Very different workplace tell-alls...

Public Affairs Books/Grand Central Publishing

 

By now you've probably heard... Former White House press secretary Scott McClellan has written a memoir about his years in the White House, and his boss? Well, he doesn't come off too well. Workplace memoirs -- be they lightly fictionalized, a'la The Devil Wears Prada, thinly veiled a'la Confessions of a Video Vixen, or relatively straightforward -- seem to flop only if they fail to dish the dirt. So, obviously, a contract with a fat advance is one of the reasons to write one, but why else? Maybe you want to set the record straight, or blow the whistle, or establish your place in history. And if you blog about your job, no matter how covertly, you're really doing it too. The only place I blog about my job is right here, in plain sight -- how do you do it? And why?

No way would Kass's card work for Mr. SJP (not that he'd try!).

Source: Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images

I was so excited to see Sex and the City the other night, I arrived at the press screening nerdily early. I would have been happy to see it by myself -- but I did bring my fiance, as a sort of test of OUR LOVE. He passed with flying colors (i.e. only mild disgruntlement when he realized that the movie was not a half hour, but five times that). If only he had known that there does exist in cyberspace such thing as a Get Out of Watching the Sex and the City Movie Card. Dreamed up by the ever-vinegary John Kass, it should do the trick. BUT. Guess what gents, if you ever want me to see your precious Big Lebowski or Star Wars part FOUR HUNDRED, you might want to just suck it up and tell me I'm a Carrie. Humph.

It's daunting -- trying to plan your wedding, or, as most people call it, THE HAPPIEST DAY OF YOUR LIFE (THDOYL). I am affianced to a lovely man, and in the throes of THDOYL planning. There's so much that can go wrong -- your best man could get drunk, your bouquet could cause an allergy, it could rain on your shantung, your maid of honor could reveal the secrets of your high school deflowering, your flower girl could call you Aunt Chubby, your groom could get cold feet, your groom could not get cold feet, your hairpiece could end up in the cake, your mother in law could faint, your ex-spouse could show up unannounced, your dress could get tucked into your underwear... well, you get the idea. That's the problem with THYDOYL. ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN. It is, as you might have guessed, a caps-inducing kind of anxiety. Never fear -- Claire Lewis is a wedding photographer -- and she's seen it all (and written about it). We've got all the advice you ever wanted -- and tips on how to give a great toast without ruining a friendship (no one is promising that you won't need a little vodka). I swear -- we are not doing this show to make me feel better, FYI.

Adnan Pachachi.

Karim Sahib/AFP/Getty Images

 

Before Saddam Hussein came to power, Adnan Pachachi served as Iraq's foreign minister and ambassador to the United Nations. Now, after many decades in exile, he is president of Iraq's governing council.

In 2004, documentarian Martin Smith asked Pachachi if he thought there was enough nationalism in Iraq to hold the country together. Pachachi's reply was optimistic:

I think there is. Not only nationalism, but also I think the majority of Iraq is secular in outlook. We must not forget that the religious parties are political parties using religion as a means of acquiring power. But I think the majority of Iraqis are secular in outlook. They do not belong [to] or support necessarily any of the religious parties, whether Sunni, or Shia, for that matter.

In that same interview, he downplayed the role Moqtada al-Sadr might play in Iraq: "He can stir up trouble in some areas," Pachachi said. " But I don't think he has any national appeal all over the country."

Pachachi -- a liberal, secular Sunni -- will join us at the end of our second hour, to take your questions. What would you like to ask the most-senior member of Iraq's parliament?

Leaks about Scott McClellan's upcoming book, giving his insider account of the White House, is making headline news. But what actual backlash do authors of tell-all books receive?

In our first hour, several authors who have written tell-all-books about their workplaces explain why they did it -- and what their lives are like afterwards.

Okay, here I must confess that I have been anxiously waiting to check out the Sex and the City movie that opens tomorrow. As I speak, the emails are flying into my inbox from girlfriends, trying to nail down what time we get all gussied up, down our Cosmos, and head to the theater. As we debate and argue, the tickets are selling fast. I do understand that this whole process of picking the perfect time is clearly a girl thing...and paradoxically MEN all over the country wish those tickets would mysteriously disappear into outer space before they are dragged to the theater by their significant others. Well, guys, before you wish some nasty virus on your wife or girlfriend that keeps them homebound for the next two months, listen to the end of today's first hour. Chicago Tribune columnist John Kass will give some advice on how to get out of watching the Sex and the City movie. No broken legs required!!!

So, assuming your relationship survives the Sex and the City opening, in our second hour, we'll talk about weddings!!! Weddings are supposed to be one of the happiest days that can happen in a lifetime. But author Claire Lewis tells tales about bridezillas, grooms with cold feet and embarrassing best man toasts in her new book called, Exposed: Confessions of a Wedding Photographer. So let's hear your wedding story. Got a memorable one? Call us or send in your blog comments in our second hour.

Following that, we'll talk with Adnan Pachachi about his time served as Iraq's foreign minister and ambassador to the United Nations. Pachachi will talk about the future of Iraq and his current position as the senior elected member of Iraq's parliament.

There can be few of us who have never fantasized about a movie being made about our lives -- I can't tell you the number of beery, after-work conversations during which my co-workers and I cast the NPR movie (I usually get Dustin Hoffman). Twice this week -- once on purpose, once by happenstance -- we spoke with players/characters in the HBO film Recount, which debuted last Sunday night, about the battle in Florida after the 2002 presidential election.

On Tuesday, we asked Democrat Mitchell Berger and Republican Ben Ginsburg to review the picture, and to talk about what it was like to see representations of themselves (actors Bruce Altman and Bob Balaban, respectively) on the screen. Berger joined us by phone, so I can't tell you how good the casting was in his case, but the resemblance between Ginsburg and Balaban is simply uncanny. With one important distinction. If you heard the segment, Ginsburg is both warm and quite funny. I accept that those qualities may not have shone through amid the bitterness in Florida, but Balaban played him as, yes, smart and tough and highly partisan, but also as, well, a pill. He didn't come across that way in Studio 3A at all.

Then yesterday, when we wanted to talk with somebody about the process of choosing a vice presidential candidate with Political Junkie Ken Rudin, we booked Ron Klain. A former chief of staff to Vice President Al Gore, he played a big part in the selection of Sen. Joe Lieberman as the running mate. He also played a huge part in Florida in 2000 and, as played by Kevin Spacey, was pretty much the lead character in Recount. He told us that he has lots more hair than Spacey (he's right) and I noted that he looks a lot younger, too, but, in the few minutes we got to spend with him, he came across very much like the character as Spacey played him.

We should all be so lucky when our movies get cast.

Moe... Moe... Is that a good name for a vice president? How about Tim? Or Ed? Or Bill, Haley, or Sonny? What about Condoleezza? Is your head spinning yet?

Imagine you're the one making the selection. Every potential running mate brings advantages to the ticket... and baggage, too. After a weekend barbecue in Sedona, everyone's buzzing about Mitt, Bobby, Charlie and Meg... and until the Dem's contest is settled once and for all, both the first and second names on the ticket are up for debate. Who's your pick for McCain's mate? And how do you see things panning out on the Democratic ticket?

Stepping up to the podium again...

Stephen Jaffe/AFP/Getty Images

 

You have to love a tell-all; it gets everyone's papers in a twist. Today's apologia du jour is Scott McClellan's. He spent three years as the White House press secretary, speaking for the Bush Administration, and now he's speaking for himself. And he has got A Lot To Say. Looking for the juicy bits in his memoir What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception, is a bit like looking for the dirty bits in one of Judith Krantz's novels -- you gotta flip a bit, but there's a lot to be found, so settle in.

A couple of outlets have reporters that have burned the midnight oil reading the book -- today we'll talk to The Wall Street Journal -- and let you in on McClellan's secrets. Of note -- revelations about Valerie Plame (or more accurately, revelations about the revelations), Hurricane Katrina, and the run-up to the Iraq war. We'll tell you what's between the pages.

ALSO, look for a chance, in the next couple of weeks, to talk to McClellan yourself. We'll have him on soon!

It's been a busy morning. My alarm clock didn't go off... I had guests to book... Scott McLellan surprised us all... I'll throw it over to Susannah George, who generously offered to blog today. (Thanks, Susannah!)

Today, our show is all about covering the campaign, but first, just to dispel any rumors, there was once a time when we weren't on the campaign trail. I know, I checked. The Washington Post's Campaign '08 Blog doesn't not snake back into eternity... Only about a year.

Today we've got three reporters from the field (trail?), to tell us what it's really like out there, in the wilds of Campaign '08. NPR's very-own Don Gonyea and David Greene, as well as Elizabeth Holmes of The Wall Street Journal.

Gonyea has been covering the campaign of Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL), Greene has been trailing Senator Hilary Clinton (D-NY) and ... I'm stealing David Gura's words here because they are just so good... Elizabeth Holmes has been on "The Straight Talk Express" with Senator John McCain (R-AZ).

What do you want to know about life on the trail, the bus or The Express, for that matter? From the rock-star-esque moments (think Obama-Oprah) to the tedium (the differences between primaries and causes, for instance), theses guys have it all... Leave your questions. Post your reminiscences.

It's not often we get to launch a new segment on the show around here, but that's what we're doing today. "A Question of Ethics" will be your chance to take the editor's chair and tell us how you would cover a story.

Since the presidential election is the story that just keeps on giving these days, we'll start there. Last week, Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) defended her decision to stay in the race to the editorial board of a South Dakota newspaper. At one point she said, "You know, my husband did not wrap up the nomination in 1992 until he won the California primary somewhere in the middle of June, right? We all remember, Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California." She got pounded by supporters of Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL), who argued the comment was in poor taste. The Clinton camp responded that her words were taken far out of context. And coverage in the media varied from front page news to a brief mention at the end of a newscast.

So, here's our question to you: Let's say YOU are the editor... Do you put the story on the front page? Do you think the news media handled the story responsibly?

So, yesterday, producer Susannah George and I were in the screening room for our second hour show. Great topic, great guests -- lots of good debate. Everything was fine until I noticed that Susannah, who was screening calls, looked like she was in the middle of a marathon. Our listeners are passionate, and when you're on the receiving end, it can be pretty tiring. Take it away, Susannah!

To all the TOTN callers who may have been frustrated between 3 and 3:40pm eastern yesterday, it was me -- I was the one screening your calls. We have no way to estimate how many calls we get for a show like yesterday's second hour (Talking To Your Enemies), but I assure you, I was answering calls non-stop for the entire forty minutes. When we screen calls here at TOTN, our objective is to get a wide range of opinions and stories on the air, and yesterday, for whatever reason, most of the calls that came through were a variation of the opinion that "we should always talk to our enemies."

One caller had a particularly militant approach to keeping the lines of communication open -- he called back four times to reiterate his view that we should always negotiate with our enemies. The first two times he simply stated his opinion. The third time he shouted a variation of said opinion. And the last time he called, he simply said (with a surprising degree of composure) "-expletive- you," and hung up.

This story is a perfect example of what Professor Robert Kaufman was trying to explain. If you don't understand how your enemy calculates risk, then, not only are negotiations useless, but they can also be harmful. In the case of yesterday's negotiations -- if you don't know how the screener screens calls, (i.e. if we already have many of the same comments on hold) repeated calls can actually hurt your case, not to mention the relationship with the screener (I don't know for sure, but I assume that the caller used an obscenity out of frustration, and regrets it... deeply). So remember: before you engaged in the negotiation we like to call screening, pull a Nixon, not a Kennedy and read our screening guidelines.

--Susannah George

Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt with two of their adopted kids, Zahara and Maddox.

Source: Sevastian D'Souza/AFP/Getty Images

In the interest of getting as many minority kids out of foster care and into loving homes as possible, the Multiethnic Placement Act promotes a color-blind approach to adoptions... In other words, it's legally prohibited "the delay or denial of any adoption or placement in foster care due to the race, color, or national origin of the child or of the foster or adoptive parents." On the face, it sounds good -- more kids in solid, intact families instead of the ups and downs of foster care. Like most things, though, it's more complicated than that.

According to a new report from the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute and endorsed by a multitude of others, the act has caused agencies to shy away from discussions of race at all, leaving adoptive parents unprepared to help their new children through the challenges of growing up in a family of a different race. Have you adopted children of another race, or did you grow up in a family where your parents didn't look like you? What sorts of resources could have made the process easier?

In the future, soldiers with chronic post-traumatic stress disorder may benefit from a new form of therapy, called Virtual Iraq. According to writer Sue Halpern, a small group of test subjects has "worked through their combat trauma in a computer-simulated environment. The portal was a head-mounted display (a helmet with a pair of video goggles), earphones, a scent-producing machine, and a modified version of Full Spectrum Warrior, a popular video game."

In her article, published in The New Yorker, Halpern cites several damning statistics from a study by the RAND Corporation: "...nearly twenty per cent of Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans are suffering from P.T.S.D. or major depression. Almost half won't seek treatment." For those soldiers, Virtual Iraq, designed and built by Albert "Skip" Rizzo, a professor at the University of Southern California, might make treatment more palatable.

At the end of our first hour, we'll talk with Halpern and Rizzo. Have you played Full Spectrum Warrior? What is it like? If you're a soldier or veteran, do you play video games?

As this year's presidential campaign gets closer to November, the differences between the candidates begin to emerge more sharply. One main area of difference between presumptive Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and the man who appears most likely to win the Democratic nomination, Sen.Barack Obama (D-IL) is whether or not we should talk to bad guys - leaders of countries hostile to the United States.

Obama really started the debate when he said, in July of 2007, that he would talk to leaders of countries like Iran and North Korea under the right circumstances, because the Bush policies of little contact over the past eight years had proven ineffective.

McCain has responded by calling Obama naive and said it would go against tradition for a U.S. president to speak with the "bad guys."

Both main have tweaked their positions on the past few weeks, but it's generated lots of controversy.

But the realpolitik of the situation is that, as several analyzes of the issue have pointed out, American presidents have talked with the bad guys in the past. The FactChecker at The Washington Post gave both McCain and Obama each two Pinocchios for their positions on the issue: McCain for "for suggesting that Obama has departed from the political mainstream by being willing to talk to America's enemies," and Obama for trying to twist the historical record to back his position.

Today in The Washington Post, president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations Leslie Gelb writes that, in the end, all presidents "talk to the bad guys." There are some people with whom you can't talk because they are more madman than bad guys - Gelb mentions Ahmedinejad and Hamas exiled leader Khaled Meshal -- but that doesn't mean you can't deal with their followers.

"Simply put, if you won't deal with bad guys, don't go into the foreign policy business," Gelb says.

Do you agree? Is talking to "the bad guys" (that very loaded word) appeasement? Or is it dealing with the reality of the situation? Do the conditions of the conversation make a difference to you opinion?

Scenery chewing is not really a new thing for Laura Dern, but given that she nibbles it a different way each time, it's definitely worth watching. Her latest big role is as Medea, sorry, Katherine Harris, in the HBO movie Recount which premiered Sunday night. It's an insider look at the endgame of the 2000 election. Here's what's really great about the movie besides Dern -- and the amazing Tom Wilkinson -- it's so suspenseful that it's easy to forget that you already know how it ends. Still, we wondered how people who were portrayed in the movie felt about it -- so we'll be talking to the real deal today; Ben Ginsburg, National Counsel to the Bush-Cheney campaign in 2000, and Mitchell Berger, who was a Senior Adviser to the Gore-Lieberman campaign. Got a review of your own? Bring it.

Here's what's happening on today's show:

In 1994, the Multiethnic Placement Act was put into place, stating that foster parents cannot request a specific race for their foster children. Today, a report was released that criticizes the act because of the challenges minority children face in all-white households. The report also suggests that white parents aren't properly prepared to help minority children cope in an all-white environment. We'll discuss details the new report in our first hour, and we hope to hear from you about your personal experience with multi-racial adoption. Following that, we'll be joined by the developer of "Virtual Iraq," a immersion therapy program that places soldiers in "virtual" high-stress environments to help treat those suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. At the end of the hour, we'll read from your email and blog comments .

Under what (if any) circumstance should you initiate direct talks with your enemy? In our second hour, we'll talk to people on both sides of the issue of appeasement. Author Robert Kaufman, professor of Public Policy at Pepperdine University, is skeptical about negotiating with our enemies. However, Leslie Gelb, President Emeritus of the Council on Foreign relations, believes that talking with our enemies can produce positive results. Following that discussion, we'll talk with two of the real people portrayed by actors in the HBO movie, Recount. The film pulls back the veil on the controversial 2000 Bush-Gore election and chronicles the five weeks of ballot recounting in Florida.

At my sister's baby shower, she received a lot of goods from the Gap. It's hard to avoid it. Yet, my father, who is a business professor, turned a pair of tiny socks over in his hands, and said to me, "This Gap place is GREAT! People should invest in it!" It was pretty cute -- but also amazing -- given that at this time, the Gap was ubiquitous, and I'm willing to bet he was actually wearing something from there at the time. So, in the grand tradition of pointing out things that people already love, let me introduce something absurdly not new to you.

A dear friend of mine (I'm saying that to name drop mostly) has been working on a column about Young Adult literature -- it combines a couple of high arts -- belles-lettres, criticism, and Judy Blume, and yes, it's just as much fun as that sounds. It's called Fine Lines, and you can find it in that treasure trove of blogging, Jezebel, a neo-feminist blog (don't ask, I don't know what it means, but I know I mean it) that I've probably already drooled over more than once on these digital pages. Fine Lines takes a nostalgic look at that category of books that looks like candy on the shelves, but is actually more like a fine helping of vegetables. It includes books that you were assigned to read, and didn't know were going to UTTERLY and COMPLETELY shape your life, but it also includes the books you were ashamed to take out of the library because they had the glow of puberty about them -- and so did you. I'm going to stop writing about the column in specific right now, because I'm wasting valuable time that you could be reading it, but I want to point out my favorite entry, about Summer of My German Soldier -- which is one of the first books I read that actually made me sob. (And I swear to you, I had already read Where the Red Fern Grows AND A Summer To Die by then.) I felt so deeply hurt by the ending of the book -- all the other sad books I'd read up till then had hinged on death. Death, you can't help -- pigs and spiders have to die, and worse, so do friends and family. But Bette Greene's novel points out a terrible truth -- sometimes tragedy is within everyone's control -- you can't blame it on anything except for people doing bad things, selfishly, and sometimes, cruelly. Go read that entry, right now. Right now! And re-read the book. And weep.

But wait! One more thing I want to say. Fine Lines is a lovely example of what blogging hath wrought, a stark comparison to the vain and self-absorbed efforts that should make the Gray Lady blush. Fine Lines is soul-stirring -- but The New York Times Magazine cover story is soul-stealing. The former creates community by inviting everyone who's ever loved the Little House series to the table, and comparing notes. And not just the cool girls -- the only requisite is proof of your passion. The latter splinters that community into little shards -- and then turns inward, absorbed in its own wounds. That's not to say that there's no place for snark, for sarcasm, for a delicious bit of gossip -- but without reflection, it ends up as insubstantial and inconsequential as a Slam Book. And mercifully, like a Slam Book, you can outgrow it. So save your bile, people -- and head over to Fine Lines. And then maybe to the Gap! They have cute summer stuff.

Now that we are officially in unofficial summer territory, it's time to talk summer travel. And the theme this year (see the post earlier today on staycations) is: cheap! American Airlines wants $15 to check a bag... Yes, the first bag... And lots of airlines now charge $25 for additional baggage. Gas is well over $4 a gallon in some cities. And people are generally bummed about the economy. What's a frugal traveler to do? Don't cancel the trip, just look for ways to save... and for less expensive destinations.

One tip: Skip the fancy restaurants and try the street food. We'll talk with an editor from Concierge.com about their list of the best street food venders in the world (take special note of the precaution to bring a good appetite AND a bottle of Pepto, just case). And if airlines want to charge by the bag, you might want to pack lighter. The creator of onebag.com will give us tips on how to lessen your load. And since the best advice may just come from your fellow travelers, we'll talk with the editor of Budget Travel magazine about their recent issue... It was almost entirely created with submissions from its readers.

Where do you go for ideas on how to travel cheap? Want to share any?

On the Opinion Page today, New York Times columnist Frank Rich joins us to talk about his column, Memorial Day at 'South Pacific'. The Rogers and Hammerstein musical is the hottest ticket on Broadway right now, and as Rich points out, the show is unexpectedly poignant on Memorial Day:

Watching "South Pacific" now, we're forced to contemplate Iraq, which we're otherwise pretty skilled at avoiding. Most of us don't have family over there. Most of us long ago decided the war was a mistake and tuned out. Most of us have stopped listening to the president who ginned it up. This month, in case you missed it, he told an interviewer that he had made the ultimate sacrifice of giving up golf for the war's duration because "I don't want some mom whose son may have recently died to see the commander in chief playing golf."

"South Pacific" reminds us that those whose memory we honor - including those who served in - are always at the mercy of the leaders who send them into battle. It increases our admiration for the selflessness of Americans fighting in Iraq. They, unlike their counterparts in World War II, do their duty despite answering to a commander in chief who has been both reckless and narcissistic. You can't watch "South Pacific" without meditating on their sacrifices for this blunderer, whose wife last year claimed that "no one suffers more" over Iraq than she and her husband do.

Have you seen the show? If so, did you think of the two wars we're fighting today, in Afghanistan and Iraq?

What is Ashley like?

David Gura/NPR

 

My colleague, Ashley Grashaw, familiar to regular readers of this blog, isn't here today. She's in sunny California, lying on the beach, drinking milkshakes with Lauren Conrad and Heidi Montag (separately, of course).

So, in her absence, I'll use her half of our office to introduce Snoop: What Your Stuff Says About You. The author of the book, Sam Gosling, is an associate professor of psychology at the University of Texas. If he visits someone's house, apartment, or cluttered desk (see above), Gosling is able to piece together a profile of that person. It's pretty impressive.

Take a minute and look around. What is on the walls? What is on your desk? And what do you think all of that stuff says about who you are? And if you have any questions for Gosling, you can leave those here too.

And if you want to play profiler, look at the image above. Tell me, what is Ashley like? When she gets back to town, we'll have her tell you if you're right or wrong.

Archaeology departments may want to write thank-you notes to Harrison Ford, who brought George Lucas' Dr. Henry Walton Jones, Jr., alias "Indy," to life on the silver screen.

Already, the Indiana Jones franchise has earned many millions of dollars. Last weekend, the newest installment, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, made $126 million. Surely some of those young devotees, eager to pay $10 for a ticket, have thought, "Gee, this guy is cool. Maybe I should be an archaeologist, too." Little do they know, though, that most archaeologists don't wear leather or fight fascist enemies. They spend most days in the hot sun, using spoons to unearth pieces of pottery. OK, that's oversimplifying things...

We'll talk with archaeologist Fred Hiebert, an archeology fellow at the National Geographic Society. He is the curator of a new show, on display here in Washington, called Afghanistan: Hidden Treasures from the National Museum, Kabul. It opened yesterday.

What questions do you have for Hiebert, a real archaeologist? Does he carry a bull whip? Does he sport a rakish fedora?

I keep seeing this term "staycation" popping up this weekend. As in... gas is too expensive and the economy is in the toilet, so instead of a summer vacation we're going to have a staycation at home. I get where the idea comes from, but if I'm at home it ain't no vacation (there's always something to clean or paint or replace, which may mean my staycation will be more expensive than an actual vacation). Still there are some good tips out there for putting together a nice family staycation: Melanie Wells, an editor at Forbes shares the joys of her staycation in The Wall Street Journal:

It was a Fodor's-free holiday without luggage, hotels, airplanes or foreign currency. We vacationed in Brooklyn, N.Y., where we live, and our only rare luxury was a month of unhurried hang-out time. We basked in the comforts of home and, just outside, a city we typically don't have much time to explore.

Los Angeles Times blogger Kathy Price-Robinson offered some tips for proper home staycation prep:

Wash the windows.... Plan a few creative projects.... Buy a new outdoor grill.... Stock up on books and read them.

News10 in Indiana suggests checking out some of the fun things to do in your own community.

And for their part, stores are ready to help out with plenty of "staycation sales."

I'm still a staycation skeptic, but anyone try it out for the holiday weekend? Have any tips for making a staycation more like a vacation?

Elizabeth Edwards, preparing to testify in front of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, about the challenges and opportunities on finding cures for cancer.

Alex Wong/Getty Images

 

The first time the illness of a public figure really made an impact on the American public happened on the evening of Sept. 24, 1955. That was the day that President Dwight Eisenhower had a heart attack. Unlike previous presidents who had been struck ill -- Woodrow Wilson in 1919 for instance -- Eisenhower released detailed information about his condition to the public (although it was a very controlled release).

By today's standards (which we'll discuss below), not much came to light. But at the time, it stunned people to learn that their president was so sick, and many Americans wanted to know why it had happened. Suddenly Americans were learning that the food that you eat -- and the cigarettes you smoke -- could make you very sick indeed.

These days, with 24/7 media, the illness of a public figure quickly becomes a major story -- for instance, the news this week that Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA) has a brain tumor. Another recent example is Elizabeth Edwards' battle with breast cancer.

Often these illness can lead to a great deal more information about a particular illness making its way into the public mind share. Past examples include; the late-Mickey Mantle's liver replacement and what it did for raising awareness of organ donation; "Magic" Johnson's battle with HIV/AIDS reduced the stigma associated with the disease; and the late President Reagan's battle with Alzheimer's made more people aware of it's debilitating effects.

Great good can come out of this otherwise tragic situation. But sometimes so many conflicting stories about these illnesses can sometimes muddy the situation, rather than clarify it. For instance, the debate in the media this week about how long people live after getting the kind of brain tumor inflicting Kennedy. Cable news networks eagerly trot out medical experts to declare a disease is either this or that. Few discuss the actual nuances of the situation.

On today's show we'll talk to Dr. Barron H. Lerner, a historian and professor of medicine and public health at Columbia University Medical Center, whose recent book When Illness Goes Public: Celebrity Patients and How We Look at Medicine, examined this very issue. Elizabeth Edwards will join us, too. What questions do you have for them?

Other shows have talked about Oscar Pistorius. Today, ladies and gentlemen, we're talking with him. The South African sprinter, who is a double amputee, will join us in the first hour of our program, to take your questions.

A few days ago, the Court of Arbitration for Sport announced that Pistorius may compete for a spot in the Olympic Games. Previously, the International Association of Athletics Federations determined that the j-shaped prostheses Pistorius uses to run, made of carbon fiber, would give him an unfair advantage over so-called "able-bodied" runners.

Reaction to the decision has been varied. Some athletes, analysts, and fans worry that the Court's decision could change sports fundamentally. What do you think?

Bette Midler on stage for the opening night of her new show at The Colosseum in Las Vegas.

Ethan Miller/Getty Images for AEG Live/Concerts West

 

She put a spell on us in Hocus Pocus, taught us the true meaning of friendship in Beaches, and dazzled with Lily Tomlin in Big Business.* She's The Divine Miss M, and totally fabulous.

I first discovered Bette Midler at a sleepover in elementary school. We put on a makeshift karaoke show, with hairbrushes as mics, and the kitchen table as our stage. We belted out "Wind Beneath My Wings," "The Rose," and "From a Distance," like our lives depended on it -- as if, as third graders, we understood what that kind of love and pain and loss really felt like.

From The Stepford Wives to The First Wives Club, Bette seems to gravitate toward strong, complicated, and fiesty characters, which I take to be a reflection of her own personality. And now, she's set to perform 100 nights/year at the Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. Her new show is called, "The Showgirl Must Go On," and go on she does.

Today, Bette Midler joins us to take a look back on her career, and talk about her current and forthcoming projects. So, tell us -- when were you first introduced to the Grammy Award-winning singer-actress-comedian? What's your favorite performance of hers to date? And what would you like to ask her about her work?

* Deep Cut, Trivia Question: Bette did the voice for which character in what doggy Disney musical?**
** Ans: Bette was the voice of Georgette in Disney's Oliver & Company.

R. Kelly, outside of the Cook County Courthouse.

Scott Olson/Getty Images

 

As you may have heard -- R&B artist R. Kelly is in a lot of trouble. Trouble that includes a lot of things that I cannot say on this blog, nor to my mother. Basically, it involves underage girls and sex -- and is fairly upsetting whether it's true or not true. Particularly because I think he's a genius. A sort of epic sex poet. I literally cannot hear "Ignition" without getting super excited, and one time I attempted karaoke to it (an unmitigated disaster). Speaking of unmitigated disasters, think about how much it would suck watching a really embarrassing and awful sex tape with a roomful of jurors, an alleged participant, and a few fans. Steven Gray did it -- and we've asked him to spill all (well, some) of the gory details. If you want the full story -- or your fill of it -- you must check out the excellent (and erstwhile NPR Arts editor) Bill Wyman's Hitsville blog.

While many pundits may have expected Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) to withdraw from the Democratic presidential race since her mathematical chances of winning the nomination are almost zero, Clinton has instead intensified her efforts. On Wednesday, she was in Florida to argue that Democratic officials should allow the votes from the Florida and Michigan primaries to count.

Both of those states were penalized by the Democratic National Committee for holding their primaries before an agreed-upon date. DNC chair Howard Dean has said he wants to find a way to seat the delegations from these two states (Morning Edition reported on just such an effort today), but it has to be a compromise agreed on by both the Obama and Clinton campaigns. So far that compromise has not been found.

Clinton argues that all the votes should be counted. And yesterday she advanced an interesting argument. Ken Vogel at Politico.com reports that Clinton "compared her effort to seat Florida and Michigan delegates to epic American struggles, including those to free the slaves and win the right to vote for blacks and women."

Those people, she said "refused to accept their assigned place as second-class citizens. Men and women who saw America not as it was, but as it could and should be, and committed themselves to extending the frontiers of our democracy. The abolitionists and all who fought to end slavery and ensure freedom came with the full right of citizenship. The tenacious women and a few brave men who gathered at the Seneca Falls convention back in 1848 to demand the right to vote."

Vogel wrote that "The pointed speech marked the kick-off of a last-gasp effort by Clinton to prolong her Democratic presidential campaign by making the states count."

The connections drawn by Clinton were powerful ones. But were they appropriate to the situation? Is Clinton's linking of her fight to get the Florida and Michigan votes counted -- in order to improve her election chances -- to the other great civil rights struggle in American history a persuasive one? Or does it ring false?

Recently a good friend and longtime feminist told me that she didn't vote for Sen. Hillary Clinton in our state's primary a few weeks ago. Somewhat surprised, I asked her why. She explained that while she wanted to see a woman as president very badly, she believed it had to be the right woman -- and that for her, it was not Hillary Clinton. I asked her if she felt like a "traitor." She said no, because she believed that part of being a feminist was that you didn't have to vote for a woman based on her gender alone.

The issue of gender and the Democratic presidential primary has gotten pretty heated in the past few weeks. Many Clinton supporters believe that their candidate has not been given a fair shake from the mainstream media - that they treat and speak about her differently than they do Sen. Barack Obama.

And when a prominent women's group endorses Obama, like NARAL did recently, it almost leads to internecine warfare. For instance, the president of Emily's List, which helps elect female candidates who favor abortion rights, called the endorsement "a betrayal." And today, The Boston Globe reports that 50 prominent Massachusetts politicians have called on NARAL president Nancy Keenan to withdraw the endorsement of Obama. The Massachusetts group says Clinton has a better pro-abortion rights record than her Democrat rival.

For her part, Keenan didn't budge, saying that Obama needed the help of organizations like NARAL, to "help close the identification gap with key voting constituencies before the fall campaign begins in earnest and people's opinions are already formed about the two candidates."

On today's show, we'll talk with representatives from both NARAL and Emily's List about this issue.

But what do you think? Does gender matter to you? If you consider yourself a feminist, do you think you have a "duty" to vote for the first woman to have a realistic chance of becoming president? If not, why?

Back in 1995, when I was helping build the original website for The Christian Science Monitor, our first version of the site was built around one particular issue. Our then-correspondent, David Rohde had been taken prisoner by the Serbian regime of Slobodan Milosevic because David had broken the story of the massacres of Muslim men and boys at Srebrenica.

Rohde was eventually released but his detention illustrates the dangers that many foreign journalists face from the governments of the countries they cover. Recently we've seen evidence of this in Myanmar, where media organizations (including NPR) have decided not to identify reporters for fear they will be arrested and jailed by the military dictatorship.

And in countries like Cuba, North Korea and Sudan, foreign journalists find themselves accompanied by a "minder," which makes it very difficult to find any local citizens who are willing to be honest about the situation in their countries.

On today's show from the Newseum, we'll talk to reporters about what it's like to get the story under the ever watchful eyes of a dictatorship.

There are many times I've thought about starting a column on reading historical fiction. Basically, if there's a heaving bosom and an impending beheading -- I'm hooked.

I'm not kidding when I say that I've probably read about fifteen different retellings of the age-old Henry VIII--Anne Boleyn--Catherine of Arragon triangle. I literally never get sick of it. I've got every book that Jean Plaidy ever wrote (oh yes, I'm more about books than shoes even), all of Philippa Gregory's outstanding novels, the entire collection of Anya Seton, and countless other books of burnings, beheadings, and reformations.

One of my favorite writers of just plain history is Alison Weir -- there is a joke in my family about everybody buying her books for me again and again -- she makes it come alive. So when she came out with her first book of fiction last year, Innocent Traitor, a fictional rendering of the Lady Jane Grey story -- I devoured the galley. She's got a new book of fiction now, all about Elizabeth the First's rocky road to monarchy -- and yes, I've read it, too. It's marvelous. She makes one really great supposition -- a wonderful historical guess -- that explains so much about a woman I really wish I had known. We're talking to her today about writing Tudor history -- and rewriting it.

Yes, I own one too.

I can remember when Star Wars: Episode II came out in theatres. I was a senior in high school at the time, and the cool thing was to camp out to get good seats for the midnight showing on opening night. The massive line of eager fans outside the theatre could've easily been mistaken for a Halloween block party. Teenage boys and grown men alike were dressed like Obi-Wan and Skywalker, and they staged full-fledged lightsaber battles. There was a grandma sporting plastic Yoda ears, and girls with Leia hair buns. My favorite, though, was this guy who had a voice modulator that made him sound like R2-D2.

This weekend, Hollywood gets a visit from its favorite archaeologist/adventurer -- Indiana Jones -- with Spielberg's latest installment, Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. So far, it's received mixed reviews, but there's no shortage of excitement among Indy fans. I'm expecting fedora hats, bomber jackets, and, of course, the leather bullwhip. Should be a fun spectacle. So how will you celebrate Indy's return? As for myself, I'll be camping out, old school style, camera in hand, eagerly anticipating Harrison* in DLP.

* Still foxy, after all these years. How does the man do it?**
** Must be the earring.

I've been a fan of Canadian businessman, author and digital strategist Don Tapscott (perhaps best known as the author of Wikinomics) since I read one of his columns in an in-flight magazine on a trip to California several years ago. In the column, Tapscott wrote about his realization that young people looked at computers differently than we old fogies do.

In essence, this generation of Internet-savvy kids never see the actual computer - just the content on the screen. That's why computers never scared them. They looked at computers the same way people in our generation looked at TV. We never thought about the TV when we were watching Bugs Bunny or Lost in Space or Star Trek. We just saw the programs. The only time the actual machinery intruded into out mind space was when it broke.

So I was very interested to read of his new project on governance by participation. Tapscott, the founder of New Paradigm (now known as nGenera), expects that as more and more young people for whom these news digital technologies are second-nature, the way we interact with government is going to change. So nGenera has initiated a multi-million dollar research project (and many of the world's nations are signing up as participants) to study how these new technologies will affect the interaction between governments and citizens.

The Wall Street Journal's Opinion Journal recently described nGenera's project this way:

Project Government 2.0 is based on the assumption that even governments can't fight technologies that give power to the people. "If governments are to ensure their relevance and authority, they must move quickly to meet rising expectations for openness, accountability, effectiveness and efficiency in the public sector," the project outline says.

Web 2.0 has promising implications for those who think the best government is the one that governs least, especially outside basic functions like national defense and law enforcement. Can more direct participation by citizens in assessing policies limit government ambitions to what government can actually accomplish? Would citizen taxpayers put their collective faith in most spending programs? Or is there a risk that the wisdom of crowds as reflected in Web 2.0 won't turn out to be so wise?

Tapscott will be on the show during our first hour today to talk about Project Government 2.0 and to answer your questions about what i might mean for you as citizens.

Recently actor Tom Hanks made a video where he announced he was supporting Sen. Barack Obama.

When the video first starts, the screen reads: Beware: Celebrity Endorsement. In the first minute, Hanks notes, tongue-in-cheek, "As an official celebrity, I know my endorsement has just made up your mind for you."

It's a tip of the hat to the idea that celebrity endorsements -- of politicians or of other causes -- don't really make that much of a difference.

On today's show, actor Michael Douglas will be joining us to talk about the work he is doing with Project Ploughshares on reducing the arsenal of nuclear weapons. We'll get a chance to ask him about his work, and also to ask if celebrity endorsements really can help make a difference.

I've wanted insomnia since I first saw Fight Club nine years ago. Ed Norton made it look so cool and sexy and mysterious. The closest I've ever come, though, are the all-nighters I pulled in high school and college in order to finish whatever paper or project I procrastinated. A part of me liked the feeling of being awake and active while the world was sleeping. It felt like having a really cool secret, or being part of an exclusive club. But after doing research for this segment, I've realized that my assumptions and romanticized notions of sleep deprivation were naive -- insomnia is tough, and it can paralyze lives.

Writer and professor Gayle Greene has suffered through a lifetime of sleeplessness. She wrote about her experiences in the book Insomniac. She joins us to share her stories, and to draw attention to a sleeping disorder that is often neglected or trivialized. We'll also talk to two professionals from the Sleep Disorders Center at the University of Michigan about the medical and psychological issues surrounding insomnia, and the various treatment methods.

So, all you insomniacs out there, tell us, what have you done to deal with your insomnia?

I sure would love to get an honorary degree. It's cheap, and you don't have to take a math class. Neil Simon described them this way:

You must realize that honorary degrees are given generally to people whose SAT scores were too low to get them into schools the regular way. As a matter of fact, it was my SAT scores that led me into my present vocation in life, comedy.

He was, as you may have guessed, the recipient of quite a few of those particular honors. Northwestern University found itself in a bit of an honorary dilemma a few weeks ago when it offered -- and then rescinded -- an honorary degree for the Reverend Jeremiah Wright. Joseph Epstein -- a fabulous and funny guy -- wrote a great piece in the Weekly Standard about the relative worth of these honorary docs. Have you got one? What's it worth to you?

In our first our today, Don Tapscott, chief executive of the think-tank nGenera, will talk about the evolution of the internet, and his collaboration with government web sites to try and boost participatory democracy. At the end of our first hour, we'll talk to Oscar winner Michael Douglas. Yes, THE Michael Douglas. He's in the nation's capital to speak on behalf of an organization called Ploughshare Fund; it supports initiatives aimed at stopping the spread of nuclear proliferation. Douglas will talk about his cause, and celebrity activism.

In our second hour, Gayle Greene, the author of the book Insomniac and an insomnia sufferer herself, taks about how sleep deprivation can negatively impact all areas of a person's life. She and other insomniacs discuss the challenges lack of sleep has had on their lives on Greene's blog at www.sleepstarve.org. At the end of that hour, we'll talk about the value of honorary degrees, relatively speaking.

Regardless of what you think about the Iraq war, whether or not it was the right place to concentrate our efforts against Al Qaeda, or if we should still be there, it does look like we're learning how to correct our mistakes in a timely fashion ... before they come back to really hurt us.

Take for instance, a recent incident at a military shooting range near Baghdad. An Iraqi soldier found a copy of a bullet-ridden Quran that had been used as target practice. An obscenity had also been scrawled on the cover. The soldier reported his discovery to his superiors who were furious. (Muslims consider each Quran a sacred object.)

U.S. military officials quickly recognized that an incident like this could quickly undermine much of the progress they've made with the Muslim Sunni community in recent months. So they quickly launched an investigation, which discovered a U.S. soldier (a staff sergeant who was a sniper section leader assigned to the headquarters of the 64th Armored Regiment) had been the shooter.

Military officials immediately confronted the soldier. He wrote an apology for his actions, and was then sent back to the U.S. Then Maj. Gen. Jeffrey Hammond, commander of U.S. forces in Baghdad repeated the apology publicly at a gathering with tribal leaders and also asked for forgiveness on behalf of his soldiers. Then another military official kissed a Quran and presented it to the tribal leaders as a gift.

Finally, President Bush called Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki Tuesday to apologize and promised that the solider would be prosecuted for using the Quran as target practice.

The quick reaction of U.S. officials may have prevented Al Qaeda from using the incident as a way to provoke outrage at the U.S. But here's another question - did the apology go too far? Do you think after the actions by the U.S. military in Iraq that the president also need to say something? Or, as we noted above, is this a case where the U.S. has learned that you need to use different rules with different cultures?

Can they catch up?

exfordy

 

In The New Yorker this week, George Packer marks the fall of conservatism. It is, he writes, "the movement that Goldwater began, Nixon brought into power, Ronald Reagan gave mass appeal, Newt Gingrich radicalized, Tom DeLay criminalized, and Bush allowed to break into pieces."

In the last few years, Republicans lost their majority in the Senate and the House. In the last few months, conservatives bade farewell to their patriarch, William F. Buckley. And in the last few weeks, the Grand Old Party lost an important special election in Mississippi.

What has happened? What has changed? And what is missing?

"Among Republicans, there is no energy, no fresh thinking, no ability to capture the concerns and feelings of millions of people," Packer argues.

Do you think that the conservative movement is dead? Is the Republican party in trouble? What needs to change?

Too angry? Too severe?

Source: Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial Project Foundation, Inc.

On Saturday, I spent a warm afternoon on the National Mall, here in Washington, wandering between the Washington Monument and the Capitol, past the National Gallery and the Hirshhorn Museum.

It is a big, glorious expanse, which has changed in the last few decades. The Smithsonian built the National Museum of the American Indian for instance, right next to the United States Botanic Garden. And there are plans for new museums and memorials, to preserve African-American history, to remember Martin Luther King Jr.

Controversy has erupted around the design and construction of the King monument. Some say that the sculpture of the civil rights leader, designed by Chinese artist Lei Yixin, doesn't portray King as he was. He looks too severe, they say. Angry, even.

Ibram Rogers, writing at TheRoot.com, says that the criticism is unwarranted. "Lei's design is not only an accurate depiction of the image we should see of King in our historical memory, it is a prescient depiction of how King would likely confront the country now."

What do you think of the design?

My colleague, Dalia Martinez, produced today's segment with Jill Price, the author of The Woman Who Can't Forget. And she kindly offered to blog about it.

It must be frustrating. This was my first reaction to Jill Price's story. When I pre-interviewed her for today's segment about her memoir, The Woman Who Can't Forget, she told me she was diagnosed with "an autobiographical superior memory." Throw any random day from that last 20 years, and she can detail what she wore, the weather that day, and what played on TV. Impressive? Yes. But she was quick to point out that her ability carries an emotional toll. "I live in the present and work and have friends but I also have a split screen in my head with memories flowing non-stop," she told me. Imagine, reliving everything... from the joys of a proposal to every single hurtful argument. Even when friends and family move past a death and the wounds of harsh words, her ability to "get over it" is gone. I can't imagine, I told her. But she couldn't imagine not remembering those small, everyday details.

Scientist call her condition "hyperthymestic syndrome." Over the years, she said this condition has tormented her. She's written a book because she thinks her condition can help science understand some of the mysterious workings of memory. Today, talk we talk to Price and one of the scientists that treated her.

Bobbie Thompson's shot heard round the world. Maradona's "Hand of God" goal in soccer's 1986 World Cup. The former East Germany's dominance of international swimming for years.

These are just a few well-known sports situations where cheating was either alleged or proven. It's no exaggeration to say that cheating in sports is an everyday occurrence, and in the U.S., it's as American as apple pie. Americans love to win, and while we tell ourselves that we'll do it fair and square (and most people do), there is more than enough evidence to suggest that we and our sports heroes are not above "loading the dice" to get an advantage.

And it's not just at the professional level. I'd wager that most of us who played sports growing up know of at least one instance of cheating -- either by teammates, the opposing teams, or even ourselves. Cheaters never prosper, we are told growing up, but they often win.

Mark Bowden wrote about how much cheating there is in sports -- and has been for years -- in The New York Times on Sunday:

Americans have always tolerated, even enjoyed, a minor degree of cheating in sports at all levels. If winning is "the only thing," as the expression made famous by Vince Lombardi (the offensive coordinator for the Giants in that 1958 championship game) asserts, then playing strictly by the rules is, by definition, a lesser priority.

(Actually, the late author James Michener wrote in Sports in America that Lomardi always claimed he was misquoted. What he intended to say was that "Winning isn't everything. The will to win is the only thing.")

Do you agree? Is winning the only thing? And if you cheat a little to win, is that so bad? Or does cheating automatically spoil the moment, even if you're the only one who knows about it?

Bowden will be on the show today to talk about cheating in sports and why he believes it is so widespread.

Here's what's happening on the show today:

In our first hour, we will talk about the Republican Party. Following the Republican defeat in a Congressional contest in Mississippi, some believe the party has lost its way. California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has gone so far as to call for the party to adopt Democrat policies to win elections. So how much trouble is the Republican Party really in? Republicans, we especially want to hear from you. What can be done to fix the party? After that discussion, we'll turn to our opinion page. Ibram Rogers, a doctoral student in African American Studies at Temple University, will give his take on how he feels Martin Luther King, Jr. should be represented in a sculpture that is being designed of him as a centerpiece on the National Mall in Washington. Rogers' article is entitled, "A Stone-Faced Lie on the Mall" and appears on theroot.com.

In our second hour, we'll talk to author Jill Price about her extraordinary memory. Price is able to recall every detail of every single day of her life since she was the age of 12. Her book is called "The Woman Who Can't Forget" and Price will tell us what happens to her when she recalls the memory of, say, that first kiss...and that first break up. At the end of the hour, author Mark Bowden explains why he believes that in the world of sports, cheating will always be part of the game.

You may have noticed our regular Talk of the Nation Opinion Page segment. (We do it every Monday, and we always have more ideas then we have space on the air.) That's because opinions are like bellybuttons -- as the saying goes -- everybody's got one, and some hold more water then others. Today we've already booked our segment, but here are a few from around the web that I also really liked.

The wonderful Daoud Kuttab on the sixtieth anniversary of Israel, and for Palestinians, of the Nakbeh.

Joseph Epstein on honorary degrees -- he thinks they're a joke -- and he's got one.

Michael Long (of the NRO!) praying for Ted Kennedy.

Thomas Friedman's great piece on Obama and the Jewish vote.

Martha Nussbaum sussing out the problem with polygamy. A sample:

The history of Mormon polygamy shows us that the state and public opinion are very bad judges of what adult men and women may reasonably do. When people are insecure, they cling to the "normal" and vilify those who choose to live differently. Someday down the road, we may recognize that adults are entitled, as John Stuart Mill saw long ago, to conduct such "experiments in living" as suit their own plans and projects, as long as they inflict no harm on nonconsenting parties. The state must protect vulnerable dependents: children and the elderly. It must also protect adult men and women against fraud and force. Beyond that, it should leave the field of intimate sexual choice to a regime of private contractual arrangement. If polygamy turns out to be a bad idea, it won't survive the test of free choice over time.

And of course, my favorite columnist in is the Onion. Check out Ask The Dauphin.

"Lawful Islamists."

Interesting phrase, isn't it? It's a term being used by people like Daniel Pipes, who leads the conservative Middle East Forum, to describe attempts by Muslim Americans to assume a great role in the life of the country. In Pipes' eyes, that means nothing but trouble -- basically, anything in American society that seeks to accommodate Islam within its structure: banks that offer financial products that are compliant with sharia; swimming pools that offer female-only hours to accommodate Muslim-women; candidates for political office who in Pipes' opinion are a little too cozy with political Islam.

Pipes has written in the past few years of his support for the constant surveillance of Muslims and their organizations in American society, and he has defended the internment of Japanese Americans during World War Two.

On the other side are people like Debbie Almontaser, who was offered the chance to start a public school in New York City that would teach bring together Arabic and non-Arabic children to teach them Arabic. But the Khalil Gibran International Academy has been beset with problems ever since the idea for its creation was first put forward. In particular, Almontaser found herself the target of attacks, often lead by Pipes, as The New York Times reported in April.

Ms. Almontaser, a teacher by training and an activist who had carefully built ties with Christians and Jews, said she was forced to resign by the mayor's office following a campaign that pitted her against a chorus of critics who claimed she had a militant Islamic agenda.

In newspaper articles and Internet postings, on television and talk radio, Ms. Almontaser was branded a "radical," a "jihadist" and a "9/11 denier." She stood accused of harboring unpatriotic leanings and of secretly planning to proselytize her students. Despite Ms. Almontaser's longstanding reputation as a Muslim moderate, her critics quickly succeeded in recasting her image.

Today, the show will feature the two main antagonists talking about their parts in this drama, Pipes and Almontaser, as well as Andrea Elliot, The New York Times reporter who wrote the piece quoted above.

For many Wire junkies -- the fourth season is the apex of the series. It focuses on the problems of a fictional (read: thinly disguised) Baltimore school system. I confess, when I read this article about electronic monitoring in Dallas public schools, I thought of Randy, Michael, Dukie and Naimond -- and all their classmates -- especially the ones not in school. The system seems to work for a lot of kids -- especially those who are most at risk -- but people have complained that there's a touch of Big Brother to the program. We'll talk to a principal in East Dallas about the program -- and why he believes it's working.

It's hard to forget your first trip to an aircraft carrier. They are so big -- other ships docked anywhere near a carrier seem to shrink in size. They often bristle with military power. The flight decks always feel enormous. And so many people. An aircraft carrier is like a small floating town. I come from Windsor, Nova Scotia, population 3500 people -- a carrier has almost twice as many people.

One of my earliest memories from childhood was visiting the HMCS Bonaventure, at the time the only aircraft carrier in the Canadian armed forces. The Bonnie was a British carrier, bought by the Canadian government. My dad was friends with its captain and we got a tour. I still remember the exhilarating sensation of standing on one of the "elevators" in the ship's hanger as it shot up towards the flight deck.

But compared to the USS Nimitz, the Bonnie was a pipsqueak. Life on the Nimitz is the subject of a new PBS documentary, Carrier. We'll be talking to two of the young sailors featured in the 10-hour series on Thursday's show. You can get a sneak peek about life on the Nimitz here.

Just a few minutes ago, the California Supreme Court overturned a ban on same-sex marriages. (You can find a link to the court's decision here.) It's an important decision: California could become the second state to allow gay marriages.

We'll talk with a reporter from KQED, our member station in San Francisco, who has been covering the six cases, consolidated into one (Marriage Cases, S147999), and we'll hear from California's former attorney general and Vince Chhabria, a deputy attorney for the city of San Francisco.

If you have a question about the decision, leave it here. If you are part of a same-sex couple, living in California, what does this decision mean to you?

The Political Junkie, The Political Maverick.

Andy Carvin/NPR

 

I'll confess I was a bit worried about Ron Paul as a guest. The Congressman and Republican Presidential candidate's campaign may be the most interesting of this year's also-rans. Once the presidential nominee of the Libertarian Party, Rep. Paul's long-shot candidacy never found much traction with voters, but caught fire on the Internet, where he generated astonishing financial support from many thousands of donors. We had him on the show a couple of times by phone from the campaign trail in relatively short interviews, but I was concerned that lengthy explanations of monetary policy might sound just a little bit, well, wonky.

If you heard his appearance yesterday with NPR's political editor Ken Rudin, on our Political Junkie Segment, Rep. Paul was charming, self-deprecating, and, at times, quite funny. It's easier for a politician with little at stake to be forthright, but it's refreshing, nevertheless. And extending the time gave listeners a chance to hear more depth - and, when he spoke about bringing troops back home, deconstructing the "American Empire, " and the difficulties of third party candidates, the depth of passion. I regret that we still don't know what Ron Paul plans to do with all that money he raised - his may be the best financed uncontested congressional campaign in history.

There's trouble in River City. After the third straight loss of what was considered a safe seat -- in illinois, Lousianna, Illinois and last night in Mississippi -- the Republican Party is extremely worried about the fall campaign. Tuesday night, Democrat Travis Childers defeated Republican Greg Davis by eight points in the latest special election. The seat had long been considered safe GOP .(As far as a comparison of just how big a loss this was, Marc Ambinder of theAtlantic.com compared it to the Republicans winning in Los Angeles County.)

In an e-mail to party members earlier today, the chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, Rep. Tom Cole wrote, "Republicans must undertake bold efforts to define a forward looking agenda that offers the kind of positive change voters are looking for. This is something we can do in cooperation with our Presidential nominee, but time is short."

Our own political junkie, Ken Rudin, look at how special elections in the past have often been harbingers of the results of the general election. Ken writes that "the mind drifts back to 1974 early 1974." In early February, 41-year-old Democratic state legislator John Murtha eked out a 230-vote victory in a special election to replace Republican Rep. John Saylor, who had died the previous October. The Democrats went on to win three more "safe" GOP seats in special elections.

For many of us who followed politics in that fascinating year, those special elections still stand out. Watching one after another longtime GOP seat fall, we knew the Democratic Party was on the precipice of a significant election blowout in the fall. The Democrats picked up an additional 43 seats that November.

In today's segment, Ken will also talk about last night's Democratic primary results in West Virginia, a look forward to the next primaries in Kentucky and Oregon , and the rapid political tumble of Republican Rep. Vito Fossella, who was first arrested on a DUI and then admitted to fathering a child out of wedlock.

A month ago, I saw Errol Morris' film about Abu Ghraib, Standard Operating Procedure. It's really a stunner -- the interviews with the notorious Lynndie England alone are worth the price of the ticket (see above clip). The companion book of the same name -- by Philip Gourevitch (excerpted here) -- has the same kind of gut wrenching morality check. Gourevitch was nice enough to come chat with us about it today at the Newseum. I admit -- and I hope we'll ask him about this -- a real feeling of sympathy for the situation these young men were put into. Humans are an odd breed -- isn't it ironic the ways in which we can put ourselves in the shoes of others -- and the ways in which we can't.

Every so often, TOTN will feature a segment called "How I Got that Story." Essentially, it's our excuse to talk to seasoned, rockstar reporters about how they snagged their most recent policy changing, talk-of-the-town news story.

Today, we take you to the border of the country, where haphazard medical care is being given at immigration detention centers. It's the latest investigative piece from The Washington Post's Dana Priest, and her colleague, Amy Goldstein.

Post reporters Dana Priest, the Pulitzer Prize-winner, famous for exposing the CIA's secret prisons (aka "black sites"), and the degrading conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, and Amy Goldstein, who covers national social policy and was part of a team of reporters that won a Pulitzer for their reporting of 9/11, join us today in the Newseum to talk about how they got their story. If you have questions, leave them here.

Graduation season is fast upon us. The kiddies are growing up! In the final months and weeks of collegiate life, graduates have a lot on their plates. There's navigating the unsteady job market, pulling all nighters for exams and dissertations, figuring out grad school potential, and, if you're lucky, planning that graduation trip to Europe with your friends. But the single most important task in the lead up to commencement is the consideration of graduation attire. There's the standard Hawaiian leis, the creative "will work for food" slogan taped on the top of graduation caps, and, of course, that one craaazy art major who streaks across the stage in nothing but his robe and flip flops. The coolest ensemble I saw when I graduated was a guy who wore clown shoes and shaved "Cal" (go bears!) into the side of his head. If you're graduating this year, what fashion statement do you plan to make? And, if you've already graduated, what's the zaniest outfit you've seen at a graduation?

Stella Rotaru is a counter-trafficker. She has dedicated her life to rescuing women caught up in the global sex trade. Today, she joins us on the show to talk about how women unwittingly get trapped in the industry, and what they're forced to do to escape. But, first, these words from fellow producer, Susannah George:

When Sue, our executive producer, pitched today's show on sex slavery she added as an aside, "Do you think we could find a studio in Moldova?" Then she chuckled.

I ran a few Google searches and came across a UNICEF (United Nations Children's Fund) youth radio program that operates (or operated, I still have no idea) out of Moldova (oh, and btw, for those of you who haven't run your own Google searches yet, Moldova is located here). I figured that someone at UNICEF in Moldova would know which radio stations have the oh-so-very-desirable yet oh-so-elusive ISDN line connection.

And let me pause here. Because if you listen to the radio (at all) you have an appreciation for ISDN-line quality, just listen to an ender that I booked last week about loyalty oaths and then listen to our interview yesterday with David Breasheras. David sounds like he's sitting right next to Neal, and Marianne sounds like she's on the moon. Enough said.

Somehow, after talking to a night guard at UNICEF who passed the phone off to an aid worker, Judith, who happened to be walking by, I got the number of Radio Free Europe in Moldova. Then, late Sunday night (I watched an entire DVD-worth of Twin Peaks episodes while I waited for 7am Moldova time to roll around), I finally got in touch with a Radio Free Europe engineer: Sergio.

Me: "Hi I'm calling from NPR in the US, do you have an ISDN line?"

Sergio: "Can you speak slower?"

Me: "Do-you-have-an-I-S-D-N-line?"

Sergio: "Yes."

And that was that.

If you want to find out more about how the sex slave industry works, how women are abducted and held, and what happens when they get back home, leave your comments here.

For a while now I've been thinking about becoming a doctor. People give you a tremendous amount of respect, and you get to say cool things like, "Give me 400 cc's of nitroglycerin -- stat!" and "Everyone move back. It's gonna be OK. Hand me the defibrillator!"

But now, I'm thinking about becoming a lawyer. They get to talk about neat things like recusals and quorums. (Huh?) Exactly. That's the current talk among the SCOTUS community, anyway. It has to do with an apartheid appeal the Supreme Court was considering. Law professor Jeffrey Rosen joins us today in studio 3A to explain what it all means, and make lawyers out of us all. He'll also give us a look ahead at the Court's upcoming decisions.

Nothin' better than a nicely shaped head.

Source: Mark Mainz/Getty Images

If I were to rank the Sex and the City girls, here's the list. (I love them all, but I'm a Miranda fan.)
1) Miranda
2) Samantha
3) Carrie
4) Charlotte
But the boys are a different matter. Here's the list.
1) Harry
2) Harry
3) Harry
4) Steve and the rest of 'em.
I LOVE Harry. Love him. Knew instantly that Charlotte would get her shiksa together and make it work -- and adored him from the start. Hair in all the wrong places, and yet -- Harry was the one for me, and Charlotte apparently. Good news, Harry fans, it turns out actor Evan Handler is actually much cooler than the character he plays -- and a really great writer. He might give actors a good name.

His second memoir It's Only Temporary: The Good News and the Bad News of Being Alive, picks up where the first one left off. Get this -- when he was twenty three, he was told he had six months to live. After intensive chemotherapy, a long shot bone marrow transplant, and a fifty percent chance of remission -- he survived. His first memoir was about his illness... This one is about his survival. It's really worth reading, Harry fan or not. And it's definitely worth tuning in today.

Last week we told you about a new plan by New York City officials to launch a special ambulance service in about a month that would help preserve the organs of the "newly deceased" -- the Rapid Organ Recovery Ambulance service. The idea is to keep the organs "fresh" until the relatives of the dead individual can be contacted to see if they would be willing to donate their loved ones organs. The officials hope this would help more of the patients who are the long waiting list for organ transplants.

But some ethicists and emergency medicine experts are worried that the new service could create a tension for EMTs as they respond to an emergency, and who, as ABC News reports, "may be charged both to save lives and to preserve organs for reuse."

Tough call, eh? This angle will no doubt be one of the ones we'll examine today on the show when we talk about the Rapid Organ Recovery Ambulance service with two guests: Arthur L. Caplan, of the University of Pennsylvania's Center for Bioethics, and Dr. Richard O'Brien, a spokesman for the American College of Emergency Physicians.

Yes, they're adorable, but why is that hat in London?!.

Dave Hogan/Getty Images

 

Yes, I'm a cliche. I love Sex and the City. I quote the series liberally, watch certain episodes repeatedly, and crash through various fashion disasters loosely based on Carrie et al (exposed bra straps, faux flowers, randomly tied scarves). It's really irritating, I'm sure. Whatever. I'm not going to apologize for certain loves -- like the delicious raw quail eggs on top of my tobiko (not a weird euphemism) or SATC. Moving on. Why on earth did the movie -- the preview to which I've watched so many times, so closely, I'm surprised I haven't had a &^%$ fashion seizure -- premiere in London!? The fifth gal in that series is NYC (speaking of cliches -- sue me), and though I've got nothing against London or Brits en masse, it seems a betrayal that the world premiere would happen in the shadow of Big Ben, and not the Chrysler building. It's like we caught the girls drinking Pimms instead of cosmos. Sigh. Back to trying to figure out the entire plot from this one little preview.

There is now a trickle of aid flowing into a devastated Myanmar (we say Myanmar -- BBC says Burma -- see this excellent explainer for more) -- but that trickle doesn't match the flood of refugees in need of food, medicine, shelter, and more. The government there has restricted relief efforts -- while complicated arguments about how to help are raging on op-ed pages.

We'll talk with Romesh Ratnesar, the deputy managing editor of Time magazine. In a new, provocative article, he asks, "Is It Time to Invade Burma?" We'll also hear from Bettina Luescher, chief spokeswoman for the World Food Program, and Ko Pyi, a political activist from Myanmar, who fled to the United States seven years ago.

What do you think? Should Myanmar be forced to accept aid -- by airdrop, or at gunpoint?

Here's a new one for you -- conventional wisdom insists that college is the place to pull yourself upwards and onwards. Better jobs -- and more mobility -- are the dividends. But career coach Marty Nemko disagrees. In his op-ed he writes:

Among my saddest moments as a career counselor is when I hear a story like this: "I wasn't a good student in high school, but I wanted to prove that I can get a college diploma. I'd be the first one in my family to do it. But it's been five years and $80,000, and I still have 45 credits to go."... Most college dropouts leave campus having learned little of value, and with a mountain of debt and devastated self-esteem. Perhaps worst of all, even those who do manage to graduate too rarely end up in careers that require a college education. So when you hop in a cab or walk into a restaurant, you're likely to meet workers who spent years and their family's life savings on college, only to end up with a job they could have done as a high school dropout.

It's not your run-of-the-mill advice, and plenty of people would disagree with him. Which makes him good, provocative fodder for our Opinion Page... Let the debate begin!

Residents fled buildings for the sidewalks in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province.

Andrea Hsu/NPR

 

For the past few months, our colleagues at All Things Considered have been planning a week-long series of broadcasts from China. In advance of their trip there, hosts and producers have kept a blog, called Chengdu Diary.

They had intended to focus on "how the ever-widening generational divide affects people and society." My, how things can change.

Earlier today, an earthquake, registering 7.8 on the Richter scale, devastated Sichuan province. Melissa Block was there, in the middle of an interview, when it hit. The ground "undulated," she said. The Chinese government has estimated that at least 9,000 people have died.

We'll talk to William C. Kirby, the Edith and Benjamin Geisinger Professor of History at Harvard University. Just a few weeks ago, he was in Sichuan.

Kirby will tell us about the region and its two largest cities, and he'll compare today's earthquake to one in Tangshan, back in 1976.

If you have friends or family in Sichuan, have you spoken to them today? How are they? If you've visited the region, tell us what it's like.

A view of Mount Everest from the summit of Gokyo Ri.

markyatd

 

On May 10, 1996, an unexpected and violent storm hit Mount Everest. It trapped three climbing teams near the top of the peak, and resulted in the deaths of five climbers on the south side of the mountain. It's known as the mountain's worst tragedy to date, and many attempts have been made to retell the story. Mountaineer and filmmaker David Breashears was at base camp that day. In a new documentary called Storm Over Everest, he pays tribute to those who died, and interviews some of the climbers who survived, who, with frostbitten hands and noses, try to make sense of that fateful day.

If you've traveled to, or climbed, Mount Everest, tell us your story. And if you have a question about the 1996 tragedy, leave it here.

"Dr. No."

Source: FX in the City

Without fail, we receive several phone calls from supporters of Rep. Ron Paul, urging us to devote more time to his campaign for the Republican nomination, to talk about his platform, to invite the
man himself to be on the show.

On this blog, readers have also asked us to give more time to "Dr. No." In February, Brandon, one of our listeners, wrote this:

I'm a bit bewildered, amongst all the discussion of the Republican field and the supposed lack of anyone with real conservative appeal, that NPR has had zero discussion of Ron Paul. He has the most conservative credentials out of any of the remaining candidates. I feel the only reason that the conservative base is not flocking to his campaign is that he is consistently marginalized or left out of the discussion, as he has been from this program. I'm really disappointed that his name hasn't even come up.

For the record, Rep. Paul has been a guest on our show. And we'll have him on air again, come Wednesday. He'll join us from the Newseum, here in Washington, to talk about his campaign and his new book, The Revolution: A Manifesto.

To the Ron Paul supporters reading this, if you're going to be in our neck of the woods, there are a few seats still available for the show on Wednesday. If you'd like to attend the broadcast, drop us a line.

Several months ago, Dawn Turner Trice, a columnist for the Chicago Tribune, started a new blog, called Exploring Race. She wants it to be an open forum, where readers write frank comments, where they can pose any question.

"We have a moment in history to have a national discussion about race," she writes. "We should seize it and try to mine it for what it's worth. I want this to be a safe place where people of all races can explore their views and biases, openly and honestly."

Do you agree with her? Is this the time for a real, honest dialogue about race?

In the first hour of our show today, we'll talk with Trice about her blog. Does she think that Exploring Race is working? What has she learned? We'll also hear from Gregory Rodriguez, a columnist for the Los Angeles Times, and Kathy Cramer Walsh, who teaches at the University of Wisconsin. Her most-recent book is called Talking about Race: Community Dialogues and the Politics of Difference. (You can read the first chapter from it here.)

When do you and your friends talk about race? What exactly do you talk about? How honest are the conversations? Do you hold back, why? What makes it such a hard subject for you? Do forums like Exploring Race make it easier?

Your mom, online -- a good thing?

Source: ukdenners

Mother's Day is fast approaching, which means every teenager and adult with a computer is getting ready to send that cheery e-card of love and appreciation. The only concern is, what will happen when it reaches its destination? Qwerty keyboards and fast-paced texting may still furrow a few brows; but increasingly, moms are becoming more and more technologically savvy... and they're indulging in a whole new form of communication with their children online -- through emails, texts, blogs, and social networking sites.

If you're a Generation Xer or Yer, you may be familiar with one or all of the following:

The frantic technical support calls from mom at 8 o'clock in the morning because she doesn't know how to send an email, and it needs to get to her book club before noon; or

The random text messages that look like hieroglyphics because she hasn't mastered the T9Word keypad on her phone; or, worse,

The mom that reads your emails or "friends" your friends on Facebook because she has a little too much technological know-how.

But no matter what the online situation is, younger generations are taking this new style of communication in stride, and some have even managed to grow closer to their moms because of it.

Linda Lowen, a mom of two teens and a writer on women's issues for about.com, will join us to talk about the nuances and politics of moms interacting with their kids online. And we'll also hear from Doree Shafrir and Jessica Grose who co-founded Postcards from Yo Momma, a website that runs user-submitted e-mails and chat transcripts from real moms.

How have you experienced this trend of communicating with your mom online? What's the latest email or text you received from her? And, moms, how do you communicate with your kids online?

See!?! She reads!

Source: BarrieJH

...except, I probably am! I'm a shameless exaggerator. Shameless. (In fact, my level of exaggeration is the one thing I don't exaggerate about, so you can trust me on this one point.) For instance, in our meetings I've been known to wave my hands around like I'm landing a plane -- all the while insisting that "the price of manure has skyrocketed and we've absolutely got to cover this s#$t!!!" (For the record -- the price is at a record high, but skyrocketed is a -- wait for it -- exaggeration.) I regularly used to inflate my age -- even when I wasn't in bars -- and now I regularly (sigh) deflate it. I'm 5'8" feet tall.* My cat can read. I failed geometry three times.** I took the trash out -- and I paid that bill in full! (It's a nuance, but I'm pro'ly a bit of a fibber, too, I realize.) Well, a small study in the journal Emotion says that this kind of exaggeration isn't really about deceiving other people -- it's simply a reflection of our hopes and dreams. (I hope and dream my cat will read -- and talk someday!) We're talking to one of the authors of the study, but we really want to to hear from you. So, 'fess up, y'all. What truth have you stretched -- and what have you simply snapped?

*5'3"
**Only twice.

For our entire first hour today, we'll continue talking about how we talk about race....inside and outside the political arena. Is it possible to really get down and dirty and HONESTLY talk about race? And what do we hope to accomplish and possibly resolve in those discussions? Our guests will be Dawn Turner Trice, a Chicago Tribune columnist and mediator of a blog called "Exploring Race," Gregory Rodriguez, a columnist for the Los Angeles Times and director of the California Fellows Program at the New America Foundation, and Kathy Kramer Walsh, an associate professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. And as always we want to hear your story. Has talking about race helped you understand other people?

In our 2ND HR 2DAY...AFAIK and FWIW*... Okay, if you are the mother of a teen or tween and can understand what those symbols mean, our second hour is about you. Have you become an online mother...IMing your child and showing up on their Facebook page? You're not alone. In our second hour, we'll talk an online mom of 14 and 16 year olds, and the co-founders of Postcards from Yo Momma, a website that collects those lovely emails mothers send out when all she really wants is for you to call her!! At the end of the hour, a Harvard professor will tell us if there really is a difference between a bold-face lie and a mere exaggeration. It will probably be our best ender segment yet!

CUL8R

*As Far As I Know, and For What It's Worth

I've been an organ donor for a long time. I've always been of the belief that once I'm finished using my heart, lungs or whatever, if they can be of use to someone else, please, be my guest. But even I find this idea a little, well, unsettling.

It's pretty well-known that there just aren't enough donated organs to go around to all the people who need them. And until we learn how to grow them -- which is, realistically, not as far off as we might think -- the shortage will continue. So New York City officials have come up with an idea of how to work the odds in their favor a bit. USA Today reports that, within months, they plan to "dispatch the nation's first ambulance equipped to preserve bodies of the newly dead so that families have time to consider organ donation."

The controversial twist: Crews would swoop in and perform procedures on a corpse without consent in order to preserve the organs until the family had time to give consent for organ donation. No organs would be taken without consent.

The idea of this ambulance roaring through the streets of New York on this particular mission seems like something out of a graphic novel.

Apparently, city officials are hoping that grieving people will be rational enough to give consent for their very recently deceased loved ones' organs to be donated. It's not a totally wild theory. Any reporter who has ever covered a story involving a sudden fatality will tell you that many times the family wants to do whatever it can to preserve the memory of their loved one in a meaningful way.

But does this idea of an ambulance dispatched to keep a victim, well, "fresh," take the desire to harvest organs a step too far? Does it create an unnecessary tension between families of the deceased and the family of those needing an organ donation? Or it this a smart and useful way to take a tragic situation and turn in into something that can be life affirming?

The results from yesterday's primaries are in: Senator Obama won North Carolina, and Senator Clinton won Indiana. But Obama increased his lead in pledged delegates, and former Clinton supporter Senator George McGovern has called for her to drop out of the race. So was yesterday a critical turn in the race, or just one more bend along the path to nomination?

Clinton is expected to perform well in the upcoming primaries in West Virginia, Kentucky and Puerto Rico, and Obama is predicted to win Oregon, Montana and South Dakota. So where do their campaigns go from here? NPR political Junkie Ken Rudin joins us to give us his insight. We'll also hear from Donna Brazile, campaign manager for Gore-Lieberman in 2000, and Glen Bolger, co-founder of Public Opinion Strategies.

Pretend you're an undecided superdelegate -- what do you need to hear from the candidates at this point?

Sometimes while screening calls during our show, I have to let a caller go because their phone has shoddy reception or we're running up against the wall and don't have enough time to put them on the air. To me, it makes sense, and seems justified at the time. But then I think about what it would be like to be that caller on the other end of my hang-up. Here you are, listening to a segment on NPR that got you excited enough to call in and offer your $0.02 live on the air, and you're greeted by a screener like me telling you, "Sorry, we won't be able to take your call. [Insert reason here.] But thanks for calling in and listening!" I can see how it could be infuriating at the most, and a little disappointing at the least.

NPR's Ombudsman, Lisa Shepard, is the one responsible for following up on listener complaints and questions. In other words, she keeps us honest, helps keep the peace. And she will join TOTN every so often to talk about some of the phone calls and emails she receives from listeners, and the ethical issues they raise. NPR received complaints that the description of what police found at the site of Deborah Jean Palfry's suicide was too graphic. What do you think?

When there is a death, be it a suicide, murder, car accident, or an act of war, how much do you want to know? How much should you know?

For many years, it was a staple of movies and TV shows; the vet -- almost always from Vietnam, but sometimes from the first Gulf War -- who hadn't never been quite able to handle the return to their everyday lives after military service. Sometimes it would only take a slight nudge to send them over the edge into trouble with the law, like in the novel "First Blood" which was later turned into the first of many Rambo films. Sometimes the story featured a vet who seemed normal -- they might even work in law enforcement -- but could fall into a rage-filled anger at a moment's notice, like James Lee Burke's Cajun detective Dave Robicheaux.

The reality of the situation is that a certain percentage of vets do get into trouble with the law, often linked to experiences during their time in the military. And that number has increased as more veterans have returned from Iraq or Afghanistan. (But not as many as you might think. A study by the Justice Department in 2000, showed that the incarceration of vets is about 60 percent of non-veterans. There is one difference among incarcerated veterans than non-veterans. White males comprise a much larger percentage of vets in jail than white males do in the other category.)

So how to help those vets who do find themselves in legal trouble? One answer is might be what is happening in Buffalo. NPR's Libby Lewis reports on a special veterans court -- working in conjunction with the Veterans Affairs Department -- that tries to help veterans in trouble with the law. The court appoints mentors, often other veterans or active-duty soldiers, to help those in trouble get their lives back on track. The men in trouble with the law have to check in regularly with the court and prove that they are making the effort to get out of trouble in order to avoid jail time.

Do vet courts sound like a good idea? Is this something that you think should be used in the rest of the country?

Chris Farley's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Source: bsoist

John Belushi, Chris Farley, and John Candy. All Second City vets. All on the SNL stage at one point or another. And all died earlier than their time -- drugs, drugs, and heart disease, respectively. But, in a way, they live on in the comedy they left behind.

In a new biography about Chris Farley called, The Chris Farley Show: A Biography in Three Acts, his brother Tom put it this way:

For every hilarious thing he did on camera, there were twenty things he did off-screen that just blew it away. He lived to make others laugh, and he was fearless about it. In the years since Chris passed away, there have been countless times when Chris's buddies would find themselves huddled together, sharing these crazy stories.

What do you miss most about these comedic actors? And what was your favorite skit or movie they did?

It is by far one of the most unpleasant stories out there. A man in Austria commits the worst kind of child abuse -- and then takes it into another stratosphere of evil by keeping his children and grandchildren (all of whom he fathered) in a basement for years. It's a horrible, horrible story -- and my informal survey of friends and compatriots has found either people can't read about it at all -- or they just want to know what breach of hell created this man's particular brand of evil. Austrian courts however, have a different set of questions -- namely, is Josef Fritzl legally insane? One argument says he wouldn't have kept the kids hidden away if he didn't know what he was doing was wrong. Insane is legal term -- not a medical one. (And meshuggeneh is merely a descriptor, if you're curious.) The insanity defense is invoked in Law and Order and CSI a lot -- but it differs from state to state, country to country, and court to court. Insanity Famous defendants that have pleaded insanity range from Zacarias Moussaoui to D.C. sniper Lee Boyd Malvo. Even Reagan's would-be assassin, John Hinckley Jr., used the insanity defense -- and the court found him not guilty back in 1982. Today -- we're talking about Insane vs. Crazy: questions? Post 'em here.

I come from a part of the world where the taking of an oath has a rather unpleasant history.

I grew up in the Annapolis Valley of Nova Scotia in Canada. I lived literally a block from the spot where, in 1755, the British commander told a group of Acadian farmers -- who had grown estranged from France during their almost 150 years in the area and had no interest in the latest British-French blowup -- that they would have to swear allegiance to the King of England or else their lands would be forfeited to the crown and they would be shipped away.

And as Henry Wadsworth Longfellow chronicled in his poem, Evangeline, this is exactly what happened when the proud Acadians refused to take the oath.

For most people, taking an oath is not a problem. But for some their personal convictions -- particularly their personal religious convictions -- can create a troubling situation. Take the case of Marianne Kearney-Brown, a Quaker and graduate student who was fired from her teaching job at California State University East Bay this week because she refused to sign an 87-word Oath of Allegiance to the Constitution that the state requires of elected officials and public employees.

It wasn't so much that she didn't want to swear allegiance to the state's Constitution. As the San Francisco Chronicle reports, "A veteran public school math teacher who specializes in helping struggling students, Kearney-Brown, 50, had signed the oath before - but had modified it each time."

Each time, when asked to "swear (or affirm)" that she would "support and defend" the U.S. and state Constitutions "against all enemies, foreign and domestic," Kearney-Brown inserted revisions: She wrote "nonviolently" in front of the word "support," crossed out "swear," and circled "affirm." All were to conform with her Quaker beliefs, she said.

Kearney-Brown did this several times over her career teaching in California and it was never rejected. But this time she got a letter that said the university's counsel said she couldn't alter the oath (which may or may not be true, as it turns out) and she had to sign it or be fired. She refused to sign and was axed.

Kearney-Brown will be on Talk of the Nation today to talk about what happened to her and why she did what she did.

Should a person be able to change the wording of an oath to suit their religious situation? Atheists are not required to say "under God" while reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, nor are they required to swear on a Bible in court. They can affirm their promise to tell the truth. Should the same consideration be extended to other strong religious beliefs?

David and Jesse Gilmour had a unique arrangement.

From the witty repartee of Annie Hall and va-va-voom of Lolita, to Tony Montana's "little friend" in Scarface, Jesse Gilmour didn't receive your ordinary high school education. After almost flunking out of school, without remorse, his dad, David, decided to make a deal with him: he could drop out, live at home job- and rent-free, and all he had to do, in exchange, was watch three movies a week with his old man. Every teenager's dream, right? What resulted was a unique exchange between father and son -- film critic and novice. In watching the films, they found ways to talk about girls and relationships, drugs and alcohol, and how to approach life's big decisions -- at a time when most teenage boys pull away from their fathers.

Former film critic and Canadian talk show host David Gilmour wrote about the experience in a new book called The Film Club, and he and his son, Jesse, join us today to share their stories.

Have you ever learned something important from a movie, or a scene from a movie? Tell us about it! And what would your film school curriculum be?

My yearbooks, from middle school and high school, are tucked away somewhere in my childhood bedroom. Some day, five or ten years from now, I'll crack them open, to look at awkward studio portraits, to read benedictions and valedictions, to search for an embarrassing photo of a now-famous classmate.

I was sad to read that future classes, in colleges and universities especially, might not have yearbooks to look at, to laugh at. Free social networks, like Facebook and MySpace, and online photo websites, like Flickr and Picasa, have eroded yearbook sales.

Ye Domesday Booke, the yearbook at Georgetown University, is poorly funded and understaffed. The yearbook office at Virginia Wesleyan College is filled with old books. (Many students who ordered copies didn't pick them up.) And The Debris, from Purdue University? There will be no 2009 edition.

Do you mourn the dying yearbook? What does it give you that an website can't? Do you have your old yearbooks? Do you look at them with any frequency?

In our first hour, we'll talk about shocking news that filled newspapers last week: Josef Fritzl, a 73-year-old Austrian man, held his daughter captive in the basement of his home and fathered seven children with her. He is now under investigation for rape, incest, coercion and the death of one child. Fritzl's lawyer is preparing an insanity defense, arguing Fritzl has a serious mental disorder and did not "choose" to do what police allege he did.

Where is the line drawn that divides responsibility and insanity?

In our first hour, we will look at who and what determines "legal insanity". At the end of the hour, we'll talk with Marianne Kearney Brown, a graduate student at Cal State East Bay about why she declined to sign the loyalty oath required to teach mathematics at the university.

When author David Gilmour's son, Jesse, dropped out of high school, he offered his son a deal. Jesse could drop out, live at home job and rent free, BUT it was required that they watch three movies a week together. In the second hour, David Gilmour and Jesse tell their story of how "film home schooling" effected their father-son relationship. At the end of the hour, we'll talk how Facebook could lead to the demise of the beloved school yearbook.

The Newseum.

Source: ktylerconk

Tomorrow, we're back at the Newseum, and we've got two shows for you -- half special coverage, half TOTN regular style. First show is all about the world's longest homestretch in the Democratic nominating contest, but the second show is where we need your help.

This past January, Buffalo started a specialized veterans court -- a court meant to address problems specific to veterans: like substance abuse, mental health, even traffic issues caused by PTSD or the simple lack of civilian driving skills. NPR's Libby Lewis has done the reporting on this, so we've invited her to the Newseum tomorrow to tell us about it -- along with the project director for Buffalo's vet courts. Here's where you come in: if you're a vet and have been involved with the legal system, tell us your story. We want to hear about your experience -- we're looking for personal stories, and we'd like to hear from you about what you (or a loved one) would want in a specialized court for veterans. And if you've participated in Buffalo's project, by all means, let us know that too.

AND: if you're in the Washington area (that means you, Baltimore, Falls Church, Richmond, etc!!), let us know if you want to attend the live broadcast for either hour. It's at the Newseum, which is gorgeous, and worth the trip even with out added TOTN bonus. It's free, fun, and you can see Neal and Ken live (both red-heads, btw) if you want to come for the two o'clock broadcast, and Libby Lewis at the three o'clock show (not a red-head, but super smart). Here's what to do.

To reserve your complimentary tickets, send an email to tickets@npr.org or call 202. 513. 3959. When reserving tickets, please indicate which show you would like to attend, 2-3, 3-4 or both. A post-show Q&A with our host, Neal Conan, can be arranged for school groups.

The experience of serving in any military is character building. In Israel, it's compulsory -- and somewhat more dangerous than other parts of the world. This week is the anniversary of Israel the country, and Israel's army -- the Israeli Defense Forces -- and we're marking both by talking about that particular military service.

Jeffrey Goldberg is a correspondent for The Atlantic -- and he had the unique experience of being an American Jew serving in the IDF. (Please read his coverage of Israel here, and here -- it's comprehensive and thought-provoking. Also, he loves The Wire, so read this too.) I saw a documentary about female Israeli soldiers at the Full Frame documentary festival last month -- we're lucky to have the director -- a veteran herself -- on today's show as well. Please post your thoughts -- and your experience, if you've served in the IDF.

Last September, the Israeli Air Force bombed a site in Syria. The mission was veiled in secrecy. Was it retaliatory? A strike on Hezbollah? Israeli and American officials were silent. At press conferences, members of the Bush administration refused to answer questions about the attack, even as speculation grew that the jets had destroyed a clandestine nuclear facility. (You may remember that, in February, Seymour Hersh, of The New Yorker magazine, appeared on our program, to talk about his article, "A Strike in the Dark: What did Israel bomb in Syria?")

Just over a week ago, American officials announced that the IAF had bombed a nuclear site, built with North Korean assistance. They provided photographs, taken by the Central Intelligence Agency.

This weekend, the Los Angeles Times published an opinion piece by Leonard Spector and Avner Cohen, called "Cloak and stagger." Evidence that Iran and Syria have nuclear programs is there, they said, but we're not drawing obvious inferences, calling spades spades.

Do you think that the United States has taken, or is taking, a hard-enough line against Iran, Syria, and North Korea? Now that we've seen evidence, should we do more?

I am the father of three horse-crazy little girls. My eight-year-old has stripped her bedroom of everything that isn't connected with horses. My six-year-old asks me at least once a day to draw a picture of a horse so that she can color it. My 10-year-old wants a collector's-edition toy horse model for her upcoming birthday.

Since we moved to the Virginia countryside, the girls have made friends with a neighbor who runs a pony farm. It's like they moved to paradise. They are continually asking our neighbor for a chance to ride the ponies, but she told me recently that before they ride, they'll need to learn how to muck out a stable, clean the saddle, brush and groom the horse, etc.

"I want them to learn that horses aren't toys but living creatures that require care and attention," she told me recently.

I thought of her remarks after the Kentucky Derby on Saturday. Eight Belles wasn't just a "horse," she was a real living creature. Perhaps that's why stories like the deaths of Eight Belles or Barbaro two years ago hit us the way that they do. That so much beauty and power can be so fragile seems unnatural.

Here track vet Dr. Larry Bramlage talks about what happened to Eight Belles:

The excitement over the Triple Crown chances of Big Brown seems out of place. As Pat Forde wrote for ESPN, "But that's horse racing, a sport in which the good news never seems able to outrun the bad news. For every new fan turned on to the game by Big Brown's fluidity and immense talent, two might be lost because of Eight Belles' awful ending."

We're going to look at why these tragedies seem to happen so often in the "sport of kings." Andy Beyer, sports columnist for the Washington Post, Jule Rover, NPR's health policy correspondent will be on the show, along with horse veterinarian Dr. Rick Arthur, to discuss what happened to Eight Belles and how it affects the future of horse racing with the American public.

Iron Man, flying high in the sky.

My infatuation with Robert Downey, Jr., has been a steady, borderline obsession since I was about 13 -- first with Soapdish and Home for the Holidays, then with Chaplin and Only You, and rounded out with Ally McBeal (Season 4!) and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. So you can imagine my delight when I heard that this summer has been dubbed "The Summer of Downey." He stars in three action-packed pics*, the first of which hit theaters this past weekend. Downey plays inventor and superhero Tony Stark in Hollywood's rendition of Marvel comic Iron Man.

It's easy to love superheros -- they're always decked out with the coolest, gravity-defying gadgetry. And Tony Stark is no exception -- he's got a mean suit, replete with jet boots, repulsor rays, and a cybernetic helmet. But how realistic are superhero suits, and can they ever be manufactured in real life? Physicist and author James Kakalios breaks it down in a piece for Wired, and he joins us today to give us the inside scoop.

If you've seen Iron Man already, give us your review. And what questions do you have about the physics of superhero gear?

* Iron Man, Tropic Thunder, and The Incredible Hulk

Back in the early 60s, the then-Canadian Prime Minister John Diefenbacker (who was a real Prairie populist) was asked what he thought about polls. "Polls are for dogs," was Dief the Chief's terse reply.

These days, we watch polls the way ancient sages consulted chicken bones and goat entrails -- we're all just trying to hedge our bets. This year, however, polls have done more to confuse the future outcome than reveal it. Hillary Clinton's totally unexpected victory in New Hampshire is the prime exhibit. Pollsters (who seem to be outnumbered only by Elvis impersonators these days) defend their profession vociferously, but they still don't seem to be any better at clearing away the fog from important issues.

For instance ... there are two major media polls today, one from USAToday/Gallup and one from CBS News/New York Times.

The USAToday/Gallup poll shows Sen. Hillary Clinton with a seven-point lead nationally over her rival Sen. Barack Obama. And the survey shows that Obama has been deeply injured by his relationship with Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

But if you don't like that, then don't worry. The CBS/New York Times poll shows Obama ahead by 12 points nationally and says that he's moving beyond the Wright controversy.

Huh?

Were these two groups of pollsters surveying the same country? They were done over the same time period -- last Thursday through Saturday -- with about the same number of respondents. It's like the USAToday/Gallup people just happened to find every white rural American woman over 60 who feels uneasy voting for a black, while the CBS/New York Times poll was only calling people under 45, who live in urban neighborhoods and who have been to college.

I'm sure there is some logical explanation for this that pollsters can provide; maybe this kind of result only happens on a Cinco de Mayo that falls on a Monday in a year with an eight in it. Something, you know, scientific.

On today's program, we'll hear from three great writers, participants in PEN World Voices: Michael Ondaatje, Annie Proulx, and Uzodinma Iweala.

For an hour, a studio in our New York bureau will be transformed into a new Algonquin Round Table. (Surely someone at The Bryant Park Project can make a mean martini.)

The theme of this year's festival is "Public Lives/Private Lives."

How do we draw a line between our private and public selves? When must we tell private stories for the public good? Do we need to redefine the meaning of public and private in the 21st century?

We'll put those questions to our three guests, but we want you to answer them too. Especially if you're a writer, professional or amateur. Should authors tell private stories, if it is for the public good?

Editor's Update: Jim Patton, from Bush League TV, called in during the show. He has played Grand Theft Auto IV for 28 hours straight.

I know, I know -- I can't stop with the acronyms. Whatever. Moving on, if you've thought about Grand Theft Auto IV in the last couple of days, you probably fall into one of three categories. 1) You heard about it on NPR and put down your Kierkegaard for a minute, curiosity piqued. What will these internetizen gamertypes think of next! 2) You haven't stopped playing, reading or thinking about Niko Bellic for one moment since.... shhhh or 3) You are shocked, shocked, that there is sex and violence in a video game and wholeheartedly renounce GTA in any guise. We've got something for all three of yous today! A little Adam Sessler (from G4tv), a little Jack Thompson, and of course, your calls and comments.

I confess. I am a feminist. I am non-violent (mostly). I AM REALLY EXCITED TO PLAY THIS GAME.

Sey on the beam, American Cup, 1987.

Source: William Morrow

Perhaps because I'm a tall girl*, I've always been transfixed by gymnastics competitions on TV. Sure, the men's feats of endurance on the rings are amazing, but it's the tiny girls and young women who fly through the air with no regard for gravity that make my jaw drop in wonder. Even more, I read the fierce determination writ plain on their faces (Kerri Strug, anyone?) and just marvel at the training and discipline that keeps them aloft.

The average girl (moi, for example) just can't do it. Jennifer Sey did, and in 1986 she won the US National title, and then quickly burned out. All the things I've wondered about -- wow, gymnasts are so small (do they eat right?); wow, their coaches seem so tough (do they treat the girls ok?) -- she lived. And while she's careful not to malign the sport as a whole, she goes there -- eating disorders, abusive coaches, suspicion of inappropriate relationships between male coaches and young athletes... the works. And, in spite of it all, she still counts her big win as one of the best moments of her life. With an experience like that, she's got a great story and a bit of a cautionary tale for parents of today's young athletes... leave your difficulties and triumphs about guiding your kids through sports here, plus questions for Jen.

*OK, definitely not that tall, but tall. And yes, I've been gone for a few weeks and am technically still gone -- in case you're interested, I'm doing some super exciting multimedia training, and I will appear on a new blog, talking about all that, shortly. I'll keep y'all posted!

After I saw the news coverage of the recent tornadoes in Virginia, the state where I live, I wanted to make sure my home owners insurance was up-to-date. During the Q&A process with the insurance rep, she asked me if I wanted earthquake insurance.

Earthquake insurance? In Virginia?

She reminded me about the recent earthquake in Illinois and Ohio that was supposedly felt as far away as Iowa. "Never can be sure," she said.

Then I remembered my own earthquake experience. It was in Montreal a few years ago. My family and I were staying at a hotel in the downtown area. Suddenly the building shook for a few seconds and there was a loud noise. I thought it was just a truck or some other large vehicle rumbling by. But my wife immediately said, "That was an earthquake." And sure enough, she was right according to that night's news.

Pretty mild, eh? But my friend and fellow journalist George DeLama of the Chicago Tribune was in the Los Angeles area during the 1994 Northridge, California quake. It destroyed his house. He told me later than if he could help it, he would never again live in any place that was earthquake friendly.

In the end, I turned down the earthquake insurance. I really don't think I need it. My fingers are crossed of course.

We want to hear from our listeners in Reno, where small earthquakes have become commonplace. What are they like? How bad are they?

In our first hour today, we'll find out if it's ever okay for writers to tell private stories for the good of the public. In a round-table discussion three prominent writers, Annie Proulx, Uzodinma Iweala, and Michael Ondaatje talk about the role of privacy in the very public world of literature and the media. At the end of the hour, we will talk about all the hype surrounding the release of Grand Theft Auto IV and why some are calling the release"the "videogame event of the year."

When you think about the upcoming summer Olympics, it's hard not to anticipate the athleticism and artistry of women's gymnastics. I can easily scroll back through my Olympic archives and remember Mary Lee Retton's back-to-back perfect "10s" on the vault, or Kerry Strug sticking her vault landing on one foot years later. But according to author Jennifer Sey, the road to gymnastic achievement has a dark side. In our second hour, Sey talks about her new memoir, Chalked Up, Inside Elite Gymnastics Merciless Coaching, Over Zealous Parents, Eating Disorders, and Elusive Olympic Dreams and the agony of top-level gymnastics. At the end of the hour, we'll talk about the endless string of earthquakes hitting Reno, Nevada, and why seismologists seem to be so baffled by them.

So -- to borrow Scott's phrase -- there's a lot happening in pre-production around here. Babies, weddings, houses, and puppies. It's crazy. Which is why you might have noticed (please say you have) that we've been a little blog-laxed lately. (Blog-Lax -- our new sedative!) However, I'm newly committed (as well as engaged) -- and we've got a familiar Fairy Blogfather who's stepped in to help! Tom Regan -- you know and love him from NPR's News Blog -- is giving us the benefit of his years of expertise. True story: before Tom was here at NPR, I read his Terrorism and Security blog for The Christian-Science Monitor every darn day and never gave him credit for my smartitude in meetings. Better late than never. Thanks, Tom!