The Ricochet Podcast - That's No Lady

Episode Date: October 8, 2014

It’s always great fun when our good pal Pat Sajak stops by for a visit, and today’s show is no exception. Along with America’s most beloved TV icon (his words, not ours), we cover the latest in ...communicative diseases, Leon Panetta and the plethora of books coming from the Obama administration, Pat’s memory of Joan Rivers, baseball (pretty sure this one’s a Ricochet Podcast first)... Source

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Starting point is 00:00:55 ticketmaster.ie hi wait a minute i'm really telling i'm lonely. I wondered if you wouldn't mind buying me lunch. Wait, wait, hold it. You can't come. Gregory, this will... George, George, George, George. It's Michael Dorsey, okay? Your favorite client. How are you?
Starting point is 00:01:18 Last time you got me a job, it was at the maid. Yeah? Swear to God. Michael? Yeah. Oh, God, I begged you to get some therapy. Activate program. More than our share of the nattering nabobs of negativism. Well, I'm not a crook. I'll never tell a lie.
Starting point is 00:01:35 But I am not a bully. I'm the king of the world! I'm the king of the world! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall. It's the Ricochet Podcast with Peter Robinson and Rob Long. I'm James Lilacs, and today we're lucky enough to have the whole show with Pat Sajak. That's right. Who knows where this one's going to go? Let's have ourselves a podcast.
Starting point is 00:02:17 There you go again. Yes, it's the Ricochet Podcast, number 6,233. If you missed the other 6,000, well, let me bring you up to speed here. Rob, Peter, and myself eventually all got connected on Skype. It took us 6,000 different podcasts to do it. And sometimes it feels like you're wandering around an empty superdome with all the lights off trying to find a socket for the one little plug that you have. But all is fine. All is well.
Starting point is 00:02:40 We're all together. It works. And we're here to bring you this. But we're not alone. We're also brought to you, of course, by Harry's. Harry's Shave. For the finest shave at any price, at the best price, go to harrys.com and enter the coupon code RICOCHET.
Starting point is 00:02:52 We're also brought to you by Encounter Books for about, oh, I'd say 15% off any title. Yeah, you can go to encounterbooks.com and use the coupon code RICOCHET. This week's featured title is a broadside, Freedom From Speech by Greg Lucchiano. More about that in just a bit. And I'm here to tell you about why you should pay for all this stuff. And believe me, you should, because you're getting just magnificence for free. For absolutely nothing, Rob Long and a panoply of disembodied incorporeal voices will come to haunt and guilt you, this being October. Rob?
Starting point is 00:03:22 Well, I think haunt is a better term than guilt. We don't want to guilt anybody. If you are a member of Ricochet, we thank you. We are honored to have you as members of Ricochet alongside us, and we are pleased that you are continuing as a member. If you are listening to this podcast and you are not a member of Ricochet, you might be wondering what all the fuss is about. Please go to ricochet.com.
Starting point is 00:03:41 Check us out. We would love to have you be a member. You get all of these great podcasts in one special feed. If you're listening to this podcast and you're not getting it on a special feed, like on your phone or a smartphone or something like that, the best way to get it is to subscribe. That way you get everything. And the best way to figure out how to subscribe is to become a member of Ricochet. But don't take my word for it. Here is a member, a pitch that comes from a land of expensive chocolate
Starting point is 00:04:09 and expensive watches. Hello, it's John Walker in Switzerland. Have you had it with the internet, the flame wars, the gratuitous obscenity, the ad hominem arguments? There is a better way. There is a better place. Ricochet.com costs $5 a month,
Starting point is 00:04:34 but what you get is entry to a community of talented, articulate people where you can discuss almost anything, and your posts and comments are read by influential politicians and talk show hosts preparing their shows. Plus, you get podcasts from brilliant people all around the world filling in the background to the headlines. There's nothing like it anywhere on the internet. Join us. Join the conversation. Ricochet.com. Well, that's pretty good.
Starting point is 00:04:58 I mean, all the way from Switzerland, from the land of secret banking. And another caller makes the case to join just for the comments, but you stay for the member meetups. When the stand miniseries was first aired, one of my brothers completely rearranged his work schedule so he wouldn't miss a minute. His wife was confused and wondered at his motivation. And he explained that he was finally getting to meet some old and dear
Starting point is 00:05:24 friends. And that's how I feel whenever I go to a Ricochet meetup. I like that one. That's very sweet. I agree. So we would like to thank those two members for making a lovely pitch for us. We'd also like to thank our newest Mrs. Thatcher-level member, Mike H., Aaron, Victor, Dan. I'm sorry.
Starting point is 00:05:42 Mike H., Aaron, Victor, and then comma, Dan, Wiggish Sensibility, C. Diddy, and Dave L. Thank you for joining. If you are not a member, what are you waiting for? Join Ricochet today. Unlike The Stand, however, a Ricochet meetup does not have the opportunity for transmission of Captain Trips or any other deadly disease. It's been a long time since I've read the book, The Stand, and the only people that I remember actually is sort of a vague collection of good guys who go to Vegas and then Randall Flagg.
Starting point is 00:06:09 Was that his name? The walk-and-do who strove the lands with the specter of death behind him, a character that intersected with about 48 other Stephen King novels. They're going to make a movie of it. They're going to make two movies of it. And frankly, this is a pretty good time because this is a time where people are looking around the world and saying, hmm, the idea of a massive globe-scouring pandemic isn't that ridiculous. It isn't that silly. And this Ebola thing, you've got to say one thing about it. Of all the diseases to come along, it's one of the shortest with the most vowels.
Starting point is 00:06:39 And we all know how expensive vowels are. And if there's anybody actually who does know how expensive vowels are, it's our good friend Pat Sajak. Welcome back to the podcast, sir. And Pat, say something nice to make Peter Robinson talk. He's been sullen and silent the entire time. It's nice to be, it's nice to be welcomed. Have I missed anything of note? Well, I think you know the answer to that, Pat. But it's charming that you still ask. Pat, can we ask what region, what country, what state region are you in right now? Wow. The state region is I'm in California, actually.
Starting point is 00:07:14 I'm in Los Angeles in the beautiful San Fernando Valley. Of course. I think you're required to say it's beautiful. I believe so. I think it's on the welcome to the beautiful San Fernando Valley line, a sign that you get as you come in on a four or five. Yeah, I'm here.
Starting point is 00:07:29 And, and so it's early in the morning, but, but happy to be here with you guys. Pat, do you remember, I mean, I'm in New York right now.
Starting point is 00:07:36 This is, this is Rob, by the way. But do you remember when they started putting those little Purell dispensers in front of every – the entrance of every soundstage and every office in Hollywood. Do you remember like roughly – remember that moment where suddenly there weren't any and then suddenly they were everywhere? Having worked in Hollywood, they were long overdue. I know that. I don't know. They just started pop i started seeing them you
Starting point is 00:08:07 see them in hospitals and and then then i started seeing them in grocery stores and yeah now i see see them in studios i'm not i'm not quite sure what i'm supposed to do with that information as i walk in like you're about to meet three players who are going to play hangman but first you know you have to disinfect yourself that's right i mean uh so so i guess that that's my segues into this question is is it has in in the i'm not there right now but it is a land of hypochondriacs um how how are how are the people in hollywood handling the ebola scare well i i just hang on while i use a little purell on my hands here. I just got here actually the other day, so it's a little difficult to answer that question. I would certainly suspect that the dispensers will multiply in great order.
Starting point is 00:08:59 But yeah, we're that way anyway. So anything to make it worse will make it better for us, I guess. Pat, are you worried about it at all? No. I was in Liberia, actually. Not many people can start a sentence that way, but I was. I'm wiping my earphones with Purell right now. That's the bad news for you guys.
Starting point is 00:09:23 The good news is it was about 27 years ago. So then it was just a terrible, corrupt place. Now it's a terrible, corrupt place with this horrible scourge going on. The incubation time, Pat, is 27 years
Starting point is 00:09:39 and six months. Sorry. You know, I'm feeling a little queasy. Well, you know, there's nothing, obviously nothing funny about this subject, but it is, you know, we're in this, we're in this strange era of names we hadn't thought much about before. You know, we wake up and see what's going on with ISIS and Ebola and all these words that we didn't know existed a while ago.
Starting point is 00:10:04 Yep. Pat Peter here. ISIS, Ebola. We have a midterm didn't know existed a while ago. Yep. Pat, Peter here. ISIS, Ebola. We have a midterm election coming up. And here's my question for you. How good was Joan Rivers really? You know, she was, she was. Actually, that is my question.
Starting point is 00:10:16 I've been meaning to ask you ever since, ever since she died. What was it? Three weeks ago now. She was terrific. You know, when I, uh, uh, when I was out working at local television in, uh, in Los Angeles, um, uh, and then, uh, then I started, uh, then I started doing a wheel of fortune and I left local TV. I left the weather and I went out to my parking lot at NBC where I did the local news and where I would be doing wheel of fortune. And there was a, uh, uh, there was a note on my windshield.
Starting point is 00:10:45 It was from Joan, whom I had never met, just wishing me luck with the new show, which was pretty sweet. Yeah, and that's the kind of woman she was. I'll tell you that she came to our wedding reception. We got married in the East, but we had a reception out here a short time afterwards. And she was invited. She was nice enough to come with her then very young daughter. This was 25 years ago. And she brought no gift.
Starting point is 00:11:05 And she said, she said, it's Hollywood. It's not going to last is what she said. So why bother? 10 years, 10 years later for our 10th anniversary, received a package at the house and it was from Joan. And it said, so I was wrong. And, and to top it off, it was a used toaster. So, you know, I'm very sad, as a lot of people were, that we lost her,
Starting point is 00:11:34 but especially sad because our 25th is coming up in a couple of months, and I would love to know what she would have sent for that if she might finally have been. But she was quite good. She was, at some point along the way, she really decided that she was kind of untouchable in what she could get away with. She was really liked within this Hollywood community and was really rough on it. I mean, her shows on the E! Channel
Starting point is 00:12:01 were just brutal about things she would say about people and she seemed to be able to get away with it. She was not, you know, Don Rickles got away with that kind of stuff. But there was certain, a kind of benign quality to Don. You know, he'd always end his act, Rob, with that, you know, we all love each other. Yeah, that's right. We're all kidding. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:12:18 Joan never did that. Right. Yeah, but she was caustic and decided she could get away with it. And, you know, she wasn't quite that way. She wasn't that way originally. I don't exactly know in her evolution where that came, but she somehow managed to do that. And she, you know, but there was a self-mocking attitude, too. I mean, she had so much work done on her person that her person, uh, that that could be a, you know,
Starting point is 00:12:45 you could look at that and go, but she was the one who went, you know, so it was okay. Uh, so I, I miss her. She was, she held a special place, um, in this town and did, and did it in a way that I don't think anyone else has. How would you compare her as a comedian, as a figure in Hollywood with Lucille Ball, whom you also, well, I know you at least met her once on a golf course. I've heard you tell that story. She was, I'd like to hear that story because I never golfed with Lucille Ball. But anyway,
Starting point is 00:13:12 No, didn't you tell? I did run into her someplace. It just happened not to be in a golf club, and I was attempting to humiliate you on the podcast. I've done so. Taking the next flight to Liberia. Yeah, it's hard to compare the two because Lucy was a mogul as much as a comedian. And I just think as far as – I don't know what a comedian is.
Starting point is 00:13:38 I mean Lucy was a comic actress and was really good at it. I've heard you said that Lucy LeBall was not funny, whereas Joan Rivers, as best I can tell, never stopped being funny. Yeah, I've heard that. And I didn't know Lucy at all, although I call her Lucy. But I'm told that. She was not particularly funny sitting around the office and that kind of thing because she was a businesswoman. Joan was.
Starting point is 00:14:03 Joan was pretty much the same on the air and off. I mean, if she's sending you a 10-year used toaster, that tells you something right there. So they're very, very different people. But just as far as being funny, this is someone you want to be in a room with and just laugh your head off. It would be, it would certainly be Joan. So, Peter, can we talk about politics for a minute? If you'd like, if you insist. You know, Peter, you know, secretly, maybe not so secretly, Peter really wants to be in show business, don't you, Peter?
Starting point is 00:14:38 I think. Of course I do. Well, now what would you, what do you think you would do? What would be your specialty? I think I would be a transvestite. That's your specialty? I think I would be a transvestite. That's your specialty? I think I would be a music hall transvestite in England
Starting point is 00:14:51 in about 1946 or 7, when people really needed cheering up. That, if I could redesign the whole thing... I just, I cannot... I'm doing it to keep going until you start to scream for mercy, Rob. I cannot.
Starting point is 00:15:06 E.J. Hill, there you go. Knock off for the rest of the day. Peter Robinson in British Music Hall drag. With a huge bosom shell for the large gray hips. What's so amazing, Peter, is that your answer was so fast. You've been waiting for years to be asked that question. Yes. I love Benny Hill.
Starting point is 00:15:30 You guys all know who I mean when I say Benny Hill. And James will be able to do, do, do, do, do. Yeah. Exactly. But none of us would have been loving him, I think. And they did a fair amount of cross. Monty Python comes right out of that music hall, chaotic, very witty, very fast tradition. John Cleese did a lot of cross-dressing in Monty Python.
Starting point is 00:15:51 Now I'm trying to elevate the whole idea here to a sort of intellectual Cambridge level. May I ask you a question, Peter? I have two questions. Number one, what are you wearing right now? Levi's. Number two, not really a question, just an observation. You're a very, very pleasant looking, and I don't mean to demean. You almost handsome man, but you'd be a terrifically unattractive woman.
Starting point is 00:16:22 I agree. I have to agree. I don't think that's a criticism. I just think that's a statement. No, it's an observation. That's all. Alright. Have we mind this? No, we haven't because I... Well, speaking of...
Starting point is 00:16:35 No, we haven't mind that chap, but I must ask Peter, if you were to go that route, would you put on the gray thick hosiery or would you swan about the stage bare-legged? Oh, no, no. The hosiery is important, I think. I see. But don't you... Revolting ancillaries at the same time.
Starting point is 00:16:52 Of course, depending on the hosiery. Well, no, I mean... Let me put it a different way. Have we shafted that mine? If you were to go bare-legged though, you'd have to shave, wouldn't you? And if you were, wouldn't you want the best, smoothest, cleanest shave you could possibly get? The kind that Harry's provides?
Starting point is 00:17:08 Right. And when you say Harry, you may think hairy legs of Peter Robinson. No, just don't. Think Harry's, shave, delivered to your door. The best rate you're going to get, how do they know? Because they bought the factory, the old 97. It's going to be 98-year-old German factory next year. They purchased it so they could provide you something cleaner, cheaper, and better than the big guys like Schick.
Starting point is 00:17:27 Right. You want to go to the store and pay $8, $9, $15, $20, $30, $40 for those razors, the cartridges, the kinds that come up with 68 blades in them. No, what are they selling you? Go to Harrys.com. Use the coupon code RICOCHET. You'll get $5 off your first experience from them. And it comes to your door with the shaver, with the blades, with the emollient that you put on your mug. Cleanest, finest shave you'll ever get. You'll never go back to anything
Starting point is 00:17:50 else. You'll never go back to electric. You'll never go back to the ones you get in the store because Harry's will be the blade for you. There we go. I had to say, Peter, we were talking about Joan and it seemed like she was, yes, she burned her bridge work because she didn't really think she was ever going to get the big roles anymore. and she was content to do what she did there on the stage. Unlike some people who come out and do the whole scouring, blasted earth, acidic spray in the hopes of maybe getting something in the next administration. Leon Panetta is out there with a book where he is trashing the hell out of the Obama mystique, perhaps angling for more work with the soon-to-be Hillary Clinton regime or administration?
Starting point is 00:18:28 What do you think of that? See, that was my way of handing it to Rob for the politics. So I'll just sit back now and get a cup of coffee. Well, I would say without a doubt the Leon Panetta book, which is really interesting. And what's interesting about the Panetta book to me is that it's the first one from this administration really. This administration has been pretty tight-lipped and it's got a pretty tight circle of people um you know compared to say reagan's administration where there were a lot of books a lot of internal squabbles you heard all about the fights um this is the first book but it's also a a uh i mean liam pettis a man of a certain age so
Starting point is 00:19:01 i'm not sure this is really realistic but it it is a – the first formal job application for a position in the Hillary Clinton administration. And if I may say, if you're talking about people who would be unattractive in drag – Leon Panetta? Is that where you're going? I didn't say it. You did. So this will be the theme apparently through the show. Well, I guess so.
Starting point is 00:19:28 So what I don't understand, so if I'm looking at someone to bring into my administration, I want to bring someone in whom I know is going to write a book about me down the road? Well, no. I think that he's very tough on Obama. He's not tough on Obama. He's not that he's not tough on Hillary. He basically is making Hillary's argument, making the arguments that the Clintons or that Bill Clinton has been making privately, apparently about the problems with that administration. And he's doing it and making making sure that it's clear that. It's clear that whatever the failings were, whether you agree with it or not, but one of the things he says is that as Secretary of Defense, he was not allowed to speak – this is a guy who's a longtime congressman too. Anytime he spoke to a congressman, he was attacked, attacked by someone in the White
Starting point is 00:20:19 House. He was dressed down and told he can't do that. Well, how much is preparing for the next administration and how much is trying to put your own spin on your own image before it's too late? Well, I guess that's a good question. It's hard to know. I mean especially now that I feel like it's almost a gratuitous pile on. One of the things we know now about the way, I think this is before the Panetta book came out, that the way the decision making, certainly the sort of America defending America decisions are made, the foreign policy decisions are made in the White House is that all the, uh, you know, his military advisors suggest one thing and then Barack Obama says, no, that's
Starting point is 00:20:59 why we're, that's why we're having trouble in Syria. That's why, uh, that's sort of why we have, we have, we had trouble in Libya. It's all, um. It's all kind of run out of the Oval Office, primarily in my view anyway as a way of advancing domestic politics. It does seem to confirm it and it does seem to tee up the idea that I think Hillary Clinton will use for foreign policy failures under her watch that, well, I was overruled. And I suspect that the I was overruled excuse will be something we hear for the next 18 months. Is this book selling well? I don't know that. Do you know? Oh, I don't know that. Do you know? Oh, I don't know either. I mean, because what's interesting, what happens in these, tends to happen in these books is the author seems to realize, or those advising him or those who are helping him write, realize that they need, you know, they need that morning talk show line to get on and talk about the book. And so it's often being critical of someone else. And
Starting point is 00:22:06 that's what people hear. And then you read an excerpt and no one buys the book. So I don't know whether this is right. That's right. The excerpt's doing well. I'm not sure. Well, yeah. Who knows whether anybody will buy the book? It's all over the press. I would agree with the importance. In my judgment, there are two important things about Leon Panetta, aside from the way he would look wearing a dress. And one is that he's very closely associated with the Clintons. He was Bill Clinton's chief of staff. This is as distinct from Robert Gates, the other secretary of defense, who's written a book critical of the administration. Gates was a Republican and an outsider in the administration.
Starting point is 00:22:48 Leon Panetta is as democratic as democrats can get and he is in the Clinton camp and he is saying they weren't tough enough and they weren't competent. Wait, wait, wait. Hold on, Peter. Are you suggesting there's some friction and animosity between the Clinton and the Obama camps? Is that where you're going with this, man? I'm suggesting that Hillary Clinton's campaign has already begun and Leon Panetta is playing very effectively the role of a proxy for the nominee. How's that? I think that's probably – I think that's probably even – I think that's the best way to put it.
Starting point is 00:23:23 I mean more accurate than angling for a job, I think you're right. I think that you cannot – I don't think you can underestimate the Clinton media sophistication and their ability to get their argument out by a whole variety of proxies. And I also don't think that you can underestimate the, from the excerpts that I've read, Pat's right, I've only read excerpts, but the genuineness of Leon Panetta's book, he isn't really settling score. I mean, I think this is a guy, this is an old school Democrat. I mean, he's genuinely concerned. I think when you take on the role of Secretary of Defense, and of course, DCI, it was DCI before that, or after that, I can't remember. I think it does change you. And I don't think Leon Panetta was frivolous before, but I think he's genuinely concerned about the security
Starting point is 00:24:17 of the United States. And I think he might have felt alone in that one house. Leon Panetta is an old fashionedfashioned Democrat, just as you said. His parents are great grandparents, as I recall, immigrants. He's from Monterey. In those days, a fishing town and canning town here in California. He's gone back to Monterey. He's founded something called the Panetta Institute. But the point is he's an old-fashioned Democrat, almost in the mold of Harry Truman, strong abroad, liberal at home.
Starting point is 00:24:47 He is the guy who, running the Central Intelligence Agency, is the architect of using drones in Afghanistan if President Obama wasn't going to fight the war and also in Pakistan. He's the guy who put together the mission that got Osama bin Laden. And when he was secretary of defense, as distinct from the current secretary, Hegel, Leon Panetta was fighting to hold on to important defense programs and fighting for his budget. The guy is – I agree with Rob. I don't see any reason to doubt the genuineness of his feelings about the security of the republic this question might be uh because i've been watching too many of those those limited series on television about intrigue in washington but uh if you if you um you know concede the fact that that he and mrs clinton are very close close to the clintons and and and um can you envision uh him having gone to Mrs. Clinton or her people prior to writing this book and either clearing it with her or getting some input or taking her temperature in this regard?
Starting point is 00:25:56 You know, in an early draft, certainly an early draft. I mean, at some point, I mean, it'd be interesting to graph the book, the timeline of that book and the moments of that book and then to match them up with her later descriptions of events. And I guarantee you they will be left is sort of hapless – I mean I think this morning some hapless Obama staffer came out to sort of attack Leon Panetta and calling him petty and something. It would be left to sort of people who weren't there and sort of the also-rans. Yeah, I think the administration has realized that the nation places a great deal of trust and confidence in Jen Psaki. And so if Jen Psaki comes out and criticizes Leon Panetta for being unschooled or not up to speed, yeah, we'll fall in line behind that. You know, the cable news networks now have a super that they put over –
Starting point is 00:26:56 they can actually put over when someone's speaking. It says hapless Obama spokesman. The P is silent. The P is silent and I certainly hope so. Yes, Rob, you. It does sort of bring up the other question, which I think in the freefall of Obama's popularity and there does seem to be sort of a – it does correlate I think with the rising or lowering however you look at it, confidence people have in the federal government to do things, to accomplish things. It does seem to suggest that there is an issue that
Starting point is 00:27:31 no one could have predicted that might have an effect on the midterm. So that's the, we mentioned this earlier, the Ebola outbreak. Just got word that, I mean, while we're doing this podcast, that the Ebola victim sufferer in Dallas has died. Which, I mean, obviously it was a serious disease, but I think a lot of us thought, well, I mean, maybe if you're in the United States and they can blast you with antibiotics and quarantine you and all that stuff, it's something that you could be dealt with. The Ebola sufferer has died here. So now we have one Ebola death in the United States. Now we have another Ebola death in Spain. Um, does anyone believe the federal government, um, is up to the task of protecting the nation
Starting point is 00:28:14 from this virus? Well, you know, if you, um, uh, if you look at polling data, the answer is no. And if you look at the, uh, uh, sort of the general, to get away from, to broaden it a little bit, you look at the polling data from local elections around the country, it's the farther away you can get from the federal government in terms of your connection, the better off you are and the more you can be painted as a Washington insider, whatever that is, the worse off you are and the more you can be painted as a Washington insider, whatever that is, the worse off you are. And you wonder if in a way the Obama administration hasn't been a godsend for people who believe
Starting point is 00:28:53 in a smaller government, that maybe we've learned something in these eight years or that may be the takeaway from this administration. I'm through. What you're hearing from the left, of course, is this is an example of why the Tea Partiers and the Ayn Rand freaks and everybody else who wants a smaller government are wrong because this proves that government is absolutely essential.
Starting point is 00:29:19 And to me, it says that, no, as Pat is saying, local government is more apt to respond to these with a nimbler profile, you would think. Because we all have, based on the movies, the idea that the moment you have an outbreak like this, a helicopter from CDC lands and Dustin Hoffman in a clean suit gets out, and people who are tremendously competent and beyond and above politics immediately snap into gear and fix things. Well, listen, I hope,
Starting point is 00:29:48 listen, I want this, I want the answer to be, can the government take care of this? I want the answer to be yes. Take no pleasure in their failure on this. You really, I mean, part of you, certainly when public health matters such as this come up, you want them to be competent.
Starting point is 00:30:00 You want them to succeed. I like big government. I want it to work. But do I have faith that it will? No. I just don't get, I just don't understand why we haven't had a serious speech from the president. Here's the way, I mean, it would be the easiest thing in the world. He calls two or three of the top scientists on this matter. He has an all-day briefing or a morning briefing at the White House. Maybe it's a larger grouping of physicians and volunteers from Liberia.
Starting point is 00:30:32 They get together in the East Room. There are a lot of pictures. The president is shown being engaged. He's asking questions. And that evening, he does maybe a 10-minute, very brief. Maybe he does it standing in the press room. Maybe he actually does it from the Oval Office. But he says, here is the nature of the disease. Here is what we are doing about it. I am informed by the best minds in the country that there are a number of vaccines and treatments that are under consideration. And I am signing, and he signs it right there on camera, I am signing an executive order to release half a billion dollars immediately and I am submitting legislation to Congress tomorrow. We are putting this on a faster – and that would all play to what they understand and what they believe.
Starting point is 00:31:14 There are moments when the federal government is needed, when this is its appropriate duty and when they – when the need of the hour actually comports with what they feel about the importance of the federal government, why that hasn't happened, I do not begin to understand. Sometimes I think by merely addressing the issue that they're going to, I don't know, point to their own shortcomings or cause a panic. You're absolutely right. We don't need just everything's – they're there. Everything is going to be all right. Give us some specifics. Tell us't need just everything's there, everything's going to be all right. Give us some specifics. Tell us what you're doing, what you know, and what the plan is. And I think you're ready to be supported on that. I mean, again, no one wants failure in this area. Nobody does. It would be one of those moments where the country, maybe it's only brief,
Starting point is 00:32:02 but on the other hand, to be crass about it, we're only four weeks away from the elect from the midterms. Maybe it's only a brief effect, but it would be one of those moments where the whole country rallies to the leader. Well, to return to like the banana book, he said they all seemed exhausted and kind of like given up in that administration. It does seem that way. It seems like they have a playbook and they're just going to, they just don't know what else to do. And the playbook is go around the country to places that want the president to campaign. Those places are very, very far and very, very few and say the same thing. We don't raise the minimum wage.
Starting point is 00:32:38 The republicans are against us, all that stuff. It does seem like the events of the world have moved radically past that, and the president keeps talking about these small little domestic issues, whereas these huge global issues continually knock on our door that he then ignores. Ebola is one. I think if he did that, Peter, he'd have to also do something called grounding flights. He'd have to do something serious, which I think would be hard for him to do just temperamentally. And so I suspect that that's one of the reasons why he doesn't want to do it. But also you then have to like coming across the border in Texas. Now, that may be – go ahead.
Starting point is 00:33:35 Sorry. Go on. No, that's just lovely. Yeah, that may be hyperbole. He may have been freelancing. Are you sure these aren't interns from the James O'Keefe's Veritas project? I'd like to think that's the case. That suggests a certain lack
Starting point is 00:33:56 of interest in, I don't know, a certain lack of alarm in protecting the borders of the country. Not just from a virus virus but also from terrorists. Well, if they're running out the clock, I remind them it's only the third quarter. It's a little early for that. And the borders of the country are an arbitrary thing that was imposed on people. It was a divided people who ought to be together. In a true, just world, there's no such thing in the Americas open to all.
Starting point is 00:34:24 Pat, you know, there was something else. You've been writing a lot of great stuff on ricochet lately and i was thinking ebola where does the name come from and it comes from a river and i know that because i heard it i learned it at some place and that's why it's capitalized etc but if you don't know that well you just quickly go to the little handheld glowing rectangle that you carry around in your pocket, type it in, and find it by searching. Not by learning, but by searching. Now, this was part of your man shakes fist at cloud in sky series of postings about how our culture has gotten done. About whether searching is replacing learning. And in the style of Ricochet posts, 60% of which now end with a question mark,
Starting point is 00:35:09 you asked if searching had replaced learning. And I thought about this and I thought, yes and no. It doesn't because oftentimes when I'm having an argument with somebody and you're stuck on a point, you can resolve it instantaneously and then go on with the conversation. So searching actually enables you to not get hung up on who won the MLB whatever in 82.
Starting point is 00:35:30 It actually helps you to have a richer, more productive conversation. But on the other side, are we just teaching kids the techniques of searching as opposed to how to absorb and connect knowledge? Well, I think that's the point. Big ideas are built on smaller pieces of information. And, and if you don't have those, uh, at the ready, it seems to me, the big ideas can suffer. I was not necessarily railing against it. I was, I was merely asking the question because like a lot of us, I find myself, um, um, relying, it's kind of, you know what it's like it's a to me it's a little like uh um
Starting point is 00:36:07 not knowing anyone's phone number because you have speed dial is that a bad thing or a good thing i don't know if you don't have your phone with you to find their number it's a bad thing uh so i'm not saying you need to know have memorize a list of the state capitals but but in in not knowing and having – if you search for a piece of information to settle a bar bet or to advance the conversation, have you merely – so you found it, you've made the point, you moved on. Has that registered with you because you know it's there? You don't have to go back to the library.
Starting point is 00:36:41 You don't have to open up the encyclopedia again and find the right volume. You just have to press that button again. That's the only question I was asking in my 60% way. I didn't realize it was that low. I think it's a good question. And I myself know that I'm losing ground. How do I know this? Because the other day somebody handed me a form, DMV I think it was, and said, write down your home phone number. And I could not remember my own number. And it is because I don't – I have it in my – my phone was out in the car. It was in your purse. Yes, I know. Boy, you got there before I did.
Starting point is 00:37:24 Okay. Excuse me. Excuse me. That does it. I am going to quote a recent post by Mr. Patrick Sajak. Quote, this is the way the post begins. Quote, I was watching the 1982 film Tootsie the other day when I was struck by the iconic scene in which Dustin Hoffman's title character makes his first appearance as a woman walking down the streets of Manhattan. Close quote. Go ahead and explain what you were doing watching that movie, Dustin Hoffman in drag, Patrick Sajak. Because it's Wednesday. I always watch Tootsie on Wednesday.
Starting point is 00:38:02 I don't understand where this whole hour is going. I don't either, to tell you the truth. Well, I have to – can I contribute to that for a moment? I read that post and I liked it and I felt it touched a part of me and I enjoyed it. And I complained – I'm in New York City now and it's true. People are on their phones all the time and they're bumping into each other and it's ridiculous and it's incredibly irritating. And as I was thinking about that, I think at one point I was walking along the street and I bumped into a metal railing because I was reading on my phone. And so I feel like if you can have both of those things in your head, absolute rage and fury and condemnation of those people who do it. And yet you, I still do it,
Starting point is 00:38:50 that there's a, either hope for us or no hope for us. I don't know which one, but it's not. Okay. Well, here's the problem with New York. If you make eye contact as you're walking down the street, it's, it's, it's against all the social rules. If you look up at the magnificent architecture above you, you're a room. Okay. So what exactly do you do? Where do I look next time I go to New York at middle point in the vague distance, not make, not like that. Okay. It's enabling a behavior right there. I like that. To me,
Starting point is 00:39:16 the biggest downside of being in New York now with all the Bluetooth and the phones and everything is it's more difficult to tell who the crazy people are. It used to be clear if they were talking to themselves that was a pretty good sign now it could you could be a ceo i was guilty the other day walking the dog around the block and i took out my phone to check some tweets because that you know and i thought how typical is this the modern person can't can't bring himself to listen to the tweets of the bird, he's got to look at the little electronic flickerings across his screen. But then I thought, I've been walking around this block every day with a dog for 13 years. I think I got it pretty much figured out what I'm going to see.
Starting point is 00:39:55 And I don't necessarily have to immerse myself in the glories and the wonders of the world at this point. Here's what I wonder. It's still too early in this whole revolution to know how it's going to play out and what things are going to be like a couple of generations down the line. I don't think there's any doubt it will have an effect, an important one. Will it be good? Will it be bad? Will we have a generation of super achievers or will we have people who are disconnected from each other? I don't know the answers to any of that. But I do know that it's a serious
Starting point is 00:40:25 issue and we've sort of gone headlong into it without thinking much about it. I mean, it came, it got here. We never talked about it and here we are and we're going to have to deal with the consequences. They could very well be good and we could just be old fogies railing against a change. But I do know it's different. I do know that – I do think that part of the reason that public discourse has become so coarse is because of that in some ways. You're no longer – there's no longer any time to digest anything, to ruminate, to think about it before you open your yap. And we're all yelling at each other now or we're typing in capital letters to each other. Pat and James, you both have kids. Do you have rules, dinner table or any place in the house
Starting point is 00:41:17 or any time during the day? Do you have rules about when the phones have to get turned off and put away so the family can talk to each other? My kids are a little older now. Our son is 24 and our daughter is about to turn 20. And they came in toward the end of that. So we actually didn't have to deal with it a whole lot through at least through the early part of high school. So that was good. The problem is when I go to a restaurant and I see a family together, I more often see the kids being ignored by the parents rather than the other
Starting point is 00:41:49 way around. So I'm not, I'm not sure that I'm not sure the problem is from the bottom up in terms of age. I think it may be the other way. I harangue my daughter sometimes when her text message goes off, I say, you have a text on social media. She's on the thing, she's on the thing quite a lot. But on the other hand, so is dad. And, uh, it, you know, I've got a little bit of credibility with her because I was on Twitter first. I've got a low Twitter number and I've got a lot of followers and she finds that impressive sort of kind of, but we have a rule at the dinner table, everything is off. And if I'm going to break that rule to show her something that's germane to our conversation, then I say, I am breaking the rule to do this. I mean, that's the idea that we would,
Starting point is 00:42:28 that we would have our cameras and phones and laptops on when we're talking as preposterous. That's why the vacation that we take are marvelous because I don't buy internet until the last couple of days. We're on our own. For my wife, who's not very much connected tweet-wise, Facebook or the rest of it, email for her is just a constant tsunami of duty and she hates it. When we go on a trip, it's freedom from that. And when I see my daughter disconnect from her social networks, I don't see panic. I see a sort of sense, once again, of freedom from not having to be involved in that. And there's a sense of being, you know, a glorious freedom from the obligations of talking to other people. On the other hand, though, if you have freedom from speech redefined to be that the new world is where you don't have to worry about anything else except offending people, then we've got a bit of a problem.
Starting point is 00:43:18 And that might be a topic for a broadside. Why? Why it is. Encounter Books has brought to you the Freedom From Speech broadcast by Greg Lukianoff. And here's the praises. The past year has been a surreal time for freedom of speech. While the legal protections of the First Amendment remain strong, the larger culture is increasingly obsessed with punishing public and private individuals for allegedly offensive utterances or often misunderstood jokes. Academia, already an institution where free speech
Starting point is 00:43:44 is in decline, has grown still more intolerant with high-profile disinvitation efforts against speakers. In Freedom from Speech, author Greg Lukianoff argues that the threats to free speech go well beyond, quote, political correctness or the, quote, liberal groupthink. No. As global populations increasingly expect not just physical comfort in their lives, but intellectual comfort as a kind of right, threats to freedom of speech are only going to become more intense as time goes by. He offers potential solutions to ensure freedom of speech survives in the long battle to come. Read it and be armed for the conversations you may have with your friends who believe that it's perfectly fine to have speech codes and the rest of the things that Orwell kind of told us were coming. To get this book or 15% off any list price in Encounter Books, go to EncounterBooks.com and use the coupon code.
Starting point is 00:44:30 You know what it is. Come on. It's Ricochet at the checkout. And we thank them for sponsoring this, the Ricochet podcast. There, I'm done. But just to – I mean I don't want to pile on to the Encounter – Pile on. Pile on.
Starting point is 00:44:43 Pile on. But it is a timely book. I mean I remember reading – I think it was last week, this week, that George Will was uninvited from speaking to Scripps College. George Will, who was – Why? The least firebrand – yeah, because he wrote a column in which he criticized the idea that there's a rape epidemic on campus. No, he justified rape culture. That's what his column was. By questioning the premise, he underscored and justified rape culture.
Starting point is 00:45:18 Oh, I see. That's the reason why they invited him, right. But the actual crime was he wrote a column in which he questioned whether the statistics were correct and also said that it's kind of crazy to suggest that level of intrusion into sort of two people in a dorm room. And so he was uninvited because his speech is sort of dangerous and scary. And I remember reading – it's George Will. I mean, George Will is the most sort of civilized, the least firebrandy conservative around. In fact, there were moments during the Roosevelt's PBS Endless series in which you'd even wonder quite how conservative he is.
Starting point is 00:46:06 He is capable of saying something admiring about every figure in American history and almost every aspect of American culture. Okay. Let George Wilfen for himself. Pat, how are the Nats? They're toast is what they are. That's over. It's been – nothing thrills a general audience more than discussing baseball. So I'll be brief.
Starting point is 00:46:33 But it's been an amazing playoffs. I mean things – you could have made a lot of money at the gambling meccas of Las Vegas this week with what's happened. But I just posted a tweet this morning. I said in 10 years, the Dodgers will look back with two thoughts, in 2014, and what were we thinking with those beards? Those would be the two thoughts they're going to have. Right, right, right. But, yeah, you know, we are bi-coastal, and we spend most of our baseball time with the Orioles.
Starting point is 00:47:04 So that's a nice thing. So I'll get to see a lot of playoffs in the next round from our lovely seats. How have your baseball loyalties evolved? Here I live in California and have for more than two decades, and I still feel something for the Yankees because when I was growing up eons ago in upstate New York, my brother and I would listen to Yankees games on his transistor radio. Do you feel anything for a Chicago team? You know, it's interesting you say that. First of all, I did grow up in Chicago, and I was a fan. This was prior to interleague play. I was a fan of both Chicago teams, and I never understood why you had to hate one or the other. They were in different leagues.
Starting point is 00:47:44 I wished them both well. I went to both games. I was, my heart was a little more with the Cubs. And I must say, as I got older into my twenties and thirties, I became one of those goofy Cub guys who hung on everything. And when are they going to win this thing? But then I decided at some point, if they can't do it in a hundred years, I'm through with them. They were, they were at about 96, 97. I said, I'm going to give them to a hundred because anything should have be able to happen in a hundred years by accident, if nothing else. And, uh, when a hundred came and went what five or six years ago, I said, that's it. I can't invest any more time with this team. So I have, I have scrubbed them from my
Starting point is 00:48:21 heart. And now, uh, I tend to, uh, I tend to root geographically wherever, you know, so we spend our time in Los Angeles and, and the Baltimore, Washington area. So those, those are the teams that we, that we support and, and care most about. But you're, you're right. The, the, what you hear as a kid, you know, the voice you hear on the radio, it does build a loyalty and here in Los Angeles, that voice you heard on the radio as a kid is still doing it. I was still doing it. It's so weird.
Starting point is 00:48:50 If you, you're, okay, you're a professional. I think Vince Scully is, he's deep into his 80s now, I think. Yes. But I just, just a couple of weeks ago, I heard a voice. I thought, oh my goodness. And of course it was Vince Scully. And I just listened for a while and thought to myself, that guy, A, the voice is still one of the most pleasant, listenable voices you could possibly imagine. And B, he can still call a game. Am I right about that? I almost prefer Vinny on the radio. I mean he's smart enough to know you do it a little differently on television than you do. But because he's cut back on his workload, he only does – there are a couple of innings on television where he does both.
Starting point is 00:49:35 He does – it's a simulcast. He does radio and television, which is a tough thing to do. You're talking to a radio audience who can't see anything and a television audience where you don't want to repeat the obvious. And somehow he manages to bridge that. But, yeah, he's incredible, and he's not that far from 90 years old. I mean, he was broadcasting in Brooklyn when the Dodgers were there. It's absolutely incredible. So, you know, someday, sooner rather than later, he's going to say that's enough,
Starting point is 00:50:02 and it's going to be a very sad day for the sport. But, yeah, he's going to say that's enough and it's going to be a very sad day for the sport. But yeah, he is incredible. But now that we have these baseball packages where you can listen on satellite and watch all the local teams, it's interesting because, I want to be careful how I say this, but there are a lot of terrible broadcasters, particularly former ballplayers working, but they are beloved in their local markets. They just love them, but they couldn't get a job in Sioux City, Iowa if they wanted to because they're terrible. But they've been doing it forever in their local market and the fans love them. And I'm not knocking it, but it's a funny phenomenon to me. I always wanted to be the – I always wanted to call tennis games because it seemed really easy.
Starting point is 00:50:44 And he's hit the ball over the net. On radio really easy. And he's hit the ball over the net. On radio or television? And he's hit the ball back. Well, on radio, of course. I think you could really bring the excitement of tennis to that there. There was a tradition of like the former athletes who were not quite national superstars but local superstars. They would open – later on, they would get car dealerships. Right, right.
Starting point is 00:51:11 And I think John Elway is – Yes, I think you're right about that. John Elway Ford, John Elway Chevrolet, Elway Subaru, Elway Cadillac, right? But they'd also open steakhouses. Yes. And I've always loved that. I mean I remember I think – I remember as a kid growing up in Baltimore, Ordel Bracey had a restaurant called something. And Johnny Unitas.
Starting point is 00:51:39 Johnny Unitas had a steakhouse. I think it was called a steakhouse. I think it was a steakhouse back then called the a steakhouse back then, called the Golden Arm. And you go to the Golden Arm, you know, and it was like, I guess you thought that he was going to stand there and sit. And I think he did stand there at the bar a lot and greet people.
Starting point is 00:51:54 Remember the mini Minoso burrito stand? I don't recall that. I don't recall that. We had a Viking here who wasn't really known for spectacular stellar performances. As a matter of fact, his nickname was Bench Warmer Bob because he just sort of sat there. The bench kept it warm. But after he left the Vikings, he was in constant demand for promotional appearances and commercials because he was such a genial sort of guy. You were going to say, Peter?
Starting point is 00:52:22 Well, I was just – this has been going on for a lot of generations. Whenever we went to New York, which wasn't that often, uh, it was a big deal for our family to get down to New York city. But my father always wanted to go to Jack Dempsey's because Jack Dempsey was a hero of my dad's when my father was a kid is Brooks Robinson still a figure in Baltimore. Oh, sure. Sure. I, I'm not sure he has any. I don't think he has a restaurant. Boog Powell has the beef sandwiches you buy at the stadium
Starting point is 00:52:51 are named after him. There's a Dempsey who used to... Rick Dempsey, who played for the Orioles, has a restaurant there. So, yeah. Now, by the way, just a few steps from the Ritz-Carlton in New York was Mickey Mantle's. Oh, yes.
Starting point is 00:53:07 Central Park South. Exactly. Which is now closed. It just closed within the last year. Because I think Mickey retired. But, yeah, it's a common – Don Shula's Steakhouse. We could go on. That's right.
Starting point is 00:53:20 Or DiMaggio's Fromaggio. I remember that cheese shop. That was good. It was a great place. Yeah. That's right. DiMaggio's Fromaggio. I remember that cheese shop. That was good. Well, you know, when we talk about these teams, we might be talking about teams with names like the Braves and the Indians, which might have to be adjusted to something like the Indigenous Tribes Assembly because those names are not longer acceptable.
Starting point is 00:53:36 And speaking of which, from the member feed this last week, there was a story where one of the towns, which one was it? Seattle, of course, has replaced Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples Day. And the only thing you have to ask is what took Seattle so long? It seems like this is something it would have jumped on 10 years ago. Is this a good thing? Is this a natural sign the pendulum has swung all the way back in the other direction? Or do you think that Columbus Day will be gone from the culture of this country in 10, 15, 20 years?
Starting point is 00:54:11 Can we just do yes or no answers on this? Not to cut it short. Come on, he was a 1967 Mustang man who obviously has some taste in fine American ideas. You know, actually, I think it will be gone. I mean, it's already headed in that direction. And it wouldn't surprise me at all whether it's 10 years or 20. I don't know. But that's – for better or worse, that appears to be the direction we're headed.
Starting point is 00:54:39 And that's sort of a – that's a harbinger of things to come I'm afraid. Yeah. It's really depressing too. I don't think it's depressing for someone to want to have a day to celebrate the indigenous peoples, although we can come up with a better name than that. But that's fine. I mean I – but we are kind of losing the myths, aren't we, of what built the country? we're not we're not losing them like like it rolled under the sofa we're actively seeking to destroy them good point good point these myths as you put it allow people to feel reasonably good about american history and that's where they got to go well all i know is that peoples who need peoples are the luckiest peoples
Starting point is 00:55:25 in the world they're indigenous especially i remember a friend of mine telling me um that he was at some event uh with a friend of his who was an academic and they were having some conversation he found himself in a conversation my friend is not an academic and someone referred to um uh someone that's, well, what I what I really appreciate about this event is that they really, really are celebrating authentic cultures. I hate those phony cultures. Yeah. Authentic cultures that. You know, we're at a we're at a really ironic time, it seems to me.
Starting point is 00:55:59 It has never been easier to have your voice heard and every anyone's voice. It can be multiplied by a million times. Something goes viral, something you said. This is not just for celebrities. It's not just for writers. It's for anybody. I mean, the opportunities to be heard are greater than ever before. And yet the the the fear and trepidation you have to have before you put anything comes out of your mouth or anything is put onto your computer screen or onto a piece of paper is enormous. So we have this ability to be heard and yet this fear of what the reaction will be when we're heard. And we also have this inability to accept, I mean for me anyway, stories without – one story has to cancel out the other. So a story about the fact that this country had Indians on it or Native Americans or indigenous people.
Starting point is 00:56:54 What do you want to – and they had a culture and they had headdresses and they did all this stuff and whatever. That's fine. The country had Indians on it. You know what I mean, right? I know. I just love that line. You know what I'm saying. And that's fine. We should tell those stories. You know what I mean, right? I know. I just love that line. You know what I'm saying. And that's fine.
Starting point is 00:57:05 We should tell those stories. Those are great stories. There's no reason not to tell those stories. But we also could tell the story of the Nina Pinta and Santa Maria. This is now my own pet project. It's one of the things I'm trying to do if I can get anyone interested in it. I'm trying to get people to – I'd like to raise some money to start an American history channel, which there are some – there are available channels around. The Current was one of them, bought a zero-degree channel, put some money into it, and then they sold it to the Arabs for a lot of money.
Starting point is 00:57:38 But the idea that there would be a channel where you could tune in and there would be a miniseries – I'm not talking about from a conservative point of view. I'd be straight down the middle. But the idea of telling these stories over and over again which we don't do anymore i mean remember when you were a kid that all these little myths you heard they were part of your just part of your childhood sure and you know and they tended uh you know i and i'm guessing most because they're myths so they they weren't necessarily accurate but they did you know george washington chopping down the cherry tree, I'm guessing that didn't happen as it's been told. But you know what? There was a lesson there.
Starting point is 00:58:15 There was a little bit of a morality play. I don't think it hurt anybody. I think it was a positive. And because we have the video now or whatever, whatever the equivalent is to say that that didn't happen. I, I'm not sure that we're better off knowing that. And the strange thing was, as a kid is that you always saw this small eight-year-old boy with a fully formed adult head of George Washington on his shoulders, right down to the wooden teeth. That's right. Well, we're back to it again. Little boys wearing powdered wigs.
Starting point is 00:58:44 Hey, my secret aspiration. It is sort of sad that we've lost those or that we've hidden them or that we've suppressed them or something because they really were the kind of five or eight or ten stories we used to tell each other as Americans that were really, I think, powerful. To use that line of thinking, we need to get rid of all Greek mythology. Sorry, that stuff didn't happen. So let's dump it and let's get the real story. Right. And the
Starting point is 00:59:19 Trojan War was really an act of aggression, an unmotivated act of aggression from the people of the kingdoms of Greece. Peoples. Peoples of Greece onto a small city-state in Turkey. Right. Right, exactly. Pat, Rob and James are much too young to remember this, but I think you might.
Starting point is 00:59:38 Do you remember biography? Oh, sure. I think – wasn't Mike Wallace the – wasn't that his voice? You know, they still – one of the networks still runs that. Oh, sure. all over again, although it was – I did not care for the Roosevelt's miniseries. Apart from anything else, it was endless and apart from anything else, it was just an unbelievable sort of worshipful. Nevertheless, if you tell history through the stories of human beings, it's engrossing. Rob, you're on to something. I think so. By the way, if I could say two words to ken burns just two it would be hold still yeah right right lock it down man talk about attention deficit disorder i did hear
Starting point is 01:00:36 a ken burns story which i will not tell out of school so don't share it um but he uh recently Um, he, uh, recently, um, had an encounter with one of the Koch brothers. Really? Yeah. And his response after that account was this kind of incredulous little boy in wonder voice. He said, you know, I met this, you know, I don't know which one it was. And, um, obviously I was, uh, prepared to dislike him. And, um, uh, so we got to talking. And so I asked him, I said, what are the five things that you care about, the five issues that you care about?
Starting point is 01:01:15 And can you – I mean, brace yourself. We agreed on three of those five. And he's not a monster at all. But the shock and the incredulity was sort of – it's all you need to know about that bubble, right? Right. Another myth busted. Yeah, exactly right. Well, Ken Burns then is emblematic of a group of people who have their own myths, which can't be punctured. When we say that we're giving, wonderful, glorious age when, no, that's
Starting point is 01:02:06 not the case either. So we have to believe the left myth, but we just can't believe the old, old, old ones. Now, one of the myths that goes around Ricochet, of course, is that Rob Long is just a squish. And there was an interesting post that I'm going to read because it led to many, many comments about Rob and his attitude toward another pillar of the conservative movement. This was a post from our Volker. I think I'm pronouncing this correctly. And it read like this.
Starting point is 01:02:32 Rob, explain your statement that you do not agree with everything. Rush exposes sounds like you are a rhino or lib. Rush is not always right, but he's a solid Reagan conservative. Do not make blanket statements that give the impression that you are off the reservation. You have to be careful how you express your points.
Starting point is 01:02:44 This was a discussion of Russia's comment that Barry was using his newfound warring tendencies to affect the Senate races in the fall. Buck up and load the masses. All right, Rob, respond. Yeah. I'm sorry. That was lead the masses, not load the masses. Yeah. There's a lot of punctuation there.
Starting point is 01:03:00 Well, the point of the piece was that we're all on the same side. We've got to be really careful what we say because we don't want to give the other side any ammunition, which is not an argument that I really have much sympathy for. And what I said was, listen, I mean, you didn't have to hear my one statement, by the way, which I was agreeing with Rush to know that I was a rhino squish. I say I'm a rhino squish rather constantly on every podcast and on every post. It's pretty obvious. But the argument really was or the discussion then became whether we who are sort of basically directionally aligned with each other, although we have our differences, whether we should kind of keep quiet about those and march in lockstep, or we should continue our sort of fractious debate, internal debates. And my argument was, well, and fractious internal debates are always good.
Starting point is 01:03:59 I believe that settles the issue for everybody's satisfaction. There we go. Well, listen, folks, we have wandered all over the road here. And, well, some of us wandered. Some of us strode. Some of us were constantly jerking the skirt down because it rides up from time to time. Right, Peter? How much do you regret starting the broadcast? Oh, I can't even.
Starting point is 01:04:20 This is one of the very few podcasts that my wife is certain to hear about. It's when the stockings puddle around the ankles though. Isn't that the worst? I think it's a podcast that the local authorities are going to hear about. Just let me say – just a little piece of advice. Just don't get your knickers in a knot. Be inspired. Be inspired, Peter.
Starting point is 01:04:41 Peter, lift and separate. That's what we always say. What was that, Ron? I do want to go back, though, and just time, just so I know how many fractions of a nanosecond it took between the question. What kind of performer would you be? Cross-dresser. Not dancer, not comedian, not magician, not impressionist, not ventriloquist, not, not, um, um, you know, a charming host of a, of a, of a quiz show. No, no, no. Transvestite. And yet somehow for the entire podcast, we managed to avoid getting to the conversation of transgendered rights and third
Starting point is 01:05:16 bathrooms and the rest of it, possibly out of respect for Peter, because we're all having to process this information right now. I am just channeling my hero, Ronald Reagan. And now you have to listen to a 90-second anecdote. State visit, president of Venezuela and his wife. Dinner in the dining room, then they go across to the East Room for entertainment, which is Robert Goulet, who does his lounge act from Las Vegas. And the Venezuelans, and particularly the First Lady of Venezuela, a woman of massive dignity, I was told this story by Tom Wolfe, who was present that evening, simply become more and more tense at Robert Goulet's vulgarity. He takes off his bow tie, he loosens his dinner jacket, and he says, let's get down, and goes into his lounge act. And there's a moment of silence. And Robert Goulet says, this is the hardest audience I've played since I played in
Starting point is 01:06:11 Anchorage, Alaska. And the only person who liked me that night was the transvestite standing at the back of the room. Not a laugh. He finishes his act and it falls to Ronald Reagan. It falls to the president of the United States to wrap up the evening. And Reagan gets up there and makes a few comments about the – and he says – and Bob Goulet, thank you so much for flying in from Las Vegas for this evening. And Bob, I would never have believed that you still remember our night together in Anchorage. The room collapsed into laughter. Reagan saved the evening. A lovely moment.
Starting point is 01:06:49 So that's what I was doing, Rob. I was just channeling Ronald Reagan. Wow. As always, yeah. As always. As always. And with that, we get you off the hook. With that, we do indeed.
Starting point is 01:07:00 Listen, folks, thank you so much. And show your thanks by going to Harrys.com and entering the coupon code Rchet. Five bucks off your first delivery of those wonderful razors. You'll never go back to anything else. And thanks also for EncounterBooks.com using that coupon code Ricochet to indicate that you can get 15% off anything you want, including this month's title to broadside the Freedom From Speech. And thanks to Pat. Thanks to Dame Edna. Thanks to Rob. And remember, folks, when the red fills your eye like a big pizza pie, that's Ebola. So we'll talk to you next week and hope that we're all still here, hale and hearty. Thanks, Pat. It's been a joy. You peoples are great.
Starting point is 01:07:40 Thanks, Pat. Holly came from Miami, FLA. Hitchhiked away across USA. Plucked her eyebrows on the way. Shaved her legs and then he was a she. She says, hey, babe, take a walk on the wild side. Said, hey, honey, take a walk on the wild side said hey honey take a walk on the wild side candy came from out on the island in the back room she was everybody's darling But she never lost her head
Starting point is 01:08:27 Even when she was giving head She says, hey babe, take a walk on the wild side Said, hey babe, take a walk on the wild side And the colored girls go Doo-doo-doo, doo-doo-doo Doo-doo-doo, doo-doo-doo Doo-doo-doo, doo-doo-doo Doo-doo-doo, doo-doo-doo Ricochet. Join the conversation. Little Joe never once gave it away
Starting point is 01:09:10 Everybody had to pay and pay A hustle here and a hustle there New York City is the place where they said Hey babe, take a walk on the wild side I said hey Joe, take a walk on the wild side I said hey Jewel take a walk on the wild side

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