ChristiTutionalist Politics | Christian Perspectives on Constitutional Issues
"ChristiTutionalist (TM) Politics" podcast (CTP). News/Opinion-cast from Christian U.S. Constitutional perspective w/ Author/Activist Joseph M. Lenard.
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ChristiTutionalist Politics | Christian Perspectives on Constitutional Issues
CTP (S3ESepSpecial7) Fatherhood Under Fire: One Man's Fight for Parental Rights
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CTP (S3ESepSpecial7) Fatherhood Under Fire: One Man's Fight for Parental Rights
Joseph Lenard welcomes John Griveas to discuss the systematic erosion of traditional family values and constitutional principles in America today. They explore how government overreach and progressive policies have deliberately separated children from parents while redefining foundational concepts of community and family.
• John shares his 26-year struggle as a father denied parental rights after conceiving a child while serving as a Navy Seabee
• The distinction between biblical community (based on free will) versus worldly communism (based on force and redistribution)
• How school feeding programs expand government influence while diminishing parental roles
• The historical lessons from the Mayflower Compact's failed communal experiment
• Language manipulation tactics used to rebrand harmful policies with positive terminology
• Signs of cultural revival as younger generations question progressive narratives
• John's personal journey with ADHD and autism diagnosis as an adult
• The balance between technology benefits and drawbacks in modern society
Welcome to the Constitutionalist Politics Podcast, aka CTP. I am your host, joseph M Leonard, and that's L-E-N-A-R-D. Ctp is your no-muss, no-fuss, just me, you and occasional guest-type podcast. Really appreciate you tuning in. As Graham Norton would say, let's get on with the show. Hello everyone, welcome to another episode of Prostitutionist Politics Podcast. If you're looking behind the scenes, at the behind the scenes or sneak peek video, I'm normally the picture on the right and the guest is the picture on the left.
Speaker 1:Zoom did an update. I was lucky to get this because somehow I was a tiny box at the top rather than a side-by-side, so luckily I got this and this will have to do At any rate, joining me today. I better say his name before I forget the proper pronunciation John Graveas. As he said, it's Greek and I joke back it's all Greek to me. My audience knows I can't pass on the lame puns and what I read in your outreach originally. It says I bring firsthand experience with how far we've strayed from foundational Christian and constitutional values. That's all I needed to read, because I had my neighborliness show, my charity show, endless times. I go into biblical community versus worldly communism, but I don't need someone on the same page with me to be a guest I had on Charlie Thompson, who was more kind of a Bernie bro and trying to peddle the communism stuff that's been tried and failed over and over, including the Mayflower Compact.
Speaker 1:But he was too young, you know, they don't teach history in school anymore. The Mayflower Compact was a communist collective commonwealth compact long before Marx thought he dreamt up the concept. We had already tried it hundreds of years before he came along and it failed then too, right on our own continent. But sadly so few know any history. They don't know that. And Bradford of course pivoted because they almost all starved to death and instituted individual rights, personal rights rather than collectivist private property ownership. And of course our founding fathers knew all that. History saw that history and hence our constitutional biblical community republic, not a communist compact, at any rate. I'm looking up and that's just like the clock has gone, see up. And that's just like I. The clock is gone, see, zoom. It got me all screwed up the clock. I don't even know how many minutes we're in, but I already know I've been rambling too many minutes already. You haven't even spoken yet.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the show, john thanks for having me appreciate it. We figured it out. It took us a couple times, but here we are.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, but again, so I don't need someone who's always going to agree with me on. I had Charlie Thompson on and we went back and forth about what we're kind of basically going to discuss today. Going to discuss today, as I said in the email. I really wanted to talk to you about it because I didn't want to be the only one saying these things.
Speaker 2:Yeah, right.
Speaker 1:So what? Well before the typical first question who are you Right? Where were you born, where were you raised, where are you now? That sort of thing.
Speaker 2:Sure, sure, yeah. So real simple. I'm from the Buffalo New York area, born and raised here in Western New York. I'm in the suburbs of Buffalo in a small town called East Aurora. It's mostly known for the Fisher-Price. Oh yeah, global headquarters for Fisher-Price is there, moog, which is a huge government contractor for missile defense and things like that. That's in my hometown and of course, we got the Buffalo Bills.
Speaker 1:Yeah, which, like the Wings, has had some down years and rebuilding.
Speaker 2:Oh boy, oh boy.
Speaker 1:I think you're a little further along than we are. I keep saying the Iser plan has to be declared an Iser fail and he should be Iser fired. He's out of nostalgia for number 19. Well, that was then. This is now right. He has gotten more grace than anybody else would have gotten, not getting us back to the playoffs in eight years after taking over so time to move on, because we should be in the playoffs by now. You also should be in the playoffs by now, but that's not what you're here to discuss.
Speaker 2:That's right, that's right. Spent some time in the Navy as a Navy CB stationed out on the West coast, and actually that's that's kind of. That's kind of what brings us together, you and I, today. It kind of was the catalyst for the beginning of my lived experience with this nonsense that is our society really.
Speaker 1:Parental rights are out the window and, yeah, the whole basis of all the school board headbutting with parents and, of course, the last administration weaponizing the FBI and DOJ against parents fighting for their parental rights. And to keep smut, no one wants to ban the book. It's about appropriate. You should be. I call it the new core R's Radicalism, raunch, perversion and CRT racism. No, we need to go back to reading, writing arithmetic history, those sorts of things Parents wanting that are deemed domestic terrorists.
Speaker 2:Right, right, yeah, heaven forbid, you want to stick to our Judeo-Christian? You know upbringing, you know, and, yeah, the family. They spent the last what? 40 years at least. You know, chipping away and destroying the traditional family right, family values are out the window. You can't, you know, same. The same thing as a father trying to actually have a relationship with his daughter is often seen as the, the, the abuser, the aggressor, the, the problem nowadays and it is not just nowadays, in fact, problem nowadays, it is not just nowadays, in fact. I will say this I think that, as bad as things are now, I'm probably in the best place that I've been as far as being able to bring awareness to my situation, to what I've been going through. The last 26 years of my life Started at the age of 18. As an active duty, navy Seabee had met a nice girl. Nice enough. Sorry about that, I have my phone on my apologies.
Speaker 1:I didn't hear it.
Speaker 2:It's on silent now, but anyways met a girl.
Speaker 2:She was nice enough.
Speaker 2:We started a little relationship there and things got hot and heavy, heavy and accidents were made and a child was conceived.
Speaker 2:I did what I was raised to do in the event that, well, first of all, I should have never been doing the things that I was doing, but I knew that since that mistake had been made, then the proper way to correct that mistake then would be to get down on my knees, propose marriage to this lady and, of course, raise our child together and figure it out, as so many had done, you know, for generations before us that that wasn't the case, that that wasn't the way that things were going to play out, and it and I learned very, very quickly that that I did not and would not and still do not have the support of either. Whether it be our government and I'm saying both sides here, we're talking republican, we're talking democrat, we're talking independence nobody's stepping up, whether they believe, whether they have a christian a lot of them talk, or what yeah, they all talk a good game but when it comes when the rubber meets the road, yeah, yeah, they're nowhere to be found.
Speaker 2:Yeah, when there's actual work to be done or heaven forbid you might ruffle a feather here or there. You know what I mean. But again, I will say this because it is as insane as it is now, I think there has been or there is some sort of awakening happening. I mean, more and more you're hearing people talking about needing to get back to the traditional values that we've always had. You know people even talking about you know, maybe we don't need 24 hour grocery stores anymore, things like that. You know what I mean. You hear more of that, and it's not just from the Bible-thumping Christian subset, right? We're seeing it across the board, across the aisle.
Speaker 1:Especially in the Black community which was normally more conservative. But for economic reasons FDR converted a lot of the Black community to become Democrat. I mean Republicans freed the slaves. All Blacks were Republicans after the Civil War and then slowly the left whittled some away. Fdr did it with the great LBJ, the great society, but FDR his was really a continuation of FDR's socialism, communism and indeed and the whole black community being destroyed, even with and through the civil rights.
Speaker 1:Many racists although that's a cultural Marxist construct we are one human race. We are different subcultures, different skin tones, but we are all one race. But to use that term, racists wanted to keep the Black family destroyed as an economic way to keep them under their thumb, sent to slavery Right. They had to give up and I had mentioned my neighborliness in my charity article. I also have one who is babysitting whom. About this exact same thing too, that destruction of the family, hitler. And it takes a village. Now that's actually a biblical concept in that right. It takes family, it takes extended family, it takes friends and neighbors to maybe babysit a child and help raise that child. But that is biblical free will versus Hitlerese. It takes the fascistic state and they want to own your child and you're just the nighttime babysitter.
Speaker 1:In fact, I got a piece on Substack. I wrote just the other day about something going on in Michigan. Republicans control the Michigan House, democrats control the Michigan Senate and of course, they just want to throw money at everything. An $80 billion budget and the Republicans I'm a fiscal conservative and a traditionalist saying the school food program. We want to help those who truly cannot help themselves.
Speaker 1:That doesn't mean feed every kid every meal. That is the separation from church to state. The state owns your child, not you. They want to distance them from you. We are the one providing the food, though, no, it's the parents' tax money stolen from them that's being used. So we want to feed those who really need it. So we want to feed those who really need it, but maintain the family structure, because it's more important for a child who, even if it's a single parent home, if that parent can provide breakfast at home at a kitchen table, it is far more beneficial for that child to have that there, not be ripped from the home and given the meal at school, whether they needed it given to them or not.
Speaker 2:Yes, yeah, and not only that. I mean. So the same thing happens in New York. Prior to COVID, you had to apply for free lunch and that was all that was available free lunch. Anybody who was on SNAP was automatically, you know, approved and would get free lunch, and I had no problem with that. Honestly, really, really, I mean, you know, don't get me wrong I think I think the program in and of itself needs to be reworked, but I didn't have a problem.
Speaker 1:There's a lot of fraud and corruption and now that's where it started with free lunch because, hey, they're already at school. But again, that's the point. The left want to expand and grow government always, whether it's needed or not. And again, it's part of the erosion and separation of the family structure that is their ultimate goal.
Speaker 2:Yes, perfect example is post COVID you no longer need to apply. I think they are going to be bringing it back, but for years now, and I'm saying for like the last four years, you no longer need to apply. It's automatically. It's automatically available to all students, and not only lunch now, but breakfast as well. Do you want to know how much of that food gets thrown out?
Speaker 1:Oh I, you know, I'd say probably 90% of it. Yeah, that's the other part of our argument too. Exactly is that's happening and it and you know it won't end here next it will be. Well, we got to make sure they have dinner, so we want to feed them dinner before they. It is always more, more, more, never examining the consequences of their idiocy right?
Speaker 2:no, well, because I I think that the consequences are, that's the the goal, right? You know I?
Speaker 1:I do. I have an article too about supposed unintended consequences. But we we tell you what the consequences will be. We know, we see it coming. And how many times have we got to say we told you so but you don't listen. About the slippery slope, yeah, but you're right. They pretend to care. But underlying the issue is never the issue. It's only power and control for the left.
Speaker 2:Right, right, yeah, a hundred percent. And it's especially especially with the, the new progressive wing of of the party, because there is a difference, I believe a distinct difference, between the progressive and the liberal party, although the, the, the liberals of today, are not quite the same as the liberals, like when I grew up, you know, when I was a young kid, I mean we. I think that what's the saying you know you, you grow up, you grow up liberal.
Speaker 1:You, you would eventually when you're young, you've got no heart right, but if you're not a conservative in your older years you've got no brain exactly right.
Speaker 2:So I, you know. So I grew up in a in a democratic family. They were, you know, bill clinton supporters and this and that and the other or whatever. And I mean I at the time I was a teenager I kind of thought Bill Clinton was kind of cool, for you know getting ahead in the Oval Office. Yeah, but. But then I learned, right, I grew up, but but even even back then I don't think that the Liberal Party was quite.
Speaker 1:Everything definitely shifted Well it's definitely not the party of JFK. Jfk would be a Republican today. Bill Clinton was way further left, but indeed, as you're saying, everyone now is way further left than even Bill Clinton was. And you're right.
Speaker 1:I have in my constitutionalist politics book, in the opening, like intro, I mentioned Dennis Prager. I've got a meme which I'll try to remember to throw up into the behind the scenes video for those watching there rather than listening on the 25 plus audio platforms, a meme that says on the old you can lead a horse to water thing. Right, you can lead a liberal to the facts, but you can't make them think. But Dennis Prager corrected me and I agree he's right. I was wrong. I can admit when I've been wrong about something.
Speaker 1:There is a difference, as you've alluded to, from a classical liberal and a leftist. It should say you can lead a leftist to the facts but you can't make them think Like a Brandon Strzok, a Candace Owens who was flaky at times, tammy Bruce who was in the Trump administration, leo Terrell, jeff Van Drew, the New Jersey Democrat that switched parties, the Dallas mayor that switched parties all indeed recognized. Classical liberals can be red-pilled and wake up, but an ideological leftist, as Prager points out. You will never get through to them because they are strictly emotional creatures and they will never admit to ever being wrong on anything.
Speaker 2:I firmly believe that everyone who is of that extreme left or extreme right, there is some sort of mental illness involved, whatever that may be, and however, so you know, TDS is a real thing.
Speaker 1:So was BDS Biden deranged me, right, yeah 100%. I always say if there's not something you leftists can't agree with Trump on, you suffer TDS Likewise the right extreme.
Speaker 2:Absolutely.
Speaker 1:Right, it's an emotional hysterical snowflakeism. Right, they don't think. Right, they's an emotional hysterical snowflake. They don't think, they only feel. And but if there's not something you couldn't agree with Biden on, then you suffered BDS, that's all you are. Our school buses should be EV propane or hydrogen.
Speaker 1:There needs to be a few diesel buses. Because I played hockey in high school, right, sports teams, the band. You need buses that go on diesel that can go longer distance for field trips, but the primary buses that go around picking up and dropping off kids, sure, I agree, let's make those EV and charge them in the bus depots overnight, every night, so our kids aren't smelling fumes. If you can't agree with Biden on that, then again you're an emotionally hysterical, nonsensical, non-thinker, right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, anytime you let emotion do your decision-making for you, you've got a problem.
Speaker 1:Yeah, what is it? Thessalonians, or? I'll pop this in the video too, if I can remember. But the Bible itself isn't just prophecies of Armageddon. It talks about our politics, of our time A fool's heart at his left where a wise man's is at his right. It talks about our left-right paradigm today. Today, and it fits to a t. But most, and there's a lot of matthew 23, christians that jesus called snakes, vipers, blind guides. They want the, the sing kumbaya around the campfire, only jesus. They want to leave out the tough love parts. They don't want to read any of that other stuff. They don't. They pick and choose a scripture, avoid the full context, right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, which gets us back to biblical community versus, which is God's free will and we are to want to be our brother's keeper, versus worldly communism, which is by force, by theft, by redistribution. You don't have choices. Even though the left loves to talk about being about choice, that's only a dodge for murdering babies. Yeah, right, right. They're never really about choice, because biblical community is free will and actual choices.
Speaker 2:No, because I can tell you this I didn't have a choice.
Speaker 1:Right, I had no choice. I had no choice, I had no choice I couldn't ask her to.
Speaker 2:I couldn't even ask my God. I couldn't ask her to abort our child and I couldn't stop her if she wanted to. Right, I didn't have a choice. I still don't have that choice. Men today still don't have that choice, men today still don't have that choice.
Speaker 1:We just had our life walk here in Michigan the other day to coincide with the Dobbs decision. But you're right. And we also, may 17th, had a intro to pro-life culture and I spoke. You know what? I'm a man, a perfect specimen of one, if I dare say that's a joke. It's tongue-in-cheek, right, I don't have that sin of hubris, but do I have a tail? No, that doesn't stop me from being able to speak out about animal cruelty and animal rights. Men are affected by abortion too. Yes, we should have a say in the matter. But you're right To that point. The separation of the family we are only seen in those cases as the sperm donor.
Speaker 2:Yep, I've had at least one child that I know of that an ex-girlfriend of mine has aborted without my knowledge.
Speaker 1:Yeah, without any discussion, right, Obviously, you're saying now you're pretty sure you know.
Speaker 2:I found out after the fact Right.
Speaker 1:Yes, right, exactly Exactly. Came Right, exactly Exactly.
Speaker 2:Came up, came up in a fight, you know, oh remember, when I wasn't feeling well last week, I killed your baby. Oh, that's awesome, nice, great.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, clearly, a loving woman, yeah, wow, that's feminism. Feminism, yeah, no, that, thank you. That's exactly right, you know. But there's, as I say, fourth wave. Feminism now is certainly nowhere near what feminism. Originally it's like everything.
Speaker 1:The NAACP was created by Republicans following the Civil War for Blacks to try to help, right. But now the NAACP has been co-opted and corrupted. In fact, every year we have a protest when NAACP has a convention here in Detroit about them funneling billions to Planned Parenthood. And one Black woman gave me a sign and I have a piece on that at Before it's News. Is it racist for a white man to carry a sign about Blacks aborting Blacks? You know, at an event like that, she made the sign, not me. But if I dare hold a sign that says National Association for the Aborting of Colored People, they get upset at the term colored people. Well, that's in the name, moron. If that's a problem, they should change the name, and it's the black woman who thought of it cleverly National Association for the Abortion of Color. They're not advancing colored people by killing colored people, right?
Speaker 2:right, but again, like everything, the left co-ops and corrupts everything it's the same thing, man. Like look at planned parenthood, you would think. You would think, if you're completely ignorant which I was growing up I'd see I'd drive by a planned parenthood and I'd be like you know, that's pretty freaking cool that they have that for people to like be able to get information and guidance. Oh, no, no, no, no, no. That's where you go to get rid of the mistake.
Speaker 1:Right, that's where you go to. Yeah, nothing about planning.
Speaker 2:Right Literally nothing about planning.
Speaker 1:Making sure you don't have parenthood to worry about yeah, but that's the left.
Speaker 1:Always. Every bill, like the inflation reduction act, was a money laundering scheme to family, friends and donors. That everyone knew. Again, it wasn't an unintended. We told you it was going to happen. That caused hyperinflation because you injected another trillion dollars of fiat currency into the system. It was going to cause inflation, not reduce it. But that wasn't the intent. But, of course, to sell, sell it. That's what they call it, same with planned slaughterhood as I call them to sell it. They call it planned parenthood. Oh, warm and fuzzy, something positive and good if it were doing what it says it's supposed to by the name.
Speaker 2:Listen, not for nothing. There's something to be said for how effective and how long and effective the left has marketed their Marxism. Yeah, they have succeeded in completely infiltrating higher education, all of our industry.
Speaker 1:They see the union leadership everything union leadership are a bunch of commies that don't represent the rank and file. That's why we had auto workers for trump. Here people are starting more and more, thankfully, to wake up from, because I've got yet another article I'll mention at thelibertybeaconcom, called the Twisting and Warping of Language, planned Parenthood nothing to do with Planned Parenthood Everything they're selling. They twist and warp the language to make it sound warm and fuzzy, but does the opposite of what they claim it will do in order to be able to sell it.
Speaker 2:Because their base.
Speaker 1:Or well newspeak.
Speaker 2:Oh, 100%, and it works because their base they have gone all in on the least, what we used to call in the debt collection industry, the least sophisticated consumer Idiots, dummies, people are too lazy to ever pick up their smartphone and actually do research to find out if the nonsense that they're being fed is true or not.
Speaker 1:And I have a quotations chapter in my CTP2 book and it's mainly, you know, famous people, famous quotes. But there's a couple Joe originals in there and one is since I'm a former IT guy, I don't have it memorized, but I'll paraphrase Never before in the course of human history have all so many people had at their fingertips the availability of facts, but, conversely, never before in the course of human history have people had access to confirmation bias, delusional manure, devoid of reality, right yeah, and a lot of people want to cling to delusion and, as you said, cultural Marxism. It's right there in their plan. Take over the schools, dumb us down and they've back to the core, ours radicalism, raunch and racism. Anything but the original core. Ours, like china, is actually teaching their children as well as honor, integrity, work, ethic.
Speaker 2:Those got ours in them too those, those countries, third world as they may be, also aren't ripping their families apart. And that's where it all starts here. Listen, bottom line is that's where it.
Speaker 1:It, yeah, quite literally all starts in the home well, no matter what a democrat wants to tell you yeah, with the exception of china and the one child policy and in Florida.
Speaker 2:Well, right, yeah, let's not forget about that.
Speaker 1:I understand what you're saying In general, though separate. And apart from that, when they allow children, they want them to indeed have an intact mother and a father, because they don't peddle this genderism crap, this distortion of biological science that there is XX and XY. There's only two genders.
Speaker 2:That's it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, arrest are either. There can be, on occasion, biological abnormalities, distortions, but that indeed is abnormal where there's a distortion. All these other mental well, I'm a they them. That's mental illness.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, it is, and it's sad, and and and what's so frightening is the fact that I can walk down my street right now and out of a hundred houses, I guarantee you there's there's 10 people that at least, that agree with all of that, that think it's perfectly okay and they're probably flying rainbow flag. You know what I mean. Like it, it it's like they have succeeded in in in creating this, this, this confusion complete confusion complete confusion.
Speaker 1:Yes, nothing is, everything is a gray. Nothing is black and white, it's all gray area. Now I have a show, two of them, on gray areas. Yes, sometimes it isn't black or white. Sure, there are gray areas, but not everything.
Speaker 2:That's the exception to the rule.
Speaker 1:Right the my truth crap.
Speaker 2:No, it's your delusion it's your opinion is what it is. Your truth is your opinion. Just fucking say it's your opinion.
Speaker 1:Sorry yeah, and you're entitled to an opinion, sure not entitled to your own set of facts that's right, that's right, that's right and opinion matters if it's based on reality or delusion.
Speaker 2:Right, and it is up to me to use my brain to determine whether or not what you know what I mean, and then we go from there.
Speaker 1:It's like I've said on the show many times. We've gone back to the 60s. If it feels good, do it right. That was kind of my truth era too. And me, me, me, anyone and everyone else who cares, I do what I want, consequences be damned. We're there again. But we have to remember and we're seeing it already a lot of today's youth again being involved with Right to Life. We've got a lot of young people in the life movement that are seeing all this stuff. Remember the 60s loved children 10 years later grew up and became the Jesus revolution because they woke up to well, there's got to be more than just me and only about me. And the Jesus revolution came out of that. And we're seeing kind of a new quasi-Jesus revolution coming out of this nonsense.
Speaker 2:I do agree. I do agree.
Speaker 1:There's something of a revival happening out there. Just the other day I saw someone shared a video you know, again a former IT guy. It's so easy to make a deep fake with AI and all this, so I don't know if it was real, but we've seen these things in the past so I certainly hope it's real. But there was a video I think it was Brazil or whatever a cloud formation, you know, a standard kind of fluffy cloud, but at the end of the cloud clearly like the Rio de Janeiro Jesus hearing over the hill. He's standing on the cloud and people caught it and people gathered and people dropped to their knees and started praying. But the Bible said signs and miracles. As we get nearer and nearer to the end day or so, we're seeing more signs and miracles if people are open to them.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I think perhaps it's not that we're seeing more, perhaps it's just that more of us are open.
Speaker 1:And with social media and everything Right Modern technology, what used to take weeks to go into newspapers around the world is instantly on the internet for anyone and everyone to see.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and if you don't catch it in the first 24 hours, you missed it.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:We're on to the next thing.
Speaker 1:Right, oh, that's, I call it the Twitter attention span.
Speaker 2:Yes, oh yeah, which is great for ADHD, yeah.
Speaker 1:Which is both good and bad, right? Yeah, bad things. We move on from quickly at times, but we can't forget about them. But I'm glad you brought that up. You do mention ADHD. Let's go ahead and talk about that a little.
Speaker 2:Brutal. First of all, I didn't know that I had ADHD until about two years ago. So I'm 46 years old, so I literally found out as an adult that this, my brain, that had always been this, my brain, that had always been weird, right, different. I didn't really know it, but I I did, just based on, like interactions and over over the years, but then I I finally got diagnosed, and along with autism as well, and it it was a game changer. Like it, really like it wasn't it. It changed my whole outlook on everything. Now I still struggle. I still struggle every day, but I'm, but I'm. But. Now that I know it's a lot easier to to learn and practice new techniques and things like that to help me.
Speaker 2:Technology is great. In that way, you learn how to use technology in the right way. Ai has really been very helpful for me because it used to take Good and bad, good and bad, good and bad, and see, that's one of the things right. Then that's where I know I'm a squared away dude, because I realize that my self-awareness is off the charts. So you know, I I'm I'm very aware that all of these good things that we have there, there are some bad applications as well. But where, like? Where AI has helped me, for example, is I love writing, I'm a writer and it it it with ADHD, which I didn't realize for a long, long time.
Speaker 2:It would take me forever. Phd, which I didn't realize for a long, long time. It would take me forever. It could take me an entire day to write an important email, and I'm not kidding. An entire day it could take me, like, let's say, a day like an eight hour shift, like work shift, right. So now you know I can get that done. It might still take me an hour using AI, but but it but it's done and I'm'm confident that it's that it's right. You know what I mean. Yeah, I've gone through it and I don't let I don't let ai do the work for me, right? I, but I let it do a lot of that heavy lifting important distinction in my how to write a book and get it published like.
Speaker 1:That's the law, ai and the law. That's another article right. The law, ai and the law. That's another article right. The law needs to be updated. Copyright, plagiarism, fair use of trademark issues. Ai may tell somebody this is an original thought, but it's culled from the internet, which means it could be stealing something from my book, passing it to someone. They use it, but guess what? You didn't do the research to check. You are the one on the hook for the plagiarism stealing my stuff because you allowed AI to hand it to you. And as a former IT guy, I've seen this stuff coming from way back. And I have health issues. I've been on disability since 2004,. More or less a stress breakdown. I'm more OCD on the scale and that's what led to it. Being in IT. I'd be on call all night. I'd get awakened in the middle of the night, have to take a phone call and then not get back to sleep because of the OCD. Once the brain is going, it is obsessive compulsive disorder.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I got a little bit of that too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, then I would not get enough sleep. And my body got to a point where it says you know what? You're not going to slow down, we're going to slow you down and the body just shut down.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's never good. And you know what, as men, we do that to ourselves all the time. We don't stop until our body tells us. Right now I'm a small business owner. I own a business. My partner and I. We've owned a small dog treat manufacturing company here in Buffalo since 2015. Turned her little kitchen hobby into an actual brand, and so I do that. But with the way the economy is and everything now and granted, things have gotten better but because of my situation COVID happening everything it was kind of this perfect snowball that we're robbing Peter to pay Paul every day. So I find myself back out on the grind. I'm doing things like mowing lawns and stuff like that and it's, you know, just to make ends meet, and I mean I'm not an old guy, but I mean I'm older in my back. You know my sciatica.
Speaker 1:I've got pain shooting down to my ankle Every 10 years. It only gets 10 times worse.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:Exponentially worse. But yes, exactly, we keep stressing ourselves and hoping it won't catch up with us and eventually father time always does. Does it take the stress breakdown like I had, or a heart attack or a stroke, to say hey, you weren't paying attention. We tried giving you signs, you didn't slow down?
Speaker 2:Right, right. The first panic attack is usually the first sign, right?
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay, at any rate, like with most of my guests, we could talk for hours, but then, like I say, the Twitter attention span. No one would listen or watch because everybody wants just give me the TikTok soundbite, right? Or the Twitter headline, even though details matter. I keep saying right, the headlines are misleading. Eight paragraphs into the story, you realize it's the exact opposite going on, that the head, what the headline is telling you. You've got to deal in the details, but no, just give me the short the cliff notes version. So do you have a website, personal or professional?
Speaker 2:uh, I'm on LinkedIn. You guys see, you follow me on LinkedIn. I actually just wrote a book not too long ago too. That kind of talks about my story a little bit, so that information's on there. So, yeah, just search me, john Graves, on LinkedIn.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay, that's spelled J-O-H-N-G-R-I-V-E-A-S. Now the video version will have it spelled out there. What's the book title?
Speaker 2:So it's called Staying Grounded, and it's actually a tactical hand guide for fathers primarily going through high conflict custody situations and how to use AI to help them not lose control of the situation.
Speaker 1:All right, sounds good. Thank you, john Graveas. It's all Greek to me, but I can never pass the lame button. But you know, even in my Terror Strikes book there's a comic relief chapter. If we don't try to maintain a sense of humor, we'll go insane. Very true. So thank you for stopping. I love sarcasm.
Speaker 1:Thank you for stopping by. Take care, god bless. Thanks, joseph, take care. Thank you for having tuned in for Chris Dittus' Politics Show. Thanks, joseph, take care. Have locally run bookstores still near you. They can order it for you. And let me remind, over time the fancy high production items will come, but for now, for starters, it's just you, as a very appreciated listener by me All substance, no fluff, just straight to key discussion points. A show that looks at a variety of topics, mostly politics, through a Christian US constitutionalist lens. So again, thank you from the bottom of my heart. Take care, god bless. Like and subscribe to Constitutionalist Politics Podcast and share episodes. We need your help.
