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This week, we talk Chris Christie, then NRO editor Charles C.W. Cooke (an actual immigrant) stops by to discuss immigration, life in New York under new mayor Bill de Blasio, and the NSA. Finally, is life in the Golden State getting better or worse? We pontificate, you listen.
Music from this week’s episode:
The Only Place by Best Coast
The Ricochet Podcast opening theme was composed and produced by James Lileks.
Catch a wave, EJHill
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Number 198, one week ago was 196. That darn 10¢ and his 2+2=5 post.
197 was the PSA we did for the live show last week. A bit of a cheat, I admit.
Is FoodyDirect still a sponsor?
Yes, but as I understand it they’re likely to limit their sponsorship to holiday seasons, which are their main selling opportunities.
My family and I just grilled some FoodyDirect meat from Pat La Frieda’s, by the way, and my sixteen-year old son pronounced the hamburgers “the best I’ve ever tasted in my life.” Praise indeed.
Rupert Brooke! This is getting really weird, James, my high school senior term paper many, many moons ago was on “Rupert Brooke and the War Poets’
Your ‘standard rant’ about suburbs vs. city is the same as mine.
I also have ‘Acur-rite’ thermometers and a DVC share at Saratoga Springs.
I’m hearing ‘Twilight Zone’ music.
Yes, but as I understand it they’re likely to limit their sponsorship to holiday seasons, which are their main selling opportunities.
My family and I just grilled some FoodyDirect meat from Pat La Frieda’s, by the way, and my sixteen-year old son pronounced the hamburgers “the best I’ve ever tasted in my life.” Praise indeed. ·9 minutes ago
Yup, we had Memphis barbecue and lox and bagels for New Year’s Eve/New Year’s Day brunch, and we were very pleased. Especially the lox. Yummy.
Hey Welcome to Connecticut Charles. Sure its better here than NYC under their Commie mayor, but only Slightly better.
ok, Peter: I’m still listening to this podcast, but I have a comment regarding something you said fairly early on about Christie.
(I know you read Rick Wilson’s post below, which I think is spot on… so I won’t add my standard rant about why I so dislike Christie)
But, you said: “the federal government needs to be bullied.”
Well, I agree with you. But what about Christie makes you think he would go in and bully the federal government? My concern is that we’d simply be putting a bully in charge of the federal government. That’s a lot of force behind the bully, in my opinion, and Christie has not shown himself to be very solid when it comes to the conservative philosophy that really serves as a check on power.
So I agree with your statement, but wholly disagree with the idea that Christie is the man for that job.
Just finished listening to the interview with Charles Cooke. It was very interesting and good. I haven’t paid much attention to him at NRO before but that will change from now on. Hope he will be a guest at the podcast again.
Rob, I think you grossly mischaracterized Gates’ book and diminished its potential to be truly instructive to those in the defense community or who care about the defense of our country. I’m half way through his book, and while he does criticize Bush, Obama and those in their respective administrations, he is respectful and balanced in his criticism. Gates worked under 8 presidents, was CIA director, and a distinguished and indispensable public servant to our country is some of its most challenging times in modern history. I won’t let hyperbole resign him to a political hack. Read the book, because whoever told you that he describes Obama and Hillary as “the most craven low-lives possible” is so wrong it’s funny.
That’s a good tune to close…
On James new-invented CA rant: having done time in Tomorrow’s City Today* (after the bean field/orange grove razing, before the giant herd of dairy cows across the river were deported) I can say a lot of it either didn’t work all that well or took a really long time to get used to. An opinion, but it’s safe to say you could be forgiven for wanting out. Even if only to sleep on a floor in the Haight. Which is in San Francisco. Where everyone thinks they’re heavy business. As Frank Zappa used to say.
I see maybe they’re doing the future better other places. Hopeful, if true.
*And even a dull-wit smart-mouth turns that into Yesterday’s City of Tomorrow Today PDQ.
Thank you, Rob and Charles C.W. Cooke for giving a shout out to “The Sand Handle” a.k.a. the redneck Riviera a.k.a. the Gulf Coast.
I moved my family down here after 20 years in the DC area and couldn’t be happier. I am in Niceville (thankfully NOT an ironically named town) just north of the beautiful vacation spot known as Destin, about halfway between Pensacola and Panama City.
I have not given Rupert Brooke a sustained thought in decades, I thought I was the among few who had ever heard of him.
Was that as in “George Washington and the American Presidents” or as in “Andrew Jackson and the Indians”?