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Another busy week (is there any other kind?) and our intrepid podcasters cover it all: is The New York Times‘ 1619 Project the definitive (new) history of the United States? Spoiler alert: no. Hoover Institution and self-titled Grumpy Economist John Cochrane joins to discuss the possibility of a recession, and later, our own (well, by marriage) Seth Mandel (OK, he also edits The Washington Examiner Magazine) stops by to discuss the President’s uh, unusual language when discussing members of the Hebrew faith, and why Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar really do employ anti-Semitic tropes on a regular basis. Finally, should we all start eating plant-based “beef”? Our podcasters debate and their opinions may surprise you.
Music from this week’s show: All That Meat And No Potatoes by Louis Armstrong
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My argument was that slavery should not be taught in schools as “a vile, reprehensible blight on U.S. history”, as you had stipulated, but as a feature of world history; in which context the record of the United States is better than average.
When progressives try to teach the former approach, I argue that conservatives should oppose them — rather than work in parallel to besmirch America and destroy patriotism.
I often refer to progressivism as a religion. However, that does not mean impervious to facts, just resistant to them. Remember how some Stalinists were disillusioned by the show trials; and still more by the Hitler-Stalin pact.
The Wiki article is worth reading just to see what BS their terms are. They include prison work, underage marriage, and underpaid illegal aliens.
Thomas Cochrane (the model for Jack Aubrey) would be pretty cool, too.
In the early 19th century, the Comanche were the most effective light cavalry in the world. In the time that an American or Texan could fire and reload, he would be feathered with a dozen arrows. However, their military technology stood still, while the Americans’ constantly improved, and eventually they were hopelessly outclassed. (See Second Battle of Adobe Walls, 1874.)
Recognizing this, their paramount chief, Quanah Parker — his mother was a white captive — who had been at Adobe Walls, brought the tribe in. He would ride out after any recalcitrant bands and drag them in to the reservation by the ear.
I heard about how impressive the Comanche were; not so much about how they would have eventually become outgunned. Still, outgunning a Texan with bow and arrows is pretty darn impressive.
Quanah Parker seems to be about one of the most impressive Indian Chiefs of all time. My respect for him only grows now that I know that he figured out that he had to negotiate from a position of strength and quick before he lost his advantage.
He came to live the life of a civilized man in most respects, except he refused to give up his eight wives.
Incidentally, reading about the Parker family, I suddenly recognized the inspiration for the classic John Ford Western, The Searchers.
Here’s my answer to any discussion of slavery in America’s past: “I don’t care anymore”.
It’s been more than 150 years. Nobody now alive was at any point a slave in the United States. Nobody now alive has owned a slave in the United States.
I very much doubt if anyone now alive had a parent who was a slave, or owned a slave.
It’s over, it’s past, it’s not coming back. Get over it.
At about 36:30, Peter asks what I would have taken to be a rhetorical question: “Which side [Republican or Democrat] is likely to be better for the economy in the long run?” Acknowledging that, as one dismal scientist once observed, “in the long run, we are all dead,” the question nonetheless seems a fair one, and one at which I’d have thought a Hoover economist might take a swing. Your guest demurred, making him one very circumspect curmudgeon indeed. I am no economist, but it’s hard to envision, in the current political climate, a Democrat hewing closer to the free-market line than our current very imperfect Republican. A failure of imagination on my part, perhaps.
I enjoyed the discussion of fake meat. I’m ambivalent about food, just so long as I get my three or four thousand calories a day and the process is quick and convenient. I was a vegetarian for a decade in my youth, back when I was child-free and thus had the free time and disposable income to make healthful vegetarianism practical. I was never strident about it, and I outgrew the novelty. I’ve owned a farm, and the thing I miss most about it — no, the only thing I miss about it — is the fresh meat and dairy, but I will happily eat synthetic meat, when and if it approaches the taste, cost, and nutritional quality of the real thing.
But I appreciated James’ modest defense of livestock (about 68:30), and will echo it: it just seems sensible that less killing would, most other things being equal, be a nice thing.
Which brings me to the late great Charles Krauthammer, who wrote a few years ago:
I will continue to enjoy my hamburgers, etc. But Mr. Krauthammer was, in my estimation, something of a giant; I won’t dismiss his thoughts lightly.
That is the key point, to me. I don’t see it happening any time soon. Heck, even in many sci-fi shows set in the distant future they comment/complain about how synthetic meat just isn’t the same. (That’s fiction, of course, but still…)
Unpopular opinion: I think Beyond Burgers are pretty good.
it depends where you buy it?
it’s also beyond expensive?
When can we just be humans? — Shelby Steele
Might also depend what you’re used to. I once brought vegetarian hot dogs to a picnic so a friend could try them. He thought they were great, but he’d never eaten REAL hot dogs. I couldn’t even choke down a single bite.
That was a bit on Parks & Rec, when Rob Lowe’s aggressively vegetarian health nut character was making veggie burgers for everyone – a recipe he was very proud of, that he’d been “Perfecting” for years.
Everyone tried it, agreed it was very good, but not as good as on Swanson’s burger. Then they got Rob Lowe to try one of those, and he wasn’t a vegetarian anymore.
Ooooh! Get that guy: Duncan White. He’s written a book titled Cold Warriors: Writers Who Waged the Literary Cold War and reviewed by David Pryce-Jones here.
FYI Kyle Bass is a very smart guy. There are a bunch of hedge fund guys that think Trump is doing the right thing.