Riding my Elevator

When I entered the elevator of my high-rise, there were already four young persons of color in there that did not wear a face mask. A few floors down, another black person came in, again, not wearing a mask. Now, we were six people in the elevator, with nobody talking, no chance of socially distancing, I thought that I might start a conversation with the following remark:

Isn't it strange that I, who is white, is the only one wearing a mask?

For a few seconds no one replied, but then a young, otherwise intelligent looking young man answered:

You can take off your mask. Masks don't do anything for you, in fact, they can be dangerous, as you rebreathe the carbondioxide that you are trying to get rid off.

I was surprised that he mentioned carbondioxide, though I knew, that he got this wrong. With a face mask you are likely to rebreathe only 1 or 2% of the carbondioxide you are exhaling, an amount too small to be of significance in any such calculation. Thus, I replied, admittedly sounding a bit haughty:

I am a physiologist. I studied these things for all my life, and I can tell you with absolute certainty, you are dead-wrong.

When we arrived on the first floor, we all left, everybody scattering in different directions.

Clearly, you can't say much about the attitudes of young blacks in Atlanta, based on this single observation. Yes, my high-rise is very close to Georgia Tech and many of the young black men that I met in the elevator may study there, or not. The one or the other might be a member of a basketball team, just judging by their athletic build and great height.

As we often walk in the neighborhood, my wife and I, we meet blacks that behave very much like those in the elevator, no masks. When we pass each other, they nevertheless give us plenty of space, as we give them. Asians, in our non-scientific study, are almost always wearing a mask, Whites more often than not wear a mask, as are Indians.

NPR wins the fight against the Washington Redskins

Today, on July 13, 2020, NPR announced that it had finally won the fight against the Redskins.

If by any chance you have read my opinion piece on the redskin saga (click here), you may remember that the expression Redskins is not meant as a slur of the American Indians, at least not when you judge it by Karl May's wildly popular books. Karl May assumed that the Redskins mentioned there refer to the custom of American Indians painting their faces in earth colored tones, not that skalps taken from Indians were red from all the blood that the poor victims had lost.

More Shows…

Shows are listed in reverse chronological order (last show first):

• Riding my Elevator
  Not From NPR: A personal observation
• The murder of George Floyd
  NPR Intelligence Correspondent Mary Louise Kelly misquotes Cheney
• A very wrong quote
  NPR Intelligence Correspondent Mary Louise Kelly misquotes Cheney
• A time to reflect
  Daniel Schorr asks Bush to reflect on his sins
• Probably Texas
  Mr. Bush caused a tempest in a teakettle by congratulating the Democrat majority
• The conspiracy of Big Oil
  A Marketplace legend: big oil conspired with Republicans to bring down the price of gas
• Ivan, the terrible
  Recently promoted NPR foreign correspondent Ivan Watson spreads lies about an attack on a Lebanese refugee convoy
• NPR confidential
  NPR revives discredited French doping accusations against Lance Armstrong
• A deadly cocktail
  Human Rights Watch and Nina Totenberg sing from the same song sheet
• We are all Danes now!
  The network that fearlessly calls the Bush administration criminal is surprisingly timid when it comes Muslim sensibilities
• Christmas in Bethlehem
  Linda Gradstein moves the security fence south, right through the center of the city
• The fear of disapproving murmurs
  What Gonyea doesn't know and why Bush won't attend the NAACP convention
• Flushing, the sequel
  Another splash: Senator Durbin compares Gitmo with Pol Pot's killing fields
• Forever flushing
  The administration could not have expected that the touchy-feely treatment of Gitmo detainees would win them many browny points with Islamists — or, for that matter, with the liberal media
• Morning-after thrill
  The truth squad is ready to pounce on the President's State of the Union address
• Guilty until proven innocent
  A Maryland professor, his students, and NPR know more than the trial judge: they have read the transcript
• The girl from Fallujah
  NPR's arm-chair correspondent Philip Reeves tells the sad, but hardly believable, story of a Fallujah girl
• A shot in the arm of the Kerry campaign
  NPR provides a much needed shot in the arm for the Kerry campaign, blaming the Bush administration for the lack of flu vaccines
• Promises of dividends
  A few thoughts on the double taxation of dividends and the progressive mindset of America's new princes
• Truth squads
  NPR's truth squads search for the truth in all the wrong places
• Another request pending: the sequel
  Inskeep sneaks in another campaign appearance for John Kerry while demonstrating his nifty editing skills
• A pretty good week
  Eric Westervelt turns what seems to have been a pretty good week for the Bush administration into another indictment
• De mortuis nil nisi bonum
  NPR won't miss an opportunity to get even with the late President Reagan
• Lessons from Vietnam
  It doesn't happen very often, but when it does you can take a look inside the soul of NPR — the lessons they learned from Vietnam
• Another request pending
  …or how to sneak in another campaign appearance for the Democratic nominee apparent
• Bad breath
  Already before Florida, Fresh Air host Terry Gross was busy spreading the liberal gospel through interviews with Hollywood actors and directors and assorted other celebrities who — a mystery to me — know how a better world would look like.
• Ellsberg's new spy friend
  Ellsberg uses the case of a traitor in the British intelligence service to remind the NPR listener whom he admires most: Ellsberg!
• Commentator in sheep's clothing
  NPR commentator and former Republican strategist Kevin Phillips scolds Bush for naming Judge Laurence Silberman to co-chair the Iraq intelligence probe
• Elementary! My dear Watson!
  Contract reporter Ivan Watson rushes to Samarra to tell the other side of the story — the enemy's side
• Line, hook, and sinker
  Peter Overby swallows the Democratic line on the energy bill pending before the Senate: the producers of MTBE are poisoning our drinking water
• Kate's choice
  Kate Michelman is stepping down as president of NARAL to fight a second term for Bush
• An Israeli voice
  Scott Simon interviews Akiva Eldar, political columnist and editorial writer for the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz
• About books and bear bags
  How attacking the Boy Scouts of America can help you with promoting your new book
• Living on dirt
  Multiculturalism makes you sick
• Fighting the right war
  Progressives are itching to risk American lives for the right cause
• The arming of Saddam Hussein
  The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace — and, by extension, NPR — lends credibility to an old canard
• How to ambush the Speaker
  The draft version of an NPR commentary suggests that Gingrich was set up for an ambush
• All together now, quagmire!
  Casualties from sniper shootings are almost gleefully portrayed as signs of an ever-increasing resistance by the Iraqi people
• Another attack by militants
  What Bob Edwards calls militant groups are terrorist organizations
• Recruiting for al Qaeda
  Jessica Stern reports from the al Qaeda recruiting office
• An open letter to Nina Totenberg
• Augusta, Georgia, on my mind
  NPR joins Martha Burk's campaign against Augusta National Golf Club
• Truth the first victim of the ICC
  The fear of the Clinton and Bush administrations that the International Criminal Court might be used for prosecuting US citizens is well founded
• A belated apology
  Better late than never
• The Big Lie
  How NPR deals with a poem that is based on an internet hoax
• Talking down the economy
  During the worst holiday shopping season in 30 years, consumers spend more than ever
• Feeding fashion models and other insane commentaries
  And the price for the most tasteless commentary in December goes to…
• Tale of the Bronx
  Groceries are leaving the inner cities, but is this a conspiracy?
• With friends like this…
  A snapshot from Europe
• When minders don't mind
  Iraqi minders don't mind criticism of George W. Bush
• Amazing homicide rate: killed seven times over
  Morning Edition thinks that Americans are a murderous bunch
• Revisionist history of the Middle East conflict
  Mike Shuster provides a largely Palestinian narrative of the century-old conflict
• Matt Miller assaults the Bush administration
  Morning Edition accuses the Bush administration to stage-manage the war on terror for political advantage
• Bill Clinton, Bin Laden slayer?
• Another cycle of violence
  NPR's Julie McCarthy compares victims of the Middle East conflict
• National Palestinian Radio reports from Gaza
  Peter Kenyon reporting about the repair of sewer lines in the Rafah refugee camp: why doesn't he know something?
• Grande Valse Brillante
  Nina Totenberg scolds Scalia for viewing the constitution is an "enduring" document, rather than a "living" one that can be interpreted in every which way the court may see fit
• New even-handedness in Middle East reporting?
  Stung by calls from Jewish organizations to withdraw support, NPR pledges to improve coverage of the conflict
• School diversity
  Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology wants to replace the existing race-blind admissions policy with a new one that gives preference to minorities
• Emerging water contaminants
  Allison Aubrey misrepresents the findings of an environmental study on organic wastewater contaminants
• Irish firefighters
  Just another chapter in the epic struggle for racial equality?
• On the Media fights conservative public bias
  For host Brooke Gladstone, journalists are at the center, the public is way out in the right field
• The Enron scandal
  A smoking mushroom cloud?
• Who was sending the anthrax letters?
  David Kestenbaum accuses the Traditional Values Coalition of mailing the deadly letters
• How Hollywood sees Bush
  NPR agrees with Hollywood actors and directors: President Bush is stupid!
• Are Republicans intellectually inferior?
  Since Eisenhower, the Left has declared every Republican in the White House to be dumb, intellectually inferior. The only one to dodge the label was Nixon who, instead, was branded as evil.
• Convict leasing in Alabama
  A case for reparations or just another pretext for anti-corporate lawsuits?
• The Waffle House
  Next on the list of targeted Restaurants?
• Body of secrets: Attack on the USS Liberty
  Was the attack on the Liberty a deliberate act to cover up Israeli war crimes?
• Bush on Nigeria: Country or continent?
• Legacy of slavery
  PRI's The World knows why Brazil has fewer problems with slavery

Brazil Claims Fewer Problems with Slavery

False: A BBC report from Brazil claims that Blacks there have fewer problems with their country's history of slavery since, unlike in the US, Blacks were allowed to have slaves too, not just Whites.

True: Free Blacks in the US were allowed to own slaves. In fact, the average black slave owner had more slaves than its white counterpart. Obviously, for NPR slavery is particularly evil if Whites are the masters. Perhaps, this is why NPR prefers to talk about past slavery in the U.S. rather than current slavery as it is practiced in sub-Saharan Africa.

Nigeria, Country or Continent?

Date: 10/12/00
Show: Morning Edition (NPR)



©PBS: Governor Bush during the third Presidential debate

False: After the second Presidential debate, NPR reported that Governor George W. Bush mistook Nigeria to be a continent. Improbable as that claim may be, it fits nicely to the stereotype fostered by the liberal press that the Republican Presidential candidate is a political dimwit.

True: Bush demonstrated considerable knowledge of foreign politics in the debate, including a tidbit known only to foreign policy wonks — the fact that the administration was training Nigerian troops for future crisis situations such as in Rwanda. The claim that Bush thought Nigeria is a continent is based on the following exchange with moderator Jim Lehrer:

LEHRER:
So what would you say, Governor, to somebody who would say, "Hey, wait a minute. Why not Africa? I mean, why the Middle East? Why the Balkans, but not Africa when 600,000 people's lives are at risk?"

BUSH:
Well, I understand. And Africa is important, and we have got to do a lot of work in Africa to promote democracy and trade. And there's some — the Vice President mentioned Nigeria. It's a fledgling democracy. We've got to work with Nigeria. That is an important continent.

Obviously, Bush uses the last sentence to summarize his answer: "Yes, Africa is an important continent!" Neither Bush's nor Lehrer's command of the English language is flawless, but — then again — neither one is trying to land a job as an English High School teacher.

Body of Secrets: Attack on the USS Liberty

Date: 6/7/01
Show: Morning Edition (NPR)

  ©PBS: Bob Edwards

The anti-Israeli bias of NPR News may seem surprising, given that many of the activists that fight for progressive causes all over the world are Jewish. But then, if you're progressive, it is OK to sacrifice your own family — if only for a just cause.

A particular egregious example for the bias is an interview conducted by Morning Edition's Bob Edwards with James Bamford. In his new book "Body of Secrets," Bamford claims that an attack by the Israeli Defense Forces on the USS Liberty during the Six Day War was a deliberate act to cover up the killing of Egyptian prisoners of war at El Arish, a coastal town on the Sinai peninsula. This and similar claims have earned Bamford his own page on CAMERA, a web site tracking anti-Israeli bias in the media.

Apart from the idiocy of the supposition that the IDF would commit a massacre to cover up another one, there have been numerous investigations into the incident — including inquiries by both houses of Congress — that all came to the same conclusion: the attack on the USS Liberty was a case of mistaken identity, helped along by the confusion of war and a tragic series of mistakes on both, the Israeli and American side. Perhaps the best account available on the internet is Michael B. Oren's report in the Azure, entitled The USS Liberty: Case Closed.

Despite the fact that an April 24, 2001 appearance of Bamford on NPR's Fresh Air had already spawned numerous protests, among them a scathing rebuke by the media watch dog Honest Reporting, Edwards coyly prompts Bamford to unleash another anti-Israeli barrage:

EDWARDS:
What about the — ah — the Liberty?

BAMFORD:
The USS Liberty was an NSA eavesdropping ship [lengthy monologue] It was a tragic incidence that had never been investigated by the US government [lengthy monologue] In addition, the ship had its name in […] 5 foot English letters on the stern — USS Liberty.

EDWARDS:
Hard to confuse it with the Egyptian navy.

The attacking torpedo boats actually mistook the ship for the Egyptian freighter El-Quseir, not a ship of the navy. The marking "USS Liberty" had been freshly painted over with the letters GTR-5. When the Israeli commander recognized the name, he ordered the attacks to be stopped, fearing that it was a Russian vessel.

Although the attack on the Liberty takes up only a single chapter in Bamford's book, the interview almost exclusively revolves around it — the only other subject being broached is his claim that, in the sixties, the US Joint Chiefs of Staff concocted a plan for an invasion of Cuba. Of course, after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the adoption of free market principles by the People's Republic of China, there aren't too many countries left that progressives like Edwards really do care about.
 

If after ten investigations (five of them congressional) who all came to the same conclusion it was still needed, recently released surveillance tapes from the National Security Agency further strengthen the case that the attack on the USS Liberty was an accident. Former Navy pilot and federal judge A. Jay Cristol who obtained the tapes through the Freedom of Information Act commented in an interview with the Jerusalem Post on Bamford's claim that the IDF attacked the Liberty to cover up war crimes against Egyptian troops:

JOEL LEYDEN:
Would you comment on the claims of author James Bamford that the Liberty was attacked to prevent the United States from learning of massacres of Egyptian prisoners in the Sinai?

JUDGE CRISTOL:
Mr. Bamford provides as his source of this claim two Israeli journalists, both of whom have denied statements attributed to them by Bamford. First, it is literally impossible for an electronic intelligence gatherer to overhear murders taking place in a desert more than a dozen miles away. The Sinai was returned to Egypt in 1973. Egypt has made no claim that such murders took place. No mass graves have been located and no Egyptian soldiers from the '67 war are missing or unaccounted for. Mr. [Bamford's] writings are much closer to fiction than to history.
[JPost.com, 7/10/03]

Judge Cristol wrote an excellent book on the Liberty incident, but I doubt that he'll ever be invited on Morning Edition.

• The Liberty Incident: Who is A. Jay Cristol?
  Not surprisingly, the surviving crew members disagree with Judge Cristol. In a scathing critique of his book, the USS Liberty Veterans Association accuses him of being a charlatan.
• The Liberty Incident [A. Jay Cristol, 2003]