Announcements and Updates

Podcast schedule, 18th century cage-match, the Wright stuff, and more

• Okay, we’ve settled on a time for this week’s livestream 3WHH podcast recording: we’re going to try to do it tomorrow (Friday) evening at 7 pm PACIFIC time. It will pop up live right here at that time, or if you are an email notification subscriber you’ll get an email sent right when we go live. Lucretia is hosting this week’s episode, so be afraid, be very afraid.

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• Speaking of cage matches, on Wednesday, March 4 at 6 pm Eastern time, the very cheeky millenial-run Saving Elephants Substack is hosting a livestreamed debate pitting me and “Lucretia” against Prof. Lauren Hall of the Rochester Institute of Technology and Greg Collins of Yale University on the topic: “Conservative Cagematch - Burke vs Strauss.” Here’s their description:

Ever since Leo Strauss published his magnum opus Natural Right and History, which ends by heavily implying Edmund Burke opened the door for the evils of historicism in the modern world, a great fissure in conservative nerddom erupted between those who align with either titan.

Were Strauss’ criticism of Burke warranted? Did Burke disavow natural rights and pave the way for the evils of authoritarianism, fascism, Marxism, and progressivism to come? Does a careful, esoteric reading of Natural Right and History reveal the Strauss secret family chili recipe?

I told you they were cheeky. . .

Representing Edmund Burke:

Greg Collins of Yale University and Lauren Hall of the Rochester Institute of Technology

Representing Leo Strauss:

Steve Hayward of Pepperdine and the international woman of mystery, Lucretia of the University of Arizona:

Yup—Lucretia and I will be paired up on the same side, somehow, even though she thinks I am a half-out-of-the-closet Burkean!

It will be livestreamed both on the Saving Elephants Substack, but also on YouTube and even Facebook. Mark your calendar and join us!

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• In the news department, everyone is rightly praising Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s fabulous speech to the Munich Security Conference last weekend, but there was an equally important speech from Energy Secretary Chris Wright to a meeting of the International Energy Agency, which has been drinking deeply from the climate cult Kool-Aid for a long time. Wright tore the bark off, and threatened along the way to pull the U.S. out of the IEA if it doesn’t stop with the green nonsense.

This video is nearly an hour long, but it is mostly questions and answers from the audience. Wright’s main remarks run from the 3:15 mark to about the 15:30 mark. But he was equally brilliant and forceful in the Q & A if you have the time:

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• Look, I have no idea whether we’re about to attack Iran. My hunch is that Trump really doesn’t want to do it, but as with Venezuela he won’t back down without a good deal after this significant buildup in the region. And my secondary hunch is that Iran won’t make any serious concessions until bombers are in the air heading to their bunkers. And I further think Trump knows this is how Persian rug merchants always do things—you have to have foot out the door (or a finger on the “bombs-away” button in this case) before they’ll make a realistic offer.