Tonight on Extension 720: Election season is over, but now it’s time to hear from all of this season’s winners and losers and their friends. Extension 720 tonight welcomes George W. Bush, John Kerry, Bill Clinton, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Mayor Daley and countless other guests as expert mimic BILL MELLBERG, accompanied by pianist KENT WEHMAN, comes by the studios for another one of his hilarious visits.

More information on this and other programs is available at our monthly program guide. You can listen to the show from 9 to 11 p.m. central time here.

Milt's File will resume on Monday.

Tonight on Extension 720: In the wake of President Bush's reelection, it is now time to recontemplate our diplomatic relations with Europe and the future of western civilization generally. Tonight, TIMOTHY GARTON ASH--director of the European Studies Centre at St. Antony's College, Oxford and a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution--joins the program to discuss his new book Free World: America, Europe, and the Surprising Future of the West.
More information on this and other programs is available at our monthly program guide. You can listen to the show from 9 to 11 p.m. central time here.

WE SHALL NOT LOOK UPON HIS LIKE AGAIN...or "so one hopes" is the sub-text of this summary of the career of Yasir Arafat provided by Judith Miller of the New York Times.

A "LIBERAL ARAB" NEWSPAPER CHECKS IN: That's The Daily Star of Lebanon which is observed here more-or-less clearing its throat and wishing for a post-Arafat reconciliation process. Interestingly, they do call upon Hezbollah (based in Lebanon) to get with the program.

HOW TO GO FROM ARAFAT'S DEATH TOWARD MIDDLE-EAST PEACE...in the view of Clinton's envoy to the region, Dennis Ross, whose op-ed was published this morning in USA Today.

THE TOP GUY AT THE NEW REPUBLIC PONDERS THE (DESERVED, HE THINKS) DEFEAT OF JOHN KERRY. This op-ed from today's Wall Street Journal does set one wondering whether Marty Peretz is about to fire the editorial staff of the country's "leading liberal weekly?"

THE COMING POLAR CATASTROPHE: We discussed various possible catastrophes last night with the author of a book of the same name. Here is a troubling bulletin, from the U.K. Independent, about the melting of the polar icecap and the subsequently impending depopulation of the region.

THE STAGNATION OF SOUTH AFRICAN JOURNALISM: You didn't know that SA journalists were as corrupt as that nation's businessmen, politicians and former "freedom fighters?" Here's a veteran newspaper man from the other "down under" to fill you in with a bitter screed from the opinion page of the Star of South Africa.

WHAT PRICE FOR DUTCH MULTI-CULTURALISM? The question is now being asked by Hollanders after the assassination of Theo Van Gogh--and in some part answered by anti-Muslim violence. This account from the U.K. Telegraph is as probing as any we have seen.

THE INTELLECTUAL SIDE OF AMERICAN EVANGELICALISM...is examined here by Mark Noll, a historian of religion who has, on occasion, appeared on our radio program. This valuable article is from the current issue of First Things.

ACTUALLY READING NOAM CHOMSKY...is the dreary, but neccessary, task that Benjamin Kerstein has set for himself. Here, from Front Page Magazine, is his latest textual analysis of the "thought" of the Pied Piper of the American (and international) far left.

HOW FAULKNER TURNED "BLOOD SAVAGERY" INTO "THE PERMANENCE OF ART"...is what Jay Parini has explained in his new biography of the Master of Oxford, Mississippi. This brief, but illuminating, review is from the Christian Science Monitor.

SHERLOCK HOLMES RETURNS YET AGAIN...but this time squired by Michael Chabon who rouses considerable enthusiam from this reviewer in January Magazine.

HOW TO SELL A STOLEN DAVINCI...or, at least, a stolen Munch is the gravamen of this rather surprising piece from ABC News. It does, indeed, appear that the stolen art market promises large rewards for aspiring sociopathic adventurers.

A FINE EARLY WORK BY BEETHOVEN...is this quintet for wind instruments and piano. The tasteful performance by the Nash Ensemble is highlighted by some wonderful bassoon playing by Brian Wightman.

Tonight on Extension 720: Can you really predict catastrophes? What are the odds of a tornado? Is there are chance that an asteroid could hit the earth? Is it probable that we will have another nuclear disaster? RICHARD POSNER, judge of the Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, says that you can predict catastrophes and thus formulate a proper response. He expounds his theory in his new book Catastrophe: Risk and Response, and he joins the program tonight to discuss the possibility of the unthinkable and the best way to respond.

More information on this and other programs is available at our monthly program guide. You can listen to the show from 9 to 11 p.m. central time here.

Milt's File will return tomorrow.

Tonight on Extension 720: From problems with drugs and alcohol to struggles with depression and suicide, today's teens face myriad pressures and pitfalls that can only be avoided through parental guidance. Tonight, we discuss these issues with two experts on adolescents: HENRY ABRAHAM and MARK REINECKE. Dr. Reinecke is professor and chief of the division of clinical psychology at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine. Dr. Abraham is a co-recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize and a specialist in drug abuse. His latest book is What's a Parent to Do?: Straight Talk About Drugs and Alcohol.

More information on this and other programs is available at our monthly program guide. You can listen to the show from 9 to 11 p.m. central time here.

Milt's File is taking the day off, but will return tomorrow.

Tonight on Extension 720: Twenty-five years and one week ago, Iranian militants stormed the U.S. embassy in Tehran and took sixty-six Americans captive. The ensuing hostage crisis, which finally ended on January 20, 1981, has set the tone for the tense relations between the United States and Iran from the fall of the shah until today. Tonight on Extension 720, we will closely examine Iran, including its nuclear capabilities, with KEN POLLACK, director of research at the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution. He is a former director of Gulf affairs at the national Security Council and former CIA analyst. His latest book is The Persian Puzzle: The Conflict Between Iran and America.

More information on this and other programs is available at our monthly program guide. You can listen to the show from 9 to 11 p.m. central time here.

IRAN MAY (OR MAY NOT) SUSPEND ITS URANIUM ENRICHMENT PROGRAM...according to Solana and El Barradei! We will be talking about Iran on Extension 720 tonight.

KAGAN HAS NO REGRETS OVER IRAQ...but thinks Rumsfeld messed it up, according to this interview-based story in yesterday's issue of The Australian. The Kagan in question is Robert, one of the most respected of the "neo-cons" who argued for pre-emptive war against the Saddam Hussein regime.

WITH SUCH HELP FROM OUR SAUDI FRIENDS...who needs enemies? The Guardian reports on the clerics who advise good Muslims to kill Americans--but only in Iraq, for now!

CHINA IS EMMINENTLY VIABLE...according to The Guardian's leading foreign correspondent who, in this article, visits with a bright young graduate student, the mayor of Shanghai, a restaurant manager and a matrimonial agent.

THE FINAL WORD ON POLL PERFORMANCE...comes, of course, from the team of Bevan and McIntyre at Real Clear Politics, both of whom graced our program on various nights before and after the election.

THE ROVE APPROACH: This is as good a story as we have seen clarifying just what the overall strategy was as the Bush campaign soldiered on. The source is the Boston Globe.

BROKAW'S LAST BIG NIGHT...was, of course, last Tuesday and it is bouncily chronicled in this piece from the New York Observer which manages, as well, to shed some light upon how the networks work now.

WHERE THE REPUBLICANS LOST...and why it matters are the themes of this sharply analytic op-ed by John Fund in today's Wall Street Journal.

CAN THE DEMOCRATS DO ANYTHING ABOUT "VALUES?" John Leo thinks they had better try to comprehend just how and why they have alienated millions of Americans--and then begin to act accordingly.

ROBERT E. LEE WAS OVERRATED; U.S. GRANT WAS UNDERRATED. WHO SAYS SO? MICHAEL KORDA...and he's only one of a number of iconoclasts who opine away in this delightfuly provocative feature at American Heritage magazine.

A GREAT ACADEMIC IS MEMORIALIZED...in this mini-essay from The New Pantagruel. We met Neil Postman only once when he appeared on our radio program but used a number of his works in undergraduate courses taught at the University of Chicago. His Amusing Ourselves to Death remains one of the best commentaries on what TV has done to us.

THE INIMITABLE WODEHOUSE...has been biographised by Robert McCrum and that book has just been reviewed by Chris Hitchens in The Atlantic. Here it is. Enjoy!

WHAT WE HAD HERE WAS A FAILURE TO COMMUNICATE! The main parties being Joan of Arc and her various interrogators. So says the author of a scholarly work reviewed here with a certain panache--but in a properly obscure academic journal.

THE ELEGANT SALON JAZZ OF GEORGE SHEARING...is available in this fine collection. Apart from his Lullaby of Birdland be sure to listen to East of the Sun, Early Autumn and the special half hour radio program titled "George Shearing at the Blue Note."