I was just thinking, you know, when you start building yourself as the most haunted city in America and you have
like these little industries, little tour industries kind of pop up around that, you know, you wonder how much of it is uh, you know, just blatantly made
just made up. Like how much of it just becomes, okay, this is the industry now.
it I think it the the stuff around Luigi is uh you know says a lot more about you know the culture that we're living in
you know when it comes to you know political violence uh uh in particular it seems like we're having a lot more of
it and um there are a lot more people who are okay with it and you know cheering it on whether it's the you know
Luigi's murder of uh Brian Thompson or the you know the murder of uh Charlie Kirk then I actually met one of uh the
manionistas, the one of Luigi's uh you know followers who she has become by
coastal for Luigi. She lives in Los Angeles and she's you know basically come to uh New York to to be at his uh
his court hearings and and that sort of thing. And she is and she was 100% just in his in his corner.
[music]
[music]
I welcome back for the ninth time maybe four five uh time. Luke Perez, a com he's a comedian, but I think he's a he's
moved into uh social commentary. So maybe he's a social commentarian comedianarian. Um and uh you can find
him on probably on something like larez.com if I'm not mistaken. He's he's anywhere and everywhere you want to be.
Um he is l Perez the parapotetic Perez, the perennial Perez, the um prispicacious
um and etc. Um so Lou, thank you for being on. I I I gotta say just as a mild
intro, I liked your Luigi um story. Um and you know, we can talk about that and other social commentary. Another one starting with an L, Lindsay, um Clancy.
And um so Lou, thank you for being here.
So tell us uh a little about what's going on with you.
Well, thanks for having me back. Yeah, so I I uh I just got back from a anniversary trip. My my wife and I celebrated eight years of marriage, 13
years together, and we went down to Savannah, Savannah, Georgia for uh for three days. And uh getting there was was
pretty easy. Getting home was a was a little difficult. Um uh a lot of traffic.
Um but while we were in Savannah, apparently it's uh the most haunted city in the world or or at least the the most
haunted city in the United States. It's always that's how they build themselves.
So they have all these like uh ghost tours and u uh midnight in the garden of good and evil uh tours and uh it's a
it's a really it's a really interesting history. But I I was just thinking, you know, when you start building yourself
as the most haunted city in America and you have like these little industries, little tour industries kind of pop up
around that, you know, you wonder how much of it is uh uh you know, just blatantly made just made up. Like how
much of it just becomes okay, this is the industry now. We need to get people here. So, uh, uh, you know, that's not to say like, oh, ghosts are real or not
real or that, but I was just wondering like how much, uh, you know, how many of the stories were, uh, were legit and how many were they, you know, kind of just
leaning into because while I was there, I didn't feel any, um, spiritual presence. I didn't I didn't feel any of
the the creepy crawies, as other people had described it. Uh, we we stayed at a Windom. Uh so maybe maybe that had
something to do with we didn't stay in one of the you know haunted mansions there. But it was a really great uh
great little town. Um we really enjoyed it. The food was great and uh yeah we had an excellent time. It's nice. I assume the kids didn't go.
No no no it was just me and my wife. Um uh so we've been trying to go on an anniversary trip uh every year. Last
year we was it last year? Yeah. Last year, we we went to Nova Scotia and we ended up bringing the kids with us
because uh the babysitter uh uh my mother-in-law the schedule didn't uh didn't work out. But our in-laws are
great as far as uh as far as watching the watching the kids. But, you know, I I I guess it it sort of made me think
about just the allure that people have with, you know, murder and mayhem and
ghosts and that sort of thing. And and I guess that kind of leads into, you know, what's kind of been happening uh recently with a, you know, a number of
cases. So, the article that you brought up of mine, uh, I went to see Luigi the musical,
uh, and I, uh, I covered it for, uh, Pirate Wires and The Daily Wire ended
up, uh, republishing it, uh, so there's no payw wall there. So, you know, I got to go, you know, I I I got to go see it
and experience it as, you know, a piece of art, but then also talk to people and ask, you know, you know, what's so
intriguing about this, you know, for them. Um, so, you know, the short of it is, you know, as a piece of art, it it
was a piece of But um uh it I think it the the stuff around Luigi is
uh you know says a lot more about you know the culture that we're living in you know when it comes to you know political violence uh uh in particular.
It seems like we're having a lot more of it and um there are a lot more people who are okay with it and you know
cheering it on whether it's uh the you know Luigi's murder of uh Brian Thompson
or the you know the murder of uh Charlie Kirk who we just know came up came upon what the one-year anniversary. Um so
it's um yeah weird time.
So the Luigi thing just I mean people get captivated oddly you know it's like the Chavara shirts you know it's much more
out of remove you know Chavar is a handsome guy son of a doctor um he was a you know a needless revolutionary he
didn't need uh the revolution so forth um and he got romanticized but he was a brutal guy u you know stone cold killer
and he didn't have to be kind of like the Muhammad Ata thing you know those 911 since are kind of on the cusp. I mean, Charlie Kirk was killed in 911.
Um, and we just passed the 25th anniversary and you're in New York and I'm a New Yorker by origin so forth. Um,
the, you know, the 911 killers were sons of doctors and stuff like that. They were not downtrodden. A lot of the revolutionaries
um, uh, historically have been well off, had had been well off, and they they think they they know what they're doing.
It seems like so many of the ills um are brought upon the you know by the ill
eats the elites who who you know seem to have a better concept of what is going on. You know the the uh I don't know if
you want to touch on that as far as Luigi. I mean I assume people who going to Luigi the musical have some cash in their hands and they're going to shows and whatnot. Tell us about the audience
there and what what was their perception and reception.
Yeah. So, it was um I I sort of described it as a uh you know, a theater crowd, you know,
the the time I think I was the only one there who hadn't seen like heated rivalry. [laughter] Um Oh, yeah. No, I mean I I've seen all of
the other uh homosexual hockey shows, but that one.
Yeah. Well, I played I played hockey. Um you know, I I I played a very homosexual style of hockey. Um [laughter] really confused all the guys on my team.
They're like, "What are you what are you doing, Lou?" Um you too many butt butt slaps. And hey, we're not getting We're not This is
a children's show. Is this a children's show? Only only by by terms of maturity.
Yeah. Yeah. We We are very immature. Um but yeah they I mean the those in
attendance you had people there who were you know genuinely just kind of interested in the subject and wanting to
see what the you know creators of the musical did with the subject and yeah in
a way it's kind of like uh you know Sonheim had uh assassins right and it's
like how is an artist going to treat right So it's like how is an artist going to treat you know depicting
murderers or attempted or or attempted murderers. So uh you know so there's the challenge there of like oh is this is
this going to be good? I want to go see it. And then you had people who uh I I had a number of people who I who I
interviewed who said, you know, the I I don't I don't agree with the murder, but
you know, the health industry is just so evil and corrupt. So there was a lot of, you know, those people like waning uh
you know, are they even fence sitters? I I don't know. And then uh I then I actually met one of uh the Mangionistas,
the one of Luigi's uh you know followers who she has become by coastal for Luigi.
She lives in Los Angeles and she's you know basically come to uh New York to to be at his uh his court hearings and and
that sort of thing. And she is and she was 100% just in his in his corner. um she would be koi a little bit because at
the time it was before he had pled uh he had plead guilty but she's like I don't know who did this but whoever did it
you know like that that sort of thing and um and I thought it yeah it sort of gave
it it sort of hit everybody uh um kind of all all sides of the of what I was expecting to find to find there you know
lovers of theater uh people who were upset set with the system and then those who are like burn the system down.
So, so without I don't want to dwell on too too too long, but what are what are the song hits? I mean,
what do you you know I I watched and liked the producers. I saw it actually on Broadway a zillion years ago before
it turned into movie, I guess. And um Oh, no, it's the other way around. I take that back. I saw the movie and I think they think they went backwards onto Broadway afterwards. I apologize.
Um, but I I saw both versions. Anyway, um, you know, that that that's a joke of this basically. I mean, Mel Brooks,
who's I guess turning into George Burns by is I think he's still around um getting into it. Yeah.
Centenery or so. Um, funny guy. Uh, you know, he he, you know, he wanted to make a musical about Hitler to fail, you
know, so they can lose money and, I don't know, you know, collect from the donors and so forth. I mean, this, I assume, is not the producers. We're not
watching some meta version of how Luigi musical. This seems like, you know, IRL.
No. And the uh creators, one of the things that they had said, I don't know if I have the the quote exact, but this
wasn't um this wasn't supposed to be a promotion of political violence. It was supposed to be an an interrogation of
it. And if that's what they went out to do, their interrogation pretty much failed because um
at because I mean really everybody involved is kind of like gung-ho for for Luigi. I mean, there there's a point,
excuse me, [clears throat] there's a point where Luigi is getting all these letters, you know, fan letters sent to him and he starts reading them
out loud and, you know, I guess these are all fictionalized. Um, I would assume and all of [clears throat] them
are just like, "Oh, here's how I was denied treatment. I was denied treatment here." And it's just reading one after another and there's no there no jokes.
There's no irony. There's no there's no fun there. The only the only thing is like in between like he receives like
one letter and then it's also like a pair of women's panties in it and it's like well yeah cuz you know women are sending him stuff. Okay, I get that. I guess that's funny. Haha. But there's no
there is no interrogation about you know what it is that this guy did. And you know, spoiler alert,
uh it gets to the point where even the prison guard in the in the in the musical has been
denied uh treatment for his cancer and he helps Luigi escape and gives Luigi his gun and
it's like do the Lord's work, he says to him. So there's just not, you know, there's there's nothing really.
So I I don't think you actually have to worry about the spoiler alert part.
Yeah. Yeah, no one's no one's going to see this. Well, well, also, you know what's so funny is, you know, going through all this um you know, watching
this and and for me the the the the part that upset me the most is there are uh
there are three characters. So, it's uh Luigi, there's uh the prison guard, and then there's P. Diddy, and then Sam
Bankman Freed. So, the the premise is that at one point they were all in the same detention center. So, what would it
be like if they all hung out, right? And you had uh the character Diddy being played by a woman, a black woman. So,
she had like a do-rag on. So, you have like gender swapping stuff going on. Sam Bankman Freed is played by like a I don't know, like a non-binary queer
something. Um, but when they do their songs and you're talking about, you know, like what are the, you know, standout songs
when Diddy does his songs, there are no hip-hop or rap songs. Like they don't even attempt hip-hop or rap.
And for me, that was like the most that was the most insulting part of the of the play because it's like you have a rap hip-hop mogul as a character, you
have to attempt to make some of the that music as opposed to There's a there's a a musical called Slam Frank um which is
very well done and very funny. Very funny. And they have really great songs and they they rap and and sing and do
all the stuff in in the song. So they do like a really a really good job. So just even as like a piece of uh you know just as a piece of entertainment I I think it it failed.
So So uh Luigi I I got to ask you two questions. I mean one is what was the venue? Is this right on Broadway? Is this like off Broadway
thing? Is it a small place? Is it, you know, supported by somebody who who who banks? Speaking of bankmen, who who's the the bank man um for this thing?
It was Yeah, it was at a it was at a cabaret in um this uh it was called Yotel in um Time Square.
At a Yotel, did you say? Yeah, it was a I mean, it was a nice place.
Good location, New York. I stayed elsewhere, but they're tiny little things. They're Yeah. And what was what was funny like one of the details that didn't make it
and there were a number of details that didn't make it into the uh the final piece I wrote but uh so they have like this cabaret really nice you know really
nice showroom and at the same time that the show was going on there were like two corporate events going on so one of
them was like a a lawyers event and the other one I think was a uh had something
probably like like a tech event and you know New New York City just you have those those you know those
juxtapositions there that are just so obvious and literary. It's like oh here we have a play about a guy who murdered a CEO. Here we have two corporate events going on.
Yeah. So so did they did they provide like stilettos and and garats so you could go out and do a little uh ad hoc
you know deoyering of the world? I mean right what did Shakespeare say about first the lawyers or something like that? I forget what that what line is that you know
from um Shakespeare has an anti-awyer line. Uh I I'm I'm the son of a an attorney. Um and and you know I I have a
zillion lawyer jokes. Um nonetheless my brother's a lawyer. My other brother went to law school. My brother-in-law's was a judge. There's a lot of lawyers
around. So there's a lot of good opportunities for lawyer jokes. Um but you know it's it's kind of this
uh oddity. I mean again Luigi Manion not poor you know very wealthy family kind of like in this Muhammad Ata you know
vein and Shavar and so forth you have all the money in the world you know you if you wanted you could probably get a vanity book out there like um
you know PJOR had a book ironically titled Eat the Rich you know uh he's channeling the French Revolution um but
his book is is is one of the great great kind of economic books out there he's hilarious the late PG AOR and um you
know he goes country to country. I don't want to get too much into this but uh he compares all these countries in the 90s um and which is successful. I'll just
give one quick one quick example. Uh, Tanzan Tanzania has, you know, beautiful coastline. It has English common law.
Uh, loads of people, inexpensive labor, um, relative peace and tranquility, no wars, it's got gold, it's got uranium,
uh, it's got, you know, good tempered climate, it's got mountains, it's got se anyway, it's got everything. Got a lot of land mass, a lot of place to grow.
It's got a ports, etc. And then Hong Kong which is just basically a rock you know at the time before it was taken
over you know pre-197 basically a rock you know sitting um in hostile territory no natural resource um you know people
came from all over refugees which one's wealthy you know right and it's you know it's it's the rock it's like weird like not not that guy
the rock but the rock you know it's the airport's impossible you can't get in out of Hong Kong at the time um and so forth and it's hostile so so it's all
about human ingenuity. That's his book, Eat the Rich. But, you know, I if if Luigi wanted wanted to, you know, I
think he went to a decent school and so forth. He could have taken some some of the family cash and um and written his own version of a non-ironic Eat the
Rich. Um, you know, he could have done a revolutionary screed and become the new Karl Marx, whatever, you know, but but instead he he takes a a a gun and and
goes kill somebody, you know, without an argument. somebody has no, you know, I assume he did it because he he I mean, I assume he did it to that guy, somebody
he didn't know, so he could do the quoteunquote perfect crime, you know, like the um uh those those two boys in
the Hitchcock movie um uh god, what were they called? You know, who who engineer their their wealthy um you do you know
that movie um lo and lobe? You know those? Okay, you anyway. Leopold and Lobe were, you
know, an upper New York, I forget the east side or west side, wealthy kids.
They went to private school and had all the trapping so they devised do the perfect crime by killing somebody anonymous. So they could have plausible
deniability, no one ever, you know, traced to them. So there's a great movie um there's a play of it and I Hitchcock did the movie. Anyway, so there's kind
of this rich boy confabulation thing that Luigi, I think, had so that he could do somebody at a far remove. It's not he's not killing his girlfriend's
new boyfriend or, you know, anything like that. He's not killing somebody that he could be, you know, fingered for as it were. Um, so he picked somebody
random. He he disappeared and, you know, probably except for like, you know, good video cameras, the thing the flock, whatever that everyone, you know, is is
scared of, they probably wouldn't have caught him credit cards and things like that. So it's only by electronic means that they were able to trace him down.
So it's an interesting case in and of itself. But he didn't do any of those things. And we have live in an age where you know even a like you know I'm
just joking but you know semi literate uh you know guy with prehensel thumbs can can have a video like myself. And it's like why you know you know if I had
Luigi Manion's money I would be probably at least 50% more famous.
Yeah. Well, uh, to bring it back to Savannah, one of the things I learned was that when Savannah was founded, uh,
it was with the understanding that there were no lawyers allowed, no Catholics, and there were actually no slaves
allowed. Slavery at the beginning was not allowed there. And then I think I don't know if it was u, you guys could fact check me. I know it was Ogal Thorp
uh who uh who started it. But um I think when when he passed then they brought in uh slavery and all that you know just and just like a few things about
uh the you know what what Luigi did. Um there were a lot of people who of his
supporters who thought okay this is going to change things. And what did he change? you know what what
did he other other than you know taking uh you know taking the life of a of another human being? What has that
really really changed? And um something I write about in my piece is that you had a lot of politicians coming out and
doing kind of this same uh you know the same I don't know if it's even like a would be a mantra by
now of I don't agree with the murder but I understand but I understand and what I find so funny is that you
know so many of them uh were you know are responsible for [snorts] the very system that they are
upset about because you know these are I mean I I would actually go to first principles here like what's the the
baditude the badness the you know the horrible oity of of the healthare system I mean you know if I I I've actually
written fairly extensively on healthcareish things and this is a healthcareish um video podcast etc um
you know arguably we have too much healthare you know this I I there's an article of mine that I would love everybody maybe in power at least not
you know to read it's called um basically it's about mental health parity and you're you're accomplishing
power d with a d this is p r i t y um and uh it's it it was kind of a creature
of the probably the 80s and versions of the 90s it was institutionalized in the in the zeros um that made uh it
obligatory for health insurance companies to cover mental problems uh mental strain the same way it would
cover an ankle sprain. So and the difference between those two um is you know one is probably forensically and
pathologically observable. So if I have a splinter in my finger um you you know you can see it. It's it's a it's a thing. if I have a you know kind of
mental uh figurative splinter in in in um my mind you know I'm caught on something or whatever um it's it's less
configurable and less observable and so forth and it has made a boon for psychiatry. So we've seen a flowering in these last say three decades since this
concept came to be of what I call the four A's if I can let's see if I can get them right addiction autism anxiety and
ADHD all those things all the diagnosis thereof and I think this human race hasn't changed so dramatically in those
years but we've seen a lot more of that di those diagnosis and I would add a fifth more recently um a fifth a I it's basically the gender dysphoria thing
transing the kids and all that kind of stuff I put under a under autogophilia because that's an A. Um, so that's a little bit more obscure, but that's what
you know supposedly William Thomas aka Leah who only cut off a few letters of his first name, the W I LM left the Leah part out of William.
Um, but anyway, that's the auto guy.
Apparently, he had an autogophilia where you get sexually excited by transposing yourself and um
you're you're aroused by the woman inside you. that I think that's yeah yeah that's like one of those Mariuska dolls you know you're the woman inside
the man inside the woman anyway now there's a woman outside that man inside the woman so you know all that stuff happened you
know and arguably you know we we've spent a lot of money if you if you proportion it out for the whole US I think these days we're spending uh an
extra in real dollars an extra three to four $5,000 per person because of this mental health health parity thing. So,
you know, you could argue and is is the US or the populace better off for having it. Um, I I don't think so. I think, you know, I don't want to like leave things
uncovered per se. I mean, I I would like if you have a potential pancreatic or breast cancer, whatever, prostate, you know, all those things to to hunt for
them at the appropriate times and places and find them, root them out, so forth.
But but I think we've gone um I know you were talking about Savannah and I I was thinking of Salem, but I don't want to go on a witch hunt here um you know to
to you know lamb based any particular illness but you know the ones that we can forensically and pathologically find are probably ones we should deal with
first and this guy um Thompson you know who was killed I mean the insurance companies are not standing in the way of that kind of stuff. They they can get
sued also. Um, there's a lot of times, you know, I've been on kind of the other end of this where I want to get prior authorization for things. It's not, you
know, that much different. You know, there's a kids game, mother, you know, may I stupidest game ever. You know, you're in the line, you know, may I ever
did this one. You take a step, mother, may I or whatever. And or like Simon says, Simon, do the Anyway, they are, you know, acting and reacting to a
marketplace that has a demand. You know, I think I again I don't want to monopolize too much, but you know, I think Randy, can I can I can I pause you just can I just go to the bathroom?
Yeah, absolutely. Okay. Okay. Whoever's editing this.
Yeah, we'll delete all that. Don't worry about it. Okay. I'll be right back. Sorry.
So, the thing is I, you know, I've come up with this term. I don't know if other people have, but but I think medicine is a parental model for better or for worse. I don't think it should be
necessarily. Um, but you know, you have kids. I, my kids are men. Um, but you know, they they might want, let's say
they're 15 or 17 or something like that, and they want to take the car, uh, they want to go to a party, they want to do this or that, they want to go to a club,
you know, they ask you, and since they live in your house, uh, you have some aspect of of, you know, being responsible for them and so forth and saying yes or no, this is appropriate.
Uh, you can do this, but caveat. I think medicine is like that. It's unlike a lot of other consumer uh, areas. uh you want
to buy shoes or you want to buy a shirt, whatever. You go do what you want. You might have to consult with your wife or whatever, but or your your checkbook and
you might not be able to buy a Ferrari today, but anyway, you wind up accommodating things that you want because that fills your need. When you go to the doctor, you might think, "Oh,
I would like to get PSA. I'd like to check my prostate. Oh, no, you're too young for that. Oh, no, you already did it last year. No, we're not going to do
medicine doesn't think that's a good test anymore because it's too much false posit whatever." And so, it's a parental thing. you asked for the car keys and
the guy said or gal said no you can't have this now this is what we should do so they had become the parent and so uh it's different from other consumer
models and I think people might get frustrated by that but the converse is you know I think nowadays people can get more kind of outside information through the LLMs and you know claude and chatbt
when I come more informed but you know there is this kind of gatekeeping thing because they're not paying directly they have this thing with insurance it's unlike other stuff that you go out and
buy directly so I personally would like it you know be hide high deductible thing. So you have some pain point and you can go buy those things. You you know you Lou Perez at you know
relatively young age say you know I my you know relative had had prostate thing I would still like Frank Zappa I would still like to get a PSA. Okay fine Lou
it's 85 bucks. Uh you buy it and then you're good to go and then you say well it's kind of you know we don't think you should you know I want to get the test
anyway. I want to get an ultrasound whatever you go buy it. You go do it like anything else. You can go detail your car to your heart's content. I don't care how nice your car is, how how often you wash it or whether you don't.
You know, those things are all several.
They're all separatable and and we don't have that, you know, in healthcare. We wind up, especially in in the places where there's national health insurance
abroad, everybody's in the same pool together. So, when if somebody gets something, it's a zero sum game. You're potentially taking for somebody else.
So, the the answer is always, you know, going to be leaning towards no, you don't do that. Anyway, that's my screed. Sorry about it.
No, I I think No, I think that's super important. I mean like I had like I I brought up with the the politicians, it's like you know they are responsible
for whatever the policies are and whatever you know this this system is that they also have a problem with right but you know you're bringing up a really
good point because it's sort of like uh it seems like we can't even agree on what what constitutes health care
because when I a number of the things that that you uh you know that you mentioned like for example um I see a a therapist, I pay
out of pocket and I see him like once uh like once a month. There was a time when, you know, years back when I was seeing him more more regularly. I pay
out of out of pocket. Uh in my opinion, I don't think that I I don't think that
insurance should be covering should be covering that. And in large part because of what's been happening over the past
what 20 years or so when it comes to psychiatry where you have you know psych you know psychologists looking to you
know uh you know decolonize psychiatry and you know anti-w you know at
westerniz psychology and all this and and it's like wait a minute uh I don't want any I don't I wouldn't I wouldn't
pay for that in any way um possible. I definitely don't want my monthly payments you know uh you know going you know going that going that route. Um so
I think I think that is really important and then also like something that I've been you know maybe I'll write about it at some point but I'm just sort of
waiting for the Luigi of the Luigi for like fraudsters. You know
you just look at all this medical fraud that that happens. how many people just stealing millions and millions of dollars from um you know from the
system. It's like that plays a very big role in in uh in what's happening in the
in the medical industry. And yet you know no one seems to bat a no one seems to bat an eye. It seems like, you know,
I do wonder like what, you know, what system the, you know, the mansionistas want to see because do they do they
really want to see a do they really think that it's going to be a system where whatever you want to get, you get and
for whatever amount of money uh needs to be paid. So, for example, if you were my if you were my my uh my
doctor and I'm like, "You know what? I I every month I want my uh you know, I want my rectal exam." And you're like,
"Great. I'm more than happy to do that for you. Uh we're going to do it's going to be five grand every single time, you know, Dr. Bach uh sticks his finger in
my ass, right?" I mean is the idea then that every month you're going to just bill that and under a under this uh you
know universalized system that that needs to be paid. I I mean what there's got there there are times when people
are going to say no I'm not we're not paying that.
Oh it's a massive amount of fraud. I I I went to a a lecture.
It's required basically. You don't have to do it every day, but every couple years you have to renew your uh license
in in almost every I assume every state and Massachusetts to renew renew a medical license. every now and then you have to have this course uh in various
things they come up with and the latest one there have a few latest ones um but pertinent here is this the medications
for opiate use disorder um drug addiction narcotic addiction basically so it's methadone um and suboxone that
buprenorphine and so forth um and every doctor and they basically the the message the take-home message from this lecture is an hour and a half or so is
that you Joe primary care doctor you also should be writing buprenorphine um for anybody with narcotic issues. And
this is a kind of a forever thing. It's on the methodone model. They don't really talk about tapering. They don't talk about um you know getting people off either of these things. And this is
basically the essence of my book uh soon to be published. Uh the current title is four months to freedom escaping opiate
addiction and maintenance. Um and but but the uh what is the point here? Uh
the funny thing for me is uh you know that this is kind of statemandated. It's probably again leaning towards overcare.
Um it's not something that you get to uh look under the hood necessarily as yourself who might want to get away from
these things. This is kind of a place in part where the the board is enforcing the board pays for this course. They're paying the lectures and whatnot. they
they instituted this mandate for you to learn it and they're pushing this towards kind of an overcare and it's exact the opposite. It's not, you know,
personal choice. It's not um you know if in in fact one thing that really irritates me and I I saw this over and over again um as a physician for about a
decade well eight years or so I was treating in my office with suboxone a narcotic addiction um and but so many people told me from their other places
um that every time they asked to taper down so they could get away from methadone or away from suboxone
treatment that they were told that is drug seeeking that means you want to go back to that life where you're doing drugs because you want to get your your tolerance to these narcotics down lower
so you could take them and get a better hit and a better high because you're virgin. You're basically naive again to the medication.
So that but but you know it's a very self- serving thing. It's a money thing because you know I mean we don't do this with vodka. You know if you if you have
a whiskey problem we don't give you maintenance vodka. And the I think the reason very clearly is that we doctors don't have a right to prescribe. We
don't have the sole right to do it. So, I think a lot of this kind of impinges on marketplace concepts.
Yeah. No, I I I I find it super interesting. I mean, now I'm I I'm I kind of want to look at at my insurance
and see all the things that it covers that I don't want it to cover. Um, you know, I mean, I mean, this might sound
this might sound cruel, but even something like like IVF, I mean, it might be that uh my my wife and I, we
didn't have we didn't have issues getting getting pregnant, thankfully.
But the idea that like if I had a choice, why would I want to cover something that I don't need and that I would never I would never be
using? I think the same thing goes with uh you know, what is it? the um uh it used to be sex changes and now it's
what? Gender affirming uh gender affirming care. I don't want to cover your I want you to know I I actually affirm your gender.
Thank you. Thank you. I I always feel you always make me feel like a like a man and I I really I think the beard was kind of a
giveaway, but of course the term a beard is means something completely different some. Yeah. Yeah. I I interrupted you. I apologize.
Yeah. No, I I mean I just um like I don't I look I don't want to put money into I think those things are elective. I
think they're clearly elective concepts, you know, and and this, you know, you you will run out of money, you know, if you keep expanding the thing to cover
everything, you know, you just can't possibly do it all. And I I think you're absolutely right about the fraud part. Um, I guess one thing I was thinking about with this
drug treatment thing is that when I was doing the narcotic deiction, getting people off narcotics, uh, when when I wanted to when I thought it was propitious, I would do a drug screen.
And I had a very basic kind of a dipstick thing, it was just basically a qualitative test. Um, so it was a yes, no kind of thing. Oh yes, you're showing
for cocaine, you're showing for, you know, opiates, whatever. But almost every other place would send out a quantitative one which would give gave you the exact levels of everything.
Totally pointless. But but it would gain them a lot more cash. So my test I would bill like I don't know $15 more. I got like six or eight dollars for the test.
You always bill more. It's a whole another story. This crazy kind of billing thing. Um because you have to kind of It's like uh Robert Browning uh
the poet man's reach must exceed his grasp. Else what's a heaven for? But that's what you have to do with your billing. You always have to set your billing number up so that the
insuranceances can knock you down a little bit and give you some other amount. So, you're always kind of it's it's a weird thing. Anyway, well, it's always a it's a it's always a negotiation tactic, too.
But, but the thing is you have to do that even if you are willing to just right from the get-go charge the seven $6 because if you charge $6, then it's
like Zeno's paradox that if you charge $6, they give you three. So, you have to charge like the 12 to get the six. It's just kind of a funny thing. It's like uh
Through the Looking Glass, Alice in Wonderland kind of stuff. Anyway, but but almost every other place and I would get medical records from other um people when they when they came in, my
patients, I'd see the other but they're doing these quantitative drug screens and they're charging like $150 per time
and there's no point to it because really the question is are you you you've been on my suboxin program and you're are you doing other drugs? Are
you doing cocaine? Are you you know living the the life we are talking about? are you valid? And so I do it as a validation test and so forth of how
they're thinking and doing, but they're doing it. That's the only purpose for it. It wouldn't be like, oh, you you were doing cocaine. How much cocaine
were you doing? How much, you know, did you do it a lot? Did you do five blows?
I mean, who cares? I mean, the thing is, are you sober or you not sober? You following the program or not? But they would do this. And it was just kind of one example where when it's self-
serving, you do that stuff. I mean, humans are like that. It's like go to a buffet, you know, you're going to where are you going to eat more at a buffet or a countertop, you know, where you you're
paying, you know, per item. It's just kind of obvious human thing. And we have this kind of black box aspect where we
just let the inmates uh control the asylum. It's like the the doctors are deciding all this stuff because they're doctors. And I get it. I'm a doctor and
I I know certain things, but on an economic basis, we're all economic animals. We follow incentives. And if they're perverse, um, you know, they are. That's that.
Yeah. Yeah. And I I and I also find it uh funny too uh where you know people
will will talk about you know uh people how important it is to be to be insured and and and and yes I you know I I agree
it's important but people will act as if just having insurance is all you need
and it's like no you know what having a heart attack at 45 or 50 is is a really
bad idea whether you have insurance or not. You know, uh getting, you know, uh
you know, getting cancer is that sucks whether or not you have insurance or not. And so whatever you can do to, you
know, make yourself healthier, you should do. I guess in a way it's sort of like um you know, live your life like you don't have insurance. Oh, absolutely.
You know, uh and because it's it was funny. I don't know if it was like a I forget which podcast it was, but it was like a I think it was like a couple of
comedians talking about, you know, health care and stuff and and you look at them and and they're both very, you know, very wealthy. Uh but they're also
incredibly out of shape and it's like maybe you guys should just stop talking about health care considering you're so out of shape. and the fact that, you
know, there are millions of people like you who don't have your bank account who are really messing it up for for all the other people who are trying to, you
know, live, you know, live healthy lives.
Yeah. Well, the insurance part's interesting. You know, I don't know if you follow basketball, but there's a guy LaMelo Ball and he's one of the Ball
brothers with the Lavar being the the dad who, you know, his his dream came true. They couple of them made the NBA
and LaMelo, I guess, is the biggest star of the three. Uh he apparently I mean he buys you know $500,000 cars and I I
think he's crashed a bunch of them in a row. Uh he just gets he like leaves the stadium. He like, you know, he drives 85
miles an hour on on just a regular city street and then and he gets there's a video not too long ago he just you know comes out and just immediately crashes
and he's had a whole bunch of crashes but you know he gets out of the car and I assume whatever you know and he's young and he he plays basketball that
way very kind of free and I guess carefree care less I don't know both.
Um, but you know, I don't really weep for his I mean, it's kind of sad to see the metal get destroyed and whatnot, but
you know, he ensures that thing or he's going to pay for it out of pocket. I assume he's going to pay out of pocket, but he can afford it, whatever. Doesn't really, you know, float my boat either
direction or sink it. Um, but, you know, the insurance concept otherwise, you know, becomes this um, you know, like a
bit of a zero sum game. And and if you're going to be in that same boat or car uh with proflegate people, you want
some control because there are going to be people who are using and misusing the system. And as we keep getting more diagnosis, you know, the these things
are going to get expensive like this, you know, regendering people is a hugely expensive thing. That's a lifetime uh syndicure for the physician. You know,
you cut off a a few gonads one type or another and then you got a patient for life. I mean, it's even better than the methadone model, you know? It's like they're good. They're not good to go.
They're good to stay. You got them for a while.
I would start doing a lot I would start doing a lot of cocaine if I lost my gonut. I just I know they're not they're not related, but I I think I would I
would have to find some way to make up for no longer having Well, then you could you could be, you know, you'd be a great medical medical well consumer of a sort, but it's a
you'd be a consumer by proxy. And that's the funny thing. I mean, LaMelo Ball will buy a new car. So he'll buy the new car out of his own pocket. But if you do
this stuff medically, if you're medically profitable, again, mind you, there are loads of people who are and oftentimes on the state dime. So again,
during my, you know, treatment phase, you know, there I had people coming in not for just the addiction, but to look,
you know, drug hunting before I started the Suboxone thing in the 2000s. Um, and they just they have this thing, we call
it polyfarm pharmacy or um poly doctoring, I guess. They they go because they have what we call mass healthier
form of welfare um you know for their for their medical coverage they pay zero and they're indigent and they're getting
this stuff you know free health insurance they they monetize it they go to doctor do you know they go to many doctors maybe three or four you know
eight a week or whatever and they get a prescription for percoet or something like that and they sell that stuff take it or whatever and they don't pay for anything they they go in they say they
have back pain so forth there's a lot of as you caught fraud but it's not just fraud on the doctor's part is fraud on the patient part because we give them a
free leash or license to get as many things they want. It's kind of like a you know those sprees you know if you watch the game shows you give you like 20 minutes at the shopping center or
whatever to buy whatever you put everything in the cart and so if you have this free you know card for free health care you might you know it's it's
not impossible to imagine you might misuse it.
Yeah. Yeah. And what what do you think of Did you watch the um clips from uh socialism 2026 that uh that conference
in uh in Chicago? Um so basically I mean it's it's every every clip that I saw it
just seemed like it was uh you know just like self-parody. It was incredible.
There was one where uh this really fat black guy was fat
Kami was talking about how um like GLP1s are uh responsible basically for genocide of or genociding fat people.
Right. So the idea is uh Oh, I see. Fat people as obese people as a class.
Yeah. Yeah. So like uh wanting to be healthy, right, is sort of antisocialist.
Um so there was like one panel talking about the need for what they call it uh disgenic uh just um instead of eugenics,
disgenic uh disgenics. I think that's that's what it is where it's like no like be sick, be degenerative,
uh be unhealthy like that's part of the re that's the cloud that's the cloud pivot uh cloud pivot I don't know
they're socialist economist their concept is you you take down the man by overwhelming the system so a lot of the
stuff is if the health care you know if you can get more things from it it's kind of what Abby Hoffman back in you know he he had a book steal this book.
Mhm.
Uh I I imagine he sold mostly sold it and he made money off it, you know, but inside I I read it as a youngster,
teenager. Um and he was, you know, if people don't know, he was in the, you know, hippie movement, which was the radical part of the hippies. The hippies
were pretty radical themselves. Um and so he was a communist revolutionary and so forth. And his idea was you you whenever you get one of these things
that postage prepaid. There were a lot more of those things back in the day.
You get something, you know, and it's a letter. He said he would take the that that thing uh the envelope and he would
glue it onto a brick. Um and because that would overwhelm the postal system that they would have to because it says
posters prepaid, the the the mail carriers would have to carry bricks around. And not only that, but the companies, the big corporate baddies,
would have to pay the post office for the weight of the brick being mailed to them as opposed to an envelope. So, it was postage prepaid. It doesn't say about what. So, you just stick it on
bricks and so forth. And there's all this kind of, you know, it's almost like a disgenic thing where you're going to overload, you know, overwhelm and overload the system. Along the same
lines of the fat thing, um there's I don't have no pun intended, I haven't heard much about it lately, but there's this kind of deaf culture concept where
if you can have culture implants, uh you shouldn't because the deaf is a language and the language will will become a dead
language. Nobody will be speaking, you know, ASL, whatever. Uh not no pun intended, no speaking it. But but that's part of who they are. They're deaf and so you can't take that away, etc., etc.
Yeah. Yeah. And and uh yeah, just such weird weird times where, you know,
there's been all this kind of applause for people and their illnesses whether
they're real or not. um this you know kind of culture when you talk about like mental health you know people get
getting together in forums and stuff and uh you know talking about how how I guess special they are because they have
ADHD and all this other stuff or the amount of people who are claiming to be somewhere on the spectrum who really
aren't. It's just that's they don't have any other gig in town. So maybe they could be a little autistic to get something going. And you know, it's just
I I don't know what you know, how do you have a a functional system of health when being unhealthy is
put is put on a pedestal. You know, I I just, you know, it's on it's like the Darwin Award thing. I mean, if that's the thing
you follow, well, good luck. you know, it's like no, I mean, frankly, lemmings were never as stupid as they were portrayed um, you know, in National
Geographic, whatever it was. I mean, that that the original concept that lemmings are jumping off a cliff and suiciding themselves on Moss, you know,
if if you are so extreme that you want to keep your, you know, massive obesity as a identification thing, well, fine, but that's not going to last that long
for you and you're probably not going to propagate, etc. So there is kind of the you know the Darwinian urge um and you
know like almost you know flowers plants bugs um mammals I mean mollisk whatever
the biggest urge fish is to reproduce I mean there's eating there's protection self-p protection then there's reproduction so there's production and
reproduction and you know if you go by the wayside and you just decide you want to be you know you know with the
movement, uh, you know, some kind of obese identification thing in 500 pounds. Well, good luck to you. You know, you're it's going to have its own consequence. So, people are going to
have to figure that stuff out. I hope you know, for the most part, I think they're going to be smart enough to do that. And it's not going to be a a long-term movement. Um, so what's what's
what's your biggest kind of self harm downward spiral, Lou?
My my biggest self harm downward spiral uh what's it what's it been? Um, I I
just need to get back to uh working out more. Um, [clears throat] Oh, was that a bird? Was that a crow? Was that a crow?
I have some birds outside here. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. My thing I I uh I just need to I need to work out more. Um, and I think that that's the big thing. I
I track my uh I track my my calorie intake and protein and my macros and stuff daily. Um, except when I'm away.
When I'm in Savannah, doesn't count. I'm on track. What happens to Savannah stays?
Yeah. I I I uh Oh, yeah. I ate like a pig and you drank like a my version of a
fish. I don't drink that much. Uh but we had a we had a great time. Yeah. I think I think that's a big thing. Just uh yeah, get getting back to uh to
exercising more like I was doing, you know, some some month back.
So, we have a few minutes left. Um, I' I'd like to hear social commentary or so our social comedianarian.
Um, you are a libertarian, too. So, you could be a social comedian, liberty, whatever. Libert.
Yeah. I mean, I wonder sometimes I I wonder with the libertarian thing. I think I there are some libertarians who I get along with really well and at some
point I'm like, are we li libertarians anymore? Because it doesn't seem like we agree with Well, that's an interesting question. A lot of our our brothers and sisters.
Yeah. I mean, I I have some kind of I've got one very libertarian a few actually very libertarian friends. Um, one of
them has his bumper sticker on his car is war is never the answer. Um, so he's getting on in age and he's not as sharp
as he used to be. He's in his 70s and uh when I see him on uh we he plays tennis and so I see him I say um what's what's raw backwards?
He says war. I said, "War is never the answer." Um,
[clears throat]
nailed them.
And I I try to I try to get war into a sentence. You know, what was that what was that the what was that thing called?
The you know the thing that uh Hitler started in Europe or whatever. It's like oh that was World War II. Like war is
never the answer. Anyway, uh yeah. So, we may not I I have libertarian uh I I
like Peter Oorc who's a libertarian, but I I'm not a libertarian myself. Um but speaking as a comedian, libertarian
commentator, uh and just in our last couple minutes here, um Lindseay Clancy, give us your your verdict.
Oh, she's wonderful. She's just so incredible. What a woman. Um,
I mean there's um I I I fortunately didn't follow the case uh closely. Um I
you know I would get information I think like a lot of people in drips and and drabs and um I am incapable of looking
beyond the horror uh the evil that that the evil acts that she committed. Um,
it's very hard for me like I don't I I I would have to recuse myself I think from that from that jury. Um, uh, jury jury
nullification is a big thing in the libertarian community. Um, I I I I would probably have to be an honest person
just say I I don't think I'd be able to um, you know, to to to not be biased when I when it came to this. I think
what what's what's uh interested me more than the case itself is just the
response to the case in particular all of the the ladies in pink and who are coming to uh Lindsey Clancy's uh defense
and now we're seeing interviews with members of the jury and what they're revealing about what was going on in
their minds and their hearts and uh I I I put it I posted the other day.
I'm like I'm like, man, I think Lindsay Clancy might be creeped out by some of her fans. [laughter] You know, even she might be like, "Man,
these are crazy." Um I I don't know what to I I don't know what to make
out make of it as a as a social uh I don't know. Is this a social contagion?
But we're now seeing more examples of of mothers murdering their children uh and claiming psychosis.
Um yeah, I mean, I'm sure you will.
Massachusetts, unfortunately, is a state that has the insanity plea upside down.
So, wherein most places you have to prove you're insane, you were insane.
Massachusetts, the state, it's incumbent upon them to prove that the um defendant wasn't insane, which is insane. I mean
that that's insane that whoever came up with that statute should be prosecuted but then get off because he was insane, right?
So, uh, where can people find you, Lou? And why should they?
Why should they? Um, find me because I'm lost and I need your help getting home.
Uh, yeah, you can check out my website.com.
Lou Perez on all social media. And, um, I I also host a a podcast that Ry's been on. uh a number of times uh the L Perez
podcast and uh I have a Substack so if anybody out there wants to support uh you can uh join my uh Substack for a few bucks a month.
Well, that's a bargain. Um thank you so much Lou for being with us and uh uh recuperate from your trip and uh happy anniversary.
Thank you.