Article: "Gates: 'Iran is the greatest int'l security threat'".
Article: "Ahmadinejad appoints new nuclear chief".
Article: "The second Islamic Revolution" by David Horovitz.
Article: "Barak slams criticism of IDF conduct" by Yaakov Katz.
Guest: Jerusalem Post editor David Horovitz, author of "Still Life with Bombers: Israel in the Age of Terrorism" and "A Little Too Close to God : The Thrills and Panic of a Life in Israel" was here to give us a snapshot from inside Israel.... What's it really like living in the shadow of Iran's quest for nuclear capabilities? Netanyahu. Lieberman.
Bumper Music: Keep on Running, The Spencer Davis Group (video).
Quote: "Under the law of nature, all men are born free, every one comes into the world with a right to his own person, which includes the liberty of moving and using it at his own will. This is what is called personal liberty, and is given him by the Author of nature, because necessary for his own sustenance." - Thomas Jefferson.
Article: The Great Tax Con Job by Thom Hartmann.
Peace rant.
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).
Israel / Palestine. Both sides have missed the lesson of Gandhi, that the world will be with you and you will have the moral high ground, and not to wreak revenge. If the Palestinians had just sat down, fewer would have died, and the world would have been against the Israeli military stance. Turning Gaza into a jail was mistake PR-wise - larger picture. In the long run peace usually wins.
Book: "Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace...One School At A Time", Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin.
Bumper Music: I Will Buy You A New Life, Everclear.
Article: Barking mad? The gadget that translates your dog's woofs into words.
Human culture, shaping things.
Article: What can humanist parents use in the battle against religious indoctrination? by Danny Postel.
Guest: Danny Postel asks, "My Son Was Taught to Believe in Jesus by His Mother -- How Do I Help Him Become a Free Thinker?" He is communications coordinator for Interfaith Worker Justice, a national network based in Chicago, and is the author of Reading "Legitimation Crisis" in Tehran: Iran and the Future of Liberalism. He is contributing editor of Logos: A Journal of Modern Society & Culture and a member of the editorial board of the Common Review. There are all sorts of humanists, he is a secularist. Is counter-indoctrination indoctrination? Should society be teaching comparative religion to kids? Depriving people of ritual.
Bumper Music: Losing My Religion, REM.
The larger picture, frame from smallest to largest. Smallest: what if your ex is an atheist, you spiritual? Or you are secular but she is religious? Larger frame, culture is the collection of stories that we agree. Iran's first story is that we're Muslims, then Persians, whereas in the Kingdom of Denmark it was we are subjects of kings and then Danes, now we're members of a democracy and Danes. In the US the founding story was that we are the product of the Enlightenment, an experiment in secular state, a shared belief by Jefferson - all men are created equal ( it said God of Nature in the first draft. Newt Gingrich's new book is reinventing the US as a Christian nation. Political battles similar to family battles. A spiritual friend had a fundamentalist wife, they fell out once they had kids, is the nation falling apart too? Is it still an experiment of the Enlightenment - people don't need kings, we can govern ourselves? How do we rebuild, recapture stories? There is no objective reality, we can tell a story many ways.
Article: Industry Cash Flowed To Drafters of Reform: Key Senator Baucus Is a Leading Recipient By Dan Eggen.
"As liberal protesters marched outside, Sen. Max Baucus sat down inside a San Francisco mansion for a dinner of chicken cordon bleu and a discussion of landmark health-care legislation under consideration by his Senate Finance Committee.
At the table on May 26 were about 20 donors willing to fork over $10,000 or more to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, including executives of major insurance companies, hospitals and other health-care firms.
"
Science, reality, Brian Baird, James Lovelock. So much oxygen in the atmosphere is abnormal, they are looking for it on distant planets.
Bumper Music: You can leave your hat on, Randy Newman.
Article: Naked Cowboy for NYC mayor: briefs or Bloomberg?.
The oldest human remains are in Ethiopia, we are all from Africans. We should teach history of politics, religion. The pharaoh was the first to teach that there was one god. His name was Amen (or Amun).
Tolerance is a point of view opposite to fundamentalism.
Article: War Without Purpose by Chris Hedges.
Guest: Pulitzer Prize winner Chris Hedges in the studio to talk about his new book, "Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle". He is author of "War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning", "American Fascists" and "I Don't Believe in Atheists". He's Journalist/Author/Senior Fellow at The Nation Institute and will be at Powell's City of Books on Burnside tonight to read from his latest book. Is the world, culture dying? Dire portrait of a bread and circus America. People confuse feeling with knowledge. Propaganda. All societies are image based. He has a piece on Common Dreams today. Role of corporate personhood. Changes to schools. It has been decades in the making. Junk politics. The loss of sense of the sacred. People have a worth beyond economics, and this is not religion.
Bumper Music: American Pie, Don McLean.
Conservative alert: Representative Buyer's Spectacularly Bad Idea by Charles Lemos.
" "Someone who smokes, drinks, participates in bad conduct and behavior, unprotected sex, maybe bad things happen to them, maybe they should pay higher premiums. That is a radical thought, isn't it?" - Congressman Steve Buyer of Indiana".
Article: http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5g2BVb2JwMSQQ7TnqzxS07t9AfNEA (AFP).
We are the largest mass of protoplasm on the planet; before us it was termites.
Bumper Music: Wide Open Spaces, Dixie Chicks.
Henry Gates Jr. has been released. Entering own home while black.
Article: Baucus Leading Recipient Of Health Care Industry Cash (Health Industry Cash to the Max).
Drug addiction, alcoholism replacing the sacred. The sacred need not be religious, for example the constitution. Carl Sagan, atheist, knew the sacred - he was blown away by seeing through a telescope. Advertising, dirty little secret, ads tell you "you are the most important person in the world."
Alexander the Great put his face on coins. Look in your wallet. Most coins around the world do. In 1932 they closed banks, took gold.
ADHD. Research on indigo children? Thom thinks it could be. It is not a disease, but a context problem.
Bumper Music: Democracy is coming to the USA, Leonard Cohen.
Article: Italian newsweekly posts what it says are recordings of Berlusconi, prostitute.
Article: Berlusconi's popularity wilts as lurid tapes allege sex for favoursby Josephine McKenna, Graham Keeley and David Charter.
Article: Internal RNC Memo: "Engage In Every Activity" To Slow Down Health Care Reform by Sam Stein.
Victoria Jones of Talk Radio News. Health care reform, Obama in the Rose Garden, late. F22 funding removal, its building was spread among many states so lots of representatives wanted it. The Pentagon does not want them. Amazing. The president got something he wanted. She's starting to doubt about health care. Some blue dogs on the Energy and Commerce committee, some asking for slow down. In the Rose Garden Obama said he understood some will slow it down. The Huffington Post has got a 12 page Republican memo, "The Republican National Committee will engage in every activity we can to slow down this mad rush while promoting sensible alternatives that address health care costs and preserve quality". Tomorrow will list Democrats who are working against the president. Briefings: Guantanamo, meaning of closure. Will they all end up in Bagram? It would be a disaster.
