3 Whisky Happy Hour

For the second week in a row, the 3WHH gang (minus one) were on the road, this time recording live in the corner of a hotel lobby before the annual meeting of the Philadelphia Society. The sound quality of this episode is . . . authentic. Yes, I'll go with that. John Yoo couldn't make the meeting, so we have a special guest, our old pal Glenn Ellmers. With John absent, we get our freak on about the Clean Air Act . . . actually we didn't do that. We did worse: We get down in the weeds of metaphysics, radical historicism, the theological-political problem (especially in the context of this week's feud between the President and the Pope), dishing on Laura Field's terrible book Furious Minds, contrasting Justice Sotomayor's jurisprudence of "feels" versus Justice Thomas's jurisprudence of principle—the principle of the Declaration of Independence. And finally, we take up the perennial question, what's the matter with kids today. And as such the exit music this week is "Kids," from moe:Kids will try to run you overKids will try to bring you downKids will never say they're sorryKids back then are older now

This week the 3WHH podcast "went mobile people!", venturing to the University of Tulsa's College of Law for a live-taping before an enthusiastic audience of law students, faculty, and some loyal listeners. We departed slightly from our usual format, and focused on a single subject: the Declaration of Independence at 250. John Yoo decided to be more obstreperous than usual with his utilitarian-positivist-pragmatism, but it made for a highly entertaining episode. We had a wonderful time visiting Tulsa.Don't miss the YouTube version of the episode, which includes the "pre-game" introduction (not included in this audio episode) wherein Steve performed (an allegedy cheesy) magic trick illustrating the breakdown of the separation of powers.And needless to say, exit music is "Ten Miles to Tulsa." We can't wait to go back.

Notre Dame's Tocqueville professor of political science, Vincent Phillip Munoz (Phil to his freinds and colleagues), joins this special episode which finds all three of your regular bartenders in the same room for once while on the road in Austin, Texas. Phil is one of the leading scholars of religious liberty in the U.S., and after a progress report on the Iran War (we're still winning), and a prolonged look at the Supreme Court oral arguments in Trump v. Barbara, the birthright citizenship case heard this week, we pick Phil's brain about the status of school prayer, and whether a restoration of organized prayer in public schools has a prayer of happening, taking as our cue Gerry Bradley's recent and provocative First Things article, "How To Bring Back School Prayer."From there we briefly (but alas because we were out of sufficient time) but inadequately treat Phil's terrifically concise CRB essay "Ancient and Modern: How Straussians Interpret the Founding," mostly to annoy John Yoo—and we succeeded!

Be afraid, be very afraid, as this livestreamed edition of the 3WHH featured special effects for the first time. Steve has a new toy—a soundboard that comes with the classic sound effects. These turn out to be quite useful when pondering where the Iran War stands, why the deal to end the DHS shutdown was so confusing and ulimately collapsed, what the "pursuit of happiness" means in the Declaration of Independence (one clue: happiness is contending with John's never-ending intransigence about all things metaphysical), why the closing of the 'Liberal Patriot' Substack is an ominous sign for the old-fashioned reform liberal tradition.Also, we give away the secret of the Straussian cheeseburger, which, to pararphrase Professor Strauss, makes the Big Arch look like an idiot childburger.

This week we raise the Jolly Roger against an imitator podcast that is intruding on the 3WHH's exclusive right of commentary on all things McDonald's, but then we move on to our own balance sheet about the Iran War (verdict—we're winning big, and Trump is killing it), and the saga of the SAVE Act in the Senate, where opinion divides more sharply among the three of us. Here we land the blame squarely on GOP Senate leader John Thune, and did you know that "thune" is a slang French expression for for money, though it is often used with a modifier to indicate the lack thereof, like "sans thune." Seems fitting for a GOp Senate that can't figure out how to fight.The exit music this week is an obscure callback. . . I doubt one person in 1,000 will get it.

To paraphrase—awkwardly—that 70s-era lyric, "International Law! What Is It Good For? Absolutely. Nothing! Good God!" Lucretia host's this week's episode, which combines her skepticism of international law, especially as it relates to our current military operations against Iran, along with her impatience with our willful refusal to take radical Islam seriously, now that Islam-inspired violence in the U.S. is now a daily occurence. The first topic was inspired by John Yoo's latest article on the subject; the latter subject inspired by the news headlines, needless to say.Oh, we also make the case briefly for invading Iceland. It has to do with hamburgers. Also there are dogs.

This special "Give War a Chance" episode, the second under our joint sponsorship of the Civitas Institute and Ricochet, had some peculiar technical glitches that make it quite odd and somewhat disjointed. Steve cut out halfway through, and getting him back was a great bollix.In any case, we reviewed some key points of the Great Iran War of 2026, along with observations on the Supreme Court's intervention on the side of California parents (we can't believe this was even an issue, but it is), and then after Steve came back, a mad scramble to the finish.We do manage to get in some important cultural notes, such as the new McDonald's 1,000-calorie-plus Big Arch burger, and talking John down from his first ever visit to Buc-ees.

This week we went round-robin format—or the podcast equivalent of potluck—with each bartender bringing a subject on their mind. John wonders whether the Clinton deposition about Epstein is really sensible, Steve wonders how Gaffen-Gavin Newsom can possible survive this week's "George Romney Moment" (you need to be a certain age, or have read some political history from the 1960s, to get this reference), and Lucretia wonders why universities have allowed themselves to be swallowed whole by useless administrators.Along the way we do lighting round hot takes on Trump's stupendous State of the Union speech, whether we're going to go to war with Iran perhaps before these pixels are dry on the screen, and, in response to a listener question, clarifying our discussion last week about the Supreme Court's tariff decision, along with some great pop culture trivia that we hadn't planned.Plus—this episode opens with a BIG ANNOUNCEMENT about the future of this podcast! And some upcoming events.

Was the Supreme Court's tariff case Friday a no-lose case for conservatives, as Steve argues in this fast-paced episode, or a serious setback for President Trump? We were just surprised John Yoo had any voice left at all to break it down for us after being on call throughout the day for Fox News, but he saved his best for us. Hint: The fact that the three liberals on the Court wrote concurring opinions disagreeing with Chief Justice Roberts's reasoning behind the decision suggests some useful mischief at work in the decision. The second half of this episode turns briefly to whether the "vibe shift" against wokism is really taking place, with caveats about whether it will survive Trump's presidency, or be reversed by the next Democrat who lies their way into the White House. Not only is the Wokerati engaging in "massive resistance" to steps to end government-sponsored racism and human nature-denying trans-axels, but some Democrats are darkly threatening retribution for people and institutions that are abandoning DEI and other wokist totems right now.

Whether free and fair elections can be saved with the SAVE Act is the first topic of debate this week, along with a celebration of the Trump Administration rolling back the EPA's power to make our energy scarce and expensive. Steve describes this bold step as the "Inchon Landing" in the war against the administrative state. Forget Nixon-to-China cliches: only Trump could take such a bold step that no other conventional Republican would dare take. We also spend a good deal of time recalling the passing, ten years ago now, of Justice Antonin Scalia, whose shadow over contemporary jurisprudence continues to lengthen. We think Scalia is displacing Holmes as the most significant jurist of the last century for his enduring influence and for his central role in reviving constituitional originalism, even though he once described himself as a "faint-hearted originalist." There's a paradox at work in Scalia's jurisprudential legacy that requires someone like G.K. Chesterton to understand—and that, kids, ought to be a strong hint as to exactly what it is.