Photo, above:  see Hour 4, Citizen Canine: Our Evolving Relationship with Cats and Dogs by David Grimm

JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW

Hour One

Friday  3 October  2014 / Hour 1, Block A: Jim McTague, Barron's Washington, in re: Jittery markets await US jobs growth data  September jobs growth is expected to be back on track after a dip in August, with 215000 .

Friday  3 October  2014 / Hour 1, Block B: Larry Diamond, Stanford News & Hoover, in re: Hong Kong protests could threaten Communist Party rule in China, Stanford professor says.

Friday  3 October  2014 / Hour 1, Block C: Mary Anastasia O'Grady, Wall Street Journal OPINION AMERICAS, in re: American Aid Props Up a Castro Ally

Friday  3 October  2014 / Hour 1, Block D:  Karen Weise, Bloomberg, in re: HOW MANY AGENCIES DOES IT TAKE TO CLOSE A FOR-PROFIT COLLEGE? In July, the government tried to shut down Corinthian Colleges, one of the largest for-profit education companies in the U.S.—until it realized it might be on the hook for millions of dollars in loans. The government must forgive loans for students who don’t transfer to other institutions, but the size of Corinthian’s student body means it’s hard, if not impossible, to find enough places at other for-profits or community colleges for all the students enrolled in its schools.   Full story

Hour Two

Friday  3 October  2014 / Hour 2, Block A:  Michael Vlahos, Naval War College, in re: British hostage Alan Henning 'beheaded by Islamic State killers'   Video posted online appears to show second British hostage murdered by the jihadists. Islamic extremists have released a video showing the beheading of Alan Henning, the British aid worker kidnapped in Syria.  The British-accented jihadist known as Jihadi John again appeared in the video, claiming that Mr Henning’s death was in retaliation for UK strikes against the jihadist group.

He declared that Mr Henning’s blood was “on the hands of the British parliament”. MPs voted last week in favour of taking military action against the Islamic State in Iraq and Levant (Isil) militants. RAF Tornados began air strikes this week.  David Cameron last night described Mr Henning’s death as “barbaric and repulsive”. He vowed to “hunt down these . . .

Friday  3 October  2014 / Hour 2, Block B:  Michael Vlahos, Naval War College, in re:   . . . Nevertheless, it came as a surprise that the handful of jihadists who remained in the hospital were able to hold out so long. Following the strike by a British Tornado on Wednesday afternoon, the fighting continued well into the night. In all, the jihadists sent out five suicide bombers to detonate themselves in front of the attackers, one soldier said.

At 4am on Thursday morning, more air strikes were called in, but still the jihadists kept firing. Finally, around 8am, the Kurds sent in a final attack led by tanks.  “Even then, when we reached the building, they were firing at us,” said Lt Col Garib Saddu. “It was one man.”  What remained of that man’s body lay in a gaping hole in the side of the building, which was shattered by the bombardment of the previous two days.  [more]

Friday  3 October  2014 / Hour 2, Block C:  Philip Terzian, Weekly Standard, in re: Within Her Sights   The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher, by Hilary Mantel. Reading through Hilary Mantel’s vastly entertaining new collection of stories, I had an experience that, given my day job (literature professor) and age (implacably advancing), hasn’t happened in a while: I ran into an English word I had never seen before. Simple looking, a mere four letters, the word in question appears in “Comma,” the book’s spare and horrifying second tale. Two little girls have clambered over a wall in order to spy on the residents of a mansion known simply as the Hathaways’ house. Mary, a budding juvenile delinquent and the older and bossier of the pair, has told her companion, the 8-year-old narrator, Kitty, that something frightful and mysterious dwells in the house: a pale lumpen creature “wrapped in a blanket,” “something you couldn’t put a name to.” It might be human (“It’s got arms”), but all Mary can say for sure is that it’s awful and shaped like a “comma.” While they hide in the bushes, breathlessly hoping for some glimpse of the creature — it’s a parched midsummer day — Kitty notices “that in the beds of this garden the roses were already scorched into heavy brown blebs on the stalk.” Now before every botanist, pulmonary specialist or . . . [more]

Friday  3 October  2014 / Hour 2, Block D:  Liz Peek, The Fiscal Times & Fox, in re: An Alliance with India Could Help Obama Keep China in Line  How can the U.S. respond to the pro-democracy demonstrations in Hong Kong without torching U.S. commercial interests in China? One path: reach out to India – a not-so-subtle reminder that Beijing may face restraints from both inside and outside forces. And, that India’s potential growth under its new government could mean that China is not the only game in town.  

The visit by newly-elected Prime Minister Narendra Modi offers an unprecedented opportunity to beef up our alliance with a natural regional counterweight to Beijing. Mr. Modi’s landslide election last May allows him considerable latitude in forming new partnerships. Wasting no time, he has already met with most Asian leaders, including China’s Premier Xi Jinping and Japan’s Abe, and also held talks with Israel’s Netanyahu at the recent UN gathering. Clearly, the door is open to the U.S. as well. Will the Obama White House seize the moment?  

Hour Three

Friday  3 October  2014 / Hour 3, Block A:  Joshua Fisher, NYT Retro Report, in re: the mysterious collapse of bee colonies in 2006, which set off a panic that our national food supply was at risk. That turned out not to be the case, but the mystery of “colony collapse disorder” – better known as “CCD” – continues to baffle scientists with unexpected discoveries.

Friday  3 October  2014 / Hour 3, Block B: Paul M. Barrett, Bloomberg Businessweek, in re:  ERIC HOLDER: THE GOP'S NO. 2 TARGET MOVES ON

Friday  3 October  2014 / Hour 3, Block C: Henry I. Miller, New York Post & Hoover, in re:  Life-saving Drugs and Deadly Delays

Friday  3 October  2014 / Hour 3, Block D:   James Gorman, Science Times, in re:

NATURE IN THE BALANCE: For Polar Bears, a Climate Change Twist

Hour Four

Friday  3 October  2014 / Hour 4, Block A: Citizen Canine: Our Evolving Relationship with Cats and Dogs by David Grimm (1 of 4)

Friday  3 October  2014 / Hour 4, Block B: Citizen Canine: Our Evolving Relationship with Cats and Dogs by David Grimm (2 of 4)

Friday  3 October  2014 / Hour 4, Block C: Citizen Canine: Our Evolving Relationship with Cats and Dogs by David Grimm (3 of 4)

Friday  3 October  2014 / Hour 4, Block D: Citizen Canine: Our Evolving Relationship with Cats and Dogs by David Grimm (4 of 4)