The spirit is alive

That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness..... when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

Declaration of Independence

These words are not the most-often-cited part of the Declaration, but they are the core of it. The legitimacy of a government comes not from force, not from God, not from royal succession, but from the consent of the people it governs. There would have been little point in establishing the United States as an independent nation if it had been just another monarchy or theocracy. It's the principle that the people determine the government and not vice-versa that was important.

The United States in practice fell far short of its ideals until much later. One-eighth of our people were enslaved until 1865; one-half were disenfranchised until 1920. The fight to preserve and expand freedom in other areas continued, and continues today. But the ideals have always been there, calling us in the right direction.

On these anniversaries, distracted by mall sales and fireworks, we modern Americans too easily neglect to keep those ideals in our thoughts. Yet they have thrived and spread -- even, as we have so recently been reminded, to the far side of the world.

Link roundup for 4 July 2009

See if you can figure out what this unknown life form is.

A bubble is caught at the instant of popping (found via Mendip).

Cuteness break: baby otters!

These creatures are considerably less attractive, but they've achieved world peace.

More Iranian rap: Farinâz sings Be Nâm-e Zan ("In the Name of Woman"). I liked the comment by "Sheilamazhari" -- the Persian-language part means "No Muslim is Iranian, and no Iranian is Muslim".

Ranch Chimp sends news of two world-class idiots. One, here in Portland, called 911 over a botched hamburger order; the other, on RC's own home turf of Dallas, stole a truck and -- well, see for yourself.

In other idiot news, Oklahoma legislator and religious loon Sally Kern has introduced a proclamation blaming the recession on debauchery and ungodliness. Dissenting Justice and Forever in Hell have reactions.

Special bonus idiot: this must be the stupidest reason ever for wanting an abortion.

Some Americans don't want to learn the lesson of Iran.

Here's another egregious example of right-wing trolling. Notice how "Gideon" stomps onto someone else's turf, shits on everyone in sight, and then acts like the offended party when he gets called on it. (Normally I wouldn't link to a post just for the comments thread, but the point of this post is the stupidity of so much blog commenting. Besides, there's a cool blogging-chimp poster -- RC, is that you?)

It's not just the MSM that favor trivia over substance -- the Senate does too.

The evil of faith claims another child victim.

We should pay more attention to Vice Presidents.

More right-wing abuse of power: Bush used the Justice Depart-ment to target political opponents.

Palin has resigned as Governor of Alaska. The Brad Blog thinks there's a scandal about to break (found via Nancy).

Utter vileness: right-wingers hope for an attack on America.

Forty years after Stonewall, Police raid a gay bar in Fort Worth and attack customers, putting one in intensive care. More here and here (both sent by Ranch Chimp).

Better news from India, which has decriminalized homosexuality. The anti-gay law was a holdover from the days of British rule, but (predictably) was fervently supported by Indian religious leaders.

For Dominion Day, ManticoreWeb has a list of things to like about Canada.

Turkey doesn't seem to grasp the concept of free expression.

Iran news: The Tehran bazaar defied the theocracy Thursday and went on strike; major gatherings are planned nationwide for next Thursday, the 9th. The theocracy plans to murder 29 prisoners tomorrow. A friend of one arrested student describes the abuses being inflicted in detention. The doctor who tried to help Nedâ Aghâ-Soltân has escaped from Iran and speaks out here. The theocracy's British propaganda arm, Press TV (should be called "Mullah Haw-Haw") loses a spokesman.

A few points about health-care reform

I haven't written much about health-care reform because, frankly, it's a subject about which I don't know enough to contribute much. But I do have a few observations.

1) The national health systems in use in other countries vary widely in the quality of care they provide and in the degree of satisfaction that their people have with them. It's important not to rush into an ill-conceived plan here which, if implemented, might be worse than the situation we have now, when a more carefully-designed reform would produce better results. It's also important to avoid putting all our eggs in the basket of a plan which would risk rejection by the public. Any proposal under consideration needs to have a realistic chance of being enacted, or it's pointless.

2) Most things that work well, work well because of the element of competition -- if the customer can take his business elsewhere, the provider has an incentive to do a good job. Any national health plan must keep the element of competition between providers. Even if there's a single (governmental) payer, there need to be competing service providers and the ability of patients to switch from one to another to maintain the incentive for performance. The best way to do this would probably be a voucher system. Remember that while 15% of the population lacks insurance, 85% do have it, and they won't support (or allow their representatives to support) a reform which leaves them with less choice than they have now.

3) A question which will need to be addressed: Will the publicly-funded health plan serve illegal aliens? If it won't, we'll need to finally create some national system for distinguishing citizens and legal residents from illegal aliens. If the national health plan will serve illegal aliens, public opposition will prevent it from ever being implemented in the first place. A plan that spends taxpayer money to cover people who aren't even supposed to be in the country is a non-starter. It would be too unpopular. It would even risk handing the Republicans an issue they could use to revive their fortunes.

House on Mars

I've already posted about old-fashioned visions of the future and why one common element of those visions, colonization of other planets, never happened -- the lack of any benefit to be derived from doing so which could even begin to cover the staggering costs involved. (The popular but silly idea of off-Earth colonies as a hedge against human extinction in the event of some global disaster is discussed here.) Beyond such practical considerations, however, it's obvious that the thought of a "house on Mars" (or on Titan or Ganymede or whatever) holds a strong visceral appeal for some people which has nothing to do with usefulness or economic practicality. They want to be there. It's a romantic idea to them.

I don't get it. Yes, I could understand it back in the days when we pictured Mars as a world of canals and exotic creatures, but now? Now that we know what all those places are actually like?

If you really want a house in the middle of a frozen, lifeless, dimly-lit wasteland where nothing ever happens and where you would immediately die if you stepped out of doors without elaborate protection, you can probably get one in Antarctica -- and for literally a millionth of the cost. I'm sure Saturn is an impressive sight from its nearer moons, but a single piece of scenery that never changes would pall eventually, and then what would you have? There's less to go out and do on a dead world than there is in the tiniest and dullest town in whatever country you live in, never mind Rome or New York or London or Tokyo.

Well, that's not quite true. There's one very worthwhile thing to do on other planets -- scientific research. And we're going about that the right way, by sending ever-more-sophisticated machines to do it for us, rather than sealing humans into large tin cans for a years-long voyage, at the end of which they would probably be in no psychological condition to spend further years collecting data.

But there are reasons why nobody wants a house in Antarctica.

Ahmadinejad raps!

The Iranian resistance knows how to have some fun too -- a bit of creative editing transforms the theocracy's front man Mahmoud Ahmadinejad into a catchy musical self-parody. Check him out!

And don't forget that classic American right-wing favorite, Rappin' Bill O'Reilly.

What sites do you read?

The title says it all. I'm curious -- what other sites on the internet, of whatever kind, do you like to look at?

"I'll have the ant"

It was a big get-together to celebrate an important occasion, and about ten of us were at a restaurant fancier than I'd ever been in before. Perusing the menu, I decided to be adventurous, so I told the waiter, "I'll have the ant." It was one of the more expensive items on the menu, but what the hell, someone else was buying.

In due course it arrived -- a whole, cooked ant about a foot long, shiny and black and quite bristly, sitting on a plate barely large enough for it. It was as unappetizing a thing as you could imagine, and I was already thinking, "Why did I order this? I should've known I wasn't going to like it." I decided to try and eat it, though, since I was hungry and didn't want to waste such expensive food. I tried the head first, but due to its awkward shape and the thickness of the chitin I simply couldn't cut a piece off, even with a steak knife. I had better luck with the abdomen, which carved just like soft meat, though it was watery yellow and brown inside, totally unappetizing. It tasted even worse -- earwax would have been like chocolate by comparison.

I woke up at that point, but it took a minute or two for the (purely imagined) aftertaste to go away.

This was an actual dream I had a couple of weeks ago. Most of my dreams are equally unpleasant, but this is the first one in years that didn't fade from memory almost immediately. I rather wish it had.

Quote for the day (with bonus joke)

"Michael Jackson did not have a tragic childhood, nor did he have a tragic life. He had the life he chose. To excuse his behavior as though it was simply a pre-programmed result of his years as a child performer is not just intellectually lazy, it's an insult to every individual who has overcome true childhood hardship, depriva-tion and/or abuse to emerge as a functioning member of society. Michael Jackson was no bobbing cork on the sea of circumstance - he was a multi-millionaire with the means to choose any lifestyle he wanted. 'Functional adult' was one of the options. He chose otherwise. Celebrate the music if you like, but for decency's sake, don't celebrate the man."

"Kate" (found via CCiZ)

Michael Jackson joke for the day:

Farrah Fawcett dies and goes to Heaven. God greets her and says, "Since you were such a good person, I will grant you one wish." Farrah says, "I wish for the children of the world to become safer from molestation and abuse." God thinks for a moment and then says, "Done!"

Iran: the road ahead

With the regime's vicious crackdown over the last few days, the focus of the uprising has shifted from street protests to other strategies, the most significant of which (if it can be sustained) is the national strike. At the same time, the stakes have become higher, with the slogans shifting from "Where's my vote?" to "Death to the dictator!" This no longer is, if it ever really was, about who occupies the front-man "Presidency", nor about some reshuffling among the bearded holy men who hold the real power. It's about completely overthrowing a theocratic gangster-regime which has lost all claim to rule by anything other than naked force and fear.

This will take time. The revolution that brought down the Shah spanned months. But the regime cannot bring back the quiescent Iran that existed before June 11. As the thunderous nighttime shouts of Allâho akbar from the rooftops grow still louder, I'm reminded of Boris Yeltsin's quip: "You can build a throne out of bayonets, but you can't sit on it for long."

The internet, and specifically its decentralization of control over information, has transformed politics. Twitter and other internet tools have played a crucial role in organizing the resistance, and will continue to do so.

Then there were the blogs, from heavyweights like Sullivan and Totten and the Huffington Post to individual bloggers (many of them Iranians like Saeed Valadbaygi and Azarmehr), who have kept us up-to-date on the most earthshaking geopolitical event since 9-11, while the useless MSM blithered on with "full coverage" of Letterman-Palin and Michael Jackson and tomato-throwing contests, or at best focused on the internal maneuvering within the regime and barely discussed what was going on in the streets.

I've seen a couple of reports that some Basîj (government militia) members captured by the resistance turned out to be unable to speak Persian; they spoke only Arabic. There have been persistent rumors that the regime has brought in foreign enforcers to fight the uprising because its own army and police cannot be relied on to do so. If this is true, its days are numbered indeed.

Even so, it's important to remember the costs. Dozens (probably hundreds) have been killed, and many more arrested. While you are reading this, brave people are being tortured to force them to betray friends and allies. Be thankful that you live in a land where political activism does not carry such risks.

Link roundup for 27 June 2009

Have it your way -- at Burger King!

Artist of the week: Daniela Uhlig.

You may have trouble finding the ingredients for these dishes (via Mendip).

At last -- an honest obituary.

Vamp has a slideshow of religion quotes.

Here is where you'll find the shittiest people in the United States (sent by Ranch Chimp). Fortunately, they're staying there.

Another right-winger sounds off against gay marriage. His secret weapon: Latin.

Trade unionists in Britain and other countries rally in solidarity with Iran.

Yes, there are still witch-burnings in the twenty-first century. And there's this, which is almost as dangerously ignorant.

Whales off the Argentine coast are being viciously harassed.

After reading this, I have yet another incentive to lose weight.

Not all crop circles are made by hoaxers. Some are made by druggies.

These carvings may be the oldest examples of the Cherokee script.

See photos of the killer floods in the Czech Republic.

Scientists can now actually watch a memory being formed.

In Tehran's sky

The uprising lives! News of the day here.

Another one bites the dust

The honor roll of right-wing moral paragons is long: David Vitter, Larry Craig, Ted Haggard, Bob Allen, Mark Foley, Newt Gingrich, John Ensign.....and now, to that august company, a new name can be added: Mark Sanford.

Like many Republicans, Sanford holds strong views on the moral standards the rest of us should adhere to; he is, for example, on record as taking a hard line on adultery by public figures, and favors the full Christian Right agenda of anti-gay discrimination measures. Those fags are a threat to the integrity of the sacred institution of marriage, after all.

Unlike some, I don't hesitate or equivocate in rejoicing every time one of these Bible-thumping right-wing Stepford husbands goes down. When somebody preaches a particular moral value system, and condemns others for deviating from it (as Sanford condemned Clinton back in the day), and, in fact, builds a political career and identity on being holier-than-thou on the subject -- and then is caught egregiously betraying that value system -- then it's quite appropriate to call him on his hypocrisy. In fact, it's quite appro-priate to point fingers and guffaw.

And yes, it is worse when one of these preachy family-values types does it than when somebody like Bill Clinton does it. Bill Clinton didn't build his career and political identity on preaching sexual morality at the rest of us.

(Oh, and Rush Limbaugh is being even stupider than usual.)

Make no mistake -- the agenda of these people is evil. It goes far beyond the reasonable position of not cheating on one's wife. They want to roll back abortion rights, the recent advances of gays, the separation of church and state, and the Devil knows what else. We don't need to exercise much imagination to know what lies at the end of that road, because we've seen it in practice in Iran over the last thirty years. So, since it seems to be the case that this kind of aggressive piety is often wedded to bottomless hypocrisy (and don't you dare doubt for a millisecond that more than a few of those Iranian mullahs have women or boys on the side too), I'm more than happy to see the hypocrisy discredit the piety.

Health

It's now almost nine months since I quit eating pig meat, almost six months since I quit eating most other kinds of meat (chicken, turkey, and occasional fish being the only exceptions, and I'm thinking of phasing out those), and over two months since I quit alcohol. I try to walk at least a mile for exercise each weekday, and I'm finally starting to lose some of the weight I gained during the period of immobility before and after last year's surgery.

A couple of weeks ago I got a stomach-ache, and I realized it was ages since the last time I'd had one. I used to get them all the time. I feel like I'm getting fewer headaches too, though it's hard to be sure. Certainly the experience of waking up queasy and exhausted after drinking too much the night before is one I don't miss.

While in general people today are far healthier (with the glaring exception of the epidemic of excess weight) and longer-lived than ever before, there are still improvements almost all of us could make. It takes effort -- very definitely it takes effort -- but the rewards are well worth it.

The religious state

Today saw a savage escalation of brutality by the Iranian regime -- as you know, if you've looked at Andrew Sullivan or the other sites I've regularly linked which are following events. But what perhaps best shows the true character of these holy men is their vicious treatment of the family of Nedâ Aghâ-Soltân, the woman whose unprovoked shooting and death, captured on video, has become the iconic image of the struggle. It's as if they blame her family for how her martyrdom has exposed what they are:

The Iranian authorities have ordered the family of Neda Agha Soltan out of their Tehran home after shocking images of her death were circulated around the world. Neighbours said that her family no longer lives in the four-floor apartment building on Meshkini Street, in eastern Tehran, having been forced to move since she was killed. The police did not hand the body back to her family, her funeral was cancelled, she was buried without letting her family know and the government banned mourning ceremo-nies at mosques, the neighbours said....In accordance with Per-sian tradition, the family had put up a mourning announcement and attached a black banner to the building. But the police took them down, refusing to allow the family to show any signs of mourning. The next day they were ordered to move out. Since then, neighbours have received suspicious calls warning them not to discuss her death with anyone and not to make any protest.

Found via Azarmehr.

Always remember

Idealism, optimism, and determined action may achieve change. Cynicism, pessimism, and passivity never will.

Iran links for 24 June 2009

Tuesday was the first day of the national strike. Al Giordano has this:

There are unconfirmed reports today that a national strike is underway already, including by Iran state television which has reported that today, Tuesday, thirty percent of workers in the country have not shown up on the job. If state media is admitting 30 percent, it is a safe bet that adherence to the strike is larger than that. It would also be very impressive because the govern-ment has warned that any citizen that participates in a strike will be fired from his and her job, or lose his or her space in the public markets. Thirty percent compliance on what is only the first day a strike would also be heartening for the resistance because some sectors – specifically a call by the Grand Ayatollah and spiritual elder Montazeri for three days of mourning beginning tomorrow, Wednesday, have not kicked in yet.

This Friday, June 26, will be a worldwide day of commemoration of Nedâ Aghâ-Soltân and in solidarity with the Iranian people.

After Nedâ's death, the mosque where the family memorial was to be held was ordered to cancel it by the regime. The sheer ham-fistedness and counterproductive cruelty of these "holy men" is simply astonishing.

Ali Fazli, veteran of the Iran-Iraq war and a Commander in the Revolutionary Guards, refused orders from the regime to fire on demonstrators. He has been removed from his post and arrested, but apparently others are prepared to follow his example.

Andrew Sullivan's Iran live-tweeting thread for the day is here. Revolutionary Road is live-blogging as well.

Exit Zero has three reasons for optimism.

One should always be wary of these "women under Islam aren't as badly off as we think" claims -- the reality is generally worse than most Westerners realize -- but the second paragraph here about Mousavi and his wife is of interest. Mousavi did serve the regime as Prime Minister years ago, but it's possible that his views have evolved over time.

Someone's forgetting history, but it's not the Iranians.

Nedâ

How a murdered woman became a revolutionary icon.

On being fortunate

Watching events unfold in Iran, I feel very fortunate to live in a country where this fight was already fought and won generations ago. Those very basic freedoms which Iranians are still denied, and are now fighting and dying for, were won for us here in the US in 1776 and in 1861-1865.

Yes, there have been further battles for freedom to be fought, and there still are. There was the struggle to give women the vote, the struggle to win black Americans the same rights and freedoms as other Americans, the struggle to abolish military conscription, the struggle to win and keep the fundamental right to abortion, the struggle to keep our right to own guns, the struggle to end the persecution of homosexuals, and the seemingly-endless fight to stop our herds of religious crackpots from rolling back progress and imposing their medieval taboos by force of law. Over time these contests have been moving in the right direction, and I feel more confident about the future given the way the internet has decentralized control over the flow of information.

But the important point is, I live in a country where I can take a stand on any of those things without worrying about getting shot or tortured. The basic framework of an open society exists here. That basic framework is what the Iranians are fighting to get for themselves.

Iran holds another lesson as well. What would our society look like if the Christian Right ever did succeed in rolling back all our gains in personal and political freedom, and America's essential character as a secular and pluralistic society, and imposed its own totalitarian vision? It's hard to imagine -- but the regime which has ruled Iran for the last thirty years gives us a pretty good idea.

"Culturally protectionist"

Mark Steyn (yeah, I know, but he actually has some good points here) looks at the reasons behind the startling success of far-right and outright fascist parties in the EU elections a few weeks ago. The critical point:

But, in the western half of Continental Europe, politics evolved to the point where almost any issue worth talking about was ruled beyond the bounds of polite society.....if the political culture forbids respectable politicians from raising certain issues, then the electorate will turn to unrespectable ones.

It astonishes me that western European anti-fascists apparently still think that the best way to stop people from voting for fascist parties is by exhortation and denunciation. Surely the first step is, rather, to understand why they're doing it. In countries where a sane alternative party was available which did openly address the "forbidden subjects" (basically, Islam and loss of sovereignty to the EU), such as Britain's UKIP or the Wilders's Freedom Party in the Netherlands, that party far outperformed the fascists. There is not some sudden huge groundswell of neo-Nazi sentiment among European populations. But there is frustration at an insular and unresponsive political establishment. Let it start responding, and give the voters something to vote for, and they'll come back from the lunatic fringe.

A national strike?

That seems likely to be the next step in Iran. Mousavi is said to be discussing it with labor leaders and important merchants. It looks like anger -- cold anger -- has indeed won out over fear; talk now is of revolution, not reform of the system. Sampling here. I feel more hopeful than ever that the Islamic Republic will be brought down, even if the process takes months.

Sunday

Sullivan's roundup of today's Twitter reports indicates that street demonstrations and violent clashes continued around Tehran today, but their scale and significance is difficult to assess since the regime has now had greater success at restricting the flow of information. One of his readers takes a plausible, and optimistic, view of Mousavi's intentions. Update: video of one Sunday clash here.

There's every reason to think that this is not over. The revolution thirty years ago which brought down the Shah extended over a period of several months, from the beginning of major strikes and demonstrations in August 1978 to the final collapse of the regime in January 1979. Protest marches in honor of those killed by the Shah's troops in previous demonstrations played a role in keeping up the pressure on the regime, and there are already signs that the present uprising may follow the same pattern.

Michael Totten is offline for a while, but has handed over his blog to a trusted ghostblogger "who knows more about Iran than I do" and has some worthwhile observations, notably here. Other blogs likely to be covering events include Revolutionary Road (which has some videos of today's clashes) and Azarmehr.

A day of violence and confusion

Today was the day when the façade dropped in Iran. The regime escalated its violence into a serious effort to suppress the uprising, leading to fighting in cities all across the country, magnificently reported by Andrew Sullivan and the Huffington Post. There have been at least forty deaths (probably far more), and hundreds of arrests. A few observations:

-- As is usually the case early on in such conflicts, no one has a complete picture of what's happening. Even the regime probably doesn't. We don't know how many protesters were out overall, or how the violence has affected the mass public mood, or even who's winning. In some cases protesters were dispersed by force, while in others the Basîj were driven back or overwhelmed. It's said that the chanting of the massed people on the rooftops was louder than ever before, but will that translate into sustained action in the face of gunfire? We don't know yet.

-- The regime failed to cut off communications. Twitter reports and YouTube videos (including the shocking video of the young woman shot to death on Karekar Avenue, which may become the iconic image of the uprising) poured forth from Iran all day.

-- The MSM reportage, as best I could see, was far inferior to that of bloggers with much more limited resources. The MSM had very sketchy coverage of the actual fighting, focusing on the acts and statements of officials; Sullivan covered all of that, as well as the street reaction to it and much else besides.

-- Many Western embassies in Tehran took in wounded people and helped them, the hospitals being under the regime's control and thus too dangerous. A wise and humane move, and one Iranians will remember in contrast to the cynical congratulations offered to Ahmadinejad on his "victory" by fellow thugs such as Russia's Putin, Venezuela's Chavez, and North Korea's Kim.

-- As I type this (about 8:45 PM Oregon time), it's already Sunday morning in Iran. Protesters and policemen alike have had time to digest and consider the implications of yesterday's events. We may not have to wait long to see the results.

Link roundup for 20 June 2009

The late Senator Alan Cranston had an unusual distinction.

Cuteness break: a passel of piglets.

Atheists ruminate on moral relativism.

DemWit assesses the right-wing trolls plaguing several blogs.

In Mount Vernon, Ohio, Christian education is a burning issue.

Obama's dismal performance (link sent by Ranch Chimp) on gay issues disappoints liberal bloggers such as Professor Hutchinson and Michael Boh. Bill Maher, meanwhile, has some tough advice for the President.

Western law pushes back against the Islamic dress code in France and Michigan. Me, I prefer the Russian dress code.

Much of the terrorist threat we face is linked to one city -- and it's not in the Middle East.

Women interested in traveling to an exotic country probably shouldn't choose this one. At the opposite extreme, meet Japan's new breed.

Here's an example of solid, traditional housing built to last.

Sentient Developments presents a fascinating video on a species astonishingly similar to ourselves, yet little-known to most of us -- the bonobo.

Genetics, anatomy, and geography all strongly suggest that our closest relative is the chimpanzee, but a new study makes a case for the orangutan.

Swallow or spit? Explore the amazing world of giant sperm.

We can beat global warming without sacrificing our standard of living. Here's how.

Showdown today?

The Guardian's frequently-updated post indicates that protests in Tehran are going ahead despite Khamenei's threats, and that the Basîj and riot police are out in force. Unconfirmed reports of some violent clashes. Keep checking Sullivan and Totten and NIAC.

Update (6:36 Oregon time): Reports of gunfire, widespread street fighting, at least one explosion, and chants of "Death to Khamenei". Looks like this is it.....

(The usual link roundup will be later today.)

Quote for the day

"I will participate in the demonstrations tomorrow. Maybe they will turn violent. Maybe I will be one of the people who is going to get killed. I’m listening to all my favorite music. I even want to dance to a few songs. I always wanted to have very narrow eyebrows. Yes, maybe I will go to the salon before I go tomorrow! There are a few great movie scenes that I also have to see. I should drop by the library, too. It’s worth to read the poems of Forough and Shamloo again. All family pictures have to be reviewed, too. I have to call my friends as well to say goodbye. All I have are two bookshelves which I told my family who should receive them. I’m two units away from getting my bachelors degree but who cares about that. My mind is very chaotic. I wrote these random sentences for the next generation so they know we were not just emotional and under peer pressure. So they know that we did everything we could to create a better future for them. So they know that our ancestors surrendered to Arabs and Mongols but did not surrender to despotism. This note is dedicated to tomorrow’s children."

an unidentified Iranian blogger, yesterday

Young hunters

I couldn't resist this item from the Huffington Post's liveblogging thread about certain young Iranians who are hitting back at the Basîj (the regime's religious militia, responsible for most of the violence and killings so far):

Mousavi supporters were out on the streets 'Basiji hunting.' Their resolve is no less than these thugs -- theyre after hunting them down. They use their phones, their childhood friends, their inti-mate knowledge of their districts and neighbours to plan their attacks -- they're organised and they're supported by their com-munity so they have little fear. They create the havoc they're after, ambush the thugs, use their Cocktail Molotovs, disperse and re-assemble elsewhere and then start again -- and the door of every house is open to them as safe harbour -- they're commu-nity-connected. The Basiji's are not. These are not the students in the dorms, they're the street young -- they know the ways better than most thugs -- and these young, a surprising number of them girls, are becoming more agile in their ways as each night passes on.

Notice that -- a surprising number of them girls. Given the special viciousness of the Islamists toward females, one imagines that revenge must indeed be sweet.

"Old man die already"

Iranian protesters live-tweet Supreme Leader Khamenei's speech. He's not giving an inch. Neither, apparently, are they.

Update: See Huffington Post. Mousavi's fellow reform candidate Mehdi Karoubi defies Khamenei, while Obama sounds a warning tone.

Showdown coming?

Ramin Ahmadi of the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center thinks that the regime's crackdown on foreign media means it's preparing to resort to large-scale violence to crush the uprising. Michael Totten says the same -- but reminds us that some of the members of the security forces might not obey orders to kill their own people. A great many lives may depend on whether or not this turns out to be true. Perhaps that explains the widespread reports of non-Iranian fighters (Palestinian, Venezuelan, and Hezbollah-Lebanese) being brought in to defend the regime.

Totten also debunks a meme popular in Western commentary on the uprising, by showing that Ahmadinejad probably has less support in rural Iran than in the big cities.

There is also evidence of photo manipulation to make a pro-Ahmadinejad crowd look more impressive.

Greg Sargent has more on Twitter's delaying its maintenance shutdown so as not to deprive the uprising of a critical tool:

Twitter’s self-congratulatory claim that this new technology is bypassing governments to influence global events — so much so that the U.S. asked for its help — is not an exaggeration. Which is kind of amazing.

I don't know much about Twitter -- my impression is that it's a kind of short-form blogging for hand-held devices?

In any case, it's clear that modern communications technology is shaping both events and our perception of them. I'm not sure that we're prepared for what this will mean if the regime does escalate the violence. Remember that in 1979 tens of thousands of people died in the Shah's attempt to crush that uprising, before his regime finally collapsed. If the same thing happens now, we'll see it, while it's happening -- and so will millions throughout Iran. What follows will depend on whether anger is strong enough to overcome fear.

The manifesto

A seven-point manifesto has been widely circulated by the protest movement. Translation:

1. Dismissal of Khamenei for not being a fair leader
2. Dismissal of Ahmadinejad for his illegal acts
3. Temporary appointment of Ayatollah Montazeri as Supreme Leader
4. Recognition of Mousavi as the President
5. Forming the Cabinet by Mousavi to prepare for revising the Constitution
6. Unconditional and immediate release of all political prisoners
7. Dissolution of all organs of repression, public or secret

The uprising has clearly moved beyond just contesting election fraud and is challenging the regime and the Islamic Republic system itself.

Obama states the current official US position here:

.....although there is amazing ferment taking place in Iran, that the difference between Ahmadinejad and Mousavi in terms of their actual policies may not be as great as has been advertised. Either way, we were going to be dealing with an Iranian regime that has historically been hostile to the United States, that has caused some problems in the neighborhood and is pursuing nuclear weapons. And so we've got long-term interests in having them not weaponize nuclear power and stop funding organiza-tions like Hezbollah and Hamas. And that would be true whoever came out on top in this election. The second thing that I think's important to recognize is that the easiest way for reactionary forces inside Iran to crush reformers is to say it's the US that is encouraging those reformers. So what I've said is, `Look, it's up to the Iranian people to make a decision. We are not meddling.'

There is a crucial point here. The main problem posed by Iran, from the West's viewpoint, is the threat of nuclear weapons in the hands of a regime which supports terrorism, openly calls for the destruction of Israel, and may well be so irrational that threats of retaliation after it took some action cannot be relied on to deter it. Simply replacing Ahmadinejad with Mousavi would not have changed this problem at all (remember, the "President" is not even the real supreme authority in the regime). A genuine revolution sweeping away the Islamic Republic itself might very well change it, either because a new government might abandon the quest for nuclear weapons, or because a pro-Western or at least rational government in possession of nuclear weapons would be something we could live with. Update: Read Michael Totten's posting on this.

The Obama administration has, in fact, helped the Iranians in one crucial way: it asked Twitter to postpone scheduled maintenance so that it would not go dead during this critical time when the Iranians are using it to organize.

Here's a "cyberwar guide" to how outsiders can help the Iranians (found via Exit Zero).

This photo from Isfahan (a much smaller city than Tehran) suggests the magnitude of the nationwide movement.

Here's a BBC report; one witness told the BBC that Tuesday's rally in Tehran was even bigger than Monday's.

There are further claims that the regime is bringing in foreign fighters to help suppress the Iranian people.

It's the mouse that roared!

The Huffington Post's liveblogging thread is full of interesting material. And keep checking Andrew Sullivan and Michael Totten.