London Calling

After kicking off today’s Ruminant with a few reflections on his pesky first name, Jonah ...

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After kicking off today’s Ruminant with a few reflections on his pesky first name, Jonah soon embarks on a thorough analysis of Joe Biden’s rise to the presidency and the intellectual insecurities that often come packaged with the Oval Office. An eclectic potpourri follows as Jonah explores the distinction between assassination and murder, his relationship with a top British cabinet official, and the hypocrisy of European nations regarding the abortion debate. It all ends with a more lighthearted assessment of the differences between Hollywood movies and real life.

Show Notes:

– The Remnant with Noah Phillips

– The Remnant with Noah Rothman

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  1. Avatar photo
    Ben Connelly

    “Warm bucket of piss,” I believe.

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  2. GusABQ

    I’m a health physicist (look it up). Every depiction of my profession in the popular media is always 100% wrong.

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  3. Matthew Krane

    My favorite examples of egregious mistakes in metallurgy in movies/TV come from Game of Thrones. While I like the series (in general), how it treats materials processing (a field in which I have some professional expertise) is bloody awful. One simple example: melting a large steel sword (Ned Stark's) to make two new ones. That forge would never melt steel, no one would *cast* a sword (forging gives a tougher weapon), and the casting process would never give the proper shape. I won't talk about the melting of gold over the same campfire as someone was boiling soup. And the idea one could melt and cast a glass like obsidian ("dragon glass") made me want to laugh, cry, and cuss all at the same time.

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  4. Avatar photo
    Andy Napoli

    Johann -- big mistake telling us how often your first name gets mutilated. I'm sure the trolls will be upping their game. Although I thought your anecdotes were totally hilarious.

    Funny anecdote of my own on ethnic names -- my father was named Anthony Napoli; I was named after his best friend growing up (Andy). I guess because my last name is Napoli (obviously Italian) and because most people automatically assume male Italians are named "Tony" or "Ant-nee," most people who I met for the first time, just immediately called called me "Tony." I would usually try and correct them a few times, but eventually on the third or fourth time when they still called me Tony, I just give up and respond to "Tony." I had one work colleague who called me Tony for like a decade, and one time at a retirement party he called me Tony and somebody else corrected him, and he was aghast in embarrassment. How come you let me call you the wrong name for so many years? I told him I tried to correct him about a half dozen times, but that this happens to me so often by so many people, that I just accept the fact that people call me by my father's name.

    So I commiserate with Joan -- she and I just have to endure the mutilation of our names....

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  5. Zack Frank

    Noah's great and you guys do well together. Sometimes he feels a little wasted on Commentary, but you two have a good yin/yang on the spectrums of morosity/humor, data/history, and logic/emotion.

    Regarding the solo video stream: you should consider a Twitch-style stream, wherein you cast your computer screen and have your visage in the corner. It would let you comment on specific articles / posts / memes, which might be an easy way to come up with content on a brain fart day.

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  6. Ackemma1

    I'm surprised people mess up "Jonah". Is not really that obscure, is it?

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  7. mle

    The best representation of internal medicine training is the TV show Scrubs.

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  8. TallCon

    I started out in aviation and moved to software. I think that not only are there no accurate movies in either field but I think the movie industry aggressively and intentionally gets things wrong.

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  9. Avatar photo
    Tracie

    A preoccupation with policing womens' bodies reveals more than does the opinion that womens' medical decisions should be private.

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  10. Michael.Mcchesney

    I am a recovering lawyer and former high school social studies teacher. I used to teach a 2 period per week constitutional law class. As part of teaching that class, I showed the 1980 made for television film Gideon's Trumpet. That film demonstrates and shows the entire process for a case that goes to the Supreme Court. Clarence Earl Gideon, portrayed by Henry Fonda, is accused of burglarizing a pool hall. He couldn't afford a lawyer and requested the court appoint one. But because Gideon was of average intelligence, was not facing a capital charge, and the case was not overly complicated, the court refused. Gideon hand writes a Petition for Writ of Certiorari to the Supreme Court. The film then shows the conference where the justices decide whether they should take the case. They do and appoint future Supreme Court Justice Abe Fortas (played by Jose Ferrer) to represent Gideon. The film than shows the oral argument followed by the justices conference discussing how they should rule. Following their decision, Gideon is given a new trial with a lawyer and is aquitted. My assistant principal didn't like that I was taking up both classes showing the movie and suggested I only show the important parts. But I explained why the entire film was important. It was well worth the time it took because it was particularly helpful to my weakest students. I had an essay on my final exam that asked the kids to take one case we had studied that semester and answer questions about it. My weaker students all chose Gideon v. Wainwright (1963) and by and large wrote decent essays about it.

    Most law related shows get so much wrong. Mostly that's out of narrative necessity because they mostly need to wrap up the case in one hour or at most two. Cases can take years to come to trial. There was a TV show called Murder One that premiered in 1995 (the same year I started law school) that decided to follow one case for the entire season. I remember sitting and watching the show with some classmates when an associate hands the main attorney some precedents they found and he asks if they "shepardized" them. We all cheered because we had only just learned about shepardizing. For non-lawyers, that's a research tool that will tell you if a case is still good law. For instance if you were drafting a brief to challenge an abortion restriction and shepardized Roe v. Wade, 6 months ago it would tell you that Roe had been modified by Casey. But today it would tell you it had been overturned. Obviously, I can't imagine many people would need the Shepherds service to know that. But there are cases that are overturned that receive far less publicity.

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