captioning sponsored by cbs and johnson & johnson, where quality products for the american family have been a tradition for generations. >> osgood: good morning. i'm charles osgood and this is sunday morning. even as americans in uniform continue to fight in iraq and 56 afghanistan, a more subdued military battle is being fought out right here at home over the policy known as don't ask don't tell which bars known homosexuals from serving in the military. the pentagon eased enforcement of that rule a bit this week but full repeal is still a question only congress can decide. kimberly dozier will report our sunday morning cover story. >> i will work with congress and our military to finally repeal the law.... >> reporter: lately it seems like war has been declared on don't ask don't tell. the u.s. policy on gaimans in the military. >> allowing gaimans and lesbians to serve openly. >> today i have approved a series of changes. >> we need every able body qualified to serve right now. >> reporter: so is the policy going to be shot down? not so fast. >> the military hasn't changed that much. >> reporter: don't ask, don't tell. the question of when. later on sunday morning. >> osgood: the spokeswoman we'll be taking you to meet this morning are fervent add vongts for their cause, all right, but you won't find them behind a podium. rita braver will show you where. >> reporter: more women are riding motorcycles than ever before. joining a generation that's been at it for years. you're still riding at 84-and-a-half. why? >> i don't know why. i love to ride. >> reporter: later on sunday morning, they say any woman can ride a motorcycle. >> osgood: what a joy to find a tv talker who is provocative and owe pin yated while keeping her sense of humor. that's exactly the sort of talker our russ mitchell has found to talk with this morning. >> reporter: wherever she is.... >> what happened there. >> reporter: whether it's on television. >> there's a difference between free speech and hate speech. i got a call happy hanukkah. i said, ma, i'm not jewish. >> reporter: or on the streets of her hometown of brooklyn, joy behar is talking and talking. >> this is where i grew up and where all the politically incorrect things that come out of my mouth started. >> reporter: coming up, the view from joy behar's stoop and beyond. that's later on sunday morning. >> osgood: just the ticket is a musical two-step back to a simpler time with our own bill geist to lead the way. >> reporter: what just changed in the world since 1931? here at the lake robbins ball room in woodward, iowa. where everything has stayed pretty much the same. i'm not stepping your feet, am i? >> no. >> reporter: we'll go dancing with kip shannon who has been selling ball room tickets for 78 years. later on sunday morning. >> osgood: mo rocca learns to knit his own sweaters. david tour cam a watches a master baker at work. david edelstein reviews the new movie about the first successful all girl rock band and more. but first the headlines for this sunday morning the 28th of march, 2010. holy week got underway today. even as the vatican spokesman acknowledged the scandal, he said it's put the church's moral credibility at stake. during palm sunday mass pope benedict offered a prayer for, quote, the young and those chargeded with educating and protecting them. former first lady bash are bush was taken to a houston hospital yesterday. to undergo a battery of routine tests. the family says the 84-year-old mrs. bush has not been feeling well for about a week. sarah palin kicked off a countrywide tea-party tour with a rally in nevada yesterday. she told a crowd of conservative activists that democrats are gambling away the future. it was the night the lights went out around the world. hundreds of cities went dark yesterday evening as part of earth hour. a protest against global warming. got your brackets ready? in the ncaa basketball tournament last night, the hot hand of joe helped west virginia to defeat top seeded kentucky. 73-66. the winner advances west virginia to the final four where they will be joined by the butler bulldogs who upset kansas city. butler returns home to indianapolis to play in its first final four game ever. we learn who the other two will be as march madness continues later today here on cbs. in washington, a more tranquil spring ritual is underway. the cherry blossom festival. the pink blossom trees are expected to be in full bloom by thursday. now for today's weather. sunny and warm in the plains in the southwest but it will be a rather wet sunday east of the mississippi and on the pacific northwest. the last days of march will bring more rain to the northeast. but it should be mostly dry elsewhere. ahead, start your engines. >> right in there. >> osgood: and mo rocca. >> get the string. >> osgood: trying his h h,,,,,,, >> osgood: don't ask whether congress will repeal the don't ask don't tell ban on gaimans in the military. it's still far too soon to know. what we do know is that attitudes are changing on that question, including among some of those at the highest levels pentagon. our cover story is reported now by kimberly dozier. >> today i have approved a series of changes to the implementation of the current statute. >> reporter: his words were measured. but they'll have a big impact on thursday defense secretary robert gates made the biggest change since 1993 in the nation's policy on allowing gaimans in the military. he introduced new regulations which will slow or could virtually stop the expulsion of gaiman service members. >> i believe these changes represent an important improvement in the way the current law is put into practice. above all by providing a greater measure of common sense and common decency.... >> i will work with congress and our military to finally repeal the law that denies gaiman americans the right to serve. >> reporter: it's another step on the path taken by president obama since assuming office. >> i will end don't ask don't tell. that's my commitment to you. >> reporter: don't ask. don't tell. the policy that has led to the discharge of more than 13,000 gaiman service members. service members like lacy presley and holy thompson. >> we both have tattoos. >> we have each others' names. >> reporter: when we talked with them they were setting up house in a small town in south texas. >> the baby will probably end up sleeping with us instead of in here. >> reporter: full disclosure. i have a personal interest in sergeant presley's story. i first met her in a manner of speaking in 2006. she helped keep me alive when our cbs news team was hit by a car bomb in baghdad. >> you kept asking when are we getting out of here? when are we getting out of here? >> reporter: she was a medic. >> hold on. we're getting you out. >> reporter: she was honored for her work saving lives that day, mine included. >> a bronze star for my actions in that incident. this is what they gave me for being gaiman. >> reporter: this was an honorable discharge. given during her second tour in iraq after she reported a superior commander for suspected drug dealing. and someone struck back. >> i was called into his office. he told me that there was allegations that i was participating in homosexual conduct and that there were pictures that had been sent to my battalion commander. >> reporter: the pictures were of presley and thompson. sergeant thompson was serving in another unit state sides handling bomb-sniffing dogs. a decorated soldier in her own right. >> you were nco of the year, you were the non-commissioned officer of the year. she was also discharged. >> i was planning on having a career in the military. i like it. i love the army. >> it is my personal belief that allowing gaimans and lesbians to serve openly would be the right thing to do. >> reporter: the cause of gaiman service members has been picking up quite a bit of support lately. the chairman of the joint chiefs, admiral mike mullen, made his personal views clear just a few weeks ago. >> no matter how i look at this issue, i cannot escape being troubled by the fact that we have in place a policy which forces young men and women to lie about who they are in order to defend their fellow citizens. >> my colleagues and i stand here tonight to champion the repeal of the don't ask don't tell policy. >> reporter: and there's they're gathering mow momentum in congress where the drive to appeal don't ask don't tell has a number of new champions some of whom might surprise you. >> we had a saying when i was a young kid: lead, follow, or get out of the way. >> reporter: representative patrick murphy is the first iraq war veteran elected to congress. >> it has cost the american tax payer 1.3 billion dollars to throw these young american heroes out of our military. just because of their sexual orientation. >> a lot of people ask me, you know, why is an irish catholic taking a lead on this? who happens to be a blue dog democrat. a fiscal conservative. i tell them, one for national security. the fact that we need every able body qualified american to serve right now because our troops are fighting in iraq and afghanistan. >> reporter: that's an argument that president obama has found cuts both ways. >> the president has to walk a very careful line on don't ask don't tell. >> reporter: john dickerson is a cbs news political analyst with a military under stress, dickerson says many in congress will be loath to change the controversial policy. >> he's asking a lot of the military on two war fronts. he's also trying to move the military along here but he's also trying to provide cover for members of congress who won't do anything brave on this question until they feel like they can point to the military and say, the military is going along with repealing don't ask don't tell. >> got to go. now. >> reporter: history teaches that if an issue studded with land mines. in 1993 gaimans were prohibited from serving in the armed forces. president clinton vowed to let them serve openly. >> the issue is whether men and women who can and have served with real distinction should be excluded from military service solely on the basis of their status. >> he somewhat glibly i think promised he would lift the ban. at one point he said he would do it with the stroke of a pen echoing president truman's 1948 decision to integrate the military racially by executive order. >> reporter: know thane yell frank opposes don't ask don't tell. he's a scholar at the university of santa barbara's palm center. >> when clinton took office, he found that he had underestimated the resistance of some in the military and of social conservatives in particular. >> reporter: so a military working group looked for another path. >> the political back room deal. nobody was happy. >> reporter: bob maginnis helped craft this deal which he supported that came to be known as don't ask don't tell. >> the military pre-tends that homosexuals aren't serving and the homosexual has to pretend they're not homosexual. >> reporter: in their debate they heard warnings about the spread of aids. keep in mind this was 1993. and aids was devastating the gaiman community. and they considered the often mentioned fear in conservative military circles that gaimans would make unwelcome advances toward their heterosexual peers. >> because the same-sex attractiveness is hard to control perhaps or predict, that the easy thing to do is to discriminate against a group of people who bring a behavior characteristic that we think is going to undermine the cohesion, the trust and confidence of building those fighting forces. >> a statement why the commander does not consider.... >> reporter: that's essentially the reason given in the discharge papers for lacy presley and holy thompson. >> if the soldier were to remain in the service her conduct would only continue causing her to be a disruptive influence in this unit and the united states army. >> reporter: being gaiman would be disruptive. >> it would, yes. >> reporter: how does that make you feel? >> i think it's ridiculous. >> reporter: we asked two members of presley's former platoon, sergeant rebecca meyers and michael what they thought. what was she like to work with? >> totally professional. i've known quite a few medics since i've been in. she's one of the most knowledgeable ones i've ever known. she knew her job in and out. >> i would serve with her any day. she's one of the best medics that i've ever seen in my 18 years of service. >> reporter: while the u.s. military grapples with the issue in at least 25 countries gaiman are now serving openly including u.s. allies like britain, canada and israel's defense force, the i.d.f. >> americans' policy is don't ask don't tell. i think we can describe the idea's policy as you can tell but we really don't care. >> reporter: this major has served in the israeli army since he was 18. he spoke to us from a base in hebron on the west bank. >> my partner comes to visit me in my unit twice a week. and my soldiers really him and respect him. >> reporter: and in this country public opinion has changed markedly over the past two decades. a cbs news poll shows that 59% now support allowing homosexuals to serve in the military. that's up from 42% in 1993, the year don't ask don't tell was created. on the other side, more than 1,000 retired officers signed a statement saying don't touch don't ask don't tell. >> general casey. >> reporter: and a number of top active military officials, including army chief of staff general george casey have lined up in the cautious camp. >> congressman i've got serious concerns about the impact of the repeal of the law on a force that's fully involved in two wars and been at war for eight-and-a-half years. we just don't know the impacts on readiness and military effectiveness. >> hey, hey, ho, ho. don't ask don't tell. has got to go. >> reporter: the pentagon plans to report by the end of the year on how to undo the policy. >> military is a very different culture. >> reporter: bob mag inus now a pentagon consultant still opposes changing don't ask don't tell. you think it's still applies, even despite all the cultural changes, despite the societal changes, despite the public polls that say the public is asking why this is still on the books. >> the military hasn't changed that much. the country has. the culture of the united states has changed. i don't think anybody denies that. but the cold realities of what the military is trying to accomplish hasn't changed. >> reporter: under the pentagon's new rules, lacy presley and holy thompson most likely would not have been dismissed from the military. it's small solace. they no longer have army careers but they do have a family. last summer lacy gave birth to a baby girl. eva marie. she's taking care of her while thompson has returned to iraq. she's doing the same job as before, but this time as a civilian contractor. wsssñ?swñ >> osgood: ahead, when barnum met bailey. if you've taken your sleep aid and you're still fighting to sleep in the middle of the night, why would you go one more round using it ? you don't need a rematch-- but a re-think-- with lunesta. lunesta is different. it keys into receptors that support sleep, setting your sleep process in motion. lunesta helps you get the restful sleep you need. when taking lunesta, don't drive or operate machinery until you feel fully awake. walking, eating, driving or engaging in other activities while asleep without remembering it the next day have been reported. abnormal behaviors may include aggressiveness, agitation, hallucinations or confusion. in depressed patients, worsening of depression, including risk of suicide, may occur. alcohol may increase these risks. allergic reactions such as tongue or throat swelling occur rarely and may be fatal. side effects may include unpleasant taste, headache, dizziness and morning drowsiness. stop fighting with your sleep. get a free 7-night trial on-line and ask your doctor about switching to lunesta. discover a restful lunesta night. >> now a page from our sunday morning, almanac. march 28, 1881, 129 years ago today. the day the big top got even bigger. for that was the day the great american showman p.t.barnum merged his traveling circus with a competing circus owned by bailey. it was a huge success particularly after jumbo the elephant became a headliner the following year. barnum died in 1891 followed by bailey in 1906. and in 1907 the circus was bought by the wrinkling brothers creating the show we all know today. ♪ there had been changes over the years. the circus performed for the last time under a real canvas big top in 1956. since then it's been indoor arenas only. but other traditions remain. the ringling brothers show still travels from town to town on its own private service train nearly a mile long. still features the time-honored menu: animal acts, trapeze artists, feats of strength, and, of course, the clowns. this year marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of founder p.t.barnum who, if he could, would no longer be outside the entrance trying to woo in the customers by promising them the greatest show on earth. >> that's not your business. that's my business. >> osgood: still to come, the views of joy behar. >> 99 out of the 100 things i talk about on this show are none of my business. - 12 percent grass. - i like nail polish. - easy on the grass please. - chocolate. and 10 percent what i like to call the "wow factor." walgreens makes putting together the perfect basket easy. with reese's peanut butter eggs, oreo cookies, starburst jelly beans, and more. then personalize it with something special. an egg-to-bunny ratio of four to one is crucial. walgreens. there's a way to make every bunny happy. so i couldn't always do what i wanted to do. but five minutes ago, i took symbicort, and symbicort is already helping significantly improve my lung function. so, today, i've noticed a significant difference in my breathing. and i'm doing more of what i want to do. so we're clear -- it doesn't replace a rescue inhaler for sudden symptoms. my doctor said symbicort is for copd, including chronic bronchitis and emphysema. it should not be taken more than twice a day. symbicort may increase your risk of lung infections, osteoporosis, and some eye problems. tell your doctor if you have a heart condition or high blood pressure before taking it. my copd often meant i had to wait to do what i wanted to do. now i take symbicort, and it's significantly improves my lung function, starting within five minutes. symbicort has made a significant difference in my breathing. now more of my want-tos are can-dos. as your doctor about symbicort today. i got my first prescription free. call or go online to learn more. [ male announcer ] if you cannot afford your medication, astrazeneca may be able to help. i switched to a complete multivitamin with more. only one a day women's 50+ advantage... has gingko for memory and concentration. plus support for bone and breast health. just what i need! one a day women's. >> you need some sort of inborn talent to transform a yarn like this into a sweater. can anybody learn to do it? our mo rocca has the answer to that one. >> reporter: it all started last winter when i was appearing on national public radio's quiz show "wait, wait, don't tell me" and the subject, of course, was hand made sweaters for featherless chickens. i hate homemade sweaters. homemade sweaters are always itchy. little did i know how my casual comments would needle the knitting community. the on-line mecca for kniters was in a virtual uproar. listening to mo rocca makes me itch. that was just one of the comments. to mend my tattered reputation, i decided to learn to knit. these days i discovered grandmas aren't the only one who appreciate a good yarn. >> knitting is not a punishment. >> reporter: it is not a punishment? it's a privilege. >> don't think it's hard. once you start trying it, using... you'll think it's so easy that you can do it with your eyes closed. >> reporter: felix is a 10-year-old kniter. he's been knitting ever since he was nine. >> this is how you knit. you see this little hole right here. you stick your needle in the back. you wrap it around. you see right here? you see the line. make sure that is there. you pull between there and you pull it right off. >> reporter: that's right. okay. >> that's one stitch. >> reporter: what inspired you to start knitting? >> because like when i was watching tv, sometimes i would get a little bored of tv. i'm saying that looks cool what mom is doing. >> reporter: felix was a good teacher and a gracious host. >> do you want a lollipop? >> reporter: thank you. >> you're welcome. >> reporter: very nice. it's like going to the bank with my mother. >> you actually get lollipops. >> reporter: they used to do that at banks. >> they still do. >> reporter: do they? >> yep. >> reporter: class over. i needed a mentor more my size. >> take this needle. >> reporter: i found one in author debbie solar. >> i think what you're realizing even though you're getting quite good at this is knitting is not quite as easy as people who never knit think. i think it gives you a whole new respect for your grandma or whoever in your family used to make things for you. >> reporter: debbie explained that knitting is actually a cheap thrill. >> you don't have to spend that money going out drinking or buying cigarettes to smoke. you should just stay in or get together with some people and knit. basically you'll have as much fun. it's a similar kind of a vice. you can get pretty addicted to it. >> reporter: because it's pretty hard to drink and knit at the same time. >> it has been done but it's dangerous. >> reporter: don't tell me there are kniters and drinking gangs. >> friends don't let friends knit drunk. it can really become a problem. >> reporter: that's the really ugly sweater. >> talk about dropped stitches. >> reporter: it seems like a safe time to bring up the controversy that brought me here. homemade sweaters are always itch eve. my use of the i-word. homemade sweaters are they more or less itchy than store bought sweaters? >> it depends on what you make them out of. if you make a homemade sweater out of rugged yarn that will last 100 years some of that stuff can be pretty itchy. if you make it out of something softer like merino wool or even angora, that stuff will be as soft as a baby's bottom. >> reporter: meanwhile.... >> from the few times i've seen mo on television, he seems to me wound tightly. probably pretty much like myself. so this just brings us back down to a nice, quiet calm place. >> reporter: nuclear physician physicist and kniter was putting the final stitches on a surprise for me. >> when i worked in at nuclear power plants i had an office. at lunchtime for that 45 minutes, i'd go into the office and close my door and turn off the fluorescent light and turn on a desk lamp and knit. when i came out of my office, the guys i worked with would swear that i was napping in there because it just takes the edge off the day much like going for a walk, if you have the luxury of being able to do that at lunch. >> reporter: she's right. and i was hooked. yes, i know hook is for crocheting not for knitting. as for the offense that started the whole yarn ball rolling, a delegation from rafaelry ended up attending a taping of wait, wait don't tell me in chicago. surprising me with a purple pure meriono cable knit sweater, the stunning creation of four different kniters and not in the least bit itchy. i feel warm and non-itchy and really attractive. to think it all started with a gaffe. next time, i'll insult bmws. >> osgood: next, baking that's all in the family. and later bill geist steps out. i discovered the problem growing grass seed, is me. i'm a grass seed failure. well, i forget to water it, and the seed dries out. and once it's dry, it's dead. and once it's dead, it's just... 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[ male announcer ] seed guaranteed to succeed. that's the scotts advantage. >> osgood: this is no ordinary loaf of bread. it traveled here by plane all the way from paris, the city where the fine art of baking is handed down from one generation to another lovingly and sometimes pointedly as we're about to see from david turecamo, our man in paris. >> reporter: in a little bakery on a side street in paris i once saw a demonstration of how to make a simple sugar cookie. the baker was a man who could elevate even cookie dough to an art. his name lionel. >> he was probably the most famous baker in paris. maybe even in the world because i always think that if you're famous in baking or pastry in france then you're famous in the whole world. >> reporter: she is considered one of the foremost authorities on baking. her numerous articles and ten books include baking with julia. that's right. that julia childs. and he was about seven years ago that she asked me to shoot "making the cookie." >> i'm tempted to say that when you look at this man making those cookies, what you're seeing is magic. i mean it almost looks like magic. >> reporter: and even i-- and i know nothing about baking-- even i was impressed by the economy of his movements. the way he used his hands. one hand. >> working with one hand is actually a baker's trick so that your other hand is clean in case you have to do something with it. >> reporter: the shop was opened in 1932 by his father pierre. today they draw people from all over france and even the world. their specialty is a sourdough bread baked in a 300-year-old oven downstairs. and those cookies? well, they're called punishment in french. you can buy a box, although it's part of the charm and the generosity of their spirit that there's always a basket of them on the counter. just help yourself. >> these cookies were iconic. people would grab a cookie. pay for their bread. grab a cookie. you always saw people munching away at these cookies. >> reporter: now, this isn't about a recipe. >> you mix it altogether. >> reporter: i hate those things where they go there's nothing like the smell of fresh baked cookies. but rather how in an age of industrialization, tradition has been kept alive by these simple gestures. >> simplicity most of the time. to make it simple, it's very easy. >> reporter: barely four months after we shot this in the summer of 2002, this man was killed in a helicopter crash. >> to me, baking was pretty much an evidence. he knew i would take over one day. the company just happened sooner than what i anticipated. >> reporter: this woman was just 18 when her father died. she's now 26. it's amusing. >> to make stuff with the hands. to feel the butter in between the fingers, you know. >> there's something very sensual able exciting about touching the dough and working the dough. >> reporter: running a little baker emit not be a challenge for a harvard graduate. yes, she went to harvard. but her father believes.... >> to me the hand is more intelligent than a mixer. >> reporter: he decided to train others using the same techniques. so just outside paris, he built the factory. factory because it's a scale and manu because.... >> we use the hand as the main tool. it's the manufactory. >> reporter: an average of 50 bakers turn out more than 5,000 loafs every day. just to keep the ovens fired requires 150 tons of recycled wood every month. because today family's bread is available not only throughout france but 11 other countries. >> our bread keeps for about five days. this oven can contain 100 loafs. >> reporter: even though, i mean, do you love the scale of something like out of ben hur? >> the reason why we use it is because we want our bakers to be involved, to feel things. if it's just about however many kilos, the baker is just the appendage of the machine. >> reporter: which unfortunately many have become because across france and europe, more and more bread rolls off assembly lines like these. >> those machines make the work of the remaining bakers seem more simple but also is less tasteful. >> this is very important. you must not knead the dough. >> reporter: and the stature as a baker, here it is. the way he almost caresses the dough. >> i looked at him work on this dough and i thought what you're seeing is 40 years of experience in this three minutes that it takes to make the dough. >> reporter: the irony is, he never wanted to be a baker. >> forced into the business when he was 14 years old. >> he tells the story of going down on his first day and just crying. this was just not at all what he wanted to do with his life. >> he had in mind, you know, this... what was until recently very much the french spirit type that you had be, as they say, strong, tall and stupid. >> you work it with your hands, you give something of yourself. >> that's what he discovered. that's when he started getting a glimpse into the beauty of his job. he realized how much he loved it. >> reporter: oh, and why are the cookies called punishment? well, because you have to wait for them to cool off. >> you cannot eat it burning, you know. >> we are choosing you to be a part of rock'n'roll history. >> osgood: ahead, david edelstein reviews the run aways. our planet is alive with data. it's generated by cars on a freeway, patients in a hospital, electricity in the grid. the more we understand data, the more answers we find. patterns are easing traffic in over 400 cities... detecting disease faster, reducing energy costs by 10%. on a smarter planet, we can analyze all the data we now see to make the world work better. let's build a smarter planet. osteo bi-flex has helped me... not have crunchy knees, not have a stiff back. osteo bi-flex with the exclusive ingredient 5-loxin... shown to improve joint comfort within 7 days. osteo bi-flex gets me through the day. so i couldn't always do what i wanted to do. but five minutes ago, i took symbicort, and symbicort is already helping significantly improve my lung function. so, today, i've noticed a significant difference in my breathing. and i'm doing more of what i want to do. so we're clear -- it doesn't replace a rescue inhaler for sudden symptoms. my doctor said symbicort is for copd, including chronic bronchitis and emphysema. it should not be taken more than twice a day. symbicort may increase your risk of lung infections, osteoporosis, and some eye problems. tell your doctor if you have a heart condition or high blood pressure before taking it. my copd often meant i had to wait to do what i wanted to do. now i take symbicort, and it's significantly improves my lung function, starting within five minutes. symbicort has made a significant difference in my breathing. now more of my want-tos are can-dos. as your doctor about symbicort today. i got my first prescription free. call or go online to learn more. [ male announcer ] if you cannot afford your medication, astrazeneca may be able to help. ♪ hello daddy, hello mom >> it's sunday morning on cbs. and here again is charles osgood. >> osgood: that's right. if you didn't know, that's cherry bomb by the 1970s all girl rock band the run aways. a new movie sets out to tell their story. our david edelstein will tell you all about it. >> reporter: the run aways isn't a great movie but it was a great resounding theme. it's about female empowerment. yeah! and female exploitation. boo! and how in some cases they sit side by side and see-saw. the run-aways were the first breakthrough all girl rock band. they formed in 1975 and fell apart four years later. and before you say what? that late? remember, the rock'n'roll revolution was a guy-send. there were female vocalists, folkees, all girl singing pop groups. but chicks with electric guitars? rock chicks? not many. the group fany was amazing but didn't break out. neither at the time did susie quatro. then there was... well, let's see. josy and the pussy cats. ♪ the run-aways were california teens. for joan jet, sandy west and leda ford, girl rock meant snarling and grinding guitars and flouting the rule that says girls were just the groupies. >> i'm joan jet. >> reporter: chris ten stewart plays jet. she buys a motorcycle jacket, writes songs, fools around with other girls. it's exhilarating but she doesn't make the rules. the group was assembled, packaged by self described by kim, played on screen by michael shannon. >> record producer kim fall. >> reporter: he's a lot less creepy than the real guy. >> i like your style. >> reporter: he wants the little blonde at the center like 15-year-old cherry curry played by then 15-year-old dakota. >> are you kidding? >> reporter: here's the paradox. in the film he isn't thinking feminist empowerment. he's thinking-- and i apologize for the term-- jail bait. half naked under aged girls acting dirty and available for an audience more leering than liberating. that tension is what helped destroy the band. the movie's second half with its drugs and sex and abuse is lurid-- that's a good thing-- but unfocused. although stewart is first bills, joan jet is mostly a by- stander. the run-aways is based on a memoir. you can see dakota fans relish and shocking us with her sexuality. and that is exciting. but it's also because she's a minor disturbing. and that's the paradox. how our culture can turn female empowerment into an icky commodity and how girls both rockers and teen actresses can, for better and worse, play along. >> osgood: next,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, >> osgood: here's a mile post by which to remember the week. new york's museum of modern art officially inducted the@symbol into the collection of its department of architecture and design. the museum traces the@ symbol when it appeared as shorthand for the latin word meaning at or toward. 16th century merchants use it on their documents. the at-symbol debuted on the american underwood typewriter in 1885. but it is american engineer ray thomlinson who gets the credit for using the first at- sill bomb in an email on the internet's forerunner back in 1971. the museum calls his innovation an act of design of extraordinary elegance and economy. ahead, women on bikes. hear them roar. >> osgood: think you can handle a genuine harley davidson. the spokes women we're about to show you certainly can. it was all our rita braver could do to keep up with them. >> it's so relaxing. it's just being absolutely free. out there thinking i'm in control of my destiny. when you get out there and you get away from traffic, oh! >> reporter: karen davidson has been riding since she was nine. she has motorcycling in her blood. the great granddaughter of harley davidson co-founder william davidson, karen is one of the first women to work in the family business. she's now creative director for merchandise. what does that mean? >> that means i like leather a whole lot. >> reporter: she's not the only one. and as we learned at daytona's famous bike week earlier this month, women are the fastest growing segment of the motorcycle-buying population. >> about 23% of all u.s. motorocyclists are women. >> reporter: karen davidson says anyone can learn to ride. >> you're on the run right now. you have your clutch pulled in. we're going to have you start the engine. you're not going anywhere. put your hand over there. when you put your thumb on there and press to hold it for a second. you're rolling. >> reporter: but there are want a be motorcycle riders and the real thing. women like 26-year-old melissa parent. she races against male riders going 168 miles per hour on the day coat a speedway. you're the fastest woman. is that true? >> definitely not my ultimate goal is to be the fastest girl. i'm trying to focus on being as fast as everyone else. we need to be a level playing field. >> reporter: she may be the only rider on the track whose fingernails match her bike. but she concedes nothing to the competition. including her husband, motorcycle racing champion josh hayes. who is faster? >> right now he is. >> reporter: right now. >> yeah. it depends what we're doing. we are competitive in everything we do. i mean we have our go-cart race times posted on our refrigerator. we're competitive. i hope to race him. >> melissa is closing in on the top ten run. >> reporter: at this year's daytona 200 race harris was steadily moving up to 10th in the pack. with eight laps to go.... >> off the front end. >> reporter: despite the wipeout, she walked away with only a mangled finger. but harris concedes that the dangers of motorcycle racing have forced some limits on her life. >> i'm a girl. i'm a woman. i want kids one day. obviously while both parents are out doing death-defying things on the racetrack this is probably not the time for it. plenty of time later. >> reporter: of course, melissa is part of a proud tradition. >> women were always riding motorcycles. they were brave and adventurous. >> reporter: christine summer simmons was so taken by photos and stories of the earliest american motorcycle girls that she documented them in a book: trail blazers like the van buren sisters. in 1916, they became the first women to ride their motorcycles across america. there's bessie springfield who carried classified documents for the u.s. military in world war ii. and clara wagner, the first american woman to enter a motorcycle endurance race. chicago to indianapolis in 1907. >> 390-something miles. she won. she didn't just ride in it. she won. they wouldn't give her a medal because she was a woman. >> reporter: chris simmons has a personal understanding of the romance of motorcycles. she met her husband pat simmons, co-founder of the duby brothers band, at a motorcycle rally 23 years ago. had you ever dated a girl before you met her who was really a serious motorcycle rider. >> never. >> reporter: was that part of the charm? >> definitely. >> i would never data man who didn't have a motorcycle. it would never work. >> reporter: well, women motorocyclists in the early years build their own bikes. by the 1950s they started being portrayed as subordinates riding behind men like marlon brando in the wild one. and then came the image of hard-bitten motorcycle mamas. a lot of women didn't want to associate with that. they're like i'm not doing that. that's for "those" kind of women. they thought you were tramps. >> yes, i've been called names. >> reporter: but 84-year-old gloria struck.... >> that's me. i was 24 years old. >> reporter: one of the women profiled in simmons' book has never been one to let names or anything else slow her down. >> i was a lot younger. >> reporter: she started riding in 1941. what made you go into it? >> i didn't want to. my brother made me. >> reporter: he did? why? >> he decided one day he was going to teach me how to ride a motorcycle. i objected strenuously. >> reporter: but eventually she was hooked. and this year she dug her way out of a huge snowstorm in new jersey to ride 1,000 miles to daytona with her daughter lori. >> she's a pretty good rider. she's very cautious. which is good. >> reporter: are you? >> i'm a little wilder i think. i don't know. (laughing) >> reporter: struck by the 2004 harley not modified for her in any special way. the love of younger riders are taking to a new generation of bikes specifically to women. >> you can see on this bike i'm only five foot. i'm flat footed. this bike i am lift off the stand with no hands because the center of gravity is now nice and low. >> reporter: a lot of bike for a small person. >> but i can ride this bike. you could ride this bike very easily. >> reporter: kathy is the proprietor of day coat a... daytona's motorcycle where you can get a custom bike built and painted in all sorts of designs. even adorned with krystal and sparkleees. >> we call this jewelry you can ride. >> reporter: she says the average female motorcycle rider these days is in her 40s. >> i always say that what happens is as women get older, our estrogen level drops, our testosterone goes up and we say i can do that now. >> reporter: and all the women we met say there's nothing like a ride with a pack of girl friends. >> okay. ladies, let's start our engines. let's have fun. thundering down the road on a motorcycle with all those women, it's hard to explain it until you've actually experienced it. it's awe sam. ... it's awesome. >> osgood: next.... >> they've lost a nuclear device. >> osgood: remember eye spy star robert culp. and later.... >> you look very nice. >> thank you. >> osgood: meet the bell of the ball. introducing blueprint. blueprint's free and exclusively for chase customers. for a big purchase, there's split. it lets you decide how much... or how many months you want to pay. so you can be comfortable managing all of your large purchases. if having a plan matters, chase what matters. create your own blueprint at chase.com/blueprint. sweet n' sour filled twizzlers. the twist you can't resist. >> i want you to hold all calls for riders in the sky especially ones from washington. >> osgood: it happened this week. the loss of one of america's best known tv spies. actor robert culp died of an apparent heart attack while walking near his hollywood home. >> you are there. >> osgood: he broke into tv back in 1953 with an appearance on the cbs documentary series you are there in an episode entitled the death of sock rateees. >> we had to act to prove to you the true will and desire of athens. >> osgood: other tv roles followed leading to the breakthrough 1960 series "i spy." he and bill cosby co-starred as television's first bi-racial team of undercoverd spies. >> what happened here? what did you do? >> we have to get over to the american embassy. >> i mean, how come.... >> they've lost a nuclear device. >> reporter: culp lost the best actor emmy to cosby three years running but far from being jealous he said he was the proudest man around. >> where is my bed? >> osgood: in 1969, culp appeared on the silver screen. >> these are not my pajamas. >> no. >> reporter: as the wife- swapping husband bob in the sexual liberation spoof bob and carol and ted and alice alongside natalie wood and diane can none. many more film and tv roles followed. >> hello there son-in-law. >> hello there, you. >> osgood: including a continuing role in the recent series "everybody loves raymond." >> it's the big room, dear. >> of course it's the big room. big room. big bed. >> reporter: robert culp was 79. w >> memories. things coming back to you from back in the day ♪ memories light the mozzarella of my mind ♪ >> osgood: next russ mitchell talks to tv talker joy behar. alright kid, let's get ready for this morning's quiz. christopher columbus sailed the ocean blue... in 14 hundred and 92. nice! follow me, the missouri river is this way! lewis and clark expedition of 1804. oh, he'll never get this. magellan, 1520. awww, my 8 layers must've given it away. help keep your kid full and focused with 8 filling layers... of whole grain fiber found in kellogg's frosted mini-wheats cereal. this is one giant leap for mini-kind. keeps 'em full. keeps 'em focused. hoo hooo! tdd# 1-800-345-2550 investment firms wouldn't even dream of overcharging people. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 in fact, they'd spend all of their time dreaming up ways tdd# 1-800-345-2550 to give us more for our money. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 i guess i'd just like to see a little more give tdd# 1-800-345-2550 and a little less take, you know? 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>> it's radical because.... >> reporter: especially with the political conservative elizabeth hasslebeck. >> what don't you like in the bill. >> anything that is a mandate. >> reporter: where did this liberal streak come from? >> it comes from being smart. (laughing) >> reporter: what would elizabeth say to that? >> listen, i have my prejudices too. i think that people who are liberal are more open minded. that's all. i just believe that of the you can argue with that all you want. you can say, oh, conservative people are open minded. i don't agree with that. i don't. >> reporter: behar is the first to admit she's a comic and not a legitimate journalist. >> have you seen some of the ads to are running. >> reporter: in 2008 when presidential candidate john mccain joined the co-hosts of the view, behar wasn't shy about asking him some tough questions. >> there are ads running from your campaign. one of them is saying obama when he said you can put lipstick on a pig but it's still a pig he was talking about sarah. there's another ad that said obama was interested in teaching sex education to kinder gartners. we know those two ads are lies. you at the end of it say i approve this message. did you really approve this message. >> they're not lies. >> the l-word had not been used before. if i wasn't, you know, on medicare i would say it was out of the mouth of babes. >> reporter: the mccain versus behar exchange made news. catching the attention of "new york times" columnist frank rich. someone once called you the edward r murrow for our times. is that a compliment. >> i have it framed. listen, you don't get called edward r.murrow everyday. >> i like jewish guys. italian guys are very cute. their attitude is get the ravoli. get your own (beep) raf he'll oh, all right. >> reporter: he she believes her political perspective comes from the italian family. >> there was one in-law who loved mussolini. we thought he was an idiot. i make fun of him in my act. in my show. they were very open minded. i never heard racist talk. homophobic talk. nothing like that. it was a very unusual family i guess. >> reporter: the only child of rose, a sewing machine operator and louis, a truck driver, josephine victoria okuto was raised in brooklyn. memories? things coming back to you? >> memories. light the mozzarella of my mind. >> reporter: what about this neighborhood made you who you are? what's the one thing you took out of this? >> you can feel the grit. can't you? you feel the grit of it. it's like a real new york experience. >> reporter: those gritty new york experiences laid the ground work for behar's comic sensibility. with some encouragement from her relatives. >> i'd be at a wake as a kid like a little five-year-old kid and i would just sit there and listen to the conversations. they sounded absurd to me as a little kid. they'd be like, he looks good. no, he doesn't look good. i think to myself, what are they saying? one time somebody said, he looks just like himself? i thought who should he look like? i started making fun of everybody at the wake and at what they were saying and the way that so-and-so acted at the casket. i'd have them all laughing. >> reporter: they were okay with that. >> yeah. some families might not have been okay with that. they might have said that's so disrespectful. up shouldn't do that. not mine. they were perfectly happy to go along with the humor of it. >> reporter: behar flirted with the idea of becoming an actress. after college graduation, she got married, became a mother, and tried her hand at many different jobs. >> i used to teach english to high school dropouts in a tough, tough neighborhood. the kids who go to jail because they set fire to their parents. then they would send them to me to teach them the difference between who and whom. that was one of the jobs i had. >> reporter: did you like it? >> sometimes i did. sometimes. i like teaching the dropouts. the ones i just made fun of, they were my best students. i loved them. >> reporter: but at age 40 after divorcing her husband of 16 years, behar came to a realization. >> i thought, now you've tried everything and nothing is working for you. i tried to do stand-up at that point because i knew i was meant to do it. i just didn't have the guts to do it before that. >> i'm divorced. hard to believe. isn't it? >> you know, she did pretty well pretty fast. >> a few months ago my ma called and said happy hanukkah. i said mom i'm not jewish. >> reporter: her daughter eve was 11 when her mother went from school teacher to stand-up. >> once she made the decision, she said this is it. i'm going for it. >> reporter: in 1997 when barbara walters was looking for a co-host for a new show called the view, it was behar's sense of humor ha caught her eye. >> it's very difficult especially for female comedians. it's very hard to make a place for yourself. joy was relatively late in doing that. i think the talent was there. i think the opportunity dodd a program like the view changed her life. >> she never said she didn't know the difference between north korea and south korea. >> reporter: did you have any idea it would be on this long? >> no, no. you know what they say, the show must go on. and the view stayed on. >> i saw another picture. they were both wearing nikes. that is so romantic. >> reporter: and one of the ongoing topics on the view is whether marriages on the horizon for behar and steve, a retired teacher whom she refers to as.... >> well, my equivalent and i have been together for 27 years now. >> reporter: i love that phrase. i mean, he's a little younger than me. i got him when he was just young enough to enjoy an older woman. a cougar. now we're just going into our doteage together, i guess. but he and i... we might. we might. i can't say for sure. >> reporter: what joy behar can say for sure is that on her journey from brooklyn to stand-up.... >> well, you have to act like a man or they think you're stupid. >> reporter: to television host. >> why do you say that? >> reporter: she's safed the best for last. life begins at 60. >> it really began at 40 for me in many ways. it was like everything opened up to me. i completed my analysis. and i started to blossom in a certain way. it's been fun ever since. qñ÷ñdgñ >> osgood: gospel music for easter next sunday morning. not to let your immune system become a statistic. support your immune system with patented ester-c. ester-c provides up to 24 hours of immune support. ester-c. the better vitamin c. it's ke hardwiring the market right into my desktop. launch my watchlist -- a popping stock catches my eye. pull up the price chart. see what the analysts say. as i jump back, streaming video news confirms what i thought. pull the trigger -- done. i can even do most of this on my smartphone. really, it's incredible. like nothing i've ever experienced. trade free for 60 days on redesigned power e-trade pro. >> osgood: ever political movement has its rhetorical target. this morning one of those targeted groups has a defender in the form of our contributor ben stein. >> reporter: there is a fundamental assumption among many of us conservatives that bothers me. basically it says if a person is a government employee then he or she is lazy and shiftless a parasite eating up tax dollars without doing anything useful. bureaucrats is what the sneering expression usually is. to put it mildly, this is unfair and untrue. government employees include cops and firefighters who do some of the most dangerous vital work in the some. government employees include prosecutors and prison guards who do work that is difficult and necessary. government employees are the doctors and nurses in v.a.hospitals. they're the teachers and librarians who try to teach our kids. they're the men and women who keep track of our economic and health statistics without which we cannot measure progress or failure. government employees are the c.i.a. agents who launch drone strikes to kilterorists and who sometimes get killed themselves. they're the men and women in the national security agency who intercept and decode terrorist communication and save lives. bureaucrats would also include the people of the f.b.i. and it would also include the men and women at the pentagon who guide our armed forces. it would include the people in the armed forces themselves. these people are the muscle and bone of the nation. long ago alvin barkley, harry truman's vice president keenly said that a bureaucrat is a democrat who has a job a republican lost. i'm not sure that's true because i'm a republican and i sure don't want a government job but i've been a bureaucrat in my youth and i never worked so hard for so little money in my life. i am sure there's some government employees who waste money. but there are also plenty of wasteful people in private sector. i'm one of them. look, let's take our conservative noses out of the air and stop sneering at the people who serve us in the government. we'd be awfully sad if they were gone. even the ones in the department of motor vehicles. >> osgood: commentary from ben stein. now to bob schieffer in washington for a look at what's ahead on face the nation. good morning, bob. >> schieffer: good morning, charles. is the battle over health care finally over or is just beginning? we'll talk to republican fire brands jim demint and michelle bachman and the chairman of the democratic national committee tim kaine. >> osgood: bob schieffer in washington, thank you. we'll be watching. ahead here on sunday morning. want to dance? she'll ticket your ticket. have arthritis pain, you could end up taking 4 times the number... of pills compared to aleve. choose aleve and you could start taking fewer pills. just 2 aleve have the strength... to relieve arthritis pain all day. >> osgood: for anyone would yearns for the good old days we may have just the ticket and the person to take your ticket too. here's bill geist. >> reporter: along a gravel road splitting the iowa cornfields, there's a plain structure that doesn't look like much from the outside. but inside this enchanted shell, it's 1931. much has changed in the world since 1931 except here at the lake robbins ball room in woodward, iowa. on opening night revelers took to the 10,000 square foot dance floor swinging and swaying to a big band with a young singer named dorothy lamour. nearly eight decades later, they still come. every sunday evening. the same people tend to come every week as regulars? >> they have the same table and the same chairs. people when they go out, they want to go out and have fun. if you dance it's fun. >> cha-cha lessons. did you come for the dance lessons? >> reporter: a few arrived early last week to brush up a bit. >> cha, cha, cha. how are you doing, sweety? i'm glad you got to see me again tonight. she's always the same. she's always the same. >> reporter: always the same indeed. the time warp is almost eerie. i mean that looks like kip shannon still selling tickets but it can't be. she'll be 100 years old. how old are you now if you don't mind me asking? ? >> 101.5. >> reporter: kip was here opening night. she has been sellaling tickets for 78 years. >> you look very nice. >> thank you. >> reporter: she's on track to set the world record for most years at the same job this november. >> did you break the record yet? >> not yet. >> reporter: what are you going to do to celebrate if you set a world record? >> nothing. >> reporter: if kip shannon wrote a memoir, it would be about half a page. that's good popcorn. is there a secret to it? >> no. >> reporter: did you ever think of going to work somewhere else? >> no. >> reporter: ever feel like you're into someone but they're just not that into you? do you have any secrets or tips that you'd like to give people that want to live to be 101.5? >> no. >> reporter: no? nothing? >> no. >> i always say she's my right arm. >> reporter: lynn wilkinson owns the ball room. >> you couldn't find a more honest person. >> reporter: that's sometimes a problem. >> she's just, you know, she's just so reliable. >> i think i missed one night. in all those 78 years. >> reporter: what happened? >> i don't know. i had a tooth pulled or something. >> reporter: the ball room also features rock'n'roll night. oddly kip has been inducted into the iowa rock'n'roll music association's hall of fame. alongside the likes of buddy holly and everly brothers. >> i was kind of surprised. >> reporter: you didn't think you were a rock'n'roller? >> nope. >> reporter: she's seen the orchestra and ball room staff arrested for holding a dance on a sunday. back when that sort of thing was illegal. did they arrest you? >> no. >> reporter: she has seen all the legends. >> luis armstrong. and cal owe way. >> reporter: the dorseys who came. >> yeah. >> reporter: kip has become something of a local legend herself. >> did you come for the dance lesson? >> no, we came down to see you. >> oh. >> reporter: when are you going to retire? >> i don't know. later. >> reporter: in 100 years. >> well, i don't think i'll last that long. >> reporter: i do. but will the ball room still be here? only an estimated 15 to 20 of some 200 iowa ball rooms remain. when is the last time you said, honey, let's go dancing? >> i always say that the younger generation, if they ever caught on to what those older people they'll just have a ball. there's really a magic to it. >> reporter: there's magic all around at the lake robbins ball room. what do you your secret is to longevity? your youthful vitality? >> i don't know. >> reporter: what about your diet? do you eat anything special? >> no. >> reporter: do you exercise? >> no. >> reporter: well, then maybe it's the dancing. that say, "look at that wrinkle." 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'cause no bunny knows easter better than hershey's. host: could switching to geico 15% or more on car insurance? host: is ed "too tall" jones too tall? host: could switching to geico 15% or more on car insurance? host: does a ten-pound bag of flour make a really big biscuit? we leave you this sunday morning at the national wildlife refuge in new mexico. home to a variety of birds and at least one wiley coyote. i'm charles osgood. please join us again next sunday morning. until then, i'll see you on the radio. captioning sponsored by cbs and johnson & johnson, where quality products for the american family have been a tradition for generations. host: could switching to geico really save you 15% or more on car insurance? host: does elmer fudd have trouble with the letter r? elmer: shhhh, be very quiet; i'm hunting wabbits. director (o/c): ok cut!!!! uh...it's i'm hunting "rabbits," elmer. let's try that again. elmer: shhhh, i'm hunting wabbits. director (o/c): cuuuuut! rabbits. elmer: wabbits director (o/c): rabbits. elmer: wabbits. director (o/c): rabbits with an "r." elmer: aw...this diwector's starting to wub me the wong way.