Photo above: a very little Syrian refugee

JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW

Hour One

Sunday  6 Jan 2013 / Hour 1, Block A: Dr. David DeSteno, Director, Northeastern University's Social Emotions Group and co-Author, Out of Character: The Surprising Truths About the Liar, Cheat, Sinner (and Saint) Lurking in All of Us; in re: humans's moral character (the word "character" comes from an ancient Greek word for a stamp on a coin); in fact, our mind constantly runs computations to dictate what we’re doing: What's good  for me in the short term, and then in the long term?  How the mind solves this is what we're all about. Optimize outcomes, incl resources.  We need to get away from thinking if the mind is moral or not; rather, study how it works.   Consider Mark Sanford, former SC governor. What you can manage to do is [organize] your behavior to prepare for the temptations that come. Another book with parallel statements: the Bible.  All social life is a trade-off betw short-term expedience and long-term planning; all religions of the world address it.  My book is an owner's manual.  Hard to predict optimum behavior; level of flexibility is important.

Sunday 6  Jan 2013 / Hour 1, Block B:  Dr. Anthony Leiserowitz, Director, Yale University Project on Climate Change Communication, in re: Six very different American groups: The Alarmed – these consider climate change to be human-caused and an urgent threat; the Concerned – it's happening & serious but distant in time and space (a generation or so hence, and among polar bears); the Cautious – on the fence"; the Disengaged; the Doubtful; the Dismissive. American weather extremes are generating more believers, so to speak.  The country needs a sustained discussion on the matter. Support govtl studies into renewable energy: 63% of Republicans & 83% of Democrats.

Sunday 6  Jan 2013 / Hour 1, Block C: . Ward Wilson, senior fellow at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, and author of Five Myths About Nuclear Weapons; in re: Nuclear weapons are not intrinsically useful; it'd be smart to step them down a little. They’re so big and awesome we impute magical power to them. In fact, PGMs are much more useful over the last 40 yeas. We need to re-evaluate nukes a little more closely to see if the fearful thinking of the Cold War are still helpful.  "Nuclear deterrence works in a crisis" – wasn’t MAD a cornerstone? Well, yes, but the problem is that one failure can be catastrophic; not dependable to keep you safe. "Nukes shock and awe opponents" – our one field test – Hiroshima and Nagasaki  - turns out the Japanese surrendered because the Russians entered the war with 1.5 million men, about to invade Japan in ten days. Losing two additional cities not so important. Technology get disinvented,  but goes away in face of superior technology. Our big fight is vs nuclear weapons's reputation: it's inflated; they’ve become the currency of power. US could say, Yeah, we thought these were essential, but now we see that there's other, superior weaponry

Sunday 6  Jan 2013 / Hour 1, Block D:  Martin Charnin, Broadway legend and creator and lyricist of Annie; in re: First opened in 1977; has played in 28 countries; just opening on Broadway again – doing well, even in January.  In this bz, you have to live in the present and future; [unsafe] to live in the past.  When Harvey Milk wanted to march on Sacramento, he asked to use one of our songs; this play's music has been used in every conceivable envt.  The circumstances of today more accurately mirror what we wrote in '77 – the economy was crummy; Watergate and Nixon, we were still in a war. My collaborators and I began in hope that it'd all get better – the first song we wrote was, "The Sun Will Come Out Tomorrow."   You won a Grammy (1978)  - but in partnership with JayZee, a platinum album on his anthematic piece. He's planning an all-Black movie of Annie.  He's amazingly talented. Next: an exciting experience – I wrote with Richard Rodgers and a lot of others – did "Two by Two" about Noah and the Ark.   Now were redoing the book, staring in February with Tova Feldschue and Jason Aleander

Hour Two

Sunday 6  Jan 2013 / Hour 2, Block A:  . Dr. Robert Kagan, Senior Fellow in the Center on the United States and Europe in Foreign Policy at Brookings; author, The World America Made; in re: "We're at a plastic juncture" – the US and other democracies have a chance to shape the world in a better direction. Does Pres Obama want to take the time and expend the resources to do so? The American people are of two minds on this. "The first focus of the US must be to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon."   Brazil, Indonesia, South Africa, India. Much investment to help these others evolve? Brazil and India don’t need our money, just encouragement. The US flourishes among free trade, democracies, peace; if that world order crumbles, we pay a very high price – as we found out in the Twenties and esp in WWII.  Shift from Secy Clinton to John Kerry: will see a fair amt of continuity. The big question is: will the White House let the Secretary have the freedom s/he needs to formulate policy well [instead of holding al the decisions for the president]?  Tom Friedman's column: Secy Kerry shd bypass standard diplomacy and go directly to the people via social media, esp in Iran and Russia.  State-controlled media issue much propaganda about the US [and obviously much of it not accurate].

Sunday 6  Jan 2013 / Hour 2, Block B:  . Ben Smith, Editor, BuzzFeed, in re: media-sponsored content.  BuzzFeed just got $20 mil investment. Good new hires. Mobile is critical.  Scott Brown's twitter account.  More public figures will be acting like human beings.

Sunday 6  Jan 2013 / Hour 2, Block C:  . Dr. Jagdish Bhagwati, Senior Fellow for International Economics at Council on Foreign Relations, and University Professor at Columbia University, in re: economics of poverty, India and the US.

Sunday 6  Jan 2013 / Hour 2, Block D:  Taegan Goddard, Publisher, Political Wire, in re:

Hour Three

Sunday 6  Jan 2013 / Hour 3, Block A:  Yann Martel, author, Life of Pi, in re:

Sunday 6  Jan 2013 / Hour 3, Block B:  . Dave Girouard, Upstart, in re: crowdsourcing investment funding for young people just out of college.

Sunday 6  Jan 2013 / Hour 3, Block C:  . Juliette Kayyem, Boston Globe National Security columnist & Former Asst Secy, Dept. of Homeland Security. in re:

Sunday 6  Jan 2013 / Hour 3, Block D:   Bill Roggio, Long War Journal and FDD, in re: Syria and Mali.

Hour Four

Sunday 6  Jan 2013 / Hour 4, Block A:  Dr. David DeSteno, Director, Northeastern University's Social Emotions Group and co-Author, Out of Character: The Surprising Truths About the Liar, Cheat, Sinner (and Saint) Lurking in All of Us; in re: humans's moral character (the word "character" comes from an ancient Greek word for a stamp on a coin); in fact, our mind constantly runs computations to dictate what we’re doing: What's good  for me in the short term, and then in the long term?  How the mind solves this is what we're all about. Optimize outcomes, incl resources.  We need to get away from thinking if the mind is moral or not; rather, study how it works.   Consider Mark Sanford, former SC governor. What you can manage to do is [organize] your behavior to prepare for the temptations that come. Another book with parallel statements: the Bible.  All social life is a trade-off betw short-term expedience and long-term planning; all religions of the world address it.  My book is an owner's manual.  Hard to predict optimum behavior; level of flexibility is important.

Sunday 6  Jan 2013 / Hour 4, Block B:  Dr. Anthony Leiserowitz, Director, Yale University Project on Climate Change Communication, in re: Six very different American groups: The Alarmed – these consider climate change to be human-caused and an urgent threat; the Concerned – it's happening & serious but distant in time and space (a generation or so hence, and among polar bears); the Cautious – on the fence"; the Disengaged; the Doubtful; the Dismissive. American weather extremes are generating more believers, so to speak. The country needs a sustained discussion on the matter. Support govtl studies into renewable energy: 63% of Republicans & 83% of Democrats.

Sunday 6  Jan 2013 / Hour 4, Block C:  Kelly Hoey, Start-up Advisor and Founder, Women Innovate Mobile,  in re:

Sunday 6  Jan 2013 / Hour 4, Block D:   Exeunt.

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Music

Hour 1:  Baroque Organ: Bach; Hurt Locker; Mozart Violin Sonatas; Show Business.

Hour 2:  Appaloosa, Argo.

Hour 3:  Vaughn Williams; Mozart Violin Sonatas; Beethoven Late Sonatas; Syriana.

Hour 4: Baroque Organ: Bach; Hurt Locker; Anne-Sophie Mutter; Crysis.