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John lounges while Steve and Lucretia prepare to lunge.
This week’s episode covers more ground more quickly than a Josh Allen or Patrick Mahomes passing attack. Which the Philadephia Eagles won’t get to experience because they flopped in the first round of the playoffs last weekend, falsifying one of John Yoo’s predictions for 2024 that the Eagles would make the Super Bowl. We’re hoping his brief to the Supreme Court in the case of Trump’s place on the Colorado ballot is more on the mark.
We mostly skip over the fine points of John’s brief and take in a wider look at the entire pool of briefs filed in this case, wondering, for example, why the world needs an Amicus brief from the Ryan Binkley for President campaign. This prompts us into wider still observations about other current issues involving the administrative state, which somehow managed to bring up the Statute usually banned from mention on this podcast, John Locke, and the weaknesses of modern property rights theory.
Which ultimately brings us to the question heldover from the last two weeks: Nikki Haley and the Civil War. It is now apparent that Haley’s momentum in the nomination contest halted abruptly with her flub of the Civil War question, and alas some of our friends are still not getting the question right, such as our good friend Dan Oliver. We go over the matter from Square One, and try—not for the first time—to school John on the issue of prudence. Oh, and we also make our prediction for the New Hampshire and South Carolina primaries coming up.
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Did (once) loveable Lucretia really call Michael Mukasey ‘scum’?
None of us is perfect but if he’s scum then what words do I have left for Holder and our current AG?
God Save the Queen man makes me think of Freddy Mercury every time.
Ryan Binkley for President filed an amicus brief. Hmmm. . . .
Binkley was a character in the brilliant and much-missed comic strip Bloom County, drawn by Berkeley Breathed. In Bloom County, the Radical Meadow Party twice – in 1984 and 1988 – nominated Bill the Cat (“Ack! Tthhpt!”) for President of the United States, with Opus the penguin as his running mate.
Now that Binkley has filed an amicus brief in the Supreme Court, I want to know if it represents the opinion of Bill and Opus, and whether the Radical Meadow Party leadership endorses it.
In re property rights being an extension of the individual, the late, great Walter E. Williams often stepped through that argument when he guest-hosted the Rush Limbaugh program.
Professor Williams would start with the indisputable premise that his body was his own, and that no one had a right to his body without his permission. He then pointed out that whatever he created from the use of his body was just as much his property as his body. Whether intellectual property, such as writing, music, or art; or tangible physical property that he might create from materials he acquired, it was all as much his property as his own body.
I miss the brilliant and hilarious Walter E. Williams. Thank you to Lucretia for the stark reminder of his late greatness.
Fair enough, and I take it (mostly) back. I was thinking only of his (influential) support for the Patriot Act, which in my view has paved the way for some of the most egregious overreach by a government that is now quite clearly nothing more than an enemy of the people. But you are right to chastise me for my ill-considered statement—and I am glad he is on our/the right side on the ballot question.
Your description brings to mind Jefferson’s substitution of “the pursuit of happiness” for “property” in the Declaration; there is no doubt that Jefferson thought the right to property should be understood in exactly the way you outlined.
Great episode – I was curious: during the Civil War talk when the war powers of Lincoln were mentioned as a tool he used (since many others were Const restricted) to enact emancipation, where are those defined? Do they flow from Natural Right theory? Were they Congressionally defined or some other way?
I think a lot about war powers since – well since I sobered up to the amount of intervention, regime change, forever war, patriot act, police state, etc. talk has let me see that there need to be clearly demarcated lines for the exercise of this power.
So, where did these war powers come from?
Whew…my weekend has been saved! ‘L’ in Lucretia again stands for loveable.
I feel better now. Thanks.
I’m 2 mins in and Lucretia is already calling some Liberal an idiot, this is the main reason I listen in!
One year in college, my roommate had me join him in running on the Bloom County ticket for student government. I forget who he was, but I ran as Oliver Wendell Jones. A couple of forever seniors were Bill and Opus. The only plank I remember from the party platform was that we were going to hire telepaths to work class enrollment so you could enroll from home. That was the one we included, since we were big X-Men comic book fans at the time. That was all before online enrollment was a thing.
“Inside John’s Briefs!” This sounds rather risque. What is going on at the Three Whisky Happy Hour?
Looks like I’ll be citing you guys’ homeboy Harry Jaffa in this article I’m writing on Macbeth and Plato’s Republic.