Monday, June 4th, 2007

2pm

There was another plot "foiled" over the weekend-- this time, it was to do serious damage to JFK Airport.  One of the plotters is an American citizen, no less.  Yet John Edwards is convinced that the "war on terror" is nothing more than a bumper sticker slogan.  How can this be, if we do face very real threats from within the country?  Does Iraq have anything to do with the plans that have been discovered and stopped here in the US?  Pete believes Iraq is just a bonus excuse, and that the hate has always existed.  Read more on the plot here and here, and Edwards original comment here.

3pm

Andrew Keen is the author of the new book "The Cult of the Amateur: How Today's Internet is Killing Our Culture," and he joined Pete this hour to discuss what he belives is the ruination of American life.  The internet allows people with no education (or minimal training) to present themselves as experts on various and sundry topics-- without the burden of proof or even an academic record to back it up.  What will journalists, academics, even TV and film producers do when their fields are co-opted by the less qualified?  And what about the intellectual property being bastardized by how unregulated the internet actually is?

See Mr. Keen when he comes back to the Bay Area for two appearances:

Friday, June 15th at 7:30 at the First Congregational Church of Berkeley

Tuesday, June 19th at 7:30 at the Barnes and Noble in Campbell

Tuesday, June 5th, 2007

2pm

Pete is quite familiar with the golf courses in and around the Bay Area.  A woman was just given over $4 million dollars for a golf cart accident at a course in Marin, and Pete isn't quite sure a broken rib and some lost work is worth that steep of an award.  It goes along with the decrease in personal responsibility taken for human error.  Of course her medical costs should have been covered, but $4 million?  Are her side careers really worth that much?  What is a reasonable amount of safety in a public place like a golf course?  Read the story here.

3pm

Have you noticed that your children are more materialistic than you were as a child?  Why are labels and status objects so important to kids?  Is it just the fact that they are spoiled?  Does that mean it's all your fault?  How do you make them more grateful?

Donna Bee-Gates wrote the book "I Want That!" and she joined Pete to try to answer some of these questions and give parents tools to fight early-life materialism.

See Ms. Bee-Gates in person on Saturday, June 9th, 2pm, at the Book Passage in Corte Madera.

Wednesday, June 6th, 2007

2pm

The DeAnza baseball team was accused of gang raping a girl a few months ago-- a girl who was rescued by three other witnesses.  The DA evidently tried her best to get the case together, even after additional women came forward, but couldn't quite get it together.  The public outcry over the lack of charges must have gotten to the DA, though, because she's asked Jerry Brown to review her evidence and the case in general to see if she made a mistake.  Read about the case here and here.

3pm

A Ukrainian couple came to this country decades ago with $500 and the typical American dream.  Now the company the husband founded here is worth hundreds of millions of dollars, and the wife successfully raised their children and kept their house and acted as a confidant.

So what happens when they get divorced?  She gets over $180 million without ever having worked in the actual company.  In community property states this is a given, right?  But hsould it be?  Is a homemaker worth hundreds of millions of dollars when she didn't really do anything to make the money in the first place?  Read about the case here.

Thursday, June 7th, 2007

John Rothmann in for Pete!

2pm

John would like to touch on a few stories this hour:

Lynne Cheney might be under consideration for the vacant Senate seat in Wyoming.

Dick Cheney urged the illegal wiretaps, according to an inside source.  More here.

And the Turks are skirmishing, essentially, with the Kurds in Northern Iraq, claiming weapons are being fired from that portion of the country and they are acting to protect themselves.  

3pm

The movie "A Mighty Heart" opens in theaters nationwide on June 22nd.  It is based on Mariane Pearl's bestselling book about the disappearance and killing of her husband Daniel Pearl, a reporter for the Wall Street Journal.  Most people know the story, of course, but we wanted to know more about the movie, starring Angelina Jolie as Mariane.

Director Michael Winterbottom joined John this hour to discuss the great responsibility of filming this particular tale and the confluence of events that led to it happening.  Check out trailers and more information at www.AMightyHeartMovie.com

Friday, June 8th, 2007

2pm

We can't avoid it.  We can't NOT talk about it.  Even if I don't want to.

Paris Hilton was dragged (almost) screaming and crying (literally) back to jail today, after being released overnight for a "medical condition."  Can the justice system really afford to let a woman of means out of jail for house arrest when the same courtesy wouldn't be shown to any other person in the same situation?  Can the Sheriff who released her expect to lose his job?  Read the latest on the hysteria here and here.

3pm

Andy Gore is the Editor of The Geek Beat and Pete's resident tech guru.  He joined Pete in studio this hour to discuss the latest in giant remotes, weather centers, and digital do-dads that will make Father's Day less of an exercise in tie-giving futility.  For more details on the products you heard about today, visit Andy's site www.TheGeekBeat.com