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.
This week on the podcast, we put Putin in his place, D.C. McAllister on that Charlotte mayor and the writer we’d all like to write like. Then, dean of all pundits Charles Krauthammer stops by to discuss his new book “Things That Matter: Three Decades of Passions, Pastimes and Politics” (Audible version available here). It’s a typically elucidating conversation with Dr. K well worth listening to. Finally, Peter, James and Troy delve deep into the deeper meaning of L. Frank Baum and John Lennon’s 1971 hit “Imagine”. Hey, we get to everything, eventually.
Music from this week’s episode:
Nobody Told Me by John Lennon
There’s no place like EJHill
Help Ricochet by Supporting Our Sponsors!
The Ricochet Podcast is sponsored by Encounter Books. This week’s pick is Dancing with the Devil: The Perils of Engaging Rogue Regimes by Michael Rubin. Use the coupon code RICOCHET at checkout and get 15% off list price.
Subscribe to The Ricochet Podcast 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.
Published in: General
One last question! One last quest- ye- on!!
Was there supposed to be a link to the podcast here?
Was about to ask the same question, only I was going to include the phrase “blue blazes” in mine.
I modified the link from last week’s podcast (#207) to access it here:
https://cdn.ricochet.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Ricochet-Podcast-208.mp3
We just found a bug. The player is coming back…stand by.
Genius! Thanks.
Thanks.
EJ, this may be all time most disturbing Photoshop.
If you’re going to use “Charlotte’s Web” in regard to Carolina politics, you might as well throw in “Charlatan” as well.
Oh, and speaking of words: “comfortability”, Denise? Really? Be thankful you’re not a politician, or that would go on your epitaph.
Krauthammer said: “Decline is a choice. It is not a condition.” —The problem with this oft-repeated line of thinking is that it ignores the enduring effects of our most significant choices. Some choices can preclude others. In finances, in foreign relations, among other concerns, there is such a thing as momentum. It’s easier to get get into debt than to get out, easier to break alliances than to build them, easier to create regulations and agencies than to eliminate or even restrain them, and so on.
Krauthammer can perceive America’s politics as cyclical only by dismissing the constant expansion and centralization of government power ever since the New Deal. He can imagine progress by the usual process only by dismissing debts in favor of deficits, ignoring the fact that our current liabilities outstrip the combined wealth of the entire world.
By all means, argue for hope. But acknowledge the full challenges.
Troy is smiling because he got to pinch the redhead.
Why are liberals still angry 30 years later, Peter? Because they still want a country other than the one their living in. They don’t seek to amend the Constitution, but rather to replace it.
Krauthammer said reversing the New Deal (etc) “just isn’t practical.” The problem with that analysis is that it results in constantly giving ground to government.
How much freedom is enough? Claire Berlinski often reminded Ricochetti how much worse off citizens of other countries are in various ways. That mode of thinking and Krauthammers lead to the same conclusion: a willingness to accept lower standards of freedom than the Constitution assures.
If we are willing to accept less, then we should at least be honest enough to admit it explicitly. We will receive no more freedom than we demand.
Peter does a good Cousin It.
Oh, no. You should have seen the Lollipop Guild…. And the flying monkeys. (Shudder.)
Thank you, Aaron, I will make sure I never use slang in future podcasts. It is a fun word to say, though. :)
Aaron, didn’t your post this week imply the US fought Russia in WW2? Or was it the Germans bombing Pearl Harbor? Wait, that’s Animal House, I get so confused under pressure.
I think I did confuse David Brooks with Paul Krugman. Peter would know the difference between NYT writers. He should be ashamed.
Knowing all the NYT writers is like reciting the cast members of Glee or the MSNBC daily line up.
I just want to say that the live podcast/chat was more fun than should be possible during Lent <grin>. Thanks to the gentlemen/hosts of the Flagship for tackling my question in a very illuminating way – with respect to how little we know about unraveling endemic dependence. (James, I like your ‘biweekly billing of withholding’ plan.)
And, yes, indeed, I am a gal…My avatar didn’t come up in the chat room. Thanks again for making my day!
For Judy Garland? Nah. Now, if EJ could pull Isla Fisher out of his bag of tricks …
I guess a man can afford to be picky about redheads in Tennessee.
Goodness, that would make anyone smile.
Rob wasn’t there to use “swan” as a verb, but Peter recounted how he jokingly “chid” Milton Friedman for creating payroll tax withholding. I’m not sure “chide” is a verb used frequently enough to maintain an irregular past tense, but if it has to have one, better chid than chode (which also found in dictionaries).
Just checked my iPhone Bible app, and the KJV preferred chode (5 uses) to chid (2), but c’mon, these days it’s chided, right? Whichever of the three past tenses you use, you’ll need to be prepared to explain what “chide” means.
I think I would pay to see the Lollipop Guild.
Beautiful. Simply beautiful. As Peter might say.
‘Imagine no possessions…’ — Copyright John Lennon
If this isn’t already on a t-shirt somewhere, you’re leaving money on the table. Brilliant.
I just heard James, in this very podcast, complaining about some website having those annoying double-underlined ad links that pop up when you hover over them and how Ricochet does not have those…and then I started clicking around and found some on this very site. GRRR! Take them off so James is not a liar.
Where are they? Please point us to them ASAP.
“Go full Burt Lahr” should have been this episode’s title.