Good stuff (says this jazz lover).  Feels a little like I grew up on spareribs and you just served me a filet.  I cannot possibly be appreciating it as I should be. 

Can we get a play list?

By the way, I say short-liv-ed but long-live-d.  So am I only half barbaric?

For the second week in a row a Robinson/Long rumble grabs the attention away from a great guest (at least here in the comments).  Last week it was Fouad Ajami; this week it's Thomas Sowell.  (John Yoo is no slouch either.)

Maybe I'm just nurturing false expectations.  I guess I can go to Uncommon Knowledge to get unfettered Ajami, Sowell, or Yoo.  But only 5 or 10 minutes of the guest out of 70 minutes of podcasting is just a tease.

Of course, I'll keep tuning in regardless because I'm hooked on the cyber -lattes.

In all the talk about Santorum and censorship, we seemed to have forgotten about Fouad Ajami.  Peter already had another discussion topic on Ajami's assessment of Iraq, so there is no need to rehash, but...

As much as I liked the Robinson-Long cage match, Ajami was the best part of this podcast.  More guests like him, please.

I would have "liked" Spin's comment twice if I could.

Corollaries to Ajami's points:

1. Intelligence gathering is easier and more effective near the source. Ajami mentions this with respect to Iran, but it is true for all the Gulf states.

2. If/When direct conflicts like Libya occur again, a local land base independent of a carrier group simplifies the logistics.

3. When Iran goes nuclear, having Americans in the area will alleviate the perceived necessity of neighboring states to develop nuclear capabilities also.

Plus, one extra:  4. Much harder for Congress to further hurt the military with more sequestrations and grand bargains when their boots are on the ground.

Maybe 0.2% in context isn't even failure.  If the cost of avoiding the 1 in 500 who wake up during an operation is to increase the number that never wake up after an operation, then I guess you have choose between failure types.  I prefer to be on the waking up end of the distribution.

Thanks.  I'll be hearing "Kill the Wabbit" in my head for the rest of the day.  Nothing takes the edge off Richard Wagner like Elmer Fudd.

As much as I love this podcast, I need to complain a bit.

Mona mentioned twice that her listeners were silent about Hummel.  Plus, she admitted she still knew nothing about the other Hummel of figurine fame.

My post last week included both a link to M. I. Hummel and a compliment of J. N. Hummel.  It may not have been the resounding endorsement Mona wanted, but it was more than silence.

"We need an expert more than we need an expert to be correct."
-- Rob Long

So true.  I will probably use this line later and forget the attribution.

Jame's Hillsdale segue: amazing as always.  I've started playing the "Guess when James is starting a seque" game.  (I'm usually wrong.)

BTW, the Hillsdale course may be free, but they sure put a lot of effort into hitting us up for donations.  And they are asking for a lot more than a Grande Latte.

Funny how we all had difficulty sitting through the State of the Union Address for 45 minutes, but we can watch a Rand Paul filibuster for hours.

I don't know enough about classical music to argue with Jay's assessment of J. N. Hummel, but he was right about M. I. Hummel:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hummel_figurines

By the way, if someone were to write a Concerto like this today, he would called a prodigy or a genius.

"BYC" -- cute.

nor for me

I love Levin's concise description of effects of the relatively cheap individual mandate "tax" and the required coverage of preexisting conditions on the overall cost of health insurance.  Why should healthy people pay for insurance now when they instead can pay the cheap penalty now and get "insurance" after they discover an illness?  Prices will skyrocket more than they have already.

I get involved in discussions Obamacare supporters who often force the argument into a sound bite battle.  If you can't explain your point in 15 seconds, you lose.  Levin's distillation will be a big help.

Toobin: "It refers to militias, which don't even exist anymore."

Really?  I think Admiral Yamamoto had it right: "You cannot invade the mainland United States. There would be a rifle behind every blade of grass."

Militias "exist" whenever they are called up.  That's the whole idea of the Citizen Soldier and the reason for the 2nd Amendment.

http://factsnotfantasy.blogspot.com/2010/12/worlds-largest-army.html

Exactly! You stated that so much better than I did.

I guess I skipped the whole CPAC topic.  As far as that goes, I think CPAC should invite whichever speakers it wants. 

GOProud has a home in the GOP because it is open to all, but "GOP" and "conservative" are not synonymous.

I disagree with most conservatives about gay marriage, but I don't expect conservatism to change to accommodate me or GOProud.