Will We Find Real Meaning in Life – or Just Waste Time on Arguing?

October 17, 2017

WRITER

Are you struggling to live through today, or do you know someone who’s struggling?

On Monday’s show, Glenn talked about a friend whose young daughter tried to commit suicide and wondered how we can help people who have no meaning in their lives.

“We are looking at a generation and people that are searching for meaning,” he said of young Americans.

Glenn asked some sobering questions about how we invest our time. How much do you spend on what matters most to you, and how much do you spend on things that are ultimately meaningless? Are you pursuing difficult things that matter, or settling for easy distractions instead?

“Think of the things that truly have meaning in your life,” Glenn said. “Did they come to you easily?”

This article provided courtesy of TheBlaze.

GLENN: I was at church yesterday. And a friend came up.

I said, how was your week?

She said, not good. My daughter tried to commit suicide on Friday.

I don't know about your church. But mine is facing several in that net, that web.

We are -- we are looking at a generation and people that are searching for meaning.

I want you to listen carefully, if you're one of these people. Because I consider myself one of these people.

What really has meaning? What truly has meaning in your life?

And how much of your day is spent on that? And how much of your day is spent on stuff that is really meaningless?

How much of our day is spent on arguing or -- I mean, I think it's almost like we're -- we're addicted to anger.

We're addicted to the fight on something, because it gives us meaning. It gives us purpose, it gives us something to fight for. Because we don't know what's real.

We don't know really what's happening to us. And what we're doing -- at the same time we're fighting for these things and we're struggling in our own self to find meaning, if we're lucky enough, we're old enough to have had some meaning in our life, have had something real in our life.

Maybe we don't have it anymore, but we did at one point. And so we know it's possible.

I think our youth, they don't even know it's possible. They don't know that anything has any value.

And this comes from never having to fight for somebody, never having to fight for something. Never -- never losing something. Never losing a game. Never coming in last. Never made to feel uncomfortable.

Think of the things that truly have meaning in your life.

Did they come to you easily?

Think of the things that truly have meaning in your life. Were they cheap?

We are living in a -- you know that -- right before you get to the cashier, what do you call it? Place where it's just all the candy.

That's -- I feel like that's what life is to Americans right now. Oh, you know what, I want that.

Yeah, I'm just going to throw that in there too. Without all the shopping, without having to make the list, without having to pull it in the car or anything else. It's just, it's right there. I want it. I'm going to grab it.

And if I can't pay for it, don't worry. I've got a card for everything.

Have you ever bought anything in the checkout counter, in the checkout line that had meaning?

That you, in the end, cherished, that you wanted to pass on?

Nothing. This is happening to us because we're trying to make life comfortable. And there is no meaning in -- in all comfort.

Life is uncomfortable. Life requires endurance. Endurance implies, there's tough times. And we're trying to take those things away from everyone. And it's what's making our life meaningless.

You know, in America, we think that we can protest and ban and tear down and rip up and legislate our way out of anything bad or anything uncomfortable.

We're going to find a way. Biloxi School District just banned the book To Kill a Mockingbird.

Now, they've just banned that from the eighth grade curriculum. The students were in the middle of studying it. And the school board vice president said there were parents that were complaining about it because there's language in this book that makes people uncomfortable.

We can teach them the same lesson in another way, that's not uncomfortable.

Wait. What?

Thomas the Tank? Is that -- I mean, is that -- hey, here's Thomas. He's going to talk about racism. He's going to talk about lynching.

It should make you uncomfortable.

Life is really pretty easy. People are complex. We should understand that the world is very complex because there are billions of people in it.

Racial injustice in the early 20th century America should make you uncomfortable.

How is that not a good way to tell your children -- do you know -- have you ever read Grimm Fairy Tales? Have you ever read the actual fairytales?

They're not happy.

Hansel and Gretel don't make it out of the house. I mean -- and why were they written that way? To teach children that life is brutal, unless you pay attention.

I don't know what you're going to do in Biloxi. If you're in that area, call the school district, but in a respectful manner. Suggest that they stop cowering to the tyranny and have some common sense. Teach our children that life is uncomfortable.

The uncomfortability of struggle is what gives your life meaning. Ask anyone. Ask anyone.

Their fondest memories most likely, when they just got married and they were struggling to make it. Why? Because they learned so much. We're getting tired, but we're tired because we're fighting and it doesn't seem like anything has any meaning.

We're fighting -- look how hard we have fought since September 11th, for our country. And all the people that we put our faith in, it doesn't look like they actually meant it.

So you're tired, because you feel like you didn't do anything of meaning. But you did. You're just not seeing it. You're not seeing it. You changed the lives of your children. There's nothing more important than that.

I'd like to point out that, you know, studying To Kill a Mockingbird promotes the exact kind of virtues and conversation that we're in desperate need of today.

Also, School District in Biloxi, you might also know that generations of Americans have studied To Kill a Mockingbird. And somehow or another, we have all managed to survive our uncomfortableness.

There is this movement in America, into one giant pansy pillow line safe space. There's no such thing as a safe space!

I was teaching in church a couple of months ago. And I asked -- I was teaching actually during the week. I was teaching the young adults the 16, 17, 18-year-olds.

Said, tell me what sanctuary means. Why did people -- you saw Hunchback of Notre Dame, the Disney cartoon. Why was Esmeralda always screaming, sanctuary, sanctuary? Because the church was a safe space. Wait a minute. Safe space. Was it a safe space?

Is church supposed to be a safe space? No!

Church should be a predictable place. But church should be the place where you come -- it's a hospital, man.

It's where you come and you're struggling. And somebody will tell you the truth. Not make you feel better.

But tell you the truth. And here's the truth: It's really not that hard.

It's really simple. You follow just a few simple rules. And you work hard. And you question with boldness.

And you don't accept excuses from yourself. And you stop looking for safe spaces.

We would have never gone to the moon because the moon is not a safe space. We would have never, ever gone into space, because it's chilly, I hear.

We would have never, ever come to America -- I know half the country seemingly would be happy about that. But look at the blessings of America.

We would never explore the highest mountains. We would most likely never get married or have children. Because think of the heartache that you have endured because you fell in love.

Think of the heartache you endured because you had a child. Would you change that for anything?

That heartache is -- those are stripes I am proud to wear. Because those children gave my life meaning.

Glenn: Pay attention to what the State Department's RADICAL reset is signaling

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For years, the U.S. State Department operated on inertia—an institution locked into a cycle of caution, consensus, and risk aversion.

Speeches were careful, strategies were diluted by committees, and action was often defined by what couldn’t be done. The language was always the same: "nuance," "complexity," "stakeholders." Rarely was it about results.

That has changed.

What’s come out of the State Department in the last hundred days is a complete departure—not just in tone, but in structure.

Under Secretary Rubio, the department isn’t just adjusting tactics. It’s undergoing a philosophical reset.

The most telling shift is this: the department is no longer preoccupied with managing decline or defending abstractions. It’s operating from the premise that U.S. foreign policy must serve actual national interests, not vague global norms or ideological missions.

Look at the key decisions. The Global Engagement Center—an office that claimed to combat disinformation but increasingly acted as an internal censorship tool—is gone. Not repurposed. Not renamed. Eliminated. Aid programs that masked themselves as diplomacy while undermining core U.S. positions have been cut. Contracts to NGOs with open hostility toward U.S. policy goals? Revoked.

This isn’t cosmetic. It’s structural.

The department’s reorganization is consolidating power downward—removing bureaucratic silos, emphasizing merit over ideology, and restoring clarity to diplomatic goals. This isn’t about optics. It’s about removing friction between strategy and implementation. On immigration and border enforcement, there’s now a foreign policy posture that treats visa privileges as exactly that—privileges, not entitlements. Visa holders who break laws or support terrorist groups lose their status. Period. No press conference required. Just enforcement.

Regional partnerships are now framed by expectations, not entanglements.

Countries that allow mass illegal migration into the U.S. are being held accountable. Agreements are being structured around reciprocity. When those agreements are ignored, consequences follow. China’s influence in the Western Hemisphere, long treated as inevitable, has been directly challenged. Beijing’s role in Panama, particularly regarding the canal, has been dismantled through diplomacy backed by leverage, not lectures. That wasn’t done through press statements—it required statecraft, pressure, and the willingness to say no.

In Europe, there’s been a reframing of NATO obligations. Not as symbolic unity, but as measurable responsibility. The benchmark is no longer two percent. The conversation is now five. That changes the nature of the alliance. In Africa, the posture is shifting from dependency to commercial engagement. Trade, not aid. Access, not assistance. Diplomacy with terms, not with guilt.

The contrast is stark.

This isn’t a matter of tone or branding. This is a systemic shift away from a model that rewarded process over outcomes, toward one that is rediscovering the purpose of diplomacy: to secure advantage, resolve conflict, and protect national interests.

This recalibration will not be popular in foreign capitals used to ambiguity, or in institutions comfortable with drift. It’s also not universally admirable. It’s direct. It’s unambiguous. And it signals something rare in modern American foreign policy: conviction.

That alone is worth paying attention to.

Glenn: Why Memorial Day is not just another holiday

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They wore the uniform so you could live free. This holiday, ask yourself if you're living in a way that honors that sacrifice — or cheapens it.

Your son has been a Marine for what feels like an eternity. Only those who have watched their children deploy into war zones can truly understand why time seems to freeze in worry. What begins as concern turns to panic, then helplessness. You live suspended in a silent winter, where days blur and dread becomes your constant companion.

Then, in an instant, it happens. What you don’t know yet is that your child — your most precious gift — fell in combat 60 seconds ago.

This is a day for sacred remembrance, for honoring those who laid down their lives.

While you go about your day, unaware, military protocol kicks into motion. Notification must happen within eight hours. Officers are dispatched. A chaplain joins them. A medic may accompany them in case the grief is too much to bear.

Three figures arrive at your door. One asks your name. Then, by protocol, they ask to enter your home. You already know what’s coming. You sit down. He looks you in the eye and says:

The commandant of the Marine Corps has entrusted me to express his deep regret that your son John was killed in action on Friday, March 28. The commandant and the United States Marine Corps extend their deepest sympathy to you and your family in your loss.

This moment has played out thousands of times across American soil. In 2003 alone — just two years after 9/11 — 312 families endured it. In 2007, 847 American service members died in combat. In 2008, 352. In 2009, 346. The list goes on. And with every name, a family became a Gold Star family.

Honor the fallen

For most Americans, Memorial Day means backyard barbecues, family gatherings, maybe a trip to the lake or a sweet Airbnb. There’s nothing wrong with enjoying these things. But we must never forget why we can.

Ask any veteran who lived when others did not, and you’ll understand: Memorial Day is not just another holiday. It is a solemn day set apart for reverence.

So this weekend, reach out to a Gold Star family. Acknowledge their pain. Ask about their son or daughter. Let them know they’re not alone.

This is a day for sacred remembrance, for honoring those who laid down their lives — not for accolades but for love of country and the preservation of liberty. “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13).

They died for the Constitution, for our shared American ideals, and the worst thing we could do now would be to betray those ideals in a spirit of rage or division.

We cannot dishonor their sacrifice by abandoning the very principles they died to protect — equal justice, the rule of law, the enduring promise of liberty.

This Memorial Day, let us remember the fallen. Let us honor their families. Let us recommit ourselves to the cause they gave everything for: the American way of life.

They are the best of us.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Trump exposes Left’s habeas corpus hijack in border crisis

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Democrats accused the president of declaring war on civil rights. In reality, he’s defending habeas corpus while they drown it in delays and legal loopholes.

Tuesday’s congressional testimony from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem turned heads for all the wrong reasons. Pressed to define “habeas corpus,” she stumbled. And while I respect Noem, this moment revealed just how dangerously misunderstood one of our most vital legal protections has become — especially as it’s weaponized in the immigration debate.

Habeas corpus is not a loophole. It’s a shield. It’s the constitutional protection that prevents a government from detaining a person — any person — without first justifying the detention before a neutral judge. It doesn’t guarantee freedom. It demands due process. Prove it or release them.

Bureaucratic inertia, activist judges, and political cowardice have turned due process into a slow-motion invasion. And the left knows it.

And yet, this doctrine — so essential to our liberty — is now being twisted by the political left into something it was never meant to be: a free pass for illegal immigration.

The left wants to frame this as a matter of compassion and rights. Leftists ask: “What about habeas corpus for migrants?” The implication is clear: They see any attempt to enforce immigration law as an attack on civil liberties.

But that’s a lie. Habeas corpus is not an excuse for indefinite presence. It doesn’t guarantee that every person who crosses the border gets to stay. It simply requires that we follow a process — a just process.

And that’s exactly what President Donald Trump has proposed.

Habeas corpus, rightly understood

Habeas corpus is the front door to the courtroom. It simply requires the government to justify why someone is being held or detained. It’s not about citizenship. It’s about human dignity.

America’s founders knew this — and that’s why they extended the right to persons, not just citizens. Habeas corpus isn’t a pass to stay in America forever — it’s a demand for legal clarity: “Why are you holding me?” That’s it.

If the government has a lawful reason — such as illegal entry — then deportation is a legitimate outcome. And yet, the left treats any enforcement of immigration law as a betrayal of American ideals.

The danger today isn’t that habeas corpus is being ignored; it’s that it’s being hijacked. The system is being overwhelmed with bad-faith cases, endless appeals, and delays that stretch for years. Right now, the immigration courts are buried under 3.3 million pending cases. The average wait time to have your case heard is four years. In some places, people are being scheduled for court dates as far out in 2032. Where is the justice in that?

This is not compassion. This is national sabotage.

Weaponizing due process

The left uses this legal bottleneck as a weapon, not a shield. Democrats invoke due process as if it requires the government to play a never-ending shell game with public safety. But that’s not what due process means. Due process means the state must play by the rules. It means a judge hears a case. It means the law is applied justly and equally. It does not mean an open border by procedural default.

So no, Trump is not proposing the end of habeas corpus. He’s calling out a broken system and saying, out loud, what millions of Americans already know: If we don’t fix this, we don’t have a country.

This crisis wasn’t an accident — it was engineered. It’s a Cloward-Piven playbook, designed to overwhelm the system. Bureaucratic inertia, activist judges, and political cowardice have turned due process into a slow-motion invasion. And the left knows it.

Abandon the Constitution?

Remember, the Constitution is not a suicide pact. But how do we balance the Constitution and our national survival without descending into authoritarianism? Abandon the Constitution? No. Burn the house down to get rid of the rats? Absolutely not. The Constitution itself gives us the tools to take on this crisis head on.

The federal government has clear authority over immigration. Illegal presence in the United States is not a protected right. Congress has the power to deny entry, enforce expedited removals, and reject bogus asylum claims. Much of this is already authorized by law — it’s simply not being used.

President Trump’s idea is simple: Use the tools we already have. Declare the southern border a national security emergency. Establish temporary military tribunals for triage. Process asylum claims swiftly outside the clogged court system. Restore “Remain in Mexico” so that the border is no longer a remote court room. Appoint more immigration judges, assign them to high-volume areas, and hold streamlined hearings that still respect due process.

That’s not authoritarian. That’s leadership.

The path forward

Trump is not trying to destroy habeas corpus. He’s trying to save it from being twisted into a self-destructive parody of itself. Leftists have turned due process into delay, justice into gridlock, and they’re dragging the entire country into their chaos.

It’s time to draw the line. Protect habeas corpus. Use it lawfully. Use it wisely. And yes — use it to restore order at the border. Because if we lose that firewall, we lose the republic.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Betrayal of trust: Medicare insurers face lawsuit over kickback scheme

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Editor's note: This article is sponsored by Chapter.

The U.S. government has filed a major lawsuit under the False Claims Act, targeting some of the biggest names in health insurance—Aetna, Elevance Health (formerly Anthem), and Humana—along with top insurance brokers eHealth, GoHealth, and SelectQuote. The allegation? From 2016 to at least 2021, these companies funneled hundreds of millions of dollars in illegal kickbacks to brokers to steer seniors into their Medicare Advantage plans.

If the allegations are true, it means many Americans may have been steered into Medicare Advantage plans that weren’t necessarily the best fit for their needs—not because the plans were better, but because brokers were incentivized by illegal kickbacks.

The Kickback Conspiracy

Navigating Medicare Advantage’s maze of plan options is daunting, so beneficiaries rely on brokers like eHealth, GoHealth, and SelectQuote, who claim to be unbiased guides. But from 2016 to 2021, insurers Aetna, Humana, and Elevance Health allegedly paid brokers millions in kickbacks to favor their plans, regardless of quality. Disguised as “co-op” or “marketing” deals, these payments were tied to enrollment targets. Internal emails revealed executives knew this violated the Anti-Kickback Statute, with one eHealth leader joking that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) would miss a $15 million Humana deal for minimal enrollments. Brokers used call routing to prioritize high-paying insurers, betraying beneficiaries’ trust.

Discrimination Against the Vulnerable

The scheme wasn’t just about profits—it targeted vulnerable beneficiaries. Medicare Advantage must accept all eligible enrollees, including disabled people under 65. Yet Aetna and Humana allegedly pressured brokers to limit their enrollment, as these beneficiaries were deemed to be less profitable. Brokers complied, rejecting referrals and filtering calls to favor healthier enrollees, incentivized by bonuses. This violated federal anti-discrimination laws and CMS contracts, undermining the founding principles of Medicare by discriminating against the very people it was created to aid.

False Claims and the Pursuit of Justice

The schemes led to false claims to CMS, with insurers certifying enrollments as “valid” despite kickbacks and discrimination. The government paid billions, unaware of the fraud. Examples include Humana’s $12,477 for a 2016 enrollment and Aetna’s $79,047 for a 2020 case. On May 1, 2025, the U.S. filed suit, seeking treble damages and penalties under the False Claims Act. Aetna and others deny the allegations, per May 2025 reports, promising a fierce defense. The case, demanding a jury trial, seeks justice for beneficiaries and taxpayers.

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