Status Quo Ante

Technorati Tags: Iran,Theocracy

Of all the Latin phrases we use, Status Quo Ante gives the most pause as well as exhilaration. 

After incident X, do we really want to go back to the context in which we found ourselves prior to X?  Sometimes yes.  Sometimes no.

Is it even possible to return to that prior context?

That is the situation in which the Iranians find themselves today, the 2 week mark from their problem election.

The hard-line mullahs must know that their regime cannot ever return to June 11, 2009.  They must be scrambling to preserve something of their theocracy, but they scramble in vain. 

The Islamic revolution of Khomeini ended on June 12, 2009.  The status quo ante June 12 is gone.

Exhilaration.

Trust, but verify (and be patient).

Sphere: Related Content

Whiplash

Technorati Tags: Iraq,Bush Administration,US Centcom

Feel, Dear Gentle Reader(s), like doing some virtual neck exercise?  Zip back and forth from the news organizations’ reporting of the latest suicide bombers’ body count in Iraq and US CENTCOM’s public relations’ “Latest News Feed” where you’ll read about a Farmers’ Market opening.

What have we visited upon those people with our shoot-‘em-up foreign policies?

Very good news and very, very bad news.

Trust, but verify.

Sphere: Related Content

Crocodile Tears

Technorati Tags: Iran

On Friday “Ayatollah” Khamenei wept.  On Saturday his thugs murdered.

Crocodile tears, false holy man!

Sphere: Related Content

A Different Ayatollah?

Technorati Tags: Andrew Sullivan,Iran,Islamic Reformation

Here, Dear Gentle Reader(s), is a clip from a posting by Andrew Sullivan on his blog, “The Daily Dish.”  The posting concerns a statement issued by a reformist cleric Ayatollah Montazeri who comments, in part, on the current demonstrations in Iran:

1- A legitimate state must respect all points of view. It may not oppress all critical views. I fear that this lead to the lost of people’s faith in Islam.

2- Given the current circumstances, I expect the government to take all measures to restore people’s confidence. Otherwise, as I have already said, a government not respecting people’s vote has no religious or political legitimacy.

3- I invite everyone, specially the youth, to continue reclaiming their dues in calm, and not let those who want to associate this movement with chaos succeed.

4- I ask the police and army personals not to “sell their religion”, and beware that receiving orders will not excuse them before god. Recognize the protesting youth as your children. Today censor and cutting telecommunication lines can not hide the truth.

I pray for the greatness of the Iranian people.

So, there are some clerics in Iran who do not wish to reside in the Dark Ages any longer.

Let’s hope the Iranian people come out of this with better lives.

Trust, but verify.

Sphere: Related Content

4.6 and counting

Technorati Tags: Iran,Democracy,Islamic Republic of Iran,State Suppression

Bing tells us:  “The Earth is about 4.6 billion years old and formed along with rest of solar system. The Milky Way galaxy that contains the solar system probably formed around 13.6 billion years ago. The universe is calculated to be about 13.7 billion years old, dating from the Big Bang.” (Encarta Encyclopedia)

So, taking the long view, the Islamic Republic of Iran, established on April 1, 1979, is a small point in the timeline of Earth.  Friday’s vote could well have been the last day of that republic, regardless of what happens over the next few days or months or years.

The ruling theocrats have lost the support of too many of the people.  The thugs might well get the upper hand for the time being, but, like the Chinese Tienanman Square democratic movement, the movement towards a more progressive and democratic Iran is inevitable.

Good luck to the people of Iran.

Bad cess to politically inclined theologians.

Trust, but verify.

Sphere: Related Content

Muckroom’s Snark of the Day

Technorati Tags: Townhall.com,George Will,Pundits

Perhaps, Dear Gentle Reader(s), Snort should be in the title instead of Snark.  (Is there such a word as “snark?”  “Snarky” is used often, but “snark?”)

Today’s “sheesh!” response to a Townhall.com email offering comes from the lede of a column by George Will.  Try this for an eye-rolling moment: "I," said the president, who is inordinately fond of the first-person singular pronoun, "want to disabuse people of this notion that somehow we enjoy meddling in the private sector."

Cute, eh wot?

“…inordinately fond of the first-person singular pronoun…” somewhat skirts the point that a syndicated columnist based in the most influential newspaper in the nation’s capitol is the epitome of one who the “first-person singular pronoun” simply by virtue of position and ability to publish a personal essay which is nothing but a long first-person singular pronouns I, me, mine, my.

And, of course, the comment had nothing to do with the discussion at hand—the nation’s economy.

Nice work, Georgie Porgie.

Trust, but verify.

Sphere: Related Content

Martyrdom? Never! Updated*

Technorati Tags: Guantanamo Bay Detainees,Trials,Islamofascists,Pleas

There’s a breaking story in The New York Times, Dear Gentle Reader(s), which gives pause on first reading.

Here’s the email alert teaser:

U.S. Could Let Detainees Plead Guilty Without Trials

The Obama administration is considering a change in the law
for the military commissions at the prison at Guantánamo Bay,
Cuba, that would clear the way for detainees facing the death
penalty to plead guilty without a full trial.

The provision could permit military prosecutors to avoid
airing the details of brutal interrogation techniques. It
could also allow the five detainees who have been charged
with the Sept. 11 attacks to achieve their stated goal of
pleading guilty to gain what they have called martyrdom.

Allow them to become martyrs?  And give the Islamofascists more recruiting posters?

Never.

Name them as murderers.  Have Islamic theologians denounce their crimes.  Keep them imprisoned in shame for the rest of their lives.

Trust, but verify.

*Latest NYTimes link

Sphere: Related Content