A recent Harris Interactive poll on job prestige was the topic of today's call-in (the findings were neatly summarized by Del Jones in USA Today).

Harris has been doing this poll for years, and while scientists, doctors, and firefighters still lead the pack, even the most respected professions come in at only around 50% and have been losing ground. Taking up the rear: accountants, stockbrokers, and real estate agents/brokers, and, yes, journalists).

Your thoughts:

I am an audio engineer and my prestige came in at about 40% on the times poll. My job is great for angry people who want to get paid for lording knowledge over ignorant people.
-CD

In today's world, the more we perceive that cheating or vacillating in political and moral views impacts on the performance of jobs, the lower respect we are likely to have for the position. Government, legal, economic, or labor-leader positions are falling, while socially activist positions and service positions (medical, etc.) are gaining.
-CH

I am a NYCTA Bus driver. Where do I fall under on the "prestige foodchain"?
-I in Brooklyn

Dear CD: what is the times poll? Have you tried working at one of the think tanks?

Dear I: sorry, we have no idea how bus drivers, NYC or otherwise rank. It we tip our hat to you when we board your bus, can we ride for free?

Email us!

Posted by leboheme at 03:19 PM

This morning's segment on photos of the war dead with Harold Evans and the L.A. Times' James Rainey struck a chord with many listeners. Here are some of the emails we received:

Let's put a more subjective face on this problem of photographing and printing pictures of war dead. Should my son be killed in action, (planes do go down) I would hate to see pictures of my son splashed all over the newspapers and other printed media. On the other hand I would still like the world to see his sacrifice and the great inhumanity of war. -- "A Conflicted Mother of Naval Flight Officer"

I am opposed to the Iraq War. I force myself to watch the photos of the American soldiers who have died in the war shown on the PBS Newshour. These are portrait photos, most in uniform, some graduation pictures, some in civilian clothes. I do this because I believe I must face the costs of the war for our troops and our nation. -- L.G.

I can't believe that one of your guests actually said that Americans don't want to see the violent photos: (a) three quarters of the tv lineup ---both network and cable--- is composed of violence like murders, recreations of murders, drug violence, home violence, etc. etc. -- V.

What do you think? Email us.

Sydney Schanburg, in a recent Village Voice Press Clips column, advocated showing photos of the war dead and the Village Voice, as James Rainey mentioned, published several photos with the column.

Posted by leboheme at 12:10 PM

Biju Mathew, taxi expert, labor organizer, professor, and radio host

Next week: Bijou Phillips!

Our three-part series on identity theft concluded today. Here's an email from one sharp listener who takes issue with the very term "identity theft".

The financial institutions have been focusing the blame on the customers for
a long time, while the security of the system itself is broken.

The only reason ID theft is successful is because goods/services are offered
without secrutiny on the part of the seller. As an ID theft victim, your
future business transactions suffer from tremendous distrust because SOMEONE
ELSE was careless and/or unscrupulous.
-MZ

Posted by leboheme at 02:47 PM

So...is art worth it for art's own sake? On first blush, Beethoven's fifth, the megaliths of Easter Island and the Bhagavad-Gita are masterpieces that need no justification based on their educational or sociocultural value. But when you then try to separate the art from its effect on the consumer...

Okay, so how would you teach children the English alphabet WITHOUT singing it? It is faster to learn something when the artistic part of the brain is engaged along with the logistic parts.

And the arts enable us to see, hear and understand situations with added dimension. Visual art training enhances observation skills. Vocal arts (theater, song, etc.) enhance verbal skills and the understanding of the spoken word. And Music reaches deep inside our bodies to assist the understanding and perception of underlying rhythms in life.
-CLH

I am a therapist who works with NYC public school children. I believe in the importance of art and actually studied art before becoming a therapist. I invite you to just try to learn to dance, play a musical instrument or paint a beautiful picture....then you will realize the skill necessary to master these tasks.
-JM

It's important to keep the focus here. This discussion is only relevant within the context of public support for the arts.
-JL

"Intrinsic benefits of the arts" is not an argument that carries much weight with lawmakers. In fact, with the retirement of Roy Goodman, there are no state officials for whom "the arts" is at the top of their legislative priorities.
-JL

the best recent case for the arts was made by our government. the 9/11 commission said the main reason we did not prevent the 9/11 attacks was a FAILURE OF IMAGINATION.
-RL

I don't understand the need for the culture elites to keep outdated art
forms alive and force everyone to like them. Speaking as one who have been dragged into countless operas and ballets as a youth. I would argue if the public doesn't like some art forms, and they can not find support, just let them die out. New ones will come up to replace them.
-YF

Posted by leboheme at 04:44 PM

Your feedback on the compromise reached yesterday by moderate Senate Democrats and Republicans:

When I first learned about filibusters in US History in high school (a long time ago), my impression was that a filibuster was a complete waste of time and money by these 100 Senators.

My opinion hasn't changed (thirty years later) and now it's my money they are wasting instead of my parents' money.
-PW, Cos Cob

The fourteen senators that pulled this deal together won. They have effectively wrested power from extremist on both sides. I think most of the country will follow their leadership
-WB, Naples, FL

Once again I'm disappointed with the Democrats. Their strategy reminds me of the French in the beginning of World War 1, who were more interested in
limiting their losses than making a stand. Why are the Democrats getting so
excited by saying, "hey, we only lost half the farm, not the whole thing!"?
A Republican aide was quoted in the Times this morning as calling the Dems
"brain dead", and I really couldn't agree more.
-AW, East Village

Posted by leboheme at 02:35 PM

Our Brian Lehrer news quiz was quite a success this morning. Thanks to Bob Hennelly who served as a fine Quiz-Master. We have five winners and they will be receiving their Brian Lehrer Show t-shirts shortly!

Below are our questions with the answers.

1. Who was rumored to have been offered the position of US Ambassador to the United Nations?

George Pataki

2. Where was the UN thinking about moving to?
Brooklyn

3. Who did the New York Times call “incredibly shrinking?”
Daniel Libeskind

4. What was on time for the first time in 20 years?
The New York State budget

5. What did the Pentagon propose to close in Connecticut?
Naval Submarine Base in Groton Ct.

6. Back in the 1950s this New Jersey military base made headlines when it turned upside down in the eye of the Joe McCarthy anti-communism storm. This month it was back on page one when it made Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's hit list?
Fort Monmouth

7. Who is artist Christo’s business partner? Can you provide a name for this person?
His wife, Jean-Claude

8. What museum returned to Manhattan this year? How much is the cost of regular admission now?
MOMA- $20

9. Who said that the police officers involved in the Diallo case did not commit a crime?
Fernando Ferrer

10.What family business does acting Governor Richard Codey credit with helping him learn about politics?
Funeral parlor

11. Who has been wooing voters by singing?
Gifford Miller and C. Virginia Fields

12. Who is the only City Council member from the Working Families Party?
Letitia James

13. Why are North Fork wine merchants happy…and some New Jersey wine drinkers not? (5/16/2005) The Supreme Court recently ruled that states do not have unlimited power to regulate the sale of alcoholic beverages, clearing the way for wine drinkers in many states to order bottles directly from wineries in California and other vineyard areas. The ruling, however, will not apply in New Jersey.
The high court ruled specifically that states cannot block shipments to consumers from out-of-state wineries as long as shipments from in-state wineries are allowed. Last year, New Jersey banned shipments from Garden State wineries, which means the state has the authority under the May 16th ruling to continue blocking out-of-state shipments as well.

14. How long has Robert Morgenthau been Manhattan District Attorney?
30 years, he became DA in 1975

15. Which ex-Mayor has been seen dining with the current Mayor?
David Dinkins

16.The documentary Streetfight follows which Mayoral candidate’s loss?
Newark’s Corey Booker

17. There are seven candidates running in the New Jersey gubernatorial primary on June 7th.

• What office are they seeking? [governor]
• Are they Democrats or Republicans? [see below]
• Name 3 [see below]
• Who will their opponent be in November? [Sen. John Corzine D-NJ]

Todd Caliguire, (R)
Steve Lonegan, (R)
Doug Forrester, (R)
Robert Schroeder, (R)
Paul DiGaetano, (R)
Bret Schundler, (R)
John Murphy, (R)

18.What state was the first in the country to voluntarily pass legislation allowing same-sex couples to enter into civil unions? [CT]

19. What group doesn’t believe in letting a couple of home-stuffed hand grenades get in the way of a good party? [The British Consulate]

20.In New Jersey over what river does the rail road bridge that caught fire last week span?
The Hackensack River


21.What corporation is pulling out of ground zero? [Goldman-Sachs]

22.How many weeks did it take to settle a strike that affected 50,000 commuters a day in Westchester County? [almost 7]

23.Who has been saying the following?

Clip of Bloomberg’s Spanish language ad


24.Was the murder of a Coptic Christian family in Jersey City earlier this year religiously motivated? (January 2005)

Initial reports cited an angry email exchange between the Coptic father and a Muslim. But police have charged two former convicts, saying it was a robbery attempt gone awry. (NYT 4/21/2005)

25.What famous Montclair, New Jersey resident celebrated his 80th birthday on May 12th?
Yogi Berra
26. What was unique about New Jersey resident Bruce Springsteen’s recent CD (which is, by the way, a $75 pledge premium)?
It was released in DualDisc format.
27. Where does the latest Survivor winner live regularly? What is his day job?
Tom Westerman is a Brooklyn Firefighter in Williamsburg
28.A movie was shot at this New York City landmark, it was the first movie to be filmed there. What is the name of the movie, and what is the location?
The Interpreter and UN

29.What was America's first planned industrial city that went by the nickname "silk city"?
Paterson

30.Which states' colonial era goverment was presided over by Benjamin Franklin's out of wedlock son?
New Jersey and it was Governor William Franklin who was New Jersey's last royal governor.

31.What New Jersey Governor failed to bring the world together but still rose to be President of the Uninted States?
Woodrow Wilson

32.It is located near a swampy location , often said to be the final resting place of Jimmy Hoffa. Can you name the project that former Governor Jim McGreevey was recently working on that caused environmentalists to cry foul and got the ex-Governor dumped from his new job?
(Hint--It bares the same name as a movie musical starring Olivia Newton John.)
Xanadu
33.On the themes of lost movie history......Fill in the blank...Before there was a move making mecca in Hollywood there was one in (blank) New Jersey.
Fort Lee

34.In NJ, the state where public uproar over taxing toilet paper bounced an incumbent Governor comes another plan to tax something you really can't live without .. What is that something?
Water. With the state's open space trust fund running dry advocates for the Highlands, the state's major source for drinking water, say a tax on it should be applied to buy more open space to protect water sources.

35. Regional question. You'd think I would be hanging out exclusively in western red states but I have made a nice home for myself in blue state suburbia. Who am I?
The Coyote

36.Who was the man who discovered for Europe the state the "Sopranos" have helped keep infamous and whose poking around in uncharted waters brought himself to a violent end?
Giovanni da Verrazano who New Jersey Historian Mark Mappen writes in his indispensable Jerseyana was killed by Carib Indians evidently not thrilled with the prospect of being "discovered."

37.What regional entitity has been in the news alot lately over a stalled public project?. Back in the 1960's it had to abandon plans to use an atomic bomb to jump start another stalled project that ultimately never came to pass?
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Back in the 1960's, according to historian Taylor Branch in his seminal biography of Dr. King's early years "Pillar of Fire", the bi-state agency had to abandon plans to use an atomic bomb to clear land for an airport in New Jersey when an underground 5-kiliton atomic blast in Mississippi set off earth tremors as far away as Finland.

38.A British royal recently got in trouble for wearing it but back in the 1930's it was all the rage in Sussex County New Jersey? What is it?
Swastika. In the late 1930's before the US entered World War II Sussex County was the scene of American Bund meetings that reportedly drew thousands of German-Americans celebrating the Fatherland to a sprawling summer camp the Bund owned.

39.What famous Jersey family name was pivotal in the first Gulf War, central to the founding of the State Police and played a major role in shaping the post World War II US intervention in Iran?

Schwartzkopf.....As it turns out the father of General Norman Schwartzkopf was also named Norman. He founded the NJ State Police fashioned directly after the World War I Army Calvary Unit he commanded. He also started the Iranian National Police.
40.Which of the state's in our signal area, that being Pennsylvania, Connecticut, New York, and New Jersey was the most reluctant to heed Lincoln's call to fight the Civil War to save the Union and decadees latter would be branded the "traitor state" for entirely different reasons?
New Jersey--Actually a good chunk of the Garden State is below the Mason Dixon line and Confederate sysmpathies ran strong thoughout the state. Forty years later, in the early part of the 20th century, muckraking journalist Lincoln Steffens called New Jersey the "traitor state" because it did everything it could to entice corporations to charter themselves in the state by extending all sorts of legal protections to them.

Posted by leboheme at 03:39 PM

Spurred by the recent good fortune experienced by dozens of lucky Powerball winners, who picked their numbers from fortune cookies made at the same Queens factory, we asked listeners to share their personal superstitions with us. Here are a few of the emails we received:

My dad, an otherwise pretty buttoned-up, old-school Episcopalian in many ways, maintained that he was guided by the goddess "Parkoola" to achieve his incredible good luck finding parking places in New York. She only showed favor if he drove directly to the door of his destination, and then trusted that parking would appear nearby. A decades-long New Yorker and avid user of public transportation, he nonetheless kept a car for longer, paid for parking less and drove in the city more - with outstanding luck finding spots - than just about anyone I know.
-E

Nautical superstitions
Play Rock Scissors Paper online

Posted by leboheme at 02:07 PM

Today's call-in on the 13-year-old Florida girl who had to go to court to get an abortion -- despite the fact that Florida does not require parental consent -- generated much response. Here is a selection of the e-mails we received:

Even in the paternalistic shelter system and the paternalistic legal system, this young woman has asserted her sovereignty over her own body. At 13, I am certain I would have been able to make such a decision. All 13 year old young women should be allowed to make sexual and reproductive choices freely- and be able to say "yes" or "no," depending on their own choice.
--J.R.

When you're under 16, either your parents or the state (in legal decisions) is responsible for your life. One can easily think of examples, including inheritance, which is just fine with liberals to give the state money, or with the death penalty, where liberals argue the state shouldn't kill people who are guilty even of the most heinous crimes. But with abortions? No way. Get the state out. Liberals can have a very selective sense of principle.
--A.T.

13 is too young to carry a pregnancy to term! Pregnancy is very difficult on a woman's body, and for a CHILD to carry a pregnancy to term is a very serious matter. She's not finished growing yet, and a pregnancy may have long-term health effects.
--T.L.

Incredible. Forcing a 13-year-old to go to term to provide a baby for adoption. Doesn't that violate the 13th Amendment?
--C.F.

Posted by leboheme at 04:42 PM