Every Great Work Of Art ... Is

Look At Ayatollah Khomeini's Revolution And The Slogans That They Used: Anti-imperialism; Anti-colonialism; The Struggle Of The Have-nots Against The Haves; The State Monopoly Over Economy, Which Was Very Much Patterned After The Soviet Union. All Of These Things Did Not Come Out Of Islam. Islam Is Not That Developed.

Every Culture Has Something To Be Ashamed Of, But Every Culture Also Has The Right To Change, To Challenge Negative Traditions, And Create To New Ones.

What Dazzles Us In Stacy Schiff's Cleopatra Are Not The Alluring Mythologies About The Evasive Queen, But The Astonishing If Rare Historical Facts That Schiff Has Meticulously And Lovingly Excavated. Schiff Offers Not Just Cleopatra's Story But The Story Of An Amazing Era, One That Has Vanished But Still Affects Us, Questioning The Way We Look At Myth, History, And Ourselves.

This Is A Good Time To Ask Apologists For The Islamic Regime, Who Degrades Islam? Who Imposes Stoning, Forced Marriage Of Underage Girls And Flogging For Not Wearing The Veil? Do Such Practices Represent Iran's Ancient History And Culture, Its Ethnic And Religious Diversity? Its Centuries Of Sensual And Subversive Poetry?

The Worst Crime Committed By Totalitarian Mind-sets Is That They Force Their Citizens, Including Their Victims, To Become Complicit In Their Crimes. Dancing With Your Jailer, Participating In Your Own Execution, That Is An Act Of Utmost Brutality.