July 15 2009 show notes

  • Quote: "It is a universal truth that the loss of liberty at home is to be charged to the provisions against danger, real or pretended, from abroad." - James Madison.
  • Article: Conservatives, let this be our Waterloo by Dan Gainor.
    "Nearly 200 years ago, emperor Napoleon came back from exile and re-conquered France without firing a shot. His conquest of Europe failed when Napoleon, in proper English terms, was soundly thrashed at Waterloo by the Duke of Wellington.

    Napoleon might be long gone, but President Obama is doing his best to fill his boots. Sure, he’s taller. And instead of hiding his hand in his shirt, it’s either in our pockets or signing bills and spending money. But his aims are very similar – power and control. Just as the French army was Napoleon’s personal guard, Obama’s followers resemble more of a personality cult than a political party. If he wins, ordinary citizens lose and government grows ever larger.

    In the years since Napoleon I lost at Waterloo, that battle became the metaphor for epic defeat. Today, conservatives avoid that kind of major confrontation with the popular Obama for fear of being crushed and sent into political exile. Rather than risk losing, phony conservatives are helping Obama by voting for his massive increases in government.

    That’s entirely the wrong strategy. If Waterloo was a major defeat, it was also a major victory. That battle should have taught us that even a man who conquered much of Europe can be defeated. For every Napoleon, there is a Wellington who goes down in history as an epic winner.

    "
  • "THE CULT OF...OBAMA?!" Thom mixes it up with Dan Gainor of the Business and Media Institute. Clinton overreached, went for Hillarycare. Thom, health insurance companies are leeches. Do you want bureaucrats between you and your doctor? He'd rather private companies because they can be fired. Thom says then they work for targets of denials. His article, use of the word crisis. He called terrorism a crisis. Thom gave statistics of those effected. He said Obama will send jobs to China - Thom agreed the need to change. Obama will lose?
  • Bumper Music: Shake It Up, The Cars.
  • Article: Sotomayor Tied To Bill Ayers In New Ad By Conservative Group by Sam Stein.
  • Article: Major newspapers disappear Sessions' alleged history of racial insensitivity.
  • Extraordinary juxtaposition...
  • Article: French Nortel workers secure talks after blow-up threat (Reuters).
  • Article: GM Details Ex-CEO's Retirement Package by Tom Krisher and Kimberly S. Johnson, AP.
    "Former General Motors Corp. Chairman and CEO Rick Wagoner will retire Aug. 1 with a pension and benefit package the automaker valued at more than $10 million."
  • Food insecurity, hunger.
  • Upcoming Events: Thom's book tour for "Threshold":

    July 27th - Portland, OR - Baghdad Theater & Powell's Books 7p

    July 30th - Seattle, WA - Town Hall. Details TBA

    Aug 4th - San Francisco, CA - World Affairs Council. Details TBA

    Aug 5th - Santa Monica, CA - Santa Monica Library. Details TBA

    Aug 17th - Minneapolis, MN - details TBA

    Aug 19th - Chicago, IL - details TBA

    Aug 21st - Madison, WI - details TBA

  • Upcoming Event: Aug 8th - Seattle, WA AM1090 Presents - "Embracing Change: Moving Forward As The Majority" with Stephanie Miller, Thom Hartmann, Bill Press, Mike Malloy and Ron Reagan - Tickets are just $22 for Reserved Seating, $32 for Premium Reserved Seating, and $47 for VIP Floor Seating. Tickets go on sale Saturday June 27th @ 10AM. Purchase yours at the ShoWareCenter Box Office, or by phone at 253-856-6999. Doors open at 5pm, the panel discussion runs from 6-9pm. (not to be confused with the July 30th Seattle book signing).
  • Article: Homeowner wants oilman Pickens charged with theft By Sean Murphy.
    "As a youngster, Texas oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens scratched his name in wet concrete in the driveway of his grandmother's Oklahoma house.

    Now the man who owns the century-old home is pursuing theft and vandalism charges against the 81-year-old billionaire, saying workers for Pickens came to the house recently without permission and removed the concrete slab with the well-known name.

    "
  • Bumper Music: What's Up, 4 Non Blondes (video)
  • 'Marketplace for labor rant' (transcript).
  • Bumper Music: Won't Get Fooled Again, The Who.
  • Viral email, "what a great way to explain socialism"

    An economics professor at a local college made a statement that he had never failed a single student before but had once failed an entire class.

    That class had insisted that Obama's socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer.

    The professor then said, "OK, we will have an experiment in this class on Obama's plan". All grades would be averaged and everyone would receive the same grade so no one would fail and no one would receive an A.

    After the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone got a B.

    The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy.

    As the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too so they studied little.

    The second test average was a D! No one was happy.

    When the 3rd test rolled around, the average was an F.

    The scores never increased as bickering, blame and name-calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else.

    All failed, to their great surprise, and the professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great but when government takes all the reward away, no one will try or want to succeed.

    Could not be any simpler than that.

    It would not happen like that.

  • Article: Majority of Eastern Germans Feel Life Better under Communism By Julia Bonstein.
  • Thom has been writing a chapter for his next book on the nature of equality, so he has done lots of reading. East Germans saying life was better back then. Differences in the quality of life. Bowling for Columbine, Canada and USA rates of gun ownership, homicide rate. Thom founded the Hunter School, was former consultant to school districts on 3 continents. There will always be a few slackers, but most kids will study in a good school because they love learning.
  • Thom is not an advocate of Marxism, it only works for small numbers like a Kibbutz. Democratic socialism, regulated capitalism.
  • Bumper Music: You can leave your hat on, Randy Newman.
  • Article: Pupils told: Sex every day keeps the GP away.
  • Greatest inequality, teenage pregnancy related to inequality, not like this before Maggie Thatcher.
  • Similarities between communism and free capitalism. Kleptocracy.
  • Bumper Music: The Mail Must Go Through, Larry Groce & The Disneyland Children's Sing Along Chorus (clip).
  • Voice mail today about how Medicare compensates physician, 75% lower than insurers, they would not be able to maintain their practices at that level. See if Democrats fix it in tomorrow's plan.
  • Bumper Music: It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine), REM.
  • Guest: "EVERYTHING YOU KNOW IS WRONG": Thom speaks with forensic psychiatrist Dr. Michael Stone, author of "The Anatomy of Evil". Dante's Inferno, 9 circles. He singled out some similar, some different to his book. He focused on violent crimes in peace time, not due to war, gang conflicts. Dante mixed them. Soldiers in Abu Ghraib, quite a few had poor homes. The cause of evil? He looks at head injuries, genetics, violent childhood abuse, other things. We use the word 'evil' for something particularly horrifying. There are no one size fits all factors. Some people have none of the factors, yet end up like Ted Bundy. There are some strong genetic psychopaths. White collar psychopaths, evil not often used. Two weeks ago the judge in the Bernie Madoff case said he was extraordinarily evil, caused a chain of suicides. "" by Rupert Ross, Cree and Ojibway world view. Cultural clashes. Discussion of transcultural evil? He's thinking of another book about that, including wars, cultures. He did mention in some Islamic countries, some honor killing, but if they go to USA, UK, a Palestinian killed his daughter.
  • Book: "Bush on the Couch: Inside the Mind of the President", Justin A. Frank.
  • Book: "The Lance and the Shield", by Robert Utley. Sitting Bull.
  • Hospitality cultures, like the Lakota, and some in Pakistan that we are bombing.
  • Bumper Music: Crazy, Gnarls Barkley.
  • Article: Flat blown up in air bed accident.
  • Article: Coburn Evokes Ricky Ricardo While Speaking To Sotomayor: "You'll Have Lots Of Splainin' To Do" (VIDEO).
  • Bumper Music: Democracy is coming to the USA, Leonard Cohen.
  • Clip:
    "I speak of peace, therefore, as the necessary rational end of rational men. I realize the pursuit of peace is not as dramatic as the pursuit of war -- and frequently the words of the pursuers fall on deaf ears. But we have no more urgent task.

    No government or social system is so evil that its people must be considered as lacking in virtue.

    The United States, as the world knows, will never start a war. We do not want a war. We do not now expect a war. This generation of Americans has already had enough -- more than enough -- of war and hate and oppression. We shall be prepared if others wish it. We shall be alert to try to stop it. But we shall also do our part to build a world of peace where the weak are safe and the strong are just.

    We are not helpless before that task or hopeless of its success. Confident and unafraid, we must labor on -- not towards a strategy of annihilation but towards a strategy of peace.

    "
    John F. Kennedy, June 10, 1963, American University Speech.
  • 30th anniversary of Carter speech...
  • Clip: "The energy crisis is real. It is worldwide. It is a clear and present danger to our nation. These are facts and we simply must face them. Moreover, I will soon submit legislation to Congress calling for the creation of this nation's first solar bank, which will help us achieve the crucial goal of 20 percent of our energy coming from solar power by the year 2000.

    What I have to say to you now about energy is simple and vitally important. Point one: I am tonight setting a clear goal for the energy policy of the United States. Beginning this moment, this nation will never use more foreign oil than we did in 1977 -- never. From now on, every new addition to our demand for energy will be met from our own production and our own conservation.

    The generation-long growth in our dependence on foreign oil will be stopped dead in its tracks right now and then reversed as we move through the 1980s, for I am tonight setting the further goal of cutting our dependence on foreign oil by one-half by the end of the next decade -- a saving of over 4-1/2 million barrels of imported oil per day.

    "
    Jimmy Carter televised "Crisis of Confidence" Speech on July 15, 1979.
  • Foreign Policy Address at the Council on Foreign Relations, Hillary Rodham Clinton, July 15, 2009.
  • Victoria Jones of Talk Radio News. Sotomayor hearings, Al Franken is now questioning her - non-lawyer. 'Splaining - did anybody get it that it was racist? It hit the blogs after, will go mainstream. Jeff Sessions saying another judge Puerto Rican. What Sessions said in the past, he was turned down for racism, the media is not covering, MediaMatters, that story is not in the LA Times and many other papers, only Sotomayor's old words. Mainstream story, Hillary major address today, willingness to talk is not a weakness, policy, nukes, terrorists, reaching out to Muslims, peace in Middle East, human rates, climate change, economic recovery and growth, right president. John Ensign and Harry Reid, Las Vegas, not criticism, proof of citizenship of president, 9 co-sponsors. Whacky.
  • ADHD: Hunter in a Farmer's World

    Thom Hartmann has written a dozen books covering ADD / ADHD - Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder.

    Join Thom for his new twice-weekly email newsletters on ADHD, whether it affects you or a member of your family.

    Thom's Blog Is On the Move

    Hello All

    Thom's blog in this space and moving to a new home.

    Please follow us across to hartmannreport.com - this will be the only place going forward to read Thom's blog posts and articles.