Placido Domingo is to sing an unprecedented duet in Arabic with an Egyptian singer at a concert in Dubai next month.

He’s the “smart tenor”.

Yes, that’s an actual quote from a new media campaign linking conservation with godliness.

“We are under a commandment to be faithful stewards of God’s creation,” said Paul Gorman, executive director of the National Religious Partnership for the Environment, an umbrella organization of Christian and Jewish groups. “This is a crisis in God’s creation at the hands of God’s children.”

Leaders of many groups within the partnership have signed a letter to the Big Three’s chief executives asking for improvements in fuel economy. They say they have a biblical mandate to be good stewards of God’s creation and a responsibility to the poor who are especially harmed by pollution. And they decry supporting “autocratic, corrupt and violent” governments that produce oil.

I think the more likely outcome, if there a lot of such ads, is that it will lower the power of religion, but not oil. This country manages to combine one of the highest rates of believers in God in the rich world with a depressing lack of concern for anyone less fortunate.

Another good thing from the world of religion this week: Nuns arrested during protests against the formerly-named School of the Americas.

See Mattitude, I do show this side too.

For an article on credit cards and adult sites, the NY Times has a picture of the owner of an S&M site. I wonder which Times employee volunteered the site name for the article?

If I see one more member of the Liberal (ha) Media talk about whether Nancy Pelosi is too far left for America, I’m going to scream. Who is the House GOP Leader? It’s Tom DeLay, a man who attacked my alma mater (Texas A&M) for failing to teach creationism.

Good write-ups on this may be found from Joe Conason and No More Mr. Nice Blog.

We didn’t make it to Williamsburg for The Civilians last night. The weather was awful, and the downtown trains weren’t running, so we gave up.

We did go today, for a studio visit with the sweet and talented Meredith Allen, followed by visits to Plus Ultra and Bellwether.

We had a great dinner at M — and I see they’re having an Eileen Myles reading on December 18.

If I were in SF, I would go see the latest show by Assume Vivid Astro Focus at Peres Projects.

Check out Sick Bionic Woman.

We went to see “Our Country’s Good” tonight at Culture Project. Loved it — go read James’s account.

The other highlight of the evening: I met Dakota in person finally, rather than only via email. I hadn’t realized she was so beautiful. I have a thing for smart attractive New England girls.

Archeologists have found a temple near Roman Emperor Hadrian’s villa dedicated to his lover Antinous.

If you haven’t read Marguerit Yourcenar’s Memoirs of Hadrian, go do it right now!