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This week, Ebola fever — catch it! (or don’t). Then, author/academic, and professional prognosticator, Alan Dershowitz. His new book Terror Tunnels: The Case for Israel’s Just War Against Hamas sets the tone for a discussion about Israel, Hamas, ISIS, and the politics of anti-semitism. Finally, when she becomes a he and then enrolls at a female only college, what happens next? The answer may surprise you.
Music from this week’s episode:
Isis by Bob Dylan
The opening sequence for the Ricochet Podcast was composed and produced by James Lileks.
Summa Cum Laude, EJHill.
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Good sign gag.
To Rob on the topic of the face masks on the Tokyo runway. Face masks are a regular part of Korean fashion, especially outdoor wear, due to the yellow dusts that sweep down from China seasonally. I would not at all be surprised that the weird couture face masks have some roots in the functional ones.
Peter, you let Alan off too easily. When he referred to “the hard Left of the Democratic Party”, you should have pointed out that the “hard Left” is the Democratic Party these days. If he’s not a fan of the leadership, what hope does he see of changing it? And how did vile liars like Pelosi, Reid, and Obama come to control the party to begin with?
If Rob, Peter, and James are the Professors, where is Gilligan, the Skipper too, the millionaire and his wife, the movie star (especially!) and Mary Ann?
Gilligan: Recently replaced Biden;
The Skipper: Obama appointed Commander of forces against ISIS;
The Millionaire and his wife: in the Cayman’s stealing money from the 99%
The Movie Star: fawning with Gwyneth Paltrow;
Mary Ann: on the farm being oppressed by Monsanto.
A great interview with Alan Dershowitz, one of the most persuasive, fact-based supporters of Israel today.
Rob! Mega-dittos doesn’t mean “I agree with everything you said.” It means I don’t want to waste your airtime lavishing you with the same praise all the previous guests and callers did: “Love the show, long time listener, first time caller, honor to be here, blah blah blah”.
James, thanks for making the important point that the Left is trying to move us from tolerance to approval, and for giving Peter some facts as to what is happening in Houston. Personally, I cannot wrap my arms around the concept of unisex bathrooms, and more importantly the fact that the city, country, state, or federal government will force me to “approve” them and take them off the table of “acceptable dialogue”. The first ten amendments to our Constitution look more prescient with each passing day.
Mr. Dershowitz fails to appreciate that being liberal in contemporary America is to embrace every dysfunctional idea served up by the left over the last fifty years. The man is actually a conservative – he just doesn’t know it yet.
In the matter of the Houston and the petition to repeal HERO, my understanding is that the lawsuit is just to delay the process of the repeal petition, because in Houston there is a very tight deadline, 30 days I believe, after an ordinance is passed to submit the repeal petition and have it validated. That deadline means that time is on their side. The city secretary who is responsible for this had already validated the repeal petition, but the mayor and city attorney intervened to make her reverse that validation. Clearly they didn’t think their actions would get national attention.
I actually voted for Annise Parker in the runoff election when she was first elected. She seemed more conservative than the other candidate. My understanding is that she has created an appearance of fiscal conservatism to make her more appealing to Houstonians.
Fun fact: I once helped wash Annise Parker’s car.
I love hearing actual discussions between smart people on different sides of the political spectrum.
Dershowitz mentioned that deal-killers for him are gay marriage, abortion, and healthcare for the poor. I can relate to him on the first two issues; it’s basically a distaste for the religious right that thinks homosexuality is a sin and abortion is evil in all cases. I wish there were some middle ground, like homosexual unions that aren’t called marriages, or abortion only before 12 weeks and with a grace period in case women change their mind. I don’t agree with the religious right or others who hold what I consider extreme positions on these issues, and think society would be better if it recognized and approved gay unions and tried as much as possible to discourage aborting human fetuses without condemning all abortions as if anyone has supreme moral authority in all cases.
Personally, I have and will continue to vote for Republican candidates who hold these sorts of social positions that I am not on board with, because I think there are way bigger fish to fry and I really don’t like the left-wing revolutionary snob vibe. However, for Dershowitz and I’m sure many others, they still vote D. I wish we could win guys like him over, and I hope it doesn’t have to get to the point that Iran starts WW3 for that to happen.
I agree that this is great point of clarification. Since I guess I am what you call a RINO, even though I think that joke is a symbol of a serious ‘purity test’ problem on the right, I have realized that I really don’t think it’s right for people to disapprove of gays. I don’t think there should be any laws forcing people to bake cakes or take photos of gay weddings, or speech codes or anything like that; but I do think it is wrong for people to even disapprove of homosexuality in and of itself. What I’m not sure about is how society’s laws could reflect an approval and recognition of gays, while not forcing anyone who disagrees to toe the line – or else.
Probably not or you wouldn’t be on this site. We joke that Rob is a RINO, but he’s really what is sometimes called a FiCon (Financial Conservative). Many people vote Republican who are generally conservative on issues related to taxes, budgets, and government scope, but generally liberal on so-called “social” issues like marriage and abortion.
I’d like to think that Republican voters in general can agree on the basic goal of limited, local government. But it may be that all we really agree on is that government expansion should slow down, rather than stop or reverse. Ricochet Members, on the other hand, do seem to generally desire smaller government.
As much as I respect Alan Derschowitz as a writer and political thinker and appreciate his support of Israel, I have to point out a glaring error on his part in his assertion that “Republicans can’t get nominated without the support of the Religious Right and can’t get elected with the support of the Religious Right.” Exactly the last Republican president to get elected got elected precisely because of his appeal to those of us who are the Religious Right. Bush’s 2004 campaign was the only Republican campaign I’d seen in 20 years in which the lines to the polls went around the block in my then-deep-red-state of Indiana. John McCain had a lifetime rating of between 66 and 100% from National Right to Life from one Congress to another but he failed to capitalize on it and he lost. Mitt Romney had a less than sterling record on life issues and he lost. Both of them treated us as the red-headed step children they’d rather not be seen with in public. Guess what? Enough of us didn’t want to be seen in public with them, either.
That’s Vol. 5 Number XXXVIII.
I think Ebola is a virus, Peter.
Opposition to gay marriage or abortion is not exclusively a matter of religious belief. It’s a shame the Perfessor doesn’t seem to realize this.
You know what? You’re right.
(As usual.)
Correction noted. Thanks.
Beautiful.
In a few years Ebola will be all but forgotten; we won’t survive transexuality.
Professor Dershowitz commented that President Obama risks ending up in History’s dust bin if he makes a ‘really bad deal with Iran’. I’m not sure his place there is contingent on that. He’s probably more than half way there and there’s a real risk that the garbage bag is so full it’s going to burst at the seams and spill all over the driveway before it gets to the bin and the lid is closed.
Hmm… Dershowitz… Dershowitz….
Sounds vaguely familiar, but the most distinguished graduate of Brooklyn College would of course be Milton J. Rosenberg, whose path from Left to Right was contemporaneous with my own.
Dershowitz spoke in Toronto about tracking online data to catch terrorists versus the founder of Reddit and was superb. He is a conservative though in my books. Rob was brilliant at explaining government medicine and Ebola. Exactly. I just made an appointment for my annual physical. Since I am middle aged, I am told I am only allowed to get one every three years. Plus I am booked for late February. So if you get Ebola, you might die before you get a doctor’s appointment.
Peter nailed it when he pushed Prof. Dershowitz on Jewish support for the Democrats in the face of their hostility to Israel. As much as the good professor protests that Democrats should not take the Jewish vote for granted, he made clear that he himself will stay loyal to the Democrats to the end. In effect, his own passionate advocacy for Israel is clearly secondary to his tribal Democratic identity. There could not have been a clearer, or more frustrating, example of the very phenomenon that Peter was asking about.
Where did this idea come from that Americans are panicking about Ebola? Sheesh.
Lileks on Pat Buchanan: “He’s a spent force”.
No, he isn’t. He may have no sway in the GOP establishment, but then again, neither does Sarah Palin. Buchanan is the godfather of the growing Alt-Right movement (which, unfortunately, does have a Jew-hater wing. Reading the comments section at Takimag can take your breathe away. At times, it seems like Stormfront with a style section). The Alt-Right is only going to grow as the GOP continues shenanigans like Mississippi, and people get fed up with “conventional” conservatism and look for other outlets.
One of my son’s best friends is an infantryman in Givati. They uncovered one of the tunnels. N. is a pretty blasé guy, but that really stunned him.
Excellent podcast! I listened to it while strolling on the promenade on a perfect day at the lovely beach of Netanya.
I think that grace period would be considered “middle ground” only for the women. For the fetus, not so much.