Cultured Media

Even outside faith, I haven’t seen non-sound byte interviews with both candidates recently. Personal faith, abortion, stem-cells, adoption, patriotism, economics and more are discussed.  Always skeptic, I was pleasantly pleased by the candidness of the impromptu questions and answers (for the most part). As Rick Warren, interviewer and pastor of Saddleback Community Church, said afterward, they displayed their personalities, the straight-talking warrior and the nuanced professor. You can view the four part video online at CNN.com. Here is a link to the first part. You may have to locate the rest.

Obama, McCain interviewed by Rick Warren at Saddleback Church

In “The Return of History and the End of Dreams,” Robert Kagan, Washington Post columnist and Carnegie Endowment for International Peace senior associate, argues that the international stability predicted after the end of the Cold War did not emerge and that instead we now have a contest for power between liberal democracies, autocratic governments, and radical Islamists.? He states that the majority of the world has regressed into 19th century diplomacy with their spheres of influence.

Listen on Book TV

Anecdotes from the time of the founding fathers that do not make the founding fathers appear as noble as their statues around Washington, D.C. This care-free discussion covers serious topics such as adultery, pregnant mistresses and their orphans, overseas travel, and the role of women as second class citizens.

Author and ABC News political commentator Cokie Roberts tells the story of some of early America’s notable women and their achievements in “Ladies of Liberty: The Women Who Shaped Our Nation”. In her book, she draws on personal correspondence, private journals and previously unpublished writings to recount the history of former first ladies such as Abigail Adams and Dolley Madison and other women such as Theodosia Burr, Aaron Burr’s daughter. Ms. Roberts discussed her book with Pat Schroeder, CEO of the Association of American Publishers and former Democratic Congresswoman from Colorado.

Listen on Book TV - After Words: “Ladies of Liberty”

Why Islamic states thrived for hundreds of years, what led to their downfall, and the some of current challenges of Islamic governments in the modern world. Noah Feldman, professor at Harvard Law School, is a contributing writer for the “New York Times Magazine,” adjunct senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and author of “Divided by God, What We Owe Iraq,” “After Jihad” and “The Rise and Fall of the Islamic State.”

Listen on Diane Rehm

A California appeals court ruled that parents must be certified teachers in order to home school their children. The decision has sent a chill through the nation’s growing home schooling community. We’ll look at trends in home schooling and new attempts to regulate it.

The interview is with:

• Mike Donnelly, staff attorney, Home School Legal Defense Association
• Rob Reich, associate professor of political science and ethics in society, Stanford University
• Gretchen Roe, home schooling parent for the past 14 years; part-time home schooling community liaison for Calvert School

Listen on the Diane Rehm Show

In 2005 an American nun was murdered in the Amazonian rain forest in Brazil. For forty years she worked on behalf of the poor, the landless, and the forest. The story of the life and death of Sister Dorothy Stang as told by Binka Le Breton.

Listen to Binka Le Breton tell the story of Sister Dorothy Stang on the Diane Rehm Show

Jim Wallis, the founder of Sojourners magazine and author of “The Great Awakening: Reviving Faith & Politics in a Post-Religious Right America,” participates in a panel discussion entitled “Choosing a President: What do Evangelicals Want?” The panelists include Rev. Cheryl Sanders, Rev. Joel Hunter, Bishop Harry Jackson, Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, Richard Cizik, and Lynne Hybels.? The panel is moderated by Steve Waldman and David Kuo of Belief.net and takes place at George Washington University in Washington, DC.

Watch at this panel discussion, Choosing a President: What do Evangelicals Want, at BookTV

As you know, I support listening to opposing viewpoints. I offer the following discussion as part of that ethic.

“Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. I strongly believe that an embryo does not have more rights than a women, and that an embryo is not an independent life at that point [14 weeks pregnant].” - Susan Wicklund

On today’s show Diane Rehm interviewed a doctor that performs abortions on her show. The doctor’s point of view was that abortions would be performed no matter what–whether the procedure was legal or illegal. As an example, she told the story of her grandmother (a non-medical person) killing a friend while trying to perform an abortion more than fifty years ago.

She states that if women cannot decide when to bear children, then she no longer has control over her own education, her financial situation, emotional and physical health. She believes that pro-life advocates want to force all Americans to have sex only to procreate and that having sex out of wedlock should not be shameful.

Halfway though the show, Diane talked to Lori Campbell who wrote an article for Vogue magazine about her own partial birth abortion. The article was called “Private Lives” and is on page 66 of the January 2008 volume. The subtitle is “When Lori Campbell’s second pregnancy
developed complications, she was faced with a painful decision. But she was thankful it was hers to make.”

The author recounts how her water broke at 22 weeks pregnant. She and her husband were devastated when the doctors told them there wasn’t much chance for the baby to survive if it were born at this point. They insisted the best course of action for her would be to terminate the pregnancy.

After thinking it over, while Mrs. Campbell said she wished for the child to live, she felt the most “humane” thing to do was to take the option of terminating the pregnancy via partial-birth abortion, since the chance of the child living was slim. She decides to make the decision to abort the child. She justifies her decision by saying she is saving the baby from needless suffering if it is only going to die anyway.

What surprised me was in the interview on the show, she has no problem using the word “child.” I have always thought for most of my life that abortion was framed from perspective on whether you thought that a fetus has a life and soul. I’m assuming by her phrasing that Mrs. Campbell does believe that her child had a life. She believed that euthanizing her child was the most humane thing to do. She believed that it was the path of least suffering for her unborn child and her and her family.

When did the path of least suffering begin to justify euthanasia?

Listen on the Diane Rehm Show to an interview with Susan Wicklund

Jim Lehrer hosts By the People: Citizenship in the 21st Century, a documentary to air on PBS this month, featuring some of America’s most talented and influential leaders debating the rights and responsibilities of citizenship. The one-hour special will show highlights of the dialogues in Democracy project that By the People is undertaking in partnership with the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. A major focus of the broadcast is the By the People convocation that took place in Williamsburg, Virginia, from November 8 through 11, with the goal of creating thoughts for a new Declaration of Citizenship in the 21st Century.

The convocation brought together a diverse group of approximately 50 influential Americans, reflecting diverse perspectives. Among the participants were: Nathan Baxter, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Central Pennsylvania;David Davenport, former president of Pepperdine University; Lisa Madigan, Illinois Attorney General; Leo Melamed, Chairman Emeritus, Chicago Mercantile Exchange; Robert Moses, founder of The Algebra Project; Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist; and Indianapolis 500 driver Janet Guthrie.

Watch over an hour’s worth of the documentary at By The People: A National Conversation about America in the World.

The Internet has changed the way we do business and the way we conduct our politics. The first blogger permitted to officially cover a White House press briefing examines how the world wide web will transform political campaigns in the new century.

Listen to Garrett Graff interviewed on the Diane Rehm Show