Mellifluous and Euphonious Ramblings

Jonah stops to ruminate on the pathway between two menacingly-named locales—Snake River and Death Canyon ...

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Jonah stops to ruminate on the pathway between two menacingly-named locales—Snake River and Death Canyon (no Cliffs of Insanity, though). The topics today: why the mainstreaming of “white” identity is a genuinely awful idea, why being pro-Israel might cause you to get punched at synagogue, how progressives have adopted some of the worst parts of the European right, and much more.

Show Notes:

–How to punch a shark

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  1. Matt Blankenship

    When Jonah returns, can we please have the Charles Murray chicken recipe?

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    Lorraine Hudock

    Jonah was worried about the sound quality of this episode, which he recorded in his car on his computer. Maybe it's because I listen on my phone while walking outside, but I found the sound quality on this ep to actually be better (clearer) than usual.

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  3. ROBERT

    Yes, I want the recipe for Charles Murray chicken. Sounds delicious. It's a simple fact that chicken thighs are far superior to breasts. In fact, breasts are nothing more than a utensil for eating a tasty sauce. Without the sauce, you might as eat shoe leather

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    Ken Peabody

    White culture in the United States has systematically kept the black people as second class citizens, denying the right to vote, paying them less for the same work, etc.

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    Adicesa14

    The 57th State, ‘Thieghland,’ is going ‘Nukuler.’

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    The Bell Tower

    The only thing I don’t follow with all this capital letter stuff is how Jonah’s perfectly compelling arguments about white being a ridiculous distinction beyond skin color don’t also apply to black.

    First of all, black in America is a shared culture specifically and artificially created by racist, white slave owners. Is a black person from Morocco really the same as a black person from Haiti? Do they have a shared experience beyond poor treatment by white people due to the difference of skin color? Black people come from backgrounds just as diverse as whites.

    Second, the left in this country are trying to make this distinction of White as specifically not Black. It’s an intentionally divisive distinction rooted in exactly the kind of racial stupidity that Jonah talks about.

    I’m reminded of how the Nazis spent so much of their despicable time analyzing mixed blood Jews. Race defilement is what they called it. What of Frederick Douglass or Colin Kapernick, both of whom had a white parent? Is the imaginary capital B line drawn here or more towards the Elizabeth Warren quantum measurement?

    I just think all this stuff is both stupid and dangerous. The entire point of MLK’s dream (as Jonah pointed out) is to avoid this execrable instinct of men to categorize each other by circumstances of birth over which they have no control and which should not define their destiny - and would not if we didn’t put these obstacles in their way.

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      C C Writer

      Agreed that dwelliing on some aspects of it while ignoring the bigger picture can be stupid and dangerous.

      But there's a black culture in America created not by the slave owners but by black people in America, beginning before emancipation but more largely in how they dealt with treatment in the century after they were freed. In other words, the reaction to their treatment as second class citizens is a lasting part of the American experience and American culture. They had to build their own community institutions, customs, dialect while on the way up to being accepted by white society. And then around the civil rights era (but beginning before) they made huge contributions which became part of the general American culture: Music, poetry, drama, sports, comedy, fashion, food, etc. etc. Without this experience, would we have jazz, blues, gospel, rock & roll, Motown; baseball/basketball/football/boxing as we know them; even many of our best slang expressions that perfectly express discovered truth about life? We can trace these features of American culture to their origins and use them to appreciate how dealing with oppression can engender determination and creativity. I hope that doesn't count as "cultural appropriation." It's now woven into the American tapestry.

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        The Bell Tower

        No, that’s a very fair point actually. How could I forget Frederick Douglass:

        “I did not, when a slave, understand the deep meaning of those rude and apparently incoherent songs. I was myself within the circle; so that I neither saw nor heard as those without might see and hear. They told a tale of woe which was then altogether beyond my feeble comprehension; they were tones loud, long, and deep; they breathed the prayer and complaint of souls boiling over with the bitterest anguish. Every tone was a testimony against slavery, and a prayer to God for deliverance from chains. The hearing of those wild notes always depressed my spirit, and filled me with ineffable sadness. I have frequently found myself in tears while hearing them. The mere recurrence to those songs, even now, afflicts me; and while I am writing these lines, an expression of feeling has already found its way down my cheek. To those songs I trace my first glimmering conception of the dehumanizing character of slavery. I can never get rid of that conception. Those songs still follow me, to deepen my hatred of slavery, and quicken my sympathies for my brethren in bonds. If any one wishes to be impressed with the soul-killing effects of slavery, let him go to Colonel Lloyd's plantation, and, on allowance-day, place himself in the deep pine woods, and there let him, in silence, analyze the sounds that shall pass through the chambers of his soul,—and if he is not thus impressed, it will only be because ‘there is no flesh in his obdurate heart.’”

        I don’t think the Post’s purpose is anywhere near so moving or deep, but I can’t disagree with the specific point you make. Not sure it convinces me of the capital B but it does alter my thinking somewhat.

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          C C Writer

          Appreciate the quote. Useful reminder that the Blues goes back way before Muddy Waters and B. B. King. *

          *May I capitalize Blues? ;)

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    C C Writer

    I like to cook chicken thighs and wings on the grill. I pre-cook them in a steamer and then grill them for a short time with barbecue sauce to get the outside crispy and sweet. Thighs must be bone-in and skin-on. I don't understand why some stores insist on selling them skinless and boneless. Those are just useless.

    Breast meat (when I have a whole chicken) is only good for cutting up and making chicken salad with onions, celery, plenty of Miracle Whip, maybe a little curry powder, and perhaps raisins or grapes or chopped nuts.

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    1. ROBERT

      Correct on all accounts. You sure know your chicken!

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    Kevin Johnson

    Good stuff!

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    Marian Cates

    Really enjoyed the latest ruminant remnant, which I listened to today. I'm so grateful to you and your Dispatch colleagues, as well as Kevin Williamson, for putting events in historical perspective.

    I hope you realize how important your podcasting is to your fans. GD crows and all.

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    Angie

    PS: the things people who like thighs like about them, are the things that I find gross about them...but, it also may just be that I don't care for chicken much at all unless it has soemthing on it to cover the taste...lol

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      Angie

      "something"

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