The Karol Markowicz Show: Dominic Green on Free Speech, Western Civilization & the Fight for America’s Future
2/25/202632 mincomplete
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2:26Hi, and welcome back to the Carol Markowitz Show on iHeartRadio.
2:30Our guest today is Dominic Green.
2:32Dominic is a Wall Street Journal contributor, Washington Examiner, and Jewish Chronicle columnist, and a
2:37regular at Free Press and the London Telegraph.
2:40A contributing editor at The Critic, he used to edit the Spectator's U .S.
2:44edition, which is where we met.
2:46He is also the author of five books.
2:48So nice to have you on, Dominic.
2:50It's lovely to be here, Carol.
2:52Five books and all the rest of that, that just, it sounds like a lot.
2:56Do you? Well, if you don't have a proper job, you know, there's plenty to
3:00your time. It sounds like you have like six proper jobs, actually.
3:05I've had them in sequence.
3:08And I've had, I think, three or four careers, one after the other.
3:13One fiasco has led to the next.
3:15Which has been your favorite so far?
3:16Well, the favorite so far is the current one.
3:19And I've always tried to make sure that was the case.
3:23I worked as a musician before I turned to writing.
3:27And then I became an academic for a stretch.
3:30So great was my urge to do as little work as possible.
3:34That's right. And then, you know, return to writing.
3:37And I do love doing it, to be honest.
3:40I'm extremely lucky to have a job that I most days wake up and can't
3:45wait to start with. Especially because that means you finish by lunchtime.
3:49That's right. Yes. I know all about that.
3:51What kind of music did you play?
3:52Well, I come from a family of jazz musicians.
3:55So when I tell people this, they think that it was an act of rebellion,
3:59but actually it was deeply conformist.
4:01If it had been before the modern age, it would be completely normal to say,
4:05you know, I went into the family business.
4:06My grandfather was a cabinet maker.
4:08His grandfather was, and would you like to buy a cabinet?
4:11And it so happened that I served my apprenticeship playing jazz, as my father and
4:16grandfather and brother had done.
4:18That's pretty cool. What made you leave that?
4:22Mainly the hours and the money.
4:24Also, there was a limit, I think, to how good I was at it.
4:27I loved it, actually. And I do love music.
4:29I always wanted to be a writer from an early age, but I always played
4:33music. And I figured that it's like sports, that you should do it while you
4:37have the knees. And most of your hair and teeth.
4:41And so I, because it is a young man's game.
4:44And so I gave it my best, but I never thought I was, I played
4:47jazz guitar. I was under no illusions about the limits of my ability.
4:50I was a good rhythm guitar player and occasionally able to play a moderately interesting
4:55solo. And so by the time I'd kind of got to that and done it
4:59a lot, I realized in my late twenties, I thought, well, I could carry on
5:02doing this until I'm broken down old hack, which in this game will happen in
5:07about three years' time. Or I can then actually be serious and pursue, you know,
5:12writing, which I knew had been waiting for me.
5:13I didn't want to spend my twenties in a library, in a research library.
5:18So in that sense, it was a good idea.
5:20So how did you make that leap to writing?
5:23Well, actually, I... Left the country.
5:26Because it's like, you know, I think when people stop being alcoholics and drug addicts,
5:31the first thing they have to do is break the connection to everyone they know.
5:37So my wife, newly married wife and I, she grew up in Sweden and I'd
5:42been there. And so I thought, right, I was in London.
5:45I thought, let's go to Sweden.
5:46This is a great place to get away to.
5:49So, and I, of course, I'd forgotten, of course, it snows for months on end.
5:54It's freezing. You can't go outside.
5:56So I got a lot done.
5:57And every morning in order to get myself into the frame of mind, I would,
6:00you know, get dressed and put on a three -piece suit and tie and then
6:04go to the office, which was the table in the corner of the living room.
6:08And rather like with music, you know, with wood shedding, I shedded wood in Sweden
6:13for a year or so and just wrote every day, pretty much around the clock.
6:17And I was still commuting to England to play gigs and so on, but basically
6:21did that. And at the end of it, of course, I'd rendered myself unemployable in
6:25a second field and, and, you know, had, had the makings of a career and
6:30started writing. What was the big break?
6:33I'm still waiting for that, really.
6:36I thought this show was.
6:38Well, I have some bad news.
6:40Yeah. Damn it. It's happened again.
6:41No, the big break, I think was this.
6:43I'd always, obviously, I mean, everyone loves Shakespeare and I, and I was, as one
6:47does on a snowy afternoon in Scandinavia, leafing through a volume of the Encyclopedia Judaica.
6:52And I came across this story, which seemed to connect to the background of The
6:56Merchant of Venice. And I looked into it and there's a real life story behind
7:01the Shylock character and even the elements of the plot in it.
7:05And, and I dug into it and no one really knew what had happened.
7:08And because it was Shakespeare, I was able to convince the publisher that this was
7:11the kind of thing that they would go for.
7:13And I was able to piece together this mystery.
7:16And, and after that, I think I could claim to have been, you know, like
7:21a serious historian rather than as a musician, because musicians are always doing things like
7:25that. You know, they, they tend to be very like, uh, self -educating and speculative
7:30people. I remember having a fascinating conversation with a group I was touring with once.
7:35We, we'd ended up in, um, Rimini in Italy, which you'll know from these Fellini
7:40movies about his childhood because he's from them.
7:42We were sitting on the beach and then we had the afternoon off and we
7:45had a very long conversation about who built the pyramids and whether it was the
7:48aliens or not. These are the kinds of historical speculations that musicians are having all
7:52the time. So anyway, because of this Shakespeare thing and it going to a respectable
7:56publisher, I was able then, I think, to, to sort of fob people off with
8:00the notion that I might actually be a reliable, uh, historian.
8:03And so that was a book, that was a book and that led to another
8:07one. And then I thought when I, what are the names?
8:09Come on. Well, that was called the double life of Dr.
8:11Lopez, you know, and, and then I did another one.
8:14And then the agent I had in America said, well, you know, I just, we
8:16decided at that point we were going to raise a family in the States.
8:19And cause I'd been there as a musician and I came back and said, this
8:23is, this is a place to be.
8:24And, uh, and the agent said, well, you've got to have a credential.
8:28You've got to have a perch.
8:29And I said, what do you mean?
8:30He said, well, everyone in America's got a credential.
8:32You can't just turn up.
8:33And I said, it's not like in England.
8:35Well, yeah, no, it's true.
8:36It's true. I don't know about that.
8:38I think the credential matters more in the UK.
8:40Okay. We'll get into that.
8:41Well, this is an interesting question.
8:43I mean, I read that once one in three dentists in Italy, uh, had a,
8:46a fraudulent thing on the doors saying that they had the notification, right?
8:51I don't know if you've ever had dentists in Italy.
8:53I wouldn't recommend it. I wouldn't recommend it in England either.
8:56Actually now think about it.
8:57Uh, although you won't have to queue in England.
8:59Um, so in England it's like connections.
9:02It's like, oh, I went to school with, with Binky and oh, I was at
9:05university with Monty and oh, he's a good chap.
9:08Write a book about Shakespeare.
9:10I think there's an element of that.
9:11Well, in the States it's definitely like this man fixed my feelings and, and, you
9:17know, he's, he's really qualified.
9:20I recommend it. I found that when we moved to the States, people were amazing.
9:23They would, they would recommend the best person they knew for all the stuff you
9:27needed. Yeah. So we had like lists of like, you know, dentists, lawyers, accountants.
9:31Do you not do that in the UK?
9:33No, we keep them to ourselves.
9:34Is that true? We hoard them.
9:36Yeah, you hoard them. Yeah, you hoard them.
9:36That's called gatekeeping. Yeah, that's, that's called class war.
9:39Yeah. Yeah. Goes back a long way.
9:42So, so, um, anyway, so I thought I've got to get a credential and I
9:45thought, how do you get into the United States if you don't swim?
9:48And the answer is that you go through the university system.
9:51And, and I'm one of those people who, who became an American citizen, thanks to,
9:56you know, getting a doctorate, which is the most useless thing there is in the
10:00world. So we're just giving out, you know, you weren't giving anything out, Kara.
10:04I had to pay, I paid good money for this.
10:06So yeah, so that's, that's how it happened.
10:08And so when I was in universities, of course, I thought this is fantastic.
10:12These people work two, three days a week.
10:16They get six figure salaries.
10:17They spend half their lives in their second homes in Vermont.
10:21I'll have some of this.
10:22Um, so I'd write academic research papers.
10:25I was very, you know, the 18th century political history is fascinating stuff.
10:29So I was doing that merrily.
10:30And every now and then, you know, this is in Harvard, someone would take me
10:34aside and say something like, we're never going to employ you, you know, you're far
10:37too right wing. And you've also, you've also published.
10:42And I was like, well, you know, the church, you know, accepts nuns who repent,
10:47right? You know, that's allowed.
10:49Prostitutes who repent is fine.
10:50I'll be better, I promise.
10:51Right, exactly. But you can't accept someone who's written for money.
10:55And they're like, no, it's not good for us, no.
10:58So, yeah, and I suppose I can say this now.
11:01I mean, the great Ruth Weiss, who was one of the very few people who
11:04bothered to give me some good advice as I floundered about, I had no idea,
11:08I was new in the country, said, you know, do you know what a public
11:11intellectual is? And I was like, no, not really.
11:13And she explained that this was somebody who basically, you know, was a professional smartass,
11:18if I can say that.
11:19And I was like, that I can do.
11:21Yeah, you're like, this seems like a job for me.
11:23And the great thing about America, and it is a truly great thing, is that
11:27if you feed yourself into the vast machinery, it'll cough you out the other end.
11:33Having found something useful for you to do, it really does work.
11:36And it was what I'd always wanted to do, in a way.
11:39And my wife tells me that when we met, I said, you know, I want
11:42a job. I tell people what I think, you know.
11:45And she said I followed around the house for like 10 years, giving her op
11:48-eds, you know, off the cuff.
11:50That's enough of that. No, really.
11:52And so when I actually started op -edding for a living, she was greatly relieved,
11:55you know, to get on with her life.
11:56So that was only 10 years ago, actually.
11:58I was in my mid -40s when I took up journalism seriously.
12:01Are you in your mid -50s?
12:03I am, actually. I'm 55 years old.
12:05But I have the kidneys of a 70 -year -old.
12:07Well, you were a jazz musician.
12:08He doesn't need them. Yeah.
12:10And I'm half deaf from it as well, actually.
12:13This is another thing. But I, yeah, no, I did.
12:16So I was a musician.
12:17And then I was the kind of writer in England.
12:20And then I was an academic in the States.
12:22And then I became a writer and a journalist in the States.
12:25And I wasn't, we moved back to London about a year ago to be with
12:30our children when they're in university.
12:31And because I taught in American universities, I know what goes on.
12:34I'm not having it. You're like, no, not for me.
12:37It's a total scam. Don't be fooled.
12:39And when I get back here, of course, I meet all my peers in the
12:42British media. And they're terrible.
12:44They had terrible hacks. So I was made into a journalist in America.
12:48And I'm very pleased I was because there are actually high standards.
12:52You know, places like the Wall Street Journal, where I learned the craft of it.
12:55They are impeccable and devoted.
12:58This is a very fascinating story.
13:00So what's next? I had to live it, girl.
13:03I can tell you. I'm enjoying it very much.
13:06I'm enjoying the retelling of you living it.
13:08Right. What comes next? Well, you know, I'm hoping that I can afford to write
13:13another book because it is like having a yacht.
13:15You know, you just pour the money into the water.
13:18I'm surprised that people want to do more than one.
13:21I've written one book. I think it is my final book.
13:23It did very well, but I never need to do that again.
13:26Each time I've done it, it's been from a thick, twisted inner compulsion.
13:31Yes. So, you know, I wait until it happens.
13:34I mean, because it is a grueling, awful process.
13:36And it eats your life up.
13:38And, you know, I worked out that the last one, which took about three years
13:42of labor. I think it came in at about 15 cents a word, you know,
13:46by the time I'd talked about it and promoted it and so on.
13:49So it is a labor of love, except, of course, you hate it.
13:52Right. Yes. Yeah. I mean, you could write 700 words and have it be in
13:57the newspaper tomorrow. And that's, you know, the end of that.
14:00That's so much more gratifying.
14:02Yeah. And I have to say, I think most ideas could be put into 700,
14:07800 words, into a column.
14:08There's no, you know, we think that there has to be a 60 ,000.
14:11Or even a tweet, you know.
14:13Yeah. People used to, I mean, I'm a bit of a Victorian, as you can
14:16probably tell from the background.
14:18But the Victorians went into these things where they'd like, I'm going to write a
14:22short essay. And they'd knock out 30 ,000 words.
14:25And that's the equivalent of a mini book, like those little books you find on
14:27the table in the bookstore.
14:28And I'm pleased to see that they're coming back as people are losing their attention
14:32span and can't hold it together to read, you know, 300 pages.
14:35Because most ideas related books should be able also to be compressed like that.
14:40So I'm hoping to write, what I mean is I'm hoping to get paid the
14:43same amount, but write a much shorter book.
14:45I like that idea a lot, actually.
14:47I only wrote half a book because I had a co -author.
14:50That's another thing you should maybe consider.
14:51Then you only have to write, you know, half a book.
14:54Do you write the front end or the back?
14:55Is it like being a pantomime horse?
14:57It actually is. We switched off chapters, so.
15:01That's good. It's been done before, you know.
15:03Joseph Conrad did that with Ford Maddox Ford in fiction.
15:07And it worked. Not that you were writing fiction.
15:09I know it was real.
15:09No, yes, yes. But no, I, you know, highly recommend 50 % of the work
15:13for 100 % of the pay, you know.
15:15I'm willing to do that.
15:16Yeah. We're going to take a quick break and be right back on the Carol
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18:25What is the thing that you're most proud of in your life?
18:28The thing I'm most proud of in my life is that my wife, Maya, and
18:32I got our three daughters to adulthood as Jewish girls through COVID, the madness, all
18:40of it, and that they turned out fantastically.
18:42I'm sure a lot of people on your show say this.
18:45At least all of them who wish to stay married probably say it.
18:47But that genuinely is one of the very few things I'm proud of.
18:50I'm not proud of much.
18:52I don't think it's difficult to knock out a few hundred words or say something.
18:56I mean, most of what I write is mocking politicians, which is, of course, like
19:01field clubbing. It's hardly, you know, arduous.
19:04It's pretty easy, yeah. But being a dad, especially to girls, having grown up in
19:09a house of boys, being a dad was, you know, the hardest and obviously the
19:14most rewarding and meaningful thing I've ever done.
19:17So not having totally bungled it is the thing I'm most proud of.
19:21So what's your tip on that?
19:23How do you not totally bundle it?
19:25Do it as hell. That's not bad.
19:29No, no, really. Take advice.
19:31Learn from your wife. Listen to your children.
19:33I mean, I struggle to listen to anybody.
19:35I'm a lecturer, aren't I?
19:38But it's an ongoing lesson in the limits of intellect.
19:42Because having intellect is commercially useful and valued and being a specialist is how people
19:49get on, you know. There are basic emotional things which are totally different and require
19:56a very different way of understanding people and what your purpose in life is.
20:01So having some humility, as people frequently say to me, that's the only, I don't
20:08know if I've done it.
20:09You have to ask them how well I've done it.
20:11Yeah, I mean, you're telling us that you did it well.
20:13So, you know, we want to know how you did it.
20:18I tried to make it fun.
20:20My eldest is going to be 16 tomorrow.
20:22So, you know, they're still in development.
20:25Any, you know, tips are always welcome.
20:28Yeah, I don't know. I'm just, just keep failing better.
20:32I mean, you know, if there is a wider lesson as well, I mean, you
20:35know, keep failing better is one.
20:37Because you try and try and sometimes you get it and sometimes you don't.
20:41But the next day you're continually, you know, getting another chance.
20:45Giving another chance, yeah. Yeah, yeah.
20:46Not giving up, I think is, you know, I don't think I have that many
20:50life lessons. I think most of my life has been a terrible warning.
20:53You know, not giving up.
20:55I mean, all those lines about, you know, the cliches, you know, it doesn't matter
20:59whether you get knocked down.
21:00It's how fast you're back on your feet and all of that.
21:02Those things actually are the true things.
21:04The race belongs not to the swift.
21:06Yeah. Give us a five -year -out prediction and it could be about anything at
21:11all. Well, we are, I mean, I could say the world.
21:15I could start with the world.
21:16We're in a colossal shift and the next five years will be more chaos.
21:19The United States is going through one of its periodic, every 80 years or so,
21:24disputes over what kind of country it will be and who gets to run it.
21:28Is that every eight years?
21:30Eighty. Every 80. I feel like it's every eight at this point.
21:33It's every 10 minutes. No, from the revolutionary year, the civil war, to the remaking
21:37under FDR with the New Deal and the war production that reshaped the economy.
21:42And then to the crisis of post -2008 and particularly 2016 America.
21:48the struggle which is going on now, to redefine it.
21:51So in many ways, it's like parenting.
21:53There are very good days and very bad days, but that's going to continue because
21:56we haven't reached a settlement over who gets to own it.
21:59And the truth is, much as we love democracy, the winner takes all in this
22:03kind of thing. Whoever wins is going to drive their rivals out over the Potomac
22:08and into the wilds, you know.
22:10And that hasn't yet happened, and it may yet swing back and forth for a
22:13while. So internally, the chaos will continue.
22:16So as a historian, there's never any good news.
22:19Externally, it will as well, because there is this colossal shift.
22:23The return of Asia is the center of the world economy for the first time
22:26in 200 years. So, you know, that's the bad news.
22:29The good news is that we remain free to shape our lives much as we
22:34always were. And the technology, which is turning things upside down, also gives us opportunities
22:39to do things that previously were impossible.
22:42I, for instance, can sit on my backside in a holiday resort and file copy
22:46from beneath the palm trees.
22:48This wasn't possible in the old days at all.
22:50So in some sense, you know, we live in an age of miracles and an
22:53age of idiots. And I suspect that is always how it's been.
22:57Personally, in the next five years, I just hope to stay, you know, on the
23:00vertical axis. Right. Right. So...
23:04Every day is a blessing.
23:05Is that something I hear?
23:06Yeah, I am. I'm a skeptical optimist.
23:10A skeptical optimist. Yeah, yeah.
23:13Is that just British? It doesn't help.
23:16I mean, well, as a British Jew, I have a double dose of, you know,
23:20pessimism is, like, inevitable, twice over.
23:24But no, I generally wake up with a spring in my...
23:27Well, I don't, actually, I wake up in a foul mood until I've had an
23:30entire pot of tea. But generally, I, you know, with a while I work, I
23:35feel there's a lot to be grateful for.
23:36And as I said, as long as we have a sense that we can make
23:39an impact and shape our lives for the better, then, you know, that's good.
23:45How do you feel about being a British Jew?
23:47And I know this wasn't, you know, this isn't a political show.
23:49I just... Well, I'm a British American Jew.
23:51Okay. I've got many hats.
23:54How's that going for you?
23:55How's that working out? Well, I mean, Britain, at the moment, is coming apart.
24:00There's, you know, and I was talking with someone who worked at a big technology
24:05company who was passing through London a couple of weeks ago, and he said, well,
24:09you're on the front line here.
24:10And it's true. The front line of the battle for free speech is going on
24:14in Britain, because the type of legal regime which is coming in in Europe is
24:20designed, and we're seeing, it is designed to suppress free speech, especially online.
24:24And there's only 20 miles between, you know, England and France, and that is the
24:27frontier. And to my mind, and also, I believe, to many people in the Trump
24:31administration, the free speech of Britain is a national security interest of the United States.
24:36We're part of the same culture, part of the same economic technological systems.
24:42So there's that, you know, there is a tough fight going on to defend the
24:47most basic freedoms. There's also a fight going on for Jews to remain part of
24:52British society. It's no more or less than that.
24:55And to be honest, I saw in Cambridge, Massachusetts, just as much as I see
24:59it in London, there is, you know, a coordinated pressure coming from left -wing groups
25:04and Muslims, in effect, who don't want Jews to have any kind of expression or
25:09influence or equality in their society.
25:12And you see it very, you know, it's worse in France, but you see it
25:15very explicitly in blue state America, just as we see it in London.
25:20My feeling is when people ask, and, you know, they say, is it like I
25:24see on X or Twitter?
25:27Yeah. And it is, actually, yeah.
25:29But it's also more than that.
25:31You know, no one sends, here's a lovely clip and nothing happening.
25:34You know, here's a shot of me walking until she'll undisturbed.
25:38That's not how it works.
25:40It is bad, but it's the same, actually.
25:42You know, in Boston, I used to do security duty outside the synagogue, you know,
25:47while my children were inside.
25:48And in London, the same occurs.
25:50So it's one thing about the world that we now live in, for good or
25:54bad, it's much the same everywhere in that sense.
25:57At the end of 30 years of the biggest population movements in human history.
26:02Yeah. You know, this happens everywhere.
26:05So the other question, they say, is England done?
26:08And I say to them - I hope not.
26:10No, I don't think it is, but I don't think we're only now getting, you
26:14know, without sounding Churchillian. And it is the law that everyone from Britain eventually sounds
26:19Churchillian. It is, right? Yeah.
26:20We are only at the end of the beginning as regards the struggle for the
26:26future of Britain. And the beginning of the end is some way off yet.
26:32And I don't think that the English will consent to being turned out of their
26:37own country, which in effect is what this will mean.
26:40And I don't think Americans will either.
26:42I don't think even the French will.
26:44Well, I'm rooting for you in England.
26:47I'm rooting for the English and the Scottish.
26:49I lived in Scotland for a period of time.
26:51I love the UK. I hope that things end up in a more positive direction.
26:55I hope they do as well.
26:57I like your commentary on it.
26:59I feel like it is very optimistic.
27:01Well, I feel one of the good things that's come out of this, which hasn't
27:03really been spoken about enough, is that the people's plural, or the British Isles plural,
27:09are understanding that they do actually have more in common than divides them.
27:13Because the norm is that the Scots hate the English.
27:15and the English hate the Irish and the Irish hate the Jews.
27:18It just goes around and around and around.
27:19Well, in fact, we're like 80, more than 85, 90 million people in a tiny
27:23space. As long as they don't all unite to hate the Jews, I think it's
27:28going to be good. No, I don't think they do.
27:29I don't think they will.
27:29They've got more pressing problems.
27:31But, you know, England is the size of New York State with a lot more
27:34people in it. And so there is a positive understanding as well developing because people's
27:39understanding of themselves develops anyway, regardless.
27:42You can't fix it. It's always moving in that way.
27:44So don't despair. But then again, don't be totally passive as well is my message.
27:50And I think this goes from my fellow Americans as much as my fellow Brits.
27:53If you don't like it, do something, change something.
27:57And most of all, say something.
27:59Because if we are bullied into being unable to speak our minds and we have
28:03the total right to reasonably speak our minds to anyone about anything, if we are
28:08bullied into silence, then we will have only ourselves to blame, or rather our children
28:14and grandchildren will only have us to blame for it.
28:17Yeah. I have loved this conversation, Dominic.
28:19Thank you so much for coming on the show.
28:21Leave us here with your best tip for my listeners on how they can improve
28:26their lives. Well, old stuff, I would say.
28:30For a long time, you know, we associated technological progress in particular with having a
28:36better life. Actually, it turns out that's not true.
28:38Nobody says, why should I listen to Beethoven because he died 200 years old?
28:42Actually, people do and they're completely stupid.
28:45Sure. You know, apart from the complete idiots, we listen to Beethoven most because they're
28:50great. They really nailed it.
28:51Right? That's it. You don't say Shakespeare, Dickens, you know, I mean, you don't.
28:56Not anymore. Yeah. Right, exactly.
28:57So maybe with music, film, the popular arts of the 20th century, maybe you've reached
29:02a moment like that. And maybe the stuff that's being put out now is just
29:05one of those fallow periods when it's really not worth bothering with.
29:08And if you have three or four hours, rather than reading a kind of trendy
29:12literary fiction novel, find something old and read that because there will be vitamins and
29:17nutrients in it. So my advice to people is don't be ashamed to be old,
29:20unfashionable and go for quality of content.
29:24Because, you know, what we call Western Civ is one of the greatest, probably the
29:28greatest, most varied storehouse of entertainment and knowledge that's been amassed.
29:33And it's a great privilege if you're in a position like me that you can
29:36spend your days digging around in it and talking about it to people.
29:40So that's what I would say to people is, you know, embrace the depths and
29:44the heights of the civilization you've been lucky enough to be born into because it's
29:48yours. And if you don't do that, again, what are you going to pass on?
29:52Your DVD collection of friends?
29:54I mean, you know, what else is there?
29:57I love it. Go back to basics.
29:59He is Dominic Green. Check him out in the Wall Street Journal.
30:02Thank you so much, Dominic, for coming on.
30:04Thank you, Carol. This is Jacob Goldstein from What's Your Problem?
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