Walter Olson is a senior fellow at the CATO Institute and the man behind a great blog, Overlawyered. Walter returned to WRKO and Pundit Review Radio last evening to talk about his tremendous new book Schools for Misrule: Legal Academia and an Overlawyered America
I loved this book and was just so pleased that Walter was able to stay with for the entire hour to talk about it. Boston is a co-star in this book, so we started our conversation by focuing on our backyard first. We covered the recent ROTC reversal at Harvard, the plagarism scandal that rocked Harvard Law a few years back, and how the school went 30 years without hiring a Republican, despite incessant hand wringing about “diversity”. The rest of the conversation was focused on the heart of the book, the problem with law schools and all the awful ideas they produce. Overlawyered indeed.
For more on the book, don’t miss Walter’s 10 Questions interview with The Daily Caller.
The Pundit Review Radio Podcast RSS feed can be found here.
What is Pundit Review Radio?
On Boston’s Talk Station WRKO since 2005, Pundit Review Radio is where the old media meets the new. Each week we give voice to the work of the most influential leaders in the new media/citizen journalist revolution. Called “groundbreaking” by Talkers Magazine, this unique show brings the best of the blogs to the radio every Sunday evening from 6-9pm on AM680 WRKO, Boston’s Talk Station.
Bruce McQuain from Blackfive joined us once again for Someone You Should Know, our weekly tribute to the troops. Bruce spent 28 years in the U.S. Army and he is a veteran of the Vietnam war. He brings a perspective and understanding to these stories that we could never match.
This week Bruce told us the story of Captain Scott Smiley,
Within days of Smiley’s arrival at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, a civilian social worker encouraged his wife to fill out forms to medically retire him.
“Instantly, this thing inside me was like ‘No, this isn’t right,'” Tiffany Smiley, now 25, recalled. “It was just this gut feeling.”
Through weeks and months to come, as Scott Smiley’s body healed, as he learned how to walk with a cane and read Braille, he and his wife were told by doctors and therapists in Washington; Tacoma, Wash., and Palo Alto, Calif.: Your Army career is over.
Smiley – earnest, outgoing, quick to poke fun at himself, devoutly religious – has proved them wrong.
Taking advantage of the Army’s new willingness to consider allowing seriously injured soldiers to stay in uniform, and with the backing of superiors all the way up to a three-star general, Smiley has settled into a job at Fort Monroe’s Training and Doctrine Command.
The Someone You Should Know radio collaboration began as an extension of Matt Burden’s series at Blackfive. Bruce does an incredible job with the series every week. The SYSK archive can be found here and the Pundit Review Radio Podcast RSS feed can be found here.
What is Pundit Review Radio?
On Boston’s Talk Station WRKO since 2005, Pundit Review Radio is where the old media meets the new. Each week we give voice to the work of the most influential leaders in the new media/citizen journalist revolution. Called “groundbreaking” by Talkers Magazine, this unique show brings the best of the blogs to the radio every Sunday evening from 6-9pm on AM680 WRKO, Boston’s Talk Station.
Bruce McQuain from Blackfive joined us once again for Someone You Should Know, our weekly tribute to the troops. Bruce spent 28 years in the U.S. Army and he is a veteran of the Vietnam war. He brings a perspective and understanding to these stories that we could never match.
This week Bruce told us Chief Warrant Officer Two Nathan J. Buelow . From his Silver Star citation,
Maintaining absolute composure, Chief Warrant Officer Two Buelow maneuvered the entire convoy out of harm’s way and then oversaw the evacuation of an ISOF Soldier who has just lost his leg and fingers from a direct RPG hit. Chief Warrant Officer Two Buelow’s competence, professionalism, and courage under intense, direct small arms fire were critical to the successful prosecution of the target and preservation of the coalition force. His heroic acts saved the life of a brother-in-arms and brought the men of his detachment home safely. His heroic actions are in keeping with the finest traditions of gallantry and intrepidity, and reflect great credit upon himself, the Special Operations Command Central, and the United States Army.
The Someone You Should Know radio collaboration began as an extension of Matt Burden’s series at Blackfive. Bruce does an incredible job with the series every week. The SYSK archive can be found here and the Pundit Review Radio Podcast RSS feed can be found here.
What is Pundit Review Radio?
On Boston’s Talk Station WRKO since 2005, Pundit Review Radio is where the old media meets the new. Each week we give voice to the work of the most influential leaders in the new media/citizen journalist revolution. Called “groundbreaking” by Talkers Magazine, this unique show brings the best of the blogs to the radio every Sunday evening from 6-9pm on AM680 WRKO, Boston’s Talk Station.
It was a great pleasure to finally talk to Ed Driscoll of Pajamas Media. I’ve been reading Ed for years, and love his beat, pop culture, technology and politics.
The Pundit Review Radio Podcast RSS feed can be found here.
What is Pundit Review Radio?
On Boston’s Talk Station WRKO since 2005, Pundit Review Radio is where the old media meets the new. Each week we give voice to the work of the most influential leaders in the new media/citizen journalist revolution. Called “groundbreaking” by Talkers Magazine, this unique show brings the best of the blogs to the radio every Sunday evening from 6-9pm on AM680 WRKO, Boston's Talk Station.
I highly recommend that you take a few minutes to look through this research report from Mary Meeker. Some amazing data and detail on just how screwed our country’s finances are. This PPT can help inform your opinions about a whole host of issues, starting with government employee unions, the budget, entitlements and the effectiveness, or not, of those who went to Washington with BIG TALK about taking these issues on.
After reading this report, one thing is clear. It’s decision time for America. Here are a few lowlights, via Business Insider,
• Spending as a percent of GDP rose 3 percent each year from 1790 and 1930. Worse: It rose 24% in 2010.
• Here’s a great breakdown of America’s biggest costs:
• Debt levels will be three times current levels by 2030. Entitlements and interest alone will exceed total revenue by 2025.
• Only 1 in 50 Americans needed Medicaid when it was first created in 1965, 1 in 6 Americans receives Medicaid now.
• Extended unemployment benefits could set back America Inc. $34 billion in the next two years alone.
• The only good investments: technology, education and infrastructure.
• The crucial reforms: entitlement and tax policies
• There is no quick-fix to America’s deficit problem. While raising taxes could help, the only real solution is cutting costs.
• Why we should cut Medicare benefits by 53%
• Why we should increase the retirement age to 73 or cut Social Security benefits by 12%.
USA Inc.is a non-partisan report that looks at the U.S. federal government (and its financials) as if it were a business. Mary Meeker, partner at KPCB and former financial analyst at Morgan Stanley, created and compiled the report with the goal of informing the discussion about our financial situation and outlook. USA Inc. examines the country’s income statement and balance sheet, aiming to interpret the underlying data and facts, and illustrate patterns and trends in easy-to-understand ways. The report also analyzes the drivers of federal revenue and the history of expense growth, and discusses basic scenarios for how revenue and expense growth might change to help America move toward positive cash flow.
USA Inc. – A Basic Summary of America’s Financial Statements
James Altucher is a true original thinker. He is an investor, entrepreneur, author, blogger and all around fascinating person. His bio at Altucher Confidential includes the following,
“To some extent I regret every minute of the past 15 years. My first job in New York City was for HBO, interviewing prostitutes and drug dealers at three in the morning. How I went from that to trading and investing and everything that happened in between can fill ten books.”
Colin Powell once said, “There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure.”
I think James would agree that the most valuable lessons come from failures. What he does is fill his blog with amazing stories and experiences that have shaped his life and career for the past 20 years. James is not afraid to look deeply into his failures and share some pretty great advice with his readers. His blog is part storytelling, part MBA program, part life coach. Always a must read.
We covered some of his best known posts, such as Don’t Send Your Kids To College, 10 Things I Learned From Jim Cramer and How Stevie Cohen Changed My Life
The Pundit Review Radio Podcast RSS feed can be found here.
What is Pundit Review Radio?
On Boston’s Talk Station WRKO since 2005, Pundit Review Radio is where the old media meets the new. Each week we give voice to the work of the most influential leaders in the new media/citizen journalist revolution. Called “groundbreaking” by Talkers Magazine, this unique show brings the best of the blogs to the radio every Sunday evening from 6-9pm on AM680 WRKO, Boston’s Talk Station.
Michael Yon joined us once again last night, this time from Bangkok, Thailand. He was heading to the airport for a flight to Afghanistan. I asked him what he thinks about the night before returning to cover combat from the fight lines, we talked about where we are there today, how things have changed since he first started joining us from Afghanistan some five years ago.
Michael is a truly independent journalist, supported by his readers. Please support his work by checking out his amazing website. To listen to the archive of Michael’s visits with us through the years, click here.
The Pundit Review Radio Podcast RSS feed can be found here.
What is Pundit Review Radio?
On Boston’s Talk Station WRKO since 2005, Pundit Review Radio is where the old media meets the new. Each week we give voice to the work of the most influential leaders in the new media/citizen journalist revolution. Called “groundbreaking” by Talkers Magazine, this unique show brings the best of the blogs to the radio every Sunday evening from 6-9pm on AM680 WRKO, Boston’s Talk Station.