Robert did lose control of the Sundance Channel in 2008 when it was sold to Rainbow Media a subsidiary of Cablevison. Redford no longer had ownership rights but remains with the network. This is how money continues to control the media and it's content.

Mark, you are sure right. Any questions I ask about the possible legitimacy of the new recommendations are instantly criticized. I sure understand why our emotions are tangled up around this issue, but I would like more tools and answers to reason this through. I distrust so much of mainstream medicine, anyway, and have avoided those tests but its due to irrational reasoning. What we need to know is whether or not these new recommendations are being made to reduce the cost of health care by sacrificing women's health or if the studies are implying something doctors aren't wanting to talk about.

Forget these carbon credits that benefit only the giant guzzlers of oil products.

We must change our lifestyles, create sustainable communities that are contained and aim at being PLANT-BASED. Remember, PLANTS ARE BENEFITTING FROM THE CO2 LOAD AND WE MUST ADAPT TO THAT PHENOMENON. That means fashioning plant-based economies.

I agree with today's caller who told Thom we needed to RATION and control and reduce our uses of oil products. I enlarge that to include the reduction and ending of the use of any class of COMBUSTIBLES. It is time to get tough. Relying of FILTHY Oil was NEVER a good idea in the first place. That's obvious and always has been. Combined with insane predatory capitalism, it has resulted in an ever-increasing rate of OVER-CONSUMPTION to keep up with HYPNOTIC MARKETING (MIND CONTROL) and OBSCENE PROFITEERING.

Many nations have already feverishly consumed their own rich resources (often for imperialistic warfare and adventures); then they scam to attain the resources of the rest of the world. The sooner these nations undertand their greedy, over-consumption lifestyles MUST end and be replaced by sane and simplified lifestyles the better! Right?

And in a refashioned society where everyone is responsible for reducung consumption -- then what the heck would the benefits/motive be to being obscenely wealthy, if by law you could no longer obscenely over-consume?

Special thanks for today's excellent broadcast!

Breast cancer is such a politicized illness that it's like a tar-baby: touch it anywhere and you just get tangled up in it. Suffice it to say that it really should be up the woman to decide when she wants to be tested, and she should be pleased to know that no other illness receives as many dollars in research funding per death--helping to lead to a 95 percent cure rate if caught earlier, probably a better rate than almost any other cancer.

Anyways, one topic on Ron Reagan’s show on Wednesday was the question of whether Barack Obama should veto a health care bill if it includes the Stupak abortion amendment, which would restrict private insurers from covering abortion—and seems a contradiction of the Republican’s hands-off business stance. Beyond the hypocrisy, it seems illogical to include any Republican-backed amendment if it does bring any Republicans on board; perhaps we should assume that this amendment (and others that restrict reform) merely serves as a sop to the conservative sensitivities of Blue Dog Democrats.

In the end, what has this “bi-partisan” wrangling has wrought? One Republican vote, and that not even in support of reform, but to “continue” the “conversation.” Harry Reid, while he may be given credit for shepherding through a CBO-approved bill, he has not learned how to play the “game” (or Nancy Pelosi for that matter, considering the two votes to spare passage of the House bill). Or Obama, it must be confessed. LBJ knew how to play the game, managing to get his social agenda passed with the support of some conservative Southern Democrats—by horse-trading for votes. If conservative lawmakers wanted amendments or a “favor,” they could get it—but they had to vote for LBJ’s agenda, or else it was no deal. What we are seeing now seems nothing more than an effort to water down health care reform to the point where Democrats can make the quizzical claim that they did everything they could to appease the Republicans, that they took into account all their complaints and “suggestions,” and that in the end it the Republicans were never serious about reform. The problem, of course, is that the bill still contains all the elements the right wanted, but won’t vote for. Why keep those elements in then, and opt for an alternative, stronger bill? Well, there are still those pesky Blue Dogs who we’re not sure what they stand for that differentiates themselves from Republicans.

Keeping on the subject of health care, I checked an online insurance broker that provided a list of major (and minor) medical plans and their costs for individuals at a certain age. Your choices were either high premiums (over $1,000 a month) with “relatively” low co-pays, or low premiums ($100) with high co-pays—generally anywhere from $3,500 to $5,000 before the insurance company even considers paying a dime. It’s hard to see how low-income individuals (or families) can afford either option. Perhaps “indemnity” insurance isn’t that bad in comparison.

Since there are confessions on this blog, I have a confession. Please try to understand some of my life experiences.

A Marinated Four Bean Salad

As my energy diminishes and health concerns grow, I am taking the time to share with you a personal history of my life and an open confession. Until the 1984 election I was an operative for the Nazi Party, commonly known as the GOP. I left the Nazi Party because I had come to belief that Ronald Reagan was a pathological liar. Part of our covert missions was to search and destroy any creditable Democrat or creditable Democratic issues. Although I am no longer a Nazi Party operative, I still have some friends within the Nazi Party who have informed that my name is on file.

My name is on file in two areas in an office complex between Washington, D.C. and Baltimore. In this office complex there are names of suspected domestic terrorists and suspected foreign terrorists. I have two files under suspected miscellaneous terrorists. One file is on deadly words and the second file is on my breaking of wind exploits.

If you have read my words and thoughts on the United States of Evil, you have some idea why my words and thoughts have a special file as a suspected miscellaneous terrorist. What you may not be aware of has to do with my breaking of wind can be deadly. I must be honest with you. I love a marinated four bean salad, especially if it is refrigerated the night before I eat it. I can make an entire meal of a marinated four bean salad.

When I break wind, people can become nauseous. What can be a potential deadly in my breaking wind is determined if I add marinated broccoli and marinated Brussels sprouts to the marinated four bean salad.

My wife is reluctant to prepare me a marinated four bean salad. Here is the reason. We were invited to a social event by some neocon friends who extended an invitation to my wife and me as a token for diversity with two progressive friends. It was in the winter time. My wife had prepared for me a marinated four bean salad the night before the social event. Of course, I had the salad in the mid-morning because these neocon friends really piss me off. By evening I was ready. We went to the social gathering and midway through the evening I started to break wind. The stench was terrible. Women were fainting to the floor, on tables, over chairs, and even my wife pretended to faint. She did so as to not draw attention to her husband who was the culprit. By now she is immune to my breaking of wind adventures. At first she did sleep with a gas mask by her side of the bed. She was not immune to the toxic wind coming from my side of the bed early in our marriage.

The men could not stop laughing. My guess is that such an experience is a male thing.

When my wife and I were droving home, she was furious and she said that she would never prepare such a salad in the winter. Summer is a better time because the windows can be open and people can gather outside and away from the nauseous stench.

When the CIA and the FBI heard of the nauseous event, they investigated and my name was added to their files, under the name of Breaking Wind, a Potentially Deadly Terrorist Weapon.

press@sundance.org

Here's the email you can use to complain to Sundance directly, should you feel the urge.

The Students Are Revolting

(I really had to hold back bad puns, here...)

No really, college students throughout California's campuses are saying "Enough!" to outrageous increases in college tuition. It would be nice if the "revolt" could go national (video):

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31510813/#34040493

"The only way Republicans can win is by lying or stealing elections." One of the reasons I love Thom.

Yes DDay-

My Tai Chi Master had introduced me to the concept of polarity many years ago. In a purists sense of the concept, for every Mother Theresa on the planet, you have a Charles Manson. This is the balance of the light and the dark. I also read this in a book on Angels where the philosophy is that The Devil himself was that floor of the darkness while the other Angels were the ceiling of good and that we are here sort of bouncing off both as peoples trying to balance each other out.

Food Fascist,

I did watch the slide show. There were some very pretty photos. But if it was designed to convince me that head scarves are worn for fashion, it didn't work. Females do wear scarves as fashion, but I highly doubt that this is the reason Muslims wear them. We know there's not a whole lot of choice over there. Do secular Iranians wear them? I don't know.

Anyway, what Tom is talking about now is WAY more interesting--Reagan, Bill Casey, hostages, etc.

Mark, can you tell whether a woman who is not wearing a scarf is Muslim or not?

You have an "observer bias" issue here.

Actually, no, Muslim women wear headscarves because it's part of their religion. Sometimes they have to just put it on their heads, sometimes they aren't allowed to have even one hair show (or else), sometimes they have to cover their entire faces and bodies. Depends on their sect. The more liberal ones, if you can call them that, allow for colored scarves. Others do not. I also highly doubt that shapeless, baggy long dresses will ever become fashionable here. Sounds kind of moo-moo (mu-mu?)-like. Nobody wants to dress like that. And yes, I speak for all women. :)