Dear Tom,

A question. Will it be a very bad idea for companies to try and modify work week to 30 hours a week and hold on to more employees for a while longer instead of laying people off and depressing the economy even more. There will also be a sense of we are all in this together or will it be called socialism?

kind regrads

Why is the strategy always top down? There is an amazing force of construction workers and equipment ready to work. We have a crumbling infrastruction. Its 1+1=3
Workers will spend money faster than any other demographic, immediately pumping money into the economy. Can we change the context of the solution from wall street to main street with direct government investment. Let the corporations eat their mistakes, reduce the cost of all mortgages to reflect the current property values. Reform the health care system to cover the unemployed that will result from GM’s failure.

State? STATE? Hillary Clinton needs to be at HHS!!!

i think the guy from the cape who ranted about soros , fuld and other international shylocks deserves a more reasoned response than the knee jerk emotionally laden ” get off it” that is disrespectful and will only serve to piss off the disgruntled caller even more. He obviously called because of a deep confusion and lack of trust in those entities he depends on , and BUR probably lost another patron.

RE: Scot’s Comments

I know that Scot’s comments were rather “acid” and bigoted but he comments on the feeling of the non-Wall Street crowd who feel that the American Middle Class has been fleeced by the banks and government for the few at the top. It is impossible to get a ’small’ business loan unless you add it to your mortage – if you can figure who actually owns your mortgage.

MANY of those people at the top who have bundled, sliced and diced mortgages and people who gave out the bad loans SHOULD GO TO JAIL. If I make a mistake in my check account and the check bounces – I can go to jail so maybe the privilaged white folks at the top should spend a few days making friends with their new bunk mates – for parity of course.

Nick

Okay, please demonstrate how to respond reasonably to hate speech because we sure don’t want public radio to lose any more support.

Yes Sarah Palin, God opened the door to National Politics for you, but you pushed it wide open when he still only had it slightly ajar. That is why God made the Republican ticket lose the election… because you rushed through when He only had the door slightly ajar.

Just because God opens the door a little doesn’t mean he’s going to want you to walk through it… maybe He’s just pulling a quick fakey.

Your guest just mentioned that Bush was going to avoid some of the destructive behavior of the Clinton White House when they transferred power.

That lie has been debunked. There was no destructive behavior.

When Republicans talk about reaching out to new voters are they talking about changing their principles or just changing their approach? If the message is different, is it the truth or more of the “anything goes” strategy.

I came in on the last 15min of the show. I want to point out, that I heard yesterday on NPR, how Bush is rushing to push through resolutions which can’t be undone by the next administration! Things like not checking for endangered wildlife before drilling, mining procedures that harm the environment. They made it sound like Bush is a kindly man, just reflecting on his Presidency, when he’s trying to pad his buddies pockets and destroy the rest of us before he walks out the door!

Jack: I’ve been a fan of yours for a while now but your stock just went through the roof with your quick moan during the anti-semitic remark and then your excellent historical back story on it.

Anthony: thanks to you for making the time to not simply flesh out the remark but to educate listeners. It was a useful moment to seize and you made the right choice in taking it on.

Re: caller from the cape
Hello Teg, Richard and anyone else who wants to pick up on this: I heard the word “shylocks” and nothing else. I then heard an articulate and angry person naming financial institutions and the people that ran them and maybe ran away with a lot of money. I don’t think I heard that person say anything anti-Semitic. I then heard that person get shut down. I feel that this was an over reaction, or worse, the guest was avoiding the callers question/comment by “hiding” behind the anti-Semitic charge. Where I came from, words like shylock, shyster, cheat, crook, are taken to mean a dishonest person, and nothing more. I don’t think that the call was handled well at all. Perhaps someone should have asked, “Sir, I heard you use the word shylock. What is it that you are trying to say when you use that word? There are listeners that might take offence to the use of that word.” If the caller then said, ”I mean a dishonest Jew”. Or if he had said, “I mean a dishonest person”, then the conversation could have gone on or ended right there.

Don’t be so sure that a person who uses such a word is anti-Semantic. I’m a 59 year old white male who grew up in Bethlehem PA and New Haven CT. I, and people around me sometimes used the word “mulatto” to mean a person that has Negro and Caucasian parents. That word was used quite mater of factly to mean that and nothing more. Just a few years ago, I learned that word was derogatory and should never be used. It is no longer a part of my vocabulary. Throughout my life I also heard the word “shyster”. It was always used and understood to mean a person who was trying to fool you and rip you off. It had nothing to do with being Jewish. “Gipsy” is another word that comes to mind. I know it now, but while growing up, I had no idea that gipsy could be a racist word. Was Curtis Mayfield saying something racist when he sang “Gipsy Woman”?

I would like to say more, but I want to hear back from anyone who like to comment. Thanks

your guest missed a big point about h-1b visas. the complaints most high-tech companies have about not finding enough talent are disingenuous. What they’re complaining about not having enough “cheap” talent. US talent is not considered cheap because, most of the available talent has decades of experience and expect to get paid for that experience.

I don’t think we would lose any competitive edge if companies were denied h-1b visas and forced to look a little more deeply into the US high-tech resource pool and pay people what they’re worth.

If I make a mistake in my check account and the check bounces – I can go to jail so maybe the privilaged white folks at the top should spend a few days making friends with their new bunk mates – for parity of course.

You CANNOT go to jail for making a mistake in your checking balance! Criminal intent would have to be shown, and the same is true for investment bankers and auto industry executives. Of course the ones who committed crimes should go to jail, but I suspec those are a tiny minority – the rest were merely incompetent or reckless.

your guest missed a big point about h-1b visas. the complaints most high-tech companies have about not finding enough talent are disingenuous. What they’re complaining about not having enough “cheap” talent. US talent is not considered cheap because, most of the available talent has decades of experience and expect to get paid for that experience.

Do you have the slightest shred of evidence for this? I work for a major high tech company and for years we’ve had trouble filling advanced technical positions in physics, database design, C++/C# .Net programming, signal processing and other areas. I’ve been on resume review and interview committees so I know what I’m talking about. We have lots of Chinese and Indian staff and they’re excellent.

BTW, don’t bother sending your resume to me now; in the current economy we’re not hiring.

I’m 55 and I’ve never heard “shyster” used in any context where it did not refer to a Jew in a derogatory manner. So while I’m willing to accept that maybe somewhere in the US it’s ethnically-neutral, I think anyone who calls into a nationally-syndicated public radio program should be expected to have some basic knowledge of how common words or slang expressions are used and understood outside of their own family or community. So I think kicking them off was the right thing to do.

Not related to any threads in this discussion forum..but I just wanted to say that I look forward each week to On Point’s “Week in the News” show.

In addition, I just renewed my subscription just because of Jack Beatty’s comments on these shows.

Tom, Jack, et al… Great Job!

Shyster is a word that I never associated with Jewishness. Shylock I remember from Shakespeare as an evil moneylender and he was Jewish. Are they of the same origin?

Steve K: It wasn’t just the word “shyster” which as you observe has been decontextualized a certain amount by being folded into everyday language, it was the “international cabal” that triggered Jack’s alarm system (faster than mine, and I’m Jewish and old enough to have heard this stuff before).

Did you hear Jack’s back story? I highly recommend re-listening to the show and specifically listening to what Jack says about the history of a segment of Americans who have thought for years that Jews have conspired to control the world’s financial institutions. This is a common theme in neo-nazi groups, christian fundamentalist groups and even slightly more mainstream old money waspy groups.

No one is denying that the folks who created the problem should go to jail but the particular list that the caller gave left out the non-Jews who were also part of the problem. Henry Paulson was the head of Goldman Sachs when this problem was being created and he’s most certainly not a Jew: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Paulson. I didn’t hear his name mentioned. There are many other, non-Jews who run these institutions. There names were not mentioned by the caller.

The larger pattern is frightening: many uneducated white Americans tend to blame everyone but themselves for their ills. When things are bad and they don’t have any money, it must be “the Jews” who have ripped them off. Terrorism? Must be Muslims because they all fly planes into buildings. Sub-prime mortgage crisis? Must be all those black folks who bought million dollar houses they couldn’t afford and lied to the white mortgage brokers about their incomes.

Or, as the caller no doubt believes, a small “cabal” of Jews is behind all of it and they’re laughing all the way to the bank.

That’s what made Jack groan and gave me chills.

Mit sportlichen Grüßen, Steve K.: I’m not Hebraic per se, but I do have an Old World background. Plus, I’m of your generation. I grew up in Virginia and yet, I have no doubt where the caller was going: hate speech, pure and simple. Before WWII, complaining about “the Jewish conspiracy” was much the vogue from St. Chrysostom onward. Ja, even in Shakespeare’s time! You and I personally know many Jews: nearly .000001 percent of them work in banking. Hell, they’re all in psychiatry! Bada boom!

Can we get back to the economy, please?

So far this year 23 major auto parts suppliers have gone into chapter 11 because of cutbacks in the Big 3. Many more on on the verge. CNNMoney reports that the Big 3 share about 70% of their suppliers in common. This means that if even one of them, especially GM, goes out of business it will take down so many suppliers that the remaining auto companies will be unable to get key parts or materials so you’ll have a domino effect.

In other news, Citgroup is laying off 35,000 workers.

Many major economists say that we are not going into a new Great Depression, citing all kinds of structural and regulatory differences since 1929. On the other if someone had predicted the events of the last few months to these economists, say, last April, I bet they would have thought such predictions were crazy.

Peter: I’m sorry to be straying from the topic but the topic was infected with a pathogen which requires some attention. I hope you don’t mean that you would rather have him call the Rush Limbaugh Show! I think anyone who calls into a nationally-syndicated public radio program should understand that they’ll get called out if they try spreading poison messages. Please refer back to my question: “Sir, I heard you use the word shy…………”. I’m now thinking that you and Richard are right in that this guy was a bigot. But when you hang up on these people, there is a whole peanut gallery of similar xenophobes saying: “See, there they go again…………” If this person is guilty of spreading this type of crap, what could be better than to pull his pants down for a spanking on a nationally-syndicated public radio program? We can all roll our eyes and shake our heads but we’re preaching to the choir if we don’t engage these people and let them get a whiff of their own stink.

If I catch you ripping me off somehow and I call you a shyster and you’re not Jewish are you not a shyster? You’re only a shyster if you’re a Jewish crook? But not a shyster if you’re a French crook? If you gyp me does that mean that you must be a Romany crook? I could go on but I’d boor us all to death. I grew up in the 1950s and 60s and there were plenty of racist around me and my family in my neighborhood. The word shyster was used every once in a great while. I’m sticking to what I said before: It meant swindler and that was it. In my youth I heard the N and B words for Black people, and I heard the K and H words for Jewish people. I was taught that it was wrong. Perhaps shyster is a word I should retire from my vocabulary as I did mulatto. I don’t think I’ve used it in years anyway as I have words I consider to be superior.

OK, enough. I’m through. I’m sorry. Back to the economy.

This would make a great topic for an hour of National Public Radio. Bring it on sir.

Peter, this is not your personal comment thread, we can talk about any part of the show we want to here.

I agree Steve K, this would make a great topic for OnPoint and it was a part of this show, whether we like it or not and, in fact, it’s a part of American culture whether we like it or not.

Again, it wasn’t just one word that did it, it was the direction the caller was going and I think Anthony did the right thing in cutting him off. We got the gist of his comment and that was enough.

By the way Peter, Soros (the head of the cabal) thinks were teetering on the edge of a depression. I’m quite sure we have a credit card and personal debt bubble yet to get through and that will be worse than the housing meltdown.

By the way Peter, Soros (the head of the cabal) thinks were teetering on the edge of a depression. I’m quite sure we have a credit card and personal debt bubble yet to get through and that will be worse than the housing meltdown.

Soros is a hedge fund manager, not a head of a “cabal”, but I agree with his analysis.

And for more on the consumer debt 900-pound gorilla here’s an article from CNBC – http://www.cnbc.com/id/27716231

The big question that most of us who still have anything left to invest are pondering is which way prices and the dollar will go.

In a traditional deflationary depression prices actually go down (deflation). This happened in the Depression of the 1930’s and also in the recent Japanese downturn. But because there is so much debt policymakers may be tempted to try to inflate their way out of this. In the former case “cash is king”, but in the latter scenario hard assets and commodities are what you want. We won’t know until it happens and then it will be too late.
Diversify, diversify, diversify.

“Soros is a hedge fund manager, not a head of a “cabal”, but I agree with his analysis.”

Sheesh man, it was a joke. Calm down. I know very well what Soros does. Soros was one of the names the caller listed.

Richard, when duty calls, Peter never backs down.

Thanks GOODNESS for Jack’s response to the caller from the Cape. It would’ve been so upsetting to just have that caller’s comment ignored or glazed over.
I know, I know, us Jews are so “quick” to call someone an anti semite…
usually because they are one! and because it is somehow STILL less taboo, in intellectual circles to label Jews as greedy, than it is to stereotype any other minority in these politically correct times.

I’m so glad this discussion is going on, because I was listening to the rerun of the show while driving, and I was totally perplexed by the reaction of to the comments from the caller from the Cape. The man — as I understood — listed off a series of CEOs, made references to shylocks. Were all the CEOs he mentioned Jews (that’s an honest question, by the way)?

It really didn’t seem like he was making bigoted comments to me; just voicing intense bitterness and frustration with enormous scams the seem to benefit the wealthy while doing little for the masses — pretty reasonable thing to get irked about when you consider it. But Beatty jumped all over him like he was about to commit a heinous crime. Sounded more like hyper political-correctness than a slanderous attack on Jews. And I’m of Jewish descent.

I’d be curious to understand specifically how this caller was “spreading poison messages” and perpetrating “hate speech, pure and simple” — the accusations I’ve seen made on this message board.

Looking for an honest dialogue here; not vitriolic blather.

“The 15% Solution” to auto crisis

I have a simple approach to the auto crisis — The federal government should give any one who buys a fuel efficient car from the Big 3 a 15% rebate back on the selling price. This program could have a 1 year time limit.

The total of the rebate dollars might then constitute a loan the auto makers would have to pay back.

If effective, this solution would immediately jump start US auto makers by giving them a huge advantage over the competition while they work on the remaining legacy issues. Auto makers would stay employed and no money would go directly to the car makers.

The feds might also think about underwriting an extended warranty program for this one year period. Again, the total dollars to do so, could constitute a loan to the auto makers

The Idea may be flawed and I am not sure if the numbers above would work, but the conceptual approach might we worth exploring.

Joseph H Hare
23 Del Prete Drive
Hingham, MA 02043

617 755 0898

Please when you have a guest on your show, find someone who will not ridicule the caller as Jack Beaty has just done. I expect a bit more decorum on NPR, if Jack wishes to ridicule people he can appear on Rush Limbaugh.

some things I find hard to believe:
That On Point’s host today apparently believes the (mythical) requirement of “balance” and “objectivity” requires that he give airtime to an idiot anti-Semite, especially since said idiot could only have gotten through with his call in the first place if he either lied to the screener about his “question” or the screener thought a little racist rant would liven up the show (also hard to believe). The guy should have been shut right down and not given a “follow-up”.

Another thing I find hard to believe:

That anyone with enough brain cells to operate a radio thinks that the term is “anti-Semantic”, not anti-Semitic.

I know a young lawyer in New York, originally from Nebraska, who learned to his embarrassment that “jew”, as in “to jew someone down”, should not be used as a verb, if one wants to avoid offense. He’s not an anti-semite, never was, he was just an ignorant guy from the sticks (like me when I moved to the city many years ago). He altered his vocabulary, and moved on. Didn’t whine about it, or make excuses. The excuse-mongering on this page is weird — the issue was the caller’s whole hate-filled spiel, not some innocent, old-fashioned, careless choice of words.

Regarding the caller Scott from Cape Cod:

please listen again to his call. At 15:40 into the show, Scott says “international Jewish bankers on Wall Street have destroyed our economy.” That comment is textbook anti-Semitism. Bravo for Jack and the other commentator for their condemnation. This kind of comment could be a verbatim lift from speeches by the rabid anti-Semitic Father Coughlin, his fellow anti-Semite, Henry Ford, and good ‘ole Hitler himself. Please, these types of comments have a horrible history, they burn like hot coals in the ears of every Jew — like me — or historically conscious non-Jew. This is not a trivial matter; this is deeply disturbing and has a real history in our country.

@ Nathaniel: You must be young or innocent or both. From my post above which I guess you didn’t read or if you did, disagree with:

No one is denying that the folks who created the problem should go to jail but the particular list that the caller gave left out the non-Jews who were also part of the problem. Henry Paulson was the head of Goldman Sachs when this problem was being created and he’s most certainly not a Jew: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Paulson. I didn’t hear his name mentioned. There are many other, non-Jews who run these institutions. There names were not mentioned by the caller.

Do you get it now?

The caller was attempting to show a pattern that these investment banks which have been bailed out are run by Jews who are organized into what he called an “international cabal.”

I’m far from PC or even paranoid about this stuff (as Jew) and this was clear to me. The caller sounded like a tape recording of stuff we might hear at a Palin rally.

Dude, these very words were used (as Jack said on the show, listen again if you need to) during the financial crisis in 1929 and have continued to be used since.

@bc: It just might be that the caller got through with something different from what he actually said but as you may have noticed, Jack sniffed him out rather quickly and Anthony cut him off. In the end, I think they made decent hay out of it as it’s led to at least two people in this discussion hopefully having their eyes opened.

As you say, this was not an innocent misuse of vocabulary, it was a rehearsed anti-semitic spiel that was familiar to many of us.

I, too, initially thought using the term “Shylock” was neutral, given its Shakespearean context. For me, the villain of the piece is the investment banker who thinks up debt and credit “instruments” that are so complex they require three-inch thick prospectuses to describe them, because all they are is air backed by pounds of words.

The fact is, the man who called in and claimed there was some “international banking cabal” was just plain stupid to limit his cast of villains to just Jewish people. There are far many more of multiple ethnic backgrounds who got themselves messy in the investment banking playpen.

So – while his comment was ignorant and offensive for emphasizing just one group of people, it was on point regarding the wild cowboys who made obscene amounts of money on something akin to Ponzi schemes that injured all of the rest of us.

@ Cynthia: What about the Bush administration and the Republican Congress (with plenty of Democratic support) who took the regulations off of those “wild cowboys” so they could go wild and make more money? Do they have any responsibility here?

The “vast” conspiracy is that Henry Paulson, one of the cowboys is now Secretary of the Treasury and running the “bailout.” And, he’s not Jewish.

Hi there bc. It’s me, Steve K. The person who can barely work a radio. Sorry about the brain cell problem. You sir, have tipped your hand as to what type of person you are. Please go back and read my first post. I used the term anti-Semitic three times and I made a typo the third time. Thank you for pointing that out, but let me point out that you seem to have missed the fact that I spelled it correctly the first two times. I didn’t think I was going to get flamed for a typo or a spelling error. If you have doubts about my intelligence over a spelling issue and it causes you to completely ignore the content of my post……well, like I said: you’ve tipped your hand.

And ty, you’re right. I went back and listened to the show, and at 15:40 our flawed and misguided friend says “international Jewish bankers on Wall Street have destroyed our economy.” I missed that on my first listen. I was driving at the time.

I have a friend who also has used the term ”jewed-down” and was surprised when a Jewish friend got upset with him. He really thinks that because He has had to “take so much shit all my life because I’m Irish”, that he should be able to say things like that. We don’t know where to start with him but we’re working on it.

Listen to it again (~14 min). At the end of his tirade he says, “what I’m saying is that these greedy international bankers, these shylock’s sir, these international Jewish bankers on Wall Street have destroyed our economy.” You might miss the last phrase, as it competes with Jack starting to say “Please” a few times, but it was said and was his obvious punchline, what he was building to all along.

Surprised at all those in denial here. All this “he’s from the sticks … he doesn’t know what shylock means … you’re jumping to conclusions … you’re politically correct … you might lose a listener.” Man, this guy must me laughing hard at all the ignorant help he is getting here.

Well, it is good that these shows are archived for re-listening. It maybe that people weren’t listening closely when they heard it live the first time.

- JSR (a non-Jew)

I have a simple approach to the auto crisis — The federal government should give any one who buys a fuel efficient car from the Big 3 a 15% rebate back on the selling price. This program could have a 1 year time limit.

A rebate for just the big 3 would violate lots of trade agreements because it is so blatantly protectionist. It would start a trade war. Remember Smoot Hawley?

It also does nothing to address the basic problem that their management is incompetent.

The correct solution is to offer a bailout in return for a complete replacement of the boards and upper management; a total restructuring of the companies (for instance GM would go from 8 operating divisions to about 3) and a rewrite of the UAW work rules. (N.B. UAW salaries and benefits are not much different from Toyota and Honda US workers – it’s the work rules that are the big problem.) The companies would get recapitalization in return for the issuance of new stock, much of which would be held by a taxpayer trust so we could get our money back when the company returned to profitability. The rest would be sold as an IPO. The current shareholders would be wiped out, but they already are anyway – GM is currently selling for $3/sh; F is $1.80/sh.

Part of the blame lies with the Congress and the members who got bribes, err, campaign contributions from the auto industries and then did their bidding when it came to passing laws and regulations.

So anyone who doesn’t take huge amounts of money from special interests to do their bidding after getting elected, or calls for public financing of elections gets my support. Like the Green Party.

So anyone who doesn’t take huge amounts of money from special interests to do their bidding after getting elected, or calls for public financing of elections gets my support. Like the Green Party.

I agree that we don’t have to worry about the Green Party allowing contributors to influence their legislative agenda. Mainly because the Green Party has little chance of achieving enough presence in Congress to legislate anything. Talk, for them, is cheap.

BTW, I had a discussion with my wife, who’s Jewish, about the antisemitic caller yesterday. I said I thought WBUR did the right thing by cutting him off. She disagreed, saying they ought to have allowed him to speak his mind, and then questioned him about the basis of his views in order to expose the fallacy of them.

Thanks, JSR. We both heard the anti-Semitic stuff, though the Jewish line, as you point out, was muffled a bit under Jack’s “please!.” But as we agree, this is serious stuff. these are words with a terrible history. And if they’re surfacing on NPR, I can only imagine that they’re much more widespread on other outlets.
“”
As George Orwell said, (via Andrew Sullivan) “to see what is in front of one’s nose needs a constant struggle.” and to name it — in this case, anti-Semitism — is a must.

Cheers,

ty

BTW, I had a discussion with my wife, who’s Jewish, about the antisemitic caller yesterday. I said I thought WBUR did the right thing by cutting him off. She disagreed, saying they ought to have allowed him to speak his mind, and then questioned him about the basis of his views in order to expose the fallacy of them.

I’m Jewish I agree with her, but I also think that you could do a whole program on this.

Right now there is a demonetization of both Latino emigrants both legal and illegal, and Muslims.

Jews (antisemitism) are historically the scapegoats for the finical woes throughout Western history.

When the economy goes down people look for scapegoats and it is usually someone who is different be it African Americans after the Civil War or Latinos and Muslims now.

In yesterdays NY Times there was a very sad story about this white high school kid who murdered an Ecuadorian thinking he was a Mexican. The subtext there was the County Executive Steve Levy was accused of fueling the anti-immigrant sentiment by promoting tough policies against illegal immigration.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/14/nyregion/14immigrant.html?_r=1&em&oref=slogin

Peter, actually Green Party has been making some progress in spite of hostile environment and willing apologists and obstructionists like you, who love to support the corrupt duopoly and go into an apoplexy at the very idea of inclusive democracy with participation of third party candidates. Have some patience. (Though you’re getting old, so you may not be around when GP wins some seats in the Congress.)

“The end of democracy, and the defeat of the American Revolution will occur when government falls into the hands of the lending institutions and moneyed incorporations.”
- Thomas Jefferson

Glad to hear Jack put a halt to the clearly anti-Semitic rant of the caller.

I am shocked and disturbed at the complacent response to a callers hate speech when referring to the CEO of many defunct corporations as “international shylocks”. I am profoundly disappointed in Anthony Brooks inability to address this problem and his willingnes to continue with the show as though this were acceptable behavior. I thought that public radio was a leader in keeping these injustices off the air, I am sadly wrong. You must issue an apology immediately as this apology should have occurred at the time of the offense.
sincerely,
a questioning supporter of public radio

It is interesting how in troubled times people place the blame on minority groups. In response to the caller, how can we be sure that Jewish people control the banks? What evidence and/or scholarship beyond “Mein Kampf” do you have to back up your claim. While I am strongly against antisemitism, I understand the anger that many “middle class” individuals feel. While we cannot be sure who is pulling the strings behind the economy, we do know that the people that own the banks are greedy, selfish, egocentric, and unsympathetic to people in the lower class who are undoubtedly as a result of their avarice.

In addition, what is the basis of our relationship to Israel? It is my belief that Israel serves as a strategic ally in the middle east. However, with their record of human rights abuses, how can the United States–and the United Nations–offer unwavering support to such a country? Moreover, it would be interesting to know how many Jewish people support Israel and why they do. I am English, and I know that I would not support England –just because I am English–if they embarked on a policy of genocide. Although the Jewish people witnessed one of the most horrific historical events, it does not justify them in their attempt to rid Israel of an ethnic group that they believe are less human than they are.

Benedic, anima mea

It wants to curse You but cannot,
to accuse You for the darkness,
to blame You for the lack of stars,

for brown sunsets, black seas, putrid
wind, dying gulls, burning barges,
rot and muck, for shaking gills, snot

on walls, scars, beached dolphin, cyclones,
flashfloods, subsea mines, spoilt herring
–but the sun rises, and it slips

away then looks to You to give
it food–instead You take away
its breath, and it dies and returns

to dust, or it trembles and smokes
–for it is the Leviathan which You
have made for the sport of it.

Wendy please. Don’t get so upset with Antony Brooks’ response. Listen again to the show. I was also fooled at first, but I came to an exactly opposite conclusion than yours! It is amazing to realize just how people can see the same thing so differently! I’m so glad that I’m not a Major League Umpire right now! I was driving through a tricky intersection when that call came in and I just didn’t catch the word “Jewish” until I listened again that night to the MP3 file of the show. I need to ask you, are you basing your displeasure with Antony’s slow response (in your opinion)to Scott’s anti-Semitic rant after listening to the show for a second or third time, or did you hear it as it went down in real time? After the call was over, I was actually mystified with why Scott had been shut down and I even called the show, not to get on the air, but to ask the call-screener why Scott had been treated so rudely. Boy was I ever wrong! After listening to that part of the show a second and third time I came to the realization that Antony had a racist/bigot/jerk on his hands. But unlike you, I think that he handled it very well.

Please realize just what a hot seat people like Antony are sitting in when they’re doing a show like On Point. The call-screeners are also working under an incredible load. HUNDREDS (maybe thousands?) of calls are coming in all at once. The call screeners are making sure that the people calling in are responsible and on topic. This is a “think fast and think smart” situation to be in. They do an outstanding job. The host is juggling people calling in with whatever question they have with guest(s), staying on topic, being up to date and informed with whatever the topic is, asking good questions of the expert guest so that the audience is informed, and I think that I’m just scratching the surface of what it takes to put on a show like On Point.

We listeners have come to expect excellence from NPR talk shows, and I must say I think we get it. When you do a show with a format like On Point, every once in a while a caller like Scott is going to get through. I’m sure Scott didn’t tell the call screener, “Hi, I’m a Jew hater and I’d like to get on the air.” The screeners are checking for people with intelligent responsible questions/comments and it is all to easy for someone like Scott to hide his true intentions.

One of the tasks that Antony Brooks and his team of call screeners are keeping in mind is when to take out the hatchet and cut off a toxic person. There is a certain trust going on between the show and the people calling in. And sometimes, you pay the price.

Public radio is a leader in keeping these injustices off the air. Just go around the radio dial and see if you can do better. You’ll find the looney left and the rabid right and that’s it. Read all of the posts on this site and realize how many level headed people are willing to express their different views, not to shout each other down, but to try to understand each other.

Wendy please don’t leave. We need you.

The discussion below of the anti-Semitic remarks is a beautiful example of the power of the internet. I wanted to see what listeners had thought of the exchange. I had originally missed the specific use of the word “Jewish” by the caller until the listener ty below pointed out exactly where it occurred (at 15:40). When I went back and listened again, I was amazed that I had missed it the first time. Of course, erased any doubt about the callers extremely disturbing opinions and intentions. Thank you.

You all who think the word “Jewish” clinched the deal are missing the point. Jack’s tripwire was tripped long before that word or even the word “shylock” was used as was mine. It’s a familiar pattern of conspiracy speech that many of us caught almost immediately.

I think Anthony and Jack handled it perfectly. Out the dude and tell the back story for those who don’t get it but don’t let him or the ideas take over the show.

Richard. I don’t quite agree with your last post. I think your right and your wrong. If Scott wants to talk about conspiracies that’s fine with me up to a point. Enron comes to mind. In history we learn about markets getting cornered, the Opium Wars, and all kinds of nefarious machinations of money, natural resources and such. Some of this can border on the lunatic fringe. But things like the Enron scandal didn’t get caused by angels or flying saucers. I mean if Scott was going there with the topic, I think that Antony should have gently brushed him aside. In other words ok, the guys a world conspiracy nut but he’s harmless. When I listen back to the broadcast, upon hearing the word shylock, my finger moves to the trigger, when I hear the word Jewish, well good-bye.

When we look at pre WW II Germany we see how the emerging technologies of the day such as radio, motion pictures, telephone, transportation, weapons systems and more could be used to do on a national scale what had been done in villages or cities. Well now we have the internet, satellites orbiting the earth, computers making millions of calculations per second and people a lot smarter that us who also handle our money. Can I trust these people? Do these people ever talk to each other?

I’ve heard some crazy talk in my time. Things like the Trilateral Commission and The Council of One Hundred come to mind. I’ve heard people say things like the use of the bar code on the things we buy mean that we’re entering the End Times!

Is there a side of conspiracy speech that I’m unaware of that should cause me to react in the same way that I need to react to anti-Semitism and other forms of hate-speech?

And BTW I’m really enjoying your posts. Thank you.

Of course there are anti-Semites out there, and eventually a few will sneak onto the public stage once and a while, and hopefully, he is running out of like-minded folks to share his kind of discourse.

But, I say to the guest host and guests that when such a specimen lands on your table, you make good work dissecting him.

We can all pat ourselves on the back for our verbal and textual frowns, I think more could be gained from understanding the anti-Semite’s fears and insecurities and limitations.

“Moreover, it would be interesting to know how many Jewish people support Israel and why they do.”

With all the lies coming out of the BBC (google : “BBC Watch”) and the Palestinians , I understand your misinformation about Israel . Repeat a lie often enough and it will be believed. It was Joseph Goebbels who said it . If you have not yet seen the famous Pallywood (youtube pallywood ) .The Al Dura fiasco which went to court in Paris and was one of the excuses for the killing of journalist Daniel pearl , the beach libel , the fake funerals . Jenin . etc…etc….enough lies ….Anything to demonise Israel . Meanwhile the media ignores the rockets falling into Israel , the suicide bombings ,the arab media hatred etc…etc….Why are jews not allowed in Saudi Arabia ?. Enough demonising of Jews and Israel ….More than 50% of Jews in Israel are of Sephardic / Misrahi decent ,why isn’t there a conversation about the 1 millions Jews kicked out of Arab countries , all their possessions confiscated ,and made refugees in tents ? If the Jews have control, how come they were never able to convince the United Nation to have one single resolution about these refugees ? The world accuses Israel of Genocide against the Arabs . If there is a genocide . How come the Arab population in Israel has grown to 20% and growing ?. Is it political correctness to keep quiet ?

Jack picked up on the hatred so obviously apparent from words chosen by the caller who mentioned the “international cabal” of “Shylocks.” I enjoyed the discussion regarding hatred and the importance of hearing it to better address it. Jack’s back story, including discussion about Father Coughlin was great. Not enough people understand that era. It is interesting to read about that era and understand how much press was given to the likes of Coughlin. While the caller’s hatreds were easily recognizable, because he used well worn terms used by those like him for decades, those who openly display their hatreds today, in public and before wide audiences, are not as blatant or obvious. The hatreds have also changed. Yet, the hate is there. The hate is even considered acceptable in the right circles. It’s not often directed at Jews, or people of color, but certainly is directed against specific groups. Most common today, the hate is political. Jack might recognize it. In fact, I think he might just recognize it easily, if he has a mirror. Just minutes after a wonderful discussion about hows a person’s words can help us see their hatreds, Jack referred to Governor Palin as “ignorant.” Real smooth Jack. Your hatred is showing. Why don’t you chill out and recognize that while you are a legend in your own mind, and think politically correct thought, not everyone is as sure as you that rabid left wing policies are what is best for our country. I know, it’s obvious I am one of those who believe in free men and free markets. As such, in your mind, as you’ll be happy to let everyone know, I am ignorant. Jack, I love your commentary and that’s why I listen. But you need help. Hating people because they disagree with you over the best direction this country should take is one of the lowest form hatred. We are all Americans here.

Steve K — “tipped your hand”? wtf? Please lighten up and don’t take things so personally. My sarcasm re your (really very enjoyable) malapropism was certainly rude, but I think your lecturing people on here about their justifiably negative reactions to the incident on the show is also inconsiderate, given that you didn’t actually hear the passage in question!
But I congratulate you for attending to your driving more than to the radio. That’s rare nowadays, alas.

Many a caller to radio shows gets cut short simply for being boring or redundant; it’s grotesque for Jack to be criticized for reacting to the caller; his reaction should have been emphatically reemphasized by the host.

We’re entering a very ugly period — or rather an intensification of it — of anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim, and anti-black violence in this country, exacerbated by the economy and paranoia over the election results. The complacency evinced in some of the posts in this thread is dispiriting in such a context.

I would suggest that On Point install an “idiot button” for future calls of this nature — it would instantly rout the call to hate-radio host Michael Savage (who happens to be Jewish). Perhaps he and our friend the enemy of “cabals” would rhetorically mutually annihilate, like matter/anti-matter.

I have been on this earth for 57 years now and I am still amazed at how the newspeople slant the topics in the way they want them to go. Who is to blame for this economic mess you may ask? The republicans, the democrats? Probably both in some way, but mostly the blame falls on the American public. An old saying, Give a man a fish, feed him for a day, teach a man to fish, feed him for life. Our country, according to satistics, is becoming a ever increasing entitlement state. We citizens are becoming more and more dependant on the good old USA for everything. I know what I am talking about. I work with the public everyday. There is a growing number of our population who do not want to work but would rather live off of you and me. And when the 20+ million illegals are granted amnesty, we will add to that list more dependants. Case in point: Dead beat dads who owe hundreds of thousands of dollars in child support do not pay bacause they do not have a job. Not because they cannot find one, they do not want one!! They do not have’ve to pay if they are unemployed. So they file for welfare. A mid-twenties person who is healthy files for disability and receives a monthly check each month. I see two to three filings for disability a week. There is nothing wrong with most of these people, they make their living off the government. Me and you!!! They then take this monthly check and spend it on themselves. There are drug dealers on government entitlements. This makes me very ill. But most beurocrats fear the lost of their vote, rather than cracking down on this drain on our government. We have people in this country who will work hard and will not become a liability on others, they are the ones we punish with taxes. The others who are poor by choice are the ones we reward with entitlements. There are two types of poor: poor by circumstance and poor by choice. Our country will never survive if more money is going out than is coming in. Our country will never survive if citizen’s work ethic is based on “Ask not what I can do for my country,but ask what my country can do for ME!!! You can tax the people to death, but until this problem is solved our country will never have enough resources to keep up with all the held out hands.

I know what I am talking about. I work with the public everyday. There is a growing number of our population who do not want to work but would rather live off of you and me. And when the 20+ million illegals are granted amnesty

You really have a lot of nerve complaining about people who don’t want to work in the middle of the worst economic crisis of most of our lifetimes, when every day there are more layoff notices and people are losing their homes and health insurance because they can’t find a job.

And THEN to turn around and complain about people who come here to work and take the lousiest, lowest-paying jobs! Incredible.

Next time try, “Hey, you kids – get off my lawn!!”

Peter, Yes,I must have nerve or have seen things you cannot see. Poor by circumstance,as those who have lost jobs,I do feel for them. They need help. I do complain about the elements that has caused or contributed to this crisis. Poor by choice,lazy people who seek handouts over a lousy,low paying job is one. Americans and immigrants who do not know or care about the definition of the word,”Illegal”. Breaking the law, disrespect for authority,taking jobs that once were filled by Americans. If you need to know the true impact and cost of illegal immigration on our country,go to Immigrationcounters.com or ask the governor of California. Why is healthcare so expensive, ask the hospitals and Doctors about illegal immigration.
I have! I work in the trenches where many Americans never ask nor do they ever look and wonder why. Then you have the thieves, those who want money and power at any price. There are many more contributors than these few mentioned. To all who have harmful intentions and sorry work ethics, get off my lawn!

David Morris , you must be a friend of Scott from cape cod!

Then you have the thieves, those who want money and power at any price.
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Damn right. And we send them to Congress every two years.

The bankers created this crisis at the behest of the plutocracy.

Neel “Cash Carry” Kashkari, Vikram “the Bandit” Pandit. . .they’re giving you A CLUE. When will you get it? Why do you suppose Bush is always smirking? It’s a big joke.