The Three Whisky Happy Hour: Here's Lookin' at 'Lookism'
The 3WHH is a man down this week as John was unavailable, so Steve and Lucretia soldiered on without his ritual abuse of their superior taste in political philosophy, prudence, and natural law. And in the best fashion of Helen Andrews, Steve ran the episode even though it was Lucretia's turn on the host rotation calendar. We could have called this episode "Revenge of the Manosphere."Steve and Lucretia consider a few news headlines, and some major stories conspicuously not making headlines* (such as the Houise investigation of the White House conspiracy to cover up Joe Biden's senility), who Bill Kristol supports in the NY City mayor's race (you'll never guess), whether the climate cult is over, and alarm bells about rising anti-Israel sentiment among young conservatives. (We recorded before the Kevin Roberts video went live, however.)And then we arrive at the main topic of the day: Lucretia defending herself against charges of "lookism." Steve enlists an expert witness: the great Taki Theodoracopulos, who wrote way back in 1981 that American women were the ugliest in the world. Seems like the perfect topic for the week when the world discovered the Jennifer Welch, the Democrats' newest It-Girl. (And naturally, the exit music this week is "Ugly Women," by country musician Grant Langston.)* Yes, that sentence is a sly reference to a light bulb joke: How many Straussians does it take to change a light bulb? None: the light is made conspicuous by its absence. (IYKYK, otherwise you don't get Plato.)
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The Three Whisky Happy Hour: Woman Troubles?
Helen Andrews' Compact article on "The Great Feminization" is causing a stir, provoking responses from left, right, and in-between. And I just know that everyone wants to hear David French's take on it, because how can we form a judgment about anything without hearing from the Conscience of the World. (Actually, just go with the normally mild-mannered Charles Murray's take: "I'm still waiting to read something by David French that doesn't irritate me. Even when I agree with the substance, the sanctimony drives me nuts. In this case, I wholly disagree with his take on Helen Andrews.")John Yoo files a dissent of his own that Steve and Lucretia find worthy of certain members of the Supreme Court just now, but keep your eyes out on this one; Steve, naturally, has an analogy on offer.The gang also wonders if some Chinese lab has come up with a new, more potent strain of Trump Derangement Syndrome, because how else can you explain how insane Trump-haters are over . . . a White House ballroom? (You can guess the exit music this week. Yup, it's that 1970s standard, "Ballroom Blitz" by Sweet.)We end with a few sober thoughts about health care, and then it's back to arguing about . . . neckties.
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The Three Whisky Happy Hour: Return of the Neocons?
With John Yoo hosting this week's episode in a vain attempt to deflect attacks, we devote most of the episode to foreign policy questions, ranging from Gaza, Ukraine, Venezuela, China, and . . . Africa? Yes, Africa. And why does it suddenly seem like Trump can be considered a neocon? And not to worry: Lucretia still gets in her licks on her favorite Supreme Court justice (you all know which one it is) for another exemplary performance (/sarc) in this week's oral argument about the Voting Rights Act case.
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The Three Whisky Happy Hour: Trump—A New Columbus?
The week ended with President Trump issuing a proclamation celebrating Columbus Day, rather than Indigenous People's Day as the identitarians and western-guilt mongers have crammed down on us for the last generation, and it put us in the frame of mind of Leo Strauss, who called Machiavelli "that greater Columbus." Maybe Trump is a Columbus of sorts, sailing precariously into the Blue State oceans to drain swamps, etc. It's worth a shot.But much of the show revolves around discussion of why so many leftists (like Katie Porter and Jay Jones) are such horrible people, whether we are in fact much closer to a civil war that we could have conceived, but also saving time to console John over the ignominious loss of his beloved Phillies, and—being certified dog lovers—honoring the passing of Lily, the beloved pet of one of our faithful listeners whose dog literally ate up one of our books.
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The Three Whisky Happy Hour: Rumble in the State of Nature Jungle
We were finally able to schedule a taping with enough lead time to get a special guest we've been wanting to have on for a long time—the great Hadley Arkes, emertus professor of jurisprudence from Amherst College and founder of the James Wilson Institute on Natural Rights and the American Founding, and co-host of his own very fine podcast, the Natural Law Moment. We've abused Hadley in absentia in some of our podcasts over the last few months, so now he got hsi chance especially to attempt to sort out the very stubborn John Yoo. John was delayed a bit joining us, so since this podcast is partly anchored not only in the truths of natural law, but also libations of a scotch variety, we decided to take advantage of Hadley's advanced expertise in gin martinis. Plus some "origin story" of how he came to political philosophy and in particular natural law as the primary focus of his mature work. And once John showed up, it was ON! We rounded off this episode with an AI-generated parody of Hadley, which begins as follows:“On the Ontological Status of the Ham Sandwich: A Moral Inquiry into the Lunchtime Crisis”By Gladly Harkness, Edward Whiskers Professor of Ontological JurisprudenceIt is a curious feature of our current jurisprudence that the simple act of consuming a ham sandwich has not yet been subject to rigorous philosophical analysis. . .For the whole thing, you'll need to head over to Steve's "Political Questions" Substack.
Steven Hayward, John Yoo, and "Lucretia" bring you a whisky-sodden perspective on the week's big headlines, and occasional deep dives into law and philosophy.Listen to the Three-Whisky Happy hour, along with more than 40 other original podcasts, at Ricochet.com. No paid subscription required.
Brasil