MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:
It's time now for your letters. And first, one correction. In our chat previewing the Academy Awards, we referred to the best picture winner of 1952, "The Greatest Show on Earth." We described it as the Burt Lancaster circus movie. It starred several leading men of the day, Charlton Heston, Jimmy Stewart, Cornel Wilde. But Burt Lancaster was not one of them. Fun film fact though, Lancaster did play a trapeze artist in the 1956 circus movie, "Trapeze."
AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:
Now to your letters. And we heard from many of you in response to my interview with former senator and Tea Party conservative, Jim DeMint. In short, you weren't happy. Larry Miller of Fresno, California, writes: Mr. DeMint represents an extreme right-wing faction of the Republican Party that has done more than anything to polarize the Congress into ineptitude. Mr. DeMint's agenda will not save the country, as he would believe. Miller goes on: His fellow Tea Partiers have driven the government into shutdown and nearly allowed us to default on our national debt obligations. How is this saving the country? Come on, Audie. Take the gloves off. The hypocrisy of Mr. DeMint's ideology is blatant. You missed an opportunity to call him out. And I should note, that letter ends with a sad face emoticon.
BLOCK: And Ken Portnoy(ph) of Boston writes this: Please spare me Jim DeMint's disingenuousness, will you? He really wants us to believe that people should be free to live their own lives free of government interference? I'll believe him the day he supports gay marriage and abortion rights.
CORNISH: Finally, we heard from a few of you in response to our story yesterday about an effort in Grand Rapids, Michigan, to repeal a law that makes it illegal to be annoying. Out of that story, our director played, "Songbird" by Kenny G.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SONGBIRD")
CORNISH: Listener Carl Miller here in Washington, D.C., was snacking in his kitchen when he heard the song. He writes: I was like, oh, Kenny G and started grooving along to it. Then, all of a sudden, it hit me. Your subliminal message was, Kenny G's music is so annoying that he should be in prison in Grand Rapids. And I just about lost it. I started laughing so hard, I bumped my head into my kitchen cabinet and nearly choked on my cheese.
We would like to go on the record, Mr. Miller, and say that ALL THINGS CONSIDERED does not believe Kenny G should be in a Grand Rapids' prison.
BLOCK: Not even for a minute. Thanks to all who wrote in and, please, keep your letters coming. Just go to our website, npr.org, and click on contact at the bottom of the page.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SONGBIRD")
CORNISH: This is NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
