Yesterday, I had the great honor and pleasure of jawing with two of my favorite bloggers, Outside the Beltway's Doug Mataconis and Hot Air's Jazz Show for their podcast Politinerds.
We covered a lot of ground, ranging from drug policy to policing to my checkered past as a teen magazine scribe and ghostwriter of an Alyssa Milano advice column for the late, lamented Teen Machine. Doug is libertarian and Jazz is conservative, but we all agreed and disagreed on various topics, so it was kind of like Sartre's No Exit—both because it absolutely proves "hell is other people" and because it was always two against one, but the alliances kept changing like they do in 1984 or contemporary Syria and Iraq.
Here's the writeup and Soundcloud insta-listen link from Hot Air:
This week was one of the more raucous episodes of Politinerds on record. Our guest was Nick Gillespie, noted (small "L") libertarian an editor of Reason. Nick talks to us about why everyone who grows up in Jersey tends to be crazy, his early days in heavy metal, teen magazine authorship and ghost writing an advice column for Alyssa Milano, as well as his introduction to libertarianism. After that we get into some spirited debate on how it all went so wrong for Rand Paul, the limits of privacy, the war on drugs and the police state. Needless to say, Nick and I don't see eye to eye on many of these subjects.
This one ran a bit long because of the variety of topics and it was a fascinating discussion. Nick is always controversial but he's a great guest.
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He was fairly respectful. He did referene one of his Hot Air articles about how some guy released from prison shot a cop in the head during the drug war discussion. Not relevant but I'm sure he thought it was. Nick did a nice job. Nothing really new with the exception of a little bio info which was cool.
"If you note, there's a small but statistically significant bump up in the teenage pregnancy rate from 1986 to 1988 and I like to think that I might have had something to do with that."
Further, there's actually a valid reason for this. Taking any human life is evil, but when you go after an elected official, a cop or a judge, you are attacking the system of justice and the rule of law which keep us from falling into anarchy and oblivion. It's a serious thing and law enforcement treats it as such.
Its a pretty pathetic attempt to provide "benefit of the doubt" because there's No Video showing the officer 'panic'... and of course, He asked like WHAT 5 times for the kid's driver's license? I mean...please, wouldn't you go for your gun when a teenager starts being uptight? You people want to live in your anarchist Utopia you go right ahead but in the Real World we have to accept that a few teens are going to get shot for the sake of Procedure.
Maybe Nick is just bored, but I do not see how going on that podcast with those guys is going to further either the Reason brand or his own brand. Those guys are just shit, and I would be stunned if there was a large audience.
Also, the comments on the hotair article Gilmore linked are hideous.
Did you listen to it? The other interviewer - not Shaw - was libertarian sympathetic and really gave Nick a platform to pontificate. Nick did an awesome job explaining libertarian positions on the drug war and criminal justice reform. I don't know how many regulars listen to this podcast, but Nick represented really well.
Conversion works. I've got family members who would have never considered themselves libertarians listening to these kinds of podcasts and become much more sympathetic to our positions when Nick or Matt articulate so well.
I always think it is good when Matt or Nick or another writer articulates libertarian positions well while on any medium, I was just reacting to how much of an uber-twat Jazz Shaw is.
Sorry but no dividual life is more important than another. By saying that you create a class system. What proof you ask. In a court judge is a virtual god. There are no debtors prisons yet if you can not pay a fine you are in contempt of court and are going to jail. Police are also a privileged class. They are always breaking laws yet seldom are held accountable. What laws you ask. From speeding to rape and murder. If you don't this then you are naive. Our privileged class break the same laws as our poorer classes yet never see the inside of a jail. Main reason I believe in jury nullification. There is nothing wrong with anarchy as long as you are not a Statist. I know I am not going to convince you are anyone else but the State is the problem not the people and the people are not the State.
Personally I think Ep 4-6 still hold up today as serious entertainment. Especially ESB. Jedi is a low point there, sure - but its a low point in a very good trilogy.
Ep 1-2 blew completely. Ep3 was decent, not on par with 4-6 though.
IMO, 1-2 should have been cut down into about 30-45 minutes and spliced into 3. Three is good because you *finally* get an exploration of the circumstances and motivations for Skywalker becoming Vader. The other two - they're just a long, excessively drawn out, prologue.
But, really, 1-3 should never have been made. There are only a tiny, tiny, handful of directors that can come back to a project after 16 years and move it forward. Speilberg sure as shit couldn't.
Did Teen Machine pump any subliminal libertarian messages into impressionable, Corey-addled young minds?
"Hot Air's Jazz Shaw"
I am so sorry, Nick.
seriously I'm scared to listen.
Mataconis is even worse. One of those "libertarians" who doesn't seem to hold any actual libertarian beliefs. He makes Nick look like Rothbard.
How does Jazz Shaw even conduct interviews with the amount of leo dick he always has in his mouth?
He was fairly respectful. He did referene one of his Hot Air articles about how some guy released from prison shot a cop in the head during the drug war discussion. Not relevant but I'm sure he thought it was. Nick did a nice job. Nothing really new with the exception of a little bio info which was cool.
ghostwriter of an Alyssa Milano advice column
This is the most regret and sorrow I have ever felt about my own ejaculate.
slow clap
Seconded.
Oh well, we'll always have Embrace of the Vampire.
And internet pics.
I wonder if Nick covered this story.
"If you note, there's a small but statistically significant bump up in the teenage pregnancy rate from 1986 to 1988 and I like to think that I might have had something to do with that."
-Nick Gillespie
This is what Jazz Shaw wrote about the Reason subpeona business
Because of the woodchipper comment.
I am disappointed Nick is talking to him.
Also the one last weekend where he said that the kid who got murdered by a pig for flashing his high beams got what he deserved.
OH COME ON BE FAIR HE SAID, "Sadly"...Deven Guilford probably got exactly what he deserved
Its a pretty pathetic attempt to provide "benefit of the doubt" because there's No Video showing the officer 'panic'... and of course, He asked like WHAT 5 times for the kid's driver's license? I mean...please, wouldn't you go for your gun when a teenager starts being uptight? You people want to live in your anarchist Utopia you go right ahead but in the Real World we have to accept that a few teens are going to get shot for the sake of Procedure.
Maybe Nick is just bored, but I do not see how going on that podcast with those guys is going to further either the Reason brand or his own brand. Those guys are just shit, and I would be stunned if there was a large audience.
Also, the comments on the hotair article Gilmore linked are hideous.
Did you listen to it? The other interviewer - not Shaw - was libertarian sympathetic and really gave Nick a platform to pontificate. Nick did an awesome job explaining libertarian positions on the drug war and criminal justice reform. I don't know how many regulars listen to this podcast, but Nick represented really well.
Conversion works. I've got family members who would have never considered themselves libertarians listening to these kinds of podcasts and become much more sympathetic to our positions when Nick or Matt articulate so well.
Huh, I always thought the best way to convert people to libertarianism was through insults and dick jokes.
""insults and dick jokes.""
Don't forget Millenial Polling! Its got to be at least #3
I always think it is good when Matt or Nick or another writer articulates libertarian positions well while on any medium, I was just reacting to how much of an uber-twat Jazz Shaw is.
"Upon being told to exit the vehicle and facing arrest, an altercation took place which wound up with Deven being shot seven times. "
ALL HAIL THE PASSIVE VOICE
Sorry but no dividual life is more important than another. By saying that you create a class system. What proof you ask. In a court judge is a virtual god. There are no debtors prisons yet if you can not pay a fine you are in contempt of court and are going to jail. Police are also a privileged class. They are always breaking laws yet seldom are held accountable. What laws you ask. From speeding to rape and murder. If you don't this then you are naive. Our privileged class break the same laws as our poorer classes yet never see the inside of a jail. Main reason I believe in jury nullification. There is nothing wrong with anarchy as long as you are not a Statist. I know I am not going to convince you are anyone else but the State is the problem not the people and the people are not the State.
Wow, he even looks like a dick.
Well, big parts of the system of "justice" belong in the wood-chipper too.
" and Hot Air's Jazz Show "
Mick Garrespy on trombone.
...an' a one, an' a two....
*waves baton*
The Jacket vs. The Hat
The hat looks like = "He's the guy at the Atheist convention everyone warns you about"
Fuck Jizz Show. I MEAN JAZZ SHAW - HAHAHAHAHAHA
What a cop-fellating piece of shit. I wish Sandi'd take a shit in his hat one day before he puts it on.
He already has people for that.
Not bad. I instinctively assumed Nick would get a bit heated with Shaw, but he handled himself really gracefully.
Nick = graceful? Who would have thunk it?
To those of you who question why Nick would agree to this interview the obvious answer is: conversion.
Hot Air is a mixed bag. Allahpundit is good, Ed Morrissey is okay, Jazz Shaw is intolerable.
Personally I think Ep 4-6 still hold up today as serious entertainment. Especially ESB. Jedi is a low point there, sure - but its a low point in a very good trilogy.
Ep 1-2 blew completely. Ep3 was decent, not on par with 4-6 though.
IMO, 1-2 should have been cut down into about 30-45 minutes and spliced into 3. Three is good because you *finally* get an exploration of the circumstances and motivations for Skywalker becoming Vader. The other two - they're just a long, excessively drawn out, prologue.
But, really, 1-3 should never have been made. There are only a tiny, tiny, handful of directors that can come back to a project after 16 years and move it forward. Speilberg sure as shit couldn't.
moschino iphone