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It’s good to be the Shah?

Human Events runs a long and implausibly candid interview with Reza Pahlavi, son of the Shah of Iran, who seems to be campaigning for U.S. backing for a ‘peaceful’ overthrow of the mullahs. Highlights include:

I’m against developing any weapons of mass destruction. I work to see the world develop a process of disarmament because otherwise it will be madness. If we build it, tomorrow the Turks will build it, then the Saudis want to build it, then the Egyptians want to build it. Believe me, in that part of the world, there’s some track record how stable the world will feel having a whole bunch of nuclear warheads in the hands of all these people. Forget it. I’d be the first one proposing a plan to reverse the cycle of proliferation.

Since when has Israel been a threat to anyone? Israel just wants to be left alone and live in peace side by side with its neighbors. As far as I’m concerned, Israel never had any ambition to territorially go and invade, I don’t know, Spain or Morocco or anywhere else. And let me tell something else about Iran: Unlike the rest of the Islamic or Arab world, the relationship between Persia and the Jews goes back to the days of Cyrus the Great. We take pride as Iranians of having a history where Cyrus was the most quoted figure in the Torah, as a liberator of Jewish slaves, who went to Babylon and gave them true freedom for them to worship and in fact helped them build a temple. We have a biblical relation with Jews, and we have no problem with modern day Israel. As far as regional politics, I believe, I think many Iranians believe so, that as much as Israel has a right to exist, so should the Palestinians. They have to work the problem between each other. And we have no business interfering, and we need to help get as much stability in the region.

The reason the regime was using Khatami as the smiling face talking about a dialogue of civilizations was just to buy time. The same way that in the nuclear race they played the game of buying time by saying we’re going to negotiate with Russians or we’re not going to talk to them—buying time. Three years of endless negotiations has produced nothing. Why? The regime gained an extra three years. All I’m saying is that now, when you look at the future, we have a delicate time frame within which we can bring about change.

Q: In your Iran, Mahmoud Abdullah, the Afghan who converted to Christianity, would have every right to do that and the state would protect him from retaliation by radical clerics?

A: God, I hope so. I hope so. Because if we are basing our constitution on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that’s one of the most fundamental rights that any human being should have. I’m sick and tired of hypocrisy and all this dubious attitude that is so typical of our region. If you believe in something you say it, you don’t fool around. I mean, that’s where I’m coming from. I haven’t lived 45 years of my life to fool around with these things. If I’m willing to lose my life for it, hell I’m going to fight for these rights, otherwise it’s not worth it. Frankly it’s not worth it! I might as well forget about Iran and become a citizen and live my life in this country. No. I want to have the same rights you have over here over there. That’s what I’m fighting for! Otherwise why bother?

This ties into a link that VM reader Faiz K. sent over this weekend, about a Canada-based Iranian blogger’s experiences visiting Israel for the first time (and blogging about it):

Israel never existed except when Friday prayers would finish their “death to” chants with Israel. Everywhere else, even on maps, Tel Aviv was the capital of the “Zionist Regime” or “Occupied Palestine”.

I believed that Israelis saw no distinction between Mr Ahmadinejad and the former reformist president Mohammad Khatami of Iran, in the same way that Iranians could not differentiate Shimon Peres from Binyamin Netanyahu.

My biggest surprise was when I found myself with two other Iranians, completely randomly, on the same minibus from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv. I had no idea that Israel had the world’s largest proportion of Iranians in its population, outside Iran itself.

It was only then I could digest the fact that Israel’s President Moshe Katsav and Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz, despite their hardline stances against the Iranian government, were originally from Iran.

I’m working on a longish post about Dubai, city-states and Jane Jacobs, but I’m not sure how that’ll turn out. I’ll let you know.

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Idolatry

I’m a late convert to American Idol. The official VM wife had been extolling the program’s vices for a while, but I never gave it a shot until this season. It’s turned out to be pretty darned entertaining, especially with Dave White’s commentary over at The Advocate (so my wife reads The Advocate; is that so wrong?). And the Spoonbender’s preview is always a hoot.

I discovered that nothing can match the lunacy and self-delusion of the first few weeks of auditions, when clueless people try to sing their way onto the show. My boss thinks I’m a bad person for enjoying these so much, but I figure, “You sign your waiver, you take your chances.”

Anyway, the season’s been pretty enjoyable, but it started to slow down in the last few weeks, as more of the novelty acts got voted off the show. (Sure, there was the train wreck of a night where the contestants had to perform songs by Queen, but it’s otherwise been pretty sluggish.)

And then there was last Tuesday’s episode.

The contestants had to sing “great love songs,” as coached by Andrea Bocelli and his producer. Not promising in itself, the episode was redeemed by the sight of Paula Abdul breaking down in tears after a guy’s performance. She tried to talk about some sort of “triumph of the human spirit” moment, but she was just incoherent and crying. What made this more perfect was the mid-range camera shot, in which we saw co-judge Simon Cowell trying to stifle his laughter. Inspired.

Anyway, I bring this up because there’s a neat article in the NYTimes about the history of show’s own audition, when it was being pitched to every network in America. And to admit that I watch American Idol.

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Because they can’t

John Kenneth Galbraith died this weekend. The NYTimes has a long obit, including the entertaining caveat:

He strived to change the very texture of the national conversation about power and its nature in the modern world by explaining how the planning of giant corporations superseded market mechanisms. His sweeping ideas, which might have gained even greater traction had he developed disciples willing and able to prove them with mathematical models, came to strike some as almost quaint in today’s harsh, interconnected world where corporations devour one another.

Make with the read-read.

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Because they can

Robert Kagan has a longish column at the Washington Post today about why Russia & China support other dictatorships (instead of supporting liberal reform the way U.S. & Europe sorta do):

An irony that Europeans should appreciate is that China and Russia are faithfully upholding one cardinal principle of the international liberal order — insisting that all international actions be authorized by the U.N. Security Council — in order to undermine the other principal aim of international liberalism, which is to advance the individual rights of all human beings, sometimes against the governments that oppress them. So while Americans and Europeans have labored over the past two decades to establish new liberal “norms” to permit interventions in places such as Kosovo, Rwanda and Sudan, Russia and China have used their veto power to prevent such an “evolution” of norms. The future is likely to hold more such conflicts.

Read all about it.

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Baldwins Redux

Okay: last week, I wrote about Page 6 and how we rank the Baldwins. If you go through the comments, you’ll find some debate over who’s the “least-known” Baldwin. (There’s also a great comment/anecdote from my buddy Tom.)

My ranking runs as follows: Alec, Daniel, Stephen, and Billy. There’s some debate over the bottom two, but I figured Daniel was fairly ensconced in that #2 slot.

Then comes today’s Page 6, with the following item:

DANIEL Baldwin, the blow-loving black sheep of the Baldwin brothers, has been arrested again on drug charges. Cops say they were responding to a loud noise coming from Baldwin’s room at the Ocean Park Inn in Santa Monica the other day, when they found him holding a drug pipe. Baldwin, 45, and another man, Anthony Hunter, 52 — who was reportedly hiding in the bathroom — were also found in possession of a “small amount of cocaine,” police said. Baldwin spent the night in jail and posted $10,000 bail the next day. The least-known Baldwin brother last made headlines when he had a drug-induced meltdown during the filming of the VH1 reality show, “Celebrity Fit Club.” In 1998, Daniel was found running naked, high on crack cocaine, through the Plaza hotel. Cops were called following complaints that the actor was watching porno movies with the sound turned up loud. After being hospitalized for an overdose, he pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct and was sentenced to three months in drug rehab. Baldwin has admitted battling a cocaine addiction since 1989, shortly after he started his career in Hollywood.

Now, I just don’t know what’s what. Daniel as least-known? When Billy’s biggest movies were Sliver and Fair Game (which was derived from the same novel as Cobra?

So, when all else fails, I will try to re-establish Billy Baldwin’s least-known status with the following series of pictures:

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Across the Transom

Most people get those wacky Nigeria e-mails during the workday. What do I get? An open letter to the CEO of GlaxoSmithKline, apparently written by Borat (just out of discretion, I’ve redacted all personal names, except J-P’s):

Jean-Pierre Garnier,
Chief Executive Officer

Sofia, April 29, 2006

Re: GSK in Bulgaria: Lilliputian in One Year

Dear CEO,

Few months ago as the GSK’s chief partner in Bulgaria we’ve revealed the GSK representative was involved in dubious and near corruption practices and have deplored her threatening and intimidating letters in return (all timely & expressly mailed to you). Now, Mrs. XXXX XXXX unilaterally terminated the two GSK cooperation agreements with Commercial League, the largest pharmaceutical company in the territory. Such an illegal act has no material and contractual ground and bears several harmful consequences.

Beyond the severity of the legal and reputationally unavoidable damages I am more concerned about the long term deterioration of CL/ GSK business relations, at the end turning Glaxo to a Lilliputian pharmaceutical company in the fast growing market of Bulgaria, and perhaps other Balkan countries. I am sure you understand, despite systemic anomalies of the representative or any corporate friction by now notwithstanding, as the GSK main contractual partner CL’s unrivaled marketing machine did not compete directly with your product sales. However, this is exactly what your representative, undoubtedly endorsed by Mr. XXXX XXXX, is inviting through the latest hostile and illegal move. Twelve months from now sales of your peers will replace otherwise good portfolio of GSK in all strategic therapeutical arias and only you can take the lead to stop this inevitable down slide, hopefully not too late.

You know, you personally command my enormous respect,
Kindly

[XXXXXXX] Chief Executive Officer

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More on Jacobs

Witold Rybczynski at Slate has a brief appreciation of Jane Jacobs’s work. He points out that Jacobs largely ignored the suburbs, which is putting it mildly. In her best-known book, she considers them solely as a negative, the way most urban theorists do. Which reminds me that I need to get back to reading Bruegmann’s Sprawl sometime soon, maybe before I make the leap into that Robert Moses book. Guess I oughtta get to reading Rybczynski’s City Life sometime, too.

(And I oughtta get back to some of my ruminations on Jacobs & New Orleans)

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Happyish Anniversary!

Today marks the one-year anniversary of my dad’s quintuple bypass (or clock-resetting, as he calls it). He’s recovered pretty well, but he’s gotten kinda sedentary again, which led to piling on some weight. He also doesn’t seem to attach any psychological significance to the fact that he’s been compulsively buying “designer” watches off of Ebay.

Anyway, Dr. Praeger’s procedure has bought time for Dad, for which I’m thankful. Pop’s also finally booted his cardiologist, who had the charm (and appearance) of a used car dealer from 1982. I haven’t made enough time for Dad lately; not like the first few months after surgery, when I was over at his place after work, getting him on the treadmill, talking him through Jim Cramer’s stock advice.

Coincidentally, I read this article about Philip Roth’s new book, Everyman, today. It’s about old age and mortality:

“Old age isn’t a battle,” the protagonist thinks to himself after calling a former colleague who is dying in a hospice. “Old age is a massacre.”

“This book came out of what was all around me, which was something I never expected — that my friends would die,” Mr. Roth said. “If you’re lucky, your grandparents will die when you’re, say, in college. Mine died when I was a schoolboy. If you’re lucky, your parents will live until you’re somewhere in your 50’s; if you’re very lucky, into your 60’s. You won’t ever die, and your children, certainly, will never die before you. That’s the deal, that’s the contract. But in this contract nothing is written about your friends, so when they start dying, it’s a gigantic shock.”

Reminds me of that line from Fight Club: “On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero.”

Dad, meanwhile, was giving himself milestones, in the “I just have to live until . . .” dates, like his grandkids’ visit last summer, or my wedding last March. Now that there are no big events to “live until,” he has to start living for each day.

If I have to tell the rest of you again to make the most of the time you have, I don’t know what I’m gonna do. . .

(More coincidentally, my iTunes just shuffled onto “O, Death,” by Ralph Stanley. You know I wouldn’t make up something so obvious.)

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Park it

Conference over! Now my boss & I head off to the Tigers-Angels game! For those of you scoring at home (ha-ha), this is the ninth ballpark I’ve visited (Yankees, Mets, Baltimore, Philly, Toronto, Oakland, Seattle, San Diego); there may be a Fenway visit (grr) in June, too.

Back in 2002, after breaking up with a LONGtime girlfriend, I plotted out a driving trip to hit 7 or 8 ballparks in 9 or 10 days. I thought about it pretty seriously, but concluded that a solo drive that long probably would’ve left me talking to myself WAY too much. I’m glad to do it this way, visiting parks when business-travel brings me around.

I only wish I’d scalped tickets a few Sundays ago for the Cubs-Cards game at Wrigley.