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Ricochet Podcast #45: Cruise Missiles
This week we cram muscle shirts, pat downs, Thanksgiving, and North Korean aggression into one audio file. Peter gets the inside scoop on the National Review cruise from Rob (live from the Miami airport) and James. Then we get serious with John Bolton to discuss North Korea’s missile attack on the south. Will the TSA handle Rob’s junk? Tune in and find out.
Bullets seem a little quaint when missiles are flying, but here goes:
- One rolls with muscle shirts, the other is a walking L.L. Bean Catalog. We report, you decide. Yes, it is safe for work.
- Just for the record, Apu’s last name is Nahasapeemapetilon. In addition to being the proprietor of the Kwik-E-Mart, he also has his own Facebook page.
- The history of conflict on the Korean peninsula goes at least 60 years. Wikipedia summarizes it in one page.
- Kim Jong Ill just appointed his youngest son Kim Jon Un to the rank of four star general and first in line to succeed him as leader of North Korea. Oldest son Kim Jong Nam says he’s against “hereditary succession” but that may be because he was passed over.
- As Ricochet contributor Bill Walsh points out below, the “Crazy Ivan” is a Naval term for a submarine maneuver, characterized by any number of sudden and sharp turns, used by submarine crews to “look behind” their boat using sonar.
- A series of photos of the Youlon River.
- Those iconic images of the Korean Peninsula from space are posted here.
- There are dozens of images of the giant unfinished hotel and the empty grand boulevards on Google images.
- When he’s not busy admonishing us about being too compliant towards mainstream media, Bernard Goldberg appears on CBS News, Fox News, and HBO’s Real Sports.
- John R. Bolton has served in a number of diplomatic roles over the years. His famous mustache also has it’s own Twitter feed.
- Bolton and Ricochet contributor John Yoo recently wrote an op-ed piece on START for The New York Times
- A South Korean naval ship was sunk back in March of 2010. Guess who the suspect is?
Music from this week’s episode:
- Let Yourself Go by James Brown
- Sea Cruise by Robert Gordon and Link Wray
The direct link to this week’s episode is here, but we’d really love it if you’d subscribe. Visit our Feedburner page for a number of other subscription options.
The Ricochet Podcast is sponsored by Encounter Books. Our featured title this week is How Barack Obama Is Endangering Our National Sovereignty by John R. Bolton. Available at EncounterBooks.com and at Amazon.com.
Published in General
If only Rob or James could have asked Amb. Bolton to run for president. :P
Did you guys really have to spend all that time talking about non-groping going through the airport?
59 minutes? That’s all? Does that mean we get another podcast later in the week? You really threw me with the podcast arriving on Tuesday. “There’s no podcast on Tuesdays!”
We had originally planned to release it tomorrow, but because we had John Bolton commenting on a breaking news story (a first for us!), we decided to release it today.
As for the running time, well, Rob had a plane to catch and James had a voice to preserve. We’ll make it up to you, we promise.
As for the running time, well, Rob had a plane to catch and James had a voice to preserve. We’ll make it up to you, we promise. ·Nov 23 at 5:18pm
Edited on Nov 23 at 05:20 pm
He should have spent more time preserving his voice.
Not to quibble, but it was artillery flying, not missiles. Though yes, technically, an artillery shell is a missile…
Everyone should be listening to the podcast, not to repeat myself. (Though I do.)
That said, Rob makes a mistake, I think, in describing a “Crazy Ivan” maneuver as an intentional provocation. I’m pretty sure it’s specifically a submarine maneuver developed by the Soviets to discourage subs from following in the dead sonar spot behind their screws by more or less pulling a series of rapid, hard turns (to shift the dead spot faster than the pursuing sub can maneuver), which puts both subs at the risk of collision.
U.S. submariners were impressed enough by the recklessness involved to dub the maneuver “the Crazy Ivan.”
Blue Yeti:
“Oldest son Kim Jong Nam was evidently not too happy about being passed over.”
I didn’t get that from the story:
“I [Nam] am ready to help him [Un] from outside of North Korea whenever he needs my help.”
Unless I’m missing something.
“I [Nam] am ready to help him [Un] from outside of North Korea whenever he needs my help.”
Unless I’m missing something. ·Nov 23 at 8:24pm
Right, Jimmy. Nam is something of a ne’er-do-well, and he lives in Macau, probably receiving enough of an allowance to pay for gambling, alcohol, and women.
As I commented on another thread, Rob Long’s ad-libbed comments on the Korean situation were bang on target. I’m very impressed. Rob, tell Lileks to calm down.
I retract every container ship joke I’ve ever made at Rob Long’s expense. I think Lileks was suffering from the enhanced testosterone associated with his muscle shirt wearing fiasco.
“Oldest son Kim Jong Nam was evidently not too happy about being passed over.”
I didn’t get that from the story:
“I [Nam] am ready to help him [Un] from outside of North Korea whenever he needs my help.”
Unless I’m missing something. ·Nov 23 at 8:24pm
Fair enough, Jimmy. I changed the wording of that note.
Every time I listen to Amb. Bolton speak, I find I really dig men with mustaches.
Immediately after listening to the Podcast I went to Amazon and bought John Bolton’s broadside on how Barack Obama is Undermining American Sovereignty. I read it this morning in about an hour. It is superb. I have recommended it on several other forums of which I am part. It was too easy to see Obama as a useful idiot or simply a tool. Now through this broadside and PJTV’s Barack Obama: Radical in Chief, I am developing a very clear image of the man. Thank you, gentlemen, for the recommendation. Its clarity and relevance provides a direction for the battle ahead.
I saw how short the podcast was, and listened today instead of Saturday. On Saturday, I need about 75 minutes.
Next time Rob is in Baltimore, he needs to call a fascinating friend of mine there….
I’ve already commented on the podcast topics on other threads.
Then cross-reference, you teaser you!
Blown away by Rob’s break-down of the Korean conflict. Where was Ricochet when I was majoring in political science?
Me too.
I had just read Jay Nordlinger’s brief appreciation of Rob right before listening to the podcast and was reminded again about how lucky we are to hear Rob’s analysis.
I appreciate your mini discussion on the new START treaty. Specifically the statements about the proponents being a bunch of ‘old guys’, Kissinger, Schultz ect. I had a brief online dialog with a guy pushing ratification of the treaty (Two Futures Project). He is for it as a step to achieve a future of zero nuclear weapons. Throughout the conversation, there was something always internally nagging me, my instincts were saying “there is something not quite right with his line of thinking.” He buttresses his argument with the fact that he has George Schultz and Henry Kissinger on his side. I believe you all identified what my instincts were saying. This is old thinking. We are not in a cold war environment, which many of the proponents made their careers, and are still thinking in that paradigm. It is funny because the argument I heard was that we need to stop thinking in a cold war deterrence mind set but yet they are posing a solution that is itself a cold war way of thinking to deal with the problem. Not sure if I can propose a new way in this new world though.