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Summer of Love

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This week, a special edition of the Ricochet Podcast. Peter Robinson and Rob Long (Lileks is cruising the Atlantic) are joined by The Weekly Standard's Andrew Ferguson and the great P.J. O'Rourke. You'll definitely want to check out P.J.'s new venture AmercianConsequences.com. As you would expect, this show a wide ranging ramble through the culture, but past and present, including but no limited to President Trump, Sheriff Joe, the Summer of Love (in '67), Burning Man, cars, Wall Street, Matthew Arnold's poem Dover Beach and more. And be sure and stick around after the show (or at least the part with Andy and P.J. for a rare conversation with just Rob and Peter (aka The Founders).

Music from this week’s podcast: San Francisco (Be Sure To Wear Flowers In Your Hair) by Scott McKenzie

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

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Hosts:
Peter RobinsonRob Long
Guests:
Andrew FergusonPOP.J. O'Rourke

Discussion (48)

  • Functionary@Functionary

    The referral to American Consequences was worth the price of admission. Wow! What a great magazine. And its free. Go there right now!

    PJ writes such funny stuff -- funny because it's true.

    "As far as I’m concerned, what Apple, Google, and especially Facebook sell are annoyance, noise, and distraction. I’ve got kids and dogs. Annoyance, noise, and distraction are unlimited free goods at my house. I don’t want to see photos of the adorable grandchildren of everyone I’ve ever met and videos of the cute things their cats do. Even less do I want to hear about the world’s dullest experiences and most banal thoughts – which people save up for their Facebook postings. If Facebook wants to make money from me, I’ll pay the website handsomely to go the hell away."

    The podcast was a joy to listen to. But I must say I was disappointed WRT the Arpaio pardon discussion -- all four of those elderly wits focused only on the personal and political aspects of "Sheriff Joe's" impending pardon; what about the legal issues?! He wasn't convicted of being an odious man (he is, as Jon Gabriel convincingly argues in The Conservatarians podcast). He was convicted of violating a court order to stop profiling Hispanics. But all this discussion in the flagship podcast about his general nastiness, and the political implications of Trump's imminent decision to pardon him is not relevant.

    Jon argues that a good case can be made that the judge was not being political, but was appropriately applying the law in convicting him and in denying him his constitutional right to a jury trial. But those are the proper questions, and should have been the focus of the discussion.

    Fortunately, Peter Robinson followed up later with a good post on those questions. I think he had a nagging feeling that the proper application of law is the issue; not whether "Sheriff Joe" is a good guy, or what Trump's base needs to satisfy its passions. Although those questions are interesting, that's not how we should be evaluating the decision to pardon.

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