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How Sweet It Is

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First, apologies to all of our faithful listeners for being 24 hours late with this edition of the Ricochet Podcast -- we were felled by technical issues yesterday with the first half of the show. But this one is worth the wait: first, Original Cast Member Rob Long is back from making TV great again and has been seated in his rightful place in the host chair (from Miami Beach, no less). Then, NYT columnist Ross Douthat stops by to talk about his thoughtful new book To Change the Church: Pope Francis and the Future of Catholicism (yes, of course you should pre-order it). It's a ruche discussion about faith, religion, and Pope Francis. Then, back to more secular matters with the always current Byron York, who brings us up to speed on the Mueller investigation,. the Omnibus spending bill, and some Stormy weather predicted for Sunday night. Uh oh.

Music from this week's show: Melancholy Serenade by The Jackie Gleason Orchestra

Hosts:
James LileksPeter RobinsonRob Long
Guests:
BYByron YorkRoss Douthat

Discussion (14)

  • Scott Wilmot@ScottWilmot
    I was disappointed with the interview with Mr. Douthat. I think the use of liberal and conservative with respect to Catholics is wrong - the designation should be heterodox or orthodox, and there was too much time spent on this in my opinion. Mr. Douthat finally got to mentioning the word truth when he said the debate in this pontificate boils down to how much does truth matter or does the Church adapt to the culture. (This would have been the better answer to Mr. Long's first question on why does the Catholic Church matter - because she contains the fullness of truth. Oh well.) Adapting to the culture will just bring us closer to the Episcopalians and one can see the rot there as described by Mr. Long.
  • Eeyore@Eeyore

    Okay, you've totally out-snooted me. Even the thesaurus doesn't help. How does "a strip of pleated lace, net, muslin or other material for trimming or finishing a dress" pertain to a discussion of faith, religion and Pope Francis.

    BTW, Rob looks like "Why am I just on the Trillion Dollar bill. I should be on the Quadrillion Dollar bill."

  • SParker@SParker

    Peter,

    You're conflating Hamilton's "a well-managed national debt is a blessing"* with the US banking system, which was long notable for way too many banks, most of them way undercapitalized. There was some hope in the 80s and 90s that reforms would lead to better banking days, which is pretty funny in retrospect. Somehow the banks have always figured out a novel way to screw themselves every 5 t0 10 years throughout our history. We're probably due.

    *Great Britain was the model (see The Sinews of Power). Compare France at same period. In a specie-strapped country like the early US, reasonably sound government bonds have the additional benefit of being useful as a form of money.

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