Death of a Moffo, and Death of a Mofo.

Within the past two weeks, two important figures have died.

The first, Serbian dictator Slobodan Milosvic:























The second, opera singer Anna Moffo:




























These two are surely not of equal importance in world history, but to me, Moffo takes up far greater space. Her recording of La Traviata - with Richard Tucker and Robert Merrill (both jewish) - was the first complete opera I ever heard and liked. More than liked, actually. I would take the tapes with me on the bus to and from summer camp, listening to Act I on the way over and Act II on the way back (I never did find out what happened to acts III and IV). Her voice was delicate but vibrant, impressive but not overdone. She's the one who really got me into opera, and it's against her that I measure all other sopranos.

As for Milosveic, he can burn in hell. Good riddance.

Beware of Tehran

What follows is a heavily edited (and, as such, slightly incoherent) article I wrote for the school newspaper which was not published. Suffice to say that, if it had every appeared in print, the speaker would have been in alot of trouble back in Iran. Even in this version I have tried to remove all identifying remarks and will identify him only as 'Reza'.

Reza dismissed the idea of a full-scale U.S. invasion of Iran saying that – all other considerations aside – America simply doesn’t have the resources or manpower to invade Iran. Doing so would give free reign to every other regime which is restrained by the threat of American power, such as North Korea.

Reza explained why he believes Iran will not use its prospective nuclear arsenal on Israel. He reminded the attendees that Israel is home to over a million Muslims, as well as Muslim holy sites. This, combined with Iran’s antipathy towards the use of WMDs (in large part caused by the memory of Iraqi chemical attacks during the war) and fear of the inevitable retaliation, is enough to forestall any large-scale aggression.

Reza also spoke about the character of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and why has taken to making such inflammatory statements recently. “You have to understand where Ahmadinejad comes from.” According to Reza, Ahmadinejad and his closest allies are mostly veterans of the Iran-Iraq War who are dissatisfied with the way the Islamic Republic of Iran has ‘strayed’ from the values of the ’79 revolution. Reza stressed that Amadinejad and his cohorts use populist rhetoric and social programs to appeal to the working classes and are possessed of a desire to be self-sufficient both domestically and in the international community.

He explained Iran’s desire for nuclear power is separate from Achmadinejad, since the program started before Achmadinejad took office and is supported by a large section of Iran’s power elite.

The second part of the lecture was given to a discussion of Iran’s relationship with the West, and the United States in particular. Mutual mistrust is a key theme in U.S. – Iran relations, which he believes has contributed in large part to the current impasse. He stressed that both sides must show they are willing to trust each other and pay attention for conciliatory gestures instead of simply dismissing them out of hand. Reza remarked pointedly that the current U.S. policy of “treating the Iranians as if they were crazy liars isn’t helping”.

To deal with this issue, Reza suggested that President Bush should offer Iran a deal on nuclear energy which couldn’t be reconfigured into use for nuclear bombs. Such an offer, he said, would put the Iranian government in a corner, giving them the nuclear power they say they want and denying the nuclear arsenal they still claim is not their objective.

Oscar Night

As far as controversy goes, this has actually been a fairly dull year in terms of movies.

Brokeback Mountain: Gay shepherds. In ancient Greece, this was more the norm than the exception.

Syriana: Makes the shocking allegation that the U.S. manipulates Middle Eastern politics out of concern for the oil supply.

Munich: Palestinian terrorists at the Olympics.

Paradise Now: More Palestinian terrorists. It seems like their year.

Jon Stewart for Host: maybe he can inject some decent humor into the proceedings. I doubt it. Updates to follow.

Updates: So, Brokeback Mountain took alot of awards - although mot Best Picture. 'Crash' won that, and though I haven't seen it, everyone else in the room seemed pissed.

Jon Stewart was mildly amusing, although the negative ads voiced by Stephen Colbert were probably the highlight of the whole thing. I

Something Happened in South Dakota

PIERRE, S.D., Feb. 22 — Setting up South Dakota to become the first state in 14 years to start a direct legal attack on Roe v. Wade, lawmakers voted on Wednesday to outlaw nearly all abortions.

...

After more than an hour of fierce and emotional debate, the senators rejected pleas to add exceptions for incest or rape or for the health of the pregnant woman and instead voted, 23 to 12, to outlaw all abortions, except those to save the woman's life.

They also rejected an effort to allow South Dakotans to decide the question in a referendum and an effort to prevent state tax dollars from financing what is certain to be a long and expensive court battle.

Clearly, they're testing the waters - seeing if this Alito fellow is the anti-abortion ideologue they were all assured he would be. Even if he votes against Roe V. Wade, that will still work out to 5-4 upholding it.

I think, though, that any attempt to outlaw abortion all over again would be the political blunder of the new century. If they tried a stunt like that, heck, the Democrats might actually start winning.

Some years ago studies were done comparing birth rates before and after abortion was legalized. What they found was that birth rates did decline slightly, but not nearly as much as the number of abortions would indicate. The moral: women have abortions, whether it's legal or not. The only question is whether those abortions are safely administered.

My question to (most) pro-lifers is this: why don't you support all the programs that actually reduce abortion? Safe-sex education, universal health care, easily obtainable contraception.. are these worse than abortion, in your opnion? let me know.

Aaron Burr Lives

Run for your lives, everyone! Vice-President Cheney is ARMED AND DANGEROUS:

Via the Guardian:

Dick Cheney, the US Vice-President, accidentally shot a man in the face with a shotgun while hunting for quail on a Texas ranch.

Mr Cheney, 65, sprayed birdshot into Harry Whittington, a fellow hunter, while trying to hit a flock of quail on Saturday afternoon. Mr Whittington, 78, a lawyer from Austin, Texas, was taken to Corpus Christi Memorial Hospital where he was treated for pellet wounds to the right side of his face, neck and chest.

A spokesman for the hospital said he was not seriously injured and described his condition as "stable".

A witness, Katharine Armstrong, said Mr Whittington shot a bird and went to look for it in the tall grass, while Mr Cheney and a third hunter walked to another spot and discovered a second flock. She said: "Whittington came up from behind the Vice-President and the other hunter and didn't signal them or indicate to them or announce himself.

"The Vice-President didn't see him ... the covey [flock] flushed and the Vice-President picked out a bird and was following it and shot. And by God, Harry was in the line of fire and got peppered pretty good." Mr Cheney was said to have visited his friend in hospital.

Politically, does this mean anything? I doubt it. Still, considering all the scandals floating around, it would've been too perfect an image if Cheney had actually shot himself in the foot.