We were a little late this month responding to December show suggestions, but you can get the full roundup here. Otherwise, go crazy. What do you want to hear on Open Source?
Sunday February 12 2012
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Al Gore gave an unusually poignant and historically significant speech in Washington on Martin Luther King Day, in which he addressed what he described as an assault on the American Constitution by the Bush administration. Bringing him on as sole guest for an hour, if he’d be willing, should produce a quite memorable show.
Forget Al Gore. It’s a disgrace that the city of Boston hasn’t celebrated the 300th birthday of one of its most famous sons, Ben Franklin. What gives? Two great pieces today one by the estimable Christopher Hitchens (a good debut for Radio Open Source) in the Wall Street Journal and another by a Franklin biographer in the New York Times (her name escapes me).
- Christopher Hitchens! (has he been on? / can’t find it)
- Victor Davis Hanson – Carnage & Culture, A War Like No Other – are we Greece or are we Rome? Are we Sparta or are we Athens? (he will need some balancing though me thinks)
- Barak Obama
- Salman Rushdie
- and dig out that Passion for Fishing show once it gets warm, you guys broke my heart when that one slipped off the radar
- I’d also suggest a Passion for Boxing, lots of great stories there
Keep up the great work. This is the best thing going
What about something like “Exploring Ancient Comedy,” i.e., taking a look at the how’s, why’s, and are-they-any-good’s of 600 year-old jokes from around the world?
After reading Geraldine Brooks’ ‘Nine Parts of Desire’ (suggested by some genius in the Andalus thread), I can’t think of a more worthy topic for a show than that of the status of women in Islamic societies. We are, after all and like it or not, now up to our necks in THAT neck of the woods – and this while we purport to champion the status of women around the globe—even as our government makes peace with Afghani Taliban warlords who sanction the world’s most brutal misogyny. It’s true that Geraldine Brooks wrote her book a decade ago, but that doesn’t negate the timeliness of her work. And perhaps, while booking her for a show, she might be able to recommend a second guest – one of the pioneering Jordanian feminists (whose names escape me at the moment—but Brooks will likely know).
No, let’s not forget Al Gore–he’s busy tearing Team Bush a new exit strategy right now, and true conservatives (who want Bush gone) are giving him mad props for it: http://www.lewrockwell.com/roberts/roberts141.html & http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=8410. He’s an annoying plodding prissy bore, but he’s throwing worthy punches right now, and anything will do as we slide gently into the Fourth Reich.
Something on the eminent collapse of the American Dollar and the Unpayable mismanaged Debt to the Banks of China.
Maybe Alan Greenspan has some free time finally.
Recent research on stress and responses to trauma could have profound implications on how we approach public health and societal relationships. For example, the work of Vincent Felitti and Robert Anda on Adverse Childhood Experiences (search the web for any name/term and you’ll see lots of links) shows that many of the more common problems relate to early childhood trauma. There was a recent report on spanking leading to increased aggression & anxiety – http://www.scienceblog.com/cms/node/9289/print and another on how arguments slow wound healing – http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn8418. Bessel van der Kolk – http://www.traumacenter.org/ – is a local resource, he’s based in Brookline. Given that we are generally interested in maximizing health and lifespan, what are we doing that contributes to degradation of health and what/how could we do things differently?
A related idea would be to do a piece on V-Day, violence against women and maybe do some readings from the _Vagina Monologues_.
As a new podcaster (http://www.manicmommies.com) I’ve become fascinated with the growing ranks of personal podcasters. People willing to put their lives out there for the world to listen to. I’ve listened to husbands and wives relate the mundane details of their day-to-day lives – but they do it with such ease and skill that I forget it is done by “amateurs.” And there is a part of me that loves taking a peek into someone else’s disfunction.
What motivates us to listen? What motivates us to produce podcasts that probably don’t make us any money (in fact, they cost us money)! What do “the pros” think of us?
I believe I wrote to ask for a program about responses to trauma, fear and stress in the context of 9/11 but as Jonathan above indicates this is a deep and wide subject.
I read a review(behind the firewall) in the NYTimes by Alan Riding on two documentaries about Peru vis a vis terrorism and it’s effect on democracy in that country. Both directors feel there are lessons for us to learn from Peruvian example. Pamela Yates and Ellen Perry, the directors, might be willing to speak on this.
Today in the NYTimes A.O Scott reviews one of the films, by Ellen Perry “The Fall of Fujimori”.
The other film by Pamela Yates is “State of Fear;The Truth about Terrorism”.
If you are planning to continue your Latin America series, this could be perhaps part of a show about Peru.
I’d go wild if you could get Al Gore.
Oh, by the way, Nubar Alexanian did a great book of photos on Peru… “Stones in the Road” Perhaps he would let you show some of those in the site or link to them! And I’ll bet he would call in.
I like Mark’s suggestion from last month about doing a show about literary journalism. A good resource would be the compilations of the American Society of Magazine Editors that are full of what they deem are the best examples of magazine writing each year.
I remember when I was in high school during the late 90s, and my parents and teachers were all excited about what my cohorts and I would do when we “grew up” (I haven’t yet
…). The whole idea is that the .com Boom was going so strong that new occupations were developing; I was probably going to do a job that hadn’t even been thought of back then. Has this occured? What are some current occupations that weren’t even thought of 5, 6, or 10 years ago?
anhhung! How did you make ‘.com Boom’ in italics?!
Nikos, my friend,
You need to type words that you want italized (no spaces between the brackets and the “i” or “/”). It’s basic HTML code.
This is so hard to do (I tried Nikos; see above)…
open_bracket_i_closed_bracket…words…open_bracket_/i_closed_bracket
Leave no space for “_”
I like the Al Gore idea, which would cover most of what I am interested in. I am very interested in hearing from such journalists as James Risen (NY Times), who has recently published a book, ‘State of War: the Secret History of the CIA and the Bush Administration’, on just how impeachable George Bush is, or even John Dean, the former White House Lawyer under Nixon, who wrote a book”Worse Than Watergate: The Secret Presidency of George W. Bush.” I want some hot and heavy Bush bashing from those who know him the best, and see just how warranted the Impeachment of GW Bush and the rest of his cabal, really is. Thanks.
“giblatsai”: I second John Dean as a guest! Before Gore, any day. Gore i trying for office, and we all know it. And hey–along with Dean, maybe Daniel Ellsberg too, for a bit of spine in these times when we need lots of whistleblowers. He can tell us where to go to leak stories, since YOU CAN’T TRUST THE NYT!!!
I would go wild if Gore ran for office.
On Monday 16 Jan and Tuesday 17 Jan, US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and White House Press Secretary Scott McLellan tried to do damage control after Al Gore’s 16 Feb. speech against the Bush wiretapping/spying effort on Americans. As a justification for the NSA warrantless wiretapping program, both Gonzales and McLellan cited the US case against Aldrich Ames, former CIA agent (double-agent) who then pled guilty to espionage.
I have not seen any mainstream TV network or online newspaper refute this justification. I performed a 15-second Google search on the name “Aldrich Ames” and found a blog URL (http://www.brainshrub.com/aldrich-ames-case) that explained that the Ames case is not proof of prior administration’s warrantless wiretapping on American citizens. In fact, the article at this URL, and a look at the actual legal complaint against Ames and his wife, Rosario Ames, proves that in this case the searches and wiretaps performed on Ames’ home, telephones, and office were all permitted by the FISA and the secret FISA court at the time. Therefore, Gonzales and McLellan were either lying outright in using the Ames case to justify Bush’s behavior, or they are so incompetent that they didn’t even know what this case is actually about. For a copy of the actual complaint against Ames, see the URL http://www.jya.com/ames.htm.
Why is nobody except this one blogger picking up on the obvious huge discrepancy between what Gonzales and McLellan are repeating on television and what the case and Ames complaint actually say? Could you do a show, or part of a show, on this point?
Thanks
Since so much of what goes on in our public sphere (and private sphere?) is best described as ‘lying’, what about a show: “What is the utility of truth?” The Macchiavellians could make their case that newspapers should lie to the public, or that the government should lie to the public, or that all citizens should lie. The anti-Macchiavellians could make their case for telling the truth, both about current events, and about the past. And then there are those who say it doesn’t make any difference what one says; the ability to make things seem to happen is more important than facts. It might be a bit philosophical, but everyone seems to be dancing around this elephant in America’s living room. As the quantity of communications goes up, the information content goes down, and no one wants to talk about this phenomenon…
The federal government wants to look at some of Google’s search data. Random people can purchase your cell phone records. Babies R Us wants to know your phone number when you check out — not to give you a discount or anything, but to keep tabs on what you shop for.
What does a privacy mean these days? Is it reasonable, given the amount of information that can now easily be collected and stored, to expect that you won’t be tracked? Do people have a right to track other people?
The existence of a constitutional right to privacy has been at the heart of the recent Supreme Court nominations. Should an amendment guaranteeing that right be proposed? Could it pass? And what should it guarantee?
Scarequotes, we’re looking into the Google/Privacy show for Monday.
Potter, we’d also go wild if we could get Al Gore. Here’s what Josh Cherwin from Gore’s office wrote to me:
Thanks much the invite. He’s not really doing much in the way of interviews right now, we’ll have to pass. Will def keep you in mind for future.
Without Al Gore, is there a show here?
Annhung,
Mary — Cool. One interesting thing, of course, is that Google is primarily fighting to preserve their own privacy — their trade secrets — and not that of its users. Googles’ users just benefit by proxy.
The Mozart show was too narrow, too deep, and strictly for 60 year old musicologists, not for the normal listener. You should do a show exploring the general topics surrounding the composer: his controversial lifestyle, how he was viewed amongst his peers, the impact of his music on our popular music, etc.
In regard to a second Mozart show, watch the Oscar-winning film ‘Amadeus’ (1984?), it is a pretty good insight into Mozart’s life of contrasts: child-like and vulgar on one had, briliant and sublime on the other (although there is some controversy in how they depicted the composer).
Annhung, are you aware of the Nieman Foundation’s project on narrative journalism at Harvard? http://www.nieman.harvard.edu/
Mark Kramer puts together a conference every December featuring the best and the brightest narrative journalists. In the past we’ve worked with him helping to record the event and produce excertps for broadcast. This year Chelsea produced an hour which is up on the Public Radio Exchange: http://prx.org/pieces/8165
Why don’t you do a show about the recent loss of pensions for so many employees of Verizon. If you do this, you will find that Verizon has already done away with many pensions and employees by knowingly and purposely allowing them to work with a potentially dangerous product, not given them warnings, firing them or forcing to retire early, deny medical disability or allow to die without knowing what has injured them. This has been done apparently to avoid paying medical disabilities, workers compensation, discrimination , personal injury, intentional tort and other claims. Ivan and other corporate leaders have lined their pockets at the expense of sick, injured and disabled employees.
Dear Mary, you asked: “Without Al Gore, is there a show here?” I think there is, at least twenty of them, a series.
Why was this called by some a “seminal” speech? Because (I think) you can go through the whole thing and expand on every idea, everything that rings true in it. In many aspects/ways we have been discussing these things and this speech just puts it together.
Perhaps Gore’s presence would have taken away from the message and the civics lesson that apparently needs to happen which is way more important. So I think we need review, reiteration and amplification of what is happening, what the crisis is in our country. There was an attempt made on a previous show “GOP Shift to the Right” to get at the problem.
Some of those who were unimpressed or unmoved by the Gore speech who comment (here and probably elsewhere) denigrate Gore and bring up his perceived or real past weaknesses and failures. I can understand Scott McClellan’s agenda but what’s the point of anyone else doing this? So maybe we are better without Gore.
I read and made notes on the speech itself and it seems to me that it is bulging with ideas for discussion which lead to ideas about who might speak about them.
I have no Rolodex at all and you have a famous one in these parts. I hope I do not ascribe too much magic to it but you come up with the most wonderful and interesting guests.
We heard from Laurence Tribe our preeminent constitutional scholar. I have not gotten my fill of him by a long shot. He wrote an opinion to Rep. Conyers that I linked on your NSA show.
Bob Barr might be willing to speak.
How about Jay Rockefeller? He wrote a letter to Cheney way back when and locked a copy of it in his safe. Apparently Nancy Pelosi expressed concern as well.
What about someone from the Liberty Coalition?
How about getting someone to go over the civics lesson about how this government’s checks and balances are supposed to work and what are it’s weaknesses, where are the holes? Gore asks after laying out the transgressions “Can it be true that any president really has such powers under our Constitution?” There must be many scholars who can speak on that besides Tribe. Gore mentions Harold Koh of Yale who said “”If the President has commander-in-chief power to commit torture, he has the power to commit genocide, to sanction slavery, to promote apartheid, to license summary execution.”
Question: Are we reaching a point where the slow and steady accumulation of presidential power is irreversible?
I know you are planning a show on presidential power.
By the way, are we really at war? Calling it that opens the door for the executive to claim more power.
Bob Herbert of the New York Times wrote a great column this week on “Who Will Stand Up for the Constitution?” He has spoken on the radio and is quite good.
We could examine other constitutional crises and how they differ from this one. Gore lays out several reasons why he feels that this is different and why he is worried. This has to do with not only the accumulation of executive powers but the weakening of it’s checks in the Congress, the Judiciary, the media and the people themselves.
Our own Congressman Jim McGovern (Worcester County) was mentioned in Gore’s speech for having made a speech during the “Authorization” debate “clearly restating that that authorization did not operate domestically” (quote from
Gore. So what is congress doing about executive disregard of the law? We must follow that.
Gore mentioned advances in technologies for invading our privacy and then said: “it is simply not possible to precisely define in legalistic terms exactly when that power is appropriate and when it is not.”
Well, if we cannot make precise laws, how do we deal with rationalizations for invasions of our rights? Do we agree to losing them in the name of security needs, real or whipped up, resulting in maintaining and exacerbating this “serious imbalance” in our “carefully balanced constitutional design”?
How do we retain our rights, including and especially our 4th amendments rights?
( more later- I’ll post this for now)
Well, actually landing Al Gore on the show was always a long shot. As reiterated so admirably by Potter, the speech was uncommonly rich in content. I continue to see it as historically important, not the least because of the many references within it to previous oratory that has been pivotal in our nation’s history. So, what to do next? I recall that back last Fall when you couldn’t land a live appearance of Thomas Jefferson on the show (“Theocracy in America”, October 13, 2005), you found a stand-in (Clay Jenkinson) who did a yeoman’s job reprenting Jefferson. How about recruiting a panel spanning American history, including perhaps Jefferson again, Tom Paine, Ben Franklin, Abe Lincoln, and/or others who might be “available” to participate. Probably best to avoid stand-ins for contemporary figures such as Al Gore who are unavailable–but Chris’s moderation of the panel discussion could include his reading from Gore’s recent speech as a stimulus to the discussions. Clearly such a program would straddle the line between non-fiction and fiction, which might simply be beyond acceptable limits for Open Source. However, by doing the show “unscripted” with respect to the panelists, and truly not knowing in advance what they’d actually say, perhaps a program could result that wouldn’t undermine the precepts critical to the Open Source ethos.
Excellent suggestion Jon!
Gore says:
“This effort to rework America’s carefully balanced constitutional design into a lopsided structure dominated by an all powerful Executive Branch with a subservient Congress and judiciary is-ironically-accompanied by an effort by the same administration to rework America’s foreign policy from one that is based primarily on U.S. moral authority into one that is based on a misguided and self-defeating effort to establish dominance in the world.
The common denominator seems to be based on an instinct to intimidate and control.
This same pattern has characterized the effort to silence dissenting views within the Executive Branch, to censor information that may be inconsistent with its stated ideological goals, and to demand conformity from all Executive Branch employees.”
Gore says “the theory of the unitary executive” is more accurately the unilateral executive.
Aren’t we talking about a period of tyranny?
Gore couples that with 1) the serious damage we have seen in the legislative branches with regard to it’s power and autonomy and 2)an uninformed unengaged electorate, “we the people”.
He blames television for #2. (a whole program right there) and the “constricted role of ideas”. We forget that most people are not combing the internet to get informed about issues. His characterization of the informed engaged farmer-citizen is most interesting. What a concept! Citizenship.
And so the executive adds to that general ignorance it’s own assertion about the need for secrecy and control of information about what it is doing. I have felt for awhile now that our collective ignorance is being played like a string on a fiddle to make music only for those who seek total power.
Fear, another string on the fiddle.
Gore again: “Fear drives out reason. Fear suppresses the politics of discourse and opens the door to the politics of destruction. Justice Brandeis once wrote: ‘Men feared witches and burnt women’.”
This just is what happened after 9/11.
The only antidote to this starts with awareness and understanding though discourse and discussion. And for that we need freedom of communication.
Gore: “It is particularly important that the freedom of the Internet be protected against either the encroachment of government or the efforts at control by large media conglomerates. The future of our democracy depends on it.”
Finally,Fascism. Gore did not say the word, but I was thinking it. Would we recognize that happening here? Not possible?
John Perkins author of “Confessions of an Economic Hit Man.”
cheesechowmain beat me to it: ‘Confessions of an Economic Hitman’. Our local NPR station (KUOW) dedicated an hour this morning to John Perkins. This is a PERFECT topic for an hour of ROS. Trust us.
How about a show on Al Jazeera and democracy in the Arab world with Marc Lynch, author of the new Voices of the Arab Public?
How about doing a show with William Blum author of Rogue State. Usama Bin Hiding referred his book in his last video tape aired by Al Jazeera. The book examines the U.S. foreign policy and its countless interventions (overtly or covertly) around the globe since 1945. The topic of intervention/invasions is still relevant now that we are still in the lawless land Hammurabi.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rogue_State:_A_Guide_to_the_World%27s_Only_Superpower
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_of_Hammurabi
Cheers,
I know I’ve suggested John Perkins, author of “Confessions of an Economic Hitman” in the past. He was just in the Boston area–he was scheduled to be @ the Harvard Coop or something. He’s up in some weird new age voodoo that’s fascinating because he’s not a dope and he’s totally lived on the other side–the Dick Cheney side, if you will–but he’s a recovering corpo-critter. Here’s his mystic-crystal-revelation site: http://www.dreamchange.org/, and here’s his other one: http://www.johnperkins.org/. That’s at least three votes now, plus my previous one, for John Perkins. Come on, ROS, y’all gots ta reprazent!
This is a story I hope you follow. Here you have four Muslims, non-citizens, who had immigration violations but who were swept up after 9/11, imprisoned and abused and kept long after those violations were cleared up. After they were cleared of any connections to terrorists, they were deported. Now they have been allowed back to make their case. Despite being cleared, they must be in the constant custody of federal marshals and are severely restricted.
The Center for Constitutional Rights is taking the case and has a summary of it here but first read the New York Times front page article from yesterday:
Held in 9/11 Net, Muslims Return to Accuse U.S.
Not only do they have pride for themselves after having been unjustly treated (by any standard), but they understand our founding principles (I suspect more than many here) and are willing to fight for them for others even after having been denied the opportunity to be here and make their contribution.
You do not need coffee in the morning!
This is a bit morbid but it’s a peculiar twist to a twisted world.
Yesterday Rachel Entwistle, 27, and their daughter, Lillian died of gunshot wounds in the house in Hopkinton, MA. As of now Rachel’s husband, Neil Entwistle, is missing and is being sought as a “person of interest” by the authorities.
That in itself is tragic beyond belief but the family leaves behind a web-site (http://www.rachelandneil.org) – a loving portrait of normalcy for all the world to see. Further, on the site is a guestbook. Now here comes the bizarre part: people are leaving entries in the guestbook regarding this great tragedy. This seems beyond Future Shock – so public a display of paradox I personally have never experienced.
There’s a story here.
Just in case extra votes matter, three of nate7zulu’s show suggestions are gems: Salman Rushdie, Barak Obama, and V.D. Hansen.
Especially Rushdie. I heard him all-too-briefly yesterday on the radio, speaking of how radical Islam is psychologically powered by male insecurity over women’s sexuality — which, coincidentally, is one of the most mind-blowing lessons I gleaned from Geraldine Brooks’s ‘Nine Parts of Desire’.
Maybe these two, Rushdie and Brooks, could provide a pair of Islam-related shows?
annhung: your italics trick didn’t work! (please see the dangerous idea thread for proof.) I don’t get it! Dang.
Potter (commentor above) mentions Fascism. I happen to have just listened to the podcast about a “Christian America” and found myself thinking about Umberto Eco’s essay on Fascism. As I remember it, he cites an idea about something called Ur-Fascism, which is always within nations and whose characteristics are more and less observable at different times.
I also have seen notes listing the “characteristics of Fascism,” such as the intertwining of religion and nationalism, corporatism, scapegoating, and others.
I’d like to hear a discussion on the definition of Fascism: what is is? is it a behavior in all institutions (e.g. churches, corporations) or must its definition be limited to states? what are signs of it in America today?
Chris: Time to push further back on Intellignet Design and the fundamentailists by having Daniel Dennett (of Tufts) talk about his new book Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon.
There has been what amounted to a very interesting Federal Election up here in Canada in the last month that culminated last night in our “Conservative Party of Canada” winning a minority government (you American’s that aren’t sure what that is….just google “plurality voting”).
I think it might be time to devote a show to your northern neighbour…..there are some really interesting niche strategical moves that shaped the outcome of this election, and it was truly one that could have been won by either party (conservatives or liberals).
The show is incredible I truly can’t go without it!!!
This has to go on the show–The NAIS (National Animal Identification System). It is easily one of the most intrusive and evil of govenment plans to come along in a while, certainly since Bush began spying on citizens. This is open, enforced spying on everyone who has an animal and it is done so in the interests of Big Corp Agribusiness, not the citizens of this country. It is Fascist and is the stuff nightmares are made of. It is the stuff which happens in other countries, countries where a post like this would end the writer in jail. It is The Domesday Book, BIg Brother ad Spy-gate all rolled into one. Animal Farm–ha. USDA sponsored terrorism of the small, rural farmer. We no longer live in a democracy if something like the NAIS can be proposed by Corporations and the government responds and enacts such a plan.
Let’s hear some discussion on what will collapse the rural farm economy, ruin the quality of food Americans eat and see food imports increase, and take away even more of our freedoms. It all begins in July. . .unless something can be done.
After listening to your Mozart show, I keep returning to a concept Mr. Sherman raised about old classical recordings vs. more contemporary performances of the same pieces. He pointed to the old guard of pianists (circa 1940) for their “throbbing intensity” and disoriented musical surfaces but characterized modern performances as “beautifully knit together,” smooth, and suave.
This begs many questions about performance practice, the evolution of recording technology, and even changing musical tastes. Were performances in the first half of the 20th century (and earlier, for that matter) indeed more gritty and experimental? With advances in recording techniques, did musicians abandon the art of the music for the science of the sound? Did this pursuit of perfection in the recording studio alter audiences’ expectations of live performances? And how does today’s CD market effect tomorrow’s classical consumer?
To gauge these concepts completely, guests should grasp the modern histories of music performance and recorded sound. A potential panel could include a classical music critic (e.g., Richard Dyer), performance artist (e.g., Mr. Sherman), and music historian (e.g., BSO’s Marc Mandel or BC’s Jeremiah McGrann).
Such a discussion would provide a useful “hyperlink” between the fascinating Mozart discussion and its extended implications.
nonbeliever: thanks for the heads-up on the Dennett book. I googled and read a review, and then ordered it from Powell’s. (I guess this adds my vote for such a ROS hour.)
How about something about the death of theory and about how publishers like Verso in the UK are trying to bring it back?
“Agenda for Education in a Democracy” would be great show. I just started in a partnership that takes this idea apart and it is the most exciting thing I’ve been involved in for a long time. I am involved in local politics here in Wyoming as a Democrat and have been incredibly discouraged lately. This “Agenda” has renewed my excitement about politics and Democracy.
“Educating for democracy means more than simply teaching vocational skills or ensuring a literate workforce. Educating for democracy means developing the individual and collective traits, skills, and dispositions necessary to a moral community—one that uses democratic principles and processes to determine right from wrong, good from bad. Those who work with the Agenda for Education in a Democracy are committed to promoting and sustaining the kinds of educational experiences and institutions necessary to a healthy, renewing social and political democracy. ” http://depts.washington.edu/cedren/AED.htm
I know I sound like a crackpot on this one but this business of the Entwistle family web-site has got me flummoxed. I don’t want to belittle the tragedy but prior to, there were a scant dozen or so pages of “guestbook.” Now the count is 100+ and growing. This thing is giving or own Radio Open Source a run for its money.
But it’s got me thinking about the nature of the blog (please I’m not trying to be mawkish).
Here are a just a few questions I have.
1) What happens to a blog when the creator has, well, moved on?
2) Why contribute to a ghost blog?
3) Who are these people talking to?
4) How many other blogs-of-uncertain-status are there out there?
5) Are they popular in spite of their precarious existence?
6) Is there a ritual for putting a blog to rest?
Perhaps this is a show best kept til October.
You should really do a show on the crackdown on democracy in Russia, including the spy-rock scandal, the NGO’s being shut down by Putin, etc etc
The following was posted on a Washington Post blog today, in response to a comment that just as the Islamist group Hamas gained control in the Palestinian elections, so might the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood groups if free elections were held now in Egypt and Jordan:
“Egypt and Jordan are nothing. Think Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. If free elections are held today, the Osama loving faction will gain control of Saudi Arabia and the oil, and the Taliban loving faction will gain control of Pakistan and the nukes.
Posted by: Tom | Jan 26, 2006 11:47:23 AM |”
The recent show done on Pakistan was quite interesting. Perhaps a good show could be developed around the implications of free elections actually being held in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and perhaps also Egypt and Jordan.
Jon- I was going to post that in the Edge.org show comments section. What if we did have free and honest elections everywhere?
My other “dangerous idea” was to allow those who wish to form a nation/state actually form one (within certain guidlines and parameters). This can be determined by referenda. It might mean a Kurdish state, a free Tibet, a country called Kashmir, a Tamil state( north Sri Lanka), Palestine and maybe Massachusetts.
and Chechnya.
(1) Inflation. Is it coming or not? Ben Bernake is taking over at the fed, well known for his “inflation targeting” speech a few years ago. Come march “M3″ will no longer be published. While computer prices drop, the cost of the basic needs of life: home, energy, food and medicine, have been skyrocketing. People like Addison Wiggins (Empire of Debt), Jim Puplava (financialsense.com), Brad DeLong, Milton Freedman (that would be awesome – after all he recently talked to Charlie Rose and said there is no risk of inflation in the near future), Paul Krugman, or someone like Blanchard or Caballero from MIT would be great.
(2) The rising spectre of impeachment — Jack Balkan, Bruce Fein, John Turley, among others…
OOOWWWWW!!! Let’s hear it for the wolves! In light of the Alaska’s rebanning of the aerial hunting of wolves, let’s celebrate by having some of the folks from Friends of the Animals on for a show. These people were responsible for the the court’s ruling and I think that they deserve some press. Maybe a show that highlights the plight of wolves and other predators
in general. So much of man’s cruelty is on display in it’s lust to slaughter all these animals and it seems to me that this murder-lust eminated from a deepseeded fear and a feeling of jealousy. Let’s do these animals justice and spread the word….
I have two suggestions for future shows.
In light of the very interesting show you did tonight on the Hamas election victory, I’d like to suggest that you do a show on bloggers focussed on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
You can slice & dice this a number of ways: include Jewish, Israeli, Palestinian & Arab bloggers of all political stripes (that would be a rambunctious show!); include the above constituencies but limit participation to those on both sides who support a 2 state solution (thus eliminating the Jewish far right & the Arab far-left); or do a show that features Jews and Israelis of all political stripes blogging on the conflict.
This is a selfish suggestion of course since I’m an American Jewish blogger writing about the I-P conflict. But I think it’d make a great show. Lots of potential fireworks & potentially some light shed on the subject.
The second idea is to focus on Jews and politics. For example, how do Jews feel about Jack Abramoff? What is Jack Abramoff’s relationship to both Jews and Judaism? Again, I’ve written a lot on this as well & would be happy to provide links to a producer if the idea sounds worth exploring.
It seems to me that one of many great duels in the US now is between Civic Nationalists and Ethnic Nationalists–between those who would prefer a nation based on legal attachment and those who would prefer one based on race, blood, language and religion. Rather than the usual left-right or Democrat-Republican dichotomy, this might be an interesting way to look at US political affiliation.
I mentioned a show in December about the effects of population decline in Japan. Another topic might be on how Japanese youth view China, South Korea and North Korea. There are still many tensions between Japan and their neighbours, but there seems to be a difference of opinion in the older and younger generations. Young Japanese are studying Chinese and Korean more than ever before, taking college classes with visiting students from those countries, working with “foreigners” in restaurants and travelling to China and South Korea more fequently. What kind of effect is this having on their view of the administration’s position, their parents’ point of view, how the media portrays those countries and on how they view those countries themselves?
I’d like to see something about the US involvement in the overthrow of Haiti’s Aristide in 2004 and what certain NGOs have been doing there with US taxpayer money. See this from the nytimes, another from boing boing and the original alerts from Jeffrey Sachs.
This past weekend, Steven Soderbergh released his latest film, Bubble, in theaters — and on DVD. (He talks about why in this Wired article.) It didn’t set any sales records in either medium, but it broke a longstanding Hollywood tradition — the window between theatrical release and other media. Is this the wave of the future? Maybe a better question is, how can it not be the wave of the future? Will Spider-Man 3 be available for download on iTunes or via pay-per-view or on DVD the day it hits theatrical screens?
And the big question: What does that mean for the future of movies? Is there a place for moviegoing in the future, or are big screens on an inevitable decline? (Or are they, with HDTV and other technology, just moving into the home? Every living room is a Bijou!)
Edward Jay Epstein‘s been writing a series of columns in Slate about Hollywood economics — he’d be a great resource to start with.
Like to see a Show….I know it’s been done…but can we do it too much?…a show on what the world will look like after oil…
James Howard Kunstler (The Long Emergency) recently did a lecture on this take in Portland, OR and the audience was spell bound. His picture of how we arrive at zero oil and what we do on your rapid way down was undiniably accurate. Sponsored by the Illahee Society (www.illahee.org) who is doing a series on Oil and Water, this first installment would easily fit the ROS format. The listeners will love it and no matter how many times they have heard the oil subject if they are not familiar with Kunstler then they don’t know Jack.
In response to Freeman Dyson’s “Dangerous Idea” of garage/ home-brewed biotechnology (Jan. 24th) Steven Pinker commented to the effect that while software is becoming more democratized, the hardware is more remote and inaccessible than ever.
Nothing could be further from the truth! There is a veritable revolution going in desktop design and manufacturing, with the creation of highly sophisticated hardware well within reach of anyone with the know how to design it. It’s true that we don’t have the Heath-kit radio a teenager can put together with a soldering iron- but that teenager today can design a far more sophisticated device on his computer and email the file to a company that can assemble it for him. I may not personally understand what’s under the hood of my car, but today’s hotrodders aren’t adjusting carburetors, they’re hacking the electronic fuel injection hardware.
The internet has made resources available that a few years ago would have required large technical libraries, components are readily available through distributors, and service companies will build your design. There are supermarkets online for used scientific and test equipment. Rapid prototyping services are proliferating much as print shops years ago began to meet the needs of desktop publishers.
Very small companies and even individuals are now making specialized products- medical devices, recreational items, etc.- that a few years ago would have required huge dollar investments to create, and would have only been doable by larger companies. I am involved in one of these enterprises, and as I speak with our vendors (for parts, contract manufacturing, and so on) they are all remarking on the increasing number of entrepreneurs working from homes or small offices who are making sophisticated hardware. Yes, hardware manufacturing is democratizing, in very much the same way printing did with the advent of desktop publishing.
My show idea: The “Desktop Manufacturing” Revolution- what does it mean for the economy and for our futures?
The US government is willing to spend over $200 billions ( how much was already spent when the war actually started? ) to go to war – to destroy, to kill, and then rebuild – not to mention most of that money is going to the pockets of some corrupt individuals . . . what if, with the same amount of money, allocated for PEACE, how could that money be spent to promote peace with a particular country like IRAN, or North Korea, or between Israel and Palestine ? – how about a show with a panel that includes peace activists, government officials, scholars, etc. and a periodical followup shows of the same subject ?
My take is, with over $200 billions, a lot can be done with peace, without destructions, without killings. It just doesn’t make sense to me to spend that much more money to destroy and kill, when it can be used to promote and keep peace in the first place. War will only bring more wars.
Please, please . . . the world needs to hear this . . .
I’m been following an area in the telephone industry that was pretty
arcane before, but may suddenly be worth a larger audience because it
combines two themes that interest the public:
Financial misbehavior by large firms
Reasons for the U.S. to fall behind other countries in high bandwidth Internet.
The trigger for this posting is a
new book
by an author I’ve been following for years. It’s low-budget and
rough-looking, but his research is amazing. It’s very transparent; he
draws on newpapers and other public sources.
The main theme is that major telephone companies have been promising
to build high-bandwidth (fiber) networks for years, and then not doing
it. They have a simple process: they make promises to regulators and
get fee hikes. Then they ignore their promises or make a feeble
gesture and give up. After a couple years, the press and regulators
forget the process and the phone companies start over again.
Results: high phone bills, companies using profits to take over other
communications and media areas, very little bandwidth for most people.
I’d like to suggest a show dealing with the recent assault on free speech in Europe.
The controversy surrounding the publication of cartoon on Muhammad might be the place to start.
Here is a link to a story showing the effects on that publication on public opinion in the Muslim world:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4666298.stm
“Nordic firm hit by Arab boycott
The Danish-Swedish dairy giant Arla Foods says its sales in the Middle East have plummeted to zero as a result of a row over cartoons published in Denmark.
The firms said it had to lay off 100 people because of the fall in demand.
The row began when a Danish newspaper published a series of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad, some of them depicting him as a terrorist.
Anger against Denmark is continuing to grow across the Middle East, despite an apology offered by the newspaper.
Arla Foods, one of Europe’s biggest dairy companies, is being hardest hit by a boycott of Danish products across the region.
The company has annual sales of $480m there….”
There are links at the BBC website to the history of the controversy.
Prediction: the biggest political upheavals of the 1st half of the 21st century are going to be in China, and will be about environmental problems. They’ll be completely different from the 1989 student-led democracy movement at Tiananmen. They will be “grass-roots”, but not in the same way that term is understood by American leftists. They’ll be organized by China’s rural peasants and will combine direct action protests with media-savvy use of the internet, SMS messaging on mobile phones, etc. Local media that cirumvents centralized state control will play a major role. There is terrible potential for violent reprecussions.
Possible guests: Jonathan Watts (The Guardian of London), Kim Hunter Gordon (The Guardian of London), Chin Yikchan, research fellow at the Chinese media centre at Westminster University.
Quotes below from The Guardian are about environmental distasters in China and the supression of resulting protests:
(Jonathan Watts):
http://www.guardian.co.uk/china/story/0,,1588730,00.html
Lu Banglie, now missing, feared dead, is typical of the new breed of peasant activists who are giving the Communist party its biggest political headache since the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. He was one of the first popularly elected village chiefs in China. In contrast to the students from elite universities who were at the centre of the demonstrations 16 years ago, he spent most of his life – like the vast majority of the 1.3 billion population – as an ordinary farmer….
In April, villagers in Huankantou, in Zhejiang province, beat off 1,000 riot police in a dispute over pollution from chemical factories built on disputed property….
The tactics in Taishi, however, were more sophisticated than those used by other protesters. Outside legal experts were asked for advice and the protesters used the internet and mobile phones to spread their campaign on bulletin boards and among domestic and foreign journalists.
(Kim Hunter Gordon):
http://www.guardian.co.uk/china/story/0,,1657208,00.html
Beijing has allowed local media to become stronger in order to control provincial governments. After this cover-up, freedom was given to criticise local authorities in Harnin and Jilin, but the media was soon roped back amid fears of civil unrest. One journalist in Beijing described central government’s control of the media as ‘a vice-like grip, gradually loosening but with moments when it illogically tightens again’….
According to Chin Yikchan, the boom is a result of reforms in 2000 which allowed local media firms to merge. They produce compelling material in order to compete for advertising at national level. ‘The real tension is going to be between local media groups and central state media,’ she said. The Shanghai media group is now powerful enough to challenge China Central Television…
‘The change is mainly in entertainment, but as these stations become more influential they gain bargaining power with the central government for more freedom,’ says Chin Yikchan.
(Jonathan Watts):
http://www.guardian.co.uk/china/story/0,,1501342,00.html
According to a ranking of air quality, 15 of the planet’s 20 most polluted cities are in China. The smog is so bad that respiratory diseases have recently become the leading cause of death.
I would like to hear a show or do one on the challenges of post-conflict areas in africa issues on migration, security, development, and political stability. let me know.
Here is an update on the cartoon controversy in Europe:
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsarticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyid=2006-02-01T172158Z_01_L01441468_RTRUKOC_0_US-RELIGION-DENMARK-FRANCE.xml&rpc=22
“French and German papers run Danish Islam cartoons
By Tom Heneghan
PARIS (Reuters) – Newspapers in France and Germany reprinted Danish caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed on Wednesday, saying press freedom was more important than the protests and boycotts the cartoons have sparked across the Muslim world.
The Danish embassy in Damascus was evacuated after a bomb threat that turned out to be a hoax and Syria recalled its ambassador from Denmark in protest against the cartoons, one of which shows the Prophet Mohammed wearing a turban shaped like a bomb.
In Copenhagen, security police met Islamic leaders in a bid to calm reactions there. Muslims consider images of prophets distasteful and caricatures blasphemous.
Dalil Boubakeur, head of the French Muslim Council, denounced the publication of the drawings as a “provocation”.
Burhan Kesici, a leader of Germany’s Turkish community, said they reduced Islam “to two or three terrorists”.
Two large Danish companies reported their sales falling in the Middle East after the incident led to protests in the Arab world and calls for boycotts.
“Enough lessons from these reactionary bigots!” France Soir editor Serge Faubert wrote in a commentary explaining why his newspaper had printed the cartoons.
“Just because the Koran bans images of Mohammed doesn’t mean non-Muslims have to submit to this.”
Germany’s Die Welt printed a similar piece to accompany the cartoons.
“There is no right to be shielded from satire in the West,” it said. “Christianity has been the object of ruthless criticism … being able to make fun of the holiest things is a non-negotiable core tradition in our culture.”
French Foreign Ministry spokesman Jean-Baptiste Mattei said France supported press freedom, which “should be exercised in a spirit of tolerance and respect for beliefs and religions”. Continued … ”
The Euro controversy on free speech and freedom of the press deserves to be discussed on radio-open-source.
The European cartoon controversy is a huge issue that I haven’t heard at all in the US media.
This week the managing editor of France Soir (mentioned above as having reprinted the cartoons), Jacques Lefranc, was fired by the paper’s owner “as a powerful sign of respect for the intimate beliefs and convictions of every individual”. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4670370.stm)
An interesting review of images of Mohammed throughout history may be found at http://www.zombietime.com/mohammed_image_archive/
After your great shows on Google Print and Google Protecting Privacy, in the aftermath of the Chinese censorship issue, it may be time to ask the question: Has Google gone evil? This doesn’t have to be a show against Google, since it is clearly the least and most recent offender; but a general question on corporate responsibility needs to be raised.
Hey y’all. Jan wrapup is posted on the main page. Look for the Feb suggest a show page soon!