Speak up!

It's Membership Campaign time, friends. Yes, your favorite time of year when you get to listen to the behind-the-scenes voices at WVPE ask for your pledge of support. Campaigns are the most effective way we have found to make listers become members of WVPE who make up about 45% of the budget at the station.

Each individual generally thinks his/her pitch is the best on the air: the most charming, make the best argument, the most persuasive, the most entertaining, etc. Well, we'd like to hear from you! Give us the good and the bad. What do you think about the on-air staff during campaign?

By the way, I am usually on from 4-7pm. :)

Do white people believe there is no more racism?

Sen. Barack Obama's speech in response to press about Rev. Jeremiah Wright's sermons has brought talk about race back to our airwaves. On today's Talk of the Nation, a bi-racial caller named Roy remarked that white people want to talk about race intellectually whereas black people are more emotional and passionate when discussing the subject.

How do you talk about race or hear race talked about?

Personally, I relate to the Stuff White People Like blog I wrote about #14: Having Black Friends. In a weird way it's like having proof that one doesn't care about race. Which, of course, doesn't really add up.

Weekend Updates

How 'Bout Them Dawgs?
Unlike the rest of the season, my alma mater's team is doing rather well.

Is it really the banks that are hurting?
Bear Sterns is purchased by JPMorgan Chase for $2 a share.

Wiretap Premieres on WVPE tonight
Jazzworks has been cancelled and This American Life contributor Jonathan Goldstein is filling it's slot. Check out Wiretap on the web.

One in four teen girls has an STD

This is the kind of sex we should be talking about. Here is an interesting tidbit from the study:
Only about half of the girls in the study acknowledged having sex. Some teens define sex as only intercourse, yet other types of intimate behavior including oral sex can spread some diseases.

While we're on the subject, the University of Notre Dame is allowing The Vagina Monologues to be performed on campus. In an except from his recent press release, Bishop John D'Arcy says, "Father Jenkins has informed me that, while he thinks that this play is a bad play, he believes that permitting its performance under certain conditions, namely, in an academic building without fundraising and with a panel discussion afterwards in which the Catholic perspective is represented, is consistent with the identity of a Catholic university."

Spitzzzzzz...

I am so tired of listening to very intelligent people talk about a political sex scandal. Have we not had enough of this? A discussion on morality in politics is worth having, in my opinion, but I don't know that we really want to look that closely at politicians' sex lives.

What is your opinion?

Coming up this week

These are snippets from NPR on what is coming up on the air this week:

ATC:
Robert Siegel Interviews Bill Gates
Wednesday, March 12, NPR's Robert Siegel interviews Bill Gates, philanthropist and chairman of Microsoft. They explore work issues including the H-1B visa program and what Gates sees as a threat to American competitiveness -- that the U.S. isn't grooming the domestic workforce to fill high-skill jobs.

This I Believe - The Benefits of Telling the Truth
Listener Martha Leathe believes that when we're truthful with children, they're honest with us.

Web Exclusives:
Anne Enright Offers a Bleak Tale in 'The Gathering'
Irish author Anne Enright heads for the familiar terrain of the dysfunctional family in The Gathering. Last fall, the novel was awarded Britain's highest literary honor, the Man Booker Prize.

Kernels of Truth About Cornmeal
Years ago, a recipe for Indian pudding introduced 9-year-old Kevin Weeks to the wonders of cornmeal. Take a look at a few delicious recipes incorporating cornmeal.

Will Split Decision Shift Texas to Obama?
NPR's senior Washington editor put into perspective the combined caucus and primary results in Texas.

News:
Shuttle Endeavour Makes Rare Night Launch
Endeavour's departure marked the second successful launch of a shuttle in just over a month's time.

Calls for Spitzer's Resignation as Details Emerge
New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer's political career was near collapse Tuesday after the first-term Democrat's name surfaced in a probe into a prostitution ring.

Arts & Culture:

Pretty, Plastic Barbie: Forever What We Make Her
She's not the centerpiece of a classic film, nor the protagonist of a great novel. The 49-year-old icon has, to a certain extent, become what people make of her.


This was NOT in the NPR email, but did you know Nine Inch Nails' Trent Reznor played Professor Hill in his high school production of The Music Man? Boy do I love Wikipedia!

More Anne Rice

USA Today has an article about Anne and Christopher Rice. It explores a little of the religion that was referenced on Talk of the Nation last week.

Bauhaus regroups

Bauhaus is an English goth group named after the German art movement. I was sick, so I missed the Day to Day's review of the first Bauhaus studio album in 25 years. If you missed it too, check this out.

Anne Rice and the Religious Right

I'm quite familiar with Interview with the Vampire Anne Rice, but hearing her mentioned on the Talk of the Nation segment The Religious Right Hits Soul-Searching Times. The guest former deputy director of the White House Office on Faith-Based and Community Initiatives David Kuo discusses his Washington Post op-ed It's Not Your Father's Religious Right.

Kuo predicts the new evangelicals will be:

• more progressive -- but not liberal
• not Democratic -- yet
• more spiritually cautious and politically shrewd

Kuo uses Rice's book Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana as a good resource for those who want to understand evangelicals more. The novel is a follow-up to Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt. Wikipedia tells us:

In 1996, after spending most of her adult life as a self-described atheist, Rice returned to her Roman Catholic faith, which she had not practiced since she was 15. In October 2004, as she reaffirmed her Catholic faith, Rice announced in a Newsweek article that she would "write only for the Lord."

Now THAT explains why the author of The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty and Cry to Heaven has changed her tone.

celebrity op-ed

In case you care, this is what Angelina Jolie thinks about the Iraq war.

The Simpsons

Did anyone catch The Simpsons last night? I tuned in too late to catch Terry Gross, but saw her name in the credits. The episode is titled "The DeBarted" and was an homage to The Departed.