69 Responses to “Pitch a Show: June 22, 2007”

1. enhabit Says:
   June 23rd, 2007 at 9:51 am

   hang on, i’m posting this again..(with a revised draft)

   what if the current result in iraq is not just the failure of securing the country after invasion..but one that was to some extent intended but miscalculated.

   who couldn’t have known that the country would fragment? a ruling minority that routinely beat and abused ancient rival iraqi kurd’s and sunnis? the kurdish people despised and mistrusted for generations? arab shia, not entirely trusted by iran OR iraq?

   maybe we shouldn’t be so quick to assume that our country is THAT stupid!
   what if this was actually an attempt at a controlled fragmantation that went wrong, or has been more catastrophic that anticipated?

   “The Other Iraq”

   As Iraqi-Kurdistan celebrated their traditional solar New Year in 2007, a spirit of optimism ran through the crowds after generations of struggle for independence. They certainly had a lot to celebrate. Now a de-facto independent state with around 45billion barrels of oil and 100 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, Iraqi-Kurdistan is an emerging secular democracy and potential economic powerhouse. No one close to the situation is suggesting otherwise, in spite of Kurdish political rhetoric to the contrary. Their own security forces are effective, have the full support of the United States Military, and are credited with keeping the violent insurgency gripping the rest of Iraq largely absent from the region. Qubad Talabani, Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) Representative to the United States and son of the Iraqi president recently suggested to interviewer Christopher Lydon that Iraqi-Kurdistan is modeling itself after nothing less than Dubai.

   Of the growing foreign investment in Iraqi-Kurdistan, the vast majority of it is known to be coming from Turkey, an adjacent country that has a lot to gain from making nice with the Kurds, and the Kurds have a lot to gain as well. According to Peter Galbraith, adviser to the KRG and former ambassador to Croatia, this investment had been under way before the invasion of Iraq. Before the invasion, and with all that fuss about keeping “coalition” troops off NATO member Turkey’s soil. The Turks may have been providing political cover for a vision of converting an old adversary, in virtually complete control of a landlocked wealth of oil and gas, into a lucrative partner by providing a reliable route to market. One wonders how a Turkish petition to join the European Union will be received with a relatively secure Turkish pipeline hooked-up to one of the world’s largest oil fields. A rapprochement between these non-Arab peoples with pro-western secular ambitions will be quite a marriage, and a rare bright spot in a real mess. Even so we may expect to see some continued posturing from both sides of the equation for quite some time.

   As for the Iraqi Shia (note that they are mostly Arab Shia) in the south, are they going to follow a similar independence path? Leaving the Sunnis on their own or perhaps with the Saudis charging in to rescue them? This would solidify the Sunni presence in the region about as far as it can go, with the Saudis gaining influence over a very large, strategically located city that has been a boil under their collective saddles for quite some time. To the benefit of all concerned, Saudi Arabian money and influence may well have a placating effect on Iraqi Sunnis.

   All of this begs the question: was this the plan all along? Could there possibly be members of the United States government with the guile to risk the kind of turmoil seen in the rest of Iraq? This would not have played well if it had been openly presented at the start, to say the least. But consider just one element of what is at stake here, the United States has gained the favor, gratitude and loyalty of what is likely to be a stable, oil producing and independent Kurdistan, complete with an American military base right next to Iran and Syria.

   A little review of recent history may prove to be helpful at this point.

   The Kurdish region liberally crosses the borders of Iran, Iraq, (mostly) Turkey and a small part of Syria. However, it is in Iraq alone, that this region is known to contain a genuine wealth of oil, with even more discoveries being made today very close to the Turkish border. In the run up to the Iran-Iraq war, the United States and Israel had been encouraging Iranian support for Kurdish independence in Iraq. The Iraqis responded by supporting various insurgent groups in Iran, including a Kurdish one. Iran was an ally back then, buying our weapons by the boatload. Iraq had an arrangement with the Soviets, as did the Syrians. Turkey has long had troubles with the Russians and the Soviets were Russian enough for their taste.

   This period of encouraging Iraqi-Kurdish independence began in 1974, during the preoccupied twilight of the Nixon administration’s transition into the Ford administration. Some of the second Bush administration’s key players were very much on the rise at this point. Donald Rumsfeld, economic advisor in Nixon’s cabinet, later to become Gerald Ford’s Chief of Staff, supervised the “transition team” as Ford moved into the Oval Office. Dick Cheney, who had been working with Rumsfeld in the Nixon administration, was brought in as Assistant to the President. The famous “Halloween Massacre” soon followed as Cheney and Rumsfeld consolidated their political power through firings and re-assignment. Among the fired were some very high level people including, Defense Secretary James Schlesinger, CIA Director William Colby and National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger. Fed up with it all, Vice-President Nelson Rockefeller, a long time friend of Henry Kissinger, later resigned. Donald Rumsfeld saw himself named Secretary of Defense; Dick Cheney assumed the position of White House chief of staff and none other than George H. W. Bush was named Director of the CIA. With the gift of hindsight one may note a pattern of skillfully sweeping opposition aside while taking advantage of being underestimated.

   All the while, the Kurdish insurgency was proving to be too much of a headache for Iran and Iraq. The Shah met with then vice president of Iraq’s Revolutionary Command Council, Saddam Hussein at an OPEC meeting in Algiers (oh to have been a fly on that wall). A joint communiqué was issued that later evolved into a treaty firmly establishing Iraq’s borders with Iran and Saudi Arabia. It was agreed that all parties would put a stop to the Kurdish push for independence.

   Had someone in the Nixon/Ford administration developed a taste for an independent Kurdistan’s potential? Many members of the administration went on to later Bush administrations, some with a demonstrated interest in the oil industry. A former CEO of the energy services corporation Haliburton is currently serving as Vice-President of the United States. All that oil, a known quantity in a region struggling for independence so intriguingly close to an American cold war ally, Turkey; in a strategic position between Syria with its swords pointed at Israel and what was about to become a very unfriendly Iran. After the Iranian revolution, an uncomfortable “enemy of my enemy” alliance developed between the United States and an increasingly unreliable and ruthless Iraq. Even they were having difficulty maintaining control of the Kurdish region. Independence for the determined Kurds may or may not have been close, but the seeds of a scenario are likely to have been planted in someone’s mind. How to set the Kurdish wheels of independence in motion?

   One piece of the puzzle presented itself later, when then President of Iraq, Saddam Hussein, began to lose patience with the Iran-Iraq war. Chemical weapons, low budget and deadly, were employed with catastrophic results. The United States quickly backed off in its support, but Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction and Saddam’s willingness to use them were now on the record. Soon the Kurds too would learn of Saddam’s gas technology that smelled like sweet apples and killed with agony. These atrocities later prove to be a fatal mistake for Saddam.

   The recent Balkans conflict brings a key lesson to this picture: a country so fragmented by ethnic and religious rivalry demands either a firm hand to keep the peace, or a patient and determined one to negotiate the breakup. A firm American hand, capable of enforcing synthetic cohesion, would not be tolerated by today’s public or the press. Such a firm hand would not be available to post invasion Iraq, fragmentation was essentially inevitable. Therefore, an imperialist seeking unfettered access to a piece of such a country, while maintaining workable international and domestic relations, must pre-determine which desirable fragment is manageable, pre-position accordingly, and allow, even encourage the country to divide itself. This must be done while outwardly in pusuit of a justifiable purpose.

   Iraq plays almost flawlessly into the hands of this approach but much depends upon the complicity of the Saudis and the Turks or at least upon their ability to recognize and exploit opportunity. Turkey denied “coalition” access at the start of the second Gulf War, but was this for the sake of appearances? A tactical political diversion? Kuwaitis had an old score to settle and no one would blame them for their support. At any rate, the Turkish position, complicit or not proved to be no more than an inconvenience, and it aligned nicely with not only most of the Middle East, but with the position of the majority of the coveted European Union.

   The missing catalyst flew out of a cloudless September sky into Manhattan, Arlington and a field in Western Pennsylvania. Donald Rumsfeld quickly called for action on uninvolved Iraq.

   One scenario may run something like this:

   With their country in a state of shock over the events of 9/11, American militarists, concerned about openly hostile Iraq’s presumed weapons of mass destruction and proven willingness to use them, appear to take charge; keeping a bruised and apparently ignored State Department insulated for later use. Sufficient troops are committed to defeat the Iraqi Army but not to maintain the peace. This is critical. Baghdad must degenerate to such an extent that its Shia population wants to leave. Presumably, they will withdraw to the already Shia dominated oil rich southern region of Iraq, and presumably, the local Sunnis will head for Baghdad. Unlike Iraqi-Kurdistan these southern oil fields have nearly direct access to the sea and no further allegiances are required to insure success. Iraqi Shias, mostly of Arab ethnicity, may be expected to coalesce and maintain their independence nicely. At any rate, this region is not the ultimate objective.

   The Sunnis of Iraq have been left with little else but one of the most strategically positioned cities in the Middle East, it is now in a state of waste and destruction. The Saudis (also Sunni Arabs) offer to help and so gain influence over key territory from a political and strategic point of view, now free of Shia influence and in a Saudi-friendly frame of mind. Of course the Saudis would be glad to return Baghdad to its former glory, and beyond. A gleaming Sunni metropolis will emerge from the ashes on the doorstep of Saudi Arabia’s archrival, Iran.

   Iraqi-Kurdistan, with its politically secular Kurdish population in control, was secured early in the conflict and indeed, had been well on the way years before. Adjacent Turkey agrees to help with transit of the region’s oil wealth, investment flows in and indeed, it too had quietly preceded invasion.

   If the scenario presented here is close to the actual plan, the kind of strategic foresight suggested, however flawed, requires a ruthless guile, cold political calculus and disregard for human suffering worthy of a Roman Emperor. The scheme clearly contains an understandable miscalculation of Shia willingness to leave Baghdad, although the potential for this result hasn’t evaporated away quite yet. Even with its underestimation of Shia stubbornness or Saudi intentions, a speculative analysis built from the point of view that the invasion of Iraq and its foreseeable outcome was deliberately choreographed is downright spooky. A lot of pieces seem to fall into place, and we may have been underestimating the Bush administration’s men behind the curtain.

   While George W. Bush plays the likeable bumbling right wing demagogue, with who knows who lurking in the wings, it is easy to assume that all of this is the result of reckless incompetence. Oddly enough, it feels better that way, and it is, after all, a likely conclusion. If complete incompetence is not the case then what does all of this mean? Many thousands are dead, and millions are currently living in a state of terror.
   Consider as well the relationship that some of the highest level key players have with the recently ex-pat and thoroughly involved no-bid Haliburton Company and the hair on the back of the neck begins to stand up. Are there factions in our society capable of such conquistadorian disregard for human life in the pursuit of economic and political self-interest? If so, then we have become an empire in our thinking after all. Maybe it’s easier to go on thinking that “mistakes were made”.

2. jordon Says:
   June 23rd, 2007 at 10:54 am

   I’d like to see a discussion of American Muslims, particularly converts from the African American community. I don’t know if it’s my misplaced post-9/11 hypervigilance, but I see more and more hijabs and skull caps on the train than I ever did. These people appear to come from lower-income areas of the city–i.e. let’s just say I don’t see them walking around tony Philadelphia neighborhoods–which suggests a social impetus behind the conversion, something underscored by popular American imam Zaid Shakir in a recent interview with Bill Moyers.

   I am exceedingly curious to find out why poor African Americans are increasingly turning away from churches and heading to mosques for a community that represents their interests. It’s particularly interesting that African Americans continue to convert to Islam despite the terrible public relations campaign the radical fringe is currently waging.

   All of this, however, is highly anectdotal, which underscores the need for substantive discussion with this growing sector of American culture.

   Jordon in Philadelphia

3. Tim Sackton Says:
   June 23rd, 2007 at 12:12 pm

   How about “Global Warming: Beyond Gasoline”?

   No serious effort to fight global warming can ignore the transportation sector; furthermore, oil supplies are finite and eventually our cars, trucks, and planes must run on renewable fuels. But what comes after gasoline is not at all clear. Ethanol and biodiesel get the most press, but there is also liquid fuel produced from coal or natural gas. Hydrogen is often talked about as the ultimate solution, but it always seems to be 20 years away. Alternatively, perhaps transportation will shift to electric vehicles, with the Chevy Volt leading the way.

   So I guess the pitch is: help us disentangle the confusing array of “next generation” transportation possibilities. What are the implications for global warming of our future fuel choices, and what policy choices can we make now to help ensure that the next generation of fuels will be environmentally friendly (for example, is California’s low-carbon standard for fuels the way to go)? Is there even a single alternative that has the potential to completely replace gas, or are we looking at a future where cars, trucks, and planes are powered by a wide array of different energy sources? What are the political forces that are at play here (especially in light of the current debate over the energy bill, where liquid coal-based fuel subsidies were pushed heavily by coal-state senators but defeated)?

4. Bobby Says:
   June 24th, 2007 at 1:35 am

   Would it be possible to create a link on your main page that points to the “HTML at ROS” webpage? With so many places to leave comments, it would be nice to make that information easily accessible.

5. Tisha Says:
   June 24th, 2007 at 1:03 pm

   I’d like to sugggest a show based on ths book and an interview with its author:
   War and the Soul: Healing Our Nation’s Veterans from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, by Edward Tick, Ph.D. Ed Tick is a clinical psychologist who has been working with veterans suffering from PTSD for almost 30 years. He found that conventional medical and psychiatric treatment methods do not go far enough and started studying other cultures which seemed to have more effective ways of helping their fighters return from warfare and reintegrate into society, ranging from the ancient Greeks to the American Plains Indians. War has become exponentially more destructive since the American Civil War but we do not have adequate ways to help veterans work through hellish memories of experiences that have damaged their hearts and minds. Ed Tick believes that PTSD is too narrowly defined as primarily an anxiety disorder; he considers it more a problem of identity. War changes people profoundly. They lose their old self and can’t integrate the trauma of war with a new identity. Since so many of our fighters are very young men, war becomes a rite of passage from boyhood to manhood but the extreme destruction, violence and deaths of so many civilians in modern warfare can cause these young men to become stuck, unable to complete the transition. They often feel like murderers rather than fighters. Ed does include women as he discusses PTSD. He takes veteran groups back to Vietnam and conducts workshops using a variety of healing methods such as the arts, storytelling and some Native American kinds of rituals. His book has many veterans’ stories and case histories. He says that psychotherapy, medication and group therapy can all help heal PTSD but that a more wholistic approach is needed. You can find out more from the website http://www.soldiersheart.org which includes a video of a recent speech given by Ed. (“soldier’s heart,” one of many terms used for PTSD, goes back to the American Civil War).
   I met Ed Tick earlier this month when I happened to be working at the retreat center where he was giving a 5-day workshop for veterans and have since read his book. I saw how the workshop engaged the veterans and the wives some had brought with them, putting them through intense emotional experiences and bringing them some sort of catharsis. I was very impressed with Ed. As well as being bright, thoughtful and warmly compassionate he is also very articulate in an unpretentious way. One veteran, when he saw me holding the book, pointed to the back cover and said that was him. It was a quote saying “I do belive tht Ed’s heart has seen what my eyes have seen.”
   Ed says that as civilians we are all involved in the problem of PTSD. We have to help veterans by taking on their guilt and pain from the destruction and killing they carried out IN OUR NAME. (My own thoughts are that half the country voted for George Bush and most of our senators voted for war in Iraq AND we’re all highly dependent on the oil we’re trying to keep control of, so we are all in this together.)

6. Tisha Says:
   June 24th, 2007 at 1:46 pm

   Sorry, I made an error on the website in my show suggestion above about PTSD. It should read:

   http://www.soldiersheart.net

   Thansk.

7. kalimarah Says:
   June 24th, 2007 at 3:08 pm

   “Punishable Offense? The white house, and its uncertain legal status.”
   My pitch for a show is to have a panel of legal experts address a list of violations perpetrated by the current administration that may have legal ramifications. There is a lot of arm waving and hot air on both the left and the right about how serious these various charges are.

   I would like to hear a discussion on why the white house’s actions seem to be treading legally uncertain or unknown waters.

   List of legally uncertain acts:
   1. Extent of power allowed President as Commander in Chief?
   2. VP D. Cheney’s claim to be not a member of the executive branch. Therefore he does not have to report classification/declassification of documents.
   4. Signing Statements: signing orders in direct violation of enacted laws.
   5. Unwarranted wiretapping: Gonzales, Comey, etc.
   6. Discussing classified information in a public space: (Comey, hospital)
   7. Leaking classified information to reporters: Valerie Plame
   8. District Attorney firings
   9. Lying about motivatin to go to war in Iraq: it is legal for anyone to lie while not under oath, so this has no legal standing, however it is an emotional enough issue to be worth at least mentioning its legal status.

8. kalimarah Says:
   June 24th, 2007 at 3:11 pm

   10. violating email use restrictions law

   forgot the last one.

9. rahbuhbuh Says:
   June 25th, 2007 at 3:51 pm

   This will probably not merit an entire show, but your Race and Class series has dwindled away recently. i miss it. Here’s a prod about race and class on the web?

   Danah Boyd is a social scientist profiling social networking sites. She’s just published a working draft of a paper called “Viewing American class divisions through Facebook and MySpace.” Along race and class lines, it’s digital white flight. white and upper middle class kids with traditional “bright futures” (my term) are moving to Facebook (and Virb?) while marginal, poor, queer, and brown teens end up on MySpace. that same split applies to the military officers and enlisted soldiers.

   “Over the last six months, i’ve noticed an increasing number of press articles about how high school teens are leaving MySpace for Facebook. That’s only partially true. There is indeed a change taking place, but it’s not a shift so much as a fragmentation.” – Boyd

   http://www.danah.org/papers/essays/ClassDivisions.html

   ——-

   so is it not only an economic marker that those whom can afford the web escape from lower classes, but that they’re splitting the web up as well? is the initial romance with anonymity on the even-planed web is over? or, we only want that when we dont’ have to look at each other. when we present our real identities, we split away as we do in life? and actual race and class boundaries are drawn. aznspace.com. there’s an Ivy League dating site, etc… social networking sites are old enough for alternatives to arise. the web is old enough for politicians to suggest splitting it into cost varying tiers. is this natural? good in an ultimate freemarket way? will it assist in fragmenting classes further offline?

10. rdeschene Says:
    June 25th, 2007 at 9:57 pm

    Vancouver’s safe injection site: four years on

    In September 2003 “Insite” North America’s first legal, supervised injection site was opened in Vancouver’s East End.

    Here we are, four years later, so what is the data showing ?

    - are emergency health care costs for O.D.’s lower ?
    - has the incidence of HIV and hepatitis decreased in the population at large ? Think harm reduction to the population as a whole – transmission via shared needles, prostitution,
    - is there less drug paraphenalia littering the city’s parks, doorways and yards ?
    - which level of government pays for the safe injection site and which will realize the savings. Is that A reason why this hasn’t been more widely adopted ?

    “Why now?” You can probably find some kind of corresponding anniversary date in the U.S.’s War on Drugs — it’s been through so many iterations for generations. But victory is “just around the corner” I’m sure.

    Former coroner and mayor Larry Campbell (currently a Canadian Senator) would be a good contact to start with. Here’s a Q&A of his and some opponents that I recently found. Also there’s a link to Insite.

    http://www.larrycampbell.ca/articles/safe-injection_sites.shtml
    http://www.vch.ca/sis/

11. RF Clark Says:
    June 26th, 2007 at 5:54 am

    I have been thinking about the state of the world right now and in the near to long term future. There are a lot of shows and a lot of books on how bad everything is. Everyway one turns it seems that there is another show on either climate change, the polar ice caps melting, or for example the talk I heard tonight on NPR could have been called “The Twelve Tipping Points in the Environment That When Reached Will Cause Catastrophic Destruction and Possibly The End of Human Existence” in lieu of such a long title they could have just called the show “We Are F**ked”. I have literally listened to dozens of shows like these for the last couple of years. Not too mention the shows that are about the fall of the American empire or how disparate the economy is between the haves and the have-nots and how in general terms my generation will be the first generation to do worse than our parents did. And then of course there are shows about the disappearing bees and dissappearing frogs and that without them our food supply will be alterede drastically leading to shortages of food for everyone. I could go on about more shows that spell doom and gloom about almost every aspect of our life and world. Now to the show that I wish someone would do and Open Source is the show to do it because you guys are grass roots and more interesting than any other show out there.

    Do a show on what to do with all this information. What I mean is given all the information about future projections how is a person supposed to protect or prepare themselves and their family?

    Not a show on what can we do to help stop climate change et al. I think by now most thoughtful people have heard ideas on what to do (going green in all aspects of one’s life).

    Rather a show that already takes some scientists at their word and puts forth the premise; it’s already too late and catastrophic climate change is ineveitable and irreversible and it is because of us humans. If this scenario is true what will that mean to a family’s s savings or living situatuion. I live in the bay area, are we going to be underwater in the next fifty years? Should I not buy long term property here? Should we start thinking about land in Colorado? What about finance. If there is a global crisis what will that do to our markets? to our investments? is there a possibility that there might be so much chaos that paper money is worth nothing. Then where should we invest money? Actual gold buellions or coins? What will be a commodity or talent that a person can have that is valuable and tradeable at a time of great chaos. What can I expect for my son who is as of yet unborn but will be born in the next year. What do I tell my kids? In short, what are the things that will more than likely happen and what a person(s) can do to prepare for it.

    I wish I had some names for you of possible people to interview for a show like this. I imagine that it should be people that are futurists and write about life in the future. Alvin Toffler comes to mind as someone to have on this show. I hope you do a show on this because Iwould really like to know these things and I think it would be beneficial a lot of people

    Thank youi,
    Russell

12. avecfrites Says:
    June 26th, 2007 at 6:59 am

    Here’s one for the rapid response team:
    In today’s (6/26) Globe Sidekick it says that Frankie Manning (famous Lindy Hopper) is in town to promote his book. He’d be a great guest, and could talk about Ellinton, Basie, etc. I have no idea whether he’d be interested, but it might be worth looking into.

13. 1st/14th Says:
    June 26th, 2007 at 1:39 pm

    Passion: Guns!

    Nothing brings out the hysterical fanatics (on both sides of the issues) in America quite like guns do.

14. rahbuhbuh Says:
    June 26th, 2007 at 2:03 pm

    today is the Internet Radio Day of Sience, in support of the Internet Radio Equality Act
    http://www.savenetradio.org/

    “unfair royalty rates threaten to bankrupt independent broadcasters”
    The smallest medium – Internet radio – pays the most royalties

    On March 2, 2007 the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB), which oversees sound recording royalties paid by Internet radio services, increased Internet radio’s royalty burden between 300 and 1200 percent and thereby jeopardized the industry’s future.

    At the request of the Recording Industry Association of America, the CRB ignored the fact that Internet radio royalties were already double what satellite radio pays, and multiplied the royalties even further. The 2005 royalty rate was 7/100 of a penny per song streamed; the 2010 rate will be 19/100 of a penny per song streamed. And for small webcasters that were able to calculate royalties as a percentage of revenue in 2005 – that option was quashed by the CRB, so small webcasters’ royalties will grow exponentially!

15. bicyclemark Says:
    June 26th, 2007 at 2:18 pm

    I want to hear from American Soldiers that have served as peacekeepers. Recently I interviewed, for my own show, a Dutch peacekeeper who served in Lebanon in the 70’s. He had amazing stories and important knowledge about why things happenned as they did and what we should be doing today. He mentioned the great american peacekeepers, but it seems to me in america there is little respect for UN peacekeeping.. despite the existance of these fantastic people doing important work.

16. jgirard98 Says:
    June 26th, 2007 at 11:08 pm

    What about a show on US-Colombian relations and (changing?) US counterdrug policy? Colombia is the third largest recipient of US funding after Iraq and Afghanistan. There are lots of issues to address. With Democrats back in control of congress there is currently there is a pretty active debate in Washington on the effectiveness, success, failures and externalities of US counter-drug policy. The debate is shifting from very strong support to the “hard” side (eradication, military aid, interdiction, law enforcement) to more support for the soft side (alternative economic development, human & labor rights,etc.)

    There is also the pending free trade agreement between the two governments under consideration. The Uribe administration, ‘parapolitics’, paramilitary demobilization, overall improvement of the security situation and the economy, the improving image of Colombia abroad (Colombian “renaissance” and th eidea that Colombian is coming to be seen as more than just “drugs and thugs”, and so on. Few people realize that Colombia has the second largest number of internally displaced persons in the world after the Sudan. It also has I think the second or third highest number of landmines in the world. There is a palpable tension between all these “problems” and those who believe Colombia is on its ways to being the next success story in Latin America. In some respects both sides are correct.

    Here are two great internet leads if interested –

    A Colombia blog from a Washington based Colombia policy expert:
    http://www.cipcol.org/

    and a recent cover article from Business Week article on Colombia as a hot emerging market:
    http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_22/b4036001.htm

17. Alexandre Enkerli Says:
    June 26th, 2007 at 11:48 pm

    Given the strong reactions towards Danah Boyd’s “blog essay” on class and SNS, I would certainly second rahbuhbuh’s suggestion.
    My own take on the reaction to Boyd’s post is that media exposure makes things trickier for academic bloggers.
    http://enkerli.wordpress.com/2007/06/26/dangers-of-academic-blogging/

18. colin Says:
    June 27th, 2007 at 11:26 am

    Thank you for your show pitches. In light of our recent decisions, it would be irresponsible to let more good ideas collect here. For those who’ve posted already, a few of us are looking into the possibility of a handful of user-suggested features, and if you have any suggestions for people to speak with or websites to link to, we’d love to see them.

    It has been both a pleasure and a great honor to launch off from user-suggested content for the past many months, and we hope that when this thing is ready to go again, in whatever incarnation, you’ll jump back on with more.

19. Emmett O'Connell Says:
    June 28th, 2007 at 11:20 am

    Just a clincher for my American soccer pitch (part one and two):

    The CONCACAF Gold Cup final attracted 41 percent more television households in the United States than the Stanley Cup finals clincher – and that was just for the soccer game’s Spanish-language telecast.

20. Alex Green Says:
    June 29th, 2007 at 5:15 pm

    I would like to (humbly) bring your attention to The 1001 Book Project, launched by my bookstore last month and featured in Publisher’s Weekly (http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6454524.html) and The Boston Globe (http://www.boston.com/ae/books/articles/2007/06/24/adventures_in_old_time_bookselling/).
    The 1001 Book Project intends to sell out the entire initial print run of a novel by Emerson College Writer-in-Residence Jon Papernick. The catch– the novel, which deals with topics of Jewish extremism and terrorism in NYC, will only be available through Back Pages Books in the US, since it is being published by a Canadian Publisher. It is not hard to suspect why this novel was not picked up by American publishers in early 2004 when it was first sent to them. The climate at the time made publishing such a book very risky. Now, we’re determined to tell them that not every book that gets published needs the approval of Oprah or The New York Times. It is time that customers and indie booksellers regain control over what is printed and demand to see authentic, innovative new voices printed by mainstream presses. So far, in our first month alone, we have sold 250 copies of the novel and the publishing world has taken notice. I’m not great at self-promotion, but this may be the kind of thing OpenSource listeners would be interested to hear more about. If you’d like a look at our site, go to http://www.backpagesbooks.com/who_by_fire.htm.

21. GodzillaVsBambi Says:
    November 4th, 2007 at 9:01 pm

    I think ROS should do a show on anti-Jewish projection. How anti-Judaism is often enjoyed not by those who hold such feelings, but ‘vicariously’ through Arab Americans, Iranian threats against Israel or anyone who is willing to express anti-Jewish vitriol publically.

22. GodzillaVsBambi Says:
    November 4th, 2007 at 9:03 pm

    A show on how the dead Jew Jesus, who was never given a proper burial, is related to the Christian imagery of dead Jews. How people who were not buried during Jesus’ time were meant to terrify Jews, and how the cross is a reminder of the ancient practice of human sacrifice.

23. GodzillaVsBambi Says:
    November 4th, 2007 at 9:09 pm

    I think a show on how the Catholic Church and the Pope helped Nazi war criminals escape to Argentina through Peron’s infamous Rat Line would be really exciting.

24. GodzillaVsBambi Says:
    November 4th, 2007 at 9:14 pm

    Is Catholicism synonymous with anti-Judaism or can the two truly be separated? Should be an interesting show.

25. GodzillaVsBambi Says:
    November 4th, 2007 at 9:25 pm

    Pedophilia, the Vatican, and Catholic American culture. How the ancient Catholic practice of sex with children has been transformed into a business in America by the reallocation of the Catholic Church’s financial resources. We could blame it on the Jewish lawyers, and not take on the responsibility ourselves. Should be a great show.

26. GodzillaVsBambi Says:
    November 4th, 2007 at 9:39 pm

    The Talmud, Jewish arrogance, and how its anti-Gentile passages have created Jew-hatred through the ages. Provocative show.

27. GodzillaVsBambi Says:
    November 4th, 2007 at 9:46 pm

    Why do people hate Jews? What is it about Jews that arouses such primal hatred? What are the sources other than the New Testament and the Talmud, of Jew hatred? What roll do Christians and Jews play in the perpetuation of Jew-hatred? And what sorts of mental exercises can we practice to lessen the intensity of religious hatred? Best show!!

28. Darthmyopius Says:
    November 9th, 2007 at 10:35 am

    Ron Paul: What would the WORLD be like in a Ron Paul Presidency, where the weapons are brought home, the US withdraws from the UN and the WTO, and the Woodrow Wilson notion of “the doors of the nations which are closed must be battered down” is relegated to the dustbin. Will the world be a safer place or a more dangerous place with the biggest, baddest (nastiest?) policeman off the beat?

    p.s. I am not a Ron Paul botnet.
    p.p.s. I am not even an American–I wish I was though, just so I could vote for Ron.
    p.p.p.s You could do a follow-up show to this on life without the Federal Reserve!

29. Ron Paul - Presidential Candidate » Blog Archive » in the "Pitch a Show: June 22, 2007" thread, Darthmyopius writes: Says:
    November 9th, 2007 at 11:37 am

    [...] in the "Pitch a Show: June 22, 2007" thread, Darthmyopius writes: Red Pills wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptRon P [...]

30. Ron Paul - Presidential Candidate » Blog Archive » in the "Pitch a Show: June 22, 2007" thread, Ron Paul - Presidential… Says:
    November 9th, 2007 at 12:51 pm

    [...] he "Pitch a Show: June 22, 2007" thread, Ron Paul – Presidential… Politcal, Computing, and Clarion News | Global Toad News wrote an interesting [...]

31. mc_masterchef Says:
    November 15th, 2007 at 11:56 pm

    I would be interested to hear an Open Source investigation of the current situation in Pakistan. There are a number of Pakistani bloggers of course (I’ve been reading the Pakistan Policy Blog but I’m sure there are plenty more eyewitness accounts to be found); the Pakistani military actually has a publicly viewable forum; and there’s a Pakistani politics Flickr stream that has some pictures of current protests. Musharraf is targeting members of Pakistani civil society — the judiciary, the mainstream party leaders — while the “Pakistani Taliban” takes over the Swat valley just miles from the capital. Imhan Khan is trying to fire up the previously apolitical student body, perhaps with some success, and is then handed over to authorities by a rival student faction. Benazir Bhutto is attempting to shift from a tenuously brokered partnership with Musharraf to a new role as an opposition coalition leader, but how popular is she really, to what degree is the US shepherding her through this process, could she set Pakistan on a track towards stability or is a newer, more representative, less corrupt leadership needed? What would it take for the Army to surrender its power and privileges to make way for functioning democratic institutions, given the degree to which it’s entrenched itself in the economy? There is a wealth of stories here, I believe, so I hope you’ll pick at least one angle and pursue it in one of your upcoming shows. I’ll be listening!

32. Psychodopolous Says:
    November 16th, 2007 at 8:45 pm

    Village Destruction in America:
    That’s my topic.

    This is a less-polite, truth-in-your-face way of saying “Mountaintop Removal.” To people in rural West Virginia, it’s central. Their communities and way of life, centuries-old in some families, are being ripped asunder by the coal companies, never to be restored. The people are powerless against the juggernaut of huge industrialized coal and the corrupt politicians whom they own; the people have no representation in their plight. Hills and hollows have already been exploded into vast barren moonscapes where no life can survive, while the huge destruction machines march onward in the lust for scrawny seams of coal. The people, the fish, birds and animals, the children: all are being raped by the insatiable extraction corporatists who won’t stop until they’ve destroyed an area the size of the State of Delaware.

    These are our fellow Americans. What will we do for them? What’s still left is ancient scenery, our heritage so beautiful that when you see it, your heart will ache. What will we do for us?

    It’s time to put this show back on the calendar. For an entry point, let me suggeset talking with Bob Kincad at The Head On Radio Network; he lives just back of Hawk’s Nest State Park and the historic New River Gorge. Bob will introduce you to good people who live in the midst of their worries, their fear. Bob knows, because any day now, the blasters and huge machines will come to his village and destroy his antique homeland forever.

    Here’s Bob Kincaid’’s page:
    http://headon.headonradionetwork.com/
    There’s a picture of what used to be West Virginia village life there, too, so you’ll see what I’m talking about.

    Richard

33. somberwolf Says:
    November 17th, 2007 at 3:30 pm

    Is America on a Fascist Footing?

    Naomi Wolf has just written a new book: “The End of America: A Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot.” In it she illustrates 10 steps that governments take when going from an open democracy to a closed dictatorship. Perhaps getting her on a show for an interview would be a good idea for a show.

    Here’s a short wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_End_of_America:_A_Letter_of_Warning_to_a_Young_Patriot

    and a youtube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjALf12PAWc

34. Michael Beaton Says:
    November 19th, 2007 at 3:37 pm

    Here is one for the “Got it right/wrong” series.
    Naomi Klien has recently released a book, The Shock Doctrine, which details some of the underlying, and largely hidden- or at least not openly acknowledged, principles operating in our world today.

    Things/Events/Issues that dont make sense, that seem to defy logical explaination do make sense if have a grasp of the underlying systemic operatives.

    You (opensource/Chris L.) have explored the enduring question of the Iraq War, its beginning, who could/should have known better, who got the basic idea right et al.

    But this has been approached, it seems to me, from a position of “If you were against the war when all others were hell bent on it, you “Got it right”, while the rest “Got it wrong”.

    True enough. As far as it goes. But what about the larger question of why it was even a question? If the Iraq War was a canard what were/are the “real” underlying motivations.

    I dont think it is sufficient to conclude only that BushCo is a war mongering group. They are of course. But why? There are issues of power, social re-engineering, fundamental apporach to society, wealth and wealth distribution and etc.

    Back to Klien: All of these issues are well articulated in this book. I think she has hit upon something essential and important that goes straight to the heart of the issue.

    I hope you will take a look. I would love to hear the conversation between Naomi and Chris, especially in light of the “got it right” series. She has “got it right”. And, to my mind, at a deeper level than has been discussed thus far.

    Links:
    A link to a talk given in Seattle. This page has other links.
    http://www.kuow.org/defaultProgram.asp?ID=13699

    This is the main page for the book. There is a very good short film on this site that is a good summary.
    http://www.naomiklein.org/shock-doctrine

35. Nick Says:
    November 20th, 2007 at 3:59 pm

    Re Naomi Wolf: Fascist America, in 10 easy steps, from The Guardian (UK, April 24th, 2007)

36. Paul Massari Says:
    November 26th, 2007 at 2:46 pm

    SCRAP public transportation?

    I’ve been corresponding with David Luberoff, executive director of the Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. While not explicitly advocating the wholescale abandonment of public transportation, he says the environmental benefits are meager or non-existent, the costs are huge, and the funding mechanisms–particularly in Massachusetts–are regressive and amount to a subsidy for the affluent. http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2006/11/03/commuter_rail_can_take_us_only_so_far/

    Tom Keane, the former Boston city councilor, now a columnist for the Boston Globe, has openly advocated against any new transit projects. He says we just need to build hybrid cars and bigger highways. (http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2006/12/31/commuter_rails_false_promise/)

    So what IS public transportation today? A key weapon in the war against climate change? A way around our increasingly clogged highways? A development tool for struggling communities? A subsidy for the affluent? A big government waste of money? More importantly, what will/could the future be for buses, subways, and trains in the era of $100+ oil? Will we all be driving hydrogen fuel cell cars on mega highways? Can we sell them to the Chinese?

37. GodzillaVsBambi Says:
    November 27th, 2007 at 7:41 pm

    I think a show on ROS’s loyalty to the Pope would be interesting. Wait a minute … I am already on that. Sorry, my bad.

38. enhabit Says:
    December 10th, 2007 at 9:28 am

    kosovo? nearing full independence?

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7136233.stm

    after all that happened…that’s a show! past, present, future.

39. enhabit Says:
    December 10th, 2007 at 9:31 am

    analysis from paul reynolds

    “Kosovo set for ’supervised independence’”

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7132546.stm

40. enhabit Says:
    December 10th, 2007 at 9:33 am

    and a timely discussion about “nation building”

41. flow Says:
    January 7th, 2008 at 3:02 pm

    How about a story examining the implications and ramifications of the two party system?

    http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/blog/2008/01/crashing_the_parties.html

42. flow Says:
    January 7th, 2008 at 3:16 pm

    How about an episode examining and exploring the life and work of Henry Corbin?

    After Prophecy, Imagination, Incarnation, and the Unity of the Prophetic Tradition. The final volume in a trilogy of works which explore the implications of the spiritual vision of Henry Corbin (1903-1978).

    http://www.springjournalandbooks.com/cgi-bin/ecommerce/ac/agora.cgi?p_id=03296&xm=on&ppinc=search2

43. flow Says:
    January 7th, 2008 at 3:22 pm

    holy Gulf of Tonkin Incident, batman!

    http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=4096825

44. flow Says:
    January 7th, 2008 at 7:25 pm

    Want to play the match making game? Which candidate should you align with? Which candidate do you share the highest degree of correspondence with on the issues?

    find out at http://www.dehp.net/candidate/

    ROS how about taking us behind the scenes of this Internet match-making survey game and providing us some perspective, analysis and insight into the response? If Internet respondents were picking our next president today, who would it be?

45. shunpiker Says:
    January 16th, 2008 at 12:16 pm

    Is the Internet balkanizing?

    George W. Bush was widely lampooned for his malapropism, “Internets” [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internets_(colloquialism) ] — but steps taken by Russia and China may vindicate him.

    The most conspicuous issue involves the character sets used to name internet domains — historically, limited to the 26 characters of the Roman alphabet. It’s not hard to understand the argument that users accustomed to other writing systems could find domain names in a foreign script unwieldy. And Russians have a particular complaint insofar as their native rendering of their top-level domain (.ru) transliterates from the cyrillic as .py — Paraguay’s top-level-domain — opening the door to imposter sites “phishing” for sensitive information from unwary Russian users.

    But a deeper concern extends to the U.S. ties of ICANN, the authority that administers all of the Internet’s top-level domains. Russia and China, with their political differences with the U.S. and varying attitudes towards censorship and information control, may be seeking to install their own localized alternatives to ICANN. This raises questions about the preservation of the free and international character of the Internet. Is Babel falling again?

    Some background:

    Kremlin eyes internet control …
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/jan/03/internet.censorship

    Big push for Chinese net domains
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4767972.stm

    “Will there really be a new Russian Internet?”
    http://blog.icann.org/?p=263

    Phishing at the Top Level
    http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Security/Phishing-at-the-Top-Level/

    Vint Cerf, would be a great guest, although this would be just one thing to talk about with him. (Perhaps he could suggest others)

46. flow Says:
    January 23rd, 2008 at 6:15 pm

    Has the Bush administration’s folly in the middle east come at the expense of more traditional spheres of influence?

    How should we read the significance of the emergence of the Banco del Sur? Is it simply neoliberal blowback or the herald of a new era in Latin America? both? something else?

    http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3497/latin_america_banks_on_independence/

47. Juma Says:
    February 7th, 2008 at 6:27 pm

    Vacations and Excursions; importance of; in history, in literature, in the human condition: would anything here be suitable for a show?
    It’s an important topic, I think, because of the obesity problem. Some of this is surely due to our losing our vacation time. But it seems that people need to be reminded of what good vacations used to be like.

    And it might be fun to hunt for vacation/excursion/exercise references.
    A few examples I’ve found: there’s the decision for Gabriel Conroy, will he be persuaded to go to the Aran Isles for his vacation, or will he go cycling through Belgium? In Mansfield Park, it explicitly an issue of health: “Fanny must have a horse.” And there is the Alpine Symphony.

    But who would be a good person to discuss this with? Barbara Ehrenreich has made interesting comments about the need for views from the mountain, as I recall. And there’s Al Gini, philosopher at Loyola, who’s a little too attracted to lazy days for my taste. But he might be a good guest all the same.

48. Nick Says:
    February 12th, 2008 at 1:02 am

    Susan Jacoby’s newest book comes out today:
    The Age of American Unreason

    Is this up ROS’s alley? You decide, Chris (as usual). Here are two clips from the amazon.com blurb, from Helen Thomas (yes, the White House press corps gadfly) and Jack Miles:

    “Jacoby has written a brilliant, sad story of the anti-intellectualism and lack of reasonable thought that has put this country in one of the sorriest states in its history.”
    —Helen Thomas, author of Watchdogs of Democracy?: The Waning Washington Press Corps and How It Has Failed the Public

    “To a country of underachievers and proud of it, this book delivers a magnificent, occasionally hilarious kick in the pants. Snap out of it, Jacoby says: Getting it right matters. Tough talk and wicked wit in the tradition of Richard Hofstadter’s Anti-Intellectualism in American Life and Neil Postman’s Amusing Ourselves to Death.”
    —Jack Miles, author of God: A Biography

    Me, I’d like to hear more. You too?

49. flow Says:
    April 22nd, 2008 at 2:46 pm

    Why is Bill McKibben so concerned about the number 350? What is the significance of this number? And why is there a global movement emerging to promote it? I humbly suggest a conversation with McKibben, allowing him to address these questions in person.

    A possible line of inquiry might include an exploration of the threads (as McKibben sees it) that connects New England’s transcendalism (Emerson & Thoreau) with NASA’s James Hansen and the number 350.

    For a primer on this issue, listen to a recent lecture by McKibben at:

    http://windmountain.wordpress.com/2008/03/24/listen-to-bill-mckibben-discussing-literature-environmentism-and-the-350-movement/

    or see McKibben’s new book Deep Economy.

50. ryanb Says:
    May 2nd, 2008 at 8:53 pm

    Show idea: the free software revolution in Latin America

    One of los cambios in Latin America that speaks to the cultural shift in the region is the widespread adoption of open source, free software in both the public and private sector. Brazil led the way when Lula ordered a full-scale migration to all open source software for the Brazilian government and state-owned industries. Since then, Brazil has pulled off some spectacular projects based on the cost savings inherent to open source software:
    - all the major state-owned industries and the federal government has moved to open source software and the full-scale migration continues (for example, in the Palacio do Planalto, the Brazilian “White House,” the President’s secretary doesn’t use Windows or Office — instead, Ubuntu Linux and OpenOffice is used,
    - Brazil has announced that over 50,000 open source computer labs with 15 terminals each, serving over 50 million students, will be built all over the country. Had they used Windows for this project, the licensing alone would have cost over $100 million dollars (estimated),
    - Brazil has an ambitious Digital Inclusion program, which includes computer labs and training in the poorest parts of Brazil, aimed at closing the digital divide… open source geeks from the major cities went into the favelas and even remote parts of the Amazon accessible only by boat to build free software computer labs … in some areas, Voice-Over-IP is the only telephone available in the area

    And, it isn’t just Brazil — free software is spreading all through America Latina, particularly in Venezuela, Ecuador, Argentina, Cuba.

    The full movement is covered in English at http://news.northxsouth.com/ (incidentally, this is operated by our company in San Francisco, whose goal is to financially support the free software movement in Latin America by giving US businesses access to this high-skilled development community).

    Anyway.. sounds like a good show to me -ryan

51. David Quigg Says:
    May 27th, 2008 at 5:41 pm

    My latest post might serve as a jumping-off point for a show on the virtually free pass that politicians seem to get when exploiting history for political gain:

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-quigg/karl-roves-time-machine_b_102718.html

    Based exclusively on what I was able to unearth from the NYT archive, I tried to present a fuller picture of William Borah, the senator caricatured as a Nazi appeaser in Bush’s speech before the Knesset. Virtually all the press coverage has been an example of something I definitely did time after time as a reporter. Working on deadline, nobody seems to have used the powerful research tools at our disposal to check if the president was portraying Borah completely and accurately.

    So nobody found, for example, the NY Times’ March 26, 1939 story that quotes Borah trashing Neville Chamberlain in a nationwide radio address for trusting Hitler and trying to tame the Nazis by giving them Austria and part of Czechosolvakia: “No better friend since Hitler became the master of Germany has Hitler had than the British democracy. Apparently regarding arbitrary, centralized government in Europe as the best guarantee of stability, it has built up Hitler’s strength and favored his cause in every crucial situation.”

    When Borah died, four months after the invasion of Poland, he got a state funeral. FDR and his cabinet attended. So did the Supreme Court. Twenty members of Congress escorted his body back to Idaho. The man was a Senate titan. It’s a shame to see him essentially swift-boated.

    As a blogger, I suppose I should be playing gotcha and trying to slam mainstream reporters for the shallowness of the coverage. Rather, I think the Borah episode can be a helpful reminder of the amazing historical resource reporters have right in their paper’s own archives. It’s also a reminder of the role that all of us as citizens can play in putting things in their proper historical context.

52. flow Says:
    June 4th, 2008 at 5:00 pm

    What does the Tower of Babel have to do with the occupation of Iraq? Is there a connection between Attention Deficit Disorder and the deforestation of the Amazon? Why are 1 in 5 American adults on medication for “mood disorders” at a time of unprecedented prosperity (Dow Jones over 12,000). Can “new money” possible be the solution (re-solution) to the confluence of calamity (ecological/geo-political) that is menacing human civilization? Is our current crisis a catastrophe or a quickening?

    Eisenstein may be no Einstein, but I bet Emerson would love to have lunch with him! In an age of specialization, it sure is refreshing to find a piercing perspective and encompassing paradigm rooted in a general theory of existence.

    http://www.ascentofhumanity.com/
    http://www.realitysandwich.com/blog/1736

53. Learn To Invest Money Better Than The Experts - Guaranteed. | 7Wins.eu Says:
    June 20th, 2008 at 2:07 am

    [...] Builder » Blog Archive » How To Overcome Your Biggest Real Estate Success Hurdle…Fear!Open Source » Blog Archive » Pitch a Show: June 22, 2007 [...]

54. joel Says:
    July 3rd, 2008 at 2:14 pm

    Various aspects of climate change, “global warming,” environmental degradation, etc. have been referred to as “causes” of many of society’s problems when, in reality, they are results of a far more important phenomenon, the huge, unsustainable and growing current human population, the prime cause of the
    other causes. The technical methods of alleviating the growing short-comings of our life-giving environments will be obsolete by the time they are
    implemented… outstripped by the size of the population.

    You might find the views of Eric Pianka interesting and edifying:

    http://uts.cc.utexas.edu/~varanus/Vanishing.Book.text.pdf

    http://uts.cc.utexas.edu/~varanus/Everybody.html

    http://www.zo.utexas.edu/courses/bio213/why.html

    http://uts.cc.utexas.edu/~varanus/

    http://uts.cc.utexas.edu/~varanus/Controversy.html

    The otherwise perhaps flawed domestic policies of China may not be to our liking, but their “one child” per parents should have our blessing and be adopted by the rest of the world as soon and completely as possible. It is nothing less than mandatory. It is the fastest (60 years), the cheapest (zero cost), the most easily participated (no one need do anything – merely do not have a second child) method with essentially no deleterious side effects. This action obviates the need for all the programs now being touted and it will put the world back to the number of people, resulting from millions of years of linear growth, which existed about 250 years ago, when it was hardly under populated, but it was before the ruinous logarithmic growth that has occurred since. As Dennis Meadows said:”Any environmental issue that doesn’t list overpopulation as the main problem is a lost cause.” Or, as this line on the stationery of The Committee of Concerned Scientists states:”If we do not solve our overpopulation problem ourselves, sagely and humanely, the problem will be solved for us by Nature, efficiently and savagely.”

    Let’s see some evidence or arguments that the above is wrong.

    Cheers.

55. Dr. Seuss Says:
    August 4th, 2008 at 8:02 pm

    Tanzanian withccraft and the murders of albinos. One in four thousand Tanzanians is albino. In the past 12 months 24 albinos have been killed by “witch doctors” who use albino body parts: skin, legs, hair, blood in the belief that it will “make them rich”. Sometimes these body parts are taken while the victim is still alive. So far, there have been no prosecutions.

56. dsakladgnuorg Says:
    September 22nd, 2008 at 2:08 am

    Talk with cambridge columnist Seth Finkelstein about another part of the wikipedia story, see
    Wikia digital sharecroppers leaving the electronic plantation
    http://sethf.com/infothought/blog/

57. dsakladgnuorg Says:
    September 24th, 2008 at 5:12 pm

    A talk with Boston Public Library’s new president Amy Ryan, see also
    http://bpl.org/general/trustees/trusteeagenda081408.htm

58. flow Says:
    November 3rd, 2008 at 2:17 pm

    How about a program examining the history and legacy of the Electoral College? Is it time to do away with the Electoral College? Robert Henline, author of Constitutional Inequality and political director for the Electoral Fairness Project, a national grassroots campaign committed to abolishing the Electoral College system believes so. He also believes the technology now exists to bring the required political pressure to effect the change.

    How do Americans feel about the Electoral college? Is it corrupting the democratic process in the United States? If you live in a settled red or blue state, do you feel that your vote “doesn’t matter”?

    Express your opinion. Please cast a vote or view the poll results:

    http://windmountain.wordpress.com/2008/11/03/poll-abolish-electoral-college/

59. baxcase Says:
    November 20th, 2008 at 5:40 am

    thought is the thinker, william james

    thinking is thinking you, edward jones

    edward jones experienced a transformation of consciousness and would like the other 6.9 billion robots on planet earth to transform to a new consciousness.

    I would like to hear christoper in coversation with edward jones. a conversation where intellect would meet intelligence. ,

    please visit his website and hear for yourself the possibility of the birth of a new consciousness.

    “‘Understanding’ is as far as thought can take us.
    Intelligence lies beyond understanding.”

    attend one of his workshops, 4 times a week and you will have found an important conversation to have. ,

60. baxcase Says:
    November 20th, 2008 at 5:45 am

    and now for the url
    http://www.selftransformation.org/

61. watchmaker110 Says:
    November 20th, 2008 at 11:12 am

    I’d like to suggest a conversation with Jacob Needleman, philosophy professor at San Francisco State University and author of “The American Soul”. This book re-examines major figures in US history, including Washingotn, Lincoln, and Frederick Douglass, and attempts to re-mythologize their contributions to American values. The book came out before 9/11 and sounded a timely and prescient warning on the need to discuss what it means to be American at the dawn of the 21st century.

    Thanks.

62. enkerli Says:
    November 22nd, 2008 at 2:43 am

    An episode on social media would make a lot of sense, at this point. Blogs, podcasts, social networks… Especially in connection with “mainstream media,” new ideas about citizenship, and even post-nationalism.

63. flow Says:
    December 17th, 2008 at 2:05 pm

    Remember Thoreau & Gandhi!!! God save our courageous men of letters!
    —
    An Open Letter from Bill McKibben and Wendell Berry

    Dear Friends,

    There are moments in a nation’s—and a planet’s—history when it may be necessary for some to break the law in order to bear witness to an evil, bring it to wider attention, and push for its correction. We think such a time has arrived, and we are writing to say that we hope some of you will join us in Washington D.C. on Monday March 2 in order to take part in a civil act of civil disobedience outside a coal-fired power plant near Capitol Hill.

    We will be there to make several points:
    # Coal-fired power is driving climate change. Our foremost climatologist, NASA’s James Hansen, has demonstrated that our only hope of getting our atmosphere back to a safe level—below 350 parts per million co2—lies in stopping the use of coal to generate electricity.
    # Even if climate change were not the urgent crisis that it is, we would still be burning our fossil fuels too fast, wasting too much energy and releasing too much poison into the air and water. We would still need to slow down, and to restore thrift to its old place as an economic virtue.
    # Coal is filthy at its source. Much of the coal used in this country comes from West Virginia and Kentucky, where companies engage in “mountaintop removal” to get at the stuff; they leave behind a leveled wasteland, and impoverished human communities. No technology better exemplifies the out-of-control relationship between humans and the rest of creation.
    # Coal smoke makes children sick. Asthma rates in urban areas near coal-fired power plants are high. Air pollution from burning coal is harmful to the health of grown-ups too, and to the health of everything that breathes, including forests.

    The industry claim that there is something called “clean coal” is, put simply, a lie. But it’s a lie told with tens of millions of dollars, which we do not have. We have our bodies, and we are willing to use them to make our point. We don’t come to such a step lightly. We have written and testified and organized politically to make this point for many years, and while in recent months there has been real progress against new coal-fired power plants, the daily business of providing half our electricity from coal continues unabated. It’s time to make clear that we can’t safely run this planet on coal at all. So we feel the time has come to do more–we hear President Barack Obama’s call for a movement for change that continues past election day, and we hear Nobel Laureate Al Gore’s call for creative non-violence outside coal plants. As part of the international negotiations now underway on global warming, our nation will be asking China, India, and others to limit their use of coal in the future to help save the planet’s atmosphere. This is a hard thing to ask, because it’s their cheapest fuel. Part of our witness in March will be to say that we’re willing to make some sacrifices ourselves, even if it’s only a trip to the jail.

    With any luck, this will be the largest such protest yet, large enough that it may provide a real spark. If you want to participate with us, you need to go through a short course of non-violence training. This will be, to the extent it depends on us, an entirely peaceful demonstration, carried out in a spirit of hope and not rancor. We will be there in our dress clothes, and ask the same of you. There will be young people, people from faith communities, people from the coal fields of Appalachia, and from the neighborhoods in Washington that get to breathe the smoke from the plant.

    We will cross the legal boundary of the power plant, and we expect to be arrested. After that we have no certainty what will happen, but lawyers and such will be on hand. Our goal is not to shut the plant down for the day—it is but one of many, and anyway its operation for a day is not the point. The worldwide daily reliance on coal is the danger; this is one small step to raise awareness of that ruinous habit and hence help to break it.

    Needless to say, we’re not handling the logistics of this day. All the credit goes to a variety of groups, especially the Energy Action Coalition (which is bringing thousands of young people to Washington that weekend), Greenpeace, the Ruckus Society, and the Rainforest Action Network. A website at that latter organization is serving as a temporary organizing hub: http://ran.org/get_involved/powershift_and_mass_civil_disobedience_updates/. If you go there, you will find a place to leave your name so that we’ll know you want to join us.

    Thank you,

    Wendell Berry, Bill McKibben

    P.S.—This is important: Please forward this letter to anyone and everyone you think might be interested.

64. alank Says:
    January 5th, 2009 at 11:36 pm

    I want to suggest a show you might call “Israeli Exceptionalism?”

    My starting point: I was in Portsmouth, NH last week, and there in the icy cold were a half-dozen or so protesters with placards criticizing Israel. And we know that there are demonstrations going on against Israel all over the world, not only in the Arab world, but across Europe, and even in cold Nw England towns. I cannot but wonder at what drives, what compels people to go out and protest on this particular issue?

    Because, here’s the problem: it seems to me that any objective analysis of the situation would tell us that even if one thinks Israel is wrong or unjust or immoral in its effort to defend its own citizens, one cannot realistically rank Israel among the worst of the worst in the 20th and 21st centuries. Inasmuch as one can compare horrible things, the death and suffering in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, from a purely quantitative perspective, pales compared to so much else going on right now, let one over the last decades.

    So, how is it that so many people can earnestly believe that Israel is among the worst abusers of human rights, that it is engaged in atrocities? Does Israel really compare to a Mugabe? What about a comparison with how Arab countries have traditionally dealt with their “Palestinian Problems”? See, e.g., Black September–in a very short period the Jordanians killed far more Palestinians then the Israelis have killed in war over decades.

    And beyond the quantitative, it’s hard to understand how Israel can objectively be deemed such a villain on qualitative grounds. Is there any other country that would tolerate rocket fire on its citizens, even if “only” a few people are killed? Any other countries that would tolerate suicide-homicide bombers without a vigorous response? Would any population tolerate its government failing to protect? Would these same protesters not demand as much of their own governments? Finally, is there really no moral difference between Hamas intentionally targeting civilians and explicitly calling for the destruction of Israel on the one hand, and Israel killing civilians in the attempt to stop militants from attacking (and going to such extents as texting and calling civilians to warn them)?

    And so, we get to the question of Israeli exceptionalism. Is Israel (are Jews) held to a different standard than everyone else? How can we explain the protesters coming out in the cold against Israel but not against Mugabe or Iran or so many other rulers and places? Is there not something else going on, something that at least appears to defy the natural laws of human history and sociology? Is there an element of Anti-Semitism here? Or something, perhaps, of Nietzsche’s hate/criticism for the Jews for bringing morality to the world?

    I would suggest a show on this topic, trying to get to the roots of these issues. Perhaps you could look both to experts/academics, but also go to the ground level, see how such protesters rationalize their fierce commitment against Israel in particular.

    For this show, you might even consider Bernard Henri-Levy, the French thinker who is both a strong Leftist and a strong critic of Anti-Semitism on the left. Like him, I am someone on the left/liberal side of most issues, but I fail to understand the singling out of Israel for criticism.

65. jimmo Says:
    February 9th, 2009 at 9:49 am

    Not really a show pitch, but I couldn’t find an e-mail link on your website for general communication. If you have one, please tell me where to find it, or if you have a public e-mail address.

    Otherwise, I just want to know if Christopher Lydon’s show is broadcast (I know it’s podcast, but I don’t have an iPod) on any radio station obtainable in the suburban Boston area, and if so, when it airs?

    If not. have you or would Mr. Lydon consider pitching the sale of his program to WBZ, 1030 AM? The station seems to be currently going through a transition/upheaval, after first having lost longtime talk show host David Brudnoy after his long battle with AIDS, then Paul Sullivan to cancer; is currently employing TV news reporter Dan Rea. But his show’s a snore, and I think someone of Mr. Lydon’s stature could really be sold to this CBS-owned station.

    With a powerful 50,000 watt reach, the station is virtually a national radio outlet, transmitting to 30+ states and some Canadian provinces. This station, of course, is where such talk show legends as Brudnoy, and Jerry Williams and Larry Glick before him, aired their programs for years.

    Rea’s “Nightside” program airs 8 p.m.-12 a.m. weeknights, but perhaps WBZ would negotiate the hours, do a 50/50 split with Rea, expand the prime time talk show block either way (beginning at 7 p.m. or going into one hour of the graveyard shift. until 1 a.m.), etc? In any case, it’s an idea worth exploring, or at least finding out when Rea’s contract expires.

    I think Mr. Lydon’s program would do very well on this station, and AM talk show listeners have become younger and more intelligent/savvy than in days of yore–not that Jerry Williams or David Brudnoy were exactly chopped liver in their respective styles. In fact, I think both these late legends of talk radio elevated the awareness and intellectual capacity of their respective audiences, even among the older demographic. I specifically recall Williams having such guests as George McGovern, John McLaughlin, Maya Angelou, Norman Mailer, and every Christmas Williams would read Dylan Thomas’ “A Child’s Christmas In Wales.” Really, the excellence of Brudnoy’s and Williams’ shows on WBZ put one in mind of Mr. Lydon’s excellent radio programs over the years. Call me ridiculous, but I think Mr. Lydon and WBZ Radio would be a very good fit.

66. jimmo Says:
    February 9th, 2009 at 10:26 am

    It figures–once I submitted this comment (above), I saw the e-mail address in the blue box underneath the comment form

    OK, sorry, I realize my eyesight isn’t what it used to be. If the comments are wildly (or even mildly) out of place here, please feel free to remove them. Otherwise, consider the posting some general commentary of my recollection of Mr. Lydon’s talents, and a suggestion upon which other visitors to the site might wish to expound.

    But I shall also send the comments to the proper e-mail address, which I now realize was, sort of, given all along. Although I’m still not quite getting the “flag radioopensource.org” in e-mail-appropriate form. I tried “flag” and then the “at” symbol, followed by “radioopensource.org” and my message wasn’it sent. What am I doing wrong here? To what or whom at “radioopensource,org” should a message be addressed?

67. flow Says:
    March 26th, 2009 at 3:17 pm

    How about a conversation with Bernard Lietaer?

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_Lietaer

    What are the implications for the US dollar given the currents emanating from the global financial crisis? What are the likely consequences and ramifications stemming from the rise of “hyper-fnancialism” for the world’s preeminent reserve currency, both domestically and internationally?

    RD: You thought it was the money system and not just the governments?

    BL: It’s a chicken and egg story: unstable currency equals unstable government. There is practically no way today for a developing country to have a reasonable monetary policy within the current rules of the game. Joseph Stiglitz, Nobel laureate in economics and formerly head economist at the World Bank, makes the same claims in his book Globalization and Its Discontents (Penguin, 2002). Whether you fix your currency to the dollar or let it float, you end up with an unmanageable monetary problem, like Brazil, Russia or Argentina have experienced. Eighty-seven countries have gone through a major currency crisis in the last 25 years. Their fiscal policies are imposed by an International Monetary Fund (IMF). I am afraid that if the United States had to live by the rules that are imposed on, say, Brazil, the United States of America would become a developing country in one generation. It’s the system that is currently unstable, unfair and not working.

    The majority of humanity has gone through a recent monetary crisis at least once already. We’re living here, in America, in an island of perceived stability. And even that is an illusion. We could have a run on the dollar under the current rules.

    We are dealing with an unstable system, an ailing system. Back in 1975, I had come to the conclusion that there would be a systemic series of monetary crashes, starting with Latin America. And that’s why I wrote my book on how the money system was not working and its impact on Latin American development, Europe, Latin America and the Multinationals (Praeger, 1979). I predicted that the first crash in Latin America would be in the early 1980s. It actually happened in 1981 in Mexico. Since then we have had more than 80 other countries undergoing similar monetary crises.

    RD: So someone’s not connecting the dots-or are they?

    BL: Let me put it this way. The powers that be have no interest in connecting the dots. If a new international monetary meeting like Breton Woods were held, the first point on the agenda would be the role of the dollar. So the United States has no interest in such a meeting. The dollar is in a very privileged position.

    http://www.nexuspub.com/articles/2003/july2003/interview.htm

68. mjohn Says:
    November 13th, 2009 at 10:03 pm

    Chris:

    I think that you should create a section of the website about what you’re reading, what you’ve recently read and what you look forward to reading.

69. Christopher Hanlon Says:
    November 19th, 2009 at 2:53 am

    Hi, Chris. You know, many years ago I had the pleasure of interning on The Connection for just a few days–I recall we had a conversation about Alexander Theroux. But to the purpose. At last April’s annual business meeting for the Ralph Waldo Emerson Society (held at the American Literature Association’s conference at Copley Place), Professor Stanely Cavell was given a lifetime achievement award (the Cabot Award) for having proven, as the Society President put it, “Emerson’s greatest reader.” This is no small praise, I think you’ll agree. And Cavell truly is a spellbinding reader of Emerson, and any reader of his two major works on Emerson knows (first, _This New yet Unapproachable America_ (1987) and then _Conditions Handsome and Unhandsome_ (1990). This man has exerted a profound influence on a generation of Emerson scholars. As I know you’re a devout Emersonian, I think you should have him on.

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