“How many spies do we have in this government?” Larry O’Connor asks. And why did it take Department of Energy’s intel to figure out what happened in the Wuhan lab? Larry and I take a look at some of the questions and surprises of the WSJ exposé about COVID origins. We also marvel at how Woody Harrelson made SNL suddenly relevant, Scott Adams’ fumble, and why Larry’s producer threw granola-bar wrappers at him while we taped this week’s episode.
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Welcome back to our new VIP video series “Off the Beaten Path,” featuring my friend Larry O’Connor! The Townhall columnist and Salem News Channel host starts off our week by discussing stories and ideas that may fly under our radar, in culture, politics, sports, and more. Plus, Larry previews tonight’s SNC show!
Adams got deked into taking the bait offered up by Rasmussen, I argue, although that doesn’t let him off the hook for his comments. “There are certain pollsters that like to stir the pot,” I point out. “Rasmussen’s one of them, PPP is another, and we’ve gotten used to the fact.” They offer provocative statements designed to stoke outrage by polling a few hundred people and getting their contextless responses. “This is the War Games scenario,” I say, “the most successful move is not to play.”
If the races were reversed, Larry argues, then we’d get all sorts of commentary not much different than Adams’. However, even that misses the point, Larry continues, because it fundamentally leads to dead-end debates. “What’s the point of talking about those things unless you’re actually advancing the conversation? And this didn’t advance the conversation,” Larry says, which should be about the anti-Western notion of treating race and other immutable characteristics as determinative.
In case you missed how Woody Harrelson made SNL relevant, here’s the clip from his cold open. Harrelson framed this as an opportunity that came his way shortly after his previous SNL guest-host stint in 2019:
Get ready for the meltdowns…
SNL host Woody Harrelson calls out Big Pharma over COVID and the vax pic.twitter.com/dIdlBahwda
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) February 26, 2023
Larry and I have mixed feelings about this, considering Harrelson’s extreme politics, but conclude that is what makes this so funny. Even better was the lockstep condemnation from the supposedly anti-establishment press such as Rolling Stone and Variety.
Be sure to watch the whole show and join the conversation in the comments!
