https://youtu.be/zmPksdveyTs
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very web Arabist translated from arabic
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former NSA analyst on matters
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middle-eastern you have some angles if
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you if you liked or some to some new
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perspectives on the origins of islam
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that i guess from what i saw are not
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things people normally think of since
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you know there’s this sort of standard
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legend about this guy who had a vision
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and spoke to angels what can you tell us
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well the reason i do this series well i
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think we can call it something like
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origins and oddities of islam is you
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know they they one thing they tell you
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when you study quranic arabic from an
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arabic-speaking muslims they tell you
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that the quran is nothing but the pure
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arabic okay which is a flat-out lie
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because a lot of long words you know
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from other cultures was maybe yeah parts
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of it were yeah because didn’t exist
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well yeah i mean there’s always been
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arabic i mean yeah arabic is probably
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closer to the original Oporto semitic
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language than any other so many points
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are just okay still have the on itself
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has a lot of you know these lone words
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so that’s one big lie they tell you the
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other big lie they tell you is that the
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quran in its entirety was always
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pre-existing in heaven as coexistent
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with allah himself okay so what we’re
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going to do in this area says
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demonstrate a home illustrate a whole
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bunch of different aspects of islam that
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were brought into islam from other
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surrounding cultures use most of the
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older cultures but that evolved
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naturally here on earth and we’re not
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coexistent with with all up in heaven so
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today i want to start with the very word
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of allah itself because it appears
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hundreds of times in the quran and it’s
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at the most basic entity of all in in
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all of islam
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so to give it the audience a little bit
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of background when I first started
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studying Arabic I also was studying
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Biblical Hebrew for a few years and I
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had a couple years of katie.in.kenya
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form which is a kind of the when shake
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young system of writing using ancient
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Mesopotamia indicating was a related
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language you know it’s a somatic is
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related to Hebrew and Arabic and when
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you study Akkadian you also learned a
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little Sumerian because they adopted a
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lot of the Sumerian words and and
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deities whatnot and one of the deities
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they adopted was the god Enlil so here’s
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where we want to start because because
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the word and means heaven in Sumerian it
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also means star and they use kind of a
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star-shaped symbol to represent it and
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it means also our deity our God in
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heaven
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and I’m saying in and star so in
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Sumerian mythology Emmylou was the under
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the offspring of a primal God called an
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okay but over time he evolved into
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becoming kind of a Supreme God even
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Sumerians believed that he was even the
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God of foreign lands he was on his way
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to being almost at Universal God
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although the Sumerians always had dozens
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and dozens of other deities you know
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gods this is not over the place but n
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Leia was a big one now as someone that
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was studying Arabic and Akkadian at the
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same time I could not help but be struck
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by the similarities linguistic
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similarities between the Sumerian god
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Enlil and the Arabic Allah and here’s
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the way that this happened the when the
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Acadie the Americas speaking Acadians
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moved into Mesopotamia 2300 BC like I
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said before they adopted the Sumerian
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right
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because they didn’t have a writing
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system of their own and they adopt a lot
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of the deities and a lot of the words
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but in all of the Semitic languages
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including Akkadian they believe that
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there are certain consonants that are
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weak the N is a weak consonant and so
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we’ll say L now whenever you have a weak
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consonant followed by a strong consonant
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immediately followed by a strong
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consulate that weak consonant will
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alight into the strong consonant and
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they double the the strong consonant in
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pronunciation head in writing but now
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here the word ended only have two weak
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letters at the end and the L are both
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weak well again according to the rules
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of semitic grammar when you have two
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weak vowels that are side by side
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the first one will alight into the
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second one so the second one then
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actually becomes a stronger consonant
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and then no not a diphthong you just
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double the consonant and so Enlil then
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becomes an Akkadian a little if you have
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that sign that other pic I showed you of
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how how Enlil became a little there
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would be helpful for the for the
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audience so there’s something somatic
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speaking Acadians pronounced it a lil or
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all because again in these ancient
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languages they didn’t distinguish the
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vowels so that were almost
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interchangeable it could be either Enlil
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or are an allele and in Akkadian either
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a little or a little now some of the
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command McKenna night was Semitic
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dialects like Hebrew Phoenician etc this
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L bill or a lil became ill and those who
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have studied Biblical Hebrew who are
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familiar with the
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Donelle the pearl to that in Hebrew is
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Elohim with an H and you also see the
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singular in several places in the Old
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Testament in there in the Hebrew form
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you see Allah
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hello like Allah you too shall I am the
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God of Jerusalem now this word did not
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exist in Arabic until they learned it
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from either the Jews or other Semitic
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speakers that had learned it from the
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Akkadians because in I’ve looked at a
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lot of the inscriptions of in
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pre-islamic Arabia and the deities they
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have our coghill and Musa and things
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like that but you never see Allah not
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until the Jews came in in their suits me
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Aramaic speaking Jews who used the term
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adore eloheem and Allah came in in this
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accessory BC when the king of Babylon
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made Tama his capital so the word under
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what I’m trying to say here is that the
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word Allah that you know the Arabs think
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is the the title for their God and they
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think was always pre-existing in heaven
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you know before the universe is created
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is so term that they actually learned
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from Jews my gosh the Jews who in turn
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had learned it you know from older
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cultures like the Acadians and
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ultimately from the Sumerians so again
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that shows you what you know that that
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kills two of the lives that Islam must
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tell all the time and well you know
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there’s a commonly held belief now
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that’s going to point forward through
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this story that when Muhammad attacked
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Mecca Mecca had the Kaaba which had I
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don’t know 300 and change deities
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statues of deities and he smashed them
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all but one of the significant ones was
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a lot which was the moon god
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which is why the Muslims use depressive
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moon as its symbol and that they were it
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was a distortion of the God a lot sir is
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there any connection there oh yeah there
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might be I mean the our lab is obviously
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a feminine of about law and of L and so
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the banana or myself is probably
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borrowed from the other Semitic speakers
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you know North the Jews the Aramaic sand
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phoenicians Acadians etc okay so that
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makes a great deal of sense so it does
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tie together yeah so it was like
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everything else in Islam just
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plagiarized and distorted to sue
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Mohammad own personal game yes yeah
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right yeah thanks very much I think we
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should explore that more next time
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because it looks to me like just about
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everything in the Quran is trying to
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convince adolescent boys to fight for
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Mohammad to get more money more power
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and more opportunity yes as a matter of
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fact next week and the second edition of
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this series the origins and oddities of
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Islam I want to do the 72 virgins yes
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because yes because it must be great to
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promise things to people to fight for
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you that they get after they get killed
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let’s talk about that next week thank
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you very much very well
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[Music]