Cong. Tom Lantos, 80

From today's San Francisco Chronicle obituary of the Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee--whose life was saved by Raoul Wallenberg (Lantos worked for Wallenberg), whose mission in turn resulted from Peter Bergson's agitation for the establishment of the War Refugee Board in 1944:

Lantos lost nearly his whole family in the Holocaust. When he was named chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee last year, he told The Chronicle that "in a sense, my whole life has been a preparation for this job."

Lantos was born in Budapest in 1928 and was 16 when the Nazis took the city in March 1944. Most Jews outside the Hungarian capital were sent to Auschwitz, while young Jewish men from Budapest were taken to forced labor camps.
Lantos was taken to a camp at Szob, a village about 40 miles from the capital, from which he escaped twice. The second time he made it to a safe house in Budapest, where his aunt had also taken refuge.

The Red Army liberated Budapest in January 1945, and Lantos began to search for his family. Most had died, but he managed to contact Annette Tillemann, a childhood friend who had gone into hiding shortly after the German occupation and escaped to Switzerland with her mother. Like Lantos, most of her relatives perished in the death camps.

The two were reunited in Hungary later that winter and married in 1950.

Lantos began studying at the University of Budapest in 1946 and received a scholarship in 1947 to study in the United States. He earned bachelor's and master's degrees in economics from the University of Washington.

The Lantoses settled in San Mateo County in 1950, and Tom Lantos became an economics professor at San Francisco State. He made his first foray in to politics when he won a seat on the Millbrae school board, then in 1980 defeated GOP incumbent Rep. Bill Royer to win election to the House. Three years later he founded the Congressional Human Rights Caucus, which his wife has directed since.

Among his accomplishments over nearly three decades in Washington were preserving open space in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area and bringing millions of federal dollars to extend BART to San Francisco International Airport.

He was criticized in some quarters, however, for an unwavering support of Israel, and he wasn't afraid to be unpopular on a number of issues. As recently as October, he angered the Bush administration and some colleagues when he moved a bill through his committee that defined the killings of Armenians in Turkey in the early 20th century as genocide.

The Art of Carl Holzman

In Chicago for a wedding, stopped by to see the latest works by Carl Holzman--abstract oil paintings derived from Google Earth locations. I liked them very much. You can view an online portfolio at CarlHolzman.com.

France Readies Chad Troops

The AFP reports that President Sarkozy declared France will "do its duty" in the troubled Francophone African republic...

NDJAMENA (AFP) — Chad's government controlled the capital and its immediate surroundings, the French ambassador to Chad said Tuesday, as France said it was ready to intervene militarily if need be.

"Today, the city of Ndjamena is under (government) control, at least within a 10-kilometre (six-mile) radius," French ambassador Bruno Foucher told reporters in Ndjamena.

Chadian president Idriss Deby Itno had appeared "very confident" when they had last spoken Monday night, he added.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Tuesday that France, with 1,450 troops and Mirage fighter jets stationed in Chad, was ready to "do its duty" and intervene if need be.

France has 1,450 troops based in Chad and Paris sent an extra 150 troops to help evacuate foreign nationals.

"Now there is a legal decision taken unanimously by the Security Council, and if Chad was the victim of an aggression, France could in theory have the means to oppose such action," he said in the French coastal town of Aytre.

"Everyone needs to think carefully about this."

Tony Blair's Official Portrait

Heard about this on my BBC Radio Four podcast this morning, so had to find it on the web. An article about artist John Yeo ran in the Daily Mail not too long ago.

CIA Chief Can Keep His Job

A friend--who played quarterback in High School--emailed me today:

By the way, you must have more faith in our CIA director now...He only missed the spread by one point. And he was right about the how close the game turned out to be. I was rooting for the Giants, too... His prediction was nearly spot on! Go Giants!

Final score was actually 17-14, not General Hayden's predicted 28-24, so I can't believe the Agency had it wired... It was an exciting down-to-the wire game, too.

CIA Chief Predicts Giants Will Win Super Bowl

According to the Air Force Times, CIA head General Michael Hayden tipped the Giants to with the Super Bowl today.

CIA Director Gen. Mike Hayden picked the New York Giants to upset the New England Patriots, 28-24, in the Super Bowl as part of ESPN’s poll of celebrities on who is going to win the big game.

Meanwhile, legendary ace pilot Chuck Yeager picked the favored New England Patriots to win.

If Hayden is right, I'll feel better about the CIA. If he's not, he might want to think about looking for another job...for, if you can't handicap an NFL game correctly, how confident can Americans be that you are able to predict what the Iranians will do?

If You Can't Trust the Food Section...

...what can you trust?


Someone I know sent me this recent post from LanguageHat.com:

THE LYING TIMES.

Every time I think I'm inured to the idiocies of the press, even what are allegedly its finest representatives, something comes along to get me frothing in rage again. The latest comes via Bill Poser at Language Log, who writes:

The New York times contains a brief article entitled One Pot describing the Spanish dish known variously as cocido or olla podrida literally "rotten pot" According to the dictionary of the Real Academia Española, podrida may have an admiring connotation, similar to the use of "filthy rich" in English. Curiously, instead of the correct olla podrida, the article gives the name of the dish as olla poderida, which it explains as a derivative of poder "strength", because it gives you strength.

Reader Jim Gordon wondered about this and emailed the author of the article. Her response: she and her consultants and editors were aware of the correct name and etymology but thought that some readers might be put off by the notion of rotten food, so they changed the name a little and made up a fake etymology. It seems clear that they were not trying to deceive anyone with evil intent, but I am still taken aback that a respectable newspaper would make up a fake name and etymology.

"Curiously"? "Taken aback"? I guess I admire Bill's sangfroid and charity, but I'm not going to mince words: I think this is a complete dereliction of the first duty of a newspaper, which is to tell the truth. What's next, not reporting on vote fraud or covering up a slaughter in the Congo because "some readers might be put off"? Furthermore, they're not just making it up themselves, they're putting their lie in someone else's mouth:

“Olla means pot, and the original name was olla poderida, which comes from poder, which means strength,” said Alexandra Raij, an owner of Tía Pol, the tiny Spanish restaurant on 10th Avenue in Chelsea.

I presume Ms. Raij (a Spanish equivalent of Reich, apparently) said no such thing; if I were her, I'd put the fear of a lawsuit into the paper for knowingly making her look like an ignoramus.

Eisenhower Endorses Obama

Susan Eisenhower, granddaughter of the President, in today's Washington Post,. joined Senator Ted Kennedy in endorsing Barack Obama:

The last time the United States had an open election was 1952. My grandfather was pursued by both political parties and eventually became the Republican nominee. Despite being a charismatic war hero, he did not have an easy ride to the nomination. He went on to win the presidency -- with the indispensable help of a "Democrats for Eisenhower" movement. These crossover voters were attracted by his pledge to bring change to Washington and by the prospect that he would unify the nation.

It is in this great tradition of crossover voters that I support Barack Obama's candidacy for president. If the Democratic Party chooses Obama as its candidate, this lifelong Republican will work to get him elected and encourage him to seek strategic solutions to meet America's greatest challenges. To be successful, our president will need bipartisan help.

Given Obama's support among young people, I believe that he will be most invested in defending the interests of these rising generations and, therefore, the long-term interests of this nation as a whole. Without his leadership, our children and grandchildren are at risk of growing older in a marginalized country that is left to its anger and divisions. Such an outcome would be an unacceptable legacy for any great nation.

Kazakhstan May Become Election 2008 Issue

Did Bill Clinton arrange for special treatment with Kazakhstan's President, Nursultan Nazarbayev for Canadian businessman Frank Giustra, and did the multi-million dollar deal lead to the former US President's endorsement of Kazakhstan's leading the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe despite that nation's problematic human rights record?

Apparently little "transparency" can be found in this murky "corruption" scandal involving a President attempting to secure a political dynasty, according to today's front-page NY Times story by Jo Becker and Don Van Natta, Jr.:

Records show that Mr. Giustra donated the $31.3 million to the Clinton Foundation in the months that followed in 2006, but neither he nor a spokesman for Mr. Clinton would say exactly when.

In September 2006, Mr. Giustra co-produced a gala 60th birthday for Mr. Clinton that featured stars like Jon Bon Jovi and raised about $21 million for the Clinton Foundation.

In February 2007, a company called Uranium One agreed to pay $3.1 billion to acquire UrAsia. Mr. Giustra, a director and major shareholder in UrAsia, would be paid $7.05 per share for a company that just two years earlier was trading at 10 cents per share.

That same month, Mr. Dzhakishev, the Kazatomprom chief, said he traveled to Chappaqua, N.Y., to meet with Mr. Clinton at his home. Mr. Dzhakishev said Mr. Giustra arranged the three-hour meeting. Mr. Dzhakishev said he wanted to discuss Kazakhstan’s intention — not publicly known at the time — to buy a 10 percent stake in Westinghouse, a United States supplier of nuclear technology.

Nearly a year earlier, Mr. Clinton had advised Dubai on how to handle the political furor after one of that nation’s companies attempted to take over several American ports. Mrs. Clinton was among those on Capitol Hill who raised the national security concerns that helped kill the deal.

Mr. Dzhakishev said he was worried the proposed Westinghouse investment could face similar objections. Mr. Clinton told him that he would not lobby for him, but Mr. Dzhakishev came away pleased by the chance to promote his nation’s proposal to a former president.

Mr. Clinton “said this was very important for America,” said Mr. Dzhakishev, who added that Mr. Giustra was present at Mr. Clinton’s home.

Both Mr. Clinton and Mr. Giustra at first denied that any such meeting occurred. Mr. Giustra also denied ever arranging for Kazakh officials to meet with Mr. Clinton. Wednesday, after The Times told them that others said a meeting, in Mr. Clinton’s home, had in fact taken place, both men acknowledged it.

“You are correct that I asked the president to meet with the head of Kazatomprom,” Mr. Giustra said. “Mr. Dzhakishev asked me in February 2007 to set up a meeting with former President Clinton to discuss the future of the nuclear energy industry.” Mr. Giustra said the meeting “escaped my memory until you raised it.”

Wednesday, Mr. Clinton’s spokesman, Ben Yarrow, issued what he called a “correction,” saying: “Today, Mr. Giustra told our office that in February 2007, he brought Mr. Dzhakishev from Kazatomprom to meet with President Clinton to discuss the future of nuclear energy.”

Mr. Yarrow said his earlier denial was based on the former president’s records, which he said “show a Feb. 27 meeting with Mr. Giustra; no other attendees are listed.”

Will the OSCE, under Kazakhstan's leadership, send monitors to keep an eye on our American elections and the activities of the Clinton foundation--or provide anti-corruption training sessions for President or Mrs. Clinton and their staff?

Curiously, Frank Giustra's name shows up among the list of 2004 donors to Canadian MP Belinda Stronach ($2,500), a former Conservative who changed parties. Reportedly herself heiress to a mining fortune and contributor to the Clinton Library, Stronach is rumored to have been romantically involved with the former President.

Interesting commentary on this story from retired LA Times reporter Ken Reich:

Why did the New York Times endorse Sen. Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination when it had a story in the works suggesting that her husband, former President Bill Clinton, took a huge bribe from a Canadian mining magnate in exchange for helping him to close a Kazakhstan uranium mining deal?

Here's an interesting tidbit for NGO-watchers from The Vancouver Sun's profile of Giustra:

Giustra, the son of a Sudbury nickel miner, was CEO of Yorkton Securities in the '90s, founder of Lions Gate Entertainment and now chair of Endeavour Financial, a merchant banking firm which finances mining companies.

Giustra is also a director of the International Crisis Group (Crisis Group), an independent, non-profit, non-governmental organization, established to prevent and resolve conflicts...Giustra's wife is Alison Lawton, 36, a human rights activist and producer of documentary films on humanitarian crises. She also knows Clinton and has worked with him on humanitarian efforts related to the civil war in Uganda -- a war which was the subject of her recent documentary Uganda Rising.

Ciao, Rudy!

The inevitable seems to have happened, according to an AP report. Rudy Giuliani is dropping out of the race for the Presidency.

He ran such a lackluster campaign, I had wondered if his heart were in it. If you can't run a Presidential primary campaign, you can't become President, it's that simple... It was painful to watch, one reason I wasn't blogging about the primaries, it hurt to see Rudy Giuliani fizzle.

I liked Hizzoner, as all my readers know, for a lot of reasons. Not least of which is because I'm a New Yorker born and bred, who saw how Rudy Giuliani transformed my "radnoi gorod" (as the Russians say), despite the protests of The New York Times among others. To me, the resurrection of New York City is a miracle due to his efforts.

It's sad that he blew his Presidential run, bittersweet. Yet this feels something like when Humphrey Bogart said, "We'll always have Paris," to Ingrid Bergman in Casablanca. Sad that Rudy's exiting, but...

We'll always have New York.

A Winter Weekend Getaway in Montreal

Can't say enough nice things about our 48 hours in Montreal visiting old college friends at -19 degrees Celsius. The city has really been spiffed up. We had a delicious French dinner, only $50 US, including appetizer, soup, main course, and desert (BYOB) at O Thym restaurant.

Next day, it was a walking tour of Old Montreal/Vieux Montreal, where we saw evidence of the failed American Occupation of 1775-1776.

Photo: Chateau Ramezay, Montreal, Quebec. This revolutionary epsiode was explained in an article by Norman P. Goldman on Suite 101:

On a Sunday Nov 12th 1775 the Americans under the leadership of Major General Richard Montgomery landed on the Island of Montreal...General Montgomery did not stay very long in Montreal and his replacement Brigadier-General David Wooster proved to be a very harsh and oppressive administrator. As a result, the possibility of gaining the support of the Montreal inhabitants slowly dissipated.

In order to save the situation Benjamin Franklin was sent to Montreal a few months after the American invasion in order to see if he could win the support of the citizens. Franklin was even accompanied by a Jesuit priest, Father Carroll, in the hope that the latter may have some influence over the Catholic clergy. However, all of this maneuvering proved in vain and the Americans were never able to win over the support of the citizens.

After 188 days the Americans retreated and the British were once again in control...

Result of all this? The Quebecois preserved their language, religion, culture and privileges, avoiding the fate of the Irish, Scots, and Welsh, among other victims of the Saxon oppressor--forming some sort of buffer province to keep British Canada from attacking the USA, at least after the War of 1812 had been concluded.

Overall, the shrewd Quebecois seemed to have negotiated a good deal for themselves--and preserved a charming place with delicious French food, where Americans can enjoy the equivalent of a weekend in Europe, at dollar (not Euro) prices.

George W. Bush, McGovernik Liberal...

President George W. Bush's announced "stimulus package" to give every American between $300 and $1200 (numbers subject to change) reminded this citizen of Senator George McGovern's much-mocked 1972 economic plan to give every American $1000, one of his campaign promises.

Strangely enough, I haven't seen any published objections from Republicans this time around, not even from conservative guru William F. Buckley, who wrote in 1972 about the Democratic convention:

...a convention that sometimes seemed to be saying that the most you can do for your country is evade the draft, smoke pot, abort babies, have a homosexual affair, and receive in return for nothing at all, a thousand dollars a year from your fellow citizens....If McGovernism triumphs, nobody will ever be off the public payroll, not even for a dreadful, reactionary sixteen minutes.

Curious irony of fate, that President Bill Clinton, who actually worked for McGovern, signed balanced budgets and cut government spending, while President George W. Bush has responded to Wall Street's meltdown with McGovernism.

IKEA Opens in Almaty, Kazakhstan

Joshua Foust reports on Registan.net that Sweden's most famous furniture store--already established in Moscow--has opened in Kazakhstan's capital and largest city:

IKEA, the discount Swedish retailer which furnished a swath of my apartment, is opening two stores in Kazakhstan—one in Astana, and one in Almaty. Ben notes the many positive spillover effects this move should bring to the country, despite the fact that far too many people will find even IKEA too expensive, and despite the much longer and more problematic supply chain (think of the woes Lufthansa faced with overflight rights with Russia).

Which reminds me of my 2003 visit to the FAYZ furniture factory in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, where with a delegation from either the UN or EBRD we met with the former worker's Communist Party chief, now running the factory--a glamorous Uzbek woman CEO, by the way. FAYZ had just received some computerized German manufacturing equipment, and a trainload of Russian wood had just arrived in the yard to coincide with our delegation. Still, the furniture was not up to world standards, somehow the design was a little old-fashioned. Why not make a deal with IKEA? I asked the chief. She paused, said that she knew about IKEA, but that Uzbekistan was not yet ready for IKEA.

Now that Kazakhstan is ready for IKEA, can Uzbekistan be far behind?

The Kite Runner

Saw The Kite Runner over the holiday weekend. Haunting. Marc Forster's direction is subdued, and unobtrusive, a welcome change from exploding fireballs. Better than Khaled Hosseini's book, which seemed a little paint-by-numbers contrived and plot-driven. Same story, different touch. Screenwriter David Benioff puts his dialog in Dari (Persian dialect), with English subtitles, may have made the difference. Felt more realistic, even though highly stylized. In a way, a film about the immigrant experience in America, reflecting complcated relations with one's identity and past. The final caper, to rescue an Afghan orphan, had a dreamlike quality--did it happen, or was it a wish motivated by guilt? The ambiguity strengthened the impact of the picture.

The Kite Runner is about guilt, redemption and second chances. The scenes of life in Afghanistan reminded me of Uzbekistan. From the credits, it seems that it was filmed in Xinjiang Province of China--aka Chinese Turkestan, pretty close. Scenes in the San Francisco Bay area reminded me of college in Berkeley. It's not easy to watch, a little slow at times, yet powerful. The cast, including Khalid Abdalla, Atossa Leoni, and Shaun Toub are all excellent.

Ahmad Khan Mahmidzada, the child actor playing Hassan, Amir's Hazara servant, is best of all. His amazing performance carries the film's message on his face:

Hassan is Afghanistan.

The African American National Biography

Today's Washington Post also runs an interesting article on Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham and Henry Louis Gates' multi-volume African American National Biography:

James McCune Smith was, among other things, the first professionally trained black physician in the United States, the nation's first black candidate for political office and an influential abolitionist. Seven years ago, Gates went looking for Smith among the many thousands of entries in the premier American biographical dictionary, Oxford's American National Biography.

He wasn't there.

Nor was a second name Gates was looking for, classical scholar William Scarborough. Nor were most of the names on a list of maybe 25 prominent blacks Higginbotham assembled after Gates told her of the gaps he was finding.

Gates called Casper Grathwohl, who headed Oxford's reference division, and told him he needed to publish a stand-alone African American reference work.

"Do you think you can fill it up?" Gates recalls Grathwohl asking.

Not a problem.

An initial database, compiled at the Gates-run W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research at Harvard, ran to more than 12,000 names. Some were already famous; others, like Smith and Scarborough, were more obscure but nonetheless established historical figures. But many -- brought to light by burgeoning research efforts in African American history over the past quarter century -- remained virtually unknown outside the academy.

Happy Martin Luther King Day!

Here's an article from today's Washington Post by Allison Silberberg (who was in the Theatre program at UCLA when I was there) about the origins of today's holiday:

At the time, I was an intern for Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) and was following the bill carefully. It's fair to say I was rather devoted to the cause. I remember the October day that someone in the office mentioned that the senator's speechwriter, Bob Shrum, had crafted an incredible statement in support of the holiday. I begged for permission to go to the galleries above the Senate floor to watch Kennedy deliver the speech.

The galleries and the Senate were nearly empty when Kennedy walked onto the floor. I saw only three members -- Kennedy, the senator who was presiding, and Jesse Helms (R-N.C.), who was speaking against the holiday.

From Russia to Hollywood, the 100 Year Odyssey of Chekhov and Shdanoff

Last night, thinking I had rented a Russian-language film from Netflix to practice my vocabulary, I watched the most interesting documentary I have seen in years. It is called From Russia to Hollywood, the 100 Year Odyssey of Chekhov and Shdanoff.

Produced by Hollywood acting teacher Lisa Dalton, whom I presume is a former student of Michael Chekhov or his young colleague George Shdanoff, the film features almost as many stars as there once were on the MGM back lot--James Dean, Rex Harrison, Patricia Neal, Clint Eastwood, Gary Cooper, Beatrice Straight, Jack Palance, Marilyn Monroe, Gregory Peck, Yul Brynner, Jennifer Jones, Lloyd Bridges, Leslie Caron, even Jack Larson, who played Jimmy Olsen on TV's Superman. They all studied the "Psychological Gesture" technique pioneered by the nephew of Russian playwright Anton Chekhov, whose creative synthesis of acting styles moved beyond Konstantin Stanislavsky's "Method" as promoted by Lee Strasberg, and British "technical" acting of the Laurence Olivier variety.

Chekhov had once been the leading actor on the Moscow stage, before he had to flee for his life from both Stalin's purges and Hitler's conquest of Paris. Luckily, he managed to escape to England--where he was supported by the Whitney family's private theatre operation at Dartington Hall. Chekhov eventually made his way to Hollywood, at the invitation of Rachmaninoff, apparently. In California, a brief acting career led to work as a coach for some of the biggest names in pictures.

I especially enjoyed the segments with Anthony Quinn and Leslie Caron, for their stories of working with Chekhov make one sorry that there are not many clips of him at work in the film.

If you are interested in acting, or Hollywood history, or Russian culture, this is definitely a film worth seeing. I found it interesting that I didn't remember learning much about Chekhov, despite years studying movie history at UCLA. Thanks to Lisa Dalton, and what seems like a real labor of love, future students of movie history have a chance to give Michael Chekhov and George Shdanoff the credit they deserve for nurturing a style of acting--based a recognition of shared humanity--that has stood the test of time. You can read the Wikipedia entry here. More here. There are lots of other Michael Chekhov-oriented websites you might look at with a Google search. Meanwhile, you can rent From Russia to Hollywood, the 100 Year Odyssey of Chekhov and Shdanoff from Netflix, here. Five Stars.

Google's NGO

News reports about a Google foundation headed by University of Michigan smallpox expert Dr. Lawrence (Larry) Brilliant, led us to this website link. Here's where Google's foundation says it is putting Google's money:

Google.org aspires to use the power of information and technology to address the global challenges of our age: climate change, poverty and emerging disease. In collaboration with experienced partners working in each of these fields, we will invest our resources and tap the strengths of Google’s employees and global operations to advance five major initiatives.

Develop Renewable Energy Cheaper Than Coal (REcC)
Create utility-scale electricity from clean renewable energy sources that is cheaper than electricity produced from coal.

Accelerate the Commercialization of Plug-In Vehicles (RechargeIT)
Seed innovation, demonstrate technology, inform the debate, and stimulate market demand to foster mass commercialization of plug-in vehicles.

Predict and Prevent
Identify "hot spots" and enable rapid response to emerging threats, such as infectious disease and climate risk.

Inform and Empower to Improve Public Services
Use information to empower citizens and communities, providers, and policymakers to improve the delivery of essential public services such as education, health, water and sanitation.

Fuel the Growth of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises
Increase the flow of risk capital to small and medium-sized businesses in the developing world.

It should be interesting to look at the 2009 Annual Report, to see if Google's charitable promises have been fulfilled...

More on the life and career of Dr. Brilliant, in this San Francisco Chronicle profile.

The Art of Esther Pressoir

(Artist & Model c. 1930s) Last weekend,we went to the annual DC Flea Market at Dulles Expo Center, near the airport--known as "Big Flea." There, among among acres of knick-nacks and tchotches, we discovered the interesting booth belonging to Northampton, Massachusetts based Ingeborg Gallery, which handles the estate of Esther Pressoir, who published her drawings in The New Yorker, among other places. We hadn't heard of her before, and so enjoyed looking at sketches in her artist's notebook, as well as prints and drawings featuring scenes of life in New York City...

Franz Bischoff & California Impressionism

From 2 Blowhards:

So today, I offer Franz Bischoff, an artist who made his mark in two fields: ceramic decoration and easel painting. There doesn't seem to be a lot of biographical information about Bischoff on the Internet, but here is an item about him on the Irvine Museum's site. (By the way, the Irvine Museum is small, but has an outstanding collection of California Impressionist paintings.)

Bischoff (1864-1929) was born in Bomen, Austria and studied applied design, watercolor and ceramic decoration in Vienna before emigrating to the United States in 1885. He began his career as a china decorator in New York City, continuing in this field while relocating in Pittsburgh, Fostoria, Ohio, and Dearborn, Michigan (1892). By the turn of the century he had gained fame in this line of work, at one point operating two schools.

Bischoff's first encounter with California was in 1900. He was so smitten that, in 1906, he closed his business and moved his family to the Los Angeles area where he pursued a new career as a painter. Success in painting came as rapidly as it had in ceramic decoration, though he did maintain a small hand in the latter field. His California stay was interrupted in 1912 for an extended visit to Europe where he studied the art of Old Masters and French Impressionists...

Rickshaw Run Update

John & David made it safely to Kathmandu, coming in 14th out of 64 contestants. Full story here: http://mercycorpsrickshaw.blogspot.com/. Congratulations!

Twin US Doctors Treat Afghan War Victims

Here's a link to an inspirational story about Drs. Vance and Vince Moss from Saturday's Washington Post:

The doted-on sons of Josephine and Haywood Moss were raised in Upper Marlboro, and as Boy Scouts they had learned an affinity for those less fortunate. They always thought they were put on earth to do something significant, Vince said.

"We had been taught that we could do anything we wanted, but when we started thinking about medicine, we had a guidance counselor at Oxon Hill High School who told us we should think about something else because we'd never be doctors," Vance said.

"After we got into Penn [State], we had an adviser to tell us that we should have a backup plan because it was really tough to get into medical school," Vince said. "All of our lives, people have been trying to limit us, so when we decided we wanted to go to Afghanistan, we were determined to do it."

The Army Reserve said no but did agree to provide some medical equipment, the brothers said.

Then, Col. Gary Davis, an Army doctor in Afghanistan, set them up with an Afghan physician who helped find the people they would need to move safely through the war-ravaged country, they said.

People were found who would be "translators, escorts, security, intelligence and even our transportation," Vince said. "Once we had everything in place, we were ready to go."

A Slight Case of Murder (1938)

"Golden Velvet Beer--It's the Tops!"

That's Edward G. Robinson's advertising slogan for Remy Marko's formerly bootleg beer at the end of Prohibition, in Damon Runyon's 30s Warner Brothers' screwball comedy, A Slight Case of Murder. Playing off his "Little Caesar" image, Robinson's attempts to go legit and enter high society in Saratoga, NY are still funny some 60 years later...

We got it from Netflix on DVD, and so can you. Five stars.

Rickshaw Run Update

John and David have reached Nepal...more on their blog, here: http://mercycorpsrickshaw.blogspot.com/

Facebook, the Next Google...Not.

Tonight's 60 Minutes featured Lesley Stahl's interview with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. After watching the exchange, I'll stand by my earlier post. Facebook is not Google. For example, Bill Gates owns a piece of the action, which might tell you something...

Why Wasn't Auschwitz Bombed?

Recent news reports quote President Bush as saying that FDR should have bombed Auschwitz, during his visit to Israel's Yad Vashem museum, and discussed various theories as to why Auschwitz was not bombed.

I dealt with this very controversy in my film, Who Shall Live and Who Shall Die?. The explanation came from Josiah Dubois, a Treasury official who served with the War Refugee Board actually rescuing Jews-- who then went on to prosecute Nazi war criminals at the Nuremberg trials. As Dubois noted in his memorandum to Secretary Morgenthau on the acquienscence of the US government in the extermination of the Jews, one reason that steps were not taken to rescue Jews from Hitler was oppostion from the British government, an important American ally. To appease Arab public opinion, the British had persuaded the US government not to rescue European Jewry, using a variety of excuses. For, as the mandatory power in Palestine, the British were concerned that if Jews were rescued, they might go to their historic Jewish homeland, despite the 1939 White Paper restricting immigration . So, British foreign policy objectives required trapped European Jews to die, rather than be able to move to Israel. By the time American protests led to the formation of the War Refugee Board in 1944, it was too late--the vast majority of Jews had already been killed.

After the war, surviving Jews did manage to immigrate to Palestine in violation of the White Paper...so, Israel was born. When Israel declared independence, it received arms from the US and Russia. Meanwhile, Britain supported Glubb Pasha's Arab army's attempt to drive the Jews into the sea. (This political configuration changed by 1956).

More on this subject at the Wikipedia Auschwitz bombing debate page...

Luisa Maria Güell Sings "Uno"

Our favorite Cuban-American filmmaker has done a music video for Luisa Maria Guell, from her 2007 Grammy-nominated UNA, based on the Tango, "Uno." Here it is:

Masterpiece Theatre's Makeover (cont'd.)

Lynn Smith published her article in today's Los Angeles Times about PBS''s attempt to reach younger viewers by re-branding Masterpiece Theatre. An excerpt:

"What we wanted to know was why aren't more people watching it and what would it take to attract a younger audience?" said Bob Knapp, president of Neubrand, a marketing and brand consultant. Viewers had told researchers they perceived the series as a "dusty jewel that was hard to find in the PBS crown," Eaton said. They wanted to know whether to expect "Jane Eyre" or Jane Tennison, "Bleak House" or "White Teeth"?

The result was a compromise between changing everything or changing nothing, Knapp said, the literary equivalent of "brand new look, same great taste."

Faithful Anglophiles

However, one informed observer suggested that PBS, by trading off the halo effect of the "Masterpiece" name may actually cheapen the brand by diluting it like Cherry Coke and Vanilla Coke. Laurence Jarvik, author of "Masterpiece Theatre and the Politics of Quality," said that under the original Mobil Oil sponsorship, the series preserved its brand integrity because its executives were driven as much or more by personal passion than market research. "What was good about it is that you knew what you were getting: A slice of British costume drama," he said.

You can read Smith's full article on the LA Times website.

Why Do They Hate Us?

Someone I know sent me a translation of Erla Ósk Arnardóttir Lillendahl's shocking story of an encounter with the Department of Homeland Security while on a Christmas shopping trip to New York City, from Iceland's Eggman Blog:

Last Sunday I and a few other girls began our trip to New York. We were going to shop and enjoy the Christmas spirit. We made ourselves comfortable on first class, drank white wine and looked forward to go shopping, eat good food and enjoy life. When we landed at JFK airport the traditional clearance process began. We were screened and went on to passport control. As I waited for them to finish examining my passport I heard an official say that there was something which needed to be looked at more closely and I was directed to the work station of Homeland Security. There I was told that according to their records I had overstayed my visa by 3 weeks in 1995. For this reason I would not be admitted to the country and would be sent home on the next flight. I looked at the official in disbelief and told him that I had in fact visited New York after the trip in 1995 without encountering any difficulties. A detailed interrogation session ensued. I was photographed and fingerprinted. I was asked questions which I felt had nothing to do with the issue at hand. I was forbiddento contact anyone to advise of my predicament and although I was invited at the outset to contact the Icelandic consul or embassy, that invitation was later withdrawn. I don't know why. I was then made to wait while they sought further information, and sat on a chair before the authority for 5 hours. I saw the officials in this section handle other cases and it was clear that these were men anxious to demonstrate their power. Small kings with megalomania.

I was careful to remain completely cooperative, for I did not yet believe that they planned to deport me because of my "crime". When 5 hours had passed and I had been awake for 24 hours, I was told that they were waiting for officials who would take me to a kind of waiting room. There I would be given a bed to rest in, some food and I would be searched. What they thought they might find I cannot possibly imagine. Finally guards appeared who transported me to the new place. I saw the bed as if in a mirage, for I was absolutely exhausted. What turned out was something else. I was taken to another office exactly like the one where I had been before and once again a long wait ensued. In all, it turned out to be 5 hours. At this office all my things were taken from me. I succeeded in sendinga single sms to worried relatives and friends when I was granted a bathroom break. After that the cell phone was taken from me. After I had been sitting for 5 hours I was told that they were now waiting for guards who would take me to a place where I could rest and eat. Then I was placed in a cubicle which looked like an operating room. Attached to the walls were 4 steel plates, probably intended to serve as bed anda toilet. I was exhausted, tired and hungry. I didn't understand the officials’ conduct, for they were treating me like a very dangerous criminal. Soon thereafter I was removed from the cubicle and two armed guards placed me up against a wall. A chain was fastened around my waist and I was handcuffed to the chain. Then my legs were placed in chains. I asked for permission to make a telephone call but they refused. So secured, I was taken from the airport terminal in full sight of everybody. I have seldom felt so bad, so humiliated and all because I had taken a longer vacation than allowed under the law.

You can read the rest of the story at http://eggmann.blog.is/blog/eggmann/

From measurement to judgement...

This just in from the UK, thanks to a tip from my BBC podcast of Radio Four's Today Programme this morning: John Purnell's Department for Media, Culture, and Sport has relased a White Paper intended to re-organize arts funding in Britain. Known as the Mcmaster Review, it is titled: Supporting excellence in the arts - from measurement to judgement.

The author, Edinburgh Festival director Sir Brian McMaster, calls for the abandonment of quantitative "targets" for cultural grants, to be replaced by qualitative evaluations of "excellence." His proposal has already generated a fuss in England, including some protests against the initiative. More on the backlash in this article from the Daily Telegraph.

Meanwhile, I read through the report, and can see why people are upset. He's asked the right questions, but so far has not come up with the right answers. There's a lot of procedural and bureaucratic boilerplate--including an unfortunate call for more peer review (often merely "crony review")--with little discussion of competition. Especially odd from a government ministry also responsible for sport.

In the hopes of moving the discussion along, here's a memo to Sir Brian, who is has claimed that the UK is the verge of a new "Renaissance":

If you want a "Renaissance," instead of more bureaucracy and peer panels, encourage competition. Set the "Royal" institutions against the "National" ones, the West End versus the South Bank, and the Regions against London. Artists are as competitive as footballers. Use that energy to foster excellence. Let artistic organizations compete openly and fairly for funding according to fixed criteria, ranked like athletes, so that the heavyweights can't crush the bantamweights.

Still, it is nice that Sir Brian is even talking about "excellence" in the arts. Sir Brian's report has started a debate that I wish we were having here in the USA, and for that he deserves thanks.

Facebook?

Somebody "friended" me a while back, so I joined Facebook. So far, I don't get it. I understand that it might be nice for teenagers or college students looking for new friends, and maybe I'm just too old, but it seems less convenient than email while more complicated than blogging. Maybe I'm missing something, but there may be less to this "social networking" phenomenon than meets that eye.

I'll take an "IdeaBook"--or just a book--any day...

Masterpiece Theatre's Makeover

I got an email the other day from Lynn Smith, a Los Angeles Times reporter covering PBS. She found my book about Masterpiece Theatre with a Google search, and wanted to know what I thought about the big changes to the series. I'll let the LA Times report what I had to say to Ms. Smith (the story is scheduled for Friday's Calendar section).

After the interview, I took a look at the MT website. The new hostess, Gillian Armstrong of The X-Files played Lady Deadlock in Bleak House. The website confirmed my interviewer's report that Masterpiece Theatre will soon be running a Jane Austen marathon. This recalled an earlier post on this blog, quoting Mark Twain on Jane Austen:

"I haven't any right to criticize books, and I don't do it except when I hate them. I often want to criticize Jane Austen, but her books madden me so that I can't conceal my frenzy from the reader; and therefore I have to stop every time I begin. Every time I read 'Pride and Prejudice' I want to dig her up and beat her over the skull with her own shin-bone."

Mark Twain Letter to Joseph Twichell, 9/13/1898

Thanks to my own Google search, I discovered Emily Auerbach's interesting article in the Virginia Quarterly Review: "A Barkeeper Entering the Kingdom of Heaven": Did Mark Twain Really Hate Jane Austen?" Here's an excerpt:

Mark Twain expressed unparalleled hatred of Jane Austen, defining an ideal library as one with none of her books on its shelves. "Just that one omission alone would make a fairly good library out of a library that hadn't a book in it," Twain insisted in Following the Equator. Did Mark Twain genuinely detest Jane Austen? Or was the bushy-eyebrowed, irascible Twain merely posing?

In his extensive correspondence with fellow author and critic William Dean Howells, Mark Twain seemed to enjoy venting his literary spleen on Jane Austen precisely because he knew her to be Howells' favorite author, In 1909 Twain wrote that "Jane Austin" [sic] was "entirely impossible" and that he could not read her prose even if paid a salary to do so. Howells notes in My Mark Twain (1910) that in fiction Twain "had certain distinct loathings; there were certain authors whose names he seemed not so much to pronounce as to spew out of his mouth."

His prime abhorrence was my dear and honored prime favorite, Jane Austen. He once said to me, I suppose after he had been reading some of my unsparing praise of her—I am always praising her, "You seem to think that woman could write," and he forbore withering me with his scorn, apparently because we had been friends so long and he more pitied than hated me for my bad taste.

Rather than pitying Twain when he was sick, Howells threatened to come and read Pride and Prejudice to him. Twain marveled that Austen had been allowed to die a natural death rather than face execution for her literary crimes.

Separate But Equal (1991)

Just watched this the other night, somehow missed the 1991 TV showing. Sidney Poitier, Burt Lancaster, Cleavon Little, and Richard Kiley bring the 1953 Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education to life in a memorable, if sometimes slow-moving, epic. Five Stars.

You can get it from Netflix, here.

Penguin Plunge

While the cousin of someone I know is driving across India in an auto-rickshaw for his favorite charity (and employer), my cousin Dan is preparing to dive into a frozen section of Hampton Beach in New England...also for a charity--New Hampshire's Special Olympics. You can follow his Penguin Plunge on the official website, here.

Rickshaw Run Update

John's mother has heard from her Rickshaw Run contestant, and shared the URL for his blog, where his team's progress across India can be tracked:

http://mercycorpsrickshaw.blogspot.com/.

Trans-India Rickshaw Run

The cousin of someone we know is racing across India, from Cochin to Kathmandu, in an auto-rickshaw, to benefit the NGO he works for in Darjeeling. We found the official website for Rickshaw Run, but can't track his vehicle across the map of India, because we don't know where he is (the race began on January 1st, to run for 10 days). No GPS transmitter, apparently. You can find out more about the race on the Rickshaw Run homepage. We checked the website for the travel agency behind the concept, The Adventurists, but no tracking him there, either...(John, if you read this, please phone home, your mother is worried about you...)

Did Steinberg's New Yorker Cartoon Begin Here?

Does this map looks familiar? An old print, as spotted on the wall of the bathroom of the sister of someone we know, in Florida...

...Looked like it may have inspired this famous Steinberg New Yorker cover.

Sunset in the Tropics, December, 2007

 

Beach Scene, December 2007

  As seen on holiday...

Happy New Year!

  Back from winter holiday in sunny climes, blogging resumes...

Happy Holidays!

Going on vacation for a while, blogging will be light. Hope to be back full-time in January.

Meanwhile, Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!

Raymond Lloyd: Abusing Power to Suppress Truth

Received this email from Raymond Lloyd, who thought our readers might find it of interest:

Abusing Power to Suppress Truth: Letter 1: 24 February 2007
The case of Lennart Bage (Sweden)
President, International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) Rome
14-15 February 2007

In this and possible future emails I shall describe the substance of my revelations which led you to bar me from IFAD’s Governing Council on 14 and 15 February 2007; your cowardice in not informing me in advance of my travel to Rome that I would be barred; your dastardliness in obliging junior colleagues to tell lies to keep me out; your abuse of the Italian police to bar me from an international meeting; and ask for an apology and compensation...

You can read the whole thing, at this link.

Comments Pan Amazon's "Kindle" E-Book Reader

On Amazon's review page for Kindle,twice as many posts give the new device 1 star v. those who give it 5 stars.

I'm an Amazon stockholder, "Associate" marketplace seller, and author, so in principle I'd like another way to distribute content. From what I've read, this may not be it--at least, not yet. Not only the price point, but the various limits and marketing agreements. Plus, commenters point out it doesn't display PDF files. Software problems. Come on...

What makes Amazon work as a site is that they stock practically everything in print. So why limit Kindle's database to 90,000 books and a few hundred blogs (I assume mine is not one of them)? My guess is that there is no deal with database kings like Google--which owns Blogger plus all those scanned books in public domain. Copyright problems.

So, this seems like it will be of limited use, at least till they work the kinks out. Plus, it looks like a giant PalmPilot. Too big to clip to the belt, and even at 10 ounces, why add weight to carrying a laptop?

I don't know the answer--Amazon did not loan me a test model--but they may have to open the whole concept up a bit to make it work. Consider "Kindle" a Beta version, not a final product, at least for now.

Renzo Piano's New New York Times Building, November, 2007

 

This was the view from our room in New York's Times Square Hilton a couple of weeks ago. Workers were putting the finishing touches on what looked to us like an anonymous corporate office tower. We walked through the lobby--excuse me, "atrium"--and peered around. IMHO, Not bad, not particularly ugly, not particularly anything...

New York Times architecture critic Nicolai Ouroussoff reviewed the building in the paper today:

Even as journalists at The Times adjust to their new home, they worry about the future. As advertising inches decline, the paper is literally shrinking; its page width was reduced in August. And some doubt that newspapers will even exist in print form a generation from now.

 

Jackson Diehl on Human Rights Watch's Blind Eyes For Hugo Chavez

According to Jackson Diehl in today's Washington Post, Human Rights Watch apparently isn't watching the Venezuelan president's attacks on human rights:

During eight years in office, Chávez has already taken control of Venezuela's courts, congress, television stations and petroleum industry; his congress granted him the right to rule by decree. The constitutional rewrite will allow him to control the central bank and its reserves, override elected local governments with his own appointees, declare an indefinite "state of emergency" in which due process and freedom of information would be suspended, and use the army to maintain domestic political order under the slogan "fatherland, socialism or death!" It will also abolish any limit on presidential terms for a 53-year-old ruler who would otherwise be compelled to step down by 2012.

If you're thinking you haven't heard much about this transformation in a major oil-producing country two hours by air from Miami, you're right. U.S. media and human rights groups have basically ignored Chávez's latest power grab. Human Rights Watch, which has been conducting a campaign about what it says is the "human rights crisis" in neighboring, democratic Colombia in close cooperation with congressional Democrats, has issued no statement on the Venezuelan violence -- including the shooting of the students by government-backed paramilitaries on Nov. 7 -- and objected to only one of the 69 new constitutional articles.

Salman Ahmad on Pakistan

Writing in today's Washington Post, the Pakistani singing star says he doesn't like Musharraf--or Bhutto:

Yet Benazir Bhutto is no savior. The queen of hypocrisy, she has managed to hypnotize Western liberals with her claim to represent progressive elements in the Muslim world. Bhutto is a charlatan. How can she call herself a democrat while also appointing herself head of the Pakistan People's Party for life? Her time as prime minister brought staggering levels of corruption and graft. Bhutto's niece and sister-in-law accuse her of conspiring to murder her own brother, Murtaza, who challenged her power during her second term. She continues to see Pakistan as her personal feudal fiefdom to be plundered. A false prophet of democracy, she threatens to bring back the rule of the gangster rather than the rule of law.

During the late '90s, I recorded a song called "Accountability" and made a video that satirized Pakistani politicians whose corruption scandals were being reported internationally. The response of Bhutto's government was to ban the video and threaten my life. In the years since Bhutto fled Pakistan to escape corruption investigations, her desire to regain power has blinded her to the struggle being waged by Pakistanis on behalf of true democracy. A member of her own party, Aitzaz Ahsan, the lawyer who won Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry's reinstatement as chief justice of the Supreme Court after Musharraf dismissed him early this year, languishes in jail -- along with thousands of others. Meanwhile, Bhutto attends diplomatic receptions and makes speeches about freedom and liberty. While lawyers and human rights activists faced the threat of injury and death for standing up to Musharraf's regime, she was in sunny Dubai, waiting for Washington's go-ahead to return.

Kosovo UN Corruption Widespread

According to Maciej Zaremba, in today's Washington Post:

The United Nations could argue that it lacks the funds to pay judges. But then why does it pay an employee from Sierra Leone more than $11,000 per month to teach Kosovars how to run their railroads? The Kosovar railroad workers, who survive on just over $200 per month, were more than a little offended to learn that Sierra Leone's last trains stopped running in 1975. Their teacher was an expert on harbors.

U.N. top brass knows full well that Kosovars are losing patience. Last year Inga-Britt Ahlenius, U.N. undersecretary general for internal oversight services, warned if the administration continued to ignore corruption, the whole mission could be jeopardized. "[T]he reluctance by senior Mission management to address fraud and corruption will have a devastating impact on public perception inside and outside of Kosovo," she wrote.

Bruce Bawer on "Peace Studies"

From City Journal:

George Orwell would have understood the attraction of privileged young people to the Peace Racket. “Turn-the-other-cheek pacifism,” he observed in 1941, “only flourishes among the more prosperous classes, or among workers who have in some way escaped from their own class. The real working class . . . are never really pacifist, because their life teaches them something different. To abjure violence it is necessary to have no experience of it.” If so many young Americans have grown up insulated from the realities that Vegetius and Sun Tzu elucidated centuries ago, and are therefore easy marks for the Peace Racket, it’s thanks to the success of the very things the Peace Racket despises above all—American capitalism and American military preparedness.

What’s alarming is that these students don’t plan to spend their lives on some remote mountainside in Nepal contemplating peace, harmony, and human oneness. They want to remake our world. They plan to become politicians, diplomats, bureaucrats, journalists, lawyers, teachers, activists. They’ll bring to these positions all the mangled history and misbegotten ideology that their professors have handed down to them. Their careers will advance; the Peace Racket’s influence will spread. And as it does, it will weaken freedom’s foundations.

Sabiha Sumar and S. Sathannatnthan on Pakistan

From ABC News' website:

In this "regime adjustment" the Bush administration has found allies amongst Pakistan's elite, which is unremittingly feudal. Bhutto, for example, comes from a traditional feudal family and married into another traditional feudal family; for her, the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) formed by her father, is her fiefdom -- she is president for life. Inner-party democracy is the stuff of fiction. It is important to keep in mind that the PPP and Nawaz Sharif's PML(N) are not the secular modern parties voters are accustomed to in the west.

Feudals in both parties oppose Musharraf's reforms tooth and nail. Because his administrative modernization set up, for the first time, representative, elected local government institutions (Nazims) and politically empowered the poor; his economic liberalization (including privatization) is promoting the growth of the middle class -- universally recognized as the backbone of liberal democracy. Both hit at their feudal roots. Predictably, the judiciary has time and again ruled against Musharraf's privatization of key economic sectors.

The clerics in the religious coalition -- the MMA -- resist his educational reforms and promotion of women's rights since both are undermining the ideological domination of the religious establishment. In the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) the ruling MMA is systematically sabotaging Musharraf's reforms.

By all accounts, Musharraf allowed the highest degree of media freedom ever experienced in the country's history. This is exposing the average Pakistani to the world outside, and to modern values of democracy and individual rights.

Not surprisingly, the PPP, PML and the MMA are ranged against the army, led by Musharraf.

It is crucial to keep in mind that he is the first leader who has attempted the modernization of Pakistani economy and society.

Many prominent lawyers leading the opposition to Musharraf are either members of PPP or are closely connected to it through kinship links. A majority of the lawyers and judges and "liberal" defenders of human rights are part of the feudal elite; the rest share in the feudal values. They feel extremely threatened by Musharraf's modernization and are bent on protecting their inherited status and privileges. They are hardly the stuff of independent, modern professionals.

Some of the street support for Bhutto on TV is, of course, from party workers. But a lot of it is the poorest of the poor, most of whom are serfs who live a hand-to-mouth existence on the fiefs of feudals. They are lured in truckloads with the offer of two meals a day, which is a luxury for them.

This is the background to and the essence of the sordid "pro-democracy" movement.

It would be a real pity if American opinion makers and professionals lose sight of this unfolding power struggle between the army led by Musharraf on the one hand and the obscurantist feudal and clerical forces on the other.

The authors produced a film for PBS's Independent Television Service about Pervez Musharraf, titled Dinner with the President. Here are their bios from the ITVS website:

Sabiha Sumar, Director

Born in Karachi, Pakistan, Sabiha Sumar studied filmmaking and political science at Sarah Lawrence College in New York and history and political thought at the University of Cambridge. She has directed both documentaries and narrative films that have won worldwide acclaim.

S. Sathananthan, Producer

S. Sathananthan was born in Jaffna, Sri Lanka and read for the PhD degree at the University of Cambridge. He co-founded Vidhi Films and has produced several documentaries that have played important national and international roles in catalyzing social change. His films include Suicide Warriors, a documentary about the female suicide brigade of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam; On The Roofs Of Delhi, a short film about the dreams and aspirations of a poor 14-year-old girl; and Khamosh Pani/Silent Waters, a feature film about the growth of Islamic extremism in Pakistan. The film won the Golden Leopard at the Locarno International Film Festival in 2003.

Ann Coulter on Pakistan

Ann Coulter likes Pervez Musharraf better than Benazir Bhutto:

The media adore Bhutto because she went to Harvard and Oxford, which I consider two more strikes against her. A degree from Harvard is prima facie evidence that she's on the side of the terrorists. I note that Bhutto demonstrates her own deep commitment to democracy by giving herself the title "chairperson for life" of the Pakistan Peoples Party.

Liberals hysterically opposed our imposing a democracy on Iraq and despise Nouri al-Maliki, the democratically elected leader of Iraq. Say, has Maliki ever been convicted in a Swiss court of money laundering?

Compared to Pakistan, imposing democracy in Iraq is like imposing democracy in Darien, Conn. But in Iraq, liberals prefer an anti-American dictator, like Saddam Hussein. Only in Pakistan do liberals yearn for pure democracy.

You wouldn't know it to read the headlines, but Musharraf has not staged a military coup. In fact, he was re-elected -- in a landslide -- just weeks ago under Pakistan's own parliamentary system.

But the Pakistani Supreme Court, like our own Supreme Court, believes it is above the president and refused to acknowledge Musharraf's election on the grounds that he is disqualified because he is still wearing a military uniform. That's when Musharraf sent them home.

Musharraf's election was certainly more legitimate than that of Syrian president Bashar Assad (with whom every leading Democrat has had a photo-op) or Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (adjunct professor at Columbia University) or Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez (loon).

Where were the headlines like this week's Economist's ("Time's up, Mr. Musharraf") about those lovable rogues? They hate America, so they can stay.

The last time liberals were this enthusiastic about popular rule in some Third World country was in 1979, when they were gushing about Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in Iran. Professor Richard Falk of Princeton University assured liberals in a 1979 New York Times op-ed that the "depiction of Khomeini as fanatical, reactionary, and the bearer of crude prejudices seems certainly and happily false."

Seen on a Washington, DC Street

 

Later the Same Evening...

...an opera inspired by five paintings of Edward Hopper.

We attended the world premiere of this new opera--more of a singspiel, actually--at the Clarice Smith Center for the Performing Arts at the University of Maryland last night. And we enjoyed it. Think Leonard Bernstein's "Trouble in Tahiti" meets "Wonderful Town," meets Stephen Sondheim's "Sunday in the Park With George." Basically, the opera is a confection of a plot designed to connect characters in a series of paintings by Edward Hopper currently on display at the National Gallery of Art. It's a fantasy about painting, music, and the imagination--and it has a happy ending, too...

Among other things, Later the Same Evening... is obviously about New York--the libretto features this quote from E.B. White: "No one should come to New York to live unless he is willing to be lucky."

Of course it is also about Edward Hopper, and about art, and about musical comedy, and about the 1930s, and about a lot of other stuff, too. While you don't leave whistling the tunes--too much Sondheim patter cum Kurt Weill for that--you do have a good time listening to the songs. Especially memorable was a purely musical interlude that represented a Broadway show performed in the 1930s--cute. The singers (who could also act) were enhusiastic, energetic, and all very good--Claire Kuttler, Andrew Adelsberger, Melissa Schiel, Onu Park, Eric C. Black, Eric Sampson, Kara Morgan, Jenna Lebherz, Adam Hall, Jenny Chen, Ethen Watermeir. Erhard Rom's sets, Nancy Schertler's lighting, and David O. Roberts costumes were good, too.

The Nastional Gallery Orchestra, conducted by Glenn Cortese, was terrific.

What could be bad?

Here are the credits:
John Musto, composer
Mark Campbell, librettist
Glen Cortese, conductor
Leon Major, director
Maryland Opera Studio
National Gallery Orchestra
"A joint project of the National Gallery of Art, the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, and the University of Maryland School of Music"
You can buy tickets online, at this link.

Lafayette Returns to New York

Edward Rothstein reviews the New York Historical Society exhibit on Lafayette's 1824 tour of the USA, in today's New York Times. We saw the show while it was under construction last week, and as a life member of the American Friends of Lafayette, I can say it looked pretty good. There's also a nice review in the New York Sun by Francis Morrone:

Soon Pennsylvanians and Virginians and Tennesseans would feel like Americans. All across the country towns were named Lafayette, or Fayette, or Fayetteville, or — after Lafayette's French estate — La Grange. In New York, we remember him in the name of Lafayette Street, where the old row of stately houses now known as Colonnade Row was originally named La Grange Terrace, in the early 1830s. A statue of a rather foppish Lafayette stands in Union Square; its artist was Frédéric Bartholdi, who also gave us the Statue of Liberty. In Park Slope, Brooklyn, a splendid Lafayette Memorial on Prospect Park West at 9th Street was designed by Daniel Chester French and Henry Bacon, who also did the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. The memorial in Park Slope became a rallying symbol for American aid to the French in World War I.

My Russian Interview...

In New York's answer to The Moscow Times, the Russian immigrant newspaper, Novoye Russkoye Slovo, in an interview with Oleg Sulkin (translated from the original English).

Delbert Mann, 87

Delbert Mann, the director of "Marty" and "Heidi", among other classics, is remembered in today's Los Angeles Times:

Recalling the filming of "Marty," Borgnine said that "we just enjoyed ourselves working, and [Mann] never made it hard for anybody. It happened so easily and nicely."

Actress Eva Marie Saint, who appeared in numerous live and filmed TV productions directed by Mann, said Monday that he "was just a prince of a guy."

"You never heard a word against Delbert," Saint said. "He was wonderful on the set. He was so patient, and you take your cue from the director, so it was a quiet set.

"If something really went wrong, he could raise his voice, and when Del Mann raised his voice everybody listened, because he never did."

Mann, who also won a best director award from the Directors Guild of America for "Marty," went on to direct 15 more feature films, including "The Bachelor Party," "The Dark at the Top of the Stairs," "Desire Under the Elms," "Separate Tables," "Middle of the Night" and the Doris Day comedies "Lover Come Back" with Rock Hudson and "That Touch of Mink" with Cary Grant.

Between 1949 and 1955, Mann directed more than 100 live television dramas. But even after turning to films, he returned to television and directed productions for "Playhouse 90," "Ford Star Jubilee" and other dramatic television anthology series.

He also directed more than two dozen films for television from the late 1960s to the early '90s, including "Heidi," "David Copperfield," "Jane Eyre," "Kidnapped" and "The Member of the Wedding."

"I missed the excitement and concentration that live TV gave us in those days," he said at the time. "I was able to achieve the artistic freedom I can't get in films."

Mann, who served as president of the Directors Guild of America from 1967 to 1971, received the DGA's Honorary Life Member Award in 2002.

Happy Diwali!

To all our Indian and Nepalese readers. More information about the festival of lights from Wikipedia:

Diwali today is the homecoming of King Rama of Ayodhya after a 14-year exile in the forest. The people of Ayodhya (the capital of his kingdom) welcomed Rama by lighting rows (avali) of lamps (deepa), thus its name, Deepawali, or simply shortened as Diwali.

Some view it as the day Krishna defeated the demon Narakasura or in honor of the day Bali went to rule the nether-world by the order of Vishnu.

In Jainism it marks the nirvana of Lord Mahavira, which occurred on Oct. 15, 527 B.C.

The Sikhs have always celebrated Diwali, however its significance increased historically when on this day the Sixth Guru, Guru Hargobind Ji, was freed from imprisonment along with 52 Hindu Kings (political prisoners) whom he had arranged to be released as well. These prisoners were all released at the same time from the famous fort of Gwalior by Emperor Jahangir in October, 1619. Since the kings were also freed, Guru Ji became known popularly as the "Bandi Chhorh" (deliverer from prison). He arrived at Amritsar on Diwali, and the HarMandar Sahib (the "Golden Temple") was lit with hundreds of lamps in celebration. For Sikhs, this day was thereafter known as the "Bandi Chhorh Divas" (the day of freedom).

In India, Diwali is now considered to be a national festival, and the aesthetic aspect of the festival is enjoyed by most Indians regardless of faith.

Rudy Giuliani's TV Ad...

By some strange coincidence, I just got this via email...

Anne Applebaum on Georgia's "Rose Revolution" Today

From The Washington Post:

Indeed, in a single week, the president of Georgia -- Mikheil Saakashvili, or "Misha" to his friends -- probably did more damage to American "democracy promotion" than a dozen Pervez Musharrafs ever could have done. After all, no one expected much in the way of democracy from Pakistan. But a surprising amount was expected of Georgia -- a small, clannish, mountainous country wedged between Russia and Turkey -- expectations that have now vanished in the crowds of riot police and clouds of tear gas that Saakashvili sent pouring out over the streets of Tbilisi, breaking up street demonstrations there last Wednesday. Bruce Jackson, president of the Project on Transitional Democracies, put it best: "Even for those of us who work professionally with self-destructive countries, this was an exceptionally bad day."

Rip Van Winkle...

Our recent trip to New York reminded this writer of Washington Irving's story of Rip Van Winkle. I was born and raised in New York City, and lived in Morningside Heights for almost a decade during in the 70s & 80s. I was unprepared for the experience of spending four days in the Times Square Hilton some 20 years later. It was, indeed, like waking up from a long sleep (with the exception of the IATSE theatre strike, which seemed familiar). What is this luxury hotel doing here? Where are the sleazy strip clubs? Where are the drug dealers? Where are the muggers? Where did these Disney attractions, Madame Tussaud's, Ripley's Believe It Or Not and giant M&M stores selling stuffed M&M dolls come from? Where are the squeegee men, the swirling columns of newspapers and trash flying in the wind? Where are the broken windows, the litter, the oozing sidewalks, exploding manhole covers? Why does the New York Times building stand empty and abandoned? Why has P.J. Clarke's replaced O'Neal's Baloon across from Lincoln Center? Why can't we promenade around the grand staircase at the Metropolitan Opera anymore (since tables and chairs from the restaurant have filled half the landing)? Where have all the Greek coffee shops gone? How did these chain stores get into Manhattan? Why does the type of standing lamp we got at a tag sale cost $900 at ABC Carpets? Why is the Plaza Hotel closed? Who are all these Europeans laden with shopping bags? What is that strange "T" on the side of the taxicabs? How do these Metrocards work in the subway turnstiles? Even Norman Mailer had died...

Looking south from the 39th floor of our hotel towards the tip of Manhattan, and again during a meeting on the south side of the 53rd floor of the Empire State Building. one could not help but wonder:

"What happened to the World Trade Center?"