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 has something for everybody, as our three segments (we actually stick to format this week!) range from Mr. Potato Head (now Zir Potatx Head apparently) to Winston Churchill, with a detour to throw some rotten tomatoes at Smith College, and then on to a sequel of sorts to last week’s seminar, in which we point out how today’s leftist racism is the direct descendant of the “scientific racism” of the Old Confederacy. And as a special bonus, we manage to work in some vintage humor from Jay Leno at the very very end.
And we do this while beta-testing custom Three Whisky Happy Hour glasses that we hope will be offered through a Power Line swag store at some point soon. These glasses are, as we note at the beginning, very heavy in design, and can double as a self-defense weapon.
First up, we celebrate a major literary achievement, the republication, for the first time in 120 years, of the unabridged edition of Winston Churchill’s third book, The River War, his account of the reconquest of the Sudan in 1898. We explain how Churchill actually withdrew and suppressed the original edition, and published a much shorter version that people have been reading ever since. But the original edition is a masterpiece (we explain why he suppressed his own book), containing especially some bracing statements about Islam, among other things. This masterfully restored two-volume edition( same as the original) comes with copious annotations from editor James Muller, and it even contains the fold-out maps of the very rare original edition (which has always been hard to find, and costs many thousands of dollars to buy even if you could find a copy). We share a couple of favorite passages, and then move on to. . .
The disgrace at Smith College! As reported in, or all places, the New York Times. Was Nicole Hannah-Jones on vacation the day this news story came in the door?
Finally, we trace the trouble at Smith College (and everywhere else these days) to the fact that the Democratic Party in principle really hasn’t changed since its old days as the vanguard of the Confederacy. We put Alexander Stephens, the vice president of the Confederate States of America, into our witness box, and notice how much he sounds like a contributor to the 1619 Project. Drink up!
Subscribe to Power Line 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.
If I many be so bold as to offer a suggestion for the Jen Psaki segment: Circling Back.
We’re still playing around with titles and format. But maybe “Circleback Mountain”? “I just can’t quit lyin’ to ya.”
Every time I listen to the Three Whiskey Happy Hour I feel like my IQ goes up a couple of points. No, more like 10 points. Since I’m starting from about 80, that almost gets me to 100. I’m not sure if I’m doing the math right here, but your podcast is one of the few pleasures that keep me visiting Ricochet.
No, really. I barely graduated high school, and I really appreciate getting a graduate level course in history, economics, and bombast for free every week. Well, I guess not exactly for free, I think I actually pay Ricochet some amount of money for the privilege.
Except, I’m actually drinking gin and tonic to ward off the Covid. But every now and then I do splurge and buy some good Glenfiddich. I’m not rich like Lucretia, so not 18 year, only a lowly 12 year vintage.
Thanks guys. It is a real pleasure to listen to your banter every week.
Hey, wait a minute. I just realized I have some Pinch 15 year old whiskey. Maybe I should drink some of that…
As I listened to Steve describe Winston Churchill pulling in all the copies of his book that he could so it wouldn’t interfere with his political ambitions, I thought of “poor” Neera Tanden and her tweets.
At one point Lucretia, trying to explain how modern progressivism differs from liberalism, describes progressivism as “fascism”. Finally!
Conservatives should be taking every opportunity to call progressivism and cancel culture “neo-fascism”; but unfortunately most conservatives are locked into the culture of unilateral disarmament.
Just getting around to this episode today, and practically jumped for joy to hear that Muller FINALLY got River War in print. I think I first pre-ordered it from Amazon in the early 2000’s, and after about the first 5 years of delay they cancelled all the pre-orders.
But as for Steve’s mitigated vs unmitigated gall, I think the bon juste would be “unmitigated Islay.” Lucretia’s whisky neat is unmitigated, too.
Hope you’ll tune in to tomorrow’s (Saturday afternoon) live taping on Zoom!
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2021/03/announcement-live-podcast-saturday.php