"I marmaladed a slice of toast with something of a flourish, and I don't suppose I have ever come much closer to saying 'Tra-la-la' as I did the lathering, for I was feeling in mid-season form this morning."

The great P.G. Wodehouse, Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves.

I agree Rob, and keep up the good work and I encourage every listener of the pod to join.  I'd only like to raise the issue (apologize if it has already been litigated in prior comments here, haven't gone through all of them) of the ads encouraging membership in the members only podcast.  Unless I'm mistaken, are those podcasts available on other sites to non-members?  If not, why continue this practice?

I graduated from a top fifty law school two months ago (bar exam in a week, thus this will have to be regrettably brief).  I can tell you that Professor Epstein is per usual exactly on point.  I can't help the feeling that I made the biggest mishap of my life by going into the law when I did.  My education is on a model meant for 2006 with Obama administration job prospects.  I started law school in 2009 with the school administration jumping through hoops to tell us that we would be fine when we graduated.  I received my diploma in the mail yesterday without a job, along with the overwhelming majority of my class, with 150k+ in debts that will begin exploding with 9% accuring interest.  My best, and really, only hope is to take a public job, that I will be lucky to get, that will forgive my debt in ten years.  If you are thinking of law school, please think twice.

Great podcast gentlemen.  This is a bit of colliding worlds for me, as a Ricochet member and a daily listener to the Carolla podcast.  Excellent work!

Doc: I've heard of Mali too.  But, can you not agree that the upheaval in the role in popular culture of half of American society also may merit some discussion?  I don't think Lilekses' point is that Snapper is going be declaring Chapter 11 because of this ad anytime soon.  I think his post is about a larger trend, and its disquieting aspects, in one of our culture's last truly communal experiences; television advertising.  That the ad gets attention is beyond dispute.  What Lileks is saying is another question, and much more interesting than I think you're giving him credit for.

Troy, Yeti, and the Professors,

Thank you for answering my question!  The answering, of course, was very enlightening. 

As to the "Ricochet name" business, Troy and Richard hit the nail on the head.  I use an alias here for protection - fortunately not the Witness Protection that Troy guessed.  As a third year law student entering the precarious legal job market I thought it would be better to avoid any needless roadblocks by attaching my name to political comments, which although abiding by the code of conduct here on Ricochet, can be by their very nature controversial.  While this may be over cautious, I am applying to several government agencies and to work for elected office holders, so I think this is a sound policy for me.

Richard was dead on, I chose this alias as it was George Orwell's real name.  At the time I thought I was being very clever by using a real name of someone who wrote under an alias for an alias.  For John Yoo's taste, however, I guess anything not Sci-Fi related doesn't qualify!  For the next Center-Right Website costing a cup of coffee - I'll use "Spock."  Thanks again!

Let us also not forget that he died on the same day the Iraq War officially ended.  The people of Kurdistan, and Mr. Talabani, knew him well.  At a time when forgetting that the Kurds even existed had become so fashionable, Hitchens never once faltered in arguing for their rights to basic human dignity.  RIP

As one who grew up in the midst of the Iraq war, I remembered hearing Hitch's name quite often, and because of that I started reading Hitch -  including his autobiography -nine months ago.  Thank you Peter and Rob for a fond remembrance.  Christopher Buckley wrote that Hitch is "the greatest living essayist in the English language."  That this is no longer true is a very sad day indeed.

Ahh I see, thank you for the perspective.  In all fairness to Newt, I should add in my post above that Newt is most certainly not Pat Buchanan.

I see had poor timing with my pointing out that the paper endorsed Pat Buchanan in light of the prior comment which I had not yet seen.  King, you're right that you cannot expect the paper to get it right all the time, but Pat Buchanan is as close to an unforgivable sin as I can think of.

Troy, I agree that the Union Leader is important for the NH primary.  But I'm not so sure about it being worth its weight in gold.  The Union Leader is an institution that endorsed Pat Buchanan, and twice.  I'm not saying that this is a very important moment for Newt, and does add a sense of legitimacy that this campaign in particular was lacking.  Newt does have a growing strength.  But, even with the Union Leader endorsement, I'm still waiting for more until deciding whether or not this is just Newt's Herman Cain and Bachmann revolving I'm-not-Mitt Romney moment in the sun. 

Troy, you knocked it out of the park with the Berlusconi and Toronto Zoo jokes.  Good job to you!

Great job to you future Governor Andrzejewski!

After all this great man has done, I think he should get a free pass for this one.  I lived in Poland for a few months three years ago, and Claire, I think your thesis is regarding the press coverage is exactly right.  I generally found the Polish press to be awful when it came to covering American domestic affairs. Granted, that may have been because I observed them in the midst of the 2008 Presidential election, but I doubt very much that anything has changed.

Let us hope that Mr. Walesa will indeed have a rude awakening once amongst the occupy crowd.

Peter, do you have a favorite/most memorable Uncommon Knowledge guest?  Of all the great and entertaining minds you've had, is there one that sticks out?

After blaming September 11th on homosexuals, I'm still amazed that there are those who listen to Pat Robertson, or think of his opinion as one to be considered seriously.