The uprising continues

While our country is besieged and bewildered by its teabagging mobs, remember that, on the other side of the world, a real mass protest movement against a real tyrannical regime continues.

In Iran, September 18 is officially Qods (Jerusalem) Day, an occa-sion for public demonstrations of hatred and rage against Israel. Large numbers of Iranians, however, are well aware that their real enemy is much closer to home. Saturday saw the return of large-scale protest against the theocracy, in Tehran and in other cities:

But witnesses reported that demonstrators chanting anti-government slogans had taken complete control of Tehran’s expansive Seventh of Tir Square. Video posted to YouTube showed thousands of others holding up green ribbons and rallying peacefully in Tehran, Esfahan and Shiraz. Late in the morning came reports of tear gas being fired into crowds in the capital, but they could not be confirmed.

A collection of videos of the protests is here; more reportage here.

Note that these people are not protesting against the prospect of an elected government limiting insurance-industry bureaucrats' sacred "liberty" to destroy individuals' health. They are protesting against a theocracy which, to the best of its ability, forces all of its subjects to conform their behavior, speech, dress, entertainment, and every other aspect of their lives to the tenets and taboos of the official religion. By protesting, they risk being arrested, raped, tortured, and murdered by the regime's thugs -- as many already have been. And their oppressors cannot even claim democratic legitimacy; Ahmadinejad may have "won" a flagrantly-rigged election, but the gang of scowling greybeards who hold the real power is not elected at all. This is what real totalitarianism looks like. And this -- what we are seeing in Iran -- is what a real struggle for freedom looks like.