The Errington Thompson Show 11-7-09
Now this is a great show. We should take a little time and listen to the show. (BTW, I’m still on Michael Jackson kick. I saw This is it. Man, that was great stuff.)
I start off by congratulating our progressive City Council candidates — Gordon Smith, Cecil Bothwell and Esther Manheimer. Crazy mad props. Also, Mayor Terry Bellamy wins her second term. Congrats!!
Do you remember that gang rape of that high school student out in California? Will new details are emerging. The victim was drugged and beaten. Remember this occurred during a homecoming dance in late October. It appears there were as many as 20 bystanders and none of them were compelled to call the police. This reminds me of that famous case of the New York, it happened in the mid-80s. This woman was beaten and killed if I’m not mistaken in many people watch the whole thing and nobody called the police. If the speculated that many people either photographed or filmed the incident with their cell phones. This is an extremely sad commentary.
By now, everyone is aware of the tragedy at Fort Hood. Sergeant Kimberly Munley appears to be the hero. She fired at the suspect Major Nidal Malik Hasan and continued to fire after she was wounded. Now comes the endless speculation. For reasons that are unclear, we, as Americans, always after these major tragedies, think they’re something that we should’ve noticed where we could have intervened. We have several of these major tragedies every year. In my opinion, what we should’ve learned, is that we cannot predict human behavior. I just don’t think we have that ability.
Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma has single-handedly holding up The Veterans Caregivers and Omnibus Health Benefits Act of 2009. He thinks it’s too expensive. Maybe, he would like to tell the troops that they aren’t worth it.
A New Zealand artist uses manure to sculpt the bust of a Environmental Minister. At least the artist has a sense of humor. The Pennsylvania State police botched a prostitution investigation by sending the informant into a massage parlor multiple times and filming everything. They might have been okay if the officers watching the various sex acts were not laughing and making lewd comments. The Pennsylvania Court of Appeals threw out the case.
My special guest is Alex Koppelman of Salon.com’s War Room. We discuss health care reform, we talk about what is wrong with the media and how we, as Americans, seek out information that agrees with our point of view. What do the Tuesday Elections mean? What about gay rights? We talk about this and more.
BTW, the book that Alex and I were trying to remember is called True Enough: Learning to live in a Post-fact Society by Farhad Manjoo.
There is more! Listen to the Errington Thompson Show – this is great progressive radio!
