• It's Valentine's Day.
• Advice to a Young Man on the Choice of a Mistress.
• Guest: Carrie L. Lukas, Independent Women's Forum, campaign to "rescue romance from the radical feminists and their hook-up culture".
• Guest: Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, The Broken American Male: And How to Fix Him.
• The House Republicans stage a walkout.
• Condoleezza Rice's testimony.
• Guest host Carl Wolfson, Thom's co-host from the local show on KPOJ.
• Guest: Christy Harvey, Director of Strategic Communications, Center for American Progress.

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

Thursday 14 February '08 National show

• It's Valentine's Day.

• Benjamin Franklin, Advice to a Young Man on the Choice of a Mistress (1745).

  June 25, 1745

  My dear Friend,

  I know of no Medicine fit to diminish the violent natural Inclinations you mention; and if I did, I think I should not communicate it to you. Marriage is the proper Remedy. It is the most natural State of Man, and therefore the State in which you are most likely to find solid Happiness. Your Reasons against entering into it at present, appear to me not well-founded. The circumstantial Advantages you have in View by postponing it, are not only uncertain, but they are small in comparison with that of the Thing itself, the being married and settled. It is the Man and Woman united that make the compleat human Being. Separate, she wants his Force of Body and Strength of Reason; he, her Softness, Sensibility and acute Discernment. Together they are more likely to succeed in the World. A single Man has not nearly the Value he would have in that State of Union. He is an incomplete Animal. He resembles the odd Half of a Pair of Scissars. If you get a prudent healthy Wife, your Industry in your Profession, with her good Economy, will be a Fortune sufficient.

  But if you will not take this Counsel, and persist in thinking a Commerce with the Sex inevitable, then I repeat my former Advice, that in all your Amours you should prefer old Women to young ones. You call this a Paradox, and demand my Reasons. They are these:

  1. Because as they have more Knowledge of the World and their Minds are better stor'd with Observations, their Conversation is more improving and more lastingly agreable.

  2. Because when Women cease to be handsome, they study to be good. To maintain their Influence over Men, they supply the Diminution of Beauty by an Augmentation of Utility. They learn to do a 1000 Services small and great, and are the most tender and useful of all Friends when you are sick. Thus they continue amiable. And hence there is hardly such a thing to be found as an old Woman who is not a good Woman.

  3. Because there is no hazard of Children, which irregularly produc'd may be attended with much Inconvenience.

  4. Because thro' more Experience, they are more prudent and discreet in conducting an Intrigue to prevent Suspicion. The Commerce with them is therefore safer with regard to your Reputation. And with regard to theirs, if the Affair should happen to be known, considerate People might be rather inclin'd to excuse an old Woman who would kindly take care of a young Man, form his Manners by her good Counsels, and prevent his ruining his Health and Fortune among mercenary Prostitutes.

  5. Because in every Animal that walks upright, the Deficiency of the Fluids that fill the Muscles appears first in the highest Part: The Face first grows lank and wrinkled; then the Neck; then the Breast and Arms; the lower Parts continuing to the last as plump as ever: So that covering all above with a Basket, and regarding only what is below the Girdle, it is impossible of two Women to know an old from a young one. And as in the dark all Cats are grey, the Pleasure of corporal Enjoyment with an old Woman is at least equal, and frequently superior, every Knack being by Practice capable of Improvement.

  6. Because the Sin is less. The debauching a Virgin may be her Ruin, and make her for Life unhappy.

  7. Because the Compunction is less. The having made a young Girl miserable may give you frequent bitter Reflections; none of which can attend the making an old Woman happy.

  8thly and Lastly They are so grateful!!

  Thus much for my Paradox. But still I advise you to marry directly; being sincerely Your affectionate Friend.

• Guest: Carrie L. Lukas, Vice President for Policy and Economics, Independent Women's Forum, author of "The Politically Incorrect Guide to Women, Sex, and Feminism" Rescuing romance. Ben Franklin's advice. A hook-up culture is nothing new. Sex education.
• Bumper Music: Tainted Love, Soft Cell.
• Oregon just voted by party line to say that health care is a right; it will be on the ballot to amend the constitution.
• Article: Abstinence Ed Not Working.
• The hook-up culture is partly economic. Nowadays people have to wait until after getting degrees to get a good wage, and even then they have student loans. Abstinence education on its own does not work.
• Bumper Music: Made to Love, Toby Mac.
• Bumper Music: Crazy, Gnarls Barkley.
• Male honeybees explode after mating.
• Call Congress about FISA; it's not in conference yet. callcongress.org.
• Bumper Music: Where Is The Love, Black Eyed Peas.
• Article: Rabbi Shmuley Boteach: What Men Really Want, The 700 Club.
  "The American male today is often reduced in the eyes of his family and himself as nothing more than a provider and raised in a world in which only money matters. The American male feels broken and lost, stripped of his humanity, and robbed of his dignity. Feeling like a checkbook and ATM machine, he doesn’t feel necessary to his wife or a hero to his children"
• Guest: Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, author of The Broken American Male: And How to Fix Him.
• Bumper Music: Last Man Standing Bon Jovi.
• Article:
  [Rep. Robert Wexler]: "Isn't it true that you had intelligence that cast doubt on your repeated claims?"
  [Secretary Rice]: "No, it's not true".
  Rice Lies To Wexler About Making False Statements Before The Iraq War.
• Article: Mukasey: If Bush Issues Signing Statement, He’ll Have To ‘Virtually’ Do The Waterboarding Himself.
• Bumper Music: Radio, Hackensaw Boys (video).
• Bumper Music: Not A Moment Too Soon, Tim McGraw.
• Article: House Republicans Stage Walkout, Refuse To Vote On Contempt Charges.
• Movie: Death of a Princess.
• Clip:
  [Rep. Robert Wexler]: "Madam Secretary, over the past month, startling revelations have come forward that specifically relate to your conduct prior to 9/11 and in the run-up to the war in Iraq.

  A recently released study by the nonpartisan Center for Public Integrity revealed that you, along with President Bush and top administration officials made a total of 935 false public statements in an orchestrated attempt to take this nation to war.

  Here’s a stack of these false statements right here, all 935 of them. This study has found that you, Madam Secretary, made 56 false statements to the American people, where you repeatedly pump up the case that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and exaggerate the so- called relationship between Iraq and Al Qaida.

  Madam Secretary, can you please tell us, isn’t it true that you had intelligence that cast doubt on your repeated claims that Iraq did not have weapons of mass destruction?

  "

  [Secretary Rice]: "No, it’s not true, Congressman. With all due respect, I think if you look back at the key judgments of the intelligence estimate about Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction, you will see that those judgments supported the views of many intelligence agencies worldwide, the views of the United Nations inspectors that Iraq must have been hiding something.

  Our own intelligence estimate said that Iraq had reconstituted its biological weapons program, its chemical weapons program, and the only disagreement with whether or not they had reconstituted their nuclear weapons program, although there were certainly elements, including the CIA, that believed that they were in the process of doing so.

  Now, Congressman, I take my integrity very seriously and I did not at any time make a statement that I knew to be false or that I thought to be false in order to pump up anything. Nobody wants to go to war.

  Saddam Hussein was a threat to this country. We had gone to war against him in 1991. President Clinton had gone to war against him in 1998. We were in a state of war with him. This was a cessation of hostilities, not an armistice, because let’s remember that our pilots were actually flying missions, southern watch and northern watch, and being shot at by his air defenses.

  And so, I’m sorry, Congressman, because you’ve questioned my integrity, I ask you to let me respond. Now, we have learned that many of the intelligence assessments were wrong. There have been many, many investigations of that, including Senate Select Intelligence and a number of others, and we have gone to extraordinary lengths to reform our intelligence agencies so that they can make better assessments of situations in which you have nontransparent governments that will not answer the just demands of an international community that had sanctioned and had resolutions against Saddam Hussein several times.".

  [Rep. Robert Wexler]: "Madam Secretary, if I may…".

  [Secretary Rice]: "So, no, Congressman, at no time did I intend to or do I believe that I did…".
  Rice Lies To Wexler About Making False Statements Before The Iraq War.

• Clip:
  "I've not ever suggested that they were sort of willfully and consciously lying, but I think that they wanted to jump to conclusions. I said in the Security Council that if something is unaccounted for, it doesn't necessarily mean that they exist. And I think there was that tendency to jump to that conclusion... we were there for three-and-a-half months, after all, and we did not find any smoking gun. And now that the U.S. and the U.K. have been there for quite some time, and they have the opportunity to interrogate people, they've had the whole cream of the Iraqi establishment in custody and people aren't -- should not be scared any longer to answer in the interviews. With this long period, I'm inclined to think that the Iraqi statement that they destroyed all the biological and chemical weapons which they had in the summer of '90, '91 may well be the truth." Hans Blix on 'Paula Zahn Now', September 8, 2003.
• Clip:
  [Condoleezza Rice]: "The president was aware that there were issues inside the United States. He talked to people about this. But I don't remember the al Qaeda cells as being something that we were told we needed to do something about.".

  [Commissioner Ben-veniste]: "Isn't it a fact, Dr. Rice, that the August 6th PDB warned against possible attacks in this country? And I ask you whether you recall the title of that PDB.".

  [Condoleezza Rice]: "I believe the title was "Bin Laden Determined to Attack Inside the United States"."
  National Commission On Terrorist Attacks Upon The United States', Ninth Public Hearing, Thursday, April 8, 2004.

• Clip: "As a matter of fact, in interviews in 1999 with respected journalist, and long time Bush family friend, Micky [David] Herskowitz, then Governor George Bush stated: ‘One of the keys to being seen as a great leader is to be seen as a commander-in-chief. My father had all this political capital built up when he drove the Iraqis out of Kuwait and he wasted it. If I have a chance to invade, if I had that much capital, I’m not going to waste it. I’m going to get everything passed that I want to get passed and I’m going to have a successful presidency'." Cindy Sheehan, My Testimony for the Downing Street Memo Hearings, June 16 2005.
• Clip: "First, some ask why Iraq is different from other countries or regimes that also have terrible weapons. While there are many dangers in the world, the threat from Iraq stands alone -- because it gathers the most serious dangers of our age in one place...

  If we know Saddam Hussein has dangerous weapons today -- and we do -- does it make any sense for the world to wait to confront him as he grows even stronger and develops even more dangerous weapons?

  " President Bush Outlines Iraqi Threat, October 7, 2002.
• Clip: "We've also discovered through intelligence that Iraq has a growing fleet of manned and unmanned aerial vehicles that could be used to disperse chemical or biological weapons across broad areas. We're concerned that Iraq is exploring ways of using these UAVS for missions targeting the United States..." President Bush Outlines Iraqi Threat, October 7, 2002.
• Bumper Music: Let's Go To Mars, Lenny Solomon.
• Thom was joined by his co-host from the local show on KPOJ, Carl Wolfson. Carl has an M.A. in Political Science from UCLA. He took over the last half of the show so that Thom could go catch a plane to Reno. The show will be live from KJFK, Reno tomorrow.
• Oregon is holding an experimental special session (only one year since the last instead of two); HR 100 is a proposal to amend the constitution to make heath care a fundamental right. Oregon Congressman Peter DeFazio joined Wexler's call for impeachment hearings.
• Article: .
  "Rape, ladies and gentlemen, is not today what rape was. Rape, when I was learning these things, was the violation of a chaste woman, against her will, by some party not her spouse. Today it’s simply, “Let’s don’t go forward with this act“."
• Article: Rape: They just don't make it like they used to. Feminsting.
• Guest: Christy Harvey, Director of Strategic Communications at the Center for American Progress, MicCheckradio.org. Crazy day in Washington, DC. The House Republicans' walkout reminded her of the British parliament; they were protesting the contempt vote. Let them keep walking, tour the country and see what is really happening. The Tennessee debate about abortion for rape victims, Senator Doug Henry saying rape isn't what it used to be. The reaction of Feminsting and other bloggers. McCain waterboarding no vote yesterday. Mukasey about Bush, waterboarding, signing statement. Stephen Bradbury said it is against the law, but wouldn't turn over documents about whether it had happened. Specter is focussing on Belichick cheating.
• Ellen Ratner of Talk Radio News. Bush said FISA needs to be passed. Holt said that they had not even been paying some of the carriers of the lines for taps, and had been cut off, yet he says it is matter of security? There is no FISA bill as of yesterday. There was supposed to be a contempt vote today, the Republicans walked out, spoke to press, as did Pelosi. At 4 eastern Romney is going to ask his delegates to vote for McCain, which makes McCain close to the number he needs. Why is Huckabee staying in the race? He wants influence, and it's not costing him much. He's not going to have influence now. Most Democratic superdelegates are going to wait and not say anything. It could be a disaster if it goes beyond May, when Oregon has its primary. The FISA amendments that were shot down.