You heard it here first:
We had Nir Rosen on in November talking about the Iraqi refugee crisis. His New York Times Magazine cover piece on the subject appeared yesterday. Also in The Times yesterday was a story about a new television ad being broadcast in Republican Congressional districts. The ad features retired Major General John Batiste challenging Bush on his management of the Iraq War. Batiste was part of our recent Military Self Critique show. The Times says that CBS has terminated its consulting contract with General Batiste because of the TV spots.
The ROS baseball bureau is busy working on two stories: first, we’re following nother and Emmett O’Connell’s lead, investigating how the tiny, poor Dominican Republic is changing the American pastime. Second, in the countdown to Barry Bonds‘s looming milestone, we’re wondering if we can we trust a game where natural talent and ability don’t seem to matter anymore.
Sam is funny. [Greta Pemberton]
Looks like Mortgage Meltdown will tape on Wednesday, so tomorrow is suddenly open. Any ideas? Shows we’ve said we’re up for on the pitch threads? Shows that have been Warming Up for so long that their contents must have boiled off by now?
William James has been languishing on the Warming Up thread since December. Sam reminded us to get it cooking again last week, when he showed up for work wearing this.
Credit where credit is due: VeritasRox made that shirt.
I like your notes, Mary!
I like your shirt, Sam!
I’d like to hear a show about the challenges and rewards of being a street performer. Hip, topical…
What WOULD William James Do?!?!
Nobody’s expressed interest, but nobody’s said it’s a no-go, so I’ll come out of hiding for a moment to once again plead for a show on mental health. It connects in with Katrina. With Virginia Tech. With Pharma. With the banality of evil. With the prison system. And it turns out, per a story in USA Today a week or two ago, with life itself: Apparently, those with serious mental illness die something like 30 years before the rest of us. That’s astounding, and should really force us to question whether “mental” health really needs that adjective, or whether we need to treat it like all other health issues. Please, please, do a show on one or more of these angles. People are counting on you.
“we’re wondering if we can we trust a game where natural talent and ability don’t seem to matter anymore”
ever since hearing my highschool football team mandated creatine, I’ve lost faith in most organized sports. Even running with all the colored electrolyte enhancing upgradable waters seems to take the fun out of it. The Olympics have become a contest between whomever has outfitted their athletes with the best drugs flying just under the “abuse” bar.
///we’re wondering if we can we trust a game where natural talent and ability don’t seem to matter anymore./// I don’t quite understand why the best running shoes or bicycle or hockey stick or whatever is considered ‘ok’ (performance enhancing technology), but chemical additives are considered so ‘not ok’. The natural argument is bizarre. What’s so natural about titanium frames or carbon-fibre cores? And what makes drugs so ‘unnatural’? (Are drugs ‘supernatural’?) Please explain why modifying the body is so ‘unsportsmanlike’ while modifying the other equipment is accepted….
rahbuhbuh and trbrucia: that is a huge ball of wax that people have been trying to unravel for awhile. The big deal is that baseball for awhile during the big hitting 90s didn’t enforce rules regarding illegal drugs. Creatine isn’t illegal, and I’m unsure now if it now violates baseball’s banned substances rules. I guess, I don’t have any real answer, just pointing out that there are a lot of ways to slice it.
On the equipment vs. drugs debate, baseball does closely monitor equipment as well, including scuffs on baseballs and the size and weight of bats. A major leaguer can’t come to bat with a college style aluminum bat, for example. (Speaking of which, good recent resource: Cheater’s guide to baseball blog has been causing quite the stir in baseball circles. Derek is a must read for a cheater centered show)
On the Baseball America podcast last Friday they talked about the number of minor league players that have been busted this year (just a few last week) for substance abuse, and the relative lack of major leaguers getting busted. The BA podcasters theory was two fold: 1) minor leaguers are tempted to get an extra push to try to make it to the majors, 2) major leaguers can afford the good stuff that doesn’t show up.
Also, here’s a good resource for the Latin baseball show:
Stealing Lives: The Globalization of Baseball and the Tragic Story of Alexis Quiroz
I was just reading the September 2006 issue of Scientific American (as plnelson suggested I do). The whole issue is devoted to the environment. Jeff Sachs wrote a short piece on continued population growth unchecked and how it will relate to our environmental problems. Jeff Sachs makes a show all by himself.
By the way, Nicolas Dodman ( of Tufts Veterinary School) was on Terri Gross’ Fresh Air yesterday talking about pet animals and their needs. I recommended him for your zoology show and Terri apparently took my suggestion
. TG asked Dodman about his pets which turn out to be two horses, a few birds, including a parrot, and a rat. The rat is allowed to run around ( when they are home). They had two rats at one point but one had to be put to sleep.The parrot likes to chew on everything but is allowed to fly through the house ( when they are home).
That was supposed to be a link:
http://www.radioopensource.org/new-zoology/#comment-54941
I am acknowledging in appreciation a push for a show on the mentally ill. I have known that they die younger in general and in my own life. My sister died at 36, a murder. She had schizophrenia. She did not have her wits about her enough to protect herself, to stay away from people who would harm her. So this is a sensitive area for me and I usually chime in with a second for the motion and here I am again. The mentally ill are in our prisons, on our streets as homeless, uninsured for the most part ( I don’t even know if there are stats), w/o good medical care. As a society we do not understand mental illness. The Cho Massacre at Virginia Tech was a moment of awareness, now gone.