Seriously? KPCC will be doing another show on Jackson? Good God! I guess there's really nothing to cover in Los Angeles. No one would want to hear a show on the city's growing tagging problem. Oh wait you just had Bratton on "claiming" how he's cleaned up L.A. So I guess L.A. doesn't have any crime to cover. I was hoping the you would have been above this but I guess not.

I'd like to know what will happen to the Beatles catalogue of music, now that Michael Jackson has died.

Get that guy in the Michael Jackson tribute band a cup of coffee or something. I had to change the channel on his tired mumbling.
I can't imagine his show is much better.

Seriously, would you want this freak to be a roll model for your kids?

I'm assuming Michael Jackson has written new songs for the 50's tour. Perhaps the revenue from the new songs can pay for the impact of the tour cancellation?

Pat, your interviews have been the most interesting regarding Michael Jackson. One bright spot was to hear the "other" Michael Jackson who was a great radio host. Maybe you could schedule a chat with him at a happier time ?

I do have to say that I think this is an example of Orwell's dictum that political language is generally constructed so as to obscure barabarism; when these activities have been undertaken by one of our enemies, no-one has shrunk from calling it 'torture'.

Is part of the problem that since 'torture' is illegal, saying that someone has ordered or performed it might open the network to libel charges?

(This is like the Clinton's administration's refusal to call the genocide in Ruanda 'genocide', because to do so would have imposed certain future actions on their part.)

I'd like to know NPR's explanation of its use of the term "ethnic cleansing" when referring to massacres in parts of eastern Europe like Serbia and Kosovo.

How astonishing that an "independent ombudsman" would prefer "enhanced interrogation, some would say torture" to the reverse:

Waterboarding IS torture, and has been for centuries. It is torture whether it is performed by a sheriff in Texas or the viet-cong. It is torture when it's performed on Abu Zubeida 83 times, or Khalid Sheikh Mohammed 183 times. It is ineffective. It is not an interrogation technique at all: it is a punishment, and a way of extracting false confessions.

It would be far more accurate to say that the US used "torture, some would say enhanced interrogation" in Guantanamo and Baghram air base.

Shame on the ombudsman!

It is gratifying to hear someone actually speak cogently about careful selection of words when so many media outlets do not place any constraints on the kind of inflammatory or insensitive language their speakers use. I hear NPR held up as some kind of leftist propaganda outlet, but the truth is they are just about the least partisan and most objective news outlet operating today. This is born out by media studies. Words have power, and they need to be wielded cautiously. NPR understands this.

Please ask the ombudsman for a nice-sounding word that I can use to describe NPR (and other U.s. media)'s policy that will mean 'cowardice' but won't hurt her feelings.

Radio hosts keep asking callers what it was about Michael Jackson's music that made it so special, and no one seems to be able to pin it down; they circle around saying how "talented" and "moving" his music and dance were. I think that what made his work so special can be expressed in the word "exhilaration." When he sang a song, he exhilarated the listener. Watching him dance as though he had never been introduced to gravity was exhilarating in the extreme. He exhilarated his audiences. They experienced exhilaration, which is a wonderful and infrequent experience in our lives.

You know so many interesting infomation. You might be very wise. I like such people. Don't top writing.

As people start saving money and not consuming as much, the economy must shrink or collapse since
our economy is based upon consuming things that
we do not necessarily need.
Something new will develop as people are forced to
change their consuming habits.
Juan

Hi: Food for thought. The governor is cutting back staff for the Tax Collector's office as well as the Nurse's Registry, which is self-supporting. I sent him an e-mail asking how he would have felt, if during his acting days, because of a shortage of auditors, his share of a picture's profits could not be verified by one of his own accountants....not very good. Think Art Bucwald's law suit against Paramount several years ago. Another thought I left him with, is how drivers in the left turn lane, at least in Los Angeles are not adverse to going through the light after it has turned red. You might say the same about his cutbacks. There are parties going on all over the place. Why not? Who will be there to keep them in line?

Respectfully,

Morris Chapnick
www.morrischapnick@att.net