When President George W. Bush accepted CIA director George Tenet's resignation, the president said, "George Tenet is the kind of public servant you like to work with." You have to wonder if the President knew at that point that he was going to publish a rather contentious memoir, alleging (among other things) that the Bush Administration -- particularly Vice President Dick Cheney -- was determined to attack Iraq no matter what the intelligence showed. Today, White House counselor Dan Bartlett called Tenet "a patriot" but went on to say his allegations were incorrect. He's not the only one critiquing the former CIA director as self-serving... we'll talk to Mike Scheuer, founding head of the CIA's Bin Laden unit, about how he sees Tenet's claims. Others in the intelligence community have criticized him too, (check this out). What do you think of Tenet? Willing scapegoat, or "patriot?"
Barrie Hardymon
1:58 PM ET | 04-30-2007 | permalink | comments (11) | e-mail post
We get a lot of books sent to us for the show, and lately there's been a theme to many of the pitches we get from publishers... the long-fought "Mommy Wars." It's a battle made out to be diaper bag versus briefcase, as new moms tussle over what's best... staying at home to raise kids, or returning to work. A new twist came up on Sunday: In an op-ed in the Washington Post E.J. Graff argues that the mommy wars are a figment of the media's imagination... driven by the need to sell more copies, rather than the need to report facts. Is she right? Do you face this issue, or is it just media hype?
Scott Cameron
1:53 PM ET | 04-30-2007 | permalink | comments (20) | e-mail post
Ever heard of restorative justice? I hadn't, really, till recently when Talk of the Nation director Gwen Outen brought up Minnie Driver's new movie, Take, about a mother who confronts the man whose violent act has ruined her life. He's on death row, and she heads out to the desert prison to witness his execution, then decides what she really wants to do is talk to the man himself. (Later on, we're going to talk to the director, Charles Oliver, and to Minnie herself!) This provocative premise led our staff to a discussion of restorative justice, a theory in criminal justice that posits the best healing and rehabilitation for victim and perpetrator can happen when the victim is given an opportunity to make his or her pain known to the criminal. It can happen in a courtroom during the trial, or after the guilty party has done his/her time... and personalizing it raises all sorts of questions. Would you want to talk to the person who stole your car or worse? Would you do it because it would make you feel better, or because it could help the perpetrator? If your conversation makes the guilty feel less-so, have you lost something? I've been fortunate enough that I haven't really had to take on questions like these, but if you've ever been wronged, what do you think?
Sarah Handel
1:08 PM ET | 04-30-2007 | permalink | comments (14) | e-mail post
As promised, we are going to talk about the new movie Take, with director Charles Oliver, and star Minnie Driver. I have to admit, I'm a huge Minnie Driver fan, and I'm totally addicted to her new show The Riches. In it, she has a moment where she sings to her daughter, and man, she can really belt it out. After we talk to her, and to Charles about the movie, she'll sing a song from her new album, that also appears in the movie's soundtrack. Enjoy! Update: After performing this weekend, Minnie's voice isn't up to a song. But she'll still join us and take your questions.
12:47 PM ET | 04-30-2007 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post
Given what happened at Virginia Tech, lots of school administrators are a little on edge these days. So, when Allen Lee, a high school senior and "A" student outside Chicago, turned in a free writing assignment complete with references to "shooting everyone" and having "sex with the dead bodies," the school had him arrested. Now, charged with two counts of misdemeanor disorderly conduct, he can forget about his dream of fighting for the Marines... they discharged him from the enlistment program because of the charges (he can reapply if charges are dropped). For his part, Lee says he just followed the teachers instructions, and "exaggerated his feelings." His dad is frustrated: "I don't see how somebody can get charged by writing their homework. The teacher asked them to express themselves, and he followed instructions." But, with a line directed at the teacher saying, "don't be surprised on inspiring the first cg (Cary-Grove High School) shooting," his English teacher, principal, and the police chief say the charges are appropriate. With all the heat Virginia Tech is under for not catching on to Seung-Hui Cho's disturbing behavior before he killed 32 people, was the school justified in having Lee arrested? Or is this a classic case of misdirected paranoia?
11:12 AM ET | 04-30-2007 | permalink | comments (3) | e-mail post
Here's an easy one: What do Barack Obama, Mariah Carey, Tiger Woods and Derek Jeter have in common? They all come from multiracial families. And they're just some of the most famous examples of how race, culture, and identity are changing in this country. Our first hour today will look at what it means to be multiracial in today's America. If you're multiracial, how do you define yourself? And how does the public define you?
1:38 PM ET | 04-26-2007 | permalink | comments (62) | e-mail post
For those who think that Shakespeare isn't fun, It's possible you simply haven't tried Incorporating language we have shunned -- Such as, "Alackaday," "Forsooth," and "Bung"! (For readers worried "Bung" might be obscene, It's just Elizabethan slang for purse.) Today, Talk of the Nation will convene a panel to explain why to converse In daily life just like you're Rosalind... Macbeth, or like his famous nagging wife. For if you're weary of the daily grind... A speech from Will might add some spice to life! But do beware, if Bard fan you may be, Mercutio's song might vex the FCC.
1:37 PM ET | 04-26-2007 | permalink | comments (14) | e-mail post
This post might be subtitled... "Or Why Sarah's Dad Never Came to Career Day" (trust me, it's not nearly as sad as it sounds).
Like so many kids who grow up in the D.C. area, I was never clear on exactly what my Dad did for a living. There are about a billion secret government agencies in these parts, which means lots of moms and dads can't really talk about what they do. Sure, they might be able to say, "I work in an office" or "I work with computers" or even "I work with submarines in naval intelligence," but it's not quite the same as "I'm a garbagewoman" or "I'm a doctor for people whose feet hurt." Lacking complete information, my classmates usually decided one of two things about what my Dad was up to: either he was like Arnold Schwarzenegger in True Lies, or he was Batman. Somehow, these options sounded equally plausible at the time.
So, in honor of "Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day," we're talking to some moms and dads, sons and daughters, about what the kids think the parents do all day, and what the parents want the kids to learn about work. We've got a studio audience of kids, GW basketball coach Karl Hobbs and his basketball playing daughter, and even guest host Rebecca Roberts' mom, Cokie (you may have heard of her). What did you think your parents did... were you even close? What do your kids know about what do you do? Do you secretly (or not-so-secretly) hope they'll follow in your footsteps?
1:12 PM ET | 04-26-2007 | permalink | comments (11) | e-mail post
I've kept a lot of seats warm at NPR when the real hosts are sick or on vacation. It's fun to do other people's jobs for a few days -- it satisfies my dilettante instincts, and I get to leave while it's all still exciting and new. It's kind of like renting a beach house for a week. You get to enjoy the sunshine and the novelty of a new place, but leave before the hot water heater explodes.
Not to beat a tortured analogy into the ground, but Neal Conan has a really nice beach house here at Talk of the Nation. In the first place, he has by far the neatest office I've borrowed here at NPR. Neal's many books are actually on his bookcase. And there are whole square feet of desktop visible between the stacks of paper. I don't think I can adequately describe how unusual this is. With the staggering volume of mail that comes in for a show like Talk of the Nation, most offices look like a recycling bin just exploded close by.
This beach house/radio program (okay, now even I have lost the thread of this analogy -- what were we talking about exactly?) also has a pretty amazing team of people who are capable of conjuring a radio show out of thin air. Seriously -- there have been mornings when we have no guests and no prospects at 9am, and a kick-ass show with rock star guests at 2pm. It's impressive. I don't know if the folks here just pretend they have nothing booked, when really the whole show has been set for weeks, or whether they know some radio jujitsu they're not sharing with the guest host. I suspect the latter.
Whatever they're doing (leaving crackers and little tiny shoes out for the radio production elves at night? It wouldn't shock me) they're doing it well. And it's been a joy and a treat to participate for a few days. I hope you all have had half as much fun as I have.
Rebecca Roberts
10:45 AM ET | 04-26-2007 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post
John McCain made it official this afternoon... he's announced his candidacy for the presidential nomination. Nobody seems surprised, but can he win? Democrats are busy getting ready for their first big debate tomorrow in South Carolina. And, here in Washington, both parties are squabbling over a funding bill for the Iraq war. President Bush says he'll veto any measure that includes a timetable for withdrawal. And the vice president and the democratic leader in the senate are bickering back and forth in the media. If it's Wednesday, it must be Political Junkie day... Ken Rudin stops by to talk all things politics, and a little Rich Little, too.
1:45 PM ET | 04-25-2007 | permalink | comments (15) | e-mail post
The first time I had the experience of seeing a boy tear up at a movie was in high school... Brian's Song was on TV, and several of the boys from our football team (including, but not limited to the defensive line) were sniffling quietly. Listen, we all know the movies that girls tear up for... usually it involves either Julia Roberts or Debra Winger dying at the end. But what are the movies that make men mushy? What are the movies that men feel like they have a pass on... Rudy, Hoosiers... (and I swear, an old boyfriend of mine teared up at Titanic). What kinds of movies does a man feel free to shed a tear over?
1:25 PM ET | 04-25-2007 | permalink | comments (42) | e-mail post
Here's a glance at what's on tap in Seventeen magazine this month.
Turn to p. 117 to get Scarlett Johansson's flirting moves! Flip to p. 42 to score great deals and look like a star! Dating Clinic: See Pete Wentz's love tips on p. 102! Perfect Skin Tips: Say goodbye to breakouts once and for all on p. 70!
Sigh. (If I had a dollar for every time a teen or womens magazine had promised "once and for all" to rid me of 1) breakouts 2) cellulite 3) someone's cheatin' heart, I would have enough money to find a cure for all three.) Well, once upon a time... there was Sassy magazine. The thinking teen's guide to music, DIY, and even helpful tips like alternative uses for conditioner (really handy at summer camp). It was less about how to make the boys happy than how to make yourself happy. Well, there's a new book out that sings the praises of Sassy... and remembers the days of the Sassy cult, it's called: How Sassy Changed My Life: A Love Letter To The Greatest Teen Magazine Of All Time. We're going to talk to one of the co-authors... and talk to another grown up Sassy fan, who went on to start Venus 'Zine. In the meantime, please feel free to post why Sassy changed your life! Also, what do you think is the natural offspring of Sassy... Bitch? Bust? (Dare I say it...) Jane?
1:21 PM ET | 04-25-2007 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post
It's one of the thorniest issues in the smallest of districts... voting rights for Washington, D.C. Currently, the District has no representation in the Senate, and just one, non-voting member of the House -- the inimitable and indefatigable Eleanor Holmes Norton (Seriously, click that link. It's her appearance on Comedy Central that aired last night, and it is laugh-out-loud funny. I was just roaring with laughter at my desk and without even looking, (guest host) Rebecca was just like, "Let me guess: Eleanor Holmes Norton's appearance on Colbert?"). Anyway, Congress has passed a bill that would give D.C. a vote (and balance it with another vote for Utah)... but is it constitutional to give a vote to a non-state? On the flipside, should the District's more than half a million taxpayers have no voice in how their money is spent? And what about the remaining 250 million Americans out there - do you even care?
1:19 PM ET | 04-25-2007 | permalink | comments (7) | e-mail post
I've been to exactly one NFL football game in the last 10 years... a Washington Redskins game that didn't have a happy ending. Still, even I can rattle off names like Pacman Jones, Chris Henry, Tank Johnson... and not because of anything they did on the field. Some fifty NFL players got themselves arrested in the last 15 months or so... on charges related to guns, drugs, assault, vandalism, drunk driving, etc, etc, etc (there's a whole website dedicated to players' bad behavior). To crack down, the league came up with tougher rules... including lifetime bans on repeat offenders and even penalties against teams for the off-field mayhem of their players. And this weekend it's game time... the NFL draft will put the new rules to the test, in theory. Will teams change the way they pick players? Most say they will. But, if the scoreboard is in your teams favor at the end of the fourth quarter, do you care that the all-star defensive back shoots up a nightclub in his off-time?
8:27 AM ET | 04-25-2007 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post
When we talked last week about predicting violent behavior, one of the issues that came up was forced treatment. It was just a small part of the show, but we got all sorts of email on the subject. Today, it's our main topic. Forced Treatment... Should it be required? Who decides? And where do you draw the line? We've found two people who ran into these questions in their own lives, and came out on very different sides. Where do you weigh in on forced treatment?
1:27 PM ET | 04-24-2007 | permalink | comments (71) | e-mail post
We all know kids can be cruel... particularly about appearance. If you're an overweight kid, your classmates are unlikely to let you forget it for a second. Used to be, intervention from a teacher or administrator could provide a brief respite for the tormented. But now schools are piling on too, even going so far as to include a student's BMI (body mass index) on his or her report card, right alongside those A's in algebra and Spanish and that B in social studies. Undeniably, obesity is a problem for American kids, and no one wants to see them suffer the health problems that accompany 50 or 100 -- or more -- extra pounds. But what about the mental anguish these kids deal with on a daily basis? Does making BMI a measure like an SAT or SOL score help identify kids in trouble, or does it just magnify their pain? As a parent, do you want your kids' physical fitness on their report cards? How does it help... or hurt?
12:45 PM ET | 04-24-2007 | permalink | comments (25) | e-mail post
Let's Call The Whole Thing Off
Source: HAMACHI!
I grew up in a health-obsessed household; my mother used to ruin perfectly good fro-yo with wheat germ (I swear, I am not kidding...it's like "it's already FRO-YO!!!"). So on the few occasions that I could actually raid the pantry, I was stuck eating baking chocolate. Literally. Which is probably why I developed a taste for the darker, more bitter chocolates (although, who am I kidding, I would pretty much scarf anything down that wasn't wheat germ). I'm not a chocolate snob, per se (I love Cadbury cream eggs and other assorted drugstore chocolates), but I do like the richer, darker blends. Well, get this. A group of food lobbyists (get these titles: the Chocolate Manufacturers Association, the Grocery Manufacturers Association, the Snack Food Association and weirdly, the National Cattlemen's Beef Association-- maybe they just eat a lot of chocolate?) are trying to get the FDA to expand the definition of chocolate, mainly to include substitutes that use vegetable fats and oils instead of delicious, nutritious, and skin-softening, cocoa butter. (Wouldn't it be funny if they expanded it to include broccoli?) This, of course, has chocolate lovers and makers up in arms... how dare they call that waxy stuff chocolate? In the words of a French chocolatier from the book, "Chocolate: A Bittersweet Saga of Dark and Light:" 'Tout ca, c'est ne pas du chocolat. C'est de la confiserie.-- All that isn't chocolate. It's candy.'
11:31 AM ET | 04-24-2007 | permalink | comments (37) | e-mail post
Much has been made about the online connectivity of the students at Virginia Tech... how they instant messaged each other from underneath desks and created memorials to the victims on Facebook. It certainly adds another dimension to the conversation we often have on our airwaves about the privacy generation gap and the web. Students have put so much information about themselves on the web through their Facebook and MySpace pages that it made each victim much more human, much more easily accessible. NPR had pictures up of each student within days after the shooting, and we were able to write mini-bios for our show the next day. I had the heartbreaking anthropological job of finding what was on the web about each student... and I was surprised by how glad I was that these young people had left a trail for me, or anyone who wanted to mourn a little, to find. (On another note, I was also surprised that a common trope: "Any predator can find you on the internet!" turned out to be patently false... especially Facebook. It was impossible to get into the pages of the victims... all the information I culled was from the memorial sites that were made public.)
I have often argued with my own parents about the value of being so easily found on the web... I think the "ick" factor for them is mostly about privacy ("WHY would you want strangers to know anything about you?"). I'm not going to deny that I felt a little creepy reading through the comments about these young people... but in the end, I was glad that I knew that Ross Alameddine was a stickler for grammar, and that Emily Hilscher made too much calamari for her Spanish class. If the gunman and his illness made him dehumanize these students so much that he was able to murder them... then I'm glad that they not only exist, but are still so devastatingly human in the long memory of the web.
4:36 PM ET | 04-23-2007 | permalink | comments (0) | e-mail post
A week after the Virginia Tech massacre, it's as predictable as the post-tragedy media blitz... the post-tragedy gun debate. The "what-ifs" abound: what if Seung Hui Cho hadn't been able to get the guns? What if the students could have carried their own firearms? Surprisingly, the gun laws vary from state to state, and from campus to campus. Hindsight is 20/20, but when it comes to guns, the target is unclear... what do you think the right policy is, given that these terrible incidents don't actually happen that often?
1:00 PM ET | 04-23-2007 | permalink | comments (60) | e-mail post
Last week at this time, we were all glued to our TV sets, watching the awful news out of Virginia Tech. As the number of dead and injured grew, we all understood the depth of the tragedy, but nobody knew the identity of the killer. As the day wore on, and rumors leaked out that the shooter might be Asian, many Asian Americans felt a sense of dread. And, when Seung-Hui Cho was identified, some in the Korean American community confronted a sense of shared responsibility. In an op-ed last week in the Los Angeles Times, Edward Taehan Chang, himself Korean-American, argued that he will not be able to completely shake his sense of responsibility for the tragedy, but he will try. The real lesson of Blacksburg, he says, is that we all need to reach across ethnic lines and racial boundaries to help people see that violence is never the answer. Is this sense of shared responsibility common among ethnic groups? Do you feel worse if you resemble the perpetrator of a crime?
12:59 PM ET | 04-23-2007 | permalink | comments (12) | e-mail post
Sometimes the story of a fallen leader is best told through his or her own words... So today we're going to bring back some archival cuts of former Russian president Boris Yeltsin in the first hour. Then, in hour two, we'll bring on Russia expert Michael McFaul to give us a historical perspective of the man and his legacy. Do you have personal memories of Yeltsin and the tumultuous 90s... the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the coup attempt, the constitutional crisis, the food shortages?
12:58 PM ET | 04-23-2007 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post
Last week, the Supreme Court's ban on the procedure called "intact dilation and extraction," (or "partial birth abortion" by its critics) added fuel to one of the most polarizing issues heating up the airwaves. It's a very confusing issue... particularly since some doctors don't even really understand what the ban will and will not allow. This hour we'll talk about what the ban means... and why this method of abortion is so controversial. For a fascinating primer on the issue, I highly recommend this Harpers article from 2004... it's not for the faint of heart, but it's really interesting to read, given the day's news.
12:57 PM ET | 04-23-2007 | permalink | comments (36) | e-mail post
Our perch above the hearing room.
Source: Blog of the Nation
One of the best things about my job is the little part of my bio that says "back-up director." This means that while I don't often get to direct the show itself, save when the director goes away on a remote, or takes some time off, I often get the opportunity to direct coverage of things like press conferences and hearings. Sometimes, this takes me to exotic locales like the Hart Senate Office Building, where I directed coverage of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales's hearing in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
What does that really mean? Well, let me set it up for you. First, it means I get the best folks in the building packed into a tiny little "booth" - essentially, a skybox for the hearing room. Our engineering and IT folks get there first and set the space up to function as a mini studio. I lucked out, drawing Tom Marchitto and Mike Czaplinski -- engineer and IT pro extraordinnaire -- and we had everything we needed. Neal hosted with "buddies" Ari Shapiro and Nina Totenberg (when I said I got the best, I meant it!), with Nina taking over for 10 solid minutes while Neal ducked out to join Talk of the Nation as a guest (anyone who's ever heard Nina's SCOTUS reports knows that she's a storyteller par excellence, so the time flew). Their seats in our little birds' nest above the hearing room gives them an advantage, since they can really set the scene for the listener, describing the grimace on a witness's face, the attire of interested parties in the viewing area, even which Senator is conferring with whom when the microphones are off. And thanks to the tenacity of super-booker Susan Lund, we even got a sweet interview with committee chair Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) to close out the show... a grand finale that meant 7 people in our closet/studio, but the Senator was gracious and affable. I'm always happy to wrap up and stretch my legs at the end of a long day in our pint-sized perch, but there's nothing that compares to being there, on the hill for all the action.
8:32 AM ET | 04-23-2007 | permalink | comments (0) | e-mail post
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales faced a tough morning of questions from the Senate Judiciary Committee today... with more to come this afternoon. In an opening statement, Gonzales defended the dismissal of eight federal prosecutors, but acknowledged that the process could have... and should have... been handled differently. There were several tense moments, and harsh criticism from senators, including several Republicans. Gonzales is not only defending his particular actions in this case, but also making a broader case for keeping his job. If you've been following the testimony today, what do you think? Should he resign, or has he put those calls to rest?
1:02 PM ET | 04-19-2007 | permalink | comments (19) | e-mail post
My seven-year-old niece is visiting this week, and this morning, while were were munching our cereal, I flipped on Morning Edition. After a few seconds, I lunged for the dial -- it was a report about the mass shootings Monday at Virginia Tech. It turned out my sister had already told her about the "sick man" who had killed so many people, but it made me wonder, how do you talk to kids about this kind of event, especially when it happens in their world, at school? We'll talk to Amy Dickinson about it today (it is Thursday), as well as a child psychiatrist... so if you have questions about how to talk about this horrifying event with kids of any age, post them here.
1:00 PM ET | 04-19-2007 | permalink | comments (3) | e-mail post
It's a secretive organization devoted to spreading a fundamentalist version of Islam throughout the world. It preaches peace, but also offers support for suicide bombings and inspiration to violent jihadists. Newsweek journalist Michael Isikoff and colleague Mark Hosenball tracked down some of the most dynamic personalities in and around the Brotherhood. And in a documentary for PBS, were left wondering: Should the U.S. befriend or be-foe the Brotherhood?
11:04 AM ET | 04-19-2007 | permalink | comments (0) | e-mail post
Yesterday's Blackberry outage helps explains why my Wednesday morning commute was a little crazier than usual. The blank stares of crackberry withdrawal is unmistakable (it sure seemed to me like there were more traffic accidents, and I'm sure more than one person walked into an inanimate object while installing new batteries on the go). The best (worst?) story of the great Blackberry outage of 2007, though, was from this guy. Losing your primary connection to the outside world is tough enough, but losing your girlfriend because of lousy tech support seems just plain wrong. Any other horror stories from yesterday morning... meetings missed, deals blown, dates lost?
9:58 AM ET | 04-19-2007 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post
Almost as soon as NBC aired the video sent to it by Virginia Tech killer Sueng-hui Cho the blogosphere was responding. And not everything it was saying was particularly kind to NBC.
At the Webloggin blog the site's editor said that by airing the video Cho had "won."
Don't get me wrong here; I think the video and manifesto are newsworthy. I just think there are perhaps better ways to handle their release. I am opposed to the piecemeal release that NBC is already subjecting us to. It seems to me that NBC will be making this the story as opposed to the tragic and needless death of the innocent victims of Cho. I truly want to understand what may have triggered the planned methodical killing but I don't want to do anything that would validate his actions. He was clearly mentally ill and the signs were there for many to see.
I truly want to understand what may have triggered the planned methodical killing but I don't want to do anything that would validate his actions. He was clearly mentally ill and the signs were there for many to see.
Not everyone, however, was so quick to condemn NBC's actions. Xeni Jardin at Boing Boing (and a contibutor to NPR's Day to Day) has created a comprehensive package about the video as well as commentary from other blogs about Cho's actions.
Here is a breakdown of what NBC received from Cho, courtesy of The Watcher blog at the Chicago Tribune. The Associated Press also offers an extended version of the video that was shown by MSNBC.
Tom Regan
7:17 PM ET | 04-18-2007 | permalink | comments (20) | e-mail post
As we heard on the show yesterday, the suspected gunman in the Virginia Tech shootings showed signs of trouble long before Monday. VT Professor Lucinda Roy told us that she was "very concerned" about Seung-Hui Cho and tried to reach out to the police, and counselors, to try to get help. Back in 2005, we heard this morning, Cho reportedly was accused of stalking two female students at VT. He was also taken to a mental health facility over worries that he was suicidal. All of which makes you wonder, could this have been prevented? Nobody knows for sure what drove Cho to violence on Monday morning, and we will likely never know. But, can violence ever be predicted?
2:17 PM ET | 04-18-2007 | permalink | comments (52) | e-mail post
The attorney general may be nervous about his testimony in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee tomorrow, but that's nothing compared to the butterflies Ken Rudin gets when he faces off against Neal Conan every Wednesday. Yes, it's political junkie day, and there's plenty to talk about. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, of course, faces a grilling in the senate tomorrow. There's a race for the governor's mansion in three states, including post-Katrina Louisiana. And the Virginia Tech shooting has taken on a political angle, as well. We'll talk with Representative Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY), about the renewed focus on gun control.
2:16 PM ET | 04-18-2007 | permalink | comments (6) | e-mail post
Yesterday, when I was leaving work, I kept everybody waiting for at least five minutes while I searched for my car keys. I emptied my purse, turned out my pockets, retraced my steps, and came up with nothing (don't you hate it when something jangles in your purse, and it's NOT your keys? I want to ban change for that reason ALONE). It turned out that I had forgotten that I'd purposefully put them on a certain corner of my desk just so I wouldn't lose them... and then piled a bunch of papers on top, helpfully. The thing is... that kind of thing does happen more as you get older... forties are fabulous, but also forgetful. In the new book Carved In Sand, journalist Cathryn Jakobson Ramin probes the depths of that black hole, and finds more then a set of lost keys... from a number of different perspectives; physiology, psychology, and sociology. So send in your questions for her... she can tell you how to get that noggin running up to speed.
2:15 PM ET | 04-18-2007 | permalink | comments (10) | e-mail post
The high court.
Source: David Banks, NPR
It's hard to think of anything but Virginia Tech making news today, but it turns out the Supreme Court has... for the first time ever, they've chosen to uphold a ban on an abortion procedure -- in this case, the procedure medically known as "intact dilation and extraction," or what critics call partial birth abortion. There's a lot of confusion about that term, and when and how often women undergo this procedure, and you can find a helpful explainer here. How did the retirement of Sandra Day O'Connor from the bench and the addition of Justice Samuel A. Alito affect the decision? Is this a reasonable limit placed on an unfortunate procedure, or a stripping-away of a woman's right to choose? Court expert David Savage (officially, Supreme Court Reporter for the Los Angeles Times) joins us to sift through the decision and its ramifications.
2:14 PM ET | 04-18-2007 | permalink | comments (8) | e-mail post
Andy Carvin, who writes the Learning.Now blog for PBS (and who also works for NPR helping us create new ways for our visitors and audience to interact with us and with each other) writes about how events like Virginia Tech, once again, act as a wake-up call for better emergency preparedness.
I have no doubt that universities that don't have mandatory cell phone requirements or SMS alert systems are going to take the idea a lot more seriously now. But will K-12 schools? I'm skeptical. There is enormous opposition to allowing students to possess phones on campus, even though many parents argue they're necessary for emergency communications. Some administrations will respond by saying the chances of a real emergency are slim, and students can't be trusted to use them responsibly. Yes, an emergency on the scale of Virginia Tech are few and far between, but smaller-scale emergencies do happen from time to time. When more school shootings happen - and they will happen - it's likely that more parents will be outraged by the fact their schools made it difficult or impossible to communicate with their children. And there will come a time when we will have no choice but to allow our students to carry communications devices. It may not be this month or even this year, but it will happen.
Some administrations will respond by saying the chances of a real emergency are slim, and students can't be trusted to use them responsibly. Yes, an emergency on the scale of Virginia Tech are few and far between, but smaller-scale emergencies do happen from time to time. When more school shootings happen - and they will happen - it's likely that more parents will be outraged by the fact their schools made it difficult or impossible to communicate with their children. And there will come a time when we will have no choice but to allow our students to carry communications devices. It may not be this month or even this year, but it will happen.
2:12 PM ET | 04-18-2007 | permalink | comments (0) | e-mail post
Increasingly, ordinary people who find themselves in the middle of extraordinary events become citizen reporters, thanks to modern technology like cell phones that take digital pictures and video, or social networking sites like MySpace, Facebook, or their own blogs.
OhMyNews.com, the South Korean citizen journalism site, makes this comment about the role played by student Jamal Albarghouti, who recorded a much-seen video on his cell phone.
Again, Albarghouti and his cellphone video have shown the power of the ordinary citizen to capture a news event. Granted that the efforts of ordinary people as citizen journalists are a matter for debate, the traditional media still make a reflexively negative comparison between citizen journalism and that provided by professionals. Interestingly, when presented with a citizen who sent an exclusive report to the mainstream media, as Albarghouti did to CNN's I-Report, they insist on wondering, in grudging amazement, "What made you record the event? How did you record it?"
1:29 PM ET | 04-18-2007 | permalink | comments (0) | e-mail post
Regular listeners know that Tuesday is the day we read from your emails and blog posts on the show. Needless to say, this week the news out of Virginia Tech took priority. Rather than filing away some perfectly good emails, though, I thought I'd post them here at the blog instead...
Our conversation last week about Don Imus's crude remarks directed at the Rutgers women's basketball team elicited hundreds of emails. Penny in Phoenix took issue with the argument, and the defense, that Imus just repeated words used everyday in hip hop music:
Continue reading "Hey, You Didn't Read My Email" »
11:03 AM ET | 04-18-2007 | permalink | comments (0) | e-mail post
Once the Chicago Tribune reported Tuesday that shooter Sueng-Hui Cho died with the words "Ismail Ax" written in red ink on his arm, it sparked a blogging and web search frenzy to find out what it meant.
The Sydney Morning Herald reports that the blogosphere was filled with postings about what the words might mean. Technorati.com, a web site that tracks the blogosphere, said that by late afternoon Tuesday, there were nearly 300 blog posts regarding Ismail Ax.
Sadly, after events like this one, some people do things that appear grotesque. The Morning Herald also reports that a TV repair shop owner in Corpus Christi, Texas, registered the domain name http://www.ismailax.com the morning after the shootings.
9:33 AM ET | 04-18-2007 | permalink | comments (0) | e-mail post
The global response to the shootings at Virginia Tech was overwhelming sympathetic toward the victims and their families and just as overwhelming negative towards Americans' fascination with guns.
Some of the most severe criticism came from Australian Prime Minister John Howard, who is one of President Bush's most loyal allies in Iraq. The Melbourne Herald Sun newspaper reports that Howard, who is currently in a tough re-election fight, told Australians that he would "ensure an American-style gun culture did not flourish in Australia."
Mr Howard said the Federal Government had acted quickly after gunman Martin Bryant went on a rampage and killed 35 people in Port Arthur in southeastern Tasmania, Australia, in 1996. "We had a terrible incident at Port Arthur, but it is the case that 11 years ago we took action to limit the availability of guns and we showed a national resolve that the gun culture that is such a negative in the United States would never become a negative in our country."
"We had a terrible incident at Port Arthur, but it is the case that 11 years ago we took action to limit the availability of guns and we showed a national resolve that the gun culture that is such a negative in the United States would never become a negative in our country."
9:14 AM ET | 04-18-2007 | permalink | comments (13) | e-mail post
Two days after one of the worst mass shootings in the history of the United States, a portrait of killer Seung-Hui Cho is being to emerge.
The Washington Post reports that when Cho was so disturbing to his professors at Virginia Tech, that when Prof. Lucinda Roy offered to teach him poetry one-on-one, colleagues asked if she wanted protection. Roy also told CNN that she was so worried about Cho's behavior that she went to the police and university officials with her concerns.
USAToday reports that fellow students "laughed nervously" when he read scenes of violence and mayhem in his playwriting class. "I guess you could say the signs were there, and now they're just clear in retrospect," said classmate Stephanie Derry.
McClatchy says authorities are having troubles finding out details about him because he was so isolated. Even very few in the close-knit South Korean community on campus [there are about 750 students from South Korea or of South Korean descent attending Virginia Tech] know much about him.
His roommates, interviewed by ABCNews, said that he was a loner who barely spoke to them. Roommate from previous years (Cho was a senior) said Cho "stalked" three different women and that one of them was so "freaked out by his behavior" that she called the police on him.
8:55 AM ET | 04-18-2007 | permalink | comments (3) | e-mail post
Blogs have been a valuable source of information for NPR and other media outlets since the shooting started yesterday. There are, however, advantages to the old habits of mainstream media (MSM as the bloggers call us). One of them is making sure our the facts check out before you put them publish, broadcast or post them.
Wired reports that many bloggers originally misidentified the shooter in yesterday's rampage at Virginia Tech, linking to "to the LiveJournal blog of a particular 23-year-old gun nut in Virginia." It turned out that this person was not connected to the shootings.
We'll be offline for a few hours. Back later tonight.
5:25 PM ET | 04-17-2007 | permalink | comments (0) | e-mail post
