Brooklyn

This year, opening day and Christmas came early. We’re blessed to have on two Hall of Fame guests: the great Thomas Sowell (get the new edition of his classic book Basic Economics on sale now). He discusses the economy, race, Ferguson, and Staten Island as only he can. Then, our good pal, law professor, author, and gaming connoisseur John Yoo stops by (on is way to CNN, of all places) to give us some expert opinion on the recent torture memo release as well as the protests in his hometown of Berkeley, California (where he steadfastly refuses to run for mayor). Also, the Sony hack, and are you married to a liberal? Ricochet member J Flei kisses and tells.

Music from this week’s episode:

I Can’t Stand The Rain by Ann Peebles

The opening sequence for the Ricochet Podcast was composed and produced by James Lileks.

Another home run, EJHill!

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There are 18 comments.

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  1. Hartmann von Aue Member
    Hartmann von Aue
    @HartmannvonAue

    Excellent work there E.J. Thomas Sowell in a Dodgers uniform- as promised.

    Lileks- Yes, questions, such as “Did you raise the food you ate today? No? Really, you mean you paid…oh, sorry, your parents paid someone else to raise plants and animals to feed you. That’s capitalism. Capitalism feeds you. Did you make the clothes you’re wearing? No? Did you mom make them? Oh, no, I see…you paid someone else to put clothes on your back so you would not freeze to death  in the Minnesota winter. Again, thank capitalism.” etc.

    • #1
  2. user_129448 Inactive
    user_129448
    @StephenDawson

    Hear, hear Dr Sowell! So many people who’ve never been in that situation opining on the force used in bringing down a huge man.

    To be honest, his are the first podcast remarks from Ricochet on this matter that actually make sense.

    • #2
  3. BuckeyeSam Inactive
    BuckeyeSam
    @BuckeyeSam

    Listening to Dr. Sowell discuss the Staten Island arrest, I’m going to guess that defendants don’t want to see him in any jury box.

    • #3
  4. user_86050 Inactive
    user_86050
    @KCMulville

    The argument that interrogation wasn’t necessary because we already had the name of the courier is no different from saying that the New York City police must be ignorant because the names of most of the criminals are already in the phone book. I mean, we already have the names!

    A similar argument is when someone argues that the president was made aware of a threat because so-and-so wrote him a letter or report. That presents only a fraction of the whole picture. Like anyone else in command, the president has a conga line of people advising him to do X, Y, or Z. With the level of the presidency, I’m sure each adviser warns that unless the president does as he urges, disaster will follow (even if it contradicts what the others are urging with the same passion).

    You can criticize the president afterward for trusting the wrong adviser, but too often the critics claim that the president “ignored” their advice. Before 9/11,  Bush was warned that Bin Laden was a threat, so the critics weave the theory that Bush must have some sinister, ulterior motive for not preparing for airplanes flying into buildings.

    People who foment such conspiracies (or release Senate reports assuming that techniques were unnecessary) are skipping over context and perspective to allege sins and accuse opponents of crimes.

    • #4
  5. user_157053 Member
    user_157053
    @DavidKnights

    The link to Acculturated is broken.  It is spelled correctly on the page, but not in the hyperlink itself.

    • #5
  6. user_494971 Contributor
    user_494971
    @HankRhody

    You know, when you announced that John Yoo was going to be on CNN instead, I was already queuing up a post on the member feed. Title: “Shame on Yoo!” It would have been a good one. “John Yoo has decided to speak to that critical demographic: people caught between connecting flights. Though, since they’ve already been through the TSA ‘enhanced patdown’ I expect they’ve already got well formed opinions on torture.”

    In all seriousness though, the media is the enemy. John Yoo is one of a very few people who’s opinions are worth listening to on this matter. I gotta figure that if he were to embargo CNN et al., CNN would lose more on the deal.

    • #6
  7. Blue Yeti Admin
    Blue Yeti
    @BlueYeti

    David Knights:The link to Acculturated is broken. It is spelled correctly on the page, but not in the hyperlink itself.

    Fixed! Thanks.

    • #7
  8. RPD Inactive
    RPD
    @RPD

    When I lived in San Diego every time there was rain there was flooding, because the drainage was lousy.

    I get what Rob is saying about the hack. You get torn about and activity you don’t approve of (the hack) being done to someone you don’t like (Sony)

    I miss the studio system. Hollywood was more or less organized like other companies with employees who came to work everyday. Now it seems like everybody is a free agent. Probably more lucrative for the winners, but it seems like there’s declines in quality and employment for everyone else.

    I had never realized Dr Sowell had been a Marine.

    Rugby is a contact sport, American Football is a collision sport key difference. Also pre-helmet football had the knack of killing people. didn’t Ricochet have a post promoting a book about how Teddy Roosevelt save Football?

    http://ricochet.com/archives/miller-time-how-football-beat-the-progressives/

    Good podcast as usual.

    • #8
  9. J Flei Inactive
    J Flei
    @Solon

    I very slow, I didn’t get Dr. Sowell’s answer to James Lilek’s question about a pithy response to someone who criticizes capitalism.  He said to ask if they saw anyone skinny in a poor neighborhood.  Meaning that capitalism works so well that even our poor have more than enough to eat?  But wouldn’t the response be that poor people are not skinny because of left-wing programs, and if there were only capitalist forces the poor would starve while the corporate lizard men tap-dance on their starved corpses?

    • #9
  10. Basil Fawlty Member
    Basil Fawlty
    @BasilFawlty

    “Stephen Dawson

    Hear, hear Dr Sowell! So many people who’ve never been in that situation opining on the force used in bringing down a huge man.

    To be honest, his are the first podcast remarks from Ricochet on this matter that actually make sense.”

    Amen. I found the stunned silence that followed his remarks to be telling.

    • #10
  11. Rightfromthestart Coolidge
    Rightfromthestart
    @Rightfromthestart

    James,  something for Nat’s friends to consider is Bill Whittle’s observation that in the waters between Cuba and Florida ALL the refugee boats are coming north, not 90-10 , not 75-25 but 100-0 . There are no dentists in Florida loading their families onto rickety rafts trying to get to Cuba.

    • #11
  12. Grendel Member
    Grendel
    @Grendel

    That’s Vol. 5 Number XLIV

    • #12
  13. Grendel Member
    Grendel
    @Grendel

    Dr. Sowell’s is right.  Mr. Lileks, tell your daughter to ask the scoffers to define “capitalism” (better bring a sandwich).  It quickly becomes apparent that they literally–literally— don’t know what they are talking about.

    • #13
  14. Grendel Member
    Grendel
    @Grendel

    J Flei: He said to ask if they saw anyone skinny in a poor neighborhood.  Meaning that capitalism works so well that even our poor have more than enough to eat?  But wouldn’t the response be that poor people are not skinny because of left-wing programs

    The war on poverty wasn’t supposed to alleviate poverty, it was supposed to eradicate it.  That the outcome is obesity only points up the inefficacy of Progressive policies and programs.

    • #14
  15. listeningin Inactive
    listeningin
    @listeningin

    Great podcast.  Totally fascinating and informative yet fun (as usual).  I just wanted to add that for the level of wisdom and insight represented, I was a bit appalled that in the discussion of the prosperity of the Victorian era, the impact of evangelical Christianity went without mention.  Even secular historians at the time (who held the kind of animosity towards Christianity that only comes with the hostility one has towards the dominant, competing narrative) had to acknowledge that the extreme changes in English society was largely a result of the ministry of John Wesley.  The power of his initial preaching (first initiated by George Whitfield) across the country was a significant part of the Great Awakening.  Whitfield took his preaching and the Awakening to the States.  Wesley had many ministries, but perhaps the most significant in terms of transforming England was the local small groups he formed out of people who had responded to his preaching.  Groups of twelve or less met weekly for intense spiritual accountability and support (the questions they asked each other were insanely personal…and kind of amazing).  They focused on the personal relationship each individual had with God and their moral choices for the week.  Every year for many decades (I don’t have my resources readily available to give precise details by scholars I trust), Wesley road his horse on a circuit around England visiting each of those regions and attending to the spiritual life of the people there. As the years went on as the people heard he was on his way to their town, they would line the roads at his coming and cheer.   The historians of the next era (the Victorian era) acknowledged that this was a major impact on the whole of society (a huge percentage of which were members of these small groups).  Wilberforce attributed the fact that he could implement such profound moral reform as a PM and ultimately the end of the slave trade was a direct result of Wesley’s ministry.   I get that conservatives don’t want to appear stuffy or committed to a particular religion, but intellectual conservative outlets like National Review have proven that one can represent the impact of religious faith as an aspect of rightly attributing cause and effect for a much better understanding of reality without imposing it on others.

    • #15
  16. listeningin Inactive
    listeningin
    @listeningin

    J Flei:I very slow, I didn’t get Dr. Sowell’s answer to James Lilek’s question about a pithy response to someone who criticizes capitalism. He said to ask if they saw anyone skinny in a poor neighborhood. Meaning that capitalism works so well that even our poor have more than enough to eat? But wouldn’t the response be that poor people are not skinny because of left-wing programs, and if there were only capitalist forces the poor would starve while the corporate lizard men tap-dance on their starved corpses?

    In countries where true poverty exists, one of the definitions of it is that the poor are starving and there is a genuine lack of resources to do anything about it.  I believe the argument here is that the fact that the American “poor” are so blessed as to have weight problems is due to the prosperity brought by capitalism.  Additionally, (and here I may be taking my argument beyond what Dr. Sowell was suggesting) it indicates that the problem in our “poor” communities is less about financial opportunity and more about moral issues such as single motherhood, multiple fathers in one family, and other poor choices that make financial prosperity well nigh impossible.

    • #16
  17. Bartholomew Xerxes Ogilvie, Jr. Coolidge
    Bartholomew Xerxes Ogilvie, Jr.
    @BartholomewXerxesOgilvieJr

    Is the RSS feed broken? This episode isn’t there.

    • #17
  18. Blue Yeti Admin
    Blue Yeti
    @BlueYeti

    I see this episode in iTunes and in the podcast catcher on my phone. Make sure you are subscribed to this feed:

    http://ricochet.com/series/ricochet-podcast/feed/

    • #18
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