Copts, Kardashians, and Kanyes

This is the Weekly You Demon. I encourage you to listen. It's funny. For years, we would always have an out-of-town company this weekend.

Didn't mind necessarily having an out-of-town company, but when I was younger, with a bunch of little kids, I didn't have a lot of time for studying. So I'd get up early in the morning. On work days, I'd get up at 5 o'clock in the morning and read for an hour, hour and a half. But on the weekends, I'd get up at 4 in the morning, and I'd go hard at it for like 3 hours.

In fact, it triggered a thing called the Slim Jim Party. What my kids would do if they got up Saturday morning, they'd come down to my study and I'd be here working. And they'd come in, we'd hang out, and I'd give them treats like Slim Jim, things like that. Of course, being little kids, we'd probably 2 and 3 years old.

As soon as they get out of the bed by themselves, they'd crawl out and come down here Saturday mornings. They'd start coming down like at 5 o'clock in the morning. I'd be like, no, no, no, no, you've got to go back to bed. You can't get up this early.

You'd be a royal terror the rest of the day. But when they'd say this time, we'd go back an hour, you know, go back to standard time. I'd get the extra hour. They'd be like getting up at 2 o'clock or 3 o'clock in the morning.

And I would just have hours to study and work on my articles, things like that. It was just a great time. Unless you're out-of-town company, then I was like, ah, man, that golden extra hour is now shot. I was like, gosh darn it, that little joy.

It's eliminated. Not a big deal, of course, either way. You know, if you had told me I would ever get ready for a podcast by reading up on Kim Kardashian, I would have mocked you severely. But that's what I've done.

Because of Kanye West, I've become increasingly interested in the Kardashian family. And I am ashamed to say it, but I have grown quite interested based on things I'm hearing this past week, and I'm looking at some Wikipedia entries. Yeah, I went out and checked out the Ray J sex tape, you know, just to get ready for the podcast. I watched it, you know, 34 times.

I hope you know I'm kidding. I have never seen the sex tape. But I looked up on Wikipedia, I was like, what is the big fuss about? And I said the sex tape goes on for like 41 minutes.

I'm just like, wow. And the Wikipedia entry said it mostly depicts her and Ray J goofing around and having sexual intercourse. I was like, alright. Anyway, Kanye West came out this week and said that children are a great blessing and he's hoping to have seven.

That'd be like the perfect number for Kanye. And I was like, wow, Kanye, you're the man. You want to imitate me. And I'm quite flattered.

But then like, the next day I'm listening to relevant radio. And again, those who aren't quite relevant radio is a Catholic radio network, it's just excellent. And one of the commentators was commenting on Kim Kardashian. And I figured the context, I wasn't really listening to that closely as Kanye in the background.

But he said something like, well, at least you want us to church with apostolic succession. It's like, really? I said, so I know she's not Roman Catholic, but I'm pretty sure she's not. I looked into it.

It turns out that she is Armenian Orthodox. That's pretty interesting. You just don't see Armenian Orthodox very often. Now again, because I've done like 10 minutes worth of research on Kim Kardashian, mostly Wikipedia.

If there are inaccuracies and anything I see about the Kardashian family in this podcast, why not Wikipedia? Because that is the sum total of my knowledge of the Kardashian family. Besides stuff that seeps into your ears despite your best efforts through the popular culture. So I guess her father's Armenian.

So I'm guessing he's Armenian Orthodox. And that's why Kim became baptized in the Armenian Orthodox Church. That makes her a copt. C-O-P-T a copt.

And there's like maybe a hundred million copts in the world. They're pretty rare. But it's a fascinating religion. Now, I think this little bit of history lesson might be in order.

The copts are what are formerly known as the Oriental Orthodox. You have the Eastern Orthodox and you have the Oriental Orthodox. And there's five Oriental Orthodox churches. The Syrian Church of Antioch.

The Syrian Church in India. The Coptic Church in Egypt. The Armenian Church. And the Ethiopian Church.

I guess I should note there. I guess I don't know if all Oriental Orthodox are called copts. I think they are. I think you can loosely lump all them into the Coptic or under the term Coptic.

But I could be wrong with that. Either way, Kim Kardashian is in full communion with the Coptic Church. And these are the churches that broke off from the Catholic Church after 451. You had the Council of Chalcedon.

Where the Monophysite heresy was condemned. Monophysites taught that Christ only had one nature. Human, divine, combined into one nature. And that was condemned in Chalcedon.

After an extraordinarily acerbic and violent at points council. The Council of Chalcedon. Revolve a really fascinating history. And a lot of bad blood came out of that.

And as a result though. These churches. All of which could trace their roots back to an apostle. So like the Armenian Orthodox Church.

Apparently traces their roots back to Bartholomew. Those churches left and basically formed their own communion. They were, I don't want to say heavily persecuted. But definitely persecuted.

And definitely felt like they couldn't stay in the arms of where the Catholic Church was. And again. The arms of the Catholic Church would have been like the Eastern Orthodox Church at that point. Geographically speaking.

Again it was all one church. But geographically speaking. The Roman Catholic Church and Eastern Orthodox Church kind of started separating. And they became separate formally in 1054.

Which is like 600 years later. In a very, very long time span by the way. But the Roman Catholic Church as it existed around the Mediterranean. Its reach closest to the Cops.

Or the Oriental Churches. Would have been what became the Eastern Orthodox Church. So anyway. They felt compelled to be on the outskirts.

Because they weren't really welcomed on the inskirts so to speak. So they were kind of more on the outside of the empire. And they always felt somewhat persecuted. Somewhat put upon.

Because they did not accept the decrees of Chalcedon 451. And that made the Cops or the Oriental Orthodox prime plucking for Islam. Not only did the Cops bear the brunt of the Islamic assault. In the 7th century.

In the 600's. Not only did they bear the physical assault. Or the brunt of the assault. They also had the proselytizing.

Where Islam insisted they convert. And the monophysites were kind of like. Well. Their Catholic brothers sure said.

They treat us pretty poorly. And we're tired of paying Roman taxes to Constantinople. And so they're like. This new religion might be so bad.

So many of them apostasized and became Muslim. As a result. They greatly dwindled in numbers. I mean at one point.

I was reading books from the 1980's. On the Orthodox churches. And they made an aside. There's only 27 million Oriental Orthodox left.

And again. I think it's close to 100 million these days. I don't know if they've been real prolific. Or what happened.

But again. They weren't wiped out. But they really were put upon by the Muslims. And then you know.

I don't see them roughness too often. But I think it needs to be pointed out. That the monophysites. Because of their religion.

Because of this one nature. Where the idea of having a divine nature. And a human nature separate. Combined into one person.

That seemed absurd. That single nature. Approaching their psychologically. Made them more successful to Islam.

Which is a very very simple and stark religion. Which is just Allah. You know just one. Being a monophysite.

Made them more amenable to that. And by the way. I'm increasingly seeing the term. Meophysite used.

Instead of monophysite. I gotta be honest. I don't know what the difference is. I don't think it's mere political correctness.

They call them meophysites. Because monophysite was a term of derision. Going back to 451. I can't believe.

That's really carrying a whole lot of. Cultural baggage these days. I can't believe that son of a bitch. Call me a monophysite.

No it's not like you know. The M word. Monophysite. But I am told that.

And it's now meophysite is the correct term. And I don't know the difference. And I want to say I don't care. But I actually do kind of care.

I'm kind of curious to dive into that at some point. To find out what is the difference between. I'm an monophysite and a meophysite. Here I am.

Looking at Kanye West when I have seven kids. And just you know. Feeling very flattered. That he would want to imitate me like that.

But then I look into Kardashian. Kim Kardashian. I get through watching the Ray J. Tate.

37 times. And then I'm going for an exercise walk. Actually not exactly. I'm going for a stroll before mass Saturday night.

And I listen to the podcast from The Worthy House. And I plugged that last week. And I'm going to continue to plug it. There's a ton of good stuff over there.

But he's talking about a book called 21 Cops. This just came up at random. In my iTunes feed. And I don't know why.

It just showed up. I thought it was like the most recent podcast that The Worthy House had released. But no. It's like from April.

But it came up. I was like. Why am I being pounded on? By the Coptic churches or the Oriental Orthodox churches.

I'm not sure what's going on here. But over and over and over again. It's like. You know.

Maybe guys tell me I need to become Coptic. But anyway. This podcast. 21 Cops at The Worthy House is excellent.

I learned a ton about the cops. I thought I knew quite a bit already. But apparently not. It revolves around the 21 cops who were killed by Muslims back in 2015.

I don't know if you guys have called this story. But it's just harrowing. These 21 cops were kidnapped. Held for two months.

Then taken out to the seaside. Seashore where they basically told you know. You need to embrace Allah. Or die.

And 21 of them would not do it. I think that's all of them. They kidnapped 21. And 21 refused to apostatize.

And they're executed with like. Dull knives. Decapitated right on the shore. I know there's a videotape out there.

Because these Muslim bastards have videotaped it. And released it. I can never bring myself to watch it. I guess that's too delicate of a constitution.

There's no way I can watch it. And so anyway this journalist went through and wrote a story about it. And in the process I guess he wrote a book that is packed full of information about the Coptic church. And it's a different type of religion.

So for instance he points out that this video. A lot of family members keep the video. Like in their family room. They keep it playing.

And not as an act of defiance. Or sadness. It's like a celebration that these men basically set close to heaven. By achieving the crown of martyrdom.

And make no doubt about it. They are martyrs. I mean this is the classic term martyr. It kind of reminds me when that French priest was killed by Muslims.

While he was saying mass. People say oh he's a martyr. He's a martyr. And it's like no he's not.

I mean it's sad. It's an atrocity that this priest was killed while doing mass. But by all eyewitness accounts. He didn't know he was going to be killed.

They came in and killed him. They gave him a chance to renounce his faith. To save his life. Without that you don't have martyrdom.

You have to be killed because of your faith. And you don't defend in your faith. That's a martyr. Anyway.

These 21 were martyrs. This guy points out in the worthy house. He said that once a church is consecrated. The Coptic church teaches that there are angels in the church at all times.

So you never have a worship service in the Coptic church. The church itself is always a worship service. As soon as you walk into an Coptic church. The worship service is going on.

You can get there 10 minutes before the earthly manifestations. But the worship service starts. When you walk in there the worship service is in process. The angels are constantly carrying out a worship service.

That's beautiful and trust you what you want to call it. And I can tell you what. Some of you may recall that I was out in California last spring. And we're in Monterey.

And I saw an Coptic church. I was like you've got to be freaking kidding me. I can't believe this is a Coptic church over here. I've never been a slight one.

And so we went out to dinner. And had a few drinks. And we're walking back to our car afterwards. And we're walking back by it.

And I said hey I think it might be open. I checked on the way down to have dinner. And it wasn't open. But two or three hours later we're walking back.

I said I checked out. The door was open. I walked in there. I'm going to say there's a presence pushing me back out the door.

And I think it's because I saw two dudes up at the altar. Walking around it. With incense. There's obviously some sort of worship service going on.

And I just put it down to. Yeah just hey I've had a drink or two. Obviously not really in the reverential mood. And these people are engaged in something serious.

And it's just inappropriate for me to be bopping in here. Taking pictures with my iPhone or whatever. And so I walked out. But I tell you it was a little bit more poignant than that.

Something that basically almost seemed to repel me out. And again at the time I put it down just being hey it's a cultural thing. There's two dudes in dress in street clothes. They weren't like you know all that get up you see in Eastern Orthodox Church.

Or the presumably the Oriental Orthodox Church. I'm told that the two worship services and the rites and everything are very very similar. Almost identical. You know to the outside observer.

These are two dudes in street clothes. But something told me you gotta get out of here. You can't be staying in here. I didn't get inside the vestibule barely.

Just took my head in. Very small church by the way. I'm not saying it was the angels propelling me out. But being kind of skeptic.

You know I'm skeptical on all counts whether scientific or other things. That kind of leaves me open to any type of interpretation like that. So maybe it was. Who knows.

Let's do some lighting segments. For starters I have egg in my face. Twice over. One.

You cannot call Kim Kardashian a copt. No matter how erotic that might sound. It is not accurate. Copt is very specific in its usage.

It refers to non-Chalcedonian Egyptian Christians. You need all three of those. To be a copt. Gotta be from Egypt.

Or be part of that communion. You have to have rejected the Council of Chalcedon's decree in 451. And by the way sometimes I heard it pronounced Chalcedon. I don't know.

I took a East Orthodox theology class when I was at the University of Michigan. I think that guy. The great John Meindorf pronounced it Chalcedon. Anyway.

And third day I'd be a Christian. So if you don't have those three. You ain't a copt. Kim Kardashian is in full union with the copt in church.

Because there's five of those non-Chalcedonian communions. So she is in full union with them. But she is not technically a copt. Second mistake I made.

I'm not sure this is a mistake. But last week I mentioned Edward Snowden. Was on the Joe Rogan show. And how he released names of operatives overseas and put them in harm's way.

I think I might be confusing him with Julian Assange. I have not really followed the whole thing that closely. And as I mentioned to you before. I don't even follow the news that closely.

And some people are just appalled by that. But I'm with Nassim Taleb that. It's kind of a lot of noise. It's a lot of clutter.

And even though I'm constantly reading. And I listen to news stories all the time. I never really died that much into it. It must really, really interest me.

And so I expect me to Snowden and Assange. I'm confused there. So my apologies to Snowden. If I left him in with Julian Assange.

One more thing on Kardashian. And she's Armenian. If you ever get a chance. I'm looking at the Armenian genocide perpetrated by the Turks.

You know a hundred years ago. You want to talk about something absolutely outrageous. And the Turkish government. You know trying to be part of NATO.

And modernizing under Ataturk. After World War I. They don't talk about it. They actually deny it.

And it was an atrocity. And it was a genocide. Genocide is what I was trying to toss around loosely these days. But what the Turks said.

They're actually trying to destroy the Armenian Christians. With the Turkey to make it a more pure Muslim country. If you ever have a. If you're thinking.

Hey I can possibly embrace this Islam type thing. Maybe it's not so bad. But we can coexist. Ask an Armenian about that.

You know. You should use that leaf blower. To inflate your colon and your small intestines. It's that time of year.

When people are always dancing. with their leaf blowers below on their lawn and boy I hate it there's something about the pitch of that leaf blower that drives me freaking bonkers it also drives me bonkers that if you're dealing with someone who wants to exercise anyway rake the freaking leaves that's pretty hard work I mean honestly it's like you're in really good shape an hour or two of raking leaves will freaking wear you out and it's gonna be better exercise and you'll probably get it done faster if you have one of those leaf blowers unless it's one of those like monster thing that just you know shoves a bunch of leaves real fast but if you have one of those like tiny blowers you're gonna be raking it a lot faster in all life yes it's a heck of a lot harder but it's exercise that don't work out that day anyway if you think well it's just a pretty good reason we don't want any people to blow on their lawn what's it to you how's it about you and it's nice to this because it doesn't stay in your lawn the noise comes over to my lawn and I gotta listen to that crap and I get it I'm not gonna win this argument leaf blower's I guess the Simquan now without which we don't have modern civilization all I'm saying is put a huge bubble dome over your yard and then blow it it's not supposed to do it that's all I'm saying of course I guess I could print earplugs that work just as well I suppose hey I'm not sure what the podcast is gonna be next week I'm heading out Thursday vegan light actually I cheat a lot although I'm really good on the vegetarian stuff I went to Culver's last night and got the mashed potato and gravy and ordered fries from Mr. Starch but I didn't eat the meat so I'm vegan light I'm pretty hardcore vegetarian although because it's not for moral reasons there's pepperoni on the pizza I'm not gonna balk at it but anyway so I'm going out to Boston Thursday we're using my daughter's place as a springboard we're gonna be in Portland Maine for a night we're gonna be in Providence Rhode Island we're gonna be in Newport Rhode Island we're looking forward to it but that's gonna make podcasting kind of tough but I have two recording apps on my phone I'm gonna try to do the podcast from my phone and then I'll remix it when I get in but I know it's not gonna get released on Sunday or Monday like typically it's gonna be released on probably Tuesday or Wednesday next week so Melissa's Econ talk with Russ Roberts and he's interviewing a woman who wrote a book called Rule Makers Rule Breakers or something like that and then they go into this whole thing about how to deal with teenagers how teenagers are in this weird space where they still need rules they want rules but they become adults they want to set their own rules and they make shape under your rule and they say well we actually sat down my husband and I sat down we talked about this how much leeway to give them and what areas are we gonna be leaning on and what areas and I'm just like what? you sat down and talked about that?

and I have a little doubt that having seven kids and a traditional household where Marie stays home and I go to work probably makes us a little bit of an outlier these days but I can never imagine sitting down with Marie and talking about how to raise our kids and to me it's like it's the most natural thing in the world and again I don't get it my kids so far so far so good this is gonna be coming out just fine and so I was trying to think I said why we talk about particular issues like the strip of Boston do I go see Abby with this big time do I go see Abby would Abby welcome us who's gonna cover gosh awful sports banquet at the end of the year I think it's your turn to go sit through that crap not mine discussing a general philosophy for raising kids it's like no and I think I can distill it for those of you who are struggling with this especially when it comes to teenagers I came up with basically three rules and if you follow these three rules I think you'll do fine in raising your teenagers one make sure they know who's in charge two make sure they know that without being a dick about it and three be honest I think that's all there is to it my kids probably because I was pretty strict when they grew up when they were younger kids they never once balked at my authority I just never showed it and they're always very respectful and they just got to do whatever the frick they want to do in high school I refused to set a curfew for them it's like to me I was being kind of a dick and again I appreciate some parents believe in curfews and that's fine I'm not saying you're wrong but in our household that would have been like mom and dad what the heck you know so we always tell the kids I said your curfew is whatever you tell us it is so we said just tell us when you go out at night what time you're gonna be back because ultimately this isn't about you kid it's about me trying to sleep if you're supposed to be home at midnight and it's 12.05 I'm wide awake and so we said look it just tell us what your curfew is and then you can call an audible in the middle of the evening and change your curfew if you told us at 11.30 and the party's great and you went home at 12.30 that's fine that's cool text us if you're gonna spend the night at your friend's house instead and not come home at all that's cool too but you gotta text us and tell us what's going on you know and I say also respect to being honest with the kids that's ain't hard but sometimes that entails two things one admit when you're wrong and it's like oh I have to out sorry about that I'm just a temper with the kid and overreacting they make a small mistake but yeah my response is like 10 times harder than it should have been I'll go back I say hey look you screwed up I'm really sorry you reacted the way I did that's just common decency and two that sometimes means you have to admit to your kids and yourself that you're a hypocrite because you're demanding of them things you yourself didn't pull off when you were that age and make no doubt about it by the way that is hypocrisy if you're demanding of your kids like with no comprehension I can't understand why you possibly do that and you did the same crap when you were a teenager you're being a hypocrite and I get it that you're maybe no longer doing those things now 20 or 30 years later but to intellectually put yourself back as a teenager not comprehending what it was like for them to be a teenager and copying C-O-P-P-I-N-G not C-O-P-T-I-N-G not copying an attitude about it you can see it I don't know I think it's in your eyebrows I think kids can sense it so just be honest with the kids don't be a hypocrite when you are a hypocrite oh you make a mistake you admit it to the kids you talk about it but yeah you do all this stuff without even thinking about it I never tell myself I need to sit down and be honest with my kids and tell them I made a mistake it's just like how do you have to up and I got to tell my kid I screwed up it's just Maria and everybody sit down and talk about it and once in a while she'll say something like hey you're a little harsh on kid X or whatever I think you need to go say something I'm like okay maybe I forgot about it because I went on and did something else but yeah I don't know child rearing ain't hard people talk about how hard it is maybe I'm just blessed maybe Maria's so good at it it just seems effortless on my part I don't know got a couple things from the one thing file if you recall about a month ago I listened to this podcast and this writer said that he has a one thing file in fact it was that dude he was Jacob Abrams Cameron's name he wrote the know-it-all book I really liked about one dude reading the entire encyclopedia but he said he keeps a one thing file and he said when I listen to a podcast or read a book or listen to an interview and they're talking about their struggles with depression and things like that in the past and Malice talked about HALT H-A-L-T and he said people who are life coaches or whatever they're increasingly teaching something called HALT which if you find yourself irritable or in a bad mood or looking down on life getting depressed ask yourself am I hungry? am I angry? am I lonely? am I tired?

anyways if none of those four things apply and you're still in this mood then maybe you're dealing with depression I can't remember exactly how Michael Malice put it but it's something like that you gotta look at HALT and a very simple thing and I think it's the fact that a lot of times I find myself irritable because I do this 16 hour fasting am I hungry? he's like yeah yeah I'm hungry again but angry as well and then tired I'm never lonely I think probably because I have seven kids and lots of brothers and brothers along their wives and their kids whatever so I'm always around people all the time so I'm never lonely so maybe I'll say do HAT am I hungry, angry, or tired because all those three things are very well could be me and then I'm listening to Evander Holyfield on the Joe Rogan Show the great Evander Holyfield and it's a great podcast and I'll get to the one thing file in a second the one thing I took away from it but it's funny Evander Holyfield is a pretty committed Christian and on I don't say numerous but I'm going to say at least half a dozen occasions he mentions like faith in God or his Christian upbringing or his Christian belief and Rogan I wish I could see his face I'd have to go watch a YouTube video but he completely doesn't acknowledge his statements about it it's almost like Holyfield passed gas in the studio and Rogan's like I'm not going to acknowledge it I don't want to embarrass Evander with questions about his Christianity because Rogan's pretty anti-Christian this is kind of funny it's sort of like I'm not even going to acknowledge Holyfield passed gas like that but anyway the one thing I really like about that is Holyfield constantly refers to his mama and my mama told me this and my mama told me that and so my mama said and he realized his mama was pretty freaking smart and I don't know anything about his mama everything I know about Evander Holdfield's mama I heard during that hour and a half interview and Joel Rogan but I get the impression you know they're from Georgia definitely from the south maybe Alabama you're not dealing with a very sophisticated woman here you're dealing with a pretty simple woman probably a woman who had more than one husband or lover or whatever I think she probably had kids from a couple different men I don't know that but I know she had a lot of kids but she had this home-spun wisdom and based on things that Evander told him like when he was in high school these are things that are really unpenetrating at higher levels and things that take into account a lot of if you break them down you realize this is a really sophisticated thought process that's distilled into basic wisdom so for instance Evander Holdfield was a hell of an athlete great basketball player football player boxer and she told him she said you can't be great at everything pick one well break that down I mean it's like well that's pretty obvious Eric's like well is it I mean are you picking just one I mean you don't desire to be great at anything okay that's fine too but are you picking just one Evander Holdfield's mom knew she had a hell of a guy in her hands a very talented young man she's like pick one and become the greatest at and become the greatest boxer for her to do that you know you're taking in various principles such as opportunity costs comments talk about you can't do everything if you pick one thing you can't do another and so everything you do has an opportunity cost everything you buy unless you're extraordinarily rich everything you buy has an opportunity cost because that dollar can't be spent on something else I'll buy you 20 bucks Evander Holdfield's mom had no clue what opportunity costs were but she knew probably feel a pretty simple life a pretty simple way of living she knew that hey Holyfield's gonna be great at one thing and the whole podcast is still with that everything every time Holyfield said what my mom always said I'm like stop and listen I care what Holyfield's mama said the whole podcast is actually like that definitely recommend you go listen to it it reminds me of something I've observed about the Cure des Arts John Vianney the very simple priest in 19th century France who I don't think he flunked us seminary but came pretty dog out close because the guy was well rumored to be a dunce just not a lot of innate intelligence on low IQ and he couldn't master the seminary materials almost didn't become a priest but then he became the greatest of priests and there are a couple little books of things he would say little snippets of wisdom he'd write down and these things are penetrating to the max I mean I highly recommend go to 10 books T.A.N. and get a little book called The Wisdom of the Cure des Arts he used to have given them for a buck a piece it's just a pamphlet it's like 30-40 pages I won't have bought a dozen of them I still have them laying around I gave them to my kids I'd hand them out to people he had The Wisdom of the Cure des Arts deep philosophical theological insights from a guy who by all accounts wasn't very smart but through a very simple and holy life he was able to reach these higher levels of wisdom kind of like I think Evander Holyfield's mom of them who has it to say that since I really don't know anything about the woman alright that's going to have to be a wrap I don't like that wrap up fighting segments because it's a segue between that surf music and then my theme music I spent so much time lusting after I mean talking about Kim Kardashian and the podcast is already over 30 minutes long and I'd like to keep it in that that sweet spot in 30 minutes give or take and by the way my apologies if you can try and go to the Facebook feed or the blog it's not been very active it's just I've had a cold all week it's kind of wiped me out so I've been lying low plus I'm swung to the office I am committed to get this site up and running and set the big time in fact and talk to one of my kids about possibly hiring him to do some of the proper work we'll see if you can if you embrace the embrace the job anyway as always thanks for listening