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Hartford Courant: Love is creepy
In a February 11 Hartford Courant article spoofing Valentine’s Day romanticism, Andrew Stauffer, a CAS and GRS assistant professor of English, offered a reporter lighthearted analyses of several pop songs about the seedier side of love. He heard a lyrical link betweeen John Milton and the 1987 hit “Why Can’t I Be You,” by the goth rock band the Cure, whose singer Robert Smith declares that he wants to become the lover he adores. “There’s something beyond mere possessiveness that perfection inspires,” Stauffer says. “Smith tries to get at it with all sorts of exaggerated endearments, culminating in the sublime word ‘angelicate.’ Ultimately, he’s talking about a desire for a complete merging with the beloved. Incidentally, according to Milton, that’s how the angels have sex in Heaven. Note to self: Remember to try to go to Heaven.”
Brockton Enterprise: Color boundary at QB hard to break
In a sport with African-Americans well represented in every other position on the field, it is difficult to fathom why Donovan McNabb on February 6 became only the third black ever to quarterback an NFL team in the Super Bowl. “It’s hard to put a finger on” the reason the number of black quarterbacks in the NFL is “still out of whack,” says Len Zaichkowsky, an SED and MED professor of counseling and a prominent sports psychologist, in the February 4 Brockton Enterprise. “Some of it starts in Pop Warner. More often than not, where the African-Americans would be the most gifted ones, coaches put them in running backs or corner positions. They just don’t get the opportunity.”
The New Republic: Bush’s democracy talk empty
Pro-Western intellectuals in the Arab world reacted dismissively to President Bush’s talk about spreading democracy during his inauguration speech last month, writes Husain Haqqani, in an op-ed in the New Republic on February 7. In part, says the CAS and GRS associate professor of international relations, that’s because the United States is seen as supporting authoritarian governments in such countries as Azerbaijan, Egypt, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Uzbekistan. “Muslim liberals understand that temporary alliances with autocrats are sometimes necessary even for democracies,” writes Haqqani. “But a friendly dictator should be called just that, and not described as the builder of a future democracy.
“Another practical step could be active U.S. engagement with opposition leaders and parties in Islamic countries. . . . ” the piece continues. “[I]t is unlikely that regimes like Mubarak’s and Musharraf’s would withhold cooperation from the United States (and forgo the benefits in economic and military aid) because of increased U.S. engagement with their opposition. And engagement might eventually give Washington’s democrats an alternative to dealing with the world’s dictators.”
18
Fenruary 2005
Boston University
Office of University Relations