Jack Abramoff, High-School Bully

Listening to the the introduction to today's superb This American Life, I was mildly stunned to hear Jonathan Gold, food critic for the LA Weekly, describe how (among other petty cruelties) high-school jock and bully Jack Abramoff delighted in pushing Gold and his cello down a flight of stairs back when they both attended the same high school.

I guess we have here another example of how bullies tend to grow up and become felons.

(Of course, Abramoff's attorney denies that such a thing ever happened.)

This American Life is appointment radio for me (Ira Glass and company have done some superb programs on Iraq and Afghanistan, for example), and I recommend it highly to all Kossacks.

Check out PublicRadioFan.com's listings for the next opportunity you may have over the weekend or the coming week to hear the program on-line or on-air (though some stations delay the program by a week, so you might get a different episode at some of those listings); or you can wait, and some time late next week this episode of the show will be available for replay at This American Life's archive.

•  I really like

  most of Ira Glass' "This American Life".  Some of his pieces go a bit long, but in general he finds some really worthwhile subjects and presents them honestly.

  by wozzle on Sat Jun 24, 2006 at 01:44:46 PM PDT

•  It's the length that encourages me

  In a short-attention-span world, TAL dares to do long-form radio, and does it well... and every once in a while, a casually-presented twist comes up like this Jack Abramoff story, and when that happens, it just makes my day.

  by tbetz on Sat Jun 24, 2006 at 02:03:39 PM PDT