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Michael Bloomberg is going to heaven, the UN is getting warmer (just ask them), Charles Murray is dispensing indispensable wisdom (courtesy of his new 
book The Curmudgeon’s Guide To Getting Ahead). Later, what will happen in the Crimea and Ukraine, the Obama administration cares more about regimes than the common man, Troy on the Charlotte meet-up, and should a conservaive accept food stamps? Let us know what you think in the comments.
Music from this week’s podcast:
It’s A Mean Old Man’s World by Dinah Washington
The Ricochet Podcast opening theme was written and produced by James Lileks.
Get off our lawn, EJHill!
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Now that’s impressive EJ.
Curmudgeon is my schtick. Get your own and get off my lawn!
Wow. EJ can do muppets, too. This weird talent knows no bounds.
It’s difficult to imagine that liberal politicians who so recklessly engage in lawlessness at home would hold foreign obligations sacrosanct. The Obama Administration might indeed care enough about NATO to honor that alliance if tested, but that loyalty should not be assumed.
Most American voters couldn’t place Estonia on a map. That apathy might provide Democrats with political cover (from their own, if not from Republican voters) if the President decides to shirk our commitment to NATO.
And, remember, a generation has grown up since the Soviet Union collapsed. Politics revolves around perception, not reality. How important is NATO to the current American electorate?
Most Americans don’t even know what street Nato is on.
STATLER ROBINSON: These Ricochet podcasts aren’t half bad.
WALDORF LILEKS: Naw, they’re ALL bad!
Just have to put in a plug for a book Charles Murray wrote back in the 1980s, probably the best book I’ve ever read on the Space Program, “Apollo: The Race to the Moon”.
In 2009 we bought our first new car in 24 years. Our 13 year old Volvo wagon gave up the ghost after 250,000+ miles. If anything qualified as a clunker, this was the one. We had spent many times the $5,000 purchase price in duct tape and rubber bands to keep the beast going. When we bought it, we had two kids in prep school and then college. And doggone it, I wanted to be one of the few ancient Volvo wagon drivers who was conservative! Anyway, the One announced the Cash for Clunkers Program just a few days after we purchased the car. I remember being thankful that I didn’t have to wrestle with the dilemma of whether to take advantage of Cash for Clunkers. Would I have been able to tell the dealer that I would not be taking the (as much as $40000) subsidy? Would the dealer have let me?
Any website announcements?
Nice Podcast, this trio has flavor.
Great music too.
Jürgen Habermas made an argument years ago that holds renewed currency in light of recent events.
The faults of his argument, especially with regard to the character of international law (it is not a law at all, and depends first upon the willingness to exercise hard power where soft power proves ineffective) and with regard to the United Nations (multi-national alliances are important, but the Security Council is too compromised to offer a coherent and consistent standard) are on display in the current crisis.
If an overly idealistic neoconservatism can be said to have been refuted by the trenchant conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, then the optimistic liberal internationalism of Habermas et al., I think, can be said to have been refuted by NATO and the UN’s paralysis in Syria and Crimea. Strict Realism, too, seems to come up wanting when examining the impact of Russia’s recent efforts in its near-abroad on Russian domestic politics (why is the action so popular? why is it backed and pursued by some wealthy interests who could potentially lose the most if sanctions were rigorously deployed?). Strict Idealism, meanwhile, was always laughable–except if you were employed at State.
Mr. Lileks, isn’t it the non-rich who are getting played? The rich will just go along fine.
Also, aren’t there a few nukes hiding in Ukraine?
Paris: I’m unsure which of my caffeinated babblings you’re referencing, but yes, and yes, and fat lot of good it will do them; nothing enflames the international community these days like self-defense.
I was wondering about that too. I think it’s mainly single woman that are getting played.
Yes, I take mild satisfaction in proofing your podcasts; at 40:19, you say “so the upper class is getting played.” I think you mean’t the “lower-class,” although, eventually (and even sooner ;-) the upper class will be paying for it’s non-judgmental ways.
Re the nukes, I wanted to ask: didn’t Ukraine hide a few a a basement somewhere when they were supposedly dismantled/removed? Hope so–I think…
Speaking of Ronald Reagan telling the truth about the Soviet Union: My favorite memory of the Reagan years was Reagan’s address to the nation about the bushwhacking of the KAL007 airliner. Reagan said,
That last sentence “Soviet military planes are not so equipped, because that would make it easier for pilots who might want to defect” beautifully points beyond even the Soviet Union to lay the blame for this tragedy directly on the Soviet system itself.
Troy nailed it with his observation that Obama et al are concerned with the world’s leaders and not its people. It’s in the liberal genes. To them, people are merely pawns to be moved around the world’s chessboard by their betters. That government rules and people follow is socialism’s fundamental building block.
Listening to Murray on the themes of cultural and community decline is depressing. There is just no way to get it back save some form of the Benedict option.