So we had promised last week that this episode would feature a cage match between Lucretia and John about realism versus idealism as applied to the Ukraine War (especially since John baited Lucretia by calling her a neocon, which is fighting words not just in the desert west), as well as the problem of January 6, but the passing of Justice Sandra Day O’Connor and Henry Kissinger diverted us, along with the DeSantis-Newsom debate.

Along the way we were treated to an extraordinary tale—John Yoo, as a young Supreme Court clerk, going one-on-one with the visiting Charles Barkley at the Supreme Court’s own basketball court, which is known as the highest court in the land because it is located on the upper story of the Supreme Court building. Can you guess how it went? (Barkley was still playing in the NBA for the Phoenix Suns at the time.) It was the surprise revelation of this episode.

We had lots of critical (though respectful) things to say about both Justice O’Connor and Henry the K, and I suspect as usual listeners will find our contentions unique and not widely mentioned in the torrents of encomiums for both historic figures this week.

And we promise we’ll go the cage match next week, or your money back. (Though we did do a small preview with a brief argument about why the cause of Israel should rank higher than the cause of Ukraine.)

You know what to do now: Listen here, or from our hosts at Ricochet.