Ricochet is the best place on the internet to discuss the issues of the day, either through commenting on posts or writing your own for our active and dynamic community in a fully moderated environment. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 50 original podcasts with new episodes released every day.
The men of GLoP always go all out for the holidays and this year is no exception. This week, JPod abandons a panel, bad week to an Uncle in North Korea, the trouble with “Top Chef, ” and the best and worst movies of 2013 — and 1939.
Pack up your knives, EJHill.
Help Ricochet by supporting our advertisers!
This podcast is brought to you by our good friends at Encounter Books. This week’s featured Broadside is The Truth About The IRS Scandals by Charles Johnson. Get an additional 15% by using the code RICOCHET at checkout.
Subscribe to GLoP Culture in Apple Podcasts (and leave a 5-star review, please!), or by RSS feed. For all our podcasts in one place, subscribe to the Ricochet Audio Network Superfeed in Apple Podcasts or by RSS feed.
The language on Top Chef is an editorial decision. The producers of Top Chef in other countries make different editorial judgements, so there is (usually) little to no blue language.
How come nobody suggests that North Korea is showing Obama how to handle an embarrassing uncle. Wasn’t Barry able to deny knowing the illegal alien uncle until the uncle made a statement at a hearing?
Could not agree more with Jonah’s dismay at the vulgarization of our culture. My ten-year-old daughter, a huge baseball fan, made a casual remark about ads for Viagara this past season. She has no idea what Viagara is–yet–but the ads are inescapable when watching MLB games on TV. It’s infuriating that you can’t even watch a ball game with your kids without frantically scrambling for the remote at every commercial break.
I probably don’t have the proper parent chops to say this, but the television language problem is not fixable, save removing media from one’s home—and of course, even then … My tack is one my mother steered me to: “People who curse too much have very poor vocabularies.” I’m sure that declaration would make good sense to any of the Podhoretz or Goldberg children and perhaps help dispel the goarseness from their minds. I personally think children are overly shielded. We used to shield them from physical harm; now we shield them from potential harm. And I still think “sticks and stones” applies. Better for children to be watching with parents like John and Jonah when these words are let fly. “There’s just too much cursing here. It’s boring,” I would say to my daughter if we were watching a show that had too much foul language (admittedly, not many). (I would say the same thing about “too much political preaching.”) She’s 18 now with a positive, rather prudish spirit. And her own mind.
But maybe what I’m really reacting to is the idea that the Big Bang Theory is anything but sweet.
Have mocked up the cover for Jonah’s proposed National Review story. Being vetted by the censors, Good Housekeeping and the NSA even as I type this…
UPDATE! Cleared for takeoff!
Agreed. One of many reasons we don’t have any TV service in our house. Not only is Jonah right, but “righter” than he thinks. The constant use of vulgarity is not only a fake, fake, fake form of “authenticity”, it demonstrates the work of a weak, arrested, immature mind stuck in the Junior high locker room not capable of exercising imagination. It’s not as if Elizabethans, Colonials, Victorians, etc. had no way of expressing things like disdain, frustration, etc. verbally. Vulgarity is lazy and stupid. Not both and.
17 Big Reasons why All is Lost is a terrible movie. Why is a movie about a sailboat made by people who know nothing about boats?
One of the best podcasts I’ve heard on Ricochet. I, too, am fascinated by North Korea despite it being Hell on Earth. And I also believe the sooner we, or China, do something about the Norks, the better. That regime, if it is to go down, is going to in a blaze of glory–the longer we wait, the larger that blaze will be.
Likewise, the discussion on vulgarity on tv and in public was excellent–the three disagreed with each other in part or in whole but they still all made great points. One POV I would add is I believe with the ending of cable “bundling,” language and content on tv will improve. More channels, now free-riding due to cable companies, will be forced to rely on ratings. And as we know, in most cases, questionable content kills ratings. So, these channels will have to clean their acts up or disappear.
As for dating and sex in the 21st century, the story I always like to tell regarding the sexes is this: I lived in Vegas from 1998-2011, and the very regular everyday women I knew were WAY more promiscuous than the men. True story.
I’ve always viewed BBT as being geeks trying (and sometimes succeeding) to get laid.
It’s still a very funny show.
What happened to the music credits listed on the bottom of the podcast page. I wanna’ know about the song about Goy Christmas.
It’s “Christmas Time For The Jews” written by Robert Smigel (the voice and genius behind Triumph The Insult Comic Dog) and sung by the great Darlene Love. Thanks for the link, Kevin.
About the “wholesome tv shows” about the only one out there is “The Middle”.
I agree with jPod on the “children in jeopardy” thing. I can’t watch shows or movies with that (if I know about it in advance).
This is exactly why I watch Food Network, and not anything on Bravo. Food Network occasionally lets by a three-letter synonym for donkey, but anything else, what tiny bit there is, is thoroughly bleeped.
If you really want to watch something like Top Chef without being subjected to the raunchy commercials, just record it on your DVR and fast-forward past them. I have mine programmed for every show I follow.