Ricochet Podcast #31: Question Time
Blue Yeti ·
Aug. 26 at 12:20pm
The British Parliament does it, why can't we? Rob and Peter (Lileks is at the Minnesota State Fair this week) answer your questions -- when Peter is not answering his wife's phone -- and later, talk to author, columnist, and all around smart guy Shelby Steele. He's got some fascinating insights about Obama and what the future may hold for him, and us.
And now, let's hit the links:
- The Krugman in Wonderland blog is here.
- Lileks' coverage of the Minnesota State Fair. His own blog is a must read.
- Peter's wife is an Animist?
- While you were watching Jersey Shore, Peter was reading Dostoevsky's Devils.
- Shelby Steele's A Bound Man.
- George H.W. Bush checks the time during a debate.
- The transcript of Barak Obama's immigration speech.
- Rob's post on the Democratic Party's Power Point presentation.
- Fox News pundit Juan Williams gets emotional on election night 2008.
- The Ricochet debate on net neutrality is here.
- Harry Shearer on IMDB.
- The floorwalker from The Jack Benny Show.
Music from this week's episode:
- Wake Up by Arcade Fire
- Don't Ask Me Questions by Graham Parker & The Rumour
Play this week's episode. Subscribe here. Direct link to the audio file.
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Comments :
Jul '10
Re: Ricochet Podcast #31: Question Time
Question Time in the British Parliamentary system presupposes a clear division between the party in power and the opposition. Further, the US President is separate from the Congress; while in Canada, etc., the Prime Minister is part of the H of Commons. Ie, the PM sits in the House of Commons when it is in session.
There is no 'question period' that I know of in the Canadian Senate or the British Hse of Lords. In neither case are the members elected.
This is why the Press is so important in the US system: when it is working well, it asks the question of the Congress and the President. And that is why the system is breaking down: the Press is not doing its job. This is why it is legitimate to be outraged at the modern Press's being in bed with the current government.
Aug '10
Re: Ricochet Podcast #31: Question Time
For the less technically-inclined, feel free to skip this comment.
Being a web designer, I feel the need to chime in here with regards to the website load times that were discussed on the podcast today. In addition to whatever tweaks need to be made to the backend software, suggest that your web guys make use of a Firefox extension called YSlow if they're not already using it. I use it every day to optimize the sites I build. It gives a pretty quick scorecard-style rundown of potential speed traps on a site. I try to get my sites above 95% if at all possible. When I ran the test of Ricochet just now, it scored 55%. Yikes.
Anyway, I'm sure your guys are already aware of it, but it was the first thing that came to my mind when I heard you fellas talking about speed concerns on the podcast today. This is what I can do to help.
May '10
Re: Ricochet Podcast #31: Question Time
Peter mentioned possibly putting up episodes of Uncommon Knowledge to help spur conversation. I think this is a great idea. Starting with shorter clips or even excerpts from a longer show where the focus is on a specific topic would a great way to test this out. I don't see it being any harder to talk about a clip of Uncommon Knowledge, than it would be to talk about a clip that everyone saw on a major news network.
Jul '10
Re: Ricochet Podcast #31: Question Time
I listen to Ricochet on my iPod while I'm hiking the hills of Marin County. People tend to give me a rather wide berth when I come guffawing up the trail.
May '10
Re: Ricochet Podcast #31: Question Time
Does everyone else have to sign in three times for it to take?
Any podcast that mentions Frank Nelson I can't wait to hear...but I'll have to, it's my bedtime.
Jul '10
Re: Ricochet Podcast #31: Question Time
John M. Webb: Does everyone else have to sign in three times for it to take?
Any podcast that mentions Frank Nelson I can't wait to hear...but I'll have to, it's my bedtime. · Aug 26 at 8:10pm
John, the web guru is working on that. It's some sort of Internet Explorer bug.
May I suggest that you download the Firefox browser? That's what I use for Ricochet now...works like a charm.
Re: Ricochet Podcast #31: Question Time
Oh, we do more than mention him, John. This week, one of our hosts actually does an impression of him. And a pretty darn good one at that.
Jul '10
Re: Ricochet Podcast #31: Question Time
Blue Yeti
Oh, we do more than mention him, John. This week, one of our hosts actually does an impression of him. And a pretty darn good one at that. · Aug 26 at 9:22pm
Who is Frank Nelson?
Re: Ricochet Podcast #31: Question Time
We've been using YSlow, although it hasn't pinpointed the problem -- or even the general area -- quite like we'd hoped. We've since supplemented it with Gomez, and were working today on getting it fired up. We're hoping this gives us a lot of detail -- 10,000 instances per month -- on the front end flows.
Thank you for the advice, though, and please keep it coming.
Re: Ricochet Podcast #31: Question Time
Frank Nelson is the actor who played "the floorwalker" on "The Jack Benny Show" (see the link above).
Jun '10
Re: Ricochet Podcast #31: Question Time
You want to recruit a New Yorker? Try to get Jonathan Leaf, a well-regarded playwright and an out-of-the-closet conservative -- and if you think those are thin on the ground in Hollywood, try finding them in the the-a-tuh.
May '10
Re: Ricochet Podcast #31: Question Time
I'm having the problem in Firefox. What's Internet Exporer? Is that anything like VisiCalc or WordStar?
Kenneth
John M. Webb: Does everyone else have to sign in three times for it to take?
Any podcast that mentions Frank Nelson I can't wait to hear...but I'll have to, it's my bedtime. · Aug 26 at 8:10pm
John, the web guru is working on that. It's some sort of Internet Explorer bug.
May I suggest that you download the Firefox browser? That's what I use for Ricochet now...works like a charm. · Aug 26 at 8:44pm
May '10
Re: Ricochet Podcast #31: Question Time
I don't "join the conversation" often, but do stop by Ricochet daily. As a fairly new convert to conservatism I feel like I'm learning a lot here. I like the ideas Peter and Rob discussed for Ricochet's future, especially a thread on UCKnowledge here. But, does Ricochet have to do "things" with Fox News? Many of my friends and family (who haven't made the "switch") will read and discuss a link I send from Ricochet, but won't even look at something associated w/Fox. Don't get me wrong, I myself appreciate Fox News. Just sayin.
May '10
Re: Ricochet Podcast #31: Question Time
The Atlantic does a great job with abbreviating longer interviews and uploading them as 2 or 3 minute podcast snippets. In many cases, the title is the name of the interviewer, interviewee and the question asked and answered. So, you can finish listening to ten of them on your commute to work and arrive at your destination knowing what ten different influential thinkers think about ten different things. The process of listening to several pieces of one interview is a little disjointed, but they pack a punch in each short podcast. And days later you don't have to remember where you left off. I would be over the moon to be able to do that with Uncommon Knowledge. Just a little editing work, no big deal. :-) OK, add that to my wish list, too, please.
Feb '10
Re: Ricochet Podcast #31: Question Time
Suggestion much appreciated!
We've been using GTMetrix.com as well, which does YSlow scoring as well as Google's Page Speed scoring. YSlow gives good general advice, but our main problem was a large, unexplained gap in performance between logged-out users and logged-in users. We've started to resolve it by making the page basically almost identical for these two users types, and then customizing the page with user-specific features after page load using JavaScript. This seems to nearly eliminate the performance gap, but a lot of work remains.
With that out of the way, we'll probably focus on the rest of the recommendations from tools like YSlow; these should help across the board for all user types.
Thanks again!
Feb '10
Re: Ricochet Podcast #31: Question Time
John M. Webb: Does everyone else have to sign in three times for it to take?
Any podcast that mentions Frank Nelson I can't wait to hear...but I'll have to, it's my bedtime. · Aug 26 at 8:10pm
John,
I've seen similar behavior and I think it's due to caching. We'll look at the cache to see if it can be resolved, but in the meantime, to help confirm, can you do this test? Log out, then log in; if the page still looks like you are logged out, do a Reload. Does it then show you as logged in? If so it confirms the issue is with the cache. If not we'll have to dig deeper.
Your feedback would be much appreciated!
May '10
Re: Ricochet Podcast #31: Question Time
I'm only partway through listening to the podcast, but I have a question that I will forget if I don't ask it quickly. I'm curious to know from Shelby if there are individual minorities who are so comfortable with who they are and their assumed acceptance in society that they don't fall into the Bargainer or Challenger categories? If not, then I see two sub-types of Bargainer...the suspicious or reluctant Bargainer (i.e. Obama) and the genuine Bargainer (i.e. Thomas Sowell and Shelby Steele). Otherwise, I am having a hard time with those three sharing the same category.
May '10
Re: Ricochet Podcast #31: Question Time
Really liked Shelby Steele's slow, thoughtful style of conveying his ideas.
May '10
Re: Ricochet Podcast #31: Question Time
At the 49:30 mark in the 8/26/10 podcast a reader asked, 'Why no NY based contributors?'
I have a suggestion - Add the New Your based William (Bill) Katz, proprietor of www.urgentagenda.com. Bill may be reached via email @ katzlit@urgentagenda.com.
UrgentAgenda.com would be a great addition to Ricochet's Sites We Like sidebar. William Katz is the proprietor of Urgent Agenda
Bill Katz's Bio - Here
Bill Katz is a contributions to PowerLine Blog - Here. Bill seems to have been pigeon-holed at PowerLine as an entertainment commentator, but his background, intellect, and presentation style proved to me, that he can contribute effectively on a multitude of topics.
Bill's delightful demeanor will make him a superior Ricochet podcast participant.