What the hell is up with the cast from The Sopranos?

It is interesting how life sometimes mirrors fiction. I was looking at the news this week and read about Lilloo Brancato Jr.’s murder acquittal and was thinking about the fact that this is not the first time I have seen someone in the news from The Sopranos lately. Here is a quick rundown of what has been going on since the show began a few years ago:

In 2008 John Costelloe was found dead, apparently of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Lilloo Brancato Jr. was acquitted of the murder of a police officer, but found guilty of the lesser charge of attempted burglary for a botched robbery involving drugs 3 years ago. . (One might also note that he was arrested a few years ago for heroin possession.) Also Joe Pantoliano spoke out about depression while promoting an organization he founded two years ago to address the stigma attached to mental illness. His group is called: “No Kidding, Me Too!”.

This was all preceeded by the arrest of John Ventimiglia on charges of DUI and cocaine possession in 2006 and the arrest of Louis Gross same year for assaulting a Manhattan merchant.

In 2005 Vincent Pastore plead guilty to assaulting his girlfriend. Not to be outdone, Louis Gross found himself in trouble with the law for breaking and entering.

In 2002, Robert Iler, who plays Tony Soprano’s son plead guilty to robbing tourists.

Possibly most interesting, Tony Sirico, who played Paulie Gualtieri has been reported to have been an associate of the Colombo crime family prior to working as an actor. While that is not a proven fact, it is well known that he has a record including 28 arrests and served 13 months in prison for felony weapons possession.

So I have to ask myself once more: “What the hell is up with the cast of the Sopranos”.
Read more!

Turks apologize for Armenian massacres

You might wonder why I would be bringing this up in a forum for people in Buenos Aires. Although the United Nations acknowledge the genocide of the Armenians in 1973, calling it "The first genocide of the 20th century" and U.S. Presidents Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan acknowledged it, in 1985 Argentina became the first country to acknowledge the genocide of the Armenians by the Ottoman Empire from 1915 to 1917. Additionally, as of 2007 there are about 130,000 Armenians living in Argentina making it the 8th largest group outside of Armenia.

Here is an article I read this evening:

Turks apologize for Armenian massacres
Prominent intellectuals show regret online for World War I-era atrocities

ANKARA, Turkey - A group of about 200 Turkish intellectuals on Monday issued an apology on the Internet for the World War I-era massacres of Armenians in Turkey.

The group of prominent academics, journalists, writers and artists avoided using the contentious term "genocide" in the apology, using the less explosive "Great Catastrophe" instead.

"My conscience does not accept that (we) remain insensitive toward and deny the Great Catastrophe that the Ottoman Armenians were subjected in 1915," read the apology. "I reject this injustice, share in the feelings and pain of my Armenian brothers, and apologize to them."

The apology is a sign that many in Turkey are ready to break a long-held taboo against acknowledging Turkish culpability for the deaths.

Historians estimate that, in the last days of the Ottoman Empire, up to 1.5 million Armenians were killed by Ottoman Turks in what is widely regarded as the first genocide of the 20th century. Armenians have long pushed for the deaths to be recognized as genocide.

While Turkey does not deny that many died in that era, the country has rejected the term genocide, saying the death toll is inflated and the deaths resulted from civil unrest during the Ottoman Empire's collapse.

Online apology
Nearly 2,500 members of the public also signed the online apology, giving their support to the intellectuals.

Nobel Prize-winning author Orhan Pamuk was prosecuted after he commented on the mass killings in 2005. Hrant Dink, an ethnic Armenian journalist was shot outside his Istanbul office in 2007, following his prosecution for comments he made about the killings of Armenians.

Turkish nationalists have criticized the online apology and on Monday a group of some 60 retired Turkish diplomats described the move "as unfair, wrong and unfavorable to national interests."

"Such an incorrect and one-sided attempt would mean disrespecting our history," the diplomats said.

Devlet Bahceli, the leader of the Nationalist Action Party said: "No one has the right to insult our ancestors, to present them as criminals and to ask for an apology."

By late Monday, there were no public threats of legal action over the petition.

"Many in Turkey today, in good faith, believe that nothing happened to the Armenians. For many years, the official line has been that this was a secondary event that occurred in the conditions of World War I. But the truth is not so," Cengiz Aktar, a professor at Istanbul's Bahcesehir University and one of the petition's organizers told Vatan newspaper in an interview.

Voice from the conscience
"It is a voice from the conscience. Those who want to apologize can, those who don't want to don't have to," he said.

Gila Benmayor, a journalist and columnist for Turkey's mass-circulation Hurriyet newspaper said she signed the petition because she believes "the time has come for change."

"Some things need to spoken, need to be discussed and expressed in an open way," she told The Associated Press.

She said she did not hesitate to sign the petition because the wording was not controversial.

"The words were carefully chosen so as not to upset any side," she said. "We are not betraying anyone. We are merely telling the Armenians that we share their grief."

The apology comes at a time when Turkey and Armenia have taken steps toward repairing ties. The two neighbors have no diplomatic relations and their shared border has been closed since 1993, when Turkey protested Armenia's occupation of Nagorno-Karabakh. Turkey backs Azerbaijan's claims to the disputed region, which has a high number of ethnic Armenian residents but is located within Azerbaijan's borders.

In September, however, President Abdullah Gul became the first Turkish leader to visit Armenia, where he and Armenian President Serge Sarkisian watched their countries' football teams play a World Cup qualifying match. Read more!

Argentine Strikes Destroying Tourism?

Well it seems that a blend of the world's economic times, routine Kirchner government incompetence and public revolt are now destroying the stability of the tourism industry here.

Strikes in particular are expected to create many issues with tourists. On Thursday the U.S. Embassy in Buenos Aires advised tourists to take the massive demonstrations here into account when making travel plans.
As many of you know, yesterday the subway workers were on strike for higher wages. Gas station owners and over 100,000 bank employees are expected to go on strike next week. Taxi drivers have announced that they are going to strike on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

With the seizure of the nation's pension fund, inflation sitting just about at 30% and annual growth of only about 1.5% (as contrasted to the 8% the last several years) and an estimate by UBA economist Jarvier Kulesz that the economy will only grow by about 0.3% next year, I would imagine that this is merely the beginning.

Hang on, it should prove to be an interesting ride. In the mean time I hear the beaches in Uruguay are great this time of year, and guess what.... no Kirchners, no D'Elia and no strikes......... Read more!

John McCain's Palin: A Collage of Perspectives

The Republican Perspective

Colin Powell, President Bush’s former Secretary of State, said that her unreadiness to be president was a significant factor in his endorsement of the Democrat last week. Ken Adelman, a Republican hawk and former close friend of Dick Cheney who has become disillusioned with the Bush Administration, is backing Mr Obama. He said that the choice of Mrs Palin had made him switch sides.

The Ethical Perspective Part 1

The Governor of Alaska spoke hours before giving a sworn deposition in the Troopergate inquiry in a hotel in St Louis, Missouri, as a second investigation opened into whether she abused her office by trying to have a state policeman fired to settle a personal score. A first report issued earlier this month concluded that she violated ethics laws in attempts to get her former brother-in-law sacked.

The Voter Perspective

A Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll on Wednesday asked voters what concerns them about the Republican ticket, and Mrs Palin was the No 1 worry for them; 47 per cent had a negative impression of her, while only 38 per cent saw her in a positive light. Her inexperience and faltering responses to foreign policy questions has also helped to erase the “Palin bounce” that boosted the ticket in the fortnight after she was chosen: 55 per cent now think that she is unqualified to be president, a troublesome number given Mr McCain’s age.


The Ethical Perspective Part 2

Meanwhile a Republican election worker who claimed that a black man had carved a “B” into her cheek after seeing a McCain bumper sticker on her car has confessed that she invented the story. Mrs Palin telephoned Ashley Todd, 20, a white college student from Texas, expressing her concern. Last night Pittsburgh police arrested and charged the woman with making a false report.

The Venezuelan Perspective

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said US vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin is a confused "beauty queen". "I saw the vice presidential candidate, there she was talking about 'the dictator Hugo Chavez.' The poor thing, you just feel sorry for her," he said during a televised broadcast. "She's a beauty queen that they've pulled out to be a figurehead. We need to say as Christ did: Forgive her, she knows not what she's saying," he said.

The Ethical Perspective Part 3

New reports of Palin's misspending government funds for personal financial benefit emerged from an Associated Press investigation this week. Palin charged taxpayers over $20,000 to pay for her daughters to travel with her to events to which they were not invited, including 64 one-way and 12 round-trip tickets, as well as the girls' own expensive hotel rooms. In all, previous reports have estimated Palin charged taxpayers more than $43,000 in travel expenses for family members.
If that weren't enough, it seems Palin lied on official reimbursement forms, saying the girls were invited when, according to organizers of the events, they were not. But it doesn't stop there. Apparently, after she was tapped as Sen. John McCain's running mate, Palin went back and amended the expense reports with language to make the travel sound like official business, as is necessary for reimbursement under Alaska state law.

The United States as a Union Perspective

The Alaska Independence Party calls itself the third largest organization in the United States. Its platform calls for the defense of "states rights," to "seek the complete repatriation of the public lands, held by the federal government, to the state and people of Alaska in conformance with Article 1, Section 8, Clause 17, of the federal constitution." Basically, the AIP wants a vote on secession. The AIP says that Gov. Sarah Palin used to be a member of the party. Earlier this year, Palin recorded a welcoming address to the AIP's convention. At the AIP's meeting, the AIP's vice chairman, Dexter Carter, extols Gov. Palin's virtues. He went on to recall Palin's service as a member of the party.

The Ethical Perspective Part 4

Gov. Sarah Palin is campaigning as a budget watchdog eager to shave frivolous government spending. That image took a hit Tuesday when The Washington Post reported the governor charges the state for travel expenses while living at her Wasilla home, and the Palin camp defended her conservative credentials. The newspaper reported that Palin billed the state for meal money while spending more than 300 nights at her Valley home during her first 19 months in office. The money is supposed to be used for when an official travels on state business, not for a commute from an Anchorage office to a home in Wasilla.

The Cosmetic/Hairstylist/Garment Industry Perspective

After Sarah Palin came under scrutiny for her wardrobe expenses, new details have emerged, which show that US Republican presidential candidate John McCain's campaign paid 3 makeup artists a total of $52,000 over 6 weeks.

It also emerged that the highest-paid McCain staff member for the first two weeks of this month was Mrs Palin’s make-up artist. Amy Strozzi, who once did make-up work on the television show So You Think You Can Dance?, received $22,800 for that fortnight, more than the candidate’s chief foreign policy adviser.

Palin's traveling hair stylist Angela Lew, the fourth highest paid individual during that time, was paid $10,000 over two weeks in October for what the campaign called "communications consulting."

Palin has come under scrutiny this week when it was disclosed the Republican National Committee spent $150,000 on her wardrobe at high-end department stores like Neiman Marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue. Palin argued the clothes were bought for the Republican National Convention. Read more!