• Forgot to flag yesterday the latest episode of the Three Whisky Happy Hour podcast, with John Yoo back in fighting form. And fight it was, as John and I are skeptical of Trump’s tariff strategy, while Lucretia is all in, and uses her Ricardian comparative advantage to good effect.
Meanwhile, we asked AI for some song lyrics for the podcast, and some of stanzas it came up with are surprisingly appropriate:
Three Whisky Happy Hour, spinning through the haze
Laughing through the chaos, dancing crooked praise
Raise the glass once, twice, then never sour
Time melts strange in Three Whisky Happy Hour. . .Three Whisky Happy Hour, where shadows bloom
A dance on the edge of joy and gloom
Raise the glass once, twice — fate will cower
Under the spell of Three Whisky Happy Hour.
And here’s a description of the project when it is set to music:
Imagine a medieval tavern jam session spiraling through a time warp into a smoky jazz club on Mars. Three Whisky Happy Hour is a heady fusion of knotty time signatures, layered counterpoint vocals, and a swirling blend of lute-like guitar tones, Moog synths, and brass flourishes that wouldn’t sound out of place in a Canterbury scene fever dream. Fronted by a rich, resonant male voice that shifts seamlessly between bard-like storytelling and modern existential musings, the group crafts songs that unfold like sonic labyrinths—equal parts ritual and rebellion. Think Gentle Giant sharing a round with Frank Zappa, while King Crimson eavesdrops from the next table.
I am disappointed that Genesis is left out!
And speaking of AI, I know listeners and readers have been waiting for this:
• And speaking of John Yoo, the Law Talk podcast is reborn! Charles C.W. Cooke replaces Troy Senik as the host and traffic cop between John and the irrepressible Richard Epstein. We wish Charles well in the herculean task of corralling John and Richard, the Shohei Ohtani and Aaron Judge of the conservative legal movement. Subscribe at the link above.
• As for the news, the story to watch now that Harvard has said they will risk giving up $8 billion in federal funds rather than yield to Trump’s demands that it live up to its obligations to obey Title VI of the Civil Rights Act (among other things) is whether Harvard is willing to become the Hillsdale College of the east, and give up all federal funding. Have they considered the upside from their point of view? If they give up all federal funding, they can have all the race-based admissions they want, and keep DEI and anti-Semitism, too! Heh:
Make it so!—
• Meanwhile, Yale University seems determined not to be left out of the comic relief. Here’s yesterday’s announcement:
McInnis forms faculty committee to tackle higher ed skepticism
A new president’s committee will attempt to discern the causes behind declining trust in higher education — and what universities can do to rebuild confidence. The committee of ten Yale professors will begin “a process of reckoning and reflection,” University President Maurie McInnis wrote in a Friday afternoon announcement. [Emphasis added.]
Gee—maybe it was everything we said? I suspect the committee effort will resemble an old cartoon showing one skunk greeting another skunk by asking, “Say—what are you up to to these days?” Answer: “Yale has appointed me to a special committee to investigate the cause of the pungent odor around here.” Surely Yale’s problems are nothing that more “diversity” (except diversity of viewpoint) can’t fix.
• Finally, daily meme time:
The Harvies can be offensive to humanity on their own dime, and they have many dimes. Who can explain why the rich kids and adults there ever needed our tax money?
The points of Trump’s tariffs are thus:
1) level trade deficits with allies (why are tariffs good for them, but not for us?)
2) move American companies out of China (and hopefully at least some of them to the US)
3) prove the point that I occassionally make, which is that real free trade has never been tried. Its a utopian fantasy!