This week’s Ring of Fire, hosted by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Mike Papantonio and Sam Seder: Saturdays at 3 o’clock Eastern, rebroadcasts Sunday nights at 8 pm Eastern
Stepping into the Ring of Fire this week: Mark Mattson from the Lake Ontario Waterkeepers will be here to talk about the ongoing debate over whether nuclear energy will ever be safe enough for widespread use.
Attorney Peter Mougey will be here to tell us why there are still no federal regulations that require investment bankers to put the interests of their clients above their own financial interests.
Chris Hunt from Sustainable Table will be joining us to talk about the dangers of the bovine growth hormones that farms across the country are injecting into cattle.
We’ll be talking with attorney and consumer advocate Ed Blizzard about why the FDA allowed Johnson & Johnson to keep a faulty hip implant on the market for years, even when their own research showed that it was causing damage to patients.
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It sounds like a good education show without let’s bash all Republicans and conservatives so I posted a link on my blog to encourage others to listen to your show tomorrow. I am not picking only on you guys as a lot of media instead of educating and informing people on the issues without mentioning or blaming the other party; they attack the other party and generalize the debate. Truth has no agenda, or should I say should have no agenda. Yet, to many times people of all political views only believe truth that fits into their agenda and discard the other truth that doesn’t fit into their agneda.
I like to listen to Coast to Coast am and they were talking the other night about aspertine(sp) and just how deadly it is and how it is in so much of our food. They know how deadly it is but still add it to our food anyway. I don’t want a nanny state that tells us what we can or can’t do in every aspect of our lives, but their has to be a happy medium somewhere so that our food is safe to eat and isn’t making us sick or slowly killing us?
I keep praying for Japan and the people there who continue to suffer because of the radiation from the damage of the plants. You would think it would wake up the American people to the truth that nuclear power is unsafe and that there are better renewable energy souces that we can use here, but one poll I heard about said that 58% of the American public think nuclear energy is safe. I was talking to a Progressive neighbor as we were walking our dogs and talking politics and I had to tell him that he is correct about the American people not caring about anything as long as they have their beer and big screen tv. I don’t know what it will take to wake some people up that nuclear energy is not a Green energy source or something that should be used in this country? We have other options. The Pollyannd in me like to think that we can reach others with the truth and they will understand that we don’t have to use nuclear power.
I hope everyone is having a good week.
God bless
Chrisy
i joined the waterkeepers in the 80′s, good people.
Waterkeepers Canada: The future of clean water in Canada
In many ways, Waterkeeper groups in Canada are working towards a future where we can all safely swim, drink and fish. Here are some of our accomplishments to date:
140,000 fewer plastic water bottles sold and landfilled in the Ottawa area
Hundreds of beaches monitored for contaminants coast to coast
Gates opened on the Petitcodiac River to restore fish populations after 40 years of habitat destruction.
Over 50 formal submissions prepared on important local, provincial and federal water issues from British Columbia to Newfoundland.
At least 100 law students mentored in Environmental Law and water justice
Thousands of kilometres of Canadian waterways patrolled and monitored for pollution
Worked with hundreds of communities on water issues from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean and everything in between.
Got fish kills in Lake Ontario reduced by millions of fish, eggs and larvae every year.
Stopped major polluters from contaminating your water in nine of Canada’s major watersheds.
I just read the study on brain-structure relationship to political views which Mike Pappantonio and Sam Seder talked about. I disagree that what it shows is primary to understanding the American right-left divide. IMO, while interesting, the findings are merely derivative of what’s really going on over here. I don’t dispute the actual findings, but I do the interpretation of them I just heard on the radio.
Directly from from the report:
– “It’s very unlikely that actual political orientation is directly encoded in these brain regions.”
– “Brain structure can exhibit systematic relationships with an individual’s experiences and skills, can change after extensive training, and is related to different aspects of conscious perception”.
– “Specifically, it requires a longitudinal study to determine whether the changes in brain structure that we observed lead to changes in political behavior or whether political attitudes and behavior instead result in changes of brain structure.”
It’s the ‘chicken or the egg?’ question. I believe that most likely it’s the attitudes observed from birth and even before (hormonally) which have effected these differences of physical brain development.
In America the right lives in a world of fear, as likely did their forebearers; a fear of an ongoing invasion and usurpation of their country and culture by non-realAmericans, people not of their tribe or gang, so to speak.
As they indicate in the report, a longitudinal study is called for. I would say one where they MRI’d (and took blood samples) of the subjects in utero and onward through childhood, repeatedly and regularly; with periodic examination of their close care givers and siblings…at least their parents.
http://www.biostat.jhsph.edu/courses/bio624/misc/brains.pdf
Off topic, but I think a left equivalent to the Tea Party is called for. A couple ideas: the ‘Beer Party’ to emphasize the working class Joe-sixpack aspect of the true left… or the ‘You Party’ (as in about-the-people, as opposed to the corporations, and playing off of the the two letters, t and u.
Listened today from Portland OR on KPOJ… Heard MP talking to a young guy from AL believe. Missed his name and haven’t found a link to his Utube page yet. I would love to check out his stuff. Believe citizen-journalism is terribly important in the fight for people over corporations. Can you lay down a breadcrumb trail for me? Thanks
Regarding the brain study speculating that the brains of conservatives are more prone to fear, and possibly have diminished courage and optimism than those of liberals, this seems to, at least in part, contradict a previous study which showed that conservatives tend to be happier and more generous than liberals.
In addition, the fact that the US military leans strongly towards the conservative side also throws doubt on the speculations of the study regarding fear and courage.
Some comments for 4/16/11 podcast:
I think the study Mike mentions, where Conservatives are said to be more fearful people – I think it’s not really fear, per se.
It’s fear of “outsiders” that motivates these people (and that fear of “outsiders” is indeed from a very primitive part of our brains, and it’s very necessary, but it’s overly developed in many people, apparently, such as conservatives).
Fear/hatred of outsiders is what motivates military people, as well.
I continue to have Great Respect for Mike for His continuing to tell the truth on Barack Obama, and not sugarcoat things, but I can see he’s between the wall and the hard place, as are all of us on the Dem side.
As Sam Seder said, maybe a 3rd party candidate Could become viable, but it’s too scary to think that such a candidate could & would just split the Dem party.
No: Barack Obama is not JFK.
(I also want to say that Progressive Politics is also a scary place to be – but Our fears are REAL ones and they are justified and they are Not hatred-based fears, such as the Conservatives have).
Mike,
You are the one who is “out to lunch”! And “inhuman”!
President Obama has not jumped into bed with the Ryan budget! Exactly the opposite. Or did you not pay attention to his speech on the 13th?
My ‘Progressive’ station plays your show on Sunday evening. For some reason they had dead air for the first 15 minutes so I have only heard about 10 minutes of your show after that. But that is enough for me. The radio is already off because I will not listen to Pap lie and accuse the President of things that he has not done. It is one thing to disagree with the President (and I have some disagreements with him) but it is another to lie and badger him. Pap, how about you try being President and then see how you do. I would bet you would have a completely different attitude. You wouldn’t be able to handle it, Pap. You would be badgering others so much that nothing would ever get done.
By the way, Sam… take me off your email list! Thanks!
Bye… again!
Blessed Are The Truth Tellers!!!
Neither KPOJ, nor the mic appear to be running the show on Sunday night anymore.
Please post another link.
Mike is a Truth Teller, needless to say!
He could just bash the grotesque GOP. That would be the Easy way out. And the Dishonest way out!
Mike doesn’t do that, but it’s very difficult, I am sure, for those on the Dem Side. The GOP alternative to Obama is unthinkable. And it sure seems highly unlikely that a 3rd party candidate will rise up – nor a challenger from Obama’s own party.
Gosh, I have Profound Respect for Mike!
Some get enraged at him for being too Easy on Obama and some get enraged at him for being too Tough on Obama. I suspect Mike veers between the two, because he’s both honest and a political realist.
I Do think honesty is always the Best policy. Honesty is what will reach the young voters and ALL voters who are Justifiably upset/angry/enraged w/Obama.
And if Obama loses it will be his own fault and No One else’s for not doing what he needed to do – for not following Robert Reich’s Excellent Advice re: the economy and for not having a damn spine!
Sophia – Thanks for the update on the Sunday show. We’ll be putting a new station in the links that airs on Sundays.
Dear Mr. Farron:
I was listening to ROF on 620 KPOJ which is played from 12 pm to 3 pm every Saturday afternoon; however, for April 17, 2011show, they were playing the April 11, 2011 show where they had the interview with the 17 year old from Alabama.