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This week on the podcast, we’re, of course, all about Boston. Also, our own Mollie Hemingway on the media and the Gosnell trial and National Review’s Andrew McCarthy on Boston, the investigation, and what comes next. Also, what happens if the perp is right wing, the Thatcher funeral, and high fives all around.
Music from this week’s show:
Dirty Water by The Standells
You’re a wicked pissah, EJHill.
The Ricochet Podcast opening theme was composed and produced by James Lileks.
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“National High Five Day”?
It’s even better than that. It’s my wedding anniversary. So…uh…high five?
Rob, I am so in love with you. Not in a herd the sheep way mind you.
Robert Klein had a famous handshake bit that illustrates exactly what Lileks was talking about for those of you born after the 1970s. I couldn’t find a clip on YouTube, but if you really want to see it apparently it is available on the Midnight Special DVD (Live on Stage in 1973).
http://www.bloggernews.net/17518
Rob you are not alone. I felt the same way after I heard about the bombing.
When President Kennedy was shot, my first thought was “I hope it’s not a Jew. Or a Negro.”
But I was not yet sixteen at the time.
That’s a good answer. One we should all have at the ready to rebut such silly criticisms. ·10 hours ago
I am rooting for the defense on all the baby cases and capital murder on the adult.
The defense will say “Look folks, this limb-from-limb stuff is what late abortion is.” It is legal.
Also, what happens if the perp is right wing…
The perp can’t possibly be ‘right-wing” as explained here.
Stop playing their games. God man! Have some self-respect!
No Patriots jersey. Porque?
Mr. Lileks voiced discomfort at the thought of omnipresent video surveillance. What if these cameras were feeding to a 24hr looped recording in a locked cabinet that is only accessible through court order to investigate a crime?
The best thing about this podcast episode is that there was no talk about THE WEATHER (THE LEAST INTERESTING SUBJECT EVER IN THE HISTORY OF HUMAN COMMUNICATION) in the various participant’s locales. We like you guys, find you interesting and want to hear what you have to say. In the future can we just hit the topics right away? We’re American, not British. Let’s leave talking about the weather to people who are uncomfortable with one another in a social milieu IN ENGLAND, hmmkay?
Re Andrew McCarthy. (Good questions James!)
I think Andrew is full of it here. It will never come to an end and whatever they put into place will NEVER be removed. How can he honestly pretend he believes this? He’s living in fantasyland thinking we will ever go back, or else he’s lying.
Please, next time, respectfully call him out.
We need to be especially careful about making laws responding to outliers. We must be vigilant in assesing the freedom/safety dynamic. At this point, I’d rather be free than “safe”. Thank you.
“I hope it’s not something they can hang on us.” – Rob Long
They can’t do that unless you let them. Worrying about what others think is playing right into their hands. Stop, Rob. Please!
Imagine that the bomber watched every episode of Cheers. Are you going to think that has something to do with you? Are you going to think that anyone trying to make that connection is rational?
I’d like to repeat (and highlight) the argument Mollie offered to the silly argument that the Gosnell story proves why we can’t go back to making abortion illegal, because this is what happens when it’s illegal … just a second. It is legal. Now. And this happened while it was legal.
That’s a good answer. One we should all have at the ready to rebut such silly criticisms.
Andrew McCarthy saved me a longer reply to Rob’s question: the problem of widely disseminated bomb-making knowledge has been around for a long time.
Anyone else remember the furor over the Jolly Roger’s Cookbook? It spread by BBS and floppy disk, back in the ancient days before graphical browsers. The knowledge was familiar even then, as it was based on the Anarchist’s Cookbook from the early 1970’s. Governments and parent groups treated its spread as seriously as they now treat the “epidemic” of online bullying… with just as little success. All that information is still out there, just a Google search and two clicks away.
(A good chunk of the info is impractical, silly, or outdated; but there are also real and destructive capabilities described.)
Open societies have always needed to exist alongside the threat of low-tech terrorism, going back to ancient city-states with easily poisoned water supplies. The threat is always present; only the public awareness of the threat rises or falls.
Less comfitted. I’m not an absolutist on this. It’s just not a line I want us to broad-jump over.
Saucy! I specifically nixed the weather-talk due to a complaint, and STILL YOU COMPLAIN! ;) I can’t win.
Edited 1 hour ago
Some time ago someone showed me a book that helped boys become men. I thought it was a serious book until I saw this page:
“Don’t lean your head into your friend’s head or neck; this will come off as a nuzzle.”
Another acceptable variation: right hands conducting a proper, firm handshake, and a shoulder-to-shoulder back slap with the left hand.
This avoids the “how high on the back does the second hand go” issue. No no no, see: one hand is still grasped in the hand shake in front, while free hand is back slapping.
Visual aid:
I want to take slight issue with Peter’s claim, early on, that the Democratic candidates for NYC mayor are the only candidates that matter. This has not been true for 20 years and is not true this year either (although I understand why people have this impression).
This year is looking like a complicated 4-way race between a Democrat (Christine Quinn, Anthony Weiner, and Bill Thompson are the front-runners), Republican former MTA chairman Joe Lhota (although there are other significant candidates running for the GOP nomination), former Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrion (a Dem who wanted to run in the GOP primary, but will be on the ballot as the Independence Party candidate and could peel off some votes from the Dem), and Public Advocate Bill DeBlasio (a liberal Dem who will likely run on the Working Families Party line and peel off a bunch of votes from the Dem nominee).
So, you see, it is rather up in the air. Moreover, the lefty candidates have, with the help of the NYTimes, been competing with each other for months to out-smear Ray Kelly and the NYPD — I’d be very surprised if Boston changed that.
When President Kennedy was shot, my first thought was “I hope it’s not a Jew. Or a Negro.”
But I was not yet sixteen at the time. ·7 hours ago
When I heard about Boston, my first thought was “I hope its not some guy in a Ron Paul t-shirt.”
Edited 26 minutes ago
Also, never put a hand on the other man’s buttocks, as the man on the left is coming dangerously close to doing. Might be even worse than nuzzling, but it’s a tough call.
Edited 26 minutes ago
Also, never put a hand on the other man’s buttocks, as the man on the left is coming dangerously close to doing. Might be even worse than nuzzling, but it’s a tough call. ·6 minutes ago
Dude, that’s 90 dollars from Medicare for me. Now if both hands are on the shoulders…
First, Blue Yeti, the sound quality this week was much improved. We complain when it’s not good so it’s only right to point out that it was great this episode.
Second, the snippet of the late, great Pat Summerall at the fade was welcome. His years with Tom Brookshier 1974-80 (pre-Madden) on CBS were, to me, the best. Their off-the-air escapades were legendary too. CBS likely separated them so they didn’t die at some watering hole on Greenville Ave. in Dallas on a Saturday night leaving them without an announcing team the next afternoon.
Finally, when John Kennedy was shot I was ten years old. I said to my father, “I’ll bet it was some dirty commie!” Turned out I was correct.
Doctor, the sad truth is that if Hugo Chavez had been revealed as a Boston Bruins fan you would have felt compelled to say a few nice words at the funeral.
I would go farther (or further) re “the end” of this war. I don’t think there will be an end, ever. There will be periodic mayhem, and we will just accept it as “normal.”
Re Mr. Lileks’ weather, I just checked this, and Minneapolis is about as far north as Montreal, so no wonder you got that kind of weather; it’s kind of assumption of risk.
Mollie, can you point to a time or place where the ‘American model/ideal’ of ‘neutral’ journalism has actually been practiced? If not, isn’t your quest to bring this about by naming and shaming somewhat… quixotic?
Come on – join the wreckers! You know you want to…