Since Richard brought it up---

@Thom - I too was pleased that you shut Jason down. Unlike the reasonable conservatives that you have on from time to time, Jason was simply trolling. We know this because he insulted you personally several times --- for example, starting that you would not understand something, so he would explain it for the sake of your listeners.

In contrast, callers like the lady from the Independent Woman's Forum and Dan Gainor never or rarely do the insulting thing, and you're able to have real discussions and good radio.

In retrospect, it might have been helpful to ask Jason, the first time he insulted you, what he meant by that. If he's not able to keep it clean, just keep asking what he means, let him waste his time basically saying that he doesn't like you instead of moving on to his garbage points. Let him discredit himself while you keep calmly asking him simple questions; it's not like he is actually interested in a reasonable discussion.

I was talking with a friend about global warming this past weekend. Does anyone know the warming data in regards to the industrial revolution (in the absence of any environmental laws)?

Thanks!

I think we fail to understand how much brainwashing we go through regarding war, and soldiers for that matter. We see constant movies glorifying war, much violence on television about war, we're constantly barraged with others, who too, are brainwashed about war.

It doesn't stop there either. I can't think of the name, but there was a book, something like "What if everything you've ever heard is wrong." It almost applies.

Clearly many of our problematic beliefs stem directly from the media, news, entertainment, and advertising. They shape our beliefs, and for those who don't think there is brainwashing, all I have to say is they are likely the most brainwashed of all.

You can't even get folks to understand the profit-motive in the MIC, even though Cheney actually worked for a main benefactor of these wars, Halliburton,and Bush's family has been in the oil, and DOD business for several generations.

Hey, look at the fact we don't even hear about their roots on the media over, and over, and over again. That is obfuscative brainwashing. In fact, that is the kind that is perhaps the most pervasive. They just completely ignore certain issues, discussions of the death penalty, looking at the roots of crime is ignored, instead focusing on the gory end-result details, and most of all, the MIC and its connections to why we have wars.

And are soldiers that noble, are they really fighting for America, or for corporate needs? Aren't they, for the most part, just poor folks, some of them hugely brainwashed by all the rhetoric surrounding the issue? This brings me to another brainwashing ploy, the ennobling of the soldier, which is a device in and of itself, to get folks to sign up.

Will they tell you the truth--hey, join up, take a chance of being splattered, or coming back, when we'll give you the minimum care, after making you wait for months, perhaps years, and maybe even leave your loved ones with you a vegetable in a wheel chair!!

Yea, that wouldn't work too well, would it?

rewinn,

Paul Krugman has said that the "Foundation" series is what inspired him to go into economics.

Thom,

It's tragic and stupefying to me that Obama will not address the underlying causes of our economic problems. Some pundits on MSNBC last night posited that maybe the recovering world economy will pull up the U.S. economy. (!) How infuriating.

Pew poll shows Americans turning sharply toward isolationism
At the very moment when President Barack Obama is looking to thrust the U.S. ever more into global affairs, from Afghanistan to climate change, the American public is turning more isolationist and unilateralist than it has at any time in decades, according to a new poll released Thursday.

The survey by the Pew Research Center found a plurality of Americans — 49 percent — think that the U.S. should "mind its own business internationally" and leave it to other countries to fend for themselves.

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/254/story/80015.html

Obama in PA

Obama is, at this moment, in Pennsylvania addressing the unemployment problem. He's saying alot of the right things (for example, the American wages have not grown for decades and credit cards have filled the gap.) Maybe he has some idea of what to do to help the ecomony. Details, of course, mean everything.

Meanwhile, for those who might be wondering, I take back nothing from my comments on Monday regarding the Tiger Woods saga; the topic I discussed has had too many easy “outs,” and should be examined with much more candor that has been the case. It also appears to be a bit smarmy to me when the tabloid media’s first “witness” to scandal didn’t quite pan out, they pulled out the back-up, who rather amusingly stated that she hopes Woods would forgive her, and that they will still be “friends”—after she had shopped around her story to the highest bidder. I also find interesting ESPN’s commentators’ excitable expectorations on the case, when they were so apologetic in even mentioning the accusation of rape against Ben Roethlisberger—especially given all the attention to the accusation against Kobe Bryant. The lack of media attention to Big Ben’s case guaranteed that it would die a quick death.

Whether or not race has anything to do with that is a matter of opinion, but when I read some comments recently from Mark Chmura (a white guy) in regard to his former Packer roommate Brett Favre, I wondered if the reporter knew or cared that the married Chmura’s NFL career came to an end after he was convicted of the rape of a 17-year-old girl at a party; what was “shocking” about this incident was that Chmura was active in state Republican politics, and had criticized the “morals” of some of his black Packer teammates. But at any rate, Woods ultimately has only himself to blame for his sudden fall from grace, having nurtured and benefited from an image that it in at least one respect was a fraud. And he didn’t just let down his family, as he would prefer to think. He let down everyone who believed he was a professional both on the golf course and in life. His indiscretions could make the former nanny to Jesper Parnevik’s kids independently wealthy indeed.

Keeping on the sports’ page, Peyton Manning really rubs me the wrong way. I never liked him, even when he played for my alma mater. He’s not the guy you see in those self-deprecating commercials. This guy never makes a mistake—it’s always the other guy, to hear him talk between the lines. Every time he throws an interception, it’s a “blown assignment.” It doesn’t matter if a receiver gets held-up by a DB—if Manning throws the ball where he thinks you should be, but doesn’t bother to see that you are actually going there, then it’s still all the receiver’s fault if the other team’s guy catches it. Manning is “perfect.” That’s why in six of nine play-off appearances, he’s one-and-done. And it’s all your fault. You see, I remember. I remember that Tee Martin, a black quarterback who no one ever heard of then or since, did a few things that Manning was never able to accomplish in college after succeeding him as the starting QB: beat Florida, and win a bowl game—and not just any bowl game, but the national championship game.

A couple years ago I sent in a (very) modest donation to the ADL in appreciation for a report on the correlation between the rise in the number of hate groups, hate crimes and anti-Latino sentiment. Since then, I’ve been inundated with mailings requesting donations from a variety of Jewish organizations combating anti-Semitism. The latest includes a map of the globe, upon which appears few places where anti-Semitism and neo-Nazi activity have not tread. Since anti-Semitism (and the need to focus the public’s paranoia and fear on an identifiable scapegoat) was a cornerstone of Nazism, and Nazism is a form of fascism, are we to presume that anti-Semitism is something that we should refer to as “fascist?” Perhaps not, but why do many people wish to limit fascism (or Nazism) to so-called “corporatism?” The fact is that there is no written or spoken evidence that Mussolini ever likened fascism to “corporatism.” So why do people want to cherry-pick out elements of fascism that might exist, say, in this country? Obviously because they don’t wish to believe that they share anything in common with fascists (or more specifically, Nazis), although there are some fringe elements in this country who find such a likening a subject of pride. But as they say, those who forget the past are bound to repeat it, and a little national self-analysis, no matter how inconvenient, doesn’t hurt.

The path to peace must be the path to peace.

http://www.tikkun.org/tikkundaily/2009/12/03/worlds-religious-leaders-mo...

Thank you Thom for standing for peace. We all lose our patience sometimes and I hope for a day when I can have as much composure as yourself. We as americans need to realize these are brothers and sisters on the receiving end of those bombs we are dropping. And what is it doing but causing more hate towards this country. Why do we not realize this is wrong?

Education not occupation.

Please work for peace!!!