164 Responses to “Suggest a Show: February 2006”

1. frankpatrick Says:
   February 3rd, 2006 at 9:05 pm

   Let’s get back to the subject that was started with the intrusion of Intelligent Design, got teased a bit around here, but fell by the wayside…the idea that morality requires a God or a religion, or more interestingly, why morality does not require the strictures of religion, or maybe why a God-fearing religion and morality are antithetical.

2. razib Says:
   February 4th, 2006 at 1:59 am

   for frankpatrick’s suggestion: i suggest the following possible guests, scott atran or pascal boyer, two cognitive anthropologists who have written about religion from the naturalistic perspective (that is, a natural phenomenon to be reduced and decomposed). harvey whitehouse as also done work on the cognitive anthropology of religion.

3. razib Says:
   February 4th, 2006 at 2:01 am

   my suggestion, riffing on the evolution angle: interview someone who has been writing and talking about human evolution happening in the recent past and present, my friend greg cochran, whose theory on jewish IQ and disease prevelance was reported in the new york times.

4. Mr. Dana Says:
   February 4th, 2006 at 7:14 pm

   I would like to hear a show about the current trends in Israeli historigraphy regarding the 1948 War of Independence (The Nakba for Arabs). The current scholarship raises imporant questions regarding the Arab-Israeli conflict.

5. gmcampbell Says:
   February 4th, 2006 at 10:12 pm

   I would like to hear a show about Bird Flu. How long do they think it will take to hit our shores? What can we do once it does? What happens to these people that get it and why is it so leathal? I don’t know who would be a good source of information on this, but I think it would be a good topic to hear an in-depth discussion.

6. quidnunc Says:
   February 4th, 2006 at 10:28 pm

   Interview the author of the book ‘The Party’s Over’… Richard Heinberg

7. johnranta Says:
   February 5th, 2006 at 8:50 am

   Thoughts on a show. I’d love to hear a discussion of the connections between violence, intolerance and religion. The Danish cartoons (and Jacoby’s op-ed piece in the Globe – imagine!) got me to thinking about this, but it goes much deeper than this Muslim reaction.

   As an atheist, I am also very interested in a show on god and morality.

   And please, PLEASE, no more shows for a long while on the Arab-Israeli conflict – this topic is a horse that liberal radio has beaten beyond death.

8. Jackb Says:
   February 5th, 2006 at 1:01 pm

   The “Groundhog Day” show was great. I’d like to hear you do a show like this one on Louis Malle’s “My Dinner with Andre.” This is also a very subtle film that most reviewers and others have seen and interpreted mostly on its surface – yet its comments about the nature and purpose of human relationships and how we use and manipulate etc etc each other is rarely explored. A great movie and great topic for a mind like yours to explore, Chris.

9. Coffee01 Says:
   February 5th, 2006 at 4:05 pm

   On Nov. 2, 2005, the New York Times ran an article “Arab League Plan for Hussein Exile Went Sour,” describing efforts to have Saddam Huseein go into exile in the months preceding the Iraq War. The article said Saddam was ready to go, but the Arab league couldn’t put the package together before the U.S. kicked off the invasion. Why didn’t the U.S. take this opportunity to get rid of Saddam without an invasion? This is the only article I’ve seen about this story. If it’s true, it may provide irrefutable evidence that the Iraq war was unnecessary. A program on this topic could be significant.

10. bradbarfield Says:
    February 5th, 2006 at 5:35 pm

    I would like to hear an informed guest speak of Health Savings Accounts (HSAs).

    Specifically as to how this fix (as such) will not solve the “uninsured” problem… how it will skew the health insurance pyramid (as it stands), and how its very nature (allowing tax credits) will serve no purpose to majority of people currently not covered.

    Wow! I am asking for a guest to spew forth my own views…

11. Katherine Says:
    February 5th, 2006 at 11:16 pm

    gmcampbell: We actually did a show on bird flu a couple of weeks ago, only we gave it the title “Virus Hunters.” You can listen to it here.

12. Abby Says:
    February 5th, 2006 at 11:22 pm

    The Jack Abramoff scandal that nobody’s covering: it’s time to connect the dots.

    You must read this dkos diary about the way that Abramoff used Indian casino money to buy off Republican Congressmen to prevent an auditing of the books of the arg oil and gas firms, an auditing that would show that the Department of the Interior has defrauded poor Indian Tribes of more than $100 billion by leasing out their lands and massively below market rates.

    Then follow up with her series at her own blog Wampum.

13. Peter B Says:
    February 6th, 2006 at 1:16 am

    I’m sure the Muslim Caricature fiasco will make it into a weekly showing so I’ll skip that as a choice, though I am interested in seeing not only the Muslim’s reactions to the fiasco, but also seeing the how this has changed and maybe has galvanized the Muslim community- if this is true or now, and what implications this has for the future.

    Other than that, I’d like to see something about the hate crime that just occured in Massachusetts. Now, the latest news I heard is that Jacob Robida has died, but I think the focus of the topic should be, could this act stregthen the persecution of those committing hate crimes. Is it all over because Robida died? I heard that, even if he survived, he would have faced charges in Arkansas anyway (and not face charges in Massachusetts for his hate crimes).

14. Robin Says:
    February 6th, 2006 at 10:37 am

    Peter B –

    can you link to an article about the specific crime you’re talking about?

15. bigreddog Says:
    February 6th, 2006 at 1:04 pm

    I loved the show about Groundhog Day. Another idea that is related is movies that deal with “the meaning of life”. I took a month long interim course in college and this was the topic. We watched several movies and discussed how they talked and searched for the “meaning of life”. It was a very memorable class and I would love to hear your show discuss this. The movies included: The Graduate, Crimes & Misdemeanors (Woody Allen), Harold & Maude… and many more. I am sure that you can come up with own list. The professor of the class’ name is Kelly Clarke. He is published as a Philosopher. I am not sure if he is still teaching there, but the college was Calvin College in GR, MI.

16. mulp Says:
    February 6th, 2006 at 1:47 pm

    The “a marriage is a union between a man and a woman” refrain is back in the air, now that the Dec-Jan hoopla has passed. And this triggers in my mind the question?

    What is a man? What is a woman?

    I have researched this question over the past decade and have looked at it from what might be the most objective point of view: genetics.

    Unlike the ancients, we believe that the sex of a human is determined by inheritance, not by choice. So there must be a clear genetic switch that selects one or the other. On inspection, that seems to be an increasingly unfounded premise based on the every increasing evidence. My favorite book on this topic is “The X in Sex” because it is relatively short, focuses only on the matter of sex selection at the genetic and fetal development, and does not get bogged down in the social debate or matters that are speculative, such as brain imprinting, which is certainly present, but just as certainly, completely mysterious. Thus the book is one that someone on either side of the debate “should” be able to read without calling it “biased”.

    On the broader issue, we have the multiple levels of sex and gender identity that are not always congruent. A number of years ago I found a webpage that identified seven dimensions of sex and gender identity, and all rang true, but the several recent movie interview/promotion and even This American Life have suggested, that might be too simplistic.

    One webpage that seems to sum up the matter nicely is here: http://feminism.eserver.org/sexual-gender-identity.txt That is certainly not the end all, but it does hit the dozen or so hour long discussions that might result from such discussion.

    My show suggestion is to explore the legal definition of “man” and “woman” and how that area has not only failed to encompass transgender individuals who chose to change their physical appearance, it fails to encompass those who did not chose to be transgender.

    One tragic case of forced transgender is the boy who was turned into a girl as part of an experiement by the physician John Money – the boy turned into a girl returned to living as a boy, but eventually commited suicide – see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Reimer

    And the International Olympic Committee has tried several times to find a way to identify the sex of its competitors, only to abandon each test they came up with, in one case after it forced a women to withdraw when the test detected the Sry gene – either withdraw, or they would publically diqualify her by declaring her a man.

    And in Texas, the State district courts have had two different standards for determining the sex of a person, so that in one part of the State, some transgender individuals can wed, as long as they are gay, while in other parts of the State they can’t, because they are gay.

    And the secret that no one is interested in discussing (except for me, it seems) are the cases of infants born with “ambiguous genitalia” where “modern” doctors decide that the natural result of the child’s conception is not acceptable and the doctor decides on the infant’s sex based on the difficulty of “building a pole” or “digging a hole.”

    It seems clear to me that if God can’t ensure that an infant is not caught between boy and girl so that a doctor decides he needs to slice and dice for fix God’s failure to make the external sexual identity clear, then it seems only logical that God has failed to make the mind of all infants congruent with their possibly ambigous external features.

    Yes, these individuals that are not clearly man nor woman are a minority, but is it not a basic principle of the American experience to protect the minorities, whether they are minorities through no fault of their own, or minorities by choice?

17. Peter B Says:
    February 6th, 2006 at 2:09 pm

    http://www.thebostonchannel.com/news/6680956/detail.html

    Here is one link. The story went from a local story to a national story in a matter of a few days…

18. Peter B Says:
    February 6th, 2006 at 2:33 pm

    mulp Said:
    February 6th, 2006 at 1:47 pm

    “Yes, these individuals that are not clearly man nor woman are a minority, but is it not a basic principle of the American experience to protect the minorities, whether they are minorities through no fault of their own, or minorities by choice? ”

    Who chooses to be a minority???

19. MarkG Says:
    February 6th, 2006 at 10:09 pm

    More shows on technology would be great. How technology is transforming communication. Radioopensource.org is a perfect example of this! Allowing your listeners to get this involved in a radio program is fantastic!

20. Scarequotes Says:
    February 7th, 2006 at 2:13 am

    How about a story on AOL and Yahoo’s recent decision to try charging senders to send email? (Story in Red Herring, but there are 527 articles and counting on Google News.)

    Check out marketing guru Seth Godin’s take on it — he’s for the idea. Other marketers feel threatened. The Consumerist thinks companies will pay to spam you.

    Is this a great way to get rid of spam, a great way for big ISPs to make money, a threat to consumers, the beginning of the end of the Internet as we know it, or something else entirely?

21. sidewalker Says:
    February 7th, 2006 at 2:46 am

    How about a show on Fortress North America? In March of 2005 Bush, Fox and Martin signed the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America. This goes quite a bit beyond NAFTA and calls for full integration and continental harmonization of not just the economy, but also of social and cultural regulatory policy. This initiative was promoted in Canada by the Canadian Council of Chief Executives (http://www.ceocouncil.ca/en/view/?document_id=365), among others powerful business lobby groups and conservative think tanks. It has not generated near as much public debate as NAFT, which most Canadians were opposed to. Framed as part of an anti-terror and border security initiative, (what isn’t?)it seems many people have not understood the full extent of what this might mean for most Canadians, Americans and Mexicans. While it may be seen to mimic the EU, there are none of the social and environmental checks and balances included in the North American version. A healthy and open debate is necessary.

    Someone you might want to contact is Maude Barlow, the national chairperson of The Council of Canadians, who wrote a recent book titled, “Too close for comfort : Canada’s future within fortress North America.”

22. LninYo Says:
    February 7th, 2006 at 1:33 pm

    How about a completely cynical show. Get a bunch of guests who are completely and utterly cynical about the latest ventures in Iraq, the Straussians’ (as Ann Norton calls them) rise to power, and the possiblity that the only option left to those who rely on their packanimalwits, maybe tactical newkewlurr weapons?

    I would like to hear some bold cynical arguments in favor of the bright future that’s being built upon the still warm corpse of the republic.

23. cheesechowmain Says:
    February 7th, 2006 at 2:24 pm

    Bernard-Henri Levy is touring and plugging his book “American Vertigo : Traveling America in the Footsteps of Tocqueville” I imagine since your show is not in Los Angeles he might enjoy the visit. :^)

24. cheesechowmain Says:
    February 7th, 2006 at 2:31 pm

    Todd Gitlin. Author of “The Intellectuals and the Flag” among many other books and writings.

25. Shari Thurer Says:
    February 7th, 2006 at 7:23 pm

    I would love a show about gender bending. I am a psychoanalytically trained psychologist in Boston and a long-time professor (now an adjunct) at Boston University. Recently, I wrote a book — The End of Gender: A Psychological Autopsy — in which I explain (in plain English) what’s going on in the sex/gender world. I’d love to spread the word!

26. MBouchard Says:
    February 8th, 2006 at 10:15 am

    How about a show on Anger. Anger gets a bad rap. We all need to be angry from time to time, but, mostly, we’re not allowed to be angry. Of course, there is a political component to this due to the recent flap about whether Hillary is angry. Is the RNC Chairman correct? Do we not elect angry people? If so, why not? (Of course, he failed to point out we *have* elected some pretty lame people to the White House in the last forty years or so). Where does anger fit in our culture? Can we resurrect good, old-fashioned, constructive anger?

27. tetteh Says:
    February 8th, 2006 at 1:36 pm

    How about a show on Freedom of speech? It seems this worthy principle is currently close to the center of the Mohammed cartoon scandal, with an Iranian newspaper reportedly requesting for cartoons about the Holocaust. How far will this go? In the US we were recently engulfed in a debate about whether our news reporters had the write to remain silent in the midst of investigations regarding the leaking of Valerie Plame Wilson’s identity. Even more recently, Zacarias Moussaoui’s refusal to cooperate with authorities after his arrest in the weeks and months leading up to 9/11 was used against him, as he “retained information that could have allowe authorities to prevent the carnage of 9/11″. How does this relate to a prisoners right to remain silent? These topics all raise serious questions about an individual’s right to speech vs right to silence. A show on this would be fascinating.

28. icantgoon Says:
    February 8th, 2006 at 1:36 pm

    A show about veganism/vegetarianism? Should we go on slaughtering/torturing/mutilating animals for the “yumminess” of their corpses? What is “carnism” really all about?

    http://www.vegfamily.com/articles/carnism.htm

29. Nikos Says:
    February 8th, 2006 at 3:29 pm

    Here’s a vote for placing a Daniel Dennett page in the ‘bullpen’ — I’m reading his new book ‘Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon’, and would like to encourage others to do so too, and to discuss it in the ‘Warming Up’ section. Thanks!

30. Scarequotes Says:
    February 8th, 2006 at 3:42 pm

    Here’s a spin on icantgoon’s suggestion: Look ahead 100 years. What behaviors that we take for granted today will be considered as “barbaric” or “unenlightened” as we consider segregation or eugenics or wives-as-housewives? Eating meat? Abortion? Heterosexual-only marriage? This would work best if you didn’t ask people pushing a specific agenda — don’t ask pro-life people about abortion, for example — but if you found people with broader views of societal trends.

    This idea just came to me now; no links to offer. But icantgoon’s comment reminded me of SF author Kage Baker’s series about the Company, wherein England, a century or so from now, has veered strongly in an animal-rights direction, so that pet ownership and eating meat are considered moral failings of our time.

    How will we be judged by history, once history arrives?

31. tunnelman Says:
    February 9th, 2006 at 2:16 pm

    Hello. I would love you to do a show on wildlife in the modern world and more precisely, the latest judgement in Anchorage that banned the hunting of wolves via helicopter(aka “Predator Control”). You could possibly have rep’s from Friends of the Animals, the group who initiated the trial. You could probe the reasoning behind this country’s apathy in concern with the vanishing predator as well as with some local government’s refusal to protect these animals. I think that you would find a lot of shady dealings between various FIsh and Game Commisions with gun and ammo companies, not to mention with Departments of Tourism.
    Please consider this idea because I believe that this is not something that gets a lot of press. It is vital that information gets out, not only because I think that people would be generally outraged with what is and has happened, but also because I feel that as more and more wolves and other types of predators are “controlled”, the less of the “wild nature” that lives inside of us will be accessable.
    Barry Lopez might be another possible guest.. Thanks a lot…tunnelman

32. Nikos Says:
    February 9th, 2006 at 3:04 pm

    While you’re absorbing Geraldine Brooks’ ‘Nine Parts of Desire’ (and thank you for it too), you might also want to give a look to ‘Unbowed: An Algerian Woman Confronts Islamic Fundamentalism’ (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1998; translated from the French by Anne C. Vila). It’s a series of interviews by French journalist Elisabeth Schemla with Khalida Messaoudi, who is introduced as:

    “a highly educated Berber intellectual from Kabilya; a lay Muslim in a society imposing religious constraints on every aspect of life, from the law to the smallest details of women’s dress and behavior; she is a Francophone, Arabophone (classical and dialectical), and Berberphone in a post-colonial Algeria that seeks to stifle dissent by imposing a monolingual Arabic system of education; she is militant but nonviolent; she is a democratic republican in a nation where two competing totalitarian camps are struggling for power; and, most important, she is a feminist—that is, someone who fights to obtain the most basic civil right for women—in a misogynous culture that is more and more hostile to women and obsessed with repressing female rights and sexuality.�

    See brief review here: http://www.upenn.edu/pennnews/current/1998/090398/Bookquick.html

    See excerpt here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0812234499/ref=sib_dp_top_ex/002-7919812-6315255?%5Fencoding=UTF8&p=S00H#reader-link

    Her tale is riveting and chilling, as is the death sentence reproduced in the book’s final pages.

    This quote – “She has also signed an appeal: ‘A Call for Peace, for a Commitment between Jews and Arabs throughout the World to Support Peace and Fight Terrorism’â€? – comes from: http://www.liberal-international.org/editorial.asp?ia_id=698

    Our relative ignorance of Messaoudi and of the atrocities she combats is a regrettable legacy of American/Anglophone self-absorption (compounded by the perception that anything Algerian is accidentally French, and therefore hardly worthy of investigation!)
    The book is available used and on sale from online outlets such as Powell’s and Amazon (mine came from Powell’s for $5.98, but Amazon has copies for as little as $3.60)
    Thanks.

33. Nikos Says:
    February 9th, 2006 at 3:59 pm

    Perhaps tonight’s show and the ones I’ve suggested above and in the past (that are still embryonic) could comprise a series of shows on the status of women worldwide, parallel to the ‘Race & Class in America’ series. Such a series would require months, but would be entirely worthwhile.

    One can easily make the case that it’s a bigger issue than that of race & class: women outnumber men yet are targets of endemic discrimination, such as the infamous American woman’s $.70 earned for a man’s equivalent-work dollar, and the long history of female infanticide in China, and, and…well, the list is a lengthy as it is sordid.
    Such a series would also have the benefit of exposing American listeners to the relative equality of Scandanavian women while at the same time broadening the scope from the (wholly worthy) question of Islamic women.

    On behalf of my sister and mother’s gender: thanks again.

34. TekTok Says:
    February 10th, 2006 at 1:17 am

    First I would like to express how joyful I am to have discovered Chris and Open Source. I was a long time fan of The Connection and was deeply disappointed after hearing what transpired there.

    I have a couple of suggestions for topics I’d like to hear discussed. The first involves a theoretical explaination and discussion of the Kardashev Scale, where we fit on the scale and threats and obstacles we need to overcome to be able to advance.

    The second topic I’d like to hear presented involves campaign financing. I am disgusted at the ridiculous amounts of money spent on elections. During the last presidential campaign Bush and Kerry alone raised over $500 million to try to get elected to a job that pays $400000 a year. How can we believe the interest of the people comes first when the vast majority of campaign funding dollars comes from special interest groups? What’s even more appalling is the use of those dollars for disinformation advertising and media manipulation. Of course the unscrupulous campaign tactics are never directly associated with any candidate but it’s clear who is meant to benefit. It is a perverted use of the system meant to put opponents in a defensive posture and to force denial. Two prominent examples are the rumors Senator John McCain had to address regarding an illegitimate black child and the Senator John Kerry Swift Boat smear campaign. The levels of apathy and acceptance shown by the American people over both of these issues makes me wonder how people see these injustices and why there is no reaction.

35. Nikos Says:
    February 10th, 2006 at 2:53 am

    Shari Thurer!
    I wondered why that name herein seemed so familiar — I’ve got your “The Myths of Motherhood: How Culture Reinvents the Good Mother” on a shelf with some other prized books from the 90’s.
    I hereby second Shari’s request for a show featuring her.

36. Lisa Williams Says:
    February 10th, 2006 at 1:12 pm

    CBGB’s, the seminal NYC punk club, has been booted from the newly gentrifying Bowery — and now they’ve moved to Las Vegas. Yikes! How things have changed; when the Ramones were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, remaining Ramone Dee Dee used the podium to voice his support of President Bush.

    Dear Lord, what has happened to punk rock? Let’s ask Legs McNeil, the author of the excellent Please Kill Me: An Uncensored History of Punk and Keith Gessen, who wrote about the saga in the New Yorker.

37. plaintext Says:
    February 10th, 2006 at 5:37 pm

    Let’s lighten things up a little…

    Dave Chappell – could be combined with race series.
    His “whiteface” is hilarious – often poking fun at both sides of the racial divide – simultaneously – brilliant – is this black humor, white humor or just plain edgy?

    Maybe a retrospective of Lenny Bruce – seems appropriate somehow with all
    the wire-tapping going on – I know how reclusive he is but it would be great to
    get someone like Don DeLillo “Underworld” to rap about Lenny.

    The IT Crowd is getting a fair amount of press over on boingboing:
    http://channel4.com/entertainment/tv/microsites/I/itcrowd/

38. Nikos Says:
    February 11th, 2006 at 12:31 am

    Re: the embryonic ‘Women of Islam’ show:

    http://www.metransparent.com/texts/arab_feminists_on_women_s_rights.htm

    featuring a piece by Saudi feminist Wajiha Al-Huweidar that slaps fully in the face the propaganda that women are seperate but equal under Islam:

    “All of the Arab regimes are U.N. members and have ratified the 1948 Declaration of Human Rights, which clearly establishes justice and equality in the rights and obligations of all citizens. Despite this, women in our chauvinist countries are still considered the property of their relatives. All Arab countries, without exception, harbor covert animosity and open discrimination against women. To this day, all official bodies reject any scientific discussion of a solution to women’s problems – while on the other hand the men, who benefit from women’s oppression, continue to regurgitate [the mantra] that ‘women are respected’ [in Arab and Muslim societies]… ”

    And that’s just the START of the piece. A bit more:

    “An improvement in women’s status will not come through invalid solutions which have been proven ineffectual. The laws grant female citizens only half a voice, diminish women’s rights, classify them as having only partial sense, denigrate their importance, doubt their capabilities, permit beating and banishing them, permit their caging within four walls, allow their husbands to treat them as they see fit, and allow them to be bought and sold according to legal agreements. When women fail [in matters forbidden by religious law], the laws welcome their barbarous execution.”

    Whew. And there’s more. Click the link to see it.

39. Winston Dodson Says:
    February 11th, 2006 at 1:54 am

    How about a show examining the naïve idea that journalism is “the search for truth�?
    Example. In a Feb 10th article AP entitled “Libby Says Leaks Authorized, Papers Showsâ€? states “Wilson’s revelations cast doubt on President Bush’s claim in his 2003 State of the Union address that Niger had sold uranium to Iraq to develop a nuclear weapon as one of the administration’s key justifications for going to war in Iraq.â€?
    Here are the famous “16 wordsâ€? from Bush’s speech “”The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa.”
    How can the AP hope to cover a story like the indictment of Libby with its credibility in tatters from irresponsible quotes within the same article? Do professional journalists not see the harm that such irresponsible acts of mixing blatant editorial comments in with attempts a cover a news event do to their profession?

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/cia_leak;_ylt=Akz6Q5gaZMmV3op0YOhqWJOs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA2Z2szazkxBHNlYwN0bQ–

40. Winston Dodson Says:
    February 11th, 2006 at 2:26 am

    Examining the interrelationship between the US Economy, the US Economy’s Current Account Deficit and the inflow of Foreign Capital that some refer to as loans but many see as an investment.

    Links to appropriate articles:

    Economist
    The great thrift shift – America is spending while the rest of the world is saving. But for how long? Zanny Minton Beddoes investigates http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=4418328
    A working model – Is the world experiencing excess saving or excess liquidity? http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=4274896

    Business Week

    Why The Economy Is A Lot Stronger Than You Think
    http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_07/b3971001.htm

41. sidewalker Says:
    February 11th, 2006 at 4:42 am

    What about a show on “childhood” WORLWIDE (or a series–after Nikos’ one on women)? The net is but one socio-techno change having a profound effect on the practice of childhood, if not the notion. Persistent war and poverty in many regions, of course, are others. Violent youth crimes are often in the news and nations are lowering the age of prosecution as an adult. Just what is “childhood” today? How do people view this most important period of human development around the world (for example, Coming-of-age Day in Japan is a celebration for 20 year-olds!!). There are also issues of children’s rights and who or what body has authority over the child? Issues of education and health…

    I don’t know personally of anyone, but below are some links to possible guests and of course the blogosphere will have many suggestions.

    http://www.psychohistory.com/
    Lloyd deMause, (psychhst@tiac.net)

    http://www.globalchild.org/

    http://www.h-net.org/~child/SHCY/shcy_members.htm

42. sidewalker Says:
    February 11th, 2006 at 4:49 am

    Just had another thought related to the previous post. Since this is programme is about the inclusion of voices, why not also have some children and youths on a show, rather than just having adults speaking for kids.

43. Nikos Says:
    February 11th, 2006 at 6:24 am

    Re sidewalker’s laudable suggestions: there’s an atrocious number of child slaves in south Asia: boys consigned to ship-breaking hell in Gujarat, and girls hauling quarry rocks further inland, and worked under literal whips until their bodies break down under the weight of the stone. I’m not making any of this up. Their families sell the girls into this unconscionable servitude simply because they were unfortunate enough to be born girls to impoverished families. Most die in their teens or early twenties. The lifespan prospects for the boys are better, but only by a comparative hair’s-breadth. Radio show? – It’s nightmare material, at best. (I hereby ban myself from this thread until March. But thank you, ROS, for putting up with us.)

44. arjen Says:
    February 11th, 2006 at 11:52 am

    I’ve only been enjoying Open Source radio podcast for a month orso so maybe this item was discussed earlier. On the chance that it was not:

    There are grave doubts about the coherence of the officlal story concerning the events of 9/11. In light of the fact that most western policies (both foregn and domestic) have been based on these events total clarity concerning their nature would seem a reasonable demand from our governments. We know the US and UK goverenmts (and perhaps others) lied to us about the reasons for invading Iraq. Why believe them outright on 9/11?

    I won’t fill up this page with all the things that are wrong with the official story. Please hold off judgement on this issue untill you’ve studied some of the hard, and very uncomfortable, facts:
    http://www.scholarsfor911truth.org/
    (I’m not personally involved with this site in any way)

    Perhaps a program on this item can be sychronized with on of the many grassroots events that are being organized all over the US:
    http://www.911truth.org/calendar_event.php?mode=&eid=20060131135503286
    http://www.911truth.org/calendar_event.php?mode=&eid=20060208133203357

    With kind regards,
    Arjen Kamphuis,
    Amsterdam, the Netherlands

45. allison Says:
    February 12th, 2006 at 9:34 pm

    I like the “My Dinner with Andre” suggestion. Another film, I would love to discuss is the original Wim Wenders “Wings of Desire” and perhaps in contrast to its sequel “Faraway, So Close.”

46. allison Says:
    February 12th, 2006 at 9:40 pm

    I also like the suggestion for a show on anger. The difference between anger and rage. How to experience and express anger constructively. How to teach others and children to do the same.

    Anger is an appropriate reaction to certain experiences and a signal that we need to take action to create a change. But just as we have mistakenly labeled anxiety as fear, we mistakenly call rage anger. A good look at this emotion and its place in our lives would be awesome.

47. allison Says:
    February 12th, 2006 at 9:46 pm

    Ok, I’m going to read the book Nikos recommended (‘Unbowed: An Algerian Woman Confronts Islamic Fundamentalism’ ). This is an excellent topic. I love that she is militant but non-violent. I loathe the phrase “passive resistant”. Gandhi was in no way passive. Nor were the suffragettes. I so, so wish that we could, en masse, hold the precepts of non-violent, forceful action and effect positive change for the masses of people suffering under oppressive regimes around the world.

    This would be an awesome topic. One that I feel could be a series, covering different people approaching oppression with this framework. I like a series idea, because for this idea to seed in the minds of people, they need to keep hearing about it.

48. allison Says:
    February 12th, 2006 at 9:54 pm

    Again, like Nikos suggestion about the “Women of Islam” radio show.

    This topic can never die off until its addressed. Why are we so inured to the suffering of these women? We are far too comfortable living our lives while others aren’t allowed a life.

49. rrasch Says:
    February 13th, 2006 at 12:56 pm

    You have probably heard of MindJet or NovaMind which are mind mapping managers. I would like to suggest a new approach called,”world wide trans-conduit.” There is a new pathfinder program called simonSays, I have made an open source presentation from the Old Brewery Mission: Montréal,Qc

    http://rrasch.squarespace.com/

    If you are interested in making this a show, or have a comment, mailto: rrasch@agat.net

50. Shari Thurer Says:
    February 13th, 2006 at 4:14 pm

    RE: Nikos’ suggestion about a show on Islamic women. I would hope this would include the infamous but misunderstood (in the West) “head scarf” issue.

51. Winston Dodson Says:
    February 13th, 2006 at 10:58 pm

    From the way that this email reads, the mayor of this Iraqi town might make an intersesting guest. Tal ‘afar is the the Iraqi town that is on the boarder with Syria that was “re-liberated” late last year.

    Saluting the 3rd ACR
    Greyhawk

    Via email from a family member, a letter from the Mayor of Tall ‘Afar, Iraq to the men and women of the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment and their families.

    In the Name of God the Compassionate and Merciful

    To the Courageous Men and Women of the 3d Armored Cavalry Regiment, who have changed the city of Tall’ Afar from a ghost town, in which terrorists spread death and destruction, to a secure city flourishing with life.

    To the lion-hearts who liberated our city from the grasp of terrorists who were beheading men, women and children in the streets for many months.

    To those who spread smiles on the faces of our children, and gave us restored hope, through their personal sacrifice and brave fighting, and gave new life to the city after hopelessness darkened our days, and stole our confidence in our ability to reestablish our city.

    Our city was the main base of operations for Abu Mousab Al Zarqawi. The city was completely held hostage in the hands of his henchmen. Our schools, governmental services, businesses and offices were closed. Our streets were silent, and no one dared to walk them. Our people were barricaded in their homes out of fear; death awaited them around every corner. Terrorists occupied and controlled the only hospital in the city. Their savagery reached such a level that they stuffed the corpses of children with explosives and tossed them into the streets in order to kill grieving parents attempting to retrieve the bodies of their young. This was the situation of our city until God prepared and delivered unto them the courageous soldiers of the 3d Armored Cavalry Regiment, who liberated this city, ridding it of Zarqawi’s followers after harsh fighting, killing many terrorists, and forcing the remaining butchers to flee the city like rats to the surrounding areas, where the bravery of other 3d ACR soldiers in Sinjar, Rabiah, Zumar and Avgani finally destroyed them.

    I have met many soldiers of the 3d Armored Cavalry Regiment; they are not only courageous men and women, but avenging angels sent by The God Himself to fight the evil of terrorism.

    The leaders of this Regiment; COL McMaster, COL Armstrong, LTC Hickey, LTC Gibson, and LTC Reilly embody courage, strength, vision and wisdom. Officers and soldiers alike bristle with the confidence and character of knights in a bygone era. The mission they have accomplished, by means of a unique military operation, stands among the finest military feats to date in Operation Iraqi Freedom, and truly deserves to be studied in military science. This military operation was clean, with little collateral damage, despite the ferocity of the enemy. With the skill and precision of surgeons they dealt with the terrorist cancers in the city without causing unnecessary damage.

    God bless this brave Regiment; God bless the families who dedicated these brave men and women. From the bottom of our hearts we thank the families. They have given us something we will never forget. To the families of those who have given their holy blood for our land, we all bow to you in reverence and to the souls of your loved ones. Their sacrifice was not in vain. They are not dead, but alive, and their souls hovering around us every second of every minute. They will never be forgotten for giving their precious lives. They have sacrificed that which is most valuable. We see them in the smile of every child, and in every flower growing in this land. Let America, their families, and the world be proud of their sacrifice for humanity and life.

    Finally, no matter how much I write or speak about this brave Regiment, I haven’t the words to describe the courage of its officers and soldiers. I pray to God to grant happiness and health to these legendary heroes and their brave families.

    NAJIM ABDULLAH ABID AL-JIBOURI
    Mayor of Tall ‘Afar, Ninewa, Iraq

    Members of the Regiment are now returning home to Ft Carson, Colorado.

52. Lisa Williams Says:
    February 14th, 2006 at 9:35 am

    Coffee! Start by listening to the CoffeeGeek and Portafilter podcasts. Mark Prince runs the CoffeeGeek website, which I think is a fine example of what the net offers at its best: authoritative, obsessive, and comprehensive sites that go very, very deep on a single topic. Mark has strong opinions on coffee and coffee culture, and he doesn’t hold back in his podcast. Chris and Nick of Portafilter are a little lighter and funnier in tone, but like Mark, self-made experts. Portafilter can let you in on the inside world of the World Barista Championships! (I bet you didn’t know about those). And the whole underground world of hacking your home coffeemaker (A portafilter is the thing with the handle that holds the filter basket in an espresso maker).

    Plus there’s the whole phenomenon of What Has Happened To Coffee in America. The addition of espresso drinks to American culture is something that brings up a lot of cultural/class material. A person’s reaction to Starbucks is like a Rorschach test that gauges peoples’ feelings about class in America. The story of how espresso made the big time in America is a story about America’s splintering as a mass culture. This is why you should have George Howell on, to give the history. What happened between the time in 1968, where he would ask for a mug of hot water at Howard Johnson’s and make coffee in a press in the bathroom — a member of a weird secret society that had to practically hide its passion for coffee — to the fact that I can now get a pound of Target branded Fair Trade organic coffee for 7.49 (I kid you not, I have this bag in my pantry).

    The HJ story is one he related on a CoffeeGeek podcast as part of an interview with Mark Prince.

    George Howell almost singlehandedly brought espresso culture from its tiny seed in San Francisco to the East Coast. He founded Coffee Connection. My uncle Tim, who was kind of a hipster from our perspective, had been to Harvard and had WPA posters on his walls, took me and my father there when I was about ten. This was one of George’s first stores. It wasn’t a place to get coffee drinks then, but a small, tall room with giant transparent bins lining every wall with coffee beans in them.

    I had never seen a coffee bean before, and the fact that Uncle Tim was loading up with these little brown paper bags of not just coffee beans but a variety of different types of beans in different colors and a strange intriguing oiliness on some of them — it just seemed impossibly exotic, and there’s something mysterious about how that culture became mass culture. It seems to me just as easy to imagine a present in which none of this happened, a present in which most Americans have never seen a coffee bean.

53. Lisa Williams Says:
    February 14th, 2006 at 9:37 am

    George Howell: Terroir.com

54. Lisa Williams Says:
    February 14th, 2006 at 9:39 am

    I also agree with mulp upthread about a show on “what is a man, and what is a woman?” I’m aware of two transgender-related blogs by bloggers — Yttryx Explains All, and Koan Bremner’s blog. Koan was at BlogHer last year and was wonderful. I love her blog. Sorry, children climbing on me, I must leave the Googlage to you for a bit.

55. bobbydoo Says:
    February 14th, 2006 at 10:09 am

    Have you considered doing a show about presidential biographers? Perhaps you could get Robert Dallek as a guest and discuss how the current commander in chief compares to previous presidents. Another very important topic is how the Bush administration’s policies on withholding presidential papers will affect authors in the future and to what degree it will hamper research.

56. Winston Dodson Says:
    February 14th, 2006 at 10:24 am

    The film “Boys of Baraka”. Is is a condemnation of US schools or Black Society?

    As guests, could have the producers / director of film and Bill Cosby. Would be as intersting as having Gary Hart and Peter Beinart on together! I and bet the advocates of the film would do a better job than Gary.

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/13/AR2006021301571.html

57. Gabriel Says:
    February 14th, 2006 at 11:48 pm

    I’d like to suggest a show.

    Title: The Battle for Taiwan — America gets ready to lose a war.

    Lead-in: while America’s volunteer army slowly bleeds out along the Tigris and Euphrates, fighting a bloody war of attrition with teenagers in sandals, a different enemy is preparing for the next next thing. Red China has already proven that capitalism and democracy don’t have to mix, that the World Wide Web can be effectively censored, and that a ballooning middle class can be helpless to demand even slight political reform from a well-armed dictatorship. Now it is getting ready to prove something else — there is no such thing as a superpower anymore.

    The island of Taiwan is a thriving, robust democracy of 26 million people. It has formidable natural defenses and a long, proud military tradition. But its will to resist military aggression from China is ebbing away. Meanwhile, the United States, obsessed with counterinsurgency and ‘asymmetrical’ warfare, is letting its strategic long-range air and naval capabilities rust away. The B-52’s are nearly old enough to collect Social Security. The Iowa Class Battleships are mothballed museums. The outcome is nearly as certain as arithmetic: within the foreseeable future, China will achieve its goal of ‘reunification’ through a savage act of violence, and America will face an abject military humiliation.

58. bdearing Says:
    February 15th, 2006 at 1:01 pm

    I was struck by an off-hand comment Frank Rich made during Chris’s recent interview with him. Rich was talking about this year’s Oscar nominees, and noted that none of them did very well at the box office.

    I found this striking coming from someone who seems to know the entertainment industry so well. To me, this years Oscar nominees have everything to do with the triumph of the DVD and the sudden irrelevance of the US box office. I find it surprising that this sea change is lost on Rich. I wonder if it’s lost on many others as well. Or, am I just seeing things?

    Here’s my case:

    DVD’s finally provide a means of financial support for small films that can cater to grownups. No longer are we held hostage by the whims of the teenie boppers that swarm the megaplexes.

    We are in the midst of a complete realignment of the entertainment industry, with movies in particular feeling the most pain of late. The movie “Bubble” was recently released on DVD, Pay TV, and cinemas simultaneously to the deafening cries of betrayal by the exhibitors.

    There was so many good movies last year, that most year end “Best of” columns were brimming over with excellent films that cater to people above the age of 12. Was it just a good year, or are things really changing?

    Mitch Hurwitz, creator of the recently cancelled “Arrested Development” noted that the show was designed for the age of the DVD, with its dense joke count and subtle humor. In an era when programs are no longer disposable, people can create shows that require repeated viewings.

    I haven’t really heard anyone get a group together to discuss this. Is this really happening? Is this good? Can theater chains survive in this climate? What does this mean for our culture and film in general? etc. etc.

59. rafael Says:
    February 15th, 2006 at 2:05 pm

    You should do a show on the ongoing boom in commodities trading.

    While stocks, and bonds have been flat or declining, and the real estate bubble has now plateau’d, the prices of basic commodities are currently near record prices and are continuing to increase.

    Gold, silver, platinum, oil, steel, cement, and wood are all on the rise.

    Why? Two reasons:

    1. Massive economic growth going on around the world. The big names are China and India, but we are seeing it in other places, like Russia and Brazil. As they build or rebuild huge new cities, they are consuming all the wood, steel and cement the world can produce.

    2. The falling value of the dollar. The US is trade deficit, budget deficit and the national debt are at a record level. We have been paying for this by increasing the money supply. This has the effect of devaluing the dollar, which is the world’s reserve currency. The fed has been fighting this devaluation effect by increasing interest rates. We are nearing a breaking point. People are beginning to question how many more times can the Fed raise rates before it start having a severe effect on out economy. There is talk of a possibility that the real estate bubble will burst. So this is causing a quiet move among many central banks to load up on precious metals.

    Right now the pressue between dollar inflation causing forces ( trade deficit, money supply expansion, real estate bubble ) against dollar inflation fighting forces ( interest rate hikes, continued buying of US debt by foreign banks, pegging of yuan to the dollar ) is increasing. It is tightening like a spring.

    It is in no one’s interest that the system collapse. For example an economic crisus in the US would mean a loss of a major market for the exporting countries. So they continue to prop up our trade deficit. However if the dollar starts to devalue rapidly, it might cause a wholesale flight from the dollar, as no central bank want to be the last to get out.

    There is talk among some economists that a major economic crisis is on the horizon between now and 2008, and that it could be triggered by some unexpected world event – like say a new major terrorist attack, or the start of a major war.

    On the other hand predictions of an worldwide economic collapse similar to this have been made since 1971 when the US went off the gold standard.

    It would be interesting to have a debate between some mainstream “everythigng is fine” economist and a doomsayer economist. For example former FED chairman
    Paul Volcker says this crisis is imminent, Alan Greenspan says its not. Maybe a debate between two former fed chairmen?

    Its interesting also because as of right now the US has passed its debt limit, and is essentially selling bonds illegally.

60. mlillich Says:
    February 15th, 2006 at 8:11 pm

    Two books I’ve reviewed recently for the Indianapolis Star:

    - Covering: The Hidden Assault on our Civil Rights, by Kenji Yoshimi,
    a gay, Asian-Am law professor, whose argument is that gay civil rights
    are the model for better civil rights for all.

    - The Global Class War: How Am’s Bipartisan Elite Lost our Future — and What
    it Will Take to Win it Back, by Jeffrey Faux, a powerful anti-Nafta, anti-T. Friedman,
    anti-global trade political-economic history. Solution: A European Union-style
    N. American Union of the U.S., Canada and Mexico to establish a regional
    basis for regaining workers’ basic rights, environmental and responsibility.

    Both solid and well-done. – Mike

61. Shari Thurer Says:
    February 15th, 2006 at 9:00 pm

    RE: a show on the amiguity of sex/gender. Pardon my persistence…but I do feel it is very topical especially in light of the film Transamerica and the HBO documentary Middle Sex. I just read Arlene Istar Lev’s Transgender Emergence…very sensible account of a “happening” phenomenon.

62. alokemon Says:
    February 16th, 2006 at 12:22 pm

    First I want to say that I was recently introduced to this show, and am now thoroughly addicted. Thanks, everyone.

    This was on the front page of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette yesterday, and it got me thinking. Thinking especially how international crises need not be abstract sufferings, how the human side of foreign policy and global affairs is often right next door without us knowing it. I think it immediately raises many questions that would provide good fodder for a show.

    -Whatever happened with the Darfur situation, particularly any possible U.S. involvement?

    -What are the struggles that face refugees in general, and what are their aspirations?

    -If their goal is to come to the U.S., what roadblocks (legal or otherwise) face them en route and once ashore?

    -Once (if?) they make it here, what is their life like? How do they build a life? What do they dream? How can they make their voice heard? Who listens?

    -Does the U.S government have any interest in them, domestically or internationally?

    -What role does the United Nations play in all of this?

    I think this would make for a good show particularly because it would link our interest in international affairs with local issues (the many refugee populations in many of our neighborhoods), and would link foreign policy with people we see probably every day.

63. alokemon Says:
    February 16th, 2006 at 1:04 pm

    I just came across your Sudan show in the archive. Looks like you all beat me to it.

    I would still be interested in a show that focuses specifically on the trials and tribulations of refugees, and their unique link between global and local issues.

    Sorry for jumping the gun.

64. jmartenstein Says:
    February 16th, 2006 at 4:13 pm

    You guys need to talk to Jay Rosen about the Bush Administration’s view of the White Houes Press, particularly in light of the Whittington incident.

    Today’s post on Rosen’s PressThink:

    http://journalism.nyu.edu/pubzone/weblogs/pressthink/2006/02/16/chn_ftz.html

65. Katherine Says:
    February 16th, 2006 at 4:29 pm

    Hi everyone. A new show-suggestion roundup here.

66. cheesechowmain Says:
    February 16th, 2006 at 4:55 pm

    If you’re going to do a show on anger, might I recommend the following:

    Robert Thurman’s “Anger: The Seven Deadly Sins”

    http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0195169751/sr=8-9/qid=1140123627/ref=pd_bbs_9/002-6456307-5592005?%5Fencoding=UTF8

    Professor Thurman might make an interesting guest for this discussion.

67. cheesechowmain Says:
    February 16th, 2006 at 5:02 pm

    William Arkin and Able Danger. Mr. Arking writes a great blog column called Early Warning over at the Washington Post.

    This entry is of particular interest about our security programs.

    http://blogs.washingtonpost.com/earlywarning/2006/02/tugging_on_the_.html#more

68. Potter Says:
    February 16th, 2006 at 9:37 pm

    How about a show on constructive ideas?

    My idea is posted on the show warmup “Rethinking the Levees”:

    Conduct an SUV buyback program. Compress these light trucks into bricks about 4 feet by 2 feet by 2 feet ( or so) thusly and ship them all down to New Orleans to rebuild the levees. This gets rid of two problems at once.

69. Potter Says:
    February 16th, 2006 at 9:53 pm

    Speaking of constructive ideas, Paul R. Pillar wrote an excellent article in the current Foreign Affairs Magazine Intelligence, Policy and the War in Iraq in which he details how intelligence was misused or not used (“cherry-picked”) by this administration to lead us into war. He offers some ideas about how to avoid politicizing intelligence in the future (once we get over our anger about how we were betrayed).

    Summary: During the run-up to the invasion of Iraq, writes the intelligence community’s former senior analyst for the Middle East, the Bush administration disregarded the community’s expertise, politicized the intelligence process, and selected unrepresentative raw intelligence to make its public case.
    PAUL R. PILLAR is on the faculty of the Security Studies Program at Georgetown University. Concluding a long career in the Central Intelligence Agency, he served as National Intelligence Officer for the Near East and South Asia from 2000 to 2005.

70. Potter Says:
    February 16th, 2006 at 10:00 pm

    Hey I don’t know how I made that red!

71. mfos Says:
    February 17th, 2006 at 5:03 am

    What about a show on what is offensive, and what is art? Have lines been redrawn recently? Remember ‘Piss Christ?’ Can another religious figure (or figurine) be substituted and cause mob violence? The obvious extension is left to the minds of readers.

    I really don’t know how to think about it–I’m pretty irreligious and, if anything, being offended by some things helps me recognize my religious minority background in this overwhelmingly Christian culture.

72. Dale Keiger Says:
    February 17th, 2006 at 1:11 pm

    Devote an hour to Rebecca Solnit, author most recently of A Field Guide to Getting Lost. An essayist, critic, environmental activist, and all-around sharp cookie, Solnit writes for Orion magazine, has published eight books (I think it’s eight), and advocates getting lost, as in deliberately unmoored by a passionate interest and finding your way through terra incognita by your wits, curiosity, and full engagement with the world and the present.

73. jmartenstein Says:
    February 17th, 2006 at 5:30 pm

    You should talk to John Robb about his Global Guerrillas / Open Source Warfare / Systempunkt ideas. He has some intriguing thoughts about how the Iraq insurgency is affecting global security.

    http://globalguerrillas.typepad.com/globalguerrillas/2004/09/bazaar_dynamics.html
    http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/003192.html

    Apparently, he’s a fan of the show as well

    http://globalguerrillas.typepad.com/johnrobb/2006/02/can_a_decentral.html

    As a bonus idea, Robb has been having this low-simmering intellectual “feud” [1][2] with Thomas Barnett about the Future of Warfare and Nation-Building. As of yet, their critiques have just been traded across blogs, I don’t think anyone’s actually put them in a room together.

    [1] http://www.thomaspmbarnett.com/weblog/archives2/002474.html
    [2] http://globalguerrillas.typepad.com/globalguerrillas/2006/01/contra_barnett.html

74. bicyclemark Says:
    February 17th, 2006 at 5:46 pm

    Ill be focusing on this topic for my show this weekend, but Id love to hear the open source crew focus in on the ship-deconstruction industry of Alang, India and the struggle between environmentalism and the economics of that industry. Perhaps something on the Clemanceau (French war ship) and Greenpeace’s relatively successful campaign against them, as the Indian supreme court has now stepped in. Anyway, like I said, via a Bombay based blogger who was in Alang recently, Ill be discussing this topic.

75. Rae Says:
    February 18th, 2006 at 11:25 am

    I’m delighted to find this site. I have missed Chris Lydon since he left WBUR.
    I would like to suggest 2 shows.
    1) A day in the life of an average person, 15 years from now.
    2) Where is the line between religion and mental illness.

76. Winston Dodson Says:
    February 18th, 2006 at 2:11 pm

    After having spent time “grazing” on many of the comments I beleive that I now, have a more accurate assesement of the “center-of-gravity” of the philosphies of the dedicated listeners of the show so I will attempt to focus my contributions their. Here is my first try.

    Dems Need A Newt Of Their Own
    The Party Can’t Have a Revolution Without the Revolutionaries

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/17/AR2006021702477.html

77. kitchendonkey Says:
    February 18th, 2006 at 5:09 pm

    JF
    I have a suggestion for a show on left wing blogs that are very anit-Isreali and jewish.
    I have been going to some left wing blogs and I have noticed that a few of them are being very anti-semitc or anti-jewish. They are a extremly pro-Palestinian and seem to devoid of any sense of history of the region. This is interesting as I have been trying to have a dialogue with these people but I keep getting shut down with statements such “thats not true” and “Isreal is commiting crimes against humanity”.

    When I have come foward with clear evidence that Muhammed Amin al-Husseini the first so called Palestinian leader(successor to Arafat) was a nazi or at the very least a extreme sympathizer this is viewed with spectisim.
    I think it would be very interesting to do a show on how the left is demonizing Isreal and not dealing with the real history of post 1948 or pre 1948 when dealing with the region.

78. manicmommies Says:
    February 18th, 2006 at 9:58 pm

    How about a show about modern motherhood and moms who podcast?

79. mjking Says:
    February 20th, 2006 at 6:17 pm

    I would love to hear a week devoted to “Whole Wide World 2.0″, following on Christopher Lydon’s brilliant radio project. Touch base with the writers, scientists, imperialists, free marketeers, refugees and local activists who constituted the original survey: what has changed in the way they know the world? Where are we now?

    Open Source, to my ears, is itself a “Whole Wide World 2.0″, but it would be cool to hear it formally revived.

    Also, I would like to get my hands on the mp3s of the original show. The Web site is still up, but the links to the audio files are dead.

    Cheers.

80. andyo Says:
    February 21st, 2006 at 9:15 am

    PubForge: Open Source Software for
    Public Broadcasters may interest this show’s producers. Perhaps
    you would be able to hook into projects produced for a wide community
    of listeners.

81. Potter Says:
    February 22nd, 2006 at 8:29 am

    I notice you have avoided the “cartoon” brouhaha. There is so much to discuss regarding that and I am hoping that you consider giving it your characterisitic more thoughtful and deeper discussion.

    What prompts me right now is my disgust at this new brouhaha over port security. It’s really discouraging to see the issue distorted (this time from both sides) as it is being used for political grandstanding. I am an avid Bush basher, but I may be with Bush on this one.( I shock myself.)

    My understanding is that the word that should be used in connection with this Dubai company and all other such companies that run ports around the world is “management”. They are NOT in charge of operating or controlling the ports and has been misreported in numerous articles and TV/Radio though NPR’s “Morning Edition” did a more accurate report on this today.

    These companies manage the terminals and not the security of the ports. The security of the ports in this country is our business alone, not outsourced.

    The real issue is the security of the ports, which we need to give more funding to and to beef up.

    It’s incredible to read all the jumping up and down on the left blogs about having this juicy issue to use and some even know that they are distorting, making a strawman out of this, and they do not care.

    Read this sober detailing of the issue:

    http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/2/21/32511/3374

    And this Washington Post Editorial from 2/22/06 ” Port Security Humbug”

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/21/AR2006022101575.html

    here are the final two paragraphs:

    “None of the U.S. politicians huffing and puffing seem to be aware that this deal was long in the making, that it had been reported on extensively in the financial press, and that it went through normal security clearance procedures, including approval from a foreign investment committee that contains officials from the departments of Treasury, Commerce, State and Homeland Security, among other agencies. Even more disturbing is the apparent difficulty of members of Congress in distinguishing among Arab countries. We’d like to remind them, as they’ve apparently forgotten, that the United Arab Emirates is a U.S. ally that has cooperated extensively with U.S. security operations in the war on terrorism, that supplied troops to the U.S.-led coalition during the 1991 Persian Gulf War, and that sends humanitarian aid to Iraq. U.S. troops move freely in and out of Dubai on their way to Iraq now.

    Finally, we’re wondering if perhaps American politicians are having trouble understanding some of the most basic goals of contemporary U.S. foreign policy. A goal of “democracy promotion” in the Middle East, after all, is to encourage Arab countries to become economically and politically integrated with the rest of the world. What better way to do so than by encouraging Arab companies to invest in the United States? Clearly, Congress doesn’t understand that basic principle, since its members prefer instead to spread prejudice and misinformation.”

82. Potter Says:
    February 22nd, 2006 at 8:43 am

    Okay here is an example of what I mean ( other columnists are writing similar predatory pieces using inaccurate and misleading phrases) from columnist Harold Meyerson ( Waahington Post) piece entitled “Wanna buy a Port?”

    First two para:

    “We’re selling our harbors to an Arab government. Our biggest Internet companies are complicit in the Chinese government’s censorship of information and suppression of dissidents. Welcome to American capitalism in the age of globalization.

    Here the market rules. National security and freedom of speech are all well and good, but they are distinctly secondary concerns when they bump up against our highest national purpose, which is maximizing shareholder value.”

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/21/AR2006022101177.html

83. Potter Says:
    February 22nd, 2006 at 10:52 am

    Listen to this excellent report by Adam Davidson on NPR’s Morning Edition today about the above topic

    http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5227732

84. Winston Dodson Says:
    February 23rd, 2006 at 10:14 am

    The “war of the (different) Worlds”

    Is this, metaphorically speaking, the beginning of an “un-Civil War” in America? Who calls who “Un-American”? Does the media, which covers Iraq, really have a credibility problem with the troops who have served in there? Has this contributed to the overall fall in the readership / viewership of the so-called MSM?. Can Democrats really be trying to suppress ads featuring US military members? Is there another “Swift Boats Vets for Truth” effort ready for the upcoming campaign?

    I believe that the answers to these questions would begin a conversation about many trends that are causing profound and basic changes to American society.

    Who calling who “Un-Americanâ€?? – Brian Melendez is the chairman of the Minnesota Democratic Party. This past Thursday Melendez called a press conference and condemned the first of the two advertisements — the one featuring the veterans — as “un-American, untruthful and a lieâ€?. In Minnesota the mask has fallen from the Democratic Party. It has condemned the message of Lt. Col. Bob Stephenson and the other veterans supporting the mission in Iraq as “un-American.â€?

    Does the media, that covers Iraq, really have a credibility problem with the troops who have served in there? – Minneapolis Star Tribune columnist Nick Coleman has now devoted two hysterical columns to condemnations of the advertisements. Coleman’s first column made a basic error of fact as a result of its reliance on a far-left Web site and cited the testimony of a Kerry delegate to the 2004 Democratic convention as a “nonpartisan” source. (John fisked the column here.)

    Coleman’s second column fastened on “the Delores Kesterson issue” — attacking the Gold Star Families ad for presenting the stepmother of Erik Kesterson in lieu of his mother. For this bizarre point Coleman relied without attribution on his friend “Hesiod”at Daily Kos. Coleman overlooked fellow St. Paulite Merilee Carlson — the genuine biological mother of Michael Carlson — in this rant.
    Lt. Col. Stephenson is the co-chair of Minnesota Families United for Our Troops and Their Mission. Col. Stephenson is featured in the first of the two advertisements in issue. On Saturday John interviewed Col. Stephenson on the Northern Alliance Radio Network. You can listen to the interview here.

    Has this contributed to the overall fall in the readership / viewership / audience of the so-called MSM?. – “Reuters disappointment pulls London lower� http://news.ft.com/cms/s/66b3e086-a449-11da-897c-0000779e2340.html
    http://www.nytco.com/investors-presentations-20050426.html

    Anyone who doesn’t think that this is going to be bigger news, very quickly, should remember the “swift rise� (pun intended) of the “Swift Vote Vets for Truth� in the last Pres election. In July, they gave a news conference that was shown on C-Span and watched only by a few weirdoes who frequent that channel, and by Sept they were one of the biggest factors in taking the shine off of the patina of John Kerry controversial war and post, record.

    My opinion is that the media, specifically the individuals who compose it, are “insensitive� (not in a physiological way to imply something negative) to the issue because of the their backgrounds and “trajectories� through our society. Chris is a brilliant host, well read in sources like the “New Yorker Magazine�, and has spent his career steeped in a culture staffed by professionals with the same basic history. And, his influence on the current young media professionals will build on that tradition. But what happens if much of what is relevant to the current and future media audiences are not the issues “filtered� through the big, establishment, East Coast / West Coast media sources? I think that is what the blog / web portion of ROS is about.

    And if John Perkin’s “Economic Hit Men� whose ideas, as far as I can tell, had only been tested in venues like Indy bookstores and Democracynow radio, neither can be considered “truth exploring crucibles of debate�, I think that this subject is at least as worthy of exploration. At least for the fact that, as I mentioned above, it will actually be an issue that will have a effect on the debate in the US because these adds will still be running (probably more of them) and every candidate will have to either accept or deny that conclusions that they draw.

    Links to adds / videos and articles here.

    http://powerlineblog.com/archives/013227.php

85. gregbillock Says:
    February 24th, 2006 at 11:37 am

    Something I’d like to hear is a show on the economics of oil. A lead-in might be the putative opening of the Tehran oil exchange, to be denominated in Euros. Is this exchange an “economic weapon” (NPR Marketplace 2/23) that will destabilize the dollar? Is it going to fizzle because people don’t want to trade oil in Tehran? Or could some of the American rhetoric on Iran be related to this project and a desire to see it fail?

    I’d like to hear a this in the context of a wider discussion about the economics of oil. Who buys it? Where do they buy it? How far in advance? How much oil is bought on long future contract and how much on the spot market? Who buys on the spot market? Who sells on the spot market?

    The flow of oil is a critical component of today’s world system, yet I think I’m probably not alone in feeling like I don’t even know the names of all the levers that drive it economically.

86. rafael Says:
    February 24th, 2006 at 3:19 pm

    I second greg’s idea.

    Have Republican Representative from Texas Ron Paul on.

    He just delivered the following powerful speech in the house of representatives:

    http://www.house.gov/paul/congrec/congrec2006/cr021506.htm

87. myotis evotis Says:
    February 26th, 2006 at 12:56 am

    What’s up with Ry Cooder?

    His recent journeys into Latin American music have tapped into the richness of Latino culture while heartily embracing the societies linked to it. Not only are Buena Vista, Mambo Sinuendo, and most recently Chavez Ravine, phenomenal in their own right, but their music stimulates a curiosity for the people, places, and stories in the songs in a greater way than most World Music projects seem to. Cooder, as a producer, and musician in recent projects has been somewhat of a practitioner of opensourcing himself, giving voice to forgotten sounds and artists, and facilitating the retelling of conveniently buried stories, most notably that of Chavez Ravine in LA. I wonder if Ry Cooder has found a groove – even a vision – in teaching us mortals how music and society nourish each other at a deeper level. I’d like to know where Ry Cooder is headed next and what’s leading him there? I guess it wouldn’t hurt to spend a little time covering his own history in the process.

    Even if this show doesn’t happen, if other world music fanatics know of producers and projects out there doing similarly great work, I’d love to hear what you know.

88. myotis evotis Says:
    February 26th, 2006 at 1:28 am

    Oh yeah, and although I am interested in learning from the Dubai show coming up, I agree that Potter’s proposed angle on the DWP brouhaha would also be worthwhile (though it pains me as well to find myself in agreement with the administration on any issue).

    Is this just the DNC thinking they can pin the republicans and win the “tough on security” label during an election year?

89. ELGS Says:
    February 27th, 2006 at 1:12 am

    John Dvorak wrote a column for PC Magazine about the lack of “sociological studies about the Net and computers” without actually looking to see if any such studies existed. His column is at http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,1928970,00.asp. The PC Magazine forums have a discussion about the silliness of the column at http://discuss.pcmag.com/forums/1004306354/ShowPost.aspx#1004306354. I found out about the column through an irate librarian’s blog at http://christinaslibraryrant.blogspot.com/2006/02/ignorance-of-literature-is-no-excuse.html, An example of somebody who is doing the research Dvorak says doesn’t exist can be found at http://www.danah.org/papers/. That author’s blog post on Dvorak’s column can be found at http://www.zephoria.org/thoughts/archives/2006/02/25/academics_get_t.html#comments.

    There are two issues that could come out this material. The first issue is the way people don’t take advantage of the internet/professional literature searching resources available to them. Guests for that portion could include a librarian such as Christina of the Christina’s Library Rant blog, a researcher/writer who does take advantage of the resources available to them, a researcher/writer who does not (John Dvorak would be good for that role), and possibly a student who is just starting their academic research, but who could compare the academic research world to the internet world (im, myspace, google) they are already familiar with.

    The second issue could be a discussion with the people who are researching online social networks, such as danah boyd, Jeffrey Heer (http://jheer.org/), Dr. Stuart Card (http://www.parc.com/about/pressroom/news/2002-06-19-stucard/ and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuart_K._Card), or any of the other people with whom they have co-authored articles.

90. IggyG Says:
    February 27th, 2006 at 9:46 am

    Hi. Have you seen this video? “Loose Change 2nd.Ed.” What’s going on with these disappearing planes?

    http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8260059923762628848&q=loose+change

91. tbrucia Says:
    February 27th, 2006 at 10:22 am

    What about programs about (1) detailed descriptions of techniques of torture used by the US; (2) interviews with terrorists asking why they target civilians instead of military; (3) interviews with nuclear weapons designers and how they like their work; (4) people who smuggle drugs OUT of the US; (5) Americans who have renounced their citizenship and why; or (6) interviews with snipers (this last prompted by an article by Ha’Aretz with an Israeli sniper). Some more: (7) the community life of Ismaeli Shiites in the US (how they resemble/differ from Mormons, their Christian analogues?); (8) differences and similarities between Islam law (Shari’a) and Jewish law (halachah); (9) the theology of Teilhard de Chardin; (10) why Fundamentalist Protestants do not establish religious courts like those of the Roman Catholic Church, Orthodox Judaism, or Islam. There is SO MUCH that is ignored out there!!!!!!!!!

92. benc Says:
    February 27th, 2006 at 4:03 pm

    What about a program on Congressmaen airbrushing their wikipedia entries, so to speak? Open source content, politics, propaganda, the wounded amour-propre of the mighty… what’s not to like? Plus, there’s a local angle: Marty Meehan seems to have been caught doing this, as reported by the Lowell Sun (now removed from the website, but you can probably find it in Google’s cache with the search terms “lowell sun marty meehan wikipedia”). The details are here: http://mediachannel.org/blog/node/3121.

93. alokemon Says:
    February 27th, 2006 at 4:15 pm

    Has everyone out there heard of The Genographic Project featured in National Geographic? To me this would be a fascinating topic for a show. I’ve been thinking about it for a while but I haven’t been able to come up with a precise angle or focus for the proposed show, but that’s your specialty, no?

    This article gives a helpful summary if you don’t have enough time to explore the official site:

    It’s interesting to note that the lead researcher Dr. Spencer Wells has said: “We see this as part of the commons of our species. We’re not going to be patenting anything – the information will all be in the public domain.” Which sets this project apart from other similar ones, and also shows that their project shares something in common with your show.

    They have an exciting story to tell, and hopefully you can find enough in there to build a show around.

94. alokemon Says:
    February 27th, 2006 at 4:16 pm

    Oops, the article is here.

95. alokemon Says:
    February 27th, 2006 at 4:40 pm

    Sorry sorry, but here are some more links:

    IBM ’s site, as technical sponsor

    A blogger tells of his father’s test results

    This is great stuff, people. It’s about tecnhology, public participation, and a common story. I know you can come up with an exciting story about this.

96. ReluctantSkeptic Says:
    February 27th, 2006 at 5:17 pm

    Could there be a discussion about the 9/11 Commission and gaps in the “official storyline”?

    I am sick to death of this topic, but I really do think there is new ground to be covered (http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8260059923762628848&q=loose+change).

    Conspiracies abound due to the inability or unwillingness of the media to simply discuss these things. Please put some light on this. I really do hope that it is fringe nonsense. However, the last few years have made me increasingly skeptical regarding the processes of our leaders, government and military.

    All the best.

97. cindy Says:
    February 27th, 2006 at 6:23 pm

    I would like to repropose the gender identity topic. With such a media frenzy about one-man-one-woman it is interesting to note that by any standards a state sets, there are exsisting gay marrages.

    Also, in all of the media discussion of Transamerica, why doesn’t anyone talk about the strange desision to have a woman play a man making the transistion into a woman?

98. cheesechowmain Says:
    February 27th, 2006 at 6:26 pm

    Iranian Oil Bourse. I picked up an interesting thread from crooked timber’s John Quiggin. Here are some links:
    http://www.energybulletin.net/12125.html

    http://www.iranmania.com/News/ArticleView/Default.asp?NewsCode=28176&NewsKind=Business%20%26%20Economy

    and of course, the original post where I picked this up:
    http://crookedtimber.org/2006/02/26/iranian-oil-bourse/

    This ties into a couple of items of interest that have been discussed on ROS. Iran, Iraq, Oil, War, Empire, and the role of economics in global power. Seemed to be germane to the idea of trying to get our heads or hands around the contours and parameters of a contemporary empire.

99. cindy Says:
    February 27th, 2006 at 6:30 pm

    The movement towards co-housing and intentional communities would also make for an interesting topic. The movement started in Europe and now there are several communities in the united states. Co-housing is different than the ‘hippie communes’ of yesteryear in that everyone owns their own homes and pays dues to the community.

    -What are the members of these communities looking for? And why is that missing in our society in general?

100. cheesechowmain Says:
     February 27th, 2006 at 7:00 pm

     cindy’s post about co-housing reminded me of an interesting topic about squatters.
     Robert Neuwirth wrote an interesting book called “Shadow Cities: A Billion Squatters, A New Urban World.”

     http://www.powells.com/biblio/61-0415933196-0

     I was staggered by the amount of ad hoc organization and sheer numbers now and forcasted upon for the future. Amazing topic.

101. cheesechowmain Says:
     February 27th, 2006 at 7:18 pm

     Forgot this link about the Bourse:
     http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/2/24/74940/5678

     Lot’s of opinions floating around about this.

102. cindy Says:
     February 27th, 2006 at 7:25 pm

     Maybe a show on where we live. Homeless, suburbs, co-housing, rural, urban. Do you stay or do you go? What determines where we live: economics, familiy, career? In Italy a high unemployment rate becomes sustainable because people live with their family and community for their whole life.

103. tlewis Says:
     February 27th, 2006 at 8:17 pm

     IRAQ: Deep Roots of Failure
     Friends-
     I think that you can get below the surface of America’s failure in Iraq by examining our nation’s incompotence in inter-cultural relations. Specifically: how many enemies did our soldiers make by their inability to speak Arabic or act in harmony with Muslim culture? How many enemies can you make daily by being insulting, shooting first and asking questions later, unable to communicate? Many: fast, and nation-wide.
     Even if you accepted the notion that intervention was necessary (which I don’), the requirements of intervention and peace-keeping on the ground with language-deficient troops should have negated further consideration. Collect stories of soldiers (I have heard many) and you will get the on the ground truth but publically unmentioned reality of dumber and dumber actions by clueless young people.
     Add to this the sidelining of experts on the region, who predicted many of the developments.
     Culture matters. America not knowing the world, or itself, was (and will be) tragic. Intellectuals need to testity about the importance of local knowledge and cross-cultural awareness lest we go off again toward absurdity.
     TL

104. tbrucia Says:
     February 27th, 2006 at 10:39 pm

     A great story would be ‘Security in the Largest Petrochemical Complex in the US’, featuring the free flow of freeway traffic along Highway 225 past more than six miles of refineries and chemical factories — with a few hundred feet separating passing vehicles from these ticking time bombs. (My favorite is a high tension pylon about 15 feet from the local access road, but unguarded overpasses come a close second.) To make things even more fun, the Houston Ship Channel runs on the other side of ‘Refinery Row’ — 50 miles long, 45 feet deep, and 530 feet wide. This thin canal leads to America’s second larges port (the sixth largest in the world). It will be really interesting if terrorists ever decide to recreate something like the Texas City disaster of 1947 (when a ship exploded and blew that city off the map) next to refinery row. Most folks are not aware that if Osama’s crew REALLY wanted to take America off the world economic map, Houston would be the place to start…

105. Marcel Says:
     February 28th, 2006 at 5:21 pm

     We need a show discussing the relationship between national security and judges defaulting to repsect it unexamined. You need only to go to the two cases, one Canadian, one Egytion, of foreigners wisked off to be tortured. The issue is not the torture; that’s easy because it’s just plain wrong. But instead the issue is the judicial deference to the executive branch in both cases; nobody ever has to explain anything, so it never ends. You could also look at the case in the UK that was dropped, the defendant walking free, because the FBI refused to present evidence. In all these cases the executive branch gets what it wants (arrest and holding of these people) without ever having to justify to anyone what they did. If you can mumble “national security” and have every judge in the land roll over and play dead, where are there any actual rights? It is the picture of our three branches of government out of balance. And given the vocal support from the least intellectual among us (just like in pre-Nazi Germany), it is seemingly the slippery slope down to dictatorship / emperorship. The question is CAN judges dig in their heals; and so why don’t they?

106. marylaure Says:
     March 1st, 2006 at 8:48 am

     Hi! Listening to your shows about Hamas and about Al Jazeera, I was suprised to hear so many WOMEN interviewed – highly-educated women who came accross as independent thinkers, with a fresh take on the Middle East. Many thanks for featuring them, as the shatter cliches about Arab women. Why not plan a show about women in the Middle EAST, A SHOW that might be a follow-up on the 2 aforementioned shows AND on the show Feminism After Friedan?…
     Who are these women? What’s their bakcground? Does blogging account for the emergence of new voices? How can they change the perception of Arab and/or Muslim women? How can they change the societies they come from?

107. allison Says:
     March 1st, 2006 at 11:48 am

     I had an interesting discussion about the rights and responsibilities of sperm donors versus the resulting children the other day. We were exploring whether we felt that the sperm donor had more of a right to privacy thatn the child’s right to know who their biological father is.

     This topic came up because of a recent article on children using today’s technology to find their fathers regardless of the sperm bank’s contract that guarantees privacy. There are a couple of competing ethic/moral questions here: does a third party have the right to create a contract that binds the unborn child? Are there imperative needs for the child to know the father (emotional/physical)? Is the sperm donor actually responsible for his participation in the creation of a child?

     What struck me most was the response of the other person to the last question: “Well, you can’t make him responsible for that, because then you would have to reconsider a woman’s right to choose.”

     Wow – unwillingness to consider a woman’s responsibility for her actions (of course, I’m speaking of adult women who engage in consensual sex and then choose an abortion when they realize they are pregnant), is the reason we can’t have a thorough examination of a sperm donor’s responsibilities?

     Interesting. This led to spurious arguments such as: “You can’t hold him responsible because he didn’t know if his sperm would be used.”

     Let me say, that I support a woman’s right to choose. I have taken advantage of that right. Still, I question my reasoning on this all the time. As South Dakota gets ready to ban all abortions (except if the mother’s life is in danger), the collision between technology (sperm banks, morning after pills) and our sense of personal responsibility and how we define a human and who has more rights than whom, would be a great topic.

     I’m particularly interested in the gender portion of the discussion. Why would we allow to men have the right to be anonymous baby makers, with no responsibilities, making money in the process, while women would be forced to bear a lifetime’s responsibility even they were raped (or that more difficult to assess situation where they weren’t ‘raped’ but couldn’t say no to a partner).

     And if we support a woman’s right to choose, why are we unable to examine that we may be supporting the woman at the expense of a child and we need to do some real reckoning, not avoiding that reality, if we’re going to settle this issue in the national psyche?

108. adavidow Says:
     March 1st, 2006 at 10:34 pm

     This is the 10th anniversar of the Klezmershack. (Actually, I’m stretching things. The KlezmerShack went online in the spring of 1995 as a place to find updates to some reviews that I had written for Whole Earth Review about klezmer, because “everyone was putting up webpages.”

     At the time I wasn’t thinking community. I already had been hosting an online discussion group on the WELL. I even had a mailing list to discussion Jewish Music. Okay, granted, I started the mailing list, and then when I discovered that to most people, neither the Israeli music nor klezmer that I care about were “Jewish Music.” Not the stuff they wanted to hear – religious ditties, hasidic choirs, cantorial classics. So, I disappeared from my list for about two years. People had no one to help unsubscribe. No one to help when things broke. But that was then.

     So, first there are some reviews online. The site was called “ari davidow’s klezmer page” because I knew that everyone would have a klezmer page, and I wanted to distinguish mine from the rest. People liked the reviews, so I added more. They would write: “I have a klezmer band in Minneapolis, I’m giving a concert in Poughkeepsie.” I thought, “thanks for letting me know. I live in California. If I’m ever in Minneapolis or Poughkeepsie….” But, this is the web, right. So I put up the addresses in case someone else was interested. And added more reviews and articles. And the listings grew.

     In the summer of 1996 I took a trip to Eastern Europe that included a night bus from Sarajevo to catch the early train from Zagreb to catch a concert by the girlfriend of someone I had never met in Austria. Pulled into Graz and he says, “oh, rain. no concert. But, tomorrow my friend Bob is giving a concert in Budapest….” I was there!

     KlezmerShack? Oh, way back when, RadioShack’s lawyers went after Bianca’s SmutShack, claiming that they owned “Shack”. We are all Shack. Then Mattel went after the Twisted Barbie site. So, for a while it was the Twisted Barbie KlezmerShack. Which started to feel weird. The last time the name changed was for a couple of weeks when it was the “Fair and Balanced Klezmershack.” When you run your own website, even if it’s a community resources, you have to give yourself latitude.

     The site has never exclusively covered klezmer, either. There was a time, mind you, when “klezmer” was what people called all Jewish music – could be from Eastern Europe (whence klezmer, among other music) or North Africa or India or the Mountain Jews in the Caucasus. To some, it was all klezmer. Now I try to educate about the variety of Jewish musics, and to educate myself as fundamentalist Jews like Matisyahu bring ultra-Orthodox myth into the American pop mainstream or DJ SoCalled deconstructs a Jewish Wedding in brilliant hip hop style or the Hop Hop Hoodios throw “1492″ and Latin music into the mix.

     Now there’s a blog and more articles and more listings and more reviews and new tools under development to make it easier to find the information about Jewish music that you might not have know to ask about or thought to know before you arrived.

     So, when it came time to celebrate 10 years, it seemed like an excuse to bring more music to Boston and make more of the music available in my home town (moved to Boston after that trip to Eastern Europe. Twenty years in California was really enough.)

     March 25-26th, there will be the final KlezmerShack 10th anniversary concert: There will be reunion concerts by Boston’s Klezmer Conservatory Band – the smoothest, most delicious and wonderful traditional klezmer/yiddish music band anywhere. I hadn’t been running the KlezmerShack more than a few months before I put up a review of seeing the band in concert. It was the best klezmer concert I had ever seen, and still one I describe to friends. The band’s then-drummer sent me his article on “klezmer drumming” figuring that was the place for it. He’ll be there. The guy I spent hours on the phone with talking about our connections to the former Yugoslavia – him a year in Macedonia, me time in Sarajevo – Michael Alpert – he’ll be there. Hankus Netsky, the bandleader who helped welcome me to Boston, along with Dave Harris, contrabone, who I met one week while commuting back and forth from California for Addison-Wesley and whose intense music with his friends in “Shirim” helped me decide to move to Boston – Shirim, including Dave and his wife Mimi Rabson played at my wedding – they’ll be there.

     We’ll also have workshops on everything from “Instant klezmer” to “A Taste of Yiddish” and Yiddish singing and Eastern European Jewish dancing and advanced klezmer violin and more.

     We’d love to share some of the excitement with the open source community. If that works into a radio show, perfect! In all cases, come on down to http://www.klezmershack.com and join in. Come on out Saturday night the 25th, or Sunday the 26th and share some amazing music.

109. Jason Daniels Says:
     March 2nd, 2006 at 9:58 am

     I am working on a collaborative media project called the 100 Second festival. It is a motion media festival based in Lowell, Massachusetts. This festival is creatively commoned and utlizes bit torrent to share full quality ‘100 second videos’ . In essence, the raw material for the festival is there for anyone to use and hand pick their own version of the festival.

     We have an open call for entries for our summer screening series.
     DEADLINE – MAY 1st.

     No entrance fee.

     Helping to spread the word about the festival through your program would be a tremendous opportunity .

     Thanks,
     Jason Daniels
     100 Second Festival
     http://100second.ltc.org
     jason@ltc.org

110. pj Says:
     March 2nd, 2006 at 1:39 pm

     Personal filtering. Of advertisements, advocacy, embellishment (or outright fabrication) and assorted additional requests or demands for attention. Include in that list, I suppose, sources of general noise in various forms – ranging from a loud mob of strivers increasingly in control of remarkably uptight public school systems to television programming and the internet. Yeah, there’s more of what you want, and I celebrate that, in the same spirit I think as the show does, but you have to be smarter to know what It is. Or at least a lot more patient (take the responses to the recent Hart/Beinhart/Perle show, for example – some good nuggets, but also an unfiltered and nearly endless back and forth between a couple of posters – work harder on fewer posts, man, or get a room, or something). More patience in an environment dominated by impatience. For me, it’s work. Or maybe not work, but it takes up bandwidth. For my kids, somehow, it’s organic. But still I am responsible for helping them figure out what is real and that sort of thing.

111. pj Says:
     March 2nd, 2006 at 1:45 pm

     Meant to refer to the recent Google show as well – to me that’s a better example than the Hart show (not only in the responses, but in the broadcast itself) of not being sure of the right filter setting.

112. Khavurta Says:
     March 3rd, 2006 at 1:05 am

     March 3, 2006
     In all the discussions of the Middle East the topic that gets lost is that of the indigenous Christians – most still belonging to the eastern branch of some of the oldest Christian denominations still around. The easternmost of these are the Assyrians, belonging mainly to the Church of the East and its Catholic off shoot, the Chaldean Catholic Church. Both these churches and the Syriac Orthodox Church and its Catholic off-shoot, the Syrian Catholic Church. These four churches form together the last remaining Aramaic speaking churches in the world.

     Just keep in mind that Aramaic is the Middle East’s oldest continuously written and spoken language. It has been under so much stress over the past 100 years that it is in danger of starting the 21st century but disappearing by its end.

     This is just one of the examples of a native Middle Eastern Christian church being slowly driven geographically toward the Mediterranean and then out into the West (or Australia). In places like Iran, Turkey, and Syria the population of indigenous Christians has dropped precipitously. In British Mandate Iraq the native Christians formed 20% of the population but today they hover at 3-5%. This includes the Armenians whose presence in places like Iran has been woven into that culture’s history for centuries.

     What is driving the Christians out of the Middle East? Clearly there is a “pull� factor toward the prosperous West, just as there is for professionally trained Muslims from the entire Islamic region. But more than this, there are distinct ways in which Christians are feeling the same kinds of pressures that drove the Jews out of places like Iraq and Syria, and decreased their numbers throughout North Africa and elsewhere. In places like pre-1940s Palestine, where the Christian presen today in Israel, Gaza and the West Bank together has dropped to about 2%. And what can happen under Hamas?

     So the answer is not just the pull of the West, but persecution and lack of equal opportunity in the Middle East. After Iran became an Islamic Republic, Christians and other non-Muslims came under Shari’a law and all the inequities prescribed by it for “People of the Book.� Church bells, community schools, publishing, heading any organization all came under the rules of state Islam. The Assyrian population of Iran dropped from about 70,000 in 1978 to about 15,000 today while Iran’s total population has nearly doubled (even with state encouraged birth control). The Copts, the largest Christian group in the Middle East are torn between demanding rights as a minority and proving their Egyptian patriotism by not complaining about discrimination

     Where is all this pressure on indigenous Christianity leading? Must Muslim dominant countries drive out practitioners of other faiths who do not want to experience discrimination? If so, what does this say about the friction between Islam, even as practiced by moderate leaning regimes, and an egalitarian society?

     I suggest bringing into the discussion Dr. Paul Marshall, authority on Shari’a law from Freedom House, Mr. Habib Afram of the Beirut based Syriac League, or
     Saad Eddin Ibrahim, professor of political sociology at the American University in Cairo, and chairman of the Ibn Khaldun Center for Development Studies, and Congressman Frank Wolf (R-VA) or Congresswoman Anna Eshoo (D-CA). If you really want to hear a passionate cry, read Joseph Farah. http://www.middleeastfacts.com/Articles/Christians/mideastchristianfreezone.html

113. Winston Dodson Says:
     March 3rd, 2006 at 9:21 pm

     Did a mathematician just prove that God exists?

     “Conversely, Chaitin also showed that it is impossible for a program to prove that a number more complex than the program is random. Hence, to the extent that the human mind is a kind of computer, there may be a type of complexity so deep and subtle that the intellect could never grasp it. Whatever order may lie in the depths would be inaccessible, and it would always appear to us as random.�

     Did he show that what form of mathematics we choose will determine whether it can help us to get the answer that we desire?

     “This doesn’t mean that anarchy reigns in mathematics, only that mathematical laws of a different kind might apply in certain situations. In such cases, statistical laws hold sway and probabilities describe the answers that come out of equations. Such problems arise when one asks whether an equation involving only whole numbers has an infinite number of whole-number solutions, a finite number, or none at all.â€?

     In navigating to this web page, I first went through the old version of the page where the webmeitser Brendan wrote “Apologies; we’re having some difficulties with a new build of our site, which is why you’ve landed on an old suggest-a-show thread. To suggest a show, please go here.�, what is the real problem here? After all, web programming is a formal mathematical algorithmic process, maybe there is nothing wrong with the page, maybe Brendan simply picked the wrong mathematics to use in building his page?

     I think that an hour talking to this mathematician would be fascinating and might be a chance to talk with someone who, if proven correct, could have made one of the most astonishing discoveries in the history of mankind.

     The Limits of Mathematics
     http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20060304/mathtrek.asp

114. tbrucia Says:
     March 4th, 2006 at 1:11 pm

     pj’s ‘Personal filtering’ comment started the synapses. In a world of massive information flows, what about a show about the filtering of information? How the mind processes a continuing stream of ’stuff’ to discard some and integrate some. Why some ads ‘click’ and others are forgotten. The role of the editor as filter. The difference between editor and censor. The creation of a framework of discussion. Criteria for ‘irrelevance’. Why determines predispositions for large/small amounts of ‘facts’ vis-a-vis ‘interpretation’. ‘The engineering mind’. When (and why) to ‘turn it all off’ and go spend some time ‘in a cave’. Waking up in the night to realize the interconnections of disparate facts or concepts.

115. Potter Says:
     March 5th, 2006 at 5:55 pm

     This presidential visit to India and Pakistan made me want a serious program on nuclear proliferation, the acceptable kind (well there are problems still) and the unacceptable kind.

     Where are we? What has changed? What has not?

     What does this (as yet unratified) agreement with India mean? It would seem it means more nuclear weapons brings some of India’s program under inspection. Does this really add to our security?

     What kind of message/incentive does this send to those countries that also have, declared or undeclared or nuclear programs in the works?

     What is the geopolitics? What does the Iraq War have to do with this? What about Pakistan?

     Does this undermine the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty? (I think yes.)

     I read in the NYTimes today that Bush is selling us this agreement with India as a way to free up demands on world oil supply–ie lower the cost of oil domestically.

116. Potter Says:
     March 5th, 2006 at 5:58 pm

     That sentence above should have read:

     It would seem it means more nuclear weapons into the world as it brings some of India’s program under inspection.

117. Winston Dodson Says:
     March 5th, 2006 at 10:06 pm

     While listening to the latest podcast of the show “Economic Hit Men� and being involved in the esoteric discussions on the discussion board / blog, I was astounded by the amount of discussions that seemed to be the intellectual equivalent of “how many angels can dance on the head of a pin�.

     Discussing the pros and cons / pluses and minuses of modern capitalism is also like discussing the same in regards to breathing air – its no use since it is the only thing that we can do and still live. And since globalization is an inevitable development of modern capitalism isn’t it more relevant to discuss what the results of these trends are and what the implications are?

     There is much talk about globalization resulting in the development of a “global elite� whose prosperity and loyalties lie not with the countries of their residence or within the societies within which they reside but with the global system itself. This article is a great illustration of that growing and accelerating trend and I don’t think that our current organizing / governing principles based on nation states can deal with it.

     I think that the “new world order” is arriving and it might not be a good thing unless we develop the systems to regulate / encourage it for all of our benefit.

     Companies’ and countries’ prosperity
     Decoupled

     Feb 23rd 2006
     From The Economist print edition
     The health of companies and the wealth of economies no longer go together
     Ronald Grant

     “NOTHING contributes so much to the prosperity and happiness of a country as high profits,â€? said David Ricardo, a British economist, in the early 19th century. Today, however, corporate profits are booming in economies, such as Germany’s, which have been stagnating. And virtually everywhere, even as profits surge, workers’ real incomes have been flat or even falling. In other words, the old relationship between corporate and national prosperity has broken down.

     This observation has two sides to it. First, as Stephen King and Janet Henry, of the HSBC bank, point out, companies are no longer tied to the economic conditions and policies of the countries in which they are listed. Firms in Europe are delivering handsome profits that are more in line with the performance of the robust global economy than with that of their sclerotic homelands. In the past two years, the earnings per share of big listed companies have climbed by over 100% in Germany, 50% in France, 70% in Japan and 35% in America. No wonder Europe’s and Japan’s stockmarkets have outpaced those in America, despite the latter’s faster GDP growth.

     Second and more worrying, the success of companies no longer guarantees the prosperity of domestic economies or, more particularly, of domestic workers. Fatter profits are supposed to encourage firms to invest more, to offer higher wages and to hire more workers. Yet even though profits’ share of national income in the G7 economies is close to an all-time high, corporate investment has been unusually weak in recent years. Companies have been reluctant to increase hiring or wages by as much as in previous recoveries. In America, a bigger slice of the increase in national income has gone to profits than in any recovery since 1945.
     Home truths

     The main reason why the health of companies and economies have become detached is that big firms have become more international. The world’s 40 biggest multinationals now employ, on average, 55% of their workforces in foreign countries and earn 59% of their revenues abroad. According to an analysis by Patrick Artus, chief economist of IXIS, a French investment bank, only 53% of the staff of companies in the DAX 30 stockmarket index are based in Germany; and only one-third of those firms’ total turnover comes from there. Only 43% of all the jobs at companies in France’s CAC 40 are in France. With the profits of these firms so dependent on their global operations, it is not surprising that corporate prosperity has failed to spur “homeâ€? economies.

     American and Japanese companies remain more closely tied to their domestic markets. Just one-fifth of the turnover of firms in Japan’s Nikkei index comes from overseas. Foreign sales of America’s S&P 500 companies amount to a modest 25% of the total. Even so, at the 50 biggest firms the figure is higher, at around 40%. The old saying, “What’s good for General Motors is good for Americaâ€?, no longer rings true: over one-third of GM’s employees work outside the group’s home country.

     If a large part of the spurt in profits comes from foreign operations, it is less likely to be used to finance investment or extra job creation at home. If they reason that the recent past is a fair guide to the immediate future, companies are likely to plough their extra profit into further investment abroad. Alternatively, they may buy back shares or repay debt.

     Globalisation has also shifted the balance of power in the labour market in favour of companies. It gives firms access to cheap labour abroad; and the threat that they will shift more production offshore also helps to keep a lid on wages at home. This is one reason why, despite record profits, real wages in Germany have fallen over the past two years. That in turn has depressed domestic spending and hence GDP growth.

     Workers can still gain from rising profits if they own shares, either directly or through pension funds. There is reason to think that the share prices of large listed companies will fare better than their home economies. Economic theory and historical experience argue that, in the long run, profits grow at the same pace as GDP. However, if the profits of big companies are increasingly linked to global production, then the profits of listed companies in developed economies could rise faster than domestic GDP for many years.

     In America, capital gains on shares have played a big role in supporting household spending over the past decade. But Mr Artus worries that workers in continental Europe are losing out, because a surprisingly high proportion of shares are held by foreigners: as much as 35% in France and 16% in Germany. This is partly because of the smaller role played by institutional investors, such as pension funds, in Europe compared with, say, America.

     If profits (and hence executive pay) continue on their merry way, while ordinary employees’ real wages stand still and their health benefits and pensions are eroded, workers might well expect their governments to do something to close the gap. It’s not hard to think of ideas that would be popular—higher taxes on profits, restrictions on overseas investment, import barriers, or making it harder to lay off workers. The trouble is, in a globalised economy such measures would also be suicidal. Firms would simply move operations’ head offices to friendlier countries.

     A more promising way of allowing workers to share in companies’ prosperity is to encourage firms to introduce profit-sharing schemes for employees. But perhaps the most useful thing that governments can do is to ensure that consumers (ie, workers) benefit from lower prices as a result of the shifting of production to low-cost countries. The prices of consumer goods have fallen by much more in America in recent years than in the euro area, where retailers are shielded from competition and have not passed on cost reductions. Greater competition in Europe would allow workers to share in the gains of globalisation through lower prices.

     The clear lesson is that policies aimed at penalising companies will fail to spread the rewards of corporate success to the wider economy. The only sure way to boost national economic prosperity is to make labour and product markets work more efficiently and to improve education, to make the home country a more attractive production base.

     The growing internationalisation of companies also makes a nonsense of the paranoia, in both America and Europe, about foreigners buying “our� companies. It has always been foolish for governments to block foreign takeovers which make good economic sense. It is even more so today. When over half of the workforce of many big companies is based abroad, the distinction between foreign and domestic firms has become increasingly blurred. There was patriotic outrage in France at the hostile bid for Arcelor by Mittal, a global steel giant. Yet although Arcelor is a member of the CAC 40 and viewed in France as a national corporate jewel, it is actually the product of a three-way European merger. It is incorporated in Luxembourg and only one-third of its employees are in France. In future the notion of “our� companies will become even more elusive.

118. nother Says:
     March 6th, 2006 at 1:20 am

     Evolution involves toilets, right? I was talking to a friend from MIT the other night and I told her that I was surprised that, considering the amazing strides we’ve made in technology the last 50 years, our toilets have stayed about the same. My friend informed me that strides have been made, we just don’t know about them. The evolution of the toilet is upon us.

     The “smart toilet” analyses the makeup of your stool and recommends improvements to your diet. You’ve been indulging in a little too much chocolate this week huh? Your smart toilet knows. Your body hasn’t seen a vegetable since that rubbery slice of tomato on your quarter pounder the other day – your smart toilet knows. The toilet even connects to your local grocery store and makes a little list for ya.
     http://www.globalaging.org/health/world/toilet.htm

     Incidentally, what does it say about our cultures that the Japanese are using their imagination when it comes to toilet technology, but we Americans are so squeamish when it comes to all things in “the John.� Why do they call it a john anyway?

     We could dig further into the history habits of #1 and #2 or we could explore other ideas on the “edge� of technology. Get some people from down the street at the MIT media lab to come in and stretch our imagination and push our possibilities. http://www.media.mit.edu/research/samples.html

     Ask these guys to bring some of their research projects from years past. What were their “crazy� ideas ten years ago?

     I found a good blog. An interesting post on March 2nd talks about another Japanese invention, Ima doko. Basically a tracking device for people’s children. That’s what we are coming too? Pretty soon husbands will be making their wives wear tracking devices. http://futurewire.blogspot.com/

119. Potter Says:
     March 7th, 2006 at 11:38 am

     Don’t know where to put this but CONGRATULATIONS! on picking up WNYC.

120. destituterebel Says:
     March 7th, 2006 at 4:56 pm

     You should host a show about sensorship of the internet especially with the recent blocking of blogger in Pakistan, it has become a big issue.

121. johne Says:
     March 8th, 2006 at 11:29 am

     I think Chris would certainly enjoy, as would I and many others, a show with Stanley Cavell. He can talk on some shared favorite subjects, as well as comment perhaps on the whole Harvard/state of academia issue… And, also, a favorite writer of mine is Adam Phillips, a British psychoanalyst, though I’m not sure if he practices anymore. A show on the state of psychoanalysis, and of the idea of therapy and mental health in general, in this age of neuroscience and managed care, would be interesting, I think.

122. plaintext Says:
     March 8th, 2006 at 10:01 pm

     Another vote here for Winston’s suggestion on the globalization of corporate profiit making. The topic so huge it’s hard to parse never mind cover in a single show – maybe ROS needs a series on economic issues. This could dovetail with the Race & Class series at points.

     I’d personally like to see a keen eye placed on how corporate interests manipulate the tax system in US (and I would assume elsewhere) to extend profits while they shuffle staff and dough around the world and stick wage earners with the tab (vs. unearned income.)

     And what the heck is the GNP anyway? Either we are no longer a manufacturing economy (and it’s fine to offshore all those jobs) or we are something else (and it isn’t?) Which is it? Just how does GNP take into consideration profits generated with offshore labor, imports, etc.

     And just what does it mean when personal productivity is seen to be decreasing? Is this a sign that all that off-shore labor is taking over finally and we’re no longer competitive on a purely productive basis?

     I could go on but I see this thread is already beyond massive.

123. plaintext Says:
     March 9th, 2006 at 10:44 am

     The Blogger
     Show got me thinking. What is the editorial tone of ROS?
     Although I generally find those media self assessment shows like On
     the Media to be unapproachable at best and voyeuristic at worst,
     I wonder if it isn’t time to take a look at ROS to tease out the
     nature of its biases.There’s Chris
     of course: generally of the Liberal Arts as opposed to Liberal
     Democratic persuasion with valiant attempts to introduce more
     conservative topics. The other People
     are not so easily tagged but that may due to their more limited
     presence.To this contributor’s mind the Cold
     War show was a surprisingly closed discussion considering the
     general tone of the contributors to the blog. The only consistent
     exception was Winston
     Dodson and although we often disagree, it’s refreshing to hear
     another point of view now and again.Which brings me to my questions and a
     possible show idea or maybe just a topic for discussion with the
     Berkman
     folk: What efforts, if any, are being taken to keep ROS from
     becoming just another left wing blog? Is ROS ever likely to attract
     more conservative contributors? Will the kid glove treatment of
     conservative topics be an effective tool for centering the perceived
     liberal bias of ROS? Would the introduction of a conservative
     interviewer/moderator into the mix help, hinder or have no impact?Please understand that my aim is not to
     undermine or denigrate the ROS’s great successes (to wit: The Play
     in 3 Acts or BOTU.)
     But in order to "agree to disagree" there has to be
     someone with whom one disagrees. The debate cannot flourish in a
     vacuum.

124. Potter Says:
     March 9th, 2006 at 2:49 pm

     myotis evotis asks about Ry Cooder above. I am an admirer as well. With the passing of Ali Farke Toure- it would be great to pay tribute to this wonderful person and musician. Cooder would be a good guest. Also “The World’s” Marco Werman, always engaging, did a very good piece on Farke Toure. A show could more broadly cover music from Mali and the Africa to America blues connection.

     Another suggestion I offer stems from a very strong editorial in the New York Times this week called The Came for the Chicken Farmer about the first person stories we are hearing from Guantanamo detainees. I know you did a torture program.

     Finally this article Our Financial Failings in this past Sunday’s Washington Post:

     Meet the typical American family.

     It has about $3,800 in the bank. No one has a retirement account, and the neighbors who do only have about $35,000 in theirs. Mutual funds? Stocks? Bonds? Nope. The house is worth $160,000, but the family owes $95,000 on it to the bank. The breadwinners make more than $43,000 a year but can’t manage to pay off a $2,200 credit card balance.

     That is the portrait of the median American household as painted by the Federal Reserve Board’s Survey of Consumer Finances. The survey, which does not distinguish between sizes of families, nevertheless offers the most detailed look available of the balance sheet of U.S. households.

125. Vijtable Says:
     March 9th, 2006 at 2:57 pm

     How about, partly based on Sam Harris’s book, The End of Faith, a question about the nature of religion in the modern world, and the question of whether “faith” is a tenable proposition in this day and age.

     Any number of thoughtful pastors (I know there was this one in Albany who opposed gay marriage bans because they gives government supremacy over god) could be involved in this. There are also the many people in the US who are “born-again” and converts to new denominations – were these “faithful” or “rational” acts?

     Mr. Harris takes on Islam (and to a lesser extent, Christianity and Judaism) in his book. He attacks the religious texts too heavily, in my opinion, without regard for contextual and historic readings. Nonetheless, the question is a useful one – can “blind faith”, the “leap of faith”, “submission” in Islam, “darshan” in Hinduism, “communion” in Christianity, can these operate constructively in our world? What if, as Mr. Harris asks, President Bush exalted Zeus or Apollo? Would we call his beliefs absurd? What makes his, or anyone’s, faith in a different god special. Relgion is proscribed by the 1st Amendment as special – is it? Is faith special, or is it nothing more than an irrational trust?

     Most importantly, do our times require, as Mr. Harris argues, an end to faith in order to ensure humanity’s survival?

126. Nikos Says:
     March 9th, 2006 at 3:32 pm

     Vijtable: please excuse my rubbernecking-commentary, but Daniel Dennett’s Breaking the Spell(2006) sheds not merely light but brilliant sunshine on many of the questions in your post above. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/067003472X/sr=8-1/qid=1141933105/ref=pd_bbs_1/002-7919812-6315255?%5Fencoding=UTF8

     and btw, friends we call collectively the ROS Staff: it’s March 9th. Can we get the March edtion of the suggest a show thread, please?
     Please?
     Nudge.
     Poke.
     Prod.
     

127. Nikos Says:
     March 9th, 2006 at 4:39 pm

     Oh, Vij, I ought to have mentioned that the ROS folks have a Daniel Dennett show in utero, and that your ideas dovetail perfectly with Dennett’s new book. So, hopefully, we’ll all feel at least a few rays of that sunshine on our brains’ imaginary skins sooner or later. (Hopefully sooner!)

     btw ROS Staff, I recall from the Seattle meeting that Chris is interested in a ‘My Space’ show. KUOW’s ‘The Conversation’ — a listener call in show — dealt with My Space recently.
     http://www.kuow.org/theconversation.asp?Archive=03-06
     I’m confident that you’ll give it a much deeper treatment than any call-in show can, but I’d wager that if your show producer gives the KUOW effort a listen, he or she will spot some interesting angles.
     See ya.

128. plaintext Says:
     March 10th, 2006 at 5:24 pm

     The Unintended Consequences of the Neocon Revolution

     Could the Dubai Ports World fiasco signal a tension in the neocon ideology: defense vs. global free enterprise? Or is this a feint where an obvious lame duck president can push the international commerce button while his minions go back home to triumphant calls of defense of the homeland?

     Or has the neocon revolution overstepped its bounds and been coopted by the democrats?

129. tbrucia Says:
     March 11th, 2006 at 9:52 pm

     What about a show on income flows? How did Japan end up with a relatively large middle class with (relatively) few wealthy folks? How much of America’s increasing productivity increases and growing economy flows to the top two percent, 10 percent, 20 percent, etc? Why is the US becoming more and more like Third World nations with a tiny aristocratic class, and a large class stuck with stagnant incomes (adjusted for inflation)? Why and how did income in America go from being very unequally distributed in the Gilded Age to very evenly distributed in the 1950s? Why did this trend end? Historically, is there a tipover point, after which income concentration generally generates an opposite trend? Is is always, sometimes, or never a violent process of redistribution?

130. Winston Dodson Says:
     March 12th, 2006 at 1:07 pm

     There seems to be a theme from several suggestions for shows that all gather around the growing Income / Wealth Inequality in US. As in a suggestion that I made earlier, I think that it is arguable that this trend is inevitable – globalization is an affect not a cause. I gave one source below that not only argues that but says that we are only at beggining of it so that its affects are now at thier smallest.

     I will latter supply and special set of articles by the Economist where they look at the growing “class system” within the US and the causes of that are what I think will make for an itneresting discussion.

     Just as the industrial age provided incomes for those who worked to produce what the consumers of those industies wanted – the age of globalization is rewarding those who work in the areas of the economy that benefit from providing products and servives to a global market. If you are on the “high value add” end of the scale you are disproportionatly rewarded and if you are not, you are less so.

     The most interesting part of this is the feedback mechanisms that it is building itno the US Society – the individuals who have the skills, education and expereince to benefit from this trend brings those benefits to the portions of society that they live and those benefits are self purpetuating becasue that means that members of that portion of society are more likely to particapte in it – a runaway system!

     Higher Education is feeling that and the latest upheaval at Harvard with the resignation of Summers is but one example and the increasing stress that will occur in many areas.

     The cost of higer education has increased at many times the rate of other costs in the economy for the past 20 or more years – costs can only increase as much as the customers of those costs can pay them. Ivy League / elite schools have been leading that trend and the hypothosis is that is becuase the “customers” of those institutions can afford it and if you extend that to the trend in the increasing inequality in US economy and combine that with the effects of globalization you get to the root cause.

     And many have suggested the the real “stress” at Harvard was not really between Summers and a group of acedemics that he offended but between the portions of Harvard that produce graduates that receive an education that is worth the huge costs and those that do not. “Hard science” studies produce students that are paticipating in the economy so that they can get jobs that pay enough to justify the high costs of thier education while others leave the university and have, except for a small %, with no hope of participating in the portion of the economy that thier fellow graduates do.

     So, as many have proposed I think that it would be a great ROS show to discuss not just why this is happening but also the results because I think that it is enevtialbe.

     http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/11/AR2006031101051.html

     A Rising Tide?
     Sunday, March 12, 2006; Page B06
     THIS NATION prefers not to discuss inequality. Lacking a unifying religion, ethnicity or even language, it is held together by an appealing faith: that anyone who works hard and plays by the rules can attain the American dream, sharing the fruits of economic progress. But the trends of the past quarter-century compel a reexamination of this creed. When President Kennedy promised that “a rising tide lifts all boats,” he was correct. Today that claim could be disputed.
     A few numbers show why. In the 25 years from 1980 to 2004, a period during which U.S. gross domestic product per person grew by almost two-thirds, the wages of the typical worker actually fell slightly after accounting for inflation. So, too, did wages for the 50 percent of the work force that earned less than the typical, or median, employee. The rising tide helped only workers at the top. Wages for workers in the 90th percentile — that is, workers who earned more than 90 percent of their peers — jumped by more than a quarter.

     Other measures tell variants on this story. More women are working, so household income, as distinct from individual wages, has risen. The value of health benefits has increased, so counting these plus other non-wage income from investments also paints a brighter picture. Between 1980 and 2003, total after-tax income for the bottom fifth of households rose 8 percent, and the second-bottom fifth gained 17 percent; in other words, all boats did rise, albeit by less than 1 percent per year. But it’s hard to celebrate such modest gains when the top fifth advanced 59 percent over the 24-year period.
     Moreover, Americans have tolerated divisions between rich and poor because they believed that anyone could get ahead, given enough talent and determination. But the truth is that rags-to-riches stories have never been the norm: One study of people reaching adulthood between 1968 and 1998 found that 42 percent of those born into the poorest fifth ended up there also. As the distance between the top and bottom grows wider, it becomes harder to traverse the gulf. Family background has a larger impact on people’s prospects. The talent of people born into poor families goes wasted.
     This isn’t just irrational. Riches and poverty are partly relative concepts. The more unequal a society, the more citizens in the bottom half will experience hardship. When people at the top gain more disposable income, they bid up the prices of goods in limited supply — homes in top school districts, or places at top colleges. Tuitions at four-year colleges have more than doubled since 1980, with the result that gaps in enrollment by class and race, which declined in the 1960s and 1970s, are as wide now as 30 years ago. The wealth of people in the top half also bids up the common understanding of what a middle-class lifestyle entails. People feel obliged to spend more on birthday gifts, children’s sneakers or a suit for the next job interview. Since 1980, the median size of a newly built house has increased by a third — even while the household savings rate has fallen to about zero
     But there are promising policies out there, too: policies that would reduce inequality without damaging growth; in fact, policies that might boost it.
     http://nationaljournal.com/crook.htm
     WEALTH OF NATIONS
     A Third Industrial Revolution
     Concerns about “offshoring” — shorthand for offshore outsourcing, or the migration of jobs from rich countries to poor — have subsided since the 2004 presidential election. John Kerry looked for traction there, but with no real success: His focus on the issue lent his campaign an un-Clintonian pessimistic tone, and his proposals, including tax penalties for American companies resorting to the practice, met with derision from most economists. The orthodox position on the subject, then and now, was expressed by Gregory Mankiw, at that time chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers. His view, politically awkward but applauded by most economists (and in this space as well, for what that’s worth), is that offshoring is not such a big deal and, to the extent that it matters, is good for the economy and not bad.
     A fascinating new article by Alan Blinder (in the March/April issue of Foreign Affairs) dissents from the first part of that consensus. Blinder argues that offshoring is potentially a very big deal. In fact, he believes that what we have seen so far is just the timid beginning of a third Industrial Revolution.
     Aside from the merits of the article in question, Blinder deserves to be listened to. He is an outstanding economist — a professor at Princeton, the co-author of one of the best introductory texts on economics, a former member of the Council of Economic Advisers, and a vice chairman of the Federal Reserve. He wrote a marvelous series of lectures on central banking (“Central Banking in Theory and in Practice”), and his book Hard Heads, Soft Hearts: Tough-Minded Economics for a Just Society is probably the best treatise on economic policy for the general reader, bar none.
     What makes Blinder’s new angle on offshoring so interesting is that he is not afraid of the trend, nor does he want it stopped: He believes that nothing valuable can be done to deflect or retard it. He is well disposed to market forces, and in that sense is an optimist. Yet at the same time, he envisages enormous economic disruption, and urges policy makers to think hard, and urgently, about how to prepare for this.

131. zzAstier Says:
     March 12th, 2006 at 7:03 pm

     To second (in a way) Potter’s suggestion for a program on nuclear weapons in light of the India and Pakistan developments (along with the Iran situation): how about a show called ‘Nuclear Energy / Nuclear Power’?

     I heard an interesting comment on a recent Studio 360 show (is it okay to talk about other radio shows here?). The opinion put forth is that the only practical way to bring about global nuclear disarmament is through the proliferation of civilian nuclear power programs. There is a current program (again, this must be researched, I am going off of the Studio 360 guest) in the United States that buys former Soviet nuclear warheads and converts the material into reactor-grade fuel. This project (that claims to be financially self-sufficient) is tied up some popular elements/concerns of the ROS crowd: nuclear material will be consumed over time (with the ultimate result of an Earth free of any nuclear weapon material), we will be using a non-fossil fuel energy source and we will be providing energy, that oh-so-important part of the development equation, to many parts of the underdeveloped world.

     Issues of waste management and international regulation are obviously key here, and my title is meant to highlight the connection between the control of nuclear energy as a technology and the control of nuclear technology as global power.

     But the fundamental question is this: after Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Cuban Missile Crisis, Chernobyl, Three Mile Island and other foundational events in the history of atomic/nuclear technology, is it time to reconsider nuclear power? Can we ever hope to separate civilian energy programs from military weapons programs? And does the only true hope for nuclear disarmament truly lie in the paradoxical necessity to embrace worldwide nuclear energy programs?

132. zzAstier Says:
     March 12th, 2006 at 8:14 pm

     Democracy Now interview:

     [url=http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/09/24/1359225]Is Nuclear Power the Solution to Global Warming?[/url]

133. Winston Dodson Says:
     March 13th, 2006 at 9:40 pm

     Brendan – In an earlier suggestion I gave ROS the letter from the Mayor of Tal Afar. Here is a link to a portion of the segment from 60 minutes and, I know, the link is to Malkin (who I also think is much of the time a right-wing demagog) but I watched the segement on 60 minutes and think that it was the most geniuine video of any interaction bewteen the US military and “some other place” that I have ever seem and made me feel like I was back walking around the streets of some Somalian village. All I can say is that “ROS could have scooped 60 minutes”

     http://michellemalkin.com/archives/004748.htm

134. allison Says:
     March 14th, 2006 at 1:40 am

     How about a show devoted to defining the optimal leader and whether we’re open to it. We could look at historical examples and check out think tanks on the subject. There are the writing of Robert Greenleaf which include this description of leadership:

     http://www.greenleaf.org/leadership/servant-leadership/What-is-Servant-Leadership.html

     The question goes beyond what is leadership, to how we can tell if someone embodies a good leader and why we keep opting for bad ones. What needs to happen here so that we look for and hire truly good leaders? Are there any on the horizon?

     (I’ll probably keep beating this drum whenever I can, so how about we just go for it…)

135. WESIV Says:
     March 14th, 2006 at 4:53 am

     Being from Houston, Texas and a former commodities trader, the impending opening of the Iranian Oil Bourse in Kish, Iran,March 20,2006 is of much concern to me. The potential for the exchange to trade oil in Euros instead of Dollars, therefore slowly exposing corruption in our own markets not to mention the destabilizing effect trading in Euros creates should concern us all. Trading oil in Euros is what Saddam decided to do and look where that got him. When I mention this and the current state of affairs w/Irans nukes together with this point I am suprised most people do not know what I am refering to. People should here an inteligent disscussion with you and your amazing guests.Everyone I speak with about this subject asks why isn’t something this important discussed in the media? Your show is the only one of it’s kind that really matters. I hope you find this interesting enough to dedicate some time. ~WESIV

136. bookgirl Says:
     March 15th, 2006 at 3:16 pm

     I agree about Myspace being a great topic for a show. In the public library where I work, alllll the teens are logged into Myspace–just recently we realized just how many of our patrons were logged into the site when there was a glitch where the site kept locking up and giving patrons a gray screen. Every time we had to go out and unlock a computer with a gray screen, we knew we were helping another Myspace user. But I know that adults use the site, too, especially as a way to promote projects. I know a guy who uses the site to help promote his low budget literary magazine, for example. And I think that Myspace has become a popular blogging tool for a lot of adults. Perhaps the success of Myspace comes from the fact that it can be used in many different ways.

137. chayden Says:
     March 15th, 2006 at 8:25 pm

     I would be interested in a show about ethics in clinical research, specifically, about how this can affect our health care system, and the impact on the cost of health care in a capitalist system. I am a clinical scientist who works as a consultant to medical device companies. I was prompted to think about this when I talked with one company that wanted a clinical trial performed to discredit a competitor’s product. Clinical trials are very expensive; is it ethical to spend that money, which eventually comes out of the consumer’s pocket, on a clinical trial that is not contributing to the sum of medical knowledge? A discussion of ethics at this level, as opposed to the usual discussion about treatment of subjects in the trial, may help to elevate the awareness level of the listeners to some of the hidden costs of the for-profit health care system that we have in this country today.

138. icantgoon Says:
     March 16th, 2006 at 9:55 am

     How about more WOMEN GUESTS on your show? I tire of hearing so many men. A quick check of the last dozen or so shows revealed 33 male guests to just 8 women, and the women seem to be bunched up on the rare “women-themed” shows. What gives? A clear half of the representation would be refreshing.

139. h wally Says:
     March 16th, 2006 at 10:13 am

     Last night I was exploring the wed and, for fun, I started searching various combinations of Halliburton+. I searched Halliburton+Marvin Bush, nNeil Bush, Dubai etc. It is a bit unnerving to see how the thread of Hallibuton runs through our world. It was mentioned that Halliburton is the American company best equipted to take over the ports from Dubai. I suggest a show about Halliburton and perhaps tracing a few threads including the obvious Cheney connections.

     Henery Waxman seems like a good choice for a guest and also if you check out Halliburton Watch on the web you’ll get lots of info and ideas.

140. geopriest Says:
     March 16th, 2006 at 10:49 pm

     I think we need a discussion of the administration’s “Doctrine of Preemption.” It is most atrocious, immoral and un-Christian. Think about it. That is exactly what the Japanese did to us at Pearl Harbor. They felt threatened by the U.S. and they whacked us before we could whack. They my have been wrong in assessing our intentions, but that is a subjective matter. This doctrine as a guide for conduct authorizes people to take the law into their own. If a woman feels threatened by her abusive husband, shoot the son of bitch before he hits me. If blacks in inner cities feel that the cops are out to get them, go ouot and kill a few policemen. If you are conviced that your next door neighbor is out to get you, whack him. This is the law of the Mafia. It is a thoroughly evil doctrine and should be challenged as such. Christianity says “turn the other cheek;” This says,”to hell with that . . get him if he looks menacingly at my cheek.” It would be one thing if we had God-like wisdom and knew to a certainty that we were going to be attacked, but our experience the intelligence on Iraq demonstrates that we are a long way from having that kind of certainty. It is just a rationalization which would allow the administration to wage war on anyone the administration believes is threat to “American Interests.

     Sorry for the rant.

141. Nikos Says:
     March 17th, 2006 at 4:58 pm

     On a vintage day for left-coast radio shows, KUOW’s The Conversation surpassed (obliterated, is more like it) its usual tepidly interesting local-call-in-show norms with an unparalleled program on Iran.
     http://www.kuow.org/theconversation.asp
     “Iran and the U.S.�
     This was by far the single most illuminating show on Iran I’ve ever heard.

     ROS staff: whichever of you working on the next Iran show will want to give this a listen for the excellence of the several expert guests, any or many of whom you might want to invite onto ROS.

142. vladtheexhaler Says:
     March 18th, 2006 at 4:00 am

     I’d like to hear someone interview Leonard Cohen on the current political situation.

143. Michael Osborne Says:
     March 18th, 2006 at 12:23 pm

     I would like to see a show that explored the phenomenon of urban sprawl. The title would be something like “Sprawl: economic growth or homogenized eyesores.” The show would need to explore the issue beyond long term environmental costs. I think the aim would be to try and spark a discussion about the legacy of sprawl along interstates, in suburbia, etc. You could use Houston as a test case. It seems to me that at the core of the conflict is a tension between having familiar businesses and econmoic development on the one hand, and the loss of community character and environmnt on the other. For me, the interstate billboards and shopping centers are a hell on earth that no one seems to question or take offense to. Am I alone?

144. p-labb Says:
     March 20th, 2006 at 3:28 am

     I’m interested to hear what the next big, life-changing invention will be (i.e. the next telephone, automobile, computer, internet, etc.)…

145. Nikos Says:
     March 20th, 2006 at 10:35 am

     Okay, I can’t resist throwing this into the mix:
     I’ve mentioned elsewhere that I’m reading Jonathan Marks’s What It Means To Be 98% Chimpanzee ( http://www.powells.com/cgi-bin/biblio?inkey=74-0520226151-0
     & http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00006AG20/002-7919812-6315255?v=glance&n=551440 ) which starts out as an examination of the relevance of our genetic similarities to apes but…
     …after debunking gobs of conventional wisdom (wrong!), moves onto the issue of race.
     And what does it say?
     That the concept of ‘race’ has absolutely no scientific merit.

     You can study human populations, which intergrade rather uniformly all around the globe (with some obvious geographical exceptions) but there’s not a whit of merit in the notion that you can study ‘race’ – because ‘race’ doesn’t exist in any meaningful scientific way.

     Its only relevance is social. And it’s arbitrary

     Thus, I reckon Jonathan Marks might provide a fascinating angle for an upcoming ‘Race & Class in America’ program.

     See the reviews at the Amazon link provided above, and another @ http://human-nature.com/nibbs/02/petto.html

     Now, when do we get our next edition of the Suggest A Show thread?
     Nudge.
     Prod.
     Poke.
     

146. nother Says:
     March 20th, 2006 at 12:45 pm

     Military Industrial Complex

147. Nikos Says:
     March 20th, 2006 at 2:05 pm

     Right.
     A ROS ‘convergence’ at work: Allison has suggested we have a thread devoted to our thoughts on drafting a new national constitution (not the ROS constitution). I have advocated a show on this topic before, but will not again – because a (semi) permanent ‘Outsourced’ thread might suffice just beautifully.
     And this isn’t very much different than the searching we’ve been doing on the ‘Morality’ thread (which I hope remains in the ‘Warming Up’ category forever!).

148. andycarvin Says:
     March 20th, 2006 at 5:16 pm

     FYI, Chinese blogger and Global Voices contributor Hao Wu has apparently been detained by Chinese authorities. The global voices team is starting an online campaign to spread the word throughout the blogosphere, as there’s been no mention of it in mainstream media.

149. Toaster Says:
     March 21st, 2006 at 2:16 pm

     I too would be interested in a show or segment about the “Generica” phenomena as suggested by Mike Osbourne above. The loss of community character, local cultural institutions and sprawl. I do feel there is a place for franchies-style businesses and the convenience that they offer, but something seems to be out of balance, is there a solution other than snob-zoning?

150. mightymouth Says:
     March 22nd, 2006 at 12:21 pm

     April 5 will mark the 100th birthday of Richard “Lord” Buckley, a tragically overlooked talent named as an influence on folks like Robin Williams, George Carlin, Frank Zappa, and Bob Dylan, among others. Buckley hipped his audiences to the language of jazz in courtly manner, honing his act at dance marathons and cabaret stages and later appearing on Ed Sullivan, Steve Allen, and Groucho Marx’s shows, as well as providing the voice of Go Man Van Gough in the Beanie and Cecil cartoon The Wild Man of Wildsville. CDs of Buckley’s raps are available and Oliver Trager, author of Dig Infinity! a biography of Buckley that was 12 years in the making, would make a great interview. How about a tribute show on or around his birthday?

151. joel Says:
     March 22nd, 2006 at 2:50 pm

     Well, it’s March, not February, and I don’t particularly feel like falling in love today, but I wouldn’t mind seeing the response in the blog re. a show, sometime after Feb. or even after March, about the “fall of the Internet” ala the following:

     http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/020406I.shtml

     and:

     http://technology.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,16559,1589967,00.html

     Cheers.

152. ap3dguy Says:
     March 22nd, 2006 at 4:08 pm

     I’d like to see a show tribute to legendary America humorist, Lord Buckley, who, had he lived would have turned 100 on April 5th. He’s the rreal deal and the root source for a large portion of American humorists, from Lenny Bruce, to George Carlin, to Richard Pryor, and so on. As one of the former promotors of the Lord Buckley Memorial Celebrations (1988-1995) I might be able to help in bringing together decendents of Lord Buckley for interviews as well as a number of other folks in the know. Thanks for the consideration.

     Best,
     Abe

153. otrager Says:
     March 22nd, 2006 at 5:33 pm

     A couple of more cents re: Lord Buckley and a little background on the most immaculately hip aristocrat (some say hip messiah):

     Before Cool (B.C.) there was Lord Buckley (born Richard Myrle Buckley, April 5, 1906 in Tuolumne, California). The original viper, the Hall of Fame Hipster, the baddest beatnik, the first flower child, premier white rapper and gospel comic was best known for his “hipsemantic” retellings of Bible stories, Shakespeare soliloquies, history, legend and classic poetry in the 1950s.

     Warp speed to the 1930s, ‘40s and beyond in a scattershot career that carried him from the dance marathons and Capone’s murkiest Windy City dives to Swing Era tours with Woody Herman and Gene Krupa, the jazz chapels of New York’s 52nd Street appearances with Ed Sullivan’s U.S.O. troupe and popular television program, bebop’s first stages and vaudeville’s last. Somewhere along the way, Buckley (as true to the tradition of jazz royalty as Duke Ellington, Count Basie and King Oliver) had become a Lord, creating a kingdom in miniature replete with his own peculiar sense of protocol and a lifestyle that might conservatively be described as libertine.

     Buckley assumed the manner of an English nobleman, becoming a most immaculately hip aristocrat with a mischievous twinkle in his eyes, twirling his Daliesque mustache and gracefully drawing on his omnipresent Lucky Strike — his massive frame cloaked in a tuxedo, a fresh carnation attached smartly to the lapel.

     By 1950 he had fully developed the style he had been honing for twenty years, taking the persona of “His Lordship” wherever he swung. Campy bits were de-emphasized and in their place were the classic Lord Buckley raps recasting incidents from history and mythology into a patois cross-pollinating scat singing, black jive talk and the King’s English. This odd alchemy often yielded spectacular results such as “The Nazz” (as in Nazzarene), a cool Gospel of Christ and his disciples, which revealed Buckley’s gifts and power in all their raging glory.

     In addition to “The Nazz,” Buckley employed his distinctive and compelling brogue to celebrate Gandhi (“The Hip Gahn”), Spanish explorer Alvar Nunez Cabaza de Vaca (“The Gasser”), The Old Testament (“Jonah and the Whale”) ancient Rome (“Nero”), Edgar Allen Poe (“Po’ Eddie and the Bugbird”), Albert Einstein (“The Hip Einie”), William Shakespeare (“Willie The Shake” and “Hipsters, Flipsters and Finger-Poppin’ Daddies”), Charles Dickens (“Scrooge”) Abraham Lincoln (“Gettysburg Address”) and the Marquis de Sade (“The Bad Rapping of. . . “).

     Buckley’s choice to hipify the classics was no mere gimmick. By taking tales with which his audience was already familiar he showed how the spirit of the old heroes and heels contained contemporary meaning and importance. He infused his tales with visionary qualities and definite, if sometimes subtle, points of view. As he said in his hip version of the “Gettysburg Address”: “all Cats and Kitties, red, white or blue, are created level in front – that means the same, ya dig.”

     Alternately, Lord Buckley developed other forms of presentation which drew on elements of Americana (“The Train”), pathology (“Murder”), psychology (“Subconcsious Mind”), politics (“Governor Slugwell” and “H-Bomb”), sexuality (“Chastity Belt”), and transcendence (“God’s Own Drunk”).

     Capturing the post-World War II exuberance of bebop and the Beats, Buckley anticipated the civil rights struggles by a decade and hippies by two. The subtextual essence embedded in Buckley’s best both satirically condemn social ills and identify enlightening solutions. Even today, if given the chance, Buckley could raise the hackles of both the Religious Right and/or the Politically Correct for all the wrong reasons.

     Since his still mysterious death in 1960 (coming on the heels of an arrest by the N.Y.P.D. vice squad for an alleged cabaret card violation), Buckley’s name and routines have been magically invoked by the modern hipnoscente like a sorcerer’s talisman with titles like “The Nazz� acquiring a Kabbalistic power for succeeding generations of admirers, including artists as diverse and important as Dylan, Robin Williams, Jerry Garcia, Ken Kesey, David Amram, Eric Bogosian, Joni Mitchell, David Bowie, Bill T. Jones, James Taylor, Sly Stone, Frank Zappa, Jimmy Buffett, Robert Dick and Ken Kesey.

     Like most underground heroes and neglected visionaries, Lord Buckley’s reputation and artistic contributions have gained power through the decades. No graffiti appeared on the New York City subway walls or subterranean commode stalls across America sounding a phoenix-like rise from the ashes as the message “Bird Lives� had. But, like Charlie Parker, Lord Buckley had boldly crossed the ill-defined frontier from icon to myth, taking the language of his art and investing it with new intensity, color and significance.

     For more visit Lord Buckley On-line:
     http://www.lordbuckley.com

154. timothy price Says:
     March 22nd, 2006 at 7:51 pm

     For years I have been hearing from Kevin Phillips and others who nibble about the edges of what is evolving in Amrican politics, world politics, via oil, religion, and economics.
     for anyone who wants to get to get a powerful and complete insight as to the future and what is moving us enevitably to it, please read, The Ravings of a Lunatic, by Adam Whitestone. It can be found at Amazon or . It primarily looks at the convergence coming with the Christian religion and the scientific community. The old text of the Bible refers to Satan; the scientific community calls the same thing, Carbon. Whitestone shows, point by point, that they are are same intity. Many people belive that they are too sophisitocated to read such a thing, or they are not sufficiently educated to be able to understand that everything in the book represents is current thought in the disciplines of chemistry, geologic history, Biblical knowledge, physics, and political history. I have found everything to be factual as far as is known.
     This book is far ahead of its time and needs to be read widely and discussed, understood. It is hair raising, gooose-bump producing, but ultimately is wonderfully uplifting in its spiritual impact.

     Thanks for your great program,

     Timothy K. Price

155. timothy price Says:
     March 22nd, 2006 at 7:58 pm

     For years I have been hearing from Kevin Phillips and others who nibble about the edges of what is evolving in Amrican politics, world politics, via oil, religion, and economics.
     For anyone who wants to get to get a powerful and complete insight as to the future and what is moving us enevitably to it, please read, The Ravings of a Lunatic, by Adam Whitestone. It can be found at Amazon or ravings.biz. It primarily looks at the convergence coming with the Christian religion and the scientific community. The old text of the Bible refers to Satan; the scientific community calls the same thing, Carbon. Whitestone shows, point by point, that they are are same intity. Many people believe that they are too sophisitocated to read such a thing, or they are not sufficiently educated to be able to understand that everything in the book represents is current thought in the disciplines of chemistry, geologic history, Biblical knowledge, physics, and political history. I have found everything to be factual as far as is known.
     This book is far ahead of its time and needs to be read widely and discussed, understood. It is hair raising, gooose-bump producing, but ultimately is wonderfully uplifting in its spiritual impact.

     Thanks for your great program,

     Timothy K. Price

156. avecfrites Says:
     March 23rd, 2006 at 11:09 am

     I just ran across this fascinating article on social web sites:
     http://www.danah.org/papers/FriendsterMySpaceEssay.html

     It would be great to discuss the landscape and direction of such sites, as well as their impact on culture and the like.

157. Chuck Schamel Says:
     March 23rd, 2006 at 6:22 pm

     In Bush’s press conference, he repeated – OVER AND OVER AGAIN – that he had a “PLAN” for victory. I’m happy to hear it.

     A PLAN is commonly understood as a set of steps to get from point A to point B. We can assume that point A is our current situation. If I accept that a set of steps has been determined to lead us from here to “victory.” Although I would be very interested to find out just what those steps might be, I understand that letting us all in on the details could complicate matters. The question I find MYSELF much more interested in is the definition of point B.

     What are we AIMING toward? What would victory in Iraq LOOK LIKE??

158. Avid Says:
     March 23rd, 2006 at 7:41 pm

     I would like to suggest John Mearsheimer as a guest for the show. I had been wondering what he’s been up to since his last book and his frequent talking head appearances on the news shows during the lead up to, and in the early days of the Iraq war. I don’t think I heard anyone who understood what was about to happen in Iraq better than Mearsheimer did. Furthermore, it sounds like his new article about the American/Israel lobby may be very much on target on an issue that has been taboo in the press, basically forever.

159. sidewalker Says:
     March 24th, 2006 at 8:55 am

     It would be a good time to take up the issues of American bases in Japan. Just today a civilian employee of the US military was sentenced to 9 years in prison for two rapes committed in Okinawa, where 20,000 of the 50,000 US service people in Japan are stationed. This will put even greater pressure on the government as they are in the middle of discussing realignment plans for the US military in Japan.

     Now many citizen groups are fighting against relocation plans, that will exand base development in some areas. Residents of the Japanese city of Iwakuni voted overwhelmingly against the expansion of a local US military base, though the national government said it will not recognize the results of the vote.

     In a 1999 poll, 63% of Japanese surveyed said they wanted to reduce US bases.

     This begs the question, is it time for the US to grant Japan its feedom?

     Here is a good back-grounder on the issue.
     http://www.jca.apc.org/wsf_support/2004doc/WSFJapUSBaseRepoFinalAll.html

     Here is some recent news on the the anti-U.S. military base movement
     http://www.japan-press.co.jp/2469/anti-base%20struggle.html

     One possible contact would be Pau Arenson, who leads the tokyo progressive website. He could probably put you in touch with an appropriate guest.
     paul@tokyoprogressive.org
     http://www.tokyoprogressive.org/

     Another contact:
     Scott Marshall
     mailto:scott@rednet.org

     He wrote a piece for the People’s Weekly World
     U.S. military bases cast shadow across Japan
     http://www.pww.org/article/articleview/4890/1/142/

160. tbrucia Says:
     March 25th, 2006 at 11:16 pm

     What about a show on Sayed Qutb, one of the fathers of 20th century Islamic fundamentalism, and precursor of Osama bin Laden? Here’s a short clip from his Wikipedia bio:
     Qutb was extremely critical of the racism he witnessed in the United States, as well as the openness between the sexes in American society (he was aghast at activities such as the then-popular “sock hop”). Qutb objected to what he viewed as the primitiveness in America. He noted with disgust how some Americans had little respect for the dead, and how youth flirted and danced at church gatherings. Qutb also found American society superficial and centered around material goods. In an article published in Egypt after his travels, Qutb concluded that major aspects of American life were “primitive” and shocking. His experiences in the U.S. partly formed the impetus for his rejection of Western values and his move towards radicalism upon returning to Egypt. From 1948 to 1950 he went to the United States on a scholarship to study the educational system, receiving a master’s degree from the Colorado State College of Education (now the University of Northern Colorado).’
     Would it be possible to track down people who knew him back then, and interview them?

161. Potter Says:
     March 27th, 2006 at 8:02 am

     There was a NYT Magazine piece on Qutb a while back…..

     This is not a local story:

     This morning’s zinger via Georgia10 of DailyKos: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/3/26/213412/778

     BOSTON –Citing increased concerns about the quality of drugs entering the United States from Canada, federal authorities have stepped up seizures of the prescriptions and sent strongly worded legal warnings to consumers, including some in Massachusetts, who have ordered the discounted drugs. [...]
     The government crackdown marks a shift in policy for the Bush administration, which has rarely acted against individuals who buy drugs from Canada, reports The Boston Sunday Globe.

     The stricter enforcement policy began Nov. 17, and applies only to mail-order shipments, not to U.S. citizens who cross into Canada to pick up their drugs, Hollinger said.

     Salem-resident Nancy Popkin was among the consumers who recently received a letter. She has been ordering the osteoporosis treatment Fosamax from Canadian pharmacies for years and said she was surprised when she received a form letter in the mail from the Department of Homeland Security rather than her usual shipment of 12 tablets. The letter said her medication had been seized because “virtually all” drugs imported by individuals into the United States are unapproved for consumption here or are dispensed without a valid prescription.

     read the rest here: http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2006/03/26/feds_crack_down_on_imported_prescriptions/

     Also see: Sen. Nelson seeks probe of Canadian drug seizures

     Daytona Beach News-Journal

     February 26, 2006

     The lifeline for Donald Health and his wife — mail-order heart medications from Canada — has been cut off for more than a month, and Florida’s U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson thinks it could be the Bush administration playing politics with people’s health.

     At the storefront where Heath, 76, a DeBary resident, orders his prescription medicines from Canada, he’s been told that his is one of a number of orders delayed. He said workers there told him it’s part of a U.S. Customs and Border Patrol crackdown designed to convince seniors to abandon north-of- the-border drug deals and sign up for Medicare’s prescription plan.

     Read the rest here: http://www.nelsonforsenate.com/newsroom/mediaclips/?id=13

162. Gohikesomething Says:
     March 27th, 2006 at 11:04 am

     Hello,
     I love the new show. I have been a big fan of Chris since I moved to Boston area in 97 and first heard “The Connection”. Being able to listen on my iPOD has been a life saver, since I missed the show because of work.

     Last night on Discovery Times, There was a documentary by Thomas J Friedman, “Does Europe Hate Us?” However, this is something I have been thinking about since I lived in the UK when I was in the military in the early 90’s. I am currently doing business in Africa and spend as much time as possible in Europe.

     I think that this could fuel a series of shows on Open Source. There are so many points at which the “US as a dominate power” is under serious decline. This show pointed at the legislation being passed in the EU that is putting pressure on US companies and the rest of the world. It goes much further. The world has become very tired of the USA being the ten ton gorilla that demands to have things its way.

     At the same time, the USA needs to start to consider the status quo. For instance, the US has been footing the bill in the UN and in NATO, During the Cold War, the US had a lot of leverage, so that “expenditure” had many non-monetary benefits… However, as this trend of “rebellion” against the US grows, we need to start to revaluate our commitment to others.

     This is a very fine balance that needs to be achieved. Unfortunately, there is no clear way to determine what is right or wrong or good or bad or …..

     On another side, there is a huge problem that most Americans do not have any understanding about the true dynamics that exist in the world. I firmly believe that most Americans have such a false sense of security and complacency about the future, that is very dangerous.

     The other key issue that plays in to this is the serious impact that the War on Terrorism, US double standard on many issues (Trade, Israel, Nuclear non-proliferation, humanitarian aid, human rigths, etc) that are severely undermining the respect and influence of that the USA really has around the world. All of these issues, are creating a complex web that needs to be mapped out in order for us to really undstand how the future of the USA will look.

     Sincerely, Gohikesomething

163. tbrucia Says:
     March 27th, 2006 at 1:35 pm

     It’s inevitable that HR-4437, Sensenbrunner’s immigration reform bill, will need to be discussed. Why not now, in the aftermath of 500,000 people turning out to protest the legislation over the weekend in Los Angeles?

164. Katherine Says:
     March 27th, 2006 at 2:51 pm

     Final round-up for this comment thread here.