Satire
It's Wednesday, March 7th.
After a two-month trial, former White House aid Lewis "Scooter" Libby has been found guilty of lying, perjury and obstruction of justice.
Currently, jurors are expressing relief that the trial is finally over and say they are looking forward to some leisure time. Apparently they have an offer to go quail-hunting.
This is The Current.
Scooter Libby Verdict
We started this segment with the former White House aide Lewis "Scooter" Libby pleading innocence -- or at least obliviousness -- before a Federal Grand Jury, three years ago this month. Yesterday, a different jury found him guilty of perjury, lying and obstruction of justice.
Nominally, the case was about the illegal publication of the name of a CIA agent. But it quickly became one of the biggest political side-shows of the last five years in Washington and ended up as an assessment of the Bush Administration's political tactics and its truthfulness in making the case for the war in Iraq. We heard from Prosecutor, Patrick Fitzgerald with what he said yesterday about the significance of the verdict.
But beyond the legal machinations, the significance of the Scooter Libby saga is only just beginning to be calculated. And it's likely to leave a mark on everything from how Vice President Dick Cheney is remembered by the history books to how reporters and politicians interact.
Linda Feldmann joined us to help sort out how and why the jury reached the verdict it did. She's been covering the story from the beginning as the White House Correspondent for The Christian Science Monitor and she was on the phone in Washington.
Libby Panel
Shortly after the verdict was handed down, Denis Collins -- a spokesperson for the jurors in this case -- talked to reporters outside the US federal court building.
To talk about that sentiment -- and the possible political implications of yesterday's verdict – we were joined by two people. Michael Isikoff is the Investigative Correspondent for Newsweek Magazine, and the author of "Hubris: The Inside Story of Spin, Scandal, and the Selling of the Iraq War. He was in our Washington Studio. And Richard Willing is a reporter who has been covering this story for USA Today. He was on the phone from McLean, Virginia.
Listen to The Current:  Part 1
(Due to various rights issues some segments may be edited for internet use)
The Current: Part 2
Imams – Khaleel Mohammed
When it comes to discussions of Islam, it's common to hear the argument that the biggest problem the faith faces is fundamentalism that strict adherence to a literal understanding of the Koran is holding Muslim communities back.
But our next guest sees things a little differently. Khaleel Mohammed is a Canadian Islamic scholar and a former Imam in Montreal. And he says it's not the Koran that's the problem ... it's the local religious leaders doing the interpreting. Khaleel Mohammed is now a Professor of Religious Studies at San Diego State University and he was in San Diego.
Music Bridge
Artist: Chris Velan
Cut: CD2 "Long Way from Home"
CD: "Twitter, Buzz, Howl"
Label: Maple Music
Spine #: MM1101
Learning to Shave Documentary Update
We wanted to take a moment to update you on a story we brought you last November. It's the story of Brian Arsenault, a man from Coldbrook, Nova Scotia who was dying of colon cancer that had spread to his liver. He was determined to make the most of what little time he had left and to make memories for his wife Jackie, and their sons -- 12-year-old Bradley and 9-year-old Matthew. We aired an excerpt from CBC Radio Reporter Pauline Daikin's documentary "Learning to Shave."
We had a lot of response to Brian's story, and thought you'd want to know that Brian died on Monday afternoon. He was able to die as he'd hoped -- at home, peacefully, with his family.
Music Bridge
Artist: Kirk Elliott
CD: "Fiddler on the Rocks"
Cut: CD 6,"Moon in Broad Daylight"
Label: Custom/Elliott Kirk
Spine: FOTR 05
Listen to The Current: Part 2
(Due to various rights issues some segments may be edited for internet use)
The Current: Part 3
Personals – Editor
In this half hour, we wanted to get personal…personal ads, that is. And we wanted to explore that even though how the way we use words to find mates is changing, the why of love still has a lingua franca.
But first, with internet dating sites, text messaging and speed-dating, you'd think the days of the lowly personal ad in the back of a newspaper or magazine would be numbered. So how then to explain the success of the dating column in -- of all places -- the London Review of Books?
Since the column began in 1998, it has become a much-celebrated forum for the forlorn and a compendium of clever come-ons -- even if they do tend to be a bit -- well -- particular in their approach.
Dave Rose is the man who has the pleasure of reading through every single personal ad that eventually finds its way into the London Review of Books. And he's compiled a book of the best of them, They call me Naughty Lola. Dave Rose is the Personal Classifieds Editor of the London Review of Books and he joined us from our London studio.
Personals – Anthropologist
There's clearly more than a little competition going on with those particular personal classifieds. But according to Chris McCollum, there's something else too. He wrote his PhD dissertation in cultural anthropology on how people tell their love stories and what that says about how we understand romance and relationships. Chris McCollum whose research on love stories has been published in Ethos - the Journal of the Society for Psychological Anthropology was at his home just outside Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Last Word – Mail Order Brides
We wanted to end the program today with some thoughts about what you might call the extreme version of personal ads.
Frank McAndrew is a Professor of Psychology at Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois. He co-authored a study on the differences in expectations between mail order brides in Colombia and the would-be grooms doing the ordering. We aired some of what he found and what it might mean for anyone looking to find companionship through correspondence.
Listen to The Current: Part 3
(Due to various rights issues some segments may be edited for internet use)
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