we had some of the stuff that we salvaged when we left and that is what we had. >> clarence page talks about the collection of the tribune columns on race, politics and social change that he's written over the past 30 years. this was hosted by the center of the old naval hospital in washington, d.c.. it is one hour and 15 minutes. >> what a pleasure to welcome clarence back to the center who was also a guest on the hill. and his new book called sure were a year because -- culture warrior. as you all know in the 1989 he

was a pulitzer prize winner and he has been a columnist reporter for "the chicago tribune" since 1984 and just about any honor that can be imagined in the national deciding newspaper columnist and the chicago journalism she's going to talk about his book and then open up questions and because it is being taped please come to the microphone to ask your question and following that the books will be available. so welcome and i will turn it over. [applause]

>> thank you for that introduction and for coming out. luckily it worked out. many people asked me how did you get started in this business of journalism. the answer is rather simple. i was 16-years-old and i didn't have much of a social life in high school. and so, i thought that writing for this newspaper would give me an excuse to put together two things i really enjoy doing which is writing and talking. and also i found that it opened up a lot of new worlds to me by getting to know people. my friend knows i i drove to the name of that local celebrity there but he was asked by some

students would want us to become a journalist. my friend of the public radio was asked by some students how do you become a journalist and i said well the best answer i have for you is two things. one is to write and one is to have an undying curiosity about people. and i found that that really describes basically what it takes in this business. so if one becomes an opinionated or like myself which is my earliest dream coming from the period of the western civilization known as the typewriter era, i wanted to be one that could write my opinion as well as the report. so in that amount of time i

wasn't exposed to a lot of different worlds and it is something that i would never trade for anything else but the answer how i got started on anything else several years ago. several things happened. one was a march on washington to have a drain on the washington mall during the summer of 63 a few months after watching the police dogs and fire hoses and simply trying to get the right to vote. then a month or so later, for little girls were killed at a church bombing in birmingham. a ku klux klan body and and they were building killed in a building shocked birmingham. i have relatives that say white,

black, everybody come it was overnight. you don't bomb a church. there is a certain limited that it would go. the world changed. then in november john f. kennedy was assassinated. it happened in the same poll that the tv network news for the first time expanded in the evening from 15 minutes to a whole half an hour. it's mind-boggling. a whole half an hour of news. can you imagine that but before that it was 15 minutes followed by a tv program called sports. and in both cases the news anchor would have a little sign in front of him with some other brands like that but that's

n-november that was november that was the first to spring first of all the first fall where the networks were prepared to have a half-hour of news every night which they had more electronic bureaus around the world and capability going to 24 hours so he not only saw the wake of john f. kennedy's assassination but also that sunday on tv, lee harvey oswald's assassination in the headquarters and then about two months later something really earth shattering for those of us that that middletown high school. you may not all know that place but it's known by the district in the house and we are both boomers in the miami valley. in that case it is an earthshaking event that happened

they appeared on the ed sullivan show. this was when we only had three tv networks which is why my generation is so good at trivial pursuit. we can always sing the first verse. next or neighbors fred and at full we had a common culture that is very strong in those days. so all of the information was directed through a few media and those of us that went to work in the media had to learn how to be general to be able to write and report in a way that could reach people from all different backgrounds and pull them together to a grand mainstream that we could sell advertisers. i think on the whole it is good.

it is providing the news consumers with more choices and also puts more on the consumers to make choices and it puts a challenge on those of us that work in the media to do more with less. you will know how dire that expression can be but it is something that we live with these days we are seeing the impact now with more freelance journalists being sent out in the war zones like the old-fashioned media used to do and it's something that drives those of us that work in the media rightward kind of change that would cover. but we've got this book from those that want to be journalists and i hear that us

old geezers talk about this and we took stories rejected on the desk. sure they didn't like it but we still used it. i am very excited about what is happening. i'm very excited by the way the business has changed since i came along. by the way she just passed in september and i called her up happily and wished her a happy birthday and she said don't forget to say and many more. we had a lovely chat and i will always remember. so if you don't like my work you can blame her. back when i got the pellets are a media nine or any 98 was a real heartwarming and events

that occurred because i was called by the hometown newspapers who were asking me various questions. i grabbed my high school yearbook to refresh my memory because like many people i tried to wipe high school out of my memory in the 30th anniversary class reunion all is forgiven because by then we had high school students of our own. and i found the student newspaper pane -- page and she had autographed my yearbook all those years ago. remember me when you are the first pulitzer. don't forget. it was stunning. i said it's clarence page. they said how are you like i had seen her last week.

i said remember when you signed my yearbook and she said i don't recall. she said i always knew you could do it. i said she says that to all the kids on the student paper that is true. maybe you might be worth listening to once in a while. i woke up early this year and i started writing my column 30 years ago and i said holy cow that's time went by fast. my second thought was i should get a book put together by columnists. and my third thought was if charles clark heinrich and if so can i.

so, i went into the arduous task of combing through the college and this is something every columnist i've talked to tells me the same thing they want to forget about it and worry about the next column. going back and looking at them again can be a sobering experience. there are columns that you think you never want to see and others can be fascinating because your voice is changing and you didn't know it. i wrote this years ago and there is a brilliant young voice that says i wonder who wrote this. it was you. and you think whatever happened to that kid and putting this book together i looked for things that would stand out so that i could see have i learned anything in that time and is there anything that is indicative of this era because

after all a i came along from ronald reagan to barack obama. and it is our job as columnists and as opinion writers and as my spiritual mentor back in chicago and every journalist of my era somebody asked him what do you do as a columnist and he says my job is to explain things. that is a pretty big job. i find more and more media we have the more people look to somebody else. i feel they said of the media

monopoly we edited about every five years and the size of the monopoly shoring -- was shrinking and that is basically true. i used to work in tv full-time but now the whole tv studio. but it comes to the studio mind about the potential as far as issues like privacy or press freedom not everybody is a potential or active journalist so there is a role for the columnist and commentator and even in the age of blogs

everybody thinks they can be an opinion writer. our son and his teenage years back in 2004 said i'm going to do a blog. and it was a good looking blog. you have to keep doing it. really? my generation was a split split here and everybody wanted to be an engineer and i -- my bridges would have fallen down and i feel like modeling in my life

that other people's lives as well and in every case i would say one thing that surprised me is the diversity anxiety. when i came into the business, we lived in a country where the social scene was pretty much black-and-white, no pun intended. that is just a fact. there was an era in which civil rights and others were interpreted pretty much as black-and-white. today we are in the multiracial and multicultural diversity and a new divide. of those that navigate comfortably and those who don't.

that's why i called my doc culture worrier. it is culture worrier that goes back to the diversity anxiety thing. last week i was in the group and i will talk about pat buchanan and he said how can we call it culture worrier and i said yeah that's what it's called. i'm worried about the culture. some of you may remember the convention of 1992 where pat buchanan gave his story. we are in a cultural and a religious war speech which provide the george h. w. bush supporters that could see the vote flying out the window as he

spoke but this was the era of the culture and i find some people are uncomfortable with diversity and there are others that are a markedly comfortable and i think this is the way the country is moving but they need some dialogue and this is why we have a level of diversity and i found one column after another dealing with this issue. the biggest divide there's this nation for a lack of better labels and coming from middletown ohio i know that home of the late congressman for anybody that remembers him they

were good republicans because i'm so old iron member when there were black republicans. the party of lincoln and eisenhower. they are trying to get into central high school and they are keeping them out. the next day we turn it on and they are gone. i want to give proper credit. they were escorting the students into the high school. and i turned to my parents and i said what happened. my dad said president eisenhower. now i thought president

eisenhower was the title of the job that i was really impressed. i said when he dies who will become the next president eisenhower? that's what he meant to a lot of families. then i was all for barry goldwater. he was for legalizing marijuana and prostitution. what more could a 16-year-old boy ask for. what is the party called? well that will change for a lot of people. i still find a lot to the that republicans have to offer that's very positive. it's part of my job again to look through the political landscape and make it make sense

to everybody also so that's why bill clinton and newt gingrich became more divided over the last 20 years. i have seen now they have computerized redistricting so now you by your political affiliation. you find with the inclinations and coworkers etc. and it becomes almost a computer game is to figuring out what the voting results are going were going to be. fortunately, the voters had a surprise for people once in a while and i love that. you have eric cantor and virginia who shaped the district

they are setting coffee in dc and this is something that happens for the democrats i need not point you and that's why i love it when the voters have supplied this. of the voters still have the last word so when i see a surprise like that yes we are not cuba. the folks in ferguson missouri but i digress and i do that a lot. when we started talking to people that are printed one always leads to another that

leads to a column eventually but in any case, i got an example of this new divide today as my readers often gives me a great example. i did a column about the recent polling data showed the amount of the racial divide in america hasn't been proven since barack obama's election have gotten worse and i had no illusions about the election. the fact that he got elected was evidence of racial progress in itself and once he got elected it was a whole new ballgame as we have seen. they said as usual you've written an article that is is leaving and inflammatory.

except for the few in the 1960s that are still outraged that they had to go to the colored washroom things have gotten much better for the overwhelming number race plays no part in their lives. it's not about race but money, education, influence. get a good education, assimilate and things move along. quit beating the old drum. nobody's listening. you think that the minorities care about this? best of luck. so it is a fan letter and i honestly believe that because i have seen letters to show some thought into this and a lot invested. and i understand where he's coming from. the only thing is 20 years ago on a book on race i was calling for a new dialogue and national conversation on race.

president clinton called for one, george w. bush called for one, eric holder called for one and said americans are cowards about race and when i say we i mean he was talking about black folks, to. he found out they are not cowards about writing e-mails to eric holder that i'd given up on the conversation because i found that the people that need to have a conversation the most don't show up because they already know everything. that's how this letter writer is coming nice guy but his mind is already made up apparently without talking to any actual black people. not a bad person. i'm sure he's a product of our age that patrick moynihan, a man that i tremendously admire and i

got a chance to chat with him a couple of times and even took a tour of the ronald reagan building on pennsylvania avenue with a smirk about how he always vowed to the wilson foundation center folks that he was going to find them a home on pennsylvania avenue and when the time came he had things lined up, the newt gingrich congress took over and he said how am i going to get a woodrow wilson headquarters past. he said i got it we won't name it after ronald reagan's death is a little footnote for you. in any case, you are entitled to your own opinion and not your

own facts. it's been readers to the marketplace because now you can find your own facts and shop around for what kind of facts you're looking for and at the same time i ran i did at the old declaration that there isn't over simplification declared in 1945 so its either pictured it's either pictured by the conservatives that are happening or by the so-called liberals. the wife is neither of these. rather it is in between and the movies pictures. i think that that it does. the types they still lived here in the news coverage today and not just with african-americans. i think that despite the decline in the polls that show there is

a decline in the number of people that think that it's gotten better since obama became president as few as 8% say that it's gotten better and most state that either have stayed the same or have gotten worse. most whites, blacks and hispanics get along very well or about the same and also is true in our personal lives. you talk to anybody about how you get along in your personal life and they will tell you the heartwarming stories at present all these folks in the streets etc. but this goes back to the bit of wisdom that i was told in the early years of journalism.

when things are going the way they are supposed to. or the thousands of kids that are in gangs or strung out on drugs. it is disastrous. so keep this in mind the world that we bring to you and i think that those of us in the media need to keep that in mind as well. it's made up of three. bill cosby's cultural war. i first met bill cosby as a student journalist in the 60s and i interviewed a number of celebrities that came to the campus. they had good sound bites to give about the world or about civil rights or the black power movement or what was going on. bill cosby, what a disappointment he was. all he wanted to talk about was kids, stay in school.

just enjoy the resources you've got and learn from them. i thought he's no fun. he sounds like my grandparents. but then flash forward. i'm a parent i am a parent myself now and i'm able to teach in all of those years so i wasn't expecting this as we hear them say that they reject bill cosby no, they don't. he expresses a voice that all the fuss had heard in our families but it is not news when you have african-americans in the strong families working hard at staying in school etc.. there is work to be done and we have seen a lot of good work in

the involvement around the country that doesn't make news because who cares about the kids that are succeeding. so come and finally the surprising thing number four, this is the most recent. quiet but dramatic cultural with earth shakes all of a sudden and things change in ways that you never expected them to have been and as happen and many predicted an african-american president for example. legalize marijuana. all of these are going to come some day but not in our lifetimes. that is science fiction stuff that all of a sudden in the last decade all kind of stuff is happening. but they are so upset with this going on in the culture.

the conservative that understands the progress relentlessly and while progress has a way of notwithstanding. so this is the origin of the cultural diversity as i call it and numerous other things that have happened. as for the title of my book came about in the memorandum in 2003 he said the conservative truth is that it is culture, not politics to determine the success of a society. the liberal truth is that politics can change the culture in this i have certainly seen that happen in the civil rights movement when i was in high school the debate was going on

and conservatives were saying you can change the law but you that you can't change people's mind and he said later groundwork by changing the law. it didn't take very long before it was hard to find anybody that supported the jim crow law and i found this to be true socially when i was hired by "the chicago tribune" and that is part of what i called the last generation because i came out of college in 69 and it was a time in which we have had had something like 400 civil disturbances and organ riots across the country in 65 and 69. they had little or no journalists of color in fact we

were not people of color we were colored people trained to register to vote today and then we became black. a great transformation. imagine me with a lot more hair. i have a picture on my facebook page in fact for memories sake, and let's face it there where the bell bottom pants etc.. and there was a concern when concert when i was given an offer by the tribune and by the way it was 69 and that they had hired the first black reporter in the newsroom in 1967. we were founded in 1847.

in fact the first major project we had a washington bureau from 55 i hasten to tell everybody and he was a big founding member and promoter. and after doing a favor the paper that hired the first reporter 120 years. but clarence page shows up and several editors said we would like to hire the page follow but you might be a little militant for the tribune. that is a word that no black person spoke.

but anyway, i heard a story later that said i have an idea lets us a joke. a wonderful journalist was the first in the newsroom, former chicago cop in the biography he is a terrific story that they went over and said this speech below have you met him we were wondering if might be a little bit militant for the tribune. and with a sweeping gesture joe looked around the room and said maybe this room could use a few militants here and i was hired at the next day. so you see the transformation that you see today.

i know about culture. i know about assimilation. i know about individuality, i know about political correctness from my time in his business and the pundit business and over the last few years, i have seen our society more and more that can make sense of all of this going on because what supplies this information is another thing to give an interpretation to it and help people think about something they might not have thought about before. when one goes to a book reading they are supposed to read something. and i was thinking about

something that really grabbed me right now and going back to june of 91 i got the news that he had given his last news conference and it wasn't billed that way but we knew that it was going to be his last one because he was about to retire and at the same time we knew that waiting in the wings was an african judge named clarence thomas. that was the big story at the time. and i just got into town. one thing about a reporter if you are a columnist and make your own assignments you get to meet people and i always admired thurgood marshall on a number of levels. so anyway, i jumped on the cabin, went over there and i'm the youngest of journalist in

the world in the city. of the various internships and my buddy henry allen was a retired washington was reporter described. all of the assignment desks told them i don't know what he thinks about clarence thomas. so i'm in the crowd and the reporters are all finding a bazillion different ways to ask the same question. and the best answer came from david marshall's first time he was asked what he thought of clarence thomas being appointed to the supreme court and marshall would come into the room moving very slowly and short of breath and he would

tell me that it makes no sense. if that was his answer. so finally, i sent mr. justice how do you want to be remembered and he looked up at me across the crowd and said -- let me read this to you he said how do you want to be remembered i asked the justice thurgood marshall: my question over the heads of reporters at the farewell press conference. squinting in my direction he appeared to be irritated and he modeled that he did what he could with what he had and he

was making inappropriate epitaph. whether you loved or hated it. he gave all he had. those that argue that he should be replaced by another missed the important point that the value was not not his color but it wasn't his conscience. it is a national safety net and he was the last remaining anchor at the end of that sympathized to cover list of caused to be too unpopular for them to touch and oliver wendell holmes talked about the life of the law hasn't been logic. it's an experience. he understood the cases because he had been in one of them and often have defended them.

when they kept him out of the restaurants and hotels and the law school they graduated at the university and he university and he also had argued more cases before the court in the fellow justices had. he was the only sitting justice to defend the convict had been sentenced to death and knew the meaning of the justice to have begun as a defense lawyer one had been lynched before the train arrived when the suspect was to be tried. he was accused of liberal activism and if so he leaves behind a quick guilty of the conservative activism in the important decisions in the same week that marshall announced the court seemed discontent to let a day pass. they allow the warrantless searches of passengers into

censorship of adults and a mission of impact statements to fire up the emotions of the journeys of these countries considering the death penalty. ronald reagan promised to get the government off people's backs and they revolutionized the state powers to expand at the individual rate. they fixed the capitol view of the nature of the uniformed police asking to search without a warrant for why we have warren said the first place and the court that justifies or allows the impact statement in the commendable regard for the rights of the victims were the survivors that are willing to testify in the regard of those but for whatever reason do not testify and in the court that confuse the harmless sees little harm in the encouragement of the sloppy police work like dropping a suspect down a staircase accidentally.

most powerful tendency explicit dissent in the 623 impact decision on the day of the retirement announcement. power and not reason is the currency of the decision-making. today's decision charts and unmistakable course pesticide to divide those condemned to face the society's ultimate penalty and and tomorrow's victims may be minorities, women are indigent. inevitably the campaign to resurrect yesterdays spirited dissent would squander the authority and legitimacy of the court in the powerless. the decisions go through the justice long after the man is left. the lonely voice of the logic of the warm flesh and blood of the human experience.

it doesn't matter whether you are right or left when you are a pundit and we just want to know where you stand. this is what i have found the worst thing you can be is wishy-washy. so where do i stand on this. on the one hand it's hard for people to bounce off of their opinion. ..

>>

>> i admire his ability to make an argument. we're late is someone i don't agree with the interesting how he makes this argument. i know who i them competing with with the year after charles did i had my column. [laughter] >> i am looking at the show business side. >> get very good question. i was done when i decided i wanted to be a columnist it

took me 20 years to be an overnight success. and talking to some eyes glochids and to be a movie critic he said the best answer is mined in editor willing to give you a column. that is a late columnist are picked so to speak. some people want to have a call on a hunt present that. and i want to do this all the time. per le bon becker was on -- was a housewife. when she came as an intern at the newspaper. with some humorous i think

writing letters to the editor and the man who edited the paper and loved her comments and she was just hilarious and asked her to do so as a syndicated columnist one of the most successful colonists in america. of a blood to do that kind of: where did she find that hilarious material? but then i found out and then with those expectations with i win the pulitzer back in my day but i found a wealth of material and i also found that you get the

mailbags full. because you can be the smartest guy in the world but if you don't connect then forget about it. so that is how she got started i have different -- had a friend to became head of the editorial board and took me out to lunch and said writes a column. [laughter] we all get started one way or the other. and then to be an editorial writer i said let me have a column so it worked out and i did those so now do the column mostly and i do video blogging. you just don't write a

column now you have to tweak its and facebook then of video block good thing i have television behind me so you have all these things together. >> i really enjoyed your talk tonight and i really enjoy it when you're on the sunday morning talk shows especially because you are called and collected and particulates compared to the other talking heads when did you appear on these shows? and what your experiences are like. >> it is always great to hear what is john mclaughlin really like? and as i said to john

growing up exterior winning grow up interior but i owe them so much for those opportunities for large national audience and then in the fifth grade i got lamp around. does that give you bragging rights? but whenever started to do tv i was an essayist for the news hour with the plo are -- npr. but this was intellectual

television and of those respected writers booktv respecting writers has never happened and what mud wrestling is to the olympics with that exposure to a much broader audience. people say judge you keep your temper and demeanor? i just say i used to working in television and what i know about broadcasting is a bunch of people talking at once there is only one microphone but then people can hear anybody they talked at the same time. works the quiet moments.

so during the video essays who enjoys cbs sunday morning that little nature minutes at the end? that is the best man on television nobody talking just the camera looking at the birds and the streams and nature sounds. some people in television really appreciate sound. anyway i sound much too high and mighty but looking for those gaps and then jump been. just like timing is everything. >> imi numbers guy. -- i am the numbers guy. [laughter] but one of my questions is

if you look bad journalism and talk about perception and culture often that doesn't necessarily fit with how things are with economic indicators. for example, violent crime is dropping tremendously over 20 or 30 years but people scheduled to play with their kids in the front yard. so what about the responsibility to report things as they are with fax person is what happens with the opinions? >> that's right. that is one of my great pet peeve is in life because the page lot of politics 90 percent perception how to

come up with 90 percent? i don't know but crime rates in the plummeting if people don't feel safe it does not matter. on the other hand, if they do it doesn't matter what the crime rate is. there are a couple of columns of moms and dads that were prosecuted for letting kids play alone outside. there was a woman in florida but that tells you a lot about people when you tell them you let your kid to ride the metro by themselves at niners 10 years old suddenly they are in shock. those of the two kinds of people we have in society. there is a woman to ride --

a letter signed by the new york subway at the age of nine and got so tired of the shocked looks she started the organization free range children. [laughter] they were allowed to play just like the '50s was long as you were home before sundown that is all that mattered. if not my mother and dad would panic so i was an only child but just roaming around the neighborhood for what you are by yourself with those perceptions because we have the crime rate and they do have a column with the super

predator going back to the early '90s that is more violent than ever they came up with the term and he came up with the term and legislation was passed that is why we have this incarceration explosion that we talk about how he regretted coming up with that term. to contribute to a congressional panel and all these new laws that were passed but at the same time he was testifying the crime rates to go down. but that could if people in

impression needs more than all these numbers because there is a neo-conservative level -- liberal coalition with the incarceration explosion with these nonviolent offenders getting under present running up the state budget summit even texas has taken the lead to find alternatives to release non-violent offenders while rick perry looks the other way. texas democrat is more conservative than the illinois republican. that is a big diversity but the texas legislature has taken the lead and florida and georgia but the numbers

are finally catching up with reality. the perceptions are catching up to reality and the numbers. but the crack core of the 1980's that would lock them up. so something that really determines politics i was reading a fascinating essay last night that shows the great hbo series that predict that -- that predicted isis all about the drug war in baltimore and at one point there were torn down and this social good resulted in the drug traffickers to scatter with

a whole new round of wars as they began to carve out their turf that happened in chicago with the exposure we have the world's biggest public housing developments leading to a terrible problem now. in baltimore it is the parallels to how isis formed to with tribal and political groups. the way drug wars have broken out over here. and as a result of a certain reality of shifting the people and the statistics and with iraq which shifts the violence and we thought a good governance we have

this late and it will go away but that is the perception most iraqis whether they were being frozen out by the maliki government they had a tribal war going on that erupted with isis said is the displaced sunni. but it's whole lot of us fell asleep in math class. so i'd like you keep to precision in journalism. to back up the assumptions one has but at the same time elections tend to swing on impressions. they will make them feel safe and vice versa.

>> when they ask a question halfway through the answer i think there is a column in that. i start composing a column in my head at the same time. >> after the inauguration i was with the tour group and the metro cars were not filled up at that point. i was sitting next to a large african-american family with women and kids and we were chatting that the question was do we think that this participation people of color have been the election, to rethink this is centered around

obama? or is it the awakening of a sleeping giant? >> that is the great question by a columnist for the british guardian. talking about obama is current troubles and the democrats problem going into the midterm election has the republicans are fired up and democrats may be disarray is not the word but less than enthusiastic. but they have elections until spring in ferguson that is another story though. but gary told me is barack obama interested in the job?

for is he too detached? and then it wasn't so much that the the impression that he gives. with his own enthusiasm about the job. they don't call him the professor for nothing. to be cool and aloof during the election campaign noted, obama. now people say give me some trauma. but the more important point obama did not have a movement behind him. i absolutely agree i would say this back in 2008 obama

of the community organizer he is from chicago. that is what makes politics move. of course, we know is in 2009 we had the teapartier movement which is a tremendous example of grass-roots organizing efforts. that regardless lots of progresses and radicals to coalesce into a movement. but the question is said belonged to the organized party i am a democrat. there is something marvelous about liberals to debate and discuss. if the waiver you are a

rino. how dare you have moderate views? so to talk about lincoln today he would be a radical republican not as radical as frederick douglass. but he just wanted to solve the problem but frederick douglass he was the radical. in that this is something less love political history but today i was saying when a bomb the got elected this is a combination of the energies of many people to come together for a strong movement and the genius of a young man named david

axelrod. [laughter] i am so proud of him. and quite often since he went back to the hallowed halls of the university of chicago i often say why are you at the white house? obama needs you. [laughter] but there is not that progressive movement behind obama that say of senator cruse or re and all but it is not always clear date today if he has the movement toward water which movement he is with the you get the idea. i have talked to paul ryan

and he spoke to hispanic grass roots he is the closest to jack kemp. he is a guy who worked with the grass roots people to get out and before you start talking to listen to people and how could the party respond to that? i would like to see a return of healthy debate but we are away from that yet. i'll see the democrats pulling together but i used to hate machine politics i remember the first mayor daley it is not a machine it is an organization but i have seen disorganize politics. back in those days television replaced the machine. now tv is mayor daley's

favorite precinct now it is that computer or the internet. especially with the republican side. a member of the house he 1/2 to go to party leaders anymore if you have charisma and the political visor's you can go on to the web in your own advertisements to raise money. barack obama single-handedly did that because he could raise more money on the web than matching funds could provide from the government. this is the state of politics. as it breaks down with this actioner that faction running around it could lead to gridlock on capitol hill and chaos at election time. but looking back at the

two-party with today's version and does was famously said third parties are like honeybees they sting and then they die. usually takes one or two election cycles. but it is the second for the two-party. we will have to see how they do after 2016 but first we have to see 2014. i hope i answered your question with all of that. i go from 1.to another but it all comes together in the end. [laughter] they key very much once again. [applause] [inaudible conversations]

>> there are two reasons the bike is taboo one is that you straddle motorcycles and horses and bikes women ride sidesaddle but more importantly if you can get past that controversy is that the bike is independent travel so those are the most oppressive place is the last thing men will allow its independent mobility. the bike literally is the symbol of freedom and literally means freedom for women. you have written quite

extensively how afghanistan is not the first to address the women and biking issues. >> is fascinating to me. i tried to understand why. what is the taboo? how deep does that go? it could ripple out. then let's get this country to say our is insulted or slingshots why is it so controversial? when i look back at the women's suffrage movement in the u.s. they started to ride bikes at the turn of the century and to be buttoned up they were labeled promiscuous and immoral this is replicated in britain and france everywhere women have started to ride bikes we turn over the apple cart and

it shakes things up and it scares the men that women can go wherever they want however they want and so it is fascinating to me this parallel is there. so whenever women started to ride bikes has rocked the world.

>> now for the program, the history of computing is epic and the ongoing story how one of the greatest periods of creativity in human history has been unleashed and populated with some of the most fascinating people of our time and now one of the most distinguished biographers of our time has taken it on to produce an exceptional results.