Workin’ for the Weekend #28: We Get Around
Also: Facebook Files, DEI pushback, and justice for the Croz
Do you enjoy listening to other podcasts featuring the co-seditionists of The Fifth? Well, then this weekend’s mail is for you! (Please note that your paid subscriptions in particular make all this skylarking possible.)
* You may recall our robust discussion with Megyn Kelly about the Hamline University adjunct art history professor who was shown the door after showing her well-warned students some historical art depicting the historically significant figure of Muhammad. On Jan. 12, our pal Nico Perrino, host of the Foundation of Individual Rights and Expression’s So to Speak: The Free Speech Podcast, had on Moynihan and Carleton College Associate History Professor Anna Khalid (host of the Banished podcast and author of an anti-Hamline piece headlined, “Most of All, I am Offended as a Muslim”), to “discuss the risks and costs of teaching, talking, writing, and creating art about religion, particularly Islam,” and also “the recent #TwitterFiles reporting.” (H/T Gabrielle G, who is more conscientious about providing links than certain participants of this podcast.)
* Speaking of #TwitterFiles, and as discussed at some length in #391, Reason’s Robby Soave (#332) uncorked a piece Jan. 19 titled “Inside the Facebook Files: Emails Reveal the CDC's Role in Silencing COVID-19 Dissent,” which was published in conjunction with the posting of his March issue cover story, “How the CDC Became the Speech Police.” Soave talked about his findings later that day with Nick Gillespie (SD 72, #379) and Zach Weissmueller:
* Kmele moderated another debate for Bari Weiss’s Honestly podcast on Jan. 17, this time on “America’s Broken Immigration System,” between Cato Institute Director of Economic and Social Policy Studies Alex Nowrasteh (#303) and Center for Immigration Studies Director of Policy Studies Jessica Vaughan.
* And as long as we’re pimping other people’s podcasts, this is a very sporadic reminder in this space that I host The Reason Roundtable like clockwork every Monday afternoon, attempting to corral the aforementioned Gillespie, Peter Suderman, and namer-of-The-Fifth-Column Katherine Mangu-Ward (#75). This past week’s episode included discussion of Joe Biden’s document problems, the fate of collegiate affirmative action, and Republican “anti-woke” efforts.
* And speaking of DEI politics, pal Jesse Singal (#111 & #171) had a murmur-generating piece in the Jan. 17 New York Times asking the question (and providing documentary evidence about), “What if Diversity Trainings Are Doing More Harm Than Good?” Past guests Christopher Rufo (#332) and Ilya Shapiro (#361) also teamed up on a Wall Street Journal op-ed explaining their model state-level legislation to, among other things, “abolish ‘diversity, equity and inclusion’ bureaucracies” at state schools.
* On Jan. 18, fighting through some Long Covid-esque wooze, and sporting my very worst old-man outfit (Terence Mann, to be precise), I appeared on Compound Media’s deceptively named Mornin’!!! with Bill Schulz and Joanne Noscuhinsky to talk about whether people are sad because no religion, Frenchies & the NBA, and what Moynihan provides to Never-ever-EVER Fly Coach subscribers. Schulz (#79, SD 72) was indeed rocking some serious Christy Mathewson threads:
* Were we unfair, or at least mean in an untimely way, to the late David Crosby? Probably, judging by how banged up some people are about the rancid old walrus’s passing. So in the spirit of generosity, here’s our old pal Jeff Blehar (#85) of Political Beats fame answering the question of, you know, did Croz actually write a good song?
And who did the Political Beats episode about The Byrds? Nick Gillespie, of course.
Our parting ditty comes after me slogging valiantly through David Crosby’s allegedly 15 Essential Songs (per the NYT) until I finally found one that didn’t make me want to do hate-crimes. This one, written for George Harrison, sounding a good deal like the later (and better) “Be Here Now,” and backed by a Who’s Who of California Sound stalwarts in their recording primes, is pretty good:
How did it not come up that Crosby was the sperm donor for Melissa Etheridge and her partner? Should be some good material right there.
Gabrielle you're famous!