• Guest: Dr. John G. West, "Darwin Day in America"
• Guest: CNS Editor-in-Chief Terence Jeffrey. Overpopulation.
• Guest: Anthony Romero, Executive Director, ACLU.

Topics, guests, upcoming events, quotes, links to articles, audio clips, books & bumper music.

Tuesday 11 December '07 National show

• Article: Coming in From the Cold: CIA Spy Calls Waterboarding Necessary But Torture. "Former Agent Says the Enhanced Technique Was Used on Al Qaeda Chief Abu Zubaydah". John Kiriakou.
• Fanaticism in the modern world, whether in the White House, science, religion - Muslim or Christian, etc.
• Guest: Dr. John G. West, Senior Fellow - Discovery Institute. Author, "Darwin Day in America: How Our Politics and Culture Have Been Dehumanized in The Name of Science". They promote intelligent design, not creationism. Who designed the designer? We cannot tell from science. Trailer.
• Bumper Music: Last Man Standing Bon Jovi.
• Clip:
  "So, all those clowns at the liberal radio network, we could incarcerate them immediately. Will you have that done, please? Send over the FBI and just put them in chains, because they, you know, they're undermining everything and they don't care." Bill O'Reilly, June 20 broadcast of Westwood One's The Radio Factor with Bill O'Reilly.
• Bill O'Reilly war on Hanukah and other non-Christian religions, calling it a war on Christmas.
• Article: FRC ties Colorado shooting to ’secular media.’.
• Origin of life. Life exists beyond Earth. Science has described how life developed. But you can still experience awe. Thom does not have all the answers. He is concerned that people who think they do are trying to write our kids' textbooks.
• Article: Personal carbon trading: a potential “stealth intervention” for obesity reduction?.
  "Anthropogenic greenhouse gases constitute the largest source of pollution, with by far the greatest contribution from humans in the developed world. Every newborn baby in Australia represents a potent source of greenhouse gas emissions for an average of 80 years, not simply by breathing, but by the profligate consumption of resources typical of our society.

  What then should we do as environmentally responsible medical practitioners? We should point out the consequences to all who fail to see them, including, if necessary, the ministers for health. Far from showering financial booty on new mothers and thereby rewarding greenhouse-unfriendly behaviour, a “Baby Levy” in the form of a carbon tax should apply, in line with the “polluter pays” principle. Every family choosing to have more than a defined number of children (Sustainable Population Australia suggests a maximum of two) should be charged a carbon tax that would fund the planting of enough trees to offset the carbon cost generated by a new human being. The average annual CO2 emission by an Australian individual is about 17 metric tons, including energy usage. As the biomass of trees in a mature forest sequesters about 6 metric tons of CO2 per hectare (104 m2) per year, each child born should be offset by planting 4 hectares of trees, to allow for the time they take to reach maturity, and attrition through crop losses, bushfires, dieback and so on. This infers a levy per child of at least $5000 at birth (to purchase the land needed and plant trees) and an annual tax of $400–$800 thereafter for the life of the child (for maintenance of the afforestation project) (based on 1990 figures, and probably much more now)...

  By the same reasoning, contraceptives, intrauterine devices, diaphragms, condoms and sterilisation procedures should attract carbon credits for the user and the prescriber that would offset their income taxes, and lead to rewards for family planning clinics and hospitals that provide such greenhouse-friendly services.

  "
• Article: 'Tax Parents for Children's Carbon Emissions'.
  "In 2004, former Prime Minister John Howard's government announced a drive to counter the declining birthrate, urging parents to aim for three children, and offering families a financial incentive that currently stands at around $3,670.

  But to Barry Walters, clinical associate professor of obstetric medicine at the University of Western Australia, that undermines the campaign to fight global warming.

  Another Australian academic, writing in the Medical Journal of Australia in response to Walters' article, agreed with his arguments.

  "One must wonder why population control, which was such a popular topic during the 1970s, is spoken of today only in whispers," said Garry Egger, director of the Center for Health Promotion and Research in Sydney.

  "The debate needs to be reopened as part of a second ecological revolution," he said.

  "
• Guest: CNS Editor-in-Chief Terence Jeffrey. Overpopulation? Should we punish parents with more then two children? We reached 1 billion people in 1800, which took all of human history to that point. The second billion took 130 years; 1930. The 2rd billion took only 30 years; 1960. The 4th took only 14 years, to 1974. The 5th billion only took 13 years, 1987. The 6th only took 11 years, 1999. We are multiplying like rabbits. Why are they publishing articles attacking articles about cutting the population? He says the Earth here for us, Earth is not the highest good in creation, we are not a blight on the planet. Things on this Earth exist for man to use to his benefit. Thom said that kind of thinking is destroying not just the planet, but us as well; if we continue to foul our nest, we are not going to be here any more.

  Jeffrey said it was a question of whether humans are net users of wealth or net creators of wealth. He says man has made the Earth a better place; created wealth and made it more comfortable. Thom asked how he knew. He cited air conditioning, food from all around the world. Thom mentioned the example of the Shoshone, who worked an average of 2 hours a day. Jeffrey said they produced nothing. Thom said they produced happiness. A few have enjoyed most of the benefits. There is more human suffering than there were humans 200 years ago.

• The world population progression. Most populations have remained stable; only one culture has seen its population explode. One school of says it is a problem of technology, for example we do need more birth control pills. Another says it is because we do not all live a middle class life. Neither is sufficient to explain it. It is because women are not empowered.
• Bumper Music: Rich Man's War, Steve Earle.
• Ellen Ratner of Talk Radio News. The UN in 2 briefings this morning would not say that today's bombing of the UN HQ in Algiers was al Qaeda. The US is saying it was. The Republican Party is the organization speaking out most against the UN. Republican briefing on the budget, vets. CNN political poll this morning, Huckabee v. individual Democrats. Yesterday's KBR rape story, all the mainstream newspapers did not cover it. It's even on Drudge. ABC broke it, will be on 2020, yet was not on their home page. The ABC says the odds are there will be no prosecution because of Bremer's law saying that contractors in Iraq are not under any law.
• Article: Pentagon blocks ex-Gitmo prosecutor from testifying.
• Article: AWOL military justice.
• 'Eight O'Clock Ferry to the Windward Side': Thom Hartmann's Independent Thinker Book of the Month Review.
• Quote: "Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted". Albert Einstein.
• Bumper Music: George W. Told The Nation, Tom Paxton.
• Guest: Anthony Romero, Executive Director, ACLU. He is urging Senators to say no to a bill that aims to grant immunity to telecomms. H.R. 1955 / S. 1959: Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007 concerns. They are very much against it; it's an Orwellian thought police bill. Close Guantanamo. Spying, warrantless wiretaps. A student who was handing out flyers for a war protest was on the defense database as a credible threat.
• Upcoming Event: Dec 14, Minneapolis MN. University of Minnesota Bookstore 7p - at Coffman Memorial Union. Show live from AM950.
• Article: Guantanamo Legal Adviser Refuses To Say Iranians Waterboarding Americans Would Be Torture.
  "During a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on “The Legal Rights of Guantanamo Detainees” this morning, Brigadier General Thomas W. Hartmann, the legal adviser at Guantanamo Bay, repeatedly refused to call the hypothetical waterboarding of an American pilot by the Iranian military torture. “I’m not equipped to answer that question,” said Hartmann."
  Thom says he is no relation.
• Book: "When Corporations Rule the World", David Korten.
• Book: "The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism", Naomi Klein.
• Bumper Music: In The News, Kris Kristofferson.
• Book: "Diet for a Small Planet", Frances Moore Lappé.
• Book: "The Chalice and the Blade", Riane Eisler.