. Hey, do your software
development overseas. It was like, oh God, I
really don't want to do that. I really don't
want to do that. I'd rather hire two or three
really good American programmers than 20 people
from overseas. You know, and I've actually been
in board meetings and I've told people, listen,
this is my favorite saying for all you guys out
there in the IT world. I said. Here's what you
want to do. You want to hire an American. And
here's why. Not because I'm particularly in love
with Americans, but it's just common sense, right?
Right. A good IT person will cost you a lot of
money. Right. A bad IT person will cost you millions.
Right. Even more money. Way more money. So, yeah.
That's a good point. You know, I mean, because
they don't pay attention to coding. They don't
pay attention to viruses. Yep. They don't pay
attention to, you know, gate checks and on and
on and on. And you have downtime. And you have
critical business function going, you know, being
down. And so you need that maturity and the command
of the English language about how you design
software to do certain things. And when you say
something, what you really mean behind the language
is very important because English is not an easy
language. No, it's not. You know, and it really
does make a difference. It really does make a
difference. Agreed. Agreed. And so I'd rather
hire three or four people that are highly, highly
skilled than 100 people that are not. Going back
to the whole SpaceX, what were your thoughts
when you saw that he was landing the booster
rocket? Oh, cool as hell. Chopsticks. That's
cool as hell. Chopsticks. Chopsticks. It was
like great. Unbelievable. Yeah. Well, the government's
incentivized, like I said, to not break anything.
Right. But it's okay if you throw stuff out.
it just didn't break so if the booster lands
in the ocean who gives a damn it worked right
it worked once we're good you know and elon's
like well wait a minute you know for 10 more
i can reuse that and save some money right the
government doesn't think like that see i you
know and again you know okay another favorite
saying of mine is what's the definition of an
elephant That's a mouse designed to government
specifications. Right? And so that's exactly
what happens. They say, oh, if we can do it for
a billion dollars, what can we do for 10 billion?
Right. It's like, what's wrong with just spending
the one? Right. Not the 10. Oh, because that
way we get more people because I expand my empire.
Yeah. In my fiefdom and I get more colleagues
and I get more direct reports and then I get
more lobbyists. Yeah. So their whole goal. is
to be a cancer on America, is to grow the government
because that's how they get more of everything.
Yes, agreed. Instead of just doing the damn job.
You know, speaking of Elon and bringing up Doge,
kind of doing a little twist here. So when Elon
signed up for Doge, he anticipated a, I don't
think he came up with a six -month contract,
but he said, you know, I don't think it's going
to take more than six months. So, you know, they've
got all these people that are hyping in, what
do they call it? Trump came up with a new word.
Panicking. Yeah, panicking. So what Elon didn't
know is he didn't know how to spell cobalt. Cobalt?
Cobalt. Cobalt, which is a program from the 1980s.
He said, oh my God, you still use that in the
SSA? Yeah, social security. And the databases
don't talk to one another? It's like, how many
databases do you have? Oh, maybe 300. It's like,
what? Insane. You have no checks on how many
people are past a certain age because one database
doesn't talk to the other. So yeah, you might
be deceased and you're 150 years old in Social
Security. They never told Medicare. So there's
somebody out there with an illegal Social Security
number of the dead person and they're getting
Medicare or Medicaid. I've read a report that
AOC's great -grandmother or grandmother still
gets a check and her family was cashing in. No.
I don't know how true that is. Well, I don't
know either. But Mr. Producer, see if you can
pull that up. AOC. Grandmother check. When we
were talking about the people that are 115, 120,
the greatest joke was the Highlanders. They're
all Highlanders. They're all Highlanders, yeah.
Right. There can be only one. Now, well, years
ago, and I worked for Compaq, and I was the equivalent
of the healthcare director for IT. And I'd go
down to the hospital. I'd go all over the country
to visit hospitals. And every hospital at the
border, the border towns, they're full in the
ERs. And everybody's got the same last name and
the same driver's license. Sure. Oh, wow. Because
legally and morally, you have to treat somebody
if they're sick. Absolutely. And I agree with
that. And I'm Catholic. You help somebody when
you help somebody. Whether or not their ID is
valid is like you got to help them. And if they
stop bleeding, then you worry about the rest
of it. Yep. And so all these hospitals at the
border, they're going broke. Right. Because somebody's
got to pay for that. Yep. And who pays for that
is they raise the taxes on the people for trash
collection. And they raise it for, you know,
your driver's license. They're going to get their
money somehow. You got to get the money somewhere.
So sales tax, you know, the local municipality
can raise their sales tax. Somebody's got to
pay for the hospital. If not, they go out of
business. Yep. And then it got kind of, what
do you call it, bastardized, I guess, because
then the trial lawyer started going there and
said, well, you're not giving them the same standard
of care. And you should have taken an x -ray
and an MRI. And the x -ray is $20 and the MRI
is $1 ,000. Right. It's like, he's got a broken
bone. An x -ray ought to do. I gave him a cast.
No, they want to look at it from a different
angle. yeah that's ridiculous so the medical
malpractice got out of hand too and so it's like
everything you know the what's the scam the doctors
are all caught in the middle yeah it goes you
know right it's a big big big scam and it extends
across the board within so that's what i was
talking about before cali means is one of the
new guys with trump he's works for rfk i saw
a podcast about him he's a bloody genius you
know and he talked about We're not cutting Medicare.
We're not cutting benefits, but we're going to
look at a way to re -engineer the system. We're
going to look at, because right now it's all
episodic care. Yeah. You know, I'm sick. You
give me a pill, right? And everybody's pushing
this because the drug companies make money on
pills. Oh, man. They don't make money on curing
you. They have a stranglehold. They make money
on treating you. On treating you, right? So it's
like, so I'm naive. I didn't know this, but like,
why did it take 40 years for us? to get rid of
red dye number two. Right. Canada's, and we knew
it was a carcinogenic ingredient 40 years ago.
We're just now thinking about getting rid of
it. It's like, really? We researched that and
it's that cherry that you put into old fashioned.
The maraschino cherry. The maraschino cherry.
They lobbied because they knew it would kill
them if they banned that red dye. Well, the red
dye they use in Canada apparently is beet. You
can use beet juice or carrot juice. And because
it's a natural organic substance, you know, it's
like. Maybe it's not as red. Right. Yeah, but
nobody wants a not as red. Yeah, but who gives
a shit about that? Who gives a... I care more
about the... I don't want a not as red Skittle.
I care more about the bourbon. You should eat
Skittles anyways, man. Skittles are horrible
for you. What? It's like the worst... I eat organic
Skittles. Look it up, man. There you go. It's
horrible for you. Of course. Of course. Now,
give me those red M &Ms. I'm all in. Throw out
the cherry and just drink the bourbon. I also...
Promise off. I also read that PepsiCo and one
of their potato chips. one of their flaming hot
ones, they're having to completely reformulate
to pull out the red dyes. And they're trying
to, you know, like, well, it won't be quite as
vibrant because we're using, you know, beets
and this and that. Instead of uranium, it doesn't
glow in the dark, right? People aren't going
to understand how hot it's going to be, how spicy
it is. That's what the red conveys. I see. Right?
No. I mean, you know, they do their market research.
They understand how people connect with food.
You can put a number. Red number two is not in
anything we currently eat in the United States.
It was banned in the FDA in 1976 due to concerns
or potential carcinogenity. What? It was red
three. Red three? Red three is the colored. Yes.
It's most likely, if you're eating something
that's red, it's either 40. Red 40 or Red 3.
It's either a strawberry or a beet or you shouldn't
eat it. Yeah. That's my attitude. There you go.
100%. And good riddance because it doesn't stop
there. We're going to branch into seed oils.
We're going to branch into... Well, potato chips.
Potato chips have 16 different chemicals in them.
I didn't know that. I love McDonald's. Well,
hell, I mean, look at the - I could break McDonald's
hamburgers for lunch with Trump all day long.
It's cool. Well, people think, well, I'm not
going to go to McDonald's. I'm going to try to
eat healthy. I'm going to go Chick -fil -A. Well,
Chick -fil -A has 42 chemicals in their chicken
sandwich. No, ingredients, not chemicals. They're
what? Ingredients, not chemicals. Well, I mean
- Okay. So chicken, peanut oil. Some of those
ingredients are chemicals. There were two that
were, because I looked at that, there were two
that were on the bad list of those 37. And the
other 37 are super healthy. I don't know about
that. All organic, super healthy. It's not the
chemicals, put it that way. Right. So what is
the bad thing about it then? There were two chemicals.
There's fake butter in the bun. Probably, yeah.
Flavoring agents or some sort of preservative.
100%. So my point is that it doesn't require.
I mean, when you're cooking chicken, I mean,
it's seasoning. I mean, come on. Right. Agreed.
So, I mean, in your bread, I mean, in your breads,
including Subway sandwiches, I mean, they've
got the same thing in the Subway bread that you
put in yoga mats to the uniformity of the spacious
of the bubbles inside. I went to a sandwich shop
for lunch. You know, for the chili sauce, they
label their chilies or their hot pepper sauce
from one to ten. Right. From one is mild to ten
is really like flaming hot. Pick a number. You
don't need a color. Right. You know, I pick number
three or four. I'm not picking number ten. I
get to drive to Dallas for four hours. It's like,
no way. Right. Right. And don't associate a color
with it. You don't need to artificially, you
know. But again, they do the research. They know
how people respond to food. and perception, and
that's what they're catering to, right or wrong.
That's what they've catered to for decades and
decades. We've got to get out of that mindset.
Health is more important than how a food looks.
Well, that's why I'm excited with RFK jumping
in the bandwagon and starting to knock out some
things. I haven't seen a whole lot of movement.
I was excited about the fluoride in Utah. You
said they removed it or they're starting to?
They passed it. They passed it where I think
they're going to limit the amount of fluoride
in it. I don't know exactly how far they're going
to take it, but he's kind of like, you know,
hold on. I was going to try to make it sound
like I was RFK. Oh, good luck with that. How's
he doing? Wow. I can't do it. Jeff, what are
you doing over there? That's like your first
girlfriend. That did not sound like him at all.
And the face you made was not necessary. Yeah,
that's another reason 522 why we don't have cameras.
That's why we don't do video. Right there, because
of Jeff. But, you know, the thing is, is that,
look, I'm glad. I want him to beat this down.
You know, I'm kind of disappointed. I don't know
what's going on behind the scenes. I'm hoping
that he's moving forward. From what I understood,
that they're starting to dive into the kids'
lunches and restructure what we're feeding our
kids every single day in the schools. Right.
That's great. They're reversing all the Michelle
Obama rules. Yeah. She tried to make it healthier,
actually. Well, she did and she didn't. I mean,
she made it seem like it was, but at the same
time endorsed the rest of it by - I don't know
what the term is called when you approve a block
of, you know. Whatever it was, the result was
kids stopped eating. Yeah, it didn't help. If
you give them healthy food and they don't eat
it, it's kind of. They stopped eating. Defeats
the purpose. Right. It wasn't a good thing. Right.
Well, whatever. Kids need calories. They do.
You want them to come from good sources, but
they need calories. They burn energy. See, part
of the research that they're going to change,
fundamental research that they're changing, is
that... For the last 23 years, they have not
been doing fundamental scientific research on
these different chemicals. Right. That's because
our food pyramid was upside down and you have
the FDA and you've got these people that are
dictating what's healthy and what's not healthy
based on bullshit, based on profit. Based on
money, yeah. Well, you know, if you're overweight,
they give you Ozempic, right? Well, Callie means
you said that like twice as many 12 -year -olds
are on SSRIs now. Right. Then the last couple
of years, it's like, what are 12 -year -olds
doing on Prozac? I mean, for real. Are we serious?
Because we live in a world where kids are being
stressed out at a way earlier age. Have we thought
about taking away the iPad and sending them out
to play basketball in the schoolyard? Yes, 100%.
You know? I mean, it's not hard. Social media
creates stress. Being online creates stress.
Texas is thinking about banning cell phones in
schools. Yep. That's probably going to make our
kids healthier. That's a good start. You know,
there is a cause and effect. Well, you're going
to have a lot of parents instead of the kids
complaining about that because my wife's a teacher
and she has a rule. Your phones are not allowed
out. So when she takes them up because a kid
takes them out, a parent complains. I need to
be able to get a hold of them whenever I need.
Oh, boy. Well, then you give them a phone. I'm
sorry. You give them a watch. or something that
gives them a minimal communication that is from
a specific parent, and you have means to communicate
with them. I mean, number one reason you want
to know about it, because look, my parents didn't
have fucking any of that stuff. Our parents didn't
have any of that shit. They were like, he's at
fucking school. He should be there. Of course,
I skip school a lot, but it doesn't matter. They
thought I was there. That's what counts. You
want to make sure your kid is safe. Perception
is reality. percent you want to make sure your
kids are safe i mean i get that i get it and
i do but that's why you you give them a watch
or something like that like the heart's beating
and it's at normal rate so they're therefore
they must be healthy and they're not under stress
and and the teachers can have guns and be trained
in chl or one thousand percent you know you know
and the the teacher look there's a lot of uh
teachers out there that disagree with that strange
enough and sheer ignorance and No, I mean, they
don't believe that guns should be around kids.
I get that, but I know I get it. I get it on
both sides of the aisle, but you want to protect
the kids. So what are you going to do? You're
going to let some... Well, we used to have...
Venezuelan mob come in? You know, when my kids
were younger at the YMCA, we used to have these
outings. You go camping for the weekend. Like
a brothel? And they've had archery. Now, archery...
Oh, you were close. You were really close. Him
and Archer. Close. Yeah, really, really close.
Or the .22 rifles. You take the kids out, let
them fire a bunch of .22 rifles at a target.
Fun. Go shoot some metal targets. 100%. Let them
get used to it. And they're eight years old.
They know how to use a .22 rifle. And you teach
them gun safety. And so it's not a big deal anymore.
Now they come home and they say, I'd rather just
play basketball. It's okay, cool. They'll never
touch my rifle again. They'd rather play basketball.
Knock yourself out, kid. It's important for them
to do all that stuff. Archery and shooting a
gun. I wish more kids would take that up. Kids
are now, they're so estranged from these weapons,
they don't know, they're fascinated by it. You've
got this kid from a high school right here in
Frisco that, you know, he had some issue and
he thought it was necessary to carry a Rambo
fucking knife in his gym bag. Yeah, it's sad.
So sad. Where someone confronted him, he felt
it was okay to pull this Rambo knife and stab
this. Was it a Rambo knife? I thought it was
a little pocket knife. Doesn't much matter. It
was a big blade. I heard it was a kitchen knife.
knife. Oh, no. I don't know. I will tell you
this, if that's true, because they're talking,
this is, he was charged with murder one. Sure.
Premeditated murder. If he had a knife that is
not a normal knife to carry, like you carry pocket
knives, right? You can get away with that. But
if he's putting a knife in his bag that is clearly
meant to do something with, he's fucked. I hate
to say it, it's immaterial. When I was younger,
We couldn't do that in New York when I'd travel
the train like 10 years old. Say, carry a screwdriver
in your pocket. Right. Police officer's not going
to take away a screwdriver. Right. But you could
use a screwdriver for self -defense. 100%. Yeah.
So it doesn't matter. It's like, what's wrong
with people fighting instead of just... Using
the middle finger. I'm okay with that. There's
new information about the investigation into
the stabbing death of the 17 -year -old Frisco
student athlete. CBS News Texas has learned from
law enforcement sources involved in the investigation
that 17 -year -old Carmelo Anthony pictured,
whatever, the suspect to the murder of 17 -year
-old Austin Metcalf. Horrible, by the way. His
twin brother just watching him. pass away in
his arms, just pushing down the blood, trying
to keep it from coming. Had previously been suspended
for bringing a knife to school. Previously been
suspended. Wow. And law enforcement tells us
the 17 -year -old kid should have been in class
at the Centennial High School, was skipping school,
and allegedly stabbed Metcalf following an altercation.
So he wasn't even a track runner? I don't know.
He was skipping school and he just went to the
meet to watch? Yep. Which means he had a reason
to be there. And what was that reason? Premeditated.
Was that the knife right there? Oh, okay. So
for our international listeners who have no idea,
we had a very, it's national news now, a very
local story. We have a track meet, a local track
meet. It was district. A district track meet.
So we had a kid that went to my kid's high school
and a kid that went to Memorial High School.
I think they had a beef before this happened.
If that's going to come out, I'm pretty sure
it will. And they got into an altercation in
the bleachers. One thing led to another, and
one kid stabbed the other one in the heart, and
he ended up dying. So it is a big thing in our
town right now, because first off, the one who
stabbed the victim is, you know, not to like
is black. Yep. Is black. And the victim was white.
And so now we have a racial thing that's going
on in our town, in our city. We have a, you know.
He's a good kid, but he was defending himself
because he was being bullied, and so this is
unfair for him to be attacked for this. And then
we have the twin brother. I mean, this is a mess
in our town. And talk about hitting close to
home. Yeah, but outside the school, there are
signs out there to support the gentleman that
stabbed him. Yes. Hey, what are they saying exactly?
What is the verbiage they say on those signs?
I only saw justice for Austin Matthews. There
you go. Justice. No, no, no. That was for the
victim. Metcalf is the victim. Correct. Justice
for Austin Metcalf. Oh, my bad. Okay. Yeah, yeah.
That is way better. Well, the thing is, the group
that did that is, you don't want it from that
group. That's a fascist, neo -fascist group,
white supremacist group. Oh, great. That posted
that. Oh, I didn't even catch that. Yeah, that's
why I sent that to you. I'm too busy working
to know about all this stuff. It's like I made
sure my kids were school. They had homework.
They had mandatory in our house. They had to
belong to a sport or the band or something or
after school activity. They came home and they
were too damn tired to fight with anybody. Well,
both of these kids are in football. Really? Yeah.
I mean, they weren't. This is not an idle teenage
problem. This was a beef that turned into teenagers
not knowing how to solve problems. Apparently.
Or thinking that you live in a world where there's
no consequences. I mean, if you make a bad decision,
there is a consequence to that. I mean, and,
you know, there's no getting around it. And I
feel horrible for all parties. I do, too. I mean,
the Metcalf father just got over cancer months
prior, you know, and it's just... It's tough.
It's a mess. I feel bad for the black kid's parents
and his family because they're kind of like,
oh, my God. They have lost their kid, too, because
their kid was an idiot. Is it because they did
poor parenting? Right. Yes. At the end of the
day, how is it that your kid had a freaking knife
in there that stabbed some other? You need to
be connected more. Well, who felt that was the
solution? How do you get to that point where
you're like, I'm just going to stab you? and
kill you. Even if you're being bullied. I'm going
to meet you at the track meet the next day because
you broke my phone at a party last weekend and
I'm going to bring this knife and I'm going to
force you to put your hands... That's why he
is in serious trouble with his argument. He was
asking the guy to punch him. Put your hands on
me. Put your hands on me and punch me and see
what happens. As soon as the guy touched him,
he stabbed him. So he was saying I was... This
is self -defense. He even asked the policeman
when he was being led to the car, he goes, do
you think that that was self -defense? He asked
the cop that. Not a good time to ask the question
after the fact. No. No. I mean, he was basically
saying, you know, shit, am I in trouble here?
Or am I legit in my self -defense thing? Bullshit.
It was premeditated. He was asking him to put
hands on him so that he had a reason to stab
him. And he brought the knife for the purpose.
The kid's in serious trouble. That's all I think.
Yeah, I agree. Yeah, so at this time, I want
to take a little pinhook break and dive into
our drink of the week. Oh, yeah, very nice. It's
a collaboration series number two from Pinhook.
This is based out of... It's still Austin. No,
no. Pinhook is not. The juice inside is from
still Austin. I didn't know that. So they buy
the juice from still Austin and then they create
it themselves. For these collaborations they
do, yeah. So is this similar to rare character
kind of stuff? Is it a blend? Yeah. Is it a blend?
What is this? It's a straight bourbon whiskey.
It doesn't say blend on it. It's called collaboration.
No, this one's straight bourbon. I think it's
just straight bourbon, so it's been there for
at least two years based on everything we had
said, right? Yep. But look, the taste on this.
Look, so we had this probably a year and a half
ago, and I fell in love with this. I absolutely
loved it. It's super rich. What is the proof
on this? 118. 118 .9. So it is pretty hot, but
it doesn't taste that hot. At least it doesn't
to me. It's got a very rich taste. Like, you
know, deep notes of vanilla, banana bread, or
just kind of caramel. It's got a lot of flavor.
Caramel. Caramel. It's got some dark stuff going
on there. So, Sean, this says blended and proofed
from 20 pinhooked barrels out of Still Austin.
Okay. 20 different barrels? Yeah. So they blended
it, okay. And proofed. Yep, sure is. Age for
four years in the Texas heat. That's one thing
that we've been talking about a lot is Texas
distilleries are benefiting from the huge variation
in climate in Texas in terms of the aging in
the barrels. I think what it allows you to do
is you can get older tasting whiskey sooner than
you can elsewhere. Age four years is the equivalent
of six or eight in Kentucky, right? It has the
possibility. It depends on how hot. Any given
summer. Because the humidity in the air is different.
So it theoretically would evaporate less with
the high humidity. Whereas in Kentucky, if it's
drier, you'd probably lose more of the angel's
share. But it would take longer. So it's a possibility.
It's like everything else. It's chemical. There's
a lot of stuff going on. It's chemical. It's
environmental. I'm enjoying the competition between
Texas. Yeah, me too. 100%. And I'm rooting for
Texas. Kentucky is not enjoying the competition.
I'll tell you that. No, man. Not at all. We're
coming running. We've mentioned before about
Lowry Crossings 1845 Distillery. I highly recommend
their products. Their juice is fantastic. Pinhook,
I like their juice. I'm enjoying their juice.
I'm not happy with the ethics, the DEI crap they
got going on. I'll let that go, and I'll just
stick with the juice itself. And this is very
flavorful for me. I'm enjoying it. So when I
taste it first, I get sweet on the front. On
the sides of my tongue, I get sweet. It's hotter
than I like, obviously, for me. I said I'm not
a big fan of the high proof. And then on the
back, I get the richer caramel. So it's two distinct,
very different flavors. Yeah. I get that, too.
It's like two different bourbons, almost. Yeah.
I enjoy this. Like I shared, this was one of
my favorite picks that we accidentally fell on.
How did we get that second bottle? We saw it
at Specs and we bought it. That's all it was?
Yeah. God bless. I'm so glad. We're like, they're
not making this anymore. I'm so glad we picked
up that bottle. And we picked it up. Yeah, so
we have a full bottle of this stuff just sitting
up there. And yeah, whatever. I'm enjoying it.
It's interesting because there's two things that
we... we pointed out tonight that we always harp
on right when we have a higher proof bourbon
that doesn't burn and doesn't is smooth and it's
rich and it's flavorful and then a lower bourbon
like big stick has the flavor like whenever we
see a lower one that has the flavor that matches
one that's a high proof It's great. We're bringing
out two very important things tonight in bourbons
that we're trying. Flavor is everything, and
that's one of the biggest downfalls of some of
these lower -proofed bourbons is that they've
got a great taste, but it's kind of like you've
got to put a bunch in your mouth and swish it
to taste that taste, and it eviscerates right
away. It just disappears. Yeah, it doesn't last
very long. But this stuff, it lasts long. The
big stick lasts a long time, and it's got that
white peppery finish at the end, which is different
from a regular peppery because it just continues
to have that tingle at the end, and that's enjoyable
for me. Yeah, well, like I said, the angel's
share isn't just the angel's share. It's the
fact that it's brand new wood, so it's got brand
new resin in it. Yep. So the resin all by itself.
I mean, if you think about it, it's like a Chardonnay
with the buttery feel. I mean, not just the flavor,
but it's the mouthfeel itself will last a long
time. Viscousy. So the viscousness holds the
flavor longer on your palate. Yeah, that was
for you, Larry. Where do you procure the oak?
It's actually a furniture -grade millwork shop
in Houston. So you're breaking down old furniture
couches? So yeah. Roadside couches. Brand new.
Brand new. You're varnishing off the stain. The
cabinets at my bar are made out of the exact
same wood. Brand new. That's great. That's great.
I don't mind the rust or the staples. Untarnished,
unvarnished. Yeah, nothing. Just literally make
cabinets out of it if you choose to. All natural
oak. It's amazing. I enjoy our sampling. I enjoy
this every week. But your barrels. Yeah. You
were talking about your staves. What about your
barrels? Traditional. Okay. What is your cooperage?
The barrels come from Kentucky. Okay. Yeah. A
cooperage in Kentucky. Okay. Okay. Cool. Actually,
that was one thing I learned. Pretty traditional.
When we did tours up there, we were doing distillery
tours and all this kind of stuff, and then we
drove by a cooperage. Right. And we were like,
let's just stop in there. And they didn't have
any tours or anything. They were just a dude
that was working behind the desk. And we were
like, I just wanted to kind of see what you guys
do here. And they had the whole setup of, you
know, what they do when they build the barrels
and they burn them and all this kind of shit.
It was fascinating what what goes into that and
how few cooperages supply so many. They've all
turned into high -volume places. It's turned
into a science. But there's not that many of
them is what I'm saying. No, actually, no. So
like if a cooperage went down, suppose they had
some sort of fire or something. It would be bad.
It would be really bad. It would be really bad.
Interesting. You'd have to start buying European
oaks. I guess. Well, that was kind of what I
was about to chat about. Well, again, because
COVID messed up everybody in the supply chain,
which is why some of them are going to the 25
-gallon barrels. Yes. Or the European barrels,
you know, which are slightly larger. Because
they couldn't get? We're going to skip that.
Because they couldn't, yeah. But again, all that
changes your ratio, it changes your flavor, changes
your aging profile. So it's like, again, I'm
not saying it's bad, I'm just saying it's different.
You've got to re -engineer your whole flavor
process. Well, I know we were up in Iron Root,
up in Denison. And they started... Yeah, without
Paul. They've started using... They don't invite
me to those things. What was the size? Because
the standard bourbon... It's 55 -gallon. 53.
Well, 53 is standard, but they were using, what,
60 -gallon? Oh, they had a couple bigger ones.
They had their... And that's what... Well, they
called them wine barrels. Yeah, they were bigger.
They were bigger, and what they've discovered
is it slows down the aging process in the heat.
So they're not just blasting through stuff so
fast. They want to keep it in the barrel a little
bit longer. It's a little more controlled. It's
a little more controlled. It's mad. Probably
a 10 % larger barrel probably slows down the
aging process by 20%. Right. Because the surface
area ratio is different. So that's what they're
doing up there. When I was looking at all their
barrels, a big chunk of them were the new big
barrels that they're using. You know, I'm curious.
You had brought up in the first half of the podcast
regarding your consistency using the American
white oak. Right. Are you going to come up with
some, you know, not necessarily French oak, but
more about the, what is the RD1 spirits? Amberano.
Amberano. I would really. I would encourage a
sample of the Ambarano and see what that does
because we have done the RD1 Spirits, and I personally,
I love their Ambarano version. It's so different.
It's a Nestle. It's like a dessert. kind of whiskey
okay and it's still strong it has all the the
the faculties of a normal whiskey but it's got
this hint of oh my god it's cinnamon toast crunch
it's crazy it's at 100 and and i'm not a huge
fan of that across the board with all whiskeys
right i'm just kind of curious what your juice
would taste with that influence i'll try some
i yeah sure That would be really cool. Because
like the iron root, you mentioned iron root.
Iron root is unique because they use all types
of different corns that they procure from the
region. Red, orange, green, purple, all kinds
of bullshit. Amazing stuff they put in. And they
also fuck around with the barrels. I mean, not
just the sizes, but they use French oak lids
and white American oak sides. And they just fuck
around with everything and try to make it. To
me, that's fascinating. I do like consistency,
but at the same time, I do like to dive in and
have a sweet every now and then. See, I really
thought it'd be cool. I was first talking about,
you know, we built our own distillery. I wanted
to have one with a climate -controlled rack house.
So you could dial up your temperature high or
low. Make your own variation. Make your own variation
based on your thermostat. Go cold, go hot, go
cold, go hot. So you have 100 % control at that
point. Hey, that's right. Dutch oven in there.
That's actually not a bad idea. So I'm sure it'd
take a lot of money. Oh, yeah. I wonder if you
can cook brisket in the same room. You got to
get up to about 250 for that. 220. If you sous
vide a brisket, you have to be at 165 degrees.
Yes. So there's that. Put it over the plastic.
Then you're infusing. You've got to make sure
the smoke gets through. In other words, it's
a normal Texas warehouse. 165 degrees. 165 is
what was suggested to cook a brisket in a plastic
bag. Do you know what sous vide is? Yeah, yeah.
To cook a brisket in a plastic bag at 165 degrees
for... Two and a half days. A long time. Yeah,
65 hours. That's a long time. 65 to 68 hours.
I did that. And folks out there, I encourage
you to do not do that. I mean, first of all,
one, it tastes great. So from that perspective,
100 % do it. The bad part is... Dude, the amount
of microplastics that degrade straight into that.
And the reason why I say that isn't because I'm
like, oh, look at me. I'm being self -conscious.
No, man. When you pick up that fucking bag and
it deteriorates. Oh, my God. It's like there's
shit going on. You set it down and you've got
these granules on your hands. You can feel it.
And you're like, oh, my God, I'm going to ingest
that. And I'm like. I'm going to ingest that.
So I ate the whole fucking thing, but still.
So you do understand when you cook meat over
an open flame, the very charring process is carcinogenic.
Oh, it's carcinogenic. Right, right. Dr. Berg,
is that his? You listen to him? Well, you're.
I'm no, but I've, I've read the scientific journals.
I mean, it is what it is, right? Yep. So it's
either that or eat tofu, you know, so I'm going
to stick with the hamburger. I'll stick with
brisket. Yeah. Right. I'll stick with brisket.
I'll take my chances. You just got to eat. The
COVID shot was more dangerous for me than the
damn brisket will ever be. Absolutely. I'm on
board with both of them. Well, look, uh, I'm,
I'm super thankful that you took the time to,
to come up and see us today. And, and, uh, I
mean, what does the rest of your week look like?
Oh, so while I'm doing tastings at some Total
Wines here in the area for Thursday, Friday,
Saturday, heading back. Where are you going to
be on Friday? Let me get my list. Well, let's
check it out. Yeah. Check our Dudes Like Us listeners
out there, because we might have to crash your
party. We may show up, bring you a sack lunch
or something. Oh, that'll be fun. Bring you a
burrito. Yeah, bring you a Subway sandwich with
chemicals in the bread. Yeah. Here we go. I got
all kinds of stuff going on. Are you going to
be hanging out at the Plano 121 Total Wine area?
There's Plano and West Plano. So let's see. Thursday
is Fort Worth in the morning, Louisville in the
afternoon. Friday, Arlington in the morning,
Total Wine Arlington. And then let's see. Ooh,
it's lining up pretty well. Denton, Friday, Denton,
3 to 6 p .m. in the afternoon. That's the other
one. Saturday is West Plano. West Plano, Saturday
morning. All right, well, that's West Plano.
That's store number five, I think. That's us.
West Plano, Saturday morning. Is it a paid tasting,
or is it just a... No, they don't pay me. No,
I mean... I show up and... It's not a class,
in other words. Free samples. No, it's free samples.
So are you going to do a class for Total Wine
at all? I've done some of the bourbon classes.
Yeah, from time to time, they invite me to come
in and do it. I've got a whole 45 -minute presentation
on the history of spirits. Well, I would love
to participate in that. Whiskey, the settlers.
But we can join him on Saturday. Well, we can.
Are you going to be there Wednesday? Saturday.
I'm sorry, Saturday? What the hell? Saturday,
yeah. Okay. Well, that's the total wine that
we crash every Friday. The West Plano? Yes. All
right. So we just might have to crash your party.
There you go. Well, I'm super thankful you came
out tonight. Did you have fun tonight? That was
great. You guys are awesome. We should do this
again. I hope so. I'm looking forward to it.
I'll bring the 116. I got the 116 proof for the
R &D. I'm super excited. What's the timeline
on that? When I get back here, it'll be a month
or two. We'll be here. Let's do it. Alright,
well, it's the second half of the Dudes Like
Us podcast. If you guys don't know, it's April
8th. Check us out. Smash that button for the
Dudes Like Us on Facebook and Instagram. It's
dudeslikeus -podcast dudeslikeus -woodcraft.
If you want some swag, subscribe. We're on YouTube,
too. They kick a lot of our shit off because
we break some of the rules. Oh, you can't mention
vaccines aren't real or whatever. Oh, they're
real. They're just horrible. Vaccines aren't
real. He just said vaccines aren't real. We're
definitely getting careful. All right. Well,
dudes, thank you, Chuck, for staying on top of
shit. Thank you, Mike. Dudes, I got some Sean.
I'm Paul. I'm Jeff. And Mike from Big Stick Bourbon.
Absolutely. Thank you, bud.