[net.politics] the Shah

colonel@gloria.UUCP (George Sicherman) (09/27/84)

[checkmate]

If we're putting it to a vote, I'll vote "no" on the late Shah.  By all
accounts he was a weak and foolish ruler, whose chief love in life was
casino games.  He also appears to have been as great an enemy of free
speech as his successor.

The only good I have read of him is that he promoted literacy in Iran,
thus accelerating his own destruction.  But in view of what has come
after, I cannot regard even this as an unqualified improvement.  Giving
literacy to a tribal culture is like giving teeth to a butterfly.
-- 
Col. G. L. Sicherman
...seismo!rochester!rocksanne!rocksvax!sunybcs!gloria!colonel

jdb@qubix.UUCP (Jeff Bulf) (10/10/84)

Wish I could remember who recorded this ditty that I used to hear on the late,
lamented KFAT.

[bouncy, ragtime]
		Let's all hear it for the Shah of Iran
		He's a hell of guy, a wonderful man
		Besides he has already paid for our thanks
		He put 25 billion in the Chase ManHattan Bank.
-- 
	Dr Memory
	...{decvax,ucbvax,ihnp4}!decwrl!qubix!jdb