- Guests:
- John Berlau of the Competitive Enterprise Institute.
- Author/activist Greg Mortenson, His new book, "Stones into Schools: Promoting Peace with Books, Not Bombs, in Afghanistan and Pakistan".
- Topics:
- Are we just a broken people and can't fight back anymore?
- Straw poll: what grade would you give Obama?
- How could anyone be against usury?
- Is it possible to achieve peace through education?
- Bumper Music:
- Save The USA, Andrew Bayuk.
- Snoopy's Christmas, The Royal Guardsmen (video).
- You can leave your hat on, Randy Newman.
- Piggies, George Harrison, Beatles (video).
- Happy Xmas (War is Over), Sarah McLachlan.
- The Good, The Bad And The Ugly, Ennio Morricone.
- Please Come Home for Christmas, Bon Jovi.
- Democracy, Leonard Cohen.
- Today's newsletter has details of today's guests and links to the major stories and alerts that Thom covered in the show, plus lots more. If you haven't signed up for the free newsletter yet, please do. If you missed today's newsletter, it is in the archive.
- Quote: "More than an end to war, we want an end to the beginning of all wars -- yes, an end to this brutal, inhuman and thoroughly impractical method of settling the differences between governments." -- Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Article: "Cleaners 'worth more to society' than bankers - study" by Martin Shankleman.
"Hospital cleaners are worth more to society than bankers, a study suggests.
The research, carried out by think tank the New Economics Foundation, says hospital cleaners create £10 of value for every £1 they are paid.
It claims bankers are a drain on the country because of the damage they caused to the global economy.
They reportedly destroy £7 of value for every £1 they earn. Meanwhile, senior advertising executives are said to "create stress".
The study says they are responsible for campaigns which create dissatisfaction and misery, and encourage over-consumption.
And tax accountants damage the country by devising schemes to cut the amount of money available to the government, the research suggests.
By contrast, child minders and waste recyclers are also doing jobs that create net wealth to the country."
Clip: "Mr. Roosevelt Pays His Respects to Penrose and Archbold" Emporia, Kansas, September 22, 1912 (audio)."The big bosses of the political field, the beneficiaries of privilege in the field of industry, the men who represent that sinister alliance between crooked politics and crooked business, which has done more than anything else for the corruption of American life, are united as one man against the genuine rule of the people themselves. The privileged classes, the representatives of special privilege, of special interests, can always make terms with a boss or bosses. They can make terms with the bosses who dominate the Republican party, they can make terms with the bosses who dominate the Democratic party, but they can’t make terms with the people. They can’t make terms with the men who honestly and genuinely represent the popular will."
