September 2001

The Realities -- NPR Senior News Analyst Daniel Schorr gives a speech he thinks might come from a more frank and realistic President Bush. (2:45)

Losers Lounge -- Commentator Stacy Horn has an appreciation for a show at the Westbeth Theater in Manhattan's West Village, called "Loser's Lounge." It's performed tonight for the first time since September 11th. (4:15)

A Woman's View -- Commentator Geneva Overholser says the op ed pages of American newspapers have been dominated by the views of men since September 11. She suggests that the rhetoric of American policymakers and the public might have been less bellicose sooner if people had been hearing more from women. (3:00)

Internet Thoughts -- Commentator David Weinberger says in addition to feeding the rumors flying about the Internet that day, the Web proved it can also provide a new kind of medium for more valuable information. (3:00)

Side Effects -- Commentator David Watts, a doctor in San Francisco, says a patient of his thought his heart had stopped. But it was really the effect of a drug. The patient hallucinates, recites scripture and makes a disciple of a patient in a nearby bed. (3:15)

Machiavelli -- Commentator Jon Ronson wonders about the human ability to explain away guilt with science. To see if literature might also be explained away, he decides to become Machiavellian for a day in London. (3:00)

Airlines to Blame? -- Commentator Victoria Cummock lost her husband, John B. Cummock, in the terrorist bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 in 1988. She says the airline industry has long avoided implementing the necessary security to deter terrorism. (3:15)

Racial Profiling -- Commentator Robert Franklin is African-American, and he has been the target of racial profiling - but now, he finds himself guilty of practicing it. He's also noticed other blacks in his neighborhood talking suspiciously about people of Arab descent. (3:30)

Patriotic Buying -- With the United States engaged in a new kind of "war," NPR Senior News Analyst Daniel Schorr remembers the privations of wars past and wonders what kind of sacrifices Americans will make this time. (3:00)

Avenging the Dead -- Commentator Crispin Sartwell, Chair of Humanities at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, says the rage we feel at the attacks in New York and Washington is normal. He argues that it is both important to mourn the loss of life, and avenge those deaths. (2:30)

Security & Freedom -- Commentator Simson Garfinkel says tightening security should not necessarily mean a loss of personal freedom. (3:45)

Database Nation: The Death of Privacy in the 21st Century, by Simson Garfinkel and Deborah Russell is published by O'Reilly & Associates. ISBN # 0596001053.

Life On Hold -- Commentator Andrei Codrescu observes that after the terrorist acts Americans have put their lives on hold. (3:15)

Building Coalitions -- NPR Senior News Analyst Daniel Schorr remarks on how complicated America's alliances against terrorism will be. (3:00)

Angels -- Commentator Carol Wasserman relates an incident several weeks ago at a supermarket check-out line. A man claimed he was an archangel. She didn't believe him at the time, but now she hopes it was true. (3:15)

Remembering the Day -- Commentator Bailey White recounts the small things she did a week ago today, on September 11, 2001, and little details about the day. (2:00)

Assassinations -- NPR Senior News Analyst Daniel Schorr questions the validity of President Ford's 1976 executive order barring U.S. involvement in the assassination of foreign leaders.(3:00)

Cell Phones -- Commentator Kim Lane says the week's events have gotten her thinking about her relationship with wireless technology, like cellular phones. (2:30)

New York History -- Commentator Richard Goldstein, the editor of the Village Voice, is reminded by this week's disaster of an old New York political campaign pledge. (3:00)

Reacting to Terrorism -- Commentator Jim Sleeper, who teaches political science at Yale University, remarks that this kind of terrorism requires the United States to learn to fight a new kind of war. (3:00)

Taking Action -- Commentator Marion Winik says this week's events make her want to found some political action groups. (3:00)

TV Glimpses -- Commentator Andrei Codrescu was in Romania as a boy when JFK was assassinated. He saw his first glimpses of America on TV that day. He remembers marveling at the tall buildings -- and how there could be a country to raise such amazing structures. Now he lives here -- and wonders what his young cousin back in Romania must be thinking about America as he watches TV. (3:30)

The Politics of Terrorism -- NPR Senior News Analyst Daniel Schorr comments on the history of the U.S. fight against terrorism, and how the administration's response fits in that context. (3:00)

Top 10 Colleges -- Commentator Scott Huler is pleased to see that the Midwestern college he went to has risen to the top 10 colleges this year on a list published by US News and World Report. That means he couldn't get into the school if he applied today. He figures he could somehow sell shares in his education to someone at an inferior school, in the way that a stock trader might. (3:00)

Lantern Man -- Storyteller Barry Yourgrau imagines a seasonal fable about a man who swallows a lantern. (2:15)

CPR -- Commentator Elissa Ely is a psychiatrist in Massachusetts. She took a refresher course in cardio pulmonary resuscitation along with a group of other psychiatrists. (3:00)

Coconuts -- Commentator Andrei Codrescu took a trip to Martinique. He feared a coconut might kill him. (3:30)

Stem Cell Analysis -- President Bush opened the door to embryonic stem cell research with his decision allowing restricted federal funding. NPR Senior News Analyst Daniel Schorr says Congress might not feel he opened the door wide enough. (3:00)

Guest Workers & U.S. Jobs -- Commentator Ruben Navarette thinks the guest worker plan suggested by the Bush administration is a new "bracero" program. That system -- which ran from 1942 to 1964 -- allowed 5 million Mexicans to work in the U.S., but in a sort of indentured servitude. Employers abused the system and treated those workers poorly. The new plan would meet with legal battles from Mexico attorneys. Navarette argues that Mexico and America must act as partners, not 'big brother and little brother.' (3:00)

Schorr -- Senior News Analyst Daniel Schorr has been on vacation the last three weeks. He's back, and disappointed to find that from stem cells to sharks to peace in the Middle East, none of the nation's or the world's problems have been solved. (2:30)



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