The Dish

"In the world’s most beautiful city [Rome] with the Grenfell girls, Debbie Bismarck and her little boy Sasha, whom I tried to corrupt by telling him how good Wehrmacht uniforms looked around the ancient city long ago," – Taki, the Spectator (London). (Subscription req.)

If you have a real appetite for Vatican gossip, politics and theology, you could do a lot worse than visit this peppy blog by one Rocco Palmo. He’s got the papal dope. One random money quote:

We’ll have to get pictures of this posted as soon as they’re available, but the Cardinal-Secretary of State is celebrating the Quincentenary Mass of the Pontifical Swiss Guard… in fiddleback. And lace alb.

This will excite many of you, I am well-aware.

You know who you are. Great pics too.

Like the torture ordered at Abu Ghraib, some things do not register when they are merely facts. Some need to become photos before they sink in.

Karl Rove is now and long has been the under-taker.

In the current HIV prevention discussion, this idea is well worth airing and perhaps pursuing: Why not put all HIV-negative men on a simple anti-retroviral regimen as a prophylaxis, rather than as a treatment? In any single case, the likelihood of possible transmission drops (because the drugs kill off the virus before it can take hold of a new immune system). The big studies being done will help confirm whether there are collective behavioral adjustments that undermine the effort to reduce transmission. My own view is that gay men, if the studies pan out, could and perhaps should embark on a proactive campaign to get as many sexually active men as possible on meds. It’s a way for HIV-negative men to do something which is not simply defensive in nature, and make decisions about their health in a moment outside the inevitable irrationality of a sexual encounter. We’re used to taking pills after we’ve become sick. Why not take them before – as a prevention technique? Even a mild decline in transmission could drastically alter the dynamic of the epidemic – for the better. Next up: involve vulnerable African-American women in the same discussion.

It’s so important for us not to equate the Islamo-fascist nutters in the Tehran regime with the Iranian people themselves. One thing we have learned from Iraq. You can destroy tyranny; you can create an opening for democracy; but people have to choose democracy for themselves. In Iran, a huge majority would, but cannot. Here’s one small story about a poetry club in Tehran – a group that specializes in reading English poetry and literature – that gives us a glimpse of what’s beneath the surface. Money quote:

Meetings are held every Monday afternoon in the disused offices of the banned literary magazine Karnameh; dust coats the desks and the posters are all peeling, but such touches only add to the atmosphere. The members hail from a variety of backgrounds – they range from impoverished students to culturally concerned doctors and dentists – but all attend meetings with the kind of reverence that would humble those jaded by literary freedoms in the west.

Nor are their efforts purely recreational: when they’re done with a poet their notes go to translators, who prepare Farsi versions that are printed and bound along with the original English texts. In a few years they hope to publish the first Modern English Poets in Farsi – assuming they can find a publisher.

"We like to think that all major movements begin with a handful of dedicated people," says Maryam Akbari, a member since day one, "and that’s exactly what we are."

Keep hope alive.

"Iraq, which is born a little and dies a little every day, defies all rules," – Roger Cohen, summing it up, NYT today.

"This is almost as good as being an Oprah book … I was not turned off by such an endorsement. I’m not repulsed, and I’m not going to pretend I am," – far left author, William Blum, reacting to support for his book by mass-murderer, Osama bin Laden.

A lot of this blog is hilarious. I especially liked this summary of Will Ferrell’s "Kicking and Screaming" movie:

INT. SPACIOUS MALIBU HOUSE – EVENING.

Will Ferrell comes home after a long day of not being funny. His wife is stretching after a Pilates work out.

WILL: Honey? Do you think it will be funny if I make a movie where I’m the coach of a peewee soccer team full of retards and kids with sclerosis?

WIFE: No.

WILL: Do you think Universal will give me 20 million dollars to make it anyway?

There is a long pause as Will’s wife wonders if half that money is worth sitting through the premiere.

WILL: Or maybe we could do one where I’m like a championship bar-b-q chef or the world’s oldest synchronized swimmer? And the world’s oldest synchronized swimmer?

WIFE: Kill me.

Poifect.