Thursday 02 April '09 show

• Article: One-Party Classroom.
  "In researching our new book One-Party Classroom: How Radical Professors at America’s Top Colleges Indoctrinate Students and Undermine Our Democracy, we didn’t ask professors what they thought of themselves. Instead, we looked at the courses they actually teach -- courses like Community Studies 100P at the University of California Santa Cruz, which is described in the university catalogue in these words: “The goal of this seminar is to learn how to organize a revolution. We will learn what communities past and present have done and are doing to resist, challenge and overcome systems of power including (but not limited to) global capitalism, state oppression and racism.”

  This is clearly a training course in radical politics – an exercise in indoctrination, not a scholarly inquiry designed to examine its subject matter in a critical, academic manner. It violates the “standing orders” of the regents of the university which state that “Misuse of the classroom by, for example, allowing it to be used for political indoctrination…constitutes misuse of the university as an institution.” Unfortunately, there is no university authority willing to challenge its radical faculty, and the University of California is no exception.

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• Article: One-Party Classroom.
  "The typical Women’s Studies course teaches that gender differences are created by men in order to oppress women. But modern biology and neuroscience have established that many gender traits are biologically determined."
• Quote: "When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bonds which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

  We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government.

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  Declaration of Independence.
• Guest: David Horowitz, co-author of "One-Party Classroom: How Radical Professors at America's Top Colleges Indoctrinate Students and Undermine Our Democracy", founder of Front Page Magazine. He's against the merger of the private sector and the state, author of "The Professors: The 101 Most Dangerous Academics in America". Students should be taught how to think, not what to think. Is he calling for the censorship of these professors and courses? He is calling for academic standards. The book is about courses which don't allow the students to choose between perspectives; it is indoctrination. Jon Brown's "Che Guevera's Latin America" course:

  "This course will cover Latin America during the era of the Cuban Revolution through the travels, observations, and revolutionary activities of Ernesto “Che” Guevara. The course builds on the sudden revival of Che’s image in pop culture throughout the world, the movie Motorcycle Diaries, and the three additional movies on his life that are now in production. We intend to convert this popularity into a serious investigation of the social unrest into which Latin American countries had entered in the post-World War II period. It was a time in which dominant economic policy of import-substitution-industrialization reached the end of its possibilities, inflation upset the alliance between labor and the middle class, the landholding elites strengthened their control of land while the growing population of landless peasants slid silently into poverty, US companies dominated the most important industries, and dictators reigned."

  He said there were no critical readings, and the professor is not an economist. Community Studies 100P. Isn't America the product of a revolution? He said an academic course would look at the different kinds of revolution, compare them, look at the benefits and costs; the lecturer is a flaming Marxist and the course is political indoctrination. Couldn't the people on the right use it just as much as those on the left? He said that would be just as wrong. Thom cited the Declaration of Independence. The course would allow you to recognize revolution.

  Women’s Studies courses. Thom said women are oppressed in many societies. Horowitz said you should not teach that women are oppressed; you should not require students to believe in the social construction of gender, which is an opinion, not a scientific fact. Horowitz said Larry Summers lost his job at Harvard for saying a perfectly true thing, which is women do not have the aptitude at the high end of the bell curve for mathematics that men do.

• Bumper Music: (Remember The Days Of The) Old Schoolyard, Cat Stevens (video).
• Bumper Music: Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard, Paul Simon.
• The complaint used to be that liberal teachers were teaching communism to our kids; teaching about labor unions, Joe Hill, the labor leader who was executed by firing squad, and the Pullman Porter Strike, the Haymarket Square riots. They successfully stripped most civics education out of public high schools and lower schools. Are they now going after the colleges?
• Bumper Music: Dizzy, Tommy Roe.
• Article: Miss Universe says had "lot of fun" in Guantanamo.
• There are differing paradigms in academia. We need to talk about education, make it free, and bring civics and critical thinking skills back. The debate about Egyptian civilization. Thom visited Dr. Ruth Shady who discovered the world's first preserved mother city at Caral when writing his forthcoming book "Threshold", which showed that cities were not first developed to protect people against war, as everyone had been taught. There was no evidence of warfare, so the paradigm is being reconstructed.
• Would Horowitz be against the kind of colleges that produced Monica Goodling? University business education teaching that profit motive is supreme. People should have a broader grounding before specializing.
• Bumper Music: I Don't Need No Doctor, Ray Charles.
• Book: "The Chalice and the Blade", Riane Eisler.
• Guest: actor/producer/director Noah Wyle, who played Dr. John Carter in the television drama ER, and US Secretary of Commerce Don Evans in "W". Doctors of the World (now HealthRight International). Human Rights Watch. Tonight at 9 o'clock Eastern time on NBC is the final episode of ER. How does he learn his lines? Rote memory, repetition. The more you exercise your brain, the better it gets. What is his hope for the legacy of the TV series? It is useful as a reference tool for doctors to have a discussion with patients. Storylines have highlighted a lot of different diseases and aspects of medicine, for example the surgery checklist, which decreases surgical complications and deaths by 35% where implemented. Thom remembers Dr. Kildare, there was a very different doctor - patient relationship then, doctor infallibility. MASH. The show began just when Hillary Clinton got a mandate to revamp the healthcare system and thought they might be part of the solution, and that there would be universal healthcare. In House or ER nobody ever asks to see insurance details as happens in the real world. Should the shows not reflect that? Do you want the government choosing your doctor or do you want to choose your doctor? This argument should be reframed as there is a third party, the health insurance company.
• The Dow is up. Thom thinks it is not because of the G20 meeting but because of a change made an hour or so earlier, but was known about yesterday, by the Financial Accounting Standards Board, on mark to market accounting. Are we being played for suckers by Wall Street? Are Obama and the two parties? Is this rally a temporary bull in a huge bear market. Thom thinks so; he would be selling. The fundamentals of the economy rant. Investment in education. The Fourth Turning.
• Book: The Fourth Turning: an American Prophecy by William Strauss and Neil Howe, published in 1997, which was Thom's "Independent Thinker" Book of the Month a while ago. Mark to market, which leads to bubbles.
• Article: Statement on the Expected Vote to Relax Mark-to-Market, or “Fair Value,” Accounting Mandates, John Berlau.
  "The events leading to the Dow's climbing over 8000 today can be properly called the Mark-to-Market Relief Rally. More than any expected action of the bureaucrats and politicians at the G20, the decision expected today of the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) to relax strict application of mark-to-market accounting mandates, urged by members of Congress of both parties, it what's giving investors something to cheer for.

  In this era that supposedly signifies the return of big government, it is heartening that on this issue, Republicans and Democrats worked together to push for this common-sense free-market reform that will do much to get our economy going and could save taxpayers billions in avoiding the need for bailouts.

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• Bumper Music: Joe Hill, Joan Baez.
• Article: The Orphans of Ireland, Timothy Egan.
• Article: Accounting windfall for banks.
  "Large US banks such as Citigroup, Bank of America and Wells Fargo stand to receive a surprise first quarter earnings boost from today's expected loosening of controversial accounting rules by the Financial Accounting Standards Board.

  Wall Street executives and auditors say the accounting watchdog's likely approval of changes to "mark-to-market" rules could lead to increases of up to 20 per cent in the quarterly profits of large commercial banks.

  Rushed through by FASB after pressure from the lenders and politicians, the changes have been strongly opposed by investment banks, investors, auditors and analysts.

  They will make it easier for companies, including banks, to value assets using their own internal models rather than market prices. They will also only have to recognise a part of any impairment in their profits. ...

  The rules are also being considered by the International Accounting Standards Board which had promised to work with its US counterpart. The IASB softened its own fair value rules last October under pressure from the European Union. Opponents of the change fear Brussels will exert new pressure to get the IASB to follow FASB's lead.

  In a letter in today's Financial Times, Dutch securities regulator chief Hans Hoogervorst calls political meddling in accounting a "dangerous development".

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• Bumper Music: You can leave your hat on, Randy Newman.
• Article: Pole vaulter dashes naked through streets of Paris to attract new sponsor.
• Sucker's rally. The Dow Jones is not the economy; the ability to earn wages is, and to produce goods and services that have value within the nation. Outsourcing to China. We are at risk of fascism; collusion between government and big business. Massive transfer of wealth from the working class to the banker class. The use of credit. Structural imbalances need to be corrected.
• Book: Generations: The History of America's Future, 1584 to 2069 by William Strauss and Neil Howe.
• Bumper Music: Pay Me My Money Down, Bruce Springsteen (video).
• Article: Mystery Of Big Black Cat Deepens In NY Suburb.
• Article: Next Time A Republican Tells You Cutting Corporate Taxes Will Save Or Create Jobs, Tell Them This.
• Article: April Fools: Ann Coulter falls for fake Obama NASCAR story.
• Picture: Obama poses with Italy's Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev for a group photo to mark the G20 summit in London, Thursday, April 2, 2009. Seated in front of them is the President of China, Hu Jintao.. 4th picture of slide show.
• Domination of right wing think tanks and bloggers on the Internet.
• Bumper Music: Snow, Red Hot Chili Peppers.
• Starting a business. Thom and Louise's businesses. Salem Childrens' Village in New Hampshire. Hunter School. The worst economic times are the best times for small entrepreneurs. Dale Carnegie. Tony Robinson. The best way to earn is to practice, to be prepared to make a mistake.
  • Start out with a purpose beyond, 'I want to make money'. There has to be some passion associated with it. There has to be something there that you love or care about.
  • Write down a statement of what your vision, goal is, why you want to create this business.
  • Create short term and long term goals for yourself; shoot high, a one sentence statement that reminds you of the larger vision and the goals associated with it and write it on the back of three business cards. Put one in your wallet, one in your car, and one on your bathroom mirror, so you will frequently see one.
  • Make a list of the things you are going to need to do it, even if they are way out of reach
  • Plan on starting it on a shoestring. Don't expect to make money, take a pay check, in the first two years.
  • Luck is when opportunity meets preparation. Once you have that clear vision and remind yourself of it every day, you will start noticing things, opportunities. Be prepared. Just start it.
  • W. Clement Stone - just do it! Get inspired, pumped up.
  • Find others who are doing the kind of businesses that you are thinking of doing.
• Bumper Music: Jai Ho Slumdog Millionaire Soundtrack.
• Article: Republicans Disinvite Palin to Major Fundraiser.
• Article: Rehospitalizations among Patients in the Medicare Fee-for-Service Program.
• Guest: Christy Harvey, Director of Strategic Communications at the Center for American Progress, MicCheckradio.org. "News Under the Radar". How is Alaska responding to the recent RNC replacement of Sarah Palin with Newt Gingrich? Gingrich who converted to Catholicism, as did Bob Novak. Yesterday Holder was dropping all the charges against Ted Stevens. Republicans are calling on the current senator, Mark Begich, Democrat, to resign so there would be a special election because of the influence of the DoJ. The Don Siegelman case. Department of Homeland Security publishing the speeches of Michael Chertoff at a cost of $16,000. You can find all the speeches online for free. Obama giving the Queen an iPod. The DVD's given to Gordon Brown that he could not play. Rush Limbaugh leaving New York because of Governor Paterson's tax increase. April 15 same sex kiss day. A new way to cut back on Medicare spending, new study today in the NEJM.
• Bumper Music: Work It Out, Jurassic 5 (video).
• You can listen to Thom online, it should be on continuous loop soon.
• Winner of ""Screwed": ejcrist on today's blog:
  "I was doing a web search on ENRON and mark to market, and found this transcript from Limbaugh’s show!!!! The caller is vehemently defending ENRON and AIG..."
• Ellen Ratner of Talk Radio News. Mark to market, the market was excited by it. Jobless claims up. Factory orders first gain in 7 months. Loan delinquencies. G-20 $1.1tr in loans to IMF, the World Bank. Details to follow. Could the be making sure that money is available if the USA needs it, or is it to prevent economic instability leading to political instability? They are saying it is to help the world economy. She has raised enough money to provide basketball courts and showers in Southern Sudan. Last year's trip to Southern Sudan. Obama picking Groves to be the Census Director, using statistical sampling.