Silly, and rather more serious

I have decided that I was wrong in my ignorant criticism of Bush's foreign policy for two reasons:

1. Since it was the US who put the Taliban in power, they obviously have the right to remove them. The Lord giveth, and the Lord taketh away, indeedy-doody.

2. Shortly after September 11, we stopped getting Buffy the Vampire Slayer in Turkey. Now Bush has blown Afghanistan to kingdom come, Buffy is back. Ergo, anything that happens to Buffy is the fault of the Taliban. Ergo, Osama Bin Laden is a vampire.

On a more serious note, a BBC documentary prompted me to look up RAWA - Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan. At last I find a side in the conflict I can support wholeheartedly.

Vespers

Most things in life change, but Monteverdi's Vespers still takes me to
Heaven. As my brother once said, "You think it can't get any better ... and
then it does." Similarly, I'd been in an excellent mood all day - I was in one
of those counting-my-blessings moods where I reflect that happiness comes from
doing what you really want to do and having total conviction that it's the right
thing - then I came home and, since the team of ex-Soviet gymnasts weren't
waiting for me, put on my old, badly-recorded cassette of the Vespers.
Yes, life can get better!

Since not only were there no gymnasts, but my wife was still out, I put on
Beethoven's Grossefuge (I considerately reserve my heavy classical
binges for when I'm alone, sticking to stuff like Vivaldi and Corelli when N's
here). Man, that is the craziest piece of music I know! And the great thing
about listening to it alone is that I can jump up and down and scream "Ow!" (as
in Soul "Ow!", not yelp of pain). Now I'm listening to N's Maria Callas
compilation, which is odd, since I'm not a big opera fan, but it seemed the only
way to up the ante on the Grossefuge. Where do I go from here?
Stravinsky? Queen? Rage Against the Machine?