Episode 98

Flying Christ on Ascension Day

Published on: 30th May, 2025

Did you see a flying Christ on Ascension Day? Blair is going through the news sandwich, and Martin is talking about value 4 value, trader principle, gift giving, etc.

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Show notes with links to articles, blog posts, products and services:

Episode 98 (22 minutes) was recorded at 2200 Central European Time, on May 26, 2025, with Alitu's recording feature. Martin did the editing and post-production with the podcast maker, Alitu. The transcript is generated by Alitu.

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Transcript
Blair:

Foreign. Here we are, Martin and I here to in the secular foxhole celebrating another

Blair:

episode.

Blair:

I believe it's number 98.

Blair:

Hi Martin.

Martin:

Hi Blair.

Blair:

It's good, good to hear from you.

Blair:

Same today here in the United States.

Blair:

It's Memorial Day.

Martin:

Yep.

Blair:

And it's where we honor our, our fallen soldiers.

Blair:

And I was.

Martin:

Is that clear? Missing in action also.

Blair:

No, missing in action means that they don't know what happened to the soldier.

Blair:

He could be in a prison of war camp or he,

Blair:

they couldn't find his body.

Martin:

Yeah.

Blair:

A prisoner of war.

Blair:

But missing in action means they couldn't find his body or he's still in prison camp or they

Blair:

just don't know his whereabouts.

Blair:

I was thinking earlier today that Ayn Rand the dominant ethics around the world is Judeo

Blair:

Christian and the word sacrifice is just oozing out of everyone's TV commentators

Blair:

mouths.

Blair:

But I like what Ayman Rand said that it's not a sacrifice to defend something you value.

Blair:

You know, that's.

Blair:

I think that that sentiment needs to be more

Blair:

widely.

Martin:

If you advertised, if you will.

Martin:

Yeah.

Martin:

If you defend values.

Martin:

Yeah, yeah.

Martin:

Defend values and liberty and freedom.

Blair:

That's right.

Blair:

It's not a sacrifice.

Martin:

Yeah.

Blair:

But it's a tragedy if you lose your life.

Blair:

But it's.

Blair:

If you understand the meaning and value of

Blair:

freedom and liberty, it's not a sacrifice.

Blair:

So. But that was something I thought of

Blair:

earlier and we are, you know, but this, it's a solemn day for many, many people across the

Blair:

country and around the world.

Blair:

But otherwise, you know,

Blair:

my wife and I had went out today and did some errands and did some things and had some at

Blair:

lunch.

Blair:

But what else did we do?

Blair:

I have a couple of interesting stories and some thoughts about.

Blair:

Again, this is episode 98. So we have one more before episode 100.

Martin:

Yep.

Blair:

And I'm trying to reach out to an objectivist intellectual.

Martin:

Yep.

Blair:

For show number 100.

Blair:

But he, that gentleman has not responded.

Blair:

Okay.

Blair:

So we will see if that takes.

Blair:

Takes fruition or not.

Martin:

Yep, it will, it will happen.

Martin:

We have some backup plans also.

Martin:

I mean with 100 episodes we could have a review.

Martin:

We could have a so called best of.

Martin:

Even if every episode is the best so far, I

Martin:

think you learn from it.

Martin:

And so and also of course the listener out there, what's your favorite episode?

Martin:

And then you could support us in that way, could send a gift for that episode because

Martin:

it's a creation and we are putting in time, energy and money into this and it's so called

Martin:

free because you could Listen for free,

Martin:

but it's not really free.

Martin:

And we will continue doing this.

Martin:

But it's great to get this appreciation and some support and getting something back, so to

Martin:

speak.

Martin:

But that's also as we are interested in

Martin:

philosophy and fundamental ideas.

Martin:

You often hear that giving back to the

Martin:

community,

Martin:

to the society, to the country,

Martin:

to the, to the race, to the labor party, whatever.

Martin:

And that's scary.

Martin:

So we don't want to have any sacrifice.

Martin:

But the good thing with this value for value

Martin:

model and with real money like parts of bitcoin satoshis, you could send a very small

Martin:

amount without any special fees and it would go directly to us and then we could distribute

Martin:

it and split it to our guests.

Martin:

So I really see the opportunities here in the future.

Martin:

But it will take time and still accept silver coins and check in the mail.

Martin:

They could send it to you and PayPal, we have several buy me a coffee and other things like

Martin:

that.

Blair:

But what was I my train of thought was.

Martin:

The guests that you're planning and also our episodes and you have reached out.

Blair:

Right.

Blair:

So hopefully that gentleman will respond.

Martin:

Yep.

Blair:

But as you just said there are backup plans and but I wanted to.

Blair:

I do have a bit of a sandwich today.

Blair:

New sandwich I have.

Blair:

I want to start off with a good some good news and of course when I look for good news I

Blair:

always go to human progress.org yep.

Blair:

And I'll just read this off if I may.

Martin:

Yes.

Blair:

Quote.

Blair:

Over the last few weeks there there's been a

Blair:

massive nuclear policy shift in Europe and North America.

Blair:

Belgium voted to abandon its nuclear phase out plan.

Blair:

Germany signaled that it will no longer oppose classifying nuclear power alongside renewables

Blair:

in EU law.

Blair:

Sweden plans to build an additional 5 gigawatt of nuclear capacity by 2035.

Blair:

Good for you.

Martin:

Yeah, it is.

Blair:

Then. See, President Trump signed four executive orders intended to expedite nuclear

Blair:

reactor approval,

Blair:

boost domestic fuel supply,

Blair:

authorize reactor construction on federal land and dramatically expand United States or US

Blair:

nuclear energy production.

Martin:

Yeah. And Blair, to be a bit symbolic, we have talked about that we are not as

Martin:

atheist per se because that's, you know, removal of God or whatever.

Martin:

Atheist, atheist.

Martin:

But the symbol is the atomic symbol for many atheists and it's also nuclear power.

Martin:

So that's interesting in a way with science and nuclear and this power thing.

Martin:

So that's something I saw that you did as fun as a co pilot and also the AI to the secular

Martin:

foxhole.

Martin:

And when you got the fox and a microphone and

Martin:

the word of our podcast.

Blair:

Yes, I think that should be I honestly think that should be our new symbol.

Blair:

But that's.

Martin:

Yeah, we will look into that.

Martin:

And that's.

Martin:

I mean if we find creators that are good at this and we could come up with some kind of

Martin:

cooperation with this value for value and the split.

Martin:

So every time the artwork is showing in the episode, the art creator will get something or

Martin:

if we could go and like a funding crowdfunding campaign or something like that, or using AI

Martin:

in a way.

Martin:

So I like what we have so far and it's worked for a long time, but I think it's a bit time

Martin:

to do a new thing and even with the jingle also.

Martin:

And we will talk more about that in the future.

Martin:

So that was great news to hear about nuclear development there.

Martin:

Of course it has to be safe.

Martin:

And that's a problem here in Sweden.

Martin:

When we had this so called election to go and vote for that, it was either.

Martin:

It was very scary tactics because it had been this, you know,

Martin:

tragic accident in Harrisburg.

Martin:

And so it was hard to promote safe nuclear because.

Martin:

And,

Martin:

but so much have developed over time.

Martin:

But Sweden then you're not allowed at all to

Martin:

do research and development or looking into the science and develop it over time.

Martin:

So it was shut down totally.

Blair:

That's crazy.

Blair:

That's crazy.

Martin:

And Germany was the leading pack there.

Martin:

They really put that.

Martin:

And then,

Martin:

sorry to say, many other European countries influenced and that's the Green.

Martin:

The Green Party and the Green Movement coming from Germany.

Martin:

That's original from that.

Blair:

Oh yes.

Blair:

Oh yeah.

Blair:

Well,

Blair:

otherwise I know that there has been significant advancement in nuclear safety

Blair:

certainly.

Blair:

So that should be incorporated into what's

Blair:

happening in here in the near future.

Blair:

So that.

Blair:

But as far as the new sandwich, the couple of bad news things both involve President Trump.

Martin:

Yeah.

Blair:

As you might expect, yes.

Blair:

He has betrayed the.

Blair:

The Afghanis who assisted the military in Afghanistan during that protracted conflict.

Blair:

He has not only threatened to send them back, he has actually sent them back to Afghanistan.

Blair:

The people that assisted our military for all those years and were,

Blair:

because they were loyal to us,

Blair:

they were granted access to the United States while he has kicked them out.

Martin:

Yeah. Strange.

Martin:

And as continue.

Blair:

So that's the right hand sucker punch.

Blair:

And the left one is that in this big beautiful

Blair:

bill it's in front of the Senate right now, there's a 62 word plank, if you will, that

Blair:

fellow objectivist Nicholas Provenzo has sounded the alarm about.

Blair:

I didn't bring that up and I. Let me see if I can get that his comment on that.

Blair:

But it's basically removing a protection of ordinary citizens,

Blair:

the constant, the constitutional protection of the people.

Blair:

So that is a huge alarming Trend.

Blair:

And so Mr. Provenzo, if you will, has urged every objectivist or every decent human being

Blair:

to write their senators to have that,

Blair:

that plank removed from this big beautiful bill.

Blair:

And so I'm going to formulate.

Blair:

And he actually wrote his.

Blair:

And he said he could.

Blair:

Anyone who wanted to, could use his template, just, you know, substitute your senators and

Blair:

so on and so forth to.

Blair:

To it.

Blair:

To that template and send it off.

Blair:

So that's what I'm going to do in the next day or so,

Blair:

because that they're not.

Blair:

I think they're still contemplating it.

Blair:

I don't think they're.

Blair:

Hopefully they'll take their time and look this thing over.

Blair:

Go ahead, go ahead.

Martin:

I will add a thing short commentary about.

Martin:

Because I will publish this on Ascension Day, or we call it in Swedish,

Martin:

like Christ Flying Day. It is so called when Christ was coming alive and going up to heaven

Martin:

with the apostles.

Martin:

So it's important for religious people.

Martin:

And then you could fly.

Martin:

And then Trump went to the Arab world and got

Martin:

a plane from Qatar.

Martin:

Right.

Martin:

Like a brighter thing.

Blair:

Yes.

Martin:

And you know, follow money where.

Martin:

What, what,

Martin:

what do they do in Qatar? That's something to think about,

Martin:

you know, with mosque building and religious dogma and other things like that.

Martin:

And the by.

Martin:

How do they call it, the studying schools that

Martin:

they are doing when they really put it inside their head, Quran thing.

Martin:

So that's something to think about why he went to these places in the Arabic world.

Martin:

You know,

Martin:

he even wanted to change the name of the Persian Gulf now.

Blair:

Oh, really?

Martin:

Yeah. And that were Pahlavi,

Martin:

the son of Shaun of Iran.

Martin:

He said that's BS it always have been called

Martin:

Persian Gulf and shouldn't be called Arabic or Arab Gulf in order to appease them.

Martin:

I mean, it's very.

Martin:

Yeah. Tragic.

Blair:

He's a blowhard.

Martin:

Yeah. So the positive ending, positive thing then, right?

Blair:

Yes, I wanted to discuss the positive thing.

Blair:

I want to discuss.

Blair:

I guess I could use the word triggered.

Blair:

People may or may not know that.

Blair:

Of course, I'm an objectivist to the best of

Blair:

my ability.

Blair:

I follow my own ability to reason based on Ms.

Blair:

Rand's ideas.

Blair:

But I am alone in my family in that regard.

Blair:

And I got a clip from a family member on Facebook about the Reverend Charles Stanley

Blair:

and his little five minute ditto or Diddy was about where would you be without Jesus?

Blair:

And I just thought, you know what,

Blair:

I've listened to it and that I immediately thought I need To I had bought the pamphlet

Blair:

and the Kindle version of On Cargatte's Finding Morality and Happiness Without God.

Blair:

So I started reading that as the antidote to Mr. Stanley.

Blair:

And I highly, highly, highly recommend our listeners to find that pamphlet on Amazon and

Blair:

either get the hard copy or the Kindle version.

Blair:

And it's 31 pages and it is a gold mine of sunlit ideas, if you will.

Blair:

So that's my new sandwich for the day.

Blair:

I can end on that.

Blair:

And I know that again we've,

Blair:

you know, this is episode 98. 98 episodes of this podcast.

Blair:

That's over what now five years?

Martin:

Yep, time flies.

Blair:

Yeah, I'm very proud of that.

Martin:

Yeah, you should.

Martin:

And,

Martin:

and, and me too.

Martin:

And we have been then recognized another time

Martin:

in a. In a list of secular secularism or secular podcasts.

Martin:

And this time we got the placement number five.

Martin:

So I will include that in the show notes.

Blair:

Yes. Yeah, yeah.

Blair:

So in one survey we're number nine and in this

Blair:

new survey we're number five.

Martin:

So it looked.

Martin:

Yeah in similar in a way in the layout and

Martin:

design and so on, but it was a new domain and a new list.

Martin:

And also I pointed out to them because I tweeted to myself and others that on the list

Martin:

that our email address how we could contact and go to the secularfoxhole live and there

Martin:

you could have the contact information there.

Blair:

Right.

Martin:

We have listed because that's an address but it is a lightning address.

Martin:

So now it's getting this, you know,

Martin:

lingo but that's.

Martin:

We have one albit in order to get support and

Martin:

donations and this giving back in in a way.

Martin:

And that's looks like an email address but

Martin:

it's going to.

Blair:

Oh no, that's not an email address.

Blair:

No.

Martin:

Yeah, I pointed out that to them.

Martin:

So. Yeah, so.

Blair:

But they still haven't changed it.

Blair:

So they need to change it.

Martin:

But they.

Martin:

They.

Blair:

Another way to reach us, if I may just interject.

Martin:

Yeah.

Blair:

Is those who want to write us can just write us@secular foxholemail.com Good, that's

Blair:

very easy.

Blair:

Secular foxholemail.com yeah, but otherwise

Blair:

that's about all I have for this time.

Martin:

Great.

Blair:

And oh, I do want to mention one more thing.

Martin:

Yes.

Blair:

I don't know, Martin, if you have Netflix.

Martin:

No,

Martin:

but I haven't.

Martin:

I'm not a subscriber.

Martin:

That's again talking about value for value.

Martin:

It's often lock you in.

Martin:

So I would like the model that you put pay for as you want and you pay for a certain movie,

Martin:

whatever not locked in per monthly but it could be a good thing also.

Martin:

I mean saying that if you are listening out there and want to do that in an easy way, you

Martin:

could support us on a monthly basis.

Martin:

So that's an option also.

Martin:

But yeah.

Martin:

Well, what's on Netflix? Any new good stuff?

Blair:

Well, it's a Swedish film called Caliphate and I'm sure you can imagine what

Blair:

that's about.

Blair:

And so,

Blair:

and I follow on,

Blair:

I think it's Bing. I follow someone who reviews Netflix under the radar things and

Blair:

that was one of the things that they mentioned a Swedish film called Caliphate and so I

Blair:

haven't seen.

Blair:

I've started to watch it but I haven't finished.

Martin:

So please, please send the link and I'll include that and I will, I will check it

Martin:

out and see if it's original Swedish or if it's, I.

Blair:

Mean it's Swedish with English subtitles.

Martin:

So yes, then I definitely have to see it and find it.

Martin:

Maybe I will find it on the so called state public television but we pay it by the tax

Martin:

money there.

Martin:

We can't choo.

Martin:

But otherwise it could be on a commercial channel also.

Martin:

So I mentioned that in the Green Room to the Armageddon movie that's about the last battle

Martin:

and that's a scary movie but that's only I think available now on Alazera so that you

Martin:

have to take it with a bit of grain of salt, so to speak.

Martin:

But it's an interesting documentary to watch about how the religious.

Martin:

I think it's the evangelist,

Martin:

how do you call it? Evangelical,

Martin:

how they,

Martin:

you know, plan for the future about the last battle, the Armageddon.

Blair:

Well, I mean that's part of.

Blair:

I'm assuming that's probably part of

Blair:

revelation in the Bible.

Blair:

I would assume, yeah.

Blair:

And there are,

Blair:

I don't know how many Christian sects.

Blair:

Sects, S E C T s sects.

Blair:

There are probably over 200 and probably each one of them has their own bizarre version.

Blair:

And it is bizarre, I'm sure nonetheless we will continue to advocate reason,

Blair:

individualism and capitalism here at the secular Foxhole.

Martin:

Yeah, and the Trader principles.

Martin:

I will also include that in the show Notes on

Martin:

the Rand lexicon and also about this value for value concept episode when they're talking

Martin:

about that.

Martin:

And also a segment that you could listen and that's in a way coming from religious because

Martin:

they have been good at that.

Martin:

After the sermons you have this collection box

Martin:

or the net so it's time.

Martin:

But you listen to us and you spend time on that.

Martin:

We value that and then your talent, if you want to help with your future jingle or new

Martin:

artwork or maybe helping with chapters in the future.

Martin:

And then, of course, treasure, that's payment and gifts giving in different ways.

Martin:

So that's this concept.

Blair:

Right.

Martin:

We do that in the show notes also.

Martin:

So very good.

Blair:

Yes.

Martin:

Great player.

Blair:

All right, Martin.

Blair:

Well, thank you very much.

Martin:

Yep.

Blair:

And we will.

Blair:

I think we can call it a wrap.

Martin:

Yes, we will do that.

Blair:

All right, Martin, thanks.

Martin:

Bye for now.

Blair:

Bye.

Martin:

Bye.

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The Secular Foxhole
Separation of Religion and State
As a freethinker, are you looking through binoculars out at the world in the safety of a foxhole? Get fuel for your soul and intellectual ammunition by listening to The Secular Foxhole podcast, in order to fight for the separation of religion and state.

Blair chose this name (The Secular Foxhole) to dispute the myth that there are no atheists in foxholes, but also as a place to share ideas and defend Free Speech. The co-hosts both advocate the separation of Church and State, but also Economics and State. In short, Liberalism, Individualism, and Capitalism.
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Blair Schofield

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I'm a 'lapsed' blogger who turned his blog into a podcast. Now the task is to keep both up to date! My co-host Martin Lindeskog and I have already celebrated our one year anniversary, with the podcast.

Martin Lindeskog

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Creator, ✍🏻 Tea Book Sketches. Indie Biz Philosopher ⚛️ & New Media 📲 Advisor, TeaParty.Media. Blogger since 2002 and podcaster🎙since 2006. First podcast: EGO NetCast. Latest podcast: Pluck the Day. Support 💲My Work and 🗽 Freedom of Expression: https://bio.link/lyceum