I think that a martian left would be the easiest way to sum it up. I was a leftwing but it didnt make enough sense to be. Host when did the transformation occur . Guest i just wrote about this. There is a book coming out from the Hoover Institution that is acting as called why i turned right and its the story of a bunch of us and it is a long story and i will not tell it that i will give the short version. I was a radical leftist 150 a week was a lot of money as far as i was concerned in the Lower East Side and i was very broke. We got paid every two weeks. I was really looking forward to the 300 so was my landlord. I got my first paycheck at 78 or Something Like that. After federal tax and estate tax and the city tax and social security, health care, Retirement Funds i said wait a minute, wait a minute, ive been advocating socialism, communism for years screaming and yelling down the street and we already have it. They just took half my pay. Whats going on here. Im not rockefeller. They just took off my pay. Half my pay. We have socialism. That is when i started to out of it. It took a while. Host somebody else made a switch in their politics with Christopher Hitchens. Guest much more recently. Back in 1993 i guess here is het he had to say about you. Ever since and it has a terrific following as a humorist for his books and essays. The first one is the Republican Party i. Iraq ani recommend he was runnin empty and now i see how wonderful it would be and the book basically depends on the political correctness. Okay its not funny. Ive never even gotten away with physical assault. I think that he overstates the case. And also of course im long past the point i can plan to be busting down or not. Im an old republican not like most middleaged white guys. We are all republican even if we call ourselves something else. Host you didnt know you were going to come over here and get attacked. Holidays in hell is another book. All the trouble in the world modern manners. First book when was this without . Guest the original was 1983. Eat the rich is what got me started up a. It was from that experience that the editor in england who came up with this idea for the series of the that changed the world of which my book on adam smith is one of Christopher Hitchens has one also on thomas paine and very good it is. It was because of some poking around that he asked me to wri write. Host mississippi, you are on with pj, go ahead. Guest hello, come in. Host new jersey, go ahead. Caller a man but i suspect never wore the uniform and i suspect hearing about the politics would have done his darndest could be so flippant about the war. We have one now. Thousands of americans have been killed, no useful purpose is served and i think it is abominable that he can make fun of the war and find something amusing about it at the question that i wanted to ask him if he talks about the imperative of the free markets. Does he have any conception about why we have things like the minimum wage law does he remember the condition that existed before we had those and if thats what he thinks is freedom. Im glad he came in on the democratic line. Host here is what you write like many men in my generation i had an opportunity to give the war a and i promptly chickened out. In 1970 i went with a doctors letter about the history of drug abuse and the letter was four and a half pages devoted to listing the drugs i have used. I was sent to the office of the psychiatrist at the end of a 45 minute interview with the pounding on the desk and shouting you dont belong in the army. He was right on the first count and possibly the second. I didnt have to go but that meanto thatmeant someone else hn my place. Guest to begin with, the beginning of what the fellow on the phone said. Lets put it this way, a bad situation in the war the rotten situation. You can make your softball pompous and pious or you can do all those things. Whether i dont make fun of it isnt going to make it better. As to the free markets and minimum wage and people working in coal mines to. The. Keeping coercion out o the verse marketplace there is only one aspect keeping portion out of life. Adam smith sold the wealth of nations and essays that he wrote a very important book that he wrote that no one reads anymore called the theory of moral sentiments which is about morality and it was all about making people rely upon persuasion and to give up brute force. That is the core of morality and the free society and democracy even though adam smith in some ways didnt know that. He lived in a pre democratic era and didnt quite understand that democracy could work but he did understand freedom of work. He was a moral and practical and just plain tha playing the sortf sympathetic advocate of freedom and at the root of the freedom is persuasion. It doesnt mean that you want them rulethe mold by anarchy. It applies the rule of law. It isnt prescriptive and it doesnt tell us how to conduct free market it doesnt tell us that there should be rules and we should all obey the rules but it doesnt say quite exactly what the rules are. Book five of the wealth of nations he tries to lay down some rules. When they have been like in congress, so did a very angry caller ive would just like to say this for a second no idea why three hours should be wasted on me and i am not going to claim that there is a good reason. Because you have certain ideas about how freedom should be conducted in a you may be right and i respect those ideas and they are worth arguing about although they may not be the same as the ones i have got dont just because you want to limit certain freedoms in the market it may be the correct thing to do to limit those, but dont be smug about your desire to live it. Everybody that wants to limit from those that desire human slavery to the taliban and everybody is smug about the desire to limit human freedoms. It can be good for recognizing that and make you a wise or sensible person assuming the argument for god. Just because you have some desire to limit the. Txt provides a tribute to the automobile it was held at the Petersen Automotive Museum in los angeles in june of 2009. Host is im afraid the last time to say how shall we put it, sayonara to the american car. American automobile companies, ford, gm, chrysler they will live on in some form, kind of a marleys ghost dragging their chains at the taxpayers expense. At the detroit unions they are going to retire to their homes in palm beach and st. Petersburg respectively when congress and the white house gets through with it, a lightweight vehicle with a Carbon Footprint using alternative energy and Renewable Resources to operate in a Sustainable Way when i was a kid we called it a schwinn. [laughter] expand Springfield Massachusetts if it had been a success, Springfield Massachusetts might be todays motor city with unemployment drug dealing Violent Crime and racial tensions, which as it so happens, bring debate has been killed massachusetts is the love anyway. We owe a lot more than they entertaining spectacle if that many people my age. They would find it a little too close to comfort that is probably where we were conceived. There was no premarital sex in america before the invention of the internal combustion attribute. You couldnt sneak a girl into the wreck room at the farmhouse because your mom and dad didnt have a car sedate so they didnt commute so they were stuck home all day working on the farm and your farmhouse didnt have a rec room because it hadnt been discovered due to all the farm work. [laughter] you could take a girl out but it was hard to get her in the mood to bust into her corset because you were facing the high high end end of the horse. While the car was at it if destroyed the American Nuclear family and as anyone can tell you, it was a relief to all concerned. There are much worse things you can do as the sudanese have been proven to one of the things ive wondered we never hear a thank you word of thanks from those that skateboard all the time. They provided america with a standard of living. You cannot get a steady job with high wages and Retirement Benefits working on the General Corporation of the Assembly Line putting letterassemblylineputtt just couldnt be done. I think that the american car was a source of intellectual stimulation. You think of the innovation, the invention, the genius that transformed the 1908 into the 1968 gt 500 in the course of one single human lifetime, compare this to the previous mode of transportation, force production, force design, unchanged for thousands of years. When it comes to creativity i did a little bit of Research Writing this stuff. You know, nobody thought to put a stirrup, nobody thought to hang a stirrup from the saddle until it was invented. People had been riding horses for thousands of years and it took him until 500 ae d. If the automobile designing and engineering preceded the same pace as force design and engineering we would be covering ourselves on the road by running with our feet stuck in the hole like Fred Flintstone and although it may come to god with the 2010 obama mobile. Most important of all that they fulfilled the idea of americas founding fathers. Of all the truths we hold to be selfevident, of all of the malleable rights with which we are endowed, which one is most important front and center flats in the name of the declaration of independence, freedom to leave, freedom to get out of town, to get out of here. King george, can i have the keys. That is the declaration of independence says. And ive got to tell you this isnt an abstract matter to me of the fanciful theory. Nancy pelosi dating she was transported home from the Maternity Ward on the clouds supported and low carbon. [laughter] my grandfather was born in 1877 on a farm the size of the podium here in the wind city, ohio, which wasnt a city and didnt even have any line. He was one of ten kids. They grew up in a pink at the shack. I have a photograph windup by age staring at the photographer amazed to see someone in shoes. My greatgrandfather was a woodcutter in the midwest where there were no trees. Also drunk and illiterate. I have a copy of the marriage certificate. Hes on the accomplishment aside from the poor mans roulette wheel. The only thing that he ever accomplished he trained some to call him home, he would fall out of the tavern, pass out in the e wagon and the horses would bring him home. He left home with a fifthgrade education lookinfifth gradeeduct lights of toledo ohio and went to work as a buggy mechanic. Then one day a horseless buggy pulled up at the shop and he sold the future and a it didnt take him long to realize more money was to be made and also the wedding anniversary was too close for comfort. She got in the car business and by the time i came along in the 1940s, we had a buick and they owned a dealership and my father was a Sales Manager and joe ran a used car lot and was a salesman and then the parts department. I would go right on to do whatever it is that i do in this book with a parrot on my shoulder i am on down to the price is walk the plank. Free chocolate. Its a great life. They said we owe everything to the american car. The. We didnt do very well, but they went. So i pick the demise, i took this personally. Im looking around for somebody to blame. If what fun it would be with both feet. And i think we should definitely do that connie was the worst driver in the world and one of the fastest. If she didnt get herself killed, it couldnt be done so he was all right. But, the pundits were all telling us that there was plenty of blame to go around for the death of the american car, and im not really sure about that either. Its true that the car executives are knuckleheads, that all executives are. Look at bill gates. What didnt you get a decent 5dollar haircut . It is maddening but its one thing to be mad at the Labor Union Leaders and its another thing to be expected to be down at the whole standing on a chair yelling we demand less money for the bosses. They make 600 an hour or so im told. They get laid off every time the camel forests at a meeting. [laughter] maybe their pay is too high. I think to understand, we have to give up on economics and turned to melodrama. Politicians, journalists, all the other purveyors, theyve been looking at cars as if a convertible for a business. It isnt a matter of financial crisis are measuring the shoes size of the foot print is the tragic romance and unleased passions the author in 2010 he appeared in washington, d. C. Where he is also a senior fellow to offer his thoughts on politicians and the federal government. I will not be satisfied until every seat in the house and senate is filled by a regular person. A regular person who quite reasonably hates being there. I want the government to be like jury duty. And not jury duty for some exciting crime like the o. J. Simpson murder. I want it to be like jury duty for a long boring complex trial concerning tax law. What they suggest indicting our federal tax code, this is for start which is nothing but a fraud. I want the government to be doled and like attending a Parent Teacher conference, something that could be undertaken with reluctance because good citizenship requires that. I want every congressman from every senator, every president , every Supreme Court justice to be wishing him longing, begging to go back to his or her job in real life. I want them hoping and waiting to be able to return to their private interests and personal applications. I want them yearning to be sitting in front of the tv with a beer watching ed crane is money on his world series. I want the officials to say that they intend to spend more time with their families and mean it. We well know when weve won and election with every single candidate that is voted into Office Begins his or her victory speech by saying oh, shit. [laughter] now in this new book on the theory of political science, instead of basing my theory on the work of deep political thinking such as john locke and tom paine, John Stuart Mill and ed crane, im basing my theory on the game played out all night and give all sessions in girls boarding schools. The girls could do like nbc dead and kill conan and screw letterman and mary jay leno. I am laughing but then it struck me that his politics that so we picked the president of the United States george h. W. Bush bill clinton ross perot. We could hardly avoid a screwup from bill clinton and the old george h. W. Bush now the outcome is not a foregone conclusion instead of the walk down the il. With the 2000 election even america was divided over screw george w or get screwed by al gore but we agree on killing ralph nader i will not have examples recent elections for fear of attracting attention by the secret service like the obama white house. It works on parts of governments get in bed with fema housing screw agricultural subsidies and Health Care Reform kills us its great with that political analysis because in a free and democratic country it is a threelegged stool to be balanced upon a tripod of power and freedom and responsibility we live in a free and democratic country a little less democratic than it was before last night also its a great deal of critical analysis because we are so passionate about our politics how do they end . And a passion sometimes and occasionally they turn into stable permanent legal arrangements which is the endless quarrel known as marriage how do we do that . Do we overthrow with violence hard we tried to build something that is lasting that is worthy and annoying marvelously purchased and stifling . Our power of freedom of responsibility. Now when i first began to think about politics with mastodons and nixon roamed the earth i was obsessed with the freedom i had a messy idea of freedom back in those days but i had a tidy idea that freedom was the central issue of politics. I love politics this may be the reason that professional politicians retain a certain youthful zest and ted kennedy was a boy right down to his last moment i was wrong about the lovable nature of politics but i was sure i was right about the preeminent place freedom should have in the political system but there are lots of definitions of free 36 in westers websters International Dictionary plenty of people are theoretically in favor of freedom we are all but overrun with theoretical allies we have collaborators in the fight for freedom that we dont even want the proletarians have nothing to lose with the communist manifesto that mao announced letting 100 flowers blossom half a Million People died in that definition of freedom and we should probably keep in mind the original definition of the word free in english is not and bondage mankind has a sickening history of slavery now here in america we have freedom because we have rates the same way we can get mixed up about freedom we can get mixed up about our rights we have two kinds of rights political scientists call them positive rights and negative rights sometimes we call them opportunities and privileges i call them get out of here rights and give me rights. Politicians talk about the give me rights especially the politician in the white house right now. Yes give me some healthcare insurance the bill of rights doesnt mention give me rights it is all about our freedom to say i have guns and a big mouth if the jury finds me guilty the judge will give me bail the freedom from interference usually from government but also when they want us to sober up and put the gun down politicians only way give me rights they do not like get out of here rights they do not like get out of here rights because for one thing all legislators are invited to get out of here in strict adherence would leave little scope for legislation something that they love to do much more politically alluring and this is how we find ourselves tempted with the right to education and to oil spill beach cleanup highspeed Internet Access