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This week's recap starts off with a challenge to find the most unpronounceable scotch whisky you've never heard of (like Poit Dhubh, which is unavailable in the U.S.), plus a review of the 10 health benefits of drinking scotch whisky (some of which need a controlled experiment to validate properly, which we're happy to conduct ourselves).
Once suitably lubricated, we take a victory lap for our prescient discussion in last week's episode about the machinations of the 25th Amendment, which Speaker Pelosi vindicated with her proposal for the Promote Kamala Harris to the Presidency Commission.
From there we ponder whether New York Times columnist Bret Stephens wrote his own suicide note at the paper with his long column yesterday blasting the paper's 1619 Project. I can't imagine the Wokerati at the paper will sit still for this thorough exercise in self-criticism, as I've always understood that an unwritten rule at the Times is not criticizing your colleagues in print.
From there we resume our discussion of liberal education in a democracy, winding up with the recommendation that Americans need to read more Dostoyevsky.
By the way, we're completely open to suggestions for good whisky-potato chip pairings.
Steve Hayward
"Lucretia"
Discussion (2)
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I barely graduated high school. I hated school as it was taught back in the 70's. So I went to summer school, graduated a year early, and escaped as soon as I could. I think I was number 873 out of 875, but at least I was free.
That doesn't mean I didn't like learning, I've been an autodidact for all of my life. I'm pretty well read, and my earnings put me in the upper 10% of taxpayers.
That is all as a prelude to thanking you for providing graduate level courses on philosophy and economics that I could not access otherwise.
Seriously, thank you. My few remaining brain cells get stimulated and I think I actually learn something from each of your podcasts.
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The Darkness At Noon part reminds me of my brother-in-law. I was talking to him yesterday about pandemic policy. He's a smart guy, but it's clear to me his brain is not wired to figure out if leftist – collectivist policies actually work or net out. They have to work in his mind.
He works in a big teaching hospital as a neuropsychologist. He told me every single week the head of his department sends all them information on the pandemic. So obviously he thinks he's pretty smart about all of this and he should be because they have easy access to the stuff. Talking to him more, I found out he didn't know what the "R0" was which I find incredible. Then he got all dismissive about it like it was some wacky alternative measure. I mean there's hardly anything more important to consider in this mess, and then he's going to lecture me about how the Republicans are screwing up the pandemic. It's crazy.
That's the big pattern I see with him. Big government, lots of non-public goods, experts pushing everything around, well, this stuff just has to work.